desire to be great Then ye must become little that ye may be great For he that would be exalted must humble himself and he that humbles himself shall be exalted Behold I came down from Heaven and have humbled my self by taking the form of a Servant to be despised upon Earth and ye poor Earthen Vessels are ye lifting up your heads and your pretentions to the highest places in Heaven The second thing that he requir'd of them was that they should have the same Sincerity Goodness and Purity of Soul which that Child had Unless ye become pure and simple as this child ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This was to move them to that first Grace in all its Purity and Perfection since without that no Soul can enter into Heaven For a Christian must be brought back to that first Grace and Purity which he received in Baptism either by keeping his Soul from sin even from the lightest or else after having sinned whether lightly or grievously by washing his Soul with Tears of Repentance and Contrition and cleansing it from all stain and guilt by Faith in the Passion of Christ and by partaking of his Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament and so the Soul is brought into the Purity of that little Child and made capable of entring into the Kingdom of Heaven Now the Sincerity and Charity and clearness of Conscience wherewith the Lord by the force of the Spirit and by the holy Exercises of the Spiritual Life cleanseth and purifieth a Soul St. Paul calls Goodness which in substance is an inward and superiour degree of pureness of Conscience so simple and so perfect that it resembles the Innocence of a Child This Goodness is an absolute compliance of our Thoughts Words and Actions to the Will of God It is a full resignation to whatsoever God does that goes whithersoever his Divine Majesty directs performs whatsoever he appoints and seeks and follows and loves God in all things By this kind of Goodness a good Man does not seem to be in search of that which is good but to be already in the possession of it and holds it as a thing which he had found before This Purity of Loving Thinking Speaking and Doing the Lord Jesus requir'd also in his Disciples when he said to them Let your words be Yea Yea and Nay Nay as if he should have said let your words speak according to your hearts and your hearts speak according to my holy Will Say neither more nor less than what ye think for the Speech ought in all things to be conformable to the Thoughts and whatsoever is more can neither be Goodness nor Sincerity for Christ himself says that it is sin and therefore to praise a Man very much we properly say he is a Man that thinks what he speaks and speaks what he thinks for the former praises his Truth and the other his Ingenuity and Goodness This intrinsick Goodness is that which is in God by his Essence and that for which he is so often praised in the Scripture saying Thou art good O Lord teach me to be good by thy goodness as who should say O uncreated Goodness impart some of thy Goodness to me and the Soul begs this same Goodness with a gentle Sweetness and Meekness when she prays Let the light of thy countenance O Lord shine upon us and teach us thy statutes which is a Prayer we ought very often to make to God Of Meekness This kind of Goodness is accompanied with Meekness as Light is with Brightness for that being true and sincere and holy and having so much of God in it his Divine Majesty does as it were cloath him outwardly with the latter who inwardly possesses the former making a sweet and gentle Meekness to shine through all his Deportment And so thou mayest know a good heart by a peaceable quiet behaviour for nothing moves or disturbs it Nothing disturbs a good Man because his Confidence and his Affection are only placed in God he loves and seeks him and disregards all things else Nothing affrights him for his Goodness by Love doth cast out Fear he desires nothing that is Temporal for he sees whatsoever is so passeth away and comes suddenly to an end Nothing moves him because he only seeks for God who is unmoveable Nothing afflicts him because he resists and conquers all Crosses with his Patience He wants nothing because he possesses God who possesses all things and desires nothing because God alone is to him All-sufficient Now consider what Meekness that Soul must have who neither loves nor desires nor pretends to any thing who is neither troubled nor affrighted nor discomposed at any thing but in all Occurrences rests quietly in God This is a rare Meekness indeed I say rare because it is admirable and because I believe few have it in this Mortal Life since we see that even the holiest Men have been angry and there are Persons that are very perfect who Reprove and Chide who Reform and Punish with Anger Nay even Moses himself who is called the Meekest Man upon Earth was certainly transported with great Anger when he threw down and brake the Tables of the Law which God had written with his own finger God and his Love can do all things and no body can number or weigh or measure the Miracles of his Grace But thou deceivest thy self as I have told thee if thou thinkest that a Spiritual Meekness excludes Zeal for Reformation since the being gentle in Heart and very couragious in Zeal may well enough consist together and it was a great cause of surprize and indignation for Moses to find that People worshipping an Idol that had so manifestly seen the Power of God so many ways made known to them in their Protection and Deliverance And Christ himself who far excell'd Moses in Meekness as in all other Vertues was angry when he whip'd the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple urging that Verse of the Psalm The Zeal of thine House hath even eaten me up And when he reprehended the Masters of the Law for destroying the Law and suffering the People to be loose and wicked though he was angry with them yet he was not the less meek in heart for the gentleness and serenity of it shin'd even through his Zeal and even then also he might have said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart He meekly had a sweetness within his Zeal as the Honey-comb was in the mouth of Samson's Lion He shewed his Anger to draw them to his Meekness and seeing so many Discourses and so many Sermons and so many Miracles had wrought nothing upon them to soften their hardness as we do Iron by Fire he applied that of his Zeal for a Remedy The Vices do oppose and hinder one another but the Vertues do assist and help one another A Man cannot be Prodigal and Covetous at the same time for if he will give
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost thou wert signed with the Sign of the Cross in token that thou shouldest not be asham'd to confess the Faith of Christ crucified but manfully fight under his Banner against Sin the World the Flesh and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Souldier and Servant unto thy life's end Consider that being come to Understanding thou art brought to take thy Baptismal Vow upon thy self in Confirmation whereby the Soul is fortified to fight the inward Battles of this Life and to bear the Cross Consider that at the receiving the Sacrament if thou dost it worthily thou renewest the same Vow and that the Benefits of Christ's Death cannot be convey'd to thee therein but by believing and working according to thy belief What is all this but to teach us that our Faith ought to be lively and that believing and doing must go together in a Christian For if thou wantest a hand to work thou wilt also want a hand to lay hold of Christ's Merits and to apply them to thy Soul Beg therefore of God that he would give thee a true a vital and an active Faith for by that means thou mayest have a sure and a certain Hope and an ardent Charity since they that believe well hope well and they that hope well love well He that works as he believes and believes as Christ commands him hopes in the same proportion that he believes If thou hopest as thou believest and believest as thou oughtest and lovest in the same manner as thou hopest Heaven and Glory are surely thine thou hast already conquer'd Hell The Devils flie already from thee The Angels are already with thee The Saints already bear thee Company Thou art already under the Protection of thy Blessed Saviour and art already sealed by him for an Heir predestinated to his Glory Pray therefore earnestly to God for a lively Faith and then thou shalt have certain Hope and fervent Charity The Root of that most beautiful Tree is Faith the green Leaves and fair Flowers of it are Hope and the sweet savoury Fruit is Charity This Tree of true Wisdom is the Tree of Eternal Life which cures the Wounds of the Tree of Death and of Knowledge Pant and gasp after the Fruit of this Spiritual Tree which is Divine Charity If thou feelest that if thou possessest that thou art already grown up and hast profited considerably in the Spiritual Life If thou feelest the love of God in thee and that thy heart be warmed with one spark thereof rejoyce and be of good courage for thou art already near the top of Calvary which is the Mount of Christian Perfection The day that God gives a Soul the feeling of his Love and an eager hearty desire to serve and to please him he draws it near to him and unites it to himself nay he already gives it a Pledge that living always so he may safely hope never to be parted from him Hast thou Divine Charity and dost thou feel the love of God within thee Thou wilt cast away Humane Passions and Imperfections and having banished that which is imperfect that which is perfect will continue and increase in thee Hast thou Divine Charity and dost thou feel the love of God Darkness will speedily flie away and an holy perfect Light will enlighten thee O Divine Charity how great is thy Power how great is thy Worth What is it that thou canst not do Thou art more Omnipotent in a manner than Omnipotency itself Thou madest the Son of God to leave the Bosom of his Omnipotent Father to seek a Mother to become Man and to die on the Cross for Man In the doing all which acts of excessive Kindness Omnipotency was as it were the Servant of Divine Charity since those things could not have been done if Omnipotency had not obey'd the infinite Love of God in performing what his Charity ordained If thou lovest God then I reckon thee safe on shore Persevere go on with joy and chearfulness and all will be easie sweet and pleasant to thee The Love of God facilitates the Exercises of a Spiritual Life and makes them sweet though in themselves they be bitter The Love of God chears the Soul and resists great Storms of Temptations Afflictions and Tribulations and keeps a Conscience pure holy prompt and lively The Love of God gives more pleasure in Suffering than Pleasure itself does in the enjoying The Love of God gives Light and drives away Darkness from the heart and as Night and Day cannot consist together so neither can Divine Charity and Sin The Love of God gives Strength and Perseverance in what is good and Valour and Constancy to oppose what is evil The Love of God roots out Passions Hatred and Revenge from the heart and introduces Pity Goodness and Mercy with the other excellent Vertues Finally the Love of God quickens defends comforts strengthens enlightens and perfects the Heart and Soul and so long as thou keepest it there it brings all under Subjection and Obedience to Reason It is strong sweet and powerful loving constant couragious and chearful it contains in it all that is good and casts out whatsoever is evil Exercise thy self then in Love if thou desirest the Lord should Crown thee If thou hast a mind to profit employ thy heart in loving Day and Night Love the Lord who in his Eternal purpose loved thee before there was Day or Night Let every return of thy breath breathe out the Love of this Lord so that thy respiration and thy love to him may he equally constant in thee THE THIRD PART OF THE Spiritual Year IN September October November December SEPTEMBER The First WEEK Of the Vertue of Religion and of the manner of Governing the Cardinal and Moral Vertues by that of Religion AN ardent Love a lively Faith and a constant Hope will bring thee to another most sweet and noble Vertue called Religion or the inward and outward Worship of God which is that that creates and promotes all the other Vertues and goes alway intermingled with Prayer In this thou oughtest to Exercise thy self with very great Humility All thy Conversation should be with God of God and for God Enter thy self into his Service by Faith adore him with Reverence and love all that appertains to him There is no need for thee to go up into Heaven to seek this Lord since for that purpose even Earth is Heaven and all Heaven is to be found in this narrow place of our Banishment Thou oughtest also to bear great Reverence to the Houses of God and to Sacred Persons for these are the Ministers of God and do represent God and those are Holy places consecrated and appointed for his outward Worship If thou dost live thus with Reverence and Fear and dost exercise the Vertue of Religion with Love which is the height of all Perfection thou shalt walk on in Spirit in Truth and in Prayer and shalt in the
the Sacrifice of the Liberal and turning away his Eyes from that of the Covetous This wild Beast within his heart broke out into open Fury and was the first that shed Humane Blood and the first that put the Life and Death of the Innocent into the power of the Guilty This was the first wickedness that after their own Disobedience afflicted our first Parents and the Tears Grief and Repentance for their own Offence were much encreased in seeing the Murder of their good and holy Son commitmitted by the hand of the other that was a wretched Villain and a Cast-away It was Envy that sowed innumerable Discords between those first Patriarchs and Heads of the several Tribes Joseph's Brethren not being able to endure his Vertues nor the kindness of his Father to him they resolved rather to sell him than to imitate him It was Envy that brought in the Dissentions and Discords between Jacob and Esau the elder not being able to suffer the Blessing of the younger It was Envy that took away the Vertue the Kingdom and the Life of Saul who because he could not bear the Valour and the Spirit of David chose rather utterly to destroy him than frame himself to follow his Example It was Envy also that durst attempt to bite even the Apostles themselves when seeing the favour of their Master to St. John they began to strive which of them should be the greatest It was Envy that was the chief Incentive that kindled the fire of Rage and Passion in the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees and of the Priests and Masters of the Law against Jesus when seeing his Vertues and Miracles they chose rather to put him to Death than to enjoy Eternal Life Behold the Victories and Trophies of Envy and entertain a great abhorrence of this cruel Enemy for it is a powerful one though in it self it be vile base and infamous choosing rather to hate Vertue than to emulate it and affecting priority rather by destroying that which is good than by making that good which is evil It is an infamous a desperate and an ungrateful Vice for the first that it kills is the Person who entertains it and the Envious man dies with Envy himself but cannot thereby kill the Person envied It is an infamous Vice for that being able to ease it self in a great measure of vexation by imitating Vertue it frees it self rather by the destruction and death of the innocent and vertuous Person making Poyson of the Antidote and corrupting it self by the vertue of another It is an infamous Vice because it draws the nourishment of hatred and abhorrence out of the same ground from whence it ought to draw that of Love to Vertue and it defames and dishonours that which right Reason extols and magnifies It is an infamous Vice because it destroys the love of our Nature for whereas one man ought to love another as man and much more if he be vertuous Envy abhors him so much for being vertuous that it would not suffer him to continue man It is an infamous Vice because it prosecutes the damage of another without bringing any profit to it self and loads it self with more Crimes without lessening anothers Vertues It is an infamous Vice because it makes an Enemy of that Person whom it ought to imitate and esteem as a Friend choosing rather to abhor that which is good than to make use of it in forsaking that which is evil Finally Envy is the Vice of base wretched People for whereas the envious man might by a noble emulation and sincere endeavour make himself both vertuous and generous he chooses rather to torment himself and become more base more wretched and more miserable Remedies against Envy This Vice must be cured by means contrary to those we directed against Sensuality for that as we said must be cured by flight but Envy must be conquered by fighting Thus when thou feelest in thy heart the first motions towards Envy raise up thy self to encounter it with a stout Opposition and force thy self to love and praise that Person whom it would tempt thee to abhor and to calumniate Let both thy words and thy thoughts commend that Person whom thou art troubled to see preferred before thee Exalt his fame and copy his vertues with thy utmost endeavour There are two sorts of men in the World which are very great in my esteem those that acknowledge the ill which is in themselves and those that acknowledge the good which is in their Enemies It is a generous sense and a noble action for a man to conquer Envy and to own Vertue wheresoever he finds it That is a powerful and a generous light which illuminates the Soul and drives away the darkness of Envy and a Man will not be far from imitating the vertue of a person whom he rightly understands to be vertuous What dost thou gain by Envy but rage anguish and the gnawing of thy own bowels He enjoys all his happiness and thou choosest torments and vexations If Envy could take away the good things of the person envied if it could bring home his Riches and Honours to the House of the envious man though with the adding of Theft to his Envy yet at least he would get some profit by it and have wherewithal to comfort himself in the midst of his tortures But it is not so for the envied person remains healthful happy rich and powerful and the envious man poor afflicted wretched and miserable getting nothing of the Wealth he envies but of the colour of that Gold in his Complexion Better thy Fortune by thy Vertues but never attempt to advance it by Vices Do that which is in thy power which is to imitate whatsoever is good and fly from whatsoever is evil and strive not in vain to do what is above thy power namely to take away the goodness from him that is good by making thy self wicked and by torturing thy Soul with continual disquiets Of Charity to our Neighbours Charity towards our Neighbours is the bridle of Envy the total destruction of it With this thou must banish that out of thy heart Love to our Neighbours is a Ray of the Divine Love for Man imitates God in loving that which he loved that is to say Man for whom he died If we love not our Neighours whom will we love Will we perhaps love the wild brute Beast We are Humane by Nature let us be Humane also in our Love Who is there that abhors himself or who is there that abhors his own Natural Condition Our Nature has produced so Savage a Beast so pitiless a Man and so great an Enemy to Mankind that kissing a Child and being asked why He answered That he foresaw by his Art that Child would be a Souldier and a great Captain who would kill an infinite number of men and for that reason he began to love him This Man or rather this Monster of Cruelty would for the same cause have
kissed the Plague if he had met it in the Street There was another like this that was also a great Enemy to Mankind and they two visiting one another the first said I am very glad to be in the Company of one that abhors Men To which the other replied So should I also to be in thine but that thou art a Man Were these Men No certainly but Beasts and fiercer than Beasts Our blessed Redeemer did not thus but was always pleased to be called Man and being God the Eternal Son of God God of God seldom or never called himself the Son of God but often the Son of Man honouring that Nature which he came to Redeem and making himself Man by taking his Name from it Love thy Nature says the Holy Ghost hate not thine own Flesh If Men abhor Men and which is more Men that are vertuous for that is it which Envy commonly abhors who shall love Men or reward Vertue He is no true Christian that abhors Men through Envy or Cruelty for he follows not the principal Vertue which Jesus Christ did practise God being Divine became Humane and being God cloathed himself with our Nature to become Man and canst thou abhor thine own Nature or at least a Man Tell me after what manner did God converse with Men being perfect God and perfect Man How meek how gentle how favourable how sweet and gracious towards all Men Of Courtesie And this he did amongst other things to teach us not only Humility but even Courtesie Humanity and Civility as Beams of that Charity for that Infinite Love bestowed and communicated himself on that manner with his very Humanity The Saviour of Souls condemns any one that shall be rude and discourteous or that shall call his Brother Raca which in the Opinion of grave Expositors signifies a manner of discourteous and reproachful Behaviour and St. Paul also makes Courtesie an holy and a Sacred thing counselling that in honour we should prefer one another Honore se invicem praevenientes as who should say be Courteous and prevent one another in Civility or strive each of you to be the first in Courtesie Think not that Humanity and kind Behaviour is a slight matter in the Spiritual Life No it is of great weight and of much worth When thou art invited says our Saviour sit not down in the chiefest place least a more honourable than thou come and thou be forc'd with shame to take the lower Room Thou should'st strive to be Courteous and Civil for it is a great good to thy self and very pleasing to others Thy love of God cannot be great if it make thee not shew thy self meek and courteous towards Men. That has but a very small force which cannot break forth through the thickness of four fingers and that is as much as the distance can be from thy heart to the outside of thy breast If thy love of God be a true love it is not possible thou should'st forbear to love his Creatures and thou wilt do it so much the more by how much the more the love of God is pure and perfect in thee In the same proportion that thy love of God increases thy love to thy Neighbours will increase likewise and in the same proportion the one wasts and decays the other ceases and vanishes also If God who is love it self do love Man how can a Man that loves God forbear to love Man and to desire his good The love of God to Man appeared before his Divine Majesty created him his love being uncreate and eternal in it self though in respect of its manifestation to Mankind it had a beginning That loving Apostle the glory of Apostleship the beloved Evangelist and the adopted Son of the most blessed Virgin wrote an Epistle perswading to the love of God and of Men and being grown so old that his Disciples were fain to carry him in their Arms all his Sermon was Little Children love one another All we Men are Sons by Grace of one same Father which is God and Sons by Baptism of one same Mother which is the Church We are all made by one same Creator all redeemed by one same Price which is the Blood of Christ and all nourished by one same Milk which is his most holy Doctrine and admirable Sacraments And is it possible that so many Bonds and Obligations should not tye Man close to Man nor make them love and help one another Is it possible that Wrath Passion and Envy should break all these Obligations No No. Love Humane Nature for though it were not noble in it self yet it being created by God it becomes noble and is illustrious by being redeemed honoured and favoured by his most precious Son That which cost much is of great value but the repairing of Man's Nature cost the Blood of the Eternal Son of God He cloathed himself with it and honoured us also by it God Created Man after his own Likeness Who will not esteem Man for being the Image of God And the more because God afterwards by becoming Man made himself the Image of Man The Fourth WEEK Of Diligence and Fervency and of the Mischiefs of Omission and Sloth THE Vertues help forward one another The love of God will guide thee to that of Men. This love will bring thee to fervency and fervency will open the Gate to zeal and zeal for the good of thy Neighbours burning in Charity both for them and for thy self will open thee the Gate of Heaven This fervency and this love will not suffer thee to be lazy and sleepy for sleep is no usual Companion of Lovers Charity and Sloth cannot dwell together in one breast To sleep much and to love much are not things consistent My Father always worketh saith the Lord and I work What wonder is it that the Father and the Son should always be working since through the Holy Ghost they are always loving There can be no such thing as a lazy Spritual Person for so much as he hath of sloth so much he wanteth of being spiritual Love is full of an holy disquiet It is a sweet longing and refreshing and if it be afire how can idleness and sloth be in so active and stirring an Element Fly from sloth in the Spiritual Life fly from it I say for it is a great and terrible Evil. Go learn of the Ant says the Holy Spirit to the sluggard Judge what the Vice is and what the Person is that is infected with it who needs to be taught by so contemptible a Master and how much more wretched and contemptible is the Scholar Sloth stupifies the Senses dulls the powers of the Soul puts shackles upon all the Faculties and by little and little strips the Spiritual Man quite naked and leaves him meerly natural and sensual Sloth is the Mother of Omission and Omission is manifestly the ruin of us Dost thou see all the evil that is in the World It all proceeds and takes birth
Comfort and though my love was Lawful yet the end of it was Natural when it should have been Supernatural I loved them after another manner than I ought to have done for my love was Sensual whereas it should have been Spiritual and all this the Spouse felt very much even in those loves which were allowable and complained of it to her Beloved and his Divine Majesty as being much pleased with it took into his own hand the love of his Spouse towards her Neighbours and towards all Creatures and ordered it rightly making her to ove them all in that manner for those ends and in that degree which he approv'd And this which the Spouse asked of her Beloved we ought oftentimes to beg of him for our self love if the Lord doth not rectifie and reform it destroys and burns up the Soul with an inordinate fire and so the love of God is the only love which can be called love without fear of loving too much and all other loves whatsoever are loves of fears and jealousies and disquiets to an holy Soul They are loves intermix'd with fears whether I do not exceed whether I do not take from God that which I give to the Creatures whether I do not tye my Soul too fast unto them and entangle it with snares in the way of my Spiritual Life O Lord thou love of all the Creatures how miserable is this Life how full of Thorns and Stumbling blocks how full of Griefs Hazards and Dangers Since I cannot love that which is good and allowed without the fears of running into that which is evil and prohibited O God do thou regulate our love O thou Eternal Good grant that we may only love thee and that in thee alone we may love those whom thou wouldst have us to love and that we may do it when and how and for those ends that thou approvest Let none other love but thine O Lord enter into my Soul Drive out of it all other loves but that and if any other would force an entrance into my heart let the strength of thy love defend it and not suffer any other love to disturb my Soul nor oppose thy love within my Soul Thy love O dear Lord is a sweet love it is Chearfulness and Comfort Quiet and Contentment it is Joy and Glory All love besides this and contrary to this is Perturbation and Disquiet Heaviness and Pain Sorrow and Affliction Finally all the Saints have tasted of this Fruit and I have only given thee an Example of St. Paul to the end thou mayest know that the Holy Spirit and its Fruits are the same in the Primitive Church in these times and will be so in those that succeed us for God never waxeth old neither do his Gifts and Graces decay and if we miserable sinners neither have nor feel those Fruits it is because we hinder them with our Passions and by giving the Rein freely to our Inclinations for there are many now in the World who have and enjoy this heroical orderly and perfect love to God and to their Neighbour but let thou and I who are weak and frail endeavour to exercise our selves in those first Vertues and to cultivate the Tree of our Souls with Repentance and Contrition with Mortification and Tears but above all with the Blood of the Lamb and with hearty Prayers to him who shed it through the excess of his love that he would give us that sweet and excellent Fruit that most ravishing and glorious Love The Second WEEK Of Peace the Second Fruit of the Holy Spirit NExt to this Savoury Fruit of Divine and Humane Charity or of Love to God and our Neighbour follows the Delightful Fruit of Peace which quiets and recreates the Soul freeing it from those common Perturbations that use to disturb it Fear and Hope are two Humane Affections which do disquiet and discompose Worldly Minds God drives out these two from a holy Soul with two Coelestial Gifts which are Remedies against their Poyson and these be the Fear of God and the Hope of Glory From the instant that our Soul fears God alone it despises all things else from the instant that it hopes only for things Eternal it tramples upon those that are Temporal Such a Man keeps Peace with all Persons because he neither troubles nor importunes he neither vexes nor is jealous of any body since no body can deprive him of Eternity which is all he pretends to This Fruit of Peace also hath two parts one inward Peace of the Soul with God the other outward Peace with the Creatures From the inward Peace with God which is the Root springs up the outward one and spreads into several branches of the Creatures just as an outward heat proceeds from a secret fire and the brightness of light from flame and the love of our Neighbour from that of God The inward Peace of the Soul depends upon the Unity and Conformity of a Spiritual Man's Will with the Will of God for if he loves and desires the same thing and conforms himself to all that God does and resigns himself to all that he suffers and does so not only after things have come to pass but even prevents them with his desire that the Will of God should be done in him it is manifest that by such an Unity and Conformity he must have a constant Peace and that there can be no disagreement between that and him This Union with the Divine Will and the finding no contraction between it and the Humane Will begets Love and Peace with our Neighbours and makes it communicate with all Creatures for since it neither loves them nor desires any thing from them in any other way than according to God's Will and that God's Will is in order to Peace because it is the Original of Peace it necessarily follows that he must also have Peace with all the Creatures And so the true Spiritual Man who loves God with that Holy Fruit of Charity we have spoken of loving his Neighbours also in their proportion and keeping Union with the Will of God and inward Peace with him and for his sake with his Neighbours in all things that are good and holy must needs satisfie and content all Persons if they be good and if they be not so though he does not content them because that is not in his power yet he satisfies them with his Reason though perhaps they will not acknowledge themselves to be satisfied for if they be his Superiours he obeys them with Humility behaves himself towards them with Respect and yields readily to their Orders and Commands obeying his Superiours in the same manner as he obeys the Will of God If they be his Equals he gives them all that belongs to them and applies himself with Charity to assist in their Affairs He eases them in their Troubles comforts them in their Afflictions counsels them in their Doubts and helps them in their Necessities And if they be his
places and orders of Men which sad and lamentable Evil as it is the desire of all good Men as far as in them lies to remedy so he believes an impartial and diligent perusal of this and such-like Spiritual Treatises will by the assistance of God's Grace be Instrumental to the producing of that blessed effect He found by reading this Book that in it were laid down the most profitable and useful Instructions the most affecting and forcible Arguments to allure to the Service of God and the most solid and substantial Nourishment that can be administred to Souls And this gave him Encouragment to undergo the pleasing Trouble of preparing it for a Publick Reading Which being effected his hearty Prayers to Almighty God are that his Endeavours may have their desired influence upon the Hearts and Minds of all that shall vouchsafe to peruse them and that that Devout and Heavenly Spirit may in some measure be communicated to them whereby the Spiritual Author of this Spiritual Year was acted in Designing and Perfecting so Divine and Profitable a Work THE Author's PREFACE THE Design of this Piece is to draw Souls to the serious Consideration of Eternity to move their Affections to the Love of Heavenly things and to bring them to a Contempt of those that are Temporal and transitory In it they will see much of what is treated at large in divers Spiritual Books and the substance of what lies dispersed in them summed up in this one not with that Spirit and Learning wherewith those Authors wrote but with equal desire for the good of Souls Indeed that which we are able to do is nothing in respect of what God does by that Grace which he hath tyed to the Ministry for without all doubt 't is He that does all He that moves all He that directs all He that amends all and brings all to Perfection Though St. Paul was a Vessel of Election full of the Spirit and might have had as great confidence in himself as any other Apostle yet this made him say That his Planting was nothing and his Watering nothing but that it was God that gave the Increase However it much animates the Labourers of the Gospel in the Spiritual Work to find that it often happens to them as it does to Husband-men who scatter their Seed on their Land with perfect heedlesness part of it falling beside and part being thrown from them with an uncertain direction only with a purpose to fill the Field with Seed and yet returning home afterwards to take their rest God while they are asleep sends Rain upon the Inheritance moistens the Earth disposes the Seed tempers the Heat seasons the Elements makes it rot revive and rise again so that even in Corruption it takes Root grows up and brings forth the full Ear. What did the Sower more than cast away the Seed from him as if he regarded it not And yet it springs up and gives an abundant increase All that he did was to prepare the Matter that God might work the Miracle which as St. Austin says is only little in Man's Consideration because he sees God work it so often This hope encourages me to scatter the Seeds of the Divine Word into the Hearts of the Faithful trusting that God who is the Worker of all that we do will give his Blessing his Grace and Power to the end that the Fruit may be multiplied which Effect in the Parable of the Sower his Divine Majesty intimates he useth to produce in those Souls who receive it with Attention and with a pious holy Affection it taking Root in them as in a fertile Soil But it may be some will say there be already so many Books of Devout Meditations that this might well have been spared they being so Holy and Spiritual and this not so being written by so wretched a sinner as I am To this I answer that though all other Persons might be questioned why they make Spiritual Treatises since there are so many yet that account ought not to be demanded from Bishops since it is a thing as proper to their Ministry to Write to Teach and Instruct as the very Name of a Pastor And in that Work 't is lawful for a Prelate to Teach not only Opportunely but in a manner Importunely as St. Paul teaches his Disciple Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine that is by Sermons by Writing by Conversing and by Example And therefore We Bishops ought ever to fear the contrary Censure and Question Why do ye not write Spiritual Books And this being the more dreadful Censure we ought to embrace that which we have least need to fear and to avoid that which can most condemn us Moreover 't is a very affected and unreasonable Complaint of the Politick Censurer who is troubled that so many Spiritual Treatises come forth into the World for God can never be too much praised thereby nor can Evangelical Counsels be too often repeated nor Discourses that aim at the Salvation of Souls be too frequent though consisting of one same Matter To say the truth we have seen nothing else in the Church of God from the time that His Divine Majesty settled it with his Blood but this Succession of Doctrine which has accompanied that of those same Ministers whom by their Vocation and excellent Abilities he called and appointed for Masters of Christian Instruction The Four Evangelists wrote those four Books which contain all the Treasures of Grace in the Life and Death of our Saviour yet St. John did not forbear to write his three Epistles and the Revelation St. Luke the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter two Epistles and St. Paul fourteen St. James one St. Jude another and their Disciples Ignatius Polycarp and others did also write though they might have contented themselves with what the Apostles had done who were the General Ministers and Teachers of the Faith After these succeed the Doctors of the Greek and Latine Churches who filled the World with Writings without any prejudice to those or rather proceeding upon the same Doctrine and using it according to their purpose have enlightened and enriched the Church to the great profit and comfort of Souls That Book of the Imitation of Christ made by Thomas a Kempis which some call the Contempt of the World and others The Christian Pattern though it be a very little one is yet so full of weight that those other Spiritual Treatises which have been written since might seem superfluous yet for all that the Venerable Lewis de Granada having translated and incorporated it into his Meditations with those of another excellent Author which are very Heavenly both in their Spirit Style and Matter did not only make others after them but wrote also the Guide of Sinners which has reduced converted and guided so many as likewise the Symbol of the Faith and several
other most Profitable Treatises besides numberless other Spiritual Men who have written since and are still Writing without any harm to the World by the repetition of the Churches Doctrine in so many several manners For the Pens of Writers accommodate themselves to our Humane condition which in length of Time and variety of Ages seems to alter its tast and even that which is good had need to be seasoned after such a manner that Men may be spoken to in their own Language Thus there is no fault to be found that there are so many Spiritual Books in the World the pity would be if they should be wanting As no body complains of the Government if there be much pure Silver Coin current in a Kingdom that which might be censured is if there were great scarcity of that and great abundance of Copper Money If it should be said Why are there so many smutty Plays loose Romances prophane Poesies abusive Satyrs and Atheistical Pamphlets with others of that kind which do unspeakable Mischief and at the best serve only for a vain and unnecessary Divertisement This indeed were too just a Complaint too reasonable an occasion of Censure and it is much to be wished that effectual care were taken to prevent the Publishing of such and to suppress many of those that are already abroad It is probable many will dislike the shortness of my Style and say that it had been better if I had dilated my Discourse into larger Arguments as many very Learned and Spiritual Men have done in other Treatises To this I Answer that though I be short and concise I have endeavoured to make it clear substantial and comprehensive and not to let the Brevity of it take away the force of Perswasion The Endeavour of this hath been mine but the attaining and effecting it must be from God For this reason I have also divided it by Months Weeks and other shorter Paragraphs to the end that those that read it may receive their Nourishment cut into smaller Morsels especially in the beginning where I have been briefer because the Points there treated of are harsh and unpleasing like a Purgative Medicine which being very bitter is hard to be gotten down in a great Potion but is more easily swallowed when it is made up into little Pills My Prayer is they may work to the driving out of sin and to the preparing of their hearts for those comfortable Cordials that are administred more seasonably afterwards I Advise therefore all those that shall vouchsafe to read this Book that they would do it with great leisure and consideration that thereby they may obtain that Spiritual Profit I wish them and that they would by little and little drink the Spiritual Water of this Doctrine Meditating and Contemplating upon it and often making pauses after the manner of Birds who lift up their head at every drop they drink as if it were to give thanks for that Benefit and lastly that they would lift up their Hearts and Thoughts to God in an attentive Consideration of every one of those Sentences I propose unto them For this reason I have sometimes permitted my Style to have a certain Chyme or Cadence to imprint them the deeper in their Memory that from thence they may sink into their hearts to the end that enlightening and warming them in the love of Heavenly things they may remain fixed in them for ever For as our Common Proverbs stick more easily in the Imagination when Custom has brought them into it so those short Maxims and inward Instructions of Souls do by that means produce more benefit And I have chosen rather to suffer that Imperfection in my Style than to venture losing the fruit of my desire The Fathers especially those of the African Church were much accustomed to this way of Writing as St. Austin Fulgentius Valerius Maximus and others nay even Leo the Great and Petrus Chrysologus though Latines by Nation have something of it For as all of them busied themselves to perswade Souls to Goodness so it being needful for that end to leave that imprinted in the outward which they would have to be fixed in the inward Powers and Faculties they sought the most Effectual means though it was not the most Elegant and perfect way of speaking St. Austin whom he that follows in the Church of God and imitates both in his matter and manner of expressing it may be sure not to do amiss uses this very frequently as may be seen in his fourteenth Sermon de Sanctis where speaking of St. Paul and his Conversion he says Portabat Christus Persecutorem ut faceret Ecclesiae Doctorem occisus agnus à lupis faciens agnos de lupis mane rapientem ad vesperam praedam dividentem And in his thirteenth Sermon de Tempore speaking of our Saviour he has these words O omnipotentia nascentis O magnificentia de Coelo descendentis adhuc in utero portabatur ex utero Matris à Joanne Baptista salutabatur à Simeone sene famoso annoso probato coronato agnoscebatur differebatur exire de seculo ut videret natum per quem conditum est seculum Innovatus in aetate qui plenus erat pietate And the like in many other places Possibly this Book may also be disliked by some for not having any of those points in it that relate to Visions and Revelations which are Favours God's Divine Majesty doth sometimes communicate to Devout Souls But my Intention is to give Men a clear plain and substantial Nourishment which may be certain constant and secure to put them upon the Exercise of Vertues and to give them an Aversion to the Vices that are contrary unto them and at the same time both to perswade and enlighten them in the Principal Mysteries of Faith and not to enter into more abstruse and extatick Discourses for since things are chiefly governed by Rules and the Infallible Rules are to flie from evil and to do good to seek Peace and ensue it as the Kingly Prophet saith and since this depends wholly upon the Exercise of a Christian Life in believing and doing according to God's Will revealed in his Word my desire has been to feed Men only with common Food and to give them the plain Rules and Foundation of the inward Life leaving those particular and extraordinary things which may sometimes be felt by Devout Souls to other Treatises and Spiritual Masters who Discourse upon those Subjects with great light and exactness I content my self that they should stir up themselves by the Reading of this Book to endeavour to serve to love and to please God in the Exercise of Christian Vertues by frequent and Devout Prayer that they should often consider these Instructions and frame their Lives and Manners according to them making that their whole Employment And though they obtain no higher favour of God than to keep his Commandments and to follow his sweet and delightful Counsels as far as
it Is there no remedy against this Evil nor defence against this Danger 2. The Evil is not in being judged but in going unprepar'd to Judgment This imminent danger hath an easy plain and safe remedy by the Grace of God And that is for a Man to judge himself often times before God judge him once for all Wouldst thou not be afraid of the Judgment nor of that dreadful Sentence Judge thy self before hand examine thy self before thou comest to be examin'd call thy self frequently to a strict account humble thy self amend thy Life and at the sight of thy Sins pray and weep and thou shalt go willingly to Judgment and come off safe with thy account Serve thy Judge love thy Judge and obey him in all things before he come to judge thee and thou shalt go contentedly to his Judgment and find thy Judge to be thy Friend 3. Consider that many Saints have desir'd that their Life might be shorten'd that their Death might be hasten'd and that they might come to Judgment thereby to enjoy God They desir'd to be dissolved and to leave this mortal Tabernacle They desir'd this knot of Life might be untied and to be free from the Prison of this miserable and corruptible Body to see their God their Creator and Redeemer whom they loved served and ador'd while they lived in this World They esteem'd Death as Life because it freed them from a dying Life which delay'd their enjoyment of an eternal Life 4. They could not pass to the beatifical Vision of their God without going by the way of the Judgment and Sentence They did as it were die with an eager desire of dying and joyfully embrac'd that Death which brought them to behold the kind the cheerful and beautiful Countenance of their loving Judge They knew they were to be judged by their Father their God their Creator and Redeemer their faithful Friend and their most gracious Lord. They loved him in their Life they sought him by their Death they ador'd him in the Judgment and with an humble confidence in his infinite Pity they hoped for Mercy in the Sentence They knew their offences were many but they had bewailed them they knew though they were Sinners they had lived desirous to please him diligent to serve him and with care not to offend him They knew they could not put their cause into better hands and that the same Person was to judge them who had shed his Blood for them and given his Life upon the Cross for their Redemption They went to offer their Works their Tears and their Repentance unto God yet without trusting any thing in their Works they relied wholly upon the Goodness of God and the Merits of their Saviour 5. For though it be just that the Judgments of the Lord should be fear'd yet it is as just that they should be loved My Father says the holy Soul is to judge me what am I then afraid of My Lord and my God is my Judge How can I choose but hope and trust in my Lord and my God though he be my Judge If he have a kindness for me and I have a reverence for him What can I look for in the Sentence but Mercy and Compassion What Son is afraid to be judged by his own Father if he hath not lived and acted as an Enemy to his Father or if he hath bewailed the time that he was his Enemy What Wife is afraid to be judged by her tenderly affectionate Husband if she hath not been an Adulteress or hath heartily lamented that Injury and penitently begged pardon of her dearly loving Husband What Friend is afraid to be judged by his Friend if he hath been faithful to him or hath shewed a real grief for the breach of his Fidelity Though I be afraid and wretched says a sick Soul I have been desirous to serve thee O my God thy Precepts have been my Direction and thy Counsels have been my Rule if not in the execution yet at least in my intention and earnest desire I hope for mercy from that eternal goodness of God my Creator and Redeemer who dyed upon a Cross for my Salvation He that was so gracious and so loving in Redeeming me cannot but be a sweet and tender Father in Judging me 6. These are the breathings of a Holy Soul Thus said St. Paul and many others when they desir'd to be dissolved that they might come to the presence of God and for the obtaining of that did not fear to put their Cause and Sentence into his hand They feared his Power and they adored his Power They were afraid by reason of their sins and yet they hoped knowing his mercy and loving-kindness Their love conquered their fear because their hearts were inflam'd with that perfect Charity which casts out fear And thus if thou doest desire to have a holy and assured hope humbly resign'd and yet chearful in the Judgment and in the Sentence do that which the Saints have done and thou shalt hope as they have hoped 7. Make account in thy life-time of that Account thou art to give hereafter I repeat it to thee once again keep a Judgment-seat within thy self every day till thou comest to thy last Judge thy self ten thousand times and consider in what steps thou treadest for according to what thou doest in this World thou shalt be judged in the other Strictly observe thy very thoughts and mend what thou shalt find amiss For by this means thou shalt increase that love which casts out fear Do thou judge thine own Actions before God judges them beg light of him to see and know them and tears to bewail them and so with a holy resignation and with an humble confidence thou mayest appear in the presence of God Take good heed to thy Words Thoughts and Actions and square them by the Rule of the Divine Law and of the Will of that Lord who is to Judge thee and strive in this Life to obtain Mercy and Pardon for thy Sins and Miseries 8. Be careful to purifie thy Understanding and to purge it from evil fill it with honest and spiritual Considerations cleanse thy will from corrupt Desires and fill it with the love of thy Creator Let thy Memory be the Store-house of Holy Meditations and then hope and trust love and adore the Judgment of the Lord. His goodness does more desire to Pardon thee than thou dost to be pardoned He is more desirous of thy Salvation than thou art to be saved He is more desirous to deliver thee from that Infernal Dragon than thou art to be delivered Be careful I warn thee once again on what hand thou livest in this life for on that hand thou shalt find thy self when Death carries thee from hence 9. Fear the Judgment of the Lord for it is very just so to do fear humble thy self and tremble but yet hope and be more afraid of the sins wherewith thou offendest him than thou art of his righteous Judgment
knowledge of thy self thou mayest come to some knowledge of him Excuse not thy Sloth and Cowardize by laying the fault upon the Frailty of thy Nature for that is but to accuse God as an hard Master that expects much where he gives but little No he expects no more from any Man than what he enables him to perform Raise therefore thy Courage by Contemplation of those divine Benefits he hath bestowed upon thee Make clear the Glass of thy Soul and in it thou shalt see God and shalt hear and find him for although God be in all places by his Essence Power and Presence yet is he no where better seen and known than where he is present through Grace What a number of things wilt thou find within thee by beholding God within thy self What Treasury What Chearfulness What Joy What Wisdom St. Augustin seeks God over all the World and says of himself That he sought but could not find that without him which he already had within him He entred into himself and there found what he had sought though he could not find it by wandring abroad If thou hast God within thy self in vain wilt thou seek him elsewhere 'T is within thy Soul 't is within thy Heart that this Precious Treasure is to be found If not there then no where else As soon as thou findest him within thee thou shalt see ineffable Lights and meet with Directions that shall guide thee to keep him fast within thy self and yet to find him every where without thee also Thou shalt learn to trust him and by that to fear him There shalt thou see the Divine Benefits what he has done in thy favour without thee above thee and on every side of thee thou shalt find it all there There shalt thou see and meditate what thou owest him and by thy internal and superiour knowledge thou shalt be able to see to ponder and to penetrate what before thou neither didst see nor know nor love nor consider Of the Benefit of Creation Thou shalt see the good he did thee in Creating thee in making thee a reasonable Creature in giving thee a Soul and forming in thee an admirable Image of his Heavenly Countenance Thou shalt see what he did for thee in drawing thee out of the Abyss and Confusion of nothing to be capable of all things Thou shrit see what he did in that when it was in his power to make thee a Stone a Tree or a brute Beast he made thee a Reasonable Creature and capable of God himself Tell me what hadst thou done that could oblige him to it Upon what merits did this high Benefit fall Didst thou perhaps win him to it by thy sins which were then present to him at thy Creation Oh how unspeakable is that Benefit bestowed even in the sight of Ingratitude itself That God should have all my sins present before him at my Creation and should yet Create me that in Creating me he should fix his eyes upon his own Mercy and cast my sins behind his back this was a goodness more wonderful than can well be conceived The anger of a liberal Person grows enraged by the presence of an ungrateful one whom he has relieved and yet here my Creator not only was not angry but in the sight of all my Offences bestowed a Benefit upon me which it had been much to have granted upon the highest Services Behold how greatly we are indebted to God for Creating us reasonable Men at the same time he beheld our sins making us capable to bewail them and flexible docil and disposed through his Grace to wash them with our Tears By this first and principal Benefit he filled us with infinite other Benefits for in giving us that chief Jewel the Soul all the rest though greater are less because they all depend upon that It is more to be a Man than to be a Great Man It is more to be a Man than all that can be contained in the Being of Man It is much to be Wise but it is more to be Man than to be Wise because he could not be Wise unless he were a Man It is much to be Rich Powerful and Noble but more to be a Man because he has all those by being Man It is much to be a King but more to be a Man because without being a Man he could not be a King It is much to be Good Holy and Vertuous but it is more to be a Man because he could be none of these without a Rational Soul which makes him to be a Man Know thy Dignity O Man and use it with respect and do not abase that part of thee which is Man to the level of that other which is but Animal Let not sin defile that Soveraign and that Coelestial Majesty which thou hast in thy Soul for to spot blemish and deface it is great sin and ingratitude To make thee a Man was to give thee all that is visible and to make thee capable of all that is invisible What Thanks what Services do these Benefits require To make thee a Man was to make thee Head King and Soveraign of this inferiour Nature He chose thee for Prince of the Planets of the Sun of the Moon and of the Stars Finally he gave thee the Elements all things mixt and all the several Individuals for thy Contemplation and for thine Inheritance Thus God's Creating Man and giving him a Rational Soul is the chiefest and greatest of all the Gifts he hath bestowed upon Men for although afterwards he enriched them with others of his Grace which are more excellent yet they all depend on that of Nature They are Benefits which fall upon this first Benefit and without which they could be of no Efficacy or Advantage But let me not pass over in silence or forget to mention in particular those other admirable and illustrious Endowments which in Creating thee a Man and giving thee a Soul God hath furnished thee with so vastly surpassing those of the inferiour and irrational Tribe I mean the glorious and sublime powers of thy Soul by which it operates for how do they transcend the low Capacities of sensitive Beings How noble and excellent are thy Faculties and how wonderful their Operations in respect of the grosness and inactivity of theirs Thou hast an Understanding capable of knowing all things able to draw Inferences from precedent Propositions and to frame Conceptions of universal and immaterial Objects God hath given thee ability if thou wouldst improve it to penetrate into the profoundest depths of Humane Knowledge and in some measure into his Divine Essence thou art able to make some discovery of those infinite Perfections which concentre in him the Original of all Perfections and to soar up by Contemplation into the highest Heavens where this infinite and incomprehensible Nature most eminently resides Thou art able from things made and visible to collect the absolute necessity of the existence of some first Being which
enact such Laws as are most fit and expedient for our mutual Preservation and Welfare The Third WEEK Of the Benefit of Preservation and first of our Bodies TO the Benefit of Creation with all those advantages already spoken of must be added that of our Preservation for if to make thee a Man was so great a thing and to give thee reason to understand and means to make advantage of Blessing shall it be accounted less to preserve thee from returning again to nothing It is a great Matter to conquer but it is no less to keep what has been gotten by Conquest That Benefit was effected in a short time God dispatch'd thy Cretion in an instant but how many Years does he preserve that Life he then bestowed upon thee and all that while nourish protect and defend thee Is this to be less accounted of than that Life and Health are common Blessings nor yet are they the less to be valued for being common but those personal Mercies which he hath shew'd to thee and me how great and how many are they His care in preserving thee began from the very first moment of thy Conception he quicken'd thee when thou wert but an Embryo He nourished thee in thy Mother's Womb and preserved thee in preserving her that thou mightest not be the untimely Fruit of a Woman which never sees the Sun He kept thee alive in that close Imprisonment where it was impossible for thee to breath and at the just time of Birth brought thee forth into the open Air of this World where it was impossible for thee to live one minute without breathing Here thou found'st ready prepared for thee the most proper Aliment for the Weakness of Infancy two Fountains of Milk in thy Mother's Breasts and when thou knowest nothing else he made thee know the use of them and taught thee to suck as soon as they were presented to thee He filled the Heart of thy Mother with such a natural Love and Tenderness towards thee that when thou could'st do nothing else but disturb the Repose so needful for her at that time she forgot the thoughts of her own present weakness to take care of all things that were requisite for thee and thou that wert born more helpless than any other Creature had'st by his Goodness more helps provided for thee than all the rest of the Creatures put together Thy Flesh was washed from its pollution thy Nakedness covered thy feeble Limbs swathed to prevent their being crooked and deformed and when thy Mother broke her sleep by night and disquieted her rest by day to rock and tend thee it was he that gave her Ability and Courage to go through with that difficult Task to support the weakness of thy Legs and made her tire her self with stooping that thou might'st learn to go upright and to speak with a faultring Tongue that thine might be able to speak plain What but the Power of God for thy Preservation could have made her find a pleasure in so much real pain and trouble He made her Eye continually watchful over thee when a small neglect might have been the loss of thy Life by any of those accidents which we frequently see happen to other Children The carelesness of a Servant lets one fall out of a Window another into the Fire or the Water how many are maimed or cripled by a thousand several Mischances but God hath not only preserv'd thy Life and the use of thy Limbs but that of thy Senses also the great Value and Benefit whereof ought to be consider'd though we never sufficiently esteem it till we come to feel the want of them yet their loss is greatest to those that never had them to loose For if thou hadst been born deaf thou likewise must of necessity have been dumb and since nothing can come into the Understanding but by the gate of some one of the Senses whereof the Ear is the chiefest for receiving the Notions of Truth and Wisdom in what a tedious stupid Life hadst thou lingered thy time out being by the want of hearing deprived of the most comfortable part of Life the Conversation of Friends unable to discourse with them or with thine own thoughts which would have been empty through the Ignorance of those things that should afford Matter for that pleasing and profitable Entertainment And if thou hadst been born blind thou would'st not only have wanted the Comfort of all those delightful Objects the World affords but also the easiest and speediest way or means of Knowledge The Eye teaches us many things in an instant which a blind Man can never come to conceive by all the Descriptions that can possibly be made of them and the want of Eyes doth also in a great measure take away the use of Legs Sight giving both the occasion and means of going from one place to another Thus the loss of any Sense is more than a single loss and even the want of Smelling which is the Sense might best be spar'd is commonly accompanied with a great defect in the Taste so needful for the distinguishing of wholesome from tainted Meats and the Pleasure whereof God hath added to our hunger that both of them may daily call upon us to eat for the preserving of our Lives For were it not for those two Incitements can we think Men would take all that pains and be at so much cost and trouble as they are about their Tables only out of a care for the maintaining of Life when we daily see them by that very means destroy their Health and shorten their Lives more perishing by Gluttony and Drunkenness than by the Sword Nor hath God only given us an Appetite to eat and a Pleasure in eating but for the same end hath also given a nutritive Quality to each several sort of meat and drink without which our Bodies could receive no more nourishment by those we account the most substantial Meats nor by the choicest Wines than by pouring Water into our Hats or by putting Stones into our Pockets I should not have been so particular in this Discourse but to bring thee to consider and admire from how small how weak how wretched beginnings by what strange means and by what wonderful Protections the Providence of God conducts Men through those many difficulties and dangers which every Year nay every day and hour of their Childhood of their early Youth and growth to Man's Estate they are subject to till in the midst of these they under his support attain to that strength of Body to that sagacity of Mind and that undauntedness of Heart which makes them capable of the most desperate and seemingly impossible undertakings Behold one whom a while ago thou sawest lying in his Cradle unable to stir either Hand or Foot now venturing to encounter the most fierce and savage Beasts and not only taming the unruly Horse but bringing even Lions and Elephants under his Subjection Here Men dig Mines the depth of many
defence of his Souldiers They hazard their lives for a pitiful Pay which oftentimes they never get but our King and Captain secures us a certain Pay rewarding us with Life and Glory If they fly over to their Enemy 't is out of hope to preserve their lives but if we do so we run to eternal death and fly from eternal life The War of the World is made by wounding hurting and killing others but the War of God against the World is made by receiving Injuries Affronts Wounds and even Death it self if it be necessary The War of the World is to Conquer by destroying others but the War against the World is to Conquer by undergoing Difficulties and Suffering for God's sake In that War it is Force that overcomes in this 't is Patience The Victories of that War are gotten by pulling down and trampling upon others but in this by debasing and humbling our selves The Triumphs of that War are here upon Earth and of a short continuance but those of this War are to be in Heaven above and to endure for ever and ever Fight therefore couragiously have patience and persevere the Battle lasts but for a while thou art already near the Crown that is to be thy Reward Arm us O thou great Captain of our Salvation for this Warfare with the Shield of Faith the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Helmet of Salvation and with the Sword of the Spirit and grant that having our Feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace we may chearfully withstand all Assaults of our Ghostly Enemies keeping still present in our thoughts the Vow we made to thee in our Baptism to fight manfully under thy Banner against the World the Flesh and the Devil and to continue thy Faithful Souldiers and Servants unto our lives end The Second WEEK Of Repentance and Absolution OUR blessed Redeemer and Saviour of Souls did not stop here He thought it not enough to Arm us for the Spiritual Warfare but has also provided a Remedy to cure our Wounds His Divine Majesty knew our weakness he knew our proneness to Vice he knew that like Cowards we should sometimes throw down our Weapons at the feet of our Enemies and basely fly from his Banner for the sake of some filthy Appetite He would not leave our Souls without help but his Compassion seeing our Frailty and Misery was pleased in the very sight of so great Ingratitude to prepare a Medicine for the cure of our Wounds and an Antidote for the Poyson of our Sins by establishing the Doctrine of Repentance and by giving Power and Commandment to his Ministers to declare and pronounce unto such as are truly Penitent the Absolution and Remission of their sins Great was the Love of our Lord in dying for us upon the Cross nor was it less in giving us this means to make his Sufferings effectual to us To pardon past Offences has been seen and sometimes one man to suffer for another but not at so dear a Price as his own Blood For a Person offended to suffer the sight of his Enemies is much when it is to do them good but 't is much more when he knows that they are not only Enemies but that they are ungrateful and despise his Benefits to shed his very blood to make a Medicine for their Wounds This is a pity exceeding all Humane Understanding That there should be care taken in Armies to cure the Wounded and Hospitals for the Sick it is not strange because they are Faithful Souldiers and venture their Lives in Fighting for their King But in the War of the Spirit that the Saviour of Souls should prepare Remedies not for his Friends that fight on his side but for Enemies and Souldiers that desert him that he should admit them again to be new listed under his Banner is a Mercy beyond comparison To pardon Mutineers has been seen in Armies but yet the Heads are commonly punished and the Companies disbanded but not only to pardon such Enemies and Traytors but to call them back to Love to Cure to Reward to Honour and Sustain them with his own Flesh and Blood can be the effect of nothing but an Infinite Charity and Compassion So great is the Benefit of Repentance which giving us a Title to the blood of Christ not only Cures those that are wounded but also raises those that are dead in sins nor is there any thing above the Cure of that Soveraign Medicine unless the Party affected resists the power of it which is so great that it not only cures the Wound but takes away the very Scars and makes those that are recovered more sound and healthful than they were before Behold a Man fallen from a Ship into the Sea and ready to be drowned amidst the Waves see with what eagerness he calls for a Cable with what greediness he catches at the Plank nay the poor wretch would even lay hold on a naked Sword to save his Life though with the loss of his Blood so the Christian who by the Grace of Baptism sails in the Ship of the Church being carried by his Passions throws himself into the World and is sinking in the Tempest of his sins and if he be drowned he perishes to Eternity but as he is sinking he finds this second Plank of Repentance to save him from Shipwrack and by it is drawn up into the Ship again and preserved to arrive in safety at his desired Port. Apply thy self therefore to the use of this Remedy with Humility with an holy Disposition and great sorrow for thy sins and by Faith in the Merits of Christ's Blood and then thou shalt rise up not only cured but crowned Call to remembrance thy sins and make a firm Resolution never to offend thy Lord again Be affected with a sorrow that is pure in its sincerity pious in its intention great in its degree perpetual in its lasting and particular in the enumeration of thy several sins with all the aggravating Circumstances thereof Finally let thy Confession be clear and undissembled with confusion of Face for thy often relapses giving Glory to God and taking Shame to thy self Make use of a Spiritual Guide in all difficulties of Conscience for thy Instruction and Consolation Forgive all Injuries thou hast at any time received which are but a few Pence in comparison of the many Talents which thou hast to be forgiven and remember that Christ says Except ye forgive men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses And not only forgive thine Enemies but embrace them with unfeigned Affection for his sake and by his Example who loved thee when thou wast his Enemy Of the Holy Eucharist In this Preparation of Soul wounded both with Love and Grief and thirsting as the Hart for the Water-brooks approach reverently to the Sacrament of thy Saviour's Body and Blood which that gracious Lord instituted at his last Supper for a continual remembrance of the Sacrifice of himself
upon the Cross purchasing our Redemption by his Death the Merits and Benefits whereof shall therein be assur'd and convey'd to thee as a Pledge and Seal of thy Pardon Apply it to thy self with an humble Confidence in his Promises with a firm Faith that his Blood was shed for thee since thou art admitted to be a partaker thereof That Divine Antidote is not only to be thy Medicine but thy Nourishment and receiving it with lowliness and Devotion thou shalt not only find Grace but the Author of Grace thou shalt not only find the Guide but the Way the Comfort and Support of the Spirtual Life If he be God Eternal the Son of the Eternal Father whom thou receivest into thy Breast art not thou certain that all his Vertues and Attributes enter with him If in receiving him I make him not only my Guest but also my Lord and Ruler I become one with him as the fire which heats the Iron is united with it If his Goodness be in me when I receive him how is it that it does not abolish my Wickedness If his Omnipotency why does it not take away my Weakness If his Love be in me why does it not expel my Luke-warmness If his Purity and Chastity why don't they chase away all my Defilements A PRAYER O Eternal and Coelestial Light O my Redeemer and Soveraign Master and Physician O sweet Spouse of my Soul What is it that hinders the Operation of so great a Light in me but that my Soul is in so thick a Mist of Darkness What is it that can hinder the admirable Effects of thy Grace in me but the wickedness of my ungrateful heart What keeps the Divine Strength and Power from waking but my great coldness and hardness of heart What hinders thee O Heavenly Physician from curing the Diseases of my Soul but that it loves them and abhors the Remedy What hinders thy Sheep O Heavenly Shepherd from receiving the Coelestial Food thou offerest them but their being lost and running astray after sensual Delights the Poyson of their Vices What hinders the amorous Embraces and Favours of this loving Bridegroom but the ungrateful forgetfulness of his Spouse My heart gives it self up to worldly Loves and so does not perceive these glorious Pleasures What keeps my Soul from receiving the Graces and Favours which my King entring into it would bestow but the Passions and Rebellions wherewith it is fill'd What hinders me from hearing the wholsome Counsels of my most wise Instructor or if I hear them from following them but that my Passions make me deaf to his Inspirations or weak and unable to follow those which I have heard O Lord my God and my Redeemer All my Sickness is in my self all my Cure is in thee O my God since thou dost vouchsafe to enter into me stay there and deliver me from my self I am mine own Enemy no body can hurt me if I hurt not my self Free me from that inward Enemy O dear and potent Friend Thou art the strength of Heaven Thou art the succour of the Weak and I am weak Thou art the light of the Blind and I am blind Thou art the comfort of the Afflicted and I am afflicted Thou art the Shepherd of lost Sheep and I am one of them Thou art the pardoner of the Ungrateful and I am even Ingratitude itself What can Cure so great an Ignorance but thy Heavenly Wisdom What can take away or destroy so great a wickedness but thine Infinite Charity What can cleanse so many Defilements but thine ineffable Purity What can give strength to my feeble Soul overwhelmed with Vices but the Infinite Power of thy Glorious Vertues Have I thee here within me and wilt thou not Cure me I will not believe it Lord. Art thou one of those that see their Friends in the Sea of their Troubles and suffer them to be drowned Art not thou He who alone art able if thou wilt to appease a Tempest Art not thou He who stretch'd forth his hand to Peter when he was sinking in the waves Art not thou He who sleeping in the Ship didst awake and calm the Sea when it was ready to be swallowed up Art not thou He who walked'st upon the Waters of the Sea only to help those that were in them Art not thou He who both by Sea and Land in Mountains Towns and Cities wert the Universal Remedy both of Souls and Bodies For to whom thou gavest Grace in the one thou also gavest Health in the other Art thou less able in my Soul than thou wert in Judaea and Palestine Is not thy Power as great to Cure Souls now as it was to Cure Bodies then since thou didst therefore Cure their Bodies that thou mightest the better Cure their Souls Is thy skill less now adays O Omnipotent Physician than it was in those times Does not thy Immense Charity rather increase if it be possible for it to receive any augmentation Does not every one of thy Benefits call a great many more after it Canst thou do any thing else than give more and more and more Art not thou All-powerful O my Jesus Art not thou all Love and Goodness And art not thou infinitely Wise If then thou art both able knowing and willing How is it that I feel not the effects of thy Power Goodness and Wisdom It is true I have very often resisted them all but now I penitently yield my self up to them now I humbly prostrate my self I call I seek and adore the Author of my Remedy Enter into me O Lord my Glory Cast out of me all Humane Resistance and though wretch that I am I did resist thy Vertues I will no longer resist thy Remedies I desire O my God to desire Lend thy helping hand and banish all that can separate me from thee Drive out of me all that Will which opposeth thy Blessed Will O Lord God I believe as another incredulous Person said help thou my unbelief and my obdurate Nature which is the Original of all my harm I believe I will I desire I love I seek I weep O merciful Lord O Eternal and Heavenly Light pardon and banish my want of Love my Coldness my Ingratitude and my Forgetfulness I would fain desire but I know not how to desire I would fain work but I know not how to work but since thou entrest into me O my Jesus work thou in me Separate from me and destroy in me all that hinders and detains me from serving from loving from following and adoring thee Let that Love of thine which was enflamed with the love of me conquer and expel this ungrateful want of love Let thy Light drive away my Darkness and thy Goodness my Wickedness Finally O Lord make thy self Master of me of my heart of my will and of all my Faculties and carry my Soul thy Captive in the Triumph of thine Infinite Love These are the breathings thou oughtest to send forth from the bottom of thy
comes at last to the fear of offending so great a Goodness the Lord being so gracious and so good that he encreases our Charity only through the excess of his We begin with that which is imperfect before we can attain to that which is perfect We begin with self-Self-love and end with the hatred of our selves and with the perfect Love of God Believe me the receiving of this Sacrament draws vast Advantages along with it and those the Lord only by his infinite Goodness works wonderfully in us beyond what we see know or understand Let every one draw near with such Examination Confession and Preparation as he is able to make be it more or less if he have us'd his utmost diligence and let him hope that God will give him an hundred-fold encrease of what he brings How many Saints hath servile Fear made and brought to filial Fear who afterwards with Faith and Hope burning in Charity have cast away the former Fear and been enflam'd with love of the second How many Saints have begun their Spiritual course with fear of being tormented in Hell who afterwards only for God and his Love's sake have repented and bewailed their Sins and are now reigning in the Joys of Heaven How many Saints have by the means of Love cast out that imperfect Fear which was the Instrument to bring them to Love and to perfect filial Fear Our good Lord cures and remedies all things if we seek him and receive him by Grace trusting and relying upon his Goodness and Love to us Therefore those acts of Religion which are due as to their last end unto the three divine Persons in one Essence thou oughtest frequently to direct to the Reverence and the Worship of God in this divine and mysterious Sacrament In this Point all the Lines of thy Affection and Devotion ought to meet as in their Center Though it was the Son alone by whom it was instituted yet the Father is with him and with the Father is the Holy Ghost That Divine Lord that he might become our Saviour took our Nature upon him being conceived in the Womb of the blessed Virgin and if thou dost adore him the Saints and Angels are at the same time Adoring and Worshipping him whom thou dost adore and worship and for thy doing so with them He will both help and bless thee Thus the Devotion to our Saviour Jesus Christ in the Sacrament is the greatest of all Devotions This Worship and Reverence is the highest and comprehends all the rest The Fourth WEEK Of the Kingdom of Grace THE Kingdom of God says the Saviour of Souls is within you and it is that Kingdom of Grace which brings to the eternal Kingdom of Glory nor is it a small benefit and comfort that it is within us that we need not go far to seek it and to find it Happy is that necessitous Person who has his relief within himself he cannot be poor unless through perverse idleness he embraces his own Misery neither desiring nor knowing how to make use of that relief O the great Unhappiness that we should have this holy Kingdom within us and yet go out of it O the high Misfortune that this Kingdom of Grace being an infallible Pledge of that eternal one of Glory I by my Sins should banish my self from both the Kingdom of Grace and that of Glory that I my self of my own accord should forsake the eternal Joys and choose the Torments of Hell by embracing Passions and despising Vertue The Kingdom of Grace is to be in the Grace of God and God in us by his Mercy to subdue our Passions and by that means to make the inside suitable to the outside It is that my Reason should govern my Passions and the Spirit my Reason and to keep the Flesh mortified under that Dominion The Kingdom of Grace is that mine own Will and Appetites should be destroyed as much as may be and that the Divine Will should rule Instead of it O true Kingdom O just Empire without the least shew of Tyranny where the Creator governs the Creature and where Reason keeps the Passions and inferior Faculties of the Soul in subjection to it O Kingdom of true and holy Peace which knows nothing but Quietness and inward Joy above all other Contentments The Kingdom of Grace is for God to be in the Soul and the Soul in God for the Son to be in the Favour of his Father for the Creature to find himself beloved by the Creator for the Servant to yield himself humble obedient and resigned to the Will of his loving Lord which is not only Grace but Glory and great Glory In how great liberty is that happy Soul that lives and acts thus in the Grace of God! how much above all the Troubles and Miseries of this Life No torment no pain no disgust cometh into this Kingdom for there can be no torment pain or disgust but in the loss of it nor can any one lose it but he that will by forsaking Grace to commit Sin So long as a Man is in the Grace of God and does not lose his Grace and Mercy all things else do neither add to him nor take from him neither hurt him nor concern him Let the World burn in Wars abound in Misfortunes or shine in Felicity Let this Man rise and the other fall Let humane Affairs go as they will and these temporal transitory Kingdoms be in Peace or in Confusion He from the height of his Spiritual Kingdom looks down upon all with a quiet Resignation Let all the World join against it and with the World the Flesh and the Devil Let Affronts Calumnies and Persecutions arise if he lose not God and his Grace all the rest is but a greater encrease of Grace and a nearer approach to Glory Strive therefore to enter into this Kingdom for only those that live in it here shall see the Face of God hereafter Rather live tormented in it than be drawn out of it by deceitful Pleasures Rather suffer thy self to be torn in pieces than to be brought under the Slavery and Miseries of Sin Rather suffer a thousand Torments in this holy militant Jerusalem than make thy self a wretched Slave in the infamous City Babylon Forsake not those Squadrons that are at the Gates of Heaven to flie over to those that are entring into the Jaws of Hell Each of these must go to their own place either to Glory or eternal Torment That they might not forsake this Kingdom of Grace the Holy Apostles Martyrs and Confessors forsook their Lives not to lose that the Baptist lost his Head St. Peter chose his Cross and the Apostle of the Gentiles gave up his Neck to the Sword St. Bartholomew gave his very Skin and finally all the Saints in Heaven chose Tribulations and Torments here upon Earth rather than to leave that sweet Kingdom of Grace And what great matter was it that they lost here since they recovered it an hundred fold
inward Senses In the loud noise of a Mill. I could not well hear the gentle voice of a Friend who comes to succour me in imminent danger It is necessary the noise should cease that I may apply my attention to hear the voice of my Friend If my Soul be diverted with Passions and other Thoughts how can it hear the amorous Invitations of the eternal Word How can his holy Inspirations enter or work upon me if I be taken up and carried away with worldly Cares If the Light of my Reason and of the Spirit be extinguished by my Passions how shall I see God or hear him when he speaks in my Heart Thy Life is within thee and therefore the Government of it ought to be Internal and Spiritual Thou oughtest to observe thy inward Motions and to hearken to the secret Voice of thy Master and Redeemer who comes to direct thee His Precepts and divine Counsels are not only to guide thee outwardly but by them thou art to square all thy Thoughts Words and Actions It is not only from our Spiritual Fathers and Teachers that we ought to receive direction but we have also another Master an inward and secret Master which is the Spirit of God who is Superior to them and enlightens them That shall speak to thee admonish and reprehend and guide thee and thou art to hearken to and obey it which thou wilt neither be willing nor able to do if thy Conscience be not pure and if thou dost not listen attentively to it That holy Master will govern thee with internal Light and Knowledge to which it is a great hindrance if the Heart be drawn away by Sin whether great or small but especially by self-Self-love and a Fondness of the Vanities of the World Pray therefore to God that he would cleanse thy Heart awaken enlighten guide and teach thee and not suffer Sins or Passions to enter into thy Soul or if at any time through infirmity thou fallest into any that he would give thee Grace to bewail them and to return to purity of Heart JVLY The First WEEK Of Temptations and the Grace of God in them BUT methinks I hear thee complaining and saying Lord I desire to please thee and would fain keep fast in this Kingdom of Grace that I may not loose that high Kingdom of Glory nor be ungrateful for so great benefits but my weakness is very frail and temptations are many which cross and hinder my works and my desires In me every step is a danger or to speak more properly a loss The Flesh disturbs me the Devil afrights me and the World deceives me I feel a Law within me which drags me away and carries me after it and when I have a mind to that which is good I find my self a Captive to that which is evil and though I know what is best yet I am drawn to follow that which is worst I would flie even from my self and yet I still find self within me O wretched Man Who shall deliver me from that self which hath more power over me than I my self have Do not disturb thy self thou hast one within thee who will defend thee from thy self great is the Labour but greater the Assistance If the Devil persecutes thee God helps thee If the Flesh tempts thee the Spirit encourageth thee and if the World entices thee the divine Light guides thee Suffer with resignation and be not weary of suffering for from thence will come thy remedy and thy reward Fear not Temptations when they come to thee but fear them when thou goest to them If God permits them to come he will strengthen thee to resist them and assist thee to conquer them But take heed of being in Temptation by thine own will and choice for then thou wilt fall in it By how many steps thou goest towards danger by so many thou drawest nearer to Sin Believe me I give thee Caution Thou art not so strong as David nor so wise as his Son Solomon and yet both of them fell by going to Temptation If thou livest with wariness heed and fear be not afraid of those Temptations wherewith the Lord proves thee for he does it to see the Bottom of thy Vertue If with the Left-hand he tempts with the Right he helps thee If with the one he assails thee with the other he supports thee Wouldst thou triumph without getting the Victory No Man is crown'd in Peace but he that with Valour Constancy and Perseverance endures the Hardships of War Wouldst thou live in the Spiritual Life without Temptations and Tribulations That is not to be truly Spiritual Take it therefore for a Temptation to be without temptation The stillest Peace uses to be the highest danger and what seems to be safety is many times but deceit and vanity The Devil lets thee alone to make thee trust in thine own self that he may the sooner and the more certainly destroy thee That troublesome Enemy has his Stratagems he withdraws to deceive thee and retires to come back with a fresh Assault Sometimes he recreates thy Senses disposes thee to Tenderness and outward Devotion only to beget a secret Pride in thee and a foolish Confidence that may carry thee to eternal ruine But do not thou consent to that which is bad but ask Strength of God and so thou wilt make the Bad to become Good The Saints suffered Tribulation and the Saviour of the World suffered Temptation and dost thou refuse to suffer them By going the same way thou shalt come to the same end and by following thou shalt attain Do not believe that without steering the same course thou shalt arrive at the same Port where they are entred Dost thou think to find a particular way for thy self That will be no way but a Precipice Sufferings Pains Difficulties and the Cross are the way to Heaven but in those Pains and Difficulties there is exceeding great Consolation Who art thou that thou wouldst not suffer weak wretched and faint-hearted Sinner Who art thou or what Man is there in the World that can be exempt from Troubles and Temptations Man is born to Labour and is full of Misery within him and without him he is encompass'd round therewith but fear not Tribulations or Hardships be afraid of nothing but Sin Believe me there is no other way to save thee but the royal holy and perfect way of the Cross The Redeemer of Souls saves us by the Cross He died upon the Cross and we must live under the Cross to enjoy the Triumphs of the Cross He from his Passion came to his Resurrection and by his Resurrection to his glorious Ascension Thou shalt never be rais'd to the Life eternal if thou dost not suffer for God in this temporal Life Thou shalt not enter into the Kingdom of Glory without striving here in the Kingdom of Grace Dost thou think that by avoiding to suffer for God thou shalt escape suffering Thou deceivest thy self for they suffer
as strong and effectual as it was then Grace does not grow old but continues the same or rather increases Strive then fight and persevere for he that without Grace is but meer weakness may by it become a powerful Conquerour The Second WEEK Of the Glory of the Blessed THough the former Doctrine was sad and disconsolate I hope this last has chear'd and comforted thee We must still walk between hope and fear for the doubt of fear restrains us and the light of hope sets us forward To facilitate the way of the Spirit is good and sound Counsel and of possible performance for it is made easie by Grace and therefore a Christian ought not to be afraid of it but to facilitate Salvation and to make it consistent with a loose and licentious Life to make it attainable without seeking Heaven in good earnest without Repentance and Contrition through Grace and without conquering the Passions and banishing them from the Soul to make it easie I say to be sav'd that way is a most plain Fallacy and dangerous Deceit St. Paul tells us That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore the steps that lead to Glory are Tribulations And believe me even so it is purchased at a very cheap rate for all we can suffer in this Life full of Miseries is not worthy of the Glory that shall be revealed which he obtains who suffers willingly for God What can our Sufferings be in comparison of those Enjoyments How light are they all in respect of the eternal weight of Glory What an inexpressible Happiness must it be to see ones self admitted to be one of the Citizens of the Coelestial Jerusalem to see ones self in the ravishing Company of Saints and Angels to see ones self with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and Virgins to see all those Just and Holy Spirits singing Hymns and Praises to the Glory of God And yet all this is less though unspeakably great than to see the holy Humanity of our Lord that gracious Countenance those Divine Eyes whose brightness darkeneth the Sun and enlightens all the Creatures those Hands and Feet and that pierced Side from whence as Blood heretofore there now comes forth the Splendour of Glory the Stream of Grace the Joy and Comfort of all the Saints And still this is less than to see God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons in One Essence the beginning and the end of all Creatures that ineffable Mystery which exceeds all created Understandings before whom all the Angels and Saints prostrate themselves in Adoration This is that which amazes the Pen and humbles the highest Meditations in contemplation whereof the most lofty Cherubims and Seraphims lose themselves not being able fully to comprehend it From this Fountain and Original of Divinity and Goodness proceed all the Felicities of those holy Citizens in that Triumphant Jerusalem from that Source of Joy and Delights flow all their Delights and Pleasures from that Infinite Omnipotent and Supream Essence which is Incomprehensible in all it's Attributes springs the Original Glory of the Blessed All their Power and Being arises from his Power and Being The sight of that Goodness that Wisdom and Charity is the cause of theirs From that Light proceeds their Light Only to see one of his Attributes whether his Goodness Justice or Mercy though 't is impossible to see any one of them without seeing the rest is enough to give inexpressible Glory to all the Creatures What a blessedness also is it to turn the Eyes upon the Order and Beauty of that whole Coelestial Court To see the Martyrs crown'd with Ensigns of their own Valour to see the Holy Confessors adorn'd with their Vertues to see the Virgins with their Palms and Crowns only to see the Order wherein they are rank'd and wherewith they Adore and Praise the Lord to see the Nine Quires of Angels with the Three admirable Hierarchies only to see the great number of beatified Souls and Spirits every one in his Place and Employment serving their Creator and the Author of all their Happiness with unspeakable Contentment What a wonderful and high Felicity is this Then what Peace what Contentment what Joy what Quiet what Sweetness what Union what Conformity what Ardent love of God and of his Creatures is there in that blessed City Finally wouldst thou see what Heaven is Look what all the Delights of this World are freed from any mixture of Disgust and thou shalt find that in respect of them they are but Pains and Torments Think what it is to hear the sweetest Voices to smell the sweetest Perfumes and to enjoy whatever can delight the rest of the Senses think of an Heart full of Joy and Contentment an Understanding with all the Powers of the Soul fill'd with all the Delights and Pleasures that this World can afford it is all but Sadness and Affliction Pain and Anguish in the highest degree in comparison of those Eternal Joys Wouldst thou know what Glory is Then consider who it is that gives it to the Saints Think how Infinite the Power of God is it 's his Power that gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Wisdom 't is that Wisdom which gives that Glory Think how Infinite is his Goodness 't is that Goodness which gives that Glory If then an Infinite Power an Infinite Wisdom and an Infinite Goodness joyn together to give Glory what must that Glory be which is the effect of such a Power of such a Wisdom and of such a Goodness If God gives to every one of his Saints in his just proportion according to his Love his Power and his Wisdom what Riches shall he give who is infinitely Rich What Wisdom and Light shall he give who is Infinitely Wise And what Joy shall he give who is Infinitely Good and Happy If the necessitous Person measures his hopes by the Power and Hand of the Liberal what shall the Joy be that is given by an Infinite Power which is willing to give that which is Infinite Wouldst thou see what Joys those are which God will give to the Blessed in Heaven Think how great the Punishments are that are inflicted upon the Damned in Hell If those are so sharp and intolerable for the pain of them to the wicked how sweet and superabundant will be the Enjoyments of the good Though his Justice and his Mercy are Essentially equal yet in the effects his Mercy is greater than his Justice for he punishes in Hell less than Sinners deserve and rewards in Heaven more than the Saints deserve What Glory shall he give in Heaven who punisheth so terribly in Hell with everlasting Fire Wouldst thou see the Joys which he confers upon the Elect who serve him in this Life Think what he suffered for them and what he did to save them If he gave his Blood and Life upon the Cross for the bad as well as for the good
and to become Poor that we may imitate thee in thy Humanity Of the Birth of our Lord. Behold now when the appointed time for the Birth of the Messiah was come how the Eternal Son of God the Author of our Nature to Honour and Redeem it after having so long suffered that close Imprisonment in the pure Womb of an humble Virgin was humbly born in the Stable of an Inn and laid in a Manger He was born in a Stable amongst Beasts coming to live amongst brutish Men and he was laid in a Manger that was to be the Food of Souls and in an Inn the common receptacle of all Comers that all might have access to him who was the common Saviour of all Mankind Behold that poor Cottage of Bethlehem already transformed into a Heaven and his supposed Father the chaste Joseph with the Blessed Virgin his Mother kneeling to adore the Child of her Bowels who also was her Maker being the Creator of the whole World Behold all the Evangelical Spirits busie in worshipping the Lord God and in calling the Shepherds to acknowledge their true and eternal Shepherd The Angels sing Glory to God on high on Earth Peace and good will towards men exalting that Humility which had laid itself so low and manifesting his Divinity at the same time that his Humanity appeared Enter thou also with them O my Soul to adore the Divine Son of God who had now cloathed himself with the Nature of Man and fill'd it with greater Humanity and Love than ever till that time it was capable of Come thou therefore with love and lay aside thy fears if thou art a Shepherd to others thou art one of his Sheep This chief Eternal Shepherd comes to call and to seed not only the Sheep but their Shepherds also Draw near O my Soul to that Manger for his Deity and his Humility would have no greater Throne to the end that thou mightest the better approach it Seeing thy baseness his Divine Nature abased itself to the uttermost to the end that the baseness of thine might attain to so high a Greatness and Soveraignty Draw near my Soul be not afraid for his tender Mother holds him out to thee in her Arms and calls thee to his Humanity lest his Divinity should affright thee O Infant God the Joy and Consolation of Mankind O Infant God the Light of Eternity and Comfort of the Universe O Infant God the unspeakable Delight of all Creatures and the sweetest Gladness of Souls Why should not I suffer for thee since thou camest purposely into the World to suffer for me O Immortal and yet Mortal Child wherefore art thou in this Stable wherefore weeping and suffering in this Manger since thou art the Author of Grace and of all that is Graceful the Author of Delight of Joy and Gladness Were it not better O beautiful Infant were it not fitter that Sin that is I should suffer than thou who art Innocency itself Were it not fitter that the wicked should be in pain than that thy Goodness should endure it What hast thou done O tender Infant that thou bewailest the faults of others and makest the punishments of them thine own Wilt thou O sweetest Goodness wash my defiled Soul with thy Tears Wilt thou O lovely Child by suffering Cold inflame the coldness of my Heart or dost thou feel that cold to reproach the coldness of my Devotion O Glory and Comfort of my Soul Would God it were so clean and pure that I might offer it instead of Swathes to enfold and to embrace thy tender Body Would God it were full of Spiritual Flowers and sweet-smelling Vertues that I might lay them in that Manger instead of that straw which was honoured with bearing upon it that Divine Eternal Grain which is the Food and Nourishment of all that is created But O Holy and Eternal Infant I have nothing in me to offer thee but Thorns nothing but Sins and Miseries in my Soul and it is not just to anticipate those Thorns which must one day Crown thy sacred Head nor to begin so early to hurt that tender Body with them O thou that art my Happiness and my Glory how soon do my Sins begin thy Punishment How soon doth thy Love lye suffering between two Beasts dying for the love of Man who within few years art to suffer Death between two Men How soon O my Jesus after thy Birth art thou in the company of Beasts who art to live amongst Beasts and to dye amongst Beasts of a more cruel kind These at thy Birth are much more innocent for how brutish soever they be yet the Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but they would neither know nor receive their Saviour but first they scourge and buffet and then nail their Redeemer to the Cross Why dost thou weep O Heavenly Child Yet since it is natural to thee to weep because thou hast taken our Nature weep because I do not weep to the end that I may weep with thee since thou sighest let it be because I do not sigh since thou feelest pains let it be because I am insensible of thy pains and let them beget in me a deep sense of my unworthiness that thou shouldst suffer them for my sake Let those Tears of thine become my Remedy and my Rejoycing transfer them from thine eyes to mine and as they wash thy beautiful Cheeks let them also wash my polluted Soul Transfer the love of thy tender heart to this obdurate heart of mine and grant as it offends thee so it may infinitely grieve for having offended thee and desire with passionate longing to adore and to embrace thee Let the thought of that frosty Season wherein thou wert born thaw this frozen heart of mine into a love of thee that sufferedst that frost for me who am benumb'd with one more hard and lasting for that continued some few weeks perhaps but this of my heart has continued many years O that I had suffered it for thee dear Child for the most rigorous frost that is felt for thy sake is Warmth is Love and is not Ice but Fire to kindle and inflame my heart Thou wert born for my Happiness and for my Remedy Grant O dear Lord that such a Repentance such a Sorrow and such a Contrition may be born in my Soul as may prepare and fit me for my Remedy and grant that the light and power of those Beams of Love which dart from the beautiful Countenance of thy Humanity may drive away the darkness of Sin and Infidelity from my Soul which thou camest to banish from thence and may kindle in me such a fire of love towards thee as nothing may ever be able to extinguish it The Fourth WEEK Of the other Mysteries of our Lord till his Preaching and first of Circumcision IT is hard to get out of this Cottage that was honoured with the Birth of our Lord which is the sweetest Mystery and fill'd with the softest
foulest and the most disloyal that ever trod upon the Ground beginning as the Divine Physician with Judas who had the most deadly Disease and hastening the Remedy to him first that was in the greatest danger Others who would have St. Peter to be Head of the Church say He began with him That Reformation being the best grounded and the most powerful which begins from the highest descending from the Head unto the rest of the Body That holy Apostle seeing his Redeemer at his Feet was humbled and confounded before he touched them He that had walked upon the Waters and Trampled upon the Waves sinks deeper in this Bason through Love than he had done in the depth of the Sea through Fear Seeing an Humility so beyond all measure and that his God was down upon his Knees at his Feet he was in such an amazement that he denied them him saying Lord thou shalt not wash my feet O what an high acknowledgment was this of St. Peter when he said Lord wilt thou wash my feet It was in its kind an higher one than when he confessed him near Cesarea He then knew him and confessed him to be God but he did not know himself but now Peter acknowledges him to be God Infinite and Omnipotent and himself to be a wretched weak Man and a most miserable Sinner Many pretend to know God and are ignorant of themselves but they know him indeed who by his Divine Light come to discover their own Darkness Lord wilt thou wash my feet Thou the God of Heaven and I a little Dust of the Earth Thou the Creator and I the vilest of all Creatures Thou the Eternal Greatness of the Creation the Soul of all that lives and I the frailest the meanest of all that Die Thou my Master and I thy Disciple Thou the King and Crown of Angels and I a poor simple Fisherman nay which is worse a sinful Worm and therefore more base than any of those that crawl upon the Ground Thou that art Innocency adn Goodness itself upon thy Knees at the Feet of my Sins and of my Wickedness Finally O my Jesus Thou who art greater than the greatest dost thou kneel at my Feet who am less than the least of thy Mercies Thus the Humility of that loving Disciple opposed that of his Master with a Holy Contention while all stood looking and admiring to behold which would get the Victory whether the Human nature knowing the infinite height of the Divine or the Divine knowing the infinite Misery of the Humane It seems more just that here Peter should have overcome God than God Peter as it is more reasonable that Man should serve God than that God should serve Man It is the part of Man to obey and of God to command to Man it belongs to Serve and to God to suffer himself to be Served Loved and Adored This indeed was a Mystery of Love and Divine Charity and he shewed this excessive kindness to oblige and to enflame theirs to him and to one another by his example saying If I being your Master and your Lord have washed your Feet ye ought also to wash one anothers Feet That Love which made him being God to become Man made him being Man to humble himself before Man And that Sovereign Lord never took a righter course for that high intent than by humbling and prostrating himself to wash to cleanse and to purifie Man He made himself Man that he might redeem him and did it seem much for God being become Man to kneel down to wash him Yes dear Jesus it is much much beyond expression for nothing of all this could be deserved by Man He does not deserve any remedy because he has been the Author of his own Misery but thy unbounded thy unspeakable compassion looks upon his Necessity and not upon his Demerits Whither dear Saviour shall the high expressions of thy Love extend Where shall this Infinite Charity of thine be limited Behold Lord we are Men that is to say meer Misery and Wickedness Behold Lord thou art God that is to say the most Sovereign Power and Supreme Majesty Dost thou so far abase thy Divinity as to drag it upon the Earth within thy Humanity Is it not enough for thee to make thy self Man unless thou humblest and prostratest thy self before Man Who can see God at his feet without falling into an Extasy of Astonishment and without giving up his life through an excessive Humility Who can choose but die with shame and confusion to see so unfitting an in-equality I do not wonder that St. Peter resisted it for besides that he knew that his Master was God and he a vile Creature he loved his God and he loved his Master extreamly much and in the same proportion that he loved him was the trouble he felt to see him kneeling at his feet since he knew that it was the duty of all earthly Creatures to serve and adore him But yet for all that Peter at last yielded to Christ it being most just that man should yield to God since the greatest Humility lies in the greatest Obedience the Disciple therefore must obey his Master and the Servant his Lord. Our Saviour told him that if he would not be washed and purified he could have no share in his Redemption at the hearing of which terrible Sentence Peter offered him not only his feet to be washed but his Hands and his Head also To this Christ replyed He that is washed needeth not save only to wash his Feet but is clean all over That is he that hath been already washed in the Laver of Baptism needeth only to wash the Feet of his Affections which from the Earth and misery of our Inclinations and Passions rise up to the Heart Hereby the Redeemer of Souls signifies that Purity wherewith we ought to prepare our selves for the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament for before he Consecrates that he in the washing his Disciples feet gives them an example of Humility and Resignation and in the Water expresses the vertue of those penitent Tears wherewith they were to wash their Sins and bewail their Miseries And by not suffering the Dust of the Earth to remain upon their Feet teaches them that they should much less suffer inordinate Affections to remain in their Hearts In short our Blessed Lord washed the feet of all the Holy Apostles and amongst the rest those of the Traitor Judas whose cruel Obstinacy was so great that neither the touching them with those Divine Hands nor the bringing them so near to the Compassionate Breast of the Redeemer of Souls could mollifie the hardness of his Heart nor change the cruelty of his Intention O how hard-hearted a thing is Covetousness What an insensible Rock How well does St. Paul call it the Source of all evil O what a difficult thing it is to bring those with sincerity home to God who once have lost their respect to him so far as to dare to offend him
to his Face Let so many Publicans and Sinners so many Harlots and other wicked Livers speak this who repenting were pardoned and the Traiterous Apostle Judas who persisting in Impenitency was Damned Of the Institution of the Holy Sacrament This Gracious Action being finished he holds a most loving Discourse to his Disciples preparing them to see their Master suffer and to bear all those sufferings they were to undergo themselves O how does he forewarn and advise them How does he encourage and instruct them How does he enlighten and comfort them There he rebukes Peter thereby giving a Lesson to the rest and shews them Beams of Mercy even in those Prophecies of Tribulations and Afflictions that were to befal them If he foretel their Frailties and their Failings he also assures them of Victories and Triumphs and that they shall subdue and trample upon the World through the Vertue and Power of his Grace That most tender Discourse being likewise ended he Celebrated the third and last Supper or more properly the admirable and unspeakable Mystery of the Sacrament in which he expressed and Epitomized the Intimacies of his unmeasurable Goodness and Charity To make himself Man and to suffer for Man seemed but a small thing to his Love unless he still remained with Man to be the food of Man O Infinite Charity which contentest not thy self with being our Redemption unless thou also becomest our Nourishment O Infinite Charity who not only offerest thy self to Death to save my Life but who also wilt enter into my Breast to give me a better Life and to defend and free me from a more lasting Death O Infinite Charity who having our Ingratitude in thy thoughts and that thou wert to be condemned by Men to die upon the Cross yet leavest us a benefit which we could not have received but by thy passing first through so great an Ingratitude of Men O Infinite Charity which knowing that my Offences would nail thee to the Cross wert yet providing that remedy for those very Offences O Infinite Charity which knowing that a thousand Injuries and Torments were contriving in the Hearts of Men against thy unspeakable Goodness and Mercy didst yet leave thy self for Food to those Infamous Mouths and having it in thy Power to inflict a severe punishment upon them for so great a Wickedness wert offering them means and expedients of Mercy Goodness and Charity What was Man doing when thou didst institute this blessed Sacrament for him What but preparing the Scourges the Crown of Thorns the Nails and the Cross for thee He was designing thy cruel Death and thou his eternal Life He was contriving Torments for thee and thou Glory for him He was platting a Crown of sharp Thorns for thy sacred Head and thou a Crown of Joys and Eternities for his Lord is it thy Custom to repay Benefits for Injuries and to give Crowns for the Reward of Ingratitude Come hither O devout Souls come and bewail with me so great a Sin Come love with me so great a Love Come with a Spiritual Hunger and offer up your hearts to receive that Divine Nourishment and let whatsoever is in you of your selves go forth of you to make room for this most deservedly beloved Lord to enter Of the Consecration of the Apostles After that our Sovereign Lord and Master had Consecrated the Elements of Bread and Wine breaking the one and giving it them to Eat and pouring out the other and commanding all to Drink calling the one his Body and the other his Blood and thereby changing not their nature but their use that they might become a Sacrament which should remain in his Church not only for a Remembrance of his precious Death and Passion but also for a Conveyance of the Merits thereof for the Remission of Sins He Consecrated also the Apostles themselves and gave them the Power and Vertue to Consecrate and Ordain others and to send them forth as he did them for the Propagation of his Gospel and for the Administration and Government of Souls This was another admirable expression of the Love of our Lord Jesus to Mankind since whereas he could have taken upon him the nature of Angels and left them Heirs of that rich Possession of Receiving Consecrating and Administring those precious Symbols he was pleased to bestow that Benefit and Priviledge upon Mankind which thereby received Honour and Favour as well as Remedy But Lord I wonder not at that since from the time thou madest thy self Man all advantages were brought to Man by joyning thy Divinity to his Humanity O that as thou hast given to us Bishops and Priests this Dignity we had also the Spirit the Devotion and the Piety of the Apostles And Lord as the Power thou hast conferr'd upon us is what thou hast not granted to Angels and to Seraphins O that the Perfection of our Manners and the Purity and Charity of our Souls were in some degree suitable to that of Angels and of Seraphins But O God we have a Dignity of great weight upon very weak shoulders the Dignity is fit for Angels the Weakness is of miserable Sinners And thou only O Eternal Goodness thy Mercy and thy Strength alone can help and encourage and support our Weakness and Misery Since then O sweet Lord thou givest us this Dignity give us also those parts and qualifications which are expedient for it Since thou hast given us the Obligations help us also with the Abilities since thou givest us the Ministry give us also the Spirit As thou hast made us to represent thee make us also to imitate thee As thou hast given us the Power give us also the Vertue with the Power Suffer us not O Divine Goodness to serve in that High Dignity with Uncharitableness and Indignity If thou wilt not help the Bishops the Fathers of the Faith and the Shepherds of Souls O thou Eternal lover of Souls whom wilt thou help If our Light must enlighten the Souls of others what shall become both of us and others if we want thy Light Thou callest the Apostles and Ministers the Salt of the Earth and if the Salt lose its savour how shall their Doctrine be seasoned If the blind lead the blind shall they not both fall into the ditch Grant O Lord that thy Goodness and thy Love may dwell in us that thy Mercy and thy Charity may burn in our hearts and that the fire of thy Divine Love may break forth from thence to kindle and enflame the hearts of our Christian Brethren Our Blessed Saviour having Consecrated his Holy Apostles to be Teachers of the Faith and Pillars of his Church and having made himself their Minister and their Priest enters into the breasts of those that were to be his Ministers and Priests to become an unbloody Sacrifice in the Altar of those living Temples before he was a bloody one upon the Altar of the Cross They with profound Reverence receive the Lord whom they adore and behold
in receiving him and at the same time feel within themselves him that ministers unto them and two fires becoming but one inflame them that without by their Eyes and that within by their Hearts That happy Night the Lord took possession of the breast and heart of Men and they in exchange took a Proof of the excessive Love of God but our Saviour likewise had a Proof of Man's Ingratitude since the Traitor Judas received him his infinite Charity being resolv'd to try if he could possibly be washed clean within who was not purified at all by his having been washed without But he that had kept his foul Intention notwithstanding the washing of his Feet and would not make use of that Water to wash his evil Eye was as little the better for the inward washing for he shut his Eyes against that Beam which would have enlightened him and the fire of his Covetousness was more powerful than the fire of so great a Charity He suffered his Redeemer to come into his breast not that he might receive him but that he might the better sell him and so he carried him along with him that he might not get away when he was to deliver him up in the Garden At the same instant that he received the Saviour of Souls into his covetous Breast he presently went out to sell him to the Jews whereby it appears that he received him to the end that he might betray him more securely that way than by leaving him behind And this was the first and most grievous step of his Passion to be received by that Treacherous Disciple O let us that are Priests tremble in Receiving and Administring the Sacrament of him who in loving us enters as a meek and a gentle Lamb into our breast and who when he comes to Judge us will be a fierce Lion if we receive him here unworthily The Third WEEK Of his Agony in the Garden his Death Resurrection and Ascension THese three unspeakable Mysteries being ended the Saviour of Souls goes forth into the Garden of Gethsemane to give beginning to his dolorous Passion that the place where the second Adam rais'd us up might be like that where the first Adam cast us down It was in a Garden we were ruined by the first of Men and in another Garden we were repair'd by the best of Men. There our Redeemer sweats drops of Blood for the purging of thy sins and mine so laborious was it to bear the weight of our sins that his holy Pores were thereby opened and even Innocency itself was put into an Agony by that intolerable burden There to see the Ingratitude of Mankind and how much they would despise the un-utterable Treasures of Man's Redemption made blood break forth from the Body of the King of Heaven and run trickling down to the very Earth There he thrice made earnest Prayer unto his Father for himself and for us asking strength of Body for himself and strength of Soul for us There he repeated his Prayer so often to teach us that our Prayer ought to be earnest and persevering The Humane Nature begg'd assistance from the Divine and he weighed the heaviness and shrunk from the bitterness of that Cup that his Divinity might help his Humanity in the drinking of it There our dear Master by suffering taught us to suffer that our Patience and Courage in Suffering depends wholly upon God and that there is nothing in us but Miseries as if he should have said If I who am God as well as Man do as Man need the succour and favour of God and ask it with a threefold repetition Why do not ye weak wretched and miserable Men ask it a thousand times and why are ye not instant devout and fervent in your Prayers He there also granted that the Cup of his grievous Passion should pass on to his Disciples and that they and from them the rest of his Church should inherit that Patrimony of Pains and that effectual Medicine of Sins Let this Cup pass from me says he to his Father as if his meaning had been Grant O my God and Father that these my Apostles and all those that by the Preaching of them and their Successors shall heartily receive and embrace my Religion may drink of this Cup with me that they may also Reign with me There he was comforted by an Angel who was himself the Comfort of Angels and being God would shew himself as Man to stand in need of Divine Consolation giving us assurance that we likewise in our needs shall be succoured and protected by Angels There all his Disciples are dismayed or fallen asleep and none waâ—ches but the Traitor Judas O Lord how luke-warm and indifferent is our Love how strong how vigilant is our Ingratitude In serving thee dear Jesus we are dull and sleepy in offending thee we are lively and watchful Who could bear with such Wickedness but only thy infinite Goodness Who but thou O most Gracious Saviour could endure such sleepiness and such watchfulness such watchfulness in Sin and such sleepiness in Love Judas being Treacherous and Covetous for a little Money sells the Eternal Son of God and makes them pay for him to whom he freely offers himself in Gift Those infamous Ministers of Covetousness and Envy come with great force of Arms to lay hold of a gentle Lamb and Humane Weakness attempts with Cords to bind the Divine Omnipotence But what great matter was it that he should suffer himself to be bound by their wickedness when he had already bound himself with his own Charity That Treacherous Disciple with infamous lips kisses his Face and turns the Signal of Peace into a Signal of the greatest Treachery The Lord calls him Friend although he was so cruel an Enemy and still bore with him and loved him because he suffered himself to be sold for Love His design was to try if it were possible to soften the heart that was so hardened in mischief but his heart being in his Purse he neither would nor could let it be wrought upon by the meekness of his Master St. Peter being both fervent and valiant at the taking of our Redeemer cuts off an Ear of one of the Servants and it is probable he would have done the like to Judas if he had been near him but the most sweet and merciful Jesus restores it reproving that loving Disciple and being able with his Divinity to have defended his Humanity he makes use of the one to manifest the other by a clearer demonstration discovering his Divinity in the Miracle and his Humanity in the Advice and Remedy O more than infinite Goodness O thy merciful forwardness to Pardon and to Suffer Thou reprovest him that defends thee and curest him that offends and comes to take thee Yet in that hurry and disorder of wickedness the Miracle was not taken notice of and it being a Night of so much darkness to what could it prompt the minds of Men but to what
it condemns him to Death though disswaded by his Wife upon her Dream from having any thing to do with that Just Person and delivers him to them to be crucified since all that was easier for such a mean complying Judge to consent to than to trouble and hazard himself in the further Defence of Innocency Yet that he might remain clear and spotless and honoured in the Opinion of the World in Condemning our Saviour he declares himself not guilty of his Blood and so he washes his hands and satisfies himself with laying the Crime upon others But what greater Infamy can a Judge be guilty of than to suffer the Accusers themselves to write and to sign the Sentence This being done our Blessed Saviour carries his Cross alone for a great part of the way to Mount Calvary and because they thought the time long of his getting thither they make Simon the Cyrenian help him to bear it that he might be there so much the sooner for it was not out of pity that they gave him that Assistance but it was an effect of their Cruelty nor did they intend it for any ease to his Life but for the hastening of his Death In his way to Calvary he is bewailed by the Daughters of Jerusalem leaving this Glory to the Women that they alone wept at the Passion of their Lord their Master and their Redeemer They strip his Body for the cloathing of our Souls and at the same time both Heaven and Earth were cloathed with Grief and Darkness to mourn for the Sufferings of their Creator They with rough hard Nails fasten the Eternal Son of God unto the Cross the Ingratitude of the Jews making him that requital for all his Divine Benefits Those blessed Feet that travelled up and down so many weary steps to seek Sinners that he might save and pardon them Those liberal Hands full of Charity and Beneficence are bored through and nailed by those very Persons whom he came to succour Not to acknowledge a good turn is Ingratitude and Wickedness what shall it then be to pierce both the Hands and Feet of ones Benefactor Then they raise up the Blessed Jesus upon the Cross and allow him the Superiority over two Thieves as fit Subjects for the King of that Royal Throne and by the same action they raise and exalt Man's Nature and advance it in a manner to be Divine When the Son of Man shall be raised up said his Divine Majesty he will draw all along with him It is clear he did so since by his most precious Blood he washed and redeemed them and with his most ardent Love he called and enflamed them O my dearest Lord God who wert wounded and despised crucified and crowned with Thorns and for my sins didst suffer so many torments upon the Cross I beseech thee by the Merits of them all O sweetest Jesus to pardon all my grievous Offences Since thou hast drawn up all draw me up also O most Gracious Saviour Do not suffer that most precious Blood to leave unwashed this Soul which confesses thee and acknowledges thee to be God Thy ardent Charity interceded to thy Father for those very Enemies that crucified thee How much rather then wilt thou be the Mediator and Redeemer of a poor Christian who confesses and adores thy Sovereign Majesty Behold admire and adore thy Suffering Saviour and bewail thy sins the cause of all his Sufferings Behold all Creatures in amazement to see their Creator in so woful a condition Behold the Heavens obscur'd at that Eclipse of his Heavenly Beauties Behold the Earth and all the Elements confounded at the awfulness of his Pains and Torments Behold how the Sun withdraws its Light not to see so horrid a Wickedness and so terrible an Ingratitude Behold even the very Rocks so softened as to cleave asunder in compassion What kind of hearts then are those that remain unsensible Lord suffer not mine to be one of them but let it melt with Love and Contrition to think of thy heavy Torments and of my hainous Offences The Vail of the Temple was rent in twain and shall my Heart be whole Shall not my Breast and all my Bowels open themselves to receive the Blood which thou sheddest for my Redemption Behold the Holy Virgin at the Foot of her Son's Cross who recommends her to the care of his beloved Disciple Behold how one drop of his Blood falling upon the good Thief was to him the Baptism of Life and eternal Condemnation to the Bad who knew not how to make his advantage of it He there made the Divine Nature propitious to the Human that it might be pardoned and by the last of those seven Words which he spake upon the Cross declar'd that by his Blood and Death he had finished the Work of our Redemption Then after having hung three Hours alive upon the Cross He that was the Life of Souls gave them Life by his Death and a Life eternal which Triumphs over Death for ever When he was dead the Souldier with a Spear pierced his most holy Side out of which came Water and Blood representing the two Sacraments and making a wide Door for holy Souls to enter and after other three Hours the Piety of his Friends takes him down from the Cross laying his precious Body in a new Sepulchre which was bestowed on him by the Charity of Joseph of Arimathea So he who during his Life had not a House to rest his Head in was so poor likewise at his Death that he had not so much as a Grave of his own to put his Body in There they sadly lament his loss and burying him in their Hearts as they had done in that Tomb they leave him there embalmed with Spices that as it was Prophesied of him he might be as the Rich in his Death and though there they leave him yet they carry him away with them in their remembrance that we by their example never may forget him After his sad and bloody Passion succeeded his Powerful Resurrection when he had conquered Hell as well as Death and then the Glorious Triumph of his Ascension to the end that Human Nature might not only be Redeemed but also Honoured and Crowned yet before he went up into Heaven he comforted his Mother and the Apostles to whom he several times appeared after his Resurrection to the end that their Joy for it might recompense the Sadness they had felt at his dolorous Passion He examined St. Peter thrice concerning his Love that by three Confessions he might purge away the Shame of his three Denials bidding him as often to feed his Lambs He signified to him by what death he should Glorifie God commanding them all to Preach the Gospel and assuring them that he would be with them to the end of the World Within few days after he made good his promise in sending them another Comforter for at Pentecost the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in fiery Tongues to the end
that everlasting Wedding The Ancient Philosophers were wont to say as we have told you already that the greatest part of Vertue consisted in Abstinence and here St. Paul with a great Propriety calls that kind of Abstinence by the name of Continence because that looks at the interiour defence of the exteriour but this at an interiour care and attention so to encompass that which is within that nothing from without may ever be able to overcome it That encompasses one or some single Vertue this all That is a Natural Vertue and Heedfulness this a Supernatural and Heavenly one which in all things looks towards God and is given by God and this is that Continence which St. Paul here speaks of and which thou art to pray to God to bestow upon thee DECEMBER The First WEEK Of the Seventh and Eighth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Joy and Patience JOY is properly a Fruit of the Holy Spirit in those who follow and advance in the Spiritual Life for since all their Care and Diligence consists in emptying the Soul from its own Will which is that that begets the Passions of it and that they are a certain Vermin which sting disquiet discompose and disturb it having once freed itself from them the Heart remains quiet the Soul clear and God works in it as in his own dwelling fills it with himself and with his Blessings It is manifest that God is all Peace Quiet Chearfulness and Joy and this Joy is not only found in very Spiritual Persons whom God by continual Exercises of Mortification and Self-denial has made capable of those Gifts but even in beginners also for it is most certain that in the first steps of Spiritual Life the very being eased of the burden of their sins and the seeing themselves delivered from that intolerable load causes in them an unspeakable Joy and Gladness See how often it comes to pass that a Man enlighten'd by God with the knowledge of his sins finding the grievous Wounds they have made in him by his long continuance in a debauched and wicked Life upon his making a general Confession of them and taking a firm Resolution to forsake them feels in himself an inward Joy and Contentment as if in taking away the Passions and Sins out of his Soul his Body also had been freed from Chains and Imprisonments And he that a while before being press'd down under the hard Yoke of his Offences liv'd in Sorrow Affliction Disquiet and Anguish presently after Confession and Absolution becomes light and free lively and joyful by the assurance of Pardon Now to the end thou mayest see and believe the Wonders of God though this happen to all that lead Religious lives yet most frequently to those that live the most strictly and use the sharpest Exercises of Repentance and Mortification for God will manifest his Power and the effects of his Spirit and make Humane Nature know that in seeking his Infinite Goodness they shall find more Motives and Exercises of Joy than they could have apprehended occasions of Trouble before in those Severities O the Goodness and Power of God! O the Greatness of his Mercy Here methinks he Triumphs over our Nature and will have the Devil the World and the Flesh to know and Men as well the bad as the good and the holy as well as the profane to understand that God gives more Joy and Comfort in one day of a vertuous Life than wicked Persons feel in many years of their repeated Delights This is so efficacious an Argument to any understanding Man in favour of the Spirit that all they whose Judgments are awakened must not only know and avow it but that some have thereby been mov'd to forsake the World and to follow that holy Call unto a Devout Retirement and others by seeing the Joy the Peace the Comfort and the Delight which they have met with in those that have embraced the like Austerities have with great Devotion followed their Example and have gone to seek that holy Joy in their Conversation and manner of Life which they vainly had endeavoured to give themselves by running after the Pleasures of this World What is this O Christian What dost thou forsake and what dost thou seek after What Wilt thou leave the Delights and Jollities of this Life He Answers No I leave only the Disquiets and Vexations of it What Dost thou seek after Grief Sorrow and Repentance No says he I neither seek nor find any thing but Consolations and Satisfactions I live here in this Religious course as if I were already in Glory and while I spent my time in the debauched Rambles of the World though I had outward Pleasure I had an inward Hell And that thou mayest practically see what the Joy is of those that serve God besides innumerable Examples that might be given of it I can assure thee that I my self knew a Man not in a Religious House but abroad in the World who having left a very loose and wicked Life upon the Light of Truth that had undeceived him was seiz'd with so excessive a Joy soon after his Conversion that not being able to contain himself he would rise by Three of the Clock in the Morning and sometimes much sooner to break forth into Divine Praises and give vent to the overflowings of his Delight by singing Psalms which he was not able to forbear What is this Lord What is this Yesterday a Thief and a Murtherer that fill'd the Air with the Cries of those that felt his Violence and to day fills it with soft Tunes of his Spiritual Musick Yesterday a Devil to day an Angel Yesterday groaning under the Chains of Vice to day rejoycing for the recovery of his Freedom O the Infinite Goodness of God! How wonderfully thou workest with the Sons of Men In short this inward Joy increases in such manner in the Spiritual Life that if God did not enlarge the hearts of those to whom he gives it they would even burst and dye in the excesses of it and pass from that Spiritual to Eternal Joys for being greater than can be entertain'd within the bosom of their Soul it breaks out and finds itself a passage through their Lips and through their Eyes There are some that cannot contain themselves in their Prayers but prostrate themselves and cry out as one did Hold Lord It is enough it is enough And it is reported of another that he even died with such transports and that not so much grief for his Sins as the high delights of his Joy and the efficacious Power of the Divine Love was the cause of his Dissolution Ah! If thou didst but taste the Joyful Affections and Glorious Delights of the Love of God If thou didst but taste of that ravishing Wine which makes glad the heart that is filled by the love of him that trod the Wine-press alone thou wouldst know where the holy and true Joy is to be found and wouldst abhor all the Delights and