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
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
of my future merits which he foresaw in his prescience could moue him neither for these were his owne free mercyes gifts and graces non ex operibus Not to vs then ô Lord not to vs but to thyne owne name giue glorie It was thy charitie moued thee to thinke vpon vs. Thy all powerfull will drew vs out of nothing thy owne graces made vs gratefull to thy heauenly eyes For of him and in him and by him are all things To him be glorie for euer Amen Must we conclude with S. Paule THE SECONDE POINTE. He sent them into the vineyard CONSIDER how that great God who out of his infinite goodnesse and chartie had thoughtes of mercy for me from all eternitie did in tyme as his prouidence had appointed rayse me out of the abisse of nothinge and gaue me this noble beeing capable to knowe feare loue and serue him in his vineyard and to gayne the day pennie that is eternall felicitie Affection O my soule what a fauour of preference is it to haue had a light sent from heauen to witt the light of faith which was not granted to all men therby to haue accesse to the great God who inhabites an inaccessible light whom none knowes but feares nor knowes and feares as being infinitly powerfull but he also ought to loue because he is infinitly good or good nesse it selfe serue as being his creature whose seruice is true libertie whom to serue is truly to raigne Let vs therfor my soule know that this is our whole businesse here belowe to feare loue and serue that good God who without hauing any neede of vs made vs to inioy himselfe eternally THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Hauing made couenant with the workemen for a penie a day c. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER further how graciously that Almightie maker of all thinges dealt with man in this proceding who though he had absolute power ouer all his creatures by right of creation and might ther-for most iustly haue exacted all their labours as they had all their abilities and euen all that they are from his free gift yet would not his goodnesse make vse of his prerogatiue with man by exacting all his labours as due to him from his slaues but pleased to couenante with him for a reward or hire as with a free man Affection All is thyne all is thyne indeede my deare Lord my God and my Creatour absolutly and without reserue as issuing freely out from the drayneles sourse of thy bountie Let all be thyne too by my free choyce and surrender all my words all my thoughtes all my workes and by how much more all being thyne owne by iustice thou yet daignest to spurre on my slowenesse by hope of rewards by so much more feruently make me spring after thee for pure lou'es sake because thou art infinitly good and louely and vnspeakably worthy of the loue of all men and Angells THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME DAY THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that English Catholikes are not onely called to the Knowledge of God and to worke in his vineyard but further to a higher degree of honour to be the speciall champions of his truth To you saith S. Paule in the way of congratulation to his deare Philipians it is giuen for Christ not onely to beleeue in him but also to suffer for him Thus doe Monarkes vse to honour their commanders when out of the confidence they haue of their fidelitie worth and valour putt them in the greatest places and occasions of danger Affection Let vs not therfor my soule here after looke vpon persecutions tribulations and temptations as afflictions but speciall fauours from heauen and esteeme them all ioy with sainte Iames since S. Chrystome and Theophilacte assure vs that the gift of suffering for Christ is greater then the gift of raysing the deade and working of wonderfull miracles for by this last say they I become a debter to God but by that other God becomes my debter O admirable thinge It s he who giues me the grace to suffer and yet by this he himselfe be comes my debter Let vs therfor say with that admirable seruant of Christ S. Teresa aut pati aut mori lets either suffer or dye that is the sure and royall roade which our Capitaine Christ tooke to his owne Kingdome THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR SEXAGESIME SVNDAY The sower went out to sowe his seede Luc 8. And it fell by the way side THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that though the seede which was sowen was noe lesse then the word of God as our Sauiour himselfe declares to his Disciples saying the seede is the word of God in that his diuine commentarie yet three partes of it by the peruersitie of man falls fruitlesse vpon the ground to witt one parte of that good seede fell by the way side that is vpon harts which lye open exposed as a through-fare to all the rumours follies and vanities of the world whence it s troden as it were vnder foote and so neuer getts tyme to take any roote at all Affection Is it not true my soule that it often happens that when the word of God is either proposed to the eare of our body by the preacher or to the eares of our harte by diuine inspirations we haue noe eares to heare or els that hearing we heare not that is we vnderstand not because our hartes are alreadie prepossessed and wholy taken vp by wordly dreames and imaginations so that there is noe place left for the word of God O what pittie it is to let that seede of heauen sent vs to produce the fruites of eternall glorie be negligently lost Le ts therfor emptie our harts of such pernicious toyes that we may truly say speake ô Lord because thy seruant heareth THE SECONDE POINTE And other some fell vpon the Rocke CONSIDER that an other parte of that good seede fell vpon the rocke which hauing the superficies or out-side of some good earth is capable to receiue the seede and to make it sprout out too but yet so hastily that it takes noe firme roote and thence as soone withers as appeares So it fares with those who heare and receiue the word of God with ioy and are often thetby moued to compunction and teares yet their harts being rockie it makes noe great impression therin and thence vpon the first temptation or difficultie they easily forgett that they were moued at all Affection Doe we happly my soule perceiue our hartes so hardened that they are litle apte to conceiue this good seede Despaire not for all that Gods word is a hammer that is able to split rockes in peeces His grace is powerfull enough to make the soyle fertile be it neuer sostonie and barren Pray hard then that these harts of rockes may be turned into harts of flesh supple and apte to receiue good seede saying with S. Augustine giue me ô Lord that conquering grace which is repulsed by noe hard harte
burnt that thundred that sent out beames of glorie there here is nailed to a Crosse and ignominiously dying betwixt two theeues vpon the toppe of Mount Caluarie Affect Ibo videbo visionem hanc grandem I will vp to Caluarie and see this great sight for it is not as some conceiued the frame of the Vniuerse that is about to be dissolued but the very God of nature which suffers and is readie to dye Dye then my soule dye to this world and to all its concupiscences and dye with this deare Lord and Master of thine Ah my dying Lord ô my crucified Loue Let my eyes and thoughts loath their wonted vanities and fill them selues full of this daunting obiect of a dying God O my crucified Loue let me be nayled to the Crosse with thee neuer seeking to be freed from that tye But grant that all the rest of my life in flesh I may liue in the faith of the sonne of God true God who loued me and deliuered vp himselfe for me Resolution Neuer regard among vvhom thou art numbered so thy actions be Christian Loue to be reputed for nothing c. THE XIX MEDITATION Of our Christian bloody sacrifice vpon Mount Caluarie 1. Point COnsider how at length we haue mett with such a Bishop as we had absolute neede of as S. Paule saith à Bishop who is holy innocent vnspotted separated from sinners who hauing no neede to sacrifice for his owne sinnes wholy imployes it for the redemption of ours Behold him ready to performe this great sacrifice to his heauenly father in his owne blood Caluarie is the vast Temple lying open to the whole world the Crosse the Altar him selfe the Preist and Hoste and that infinite charitie of his heauenly hart to man the fire which burnes all into an Holocaust Affect O dolefull ioyfull Mysterie thy Christ ô Christian is readie to sacrifice himselfe What fountaines of teares are not due to such an ignominious death But it is for thy sake for thy redemption what consolation what ioy Weepe then weepe vpon thy dying spouse yes for his dolours deserue seas of teares yet weepe not so as those others who haue no hope for thou hast mett with a gracious Redeemer a plentifull redemption which is euen at hand to witt our high Priest is gone vp to the high Altar and is readie to put downe his blood more then the price of a thousand worlds While this Abels blood out-speakes his brothers crime Mans malice was not able to committ what Gods mercie was able to expiate Our sinns are great ô Lord huge great we confesse it we pleade guiltie But our Priest is holy vnspotted innocent innocencie it selfe And he is readie for vs poore sinners to paie-backe what he tooke not awaie to appease thy wrath which he neuer prouoked Looke vpon this innocent obedient sonne of thine and pardon the crimes and disobediences of thy poore seruant who of himselfe is altogether insoluable 2. Point Consider that whereas other Bishops goe richly adorned to the Altar poore Christ is turned quite naked to the worke making his publike confusion the ornament which ought to rauish the harts of men and Angells to see their God and ours who couers beautifies and adornes all thinges exposed naked to the eyes and scorne of all the world to couer our confusion to hide our shame and to recouer vs againe the white garment of originall iustice which we lost in our first father Affect Neuer is a Christian man so gloriously adorned in the eyes of God Angells and Men as when he neglects or depriues him selfe of all ornaments by Christs example and for his loue Neuer doe we so neerly resemble Christ nor so securely approch to his holy sacrifices as when we find our selues turned naked not only from all interest humane respects selfe-esteeme and selfe loue but from our dearest desires and best beloued affections to certaine practises of pietie aduancement in verue by meanes of our owne choice whereas our more purified and Christian-like desires indeed ought to be an absolute indifferencie and intire dependence of Gods good pleasure affecting that in all things his holy name be sanctified his raigne be magnified his blessed will be accomplished and glorified for euer whether by our nakednesse confusion ignominie or good fame Resolution We vvill disingage our selues of all other interests but Gods blessed vvill alone THE XX. MEDITATION Our Sauiour stripped naked and putt vpon the Crosse 1. Point COnsider how this publik confusion was accompaigned with excessiue paines for the barbarous rudenesse inhumanitie and crueltie of the soldiers doe not so much teare off the fleece as the very skinne and flesh of the delicate and tender lambe which muttered not against those that shore him and ledd him to slaughter If at the piller their inhumanitie inflicted wounds without number at the Crosse their inraged violence teares them all into one while they snatche off the garment which stickes to the goarie blood of them all Affect Ah my soule let vs here behold the man againe who is placed naked before our eyes He is thy dearest spouse but thy spouse of blood whose sufferances find no end He is thy hartes only delight who is now made an obiect of horrour to thine eyes It is he who was beautifull farre before all the sonns of men and behold he is wholy deformed all couered ouer with wounds and fresh springs of blood shewre downe from euery part and now there is noe beautie in him nor comlinesse Nay he is as it vvere a Leper strucken by God and humbled Towitt we all straied like lost sheepe and this lambe takes all our iniquities vpon him Let vs not then at least spare dropps of guiltie teares where he spends fountaines of innocent blood 2. Point Consider how these vile slaues extend the King of Glorie thus naked thus deformed thus fleaed and torne thus cruelly crowned vpon the ignominious wood with as much barbarousnesse and brutalitie as their diuellish malice could inuent and then with great and rude nailes digge through his hands and feete Foderunt manus meas pedes meos as the prophet longe before had expressed it racking out his armes with huge violence to force them to their designed places vpon the Crosse so that one might count all his bones dinumerauerunt omnia ossa mea Affect O my deare Iesus what excessiue shame confusion and torments must I needs conceiue thou here indurest for the sinfull soule of me thy poore vnworthy lost seruant while I see the waight of thy whole bodie riue the wounds of thy sacred hands and feete still wider and wider Thy bones vnioynted thy veines and sinewes forced to an vniust length My hart my hart where art thou on what thinkest thou while thy innocent Master thus suffers for thy sake without complaint without murmuring one word Is it thus that we suffer infinitly lesse things for his sake and in contemplation hereof Resolution I vvill neuer forgett these huge
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
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
so strucke him O man how doth this action confounde thy pride and discouer thy selfe to thy selfe we easily committ sinne euen in the sight of God but blushe to appeare sinners in the sight of men c. Or if we chance to haue that humilitie and iustice in vs as patïently to suffer reprehension reproche or punishement when we see we are in fault yet are their any to be found who knowes what it meanes to suffer where we either indeede are or at least where we apprehend our selues innocent That euen best Christians are content to leaue to Christ alone THE SECONDE MEDITATION For the same day II. POINT CONSIDER Virgines consider Christians old and young and all that hope to be saued by the blood of Christ what these sacred dropes which fall from our Christ say to our hartes What doe they say vnlesse our harts be of stone but I will and begge by this example without example where noe law obliged noe debt was due your patience your mortification your resignation your obedience your humiliation You call me Abba pater father father and I am so show the dutie of children then by following your fathers footstepps You call me Lord and I am so make good then the dutie of seruantes in accomplishing the will of your Lord. I will obedience c. not will-worshippe not sacryfices of your owne inuention and choyce And this irreuocable will and Conuenant of myne I write downe in letters of myne owne blood that louinge children may neuer forgett it Affect Noe my soule ther was indeed noe connection betwixt an innocent Sauiour and the markes of a sinner noe necessitie for a God to imploy this paynefull and shamfull meanes who had a thousand other ways in his wisdome to haue performed the worke of mans redemption but to teach vs patience with what euer might befall vs seem it neuer so litle sutable to the thoughtes we may haue of our owne innocencie Mortification by suffering some corporall payne be it by our owne or some other hand be it by accident sicknesse or otherwise Obedience whether to our superiours as we are bounde c. Or euen to euery creature for charities sake where there appeares noe other obligation And conceiue we alwayes heare Christ by this example say vnto our hartes what great matter is it c. if you being but durt and askes subiect your selues to man for Gods fake since I who am omnipotent became humbly subiect to man for your sakes O dust learne of me to obey Learne of me ô earth and clay to humble thy selfe and caste thy selfe vnder the feete of all men for my Loue. Consider Yet further that the heauenly dropps of blood which fall from a God speake more powerfully to pious hartes then Malachie to the people of Israel saying dilexi vâ—s I haue loued you That is I haue doe and shall loue you since there is neither tyme past nor tyme to come with God I haue loued you from eternitie and thence I am come in tyme to saue you I doe loue you in tyme present and thence I giue the first dropps of my bloud for you I wil loue you in tyme to come and will powre out my hartes bloud for you in earnest wherof I now lay downe these dropps I haue loued you and so called you by preuenting grace while you thought not of it I doe loue you and so assiste you by cooperating grace I will loue you and so make my subsequent grace accompaignie you to the end and for assurance of this I now pay downe these dropps Affec O how wonderfully thou hast loued vs ô heâuenly Father since for our sakes thou didst not euen spare thyne owne onely sonne How tenderly didst thou loue vs ô dearely beloued sonne of the Almightie who for our sakes didst not refuse that paynefull imployment but dost euen so airely testifie the excesse of thy loue by the loss of thy blood By which deare pledges being partes of the price of my Redemption I apprehende it euen neere at hand Let Israel now say that he is good that his mercy is for euer Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy is for euer Come le ts loue him le ts loue him we that are redeemed by his bloude because his mercyes are for euer Let our tongues publish his loue and mercy let our hartes loue and prayse him and let our verie bowels pronounce ô Lord who is like to thee Inable vs deare Iesus to vnderstand descerne and reuerence with due honour this admirable misterie of pietie which is manifested in the flesh hath appeared to the Angells is preached to the gentils is beleeued by the world and this day is signed in bloud Venite adoremus THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE. Day after new yeares-Day of the name of IESVS I. POINT COnsider That though all the names vsed by men to signifie the Deitie were from all eternitie are in tyme and shall for euer be most worthily blessed praysed and admired by men and Angells yet to vs Christians the name of our Christ IESVS by which he was called this day is by iustest right most deare and praise-worthy For whether we vse the word Elin which signifies God and is interpreted strong Elion which signifies High or Adonai which we interprete Lord or Saddai which may be called Almightie or els Iehouah which the Hebrewes esteemed ineffable none of them intimates so much and so present consolation to vs poore sinners as doth our myld Emmanuel which signifies our God with vs our Iesus a Sauiour who begins euen to powre out his pretious bloode for vs. Affection Be all thy names ô great Lord God praysed preached admired magnified sanctified for euer by men and Angells and all thy creatures in generall whether they signifie strength power Maiestie Omnipotencie immensitie infinitie or what euer els which we can in noe sorte expresse nor euen by imagination conceiue so vastly great so ineffable so inconceiuable is the Lord and Master whom we serue Yet most deare Sauiour Iesus be thy most mellifluous name as neerer to my eyes and interests so alwayes neerer and dearer so my hart Be that sauing and sanctifying name cherished and sanctfied by vs poore miscrable sinners aboue all other names because thou o deare lambe who wast slayne for me is most worthy of glorie and honour and benediction and all that euer my narrow hart is able to deuise c. 2. POINT Consider that all the names we reade intimate either power and Maiestie or grace and mercy according to that of the Royall Prophete I haue heard these thinges Power is Gods and mercy is thyne ô Lord. According to his Maiestie his name is holy and terrible But this new name IESVS which is giuen to him in earth signifies nothing but mildnesse mercy and saluation for the name of IESVS saith your holy Father is a sweete name a delightfull name a name of deare consolation and blessed hope to the sinner Nay it
vs that the starre will appeare againe and conduct vs to the place where the child is and multiplie our ioyes as well as theirs with a huge increase of ioye gaudio magno valde Where we are to seeke Iesus II. POINT CONSIDER that the kinges find not him who is borne the king of the Iewes in Hierusalem where they sought him and where humanely speaking he was most likely to be found in Hierusalem I say that cherished citie which was preferred beforre all the Tabernacles of Iacob nor in the stately Pallaces of Kinges how euer he was the kinge of kinges and sought by kinges too but in an obscure village but in a poore groate or caue a resort for brute beastes but in a manger vpon a locke of hay betwixt an oxe and an Asse So found they the young kinge of the Iewes lodged Affection My soule is it not true that we often seeke Iesus in magnis mirabilibus supra se in great and wonderfull things which are placed aboue our reach In high contemplations and visions which we are not capable of In thinges most specious and glorious and best suteing with our owne inclinations and fancies Wheras our humble kinge Iesus is both more surely and safely found in pouertie subiection solitude and disiunction from the world in humble lodginges meane clothes poore compaignie and in the totall abandonnement of our selues and iudgementes into the hands and directions of Superiours Thus he exposed himselfe to be found by a graciousnesse which passes the comprehension of man and Angell Thus the good Kinges find him Thus seeke him my soule and we shall not fayle to find him a God to adore a kinge to protect a man to imitate imbrace and loue THE VI. MEDITATION Where or in what compagny Iesus is to be sought I. POINT CONSIDER that they found the child Iesus with Marie his mother saith the Euangelist Had they sought Marie alone without Iesus or not for Iesus they had mistaken their way indeede since that she though his mother is but otherwise his creature while they seeke the Creatour And had they sought him who was borne the king of the iewes without or otherwise then in her companie who was the Queene mother that bore him they would not so happily haue found him But in seeking the one they found both To witt they had alwayes a neere relation Noe sooner was the sonne of God determined to be the redeemour of the world but Marie is looked vpon to be the mother of that sonne and sauiour noe sooner was he conceiued of the Holy Ghost but he was conceiued and found in Maries sacred wombe noe sooner borne but found at her breastes all his life tyme he was found with her and at his death she was not separated from him Affection Let IESVS then my soule be our cheife and last ayme and end since all our actions which haue not him for their end are aymed by the marke he being that souueraigne good which our hartes incessantly seeke after Yet lets not feare withall to make Marie the meanes to haue accesse to him How euer the Kinges misse not of him it is in her armes they find him How euer the Scriptures and Prophetes and Preistes of the Law point them out the way it is by her ministerie and fauour they come to the blessed sight of him It s her priuiledge in shewing him to shew what 's her owne Shew thy selfe then to be a mother Blessed Lady let our prayer by thy meanes be admitted by him who being borne for vs voutchsafed to be thyne Shew vs shew vs thy IESVS that blessed fruite of thy womhe not after his exile onely but euen nowe especially while we liue in this heauie banishment That Iesus ought to be sought with pietie II. POINT CONSIDER that as the Kinges vndertooke their iorney with much diligence and punctualitie and pursued it with great patience and resolution so they conclude it with noe lesse pietie and religiousnesse They haue left their Kingdomes wiues and children with hopes to find a Kinge a Sauiour a God and in the end of their iorney they onely meete with to the eyes of flesh a poore stable a poore manger and a poore mayde with a poore sucking child at her breastes But to the eyes of their pietie with which they looked vppon him they discouer a Kinge a God vnder the forme of a seruant a man and falling downe they adore him Affection O happie Kinges great is your faith which leaues all the world euer after to admire it as we worthily doe this day But ô the goodnesse and mercie and power of God whose free grace it was which wrought in their hartes both the will and performance of this great acte of faith They were not the keepers of the law Prophetes as were the iewes They had not seene and heard the admirable workes and wonders of his life and passion wherby he proued himselfe both God and man as we haue and yet falling downe they adore him O my soule let neuer the excessiue and almost incredible greatnesse of the benefit discredite as it were the bountifull benefactour but by how much more his loue doth exinanite him and make him appeare lesse then himselfe in his life and passion let vs by so much more beleeue blesse loue and adore him for euer because for vs it was that he was so lowe layd for vs the cribbe the manger the hay c. THE VII MEDITATION With what puritie of intention Iesus ought to be sought THE I POINT CONSIDER that the Kinges come not onely out of their countrie accompagned with patience courage and perseuerance to find him and religiousnesse and pietie to beleeue in him but also with puritie of intention that one necessarie thinge without which the best of our actions are spoyled for his owne sake to pay him a debt of souueraigne worshippe due to himselfe alone We came say they not to find ease safetie orriches which we inioyed at home nor to seeke new kingdomes while we left our owne but onely to find the new borne kinge of the iewes to acknowledge him to be the kinge of kinges and our selues and all the kinges of the earth to be his vassals in a word we came to adore him Affection Learne my soule learne neuer to seeke God for any other motiue then himselfe Let vs alwayes seeke him to the end we may adore him that is to cast our selues at his feete acknowedging him to be all and our selues nothing at all Ah while we may doe all our workes for a kinge why will we loose them vpō any lesse worthy obiect While all our loue is but too little for him alone why wil we disperse it vpon creatures Heauen and earth can afford nothing cōtentfull to the good Prophete but God himselfe Such let our resolutions be my soule in all our patience perseuerance and actes of pietie saying with sainte Augustin Thee I will thee I seeke thee I hope for my
loue and is not the soule wonte to be more where it loues then where it liues Affection Ah my soule how longe shall we be heauie harted loue vanitie and seeke a lye Shall we continue still in a languishing to death rather then breath after life and for life Shall we lodge our hartes in earth while our treasure is in heauen Shall flesh and bloud force the soule from its owne nature and bent and make it liue more where it liues then where it loues O Iesu my Treasure my Loue my Life let it not be so but draw our drowsinesse after thee and we will run in the odour of thy sweete oyntements Giue vs winges deare Lord and we will flye a pace vp after thee and wholie rest and repose in thee How our Sauiour went from the Apostles II. POINT CONSIDER that as our B. Sauiours life in earth was wholy spent in testifying his loue to mankind and in heaping his fauours vpon the same so doth his last moment vpon earth leaue markes of the same goodnesse For the Euangelist represents this good father of ours with his hands lifted vp to heauen for vs and imparting a blessing to vs. To witt the Preist for euer according to the Order of Melchisedech hauing ended all the bloudie Sacryfices in one would not departe from his people till he left a blessing vpon them Affection Depart not my soule from this heauenly contemplation till thou receiuest a blessing from thy good Fathers hand Stay with the Apostles at his sacred feete till he blesse thee with them Vse a holy and humbly confident importunitie when thou apprehendest that Christ is about to withdraw himselfe and leaue thee saying with the good Patriarke Iacob I will not I will not deare Lord let thee goe till thou dost blesse me with a blessing of pardon for my sinns of peace of loue of vnion c. THE VII MEDITATION How the Apostles behaued themselues after their Masters departure I. POINT CONSIDER that when the Apostles had beheld their Master mount vp in the greatnesse of his owne power into the heauens they stoode as thinges quite deade to this world without action or motion saue onely that admiration ioy hope loue which boyled vp in their mournefull-ioyfull hartes fixed their eyes immoueably vpon the cloudes where their deare Master made his passage till two Angells were sent to call them away from that contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example Affection Learne hence my soule to follow thy Iesus where soeuer he goes be it to his death his Resurrection or his Ascension and where as in body we cannot le ts with the Apostles fasten our eyes and hartes vpon heauen and neuer forsake him saying euer and a none with that feruent Sainte Augustine caelum penetrabo mente my harte shall peirce the heauens and in thought I will be alwayes with thee deare Iesus For ah how sweete it is to be continually sucking delightes from those sacred and sugered breasts of thy consolation II. POINT CONSIDER that there the Apostles stayed Prisoners as it were to loue and delight till two Angells were sent to call them away from that sweete contemplation to act in Hierusalem according to their diuine Masters order and example But noe sooner were they called by those heauenly Messengers but they obeyed came downe from the mountaine turned their contemplations and admirations into adorations and actions returning into Hierusalem with great ioy to prayse blesse preache and magnifie his name in the Temple and euery where and to expect the coming of the holy Ghost according to his gracious promesse Affection It is doubtlesse a deare and laudable delight my soule to flye vp by the winges of holy contemplation to peirce the cloudes with him to strike into that Land of plentie and peace whither he is gone and to repose in him for euer Haue you found the honie of heauenly contemplation feare not to taste and take it downe yet so much onely as sufficeth least perhapps being filled you vomit it vp But doth a voyce from heauen a Superiours commande charitie to a neighbour Gods worke call you from it ah fayle not delay not to follow neuer forgetting that the God of consolation ought to be preferred before Gods consolations his good pleasure and his worke before the delightes and pleasvres he bestowes vpon vs. PREPARATIONS TO RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST THE FIRST MEDITATION The first disposition The consideration of our owne miserie I. POINT CONSIDER as the first disposition to the receiuing of the holy Ghost our owne nakednesse miserie and nothing for if we conceiue indeede as indeede it is most true that we are nothing we haue nothing we can doe nothing but onely by the assistance and grace of God which is powred forth in our hartes by the holy Ghost which is giuen vs how is it possible that we should not make an earnest application to that good giuer of all best gifts that now that the comfort of Christs visible presence is taken from vs he would bestow vpon vs that other comforting Spirit Affection Looke downe ô thou Almightie giuer of all good giftes and behold the slaue that was redeemed by the wounds which thy Christ my Aduocate layes open before thee to plead for my pouertie Looke vpon thy Christ and take pittie on this languishing christian of thyne for whom he dyed O almighty father looke vpon this poore child of thine who lyes sicke of a palsie and is cruelly tortured send downe speedily that comforting Spirit which thou art about to send least he otherwise perish for whose safetie thy deare sonne spared not his pretious bloud The 2. disposition Humilitie II. POINT CONSIDER and le ts vse as a seconde disposition rysing out of the truth of the former as absolute a desire as we can possibly conceiue not to be knowen nor esteemed by any or at least lets desire to be knowne as we knowe our selues and as God knowes vs that is to be poore miserable sinners not as we deludingly appeare This as being a reall effect of true humilitie is the best harbinger to prepare a place for this heauenly Guest for in whom saith the holy Scripture will the Spirit of God rest but in a hart that is mylde and humble c. Affection Studie to be a louer of truth my soule not of vanitie and lyes which haue alwayes proued emptie shadowes and haue left nothing in our hands Be sincere and iust and striue to keepe iustice betwixt thy selfe and thyne owne harte betwixt what thou appearest to be and what indeede thou art and desire not that esteeme and honour by others ignorance be payd to thy corruption and sinfulnesse Haue frequently in hart and mouth to thee alone ô Lord be honour and glorie to me nothing but shame and confusion Because in thy sight I am a miserable sinner and vnworthy of all respect But thou ô Lord haue mercy THE II. MEDITATION The 3.
flesh be weake let 's haue recourse to the Spirit Let loue leade vs to this God of Loue and expose our coldenes to the fire which he visibly brings downe from heauen this day saying Veni c. What the H. Ghost is II. POINT CONSIDER what the holy Ghost is He is no other thing then the Spirit that is the spiration and breathing of the Father and the Sonne for as mans hart by his mouth breatheth or produceth a breath so God the Father by his sonne produceth the holy Spirit Or els as the soule by the vnderstanding of an amiable thing doth produce or breath out loue Loue which is no other thing then the spirit or breath of the affection so doth the father by the Sonne breath out the holy Ghost who is no other thing then a chast and holy loue produced and breathed out by the father and the Sonne whose mutuall loue it is Affection O diuinely sweete-breath Heauenly deare Gale Coeternall tye of two eternall persons Sacred commerce holy communication of the omnipotent father and his only begotten deare sonne O essentiall ineffable inflamed loue who euer burnest and art neuer extinguished graciously slide into and burne this frosen hart of mine Thou hast freely preuented me and reuiued me while I lay in a dead slumber and neither sought thee nor thought on thee Doe not I beseech thee forsake me whilst I am inuokinge thee I desire with the whole strife of my hart to desire thee The loue of my soule couets to loue thee Nor can I without thee Grant that by thee I may souue-raingly loue the father and the sonne and thee Three diuine persons â—n the veritie of one Deitie whose mutuall loue thou art O god the holy Ghost giue what thou commandest and command what thou wilt THE II. MEDITATION What kind of Spirit the H. Ghost is I. POINT CONSIDER that though the holy Ghost be a Spirit Spiration or breathing yet is it not like that of Man which is a Spirit which passeth and returneth not nor like to the Angells which are Missionarie and seruing Spirits nor like to that which our Sauiour Iesus-Christ deliuered vp when he said into thy hands I commend my Spirit To witt his soule In fine it is no created Spirit but an immense increated diuine Spirit intrinsecall to God yea God himself the third person of the B. Trinitie the same God with the Father and the Sonne proceeding from them by an eternall spiration and therefore coequall consubstantiall coeternall with them and equally to be adored and glorified together with them as Lord and life-giuer Affection Let me loue thee ô thou deare eternall immutable and euer permanent Spirit and loue of the father and the sonne let me loue thee And as thou proceedest from that one only more then most blessed eternall will of the father and the Sonne and becomest naturally and substantially one only God with them before time so grant that my will in tyme by the participation of thy heate and thy grace may so louingly adheare to that diuine will and be lincked together in so perfect a bond of true friendshipp that there be but one will betwixt heauen and earth God and Man That that may be as truly meant and accomplished as frequently pronounced Thy will that is that sourse of life of libertie of eternall loue be donne in earth as it is in heauen that by such conformitie resignation and adheasion we may all become but one Spirit with thee That the H. Ghost is a heauenly gift II. POINT CONSIDER further what the holy Ghost is and you shall finde that he is a gift but a gift sent vs from heauen a gift which containes in it the whole collection of all good things a gift prepared from all eternitie to be bestowed vpon men better then which there neither hath or shall or can be any giuen or imagined euen by the wisedome of heauen it selfe for it is euen that best gift that perfect thing which descended from the father of lightes with whom there is alwaies a permanent plentie Affection 4 O most noble most admirable and more then most excellent gift ô in comparable immense and inestimable liberalitie ô incomparable dignitie of mans soule Man was farre from dreaming of it Angels could neuer haue imagined it God himselfe could giue no more then God in a gift Ah my soule the verie heauens can giue no more then we possesse They are diuine truthes we speake the great S. Paule assures it Know you not that your members are the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you And againe The spirit of God dwelleth in you Well may we glorie in this obsolute assurance of so incomparable a gift and guest But forget not my soule what followes But if anie violate the Temple of God God will distroy him THE III. MEDITATION The Holy Ghost is a permanent gift I. POINT CONSIDER of what a permanent plentie and blisse poore man is possessed by the bountie of this heauenly git which is accomplished with all perfections It is a gift it cannot then be recalled it is our owne nothing being more ours then what is our owne by free gift It s a free gift it was not bought or borrowed but freely bestowed Loue then was the cause of it loue which is an efficacious wishing well or wishing good to the beloued Affection Ah my soule this heauenly gift is no lesse absolutely permanent then superlatiuely excellent and no lesse sure as to externall force then a huge possession The theeuish world cannot robbe it The power of darkenes cannot wrest it out of our hands The God that gaue it takes it not awaye Non deserit nisi deseratur He forsakes not vnlesse he be first forsaken Selfe trecherie at home alone can hazard it selfe disloyaltie can loose it hatred for loue by consent to mortall sinne can driue this Loue this gift this God out of dores II. POINT CONSIDER from whom we had this good gift and we shall find it came from all the three persons of the holy Trinitie I saith the Father will powre out my Spirit vpon all flesh I will aske my Father saith the sonne and he will send you another comforter I will send him to you saith he againe And the holy Ghost saith Sainte Augustine is so giuen as God's gift that he is also his owne gift he is both the gift and the giuer All the three persons in the B. Trinitie were imployed in mans creation and all are imployed too about his sanctification We will come to him to wit the father sonne and holy Ghost and we will take vp our Residence with him Affection Blesse ô my soule that Father of lightes that good giuer of all good gifts who sent his holy breath or spirit downe vpon vs. Blesse that Lambe of God who by his death merited that blessing for vs. Blesse in fine that holy Spirit who was himselfe both the giuer and the gift and graciously came
vnto vs. Be they Blessed and praysed magnified and glorified in the vnitie of one Deitie for euer And let our earthly Trinitie neuer forgett this mercy Let our memorie faithfully represent it to ourvnderstanding Let our vnderstanding continually ponder ruminate and deliuer it to the will And let the will imbrace in ioy and carefully locke vp this present of infinite loue with all the loue ioy and Iubilie of hart imaginable THE IV. MEDITATION What we receiue indeede when we are said to receiue the Holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER that by receiuing of the holy Ghost we receiue the substantiall or consubstantiall vnitie charitie and sanctitie of the father and the Sonne according to S. Augustine The most firme and indissoluble bond or tye of the holy Trinitie The sacred kisse of the father and the Sonne by their mutuall loue from all Eternitie whereby they loued the iust euen with the loue of their owne hart saith S. Richard de S. Victore which is the holy Ghost Affection Ah my soule how ineffably greate blessings are these which faith layes before vs and we consider it not or rarely and coldly reflect vpon them O did we frequently looke vpon it with a liuely faith how would our thoughtes be wayned from this base world How euer we are in it we are not made for it the heauens haue other thoughtes for vs. The true cause of our being here indeede is to adheare to God by loue and to become holy as our heauenly father is holy and to that purpose the holy Ghost the verie vnitie loue and sanctitie of the Father and the sonne comes downe to dwell in vs. Ah my soule Let vs neuer forgett this astonishing and oppressing graciousnesse II. POINT CONSIDER yet further that it is not the vnitie charitie and pietie of the father and the sonne which we receiue onely but truly and indeede we receiue the person of the holy Ghost wâ—â—h grace and charitie nor is he in vs by Essence Presence and power only as he is euerie where but in a more deare neere and intimate manner as in his Thâ—one oâ— Temple For doe you not know saith s. Paule that you are the Temple of God and the Holy Ghost doth dwell in you And againe Charitie is diffused into our hartes by the holy Ghost who is giuen vnto vs. Affection Yes saith s. Augustine that good God is present to his faithfull â—ot meerly by the grace of visitation but by the presence of his Maiestie It is not now the odour of the balsome that is spredd abroad but the verie substance of the sacred oyntment it selfe By which according to s. Iohn we shall be taught all thinges O great great and most admirable mysterie which is yet so familiar to vs Christians O most excellent and incomparable visite and gift of the proper person of the holy Ghost O God what a singular fauour is it to haue God the true God really and personally dwelling in our hartes O what hartes ought they to be which haue the happinesse to be the Mansion of such an inhabitant THE V. MEDITATION The excessiue loue of God shewen to man in sending the holy Ghost I. POINT CONSIDER with S. Augustine that God the father moued by meere mercie sent his sonne to redeeme his seruants he sent also the holy Ghost to adopt the same seruants into children He gaue his sonne for the price of their Ransome the holy Ghost for a pledge and assurance of his loue and reserues himselfe all whole for the inheritance of the adopted So much did he desire mans saluation that he imployed not only what was his but euen himself also to that effect Affection Doe we beleeue this ô my soule but doe we beleeue it indeede That such a sonne was sent for such seruants That seruants and such seruants were adopted into sonns into coheires into the participation of the diuine nature By the meere mercy of the Father by the bloud of the sonne by the loue of the holy Ghost Doe we beleeue it I say yes yes we beleeue it my soule We dare not we cannot deney it Credo Domine we beleeue it ô Lord yet helpe our incredulitie in this behalfe We beleeue it in words and in hart too but our actions our gratitude our loue speake it not confirme it not to the world For to whom should all the redeemed slaues actions belong but to his deare Redeemour Vpon whom should all his loue be sett but vpon one that so loues him And to whom should he reserue himselfe wholy but to the God of heauen who reserues himselfe wholy for him II. POINT CONSIDER what an excessiue goodnes and charitie it is that this immense and infinite Maiestie who walkes vpon the winges of the windes and sittes vpon the Cherubins who fills heauen and earth being assisted with millions of millions of Angells would yet daigne to take vp his seate in a poore corner of mans hart to grace that miserable worme of the earth with his presence diuinitie and sanctitie and therby with the participation of his diuine nature Ah! could we iustly weigh mans nothing and Gods Maiestie we should neuer be wearie with admiring and tasting the dignitie of this great worke Affection Ah Domine cognoscam te cognoscam me O Lord grant me light to know thee and to know my selfe that by such knowledge I may happily and gainefully loose my selfe in the admiration of thy excessiue graciousnesse For what am I indeede compared to thee but extremitie of miserie compared to infinite Maiestie but nothing nothing compared to him who is all in all But not so much as one little droppe to a boundlesse Ocean And yet this Maiestie is graciously pleased to take vp his Residence in this miserie This All will lodge in this nothing This Ocean will ouer-flowingly possesse and please himselfe in this droppe How happens this to me that not the Mother of my Lord but euen my Lord himselfe comes vnto me resides in me takes vp his deare delights in my poore harte Ah my soule let our dearest delightes be to possesse him to please him to magnifie him to glorifie him for euer THE VI. MEDITATION Gods excessiue loue to man I. POINT CONSIDER how great and ineffable the pietie of our Redeemer was towards vs as S. Augustine obserues who carried man vp to heauen and sent God into earth what a care hath our Maker to repaire his workmanshipp Behold a new medicine is againe sent downe from heauen Behold Maiestie daignes againe by his owne presence to visit the sicke Behold diuine things are againe mixed with humane the holy Ghost is become a succeeding Vicar to our Redeemer that what the one had begun the other by a peculiar vertue might consummate that what the sonne had redeemed the holy Ghost might sanctifie what he had purchaced he might conserue Affection Too too much are thy friends honored my dearest Lord. Their principalitie is exceedingly beyond all measure confirmed by the presence
of thy holy Spirit Ah my soule what doe the heauens seeme to make of vs what rate putt they vpon vs while we vnderualue our selues The holy Trinitie may seeme to be whâ—llâ— imployed to saue vs while we are b … 〈…〉 … ll our selues away for moments of â—â—â—nsitorie pleasures for vanities for lyes Our thoughtes are languishing after the hope of I know not what delightes which the world promiseth while our dearest delight ought to be to receiue in hand more then we are able to conceiue Ah my soule what dearer delight could euer mans hart wish for then to be deliciously oppressed with heauenly plentie II. POINT CONSIDER the vnspeakable honour conferred vpon man by the presence of the holy Ghost He receiues saith S. Basil a Propheticall Apostolicall and Angelicall dignitie being before but earth and ashes abiection and rottennes Yea saith he by vertue of this presence euerie holy soule becomes a God Ego dixi Dij estis I haue said you are Gods and all sonns of the highest For who adheares to God which is is done by loue in the Holy Ghost is one Spirit with him Affection Good Iesu what is man that thou dost so magnifie him or what is the sonne of man that thou dost so place thy hart vpon him What did Gods mercy discouer in our miserie my poore soule that he should honour it with a dignitie due the Prophetes Apostles Angells yea euen rayse it to a certaine vnion with himselfe For this it was that Iesus-Christ while he was yet in this world prayd so ardently to his heauenly Father I pray saith he that they his Apostles c. all may be one as thou ô heauenly Father in me and I in thee that they also in vs may be one by participation by charitie by grace by glorie O vnspeakablely deare vnion ô more then most Blessed Communion betwixt God and man THE VII MEDITATION To what end the holy Ghost comes I. POINT CONSIDER that the holy Ghost comes vnto vs to purge illuminate and perfect our soules and to reforme them to the image and likenes of God to which they were made thereby to make them partakers of himselfe He being the diuine sanctitie in this life and disposing them to a more neere and noble likenes thereof in the life to come to which euery cause striues to produce effects like to it selfe it followes then that the holy Ghost endeauours to make the soule which it doth inhabit which is the soueraigne perfection and dignity of a reasonable creature feruent spirituall holy and diuine Affection Why doe we then my soule remayne in our wonted languishments why doe we still liue in league with our accustumed imperfections making reflection what they are and how often we haue had the light to know them and resolution to amend them our luke-warmenesse in Gods seruice our impuritie of harte our ingratitude to God for his innumerable giftes and graces c. Why doe we why doe we alas resiste the designes of the holy Ghost His aymes are to purge our hartes and we remayne in our impurities To illuminate vs and we affect darknesse more then light we feare to know his will least we might be oblidged to doe it To burne our hartes and we persiste in our coldnesse To render vs spirituall holy diuine and we continue indeuoute carnall and earthly Alas my soule is not all this too too true II. POINT CONSIDER that the holy Ghost comes to be the Soule of our Soule and to furnish vs with all things necessarie to the perfection of our spirituall life euen as the soule of our bodie giues force to the great diuersitie of the functions and actions of the senses and faculties of the said soule as farre as is necessarie to our naturall life for what want wee which this Spirit brings not If light and knowledge of truth He is truth it-selfe If strength He is power itselfe If heate He is a consuming fire Are we sicke he is the Phisitian and the Phisicke Is the cause of our eternall reconcilement to be pleaded before the dreadfull Tribunall of Gods Maiestie He is our Aduocate Are we oppressed with temptations and tribulations he is our comforter our Deus omnia our God who is to vs all things Affection It is not it is not from this body of ours that the same body hath life motion action and vigour but from the soule without which it remaynes an vnprofitable bulke of corruption Nor is it from the soule that the soule liues remembers vnderstands wills but from God who is the life of the soule Nor doth it euer liue vnderstand or will any thing profitably but by his grace diffused into our hartes by the holy Ghost Come then oh come then thou holy Spirit and be our light our truth our fortitude our fire our salue our Phisitian and cure Proue our second Aduocate to the heauenly Father togeither with that deare Lord of ours who both merited thy sending and graciously sent thee Proue our comforter in our tribulations temptations c. Proue finally our God and our all THE VIII MEDITATION Of the aduantages or fruites of the Holy Ghosts Coming I. POINT CONSIDER what huge aduantages we receiue by the coming of the holy Ghost adn we shall finde that thereby we are taken into the participation of all the blessings and riches in some measure which our Blessed Sauiour possessed in plentitude and fulnesse The Spirit of wisdome and vnderstanding the Spirit of Counsell and fortitude the Spirit of science and pietie and the Spirit of the feare of our Lord. These are the seauen lightes or seauen Lampes by which the faithfull are enlightned wisedome is a light by which we know Superiour things Vnderstanding a light by which we discerne interior things Science a light wherby we know inferiour things Counsell a light by which dangers are discouered Fortitude is giuen to repulse and master them as Pietie to mollifie the hardnesse and Feare to subdue the pride of our hartes Affection Blessed be the Father of our Lord Iesus-Christ who mercifully sent his Sonne to saue vs sinners Blessed be his only begotten Sonne who spent his most pretious blood and life vpon the worke of Mans Redemption And blessed be the holy Ghost whose infinite loue plentifully bestowed those good giftes vpon vs which were purchased for vs by Christs merits whereby we haue light and strength to walke and without which like sensuall men not knowing what belongeth to Spirit we had wandred in darknesse without either the true knowledge of God or ourselues had quaked with feare through want of Fortitude where there was nothing indeede to be feared and for want of Councell had not feared him whom we ought to feare who can throw the bodie and soule into Hell fire II. POINT CONSIDER the excessiue loue of God to Man in the distribution of these gifts The verie same which were giuen in their full extent to that flower of the field which
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
magnifie our Lord and to reioyce in God our Sauiour for that he dayned graciously to looke vpon our vilenesse abiection and miserie by which looke or loue of his all our happinesse was begun THE III. MEDITATION For the Visitation I. POINT CONSIDER what was the seconde cause for which our Blessed Lady did so magnifie our Lord and you will heare her selfe againe shew it Still remouing all prayse from her selfe to ascribe it to the sourse of all Good because saith she he that is mightie hath done greate thinges to me as though she should say let none be slow in giuing credit to this ineffable mysterie let none admire that I. a Virgine haue conceiued for how euer it is in me that this astonishing wonder is wrought yet it was not I but the Almightie God that wrought it in the power of the most high who ouershaded me And the whole reason of the worke is the omnipotent power of the workman who alone workes great inscrutable and wonderfull thinges Affection Feare not my soule to acknowledg with our Blessed Lady that he who is mightie hath wrought great thinges in thee so thou humbly with her too confesse vpon whom they were wrought and by whom for so thou shalt stille haue thyne owne misery and Gods power mercy and bountie before thyne eyes so shalt thou neuer forgett that he is all and thou thy selfe nothinge at all and yet finding so many benefits whether of body or soule or fortune freely bestowed vpon thy pouertie and nothinge thou wilt euen melt away with admireing loue and willingly and ioyfully spend what soeuer thou hast of life or abilitie in continuall Magnifying of so good a Lord and in Spirituall exultations in so Deare a Sauiour II. POINT CONSIDER how hugely great that grace of Gods looking vpon B. Maries abiection must needs haue bene sith from thenceforth all generations shall call her blessed as she her selfe feares not to foretell hauing first giuen the honour of it to him that was truly the Authour therof Certainly that aspect or looking vpon was the effect of eternall direction according to that vbi amor ibi oculus and singular election his looke or aspect onely following his loue since as S. Augustin saith Gods looking vpon one by grace is the deliuering of him from abiection and abandonnement Affection O my soule what an excessiue ioy is it to a truly Christian hart to see this prediction so fully verified Blessed art thou began the Angell blessed art thou went on S Elizabeth and from them 16. ages and vpwards tooke and euer since continued the same songe all the Ancient Fathers being as it were at a holy strife which might take it the highest and all the Christian world from the rysing of the sunne till the setting of the same hauing nothing after Iesus so frequently in its mouth as our Blessed Lady that being as it were among them all her proper name whervpon millions of millions of all sexes and ages and conditions all the world ouer euery day fayle not to sing her Canticle and publish and confirme her blessed by all generations THE I. MEDITATION For the Natiuitie of our Blessed Sauiour I. POINT CONSIDER yet how many iust reasons concurre to oblidge all mankind to proclaime her blessed for euer First because she beleeued 2. Because she was full of grace 3. Because she brought out a most blessed fruite 4. Because the All-powerfull or Almightie wrought wonderful thinges in her 5. Because she was the Mother of our Lord the King of Glorie 6. Because she reserued the puritie of a Virgine togeither with the fecunditie of a Mother 7. Because neither was their before her or euer shall there be after her any like or comparable to her Affection Blesse her then my soule blesse her togeither with heauen and earth with Angells and Saintes and withall learne of her to blesse to prayse to magnifie that powerfull hand which wrought wonders in her and by her that fruite of her wombe that God her Sauiour whom she brought out blesse her firme faith her fulnesse of grace her pure maternitie her fruite full Virginitie Say say my soule with the deuoute Saint Bernard while the riuers run into the Sea while the woodes ouershade the mountaines while the starres possesse the heauens thyne honour thy name thy prayses shall alwayes remayne II. POINT CONSIDER that though Blessed Marie were a iustest subiect of admiratioÌ„ to men and Angells in all the states of her life as being designed for a worke which passed all their capacities euen to conceiue it yet was she then most blessefull and blessed when she did not onely promise but present her blessed fruite when our God was not onely our Lord with her and in her but our Emmanuel or our God with vs by her when that flower of the field began to appeare in our Land and her Virgine earth brought out a Sauiour when finally her dayes were fully come that she should be deliuered she brought-forth her first begotten Sonne and swadled him in clootes and layd him downe in a manger Affection Then then my soule it was indeede that all men of good will began to blesse her ioyninge with the multitudes of Angels who compasse about our more then Salomons litle bedd to sing a Gloria to the child of her wombe and peace to the world Then did she place her young Sonne our God visibly amongst vs and therby freed vs from that ancient reproche vbi est Deus tuus where is thy God Now thou mayst tell the Diuell my soule that here he is to subdue his pride Thou mayst tell the incredulous Iewes that here he is to confound their malice Thou maist tel all men of good will that here he is to breake our chaynes to cure our wounds to direct to protect to comfort to saue the poore banished Sonns of Eue. THE II. MEDITATION In the Natiuitie of our Sauiour I. POINT CONSIDER that then it was indeede that she shewed her selfe to be a Mother when she brought forth to the world her first begotten Sonne and layd him in a manger Then she was indeede Mother in effect and Mother of God and in that name and qualitie according to S. Thomas of Aquine the greatest creature that euer was or euer shall or can be made euen by the Almighties power since to be the Mother of God as being ioyned to a thing of an infinite perfection includes in it selfe a certaine infinite dignitie Affection Stand amaysed my soule at this heauenly prodigie as hauing neither words nor thoughtes sutable to this ineffable dignitie or at least say with that great S. Andrew of Hierusalem O holy Lady Thou art the incomprehensible secreete of the diuine economie whom the Angells desire incessantly to behold Thou art the admirable lodging of an humbled God Thou art that agreeable earth which made him descend from heauen and gave him entrie among vs. Thou art the treasure of â—he mysteries shut vp before all ages
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
most iustly admire him whom our Sauiour the wisdome of God seemed to admire how euer he could not indeede be subiecte to admiration to whom nothing was vnknowne His great faith being but yet a gentile then which our Sauiour testifies he found none greater in Israell His tender care of his sicke seruant whom he tearmes his child His greate humilitie iudging himselfe vnworthy to haue our Lord come to him His true sense of his power or omnipotencie who he knew could cure at any distance by his word alone saying say but onely the word and my boy shall be healed Affection Iustly I say my soule may we admire those many and great vertues in that poore gentile but much more that mercyfull Lord who first freelie gaue what he pleased afterward to admire for faith is not ours by nature but is a heauenly light sent from aboue wherby he and we are taught to loue and serue the meanest as our children or brethren humbly to deferre to our Superiours to haue high thoughts of Gods omnipotent power and with an absolute confidence to flye to his ayde in all our owne and our neighbours necessities We will therfor not so much admire as striue to imitate the good Centurion in our approches to our almightie Lord. THE SECONDE POINTE. I haue not found so great faith in Israel CONSIDER that our Sauiour makes well appeare that God is not the God of the Iewes onely but of the Gentils too For how euer the Iewes bragged that God was onely knowne in Iuda and that his name was great in Israel yet Truth reproches to them that he had not mette with so great faith in Israel as he found in that poore gentile and with a dreadfull minace leaues them in a doubtfull expectation what might become of them who esteemed themselues alone Gods chosen people with exclusion of all others saying many shall come from east and weste and shall sitt downe with Abraham Isaac and Tacob in the Kingdome of heauen but the children shall be cast out into exteriour darknesse where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Affection Who thinkes himselfe to stande my soule let him beware that he fall not Ther is noe assurance in mans fayling force Be our vocation neuer so holy and angell-like there is noe securitie the brightest Angells fell Seeme we to sayle neuer so prosperously yet we haue iust cause to dreade a storme and oftentymes we meete with shipwrake euen in the harbour Blessed therfor saith a holy Father is the man who is alwayes fearfull and diffident of himselfe Accursed is he who places his confidence in man If none know then who is worthy of loue or hate let vs labour the more that by good workes we may make sure our vocation and election as saith that blessed Pope S. Peter being taught that wholsome lesson by his owne fall THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FOVRTH SVNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANIE When he Iesus entered into the boat his Disciples followed him and loe a great tempeste arose c. Matt. 8. THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that there could neuer appeare more securitie then when good Disciples followed their good Master Iesus nor hope of a more happie nauigation then when they were imbarked in the same boate with Christ And yet loe a greate tempeste arose in the sea so that the boate was couered with waues which threatened present shipwracke Affection Ah my soule let vs neuer esteeme our selues secure while we sayle on this dangerous sea of the world at noe tyme in noe place in noe companie The whole life of man is a temptation vpon earth How euer we haue the happinesse to be Christians that is to be Disciples and followers of Christ Though we haue otherwise the singular grace to be Catholike Christians and to sayle in Peters shippe where Christ is the souueraigne Pilote yet stormes often arise and we are readie to perish and perish we shall infallibly vnlesse we fixe our whole confidence as a sure anker in his power who is able to make the windes and sea obedient to his orders THE SECONDE POINTE. The boate was couered with waues but he Iesus slept CONSIDER that as our Sauiour deales here with his deare Disciples so doth he ordinarily with his dearest friends The Disciples are readie to sinke while he as though he were not concerned in their danger quietly sleepes The faithfull soule finds her selfe surrounded with all sortes of temptations which so violently make heade against her that she seemes euery moment readie to perish And yet Iesus sleeps that is leaues her to her selfe readie to be swallowed vp in those raging stormes of her poore afflicted conscience So that whether she sinkes or swimmes she scarce knowes because Iesus seemes asleepe to her Affection And yet my soule all is safe Iesus is in the boate with vs. While we remayne in his blessed companie and adheare to his ayde we may be tossed but sinke we shall not for the God that keepeth Israël shall neither slumber nor sleepe but assures vs that if we place our confidence in him he will be with vs in tribulation that he will deliuer vs and glorifie vs. For the rest it is good for vs to be thus tryed that we may learne by longe experience and neuer forgett that our strength is weaknesse that our danger is in our selfe-confidence and our assurance in the great God of all consolation Inte Domine sperabo non confundar in aeternum THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY The Disciples came to Christ and wakened him saying Lord saue vs we perish THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that as in the Disciples iust feare of perishing we ought to apprehend our owne danger in tymes of temptation so by their example we may find securitie They trust not to their owne strength or skill but run presently to Christ for ayde they crye out and awake him they acknowledge in his eares the hazard they run saue ô Lord saue vs say they we perish Affection Let vs not then my soule amidst our frequent temptations and stormes of soule fall to distrust disquiete and perplexitie of mynde nor yet hope by disputes and as it were by force of armes to vanquish them But let vs vpon the verie first rysing of such tempests imitating the Disciples run to Iesus and cast our selues into his secure bosome wherin alone is our safe sanctuarie Crye out so lowde that you may awake him that man-louer loues to be importuned and is wonne therby Tell him with all humilitie and resignation to his blessed will the danger you are in your feare of falling in your selfe with firme hope of standing by his grace saying saue ô Lord saue vs we perish THE SECONDE POINTE. Why are you fearefull ô yee of litle faith CONSIDER as well our Sauiours mylde reprehension as present deliuerie of his fearefull Disciples It is not a moderate feare that he reprehends in them which is the begining of wisdome but their infidelitie or lacke
our fayling strength Howbeit be Gods mercy euer blessed we are not as sheepe without a Pastour but we haue the good Pastour to protect vs. Let vs attentiuly heare his voyce know him and his wayes and wholy depende vpon him and his preists of whom he hath said Who heares you heares me THE SECONDE POINTE. A good Pastour giues his life for his flocke Io. 10. CONSIDER that this Pastour of ours is the good Pastour indeede that is good by excellencie or infinitly good which he makes manifest not by words onely but by many effects what was cast away he brings againe what was broken he binds vp what was weake he strengthens and the sheepe which was lost he seekes and finds and graciously brings home vpon his owne shoulders Nay more the labour of thirtie odd yeares imployd about the care of his flocke had seemed but litle to his loue had he not in the end layed downe his life for the same Affection Ah my soule Let vs blesse him and magnifie his free mercys for euer and euer Without this good Pastour we were all lost eternally It was Gods mercy alone that we perished not all togeither and were consumed for he looked downe from heauen to see whether there were any that vnderstood and sought him among the children of men and he found that all had declined and were become vnprofitable none doing good noe not one And yet while we serued him so poorely there was noe hope of saluation without his helpe nor pardon nor life for vs but that which he purchaced by his owne pretious death Let me euer loue thee thou dearest pastour and purchacer of my soule THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY THE FIRST POINTE. CONSIDER that this good shephard this heauenly Pastour of our soules doth conduct protect and feede vs not after an ordinarie manner but according to his diuine superadmirable and astonishing wayes peculiar and proper to his diuine goodnesse and wisdome alone not onely with the plentuous dugges of his heauenly consolations and foretastes of beatitude but euen with that supersubstantiall foode his owne pretious body and bloud Affection Awake my soule awake and diligently obserue what deare obligations we haue to this good pastour of ours he did not onely come downe from heauen to comfort and instruct vs with his personall presence enduring all the incommodities to which we are subiect in this our banishment but he putts downe his bloude for the price of our Redemption and as though that were not yet enough to testifie the excesse of his tendernesse to his deare flocke by a heauenly inuention and euen a miracle of loue he so leaues vs as yet he remaynes with vs and makes his owne pretious body and bloude the permanent foode of our soules THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that this good this ineffably good Pastour of ours doth not onely feed vs by this admirable meanes which the Angells could neuer haue dreamt on but will also daigne to be fedd by vs in his poore members our necessitous Christian brethren I was hungrie and you gaue me to eate I was thirstie and you gaue me to drinke Yes saith our deare Pastour verily I say to you as longe as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Affection Our good Pastour my soule knew that well-borne harts were not willing to receiue and returne nothing but were still greedie to inquire out the meanes wherby they might make mutuall returnes of loue and therfor he himselfe suggests the wayes by which he would haue it done saying as it were to our hartes I your pastour and maker who can otherwise neede nothing that 's yours am notwithstanding hungrie thirstie naked and imprisoned in my poore members your brethren in them I begge breade c. at your dores assuring you that what you giue to them in my name and for my loue you giue to me O what a comforte it is to a truly louing harte to haue so easie a way to render loue for loue THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER EASTER For a litle tyme you shall not see me and shortly after you shall see me againe S. Io. 16. CONSIDER that we are all pilgrimes trauelling towards our heauenly home and we shall not misse to meete with all kinds of weather Now heate now cold now faire and soone after fowle Sometymes our Sauiour dilates our harts with the aboundance of his consolations and we prosperously spring on in the wayes of his commandements and sometymes againe he retires and hydes him selfe from vs leauing vs to desolations and sorrowes and we become troubled and all our former force and courage seeme to haue forsaken vs. Affection Thus it is my soule that the diuine wisdome deales with his seruants He doth nourish cherish and comfort vs least we might fayle in the way He doth afflict and leaue vs least out of confidence of our owne strength we might erre from the way He giues vs consolations to testifie to our harte that he loues vs. He leaues vs to desolations to trye and make appeare whether we loue him But whether he comfort vs or permitt afflictions to fall vpon vs let vs still venerate his orders and gracious conduct because he it is indeede who is alwayes our refuge THE SECONDE POINTE You shall lament and weepe But the world shall reioyce Ioh. 6. CONSIDER that sorrowes and ioyes goe here belowe by turnes and tymes And still the best parte in apparence is alloted to those whom God least loues the world shall reioyce And the worst as he alwayes tooke it to himselfe so he leaues it to his dearest friends You saith he to his deare Apostles you shall lament and weepe but your sorrowes shall be turned into ioyes Wheras the worldlings ioyes and parte shall be with the Hypocrites who haue receiued their reward Affection Let vs not my soule either admire or enuie the seeming prosperitie of the wicked Their ioyes are but for moments and those too mixt with painefull pleasures They themselues confesse it we are wearied in the way of iniquitie and perdition and haue walked hard wayes while the iust whom we had in derision and in a parable of reproche are counted among the children of God and their parte and portion amongst the saintes There are we my soule to inioye our permanent possession There are our teares to be wiped away for euer and payd with the inioyment of an eternall inheritance which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor hath entered into the mynde of man THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Now indeede you haue sorrowe CONSIDER that the sorrowes which we suffer are in this present moment now saith our Sauiour you haue sorrow Now not the next moment for any thinge we know thinges may alter to the better God may assiste death may end all nor ought a wise man to esteeme any thinge longe which shall haue end But put case our sorrowes and
truthes by their ministerie tho otherwise as farre aboue the reach of reason as contrarie to the bent of flesh and bloode powerfully spread themselues all the world ouer and become the familiar and fattening foode not of wise onely but euen Idiotes and children too wherby they are made more learned then the proudest Phylosofer that euer liued Affection O the admirable goodnesse of the Father sonne and holy Ghost who so graciously reueales the mysteries of Heauen to vs litle ones in earth The Father sent vs his onely sonne to purchace vs that singular fauour at the price of his pretious bloode which he willingly and ioyfully vndertooke to teache vs the secreetes of heauen And the holy Ghoste sent from them both so absolutly confirmes our hartes in the beliefe therof that poore illiterate pesants doe not onely knowe more then greatest Phylosofers but are readie to laye downe their liues in confirmation of that truth THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FIFT SVNDAY AFTER EASTER Vntill now you haue not asked anything Io. 16. THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that the poore beggar needes noe other inuitation to aske then the knowledge and sense of his owne pouertie and want whence the rich of this world doe as litle vse as litle neede to intreate the beggar to aske an almes of him But the riches of heauen by an ineffable bountie and graciousnesse importunes vs vs as it were to importune him saying vntill now you haue not asked any thing aske and you shall receiue Affection Alas my soule me thinkes the longe and certaine knowledge we haue of our owne miserie and want and the daylie temptations we suffer and relapses we fall into should sufficiently inuite vs to haue frequent recourse to a bountifull giuer but now at least being incited by the reproches he makes vs for not asking let vs hourely run to those ouerflowing breasts of mercy and grace least we may seeme gratis to loose our selues Let vs my soule aske seeke knocke that holy violence is gratefull to God with as much importunitie as we truly find necessitie THE SECONDE POINTE. Amen Amen I say to you if you aske the father any thinge in my name he will giue it you Io. 16. WHOM WE ARE TO ASKE CONSIDER how stronge hopes we ought to conceiue of obteyning our demande where the promesse is made in so great a latitude and where such a sonne the wisdome of heauen confidently sends vs to such a Father the eternall sourse of all goodnesse plentie and happinesse which can neuer be drayned to his Father and our Father as we are taught by his sacred mouthe to beleeue and say Our Father which are in heauen c. Affection O daughter of Sion ah my poore soule why wilt thou wilfully perish where such large and louing offers of grace and abundance is made to thee What confidence may we not iustly haue of obteyning all things necessarie when we are sent to the Father of mercys and the God of all consolation by his onely deare sonne who in obedience to his diuine will putt downe that plentifull price of his pretious bloud for the loue of vs Be my faylings neuer so frequent be my sinns in what number they will at least from hence forth I will not forgett to call thee with Ieremie Thou art my Father the guide of my Virginitie THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Aske the Father in my name Io. 16. THE FIRST POINTE. HOW WE OVGHT TO ASKE CONSIDER that our blessed Sauiour in these few words instructs vs not onely of whom we are to aske to witt of his Father but how or in what manner to witt in his name If we aske of a Father and that of an all-knowing all-seeing Father it ought to be done with the reuerence humilitie obedience loue and confidence of a child If in the name of a sonne it ought to be done as that sonne vsed to doe it saying with an absolute resignation Father if it may be if it be agreable to thy diuine will if it be expedient for my eternall good grant this or this c. If otherwise not my will but thyne be done Affection Let vs then my soule in all our necessities and difficulties addresse our selues to that omnipotent Father of mercyes and all consolation for none comes to the sonne vnlesse the father drawe them But let it be in the name of his sonne Iesus since there is noe other name vnder heauen giuen to men wherin they must be saued Let vs then humbly intreate that heauenly father in the name and by the merites of that most dearely beloued sonne be it for thinges necessarie for the bodie or soule but let it still be done with perfect resignation to his blessed will and pleasure saying as we were taught by him Father if it may be let this or this be done or this or this be taken away Howbeit not my will but thy holy will be done THE SECONDE POINTE FOR THE SAME DAY What we are to aske CONSIDER that what we ought to aske is to result out of the same words of our Sauiour Aske of my Father in my name We must aske then of a louing Father we must therfor demande thinges sutable to his loue his goodnesse will not giue vs a stone in lieu of breade nor a serpent in steede of a fish he will not giue vs poyson because our follie likes it We must aske of a Father who is the Kinge of heauen we must not then aske earthly trash which is vnworthy of his bestowing Finally we must aske in the name of a Sauiour nothing therfor which is against our Saluation Affection Run then my soule to that almightie Father in the name of that best beloued sonne But be not peremptorie in our demands wisdome better knowes what it best for vs. If we aske of a louing father le ts aske with loue not with feare If we aske of an Almightie father who has Kingdomes to giue aske not for cottages trifles vnworthy of his giuing If in the name of a Sauiour things then which most conduce to our saluation things which he himselfe taught vs to aske that his name may be sanctified in all nations that he may absolutly raigne ouer all hartes that his holy will may be punctually performed here belowe as in the Court of heauen c. Let vs aske that my soule and we shall neuer be confounded THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE THIRD SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY And there approched publicans and sinners vnto him to heare him Luc. 15. CONSIDER the great mercy and myldnesse of Iesus who did not onely graciously permitt publicans and publike sinners to approch to him to heare his diuine word c. but he euen proued by the parable of the lost sheepe which men are wont to seeke with so much care their Apologist or Aduocate against the vncharitable murmurings of the proud and vnm ercifull Scribes and Pharisies who looked vpon them and him with disdaigne Affection Base
they were taught by experience to distruste in their owne endeuours and to expect Christs orders and tymes with absolute dependance of his good pleasure they were so farre from labouring in vaine that they presently inclosed a huge multitude of fishes and were in a manner agreably oppressed with plentie Affection We must not fayle to labour my soule and to vse our vttermost endeuours for this the God who indowed vs with witt and industrie requires at our hands howeuer they may not alwayes be answered with wished successe But this done le ts stay Gods order and pleasure and as absolutly depende vpon his prouidence and goodnesse as though we had vsed noe endeuours at all which without Gods assistance would proue vneffectuall to our purpose Neither he who plantes is any thinge nor he who waters but God who giues increase THE SECONDE POINTE. Peter fell downe at Iesus his knees saying goe forth from me ô Lord for I am a sinfull man CONSIDER that Peter was so farre from ascribing the taking that vnexpected multitude of fish at one draught either to his owne skill or euen to the great credit he had with Christ by whose power indeede that wonder was wrought that contrarily he enters vpon it into himselfe by reflection what he is and what God is and humbly falls downe at Iesus his feete giuing all the glorie to him and acknowledging himselfe to be a poore sinner vnworthy of his presence Affection Let vs my soule in all our achiuements and progresse in spitit learne a Christian behauiour of this humble sainte and neuer ascribe any thinge to our selues but to the good giuer of all good gifts saying with the Psalmist not to vs ô Lord not to vs but giue glorie to thyne owne name for if we began well it was by the fauour of his preuenting grace if we aduanced it was by the conduct of his concomitante grace if we made any considerable progresse it was he that wrought it in vs who workes as well the will as the performāce according to his good pleasure we being otherwise noe better then poore sinfull men We are onely my soule the happie free or voluntarie instruments which his mercy makes merite to receiue afterwards a crowne of iustice at his heauenly hands THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE FIFT SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Matt. 5. Vnlesse your iustice abound more then that of the Scribes and Pharisies you shall not enter into the Kingdome of heauen CONSIDER that the Scribes and Pharisies fasted often to witt twice a weeke prayed much payd the tythes of all they possessed gaue almes liberally were verie conuersant in holy scriptures and like great Rabbys interpreted them to the people and yet Truth it selfe Iesus Christ who can neither deceiue nor be deceiued threatens vs Christians that vnlesse our iustice vertue and perfection be greater then theirs we shall not enter into the Kingdome of heauen Affection Alas my deare Lord if this be put downe for an absolute and irreuocable Doome pronounced by thy holy mouth that vnlesse the iustice of vs Christians doe abounde more then that of the scribes c. We shall not enter into the Kingdome of heauen what will become of vs when we fall short euen of what they performe for are not our prayers cold and full of distractions Our workes of mercy as well corporall as spirituall verie fewe our fastes rather suffered then performed with feruour And yet vnlesse our iustice surpasse theirs there are noe hopes of heauen for vs. THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that Christian iustice and perfection doth not indeede consiste in exteriour actions though otherwise good of their owne natures but take their worth and excellencie from the interiour intention because all the beautie of the kinges daughter the soule issues from the interiour If the intention the eye of the the soule be simple the whole body of the actions proceeding from thence will be beautifull and agreeable Nor are againe euery well meant action Christian perfection but onely wayes to it perfection consisting absolutly in the loue of God and our neighbour Affection We are not then my soule so much to looke what we doe as how it is done Nor how good the action is in it selfe as from what harte it proceedeth with what puritie of intention it is done God is not delighted with the sacryfice of our lipps but of our hartes and those too sett vpon that one necessarie thinge charitie from which all our actions ought to issue and to her finally to tende because true Christian perfection and the plenitude of the lawe is loue THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Thou shalt not kill was it said of old But I Christ say vnto you that he who is angrie against his brother shall be coulpable of iudgement CONSIDER how sweete this lawe of loue is wherin Christian iustice consists and how deare it ought to be to vs all since it prouides for all our aduantages It setts not onely our life in assurance by saying thou shall not kill but euen striues to make our otherwise miserable liues delightfull to vs by forbidding anger taunting and deridinge words and all manner of vnderualuing one an other intimated by the words Raca and foole Affection O how happie how happie were we Christians my soule did we liue according to the prescript of this heauenly sweete lawe O what a heauen should we finde in earth were our actions framed according to the directions and precepts of our diuine Law-giuer Our liues our honours our goodes and all were in an vndoubted safetie and our soules would inioy a perpetuall saboath while noe detractions ruinating neighbours fame would be heard noe carying of ill reports to one another which is destructiue to brotherly charitie would be vsed noe contumelies contempts and tauntes would be practised Labour the due obseruance of this lawe my soule and so blesse thy selfe with two heauens Consider how agreeable this brotherly charitie must needes be to our sweete Sauiour since he doth not onely prouide safetie and delight of our life while we obserue his holy Lawe according to that how goode and delightfull it is for brethren to liue vnanimously togeither but euen in case of transgression therof for our perfect reconcilement to our brother and him if thou offerest thy gift at the Altar and there thou remembrest that thy brother hath any thinge against thee leaue there thy offering c. and goe first to be reconciled to thy brother and then coming thou shalt offerre thy gift Affection O most delicious and heauenly Law O admirable goodnesse of God to poore man Who so closely lincked his interests with ours that if we be not right amongst our selues we are not right with him If we haue not peace with our brethren we haue not peace with him If any man say I loue God and hates his brother he is a lier saith the beloued Apostle Learne then to loue my soule whom thy exemplar Christ so much loues
that he chuses rather to want his owne proper worshippe sacryfice then that thy brother should want thy loue Thy offeringes of thyne austerities thy prayers thy communions will neuer proue gratefull to him as longe as thou willingly harbours grudging in thy breast against that poore brother of thyne for whom through loue he dyed The Meditations for this 6. sunday are the same with the 4. sunday in Lent pag. 100. THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE SEAVENTH SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Take great heede of false Prophetes who come to you in the clothing of sheepe but inwardly are rauening wolues Matt. 7. CONSIDER that we oft proue false Prophetes or teachers to our selues and consequently our owne seducers while we vse the fawning perswasion of our owne vertue and goodnesse drawen from outward apparances from the barke leaues or flowres that is from the clothing of sheepe Wheras we are taught by Wisdome it selfe that the true and certaine decernement of solide from seeming vertues is placed in the fruites they produce that is the subduing of the great sinne pride the mortification of our passions Finally the vanquishing of our selfe loue selfwill and selfe interest Affection Le ts then my soule diligently and impartially examine our selues in pointe of our aduancement in these vertues and so we shall beware indeede of false Prophetes and be sure not to proue selfe-seducers Doe we make it our businesse to subdue pride which doth then most assault vs when we most aduance in vertue Are the passions which we obserue most to domineare in vs brought lowe Is selfe loue and self-will those pernicious sourses of all our miserie vanquished Is selfe interest subiected to the common good Humbly hope then in our Lord that all goes well with vs. If not knowe that vertue is not yet solidly rooted in vs. THE SECONDE POINTE. Euerie good tree yealdeth good fruites and the euil euill fruites Matt. 7. CONSIDER the good or bad fruites of the tree of our harte and thence we shall be able by the Euangelicall maxime to decerne whether If we meete with grapes and figues that is with mild and meeke thoughts words and comportments know for certaine the tree is good they are not the fruites of thornes and brambles marrie if we are true or false teachers or guides to our selues while we seeke for grapes and figues we meete with thornes and thistels that is with distaynefull bitter and sharpe thoughtes words and behauiour know that the roote is depraued the fruites viciated they are the productions of the badd tree which cannot bring out good fruite Affection Doe we my soule fast watch pray much doe we discipline vse great austerities and communicate often They are indeede excellent meanes for the produceing good fruites yet are they not for all that the fruites themselues They are certainely the clothings of the sheepe yet may a wolfe lye vnder them Our fruite saith S. Aug. is charitie see then whether coming from ours prayers c. we finde our selues patient benigne without enuie without peruersitie not puffed vp not ambitious not seeking our owne not prouoking to anger not thinking euill not reioycing vpon iniquitie but rejoycing at truth suffering all thinges beleeuing all thinges hopeing all thinges bearing all thinges and remayne assured thence that our hart is right and that we are happily tendinge towards our Beatitude THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Euery tree which brings not forth good fruite shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER that euery reasonable creature of what qualitie soeuer is a vine or tree planted in the vineyearde or orcharde of Christ Iesus against whom this dreadfull doome is pronounced it shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire in case it answer not to his expectation but in lieu of true grapes yealde nothinge but wilde grapes that is in lieu of true and solide vertues thinke to pay with apparances and in lieu of the sweete and agreeable fruites of charitie yeald nothing but bitternesse animosities and auersions amongst the citizens of heauen and Gods domestikes who should but all haue one hart and one soule Affection Let vs daylie and diligently my soule examine what fruites this tree of our hart produceth It importeth noe lesse then a blessed or cursed eternitie If sowre grapes bitternesse of hart enuie emulation dissension ah then Truth affirmes it shall be cutt downe and cast into the fire Alas it was not planted so that such fruites should be expected from it It was planted by the hand of God watered which the pretious bloud of Chr. let nothing then but the sweet fruites of Christianitie proceede from it THE SECONDE POINTE He that doth the will of my Father which is in heauen he shall enter into the Kingdome of heauen CONSIDER that here the wisdome of heauen in a few words layes vs downe the abridgement of all perfection and the blessed imitation of his whole life and passion to witt an absolute and louing resignation to the holy will of his heauenly father as well in all that he did as all that he suffered I come not saith that sweete Sauiour to doe myne owne will but the will of my father who is in heauen the thinges that please him I doe alwayes not as I will but as thou wilt Fawning words and Lord Lord may please fooles who desire to be flattered but the actuall complying with the will of God is onely gratefull in his eyes who sees hartes Affection Let vs then my soule absolutly and for euer renounce our owne will that disturber of our life and depriuer of our rest peace and true libertie and yeild it vp into the secure guidance of Gods holy will hauing alwayes vpon all occasions in all our doinges and sufferings in our harte and mouth thy blessed will be done my deare Lord and Master who best knowes what is most behoofull for me I am most willingly in thy holy hands turne me and winde me when thou wilt where thou wilt and how thou wilt thatthy will and myne may be but one Represse in me ô Lord that vnhappie libertie by which I am able to will any other thinge then what thou willest THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE EIGTH SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY There was a certaine rich man who had a Bailife Luc. 16. CONSIDER that this rich man was God the greate Maker and Master of all the earth and the Bailife man euery one of vs be we Masters or seruants rich or poore who hold all that we haue of that great Land-Lord the goods of our body the goods of our soule and those of fortune all is his and all proceeds from his bountifull hand we haue the stewardshippe of them to worke therby our saluation but the propertie remaynes still his Affection Let vs not then my soule mistake our selues apprehending that we are Lords and Masters while we are but indeede farmers and remoueable at pleasure of what seemes to be ours Be it farre from vs to vaunt
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
knowledge to tempt and teache him Le ts first beleeue in him that he is the sonne of the liuing God because without faith it is impossible to please him and learne of him to be mylde and humble of harte and so we shall finde rest to our soules which in high and proude questions can neuer be found THE SECONDE POINTE. Thou shalt loue thy Lord thy God from thy whole harte with thy whole soule and with thy whole mynde This is the greatest and first commandement CONSIDER that this commandement of the loue of God aboue all thinges is most iustly called the first and greatest The first because it ought to possesse the first place in our harte The first againe because it ought to be in mans soule what the first … oouer is in the heauens which giues first motion to all the rest And it is the greatest because its whole ayme is summum bonum the souueraigne Good the greatest too because it comprises all Gods Lawe and all the vertues in a most eminent manner Affection O my soule how sweete how heauenly sweete is this lawe of loue which either finds all thinges easie or makes them such How gracious is this diuine Law giuer who deliuers vs so sweete a Lawe What is man ô Lord thou shouldst so magnifie him and place thy heauenly harte vpon him What is man to thee I say that thou shouldst commande him to loue thee yea and to be angrie and threaten to lay huge punishments vpon him if he loue thee not Alas is it not of it selfe punishment great enough if he doe not loue Alas should poore subiects who holde all of the Kinges of the earth neede any such threates to induce them to loue them THE SECONDE MEDITATION FOR THE SAME SVNDAY Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy hart c. THE FIRST POINT CONSIDER in what manner and with what measure we ought to loue our Lord God And we are told by S. Bernard that the measure of louing God is to loue him without measure from our whole harte saith our blessed Sauiour by placing all our affections vpon him With our whole soule not permitting any of the passions to contest with it With our whole mynd by making choyce of the best meanes imaginable to accomplish his blessed will in the most perfect manner that man is capable off here belowe Affection This is the onely thinge my soule wherin there can be noe excesse He is infinitly more louely then we are able to be louinge O what a happinesse it is to be oppressed with the abundance of goodnesse Le ts dilate our narrow hartes dare as much as we are able breath after him incessantly and yet humbly acknowledge that we fall infinitly shorte of what is due saying with S. Augustine let me loue thee ô Lord as much as I wishe and as much as I ought wherin that I may not fayle proue as the Authour of the precept so the giuer of the grace to performe it giue what thou commandst ô Lord and command what thou wilt THE SECONDE POINTE. And the seeonde commandement is like to this Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe CONSIDER that our B. Sauiour had noe sooner established that right of loue which is indispensably due to his heauenly Father but he falls vpon the dutie of his adoptiue brethren to one another which he also places in loue saying thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe With this difference notwithstanding that the measure of the loue of God is to loue him without measure and the measure of the loue of our neighbour is to loue him as our selues that ought to be exhibited to God because he is infinitly Good this to our neighbour be he good or badd because it was commanded vs by an infinite Goodnesse Affection O deare God how good thou art to men of right hartes O diuine wisdome how wisely and sweetly thou disposest of all thinges My soule if man had bene left to wishe what he would what other lawe could he haue wished then what he has a lawe of loue Wherin God and mans interests are so wouen togeither that the one will not be admitted without the other In vaine doe we professe to loue God if we hate our neighbour whom he commands vs to loue Nay saith the louing S. Augustine this must be putt downe for a certaine truth that there is noe surer way to attaine to Gods fauour then the loue of man to man Ama fac quod vis THE FIRST MEDITATION FOR THE XVIII SVNDAY AFTER WHITSVNDAY Iesus c. said to the sicke of the palsey haue a good harte sonne thy sinns are forgiuen thee Matt. 9. CONSIDER that Gods goodnesse and bountie is so greate that he often giues vs not onely what we aske but euen other thinges which we aske not which are farre greater and better The poore sicke of the palsey aymed onely at a temporall blessing the cure of his infirmitie and behold he meetes with farre more the remission of his sinnes from the mouth of truth saying haue a good harte sonne thy sinnes are forgiuen thee Affection Such is the goodnesse of our good and bountifull God my soule that when we haue an humble recourse to him in simplicitie of harte he grantes vs often not onely what we desire but what he sees we most neede As at other tymes in exercising his mercy he refuses vs what we desire to grante vs thinges more conducing to our eternall good being still equally good as well in what he giues as what he denyes If we pray then day and night and be not heard as it happened to our blessed Sauiour himselfe let vs rest assured that what we asked was not for our aduantage acquiescing therin to Gods wise prouidence and desiring aboue all thinges to heare sonne thy sinnes are forgiuen thee THE SECONDE POINTE. CONSIDER that this wise Physitian of ours doth not onely shew his goodnesse and liberalitie in the care of the poore mans corporall and spirituall infirmities but manifestes his wisdome also in the manner of the cure to witt he first takes away the cause which is sinne By sinne it was saith the great Apostle that death and consequently all deseases leading to death gott first footing in the world and this woefull cause being once remoued from the soule he proceeds to the cure of the bodie Arise take vpp thy bedd and goe into thy house Affection Let vs learne then my soule of wisdome it selfe to be wise when we endeuour the cure of our deseased soule Le ts obserue the causes and occasions wherin we find our selues It is still in such and such circumstances I finde my fall It is in such companies I continually meete with the desease or death of my soule Let vs in tyme iudge our selues that we may not be more rigourously iudged That eye of scandall must necessarily be plucked out and throwne away without the reach of danger which who loueth shall perish in
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
which the Spouse cried so out for osculetur me osculo oris sui let him kisse me with a kisse of his mouth See the foure sacred fountaines of Paradise streame out Riuers of inestimable worth from his wounded hands and feete euerie droppe whereof being of more valew then all heauen and earth and in these Riuers are we ô my Soule permitted to bathe cure eternise ourselues O Sacred fountaines ô Ambrosian springs dulciora super mel fauum sweeter then honey and the honey combe He hath a tongue which in the beginning said fiat be it made and the whole Machine of the Vniuerse was presently raised out of nothing and with which be can still saie N. Salus tua ego sum I am thy Saluation vel hodie mecum eris in Paradiso or this daie thou shalt be with me in Paradice And what hart can wish a richer treasure a more wishfull and blissefull present He hath yet a tongue but it too must not passe without it's torment For they mixe gale amongst his foode and in his thirst they present vineger to drinke He hath yet a tongue intire and that too must be imployed euen amidst his greatest torments to pleade mans pardon reconcilement Father pardonne them for they knovv not vvhat they doe O miracle of mildnesse and mercie The persecuted becomes the persecutours Aduocate euen in the act of persecuting him The dying Lord turnes his dead and dying slaues Patron euen while he is bloodily striking at his hart Father He makes his addresse to him not so much in qualitie of God whom he knowes to be actually prouoked to reuenge as of Father whose bowells are all mercie for his prodigall children Father what confidence may not poore sinners conceaue when a father and such a father is sued to by a sonne and such a sonne Father I begge not reuenge for what I suffer but pardon for those for whom and by whom I suffer Father pardonne them I sue not that the world should be iudged for me but that it might be cleared and saued by me Father pardon them I doe not plead not Guiltie where I know sinne is great and spred vniuersally ouer the whole body of man and growen to a kind of infinitie but I am his Saluation and the price of my bloud which here I lay downe is infinite indeede let grace then through my merites superabound where sinne abounded Father pardonne them It 's pardon I demande and euen in that name the cryme is acknowledged I cannot excuse Pilates iniustice which is so much more cryminal by how much his owne conscience pleades guiltie against himselfe for condemning a person in whom he found noe guilte nor the Priests and Princes inueterate malice nor the soldiers crueltie nor the peoples false testimonies scornes and blasphemie But by how much their crymes are more cleare ther pardon is more necessarily petitioned for by how much their miserie is more desparatly great by so much thy great mercy is more absolutly to be implored haue mercy therfor vpon them according to thy great mercy and pardon them Pardon them I say heauenly Father for they know not what they doe The penall ignorance which runs all along through their actions though it excuseth not yet it much extenuates their transgression They know not they apprehend not that they arme their malice against that infinite charitie which flames vp so high amidst the same malice that all the floodes of their furie is not able to extinguish it They know indeede that they putt an innocent man to death but they know not that they Crucifie the God of glorie T is enough my dearest Lord thou hast powerfully pleaded and wunne poore man's cause which without thy plea and thy price was irrecouerably lost for euer Thou art heard for thyne owne reuerence and millions shall be giuen to thy prayers and merites 11. But ah my soule is it not true that as this lesson brings comfort to all Christian harts so it loades them with confusion and fixeth shame vpon their foreheades He couers in some sort the Iewes crymes and confusion with a plea of ignorance for had they had an absolute knowledge of what they did and to whome they had neuer crucified the Lord of glorie But we seeing knowing by the light of faith which is a more absolute assurance then any demonstration then all humane knowledge can afford and being bound standing readie in the preparation of our hart to putt downe our life for it that it was God man the verie God of glorie that they putt to death we I say make noe difficultie to crucifie him againe by our dayly crymes to treade the sonne of God vnder foote and to esteeme the bloude of the Testament polluted 12. We acknowledge that we are taught by the mouth of eternall truth it selfe vnlesse we haue renounced all Christianitie and we euen see it in his owne example that we are to returne Good for euill and we contrarily render euill for good hatred for loue disrespect for good offices neglect forcares ingratitude for greatest obligations We haue seene our Christ sadd to death betrayed taken bound abused reuiled scorned boxed spitt in the face whipped crowned with thornes blaspheamed crucified and we heare him from the same Crosse preach plead pray for pardon And yet we Christians alas who as we take our name from Christ so should his actions be the rules of our life and our conformitie to the same rules the perfection therof liuing as it were by the law of contraries run quite contre The Master cryes for pardon the scholler exacts reuenge The masters wisdome and charitie finds wayes to couer multitudes of enormious crymes and the schollers iniquitie and madnesse inuents meanes to make Molehills appeare montaines and to multiplie a few smale faultes into huge numbers The master by a Rethorique brought from Heauen endeuours to extenuate a visible iniurie by alleaging ignorance which though otherwise afected did in some sorte lessen the cryme The scholler by a Sophistrie inuented in Hell striues to aggrauate euen almost inuisible faults from the place in which it was done the tyme the manner c. And if none of these seeme vigorous enough he guesses at the intention of him that did it and will needes haue it to be such as his Passion hath framed it in his mynd In fine the scholler hath neither harte nor hand nor tongue to plead excuse to worke or wishe well too euen a seeming enemy though otherwise a true friend indeede He will not take the paines to consider that the misintelligence was but caused at most by ignorance inconsideration precipitation and to take it at the highest that it was but man sinfull man man subiect to all the same deseases that rather tooke then had offence giuen him While the Master neither hauing hand nor foote free but onely a hartfull of mercye and a tongue free and readie to expresse the same imployes it to begge pardon
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!
doe not so my soule doe not so but rather wholy offer thy selfe such as thou art to him for verily he hath offered himselfe wholy for thee and inuite earnestly all creatures to praise him Laudate Dominum omnes gentes laudate cum omnes populi quoniam in this act of vnparralled loue and mercie confirmata est super nos misericordia eius at least run to him and craue pardon his fatherly bowels are easily wonne to compassion his louing and royall hart cannot denie a bowne we haue a good proofe of it for euen the theefe his doubtfull demand is accorded and he hath alreadie heard mecum eris in Paradiso A great grace and consolation for poore sinners Demand his benediction before he goe least we may be after forced to complaine with that faithfull Soule heu mihi Domine heu animae mea recessisti consolator animae meae nec valedixisti ingrediens vias tuas benedixâ—sti tuis nec affui Woe is me woe is my soule thou didst depart ô thou comfortour of my soule without bidding me farewell and taking thy iorney thou gauest thy blessing to thy friends and I alas was not present 29 And alas he cannot long now indure for infinite torment possesseth at once euery sense and member see how the weight of his torne and wearie bodie vnioynts his armes and shoulders riueing the holes of his haÌ„ds and feete and harke he cries out Consummatum est Heauenly Father the worke is done for which I was sent my commission is accomplished my Mission is ended The predictions of the Prophetes are verified the types and figures and Sacryfices of the old law are abolished the miracles and wonders wrought the cures finished the debt of all mankind well nigh discharged and an eternall league made betwxit Heauen and earth in myne owne bloud Consummatum est 30. Yes eternall Father for what could I haue done for my vineyeard which I haue not done I haue manifested thy name and truth vnto it I haue taught thy people by word and example seconded and confirmed by wonders and prodigies I haue waded through whole seas of indignities contumelies and contempts and a storme of tormentes haue almost wracked me There is not one member of my body left intire the whole stocke of my bloud is spent the conduites wherin it ran my vaynes are dryed vp and my hart the source is quite drayned my iawes are horce with crying and scarce now is there so much breath left in my body as to giue thee this short accompt of my selfe and my Embasie in saying Consummatum est and so deliuer vp my soule or life into thy holy hands 31. Ah my soule my soule what haue we seene and heard and what doe we now heare The soule of thy Sauiour is readie to be giuen vp for thy sinnes Whither whither hath thy miserie and malice togeither with his mercie and charitie lead thy Lord and thee Thy malice hath run with a stiffe necke into a lande of huge disproportion and his mercy hangs vpon the Crosse with a humbled head bowed downe to receiue thee home with a kisse of peace Thy malice hath run thee out of breath in sinning and his mercy in suffering Thy malice wholy spends its thoughtes vpon rebellion against God and selfe-affliction and his mercy vpon thoughtes of peace and reconcilement Thy malice imployes its words in prouoking Gods wroth and his mercy is exercised in petitioning thy Pardon Thy malice prodigally powres out the last farding of thy substance to loose thy selfe and his Mercy more prodigally the last droppe of the bloud of a God to saue thee 32. Yes yes my soule it was not thought enough to thy Christ for thy loue to haue taken thy nature vpon him to haue bene borne in a stable layd in a manger in humilitie abiection and pouertie to haue conuersed 33. yeares among men as one of them in labours from his youth to haue preached and practised all sorts of vertues to haue sweate bloud to haue bene betrayed taken bound scourged crowned calumniated condemned to a most shamefull death nayled to a most infamous Crosse But he would also stay there till the consummation of all to the last droppe of his pretious bloud to the last breath of his body till he had yeilded vp his Ghost into his heauenly fathers hands 33. Nor is it enough for vs Christians to begin well to run prosperously for a tyme to liue in humilitie pouertie and abiection to watch to fast to pray to practise religious discipline It is to finall perseuerance saluation is promised It is to the coÌ„summation or end of the worke the crowne is giuen Looking then vpon the Authour of our faith and consummatour Iesus be as prompt to suffer with him as to adore him and pray to him Be still as readie for the ignominie of Caluarie as the glorie of Thabot Prefixe noe end to our labours caluminies contradictions temptations c. but that of our life Prescribe noe limit to what euer abiection torment abandonement c. Gods wise prouidence and good pleasure may permitt to fall vpon vs but constantly remayne in the midst of them nayled to our Crosse with Christ dying with him to the world to worldly respects to selfe interests to our selues with him I say who is euen a dying for we haue heard Consummatum est 34. And harke now we heare In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum into thy hands ô Lord I commend my spirit Ay me Ay me my dearest spouse my Loue my life my God is deade Yes my soule he 's deade noe longer can his weake necke susteyne his sacred heade As we haue followed him liuing and looked vpon him dying so let vs now for a sad farewell take our last view of our dead Lord who was slaughtered for our loue Alas he is wholy deformed there is neither beautie nor comlinesse left in that Fairest farre beyond the sonnes of men A gastly palenesse hath seased vpon his glorious face whilome the Angells ioy Wounds gaules goarie bloud wholy couer his Virginall body All whitenesse is fledd from that white Lilie of the vnderualleys totus rubicundus est dilectus meus my Beloued is all redd Be all honour and glorie and benediction and thankes-giuing to that tender Lambe who was slayne for loue Amen AN OBLATION OF the life and Passion of our Sauiour for the remission of sinne O Sweete Iesu I haue alas all the dayes of my life offended thee and haue bene incessantly vngratfull vnto thee my dearest Creatour and Redeemour I haue mangled thy gifts not preseruing them intire nor making a right vse of them but haue hindered thy grace and still added new faults to the old Verilie my offences are exceeding great and many but yet thy mercy is infinitlie greater and without all limite I confesse I am vtterly vnworthy to be called thy sonne I cannot howeuer but acknowledge thee to be my Father as thou truly art and in