whom he no sooner saw borne into the Temple by his mother who then resembled Modesty supporting sanctity but he snatcht this prertie Babe out of her Armes into his owne and not able to containe his joy in a divine Rapture Swanne like his death being then at hand sung this his sweetest Ditty Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine eyes have seene thy Salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all Nations a Light to lighten the Gentiles and to the glory of thy people Israel And he blessed them and said unto Mary his mother Behold this Childe is appointed for the fall and rising againe of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be spoken against yea and a sword shall passe through thy Soule that the thoughts of many hearts may be opened And Anna a Prophetesse confessed the same to all those who looked for the Redemption of Israel If the viewing and embracing of Christ so dilated the spirits of the old mans heart and made him so sensible of this his great felicitie that he would expect here no greater but desired rather a dissolution then the fruition of any thing else on earth What may we judge her content to be who conceiv'd bore brought forth and brought him up Whose affectionate looks kisses and embraces he had by day the two later of which the night it selfe could not barre him of Her greatest detracters surely cannot imagine her so stupid as not to be apprehensive of the delight the Comfort the happinesse the honour his presence did impart nor so unthankfull as not to acknowledge and to her power expresse her gratitude Certainly her soule was in a heavenly Trance when she contemplated the grace and felicity she had in Gods owne house and before an Assembly of his elected people to acknowledge her gratitude for the inestimable benefits he had vouchsafed her but especially for this that in his glorious eyes she seem'd worthy though in her selfe undeserving in her owne name and that of his chosen to present him with such a sacrifice such a gift as exceedingly surpassed in excellency all Hosts Sacrifices and Sacraments whatsoever being indeed their onely scope and end Anna the Mother of Samuel is praised for her diligence in Prayer the fruit whereof she reaped in her dispair'd of Fertility And of our admired Virgin we reade that she carefully frequented the Temple of which being wise she knew the institution and being pious the custome which she most religiously observed Wherefore this day of her Purification and at all times else without all peradventure she much excelled Anna and her whole sexe in the fervency of her Orisons in the ardency of her love in purity and sublimity of minde in holinesse of life and divine contemplation We may boldly conclude that she pour'd out her prayers here in greater abundance than she did in Zacharies house where she could not suppresse the flame of her zeale from breaking out into the praise of God her Saviour in whom she rejoyced To this effect happily here she pray'd O eternall and gracious God! I am below other women in merit but above them all indebted to thy supreme Maiesty for making me the Tabernacle of thy onely Sonne the Temple of thy Spirit and for this speciall honour done mee in the Temple of thy Service the congregation whereof makes me the onely point wherein the lines of their affection and admiration doe meete If women be respected for their fertillity needs must I be in great esteeme with all men who by thy eternall Predestination and fatherly providence have brought forth thy onely Sonne their Redeemer With a bowed heart and bended knees I acknowledge that thou hast faithfully and mercifully fulfilled all those thy favourable promises made me by thy Angell Gabriel my Cousin Elizabeth and thy holy Prophets Thou who can'st neither deceive nor be deceived hast made me the vertue of thy Spirit operating a Mother my virginall integrity still preserved That long long'd for Emanuel than whom nothing greater or better could be given by thee or taken my me I have at length produc'd to save all those that beleeve in him This magnificent immense inexhaustible unvaluable Treasure this beloved Sonne of thine in whom thou art well pleased This Saint of Saints by whom all things in Heaven and Earth are re-establisht this Saviour of the world I here present to thee as a gift most acceptable in thy sight He whom all Nations and the Fathers themselves have so much thirsted to see The Angell of the new Testament the seed of Abraham the sonne of David the King of Israel in whom all generations are blessed the Lord of the Temple is here come to illustrate his owne house O mercifull Father open the eyes of the dimme sighted Israelites that they may see the glorious Light that now shines on them and not onely acknowledge but worship their Messias and imbrace him in their hearts as I doe in mine Armes Neither let the Rayes of this new borne starre reflect onely on them but on all those also who sit in darkenesse and the shadow of death that to them it may restore life and lustre So shall they acknowledge thee and him whom thou hast sent CHRIST IESVS and be made spirituall dwellings for thee to reside in there to receive due thankes and praise for ever and ever Betweene her Purification and Passion of her Sonne she is not often mentioned in holy Writ but when she is it is still to her praise and honour As when her care for the poor made her petition Christ for Wine to revive and refresh their drooping fainting Spirits And when she said to him Why have you us'd us thus your Father and I have beene to seeke you Whence all women may learne Humility motherly care and conjugall Faith She who was without blemish as being Gods owne Mother whose chaste bosome no carnall thought had ever entred who lookt on all men with the same innocency simplicity with which she beheld Statues deigned to call a poor rustical labouring man Husband from whose deare company no flight terrour travaile nor paines could separate her But what the Scripture omitteth must be supplied by our charitable imagination which cannot but conceive all those her Actions buried in silence to have beene of the same pure thred with the rest of her life The truth of which we finde confirm'd in her perseverance in goodnesse even to her sonnes end and her owne At his death wee reade she was present and there stood saith the Evangelist by the Crosse of Christ his Mother and her Sister Mary Cleophoe and Mary Magdalen When therefore Iesus saw his Mother and his beloved Disciple standing by he said to his Mother Woman behold thy Son and he said to his Disciple Behold thy Mother and from that time he tooke her for his His pardoning of the Thiefe is not a greater argument of his Mercy than
Quam plena est radijs solaribus aurea luna Oppositum toto cum bibit orbe jubar Quam plena est Charitum Charitum modulata chorea Tam plena est decoris virgo Maria Dei Invide quid fontem crispas mirabile non est Si gravida est Charitum qua gravidata Deo est Dominus tecum Humani lapsum generis sub tristibus umbris Luxerat Angelici curia tota chori Et reparari iterum coniuncti numinis ansa Virgineo optavit posse videre sinu O homo quam sit grata salus tibi propria quando Angelica exultat turba salute tua Benedicta tu in mulieribus Morborum mors intravit longo ordine mundum Faeminea quondam solicitata manu Sic Charitum Vita intravit longo agmine mundum Faeminea Mariae solicitata fide Fons nobis vitae vitaÌ„ pariendo fuisti Nosque erimus laudis fons benedicta tibi Nam dignum est per quam caepit benedictio vitae Vt sit prae sexu ter benedicta suo Et benedictus fructus ventris tui Eructasse bonum pleno de pectore verbum Divino sese praedicat ore pater Hoc Christus verbum est quod de bonitatis abysso Effudit casto virgo Maria sinu Gratum est iustum pariter Benedictio ut ipsa Fusa repercusso sit benedicta sono Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te Vt Zephiri teneris ubi sibilat halitus hortis Dulcis adoratae depluit aura rosae Spiritus at flori tam molliter oscula libat Vt non virgineos explicet ore sinus Sic Mariam sanctus Deitatis spiritus afflat Numina castus flumina fundit onyx Nec tamen aeterni solvit tibi claustra pudoris Statque tuae implicito culmine turbo rosae Christum illibata de virgine credite natum Sic illibato est cortice natus odor Et virtus altissimi obumbrabit tibi Epigramma dissertum Vt genuit magnum pater extra tempora natum Tempore sic natum virgo Maria brevem Prodijt in mundum sibi par substantia dispar Vt sine matre Deus sic sine patre puer Grande puerperium Deus est maiusque videtur Non eguisse viro non eguisse Deâ Casta fugit lucem virgo paritura sub umbrâ Et paritura umbram praestitit ipse Deus O condescensus nova gratia luminis Author Ipse creaturae vertitur umbra suae Vtque invisibilis lucis pater authoâ— habetur Sic est visibilis virgo Maria genus Visurus numen Moses penetravit in umbram Tunc Christus numen tunc pater umbra fuit Migremus tenebrae ad lucem dum nomine verso Proque die tenebra est pro tenebra que dies THE GHYRLOND of the blessed Virgin MARIE HEre are five letters in this blessed Name Which chang'd a five-fold mysterie designe The M. the Myrtle A. the Almonds clame R. Rose I. Ivy E. sweet Eglantine These forme thy Ghyrlond Wherof Myrtle green The gladdest ground to all the numbred-five Is so implexed and laid in between As Love here studied to keep Grace alive The second string is the sweet Almond bloome Ymounted high upon Selinis crest As it alone and onely it had roome To knit thy Crowne and glorifie the rest The third is from the garden call'd the Rose The Eye of flowers worthy for his scent To top the fairest Lillie now that growes With wonder on the thorny regiment The fourth is humble Ivy intersert But lowlie laid as on the earth asleep Preserved in her antique bed of Vert No faith's more firme or flat then where 't doth creep But that which summes all is the Eglantine Which of the field is clep'd the sweetest brier Inflam'd with ardor to that mystick Shine In Moses bush un-wasted in the fire Thus Love and Hope and burning Charitie Divinest graces are so entermixt With od'rous sweets and soft humilitie As if they ' ador'd the Head whereon th' are fixt THE REVERSE on the backe side THese Mysteries do point to three more great On the reverse of this your circling crowne All pouring their full showre of graces downe The glorious Trinity in Vnion met Daughter and Mother and the Spouse of GOD Alike of kin to that most blessed Trine Of Persons yet in Vnion ONE divine How are thy gifts and graces blaz'd abroad Most holy pure Virgin blessed Mayd Sweet Tree of Life King Davids Strength and Tower The House of gold the Gate of heavens power The Morning-star whose light our Fal hath stay'd Great Queen of Queens most mild most meek most wise Most venerable Cause of all our joy Whose chearfull look our sadnesse doth destroy And art the spotlesse Mirrour to Mans eyes The Seat of Sapience the most lovely Mother And most to be admired of thy Sexe Who mad'st us happy all in thy reflexe By bringing forth GOD's onely Son no other Thou Throne of glory beauteous as the Moone The rosie Morning or the rising Sun Who like a Giant hasts his course to run Till he hath reach'd his two-fold point of Noone How are thy gifts and graces blaz'd abro'd Through all the lines of this circumference T'imprint in all purg'd hearts this virgin sence Of being Daughter Mother Spouse of GOD B. I. A Pannegyricke upon the blessed Virgin MARY VVHat eye dares search the brightnesse of the Sun What Pencill draw it what conception Is cleane enough thy purenesse to descry Or strong enough to speake thy Dignity Blest Mother of our Lord whose happy state None but an Angels tongue did first relate Thou wert on earth a starre most heavenly bright That didst bring forth the Sunne that lent thee light An earthly vessell full of heavenly grace That broughst forth life to Adams dying race For God on earth thou wert a royall throne The quarry to cut out our corner stone The chosen cloth to make his mortall weed Soile blest with fruit yet free from mortall seed In marriage bands thou ledst a Virgin life And though untouch'd becam'â—â— a fruitfull wife Though thou to aged Ioseph werâ— assur'd No carnall love that sacred league procur'd All vaine delights were farre from your assent For chast by vow you seal'd your cha stintent Thus God his Paradise to Ioseph lent Wherein to plant the Tree of life he meant To raise a birth miraculous and by His sacred wayes of power disclose that high And holy Mystery which Angels though So full of light desir'd to peepe into When thou thy Maker didst bring forth and he Whose age had beene from all eternity Was borne as Infant from thy blessed wombe He lay enclosed in that narrow roome Whose greatnesse heaven earth could not containe Who made the world and nature did ordaine Was made of thy flesh he whose open'd hand Feeds all the Creatures both by sea and land That even to thee thy life and being lent Did from thy breast receive his nourishment His birth no humane tongues were fit to sing Th' Angellike
Quire did greet their new-borne King So bright a consort and so sweet a lay Made night more faire and cheerfull than the day And little Bethlem with more glory fill'd Than all the Roman Pallaces could yeeld How wondrous great is then thy happinesse That wert his Mother but who can expresse So high a blisse when we desire to fame Some other Maid or vertuous womans name When we of other Ladies write the lives Of chaste Maides happy Mothers constant Wives Such as best Writers have renown'd of yore When we have told their noble vertues o're We draw examples and besides their owne Faire stories praise them by comparison But in thy life we cannot thou alone Canst not at al admit comparison So far thy happy name and honour lives Above all other Mothers Maids or Wives That 't were a sinne when we thy story tell So much as once to thinke of Paralell Wee 'l let thee in thine owne pure titles live And speake no praise of thee but positive As when we say all ages nations all Shall thee most happy among women call That of the greatest blessing God ere sent To sinfull man thou wert the instrument T. M. A Panegyricke on the blessed Virgin MARY I Doe not tremble when I write A Mistresse praise but with delight Can dive for Pearles into the flood Fly through every Garden wood Stealing the choice of flowrs winde To dresse her body or her minde Nay the Saints and Angels are Not safe in Heaven till she be faire And rich as they nor will this doe Vntill she be my Idoll too With this sacriledge I despence No fright is in my Conscience My hand starts not nor do I then Finde any quakings in my pen Whos 's every drop of Inke within Dwels as in me my Parents sinne And prayses on the Paper wrot Have but conspir'd to make a blot Why should such fears invade me now That writes on her to whom doe bow The soules of all the iust whose place Is next to Gods and in his face All creatures and delights doth see As darling of the Trinitie To whom the Hierarchy doth throng And for whom Heaven is all one song Ioyes should possesse my spirit here But pious ioyes are mixt with feare Put off thy shooe 't is holy ground For here the flaming Bush is found The misticke Rose the Iv'ry Tower The morning Star Davids bower The Rod of Moses and of Iesse The fountaine sealed Gideons fleece A woman cloathed with the Sunne The beauteous Throne of Solomon The Garden shut the living spring The Tabernacle of the King The Altar breathing sacred fume The Heaven distilling honie-combe The untouch'd Lilly full of drew A Mother yet a Virgin true Before and after she brought forth Our ransome of Eternall worth Both God man what voice can sing This mystery or Cherubs wing Lend from his golden stocke a Pen To write how heaven came downe to men Here feare and wonder so advance My soule it must obey a Trance A Panegyricke dedicated to the eternall Memory and glorious Fame of the blessed Virgin MARY LEnd me Elias Chariot to inspire My feeble Muse Wheeles of celestiall fire Beare her from Earth purge ev'ry looser thought This duller ayre or that grosse Dunghill wrought Let all her straines be pure cloath her in white And innocent wit let her chaste soule delight In no adulterate line no wanton sense Let all her knowledge be her Innocence As Adams ere he fell then will she raise A maiden spirit to chant a Virgins praise Yet let her not be barren but bring forth Zeale to each eare she strikes so shall her worth Shine like the Saint she sings of wonders doe And be as she a Maide and Mother too Instruct me you nine Orders how to sing Or let a Cherubin pluck me from his wing A quill to write the story or entreate Your brother Gabriel from his blessed seate To visit Earth and teach mee lest I misse To salute MARY in a voyce like his Sleepe on your eyes faire Virgins long hath staid Rise and to Bethlem run to see a Maide Rise Matrons in your armes your infants beare To Bethlem haste and see Gods Mother there Matrons and Virgins runne haste all to see Both joyn'd in one a fruitfull Chastity Then every Matron this great wonder tell And every Virgin chant a Canticle Sing blessed Mary's praise sing that for her Iehovah rivall'd with a Carpenter Mary deriv'd from two most glorious Springs The bloud of Levies Priests and Iudah's Kings Which did as in a Type foreshew her story To be the Mother both of Grace and Glory Sing of her birth how not redeem'd with prize Her Father payd her as a sacrifice Due to his God when others ransom'd be With Shekles as it were a slavery To serve their Maker and the Parents feare To trust him with the wardshippe of their heire But the blest Maide whom Angels now admire Glad they have got her to encrease their Quire In child-hood first her Virgin taske begun And in the Temple pray'd a pretty Nun That the first breath she suckt was holy aire And the first word she learn'd to lispe was pray'r There might you see an Infant Saint out-vie The Levites in Devotion and an eye Cast up to heaven ere it the earth had knowne Whole showers of teares in pious sorrow showne For Eves offence not hers shee did begin To learn Repentance ere shee knew to sinne Each morning strove the early Larke and she Who first should chant their sacred melody He that had seene her might by very sence Have prophecied an Age of Innocence Reborne with her I should have thought her one Of the great Cherubins sent from its throne To breed a race of Angels and supply Their roome that fell by proud Apostasie Thus she grew up in zeale and holy feares Yet still Devotion would out-bid her yeares Till at fifteen when others holier fires Grow to more wanton and unchaste desires The Priests bethought a husband for her bed But Mary's thoughts all unto Heaven were fled Yet was she Iosephs Spouse not with th' intent T' unloose her Uirgin Zone but to prevent The sutes of others and enjoy more free The treasure of unspotted Chastity Who will beleeve the wonder I have said Mary a husband tooke to live a Maide Dare not thou Ioseph to approach too neare This heavenly Arke thy God inhabits there Touch not that sanctifi'd and hallow'd wombe Whence thy salvation and the worlds must come For 't is not Carpenter thy Art that can Repaire the Fabricke of selfe-ruin'd man Mary must Bride to thy Creatour be And clad in flesh part of the Trinity See God hath sent from his eternall sphere Blest Gabriel his fire-wing'd Messenger Who crown'd with Glory and a wreath of Light Salutes the Virgin doubtfull of the sight And courts her thus Haile Mary full of grace Wherewith a blush rose in her bashfull face And verifi'd his words the
fathers to wit Abraham and his seed for ever In this salutation of Elizabeth the springing of the Babe in her wombe at the sound of our sweetest Ladies voyce requires not only our observation but astonishment He that was greater than all the Prophets as yet not borne and enclosed in the narrow compasse of the Wombe no sooner heard the charming voyce of this heauenly Nightingale but he leaped for joy essaying then and there to exercise the office of the Fore-runner of his Master The asseveration of some that this was not an effect of the Virgins vertue but of the Word incarnate may be admitted for good if we onely have an eye to her Vertue and exclude the aide and power of the divine Grace But all Wisedomes Children are by Truth her selfe informed that many things are lawfully attributed to secondary Causes the primary and efficient cause not rejected And this way we may impute to Mary what worke soever God with her co-operating hath wrought either in the house of Zachary or else where for the benefit and instruction of us poore mortals Neither will any sound and sollid judgement attribute any thing to the conspicuous merits of the Virgine Mary or any other Saint without the concurrence and predication of the divine Grace who by those Saints that serve and feare him distributes his gifts and favours to Mankinde That sentence of Christ is no way obscure He that beleeves in me shall do the works that I do and greater By many examples the Scriptures do confirme the comming of Saints to any mans dwelling to conferre upon him both Grace and Happinesse Three Angels came to Abraham whom he entertain'd taking them for pilgrims when the Patriarch forthwith became fortunate in the obteining of that for which so long he had offer'd up vows to God namely a sonne his wife and he being by the course of nature past the generation of children Againe two Angels came to Lot and lodg'd in his house at Sodome and sav'd their host and his two daughters from being reduc't to cinders with their City Iacob visited wicked Laban to whom God granted a singular blessing for that idolater in so much that he himselfe confessed it saying I have learned by experience that God hath blessed me for thy sake Elizeus to expresse the kindnesse he received at the hands of his hostesse the Shunamite restored her dead sonne to life The Apostles themselues brought peace and felicity to all hospitable men whose dwellings they enter'd And shall the arrivall of Gods owne mother at the house of Zachary prove onely vaine and fruitlesse in bringing no divine consolation to her kindred Yes surely Elizabeth tasted the fruit of her all-gladding presence for she could not conceale the pleasure conceived in her heart but utter'd it in the best words she could Iohn himselfe also rellisht it and by his motion gave what signes he could of the content and worship he receiv'd and payd Neither could it otherwise be but the Mansion of Zachary and the adjacent countrey were both delighted and sanctified by the three moneths residence of her who bore not about but in her the Author and consummatour of all piety Their joy questionlesse was beyond imagination great in that they had never before seene Gods gifts and graces passing through so pure an organ of his Spirit But the aged Prophetesse her selfe doubtlesse was in a holy delitious Trance at the very first steppe she made over her threshold and thought her house but halfe blest till the other foot was in Their mutuall salutation surely was low and submissive which I cannot better expresse then by the supposition of the encounter of two shades softly creeping ore the face of the earth The Evangelist delivereth onely the Compendium of their conference which could not be but as long as serious They treated surely of deepe miraculous Mysteries as of the incarnation of the Word of the persecution of her and Gods onely Sonne as also of his passion and the salvation of Mankinde And here it will neither be a thing impious nor impertinent binding our selues strictly to the substance of their short discourse to ayme at the amplification thereof by which happily it may come to passe that the supposition of what they might say may turne to a Truth of what they said indeed This then or like to this was or might be the speech of the holy Matron to the more holy Virgin What looks shall I put on What words shall I assume what entertainment shall I finde out O Princely Virgin to give thee a welcome answerable to thy merits who art Superiour to the Saints in Heaven and the prime glory of thy Sex on Earth I am wholly transformed into shame when I consider every way thy Excellency and my unworthinesse Alas what is there in miserable me that should invite the mother of my Lord to afford me a visit who am the meanest of his Creatures What equality is here Thou who art full of Grace comest to mee void of it Thou who art famous for thy Fertilitie to me who have beene 〈◊〉 long time infamous for my Barrennesse Thy Charity and Humility made thee forget thy sublime and my low estate and conducted thee to my poore Cottage no way fit to receive thee Most of thy Sexe having attained to thy supreame condition who did'st conceive and nourish the Creatour and Redeemer of the world with that thy clearest bloud of which he was made would have advanced their heads above Mortality and disdaining all inferiour Conversation would have demanded as their due to be assumed into the imperiall Heaven But in thee one heat hath expelled another the flames of thy zeale have utterly consumed those of thy Pride if any thou ever had'st and thou art so farre from vaunting that thou by all meanes seekest to conceale that daintie Fruit of which all Posterity shall taste and never be satisfied and for which all Generations shall call thee blessed But from others thou mayst hide it from me thou canst not to whom the Spirit hath reveal'd it and the springing of the Childe in my wombe hath testified it and if the Children of Israel should be so dull and unhappy as not to apprehend it God would give the stones an articulate voyce to proclaime it The Lord of mee and all things else hath firmely seated himselfe in thee and chosen thee for his mother to the end that the seed of Abraham may breake the head of the Serpent and the Sonne of David bring reliefe to his forlorne and distressed Church streightly beseiged by the Prince of Darknesse and his infernall Troopes True it is I am above thee in yeares but in desert infinitely below thee and therfore ought to have prevented this thy painfull journey by comming first to thee to congratulate thy happinesse and not onely in the behalfe of my selfe my kindred and Nation but in the name of Gods selected people to tender thee most
and accomplishment of our Salvation did so familiarly communicate their joyes and wherein the most excellent Virgin Mary of the House of David and Elizabeth the most venerable amongst the Daughters of Aaron discours'd together The first of these had inclosed in her wombe the Creatour and Redeemer of us all the latter his Forerunner These Saints being made Mothers by a Miracle conferr'd together of the Divine benefits they had received The meeting of this worthy paire was most happie and illustrated with great and glorious testimonies of the divine Grace The one conceived by the cooperation of the holy Spirit the other by Myracle in her old Age and both their issues foretold by the celestiall Angell Iohn as yet imprisoned in his Mothers wombe doth worship his Lord borne to him in Maries Belly and Elizabeth fill'd with the Holy Ghost doth congratulate the Conception of the Sonne of God and the Saviour of Mankinde and prophecying declares her Cousen blessed in beleeving and contemplating the mysteries revealed to her On the other side Mary full of unutterable joy layed up all these sayings in her heart which before she had heard from the Angel and now from Elizabeth and breaks out into a Song of Thanksgiving to the Lord. Who can sufficiently praise so great Mysteries Who can declare those joyes to the full Iohn not yet borne rejoyceth Elizabeth is delighted with the arrivall of the Virgin Mary is extreamely pleased in the Mysteries the Saviour of the world is acknowledged by his Fore-runner not onely the Angels but Heaven and Earth resent the pleasure and the whole Trinitie is glorified with new praises Wherefore the greatnesse of these joyes is to be extolled with especiall commendations and with singular solemnities to be celebrated and the Lord in the wombe the Virgin that beares him the barren that conceives and the Fore-runner that it sanctified ought to be presented with all imaginable praises and honours With this pious and gratefull ordinance of the Church I conclude the visitation of our incomparable Lady and now proceed to her Deliverie We reade in holy Writ of three supernaturall Productions the one of Adam the other of Eve the last of Christ which as most miraculous we are now to treat of Here in his Nativitie as before in his Conception let us turne Inquisition into thanksgiving and with one spirit and voyce sing aloud The stone which the Builders refused is the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it This is our wedding-day wherein by the Sonne we are joyned to the Father This is the day of the new union wherein he who is God remaineth the same that he was yet for our sakes is borne and made what he was not wherein he that was every where without a Body is made present to us by a Body that what God hath by Nature men might receive by Grace This is a great a joyfull a fortunate a desired day the end of the Law the end of the Prophets the beginning of the Gospell nay the Gospell it selfe This is a day of State usher'd by the Angels follow'd by the Apostles Let our Mindes remove the distance of Time and place and dwell a while with our all-holy-Lord and blessed Lady lest we loose the pleasure of this day the least Accident whereof is Mysterious What a brave assembly of Visitants of all Conditions resorted this day to this place which then might rightly be called the Randevous of the Saints Would you see those who are above men but below him who is borne Behold the Angels singing his birth Do you desire to behold the married Here you have Zachary and Elizabeth The unmarried Here you have Symeon Widdows Here you have Anna. Priests Here againe you have Zachary Wise men Here you have them from the East Ideots You have here the Shepheards But here is to be noted that these keepers of Beasts heare the voyce of the Angels before any of the other first receive the Gospell and first divulge it And in this they were more happie then Augustus himselfe who though he had made a firme Peace by Sea and Land and had now the third time shut up the Temple of Ianus yet was he ignorant of the blessed Peace concluded on betwixt God and Man O how much sometimes Ignorance avails in Divine matters Kings Potentates the Rulers of the Earth and the wise of this world are asleepe while Christ is borne These most simple of Mortals and innocent as the creatures they tend watch all night and therefore are first made partakers of these joyfull news As their owne wooll not yet dipt in any dye readily drinks in any colour they please of bestow on it So their minds voyd of all humane wisedome greedily suckt in the Divine Faith is the Compendium of Salvation and humane knowledge of times the obstacle of Faith Aristotle having confined to Heaven the Maker and Moover of it would never have beleeved his birth here below Plato would have derided this miraculous relation who the more he attributed to God the lesse would he have expected his so humble comming into the world Neither would the Stoicks who held God to be a fire nor Hipocrates who thought him to be a warm'th ever have look't for him clad in flesh and bloud Wherefore they are here elected witnesses of this strange truth whose Science was of ability strongly to beleeve not wittily to dispute O what proficients in Faith did these rusticall Swaines prove in a moment What a profound secret is imparted to them Let us examine the verity of this by that infallible Touch-stone the text And there were in the same Country Shepheards abiding in the field keeping watch by night because of their flocke and loe the Angell of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone about them and they were sore afraid Then the Angell said unto them Be not afraid for behold I bring you tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people That is that unto you is borne this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a signe unto you you shall finde the Childe swadled and layed in a Cratch And straight way there was with the Angell a multitude of heavenly Souldiers praysing God and saying Glory be to God in the high Heaven and Peace on Earth and towards men good will And it came to passe that when the Angels were gone away from thence into Heaven that the Shepheards said one to another Let us goe then unto Bethlem and see this thing that is come to passe which the Lord hath shewed unto us so they came with haste and found both Mary and Ioseph with the Babe layd in the Cratch And when they had seene it they publisht abroad the thing that was told them of that Childe Here three things
strictly and how piously she liv'd after the Ascention of Christ till the houre of her death saith Idelphonius is onely knowne to God the searcher of hearts and to the Angels her diligent Visiters The reason which many alledge why neither the rest of her life nor death are penned by the holy Evangelists is this that the Apostles were so busied about the conversion of the Iewes and the Gentiles enlarging of the Christian Church That they had no time to set downe the particular Acts of her life after her Sonnes Ascention nor the severall Circumstances of her death as where when and how she dyed Some Authours peremptorily maintaine upon what ground I know not that she liv'd to her seaventieth yeare and to her last houre dwelt in Ierusalem neare to her Sonnes Sepulchre Others upon no better warrant averre that she went with Iohn into Asia and continued with him at Ephesus till her death and urge the authority of Ignatius who affirmes that she wrote to him in these words I will come with Iohn to see thee and thy friends c. Concerning her death Some avouch that the Apostles and the most eminent of the Primitive Church were present at it Damascen saith that Christ was also there in person and that he thus spake to her Come my blessed Mother into the rest I have prepar'd for thee and that shee thus in way of answer prayed to him Into thy hands O my Sonne I commend my Spirit Receive that deare Soule which thou hast preserved free from all rebuke As I will not justifie all these their Assertions for true so on the other side I will not condemne them as erroneous not being able to convince them of untruth and for ought I know they may have pass'd by unwritten Tradition from man to man I will therefore affirmatively say nothing but this that most assuredly her death was welcome to her in that she had so often both meditated and practised it having many times by austerity and contemplation departed this life ere she left it If that of Seneca be true that to dye well is to dye willingly then certainly she dyed the death of the Righteous She was not ignorant that Death to the just is no other than a delivery from prison a laying downe of a burthen the end of a Pilgrimage the unmanacling of the Soule the discharging of a due debt to Nature the returne into our true Country the dore that opens into a never fading life the entrance into the celestiall Kingdome and the Vsher that was to conduct her to her blessed Saviour with whom she had mentally conversed ever since he left the earth Since which time there be who avouch that she never willingly saw any man The Assumption What honor could to this great Queene be done More then be taken up to heauen high And there haue GOD for Father Spouse sonne The Angells wayte the world stand wondring by The same modesty I have shew'd in treating of her death I shall reserve in discoursing of her Assumption which by many of the Fathers all of the Romish Church and some of the Reformed is held for an undoubted truth though upon no sounder proofes than the former produce concerning her departure hence Bullinger directly backs this opinion We doe beleeve saith he that the wombe of the God-bearing Virgin and the Temple of the holy Ghost that is her sacred body to have beene assumed into heaven Brentius leaves it indifferent to us to beleeve whether or no she ascended in Soule in body or both It might well be saith he that as Enoch was translated in body into heaven and as many bodies of the Saints did rise with Christ So Mary also might in body be assumed into Heaven But most certain it is that she obtained everlasting Felicity And some ther be who demand why God might not manifest his power by her privy to so many divine secrets and mysteries as well as by an Angell or as by Elias who after long prayer was taken up in a Fiery Chariot Some againe who hold that the dead who arose with Christ ascended with him into Glory and were not againe reduc't into Ashes thinke the Assumption of Mary altogether as likely Damascen saith the workes of the Deity are therefore possible because omnipotent and that there are some things which though they are wholly omitted in holy Scriptures yet upon evident reasons they are believ'd and exemplifies his position in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Dammianus argues thus That as conceiving without sinne shee brought forth her Sonne without paine a curse laid on all other women so might it well be that she who was without sinne might overcome Death the reward of it Some goe about to prove it by the Text Arise Lord into thy rest thou and the Arke of thy Sanctification Nay I have read a moderne Oratour who thus elegantly describes the manner of it When saith hee the Soule of this Sweet one reactuated her body she arose in Triumph from her Sepulcher and was assumed into Heaven In her passage thither the orbes bowed and bended themselves to make her a triumphant Arch through which shee might passe in greater state The Sunne with his brightest beames imbrac't her that it might be said A woman was cloath'd with the Sunne The Moone stooped to her that it might be divulg'd the Moone was under her feet The brightest of the Starres interwove themselves to make her a radiant Crowne c. But this description is no more theologicall than the consent of the orbes is Philosophicall and is no way correspondent to the dignity of our Sacred subject on whose triumphant entry into Heaven having beene a faithfull and reverent Attender I will now returne to vindicate her honour here on Earth and make an Apology to Christians with shame and horrour I speake it for Christs owne Mother It may please then the gentle Reader to understand that two questions arise amongst the Moderne Divines The one whether or no she merited to be the Mother of God the other which way she could deserve that greatest of Glories For the first they affirm that never any Creature merited so great a blessing as the incarnation of Gods owne Sonne For he sent say they his Sonne into the world not urg'd thereto by our merits but out of his owne meere Grace and Goodnesse It was a worke of his Charity and condescending not of retribution or obligation and therefore that he chose not the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of Christ as she was a Virgin humble obedient adorn'd with Faith Charity and other divine vertues but because God had decreed her to beare his onely Sonne therefore his best pleasure was she should be Mistresse of perfections suteable to so high a Calling Wherfore Saint Paul saies Because God hath predestinated us therefore he calles justifies and glorifies us and not because we are just therefore he electeth us
Lord quoth he Hath left his Heaven and comes to dwell in thee Blest amongst women in thy sexe divine For ev'ry brest salvation sucks from thine Suppose a King had some gay favorite sent With powerfull Rhetoricke and Court complement To win a Country Girle What could she guesse But 't was some scorne on her unworthinesse So Mary ignorant what her Vertue was For she had made Humility her glasse Doubts what the words should meane wonders to heare This salutation and mistrusts her eare And when the Angell tels her of a Sonne To sit on Princely Davids royall Throne To rule the house of Iacob and to be A sceptred Prince to all Eternity Her modest soule no vaine Ambition sway'd She rather chose to live an humble Maid Then a Queene Mother How can I quoth she Who nere knew man and am a Votary Nere to know any teeme with such a birth Who would not for the treasure of the earth Be false unto my vowes My love is pray'r And piety all the sonnes I meane to beare But when the Angell did Gods will relate That he would get a sonne that might create She yeelds a Handmaid to her Lords desire O I but thinke how such strange newes would fire Some Ladies hearts with pride when they should heare Gods growne enamour'd on their beauties were How they would thinke themselves worthy the bed Of their Creatour and advance their head Above Mortality promising their eyes To be made Stars to glorifie the skies But Mary's zeale swell'd higher then her pride Nothing mov'd that not when old Zachary's Bride Felt the Babe dance and leape within her wombe For joy the Mother of his Lord was come But bless'd her God regarded her estate And sung not to her selfe Magnificat Nor when the Shepheards did relate their story That was as full of wonder as of Glory But tooke the Angels Hymne and chanted then Glory to God on high good will to men Nor when three Kings did to her Cratch resort Did shee conceive her Stable turn'd a Court When to a Priest a Prophet and a King They sev'rall brought their sev'rall offring She tooke not to delight a wanton sense The pretious Myrrhe and odrous Frankincense Nor did with covetous greedy eyes behold The Easterne wealth the third mans treasure gold Her Sonne and Saviours honour to prefer Was Mirrhe was Frankincense was gold to her Her life was all Humility Muse make haste To sing her Death and how her life being past Heaven entertain'd her for their Hymnes divine Are fitter to relate her praise than thine Thou hast not power t' unfold with what a feare She fled to Aegypt and continu'd there To save her Infants life not skill to tell How much she joy'd at ev'ry Miracle Presume not thou to number what her eyes Showre forth in teares as on the Crosse she spies Her Sonne and Saviour nor what care she show'd To gather up the drops of bloud that flow'd Pure Balsome from his side nor venture on To write with what a violent zeale she run To begge with Ioseph he a Tombe might have By whom we all are ransom'd from the Grave Me thinks I see how by his Crosse she stood How her sad eyes vide teares as he dropt bloud Her eyes more sad cause they retain'd their sight And could not doe as Heaven did loose their light Her armes expresse the Crosse whereon he dide As if she too meant to be crucifide I see her vaile rent for it could not be The Temple should expresse more griefe than she Me thinkes I heare her plaints O Christ that I Should give thee flesh for else thou could'st not dye Divinity is from all passion free That thou canst suffer torments was from mee Wherefore thy Virgin Mother here vowes all Her houres to prayers till thy last trumpet call And here I crave no pardon if my penne Stabbe those presumptuous and o're curious men Whose bold Disputes dare into question call What sonnes she had and whether Christ was all As if a mortall durst to Mary come And court Gods widdow to prophane her wombe As if the Mother Maide that stile gave ore To be a Mother but a Maide no more Or she that God and man had borne would be A Mother now to beare Humanity As she from heaven to earth her thoughts had cast And could love Ioseph that had God embrac'd No having layne great heavens immortall King Vnder the shadow of thy gratious wing She Turtle like would a chaste widdow be And vow'd to love no other Dove but thee But ever mourn'd thy absence till her eyes Had spent her soule in teares and love-strain'd cries Crackt her poore heart-strings Having cast away The toylesome burthen of unweldy clay With pure and ayrie pinions hence she flies And forsakes earth to seeke thee in the skyes When she arriv'd where her blest Mate doth dwell What Poets Priests or Prophets rage can tell The entertainements welcomes joyes have beene Vnlesse in Pathmos he had Visions seene We may suppose that Angels clapt their wings Powers and Dominions showted all the strings Of Seraphins tun'd high lowd Hymnes did play A troope of Virgins on the Milky way Met her in snow-white robes and Convoy had Legions of Martyrs all in scarlet clad Iosuah with Captaines David sainted Kings All tendred their respects The Pallace rings With acclamations Eve runnes forth to see Whence sprung the fruit cur'dâ— the forbidden tree Sarah makes haste her Ladies wombe to blesse Without whose birth the curse of barrennesse Had laine upon her though shee had a sonne And had brought twenty Isaacks forth for one Rebecca with the better of her twins And Rachel with her Ioseph too begins To chant her praise The brave Bethulian Dame Victorious Iudith to her welcome came With troopes of Amazons The Sheban Queene Who now the new Ierusalem had seene Runs to the sight and wistly gazeth on The Mother of the mightier Solomon There met with Saints and Angels all desire To bid her welcome thus in a full Quire Come blessed Virgin fixe thine eyes upon This glorious Throne And on the right hand there behold thy Sonne Behold his hands his feet his pierced side That for us dide Whose very wounds in heaven are Deifide Those glorious lips which once drew milke from thee Shall one day be The doome of soules to blisse or misery Blest wombe the mysteries that sprung from hence Dazle our sense Whose onely Essence is Intelligence Finite thou were yet infinite in thee Wee treasur'd see Mortall yet Mother to Eternity Thy Sonne made of thee made thee Faith aspire One ladder higher Elder then 's Mother antient as his Sire 'T is strange thou should'st both Maide and Mother be Stranger to see In one soule both God and Humanity As hee was God thou still are Mayd Who can This wonder scan Hee made thee Mother as hee was but man Thou succkl'st him upon thy breasts and be To ransome thee Open'd his side upon his
passion tree Come blessed Virgin and receive thy Crowne Of full Renowne Where Death and Time have laid their Scepters downe There sing with us how three doe sit upon The glorious Throne One of which three is two yet all but one THus holy Virgin have I shadow'd o're Thy Picture in a rude unpollisht score That wish'd t' have limm'd it with as lively grace As ever Painter drew the sweetest face Yet would I not idolatrize thy worth Like some whose superstition sets thee forth In costly ornaments in cloaths so gay So rich as never in the Stable lay These make thy Statues now as famous be For pride as thou wert for Humility I cannot thinke thy Virgin bashfulnesse Would weare the Lady of Lorettos dresse Though farre more glorious robes to thee were given Meekenesse and Zeale on Earth Glory in Heauen Take then the honour thou hast justly wonne Praise above Angels but below thy Sonne Faults escaped in Printing PAge 74. line 4. reade glorious 101. in the margin reade not onely many Moderne 128. 14. for it reade is 161. 16. for penurious reade poore 182. 19. Lambertus 194. 14. in stead of for reade from 205. 6. Jdelphonsus 213. 17. for consent reade concent 246. for Christs r. Christ 247. for brought r. broughtst 248. 11. for silent r. a silent 248. 13. dele but. THE FEMALL GLORY OR The life of the Virgin MARY HIstory offers to our view Myriads of holy Virgins in Beauty and vertue equally attractive whose due praise the Catholike Church doth at this day solemnely sing but with a more elevated voyce as duty on our part and merit on hers commands the laud of that most excellent Princesse the Virgin Mother of God There be who affirme that what ever the Creator saw beautifull in heaven or earth he bestowed in the limming of this rare Piece not that she might be stiled the most faire amongst the daughters of women but by a heavenly prerogative the alone Faire the alone Lovely Looke how many parts so many arts you might discerne of the Celestiall Limmer And this is no way repugnant to reason it selfe for if Christ was faire above the sonnes of men should not she be so above their Daughters since from her alone he received his flesh Gregory Nazianzen proclaimes that she surpass'd all women in lovelinesse Andraeas sayes that she was a Statue carved by Gods own hand Others of those first and purer times not without admiration observe that God was almost fifty Ages in the meditation of the structure of this stately Pallace And truely our beliefe may easily digest this that his omnipotency would make her fit to be the Mother of his Son Empresse of this lower world and the blessed Conduit through which should passe the mystery of mans Redemption Yet finde I a ridiculous description of her in Epiphanius a Priest of Constantinople who affirmes that her Face was of the colour of Wheate her visage long and her nose sutable her haire yellow and her eye-browes blacke But what authority he hath for this neither I nor I thinke he himselfe can well tell for surely simple Antiquity was not either curious or skilfull to deliver it by tradition or picture to posterity I verily beleeve he had it from his owne dreames or rather fancy Mopsa is as much beholding to our incomparable and inimitable Sydney for a delineation as is my divine subject to this curious Impertinent Whether her beauty chiefly consisted in colour in Symmetry of parts or both I know not sure I am the streame of other more judicious pious Authors carries me not into an opinion but a strong beleefe of her heavenly forme Cardinall Cajetan and Galatinus with what truth I cannot say certainely with more probability then he maintaine that her excellent temperature her conformity of members her firme and constant Complexion free'd her from all contagion and diseases And Dyonisius goes further affirming that she was no other then a walking Spring Such variety of sweet odours her very pores breath'd out on all that came neare her as we reade of Alexanders living body and the Aegyptian Carkasses which by a thin spare dyet observed in life even after death sent forth a most sweet perfume Sylvanus Razzius recounts a pleasing story of a certaine Clerke who by many prayers implor'd and obtain'd the blessing of her sight but with this condition that he should see her but with one eye and that one he should lose He willingly embrac't it but when she appear'd drest in all her Beames not being able with one eye to take a full view of her he opened the other also chusing rather to forfeit his sight for ever then to loose one minute of the inconceiveable content he enjoyed in the sight of so glorious a spectacle Were this true it would make a brave example of a devout soule ravisht with the view of a divine object If the Inne was so splendent so sumptuous what may we thinke of the amiable guest that lodg'd in it her minde beset with thoughts cleare and radiant as her owne eyes He that dares attempt the expression of these her internall gifts is ignorant of her sublimity he who dares not knows not her humanity her sweetnesse As no stile can ascend so high as her exalted worth so on the other side none can descend so low as her Humility Encourag'd therfore by her meeknesse not my owne sufficiencie I shall endeavour to limme her soule in little since in great neither my time nor ability will let me which will appeare an enterprise as hardy and vaine as his who should strive to limmit the light or circumscribe the Ayre Know then modest Reader and receive this knowledge with the same extasie and zeale I write it that her internall luster was farre greater then her externall like in this unto the Tents of Kedar as soone cover'd with dust and almost burned up with the heat of the Sunne as soone beaten and shaken with tempestuous weather but in the meane time inwardly all glittering with glory and magnificence O ye Angels to you it is onely given not to sinne but on her is conferr'd what you cannot merit to beare and the reparation of mans ruine The Apostles those holy Tapours of the primitive Church sometimes burnt dimme and were obscur'd with the fogge of sinne but her brightnesse nothing vitious could lessen much lesse utterly extinguish She was indeed vertues prime and great example and all the accomplisht women of the Ages past present or to come have grace and happinesse to the full in being called her imperfect Coppies Here my Invention treads a Maze and my heart is divided betweene an earnest desire to praise her to the height and a holy feare lest in that praise I should trench on Gods own peculiar Attributes That she was no way inferiour to her Sonne according to the flesh I dare not with some avouch who magnifie her in a phrase that violates her modesty and makes
to compose which the East and the West joyned their treasures but a Crowne in the making where of every vertue and all the Graces had a hand Nor did any vaine mortall place it on her sacred Temples but God himselfe who thought nothing too deare nor omitted any ornament that might embellish this goodly edifice wherein himselfe meant to reside Having thus adorn'd and honour'd her he plac'd her in this lower world for the good and admiration of all for the conversation of a few Though borne on earth she lived here like a Native of Heaven As we may guesse at the neatnesse of a house by the entry into it so we may judge of her lifes remainder by the very beginning Sabellicus affirmes that she no sooner saw the light but she ador'd the Creator of it and lifted up her heart and eyes to the great Infuser of all her incomparable excellencies She lov'd God ere she had seene man The defect of her tongue could not hinder the operation of her soule in which ere she could speake she acknowledg'd his unspeakeable goodnesse In her Religion preceded the use of reason and she apprehended Gods mercies long ere she was capable of his nature and wisedome Ere she could utter holy words she made holy signs by which she made knowne the sanctity of her heart The first word she learn'd to lispe was Iehovah She sent forth many a sigh for sinne not having committed any and bewailed that of which she was utterly ignorant The rowling of the cradle put her in minde that she was newly enter'd into the tempest of this life the infinite dangers whereof to escape she made Vertue her Pilot. We will not here with some Writers of her Life dispute whether or no she had the same ordinary Education with other children nor with them affirme that she entred the Temple at three yeares old and lived close by the Altar and was fed miraculously by an Angell as also that it was there revealed to her that she should be deliver'd of the Messias I will not make one steppe out of Gods own path frō which I never yet saw the greatest wit to swerve but it was in danger of sticking fast Yet hath a pious charity often swallowed more than all this If from the hand of an Angell she there received food naturall or supernaturall sure I am the wonder is not so great as that of the Incarnation where the wombe included the Word And why should we with difficulty beleeve that this white spotlesse soule was illuminated with Revelations by the divine object of her chaste vowes who undoubtedly deserved to be rapt up if it were possible a story higher than was Saint Paul It is likely enough saith Mantuan God would have the Temple of his Spirit to dwell in the Temple of his service The same Author affirmes that she there liv'd a pretty Nun and Spunne and wove the sacred Vestments till her eleventh or twelfth yeare when her prudency and shame and the care of her Reputation forbade her to accompany even the very Priests themselves men whom God had selected out of the Masse of the vulgar to teach his Will to instruct his people and to sing his praise These curiosities and bold conjectures let us rather beleeve then contest with the broachers for it is wisedome to grant what we cannot confute Let us then imagine that this holy Recluse confined her body to this sacred solitude and a spare diet and warily kept her soule from the surfets to which carnall delights invite all things humane And it is consonant both to reason and truth that her exercise there was pious like the place They who goe about to take away her writing and reading tongue are impiously ridiculous since in evidently appeares that she was well read in the Scriptures by her divine Hymne uttered in Zacharies house On her reading attended Meditation on her Meditation Prayer or her Prayer Action as the louely fruit of the precedent Thus busied the day left her the night found her Her sleeping cogitations we may suppose were sutable to her waking and her very dreames divine She had not a thought that was her owne all belong'd to God She was slow to speake saith Sabellicus but ready to obey all holy advice Her tongue was not so swift as her Wit which made it follow for direction in all the requisites of speech In a word she might well usurpe that of the Church When I was a little one I was pleasing to the most high When upon mature deliberation she left the Temple she still liv'd as if she had beene in it Though in body she was sociable she fetter'd her soule from wandring abroad her true conversation being in heaven This flourishing Vine planted her selfe amongst the Olives She was more choice of her company then of her food or rayment both which God knows were course enough She knew temperancy to be Gods and Natures Favorite in that it conduceth to the service of the former and the preservation of the later She therefore made this heavenly vertue judge of her Appetite lest it should long after excesse the mother of all uncleannesse Her soule gave laws to her body which it could not infringe without the injunction of a strict pennance She devour'd Gluttony it selfe and made the flesh subject to the command of the spirit Her fare saith Cedrenus required no vessell nor need she to wash her hands after her greatest meale Her dyet defide the fire as of no use From the Earths face the Cows dugge and the Fountains brimme she readily fetched her sustinance She was as ignorant of the Persian luxury as the superstition To this her cloathing was correspondent for which her backe was beholding to her fingers Her hands were the purveyours to her other members She had one eye fixed on heaven and the other cast upon the earth being intentive on the Glories of the one and the Necessities of the other and at once acted Martha and Magdalene It is very credible that she sowed and spunne and maintain'd life with labour Hee who gives life to all things suffer'd his then adopted and since naturall mother to gaine her living with sweat and care that her example might give pride the checke and teach Majesty Humility In her he made manifest that mortall felicity is not the parent of the immortall She was not solicitous for the feather the looking-glasse or any outward bravery being onely carefull to cover her shame and at once to expell two deadly enemies to her foule and body pride and cold Her outward simplicitie was in all things answerable to her inward Well now she began to write woman and her fifteenth yeare approached and hand in hand with the increase of time went the acquisition of all Graces Her least perfection would render another most accomplisht In her all vertues were at strife all overcame Nothing was here meane she being no other then an union of
Kingdome shall be no end To this her answer was How shall that be since I know no man It is true it is true most blessed Virgin thou knowest no man but let thy modesty rest secure for the operation of God and not of man is here required God should never be conceived in thee wert thou not a Virgin nor borne of thee shouldest thou not remaine such Thou canst not be spotted with the conception or birth of an issue so immaculate This feare is as needlesse as that of defiling thy fairest fingers with the purest fountaine If Obededon having received the Arke within his walles was so enriched with all manner of Treasure that Felicity was voyced to have descended from heaven into his house what shall we judge of thy supreme blisse O glorious Virgin who art not to be the receptacle of a wooden Arke but of his only Sonne With confidence therefore consent to thy owne happinesse and the Redemption of all Humanity But indeed I do not wonder at her astonishment when I consider her bashfulnesse Mee thinks I see her now casting her eyes up to heaven now fixing them on the earth and now againe on the Ambassadour himselfe resolving to give up her soule rather then her virginity Harsh must the word conception needs sound to her who was a votary nere to know man whose onely love was prayer whose onely childe was piety But when the Angell urged Gods will she forthwith yeelded a handmaid to her Lords desire Let us intentively listen to the text And the Angel answer'd and said unto her The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God And behold thy cousen Elizabeth shee hath also conceived a sonne in her old age and this is the sixt moneth with her who was called barren For with God nothing shall bee impossible And Mary said Behold the handmaid of the Lord bee it to mee according to thy word See here united an incomparable humility and an obedience even unto death For the consenting to be the mother of God was not easie to her in that a meek and humble spirit with greater difficultie ascends the highest steppe of Honours Throne then a proud descends thence to the bottome it being a thing in nature farre harder to climbe then to come downe If any man shall yet rest unsatisfied and shall make a further enquirie after this difficulty he may please to consider that her humility ballanc't her Sonnes exalted and her owne dejected estate and as well meditated the care the diligency the reverence and obsequiousnes as the dignity and excellency of her whom God would vouchsafe the most glorious title of Mother She wisely weighed that the Angels were not worthy to wait on him and therefore the service of her whole life must as farre exceed as the name of Gods Mother did excell that of Servant or Angell If Saint Peter yet in the dawn of Grace could so clearly discerne his Masters greatnesse as that he cryed out Depart from me a sinner as deeming himselfe unworthy of his presence If the Centurion for the same respect thought his house too base to receive him what should she thinke who was not to take him into her ship or her lodging but into her wombe where he was to remaine not a visitant but a dweller Full well also she understood that her consent was not onely required to be the parent of the Almighty but the Spouse also of his holy Spirit to whose inspirations she ought a greater obedience then others having received from the same spirit a greater measure of grace and honour She clearly foresaw that she was not onely chosen to conceive the Son of God to bring forth to nurse and governe him but also perforce to yeeld him up such being the divine pleasure to a three and thirty yeares persecution and lastly to the cursed death of the crosse the salvation of others depending on his destruction And that she did foresee all this plainly appeares by the speech of the Angell to her who after he had foretold the conception and birth of Christ added And he shall be called Iesus that is a Saviour An awfull reverence and an inconceiveable joy divided without doubt her all-holy heart when she contemplated her future being a mother to the Messias Can a man imagine any thing more difficult more bitter for humane nature to overcome Yet did her active vertue vanquish all these impediments and with an humble ravisht soule she expected the entrance of him into her sacred wombe whom already she had surely seated in her heart Here before we proceed to her conception we must observe two things not amply and fully enough express'd very remarkable in the Angelicall salutation First the dignity of the Ambassadour next the worth of her to whom his Embassy was directed together with her many vertues equally eminent in this divine Dialogue Concerning the first he was not a man but an Angell neither an Angell of an inferiour order but of the supreme Hierarchy which choise and pure spirits having received infinite ornaments and graces from their Lord and Master retained still his favour and ever stood before him S. Gregory stiles him a principall Angell treating of principall things Some have not feared to call him the supreme Angell as Damascen and others Truth will answer for him that amongst all the celestiall spirits none are so predicated in holy Writ as he and Michael to whom the Declaration and Exposition of so high Mysteries so often were committed as in Daniel Zachary and Mary is specified Some will have his name to signifie God and man and that this Etymology containes a miraculous mystery Amongst these is Proculus Arch-Bishop of Constantinople Geber saith he signifies man El God alluding to his Embassy which treated of his approaching birth who was both God and man Saint Bernard judgeth the servant of Abraham to have beene a type of Gabriel for he was sent by his Master not to seek any Virgin that came next to hand but such a one as the Lord God had prepared for the Sonne of his Lord. This Gabriel saith Saint Chrysostome the Painters present to us winged not that God created him so but to denote the sublimmity and agillity of the celestiall Nature as also to admonish us that with gratefull hearts wee acknowledge him to have for our cause descended from his highest habitation And sweetly Chrysologus An Angell treated with Mary concerning our salvation because an Angell had dealt with Eue touching our damnation This blessed Spirit and Saint Iohn the Evangelist Damianus compares to two Lyons which carefully guard this our sacred subject I will not here seeke to satisfie the over-curious and needlesse doubts of Luther and others whether she knew Gabriel to be an Angell or no nor whether or no
apprehension layes hold on the mercie of God in Christ And this goodnesse of God towards us makes our sinnes more odious even in our own eies no otherwise then the tender kindnesse of his Father made the prodigall childe more clearly see his owne errour and disobedience For this makes that speech of God to the Iewes When you come into the Land of promise then you shall know your sinnes as if he should have said How often have you distrusted me and not onely murmur'd against me but abandon'd me and ador'd Idols making them your guides and attributing to them the benefits you have received from me so the regenerated Christian being once entred into the spirituall Kingdome of Christ sees more clearely his sinnes then he did before his calling as having received a greater Light The excellency of this vertue in a Christian is beyond humane expression Not amisse a learned Father of the Church stiles this the Treasurer of all other vertues The antient Christians commonly usurpe Humility for vertue it selfe Christ cals it poorenesse of Spirit and discoursing of mans Beatitude sets it in the Front This and Pride are at endlesse oddes for this is sociable and loves company wheras pride affects solitude and is for the most part alone In the Empire of Pride two cannot stand quietly together whereas in the dominions of Humility an infinite number may be placed without either combat or strife Pride is never void of feare and doubt whereas this stands secure with Ionas in the bottome of the Sea Pride is ever ambitious of the first seate this of the lowest and therefore is as much extoll'd by all men as the other cride downe Pride assumes all to it selfe and is full of selfe-love This refuseth even its owne due and undervalues it selfe as knowing that it can justly call nothing its owne but sinne Pride stormes at an injury receiv'd this embraceth all occasions that may exercise its patience Pride like all things puft up and light is wavering and blown here and there by every gust of Fortune this in stability is a rock not in hardnesse being soft and white as the Downe of Swans Yet though this Vertue be of all other the most innocent and submissive it is withall the most powerfull for as nature so God abhors vacuity and therefore finding the humble utterly empty of affection presumption and what else is derogatory to his honour hee fils him with his grace and spirit What should I say more Humility is fearelesse in danger free in bondage rich in poverty quiet in persecution noble and gloriorious in ignominy lofty in lownesse joyfull in anguish and happy in the midst of misery This made Moses speechlesse Abraham to acknowledge himselfe dust and ashes Iohn the Baptist to esteeme himselfe a meer Voyce and Saint Paul to account himselfe the greatest of all sinners This Iewell was so faire in Christs eye that to purchase it he underwent not only poverty misery and all indignities but even execration and malediction What would we judge of a great Prince who in stead of enlarging his Territories should abase himselfe so farre as to become a poore subject Why this did Christ who being of all things the greatest and best from all eternity by humility became of all the lowest and descended even to the profession of service to the meanest of his creatures It is also an evident marke of his humility that he chose to be borne of simple and obscure Parents whereas he might if he would have allyed himselfe to the greatest Princes This gave occasion to the Iewes to mocke him saying Is not Ioseph his Father and Mary his Mother True it is that he was of the House of David but when he was borne it was in its declination and of no repute As the Moone fourteene dayes together to our sight encreaseth and fourteene againe diminisheth till at length it be seene no more so in the fourteene generations from Abraham to David the House of David received advancement in honour and splendour and was in his time at the full height but in the fourteene following generations it was in the wane and in the dayes of Christ neere utter extinction And whereas he might have inserted Sarah Rebecca and many other Saints in his Genealogy he placed Tamar Raab Ruth Bersabe and others of an incestuous race to shew the world that though he hated sinne he abhorred not sinners What man is there who having a lascivious wife detected of whoredome will take her againe Yet Christ having espoused the adulterate soule of man receives her into grace and favour after she hath committed millions of adulteries To this effect saith the Prophet Though thou hast committed fornication with many Lovers yet returne and I will receive thee Who is there that being injur'd will not onely forgive the Offendor but seeke his friendship I and lay downe his life for him All this did Christ who being grievously and hainously abused by man not onely demanded his pardon as if he himselfe had beene faulty but made an oblation of his owne heart-bloud to quench the wrath of God justly conceived against him Another admirable act of his humility was that God having given him all power in heaven and earth in so much that he could at his pleasure have destroyed Iudas whose treason he foreknew all the revenge he tooke was to wash his feet and to call him Friend when he came to apprehend him To these I may adde his living in obscurity from his twelfth to his thirtieth yeere in all which time we reade not any thing of him I will conclude with all the crosses and calamities he endur'd of which in his life he never reaped any fruit and at his death had his Innocency onely predicated by one and that one a Thiefe In a word during his abode here below whether you consider his Doctrine Actions or Passion he was not so much delighted with the exercise of any vertue as of this gentle meek one that so he might imprint it as his owne sacred stampe or marke in those mindes which he would have known to be his And above the rest into the chast bosome of his dearest Mother did he send this divine gift before his birth by infusion and afterwards engrafted it there by example And this we may well perceive by her so closely following the patterne that she precedes all but himselfe in this milde offencelesse vertue In this rare quality as she had an unequall'd Master so she prov'd a matchlesse Schollar He who is ignorant of the excellency she hath attain'd to in this one perfection I dare pronounce him withall ignorant of Gods holy Writ and incapeable of all goodnesse derived thence Yet some sacrilegious theeves there are who robbe this beautifull Temple of its prime ornament this sweetest Garland of its fairest Flower They maintaine me thinks the earth should shake it selfe and them when they utter it that she was humbled not humble
These I may more properly averre to be learning not learned They may with as much justice deprive the Rose of her blush the Lilly of her white the Violet of her purple and the Christall of its clearnesse as her of this pretious ornament which she obtein'd by a studious pious imitation and preserv'd with a holy care But my wonder is the lesse when I contemplate the continuall Antipathy betweene Impudency and Innocencie Whosoever shall settle his meditation on her discourse with the Angell her pilgrimage to her cousens house and her divine Hymne there though he have sworn himselfe the slave of prejudice he will breake his chaine and reassume so much freedome as to declare her truly humble Sure I am if they would have her halfe a degree humbler they make her wholly abject To my thinking these sixe words alone Behold the handmaid of the Lord are able to convince of errour six thousand such shallow Authors To those who are plac'd in an extreame height all things below seeme farre smaller then indeed they are but to themselues they appeare the same but here it fals out otherwise where the introducer of one pregnant blessing that contein'd all other into the world and therefore worthily placed above it thinks all things under her farre greater then her selfe and above her in value Certainly all the ancient Fathers with one consent affirme that she deserv'd to be Empresse of all others who humbled her selfe below them all For my owne part I am so transported with the meditation of her meeknesse that me thinks I heare her thus expressing the humility of her sanctified heart to the heavenly Nuntio Is this a delightfull dreame or a pleasing vision that thus ravisheth my soule What a lovely prospect is this What do mine eyes behold Cedars stooping to shrubs Mountains to vallies The Ocean courting a Riveret I discover more then all this I see Heaven descending to Earth the supreame Majesty to humane misery a blessed Angell to a wretched mortall True it is I am the structure of Gods owne hands but an edifice not cleare not faire enough for the habitation of his onely Sonne Alas alas I am a vessel too uncleane to enclose a Deity Is this flesh of mine pure enough to clothe purity it selfe I am not worthy to be reputed his childe much lesse his parent Oh lend me thy harmonious voyce thy heavenly Rhetoricke thou celestiall Oratour that I may render him thanks and praise though not equall yet nearer to the grace I have received I deny not but wee see his Name written in every thing here below but in obscure Characters like the discovery of the Sunne in a puddle Thou art nearer him in essence in presence in goodnes in knowledge and canst finde out words more suteable to his worth Wherefore I earnestly beseech thee in thy best phrase to present the unfained gratitude of his most humble Hand-maid who esteems her selfe unworthy to touch much more to conceive him Neither shalt thou thy selfe depart without most humble thanks for the eternall honour thou hast done me by this visit It is probable enough she said much to this purpose this forme of speech being agreeable to her disposition and demeanour To conclude this point six cleare demonstrations of her Humility eminent above the rest the holy Writ offers to our serious and reverend consideration The first in this submissive conference with the Angel The second in the house of Zachary where the more her vertue is predicated by her cousen the more she humbles her selfe The third in her delivery where she meekly submitted her selfe to all wants and inconveniences The fourth in her Purification when she observ'd the custome of other uncleane sinfull women and rankt her selfe with them The fifth in betrothing her selfe to a Carpenter and in paying as great an obedience to him as ever woman did to husband and in joyning with him in labour to get a poore living to maintaine themselues and their Sonne The sixth in having a care of the poore and in associating them at all times But of all these I shall treate more at large in the course of this divine story whose order now brings me to the mysticall conception of her blessed Sonne our onely Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ The heavenly Ambassadour having executed his great Masters command departs leaves God and Man in the wombe and the Sonne of Righteousnesse is now risen in the virginall orbe For this is the tenent of the true and ancient Catholicke Church that she conceiv'd immediately after the Angels speech whom I had rather follow then accompany many of these later times who oppose it I will onely produce a few testimonies and that of Gregory the great shall be the Leader The Angell saith he declaring and the Spirit approaching instantly the Word is in the wombe and presently in the wombe the Word is made flesh the incommutable essence coeternall to him with the Father and the holy Ghost still remaining Him secondeth Saint Austin of all the Fathers the most subtle and sollid These ensuing are his owne words When the Angell saluted the Virgin then did the holy Ghost make her fruitfull then did that woman conceive a man without a man then was shee replenisht with grace then shee receiv'd the Lord that hee might be in her who made her And in another place he writeth thus Make no delay O Virgin say but the word speedily to the Messenger and receive thy Sonne give thy Faith and feele the vertue of it Behold saith she the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy word Here was no delay at all the divine Agent returneth and Christ enters the Virginall wombe The mother of God is suddenly made fruitfull and is predicated happy throughout all ages She presently conceived the Divinity of the Word without the fellowship of a man In this celebration of the Nuptials betweene God and nature while my affection advanceth one steppe my reverence retires another Here Reason is transformed into Admiration Eloquence into silence Some are rather solicitous to search into the profundity of the Mystery than humbly to acknowledge it and by Reason seeke to pry into that which excludes all reason What was before time it selfe is believed not comprehended by man for that transcends the understanding of man which was before his nature No eyes but those of Faith can penetrate this Wonder All things in God are above reason nothing above Faith Here a Virgin conceives without the losse of Chastity a Maide remaines an immaculate Mother Eternity is here encompass'd by time glory masked in misery A thing finite containes Infinity a mortall encloseth eternity Here the Sonne is as antient as his Father elder than his Mother and is made of her whom he made Here is a concurrence or a congregation of Miracles It is a miracle that in the forming of such and so great an issue the aide of man should be
utterly excluded and that as he was man he was onely made of the pure bloud of the Virgin It is a miracle that the ordinary number of dayes required in the forming of a humane body is not here observ'd but in a very moment without succession of time a body is fram'd and 〈◊〉 mated But a greater miracle 〈◊〉 all these is that at the same instant wherein the soule is joyned to the body the Divinity and Humanity are united in one person and the eternall Word is inseperably linkt with the flesh so that the Son of God and man is the same in the Virgins wombe As for the manner of her conception I doe not more mervaile at the supernaturall strangenesse of it then I doe at the daring inquisition and sensuall expression of some who relate it in words as grosse as their owne understandings I only wish I could free the most learned and ingenious Erasmus from the just imputation of a lascivious folly in the Essaying to unfold this sacred Mystery He compares God to a Woer the Angell to a sollicitour 〈◊〉 Mary to the beloved and proceeds further than either the divine Will or humane modesty permit He treates of this venerable this stupendious encounter betweene the Divinity and Humanity in the same amorous phrase with which the Poets describe the wanton meeting of Dido and Aeneas in the Cave I will not rip up the particulars in which he is faulty this way lest I runne into the same errour which in him I reprehend and imprint a blush on the cheekes of my bashfull Readers This conception was as spotlesse and as cleare from all pollution as is a sweet Odour when it enters the sense Here saith Saint Austin the Word is the Husband the Eare the Wife in this glorious splendour is the Sonne of God conceiv'd in this purity generated Of the same cleare and cleane sense is Rupertus on this very passage When the truely believing Maide saith he opening at once her minde and mouth said Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word in the very instant to make good the words of the Angell the holy Ghost came upon her and enter'd through the open dores of her Faith What part did he enter first the Chappell of her chaste bosome then the Temple of her holy and incorrupt wombe Her bosome that she might be made a Prophet esse her wombe that shee might become a mother Now for the time of this conception whether or no it were precisely on the 25. day of March I will not strive to chaine any mans beleefe to a resolution herein though I finde many old and great Doctors of the Church to have held it for a truth Many questions here arise which I have neither time nor desire to discusse I will onely looke into the deportment of this incomparable creature after that she knew she was become the receptacle of a Deity The meere apprehension of such an unheard of honour in other women would have begotten pride arrogancy and disdaine not onely of all their sexe but of mankinde it selfe They would have repin'd at their breathing of common ayre and scorning the earth they trod on have nourisht an ambition to walke on the battlements of heaven But this Maide above imagination excellent the more she was grac'd and dignified the more she was humbled When all men admir'd and even ador'd her and judg'd her worthy to be presently assumed into heaven she was ready to creepe into the center of the earth and there to hide her thinking that every one pointed at her as undeserving that supreme dignity confer'd on her by God himselfe And whereas others would have studied nothing but rich Tissues and embroyderies to weare and the most costly Persian Carpets to tread on she meditated simplicity in apparell and a good paire of shooes to beare her afoot journey over the steepe and flinty mountaines intending to bestow a Visit on her cousin Elizabeth Lu. 1. The Visitation 39. And Mary arose in those dayes and went into the Hill Country 40. And entred into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth 41. And it came to passe that when Elizabeth heard y e salutation of Mary the babe leaped in her wombe Many of her kinde and in her high estate and condition would hardly have acknowledg'd or receiv'd their kindred much lesse have trotted over hils and dales to make a tender of their duties to them Here is a rare spectacle Humility climing a thing as contrary to the nature of it as it is to things ponderous of themselues to flie This soveraigne of her sexe having the celestiall Monarch included in the narrow compasse of her wombe made haste to passe those steep stony and rugged hils the willingnesse of her minde enabling the feeblenes of her body And to say the truth whether should she whose worth exalted her above all things else go but to places as eminent in scituation as she in sweetnesse of disposition Whither should this Eagle flie but to the summity of the world Sure I am she could not sore above he pitch of her owne value Shee or sooke the sweet embellisht valies where with ease she might have walked and betooke her selfe to the craggy mountaines which not without infinite labour and â—aine she could ascend By these â—ough and uneven wayes have the holy Martyrs themselues mounted the promontory of vertue and have found the end of their journey as sweet as their travell bitter O vertue the minds that travell to thy Indies how rich they returne They come backe laden with those pretious ornaments that beautifie this life and those Panchayan odours that sweeten the deprivation of it and perfume posterity True it is that thy seas an rough to him that lancheth into the deepe appeare at first terrible but if with confidence constancy he plowâ— them up and with a fixed patience endures the frownes of an angry skie he shall at length discover a calmâ— smooth as thy owne forehead on which Fortune Time and vice could never yet imprint one wrinckle Vnder thy sacred safe conduct hath many a superstitiously devout distressed femal pilgrim after the endurance of heat and cold without of hunger and thirsâ— within and other miserable accident innumerable arrived with comfort at the supposed shrine of this our blessed Saint who here having no other guard than thy potent selfe exposeth her dainty feet to the knowne cruelty of flints hard and sharpe alike and her sacred person to labour and infinite hazards incident to the poore Traveller She who meriteth to sit under a cloth of state beset with the earths most precious stones and a presence throng'd with Empresses as happy waiters graced in this attendance doth here commit her self into the hands of solitude and danger Thus did the Spouse of the holy Spirit overcome the narrow and difficult paths of these steepe mountaines Charity leading her by one
especially are remarkable First their forwardnesse in believing Secondly the speed they made to see what they had believed and Thirdly to publish what they had seene That they quickly believed appeares by the haste they made to see They no sooner saw him but they found him to be the King of Israell indeed yet withall to be a Shepheard They instantly discerne this to be the Shepheard who was to lay downe his life for his flocke The Prince of all Shepheards whose sheepe-fold is the world The Shepheard that was to seperate the Goates from the Sheepe They discover'd this to be the immaculate Lambe that was to take away the sinnes of the world They disclos'd this Lamb to be the greatest Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah Whom now they looke on in the Cratch Saint Iohn shall hereafter behold on his Throne These men in whom there was no guile as they could not deceive others so they could not in this be deceiv'd They needed not suspect any fallacy and therefore might safely relate this divine wonder to all they met The second witnesses of this Miracle are the Wise men After God had laid open the Treasure of his divine secrets to Idiots he shewes them also to the wise It seemes the Earth at this time was become the Booke of Gods greatest Mysteries and Heaven the Index In this they finde the Star of this King of the Iewes which having beene before the declarer of his Nativity they now make their guide in their journey The Starre performing this duty to its Creator at length brings them to Bethlem where they view him in the Crateh whose Nativity before they had found in the Heavens To him they doe Homage tender adoration and pay Tribute and opening their Treasures make him an oblation of Gold Incense and Mirrhe Whom before they had in vaine sought in the Heavens they now finde on the earth and in the most sorded part of it a Stable full of severall stinkes where he to whom none are worthy to be servants had two dull Beasts for his Companions Returne now you Sonnes of wisedome to your owne home by much more learned by more than much more happy than when you set out Heaven is now set open to you which before your unbeliefe kept shut against you If you be Chaldaeans or Persians or both spreade through those Nations the fame of that which you have seene Publish in all places this the greatest mystery of Piety which God is onely able to produce onely faith can apprehend Of all Creatures to man onely belongs the gift of Reason by the rule whereof he measures all things But doe not you doe so lest you fall not onely into an irreparable but a damnable errour Follow you the instruction of Faith and where ere you come with a holy Pride proclaime that God is manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seene by Angels reveal'd to Shepheards found out and ador'd by you your selves and hereafter to be assum'd and to sit in glory farre above those starres you daily read Goe and give out that there is nothing greater in Heaven than what you have found in a Stable Yet ere you depart convince the stiffe-necked Iewes of their lofty but grosse errour in diligently seeking to know God in that part wherein he will lye hid an◠in taking no notice of him i◠that part wherein he would be knowne in looking for 〈◊〉 Saviour from Heaven wh◠is already borne on earth Yet now I consider their obstinacy better I wish you 〈◊〉 spare your here fruitlesse advise for the eares of thi◠wicked generation is stopped their hearts obdurate and they are as fully resolved to goe on in their wickednesse as you in your journey Having proved his Nativity by these holy Testators let us now enter ourselves and view this pretty one in his narrow lodging lay our selves prostrate before him worship him and recreate our selues with the lovely object And that our delight may be the greater let us first behold him and his sweetest Mother a part and then both together But let us here shut out the Pharisees and barre them the sight of this Heavenly Infant who urge the Law and reject him the Author of it Let us exclude the Arrians who deny his coequalitie with the Father and the Sabellians who confound the Trinitie of which he is distinctly one and hold that there is in it one Essence and one person and the Samosatenians who derogate from his Nature and avouch the Word which truly he is to be no other then a vanishing sound Nor let us onely keepe out these but thewhole swarme also of Atheists and Hereticks Let the Philosophers too stay without who not so impious yet more ignorant cannot dive to the bottome of this Mystery But to all those who are honour'd in the assumption and profession of his glorious Name a free accesse is granted Enter then you little flock you few whom his Father hath bestowed on him and se◠him who when he gave the Law appeared in Fire now he offers Grace involv'd in Hay Yet in this dejected posture in this course manner while he lay he wanted not a whole Army of Angelicall spirits that declar'd his Birth to Men and they who had before chanted his praises as he sate in Glory now sing his goodnesse lying in the Cratch Though he have a hoomely roofe over his head the East observes his approach Though the poverty of his Humanitie obscures his Deity the Starres in Heaven make it known Behold him who came humble to the humble for the humble and yet his humility is above all sublimity Reverently and intentively look on him who descended from Heaven to Earth who came to you into you who is borne in the night borne in the midst of Winter and borne after the wretched humane condition naked and none offer him assistance Swadling clothes are wanting some ragges are found out a Cradle is missing a Manger is at hand Here he cryes to you and holds up his pretty hands to Heaven which he cals to witnesse that he can humble himselfe no lower Can you view this humble this mercifull spectacle and not weepe your selues into marble O speedily put on sackcloth besprinckle your selues with Ashes kneele downe in the dust and dung under the Manger where your Lord lyes knock your selues on the bosomes fetch sighs and grones from the bottom of your hearts repay him the teares he lent you and by your sad gesture and deportment demonstrate how much you are bound to him who suffered for you even in his Birth Having seene the Sonne now stedfastly place your eyes upon the Mother Behold the unpolluted Mayd a great part of the wonder sitting neare the Manger being voyd of all lust chast in Soule and Body who doth now confesse that of which she is not capable without a miracle to wit that she is a Mother and with fixed eyes expressing now joy now admiration sees her selfe wedded to
foot was and ought to be more to mee than the eternall sleepe of Lazarus could be to thee And as thy teares for him were tokens of thy humane nature not signes of thy diffidence in that thou knew'st he would forthwith arise so are mine for thee witnesses of my wretched estate not of my distrust who am assured of thy speedy resurrection Nor doe I onely grieve my owne griefe for as for mans sake I rejoyce in thy Fathers Grace who delivers thee to death and in thy Charity who dost suffer it So likewise in mans behalfe I am griev'd that he should be the cursed cause of those thy extreme torments for as not to joy in the benefits thy death hath brought with it would argue his ingratitude so not to condole for the tortures that attend it would demonstrate his cruelty And here I faithfully promise thee that both I while life and thy Church while the world doth last shall yearely spend this dolefull time of thy Tragicall expiration in Prayer fasting severity of discipline maceration of the flesh and contrition of the spirit as becomes thy mournefull Mother and thy gratefull Spouse to doe Thus condoling thus bemoaning hers and the generall losse she attended his herse to the Sepulchre provided by Ioseph where never man was laid before for it was not fit that Incorruptibility should succeed corruption in the same lodging This fragrant Flower was no sooner set in the ground but she sent many a deare drop after it to fasten it at the root for she knew within three dayes it should spring up againe not to grow in the earth but to be translated into Heaven there for ever to flourish and perfume the celestiall habitation Nor were her eyes saith Damascen closed with his Monument but watched themselves almost blinde with a greedy expectation to see the temple of his body built up againe which three dayes since was destroyed After many a longing looke she espied the Tombe to open and her onely joy to issue forth whom full well she knew by the countenance and figure of his Humanity but farre better by the cleere proofes of his Godhead for the Graves delivered up their dead many of which appear'd to their friends in the holy City Some and those of great authority in the Church affirme that after his Resurrection she of all others saw him first and wheras the Scripture seemeth to inferre that Mary Magdalen first beheld him they thus expound it That the Evangelists would not make his Mother the first witnesse of his Resurrection though indeed she was knowing that her testimony by the Iewes would be more suspected than that of Mary Magdalen I dare not positively conclude any thing herein but I may safely maintaine that this her delight for his Resurrection counterpois'd her griefe conceived for his death In her was now made good that of the Psalmist According to the multitude of the griefes of my heart thy Comforts have rejoyced my soule and that of her Sonne Blessed are they that mourne for they shall bee comforted And who makes question but that she who with such unutterable pleasure discover'd his Resurrection faithfully and closely waited on him till his Ascention She who was as inseparable to him as his shadow without doubt was on the Mount Olivet with other of the faithfull when in the sight of them all he ascended She heard doubtlesse his last words received his last benediction and her sight waited on him till the clowds imbrac't him which it in vaine essay'd to penetrate What Soule not in selfe transported with the view of a heavenly object can suppose much lesse expresse what her contentment was when she saw her owne flesh flye above the reach of Envie into the Armes of Glory When she beheld this high Priest his Sacrifice ended and God fully appeas'd enter Heaven there to sit on the right hand of his Father and to be the uncessant and eternall Mediatour betwixt him and man With bended knees erected hands and eyes she worships him ascending and when her sight failes her adoration continues Her zeale passeth all the orbes betweene him and her with greater facility and subtility then the Lightning shooteth through the Ayre Great is the vigour and force of the Spirit when all things else set apart it is wholly intentive on the Meditation of its Creatour When by contemplation it is separated from the body it thinkes onely on him lives onely to him and is as it were drown'd in an inundation of his love When it hath extinguisht the scorching lawlesse desires of the flesh and kindled the holy ones of the Spirit the body rebels no longer but becomes obedient to it in all things When it hath once fixed its eyes on this beloved object it never removeth them thence When it is once illuminated with the beames of the holy Ghost it is presently turn'd into all Eye all Spirit all Light no otherwise than those things the fire once layes hold on are turn'd into fire it selfe Of those who live in Wedlocke it is said that they are two in one flesh and why may it not be said of Christ and the Soule wedded to him that they are two in one Spirit And if ever it might be reported of any surely of this Holy Virgin who though she was devided from her Redeemer in Body yet in soule she was united to him When her eyes were growne dimme with her so long dwelling on that part of Heaven where they left and lost him she cast them downe on the earth the poverty whereof she commiserated in that it was deprived of this one Iewell in value above all it had left And now She returnes into the holy City not disconsolate and dejected as other women are when they lose their onely childe but with a cheerfull look for her Sons victory who had triumphed not onely over the Iew but death and hell it selfe She made her will lacky Gods and though she desired to be dissolved and be with Christ yet since it was his best pleasure she should continue longer here below she readily assented resolving by her example on earth to furnish heaven with Saints Dammianus sayes that after her Sonnes decease she remained ten daies in Prayer and Fasting expecting with a fervent longing the promised comming of the Spirit Saint Luke witnesseth that sixe score men and women were assembled in one rome and joyned in hearty prayer of the which Mary the Mother of IESUS was one And as he names her last so her wonted Humility perswades me that she had the last and lowest place and sate beneath the other sinfull women of inferiour quality in remembrance of her humble Lord now exalted And it is more than probable that she was present with the Apostles when the Holy Ghost came upon them and that she there received the first fruits of the Spirit After which time we reade no more of her in holy Writ For where and with whom how
could all the Engines of the world the flesh and the Divell hurt her more then can the vapours arising from the earth reach the holy inhabitants of Heaven And this opinion for ought I know I submit it to better judgements may without or profanation or blasphemy be admitted into all honest bosomes for if beyond the power of nature he preserved Ionas entire in the Whales Belly if he protected Daniel from the ravenous Lyons should not he secure her from Corruption whom he had adorn'd with so many vertues and dignities Next they hold that she was not onely without blemish but her very lookes sent forth such heavenly rayes that whosoever beheld them drew thence a vestall fire that never went out and vowed an everlasting Virginity If this be a truth it is a curious one and it is not materiall at all whether or no it be beleeved or rejected Thirdly that she conceiv'd and bore her Sonne not onely without paine the common Curse annexed to Childe-bearing but with infinite delight This also is a Curiosity and of no importance whether it be swallowed or no. Fourthly and lastly that she had a Frigidity of Soule which quencht in her all heat of carnall concupiscence This last priviledge is implyed in the first and may perchance safely be received The truth is we may securely give her all humane attributes not encroaching on the divine for she was in dignity above all but God himselfe Faith and Charity the fulnesse of the Law were in her at full She was in an active and contemplative life admirable The Tongue esteemed the worst part in a woman was in her the best which well might charme Eares offend them it could not Her Soule weigh'd her Conceptions and gave them a rayment of vertues owne hiew for certainly so cleere thoughts were apparell'd in as faire words She who both after her conception and at other times is commended to us by the sacred Scriptures for laying up all holy Sayings in her heart can we imagine that she could speake amisse Neither could she commit any undecent Act who liv'd in a Light to others inaccessible They who maintaine that for a time the whole Militant Church was in her alone have probability to backe them for I know not in whom else it could remaine when his Apostles Disciples Friends Kindred and all others forsooke Christ she onely excepted who would not leave him who from before his birth had stucke to her I will conclude with this Assertion That if ever the Soule of any mortall enjoyed here on earth the embraces of her heavenly Spouse and tooke from him a kisse sweeter than all the Easterne Odours this was she And here O blessed Virgin J leave to discourse further of thee and direct my speech to thee O thou eternall glory of thy sexe had the Queene of Sheba seene thee as she did Salomon shee had not so soone beene delivered out of the Trance into which her Admiration cast her In thee shee might have discovered all the perfections of which woman kinde is capable who wer 't indeed vertually thy sexe In thee Aspatia might have found her Modesty Livia her Prudency Sulpitia her Majestie and Gravity Cornelia her Patience Lucretia her Chastity Porcia her Fortitude Tanaquill her Industry Plautina her frugality and all these in eminency But why talke I of the Heathen to thee who didst not onely outstrip in manifold vertues all the Femall but the Masculine Saints themselves Thou didst excell Abel in Innocency Abraham in Faith Isaac in Obedience David in Gentlenesse the Prophets and Apostles in Piety and the Martyrs in Patience O thou whom Heaven would have of the same constancy purity and sublimity with it selfe thou art so farre from having an equall that all thy sexe cannot afford a worthy witnesse of thy Excellencies O thou Mother of the true Moses who never put on the yoke of Pharaoh but stood free in the middest of Egypt Thou rodde of Iesse alwaies straight who broughtst forth the fruit of life thou wert here a terrestriall Paradice whereinto Serpent never entred on which Gods malediction was never impos'd and hast no doubt now in the coelestiall Paradice a conspicuous seate above all the Angelicall orders and next thy glorifi'd Sonne himselfe For if Christs promise to all his fellow feeling members that if they suffer with him they shall raigne with him if they dye with him they shall live with him what eminent place in Heaven shalt thou have assigned thee who in soule didst suffer for him more than all his Martyrs O thou bashfull Morne that didst prâ—cede and produce our Sunne Thou Circumscription if J may so say of the uncircumscribed Thou roote to this Herbe of Grace Thou Mother of our Creatour Thou Nurse to him by whom all things are fed Thou Comprehender of the incomprehensible Thou bearer of him whose word sustaines the Globes Thou who didst impart flesh to him who wanted nothing else Thou Sarah thou Mother of many Nations who brought forth our Isaac our Laughter when a just sorrow conceiv'd for a losse esteem'd irreparable had clouded this inferiour world O pardon gratious Princesse my weake endeavours to summe up thy value which come as short of thee as my head does of Heaven Nothing that is not it selfe glorified can expresse thy glory to the height Thou deserv'st a Quire of Queenes here and another of Angels in Heaven to sing thy praises Were all the Earths brood the droppes the sands of the sea and the starres of heaven tongued they could not all expresse thee so well as silent extasie I confesse O my sweetest Lady that now I have said all I can of thee I have but but done like Timanthes a great Master of his Art who being to expresse the vastnesse of a Cyclops in a small table drew onely his Thumbe by which the spectators might judge of his large proportion To give thee an estimation answerable to thy merit is a thing impossible J must therefore be content to doe by thee as the antient Heathen did by the Images of their Gods on whose heads when by reason of their height they could not place the Crownes offer'd to their Deities they humbly layd them at their feet FINIS A Table of the principall things handled in the foregoing History HEr externall Beauty pag. 2 Her internall Beauty 6 Her Birth 11 Her Infancy 19 Her Betrothing 27 The salutation 29 Her Prudencie 52 Her opportune silence and caution of speech 54 Her faith 58 Her obedience 62 Her humility 64. 77. 160 Her conception 84 Her visitation 93 Her charity 102. 161. 173 Her Delivery 129 Her Purification 152 Her motherly care together with her conjugall faith and obedience 174 Her demeanour at her Sonnes death ibid. Her passive Fortitude and paience at the death of her Sonne 184 Her Lamentation 190 Her Assumption 209 Apostrophe Authoris 243 LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper for Iohn Waterson and are to be sold at his Shop