Hierusalem that this bread which is seene by vs is not bread although the tast esteeme it to be bread but that it is the body of Christ Many mothers saith (i) Chrysost hom 83. in Matt. S. Chrysostome put out their children when they are borne to be nurst by others but Christ our Lord would not doe soe but doth nourish vs with his owne body and so doth conioyne glew vs to himselfe O miracle (k) Chrysost l. 3. de Sacerde tio O benignity of God sayth the same S. Chrysostome He that sitteth aboue with the Father at the same instant is handled by the hands of all and he deliuers himselfe vp to such as will receaue and imbrace him And in (l) Chrysost hom 24 c. 10.1 Epist ad Corinth another place he sayth thus That which is in the Chalice flowed out of his side and of that doe we communicate This indeed as sayth S. (m) Saint Ephrem who was familiar with Saint Basil the great lib. de natura Dei non serutanda cap. 5. Ephrem exceedeth all admiration all speach and all conceipt which Christ our Sauiour the only begotten sonne of God hath done To vs who are clad with flesh he hath giuen fire and spirit to eate namely his body and his bloud My bread sayth (n) Ambros l. 4. de Sacra menâ—is S. Ambrose is vsuall bread but this bread is bread before the words of the Sacrament but wheÌ„ the coÌ„secration once doth come of bread it is made the flesh of Christ. Let vs therfore settle this point how that which is bread can be made the body of Christ By consecration This consecration of what speach and words doth it consist Of the words and speach of our Lord Iesus For all the rest which is said is either prayse giuen to God or there are particular prayers made for the people and for Kings and others But when he comes to the tyme of making the B. Sacrament the Priest doth no longer speake in his owne words but in the words of Christ The speach therfore of Christ is that which makes this Sacrament What speach of Christ Thevery same wherby al things were made Our Lord commaunded and the heauen was made Our Lord commaunded and the earth was made Our Lord commaunded and the sea was made Our Lord commaunded al the creatures were made Thou seest therfore how effectually the speach of Christ doth work If (o) Note this consequence then there be such power in the speach of our Lord Iesus as to make those things be which were not how much more effectually will it worke towards the making of them be which are and to make them be changed into other then what they were Therefore (p) Marke well the expresse authority of this Saint that I may answere thee I say That it was not the body of Christ before the consecration but after the consecration I say to thee that then it is the body of Christ. Christ was carried sayth (q) Aug. in Psal 33. Conc. 1. Ibid. S. Augustine in his owne hands when commending his body to his Apostles he said Hoc est corpus meum this is my body for then he carried his body in his hands And agayne Our Lord would place our saluation in his body and bloud But how did he commend his body and bloud to vs In his humility For vnlesse he were humble he would not be eaten and drunke The good Pastour sayth (r) Greg. in hom 14. in Euang. S. Gregory the great laid downe his life for his sheepe that he might turne his body and bloud into our Sacrament might feed the sheepe which he had redeemed by the nutriment of his flesh Vnder the species of bread sayth S. (s) Cyril Ierosol in Catech. Myst 4. Cyrillus Ierosolymitanus the body is giuen thee and vnder the species of bloud the wine that so thou maist become participant of his body bloud So shall we by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Carryers of Christ when we shall haue receiued his body and bloud into our body and so as S. Peter saith we shall be made consorts of the diuine nature And according to that of S. (t) Cyril l. 10. in Iohn c. 11. Cyrill if any man shall mingle wax which is melted by fire with other wax which is also melted in such sort that they both doe seeme to be but one made of both so by the coniunction of the body and bloud of Christ our Lord he is in vs and we in him S. (u) Greg. l. 4. Dialog c. 58. Gregory doth surther say What faithfull soule can doubt but that in the very hower of the Sacrifice the heauens doe open at the voyce of the Priest and that in this mystery of Christ Iesus the Quires of the Angells doe assist the highest and the lowest things doe meete Terrestriall and Celestiall things are ioyned and there is made one thinge of things which are visible and inuisible Heere then we are taught by the holy Fathers of the Church whome I might haue cited to this purpose both more at large and more in number the inscrutable loue of our Lord IESVS to mankind expressed in these high mysteries of the blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse But how shall we be able to disingage our selues for being euen ouerwhelmed with the huge weight therof since the superexcellent Humanity of our (x) The incompable dignity of the person of Christ our Lord. Lord IESVS consisting of that pretious body which first was framed out of purest bloud of the all-immaculate Virgin by the only hand of the holy Ghost and of that glorious soule which in the first instaÌ„t of the creation therof was hypostatically vnited to God the sonne the second person of the most B. Trinity and the same person being indiuisible from the other two of God the Father and God the holy Ghost that this person I say of Christ our Lord should be communicated to all the Priests of the holy Catholike Church to be offred daily ouer all the world and to be receiued into the brest both of them and al the other faithfull children of that mother as often as theÌ„selues should desire What Cherubim is able to discouer the greatnes of this benefit and what Seraphim hath his hart hoat inough to breath out such ardent flames of loue as grow due to God vpoÌ„ this account How full of reason was the exclamation and admiration of holy Dauid when he said Psalm 34. 9. That there was none like to God in the cogitations which he interteyned for our Good No man no creature could euer haue aspired to such a happines or so much as to haue conceaued that euen the diuine nature it selfe had bene able to expresse such goodnes But God is God and God is loue and the loue euen of Creatures is full of (y) How full of Inuention great loue is inuention for
loue wherwith our Lord did make the way thither so easy to them We may well be assured of the truth of that testimony of S. Iohn Baptist when he said Ma. That he who should baptize after him would doe it in the holy Ghost And we may safely say that it was the holy Ghost which could eleuate such a poore peece of nature as common water is to an immediate instrument as now we find it for the washing saÌ„ctifying of all our soules For instantly after the Baptisme of Christ our Lord and the prayer which was made vpoÌ„ it he saw that the very heauens did open which had beene shut till then by the sinne of Adam Ibid. and the holy Ghost descended on him in a visible forme Which our Lord IESVS obteyned not for himselfe who was already full of it Ioan. 1. beyond all measure but he obteyned it for vs for of his fulnes we all receaue and so there is none of vs baptized vvhose soule is not highly visited by the holy Ghost And no meruaile if heauen hauing neuer bin seene open before that time such an aboundance of the holy Ghost vvere then communicated to the vvorld vvhich till then vvas little knovvne The promises and blessings of that old lavv vvere temporall terrene and a land slowing with milke and hony vvas (b) The seruile coÌ„dition of the people of God vnder the old law the fairest Lure vvherby that Carnall people could be made to stoope to any obedience to the commaundements of God But novv the earth vvas grovvne too poore a token for his diuine Majesty to send to then vvho vvere so beloued by his only begotten sonne that sonne vvho in contemplation of their good had performed such an act of heroicall call vertue in this holy Baptisme of his And therfore heauen vvas set open and the most pretious treasure therof Confes l. 13. cap. 7. sent dovvne to dravv men vp For the vncleanes of our spirit as S. Augustine sayth dissolueth it selfe downeward through a loue of cares and the sanctity of Gods spirit doth rayse vs vpward by a loue of secure repose That so our harts may ascend vp towards thee O God where thy spirit is carried ouer the waters and that we may arriue to that supereminent rest when our soules shall haue passed through these waters wherupon we can ground no rest But euen in respect of Christ our Lord himselfe though his soule vvere then already so full of grace as not to be capable of addition yet vvas it most agreable to the vsuall stile and the infinite iust goodnes of God that the humility of this action should be ansvvered and acknovvledged vvith vnusuall glory And therfore that he vvho had so abased euen as it vvere buried himselfe vp in vvater Ioan. 1. and submitted his head to one who was not worthy to vnty his shoe should be auovved from heauen vvith the Curtaines open dravvne To be the beloued sonne of God Matt. 3. And so a certaine and solemne instance vvas giueÌ„ of that truth vvhich may goe for the dayly and standing miracle of the Christian Catholike Church That as soone as a soule shall haue truly humbled it selfe for the loue of God euen then it receaues and feeles a revvard from heauen vvhich fills the hart full of ioy Glory then I say vvas due to his humility and for as much as nothing can pay loue but loue the attribute of Beloued was also due and best deserued by his loue And because his loue for the loue of God was so immense to man the holy Ghost it selfe which is the al and only infinite loue was sent downe vpon him in a visible manner by whome it was afterward to be conueyed to men And euen the very shape wherin God was pleased that it should appeare may serue to make vs know that all the actioÌ„ did begin end in loue For it was of a doue (b) The fruytes of the holy ghost are figured fitly in a Doue what creature is more apt for loue then this What creature is more fruitefull more speedy more sweet more stronge more honest and yet more amourous then this Deteyning her mate when he would depart with more desire and expecting him when he is absent with more ioy The doue was therfore the signe of the holy Ghost which descended vpoÌ„ Christ our Lord as soone as he was baptized to shew that his hart was ouerwhelmed with loue both to God and man Whilst for the pure glory of the one and the perfect good of the other he submitted himself to paine and shame for the sanctifying of sinners and that by a most sweet easy means to vs he cared not though he were accounted one himselfe Yea not being content to be only thought so heere by men the restlesnes of his loue did worke so fast vpon him as to make him not disdaine to be mistaken therin by the diuells also and to be tempted in the wildernes by the Prince of darcknes as the next discourse will declare Of the vnspeakeable Loue to vs which our Lord Iesus shewed in his being tempted in the wildernes by the Diuell CHAP. 23. IT is full of truth which hath bene said Omnis Christi actio vitâ—e nostrae est instructio Euery action of our Lord may serue for an instruction to vs in this life of ours Or rather it is most true that there is no action at all of his which instructs vs not many wayes (a) All the actions of Christ our Lord are as a hidden Manna to our soules which is not a kind of hidden Manna deliuering to euery hungry and thirsty soule a tast of that particular vertue which it needs That Christ our Lord would be baptized was to be enroled in the list of sinners according to the iudgment of men but in sine they were men who would make that iudgment with men he loued and he was come into the world to procure their good and at last he knew that he would deliuer them from that errour But for the sonne of God who was also God to abase and as it were forget himselfe so farre as to submit that superexcellent soule of his which was adored by al the Angells of heaueÌ„ to be subiect for the manifold benefit of man so farre as to be tempted by that damned spirit doth betoken such a strange loue to vs as puts all discourse to silence and the best created vnderstanding that euer was may be halfe excused if it shall loose the very witts with wonder If the difference be great betwene one man and another euen amongst good men homo homini quid praestat if it be great betwene a good maÌ„ a bad if it be yet greater between a most wicked man a most glorious Saint what difference shall we thinke there is betwene God and the diuell And what scales can haue the strings long enough to giue scope that one
most excellent instructions which our Lord through his loue did giue to man in this mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 31. I Should enlarge my selfe too much if I would particularize and presse those instructions which our Lord did giue to all his disciples both liuing then and succeeding afterward in that silent sermon of his Transfiguration and we haue reason to take them all as so many tokens of his tender loue to vs. But because they may seeme so rather by inference and reflection then by way of lineall and direct expression I will content my selfe briefly to point them out In the first place we are told that he assumed those holy and happy disciples of his vp the hill and therby we are taught that we cannot clymbe but when he takes vs by the hand By telling vs also that he would not be transfigured before them but vpon the hill he tells vs that vnlesse she aspire towards (a) No solide and sublime gust in God with out a serious study of perfection Perfction we must content our selues without tasting the delicious fruites of ConteÌ„plation Againe we are heere expresly told that Christ our Lord went vp to pray and that whilst he was in prayer this rapt of Transfiguration came vpon him So that as it was by prayer and coÌ„uersation with God that Moyses came downe from the hill with such a deale of light in his face by prayer also it is that we may receaue innumerable graces and may grow to be transformed in minde which imports vs more then to be transfigured in body By letting vs know that he was transfigured only for that tyme he giues vs to vnderstand how he hid his excellencies both till then and euer afterward and therby he proclaimes to vs by a loud voyce how (b) The more we hide our selues froÌ„ the view of men the more open shall we be to the gracious eyes of God Ibid. carefull we must be to hide our faâ—ours and priuiledges from the eyes of men And the same was also taught yet againe when our Lord IESVS commaunded afterward that they should not speake of that vision till he were risen from the dead By mentioning the Passion when he was in the midst of the Transfiguration we are instructed how to carry our selues in the varieties and changes of this life For in the winter of distresse we must keep our selues aliue by the memory or hope of some consolation eyther to come or past And in the spring or Sommer of spirituall ioy we must free our selues from growing vayne or giddy by thinking of some approach of desolation By the feare of the holy Apostles we may see the misery of mans nature Confel lib. 11. cap. 9. which was so ill drest by Adam that as S. Augustine saith Sic infirmatus est in egestate mea vigor meus vt non sufferam bonum meum So is my vigor taken downe in this infirmity of my condition that I cannot so much as indure mine owne good as heere the Apostles were frighted euen by the fight of so much glory as attends the speaking of a word from heauen And how then must we reuere with a most profound internall awe that God of inaccessible light and infinite Maiesty whose essence is wholly vnconceaueable since his words cannot be heard without extreme apprehension by such wormes of misery as we are By the coÌ„ming of that voyce which was so soone to breake off the vision whilst they were in the midst of those celestiall ioyes by which voyce our B. Lord was declared to be the beloued sonne of God and that they were comaunded to heare him they we are made to know that we are not in this world to looke for a state of contynuall inioying but of labouring The (c) This is a world of sowing and the other of reaping seeing of God and the being to doe so eternally belongs to heauen in this life we are not to looke for seeing but we must attend to hearing and which is meant therby to obeying Heerby he also tells vs that we must not demurre euen in the most spirituall gusts which we may haue when obedience or charity commaunds the contrary Especially since our Lord himselfe made such hast to giue ouer his Transfiguration that he might descend and so proceed first to preaching then afterwards towards his pasion For there was his hart because his loue was euer looking towards vs and had not that same very loue of vs obliged him to be glorious at that tyme for our sakes since the members could not partake of any such influence which came not first from the head yea and euen if they could haue done it yet would it not haue bene so full of sauour to them vnlesse first it had passed from him it appeares well inough both by the antecedents and consequences of his sacred life that he was not eyther greedy after pleasure or weary of taking paines for vs. Loue and pure loue it was which kept his glory all that while in silence Loue it was which made him mortify himselfe as a man may say with taking into his mouth that only tast of ioy And lastly an euerlasting loue it was which carried him in such hast from Mount Thabor to Mount Caluary where he was to be transfigured a fecoÌ„d tyme but after a far other manner For (d) How our Lord Iesus was Transsigured the second tyme vpoÌ„ mount Caluary insteed of glory he was to be all clad with a kind of Leprosy His face was not to be resplendent but loaden partly with impure spittle and partely vvith his ovvne pure svveat and pretious bloud which made a strange kind of marriage together in that sacred and most venerable Temple of the diuinity His garments were no more to be white but spotted with dust and filth the souldiers were to dispose of them by lotts He was not to be placed betwene a Moyses an Elias but to giue him the more solemne bitter scorne he was to be lodged betwene two murthering thecues No bright shyning cloud was there to appeare to doe him honour but the Sunne would be ashamed to behould the soÌ„ne of man so lewdly treated and darknes would couer the whole earth Since therfore we see such deadly signes of loue in his pretious hart towards vs we may haue the honour to be taught by him how to guide our liues let vs dispose our selues with supreme reuerence to giue our eares and hartes (e) Our Lord Iesus is declared our Doctour from heauen to the diuine words of his mouth since he is made our Doctour by no lesse then a voyce which comes from heauen it selfe and that in the name of the eternall Father saying That Christ our Lord is his beloued sonne in whome he is so highly pleased and that him we must be sure to heare We will besides adore him for presenting vs with this admirable vision wherby he hath so aboundantly
therof as shortly vvill be shevved more at large And since our blessed Lord vvas content to repeate the selfe same prayer thrice vve are to pitty the poore men vvho vvill needs be our aduersaries vvhilst they laugh and scoffe at vs for our often repetition of the same (f) That Repetitiō of the same prayers is commended by the example of Christ our Lord. Prayers Indeed if vve did but say them vvith the lips and tongue alone as they impose vpon vs tooke not care to accompany them vvith the application and attention of our minde they might still laugh on and the deuill vvould keepe them company therin But othervvise vve see by this mystery of the Garden that Repetition of Prayers is no ill custome if vve vse it as vve ought And then if still they vvill needs be laughing at as for the vse therof they vvill be faine to doe it alone for the deuill is not such a foole as to doe so too since he knovves he looses by the bargaine A heauy Agony to our Lord IESVS that vvas but a happy one for vs since he offred it to the eternall Father for the obtayning of comfort and strength not (g) That Agony of our Lord got cōfort for vs both in our afflictions of mind and diseases of body only in all the distresses of minde as vvas said before but in all the deadly diseases of body also vvhich might come to carry vs out of this life And it is in vertue of this Agony that vve see the seruants of God so full of patience and courage and sometymes euen of ioy vvhen they are vpō that bed euē as it were in the very iavves of death Nor vvhen they are abandoned by the help of the vvhole vvorld and vvhē their corporal strength is entirely gone can yet all the proud deuills in hell vvho are then imploying all the force and fraude they haue to their perdition disquiet their conscience or disturbe their peace What griefe it must needs cause to our blessed Lord to be estranged from feeling comfort in God CHAP. 55. BVT vvhat might that be the very apprehension vvherof vvrought so impetuously vpon our blessed Lord vvhome nothing had bene obserued to distemper in the least degree through all the course of his holy life vvhat kind of thing I say must that be vvhich durst assault his hart vvith sorrovv Or of vvhat had he bene ignorant till then the knowledge wherof at that tyme might be able to put the powers of his mind into that appearance of disorder His knowledge was still the same but his loue in some sort was not the same for it seemes as if euery minute of his life he had bene adding new feathers to those wings wherby his hart was flying towards the comfort of ours And knowing of how great aduantage to vs his humility and patience would be in the sight of God (a) Our Lord was pleased to suffer much for vs whom he loued so much it was only his pleasure at that tyme as hath been sayd to hide the comfort of his diuinity from the inferiour part of his soule wherby those apprehensions and reasons of griefe and desolation were of vnspeakeable torment to his minde Which so long as it was feeding vpon the cleere and sensible vision of God could not so much as once distract it from incessant ioy Whereas novv he vvas so very farre from ioy that vve see him as if he had been halfe ouercome with griefe To let vs knowe by the way that as all our burthens are light when they are carryed vpō our backs by the help of God so when he retyreth his holy hand there is not the least of thē which may not trouble the strongest Saint that liues But the obiect which caused such excessiue anguish to our Lord IESVS which wrought so farre euen vpon his sacred body as to make it vtter a prodigious svveat of very bloud and that not by drops but as it vvere by streames and flood Luc. 22. vvhich did not trickle but run downe a maine from the heauenly earth of his body to the terrestriall earth wheron he kneeled which was made a kind of heauen by drinking vp that quintessēce of life was (b) The dishonour of God and the perdition of man was the two edged sword which cut our B. Sauiours hart in funder the glory of God which he saw prophaned by the sinne of man and the soules of all mankind wherof he loued euery one a million of times more then his owne pretious life addicted to the eternall torments of hell fire For this was that sword with a double edge which did as it were cut his soule in sunder Who is also able to imagine what a sad affliction it must be to him to be depriued for one moment of the feeling of that soueraigne delight ioy wherewith he did so abound from the very instant of his Conception by the sensible shining of his diuinity vpon his whole soule which now in part was abridged thereof The want of any communication of Almighty God to a hart which hath seen light in light is of so great moment how little soeuer it be that it wōds that hart with much griefe which doth well discerne that nothing of that kind is little To know any thing of God by way of sensible experience doth kindle in the spirit a very furnace of desire to enioy the rest And how much sorrow then must it feele to be depriued euen of what it had The liues of Saintes are full of the sweet and sad complaints which they haue made to God vpon such occasions and in particular you may see store of this in the life of that great woman Blessed Mother Teresa of Iesus which was written by her selfe vpon the commaundement of her ghostly Father And not only did this holy Passion raigne among such soules departed as the Church esteemeth to be Saints but by the goodnes of God we haue met with some amongst the creatures who are yet in flesh and bloud who seruing God in great purity in conformity therof hauing bene admitted to some deere imbracemēts of that heauēly spouse of their soules haue gone lamētably mourning and that for a long tyme together like so many Turtles for the absence of their beloued through the wāt of that infinite Good wherof before they had beene admitted to take a taste They (c) The great sorrow which is felt by the spouse of Christ vpon any hiding of himselfe from a soule or euen by liuing in this Pilgrimage are so deeply wounded with loue that to be hindred from inioying him is wont to giue them excessiue griefe They feele it so much as they know not how they shall endure that want since the only remedy of all their other paines is the certaine (d) By often thinking vpō God meanes to increase this one paine of theirs For as a sore is most felt when it
herself vnworthy of honour So that finding her selfe at the very instant to be sublimed to such a height as that she did not yet esteeme her selfe one graine more worthy in her selfe then she did before Whervpon she tooke no titles which might then beloÌ„g so her present state as of Queene of Angells Lady Mistris of the world or elected Spouse of the holy Ghost Nor did she prefer herself before theÌ„ meanest creature of the earth but setling her soule in the lowest meanest place of theÌ„ all she gaue her self the stile of a hand-mayd or slaue In c. 1. Lucae S. Ambrose wonders at this Humility I woÌ„der not at him for so woÌ„dring for the Angells theÌ„selues are not able to do it as it deserues This vertue she also discouered in straÌ„ge maÌ„ner when vpoÌ„ those great prayses which S. Elizabeth proclaymed to be her due both for the prerogatiues which she had in her selfe for the wonders which had bin wrought in S. Iohn vpon the only hearing of her voyce this sacred Virgin refused out-right to accept therof and instantly running into her most humble hart she fell into that diuine Canticle Luc. 2. wherin she ascribes all the glory of her greatnes and of that felicity of hers which was to be celebrated for euer by all the Generations of the faithfull to the only omnipotent mercy of our Lord God Of the soueraigne Purity Greg. Niâ—â— in Orat. de humana Christi Generat Aug. de S. virginitate c. 4. Beda hom de Eest Annunt Anselm hom Intrauit Iesus Bern serm de Natiuitat Mariae apud Canisium l. 2. c. 14. of this sacred Virgin as it were a most blasphemous sinne to doubt so were it simplicity to dilate the consideration of a thing so cleere into any great length She imbraced Chastity she vowed it though formerly both in the law of nature euen in the written law there was little notice of it lesse practise And as fecundity was much esteemed by the Iewes so was the want therof a note rather of reproach infamy then otherwise The people of flesh bloud do often choose rather to be infamous with the losse of virginity theÌ„ glorious by the preseruation therof But this Queene of Virgins did loue not only to be contemptible in the eye of the world but euen to excuse her selfe from accepting to be the very mother of God rather theÌ„ she would endure to thinke that the flower of her virginity should once be touched Yet touched it was but first that was by the holy Ghost himselfe then instantly afterward by the increated Sonne of God who reposed so many moneths in that Angelicall Cradle of her sacred wombe But that touch was so farre from blasting it as that it indued it with most pretious odours which haue perfumed the world And if before that tyme her Virginity were but in flower it was now growne to be both in flower fiuite being highly sanctified sublimed by that Elixir (d) The sacred humanity of Christ our Lord. of heauen which turneth whatsoeuer it toucheth into gold The integrity of her sacred body was the least part of her diuine Purity for her soule was that which did excell That extended not only to the absence of any thing which was contrary to Chastity but (e) This indeed is true and perfect Purity to a forbearance of taking the least contentment or delight in any thing created but only in God for God No thought no care no desire or ioy did euer presume so much as to solicit that superexcelleÌ„t soule but only how to coÌ„ply with her vnspeakeable obligatioÌ„ to Almighty God by perpetuall working and yet profoundly contemplating those diuine attributes of his vpon which froÌ„ the first instaÌ„t of her Immaculate Conception till that other of her most glorious Assumption her mind as hath bene said did beate and boyle in continuall acts of most ardent loue This indeed was to be Chast in the most eminent degree To be doing that on earth which the Angels are doing in heauen Whose incessant actuall loue S. Augustine doth thus expresse Confes lib. 12. c. 11. Quod perseuerantissima castitate DeÌ„ hauriant that they are sucking vp God himselfe with a most perseruing Chastity and purity of minde When the Sonne of God and her was sucking at the sacred fountaine of her breast for the reliefe and maintenance of his pretious life how would that diuine Virgin (f) A happy exchaÌ„ge Mother be sucking the while at the fountaine of his Diuinity for the delighting inebriating of her soule How instantly did she vpon all occasions giue backe all prayses and attributes of estimation and honour to God though they had bene sent down to her by the TrÌ„pets of heauen and by tongues of truth it self as hath bene said When other creatures are praysed they seldome send the prayses backe as cleane as they come but their mindes being moystned by selfe-loue are still retayning some impression therof more or lesse Lumen siccum optimae anima It is an excellent choice soule which so flameth vp towards God as not to be softned or steeped in humaine affections It was with our B. Lady in the case of the prayse or honour which was done her as it would be with a wall of Diamond towards which some ball were sent and the harder it should be driuen the more forcibly and quickly it would returne againe What ball could be stronger driuen then that she should be proclaymed the Mother of God by an Archangell and what more stiffe repulse could be made to the prayse which did result therby then that instantly she should prostrate and protest her selfe to be no better then his slaue If such were the perfection of her Purity of hart at that tyme which I would to Christ we did not want words so much as to name what would it grow to be after so long cohabitation with that God her sonne for the space of tree and thirty yeares He (g) The power of the presence of Christ our Lord. whose presence euen for one minute in such sort as he was pleased to affaord it to her were able to make any dissolute and disordered hart become Saintly and pure and indeed to make a kind of heauen of hell it selfe I adore God in his B. Mother and I admire the perfection of her happy soule and in the least of her actions and words I see another manner of Abysse without a bottom then in all the Saints and Angells put togeather but that which most amazeth me is the plentiful RegioÌ„ of her purity the incorruptible fidelity of her soule towards God Which was so perfectly dead to it selfe and so full of springing life and motion to him as (h) The Non-plus vltra of the Purity of the B. Virgin that instantly shee did euer returne his graces back againe wrapped vp as in so many Loue-letters of adoring
diuine Soule of Christ our Lord through the high endowmentes wherewith it was enriched by the eternall Father Wherein no passion did euer once presume to lead the way to reason but was glad of so much honour as to follow it And though whatsoeuer concerned the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule may seeme little in respect of what is sayd concerning the reasonable which inuolueth both those others yet since nothing is little which is able to do seruice and homage to him who is so truly great it may deserue to be considered how those (k) The vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule were wholly in the hand of the will of Christ our Lord. Vegetatiue and Sensitiue powers were wholy in the hand of his will And so he could haue chosen whether his body should grow or whether his meate should nourish or whether his flesh should feele or whether his bloud vpon the inflicting of a wound should follow or whether his person should send out any such images or species of it selfe as whereby it might become visible to the eyes of others And (l) The body of Christ our Lord though it were a true and naturall body yet was it wholly in his power to determine how far it should be subiect to the conditions of such a body more or lesse in fine in his choice it was whether he would let himselfe be lyable to any of those propertyes and conditions to which the rest of man is subiect And now because the graces and perfections of his sacred body doe contribute to the excellency of his diuine person I will also procure to describe the supereminent beauty and dignity of that sacred flesh and bloud For thus we shall grow to haue a perfect notion of his whole person which will conuey such an influēce of valew vpon euery act of loue which afterward he will be shewed to haue expressed as I hope will make vs wholly giue our hart to him by way of homage for his incomparable benefits The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified CHAP. 4. THE Spirit of God in his holy Scripture doth prophetically delineate the beauty dignity of the sacred Humanity of our Lord Iesus I meane of his sacred flesh and bloud It speaketh of him thus Psalm 44. speciosus forma prae filijs hominum A (a) The beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. person indued with another manner of most excellent beauty then was euer to be seene in any other Creature And indeed euen abstracting from what is reuealed to vs by way of faith concerning his beauty in particular what kind of admirable thing must that Humanity needs be according to all discourse of reason On the one side let vs consider that this sacred body of his was compounded of no other matter but that purest bloud Royall of his al-immaculat virgin mother Royal (b) The dignity sanctity of his descēt it was by her discēt from so many kings Sacerdotall and Propheticall by her being also deriued from the Sanctity of Prophets of Preists Great prerogatiues were these but yet they are the least of them wherewith this holy body of our Lord was endued For it was much more dignified in that before it came to be his the body of the sacred virgin did cohabite with her owne most happy most accomplished soule Wherby (c) How sublimly spirituall the B. virgin was her very flesh was gowne after a sort to be euen Spirit as we see the very soules of sensuall persons to participate as it were the very nature of flesh Much more aduantage did it yet receiue in that the holy Ghost did frame this body of our B. Lord out of the bloud in the wombe of our B. Lady And most of all was it aduanced by this That in the instant when she conceaued his incomparable soule was infused and both his soule and body was Hypostatically vnited to the diuinity Of the happines of that soule already we haue spoken and euen by this little which heere is touched we may behould his body as the prime maister-peece of all visible beauty Amongst (d) Why the body of our B. Lord must needs be admirably beautiful the Children of this world we see indeed that euen they who are borne of handsome through the disorder which naturally accompanieth generation and besides it also growes sometymes through a disconformity which nurses haue to the mothers But his body was framed by the neuer erring hand of the holy Ghost heere the mother and the nurse were one and the same most holy Virgin Mary The excellency of Corporall Beauty doth consist (e) The conditiōs which are required for the making vp of perfect Beauty either in complexion for as much as concernes coulour or in feature or shape for as much as concernes proportion or in facility and grace for as much as concernes disposition and motion We see how any one of these partes of beauty if it be eminent doth affect the eye and hart of a beholder although such a person do either want the other two or haue them at the most but in some moderat degree And the perfection of any one part pleads the excuse of wanting any other And whether therfore shall we be so bold as to thinke that Christ our Lord was not endued with them all in all perfection or els so blinde as notwithstanding such vnspeakeable beauty as his was not to be enamoured of him It is not inough that a body haue only beauty for the perfection therof but (f) For the complemēt of Beauty there are requyred health strengh withall it must haue health and strength Now what want of health could the body of our B. Sauiour haue whose soule was not onely free but so infinitely farre from the curse both of Actuall and Originall sinne the true cause not only of sicknes but of death And what infirmity or weakenes could that Humanity be subiect to vnlesse he had would Isa 63. as indeed he would for our greater good which not onely was not obnoxious to any distemper of humours but withall it was made to be one person with allmighty God himselfe And now let him that can conceaue heerby the sublimity euen of his Corporall beauty Quis est iste saith the Prophet Esay Who is he that commeth out of Edom with his garments dyed from Bozra this beautifull one in his robe walking on in the multitude of his strength This S. Denis affirmes Decael Hierarch c. 7. to haue beene spoken in person of the (g) All the Angells in heauen were amazed to see the beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. Celestiall Spirits they being possessed with an admiration of the vnspeakable Beauty of Christ our Lord Whose diuinity was vested with our humanity as with a robe which once was white though it grew to be
contynue his generall custome in speaking softly but cryed out with a loud voyce and he did it vpon the last day of the feast of the Tabernacles which was a tyme of great solemnity that so he might be heard by the greater number of people and he inuited them all Ioan. 71 to drinke of that water of life with a full mouth Confess l. 12. cap. 10. For he indeed is the true fountaine of life Hunc bibam tunc viuam saith S. Augustiue Let me drinke of him and I shall liue What (f) His ardēt sighes groans scalding sighes what profound internall groanes would that flaming hart be often sending out by his sacred mouth to the Iustice seate of God wherof we finde some expresly to be recorded in the holy Texte that so the diuine Maiesty Marc. 71 beholding the sorrowes of his soule might be obliged to forgiue the sinnes of ours How deere (g) The charming accent of his voice and how delightfull must the ordinary accent be of his heauenly voyce since the accent euer carrieth a kind of neerer coniunction to the mind and which euen for that cause can hardly be described by any words And now the nearer it was to the incomparable soule of Christ our Lord who can doubt but that needs it must be so much the fuller of delight and grace But especially how beautifull were those holy happy (h) The inestimable pure and perfect beauty of his eyes Gen. 49. eyes of his those heauēly Orbes And what felicity was theirs who might at leasure glasse themselues therin they being so full of latent Maiesty but yet sweetned by such Humility and Charity Those eyes which are pulchriores vino as the Patriarch Iacob saith speaking literally of Christ our Lord for the quality they had to inebriate with being looked vpon farre more powerfully and more sweetely then any most pretious wine can doe the man who drinks it With what kind of modest grace do we thinke that he vvould now be raysing them vp Ioan. 11. towards heauen beholding the Creatures in Almighty God and then returning them downe to the earth Ioan. 8. to see God in his Creatures And what kind of fountaines do we thinke they grew to be when they did so often swymme in teares through the compassion of our miseries Haebr 5. ◠Luc. 19. and the remission of our sinnes at the raysing of Lazarus for the ruines of Ierusalem at the giuing vp of his soule into the eternall Fathers hand and those many tymes more which are not set downe in the sacred text How sweetly would they lay themselues to sleepe being folded vp in those liddes the only sheets which any part of him did vse for the releese of that frayle nature which for our sakes he had assumed And he lent them rest with so much the better will because (i) Christ our Lord did negotiate our saluation with God as well whē he was sleeping as waking Ioan. 2. Matt. 4. sleepe gaue no impediment to the working of his minde for our good the knowledge of which mind was no way as hath beene said else where dependant vpon his Fancy as ours is How were they able when he was pleased to do it to pierce the hartes of men by way of terrour when for the zeale of his Fathers glory he punished the buyers sellers in the Temple vvithout their daring once to bring him to the least account for that supposed excesse And by way of powerfull mercy when seing his Apostles he called them at once from the world to his eternall seruice And looking afterward vpon S. Peter in the tyme of his passion by only looking (l) The lookes of Christ our Lord did moue S. Peeter to contrition Luc. 72. Luc. 7. he retyred him at an instant from his sinnes as wil be seen more at large afterward And not only did those eyes so full of maiesty and modesty and humility suauity captiue those hartes which they beheld but others who beheld them were as inseparably also captiued therby as if there had beene no place left for election whether they would be takē prisoners or no. The enamoured (m) How the diuine presence of Christ our Lord did most chastly captiue the soule of S. Mary Magdalen Penitent S. Mary Magdalene who formerly was so abandoned to the pleasure of sense found her soule so maistered by this diuine obiect of our B. Sauiours presence that her former honny did instantly turne gall and she was so ingulfed into a sea of chast and pure delight that in the life tyme of our Lord she did euen as it were nayle her selfe to his sacred feet Nay she forsooke them not in his very passion when they were nayled to the Crosse She was in chase of them till his Resurection and after his Ascension she confined her selfe for all those thirty yeares of her suruiuing to a rude and most retyred desert disdayning with a holy kind of scorne that her eyes should feed vpon any other obiect then that which her memory would euer be sure to help her to of her most beloued and most beautifull Lord. His sacred presence had not any superficiall or glearing beauty belonging to it but (n) The Beauty of Christ our Lord was so aboundāt as to make a mā despise all temporall riches a beauty which conteined a Mine of plenty S. Mathew shall witnes this and he shall do it better then by words For instantly vpon our Lords commaundement and their mutuall sight of one another he followed him and that for euer and he discouered in our Lord Iesus another mannor of beautifull abundance then all the whole world could helpe him to And perhaps there is not a better proofe of the rich beauty and excellency of our Lord nor a stranger conuersion of any man recorded Luc. 54 then of this Apostle Who was as we may say in flagranti crimine in the very seate and chaire of sinne beseiged by the company of others who were likely to be as much depraued as himselfe He was in the exercise and occasions of new extorsions and yet (o) The Cōuersiō of S. Matthew was most heroicall he left all without taking so much as an howers tyme to cleere his bookes of account which could not choose but be intricate And all this vpon the single sight hearing the voyce of a meere man as Christ our Lord appeared to be And yet I say so rich was our Sauiours beauty and so attractiue was his manner of speach that instātly it was able to draw that Publicā though he were besotted by desire of gayne to follow him who through his pouerty seemed withall to be the owner of no earthly thing but only of his owne indiuiduall person But the Maies̄ty and splendour of the diuinity though it lay hid Cōment in Matth. c. 7. did yet shine so brightly in his face of flesh bloud as S. Hierome
septimus sine vesper a est nec habet occasum quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam That seauenth day of thine Conf. lib 13. cap. vlt. O God is without any euening nor doth that sunne euer set because thou hast sanctisied it to an eternall continuance This is that infinite benefit which is to be imparted to vs by this blessed Lord of ours and the meanes to conuey it is the office of his being our Sauiour which is declared in this Circumcision by his holy name of Iesus and wherof the next Chapter will tell vs more Of the name of Iesus the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name CHAP. 14. FOR as much as there is no Name which can go neer to expresse the nature of God the holy (a) The reason of giuing so many seuerall names to God as God Scripture to make some kind of signification of the infinite Beinge the other infinite petfections of his diuinity of the benefits which he besto wes vpon vs doth giue him many attributes and many names which may in some small measure declare the effects of his diuine perfections the Offices which he performeth towards his Creatures as namely to be Almighty of infinite wisedome of infinite goodnes of infinite mercy of Creatour of Conseruour of Gouernour of Father of the beginning and end of all things and the like In the selfe same manner (b) The reason also of giuing so many seuerall names to Christ our Lord. to expresse that immense sea of perfections and graces which the whole blessed Trinity did impart to Christ our Lord as man that is to say to that most sacred humanity vnited to the person of the sonne of God the eternall word those incomparable and innumerable guifts and benefits which he communicated to vs by meanes therof the same holy Scripture doth giue him also many seuerall Names and Titles as of King of Priest of Pastour of Doctour of Law-giuer of Spouse of Mediatour of Aduocate of Redeemer of Sauâ—our diuers others wherby he may the better be conceaued since he cannot be sufficiently declared by any one Of all these names of al the rest which may be raunged and reduced to these there is none so excellent nor which doth so include the rest as doth the superexcellent name of Iesus which declareth our Losd to be the Sauiour of the world S. Bern. serm 2. de Circum Dom. serm 15. sup Can. This was that Name which the holy S. Bernard could by noe meanes be made coÌ„tent to want amoÌ„gst so many other most honorable appellations as the Euangelicall Prophet Esay applyed to him This Prophet being full of ioy vpon the fore seing of our Redeemer doth expresse himselfe thus as S. Bernard noteth Puer natus est nobis filius natus est nobis c. A child is borneto vs A sonne is giuen to vs his principality is placed vpon his shoulder his name is called Admirable CoÌ„scllour The stroÌ„ge God The Father of the future age The Prince of Peace Great saith S. Bernard are these names but where is (c) The name of Iesus is the most comfortable of al the names of Christ our Lord. that name which is aboue all names that name of Iesus in which euery knee shall bow The freinds and fauourites of Christ our Lord haue walked in a very different way froÌ„ that wherin such persons of our tymes as are disaffected to this sacred Name wil needs imploy theÌ„selues We see how that both Cherubim Seraphim of flesh bloud the beloued disciple of our Lord Iesus his Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn who sucked in such a bundance from the diuine fountaine of that brest to which he vsed to lay his mouth did paint out no other word so often as that holy and diuine name of Iesus S. Paul (d) The great Deuotion of S. Paul to the Holy name of Iesus that full vessell of election being reprehended in that high vision of our B. Sauiour though in a most amourous and tender manner for persecuting him in the persoÌ„ of the ChristiaÌ„ Church was told by our Lord himselfe that he persecuted he saith not God nor Christ nor the Lord though he were all that but only Iesus And afterward he sayd moreouer to Ananias that this was the Name which Paule as a vessell of election was to carry ouer the earth among Gentiles and Kinges And so as I was saying it is admirable to consider how he was all taken with an vnspeakable delight to be euer in repetition of that sacred name in all his Epistles See also how the incomparable S. Augustine doth in his Confessions to our Lord relate that he was vehemently delighted in the reading of certaine bookes of Philosophy lib. 3. c. 4. which pointed him out to the search of wisedome But yet saith he in that so great delight this only cooled me tooke me off that I found not the name of thy Christ therin For this name O Lord through thy mercy this name of my (e) The name of Christ our Lord which S. Augustine had so greedily sucked vp in his infancy was the name of Sauyour of Iesus note how this Saynt esteemes the guift of deuotion to this holy name as a particular mercy Bern. ser 15. in Cant. Sauiour thy Some my yong and tender hart had euen in the very milke of my mother dronke vp deuoutly and carefully retayned and if any discourse whatsoeuer though neuer so learned so elegant and so true had wanted this name it did not carry me away entierely The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted CHAP. 15. THE day had need be long wherin I would pretend to make particular mention of the incredible deuotion and tender affection which the Saintes and holy seruants of God haue carried to this blessed name of Iesus S. Bernard whom I mentioned before shal therfore serue this turne insteed of many whose fifteenth Sermon vpon the Canticle I beseech my Reader euen in the name of Iesus that he will procure to read For there he may see how in this holy name it is that we meete with the remoue of al our cares He applyes to it that clause of the Canticles Oleum essusum nomen tuum Thy name (a) Note and loue this sweet contemplation of of S. Bernard vpoÌ„ the holy name of Iesus saith he is a pretious Oyle powred forth O blessed name O oyle which euery where is powred forth How farre froÌ„ heauen into Indea and from thence it runs ouer the whole earth We may well say it is powred forth since it hath not only distilled abundantly both in heauen and earth but it hath sprinkled euen them who are below the earth This Christ this Iesus being insused to the Angells and essused or powred out vpon men and those men who were growne rotten like beasts in their
Herod was That thing which once vvas Nothing and now was growne to be so hideously worse then Nothing as it is incomparably worse to be an enemy and persecutour of Christ our Lord then not to be at all But imediatly after the Presentation in the Temple our Lord Iesus was carryed to Nazareth a place remote almost fourescore myles And (b) The occasions of Herods feare Matt. 2. Luc. 2. the noyse of his Natiuity and of the Starre which ledd the Magi and of the Presentation in the Temple together with the prophesies of the King of the Iewes to be borne at Bethleem gaue Herod an all-arme of extreme feare least he who indeed was come to giue vs the kingdome of heauen had meant to rob men of earthly kingdomes But what sayth S. Augustine will his tribunall Ser. 30. de Tempore when he shall sitt as iudge be able to doe now that his Infaurs cradle is able so to fright proud Kings How much better shall those kings doe who seeke not to kill Christ like Herod but rather desire to adore him as the Magi did Him I say who at the hands of his enemies and for his very enemies did endure that death which now his enemies designed him to who being killed afterward did kill that very death in his owne body Leâ— (c) The duty of King sto this King of Kinges Kings carry a pious feare towards him who is sitting at the right hand of his Father whome this impious king did so feare whilst he was sucking at the breast of his mother This cruelty of his did extend so farre as to commaund the death of all the Infants within two yeares of age in Bethleem and all the places neere adjoyning who are esteemed as appears by Ecclesiasticall history to haue arriued to the number of about (*) Vide Salmeron Tom. 3. Tract 44. foureteene thousand That so he might be sure at least as he conceaued to make our Lord away who had not then in likelyhood the age of so many monthes But because some Children are more forvvard in grovvth then others and some errour might chaunce to arriue by the mistaking of age vvithin a little compasse he thought it vvas lesse ill to murther thousands more then needed then to aduenture the escape of that one vvho yet came voluntaryly to dye euen that the tyrant himselfe might not perish So different are the designes of God and man so different are their desires And the successe is also so very different as that the diuine Maiesty doth take sometymes the (d) God draweth good out of euill peruerse will of man yet without hauing any part in the peruersenes therof for the execution of his iust decrees yea not only such of them as are founded in iustice but euen in mercy also It would seeme to some who iudge of God by the lawes which they vse to prescribe for themselues that it had beene much more agreable to the greatnes of such a God as we describe not to haue permitted that such a Tyrant should liue to commit so vast a cryme as this How easely could our Lord with the least breath of his mouth Deutr. 4. which is a consuming fire haue blowne downe that painted wall how little would it haue cost him to haue strocken Herod lame or blind or mad or dead or to haue damned him to hell for all eternity and at an instant How soone could he haue sent that infamous Rebellious little worme who presumed after a sort to spit in the face of that high Maiesty into the bottomelesse pit of Nothing from whence with mercy he had beene drawne It might haue bene instantly and most easely done But the wisedome of God tooke pleasure to drawe great good out of great euill and his loue was that which did set his wisedome so on worke For (e) The wise mercy of God by this permission of his and by the publishing of Herods cruelty the notice of the mistery of his owne Natiuity was much inereased that so his loue to the soules of men might be declared And besides if tyrants were not permitted on earth there would be no Martyrs in heauen as S. Augustine saith And if this tyrant had then beene strocken by some suddayne death the mercy of God might haue seemed lesse wheras now by forbearance euen Herod also had tyme of penance though his Malice were such as that it made no vse therof And * The happines of the Innocents and their mothers against their owne the Tyrants will as for the happy Innocents who were murthered by that Tyrant vpon the occasion of Christ our Lord it is plaine that the world which would deplore their misery yea and their afflicted mothers who did also lament their owne infelicity were farre from iudging as they ought For how much better was it for those mothers to be created mothers of so many Martyrs who instantly went to a seat of rest and presently after the Resurrection of Christ our Lord were placed as a garland vpon his owne sacred head and carryed into an eternity of glory for hauing bene murthered in despight and for the hate of him then to haue contynued as they were but the mothers of Children like the rest Who if they had runne on in their owne naturall course they might perhaps haue ended it with the losse of their soules wheras novv they vvere not only saued but vvhich is more it vvas done vvithout their hauing euer so much as once offended God and so they vvere made the very flovver and first fruits of martyrs So that the loue of our Lord vvas exercised heerin vpon them all And (f) The loue of our Lord Iesus entreth euery where and vpon all occasions vvhere may vve not looke for this loue And vvhat place can be found vvhich is voyd therof since euen in the poysned Cuppe of the Tyrants hate the pretious liquor of his diuine loue did svvym so high as to fill the same To himselfe he tooke the most sad and painefull and shamefull part The compassion vvhich he had of the holy Innocents paine and death I meane of that little which they felt of paine in that passage for his sake vvas a kind of infinite thing That of the mothers vvas extreme for the sacred Text discribes them by vvay of Prophecy to haue bene so profoundly afflicted Ierem. 31. Matt. 2. as that not only they could not but euen they would not receaue comfort But as the loue of the tendrest mother to the only infant of her vvombe may go euen for hatred if it be compared to those vnspeakable ardours of affection vvhervvith the hart of our Lord doth euer flame tovvards all the Creatures for vvhome he dyed Esay 49. for although a mother should forget her sonne yet can not I forget you saith our Lord so may their griefe hovv great soeuer be termed a kind of ioy in respect of his Theirs grovving our of selfe loue
in the Temple With how vnspeable loue both to God and man did our Lord IESVS dispossesse himselfe for a while of the greatest ioy and comfort that he could receaue in this world which was the sweet society of his sacred mother wherein although through the eminency of grace which had beene communicated to her happy soule in the very first instant of her Immaculate Conception he could neuer haue found the least distraction from the immediate and most perfect seruice of Almighty God yet because the parents of his disciples and seruants would not all be such but would often be diuerting and diswading vs from corresponding with his inspirations and our obligations he was pleased not only to giue vs an example at large but euen to impart the very expresse words themselues wherby we might ouercome their intreaties And rather then we should not be instructed to forsake all flesh and bloud when once there should be question of Gods seruice and rather then we should not be armed well agaynst those temptatioÌ„s which might grow to vs from our Parents he was content to exemplify the case in his owne sacred person with a seeming diminution to his B. Mother For this it was that when the all-immaculate virgin spake to him in these tender words Sonne why hast thou so done to vs Lâ—â— 2. behold thy Father and I sorrowing did seeke thee Our B. Sauiour answered thus not in the way of reprehension as certayne course-harted people will needs conceaue but (e) In what sense our Lord Iesus spake to his B. mother out of compassion to them and out of instruction to vs Why is it that you sought me did you not knowe that I must be about those things which are my Father And to show that his meaning was but to benefit vs by that expression of himselfe and not to cast the least aspersion of imperfection vpon his most holy mother and S. Ioseph he caused his holy spirit to record it instantly after in holy Scripture that he departed from the Temple with them and came to Nazareth was subiect to them And heere let him that can consider and admire the vnspeakeable dignity and excellency of our B. Lady to whom the God of heauen earth would become a subiect And let him much more adore God for the infinite humility and Charity of our Lord IESVS (e) The incomparable loue of Lord in being so subiect to our B. Lady and S. Ioseph who vouchsafed by this stronge example of his to procure the quenching of our pride and the kindling of our loue by making himselfe a subiect to flesh and bloud for our sake he who was the superiour and soueraigne Lord of all the creatures both in heauen earth He shewed well what he was whilst yet he sate in the Temple amongst the Doctours Of whome he heard what they could say and he asked them to see what they would answere And many other things he also did at the same tyme though holy Scripture by wrapping them vp in silence doe rather leaue matter for our soules then for our senses to worke vpon For he did both pray his eternall Father for their conuersion to his diuine Maiesty and for the manifestation of his glory not only in their hartes vvho vvere present then but in as many as by their meanes should aftervvard come to knovv vvhat had passed there The sacred Text affirmes How all that heard him were aslonished at his wisedome and answeres and that seeing him they wondred And vve may vvell assure our selues that theyr admiring his diuine presence theyr being astonished at his vvisedome vvas to that holy soule of our Lord Iesus an occasion of much mortisication which nothing but ardent Charity could haue made him so willingly imbrace For he was then but twelue yeares old and he had bene bred in a poore and plaine appearance and he dwelt in the very depth of profound hamility And humility when indeed it is profound doth make a soule much more abhorre admiration and prayse then any hart which is vayne can appreh end and hate to be despised The vvhile if all they were so amazed by hearing him vvho vvere the Doctours of the law and vvho vvere likely to despise all the world in comparison of themselues and if the very sight of him made them wonder vvhose eyes vvere euen almost put out by the dust of Enuy and Hypocrysy vvhich the mind of pride had raysed into them which our Lord IESVS by the dropps of his diuine grace vvas procuring them to lay in a farre higher manner must (f) We are particularly bound to admire the wisedome and grace of our Lord Iesus we vvho are Christian and vvhome our Lord instructs not only at some certaine tymes as he did that people in the Temple but to vvhose harts he is euer preaching in a most particular manner happy are they who apply the eares therof to his sacred mouth adore the Maiesty of his wisedome and power and admire the dignity and beauty of his humanity and be inflamed and euen consumed with the sense of his eternall prouidence and ardent loue But yet withall we must consider that howsoeuer it be said and that most truely Thâ—it he proceeded in wisedome and age and grace with God and men this is only to be vnderstood of that kind of wisedome which might grow through experimentall knowledge by way of the senses which he had like vs though yet with this difference as (*) Cap. â—â— hath bene shewed that euen therin he was free from all possibility of errour which we are not For his wisedome otherwise was so great as not to be capable of any increase as nether was his grace wherof in the instant of his Conception that diuine soule of his had receiued all absolute fulnes But he may be truely said to haue increased dayly with God and men in Grace that is in Fauour because euery day more more his soule was beautified by new acts in the sight of God and daylie he made more and more discouery of himselfe to men according to the rates of their Capacity and they would not haue bene men but beasts and blockes if they had not bene taken by such an obiect We are taught withall by his growing thus in grace before God and men to performe our actions in such sort as that we must nether procure to please God alone by not caring for the edification of men nor yet men alone through Hipocrisy or want of purity in the intention but they both must goe together hand in hand as daily our Lord when he grew afterward to mans estate did effectually teach vs more and more Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in that he would vouchsafe to be Baptized CHAP. 21. VVHAT thought of man or Angell can reach to that humility which Christ our Lord being longe since growne to be a man and now vpon the poynt of
transfigured before them That his face did shine like the sunne That his garments were as white as snow That Moyses and Elyas appeared also and were speaking with him That their discourse was of that excesse of loue which he would shew in the passion through which he was to passe in Hierusalem That S Peter was so rapt with ioy as to say That it was good being there and to beg of our Lord that there they might haue still remayned but that before he had ended his speach a bright cloud came downe which ouershadowed them and this voyce was thundred out from thence This is my beloued sonne in whome I am well pleased heare him Vpon the noyse of this voyce the Disciples fell prostrate vpō their faces as being much a frayd but our Lord Iesus drew neere and touched them said withall rise vp and doe not feare and when they looked vp they saw none but only Iesus And as they were going downe the hill he cōmaunded them not to speake of that vision till he should be risen from the dead This glorious miracle did shine in the exteriour of our Lord so vehemētly as to send the beames therof to his Disciples but it vvas the flame of loue which burning so hot in his diuine hart did breake out much more vpon them that so their soules and ours by theirs might be set on fyre He had then lately been telling them of his passion which was to come That he was to endure many and grieuous things That he was to be condemned by the high Priests That he was to suffer death and then to rise He had further said that for their good they must be imitatours of him and that howsoeuer the way of the Crosse might fall out to be hard and stony yet there was no remedy but they must runne it through And now least their mindes might haue bene oppressed with inordinate griefe or else assaulted afterward with vnbeliefe or at least discouraged by the difficulties of this life which he knew was to proue so painfull to them for the seruice of God his (c) A particular reason why our Lord would be transfgured before some of his Apostles hart of loue could no longer hould from expressing it selfe towards thē in some such kind as might not only strengthen them against all feare of future harme but might solace them also in aboundant māner both with the present sense of excessiue ioy and an infallible expectation of much more to follow afterward And when he had conueyed the notice of his passion like a bitter dose of pills into their mindes he did like a carefull Phisitian put a spoonfull of Conserue after it into their mouthes least otherwise they might chance to haue cast their Phisicke As generally in holy Scripture so particularly in this mistery of the Transfiguration and of the ioy which was commuicated to the Disciples by meanes therof the expressiōs euen of things which are very great are yet very positiue and playne as I shall also shew elsewhere And Saynt Peter only said Bonum est nos hic esse It is good for vs to be heere But (d) This seemes to haue been but a smal expressiō of ioy but inded it was very great and why though this may seeme to be but a leane and hungry kind of signification of his ioy for his hauing beene made participant of that high vision yet indeed it vvas such a one as could not well be more endeared To haue said that it had beene better to be in the top of that high mountaine with Christ our Lord then to haue bene in the midst of all the treasures and pleasures of the world below had bene to allow a kind of goodnes to these other things though infeririour to that which there he felt For to say that one thing is better then another doth leaue a power in that other thing to be good But by only saying that this was good it rather seemes to follow that whatsoeuer vvas lower and lesse then this would not be good S. Peter was heere in a kind of midle Region of the ayre betewne ordinary grace below glory aboue And as he could not say that his then present condition was any more then good in regard that nothing of this life was so good or indeed that it was absolutely good at all so neither could he say that it was any more then good in regard of the ioyes which are felt in heauen And therfore he said not that it was a soueraigne or an infinite good which is only enioyed in that next life by the sight of God Exod. 33. That sight is that Omne bonum which was promised by our Lord God that he would shew his seruant Moyses in heauen This other is that bonum which now was shewed to his Apostles heere on earth But though it were but bonum in comparison of that infinite good yet if this such as it vvas had bene set by the vvhole vvorld of worldly pleasures they would all haue streight appeared to be but durt and trash and this would haue shined like a second heauen of glory in comparison of them We must therfore be farre from thinking meanely of it but rather we are to call our wits about vs and to argue thus If some (e) What wonders the holy ghost doth worke in the soule of man influence or visitation of the holy Ghost whilst it doth but slip into the soule of man be able to comfort him when he was laid though neuer so low in the bed of distresse and desolation If some extraordinary communication of Gods Spirit can eleuate the soule not only aboue all other creatures but euen aboue it selfe so as not only to disgust it and that for euer from all humane hopes or feares but to make it halfe forget that there is any other thing but God If some true Reuelation or diuine imaginary vision such as our Lord doth sometymes cōmunicate to his friends fauorites in this life when and why it pleaseth him as we find recorded in their liues doth sometymes so inebriate and fixe and transforme thē into him as they may rather be said to swym and bath at ease in a sea of comfort then to trauell and trudge by land in a desert full of difficulties distresse what effect shall we thinke this vision of visions did worke in the mind of the B. Apostles Who saw not what they saw by imagination only but they had before the eyes both of their body and minde the humanity of Christ our Lord all in glory with Moyses and Elias doing him homage in the name of both those worlds which liued eyther vnder the law of nature or the written law The incomparable ioy which the Apostles tooke through the loue which our Lord Iesus shewed them in his Transfiguration and how himselfe was content to want the glory of it both before and after for the loue of them CHAP. 30. THE sunne
how he loued that man Ibid. Yet Lazarus indeed his friends had obliged our Lord by particular seruices to his owne sacred person wheras the holy Text affirmes in many other places that his diuine pitty mercy did worke most tenderly also towards others vpon whom he had no other eye at all then as they were parts of mankind all which he did so deerly loue And therfore he pittied both their generall and particular miseries as appeares by the story of the widdow in the death of her sonne Luc. 7. Matt. 13. Mar. 8. Matt. 23◠and of the people in the wildernes for their distresse of hungar and especially of the citty of Ierusalem when with his eyes full of teares he lamented their misery as hath bene said else where The holy Scripture also affirmeth not only that he pittied them Matt. 1◠Marc. 8. but that himselfe would professe and say as much And besides he ordayned that the notice of it should be left to vs vpō record And what charming words were those when he would bid them Aske (1) Ioan. 16. and haue that their ioye might be full and when he would say What (2) Marc. 10. wilt thou haue me doe Yea and also in expresse termes Be it vnto thee (3) Matt. 15. as thou wilt thy selfe As if he were content that man should be as it were his owne caruer out of the very omnipotency of God and that the mercy of God were to haue no other measure then mans owne desire And when he would say My selfe will (4) Matt. 8. goe and cure the sicke person at thy house And when being the soueraigne King of glory he would yet become a begger of a cup of could water of the (5) Ioan. 4. Samaritan women whilst the while he was filling her soule with the water of grace which instantly might take all possibility of further thirst from her And when he would call them by many and most tender names as we haue shewed vpon another occasion And when he would begge of them that they would sinne no more And when he would so labouriously defend and plead the cause of S. Mary (6) Luc. 37. Magdalene his enamoured penitent And when he confounded that hypocrysy and pride of the Iewes and had such diuine pitty of the poore (7) Ioan. 8. Adultresse And whē he would goe as he did to him who was borne (8) Ioan. 9. blind whome himselfe would needs vouchsafe to seeke as soone as he was excommunicated by the Iewes And hauing found him he gaue him comfort and passed sometyme in his conuersation and withdrew that curtaine which he suffered still to hange betwixt him and others and told him at last in plaine powerful tearmes (9) Ibid. That the Sauiour of the world was then speaking to him The great laboriousnesse of Loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in the working of his Miracles is more declared CHAP. 43. NOVV withall this loue which our Lord expressed in the working of his miracles was no nice or wary kind of loue For it cost him excessiue paines labour and imployed him in iourneying through all that hilly cōtry on foote as may be seene throughout the whole Euangelicall history to find matter Matt. 9. Marc. 6. for his mercy of that kind to worke vpon And sometymes all Iewry not being able to containe and compasse in those bowells of his charity he would be breaking out into the skirts of the Gentiles Matt. 25. which he began to ennoble sanctifie by his presence And whersoeuer he were he was importuned by poore people to take pitty on them and he had so much towards them that he had none of himselfe But he prayed for them by night he laboured for them by day that so hard that as sometymes (1) Matt. 4. 12. 15. he had no bread to eate so at othertymes he had not so (2) Marc. 3. much as leaue or tyme to eate it in yea or so much as (3) Marc. 2. 3. euen scarce meanes to stirre through the presse of people which came about him At all howers was he ready to giue them health if they had beene ready alwaies to receaue it But the Country in sommer begin extremly hoat for them to haue repaired to him in the heate of the day would haue bene perhaps but to haue exchanged one sicknes for another Or els though the Patients would haue bene glad to be carryed or conducted the men vvho vvere to help them had not charity inough to endure the trouble But hovvsoeuer the Patients or their friends did stand affected the Phisitian was still at hand and he desired no better Fee then to be doing them fauour And (a) What troopes of sicke persons were brought to our B. Lord for eure Luc. 4. so therfore in the euenings about Sunne-set the holy Scripture shevves vvhat troopes of people of all those villages tovvnes and citties vvould come in about him Drawing out dying men into the sight of that truer brighter sunne vvhich vvas euer shining tovvards them as at noone day Not only did he cure them all but besides the benefit it self of their health he imparted it vvith so much tendernes of loue as not to permit that there should be so much as any one of them all vvhome he vvould not touch vvith his ovvne pure povverfull hands though he vvas infinitely able to haue cured them all at once Luc. 4. and vvith the least vvord of his mouth or euen vvith the wil of his hart At other tymes agayne he vvould accomplish their desires in another forme And as before he cured them by touching them vvith his owne sacred flesh to shew his loue so novv he vvould doe it by letting thē touch his garments Marc. 6. or his person to shevv his povver There might you haue seeme as if it had bene a very Market or Faire of sicke Folkes of all diseases both of body and mind which went Progresse with him whersoeuer he had a mind to goe Some leaning vpon staues some carried in mens armes and some in their beds vpon wheele barrowes A running (*) A running cāpe of souldiers who had been wounded by sinne camp it was of souldiers who had all beene wounded in the warre by their enemies and they hoped for help by flying towards the Cullours of this Captaine And we may make account that though he were the King both of heauen and earth yet he tooke not so much gust in being courted by the Angells of heauen as he did in being haunted by this hospitall which went euer creeping after him on earth This (b) Many Hospitalls in one hospitall had all kindes of hospitals made vp in one One hospital for al sortes of ordinary diseases as Feauers Dropsies Fluxes of bloud and the like Another for the Blind Another for the Lame Another for the Deafe Another for the Dumbe Another for
infallible truth we might be beaten blind with seeing and starued with surfetting as we see many others are and the very vastnes of those misteries which are opened to vs for our cōfort by Christ our Lord would make vs halfe doubt whether they were or could be true or no. The beloued Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn had lodged himselfe so long so neere the hart of our blessed Lord that he was easily able to discerne and declare how excellently he loued vs from the beginning and that withall his loue continued towards vs to the end Iesus autem Ioan. 13. cùm dilexisset suos in finem dilexit eos Nay the motion of the loue of his diuine hart towards man hauing bene so naturall in him it is no meruaile if it vvent more violently in the end of his sacred life then at the beginning All the passions of that happy soule were intyrely subiect to the commaund of his reason and he held it to be a thing agreable to the dignity immutability of the God he was to speake of all things as was toucht before after a positiue manner and wonderfully as we vse to say within compasse Superlatiues and Exaggerations vsed to be thin sowed in the blessed mouth of our Lord IESVS Nor is he in effect euer found to haue said any thing as seeming to haue bene transported with any extraordinary or passionate desire or care but (b) When he came towardes the passiō our Lord did seem to breake his pace only concerning that which he was to suffer in his sacred Passion and that which he was to doe in the night precedent to the same When formerly he was aduising his Apostles to haue great confidence in the prouidence of God by letting them see what a care he had euen of sparrowes and inferring therby that he would incomparably more haue care of them he exaggerated not the matter Matt. 10. but did only aske If themselues were not to be more esteemed then many sparrowes Wheras yet one soule is more in the sight of God not only thē many sparrowes but then al the whole material world put together When he had a mind to tell them what a misery it was for that wretch that he would make himselfe the betrayer of the sonne of man Matt. 8◠he only said wo be to that man it had been better for him if he had neuer been borne which was but a very plaine and positiue manner of expression For as much as not only this greatest sinne which euer was perhaps conceaued but the least mortall sinne that can be imagined without repentance doth make a man much more vnhappy then if he were vtterly depriued of being When he professed the omnipotency of his eternall Fathers power to deliuer him out of the hands of them who tooke and tyed him he told them only Matt. 26. that if he should pray for any helpe of that kind his Father would send more then twelue legions of Angells to his succour Wheras he might as good cheape haue said twelue thousand as twelue legions But our Lord IESVS was not wont to vse any superlatiue manner of speach and he hath had many seruants who haue carefully imitated him in this as in the rest But yet neuer thelesse whē he reflected vpō the thought of that passiō which he was resolued to vndergoe for the Redēption of mā the very desire of the approach of so happy a day made him cōfesse that he was in paine till it did arriue Luc. 12. Baptismo habeo baptizari quomodo coactor donec veniat Or rather he did not so much say that he was in paine as by words of interrogation in the way after a sort of seeming impatient he asked himselfe this very question in effect How much am I payned how straitely am I imprisoned til I haue my fil of suffering for the loue of man Iust (c) Our Lord did long for the tyme when he might institute the B. Sacrament so may we see that when the time of celebrating the feast of the Paschal lambe was come he grew euen greedily desirous to eate it in the company of his B. Apostles before his Passion And for their comfort he would not choose but say Luc. 22. Desiderio desider aui manducare vobiscum hoc Pascha antequam patiar That he desired it and that with desire vpon desire and such desire as could neuer be appeased till he were satisfied till that tyme of the last supper were past wherin he had resolued to impart vnspeakeable tokens of his loue to them and so the other tyme of his Passion wherin he was to endure the depth of all torments and affronts for the same loue were then immediatly to come In the euening therfore and within few howers of his Passion this enamoured Lord of ours hauing all the parts and passages therof in his eye and looking as it were in the very face of death and such a death he yet (d) Our Lord kept the shew of all his sorrow to himselfe Ioan. 13. laid vp all the sorrow in his owne hart and would discouer to his Apostles no other semblance then of ioy and comfort least his griefe might be a cause of theirs He conuersed with them after his ordinary and familiar manner he disposed himselfe first to eate the Paschall lambe with them After that he sate downe with them to a common Supper He kept his diuine countenance full of quietnes and peace He tooke them close about him on all sides He cheered them vp with his gratious eyes and he carued them with his liberall hands Nay with those hands to the dispēsation wherof his eternall Father had cōmitted all things he disdayned not then to wash the vncleane feete of those poore Apostles For which purpose first he put of his vpper garment as any hired seruant was to haue done Ioan. 13. and by the force of his owne armes he tooke a big vessell full of water out of that he silled a lesser He girt himselfe with a towell into which he tooke their corporall vncleanes as a figure of how he would purify their harts by his sacred Passion For then he was to beare the deformity of their sinnes vpon the shoulders of his body which was a kind of winding sheet to his soule When our Lord had thus performed this act of religion in eating of the Paschall lambe and of incomparable suauity in his conuersation of vnspeakeable humility in the Lotiō of his Apostles feete he returned to the table and amazed all the (e) The Angells might well be amazed to see the sonne of God giue his owne body in food to sinners Angells of heauen whose vnderstāding did euen agonize in seeing him performe that supereminent act of Charity when he instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and ordeyned the holy Sacrifice of the Masse which was so worthy of an infinite God This was done by diuine
into his And (e) No wonder is strange where God is the worke man Psalm 111◠what meruaile can it be that such wōders as these be wrought in man since it is the Creatour of man and of all things els who descends so low as to liue in him he of whom it is sayd that Gloria diuitiae in domo eius What meruaile is it if we be made so glorious and so rich since he vouchsafes to make pure and humble soules the house wherin he desires to be intertayned and euen to be the very couch wherin he delighteth to be enloyed by the most chast but yet most strayte imbracements of diuine loue What meruaile I say if such as receiue this food with pure affections doe lead euen in this world a life which is not of this world since the selfe same God who feeds all the spirits of heauen hath contryued (f) In some sort we are equall to the Angells euen in this life a way how to giue himselfe for the same food to mortall men The same food I say though it be dressed after a different māner and serued in vnder a disguise of the accidents of bread and wine as betwene two couered dishes according to the custome amōgst great persons Euen this of the disguise was also done out of an admirable diuine loue to vs who had not bene able in this fraile state of ours to see God and liue And besides we grow thus to haue a meanes of exercising most heroicall acts of Faith towards him To which acts of beleeuing in this life doth correspond the rewards and glory of perfect seeing in the next But the substance of the food is still the same both heere and there Apoc. 22. And (g) Our food in the blessed Sacramēt is the very same wher with the happy soules are feasted in heauen therfore S. Iohn according to the obseruation of Doctour Auila relates that it was one and not diuers Trees which he saw on both the bancks of that riuer which flowed out of the throne of God Vpon the one of which bancks being the tryumphant Church in heauē Christ our Lord doth sustaine them there and on the other bancke which is the militant Church wherof we haue the honor and happines to be members the same tree of life doth feed vs heere We are also taught this very truth by the sacred mouth of Christ our Lord himselfo Iohn 6. who said That he was the bread that came downe from heauen If therfore he be the bread of heauen he is the food of the inhabitāts of heauen and if that food be thus imparted to his childrē in this world it must be only their fault if they lead not euen heere a life of heauen We (h) How man ennobleth other food by eating it but he is ennobled by this see that in the case euen of common food how base soeuer that be it is raysed by being eaten to the dignity of becōming a part of him who eates it because the man is nobler then the meate and he assumeth it therfore vp to himselfe And what should then become of such as doe worthily feed vpon this bread of life this nourishmēt of heauē which is Christ our Lord but that for as much as this food is infinitely of better quality then our selues by eating it we should be transformed into it and of terrestriall in our conuersation should become celestiall and resemble the Angells in purity since we carry resemblance to them in the food we take which is the God and King of glory An infinite and of it selfe an incredible thinge this is that such creatures as we should be sublimed to such a height of dignity euen in this life But to the end that it might astonish vs the lesse when it should arriue and that our wonder might be all conuerted into loue it (i) The banquet of the B. Sacramēt was fortold by many Figures before it came was the good will of God to foretell vs of it long before and to reprosent it as it were to our very eyes by way of figures and shadowes that so being accustomed to consider those shadowes we might with more facility imbrace the body when it should be come For this is the accomplishment of al those figures of the (1) Exod. 11. Paschall lambe of the (2) Psalm 77. Manna of the bread of (3) Exod. 25. Proposition of the Banquet which King (4) Hester ◠Assuerus made of many others And as it was a body in repect of those former shadowes and figures so may it be accounted in some respects but as a figure in respect of the celestiall Banquet of eternall beatitude which shall be serued in hereafter as the second course of our delicious fare when we are to feed for all eternity The Sacramentall presence of our Lord IESVS doth stay no longer then the species of bread and wine remaine but the ayre vertue thereof doth still contynue till it be driuen thence And (k) The wonderful effects of the B. Sacramēt so great effects they are which grow vpon it in such as are carefull to comply with God as giues them aboundant testimony that no lesse then omnipotency it selfe is there Nay it is most certainly true that the blessed Sacrament doth worke and that very often in the soules of such as dispose themselues deuoutly to it so many and so wonderful effects sometimes in giuing strēgth of body where it was wanting before sometimes in the vtter extirpation of some passion sometymes in the infusion of some great vertue sometymes in changing at a very instant the whole sense of the soule making it all tryumph with ioy wheras immediatly before it was halfe dead of griefe as doth much declare and proue the diuinity of Christ our Lord. Yea and theyr soules doe feele it so as that if there were no other argument or authority in the whole world but what they find within themselues it might serue to giue them great assurance that Christ our Lord is no lesse then God A (l) The great life vigour which growes to the soule by the B. Sacrament Minerall this is soe full of Spirit that it leaues a liuely tincture in the violl wherinto it hath bene powred It perfumes the whole soule if it be well dissolued by acts of loue But then we must doe as we vse whē a roome is well perfumed to keepe the doores and windowes shut Recollection in this case doth euen import a man as much as his life Which yet if God bid him giue ouer and that his diuine Maiesty doe for the reasons of (m) Spirituall comforts must giue place to the exercise of charity obedience 2. Cor. 2. Charity or Obedience require him to open and impart himselfe to others he shall be still A good odour of Christ our Lord to God but withall he hath so much strength as not to be dissipated in
content for loue of vs to be spit vpon to be buffeted stript stareke naked scourged crucified blasphemed for the loue for the good of man I find it not so strange that a Iew who called Christ our Lord Impostour and Traytour should deny this Doctrine of the blessed Sacrament because he beleeues him to be a Traytour and a Lyer who said That the bread was his body I find it not so strāge that a Pagan or a Morisco should deny it for he also denies to beleeue that God did make himselfe man and dye But that a Christian who saith that Christ is God and who acknowledgeth those words of Hoc est corpus meum to haue bene spoken by his owne sacred mouth and that so immediatly before he dyed and besides in the nature of a last will and Testament which no ordinary wise man would haue penned in doubtfull and ambiguous termes that a Christian I say should cut himselfe out such a motly kind of faith at this and argue against Gods power by saying that his body must needs be subiect to all the qualities of other naturall bodyes whether he will or no and against his infinite mercy by not beleeuing that he would submit himselfe though he sayd he did to such indignities as they conceaue him to be subiect to by this kind of communication of himselfe this I say is strāge and I say agayne that it deserues to be eternally deplored with teares of bloud For in (g) The denyall of this doctrine doth shoot at the disgrace of Gods omnipotency or infinite wisedome or infinite loue in fine all the arguments which they bring against the probability of this diuine truth are but so many arrowes shot vp by them against his omnipotency And all those reasons wherby they would taxe it of any absurdity or inconuenience are but so many teeth which offer to carpe and teare away some part of his infinite wisedom And all those charges wherby they would lay aspersion vpon it of indignity are but so many protestations that they are not capable of the supereminent science wherof the blessed Apostle speakes Ephes 3. cōcerning the infinite goodnes and loue of Christ our Lord to man Of the Obligation which we haue to God for so great a benefit and who are most bound to be deuoted to it and why and how happy they must needs be who frequent it with deuotion CHAP. 51. LET the same loue of IESVS Christ our Lord intercede with the Eternall Father that they may not for euer be depriued of this food of life Without which it is no meruaile if they be dayly more and more disposing themselues to dye that fearfull double death both of body and soule And for our parts we who are Catholikes let (a) The great obligation which Catholiques haue to God for the blessing of our faith vs adore that excellent Maiesty for this high mistery and especially for that light of faith and grace wherby he hath enabled vs to beleeue it to loue him for it Nay let vs do it so much the more as there are too many in the world who dishonour and blaspheme him euen for this very excesse of his goodnes Which though he designed to all mankind yet to vs alone he hath giuen efficacious helpes wherby to gather the true fruite therof And so let (b) We must procure God amends for the faults of others vs double our deuotiō to this bread of Angells as that we may make Christ our Lord a kind of amends as I may say in respect of the much loue which he hath wholy lost vpon the vnbeleeuers blasphemers of this mystery so that we must pay not only our owne but others debts Especially it will concerne such of vs to be entirely deuouted to it as haue much dishonoured or prophaned this diuine Sacrament either by any notable want of preparation before the receauing it or of recollection afterward and much more if when they came to this Table they examined and looked vpon their conscience through the false spectacles of selfe loue and passion and not through the cleere pure christall glasse of the law of God For thus they taught themselues to beleeue grosse lyes insteed of truth and to walk in the darke through the most intricate and obscure waies of sinne and thereby they haue come to pollute themselues and prophane the holy thinges of God and to commit as many sacriledges as they receaued Sacraments and they would infallibly and most iustly haue dropt downe into hell if our Lord had not been infinitely mercifull towards them Such persons as these and there are too many such in the world when they communicated or celebrated in such a state of mind in mortall sinne as this did deserue to be strucken with suddē death at the Altar where they stood or before which they kneeled and there to haue made their entrance into the eternall torments of hell fire It (c) Our Lord might haue inflicted great punishmēts for this great fault and yet still haue been full of mercy had bene mercy and infinite mercy in God if giuing them grace to repent their sinnes afterward he had but strucken them at the present with some signe from heauen in the face of the world according to some such examples of his Iustice as were seen sometymes by the testimony of S. Cyprian and others in the primitiue Church Or els if he had depriued them of the vse of reason and made them mad and franticke for a while Or els if towards the sauing of their soules he had permitted them for a tyme to be possessed with Legions of deuills in their body and to be subiect to their rage by tearing their flesh with their owne hands and throwing themselues into fire and water and foaming and vttering dreadfull cryes and wandring by night in darke woods or els amongst the sepulchers of dead men as we find in the holy Ghospel that possessed persons did vse to doe This more then this seuerity might our Lord haue vsed against the prophaners of this mystery yet haue shewed excessiue mercy if withall he had giuen them grace to repent at last But these sinnes are frequent though the exemplar punishment be not so For our Lord expecteth vs to penance that so he may not be forced to take reuenge and this he doth in the bowells of his owne charity and the inuinciblenes of his patience for which let all the Angells prayse him But for this very reason of his infinite goodnes euen abstracting from the double trebble dangers which either delaies of our conuersion or relapses from grace doe vse to bring it will be tyme for vs all to turne the leafe that the good may be better and the bad may procure to be growing good For (d) Euen the excellency of the food makes the not digesting it the more daungerous but as for this food by grace we may digest it
is most toucht so is their paine augmented by speaking or thinking of things which concerne Almighty God whose breath they smell but vpon whose substance they are not suffered now to seed and yet all things els are a torment to them They thirst and pine they euen consume and melt and they cry out to our Lord and there is none but only himselfe who can comfort that swelling and gasping soule of theirs And though they seeme to be neere him yea and so they are in very deed yet they find themselues to be as in a prison out of which they know not how to breake Such affects as these doe raigne in the harts of some choyce seruants of God vpon the consideration which they haue of wanting certayne feeling communications of his diuine Maiesty in this woefull pilgrimage wherin they liue Yea it is not many yeares since one who was sicke of this sweetly sad disease was so happy as to dy of a flux of teares and another whose hart strings brake and he instantly dyed in exercising some acts of the loue of God and so it was found when he was opened Measure (e) The incomparable griefe of our Lord Iesus then by this what depth of sorrow it must cause in the hart of our B. Lord to be absented so from the feeling fruition of God whome he knew so well whom he loued so much and whome so perfectly he had inioyed before In comparison of whose knowledge and loue and ioy in God the knowledge and loue and ioy of all the other creatures put together is not so much as one single moate compared to the whole body of the earth And yet wheras they with all this griefe of theirs for wanting God haue yet through his goodnes some such kind of feeling of him still as makes it to be in the midst of paines a kind of most ioyfull sufferance our Lord was pleased to take the bitter without the sweet for himselfe and only to feele and penetrate the want vvherin he vvas of that good vvithout enabling the inferiour part to reflect vpon that same very good in the vvay of conceauing any Comfort by it The incomparable sorrow of Christ our Lord through his consideration of the dishonour of God and the sinne and misery of man togeather with the sight of what himselfe was to suffer CHAP. 56. NOVV if it vvould be of such vnsufferable paine for Christ our Lord to be only absented or estranged from Almighty God vvhich abseÌ„ce is no sinne but only a punishment and vvhich is not many tymes ' of any offence at all to the diuine Maiesty but serueth only for a probation of vertue and for a preparation to an increase of grace hovv may vve thinke that it vvould pierce his hart from side to side to see as hath been sayd that God prophaned his glory disgraced his lavv transgressed and all those creatures vvhom he had created after his ovvne Image to enioy heauen vvith eternall felicity to staÌ„d novv so neere vpon the tearmes of being damned to euerlasting misery He savv vvhat Adams happy state had beene and vvhat a miserable a state it vvas grovvne to be He savv that reason vvhich vvas a Queene vvas novv become the drudge of PassioÌ„ The sinnes of the vvhole world were to passe vpon his account nor was the least of them to be pardoned by the Iustice of God but in vertue of the sacred Passion which then he was about to vndergoe They were (a) The true cause of our Lords excessiue sorrow all represented to his dolorous afflicted mind as distinctly as they were distinct in their being coÌ„mitted and a million of tymes more cleerly then the men who coÌ„mitted them did euer see them Let a man but thinke how many sinnes he alone may haue committed in some one day of his life and then how many daies he hath liued how many of his sinnes he hath forgotten how many of his actions words thoughts are accounted sinfull in the sight of God which yet did not seeme so to him Let him thinke how many men there are in the towne where he may chance to be how many in the Prouince how many in the kingdome how many in all Europe how many in all the world at this tyme. Let him thinke how many there haue bene in the whole world throughout all the ages therof since the begining and how many there may be before the end And who shall now be able once to conceaue of the innumerable sinnes which haue bene are are to be coÌ„mitted by all this race of maÌ„kind Prouer. 14. since the iust man sinneth seauen tymes a day by veniall sinnes and many who goe for Saints with vs will be found to haue committed many and many Mortall What shall we therfore say of such wicked men as drinke iniquity vp like water Iob. 15. whether they be vicious Catholicks or blasphemous Heretiques or disobedient Schismatiques or perfidious Ievves or Prophane Pagans or bestiall Turkes and Mores What Legions what millioÌ„s what worlds of sinnes must there haue been presented to the soule of Christ our Lord to suffer for since for as much as concerned him he accepted the punishment of them all and that by so exact scales of diuine Iustice as that if any one of all those sinnes had not be committed the Passion of Christ our Lord had bene so much the lesse grieuous And it was to be their fault vvho vvould not by Faith Penance apply that Passion to their soules if they were not saued therby and not any defect of the Passion it selfe of Christ our Lord who savv knevv and counted and accepted euery one of their particular sinnes and made for as much as coÌ„cerned him oblation of an inestimable paymeÌ„t in discharge of the same particular sinne Not (b) Our Lord Iesus suffered not only for all the sinnes which were coÌ„mitted but for all those others also which would haue been committed without his grace only did he see and suffer for all finnes which already are and are heâ—reafter to be coÌ„mitted but also for all those other which vvould haue bene committed by them all if they had not bene preuented by the Grace vvhich grevv from God in contemplation of the Passion of Christ our Lord. For no lesse vvas his pretious bloud to be the Antidote preseruatiue against all sinnes vvhich might haue byn coÌ„mitted then it vvas to be the remedy and cure of such as vvould be committed indeed So that euery man did add somevvhat to this sorrovv of our Lord both good and bad past and present and to come vvithall their sinnes vvhether they vvere great or small of thought vvord or deed vvhether the vvere mortall or veniall of omission or commission vvhether actually they vvere or would haue been committed if they had not bene preuented by this costly meanes And if (c) Other considerations which do open the sight of the soule to discerne the loue and
wee are in greatest straites And as for the vse of prayer since it is an eleuation of the mind towards God a treaty of the soule with him Since he admits vs whensoeuer we apply our selues to haue audience Since not only he receaues vs if we come but he loues vs so deerly much as to inuite vs and commaund vs yea and to be highly offended if we refraine Since he inclynes himselfe to enrich vs with al heauenly graces vpon the only price of being desired by vs that he will make vs rich and that the more we aske the more we haue Since he is of so excellent condition as neuer to cast his benefits into our teeth which temporall Princes who are but dust and ashes otfen doe and yet the fauours which they cā afford are but trash and toyes and euen they are often tymes denyed and yet all men are glad to be their suytours Since according to the persons vvith whome we are accustomed to conuerse vve sucke their qualities into our selues therfore by negotiating the busines of our soules with that fountaine of Sāctity it is not possible but that we should improue our selues therin Since howsoeuer in other things the Saintes of God haue bene of different gust one excelling in exteriour penāce another in mortificatiō of himselfe within one addicting himselfe to action anotherto contēplation and the rest best to a life mixt of both yet there was neuer any Saint vnlesse some perhaps who haue bene conuerted and canonized both at once with some Martyrs Crowne who hath not bene diligēt in the vse of Prayer And lastly chiefely since we find it to be recommēded both by the Doctrine exāple of our Lord IESVS throughout the whole time of his holy life especially now in the garden whē he was to treate of the great affaire of our redemption And when after a sort it was put to a kind of question whether he should liue til the next day leaue his life vpō the crosse by the hands of others or else to dye that night of the pure griefe of his owne distressed and wounded hart Since we see him at an instant become victorious ouer al the powers of earth and hell And that he who immediatly before was so defeated immediatly afterward was so full of courage as to say to his Apostles in the third visit which he made thē at euery of which tymes he found them sleeping Rise vp Matt. 26. behold the man who is at hand to betray me Since by this example the practise of our blessed Lord both mentall and vocall prayer are set out vocall in few words though thrice repeated the mentall as being much the more excellent taking vp a farre longer space of tyme for when he fell into that Agony it is expressed by the Euangelicall history as hath bene said already that he persisted long in Prayer Ibid. Since the Apostles who were commaunded by our Lord to watch and pray least els they might enter into Temptation did for the present fall a sleep through their negligence in the vse of that holy exercise when they should haue waked and shortly after did forsake their Maister when they should haue accompanied him to his crosse Since these things I say are so and not only these but a thousand more which appeare in their workes who write of Prayer and much more in their harts and liues who vse it much What Christian soule is that which will not apply it selfe to this holy happy exercise Which howsoeuer it be a guift of God and depends vpon the liberality of his holy hand yet as he worketh in all things sweetly so doth he also in this particular and he is pleased to vse some men towardes the instruction of others the former exercising their charity and the latter their humility It (b) It is necessary to take counsayle in the vse of mentall Prayer of some good spituall maister wil therfore be wholly necessary for him who will study this art of arts to betake himselfe to some well experienced guide Though in regard that it is not so much a busines of the head as of the hart the best maister vnder heauen will be a pure and vertuous life For prayer and practise of vertue are very circular depēdant vpon one another And he who prayes deuoutly will liue vertuously and he who procures to lead a vertuous life will quickly be able to praye deuoutly And we see the effects of this happy exercise as hath been said by what it wrought in the wounded soule of our Lord IESVS and how it raysed him vp into so much strength as to enable him to goe and meete those enemies of God and him in the face whome not long before he besought his eternall Father that he would auert Wherby yet we must not vnderstand that we are authorized to thrust our selues into imminent and certaine danger of death whē without any disseruice to Almighty God or disaduantage to his cause we may auoyd the same But (c) How we are to carry our selues in the flight of persecution more or lesse only that when our Lord doth call vs to it and when the hower is come which he in his eternall prouidence hath prefixed we are to encounter to imbrace the Crosse with alacrity In former tymes the malicious Iewes had a minde to haue apprehended so to haue precipitated him downe from a hill Ioan. 7. but he made himselfe inuisible to their eyes and the cause is there assigned because his hower was not then arriued And so he could also heere haue as easily made himself insensible to their hands if it had not bene that the same hower of his which was not come before was come now And with vnspeakeable loue he was pleased that that other should be said to be no hower of his because it vvas not appointed for him to suffer in Luc. 22. But this vvas his hovver and it vvas also the hovver of those perfidious Ievves and of the Prince of darkenes by reason of the povver vvhich then vvas giuen them ouer Christ our Lord. The apprehension of Christ our Lord and a iust expostulation with the Traytour Iudas for that hideous treason of his togeather with a description of mortall sinne and the danger which we are put into by all voluntary veniall sinnes CHAP. 58. THE Traytour Iudas who made himselfe the keeper of that clocke for that tyme had woone it vp and set it so by the men vvhome he had put to vvorke that it vvas grovven ready euen then to strike For behould he came vvith a band of Pagan souldiers a great svvarme of Ievvish Officers to apprehend and sell his Mastier ouer into the possession of death Whosoeuer had seene those two troopes encounter one another might (a) Christ our Lord and Iudas did leade the two kingdoms of God the diuell haue beheld a most liuely picture in little of
hart with most blasphemous and bitter scoffs The people which past in troopes Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioan. 19. before him did with serpentine tongues and countenances full of scorne cry out vah to him And they accompanied it with the most contumelous gesture and iogge of the head which they could deuise as the holy Scripture it selfe doth insinuate And that interiection with the words that followed doe as bad as say after this manner Thou wretch thou hypocrite thou vgly impostor thou wert talking of wonders but to what an end hath thy wickednes brought thee now at last Thou hadst a minde to be a King but what beggar is so base as not to be thy better might it please your Maiesty to come downe from the crosse that we your most humble and faithfull seruants and vassalles may doe you homage Thou talkedst of being the Sonne of God the Sauiour of the world Will it please your Diuinity to be good to your Humanity Will it please you to let your Charity beginne at home and to saue your selle Thou talkedst of what thou couldst do if thou wert disposed and that the Temple was but a toye and that thou wert able to put it downe and rayse it vp againe in a trice Might your Omnipotēcy be intreated to beginne with throwing downe that Crosse and to cast away those nayles and by iuggling to play least in sight as in former occasions you haue been known to doe Vah wretched wicked thing the worst of creatures the out cast of the world we hate thee we abhorre thee we despise thee we spit at thee we defy thee The earth hath refused to be trod vpon any longer by those pernicious feete of thine the heauen is walled vp against the entry of such a miscreāt as thou There is no place for thee but hell dye therfore quickly and be damned These are infinite blasphemies and we all abhorre them all as we doe the deuill himselfe but infallibly they are but triuiall things in comparison of those others which were darted out indeed against our blessed Lord vpon the Crosse For (c) A demonstration that the blasphemies which were vttered against our blessed Lord were most enourmous thinges though the holy Scripture toucheth them in in few words since they acted their worst by the way of doing they would be sure not to fall short in saying And the rage they had would quicken vp their wits and the excessiue wrongs which then already they had done him would exact at their hāds a making good of what was past by the vttermost most demonstration of how deepely they detested him at that present The high Priests besides are recorded in holy Scripture to haue put scoffs vpon him after a particular manner and they sayd to this effect This fellow had a guift to helpe other folkes but he hath not the tricke to saue himselfe If he he the King of Israell let him come downe from the Crosse and we will belieue him The good mā did put his trust in God but if God haue a minde to him let him take him The barbarous souldiers also were still vpon their old haunt of scorning him Ibid. hauing bene bribed in all appearance by those wicked Iewes euen from the beginning when he was scourged and crowned with thornes And they were so voyd of pitty as to be offering him vinager though they did but euen that in iest and scorne at that tyme wheras wine was wont to be giuē to all men who were placed in that deadly trance Yea and euen one of those very theeues who then were suffering death togeather with him tooke tyme not to thinke of his owne torments or imminent death togeather with the danger of eternall damnation which he was in through the lust he had to be like those sauages vnder whome he suffered and he would needs be then at leasure to reproach blaspheme our blessed Lord. How our Lord Iesus did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructour vpon the Crosse and of the three first wordes which with incomparable Loue he vttered from thence CHAP. 71. SVCH was the cruelty of all kinds of people against our Lord as he was hanging vpon the Crosse and such was the affliction which in the inferiour part of his soule he felt vpon euery one of those particular paines and scornes Nor was there so much as one single word a signe gesture or a thought of malice in any one of all those many harts which wēt not to his by the way of griefe Yet see also how it wrought in the way of loue As soone as the Crosse was reard and that already they had set al those markes vpon him which were to carry him to his graue that still he was hearing the bitter scoffs blasphemies wherby they prophaned his sacred eares he went exercising two of his chiefe offices in a most admirable manner and in a most eminent degree These (a) Our Lord Iesus the Mediatour of our redemption and the Doctour of our soules by by way of instructiō were to be the Mediatour of our Redemption and the Doctour in that Chaire of the holy Crosse for our instruction He then turned himselfe in most gratious but most dolorous manner to his eternall Father beseeching him to forgiue al their sinnes who had any way concurred to that death of his Father sayth he forgiue them for they know not what they do Ibid. Of God as God he knew not how to hope for such a fauour in respect of them and therfore he coniures him by the tēder name of Father that so he remēbring him to be that most beloued Sonne Matt. 3. he in whome he was well pleased he might be mercifull to those wretches whose cause he had vndertakē to plead For howsoeuer they had found in their harts to giue him so many wounds of death with so much scorne and rage yet he could not find in his to forsake them in theyr sinns but to begge that they might haue grace to returne by penance And because he easily foresaw that the crime was so enormous of it selfe his vnspeakeable charity went seeking waies how to excuse the grieuousnes therof by taking a part from their malice and ascribing it to their ignorance who committed it And he who in that Agony in the Garden prayed but conditionally that the bitter Chalice of his punishment might passe from him had so much more (b) Out Lord had far more care of vs thē of himselfe care of them then of himself as to pray in absolute termes that the Chalice of Gods fury might not come to thē Not only he did it in absolute termes but he did it at his death when Fathers are not wōt to refuse their sonnes And he did it more ouer in the midst of those excessiue torments when euen enemies vse to gratify one another and he did it by way of represēting so good a reason for the obtayning of his suite
her and the whole world For he gaue this blessed mother of his to be the mother of S. Iohn and in his person of all mankind by these words of his Woman behold thy Sonne And he gaue to S. Iohn and to all the world in him a tytle of calling and knowing the sacred Virgin by the name of Mother when he sayd to him Behold thy Mother Ibid. So sweet a songe did this dying Swan of ours deliuer so rich did he make his holy Catholike Church when departing out of the world he left it such a legacy as this wherof heerafter I shall speake a part Of the darcknes which possessed the world and the excessiue desolation which our Lord endured with incomparable Loue whilst he was saying to his eternall Father Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquisti me CHAP. 72. ALL these former seuerall words so full of diuine consolation and instruction were vttered with vnspeakeable loue by our blessed Lord soone after the rearing of his Crosse with himselfe vpon it And then did a kind of darkenes ouerspread all the earth Matt. 17. Marc. 15. It was not possible that it should grow at that tyme by any naturall cause of an Eclipse for then it could not haue lasted so very long that is to say three whole howers Ibid. Ab hora sexta vsque ad nonam Besides that the Sunne Moone were then in such relation and position in respect of one another as that the Sunne could be no way Eclipsed then And in fine if this darknes had growne by an Eclipse it could not haue reached to be vniuersall ouer the whole earth as yet the holy Scripture saith it was and so it hath bene testified and proued not only by the EuaÌ„gelists whose word is of all authority with vs Christians but also by S. Denis Areopagita See this Apud Bell. de 7. verb. Dom. Lucianus the Martyr Tertullian others who wrote therof at once in seuerall parts of the world Besides that Phlegon a Pagan which may serue for the confusion of Iewes and Atheists in this point affirmeth how in that yeare and vpon that very day and hower when our Lord did suffer The day was turned into so expresse night as that the starrs were then seene in the firmament This (a) The reason of that miraculous darcknes which did ouerspred the earth darkenes was drawne vpon the world by the miraculous power of God to declare the perfect innocency of our Lord IESVS and the enormity of their sinne who had condeÌ„ned him whose sentence he reuersed after this omnipoteÌ„t manner And as in some respects it could not but be of excessiue terrour to see a Noone day turne Mid-night as it were at an instant and that without any naturall cause at all so yet it was an effect of the infinite loue of God and of the former prayer of Christ our Lord when he beged the forgiuenes of their sinnes For this was then a meanes of the conuersion and of the pennance afterward of all that troope of people as S. Luke affirmeth wherby the greater part of them is only to be vnderstood who continued till the end of the Passion Luc. 27. For they saw the wonderfull things which happened and they returned into the citty beating euery one his brest through excesse of sorrow And so euery one of them went raysing a Trophey to the infinite mercy of our Redeemer (b) The infinite mercy of our Lord God who gaue such abundance of effectuall grace euen to theÌ„ who had made theÌ„selues his deadly enemies and that before he was taken downe from the Crosse as if it had bene euen in reward of all their wickednes and cruelty agaynst him But as now the whole world was ouer-wrought with a material darkenes by the miraculous hiding of the sunne which did such homage to the Creatour of all things as by absenting it selfe to make a kind of veâ—â—e wherby his nakednes might the lesse appâ—â—â—e so also were the harts in effect of the whâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—orld and especially of those cruell persoâ—â— tours growne spiritually darke by the abundance of sinne which puts out the light of grace whersoeuer it enters Now to these two kinds of darkenes which were at that tyme in the world and worldly men another kind of obscurity did correspond in Christ our Lord in such sort as that we may securely affirme that since the world was created and inhabited there was neuer any such generall darkenes as that For by the light as a man may say of that darkenes euen halfe an eye would easily discerne how mightily the Power the Wisedome the Sanctity the Angelicall beauty the Princely Maiesty the diuine Dignity and the incomparable Felicity and glory of the true and naturall Sonne of God (c) The darcknes of desolation of Christ our Lord and how his supreme dignity was also obscured was obscured at that tyme. The sunne was doubly gone for besides the darkning of the materiall Sunne himselfe who was the true Sunne seemed no more a Sunne but rather a moone and that all Eclipst For as the Moone when she is Eclipst though she haue her globe all bright towards the heauen yet is it all blake towards the world iust so Christ our Lord though in the superiour part of his soule he saw God and was as high in glory as now when he is raigning in heauen yet in the inferiour part therof there was a most profound darkenes and desolation This drew out of his mouth those words of the Psalme wherof it seemes he was in coÌ„templation at that tyme. Matt. 27. Psalm 21. Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquistime My God my God why hast thou for saken mee Misterious words which were vttered to shew the vnspeakeable affliction of Christ our Lord. Who for the greater glory of God the Father and through the excesse of his loue to vs and for the more abundant propitiation and satisfaction of our sinnes for the more complete crowning of his owne humility patience and supreme purity of mind was pleased to want all kind of prorection which might be of any comfort to him In other respects he was as hath bin said so conioyned and vnited to Almighty God as that it was wholy impossible that euen for any one instant he should euer be separated or abandoned by him For as God he was vnited by way of Essence to the Father as man he was vnited to the Diuinity by hypostaticall Vnion Bell. Ser. de sept verbis as a soule which saw the face of God from the very first instant of his Conception he was vnited to him by the Vnion of glory And as that vessell of sanctity which was not only all filled but ouerflowed by the holy Ghost whose guifs he receiued not according to any set or limitted measure but beyond all measure I say as he was this vessel of sanctity he was vnited to God by will and
God forbid that now any creature should coÌ„tinue to crucify her in her honour and in the fame of her sanctity or in the effects of her mercy The Iewes crucified the Sonne but let no man be so wicked as to crucify the mother Let no maÌ„ now be like those Heretiques of auncient time who thinking belike that the sword of sorrow Antidico marianitae apud Ephiphan haer 78. Luc. 2. which was foreseen foretold by holy S. Simeon and of which it was said that it should pierce her hart from side to side at the crucifying of our Lord did not make the wound wide inough and therfore they would needs procure to keepe it open with their venemous teeth and tongues Let men I say be like them so much the lesse as the Turks themselues in their AlcoraÌ„ haue bin coÌ„uinced so far by the certaine and cleere truth of the purity and perfection of our blessed Lady as in seuerall places by way of exclamation and admiration to say thus of her Alcor Mahom. Azoar 5. 75. O Maria c. O Mary thou art more pure and right and cleere then all other men or women who doth perpetually attend to please God alone There is none borne of the children of Adam free from sinne but Mary and her Sonne There is none amongst the children of Adam whome SathaÌ„ hath not defiled excepting Mary and her Sonne If any wicked man would needs haue a spight to any other euen of them who are recorded in holy writ they might haue more colour for there are few who were not subiect to some apparent fault 2. Reg. 11. 3. Reg. 11. There was a time when Dauid committed a most inexcusable murther Salomon fell away to Idolatry the Prophets and Apostles had their defects And such as were free from fault were yet found to execute some seuerity which howsoeuer Matt. 26. in it selfe it were iust and good yet such persons vse to be lesse attractiue of the loue of others If any man should be incestuous I would meruaile the lesse although he should cry out against S. Paul because he deliuered ouer one of that confraternity to the deuill by excommunication 1. Cor. 5. Or if he would breake his promise made to God though he rayled against â— Pâ—eter Act. â— because Ananias Saphira were strocâ—â—Ì„ dead in the Apostles preseÌ„ce for that finne Or being wholy giuen ouer to frequent Taâ—ernes and playes to worke his vnbridled will whatsoeuer it may cost if he haue no mind to S. Iohn Baptist whome he counts to haue bene a melancholy kind of man that he was no good Courtyer Matt. 14. in reprouing Herod for his faults to his face Or being a Prophanour of the worship of God I should not woÌ„der so very much though he maligned the very fountaine of sanctity Christ our Lord himselfe because he whipt such offeÌ„dours as those out of the Temple Ioan. 2. But in this sacred Virgin as on the one side there was neuer the least defect at all of which any creature could iustly taxe her so on the other she had no such Office as might oblige her to the executioÌ„ of any seuerity vpon the pretence wherof they could grow to be auerted from her Of her excellency otherwise I shall say somewhat afterward but for her discharge in point of Innocency I would but aske the sowrest Critiques of the world What action of hers they did euer note what word they did euer read or heere or what (e) The excessiue suauity of our B. Lady coppy of her countenance they did euer take in a true light which did not eueÌ„ smell with sweetnes and goodnes Yet peraduenture this will not serue because themselues will not be such as they ought They loue not to see the sensuality and pride of theirowne liues reproached by the example of her high purity and most holy humility And they conceaue her to cast more shame vpon them then euen the example of Christ our Lord himselfe would doe From the imitation of whome they would excuse themselues because he was God aswell as man wheras she was no more then a mere creature though most eminently inspired by the grace of God which yet they also in their proportions may be But if they would once procure to imitate this Queene of heauen in her vertues Note there is no soule capable of reason which could euer detaine it selfe from becoming the trumper of her prayses If any narrow-harted man be inclined out of ambition to enuy such as aspire to temporall Greatenes his Enuy must looke after another obiect since she was poore and priuate and loued to be so If he hate all cruelty of condition he may better imploy that hate vpon what other creature he will for in this sacred Virgin he could neuer see any thinge which might offend him vnlesse he will be angry with her for hauing neuer resented any indignity that could be done her in this life If he loue to be reuenged of such as doe him any wronge that passion can haue noe place vpon this Queene of Heauen who neuer did him or any any other wrong then to giue her flesh and bloud to God that he might spend and shed it for the redemption of man But (f) How we are obliged to pitty to admire and loue this Queene of heaueÌ„ if on the other side there be any thinge which he can resolue to pitty in her he may see a world of paine for the Crosses of her sonne supported by him for the finnes of vs his wicked seruants If there be any thing which he can be content to admire in her he sees nobility of bloud dignity of calling and sanctity of life all met in one If he be not so fierce but that there is some thing which he may be induced to loue in her he may behould most incomparable beauty of body with an vnspeakeable suauity of minde who neuer in all her life gaue any one crosse-answere nor shewed so much as a strange eye to any creature nor complayned of any incommodity nor refused to be subiect to any impertinency nor fayled to succour any misery But if we will looke vpon her story with vntroubled eyes we shall find all the traces of her pure feete to haue bene full of a kind of diuine profound perpetuall humble suffering sweetnes which at last will oblige men to be her slaues Of the incomparable sanctity which is implyed to haue beene in our Blessed Lady by the consideration of the high dignity of her calling and how that maÌ„ner of speach is to be vnderstood in holy Scripture wherby our Blessed Lady doth seeme in the eye of some to be disaduantaged CHAP. 82. AND how indeed could it be chosen but that her externall actions should leaue behind them an admirable odour whose soule did so regorge with the most sublime perfection of sanctity which might be agreable to the dignity of
prerogatiues prayses of this most gratious most glorious Queene of heauen the ornament both of this and the other world wherby she is delineated in the old Testament may be well content to vanish in the sight of those others which are most perfectly declared in the new The wonderfull excellencies of our B. Lady which are declared in the new Testament be heere set forth CHAP. 86. LET therfore that be first remēbred which was touched before vpon other occasiōs that the holy Scripture is wont to expresse it self in few words that they vse to be deliuered in a very positiue māner least otherwise the earnestnes of asseueration might derogate from the authority of that infallible spirit of truth wherby they are written Let it be also considered that little is said in the whole Euangelicall history of Christ our Lord himselfe in the way and vnder the Tytle of expresse prayse For he was to giue himselfe for a perfect patterne of profōd humnility which permits not a man either to prayse himselfe or to like that it be done by his next fellowes His resolution was that his workes should speake of him and so they did and this was also the case of our Blessed Lady who as she was next him in grace so was she also next him in humility But yet neuerthelesse as it was necessary that Christ our Lord should be declared to the world for the Sauiour of it and for the Sonne of God and of the Blessed Virgin wherby the incomparable excellency of his person was to be discerned and the admirable perfection of his actions discouered so by a necessary consequence of that relation which runs betwene a Sonne and his mother the dignity of her person who was the mother of God must also needs be incidētly not only incidently but expresly also shewed and the matchlesse sanctity of all her actions and operations therby inferred For notwitstanding all the reseruation which I haue said to be vsed in holy Scripture let vs see if it haue bin able to containe it selfe from magnifying our Blessed Lady euen in other termes then by only saying that she was the Mother of God Which word alone had yet bene sufficient to aduance her as farre aboue al the world of creatures both in heauen and earth as a single figure being placed before a whole million of Cyphers would expresse a number which would scarce be told I will first in a word point out the priuiledges and prayses of this perpetuall Virgin which are mentioned in holy Scripture in effect as they ere raunged togeather by Canisius lib. 1. c. 2. that deuout and learned seruant of hers And from thence I will proceed to a short consideration of those diuine vertues which were imparted to her togeather with those prerogatiues which were necessarily to be supposed to be in her by those prayses For of her and to her it was said by the Archangell Gabriel and note that he said it not as in his owne person but as in the person of God himselfe whose Ambassador he was All haile O thou full of Grace Luc. 2. Our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou amongst women Thou hast found grace with God Thou shalt beare a Sonne and thou shalt call his name Iesus That Sonne of thine shall be great and he shall be called the Sonne of the most High Our Lord God will giue him the seate of his Father Dauid He shall raigne in the house of Iacob for euer and that kingdome shall haue no end Vpon thee shall the holy Ghost descend and the vertue of the most high shall ouershadow thee And so therfore that which of thee shall be borne holy shall be called by the Sonne of God Vpon her presence also it was and vpon the first sound of her sacred voyce that S. Elizabeth was indued with the spirit of Prophesy and ful-filled with the holy Ghost Luc. 1. that her Sōne did spring in her wombe with ioy as hath bin said which supposeth the vse of reason then imparted to him Vpon her Visitation it was that S. Elizabeth was not able to containe her selfe but cryed out to this effect with an extaticall kind of loud voyce Is it possible that this poore creature should receaue such a fauour as not only to be saluted by the mother of my Lord but that she should preuent me with such a painefull visit How come I to be capable of such high honour Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruite of thy wombe Happy I say art thou who hast belieued for whatsoeuer our Lord hath sayd to thee shall be performed And heerupon the humble and loyall soule of the sacred Virgin when she found that her Cosin had receaued a reuelation of the diuine mystery which had bin wrought in her◠lent her tongue to the holy Ghost Luc. 1. who therby pronounced that holy Canticle of the Magnificat And so farre was she (a) The holy Ghost did force the sacred tongue of our B. Lady to giue her selfe due prayse ouerruled therby as prophetically to foretell her own excellency and not only to say That our Lord had done great things to her but that all generations of men should call her blessed It is but reason O Queene of heauen that those Generations should call thee blessed by whose only meanes vnder God his curse is to be remoued from them And if the good (b) A consequence which cānot be denied Luc. 11. womā in the Ghospell vpon the seeing and hearing of Christ our Lord when he was teaching did proclaime the blessednes of that wombe which had borne such a Sonne and of the breasts which had giuen him sucke and if according to the iudgmēt of antiquity she was inspired therin by the holy Ghost Beda l. 4. c. 4◠in Luc 11. she of whome our Venerable Country man S. Bede affirmes that by the example of her faith and deuotion whilst the Pharisies were tempting blaspheming Christ our Lord she did both confound the slaunders of those principall Iewes who then were present and the persidiousnes of those Heretiques who would spring vp in tyme which was then to come how much more are we to blesse her who haue so much more knowledge of her excellencies then the other had For she did but conceaue her at that time to be mother of some great Prophet or man of God wheras we are taught by the light of faith that she was no lesse then the mother of God himselfe How miserable therfore are they who do their best to giue both the holy Ghost and her the lye whilst they acknowledge her not to be truly blessed for as much as they make her subiect both to originall to actuall sinnes An incomparable dignity it was for thee O sacred Virgin to be made the mother of the euer-liuing God And if we with our misty sight discerne that dignity to haue bene so great what did those pure sweet
thanks and ardent sighes as cleere and pure as God himselfe had sent them downe without the sticking of one graine or crumme of dust to her And therefore now if she were so absolute in that inward and profound contēpt of herselfe we shall cease to find it strange that so intirely she contēned exteriour things And yet of it selfe what a wonder was it for the Queene of heauen and earth to be so ioyfully deliuered of the euer liuing God in his misterious Natiuity as we haue seene before with all the circumstances of disaduantage dishonour that could be thought But the want of all worldly things was that sumptuous banquet vpon which the soule and body of the B. Virgin loued to feed for loue of him who had emptied himselfe into that Humanity for loue of vs and which obliged vs therby to discharge euen the lawfull loue of all other things wherin the height of purity doth consist Of the inexplicable Conformity of the will of the B. Virgin to the holy will of God in all thinges how deere soeuer it might cost her CHAP. 91. FROM hence did also grow that entyere Conformity of her will with the holy wise will of God which as she had neuer ouershot in the prosperous part of her life as at the salutation of the Angell and S. Elizabeth when her Sonne was adored by the three kings in his royall throne of her lap so did she neuer fall short of it to the breadth of a hayre in any affliction or tribulation We saw before in part what her Humility was and how profoundly low it layd her owne account and how pure she kept her hart frō any cōplacence in her self vpon those highest prayses wherwith the Angell and S. Elizabeth did adorne celebrate her grace greatnes We (a) How deeply true humility abhorreth prayse know withall both by the cleere light of truth and by the faithfull records of Saints liues that an ambitious person cannot more greedily hunt after prayse then a soule truly humble will shrinke in and auoyd and abhorre the same And if euen a man who is but moderatly vaine will not easily be induced euen for very shame to prayse himselfe very much and with deliberation what an vnspeakeable auersion must needs that most humble of all humble soules haue had from all extolling of herselfe But yet since the will of God was such Luc. 1. and that the holy Ghost was pleased to vse the instrument of her tongue which of it selfe was so truly a louer of holy humble silence towards the proclayming of her owne prerogatiues and greatnes she did most ioyfully concurre to prayse herselfe and to avow that God hath done great things to her and that for them all Generations should call her blessed It was the will of God that her Sonne should fly as by the wings of her armes into Egipt for feare of that Kite King Herod and she went vpon a minutes warning with a Conformity (b) How a will which is in a conformity to the will of God must be both supple and stifie as stiff as any rocke withall as supple and gentle as any wax with a resiguation so profound as not so much as to aske when she should be freed from that Crosse It was Gods will that S. Ioseph should haue the honour of the Angels visit Matt. 2◠that she should obey a mā whose incōparable Dignity did much consist in this that he was admitted to take the care of her and to do her seruice yet behould she did punctually obey all his orders in her delight to be complying with the commaundement of our Lord God as if she had bene the beggar he the King And that we may see how many businesses the holy Ghost is able to do at once and how by commāding some one thing he giueth matter for many soules to persorme the acts of most heroicall vertue at the same tyme Vt reuelentur ex multis cordibus cogitationes it will not be a misse to consider as infallibly the thing is true in it selfe that as it was a point of most humble and pure Conformity for the B. Virgin to take law from (c) How holy S. Ioseph was mortified in being obliged to giue orders to our B. Lady S. Ioseph so was it matter of excessiue mortification to his most holy most wise and most faithfull soule to giue directions as by meanes of reuelation to that superexcellent mother of God whome so profoundly he did reueare and admire sauing only that he also would obey the diuine will therin But to returne to the Conformity of the B. Virgin and to make short in this particular and to say the chiefe of that which can be said in a word It was the will of our Lord God that his Sonne and hers being both God and man and euen as man being the most innocent and most excellent holy person that euer was should be put to the grieuous and most ignominious death of the Crosse And she saw that he had bene buffeted and dragged and hoodwincked and scourged Crowned with thornes pierced with nayles and defiled with spittle defamed with slaunders and profaned with blasphemies exposed starke naked to the view of the world vpon that top of a hill and placed betwene a coople of murdring theeues and so he continued till at last he parted with his pretious life being all dissolued into a very fountaine of bloud This I say she saw and because his death was agreeable to the will and the manner of it to the permission of our Lord God she resolued with ineffable strength of minde to will all that part of his death which God would and to permit all that which he (d) The vnspeakeable cōformity of our B. Ladies wil to the will of God permitted And she laid her selfe so wholy aside as not only not to giue it the least impediment but not so much as once to harbour the least thought that way And notwithstanding that she grieued at it more then all the creatures of God togeather could haue grieued though all their griefe had bene summed vp into one drop of griefe since she loued him more then they all could do and the griefe tooke measure by the loue she yet looked on whilst this was done and she stood vpon her feete which is the posture of strength and she turned her hart vp to God by way of offering vp euen that Sonne in vnion of his owne diuine oblation and she endured all that torment with inuincible patience And whilst (e) What a miracle of grace was this Luc. 1. the sword of sorrow which S. Simeon had foretold and which for the space of so many yeares she had with a most steady eye foreseene with the point still turned towards her and with a most carefull hart considered and which she was then in the very act of Feeling to passe and transpierce her
very soule yet neither in so many yeares was that Mare pacificum that profound Sea of her sweet soule once troubled at it nor at the foote of the crosse did she vtter any one word of lesse Cōformity nor expresse otherwise any little shew of womanish weake cōplaint Nay S. Ambrose who considers her in this most dolorous but yet most glorious state dares not affirme the she did so much as weep Stantem lego flentem non lego Ambr. de obitu Valent prope sinem I read saith he that she was standing at the foote of the Crosse but I doe not read that she was weeping for the Crucifix And to increase the wonder let it be further considered as it is most true though she had such griefe as hath bene said for the torment and death of Christ our Lord which was the effect yet incomparably she had more griefe for the dishonour of God and the sinne of man which was the cause therof But still howsoeuer she was all resigned and so in conformity of the most excellent will of God as still to stand like an immoueable marble tower in the midst of such a world of waues To conclude therfore concerning her vertues she had not in her whole life one thought wherby she did not exercise some vertue or other in all perfection Nay if we be so miserable as by one and the same act of ours to offend sometymes against many vertues at once (f) Our B. Lady did exercise at once many vertues in the top of perfectiō how much more sure was her diuine soule to be like a huge rich Carbuncle cut full of faces or squares to cōply by euery act of hers with the obligation perfection of many vertues at once And those vertues had the very properties which her own excellent person had for they were not only most purely faire for as much as cōcerned thēselues but most chastly attractiue and actually fruitfull in the mind of others And God alone is able to n̄ber vp those innumerable millions of vertuous acts of all kindes which haue bene wrought by Christians in imitation contemplation of her vertues And not only haue men produced them by her example but when that was done they haue refined perfected them in a high degree And yet still withall they conceaue and consider and feele themselues in their very harts to be but as vnprofitable seruants as Christ our Lord cōmaundeth all the world to thinke they are when they should haue done all they could Wherin no soule hath reasō to find difficulty whē it remembers this holy mother of God who would know her self by no better name then of his slaue The entiere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God is prosecuted And it is shewed how a world of priuiledges and perfections which seeme incompatible were assembled in her CHAP. 92. VERILY we Christian Catholikes are much bound to God for infinite (a) Out Lord doth seeke to draw vs to him by obiects of incomparable strength sweetnes fauours it deserueth to go amongst the greatest of them that he sets before vs such puissant yet delightfull obiects as these A God incarnate dying vpon a Crosse and an Angell incarnate and more then a whole Quire of Angells in the person of his B. Virgin Mother at the foote therof They draw vs vp towards them by depressing vs downe below our selues For euen what Saint will not run out of cōntenance as farre as the feete of shame can carry him and shrinke into a feeling knowledge that he is indeed a kind of nothing if he be cōpared I say not only to Christ our Lord but to our B. Lady When the body is tormented the mind will help to hold it vp but when the Martyrdome is indured by a sword of such sorrow in the soule what is able to stay it but such a perfect obedience and patience and loue as hers which tyed it after an immoueable manner to the pillar of Gods will and which (b) The house of our B Ladies hart was immoueable planted that house of her hart vpon a rocke so firme as could not once be shaken by all the waues of earth and hell The visible Sunne did hide it selfe at that tyme as in the discourse of the Passion was declared so also did the inuisible Sonne which was the the Sonne of this sacred Virgin hide himselfe in her For where did he shine and burne but there Cant. 2. Dilectus meus mihi ego illi was then the word of them both hand to hand and she might well affirme in a much more eminent manner Coloss 3. then S. Paul that her life was hidden vp with Christ in God What (c) Our B. Lady did abound with thinges which seem incompatible with one another a world of things which seeme incompatible with one another do we see encounter and imbrace themselues in this sacred Virgin In her we see affliction and ioy Nobility and pouerty A cleere knowledge that she was the Cedar of Excellency with a perfect contempt and making herselfe the shrubb of hysop by humility The fire of Charity and the snow of Purity Her person vpon earth her conuersatiō in heauen A child of Adam in nature and his mother in Grace and a child of Christ our Lord in grace his mother in nature So that shee is both mother and daughter nay she is both Virgin Mother In her sacred wombe she coupled God and man Eecl 42. Et qui creauit me requieuit in tabernaculo meo and he sayth she who created me hath reposed in this (d) Her sacred wombe Tabernacle of mine She gaue a new and that an Eternall being to him who gaue the totall being which is inioyed both by her and all other creatures She was Grauida as S. Bernard saith but not Grauata great with child but it was a burthen without any weight For she carried him in her wōbe who carried and conducted both him and the world in his three fingars S. Bern. hom 3. super Missus est post med She was turbata non perturbata troubled at the salutation of the Angell but not disturbed by it as is also affirmed by the same S. Bernard She is a faire full riuer which could neuer fall but did ouer flow so far as to be a Sea but subiect to no tempest and alwayes if we will we may glasse our selues in her smooth shining waters A Sea she is to saile in and a port to rest in She is also a well sealed vp Fons signatus Cant. 4. but yet we may all draw that from thēce which will quench our thirst for she is not only well but water She is also a garden shut vp but yet we all may gather of those excellent Hortus cōclusus Cant. 4. and odoriferous flowers Nay though she be a garden herselfe is also a flower and the
hands of our hart Most happy are those soules to whom our Lord imparts a cordiall and filiall deuotion to this Queene-mother of heaueÌ„ for they read that truth written in their owne harts which others do but read in bookes Namely that it is a great signe of Predestination to be particularly deuoted to her And if I were disposed to proue that an auersion of the hart from doing her honour and seruice were an euident signe of Reprobation in punishment of that and other sinnes I (e) The filthy life and fearful end of such as haue opposed to the honour of B. Lady Vide Canis l. 5. c. 20. should need but to make a Catalogue of such as haue maligned her For the proofe of this latter truth let Nestorius Iouinianus Heluidius with the impure Apostata's of this last age be looked vpon and let their wicked life otherwise be coÌ„sidered togeather with the fearfull end to which many of them did arriue And so also let them looke backe with their memory vpon Copronymus that most flagitious Emperour that bloudy laciuious Sorcerer who by lawes solemnely made did depriue our B. Lady both of her due estimation and inuocation Apoc. 13. Et aperuit os suum in blasphemias ad Deum blasphemare nomen eius Tabernaculum eius and he opened his mouth in the way of blasphemy against God and his holy Tabernacle And afterward he dyed blaspheming God himselfe through the torments of most loathsome diseases which carried him from hence to hell On the (f) Compare the persons who haue beene deuoted much to our B. Lady with those others other side let it be weighed what excellent Princes they were who from tyme to tyme haue done right to this Queene of heauen by erecting Temples in her honour As Constantine the great S. Helene S. Pulcheria and Charlemaine to omit innumerable others And what worthy holy persons they also were who haue written in her prayses and commended themselues with humble deuotion to their intercession and who withall haue filled the world with the odour of their exemplar and holy liues as namely S. Athanasius S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Gregory Nazienzen Petrus Chrisologus S. Iohn Damascene with troupes of other Fathers of the Greeke Church and of the Latine S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Hierome S. Gregory Venerable Bede S. Anselme S. Bernard and worlds of others whose bookes are full besides the testimonies of prayers to Saints and sometymes to such as had then lately liued with themselues and how much more to this Blessed mother of God this Saint Superiour to all Saints vnder Christ our Lord whose honour they haue defended from all Heretikes Some of whome had taken pleasure and pride either to degrade her body from integrity or her soule froÌ„ SaÌ„ctity and who haue withal discouraged disswaded the world from procuring by their prayers to her to obtaine the effects of Gods mercy towards her children And when it shall be found what a difference there is betwene these two troopes of men both her aduersaries I hope by so liuely examples will be reduced and her humble sernants and obedient Sonnes will be animated to the increase and doubling of their deuotion towards her Which the Saints of all ages haue delighted in and which supposing that she is the mother of God the very light of reason doth inforce and which God himself hath approued by innumerable most vndoubted both corporall and spirituall miracles in all the corners of the Christian world The pitty of our B. Lady towards vs now that shee is in heauen is set out and shewed to be farre beyond what it was when she liued on earth And this discourse is concluded with a Prayer to her CHAP. 94. IF whilst (a) A particular poÌ„deration of our B. Ladyes vnqueÌ„chable charity whilst she liued on â—â—â—th 〈◊〉 1. she was heere in this mortall life she would vouchsafe being the mother of God to expresse such an act of Humility and Charity as cost her pure feete so many painefull steps ouer that hilly Country to S. Elizabeth If she put herselfe vpon that labour immediatly after she was announced the mother of God If it was not any visit of complement but that by her presence she was the meanes of enriching the body and soule and Sonne of that Saint with celestiall graces And that she went not to come quickly away againe but staid assisting seruing her for the space of three moneths in all which time S. Ambrose excellently poÌ„ders Luc. 2. l. 1. CoÌ„ S. Luc. c. â— how much S. Elizabeth must needs be sanctified by the diuine conuersation of the sacred Virgin since the first shew of her presence wrought such wonders in her If the sanctification of S. Iohn were the first spirituall increase which our Lord incarnate wrought in harts and it was done by meanes of this B. Virgin and the first corporall miracle was also wrought by her meanes at the Marriage of Cana when she would descend so low as to assist at the dynner of people who were so very poore as that they were not able to haue wine inough for their most solemne Feast If of herselfe without being desired she had an eye vpon their wants and a hart which wrought towards the reliefe therof If she had compassion of them not only concerning some such thing as bread which had bene of meere necessity but for the obtayning of wine which is a creature chiefely ordayned for our delight and comfort If to procure it she solicited her Sonne our Lord to worke a miracle in their fauour which till that tyme he had neuer done and yet he would not faile to graunt her suite If as soone as by her prayers for them she had induced Christ our Lord to giue them wine she did instantly turne her praying to him into a kinde of preaching to them aduising them to doe whatsoeuer he should require at their hands through the deere solicitude and feare she had least otherwise they might haue fayled of due obedience especially when she knew in what manner he went to worke the miracle which was first to haue the vessells filled with water which might haue seemed to be a very contrary meanes to the desired end which was to helpe theÌ„ to a supply of wine If these things I say were done by her when her Charity was far lesse (b) A coÌ„parison of what our B. Lady was on earth to what shee is now in heanen her state incomparably inferiour to that which now it is what persoÌ„ is that so vnworthy whome this Queene of heaueÌ„ wil not auow own froÌ„ heauen What wound of any soule is that so grieuous which she will disdayne to dresse what waÌ„t of coÌ„fort can that be so extreme which she wil not imploy herself to remoue by interceding to her Sonne our Lord Now that those Lillyes of Purity and those Violets of her Humility those red Roses of her burning
Charity Patience at the Crosse are trāsplanted out of the desert of this world into that gardē of God in heauen For thither is she assumed both in soule body to the fruition of more glory then is possessed by all the Angells and Saints There is she ingulfed in the bright vision of God where she sees and in whome she loues all the soules which haue recourse to her with incomparable Charity and care And if S. Augustine could truly say of his deceased friend Nebridius who was gone to God Confes l. ◠c. ◠I am non ponit aurem ad os mē c. He doth not now lay his eare to my mouth but he applyes that spirituall mouth to that spring of thine and he drinketh wisedome after the vttermost rate of his owne greedy thirst being happy for all eternity Neither yet doe I thinke that he is so inebriated with thee as that he can forget me since thou O Lord whome he is drinking art mindfull of vs. If S. Augustine I say could thus reflect vpon Nebribius who shall be euer able to expresse the perpetuall memory or rather the euer presēt sight and care of vs which the mother of our Lord God now raigning in such glory as becometh such greatnes hath incē parably more tēderly more liuely of vs then S. Augustines Nebridius could haue of him So much more as she was made our mother heere so much more as now that she is there she drinkes whole seas of God for any one drop which Nebridius could drink consequētly as she is more perfectly happy trāsformed into that Abisse of charity God himself whose loue desire care of our eternall good is infinite Proceed therfore O thou glorious Queen in being glorious raigne thou for euer vnder God alone ouer all his creatures Proceed in being gracious to vs thou who wert so ful of Grace euen before thou wert made the mother of God Thy soule did magnify our Lord at the visit which thou gauest to S. Elizabeth with (c) The princely gratitude of our B. Lady expressed in the Magnificat to our Lord God more delight ioy thē euer had bene cōceaued by any creature And thou didst thē most diuinely expresse his goodnes to thee in a māner of Court so choice noble as might wel declare that thou wert born a Queen thou didst singe Magnificat to our Lord for hauing respected as it were cast an eye of fauour towards thee And how truly indeed wert thou as good as thy word therin when thou saidst that thou didst Magnify or make great our Lord. For whilst he was bestowing those great fauours vpon thee according to those other words of thine Fecit mihi magna qui potēs est sanctū nomē eius Our Lord hath done great things to me and his name is holy thou wert euen very then returning those great things againe to him with the additiō of thine owne most humble thāks So that the greater he made thee the more great and glorious he was also made by thee And besides how couldst thou mak him shew more glorious and more great then in saying that with the cast as it were but of an eye he had made such a mother for himself as thou This Magnificat of thyne is celebrated with diligent and dayly deuotion by the holy Catholike Church in memory of that high ioy which thou hadst in thy Angelicall hart when the holy Ghost expressed it selfe by that well tuned Organ of thy tongue But now O soueraigne Lady that thou art all transformed in God thou art singing it out in a far higher straine Thou canst not say any more that he but casts an eye of fauour towards thee for now he lookes vpō thee with a full face and thou art able to see him as thou art scene 1. Cor. 13. And since the more thou seest of him the more dost thou also see of vs. Vouchsafe to implore his mercy towards the reliefe of our misery which thou canst not but find to be extreme Behould vs who are children of thy soule since by Faith thou becamst the mother of all such as were to liue by Grace And intercede thou for vs with that Sonne of thy sacred wombe whose lawes though we haue transgressed and whose Passion though we haue renewed and whose grace though we haue quenched by our innumerable sinnes yet for as much as frō our soules we are sory for thē that there was mercy in store for his very Crucifiers let it not be wāting to vs who are procuring as thou knowest to be his seruants Since we fly to the sanctuary of thy feete for succour since with the most reuerend of our thoughts we take hold of that Altar of thy purest wombe wherin the Iudge of the quicke and dead did make the first Sacrifice of himselfe to his eternall Father for the redemption of the world defend vs by thy prayers O Queene of pitty from that sword of Iustice which is ready to fall vpon our heads Thou saidst that all Generations should call thee Blessed and we are a part of them withall the powers of our soules we blesse both thee and God for thee and we vow our selues to belieue whatsoeuer excellency may be ascribed to a meere creature And we make this protestation withall that so farre we are frō derogating therby from the worship of Latria which is only due to God as that we know not in this world how to do him more high honour and seruice then by offering him first to himselfe and next by honoring and praysing thee For the greater thou art the greater do we acknowlege him to be who made thee what thou art or nothing Obtaine of that holy Spirit who ouer-shadowed thee heere which doth as it were ouerwhelme thee there in that region of eternall blisse that we also may be quickned inspired by it so may be walking on towards heauē by those paces which thy pure feete haue traced out I cannot beseech thee to obtaine wine for vs as thou didst for them of Cana for we want no wine since we are nourished by the milke of thy maternall loue which is better thē the best most pretious wine And we may also be inebriated as oftē as we shall wel dispose our selues by that Vinum germinaus virgines Lach. 9. that pretious bloud in the body of thy Sonne our Lord in the venerable Sacrament of the Altar But the misery is that our soules want mouths wherwith to tast it or rather they are all crammed with the corrupted food of delight in creatures and our blindnes is such through the mist of passiō which ouergrowes vs that we see not what we eate and much lesse can we discerne the sad effects which it works within and amongst them this one that it depriues vs of gust in heauenly things It is therfore O Queene of heauen that we cast our selues humbly