Tempesti

vum acces

sum sola Contegritas facit. S. Chrysost.

scientiæ in

troy the wicked, and to dash in pieces vessels of dishonour, PART III. but to break a bruised reed in pieces, and to cast the smoking flax into the flames of hell. In opposition to which we must know that nothing makes us unprepared but an evil conscience, a state of sin, or a deadly act; but the lesser infirmities of our life, against which we daily strive, and for which we never have any kindness or affections, are not spots in these feasts of charity, but instruments of humility, and stronger invitations to come to those rites, which are ordained for corroboratives against infirmities of the soul, and for the growth of the spirit in the strengths of God. For those other acts of preparation, which precede and accompany the duty, the better and more religiously they are done, they are indeed of more advantage, and honorary to the sacrament; yet he that comes in the state of grace, though he takes the opportunity upon a sudden offer, sins not; and in such indefinite duties, whose degrees are not described, it is good counsel to do our best, but it is ill to make them instruments of scruple, as if it were essentially necessary to do that in the greatest height, which is only intended for advantage and the fairer accommodation of the mystery. But these very acts, if they be esteemed necessary preparations to the sacrament, are the greatest arguments in the world, that it is best to communicate often, because the doing of that, which must suppose the exercise of so many graces, must needs promote the interest of religion, and dispose strongly to habitual graces by our frequent and solemn repetition of the acts. It is necessary that every communicant be first examined concerning the state of his soul, by himself or his superior, and that very scrutiny is in admirable order towards the reformation of such irregularities which time and temptation, negligence and incuriousness, infirmity or malice hath brought into the secret regions of our will and understanding. Now, although this examination be therefore enjoined, that no man should approach to the holy table in the state of ruin and reprobation, and that therefore it is an act not of direct preparation, but an enquiry, whether we be prepared or no, yet this very examination will find so many little irregularities, and so many great imperfections, that it will appear the more necessary to repair the breaches and lesser ruins by such acts of piety and religion; because every communication is intended to be a

PART III. nearer approach to God, a further step in grace, a progress towards glory, and an instrument of perfection; and therefore upon the stock of our spiritual interests, for the purchase of a greater hope, and the advantages of a growing charity, ought to be frequently received. I end with the words of a pious and learned person: It is a vain fear and an imson in Mag- prudent reverence, that procrastinates and defers going to the Lord that calls them; they deny to go to the fire, pretending they are cold, and refuse physic because they need it.

Johan. Ger

nificat.

I

THE PRAYER.

BLESSED and Eternal Jesus, who gavest thyself a sacrifice for our sins, thy body for our spiritual food, thy blood to nourish our spirits, and to quench the flames of hell and lust, who didst so love us, who were thine enemies, that thou desiredst to reconcile us to thee, and becamest all one with us, that we may live the same life, think the same thoughts, love the same love, and be partakers of thy resurrection and immortality: open every window of my soul that may be full of light, and may see the excellency of thy love, the merits of thy sacrifice, the bitterness of thy passion, the glories and virtues of the mysterious sacrament. Lord, let me ever hunger and thirst after this instrument of righteousness, let me have no gust or relish of the unsatisfying delights of things below, but let my soul dwell in thee, let me for ever receive thee spiritually, and very frequently communicate with thee sacramentally, and imitate thy virtues piously and strictly, and dwell in the pleasures of thy house eternally. Lord, thou hast prepared a table for me, against them that trouble me; let that holy sacrament of the eucharist be to me a defence and shield, a nourishment and medicine, life and health, a means of sanctification and spiritual growth, that I, receiving the body of my dearest Lord, may be one with his mystical body, and of the same spirit united with indissoluble bonds of a strong faith, and a holy hope, and a never failing charity, that from this veil I may pass into the visions of eternal clarity, from eating thy body to beholding thy face in the glories of thy everlasting kingdom, O blessed and eternal Jesus. Amen.

PART III.

Ad. SECTION XV.

Considerations of the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion.

WE

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HEN Jesus had supped and sang a hymn, and prayed and exhorted, and comforted his disciples with a farewell sermon, in which he repeated such of his former precepts, which were now apposite to the present condition, and reinforced them with proper and pertinent arguments, he went over the brook Cedron, and entered into a garden, and into the prologue of his passion, choosing that place for his agony and satisfactory pains, in which the first scene of human misery was represented, and where he might best attend the offices of devotion preparatory to his death. Besides this he therefore departed from the house, that he might give opportunity to his enemies' surprise, and yet not incommodate the good man, by whose hospitality they had eaten the paschal lamb; so that he went like a Etenim in lamb to the slaughter, to the garden as to a prison, as if by an agreement with his persecutors he had expected their arrest, and stayed there to prevent their further inquiry. For so great was his desire to pay our ransom, that himself did assist by a forward patience, and active opportunity towards the persecution, teaching us that by an active zeal and a ready spirit we assist the designs of God's glory though in our own sufferings and secular infelicities.

When he entered the garden, he left his disciples at the entrance of it, calling with him only Peter, James, and John; he withdrew himself from the rest about a stone's cast, and began to be exceeding heavy. He was not sad till he had called them, (for his sorrow began when he pleased) which sorrow he also chose to represent to those three, who had seen his transfiguration, the earnest of his future glory, that they might see of how great glory for our sakes he disrobed himself, and that they also might, by the confronting those contradictory accidents, observe, that God uses to dispense his comforts, the irradiations and emissions of his glory, to be preparatives to those sorrows, with which our life must be allayed and seasoned; that none should refuse

horto tanquam in car

cere. S. Chrys. minuat Judæis se quæTheophyl.

Ut laborem

rentibus.

2

PART III. to partake of the sufferings of Christ, if either they have already felt his comforts, or hope hereafter to wear his crown. And it is not ill observed, that St. Peter, being the chief of the apostles, and doctor of the circumcision, St. John, being a virgin, and St. James the first of the apostles that was martyred, were admitted to Christ's greatest retirements and mysterious secrecies, as being persons of so singular and eminent dispositions, to whom, according to the pious opinion of the Church, especial coronets are prepared in heaven, besides the great crown of righteousness, which in common shall beautify the heads of all the saints; meaning this, that doctors, virgins, and martyrs, shall receive even for their very state of life and accidental graces more eminent degrees of accidental glory, who, like the sun reflecting upon a limpid fountain, receives its rays doubled without any increment of its proper and natural light.

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Jesus began to be exceeding sorrowful, to be sore amazed and sad even to death. And because he was now to suffer the pains of our sins, there began his passion, whence our sins spring. From an evil heart and a prevaricating spirit all our sins arise: and in the spirit of Christ began his sorrow, where he truly felt the full value and demerit of sin, which we think not worthy of a tear or a hearty sigh; but he groaned and fell under the burthen. But therefore he took upon him this sadness, that our imperfect sorrow and contrition might be heightened in his example, and accepted in its union and confederacy with his. And Jesus still designed a further mercy for us, for he sanctified the passion of fear, and hallowed natural sadnesses, that we might not think the infelicities of our nature, and the calamities of our temporal condition to become criminal, so long as they make us not omit a duty, or dispose us to the election of a crime, or force us to swallow a temptation, nor yet to exceed the value of their impulsive cause. He that grieves for the loss of friends, and yet had rather lose all the friends he hath than lose the love of God, hath the sorrow of our Lord for his precedent. And he that fears death, and trembles at its approximation, and yet had rather die again, than sin once, hath not sinned in his fear, Christ hath hallowed it, and the necessitous condition of his nature are his excuse. But it were highly to be wished, that in the midst of our caresses and levities of society, in our festivities, and triumphal

merriments, when we laugh at folly, and rejoice in sin, we| PART III. would remember, that for those very merriments our blessed Lord felt a bitter sorrow; and not one vain and sinful laughter, but cost the holy Jesus a sharp pang and throe of passion.

Now that the holy Jesus began to taste the bitter cup, he betook him to his great antidote, which himself the great Physician of our souls prescribed to all the world to cure their calamities, and to make them pass from miseries into virtue, that so they may arrive at glory; he prays to his heavenly Father, he kneels down, and not only so, but falls flat upon the earth, and would in humility and fervent adoration have descended low as the centre, he prays with an intension great as his sorrow, and yet with a dereliction so great, and a conformity to the divine will so ready, as if it had been the most indifferent thing in the world for him to be delivered to death or from it; for though his nature did decline death, as that which hath a natural horror and contradiction to the present interest of its preservation, yet when he looked upon it, as his heavenly Father had put it into the order of redemption of the world, it was that baptism which he was straitened till he had accomplished. And now there is not in the world any condition of prayer, which is essential to the duty, or any circumstances of advantage to its performance, but were concentred in this one instance; humility of spirit, lowliness of deportment, importunity of desire, a fervent spirit, a lawful matter, resignation to the will of God, great love, the love of a Son to his Father, (which appellative was the form of his address) perseverance, (he went thrice, and prayed the same prayer,) it was not long, and it was so retired, as to have the advantages of a sufficient solitude and opportune recollection, for he was withdrawn from the most of his disciples, and yet not so alone as to lose the benefit of communion, for Peter and the two Boanerges were near him; Christ in this prayer, which was the most fervent that he ever made on earth, intending to transmit to all the world a precedent of devotion to be transcribed and imitated; that we should cast all our cares, and empty them in the bosom of God, being content to receive such a portion of our trouble back again, which he assigns us for our spiritual emolument.

The holy Jesus having in a few words poured out torrents

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