nothing but you It is high time and I implore it of you Be pleased then not to deny me this grace my good Iesus since you refuse me not your owne life deprive me of all things if you please provided that I love you Point II. IN this mystery Jesus covers his greatnesse and veiles his Majesty in contempts and mockeries and by a miracle of love he renders himselfe capable of suffering the sharpest points of thornes filthy and unclean spittings blowes and buffets which bruise his body and face and by this holy artifice which love hath contrived he triumpheth over the Devill and sin Open your heart unto this Jesus that he may place there the throne of his love and triumph over your malice and all the impure love which may reside in you PRAYER CAn I possibly behold you my Iesus covered with spittings bruised with blowes crowned with thornes and your body pierced with all sorts of dolors and not dissolve into teares but remaine insensible at the sight of so sad a spectacle Permit it not O God of love rather pierce my heart with griefe and give me the grace to have a sense of what you suffer for me Grant me this favour that I may beare the effects thereof for it is not just that your sacred body should be immersed in sorrow and your adorable head crowned with thorns whilest I bathe my selfe in pleasures or crowne my selfe with Roses living alwayes amongst delights I rather wish and would gladly implore if I had love enough that I might no longer affect any creature and that nothing might afford me contentment but that I might finde wormewood every where and every thing prove distastfull to me to the end I may take no delight but in you alone This is what I aspire to but I have not force enough to practice it nor sufficient love to aske it There remaines one onely desire on my part that I may give my selfe entirely to you to suffer whatsoever shall suit with your good pleasure Point III. JESUS in his Passion practiceth all sorts of vertues to merit them for us by the actuall exercise of them to leave them unto us by way of testament and to bring them into esteeme with the world which contemns and rejects humility patience poverty and all sufferances Addresse your selfe unto Jesus Christ to desire of him the love of his vertues and the grace to bee able to practice them in such a degree as hee requires of you PRAYER YOu have promised me O my God by your Prophet to engrave your love in the midst of my heart and to imprint it in the center of my soule I summon you in order to your promise for I offer unto you my heart opened and commit into your hands my soule and spirit to receive of you the motions of grace and the impressions of your law But what is this law which you give me but the imitation of your life and of the vertues which you have been pleased to practise on earth For you had no need my Lord of this great poverty which I discern in your birth of the patience which you shew in your torments of the obedience which sets you on the Crosse of meeknesse in the midst of your enemies nor of the humility and contempt of the world which is manifested in all your life But you have subjected your selfe unto all this not only for my salvation but also to teach me both by words and actions the vertues which you affect the way which I am to follow to obtain salvation and the life which I ought to lead to become the most acceptable to you In this sort your life and vertues O Jesus are the square of my actions and the rules which I am to follow Grant me then the grace that I may know them to esteeme them that I esteem them to love them and that I love them to practise them in such sort as you require of me For I am well assured that I shall have no share in your glory if I doe not imitate your vertues and shall not partake of your triumphs if I beare not a part in your combats Ecce Homo Point I. SEe the extreme confusion and contempt unto which Jesus is exposed since his owne people preferre a notorious Robber before him condemne him to the Crosse and demand his death to give life to a Malefactor O blindnesse of humane Spirit which makes more account of Terrene then Heavenly things which honours Barabas to reject Jesus Deplore this unhappinesse and beseech the same Jesus never to permit that humane respects or complacency may ever cause you to prefer men before God or the Creature before the Creator PRAYER LOrd I blush for shame and confusion seeing the little account is made of you that they condemne you unto the Crosse to give life to a Thiefe and reject you to receive Barabbas Neverthelesse this is done in your Passion and at present O unhappy soule I find even that in my selfe which I condemne in the Jewes for alas God of goodnesse how often in my life have I rejected your grace to obey the cupidities of my heart How often through a damnable blindnesse have I endeavoured to satisfie my selfe and please the Creature against your intentions Finally how often have I preferred the Earth before Heaven men before God and my owne private contentment before your holy will It is high time O Saviour of my soule that I acknowledge my fault that I change my life and open my eyes to discerne how the world is nothing to me and that you are my All. I confesse my crime I accuse my infidelity and condemn both my life and all my actions past Be pleased O good Jesus to give me a true repentance of them and grant that my heart may breake with sorrow and my eyes distill fountaines of teares to expiate all my offences for I desire my Iesus to satisfie your love and to live under your Lawes Point II. THe Sonne of God abaseth his holy and adorable humanity to become the reproach of men the refuse of his people and the object of their scorne and derision And he truly saith I am a worme of the earth At the sight of your Jesus dissolve into humility and affect rather to be low and humble with the humble Jesus then great and honour'd with Pilate PRAYER IF you say that you are but a worme of the earth the reproach of men and the refuse of the people what must I be my Iesus For it is just that I should be much lesse then your selfe If you hold so low a rank amongst men who are the Sonne of God what place shall I find who am but a sinner a child of Adam and unworthy of your grace O how much constrained do I now find my selfe to confesse that I am nothing and worthy of contempt and confusion I confesse that I am too blame and elevate my selfe above reason when I desire to
withdraw my heart from selfe-love and all affection to creatures But how shall I doe it O blessed Virgin if I receive not powerfull assistance for I am able to act nothing if I want efficacious grace which operates in and with me what God desires of me Now from whence may I have it but from and by you O Mother of grace and mercy since God hath put into your hands the price of my Salvation and since you hold in your armes the fountaine of all graces I repaire then to you O benigne Virgin and I give my selfe to you to the end by the power which you have in quality of my Saviours mother you may produce in my soule the effects of life and death my meaning is that you operate in such sort by your favour that I may really die to my vices and sinnes that I may detest and hate them and lead such a life as God expects of me and to which I obliged my selfe when by Baptisme I was incorporated and made a member of Iesus Christ your Sonne Point II. THe Son of God vouchsafed to unite pains sorrows afflictions and crosses to himselfe and his holy Mother with designe to render them from thenceforth pleasing sweet and worthy to be esteemed and desired on earth Begin to esteem them because they are deified in Jesus and honoured in his holy Mother And if you are unable to aske them of God at least resolve to be are them with humility and patience when they shall happen to you PRAYER YOu have ever been O holy Virgin the wel-beloved of the eternall Father You are amongst all the pure creatures the worthiest object of his love You are his spouse and the true Mother of Iesus as he is his Father and he gives you his Son with him hath put into your hands the treasures of Heaven and earth and all the riches of Divinitie For this reason you are the worthiest of all pure creatures and with my Iesus you are the happinesse of the whole world Neverthelesse O Mother of God I see you in the midst of mount Calvary and at the foot of the Crosse holding your Son dead between your armes You take off the Crowne of thornes you wipe his wounds you wash his body with teares and kisse a thousand times the bruises of his flesh You suffer likewise with him the ignominies and dolors of the Crosse so that humiliations crosses afflictions are both in you and in Jesus In him and you they are become divine sanctified and rendred acceptable And for this cause they are worthie of being esteemed and desired by Christians What must I then doe O holy Virgin if I will love you what other thing can I doe but affect Crosses and humiliations with you and humble my selfe like you I desine and purpose it thus in my soule procure me only the grace that in all occasions I may beare every thing with fidelity and patience in such sort as God requires of me and you desire I should Point III. THe holy Virgin holding her Son between her armes offers him to God and the divine Iustice for satisfaction of our offences And as the Father hath given his Son to the world and the Son delivered himselfe up to the Crosse to save us So the holy Virgin both with heart and will sacrificeth her owne Son that she may in this sort minister unto our Salvation Give her thanks for this extraordinary Charity and beseech her to render you faithfull to all the graces which the death of the Son of God hath acquired PRAYER YOu have been chosen ô Mother of grace and mercy to be the repairer of the world and to co-operate in a most peculiar manner to the salvation of all mankind You did when you gave your Sonne Christ Jesus to be delivered up to the death of the Crosse and you do it when holding him dead between your armes you offer him to the divine Justice as a Victime and Sacrifice of propitiation which satisfies God for the sinnes of the world And in this respect you are our Repairer for Jesus who is the Saviour of men is yours he is your Sonne and you are his Mother And in this quality you have right to his life his preservation and all his condition Neverthelesse O Mother of our Soules you consent to his death you incourage him to torments you conduct him to the Crosse and like another Abraham you sacrifice in will and affection your only Sonne and you sacrifice him for my sinnes so great is your charity and love towards me But what can I doe in recognition of so sublime a benefit Wherein am I able to acknowledge O benigne Virgin so ardent a Charity At least since you give your Sonne for me procure that I may be your slave and since you resigne him to efface the sinnes of the world and that hee may merit for us such graces as are necessary for our salvation be pleased to mediate that I may be faithfull to all the graces which he hath purchased for me by his death and that I may live no longer but for his honour and yours as you give him to the Crosse and deliver him up to death for me Our LADIE of Compassion Point I. Since the Eternall Father can have no compatency in the dolours of his Son he substituted the holy Virgin imprinting in her heart and Spirit the vertue of the Crosse and the Spirit of his sufferings and piercing her heart with the sword of sorrow he made her suffer with her Sonne that in some manner she might co-operate to our Salvation Consider what Jesus and the holy Virgin suffer for you and from henceforth take delight in the thought of their sufferings and in the love of the Crosse PRAYER O Virgin and mother of my Iesus I render you thanks for having contributed to our salvation not only by giving your Sonne but also in taking your share in his Passions for if he indure you suffer with him The scourges the thornes the nailes and the lance have pierced his body but love and sorrow have transpierced your heart and gauled your soule Wherefore holy Virgin the true refuge of sinners I adore Iesus for my Saviour but I reverence you as his Mother and acknowledge you for the Repairer of the Universe since you cooperate doubly in the good of our soules For you give us your Sonne and suffer with him for us Be pleased also to mediate O Virgin spring of life and grace that I may be from henceforward the object of your commiserations And since you have loved me so much as to give me your Sonne and to give him even for the Crosse since your love and charity fastens you to my interests and makes you suffer for mee procure that I may suffer all for you but chiefly engrave in my heart such a hatred of sinne as I may rather indure a thousand deaths then so much as once offend my Jesus your Sonne who died
justice of a God whom I have so often irritated What shall I doe O God of mercy but endeavour to prevent the day of your Justice and from henceforth begin to satisfie by a holy Penance for all the sinnes which I have committed ungratefull and mserable wretch that I am I heartily desire it but am unable to effect it without your grace Assist me then O God of love and goodnesse bestow on me a true contrition for my offences Breake my heart with griefe melt my heart in your love liquifie my soule in Charitie fill my will with a hatred of sinne and grant me the grace never more to offend you It is what I desire with my whole heart to the end I may give my selfe entirely to you and renounce my selfe and all creatures which sever me from you Point III. BEhold in this mystery the love of Jesus who exerciseth the power and rigours of it upon his own person this love abaseth him even unto our sorrowes and oppresseth him with paines and attristations so violently as he enters into an agonie even to sweat blood in ahundance he suffers all this to invest you with his vertue and cleanse you with his Bloud This love is what you ought to ask often of him and with great humility PRAYER CAn it possibly be O my Iesus that you should love me even to such a degree as I consider you in this misterie and I not love you Can I be so insensible as to see you languishing and suffering for my sinnes and not abandon them Alas my Saviour can I indure to see you bathed in your owne bloud and covered over with so painefull a sweat by the horrour which you conceive of my offences Can I have the heart to behold you in the rigours which the Justice of your Father exerciseth on you for my sinnes and that considering you in so pitifull a state I should not conceive a horrour of my pravitie and a detestation of my offences No no Lord I will hate my selfe to love you I will detest all vice for your sake and never more will I offend you and for a marke of my desire I give you my heart I offer you my soule I dedicate to you my life and renounce all that is displeasing to you to the end I may no longer offend you but live in all things conformable to your holy will This is the intention and desire of my soule but it will be fruitlesse if you stretch not out your arme and give me not your grace to accomplish them This is what I begge of you prostrated in your presence humbly imploring your divine Mercy The taking of IESUS in the Garden Point I. JESUS suffereth himselfe to be taken and deprives himself of his power who was able to annihilate his enemies to the end that being made captive for us hee might have right to place us in the freedome of grace In imitation of Jesus who suffered himselfe to be made a captive for you resolve never to make use of your owne power when there shall be any occasion of suffering for the glory of God PRAYER I Do not doubt my Saviour of your power but I admire your love which triumpheth over you and worketh so great a miracle on your selfe for love captivates your strength restraines your power and reduceth you into a state of impotency and weaknesse to the end you may be capable of suffering for mee poore and wretched creature that I am Who will not be ravished in the thought of this love And who will not remaine astonished that God suffers for man the just for the sinner And thus you doe benigne Iesus in this mistery which I contemplate Now for this love which you expresse towards me and which renders you captive to set me at liberty what else can I doe but cast my selfe with heart and spirit at your feet and become an humble suitor that your love may render mee his captive that it may triumph over my heart to the end being denuded of all things I may become for ever the slave of your love Grant that it may be so my Iesus since it is both my duty and desire Point II. JESUS perseveres in the humiliations and sufferances of his captivity remaining in the midst of executioners in silence without plaints without strength or power In imitation of him affect such things as humble you and administer occasion of sufferance and propose to your selfe never to reject them PRAYER SInce I see you O sweet Jesus in the midst of executioners exposed unto their malice and that in this mysterie you abandon your selfe unto all sorts of confusions and to the false accusations of sinners appearing as criminall in the midst of these miscreants what lesse can I doe Lord then annihilate my selfe in your presence and humble my selfe in imitation of you in the view of all creatures And if in the various states of your life you embraced humility onely and made choice of nothing but confusions if you who are alone worthy of honour and respect despised the Grandeurs of the earth and the vaine contentments of this world to live and die onely in depressions and sufferances Finally if you O benigne Iesus who are the onely Son of God were pleased to become an object of scorne and contempt of men alas what do I miserable wretch deserve to be and what rank shall I hold in the world I who am a sinner criminall and unworthy of all things Surely my sweet Iesus I heartily condemne my pride and doe protest that with my whole affection assisted by your holy grace which I implore I resolve from henceforth to affect lowlinesse and indure for your sake all the humiliations and Crosses of this life And why shall I refuse humbly to suffer them for your sake since you have indured them so holily for mine I offer my selfe then unto you for that effect and I abandon my selfe with my whole heart unto your divine conduct grant only that I may be such as you require me to be Point III ACknowledge the strange abasement of Jesus who permits men to binde and lead him captive and to touch him with their prophane hands who is the Holy of Holies Hee offers his sacred mouth to receive the kisse of Judas his greatest enemy Offer your selfe unto him to beare all the contradictions of men and the contempt of all creatures and demand of him even love for your enemies if you have any PRAYER YOur life and the divers mysteries of your passion your labours and sufferances O my Saviour give me a lesson and teach me what I am to doe but how shall I doe it and how can I imitate you if you lend me not your hand if you prevent and affist me not with your grace For my perverted heart and my proud nature oppose themselves wholly to you and contest against all that you propose unto me I see my Lord I see how you offer your sacred mouth
it to be an exercise absolutely necessary especially for such as live in the world and desire to lead a vertuous life in the midst of the turmoyles and distractions which are frequent in our ordinary course of life We cannot doubt but that the most part of Christians have their spirits still distracted their thoughts wandring their hearts divided and if every one will consider in what manner he liveth he shall perceive that the soule is but seldome within the body wholly distracted and as it were evaporated into exteriour things which is a great misfortune to her Now it is requisite to find out a meanes to recall her surely I see none better then that of the presence of God in the same manner as I explicate it Make use of it if you please and you shall find by experience that there is nothing more profitable and advantagious I recommend it as much as I can possibly for if every one would but consider at leisure the disposition of his own soule he should discerne that it will be almost impossible for him to performe any exercise of piety as one ought if he place not himselfe in the presence of God for this posture is absolutely necessary to recall our soule which is straying and to render her attentive to what she is doing and moreover this is necessary in respect we cannot performe any good work without the grace of God And when the soule is thus presented unto God she craves assistance and grace of him without which she is unable to act any thing This is what I desire to offer unto you I beseech our Lord to affect you with it and to favour u◠all with his grace to prepare ou◠hearts for him and to render us worthy of his love THese or what other Erraeta's the Printer through his unskilfulnesse in this Language hath committed the courteous Reader may please to pardon and correct thus Errata Pag. 33. l. 10. read require you p. 107. l. 8. r. into the state p. 111. l. 6 7. r. I know and you have said it p. 114. l. 14. r. expecting DEVOUT ENTERTAINMENTS OF A CHRISTIAN SOULE Of the love of GOD The first Entertainment §. 1. Of the Excellency and Necessity of Love 1. THe first thing I desire to propose unto you upon this subject and which I would gladly engrave in your heart is the acknowledging that the reasonable creature was created by God for no other end then to love and serve him This is a verity which I beseech you often to consider and if you can call it often every day into your thoughts 2. In order to this principle remember that you have no right to live on earth but to love and serve God for all that you have in the world whereof God hath given you the use he hath put it into your hands onely to testifie his love and to oblige you to love him so that all things ought to serve you as motives to love him who hath bestowed them on you For as God hath created nothing which doth not raise you to the knowledge of him if you will consider it so hath he made nothing which doth not attract you unto his love and fastens you to him if you bring no opposition thereunto 3. You know very well that we are obliged to love God above all things with our whole heart and soule c. It is a Commandement which Jesus Christ calls Maximum the greatest in as much as it compriseth all the duties of a soule towards God and if you can accomplish this you will doubtlesse fulfill all the rest Wherefore esteeme principally this Commandment examine your selfe seriously upon this point and omit not to accuse your selfe of it in Confession whensoever you faile therein 4. As God doth nothing but to oblige us to love him so he demands nothing of us but love This moved the Apostle to say that the whole law of God is accomplished in loving God Wherfore all your exercises ought to tend onely unto love I meane that all the practices of piety all your desires all your prayers and even the use of the Sacraments ought to aime onely at the placing you in the love of God to establish conserve and advance you therein Finally you are to act nothing but by love or for the obtaining the love of God 5. Consider this vertue as the onely happinesse of your soule for by charity we adhere unto God and are united and conjoyned unto him Nor can you be ignorant that all the good and happinesse of the soule consists onely in her being united unto God and adhering inseparably to him because he that adheres unto God saith the Apostle becomes one spirit His meaning is that Charity invests us with divine properties and makes us little Gods 6. We should be very unfortunate if God did not love us Now he loveth us onely to the end we should love him and in loving us he can give us nothing of greater value then love For it is love onely which renders is happy It is love onely which gives us God and unites us to him Love onely guides us unto God Briefly it is by love onely that we become acceptable to God and nothing is agreeable to him but what is done in love See then what that soule loseth which wants this love and of how little account all exercises are without this act of love 7. All other vertues may be found amongst the good and bad but Charity only is the character and stamp of Gods children Finally she is the Queen which commands all the powers of the soule and every thing obeyes her And to speak it in a word she is the true vertue for take away Love and Charity all that is tearmed Vertue is so but superficially and in appearance 8. This is enough to affect you with the desire of acquiring Charity and Divine Love But to know how one may obtaine it and by what meanes we may attaine unto the possession of this happinesse is the subject wherewith I intend to entertain you §. II. Of the meanes to attaine unto the love of God 1. TO acquire Charity which we call Love we must earnestly demand it of God besides wee ought frequently to desire it Finally we must labour seriously therein and act on our part what wee are able These are three points which I am to explicate 2. To affect God with a supernaturall Love is a pure gift of God Wherefore I advise you to beg it of him continually And the first thing you are to aske of him is that you may love him as he would have you conformable to your obligation 3. When I say continually I meane that the most usual Prayer you are to make and the grace which you ought to demand still of God is to have Charity and Love for if you possesse this love you have all and if you want it whatsoever else you may have is of no value saith the