and Will say thy will be done And with your Holy father Inflame and pearce the very marrow of my dull hart with those saueing fires of thyne and let the flame of thy holy feruour drie vp and consume the peccant humours of my body and mynd 2. POINT Consider then that it was loue indeede buring loue and charitie that brought downe this silent word this beautifull saluation-weeping-child this King this metamorphized God of ours It was the immense and eternall loue of the Father and the son the holy Ghost by which he was conceiued in the sacred and pure Wombe of this Virgine Mother T was loue that brought him out Loue that lodged him in this poore cottage Loue that swadled him in poore cloutes Loue that layd him in this manger And loue of vs poore lost miserable sinfull men Propter nos homines for vs men assures faith and for our saluation he descended from heauen For his exceeding great charitie with which he loued the World saith the great Apostle Affec Oh what a hote batterie doth Loue lay to our soule what doth this full inflamed expression of loue say to our hartes but dilectus mens mihi the beloued soule of man is myne And what should or can man reply but ego illi Yes deare Lord thyne I am intirely and thou shalt be myne for euer my part my portion my substance the one thing which I onely desire my deare delight in tyme and eternitie What doth this say but deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum My delightes are to be with the sonnes of men And what shall the lost sonnes of men say but our dearest delightes are and shall euer be to be with the sonne of God His loue to me hath made him being the lord and Master stoope below men and lye amongst brute beastes and shall not my Loue to him being but a poore sinfull seruant make me in true desire lye vnder the feete of all men Thy charitie and example doth vrge me to loue thee and by thy precept I am oblidged to it But yet alas who is able to loue thee but by thyne owne gift Giue then ô Lord what thou cōmandest and command what thou wilt THE FOVRTH MEDITATION Of Humilitie Christs first lesson in the stable I. POINT COnsider that if Charitie brought him downe from heauen it was humilitie which was to entertayne him in earth If charitie made the son of God become the son of man it was humilitie which made the mother of God become the handmayd of God and man If the bowells of Gods mercy Iesus Christ begotten from all Eternitie was sent downe humilitie was to be the ladder by which he was to descēd for he beheld that is approued the humilitie of his hand-mayde And as mans humilitie or abiection was the first thinge which mercy looked vpon from heauen so was it the first lesson which he taught in earth against that great sinne which was the begining of all mischeife both in heauen and in earth To thend that as God looking vpon mans abiection became man so man by looking vpon and imitating the abiection and humiliation of a God might be raysed to the dignitie of an Angell or a God indeede and so be published happie for euer by all Nations Aff. Ah poore miserable man neuer esteeme thou begins to learne any thing aright in this schoole of Christianitie vnlesse thou beginst where Christ began Neuer thinke thou hast learned any thing till thou hast taken out this first lesson for what is said by S. Paule of charitie is also verified saith Sainte Augustine of humilitie If I should transporte mountaines giue all my goodes to the poore and euen my body it selfe to burne and yet want humilitie it profits me nothing O infinite mercy boundlesse charitie abismall humilitie who is he that vpon the disclosing of those bowells of Mercy which brought Maiestie downe into miserie abiection humiliation who is he I say that will not humble himselfe Resolution My eyes shall be alwayes sett vpon this hūble Maiestie and myne owne miserie that in the acknowledgement of that truth I may euer truly humble my selfe for his sake and in imitation of him be below all his creatures c. I. POINT Consider that this vile stable this narrow manger this comon place of shelter for brute beastes this oxe and Asse this eternitie not a day old this disguise or forme of a seruant these infant teares seeme to say to the eye and by the eye to the hart which afterwardes he shall with his owne mouth expresse in words Learne of me because I am myld and humble of hart My Litle children Learne of me your God become a litle child a lesson shutt vp from the wise and prudent of the world and left to me in my litlenesse to reueale it to litle ones because I am myld and humble of hart not in word and exteriour comportement onely but in effect with hart and affection Aff O Angells of heauen is this the Maiestie which you incessantly prayse whom the Dominatiōs adore whom the powers dreade with trembling whom the heauens ând heauenly vertues the Cherubines and Seraphins neuer cease to proclaine Holy Holy Holy O Kinge of Angells is this thyne owne onely sonne equall to thy selfe in Maiestie whom we see in a manger among brute beastes cold weeping abiect iust like one of vs O deare Sauiour or mylde son of the highest how low how lowe doth thy humilitie descend and withall how high doth thy charitie burne vp in this action O vaine mā what will euer be able to worke downe thy proude harte if the humilitie of a God will not doe it if power become impotent if strength growen infirme cannot preuayle Ah what is more strāge more detestable more greeuously punis-hable then that when we behold him that is the highest in the kindome of God made the least and lowest in this kingdome of men for mans example and loue man will yet be puft vp and remayne high in selfe-esteeme THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same day I. POINT CCNSIDER againe the circumstances of the stable manger c. and you will find that where humilitie is practised her sister Obedience is not farre absent If Christ by all these thinges preache perfecte humilitie it is in order to Obedience He humbled himselfe being made Obediēt saith the great Aplostle If the stable be poore Manger narrow c. he therfore humbly endures them because such is his heauenly fathers will As my father cōmanded me so I doe I came downe from heauē not to doe myne owne will but his who sent me Whence S. Paule pronounceth a strange word Though he was the very son of God yet he was to learne Obedience by what he suffered here below being other wise as God equall to his heauenly father and as such could not obey Aff. Haue we thē a true desire to imitate our Sauiour Iesus Christ Let vs then humbly obey him and by his
am couered with confusion to behold the abismall humiliation of thy eternallie begotten Sonne my Sauiour who without rapine is equall to thy selfe O humble Christ how this example of thine doth vtterly confound the pride of vs Christians How euer vpon the sight of our miserie and daylie imperfections we may a little stoope yet alas as soone as wee looke vpon our knowledge our power the honorable relations or dependances we haue how easily we swel and despise or slight such as are belowe vs THE THIRD MEDITATION Of Humilitie Cons 1. COnsider howe deare this vertue must needes be to our swete Sauiour and how considerable it ought to be to vs Christians which he so singularly recommends vnto vs. It was one of the first he began to teach vs and he will haue it to be one of the last too That exinanited or powred him forth in his blessed incarnation that lodged him in a stable in a manger in poore clothes that subicted him to the badge of a sinner in his circumcision that made him subiect to father and mother in the course of his life and that subiects him to his seruants while he drawes neere his death Affect Deare God! make me loue what thou louest and so effectuallie recommendst vnto me by word and deed by life and death from the beginning and to the end by which I see that as pride was the Angells disease so must humilitie be the salue of man that as he fell by rising so must we rise by fallinge and rest and repose by lyeing lowe low in our owne conceipts that as the pride of the wicked doth still ascend so the humilitie of the iust may still descend lower and lower that so learning of him who is milde and humble of hart we may not faile to finde reste to our soules Cons 2. Consider how the Euangelicall pen labours in painting out the particulars thereby the deeper to engraue this admirable example of Christs humilitie in the harts of Christians Christ rose from supper saith he put off his garments begirt himself with a linnen cloth powred water into a basine put himselfe downe at his Disciples feete c. and by this meanes stoppes our attention vpon this wonderfull spectacle To contemplate him who sitts vpon the Seraphins rise from table who is clad with glorie putting off materiall garments who showres downe raine from the heauens in due season powering water in earth To see him vpon earth who fills heauen that Master hand which sustains the heauens at the feete the foule feete of a seruant a sinner a Iudas Affect O here is nothing left me my deare Sauiour but admiration beholding thy wisdome thy power thy Maiestie brought soe lowe laide vpon the ground by this thy ineffable humilitie Nothing but confusion when I reflect vpon mine owne ignorance miserie rottennes poore neked nothing carried still aboue it selfe by pride and aspiring at thy seat And this conclusion I am forced to make that ether I must renounce the faith I professe and remaine vnnaturallie vngratefull and stupide or els I must absolutely resolue to become humble to bestowe my felf wholie vpon the acquisition of that vertue which is the sure foundation of the rest and that in contemplation of such and so powerfull an example therof as here is placed before mine eyes THE IV. MEDITATION Of Humilitie and Charitie Cons 1. COnsider how earnestlie our Blessed Sauiour endeauours to imprint this wholsome lesson in our harts how deepely he seemes to digg this best foundation of a Spirituall life It was not enough to haue giuen vs an example of it in his owne person but what he had shewen in his practise he would also preach and presse by precept saying you call me Master and Lord and you saie wel for so it is indeede if then I beeing Lord and Master haue as you haue seene washed your feete you also are bound to washe one anothers feete that is to stand prouided in hart at all times and as occasion is offered to performe sometime anie office of Charitie though neuer so homelie and abiect and that to persons of meanest qualitie far inferiour to vs c. Affect See my hart how thy Sauiour concludes against thy pride but to thy profitt by word and deedc I a Master did it therefore thou a seruant oughtest to doe it argues he I the wisdome of heauen who am sent to teach thee all truth therefore thou who art nothing but errour and ignorance oughtest not to feare to stoope I who am an infinite Maiestie much more thou who art infinite miserie I who made thee of a peece of clay therefore thou whose origen present beeing and outgate is no other thing but clay dust and ashes c. Yee are therefore to humble yourselues vrges on our heauenlie Master yes for I haue giuen you an example of it saith he which I meant to haue obserued not neglected that as I had done to you so you to one another for surely the Seruant is not greater then the Lord nor one sent greater then hee vvho sent him O powerfull and pressing conclusion against which I cannot haue one word to mutter But ô dreadfull and oppressing confusion if in practise I proceede not accordinglie Cons 2. Consider how our sweete sauiour hauing thus in his owne person giuen vs that so necessarie lesson of profound humilitie begins now to teach his Disciples and in them all Christians the accomplishement of perfection charitie saying Mandatum nouum do nobis filioli my children I giue you a nevv commandement That you loue one another as I haue loued you and that as I doe giue my life for you so you loue one another euen vntill death yea those also who doe persecute and iniure you Marke how he confirmes his learning by his owne example giuing vs in testimonie of the greatest and dearest loue the greatest and dearest guift that euer was giuen to witt himselfe to eate Heauen had nothing better God could inuent nothing greater O strange inuention of a louer so to depart as yet to leaue himselfe to be enioyed by his beloued who are all faithfull soules Affect O my soule and all yee soules who are touched with the loue of a true louer was there euer the like seene to this ah behold wonder praise loue for loues sake le ts loue him t is himselfe he hath giuen vs le ts giue our selues to him t is himselfe he hath giuen vs true God and true Man O charitas ó pietas saith S. Augustine quis vnquam talia audiuit vvho euer heard the like to this THE V. MEDITATION Co. COnsider how being prouoked by nothing but his owne infinite Goodnes he loued man from all eternitie and not from eternitie onely but in time also in which he brought downe into the world the fire of that holie loue for no other end then that it should burne the harts of men He loued man not in the beginning onlie but euen to the end not
SWEETE THOVGHTES OF IESVS AND MARIE OR MEDITATIONS FOR ALL THE FEASTES OF OVR B. SAVIOVR AND HIS B. MOTHER Togeither with Meditations for all the Sundayes of the yeare And our Sauiours Passion For the vse of the daughters of Sion Diuided into tvvo partes THE FIRST PARTE By THOMAS CARRE Preist of the English Colledge of Doway ✚ IHS PRINTED AT PARIS By VINCENT DV MOVTIER M. DC LXV TO THE VERIE VENERABLE HIS MOST HONORED DEARE LADY MARIE TREDVVAY FIRST ABBESSE Of the English Monasterie of Sion of S. Augustins Order established in Paris MADAME These poore productions of myne which were bredd and brought out amidst a multitude of dayly distractions can scarce with iustice flye to any other Patronage then your La. and your vertuous children whose instant desires gaue them beeing while their pietie did not so much and so earnestly begge them as euen force them from my pouertie Howeuer were I free from that iuste tye there is yet another from which I will neuer admitt dispensation which makes these and all that 's in my power alreadie yours and theirs to witt the affection which I owe and haue vowed to your seruice that is your aduancement in vertue As issuing from that sourse they cannot doubt of acceptance What proceeds from knowen loue and respect cannot misse to meete with it mutually in well borne hartes If you find them vsefull for you I haue my designe If they leade you to a neerer approche with IESVS and MARIE and a more liuely expression of their liues in yours I haue my end and you the fruite If finally you profit by them I haue my reward What effect soeuer they may chance to haue with others please not to let them fayle to be to you certayne testimonies that my cheife desires for myselfe and you are as I haue often intimated to you that we esteeme our selues to know nothing here below but Iesus-Christ and him crucified that is that we putt downe for a most Catholike and Apostolicall truth that the life and passion of our sweete Sauiour is the most approued the most secure and best Schoole of all perfection since according to your holy Fathers excellent Sentence Summa Religionis est imitari quemcolimus the perfection end and accomplishment of Religion is the Imitation of him Iesus-Christ whom we worshippe In whom I shall euer be MADAME Your La. and your Religious daughters poore vnworthy Father and Seruant THOMAS CARRE BETHEELEM STABLE Or an entertainement of Iesus For the daughters of Sion A Preparation towards the receipt of Iesus For Chrismas Eue. MEDITATION I. I. POINT CONSIDER that when the world was most desperately lost in Paganisme Idolatrie and in the worshippe of men as Gods and in that of Diuells Yea while Iudea that choyse part of the world where onely the true God was Knowen and adored was ouergrowen with hypocrisie auarice ambition cousenage Lying and innumerable other vices While all the earth was depraued corrupted and sunke in sensualitie and all sorts of sin In a word while man enemy of his owne saluation slept so deepe that he thought not of it while he was so desperately sicke that he felt not his euil and consequently neither merited sought for nor demanded his cure then euen then the eternall God like a most pittifull father cōmiserating his miserie and deliberating as it were the remedie in the consistorie of the most holy Trinitie resolued that the diuine Word should become man and in his owne person should come to cure man Af. O the vnspeakable blindnes insensibilitie and miserie of man O the infinite Mercie of our good God which had no other motiue then his owne infinite Goodnes wherby he cryed out to miserable man conuert your selues conuert your selues Ryse from sleepe and be illuminated Why dost thou die o house of Israël Returne to me and liue 2. POINT Consider this resolution being taken of whom the diuine wisdome and prouidence makes choyse amongst all the creatures of heauen and earth for the perfecting this great worke of the saluatiō of all mankind He doth not after the manner of the world make choyse of the greatest richest and powerfullest princesse that might be found on earth or the brightest Angell of heauen but an Angell is sent from heauē into Earth to a Virgine named Marie wife to Ioseph who liued in a litle towne of Galilie called Nazareth to Marie I say an humble poore obscure vnknowen mayde and she too married to a poore Carpenter Ioseph Aff. Waigh deeply how litle esteeme the great God makes of the riches greatnes and power of this world Ther eare noe worldly creatures great in his eyes but such as are humble low and litle in their owne eyes while I was a litle one I pleased the highest Great ones he throwes downe out of heauen and out of the chaire of Moyses while such litle ones are exalted and wonders are wrought in them by the alpowerfull hand May then the loue of worldly greatnes honor riches power for euer vanish from my thoughtes And may humilitie pouertie virginitie be the deare companions of my hart Since they be the deare vertues which tooke my heauenly spouse his hart and helped to prouide a worthy tabernacle in earth for the king of heauen MEDITATION II. In those dayes there came forth an Edict from Cesar Augustus that the whole world should be inroled And Ioseph also went from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be inroled with Marie his dispoused wife who was with child I. POINT CONSIDER that as our Blessed Lady hyghly commended humilitie and obedience to vs by her reply to the Angell saying behold the handmaide of our Lord be it to me according to thy word so doth she here immediatly before his natiuitie presse the same againe by promptly complying with the commands of a mortall man Cesar cōmands and straight wayes Ioseph Marie and Iesus obeyes Ioseph obeyes Cesars seruant Marie Ioseph her spouse and Iesus being in Maries sacred wombe obeys Marie his mother most punctually She being possessed of the treasure of heauen and heauen and earthes wonderment as though she had bene altogether ignorant of Gods high counsell and of the particular effects of his prouidence giues way to this strict order without reasoning without contradiction without reserue humbly simplely and promptly accompagned with her spouse Ioseph she takes iorney to Bethleem Aff. Oh Iesus my Sauiour how Far ought miserable man subiect himselfe to thy holy commands being a poore and abiect seruant since thou being Lord and master yea Lord and master and maker of heauen and earth becomst subiect to the commands of an earthly Emperour thy creature who is in thy sight as a meere nothing by a secrete and admirable counsell of the Diuine Prouidence Ah how this ought to confound vs in the disputes and inquests we make vpon the iust commands of our lawfull Superiours While we obserue in Ioseph Marie and Iesus an example of a most humble blind and perfect obedience II.
is presently sent for yea the poorest of men the poore shephards to be spectatours of his pouertie to witt the Lambe is borne and it is but fitting that the shephards should giue their attendance Aff. Obserue obserue diligently ô my soule the wayes of the Lord thy God which are still so contrarie to those of the world When a mother was to be choysen he cast his eyes vpon an humble handmayde When diuine prouidence was to prouide a Pallace in earth for the king of Heauen it was a poore stable When Courtiers are to be sent for the verie first Embasie that Wisdome makes is not to Kinges and Princes but to poore contemptible clownes O strange confusion to the proude Potentates of this world O singular consolation to the humble poore and simple who haue noe commerce with the same while they neither know the world nor the world them nor is worthly of them they are blest with first visites from God and Angells Yes deare Sauiour thou makest well appeare by this first act that thou art sent indeede to preach to the poore Riches doe robbe vs of our soules Learing puffes vs vp with pride Honors quite transport our hartes to vanitie In pouertie and true simplicitie our soule is safe and dayly conuerses with God and his Angells In fine either haue we choysen well in this our religious state c. or wisdome it selfe made a badd choyse 2. POINT Consider what Messenger is sent to call these poore sillie soules who are hardly held companie for other men Noe lesse then an Angell and he too accompaigned with whole multitudes of Angells They were to find the lambe their God lesse then man but they had an Angell before hand to assure them that how euer they found him he was noe lesse then both their God Their simplicitie might haue bene surprised and scandalized by his pouertie whom the world would not know but his heauenly Father acknowledged him for his sonne coequall to himselfe and made one and the same Gloria be sunge to them both by the multitudes of his heauenly Quiresters in the poore shephards hearing assuring them and the world by them of a great ioy in the birth of a sauiour who was Christ their Messias So that they were sent with a lesson taught by an Angell to glorifie and adore their God in the forme of a poore infant swadled in clothes and layed in a manger Aff. O how graciously heauen and earth begin to make acquaintance O poore sillie man how happie thou art wouldst thou but once diligently ponder and konw thyne owne happinesse to see thy hart so courted by a Kinge Who sends out his ministering Angells to call thee to his presence who while he is humble and abiect for thy loue he leaues not to be high to but still mixeth his humilitie and mildnesse with Maiestie He is in appearance a poore child but is in verie deede thy God on high He is lodged amongst beastes but his carole is sung by Quires of Angells Singe with them then mysoule Glorie to thy God to him alone it is due nor will he giue it to another Pay that dutie first to him or noe peace will follow Iustice and peace Otherwise we may crye peace peace as longe as we will we shall neuer inioy it while we remayne in that impietie and iniustice of robbing God of his Glorie Resolution I will then Angellike sing say worke and doe all my actions to Gods honour and glorie c. that I may be partaker of his peace which passes mans vnderstanding c. THE VIII MEDITATION For new-years-day I. POINT CONSIDER that this good newes which the Angells told vs these dayes past of the birth of a sauiour comes home this good new yearesday to our vses and profit being indeede the best new-yeares-gife that Heauen had to giue For if he were borne for vs these dayes past this present day he is giuen to vs. He is ours then by a double title and that too the best imaginable By birth-right nobis natus Borne for vs And by Deed of free gift nobis datus Giuen to vs. Affection O Bountie Bountie Bountie so old for thou louedst me from all eternitie And yet so new for thou louest me in tyme too and by the imensitie of thy gift shewest the imensitie of thy bountie Learne my soule by the greatnesse of this present the greanesse of the price which Heauen putts vpon thee And doe not sell thy selfe to the earth for an vnderualue Learne by this a holy pride know that thou art more worth then any thinge it hath to bestowe Thou wert told by S. Augustine that the kingdome of Heauen being to be sold was iust worth as much as thou art but me thinkes we may add to that rate since the kinge of Heauen is giuen for thee Giue thy selfe and thou shalt haue them both Ah! make-not away this faire inheritance for a messe of potage Change not the chaste loues of a heauenly spouse for the bitter Mandragores of the world The riches of heauen is giuen to thee for thy New yeares gift giue at least the pouertie of the earth backe againe Da teipsum habebis Why dost thou stand vpon the price striue to haue a good answer to this question and I hope you will find your selfe forced to conclude a good bargaine to begin the yeare and say Resolution God is my gift himselfe he freely gaue me Gods gift I am and now but Cod shall haue me 2. POINT Consider that this day our blessed sauiour begins to shew in verie deede he is ours borne for vs giuen to vs since he begins to shed his pretious bloud for vs for the eighth day is come and according to the law he is to be circūcised The lawgiuer is not subiect to the law the sonne of God cannot be lyable to sinne the sonne of a virgine cannot be subiect to corruption innocencie hath nothing to doe with the markes of a sinner And yet the poore innocent lambe without spott which comes to take away the sinnes of the word will be branded with the infamous marke of a sinner not for his owne buth for our sinnes sed omnia propter electos saith S. Bernard Affect O my deare Iesus to what a low degree of humiliation and abiection and euen scandall of thy selfe doth loue leade thee For there will be those who while they too clearely reade the a man by this thy sacred bloud will deney thy diuinitie There will be those who knowing punishement to be still the punishement of sinne that by seeing thy punishement will imagine some cryme in thee There will be those who beholding thee with an impious eye will laugh at a bloodie God how euer to pious eyes it appeares the the greatest misterie and miracle of loue O heauenly father this is thyne onely child in whome thou art so well pleased who is so innocent immaculate vnspotted Is it for the sinnes of thy people thou hast
disinteressed loue for by that meanes the God of loue or God-loue Deus est Charitas the holy Ghost is sent into our hartes The 4. fruite of Christs Ascension The taking possession of our inheritance II. POINT CONSIDER that if he be gone and gone to his father and our Father that cōmon father of all of vs it is but to take and keepe possession of that common inheritance which being his owne by birth-right he purchaced for vs his coheires at a huge rate at the price of his owne pretious bloud for we haue heard himselfe say by S. Iohn let not your hart be troubled I goe to prepare you a place Affection O thrice happie Christians yea thrice and a thousand tymes happie I say did we duely ponder and rightly value our owne happines Christ was borne for vs he was giuen to vs he laboured thirtie three yeares in our behalfe he spent his pretious bloud vpon the purchace of his fathers and our fathers yea his owne heauenly Kingdome for vs and now for a happie conclusion of all he is gone to take possession of what he has purchaced for vs. Be not troubled then my soule but reioyce with a greater ioy then euer he is gone to prepare vs a place a permanent place a place of ineffable delight of eternall abode in the bosome of his father and our father We are not seruants but friends but children but coheirs with Christ We are not now pilgrimes we are gott home in him We are citizens with the Saintes and God's Domestikes THE IV. MEDITATION The 5. fruite of Christs Ascension The opening of Heauen Gates I. POINT CONSIDER that if Iesus be gone it is still to be a Iesus to vs still to aduance the worke of our redemption Heauen gates were shutt against man euer since Adams disobedience and he hauing first past the gates of death to breake vp the brazen gates of Hell is gone with with power to command the potentates of that Celestiall Citie to open them saying Lift vp your Gates ô you princes and be you lifted vp ô eternall gates and the Kinge of glorie shall enter in That strong and mightie Lord is at hand who returnes from battell with victorie Affection Take courage then my soule the passage is layd open according to Micheas his Prophesie He ascended laying open the way before them Le ts but follow our Capitaine and the place is ours Heauen is ours He hath shewed vs the way Howbeit we must walke as he walked in humilitie meeknesse obedience chastitie pouertie patience c. Nor must we imagine that malice can ascende with the Authour of goodnesse nor luxurie and lust with the Sonne of a Virgine nor vice finally with the God of vertues The 6. fruite of Christs Ascension He goes our Aduocate into Heauen and sends another into the Earth II. POINT CONSIDER that he is gone indeede for while they all looked on saith S. Luke a cloud has taken him from the Apostles eyes But he is gone vpon a most honorable and profitable imployment for man He 's gone to carie vp man to heauen and to send downe God into the Earth establishing as it were a good intelligence by a mutuall embasie betwixt heauen and Earth Man to God in heauen as Aduocate to plead for man and God to man in earth to teach him all truth to inculcate to him againe and againe what Christ had alreadie taught to inflame our hartes with the holy fire which Christ brought downe into the earth c. Affection Yes my soule he is gone to carie vp that man Christ to be Mediatour betwixt God and man and to pleade the cause of man at Gods Tribunal My sinnes are many and great great I say and many but my Mediatour is infinite I am able to pleade nothing but guiltie dread Lord guiltie But my Aduocate hath wounds to shew and bloud which cryes lowder then the bloud of Abel and claymes mercy as hauing payd more then my malice was able to contract As often as that bloud lookes redd from the side of that sonne who is sett at thy right hand I beseech thee that the spotts of my corruption may be washed away THE V. MEDITATION The 7. fruite of Christs Ascension The presenting of freed Captiues to his Father I. POINT CONSIDER that our most Blessed Sauiour came downe from heauen to to wage warre against the world the flesh and the Diuell and now he returnes with victorie ouer them all and bringes backe the spoyles to the Court of Heauen in tryumphe leading Captiuitie it selfe captiue that is the captiue soules deteyned in Lymbo Patrum which he wrested out of a stronge hand and offers them to his heauenly Father as the first fruites of his longe and painefull labours and part of the purchace of the pretious bloud he had plentifully spent Affection O what tongue of man or Angell is able to expresse or what hart to conceiue how gratefull this returne and tryumph was to heauen how agreable this present was in the Almighties sight and how all the heauenly Israell reioyced to see our heauenly litle Dauid returned with such victorie so ample spoyles If the Conuersion of one poore sinner my soule cause such ioy among the Angells what accesse of ioy must the securitie of so many Saintes who are to be their fellow citizens for euer cause in those heauenly hartes The 8. fruite of Christs Ascension The raysing our affections from the Earth II. POINT CONSIDER that our Blessed Sauiour is ascended to heauen from which he descended to carrie vp our hartes thither from whence they were fallen by sinne and to waine our affections from earth and make them wholye Spirituall according to that of the diuine Apostle if you be rysen with Christ seeke the thinges that are aboue where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God mynde the thinges which are aboue not the thinges which are vpon the earth Affection O Deare Iesus since as well thy descention as thy Ascension yea all the mysteries of thy blessed life and Passion turne all to our vtilitie and vse grant that we may make a right vse of them and wholie turne our hartes from earth to thee that though our bodies be imprisoned in it for a time yet in harte and affection we may alwayes liue aboue with thee that we may truly say with S. Paule our conuersation is in heauen THE VI. MEDITATION I. POINT CONSIDER finally that since Iesus our deare Lord and Master is returned to heauen as we are assured by faithfull witnesses who deliuer by the mouth of S. Iohn noe other thinge then what they saw with their eyes what they looked vpon and what their hands had handled of the WORD of life there is indeede nothinge left vs in earth worthie to lodge a Christian hart vpon He is our true life and what liuing is there without life He 's our treasure and where should our hartes be but where our treasure is He is our crucified
we forgett him Isay who least he might haue bene forgotten by vs continues still with vs leauing vs noe lesse memoriall of himselfe then himselfe O be thou euer blessed and magnified my dearest Lord And be they euer accursed who forgett thee who art the fountaine of liuing waters flowing into life euerlasting THE XV. MEDITATION The seauenth Cause That being fedd with diuine foode we might become diuine I. POINT CONSIDER that a seauenth cause of the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament was to th end that being continually fedd and delighted with his heauenly body we might be wayned from and contemne the gliding delights of earthly ones with all their paynefull delights and concupiscences and therby leading a spirituall and heauenly not a terreane life that that of Saint Paule may indeede as it ought be verifyed of vs. I liue now not I but Christ liues in me Affection Such my soule should we be indeede persons quite wayned from the fleshpotts and vnions of Egipt since we are continually fedd with heauenly Manna With the true foode of the children of God with the foode which is truly God Our aymes are God our foster-father God our food is God And what should our thouhtes words and workes be but of God and for God Let vs then neuer proue so vnhappie as loathing this heauenly delicious and fattening foode to fall vpon windie and emptie huskes which indeede feede not fatten not saciate not The eight Cause The continuall presence of the Angells II. POINT CONSIDER as an eight cause of the Institution of the B. Sacrament the continuall presence of the B. Angells of heauen for as S Chrisostome saith Where Christe is in the Euchariste there are not wanting the frequent troopes of Angells Ambrose where this body is there the Eagles are gathered togeither fluttering about with their spirituall wings I saith he in another place the Eagles are about the Altar where the body is Affection Yes my soule we haue power by a vertuous life framed according to the life of Christ to take soretastes of heauen and to turne this base land we liue in into a heauenly Paradice The God of Angells is with vs and in vs when we please They come downe to vs and we mutually soare vp to them by our heauenly thoughtes and conuersation when we will They and we feede of one and the same foode though in a differēt manner loue and adore the same God singe the same Gloria's Alleluia's and Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus THE XVI MEDITATION Of the excellencie of the Blessed Sacrament I. POINT CONSIDER that our Sauiour Iesus Christ as a most tender gratious bountifull father made a most excellent and admirable will and testament and left vs thereby a legacie more pretious and better then heauen and earth to witt his most sacred bodie for our daylie food and his Blessed blood for our drinke Affection O sacred and soueraigne food ô most admirable mysterie ô diuine and deare inuention ô all you that loue God come come make haste and see with admiration and astonishment praise proclaime and magnifie for euer the name of our gracious God who hath daigned to worke such thinges in our days and in vs in vs poore miserable wormes of the earth II. POINT CONSIDER that though it were an ineffable dignation farr passing the inuention of men and Angells that he who was in the beginning with God and was euen God himselfe should build himselfe a cottage of our clay and become man like one of vs indeede yet doth it farre surpasse that againe to see the same not only take our humanitie but bestowe vpon vs also his diuinitie conioyned and vnited with the same humanitie to dwell in vs to take vp his delights and suppe with vs and euen to become our repast and nourishment Affection O what thought of man of Angells is in any measure able to diue into the infinite Abysse of the burning charitie which our Sauiour Iesus Christ meant to expresse in this most venerable Sacrament his pious fatherly hart could deuise nothing so sublimely and soueraignely good as himselfe and therefore himselfe hee bequeathes to leaue our harts charged with the demonstration of the greatest excesse of loue imaginable THE XVII MEDITATION I. POINT CONSIDER that though to giue all one hath be an argument of great loue yet to giue ones selfe is farr greater but incomparably the greatest of all to giue what we haue and what we are in such a manner and for such an end for we receiue him not now as a father and companion a brother a price but as our foode by which being worthily receiued we are made one with him not that wee chāge this diuine foode into our nature but we are rather changed and transformed into it euen as fire changes the nature of wood into it selfe Affection Ah whose hart is not stirred to deuotion and euen burnt vp with loue when he seriously considers with what excesse of loue and charitie with what solicitude as it were that Lord of Maiestie that powerfull King of glorie striues to gaine our hartes to his loue hartes which are but earth and ashes full of frailtie viciousnesse and indignitie and farr vnworthie to be chosen to be the habitacles and temples of the adorable Trinitié II. POINT CONSIDER how God could neither haue depressed himselfe lower or raised vs higher then that the bread of Angells should become the poore pilgrimes food then that the Creatour should be the creatures meate then that he who fills heauen and earth with the glorie of his diuine Maiestie should be receiued and handled and eaten by our miserie the highest heauens are not able to comprize his Magnitude and yet he will please to inhabite the narrow spaces of our howses of clay Affection Is it possible then may we not only saie with Salomon that God doth dwell with or amongst men but more is it possible that God hauing taken a humane nature vpon him and become man should also become mans food and dwell not only with man but euen in him there to cure our diseases languors and infirmities not with an infinitie of other meanes which his wisedome could inuēt but euen by the presence ' and application of his owne pretious body and blood III. POINT CONSIDER that Christ comes vnto vs accompayned with a thousand blessings for he brings into the soule that worthily receaues him what euer vertue he practised in his life all the fruite of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension the beatitude of his most Blessed bodie the efficacie of his most pretious blood and the merits of his most excellent soule and in a word all that euer can be desired or imagined Affection What is there then ô man which thou standest not possessed of what is it thou wantest if thou be not wanting to thy selfe in either not worthily preparing thy selfe to receiue so great a guest or hauing receiued him in not worthily entertaining him That man is euidently conuinced to be
from prayer to worke from worke againe to prayer and though the Angells of God come not to thee the God of Angells will not fayle to feede thee with thousands of deare delightes thy prayer shall be without intermission the odours of their sweetnesse shall flow from thy mouth and â—eo Gratias vpon all occasions shall continue alwayes II. POINT REPRESENT her yet further to your thoughtes out of S. Hieromes and S. Ambroses expressions of her â—he was at all tymes saith S. Hierome either reading Meditating or praying Againe in watching she was the first saith the one in speaking she was the last saith the other and most studious in reading especially the holy Scriptures concerning the coming of â—hrist which the frequently redd and imbraced In so much that when her body reposed her hart watched and euen often in her sleepe repeated what she had read or awaking from sleepe continued the same Affection Let vs by this blessed example ô my soule wholy applie our selues to read to Meditate to pray By reading we shall learne to know what we ought to doe by meditating and pondering the same we shall imprint it in our soules and inflame our hartes to the practice thereof and by prayer obteyne force to performe what we know and desire But let this reading be the word of God which will proue a light to our feete a cordiall to our hart sweeter then the honie combe Let our Meditation be his holy Law and his diuine grace our prayer And of all the Scriptures let that be most frequently in our hands mouthes and hartes which most relate to Christs coming life and Passion that we may indeede be sett vpon no other knowledge but Iesus-Christ and him crucified And in that blessed peace that verie peace le ts sleepe and repose Happie will that rest proue when our eyes are shutt with the sweet memorie of Christ and his Law in our mouth and harts THE III. MEDITATION For the Presentation I. POINT CONSIDER that allthough this blessed young Virgine was possessed and prepossessed with all the blessings of heauen and replenished with the plenitude of grace yet was not gtace idle in her or she idle in grace Grace is not giuen to worke all alone but graciously and freely to gayne our will and in it and with it to worke all So that this Blessed Virgine notwithstanding all these huge aduantages and prerogatiues of grace testified to s. Elizabeth a holy Nun that she prepared a place in her hart for God with labour continuall prayer ardent desire profound deuotion many teares and much affliction Affection Thus it is my soule that by her imitation we ought to prepare our hartes for heauen Without preuenting grace indeede we ryse in vaine it is in vaine to ryse before the light or rat he without it we should neuer ryse at all None comes to Christ vnlesse drawen by his heauenly father Yet in vaine too should the light shine if hauing light we did not walke in it If we were so drawen as we followed it not we should neuer arriue He that made vs without vs will not saue vs without vs. All our Talents are his free gifts t is true but we must negotiate with them and improue them We aske because we will we seeke because we will we knocke because we will and we are saued because we will and yet Gods grace workes both the will and performance Le ts adde then our carefull concurrence to his sweete drawghtes and be blessed for euer with that blessed amongst all women II. POINT CONSIDER that this Blessed Virgigins prayer in particular though otherwise full of grace was for grace Grace to be able to complie with those two great Christian duties The loue of God aboue all thinges and of our neighbour as our selfe wherin the whole Law and Prophetes consiste 2. Grace souueraignelie to hate and flye all that he hates whom she souueraignly loues 3. Grace to be truly humble patient mylde and to be adorned with all the vertues that so she might become wholy gracious in the diuine sight 4. Grace finally to be obedient to the high Preists commandes and ordonnances Affection Let vs poore wretches then learne of this most holy Virgine to be continually begging for Gods grace as being necessarie to euery good act and vertuous action of our whole life Say then my soule with S. Augustine Thou commandest vs ô Lord to loue thee aboue all thinges and our neighbour as our selues Giue graciously what thou commandest and commande what thou wilt Thou commandest vs continencie patience humilitie c. Giue what thou commandest and commande what thou wilt In fine say with the holy Church Let thy grace ô Lord we beseech thee both goe before and follow vs and make vs continually addicted to good workes c. THE FIRST MEDITATTION For the Announciation I. POINT CONSIDER that to this Virgine it was thus qualified that is remoued from the world and dwelling in her sacred solitude married to a holy man but to be conserued for the Sonne of the Holy of Holyes prepossessed and replenished by heauenly grace and happily concurring with it by continuall application and feruent prayer still begging more and more grace that an Angell was sent from heauen with an embasie importing greatest honour to her and ioy to all the world to witt to prepare a worthy mariagebedd for the most pure spouse to contract the Mariage betwixt a creature and her creatour and so to begin a happie league betwixt heauen and earth Affection If we desire indeede then my soule to drawe downe heauenly blessinges vpon vs if to haue foretastes of celestiall delightes if Spiritually to conceiue Iesus in our hart let vs flye the cheating corrupting world and betake our selues to the solitude of our chamber or celle There the Kinge of Heauen speakes to our hartes There we put questions and receiue answers of what we are to say and what we are to doe It s hard saith S. Augustine to see Iesus amidst a multitude Our mynde must inioy a certaine solitude That sight requires a secrete place Marie was alone when she spoke with the Angell Alone when the holy Ghost ouershaded her Alone when she conceiued the worlds Redeemour II. POINT CONSIDER the admirable contents of this heauenly embasie at which all heauen and earth may well stand amaysed since all their concernements are to be treated in it The eternall and onely begotten sonne of the eternall God is about to espouse humane nature in an huÌ„ble mayde Marie of the house and familie of Dauid The lost world wants a Sauiour and heauen is resolued to giue one Gabriel is dispatched to Nazareth to declare the mysterie and to announce the wounders to the espoused Virgine His first word presents her with plenitude of grace Hayle full of Grace Giues the reason of it Our Lord is with thee Assures her she shall coneeiue and bring forth a sonne a great Sonne a Sonne who as he is indeede
POINT Consider the circumstances of this heauenly mysterie by which our Blessed Lady might haue most apparantly pretended excuse He who commanded was Emperour indeede but of the earth wheras she could not obey him without draweing the Emperour of heauē and earth into the same subiection He comanded euery one to repaire to the place of their natiuitie t is true but Nazareth her abode was distant from Bethleem the place of her natiuitie foure dayes iorney It was in the midst of winters rigour and she was bigge from heauen and most worthy to be excused Yet we heare of no dispute noe pretence noe delay Aff. Blush ô my soule to thinke how often vpon how far lesse iust occasions we pretend excuses we dispute our Superiours authoritie their prudence their meanings and sometymes euen ryse vp against that authoritie which Christ who here in Marie obeys established in earth which who resistes is declared a rebelle against the diuine ordonnance MEDITATION I. For Chrismas Day And she brought forth her firste begotten son and swadled him in clothes and layd him downe in a manger because there was not place for them in the Inne I. POINT CONSIDER how euen in the midst of this Heroicall act of obedience the B. Virgine wrought that great worke towards mans redemption for which all generations call her blessed for while through an humble obedience she was trauelling to Beth. To comply whith Cesars commands her dayes were fully come that she should be deliuered and she brought forth Iesus If we desire then to conceaue Iesus in our harts Obedience must be the herbinger If we desire to bring forth Iesus to the world that is shew him and his wayes to our neighbour it must be by shewing them our humble obedience vpon all occasions Aff. If our hartes be truly Christian we cannot but desire to presēt this new borne Christ whith some gratefull present nor is there any more pleasing in his sight then Obedience since truth it selfe assures vs it is better then a sacrifice And Christ himselfe deliuers with his owne mouth and that in words as full of admiration as comfort to such as are truly obedient that the obedient man enters into all it he respectes of neernesse and dearnesse with him saying He who doth the will of my father that is in heauen he it is that is my brother and sister and mother What could be said either more tenderly inuiting or more honorably requiting our obedience Res We will therfore in imitation of our B. Lady and our Sauiour Iesus Christ and for his honour and loue c. II. POINT Consider how this child of obedience this first begotten this Iesus is treated how and where he is lodged by his heauenly fathers eternall prouidence How is he treated poorely he is wrapt vp in cloutes How and where is he lodged alac meanely in a stable in a manger O amaysement Eternitie not a day old omnipotence become impotent Diuinitie wrapt vp in poore clothes Is a stable become the Dolphine of heauens Louure Is this the wedding roome prepared for the mariage of the Lambe is a manger his mariage bedd Aff. alas my poore soule is this the best entertaynement that the vnkind world is able to afford the king of heauen shall I lye and repose at my ease While he my L. and master in so poore a plight is exposed to the winters wroth No no Here I will not lye pampered in ease there he shall not lye vnknowen vnpittied vnplayned I will take him away I will neuer giue rest to my eyes till I find or make a fitting place for my Lord a tabernacle for the God of Iacob Inter vbera mea cōmorabitur at least I will locke him vp in his vnworthy seruants brest THE SECOND MEDITATION For the same Day Because there was no place for them in the Inne I. POINT CONSIDER this with amaysement Iesus leaues heauen to saue the world and the world will not know him he comes into his owne and euen his owne receaues him not It were litle enough me thinkes that a poore woman wearie with trauelling and readie within a few houres to be deliuered should finde the ordinarie comfort at least of some poore chamber in an Inne of fire of a bedd And yet euen this is denyed the king and Queene of heauen If there be place in the towne for all others ther 's none for them They must packe away and find the rockes of easier accesse then mans hart And lodge in them Aff. O the highnes of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God how incomprehensible are his iudgements how secrete are his wayes ô admirable to see the true son of God by a singular dispēsation of the diuine prouidēce necessitated as it were to take vp his first nights lodging in a poore rocke or denne For ther was noe place for him in the Inne II. POINT Consider that it was not in Iudea onely that there was no place for Iesus but the same straitnesse raignes ouer all the world Change onely the name and we shall find the storie verified of our vnhappie countrie Is there any place there for Iesus where his sacrifices are abhorred his temples violated the solemnitie of his house abandoned and his house it selfe become as a stable or a denne of theeues yea where all the memories of him and his verie name begins to be razed out Aff. But alas while we looke a far off we may find the fault at home It is neither the auncient Iudea nor our new Egipt alone which are preocupated so that there is no place left for Iesus Let but each one looke into his owne hart and he shall find that the greatest presse and pussle is euen there There the world possesseth the greatest part and the bedd is two narrow for two both God and it There the multiplicitie of secular thoughts doe presse in vpon vs. There is no place for Iesus nor place nor tyme to be vacant and to taste how sweet he is He asketh vs bread in his poore members and we refuse it him drinke and we deny him water what we giue not them for his sake we refuse him not them while we take not their miseries into our Harts by commiseration we repulse Iesus their is no place there left for him MEDITATION I. For S. Stephens day I. POINT CONSIDER that it is no wonder that Christ is not knowen by men since men haue left to be men and are turned into the nature of brute beastes to wit being placed in honour they vnderstood it not and thence they were compared to brute beastes and were made like vnto them Yes they ayme at nothing but to feede fatt to find ease to lye warme to wanton it vp and downe to generate and take delight Are not these thinges comon with men and beastes And doth not yet man adde to these many inuentions of witt and Arte to court vanitie to inuite luxe lust and sinne But loe
bedd of our harte is too straite it is not capable of both God and the world If we be friēdes with it we must be Gods enemyes And stil as we begin to loue it it begins to leaue vs for it quickly passes by with all its concupiscences Resolution Liue Iesus then in my hart and possesse it wholy to himselfe And may the loue of that bewitching lyer be for euer banished from thence as the very obiect of my hatred since it hated my Lord and Master and he it c. THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same Day I. POINT CONSIDER that blessed schoole of the stable is still open and another most important Christian lesson is to be learnt which is vnlesse one renounce all that he doth possesse he cannot be Christs Disciple The prudence of the flesh is death and if we liue according to it dye we must eternally If we desire to liue to Christ and with Christ and follow Christ we must first deney our selues dye to our selues or our owne inclinations take vp our crosse and follow him this is the condition of our Christian obligation there is no meane Christians must dye to liue This doth Christ crye out to our hartes by the rigour of the cold which he endures by his hard entertaynement by his scrikes by his teares c. by his humilitie obedience pouertie c. Aff. Will we then or will we not be Christs disciples Le ts examine our immost thoughtes and discouer our resolutions and know indeede in this holy tyme what they are Will we not In vaine then doe we beare the name of a Christian in vaine were we baptised in vaine doe we vsurpe the qualitie of spouses if we will not euen be seruantes Or will we Reade then and marke the condition of our obligation We cannot be his Disciples vnlesse we renounce all that we possesse The Goods of body of mynd of fortune Let none deceiue himselfe this must be done or nothing is done as to our eternall possession Die we must to all these dye we must to selfe loue selfe cōceipt to our commoditie our humour c. and take vp our Crosse to follow Christ according to the blessed example which he giues vs in this infancie of his in his verie first entrie into this world Nor is it good wishes will doe it but effectes Nor can we pay this dutie in part but it must be wholy done Vnlesse yee renounce all that you possesse all you cannot be my Disciples 2. POINT Consider yet in the stable that the verie beholding of Christ a child preaches forceably to our hartes that vnlesse we be conuerted and become litle children we cannot enter into the kingdome of heauē Pride cannot ascend with hūble Christ a bigge swollen hart cannot passe through Christs narrow way which leades to life euerlasting We must then of necessitie turne newborne childrē together with our newborne Christ Children I say which willingly and louingly runne after their father Loue their mother Haue noe animositie against their neighbour putt the same rate vpon a peece of gold and a peece of leade whose tender hartes are not puffed vp with pride nor griped with hatred nor disguised with fictions but are myld and simple sweete and maniable permitting them selues to be caried whither soener the mother pleaseth This is the lesson we are to learne of Christ a child Aff. If heauen be our ayme then If Christ be our example if we intend to liue Christianly indeede we must putt off the old man with the inclinations and impressions which he hath contracted and putt on the new with Christ who is according to Gods owne hart The sonne of God our Christ is become a child and we too be we as old as we will as learned as we will be we as wise as Salomons be we as strong as Samsons will we nill we our great hart must stoope and we must become litle children againe if we will be Christs Heauen and earth may passe but this word of God can neuer passe vnlesse you become litle children againe you cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Yeald yeald then my stubborne hart yeald thy selfe to this blessed example of thy Christ which by conquering thee will make thee à Conquerour for euer Runne after thy deare father Christ as still fearing to fall tenderly loue thy Catholike mother and sticke close to the chaste breasts of her counsels striue to be humble meeke docile litle sollicitous how thou are dealt with be in fine as a peece of clay in the porters hands onely beseeth him to make thee a vessell of honour not of cōtumelie THE SIXTH MEDITATION The comfortes of the stable I. POINT CONSIDER that vnder the humble weake and young members of this tender babe the power of a Diuine Majestie is shrewded It is God that lyes sucking at this Virgine mothers breastes He is vayled indeede with the pouertie of vile clothes and endures the hard and narrow manger but it is mercy which moued him humbly to it to thend the lost world might be redeemed He vseth the strikes of a child but it is to th end that by them we might auoyde eternall lamentations and gnashing of teeth He is wrapped in poore clothes but they serue to wipe away the filth of our sinnes Hes layd in a manger as the meate of brute-beastes but he is indeede the fatninge foode of men and Angells Aff. Yes my soule the place wherin thou stands is holy It is the very Maiestie of heauen which is here It is the verie God which made thee who lyes before thee This stable is his holy temple These poore apparances which may seeme to hide him from thyne eyes deliuer him more tenderly to thy hart for whose loue he lyes thus vayled So that by how much he descendes lower by so much doe thy hopes ascend higher For what mayst thou not confidently expect from an alpowerfull Lord so humbléd for thy sake Flye to him with an humble loue and a perseuerant confidence and thy redemption is euen at hand O what mercy doe not these abiect postures speake what consolation doe not these teares giue What man can despaire for whom a God weepes 2. POINT Consider that this litle child is constituted Iudge of Heauen and earth by his heauenly father who takes and teares in peeces the hand writinges of our ancient debtes and mercifully pardonns all our offences so that we are freed from our feares of our first Fathers preuarication wherin all mortalls were inuolued Behold that Champion present with vs who frees vs from the yoake of our old Captiuitie bringing ioy and gladnesse to the mournefull Cast off thy yoake thou captiue daughter of sion Thy mylde king is come to abate the prid and subdue the tyrannie of his and our most furious foe Aff. What hopes of safetie may not the poore criminall iustly haue when he vnderstands that the Iudge preuents the iudgement day out of a desire to find an
occasion to saue him when he perceiues that the said Iudge is more inclined to giue then he to aske mercy When he causes proclamation to be made That he comes not to iudge but to saue the world When he teares the writinges or Euidences which the aduersarie can produce against him Such a Iudge ô my poore sinfull soule may we now find our God to witt a Iesus a Sauiour in this acceptable tyme in this day of saluation There is now therfore noe damnation to those that are in Christ Iesus Resolution I will rise therfore out of this or that badd custome reflecting vpon it in particular which I obserue my selfe subiect to And run to my milde Iudge with an humble confidence c. THE II. MEDITATION For the same day I. POINT CONSIDER a strange and comfortable change of the hand of the highest he who formely spoke onely in qualitie of Lord and master out of the clouds and out of fire saying I am thy Lord I am thy God God is a Lord of reuenge c. Is now come downe from Maiestie as it were and comes downe to vs and speakes to vs in qualitie of man yea the mildest of men Then did his power appeare in the creation of the world and his infinite wisdome in the gouuerning of it but to vs the benignitie and humanitie of God a Sauiour is manifested He comes in our nature in qualitie of our brother that he may shew as well his brotherly as fatherly affection and pitie to the poore man created by him Aff. What doth this singular graciousnesse crye out to our hartes but consolamini consolamini be comforted be comforted my people I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he be conuerted and liue Here is now noe dreadfull Iehouah noe thunder noe lightening to terrifie thee but thy mylde Emmanuell thy God with thee a meeke tender weeping childe our flesh and our brother who is come to dwell amongst vs. Let not the ancient reproche Where is thy God be any more a corrasiue vnto thee For euen here he is in flesh like one of vs There is now noe neede vpon the hearing of his voyce to hyde thy selfe with thy first parentes nay his voyce is the scrikes of a tender babe farre more apt to begett pitie in mans harte then to strike it with dreade He cannot forbeare to loue his owne brethrē his owne flesh and bloode his owne bowells I. POINT Consider that though when I looke vpon my selfe such as I am indeed poore naked blind lame abiect and miserable I haue more cause of confusion then confidence Yea when I represent vnto my selfe the multitude and greeuousnesse of my sinnes which can neuer be better knowen thē by the gratnesse of the price which is sent downe for their redemption I find my selfe euen waighed downe to hell and am readie to despaire Yet the greatnesse of the same price too possesses my hart with stronge hopes of redemption when I obserue Wisdome it selfe imploye the bloud of the lambe the bloud of this tender babe the son of Marie and the sonne of God to make a pretious bathe for the cure of my leprosie I cannot despaire Aff. O God what is man that thou dost thus magnifie him Or the sonne of man that thou puttest thy heauenly hart vpon him Is he turned some pretious thing which formerly thou wast not acquainted with Has he gott some noblenesse of beeing which issued not from thyne owne hand Is he not still dust and ashes earth earth earth of which thou madst him Nay but deare Lord hath he not added malice to this base matter of which he was made Had not all flesh corrupted its wayes so that none did well not one Did not multitudes of crymes and abominations stand vp in thy sight and crye out for reuenge What proportion is there then bewixt the price and the thinge prized Betwixt the blood of an innocent sonne and a sinfull seruant The blood of a God and worthlesse man O too too deare price ô too plentifull Redemptiō I can find nothing here but amaysement and ô Altitudos And conclude with al the gratitude my soule can conceiue that thy friends ô God are too much honored and their Principalitie too well established by this too deare a price THE SEAVENTH MEDIT. I. POINT CONSIDER that when man was so heauie harted that he could not ascende The hart of a God was so gracious that he would descend to him The earth was too heauie to mount into heauen but heauen could find a meanes to transport it selfe as it were into earth For is not this Caue a verie heauen indeede since God here truly Keepes his residence and hath his quires of Angells singing about him Where God is there is his Court and where the Court is there are the Courtiers and where the Courtiers are there is the dutie of Courtiers exercised to witt they behold and loue they loue and behold and with prone adorations singe Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus holy holy holy This stable then is a very heauen indeede Venite adoremus Affect Yes my soule it is my verie God who lyes in this stable in this earthly Heauen the God that made me that conserues me that shall iudge me come downe first to redeeme me and in his owne person shewe me the way of saluation It is my God and if my faith be liuely I may heare a multitude of the heauenly Armie praysing God and saying Glorie in the highest to God c. Let vs take a part with them ô my soule and singe with the whole endeuour of our harte We prayse thee we blesse thee we adore thee we glorifie thee we giue thee thankes for thy great glorie O Lord God! ô Lambe of God! ô Sonne of the Father who takest away the sinnes of the world haue mercy on vs. Who takest away the sinnes of the world admitt our humble supplication Yes deare Lord For thou alone art holy thou alone art Lord thou alone art the sonne of the Almightie God Resol I will not then despaire of ouercoming this or that c. In this Lord in this sonne of the Almightie in this sauing Lambe which takes away the sinnes of the world who comfortes me though otherwise I be but earth and ashes I am able to doe all thinges c. THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same day I. POINT CONSIDER who are the first Courtiers who are called to this heauenly Celle this earthly Heauen or Court and we shall find that it is not the learned wise and riche of the world that by Christs example we may learne still more and more to contemne the same but tbe poore humble simple vigilant shephards who are so separated from the world that they can hardly be said to haue any commerce with it at all Christe is sarce yet an houre old amongst vs and he alreadie begins to sett vpon the worke for which he was sent .. He comes for mans saluation and man
the Gentils was to be a leading lesson to all their posteritie They had their starrs and so haue we They obeyed their starre and so must we if we intend happily to find out Iesus Our starrs are the light of reason hightened by the light of grace and holy inspirations vnder our Superiours directions These we are to follow nor doe we euer fayle in it but we swarue from the way or loyter in the way Had the shephards bene ledd out of their owne countrie they had bene misledd lost much labour mist of Christ As the kinges if they had stayd in their owne countries while their starre led them out of it to Bethleem had not found him There are many mansions in Gods Kingdome and he will haue vs ledd to them by the wayes he pleases to marke vs out This is his blissed pleasure which he pleases to make knowen to our hartes by frequent inspirations Affection We must not my soule expect the priuiledge of being called by name as was S. Paule whether it be to relinquish our old badd wayes and inclinations to find out Christ or to follow him being already found It is sufficient for vs to follow our owne starrs to obserue whē the spouse knockes at the doore of our hartes and to be readie to open by the assistance of his grace who stands knocking there My soule my soule is it not by his mercy who made vs that we hope to be saued Were it nor reason then we should follow his counsells which he manifests to vs by his inspirations And if it be reason to follow them by what reason doe we or can we neglect them THE IV. MEDITATION That we must cooperate with Gods grace I. POINT CONSIDER yet further that it is not enough to obserue the starre with the Kinges and to heare the knocke of the spouse but we must also with them aske seeke knocke at the gate We must not onely I say heare the knocke or touche of his holy inspirations at our hartes but we must mutually knocke at that diuine harte of his by frequent and feruent prayers crying out with the Kinge and Prophete conuert me ô Lord and I will be conuerted draw me after thee and we will run and with our Kinges all through the streetes of Hierusalem where is he who is borne the Kinge of the Iewes for we haue seene his starre we haue heard the voyce of our beloued by frequent inspirations and to what end but to leade vs to his loue Affection Yes my soule we may dissemble it but we cannot deney it euen we too haue seene his starre we haue heard his voyce and he hath said vnto our hartes I am thy saluation and he hath said it so that we haue heard it and haue taken iorney vpon it countrie parentes friendes with all the fawning allurements of the world are forsaken And what is now our expectation Is it not our Lord my soule Is not he the whole part and portion of our inheritance Is not he the whole substance we haue left vs Ah! hauinge left all by the assistance of his grace to finde him le ts make that our busines If we suffer our selues for lacke of cooperation to be frustrated of that expectation in vaine behold we the starre in vaine began we to run in vaine doe we lead a life which leades not indeede to Iesus but to death How we ought to cooperate with grace in seeking Iesus by the example of the Kinges THE II. POINT CONSIDER that the Kinges are not onely diligent and punctuall in setting vpon the search of Iesus vpon the first light of faith that appeares to them expressed by those words of the Euangelist we saw his starre in the east and we came we saw and we came noe curious disputes noe sluggish delayes noe vaine respects or interrestes retarding them but they seeke him with great patience suffering the labour and incommodities of the longe iorney of 800. myles as also with great resolution and courage not fearing to inquire for him in the midest of Hierusalem saying where is he who is borne the Kinge of the Iewes Affection Ah my soule is it not our vndertaking too and intention as well as the dutie of our whole life to seeke for Christ with them Yea and as longe as we can sitt quietly at home without trouble doe we not desire to find him and to reioyce in him But alas as soone as the labours of a longe iorney our life in our apprehension represente themselues vnto vs when once temptations and dangers and humane respects begin to stand in our way our patience fayles our courage forsakes vs we fall to sleepe or murmure our life is irk some to vs and we are almost readie to giue ouer our iorney in the mide-way Alas my soule thus it sometymes fares with vs. And why because we seeke not our new-borne Kinge with an entire but a diuided harte allowing a part of it for him and a part for the world and thence cupiditie taking off from charitie weake charitie finds not his yoake sweete and his burden light as it is indeede to true louers We will therfor continually pray that he who gaue the will to seeke him would so increase charitie that we may haue patience and courage to find him THE V. MEDITATION How longe we ought to seeke him THE I. POINT CONSIDER yet further that our kingly Guides seeke him with perseuerance to the end putting noe other limite to their inquirie but the finding him out whom they seeke for Seeke our Lord saith the royall Psalmist while he may be found seeke his face al wayes not onely in the sunshine of prosperitie and spirituall comfort but also and then especially in the darknesse of aduersitie and drinesse of spirit As well while the starre shines as disappeares While it shines and vshers their stepps they springe on with speede while it disappeares they loose not courage nor leaue off their happie enterprise but in the absence of their heauenly Guide they haue recourse to earthly ones demanding of the scribes where is he who is borne the kinge of the Iewes Affection Deare Lord if thou daignest to leade vs on in the way of thy search and thy loue by the powerfull light and heate of thy grace be thou euer blessed And if it be thy pleasure to withdrawe for a tyme the comfort of thy presence and leaue vs to tryall be thou also blessed If thou dost voutchsafe to draw vs we will run in the odour of thy parfumes and if it please thee to leaue vs in drinesse and desolation by thyne absence we will neuer cease for all that to cry out continually where is he where is he who is borne the kinge of the Iewes Hauing still recourse to Heauen and earth To earth by taking counsell of our Superiours Directours and Pastours to Heauen with an intire submission dependāce and absolute confidence that our Redeemour liues and will in due tyme deliuer
middest of dangers temptations and sufferances for it is Iesus crucified that we seeke Affection Ah my soule since the messengers of heauen haue assured vs that our Iesus is risen from his graue I will no longer lye buryed in earth but will rise and goe to that good father of ours Since our Lord and our life liues we will no longer languish and dye but I will seeke him whom my hart loues without feare we will passe the watch which the Iewish world the flesh and the Diuell may sett to keepe vs from our Iesus If happily where we seeke him we find him not wee wil neuer cease to seeke him till we finde him and hold him and locke him vp in our harts That we are to seeke him by S. M. Magdalens example II. POINT CONSIDER that though it be a most Christian practise with S. Marie Magdalen to follow Christ in his life not to forsake him at his death to reioyce with a great ioy in his Resurrection yet it is not enough wee must with her too vse diligence to find him out being risen In his life she is weeping at his feete At his death neerest to the Crosse and last at his graue but her vnwearied loue leaues not off there she rests not She 's vp againe varie earely in the morning whilst it is yet darke to seeke him at his Sepulcher it beeing her absolute resolution and practise continually to seeke till she finde him whom her soule loues Affection Let vs ô my soule put our selues wholy vpon the search of our deare Rabboni by the example of that blessed penitent at all tymes in euerie place let our thoughts as hers were be vpon him ouer night and earely in the morning resolutly and incessantly crying out thee it is I seeke thee I desire thee I hope for to thee my hart hath said I haue sought thy countenance ô Lord thy countenance will I seeke for euer for all that seeke thee as they ought finde thee and who finde thee finde life euerlasting THE V. MEDITATION How we ought to seeke Iesus by the same example THE I. POINT CONSIDER that it is not enough to seeke Iesus vnlesse we seeke him as we ought truth it selfe assuring that some seeke him and finde him not and dye in their sinne That is with diligence with care with cost with vndaunted courage with feruent loue as S. Marie Magdalen sought him Affection O my soule let this dreadfull Doome pronounced by a Iudge who cannot deceiue or be deceiued you shall seeke me and and dye in your sinne spurre on our drowsinesse to seeke Iesus as we ought with the blessed Magdalene that is with a timely diligence with the whole care of our hart as being the only necessarie thing neither weighing what it may cost vs nor fearing what may befalle vs while with feruent loue we looke for Iesus of Nazareth crucified II. POINT CONSIDER that though the Natiuitie of our Sauiour was a day of great Ioy to all the world because a Sauiour was borne to it and our young Emmanuel began to liue amongst vs yet was that Ioy mixt with teares and soone after with blood as being the life of a Godman borne to labour and sufferances And though the daye of the death of Christ was a subiect of greatest comfort to all Christians yet was it clowded with the teares and lamentations of a God dying But this glorious day where in he is resussitated or regenerated to a new life is a day of perfect Ioy without all mixture of sorrow a day of exultation and triumph when our dead Master is risen to a life of immortalitie and glorie Affection Reioyce reioyce my soule in this great priuiledged day of Iubilie with a full Ioy exempt from all mixture of sorrowe This is a day which our Lord peculiarly made representing in some measure the dayes of eternitie which know no night let vs exult and spring with Ioy in it Our young Emmanuel who whilome wept in cloutes is clad with glorie his lately torne shoulders are now armed with impassibilitie his bodie subiect to death indewed with immortalitie There are now no more bloodie sweates noe more whippes crownes of thorne nayles speares crosses to be feared Death hath now no more dominion ouer him Alleluya Alleluya Alleluya THE VI. MEDITATION We must ryse with Christ I. POINT CONSIDER that as we haue endeuored to dye with Christ in his Passion by compassion diligently to seeke him ioyfully to finde him and happily to ryse with him in newnesse of life so must we especially striue to make that new life become a perfect imitation of the life of Christ that that of the great Apostle may be verifyed in vs and by our actions appeare to the eyes of others to Gods glorie I liue I now not I but Iesus Christ liueth in me That is I am moued to what I doe by his grace according to his example and for his loue Affection For this my soule it is that we liue for this we beare the name of Christians that we might imitate what wee worshipp In vaine doe we celebrate the feasts of Christ if we striue not to imitate the life of Christ If we haue hitherto then expressed the image of our earthly father by adhearing to earth let vs now expresse our heauenly father by aspiring to heauen Le ts then shew his impassibilitie by our eauennesse as well in prosperitie as aduersitie his claritie by making the light of our good actions shine before men our agilitie by our prompt obedience and feruent charitie finally our subtilitie by peircing heauen with our harts by feruent prayer II. POINT CONSIDER what kind of life Christ ledd which brought him to this new life this impassible life this life of glorie And we shall finde it was in pouertie humilitie and abiection in his birth In labours in temptations watching fasting prayer from his youth At his death in extreamities contempts thornie crownes infamous Crosses withdrawings of all comforts absolute abandonements by heauen and earth Affection We all pretend my soule to be followers of Christ must we not then resolue to take the same waye he tooke wee ayme at noe lesse then to haue a part of his glorie and can we wisely hope to attayne to it by other meanes then those that wisedome made choice of in his owne person and left vs to imitate Can we iudge it reasonable or decent my soule that while the Master is in labours the seruant should liue at his ease the Master in pouertie and the seruant in plentie the Master in the middest of contumelies and the â—eruant in honours THE VII MEDITATION Of the blessed fruites of Chr. Resurrection That as well our dying as rysing with Christ are Gods giftes I. POINT CONSIDER that if we haue dyed with Christ by compassion sought him with diligence found him with ioy risen with him in newnesse of life and striuen to leade a life conformable in some smale measure to his they are
loue and is not the soule wonte to be more where it loues then where it liues Affection Ah my soule how longe shall we be heauie harted loue vanitie and seeke a lye Shall we continue still in a languishing to death rather then breath after life and for life Shall we lodge our hartes in earth while our treasure is in heauen Shall flesh and bloud force the soule from its owne nature and bent and make it liue more where it liues then where it loues O Iesu my Treasure my Loue my Life let it not be so but draw our drowsinesse after thee and we will run in the odour of thy sweete oyntements Giue vs winges deare Lord and we will flye a pace vp after thee and wholie rest and repose in thee How our Sauiour went from the Apostles II. POINT CONSIDER that as our B. Sauiours life in earth was wholy spent in testifying his loue to mankind and in heaping his fauours vpon the same so doth his last moment vpon earth leaue markes of the same goodnesse For the Euangelist represents this good father of ours with his hands lifted vp to heauen for vs and imparting a blessing to vs. To witt the Preist for euer according to the Order of Melchisedech hauing ended all the bloudie Sacryfices in one would not departe from his people till he left a blessing vpon them Affection Depart not my soule from this heauenly contemplation till thou receiuest a blessing from thy good Fathers hand Stay with the Apostles at his sacred feete till he blesse thee with them Vse a holy and humbly confident importunitie when thou apprehendest that Christ is about to withdraw himselfe and leaue thee saying with the good Patriarke Iacob I will not I will not deare Lord let thee goe till thou dost blesse me with a blessing of pardon for my sinns of peace of loue of vnion c. THE VII MEDITATION How the Apostles behaued themselues after their Masters departure I. POINT CONSIDER that when the Apostles had beheld their Master mount vp in the greatnesse of his owne power into the heauens they stoode as thinges quite deade to this world without action or motion saue onely that admiration ioy hope loue which boyled vp in their mournefull-ioyfull hartes fixed their eyes immoueably vpon the cloudes where their deare Master made his passage till two Angells were sent to call them away from that contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example Affection Learne hence my soule to follow thy Iesus where soeuer he goes be it to his death his Resurrection or his Ascension and where as in body we cannot le ts with the Apostles fasten our eyes and hartes vpon heauen and neuer forsake him saying euer and a none with that feruent Sainte Augustine caelum penetrabo mente my harte shall peirce the heauens and in thought I will be alwayes with thee deare Iesus For ah how sweete it is to be continually sucking delightes from those sacred and sugered breasts of thy consolation II. POINT CONSIDER that there the Apostles stayed Prisoners as it were to loue and delight till two Angells were sent to call them away from that sweete contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example But noe sooner were they called by those heauenly Messengers but they obeyed came downe from the mountaine turned their contemplations and admirations into adorations and actions returning into Hierusalem with great ioy to prayse blesse preache and magnifie his name in the Temple and euery where and to expect the coming of the holy Ghost according to his gracious promesse Affection It is doubtlesse a deare and laudable delight my soule to flye vp by the winges of holy contemplation to peirce the cloudes with him to strike into that Land of plentie and peace whither he is gone and to repose in him for euer Haue you found the honie of heauenly contemplation feare not to taste and take it downe yet so much onely as sufficeth least perhapps being filled you vomit it vp But doth a voyce from heauen a Superiours commande charitie to a neighbour Gods worke call you from it ah fayle not delay not to follow neuer forgetting that the God of consolation ought to be preferred before Gods consolations his good pleasure and his worke before the delightes and pleasvres he bestowes vpon vs. PREPARATIONS TO RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST THE FIRST MEDITATION The first disposition The consideration of our owne miserie I. POINT CONSIDER as the first disposition to the receiuing of the holy Ghost our owne nakednesse miserie and nothing for if we conceiue indeede as indeede it is most true that we are nothing we haue nothing we can doe nothing but onely by the assistance and grace of God which is powred forth in our hartes by the holy Ghost which is giuen vs how is it possible that we should not make an earnest application to that good giuer of all best gifts that now that the comfort of Christs visible presence is taken from vs he would bestow vpon vs that other comforting Spirit Affection Looke downe ô thou Almightie giuer of all good giftes and behold the slaue that was redeemed by the wounds which thy Christ my Aduocate layes open before thee to plead for my pouertie Looke vpon thy Christ and take pittie on this languishing christian of thyne for whom he dyed O almighty father looke vpon this poore child of thine who lyes sicke of a palsie and is cruelly tortured send downe speedily that comforting Spirit which thou art about to send least he otherwise perish for whose safetie thy deare sonne spared not his pretious bloud The 2. disposition Humilitie II. POINT CONSIDER and le ts vse as a seconde disposition rysing out of the truth of the former as absolute a desire as we can possibly conceiue not to be knowen nor esteemed by any or at least lets desire to be knowne as we knowe our selues and as God knowes vs that is to be poore miserable sinners not as we deludingly appeare This as being a reall effect of true humilitie is the best harbinger to prepare a place for this heauenly Guest for in whom saith the holy Scripture will the Spirit of God rest but in a hart that is mylde and humble c. Affection Studie to be a louer of truth my soule not of vanitie and lyes which haue alwayes proued emptie shadowes and haue left nothing in our hands Be sincere and iust and striue to keepe iustice betwixt thy selfe and thyne owne harte betwixt what thou appearest to be and what indeede thou art and desire not that esteeme and honour by others ignorance be payd to thy corruption and sinfulnesse Haue frequently in hart and mouth to thee alone ô Lord be honour and glorie to me nothing but shame and confusion Because in thy sight I am a miserable sinner and vnworthy of all respect But thou ô Lord haue mercy THE II. MEDITATION The 3.
flesh be weake let 's haue recourse to the Spirit Let loue leade vs to this God of Loue and expose our coldenes to the fire which he visibly brings downe from heauen this day saying Veni c. What the H. Ghost is II. POINT CONSIDER what the holy Ghost is He is no other thing then the Spirit that is the spiration and breathing of the Father and the Sonne for as mans hart by his mouth breatheth or produceth a breath so God the Father by his sonne produceth the holy Spirit Or els as the soule by the vnderstanding of an amiable thing doth produce or breath out loue Loue which is no other thing then the spirit or breath of the affection so doth the father by the Sonne breath out the holy Ghost who is no other thing then a chast and holy loue produced and breathed out by the father and the Sonne whose mutuall loue it is Affection O diuinely sweete-breath Heauenly deare Gale Coeternall tye of two eternall persons Sacred commerce holy communication of the omnipotent father and his only begotten deare sonne O essentiall ineffable inflamed loue who euer burnest and art neuer extinguished graciously slide into and burne this frosen hart of mine Thou hast freely preuented me and reuiued me while I lay in a dead slumber and neither sought thee nor thought on thee Doe not I beseech thee forsake me whilst I am inuokinge thee I desire with the whole strife of my hart to desire thee The loue of my soule couets to loue thee Nor can I without thee Grant that by thee I may souue-raingly loue the father and the sonne and thee Three diuine persons â—n the veritie of one Deitie whose mutuall loue thou art O god the holy Ghost giue what thou commandest and command what thou wilt THE II. MEDITATION What kind of Spirit the H. Ghost is I. POINT CONSIDER that though the holy Ghost be a Spirit Spiration or breathing yet is it not like that of Man which is a Spirit which passeth and returneth not nor like to the Angells which are Missionarie and seruing Spirits nor like to that which our Sauiour Iesus-Christ deliuered vp when he said into thy hands I commend my Spirit To witt his soule In fine it is no created Spirit but an immense increated diuine Spirit intrinsecall to God yea God himself the third person of the B. Trinitie the same God with the Father and the Sonne proceeding from them by an eternall spiration and therefore coequall consubstantiall coeternall with them and equally to be adored and glorified together with them as Lord and life-giuer Affection Let me loue thee ô thou deare eternall immutable and euer permanent Spirit and loue of the father and the sonne let me loue thee And as thou proceedest from that one only more then most blessed eternall will of the father and the Sonne and becomest naturally and substantially one only God with them before time so grant that my will in tyme by the participation of thy heate and thy grace may so louingly adheare to that diuine will and be lincked together in so perfect a bond of true friendshipp that there be but one will betwixt heauen and earth God and Man That that may be as truly meant and accomplished as frequently pronounced Thy will that is that sourse of life of libertie of eternall loue be donne in earth as it is in heauen that by such conformitie resignation and adheasion we may all become but one Spirit with thee That the H. Ghost is a heauenly gift II. POINT CONSIDER further what the holy Ghost is and you shall finde that he is a gift but a gift sent vs from heauen a gift which containes in it the whole collection of all good things a gift prepared from all eternitie to be bestowed vpon men better then which there neither hath or shall or can be any giuen or imagined euen by the wisedome of heauen it selfe for it is euen that best gift that perfect thing which descended from the father of lightes with whom there is alwaies a permanent plentie Affection 4 O most noble most admirable and more then most excellent gift ô in comparable immense and inestimable liberalitie ô incomparable dignitie of mans soule Man was farre from dreaming of it Angels could neuer haue imagined it God himselfe could giue no more then God in a gift Ah my soule the verie heauens can giue no more then we possesse They are diuine truthes we speake the great S. Paule assures it Know you not that your members are the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you And againe The spirit of God dwelleth in you Well may we glorie in this obsolute assurance of so incomparable a gift and guest But forget not my soule what followes But if anie violate the Temple of God God will distroy him THE III. MEDITATION The Holy Ghost is a permanent gift I. POINT CONSIDER of what a permanent plentie and blisse poore man is possessed by the bountie of this heauenly git which is accomplished with all perfections It is a gift it cannot then be recalled it is our owne nothing being more ours then what is our owne by free gift It s a free gift it was not bought or borrowed but freely bestowed Loue then was the cause of it loue which is an efficacious wishing well or wishing good to the beloued Affection Ah my soule this heauenly gift is no lesse absolutely permanent then superlatiuely excellent and no lesse sure as to externall force then a huge possession The theeuish world cannot robbe it The power of darkenes cannot wrest it out of our hands The God that gaue it takes it not awaye Non deserit nisi deseratur He forsakes not vnlesse he be first forsaken Selfe trecherie at home alone can hazard it selfe disloyaltie can loose it hatred for loue by consent to mortall sinne can driue this Loue this gift this God out of dores II. POINT CONSIDER from whom we had this good gift and we shall find it came from all the three persons of the holy Trinitie I saith the Father will powre out my Spirit vpon all flesh I will aske my Father saith the sonne and he will send you another comforter I will send him to you saith he againe And the holy Ghost saith Sainte Augustine is so giuen as God's gift that he is also his owne gift he is both the gift and the giuer All the three persons in the B. Trinitie were imployed in mans creation and all are imployed too about his sanctification We will come to him to wit the father sonne and holy Ghost and we will take vp our Residence with him Affection Blesse ô my soule that Father of lightes that good giuer of all good gifts who sent his holy breath or spirit downe vpon vs. Blesse that Lambe of God who by his death merited that blessing for vs. Blesse in fine that holy Spirit who was himselfe both the giuer and the gift and graciously came
vnto vs. Be they Blessed and praysed magnified and glorified in the vnitie of one Deitie for euer And let our earthly Trinitie neuer forgett this mercy Let our memorie faithfully represent it to ourvnderstanding Let our vnderstanding continually ponder ruminate and deliuer it to the will And let the will imbrace in ioy and carefully locke vp this present of infinite loue with all the loue ioy and Iubilie of hart imaginable THE IV. MEDITATION What we receiue indeede when we are said to receiue the Holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER that by receiuing of the holy Ghost we receiue the substantiall or consubstantiall vnitie charitie and sanctitie of the father and the Sonne according to S. Augustine The most firme and indissoluble bond or tye of the holy Trinitie The sacred kisse of the father and the Sonne by their mutuall loue from all Eternitie whereby they loued the iust euen with the loue of their owne hart saith S. Richard de S. Victore which is the holy Ghost Affection Ah my soule how ineffably greate blessings are these which faith layes before vs and we consider it not or rarely and coldly reflect vpon them O did we frequently looke vpon it with a liuely faith how would our thoughtes be wayned from this base world How euer we are in it we are not made for it the heauens haue other thoughtes for vs. The true cause of our being here indeede is to adheare to God by loue and to become holy as our heauenly father is holy and to that purpose the holy Ghost the verie vnitie loue and sanctitie of the Father and the sonne comes downe to dwell in vs. Ah my soule Let vs neuer forgett this astonishing and oppressing graciousnesse II. POINT CONSIDER yet further that it is not the vnitie charitie and pietie of the father and the sonne which we receiue onely but truly and indeede we receiue the person of the holy Ghost wâ—â—h grace and charitie nor is he in vs by Essence Presence and power only as he is euerie where but in a more deare neere and intimate manner as in his Thâ—one oâ— Temple For doe you not know saith s. Paule that you are the Temple of God and the Holy Ghost doth dwell in you And againe Charitie is diffused into our hartes by the holy Ghost who is giuen vnto vs. Affection Yes saith s. Augustine that good God is present to his faithfull â—ot meerly by the grace of visitation but by the presence of his Maiestie It is not now the odour of the balsome that is spredd abroad but the verie substance of the sacred oyntment it selfe By which according to s. Iohn we shall be taught all thinges O great great and most admirable mysterie which is yet so familiar to vs Christians O most excellent and incomparable visite and gift of the proper person of the holy Ghost O God what a singular fauour is it to haue God the true God really and personally dwelling in our hartes O what hartes ought they to be which haue the happinesse to be the Mansion of such an inhabitant THE V. MEDITATION The excessiue loue of God shewen to man in sending the holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER with S. Augustine that God the father moued by meere mercie sent his sonne to redeeme his seruants he sent also the holy Ghost to adopt the same seruants into children He gaue his sonne for the price of their Ransome the holy Ghost for a pledge and assurance of his loue and reserues himselfe all whole for the inheritance of the adopted So much did he desire mans saluation that he imployed not only what was his but euen himself also to that effect Affection Doe we beleeue this ô my soule but doe we beleeue it indeede That such a sonne was sent for such seruants That seruants and such seruants were adopted into sonns into coheires into the participation of the diuine nature By the meere mercy of the Father by the bloud of the sonne by the loue of the holy Ghost Doe we beleeue it I say yes yes we beleeue it my soule We dare not we cannot deney it Credo Domine we beleeue it ô Lord yet helpe our incredulitie in this behalfe We beleeue it in words and in hart too but our actions our gratitude our loue speake it not confirme it not to the world For to whom should all the redeemed slaues actions belong but to his deare Redeemour Vpon whom should all his loue be sett but vpon one that so loues him And to whom should he reserue himselfe wholy but to the God of heauen who reserues himselfe wholy for him II. POINT CONSIDER what an excessiue goodnes and charitie it is that this immense and infinite Maiestie who walkes vpon the winges of the windes and sittes vpon the Cherubins who fills heauen and earth being assisted with millions of millions of Angells would yet daigne to take vp his seate in a poore corner of mans hart to grace that miserable worme of the earth with his presence diuinitie and sanctitie and therby with the participation of his diuine nature Ah! could we iustly weigh mans nothing and Gods Maiestie we should neuer be wearie with admiring and tasting the dignitie of this great worke Affection Ah Domine cognoscam te cognoscam me O Lord grant me light to know thee and to know my selfe that by such knowledge I may happily and gainefully loose my selfe in the admiration of thy excessiue graciousnesse For what am I indeede compared to thee but extremitie of miserie compared to infinite Maiestie but nothing nothing compared to him who is all in all But not so much as one little droppe to a boundlesse Ocean And yet this Maiestie is graciously pleased to take vp his Residence in this miserie This All will lodge in this nothing This Ocean will ouer-flowingly possesse and please himselfe in this droppe How happens this to me that not the Mother of my Lord but euen my Lord himselfe comes vnto me resides in me takes vp his deare delights in my poore harte Ah my soule let our dearest delightes be to possesse him to please him to magnifie him to glorifie him for euer THE VI. MEDITATION Gods excessiue loue to man I. POINT CONSIDER how great and ineffable the pietie of our Redeemer was towards vs as S. Augustine obserues who carried man vp to heauen and sent God into earth what a care hath our Maker to repaire his workmanshipp Behold a new medicine is againe sent downe from heauen Behold Maiestie daignes againe by his owne presence to visit the sicke Behold diuine things are againe mixed with humane the holy Ghost is become a succeeding Vicar to our Redeemer that what the one had begun the other by a peculiar vertue might consummate that what the sonne had redeemed the holy Ghost might sanctifie what he had purchaced he might conserue Affection Too too much are thy friends honored my dearest Lord. Their principalitie is exceedingly beyond all measure confirmed by the presence
thee O fire which euer burnest and art neuer extinguished doe thou inflame me O thou light which dost euer shine and art neuer darkened doe thou enlighten me O how my verie hart desires to be inflamed by thee How sweetly dost thou heate how secreetlie dost thou shine how delightfully dost thou burne THE XI MEDITATION How we may know whether the H. Ghost liues in vs. I. POINT CONSIDER that the certaine keeping of Gods commandements giues vs a certaintie that we loue God And who loues him certainly remaynes in God and God in him And in this saith S. Iohn we know that he remaines in vs by the holy Ghost which he gaue vs. If then our owne hartes reprehend vs not of the breache of Gods commandements we may haue a wholesome cōfidence in his goodnesse and mercie yea a morall certaintie that we stand in Gods grace and fauour and that the holy Ghost doth dwell in our hartes Affection Happie is the Soule which hath this testimonie in herself for certainly it is a continuall and a most delicious feast to her hart since it becomes thereby a very Paradice in earth the throne the temple the heauen of God O what a singular superexcellent Angelicall Seraphicall honour is this To be the house of God and to haue God to be our house and harbour To remayne in god god to remaine in vs. Is not this indeede to begin to be Angells and to haue our whole cōuersation with God Yet beware my soule let him that stands looke that he fall not it is yet in earth that we possesse this in heauen where the world the flesh and the diuell continually surround vs. Their snares are layd charitie is lost in a momēt It is not enough to haue the holy Ghost for the present but we must further to be able to ouercome all our temptations begge the continuance of his presence vertue and power by our incesant and ardent prayers saying with the good Disciples mane nobiscum Domine stay with vs stay with vs ô Lord. II. POINT CONSIDER that the presence of the cause is neuer more surely knowne then by the effects And the principall effect which the increated Charitie the holy Ghost produceth in our hart is Charitie de Spiritu Sancto And Charitie saith S. Paule is patient benigne she enuieth not she dealeth not peruersely she is not puffed vp she is not ambitious She seeketh nor her owne she is not prouoked to anger thinketh not euill reioyceth not vpon iniquitie but reioyceth with the truth suffers all things beleeueth all things hopeth all things beareth all things in fine she is cheerefull longanmious milde modest c. Affection If then laying our hand vpon our owne harts we find by an impartiall Examen that we are truly patient in Crosses afflictions and difficulties be they corporall or spirituall If benigne and milde in words and behauiour not arrogating too much to ourselues or seekeing our owne aduantages If we enuie not the good of others If our hartes swell not nor peruersely oppose our neighbour but sweetly support him entertaine a good opinion of him and hope well of his proceeding we may hopefully conclude that the finger of the holy Ghost is in the worke and sweetly moues gouernes disposeth all THE XII MEDITATION The Holy Ghosts presence gathered by the effects I. POINT CONSIDER yet further the effects of the holy Ghost in the B. Apostles and Primitiue Christians And the first is that they began to speake with diuers tongues according as the holy Ghost gaue them to speake and those tongues were imployed not to boast nor vant their owne knowledge and giue themselues the glorie of it but to publish the great workes of God to all Nations and to speake intelligibly to Partians Medians c. Affection And wee too haue power ô my soule by the assistance of the holy Ghost If we be faithfull in following the blessed motions which he graciously inspires into our hartes if not to speake all tongues at least in our owne only language to make ourselues intelligible to all nations Let vs speake Gods great workes by our actions let our light so shine before men that they may see our good workes Let our ioy peace patience benignitie mildnesse modestie the fruites of the holy Ghost appeare and infallibly none will be found so great a stranger as not to vnderstand that language of heauen and together with vs glorifie our heauenly father who blessed our hartes with those good gifts with which the world is too little acquainted II. POINT CONSIDER as another effect that ioy in the holy Ghost the newe wine of the Gospell which so feruently boiled vp in the hartes of the Apostles that they seemed no more to be themselues but to be transported and translated into new men to strike the hearers with astonishment to see those poore rude fishermen simple Galileans who neuer were suspected of much learning speake so powerfully and intelligibly to the harts of all present while yet some turned it to derision others ascribed it to drunkennesse Affection O sudden and powerfull effects of the holy Ghosts working who breathes where he will and when he will and how he will which worldlings are more readie and capable to misconster and deride then to feele or vnderstand These are affects of new wine Say they Yes saith S. Augustine it is euen so indeede with this new wine and this excellent cupp are the harts of the faithfull daily inebriated Thus are they druncke who for the loue of God and their soules health flye their parents and countrie of their owne accord and abandonne the parents of their bodies euen to find out other new ones of their soules Being free they desire to liue in subiection being noble they fall in loue with abiection They preferre abstinence before the delightes of full tables watching before sweete sleepe and pouertie before riches Such effects my soule hath it pleased God of his infinite mercie to worke in our hartes So haue wee been deliciously drunke with the chaste wine of his cellers begetting virgins THE XIII MEDITATION More effects prouing the Holy Ghosts presence I. POINT CONSIDER as another effect of the holy Ghost their vndaunted courage in openly preaching the miracles Resurrection Ascension and Glorification of Iesus in the face of his prowd persequutours who had but a few weekes before put him to an ignominious death This Iesus saith S. Peter who was wickedly slaine by you hath God raised vp againe where of we are all witnesses Let all the house of Israel know most certainly that God hath made this Iesus both Lord and Christ whom you crucified And those vndaunted wordes strucke the harts of three thousand which were conuerted that day Affection Is then the sweete and mellifluous name of Iesus in our hartes and is it from that abundance that our tongue speakes Doe we make it our busines to beare out that blessed name which is the only one under
and vnwilling as it were to be happie Let 's not limit the holy Ghost who giues abundantly and vpbraides not His graces are too pretious to be refused or played with When we haue done the best we can we may put this downe for a certaine truth We are but vnprofitable seruantes we haue done but what we ought How Charitie perisheth and the holy Ghost is driuen out of our hartes II. POINT CONSIDER that being once gott into free trading in veniall sinnes we beginne to be more familiar with and lesse apprehensiue of mortall to witt we so long play with waspes because their stinges are not mortall that with our Mother Eue we lye open to serpents Wisdome waxeth obscure counsell is cast aside feare growes foole-hardie fortitude failes vs and faith begins to slumber But the Diuell sleepes not A pleasant obiect is cast in our waye nor is it anie more then veniall sinne We fixe our eyes vpon the beautie of the forbidden fruite and faine would we taste of it Such dalliance begetts complacence complacence ingagement ingagement procures consent and by consent mortall sinne has gotten footing in our harts Charitie perisheth and the holy Ghost is forced out of his Temple Affection O bewitching snares accursed chaines which infallibly leade to slauery and destruction Ah my soule if we begin once to giue ourselues ouer to the dandlings and caresses of the harlot-words like another Dalila were we euen Samsons it will straight bereaue vs of our strength and sight and dispossessing vs of the holy Ghost leaue vs slaues to the diuell Ah what a pittifull exchange is here Be astonished ô heauens vpon this and ô gates thereof be you desolate exceedingly The very Angells of heauen were they capable of teares would weepe to see the holy Ghost with all his gifts and graces disloyally turned out of our sinfull soules But to preuent this desolation of desolations le ts vse a timely care Being alreadie ensnared le ts by a holy violence cutt breake teare them in peeces for alas the best of them are worth nothing they leade but to death But are we yet free Flye fly then the leaste apparent occasions of euill ô thou beloued of God Flight alone in this behalfe is a sure victorie MEDITATIONS OF THE B. TRINITIE THE I. MEDITATION That by faith alone we can safely approche to God in this ineffable Mysterie I. POINT CONSIDER that though all nations be they otherwise neuer so barbarous haue alwayes vnanimously conspired togeither to the professing of some Deitie yea euen many Gods which they foolishly feyned to themselues And though all the thinges vniuersally which we see seeme to leade vs to the knowledge of some inuisible diuinitie wherby they were all made and conserued yet should we be alwayes wauering and without assurance should we committ our selues to reasons weake search not taking Faith to be our guide Faith which is saith S. Augustine the way to Beatitude Faith without which saith S. Paul it is impossible to please God whence he concludes that it is necessarie to saluation Affection O my soule how happily are we preuented by a heauenly light which the wise of the world wanting they vanished in their owne knowledge and while they could not reach to the true God they spent their witts in deuising false ones Wheras we Christians are safely conduducted by the guidance of faith by faith I say that conuincing argument of thinges not appearing that illustration of the mynde by the prime light which inables our soules to discerne spirituall thinges and leades vs to adore the Father the sonne and the holy Ghost three persons and one true God without all hesitation or doubt II. POINT CONSIDER that as faith is altogeither necessarie so is nothing more sure and comfortable as relying vpon the prime truth which cannot deceiue vs or be deceiued Let Faith saith S. Augustine marche before and noe difficultie will dare to oppose or present it selfe There is nothing more sure or better suted to all sortes of people For who can wante capacitie to giue credit to what truth it selfe reueales It speakes wisdome to the wise and yet the weakest capacities haue as much in substance as they It feedes the strong with solide foode and yet giues milke to children which nourisheth noe lesse Great witts haue as much as they can beare and the weaker sort is able to disgest all they receiue O admirable inuention of wisdome it selfe which can so wisely fitt it selfe to all abilities They are three saith S. Iohn which giue testimonie in heauen the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one To witt one substance one Deitie one God Affection O great and powerfull God! Man hath nothing to replie to this plane testimonie of faith but to fall downe and adore thee I doe therfor with the whole earth adore thee ó Father of infinite Maiestie and that diuine Word thy true and onely Sonne togeither with thy holy comforting Spirit With my whole hart and mouth I confesse blesse and prayse thee ô God the Father and thee ô God the onely begotten sonne and thee ô God the holy Ghost proceeding from them both I confesse thee to be one in essence substance power and Maiestie trine in persons ô one holy and vndeuided Trinitie Glorie be to the power of the Father glorie be to the wisdome of the sonne glorie be to the goodnesse of the holy Ghost Glorie be to the Father whence all thinges proceede Glorie to the Sonne by whom all thinges glorie be to the holy Ghost in whom all thinges Glorie to the Father who created vs glorie to the Sonne who redeemed vs Glorie to the holy Ghost who sanctified vs. THE II. MEDITATION What the B. Trinitie is I. POINT CONSIDER that hauing by a sirme faith made our safe approache hauing set downe for a certaine and vndoubted truth that there is an vnitie of Deitie in the Trinitie of persons and hauing with our whole hart adored it we may with an humble Christian confidence draw yet neerer by contemplation to discouer in some smale measure what and how it is To this effect looke with S. Athanasius vpon the sunne and noe sooner shall you haue discouered it but you meete with a naturall kind of Trinitie which leads vs to that other To witt we discouer the body of the Sunne the brightnesse and the heate of it All which make but one and the same Sunne though otherwise distinguished in themselues The body of it being the source of light represents the Father the brightnesse the Sonne who is light and the heate the holy Ghost who is a sacred fire being but all three one and the same God The sunneit selfe is noe older then the light and heate therof so that were the sunne eternall the light heate would be noe lesse eternall or coeternall Affection O thou Orient sunne shine out vpon our darknesse O thou Father of lights enlighten our benighted soules What I desire ô Lord
and a best beloued spouse to the Holy Ghost O let my soule prayse loue and magnifie her for euer who hath so singular neere and deare relations to all the persons of the B. Trinitie THE II. MEDITATION For the same Day I. POINT CONSIDER That if this day haue brought out a Virgine who is to be a Virgine Mother and that a Mothér of God it hath blessed the world not only with the most excellent and best creature that euer the world yet sawe but euen with the greatest that euer the worlds Creatour yet made amongst men or Angells to whom they crye out with admiration who is this who is this Quaeest ista who riseth as the dawning of the daye as faire as the Moone as choyse as the Sonne c. Affection Let vs my soule ioyne in admiration with the Angells in heauen and say who is this that our desert brings out who and what doe we thinke this child will proue to be a Prophetesse nay more then a Prophetesse more then an Angell more then an Archangell more then a Cherubine or Seraphim A tabernacle which the Almightie hath built with his owne hand for his dearely beloued onely beloued consubstantiall Sonne to inhabite in earth Say my soule all in one word the Virgine Mother of God II. POINT CONSIDER That though the new Testament may seeme to say but little in commendations of our Blessed Ladié yet did it indeede say more then euer was said of anie pure Creature in assuring vs that she is Marie of whom Iesus was borne And though she herselfe be heard to speake but few wordes in the said Scriptures yet in those fewe doth she preache all perfection to witt the knowledge of God and herself Gods omnipotencie who wrought great things in her and her owne littlenesse and abiection in whom such great things were wrought Affection Ah my soule neuer are we so much and so truly commended as when we are praysed for the neere relations we haue to Iesus that is when by his grace we conceiue him in our hart or bring him out by doing his blessed will as we are taught in the Gospell Nor doe we euer by words prayse Christ so much and so fruitfully as when saying litle our light shines so before men that our heauenly father is glorified and when our liues giue testimonie to Christs truth by imitation of his life and Passion Thus let vs striue my soule to prayse Christ thus let vs humbly glorie to be praysed THE I. MEDITATION For the Presentation I. POINT CONSIDER that as this child of miracle and grace this true birde of Paradice was wholy made for heauen so was she to haue noe commerce with earth She that was elected from all eternitie before all others to lodge God as in his liuing temple was tymely to be lodged in the Temple of God She that was prepossessed and replenished by heauenly blessings had noe place left for the world which she euen left before she knew it So that this Celestiall Arke by which all the world was to be saued from the floode where more then Salomon would reside was to be placed in the Sanctuarie of the Temple which Salomon built and this was performed by her pious parents care betwixt 3. and 4. yeares of her Age. Affection Say my soule to this Blessed young Virgine at her entrie into the Temple what S. German sometymes said vpon the same subiect Enter saith he into thyne owne proper inheritance ô thou seale of our Lords Testament thou ayme and end of his designes thou key of hidden Mysteries Enter thou whom all the Prophetes foresaw Enter thou who art the reconcilement of all that are in disgrace the vnion of those that are disvnited the support of such as are readie to fall into ruine c. Enter I say into the Temple thyne owne inheritance and expect with ioy till the holy Ghost thy spouse come downe into the chaste Temple of thy hart II. POINT CONSIDER now ô you Virgines consecrated to God how this most perfect patronesse of Virginitie and all other vertues behaued her selfe in the Temple If you pretend to loue her inindeede fayle not to shew it by the imitation of her heauenly life which was so singularly holy a paterne of all that is holy that the liues of the most holy compared to hers appeared sinfull To witt the sweet odour of this diuine sprigge ascended vp into the sight of God so agreeably that the whole plenitude of grace which was distributed to others by partes ouer flowingly possessed her diuine soule so that saith s. Ambrose it was her cheife studie to offend none to loue all to pay respect and honour to her elders to refuse nothing tò her equalls she had nothing of harsh or displeasant in her lookes nothing of male part in her words nothing of vnhansome in her actions nothing of mincing in her gestures nothing of lightnesse in her gate nothing of petulant in her voyce so that her verie corporall aspect was the picture of her mynde and an expression of her probitie Affection Fixe thyne eyes my soule vpon this Paterne and Patronesse of thyne and learne a true Christian behauiour indeede Looke vpon her I say and in the life of one learne the whole discipline of all holy Virgines Let euery one say to him or herselfe Is it my cheife studie to offend none and to loue all Doe I complie with my elders and equalls after this manner Are my lookes sweetly agreeable my words mylde my actions decent Or rather are not my lookes often harsh and vnpleasant my words malepart and impertinent my actions disedifying Are not my gestures affected my gate nice and light my voyce wanton and dissolute and my whole man in composed Mylde Virgine obteyne by thy intercession that I may imitate thy actions THE II. MEDITATION For the same Day I. POINT CONSIDER with S. Hierome how blessedly she imployed her tyme. This rule saith he she putt downe to her selfe that from the morning to the third houre she wholy imployed her selfe in prayer from the third houre till None she spent in worke knitting or weauing some thing for the vse of the Temple And after None she departed not from prayer till an Angell appeared and brought her meate where she praysed God without intermission She spoke with such a gracefulnesse that God was knowen in her speech In whose prayse least she might at all be interrupted if any chanced to salute her she resaluted them with Deo Gâ—atias Affection O Blessed imployment O Angelicall life in earth O my soule what a deare consolation ought this to be to thy hart to find thy selfe by thyne owne happie choyce gott into a blessed necessitie of practising the same by the example of the Queene of Heauen who began so airely to weaue the actiue and contemplatiue life togeither now praying now working and then praying againe euen till Angells came to feed her Goe on in this happie course my soule
magnifie our Lord and to reioyce in God our Sauiour for that he dayned graciously to looke vpon our vilenesse abiection and miserie by which looke or loue of his all our happinesse was begun THE III. MEDITATION For the Visitation I. POINT CONSIDER what was the seconde cause for which our Blessed Lady did so magnifie our Lord and you will heare her selfe againe shew it Still remouing all prayse from her selfe to ascribe it to the sourse of all Good because saith she he that is mightie hath done greate thinges to me as though she should say let none be slow in giuing credit to this ineffable mysterie let none admire that I. a Virgine haue conceiued for how euer it is in me that this astonishing wonder is wrought yet it was not I but the Almightie God that wrought it in the power of the most high who ouershaded me And the whole reason of the worke is the omnipotent power of the workman who alone workes great inscrutable and wonderfull thinges Affection Feare not my soule to acknowledg with our Blessed Lady that he who is mightie hath wrought great thinges in thee so thou humbly with her too confesse vpon whom they were wrought and by whom for so thou shalt stille haue thyne owne misery and Gods power mercy and bountie before thyne eyes so shalt thou neuer forgett that he is all and thou thy selfe nothinge at all and yet finding so many benefits whether of body or soule or fortune freely bestowed vpon thy pouertie and nothinge thou wilt euen melt away with admireing loue and willingly and ioyfully spend what soeuer thou hast of life or abilitie in continuall Magnifying of so good a Lord and in Spirituall exultations in so Deare a Sauiour II. POINT CONSIDER how hugely great that grace of Gods looking vpon B. Maries abiection must needs haue bene sith from thenceforth all generations shall call her blessed as she her selfe feares not to foretell hauing first giuen the honour of it to him that was truly the Authour therof Certainly that aspect or looking vpon was the effect of eternall direction according to that vbi amor ibi oculus and singular election his looke or aspect onely following his loue since as S. Augustin saith Gods looking vpon one by grace is the deliuering of him from abiection and abandonnement Affection O my soule what an excessiue ioy is it to a truly Christian hart to see this prediction so fully verified Blessed art thou began the Angell blessed art thou went on S Elizabeth and from them 16. ages and vpwards tooke and euer since continued the same songe all the Ancient Fathers being as it were at a holy strife which might take it the highest and all the Christian world from the rysing of the sunne till the setting of the same hauing nothing after Iesus so frequently in its mouth as our Blessed Lady that being as it were among them all her proper name whervpon millions of millions of all sexes and ages and conditions all the world ouer euery day fayle not to sing her Canticle and publish and confirme her blessed by all generations THE I. MEDITATION For the Natiuitie of our Blessed Sauiour I. POINT CONSIDER yet how many iust reasons concurre to oblidge all mankind to proclaime her blessed for euer First because she beleeued 2. Because she was full of grace 3. Because she brought out a most blessed fruite 4. Because the All-powerfull or Almightie wrought wonderful thinges in her 5. Because she was the Mother of our Lord the King of Glorie 6. Because she reserued the puritie of a Virgine togeither with the fecunditie of a Mother 7. Because neither was their before her or euer shall there be after her any like or comparable to her Affection Blesse her then my soule blesse her togeither with heauen and earth with Angells and Saintes and withall learne of her to blesse to prayse to magnifie that powerfull hand which wrought wonders in her and by her that fruite of her wombe that God her Sauiour whom she brought out blesse her firme faith her fulnesse of grace her pure maternitie her fruite full Virginitie Say say my soule with the deuoute Saint Bernard while the riuers run into the Sea while the woodes ouershade the mountaines while the starres possesse the heauens thyne honour thy name thy prayses shall alwayes remayne II. POINT CONSIDER that though Blessed Marie were a iustest subiect of admiratioÌ„ to men and Angells in all the states of her life as being designed for a worke which passed all their capacities euen to conceiue it yet was she then most blessefull and blessed when she did not onely promise but present her blessed fruite when our God was not onely our Lord with her and in her but our Emmanuel or our God with vs by her when that flower of the field began to appeare in our Land and her Virgine earth brought out a Sauiour when finally her dayes were fully come that she should be deliuered she brought-forth her first begotten Sonne and swadled him in clootes and layd him downe in a manger Affection Then then my soule it was indeede that all men of good will began to blesse her ioyninge with the multitudes of Angels who compasse about our more then Salomons litle bedd to sing a Gloria to the child of her wombe and peace to the world Then did she place her young Sonne our God visibly amongst vs and therby freed vs from that ancient reproche vbi est Deus tuus where is thy God Now thou mayst tell the Diuell my soule that here he is to subdue his pride Thou mayst tell the incredulous Iewes that here he is to confound their malice Thou maist tel all men of good will that here he is to breake our chaynes to cure our wounds to direct to protect to comfort to saue the poore banished Sonns of Eue. THE II. MEDITATION In the Natiuitie of our Sauiour I. POINT CONSIDER that then it was indeede that she shewed her selfe to be a Mother when she brought forth to the world her first begotten Sonne and layd him in a manger Then she was indeede Mother in effect and Mother of God and in that name and qualitie according to S. Thomas of Aquine the greatest creature that euer was or euer shall or can be made euen by the Almighties power since to be the Mother of God as being ioyned to a thing of an infinite perfection includes in it selfe a certaine infinite dignitie Affection Stand amaysed my soule at this heauenly prodigie as hauing neither words nor thoughtes sutable to this ineffable dignitie or at least say with that great S. Andrew of Hierusalem O holy Lady Thou art the incomprehensible secreete of the diuine economie whom the Angells desire incessantly to behold Thou art the admirable lodging of an humbled God Thou art that agreeable earth which made him descend from heauen and gave him entrie among vs. Thou art the treasure of â—he mysteries shut vp before all ages
imployed all her tyme in heauenly contemplations feruent eleuations of harte and inflamed aspirations after her dearely beloued child How often said she with more then a S. Paules feruour that she desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ How often did she adiure the daughters of Sion to stay her with flowers to compasse her about with apples because she languished with loue Tell him saith she that I languish with loue Affection Thus it was my soule that this heauenly hart continually euaporated it selfe out thus while her body was detayned in earth did her soule liue in heauen and thus it is too that euery chaste turtle should behaue herselfe in the absence of her mate sometymes moaning herselfe with holy Dauid saying ay mé why is my seiourning stil prolonged Sometymes with S. Paule Christ is my life and death is my gaine Some tymes againe with the feruent S. Augustine Liue I will not dye I will I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ That her life wasted away like incense in the flames of loue II. POINT CONSIDER that Blessed Marie hauing as truly conceiued in her hart the sacred fire which her Sonne brought downe as she had conceiued him in her Virginall wombe she continually watched it like a holy Vestall and did not onely keepe it a liue but euen added new fewell to it by euery least action of her life so that that holy flame was increased to such a degree that it was impossible for a humane hart to endure it without wasting away like incense in the thurible to imbalme the world with her heauenly odours Affection Ah my soule comme and behold this heauenly VisioÌ„ See how Moyses his burning bush whom noe fire of concupiscence could euer touch begins to melt away in the fire of loue See our sacred Salamander readie to consume in the flames which she loued wherin she liued wherwith she was â—o deliciously nourished O that this cold luÌ„pe were better acquainted with this deare torment with this fire which burnes so delightfully At least ô thou Blessed Holocauste of Loue preuayle by thy powerfull prayers that the fire of the Holy Ghost may burne my reynes and hart that I may serue him with a chaste body and please him with a cleane hart THE II. MEDITATION For the Assumption That she dyed of Loue. I. POINT COnsider that Marie must dye then because she was a child of Adam because she was the Mother of a God who dyed because a pretious delicious death will doe her the right to deliuer her vpp to her Sonne in glorie nor is glorie to be had but by death she must dye then who brought out life But as loue brought her Iesus downe from heauen and by loue she coÌ„ceiued him so must noe other hand then that of loue which is now growen stronger then deathin her breake the band of mortalitie and restore her to her life her loue her Iesus Affection O death louingly vitall ô loue vitally mortall O death of loue the noblest of all deathes And therfor due to the most noble life that euer was amonst creatures whereof the verie Angells would desire to dye if dye they could Be ah returne returne thou Sunamitesse returne that we may haue the happinesse to looke vpoÌ„ thee to craue thyne assistance in our necessities O Marie thou Mother of grace Mother of mercy protect vs against our enemyes in our life and receiue vs at the houre of our death Amen II. POINT CONSIDER that if loue gaue the blow it was the most noble death that euer creature endured If loue gaue the stroke it was the most deliciously deare and desired that euer humane hart tasted And as this death was most noble and most sweete so was it attended by the most noble compagnie All the Apostles as witnesseth the great Areopagite by Gods Prouidence and power and all the Primitiue Christians about Hierusalem being prefent at it Yea euen Millions of Angells and Christ himselfe Witnesse S. I. Damascene with many others Affection O what a mixture of delight sorrow did possesse those Apostolicall and primitiue hartes Of sorrow to see themselues readie to become Orphants hauing both the Mother and the SoÌ„ne taken from them Of delight to behold that diuin-Phenix melting away vpon her bed of hoe nour amidst the odoriferous flames of Sacred loue readie to flye into their Masters Celestiall imbracements O what Canticles of prayses did not they singe what actions of grace did they not render THE III. MEDITATION That her body was free from corruption I. POINT CONSIDER that though a death of loue or a beloued death could separate the soule from that B. Virgines body which was buried by the Apostles c. in Gethse many yet deathes corruptioÌ„ durst not at all fasteÌ„ vpon that incorruptible body which had brought out life As we deney not saith S. Augustine that the Mother of God was subiect to the Law of death so haue we learnt in the Shoole of Christianitie to priuiledge her from corruption whose grace and sanctitie was such that she singularly merited to lodge God in earth Affection Noe my soule the immaculate body of this incomparable Virgine was not subiect to corruption it was not fitting that that chaste flesh which gaue flesh to clothe our humanised God should be deliuered ouer to the wormes Though death was her gaine yet had corruption bene her losse God would not permitt that holy one who was vncorrupt in her Conception in her childbirth and after her childbirth should meete with corruption in her graue That her body was assumpted vp to heauen by her Sonne II. POINT CONSIDER that scarcely had this sacred Depositum of her immaculate body remayned three dayes in the graue after her vitall death witnesse S. I. Da. till he that rose the third day by his owne power came to rayse his blessed mothers body that her body and soule being vnited againe he might inioy his whole mother and she him in his glorie Saying to her ryse make haste my friend or according to S. Augustine come from Lybanus my spouse come from Libanus come thou shalt be crowned taking her by the right hand saith he and conducting her in pompe and magnificence according to his good pleasure Affection O my soule with what heauenly acclamations with what Angelicall admirations and exaltations was this singular triumph accompaigned While euen the astonished Angells cryed out who is this who comes vp from the desert flowing with delightes and has the confidence to leane vpon her beloued our Kinge Let vs my soule earnestly begge her intercession what cannot she preuayle for whom the God of heauen so much honours THE VI. MEDITATION How inthronised I. POINT CONSIDER whither this best of Sonns could leade this best of Mothers but to the best place that euer creature was capable of euen aboue the Cherubins and Seraphins to the Throne of God S. Augustine is my warantie saying of her Thou didst passe the Angelicall
troupes and aduance euen to the Throne of the souueraigne Kinge Affection Yes ô thou Souueraigne Queene saith S. Augustine seconded by S. Anselme the King thy Sonne raysed thee to the the same seate where he had placed what he tooke of thee it being but sutable to reason that thou shouldst be there where that is which was borne of thee How honored II. POINT CONSIDER what honour accrues to her in that Throne of Glorie and we shall find that she is honored by God the Father in qualitie of his dearest daughter Of God the Sonne as his dearest mother and of God the holy Ghost as his dearest Spouse Of all the Angells and Saintes of heauen as the best beloued Mother of their Master and the most glorious Queene of their heauenly Court Affection All hayle thou glorious Queene of Heauen it is not now all the generations of mē or one Angell that salutes thee full of grace but all the Quires of Angells which pronounce thee blessed and full of glorie Yea the whole Trinitie doth in rich thee with incomparable prerogatiues of honour and glorie farre aboue all the rest FINIS MEDITATIONS FOR ALL THE SVNDAYES IN THE YEARE DRAWNE OVT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GOSPELLS Composed by the same Authour THE SECONDE PARTE Lex tua meditatio mea est PARIS Printed by VINCENT DV MOVTIER M. DC LXV THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FIRST SVNDAY IN ADVENT There shall be signes in the sunne and the moone and the starrs and in the earth distresse of nations for the confusion of the sound of the sea and waues c. Luc. 21. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that there are two Aduents or comings of Christ intimated in this Gospell and celebrated in the holy Catholike Church The one of feare when he shall come in dread full maiestie to iudge the vniuersall world to th end that by whosome feare the forerunner of wisdome the heartes of her children may the better be prepared to receiue hym by loue in his first coming by his gracious Incarnation when he comes in humilitie and infirmitie Nor is there a better way to secure our selues against his dreadfull maiestie in that then by imitating his abismall humilitie in this Affection Let vs then my soule vpon the first sommons of that dreadfull day rowse vp our selues from the sleepe of negligence and sinne and without further dallying and delay fall seriously vpon the studie of our Master Christ his first lesson humilitie knowing with S. Paule that now it is the houre that we ought to ryse being called vpon by our holy mothers care Now I say euen now at this verie houre because the youngest the strongest the wisest of vs all knowes not whether the next houre will be allowed him yea or noe THE SECONDE POINTE CONSIDER the dreadfullnesse of that second coming by the astonishing forerunners of it as they are put downe by the pen of the holy Ghost Ther shall b◠signes in the sunne and in the moone and the starrs and vpon the earth distresse of nations through the confusion of the sound of the sea and waues Behold the wrothfull iudge doth not yet appeare and yet the sunne is obscured the moone refuseth to afford its light the starrs fall from the heauens the earth quakes the sea rores all is in confusion on all sides to witt what was fore told by wisdosme begins to be fulfilled The round world shall fight with him against the senselesse and he will arme his creatures to the reuenge of his enemyes Affection I haue sinned against thee ô my dread lord I haue donne impiously in the sight of thee my deare father I haue committ iniquitie before the face of all thy creatures Noe wonder then they all ryse vp against me disloyall wretch that I am Alas there is nothing in me but confusion and rottennesse nothing that is able to abide the strickt tryall of thy sterne iustice vnlesse thy mylde mercy come out before to preuent it Mercy deare lord mercy Permitt not the poore soule which thou hast daigned to loue and which has noe other hope but in thee perishe in thy anger mercy mercy mercy THE THIRD POINTE. CONSIDER further the dreadfulnesse of the same coming by the wonderous effects it seemes to worke in men and Angells In the Angells for the heauenly powers goes on our text that is the Angells themselues though otherwise secure in themselues and absolutly possessed of beatitude are moued with a certaine admiration and reuerentiall feare by the apprehension of the approch of the wrothfull iudge the exactnesse of his iustice ād the multitudes of those that are to be iudged And in men since they shall euen wither away with a dreadfull expectation of what will become of them and the whole world Affection O poore sinfull man o thou who finds thy conscience ouer burdened with so many disloyalties against thy deare lord tortured with such multitudes of crymes against thy dreadfull all-sceing euer-liuing iudge Alas What will then become of thee when the verie Angells shall quake with feare the Angells who are neither guiltie of sinne or euen can sinne the Angells who alwayes performed the will of their lord the Angells who are in the sure possession of his glorie What will become of vs my soule who are guiltie of so many imperfections palpable negligences and heynous crymes makaing a short reflection vpon the course of our whole lise Resolution I will therfor iudge my selfe while there is yet tyme c. THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY And then shall the sonne of man appeare in the clouds of heauen in much power and Maiestie THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that if the signes and prodigies which fore run the coming of the all-powrefull all-sceing and most iust and wroth full iudge be so dread full with what astonishment horrour and vtter confusion must his presence needs strike sinfull man his mortall enemye who crucified him againe and againe with his vices and concupiscences and trode the sonne of God vnder foote His presence I say accōpaigned with such daunting circumstances Clouds and fogges shall inuiron him saith the Royalle Prophete and fire shall streame out before him and fire his enemyes round about while the mountaines melt like waxe before his angrie face Affection Alas who will haue assurance enough to be able to stand to see this dreadfull coming who would not sue to the mountaines to fall vpon them and hide them from so daunting an aspect Or euen pray with Iob to find protection in hell till his furie be past because the furie and anger of that man shall spare none in that day Ah my soule He sees all that hath past from the begining of the world He is most iust and will spare none he is all powerfull and none can resist his decrees It is horride to fall into the handes of a luing God Yet all this we must all stand to see How necessarie is it then to prouide in tyme Let my resolution
Augustine though such as vowe Virginitie to God hold a more ample degree of honour and dignitie in the Church of God yet are not they without mariage for they belonge to the mariage with the whole Church wherin Christ is the spouse Affection O admirable dignitie of the Virgine where the humble handmayd is raysed to the honour of a Bride to Christ himselfe the Bridegroome whom whē she loues she is chaste whom when she touches she is pure whom when she takes in mariage she is a Virgine O supercelestial mariage from whence fidelitie and fertilitie is expected as well as in other mariages for such as breake this first faith haue damnation saith the Apostle and the happie state of Virgines assures S. Augustine is more fruitfull and fertile not to haue bigge bellies but great mynds not to haue breasts full of mylke but harts full of candour and in lieu of bringing forth earth out of their bowells they bring forth heauen by their prayers Hence issues a noble progenie puritie iustice patience mildnesse charitie followed by all her venerable traine of vertues This is the Virginns worke to be sollicitous of what belongs to God and to haue her whole conuersation in Heauen THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY CONSIDER yet a third sort of mariage wherin the whole Catholike Church that is all faithfull soules are espoused to Christe in faith hope and charitie but especially by charitie which as Queene drawes a longe with her all the powers and affections of the soule to conforme and subiect them to the pleasure of her diuine spouse making but one will and nill of two wills to witt that of God and man And this conformitie saith the deuoute S. Bernard maries the soule to God Whence results an ineffable content and pleasure and such a heate of diuine loue that the soule and all her affections are absorpt therin Affection Let the world then my soule boast as much as it will of the pleasures and contentements which it inioyes they are not like to the lawe of the Lord thy God that sweete law of loue in comparisō of which the most prosperous earthly pleasure is but vile and base The cheife Good is our Good of which Tertulian saith excellently soome goods as well as some euills bring an intolerable waight with them and most dearely and deliciously oppresse the soule Hence it was that that holie Apostle of the Indies cryed out Satis est Domine satis est It is enough ô Lord it is enough THE SECONDE POINTE CONSIDER yet a fourth sorte of Mariage which is made euery day to all kinds of faithfull soules which approche to the B. Sacrament Wherin we are made one with that diuinely deare spouse of ours not onely by charitie but euen in realitie and in verie deede we are mingled with that sacred flesh of his in that celestiall banket which he bestowes vpon vs to shew vs the excesse of his loue Whence S. Christome saith therfor it was that he ioynd himselfe with vs and mixed his body into vs to the'nd we might be come one with him as the body is ioyned to the heade for euen as one who powres melted waxe saith Cyrill into other waxe must necessarily wholy mixe the one with the other so he that receiues the body and bloud of our Lord is so ioyned with him that Christ is found in him and he in Christ Affection O excesse of goodnesse ô ineffable delightes of that most chaste and sacred mariage betwixt the kinge of heauen and poore man Here in this mariage banket is serued in the foode of Angells nay the kinge of the Angells himselfe becomes the whole feaste Nor is there neede there of any other wine then the precious bloude of the Lambe who dyed for our loue say then my soule and let all that loue and feare our Lord Iesus say with vs quoniam bonus quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius that he is infinitly good and his mercys are without end THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANIE If thou wilt said the Leper to our sauiour thou canst make me cleane Matt. 8. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that the poore Leper had found by a longe and painfull experience that there was noe hope of cure by the power of man all his owne and others endeuours prouing vneffectuall and therfor he wisely resolued in an humble confidence to haue recourse to him whom he knew by faith to be able to doe all that he would in heauē and in earth By adoration he acknowledges him to be God and by his words he publishes him to be all powerfull He came and adored him sayinge Lord If thou wilt thou canst and the present effects proue that his faith is powerfull and gratefull to Christ who graciously replyes I will Be thou made cleane and forth with his leprosie was made cleane Affection Our great and good Lord my soule neither wants power nor good will to cure all our infirmites if we aske as we ought If he some tyme delaye vs it is but the better to trye vs and more euidently to acquainte vs with our owne want of abilitie till he putt his powerfull hand to the worke for then our leprosie is forth with cured If he delaye vs and sometyme permitt vs for a longe space to languish and euen to be ouerspredd with our leprosie it is but the more perfectly to humble vs and throughly to cure the more dangerous desease of pride Finally if he delay the cure till we waxe more desparatly sicke it oblidges vs being at length cured the more highly to magnifie his mercy and publish his power to all men THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that there is noe stayne so deeply setled which Gods power is not able to fetch out noe leprosie of body or soule so inueterate and incurable which God with a word doth not cure Our application or addresse is onely to be looked to We must approche to the Lord of life and death as to one such with a liuely faith with an absolute confidence that with a word he can worke what he will his power being onely limited by his will as the faithfull leper plainly expresses Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Affection Be then my soule thy leprosie and other spirituall deseases neuer so peremptorie Be it that they haue growne on with thee since thy youth Seeme they rather to be another nature then natures defects yet haue but a frequent confident humble recourse to this souueraigne Physitian with a true acknowledgement of thyne owne miserable and otherwise desparate estate crying out with afirme faith O Lord if thou wilt thou canst cure all myne infirmities and infallibly in his good tyme we shall heare I will be thou made cleane THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Of the Centurion or Capitaine of an hundred Soldiers who sued to our Sauiour for the cure of his seruante THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that we may
faithfull who are to raigne in that Kingdome to a mustardseede which is saith he the least or the least kinde of all the seedes What are we to learne hereby but that to be truly of the number of the faithfull to be fitt to raigne for euer in that celestiall Kingdome we ought to be litle and euen the least that may be in our owne esteeme and in our owne desires of being esteemed by others for knowing indeede our owne weaknesse miserie and nothing with what iustice would we haue others who know vs not to esteeme vs some thinge contrarie to our owne certaine knowledge and truth Affection Marke my soule how our humble Sauiour seemes to labour to imprint deeply into our soules that great litle vertue of humilitie which S. Paule qualifies Christs owne proper vertue virtus Christi This he doth by word and worke at all tymes and places in his birth life and death He neuer taught any other greatnesse in earth then to be litle He amongst you saith he who desires to be the greatest let him be the least Vnlesse you become like these litle ones pointing to the children you can not enter into the Kingdome of Heauen You must belike grains of mustard seed saith he here O saith S. Augustine so great a thinge it is to become litle that had not the great God of heauen taught it vs by his owne example we should neuer haue learnt it THE SECONDE POINTE. But when it is growne it is greater then all hearbes and becomes a tree CONSIDER that from the smale beginings of Christ and his fruitefull spouse the Catholike Church which appeared so abiect and contemptible in the eyes of the world that it was deamed a scandall to the Iewes a follie to the Gentils grew so great in the tract of tyme that noe woode brought out so faire a tree for its flowers for it fruite for its large branches which extend themselues all the world ouer So that as farre as the sunne spreads its light the light of the Gospell is spredd the faithfull preach and dye for Gods truth Affection Dost thou desire to be great indeede my soule begin from being the least So did thy Sauiour Christ and his Church wherof thou haste the happinesse to be a member Was there a mother to be choysen for the sonne of God The Highest looked downe vpon the litlenesse of Marie and was pleased in her Is that sonne to be lodged in earth A litle caue is prepared for his Louure Is he to subdue the world to his heauenly fathers seruice He exinanites himselfe and becomes a litle child Must this heauenly child haue Apostles to send to conuert the world He makes choyce of a litle troupe of sillie fishermen And yet by these and by this conquering litlenesse the world is vanquished Proud Philosophers fall into their netts Royall Diademes fall at their feete The ignominie of the Crosse turnes honorable and is planted ouer all the face of the earth O may these examples of prosperous litlenesse confound our pride and conuert vs. THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY So that the foules of the aire come and dwelle in it CONSIDER that as this tree sprunge frō this smale graine or mustardseede affords a place as well of repose as repaste to the smale innocent birds of the aire not to the great ones which being more earthly feede on carion and liue by rapine So doth the goodly large spredd Tree of the Catholike Church giue as well shelter as nourishement to those birds of Paradice the faithful of Christ who hauing their thoughts continually aboue affecte noe more vpon earth but a meere liuelyhoode wheras those that are great in their owne eyes and heauie harted are drouned in earth and earthly cogitations and can neuer be saciated Affection There is noe place my soule vpon this tree of the Gospell for those rauinous birds and soules of earth who can neuer be glutted with the base pleasures and grosse fare of the oynions and garlike and flesh potts in this Egipt of ours who by how much more they abound by so much more they starue while those other birds of Paradice feede deliciously and lodge securely vnder the sweete shade of the glorious tree of the Catholike Church whose fruite is sweete to their throte There those chaste turtles intertayne themselues with their belowed mates and singe one to one dilectus meus mihi ego illi my beloued is myne and I am his THE SECONDE POINTE. The Kingdome of heauen is like to a mustardseede CONSIDER that the Kingdome of heauen which by some Fathers is said to be the word of God in the holy scriptures is compared to a mustard seede and that most fitly Looke vpon a graine of mustarde slightlie and you shall neither find sauer nor taste in it so is fares also with the word of God which looked vpon curserily without due reflection makes smale impression in mans harte Marrie let that smale graine be brused and a strange firie vertue is felt which affects the braines and drawes teares from the eyes And doth not the word of God being diligently pondered blesse the hart with a strange sweetnesse aboue that of honie and the honie combe And is it not according to the Prophete vehemently burning and delightfully inflaming and drawing teares of heauenly delight from our eyes Affection Thus it happened to the two good Disciples in their way to Emaus where Iesus discoursed with them of which they said to each other did not our harts ardently burne when he Christ spoke to vs in the way and opened the scriptures to vs Thus fared it with him who hauing stript himselfe of his clothes said pointing at the bible it was this booke that robbed me And thus it will fare with vs my soule if we doe not onely reade but seriousy ponder and ruminate the word of God for it was in the meditation of it that the deuoute Dauid testified his harte was sett on fire MEDITATIONS FOR SEPTVAGESIME SVNDAY THE FIRST MEDITATION Of the great and wonderfull benefite of mans vocation to the knowledge of God THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER how the Almightie God that great Master of the familie of the whole vniuerse began earely in the morning to call workemen into his vineyard that is from all eternitie before tyme yet was being moued thervnto by noe other motiue then his owne immense goodnes and most iust will According to that of Ieremie In euerlasting charitie hane I loued thee and therfor haue I drawen thee taking compassion And S. Iohn not as though we haue loued him but because he hath loued vs and againe because he loued vs first Affection We were nothing my soule from all eternitie and in tyme so many thousands of yeares run ouer and still we lay in our nothinge There was nothinge then to moue that excesse of goodnesse to take me into consideration and call me to his seruice because I was nothinge at all Nothing
because therfor it is giuen that the hardnesse of the harte may be taken away THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY And other fell among thornes and the thorues grew and choked them THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER finally that another parte of the feede fell among the thornes which stisles the young and tender grouth therof and that happens not as in that seede which falling vpon the high way was troden vnder foote and could take noe roote nor as that which fell vpon the rocke which for want of earth could take noe deepe roote but hauing earth enough to take a deepe roote and produce fruite it was choked as our Sauiour himselfe interpreetes the parabole in the same Gospell by wordly cares and solicitudes and deceiptfull riches Affection Accursed cares which make vs carelesse of that which most concerns vs and stifles the word and law of God in our harts Accursed riches which render our soules poore and barren The riches which as fooles conceiue doe tickle them with delight Wisdome assures vs to be thornes which pricke wound and kill Who would euer haue beleeued me saith the great S. Gregorie if I should haue interpreted riches to be thornes since these wound those delight And yet thornes they are saith truth it selfe since the thoughtes of thē doe teare our myndes in peeces with their sharpe pointes and when they waigh vs downe to sinne they drawe bloode THE SECONDE POINTE. And other some fell vpon good ground and they yealded fruite CONSIDER that the good ground which fayles not to yeald fruite is the well disposed harte of man which by the preuention of Gods grace hath nothing opposite to that good seede To witt it neither lyes open to the curiosities and thronges of the world but is shutt vp within it selfe Nor is rockie and stuborne but supple mylde and docile Nor lastly is it ouerspred with thornes that is with riches honour and pleasures but contrarily possessed with the contempt of them they being indeede the chokers of all the seed of heauen and the sourses of all mans miserie Affection Giue me then ô Lord in lieu of all riches honours and pleasures a docile hart a good soyle prepared by thyne owne holie hand that thy sacred word and heauenlie inspirations may find noe opposition therin but yeald fruite an hundred fold Let it be hedged in by thy feare that it lye not open to vanities Let these hard flintes of myne be so moystened with thy melliflous word that they may flowe with milke and home Finally let those thornes of riches be rooted out of my harte that it may not stifle but nourishe thy good seede THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR QVINQVAGESIME SVNDAY Iesus said to the twelue Apostles behold we goe vp to Ierusalem and all things shall be consummate which were written by the Prophetes of the son of man Luc 18. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER how fitly the wisdome of the Church applyes this Gospell intimating Christs B. passion to this tyme wherin we are disposing our selves to enter into the rigour of a penitentiall life therby to applie to our soules the merites of the said passion Fitly I say since it seemes to say to all Christian hartes with the great S. Paule thinke diligently vpon him who sustayned of sinners such contradiction against himselfe that you be not wearied fainting in your minds for you haue not yet resisted to blood as he did in fighting against sinne Forgett not then in the tyme of your pennance the consolation which speaketh to you as it were to children my sonne neglect not the discipline of our Lord neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked of him for whom our Lord loueth he chastiseth and he scourgeth euerie child which he receiueth Affection The soldier saith the deuoute S. Bernarde feeles not his owne wounds while he lookes vpon the wounds of his Kinge Noe my soule there is nothing that can so sweeten that sharpest sufferances as fixedly to behold the sufferances of the sonne of the Kinge of glorie and that not for his which were none but for thy crymes for thy loue for thy redemption Looke vpon him then in thy pressures be they of body or of mynde and thou shalt like them thou shalt loue them thou shalt be delighted in them What can be so deare to a loueing harte as to be like its beloued cost that ressemblance what it will it shall fall far short of the delight it bringes with it THE SECONDE POINTE He Christ shall be deliuered to the Gentils and shall be mocked and scourged and spitt vpon c. and then shall be killed and the third day shall ryse againe CONSIDER this description or prediction and blush to be found a fainte and delicate soldier vnder so generous and patiently suffering a Capitaine Ponder it well and be more and more confirmed in the faith of Christ and the truth of Christian Religion against Iewe Turke or Athist for what he here fortells and afterwarde performes was longe before foretold by the Prophetes which could neuer haue bene so punctually performed had not their pens bene guided by the finger of the holy Ghost Sopho He shall be deliuered vp to the Gentils to witt Pilate and his soldiers to be mocked Dauid speaking in the person of the Messias I was whippt all the day longe Isaye I turned not my face from those that spitt vpon me wisdome Let vs condemne him to a most infamous death Sopho. expect me in the day of my resurrection speaking in the person of Christ Affection Consider I say my soule againe and againe what thy Lord and master thy Christ thy God suffers for thee for thee a poore miserable lost seruant and be ashamed to be so backward to suffer any thinge for those many crymes of thyne Let vs looke vpon that Authour of faith and consummatour of all his heauenly fathers commands and of all that was foretold of him by the Prophetes and crye out with Dauid ô Lord thy testimonies are made exceeding credible they are too too cleare for any euer to be able to doubt of them THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FIRST SVNDAY IN LENT BY WHOM WAS IESVS TEMPTED Iesus is ledd by the spirit that is the holy Ghost that he might be tempted by the Diuell Matth. 4. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that as all Christs actions and passions all his words and workes were for our example instruction and consolation so was this in particular by a speciall graciousnesse for the instruction and comfort of his tempted seruantes He had taught vs by his holy word that the life of man was a perpetuall warrefare or temptation vpon earth and by his singular goodnesse that he pleased to be with vs in temptation for it was euen he the true sonne of God the wisdome of heauen the onely beloued of his heauenly father who was ledd out by the holy Ghost to be tempted to comfort and instruct vs in our temptations in his owne sacred person Affection Let
old heauen and earth God and man conspire togeither to putt vs out of all doubt that our Iesus is the beloued sonne of God the Father in whom he is well pleased And therfor with our whole soule we ioyne with the whole Court of heauen and adore that onely begotten who dyed for vs and esteemed it noe stelth to be equall to his heauenly father THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY And his face did shine as the sunne and his garments became white as snowe Matt. 17. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that Peter Iames and Iohn vpon the onely aspect of the transcendant splendour and beautie of Iesus his body and garments are so transported with ioy that they take a present resolution to build tabernacles vpon the toppe of Thabor and to remayne there because Peter out of the deepe sense of the heauenly delight which he felt professed freely to that diuine Master of theirs that it is good for them to be there Affection O my soule if litle glimpses of glorie be so delightfull what will the whole light of glorie proue If a litle exteriour glorie of the body be so precious what will the essentiall glorie of both body and soule be experienced If momentes of ioyes were powerfull enough to begett an absolute contempt of all other thinges in those Apostolicall hartes what should not firme hopes of eternities worke in ours If God blesse vs with heauenly gustes at our prayers c. Let vs humble our selues and be thankfull for them as being the seede of glorie But we must not be too greedie of them nor resolue to dwell in them Iesus must passe from Thabor ouer Caluarie before he enter into his owne Kingdome and so must we Christians too THE SECONDE POINTE. He spoke with Moyses and Elias of an excesse CONSIDER that while Peter Iames and Iohn like men are so transported with a smale foretaste of glorie that they wishe noe better then to liue vpon the toppe of that pleasant hill Our deare Lord and Master whose thoughts are alwayes vpon that which tends to the accomplishment of his heauenly fathers will is thinking and discoursing with Moyses and Elias of his paineful death and passion Affection We are but pilgrims in this world my soule not inhabitants We haue noe permanent citie here but we are makeing home to an euerlasting one where we are fellow citizens with the Saints and God's domestikes nor can we follow a surer guide then our Sauiour Iesus His way is through sufferances contradictions ad Crosses in euery kind And is it not our perfection to expresse his life in ours that by suffering with him we may raigne with him Good it is indeede to haue gusts and foretastes of the consolations of God! but farre better to follow the God of consolation amidst his desolations sufferances and abandonnements who ioy being proposed vnto him sustayned the Crosse contemning confusion Say then with S. Teresa aut pati aut mori either let sufer or dye THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY IN LENT And Iesus was casting out a Diuell and he was dumbe Luc. 11. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that the Diuells dominion was spredd in a manner ouer all the face of the earth Altars were erected Idolls sett vp Idolatrie or the worshippe of the Diuell raigned in euery place so that his pride growen greater then his power he durst attempt vpon the sonne of God as in the first sunday in Lent but in steed of victorie he mett with confusion He was ouerthrowen with the sword of the word of God without any other armes But now Iesus to comply with and exercise the Office of a Sauiour being sent to free the world out of the Diuells tyrannie setts vpon him by his power and authoritie and by absolute commande chaceth him out of the possessed body Affection O blessed fruites of the coming of our Sauiour Iesus Christ Poore man was kept à slaue vnder the Diuells tyrannie nor was there any power in earth to free him but Iesus our Helper in opportunities that is seasonably as he iudges fitting in tribulation in temptation c. came graciously to his ayde he assaults that stronge one forceth him by his flight to acknowledge the power of his Master who begins sake his raigne and abate his pride nor doth he this in his owne person onely but euen leaues the like power in his holie Church He graciously teaches vs by his example how we are to behaue our selues in temptation and shewes vs in what power we ought to subdue that fierce foe Blessed and magnified be he for euer who hath left such power to the sonns of man THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that though the Diuells taking possession of mans body be not verie comon yet his possession of mans soule is but too ordinarie And how euer we perceiue it but a litle yet it is farre more dangerous and most absolutly true Neuer are we so vnhappie to committ mortall sinne but the Diuell takes full possession of our soules grace departs the holy Ghost is turned out of dores the Diuell becomes our Master and we his miserable seruantes and slaues ouer whom he exercises à tyrannicall dominion We become blind to good walke in darknesse not discouering what is fitting to be done and dumbe too as to the making profession of what we know to be right Affection O my soule this is the possession indeede which we ought most to feare and dispossession which we ought most earnestly to seeke for because we haue left him who is able to throw both body and soule into Hell fire because our strength hath left vs we are sicke of a deade palsie and sore tormented by the Diuell Let vs neuer cease from sighets and sobbs and lamentations while we rcmayne in this sadd captiuitie Gods grace alone is able to deliuer vs. Let vs begge it incessantly like poore lost slaues knowing that there is noe meanes to flye from him but to him from him offended to him appeased saying haue mercy vpon me ô God according to thy great mercy and according to the multitude of thy commiserations because my miserie is exceeding great and needes noe lesse a cure THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Euery Kingdome deuided against it selfe shall be made desolate and a house shall fall vpon a house Luc. 111. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that though we had not had truth it selfe which none dare contradicte to assure vs of this so necessarie a lesson yet common experience makes it but too sure to verie ordinarie capacities The internall diuisions and broyles of England France Spayne Italie and Flanders to goe noe further haue oft hazarded their vtter ruine And the vnhappie misintelligences of communities and particular families haue not onely disordered them and depriued them of the blissings of peace and quiete but haue euen exposed them to publicke scandall and desolation it selfe Affection How deare then my soule ought vnanimitie and vnion of harts to be to vs
they cannot beleeue we beleeue him to be such indeede THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR PALME SVNDAY They the Apostles putt their garments vpon the Asse and made him Christ sitt theron CONSIDER that the sonne of God consubstantiall with his Almightie father and equall to him in Maiestie and glorie could not by ascending become greater or more glorious since nothing can surpasse or euen in any sort attayne to infinitie But what he could not by ascending he could by descending and humbling himselfe which he did in his birth in all his life in this day of his tryumphe making his entrie into Hierusalem vpon a sillie Asse and therfor God exalted him and gaue him a name surpassing all names a name which brings heauen and earth downe vpon their knees to adore him Affection Behold my soule the Kinge of heauen in the day of his tryumphe mounted vpon a sillie Asse in that royall Citie Ierusalem and obscrue that he seemes to make it his busines in earth to decry pride and exalt humilitie and to leaue vs in this one lesson an example of the ruine of the one and a cure of the other Triumphes are vsed to be made by proud man in coasâ—he on horte with Lions and Elephants By humble Christe vpon a poore asse What more abiect then a sillie asse The onely Christian way then to ascende and tryumphe is to descende To erect our heade into the skeies without the roote humilitie is to seeke ruine not aduancement and grouth of spirit THE SECONDE POINTE. FOR THE SAME SVNDAY CONSIDER that though our Sauiour Iesus-Christ be most iustly admirable adorable and amiable in all circumstances in the glorie of his heauenly father which he is possessed of by the right of his eternall generation in his power of workinge innumerable miracles in his scantlinge of glorie on Mount Tabor c. Yet neuer is he more to be admired adored and loued by poore man nor euer speakes he more tendernesse and edification to his hart then when for his loue and example he makes choyce of that which to the world appeares most ignominious poore and abiect as in this poore entrie of his he did Affection When I looke vpon the multitude of thy miracles greate God I admire and adore thy power When with the whole strife of my hart I essay as I am able to behold thee in thy seate of glorie I feare to be oppressed therwith and am forced to fall downe vpon my face with those celestiall spirits and adore thy Maiestie But when thou dost graciously please to suffer that Maiestie of thyne to appeare in ignominie poore and abiect like one of vs I fall downe vpoÌ„ thee without dreade with a strange confidence with a huge dearenesse saying in my harte what can he deney me whose singular mercy will needs share in my miserie Be ignominie pouertie and abiection alwayes deare to me since deare to him who dyed for me THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY The Apostles brought an Asse and made him sit theron CONSIDER that heauen is not further remoued from the earth then the wayes of the world are distaÌ„t from the wayes of God and mans cogitations from Gods Men thinke their greatnesse will be mistaken vnlesse they testifie it by the magnificence of their garments and their vast traynes of horse and men The sonne of God contrarily comes in the name of our Lord with two or three poore fishermen mounted vpon an Asse in the onely day of his tryumphe and in that abiectnesse finds his glorie and euen in that is ackdowledged to be the true Messias or kinge Affection If our desires be honour and glorie my soule let vs not feare to pursue them so it be by the way which our Sauiour taught vs not by those of the world which leade quite contre and seduce vs. The world seekes honour by high and glorious wayes and the more he pursues it the more it flyes him Christ walkes on in humble and abiecte wayes and it comes to meete him He is saluted with noe Hosannas in Ierusalem till he haue first humbled himselfe to ride vpon an Asse nor will he enter into his birth-right in the heauenly Ierusalem till he haue humbled himselfe to death and that the infamous death of the Crosse Let abiectnesse then my soule be thy honour foolishnesse thy wisdome and the infamie of the Crosse thy glorie THE SECONDE POINTE. He went into the Temple CONSIDER that our B. Sauiour who had taught the Iewes that he sought not his owne glorie doth here verifie the same in effect both to them and vs when presently withdrawing himselfe from the glorious acclammations Hosannas and Benedictus es giuen to him as to their true Messias and Kinge he went to the Temple there to doe his Fathers worke and aduance his glorie by casting out of it all that sold and bought therin and the tables of the bankers and the chaires of them that sold pigeons he ouerthrew saying to them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer c. Affection Hence we are taught my soule by Christs example to run from the glorie which any one may ascribe to vs tho with neuer so great applause to imploye our selues in glorifying God especially in his owne house See how our sweete Sauiour according to the Psalmists expression is eaten vp with the zeale of that holy house and how being the mildest amonge the sonns of men he takes the whippe into his hands and resolutly without feare of offending driues those vnworthy negotiatours out of his Fathers house Ah my soule what may not they then feare who buy and sell Christs patrimonie in the Church Ah Christians what may not we feare who beleeue that we are not onely in the Temple of God but euen in the reall presence of the God of the Temple and yet seeme rather by our loose behauiour c. to come to affront him then to adore him in his owne house and presence THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE SECONDE SVNDAY AFTER EASTER I am the good Pastour Ihon. 10. CONSIDER that as the sonne of God was borne for vs and giuen to vs so he seemes indeede to be all ours and to come home to all our necessities and vses He is not onely the way truth and life by which we are to walke to life euerlasting but looking vpon vs as weake and straying sheepe who often leaue the way forsake truth and are subiect to hazard life by becominge preys to rauinous wolues he graciously proues our Pastour to feede protecte and leade vs by the wayes of truth to those eternally plentifull pastures of his in our owne Lande Affection Let vs my soule truly acknowledge what in verie deede we are To witt the people of his pasture and the sheepe of his hand that sheepe which strayed from the way from truth from life and perished We are indeede weake creatures and daylie subiect to erre in many things and haue litle reason to depende vpon
our fayling strength Howbeit be Gods mercy euer blessed we are not as sheepe without a Pastour but we haue the good Pastour to protect vs. Let vs attentiuly heare his voyce know him and his wayes and wholy depende vpon him and his preists of whom he hath said Who heares you heares me THE SECONDE POINTE. A good Pastour giues his life for his flocke Io. 10. CONSIDER that this Pastour of ours is the good Pastour indeede that is good by excellencie or infinitly good which he makes manifest not by words onely but by many effects what was cast away he brings againe what was broken he binds vp what was weake he strengthens and the sheepe which was lost he seekes and finds and graciously brings home vpon his owne shoulders Nay more the labour of thirtie odd yeares imployd about the care of his flocke had seemed but litle to his loue had he not in the end layed downe his life for the same Affection Ah my soule Let vs blesse him and magnifie his free mercys for euer and euer Without this good Pastour we were all lost eternally It was Gods mercy alone that we perished not all togeither and were consumed for he looked downe from heauen to see whether there were any that vnderstood and sought him among the children of men and he found that all had declined and were become vnprofitable none doing good noe not one And yet while we serued him so poorely there was noe hope of saluation without his helpe nor pardon nor life for vs but that which he purchaced by his owne pretious death Let me euer loue thee thou dearest pastour and purchacer of my soule THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that this good shephard this heauenly Pastour of our soules doth conduct protect and feede vs not after an ordinarie manner but according to his diuine superadmirable and astonishing wayes peculiar and proper to his diuine goodnesse and wisdome alone not onely with the plentuous dugges of his heauenly consolations and foretastes of beatitude but euen with that supersubstantiall foode his owne pretious body and bloud Affection Awake my soule awake and diligently obserue what deare obligations we haue to this good pastour of ours he did not onely come downe from heauen to comfort and instruct vs with his personall presence enduring all the incommodities to which we are subiect in this our banishment but he putts downe his bloude for the price of our Redemption and as though that were not yet enough to testifie the excesse of his tendernesse to his deare flocke by a heauenly inuention and euen a miracle of loue he so leaues vs as yet he remaynes with vs and makes his owne pretious body and bloude the permanent foode of our soules THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that this good this ineffably good Pastour of ours doth not onely feed vs by this admirable meanes which the Angells could neuer haue dreamt on but will also daigne to be fedd by vs in his poore members our necessitous Christian brethren I was hungrie and you gaue me to eate I was thirstie and you gaue me to drinke Yes saith our deare Pastour verily I say to you as longe as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Affection Our good Pastour my soule knew that well-borne harts were not willing to receiue and returne nothing but were still greedie to inquire out the meanes wherby they might make mutuall returnes of loue and therfor he himselfe suggests the wayes by which he would haue it done saying as it were to our hartes I your pastour and maker who can otherwise neede nothing that 's yours am notwithstanding hungrie thirstie naked and imprisoned in my poore members your brethren in them I begge breade c. at your dores assuring you that what you giue to them in my name and for my loue you giue to me O what a comforte it is to a truly louing harte to haue so easie a way to render loue for loue THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER EASTER For a litle tyme you shall not see me and shortly after you shall see me againe S. Io. 16. CONSIDER that we are all pilgrimes trauelling towards our heauenly home and we shall not misse to meete with all kinds of weather Now heate now cold now faire and soone after fowle Sometymes our Sauiour dilates our harts with the aboundance of his consolations and we prosperously spring on in the wayes of his commandements and sometymes againe he retires and hydes him selfe from vs leauing vs to desolations and sorrowes and we become troubled and all our former force and courage seeme to haue forsaken vs. Affection Thus it is my soule that the diuine wisdome deales with his seruants He doth nourish cherish and comfort vs least we might fayle in the way He doth afflict and leaue vs least out of confidence of our owne strength we might erre from the way He giues vs consolations to testifie to our harte that he loues vs. He leaues vs to desolations to trye and make appeare whether we loue him But whether he comfort vs or permitt afflictions to fall vpon vs let vs still venerate his orders and gracious conduct because he it is indeede who is alwayes our refuge THE SECONDE POINTE You shall lament and weepe But the world shall reioyce Ioh. 6. CONSIDER that sorrowes and ioyes goe here belowe by turnes and tymes And still the best parte in apparence is alloted to those whom God least loues the world shall reioyce And the worst as he alwayes tooke it to himselfe so he leaues it to his dearest friends You saith he to his deare Apostles you shall lament and weepe but your sorrowes shall be turned into ioyes Wheras the worldlings ioyes and parte shall be with the Hypocrites who haue receiued their reward Affection Let vs not my soule either admire or enuie the seeming prosperitie of the wicked Their ioyes are but for moments and those too mixt with painefull pleasures They themselues confesse it we are wearied in the way of iniquitie and perdition and haue walked hard wayes while the iust whom we had in derision and in a parable of reproche are counted among the children of God and their parte and portion amongst the saintes There are we my soule to inioye our permanent possession There are our teares to be wiped away for euer and payd with the inioyment of an eternall inheritance which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath entered into the mynde of man THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Now indeede you haue sorrowe CONSIDER that the sorrowes which we suffer are in this present moment now saith our Sauiour you haue sorrow Now not the next moment for any thinge we know thinges may alter to the better God may assiste death may end all nor ought a wise man to esteeme any thinge longe which shall haue end But put case our sorrowes and
truthes by their ministerie tho otherwise as farre aboue the reach of reason as contrarie to the bent of flesh and bloode powerfully spread themselues all the world ouer and become the familiar and fattening foode not of wise onely but euen Idiotes and children too wherby they are made more learned then the proudest Phylosofer that euer liued Affection O the admirable goodnesse of the Father sonne and holy Ghost who so graciously reueales the mysteries of Heauen to vs litle ones in earth The Father sent vs his onely sonne to purchace vs that singular fauour at the price of his pretious bloode which he willingly and ioyfully vndertooke to teache vs the secreetes of heauen And the holy Ghoste sent from them both so absolutly confirmes our hartes in the beliefe therof that poore illiterate pesants doe not onely knowe more then greatest Phylosofers but are readie to laye downe their liues in confirmation of that truth THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FIFT SVNDAY AFTER EASTER Vntill now you haue not asked anything Io. 16. THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that the poore beggar needes noe other inuitation to aske then the knowledge and sense of his owne pouertie and want whence the rich of this world doe as litle vse as litle neede to intreate the beggar to aske an almes of him But the riches of heauen by an ineffable bountie and graciousnesse importunes vs vs as it were to importune him saying vntill now you haue not asked any thing aske and you shall receiue Affection Alas my soule me thinkes the longe and certaine knowledge we haue of our owne miserie and want and the daylie temptations we suffer and relapses we fall into should sufficiently inuite vs to haue frequent recourse to a bountifull giuer but now at least being incited by the reproches he makes vs for not asking let vs hourely run to those ouerflowing breasts of mercy and grace least we may seeme gratis to loose our selues Let vs my soule aske seeke knocke that holy violence is gratefull to God with as much importunitie as we truly find necessitie THE SECONDE POINTE. Amen Amen I say to you if you aske the father any thinge in my name he will giue it you Io. 16. WHOM WE ARE TO ASKE CONSIDER how stronge hopes we ought to conceiue of obteyning our demande where the promesse is made in so great a latitude and where such a sonne the wisdome of heauen confidently sends vs to such a Father the eternall sourse of all goodnesse plentie and happinesse which can neuer be drayned to his Father and our Father as we are taught by his sacred mouthe to beleeue and say Our Father which are in heauen c. Affection O daughter of Sion ah my poore soule why wilt thou wilfully perish where such large and louing offers of grace and abundance is made to thee What confidence may we not iustly haue of obteyning all things necessarie when we are sent to the Father of mercys and the God of all consolation by his onely deare sonne who in obedience to his diuine will putt downe that plentifull price of his pretious bloud for the loue of vs Be my faylings neuer so frequent be my sinns in what number they will at least from hence forth I will not forgett to call thee with Ieremie Thou art my Father the guide of my Virginitie THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Aske the Father in my name Io. 16. THE FIRST POINTE. HOW WE OVGHT TO ASKE CONSIDER that our blessed Sauiour in these few words instructs vs not onely of whom we are to aske to witt of his Father but how or in what manner to witt in his name If we aske of a Father and that of an all-knowing all-seeing Father it ought to be done with the reuerence humilitie obedience loue and confidence of a child If in the name of a sonne it ought to be done as that sonne vsed to doe it saying with an absolute resignation Father if it may be if it be agreable to thy diuine will if it be expedient for my eternall good grant this or this c. If otherwise not my will but thyne be done Affection Let vs then my soule in all our necessities and difficulties addresse our selues to that omnipotent Father of mercyes and all consolation for none comes to the sonne vnlesse the father drawe them But let it be in the name of his sonne Iesus since there is noe other name vnder heauen giuen to men wherin they must be saued Let vs then humbly intreate that heauenly father in the name and by the merites of that most dearely beloued sonne be it for thinges necessarie for the bodie or soule but let it still be done with perfect resignation to his blessed will and pleasure saying as we were taught by him Father if it may be let this or this be done or this or this be taken away Howbeit not my will but thy holy will be done THE SECONDE POINTE FOR THE SAME DAY What we are to aske CONSIDER that what we ought to aske is to result out of the same words of our Sauiour Aske of my Father in my name We must aske then of a louing Father we must therfor demande thinges sutable to his loue his goodnesse will not giue vs a stone in lieu of breade nor a serpent in steede of a fish he will not giue vs poyson because our follie likes it We must aske of a Father who is the Kinge of heauen we must not then aske earthly trash which is vnworthy of his bestowing Finally we must aske in the name of a Sauiour nothing therfor which is against our Saluation Affection Run then my soule to that almightie Father in the name of that best beloued sonne But be not peremptorie in our demands wisdome better knowes what it best for vs. If we aske of a louing father le ts aske with loue not with feare If we aske of an Almightie father who has Kingdomes to giue aske not for cottages trifles vnworthy of his giuing If in the name of a Sauiour things then which most conduce to our saluation things which he himselfe taught vs to aske that his name may be sanctified in all nations that he may absolutly raigne ouer all hartes that his holy will may be punctually performed here belowe as in the Court of heauen c. Let vs aske that my soule and we shall neuer be confounded THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY And there approched publicans and sinners vnto him to heare him Luc. 15. CONSIDER the great mercy and myldnesse of Iesus who did not onely graciously permitt publicans and publike sinners to approch to him to heare his diuine word c. but he euen proued by the parable of the lost sheepe which men are wont to seeke with so much care their Apologist or Aduocate against the vncharitable murmurings of the proud and vnm ercifull Scribes and Pharisies who looked vpon them and him with disdaigne Affection Base
that he chuses rather to want his owne proper worshippe sacryfice then that thy brother should want thy loue Thy offeringes of thyne austerities thy prayers thy communions will neuer proue gratefull to him as longe as thou willingly harbours grudging in thy breast against that poore brother of thyne for whom through loue he dyed The Meditations for this 6. sunday are the same with the 4. sunday in Lent pag. 100. THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE SEAVENTH SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Take great heede of false Prophetes who come to you in the clothing of sheepe but inwardly are rauening wolues Matt. 7. CONSIDER that we oft proue false Prophetes or teachers to our selues and consequently our owne seducers while we vse the fawning perswasion of our owne vertue and goodnesse drawen from outward apparances from the barke leaues or flowres that is from the clothing of sheepe Wheras we are taught by Wisdome it selfe that the true and certaine decernement of solide from seeming vertues is placed in the fruites they produce that is the subduing of the great sinne pride the mortification of our passions Finally the vanquishing of our selfe loue selfwill and selfe interest Affection Le ts then my soule diligently and impartially examine our selues in pointe of our aduancement in these vertues and so we shall beware indeede of false Prophetes and be sure not to proue selfe-seducers Doe we make it our businesse to subdue pride which doth then most assault vs when we most aduance in vertue Are the passions which we obserue most to domineare in vs brought lowe Is selfe loue and self-will those pernicious sourses of all our miserie vanquished Is selfe interest subiected to the common good Humbly hope then in our Lord that all goes well with vs. If not knowe that vertue is not yet solidly rooted in vs. THE SECONDE POINTE. Euerie good tree yealdeth good fruites and the euil euill fruites Matt. 7. CONSIDER the good or bad fruites of the tree of our harte and thence we shall be able by the Euangelicall maxime to decerne whether If we meete with grapes and figues that is with mild and meeke thoughts words and comportments know for certaine the tree is good they are not the fruites of thornes and brambles marrie if we are true or false teachers or guides to our selues while we seeke for grapes and figues we meete with thornes and thistels that is with distaynefull bitter and sharpe thoughtes words and behauiour know that the roote is depraued the fruites viciated they are the productions of the badd tree which cannot bring out good fruite Affection Doe we my soule fast watch pray much doe we discipline vse great austerities and communicate often They are indeede excellent meanes for the produceing good fruites yet are they not for all that the fruites themselues They are certainely the clothings of the sheepe yet may a wolfe lye vnder them Our fruite saith S. Aug. is charitie see then whether coming from ours prayers c. we finde our selues patient benigne without enuie without peruersitie not puffed vp not ambitious not seeking our owne not prouoking to anger not thinking euill not reioycing vpon iniquitie but rejoycing at truth suffering all thinges beleeuing all thinges hopeing all thinges bearing all thinges and remayne assured thence that our hart is right and that we are happily tendinge towards our Beatitude THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Euery tree which brings not forth good fruite shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that euery reasonable creature of what qualitie soeuer is a vine or tree planted in the vineyearde or orcharde of Christ Iesus against whom this dreadfull doome is pronounced it shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire in case it answer not to his expectation but in lieu of true grapes yealde nothinge but wilde grapes that is in lieu of true and solide vertues thinke to pay with apparances and in lieu of the sweete and agreeable fruites of charitie yeald nothing but bitternesse animosities and auersions amongst the citizens of heauen and Gods domestikes who should but all haue one hart and one soule Affection Let vs daylie and diligently my soule examine what fruites this tree of our hart produceth It importeth noe lesse then a blessed or cursed eternitie If sowre grapes bitternesse of hart enuie emulation dissension ah then Truth affirmes it shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire Alas it was not planted so that such fruites should be expected from it It was planted by the hand of God watered which the pretious bloud of Chr. let nothing then but the sweet fruites of Christianitie proceede from it THE SECONDE POINTE He that doth the will of my Father which is in heauen he shall enter into the Kingdome of heauen CONSIDER that here the wisdome of heauen in a few words layes vs downe the abridgement of all perfection and the blessed imitation of his whole life and passion to witt an absolute and louing resignation to the holy will of his heauenly father as well in all that he did as all that he suffered I come not saith that sweete Sauiour to doe myne owne will but the will of my father who is in heauen the thinges that please him I doe alwayes not as I will but as thou wilt Fawning words and Lord Lord may please fooles who desire to be flattered but the actuall complying with the will of God is onely gratefull in his eyes who sees hartes Affection Let vs then my soule absolutly and for euer renounce our owne will that disturber of our life and depriuer of our rest peace and true libertie and yeild it vp into the secure guidance of Gods holy will hauing alwayes vpon all occasions in all our doinges and sufferings in our harte and mouth thy blessed will be done my deare Lord and Master who best knowes what is most behoofull for me I am most willingly in thy holy hands turne me and winde me when thou wilt where thou wilt and how thou wilt thatthy will and myne may be but one Represse in me ô Lord that vnhappie libertie by which I am able to will any other thinge then what thou willest THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE EIGTH SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY There was a certaine rich man who had a Bailife Luc. 16. CONSIDER that this rich man was God the greate Maker and Master of all the earth and the Bailife man euery one of vs be we Masters or seruants rich or poore who hold all that we haue of that great Land-Lord the goods of our body the goods of our soule and those of fortune all is his and all proceeds from his bountifull hand we haue the stewardshippe of them to worke therby our saluation but the propertie remaynes still his Affection Let vs not then my soule mistake our selues apprehending that we are Lords and Masters while we are but indeede farmers and remoueable at pleasure of what seemes to be ours Be it farre from vs to vaunt
his hands full and is iustified The Pharisie preaches his owne iustice innocencie and vertues and yet returnes humbled The Publican is so farre from pretending iustice innocencie or vertue that he pleads onely his pouertie and sinfulnesse and relyes wholy on Gods mercy and he returnes home exalted Affection Let vs my soule haue as high conceipts as we will of our owne aduancement in vertue and good actions pride will neuer preuayle with God nay it will insensibly leade vs into confusion God alwayes disperses the proude in the conceipt of his hart and exaltes the humble Those he sends away with emptie handes these he replenishes with good thinges For loe the poore vnderualued despised Publican who found none of his owne iustice but his true pouertie and miserie to pleade his cause returnes iustified while the Pharisie is sent away with confusion THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XI SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY And they bringe to him Christ one deaf and dumme Matt. 7. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER in this deafe and dumme man cured by our Sauiour in his passing by sidon c. the miserable condition of a poore soule which happens often to be both deafe and dumme too The greatest commerce that poore man hath with heauen is either by speaking or hearing I will speake to our Lord though I be but dust and ashes Abraham speake ô Lord for thy seruantheares Psal When the soule falls then into such a lythergie that it neither lists to speake to God by prayer nor to heare God speake to it by his preachers alas in what a lamentable state it is Affection Ah my soule if thou be'st so vnhappie to fall into so dangerous a desease that thou hast neither list to pray nor gust in prayer nor yet inclination to heare or reade the word of God wherby the soule should be strengthend and nourished fayle not to testifie to thy brethren by sighes and sobbs and teares that thou lyest sicke of the palsie and art sore tormented Procure at least some good soule to goe thy errand for thee and signifie to our mercyfull Sauiour in what a sadd condition thou art as did the good Centurion for his seruant Thus doe and confidently hope for assistance in Gods good tyme. THE SECONDE POINTE They besought him Christ that he would impose his hand vpon him CONSIDER that we are taught by these good people how we ought to behaue our selues towards our distressed brother They did not onely bringe him to our Sauiours presence but they sue for him and preuayle with that God of pittie to touch him with his holie hand and soone after to cure him Affection O my soule how our deare Lord loues that brotherly loue They noe sooner bring this distressed brother of theirs and interceede for him but that mercifull hart is touched with compassion and blesses them and him with the effects of their labours and prayers for his eares were opened and he spoke right Let vs hence learne neuer to feare to leaue the dearest deuotious we haue to afforde offices of brotherly charitie to our afflicted brother What we doe to them in qualitie of brothers of Christ we doe to Christ THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY And taking him from the multitude apart c. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that Christ tooke the Dumme man apart from the multitude before he perfectly cured him to teach vs that there is noe better way to cure our neighbours or our selues in case of our spirituall deafnesse and dumnesse then to quitt the multitude and to betake vs to some holy retreate There will Christ speake loude enough to be heard by the deafest eares there will he make the tongues of the dumme speake loude enough too to be heard by him there will the cure be absolutly wrought the eares being immediatly opened and the string of the tongue being loosed Affection I will leade her the faithfull soule into the wildernesse and I will speake to her harte The wildernesse my soule where our deafenesse ought to be cured is our chamber or Celle There the world is silent and breakes not our heades with its idle tumults and rumours but leaues God his turne to speake There he breakes through our deafnesse saying not to our eares but to our hartes I not the world am thy saluation and sayes it so that we heare it There it is too that he makes our dumnesse speake vnto him saying O deare Lord thou haste made me to thy selfe and for thy selfe and thence it is that wander where I will I am at vnrest and euen wearied out till I returne to thee Thou hast made my soule capable of thy immensitie and noe lesse thinge then thy selfe can or shall euer saciate that large capacitie Da mihi te redde mihi te For this will I day lie crye Thou art my harts repose Darke night 's my day in thee In solitude my God's A multitude to me THE SECONDE POINTE He doth all thinges well making the deafe to heare and the dumme to speake CONSIDER the exceeding gratitude of those good people for a temporall benefit and that done not to themselues neither but to their neighbour while we hardly take notice of so many spirituall ones done to our selues euery day They though otherwise commanded to tell noe body cannot conteyne themselues but they crye it out to euery body with ioy and wonderment freely publishing that he doth all thinges well making the deafe to heare and the dumme to speake Affection O my Lord my life and my dearest delight what is any man able to say of thee bearing any proportion to the multitude of thy mercys shewed to man shall we therfor be silent ô noe for woe be to them who are silent in thy prayse since euen they who speake most therof may be acounted to be but euen dumbe I am my deare Lord thy redeemed slaue thou haste thundered through my deafenesse and broken my bonds asunder Let my harte and my tongue praise thee and let all my bowells say ô Lord who is like to thee say therfor my soule if I forgett thee let my right hand be forgotten let my tongue cleaue to my iawes if I doe not remember thee and place thee in the begininge of all my ioyes THE FiRST MEDITATION FOR THE XII SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Blessed are the eyes which see what you see Luc. 10. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER how great a Blessing it was indeede for a companie of poore fisher men to behold God incarnated fimiliarly to conuerse with him to discourse with him in a friendly manner to sitt at table and eate and drinke with him to be the hearers of the sacred words which streamed from his diuine lipps to be companions of his labours c. To see him in earth a milde Emmanuel whom the Cherubins and Seraphins adore with trembling in heauen Affection Certes my soule this was a great blessing and a thinge ardently breathed after by the Patriarkes and Prophetes who cryed out come
o Lord and delaye not come and pardon the sinnes of thy people come and saue man whom thou didst make of claye I would to God thou wouldst burst the heauens and descende and yet this happinesse was not granted them while we Christians inioy that or a greater For though as S. Chrysostome comfortably saith we haue not the happines to be hold his forme and figure his apparell c. Yet we see him we touche him we eate him O my soule what a singular honour is this to be fedd with him to be vnited to him and to be made one body of Christ and one flesh THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that tho those good Iewes the Apostles to whom the sonne of God was especially sent had a benediction of preference to haue seene him in person yet was there another noe lesse meritorious left for vs poore gentiles of seeing him by faith attested by the same Truth Blessed are they who haue not seene and haue beleeued for there saith Gregorie faith hath more merite where humane reason produceth noe euidence Affection Howeuer my soule the preference of seeing our Sauiour in body visibly may seeme a greate happinesse yet it is not therin that the happinesse of a Christian doth consiste but in that he beleeues by a firme faith him whom the Apostles saw to be truly the sonne of God and by so beleeuing begins to hope in him and to aspire to his loue since according to S. Augustine it is the dutie of a faithfull man to beleeue what he sees not that by the merite of that faith he may hope both to see and loue THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY What is written in the Lawe CONSIDER that this question of this Doctour in the lawe Master what must I doe to possesse life euerlasting may putt vs in mynd that to appeare wise and carefull of our saluation we often putt questions to God and man saying what are we to doe to aduance in perfection to be truly vertuows to attaine to life euerlasting c. wheras without asking we know it well enough for doe not we read in the lawe are we not all taught in our Catechisme Thou shall loue the Lord thy God with all thy hart with all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe Affection Noe my soule let vs not wilfully feyne to be ignorant of what we knowe Nor knowing it seeke for some new perfection The thinge commanded by God by the obseruance of which we are to liue euerlastinglie is neither aboue vs nor farre off from vs. It is not placed aboue the heauens or beyond the sea 's but is verie neere vs in our mouth and in our hart Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy hart with all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe Ah saith louing S. August had it not bene enough to haue permitted me the honour of louing thee but thou must commande it yea and threaten me huge punishments if I doe it not Ah deare Lord were it not the worst of punishments to be prohibited or depriued of that loue THE SECONDE POINTE Who is my neighbour CONSIDER that tho that greate Doctour of the lawe asked a question where he had noe doubt as he was forced to acknowledge for he redd in the lawe and knew well that to liue he was to loue God aboue all thinges and his neighbour as himselfe yet still he has another doubt to putt to witt who is his neighbour To which our Sauiour in effect answers not Iewes to Iewes onely but Iewes to Samaritons too and Samaritons also to Iewes that is according to S. Augustine euery man is neighbour to euery man for we ought to vnderstand him to be our neighbour to whom we owe workes of mercy in his present or future want as he too the like to vs in like necessitie Affection Let then the accompt of our neighbourhoode my soule and our loue to the same extend it selfe to noe lesse a compasse then the boundes of the whole world Let vs loue that is doe well to speake well to wishe well to all men of what condition profession religion and nation soeuer they be Let vs pray for Turke Iewe and Gentile least in thinking to hate an enemye we indeede may hate a friend the Turke happlie in Gods diuine prescience beeing neerer to him then we Let this saith the louing S. Audgustine be thought vpon let this be meditated let this be retayned in memorie let this be done let this be fully accomplished THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XIII SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY There mett him ten Lepers who stoode a farre off and cryd with a loude voyce saying Iesu Master haue mercy on vs. Luc. 17. CONSIDER in these corporall Lepers how spirituall Lepers ought to behaue themselues to procure their cure They stay not till they be called the horrour of what they suffer is a sufficient spurre to them They come in troupes and way-lay him from whom they hope for cure They stand a farre off esteeming themselues infectious and vnworthy to approche They crye out with a loude voyce without specifying their desire knowing well that their loathsome out-side speakes that with more force and pittie to their Master Iesus to whose mercy they leaue themselues Affection Ah my soule doe we vse this promptitude in pointe of our leprosies or other spirituall deseases or rather doe we not vse a quite contrarie proceedinge while we daylie heare redoubled in our eares loose the bands of thy necke ô captiue daughter of Sion How longe wilt thou be heauie-harted and loue a lye and yet we sleepe on and yet while we liue in a loathsome languishment we seeke some more tyme to remayne vnhappie Doe we crye out with loude voyces or rather so lowe and faintly as tho we feared that God should heare vs and cure vs too soone a miserable condition wherin the great S. Augustine sometymes found himselfe and pittifully lamented it Ah my soule if we be so miserable as not yet to be in tearmes to begge hartily for our perfect cure let vs not fayle at least to laye open the masse of our vniuersall miserie before the eyes of our most mercyfull Lord to pleade for mery THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that we all are weake and miserable enough to haue fallen or to be subiect to fall into spirituall leprosies by the infection of sinne which conueys its poyson all ouer the whole body of our actions to witt by pride enuye hatred want of right intentions duplicitie of hart which depraues all our best workes and deriues an vniuersall deformitie or leprosie vpon vs. Affection Alas my poore soule this leprosie is but too ordinarie how litle soeuer vnhappie man seemes sensible of it nor finds it any cure saue from the hand of God alone Let vs euery one lay his hand vpon his owne hart and impartially acknowledge the truth Why are we disquieted and troubled vpon smale reprehensions and vnderualuings marrie because the Idol pride
rayse to life Affection Haue we then my soule pleased our selues in thought and consented to what wisdome prohibiteth Hope in gods mercy and by his assistance this death will rather proue a sleepe then death it selfe the Mayde is not deade but she sleepes Or haue we bene vnhappie enough to haue committed in worke what pleased vs in thought all hope is not yet past the deade man is not yet buried God has power enough to say Younge man I say to thee ryse Or are we happly so extreamely miserable as not onely to haue offended in thought and worke but euen to be deade buried and corrupted in a longe and dissolute custome of sinning Enter not yet into despaire neither Lazarus who stunc ke in his graue is raysed to life God neither wants goodnesse nor power to pardon so we haue resolution by his grace to quitte our ill wayes c. Resolution Le ts run ouer our life in the bitternesse of our harte humble our selues vnder the powerfull hand of God and incessantly begge for pardon for what is past and grace for the tyme to come THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XVI SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY And they the Parisies obserued him Luc. 14. CONSIDER that the Parisies inuited our Sauiour Iesus Chr. to dinner not so much out of respect to him as with a malicious intention to prie into his actions and to obserue his words and comportements to censure him Whence we may gather that it is not the spirite of a Christian but the proude and malicious humour of a Pharisie to leaue the care of our selfe as being in selfe conceipt aboue the pitch of other men to obserue the words and actions of our neighbour which concerne vs not especially those which are the worst or by our malice we turne to the worst Affection Let vs not trouble our selues my soule with what concerns vs not Euery one stands or falls to himselfe Euery one shall be iudged according to his owne not his brothers workes It behoues vs then to haue compassion of him and to pray for him not to censure him Nay rather let vs turne our zeale where it ought to be imployed to weepe vpon our selues and our owne deffaults That poore sinner whom we reprehend is a sainte for any thinge we know in the sight of God THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that though our B. Sauiour who sees into the hartes of men knew well enough with what a blacke designe he was inuited by the Pharisies yet he disdaygned not for all that to goe among them to doe the worke of his heauenly father by miracles to proue who he was by wisdome to confound their craft and by patience and myldnesse to subdue their malice Affection Let vs neuer my soule cease to doe God's worke and our dutie to glorifie his name vpon the apprehension or euen knowledge we haue that the peruersitie of others may but make an ill vse of it By saying and doing what belonges to vs we saue our owne soules which is our greatest dutie And with all we giue good example and sowe seeds of vertue for others In God's good tyme they will sproute vp and produce wished effects God is a hammer which teares rockes a sunder Let vs neuer fayle to sowe and water leauing the increase to his blessed prouidence THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY When shou are inuited to a mariage sitt not downe in the first place CONSIDER that we are all inuited to the mariage of the Lambe and the way to arriue happily at it is the imitation of his wordes and workes by whose goodnesse we are inuited to it Pride was the great sinne he came to decrye Affecte not saith he the first place but learne of me who am mylde and humble of harte All his life from the crybbe to the Crosse was humble and abiecte He was discribed by his Prophete to be the last of men Finally he humbled himselfe being made obedient euen to death and the death of the Crosse Affection This is the way to heauen my soule which Christ marked out to vs nor is there any other who takes not this way runs quite countre The abiect way of the Crosse is the way to the crowne of glorie Pride can neuer ascende with humbled Christ Our ambitionating of the first place in earth will neuer bring vs euen to the last in heauen O let vs learne then my soule this deare lesson humilitie of him who by word and worke shewed himselfe mylde and humble of harte and we shall infallibly find rest and peace to our soules here belowe and eternall repose with him aboue in glorie THE SECONDE POINTE. Sit downe in the lowest place c. He that humbles himselfe shall be exalted CONSIDER that if we did well ponder our owne miserie we should neede noe other motiue to chuse the lowest place Our owne sinnes we well know but of other mens we are alwayes ignorant We are nothing but by Gods conseruation we haue nothing but by his gift we can doe nothing but by his assistance This alone I say should be sufficent to humble vs and neuer suffer vs to preferre our selues before any Howbeit our good God giues vs yet another motiue which is our owne interest exaltation and true honour And for this we haue the word of Truth that can neuer fayle He that humbles himselfe shall be exalted Affection O my soule that either the knowledge of our owne miserie and nothing or the comforts of Gods sure promises of exaltation and glorie would once make vs effectually imbrace that dea re vertue of Christs humilitie So should we alwayes inioye a calme and permanent peace so should we easily appease our angrie neighbours wroth against vs. So should the holy Ghost repose vpon vs and multiplie his holy grace in vs which in his good tyme he would crowne with exaltation and glorie THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XVII SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY The Pharisies came to Iesus faying Master which is the greatest commandement of the lawe Matt. 22. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that the Pharisies come togeither to Iesus which was the true way to their eternall happinesse But as they come Pharisies so they returne Pharisies that is full of pride and presumption They call him Master but it is not to become his true Disciples but to tempt him and to pose him A learned Doctour among them askes him which is the great commandement in the Lawe while yet he is ignorant in the lesser to witt that he who comes to God ought to beleeue that he is which they did not So that they were rather mockers then Masters or euen good schollers Affection Let vs approche to God my soule as S. Paule taught vs with a true harte in fulnesse of faith not as the Pharisies did with pride and presumption Let vs come to him in simplicitie and humilitie of mynde as poore ignorant schollers to learne his blessed will not as greate Masters puffed vp with our owne
neither is nor can be any consent betweene Christ and Belial There can be noe societie betwixt light and darknesse betwixt pride and humble Christ couetousnesse and poore Christ impuritie and Christ who is puritie it selfe Le ts vse then my soule a holy violence and throw those prophane Idols out of our harte that God alone may raigne in that sacred Temple of his Least the worst abomination of desolation might otherwise surprise vs eternally THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that there is nothing either more certaine or more vncertaine then the day of Doome that tyme of huge desolation Nothinge more certaine then that it shall be since heauen and earth shall passe but the word of God which we haue for it shall not passe Nothing againe more vncertaine then the tyme therof for of that day and houre noe body knoweth neither the Angells of heauen but the father alone If this certaintie then cannot but begett a dreadfull expectation in all humane hartes this vncertaintie ought to putt a continuall watchfulnesse vpon our thoughtes Affection If then my soule as well this certaintie as this vncertaintie be as infallibly true as is the word of God vpon which it is grounded what are we to doe but to expect it at all houres which may come at euery houre Did we certainly know that some houre this night the theife would come and robb vs of all we haue we should not fayle to watch all night to preuent our vtter ruine Alas let the hazard of our soule enter into as much consideration with vs as the hazard of our fortunes that so we may not fayle to stand still vpon our guarde that death may not take vs a sleepe and we being a wake may finde our hands emptie of good workes to our eternall ruine THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that though the day of the generall Iudgement will as certainly come as it is vncertaine to all men when that shall be so that many yeares may probably passe before it yet there is another day of Doome which hanges ouer each ones heade and can not be longe ere it come to witt the last day of euery mans life is the day of iudgement to him since as S. Augustine saith in what state each one 's last day shall finde him in the verie same shall the last day of the world comprehend him That euery one might continually stande readie for this S. Iohn tells vs that now euen now is the last houre noe man being sure of the next Affection It is appointed saith S. Paule to men to dye once and after that iudgement This my soule is the day of desolation which euery one ought most to apprehende and watch for since it is indeede his day of Doome This at euery moment may surprise vs and that in one moments tyme. What rests them my soule but that what I say to thee I say to euery one vigilate Watch watch incessantly for this theife death may steale vpon vs when we least suspecte it And if then our Lampes be found without the oyle of good workes and charitie what shall we haue left vs but a dreadfull expectation to heare the doore of the heauenly mariage is shut And what can we hope to meate with by our importunate crying out Lord Lord open to vs but that daunting replye which causeth an eternall separation from the face of God Amen I say to you I know you not FINIS A CHRISMAS CONTEMPLATION WITH A SEARCH INTO THE SOVRSE OF ALL MANS HAPPINESSE FOR THE DAVGHTERS OF SION O SWEETEST night my mynd I nere can wayne From thought of thee in which the heauens doe raine Huge shewres of grace the hillockes flowe with sweets And from the mountaines milke and honie sweates O sweetest night my starued soule doth dye To haue a full draught of ty Ambrosie Tertulian grauely said some goods there are As well as euils which euen oppresse and beare Vs to the ground The wonders of this night Are such to find our God in su … a plight That hardly such a bastard soule is found Who sends not knees and heart to kisse the ground God threats eternall death and yet we stand Stiffe-neck'd nor bowe to that his powerfull hand He offers endlesse life nor are we mou'd By hopes nor threates our God's nor fear'd nor lou'd By thunder-bolts he testifies his ire He speakes the same by earth-quakes and by fire Yet stupide man howere he dreade the rodde He lookes as high as though there were noe God But when the WORDS made flesh when God's made man The high flowen heart must stoope doe what it can Heare your Seraphique Father teach this truth While he as yet lay strugling with his youth While tortur'd thus I lay quoth he at length I had a feeble will to gather strength Thee to inioye my God nor could I find A way squar'd out according to my mynd Till I fell downe vpon thy infancie Clad in the weede of our humanitie For then my wind-blowen heart began t'vnswell And prostrate on my low layd lord I fell Downe downe proude soule keepe lowe it is not meete That wormes should swell while God lyes at their feete He biult himselfe a cotage of our clay To teach vs lowlinesse and how t'obeye THAT THE SOVRSE OF MANS happinesse is God's infinite and meere goodnesse BVT stay my muse before we further goe Le ts find the sourse whence all man's blisse doth flowe The sourse is goodnesse that vaste Ocean Which speads ore all and is shut vp from none God's naturall goodnesse which he nor owes Nor man can merite vncompell'd it flowes So you haue seene some fruitfull mothers breast Oreflowe its snowie bankes ere it was pres't Or sue'd to by the greedie babe With store She was opprest and could conteyne noe more She needes the infants pouertie it againe Needes her abundance she 's richly poore in paine On whom t'imploye her store to whom t' impart Those milkie streames the treasures of her heart OF GODS INFINITE COMMVNIcation within to the sonne and to the holy Ghost BVT now as greater good hath greater bent T' impart it selfe abroad and to be spent In larger measures so goodnesse infinite Would infinitly giue if it could light On suting subiects but none such being found Mongst all thinges made his riches doe abound Within at home to vast infinitie Within the bounds of th' blessed Trinitie To his sweete sonne God doth communicate His goodnesse Maiestie his kinglie state His Essence Substance all 's perfection His Godhood too wherin those two are one And from that boundlesse sourse againe doth flowe The holy Ghost our God who doth not owe His being to another He 's as old As Good as great as wise as vncontrold As are the Father and the sonne on high They 're equall all and one in Deitie Ther 's noe dependance want prioritie Their measure is a vaste eternitie Euen so the sun noe sooner doth appeare But
's light is seene and 's heate our hearts doth cheere The light is found noe younger then the sun Nor is the heate after the light begun They 're all at once in tyme they 're equall all Nor this the first nor that the last we call Thus we a glimps but noe cleare light can see In th' order of the blessed Trinitie Stoope then my Muse thou takest too high a flight This is not reash't by word by thought by signt Leaue search of Maiestie descend belowe And what doth more concerne thee strine to knowe THE COMMVNICATION OF God's goodnesse in the order of nature VVHENCE was this thinge call'd man who is so gract ' That ore the vniuersall world he 's plact ' He was not ere much tyme had passd ' away While th' proudest man aliue in 's nothing lay Whence is the worlds great eye which makes the dayes And glad's the heart of man whilst it displayes Its golden beames depriues the starrs of light And sends the moone to walke her round by night Who hunge this earthly ball amidst the ayre And richly people'd it who vndertooke the care To haue it stock'd with all that might conduce To man's content for pleasure and for vse With beastes with birds with fruites of euery sorte For health for sicknesse nourishment disporte Tell whence the roaring Ocean did spring And whence it had the riches it doth bringe To euery Port whilst it the earth surrounds And where it daignes to touch the land abound's Call these and thousand 's more longe to relate Effects of goodnesse th' heauens communicate To thanklesse carelesse man nor is this all All these are guifts of nature poore and smale Compar'd to guifts of grace O let these be The subiects of our soules actiuitie THE COMMVNICATION OF God's goodnesse in the order of grace IT was the grace which sprunge from Bethleem stable Which made man more then man yea made him able To soare vp to the heauens to imitate The Angells gracefull blissefull ioyfull state By nature's guift it was we were made men The lords of all the creatures but when Free grace began to worke we did proceede From men to Angells yea to God's indeede For grace it is which nature doth refine To witt it makes vs share nature diuine We groueling lye in sinne nor can we stirre Till grace come in t' our ayde it is by her We ryse we walke we run we comprehend She calls vs vp conduct's vs to the end It was not natures strength which brought you hither But grace and nature wrought the worke togeither To leaue our parents nature doth not preach To quitt the land we loue she doth not preach All these are fruites of grace which makes vs loue What nature neuer lick'd did nere approue Hence naked men doe fight with bull and beare And Tyrants wroth nor sword nor fire they feare They scorne the Tyrants furie and rejoyce That of their nothinge wisdome had made choyce To magnifie his power and to confound The power of darknesse I their ioyes abound Amidst the worst of torment's which doe proue Noe paines to them but argument's of loue Noe paines to them but argument's of grace Which makes them stand vndaunted in the face Of fiercest foe to preach God's holy name B'ing gract ' withall to suffer for the same Hence tender Mayd's both ease and friend's forsake And to a choysen geole themselues betake Where they foretaste such sweetes of heauenly ioyes That all the world can boast appeares meere toyes HE COMMVNICATION OF God's goodnesse in a substantiall vnion by taking vpon him not the nature of an Angell but that of man THESE guifts are great these graces admirable Yet must not man esteeme them comparable To that vnparell'd one which we doe find So graciously imparted to mankind Where man is ioyn'd ô blist communion To 's God by a substantiall vnion Whence strange extreames are ioynd and whence we can Confirme that man is God and God is man And that the fruite which sprung from Iesses rodd Was truly Maries sonne and Maries God Hence man is raysd to all that 's great on high And God depresse to all man's miserie He louingly himselfe exinanites And th' Master to the seruant 's forme vnites He meekly humbles himselfe and is made The sinners price which on the Crosse he pay'd He 's in a manger layd he quakes with cold That old of yeares is now few moment's old He scrikes he sighes and shewres of syluer teares Gush from his eyes to wipe away our feares He hungers thirsts as sonns of mortalls doe And runs to Maries breasts to stench his woe He feares he flyes he wayles and makes great moane For stranger-crymes alas none of his owne O dearest goodnesse deare excesse of loue Which streamest from that drainlesse sourse aboue Oreflowe this barren heart of man and make These charming heauen-growne seeds of grace stil take More life more vigour cheerefulnesse and rooote That man may more heauen-suting fruits bring out All this I doe beleeue yet helpe my want Of faith ô Lord I find it weake and scant Els should I flye aboue with quicke addresse T' imbrace my Lord to loue his graciousnesse What nations euer had their God's so nigh That they this Christian truth could verifie Here lyes my God here lyes my God a man A man a God indeede as Christians can Our blest Emmanuel our God with vs Who fauours loues and Deifies vs thus That man dare humbly say of th' God of blisse Bones of my bones flesh of my flesh he is That man dare say a part of me 's aboue To pleade for more of mercy more of loue Since then a parte of me is truly there I le strongly hope for blisse farewell despaire My Lord my loue my life commande and giue What thou command'st in loue my life shall liue My life in loue shall liue in loue shall dye Thy boundlesse mercies ere to magnifie GOD'S BOVNDLESSE GOODNESSE in communicating himselfe truly and really in the B. Sacrament BVT here 's not all my soule here is not all The guifts we preach are guifts in general But loue bursts out and giues a louder call And strikes the eares of euery one and all Come Marie Martha Thomas Isbell Iohn Come all my dearest come come euery one My flesh I had from you my flesh I giue That I in you and you in me may liue My flesh I giue my bloode my deitie To lincke you all in th' bands of charitie Come dearest friends come dearest children myne Inebriate your selues of this chaste wine Come Angell-like endeuour still to meete Your God in loue liue like the God you eate For thjs I came and liu'd in your poore state That whom you worshippe him you 'd imitate Hearke how he calls If you desire to be My friends take vp your Crasse and follow me Doe you desire to walke I am the WAY I' st truth you ayme at Truth it selfe doth say I'am veritie Or
i' st your sute to liue I 'am endlesse life and endlesse life doe giue O then quitt vncoulth wayes hope not in lyes To find out truth nor th' life that neuer dyes In fading moments Ah you seeke in vaine To find true life in th'land where death doth raigne THE COMMVNICATION OF THE diuine goodnesse by imparting of his Glorie OVR sea of goodnesse still streames on there is Noe end in it we tend to endlesse blisse Those guifts of nature grace and all the rest Are gu'in to bringe vs to eternall rest Our joyes were great at the coming of that guest Our hearts reioyc'd to lodge him in our breast But ah he will not haue vs end our storie Till he conduct vs to the state of glorie So saith our faith to this our hopes are raysd With this excesse our charitie's amays'd That goodnesse free from want our dust should choose To place it's loue vpon and kindly loose Himselfe on man Ble'st prodigalitie By th' guifts of his diuine Hypostasie To be himselfe companion in his way To call him backe by grace in case he stray To feede and fatten him with his owne bloode O that this happinesse were vnderstoode To proue in death bis sauing sacryfice And endlesly to be himselfe his price So saith his word I 'le be my selfe thy hyre What more then this can vastest heart desire AN APOSTROPHIE TO THE DAMES OF SION O Then deare Dames let th' loue I dayly find Mongst you increase and all your hearts cobind In one loue-knott vse all your wit and Arte To haue but all one comon soule one heart This God command's this Austine doth aduise Doe this alone deare soules it will suffice FINIS SINE FINE GLORIA TIBI DOMINE MEDITATIONS Vpon our blessed Sauiours Passion THE FIRST MEDITATION Of the last supper THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that now the blessed tyme of grace and mercy drawing neere wherin our sweete sauiour Iesus-Christ had determined to pay mans ransome not with the corruptible price of gold and siluer but euen with the effusion of his owne pretious bloude he graciously daigned in testimonie of true loue to feaste with his beloued Apostles before his departure See him louingly accompanie them into the roome where they were to suppe and let vs take the humble boldnesse to follow him inn and to receiue some of his last words I haue had an ardent desire saith he to eate this pascall lambe with you it being the consummation of all the ancient sacrifices and the last I shall eate And say to him cordially Affection That in verie decede we find our selues exceeding hungerie but that we neither doe nor indeede can possibly find any meate which feeds and saciates vs saue himselfe or from his table The rest doe but puffe vp and swell they doe not solidly feed and fatten so that by how much more we eate by so much the more doe we languish and pine away Tell him that verily you are not worthy you know it well you confesse it to the whole world but thar it is he alone who makes vnworthy creatures worthy who makes sinners iust and that for your part you relie not vpon your owne merites which are none without his mercys but run intirely to his free mercy Tell him that euen your dogges eate the crums which fall from their masters tables and in that confidence you approche or els with an humble and contrite hart fall downe at his sacred feete with the mournfull Magdalaine and make lamentations teares and grones more fully speake your hart The seconde Pointe Consider with what compassion and mildnesse our blessed sauiour begins to comfort his disciples whyle he obserues them sorrowfull and sadd vpon the apprehensiō of his departure which he fore told them saying my deare Disciles be not sorrowfull let not your harts be troubled I vvill not leaue you Orphantes t is for your sakes that I goe But seeing them yet some weeping some sighing his fatherly bowells were wholie moued to compassion and he spoke to them in these sweete tearmes my tenderly beloued sons my deare Disciples be not terrified bee not troubled behold I am vvith you till the end of the vvorld Affect This sweet sauiour shall be my comfort in all my desolations that though thou seemest to absēt thy selfe yet wilt thou not leaue me an Orphā whether it be that thou goest from me by permitting me to fall into some temptations or spirituall drynesse for my greater trial and merite or it be that thou often lettest me fall into little faultes that I may better learne to run back to thee my louing father this shall still be my consolation that thou dearely sweete and loueing Lord ar◠still with me till the end of the world THE II. MEDITATION Of Christs humilitie and loue shevven at his last supper Cons 1 COnsider what is done at that his last supper looke about and you shall see him rise vp from the table to giue by his owne example and in his owne person that first and most necessarie lesson humilitie the ground of our christian building and euen of all christian discipline as S. Augustine esteemes it You shall see the master become all his seruants seruant the vertue of the highest lowe laid at his creatures foule feete him in whose name all knees are bowed kneeling to wash to drye to kisse his seruants feete in fine the king of glorie so farre as I may say forgett his glorie as humbly officiously and louingly to fall downe euen at a disloyal Iudas loathsome feete Affect Ah my soule what is this we behold are wee deceaud or is it the king of heauen we see at the traiterous Iudas his feete shall we euer then haue the hart and courage to swell againe after this wonderfull humiliation If God indured this for me shall not I endure this or that reflecting vpon some difficultie we haue to stoope for him nay for my selfe for myne owne aduantage and eternall good or if this cannot moue me what will be euer able to moue my proud hart O my sweet sauiour euen for thy felfes sake bestow vpon me some scrappe of this wholesome dishe and grant me in euerie occurrence of difficultie submission or humiliation to haue this thy blessed example liuely placed before myne eyes Consid 2. Consider that notwithstanding that Christ knew by certaine knowledge that his heauenlie father had giuen all power and authoritie into his hands that he came from him and went to him rhat is that he was indued with fulnes of knowledge issuing from him by his eternall generation and returning to him to take possession of his owne right yet disdained hee not for our example to rise from supper to putt off his vpper garment to take a linen and girt about him to putt water into a basine to washe his disciples feete to wipe them with the Iinen which he had put before him Affect O God I haue nothing to saie but am lost in astonishement and
beseech thee that thou wilt permirt rather whatsoeuer cruell torment to take me out of this life then become so cruell as to imbrace sin which was caufe of my bestloued his so infinite affliction Cons 2. Consider what meanes our sweete Sauiour vseth in this his extreame distresse learning thence a true behauiour in our affliction And behold pious and humble Iesus prone laied vpon the ground he to whom all knees are iustly bowed like a poore man like a poore sinner as one left of his heauenly father to reconcile vs poore men vs poore sinners to his heauenly father in a long and feruent prayer crying out Pater si possibile est transeat à me Calix iste Father if it be possible let this cuppe passe avvay from me See him a second and a third time goe to the same place iterate the same prayer adding that voice of perfection non mea sed tua voluntas fiat Not my vvil but thyne be done As though he should saie heauenly father if it be possible let this bitter potion passe for my tender nature doth altogether abhorre it yet if without it mankind shall not be redeemed not mine but thy blessed will be done Affect O blessed resignation ô lesson of greatest perfection and we my soule shall we not striue to learne it being taught vs by the wisest by the louingest by the sweetest Master thar euer earth or heauen had shall we not in our necessities in our more vrgent difficulties in our daily temptations run straight to our mercifull father feruently and confidently crying out Pater si possibile est transeat à me c. That is if it be thought good to thy diuine goodnes that I should be deliuered of such or such a difficultie or temptation which doth euen to death afflict me be it so if not I doe willingly repose and rest satisfied in thy fatherly prouidence and doe freely pronounce Viue Iesus not mine but thy heauenly will be accomplished None can be more wise to know what 's most conuenient for me none more louing to wish me that which thy wisdome sees conuenient and none more potent to performe that which thou willest and seest to be conuenient and therefore freely and by best reason I affirme not my vvill sweet Iesus but thine be done THE VIII MEDITATION Of the betraying of Iesus Cons 1. BVt alas why doe we here delaie Iesus stands not still in this station feare is driuen awaie by loue the ardent desire he hath to suffer for man hath carried him forward euen into the traitor Iudas his hands ay me looke for loue looke a barbarous multitude armed with bills with staues wish swords with inhumanitie with crueltie with diuelishnes and Iudas the first of the hellish route besetting the innocent lambe the harmelesse ioseph my loue my spouse my Iesus readie to rend to spoyle to bereaue him of his life Affect And can we my soule see this with drye eyes shall we not run to helpe with the little force we haue shall the innocent be led awaie and I the guiltie escape me me qui feci in me conuertite ferrum Iudaei Iewes cruell Iewes turne your furie vpon my nocent breast and permitt my Lord and Master to escape t was I t was I good Iesu t was I that offended And thou my sweete Master pardon my fault and make me vndauntedly to accompany thee through all the difficulties and disastres of this painefull passage of this time of thy holy Passion Trahe me post te Domine trahe me post te Draw me after thee deare Lord drawe me after thee and let thy mercy neuer permitt me to be so cowardlie as to abandone thee Cons 2. Consider how mildly this meekest lambe behaues himselfe amidest this rude multitude and first towardes that vnkind miscreant that traiterous Iudas imparting him a kisse of his heauenly faire mouth and sweetly sayng Amice ad quid venisti friend Disciple haue I deserued thus at thy hands imagine the like said to euerie offending soule was it a fault to haue washed thy feete to haue fed thee with my body and blood Amice c. is it possible that thou esteemest me at so vile a price as thirtie pence Amice c. returne home Iudas returne into thine owne hart see whither thou hast gone and against whom returne with repentant teares and my grace shall neuer be wanting O ineffable benignitie of a Saniour towards a traiterous seruant what may deseruing friends expect if demeriting miscreants find such amiable words what a singular ioy may this be to vs ô my soule if we perseuer in our loyaltie what a sure hope should we by fraud or frailtie chance to fall what a great shame not to forgiueour enemies sith neuer anie fault was or shall be so great blush my soule blush to vse such fowle words in euerie small offence sith the King of glorie vsed no other reprehension to his betrayour then Amice ad quid venisti Friend to what end didst thou come THE IX MEDITATION Of the taking of Iesus Cons 1. COnsider how notwithstanding they had experience of his power more then humane in casting them all downe with two short words ego sum yet did they not leaue off to prosequute their diuellish designe Thinke what his power will be when he shall come to iudge if goeing ro be iudged he be thus potent what in his raigne if in his banishment his words strike such a terrour But see see nowe they lay violent hands vpon my deare spouse the rauinous wolues enter vpon the tender lambe Ay my hart one pulles his beard an other fastens vpon his haire a third laies hold vpon his necke this beates him vpon his amiable face another bindes his sacred hands and they who could laie no hands vpon him throws at him blasphemous contumelious words in fine what did they not sith fecerunt in eum quaecunque voluerunt they did what euer they would against him Let vs here behould who endures what of whom and for whom and I think we shall neede no arte to moue compassion O amor meus c. Cons 2. Follow now your sweet spouse to Annas house and marke in the waie the rude and barbarous behauiour which they vse towards him tugging and haling him forward while he the mildest of men made no resistance nether spoke one word for alas his Disciples are alreadie all fled all Peter also who would rather dye then forsake him Ay me what can euer be a subiect of more commiseration then to see so gracious so louing so heauenlie a master forsaken of all those whom lately he had so louingly cherished so carefully comforted so fatherly fed with his owne precious bodie and blood Affect And we my soule are not euen we daygned with the same fauours fed daily with the same foode and shall then such or such a difficultie cause vs to desist from following our sweete Sauiour shall weake woemens voices deterre vs ah
then to bee esteemed as a naturall foole And this he would vndergoe for loue of vs and can we proue so vnkind as not to requite him in what we are able shall not the white habites we weare for his sake be deare vnto vs in memorie of his white garment shall wee not willingly indure the gibes and scornes of others while our owne conscience assures vs we doe well c. Cons 2. Consider what a contemptible conceipt the wicked Iewes had of our sweete Sauiour not only equalising a wicked rogue with him but without all hesitation and delay preferring him before him straight answering Pilat non hunc sed Barrabam We demande pardon not for this man but for Barabbas O strange blindnes ô vn happie choice non hunc sed Barrabam not a louing Sauiour but a damnable villaine not the mildest of creatures an innocent noe but a nocent a rogue a theefe See the iudgment of the world and learne hence what credit you are to giue to it the treasure of heauen once before sold for 30. pence now esteemed at lesse then nothing the price of a Rogue for harke they persist in their vngracious choice crying out with one voice tolle tolle Crucifige Crucifige Away with him away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him Affect Haue we not good reason then alwaies to suspect yea neuer to trust the worlds opinion for verily one is exceeding blind that cannot discerne the sonne by his splendant rayes Well could I curse their sinfull and foule mouthes their hellish harts their blind choice but woe is me the conscience of a like contempt stopps my mouth for haue we not my soule in earnest haue we not or at least haue not our actions often said non hunc sed Barabbam while this or that fond affection this or that light and momentarie delight hath been deliberately preferred before Gods pleasure or at least these imbraced that neglected ay mee therefore THE XIII MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvas vvhipped at Pilates Cons 1. ANd now see Barbarous furie armed with authoritie Pilat giues him ouer into their hands to be scourged into the hands of vile desperate slaues what vsage may you easily thinke he had Marrie they binde him with cordes to a pillar though he had neuer yet made resistance no not so much as in one high word or distempered looke they bind him with cords I saie haueing already stripped him quite naked I leaue it to your consideration how much contrary to his virginall bashfullnes so hard that they force blood to spring out at his fingers ends ô God! what a pittifull paine must this needes be in so delicate a complection Affect And all this for his too much loue to vs vngratfull vs ô my soule t was our loue that tied him so fast to loose the tye of our sins no other cord could haue held him that was only stronge enough to tye Omnipotencie And shall not the same cord be stronge enough to tye vs to him to tye our hands from sinning so that we may answere our passions our vnlawfull desires I cannot I cannot the loue of my sweete spouse hath tyed my hands I cannot In fine shall not this confounding manner of suffering make such and such acts of humiliation seeme farre more tollerable when I consider that the innocent sonne of God indured worse for my loue Cons 2. See now alas how vnhumanly they teare his delicate and sacred bodie not leauing a place whole for a new wound see how the blood streames downe nay the skin falls off nay yet more peeces of his blessed flesh dropp downe ah pittifull sight quo nate Dei quó tua flagrauit charitas ah sonne of God how high did thy Charitie flame out behold your spouse with compassion in his wedding garment died in rich scarlet die nor was it anie meruaile sith as S. Bonauenture saith he receaued more then 5000. woundes verè vermis erat non homo opprobrium hominum abjectio plebis He was truly a worme and not a man the reproche of men and the scorne of the people Affect Looke Angels looke is this your King looke Queene of heauen is this thy child looke my soule looke is this thy spouse that euen now was so diuinely faire I I t is euen he true said the Prophet vidimus eum reputauimus quasi leprosum We saw him we sawe him and we reputed him as a leaprous person Ah me what cruell hart vsed my loue thus ah let vs run to imbrace him for t is euen he Le ts wash his deformed face with our teares ò sweete Iesus ô loueinge Lord ô deare spouse my sick hart can indure no longer to see thee thus abused THE XIV MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvas crovvned vvith thornes c. Cons 1. COnsider how scarcely yet the torne Iesus in that his extreame wearines had sought out and put on his garments till behold a new torment a new contempt is inuented for him so without end are his sufferings And what ah goe out yee true daughters of Sion and see your true Salomon in the diademe in which his mother crowned him in a diademe of thornes sharp thornes peircing skin and skull euen to the braines as S. Bernard saith in a thousand places saith S. Anselme iudge what an vnheard of paine this must needes be And see yet to add scorne to his torment they put a reede into his hand for a Scepter nay with it they beate the sharpe thornes deepor in-to his head Affect Vâ—ere langores nostros ipse tulit infirmitates nostras ipse portauit Truly he suffered our languours and tooke our infirmities vpon him Ours euen ours O my soule things that he was not subiect vnto but by his owne will Ah my hart see how heapes of gorie blood stand vpon his heade and temples see that fairest face of men or Angells all disfigured and this for loue of vs Come come all yee soules that are moued by loue come and see a louers extasie he hath giuen vs this sure argument of loue let vs not loose our affections vpon anie lesse then himselfe And thou my poore soule die rather then be so vngratefull as euer to lett this bloodie Picture which diuine loue made so be painted for loue of vs be blotted out of our hartes Cons Vpon the Ecce homo behold the man Consider that when Pilate could neither find cause of death in him nor meanes to saue his life so farre was the implacable rage of the people causeleslie insensed against him he brings him out with a crowne of thornes vpon his head and a purple garment vpon him hopeing by the aspect of a most miserable and despicable person to incline the most barbarous hart to pittie and compassion saying Ecce homo behold the man as who should say looke vpon one so disfigured that you can hardly find man in him and know him to be what indeede he is were you not told he is a man
not there is not a word heard from him Behold the poore innocent true Isaac loadeh with the woode whervpon he must be sacryficed indeede not deliuered as was the other Isaac by the diuine prouidence Looke but vpon the Crosse with the eyes of flesh onely and euen as such we shall iudge it a too heauie loade for a tender worne and wearied man vpon his torne shoulders and indeede he fayled in the way needed anothers helpe but looke vpon it with spirituall eyes and we shall find it insupportable to any shoulders but those of a God since according to S. Peter he caries togeither with it all our sinnes heaped vpon the same woode Affect O my euer deare Iesu O my dearest Isaac my onely saueing sacryfice O great admirably great spectacle Iesus the onely Beloued sonne of God with a crosse vpon his backe yes my soule yet such it is to euery hart as are the eyes with which he beholds it If impietie looke vpon it it appeares a great mockerie If pietie a strange mysterie of loue If impietie a plaine conuiction of ignominie If pietie a strong Fortresse of faith If impietie it scoffes at a kinge who in lieu of his scepter caries vpon his shoulders the instrument of his punishment If pietie it sees indeede the king of glorie carying the inglorious crosse on which he will dy but a crosse that euer after shall be adored by kinges and proue the richest otnament of their Diademes Let it be euer to vs an absolute persuasion of taking vp our crosse and following Christ Let it appeare to prophane eyes fame or infamie Christ finds noe way to heauen but ouer Caluarie Noe way to Caluarie but through the contemps of Hierusalem and that too with weake and wearied limmes and torne shoulders awe see Resolution Be it farre from vs to glorie saue onely in the crosse of our Lord Iesus-Christ c. THE XVII MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvent out to Caluarie vvith his Crosse on his backe 1. Point COnsider the circumstances of this dolefull procession Iesus setts out towards Caluarie with a heauie Crosse vpon his torne shoulders which he rather trailes then carries a long the streets of Hierusalem His heauenly face all swollen with blowes defiled with spittle gauled with thornes couered with goarie and fresh blood so that he appeared not so much to haue the face of a man as euen of some monster On either hand of him a notorious theefe Before and behind worlds of people from all parts to see this admirable spectacle some few with compassion but the most of them with disdaine malice and scorne Affect O dearest Lord and Master how thou wadest through the greatest circumstances of confusion and scorne imaginable How doth this huge loade together with this labour and wearines of thine crie out to my hart and to the harts of all men come vnto me all you that are oppressed and I will refresh you whilst you see in my sufferances the inconsiderablenesse of yours You are not Masters but seruantes nor haue you yet suffered to blood to crownes of thorne to publike contumelies before whole worlds of people c. Say say then my soule I will follow thee deare spouse whither soeuer thou goest without limitt without reserue without exception of this or that befall what wil come it from what hand soeuer by iniustice or desert c. Ours Sauiours vvordes to the vvomen of Hierusalem 2. Point COnsider what our Blessed Sauiour saith to the good woemen who follow him with teares Maides or people of Hierusalem vveepe not vpon me but vveepe vpon your selues and vpon your children That is looke not so much vpon him who suffers as vpon your-selues for whom he suffers nor what he suffers as for what Compassionate teares spent vpon our Sauiours sufferances are certainly good and agreable in his diuine sight yet are they farr better spent vpon our owne crimes which were the cause of his sufferances and continually prouoke his wrath and euen according to S. Paule crucifie him a new againe Affect Let vs not then ô my soule so much run out of Hierusalem to obserue what passes vpon Caluarie though euen with teares as looke downe vpon Hierusalem with our Sauiour and weepe vpon it That is let vs keepe at home or returne home into our owne harts and seriously obserue what passeth there what euill impressions what badd inclinations how manie auersions passions and disorders what familiaritie and daily commerce and dangerous dallying with sinnes Alas we haue good natutes enough to bestow compassion and teares vpon others miseries misfortunes and sufferances while our next neighbours our owne poore soules lye sicke at home in a dead palsie c. vnpittied vnconsidered left to ruine and yet is looked vpon by our selues with drye eyes as things which concerne vs not or are not worthy of our care or subiects of our pittie Ah senselesse man haue mercie and compassion of thine owne soule and weepe vpon her and her children Resolution Our cheife care shall alvvayes be about our ovvne defects c. THE XVIII MEDITATION The reason of vvhat our Sauiour Said to the vvomen of Hierusalem 1. Point COnsider how our sweet Sauiour goes on giuing the reason why the woemen of Hierusalem and in them all faithfull soules should not so much weepe vpon him as vpon themselues and their children For saith he if they doe this that is vse this fire of torments vpon greene wood what will they not doe vpon drye wood That is if the iustice of the Almightie exact such rigorous satisfaction at the hands of his only sonne who is wholy innocent vnspotted liable to no faults but those of miserable man what may not the sinner himselfe guiltie of so many crimes and so drye fruitlesse and barren of all good workes expect and dread Affect Ah Saith S. Augustine if he cannot passe out of the world without stripes who came into the world without sinne what stripes is not he liable vnto who was conceiued and borne in sinne and who daily addes to those originall ones which are in some sorte necessary a multitude of voluntary ones O when I attentiuely looke vpon the prodigious sufferances of my Sauiour I am forced to crye out to sinners and in the first place to mine owne sinfull soule Vae vae vae illis qui non cogitent corde woe woe woe to those who thinke not of this in their hartes 2. Point Consider how our Blessed Sauiour with wearied limmes hath now waded through publike confusion and is at length by the assistance of a poore gentile Simon Sireneus arriued with his heauie loade at the toppe of Caluarie where our most serious attentions are called to the contemplation of the strangest sight that euer heauen or earth yet saw Not now a burning God on the Mount Horeb nor a God amidst thunder and lightning vpon the Mount Sina nor a God in glorie inuironed with light vpon the Mount Thabor but the same God that
Iustice exacted satisfaction and his mercie found the meanes which to effect he spared not his owne onely sonne but deliuered him vp to death for vs all Nay but euen Christ himselfe too both accepted the hard commission and complyed with the painfull dutie and willingly offered himselfe vp If then sinne gaue the cause if mercy found out the meanes if transcendant chartiie executed the office by the death of a God deteste sinne my soule extolle that so admirable mercy and magnifie that boundlesse charitie for euer And least we who are most concerned may seeme least sensible let vs take a deepe share with all the creatures in this dolefull mourning If there be any sense of mans miserie left in vs if any gratitude for greatest mercy if any loue for most admirable charitie weepe my soule weepe If thou art a sunne for light brighnesse and beautie farre beyond all the other creatures eclipse thy glorie for a while in lamentations If a Temple of God burst in peeces If earth and ashes putt thy mouth into thy dust weepe in thy ashes and let thy earth quake to see thy God dye If thy hart be euen a rocke let it rend in peeces at least with the rockes laying a close seige to it make the Crosse the hammer and the nayles the wedges to riue it à sunder If it be yet harder then the rockes and be growen to the hardnesse of a diamāt which nothing but bloud can mollifie oh take the streames of the innocent bloud of the Lambe and applie it continually till it relent and bring out a shewre of teares at the king of heauens funeralls who dyed for our loue 2. Point Consideration O all yee that passe by the way attend and see whether there be any sorow like my sorowe cryes out our Sauiour by the mouth of mournefull Ieremie O all you spouses of Christ then ô all you Christian hartes doe not slightly passe by or passe ouer this saddest sight but make a stoppe ponder deeply feelingly obserue whether there was euer sorrowe comparable to the sorrow of your deare Lord and spouse who lyes deade for your loue deuoyde of all beautie and comelinesse For we haue seene him all disuigoured and deformed contemptible miserable and the last of men a worme and not a man a man of dolours and ouerloaden with all the extremitie of miseries We haue seene him like a leprous person to the eyes of all men strucken by God and made abiect Affect And yet my soule this last and most dolourous of men was in the Begining without Begining before the Angells yet were his owne souueraigne ioy and Beatitude O what a huge distance there is betwixt that Begining and this ignominious dolourous and dismale end He was there selfe-happie or happinesse is selfe here miserable and ablect There framinge all thinges all the vaste varietie of creatures of nothing here forsaken by all his creatures and reduced to nothing there before the day starre inhabiting an inaccessible light here dyinge and deade in darknesse O prodigious change of the Highest by the hand of the Highest O daunting disproportion betweene such a Begining and such an End O then at least le ts attend and see vvhether there be any sorovve like his sorrovve Resolution My beloued spouse shall be to me a posie of mirre and shall for euer dwell betwixt my breastes THE XXXII MEDITATION Our Sauiours side is opened by the Lance. 1. Point COnsider that as Christs loue and the iewes malice goe on and increase euen till death so rest they not there but euen out-liue death it selfe He is now subiect to noe more paines his soule being departed yet he is subiect to more iniuries his dead body is capable of more wounds markes of more malice in them and more dearenesse in him to whom nothing happened by accident Yet thy malice profits thee not ô cruell Iewe. since thou hurtest not him and thou profitest me All thinges concurre to the aduantage of those that loue him whom you hate Affect Ah deare Lord thy charitie is boundlesse It leades thee with ioy to death for ioy being proposed vnto him he sustayned the Crosse saith S. Paule It victoriously raignes in death and ouer death It out-liues death Ah was it not enough to haue payd the first droppe of thy pretious bloud which was more then sufficient to haue redeemed a thousand worlds vnlesse thou payedst the laste droppe too O too too plentifull a price O too too diuinely deare and prodigall a loue which payes an infinitie of millions more then is due prouing Christs loue to be incomparably greater then the Iewes malice and his mercy infinitly out-speaking mans miserie 2. Point Consideration We wanted not indeede streames of innocent bloud wherin to washe our leprosie and to cure the deepest wounds of our soule We wanted not deare argumentes and euen open conuictions of infinite loue since we saw our selues written as it were in his bored hands But we wanted as yet the best treasure which was left for Longinus his launce to open We wanted an open side for our languishing faith to enter into with incredulous Thomas his hand and grope out a God We wanted yet a passage to his hart wheras nothing can euer speake so much dearenesse or so absolutly subdue a hart as a kind hart lying open to it Affect Let vs then my soule yeald our selues vp to this last batterie which comes indeede the conquering way Let vs not fayle by this blessed breatch to find out our God and to adore him Dominum nostrum Deum nostrum our Lord and our God For by this blessed wound we gett free accesse to his fatherly tender bowells and learne the secreetes of his diuine hart Dominus meus Deus meus Here is my Lord here is my God indeede Here will I enter here will I adore him here will I loue him here will I rest here will I taste how sweete my God is Here finally will I safely singe his mercyes for euer Resolution As this open hart speakes powerfully to me my beloued is myne so shall my hart replye to him And I am intirely thyne for euer THE XXXIII MEDITATION 1. Point COnsider Iosephe of Arimathias great religion and courrage who went boldly to Pilate and demanded the body of Iesus He might iustly haue feared to haue mett with resistance from the Synagogue wroth and reuenge from the high Preists and a shamefull repulse at Pilates handes The cold prudence of the world would easily haue suggested that the best way was to lett their furie passe ouer least losse or ruine might haue followed Yet Gods prouidence for whose loue he vndertooke the worke so prouided that neither Synagogue preist nor Pilate either opposed refused or did any thing els to Iosephes preiudice Affect Learne my soule by Iosephs pious courage seconded with wished successe not to let thyne be shaken by imaginarie feares so thou be truly called vpon by the interests of Christs necessarie
seruice whether it be in point of receiuing his owne true body or in charitably assisting his owne poore afflicted members For how often haue we obserued our selues to haue quaked with feare wher we mett with noe danger indeede and permitted such fond feares to frustrate our pious designes and resolutions and stifle the seede which was sowen in our hartes from heauen Feare not as longe as thou art imployed about Iesus and him crucified Either will noe danger at all be mett with or none at least be preualent to make vs misse of Iesus And if it be about Iesus that we are imployed if in that name we suffer we ought not so much to apprehend it the sufferance of a Crosse as the assurance of a crowne 2. Point Consider with astonishment the great power which the diuine prouidence giues to Pilate who had indeede noe power ouer Christ but what was giuen from aboue in whose handes the disposall of the body of a God was left Yes of that body which the holy Ghost framed the Virgine mother brought-forth the diuinitie still inseparably inhabited Of that body I say Pilate à sinner an vniust Iudge an infidell hath power to dispose and he giues it to Iosephe Affect O my soule how this Christ this God-man is wholy imployed in the behalfe of man In his life at his death after his death In his life for our instruction at his death for our redemption after his death for our consolation Be we left vnder what power soeuer iust or vniust peaceable or tyrannicall according to our desires or contrarie to our inclinations by our Lord and Masters sweete disposition he that so left vs if we faithfully follow his foot stepps will certainly deliuer vs glorifie vs. Noe vniust Pilates sencence will be able to hinder vs from deliuering vp our soules into the hands of a louing father nor depriue our body of the happie expectation of à glorious resurrection Resolution I will euer admire to see the disposition of the deade body of Christ left in an infidells hands but much more to see his liuing and glorious body and soule left at the dispose of disloyall Christians who beleeue in him and yet crucifie him againe by their dailie crymes THE XXXIV MEDITATION 1. Point COnsider that God being Omniponcie it selfe wanted not power to haue deliuered the body of this deare sonne of his out of the hands of Pilate without his leaue He that was onely free among the deade could easily haue freed himselfe from the deade and haue rysen as gloriously the first day from the Crosse as the third from the graue But the Scriptures were to be fulfilled his sepulcher vvas to be glorious Our Ionas was to remaine three dayes and three nightes in the bowells of the earth And his last lesson after his death as well as his first before he could yet speake was to teach vs by his blessed example an admirable submission obedience abandonnement of himselfe into what hands soeuer Affect O wisdome of heauen how secreete and incomprehensible are thy wayes We are not able my soule to looke into them In thy infancie thou wholy abandonnedst thy selfe vnto thy B. mothers care and custodie In thy youth thou wast subiect to her and Iosephe In thy passion thou wast giuen ouer to the wills of the Iewes remayning obedient till death and the death of the Crosse and now too after thy death thou continuest still at Pilates dispose Let me learne deare Lord by this singular submission of thyne in imitation therof and for thy loue to be willingly subiect to euerie creature neuer desiring to take my selfe out of that order and subiection wherin thy prouidence may haue placed me Ita Domine quoniam sic placitum est coram te Yes sweete Sauiour purely becaus so it is aggreable in thy diuine sight 2. Point Consider that Pilate hauing bene petitioned giues vp the body to Iosephe Iosephs care takes it downe from the Crosse and bestowes à sydon or fine white linen sheete Nicodemus contributes many pounds of oyntments to witt mixed mirre and aloes the body is imbalmed therwith and wound vp in Iosephs syndon according to the iewes rites His mournefull mother Marie bestowes more hartie sorowe and compassion then any tongue can speake or any hart but her owne that is the hart of a mother and such a mother the mother of a God can conceiue who as in that name she farre surpasses all other creatures in dignitie consanguinitie and neerenesse to her sonne so also in loue and consequently in compassion and sorrowe The desolate louing Magdalene and her companions their familiar teares and Ioseph putts the adorable body in his owne new Monument cutt in the side of a rocke and shutts it vp with a great stone Affect Thus my soule haue we at length gott to an end of a wearisome procession Thus haue our sinnes layd the God of heauen and earth in the bosome of the earth Thus haue our hard hartes lodged him in a rocke at whose voyce the very rockes burst in sunder Ah my soule this hard world at his first entrie lodged him in a rocke and a rocke too must receiue him at his going out O deare Master Let it be this rockie hart of myne that may haue the happines to afford thee this last lodging or at least may I be lodged with thee be the rocke neuer so hard that I may truly be according to the Apostles expression consepultus cum Christo buried togeither with Christ neuer to ryse againe but with him in newnesse of life O that my hart as it sympathises too neerely with this Monument in hardnesse had also the rest of its qualities O that it were yet in its primitiue newnesse and puritie O that it had neuer bene prepossessed by any creature But alas alas it fares not so It hath bene too longe and too easely prostituted to the worlds allurements to the Diuells suggestions It hath bene but too too peruious to all approches and remayned onely a rocke to thy holy inspirations to thy heauenly instructions to any true sense of thy excessiue torments and sorrowes A PRAYER BVt ô my deare Lord thou vvho art a hammer brusing rockes bruse this hard hart of myne into true contrition and smite it vvith the rodd of thy Crosse that novv at least though too late alas it may pay dovvne deepest compassion and sorrovve vvith the most desolate Virgine mother flouds of repentant teares vvith those mournefull Maries and finally a most manly courage and resolution plentifull vvorkes of mercy and the pretious oyntements of frequent and feruent prayers vvith the good Ioseph and Nicodemus But ah my dearest Sauiour Christ my true rocke and strength these are indeede the resolutions of my hart but of a vveake and vvauering hart vvhich vvill effect nothing vvithout thy povverfull assistance grant it o Lord for thy pretious blouds sake and let the holes of thy sacred side c. lye alvvaies open to my ayde and
same sadd truth that alas I it is her sweete and best beloued Rabboni her dearest Master Christ Iesus Aske the rockes and stones and in their language they will answere you that its the authour of nature their Maker and Master the verie Authour of all beeing and life Aske the Sunne and it will straight withdraw it's light testifying that the true Sunne is setting and dyeing to this world Nay aske the Iewes and notwithstanding their endlesse malice euen by them you may informe your selfe of the truth for looke vp and you may reade their inscription IESVS N. R. I. aske who these two are which hangs by him and euery one will answere you they are two theeues 2. Theeues alas and together with Iesus what connection what to doe hath light with darkenes iniquitie with iustice ah is it not true quod cum iniquis reputatus est That Iesus our sauiour is reputed among the wicked heauens stand amazed at this strange doome O my soule loose thy selfe in astonishement in contemplation of the wordls peruerse and madd iudgement and learne to contemne it since here thou seest euen innocencie it selfe tainted with the imputation of wickednesse and after this neuer find it strange if thy resolution be to follow thy Master Christ to haue thy best actions misconstrued to thy disaduantage and disgrace 3. IESVS NAZARENVS This is the testimonie of that enemie of his Pilate who deliuered him ouer to this disgrace And if Iesus of Nazareth Iesus the sonne of Marie that innocent lambe which was borne in Bethelem stable who came to take awaie the inquities and sinnes of the world who had euen there his Gloria sung by the quires of Angels from heauen in testimonie that he was true God that word which was in the beginning with God and was euen God himselfe In the beginning which had no beginning before time yet began to be from all eternitie And yet behold now in time what monsters time brings forth He is reputed among the vvicked 4. In eternitie he esteemes it no stealth to be equall with God In eternitie he is one of those three holy persons who are equally one God And in time he is in a coniūcture with and is iudged the chiefe of the three wher-of two confessedly suffer the punishments due to their crimes 5. IESVS NAZARENVS If Iesus of Nazareth let Nazareth which knowes him giue testimonie of him Nazareth where he was virginally conceiued of a poore innocent vnspotted milde Virgine Nazareth where he was innocently brought vp and conuersed amongst the inhabitants For the space of 24. yeares Nazareth where he appeared a man approued by God by miracles and wonders and signes which God wrought by him in the middest of it Let Nazareth speake Was he euer found faultie in word or deede Nay was he not euer found innocent vnspotted segregated or separated from sinners was he not euer found doeing the worke of his heauenly Father solidly and publikly preaching the truth exalting vertue reprehending and subduing vice and vtterly destroying the kingdome of satan curing the sicke raysing the dead to life restoring sight to the blind making the lame walke and the deafe heare And yet it is thought good to the Iewish blindnesse and malice to repute and place him amongst the vvicked 6. Pilate who iudged him and in iudging him condemned himself pronounced openly that he found no cause of death in him and left him a testimonie of a iust man And yet he is reputed among the vvicked 7. Ah barbarous blinde vnnaturall and wicked Iewe whilst thou art contriuing his death by iarring treacherous and bought testimonies at Hierusalem his natiue soyle to which he was sent which he so much loued that by teares spent vpon it he expressed the same Rome vpon a bare relation sent from hence is admiring his life Whilst thou vngratefull Synagogue buyest his blood with bribes and vniustly placest him amidst two notorious Criminalls the Senate is cōsulting to place him amōgst the Gods 8. Ah king of heauen how becam'st thou an exile in this our vayle of teares for loue What did inuest thee in our clayie garmentes or rather ragges loue But tell me thou beatie of Angells how becamest thou so deformed For loue What lanced these sacred temples Loue. How became that celestiall face heauens ioy so gauled and goarie For loue Ah my hart what wounded these hands and feete which neuer walked in the waies of sinners Loue. Thou adornest the feild with a verdant greene thou deckest the tree with her fresh leaues and sweet blossomes the birds thou couerest with their comely feathers and the most contemptible beast with their skinnes and how becamest thou then so without all couer or ornament For loue Ah my crucified loue how much thou hast oblidged me to loue thee Ah Loue euen for this loue inflame my colde hart with this loue Da mihi te amare quantum volo quantum debeo 9. REX IVDAEORVM Rex A King true the King of heauen the King of Angells the King of Men the King of all things Omnis enim potestas ei data est in coelo in terra For all power was giuen him in heauen and in earth But alas if a King how so inuironed with miserie and anguish how so destitute of friends and attendants how so bereaued of all comfort consolation how so depriued of all things that might appease greife and accompayned with all things that might augment sorrow If a King and the King of heauen where are the orders of Cherubines and Seraphins the rancks of Archangells Angells those Principalities Powers Dominations those mille millium ministrantium ei decies centena millia assistentium ei 10. Rex Iudaeorum If a King where are his Nobles his fauorites his Guard-Royall his Pallace his Chamber of Presence his Purple his Gemmes If a King at least why doth he not appeare a Man Neque enim species illi est neque decor For he neither hath beautie nor comelinesse A Crowne he beares indeed but that doth so augment his paine as that it doth not anie waie in appearance add to his Regall honour And was loue yet cause of all this yes yes Sic Deus dilexit mundum c. So God loued the world that he deliuered his owne onely sonne But alas hath Loue made this King so prodigall and prodigalitie so poore that he hath nothing left him nothing to bestow vpon a poore suppliant ah yes my soule yes there is yet enough left let 's runn and begge for behold his holy armes are wide open louingly to imbrace vs and receaue vs into his fauour ô deare sweete imbracements ô how willingly could I liue and dye here O inueni quem diligit anima mea inueni nec dimittam I haue found him whom my hart loueth I haue found him nor will I lett him goe Behold his head hung downe to bestow vpon vs that sweet osculum pacis that kisse of peace that gracious fauour
is vt videam that I may see Say then againe to this little blind world of myne fiat lux let light be made and in that light of thyne we shall discouer light indeede And thou ô sonne of God who art true light illuminating all men coming into this world leaue vs not in darknesse and in the shadowe of death And thou ô holy fire who alwayes burnest and art neuer extinguished burne my reynes and hart that I may serue thee with a chaste body and please thee with a cleane harte II. POINT CONSIDER yet againe without going out of our selues a perfect image of the holy Trinitie For looke but vpon our owne soule and we may obserue in it in the essence of one the same soule three powers or faculties to witt Memorie vnderstanding and Will which haue three distinct operations to witt remembrance knowledge and Loue. Nor is loue ascribed to the Memorie nor knowledge to the will nor remembrance to the vnderstanding So that we find in our soule in some sorte what we beleeue in God distinction of powers diuersitie of operations in vnitie of essence Affection Ah my soule sith the Blessed Trinitie hath marked out the house of thy hart for himselfe yea hath sett vpon it his owne signet or representation let vs neuer proue so disloyall to him as to thrust him out being entred or keepe him out when he pleaseth to knocke by his heauenly inspirations to lodge in his place his and our owne worst enemyes the world the flesh and the Diuell O noe but rather let our memorie be filled with the multitude of his wonders our vnderstanding with his innumerable benefits and our will be wholy inflamed in contemplation of so vnspeakable a graciousnesse THE III. MEDITATION Againe what the holy Trinitie is I. POINT CONSIDERATION Let vs yet further with an humble and Christian curiositie feruour and feare follow faith and draw neerer to the inaccessible light which the holy Trinitie doth inhabit And to approach saith S. Paule we must beleeue that he is and that he is the rewarder of those that seek him But what is he The Father the word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And what is that one He himselfe tells vs by the mouth of Moyses I am who am Say saith he he that is sent me to you That is he is the origine and souâ—se of all beeing in himselfe of himselfe and by himselfe without participation dependance or assistance of any other in absolute plenitude without beginning or end Affection We beleeue ô Lord that thou art and that thou art he indeede who is Thou art thyne owne permanent beeing thou art the rewarder of those that seeke thee Thee therfor will I incessantly seeke thee will I desire thee will I hope for My verie hart hath said to thee thy face will I seeke O my soule what a comfortable inquirie is this where the verie seeking is better then the finding of all thinges besides Where the ayme is a permanent beeing noe transitorie and fading shadowe Where what is sought is the rewarder and the rewarde Ego merces tua magna nimis I am thy exceeding great reward Whose beeing as it neuer had any beginning so shall it neuer haue end II. POINT CONSIDERATION Let vs yet force our selues to find out as farre as faith will leade vs. What he is indeede Who is For it is a thinge of great comfort to be seeking where we shall be sure to find more then we are able to comprehend It is safe to be seeking there where humble ignorance is a most safe knowledge Let him be sought saith S. Augustine in whom all things proue safe to vs. What is he then who is but a substance without begining without end a simple substance without any mixture An inuisible incorporeall ineffable and inestimable substance essence or nature A substance that hath nothing created in it nor is increased by addition of any other thing nor lessened by any substraction A substance finally subsisting without any Authour because it selfe is the Authour of all thinges Affection Why doe we then my soule scatter our thoughts vpon the inquisition of thinges where we meete with nothing but emptinesse vanitie and lyes so that after our long labours we find nothing in our hands for what is there indeede left vs of what we may haue seemed hitherto to haue gathered togeither but hartes full of remorse Why doe we spend our witts vpon perilous knowledges where faith presentes vs with an humble ignorance which is true wisdome Why doe we leaue substance and such substance to pursue Shadowes which the more we pursue them the more they flye vs and in the end vanish Why doe we I say quitte pure and permanent substance and vnhappily suffer our selues to sticke fast in the myre of the depth where there is noe substance Why finally doe we fixe our hartes vpon nothing while the Authour of all thinges is proposed vnto vs For what indeede is our expectation ô my soule is it not our Lord and is not our substance with him THE IV. MEDITATION That he is euerie where I. POINT CONSIDER that this Blessed Trinitie being He who is is indeed euerie where He is euen a sea of Essence or beeing He is euery where I say by the same essence by his power by his Presence and we run we whither we will neuer escape out of that presence of his If I shall ascend into heauen thou art there If I descend into Hell thou art present If I shall take my winges earely and dwell in the extreame parts of the Sea certes thither also shall thy hand conduct me c. Sings the Royall Psalmist Affection Whither shall we flye from him my soule but to him from his sterne iustice to his mylde mercy There alone and noe where els can we be secure from him who is euery where The heauens can afforde vs noe shelter Hell can giue vs noe protection the deepe Abisses cannot hyde vs. In vaine doe we striue to hide our selues with Adam In vaine to flye with Ionas his powerfull hand is able to ouertake vs. Be where we will we are allwayes in his presence See my soule what a blessed necessitie is putt vpon vs of liuing well who liue continually in the presence of so powerfull a Maiestie Le ts humble our selues vnder the powerfull hand of God That the holy Trinitie is euery where and how II. POINT CONSIDER that he is indeede euery where but how He is so diffused through all thinges in the world vniuersally that he is not as a qualitie but as the creating substance therof gouerning it without labour sustayning it with his three fingers or by his power without burthen He is not spredd abrode all ouer by bulke or partes but is all whole euery where as the soule is in the body all in all and all too in euerie part therof He is all in heauen all in earth at one and the same tyme
and yet is comprised in noe place limited by noe time but is all in himselfe from all eternitie So is the Father saith S. Augustine so the Sonne so the holy Ghost and so the Trinitie one God Affect See my soule how while thou desirest to know how God is euery where thou scarce knowest where thou art thy selfe Yet it is good for our pride pouertie to find our selues beatē backe by Gods power and the wonders of his wayes It is noe smale part of knowledge and we profit not a litle saith S. August while in our lownesse we pant after the supreame Deitie If we learne by our pious endeuours to know that we cannot know him to the full And though by way of admiration we be forced to say what is this as not vnderstanding it yet le ts rather reioyce and loue by not finding him thus to find him then by finding him otherwise not to find him indeede THE V. MEDITATION He sees all I. POINT CONSIDER that the holy Trinitie is not onely euery where but sees all thinges too according to that of S. Augustine as God is all foote because he is euery where so is he all eye because he sees all thinges and S. Paule there is noe creature inuisible in his sight but all things are naked and open to his eyes Hence our Father Abraham walked alwayes in his sight Dauid conceiued that all his wayes lay open to his eyes Hence Ieremies Daniels and the other Prophetes prayers afflictions and teares were powred out in his sight Affection O what a consolation ought this to be to the good soule to haue the Father the Word and the holy Ghost spectatours of all her thoughtes words and actions To see her fidelitie in her temptations her resignations in her afflictions her conformitie to his blessed will in all her proceedings And what a huge confusion to the wicked to dare that in the sight of a liueing and seeing God which they durst not in the sight of a miserable man In the sight of those heauenly bright eyes I say which are farre brighter then the Sunne which noe dores or walls excludes which equally discouers the most hidden and the most open obiect O my soule how we are euen necessitated to doe well who doe all that we doe before the eyes of a iust iudge who sees all cryes out S. Augustine with feare and shame He workes all II. POINT CONSIDER that the holy Trinitie doth not onely see all the good and bad we doe but he euen workes in vs all the good we doe All our workes thou hast wrought in vs. Saith the Prophete Isay But one God who worketh all in all men S. Paule All naturall thinges by his comon concourse All supernaturall thinges by the assistance of his grace He it is who doth that in vs which is pleasing in his sight from him our good thoughtes our will and performance and all our sufficiencie Affection What rests then ô my soule but as we acknowledge that we haue all thinges from him by him and in him so that we run to him with humble thankes for all we haue receiued and humble sutes for all we yet want saying with S. Augustine I sing this hymne of glorie to thee Holy Holy Holy I inuoke thee ô B. Trinitie beseeching thee to come into me and make me worthy to be the Temple of thy glorie I begge of the Father by the Sonne I begge of the Sonne by the Father I begge of the holy Ghost by the Father and the Sonne that all vice may be farre remoued from me and all vertue wronght in me THE VI. MEDITATION That the B. Trinitie is all in all I. POINT CONSIDER yet further that the B. Trinitie doth not onely worke all but is euen all in all According to that of s. Paule that God may be all in all He is wisdome in Salomon goodnesse in Dauid patience in Iob faith in Peter zeale in Paule Virginitie in Iohn and all the rest of the vertues and blessings in the rest life saluation vertue glorie honour peace the beginning and end of all good thinges and the full sacietie and accomplishment of all our desires so that the soule that possesseth him desires nothing but him and in him and for him whom he confesses to be all in all Affection O eternall veritie and true charitie and deare eternitie who art all in all grant me grace truly to esteeme my selfe such as I am nothing at all without thee and that in thee comforting I can doe all thinges Our hope our saluation our honour ô Blessed Trinitie we inuoke thee we prayse thee we adore thee ô Blessed Trinitie Too greedie he is whom sufficiencie whom abundance whom all in all sufficeth not Thou life thou light thou honour thou glorie thou plentie thou peace thou begining thou end thou sacietie thou all in all ô Blessed Trinitie Grant that all my thoughtes words and workes may be done to thy glorie and that I may be made all to all to gayne all II. POINT CONSIDERATION But what is yet that inaccessible beeing which is who is who is euery where who sees all who workes all who is all in all What is he He is immense and therfor cannot be measured He is eternall and therfor cannnot be reached to He is infinite and therfor cannot be comprehended But yet what is he He is an Abisse of goodnesse by which all that is good is good an Ocean of beautie by which all is faire that is faire He is not wise onely but wisdome it selfe nor mercifull onely but mercy it selfe nor holy and iust alone but sanctitie and iustice it selfe Goodnesse beautie wisdome mercy sanctitie iustice not being diuers qualities in him one sole simple pure true God Father Sonne and holy Ghost Affection Dilate thy selfe my soule and with a greedie and inflamed desire breath after and striue to comprehend that which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man Howeuer he cannot be comprehended as he is nor be worthily expressed in words or be conceiued in mynde yet he can be desired he can be ardently coueted he can be sighed and sobbed after He all whole so great so immense so infinite so incomprehensible as he is can be inioyed for an endlesse eternitie and euen in tyme too ô excessiue happinesse of a Christian hart he may be loued praysed adored glorified by vs poore wretches All glorie then all prayse all strength all power all magnisicence all beatitude all mercy be ascribed to God the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost for euer and euer Amen MEDITATIONS VPON THE BLESSED SACRAMENT An introduction to feruent and frequent communicating and motiues to the same I. MEDITATION I. POINT CONSIDER that wheras it is impossible that any worke should be well done vnlesse we first well conceiue and possesse what we are going about we ought to know that in receiuing the B. Sacrament we goe aboute the greatest