to compreheÌ„d and vvhen it knevv from vvhat hand it came and found it selfe to be in possession of an absolute principality ouer all the Creatures and did contemplace al those Hierarchies of Celestiall spirits in heauen who being prostrate in his sight did adore him in that happy instant as S. Paul affirmes Tell me saith doctour Auila if euer this can possibly be told with what loue would this soule being such a one loue him who had glorified it to such a height with what kind of desire would it couet that some occasion might be offered wherby it might haue meanes to please so mighty a Creatour and benefactour Are the tounges of Cherubims and Seraphims able to expresse this loue Let vs further adde sayth he that vpoÌ„ this extreme desire it was declared to the soule of Christ that the will of God was to saue maÌ„kind which had perished by the sinne of Adam and that this blessed Sonne of his should for the honor of God and in obedience to his holy will encharge it selfe with this worke and should take this glorious enterprize to hart and should neuer rest till he had brought it to a perfect end And (e) It is loue which setteth all causes and creatures on worke for the obtaining their end for that the way which all Causes and Creatures hold is to worke for loue since they all do worke for some end or other which they desire the loue wherof being conceaued in their hartes doth make them worke therfore since Christ our Lord was to take this enterprise of the redemption of mankind vpon him it followeth that he would loue men with so great a loue that for the desire which he had to see them remedied and restored to their Tytle of glory he would dispose himselfe to do and suffer whatsoeuer might be fit for such an end And now sayth D. Auila since that soule which was so ardently desirous to please the Eternall Father did know so well what it was to do with what kind of loue would it turne it selfe towards men for the louing and imbracing of them through the obedience which he carryed to his Father We (f) Note this comparison see that when a peece of Artillery dischargeth a bullet with store of powder and that the buller goes glancing as by way of brickwall from the place to which it was designed it beateth backe with so much greater force as it was carried thither with greater fury Since then the loue which this soule of Christ conceaued towards God did carry such an admirable force because the powder of Grace which was in a manner infinite did giue the impulse and when after it had proceeded in a right line to wound the hart of the Father it rebounded from thence to the loue of men with what kind of sorce and ioy would it turne towards them both in the way of loue and help This Consideration is made in effect as heer is lyes by the holy man Doctour Auila to shew the infinite loue of Christ our Lord to vs. Wherin (g) We must clyme towardes the knowledg of the loue of Christ our Lord by degres we may also yet further helpe our selues by rysing as by so many degrees through the seuerall loues which are borne by creatures to one another For we fee hovv vehemently men haue loued their frind vve see hovv men haue loued themselues vve see hovv Saints haue loued their Sanctifier but vvhat trash is all this if it be compared vvith the loue of Christ our Lord to God vvhich loue is both the ground and measure of his loue to vs. We may iustly therfore cry out in the vvay of extreme admiration Aug. CoÌ„fes lib. 11. cap. 9. Quis comprchendet quis enarrabit There is no tongue there is no povver created which can comprehend and much lesse declare the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of this loue The mystery of the Incarnation is more partiticularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is woÌ„derfully expressed therby CHAP. 10. FOR the restoring therfore the streÌ„gthning of our vveake and vvounded soules to the eternall honor and glory of God the Father and in obedience to his vvise and holy vvill did Christ our Lord vvith incomprehensible loue vndertake the worke of our Redemption and sollicitously procure our sanctification for as much as concerned him but that could not be completely wrought without our concourse Because as S. Austen saith vvhen he speaketh of God to man Qui tecreauit sine te non te saluabit sine te He that created thee without thee will (a) We must cooperate with the grace of God or else the merits of Christ our Lord will neuer be applied to vs. not saue thee without thy selfe In this enterprise he resolued to employ and as it were to giue himself away from the first instant of his precious life vntill the last Any one only act of his through the infinite value of the diuine person to vvhich both his soule and body were hypostatically vnited had not only byn sufficient but abundant euen ex rigore Iustitiae for the redemption both of this world as many millions more of worlds as the omnipotency of God could haue created howsoeuer there be * Caluin Sectaries who tremble not to say That he selt euen the paines of the very damned soules in that soule of his as if the worke of mans redemption could not haue beene wrought otherwise Where by the way it well appeares euen to halfe an eye whether the Catholike Doctrine or that other do erect a higher Trophee to the honor of Christ our Lord. But the while euery single act of his being indeed so all-sufficient for the reconciliation of man to God it followeth heere as will be also touched elsewhere that some one only act was performed by him in the way of Iustice to appease that infinite Maiesty offended and (b) Consider heeâ— and wonder at the ardent loue of Christ our Lord to man that all the rest which were so many millions as he alone is able to number were performed in the way of ardent and tender loue to vs. So that Dauid had all reason to maguify the mercy of Almighty God and to acknowledge that Copiosa apud eum redemptio Psalm 129. that it was no pinching or scant redemption which was prepared for vs but abundantly of ouer measure and downe-weight And now it the bounty of God the loue of our Lord Iesus to man were such that where one single act of his might haue serued the turne of our Redemption he would not yet be content with doing the lesse where he had meanes to expresse the more how much lesse would it be agreable to those bowells of his Charity and mercy which vnder that very name of tendernesse Lue. â—â— are so often celebrated by his owne holy spirit in holy Scripture that he should redeeme vs by another lesse glorious and gracious
contynue his generall custome in speaking softly but cryed out with a loud voyce and he did it vpon the last day of the feast of the Tabernacles which was a tyme of great solemnity that so he might be heard by the greater number of people and he inuited them all Ioan. 71 to drinke of that water of life with a full mouth Confess l. 12. cap. 10. For he indeed is the true fountaine of life Hunc bibam tunc viuam saith S. Augustiue Let me drinke of him and I shall liue What (f) His ardēt sighes groans scalding sighes what profound internall groanes would that flaming hart be often sending out by his sacred mouth to the Iustice seate of God wherof we finde some expresly to be recorded in the holy Texte that so the diuine Maiesty Marc. 71 beholding the sorrowes of his soule might be obliged to forgiue the sinnes of ours How deere (g) The charming accent of his voice and how delightfull must the ordinary accent be of his heauenly voyce since the accent euer carrieth a kind of neerer coniunction to the mind and which euen for that cause can hardly be described by any words And now the nearer it was to the incomparable soule of Christ our Lord who can doubt but that needs it must be so much the fuller of delight and grace But especially how beautifull were those holy happy (h) The inestimable pure and perfect beauty of his eyes Gen. 49. eyes of his those heauēly Orbes And what felicity was theirs who might at leasure glasse themselues therin they being so full of latent Maiesty but yet sweetned by such Humility and Charity Those eyes which are pulchriores vino as the Patriarch Iacob saith speaking literally of Christ our Lord for the quality they had to inebriate with being looked vpon farre more powerfully and more sweetely then any most pretious wine can doe the man who drinks it With what kind of modest grace do we thinke that he vvould now be raysing them vp Ioan. 11. towards heauen beholding the Creatures in Almighty God and then returning them downe to the earth Ioan. 8. to see God in his Creatures And what kind of fountaines do we thinke they grew to be when they did so often swymme in teares through the compassion of our miseries Haebr 5. ◠Luc. 19. and the remission of our sinnes at the raysing of Lazarus for the ruines of Ierusalem at the giuing vp of his soule into the eternall Fathers hand and those many tymes more which are not set downe in the sacred text How sweetly would they lay themselues to sleepe being folded vp in those liddes the only sheets which any part of him did vse for the releese of that frayle nature which for our sakes he had assumed And he lent them rest with so much the better will because (i) Christ our Lord did negotiate our saluation with God as well whē he was sleeping as waking Ioan. 2. Matt. 4. sleepe gaue no impediment to the working of his minde for our good the knowledge of which mind was no way as hath beene said else where dependant vpon his Fancy as ours is How were they able when he was pleased to do it to pierce the hartes of men by way of terrour when for the zeale of his Fathers glory he punished the buyers sellers in the Temple vvithout their daring once to bring him to the least account for that supposed excesse And by way of powerfull mercy when seing his Apostles he called them at once from the world to his eternall seruice And looking afterward vpon S. Peter in the tyme of his passion by only looking (l) The lookes of Christ our Lord did moue S. Peeter to contrition Luc. 72. Luc. 7. he retyred him at an instant from his sinnes as wil be seen more at large afterward And not only did those eyes so full of maiesty and modesty and humility suauity captiue those hartes which they beheld but others who beheld them were as inseparably also captiued therby as if there had beene no place left for election whether they would be takē prisoners or no. The enamoured (m) How the diuine presence of Christ our Lord did most chastly captiue the soule of S. Mary Magdalen Penitent S. Mary Magdalene who formerly was so abandoned to the pleasure of sense found her soule so maistered by this diuine obiect of our B. Sauiours presence that her former honny did instantly turne gall and she was so ingulfed into a sea of chast and pure delight that in the life tyme of our Lord she did euen as it were nayle her selfe to his sacred feet Nay she forsooke them not in his very passion when they were nayled to the Crosse She was in chase of them till his Resurection and after his Ascension she confined her selfe for all those thirty yeares of her suruiuing to a rude and most retyred desert disdayning with a holy kind of scorne that her eyes should feed vpon any other obiect then that which her memory would euer be sure to help her to of her most beloued and most beautifull Lord. His sacred presence had not any superficiall or glearing beauty belonging to it but (n) The Beauty of Christ our Lord was so aboundāt as to make a mā despise all temporall riches a beauty which conteined a Mine of plenty S. Mathew shall witnes this and he shall do it better then by words For instantly vpon our Lords commaundement and their mutuall sight of one another he followed him and that for euer and he discouered in our Lord Iesus another mannor of beautifull abundance then all the whole world could helpe him to And perhaps there is not a better proofe of the rich beauty and excellency of our Lord nor a stranger conuersion of any man recorded Luc. 54 then of this Apostle Who was as we may say in flagranti crimine in the very seate and chaire of sinne beseiged by the company of others who were likely to be as much depraued as himselfe He was in the exercise and occasions of new extorsions and yet (o) The Cōuersiō of S. Matthew was most heroicall he left all without taking so much as an howers tyme to cleere his bookes of account which could not choose but be intricate And all this vpon the single sight hearing the voyce of a meere man as Christ our Lord appeared to be And yet I say so rich was our Sauiours beauty and so attractiue was his manner of speach that instātly it was able to draw that Publicā though he were besotted by desire of gayne to follow him who through his pouerty seemed withall to be the owner of no earthly thing but only of his owne indiuiduall person But the Maies̄ty and splendour of the diuinity though it lay hid Cōment in Matth. c. 7. did yet shine so brightly in his face of flesh bloud as S. Hierome
wee are in greatest straites And as for the vse of prayer since it is an eleuation of the mind towards God a treaty of the soule with him Since he admits vs whensoeuer we apply our selues to haue audience Since not only he receaues vs if we come but he loues vs so deerly much as to inuite vs and commaund vs yea and to be highly offended if we refraine Since he inclynes himselfe to enrich vs with al heauenly graces vpon the only price of being desired by vs that he will make vs rich and that the more we aske the more we haue Since he is of so excellent condition as neuer to cast his benefits into our teeth which temporall Princes who are but dust and ashes otfen doe and yet the fauours which they cā afford are but trash and toyes and euen they are often tymes denyed and yet all men are glad to be their suytours Since according to the persons vvith whome we are accustomed to conuerse vve sucke their qualities into our selues therfore by negotiating the busines of our soules with that fountaine of Sāctity it is not possible but that we should improue our selues therin Since howsoeuer in other things the Saintes of God haue bene of different gust one excelling in exteriour penāce another in mortificatiō of himselfe within one addicting himselfe to action anotherto contēplation and the rest best to a life mixt of both yet there was neuer any Saint vnlesse some perhaps who haue bene conuerted and canonized both at once with some Martyrs Crowne who hath not bene diligēt in the vse of Prayer And lastly chiefely since we find it to be recommēded both by the Doctrine exāple of our Lord IESVS throughout the whole time of his holy life especially now in the garden whē he was to treate of the great affaire of our redemption And when after a sort it was put to a kind of question whether he should liue til the next day leaue his life vpō the crosse by the hands of others or else to dye that night of the pure griefe of his owne distressed and wounded hart Since we see him at an instant become victorious ouer al the powers of earth and hell And that he who immediatly before was so defeated immediatly afterward was so full of courage as to say to his Apostles in the third visit which he made thē at euery of which tymes he found them sleeping Rise vp Matt. 26. behold the man who is at hand to betray me Since by this example the practise of our blessed Lord both mentall and vocall prayer are set out vocall in few words though thrice repeated the mentall as being much the more excellent taking vp a farre longer space of tyme for when he fell into that Agony it is expressed by the Euangelicall history as hath bene said already that he persisted long in Prayer Ibid. Since the Apostles who were commaunded by our Lord to watch and pray least els they might enter into Temptation did for the present fall a sleep through their negligence in the vse of that holy exercise when they should haue waked and shortly after did forsake their Maister when they should haue accompanied him to his crosse Since these things I say are so and not only these but a thousand more which appeare in their workes who write of Prayer and much more in their harts and liues who vse it much What Christian soule is that which will not apply it selfe to this holy happy exercise Which howsoeuer it be a guift of God and depends vpon the liberality of his holy hand yet as he worketh in all things sweetly so doth he also in this particular and he is pleased to vse some men towardes the instruction of others the former exercising their charity and the latter their humility It (b) It is necessary to take counsayle in the vse of mentall Prayer of some good spituall maister wil therfore be wholly necessary for him who will study this art of arts to betake himselfe to some well experienced guide Though in regard that it is not so much a busines of the head as of the hart the best maister vnder heauen will be a pure and vertuous life For prayer and practise of vertue are very circular depēdant vpon one another And he who prayes deuoutly will liue vertuously and he who procures to lead a vertuous life will quickly be able to praye deuoutly And we see the effects of this happy exercise as hath been said by what it wrought in the wounded soule of our Lord IESVS and how it raysed him vp into so much strength as to enable him to goe and meete those enemies of God and him in the face whome not long before he besought his eternall Father that he would auert Wherby yet we must not vnderstand that we are authorized to thrust our selues into imminent and certaine danger of death whē without any disseruice to Almighty God or disaduantage to his cause we may auoyd the same But (c) How we are to carry our selues in the flight of persecution more or lesse only that when our Lord doth call vs to it and when the hower is come which he in his eternall prouidence hath prefixed we are to encounter to imbrace the Crosse with alacrity In former tymes the malicious Iewes had a minde to haue apprehended so to haue precipitated him downe from a hill Ioan. 7. but he made himselfe inuisible to their eyes and the cause is there assigned because his hower was not then arriued And so he could also heere haue as easily made himself insensible to their hands if it had not bene that the same hower of his which was not come before was come now And with vnspeakeable loue he was pleased that that other should be said to be no hower of his because it vvas not appointed for him to suffer in Luc. 22. But this vvas his hovver and it vvas also the hovver of those perfidious Ievves and of the Prince of darkenes by reason of the povver vvhich then vvas giuen them ouer Christ our Lord. The apprehension of Christ our Lord and a iust expostulation with the Traytour Iudas for that hideous treason of his togeather with a description of mortall sinne and the danger which we are put into by all voluntary veniall sinnes CHAP. 58. THE Traytour Iudas who made himselfe the keeper of that clocke for that tyme had woone it vp and set it so by the men vvhome he had put to vvorke that it vvas grovven ready euen then to strike For behould he came vvith a band of Pagan souldiers a great svvarme of Ievvish Officers to apprehend and sell his Mastier ouer into the possession of death Whosoeuer had seene those two troopes encounter one another might (a) Christ our Lord and Iudas did leade the two kingdoms of God the diuell haue beheld a most liuely picture in little of
pronounce an vniust sentence against him but he tooke him into his house hand to hand And finding vpon the speach which passed betwene them that our Lord had no designe vpon the honours and aduantages of this world nor (f) Our Lord had nopretēce vpon any other kingdom then that of heau◠pretended to the exercise of any other kingdome then that of heauen to which he endeauoured to draw men by teaching them to obey God who is the supreme King therof and the Iudge for his part not caring what became of heauen or heauēly things Ioan. 18. he came quickly forth againe declared that he found the man not guilty How Pilate examined our Blessed Lord and how he sent him to Herod Of the scorne which Herod put vpon him How the returned him to Pilate and how Pilate resolued at last to scourge him CHAP. 63. BVT they persisted in their malicious clamours and protested that the prisoner had bene sowing rumours Luc. 13. making stirres throughout all Iury beginning at Galiley and proceeding as farre as that very place Now Galiley was belonging to the iurisdiction of Herod who had bene the murtherer of S. Iohn Baptist and betwene Pilate and him Ibid. there had bene ill (a) A curtesy of a Courtier quarter till that tyme. But he chauncing to be then at Ierusalem this Pilate put a Court-tricke vpon him for he sent the prisoner to him as if it had bene out of a kind of respect wheras chiefely it was because he would faine be rid of the cause To Christ our Lord nothing came amisse who still with his accustomed humility patience silence obedience and most ardent loue and desire of the saluation of mankind did apply himselfe to renounce any gust of his owne and gaue himselfe all away to theirs And this true Prince of Peace was cōtent to vndergoe all that paine and to endure all that scorne which would be put vpō him both at Herods Court and in the way Ibid. betwene him and Pilate vpon condition that so he might be an occasion of recōciling the emnities of those two though both conspired to his preiudice For he knew that by that curtesy Ibid. which Herod would take so kindly at the hands of Pilate from that tyme forward they would be friends This Herod was a famous infamous person for his sensuality his cruelty and a world of other vices And for as much as he had heard often speach of Christ our Lord and of the reputation which he had both for his wonderfull workes and for his admirable wisedome he had an (b) The curiosity of Herod Ibid. extreme curiosity to satisfy himselfe in those two points In conformity therof he earnestly desired to see some miracle of his working And for as much as concerned the fame of his wisedome he procured by a world of questions which he asked to see whether truth would answere to the voyce which ran of him But our Lord IESVS who was not come into the world to make men sport but to doe them good nor to satisfy the curiosity of their heads but to impart true sanctity to their harts would not vouchsafe to loose one word vpon that wretched King nor cared he through his loue to be suffering for vs to defend himselfe against all those impudent lyes which by the Priests and Elders were thundred out in a perpetuall storme of words against him Yet euen Herod himself could not be so vniust as to allow of the plea which was made in accusation of him for as much as concerned the substance of his cause but yet (c) The falle and foolish iudgemēt of the wife men of this world Ibid. conceauing by occasion of his continuall silence that either he was some silly fellow in himselfe or els perhaps that in comparison of him our Lord thought himselfe to be of farre inferiour speach and wit and therfore would not discredit himselfe by saying any thing he did contemne him with his whole guard of souldiers after a most disdaineful manner and in token therof he returned him to Pilate with a fooles coate vpon his backe This act amongst the rest bred an extraordinary contempt of Christ our Lord in the peoples minde in regard that Herod and his Court were esteemed as a kind of Touch wherby men might be knowne distinctly iustly for what they were But howsoeuer this contempt did our Lord vouchsafe to vndergoe and this coate of scorne was he contēt and glad to weare for our confusion in respect of our former vanity and for our instruction how we are to carry our selues in future occasions Which (d) Agreat lesson of many vertues at once must not be to stand vpon the reputation of our sufficiency wit or knowledge we who are but wormes and flyes when the King of glory the word the increated Wisedome of Almighty God wherby all things were made is content for our sakes to cast himselfe before the eyes of our Faith all contemned and derided as any Idiot or naturall foole might be Nor are we to care though our patience be accounted feare or our humility basenes or our silence simplicity Nor when it concernes the seruice of God and the good of soules are we to shrinke from our duty and good desires though all the world should despise and hate vs for it But when Pilate found that Herod had not thought him worthy of death he was glad of that occasion and pressed it hard vpon the Iewes as knowing indeed that it was not the zeale of Iustice but the rage of enuy which had incensed them against him Sometymes he questioned our Lord IESVS to see if any thing would come from him in the strength wherof he might acquite him But our Lord who desired nothing lesse then what might tend to his owne discharge and nothing more then what might tend to our aduantage was so profoundly and inuincibly silent as did amaze the Iudge Marc. 25. And woe had bene to vs if this silence of our Lord had not bene exercised by him through the merit wherof the eternall Father will looke with mercy vpon those millions of sinnes which be howerly cōmitted through the impertinent indiscrect and vncharitable impure speach of men Sometymes againe the Iudge would be vsing all the art he had to make them desist from their desire of his ruine Marc. 25. Luc. 23. and in particular he thought of two expedients The former of them was to punish him so cruelly out of very pitty as that with the sight therof they might be moued with compassion towards him So that he resolued to haue him scourged and to that end he deliuered him ouer to the discretion of his souldiers who had none The torment of Christ our Lord Audi Piiac 120. in this mistery of his flagellation is excellently pondered by Father Auila He faith therfore to this effect That (e) Note this for it deserueth all attention if a