middest of dangers temptations and sufferances for it is Iesus crucified that we seeke Affection Ah my soule since the messengers of heauen haue assured vs that our Iesus is risen from his graue I will no longer lye buryed in earth but will rise and goe to that good father of ours Since our Lord and our life liues we will no longer languish and dye but I will seeke him whom my hart loues without feare we will passe the watch which the Iewish world the flesh and the Diuell may sett to keepe vs from our Iesus If happily where we seeke him we find him not wee wil neuer cease to seeke him till we finde him and hold him and locke him vp in our harts That we are to seeke him by S. M. Magdalens example II. POINT CONSIDER that though it be a most Christian practise with S. Marie Magdalen to follow Christ in his life not to forsake him at his death to reioyce with a great ioy in his Resurrection yet it is not enough wee must with her too vse diligence to find him out being risen In his life she is weeping at his feete At his death neerest to the Crosse and last at his graue but her vnwearied loue leaues not off there she rests not She 's vp againe varie earely in the morning whilst it is yet darke to seeke him at his Sepulcher it beeing her absolute resolution and practise continually to seeke till she finde him whom her soule loues Affection Let vs ô my soule put our selues wholy vpon the search of our deare Rabboni by the example of that blessed penitent at all tymes in euerie place let our thoughts as hers were be vpon him ouer night and earely in the morning resolutly and incessantly crying out thee it is I seeke thee I desire thee I hope for to thee my hart hath said I haue sought thy countenance ô Lord thy countenance will I seeke for euer for all that seeke thee as they ought finde thee and who finde thee finde life euerlasting THE V. MEDITATION How we ought to seeke Iesus by the same example THE I. POINT CONSIDER that it is not enough to seeke Iesus vnlesse we seeke him as we ought truth it selfe assuring that some seeke him and finde him not and dye in their sinne That is with diligence with care with cost with vndaunted courage with feruent loue as S. Marie Magdalen sought him Affection O my soule let this dreadfull Doome pronounced by a Iudge who cannot deceiue or be deceiued you shall seeke me and and dye in your sinne spurre on our drowsinesse to seeke Iesus as we ought with the blessed Magdalene that is with a timely diligence with the whole care of our hart as being the only necessarie thing neither weighing what it may cost vs nor fearing what may befalle vs while with feruent loue we looke for Iesus of Nazareth crucified II. POINT CONSIDER that though the Natiuitie of our Sauiour was a day of great Ioy to all the world because a Sauiour was borne to it and our young Emmanuel began to liue amongst vs yet was that Ioy mixt with teares and soone after with blood as being the life of a Godman borne to labour and sufferances And though the daye of the death of Christ was a subiect of greatest comfort to all Christians yet was it clowded with the teares and lamentations of a God dying But this glorious day where in he is resussitated or regenerated to a new life is a day of perfect Ioy without all mixture of sorrow a day of exultation and triumph when our dead Master is risen to a life of immortalitie and glorie Affection Reioyce reioyce my soule in this great priuiledged day of Iubilie with a full Ioy exempt from all mixture of sorrowe This is a day which our Lord peculiarly made representing in some measure the dayes of eternitie which know no night let vs exult and spring with Ioy in it Our young Emmanuel who whilome wept in cloutes is clad with glorie his lately torne shoulders are now armed with impassibilitie his bodie subiect to death indewed with immortalitie There are now no more bloodie sweates noe more whippes crownes of thorne nayles speares crosses to be feared Death hath now no more dominion ouer him Alleluya Alleluya Alleluya THE VI. MEDITATION We must ryse with Christ I. POINT CONSIDER that as we haue endeuored to dye with Christ in his Passion by compassion diligently to seeke him ioyfully to finde him and happily to ryse with him in newnesse of life so must we especially striue to make that new life become a perfect imitation of the life of Christ that that of the great Apostle may be verifyed in vs and by our actions appeare to the eyes of others to Gods glorie I liue I now not I but Iesus Christ liueth in me That is I am moued to what I doe by his grace according to his example and for his loue Affection For this my soule it is that we liue for this we beare the name of Christians that we might imitate what wee worshipp In vaine doe we celebrate the feasts of Christ if we striue not to imitate the life of Christ If we haue hitherto then expressed the image of our earthly father by adhearing to earth let vs now expresse our heauenly father by aspiring to heauen Le ts then shew his impassibilitie by our eauennesse as well in prosperitie as aduersitie his claritie by making the light of our good actions shine before men our agilitie by our prompt obedience and feruent charitie finally our subtilitie by peircing heauen with our harts by feruent prayer II. POINT CONSIDER what kind of life Christ ledd which brought him to this new life this impassible life this life of glorie And we shall finde it was in pouertie humilitie and abiection in his birth In labours in temptations watching fasting prayer from his youth At his death in extreamities contempts thornie crownes infamous Crosses withdrawings of all comforts absolute abandonements by heauen and earth Affection We all pretend my soule to be followers of Christ must we not then resolue to take the same waye he tooke wee ayme at noe lesse then to haue a part of his glorie and can we wisely hope to attayne to it by other meanes then those that wisedome made choice of in his owne person and left vs to imitate Can we iudge it reasonable or decent my soule that while the Master is in labours the seruant should liue at his ease the Master in pouertie and the seruant in plentie the Master in the middest of contumelies and the â—eruant in honours THE VII MEDITATION Of the blessed fruites of Chr. Resurrection That as well our dying as rysing with Christ are Gods giftes I. POINT CONSIDER that if we haue dyed with Christ by compassion sought him with diligence found him with ioy risen with him in newnesse of life and striuen to leade a life conformable in some smale measure to his they are
loue and is not the soule wonte to be more where it loues then where it liues Affection Ah my soule how longe shall we be heauie harted loue vanitie and seeke a lye Shall we continue still in a languishing to death rather then breath after life and for life Shall we lodge our hartes in earth while our treasure is in heauen Shall flesh and bloud force the soule from its owne nature and bent and make it liue more where it liues then where it loues O Iesu my Treasure my Loue my Life let it not be so but draw our drowsinesse after thee and we will run in the odour of thy sweete oyntements Giue vs winges deare Lord and we will flye a pace vp after thee and wholie rest and repose in thee How our Sauiour went from the Apostles II. POINT CONSIDER that as our B. Sauiours life in earth was wholy spent in testifying his loue to mankind and in heaping his fauours vpon the same so doth his last moment vpon earth leaue markes of the same goodnesse For the Euangelist represents this good father of ours with his hands lifted vp to heauen for vs and imparting a blessing to vs. To witt the Preist for euer according to the Order of Melchisedech hauing ended all the bloudie Sacryfices in one would not departe from his people till he left a blessing vpon them Affection Depart not my soule from this heauenly contemplation till thou receiuest a blessing from thy good Fathers hand Stay with the Apostles at his sacred feete till he blesse thee with them Vse a holy and humbly confident importunitie when thou apprehendest that Christ is about to withdraw himselfe and leaue thee saying with the good Patriarke Iacob I will not I will not deare Lord let thee goe till thou dost blesse me with a blessing of pardon for my sinns of peace of loue of vnion c. THE VII MEDITATION How the Apostles behaued themselues after their Masters departure I. POINT CONSIDER that when the Apostles had beheld their Master mount vp in the greatnesse of his owne power into the heauens they stoode as thinges quite deade to this world without action or motion saue onely that admiration ioy hope loue which boyled vp in their mournefull-ioyfull hartes fixed their eyes immoueably vpon the cloudes where their deare Master made his passage till two Angells were sent to call them away from that contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example Affection Learne hence my soule to follow thy Iesus where soeuer he goes be it to his death his Resurrection or his Ascension and where as in body we cannot le ts with the Apostles fasten our eyes and hartes vpon heauen and neuer forsake him saying euer and a none with that feruent Sainte Augustine caelum penetrabo mente my harte shall peirce the heauens and in thought I will be alwayes with thee deare Iesus For ah how sweete it is to be continually sucking delightes from those sacred and sugered breasts of thy consolation II. POINT CONSIDER that there the Apostles stayed Prisoners as it were to loue and delight till two Angells were sent to call them away from that sweete contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example But noe sooner were they called by those heauenly Messengers but they obeyed came downe from the mountaine turned their contemplations and admirations into adorations and actions returning into Hierusalem with great ioy to prayse blesse preache and magnifie his name in the Temple and euery where and to expect the coming of the holy Ghost according to his gracious promesse Affection It is doubtlesse a deare and laudable delight my soule to flye vp by the winges of holy contemplation to peirce the cloudes with him to strike into that Land of plentie and peace whither he is gone and to repose in him for euer Haue you found the honie of heauenly contemplation feare not to taste and take it downe yet so much onely as sufficeth least perhapps being filled you vomit it vp But doth a voyce from heauen a Superiours commande charitie to a neighbour Gods worke call you from it ah fayle not delay not to follow neuer forgetting that the God of consolation ought to be preferred before Gods consolations his good pleasure and his worke before the delightes and pleasvres he bestowes vpon vs. PREPARATIONS TO RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST THE FIRST MEDITATION The first disposition The consideration of our owne miserie I. POINT CONSIDER as the first disposition to the receiuing of the holy Ghost our owne nakednesse miserie and nothing for if we conceiue indeede as indeede it is most true that we are nothing we haue nothing we can doe nothing but onely by the assistance and grace of God which is powred forth in our hartes by the holy Ghost which is giuen vs how is it possible that we should not make an earnest application to that good giuer of all best gifts that now that the comfort of Christs visible presence is taken from vs he would bestow vpon vs that other comforting Spirit Affection Looke downe ô thou Almightie giuer of all good giftes and behold the slaue that was redeemed by the wounds which thy Christ my Aduocate layes open before thee to plead for my pouertie Looke vpon thy Christ and take pittie on this languishing christian of thyne for whom he dyed O almighty father looke vpon this poore child of thine who lyes sicke of a palsie and is cruelly tortured send downe speedily that comforting Spirit which thou art about to send least he otherwise perish for whose safetie thy deare sonne spared not his pretious bloud The 2. disposition Humilitie II. POINT CONSIDER and le ts vse as a seconde disposition rysing out of the truth of the former as absolute a desire as we can possibly conceiue not to be knowen nor esteemed by any or at least lets desire to be knowne as we knowe our selues and as God knowes vs that is to be poore miserable sinners not as we deludingly appeare This as being a reall effect of true humilitie is the best harbinger to prepare a place for this heauenly Guest for in whom saith the holy Scripture will the Spirit of God rest but in a hart that is mylde and humble c. Affection Studie to be a louer of truth my soule not of vanitie and lyes which haue alwayes proued emptie shadowes and haue left nothing in our hands Be sincere and iust and striue to keepe iustice betwixt thy selfe and thyne owne harte betwixt what thou appearest to be and what indeede thou art and desire not that esteeme and honour by others ignorance be payd to thy corruption and sinfulnesse Haue frequently in hart and mouth to thee alone ô Lord be honour and glorie to me nothing but shame and confusion Because in thy sight I am a miserable sinner and vnworthy of all respect But thou ô Lord haue mercy THE II. MEDITATION The 3.
am couered with confusion to behold the abismall humiliation of thy eternallie begotten Sonne my Sauiour who without rapine is equall to thy selfe O humble Christ how this example of thine doth vtterly confound the pride of vs Christians How euer vpon the sight of our miserie and daylie imperfections we may a little stoope yet alas as soone as wee looke vpon our knowledge our power the honorable relations or dependances we haue how easily we swel and despise or slight such as are belowe vs THE THIRD MEDITATION Of Humilitie Cons 1. COnsider howe deare this vertue must needes be to our swete Sauiour and how considerable it ought to be to vs Christians which he so singularly recommends vnto vs. It was one of the first he began to teach vs and he will haue it to be one of the last too That exinanited or powred him forth in his blessed incarnation that lodged him in a stable in a manger in poore clothes that subicted him to the badge of a sinner in his circumcision that made him subiect to father and mother in the course of his life and that subiects him to his seruants while he drawes neere his death Affect Deare God! make me loue what thou louest and so effectuallie recommendst vnto me by word and deed by life and death from the beginning and to the end by which I see that as pride was the Angells disease so must humilitie be the salue of man that as he fell by rising so must we rise by fallinge and rest and repose by lyeing lowe low in our owne conceipts that as the pride of the wicked doth still ascend so the humilitie of the iust may still descend lower and lower that so learning of him who is milde and humble of hart we may not faile to finde reste to our soules Cons 2. Consider how the Euangelicall pen labours in painting out the particulars thereby the deeper to engraue this admirable example of Christs humilitie in the harts of Christians Christ rose from supper saith he put off his garments begirt himself with a linnen cloth powred water into a basine put himselfe downe at his Disciples feete c. and by this meanes stoppes our attention vpon this wonderfull spectacle To contemplate him who sitts vpon the Seraphins rise from table who is clad with glorie putting off materiall garments who showres downe raine from the heauens in due season powering water in earth To see him vpon earth who fills heauen that Master hand which sustains the heauens at the feete the foule feete of a seruant a sinner a Iudas Affect O here is nothing left me my deare Sauiour but admiration beholding thy wisdome thy power thy Maiestie brought soe lowe laide vpon the ground by this thy ineffable humilitie Nothing but confusion when I reflect vpon mine owne ignorance miserie rottennes poore neked nothing carried still aboue it selfe by pride and aspiring at thy seat And this conclusion I am forced to make that ether I must renounce the faith I professe and remaine vnnaturallie vngratefull and stupide or els I must absolutely resolue to become humble to bestowe my felf wholie vpon the acquisition of that vertue which is the sure foundation of the rest and that in contemplation of such and so powerfull an example therof as here is placed before mine eyes THE IV. MEDITATION Of Humilitie and Charitie Cons 1. COnsider how earnestlie our Blessed Sauiour endeauours to imprint this wholsome lesson in our harts how deepely he seemes to digg this best foundation of a Spirituall life It was not enough to haue giuen vs an example of it in his owne person but what he had shewen in his practise he would also preach and presse by precept saying you call me Master and Lord and you saie wel for so it is indeede if then I beeing Lord and Master haue as you haue seene washed your feete you also are bound to washe one anothers feete that is to stand prouided in hart at all times and as occasion is offered to performe sometime anie office of Charitie though neuer so homelie and abiect and that to persons of meanest qualitie far inferiour to vs c. Affect See my hart how thy Sauiour concludes against thy pride but to thy profitt by word and deedc I a Master did it therefore thou a seruant oughtest to doe it argues he I the wisdome of heauen who am sent to teach thee all truth therefore thou who art nothing but errour and ignorance oughtest not to feare to stoope I who am an infinite Maiestie much more thou who art infinite miserie I who made thee of a peece of clay therefore thou whose origen present beeing and outgate is no other thing but clay dust and ashes c. Yee are therefore to humble yourselues vrges on our heauenlie Master yes for I haue giuen you an example of it saith he which I meant to haue obserued not neglected that as I had done to you so you to one another for surely the Seruant is not greater then the Lord nor one sent greater then hee vvho sent him O powerfull and pressing conclusion against which I cannot haue one word to mutter But ô dreadfull and oppressing confusion if in practise I proceede not accordinglie Cons 2. Consider how our sweete sauiour hauing thus in his owne person giuen vs that so necessarie lesson of profound humilitie begins now to teach his Disciples and in them all Christians the accomplishement of perfection charitie saying Mandatum nouum do nobis filioli my children I giue you a nevv commandement That you loue one another as I haue loued you and that as I doe giue my life for you so you loue one another euen vntill death yea those also who doe persecute and iniure you Marke how he confirmes his learning by his owne example giuing vs in testimonie of the greatest and dearest loue the greatest and dearest guift that euer was giuen to witt himselfe to eate Heauen had nothing better God could inuent nothing greater O strange inuention of a louer so to depart as yet to leaue himselfe to be enioyed by his beloued who are all faithfull soules Affect O my soule and all yee soules who are touched with the loue of a true louer was there euer the like seene to this ah behold wonder praise loue for loues sake le ts loue him t is himselfe he hath giuen vs le ts giue our selues to him t is himselfe he hath giuen vs true God and true Man O charitas ó pietas saith S. Augustine quis vnquam talia audiuit vvho euer heard the like to this THE V. MEDITATION Co. COnsider how being prouoked by nothing but his owne infinite Goodnes he loued man from all eternitie and not from eternitie onely but in time also in which he brought downe into the world the fire of that holie loue for no other end then that it should burne the harts of men He loued man not in the beginning onlie but euen to the end not
sprung from a sprigge of the stocke of Iesse Iesus-Christ the first begotten among manie bretheren the same according to each ones measure is bestowed vpon vs too the younger bretheren We are regenerated and borne againe by the same spirit saith S. Augustine by which Christ was borne By the same spirit according to faith is Christ formed in the hart of euerie one of the faithfull by which according to flesh he was framed in the Virgins wombe Affection O ineffable incomparable and neuer enough admired goodnesse of God! O vnspeakable and neuer enough considered dignitie of Man Man presented with the same gifts of wisdome vnderstanding c. of which the Sonne of God was possessed The Eldest brother and the younger bretheren assisted with the same helpes towards heauen The adoptiue children sharing in the same prerogatiues with the naturall Sonne hauing the same Spirit to quicken moue strengthen comfort and replenish them The same Spirit I saie to frame Christ in the harts of Christians which framed Christ Iesus in the sacred wombe of his Virgin Mother O my soule let vs neuer so farre forgett this dearenesse this dignitie this transport of loue as by a degenerous conuersation to stoope to things so farre belowe vs as are all the fugitiue toyes which the world is able to present vs. THE IX MEDITATION Of the aduantages againe of the Holy Ghosts Cominge I. POINT CONSIDER that though Mercie had abundantly prouided for mans instruction in all vertue by the incarnation and holy life of Christ c. Though wisdome had admirably inuented and goodnesse had graciously put downe the too too plentifull price of mans redemption the pretious blood of a God a most souueraigne salue to cure the most desperate leprosie yet had it all profited nothing had not the application been also made by the meanes of increated loue the holy Ghost in the Sacrifice Sacraments and suffrances of this life Affection Our cause my soule was alreadie gained by our B. Sauiours merits against the world the flesh and the diuell but the decree was not yet put in execution The purchace of our libertie was indeede made at the price of his pretious blood but we were not yet putt in possession of our right we were yet on our parts by the assistance of the holy Ghost to negotiate vpon the talents and riches left vs by the meanes of our cooperation in good workes and patient sufferance of tribulations to accomplish the things that want of the Passions of Christ as saith S. Paule All his labours and actions and passions are mine but I must also labour and suffer with him if I will raigne with him He loued me that deare louer of man and deliuered himselfe vp for me But I must also loue him which none can doe but by the assistance of the holy Ghost II. POINT CONSIDERATION Christ was borne to the world and yet it either knew him not or knowing him remained in its wonted malignitie coldenesse infidelitie He watched fasted prayed and yet few were moued therby He preached wrought cures and miracles and notwithstanding found but few followers saue some poore fisher-men and others ledd for the most part either by their owne interests or curiositie But when the holy Ghost once breathed and brought downe fire vpon them what admirable effects did they not produce Affection Come then ah come then thou holy Spirit and purge and consume the maligant humours which obstruct my hart inflame my condenesse ah helpe my infidelitie Renue and reuiue in my memorie those many long and painefull watchings and fastings and prayers preachings and passions of my sweete Sauiour that I may euer run with speede in the odours of those perfumes That I may testifie to all the world with the Apostles and primitiue Christians that it is in memorie and imitation of Iesus of Nazareth who was ignominiously crucified and by the vertue of his holy Spirit that I doe what ere I doe THE X. MEDITATION In what manner the Holy Ghost came I. POINT CONSIDER that the coming of the holy Ghost was preceded and accompaigned with a suddaine sound like to a great lowde and vehement blast of wind which came from heauen and filled the whole howse c. Thus it is that the hand of the highest is wont to worke a happie change on the harts of men He powerfully thunders downe from heauen and forces his passage through our deafe eares by frequent feruent and redoubled inspirations Rise vp thou that sleepest and rise vp from the dead and Christ will enlighten thee And he cries so lowde that howeuer we neglect we cannot deney that we heard his call Affection Noe my Soule we cannot denie it Hee hath preuented our harts with strange blessings He hath often cried out with a lowd voice and replenished the whole howse of our harts with this sound I am thy saluation I am thy exceeding great reward Life is short and vncertaine Eternity endlesse God is iust and dreadfull and who is able to liue in eternall flames And these words haue often clouen to our very hart rootes and we haue found ourselues intrenched on euery side and we haue had nothing to oppose against them but certaine slow and sleepie delayes behold I will shortly sett vpon such and such a good worke or subdue such or such a vice which raignes in me and shortly it shall be done And yet what is notorious and we cannot deney with the Iewes we striue to suppresse and stifle the grace of the holy Ghost in our hartes And yet are we still detayned by verie toyes of toyes from concluding an absolute league of perfect friendshipp with the God of our hartes who laies so close a seige to them II. POINT CONSIDER that the holy Ghost had formerly appeared to the world in diuers formes As at Christs Baptisme in the forme of a Doue to teach the followers of Christ with what innocencie and candour and with what foecunditie of good workes they are to behaue themselues At his transfiguration as a bright clowde to intimate the shewres of heauenly grace which he plentifuly powres downe vpon vs and the fatherly protection he pleaseth to take of vs. But this daie he appeares in firie tongues signifying that he comes to establish legem igneam a firie law a law of loue and charitie which were it practised according at it is taught it were able to set all the world on fire Affection Though all thy approches motions inspirations and apparitions ô diuine Spirit be worthily euer most welcome to me yet nothing comes so home to my harts desire as these flames of fire which intimate a law of loue and in that conquering name ought to subdue all hartes For what doth mans hart loue indeede but loue What chaine of gold could euer so deliciously draw vs as the chaines of humanitie and charitie where beloued force proues absolute freedome Ardeam ex te totus ignis sancte O holy fire let me be wholy burnt by
imployed all her tyme in heauenly contemplations feruent eleuations of harte and inflamed aspirations after her dearely beloued child How often said she with more then a S. Paules feruour that she desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ How often did she adiure the daughters of Sion to stay her with flowers to compasse her about with apples because she languished with loue Tell him saith she that I languish with loue Affection Thus it was my soule that this heauenly hart continually euaporated it selfe out thus while her body was detayned in earth did her soule liue in heauen and thus it is too that euery chaste turtle should behaue herselfe in the absence of her mate sometymes moaning herselfe with holy Dauid saying ay mé why is my seiourning stil prolonged Sometymes with S. Paule Christ is my life and death is my gaine Some tymes againe with the feruent S. Augustine Liue I will not dye I will I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ That her life wasted away like incense in the flames of loue II. POINT CONSIDER that Blessed Marie hauing as truly conceiued in her hart the sacred fire which her Sonne brought downe as she had conceiued him in her Virginall wombe she continually watched it like a holy Vestall and did not onely keepe it a liue but euen added new fewell to it by euery least action of her life so that that holy flame was increased to such a degree that it was impossible for a humane hart to endure it without wasting away like incense in the thurible to imbalme the world with her heauenly odours Affection Ah my soule comme and behold this heauenly VisioÌ„ See how Moyses his burning bush whom noe fire of concupiscence could euer touch begins to melt away in the fire of loue See our sacred Salamander readie to consume in the flames which she loued wherin she liued wherwith she was â—o deliciously nourished O that this cold luÌ„pe were better acquainted with this deare torment with this fire which burnes so delightfully At least ô thou Blessed Holocauste of Loue preuayle by thy powerfull prayers that the fire of the Holy Ghost may burne my reynes and hart that I may serue him with a chaste body and please him with a cleane hart THE II. MEDITATION For the Assumption That she dyed of Loue. I. POINT COnsider that Marie must dye then because she was a child of Adam because she was the Mother of a God who dyed because a pretious delicious death will doe her the right to deliuer her vpp to her Sonne in glorie nor is glorie to be had but by death she must dye then who brought out life But as loue brought her Iesus downe from heauen and by loue she coÌ„ceiued him so must noe other hand then that of loue which is now growen stronger then deathin her breake the band of mortalitie and restore her to her life her loue her Iesus Affection O death louingly vitall ô loue vitally mortall O death of loue the noblest of all deathes And therfor due to the most noble life that euer was amonst creatures whereof the verie Angells would desire to dye if dye they could Be ah returne returne thou Sunamitesse returne that we may haue the happinesse to looke vpoÌ„ thee to craue thyne assistance in our necessities O Marie thou Mother of grace Mother of mercy protect vs against our enemyes in our life and receiue vs at the houre of our death Amen II. POINT CONSIDER that if loue gaue the blow it was the most noble death that euer creature endured If loue gaue the stroke it was the most deliciously deare and desired that euer humane hart tasted And as this death was most noble and most sweete so was it attended by the most noble compagnie All the Apostles as witnesseth the great Areopagite by Gods Prouidence and power and all the Primitiue Christians about Hierusalem being prefent at it Yea euen Millions of Angells and Christ himselfe Witnesse S. I. Damascene with many others Affection O what a mixture of delight sorrow did possesse those Apostolicall and primitiue hartes Of sorrow to see themselues readie to become Orphants hauing both the Mother and the SoÌ„ne taken from them Of delight to behold that diuin-Phenix melting away vpon her bed of hoe nour amidst the odoriferous flames of Sacred loue readie to flye into their Masters Celestiall imbracements O what Canticles of prayses did not they singe what actions of grace did they not render THE III. MEDITATION That her body was free from corruption I. POINT CONSIDER that though a death of loue or a beloued death could separate the soule from that B. Virgines body which was buried by the Apostles c. in Gethse many yet deathes corruptioÌ„ durst not at all fasteÌ„ vpon that incorruptible body which had brought out life As we deney not saith S. Augustine that the Mother of God was subiect to the Law of death so haue we learnt in the Shoole of Christianitie to priuiledge her from corruption whose grace and sanctitie was such that she singularly merited to lodge God in earth Affection Noe my soule the immaculate body of this incomparable Virgine was not subiect to corruption it was not fitting that that chaste flesh which gaue flesh to clothe our humanised God should be deliuered ouer to the wormes Though death was her gaine yet had corruption bene her losse God would not permitt that holy one who was vncorrupt in her Conception in her childbirth and after her childbirth should meete with corruption in her graue That her body was assumpted vp to heauen by her Sonne II. POINT CONSIDER that scarcely had this sacred Depositum of her immaculate body remayned three dayes in the graue after her vitall death witnesse S. I. Da. till he that rose the third day by his owne power came to rayse his blessed mothers body that her body and soule being vnited againe he might inioy his whole mother and she him in his glorie Saying to her ryse make haste my friend or according to S. Augustine come from Lybanus my spouse come from Libanus come thou shalt be crowned taking her by the right hand saith he and conducting her in pompe and magnificence according to his good pleasure Affection O my soule with what heauenly acclamations with what Angelicall admirations and exaltations was this singular triumph accompaigned While euen the astonished Angells cryed out who is this who comes vp from the desert flowing with delightes and has the confidence to leane vpon her beloued our Kinge Let vs my soule earnestly begge her intercession what cannot she preuayle for whom the God of heauen so much honours THE VI. MEDITATION How inthronised I. POINT CONSIDER whither this best of Sonns could leade this best of Mothers but to the best place that euer creature was capable of euen aboue the Cherubins and Seraphins to the Throne of God S. Augustine is my warantie saying of her Thou didst passe the Angelicall
meerely in life but euen to death Aff. O God the loue of my hart and my part for euer how I desire to desire thee how I wish to haue this poore frozen hart of mine inflamed with this holie fire ô holie fire which burnes vp and euen consumes the sacred hart of my sauiour may some sparke of it fall vpon the hart of that-sinner who for want of that heate is readie to perish and loose it selfe 2. Point Consider that death could put no period to my Souiours loue it did not onely liue to it but liue and raigne in it as a sacred Salamander amidst her flames He loued vs not I saie to death onlie but through his excesse of loue he loued euen death it selfe for our sakes I haue saith he a baptisme or lauer wherein to be baptised or washed to witt the bath or lauer of my blood and how am I sollicited pressed and oppressed as it were with a burning desire of that wishfull houre Affect O God how excessiue great must that loue needes be which endures not onely constant to death but euen ardently loues and desires death for our loue And howgreat ought our loue to be to answere the loue of so louing and gracious a benefactour 3. Point Consider that though death in its owne nature is iustly reputed the most horrible of all horrible things and this death the most horrible of all deathes as being accompaigned with all the circuÌ„stances which might bring with them horror dread and confusion as insufferable paines disloyall abandonings of all his dearest friends abismall abiections and humiliations contemps blasphemies c. Yet did my Sauiour the better to imbrace it for our sakes eye it as a certaine demonstration of his admirable loue to his heauenly father and to vs and receaued it as proceeding from his holie hand as a subiect to crowne his obedience c. as such it was most deare vnto him THE VI. MEDITATION Of our svveete sauiours going into the Garden Cons HAuing now done supper you must accompanie him into the Garden together with Peter Iames and Iohn Where you shall see the valourous young Dauid louingly prodigall of his youthfull and delicate bodie desirous to begin the battell yea drawen on and animated with a feruent loue of mans saluation goe first to the place of combate without constraint of his owne accord marke what kind of weapons he had prouided himselfe of no other then humilitie charitie praier with a resolution to indure all for the loue of vs poore creatures Let vs be alwaies furnished with the like weapons and the victorie is ours Affect Sweete Iesus in this thou renderst me perplexed for I know not whether I ought to ioy in thy loue or sorrowe to see loue moue thee to so great a paine for an vndutifull seruantes sake Ioy to see the book of life begin to be opened wherein all the treasures of knowledge and wisdome are contained or sorrow to foresee the rude manner of opening it euen at hand And againe thou renderest me confused when I reflect vpon my-selfe and finde my felfe so backward yea happly one of the laste and most backward if anie difficultie be to be endured though for my iust deserts while I finde thee who art altogether innocent comme first to the place of paine and sufferance and this my pouertie deare Lord I willingly laie open before the eyes of thy mercie hoping to be cured of this spirituall infirmitie by thy souueraigne and omnipotent goodnesse Cons 2. But alas looke about you now and you shall see a strange alteration you shall see him who according to his spirit wished to haue all things accomplished in himselfe which were decreed by the eternall wisedome of God the Father and the consell of the holy Ghost yet according to his tender and passible flesh being of a most delicate and noble complection begin to haue a horrour through the strong apprehension of neere approching death and therefore he begins to sorrow to feare and to be irck some outwardly to quake in all his members inwardly to be seased vpon by a deadly anguish Harke and you shall heare him impart the abundance of his greefe to his best friends Tristis est anima mea vsque ad morteÌ„ my soule is sorowfull euen to death as though he should say the anguish which I endure is sufficient to procure my death See how the euent shewes his words most true for who euer sawe feare cause a bloody sweate burst out from euerie member Affect O vnspeakable goodnes ô incomprehensible loue was euer the like seene or heard what louer was euer like to this louer of mine O my soule my soule how comes it to passe that we can be so little affectionate so intolerably vngratefull as not to be inflamed nay not at all to be touched with or seeme to be concerned in this vnheard of argument of affection shewen by a person so infinitly great to vs so extreamely litle vile and miserable how become we so obliuious as to forgett this memorable fact how so vngratefull as not to be willing to correspond by enduring with patience such diminutiue crosses contempts contumelies contradictions temptations and tribulations aâ— Gods wise prouidence and fatherly loue permitts to fall vpon vs and that too euen for the cure of our sins which are so great and so many THE VII MEDITATION vpon the same subiect THE FIRST CONSIDERATION RVn to him and demand the cause of this his so mortall greif and you cannot be so little kinde nay euen so barbarously cruell as not to ease him so farre as lyes in your power and I thinke you shall receaue from him that alas there is no other cause then that the heauie and numerous burthen of mankinds and of your owne sins presseth so hard vpon him according to his humanitie that it quite in a manner oppresseth him together with the ingratitude of those whom he most loueth yea euen so much as to take vpon him sinne Ponder the heynousnes therof since it appeares too heauie euen for the shoulders of a God Waigh also how greate your owne ingratitude would proue if by sinning you should giue him who loues you best occasion to crie out Tristis est anima mea vsque ad mortem Affect Confesse then with S. Augustine saying Ego ego dulcissime Iesus sum tui plâ—ga doloris tuâ—e culpa occisionis They are my sins deare loue which are the cause of thy so great greife mine the guilt thine the punishment ô strange censure strange disposition of an vnspeakable misterie the wicked offends the iust is punished the guiltie goes scotfree and the innocent is beaten man commits and God endures how farr how farr ô son of God will thy humilitie descend how farr will thy charitie burne what end will thy pietie haue to what degree of miserie and torment will thy loue and compassion leade thee ah euen for all these and for this thy vnheard of greife I
inferiour motiues We offer gale to Christ when we complie with the world more then with his loue We offer a mixed cuppe of vineger and gale when we thinke to serue God and Mammon to liue piously and yet follow our owne inclinations passions and pleasures In fine we offer vineger and gale to Christ when knowing much we performe but litle knowing his blessed will we endeuour not to accomplish the same 2. Point Considera Noe sooner was this inhumane and barbarous present made but my sweete Sauiour pronounced againe Consummatum est all is consummated or ended All the ancient sacrifices types and figures For here the true Abel is slaine by his owne brother The harmelesse Ioseph is sold to the Ismaelites The saueing Noe is turned naked and mocked by his owne children The innocent Isaac is sacrificed by his owne father being otherwise the same Fathers onely hope and ioy So that vpon the Crosse we find the accomplishment of them all Affect To witt my soule our deare all-sauing Noe may seeme to conceiue the Deluge ouer because he drawes neere to the periode of his life sending out this voyce as a gentle doue to bring the good tydings of the same All is accomplished Our peace my soule is neere vpon the point of being concluded with his heauenlie father Our saluation is neere at hand O how many haue desired to see what we now see and to heare the Consummatum est which we haue the happinesse now to heare and yet saw and heard it not Resolution We wil be for euer thankfull for this so singular a grace which God out of his free mercy pleased to bestow vpon vs. THE XXVIII MEDITATION Of the same subiect 1. Point COnsideration All is accomplished or fulfilled All the Prophecies He hath giuen his body to the strikers and his cheekes to those that boxed them He hath not turned his face away from rebukers and spitters He hath bene despised and made the most abiect of men He hath borne our infirmities we haue seene him as à leper and strucken of God He hath putt vpon him the iniquities of vs all He hath bene offered because he himselfe would and opened not his mouth He hath bene ledd as a sheepe to slaughter and as a lambe before his shearer His soule hath laboured he hath bene reputed with the wicked and deliuered his soule vp vnto death As the Prophete longe agoe foretold We haue seene him in his thirste presented with vineger and gale We haue seene lotts cast vpon his garments We haue seene him à worme and not a man a reproche of men and out-caste of the people We haue seene him compassed with calues and dogges and beseiged by fatt bulls We haue heard him crye out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Euen as it was foretold by Dauid Affect Is it not true then my soule that all is consummated all the Prophecies fulfilled Is it not true that sicut audiuimus sic vidimus that what was foretold we haue seene accomplished Is it not true that all these testimonies are made but too too credible exceeding apparant to all the world But ah my Iesu thou dearest Authour and Consummatour of our faith Is it not true too that thou didst strugle through strange cōtradictions the while for my sinnes for my saluation for the loue of me Ah this consummation was purchaced at too too deare a rate If euer I forgett these abismall labours let my right hand be forgotten and let my tongue sticke to my iawes if I euer cease to magnifie these ineffable mercyes of thyne 2. Point Consideration All is accomplished in fine to witt the whole law for our good law giuer came not to breake the lawe but to accomplishe it nor is the accomplishment of the Law any other thinge but the loue of God and our neighbour nor can any expresse a greater loue then to lay downe his life and such a life the life of a God not for friends neither but for enemyes for vnworthy seruants for loste slaues and that too in circumstances of greatest tormentes abismall abandonnements infamie and scorne Affect Yes the Law is indeed accomplished my soule since loue is the fulnesse accomplishment and perfection therof as to dye for the beloued is the fulnesse and perfection of loue Our louing Lawgiuer then hath performed his owne law in perfection since he dyes for loue and that not for his friendes onely but euen for his enemyes euen while they persecuted him to death Ah how pure how generous how disinteressed is this loue of his He finds himselfe forsakem by his Father and yet he is noe lesse readie to dye for his loue and honour He finds vngratefull man paying his loue and labours with iniuries and yet for his loue he will lay downe his life This ought to be the rule of our proceeding We must not lesse loue and serue God because he seemes some tymes to leaue vs in afflictions in temptations c. nor leaue off to loue our neighbour because he renders euil for good Noc for our ayme and obligation is to accomplishe the lawe with Christ and the accomplishment of the law is loue THE XXIX MEDITATION 1. Point COnsideration Finally all is consummated his obedience to his heauenly father euen vnto death and the death of the crosse All the great worke of mans redemption imposed vpon him and imbraced by him with such an infinite measure of charitie that he was pressed and oppressed by the same till he accomplished it All his labours and paynes and dolours All the mysteries of infirmitie and documents of vertue Affect It s true my deare Sauiour the lesson of obedience is cōsummated Thou hast left vs so perfect à paterne of it that contempt scorne ignominie tormentes death it selfe could not shake it Thou hast bene in labours from thy youth and thy paynes and dolours haue increased with thy yeares Thou hast past through all the Mysterie and as I may say all the miseries of infirmitie a cold stable a hard manger a locke of hay poore cloutes heate cold hunger thirst and much bodily wearinesse And thou hast left vs all the documents of vertue of humilitie myldnesse pouertie patience c. so that thou mightest wel say to mans hart what could I haue done to my vinyarde which I haue not done And we should as we might most iustlie answer nothing deare Lord for thou hast absolutly performed all that might be glorious to thy heauenly father all that might conduce to our plentifull redemption and spirituall instruction and putt the highest commendations vpon thy loue to poore man that could be putt by cruel torments streames of bloud and the most infamous death of a God 2. Point Consideration Hitherto hath my sweete Sauiour looked vpon his heauenly father as a sterne Iudge by whom he is smitten as he himselfe professes saying propter scelera populi mei percussi eum for the sinnes of my people I strucke him By whom
refuge that there I may securely liue and dye and euen be buried to this vvicked vvorld in that glorious TOMBE that so I may ioyfully rise vvith thee and to thee eternally Amen IHS REFLECTIONS IN forme of prayer vpon the particular partes of our Sauiour vpon the Crosse To his feete I Giue thee thankes my most humble Iesu for thy incomprehensible loue and the great paines which thou didst suffer in thy wounded feete casting my selfe wholy into those holes togeither with all the sinnes and delightes of my life past especially My pride vaine glorie and arrogancie My selfe will disobedience and irreuerence to thee and thy vicars My impatience anger and rancour My tatling detraction and the like to th end they may be abolished and expiated by thy pretious bloud beseeching thee by thy humilitie obedience patience and admirable silence to daigne to bestow vpon me all the same and all Such other vertues that hence forth by the assistance of thy grace in all my thoughtes words and workes I may be truly Humble reduceing my selfe to nothing vnder the feete of all creatures Obedient renounceing myne owne will vnder thee and all men Patient most willingly receiuing all aduersitie from thy holy hand Moderate in speaking interiourly and in high silence giuing eare to thy words alone And that all my life long butt especially at the terrible houre of my death my most certaine Refuge may be in those most sacred wounds of thine To his heade I Giue thee thankes my most wise Iesu for the loue and dolour of thy sacred and most holy heade which was wounded and torne with such excesse of crueltie and inhumanitie hyding my infirme heade togeither with all my senses and powers as also all my sinns and transgressions in the multitude of those sacred wounds in particular All obstinacie in sticking to myne owne prudence and iudgement as also the dissolution and abuse of my senses The neglect of thy feare and the feare and flatterie of men My indiscretion and too great want of moderation My impuritie of intention and seeking of my selfe and all other vices of the like nature to th end they may be expiated by thy most pretious bloud And I humbly beseech thee by thy wisdome feare discretion and vnspeakable simplicitie that thou wouldst voutchsafe to bestowe vpon me those vertues and all other of the like kind That hence forth by the assistance of thy grace I may in all my thoughtes words and workes be truly Wise being vnited and conioyned to thee by a disinterressed vnderstanding and will Piously fearefull keeping an inward and outward watch ouer my selfe least I might offend thée Discreete making choyce of vertue which is placed betwixt two extreámes Simple and internall dwelling onely in thee and purely seeking thee alone And that all my life long especially in the agonie of death I may find a most assured Refuge in thy wounded heade To his hart I Giue thee thankes most amiable Iesu for thy infinite loue and for the sorowes of thy sweetest hart which was run through with a lance while thy most sorowfull mother looked on deposing resigning and plunging my whole hart into that fountaine of all blesse as also all my sinnes and transgressions especially All priuate and vicious loue to created thinges of what kind soeuer and the abuse and neglect of thy sacramentes and benefits bestowed vpon me Diffidence infidelitie and errour Timerousnesse pusillanimity and despaire My carelesnesse and inconstancie in the thinges which belong to my state and calling and all vice leading thervnto to be abolished expiated in thy pretious bloud And I beseech thee by that charitie faith hope and vn speakeable constancie of thyne be pleased to grant me a share in those and such other vertues that henceforth by thy grace I may be in all my thoughts words and workes truly Feruent still breathing after thee and louing thee alone with all my strength Full of faith and hope wholy relying vpon thee as well in prosperitie as aduersitie Constant aymeing at nothing els by all my earnest endeuours but my aduancement in vertue And that all my life long but especially at the houre of my death this sacred wound may be my assured Refuge To his right hand I Giue thee thankes my most iust Iesus for the incomprehensible loue and doulour which thou didest expresse and suffer by the wound of thy most holy right hand casting my selfe wholy into it togeither with all my sinnes and transgressions especially All my iniustice to thee and thy creatures Biternesse of hart displeasure and enuie Falshood lying and hypocrisie Ingratitude to thee for all thy benefits to th end that all may be abolished and expiated in thy most pretious bloud and beseech thee by thy ineffable iustice mercy truth and gratitude to please to indue me with these and such other vertues that hence forth by thy grace I may be in all my thoughtes words and workes truly Iust giuing euery one what is due to them Mercifull wishing and doing good to all creatures Zealous of thy honour with puritie of intention conforming my selfe in all thinges to thee Gratefull rendering dayly thankes to thee and all my benefactours And that all my life longe but especially at the dreadfull houre of my death I may find and assured Refuge in these sacred wounds To his left hand I Giue thee thankes most strong Iesu for thy incomprehensible loue and for the paines of thy left hand casting my selfe wholy into it togeither with all my offences especially All my slouthfulnesse and mispending of tyme. All impuritie of body and soule All intemperance in meate drinke and clothes All couetousnesse vnlawfull desires and the like to be abolished and expiated in thy pretious bloud And beseech thee by thy ineffable power puritie temperance and pouertie to grant me those and such other vertues that hence forth by thy grace I may be in all my thoughtes words and workes truly stronge and diligent c. Chaste conseruing my senses and soule in all puritie Sober seeking onely necessaries Poore in meanes and mynde wholy relying vpon thee And that all my life long but especially at the houre of my death I may haue my certaine refuge in this wounde Amen A CONTEMPLATION or Meditation for Good friday 1. HAVING with what recollection quiet of mind and compassion you possibly can placed before your eyes three crucified demand who they are that suffer in such ignominious wise especially that one in the midst who seemes to be the capitall criminall Aske St. Iohn and he 'le tell you that it is the Sonne of God Sic Deus dilexit mundum vt filium suum vnigenitum daret St. Paule vsque ad mortem mortem autem Crucis Dauid Isaias and other Prophets foretold this truth Aske his mournfull mother Marie and if she can speake for griefe she will mournefully answere you that alas yes it is euen her deare sonne Iesus God and man S. Marie Mag. will tell you the
the wisdome of the eternall father is lodged in a Caue to teach ignorant man another lesson to witt that felicitie is not to be found in vanitie in carnalitie in heapes of gold nay it cryes out as it were to all the world by this example Why doe you loue vanitie and seeke alye It is not it is not to be found in these follies No my wayes are as farre remoued from your wayes and my cogitations from your cogitations as is heauen from earth Aff. Seeke still what you seeke ô mortalls but seeke it not where you seeke it seeke it not in the follies of the world which knowes not Christ but seek it in the knowledge of Christ Seeke it not in the world which passeth away together with its concupiscences but seeke it in Christ the Word made flesh which remaynes for euer Nay seeke not Christ neither with hope to find him in pompe and state in the pallaces of Kinges but in the poore cribbe with the poore simple and vigilant shephards that is with vigilancie in simplicitie in pouertie in humilitie and abiection There may proud man being humbled surely find and Know humble Christ Resolution I will seeke then whom my soule loueth Not in vanities as I did when I found him not But c. And since the world neither receiues nor knowes nor cares for my Christ I will neither admitt into my hart nor know or care for the world c. 2. POINT Cons Looke vpon this caue or stable as the true sohoole of all vertues where the wisdome of heauen giues solide lessons of heauenly wisdome where the eternally begotten the onely begotten son of God Iesus Christ newly come downe from heauen is to frame in our hartes the impressions of Christianitie mhere the word which was in the begining with God and was euen God him selfe God of God true God of true God lying now dumbe in a poore manger for the loue of poore man who was become a brute beast should speake lowder to heauen-beloued Christan hartes then all the voyces of men and Angells Aff. O deare God! O great God! ô truë God! whom my soule with all its forces acknowledges and adores in this strange disguise what is it thou wouldst speake to my hart by these dumbe signes What is it I st that thou wouldst signifie hereby to the faithfull and louing soule that thou dost languish with loue and so in a loue-pause remaynest speechlesse Is it that neuer more loue is spoken betwene true Louers then when tongues keepe silence and giue hartes leaue to speake by the eyes such misteries as none but louers vnderstand Is it that man should waxe dumbe to the world while the word appeares dumbe in the world O speake thus speake thus Deare Lord to thy poore seruant who giues eare to thee And whilest thou speakest let the worlde keepe silence and turne as dead to me as I to it Let my tongue and all the tumultuous people of my interiour house keepe silence Let my hart be silent too and onely giue eare to this one necessarie Word saying I am thy saluation for I am Iesus thy Sauiour THE II. MEDITATION I. POINT CONS But what is this silent word That verie same by which all thinges were made and without which nothing was made while he himselfe was not made but was begotten by an eternall generation which none is capable to expresse That word from which all thinges had beeing as from a verie Ocean of beeing That word which was in the begining and in the begining began to worke vpon nothing and of it made all thinges created Heauen and earth for that litle word fiat was said and euery thing began to ryse out of the abysse of nothing and haue beeing life and motion c. By this word was said Let light be made and it presently was made c. Aff. O powrefull almightie Lord What humane wisdome is not strucke dumme with the wonders and prodigies wrought by this now silent word The wisdome of the world would teach vs by Philosophie that of nothing nothing is made but this word which is the Wisdome of heaueÌ„ assures vs that of Nothing all thinges were made which while he is sileÌ„t all the creatures together crye outwith a loudevoyce we made not our selues but he made vs. O thou light of light who in the begining with a word made light in the world and now comest downe into it to enlighten all men daigne to be a light to my obscured hart that it may discerne as well the effects of thy word as the silence of the â—ame And clearely see that as in the begining that made all thinges of nothing so this in tyme comes to repaire all thinges made worse then nothinge And as that in the begining made all thinges right so this in tyme comes to rectifie all thinges disordered And grant that as we see all that we haue are flowed from thy Bountie so our firme resolution may euer be that all we either haue or are may returne to thee againe by our Iustice and gratitude Fiat fiat POINT 2. Conf. But yet what is this silent word The very son of God God the true God now the verie son of Mary the son of man true man flesh of our flesh bones of our bones God man man God God and man one and the same But if son heyre if son of God heire of the kingdome of God heauen If God man and heire to the kingdome of heauen then man hath gotten title to the kingdome of heauen If son and heire and to the kingdome of heauen the kinge of heauen man then begins to raigne since a part and portioÌ„ of him begins to raigne in him who raigned in the begining before the begining in tyme before tyme from all eternitie Aff. Yes my poore soule it is noe lesse excellent person then the son of God the heire of God the kinge of heauen true God of true God lyes before thyne eyes Who least he might haue bene a lesse deare obiect to thy contemplation and loue whyle he was lesse accessible of inuisible he becomes visible in flesh to thyne eyes of flesh And by an incomparable and inconceiuable transport of loue he who in the beginning made maÌ„ to his owne similitude and likenesse vouchsafeth in tyme to be made to the similitude and likenesse of man and to giue vs power therby to become the sonnes of his heauenly father the sonnes of God The sonnes of God the sonnes of thy heauenly father Ah what ioy ô Iesu we are thy brothers then and if brothers heires of God coheires with thee ô deare sauiour Iesus Christ dilate dilate my hart deare child from heauen the bulke of thy ouercharging dearenesse is too large to enter Ah make me not poore with too much heauenly plentie either bestowe thy giftes according to my measure and abilitie to receiue them or enlarge my hart and inable it to receiue them according to the proportion in which
thou dagniest to bestow them I poore contemptible wretch borne the son of earth made the sonne of God the Heyre of God! The brother of IBSVS-CHRIST coheire with Iesus let me deare childe let me neuer more by a degenerous conuersation In such or such thinges making reflection of your greatest imperfections c. stayne the noble familie and the dignitie of the bloud and alliance into which I am addopted by thy graciousnesse May I rather dye then euer proue so base and disloyall Amen The first Med for Sanct Ihons day PONIT 1. Consider But if son hyere heyre of God God if kinge king of heauen king of maiestie king of glorie How becomes he then thus inglorious thus left thus lodgd thus layd Marrie out of meere goodnesse free mercy and vndue loue loue of nations which sought him not thought not of him which cared not for him nay which trangressed his commandements violated his lawes rebelled against his will and pleasure And that without any neede he had of them without any interest he pretended by them out of meere loue and mercy Aff. Good and omnipotent God! mercyfull and holy and deare father much much doe we owe thee for our creatiō for hauing made vs mē mē the master pieces of the workes of thy hand for hauing-bestowed a whole world vpon vs with all the admirable varietie of creatures comprised therin for our vse and seruice but incomparably much more now that thou hast sent thyne owne onely son thy son and heire the kinge of heauē equall to thy selfe Those were great indeed yet earthly ones but this is euen the best that heauen had to giue here thou didst indeede open and bestowe thesaurum tuum optimum thy very best treasure so that the mostvastly greedie hart cā neither desire nor euen imagine any thing greater any thinge equall to it or euen bearinge any proportion with it A son in whom thou wast well pleased for a fugitiue prodigall seruant in whom thou wast highly offended and euen while he was yet actually offending thee then euen then to putt the greatest commendations vpon thy mercy imaginable then Isay thou sentest him cum adhuc inimici essemus into abiection and prouertie into a poore hole of a rocke to be accompaigned with brute beastes for that yet bruter beaste man I can onely stand amaysed at this strange dispensation and dignation of thyne To send a son for a seruant a sainte yea the sanite of saintes for a sinner a God for man what a stronge hope must this needs beget in the hart of a sinner Resolution I confide in thee then ô my dearest Lord I depend wholy on thy mercy c. POINT 2. Consider that man was at an absolute losse hauing strayed from his way forsaken truth and forfeited life and this abridged word humanized or clothed with our nature is in very deede the way truth and life which he comes to teach the world There is no way to Christ but by Christ we liue in darkenesse vnlesse we be enlightened by the light of this truth we liue not indeede but languish and die vnlesse we be quickned and liue by this life This word alone deliuers this truth enlihgtens vs to discouer this way and by this way we walke home to this life which is Christ All these are folded vp in this dumbe word which for our loue is layd in a manger Aff. yes my soule euen so the case stoode with vs Sinne hadd spred it selfe ouer all the sonns of Adam and they were all straying like lost sheepe and had for euer strayed and remayned in their losse had nor this good shephard Christ come downe to seeke out and saue what had perihed And had not this Way mette the wandringe pilgrime this truth illuminated the blind man that satt in darkenesse and this life quickened the dying slaue that lay vnder the shadowe of death he had still erred remayned still blind and bene dead for euer For there is noe other name vnder heauen wherby we ought to be saued What obligations then haue we to Christ our redeemer how ought we to loue this word which teacheth vs or putts out this truth a sea-Beacon to vs poore creatures who are tossed at this huge sea and proues a light to our feete to walke in this safe way Christ which securely leades to the permanencie of an vn changable and euerlastinge life which is his very selfe Reso In this way then will I walke and run for euer if thou deare Lord wilt please to draw This truth will I imbrace for euer if thou daignest to giue perseuerance And this life of thyne will I striue to lead loue and breath after till I be druncke vp in life euerlasting PONIT 1. Consider That a chill Cold in the absence of the sunne of Iustice had eased and benummed the hart of man and rendred him senselesse of all good being cold frozen stupide without all feeling of heauenly thinges and this diuine word which notwithstanding the Cold which he now indures is indeede a consuming fire is come downe into the earth with his heauenly fire and what is his desire but that it should fixe vpon those benummed harts of ours and inflame them with his holy and burning loue For what will euer be able to doe it if this heauenly Prometheus this firebringing Messenger be not able to sett vs on fire What will be euer powrefull enough to speake excesse of loue to mens harts and to oblidge them to loue if the mute eloquence of a God lying dumbe the Word it selfe left speechlesse in a manger for their loue be not able to doe it And this is the extaticall loue-language of the diuine Word which lyes before our eyes this day in the cribbe Aff. Alas I my poore hart we are cold frosen and senselesse indeede in point of spirituall thinges we relish not we perceiue not the thinges which are of God And yet our miserie is so much the greater that perceiuing our selues deadly cold we rather chuse to starue then approch to the fire that actiue sacred heauenly fire which comes not downe but to burne to burne our frozen hartes as some tymes it did those two primitiue Hartes with whom he walked in the way to Emaus who found their hartes burning while he spoke And as it did your holy father then he cryed out as one loue sicke What is this that I feele what kind of fire is this that warmes my hart which so sweetly burnes so secreetly shines so deliciously seases vpon and inflames my soule with a deare delight Ah! this diuine Word is indeed as Dauid qualified it ignitum vehementer but it was in his meditation that it burnt all out in a flame But how should this happen si nemo recogitet corde if none hartily thinke of it how should hartes burne if none applie hartes to the fire Resp If his will be that it should burne then let our hartes in conformitie to that diuine Word
and Will say thy will be done And with your Holy father Inflame and pearce the very marrow of my dull hart with those saueing fires of thyne and let the flame of thy holy feruour drie vp and consume the peccant humours of my body and mynd 2. POINT Consider then that it was loue indeede buring loue and charitie that brought downe this silent word this beautifull saluation-weeping-child this King this metamorphized God of ours It was the immense and eternall loue of the Father and the son the holy Ghost by which he was conceiued in the sacred and pure Wombe of this Virgine Mother T was loue that brought him out Loue that lodged him in this poore cottage Loue that swadled him in poore cloutes Loue that layd him in this manger And loue of vs poore lost miserable sinfull men Propter nos homines for vs men assures faith and for our saluation he descended from heauen For his exceeding great charitie with which he loued the World saith the great Apostle Affec Oh what a hote batterie doth Loue lay to our soule what doth this full inflamed expression of loue say to our hartes but dilectus mens mihi the beloued soule of man is myne And what should or can man reply but ego illi Yes deare Lord thyne I am intirely and thou shalt be myne for euer my part my portion my substance the one thing which I onely desire my deare delight in tyme and eternitie What doth this say but deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum My delightes are to be with the sonnes of men And what shall the lost sonnes of men say but our dearest delightes are and shall euer be to be with the sonne of God His loue to me hath made him being the lord and Master stoope below men and lye amongst brute beastes and shall not my Loue to him being but a poore sinfull seruant make me in true desire lye vnder the feete of all men Thy charitie and example doth vrge me to loue thee and by thy precept I am oblidged to it But yet alas who is able to loue thee but by thyne owne gift Giue then ô Lord what thou cōmandest and command what thou wilt THE FOVRTH MEDITATION Of Humilitie Christs first lesson in the stable I. POINT COnsider that if Charitie brought him downe from heauen it was humilitie which was to entertayne him in earth If charitie made the son of God become the son of man it was humilitie which made the mother of God become the handmayd of God and man If the bowells of Gods mercy Iesus Christ begotten from all Eternitie was sent downe humilitie was to be the ladder by which he was to descēd for he beheld that is approued the humilitie of his hand-mayde And as mans humilitie or abiection was the first thinge which mercy looked vpon from heauen so was it the first lesson which he taught in earth against that great sinne which was the begining of all mischeife both in heauen and in earth To thend that as God looking vpon mans abiection became man so man by looking vpon and imitating the abiection and humiliation of a God might be raysed to the dignitie of an Angell or a God indeede and so be published happie for euer by all Nations Aff. Ah poore miserable man neuer esteeme thou begins to learne any thing aright in this schoole of Christianitie vnlesse thou beginst where Christ began Neuer thinke thou hast learned any thing till thou hast taken out this first lesson for what is said by S. Paule of charitie is also verified saith Sainte Augustine of humilitie If I should transporte mountaines giue all my goodes to the poore and euen my body it selfe to burne and yet want humilitie it profits me nothing O infinite mercy boundlesse charitie abismall humilitie who is he that vpon the disclosing of those bowells of Mercy which brought Maiestie downe into miserie abiection humiliation who is he I say that will not humble himselfe Resolution My eyes shall be alwayes sett vpon this hūble Maiestie and myne owne miserie that in the acknowledgement of that truth I may euer truly humble my selfe for his sake and in imitation of him be below all his creatures c. I. POINT Consider that this vile stable this narrow manger this comon place of shelter for brute beastes this oxe and Asse this eternitie not a day old this disguise or forme of a seruant these infant teares seeme to say to the eye and by the eye to the hart which afterwardes he shall with his owne mouth expresse in words Learne of me because I am myld and humble of hart My Litle children Learne of me your God become a litle child a lesson shutt vp from the wise and prudent of the world and left to me in my litlenesse to reueale it to litle ones because I am myld and humble of hart not in word and exteriour comportement onely but in effect with hart and affection Aff O Angells of heauen is this the Maiestie which you incessantly prayse whom the Dominatiōs adore whom the powers dreade with trembling whom the heauens ând heauenly vertues the Cherubines and Seraphins neuer cease to proclaine Holy Holy Holy O Kinge of Angells is this thyne owne onely sonne equall to thy selfe in Maiestie whom we see in a manger among brute beastes cold weeping abiect iust like one of vs O deare Sauiour or mylde son of the highest how low how lowe doth thy humilitie descend and withall how high doth thy charitie burne vp in this action O vaine mā what will euer be able to worke downe thy proude harte if the humilitie of a God will not doe it if power become impotent if strength growen infirme cannot preuayle Ah what is more strāge more detestable more greeuously punis-hable then that when we behold him that is the highest in the kindome of God made the least and lowest in this kingdome of men for mans example and loue man will yet be puft vp and remayne high in selfe-esteeme THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same day I. POINT CCNSIDER againe the circumstances of the stable manger c. and you will find that where humilitie is practised her sister Obedience is not farre absent If Christ by all these thinges preache perfecte humilitie it is in order to Obedience He humbled himselfe being made Obediēt saith the great Aplostle If the stable be poore Manger narrow c. he therfore humbly endures them because such is his heauenly fathers will As my father cōmanded me so I doe I came downe from heauē not to doe myne owne will but his who sent me Whence S. Paule pronounceth a strange word Though he was the very son of God yet he was to learne Obedience by what he suffered here below being other wise as God equall to his heauenly father and as such could not obey Aff. Haue we thē a true desire to imitate our Sauiour Iesus Christ Let vs then humbly obey him and by his
bedd of our harte is too straite it is not capable of both God and the world If we be friēdes with it we must be Gods enemyes And stil as we begin to loue it it begins to leaue vs for it quickly passes by with all its concupiscences Resolution Liue Iesus then in my hart and possesse it wholy to himselfe And may the loue of that bewitching lyer be for euer banished from thence as the very obiect of my hatred since it hated my Lord and Master and he it c. THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same Day I. POINT CONSIDER that blessed schoole of the stable is still open and another most important Christian lesson is to be learnt which is vnlesse one renounce all that he doth possesse he cannot be Christs Disciple The prudence of the flesh is death and if we liue according to it dye we must eternally If we desire to liue to Christ and with Christ and follow Christ we must first deney our selues dye to our selues or our owne inclinations take vp our crosse and follow him this is the condition of our Christian obligation there is no meane Christians must dye to liue This doth Christ crye out to our hartes by the rigour of the cold which he endures by his hard entertaynement by his scrikes by his teares c. by his humilitie obedience pouertie c. Aff. Will we then or will we not be Christs disciples Le ts examine our immost thoughtes and discouer our resolutions and know indeede in this holy tyme what they are Will we not In vaine then doe we beare the name of a Christian in vaine were we baptised in vaine doe we vsurpe the qualitie of spouses if we will not euen be seruantes Or will we Reade then and marke the condition of our obligation We cannot be his Disciples vnlesse we renounce all that we possesse The Goods of body of mynd of fortune Let none deceiue himselfe this must be done or nothing is done as to our eternall possession Die we must to all these dye we must to selfe loue selfe cōceipt to our commoditie our humour c. and take vp our Crosse to follow Christ according to the blessed example which he giues vs in this infancie of his in his verie first entrie into this world Nor is it good wishes will doe it but effectes Nor can we pay this dutie in part but it must be wholy done Vnlesse yee renounce all that you possesse all you cannot be my Disciples 2. POINT Consider yet in the stable that the verie beholding of Christ a child preaches forceably to our hartes that vnlesse we be conuerted and become litle children we cannot enter into the kingdome of heauē Pride cannot ascend with hūble Christ a bigge swollen hart cannot passe through Christs narrow way which leades to life euerlasting We must then of necessitie turne newborne childrē together with our newborne Christ Children I say which willingly and louingly runne after their father Loue their mother Haue noe animositie against their neighbour putt the same rate vpon a peece of gold and a peece of leade whose tender hartes are not puffed vp with pride nor griped with hatred nor disguised with fictions but are myld and simple sweete and maniable permitting them selues to be caried whither soener the mother pleaseth This is the lesson we are to learne of Christ a child Aff. If heauen be our ayme then If Christ be our example if we intend to liue Christianly indeede we must putt off the old man with the inclinations and impressions which he hath contracted and putt on the new with Christ who is according to Gods owne hart The sonne of God our Christ is become a child and we too be we as old as we will as learned as we will be we as wise as Salomons be we as strong as Samsons will we nill we our great hart must stoope and we must become litle children againe if we will be Christs Heauen and earth may passe but this word of God can neuer passe vnlesse you become litle children againe you cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Yeald yeald then my stubborne hart yeald thy selfe to this blessed example of thy Christ which by conquering thee will make thee à Conquerour for euer Runne after thy deare father Christ as still fearing to fall tenderly loue thy Catholike mother and sticke close to the chaste breasts of her counsels striue to be humble meeke docile litle sollicitous how thou are dealt with be in fine as a peece of clay in the porters hands onely beseeth him to make thee a vessell of honour not of cōtumelie THE SIXTH MEDITATION The comfortes of the stable I. POINT CONSIDER that vnder the humble weake and young members of this tender babe the power of a Diuine Majestie is shrewded It is God that lyes sucking at this Virgine mothers breastes He is vayled indeede with the pouertie of vile clothes and endures the hard and narrow manger but it is mercy which moued him humbly to it to thend the lost world might be redeemed He vseth the strikes of a child but it is to th end that by them we might auoyde eternall lamentations and gnashing of teeth He is wrapped in poore clothes but they serue to wipe away the filth of our sinnes Hes layd in a manger as the meate of brute-beastes but he is indeede the fatninge foode of men and Angells Aff. Yes my soule the place wherin thou stands is holy It is the very Maiestie of heauen which is here It is the verie God which made thee who lyes before thee This stable is his holy temple These poore apparances which may seeme to hide him from thyne eyes deliuer him more tenderly to thy hart for whose loue he lyes thus vayled So that by how much he descendes lower by so much doe thy hopes ascend higher For what mayst thou not confidently expect from an alpowerfull Lord so humbléd for thy sake Flye to him with an humble loue and a perseuerant confidence and thy redemption is euen at hand O what mercy doe not these abiect postures speake what consolation doe not these teares giue What man can despaire for whom a God weepes 2. POINT Consider that this litle child is constituted Iudge of Heauen and earth by his heauenly father who takes and teares in peeces the hand writinges of our ancient debtes and mercifully pardonns all our offences so that we are freed from our feares of our first Fathers preuarication wherin all mortalls were inuolued Behold that Champion present with vs who frees vs from the yoake of our old Captiuitie bringing ioy and gladnesse to the mournefull Cast off thy yoake thou captiue daughter of sion Thy mylde king is come to abate the prid and subdue the tyrannie of his and our most furious foe Aff. What hopes of safetie may not the poore criminall iustly haue when he vnderstands that the Iudge preuents the iudgement day out of a desire to find an
is presently sent for yea the poorest of men the poore shephards to be spectatours of his pouertie to witt the Lambe is borne and it is but fitting that the shephards should giue their attendance Aff. Obserue obserue diligently ô my soule the wayes of the Lord thy God which are still so contrarie to those of the world When a mother was to be choysen he cast his eyes vpon an humble handmayde When diuine prouidence was to prouide a Pallace in earth for the king of Heauen it was a poore stable When Courtiers are to be sent for the verie first Embasie that Wisdome makes is not to Kinges and Princes but to poore contemptible clownes O strange confusion to the proude Potentates of this world O singular consolation to the humble poore and simple who haue noe commerce with the same while they neither know the world nor the world them nor is worthly of them they are blest with first visites from God and Angells Yes deare Sauiour thou makest well appeare by this first act that thou art sent indeede to preach to the poore Riches doe robbe vs of our soules Learing puffes vs vp with pride Honors quite transport our hartes to vanitie In pouertie and true simplicitie our soule is safe and dayly conuerses with God and his Angells In fine either haue we choysen well in this our religious state c. or wisdome it selfe made a badd choyse 2. POINT Consider what Messenger is sent to call these poore sillie soules who are hardly held companie for other men Noe lesse then an Angell and he too accompaigned with whole multitudes of Angells They were to find the lambe their God lesse then man but they had an Angell before hand to assure them that how euer they found him he was noe lesse then both their God Their simplicitie might haue bene surprised and scandalized by his pouertie whom the world would not know but his heauenly Father acknowledged him for his sonne coequall to himselfe and made one and the same Gloria be sunge to them both by the multitudes of his heauenly Quiresters in the poore shephards hearing assuring them and the world by them of a great ioy in the birth of a sauiour who was Christ their Messias So that they were sent with a lesson taught by an Angell to glorifie and adore their God in the forme of a poore infant swadled in clothes and layed in a manger Aff. O how graciously heauen and earth begin to make acquaintance O poore sillie man how happie thou art wouldst thou but once diligently ponder and konw thyne owne happinesse to see thy hart so courted by a Kinge Who sends out his ministering Angells to call thee to his presence who while he is humble and abiect for thy loue he leaues not to be high to but still mixeth his humilitie and mildnesse with Maiestie He is in appearance a poore child but is in verie deede thy God on high He is lodged amongst beastes but his carole is sung by Quires of Angells Singe with them then mysoule Glorie to thy God to him alone it is due nor will he giue it to another Pay that dutie first to him or noe peace will follow Iustice and peace Otherwise we may crye peace peace as longe as we will we shall neuer inioy it while we remayne in that impietie and iniustice of robbing God of his Glorie Resolution I will then Angellike sing say worke and doe all my actions to Gods honour and glorie c. that I may be partaker of his peace which passes mans vnderstanding c. THE VIII MEDITATION For new-years-day I. POINT CONSIDER that this good newes which the Angells told vs these dayes past of the birth of a sauiour comes home this good new yearesday to our vses and profit being indeede the best new-yeares-gife that Heauen had to giue For if he were borne for vs these dayes past this present day he is giuen to vs. He is ours then by a double title and that too the best imaginable By birth-right nobis natus Borne for vs And by Deed of free gift nobis datus Giuen to vs. Affection O Bountie Bountie Bountie so old for thou louedst me from all eternitie And yet so new for thou louest me in tyme too and by the imensitie of thy gift shewest the imensitie of thy bountie Learne my soule by the greatnesse of this present the greanesse of the price which Heauen putts vpon thee And doe not sell thy selfe to the earth for an vnderualue Learne by this a holy pride know that thou art more worth then any thinge it hath to bestowe Thou wert told by S. Augustine that the kingdome of Heauen being to be sold was iust worth as much as thou art but me thinkes we may add to that rate since the kinge of Heauen is giuen for thee Giue thy selfe and thou shalt haue them both Ah! make-not away this faire inheritance for a messe of potage Change not the chaste loues of a heauenly spouse for the bitter Mandragores of the world The riches of heauen is giuen to thee for thy New yeares gift giue at least the pouertie of the earth backe againe Da teipsum habebis Why dost thou stand vpon the price striue to haue a good answer to this question and I hope you will find your selfe forced to conclude a good bargaine to begin the yeare and say Resolution God is my gift himselfe he freely gaue me Gods gift I am and now but Cod shall haue me 2. POINT Consider that this day our blessed sauiour begins to shew in verie deede he is ours borne for vs giuen to vs since he begins to shed his pretious bloud for vs for the eighth day is come and according to the law he is to be circūcised The lawgiuer is not subiect to the law the sonne of God cannot be lyable to sinne the sonne of a virgine cannot be subiect to corruption innocencie hath nothing to doe with the markes of a sinner And yet the poore innocent lambe without spott which comes to take away the sinnes of the word will be branded with the infamous marke of a sinner not for his owne buth for our sinnes sed omnia propter electos saith S. Bernard Affect O my deare Iesus to what a low degree of humiliation and abiection and euen scandall of thy selfe doth loue leade thee For there will be those who while they too clearely reade the a man by this thy sacred bloud will deney thy diuinitie There will be those who knowing punishement to be still the punishement of sinne that by seeing thy punishement will imagine some cryme in thee There will be those who beholding thee with an impious eye will laugh at a bloodie God how euer to pious eyes it appeares the the greatest misterie and miracle of loue O heauenly father this is thyne onely child in whome thou art so well pleased who is so innocent immaculate vnspotted Is it for the sinnes of thy people thou hast
hart hath said to thee I haue sought thy countenance Lord thy countenance will I seeke Le ts fixe vpon this if we desire to be happie le ts ayme at noe other thinge then this this alone will abundantly suffice How being found he ought to be adored II. POINT CONSIDER how the good Kinges make their approches to Christ and fall downe before him after the true Christian way not in word and discourse but in worke and truth The Euangelists make mention of noe one word they vsed Nor was it indecde so sutable to vse words in the presēce of the eternall WORD which lay speachlesse nor doe they doubt but that he could read their hartes in presence which he had powerfully touched at so great a distance But their workes by mysterious presentes speake their hartes and errands By gold they proclame a Kinge by frank-incense they professe a God by myrre they declare a man Affect O my soule let vs diligently looke vpon these progenitours of ours these Presidentes of our faith Let vs I say looke vpon their Christian behauiour and striue to imitate them Let not so much words as hartes speake our humble sutes and true submissions Where we meete with the eternall word silenced le ts adore him in silence silence being the worshippe of iustice Let the gold of our hartie loue that burning gold of S. Iohn the Euangelist publish him the Kinge of our hartes ouer which we wish his absolute raigne Let out feruent sighes and sobbes and incessant breathinges after him be our frankincense testifying that he is the God and Authour of our beeing in whom we liue moue and are all that we are And let the myrre of our mortifications and cheerefull sufferances declare to all the world that he is the man that suffered and dyed for vs leauing vs an example of patient suffering which his blessed will is We should follow Ah! thus doe these words of workes and hart and willing suffering speake lowdest and most effectually in the eares of God THE VIII MEDITATION That the kinges historie representes ours I. POINT CONSIDER and in the three Kinges historie reade our owne in their happines obserue our owne felicitie For were we not all deade in sinne which had dispersed it selfe ouer all the veynes of mankinde were we not benighted in infidelitie and lay wounded impotent blind naked lame poore and miserable were we not borne in a forraigne land farre from Bethleem where few seeke Christ fewer knowe or care for him was not Herode the persecutor in our way who pretended to adore him but indeed hated his memorie Had we not by his gift not onely the grace to beleeue in him but the courage to be readie to suffer for him and the resolution to leaue parentes countrie and all that was deare to vs to find him in pouertie obedience chastitie in a land which we knew not Affection Le ts giue glorie to God and let the memorie of these blissings of preference take vpp the whole capacitie of our hartes We were borne in the midest of a peruerse and incredulous generation and yet we were culd out of it that we might not perish with it Not by chance nor is there any chance with God but by choyce not because we loued him first but he vs and therfor he drew vs taking mercy on vs. Not because we willed or run but because he would haue mercy vpon whom he would haue mercy Say then my soule but say it hartily and incessantly with the Psalmist I wil singe the mercies of our Lord for euer I will sound out his prayse from generation to generation and let all the world know by the odour of our life our workes and sufferings how great thinges he hath done to vs poore creatures of his which he hath not done to all nations The diuers operations of two Natures in one Person II. POINT CONSIDER the blessed comfortable mixture of the diuers operations and demonstrations of two Natures in one and the same Person As man he lyes betwixt an oxe and an asse in miserie Yet as God he forgetts not his maiestie but commands his Angells to call the shephards to adore him As man he is subiect to childish scriks and teares But as God the Angells singe his Gloria As man he seemes neglected vnknowen vnconsidered by all Iewrie But as God he strikes terrour into all the Iewes Herode and all Hierusalem with him are troubled at his birth As man the Kinges find him the Kinge of the Iewes whom they came so farre to seeke in a poore caue accompanied with a poore mayde and their eyes reade him such as they see him a poore child But looking vpon his starre their constant guide they conclude him a powerful God whom the starrs obeye and their harts instantly breath after Affection Be thou euer blessed and magnified ô my lowe and mightie my abiect and powerfull Lord. Thou art lowe to come downe to my pouertie high to rayse my thoughtes hopes towards thy riches Lowe for my instruction and humiliation high for my protection and defence Lowe to teach my proude hart that all greatnesse ought to subiect it selfe to this admirable humilitie of thyne High to be our true refuge in all our weaknesses deiections but lowe to conuince our hartes that the true highth of a Christian is to be humble and lowe with and for his Christ When I am infirme then I am powerfull saith the great S. Paule AN ENTERTAYNEMENT FOR EASTER THE I. MEDITATION The I. Christian ioy I. POINT CONSIDER that though the great God of all consolation suffers his seruants to fall into afflictions desolations and sorrowes yet they are not continuall If there be mourning at night there is ioy in the morning yea and euen in the mourning too The dolourous dayes past were spent in following our deare Sauiour who suffered death it selfe for our loue while we looked but on Or if we euen dyed with him in our pious desires and resolutions or seemed to indure worse then death it selfe by our frequent and tormenting temptations they will not proue to death but to Gods glory and our beatitude they will produce more plentifull ioyes in rysing with him For harke while the teares are yet in our eyes for him being deade an Angell assures vs he liues and liues to dye noe more but to raigne He is rysen he is not here Affection Sing then my soule Alleluya Alleluya Alleluya Christ is truly rysen That he dyed he dyed but once and for our sinnes but that he now liues he liues to God the life of glorie for euer His sufferances were but for a tyme but his life and ioyes and in him ours too are for all eternitie Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia If he seemed forsaken it was but for a moment and that for our consolation for our example to assure vs that seeme we neuer so forsaken suffering with Christ we shall ryse with Christ in newnesse of life to a
better life the life of grace the life of glorie Alleluia Alleluya Alleluia II. POINT CONSIDERATION He is rysen he is not here Noe for Magdalene and the rest of the good women who had carefully obserued where he was layd and who as earely as carefully sought to find him where they had seene him layd find indeede the monument open but misse of their Masters body nor know they where they are to find it Marie spies two Angells but misses of the Lord of Angells till she heares Marie pronounced and so see 's and knowes her deare Rabboni who sent her backe while she sought his dead body among the deade to be the first preacher to his brethren of the glorie of his liuing body among the liuing Affect See my soule what ioyes sorowes bring forth see how the returne of our deare Lord wipes away the teares from our eyes See how true it is that he foretold vs. I goe from you but to returne to you I will not leaue you orphants See the fruites of a carefull attendance and due perseuerance which meetes with more then it lookes for and finds all euen amidst doubts distrusts and seeming despaire where it feared to haue lost all It finds not Angels onely but the verie God of Angells truly pious truly good the God of all consolation who makes the weake ones of the world to confound the strong a poore desolate Marie to be first Apostle of the most important point of the faith of Christ Alleluya Alleluya Alleluya THE SECOND MEDITATION The 3. Christian ioy THE I. POINT CONSIDER that our best friend our pious Lord the dearest husband of ourhartes who out of a goodnes beyond all comparison died ignominiously these dayes past for our loue is this daye gloriously risen The newes is certaine The best beloued mother the mournefull maides the fearefull Apostles haue all seene him â—e is risen he is truly risen Alleluya O what ioy what ioy the poore innocent lambe that we saw barbarously treated and butchered and slaine to take awaye the sinnes of the world with laying downe his life is risen with peace and reconcilement to the world Alleluya Alleluya Alleluya Affection Ah my soule the spouse of thy hart who spent his harts blood for thy saluation is risen againe and appeares to manie for thy consolation which though thou seest not as they the Apostles c. did with thy bodily eyes yet faith makes thee as sure of it as they were that thy best friend thy most pious Master thy dearest spouse is risen liues and raignes If then thou hast indeed the hart of a friend the dutie and tendernesse of a child the ardent loue of a spouse reioyce my soule reioyce and with exultation pay benediction and honour and glorie and power to the tender lambe who was slaine for thy loue for euer and euer Amen The 4. Ioy. II. POINT CONSIDERATION Yes my soule the newes is most certaine He 's returned back with the woundes he receiued he carries the markes about with him certaine witnesses as well of his painefull death as his excessiue loue his glorious resurrection The incredulous Thomas hath seene him had his fingers in holes of his hands his in the hole of his side through his wounds he hath felt his bowells Affection O singularly good newes my soule ô admirable graciousnesse ô what ioy what ioy It was not iudged enough to that maker and louer and Sauiour of mankind to haue spent 33. yeares in a familiar and common manner amongst men nay to haue spent the laste droppe of his most pretious blood in the view of all the world vnlesse he returned to them againe in his glorified bodie to make good in effect that he left them not orphants but made the wounds which he had suffered for them the louing and palpable arguments of his Resurrection and presence THE THIRD MEDITATION The 5. Ioy. I. POINT CONSIDERATION Yes my soule Our harmelesse brother Ioseph liues and raignes not ouer Egipt only but euen ouer all the world Gods sweete prouidence and milde mercie hath made vse of his bretherens malice to magnifie his owne power and singular goodnes and euen to relieue their and all our miseries and wants Our innocent Isaac liues Our Ionas is come safe to the shore Our sauing Noe hath passed the floud and is secure vpon the toppe of the Mountaine Affection See my soule how graciously he hath consummated all that was foretold of him Obserue how all the tipes of the olde lawe are accomplished in him Our deare Ioseph liues and raignes and hath turned the worst of mans malice to mans aduantage Our Isaac dies not but is reserued to afford the world a frutefull progenie of the faithfull Our Ionas seemed only to be deuowred but is indeed kept safe from shipwrack to preach gods power where mans wisdome gaue all for lost Our Noe is secured from the Deluge not so much to people the world with sinners as Heauen with Saintes Liue then and raigne for euer my sweete Sauiour ouer my soule and turne all seeming disasters to the aduantage of thy glorie The 6. Ioy. II. POINT CONSIDERATION Yes my soule the tender child which was borne in Bethlehem that true Nazarite that innocent milde young-man of Galilee is become now a Lion of the Tribe of Iuda hath made a swift course and returned with victorie Vicit Leo de Tribu Iudae Yes he hath wrought wonders he hath killed death ransaked Hell subdued the world and sayes to our hartes Be confident children by sufferance I haue ouercome the world and so too you may and ought to ouercome it Affection Ah my soule if that tender heauenly babe who was no lesse then the wisedome of heauen marked thee out the waye to it by Crosses contumelies and contempts let not the wisedome of the world which is true follie point thee out an other and deceiue thee If that lambe of God by suffering death it selfe be returned a victorious Lion neuer hope for victorie ouer the world the flesh and sinne but by patient sufferance of whateuer Gods prouidence shall permitt to fall vpon thee and by dyeing to the world and all its vanities Suffer then or dye my soule that with Iesus thou maist victoriously rise to a glorious life THE FOVRTH MEDITATION That Christ being risen is to be sought I. POINT CONSIDER that our lately dead Lord is risen indeede an Angell assures vs so Surrexit he is risen nor is there anie more doubt to be made of it yet haue we assurance too by the same mouth that he his not here nor indeed can Magdalens care learne where they haue put him If we loue him then we must looke him and looke him faithfully not with despayring feare but with confidence to find him in his good tyme for we are willed not to feare nolite timere Not among the dead for we are told be is risen and dyes no more Not finally in wordly delights ease and securitie but in the
nothing els then so manie effects of his free grace without which we are not able of our selues to thinke one good thought nothing lesse then so many new obligations heaped vpon vs obligations I saye to imploy the rest of our tyme here belowe without intermission as the Angells their eternitie aboue in ioyfull Alleluya's that is peales of hartie Prayses and thankes-giuing for so great benefits Affection Say my soule with the great S. Augustine Let our Lord be alwayes magnifyed neuer my selfe in no place my selfe how euer I haue profitted to what degree of vertue soeuer I may haue attayned but our Lord alwayes Am I a sinner let him be magnified that I may be called to pennance Doe I confesse my sinnes let him be magnified that he may pardon me Doe I liue a good life let him be magnified that he may guide me Doe I perseuere to the end Let him be magnified that he may glorifie me Be he therefor alwayes magnified Let this alwayes be the iust mans profession and the profession of all those who seeke our Lord. Fruits of Christs Resurrection II. POINT CONSIDER how necessarie this Resurrection was to confirme our staggering faith to erect our daunted hope and to inflame our drooping charitie Wee did hope said the Disciples as who should saye but now we haue cause to doubt and so should we all haue said had not his resurrection bene rendred vndoubted For what did his poore natiuitie speake but a man borne in miserie And what did his death preach but a man dyeing in torment But his glorious Resurrection by sealing the truth of all the Prophecies wonderfully hightens our hopes and inflames vs with the loue of him who through loue of vs gaue waye to death from which he had strength enough in three dayes to raise himselfe Affection Well might our weake faith my soule haue staggered in seeing our God but a day olde in hearing him weepe like another childe in beholdinge him in pouertie and miserie Well might our faith haue been shaken when we sawe a God most ignominiously dye But now seeing him gloriously rise againe how can we doubt of all the rest Nay what may we not iustly hope for from so much goodnesse as would dye for vs and so much power as could rise againe And how is it possible that our harts should not burne with his loue who dyeing for ours makes good the faith of his Deitie by his so powerfull so manifest and glorious a Resurrection THE VIII MEDITATION Other fruites of our Sauiours Resurrection I. POINT CONSIDER as a second fruite of our Sauiours Resurrection a strong and constant hope of the Resurrection of our mortall bodie being first subdued by death Let the pagan Philosofers doubt and dispute as much as they will the resurrection of the dead is the vndoubted faith of the Christians after the resurrection of Christ and by vertue of the same For saith S. Leo If we beleeue in hart what we professe with our mouth in him we are crucified in him we are dead in him we are buried and in him we rise againe Affection Yes yes my soule the Resurrection of my Sauiour hath put this out of doubt Man is risen in him and therefore we shall also rise and we confidently professe with holy Iob that we know our Redeemer liueth and in the last day we shall rise out of the earth and we shall be compassed againe with our skinnes and in our flesh we shall see God whom we our selues shall see and our eyes shall behold and no other This hope is 〈◊〉 vp in our bosome II. POINT CONSIDER as the third fruite of this ioyfull and glorious day our Blessed Sauiours triumph and raigne ouer all the world happily beginning at Hierusalem and extending it selfe to the vttermost confines of the same thereby making his words I haue ouercome the world appeare in effect For if the world had malice enough to haue razed his name out of the hartes of men by his death vpon an infamous Crosse he contrarily had goodnes and power enough by the same death to imprint his memorie much deeper in their mindes to abolish Idolatrie the worshipp of false Gods and true Diuells and in their places to establish the worshippe of one true God ouer all the face of the earth all which at this day with much ioy to true Christian hartes we see effected Affection Reioyce my soule to see that Gods goodnes hath turned the malice of men to the aduantage of his owne glorie and their Saluation What excesse of ioy ought it not afforde to a true Christian hart to see the faith of a God-man infamously dyeing vpon a Crosse willingly imbraced all the world ouer To see that Crosse erected in triumph in euerie place To see regall and imperiall Crownes fall at the feete of it To see Idolles fall and Diuells flye at the verie signe of it Finally to see Iesus of Nazareth crucified acknowledged imbraced magnified adored in euerie corner of the earth THE IX MEDITATION I. POINT CONSIDER how our blessed Sauiour appeares a true louer of man not only in his life and at his death but euen after his Resurrection also And still becomes all to all that he might gaine all In the garden he appeares a Gardener to S. Marie To the Disciples fishing at sea as a passinger desiring fish To the two Disciples walking to Emmaus as a Pilgrime who accompaigned them to witt whether we seeke him with Magdalen or we follow our ordinarie imployments according to our state and calling with the Apostles or wee walke betwixt feares and hopes with the two Disciples Iesus sorsakes vs not for Iesus also himselfe approching went with them saith S. Luke Affection Ah my deare Lord to what excesse doth not thy loue goe into what posture doth it not put it selfe to gaine mans loue For him he dyes for him he riseth from death he walkes with him he talkes with him he eates with him he suffers his perfidious hand to sound his deare wounds Ah my euer dearest Rabboni how iustly may we saie with one of thy great Saintes Thou bestowest great blessings vpon vs euen caressest vs least we might waxe wearied in the waye Thou correctest whippest and smitest vs least we might wander out of the waye whether therefore thou dost caresse vs least we might faint in the waye or thou dost chastice vs least we might stray from the waye thou deare Lord art alwayes our Refuge II. POINT CONSIDER with whom it is that Iesus doth willingly walke in the waye of this our pilgrimage with whom he doth comfortably discourse and you shall finde by the example of the two Disciples goeing to Emmaus that it is with such as seriously conferre together or meditate vpon those deare passages of the life and death of our sweete Sauiour According to that of the Psalmist in my Meditation the fire begins to burne vp Affection Let vs. then my soule euer hence-forth make it our
disposition A holy retreate I. POINT CONSIDER by the B. Apostles example that the third disposition to receiue the holy Ghost ought to be a sacred solitude or retreate from wordly affaires vaine feares fruitlesse sollicitudes which disorder and take vp the house of our hart which should be wholy kept for the intertaynement of so great a guest The world was alwayes his and our worst enemye and hates him It were not to receiue him worthily to suffer his enemye to prepossesse the place The designe of his heauenly hart is to speake to ours alone and to make vs tast how sweete our God is And farre vnfitt it were to mixe those pure delightes with the bitter-sweetes the world affords Affection Le ts then my soule striue to silence those as importune as vnprofitable noyses and rumours of the world which hinder vs to heare what Heauen speakes to our hartes The world indeede is still whispering in the cares of our hart and tells vs of I know not what delightes but ah they are not like to the Law of our Lord that deare Law of loue which the holy Ghost sweetly breathes into our soules They are not they are not like it They doe but promise feyned pleasure peace and pay certaine paines and affliction Auant therfore deluding world disband fond feares and sollicitudes and leaue the whole hart for the God of loue The 4. disposition Our owne earnest endeuour II. POINT CONSIDER for the 4. disposition that this solitude is not to be spent in an idle and sleepie expectation without any concurrence of ours but contrarily by how much the more we are remoued from the world in our thoughtes by so much more are they to be conuersant in heauen for though the holy Ghost be a free gift and could not be merited by all the endeuours of men but proceedes from the vncompelled and free goodnesse of the father and the Sonne who the Sonne by his sacred word promised by his painefull Passion merited and by his holy prayers preuayled for his coming yet we see by the example of the Apostles and Primitiue Christians that we are to make vse of our owne endeuours before we haue the happinesse to receiue him indeede as dispositions to prepare our hartes against the receipt of so great a Gueste Affection Noe my soule the God who made vs without our helpe will not saue vs without our owne concourse or cooperation He will saue vs in qualitie of such as he made vs by his gift and grace to witt reasonable and free Creatures He hath taught vs to aske to seeke to knocke nor shall we otherwise receiue or find the gate open Nay he euen reproches vs that being so longe so continually with vs our coldnesse yet asketh nothing Nor would he euer saith sweete S. Augustine so earnestly exorte vs to aske if he would not giue Let slouthfull man blush then since God is more readie to giue then we to receiue He 's more readie to grant mercye then we to be deliuered from miserie THE III. MEDITATION The 5. disposition Prayer I. POINT CONSIDER for the 5. disposition the primitiue and Apostolicall way to receiue the holy Ghost as it is deliuered in the first of the Actes All of them saith S. Luke were perseuering in prayer We find the Apostles to whom the promesse was newly made praying for the performance of it We find the Primitiue Christians and our Blessed Lady her selfe at prayer Nay euen our Aduocate while he was yet with vs told vs that he would pray to his heauenly father for vs in this behalfe good reason then that we his poore clyents should ioyne in petition with him and earnestly pray that that holy Spirit may be sent to vs. Affection Let vs then my soule incessantly both day and night aspire and breath after this holy Spirit saying with blessed S. Aug. Come ô thou holy communication of the Father and the Sonne and prepare thyne owne habitation Come and visite the darke retreaites of our distracted hartes Come ô thou clenser of sinnes and curer of wounds Come ô thou strength of the weake and support of such as are readie to fall Come ô thou teacher of the humble and destroyer of the proude Come purifie this self-loue by thy sacred fire enlighten this self-iudgement by thy cleare light and breake downe this selfe will of myne by thyne vnresistable power The 6. disposition Vnanimous perseuerance in prayer II. POINT CONSIDER that the Apostles and Primitiue Christians Prayer was accompayned with vnanimitie and perseueuerance It was not slightly and distractedly run ouer in a short tyme but they absolutly made it their busines being shutt vp togeither euen from the Ascension till Pentecoste or the coming of the holy Ghost vnanimously and instantly begging and expecting that Best gift Affection Thus my soule let vs and all that loue the eternall loue of the Father and the Sonne pray vnanimously not with diuided hartes and perseuerantly all togeither not as though we were litle concerned or that we had not all one designe since we ought all to haue but one hart And ioyne in prayer with that deare Mediatour and Aduocate of ours to his father and our father at whose right hand he is still pleading for vs his poore brethren according to flesh that he would dispatch downe that holy Spirit of theirs into our hartes to th end we may all be but one by loue and vnion with the father and Sonne and the same Spirit as they are but all one in essence and substance and that our hartes may continue the pure and chaste Temples of the holy Trinitie for euer Christian hartes thus vnited are able to make a holy force against Heauen and draw from thence the Spirit of vnion AN ENTERTAYNEMENT FOR WHITSONTIDE OR MEDITATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST THE I. MEDITATION That of our selues without the ayde of the holy Ghost we can doe nothing I. POINT CONSIDER that Man of himselfe as of himselfe is not able to think one good thought but all our sufficiencie is from God and what God the Father by his power is able to performe what the sonne by his wisdome to inuent is not executed and applied vnto vs but by the goodnes and loue of God the holY Ghost whence s. Paule None can say Lord Iesus that is as he ought profitablY to saluation but in the holy Ghost Affection See mY soule in these diuine truths thine owne sufficiencie that is thy pouertie and meere nothing We are not able to worke one good worke nor saie one good word nor euen conceaue one good thought but all euen all our sufficiencie is from that great Giuer of all good giftes So that we may well pronounce with the holy Church without thy power ô diuine Spirit there is nothing at all sound in Man If then all our strength be from him let all our addresses be to him If we indeede acknowledge our owne impotencie let vs betake our selues to his omnipotencie If
flesh be weake let 's haue recourse to the Spirit Let loue leade vs to this God of Loue and expose our coldenes to the fire which he visibly brings downe from heauen this day saying Veni c. What the H. Ghost is II. POINT CONSIDER what the holy Ghost is He is no other thing then the Spirit that is the spiration and breathing of the Father and the Sonne for as mans hart by his mouth breatheth or produceth a breath so God the Father by his sonne produceth the holy Spirit Or els as the soule by the vnderstanding of an amiable thing doth produce or breath out loue Loue which is no other thing then the spirit or breath of the affection so doth the father by the Sonne breath out the holy Ghost who is no other thing then a chast and holy loue produced and breathed out by the father and the Sonne whose mutuall loue it is Affection O diuinely sweete-breath Heauenly deare Gale Coeternall tye of two eternall persons Sacred commerce holy communication of the omnipotent father and his only begotten deare sonne O essentiall ineffable inflamed loue who euer burnest and art neuer extinguished graciously slide into and burne this frosen hart of mine Thou hast freely preuented me and reuiued me while I lay in a dead slumber and neither sought thee nor thought on thee Doe not I beseech thee forsake me whilst I am inuokinge thee I desire with the whole strife of my hart to desire thee The loue of my soule couets to loue thee Nor can I without thee Grant that by thee I may souue-raingly loue the father and the sonne and thee Three diuine persons â—n the veritie of one Deitie whose mutuall loue thou art O god the holy Ghost giue what thou commandest and command what thou wilt THE II. MEDITATION What kind of Spirit the H. Ghost is I. POINT CONSIDER that though the holy Ghost be a Spirit Spiration or breathing yet is it not like that of Man which is a Spirit which passeth and returneth not nor like to the Angells which are Missionarie and seruing Spirits nor like to that which our Sauiour Iesus-Christ deliuered vp when he said into thy hands I commend my Spirit To witt his soule In fine it is no created Spirit but an immense increated diuine Spirit intrinsecall to God yea God himself the third person of the B. Trinitie the same God with the Father and the Sonne proceeding from them by an eternall spiration and therefore coequall consubstantiall coeternall with them and equally to be adored and glorified together with them as Lord and life-giuer Affection Let me loue thee ô thou deare eternall immutable and euer permanent Spirit and loue of the father and the sonne let me loue thee And as thou proceedest from that one only more then most blessed eternall will of the father and the Sonne and becomest naturally and substantially one only God with them before time so grant that my will in tyme by the participation of thy heate and thy grace may so louingly adheare to that diuine will and be lincked together in so perfect a bond of true friendshipp that there be but one will betwixt heauen and earth God and Man That that may be as truly meant and accomplished as frequently pronounced Thy will that is that sourse of life of libertie of eternall loue be donne in earth as it is in heauen that by such conformitie resignation and adheasion we may all become but one Spirit with thee That the H. Ghost is a heauenly gift II. POINT CONSIDER further what the holy Ghost is and you shall finde that he is a gift but a gift sent vs from heauen a gift which containes in it the whole collection of all good things a gift prepared from all eternitie to be bestowed vpon men better then which there neither hath or shall or can be any giuen or imagined euen by the wisedome of heauen it selfe for it is euen that best gift that perfect thing which descended from the father of lightes with whom there is alwaies a permanent plentie Affection 4 O most noble most admirable and more then most excellent gift ô in comparable immense and inestimable liberalitie ô incomparable dignitie of mans soule Man was farre from dreaming of it Angels could neuer haue imagined it God himselfe could giue no more then God in a gift Ah my soule the verie heauens can giue no more then we possesse They are diuine truthes we speake the great S. Paule assures it Know you not that your members are the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you And againe The spirit of God dwelleth in you Well may we glorie in this obsolute assurance of so incomparable a gift and guest But forget not my soule what followes But if anie violate the Temple of God God will distroy him THE III. MEDITATION The Holy Ghost is a permanent gift I. POINT CONSIDER of what a permanent plentie and blisse poore man is possessed by the bountie of this heauenly git which is accomplished with all perfections It is a gift it cannot then be recalled it is our owne nothing being more ours then what is our owne by free gift It s a free gift it was not bought or borrowed but freely bestowed Loue then was the cause of it loue which is an efficacious wishing well or wishing good to the beloued Affection Ah my soule this heauenly gift is no lesse absolutely permanent then superlatiuely excellent and no lesse sure as to externall force then a huge possession The theeuish world cannot robbe it The power of darkenes cannot wrest it out of our hands The God that gaue it takes it not awaye Non deserit nisi deseratur He forsakes not vnlesse he be first forsaken Selfe trecherie at home alone can hazard it selfe disloyaltie can loose it hatred for loue by consent to mortall sinne can driue this Loue this gift this God out of dores II. POINT CONSIDER from whom we had this good gift and we shall find it came from all the three persons of the holy Trinitie I saith the Father will powre out my Spirit vpon all flesh I will aske my Father saith the sonne and he will send you another comforter I will send him to you saith he againe And the holy Ghost saith Sainte Augustine is so giuen as God's gift that he is also his owne gift he is both the gift and the giuer All the three persons in the B. Trinitie were imployed in mans creation and all are imployed too about his sanctification We will come to him to wit the father sonne and holy Ghost and we will take vp our Residence with him Affection Blesse ô my soule that Father of lightes that good giuer of all good gifts who sent his holy breath or spirit downe vpon vs. Blesse that Lambe of God who by his death merited that blessing for vs. Blesse in fine that holy Spirit who was himselfe both the giuer and the gift and graciously came
vnto vs. Be they Blessed and praysed magnified and glorified in the vnitie of one Deitie for euer And let our earthly Trinitie neuer forgett this mercy Let our memorie faithfully represent it to ourvnderstanding Let our vnderstanding continually ponder ruminate and deliuer it to the will And let the will imbrace in ioy and carefully locke vp this present of infinite loue with all the loue ioy and Iubilie of hart imaginable THE IV. MEDITATION What we receiue indeede when we are said to receiue the Holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER that by receiuing of the holy Ghost we receiue the substantiall or consubstantiall vnitie charitie and sanctitie of the father and the Sonne according to S. Augustine The most firme and indissoluble bond or tye of the holy Trinitie The sacred kisse of the father and the Sonne by their mutuall loue from all Eternitie whereby they loued the iust euen with the loue of their owne hart saith S. Richard de S. Victore which is the holy Ghost Affection Ah my soule how ineffably greate blessings are these which faith layes before vs and we consider it not or rarely and coldly reflect vpon them O did we frequently looke vpon it with a liuely faith how would our thoughtes be wayned from this base world How euer we are in it we are not made for it the heauens haue other thoughtes for vs. The true cause of our being here indeede is to adheare to God by loue and to become holy as our heauenly father is holy and to that purpose the holy Ghost the verie vnitie loue and sanctitie of the Father and the sonne comes downe to dwell in vs. Ah my soule Let vs neuer forgett this astonishing and oppressing graciousnesse II. POINT CONSIDER yet further that it is not the vnitie charitie and pietie of the father and the sonne which we receiue onely but truly and indeede we receiue the person of the holy Ghost wâ—â—h grace and charitie nor is he in vs by Essence Presence and power only as he is euerie where but in a more deare neere and intimate manner as in his Thâ—one oâ— Temple For doe you not know saith s. Paule that you are the Temple of God and the Holy Ghost doth dwell in you And againe Charitie is diffused into our hartes by the holy Ghost who is giuen vnto vs. Affection Yes saith s. Augustine that good God is present to his faithfull â—ot meerly by the grace of visitation but by the presence of his Maiestie It is not now the odour of the balsome that is spredd abroad but the verie substance of the sacred oyntment it selfe By which according to s. Iohn we shall be taught all thinges O great great and most admirable mysterie which is yet so familiar to vs Christians O most excellent and incomparable visite and gift of the proper person of the holy Ghost O God what a singular fauour is it to haue God the true God really and personally dwelling in our hartes O what hartes ought they to be which haue the happinesse to be the Mansion of such an inhabitant THE V. MEDITATION The excessiue loue of God shewen to man in sending the holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER with S. Augustine that God the father moued by meere mercie sent his sonne to redeeme his seruants he sent also the holy Ghost to adopt the same seruants into children He gaue his sonne for the price of their Ransome the holy Ghost for a pledge and assurance of his loue and reserues himselfe all whole for the inheritance of the adopted So much did he desire mans saluation that he imployed not only what was his but euen himself also to that effect Affection Doe we beleeue this ô my soule but doe we beleeue it indeede That such a sonne was sent for such seruants That seruants and such seruants were adopted into sonns into coheires into the participation of the diuine nature By the meere mercy of the Father by the bloud of the sonne by the loue of the holy Ghost Doe we beleeue it I say yes yes we beleeue it my soule We dare not we cannot deney it Credo Domine we beleeue it ô Lord yet helpe our incredulitie in this behalfe We beleeue it in words and in hart too but our actions our gratitude our loue speake it not confirme it not to the world For to whom should all the redeemed slaues actions belong but to his deare Redeemour Vpon whom should all his loue be sett but vpon one that so loues him And to whom should he reserue himselfe wholy but to the God of heauen who reserues himselfe wholy for him II. POINT CONSIDER what an excessiue goodnes and charitie it is that this immense and infinite Maiestie who walkes vpon the winges of the windes and sittes vpon the Cherubins who fills heauen and earth being assisted with millions of millions of Angells would yet daigne to take vp his seate in a poore corner of mans hart to grace that miserable worme of the earth with his presence diuinitie and sanctitie and therby with the participation of his diuine nature Ah! could we iustly weigh mans nothing and Gods Maiestie we should neuer be wearie with admiring and tasting the dignitie of this great worke Affection Ah Domine cognoscam te cognoscam me O Lord grant me light to know thee and to know my selfe that by such knowledge I may happily and gainefully loose my selfe in the admiration of thy excessiue graciousnesse For what am I indeede compared to thee but extremitie of miserie compared to infinite Maiestie but nothing nothing compared to him who is all in all But not so much as one little droppe to a boundlesse Ocean And yet this Maiestie is graciously pleased to take vp his Residence in this miserie This All will lodge in this nothing This Ocean will ouer-flowingly possesse and please himselfe in this droppe How happens this to me that not the Mother of my Lord but euen my Lord himselfe comes vnto me resides in me takes vp his deare delights in my poore harte Ah my soule let our dearest delightes be to possesse him to please him to magnifie him to glorifie him for euer THE VI. MEDITATION Gods excessiue loue to man I. POINT CONSIDER how great and ineffable the pietie of our Redeemer was towards vs as S. Augustine obserues who carried man vp to heauen and sent God into earth what a care hath our Maker to repaire his workmanshipp Behold a new medicine is againe sent downe from heauen Behold Maiestie daignes againe by his owne presence to visit the sicke Behold diuine things are againe mixed with humane the holy Ghost is become a succeeding Vicar to our Redeemer that what the one had begun the other by a peculiar vertue might consummate that what the sonne had redeemed the holy Ghost might sanctifie what he had purchaced he might conserue Affection Too too much are thy friends honored my dearest Lord. Their principalitie is exceedingly beyond all measure confirmed by the presence
worke that man or Angell is capable of since we we goe to pay to God the worshippe of Latria which is properly due to himselfe alone To receiue him into the narrow cottage of our hart whom the highest heauens cannot comprehend To eate the bread of Angells the body of the son of God This is the qualitie of the blessed worke we ayme at Affection Be wise then my soule and wisely discerning what thou goest about striue to imploy thy best and euen outmost endeuours vpon the best of workes Be iust withall and proue not a slow Creditour in paying what thou owest This God thou receiuest is the Lord of life and death and both are iustly due to him He giues himselfe all wholy to thee giue thy selfe wholy backe to him Man is but a sparing exchange for a God If thy hart be alreadie farre too straight to receiue him whom the heauens cannot conteyne let not the world at least possesse any part of it and make it yet more narrow lesse capable Striue to haue the hart of an Angell since thou eatest their foode yea a God like hart indeed since the son of a God is made thy foode THE FIRST MOTIVE Gods proper worshippe II. POINT CONSIDER that as this Sacrament and Sacrifice is the onely proper worshippe due to God so haue we noe other meanes to worshippe him according to his infinite dignitie but this Sacrament and Sacrifice wherin God the Sonne a person equall to him is offered to God the Father But the desire of our hart is to serue God in the best manner we can therfor we must needs frequently desire this Sacrament and Sacrifice Affection My soule my soule le ts not complement God with fictions and Sacryfice him with a lye If the desire of thy hart be indeede to serue him in the best manner we are able and to pay him the proper worshippe due vnto him thou hast in this Blessed Sacrament mett with the meanes to performe it What thou hast not of thyne owne he lends thee of his Hauing riches enough offered thee by him that became poore to inrich thee proue not slow in paying what thou owest If without him we confesse we cannot let vs not fayle to concurre with his blessings to the performance of our dutie And make resolutions accordingly THE II. MEDITATION THE SECOND MOTIVE Loue of vnion with God I. POINT IF we be the true children of Christ we desire truly and indeede to be true Christians and truly to loue Christ But loue leades to neerenesse familiaritie and vnion with the thing beloued therfor must we desire vnion Nor is there a more neere and deare vnion then to lodge him in our harte which is done by receiuing this Blessed Sacrament we must needes then earnestly desire often to receiue this Blessed Sacrament Affection In vaine my soule doe we vsurpe the name of Father if we haue not the hart of children In vaine pretend we to be Christians if we loue not Christ And falsely doe we seeme to haue or desire his loue whose companie we flye whose familiaritie we seeke not this our owne conscience and experience assures vs is true in all we loue saue him whom we should most of all loue For hauing alwayes the meanes at hand of a most neere and deare and blesse-full and glorious vnion if by coldnesse neglect or carelessenesse we make noe vse of it what doe we but declare to the world that we haue not indeede the hartes of children we haue not the Loue of Christians w◠remayne in a lukewarme condition which God hates and reiects THE THIRD MOTIVE Gratitude II. POINT CONSIDER that if we be truly gratefull for the innumerably many and great benefits which we haue continually receiued and dayly doe receiue and expect still to receiue from the hand of God we truly desire some fitt meanes to shew our gratitude nor can we find any more worthy more acceptable more effectuall then to fall vpon the Psalmists conclusion when he was in the same care I will receiue saith he the cupp of my Sauiour That is I will offerre vp Christ to his heauenly Father I must be carefull then frequently to communicate Affection Ah my soule how long shall we remayne heauie harted how long shall we putt vniust rates vpon thinges and waigh benefits in deceiptfull ballances Are we not kindly sensible enough of the smale fauours which we receiue from mē and doe we not find our selues more then sufficiently liuely in point of requitall is it God alone who made the hart that can find noe fauour with it Must toyes from the hand of man be esteemed and extolled and must innumerable benefits from the hand of God be still vnderualued fall to the ground or be receiued as duties must we steale tyme from tyme to gratifie the one and let tyme slide idlely by lent to complie with the other could we pretend the want of abilitie our excuse were currant before men though as to God there can neuer be want where the hartes desires are admitted for payment but while we haue the most easie most acceptable most effectuall meanes and yet not make vse of it make we not our ingratitude to God euident to all men THE III. MEDITATION THE FOVRTH MOTIVE Our heauenly Fathers inuitations I. POINT CONSIDER that if we haue the true harts of children we can neuer turne a deafe eare to a louing fathers inuitations especially where they come home to our owne aduantages but our heauenly father earnestly inuites vs some tymes by promises of comfort come vnto me all you that are oppressed and I will refreshe you some tymes intices by hopes of life euerlasting he that eates my flesh c. shall liue for euer And sometymes he incites by pressing necessitie vnlesse you eate the flesh of the sonne of man c. you shall not haue life in you We must needs then be carefull to communicate frequently Affection Our hartes ake we are not able to dissemble the sense of our continuall anxietie nor yet can we preuayle with our selues to haue recourse to the milde Lambe who promises solace Our life runs dayly into decay we languish and dye nor yet can we resolue to run to the foode which giues sure hopes of life euerlasting We see our necessitie and cannot find in our hartes to fixe vpon the remedie To witt we are selfe murtherers we haue not indeede hartes of children we are deafe to his inuitations and cryes and to our owne aduantages and repose Alas what a miserable senselessenes is this solace life libertie God himselfe is presented And yet wearied dying inthraled man lookes vpon that vnspeakable benefite as a thing oblidging to losse THE FIFT MOTIVE The Saintes example I. POINT CONSIDER that if our absolute aymes and desires be to liue in euerlasting ioyes with the Saintes of God in heauen it were but fitting that we should begin now in earth to honour them to reioyce them and to ioy with them but that
enterchange sacred kisses with hym Nothing but sweet words as my beloued is myne and I am his is heard Le ts thus my soule find out receiue and entertayne our deare spouse 2. Point Consider that faith hope and charitie can neuer be more profitably and agreeably imployed to the making vp of a perfectly good preparation then vpoÌ„ the death and passion of our deare Sauiour who left vs himselfe in this Blessed Sacrament for a speciall memorie therof saint Bernard giues vs this assurance With such ornaments as these is our heauenly Spouse delighted gladly enters he into the Bride chamber of the harte where he finds the ensignes of his Passion his Crosse crowne and lance diligently reflected vpon and made familiar Affection Yes my soule for what can be more desire in vs then that for which he so louingly left himselfe with vs to the end of the world where could euer faith be more meritoriously exercised then vpon a God dying for his sinfull people where humane reason found nothing but a man ignominiously dying Where could hope more firmely ancor then where it mett with such excesse of mercy Where could charitie so delightfully solace it selfe as in the continuall memorie of a God dying for loue Let our thoughtes then ô my soule be wholy taken vp in the memorie of Iesus-Christ and him crucified THE INSTITVTION OF the B. Sacrament THE XI MEDITATION Of the truth of the reall presence And while they supped Iesus tooke bread and Blessed and broke and gaue to his Disciples and said take and eate this is my body c. Matt. 26. Mar. 14. Luc. 22. And. S. Paule 1. Cor. 11. saith I receaued from our Lord what I deliuerd vnto you because our Lord Iesus the night in which he was deliuered toke bread and giuing thankes broke and said take and eate this is my body which shall be deliuered for you doe this in remembrance of me I. POINT CONSIDER that ether these testimonies doe manifestly and infallibly conclude the truth of the realitie of our Sauiours presence in the consecrated hoste or els we can neuer expect any certaine truth out of holy Scripture Nothing is more vnanimously deliuered in all Scripture This is my body saith S. Mathew This is my body saith S. Marke This is my body saith Saint Luke This is my body concluds saint Paule Noe words can be deuised either shorter or clearer to expresse the same truth The nature of the busines exacted clearenes for he gaue vs an example of what we were to doe in imitation and memorie of him and againe it was a last will and that some few houres onely before he knew he was to dye for vs wherin all men striue to expresse themselues clearely and sincerely without all varnish trope figure equiuocation or mentall reseruation as far as may be Affection O God how thou hast closely besieged as it were and left no passage to euasion forcing in a manner this Confession from us that vpon this truth thy testimonies are too too credible for is it credible that 3. Euangelists and the great Apostle of the Gentiles would vnanimously conspire to misleade all their posteritie Or can it be imagined that Truth would striue to deceaue vs by leauing vs affirmatiues to be vnderstood for negatiues in a matter of practise would a tender Father teach his rude and ignorant children by hisbodie to vnderstand not his bodie to witt bread Would the goodnesse and wisedome of heauen in his verie laste words haue left to his deare Spouse the Church an ineuitable occasion of error and perpetuall Idolatrie euer since Farre is it from a Christian vnderstanding and farr be it euer from the hartes of thy seruants whom thou feedest with thy flesh which is truly meate and with thy blood which is truly drinke We deuoutly adore thee ô hidden Deitie who art truly and really vnder the formes of bread and wine Let 's rather dye then denye depart from or entertaine the least doubt of this certaine Truth Of the tyme of the institution 2. Point Consider that our Sauiour instituted this Sacrament of loue in a tyme where most loue and tendernes vseth to be expressed to witt at his last supper with his Apostles as the last memorie of a dying man as a pledge of his loue which he desired to imprint deepely in their harts And this too expressed in words full of loue Desiderio desideraui I haue earnestly desired to eate this Pascall or passe-ouer with you before I suffer To witt the present apprehension of his paynefull death is not able to allay the pressings of his tender loue of which he will euen leaue himselfe a pledge Affection Sweete Sauiour Iesu to what higth doth thy Charitie burne Was it not enough for that deare Lord of ours to haue instituted this Sacrament of loue wherein loue left God to man for his food vnlesse still more and more to commend the same loue vnto vs he had performed it in a circustmance of most loue and tendernesse euen iust when he was readie to goe out to signe with his pretious blood spilt for our loue the deed of gift of his bodie blood left for our food And that too acompaigned with dearest expressions loue could inuent 〈◊〉 haue exceeding earnestly desired to eate this Passcâ—all with you before my departure And wilt not thou then ô my soul feruently approch to this Sacrament desiring it with all the desires of thy hart not receiuing it with coldenesse and out of custome c. OF THE CAVSES OF THE Institution of the B Sacrament THE XII MEDITATION The 1. Cause to leaue a Sacryfice Gods worshippe CONSIDER that Christ did institue this Blessed Sacrament and Sacryfice that the holy Church his spouse might be alwayes prouided of a meanes to offer to God the highest worshipe imaginable yea euen condigne and proportionable to his owne infinite dignitie while a victime of an infinite value is offered to him to witt Christ God and man and there-for equall to himselfe as worthy as good as great as himselfe so that nothing ether greater or better can ether be payd owen or exacted nay euen be wished for or imagined by the wisdome of heauen it selfe Affection O great dignation ô infinite loue and bountie of God to man Man was not furnished with any thing worthy of God all the worshipe he could exhibite as proceeding from a pure and poore creature was base and vile and bore noe proportion to the great Creatour What doth he then doe but bestowe a sone and that sone himselfe vpon vs in this Sacred Mysterie himselfe not whit inferiour to his heauenly father and by that meanes inables vs to make an offering of equall worshipe and to pay more then we could euen contract O too too rich and happie Christians if we would know and consider our owne worth and happines The second Cause To leane vs a Legacie of Loue. II. POINT CONSIDER that the second cause of the Institution of
this B. Sacrament was to testifie the greatnes of his loue to his faithfull according to that of S. Iohn Iesus knowing that his houre approched that he was to departe out of this world to his heauenly father wheras he loued his who were in the world he loued them to the end Wherby as in his incarnation he vnited our flesh to his diuinitie by an hypostaticall vnion so doth he in the Euchariste vnite the same to the said diuinitie Sacramentally and doth as it were incorporate it and render it diuine Affection O my euer dearest Rabboni what a huge fire of loue thon laiest to my hart Ah my poore soule must we not needes acknowledge that a deadly colde hath benummed thee if the blood of a God dyeing cannot recouer heate and life into thee He loued thee in the beginning he loued thee before the beginning he loued thee first he loued thee most he loued thee to the end yea after the end sith he applies the blood he powred out for thee daily to thy hart And to what end all this powerfull pressing but to gaine thy hart to loue THE XIII MEDITATION Tbe third Cause That he might remayne with vs. I. POINT CONSIDER that the third cause of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament was that so he might leaue himselfe to vs and be alwayes present with vs that we might familiarly conuerse and coferr with him consult him in all our doubts haue recourse to him in all our difficulties pressures temptations and tribulations making good in effect that of the Prouerbs My delights are to be with the sons of men S. Fran. It is a great miserie and a lamentable infirmitie that hauing him so present we yet should care for any other thing in the world Affection O God thou art truly our gracious Emmanuel our nobiscum Deus our God with vs. No other nations haue their Gods so neere as our God is neere to vs. Thou art alwayes with vs deare Lord and thou hast the words of eternall life to whom then shall we goe for Counsell for comfort for assistance in all our difficulties but to thee alone who hast giuen vs such assurances of thy singular loue and shewen in effect that thou wilt not leaue vs Orphants but wilt gather vs together as the henn gathers her chickens vnder her wings Remayne with vs then deare Lord and we will stay with thee nor will we euer depart or remoue our selues from 〈…〉 at blessed protection of thyne The fourth Cause c. Toleaue vs a representation of his Passion II. POINT CONSIDER that a fourth cause of the inst of the B. Sacram. was that by his last will he might leauevs an Idea formeor representation of his life and Passion which might continually refresh in euery one of vs the memorie of our Redemption purchaced at so deare a price as his owne pretious blood For while we looke vpon the species of the bread alone the dead body of our sweete Sauiour is represented vnto our mynds and by the species of the wine alone we are put in mynd of the effusion of his pretious blood whence S Paule as often as you eate this bread and drinke this cupp you shall announce or declare the death of our Lord till he come Affection O my soule le ts neuer forgett at how deare a price we were bought and thervpon glorifie and beare God about in thy breast This that appeares to thee vnder the species of bread alone is left to represent vnto thee and putt thee in mynd of the deade body of thy deare Master And this which thou seest vnder the species of the wine alone to renew to thee the effusion of his pretious bloud And both togeither crye loude to our hartes as frō his sacred mouth Christians friends at least you my spouses Remember my bloudie sweate Remember the scornes and contumelies I suffered Remember my patience and humilitie in the midst of them Remember my vineger and gale my huge torments my vtter abandonmentes and for loue of you As often as you doe this doe it in memorie of me THE XIV MEDITATION The fift Cause The exercise of all vertues I. POINT CONSIDER that a fift cause of the Inst of the B. Sacrament was to leaue a continuall occasion of the exercise of all vertues Our Faith is exercised while we beleeue that a whole God and man lyes hidd and is contayned really and truly though inuisiby vnder a smale hoste Our Hope while seeing him dayly and hourely bestowe himselfe we cannot despaire of obtayning any thing lesse then himselfe Our Charitie while we looke into his open side which is a fornace of inflamed loue Religion adoreing him with soueraigne worshipe or Latria Our obedience and humilitie while captiuating our vnder standing in obedience to faith we constantly beleeue maugre the suggestion of our senses and our naturall reason that God lyes truly hidd vnder these slender and meane accidens of bread and wine Affection Yes my soule here we may euery day comfortably and meritoriously exercise our faith where sight taste touche fayle Faith with eagles eyes lookes home and assures it is our hiddem Lord that is eleuated before vs. It is my Lord the verie Lord that made me and dyed for me Yes he himselfe tels it me saying This is my body And I imbrace his word adorc him And whom I adore present by a goodnesse which hath nothing like to it how should I not wholy conside How should I but hope in him whome I haue for a pledge in hand that he will himselfe be my reward for euer And how should I not loue him who so graciously stayes with me here below reserues himselfe for me aboue I doe ther-for confesse thee present confide in thee loue worshippe thee ô Lord and stoope downe to this admirable mysterie of Loue with all the humilitie and obedience my hart is able to conceiue The sixt Cause c. A memoriall to preuent obliuion II. POINT CONSIDER that the sixt cause of this Sacred Institution was to leaue a meanes to remoue the greatest mischeife that can befall a poore creature which is the obliuion of his Creatour They forgot God who saued them saith the Psalmist their harts departed from him who made them And what became of it but coruption and abomination corrupti sunt abominabiles facti sunt For by obliuion of God we loose diuine grace waxe vgly and deformed by the infection of sinne and become slaues to the Diuell Affection Ah my soule how should we euer be sovnhappie as to forgett him in whom we liue moue and haue beeing who while we yet were not raysed vs to what we are Who while we abused that beeing and strayed from him had for vs thoughtes of peace and not of affliction thoughtes of reconcilement and saluation Can a Mother saith that Louer of Men forgett the child of her body and though she should yet would I neuer forgett you Ah how should
creatures but in thee and for thee Let my senses dye which begett bastard desires in me And keepe my eyes for euer fixed vpon my crucified Lord and Loue who is my life my health my strength my saluation I was euen wholy plunged in death and thou hast wholy reuiued me And therfor as all my whole life and beeing are thyne so I offer vp my whole selfe to thee Let my whole Spirit my whole hart my whole body and my whole life liue to thee Yes my deare life thou hast deliuered me wholy that thou mightst possesse me wholy Let me loue thee deare Lord let me loue thee as much as I desire and as much as I ought O dearest heauenly Father what my hart most desires or desires to desire is but what thy heauenly hart most earnestly demands and most absolutly commands knocking instantly incessantly at this poore miserable hart of myne to witt that I should loue thee Giue then ah giue then what thou commandest and commande what thou wilt Amen PRAYERS TAKEN OVT OF THOMAS A KEMPIS A Prayer for the Loue of vertue and the hatred of Vice O Lord God of vertues to whom euery best thing belongs ingraue the loue of thy most sweet name vpon my hart Plant the rootes of true vertues in me and make the seedes of holie Mediation with the vardant freshnes of good works increase and sprout vp least I remaine idle in thy howse like an vnfruitfull tree but rather tille me as a fruitfull oliue and absolutelie roote out and reduce to nothing whatsoeuer thou findest vicious in me Grant me grace to hate my vices giue me force victoriously to conquer my passions to mortifie my concupiscences and to suppresse the motions of my pride in me to appease anger to expelle sloath to detest auarice to repulse bad sadnesse to contemne glorie to flie honour and to renounce all earthlie consolations so that nothing that is terreane fraile vaine curious carnall fawning harsh couetous base false or feyned may touche moue intice catch insnare or seduce my hart Grant that I may loath all terreane things earnestly desire eternall things loue what euer is good attaine to all vertue know the prime truth and enioy eternall felicitie Grant that I may meete with a blessed and happie howre of death and in the interim continually walke in thy feare and loue Free my hart from all creatures and from euerie thing which might hinder or obscure the same Grant that I may bee simple pure and all glewed to thee and wholie adheare vnto thee Grant me true internall and diuine peace and that I may possesse a quiete minde deuoide of all perturbation Grant that I may not be viciously affected to anie temporall thing nor desire to be knowne cared for or be foolishlie loued by men because they all seduce and are seduced who inordinatly desire or loue any thing out of thee Permitt me not to drawe anie one to me by flatterie and obsequiousnesse but wisely to remoue all men from my selfe and securely direct them to thee and not to loue or looke vpon anie thing in man or any creature saue what is thine and for what they were made A Prayer for patience in time of tribulation and anguish of hart O My beloued Lord God my holy Father I am not worthie to be comforted and visited by thee but to be chasticed and whipped with sharpe stripes I haue well deserued manie afflictions and tribulations because I haue grecuiously offended and been vngratful for thine innumerable benefits I am not worthy as are the rest of good faithfull Christians and my deuout bretheren to be recreated with diuine consolations and to be numbred among the heauenly banqueters But I humbly beseeche thee ô my holy Father my deare and pious Lord make me one of the least of thy hyreling that I may at least be one of their laste seruants whose footstepps I am not worthie to kisse Let them enioy manie and great consolations whom thou louest and honorest by speciall priuiledge of loue But let it be a great and most acceptable present to me who am the least and most miserable of all that thou sparest me not but dost afflict me with manifold contradictions and sorowes Giue patience ô pious Lord and let all tribulation and anxietie be farre more wishfull and welcome to me then anie consolation And grant that I may accept of and suffer this particularly for thine honour not out of a desire of adding to mine owne aduantage or hope of a greater reward Let no gaine be greater to me then cheerefullly to suffer for thy honour to desire to be vnderualued and annihilated euen to the ground and in verie deede to bee made subiect and humbly to be throwne downe vnder the feete of all men O Soueraigne Truth My God eternall light ingraue this into my hart that I may waxe vile in mine owne eyes and that I may contemne my selfe and esteeme my selfe in this world as a bannished pilgrime a poore vnknowne man a neglected solitary person abandoned by euerie creature and that I may no where seeke for hope and solace saue in thy selfe alone Nay grant that I may repute my selfe as one dead vpon earth and buried to the world whose memorie is alreadie longe a goe past by and hath left no other footestepps or markes of it selfe saue a poore miserable graue which lyes hidd vnder ground Grant ô eternall Wisdome of the Father that I may frequently and seriously run ouer these things in my hart and continually fixe it vpon my laste things by a deepe consideration and so prepare my selfe for future iudgement running out before thy face by prayers and lamentations A Prayer to prayse God feruently MY God my praise and my glorie I earnestly desire to prayse thee with as loude a voice and as deuoute a hart as euer anie creature praysed thee in heauen or earth I ardently desire to honour thee with as great and worthy an honour as euer thou wast honored by anie Sainte in thy Celestiall Kingdome I wish to venerate and loue thee with as ardent affection and as amorous a hart as euer anie deuout and perfect person did or doth loue thee in this world Let the heate of thy sacred and pure loue be alwayes renewed in me and inflame my reynes and hart as a fire descending from aboue Let it purifie and burne all my interiour partes that nothing of vicious may remayne in me which may offend the eyes of thy Maiestie O my God thou true searcher of my hart all my desires are in thy sight and all my grones for my manifold defects to wit my Spirit often failes through the want of inward sweetnesse and charitie I offer vp therefore to thee the desire of my desire to the honour of thy name Receiue my hartes desires as a morning Sacrifice and let my prayers ascend vnto thee as an euening incense and please thee for euer Amen THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE CONCEPTION OF
the dumme and our hearts and purses be open to our poore bretheren and such workes will preach louder to their eares and proue more effectuall to conuert their hearts then all the eloquence of wordes imaginable THE II. POINTE. CONSIDER that though Christ now a dayes doth not ordinarily worke the forsaid miracles amongst vs corporally and visibly yet doth he daylie and hourely worke greater ones spiritually and inuisibly in our soules for haue we not bene blind and followed the blind as wel in doctrine as manners and he enlightened vs haue not our peruerse willes bene lame to good and he excited vs therto haue we not bene leprous and defiled with the infection of sinne and he washed vs in the bloud of the lambe haue we not bene deafe to his diuine inspirations and he by his multiplyed graces broke through our deafenesse haue we not bene deade by mortall crymes he by his holy Sacraments raysed vs to life againe So that while we receiue not the same we fayle not of farre greater benefits Affection It s true my soule its most true that while we seeme to want exteriour miracles we dayly meete with greater and more profitable ones in our owne soule For alas is it not true that the continuall miracles of Gods mercys to our deade soules ought farre more to be valued then the greatest infirmities of our corruptible bodies which when they are at the fairest are but dust and ashes and about to proue wormes-meate Let vs then putting iuste rates vpon thinges most admire magnifie and loue those which come most home to our aduantage and make vs appeare liuely beautifull and louely in the sight of God THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY IN ADVENT The Iewes sent Priest and Leuites from Ierusalem into the Deserte to interrogate Iohn Luc. 1. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that true vertue is of that nature that the more it hides it selfe the more it comes to be knowne and admired S. Iohn ledd a life that litle aymed at any humane estimation His conuersation was rather with wild beasts and birds then men His habitation from his youth was a vaste vnpeopled Desert His habit rough camels haire his diet locusts Yet loe while he hardly appeares a man of this world the Preists and Leuites are almost readie to ascribe the dignitie of a God to him Affection Doe we then my soule desire to be truly greate Let vs take our ryse from our owne litlenesse nothing Let vs loue to be vnknowne and to be reputed as nothing Le ts striue to hide our selues from the eyes of the world and the eyes of God and his Angells will be vpon vs. Our lord is high yet beholds lowe things Let honour seeke vs not we honour for if we seeke it it flyes vs. if we flye it it followes vs. Or if we will needs seeke it let vs seeke it in God who honours his friends exceedingly If we will needs seeke it let vs seeke it where is true and is giuen to none vnworthy of it So seeke it my soule and greedily seeke it and feare not to offend THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER S. Iohns profounde humilitie He was sanctified in his mothers wombe Liued in the wildernesse like an Angell of heauen Had testimonie euen from the mouthe of truth it selfe that he was sent out before him as an Angell to prepare his way Was conceiued by the preists and Leuites to be the Elias nor a Prophete in theit sense nor Messias neuer the lesse he humbly confesses that he is not Christ that he is noe more in verie deede but the voyce of one crying in the Desert that in fine he is not worthy to loose the latchet of his shoe Affection O admirable humilie worthy to be looked vpon and imitated by all that loue Christ O admirable humilitie which whilst it makes S. Iohn appeare as litle or as it were lesse then nothing in his owne eyes he appeares more then a prophete nay a verie Angell in the eyes of God Angells and men O admirable humilitie which canst find out thyne owne nothing in the midst of sanctitie While multitudes of crymes which make vs indeede lesse then nothinge cannot preuayle with our proude hearts to humble them selues O my soule how desparatly are we lost since miserie it selfe cannot make vs acknowledge that we are miserable THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME THIRD SVNDAY OF ADVENT Who art thou Gospell THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDFR that S. Iohns humilitie was not so much grounded vpon the examine of himselfe and the dignitie he found in himselfe who was sanctified in his mothers wombe as by comparison to the Word the sonne of God wherof he was the voyce whose shoetye he acknowledged by the light of faith he was not worthy to loose For in that sight he truly beleeued he was nothing in the order of nature but by his gift who is because he is nothing in the order of grace and sanctitie but onely by participation with him who is sanctitie it selfe And therfor in that comparison he truly and iustly humbled himselfe and acknowledged himselfe to be lesse in substance worth and sanctitie then a droppe compared to the whole ocean Affection Let vs thus looke vpon on selues my soule and we shall not fayl to fall to nothinge that is to be truly humble Let vs learne to knowe our selues with relation to the knowing God and our selues ioyntly with Sainte Augustine and pride can finde noe groud to worke vpon He is the sole fountaine of all beeing grace and glorie We haue nothing of all this but by his free gift and without it vniuersall vanitie vniuersa vanitas omnis homo viuens What haue we which we haue not receiued And why then doe we glorie in it as though we had not receiued it Resolution Put downe therfor this truth for certaine from S. Cyprian and S. Augustine We must glorie in nothing because nothinge is ours THE SECONDE POINTE. Let euery vallie be filled and euery montaine and hill be made lowe because all flesh shall see the saluation of God CONSIDER how S. Iohn goes still on teaching vs a fitt disposition to receiue the Messias or Sauiour sent from God by preparing his way which is done by leuelling vallies and throwing downe mountaines and hills our leuelling of vallies consists in erecting our hearts from pusillanimitie and despaire by the confidence of seeing the saluation of God or God our Sauiour now neere at hand whom all flesh shall see And mountaines and hills we shall throw downe by diffidence in our owne strength which is meere weaknes by depressing of our high flowen thoughtes and falling downe into the knowledge of our nothing with our humbled lord Affection O my poore perplexed soule why art thou sadd and why dost thou afflict me It is not vpon our owne workes that we builed our hopes but vpon the infinite mercy of that Sauiour who comes by death to giue life to all men And who trusts
Augustine though such as vowe Virginitie to God hold a more ample degree of honour and dignitie in the Church of God yet are not they without mariage for they belonge to the mariage with the whole Church wherin Christ is the spouse Affection O admirable dignitie of the Virgine where the humble handmayd is raysed to the honour of a Bride to Christ himselfe the Bridegroome whom whē she loues she is chaste whom when she touches she is pure whom when she takes in mariage she is a Virgine O supercelestial mariage from whence fidelitie and fertilitie is expected as well as in other mariages for such as breake this first faith haue damnation saith the Apostle and the happie state of Virgines assures S. Augustine is more fruitfull and fertile not to haue bigge bellies but great mynds not to haue breasts full of mylke but harts full of candour and in lieu of bringing forth earth out of their bowells they bring forth heauen by their prayers Hence issues a noble progenie puritie iustice patience mildnesse charitie followed by all her venerable traine of vertues This is the Virginns worke to be sollicitous of what belongs to God and to haue her whole conuersation in Heauen THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY CONSIDER yet a third sort of mariage wherin the whole Catholike Church that is all faithfull soules are espoused to Christe in faith hope and charitie but especially by charitie which as Queene drawes a longe with her all the powers and affections of the soule to conforme and subiect them to the pleasure of her diuine spouse making but one will and nill of two wills to witt that of God and man And this conformitie saith the deuoute S. Bernard maries the soule to God Whence results an ineffable content and pleasure and such a heate of diuine loue that the soule and all her affections are absorpt therin Affection Let the world then my soule boast as much as it will of the pleasures and contentements which it inioyes they are not like to the lawe of the Lord thy God that sweete law of loue in comparisō of which the most prosperous earthly pleasure is but vile and base The cheife Good is our Good of which Tertulian saith excellently soome goods as well as some euills bring an intolerable waight with them and most dearely and deliciously oppresse the soule Hence it was that that holie Apostle of the Indies cryed out Satis est Domine satis est It is enough ô Lord it is enough THE SECONDE POINTE CONSIDER yet a fourth sorte of Mariage which is made euery day to all kinds of faithfull soules which approche to the B. Sacrament Wherin we are made one with that diuinely deare spouse of ours not onely by charitie but euen in realitie and in verie deede we are mingled with that sacred flesh of his in that celestiall banket which he bestowes vpon vs to shew vs the excesse of his loue Whence S. Christome saith therfor it was that he ioynd himselfe with vs and mixed his body into vs to the'nd we might be come one with him as the body is ioyned to the heade for euen as one who powres melted waxe saith Cyrill into other waxe must necessarily wholy mixe the one with the other so he that receiues the body and bloud of our Lord is so ioyned with him that Christ is found in him and he in Christ Affection O excesse of goodnesse ô ineffable delightes of that most chaste and sacred mariage betwixt the kinge of heauen and poore man Here in this mariage banket is serued in the foode of Angells nay the kinge of the Angells himselfe becomes the whole feaste Nor is there neede there of any other wine then the precious bloude of the Lambe who dyed for our loue say then my soule and let all that loue and feare our Lord Iesus say with vs quoniam bonus quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius that he is infinitly good and his mercys are without end THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANIE If thou wilt said the Leper to our sauiour thou canst make me cleane Matt. 8. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that the poore Leper had found by a longe and painfull experience that there was noe hope of cure by the power of man all his owne and others endeuours prouing vneffectuall and therfor he wisely resolued in an humble confidence to haue recourse to him whom he knew by faith to be able to doe all that he would in heauē and in earth By adoration he acknowledges him to be God and by his words he publishes him to be all powerfull He came and adored him sayinge Lord If thou wilt thou canst and the present effects proue that his faith is powerfull and gratefull to Christ who graciously replyes I will Be thou made cleane and forth with his leprosie was made cleane Affection Our great and good Lord my soule neither wants power nor good will to cure all our infirmites if we aske as we ought If he some tyme delaye vs it is but the better to trye vs and more euidently to acquainte vs with our owne want of abilitie till he putt his powerfull hand to the worke for then our leprosie is forth with cured If he delaye vs and sometyme permitt vs for a longe space to languish and euen to be ouerspredd with our leprosie it is but the more perfectly to humble vs and throughly to cure the more dangerous desease of pride Finally if he delay the cure till we waxe more desparatly sicke it oblidges vs being at length cured the more highly to magnifie his mercy and publish his power to all men THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that there is noe stayne so deeply setled which Gods power is not able to fetch out noe leprosie of body or soule so inueterate and incurable which God with a word doth not cure Our application or addresse is onely to be looked to We must approche to the Lord of life and death as to one such with a liuely faith with an absolute confidence that with a word he can worke what he will his power being onely limited by his will as the faithfull leper plainly expresses Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Affection Be then my soule thy leprosie and other spirituall deseases neuer so peremptorie Be it that they haue growne on with thee since thy youth Seeme they rather to be another nature then natures defects yet haue but a frequent confident humble recourse to this souueraigne Physitian with a true acknowledgement of thyne owne miserable and otherwise desparate estate crying out with afirme faith O Lord if thou wilt thou canst cure all myne infirmities and infallibly in his good tyme we shall heare I will be thou made cleane THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Of the Centurion or Capitaine of an hundred Soldiers who sued to our Sauiour for the cure of his seruante THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that we may
which rayseth a litle with Gods blessing vpon it to great matters at least to sufficiencie and content This was the Legacie B. S. Augustine left his children vnitie of hartes and communitie of the same purse Noe myne and thyne the true cause of deuision This was the Apostles inheritance giuen them by the holy Ghost one hart and one soule This was the songe which the Royall Psalmist sung with such ioy and found so good and delicious the vnanimous cohabitation of brethren which like a precious oyntement conueyes it selfe through all the parts of the body Powre then ô Lord the loue of brotherlinesse and peace into our harts that being annointed with the dewe of thy spirituall vnction we may be ouerioyed with the grace of thy benediction THE SECONDE POINTE. Who is not with me is against me and who gathers not with me doth disperse Luke 11. CONSIDER that the sonne of God hath said it whose words can neuer passe Who is not with me is against me there is noe meane noe third way Noe man can serue two Masters God and Mammon There is nothing that raignes in mans hart but either cupiditie or charitie What is giuen to cupiditie is giuen to that badd master the Diuell But what is done for charitie is done for the best of Masters our good God and so we goâ— happilie with him and gather with him If our harts say liue Iesus and our actions be done actually or vertually for his sake we aduance in vertue and treasure vp for heauen If we fayle of this we walke not with God we disperse the Deuill getts a share more or lesse according to the greatnesse or litlenesse of our actions Affection Let vs not goe on biasing my soule and halting on both sides If one onely God be our all let all our thoughtes words and workes be directed to his honour If it were he not Baal or any strange Gods which created conserued and redeemed vs with his owne pretious bloode let him not them souueraignely raigne ouer vs. The bedd of our hart is to narrow for two let our lawfull spouse the Master of it wholie possesse it What euer we doe and not for that for which diuine wisdome ordered it to be done that is Gods honour though in its owne nature it be good yet for want of its right end it falls short Concludes S. Augustine THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY IN LENT Iesus went beyond the sea of Galilee and a great Multitude followed him THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that we neuer walke more safely then when we follow Iesus Neuer are we more sure then in his blessed hands Neuer better prouided for then when distrusting in our owne prouidence â—e let pure loue to him which is alwayes accompaigned with Prudence leade vs after him to conuerse with him to receiue the heauenly dewe of his diuine word and to admire the wonders of his admirable workes euen with the neglect of the whole world beside as did this pious multitude Affection Let then my soule our first and principall care be imployed to followe Christ to seeke his Kindome or raigne ouer our owne harts and the harts of all men and his iustice by giuing beleefe to his words and reposing confidence in his gracious prouidence without permitting our thoughts to be afflicted with an anxious sollicitude for temporall thinges which infallibly shall be giuen vs or as it were shall be cast in to the bargaine Our heauenly father better knowes then we our selues what is necessarie for vs as well for our bodys as our soules He may leaue vs till we begin to be hungrie of both foodes but expect him and absolutly depend vpon him and that pious father of ours will not see vs fayle in the way THE SECONDE POINTE I haue compassion of the multitude CONSIDER that when the pious multitude had once giuen this ample testimonie by following him three dayes in the wildernesse of their loue and perseuerance heauenly wisdome found it seasonable to giue them also a testimonie of his power and goodnesse in one and the same miracle of his power in making fiue loafes and two fishes extende to the feeding and saciating of fiue thousand persons and of his goodnesse by applying the effects of that power to solace and nourish that hungrie multitude saying with compassion misereor super turbam that is my verie bowells are moued with pittie in pointe of the multitude of those that follow me Affection O my most gracious Lord how easily is thy paternall harte inclyned to pittie The pen of the holy Ghost may seeme to haue laboured to make it euident to our hartes I will not leaue you orphants If I come not presently expect me for coming I will come Can a mother forgett the child of her owne body And tho she could yet I am your foster-father and cannot forgett you Ah my soule what expressions can be deuised more tender Our Lord is indeede pittifull and mercifull patient and exceeding mercifull We haue reason to admire his power to dreade his iustice to venerate his sanctitie to magnifie all his Attributes yet nothing nothing comes so home to our vses as his goodnesse nothing sutes so well with our miserie as his boundlesse mercy THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Euery one tooke as much as they would and they were filled Iohn 6. CONSIDER rhat our almightie Master is equally powerfull to worke his owne designe and our full satisfaction as well in litle as in great matters If a world be to be made he rayseth it out of nothinge If thousands be to be fedd in the wildernesse fiue loaues and a few smale fishes is Matter enough for him to worke vpon and to increase that smale prouision into such a plentifull store that he affords euery one of them as much as they will and they are all filled and saciated Affection Yes my soule our great Gods will and power are wholy equall all that he will he can it is he who wrought all that he would in heauen and earth nor can any resist his diuine will He needes noe matter to worke vpon he requires noe length of tyme to wotke in he has done in a moment he feeds whom he will with what he will and whom he feeds he fills he saciates Alas the world my soule with its fattest feasts doth not saciate vs. Vnlesse what we eate issue from thy holy hand and come with thy benediction vpon it great God we doe but languish and fayle in the way But if the litle we haue be accompayned with thy blessing it feeds it fattens it delights it saciates THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that though this multitude had iuste reason as well to magnifie his wonderfull power as to loue and imbrace his bountifull goodnesse in the stupendious multiplication of a few loaues c. Yet was but that a poore shadowe of Gods fauours to vs Christians as their obligations also were incomparably lesse hen ours There fiue loaues
they cannot beleeue we beleeue him to be such indeede THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR PALME SVNDAY They the Apostles putt their garments vpon the Asse and made him Christ sitt theron CONSIDER that the sonne of God consubstantiall with his Almightie father and equall to him in Maiestie and glorie could not by ascending become greater or more glorious since nothing can surpasse or euen in any sort attayne to infinitie But what he could not by ascending he could by descending and humbling himselfe which he did in his birth in all his life in this day of his tryumphe making his entrie into Hierusalem vpon a sillie Asse and therfor God exalted him and gaue him a name surpassing all names a name which brings heauen and earth downe vpon their knees to adore him Affection Behold my soule the Kinge of heauen in the day of his tryumphe mounted vpon a sillie Asse in that royall Citie Ierusalem and obscrue that he seemes to make it his busines in earth to decry pride and exalt humilitie and to leaue vs in this one lesson an example of the ruine of the one and a cure of the other Triumphes are vsed to be made by proud man in coasâ—he on horte with Lions and Elephants By humble Christe vpon a poore asse What more abiect then a sillie asse The onely Christian way then to ascende and tryumphe is to descende To erect our heade into the skeies without the roote humilitie is to seeke ruine not aduancement and grouth of spirit THE SECONDE POINTE. FOR THE SAME SVNDAY CONSIDER that though our Sauiour Iesus-Christ be most iustly admirable adorable and amiable in all circumstances in the glorie of his heauenly father which he is possessed of by the right of his eternall generation in his power of workinge innumerable miracles in his scantlinge of glorie on Mount Tabor c. Yet neuer is he more to be admired adored and loued by poore man nor euer speakes he more tendernesse and edification to his hart then when for his loue and example he makes choyce of that which to the world appeares most ignominious poore and abiect as in this poore entrie of his he did Affection When I looke vpon the multitude of thy miracles greate God I admire and adore thy power When with the whole strife of my hart I essay as I am able to behold thee in thy seate of glorie I feare to be oppressed therwith and am forced to fall downe vpon my face with those celestiall spirits and adore thy Maiestie But when thou dost graciously please to suffer that Maiestie of thyne to appeare in ignominie poore and abiect like one of vs I fall downe vpoÌ„ thee without dreade with a strange confidence with a huge dearenesse saying in my harte what can he deney me whose singular mercy will needs share in my miserie Be ignominie pouertie and abiection alwayes deare to me since deare to him who dyed for me THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY The Apostles brought an Asse and made him sit theron CONSIDER that heauen is not further remoued from the earth then the wayes of the world are distaÌ„t from the wayes of God and mans cogitations from Gods Men thinke their greatnesse will be mistaken vnlesse they testifie it by the magnificence of their garments and their vast traynes of horse and men The sonne of God contrarily comes in the name of our Lord with two or three poore fishermen mounted vpon an Asse in the onely day of his tryumphe and in that abiectnesse finds his glorie and euen in that is ackdowledged to be the true Messias or kinge Affection If our desires be honour and glorie my soule let vs not feare to pursue them so it be by the way which our Sauiour taught vs not by those of the world which leade quite contre and seduce vs. The world seekes honour by high and glorious wayes and the more he pursues it the more it flyes him Christ walkes on in humble and abiecte wayes and it comes to meete him He is saluted with noe Hosannas in Ierusalem till he haue first humbled himselfe to ride vpon an Asse nor will he enter into his birth-right in the heauenly Ierusalem till he haue humbled himselfe to death and that the infamous death of the Crosse Let abiectnesse then my soule be thy honour foolishnesse thy wisdome and the infamie of the Crosse thy glorie THE SECONDE POINTE. He went into the Temple CONSIDER that our B. Sauiour who had taught the Iewes that he sought not his owne glorie doth here verifie the same in effect both to them and vs when presently withdrawing himselfe from the glorious acclammations Hosannas and Benedictus es giuen to him as to their true Messias and Kinge he went to the Temple there to doe his Fathers worke and aduance his glorie by casting out of it all that sold and bought therin and the tables of the bankers and the chaires of them that sold pigeons he ouerthrew saying to them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer c. Affection Hence we are taught my soule by Christs example to run from the glorie which any one may ascribe to vs tho with neuer so great applause to imploye our selues in glorifying God especially in his owne house See how our sweete Sauiour according to the Psalmists expression is eaten vp with the zeale of that holy house and how being the mildest amonge the sonns of men he takes the whippe into his hands and resolutly without feare of offending driues those vnworthy negotiatours out of his Fathers house Ah my soule what may not they then feare who buy and sell Christs patrimonie in the Church Ah Christians what may not we feare who beleeue that we are not onely in the Temple of God but euen in the reall presence of the God of the Temple and yet seeme rather by our loose behauiour c. to come to affront him then to adore him in his owne house and presence THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE SECONDE SVNDAY AFTER EASTER I am the good Pastour Ihon. 10. CONSIDER that as the sonne of God was borne for vs and giuen to vs so he seemes indeede to be all ours and to come home to all our necessities and vses He is not onely the way truth and life by which we are to walke to life euerlasting but looking vpon vs as weake and straying sheepe who often leaue the way forsake truth and are subiect to hazard life by becominge preys to rauinous wolues he graciously proues our Pastour to feede protecte and leade vs by the wayes of truth to those eternally plentifull pastures of his in our owne Lande Affection Let vs my soule truly acknowledge what in verie deede we are To witt the people of his pasture and the sheepe of his hand that sheepe which strayed from the way from truth from life and perished We are indeede weake creatures and daylie subiect to erre in many things and haue litle reason to depende vpon
our fayling strength Howbeit be Gods mercy euer blessed we are not as sheepe without a Pastour but we haue the good Pastour to protect vs. Let vs attentiuly heare his voyce know him and his wayes and wholy depende vpon him and his preists of whom he hath said Who heares you heares me THE SECONDE POINTE. A good Pastour giues his life for his flocke Io. 10. CONSIDER that this Pastour of ours is the good Pastour indeede that is good by excellencie or infinitly good which he makes manifest not by words onely but by many effects what was cast away he brings againe what was broken he binds vp what was weake he strengthens and the sheepe which was lost he seekes and finds and graciously brings home vpon his owne shoulders Nay more the labour of thirtie odd yeares imployd about the care of his flocke had seemed but litle to his loue had he not in the end layed downe his life for the same Affection Ah my soule Let vs blesse him and magnifie his free mercys for euer and euer Without this good Pastour we were all lost eternally It was Gods mercy alone that we perished not all togeither and were consumed for he looked downe from heauen to see whether there were any that vnderstood and sought him among the children of men and he found that all had declined and were become vnprofitable none doing good noe not one And yet while we serued him so poorely there was noe hope of saluation without his helpe nor pardon nor life for vs but that which he purchaced by his owne pretious death Let me euer loue thee thou dearest pastour and purchacer of my soule THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that this good shephard this heauenly Pastour of our soules doth conduct protect and feede vs not after an ordinarie manner but according to his diuine superadmirable and astonishing wayes peculiar and proper to his diuine goodnesse and wisdome alone not onely with the plentuous dugges of his heauenly consolations and foretastes of beatitude but euen with that supersubstantiall foode his owne pretious body and bloud Affection Awake my soule awake and diligently obserue what deare obligations we haue to this good pastour of ours he did not onely come downe from heauen to comfort and instruct vs with his personall presence enduring all the incommodities to which we are subiect in this our banishment but he putts downe his bloude for the price of our Redemption and as though that were not yet enough to testifie the excesse of his tendernesse to his deare flocke by a heauenly inuention and euen a miracle of loue he so leaues vs as yet he remaynes with vs and makes his owne pretious body and bloude the permanent foode of our soules THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that this good this ineffably good Pastour of ours doth not onely feed vs by this admirable meanes which the Angells could neuer haue dreamt on but will also daigne to be fedd by vs in his poore members our necessitous Christian brethren I was hungrie and you gaue me to eate I was thirstie and you gaue me to drinke Yes saith our deare Pastour verily I say to you as longe as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Affection Our good Pastour my soule knew that well-borne harts were not willing to receiue and returne nothing but were still greedie to inquire out the meanes wherby they might make mutuall returnes of loue and therfor he himselfe suggests the wayes by which he would haue it done saying as it were to our hartes I your pastour and maker who can otherwise neede nothing that 's yours am notwithstanding hungrie thirstie naked and imprisoned in my poore members your brethren in them I begge breade c. at your dores assuring you that what you giue to them in my name and for my loue you giue to me O what a comforte it is to a truly louing harte to haue so easie a way to render loue for loue THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER EASTER For a litle tyme you shall not see me and shortly after you shall see me againe S. Io. 16. CONSIDER that we are all pilgrimes trauelling towards our heauenly home and we shall not misse to meete with all kinds of weather Now heate now cold now faire and soone after fowle Sometymes our Sauiour dilates our harts with the aboundance of his consolations and we prosperously spring on in the wayes of his commandements and sometymes againe he retires and hydes him selfe from vs leauing vs to desolations and sorrowes and we become troubled and all our former force and courage seeme to haue forsaken vs. Affection Thus it is my soule that the diuine wisdome deales with his seruants He doth nourish cherish and comfort vs least we might fayle in the way He doth afflict and leaue vs least out of confidence of our owne strength we might erre from the way He giues vs consolations to testifie to our harte that he loues vs. He leaues vs to desolations to trye and make appeare whether we loue him But whether he comfort vs or permitt afflictions to fall vpon vs let vs still venerate his orders and gracious conduct because he it is indeede who is alwayes our refuge THE SECONDE POINTE You shall lament and weepe But the world shall reioyce Ioh. 6. CONSIDER that sorrowes and ioyes goe here belowe by turnes and tymes And still the best parte in apparence is alloted to those whom God least loues the world shall reioyce And the worst as he alwayes tooke it to himselfe so he leaues it to his dearest friends You saith he to his deare Apostles you shall lament and weepe but your sorrowes shall be turned into ioyes Wheras the worldlings ioyes and parte shall be with the Hypocrites who haue receiued their reward Affection Let vs not my soule either admire or enuie the seeming prosperitie of the wicked Their ioyes are but for moments and those too mixt with painefull pleasures They themselues confesse it we are wearied in the way of iniquitie and perdition and haue walked hard wayes while the iust whom we had in derision and in a parable of reproche are counted among the children of God and their parte and portion amongst the saintes There are we my soule to inioye our permanent possession There are our teares to be wiped away for euer and payd with the inioyment of an eternall inheritance which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath entered into the mynde of man THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Now indeede you haue sorrowe CONSIDER that the sorrowes which we suffer are in this present moment now saith our Sauiour you haue sorrow Now not the next moment for any thinge we know thinges may alter to the better God may assiste death may end all nor ought a wise man to esteeme any thinge longe which shall haue end But put case our sorrowes and
o Lord and delaye not come and pardon the sinnes of thy people come and saue man whom thou didst make of claye I would to God thou wouldst burst the heauens and descende and yet this happinesse was not granted them while we Christians inioy that or a greater For though as S. Chrysostome comfortably saith we haue not the happines to be hold his forme and figure his apparell c. Yet we see him we touche him we eate him O my soule what a singular honour is this to be fedd with him to be vnited to him and to be made one body of Christ and one flesh THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that tho those good Iewes the Apostles to whom the sonne of God was especially sent had a benediction of preference to haue seene him in person yet was there another noe lesse meritorious left for vs poore gentiles of seeing him by faith attested by the same Truth Blessed are they who haue not seene and haue beleeued for there saith Gregorie faith hath more merite where humane reason produceth noe euidence Affection Howeuer my soule the preference of seeing our Sauiour in body visibly may seeme a greate happinesse yet it is not therin that the happinesse of a Christian doth consiste but in that he beleeues by a firme faith him whom the Apostles saw to be truly the sonne of God and by so beleeuing begins to hope in him and to aspire to his loue since according to S. Augustine it is the dutie of a faithfull man to beleeue what he sees not that by the merite of that faith he may hope both to see and loue THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY What is written in the Lawe CONSIDER that this question of this Doctour in the lawe Master what must I doe to possesse life euerlasting may putt vs in mynd that to appeare wise and carefull of our saluation we often putt questions to God and man saying what are we to doe to aduance in perfection to be truly vertuows to attaine to life euerlasting c. wheras without asking we know it well enough for doe not we read in the lawe are we not all taught in our Catechisme Thou shall loue the Lord thy God with all thy hart with all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe Affection Noe my soule let vs not wilfully feyne to be ignorant of what we knowe Nor knowing it seeke for some new perfection The thinge commanded by God by the obseruance of which we are to liue euerlastinglie is neither aboue vs nor farre off from vs. It is not placed aboue the heauens or beyond the sea 's but is verie neere vs in our mouth and in our hart Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy hart with all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy selfe Ah saith louing S. August had it not bene enough to haue permitted me the honour of louing thee but thou must commande it yea and threaten me huge punishments if I doe it not Ah deare Lord were it not the worst of punishments to be prohibited or depriued of that loue THE SECONDE POINTE Who is my neighbour CONSIDER that tho that greate Doctour of the lawe asked a question where he had noe doubt as he was forced to acknowledge for he redd in the lawe and knew well that to liue he was to loue God aboue all thinges and his neighbour as himselfe yet still he has another doubt to putt to witt who is his neighbour To which our Sauiour in effect answers not Iewes to Iewes onely but Iewes to Samaritons too and Samaritons also to Iewes that is according to S. Augustine euery man is neighbour to euery man for we ought to vnderstand him to be our neighbour to whom we owe workes of mercy in his present or future want as he too the like to vs in like necessitie Affection Let then the accompt of our neighbourhoode my soule and our loue to the same extend it selfe to noe lesse a compasse then the boundes of the whole world Let vs loue that is doe well to speake well to wishe well to all men of what condition profession religion and nation soeuer they be Let vs pray for Turke Iewe and Gentile least in thinking to hate an enemye we indeede may hate a friend the Turke happlie in Gods diuine prescience beeing neerer to him then we Let this saith the louing S. Audgustine be thought vpon let this be meditated let this be retayned in memorie let this be done let this be fully accomplished THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XIII SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY There mett him ten Lepers who stoode a farre off and cryd with a loude voyce saying Iesu Master haue mercy on vs. Luc. 17. CONSIDER in these corporall Lepers how spirituall Lepers ought to behaue themselues to procure their cure They stay not till they be called the horrour of what they suffer is a sufficient spurre to them They come in troupes and way-lay him from whom they hope for cure They stand a farre off esteeming themselues infectious and vnworthy to approche They crye out with a loude voyce without specifying their desire knowing well that their loathsome out-side speakes that with more force and pittie to their Master Iesus to whose mercy they leaue themselues Affection Ah my soule doe we vse this promptitude in pointe of our leprosies or other spirituall deseases or rather doe we not vse a quite contrarie proceedinge while we daylie heare redoubled in our eares loose the bands of thy necke ô captiue daughter of Sion How longe wilt thou be heauie-harted and loue a lye and yet we sleepe on and yet while we liue in a loathsome languishment we seeke some more tyme to remayne vnhappie Doe we crye out with loude voyces or rather so lowe and faintly as tho we feared that God should heare vs and cure vs too soone a miserable condition wherin the great S. Augustine sometymes found himselfe and pittifully lamented it Ah my soule if we be so miserable as not yet to be in tearmes to begge hartily for our perfect cure let vs not fayle at least to laye open the masse of our vniuersall miserie before the eyes of our most mercyfull Lord to pleade for mery THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that we all are weake and miserable enough to haue fallen or to be subiect to fall into spirituall leprosies by the infection of sinne which conueys its poyson all ouer the whole body of our actions to witt by pride enuye hatred want of right intentions duplicitie of hart which depraues all our best workes and deriues an vniuersall deformitie or leprosie vpon vs. Affection Alas my poore soule this leprosie is but too ordinarie how litle soeuer vnhappie man seemes sensible of it nor finds it any cure saue from the hand of God alone Let vs euery one lay his hand vpon his owne hart and impartially acknowledge the truth Why are we disquieted and troubled vpon smale reprehensions and vnderualuings marrie because the Idol pride
which we haue set vp in our owne hartes is not equally adored by others Is pride there then her sister enuie is not farre absent and thence we are greeued at our neighbours good and excellencie And if pride and enuie the Diuells eldest daughters be present hatred their youngest sister is at hand to wishe euill and doe mischeife To these are our intentious suted and duplicitie vsed to couer all deformities Vse diligence my soule to subdue all sinne yet let our most vigilant care be imployed to stifle this hellish broode by earnestly begging of the diuine mercy that humilitie and charitie those heauen-bred sisters may quite destroye Pride enuie and hatred in our hartes THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY As he saw them he said goe shew your selues to the priests c. and as they went they were made cleane THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that with what euer care and diligence we seeke for Iesus at what distance soeuer we stand a loofe from him out of a sense of our owne vnworthynesse how loude soeuer we crye and how humbly soeuer we disclose our sores it often happens that we are not presently cured but are sent to the preistes to discerne betwixt leper and leper and by that meanes we are made cleane It is happinesse enough for a poore sinner that he is graciously looked vpon by a Sauiour and told by him what he is to doe for his cure Affection Beware my soule of euer prouing so audacious as to prescribe to Iesus either the manner or tyme of thy cure be it of what corporall or spirituall desease soeuer Feare not to begge of the diuine goodnesse what we find we want especially thinges appertayning to our eternitie But hauing performed rhat dutie le ts humbly and willingly leaue the rest to Gods sweete disposition The diuine S. Paule blushed to find himselfe subiect to the stinges of the flesh and he frequently petitioned to heauen for the cure Yet his answer from God was not his deliuerie but my grace is sufficient for thee Which he receiued with so much resignation and satisfaction that he did not onely suffer his infirmities willingly but pleased himselfe in them but euen gloried in them because he found indeede that vertue was perfected in infirmitie and by that meanes Christs vertue humilitie did inhabite his chaste soule THE SECONDE POINTE. Iesus said were not ten made cleane and where are the nine CONSIDER that though ingratitude is alwayes odious to God and man yet is it neuer more sensible then when many benefits are done freely to many and that without any preceedente desertes especially when it is found in those who by preference were loued and caressed before and aboue all the rest So it happens in this dayes Gospell Ten were cured and one onely returned to giue thankes Ten were cured wherof nine were Iewes his choysen people amongst whom he was borne with whom he conuersed to whom he preached before whom he wrought so many miracles while yet one onely stranger a poore Samaritane comes backe with his mouth and harte full of thankes giuing Affection May we not feare my soule that this sadde reproche of ingratitude may be more iustly made by Iesus Christ to Christian hartes then to those aboue mentioned to whom he saith were not ten made cleane and where are the nine There was none that returned and gaue glorie to God but this stranger Where are the nine to witt the Iewes whom I mome fauoured Where are the nine to witt the preists and religious who haue yet shared more deeply in my fauours Answer my soule and tell where they are They are the first in dignitie And will they proue the last in their acknewledgements They are a regall preistoode citizens of the faintes and Gods domestikes And shall the gratitude of strangers teare heauen out of their handes The vnlearned cryes out the great S. Augustine snatch heauen away from vs while we with our learning walowe in flesh and bloode THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XIV SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Noe man can scrue two Masters Matt. 6. FIRST POINT CONSIDER that as it is impossible for a man to serue two Masters so it is most vniust to serue any more then one We are wholie his by creation his by conseruation and wholy and absolutely his by redemption wherin he bought vs his slaues at the price of his pretious bloode To whom then can any of our seruices be due but to him alone who purchaced vs at so deare a rate Affection O God I am thy seruant I am thy seruant and the sonne of thy handmayde the Catholike Church It was thy selfe and noe other who broke my bands in sunder It was thy selfe who tore in peeces the handwriting of our condemnation and nayled it to the crosse It was not with corruptible thinges neither as gold and siluer that thou paydst my ransome but with the immaculate blood of the tender lambe who dyed for vs. I will therfor sacryfice my selfe and all my seruices in a holocauste of prayses to thee Let my harte prayse the let my tongue prayse thee let all that is within mee say ô my deare Lord and master who is like to thee THE SECONDE POINTE. Noe man can serue two masters CONSIDER that our Sauiour by the impossibilitie of seruing two inferres the necessitie of seruing one master onely and by that one againe he leads vs to his diuiue vnitie by which alone we can be made eternally happie with him according to that of S. Iohn Father as thou art in me and I in thee so let my seruants be but one in vs. And if one Master and one seruant by meanes of this diuine vnitie one seruice one intention of seruing him alone of louinge him alone of adoringe him alone as being truly his Vassalls Affection O my deare Rabbony let the intention of all my poore seruices be for thee alone that I may therby run on a pace towards thy holy vnitie that so my beloued may be myne and I wholy his and that I may esteeme it my onely happinesse to adheare to my God and to loue that one necessarie thinge the God of my harte and my parte for euer whom to serue is truly to raigne O Iesu bannish from my hart all the loues which deuide it betwixt thee and the world that it may serue and loue thee absolutlie in all tymes and places THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Be not carefull what you should eate or what garment you should putt on c. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER how our B. Sauiour labours as it were by force of arguments to free vs from immoderate care and sollicitude about our meate drinke and clothes And thus he vrges Your life and your body which you haue by my free gift are of more worth then meate and clothes if then I giue you what is greater why should you doubt of receiuing what is lesse Againe the foules of the ayre and the
i' st your sute to liue I 'am endlesse life and endlesse life doe giue O then quitt vncoulth wayes hope not in lyes To find out truth nor th' life that neuer dyes In fading moments Ah you seeke in vaine To find true life in th'land where death doth raigne THE COMMVNICATION OF THE diuine goodnesse by imparting of his Glorie OVR sea of goodnesse still streames on there is Noe end in it we tend to endlesse blisse Those guifts of nature grace and all the rest Are gu'in to bringe vs to eternall rest Our joyes were great at the coming of that guest Our hearts reioyc'd to lodge him in our breast But ah he will not haue vs end our storie Till he conduct vs to the state of glorie So saith our faith to this our hopes are raysd With this excesse our charitie's amays'd That goodnesse free from want our dust should choose To place it's loue vpon and kindly loose Himselfe on man Ble'st prodigalitie By th' guifts of his diuine Hypostasie To be himselfe companion in his way To call him backe by grace in case he stray To feede and fatten him with his owne bloode O that this happinesse were vnderstoode To proue in death bis sauing sacryfice And endlesly to be himselfe his price So saith his word I 'le be my selfe thy hyre What more then this can vastest heart desire AN APOSTROPHIE TO THE DAMES OF SION O Then deare Dames let th' loue I dayly find Mongst you increase and all your hearts cobind In one loue-knott vse all your wit and Arte To haue but all one comon soule one heart This God command's this Austine doth aduise Doe this alone deare soules it will suffice FINIS SINE FINE GLORIA TIBI DOMINE MEDITATIONS Vpon our blessed Sauiours Passion THE FIRST MEDITATION Of the last supper THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that now the blessed tyme of grace and mercy drawing neere wherin our sweete sauiour Iesus-Christ had determined to pay mans ransome not with the corruptible price of gold and siluer but euen with the effusion of his owne pretious bloude he graciously daigned in testimonie of true loue to feaste with his beloued Apostles before his departure See him louingly accompanie them into the roome where they were to suppe and let vs take the humble boldnesse to follow him inn and to receiue some of his last words I haue had an ardent desire saith he to eate this pascall lambe with you it being the consummation of all the ancient sacrifices and the last I shall eate And say to him cordially Affection That in verie decede we find our selues exceeding hungerie but that we neither doe nor indeede can possibly find any meate which feeds and saciates vs saue himselfe or from his table The rest doe but puffe vp and swell they doe not solidly feed and fatten so that by how much more we eate by so much the more doe we languish and pine away Tell him that verily you are not worthy you know it well you confesse it to the whole world but thar it is he alone who makes vnworthy creatures worthy who makes sinners iust and that for your part you relie not vpon your owne merites which are none without his mercys but run intirely to his free mercy Tell him that euen your dogges eate the crums which fall from their masters tables and in that confidence you approche or els with an humble and contrite hart fall downe at his sacred feete with the mournfull Magdalaine and make lamentations teares and grones more fully speake your hart The seconde Pointe Consider with what compassion and mildnesse our blessed sauiour begins to comfort his disciples whyle he obserues them sorrowfull and sadd vpon the apprehensiō of his departure which he fore told them saying my deare Disciles be not sorrowfull let not your harts be troubled I vvill not leaue you Orphantes t is for your sakes that I goe But seeing them yet some weeping some sighing his fatherly bowells were wholie moued to compassion and he spoke to them in these sweete tearmes my tenderly beloued sons my deare Disciples be not terrified bee not troubled behold I am vvith you till the end of the vvorld Affect This sweet sauiour shall be my comfort in all my desolations that though thou seemest to absēt thy selfe yet wilt thou not leaue me an Orphā whether it be that thou goest from me by permitting me to fall into some temptations or spirituall drynesse for my greater trial and merite or it be that thou often lettest me fall into little faultes that I may better learne to run back to thee my louing father this shall still be my consolation that thou dearely sweete and loueing Lord ar◠still with me till the end of the world THE II. MEDITATION Of Christs humilitie and loue shevven at his last supper Cons 1 COnsider what is done at that his last supper looke about and you shall see him rise vp from the table to giue by his owne example and in his owne person that first and most necessarie lesson humilitie the ground of our christian building and euen of all christian discipline as S. Augustine esteemes it You shall see the master become all his seruants seruant the vertue of the highest lowe laid at his creatures foule feete him in whose name all knees are bowed kneeling to wash to drye to kisse his seruants feete in fine the king of glorie so farre as I may say forgett his glorie as humbly officiously and louingly to fall downe euen at a disloyal Iudas loathsome feete Affect Ah my soule what is this we behold are wee deceaud or is it the king of heauen we see at the traiterous Iudas his feete shall we euer then haue the hart and courage to swell againe after this wonderfull humiliation If God indured this for me shall not I endure this or that reflecting vpon some difficultie we haue to stoope for him nay for my selfe for myne owne aduantage and eternall good or if this cannot moue me what will be euer able to moue my proud hart O my sweet sauiour euen for thy felfes sake bestow vpon me some scrappe of this wholesome dishe and grant me in euerie occurrence of difficultie submission or humiliation to haue this thy blessed example liuely placed before myne eyes Consid 2. Consider that notwithstanding that Christ knew by certaine knowledge that his heauenlie father had giuen all power and authoritie into his hands that he came from him and went to him rhat is that he was indued with fulnes of knowledge issuing from him by his eternall generation and returning to him to take possession of his owne right yet disdained hee not for our example to rise from supper to putt off his vpper garment to take a linen and girt about him to putt water into a basine to washe his disciples feete to wipe them with the Iinen which he had put before him Affect O God I haue nothing to saie but am lost in astonishement and
dye rather my soule dye then so disloyally forsake thy loue dye rather my soule dye then so spotr and defile the white garment thou art now inuested withall Yet alas S. Peters example makes vs afraide to boast our loue S. Paules saying is more safe omnia possum in eo qui me confortat as though he should say of my selfe I am able to doe nothing yet I can doe all thinges in him that comfortes me THE X. MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvas treated in Annas his house Cons 1. SEe now your potent Lord and louing spouse humbly standing in bonds before that prowd sinner Annas mildely receauing a boxe on the eare for no other fault then meekely answeringe interroga eos c. aske those that haue heard me Consider the infinite distance betweene the giuer and the receauer and you will not know how enough to admire him The most potent the most innocent the most louing Prince to receaue a boxe a thing disgracefull in itselfe from the hands of one of his owne seruants vpon no occasion commanded by none but euen out of his owne malice while Christ through loue was suffering euen for him vnworthy wretch Affect O my soule my soule is it not euen thus that we who seeme so compassionat to all the world besides treat this patient lambe giuing him in so much as in vs lyes as many blowes as we commit offences And is it possible then that we are only yncompassionate of Iesus his case doth his loue deserue this at our hands can his example be of so little force with vs as not euen to blush to be so quickly put out of patience with the least touch of disgrace or any other word sounding anie thing contrarie to that which we conceaue while that heauenly face in quam desiderant Angeli prospicere vvhich the Angells desire to behold is exposed to the cruell blow of a vile seruant and that without muttering or impatience at all Cons 2. Accompanie now your forsaken spouse from Annas to Caiphas weighing in the meane time what a wearisome night he had of it left alone to himselfe amidst a crew of thirstie blood-suckers in a dark-some night and all this to marrie himselfe to you ah looke vpon him looke vpon him take now the true proportion and feature of his diuinely faire and gracious face for alas shortly will the howre arriue that nether forme nor figure will be lefe to be taken neque species illi vltra erit neque decor Ah pitious case See him then before whose tribunall all mortalls shall stand standing before a mortall man his owne creature to be iudged his hands bound his eyes cast downe with a gracious bashfulnes and bashfull mildnes Affect Ah me ah me shall that faire that celestiall faire face be euen so quite disfigured and my sins the cause of this dolefull Metamorphosis ah pittious case But at least goe not alone goe not alone my deare spouse drawe my sickly and fearefull soule after thee through the sharpe of thy Passion faine would she follow but alas she is fraile alas she feares Ah trahe me Domine sponse post te trahe me post te Ah draw me after thee my Lord my spouse draw me after thee by thy holy grace THE XI MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvas treated at Cayphas his house Cons 1. COnsider how vpon Caiphas disgust taken vpon occasion of our Sauiours most milde answere Tu dicis quia ego sum you say that I am so they giue new force to their furie bursting all vpon him without pittie or compassion some beating some spitting in his face others with their nailes tearing the same some haleing him by the haire of the head some by the beard others stroke harder at him with sharpe mockes En Prophetam nostrum prophetiza nobis Christe quis est qui te percussit Loe here our Prophete Prophecie to vs ô Christ who was he that strooke thee Affect Ah what is this I heare was euer sott on earth vsed with such scorne ah what 's this I see was euer theefe or malefactor vsed with such rigour or crueltie is this the faire face I tooke euen now so good notice on ay me how wholy it s changed It was putely white and now it is swollen with blowes blubbred with spittle dyed with blood torne with nailes and all this for loue of me Ah! and shall I not loue him shall I not loue him Cons 2. Follow him now from Caiphas to Pilate their malice still continuing or rather encreasing touwards him thinke how you take not willingly so much paines to please him as these wicked Iewes did that night to offend and molest him For see after their false accusations could not moue Pilate to sentence him they hale him from thence to Herode Marke herein the full and perfect abnegation he had made of himselfe and his owne will giuing himselfe ouer to the indiscretion of a Barbarous multitude to be led to this and that man this and that place to the highest to the lowest limitting himselfe to no one thing but indifferently imbraceing all or anie one thing his heauenly father permitted to fall vpon him and all this for the loue of you Affect Learne here ô my soule of thy spouse this perfect abnegation for if we desire to be gracious and agreeable in his eyes we must be prompte and faithfull imitators of his workes vt sicut ipse ambulauit nos ambulemus and therefore hereafter we wil not looke so much by whom what or for what we suffer which is to limitt our patience to times and occasions making ourselues iudges of our owne cause but still haue an eye for whome and by whose example to witt for how louing a Lord how deare a spouse for how entire and feruent a louer in fine for how great a Kingdome for how many offences if not those which now we are accused of at least of our life past with those of our friends of our miserable coūtrie nor is indeede loue accustomed to exact reasons t is reason enough that it is for our beloued we suffer and this we can doe as often as wee haue an intention so to doe THE XII MEDITATION Hovv Iesus vvas mocked at Herodes and Barabbas vvas preferred before him Cons 1. COnsider how at Herods howse our Sauiour is receaued with new contempts and contumelies their vnsatiable malice not being a whitt satisfied with all the paine they had alreadie put him vnto See them inuest the eternall wisdome of his father in a white garment in manner of a foole to be led in that equipage through the populous streetes as a theefe or malefactor See how humbly how patiently and mildely he performes this Procession and all this for our sake and example for loue c. Affect O my soule my soule what is it that he hath refused for our sakes what could he haue done which he did not could any thing haue been more contrary to wisdome it selfe which he is
torments but solace my smale sufferances in the same THE XXI MEDITATION Our Sauiours Prayer vpon the Crosse Father pardon them c. 1. Point COnsider how our high preist who is now readie to sacrifice himselfe a torne and bloodie host such as you haue seene him for the sinns of his people begins first to offerr vp his praiers for them to his heauenly father saing Pater dimitte illis non enim sciunt quid faciunt Father pardon them for they know not what they doe Affect O ineffable mercie mildnesse and longanimitie While their inhumanitie hath left him neither hand nor foote free he wantes not a tongue to pleade for his persequutors peace and reconcilement O my soule let vs Learne le ts learne by this example to pardon our enemies be the offence neuer so great 2. Point Consider that thus it was that our Sauiour Iesus Christ taught vs from the Crosse euen amidst his greatest torments when the most innocent person that euer liued receiued the most barbarous treatie that euer malice inuented and euen in such circumstances this lesson of praying for our enemies c. he left vs to followe Obserue with shame how we Christians complie with it Is our first addresse to God when we meete with Crosses tribulations contradictions c. Is our first sute for pardon for those that iniure vs Doe we studie to finde out some excuse for them or rather doe we not indeede fall to muttering and murmuring and impatience and euen offend God by returning euill for euill because others offende vs In lieu of pardoning or begging pardon for them doe we not desire and seeke for reuenge Doe we not insteede of extinuating striue by the sophistrie of the Diuell to aggrauate little and inconsiderable deedes words or mistakes And yet we are not Christs we are not innocencie it selfe yea contrarily we are faultie enough and as subiect to doe as to receiue iniuries Affect Alas alas my soule the Copie hath no resemblance with the originall it s as farre differēt as light from darknesse This is not to expresse Christ in our actions but the Diuell his mortall enemie It is but in words and in name to professe Christ and infacts to denie him and to sweare with S. Peter that we know not the man whose language wee speake whose liuerie we weare and beare his name And yet this was a lesson he alwaies taught in his life A lesson which he preached and practised dying A lesson which he left written in letters of blood for vs to practise after his death Resolution I vvill pardon such and such a vvrong in memorie of this excessiue mercy THE XXII MEDITATION Of the Ievves tauntes scornes and blaspheamies 1. Point Consider how their tygerish rage runs still on against this innocent dying Lambe which mutters not The streames of blood which flowe downe from euery part gluts not their malice extreame torments which their rude violence puts him to appeases not their furie It seemes not enough to their hellish madnesses to leaue no member without its torture vnlesse they fill his eares and hart with scoffes and scornes and blasphemies If he be the king of Israel let him come dovve from the Crosse and vve le beleeue him If thou beest the sonne of God descend from the Crosse He saues others and cannot saue himselfe Vau avvaie vvith him vvho destroies the Temple and vvithin three daies builds it vp againe Affect Ah my deare dying Lord what extreamitie of torment is this that thou sufferest for me and by thine owne nation what hart conceaues not an absolute detestation against those most barbarous bloodsuckers yet beware my soule that by the same iudgement which thou zealously conceauest against them thou condemnest not thy selfe Looke home and see with confusion whether a great part of that rage that malice that madnesse be not lodged in thine owne hart As often dost thou crucifie him with them as thou preferrest the concupiscence of the flesh concupiscence of the eyes or pride of life before him And as often dost thou add new woundes ouer and aboue the wounds they inflicted as often as thou comest downe or callest others downe by ill example or counsell from the Crosse which is putt vpon them for Gods glorie or despairest of his power to be able to helpe thee in thy greatest Crosses afflictions and temptations Let sinne therefor be most hated as it is indeede most criminall and truly put thy Christ to death 2. Point Consider that though this so hugely afflicted person is he who is only said to be free and subiect to no restraint yea he who alone giues power to others to tye and vntye hath often been tyed for our loue and our libertie as in the stable in poore clothes in the garden and from thence to Annas Caiphas and Herods howses in cordes in the Pretorie to the Pillorie to be whipped yet neuer was my deare Lord and spouse so closely and cruelly tied and torne as I see him here vpon the hard Racke of the Crosse where he neither findes nor hopes for any case or libertie at all but that which he must purchace with the price of his life when death shall free his afflicted soule out of his barbarously tortured body Affect Ah my soule must thy deare Lord treade the wine presse alone Must thy Master and Redeemer who is alone free among the dead purchace him selfe and thee libertie by the losse of his owne life And must the bounden slaue liue still at libertie and ease Whereas indeede we are neuer free so long as we liue vnder false libertie which is true slauerie and not vnder the true seruitude of Christ which is true libertie Gods seruice is a true raigne Happie saith your holy father is that necessitie or tye which compels vs to better vnhappie that libertie which lyes open to our ruine Resolution My calling is and shall be my happie Crosse to vvhich the consideration of these cords shall tye me for my Masters loue and honour for euer Hic habitabo quoniam elegi eum Here vvill I euer dvvell because it vvas mine ovvne choice THE XXIII MEDITATION Of the Princes of the people and Priests blaspheamies 1. Point COnsider that though all these bodily torments of my deare innocent crucified Lambe be inormiously greate beyond all measure yet they are but as it were the body of torment whereas the life and soule of torment indeede is the torment of the soule Those cruell Deicides tooke him they bound him they haled him they boxed him they whipped him they spitt in his face they crowned him with thornes they nailed him hand and foote to the Crosse they brought him to the verie doore of death but all this was performed vpon his bodie But when he heares his Fathers power and loue to him called into question by the Princes and Preists and People saying he saies he is the sonne of God in him he is confident let God now deliuer him if he will
his humanitie is lefte to struggle with his cruell tormentes and to satisfie for those sinnes of ours in the verie rigour of iustice But now hauing consummated and fulfilled all the figures types sacryfices prophecies and euen the whole Law and hauing punctually obserued all his fathers orders with filiall obedience and admirable humilitie euen to the last gaspe he beings to behold him as a tender and louing father and so testifies with a lowde voyce that it is into the hands of such a father that he deliuers vp his spiritt Pater in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum Affect May thy wearied soule ô my kind Pelican happily returne into its rest May thou our too too kind Prodigall ioyfully returne into thy fathers house out of this forraigne land of ours where thou hast spent all thy substance euen to the last droppe of thy pretious bloud vpon vngratfull man from whom thou meetest with noe better returnes then euill for good hatred for loue vineger and gale to drinke where thou art readie to perish with thirst Ah my soule my soule Haeccine reddis Domino Deo tuo are these the kindnesses which thou rendrest to thy Lord thy God for his loue for his labours for his bloud for his life which here he is laying downe for thee Resolution Be my afflictions neuer so many be my temptations neuer so great and importune I will appeale from a rigourous Lord to a louing father and cast my selfe into his bosome THE XXX MEDITATION 1. Point COnsider in this action of Christ where he commends his spirit or soule into the hands of his heauenly father where the true hopes of a Christian ought to be placed to witt in the hands that is in the will and disposition of our heauenly father to be dealt withall according to his good pleasure Accursed is that man who places his hopes in man or in the heapes of his riches which he must leaue behind him or in the multitudes of his merites which are none without mercy but in Gods mercy alone which is indeede our merite nor shall we euer want merit so long as we cleaue to that mercy Affect Returne into thy rest my wandering soule which is alone in the bosome of thy heauenly father and fixe thy confidence there Trust not in the sonnes of men in whom there is noe saluation noe truth mendaces filij hominum Leaue not the care of thy selfe to such as haue noe care of themselues much lesse of thee Such as thou hast found thy selfe to others such at the best will others proue to thee Our dearest friends doe easily forgett vs they will not they cannot goe along with vs. O how good it is then while we haue yet tyme to make him our friend aboue all our friends who when they all fayle hath as much power as goodnesse to make good our trust Into thy handes then ô dearest father doe I commend my soule In those mercifull hands of thyne not in my miserable ones doe I repose the whole confidence of my saluation 2. Point Consideration Well may Gods prouidence my soule which we are not able to found permitt vs to be tempted with Christ to be in agonie in our deuoutest prayers with Christ and giue vs ouer as it were into the power of darknesse with Christ Well may we suffer wronges crosses calumnies tauntes and scornes with Christ Well may our bodyes be left in tormentes vpon the Crosse with Christ yea our poore soules suffer a strange anguish with Christ when we seeme to be forsaken by our God Yet still by adhearing to Christ and by following his foot-stepps we shall infallibly wade out of all and come to a happie consummation with him and find a louing fathers bosome layd open to receiue our soules Affect Doe not then ô my soule so much regarde what thou sufferest or by whom or how as for what for whom and with whom It is not for a smale prize thou fightest but for an eternall waight of glorie It is not for some ordinarie person but for the loue of thy Lord and Master to become in some sorte like to him Nor art thou left alone but in his companie and vnder the guidance of his grace I am with him saith he in tribulation I will deliuer him and I will glorifie him Looke ouer thy afflictions then ô my soule be they of what nature they will and with a liuely faith looke vpon Christ Iesus the Authour and Consummatour of faith who ioy being proposed to him sustained the Crosse contemning confusion It is not too much that the coheire should be treated like the true heire the adoptiue like the natural sonne Resolution Come then what will and from what hand it will I am resolued to looke vpon it as coming indeede from the hand of a tenderly louing father for my eternall good THE XXXI MEDITATION Christ giues vp his Ghost 1. Point COnsidera Christianes draw neere and see death shutt vp thy sweete Sauiours eyes See life dye see thy God dye Not that death man or diuell had right to exercise any such power ouer the Author of life who saith nemo tollit animam meam none takes away my soule or life but because he himselfe would when he pleased and as he pleased And to what end but to be the death of death it selfe ero mors tua ô mors I will be thy death ô death To ransacke Hell it selfe ero stimulus tuus ô inferne To be Iesus that is a Sauiour to man and to leaue him the greatest testimonies of loue imaginable by man or Angell And therfor bowing downe his head he of his owne accorde deliuered vp his spirit or soule Affection Ah my soule what 's this we heare The soule of thy Sauiour is deliuered vp to death In death then must we find true life with Christ Nolo viuere volo mori cupio dissolui esse cum Christo Dye dye then my soule to all thinges which are not his verie selfe Ther 's noe liuing without life Christ is my life mihi viuere Christus and my Christ being deade my life is deade and dye I must mihi mori lucrum I desire to dye that I may see my Christ I refuse to liue that I may liue with my Christ Ah my deare deade Master fcra pessima deuorauit te the worst of wild beastes hath deuoured thee Ah my soule thy sinnes haue slaine thy Master Thy enuie sought him thy auarice sold him thy Hypocrisie betrayed him thy rashnesse deliuered him vp thy licenciousnesse bound him thy crueltie whipped him thyne ambition crowned him thy sluggishnesse loaded him thy pride putt him vpon the Crosse thy irreligiousnesse taunted scorned and blaspheamed him thy vnmercifulnesse caused his thirst thy forsaking of God made him be forsaken by God thy disloyaltie disobedience hard hartednesse ingratitude for all his benefits putt him to death And thence my Sauiour dyed Nay it was God the fathers mercy which sacrificed him His
Iustice exacted satisfaction and his mercie found the meanes which to effect he spared not his owne onely sonne but deliuered him vp to death for vs all Nay but euen Christ himselfe too both accepted the hard commission and complyed with the painfull dutie and willingly offered himselfe vp If then sinne gaue the cause if mercy found out the meanes if transcendant chartiie executed the office by the death of a God deteste sinne my soule extolle that so admirable mercy and magnifie that boundlesse charitie for euer And least we who are most concerned may seeme least sensible let vs take a deepe share with all the creatures in this dolefull mourning If there be any sense of mans miserie left in vs if any gratitude for greatest mercy if any loue for most admirable charitie weepe my soule weepe If thou art a sunne for light brighnesse and beautie farre beyond all the other creatures eclipse thy glorie for a while in lamentations If a Temple of God burst in peeces If earth and ashes putt thy mouth into thy dust weepe in thy ashes and let thy earth quake to see thy God dye If thy hart be euen a rocke let it rend in peeces at least with the rockes laying a close seige to it make the Crosse the hammer and the nayles the wedges to riue it à sunder If it be yet harder then the rockes and be growen to the hardnesse of a diamāt which nothing but bloud can mollifie oh take the streames of the innocent bloud of the Lambe and applie it continually till it relent and bring out a shewre of teares at the king of heauens funeralls who dyed for our loue 2. Point Consideration O all yee that passe by the way attend and see whether there be any sorow like my sorowe cryes out our Sauiour by the mouth of mournefull Ieremie O all you spouses of Christ then ô all you Christian hartes doe not slightly passe by or passe ouer this saddest sight but make a stoppe ponder deeply feelingly obserue whether there was euer sorrowe comparable to the sorrow of your deare Lord and spouse who lyes deade for your loue deuoyde of all beautie and comelinesse For we haue seene him all disuigoured and deformed contemptible miserable and the last of men a worme and not a man a man of dolours and ouerloaden with all the extremitie of miseries We haue seene him like a leprous person to the eyes of all men strucken by God and made abiect Affect And yet my soule this last and most dolourous of men was in the Begining without Begining before the Angells yet were his owne souueraigne ioy and Beatitude O what a huge distance there is betwixt that Begining and this ignominious dolourous and dismale end He was there selfe-happie or happinesse is selfe here miserable and ablect There framinge all thinges all the vaste varietie of creatures of nothing here forsaken by all his creatures and reduced to nothing there before the day starre inhabiting an inaccessible light here dyinge and deade in darknesse O prodigious change of the Highest by the hand of the Highest O daunting disproportion betweene such a Begining and such an End O then at least le ts attend and see vvhether there be any sorovve like his sorrovve Resolution My beloued spouse shall be to me a posie of mirre and shall for euer dwell betwixt my breastes THE XXXII MEDITATION Our Sauiours side is opened by the Lance. 1. Point COnsider that as Christs loue and the iewes malice goe on and increase euen till death so rest they not there but euen out-liue death it selfe He is now subiect to noe more paines his soule being departed yet he is subiect to more iniuries his dead body is capable of more wounds markes of more malice in them and more dearenesse in him to whom nothing happened by accident Yet thy malice profits thee not ô cruell Iewe. since thou hurtest not him and thou profitest me All thinges concurre to the aduantage of those that loue him whom you hate Affect Ah deare Lord thy charitie is boundlesse It leades thee with ioy to death for ioy being proposed vnto him he sustayned the Crosse saith S. Paule It victoriously raignes in death and ouer death It out-liues death Ah was it not enough to haue payd the first droppe of thy pretious bloud which was more then sufficient to haue redeemed a thousand worlds vnlesse thou payedst the laste droppe too O too too plentifull a price O too too diuinely deare and prodigall a loue which payes an infinitie of millions more then is due prouing Christs loue to be incomparably greater then the Iewes malice and his mercy infinitly out-speaking mans miserie 2. Point Consideration We wanted not indeede streames of innocent bloud wherin to washe our leprosie and to cure the deepest wounds of our soule We wanted not deare argumentes and euen open conuictions of infinite loue since we saw our selues written as it were in his bored hands But we wanted as yet the best treasure which was left for Longinus his launce to open We wanted an open side for our languishing faith to enter into with incredulous Thomas his hand and grope out a God We wanted yet a passage to his hart wheras nothing can euer speake so much dearenesse or so absolutly subdue a hart as a kind hart lying open to it Affect Let vs then my soule yeald our selues vp to this last batterie which comes indeede the conquering way Let vs not fayle by this blessed breatch to find out our God and to adore him Dominum nostrum Deum nostrum our Lord and our God For by this blessed wound we gett free accesse to his fatherly tender bowells and learne the secreetes of his diuine hart Dominus meus Deus meus Here is my Lord here is my God indeede Here will I enter here will I adore him here will I loue him here will I rest here will I taste how sweete my God is Here finally will I safely singe his mercyes for euer Resolution As this open hart speakes powerfully to me my beloued is myne so shall my hart replye to him And I am intirely thyne for euer THE XXXIII MEDITATION 1. Point COnsider Iosephe of Arimathias great religion and courrage who went boldly to Pilate and demanded the body of Iesus He might iustly haue feared to haue mett with resistance from the Synagogue wroth and reuenge from the high Preists and a shamefull repulse at Pilates handes The cold prudence of the world would easily haue suggested that the best way was to lett their furie passe ouer least losse or ruine might haue followed Yet Gods prouidence for whose loue he vndertooke the worke so prouided that neither Synagogue preist nor Pilate either opposed refused or did any thing els to Iosephes preiudice Affect Learne my soule by Iosephs pious courage seconded with wished successe not to let thyne be shaken by imaginarie feares so thou be truly called vpon by the interests of Christs necessarie
seruice whether it be in point of receiuing his owne true body or in charitably assisting his owne poore afflicted members For how often haue we obserued our selues to haue quaked with feare wher we mett with noe danger indeede and permitted such fond feares to frustrate our pious designes and resolutions and stifle the seede which was sowen in our hartes from heauen Feare not as longe as thou art imployed about Iesus and him crucified Either will noe danger at all be mett with or none at least be preualent to make vs misse of Iesus And if it be about Iesus that we are imployed if in that name we suffer we ought not so much to apprehend it the sufferance of a Crosse as the assurance of a crowne 2. Point Consider with astonishment the great power which the diuine prouidence giues to Pilate who had indeede noe power ouer Christ but what was giuen from aboue in whose handes the disposall of the body of a God was left Yes of that body which the holy Ghost framed the Virgine mother brought-forth the diuinitie still inseparably inhabited Of that body I say Pilate à sinner an vniust Iudge an infidell hath power to dispose and he giues it to Iosephe Affect O my soule how this Christ this God-man is wholy imployed in the behalfe of man In his life at his death after his death In his life for our instruction at his death for our redemption after his death for our consolation Be we left vnder what power soeuer iust or vniust peaceable or tyrannicall according to our desires or contrarie to our inclinations by our Lord and Masters sweete disposition he that so left vs if we faithfully follow his foot stepps will certainly deliuer vs glorifie vs. Noe vniust Pilates sencence will be able to hinder vs from deliuering vp our soules into the hands of a louing father nor depriue our body of the happie expectation of à glorious resurrection Resolution I will euer admire to see the disposition of the deade body of Christ left in an infidells hands but much more to see his liuing and glorious body and soule left at the dispose of disloyall Christians who beleeue in him and yet crucifie him againe by their dailie crymes THE XXXIV MEDITATION 1. Point COnsider that God being Omniponcie it selfe wanted not power to haue deliuered the body of this deare sonne of his out of the hands of Pilate without his leaue He that was onely free among the deade could easily haue freed himselfe from the deade and haue rysen as gloriously the first day from the Crosse as the third from the graue But the Scriptures were to be fulfilled his sepulcher vvas to be glorious Our Ionas was to remaine three dayes and three nightes in the bowells of the earth And his last lesson after his death as well as his first before he could yet speake was to teach vs by his blessed example an admirable submission obedience abandonnement of himselfe into what hands soeuer Affect O wisdome of heauen how secreete and incomprehensible are thy wayes We are not able my soule to looke into them In thy infancie thou wholy abandonnedst thy selfe vnto thy B. mothers care and custodie In thy youth thou wast subiect to her and Iosephe In thy passion thou wast giuen ouer to the wills of the Iewes remayning obedient till death and the death of the Crosse and now too after thy death thou continuest still at Pilates dispose Let me learne deare Lord by this singular submission of thyne in imitation therof and for thy loue to be willingly subiect to euerie creature neuer desiring to take my selfe out of that order and subiection wherin thy prouidence may haue placed me Ita Domine quoniam sic placitum est coram te Yes sweete Sauiour purely becaus so it is aggreable in thy diuine sight 2. Point Consider that Pilate hauing bene petitioned giues vp the body to Iosephe Iosephs care takes it downe from the Crosse and bestowes à sydon or fine white linen sheete Nicodemus contributes many pounds of oyntments to witt mixed mirre and aloes the body is imbalmed therwith and wound vp in Iosephs syndon according to the iewes rites His mournefull mother Marie bestowes more hartie sorowe and compassion then any tongue can speake or any hart but her owne that is the hart of a mother and such a mother the mother of a God can conceiue who as in that name she farre surpasses all other creatures in dignitie consanguinitie and neerenesse to her sonne so also in loue and consequently in compassion and sorrowe The desolate louing Magdalene and her companions their familiar teares and Ioseph putts the adorable body in his owne new Monument cutt in the side of a rocke and shutts it vp with a great stone Affect Thus my soule haue we at length gott to an end of a wearisome procession Thus haue our sinnes layd the God of heauen and earth in the bosome of the earth Thus haue our hard hartes lodged him in a rocke at whose voyce the very rockes burst in sunder Ah my soule this hard world at his first entrie lodged him in a rocke and a rocke too must receiue him at his going out O deare Master Let it be this rockie hart of myne that may haue the happines to afford thee this last lodging or at least may I be lodged with thee be the rocke neuer so hard that I may truly be according to the Apostles expression consepultus cum Christo buried togeither with Christ neuer to ryse againe but with him in newnesse of life O that my hart as it sympathises too neerely with this Monument in hardnesse had also the rest of its qualities O that it were yet in its primitiue newnesse and puritie O that it had neuer bene prepossessed by any creature But alas alas it fares not so It hath bene too longe and too easely prostituted to the worlds allurements to the Diuells suggestions It hath bene but too too peruious to all approches and remayned onely a rocke to thy holy inspirations to thy heauenly instructions to any true sense of thy excessiue torments and sorrowes A PRAYER BVt ô my deare Lord thou vvho art a hammer brusing rockes bruse this hard hart of myne into true contrition and smite it vvith the rodd of thy Crosse that novv at least though too late alas it may pay dovvne deepest compassion and sorrovve vvith the most desolate Virgine mother flouds of repentant teares vvith those mournefull Maries and finally a most manly courage and resolution plentifull vvorkes of mercy and the pretious oyntements of frequent and feruent prayers vvith the good Ioseph and Nicodemus But ah my dearest Sauiour Christ my true rocke and strength these are indeede the resolutions of my hart but of a vveake and vvauering hart vvhich vvill effect nothing vvithout thy povverfull assistance grant it o Lord for thy pretious blouds sake and let the holes of thy sacred side c. lye alvvaies open to my ayde and
same sadd truth that alas I it is her sweete and best beloued Rabboni her dearest Master Christ Iesus Aske the rockes and stones and in their language they will answere you that its the authour of nature their Maker and Master the verie Authour of all beeing and life Aske the Sunne and it will straight withdraw it's light testifying that the true Sunne is setting and dyeing to this world Nay aske the Iewes and notwithstanding their endlesse malice euen by them you may informe your selfe of the truth for looke vp and you may reade their inscription IESVS N. R. I. aske who these two are which hangs by him and euery one will answere you they are two theeues 2. Theeues alas and together with Iesus what connection what to doe hath light with darkenes iniquitie with iustice ah is it not true quod cum iniquis reputatus est That Iesus our sauiour is reputed among the wicked heauens stand amazed at this strange doome O my soule loose thy selfe in astonishement in contemplation of the wordls peruerse and madd iudgement and learne to contemne it since here thou seest euen innocencie it selfe tainted with the imputation of wickednesse and after this neuer find it strange if thy resolution be to follow thy Master Christ to haue thy best actions misconstrued to thy disaduantage and disgrace 3. IESVS NAZARENVS This is the testimonie of that enemie of his Pilate who deliuered him ouer to this disgrace And if Iesus of Nazareth Iesus the sonne of Marie that innocent lambe which was borne in Bethelem stable who came to take awaie the inquities and sinnes of the world who had euen there his Gloria sung by the quires of Angels from heauen in testimonie that he was true God that word which was in the beginning with God and was euen God himselfe In the beginning which had no beginning before time yet began to be from all eternitie And yet behold now in time what monsters time brings forth He is reputed among the vvicked 4. In eternitie he esteemes it no stealth to be equall with God In eternitie he is one of those three holy persons who are equally one God And in time he is in a coniūcture with and is iudged the chiefe of the three wher-of two confessedly suffer the punishments due to their crimes 5. IESVS NAZARENVS If Iesus of Nazareth let Nazareth which knowes him giue testimonie of him Nazareth where he was virginally conceiued of a poore innocent vnspotted milde Virgine Nazareth where he was innocently brought vp and conuersed amongst the inhabitants For the space of 24. yeares Nazareth where he appeared a man approued by God by miracles and wonders and signes which God wrought by him in the middest of it Let Nazareth speake Was he euer found faultie in word or deede Nay was he not euer found innocent vnspotted segregated or separated from sinners was he not euer found doeing the worke of his heauenly Father solidly and publikly preaching the truth exalting vertue reprehending and subduing vice and vtterly destroying the kingdome of satan curing the sicke raysing the dead to life restoring sight to the blind making the lame walke and the deafe heare And yet it is thought good to the Iewish blindnesse and malice to repute and place him amongst the vvicked 6. Pilate who iudged him and in iudging him condemned himself pronounced openly that he found no cause of death in him and left him a testimonie of a iust man And yet he is reputed among the vvicked 7. Ah barbarous blinde vnnaturall and wicked Iewe whilst thou art contriuing his death by iarring treacherous and bought testimonies at Hierusalem his natiue soyle to which he was sent which he so much loued that by teares spent vpon it he expressed the same Rome vpon a bare relation sent from hence is admiring his life Whilst thou vngratefull Synagogue buyest his blood with bribes and vniustly placest him amidst two notorious Criminalls the Senate is cōsulting to place him amōgst the Gods 8. Ah king of heauen how becam'st thou an exile in this our vayle of teares for loue What did inuest thee in our clayie garmentes or rather ragges loue But tell me thou beatie of Angells how becamest thou so deformed For loue What lanced these sacred temples Loue. How became that celestiall face heauens ioy so gauled and goarie For loue Ah my hart what wounded these hands and feete which neuer walked in the waies of sinners Loue. Thou adornest the feild with a verdant greene thou deckest the tree with her fresh leaues and sweet blossomes the birds thou couerest with their comely feathers and the most contemptible beast with their skinnes and how becamest thou then so without all couer or ornament For loue Ah my crucified loue how much thou hast oblidged me to loue thee Ah Loue euen for this loue inflame my colde hart with this loue Da mihi te amare quantum volo quantum debeo 9. REX IVDAEORVM Rex A King true the King of heauen the King of Angells the King of Men the King of all things Omnis enim potestas ei data est in coelo in terra For all power was giuen him in heauen and in earth But alas if a King how so inuironed with miserie and anguish how so destitute of friends and attendants how so bereaued of all comfort consolation how so depriued of all things that might appease greife and accompayned with all things that might augment sorrow If a King and the King of heauen where are the orders of Cherubines and Seraphins the rancks of Archangells Angells those Principalities Powers Dominations those mille millium ministrantium ei decies centena millia assistentium ei 10. Rex Iudaeorum If a King where are his Nobles his fauorites his Guard-Royall his Pallace his Chamber of Presence his Purple his Gemmes If a King at least why doth he not appeare a Man Neque enim species illi est neque decor For he neither hath beautie nor comelinesse A Crowne he beares indeed but that doth so augment his paine as that it doth not anie waie in appearance add to his Regall honour And was loue yet cause of all this yes yes Sic Deus dilexit mundum c. So God loued the world that he deliuered his owne onely sonne But alas hath Loue made this King so prodigall and prodigalitie so poore that he hath nothing left him nothing to bestow vpon a poore suppliant ah yes my soule yes there is yet enough left let 's runn and begge for behold his holy armes are wide open louingly to imbrace vs and receaue vs into his fauour ô deare sweete imbracements ô how willingly could I liue and dye here O inueni quem diligit anima mea inueni nec dimittam I haue found him whom my hart loueth I haue found him nor will I lett him goe Behold his head hung downe to bestow vpon vs that sweet osculum pacis that kisse of peace that gracious fauour
it and tyde it out 20. Nay my deare crucified Loue thou art indeede smitten by him for the sinnes of his people but thou art not forsaken we haue thyne owne word for it He that sent me is vvith me and hath not forsaken me He will within a short space deliuer thee and glorifie thee Wert thou forsaken by him thou wert forsaken by thy selfe too since thou art one and the same God with him and all your outward actions are common Thou hast povver to lay dovvne thy life and to resume it at thy pleasure Thou art thus treated and sacryficed because thou thy selfe wouldst Ah saith that louing seruant of thyne S. Augustine who is he who so easily sleepes when he would as Iesus dyed when he would who is he that with so much facilitie putts off his garment when he would as thou puttest off thy garment of flesh when thou wouldst 21. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me was noe complainte then but a voyce of the humanitie which yet was neuer separated from the Diuinitie which broke out from the excesse of his anguish Noe repining against his heauenly father but a lesson and reproche to vs my soule who see and heare these abismall excesses with drye eyes as not concerned wheras indeede the whole concernement is ours who had bene abandonned for euer had not our deare Lord for our loue for the loue of lost man dayned to be thus abandonned 22. A strange lesson making an absolute demonstration of the haynousnesse of sinne which can neuer be better knowne then by the inestimable greatnesse of the price and the ineffable strangenes of this abandonnement But a shamefull reproche if after the due consideration of this we liue in league with sinne and therby crucifie againe our crucified Loue. 23. A lesson pronunced with a loude voyce to strike through man's huge deafenesse to rouse vp his ingratitude and insensibilitie But a reproche if he remayne still deafe to so diuine instructions vngratefull for such heauenly benefits senselesse of such prodigious torments of a God 24. A lesson speaking a greater measure of sufferance and consequently a greater excesse of loue then euer the thoughts of men or Angells were able to reach too so that if the rest of his benefits of his Natiuitie c. putt a great waight vpon Christian harts and presse them to loue this seemes not so much a great waight as euen an intolerable and insupportable burden and doth not so much presse vs to loue as euen oppresse and beare vs to it by a dearely sweet force For here indeede God the Father putts the greatest commendation vpon his charitie that euen omnipotencie it selfe was able to putt While that Sainte of Saintes to whom Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus is sung in his Kingdome is abandoned in this direfull soyle to the excesse of torments and left dying for a sinner While he spares not his owne onely sonne but deliuers him vp for an vngratefull vngracious sinfull seruant while finally God is exposed and left to be murdered by and for miserable man But a most confounding reproche if at this moment we make not strong resolutions to deteste and forsake for euer that tyrannicall Monster sinne which putt our Lord and Master our best Benefactour our dearest spouse to such excesse of torments that they forced from him My God my God vvhy hast thou forsaken me 25. In so much that he the fountaine of liueing water is exhaust and waxen drie and he cryes out sitio thinke in this you heare him say t was I that created the sea fountaines all other moistures 't is I that rule the clowdes and powre downe rayne in due seaon T is I that offered the Nectarian cupps of eternall beatitude to Angells and Saintes and yet beholde for your sake haue I not a droppe of colde water to coole my exceeding heate But aske him and peraduenture he 'le tell you that his thirst is after another thing to witt Mans redemption for his meate and drinke was to haue his fathers will performed which was Mans Saluation Or els he thirsts after more sufferāce sitio that is notwithstanding these horrible paines and desolations which you haue seene me endure notwithstanding that the blood of my bodie is quite exhaust yet remaines the desire I haue to suffer for Man insatiate and readie to embrace a thousand deathes 26. O loue which alwaies burnest and art neuer extinguished burne my hart burne it wholie that it may liue only for thee and loue only thee and for thee And we my poore soule haue we nothing to offer to our loue our spouse in this his extreamitie haue wee nothing that may helpe to quench his thirst ô yes his drinke is his heauenly fathers will and his fathers will is whatsoeuer good we doe or suffer whether it be a deuout thought a sigh a teare spent in the consideration of this B. Passion or it is a taunt a scorne an infirmitie a temptation a reprehension an affliction corporall or spirituall tolerated for his loue or it is a fast a prayer a vigill a mortification an act of obedience a worke of Charitie or the like offered vp in his honour all this is an agreeable cuppe vnto him all this doth quench his thirst and can we be so mercilesse and vnkind as to offer none of these or shall we peraduenture be so inhumane and cruell as to present him with the contrarie as the barbarous Iewes doe with vineger and gaule for alas this was all the consolatiō offered him in his exceeding anguish 27. O vos omnes qui transitis viam dicite si est dolor sicut dolor meus ô all you that passe by say whether there be any greife like my greife Dolor from all sortes of men Iewes and Gentiles friends and foes by my Apostles absence and my Mothers presence Dolor in my fame honour and glorie Dolor in Bodie and Soule in euerie part in euerie sense à planta pedis vsque ad verticem capitis non est sanitas in me And yet after all this being thristie gaule and vineger are administred Popule stulte insipiens haeccine reddis Domino Deo tuo ô foolish and brainsicke people is this the returne which thou makest to the Lord thy God What haue I done to thee or what fault haue I committed that thou art so cruell towards me tell me is this a fitt exchange for all the benefitts I haue done thee I deliuered thee safely out of Aegypt I caused the sea make waie to thy drye passage I prostrated thine Enemies I fedd thee in the Desert with that heauenly food Manna I haue taken thy nature vpon me and haue peaceably cōuersed amongst you 33. yeares haueing left as it were for your loue my heauenly Raigne and is a cuppe of vineger and gaule the best present you can find in your harts to bestowe vpon me at my departure Popule stulte insipiens haeccine reddis Domino Deo tuo 28. Ah!
forsaken him If our Aduocate be not heard be forsaken our case is desparate mans cause is lost for euer But be it not so dread Lord be it not so Looke vpon the louely deformed face of thy Christ which is therefore more louely because more deformed Looke vpon his bare breast sometimes lilly-white now all-redd and goared with blood Looke vpon his withered bowells his bright sweete eyes now languishing his extended armes his torne limms his imperiall head crowned with thornes his pearced hands and feete whenoe springes of pretious blood streames downe to bathe our infected soules The strangenesse of his plea my God my God vvhy hast thou forsaken me speakes onely the desparatnesse of our cause thou canst not forsake that onely deare sonne of thine nor he thee or vs whose suite he is resolued to winne with the losse of his life Aspice Deus respice in faciem Christi tui 2. Point Let vs weigh yet further these stupendious words My God my God vvhy hast thou forsaken me He complaines not of the excesse of the barbarous torments crowne of thornes nailes cruell extension vpon the Crosse and effusion of his pretious blood which he suffers in his bodie Nay he mentions not the contumelies contemps scornefull blasphemies which enter into his very soule but to see himselfe seeme to be quite abandoned by his heauenly father and left as a person forgotten or as one who had no credit or power in the midst of his barbarous enemies and euen in the hight of those torments which he suffers in obedience to his will and for his glorie Affection Cry out then my soule with S. Augustine what haste thou committed ô most sweete child that thou shouldst be so iudged What hast thou committed most amiable young man that thou shouldst be so treated What is thy trepasse what is thy cryme It is I it is I who am the wound which putt thee to that payne I the cryme which kills thee I the sinne wherof reuenge is taken I the man which seemes forsaken in thee who can indeede neuer be forsaken Noe my soule it is noe forsaking but a mysterie Man had forsaken God by sinne and God forsakes man in Christ that by Christ sinnfull man may be reconciled to God It is noe forsaking but a doctrine intimating noe despaire but a rigourous satisfaction and is indeede à souueraigne antidote which loue presentes to our sicke hartes Ah let vs engraue it deeply in the same hartes and neuer forgett that the desease must needes be hugely great which will not be cured but by the abandonnement torments and death of the most skilfull Doctour Ah my soule our leprosie was desparatly malignant which found onely the bathe of the bloud of so innocent a child souueraigne for its cure Resolution Neuer to despaire of Gods mercy and assistance seeme vve neuer so forsaken THE XXVI MEDITATION I thirst 1. Point COnsidera But harke my soule the fontaine of life is almost dryed vp and thy deare Lord drawes neere to his end The incessant labours of a most wearisome night and the immoderate effusion of his most pretious bloud in the garden at the Pillorie vpon the Crosse hath quite drayned his veyhes his vigour and strength as he foretold by the Psalmist is withered as a pott and his tongue cleaning to his iawes dolefully testifies that he is drye Affect O my soule what a deadly thirst is this which seemes to haue dryed vp the verie sourse of life and is readie to force the afflicted soule out of the withered body It is truth that sayes it and it issues out of that sacred mouth which sometymes said If any be thirstie let him come to me and drinke who am the fountaine of liuing water which flowes into life euerlasting And it is excessiue torment my soule in my crucified Loue which hath so withered and dryed him vp He is oppressed with the waight of my sinnes he is burnt vp with my intempetance and riotte and he seemes to say to our hartes children giue me to drinke And à true sense of his sufferances à compassionate hart a repentant teare is able to refresh him whether it be bestowed vpon his owne person or vpon any of his suffering members in his name Ah then let it neuer be reproched to our hartes I was thirstie and you gaue me not to drinke c. 2. Point Considera And though the extremitie of the torments which my Sauiour suffered were indeede forceable enough to draw this expression of corporall drinesse from his mouth yet was the drouth of his soule according to S. Bernard farre more ardent wherby he thirsted after the saluation of our poore soules and the honour and glorie of his heauenly father which he saw contemned My meate and drinke said he sometymes is that you accomplish the will of my heauenly father and what is his will but your sanctification or sanctitie Affect If we desire then truly to take compassion of our Sauiours extreame thirst and be willing to refresh him let our cheife care be to take pittie of our owne soules and to sanctifie them So shall we accomplish Gods blessed will pleasure so shall we honour and glorifie his heauenly father and so finally shall we afford Christ both meate and drinke How happie are we then my soule to haue our interests so inseparablie lincked with those of God the Father and the sonne that we neuer performe his holy will and honour him but the aduantage comes home to our owne soules nor euer againe attend to the aduantage of our owne soules but we honour and glorifie God and giue drinke to Christ in his greatest thirst Resolution I will be still carefull to glorifie God in seeking to performe his heauenly will since his glorie is my sanctitie my sanctitie his glorie THE XXVII MEDITATION They present Christ vvith vineger c. 1. Point COnsideration Consider that Christ his mercy myldnesse and sufferance and the Iewes crueltie maddnesse and malice goe on still at the same hight The myld lambe out of mercy to miserable man is so miserably racked and torne that all the radicall moysture of his body is dryed vp and he signifies his neede of drinke they presently run with malice accompaigned with mockerie and present him with vineger and gale Ah was there euer any I doe not say iust innocent patient meeke dying young man but euen any despicable theife cruel homicide or most cryminall villaine so vnhumanly treated as I see these barbarous tygers treate my deare Lord and master Affect Alas my soule Le ts change but the name of cruell Iewe into cold and vnworthy Christian and the storie is told and verified of vs. For are not indeede our words our workes our thoughtes mixed with vineger and gale And doe we not present them to Christ too who saith what you doe to those litle ones you doe to me We offer vineger and gale to Christ when we mixe his pure loue with terreane and