otherwise in the mystery of his appreheÌ„sion pag. 344 Chap. 60. Of the blow which was giuen vpon the face of our B. Lord in the high â—â—iests house of the fall of S. Peter How our Lord was taxed first of Blasphemy of the excessiue Loue of our Lord in all these particulars pag. 350 Chap. 61. The abundant must bitter scornes which our B. Lord indured with excessiue loue in that night precedent to his death pag. 358 Chap. 62. How our Lord was solemnly adiuged worthy of death for Blasphemy of the death of Iudas and how they send our Lord to Pilate pag. 366 Chap. 63. How Pilate examined our B. Lord sent him to Herod How Herod scorned him sent him backe to Pilate who resolued to scourge him pag. 372 Chap. 64. Of the cruell Scourging of Christ our Lord and how with incomparable patience and charity he endured the same pag. 377 Chap. 65. How our B. Lord was crowned with thornes blasphemed tormented with strang inuention of malice And how he endured all with incoÌ„parable loue pag. 382 Chap. 66. How we ought to carry our selues in consideration of the Ecce Homo And how our B. Sauiour did carry himselfe at that tyme with contempt of all humane comfort for loue of vs. pag. 388 Chap. 67. How the Iewes prefer Barabbas before Christ our Lord And how Pilate gaue sentence of death against him And with what incessant loue he endured all pag. 394 Chap. 68. How our Lord did carry his Crosse of the excessiue loue he shewed in bearing the great affronts which were done to him in his iorney to Mount Caluary pag. 399 Chap. 69. The Crucifixion of our B. Lord his quicke sense seuerall paynes distinctly felt of his vnspeakeable patience and loue to vs therin pag 404 Chap. 70. Of the excessiue torments of our Lord how he was blasphemed by all sortes of persons and of the diuine patience and loue wherwith he bare it all pag. 411 Chap. 71. How our Lord did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructor vpon the Crosse and of the three first words he vttered from thence pag. 419 Chap. 72. Of the darkenes ouer the world the desolation which our Lord endured with incoÌ„parable loue whilst he said to his eternall Father Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquisti me pag. 425 Chap. 73. Of the excessiue loue which our Lord expressed by his silence in the torments of the Crosse And how the while he was negotiating our cause with God pag. 432 Chap. 74. Of the vnspeakeable thirst of our Lord which he did endure and declare with incomparable loue to man pag. 437 Chap. 75. Of the entyere consummation of our RedemptioÌ„ wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse pag. 442 Chap. 76. Of our Lords last prayer of the separation of his soule from his body and of the grace and beauty of the Crucifixe pag. 447 Chap. 77. Of the great loue of God expressed in those prodigious things which appeared vpon the death of our B. Lord. And of the bloud and water which slowed out of his side c. pag. 453 Chap. 78. The Conclusson of this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord the vse which we are bound to make therof pag. 460 Chap. 79. Of the vnspeakeable loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all pag. 472 Chap. 80. How our B. Lady and Eue doe resemble one another and how they â—iffer And our B. Lady is proued to be the spirituall mother of all mankind pag. 478 Chap. 81. The externall Excellencies attractiuenesse of our B. Lady The reasons of congruity which proue her innocency purity and the innumerable motiues which oblige the world to admire loue her pag. 485 Chap. 82. Of the incoÌ„parable sanctity which is implyed to haue beene in our B. Lady by the consideration of the high dignity of her calling how that maÌ„ner of speach is to be vnderstood in holy Scripture wherby our B. Lady doth seeme in the eye of some to be disaduantaged pag. 424 Chap. 83. How the sanctity of our B. Lady doth much import to the honour of Christ our Lord. How notwithstanding all her excellency we auow her to be nothing in respect of Christ our Lord as God by innumerable degrees inferiour to him as man how much more honorably our Lord redeemed her theÌ„ others pag. 500 Chap. 84. Of the great eminency of our B. Lady beyond all others with an authority cited out of S. Augustine and that the way for vs to iudge rightly of her is to purify our soules pag. 506 Chap. 85. Of great Excellency of our B. Lady set out by the Figures Appellations and Allusions of the old Testament pag. 509 Chap. 86. The wonderfull excelleÌ„cies of our B. Lady which are declared in the new Testament be heere set forth pag. 514 Chap. 87. That our B. Lady was saluted full of Grace of seuerall kindes of Fulnes of Grace pag. 520 Chap. 88. The prayses of the B. Virgin are prosecuted by a testimony of S. Gregory And consideration is made of her diuine Vertues first of her admirable Faith and Hope pag. 527 Chap. 89. Of the most ardent Charity both to God man which raigned in the hart of the B. Virgin pag. 533 Chap. 90. The profound Humility and perfect Purity of our B. Ladyes both body soule And wherin the height thereof consisteth pag. 545 Chap. 91. Of the inexplicable Conformity of the will of the B. Virgin to the holy will of God in all thinges how deere soeuer it might cost her pag. 545 Chap. 92. Of the entyere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God and how many priuiledges and perfections were assembled in her pag. 551 Chap. 93. Of the seuerall deuotions that we are to carry to our Blessed Lady pag. 555 Chap. 94. Of the piety of our B. Lady towards vs now in heauen far more then when she liued on earth with a prayer to her pag. 580 Chap. 95. A RecapitulatioÌ„ of diuers Motiues which ought to draw vs close to the loue of our Lord. pag. 567 Chap. 96. Of the seuerall kinds of loue which our soules may exercise to our Lord Iesus with the Conclusion of the whole Treatise pag. 574. FINIS
most excellent instructions which our Lord through his loue did giue to man in this mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 31. I Should enlarge my selfe too much if I would particularize and presse those instructions which our Lord did giue to all his disciples both liuing then and succeeding afterward in that silent sermon of his Transfiguration and we haue reason to take them all as so many tokens of his tender loue to vs. But because they may seeme so rather by inference and reflection then by way of lineall and direct expression I will content my selfe briefly to point them out In the first place we are told that he assumed those holy and happy disciples of his vp the hill and therby we are taught that we cannot clymbe but when he takes vs by the hand By telling vs also that he would not be transfigured before them but vpon the hill he tells vs that vnlesse she aspire towards (a) No solide and sublime gust in God with out a serious study of perfection Perfction we must content our selues without tasting the delicious fruites of ConteÌ„plation Againe we are heere expresly told that Christ our Lord went vp to pray and that whilst he was in prayer this rapt of Transfiguration came vpon him So that as it was by prayer and coÌ„uersation with God that Moyses came downe from the hill with such a deale of light in his face by prayer also it is that we may receaue innumerable graces and may grow to be transformed in minde which imports vs more then to be transfigured in body By letting vs know that he was transfigured only for that tyme he giues vs to vnderstand how he hid his excellencies both till then and euer afterward and therby he proclaimes to vs by a loud voyce how (b) The more we hide our selues froÌ„ the view of men the more open shall we be to the gracious eyes of God Ibid. carefull we must be to hide our faâ—ours and priuiledges from the eyes of men And the same was also taught yet againe when our Lord IESVS commaunded afterward that they should not speake of that vision till he were risen from the dead By mentioning the Passion when he was in the midst of the Transfiguration we are instructed how to carry our selues in the varieties and changes of this life For in the winter of distresse we must keep our selues aliue by the memory or hope of some consolation eyther to come or past And in the spring or Sommer of spirituall ioy we must free our selues from growing vayne or giddy by thinking of some approach of desolation By the feare of the holy Apostles we may see the misery of mans nature Confel lib. 11. cap. 9. which was so ill drest by Adam that as S. Augustine saith Sic infirmatus est in egestate mea vigor meus vt non sufferam bonum meum So is my vigor taken downe in this infirmity of my condition that I cannot so much as indure mine owne good as heere the Apostles were frighted euen by the fight of so much glory as attends the speaking of a word from heauen And how then must we reuere with a most profound internall awe that God of inaccessible light and infinite Maiesty whose essence is wholly vnconceaueable since his words cannot be heard without extreme apprehension by such wormes of misery as we are By the coÌ„ming of that voyce which was so soone to breake off the vision whilst they were in the midst of those celestiall ioyes by which voyce our B. Lord was declared to be the beloued sonne of God and that they were comaunded to heare him they we are made to know that we are not in this world to looke for a state of contynuall inioying but of labouring The (c) This is a world of sowing and the other of reaping seeing of God and the being to doe so eternally belongs to heauen in this life we are not to looke for seeing but we must attend to hearing and which is meant therby to obeying Heerby he also tells vs that we must not demurre euen in the most spirituall gusts which we may haue when obedience or charity commaunds the contrary Especially since our Lord himselfe made such hast to giue ouer his Transfiguration that he might descend and so proceed first to preaching then afterwards towards his pasion For there was his hart because his loue was euer looking towards vs and had not that same very loue of vs obliged him to be glorious at that tyme for our sakes since the members could not partake of any such influence which came not first from the head yea and euen if they could haue done it yet would it not haue bene so full of sauour to them vnlesse first it had passed from him it appeares well inough both by the antecedents and consequences of his sacred life that he was not eyther greedy after pleasure or weary of taking paines for vs. Loue and pure loue it was which kept his glory all that while in silence Loue it was which made him mortify himselfe as a man may say with taking into his mouth that only tast of ioy And lastly an euerlasting loue it was which carried him in such hast from Mount Thabor to Mount Caluary where he was to be transfigured a fecoÌ„d tyme but after a far other manner For (d) How our Lord Iesus was Transsigured the second tyme vpoÌ„ mount Caluary insteed of glory he was to be all clad with a kind of Leprosy His face was not to be resplendent but loaden partly with impure spittle and partely vvith his ovvne pure svveat and pretious bloud which made a strange kind of marriage together in that sacred and most venerable Temple of the diuinity His garments were no more to be white but spotted with dust and filth the souldiers were to dispose of them by lotts He was not to be placed betwene a Moyses an Elias but to giue him the more solemne bitter scorne he was to be lodged betwene two murthering thecues No bright shyning cloud was there to appeare to doe him honour but the Sunne would be ashamed to behould the soÌ„ne of man so lewdly treated and darknes would couer the whole earth Since therfore we see such deadly signes of loue in his pretious hart towards vs we may haue the honour to be taught by him how to guide our liues let vs dispose our selues with supreme reuerence to giue our eares and hartes (e) Our Lord Iesus is declared our Doctour from heauen to the diuine words of his mouth since he is made our Doctour by no lesse then a voyce which comes from heauen it selfe and that in the name of the eternall Father saying That Christ our Lord is his beloued sonne in whome he is so highly pleased and that him we must be sure to heare We will besides adore him for presenting vs with this admirable vision wherby he hath so aboundantly
his owne or for the reliefe of any corporall necessity which he was and would be subiect to For though the Foxes had holes yet the Sonne of man had not where to lay his head And one morning when he returned from Ierusalem to Bethania he is said expresly to haue been h̄gry and he refused in the (d) Matt. 4. wildernes to turne certaine stones into bread for the satisfaction of his owne extreme hungar And his Apostles were soe oppressed in this kind Matt. 12. as that they were defended by him in gathering the eares of that corne which belonged to others yea and that vpon a Sabaoth day which did belong to God except their case had beene of precise necessity they coued not so well haue bene excused in doing it But the whyle though they fed themselues Christ our Lord did not so for if he had those malicious Iewes whose teeth were sharplier whet against him then all the rest or rather not against them at all but only in regard that they belonged to him would haue byn sure to haue bitten him vvith their reprehension So great therfore was his necessity and yet he would not stretch forth his arme of power to help himselfe by any supernaturall meanes Nor doe we find as I was saying that he who wrought such worlds of miracles for worlds of men did serue him selfe of any one to his owne aduantage Matt. 17. It is true that he did miraculously enable S. Peter to take a peece of money out of the belly of a fish to be paid as tribute to the Prince though he saith he was no way bound to doe it So that (e) Our Lord would rather worke a miracle then suffer the occasion of any scandall◠he who would not worke a miracle for the sauing of his owne deere life would yet be sure to doe it for preuenting the scandall of other men And withall that he might shew how obedient men ought to be to theyr tēporall Princes so that it be in things which indeed and truth are only temporall He wrought no miracles either by way of preuention or for the deliuery of himselfe Luc. 4. from his most wicked enemies sauing only when once or twice he grew inuisible to their eyes that so he might preserue himselfe for greater tormets afterwards Whē once he came to his Passion he told them indeed what he could haue obtained of God for his deliuerance Matt. 25. namely so many Legions of Angells And he gaue them also a tast of what he was able to do for himself Ibid. if he had been willing by the miracle which then he wrought vpon Malchus Ioan. 18. And by that other also of stryking thē who came to take him with sad astonishemēt to the ground by the only saying of Ego sum But he kept his miracles for the instruction ease of other men and the only Miracle which he wrought for himselfe was to make by the omnipotent force and power of loue a God of infinite and eternall Maiesty to vndertake for such wormes such a vvorld of misery He vvrought no miracles for the winning of fauour from great persons Luc. 23. Nor could the splendour of Herods fortune nor the extreme curiosity of his mind because it vvas but curiosity obtaine any one at the hands of our Lord. Matt. 13. Marc. 6. He vvas not desirous to win the affection and estimation of his ovvne cōpatriots For though it cannot be said but that he vvrought some miracles among them yet those some vvere so very fevv by reason of their incredulity that in comparison of such as he vvas pleased to vvorke in other places they may in a manner be accompted none He did not a vvhit depend vpon the acknovvledgment and seruice Luc. 17. which he might expect from such persons as he cured For we see he was not discouraged by the ingratitude of those Leapers from whome he well knevv that it was almost (f) One of ten returned to giue him thankes ten to one that he should not haue so much as thanks for his labour But the force and fire of pure and perfect loue alone it was which moued that diuine hart of our Lord to passe ouer the law of nature by working of miracles whensoeuer there were motiues and meanes to doe good to men therby Whilst himselfe the while who was the author of them all would yet lye as hath been said vnder the same lawes of nature so to worke the more easily vpō their soules by the admirable example of his sufferance whose bodies he had restored by a miraculous deliuerance How all the miracles of the new Testament doe tend◠to mercy and how our Lord did neuer deny the suite of any one and of the tender manner which he held in granting them CHAP. 42. IF the meaning of Christ our Lord had bene but only to proue that he was God he might haue insisted vpō that course which formerly had bene held with the people of God in the old Testament At which tyme howsoeuer some miracles were wrought which tended to the comfort of the good as that of parting (a) Exod. 15. the Red sea when the children of Israell were to passe and of the (b) Exod. 13. pillars both of the Clould and that of Fire of (c) Ibid. the rayning downe (d) Deut. 3. Manna in the wildernes and some others yet these miracles which shewed the loue of God to the good were not so many by much as those others by which he shewed his power and iustice against the wicked As vve may easily see by the ten miraculous (e) Exod. 9. e. Plagues vvherby Pharao and the Egyptians vvere scourged the burning of Sodome (f) Genes 19. and Gomorrha the destruction (g) 4. Reg. 19. of Sennacherib and his army vvith many more Much lesse can those auncient miracles of mercy come into competition for n̄ber vvith the innumerable miracles of this kind vvhich vvere vvrought on earth by Christ our Lord. Of vvhome vve cannot find that euer he vvrought any one of reuenging Iustice Luc. 9. nay he rebuked S. Iames and euen the beloued S. Iohn himselfe for mouing him to reuenge by supernaturall meanes an affront vvhich the Samaritans had put vpon him Matt. 16. and them The Ievves indeed desired to see some signe from heauen vvhich might haue fed theyr curiosity but our Lord vvho loued them so infinitely much more then they did thēselues refused to humour them in that vvhich vvas not to haue profited them at all and vvhich it vvould haue cost him nothing to performe he resolued vvithall to vvorke another miraracle vvhich vvas figured in the Prophet Ionas in the belly of the vvhale vvhich imported the death of God for their sinnes wherby they were admirably to be relicued and himselfe beyond imagination to be tormeuted Amongst (i) Our Lord did neuer finally refuse the humble suyte of
to tyme He shewed them what a glory it would be for them to resemble their Maister in his Crosse and he made them knovv vvithall that they should not carry it alone but that in the place of his owne corporall presence which then was the obiect of their senses he would send them a comforter the Holy Ghost from heauen who should inhabit and sanctify their soules He promised them his Peace which should shew them a safe and quiet port wherin to ride in the very midst of all the difficulties and greatest daungers of this world He told thē in plaine tearmes that he loued them and he besought thē that as they loued him they would keepe his commaundements and that if they would doe so both he and his Father would come and visit and dwell with them He told them moreouer that euen his eternall Father loued them and that whatsoeuer they would akse they should be sure to haue whether they should aske it of himselfe or of his Father in his name yea and he desired them to aske somewhat of him that so their ioy might be full as if he had bid them try and be euen iudged by themselues whether he had said true or no. It serueth also to shew the very passionatenes as I may say of his loue (d) Agreat proofe of the tendernes the loue of our Lord Iesus that he was content to repeate the selfe same expressions of it many tymes To declare that he could not say that inough which he thought he could neuer doe too much We see how tenderly he called them his seruants his Disciples his friends and that he would tell them all his secrets his Sonnes and euen his little Sonnes whome yet he would not leaue as Orphans without a Father And now we shall heare him pray the eternall Father for them in most efficacious and obliging words That he would sanctify them in his Truth He presseth him by the highest points of diuine Rethoricke which could be though of He puts him in mind Of the eternall loue he bare the Sonne and of the faithfull seruice which he the Sonne had performed to the Father He also representeth the Fathers Mission of the Sonne and he avoweth That as the Father had sent him so had he seent them He begs the vnion of all his children with one another and of all those children with himselfe that so he being in God and they being in him they all might also come to be one in God In this (e) How earnest our Lord Iesus was for vs in his suyte to his eternall Father suite of his he is so importunate and proceeds so farre to vrge the same that in effect he tells the eternall Father that he will not be denyed therin Nor was he content that this should be an vnion of inferiour degree but an vnion with perfection and consummation Iust so as in a broath which is made of diuers meats there is an vnion of those meates in that broath and if they boyle in it till they euen boyle away there is not only an vnion of the meates but a consummation thereof into that broath And although in most places of holy Scripture when our Lord spake to his Apostles or Disciples he meant not that his words should be for them alone but that all the world should be comprehended in their persons to whome then he spake Yet his loue at that tyme was not content to intend vs only by way of inference but that dying flame would needs be sending out certaine flashes which yet extend themselues so farre as euen to lay expresse hold vpon euery one of our indiuiduall persons who haue the happines to be members of the holy Catholike Church Which they only are who beleeue the Doctrine of Christ our Lord by the preaching of the Apostles or of those Apostolicall men who haue a lawfull and direct mission from them And therfore he said for now I cite his owne very words I pray not only for them that is to say for his Apostles but for those others also who will beleeue in mee by their preaching that they be one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee so they also may be one in vs and the world may beleeue that thou hast sent me And that glory which thou hast giuen me I haue giuen to them that they may be one thing as we are one thing In thee and thou in mee that they may be (f) A strāg desire for Christ our Lord to make to God in our behalfe consummated in one and the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loued them euen as thou hast loued me I will O Father that they whome thou hast giuen mee may be with me there where I shall be That they may see the glory which thou hast giuen mee because thou louedst me before the framing of the world O thou iust Father the world hath not known thee but I haue knowne thee and these haue knowne that thou hast sent me And I haue made my name known to thē and I will make it knowne that the same very loue wherwith thou hast loued me may be in thē I in thē These amongst many others were the words of our bleffed Lord in that last diuine sermon of his Wherby we may see the amourous and restlesse desire which tooke possession of his hart wherwith he sollicited his eternall Father that we might behold the glory which he had giuen to him and placing as it were his whole (g) Our Lord Iesus did place his honour in beeing Lord by his eternal Father for vs. credit vpon the obteyning of these fauours for vs when he begs it to the end that so the world might come to know that the Father had sent him As if he should haue said that in the face of the world he had giuen his word both for our Redemption and Sanctification Vnion and for our right to raigne in heauen with himselfe and that if the eternall Father should not make good that word the world might haue reason not to beleeue that he was as he had said the Sonne of God The horrour and terrour and sorrow of Christ our Lord togeather with his Prayer in the Garden CHAP. 54. NO sooner had he ended that speach but instantly he went out with his Disciples ouer the Torrent of Cedron Ioan. 18◠He did perhaps passe ouer that Torrent without once tasting any droppe therof but the whole world was a kind of Torrent of affliction to him his whole life was that way wherin he did not only tast but take deepe draughts therof before he exalted his head Psalm 109. by ascending vp to heauen Already did the sensible or inferiour part of his soule begin to be obscure and sad with care He was pleased to leaue it after a sort to it selfe for the increase of that paine which he desired to suffer For els his
hands of our hart Most happy are those soules to whom our Lord imparts a cordiall and filiall deuotion to this Queene-mother of heaueÌ„ for they read that truth written in their owne harts which others do but read in bookes Namely that it is a great signe of Predestination to be particularly deuoted to her And if I were disposed to proue that an auersion of the hart from doing her honour and seruice were an euident signe of Reprobation in punishment of that and other sinnes I (e) The filthy life and fearful end of such as haue opposed to the honour of B. Lady Vide Canis l. 5. c. 20. should need but to make a Catalogue of such as haue maligned her For the proofe of this latter truth let Nestorius Iouinianus Heluidius with the impure Apostata's of this last age be looked vpon and let their wicked life otherwise be coÌ„sidered togeather with the fearfull end to which many of them did arriue And so also let them looke backe with their memory vpon Copronymus that most flagitious Emperour that bloudy laciuious Sorcerer who by lawes solemnely made did depriue our B. Lady both of her due estimation and inuocation Apoc. 13. Et aperuit os suum in blasphemias ad Deum blasphemare nomen eius Tabernaculum eius and he opened his mouth in the way of blasphemy against God and his holy Tabernacle And afterward he dyed blaspheming God himselfe through the torments of most loathsome diseases which carried him from hence to hell On the (f) Compare the persons who haue beene deuoted much to our B. Lady with those others other side let it be weighed what excellent Princes they were who from tyme to tyme haue done right to this Queene of heauen by erecting Temples in her honour As Constantine the great S. Helene S. Pulcheria and Charlemaine to omit innumerable others And what worthy holy persons they also were who haue written in her prayses and commended themselues with humble deuotion to their intercession and who withall haue filled the world with the odour of their exemplar and holy liues as namely S. Athanasius S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Gregory Nazienzen Petrus Chrisologus S. Iohn Damascene with troupes of other Fathers of the Greeke Church and of the Latine S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Hierome S. Gregory Venerable Bede S. Anselme S. Bernard and worlds of others whose bookes are full besides the testimonies of prayers to Saints and sometymes to such as had then lately liued with themselues and how much more to this Blessed mother of God this Saint Superiour to all Saints vnder Christ our Lord whose honour they haue defended from all Heretikes Some of whome had taken pleasure and pride either to degrade her body from integrity or her soule froÌ„ SaÌ„ctity and who haue withal discouraged disswaded the world from procuring by their prayers to her to obtaine the effects of Gods mercy towards her children And when it shall be found what a difference there is betwene these two troopes of men both her aduersaries I hope by so liuely examples will be reduced and her humble sernants and obedient Sonnes will be animated to the increase and doubling of their deuotion towards her Which the Saints of all ages haue delighted in and which supposing that she is the mother of God the very light of reason doth inforce and which God himself hath approued by innumerable most vndoubted both corporall and spirituall miracles in all the corners of the Christian world The pitty of our B. Lady towards vs now that shee is in heauen is set out and shewed to be farre beyond what it was when she liued on earth And this discourse is concluded with a Prayer to her CHAP. 94. IF whilst (a) A particular poÌ„deration of our B. Ladyes vnqueÌ„chable charity whilst she liued on â—â—â—th 〈◊〉 1. she was heere in this mortall life she would vouchsafe being the mother of God to expresse such an act of Humility and Charity as cost her pure feete so many painefull steps ouer that hilly Country to S. Elizabeth If she put herselfe vpon that labour immediatly after she was announced the mother of God If it was not any visit of complement but that by her presence she was the meanes of enriching the body and soule and Sonne of that Saint with celestiall graces And that she went not to come quickly away againe but staid assisting seruing her for the space of three moneths in all which time S. Ambrose excellently poÌ„ders Luc. 2. l. 1. CoÌ„ S. Luc. c. â— how much S. Elizabeth must needs be sanctified by the diuine conuersation of the sacred Virgin since the first shew of her presence wrought such wonders in her If the sanctification of S. Iohn were the first spirituall increase which our Lord incarnate wrought in harts and it was done by meanes of this B. Virgin and the first corporall miracle was also wrought by her meanes at the Marriage of Cana when she would descend so low as to assist at the dynner of people who were so very poore as that they were not able to haue wine inough for their most solemne Feast If of herselfe without being desired she had an eye vpon their wants and a hart which wrought towards the reliefe therof If she had compassion of them not only concerning some such thing as bread which had bene of meere necessity but for the obtayning of wine which is a creature chiefely ordayned for our delight and comfort If to procure it she solicited her Sonne our Lord to worke a miracle in their fauour which till that tyme he had neuer done and yet he would not faile to graunt her suite If as soone as by her prayers for them she had induced Christ our Lord to giue them wine she did instantly turne her praying to him into a kinde of preaching to them aduising them to doe whatsoeuer he should require at their hands through the deere solicitude and feare she had least otherwise they might haue fayled of due obedience especially when she knew in what manner he went to worke the miracle which was first to haue the vessells filled with water which might haue seemed to be a very contrary meanes to the desired end which was to helpe theÌ„ to a supply of wine If these things I say were done by her when her Charity was far lesse (b) A coÌ„parison of what our B. Lady was on earth to what shee is now in heanen her state incomparably inferiour to that which now it is what persoÌ„ is that so vnworthy whome this Queene of heaueÌ„ wil not auow own froÌ„ heauen What wound of any soule is that so grieuous which she will disdayne to dresse what waÌ„t of coÌ„fort can that be so extreme which she wil not imploy herself to remoue by interceding to her Sonne our Lord Now that those Lillyes of Purity and those Violets of her Humility those red Roses of her burning
septimus sine vesper a est nec habet occasum quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam That seauenth day of thine Conf. lib 13. cap. vlt. O God is without any euening nor doth that sunne euer set because thou hast sanctisied it to an eternall continuance This is that infinite benefit which is to be imparted to vs by this blessed Lord of ours and the meanes to conuey it is the office of his being our Sauiour which is declared in this Circumcision by his holy name of Iesus and wherof the next Chapter will tell vs more Of the name of Iesus the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name CHAP. 14. FOR as much as there is no Name which can go neer to expresse the nature of God the holy (a) The reason of giuing so many seuerall names to God as God Scripture to make some kind of signification of the infinite Beinge the other infinite petfections of his diuinity of the benefits which he besto wes vpon vs doth giue him many attributes and many names which may in some small measure declare the effects of his diuine perfections the Offices which he performeth towards his Creatures as namely to be Almighty of infinite wisedome of infinite goodnes of infinite mercy of Creatour of Conseruour of Gouernour of Father of the beginning and end of all things and the like In the selfe same manner (b) The reason also of giuing so many seuerall names to Christ our Lord. to expresse that immense sea of perfections and graces which the whole blessed Trinity did impart to Christ our Lord as man that is to say to that most sacred humanity vnited to the person of the sonne of God the eternall word those incomparable and innumerable guifts and benefits which he communicated to vs by meanes therof the same holy Scripture doth giue him also many seuerall Names and Titles as of King of Priest of Pastour of Doctour of Law-giuer of Spouse of Mediatour of Aduocate of Redeemer of Sauâ—our diuers others wherby he may the better be conceaued since he cannot be sufficiently declared by any one Of all these names of al the rest which may be raunged and reduced to these there is none so excellent nor which doth so include the rest as doth the superexcellent name of Iesus which declareth our Losd to be the Sauiour of the world S. Bern. serm 2. de Circum Dom. serm 15. sup Can. This was that Name which the holy S. Bernard could by noe meanes be made coÌ„tent to want amoÌ„gst so many other most honorable appellations as the Euangelicall Prophet Esay applyed to him This Prophet being full of ioy vpon the fore seing of our Redeemer doth expresse himselfe thus as S. Bernard noteth Puer natus est nobis filius natus est nobis c. A child is borneto vs A sonne is giuen to vs his principality is placed vpon his shoulder his name is called Admirable CoÌ„scllour The stroÌ„ge God The Father of the future age The Prince of Peace Great saith S. Bernard are these names but where is (c) The name of Iesus is the most comfortable of al the names of Christ our Lord. that name which is aboue all names that name of Iesus in which euery knee shall bow The freinds and fauourites of Christ our Lord haue walked in a very different way froÌ„ that wherin such persons of our tymes as are disaffected to this sacred Name wil needs imploy theÌ„selues We see how that both Cherubim Seraphim of flesh bloud the beloued disciple of our Lord Iesus his Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn who sucked in such a bundance from the diuine fountaine of that brest to which he vsed to lay his mouth did paint out no other word so often as that holy and diuine name of Iesus S. Paul (d) The great Deuotion of S. Paul to the Holy name of Iesus that full vessell of election being reprehended in that high vision of our B. Sauiour though in a most amourous and tender manner for persecuting him in the persoÌ„ of the ChristiaÌ„ Church was told by our Lord himselfe that he persecuted he saith not God nor Christ nor the Lord though he were all that but only Iesus And afterward he sayd moreouer to Ananias that this was the Name which Paule as a vessell of election was to carry ouer the earth among Gentiles and Kinges And so as I was saying it is admirable to consider how he was all taken with an vnspeakable delight to be euer in repetition of that sacred name in all his Epistles See also how the incomparable S. Augustine doth in his Confessions to our Lord relate that he was vehemently delighted in the reading of certaine bookes of Philosophy lib. 3. c. 4. which pointed him out to the search of wisedome But yet saith he in that so great delight this only cooled me tooke me off that I found not the name of thy Christ therin For this name O Lord through thy mercy this name of my (e) The name of Christ our Lord which S. Augustine had so greedily sucked vp in his infancy was the name of Sauyour of Iesus note how this Saynt esteemes the guift of deuotion to this holy name as a particular mercy Bern. ser 15. in Cant. Sauiour thy Some my yong and tender hart had euen in the very milke of my mother dronke vp deuoutly and carefully retayned and if any discourse whatsoeuer though neuer so learned so elegant and so true had wanted this name it did not carry me away entierely The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted CHAP. 15. THE day had need be long wherin I would pretend to make particular mention of the incredible deuotion and tender affection which the Saintes and holy seruants of God haue carried to this blessed name of Iesus S. Bernard whom I mentioned before shal therfore serue this turne insteed of many whose fifteenth Sermon vpon the Canticle I beseech my Reader euen in the name of Iesus that he will procure to read For there he may see how in this holy name it is that we meete with the remoue of al our cares He applyes to it that clause of the Canticles Oleum essusum nomen tuum Thy name (a) Note and loue this sweet contemplation of of S. Bernard vpoÌ„ the holy name of Iesus saith he is a pretious Oyle powred forth O blessed name O oyle which euery where is powred forth How farre froÌ„ heauen into Indea and from thence it runs ouer the whole earth We may well say it is powred forth since it hath not only distilled abundantly both in heauen and earth but it hath sprinkled euen them who are below the earth This Christ this Iesus being insused to the Angells and essused or powred out vpon men and those men who were growne rotten like beasts in their
Herod was That thing which once vvas Nothing and now was growne to be so hideously worse then Nothing as it is incomparably worse to be an enemy and persecutour of Christ our Lord then not to be at all But imediatly after the Presentation in the Temple our Lord Iesus was carryed to Nazareth a place remote almost fourescore myles And (b) The occasions of Herods feare Matt. 2. Luc. 2. the noyse of his Natiuity and of the Starre which ledd the Magi and of the Presentation in the Temple together with the prophesies of the King of the Iewes to be borne at Bethleem gaue Herod an all-arme of extreme feare least he who indeed was come to giue vs the kingdome of heauen had meant to rob men of earthly kingdomes But what sayth S. Augustine will his tribunall Ser. 30. de Tempore when he shall sitt as iudge be able to doe now that his Infaurs cradle is able so to fright proud Kings How much better shall those kings doe who seeke not to kill Christ like Herod but rather desire to adore him as the Magi did Him I say who at the hands of his enemies and for his very enemies did endure that death which now his enemies designed him to who being killed afterward did kill that very death in his owne body Leâ— (c) The duty of King sto this King of Kinges Kings carry a pious feare towards him who is sitting at the right hand of his Father whome this impious king did so feare whilst he was sucking at the breast of his mother This cruelty of his did extend so farre as to commaund the death of all the Infants within two yeares of age in Bethleem and all the places neere adjoyning who are esteemed as appears by Ecclesiasticall history to haue arriued to the number of about (*) Vide Salmeron Tom. 3. Tract 44. foureteene thousand That so he might be sure at least as he conceaued to make our Lord away who had not then in likelyhood the age of so many monthes But because some Children are more forvvard in grovvth then others and some errour might chaunce to arriue by the mistaking of age vvithin a little compasse he thought it vvas lesse ill to murther thousands more then needed then to aduenture the escape of that one vvho yet came voluntaryly to dye euen that the tyrant himselfe might not perish So different are the designes of God and man so different are their desires And the successe is also so very different as that the diuine Maiesty doth take sometymes the (d) God draweth good out of euill peruerse will of man yet without hauing any part in the peruersenes therof for the execution of his iust decrees yea not only such of them as are founded in iustice but euen in mercy also It would seeme to some who iudge of God by the lawes which they vse to prescribe for themselues that it had beene much more agreable to the greatnes of such a God as we describe not to haue permitted that such a Tyrant should liue to commit so vast a cryme as this How easely could our Lord with the least breath of his mouth Deutr. 4. which is a consuming fire haue blowne downe that painted wall how little would it haue cost him to haue strocken Herod lame or blind or mad or dead or to haue damned him to hell for all eternity and at an instant How soone could he haue sent that infamous Rebellious little worme who presumed after a sort to spit in the face of that high Maiesty into the bottomelesse pit of Nothing from whence with mercy he had beene drawne It might haue bene instantly and most easely done But the wisedome of God tooke pleasure to drawe great good out of great euill and his loue was that which did set his wisedome so on worke For (e) The wise mercy of God by this permission of his and by the publishing of Herods cruelty the notice of the mistery of his owne Natiuity was much inereased that so his loue to the soules of men might be declared And besides if tyrants were not permitted on earth there would be no Martyrs in heauen as S. Augustine saith And if this tyrant had then beene strocken by some suddayne death the mercy of God might haue seemed lesse wheras now by forbearance euen Herod also had tyme of penance though his Malice were such as that it made no vse therof And * The happines of the Innocents and their mothers against their owne the Tyrants will as for the happy Innocents who were murthered by that Tyrant vpon the occasion of Christ our Lord it is plaine that the world which would deplore their misery yea and their afflicted mothers who did also lament their owne infelicity were farre from iudging as they ought For how much better was it for those mothers to be created mothers of so many Martyrs who instantly went to a seat of rest and presently after the Resurrection of Christ our Lord were placed as a garland vpon his owne sacred head and carryed into an eternity of glory for hauing bene murthered in despight and for the hate of him then to haue contynued as they were but the mothers of Children like the rest Who if they had runne on in their owne naturall course they might perhaps haue ended it with the losse of their soules wheras novv they vvere not only saued but vvhich is more it vvas done vvithout their hauing euer so much as once offended God and so they vvere made the very flovver and first fruits of martyrs So that the loue of our Lord vvas exercised heerin vpon them all And (f) The loue of our Lord Iesus entreth euery where and vpon all occasions vvhere may vve not looke for this loue And vvhat place can be found vvhich is voyd therof since euen in the poysned Cuppe of the Tyrants hate the pretious liquor of his diuine loue did svvym so high as to fill the same To himselfe he tooke the most sad and painefull and shamefull part The compassion vvhich he had of the holy Innocents paine and death I meane of that little which they felt of paine in that passage for his sake vvas a kind of infinite thing That of the mothers vvas extreme for the sacred Text discribes them by vvay of Prophecy to haue bene so profoundly afflicted Ierem. 31. Matt. 2. as that not only they could not but euen they would not receaue comfort But as the loue of the tendrest mother to the only infant of her vvombe may go euen for hatred if it be compared to those vnspeakable ardours of affection vvhervvith the hart of our Lord doth euer flame tovvards all the Creatures for vvhome he dyed Esay 49. for although a mother should forget her sonne yet can not I forget you saith our Lord so may their griefe hovv great soeuer be termed a kind of ioy in respect of his Theirs grovving our of selfe loue
loue wherwith our Lord did make the way thither so easy to them We may well be assured of the truth of that testimony of S. Iohn Baptist when he said Ma. That he who should baptize after him would doe it in the holy Ghost And we may safely say that it was the holy Ghost which could eleuate such a poore peece of nature as common water is to an immediate instrument as now we find it for the washing saÌ„ctifying of all our soules For instantly after the Baptisme of Christ our Lord and the prayer which was made vpoÌ„ it he saw that the very heauens did open which had beene shut till then by the sinne of Adam Ibid. and the holy Ghost descended on him in a visible forme Which our Lord IESVS obteyned not for himselfe who was already full of it Ioan. 1. beyond all measure but he obteyned it for vs for of his fulnes we all receaue and so there is none of vs baptized vvhose soule is not highly visited by the holy Ghost And no meruaile if heauen hauing neuer bin seene open before that time such an aboundance of the holy Ghost vvere then communicated to the vvorld vvhich till then vvas little knovvne The promises and blessings of that old lavv vvere temporall terrene and a land slowing with milke and hony vvas (b) The seruile coÌ„dition of the people of God vnder the old law the fairest Lure vvherby that Carnall people could be made to stoope to any obedience to the commaundements of God But novv the earth vvas grovvne too poore a token for his diuine Majesty to send to then vvho vvere so beloued by his only begotten sonne that sonne vvho in contemplation of their good had performed such an act of heroicall call vertue in this holy Baptisme of his And therfore heauen vvas set open and the most pretious treasure therof Confes l. 13. cap. 7. sent dovvne to dravv men vp For the vncleanes of our spirit as S. Augustine sayth dissolueth it selfe downeward through a loue of cares and the sanctity of Gods spirit doth rayse vs vpward by a loue of secure repose That so our harts may ascend vp towards thee O God where thy spirit is carried ouer the waters and that we may arriue to that supereminent rest when our soules shall haue passed through these waters wherupon we can ground no rest But euen in respect of Christ our Lord himselfe though his soule vvere then already so full of grace as not to be capable of addition yet vvas it most agreable to the vsuall stile and the infinite iust goodnes of God that the humility of this action should be ansvvered and acknovvledged vvith vnusuall glory And therfore that he vvho had so abased euen as it vvere buried himselfe vp in vvater Ioan. 1. and submitted his head to one who was not worthy to vnty his shoe should be auovved from heauen vvith the Curtaines open dravvne To be the beloued sonne of God Matt. 3. And so a certaine and solemne instance vvas giueÌ„ of that truth vvhich may goe for the dayly and standing miracle of the Christian Catholike Church That as soone as a soule shall haue truly humbled it selfe for the loue of God euen then it receaues and feeles a revvard from heauen vvhich fills the hart full of ioy Glory then I say vvas due to his humility and for as much as nothing can pay loue but loue the attribute of Beloued was also due and best deserued by his loue And because his loue for the loue of God was so immense to man the holy Ghost it selfe which is the al and only infinite loue was sent downe vpon him in a visible manner by whome it was afterward to be conueyed to men And euen the very shape wherin God was pleased that it should appeare may serue to make vs know that all the actioÌ„ did begin end in loue For it was of a doue (b) The fruytes of the holy ghost are figured fitly in a Doue what creature is more apt for loue then this What creature is more fruitefull more speedy more sweet more stronge more honest and yet more amourous then this Deteyning her mate when he would depart with more desire and expecting him when he is absent with more ioy The doue was therfore the signe of the holy Ghost which descended vpoÌ„ Christ our Lord as soone as he was baptized to shew that his hart was ouerwhelmed with loue both to God and man Whilst for the pure glory of the one and the perfect good of the other he submitted himself to paine and shame for the sanctifying of sinners and that by a most sweet easy means to vs he cared not though he were accounted one himselfe Yea not being content to be only thought so heere by men the restlesnes of his loue did worke so fast vpon him as to make him not disdaine to be mistaken therin by the diuells also and to be tempted in the wildernes by the Prince of darcknes as the next discourse will declare Of the vnspeakeable Loue to vs which our Lord Iesus shewed in his being tempted in the wildernes by the Diuell CHAP. 23. IT is full of truth which hath bene said Omnis Christi actio vitâ—e nostrae est instructio Euery action of our Lord may serue for an instruction to vs in this life of ours Or rather it is most true that there is no action at all of his which instructs vs not many wayes (a) All the actions of Christ our Lord are as a hidden Manna to our soules which is not a kind of hidden Manna deliuering to euery hungry and thirsty soule a tast of that particular vertue which it needs That Christ our Lord would be baptized was to be enroled in the list of sinners according to the iudgment of men but in sine they were men who would make that iudgment with men he loued and he was come into the world to procure their good and at last he knew that he would deliuer them from that errour But for the sonne of God who was also God to abase and as it were forget himselfe so farre as to submit that superexcellent soule of his which was adored by al the Angells of heaueÌ„ to be subiect for the manifold benefit of man so farre as to be tempted by that damned spirit doth betoken such a strange loue to vs as puts all discourse to silence and the best created vnderstanding that euer was may be halfe excused if it shall loose the very witts with wonder If the difference be great betwene one man and another euen amongst good men homo homini quid praestat if it be great betwene a good maÌ„ a bad if it be yet greater between a most wicked man a most glorious Saint what difference shall we thinke there is betwene God and the diuell And what scales can haue the strings long enough to giue scope that one
transfigured before them That his face did shine like the sunne That his garments were as white as snow That Moyses and Elyas appeared also and were speaking with him That their discourse was of that excesse of loue which he would shew in the passion through which he was to passe in Hierusalem That S Peter was so rapt with ioy as to say That it was good being there and to beg of our Lord that there they might haue still remayned but that before he had ended his speach a bright cloud came downe which ouershadowed them and this voyce was thundred out from thence This is my beloued sonne in whome I am well pleased heare him Vpon the noyse of this voyce the Disciples fell prostrate vpō their faces as being much a frayd but our Lord Iesus drew neere and touched them said withall rise vp and doe not feare and when they looked vp they saw none but only Iesus And as they were going downe the hill he cōmaunded them not to speake of that vision till he should be risen from the dead This glorious miracle did shine in the exteriour of our Lord so vehemētly as to send the beames therof to his Disciples but it vvas the flame of loue which burning so hot in his diuine hart did breake out much more vpon them that so their soules and ours by theirs might be set on fyre He had then lately been telling them of his passion which was to come That he was to endure many and grieuous things That he was to be condemned by the high Priests That he was to suffer death and then to rise He had further said that for their good they must be imitatours of him and that howsoeuer the way of the Crosse might fall out to be hard and stony yet there was no remedy but they must runne it through And now least their mindes might haue bene oppressed with inordinate griefe or else assaulted afterward with vnbeliefe or at least discouraged by the difficulties of this life which he knew was to proue so painfull to them for the seruice of God his (c) A particular reason why our Lord would be transfgured before some of his Apostles hart of loue could no longer hould from expressing it selfe towards thē in some such kind as might not only strengthen them against all feare of future harme but might solace them also in aboundant māner both with the present sense of excessiue ioy and an infallible expectation of much more to follow afterward And when he had conueyed the notice of his passion like a bitter dose of pills into their mindes he did like a carefull Phisitian put a spoonfull of Conserue after it into their mouthes least otherwise they might chance to haue cast their Phisicke As generally in holy Scripture so particularly in this mistery of the Transfiguration and of the ioy which was commuicated to the Disciples by meanes therof the expressiōs euen of things which are very great are yet very positiue and playne as I shall also shew elsewhere And Saynt Peter only said Bonum est nos hic esse It is good for vs to be heere But (d) This seemes to haue been but a smal expressiō of ioy but inded it was very great and why though this may seeme to be but a leane and hungry kind of signification of his ioy for his hauing beene made participant of that high vision yet indeed it vvas such a one as could not well be more endeared To haue said that it had beene better to be in the top of that high mountaine with Christ our Lord then to haue bene in the midst of all the treasures and pleasures of the world below had bene to allow a kind of goodnes to these other things though infeririour to that which there he felt For to say that one thing is better then another doth leaue a power in that other thing to be good But by only saying that this was good it rather seemes to follow that whatsoeuer vvas lower and lesse then this would not be good S. Peter was heere in a kind of midle Region of the ayre betewne ordinary grace below glory aboue And as he could not say that his then present condition was any more then good in regard that nothing of this life was so good or indeed that it was absolutely good at all so neither could he say that it was any more then good in regard of the ioyes which are felt in heauen And therfore he said not that it was a soueraigne or an infinite good which is only enioyed in that next life by the sight of God Exod. 33. That sight is that Omne bonum which was promised by our Lord God that he would shew his seruant Moyses in heauen This other is that bonum which now was shewed to his Apostles heere on earth But though it were but bonum in comparison of that infinite good yet if this such as it vvas had bene set by the vvhole vvorld of worldly pleasures they would all haue streight appeared to be but durt and trash and this would haue shined like a second heauen of glory in comparison of them We must therfore be farre from thinking meanely of it but rather we are to call our wits about vs and to argue thus If some (e) What wonders the holy ghost doth worke in the soule of man influence or visitation of the holy Ghost whilst it doth but slip into the soule of man be able to comfort him when he was laid though neuer so low in the bed of distresse and desolation If some extraordinary communication of Gods Spirit can eleuate the soule not only aboue all other creatures but euen aboue it selfe so as not only to disgust it and that for euer from all humane hopes or feares but to make it halfe forget that there is any other thing but God If some true Reuelation or diuine imaginary vision such as our Lord doth sometymes cōmunicate to his friends fauorites in this life when and why it pleaseth him as we find recorded in their liues doth sometymes so inebriate and fixe and transforme thē into him as they may rather be said to swym and bath at ease in a sea of comfort then to trauell and trudge by land in a desert full of difficulties distresse what effect shall we thinke this vision of visions did worke in the mind of the B. Apostles Who saw not what they saw by imagination only but they had before the eyes both of their body and minde the humanity of Christ our Lord all in glory with Moyses and Elias doing him homage in the name of both those worlds which liued eyther vnder the law of nature or the written law The incomparable ioy which the Apostles tooke through the loue which our Lord Iesus shewed them in his Transfiguration and how himselfe was content to want the glory of it both before and after for the loue of them CHAP. 30. THE sunne
how he loued that man Ibid. Yet Lazarus indeed his friends had obliged our Lord by particular seruices to his owne sacred person wheras the holy Text affirmes in many other places that his diuine pitty mercy did worke most tenderly also towards others vpon whom he had no other eye at all then as they were parts of mankind all which he did so deerly loue And therfore he pittied both their generall and particular miseries as appeares by the story of the widdow in the death of her sonne Luc. 7. Matt. 13. Mar. 8. Matt. 23◠and of the people in the wildernes for their distresse of hungar and especially of the citty of Ierusalem when with his eyes full of teares he lamented their misery as hath bene said else where The holy Scripture also affirmeth not only that he pittied them Matt. 1◠Marc. 8. but that himselfe would professe and say as much And besides he ordayned that the notice of it should be left to vs vpō record And what charming words were those when he would bid them Aske (1) Ioan. 16. and haue that their ioye might be full and when he would say What (2) Marc. 10. wilt thou haue me doe Yea and also in expresse termes Be it vnto thee (3) Matt. 15. as thou wilt thy selfe As if he were content that man should be as it were his owne caruer out of the very omnipotency of God and that the mercy of God were to haue no other measure then mans owne desire And when he would say My selfe will (4) Matt. 8. goe and cure the sicke person at thy house And when being the soueraigne King of glory he would yet become a begger of a cup of could water of the (5) Ioan. 4. Samaritan women whilst the while he was filling her soule with the water of grace which instantly might take all possibility of further thirst from her And when he would call them by many and most tender names as we haue shewed vpon another occasion And when he would begge of them that they would sinne no more And when he would so labouriously defend and plead the cause of S. Mary (6) Luc. 37. Magdalene his enamoured penitent And when he confounded that hypocrysy and pride of the Iewes and had such diuine pitty of the poore (7) Ioan. 8. Adultresse And whē he would goe as he did to him who was borne (8) Ioan. 9. blind whome himselfe would needs vouchsafe to seeke as soone as he was excommunicated by the Iewes And hauing found him he gaue him comfort and passed sometyme in his conuersation and withdrew that curtaine which he suffered still to hange betwixt him and others and told him at last in plaine powerful tearmes (9) Ibid. That the Sauiour of the world was then speaking to him The great laboriousnesse of Loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in the working of his Miracles is more declared CHAP. 43. NOVV withall this loue which our Lord expressed in the working of his miracles was no nice or wary kind of loue For it cost him excessiue paines labour and imployed him in iourneying through all that hilly cōtry on foote as may be seene throughout the whole Euangelicall history to find matter Matt. 9. Marc. 6. for his mercy of that kind to worke vpon And sometymes all Iewry not being able to containe and compasse in those bowells of his charity he would be breaking out into the skirts of the Gentiles Matt. 25. which he began to ennoble sanctifie by his presence And whersoeuer he were he was importuned by poore people to take pitty on them and he had so much towards them that he had none of himselfe But he prayed for them by night he laboured for them by day that so hard that as sometymes (1) Matt. 4. 12. 15. he had no bread to eate so at othertymes he had not so (2) Marc. 3. much as leaue or tyme to eate it in yea or so much as (3) Marc. 2. 3. euen scarce meanes to stirre through the presse of people which came about him At all howers was he ready to giue them health if they had beene ready alwaies to receaue it But the Country in sommer begin extremly hoat for them to haue repaired to him in the heate of the day would haue bene perhaps but to haue exchanged one sicknes for another Or els though the Patients would haue bene glad to be carryed or conducted the men vvho vvere to help them had not charity inough to endure the trouble But hovvsoeuer the Patients or their friends did stand affected the Phisitian was still at hand and he desired no better Fee then to be doing them fauour And (a) What troopes of sicke persons were brought to our B. Lord for eure Luc. 4. so therfore in the euenings about Sunne-set the holy Scripture shevves vvhat troopes of people of all those villages tovvnes and citties vvould come in about him Drawing out dying men into the sight of that truer brighter sunne vvhich vvas euer shining tovvards them as at noone day Not only did he cure them all but besides the benefit it self of their health he imparted it vvith so much tendernes of loue as not to permit that there should be so much as any one of them all vvhome he vvould not touch vvith his ovvne pure povverfull hands though he vvas infinitely able to haue cured them all at once Luc. 4. and vvith the least vvord of his mouth or euen vvith the wil of his hart At other tymes agayne he vvould accomplish their desires in another forme And as before he cured them by touching them vvith his owne sacred flesh to shew his loue so novv he vvould doe it by letting thē touch his garments Marc. 6. or his person to shevv his povver There might you haue seeme as if it had bene a very Market or Faire of sicke Folkes of all diseases both of body and mind which went Progresse with him whersoeuer he had a mind to goe Some leaning vpon staues some carried in mens armes and some in their beds vpon wheele barrowes A running (*) A running cāpe of souldiers who had been wounded by sinne camp it was of souldiers who had all beene wounded in the warre by their enemies and they hoped for help by flying towards the Cullours of this Captaine And we may make account that though he were the King both of heauen and earth yet he tooke not so much gust in being courted by the Angells of heauen as he did in being haunted by this hospitall which went euer creeping after him on earth This (b) Many Hospitalls in one hospitall had all kindes of hospitals made vp in one One hospital for al sortes of ordinary diseases as Feauers Dropsies Fluxes of bloud and the like Another for the Blind Another for the Lame Another for the Deafe Another for the Dumbe Another for
if we will we are to know that the more nutritiue the food is in it selfe the more imminent wil our dāger be if we will needs be still so weake as to want that heat of loue wherwith it is to be digested by our soules And it may happen to vs heere as is vseth to doe in the case of common food that insteed of health we shall find our selues more desperatly sicke of surfetting by our approach to this bread of heauen But so on the other side if we prepare and purge our selues by penance if we arme strengthen our selues by prayer and practise of solid vertue this tree of life will fructify in our soules after a strange proportion and the more the oftner we shall feed thereon Nor shall we need to feare that by frequenting this mystery either the benefit which it will impart to vs or the veneration which we shall be enabled to carry towards it cā any way decrease but the contrary The (e) Why the frequenting this bread of Angells doth breed increase of reuerence and loue of God pleasures of the world glut a man for the tyme and he is ready to starue for hungar afterward And so the couersation of many is valued highly till it come to be inioyed but by custome and familiarity there growes contempt It is not it cannot be so in this case of ours For the honor and profit delight which is both found and felt by treating in this inward manner with the infinite spring and fountaine of all Good doth easily put vs out of feare that euer there can be any want of reuerēce but only with such as come not to it as they ought In all things but especially in this blessed Sacrament he is of infinite greatnesse and goodnes to such as will resort to him with h̄ble loue or rather who will but giue him leaue to resort to them and who lay no impediment in his way but that he may inioy them all as he desires For as much more willingly doth Christ our Lord repose in such a soule then euen in the Emperiall heauen it selfe as the preparing of that soule although it be yet but the seate of his grace did cost him more then the building of heauen though it be the seate of his glory For heauen did but cost him a word which was but one simple act of his will but the soule of man did cost him many a bitter sigh and many a salt teare and so many drops of his pretious bloud as that he had no more left to giue The next discourse is to giue vs a larger prospect vpon the obiect of his infinite sufferance as this is striuing to make vs feele and ponder the care he takes to keep vs from suffering any misery at all either of sinne or paine For in this diuine Sacrament of Sacraments to (f) The many offices which our Lord performes to soules in this B. Sacrament the poore oppressed Orphane he shewes himselfe a most deere and louing Father To the sicke and wounded patient an expert careful Phisitian To the negligent and wandring sheepe a pittifull and watchfull Pastour To the ignorant and vnlearned scholler a wise and most diligent Maister To the penitent and afflicted soule which splits with griefe for hauing offended such a Goodnes and melts with loue through the desire to enioy such a beauty he is a pardoner a protectour a perseruer a cherisher an illuminator an inflamer a companion a friend a spouse an all in all O fire (g) The conclusiō of this discourse in the way of prayer diuine O sacred food O heauenly feast So heauenly as thou dost incorporate thy selfe in vs vs in thee dost after a sort euen Deify our nature in this mortall life of ours by making it in a manner one thing with thyne Let thine eye looke backe vpon thine owne auncient mercies And since thou hast taken such strange pitty vpon thy Creatures by thy vouchsafing hitherto to dwell in such durty houses take pitty now at last vpon thy self And make henceforth these our harts such holy Temples as may become thee O thou King of glory to inhabit and therin for euer to be adored Let all the faculties of our soules and all the senses of our body hange like so many incensories before thy Altar and breath out eternal prayse of thy holy name and euen spend themselues wholy in thy seruice in contemplation of this infinite benefit Thou hast lodged a treasure as rich as thou thy selfe art rich in these fraile vessells of our soules Giue vs therfore grace to carry thē about with such a care to keep them safe from breaking as that the Iewell may be for euer ours Humble vs deere Lord by what other way thou wilt but let not our former sinnes be punished by our contemning or vnderualuing these soueraigne mercies Luc. 12. And since vpon thy bringing the fire of they holy Spirit into the world thou didst expect that it should be all inflamed do not permit that we should yet remaine so voyd of heate when thy vnspeakeable goodnes doth so often bring into our bosomes yea and into our very breasts that fornace of this very fire which is thy self this death of sinne this spring of vertue this bread of life this cure of passions this strength of weakenes this treasure of grace this banquet of ioy this roote of glory this conduit and conue yance of all good things Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus discoueuereth to mākind in his sacred Passion with a reflection vpon the dignity of his diuine person and the vse which heer we are to make thereof CHAP. 52. OVR Lord IESVS was figured in the old Testament Isa 1. Gen. 49. with great propriety by the flower of the roote of Iesse and by the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda A flower he was both through the sauour of his benesits and through the odour of his diuine conuersation as the precedent discourses will haue shewed and a Lion he was also by the nobility of his strength and Passion as will now appeare Fortitude is both actiue and passiue yea and the Passiue is farre the greater and farre the harder of the two The (a) The whole life of our Lord may in some sort be called a Passion course of his whole life was like a field so thicke so wed with crosses and cares that it may all be accounted to haue bene a kind of continued Passion but yet because the last day and night of the same life did so abound therwith it is this alone which is eminently knowne and called by that sad name In this state he was to be when the Prophet Esay foresaw and spake of him to this effect He hath no grace or beauty Isa 53. we haue seene him and there was nothing in him to be seene we desired that he might be contemned as the most abased thinge amongst men A man of
soule being vnited to the diuinity would haue bene farre from feeling any thing but vnspeakeable ioy But leauing eight of his Disciples not farre of he tooke to himselfe the three whom he fauoured most Marc. 14. S. Peter S. Iames and S. Iohn as the fittest to be eye witnesses of his afflictiō because they had beene fortified by hauing bene present at his Transfiguration Matt. 17. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. He bad them watch and pray least else they might enter into Temptation But the lead of their sad harts drew downe and closd ' the doores of their heauy eyes making them sleep after a sort whether they would or no. Our Lord had by that tyme retyred himselfe a little euen from them into perfect (a) Solitude is fit for such as pray solicitude Not that he had need therof who knew not what be longed to a distraction but to teach vs in such cases what we are to doe Yea and to make euen men of the highest prayer and contemplation not to contemne the preparations and helpes which weaker persons are wont vse When he had prayed a while he went to visit his Apostles And so he did agayne at two seueral tymes afterward for no paine of his owne was able to make him forget them And although in all reason they were to haue been sharply reprehended for such a dulnes yet he would not open his mouth towards the holding of any such language But (b) The wōderfull meeknes of our B. Lord. he pittied them rather and bad them at the last sleepe on and to the extreme confusion of such as for tryflles are cholerickly transported against their seruants he excuseth and defendeth and euen comendeth them for the promptitude and good desire of their minde although their body of flesh bloud were fraile Returning therfore againe to pray his soule was ouer wrought with griefe in such excesse that his valiant hart which knew not what belonged to feare and his silent tongue which vsed not to vent it selfe by speach were not ashamed to professe that he was all seized with terrour that he was oppressed with a kind of wearines that he was surcharged with so profound sorrow as made him say That his soule was sad euen to the death What a blessed goodnes was this in him to plucke vp those stakes dikes which formerly had made it impossible for such thought as those to breake in and ouerflow him and now to giue way to such (c) The weakenes of our Lord hath obtayned strength for his seruants in their sufferāce weakenes in himselfe that by the merit therof so much grace might be applied to men and not only to men but euen to tender and delicate Virgins as that in vertue therof they might be able with patience and euen with ioy to endure as cruell Martyrdomes as euer the rage of the most barbarous Tyrants could inuent For as we grew to haue perfect life by the obediēce of his death and true honour by his humility and shame so by this weakenes of his we haue gayned strength by his wearines alacrity and by his griefe his faithfull seruants haue obteyned ioy in their greatest misery From hence we may also gather an other fruite of cōfort that since our Lord himselfe went so farre in the expression of his distresse his seruants must not thinke when thēselues should be much deiected by their crosses in the inferiour part of their soule that therfore God is angry with them if still in the superiour they will imitate this Lord of ours Who notstanding he desired that the Chalice might haue passed from him did yet resigne himselfe with intire abnegatiō of his owne wil accepting thus Luc. 22. imbracing the wil of God Pater si est possibile transeat à me Calix iste attamen non mea voluntas sed tua siat Father if it be possible let this Chalice passe frō me yet not my will but thine be done Now as the charity was vnspeakeable which our Lord IESVS was pleased to expresse both in bearing such a vveight as this for our Redemption in letting vs heare the groanes which it cost him for our instructiō consolation so who shall be able to sound into that bottomlesse pit of his profound humility which drew the God of glory to submit himselfe to such indignity and to make him content to need the comfort of a creature though he were an Angell which Angell must come downe from heauen like a prince of glory whilst the creatour of all the Angells was planted there so full of misery And that he would find himselfe in such necessity of (d) How he persisted in prayer persisting in his prayer sometymes (1) Luc. 22. vpon his knees sometymes (2) Marc. 14. prostrate vpon the ground often repeating the same Prayer and that in the selfe same words as if it had bene like to proue a kind of doubtfull case what would become of him at last But of that there was no doubt at all for besides his Hypostaticall vnion with the diuinity his happy soule was fully in God And both by the straytes into which he was content that the inferiour part therof should be cast for as much as concerned any sense of cōfort as also by the course which he tooke to become victorious in the end he went recording wayes and rules for vs wherby we might also conquer all our enemies Our blessed Lord in the meane tyme was labouring as it were for life to such plunges was he brought as to find himselfe in expresse agony Luc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the holy Euangelist declares Now this is the state of dying persons in the last moments of their life when the eyes being already dymme the teeth being knit the hart strings being straynd and all the noble partes being in commotion as this Globe of the lower world vvould be in a generall earth quake the diuorce of the body and soule seemeth neere at hand And it is to be noted that this grevv in him vvithout any torment then inflicted vpon his body and only from the (e) The excessiue anguish of mind which our Lord Iesus felt anguish of his minde Hovv exquisite therfore and hovv insufferable must that anguish be But the more closely he vvas to be set vpon by that Sea of sorrovv vvhich seemed as if instantly it vvould svvallovv him vp the more firme vvas his hope in God and so also must ours be in such occasions And after the rate of our discomforts so is our Prayer to be increased Forvve see it is affirmed of our blessed Sauiour that vvhē he vvas grovvne to be in Agony he produced his prayer into great length Ibid. Et factus in agonia prolixius orabat Prayer is therfore that vvhich still he recommends to vs heerby and vve see vvith hovv profound reuerence it must be made and vvhat high estimation vve are to make
therof as shortly vvill be shevved more at large And since our blessed Lord vvas content to repeate the selfe same prayer thrice vve are to pitty the poore men vvho vvill needs be our aduersaries vvhilst they laugh and scoffe at vs for our often repetition of the same (f) That Repetitiō of the same prayers is commended by the example of Christ our Lord. Prayers Indeed if vve did but say them vvith the lips and tongue alone as they impose vpon vs tooke not care to accompany them vvith the application and attention of our minde they might still laugh on and the deuill vvould keepe them company therin But othervvise vve see by this mystery of the Garden that Repetition of Prayers is no ill custome if vve vse it as vve ought And then if still they vvill needs be laughing at as for the vse therof they vvill be faine to doe it alone for the deuill is not such a foole as to doe so too since he knovves he looses by the bargaine A heauy Agony to our Lord IESVS that vvas but a happy one for vs since he offred it to the eternall Father for the obtayning of comfort and strength not (g) That Agony of our Lord got cōfort for vs both in our afflictions of mind and diseases of body only in all the distresses of minde as vvas said before but in all the deadly diseases of body also vvhich might come to carry vs out of this life And it is in vertue of this Agony that vve see the seruants of God so full of patience and courage and sometymes euen of ioy vvhen they are vpō that bed euē as it were in the very iavves of death Nor vvhen they are abandoned by the help of the vvhole vvorld and vvhē their corporal strength is entirely gone can yet all the proud deuills in hell vvho are then imploying all the force and fraude they haue to their perdition disquiet their conscience or disturbe their peace What griefe it must needs cause to our blessed Lord to be estranged from feeling comfort in God CHAP. 55. BVT vvhat might that be the very apprehension vvherof vvrought so impetuously vpon our blessed Lord vvhome nothing had bene obserued to distemper in the least degree through all the course of his holy life vvhat kind of thing I say must that be vvhich durst assault his hart vvith sorrovv Or of vvhat had he bene ignorant till then the knowledge wherof at that tyme might be able to put the powers of his mind into that appearance of disorder His knowledge was still the same but his loue in some sort was not the same for it seemes as if euery minute of his life he had bene adding new feathers to those wings wherby his hart was flying towards the comfort of ours And knowing of how great aduantage to vs his humility and patience would be in the sight of God (a) Our Lord was pleased to suffer much for vs whom he loued so much it was only his pleasure at that tyme as hath been sayd to hide the comfort of his diuinity from the inferiour part of his soule wherby those apprehensions and reasons of griefe and desolation were of vnspeakeable torment to his minde Which so long as it was feeding vpon the cleere and sensible vision of God could not so much as once distract it from incessant ioy Whereas novv he vvas so very farre from ioy that vve see him as if he had been halfe ouercome with griefe To let vs knowe by the way that as all our burthens are light when they are carryed vpō our backs by the help of God so when he retyreth his holy hand there is not the least of thē which may not trouble the strongest Saint that liues But the obiect which caused such excessiue anguish to our Lord IESVS which wrought so farre euen vpon his sacred body as to make it vtter a prodigious svveat of very bloud and that not by drops but as it vvere by streames and flood Luc. 22. vvhich did not trickle but run downe a maine from the heauenly earth of his body to the terrestriall earth wheron he kneeled which was made a kind of heauen by drinking vp that quintessēce of life was (b) The dishonour of God and the perdition of man was the two edged sword which cut our B. Sauiours hart in funder the glory of God which he saw prophaned by the sinne of man and the soules of all mankind wherof he loued euery one a million of times more then his owne pretious life addicted to the eternall torments of hell fire For this was that sword with a double edge which did as it were cut his soule in sunder Who is also able to imagine what a sad affliction it must be to him to be depriued for one moment of the feeling of that soueraigne delight ioy wherewith he did so abound from the very instant of his Conception by the sensible shining of his diuinity vpon his whole soule which now in part was abridged thereof The want of any communication of Almighty God to a hart which hath seen light in light is of so great moment how little soeuer it be that it wōds that hart with much griefe which doth well discerne that nothing of that kind is little To know any thing of God by way of sensible experience doth kindle in the spirit a very furnace of desire to enioy the rest And how much sorrow then must it feele to be depriued euen of what it had The liues of Saintes are full of the sweet and sad complaints which they haue made to God vpon such occasions and in particular you may see store of this in the life of that great woman Blessed Mother Teresa of Iesus which was written by her selfe vpon the commaundement of her ghostly Father And not only did this holy Passion raigne among such soules departed as the Church esteemeth to be Saints but by the goodnes of God we haue met with some amongst the creatures who are yet in flesh and bloud who seruing God in great purity in conformity therof hauing bene admitted to some deere imbracemēts of that heauēly spouse of their soules haue gone lamētably mourning and that for a long tyme together like so many Turtles for the absence of their beloued through the wāt of that infinite Good wherof before they had beene admitted to take a taste They (c) The great sorrow which is felt by the spouse of Christ vpon any hiding of himselfe from a soule or euen by liuing in this Pilgrimage are so deeply wounded with loue that to be hindred from inioying him is wont to giue them excessiue griefe They feele it so much as they know not how they shall endure that want since the only remedy of all their other paines is the certaine (d) By often thinking vpō God meanes to increase this one paine of theirs For as a sore is most felt when it
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
hart with most blasphemous and bitter scoffs The people which past in troopes Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioan. 19. before him did with serpentine tongues and countenances full of scorne cry out vah to him And they accompanied it with the most contumelous gesture and iogge of the head which they could deuise as the holy Scripture it selfe doth insinuate And that interiection with the words that followed doe as bad as say after this manner Thou wretch thou hypocrite thou vgly impostor thou wert talking of wonders but to what an end hath thy wickednes brought thee now at last Thou hadst a minde to be a King but what beggar is so base as not to be thy better might it please your Maiesty to come downe from the crosse that we your most humble and faithfull seruants and vassalles may doe you homage Thou talkedst of being the Sonne of God the Sauiour of the world Will it please your Diuinity to be good to your Humanity Will it please you to let your Charity beginne at home and to saue your selle Thou talkedst of what thou couldst do if thou wert disposed and that the Temple was but a toye and that thou wert able to put it downe and rayse it vp againe in a trice Might your Omnipotēcy be intreated to beginne with throwing downe that Crosse and to cast away those nayles and by iuggling to play least in sight as in former occasions you haue been known to doe Vah wretched wicked thing the worst of creatures the out cast of the world we hate thee we abhorre thee we despise thee we spit at thee we defy thee The earth hath refused to be trod vpon any longer by those pernicious feete of thine the heauen is walled vp against the entry of such a miscreāt as thou There is no place for thee but hell dye therfore quickly and be damned These are infinite blasphemies and we all abhorre them all as we doe the deuill himselfe but infallibly they are but triuiall things in comparison of those others which were darted out indeed against our blessed Lord vpon the Crosse For (c) A demonstration that the blasphemies which were vttered against our blessed Lord were most enourmous thinges though the holy Scripture toucheth them in in few words since they acted their worst by the way of doing they would be sure not to fall short in saying And the rage they had would quicken vp their wits and the excessiue wrongs which then already they had done him would exact at their hāds a making good of what was past by the vttermost most demonstration of how deepely they detested him at that present The high Priests besides are recorded in holy Scripture to haue put scoffs vpon him after a particular manner and they sayd to this effect This fellow had a guift to helpe other folkes but he hath not the tricke to saue himselfe If he he the King of Israell let him come downe from the Crosse and we will belieue him The good mā did put his trust in God but if God haue a minde to him let him take him The barbarous souldiers also were still vpon their old haunt of scorning him Ibid. hauing bene bribed in all appearance by those wicked Iewes euen from the beginning when he was scourged and crowned with thornes And they were so voyd of pitty as to be offering him vinager though they did but euen that in iest and scorne at that tyme wheras wine was wont to be giuē to all men who were placed in that deadly trance Yea and euen one of those very theeues who then were suffering death togeather with him tooke tyme not to thinke of his owne torments or imminent death togeather with the danger of eternall damnation which he was in through the lust he had to be like those sauages vnder whome he suffered and he would needs be then at leasure to reproach blaspheme our blessed Lord. How our Lord Iesus did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructour vpon the Crosse and of the three first wordes which with incomparable Loue he vttered from thence CHAP. 71. SVCH was the cruelty of all kinds of people against our Lord as he was hanging vpon the Crosse and such was the affliction which in the inferiour part of his soule he felt vpon euery one of those particular paines and scornes Nor was there so much as one single word a signe gesture or a thought of malice in any one of all those many harts which wēt not to his by the way of griefe Yet see also how it wrought in the way of loue As soone as the Crosse was reard and that already they had set al those markes vpon him which were to carry him to his graue that still he was hearing the bitter scoffs blasphemies wherby they prophaned his sacred eares he went exercising two of his chiefe offices in a most admirable manner and in a most eminent degree These (a) Our Lord Iesus the Mediatour of our redemption and the Doctour of our soules by by way of instructiō were to be the Mediatour of our Redemption and the Doctour in that Chaire of the holy Crosse for our instruction He then turned himselfe in most gratious but most dolorous manner to his eternall Father beseeching him to forgiue al their sinnes who had any way concurred to that death of his Father sayth he forgiue them for they know not what they do Ibid. Of God as God he knew not how to hope for such a fauour in respect of them and therfore he coniures him by the tēder name of Father that so he remēbring him to be that most beloued Sonne Matt. 3. he in whome he was well pleased he might be mercifull to those wretches whose cause he had vndertakē to plead For howsoeuer they had found in their harts to giue him so many wounds of death with so much scorne and rage yet he could not find in his to forsake them in theyr sinns but to begge that they might haue grace to returne by penance And because he easily foresaw that the crime was so enormous of it selfe his vnspeakeable charity went seeking waies how to excuse the grieuousnes therof by taking a part from their malice and ascribing it to their ignorance who committed it And he who in that Agony in the Garden prayed but conditionally that the bitter Chalice of his punishment might passe from him had so much more (b) Out Lord had far more care of vs thē of himselfe care of them then of himself as to pray in absolute termes that the Chalice of Gods fury might not come to thē Not only he did it in absolute termes but he did it at his death when Fathers are not wōt to refuse their sonnes And he did it more ouer in the midst of those excessiue torments when euen enemies vse to gratify one another and he did it by way of represēting so good a reason for the obtayning of his suite
herself vnworthy of honour So that finding her selfe at the very instant to be sublimed to such a height as that she did not yet esteeme her selfe one graine more worthy in her selfe then she did before Whervpon she tooke no titles which might then beloÌ„g so her present state as of Queene of Angells Lady Mistris of the world or elected Spouse of the holy Ghost Nor did she prefer herself before theÌ„ meanest creature of the earth but setling her soule in the lowest meanest place of theÌ„ all she gaue her self the stile of a hand-mayd or slaue In c. 1. Lucae S. Ambrose wonders at this Humility I woÌ„der not at him for so woÌ„dring for the Angells theÌ„selues are not able to do it as it deserues This vertue she also discouered in straÌ„ge maÌ„ner when vpoÌ„ those great prayses which S. Elizabeth proclaymed to be her due both for the prerogatiues which she had in her selfe for the wonders which had bin wrought in S. Iohn vpon the only hearing of her voyce this sacred Virgin refused out-right to accept therof and instantly running into her most humble hart she fell into that diuine Canticle Luc. 2. wherin she ascribes all the glory of her greatnes and of that felicity of hers which was to be celebrated for euer by all the Generations of the faithfull to the only omnipotent mercy of our Lord God Of the soueraigne Purity Greg. Niâ—â— in Orat. de humana Christi Generat Aug. de S. virginitate c. 4. Beda hom de Eest Annunt Anselm hom Intrauit Iesus Bern serm de Natiuitat Mariae apud Canisium l. 2. c. 14. of this sacred Virgin as it were a most blasphemous sinne to doubt so were it simplicity to dilate the consideration of a thing so cleere into any great length She imbraced Chastity she vowed it though formerly both in the law of nature euen in the written law there was little notice of it lesse practise And as fecundity was much esteemed by the Iewes so was the want therof a note rather of reproach infamy then otherwise The people of flesh bloud do often choose rather to be infamous with the losse of virginity theÌ„ glorious by the preseruation therof But this Queene of Virgins did loue not only to be contemptible in the eye of the world but euen to excuse her selfe from accepting to be the very mother of God rather theÌ„ she would endure to thinke that the flower of her virginity should once be touched Yet touched it was but first that was by the holy Ghost himselfe then instantly afterward by the increated Sonne of God who reposed so many moneths in that Angelicall Cradle of her sacred wombe But that touch was so farre from blasting it as that it indued it with most pretious odours which haue perfumed the world And if before that tyme her Virginity were but in flower it was now growne to be both in flower fiuite being highly sanctified sublimed by that Elixir (d) The sacred humanity of Christ our Lord. of heauen which turneth whatsoeuer it toucheth into gold The integrity of her sacred body was the least part of her diuine Purity for her soule was that which did excell That extended not only to the absence of any thing which was contrary to Chastity but (e) This indeed is true and perfect Purity to a forbearance of taking the least contentment or delight in any thing created but only in God for God No thought no care no desire or ioy did euer presume so much as to solicit that superexcelleÌ„t soule but only how to coÌ„ply with her vnspeakeable obligatioÌ„ to Almighty God by perpetuall working and yet profoundly contemplating those diuine attributes of his vpon which froÌ„ the first instaÌ„t of her Immaculate Conception till that other of her most glorious Assumption her mind as hath bene said did beate and boyle in continuall acts of most ardent loue This indeed was to be Chast in the most eminent degree To be doing that on earth which the Angels are doing in heauen Whose incessant actuall loue S. Augustine doth thus expresse Confes lib. 12. c. 11. Quod perseuerantissima castitate DeÌ„ hauriant that they are sucking vp God himselfe with a most perseruing Chastity and purity of minde When the Sonne of God and her was sucking at the sacred fountaine of her breast for the reliefe and maintenance of his pretious life how would that diuine Virgin (f) A happy exchaÌ„ge Mother be sucking the while at the fountaine of his Diuinity for the delighting inebriating of her soule How instantly did she vpon all occasions giue backe all prayses and attributes of estimation and honour to God though they had bene sent down to her by the TrÌ„pets of heauen and by tongues of truth it self as hath bene said When other creatures are praysed they seldome send the prayses backe as cleane as they come but their mindes being moystned by selfe-loue are still retayning some impression therof more or lesse Lumen siccum optimae anima It is an excellent choice soule which so flameth vp towards God as not to be softned or steeped in humaine affections It was with our B. Lady in the case of the prayse or honour which was done her as it would be with a wall of Diamond towards which some ball were sent and the harder it should be driuen the more forcibly and quickly it would returne againe What ball could be stronger driuen then that she should be proclaymed the Mother of God by an Archangell and what more stiffe repulse could be made to the prayse which did result therby then that instantly she should prostrate and protest her selfe to be no better then his slaue If such were the perfection of her Purity of hart at that tyme which I would to Christ we did not want words so much as to name what would it grow to be after so long cohabitation with that God her sonne for the space of tree and thirty yeares He (g) The power of the presence of Christ our Lord. whose presence euen for one minute in such sort as he was pleased to affaord it to her were able to make any dissolute and disordered hart become Saintly and pure and indeed to make a kind of heauen of hell it selfe I adore God in his B. Mother and I admire the perfection of her happy soule and in the least of her actions and words I see another manner of Abysse without a bottom then in all the Saints and Angells put togeather but that which most amazeth me is the plentiful RegioÌ„ of her purity the incorruptible fidelity of her soule towards God Which was so perfectly dead to it selfe and so full of springing life and motion to him as (h) The Non-plus vltra of the Purity of the B. Virgin that instantly shee did euer returne his graces back againe wrapped vp as in so many Loue-letters of adoring
very soule yet neither in so many yeares was that Mare pacificum that profound Sea of her sweet soule once troubled at it nor at the foote of the crosse did she vtter any one word of lesse Cōformity nor expresse otherwise any little shew of womanish weake cōplaint Nay S. Ambrose who considers her in this most dolorous but yet most glorious state dares not affirme the she did so much as weep Stantem lego flentem non lego Ambr. de obitu Valent prope sinem I read saith he that she was standing at the foote of the Crosse but I doe not read that she was weeping for the Crucifix And to increase the wonder let it be further considered as it is most true though she had such griefe as hath bene said for the torment and death of Christ our Lord which was the effect yet incomparably she had more griefe for the dishonour of God and the sinne of man which was the cause therof But still howsoeuer she was all resigned and so in conformity of the most excellent will of God as still to stand like an immoueable marble tower in the midst of such a world of waues To conclude therfore concerning her vertues she had not in her whole life one thought wherby she did not exercise some vertue or other in all perfection Nay if we be so miserable as by one and the same act of ours to offend sometymes against many vertues at once (f) Our B. Lady did exercise at once many vertues in the top of perfectiō how much more sure was her diuine soule to be like a huge rich Carbuncle cut full of faces or squares to cōply by euery act of hers with the obligation perfection of many vertues at once And those vertues had the very properties which her own excellent person had for they were not only most purely faire for as much as cōcerned thēselues but most chastly attractiue and actually fruitfull in the mind of others And God alone is able to n̄ber vp those innumerable millions of vertuous acts of all kindes which haue bene wrought by Christians in imitation contemplation of her vertues And not only haue men produced them by her example but when that was done they haue refined perfected them in a high degree And yet still withall they conceaue and consider and feele themselues in their very harts to be but as vnprofitable seruants as Christ our Lord cōmaundeth all the world to thinke they are when they should haue done all they could Wherin no soule hath reasō to find difficulty whē it remembers this holy mother of God who would know her self by no better name then of his slaue The entiere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God is prosecuted And it is shewed how a world of priuiledges and perfections which seeme incompatible were assembled in her CHAP. 92. VERILY we Christian Catholikes are much bound to God for infinite (a) Out Lord doth seeke to draw vs to him by obiects of incomparable strength sweetnes fauours it deserueth to go amongst the greatest of them that he sets before vs such puissant yet delightfull obiects as these A God incarnate dying vpon a Crosse and an Angell incarnate and more then a whole Quire of Angells in the person of his B. Virgin Mother at the foote therof They draw vs vp towards them by depressing vs downe below our selues For euen what Saint will not run out of cōntenance as farre as the feete of shame can carry him and shrinke into a feeling knowledge that he is indeed a kind of nothing if he be cōpared I say not only to Christ our Lord but to our B. Lady When the body is tormented the mind will help to hold it vp but when the Martyrdome is indured by a sword of such sorrow in the soule what is able to stay it but such a perfect obedience and patience and loue as hers which tyed it after an immoueable manner to the pillar of Gods will and which (b) The house of our B Ladies hart was immoueable planted that house of her hart vpon a rocke so firme as could not once be shaken by all the waues of earth and hell The visible Sunne did hide it selfe at that tyme as in the discourse of the Passion was declared so also did the inuisible Sonne which was the the Sonne of this sacred Virgin hide himselfe in her For where did he shine and burne but there Cant. 2. Dilectus meus mihi ego illi was then the word of them both hand to hand and she might well affirme in a much more eminent manner Coloss 3. then S. Paul that her life was hidden vp with Christ in God What (c) Our B. Lady did abound with thinges which seem incompatible with one another a world of things which seeme incompatible with one another do we see encounter and imbrace themselues in this sacred Virgin In her we see affliction and ioy Nobility and pouerty A cleere knowledge that she was the Cedar of Excellency with a perfect contempt and making herselfe the shrubb of hysop by humility The fire of Charity and the snow of Purity Her person vpon earth her conuersatiō in heauen A child of Adam in nature and his mother in Grace and a child of Christ our Lord in grace his mother in nature So that shee is both mother and daughter nay she is both Virgin Mother In her sacred wombe she coupled God and man Eecl 42. Et qui creauit me requieuit in tabernaculo meo and he sayth she who created me hath reposed in this (d) Her sacred wombe Tabernacle of mine She gaue a new and that an Eternall being to him who gaue the totall being which is inioyed both by her and all other creatures She was Grauida as S. Bernard saith but not Grauata great with child but it was a burthen without any weight For she carried him in her wōbe who carried and conducted both him and the world in his three fingars S. Bern. hom 3. super Missus est post med She was turbata non perturbata troubled at the salutation of the Angell but not disturbed by it as is also affirmed by the same S. Bernard She is a faire full riuer which could neuer fall but did ouer flow so far as to be a Sea but subiect to no tempest and alwayes if we will we may glasse our selues in her smooth shining waters A Sea she is to saile in and a port to rest in She is also a well sealed vp Fons signatus Cant. 4. but yet we may all draw that from thēce which will quench our thirst for she is not only well but water She is also a garden shut vp but yet we all may gather of those excellent Hortus cōclusus Cant. 4. and odoriferous flowers Nay though she be a garden herselfe is also a flower and the
best but one in all that heauenly Paradise of God She is the true mother of Pearle but yet withall she is a Pearle and the richest after that other which doth adorne the Throne of the Diuinity She is the woman whome in the Apocalips Apoc. 1â—â— S. Iohn saw cloathed with the sunne and he also saw in his Ghospell of Verbum caro factum est Ioan. 11 that the Sonne was cloathed and kept warme by her She is also said to be like the sunne in brightnes yet not glareing or dazeling but togeather with the brightnes of a sunne she hath the sweetnes of a neuer-wayning or changing Moone She is sweet but strange after the example of Christ our Lord Sap. 8. Qui disponit omnid suauiter pertingit â fine vsque ad finem fortiter And for this she is also said to be Terribilis vt castrorum acies ordinata as terrible as a battell placed in good array The terrour which a complete Army giues is great but that is only to the enemies for to friends it is a spectacle both of security and glory She (e) The most sweet condition of our B. Lady Cant. 4. conquers with curtesy and mercy or if she do it by force yet is it not to kill but to take prisoners to enchaine them in the armes of her protectioÌ„ She is that stroÌ„ge Tower of Dauid but yet withall she will needs be so weake as to yield herselfe vpon the call of any afflicted creature In (f) How our B. Lady was allied lincked with all the three Persons of the B. Trinity fine she had God the Father for her Father and God the Sonne for her Sonne and God the holy Ghost for her Spouse Her Sonne was wholly his Sonne in one of his natures his Sonne was wholly hers in the other and yet it was but one and the selfe same SoÌ„ne of theÌ„ both Who as he did infinitely after a sort enrich that Humanity which he receiued from her so it became his Maiesty and greatnes and wisedome goodnes besides his filial reuerence and loue to impart himselfe to her as hath bene said in the most abundant manner and withall those priuiledges graces which any meere creature could receaue Of the seuerall deuotions that wè are to carry to our B. Lady CHAP. 93. NOW therfore this glorious Virgin being giuen vs by the gratious hand of our Lord God to be our mother and she withall being a mother of such Soueraigne excellency as we haue seene it will remaine for vs to acknowledge the infinite obligation which we haue to our B. Lord for such a (a) How enriere deuotion we are to carry to our B. Lady benefit and to consider how great deuotion and humble affection we ought to carry towards her that so we may obtaine the more abundant blessing at her hands This (b) Wher in that deuotionâ— doth consist deuotion and humble affection will consist and ought to be expressed by our procuring to haue her much and with a mighty estimation in our memory To congratulate reioyce withall the powers of our soule for her glory To dilate and spread the fame of her excellency To implore her ayde of our misery And lastly chiefly to imitate her Humility her Purity her Charity with all the rest of those diuine vertues which triumphed and raigned in her holy soule We Catholikes do all esteeme her as we ought and I will perswade my selfe that such as are not so if yet withall they will pretend to belieue in Christ our Lord will begin to do it If any of vs had interest but a little-little peece of one of the corruptible garmeÌ„ts of Christ our Lord how happy and how rich would he esteeme himselfe in the part which he might haue in such a iewell And if that peece were of that garment in particular which he had worne next his owne sacred flesh how much more would he glory in such a treasure Now although we haue no such Relique of our owne as this yet by the prouidence of God his seamelesse coate is extant in the hands of the Church And because it had the honor to touch his sacred body there is no Monarch in the world who ought not to adore God for that fauour and who may not licke the dust of that ground vpon which so pretious a iewell were conserued What are we then to thinke and what to do In Hypopante Domini apud Canisium towards this Relique of God the B. Virgin of whome it is sayd by Methodius that excellent learned holy Saint and Martyr who was celebrated so greatly by Saint Hierome That she was the garment and cloake of Christ our Lord which he being the true Elias did leaue to vs when he ascended vp to heauen that so his spirit and grace might doubly come downe vpon vs. For not only had he touched her and beene cloathed by her but he lodged also in her pretious wombe many moneths and alone it was that himselfe had taken a body which might be touched He was then in effect but one and the selfe same thing with her and so truly are (c) The streight vnion betweene the mother the Sonne the mother and the child reputed both to be then but one that they haue both but the good Angell of the mother and the child hath none of his owne till he be seuered from her by his birth And yet euen afterward it is rather a separation in respect of place then a diuisioÌ„ in respect of nature for in that consideration they are in effect still the same With what an admirable tender and most reuerent loue must we therfore resort to this mother of God who was once one thing with the Humanity of the same God and who neuer after grew so much lesse one in the way of corporall vnion as she did by moments go increasing in the vnion of her spirit with his We see what respects are carried euen to Reliquaries made of metall if the Reliques which they keep be well authorized of some Glorious Saint And much more we know that the sacred Chalice is not so much as to be touched but by Ecclesiasticall persons for reuerence of the B. Sacrament which it contayned therein Deere (d) Our B. Lady is the Reliquary of God himselfe Lord and how highly reuerently are we then to touch this Reliquary of the diuinity of God since the matter wherof it was made gaue matter out of it selfe for the making of his humanity which was the very Relique it selfe How Religiously are we to approach to this Custodia which did minister the Corne wherof that bread of heauen was baked by the fire of the holy Ghost wherwith the whole world is to be fed for euer For then do we approach to this Custodia then we touch it when we aspire towards her with our pious affections deuout prayers which are the
at thy feet that by the force of thy prayers the merits of thy Sonne our Lord may be applied to vs. And that so our soules may be discharged of all inferiour kindes of loue which presse vs downe as with grieuous weightes and then drag vs after theÌ„ in the chaines of bitter seruitude And procure thou at length that they may fly vp to God as to their true and only place of rest adoring him for euer and admiring thee A Recapitulation of diuers Motiues which ought to draw vs close to the loue of our Lord. CHAP. 95. BY the mercy of our Lord we haue partly seene the supereminency of his Loue to man in the whole course of his sacred life and death and withall we haue beheld the vnspeakeable Dignity of his person which is the thing that stamps the marke of true value vpon all that which he was pleased both to do and suffer for his creatures His hart may be accounted as the roote his actions and benedictions as the braunches and he desires that the loue which by way of retribution we must beare to him may be a good part of the fruite For although in holy Scripture he was pleased to call himselfe the Vine Ioan. 15. and vs the braunches yet his meaning clearly was that those braunches should not be as of the barren fig-tree which he cursed Marc. 13. or as of that vnnatural Vine with gaue him veriuyce insteed of wine Isa 5. but that they should be such as might deserue to be of his planting since for the fertility and abundant increase therof he came into the world and wrought himselfe for that end into the most bitter and ignominious death of the Crosse Now heerby as man he made himselfe able to pay vnto himselfe as God that debt which otherwise would not haue fayled to drag mankind into the bottomlesse pit of hell and to enchaine it for all eternity to an vnquenchable fire Many principall obligations which we haue to loue withall our soule this Lord of ours for such a loue may be deriued and drawne out of these particulars Euery mortall sinne is an offence not only against the law and will of God but euen against the nature and excellency of that infinite Maiesty So that the committing of any one (a) The grieuousnesse of any one single mortall sinne mortall sinne needeth an infinite reparation cannot possibly be expiated by the pennance of any one or all meere creatures though it should last as long as God is to be God Let vs therfore consider what a deale of loue there went towards the making of such an infinite satisfaction to God as in vertue wherof not only some one single sinne but millions of millions are discharged before the tribunall seat of God and that at the so little cost of man as I shall instantly declare They are innumerable sinnes which are committed by some one man in some one day and then to what may they arriue in his whole life by a miserable multiplication of his wicked acts who drinkes iniquity vp like water imagineth mischeif on his bed whereby the holy Ghost hath declared to our knowledge how delightfuly restlesly the wicked man is woÌ„t to sinne But yet if any one such creature should haue coÌ„mitted as many sinnes as were and will be committed by all mankind between the creatioÌ„ coÌ„sumatioÌ„ of the world when afterward he growes to be sincerely truly sory for it doth intyrely coniesse it do pennance for it according to the ordinace of God and his holy Church with constant purpose to abstaine from future tyme at the instant I say that he conceaues this true sorrow at his hart he is forgiuen all the guilt of all his sinnes And as for the punishment it may also be all forgiuen if the sorrow haue bin very intense and pure And in case it were not so very perfect it is supplied so far by the Sacrament of Confession as to make the punishment insteed of eternall become temporall But alwayes such a person of a rebell and traytour and child of wrath is made by one act of true Contrition if it be true indeed the seruant the Friend the Sonne euen the very spouse of God Nay he is not made so for only once but toties quoties as often as he returneth cordially froÌ„ sinne to God Besides our (b) It is nothing but infinite loue which obligeth our Lord to forgiue sinnes Lord forgiueth not sinners as not hauing power wherwith to punish them as men do sometymes for he is omnipotent He doth not forgiue them as not coÌ„sidering or not remembring or not weighing the deformity of sinne which many times is the case of men when they find themselues to be offended But God is of infinite wisedome and knowledge He numbers the haires of the head Luc 11. Psalm 7. Hâ—ebr 4. He weighes out the thoughts of the hart and he deuides betwene the marrow and the bones He differreth not his pardon one minute but the very instant of our true sorrow is the same with that of his forgiuenes He doth not reproach his penitents for their sinnes nor doth he vpbrayd his friends with the allegations of his former benefits as the custome of the world doth beare It is he who inuites and calls vs and euen wooes vs to his friendship and not we our selues and this he doth not for any benefit of his owne but only ours There (c) The incessant liberall goodnes of our Lord. is no minute of our life wherin he is not actually imparting worlds of blessings to vs many wherof we know who yet may be said to know nothing and incomparably the greater number wherof we neuer know till the next life Nay and euen vpon them who are actually at that very tyme offending and affronting and blaspheming him he is bestowing benefits which are both without measure and number And then doth he preserue them both in life and health and he giues them his beasts and birds and fish whereon to feed and he carries the torch before them both of Sonne and Moone and fixed Starres He doth them both exceeding honour and fauour he howseth them vnder the vault of heauen and he giues them the earth for a foote stoole he loades theÌ„ euen in that tyme of their treason with the offer of many superexcellent and supernaturall guifts expecting them euery minute to pennance though whilst he begets and breedes good thoughts in theyr harts they do nothing but brayne them by their sinnes And that which may confound vs with the admiratioÌ„ of loue is to obserue how many tymes when men are in the very top of their greatest crimes eueÌ„ then and very then he is executing his eternall decree of taking occasion euen by those sinnes to giue them such a degree of grace in such circumstances of tyme and place disposition as may make them his owne in most particuler manner
Charity Patience at the Crosse are trāsplanted out of the desert of this world into that gardē of God in heauen For thither is she assumed both in soule body to the fruition of more glory then is possessed by all the Angells and Saints There is she ingulfed in the bright vision of God where she sees and in whome she loues all the soules which haue recourse to her with incomparable Charity and care And if S. Augustine could truly say of his deceased friend Nebridius who was gone to God Confes l. ◠c. ◠I am non ponit aurem ad os mē c. He doth not now lay his eare to my mouth but he applyes that spirituall mouth to that spring of thine and he drinketh wisedome after the vttermost rate of his owne greedy thirst being happy for all eternity Neither yet doe I thinke that he is so inebriated with thee as that he can forget me since thou O Lord whome he is drinking art mindfull of vs. If S. Augustine I say could thus reflect vpon Nebribius who shall be euer able to expresse the perpetuall memory or rather the euer presēt sight and care of vs which the mother of our Lord God now raigning in such glory as becometh such greatnes hath incē parably more tēderly more liuely of vs then S. Augustines Nebridius could haue of him So much more as she was made our mother heere so much more as now that she is there she drinkes whole seas of God for any one drop which Nebridius could drink consequētly as she is more perfectly happy trāsformed into that Abisse of charity God himself whose loue desire care of our eternall good is infinite Proceed therfore O thou glorious Queen in being glorious raigne thou for euer vnder God alone ouer all his creatures Proceed in being gracious to vs thou who wert so ful of Grace euen before thou wert made the mother of God Thy soule did magnify our Lord at the visit which thou gauest to S. Elizabeth with (c) The princely gratitude of our B. Lady expressed in the Magnificat to our Lord God more delight ioy thē euer had bene cōceaued by any creature And thou didst thē most diuinely expresse his goodnes to thee in a māner of Court so choice noble as might wel declare that thou wert born a Queen thou didst singe Magnificat to our Lord for hauing respected as it were cast an eye of fauour towards thee And how truly indeed wert thou as good as thy word therin when thou saidst that thou didst Magnify or make great our Lord. For whilst he was bestowing those great fauours vpon thee according to those other words of thine Fecit mihi magna qui potēs est sanctū nomē eius Our Lord hath done great things to me and his name is holy thou wert euen very then returning those great things againe to him with the additiō of thine owne most humble thāks So that the greater he made thee the more great and glorious he was also made by thee And besides how couldst thou mak him shew more glorious and more great then in saying that with the cast as it were but of an eye he had made such a mother for himself as thou This Magnificat of thyne is celebrated with diligent and dayly deuotion by the holy Catholike Church in memory of that high ioy which thou hadst in thy Angelicall hart when the holy Ghost expressed it selfe by that well tuned Organ of thy tongue But now O soueraigne Lady that thou art all transformed in God thou art singing it out in a far higher straine Thou canst not say any more that he but casts an eye of fauour towards thee for now he lookes vpō thee with a full face and thou art able to see him as thou art scene 1. Cor. 13. And since the more thou seest of him the more dost thou also see of vs. Vouchsafe to implore his mercy towards the reliefe of our misery which thou canst not but find to be extreme Behould vs who are children of thy soule since by Faith thou becamst the mother of all such as were to liue by Grace And intercede thou for vs with that Sonne of thy sacred wombe whose lawes though we haue transgressed and whose Passion though we haue renewed and whose grace though we haue quenched by our innumerable sinnes yet for as much as frō our soules we are sory for thē that there was mercy in store for his very Crucifiers let it not be wāting to vs who are procuring as thou knowest to be his seruants Since we fly to the sanctuary of thy feete for succour since with the most reuerend of our thoughts we take hold of that Altar of thy purest wombe wherin the Iudge of the quicke and dead did make the first Sacrifice of himselfe to his eternall Father for the redemption of the world defend vs by thy prayers O Queene of pitty from that sword of Iustice which is ready to fall vpon our heads Thou saidst that all Generations should call thee Blessed and we are a part of them withall the powers of our soules we blesse both thee and God for thee and we vow our selues to belieue whatsoeuer excellency may be ascribed to a meere creature And we make this protestation withall that so farre we are frō derogating therby from the worship of Latria which is only due to God as that we know not in this world how to do him more high honour and seruice then by offering him first to himselfe and next by honoring and praysing thee For the greater thou art the greater do we acknowlege him to be who made thee what thou art or nothing Obtaine of that holy Spirit who ouer-shadowed thee heere which doth as it were ouerwhelme thee there in that region of eternall blisse that we also may be quickned inspired by it so may be walking on towards heauē by those paces which thy pure feete haue traced out I cannot beseech thee to obtaine wine for vs as thou didst for them of Cana for we want no wine since we are nourished by the milke of thy maternall loue which is better thē the best most pretious wine And we may also be inebriated as oftē as we shall wel dispose our selues by that Vinum germinaus virgines Lach. 9. that pretious bloud in the body of thy Sonne our Lord in the venerable Sacrament of the Altar But the misery is that our soules want mouths wherwith to tast it or rather they are all crammed with the corrupted food of delight in creatures and our blindnes is such through the mist of passiō which ouergrowes vs that we see not what we eate and much lesse can we discerne the sad effects which it works within and amongst them this one that it depriues vs of gust in heauenly things It is therfore O Queene of heauen that we cast our selues humbly