The Gospel upon Munday, the fifth week in Lent, S. John 7. Jesus said to the Pharisees, You shall seek and not find me: and he that is thirsty, let him come to me.
ANd the Princes and Pharisees sent Ministers to apprehend him. Jesus therefore said to them: Yet a little time, and I will be with you, and I go to him that sent me: you seek me, and shall not find, and where I am, you cannot come. The Jews therefore said among themselves, Whither will this man go, that we shall not find him? will he go into the dispersion of the Gentile, and teach the Gentiles: what is this saying, that he hath said? You shall seek me, and shall not find: and where I am, you cannot come.
And in the last, the great day of the festivity, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (And this he said of the Spirit) that they should receive, which believed in him.
Moralities.
1. TAke for your comfort this excellent word of our Saviour: he that is thirsty, and desires in this world to thirst after God, let him come unto me, and he shall quench his thirst at the chiefest foun∣tain. S. Augustine saith, We are all here, as David was in the desart of Idumea: our life is a perpetual alteration, which will never be settled while we live. If we be weary, we desire rest, and if we rest over∣long, our bed becomes troublesom, though it should be all of roses. Then again, we thirst to be in action and business, which also in a short time tires us, and puts us into another alteration; and that carries us a∣gain to a desire to do nothing. All our life goeth like Penelopes web: what one hour effects, the next destroys. We do sufficiently perceive that we are not well in this world: It is a large bed, but very troublesom, wherein every man stirs and tumbles himself up and down, but no man can here attain to his perfect hap∣piness.
2. This shews us plainly that we are made for God, and that we should thirst after divine things, if we desire true contentment. There is no default in him, because all that can be desired, is there, and yet there is no superfluity, because there can be nothing beyond him. There onely we abound without necessity, we are assured without fear, & glorious without change. And it is there onely where we find all our satisfacti∣ons perfectly accomplished. For to speak truth, con∣tentment consisteth in four principal things, which are, to have a contenting object; to have a heart capa∣ble to apprehend it; to feel a strong inclination to it, and to enter into an absolute full possession of it. Now God hath provided for all this by his infinite boun∣ty. He will not have us affect any other object of pleasure but his own. He is God, and therefore can have nothing but God for his satisfaction, and intends graciously that we shall have the same. He will have us thirst after him, and quench our thirst within him∣self: and to this, our soul is singularly disposed; for as God is a Spirit, so is our soul onely spiritual. We have so strong an inclination to love God, that even our vices themselves (without thinking what they do) love somewhat of God. For if pride affect great∣ness, there can be nothing so great, as the Monarch of it. If luxury love pleasure, God containeth all pure delights in his bosom: and this which I say, may be verified of all sins whatsoever. If the presence of a right object, and the enjoying be wanting, we have nothing so present as God. S. Paul saith, We are all within him, within him we live, and within him we have the fountain of all our motions: we see him through all his creatures, until he take off the vail, and so let us see him, and taste of his Glory.
3. A true and perfect way to make us thirst after God, is to forsake the burning thirst which we have after bodily and worldly goods: Our soul and flesh go in the several scales of a ballance, the rising of one, pulls down the other: It is a having two wives, for us to think we can place all our delights in God, and withal enjoy all worldly contentments. A man must have a conscience free from earthly matters, to receive the infusion of grace; we must pass by Calva∣ry, before we come to Tabor; and first taste gall with Jesus, before we can taste that honey-comb, which he took after his resurrection.
Aspirations.
O God, true God of my salvation, My heart which feeleth it self moved with an affection-are zeal, thinks always upon thee, and in think∣ing, finds an earnest thirst after thy beauties, which heats my veins. My soul is all consumed, & I find that my flesh it self insensibly followeth the violence of my spirit. I am here, as within the desarts of Affrica, in a barren world, the drought whereof makes it a di∣rect habitation for dragons. O my God, I am tor∣mented with this flame, and yet I cherish it more