begets the contempt of God; they cannot have Jefus in their hearts when they give him affronts even in his own temple.

2. His houfe, faith he, is ahoufe of prayer; but your heart should be the fanctuary, and your lips the door. So long as you are without the exercife of prayer you shall be like a bee without a fting, which can make neither honey nor wax. Prayer is the chiefeft and moft effectual means of that angelical conversation to which God calls us by the merits of his paffion, and by the effects of his triumphant refurrection. It is the facred bufinefs which man hath with God; and, to fpeak with St. Gregory Nazianzen, it is the art to make our fouls divine. Before all things you must put into an order the number, the time, the place, the manner of your prayers; and be fure that you pay unto God this tribute with refpect, fervor and perfeverance. But if you defire to make a very good prayer, lean betimes to make a prayer of all your life. Incenfe hath no fmell without fire, and prayer is of no force without charity. A man muft converse innocently, purely, with men, that defires to treat worthily with God.

3. Keep your perfon and your houfe clean from ill managing all holy things, and from thofe

thofe irreverences which are fometimes committed in churches. It is a happy thing for a man to be ignorant of the trade of buying and felling benefices, and to have no intercourfe with the tribunals of iniquity. Many other fins are written in fand, and blown away with a small breath of God's mercy; but the faults of fo great impiety are carv'd upon a corner of the altar, with a graver of fteel, or with a diamond point, as the prophet faith. He deferves to be made eternally. culpable who dries up the fountain which fhould wash himself, or poifons the stream which he himself muft drink, or contami nates the facraments which are given him to purify the foul.

ASPIRATIONS.

SPIRIT of God, which, by reafon of thy eminent height, canft pray to no body, and yet by thy divine wisdom makest all the world pray to thee. Give me the gift of prayer, fince it is the mother of wisdom, the feal of virginity, the fanctuary of our evils and fountain of all our good. Grant that I may adore thee in fpirit with reverence, ftedfastness, and perfeverance; and if it be thy divine pleafure that I pray unto thee as I ought, inspire unto me, by thy virtue, fuch prayers as thou wilt hear by thy bounty.

D 2

The

The Gospel for Wednesday the first week of Lent, out of St. Matthew xii.

The pharisees demand a fign of Jesus.

TH

HEN answered him certain of the scribes and pharifees, faying, master, we would fee a fign from thee; who answered, and faid to them;

The wicked and adulterous generation feeketh a fign, and a fign fhall not be given it, but the Sign of Jonas the prophet: for as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, fa fhall the fon of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh fball rife in the judgment with this generation, and fhall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas: and behold more than Jonas here. The queen of the fouth fhall rife in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it because he came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold more than Solomon here. And when an unclean Spirit fhall go out of a man he walketh through dry places, feeking reft and findeth none. Then he faith, I will return into my house whence I came out and coming he findeth i vacant, fwept with befoms, and trimmed; then goeth "he, and taketh with him seven other spirits

more

more wicked than himself, and they enter inand dwell there; and the last of that man be made worfe than the first. So fhall it be alfo to this wicked generation.

As he was yet fpeaking to the multitude, behold his mother and his brethren flood without, feeking to fpeak to him; and one faid unto him, behold thy mother and thy brethren ftand without feeking thee. But he answering him that told him, faid, who is my mother, amd who are my brethren? And stretching forth his hand upon his difciples, he faid, behold my mother and my brethren: for whofoever shall do the will of my father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and fifter, and mother.

1.

MORALITIES.

"TIS a very ill fign when we defire figns to make us belive in God, The figns which we demand to fortifie our faith, are oft times marks of our infidelity. There is not a more dangerous plague in the events of worldly affairs, than to deal with the devil, or to caft nativities. All these things fill men with more faults than knowledge. For divine oracles have more need to be reverenced than interpreted. He that will find God must seek him with fimplicity and profess him with piety. D 3

Some

2. Some require a fign, and yet between heaven and earth all is full of figns. How many creatures foever there are, they are all fteps and characters of the divinity. What a happy thing is it to study what God is by the volume of time, and by that great book of the world? There is not so small a

flower of the meadows, nor fo little a creature upon earth, which doth not tell us fome news of him. He speaks in our ears by all creatures, which are fo many organpipes to convey his fpirit and voice to us, But he hath no fign fo great as the word incarnate, which carries all the types of his glory and power. About him only fhould be all our curiofity, our knowledge, our admiration and our love; because in him we can be sure to find all our repose and confolation.

3. Are we not very miferable, fince we know not our own good but by the lofs of it, which makes us efteem fo little of those things which we have in our hands? The Ninevites did hear old Jonas the prophet: The queen of Sheba came from far to hear the wildom of Solomon: Jefus fpeaks to us ufually from the pulpits, from the altars; in our coverfations, in our affairs and recreations; and yet we do not fufficiently esteem,