steps by thy conquests made visible thy way by thine own light thou hast watered it with thy precious blood paved it with thy wounds O what a goodly thing it is to walk with thee when thou openest thy sacred mouth as the opening of a temple to discover the beauties and mysteries of it O that it is most pleasing to understand that mouth which distils so much honey through lips of Roses But wherefore My good Lord art thou pleased to hide thy self from a soul which languishes after thee Take away the vail from mine eyes and suffer thy self to be seen in the vesture of thy heavenly beauties If I must bear the Crosse and passe by the throne of mount Calvary to come to Heaven I most humbly submit to thy divine pleasure that I may possesse all that thou art The Gospel upon Tuesday in Easter week S. Luke the 24. ANd whiles they spake these things Iesus stood in the midst of them and he saith to them Peace be to you It is I fear not But they being troubled and frighted imagined they saw a Spirit And he saith to them Why are you troubled and cogitations arise in your hearts See my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have And when he had said this he shewed them his hands and feet But they yet not believing and marvelling for joy he said Have you here any thing to be eaten But they offered him a piece of fish broiled and a hony comb And when he had eaten before them taking the remains he gave to them And he said to them These are the words which I spake to you when I was yet with you that all things must needs be fulfilled which are writen in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms of me Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures And he said to them That so it is written and so it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day and penance to be preached in his Name and remission of sins unto all Nations Moralities 1. WE think sometimes that Jesus is far from us when he is in the midst of our heart he watches over us and stretches out his divine hands for our protection Let us live alwayes as if we were actually in his presence before his eyes and in his bosome An ancient Tradition doth observe that after our Lords Ascention the Apostles did never eat together but they left the first napkin for their good Master conceiving that according to his promise he was alwayes with them Let us accustome our selves to this exercise of Gods presence It is a happy necessity to make us do well to believe and apprehend that our Judge is alwayes present I frespect make him formidable love will teach us that he is the Father of all sweetness There can be no greater comfort in this world then to be present in heart and body with that which we love best 2. Jesus is taken by his Apostles for a Spirit because after the Resurrection he pierced the vvalls and appeared suddenly as Spirits do Saint Paul also saith in the second to the Corinthians that novv we do no more know Christ according to the flesh that is to say by the passions of a mortall body as Saint Epiphanius doth expound it We must make little use of our bodies to converse with our Jesus who hath taken upon him the rare qualities of a spirit We must raise our selves above our senses when we go to the Father of light and the Creatonâ— of sense He teaches us the life of Spirits and commerce of Angels and makes assayes of our immortality by a body now immortal Why are we so tyed to our sense and glued to the earth Must we suffer our selves to enter into a kingdome of death when we are told of the resurrâ—ction of him who is the Authour of all lives 3. Admire the condescending and bounties of our Lord to his dear Disciples He that was entred into the kingdome of spirits and immortall conversation suffers his feet and hands to be touched to prove in him the reality of a true body He eats in presence of his Apostles though he was not in more estate to digest meat then the Sun is to digest vapours He did no more nourish himself with our corruptible meats then the Stars do by the vapours of the earth And yet he took them to confirm our belief and to make us familiar with him It is the act of great and generous spirits to abase themselves and condescend to their inferiours So David being anointed King and inspired as a Prophet doth not shew his person terrible in the height of his great glory but still retained the mildnesse of a Shepherd So Iesus the true Son of David by his condscending to us hath consecrated a certain degree whereby we my ascend to heaveÌ„ Are not we ashamed that we have so little humility or respect to our inferiours but are alwayes so full of ourselves since our Lord sitting in his throne of Glory and Majesty doth yet abase himself to the actions of our mortall life Let it be seen by our hands whether we be resâ—scitated by doing good works and giving liberall alms Let it appear by our feet that they follow the paths of the most holy persons Let it be seen by our nourishment which should be most of honey that is of that celestiall sweetnesse which is extracted from prayer And if we seem to refuse fish let us at least remain in the elemeÌ„t of piety as fishes in water Aspirations THy love is most tender thy cares most generous O mild Saviour Amongst all the Torrents of thy Passion thou hast not tasted the water of forgetfulnesse Thou returnest to thy children as a Nightingle to her little nest Thou dost comfort them with thy visits and makest them familar with thy glorious life Thou eatest of a honey combe by just right having first tasted the bitter gall of that unmercifull crosse It is thus that our sorrows should be turned into sweets Thou must alwayes be most welcome to me in my troubles for I know well that thou onely canst pacifie and give them remedy I will govern my self toward thee as to the sire too much near familarity will burn us and the want of it will let us freez I will eat honey with thee in the blessed Sacrament I know that many there do chew but few receive thee worthily Make me O Lord I beseech thee capable of those which here on earth shall be the true Antepasts to our future glory The Gospel upon Low Sunday Saint Iohn the 20. THerefore when it was late that day the first of the Sabbaths and the doors where shut where the Disciples were gathered together for fear of the Iews Iesus came and stood in the middest and said to them Peace
and hate thine enemie But I say to you love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute and abuse you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven who maketh his Sun to rise upon good and bad and raineth upon just and unjust For if you love them that love you what reward shall you have Do not also the Publicans this And if you salute your brethren onely what do you more Do not also the heathen this Be you perfect therefore as also your heavenly Father is perfect Moralities 1. A Man that loves nothing but according to his natural inclination loves onely like a beast or an infidel The best sort of love is that which is commanded by God is derived from judgement conducted by reason and perfected by Charity Me thinks it should be harder for a good Christian to hate then love his enemy Hate makes him our equal whereas love placeth us quite above him By hating a mans enemy he breaks the laws of God he fights against the Incarnation of Christ wich was acted to unite all things in the bands of love he gives the lie to the most blessed Eucharist whose nature is to make the hearts of all Christians the same he lives like another Cain in the world alwayes disquieted by seeking revenge and it is a very death to him to hear of another mans prosperity Whereas to love an enemy doth not bind us to love the injuty he hath done us for we must not consider him as a malefactour but as a man of our own nature as he is the Image of God and as he is a Christian God doth onely command perfect things not impossible That which is very hard to flesh and bloud becomes easie by the help of grace and reason Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ being the Father of all harmony can and doth reconcile all contrarieties at his will and pleasure 2. If revenge seem sweet the gaining of it is most bitter But there is nothing in the world more profitable then to pardon an enemy by imitation of our Saviour For it is then that our conscience can assure us to be the children of God and inheritors of his glory We must not fear to be despised for esteeming virtue for such contempt can only proceed from those who know not the true value of that glory which belongs to the just There is no better way to revenge then leave it to God who alwayes doth his own business Ween David wept for Saul who was his enemy his Clemency did insensibly make degrees by which he mounted up to the throne of Iudah A good work which comes from the spirit of vanity is like an emptied Mine good for nothing God who is invisible would have our aspects turned alwayes toward him and blind toward the world Alms given by the sound of a Trumpet makes a great noise on the earth but reaps little fruit in heaven The fly of vanity is a mischievous thing which destroyes all the perfumes of charity What need we any spectators of our good works every place is full where God is and where he is not there onely is Solitude Aspirations O God of all holy affections when shall I love all that thou lovest and have in horrour all that displeaseth thy divine Majesty If I cannot love in some person his defects and sinns I will love in him thine Image and in that vvill I acknovvledge thy mercies If he be a piece of broken glass in that little piece there vvill shine some lines of a God Creator and of a God Redeemer If thou hast chosen him to exercise my patience vvhy should I make him the object of my revenge since he gives me trouble to gaine me a Crovvn He is a hammer to pollish and make me bright I will not hurt him but reverence the arme that strikes me I resigne all vengence into thy hands since it is a Right reserved for thy Almighty power And certainly the best revenge I can take is to gratifie my enemy Give unto me O most mercifull Prince the grace to suffer and let the sacrifice of my sufferings mount up to thy propitiatory throne The Gospel for the first Saturday in Lent S. Matthew 6. Of the Apostles danger at Sea and relief by our Saviour ANd when he had dismissed them he went into the mountain to pray and when it was late the boat was in the midst of the Sea and himself alone on the land And seeing them labouring in rowing for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them walking upon the sea and he would have passed by them But they seeing him walking upon the sea thought it was a ghost and cryed out for all saw him and were troubled And immediately he talked with them and said to them have confidence it is I fear ye not And he went up to them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were farre more astonied within themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves for their heart was blinded And when they had passed over they came into the land of Genesareth and set to the shore And when they were gone out of the boat incontinent they knew him and running through that whole countrey they began to carry about in couches those that were ill at ease where they heard he was And whethersoever he eâ—tred into towns or into villages or cities they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment and as many as touched him were made whole Moralities 1. WHat a painfull thing it is to row when Jesus is not in the boat all our travell is just nothing without Gods favour A little blast of wind is worth more then an hundred stroakes of Oares What troublesome businesses there are how many intricate families do labour much yet advance nothing because God withdrawes himself from their iniquities if he do not build the workman destroyes what he is building But all falls out right to those that embark themselves with Jesus They may passe to the Indies in a basket when others shall miscarry in a good ship well furnished 2. But how comes it about that the ship of the poor Apostles is beaten so furiously by the windes and tempests There are many ships with silver beaks with fine linnen sails and silken tackles upon which the sea seems to smile Do the waters reserve there choller only to vent it upon that ship which carries just persons This is the course of mans life The brave and happy men of this world enjoy theis wishes but their ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite providence gives tempests to his elect that he may work a miraculous calme by his Almighty power Dangers are witnesses of their floting and Combats are causes of their merit Never think any man happy in
I do this day renounce all the abuses of my soul I will grow and prosper under thy blessings I will flourish under thy aspect and fructifie under thy protection Command onely thy graces and sweet dews of heaven which are as paps of thy favours to rain upon me and water this rotten trunk of my heart Speak to that eye of love that beautifull eye of Iesus that it wil shine upon me but once with that ray which doth make souls happy for ever The Gospel upon Saturday the second week in Lent S. Luke 15. Of the prodigall Child ANd he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the portion of substance that belongeth to me and he divided â— unto them the substance And not many dayes after the younger son gathering all his things together went from home into a far Countrey and there he wasted his substance living riotously And after he had spent all there fâ—ll a sore famine in that Countrey and he began to be in need and â—he went and cleaved to one of the Citizens of that Countrey and he sent him into his Farm to feed swine And he would fain have filled his belly of the husks that the swine did eat and no body gave unto him And returning to himself he said How many of my fathers hirelings have abundance of bread and I here perish for famine I will arise and will go to my father and say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hirelings And rising up he came to his father and when he was yet far off his father saw him and was moved with mercy and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him And his son said to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son And the father said to his servants Quickly bring forth the first stole and do it on him and put a ring upon his hand and shooes upon his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry because this my son was dead is revived was lost is found And they began to make merry But his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house he heard musick dancing he called one of the servants and asked what these things should be And he said to him Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him safe But he had indigination would not go in His father therefore going forth began to desire him But he answering said to his father Behold so many years do I serve thee I never transgressed thy commandment and thou didst never give me a kid to make merry with my friends But after that thy sonne this that hath devoured his substance with whores is come thou hast killed for him the fatted calf But he said to him Sonne thou art alwayes with me and all my things are thine But it behoved us to make merâ—y and be glad because this thy brother was dead and is revived was lost and is found Moralities 1. THis parable is a true table expressing the excursions of a prodigall soul and her return to the mercy of God by the way of repentance Note that the first step which she trode toward her own destruction as Cain did was her departing from God not by changing of place but of heart It departed from the chiefest light which made it fall into an eclipse of reason and so into profound darknesse She diverted her self from the greatest bounty which made her encline toward all wickednesse being strayed from her soveraign being which made her become just nothing 2. She continued in sinne as in a countrey which was just nothing where she was vexed on all sides with disquiet with cares with fears and discontents All sins tosse their followers as the ball is tossed at Baloon Vanity sends them to pride pride to violence violence to avarice avarice to ambition ambition to pomp and riot pomp to gluttony gluttony to luxury luxury to idlenesse idlenesse to contempt and poverty and that poverty brings them to all worldly misery For all mischiefs follow a wicked soul which departing from God thinks to find a better condition 3. Affliction opens the eyes of man and makes him come to himself that he may the better return to God There is no journey so farre as when a man departs from himself not by place but by manners A sea of Licentiousnesse interposeth it self between his soul and innocence to divorce her from the way of goodnesse But Gods grace is a burning wind which dries it up and having brought man to himself takes him by the hand and leads him even to God 4. O what a happy thing it is to consider the effects of Gods mercy in the entertainment of the good father to his prodigall son The one had lost all which he had of a good sonne but the other had not lost what belonged to a good father The sonne had yet said nothing when fatherly affection pleaded for him in the heart of his father who felt the dolours of a spirituall labour and his entrails were moved to give a second birth to his sonne Though he were old yet he went the pace of a young man Charity gives him wings to flie to the embracements of his lost child He is most joyfull of all that comes with him eveÌ„ of his very poverty This without doubt should give us a marvellous confidence in Gods mercy when we seek it with hearty repentance It is a sea of bounty which washeth away all that is amisse Since he hath changed the name of master into that of father he will rather command by love then raign by a predominant power No man ought to dispair of pardon except he who can be as fully wicked as God is good none is so mercifull as God none is so good a father as he for when you may have lost your part of all his virtues you can never while you live lose the possibility of his mercy He will receive you between his arms without any other reason but your return by repentance 5. The same Parable is also a true glasse shewing the life of those young unthrists who think they are born onely for sport for their bellies and for pleasure They imagine their fathers keep for them the golden mines of Peru and their life being without government their expences are without measure Some of them runne through the world they wander into all places but never enter into consideration of themselves They return from forain parts loden with debts and bring home nothing but some new fantasticall fashions irps cringes and corantoes There are many of them in whom pride and misery continue inseparable after they have
lost their money and their brains Their fathers are causes of their faults by gathering so much wealth for those who know not how to use it Yet if they have the true repentance of the prodigall child he must not deny them pardon But mercy must not be had of those who ask it by strong hand or seek it by a counterfeit sorrow Aspirations IT is an accursed wandring to travel into the countrey of nothing Where pleasure drops down as water from a storm the miserable consequences whereof have leaden feet which never remove from the heart Good God what a countrey is that where the earth is made of quicksilver which steals it self from under our feet when we think to tread upon it What a countrey is that where if a man gathered one bud of roses he must be forced to eat a thousand thorns and be companion with the most nasty filthy beasts in their stinking ordures and be glad to eat of their loathsome draffe for want of other meat Alas I have suffered and such a misery as this is necessary to make me remember the happinesse which I possessed in thy house O mercifull Father behold my prodigall soul which returns to thee and will have no other advocate but thy goodnesse which as yet pleads for me within thy heart I have consumed all which I had but I could not consume thy mercy For that is an Abysse which surpasseth that of my sins and miseries Receive me as a mercenary servant If I may not obtain the name of a sonne Why shouldst not thou receive that which is thine since the wicked spirits have taken that which was not theirs Either shevv me mercie or else shevv me a heart more fatherly then thine and if neither earth nor heaven can find the like to vvhom vvouldst thou have me go but to thy self vvho doest not yet cease to call me The Gospel upon the third Sunday in Lent S. Luke 11. Jesus cast out the Devil vvhich vvas dumb ANd he was casting out a devil and that was dumbe And when he had cast out the devil the dumbe spake and the multitudes marvelled And certain of them said in Belzebub the Prince of Devils he casteth out Devils And other tempting asked him a sign from Heaven But he seeing their cogitations said to them Every Kingdome divided against it self shall be made desolate and house upon house shall fall And if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his Kingdome stand because you say that in Belzebub I do cast out Devils And if I in Belzebub cast out Devils your children in whom do they cast out Therefore they shall be your judges But if I in the singer of God do cast out Devils surely the Kingdome of God is come upon you When the strong armed keepeth his court those things are in peace that he possesseth but if a stronger then he come upon him and overcome him he will take away his whole armour wherein he trusted and will distribute his spoyls He that is not with me is against me And he that gathereth not with me scattereth When the unclean spirit shall depart out of a man he wandreth through places without water seeking rest and not finding he saith I will return into my house whence I departed And when he is come he findeth it swept with a besome and trimmed Then he goeth and taketh seven other spirits worse then himself and entring in they dwell there And the last of that man be made worse then the first And it came to passe when he said these things a certain woman lifting up her voyce out of the multitude said to him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou didst suck But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Moralities 1. THe Almond tree is the first which begins to flourish and is often first nipt with frost The tongue is the first thing which moves in a mans body and is soonest caught with the snares of Satan That man deserves to be speechlesse all his life who never speaks a word better then silence 2. Jesus the eternall word of God came upon earth to reform the words of man his life vvas a lightning and his vvord a thunder vvhich vvas povverfull in effect but alvvayes measured vvithin his bounds He did fight against ill tongues in his life and conquered them all in his death The gall and vinegar vvhich he took to expiate the sins of this unhappy tongue do shevv hovv great the evil vvas since it did need so sharp a remedy He hath cured by suffering his dolours vvhat it deserved by our committing sins Other vices are determined by one act the tongue goes to all it is a servant to all malitious actions and is generally confederate vvith the heart in all crimes 3. We have just so much Religion as vve have government of our tongues A little thing serves to tame vvild beasts and a small stern will serve to govern a ship Why then cannot a man rule so small a part of his body Is it not sufficient to avoid lying perjuries quarrels injuries slanders and blasphemies such as the Scribes and Pharisees did vomit out in this Gospel against the purity of the Sonne of God We must also repress idle talk and other frivolous and unprofitable discourses There are some persons vvho have their hearts so loose that they cannot keep them vvithin their brests but they vvill quickly svvim upon their lips vvithout thinking vvhat they say and so make a shift to vvound their souls 4. Imitate a holy Father called Sisus vvho prayed God thirty years together every day to deliver him from his tongue as from a capitall enemy You shall never be very chaste of your body except you do very vvell bridle your tongue For loosnesse of the flesh proceeds sometimes from liberty of the tongue Remember your self that your heart should go like a clock vvith all the just and equall motions of his springs and that your tongue is the finger vvhich shevvs hovv all the hours of the day pass When the heart goes of one side the tongue of another it is a sure desolation of your spirits kingdome If Jesus set it once at peace and quiet you must be very carefull to keep it so and be very fearfull of relapses For the multiplying of long continued sinnes brings at last hell it self upon a mans shoulders Aspirations O Word incarnate to whom all just tongues speak and after whom all hearts do thirst and languish chase from us all prating devils and also those which are dumb the first provoke and loose the tong to speak wickedly the other bind it when it should confesse the truth O peace-making Solomon appease the divisions of my heart and unite all my powers to the love of thy service Destroy in me all the marks of Satans Empire and plant there thy Trophees and Standards that my spirit be never like
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
have glorified cast a divine brightness upon his body But when he concealed himself the stars discovered him at his birth the Sun at his death all the Elements did then confesse him and all creatures gave testimony of his divinity 2. We should be well known of God if we did not so curiously inquire into the knowledge of the world Vanity at this day opens all her gates to manifest divers men to the world who should otherwise be buried in obscurity and darkness It maketh some appear by the â—uxurious excess of their apparell as so many sale creatures whose heads being high and coâ—ly drest up go to the market of idle love Others by the riches pomps of the world others by honours and dignities others by the spirit of industry and others by the deeds of arms and policy Every one sets out himself to be seen and esteemed in the world It seemeth that life is made for nothing but to be showed and that we should alwayes live for that which makes us die We are a kind of walking spirits which return late to our lodgings But yet nevertheless giving our selves so continually to the world methinks we should at least stay with our selves every day one short hour It is said that the Pellican hides her eggs and that they must be stolen from her to make them disclose But vanitie is an egge which all the world hatcheth under her wings and none are willing to forsake it 3. If it be needful to shew your self to the world be then known by your virtues which are characters of the divinity Let men know you by your good examples which are the seeds of eternity and of all fair actions You must be known by your almes and bounty which are the steps with God left imprinted in this world If you must rise to honours and dignities take them as instruments of holinesse and be not powerfull but to be more obliged to do good by so being Aspirations O God which did conceal thy self how comes it about that I desire so much to be seen and make my self known to the world What can I discover if I shew that which I am but onely sin vanity misery and inconstancy which make the foure elements of my life To what serves this itch of seeing but onely to receive into our eyes the seeds of curiosity Why do we cover to be so much seen but to expose our selves to vanity and to carry a Torch in a blast of wind Alas O Mercifull Lord I have very long lived for my self and for the eyes of the world when shall I begin to live for thee Shall I never see those happy moments of my life which will receive light onely from the day of thy face Let me O most beloved of my heart be bind to all the world so that I may have eyes for thee If the condition of my estate must needs shew me to the world let it be to give it part of thy light without receiving any part of that darknesse which covereth it Let me be in the world to do good but let me dwell in thee as within the fountain of all goodnesse The Gospel upon Wednesday the fifth week in Lent Saint Iohn the 10. The Iews said If thou be the Messias tell us plainly ANd the Dedication was in Ierusalem and it was winter and Iesus walked in the Temple in Solomons Porch The Iews therefore compassed him round about and said to him How long dost thou bold our soul in suspence If thou be Christ tel us openly Iesus answered them I speak to you and you believe not The works that I do in the Name of my Father they give testimony of me But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them life everlasting and they shall not perish for ever and no man shall pluck them out of my hand My Father that which he hath given me is greater then all and no man can pluck them out of the hand of my Father I and the Father are one The Iews took up stones to stone him Iesus answered them Many good works I have shewed you from my Father for which of these works doe you stone me The Iews answered him For a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because thou being as man makest thy self God Iesus answered them is it not written in your Law that I said you are Gods if he called them Gods to whom the word of God was made and the Scripture cannot be broken whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world say you That thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God if I doe not the works of my Father believe me not But if I doe and if you will not believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in the Father Moralities 1. THe Woolfs encompasse the good Shepheard counterfeiting Lambs to draw truth out of his mouth which they would persecute They resembled a certain Plant which carrieth the name shape of a Lamb but hath a contrary substance and different qualities for it is ravenous as a wolf devours all the herbs which grow about it So are there many who do insinuate themselves into the freindship of good men by fair but counterfeit respects to the end that afterward they may be made the object of their cruelty Those men look after the Messias in the Porch of Solomon as Herod sought after him in the manger not to adore but to kill him Their mouth carries honey when their heart hatcheth poison but nothing is unknown to God from whom hell it self hath not darknesse enough to hide it self 2. Jesus knows his flock his flock reciprocally knows him and in that consists all our happinesse to know God and to be known of him The cheifest of all wisdome is to know him and to be known by him to be written in the Book of life which is the last cheifest of all felicities It is true that he knows all things by the knowledge of a clear intelligence which serves the wicked onely to discover plainly their crimes where as he knows the just by a science of favour and approbation which indeed is eternall predestination If we be unknown to God we must make our selves known to him by some good virtue which doth not depend onely upon us The first beam is of prevenient grace and our vocation to Christianity which is part of our predestination and is not at all within our power We have not been elected because we have believed in God by our own forces but we believe because we have been elected The first knowledge comes purely from God but it is in us by his grace to pursue this first light and to advance our predestination to glory by forcing our selves to know him perfectly who hath known us
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
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
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