a scandal to others as this wretched Person is to me Grant that I may detest the Vice but not the Man Convert him I beseech thee from the evil of his ways and so strengthen me in the Paths of thy Commandments that I may never fall away but persevere in them constantly unto my Live's end Of the Benefit of Preservation whereby we our selves have been delivered from particular Dangers Now if the Calamities of others when but look'd upon are a just Motive to us of Thankfulness how much more those we our selves have been freed from by particular Escapes God permitting us sometimes to fall into dangers that his Goodness and fatherly Care may be the more visibly manifested in our deliverance and that we may acknowledge our selves more obliged to remember them with Gratitude and to make him returns of Duty and Obedience Thou mayest be able to relate and express those he has shew'd to thee I will relate those done to my self though it be more easie to have a Sense of them than to express it I shall not need to insist upon his Benefits of doing one good since thou wilt know them by those of delivering me from evil Here the Author reckons up his particular deliverances which I omit to insert Do thou likewise Reader following his Example recount to thy self the chief of those dangers God hath preserved thee in which it concerns thee carefully to remember and gratefully to lay them to heart And when thou hast recollected as many as thou canst say with the Psalmist Praise thou the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Who forgiveth all thy Sins and healeth all thine Infirmities Who saveth thy Life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness I will always give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth O praise the Lord with me and let us magnify his Name together Of the Preservation of our Souls But is not the Preservation of the Body from corporal Death much less considerable than that of the Soul from spiritual Death Yes certainly There is no comparison between them for the former is only in order to the latter and when he saves us from any such dangers as those I have before-mentioned they are to mind us of our Mortality and to make us think in what condition we should have been if he had then snatch'd us suddenly out of this World His sparing us longer was only to give us a longer time to repent and to urge us to make use of it to the end that when he shall come again to take us away in good earnest he may find us prepar'd for Death in being reconciled to him by Repentance and newness of Life Thus in all the occasions wherein he delivered me from a Temporal he delivered me also from eternal Death affording me a longer time to break off and to forsake my Sins by a Repentance not to be repented of quick'ning my Faith to lay faster hold on my Saviour least I should be pluck'd away from him as I had like to have been while I was in so great an Error as to presume he would be held by me whilst I was loath to let go my sins as if it had been possible to embrace Christ and the World both at the same time How often when his Divine Majesty was ready to throw me justly into Hell with one hand hath he detained me with the other And when I was already condemn'd by his Divine Justice how often hath he saved me by his Compassion and Mercy How often when I was going nay running to throw my self into the infernal Flames hath this compassionate Lord stopt me in my Career and freed me from Temptations which were hurrying me to eternal Miseries How often hath he driven back the Devil who had seized me and was dragging me away when his Divine Majesty laid hold upon me rescued sustained and receivcd me pardoning my wickedness and embracing me in the Arms of his boundless Charity How often when being blind and foolish I went astray hath he sought me and brought me home How hath he called advertised reproved and counselled me by which means I was recovered and restored How often sometimes sleeping sometimes waking while I was dead to Grace but quick to Sin hath he rouzed me up called me and led me by the hand to make me forsake Sin and return to Grace Who then bound the Hands of his Justice who entreated for me when I was lull'd asleep in that sinful security What was there in me that I should find more favour than those that are taken away from amongst us in the midst of their days and in the heat of their youthful Lusts My Sins cried out against me but the Lord stopped his Ears My offences daily encreased against him and his Mercies abounded as daily towards me I sinned and he did expect me I fled from him and he followed me and when I was even weary in offending him yet his long sufferance was not weary in expecting me for in the midst of all my Sins I received many good Inspirations and Reproofs from his Holy Spirit which check'd me in my inconsiderate course of Life How often did he call me with the Voice of Love How often did he terrifie me with threats and fears laying before me the Peril of Death and the Rigour of his Divine Justice How often hath he followed me with his Word preached How often invited me with Blessings and chastened me with Crosses compassing me about and hedging my way with Thorns that I might not be able to break from him By all these holy Methods he made me at last to see the Vanity the Folly the Deceitfulness and even the Painfulness of Sin l found that it was dangerous and costly as well as slavish to be hurried up and down by the Tyranny of my unruly and vicious Passions I found I had no fruit of those things whereof I was afterwards ashamed and was at last convinced that the end of them was Death nay and death eternal Then did I fully resolve being assisted by thy Grace with an unchangeable purpose to alter my course of Life and to run the way of thy Commandments since thou hadst set my Heart at liberty My Soul escaped even as a Bird out of the Hand of the Fowler the Snare was broken and I was delivered O let me never again be entangled with the Birdlime of sinful Delights from which it is so hard to get disengag'd but grant I may now soar up to those Pleasures which are at thy Right-hand for evermore taking my flight freely to thee and to the Ark of thy rest for the Deluge of Wickedness that hath covered the Face of the Earth affords no safe place for the sole of my Foot O put forth thine hand to take me in to thee as Noah did the Dove
without the support of thy powerful hand O how we abuse those admirable Gifts which thou so graciously bestowest upon us We extinguish the light of Reason within us we banish truth and goodness from us and transform our selves into wild Beasts or worse if we forsake thy Law and give our selves up to the obedience of our own Appetite The Fourth WEEK Of the Miseries and Sins of each Man in particular 1. THese are the Miseries of our Nature lightly and briefly expressed but what kind of ones and how many are they in each one of us individuals seeing they are so great and so considerable in their Root If the Tree be so bitter what bitterness must be in the Fruit How blind are we O God if we do not see that which is so near us How blind are we if we do not see what we are our selves How wretched if such innumerable Miseries do not enlighten us to seek for Mercy How unworthy if we do not bewail the Sins we daily commit 2. Let every one well consider himself and he shall see what is in himself Let each of us turn the Eye of his Mind to behold himself within Let each of us put our hand in our bosom and he will draw it out full of Leprosie If the just Man falls seven times a day or rather seventy times seven what shall I do that am unjust and wicked Do not judge of this or measure it by others but judge of it and measure it by thy self and me 3. Scarce did the Light of natural Discourse begin to shine in my Child-hood when I embraced Evil it being my Duty to have embraced Good My Reason increas'd with my Age but my Passion increased much faster than it What a grief what a pity to see Reason banished from a Man's Soul by Passion That being set between Evil and Good my Soul should fly from Good to Evil Woe is me how soon I lost the Robe of Grace How soon I made my self an infamous Slave of Sin How soon its snares and nets intangled me How soon its darkness obscur'd all my light How early I began to grow worse and to hasten that approaching Night How early I forsook the Banner of the Redeemer of Souls and flying from the City of God to that of my beastly Appetite I quitted the Holy Jerusalem to take up my dwelling in Babylon How late I recover'd thee O sweet Jesus of my Life How late I know the way to serve thee having so early known the way to offend thee Slow have I been to follow thee O my Jesus but very hasty to persecute thee Who can suffer this This slowness and that haste Crucifie my Soul O Lord and I will bewail them both eternally in my Life till I see thee in the Life eternal by my death 4. How long did I go as a lost and prodigal Son flying from my heavenly Father that sought me How long like a wandring Sheep flying from my Shepherd that ran after me How long did I go astray in the venemous Pasture of worldly Vices taking Poyson and Death to be my nourishment I embraced my Deceits and my Undoings being fond of that which killed me Blindly stumbling I followed after Vanity and in a bold folly I hunted after my own destruction Who called me and brought me back when I was lost laying me gently upon his Shoulders Who was that divine Samaritan that took care of me the Man full of Wounds and that lay half dead as I was going from Jerusalem Who but thou O my Jesus who wert more wounded by thy Love for Man then I by the Love of my Sins Who but thou sweet Jesus that wert more ready to lay down thy Life for me then I was to have my Life saved by thee 5. For me to be lost and wicked and wretched O eternal Glory is natural to me and to my Vices that being properly of my own Stock but for thee who art infinitely good to seek after him that was lost and wicked and wretched thy infinite Justice requiring rather that thou should'st destroy then save such a Person is a Work that belongs only to thy unspeakable Mercy and to the Bowels of thy Compassion Thine infinite Goodness O my Jesus doth still exceed my horrible wickedness and look how vast the distance is between thee and me between finite and infinite So vast is that between my ruine and my remedy Blessed be thou my God for though the one be great the other is unmeasurable in greatness 6. But Oh that being once found and cured by thy hand I had never lost and forsaken thee again Oh that I had but once cost thee the Pains the Sweat the Blood the Torments and the Death which thou paid'st for me But Lord I have often nay numberless times crucified thee again 7. Look not Lord upon my wickedness but upon thine own goodness To offend thee though but once was a great Evil but to do it so many thousand times is an Evil of the highest Magnitude To offend by forgetfulness of thee before I was pardon'd was very ill since to forget thee is a very great Evil but to offend thee after being pardon'd is an ill beyond all ills because it is to be ingrateful and an Enemy to my greatest Benefactor To offend thee before I knew thee was very ill but to offend thee knowing thee and acknowledging thee still to offend thee is a much greater aggravation To offend thee as an open Enemy is a great Crime but to offend thee as a false Friend and a treacherous Disciple is the highest of Treasons To contrive and commit Sins in thine absence without remembring that thou standest looking on is very bad since there is no absence from thee who art in all places but to offend thee in sight of thy Divine Countenance and even while born upon thy Shoulders to betray thee in thy very House and at thy very Table is a degree of Wickedness above all comparison I am utterly lost O Lord unless thy kindness pardon and direct me My Sins deserve a thousand Hells unless thy divine Goodness and Mercy free and defend me 8. How often good God after having been cleansed have I return'd to wallow in the Mire How often after having been cur'd have I renew'd my wounds and like a perjur'd Soldier forsaken the Banners of thy Grace and enter'd my self in pay under thine Enemies Colours How often like thy treacherous Disciple have I sold thee for the vile price of some beastly Pleasure Many a time to satisfie my anger or revenge have I offended thy Meekness Many a time have I by despising and trampling upon others offended thy great Humility Many a time have I by known and wilful Sins fearlesly ventur'd to provoke thy Justice O dear Jesus tye me now fast to thy Cross let not my Lips nor my Soul be parted from thy divine Feet fasten me with thy Nails pierce me with the Launce that wounded thee
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
Will for this is hazard and that Security I had rather endure Torments with my dear Lord than enjoy the Delights and Greatness of the World I had rather follow him and serve him on Mount Calvary in this Life than to rejoyce in the Glories of Mount Tabor Deny thy self not only in Temporal and Sensual Pleasures but also even in those that are Spiritual Love the Cross not only in flying from evil but in following that which is best Pains and Sufferings Lord are the Portions of this Life for Joys we may well wait till the eternal O what were thy Sufferings my sweetest Jesus If once thou gavest liberty to thy Divinity to swallow up thy holy Humanity in Glory at thy Transfiguration how often didst thou hide it under thy Sufferings nay rather thou madest use of it that the Sufferings of thy holy Humanity might be the greater the stronger and the more durable Thou with the Power of thy Godhead didst support the frailty of thy Manhood and thy Divine Nature gave strength to thy Humane to the end that it might thereby be enabled to undergo that which otherwise it could not possibly have endured Consider then and lament and follow him in this first part of his holy and dolorous Passion When the Eternal Word being prepar'd to Suffer ask'd leave of his Eternal Father to enter into that Sea of Torments to compleat the excess of his love to Man and to crown that Obedience wherewith he dispos'd himself for the Redemption of Mankind Behold from Six a Clock in the Evening of that Thursday which also may well be called Holy the many painful steps which our Saviour took in going to shed his Blood and how that most gentle Lamb was carried and offered up by Love for a Sacrifice upon the Cross There the Prophecy of Venerable Simeon had its perfect completion there the sharp Sword of Sorrow pierced through the heart of his Virgin-Mother Learn of him as she did to resign thy self in all kinds of Sufferings for him as he resigned himself to the Will of his Father in his Sufferings for thee Yield an humble resignation to the Judgments of the Lord and chearfully bear whatsoever he shall ordain concerning thee since thou seest the Son of God and his Mother the one giving up his Blood to obey it and the other her Heart Refuse not Labours repay not Slanders resist not Persecutions and Affronts but whatsoever thou shalt suffer suffer it humbly and patiently for the sake of that dearest Lord. God the Father sends them God the Son in bearing teaches thee to bear them and God the Holy Ghost will give thee Comfort in them Dost thou feel how much the Enemy persecutes thee Dost thou feel how much thy evil-willers afflict thee Dost thou feel the Injustice and Oppression of the Powerful Dost thou feel Losses Trouble Sickness Anguish Poverty or whatsoever else lies heavy on thy heart Ease it by considering that all comes to thee from Heaven That which is God's permission in him that sins is his dispensation to him that suffers and those very Afflictions and Persecutions which God permits by a Tyrant he makes use of as the Chisel and Mallet with which he is cutting out and forming of a Martyr He commands the one to suffer and suffers the other to torment to the one he sends a Crown of Martyrdom from Heaven and leaves the other upon Earth to commit Sins which will be his everlasting Torment in Hell therefore whatsoever thou shalt suffer bear it patiently in God with God and for God Of the Last Supper and of the washing of his Disciples Feet Now behold the Lord Jesus with all his Apostles entring into the Chamber prepared for them to celebrate the Legal Natural and Eucharistical Suppers in where the Eternal Shepherd made himself Food for the Nourishment of his Sheep Behold how with his Disciples he celebrates the Ancient Legal Passover with Staves in their hands standing with Shoes on his holy feet eating those bitter Herbs which he abolished and leaving them for the sweet Aliment and Sustenance he after gave us in his most Holy Body and Blood With that he gave a full accomplishment to the Ancient Written Law of Moses and gave it a Farewel with his most holy Hand shutting the Door for ever against those Ceremonies which till then were enjoyn'd but are since seal'd up and prohibited Having ended that first Supper of the Paschal Lamb which was much more a Figure and a Mystery than a Nourishment his Apostles celebrated the natural and common Supper giving refreshment to their weary Limbs that their Nature might be enabled to support those Injuries Pains and Torments which Sin was like to bring upon them In that second Supper our Saviour gives Judas an hint of his intended Treason and of his own Mercy and as if he had meant to awaken him from his wicked Lethargy offers him the Sop he had dipped to the end that the Liquor changing the colour of the Bread might check the Traitor with the thought of his most precious Blood and that he was going to shed it even for him by being nail'd upon the Cross Our Lord strikes a trouble into all his Disciples by affirming that one amongst them would betray him Peter loving him fervently and being stout desires to be informed by the means of John who that Traiterous Disciple was that as it is credible he might chastise so horrid a wickedness but our Lord who that Night had made as it were an Embargo upon all Pains and Punishments and seized them only for himself would not plainly manifest the Traitor lest by discovering so horrible a Treachery the Salvation and Redemption of Mankind should have been hindred Those two Suppers being ended our Saviour to establish Humility in the hearts of his Disciples to the end that by increasing and multiplying it might be derived to the whole Church of God enriching and improving it with that Holy Vertue The Creator rises to wash the feet of his Creatures and who could cleanse them better than he that Created them Who could better repair what was fallen down than he that made the Building Who could better restore us to our former Innocency than he that was like us in all things Sin only excepted Who could wash and purifie our Sins but the Author and Fountain of Grace which flowing in the Heart of our Lord most full of Mercy that Source of eternal goodness pours it forth with his most Holy Hand for From what other Hand could so great pity and compassion have proceeded What other Water O Jesus my Redeemer could cleanse the foulness of my Sins What other but thy Divine Hands could purifie the Defilements of my inordinate Passions What but Innocency itself could whiten the stains of my polluted Soul What could take away my Wickedness but thy Infinite and Unspeakable Goodness He begins to wash the Feet of his Apostles of which some think the first were the
nor ask Pardon what can we hope for from a Just and an Almighty Lord being offended and provoked Let us cast away and forsake our Evil and then be certain that in God we shall find nothing but Goodness and Pity Let us throw down our Arms and cast away those Weapons wherewith we have fought against him let us fall prostrate at his Feet and not be so foolish as to fight against an Omnipotent God and if we cease to sin against him Repenting and bewailing our former evil ways God who is strict severe and rigorous to the Wicked will be found gracious sweet and merciful to the Penitent It cannot be certainly known in this Life what will become of a Soul in the other but we may well conjecture and I would have thee govern thy Life by that which may probably be conjectured and not weary and distract thy self in seeking after certain Proofs of that which cannot possibly be known If I see a Man that fears God that loves and serves him that frequents the Sacrament that is constant in Prayer that often recollects himself to think of Eternity that is kind to the Poor and forward to relieve them that hears the Word of God with Humility and Delight and who if through frailty he falls sometimes presently seeks to God for Pardon with Penitent Tears humbling himself confessing his sins and flying from the occasions of them I dare be bold to conjecture and to hope nay to be well assured in the Divine Goodness that the Soul of that Man will not fail to be saved But if on the other side I see one forgetful of Eternity regardless of Heavenly things much given to the Pleasures and Honours and Riches of this World full of Vices and Passions without any remembrance of Death or Judgment Heaven or Hell making it his only business to delight and to entertain himself to eat and drink with Curiosity and Excess and that does no right to others nor will suffer any the least wrong done to himself I cannot but fear upon these grounds that he will not escape Damnation and I neither hold that to be Presumption nor this rash Judgment for that is an Holy Hope which we ought to have in the Divine Goodness and Mercy and this a Pious Doubt and Fear which is due to the Divine Justice This manner of Conjecture is taught us by the Holy Scripture and therefore it cannot be an evil thing for I see that Lazarus a poor humble Beggar that bore his Miseries with Patience was sav'd and I see the rich hard-hearted Glutton who fared deliciously and wallowed in his Vices was condemned Now how should I frame my Conjecture but by the Experience of what I have seen I see Judas despairing of God's Mercy after his Fall was condemned and St. Peter after his by weeping and repenting was saved and must I not needs gather from thence that he who distrusts God's Mercy will be condemned and he that begs it and trusts in it will be sav'd I see Saul who made no reckoning of his sins was condemned and I see David who lamented and forsook his was saved Must I not needs collect from hence that he who regards not and is not concerned for an evil Life will most probably have an evil Death and that he will have a good one who turns from his evil ways and amends them during his Life I see Covetous Cain condemned because he was Covetous and repented not himself of his Covetousness and I see Liberal Abel saved because he frankly offered to God of the Fruits of his Flock From hence I must necessarily think that he who denies or grudges to bestow part of those Goods in the Service of God which he received from him is going in the broad Path of Destruction but he that gives chearfully and bountifully to the Poor and by returning that part acknowledges that he has received all from a more Liberal Hand is going in the right and certain way to Heaven where he shall receive an hundred fold and be eternally Crowned In short I see nothing else in the Scripture but Examples of the good that are saved and of the wicked that are damned and that the Gift of final Perseverance is given by God to those at their Death who by their constant Prayers and Good Works have made it their endeavour to obtain it during the course of their Life That Prodigy of the World the good Thief who escap'd from Shipwrack at his Death upon the Plank of the Cross was an instance of the extraordinary Power of Grace and one of those strange Wonders that concurred at the Crucifying of our Saviour It was like the tremblings of the Earth and the cleavings of the Rocks like the tearing of the Vail of the Temple and the Dead breaking out of their Sepulchres to return to life like the darkning of the Sun and the disturbance of the whole Frame of Nature Amongst these and other Prodigies that great Wonder may justly be reckoned that he should die a Saint who had been a Thief during the whole course of his Life till that moment And observe that though there were many Graves that opened and many that arose from the Dead many Rocks that were cleft many Lights that were darkened and many Signs that manifested the Power and Efficacy of the Death of Christ there was but one of a Conversion at the last gasp And though the Lord Jesus had another Thief as near him to whom he might have shewed the same Mercy yet he suffered him to die in his Impenitency and to go to the Devil The very words which Jesus spake when he saved the good Thief do contain a warning that no Man may venture to delay his Repentance till his Death for he said Verily Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise All which words seem to be full of Limitations Verily Verily I say unto thee is as it were a kind of Oath for a thing so admirable as the saving of a Man at his Death who had all his Life-time been a Thief and a wicked Person seemed to stand in need of an Oath for to make it be believed I say unto thee is added as who should say Do not believe others if they should say it is easie for those to be sav'd who delay their Repentance till their Death No that is no easie matter but I will now at this time make that easie for thee which else doth seem impossible as if he had limited that Grace then unto that Soul because it departed from his Body in the sight of his dying Saviour I say unto thee now for as for others I shall see hereafter how I shall deal with them This day that is this day of so great Mercy this day a day of so many Prodigies this day when I desire to shew how far my Grace and Mercy can extend for other days I shall refer them to my Justice and to
inheritance eternal in the Heavens which fadeth not away and not only a temporal Life as well as he but also an eternal one receiving instead of it an everlasting Death as the just Reward of thy more wilful Folly 7. Again Suppose a Husbandman instead of manuring plowing and sowing his Land in the right Season should waste the Year in carelesness and think it time enough to fall to those businesses when his Neighbours who have done them all in due order are reaping their Corn and filling their Barns with a plentiful increase What wouldst thou judge of him for having not only slighted their good Example but despised their frequent Advices to be more provident and industrious Though thou mayst have learnt by the former Simile to apply this to thy self I cannot but condemn thee as more ignorant than the very Birds and Beasts for they infallibly know and exactly observe their several Seasons But all they that delay their Repentance are beyond comparison more ignorant and more slothful then that Husbandman considering the infinite disproportion there is between those hopes that should have moved his Industry and those assurances which should encourage theirs as likewise between those fears that should have quicken'd his sloth and those terrors that should rouze up theirs That Husbandman might possibly make a shift though a hard one to rub out that fruitless Year by the help of charitable Persons and having dearly bought more wit by the sad Experience of his Poverty might buckle close to his work and by future diligence against the following Harvest be Master of as rich a Crop as any in the Field but if thou defer thy Repentance till the Harvest of Death there is no possibility for thee to have another Year No in that Harvest thou shalt be reaped thy self and bound up with the Tares to be cast into the Fire Nor do thou adventure to trust to the Charity of others But remember that although the wise Virgins had Oil in their Lamps yet were they so far from having any to spare that they had hardly enough for themselves and when the foolish ones that wanted came to them for a supply they were sent away with a flat denial and it being then too late to get any for their Money they were shut out from the Feast of the Bridegroom for ever 8. Oh what sad stories might be related to thee upon the Subject of delayed Repentance How many Examples be there of Persons that after long sleeping securely in Sin have been rouzed of a sudden by the sharp Stings of Conscience at the Approach of Death and frighted from the vain Confidence they had of their Salvation into the other Extream of Despair by the dreadful Terrors of Hell-fire which then seemed to flash in their very faces Some of them have started into such dismal Apprehensions of God's severe Justice which they never regarded before that they quite forgot the abundance of his Mercy whereof till then they had groundlesly made themselves too sure nor could they in that condition be perswaded there was any pardon to be got for them though they should repent never so much they could not believe the Goodness of God though infinite was large enough to afford them any share in that Redemption which he sent his Son into the World expresly to purchase for all Mankind at the price of his most precious Blood Though He be so gracious as to call all Sinners and to say he came to seek and to save them that were lost professing with an Oath that he delights not in their death but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live Nay that he would have all to be saved and none to perish yet the Devil taking advantage upon their having so long delayed to repent makes them now to believe that it is too late as he did before that it was too soon They can entertain no thoughts of God but what are dismal looking upon him as their greatest Enemy and some of them even hating him out of a prodigious Belief that he created them on purpose for Damnation This Crime is so heinous and of so deep a dye that the Stains of it can hardly be fetched out even with that Blood which makes Sins though red as Scarlet to become as white as Snow yet not for want of Vertue in the Remedy but because that Sin is so hardly repented of nor is it strange if upon so high a provocation God in his Justice suffer their wretched Bark to be tossed and weather-beaten upon the unquiet Billows of a wounded Spirit and to be dashed in pieces against the Rock of Despair by the violent Gust of his Displeasure Methinks I hear their loud Complaints and lamentable Cries and though I dare not so much as imagine the horrible Blasphemies which some of them utter in that woful anguish of their Souls yet I cannot but learn how amazing their condition is and how insupportable since it makes divers of them hang drown poyson or stab themselves and blindly to fly from temporal into eternal Torments Oh take warning by such dismal Examples which the divine Providence sometimes permits as humane Justice does notorious Malefactors to be exposed in Chains for the greater Terror of all that behold or but hear the Narrative of their Execution 9. And yet there is another State which though quite contrary is no less dangerous then theirs and numberless is the Multitude of those that are in it which makes me the more earnestly beg of thee to be careful thou be not one of them These flatter themselves vainly with the false Notion of God's infinite Mercy and quite forget the strict severity of his Justice they think it enough to avoid gross and scandalous Sins and count those they commit so inconsiderable that they are safe though they neither repent of them nor regard the Performance of Religious Duties Thus do they pass their days in a Lethargy of Security till their dead sleep be changed into the Sleep of Death and they swallowed up in the Gulph of Presumption without any noise few reflecting upon their end and fewer being warned by their Example Some of them indeed seem to be more awaken'd to rise out of this Spiritual Lethargy and to walk in the Course of Religious Duties but resting in the outward Performance of them without the Sincerity of Repentance or fervency of Devotion they are but like Men that walk in their sleep and while they dream they are going in the right way to Heaven drop into Hell with more presumption in themselves and less warning to others than the former most thinking them in a safe Condition and being therefore encourag'd to follow them in the same Road. But oh take heed of that Security and of resting upon the broken Reed of formal Religion for even some of those Despairers that strike so much terror into those that see them may sooner escape provided their Despondency proceed from
irrevocable leap from the Delights of this World to the Miseries of the other 3. No no there is no remedy that most bitter Potion is forc't not voluntary and it must of necessity be drunk for they will not let thee spill it To die to be judged to have Sentence executed and to conclude all and make an end for ever is but one instant See how thou goest out of this Life for so thou shalt enter into Judgment see in what condition thou art to make thy account for in the same thou shalt come from thy account see well how thy Case stands for according to the Proof so shall the Sentence be There is no mending of Answers no Wrestings nor Perjuries nor Briberies in that high Court of Justice all is dispatched in a moment the Charge the Answer the Judgment the Sentence and the Execution The Sentence is but to look upon the Criminal to come into the Presence of God is to be condemned and even but to come into the Presence of God is a casting off the Wicked from his sight for ever and a receiving of the Good into eternal Joys 4. What and is there then no remedy for a Sinner before God's Tribunal Is there no way to come off from that Judgment and from that account Yes there is a remedy But what I beseech you To judge thy self in this Life and to call thy self daily to strict account Let the Sinner pass Judgment upon himself during his Life and then his Death shall be a Comfort his Account a Blessing that great Day a Day of Mercy then the Sentence shall be Joy and the Execution Glory The Sentence is published there but the Tryal is made here and according as the Case is found the Sentence is fitted to the Tryal God pronounces the Sentence in his Tribunal according to the Tryal but thou and I are here forming and giving Matter to that Tryal by our Thoughts by our Words and by our Actions Take heed what thou doest for there thou shalt find it and take heed what thou sayest for there thou shalt hear it the Tryal I say is of our own making by it that most righteous Judge shall judge us take heed then what thou thinkest for there thou shalt see it and take heed what thou sowest for there thou shalt reap it 5. As thy Life shall be here such shall be thy Death thy Account and thy Sentence at that Tribunal and afterwards the Execution The Judgment is God's Truth the Sentence is his Righteousness and the Execution his Justice It is neither the Judgment nor the Sentence principally which condemns a Person but the wickedness of his Life The Sentence of God's eternal Judgment is rather a Declaration then a Condemnation Thou didst sentence and condemn thy self when thou didst Sin and being already condemned thou goest to be judged by dying in thy sins All that is done there is but to declare that thy Wickedness deserves Hell and thy Life eternal Death 6. And according to this at the last Judgment in the Gospel our Lord says nothing else in pronouncing it but Go ye cursed or Come ye blessed of my Father He does not say My will condemns the Wicked nor my will absolves the Good as he finds them so he judges he finds those cursed and as cursed he casts them from him he finds these blessed and as blessed he calls them he embraces them and takes them to himself The reason of this is because that as God is the eternal Truth he judges according as he finds the Tryal and if that be deadly the Sentence of necessity must be so likewise 7. He that will escape Judgment at the Day of Judgment must begin from this present time to judge himself He that will clear his account at that day of Account must begin in this Life to call himself to an account Let a Man take good heed on what hand he lives in this mortal Life on that hand he shall be placed in the immortal Life if on the Left hand then on the Left if on the Right-hand on the Right In this World which is full of Deceits and Equivocations in Suits and Causes all the danger of the Person condemned is in the Judgment past upon him for his Innocence will little avail to save him if the Sentence condemn him nor if that absolve him will the greatest Crime and the most evidently proved do him any harm but at God's Tribunal the Danger is not in the Sentence but in the Case of the Criminal Hereby amongst many other Reasons God is justified in condemning the Wicked although he be Mercy it self for it is not his Mercy Goodness and Pity but the Sins the Guilt and the Malice of the Wicked that condemns them 'T is they that choose their own Sentence for they make their own process in this Life 'T is they that make Hell their own choice because they wilfully choose those Sins that carry them thither and will not choose Repentance that would free them from it They are the makers of their own Misfortunes and themselves are the Causes of their Death their Hell and their Damnation by not applying Tears and Contrition to their Sins 8. O what a strange Doctrine is this According to it there is nothing to be fear'd at the Day of Judgment but our Lives nothing to be fear'd in the Sentence but our Sins Nay all is to be fear'd for terrible and dreadful are the Judgments of the Lord yet are they just righteous and holy therefore fear Sin which brings thee to be sentenc'd fear Guilt which brings thee for ever to be condemned fear that Sentence which throws thee into eternal Damnation and fear that Judgment which casts thee headlong to everlasting Torments The Second WEEK Of the Rectitude and Severity of the Judgment 1. BUT admit all this be so yet may not some of our faults be forgotten or some of our Sins excused at that Day Thô I go out of this Life in the Judge's disfavour may I not in the other Appeal or reply or beg and obtain his Favour before he pass the Sentence May I not by Gift or Craft or Industry or subtilty of Discourse evade or extenuate or hide or at least disguise the Sins I have committed 2. O how foolishly doest thou argue if thou canst have such a Thought Thou art more blind in thy reasoning than thou art in sinning for that is but weakness but this the highest Ignorance What excuse canst thou possibly have for offending thy God and thy Redeemer who died upon the Cross only to free thee from Death and Sin What excuse for not being willing to take the Benefit of his Sacraments What excuse for rejecting his Helps and holy Inspirations What excuse for the frequent rebelling against his holy Commandments What excuse for refusing his divine Counsels What excuse for stopping thine ears to the Masters of Christian Instruction and to those loud Cries with which his
Preachers daily call upon thee from their Pulpits 3. What canst thou say for having neglected the Directions of thy Spiritual Guides those internal Physicians of Souls and Consciences What canst thou say for having so often turned away from God who by them called upon thee daily intreating thee and offering thee eternal Life What for following his and thine own Enemy that offer'd thee nothing but eternal Death What canst thou say to quit thy self from so many Accusations What Evasion canst thou find to so full an Evidence Or how wilt thou get off from so weighty a Charge wherein thou wilt not be able to answer so much as one of Ten thousand If the Charge be true how will it be possible for thee to oppose the Truth thy Judge being also the Truth it self What deceit will be able to prevail before so great a Light and such a manifest Conviction Dost thou think O simple Creature to over-reach that infinite Wisdom Doth thy Ignorance think to circumvent him who sees the time present the time past and the time to come all at one instant Or does thy foolish proud Presumption hope to escape his all-seeing Eye Thou deceivest thy self and not him in so silly a conceit his Judgments are Evidences his Sentences Truths and his Execution Justice and doest thou think there can be forgetfulness of thy faults in that eternal Comprehension that beholds all things There is not the lightest Thought the suddenest Motion the inconsiderablest Word nor the smallest Action which is not punctually registred there That eternal Justice has all Sins counted weighed and measured in his presence from the first bitter Fruit of Adam's Apple to the last and slightest Sin of all Mankind till the end of the World That which was only known to thy Chamber to the secretest Corner of thy House or of thy Heart that which is unknown to thy most favoured Servant or most intimate Friend is all publick and manifest before the Face of thy Creator The Leaves of all the Trees in the World the Sand of all the Seas all the Stars of the Sky and the Atoms of the Sun with whatsoever is created are all numbered and present to him and canst thou believe he will forget thy Sins 4. Wouldst thou know what the Judgment is that thou mayest live with Judgment before thou comest to Judgment 5. It is an exact and particular Register of thy loose and wretched Life all that thou hast said seen done and thought in seventy Years of thine age is perfectly seen to God in that instant as if thou wert but then in doing of it 6. O Jesus my Lord and my God is it then all one thing with thee to behold and to judge And is thy Judgment the perfect and particular Sight of all the Sins and Transgressions of our whole Life Alas Alas What then shall become of me at that Day Is it possible O my great God that thou shouldst then see all my Crimes and soul Misdeeds That thou shouldest then see all my Subtilties Deceits and Falshoods Must all my beastly Vices and filthy Sensualities be seen by thee at that Judgment with the Pride and Presumption wherewith I have despised and trampled upon others with my unjust censurings and rash judgings of my Neighbours and my Vanity and Folly in thinking better of my self then of them Shalt thou then see the Sins not only of my Person but likewise of my Office and Dignity My Sins of Omission as well as those of Commission The Evils I have done the good Actions I have left undone and my suffering others to act those Crimes which I might have hindered Must thy pure Eyes which cannot behold Inquity see and behold and judge all mine Iniquities in that one instant How can I but tremble to think that thy holy and heavenly Eye should see such filthy Impurities and such horrible Abominations What can I hope for in that Sentence What can my Wickedness expect from thy eternal Justice but everlasting Torments All my Bones quake for fear O God and I am ready to wish the Rocks might hide me and the Hills might cover me from thy Presence but I know how vain that is and that even in the Center of the Earth thy Right-hand will find me out I am therefore plainly convinced that there is no refuge for me but from the Bar of thy Justice to the Bowels of thy Mercy Yet how shall I dare take Sanctuary there having so much abused it Now I discover the necessity I stand in of a Mediator to plead there for me yet dare not beg his Intercession having so long neglected it Thou of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness hast given thine own dear Son even the Man Christ Jesus to be that Mediator for all Mankind and in him some beams of Hope begin to comfort me remembring his excessive Love that willingly died upon the Cross to make Satisfaction to thy Justice for the Sins of all But with what confidence can I hope in him whom I have so often crucified afresh by my redoubled Offences This is my sad Condition and when I look only upon my Guilt I am almost ready to despair But Lord I know that that is a greater Sin than any I have yet committed therefore I will hope even against hope and carnestly beg of thee O my dearest Saviour that since thou hast hitherto given me time and now so loudly callest me to Repentance by this terrible Meditation of God's vigorous Judgment I may not delay a Moment longer to lament and bewail the Multitude of my Transgressions Grant I may go to that great Day with Tears of Contrition and that I may depart from it with Songs of Praise Grant I may go to it weeping for having offended thee and that I may come from it with joy for thy having pardoned me And since thou seest my sins which provoked thy Wrath grant thou mayest also see my Repentance to obtain thy Mercy Grant O dear Jesus that since thou seest my Ingratitude thou mayest also see my Heart deeply grieved and afflicted for having been so ungrateful And lastly grant I most earnestly beseech thee that I may see thy infinite Pity interposing the Merit of thy Death thy Blood thy Cross and Passion between thy Father's Justice and my sinful Soul now and ever and most especially in that great and terrible Day and that in the mean while I by thy Grace may so spend the rest of my days in Sorrow and Amendment of Life that at my Death I may be received into thy Glory Amen The Third WEEK Of the Means there are in this Life to prevent the Account and Judgment of the other 1. I Am stricken with amazement stand trembling at the thought of the Judgments of the Lord. I know not what to do nor can find any way how to escape them I am ashamed and confounded to appear in his presence full of so many Miseries and Sins Is it not possible to delay
Thy fear of his Judgment is so great because that of thy Sins is so little Thou livest in a course of wickedness and committest thy wickedness with boldness and even with greediness and then thou art afraid to be judged and that is because thou art to be justly condemned But thy chief and principal fear ought to be that of offending so severe a Judge and thy chief and principal hope ought to be that of being judged by so indulgent and so loving a Father It is the part of an unfaithful Servant not to dare appear before his Master's face and though he fears him yet he does not love him But a good Servant is glad to come to the Presence of his Master Every Call of his is a joy to him every Command a comfort and he runs chearfully to wait upon him at every knock but an evil Servant is afraid to see him because he was not afraid to offend him 10. Every sin thou committest unless thou repent of it is a rigorous Sentence against thy self every guilty action and every wilful transgression is a Criminal Article whereof thou accusest thy self at that Tribunal How is it possible for thee not to tremble and dread the Judgment and thy Account in the other Life if thou livest without Judgment and without Account in this Repent therefore pray and weep love and serve thy Judge here that thou mayest find him kind gentle and gracious hereafter He is a Judge that suffers himself to be gain'd in this life therefore use means to win his favour before he comes to Judge thee in his anger for thy having slighted and neglected to get his favour when thou mightest have done it Tremble with apprehension to see him in his wrath who may yet be appeased by the means I have shewed thee and who being reconciled first fills the Penitent's Soul with transports of his Love and after with those Joys and Pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore The Fourth WEEK Of the Vniversal Judgment at the end of the World 1. I AM something comforted with your Discourse says the Penitent but I have heard dreadful things of that great Day when all Mankind must rise to Judgment that horrible Trumpet which makes even the Dead to hear how much more the deaf does also make the heart to tremble and confounds the senses with amazement It is no wonder indeed that thou shouldst be dismayed at that which affrighted St. Hierome and very many other holy Men thou mayest very well tremble at that which they were afraid of 2. Who can choose but fear and tremble to see the whole Creation destroyed by the Creator of it and all the World consumed by his powerful hand Who can choose but fear the Signs which fore-run that Judgment those terrible Earth-quakes and horrible roarings of the Sea Who would not fear to see the Elements those preservers of Life to become its furious Enemies and fighting with one another to become the Ministers of Death Who can choose but fear to see the confusion of Mankind some calling on the Rocks to hide them others upon the Darkness to cover them all being full of terror and astonishment to see all sorts of miseries come together to bring our Nature to an end Who can choose but fear to see the Sun covered with a deadly Vail his light obscured that of the Moon extinguished the Stars also falling from their places and overwhelming the Generations of Men. Nothing to be heard but publick Complaints and Lamentations Cries Sighs and Groans nothing to be seen but Fears Dangers Losses Miseries and Confusions 3. Can any one choose but be affrighted to see the dead rise again by God's Command at the sound of that horrible Trumpet to take up the consumed and scattered pieces of their Body to cloath themselves therewith and each one unite it to his Soul that he may appear at the dreadful Judgment-seat of God waiting for the Sentence either of Eternal Life or of Eternal Death Who can choose but be amazed with fear to see the Almighty cloathed in Majesty to come down with the Court of Heaven armed with Justice to be exercised against sin and wickedness Who would not be dismayed to see the Creator hurle flames of fire against all he hath created to see Houses and Cities Palaces and Kingdoms burnt together and finally to see the whole World destroyed in that cruel and dreadful Conflagration Who would not even dye with fear to see so many Angels and so many Devils together divided from one another on the right hand and on the left expecting the word of Sentence to be put in execution The Angels carrying the good to Eternal Joys and the Devils dragging the wicked to Eternal Torments 4. How is it possible not to fear a Tribunal so dreadful a Judgment so terrible and a Sentence so formidable from whence there is no Appeal and the Execution whereof is either Life Eternal or Death Eternal for ever for ever for ever so that they shall know no end of that ever ever ever My Soul is astonished and amazed in the consideration of the Universal Judgment It is dismayed to think and to imagine all this which is but as a Dream thus represented to us in writing in comparison of what it will be and of what we shall see it in effect 5. Grant O Lord that I may tremble bewail lament and sigh deeply for my sins and wickednesses before I hear that killing Sentence pronounced against them by thy Divine lips Grant that my Tears and Repentance my Sorrow and Contrition may make my polluted Soul fit to be washed and purified by thy most precious Blood to the end I may never hear that confounding word Go ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 6. O give me grace to imitate the Martyrs in Faith the Confessors in Hope and the Blessed Virgin thy most holy Mother and all the rest of the Saints in Charity to the end I may hear that most sweet and most welcome call of Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 7. Oh that I had never offended thee my dearest Lord that I might not see thee offended Oh that I had ever served thee that I might see thee appeased Mercy sweet Saviour mercy in this Life that I may find it in the Judgment and in the Sentence of the Life to come Prepare me O Lord Jesus for my particular Judgment that I may be able to stand in thy Universal Judgment Have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me alone to the end thou mayest have mercy upon me when thou shalt Judge me and all the World together O grant I may live with such care to judge and call my self to an Account in this Life that the remembrance of that other which I must one day give to thee and my earnest endeavour to make my self ready for it may
here while he gives them time to do it and for neglecting his many calls both of mercy and chastisement and thereby making Hell to become their own choice 7. Is it possible O my Jesus that I have chosen that horrible place by choosing Sin and continuing in it Yes for God set before thee Life and Death Blessing and Cursing and left the Election to thy self Why then Lord if I have hitherto chosen Death and that accursed place by sinning grant I may get out of it before I go into it and that by repenting by forsaking my sins and by relieving thy poor Members I may gain thee to be my Saviour and at the last day be called to thee with those comfortable words Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you from the Beginning of the World The Third WEEK Of the Company of the Damned and of their pain of Sense 1. IF that terrible Abode were only a wide empty space though sad obscure and afflictive to the Wicked yet without such ill Company it might be more tolerable But the fierce and cruel Inhabitants and their hateful Company is worse and more intolerable than the place it self None but Devils and damned Persons are the Neighbours of that infernal City The Devils that are busily inflicting Tortures and the damned most impatient in suffering them raging and blaspheming with incredible Fury Nothing is heard there but the noise of the Lash and the cry of those that feel it a sighing without comsort a groaning without ease an eternal Woe and alas an endless weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth 2. Their Lamentations are Oaths Curses and Blasphemies they rage despair and they belch out Vengeance without Revenge and Wrath without Satisfaction O good Jesus The hearing of one Curse the hearing of one Blasphemy is sufficient to pierce a Heart and afflict a Soul What will it then be to hear so many horrid Curses and Blasphemies This may be reckoned the very Hell of Hell it self But alas Lord the Damned do not only hear and suffer them but also utter them and that is yet much worse and more to be abhorred Rather O Lord let me suffer a Hell without pains but without Sins and Blasphemies than a Hell of Sins and Blasphemies without any other pain 3. In that unhappy and calamitous City and among those wretched Citizens all their Peace is Discord all their Quiet War all their Comfort Anger all their Order is Division Disagreement and Confusion Imagine thou didst behold a City where the Inhabitants went up and down killing and burning one another with Swords and Fire-brands in their Hands here loud Complaints there louder Cries here Rage there Death and Desperation Such a place were peaceable and quiet in comparison of the Hatreds Fightings and Discords that are in Hell For those at last come to an end when the Inhabitants have made an end of one another But these instead of ending are always beginning a new The Sufferings of those have some measure and limitation but these have no degree below infinite nor any limit short of Eternity and finally the Companions Friends and Neighbours of that dismal Abode are only the Devils and the Damned most inveterately hating and abhorring themselves and one another 4. Think how the nice and delicate Person will be able to endure this surly boisterous Company who by being used to suffer nothing that can cross his tender Inclination is become too haughty and insolent to bear the Company of his own Family or so much as bear with patience the attendance of his Servants How will the proud scornful and dissolute Woman endure to see her self encompassed with Devils and with Souls as proud and imperious as her self who cannot endure the Company of that Husband which God has given her How will the tyrannical Governour be able to suffer so many Devils to be his Superiors and to tyrannize over him who cannot suffer his Inferiors though Loyal and Obedient to live quietly under him And how will the rebellious Subject be able to suffer so many infernal Princes to exercise over him the Empire of their cruel Wills who never can suffer one good just and moderate Sovereign ruling him according to the Laws 5. Oh if thou didst turn the Eyes of thy Consideration another way and didst see loose and sensual Persons instead of the delightful Embraces of their lustful Lovers embraced and inflamed by Vipers and fiery Basilikes and suffering unexpressible Torments without any remedy or comfort If thou didst see the Scornful the Proud the Haughty trampled upon by Devils dragg'd and despised by them and burning in unquenchible Fire If thou didst see the ambitious Grasping at the top of Flames and Smoak and for ever suffering the Thirst which that of their ambition kindled here in so short a Life If thou didst see the rich covetous Miser in eternal beggary and nakedness without any other plenty but of Fire Torment Anguish and Affliction If thou didst see the beautiful and lascivious Woman whose Sins and Vanities carry her to Hell there become ugly loathsome and abominable her Body parched with flames and her Soul racked with vexation and despair If thou didst see the debauched Clergy-man who instead of guiding Souls to Heaven by his Doctrine brings many to Hell by his evil Example tormented there in living Flames his holy Orders much increasing his punishment and what was here his Honour and his Ornament becoming there the greatest Aggravation of his Crimes If thou didst see the Glutton and the Drunkard the Epicure and the Libertine there hungry and thirsty lean and pale all their Delights reduced to Fire and Brimstone without one drop of Water to cool or quench their thirst and instead of their delicate meats to be now devoured themselves and gnawed for ever by the Worm of their own Consciences If thou didst see all this and heard'st so many sad Cries and woeful Lamentations so many Curses Blasphemies and Confusions If I say thou didst see hear and well consider all this Ah! how much more careful would'st thou be to see to hear and to live otherwise than thou hast done hitherto Therefore go down into Hell by consideration while thou livest that thou mayest not go down into it by condemnation when thou diest Look well upon it thus and behold it now to the end thou mayest not be thrown into it now by Meditation to the end thou mayest never see it any other way nor be there compelled to feel the weight of God's wrathful Indignation The Fourth WEEK Of the Duration and the Pain of Loss and of the Worm of Conscience 1. IS there any Evil in Hell greater than this Can there be any other greater Yes there is yet another greater and more cruel than all these and that is the Eternity of them 2. If these horrible Misfortunes Torments and Miseries were to last for a Hundred thousand Years or for a hundred Millions of Years and that then
at last they might have an end and that there did shine some glimpse of hope though so remote of their being ended it were not absolutely Hell It is no infernal Evil that hath a conclusion nor can that be called the Pain of the Damned which can be seen as it were behind going away from them That ever ever ever eternity eternity eternity is the Torment of all the Torments of Hell To shut the door against all Mercy for ever To bolt and lock the Gates of Hell and to throw the Key into the bottomless Pit so that it shall never be taken out of it again For the Damned to turn their Eyes on every side and find all passages utterly barr'd up to see the Dungeon not inhabitable and yet closed up on every side and to lie burning and suffering in it to eternity this this is the Evil of all the Evils of Hell 3. Never never never to see the Face of God! That the Damned shall never be admitted to the Light of his heavenly Countenance That they shall never have any benefit by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he came to offer for them as well as for the rest of Mankind if they would have made themselves capable of it That the Devils shall never stir from their sides nor cease one moment to torment them That they shall never be able to think one honest thought to speak one vertuous Word nor to do any one Action but what shall be abominably wicked That they shall always go wishing and seeking for Death and yet never find it That neither the Tormentor nor the Tormented nor the Torments themselves nor the place of those Torments shall ever come to an end What is this good Lord what is this but Horror and Astonishment 4. Ah how my Thoughts are disturbed and even distracted and Nature it self is in amazement and in a manner lost in the Meditation of these Things How well was it spoken of him that said there were but two sorts of Punishments to be ordain'd in this World for all those that are the Followers of it and that are deceived by it One for the Heretick if he does not believe and another for the Fool if he believes and does not do accordingly Is there a Hell for ever And yet we do we sin Is there a Hell for ever And yet do we not fear Is there a Hell for ever And yet do we not repent Oh! what a Terror is stricken into my Soul by contemplating the Eternity of those Torments But is it not hard that God should inflict eternal Punishments for temporal Offences Oh take heed of judging thy Judge who has forbidden thee to judge so much as thy Neighbour how much more then thy Creator If thou wilt needs be judging judge thy self for that thou lawfully mayest do but presume not to question his ways for they are unsearchable and his Judgments past finding out Thou mayest as well empty the vastness of the Ocean and pour all the Water of it into an Egg-shell as fathom the Depths of his Proceedings with thy shallow capacity Yet there want not Reasons to convince thee of God's Justice and to vindicate it from Incongruity God sets before thee Blessing and Cursing Life eternal and Death eternal he shews thee the way to obtain the one and to escape the other He calls upon thee often in his Word and by his Ministers to walk in the narrow way that leads to Life but if still thou wilt go in that great Road which thou knowest must of necessity bring thee to eternal Death thou makest it thine own choice and oughtest rather to blame thine own choice and oughtest rather to blame thine own Folly than God's Justice He hath set before thee Heaven and Hell and out of his exceeding love sent his own Son to take Man's Nature upon him on purpose that he might suffer Death to redeem thee from the one and purchase the other for thee He swears As I live I will not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live He invites thee earnestly saying Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways and kindly expostulates Why will ye die But if after all this method of Mercy Men will not be wrought upon but will run on to their own destruction which they are forewarn'd must be eternal it is their own will not God's severity that is to be blamed Besides if a Man sin as long as he can even to his Death and would continue to do so for ever if he lived so long which is not unknown to God who searches the secretest corners of his Heart and foresees his most hidden thoughts long before that they are only evil and that continually can it be unjust that he should be condemned to suffer continually He does what he can against God by his Sin and may not God justly correspond with him in punishment He never ceased from Sins while he had power to commit them and God ceases not from punishing while he hath power to inflict it which is for ever Add to this that an offence which may seem very small against an equal becomes an heinous Crime if committed against the Majesty of a King by one of the basest of his Subjects And if David who was a great King calls himself a Worm and no Man humbling himself in the Presence of God how vast must the disproportion be between God's infinite Majesty and such a Worm as thou art being so much inferior to David Therefore even the smallest of thy Sins committed against that infinite Majesty must needs have an infinite guilt and so may justly suffer an infinite punishment More Arguments might be brought to this purpose but to dispute those Points is not the business of this Design This is enough to shew their Error and teach them to beg pardon for it beseeching God to forgive the lightest Thought that can entrench upon his Justice and to give them Grace to make such use of this Representation of those eternal Pains as may make them careful instantly to forsake and lament their Sins and totally to apply themselves to obtain his Mercies 5. If I have struck a Terror by representing the bodily Pains of Hell and the Duration of them how will it move thee seriously to consider how far they are exceeded by the Torments of that Worm of Conscience which gnaws the Souls of the Damned which kills them without suffering them to die and which devours and consumes them without any diminution or bringing them one moment nearer to their end This is Hell in the Abstract The Pains and Torments of the Body shew only the outside of those Vessels of Wrath and of that Hell where they are tortured but the inside of it is that Worm of a Man 's own Conscience and his rage against himself for his Sins and Follies This is the bitterness of that Cup of Gall and Wormwood wherewith those Vessels are filled
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
is the Author of them and invisible Thou seest the frame of Nature contriv'd in a wonderful manner and beholdest innumerable Creatures of all kinds some having but Being others Being and Life a third sort Being Life and Motion a fourth Being Life Motion and Sense a fifth Being Life Motion Sense and Reason and from hence thou art able to infer that there must be a Creator of them since nothing can make itself and so proceeding through the whole Chain of Causes thou comest at last to one first Cause of all things which is eternal self-existent and independent and to him thy understanding bids thee ascribe infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness all which Attributes were most illustriously displayed in the Creation of the Universe And further as by the light of this Principle thou art able to discover the Being of God so by the same thou art enabled to comprehend thy Duty to Adore Reverence Worship Serve and Obey him Thou knowest thou couldst be made for nothing but for his Service and that his having made thee gives him a most indisputable Right to thy Obedience and Homage thou knowest the difference between Good and Evil and apprehendest not only what is pleasant or unpleasant to the Senses which is the utmost degree of Knowledge that the brute Creatures arrive at but also what is honest or dishonest just or unjust morally good or morally evil and art sensible of thy Obligations to prosecute the one and avoid the other and from hence it is that thy Conscience that internal Witness and Judge seldom fails to excuse and comfort thee when thou dost thy Duty or to accuse and torment thee with uneasie thoughts when thou committest Sin Further this unvaluable Benefit qualifies thee for Society and Government Blessings not known or enjoy'd by the lower rank of Creatures which are unsociable and incapable of Discipline or Order and capacitates thee for that which we deservedly account a most desirable happiness the Conversation of thy Friends and of those of thine own kind without which thou wouldst be disconsolate and miserable O inexpressible Benefit of thy bountiful Maker deserving thy most intense meditation and the service of thy whole life What return canst thou make to God for this singular Gift What requital worthy of so vast a Favour Has God made thee an Understanding Creature and given thee a Capacity to comprehend not only Natural Objects contain'd in this low Sphere of matter but also things supernatural above the reach of sense Let it then be thy principal care to endeavour after an improvement of this Noble Faculty to employ it about things that are suitable to its Dignity but above all to know God and his Son Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Consider how it imports thee to acquire a due knowledge of those Holy and Divine Truths which God hath been pleased to manifest concerning himself and whatever escapes thee suffer not thy self to be ignorant or unskill'd in those Sacred Oracles which contain the will of God to be performed by thee if thou desirest to partake of his Glorious Promises or ever to enter into his beatifick Presence 'T is the Gift of God that thy Nature is enriched with this high Ornament and Perfection and therefore use it to his Glory and have a constant regard to his Honour in the employment of it Let thy whole aim bet to magnifie God thereby and have a care of dishonouring him by his own Gift which he gave thee for thy benefit but to be used in his Service In a word seek all occasions to shew thy thankfulness for it to celebrate the goodness of thy Divine Benefactor and to shew forth his Praise by applying it constantly to the glorification of his great and venerable Name But besides this Faculty of Understanding thou hast yet others which are no less excellent and sublime for which thou art equally obliged and indebted to thy liberal Creator He has given thee Memory that Store-house of Science and common Receptacle of all things that are apprehended by the Understanding an Endowment most eminently useful and beneficial to thee To this thou committest as to a Guardian or Register whatever thy Judgment or Imagination presents drawing it forth again and remanding it back when occasion requires In this thou treasurest up the Images of things and lodgest innumerable Idea's vastly different from each other the most disagreeable Objects being therein reconcil'd and joyn'd together without the least jarring or discord confusion or disorder and which is most wonderful by how much the greater the multitude of the Objects is that are fastened there by so much the more space there remains for others and by how much the more thou endeavourest to croud and to fill it so much the more it will still hold it being capable of an infinite extension From the assistance of this Faculty thou derivest many great and considerable Advantages Thou art enabled thereby to reflect upon thy past Actions and Follies in order to amend them for the future to represent things absent and gone as present before thee to descant upon the Mercies of God which have been formerly extended to thee and upon thine own Ingratitude in making him no other return for them but disobedience and sin and remembring how vile thy Practices have been by this means thou mayest conceive an hatred and detestation of them and be brought to Repentance Finally by the help of this Gift thou mayest recollect the principal passages of thy Life and recal to mind what thou hast done amiss which is the first step to Contrition and Amendment Since therefore God hath vouchsafed to endue thee with so admirable a Perfection and to plant in thy Soul so useful and excellent a Faculty strive to embellish and adorn it with suitable Objects and consider how thou art obliged above all things to remember thy Creator and to lay up his Word within thy heart Remember him who gave thee Memory and bear in mind thy great Engagement to him for this Benefit Be careful to treasure up his precious and saving Truths nor let his Goodness and Bounty to thee be ever forgotten 'T is a most unnatural Ingratitude not to remember him whose Gift it is that thou remembrest any thing else and to let him slip out of thy memory who took care to furnish thee with that Noble Treasury for the Entertainment of himself and of things that are agreeable to thy Nature Nor are these all the Advantages which thou enjoyest from God's having given thee a reasonable Soul thou hast still something of equal Worth and Excellency with the former Endowments deserving thy Thankfulness and Acknowledgment Thou hast a Will uncapable of constraint or force which above all other Possessions is most properly thine own in thine own power and not subject to any external violence Thy Understanding may be taken from thee by several Accidents and Diseases and thou mayest be depriv'd of thy Memory by sundry Mischances but
Fathoms under ground and there they build Towers and Pyramids of as many above it Here a mighty Emperor joins Land to Land by making a Bridge over a Bay of the Sea there a most potent King attempts to join Sea to Sea by cutting a Passage of many Miles from the Mediterranean to the Ocean Behold them leading huge Armies and cutting through Mountains that oppose their passage to rush upon Pikes and Swords as if they were resolved to be killed in spite of God's Protection Thus when Men are grown up to their greatest Strength instead of being more able to defend themselves against those manifold Dangers and Diseases we are naturally subject to they on the contrary have gotten but the more Power and the more Liberty to run into them by the Prosecution of their violent Passions The aspiring Ambition of one Man the greedy Covetousness of another their unruly Lust or enrag'd Jealousie their insolent Pride or their furious Anger exposing them continually to the Revenge of some implacable Enemy But if God hath given some the Grace to govern their Passions with more moderation yet the necessary occasions of their Business or Calling may several ways make them also lyable to numberless dangers as of Tempest and Shipwracks of Piracy and Slavery in Voyages by Sea of Falls and Precipices of Robberies and Murders in journeys by Land and of loss of Life in the Wars either by Sea or Land But if neither their Profession nor any other accident have engag'd them in these there are Plagues and Famines Lightnings and Thunders Conflagrations and Earthquakes Sea-breaches and Inundations with divers other publick Calamities which even Persons of the most quiet and retir'd Condition are subject to Besides the particular Mischances of drowning burning and many more such like than possibly can be imagined from which no sort of Persons can be exempted so that it is no wonder that Men die but the great wonder is when any one lives to be very old and were it not for the Power of an Almighty Protection the sight of a very aged Man would be counted little less than a Prodigy How many thousands perish before or in their Birth How many have Mothers more hard-hearted than the Estrich which is said to leave her Eggs exposed upon the bare Rocks and to regard them no further Nay and some Monsters much more barbarous do most cruelly destroy their innocent Babes to conceal their own Infamy How many in their Childhood how many in their Youth are snatched out of this World by one or other of the forementioned Accidents Not one of an hundred living to forty Years nor one of a thousand to double that Age and for those few that do their Strength then is but Labour and Sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone Those that dwell in populous Cities are every hour put in mind of this truth by the continual tolling of Bells and by their frequent meeting those that are carrying dead Bodies to be buried every one of which thou art to look upon as a preservation of thy self who hadst dropp'd into the Grave before them if his hand had not upheld the weight of thy Mortality which naturally tendeth thither The Mischiefs which some do suffer are the Benefits of those that escape Blindness Lameness Crookedness Dumbness Deafness and all Diseases whatsoever another suffers are so many Obligations thou hast to God that frees thee from them Their harms are thy Blessings since thou ought'st to have suffer'd if thou hadst not been pardoned all that they suffer who are so punished and if thou hast not suffered these Mischances how many more which thou knowest not of would have happened to thee if God had not preserv'd thee from those dangers His Preservation of thy Safety is manifested to thee in those many miserable Objects thou seest about the Streets since without his particular Favour thou mightest have been in the same or in a worse Estate Whensoever therefore thou beholdest any of those wretched Creatures gastly pale and lean with sickness or almost starv'd with hunger loathsome with Sores and Ulcers or naked with Poverty and Beggary Whenever thou seest the Members of one consumed and shrivel'd up by Fire or of another blasted and withered by Lightning or finally any of those lamentable Spectacles from which thou turn'st away thine Eyes through horrour let their Misery at the same time move thy Heart with Compassion to thine own Image and with thankfulness to thy God that thou thy self art not in that woful Condition Consider him as a Man of the same Nature with thy self as one whose manner of Birth was just like to that of the greatest Monarch though in this World God hath set the one upon a Throne and laid the other on the Dunghill Say then O Lord this is my Picture and just such an one might I now have been if thy preserving Mercy had not put so vast a difference between us As I have daily new occasions to remember this Mercy so let me daily praise thee for it with joyful Lips and with a thankful Heart Lord that I may make a right use of it and then it will move me not only to pity but also to relieve his Misery so shall we make an exchange advantageous to both my Soul feeling the Affliction of his Distress and his the Comfort of my Alms and of my Compassion Let me still remember that I am liable to the like Disasters and be prepar'd with an humble Resignation to undergo whatsoever thy fatherly Hand shall at any time lay upon me hoping that if I share with Lazarus in his Sufferings here I shall also share with him hereafter in the Joys of Abraham's Bosom But the Diseases and Miseries of the Soul when they break out to shameful and scandalous Actions are much more loathsome and abominable than those of the Body therefore when thou shalt likewise see any notorious Sinner glorying in his wickedness as too many do now a-days when thou shalt hear any one abusing the Name of God and the Ears of good Men with horrid Oaths and Blasphemies or with prophane Atheistical Discourses When the disfigur'd Face of one shews thee the Marks of his brutish Lust or the reeling steps of another discover his swinish Drunkenness in short when any come in thy way that are manifestly guilty of those heinous Sins which yet thou art free from take heed of thinking thy self good because they are so much worse and if thou standest take heed least thou fall and be not high minded but fear for there was a time when those profligate Wretches were as far from such Practices as now thou thinkest thy self to be Ascribe it then to God's Mercy only that thou art not such an one and say Not unto me O Lord not unto me not unto me but unto thy restraining Grace be the Praise for without that I should have been nay and yet may be if that should forsake me as great
Expressions of his Love but there is a necessity of waiting upon him through the other demonstrations of it and because he came to Redeem us it is very fit we should follow him that we may attain that Redemption It seem'd a small thing to his Love to shed tears for us in the cold he was expos'd to by the openness of that inconvenient place but he also shed his blood already for us by being wounded with the Legal Knife O tender Infant how soon dost thou pour out the blood of thy most precious Veins for my sake O who would not wish to be so happy to spend the last drop of his for thine My sins gave sharpness to that Knife which was the Instrument of thy pain in this Mystery and that blood was spilt by my Offences and by thy Loving-kindness As they Circumcise thy Flesh O Eternal Good of Souls do thou Circumcise my wickedness Lord cut away my Vices and Deformities Take away the Old Man O Lord form and reform the New-Grant that I may cease to do evil and begin to do good that by so doing I may live for evermore The Adoration of the Kings They bring back our Saviour wounded with Love and Grief as well as with that knife unto the Stable and the Manger unless it was perhaps in that very place that he pour'd forth his blood as well as his tears There they stay till three Kings come to Adore him in requital of that one who sought to destroy him O how much greater a Kingdom did they find at the feet of this Coelestial Infant in the Manger than in their own Royal Thrones How much higher were they advanced by laying themselves prostrate before him and to what an height were they exalted by having so humbled themselves By throwing down their Crowns at his feet they encompassed their Heads with brighter Crowns and those not earthly but Crowns of Grace and Glory They presented unto that Divine Child things Temporal and he gave them things Heavenly and Eternal The Gifts they presented to him were but transitory but those he filled them with were permanent and everlasting They Offer to him Gold Frankincense and Myrrh and he in exchange gives them the Golden Vertue of Charity the Incense of pure and fervent Devotion and for Myrrh the Grace of Mortification whereby dying to this World they began to live to that other which never shall have end O how much greater were those Gifts which were bestowed on them by that little Child than those that were offered to him by those great Kings They presented to him Gold as to the Creator of all the Riches of Heaven and of Earth and he in exchange gave them the Riches of the Earth and Heaven They gave him Incense the perfume whereof ascending from Earth towards Heaven acknowledged him God as well as Man and he gave them Grace as an Earnest that they themselves also should ascend into Heaven They gave him Myrrh as to a Mortal Man and he in being Mortal did by his death quicken them to live with him for ever in his Glory Let us offer to him with those Kings that which those Kings did offer let us offer Devotion Charity Mortification and Adoration let us offer to him a Life that from this day may aspire to an Eternal Life let us offer unto him Ardent Love Fervent Prayers and Humble Penitence let us offer to him all the Actions of our Life and let us take care that all our Actions be such as may be fit to be offered to him We may well draw near with an humble confidence to adore this Child who suffered himself to be approached by Children and to be adored by the poorest Men as well as by the richest Kings He was born poor himself to the end that he may be found by those that are poor and a Child that he may be ador'd by little ones for even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he has ordained strength and perfected praise Come with Humility and Assurance to make him an Offering of thy self and thou shalt find him tender and wounded with Love readily to accept thy Offering But what can I offer to thee O Glorious Infant I who am meer Poverty What Gold of Charity being with thee at Enmity What Works of Repentance being full of Obstinacy Rebellion and Impenitency What Devotion my Prayers being full of wandring Thoughts and Distractions O my God I come not only to adore thee but also to beg of thee Lord I believe that I please thee more in asking of thee than in giving to thee Such is thy Charity thy Goodness thy Mercy and Liberality that to exercise it and to be giving is thy Glory and thou rejoycest much more in that thou bestowest than in all thou canst receive from us poor necessitous Beggars And what can we bestow on thee O Infant God we that are nothing but Misery What can we give but trifles unworthy of a God and only tolerable for a meer Humane Child but far unfit for thee who art also God Thou alone canst give us what we ought to give thee and if the Gift which we ought to offer thee come not first from thine hand the worth of it can be no ways suitable to such an Hand to such a Child and to such a God Finally it is from hence thou must endeavour to draw those Gifts that thou oughtest to Present him It is from himself thou must obtain the Gold the Frankincense and the Myrrh in Prayer Charity and Mortification From hence thou must procure a Charity burning with the love of that Lord a Mortification constant in suffering for him that suffered for thee that suffered cold and shed his blood in that mean place for thy sake In short from hence thou must draw an earnest and fervent Devotion to contemplate and adore so many and so great Benefits without suffering them to slip out of thy Memory and him whom those Kings sought in that particular place thou must love seek follow and adore in all places wheresoever thou shalt happen to be Of His Presentation in the Temple His Holy Mother when the days of her Purification were accomplished according to the Law of Moses carries her Son the Eternal Son of God and with his supposed Father Joseph Presents him in the Temple with a pair of Turtle Doves the Offering appointed for the Poor they not being able to make a richer There he was received by the hands of Simeon the Priest who having been assured by the Holy Ghost that he should not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ knew by the same Spirit that that Promise was then fulfilled which he openly declared when taking him in his Arms he blessed God and desired to depart in peace for that his eyes had seen his Salvation which God had prepared before the face of all People to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his People Israel It
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Another most useful and profitable Doctrine is taught us in the Parable of the Ten Virgins going forth to meet the Bridegroom which is that of Vigilance or Watchfulness and a timely preparation for Death and Judgment As the exact time of the Bridegrooms coming was unknown to them so is our latter end to us And as the Door was shut against the foolish Virgins and they excluded from the Marriage for their unpreparedness at the Bridegrooms coming so the Door of Mercy will for ever be shut upon us if we suffer ourselves to be surpriz'd by Death without making a due preparation for it The coming of the Lord to Judgment will be as a Snare on all them that dwell on the Face of the whole Earth Let us Watch therefore and Pray always that we may be found worthy to stand before the Son of Man We are likewise taught to pray instantly and perseveringly by the Parable of the Importunate Widow whom the unjust Judge that feared not God nor regarded Man did yet condescend to avenge of her Adversaries meerly because of her Importunity and constant Entreaties that he might not be wearied by her continual coming If this unjust Judge could by this means be mov'd to do right and to hearken to the Petition of the oppressed Widow How much more will God hear thy Prayers if thou continuest instant in soliciting his Divine Majesty If at the first thy requests be not granted yet cease not thy Addresses nor give over praying but contend and wrestle as it were with God till thou gainest a hearing God loves such an holy Violence First see that the matter of thy Petitions be just lawful and convenient and then thou mayest be sure to obtain them or something better if thou perseverest with Faith and Patience Another most necessary Duty is very strongly enforc'd in the Parable of the King which would take Account of his Servants I mean the Duty of forgiving Offences and Injuries When he began to reckon with them one was brought to him which owed him ten thousand Talents but being utterly uncapable of ever discharging so vast a Debt he fell down before his Lord and with great Humility and Earnestness entreated him to have patience with him whereupon he freely forgave him the whole Sum. But this same Servant afterwards severely exacting a far less considerable Debt of an hundred Pence of one of his fellow-servants and notwithstanding all entreaties casting him into Prison till Payment should be made his Lord thus expostulates with him O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him This is our case as the Servant's Debt to his Master was great and important and that of his fellow-servant to him but trivial and inconsiderable So our Offences against God are infinite and of a provoking Nature and the Injuries of our fellow-Creatures to us are but few and of small importance if therefore we desire God to pardon our hainous and often-repeated sins against him how can we refuse to pardon the petty and small Affronts of our Brethren With what Modesty canst thou who denyest to forgive thy Brother one single Trespass expect that God should forgive thee ten thousand Or how canst thou hope for the Mercy of God who art most cruel and unmerciful to others Revenge as it is an unchristian Principle so it tends directly to unqualifie us for forgiveness and is uncapable of the least rational defence for no man ever did or can forgive his Neighbour so many Provocations and Offences as he himself has need to be forgiven by God which is an eternal Reason and Motive to incite us to the exercise of Charity and Mercy and cannot fail to work upon ingenuous and considering Minds Can there be a greater Argument devis'd to make us easie and willing to pardon Offences than the consideration of that absolute necessity we our selves stand in of God's Pardon without which we must eternally perish Especially since our Saviour has plainly revealed to us that unless we from our hearts forgive every one his Brother their Trespasses our Heavenly Father will not forgive us our Trespasses Consider this attentively and thou canst not but perceive the great unreasonableness and sinfulness of Revenge Think seriously how much thou dependest upon the Mercy of God for thy Salvation and then thou wilt not fail to be merciful to thy Brethren Finally see what an infinite multitude of sins must be forgiven thee by God if thou escapest Damnation and thou wilt find great cause to pass by without the least thoughts of Revenge all the Injuries and Wrongs that can possibly be done thee by thy Fellow-Creatures And many more useful Doctrines may we find couch'd under these Figurative Speeches and Parables which our Saviour delivered Thus by the Parable of the Tares permitted to grow amongst the Wheat he intimated the Toleration of Dissenting Opinions not destructive of Piety or Civil Societies By the three Parables Of the Seed growing insensibly of the grain of Mustard-seed growing up to a Tree and of a little Leven qualifying the whole Lump he signified the increase of the Gospel and the Blessing of God upon the Apostolical Sermons By the Parable of the Sower scattering his Seed by the way-side some on stony some on thorny and some on good Ground he intimated the several Capacities and Indispositions of mens hearts the carelesness of some the frowardness and levity of others the easiness and softness of a third and how they are spoil'd with Worldliness and Cares and how many ways there are to miscarry and that but one sort of Men receive the Word and bring forth the Fruits of an Holy Life Thus plentifully did the Saviour of Souls provide for the winning of mens hearts or else if they were Stubborn and Contumacious and would not be wrought upon for the hardening of them by such pleasing Discourses which to pursue in particular were endless for Without a Parable spake he not unto them The Second WEEK The Eve of the Passion NOW it will be needful for thee to prepare thy Mind for great Tribulations because thou drawest near the Passion of our Lord whose Holy Imitation is the Joy and the Glory of Suffering How well does a Souldier fight seeing the Courage of his General How well the Subject in the sight of his King that is ready to lose his Life for him The Disciple is not to be above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. The Son is not to fare better than his Father nor the Creature better than his Creator Embarque thy self in the vast Gulf of thy Saviour's Passion In that Stormy Sea of his Sufferings thou wilt sail more safely than in the Haven of thine own
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
Therefore of all those Vertues thou oughtest to follow and exercise in this Spiritual Life there is none thou shouldest so deeply meditate upon nor so earnestly beg that God would give thee as that of holy Humility Though Humility be a Vertue as it is exercis'd yet it is a Gift as it is bestow'd and therefore it is needful to beg it of God with earnestness constancy and humbleness So great is our Pride and so great is our Vanity that without a particular succour and favour of our good Master Jesus we are not capable of true holy and perfect Humility Pride is so natural to us and so rooted in us that even when we exercise our selves in Employments of Humility we are wont unless God by Grace prevent it to make them the matter of our Vanity How mischievous must that needs be which turns our Remedy into a Mischief How great is my Pride if when I prostrate my self meekly and humbly I often rise up again proud insolent and disdainful Even in the midst of Humility there may spring up a Vanity of being Humble and an inward Pride may grow out of a Conceit of my Humility which is worse than an outward Pride cloath'd with Vanity for that when it hurts does undeceive but this both hurts and deceives together O Lord of Mercy and Pity that my Vanity should be so excessive as to make me unless thou prevent it grow vain and proud in the very Temple of Humility That I should profane those holy Walls and upon the Altar of the Lord set up the Idol of Dagon and that I should adore my self in that place where I ought to adore none but God alone Therefore beg Humility of God without ceasing and whatsoever thou shalt do that is orderly right honest good holy or perfect still beg of God Humility If thou wert able to give sight to the Blind strength to the Lame Ears to the Deaf nay even to raise the Dead yet tremble and pray to God for Humility If thou could'st speak as an Angel and do Works that might become a Seraphim If thou drawest all the World after thee and that for God if thou convertest Souls if thou art a Master in Spirit and Perfection and that all thou goest about succeeds to thy desires yet tremble and pray to God for Humility Believe me between Hell and those Successes Miracles and Perfections there is not the breadth of a finger I say not so much since all the distance between them is but thine own Will which is weaker and of less power than thy finger Dost thou work Miracles Why so did Judas Dost thou know much Lucifer knew more Art thou good Adam was much better Are thy Writings heavenly Those of David were much more so Hast thou Divine Revelations So had Solomon Yet some of these fell and others of them were lost for ever Humility I say Humility Stick close to that for thereby all things shall redound to thy profit and without it any thing may be thy ruine and destruction Go with humble confidence into the presence of the Lord with humbleness because thou art wicked and with confidence because he is infinitely good Go with contrition because he sees thy wickedness and go with cheerfulness because thou fixest thy eyes upon his goodness Never place the end of thy remedy in thy self nor believe in thy Works alone that thou shalt go to Heaven for them or that thine own hands and feet shall carry thee thither Thou shalt not enter there without them but neither shalt thou enter for them It is God that carries us to Heaven and his Grace his Goodness his Pity his Merits his Death Passion and Mercy for without these let us do what we can and take never so much pains we shall never be able to get thither It is a better Phrase to say God has taken him up to Heaven than to say He is gone to Heaven God carries us guides us helps us God calls pardons and crowns us and all this because he loves us Lazarus that holy Beggar was carried by Angels to Abraham's bosom but the rich Glutton went to Hell of himself God carries us to Heaven if we be sav'd and we condemn our selves if we be damned Dost thou look upon thy good works Thou owest them all to God Dost thou see the Repentance that reformes thee the Chastity that adorns thee and the Charity that enflames thee Thou art endebted for them all to God The Pot dress'd up with Flowers is not proud of them for it is but a little Earth and Dung honour'd by the hand of the Gardiner What hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou foolishly boast as if thou hadst not received it They are the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles He that has wrought best in the Spiritual Life he that has been a Martyr of Perfection he that has liv'd so as to strike all the World with admiration of his Spirit and Fervour he that has most exercised himself in all Verrtues the most generous Martyr the glorious Apostles St. John the Baptist the most holy Virgin and all the Saints and just Persons at their entring and being crown'd in Glory do not give thanks to their own Excellencies nor ascribe their Salvation to themselves but unto God and to his Mercy Goodness Blood and precious Merits which gave them those Excellencies and Vertues They liv'd humbly they entred with humbleness into Heaven and they are crowned for their Humility Therefore be thou humble and do not think thy self the Author of thy Fortune when it is good but when it is bad acknowledge that thou art so Depend for all thy Fortune upon God Those hands that made and fashioned thee will preserve inform and reform thee Believe that of thy self thou art nothing but a source of misery and that thou hast no goodness nor any stability in thee but what is given thee by his Goodness Grace and Mercy Attribute all that is good and holy in thee to God to whom it all belongs but all that is evil wretched and imperfect to thy self for that only is thine own Labour sweat persevere exercise thy self in what is good and with care and diligence avoid all that is evil But in doing all this rely nothing upon thy self without God but trust all to him who is thy Helper within thee above thee and round about thee Then let the Humility which thou embracest inwardly shoot forth also outwardly in all thy Actions for it is not easie to believe that internal Humility can dwell with external Vanity Let thy words and actions suit with an humble heart for to praise and applaud ones self openly and pretend to be esteemed and respected does not make it very probable that Humility is lodged within The Humility of that Mind comes very short that cannot reach from the inside to the outside the distance being so little between one and the other
in receiving Honours And this which seems to be a very hard Law is so sweet an one that though St. Paul contents himself here with an Equality yet some Saints as we see in the Examples that have been given pass on further and express more Joy in Sufferings than in Comforts though these come from God and those from the hands of Men. As we may believe that the Divine Goodness of our Lord took more delight in Redeeming Mankind upon the Cross than in the Glories of his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor though upon Mount Tabor those Favours came from the hands of his Father and upon Mount Calvary his Sufferings came from the hands of Men. So likewise those who suffer for God the Holy Apostles and all those that now follow or have followed them rejoyce more in Pains and Tribulations which God sends them by the hands of Men than in those Favours and Comforts which they receive immediately from God himself Therefore our Saviour said to his Disciples at his going to his last Supper when he was beginning to enter upon his Holy Passion With a great desire have I desir'd to eat this Passover with you but he said no such thing to them when he went to the Glories of Mount Tabor In imitation of this we read of one that for a favour begged of Christ to be crowned with Thorns another to bear the marks of his Wounds with a lively feeling of his dolorous Passion One Devout Soul begs Lord if I may obtain my desire grant that I may be despised for thy sake Another meditating on Christ crucified Lord I desire nothing but thy self and to be crucified with thee This in my Opinion was an high and wise Petition because he asked to suffer with Christ in this life as Christ in this life had suffered for him and then presently to have Christ himself for a Reward in the Life Eternal for he that begs for Christ crucified to be made his it is clear he does not beg for a Glorious Christ but wounded bloody and in the anguish of his Passion and so he asked not the Crown of Thorns alone nor the five Wounds alone but also what he suffer'd in the scourgings at the Pillar Not only the Mockeries the Buffetings and the pains of his Passion but the Slanders Affronts and Persecutions which he suffered before it And not those alone but whatsoever he suffered from his Blessed Mother's Womb and the Manger till he expir'd upon the Cross This we ought to ask and imitate in this life and to advance thereby in Grace and Patience and thereby thou shalt see how certain it is that such Holy Devout Persons not only do possess that equality of Patience wherewith St. Paul Arms his Spiritual Man in receiving Affronts and Crosses with as chearful a Countenance as the Pleasures of this World but that their Delight is greater and their Patience more chearful in suffering than their Joy is in rejoycing The Second WEEK Of the Ninth and Tenth Fruits of the Holy Spirit Goodness and Meekness THese two Fruits of the Spirit which God gives to those that are exercised in the Spiritual Life are as the Cause and the Effect for in truth Goodness is the Mother of Meekness And as some Fruits by reason of their great fecundity grow one within another and as an Ear of Corn produces many Grains so Goodness produces Gentleness Meekness and Affability repeated again and again in all its words and actions And we must take notice that this Goodness which St. Paul names here for a Fruit of the Spirit is not barely that Vertue which is the first cause of Grace that is to say a disposition to receive and to hold it by the Soul 's being free from the guilt of any great sin for that is a Fruit of the Divine Goodness and Mercy which gave the Soul light and strength to cast out sin rather than a Fruit of the Spirit But the Goodness here meant is in my Opinion an high Gift of Grace and Favour which God grants to holy Souls after they have serv'd him long in the Spiritual Life whereby the Soul is cleansed and purified not only from greater sins but even from lesser nay even the least Passions and by taking away those Barks as it were and inward Rinds of our Nature lays it bare and naked from those folds and doublings of imperfect Habits leaving the Soul in so great a purity truth and sincerity that St. Paul calls it perfect Goodness It is as if God should make an Old Man to become a New Man or as if an old decayed and broken House should by his Power not only be repaired and strengthened and made up again in the same proportion grace and Beauty it had at first but also be brought to a greater perfection and enriched with more costly Ornaments And though it still leaves in him the incitement and provocation to sin for that never ceases nor does Grace take it away yet it is as much weakened and disabled as Reason was in it before This Goodness and Sincerity the Lord found in holy Job and to give him an high Praise indeed he said He was single and upright God by his Grace had taken from him all those folds and doublings which we have in our Souls those corners and hollow places where Malice uses to dwell He had cast out all Imperfections from thence and had filled it with his Lights and Vertues making him a Mirrour of his high Perfections This Goodness and Sincerity is that which Christ desir'd to find in his Disciples when they were contending who should be the greatest and he Discoursing upon it took a Child and laying his Holy Hands upon the Head of that little Angel said unto them Unless ye become as this little Child ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Some Authors say this Child was St. Ignatius afterwards Bishop of Antioch and Martyr who was one of the most Holy Disciples that the Apostles had and from that touch of Christ's hand he became so much in love with him that he took for his Motto Amor meus crucifixus est For his only Love was Christ crucified and at his Martyrdom this holy Man defied the Lions that were to tear him in pieces and said to them I am the Wheat of Christ and I shall be ground by your teeth that I may be worthy to be made the Bread of that Lord. This Digression I have made to quicken the Faith of Clergy-men for if Christ but by touching him made him to become so holy how holy ought we to be who not only touch the Bread of the Lord but the Bread which is the Lord and do so often Consecrate and Receive it Two things God requir'd of the Apostles in imitation of that Child first Humility for since they were proudly striving who should have the highest place he could not set before them a fitter Example than that Age and that Humility Do ye