both extremely laborious withall very lickerish after all the delightfull obiects which it lookes vpon And for listening gazing it growes first to cheapning then to buying by the disorder distēpered heate therof it blowes with vehemet desire vpon them And so it rayseth a dust into the eye of the vnderstāding wherby it is made as blind almost as the blind will it selfe And wherby it growes persuaded that how deere soeùer that cōterfeit ware do cost it may proue a kind of sauing bargaine to vs in the end Now what a case are we therfore in if our Loue being so restles a thing as it is so resolued to be euer feeding vpon some obiect or other we suffer that to be such a one as besides the endles tormes of the next life can neuer bring vs to any true rest in this For the soule can neuer rest in the possession or fruition of any creature The reason heerof is playne because the rest of any thing consisteth in the attayning inioying of that last end to which it was ordayned in the creation therof And therfore the soule of man being made for the fruition of God whose glorious vision is only able to make vs say It is inough what meruaile is it that it can take no lasting true contentment in any thing which is lesse then God The holy S. Bernard sayth heervpon to this essect It is no meruaile that the soule of man can neuer be satisfied with the possessions honours pleasures of this world For the soule desires to feed vpon such a meat as may carry proportion to it selfe Now the entertaiments of this life carry no proportion at all to the soule in the way of giuing it entiere satisfactiō For the soule is spirituall immortall and all these obiects are either temporall or carnall And therfore as he who were ready to starue for lacke of meate would be ridiculous if he should thinke to kill his hungar by going to a window gaping there like some Camelion to take in the ayre which ayre is no cōpetent and proportionable food for a body of flesh bloud iust so a man who shal pretend to satisfy fulfill the desires of a spirituall immortal substāce as we know the soule to be by feeding fowly vpon the Carrion of Corporall thinges is at least as very a foole as the former And besides his folly his losse of labour in the meane time he wil heerafter grow to suffer by it so much more hē the otherr as the eternall dānation of a soule is a matter incōparably more considerable then the death of a mortall body No it is God alone who can quēch the infini e appetite of his reasonable creatures He alone made the whole world for vs vs for himself he only is our Center place of rest He only is that first Truth which our vnderstāding should aspire to know the only Good which our Will should be so inflamed to Loue. And because as hath bene said the question is but of the Meanes wherby we must tend to this most perfect End and for that by the treachery of our sēses we are induced to place our harts the affectiōs therof vpon dāgerous vicious obiects it is therfore shat I am procuring to set that one before vs which is the most strōg sweet perfect meanes which may not only inuite but assist vs also admirably otherwise towards the ariuing to our last End The line which leades to this faire full point the way which guides vs to this eternall habitation is that top of beauty and excellency Iesus Christ our Lord vpon whom if we can perswade our selues to fasten the rootes of allour Loue we shall not only be happy there but euē heere And to the end that we may consider the innumerable inualuable reasons which we haue to loue this Lord of ours I haue laboured first to shew the vnspeakeable dignity of his person then the infinite loue it selfe which he hath borne to vs. And this I haue deduced out of the principal misteries of his most sacred life bitter death as they haue bene deliuered to vs in holy Scripture And although whilst I treate of the Loue of our Lord to vs in euery one of the particular mysteries I do also shew the straite obligation into which we are cast of returning loue for loue to him yet I procure to do it more expresly towards the end of the book in the two last Chapters The holy ghost be he who by sweetly breathing vpō our soules may inable vs to do this duty well which hath bene so highly deserued of vs which only is able to make vs happy OF THE LOVE OF OVR LORD IESVS CHRIST declared by shewing his Greatnes as he is God CHAP. 1. THE Loue of our Lord Iesus Christ to this wretched and wicked creature Man is such a Sea without any bottome and such a Sunne without all Eclipse that not only no fadome can reach it must not so much as any eye behould it as indeed it is And whither soeuer we looke either vp or downe or towards any side we shall find our selues ouer wrought by the bulke and brightnes thereof Now (a) The quality of the persōs which loue each other giueth price and value to the loue it selfe because the loue of any one to any other doth take a tincture from the quality of the persons betweene whome it pasles therefore the loue of our Lord to vs is proued heereby to be infinite and incomprehensible because the dignity and Maiesty of his person is incomprehensible and infinite It will therefore be necessary to declare some part of the excellency of his person And for his sake who loued vs with so eternall loue I beg in this beginning an exact attention Because (b) The reason why exact attention is heere required what I am to say in this place being the ground whereon the rest of this discourse must rise will both giue it clearer light and greater weight and more certaine credit Nor can any thing which shall be deliuered in the progresse heerof be so high or deep or wide or hard to the beliefe whereof the soule wil not be able to flye at full ease and speed betweene the wings of faith and loue when it considers and ponders well who it is of whō we speake Our Lord Iesus Christ being perfect God and perfect Man as God is the only begotten eternall sonne of his Father and wholy equall to him And because (c) The generatiō of the Son of God he is begotten of him by an act of Vnderstanding proceeding out of that inexausted fountaine of his wisedom as if it were out of a wombe he is therefore called the Wisedome begotten the Word the Image and the Figure of his Father from whome togeather with the Sonne the Holy Ghost proceeds And for as much as the
saith that vpon the very first (p) The soueraigne power which the aspect of Christ our Lord had ouer creatures aspect it was able to draw all such as lookt vpon it For if there be such vertue in a lodestone or a peece of amber as that it can draw to it rings of iron and straw how much more easely saith this Saint could the Lord of all the creatures draw to himselfe whom he was pleased to call So delighfull therfore and soe plentifull was this beauty and dignity of our Lord IESVS And if it appeared powerfull in their eyes at the first when they beheld it but by startes and glances much (q) The felicity of thē who might behold the person of Christ our Lord at pleasur Bernard serm 20. in Cant. more would it doe so afterward in the sight of his Apostles Disciples who had liberty and commodity to feed their senses at large vpon that sacred obiect In contemplation of this beauty in great part it was that they gaue themselues away to him without resuming themselues any more husbands forsaking theyr wiues and children their parents rich men their whole estates poore men the very instruments of their profession that they might haue the honour happines to follow him And to such excesse they grew therin that they did not endure Matth. 16. to heare so much as any speach euen of the Passion it selfe of our Lord though by it their redemption were to be wrought For till the Holy Ghost was sent to inhabite their soules after his Ascension they could (r) The vnspeakeable gust which the Apostles had to be euer looking vpō Christ our Lord. not content themselues to weane the outward man from the gust and ioy of looking on him But though our Lord were pleased to nourish their faith and withall to teach them how to find him reigning in their hartes by with drawing his corporall presence frō their eyes yet that loue was iust and due which they bore to him whome God had giuen to be Incarnate for a spouse to the Church and to all elected soules so to draw their hartes more powerfully by that sacred sight of his person then formerly they had beene withdrawne by vnlawfull pleasures Nay euen great part of our felicity in heauen is to consist in our behoulding the most sweete presence of the humanity of our blessed Sauiour and to enioy his embracemēts and yet the forme of his diuine face shall be the very same which in this life it was For (s) The figure of the persō of our Lord Iesus was so excellent as that neither doth glory now make it other thē it was neither did passibility mortality disgrace it Matth. 17.3 part q. 45. art 1. ad 1. so we find that after his Resurrection he continued to be knovvne by his former countenance and so he was also before that in his Transiguration as S. Hierome notes S. Thomas teacheth That his forme was not changed into another but onely that there was an addition of such splendour as belonged to a glorified body As on the other side the Passibility and Mortality which for our good he would haue it subiect to did no way depriue it both of perfect most powerfull beauty How this infinite God and super excellent Man our Lord Iesus Christ did with incomparable loue cast his eye of mercy vpon mankind CHAP. 8. VVE haue now beheld with the eye of our Consideration being illuminated by the light of Faith the incomparable excellēcy of the person of Christ our Lord and Sauiour consisting of his Diuinity as God and of his most holy soule and most beautifull and pretious flesh and bloud as Man And now this eternall God this second person of the euer Blessed Trinity the consubstantiall sonne of the eternall Father Colos 2. In whome the treasures of knowledge and wisedome were laid vp and in whome and by whome Ioan. 1. for whome were created all things and without him was made nothing that was made This God I say with being all that I haue already expressed being infinitely more then we know yea and more then we can explicitely beleeue did not onely cast the eye of his compassion vpon the misery of man but he resolued to reach out his helping hād towards the redresse therof He had created the world and made this man the Lord of it and (a) The indowments of Adam at his first creation indued him in the person of Adam with many precious guifts wherof some were supernaturall as Originall Iustice Grace and a kind of Immortallity with many others and some were incident as Connaturall to that condition wherof he was made namely an Vnderstanding freewill wherwith he was to know and loue Apoc. 2. first last the Creatour and Center of vs all A precept of Obedience was giuen to this forefather of ours to abstaine from tasting of the forbidden fruite which he contemning vpon his wiues pernicious counsell did (b) Vpon the first sinne of Adam his supernaturall guifts were destroyed his naturall guyfts decayed forfaite out right those supernaturall guiftes and deserued that those others which were but naturall should be so wounded and weakned as vve find them to be by sad experience This trying of conclusions cost him deere for instantly the vvhole state of his house vvas changed and his Passions vvhich vvere meant to be but inferiour officers became the Lords of that Reason vvhich vvas appointed to gouerne both them and him Novv then it is no meruaile if vvhen this vvas done he played the vnthrift and laid so many debtes and rent-charges vpon his land that in some sense a man may say The profits do scarce quitt the cost For (c) How soone the roote of sinne did beare aboundāce of bitter fruyte hence grevv that pride that enuy and malice vvhich being rooted in the hart did fructify so shortly after in the hand of the accursed Cain and in a vvord that consummation of all impiety grevv from thence vvhich did prouoke and dravv vvith a kind of violence a resolution from Almighty God to drovvne the vvhole vvorld except eight persons But euē those fevv vvere inough to make the rest of mankind the heires of their corrupted nature And so vve see vvhat a vvorld vve haue of this vvherin vve liue What a coyle doth this (d) The disorder of the Irascible Concupiscible is the ground out of which almost all our sinnes do grow Irascible and Concupiscible keepe in our bodies and soules vvhen either vve desire that for our selues through an inordinate loue of our selues vvhich lookes vpon vs vvith a face of ioy or pleasure or vvhen we vvould inflict matter of greefe or paine vpon others through an inordinate auersion from them The very schooles of sinne haue beene sett open in the vvorld and revvards haue bene propounded for such as haue excelled therin The Prouinces of the earth haue often
to compreheÌ„d and vvhen it knevv from vvhat hand it came and found it selfe to be in possession of an absolute principality ouer all the Creatures and did contemplace al those Hierarchies of Celestiall spirits in heauen who being prostrate in his sight did adore him in that happy instant as S. Paul affirmes Tell me saith doctour Auila if euer this can possibly be told with what loue would this soule being such a one loue him who had glorified it to such a height with what kind of desire would it couet that some occasion might be offered wherby it might haue meanes to please so mighty a Creatour and benefactour Are the tounges of Cherubims and Seraphims able to expresse this loue Let vs further adde sayth he that vpoÌ„ this extreme desire it was declared to the soule of Christ that the will of God was to saue maÌ„kind which had perished by the sinne of Adam and that this blessed Sonne of his should for the honor of God and in obedience to his holy will encharge it selfe with this worke and should take this glorious enterprize to hart and should neuer rest till he had brought it to a perfect end And (e) It is loue which setteth all causes and creatures on worke for the obtaining their end for that the way which all Causes and Creatures hold is to worke for loue since they all do worke for some end or other which they desire the loue wherof being conceaued in their hartes doth make them worke therfore since Christ our Lord was to take this enterprise of the redemption of mankind vpon him it followeth that he would loue men with so great a loue that for the desire which he had to see them remedied and restored to their Tytle of glory he would dispose himselfe to do and suffer whatsoeuer might be fit for such an end And now sayth D. Auila since that soule which was so ardently desirous to please the Eternall Father did know so well what it was to do with what kind of loue would it turne it selfe towards men for the louing and imbracing of them through the obedience which he carryed to his Father We (f) Note this comparison see that when a peece of Artillery dischargeth a bullet with store of powder and that the buller goes glancing as by way of brickwall from the place to which it was designed it beateth backe with so much greater force as it was carried thither with greater fury Since then the loue which this soule of Christ conceaued towards God did carry such an admirable force because the powder of Grace which was in a manner infinite did giue the impulse and when after it had proceeded in a right line to wound the hart of the Father it rebounded from thence to the loue of men with what kind of sorce and ioy would it turne towards them both in the way of loue and help This Consideration is made in effect as heer is lyes by the holy man Doctour Auila to shew the infinite loue of Christ our Lord to vs. Wherin (g) We must clyme towardes the knowledg of the loue of Christ our Lord by degres we may also yet further helpe our selues by rysing as by so many degrees through the seuerall loues which are borne by creatures to one another For we fee hovv vehemently men haue loued their frind vve see hovv men haue loued themselues vve see hovv Saints haue loued their Sanctifier but vvhat trash is all this if it be compared vvith the loue of Christ our Lord to God vvhich loue is both the ground and measure of his loue to vs. We may iustly therfore cry out in the vvay of extreme admiration Aug. CoÌ„fes lib. 11. cap. 9. Quis comprchendet quis enarrabit There is no tongue there is no povver created which can comprehend and much lesse declare the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of this loue The mystery of the Incarnation is more partiticularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is woÌ„derfully expressed therby CHAP. 10. FOR the restoring therfore the streÌ„gthning of our vveake and vvounded soules to the eternall honor and glory of God the Father and in obedience to his vvise and holy vvill did Christ our Lord vvith incomprehensible loue vndertake the worke of our Redemption and sollicitously procure our sanctification for as much as concerned him but that could not be completely wrought without our concourse Because as S. Austen saith vvhen he speaketh of God to man Qui tecreauit sine te non te saluabit sine te He that created thee without thee will (a) We must cooperate with the grace of God or else the merits of Christ our Lord will neuer be applied to vs. not saue thee without thy selfe In this enterprise he resolued to employ and as it were to giue himself away from the first instant of his precious life vntill the last Any one only act of his through the infinite value of the diuine person to vvhich both his soule and body were hypostatically vnited had not only byn sufficient but abundant euen ex rigore Iustitiae for the redemption both of this world as many millions more of worlds as the omnipotency of God could haue created howsoeuer there be * Caluin Sectaries who tremble not to say That he selt euen the paines of the very damned soules in that soule of his as if the worke of mans redemption could not haue beene wrought otherwise Where by the way it well appeares euen to halfe an eye whether the Catholike Doctrine or that other do erect a higher Trophee to the honor of Christ our Lord. But the while euery single act of his being indeed so all-sufficient for the reconciliation of man to God it followeth heere as will be also touched elsewhere that some one only act was performed by him in the way of Iustice to appease that infinite Maiesty offended and (b) Consider heeâ— and wonder at the ardent loue of Christ our Lord to man that all the rest which were so many millions as he alone is able to number were performed in the way of ardent and tender loue to vs. So that Dauid had all reason to maguify the mercy of Almighty God and to acknowledge that Copiosa apud eum redemptio Psalm 129. that it was no pinching or scant redemption which was prepared for vs but abundantly of ouer measure and downe-weight And now it the bounty of God the loue of our Lord Iesus to man were such that where one single act of his might haue serued the turne of our Redemption he would not yet be content with doing the lesse where he had meanes to expresse the more how much lesse would it be agreable to those bowells of his Charity and mercy which vnder that very name of tendernesse Lue. â—â— are so often celebrated by his owne holy spirit in holy Scripture that he should redeeme vs by another lesse glorious and gracious
Testament an (b) Iudas Apostle one of the twelue whom God had elected out of the whole world to be his Embassadours one who had liued neere three yeares in the sight and tast of that fountaine of sanctity Christ our Lord and of that stream of purity charity his all-immaculate mother whom all generations shall call blessed One who had wrought miracles Luc. 2. and exercised dominion ouer the Princes of darknes by commaunding them to depart out of possessed persons One before whome the King of glory had kneeled downe to wash his seate one who had bene fed with the body of our blessed Lord which he gaue with his owne sacred hands This man this Monster to shew vvhat a monstrous thing euery liuing man is sure to be at the instant that he deserues to be forsaken by the omnipotēt mercy of our Lord God made such hast to hell as that he suffered not his eyes to sleepe nor his eye lids to slumher till hauing entred into a part with those perfidious Ievves for thirty peeces of siluer he put himselfe vpon betraying and by a kisse this Lord of life into the hands of death This Lord (c) The loue of our Lord to vs in the losse of Iudas gaue vvay to this inestimable offence against himself that it might be a great and lovvd vvarning Peece of meeknes for as much as he vouchsafed to suffer of humility feare for as much as Iudas presumed to do To the end that no priuiledge of fauour or possessiō of present vertue might make any man rely vpō his ovvne strength which is al but vveakenes 2. Cor. 7. But that adhering to God by faith hope loue we might worke our saluatiō with a filiall seare a trēbling ioy For the whole race of mankind was nothing at all in the way of nature and to nothing it would instantly all returne if it vvere not conserued by the omnipotency of God as by a kind of continuall nevv creation And in the way of grace vve are all lesse then nothing and the holyest soule vvhich euer vvas might instantly plunge it selfe in sinne if it vvere abandoned by Gods grace If then we haue our being both in the state of nature and of grace by the particular fauour of our Lord God it follovves that the more graces he giues and the more fauours he shevves to a soule so much the more must it be subiect to him And they are to serue but as so many bills of debts vvherby it is bound to find hovv base and beggarly a thing it is of it selfe and consequently hovv profoundly humble and gratefull it must be to our Lord vvho only knevv hovv to enrich it For our Lord is a great God and vve are vveake vnvvorthy thinges vvho can giue him nothing by vvay of retribution but only a continuall faithfull and humble acknovvledgment that vve are (d) How we are to entertaine the memory of Gods fauours of our owne sinnes nothing vvorth And as through his infinite goodnes vve may call to mind euen our greatest sinnes vvith much comfort vvhen once vve haue done true penance for them so through his infinite greatnes the soule which receiueth fauours and visitations of him in particular manner must thinke of them with great apprehension and feare vnlesse they be intertayned with much humility and improued by Prayer and other industry The griefe which our Lord IESVS had for euery single sinne of the whole world was excessiuely great as we haue shewed How excessiue therfore must it needs haue been to see this hideous sinne of this Apostle And by the measure of his griefe we may find the measure of his former loue for loue it was which made him grieue The thing which might comfort him in that affliction was to cōsider what an innumerable number of soules would take warning by this sinne of Iudas As soone therfore as that treacherous kisse was giuen and that our Lords sacred words and inspirations were contemned by that miserable creature our Lord IESVS went on towards the troope enquiring whome they sought And when they told him that it was IESVS of Nazareth Ioan. 18. he instantly answered that he was the man But as on the one side they saw him a man so on the other he then gaue himselfe Gods truest (e) The Maiesty of our Lord Iesus euen when he he was mortal seemed miserable Name of Ego sum I am though they vnderstood it not But he thought good to let them see that he had somewhat in himselfe of the God And so resoluing to try all imaginable wayes for the mollifying of their marble harts and perceauing that the mildnes which he had vsed with Iudas succeeded not he gaue such a Maiesty to those two words as serued to cast them to the ground We may imagine heerby with what terrour he wil appeare when he comes as Iudge who in his very Passion wherin he meant but only to suffer could so declare his power We may also well perceaue heerby that they were strangely confirmed in malice since a miracle of that nature being wrought vpon the persons of themselues had no meanes to make thē rise to pennance But they rose by the permission of God to continue in their sinne and to aske our Lord the same questiō a second time and a second tyme to receaue an Answere to the same effect Our Lord (f) Our Lord had no care of himselfe but much of his Apostles Ibid. adding further by way of commaundement that they should suffer his Apostles to retire themselues whatsoeuer they might haue a mind to doe with him And it seemes to haue bene impossible for that diuine Lord to haue cast his thought vpon any creature to whome he must not be shewing mercy For when S. Peter in detestation that they should presume to lay hands vpon his Maister had picked out one of the busiest of them Ioan. 18. and had cut of his right eare our Lord was so willing to suffer as to mislike the impedimēt which his disciple was about to giue And by a touch of Malchus eare with his omnipotent hand he cured that enemy who came to lead him to the Passion hauing repressed his friend who went about to hinder it And euen as they were binding him he made no resistance at all he reproached them not by declaring their sinnes he vpbraided not the miracles which so aboundantly he had wrought vpon them or theirs he framed no quarell against them but only this action of vnkindnes Luc. 22. That he bauing imployed himselfe so much vpon instructing and teaching them to their good liking in the Temple they should now come forth against him with swords and Clubbes as they would haue done against some insolēt bloudy thiese As if he had said If you come indeed to seeke the true Redeemer and Saniour of your soules you shall find to your comfort that I am he But if
to match with one another yet that rule had no place in these two but the Sacerdotall and the Royall often matched togeather her exteriour beauty was such as became the mother of that Sonne Psal 44. Ambr. de instit vir c. 7. S. Thom in 3. distinct 3. q. 1. art 2. quaestiuncula 1. ad 4. of whome it was said Speciosus forma prae filijs hominum Beautifull beyond the most beautifull of the Sonnes of men And yet a beauty it was of such an admirable holy kind as that according to the testimony of antiquity it had the property to quench all flames of lust in the behoulders Blessed be our Lord who hath prouided so sweet a remedy for our misery For knowing as Father Arias noteth in his booke of the Imitation of our B. Lady that one of our greatest enemies was the inordinate loue of women to men and men to women he hath for the redresse of this inconuenience giuen a man to the world who is his owne only begotten sonne and whome women might both loue and euen by that very louing they might become pure and chast And so also hath he bestowed a most beautifull womā vpon the world which is this glorious Virgin Mother by the loue of whome men might deliuer themselues from sensuality and become the Disciples of her high purity For by louing this man and this woman men are spiritually as it were conuerted into them and doe giue ouer after a sort to be themselues And from hence it hath proceeded that since God became man and was pleased to be borne of the blessed Virgin the feilds of the earth haue produced innumerable roses of virginity both in men women And the Church hath bene filled with this rare treasure wherewith the world in former tymes was not acquainted There (b) Diuers reasons of congruity which cōuince the B. Virgin to haue been free from all kind of spot Damase ser 1. de Natiuitat Virg. could be no such defect of power wisedom or goodnes in our Lord God but that since he was pleased to take his whole humanity from one Creature he would also be carefull of that excellent creature in strange proportion Since the diuinity it selfe would vouchsafe to be hypostatically and indissolubily vnited to the flesh which he would take of her body in her wombe that wombe of which is elegantly and most truely said that it was Officina miraculorum the very shop and mint-house of miraculous things how can it be that he should not preserue her from all those sinnes and shames which the rest of mākind was subiect to He would not liue so long in that holy Tabernacle of hers where she was euer imbracing him with her very bowells and then haue a hart so hard as to goe away as it were without paying her any house-rent out of his riches He came into the world to dissolue the workes of the diuell 1. Ioan. 3. euen in the greatest enemies and rebells to him that could be found and therfore he would be sure to preuent the soule of that body which was but the other halfe of his owne with such store of benedictiōs as wherby the very ayre and sent of any sinne whatsoeuer might be farre from breathing vpon her Christ our Lord descended from heauē to aduance the kingdome and glory of God and he could not then giue way that the hart which had conceaued him with such faith which had adored him with so much loue in her imaculate wombe which had so liberally fed him at the table of her sacred brest lodged him in the bed of her holy bosome and couered him with the robes of her pretious armes which had so diligently attended him in that Pilgrimage of Egipt Matt. 2. and had serued him so purely both with body and soule in all the rest of his life death that this hart I say should euer be in case to giue consent to sinne wherby she should of the spouse of god haue become according to her then present state a lymme of Sathan and be in fine the mother of Christ our Lord yet a Traytour to him and both at once Nay she was not only voyd of sinne but abounded (c) The sublime sanctity of our B. Lady Luc. 1. Cant. 7. in sactity whose sacred wombe was foreseene foretold to be Aceruus tritici vallatus lilijs A rich heape of corne compassed in with a faire and sweet inclosure of Lyllies And as those Lyllies of her purest body gaue him a body of such beauty so did that bread of heauen abundantly feed and euen feast her soule with his plenty The Prophet Ieremy was sanctified in his mothers wombe and she was therfore to be much more sanctified who was to apparaile Sanctity it selfe with a pretious body made by the holy Ghost of her purest bloud And being sanctified then farre and farre beyond that holy Prophet that priuilege must needs serue her afterward to so good purpose as that hauing bene holyer in her mothers wombe then he she grew afterward when she came into the world or rather whē she had brought the Sauiour therof into it to be incomparably much and much more holy S. Iohn (d) The great aduantage which our B. Lady had aboue all pure creatures Luc. 1. Baptist also was sanctified in his mothers wombe at the presence and vpon the very hearing of our B. Ladyes voyce as S. Elizabeth doth expresly say he was freed from his Originall sinne and indued with the vse of reason and he exulted and did exercise the operations of his soule which was the ground and foundation of all the admirable sanctity which florished in that Precursour afterward according to the high office to which he was called So as this mother of God himselfe who was the meanes of those benedictions to S. Elizabeths house by her presence must euer infallibly haue bene as farre beyond S. Iohn Baptist in sanctity Psalm 1. as she was in dignity For of him it is said that he was not worthy to vnty the latchet of our B. Sauiours shoo though yet he were the greatest Matt. 11. amongst the Sonnes of mē wheras she had ben made worthy to giue him all the flesh bloud he had It is a most certaine rule of what we are to belieue concerning the proceeding of Almighty God which S. Augustine giues vs in these words lib. 3. de lib. arb c. 5. Quicquid tibi vera ratione melius occurrerit id scias fecisse Deum whatsoeuer thou canst conceaue to be best according to the dictamen of rectified reason know that so it is done by Almighty God Now who sees not that it was fitter better that the mother of God should haue bene humble then proud discreet then rash beleeuing then incredulous and in fine a perfect Saint then a grieuous sinner Her glorious person is high inough out of reach assumed to heauen and
for euer after Confes l. 3. cap. 6. Vae vae quibus gradibus descendi in infernū saith the incōparable S. Augustine woe is me woe is me by what steps was I dropping downe to hell and the Saint shewed shortly after that euen then our B. Lord was taking him with the hand of mercy of out that Abysse of danger and destruction We may see in some durty (d) Note this comparison poole of myre some little vgly stick which is rotting it selfe away into worse then nothing and we would wonder at the great goodnes of some Soueraigne Monarch if he should vouchsafe to stoop and to foule his fingars for the taking it vp and much more if he would make a bath of his own bloud Royall wherin it might steep if therby he could make it fit againe to be a plant and to bring forth fruite in his Princely garden to the pleasure of himselfe and all his Court No rotten stick in any durty stincking poole doth come home to the expression of that filth and ruine which tryumpheth in euery soule which is lyable to the guilt of mortall sinne And yet this King of heauen and earth did abase himselfe from his throne of Maiesty to this Center of misery and by the hand of his grace taketh vp innumerable soules which are rotting in sinne and he bathes them in his owne pretious bloud at the instant that they are sorry for their offences and he plants them first into his militant Church and then he transplants them into the tryumphant and they grow to florish like so many beautifull trees in that Paradise of God for all eternity But first in this life when once men accept of his inspirations he (e) How infinitely our Lord inricheth his friēds and seruants giues thē new graces meanes to acquire inestimable eternall treasures in euery moment of their liues since in euery moment therof they may do or say or thinke of somewhat to his greatest glory Euery one of which acts being rooted in his grace which was purchased by his merits and being accompanied by his promise which flowed only from the fountayne of his loue hath a district degree of glory belonging to it in the next life Euery one of which degrees of glory through the inestimable and incomprehensible excellency therof although it should last but one only minute were millions of tymes to be preferred as was touched once already before all the Honours Treasures and Pleasures which were and are to be possessed and inioyed by all creatures from the creation of Adam to the second cōming of Christ our Lord. And what then shall we say of such a degree of glory as is to be eternall And what then of such innumerable degrees of the same eternall glory as do answere to all the moments of our life Not only doth our Lord giue vs meanes to serue and please his superexcellent Maiesty in all the moments of our mortall life by our continuall turning vp the white as I may say of our soules eye to him but he is euer ministring to vs (f) An incomparable mercy if it be wel cōsidered particular meanes and occasions wherby and wherin we may exercise most heroycall vertues of Humility Patience and Mercy of Pouerty Chastity and Obedience Faith Hope and Charity all the rest Besides it hath pleased our Lord to plant a perfection in euery occasion and actiō of his life Now by meanes heerof how miserable soeuer we haue bin in former tymes we may at that instant supposing that our state be chosen well doe that very thing in the most excellent manner which of all others in the whole world is most acceptable and pleasing to our Lord God Againe for (g) See how sollicitous our Lord is of our good those soules which are in state of grace our Lord doth keep as it were two seuerall bookes of account The one is of tyme which hath an end the other is of Eternity which hath none Now whatsoeuer defects or Veniall sinnes be committed which being Veniall are compatible with the state of Grace how wilfull and vnworthy soeuer they be our Lord who is so rich in goodnes and so liberall of grace doth cast them into the accompt of time that so there may once be an end of the punishment therof Which is at last discharged either by the pennance of a penitentiall life or els afterward by the paines of Purgatory both which kindes of satisfaction are rooted in the pretious merits of Christ our Lord. But as for the good deeds words thoughts which haue proceeded from such a man though accompanied with imperfections and frailtyes our Lord doth lodge thē all in the booke of Eternity that so there may be no end of their reward Now woe and woe agayne be to that wretched soule which vpon this occasion and motiue shall presume to serue our Lord with lesse fidelity loue and not rather incomparably with more Of the seuerall kinds of Loue which our soules may exercise to our Lord Iesus And the whole Treatise is concluded with shewing how much we loue our Lord by louing our neighbours for his sake CHAP. 96. VVE must therfore serue and loue this blessed Lord of ours with all the loue of all our soules not depriuing him of his due by distracting it towards any of his creatures Confes l. 4. cap. 12. but only for him and in him For most vniustly as the incomparable S. Augustine saith do we loue those things to his dishonor from whome those things do all proceed and by whome if they were not preserued in euery moment of tyme they would instantly perish I say we must loue our Lord with a kind of delight or complacence reioycing in the Consideration of his diuine excellēcies and attributes and taking gust in the contēplation of his beauty and in the strength and wisedome of his holy will which in despight of diuells and wicked men shall be accomplished and fulfilled from the greatest of his workes to the falling of any lease towards the ground and the mouing of any moate in the ayre Et quid necuerunt tibi saith S. Augustine Confes l. ◠cap. 2. of wicked men aut in quo imperium tuum dehonestauerunt à caelis vsque in nouissima iustum integrum For how could they euer hurt thee or wherin haue they bin able to dishonour or disparage thy dominion or gouernement which is so entyere iust from the very highest to the very lowest of thy creatures We must (a) The loue of beneuolence and friēdship toward◠God loue him with a loue which may be called of Friendship or Beneuolence most cordially desiring incessantly procuring the exaltation of his holy name and the exaltation of his eternall glory in all harts soules We must loue him with a loue of exquisite and entiere Obedience both in perfectly doing al that which he is pleased to inioyn and cheerfully suffering all
thinke that we should need no exhortation to frequent the corporall works of Mercy as feeding the hungry and thirsty cloathing the naked visiting and comforting sicke persons and prisoners and the like since by his owne sacred mouth he hath told vs in his holy Ghospell that he will assume men to heauen if they shall haue done these works and adiudge men to hell it they doe them not But this blessed Lord of ours doth yet assigne such another reason in that very place as to a soule which hath tasted of his diuine loue is incomparably of more force then the former And it is that he hath vouchsafed to put his very selfe into the person of that beggar or distressed person Quod vni ex minimis meis fecistis mihi secistis Matt. 25. That so he might make vs happy by his receiuing from our miserable vnworthy hands a peece of courtesy and seruice Which he is pleased to apply to his owne most excellent diuine person And now since our (k) Spirituall workes of mercy are incoÌ„parably of more account with God then corporall Corpoall works of mercy to our neighbours are taken by himselfe as such liuely tokens of our loue to him who shall be able to declare how much more gratefully he will take it that we be carefull and liberall in the works of mercy which are spirituall So much more gratefull to him are these latter then those former works as the spirituall and immortall substance of the soule is more valuable then the base and dying substance of the body Nay one soule according to S. Chrysostome Orat. 3. contra Iudaeos is more worth then the whole materiall world put togeather Now the spirituall worke of mercy which is exercised by one man towards another in reducing such as erre in teaching such as are ignorant and in fine in drawing a soule from wickednes of life to Gods seruice doth produce as the instrument of God and by the helpe and strength of his holy hand l Miraculous thinges are wrought in the soule whoÌ„ it returneth to God 2. Pet. 1. strange things in the soule For it destroyeth the kingdome of Sinne it infuseth grace it maketh that man of an enemy and traytour which he was to God to become both his Sonne and Heire it enricheth him with the merits of Christ our Lord and it makes him partake of a diuine nature Nay it is most certainly and cleerly true that the man who coÌ„uerts a soule doth by the goodnes of our Lord acheiue a more great and glorious enterprise theÌ„ Christ our Lord himselfe was pleased to do by his illuminating of the blind or raysing of the dead or in fine by working any other miracle which was meerly corporall Since therfore this worke of helping soules is so very great how immense must that loue and mercy of our B. Lord haue bin who was pleased to (m) How easily great thinges are done in Gods seruice enable men thereunto and that at so easy a rate as that by the goodnes of God it is performed many tymes by the only exchange of a few words either of counsell to them or instruction of them or by prayer for them And by these happy men that is partly and daily fulfilled which was done in great measure Colos 2. by the blessed Apostle when he said Adimpleo ea quae desunt passionum Christi pro corpore eius quae est Ecclesia I fulfill those things which are waÌ„ting to the passion of Christ our Lord for that body of his which is the Church Not but that the passioÌ„ of Christ our Lord is all-sufficient in it selfe for the redeeming and sauing of a thousand worlds but that which the blessed Apostle doth insinuate as wanting to the passion of Christ our Lord was the application thereof by Faith and Pennance which last supposeth also Hope and Loue to the soules of Christians This I say is that wherin the B. Apostle imployed himselfe and this is that very thing to which the men of God do now attend and this in fine is that whereby we way testify our Loue to our Lord Iesus in a most excelleÌ„t manner And I begge of the same Lord that he will giue vs store of grace wherby we may loue him as we ought and serue him in such sort to all purpose 〈◊〉 he desireth and deserueth at our hands FINIS THE TABLE OF CHAPTERS Chap. 1. OF the Loue of our Lord Iesus Christ declared by shewing his Greatnes as he is God pag. 1 Chap. 2. The Loue of our Lord Iesus as he is Man is much coÌ„mended to vs by the consideration of the Excellency of his Soule pag. 10 Chap. 3. The power Sanctity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is considerd wherby we may also the better see his excessiue Loue. pag. 15 Chap. 4. The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified pag. 21 Chap. 5. How the Beauty of our Lord Iesus Christ did coÌ„uince coÌ„quer all lookers on sauing only where excesse of sinne had put out the eyes of the soule pag. 25 Chap. 6. The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared pag. 29 Chap. 7. The same discourse is prosecuted and concluded coÌ„cerning the excellent Beauty of our Lord especially of the attractiuenesse of his sight pag. 35 Chap. 8. How this infinite God superexcellent Man our Lord Iesus Christ did with incomparable loue cast his eye of mercy vpon mankind pag. 43 Chap. 9. The Originall Roote and Motiâ—e of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered pag. 48 Chap. 10. The mystery of the Incarnation is more particularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is wonderfully expressed therby pag. 52 Chap. 11. Of the immense Loue of Christ our Lord expressed to Man in his holy Natiuity pag. 57 Chap. 12. How by the Pouerty of our Lord Iesus in his Natiuity poore men are comforted and the rich are kept from being proud pag. 61 Chap. 13. Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus expressed to vs in his Circumcision pag. 66 Chap. 14. Of the name of Iesus and the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name pag. 75 Chap. 15. The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted pag. 78 Chap. 16. Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings pag. 82 Chap. 17. It is shewed by the PresentatioÌ„ of our Lord Iesus in the TeÌ„ple how infinite loue he bare to vs. pag. 90 Chap. 18. How in the flight which our Lord Iesus made to Egypt he discouered his vnspeakeable Loue to man pag. 96 Chap. 19. The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt pag. 101 Chap. 20. Of the
reuiue and rayse it vp to receaue that homage without asking him so much as leaue O pretious sweet Humanity of Christ our Lord And (g) We at worthy of all punihment if wee become not euen the slaues of the Humanity of Christ our Lord. how shall we who know that thou wert humaned for vs and diddest not only descend to be a man but diddest degrade thy selfe further downe for the loue of vs how I say shall we sufficiently admire and loue thy Beauty which was so great euen in their externall eyes who had not withall the internall eyes of Faith wherwith thou hast enriched our soules And where shall we finde either holes or hills to hide or couer vs from thy wrath if we who are Christiās doe not by the eternall obsequiousnes of our harrs outstrip those obstinate but yet withall inconstant Iewes Obstinate in their mindes when they were grown to malice but inconstāt in mantayning those tender thoughts which they excellētly did sometymes oblige them to in the performance of so many Soueraigne signes of honour The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared CHAP. 6. VVHAT heauen on earth could euer make a man so happy as to haue beheld this sacred persō of our Lord Iesus in any of those postures which are described by the hand of the holy Ghost in holy scripture To haue (a) The incomparable grace of Christ our Lord in all his actions seen that god made mā as he was walking before the front of the Tēple whē his hart the while like a true Incensary was spending it selfe into the perfume of prayers which ascended before the Altar of the diuine mercy euen then and euen for them who there went in and out contemning and maligning him in the highest degree Mar. 11. Ioan. 20. To haue seene him walking and bestowing those deere limmes of his vpon those sands Mattb. 4. with incredible grace loue neere to that lake or sea of Galilea as if it had looked but like a kind of recreation when his enamoured soule was yet the while negotiating with his eternall Father Ibid. the vocation of his Apostles and by them the saluation of the whole world To haue seene him Luc. 4.16 c. standing vpon his sacred feet whilst with reuerence he would be reading in the Synagogue and then sitting downe afterwards when he would take vpon him the office of a teacher Ibid. 20. so pointing vs out by any little motion of his to the purity and perfection of euery action Marc. 3. To haue seene him sitting in the mindst of a roome with all that admiring multitude round about him whilst newes was brought him of the approach of his all-immaculate mother and of his kindred and domesticke friends who had reason to thinke euery minute to be a world of ages till their eies might be restored to that seate and Center of all ioy And he the while with diuine sweetnes and modesty looking round about him and lending a particular eye of mercy to euery soule there present and extending his liberall hand with an incomparable sweet noble grace did with his sacred mouth and with such a hart of loue as God alone is able to vnderstand adopt both them and all the world into his neerest deerest kindred vpon condition that they would do his Fathers will which was the only meanes to make them happy To (b) The infinite gratious goodnes of Christ our Lord. haue seene that sonne of God whose face is the delight and glory of all the Angells in heauen and at whose sacred feete they fall adoring with so profound reuerence deueste himselfe first of his vpper garment with such louely grace Ioan. 13.4 c. and gird the Towell about his virginall loynes with such modesty and fill the vessell full of water by the labour of his owne delicate armes with such alacrity and cast himselfe with such bottomelesse humility charity vpon those knees to which all the knees of heauen and earth were obliged to bow and from which the eternall Father was only to haue expected such an homage at the feete and for the comfort and conuersion of that diuell Iudas Yea and to wipe those very feete when he had washed them first and that perhaps with the teares of his owne sacred eyes to see if yet it might be possible to soften the hart of that Tygar who was able to defile such a beauty and to detest such a goodnes and who in despight of that prodigious mercy would needs be running post to hell by cōmiting that abhominable treachery They say the vale discouers the hill the darke shadow of a picture sets off the body which there is drawen Neuer was there such a peece of chiaro oscuro such a beautifull body as that of Christ our Lord neuer vvas there such a blacke shadovv as that vvretched man whome for the infamy of his crime I vvil forget to name But in fine to haue seene through the vvhole course of his life that holy Humanity sometymes svveating vvith excesse of labour some tymes grovvne pale vvith the rage of hungar some tymes pulled and vvracked seuerall vvayes at once by importunities sometymes pressed and as it were packed vp into lesse roome then his owne dimensions did require by crowdes of people and (c) Christ our Lord maintayned his grace and Beauty notwithstāding all the incōmodities to which he was put euer to haue beheld in his very face such an altitude of peacefull piety and such a depth of humility and such an vnlimitted and endlesse extent of Charity by remouing all diseases and dangers both of body and soule as heereafter (d) In the discourse vpon his Miracles will be shewed more at large for a man I say to haue had the sight of such an obiect would be sure I think to haue freed him from euer longing after any other Of Titus it was said that he was deliciae humani generis the very ioy and comfort of the world for the sweet receptiō which he vouchsafed to make to all commers Of Iulius Caesar it is recorded that being threatned with danger of a mutiny and defection in his army he spake to his souldiers this one only word Quirites (e) That word did shew that he held them no longer for souldiers of his but only as citizens of Rome and that thought pierced theyr harts with sorrow shame wtih such circumstances of grace and wisedome as that he drew al their hartes towards him at an instant It is true and it was much and there haue not beene many Caesars in the world But yet away with Caesar a way with Titus they were but durt and filth when they were at the best and now like damned spirits their soules are cursing God in hell And what Titus or Caesar dares shew himselfe when once there is question of grace and wisedome in presence
changed their Lordes and formes of gouerment and not only the feilds haue bene bedevved but euen great Riuers haue beene dyed vvith bloud The (e) The great weakenesse of man euen besides his Wic kednes vveakenesse of man euen abstracting from expresse and malicious vvickednes is a lamentable thing to looke vpon Hovv often do vve erre in that vvherin vve procure least to faile vvho hath not desired and euen purchased many things vvhich he thought had beene a meanes to make him happy from vvhich yet he hath gathered nothing but the bitter fruit of misery No (f) The miserable incōstācy of man Cane is so vveake no vvinde is so inconstant and vvauering from the imoueable North as man is frō the Center of his rest by the variety of contrary dispositions which raigne in him Making him to be now merry and then melancholy now deuout then distracted Nay he sometymes who is valiant temperate wise happy within an hower after will be fearefull luxurious indiscreet and miserable and euen himselfe shall scarce know how that growes nor why So that not only euery Country and Citty family is vpon all warnings subiect to mutation towards the worse but there is no particular man who euen in his owne bosome hath not the woefull sense of such disorder confusion and restlesse variety of discourse that vnlesse our Lord God had vouchsafed and resolued vpon some remedy neither would our possessession haue beene free from desolation nor our bodies from destruction nor our soules from damnation S. Augustine exclaimeth thus by occasion of his owne particular and what then might he haue done vpon the general Tibi (g) How iustly my we all imitate that incōparable Saint in saying this Confes lib. 6. cap. 16. S. Leo ser 2. de Natiuit Dom. laus Tibi gloria fons misericordiarum ego fiebam miserior tu propinquior To thee be prayse to the be glory O thou fountaine of mercy I grew further of from thee by misery thou camest nearer me by mercy For when the world was at the worst and wickedest then did our Lord the God of heauen and earth whose very nature is goodnesse it selfe whose will is power and whose worke is mercy resolue vpon the remedy therof His (h) Nor should we content our selues in doing small seruices to such a Lord of loue as this pitty was not satisfied with contynuing the whole world to our assistance and seruice although by sinne we had forfeited the same It was not satisfied with mainteyning to vs the vse of our faculties and senses wherby we had yet procured to employ our selues wholly to his dishonor It was not satisfied with rayning downe sweet showers of other blessings blowing ouer many bitter stormes of vengeance which his iustice would faine haue powred vpon vs. In fine it was not satissied with such expressions as are wont to be made by the deerest partes of flesh and bloud nor would lesse serue his turne then to giue vs his owne only Sonne for our totall redresse And yet not only for the sauing vs from hell which is but the paine due to sinne but for the guilt also it selfe of sinne which is in comparably worse For so God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that (i) By Faith working with charity but Faith without workes is dead as sayth S. Iames. Prou. 22. whosoeuer should beleeue in him Ioan. 3. might not perish but haue euerlasting life And so that was verified which was said by the mouth of his holy Spirit Diues pauper obuiauerunt sibi Dominus autem operator vtriusque The rich man and the poore haue met one another and our Lord is the worker of both For who so rich as God he being the abundance and the very inexhaustednesse itselfe of all plenty and what is so poore a thing as man and such a man as was euen vpon the very brimme of dropping downe into the bottome of hell if our mercifull Lord had not put himselfe betwene him and home The Originall Roote and Motiue of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered CHAP. 9. THE Loue which our Lord Iesus was pleased to shew mankind is found to be very different from that which the men of this world are wont to beare to one another For either we loue them who are rich that they may reward vs or who are vsefull that they may help vs or who are beautifull that they may delight vs and the best kind of loue which we are wont to beare is when we giue it by way of gratitude for some benefits or fauours which vve haue receiued But (a) The differēce of the loue which our Lord beares to vs in respect of that which we beare to one another man in relation to Christ our Lord was so poore and so deformed a thing and so vvholly disobliging him to loue as that there vvas nothing in man which might so much as speake of challenging any at his hands It may also seeme a greater vvonder hovv he could induce himselfe to loue vs since as there vvas no merit on our side so there vvas no passion or blinde capriciousnesse on his vvhich yet is the thing that cooples creatures together many tymes in the chaynes of loue vvithout all desert For (b) The former doubt is solued by considering the first motiue of the loue of our Lord to vs. the soluing of this doubt at the very roote therof we must resort to the motiue of the loue of Christ our Lord. Amor de Dios. Which was not as Doctour Auila doth excellently shew any perfection in vs but only that which was in himselfe and which by his contemplation of his eternall Fathers wil was put in motion towards mankind It depended vpon that solemne decree which with infinite mercy was made by the most blessed Trinity of imploying him vpon the Redemption and Saluation of the world When therfore he became Incarnate in the pure wombe of his all-immaculate mother in the very instant of the Creation of that most holy soule which was infused into his pretious body it was indued vvith all those incomparable blessings and graces vvherof vve haue already spoken and all vpon no other originall ground but onely because our Lord God vvas pleased to amplify extend his bountiful hand ouer that sovvle and so to exalt his ovvne goodnes both tovvards it and vs. Nor euen vvas that soule then in case to haue performed any one act vvhich might be meritorious in the sight of God out of vvhose pure and primitiue grace and mercy those vnspeakeable benefits vvere bestowed But vvhen in that happy instant vvherin it vvas created it did first open the eyes (c) What vnspeakeable affections would be raysed in that soule by that sight of her already deified vnderstanding and did see her selfe freely made that excellēt thing vvhich God is only able
very dunge doth saue both men beasts so greately hath God multiplyed his mercy How deere is this Oyle and yet how cheape It (b) How Grace is both deer cheape is cheape and common and withall it giueth health If it were not cheape it would neuer haue been powred vpon me if it were not wholsome it would neuer be able to recouer me Without doubt saith he there is a resemblance betwene the name of spouse and oyle nor did the holy ghost in vayne compare them to one another For my part vnlesse somewhat which is better do occurre to you I hold it to be for these three qualities For it shyneth it feedeth and it annoynteth It entertaines the fire it feeds the body it asswageth paine It is Light Food Phisicke Now see if it be not iust so in this name of the Spouse It shyneth when it is preached It feedeth when it is considered and asswageth and suppleth when it is inuoked Is not saith he this name of Iesus both Light Food Phisicke to you What doth so nourish and fat the soule which feeds vpon it All food of the soule is dry if it be not bedewed with this Oyle It is inspide if it be not sprinkled with this salt If (c) Obserue admire and imitate this sweet Saynt thou write I haue no gust in it vnlesse I may read the name of Iesus there If thou dispute or conferre it contents me not vnlesse I heare the sound of Iesus Iesus is hony in the mouth it is musicke in the eare and it is a melting kind of ioy in the hart Thus doth this holy Saint expresse himselfe in the place alleadged concerning this particular He also sheweth there at large how it is that (d) Our Lord Iesus is not only the Food but light also and the Phisicke of the whole world light illuminating the world and the pretious Phisicke curing all the wounds miseries therof as heere for breuities sake I haue onely shewed our of him that it is the food which strengthneth vs in all our weakenes Such hath beene the spirit of deuotion of the Saints in the Christian Catholike Church from the first to the rest and now at last in this present age towards this holy name of Iesus Nay we see that by his goodnes it is rather improued then decreased now For in very many Citties there are kept euery weeke though not in the same but different churches thereof deuout solemnities in memory and honor of this supereminent name of our Lord Iesus And we also see that the two great Lights of this last age of ours S. Ignatius of Loyola S. Teresa were so deerly deuoted to this holy name that the latter of them for this cause hath deserued to haue the name of her owne family as it were forgotten and that now she is knowne insteed therof by the Name (e) The Deuotion of S. Ignatius S. Teresa to the name of Iesus of IESVS as being called Teresa of IESVS And the former though he kept his owne name to his owne person yet to shew how intirely and how irreuocably he had giuen all away to the seruice of our Lord Iesus and withall to proue the reuerēce religiō which he bare to that diuine name of his he did in the instituting of his Society renounce the appellation of his owne name and (f) See in the life of the Saint he ordayned it to be eternally called vnder the honour and only auow of the holy Name of Iesus I omit heer to shew how supernaturally the Saint was concurred withall heerin by our Lord himselfe how by the visible head of his Church the Society hath bene successiuely confirmed vnder this Title but I only consider what deuotion these two so high seruāts of our Lord had to it in conformity of that spirit which hath still inflamed the hartes of the former Saints of the Catholike Church In this (g) The wonderful effects which haue beene wrought by the deuotion of Christiās to the holy name of Iesus Name it is that deuills haue beene cast both out of bodyes and soules That the faith hath bene planted among Pagās That worlds of miracles both corporall and spirituall haue bene wrought in confirmation therof That Martyrs haue bene made tryamphant ouer all the bitter torments which men or deuills could inflict That so many millions of vgly and importunate temptations haue bene ouercome millious of desolations motions of despaire driuen away millions of serene sweet comfortes brought into the soule and in fine that whatsoeuer is miserable and sinfull hath bene remoued and whatsoeuer is holy and happy hath bene procured for Christians at the liberall hand of our Lord. Yet all this is not so idly meant nor is to be so ill vnderstood as if these benefits would acrew to such as should only care to pronounce the bare Name of Iesus without any reuerence or faith and loue of him whose name it is But only they are praysed heer and that most worthily who are deuoted to his diuine name as signifying the Sauyour of the world who is expressed therby the same being a means by which the mind is made to ruminate and reflect often vpon him And they who ar not yet deuoted are exhorted to it as to the loue of a liuely picture of an admirable Originall or rather as of a curious cup wherin most pretious liquor is contayned or in fine as of the very compendium whole abbreuiated History of all that excesse which our Lord did say or do or els endure in this mortall life for the redemption of man And indeed how can they loue our B. Sauiour who delight not in that deere name of his which declares him so cleerly to be a Sauiour and who follow not the stepps of the holy seruants and Saints of God whose harts haue so tenderly melted in their deuotion to this sacred name of our Lord Iesus Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings CHAP. 16. BVT to returne againe and so to take our leaue of those Sheephards who were surprised by this new borne Lord of ours as if it had beene with the netts of loue neere at hand we may obserue how he tooke those three Kings by shooting them from a farre off with a starre which strooke them at the hart S. Augustine complaines but he doth it like himselfe after a most deer and tender manner that our Lord had also peirced his hart with loue Confes l. 9. cap. 2. Sagittaueras tu cor nostrum charitate tua gestabamus verba tua transfixa visceribus Thou hadst saith he O Lord shot through our hartes with thy loue and we bare thy words in our bowells wherby they were strucken from side to side In like manner did he shoot through the harts of these holy men in whose person he consecrated
the whole body of Gentilisine to himselfe Now (a) The difference betweene the arrowes of Gods mercy of his Iustice Psalm 119. God hath arrowes of diuers sortes The arrowes of his Iustice are pointed and they wound and kill Sagittae potentis acutae cum carbonibus desolatorijs Those arrowes of that mighty man are sharp and they carry at the heads therof certeyne coules as hoat as the fire of hell But the arrowes of his mercy and Charity are forked and barbed and though they wound it is farre from being to death vnlesse it be a sweet death of loue besides those arrowes do not loose their hold And so that Archer with his long Arme can by that very arrowe draw the wound and wounded person within his reach that so after the wound hee may giue the cure In this manner did our Lord by that starre both strike and draw those Magi after it Matt. 2. till at last they arriued in that stable which was then growne to be a heauen on earth There in the throne of his sacred Mothers armes they adored their Lord hauing already been made so rich as to receaue wherwith they might make a present to him and do him homage For (b) All comes frō God both the meanes wherby the mind wherwith any good is done of him it was that they had both the meanes and minde wherwith they made him a fit present which yet withall he was pleased should be such that it might as a man may say be two to one against himselfe For though by the Gold which they offered they did him homage as to their king yet the Frankencense fignified the Priesthood which he was to exercise in their seruice both at the last supper and vpon the Crosse and the Mirrhe was to put him in minde of his buriall which must suppose his precedent death Let him that can contemplate the ardent loue of our Lord which swells slames in euery circumstance of those actions which any way concerne this sacred Infancy of his For no sooner was he borne but he had his death and passion in his eye And besides it deserues our admiration to see with what suauity that diuine goodnes was pleased to gather the first flower of the Gentils with his holy hand It was said of God before Psalm 108. by the Prophet Dauid Quia ipse cognouit figmentum no strum record at us est quoniam puluis sumus He knew wherof we were made he remembred that we are but dust This was said longe ago but it is practised dayly and howerly on vs. And in conformyty of this knowledge his loue is neuer fayling to condescend to our naturall inclinations (c) The great goodnes of God in condescēding to man Sometymes he serues himselfe of our secular studies sometymes of our vaine curiosities yea and sometymes of our very sinnes wherby he may cyther dispose vs to a conuersion from heresy or any other impiety or els to a vocation to his better seruice So I think may any man obserue in himselfe that our Lord hath proceeded towards him so it is euident that he procceded with these Magi (d) The Magi were taken and brought to God by the bayte booke of their own naturall inclination For as they had much imployed thēselues vpon the contemplation of nature by meanes of the Starrs so by a starre which was the likelyest lure to which they might be drawne to stoope for though their eyes looked vpward for a while yet soone after it brought them downe vpon their knees at the sight of the diuine infant he vouchsafed to summon them to his seruice How certaine must it be that the loue of our Lord did subdue and melt the soules of these holy men after a strange manner whose messenger alone the starre did so illuminate and in flame them interiourly that they felt not the incommodities and daungers of so longe labourious a pilgrimage as they were making It may also be further seene by this That vpon the recouery of the sight therof for whilst they were in Ierusalem the starre was seene by them no more to teach vs that (e) Courts are not proper for contemplation of celestiall thinges Courts and store of company are not wont to intertaine but rather to estrange our internall eyes from the sight of heauen the sacred text doth thus declare in most weighty words the excesse of ioy which they were in Matt. 2. Videntes autem stellam gauisi sunt gaudio magno valde Vpon the recouery of the sight of the Starre they reioyced and it was with a mighty and most excessiue ioy And when it had led them to that stable where the Omnipotent Infant lay neither was the eye of their faith obscured not the edge of their most reuerent and withall most ardent loue abated but rather whet by that shew of humility and pouerty which they met withall And they opened their treasures they made litter as it were of their owne Royall persons and were so rauished by those diuine beames of Charity which passing from that Sphere of fire of our Lords sacred hart did seize on theirs that in their returne they had now no more thoughts of meaning to be regaled by Herod according to the purpose which they had made before For by (f) Vpon the sense of celestiall comforts the delights of this world grow contēptible that tyme they were fedd from the table of heauē with supernaturall visions and most sweet solid comforts of that kind from our Lord they carryed home another manner of heat and ioy then the Starre which was but a figure of our Lord could helpe them to in their going thither Though yet those holy soules were the least part of that obiect vpon which the loue of our Lord did meane to worke for we it was who in their persons were designed And therfore as the holy Catholike Church doth vse these words of S. Paul Tit. c. 3. in the office which she celebrates on Christians day Apparuit benignitas humanitas Saluatoris nostri Dei non ex operibus iustitiae quae fecimus nos sed secundum suam misericordiam saluos nos fecit c. The benignity and sweete mercy of God our Sauiour hath bene made cuident and cleare to vs not through any workes os iustice which we haue wrought but according to his owne mercy wherby he saued vs c. So may we also vse them in the consideration of this holy mistery of his Epiphany Nay we may doe it in some respects vpon a more particular reason For in the Natiuity our Lord did appeare manifest himself to the Iewes in chiefe but heer in (g) The Epiphany doth most properly belong to vs who descend from Gētiles the Epiphany he seems to haue had a particular ayme at the vocation of the Gentils from whome we find our selues descended Then he reueyled himselfe to vs who
vvould faine haue hindred their childreÌ„s death but his grovving out of pure and perfect loue out of a thirst of their instant and eternall good he permitted it to his ovvne bitter griefe And by (g) A stroÌ„g comfort to such as are persecuted for the cause of Christ our Lord. the selfe same measure vve may also discerne the same loue vvhich by our Lord is borne to all the rest of his seruants vvhome he suffereth to suffer for his truth and he deserueth to be adored vvith all our soules since he makes euen them vvho pretend meane to be our greatest enemies to be the chiefest instuments of our glory and good The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt CHAP. 19. THIS act of so great loue vvas in the hart of our Lord Iesus but he contents not himselfe to loue vs only vvith his hart vnlesse vvithall he may put himselfe to further paine and shame And behould vvhen he vvas fast a sleepe in those deere armes of his all-imaculate and most holy mother and in house with that holy Patriarcke S. Ioseph an Angell appeared to that Saynt being also at that tyme a sleepe Requiring him to rise Matt. 2. and take the child and his mother and to fly into Egipt and there to remaine till he should be willed to returne because Herod would procure to destroy the child But where shall we find meanes wherewith to admire and adore this Lord of ours Who for the discouery of the infinitenes of his loue would vouchsafe so farre to ouer shadow the omnipotency of his power as that he being the Lord of Angells would be directed by an Angell a Obserue the strange humility charity patience of our Lord in this Mystery and being God himselfe would be disposed of by a man and being the seate and Center of all true repose would be raysed from his rest at midnight together with that heauenly Virgin to be sent flying from the face of an angry tyrant in so tender yeares into a Country so remote so incommodious so barbarous and so Idolatrous It was a iourney of (*) Three hundred English â—â—yles See Baradius Tom. 1. l. 10. cap. 8. twelue daies at the least for any stronge traueller could not be of lesse then thirty or forty for this little family which was forced to be fleeting thus from home This family which was compoÌ„ded of a man in yeares who loued to conuerse in the howse of his owne holy hart a most pure and most delicate virgin who was not wont to be shewing herselfe to strange places and persons and that excellent diuine infant who would permit himself to want as much assistaÌ„ce as that weake state could need which must needes increase the trouble both of them and him Their pouerty without all doubte was very great for though the Magi when they opened and offred of their treasures to him must be thought to haue left inough for the contynuall entertainement of such a company yet by a circumstance which may be considered heere it will be euident that they were growne poore againe For at the Prosentation of our Lord in the Temple wherof I haue already spoken but heer it will be fit to looke backe vpon it once agayne our B. Lady was and would be purified Not that she had need of being purisied she in comparison of whose high purity the most pure Seraphims of heauen are but drosse and dust but because our Lord her Sonne would be subiect to the imputation of sinne by Circumcision our B. Lady his mother would be thought subiect to the comon shame of mothers by purification To which heroicall act of contemning her selfe our Lord by his example had drawne her thereby withall did make vs knowe that it was not impossible for meere creatures by meanes of that grace (b) The omnipotency of Gods grace which is imparted to vs with so much loue to abandon and dispise our selues and not only to be content but euen delighted in being dispised by others Now at the Purification of al women an oblation was to be made by order of the law and a lambe was to be offred by the rich and a paire of Turtle doues or two yong Pigeons Leuit. 12. by the poore And (c) A demonstration to prooue what shift our B. Lady made to grow quickly poore agayne since this latter was the offring which the B. Virgin made it is cleere that through her charity to others her selfe would needs become poore againe She hauing such a stronge example of pouerty before her eyes as that God should make himselfe a naked child for the good of men and she not fayling to learne and lay vp the lesson of this vertue which was the first that was made to her by our B Lord. So that since they were persons so very poore and so vnfit for trauaile and to take a iourney of so great imcommodity and lengh without so much as an ynch of any ground of hope that after such or such a tyme expired they should returne was such a dish ful of difficultyes for them to feed vpon as could neuer haue been digested if it had not been dressed and sawced with the most ardent loue of our Lord lesus By this example of his he hath giuen vs stronge comfort in all those banishments distresses which we may be subiect to And it hath wrought so well with the seruants of God as that they haue triumphed with ioy for the happines of being able to suffer shame or sorrow for his sake But (d) The great change which was wrought in Egypt after the Presence of our Lord Iesus especially did it worke wonders in that rude and wicked Country of Egypt For he had no soeuer perfected the mistery of our redemption vpon the Crosse but through the odour of his sacred infancy that Prouince did early get a kind of start beyond all the others of the vvorld in breeding and nursing vp huge troopes of famous Marlyrs Anchorites Eremits and other holy Monks in the strongest Mortification and penance which hath beene knovvn in the Christian vvorld And novv let vs see vvho hath the face vvhervvith to deny or the hart vvhervvith to doubt the effects of the infinite loue vvhich our Lord did shevv by this flight of his into Egipt Where such a renouation of the invvard man vvas made as that insteed of dogs and catts and serpents and diuels vvhich vvith extraordinary diligence of superstition were vsually there adored beyond the other parts of the world so many Tryumphant Arches were erected there so shortely after in honour of Christ our Lord as there were high and happy soules who consecrated themselues to his seruice in a most pure and perfect manner with detestation of all those delights which flesh and bloud is wont to take pleasure in And they imbraced with the armes both of body and soule all those difficulties
publishing his Ghospell did expresse in his holy Baptisme and consequently to that Charity which cast him vpon the practise of this profound impenetrable humility For it was (a) Our Lord Iesus began all from Charity we must beginne all from Humility not in him as it is in vs who must beginne with acts of humility as with the foundation that so we may arriue to Charity afterward which is the consummation of a spirituall building But in him all moued at the very first from pure and perfect Charity which was as a kind of cause of his humility They want not good ground of reason who affirme that betwene the Birth and death of Christ our Lord he neuer performed an act of greater loue then in being thus Baptized For as the expression of true loue consisteth more in doing then in saying so consisteth it also much more in suffering then in doing And as the least sinne is more abhorred by a soule which is faithfull to God then the sensible toâ—ments euen of Hell it selfe So the dishonor for that soule to be thought sinfull which is not only pure but wholly impeccable as that of Christ our Lord and Sauiour was doth sarre outstrippe all other aspersion and infamy whatsoeuer as was also insinuated else where Yet (b) By how rugged waies our Lord Iesus was content to passe in his loue to vs. by these rugged wayes would he passe and vpon these bitter pills would he seed yea and he did it with vnspeakeable ioy for loue of vs. And not only had he bene content to be Circumcised which shewed as if he had bene obnoxious to Originall sinne but to declare that the his loue longer he liued amongst vs the more care he to vs. tooke to shew how he loued vs he now vouchsafed to be baptized which according to all apparence did betoken as if he had been subiect euen to actuall sinne To this let it be added that since Circumcision was ordayned by the law to which although he were not boÌ„d indeed yet was it thought that he was bound it might not only seeme fit but euen iust that he should be Circumcised both to doe honour to the law and to preuent all scandall of the people But for him to receiue the Baptisme of S. Iohn was no appointement of the law of God but a meere voluntary deuotion which might haue bene forborne without any sinne or the iust offence of any man And (c) It was a farre greater act of humility for our Lord to be baptized theÌ„ to be circumcised therfore as I was saying it was admirable humility performed out of vnspeakeable charity that for our example and benefit our Lord would fasten such a marke of actuall sinne vpon himselfe But the gratious eye of our Lord being lodged vpon the miseries of man and his hart beeing full of most ardent desire of our felicity he contemned himselfe and resolued to enter into the waters Luc. 7. And though S. Iohn being then the greatest among the sonnes of men did well know and with a most deiected faythfull hart acknowledge how farre he was from being worthy to baptize that true naturall Sonne of God yet so precise was the pleasure of Christ our Lord in this particular that the holy Baptist betooke himselfe to his obedience And our Lord vouchsafed to let him know and vs withall that perfect Iustice is not obserued where the heroycall acts of Humility and Charity are not performed S. Iohn had bene preaching the doctrine of pennance to the levves immediatly vvherupon they vvere baptized by him in Iordan Matt. 3. And the holy Scripture affirmes that Christ our Lord vvas baptized after them as resoluing belike to be the last of the company And vvithall it is very probable by the sacred Text Ibid. that he vvould also be present at the sermon of S. Iohn like a common Auditour and being the increated wisedome of God he vouchsafed to seeme as if he had needed to be taught by man What proclamations are these of his affection to vs and of direction how we are to proceed with others It being reason that we should blush euen to the bottome of our harts when we take our selues in the manner of striuing for precedence euen of our equalls whilst yet we see the SoÌ„ne of God place himselfe after all his inseriours And (d) Lay good hold on these lessons when we shall thinke much to resort for Sacraments other spirituall comforts to such as we conceaue to be any way of inferiour TaleÌ„ts to our selues Or els when we shal haue shame to frequent the remedies of sinne when heere we may behould the Sauiour of all our soules and the institutor of all the holy Sacraments through ardent charity assist at a sermon and receaue the water of Baptisme with profound humility from the tongue from the hand of a mortall man himselfe being the King and the God of men But the seuerall spirituall aduices which our Lord IESVS did giue vs by the example of his high vertues in this mistery though they be in themselues of great importance towards the shewing of his loue yet doe they lessen when they are compared to that maine drift which he had in this holy Baptisme of his For his prime (e) The principall scope which it seemes that Christ our Lord had in his being baptized meaning was vpon the cost of his Humility and Charity expressed by his being thus baptized to institute a more high soueraigne Baptisme in the nature of a Sacrament By the grace wherof all soules might be washed and cleansed from sinne as certainly as any body is from spots vpon the application of common water O boundles sea of loue which no baÌ„cks of our iniquity could keepe in from breaking out ouer the whole world His loue it was which made him vndergoe the paine of putting his pure naked body vnder water and of shame to be thought a sinfull creature That so by the merit of such loue as water washeth other creatures himselfe might wash euen the very water yea and sanctify all the water in the world towards the beautifying of soules by the meanes of his pretious merits How clearly doth it shew that Christ our Lord is an equall and incomparable kind of friend to all for he placed the remedy of all the Originall sinne of little children and both of the Originall sinne and actuall of such as are already coÌ„uerted baptized to the faith of Christ our Lord when they are of yeares not (f) How good cheape a Christian man be Baptized in the taking of generous wines nor in the application of costly Bathes nor in the drinking pearles and pretious stones distilled into some pretious liquor but only in being touched by a little pure simple water wherin the beggar is as rich as the King And howsoeuer his holy Church which is inspired and guided by his holy spirit hath ordeyned in the exercise
loue wherwith our Lord did make the way thither so easy to them We may well be assured of the truth of that testimony of S. Iohn Baptist when he said Ma. That he who should baptize after him would doe it in the holy Ghost And we may safely say that it was the holy Ghost which could eleuate such a poore peece of nature as common water is to an immediate instrument as now we find it for the washing saÌ„ctifying of all our soules For instantly after the Baptisme of Christ our Lord and the prayer which was made vpoÌ„ it he saw that the very heauens did open which had beene shut till then by the sinne of Adam Ibid. and the holy Ghost descended on him in a visible forme Which our Lord IESVS obteyned not for himselfe who was already full of it Ioan. 1. beyond all measure but he obteyned it for vs for of his fulnes we all receaue and so there is none of vs baptized vvhose soule is not highly visited by the holy Ghost And no meruaile if heauen hauing neuer bin seene open before that time such an aboundance of the holy Ghost vvere then communicated to the vvorld vvhich till then vvas little knovvne The promises and blessings of that old lavv vvere temporall terrene and a land slowing with milke and hony vvas (b) The seruile coÌ„dition of the people of God vnder the old law the fairest Lure vvherby that Carnall people could be made to stoope to any obedience to the commaundements of God But novv the earth vvas grovvne too poore a token for his diuine Majesty to send to then vvho vvere so beloued by his only begotten sonne that sonne vvho in contemplation of their good had performed such an act of heroicall call vertue in this holy Baptisme of his And therfore heauen vvas set open and the most pretious treasure therof Confes l. 13. cap. 7. sent dovvne to dravv men vp For the vncleanes of our spirit as S. Augustine sayth dissolueth it selfe downeward through a loue of cares and the sanctity of Gods spirit doth rayse vs vpward by a loue of secure repose That so our harts may ascend vp towards thee O God where thy spirit is carried ouer the waters and that we may arriue to that supereminent rest when our soules shall haue passed through these waters wherupon we can ground no rest But euen in respect of Christ our Lord himselfe though his soule vvere then already so full of grace as not to be capable of addition yet vvas it most agreable to the vsuall stile and the infinite iust goodnes of God that the humility of this action should be ansvvered and acknovvledged vvith vnusuall glory And therfore that he vvho had so abased euen as it vvere buried himselfe vp in vvater Ioan. 1. and submitted his head to one who was not worthy to vnty his shoe should be auovved from heauen vvith the Curtaines open dravvne To be the beloued sonne of God Matt. 3. And so a certaine and solemne instance vvas giueÌ„ of that truth vvhich may goe for the dayly and standing miracle of the Christian Catholike Church That as soone as a soule shall haue truly humbled it selfe for the loue of God euen then it receaues and feeles a revvard from heauen vvhich fills the hart full of ioy Glory then I say vvas due to his humility and for as much as nothing can pay loue but loue the attribute of Beloued was also due and best deserued by his loue And because his loue for the loue of God was so immense to man the holy Ghost it selfe which is the al and only infinite loue was sent downe vpon him in a visible manner by whome it was afterward to be conueyed to men And euen the very shape wherin God was pleased that it should appeare may serue to make vs know that all the actioÌ„ did begin end in loue For it was of a doue (b) The fruytes of the holy ghost are figured fitly in a Doue what creature is more apt for loue then this What creature is more fruitefull more speedy more sweet more stronge more honest and yet more amourous then this Deteyning her mate when he would depart with more desire and expecting him when he is absent with more ioy The doue was therfore the signe of the holy Ghost which descended vpoÌ„ Christ our Lord as soone as he was baptized to shew that his hart was ouerwhelmed with loue both to God and man Whilst for the pure glory of the one and the perfect good of the other he submitted himself to paine and shame for the sanctifying of sinners and that by a most sweet easy means to vs he cared not though he were accounted one himselfe Yea not being content to be only thought so heere by men the restlesnes of his loue did worke so fast vpon him as to make him not disdaine to be mistaken therin by the diuells also and to be tempted in the wildernes by the Prince of darcknes as the next discourse will declare Of the vnspeakeable Loue to vs which our Lord Iesus shewed in his being tempted in the wildernes by the Diuell CHAP. 23. IT is full of truth which hath bene said Omnis Christi actio vitâ—e nostrae est instructio Euery action of our Lord may serue for an instruction to vs in this life of ours Or rather it is most true that there is no action at all of his which instructs vs not many wayes (a) All the actions of Christ our Lord are as a hidden Manna to our soules which is not a kind of hidden Manna deliuering to euery hungry and thirsty soule a tast of that particular vertue which it needs That Christ our Lord would be baptized was to be enroled in the list of sinners according to the iudgment of men but in sine they were men who would make that iudgment with men he loued and he was come into the world to procure their good and at last he knew that he would deliuer them from that errour But for the sonne of God who was also God to abase and as it were forget himselfe so farre as to submit that superexcellent soule of his which was adored by al the Angells of heaueÌ„ to be subiect for the manifold benefit of man so farre as to be tempted by that damned spirit doth betoken such a strange loue to vs as puts all discourse to silence and the best created vnderstanding that euer was may be halfe excused if it shall loose the very witts with wonder If the difference be great betwene one man and another euen amongst good men homo homini quid praestat if it be great betwene a good maÌ„ a bad if it be yet greater between a most wicked man a most glorious Saint what difference shall we thinke there is betwene God and the diuell And what scales can haue the strings long enough to giue scope that one
endeauoured to procure and increase And if this haue appeared in the misteries of his holy Baptisme and Temptation it vvill doe so no lesse if not rather more in that vvhich novv shall present it selfe concerning the vocation of his Apostles Disciples to his seruice Of the great Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to mankind in the Vocation of his Aposiles CHAP. 27. IT is not strāge that God should shew himselfe like God nor consequently that in all the actions of Christ our Lord who as man was Gods most excellent instrument his soueraigne power and wisedome and goodnes should much appeare This is true in them all especially is it so in this of the Vocatiō of his Apostles wherin he doth admirably declare quòd disponat omnia suauiter pertingat à fine vsque ad finē fortiter That he disposeth of all things sweetly yet reacheth from one end to the other with a hand of strength His (a) The end of the Incarnation and Passion of Christ our Lord. busines in this world was to redeeme it by his pretious bloud the merit wherof was to be applied to mens soules by faith and loue and that was to be rooted in them by the preaching of his doctrine the administration of such Sacraments as he came to institute in that Church which he meant to plant And because himselfe was to returne to his Father and the reconciliation of mankind to God was to contynue in acting till the end of the world he resolued vpon ordayning and sending Ambassadours into it for that purpose 2. Cor. 5. As Saint Paul affirmed afterward Pro Christo ergo legatione fungimur c. We Apostles and all Apostolicall men are Ambassadours sent into the world by Christ our Lord for the reconciliation of it to God The Hypostaticall Vnion wherby the Diuinity of the second person of the B. Trinity was vnited to the humanity of Christ our Lord gaue him power to doe what and when he would And he might haue called his Apostles either in his infancy or afterward by only inuisible inspirations or els as foone as he meant to appeare in the office of teaching But to giue vs example how to carry our selues in all our actions and especially in such as concerne the glory of God and the good of soules he would not enter vpon this busines till himselfe had visibly beene baptized and auowed by a voyce from heauen to be the welbeloued sonne of God in reward of that deepe humility which he exercised by such an act as that He also differred to call them instantly after he was baptized because at the first they would not haue been fit to accompany him in such austerity as he resolued to endure in the desert Whereby he also gaue vs a lesson both to vse prudence and charity when we haue cause to serue our selues of others He was neuer in any danger of being distracted from God in any one moment of his life neither yet was he in doubt but that he should call his Apostles in such sort as would be most agreable to the diuine will but yet before he would vndertake it Luc. 6. he retyred himselfe into a mountaine all alone And that blessed soule spent the whole night in prayer and (b) The soueraigne excellency and vse of prayer therby he gaue vs an example how in all things we were to haue recourse to God by that most holy exercise as the means wherby we might both get light for our vnderstanding and heate and strength towards the accōplishing of his most holy will by the obedience of ours The same Lord God who was the Creator of man would needs also be his Redeemer And for as much as he had made him did well discerne all the windings and turnings of his soule he was able with admirable facility felicity to guid him according to his nature With that skil he proceeded in the Vocatiō of his Apostles some of whom he called by himselfe and some were brought by others whome formerly himselfe had called Some he drew to him by the force of some short single speach and others by discourse or dialogue of greater length And of S. Peeter it is said in holy Scripture that when S. Andrew had brought him to our Lord he looked vpon him which is not said of any other Ioan. 2. Intuitus autem eum Iesus dixit Tu es Sinion filius Ionae tu vocaberis Caephas quod interpretatur Petrus Thou art Symon the sonne of Ionas thou shalt be called Caephas which is by interpretation Peter Ibid. Which word in Syriacke and that was the language with our Lord did speake and the only language with S. Peter vnderstood at that tyme doth signify aswel a Rocke as the name of a mā And the word Intuitus est doth implye that our Lord did enuisage and looke in earnest manner vpon his face Which I hope we shall not thinke but to haue bene both done and sayd vpon some reason of great mistery especially since we see that he bespeakes him for the office of being a Rocke wherupon next to himself he would build his Church In cōformity of which diuine purpose he affoarded him many most particular fauours he cured his mother (1) Luc. 4. in law in his house he (2) Luc. 5. would needs teach men out of his ship and to omit those passages of holy Scripture wherby (3) Matt. 16. Ioan. 21. he inuested him with that highest dignity in his Church in expresse termes he (4) Matt. 17. fetcht a miraculous tribute out of the fishes belly which he paid not only for himselfe but for S. Peter also as for the heire of his house It had bene easy for him to haue imployed Angells in that ministery to which he vouchsafed to depute S. Peter the rest of the Apostles but the (c) The sweet prouidence of our Lord. sweetnes of his prouidēce did exact that men should gouerne men The Angells who were impeccable would neuer haue bene so attractiue of sinners to pēnance for we should haue feared to approach to such humility purity as theirs with such frailty and pride as ours But our Lord was pleased to gouerne vs by men who were obnoxious to our infirmities That so by the experience of what had passed in their ovvne soules they might haue the more compassion of ours and so we might also vvith the more probability of successe aspire to their practise of vertue And they in the meane tyme were to absolue vs not only for once or for an hundred or a thousand tymes but for as often as we should sinne if we grew afterward to be indeed truly penitent But yet at least since he would needs dispatch the great busines of gayning soules by the meanes of mortall creatures a man would haue thought according to all dictamen of humain reason that he should haue chosen the most worthy and well qualified
assured of any coÌ„dition he vvas quickly pleased to shevv the very bovvells of his mercy tovvards them They vvere opened before but then did he let them see hovv he had lodged them all therin For (c) The vnspeakeable fauour with our Lord lesus imparted to his Apostles in regard that they had left their little All for him he admitted them instantly into his ovvne diuine conuersation he instructed them by his heauenly doctrine He gaue them a dominion ouer deuills that they might expell them out of the bodies of men He made them knovv that he vvould leaue them Ambassadours in his place betvvene God and the vvorld That they should haue povver to offer consecrate and consummate his owne pretious body and bloud And to remit or retaine the sinnes of men according to that spirit of vvisedome and the authority vvhich he vvould impart to them for that purpose And that so they must grow to be Treasurers of eternall riches and administrators of all his diuine Sacraments Doctours of the vvhole vvorld And they being so fraile and imperfect men as vve haue shevved before he assumed them to a kind of participation of his ovvne Empire ouer heauen and earth and to a spirituall kind of principality aboue all the Monarks of the vvorld And that vvhich more importeth then all this he declared that they should sit together with himselfe vpon his throne and at the day of Iudgement giue sentence vpon the Twelue Tribes of Israell vvherby the vvhole vvorld is designed So (d) How infinitely we gayne by giuing al to God that heere vve haue meanes to see at hovv high a rate that mony is put out to vse vvhich vve present to God I meane vvhat infinite gaine is raysed by making a deed of guift of the miserable litle thing which vve haue and are to that immense goodnes of his By hearkning with a diligent faith full hart to his holy inspirations vvherby he vvoes vs to become his that in exchange he may be ours It is true that he desires to haue all or none and he hath reason For if this soule of ours with being so poore a thing as it is be yet of such capacity as that nothing which is lesse then God himselfe can content and fill it what a brutish thought would it be in vs to conceaue That our God himselfe could be contented to inioy but a part of vs who are things of nothing and who were all created by him and who are his and only his by so many tytles that hell it selfe is a punishment which comes not home to the crime of our diuiding the soule betwene him creatures He being the sole and supreme truth all (e) All that which concerneth creatures is a meer lye whensoeuer it disobeyeth God or drawes vs from him Confes lib. 10. cap. 22. creatures no better then a pure perfect lye in whatsoeuer they say they are or would seeme to be otherwise then as they yield obedience to the diuine Maiesty S. Augustine doth excellently expresse this particular when reuersing the wandring steps of his ill gouerned youth in the way of confession to almighty God he deliuereth himselfe in this manner Thou art supreme truth who presidest ouer all things Loath I was to loose thee but through my couetousnes I desired to possesse a Lye together with thee This was the reason why I lost thee because thou disdainst to be enioyed in the company of a lye The Apostles therfore when they were called did instantly and wholly giue themselues away with all they had And though the goods which they left were not a matter in themselues of any moment yet they were esteemed to haue giuen much because those happy men reserued nothing to themselues And with the same affection through which they had left that little they were as ready to haue left a thousand worlds for the loue of Christ our Lord. And S. Peter afterward was not affraid to put our Lord in mind therof by these words of his innoceÌ„t and confident Matt. 19. ardent tender loue Behould we haue left all things and followed thee what therfore wilt thou doe for vs He said not that he had left his netts or his house or his boate or this or that but absolutely that he had left all things And (f) The infinite liberality of our Lord Iesus our Lord made him this answere with no lesse then the bounty of a God Amen Amen c. which declareth a most serious affirmation or protestation You who haue followed me shall sit vpoÌ„ thrones at the resurrection of the iust you shall iudge the twelue tribes of Israell And whosoeuer shall haue left his Father or mother or brother or sister or house or land for my names sake shall haue a hundred fold in this world and afterward shall possesse eternall life Yea so liberall is our Lord IESVS as to reward with no lesse then heauen for euery instant of that tyme which we dispose our selues to imploy vpon his seruice And yet his excellency is such as that euen the very only doing him any little seruice is of so great happines to a faithfull soule as that it alone is an ouer-pay foral the paines that can be taken in this life But to shew that our Lord is scarce able to differre the recompence of such as follow him with a ready will we shall see in the next Chapter how he takes some of them as it were into the ioyes of heauen before their tyme. And he who (g) Note heer the excellent loue of Christ our Lord. would not haue them present when he was tempted solitary and in act of penance because perhaps they were not so able to feed so soone vpon such crosses or hard crusts as those did yet resolue that he would not haue some of them absent when he was to be Transfigured vpon the hill But that in recompence of their beginning to doe him seruice for the strengthning of their Faith and Hope and Loue in the processe of it they should tast a dropp of that glory wherwith they were to be inebriated in heauen Of the excessiue Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man in the mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 29. THE Temptation and Transfiguration of our Lord IESVS are liuely instances of hovv hard things he desired to suffer and how excellent things he desired to doe for vs which two â—â—e the most certayne tokens (a) True loue desires not only to do great thinges but to suffer hard thinges Matt. 17. of true loue We haue already considered of his Temptation and now this Mystery of his Transfiguration is thus related in the sacred text That our Lord tooke Saint Peter S. Iames S. Iohn into the top of a high and solitary mountaine to the end that he might pray That whilst he (b) The manner of the Transfiguration of our Lord Iesus was praying he grew to be
most excellent instructions which our Lord through his loue did giue to man in this mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 31. I Should enlarge my selfe too much if I would particularize and presse those instructions which our Lord did giue to all his disciples both liuing then and succeeding afterward in that silent sermon of his Transfiguration and we haue reason to take them all as so many tokens of his tender loue to vs. But because they may seeme so rather by inference and reflection then by way of lineall and direct expression I will content my selfe briefly to point them out In the first place we are told that he assumed those holy and happy disciples of his vp the hill and therby we are taught that we cannot clymbe but when he takes vs by the hand By telling vs also that he would not be transfigured before them but vpon the hill he tells vs that vnlesse she aspire towards (a) No solide and sublime gust in God with out a serious study of perfection Perfction we must content our selues without tasting the delicious fruites of ConteÌ„plation Againe we are heere expresly told that Christ our Lord went vp to pray and that whilst he was in prayer this rapt of Transfiguration came vpon him So that as it was by prayer and coÌ„uersation with God that Moyses came downe from the hill with such a deale of light in his face by prayer also it is that we may receaue innumerable graces and may grow to be transformed in minde which imports vs more then to be transfigured in body By letting vs know that he was transfigured only for that tyme he giues vs to vnderstand how he hid his excellencies both till then and euer afterward and therby he proclaimes to vs by a loud voyce how (b) The more we hide our selues froÌ„ the view of men the more open shall we be to the gracious eyes of God Ibid. carefull we must be to hide our faâ—ours and priuiledges from the eyes of men And the same was also taught yet againe when our Lord IESVS commaunded afterward that they should not speake of that vision till he were risen from the dead By mentioning the Passion when he was in the midst of the Transfiguration we are instructed how to carry our selues in the varieties and changes of this life For in the winter of distresse we must keep our selues aliue by the memory or hope of some consolation eyther to come or past And in the spring or Sommer of spirituall ioy we must free our selues from growing vayne or giddy by thinking of some approach of desolation By the feare of the holy Apostles we may see the misery of mans nature Confel lib. 11. cap. 9. which was so ill drest by Adam that as S. Augustine saith Sic infirmatus est in egestate mea vigor meus vt non sufferam bonum meum So is my vigor taken downe in this infirmity of my condition that I cannot so much as indure mine owne good as heere the Apostles were frighted euen by the fight of so much glory as attends the speaking of a word from heauen And how then must we reuere with a most profound internall awe that God of inaccessible light and infinite Maiesty whose essence is wholly vnconceaueable since his words cannot be heard without extreme apprehension by such wormes of misery as we are By the coÌ„ming of that voyce which was so soone to breake off the vision whilst they were in the midst of those celestiall ioyes by which voyce our B. Lord was declared to be the beloued sonne of God and that they were comaunded to heare him they we are made to know that we are not in this world to looke for a state of contynuall inioying but of labouring The (c) This is a world of sowing and the other of reaping seeing of God and the being to doe so eternally belongs to heauen in this life we are not to looke for seeing but we must attend to hearing and which is meant therby to obeying Heerby he also tells vs that we must not demurre euen in the most spirituall gusts which we may haue when obedience or charity commaunds the contrary Especially since our Lord himselfe made such hast to giue ouer his Transfiguration that he might descend and so proceed first to preaching then afterwards towards his pasion For there was his hart because his loue was euer looking towards vs and had not that same very loue of vs obliged him to be glorious at that tyme for our sakes since the members could not partake of any such influence which came not first from the head yea and euen if they could haue done it yet would it not haue bene so full of sauour to them vnlesse first it had passed from him it appeares well inough both by the antecedents and consequences of his sacred life that he was not eyther greedy after pleasure or weary of taking paines for vs. Loue and pure loue it was which kept his glory all that while in silence Loue it was which made him mortify himselfe as a man may say with taking into his mouth that only tast of ioy And lastly an euerlasting loue it was which carried him in such hast from Mount Thabor to Mount Caluary where he was to be transfigured a fecoÌ„d tyme but after a far other manner For (d) How our Lord Iesus was Transsigured the second tyme vpoÌ„ mount Caluary insteed of glory he was to be all clad with a kind of Leprosy His face was not to be resplendent but loaden partly with impure spittle and partely vvith his ovvne pure svveat and pretious bloud which made a strange kind of marriage together in that sacred and most venerable Temple of the diuinity His garments were no more to be white but spotted with dust and filth the souldiers were to dispose of them by lotts He was not to be placed betwene a Moyses an Elias but to giue him the more solemne bitter scorne he was to be lodged betwene two murthering thecues No bright shyning cloud was there to appeare to doe him honour but the Sunne would be ashamed to behould the soÌ„ne of man so lewdly treated and darknes would couer the whole earth Since therfore we see such deadly signes of loue in his pretious hart towards vs we may haue the honour to be taught by him how to guide our liues let vs dispose our selues with supreme reuerence to giue our eares and hartes (e) Our Lord Iesus is declared our Doctour from heauen to the diuine words of his mouth since he is made our Doctour by no lesse then a voyce which comes from heauen it selfe and that in the name of the eternall Father saying That Christ our Lord is his beloued sonne in whome he is so highly pleased and that him we must be sure to heare We will besides adore him for presenting vs with this admirable vision wherby he hath so aboundantly
inough in giuing vs such an excellent Doctrine and that in such a fashion as hath bene heere described as seeming that this loue hath more of the solid in it then of the sweet let vs cast our eyes vpon the next two Chapters which are to follow this Wherin I will briefly endeauour to shew the excessiue tendernes of the diuine loue which our Lord doth beare to the soule of man And which he hath bene pleased to shew in the Testaments both old and New Wherby he proues himselfe not only to be our God and our Father but our mother also and our Spouse and in fine our all in all which may any way concerne the bearing of an infinite loue to vs. Of the great tendernes of the Loue of our Lord which is shewed to man by the expresse words of holy Scripture and first of the old Testament CHAP. 39. IN the Burse they are wont to aske in-commers what they would haue and what they lacke as if they were able to supply all wants and that a man could not seeke for more then they had the meanes to make him find But yet neuerthelesse when the buyer growes to put them to it and in particular to desire that wherof he hath particular need many things are not to be had and their pouerty or ill prouision doth soone appeare This diuine booke of holy Scripture is another manner of store-house (a) The holy Scripture is a plentifull store house where men find whatsoeuer good thing they want of the tender and maternall loue of our Lord God to man Nor are we subiect to any kind of misery wherof the remedy is not there at hand nor can any affection be thought vpon wherwith as hath been sayd he did not vouchsafe to vest himselfe in most patheticall words to the end that we might be well assured of his incomparable loue It would grow to be a large volume if a man would take hould of many passages amongst the multitudes of them which are there presented especially if he should ponder them as he goes It shall therfore suffice because I make hast to the rest to point only at some very sew and to leaue euen them to the contemplation of my pious reader We shall (b) The most tender loue of our Lord expressed most cleerly in holy Scripture easily discerne therin the indulgence and deernes of his loue and the ioy to which he inuites vs by his holy Prophets We shall not cease from wondring to find a God of infinite Maiesty descend so low and to translate himselfe to such a language of soueraigne and most sweet mercy We shall see how he declares and doth euen as it were vaunt himselfe to be wholly ours and how he hath created and redeemed vs and how in him we had our beginning that in him we shall haue our end without any end and how still betwene those two extremes he would not haue vs so much as feare but that in all our accidents and occasions he would protect and conduct and carry vs free from all shadow of hurt We shall also see how this Lord of Hosts who hath preuented vs with such aboundance of benedictiōs doth still behold vs with the same eyes of strange and tender pitty notwithstanding that we forsake him and despise his law and forfeyt his fauour and dishonor him to the vttermost of our power And how insteed of spitting vs by the furious breath of his mouth into the flames of hell those armes of his mercy are still extended towards these wormes of the earth to keep vs thēce he doth as it were forget himselfe to remember vs and he ponders the offences which we cōmit against an omnipotent God not so much in the nature of a God as of some deere and tender friend who had bene discourteously and vnkindly vsed by his friend We shall see how he represents the little satisfaction which the world and sinne can giue to a soule and how abundātly he had resolued to blesse vs in the depth of his loue if we would haue contynued in his seruice How he (c) He declareth himselfe to vs by most tender comparisons compares himselfe to a mother and then protests that his loue exceeds any mothers loue How he compares himselfe to a Spouse but protests that he loues vs more then any Spouse can doe And now though he make such Court to vs it is not for lacke of Wisedome to see how much he is wronged nor for lacke of power to right himselfe For he discernes weighes and still he wonders at vs for it And as if he were not able to wonder as much as the case deserues he inuites the whole world to doe it with him He declares it by similitudes shewes how the very beasts are more men then wee He askes vs what cause he hath giuen vs that we should be so vnkind He assures vs that if he punish vs now and then it is for our greater good for no long tyme. That (d) Infinite loue he is as it were content to resigne his office of being our Iudge and that he takes his case to be so cleere and that the wronge is so very foule on our side that he will submit himselfe to the sentence of our very neighbours and friends when once his allegations and our answeres are produced to see whether euer he were wanting to vs on his part or if we haue not bene inexcusable on ours And then notwithstāding that we are so detestably faulty as to haue deflowred Laborau◠rogans Ierem. 15. Misi ad vos omnes seruosmeos prophet as consurgēs diluculo◠Ieru 35. and defiled our soules with all commers vpon all occasions and notwithstanding that he represents himselfe as hauing laboured for our good euen till he was weary and that for feare of being preuented he had risen early in the morning to seeke vs that because we were gone seuerall waies he had sent all his Prophets and seruants to find vs out And that although in the tyme past we had bene so wicked as not to valew or esteeme his sollicitations Notwithstanding I say all this and an infinite deale of other excellent demonstrations of his loue which I shall not haue so much as meanes to touch this God of pitty doth still dispose himself to Court and woo vs for the tyme to come that we will returne to him vvith such vnspeakeable deernes as if his very Godhead lay vpon it and as if it vvere not vve vvho vvere the vvretches and vvere to be the damned soules if vve did not instantly repent but as if himselfe vvere to be but a solitary kind of God in heauen vnlesse he might haue vs there to communicate his ovvne felicity to vs. And then in case that vve vvill hearken to him he protesteth that he vvill pardon vs that he vvill purify vs that he will forget that euer vve had so much as offended him and that
if he performe not these mercies to vs he is content that the vvhole vvorld shall reproach him for it To this excesse (e) Our Lord submits himselfe to those lawes of loue which passe between man and man doth the hart of our Lord God extend it selfe tovvards his poore creatures in the vvay of tender loue The hart I say of God vvho being the fountaine of Maiesty and glory disdaines not to liue as it vvere by such lavves vvith vs as are vvōt to haue force amongst mortall men And verily if his ovvne holy spirit had not vouchsafed to record these things in holy vvrit it vvould haue looked like little lesse then blasphemy in vs to haue imputed such affections to him wheras now it is soueraigne bounty in him to make professiō of such things to vs. And to the end you may see that it is not I but he that speakes I will frame his ovvne vvords vvith as little variation as may be into a context (f) Why the seuerall places of Scripture are drawn to a context that so you may the better iudge therof and be the more liuely inflamed therby Though I cannot sometymes but vse some very few vvords of mine ovvn therin as vvell for the connexion of the discourse vvhich is dravvne out of seuerall places as for the more cleere and cordiall vnderstanding therof But I vvill place the beginning of euery such Latin speach in the margent as I shall reflect vpon in the text That so it may be found and seene hovv I haue not svvarued one vvhit from the scope and drift of the holy Ghost in the expression vvhich he makes of his loue to man nor in effect from the very vvords themselues Reioyce saith our Lord with Ierusalem Latamini cum Ierusalem c. Isa 66. doe you exult with her all you who loue her Reioyce with ioy all you who mourne ouer her that you may sucke and so be filled by the breasts of her consolatiō That you may take milke from her and so ouerslow with delights through the absolute and excellent greatnes of her glory For thus saith our Lord Behould I will powre downe vpon her the glory of the Gontills like a flood of peace and like a very torrent which ouerflowes and which you shall suck You shall be carried close to her brests nay they shall (g) See how God descends for it is he who speakes dandle you vpon their knees euen as a mother doth dandle her little one iust so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Ierusalem You shall see it and your harts shall reioyce your very bones shall grow spring at if they were grasse and the hand of your Lord shall be knowne to his seruants and he will be in indignation against their enemies Harken to me Andite me domus Israel c. Isa 46. sayth our Lord thou house of Iacob and all the remnant of the house of Israell You who are conceaued in my wombe and who are carried by me about in my very bowells And I will carry you on till you come to old age and euen to the most decrepite state therof It is I who made you and I will carry you I will conduct you and I will saue you This saith thy Lord Plaec dicit Dominus Isa 43. who created thee O Iacob I who framed thee O Israell Be not affraid for I haue redeemed thee and I haue giuen thee thy name and mine owne thou art When thou shalt passe through the waters I will be with thee and the floods shall not couer thee When thou shalt walke through the very fire thou shalt not be burnt nor shall the flame so much as offend thee Yet all this loue and care of mine hath not bene able to cōtaine thee in any termes In omni colle sublimi Iere. 2. But vpon the Top of euery hill and vnder the auow of euery shade thou hast prostituted thy selfe to all impurity like a harlot I planted thee as a choyce vineyard as a grayne of true and faythfull seed and how art thou therfore growne to be so vnfit to yeild me fruite I hedged thee round about I picked all the stones out of thee I built vp a house in the midst of thee◠and I placed a wine-presse in thee And I expected that thou shouldst haue brought forth ripe grapes thou gauest me none but such as were sower Come therfore (g) He is content to be iudged euen by our very selues Non ego te seruire feci c. Ierem. 41. O you Inhabitants of Ierusalem and you men of Iuda and doe you iudge betwene me and this vineyard of mine What was I to haue done more thē what I did Was I not to haue expected grapes and hath it rendred me ought but veriuyce I made not thee take seruile paines for the oblations which thou wert to offer me Nor did I giue thee toyle and trouble in the procuring of frankencense for me But thou hast made me a slaue to thee by thy sinnes thou hast put me to labour by thine iniquities Yet still I am my selfe I am that very he who wipe away thine iniquities for mine owne sake and I will not retaine the memory of thy sinnes Call me at length to mind and let thee and me be iudged togeather and say if there be any thing which thou caust alleadge in excuse of thy selfe Tell me Popule mens quid feci tibi Mich. 6. Audite caeli c. Isa 1. O my people what offence haue I committed against thee or wherin haue I beene troublesome to thee Answere me Or at least O you heauens do you giue eare and harken O thou earth for the Lord thy God hath spoken it I haue brought vp children and I haue exalted them but they on the other side haue despised me The Oxe hath knowne his owner and the Asse the Manger of his Maister but I sraell hath not knowne me and my people hath no vnderstanding of me Obstupescite caeli super hoc c. Iere. 20 Let the heauens be amazed at this and let the gates therof euen tremble and shiuer For my people hath done two wicked things They haue forsaken me who am the fountaine of liuing waters and they haue made certaine leaking cesternes for themselues where no water can be kept Hearken to me O Iacob Audi 〈◊〉 Iacob c. Isa 48. and Israell whome I call It is I my selfe I am the first and I am the last Thus O Israell sayth thy Lord thy holy redeemer I am the Lord thy God who teach thee profitable things and who conduct thee in the way where thou walkest O that thou hadst applyed thy selfe to the keeping of my commaundements Thy peace should then haue bene as any flood and thy instice as the very swelling mouth of the sea And thy of-spring and seed Lauamini mundi estote Isa 1. as plentifull as the
the Leaprous Another for the Paraliticques Another for the Lunatiques and another for persons who were possessed by deuils who would euer haue contynued so vnlesse that right hand of God had cast them out But (c) A straÌ„ge spectacle what a spectacle then would it haue bene to see a number of diseased distressed and defeated persons at an instant all become new men All the Dumbe being able to speake the Deafe to heare the Lame to goe the blind to see the mad men to discourse with reason and the dying men to shew health and strength How I say would they looke with a face of wonder and amazement vpon one another as scarcely beleuing what they felt and heard and saw when they found the scene of all the world to be so changed at once For then Christ our Lord of whome S. Peter said Act. 10. Quod pertransijt benefaciendo curing all such as were oppressed by the diuell euen as fast as he could goe was rayning (d) The great labour and the great loue of our Lord. downe from those liberall hands of his the seuerall blessings wherof euery one had greatest need And this he did with a hart so tenderly behoulding in euery particular creature the image of his eternal Father that it made him loue the meanest of them a million of tymes more then his owne pretious life And so obseruing how in euery one of theÌ„ that Image was growne to be defaced which himselfe had made he tooke care to reforme it which no power but his could arriue vnto There haue bene in the world certaine ambitious sculptours who conceauing theÌ„selues withall to be of matchlesse Skil would take pleasure and pride when they were in making any curious Image or statue to leaue some eare or fingar or some part of the foot vnfinished Therby sending out a secret kind of defiance to any other of their profession who would presum to make that like the rest But (e) The omnipotent power lone of the diuine Artificer this heauenly Sculptour of ours who made not only the formes but the matter also of the creatures was both more cunning more charitable then the former For at the first he made al the Images of his Father most complete nor was there any want of that perfection vvhich they could desire And aftervvard vvhen they grevv to be defaced broken through the falls vvhich they tooke by actual sinne besides Adams fall which infected theÌ„ vvith original sinne one of theÌ„ wanting an arme another an eye for all these and the like vvere the effects and fruits of sinne he vvas pleased to bring vvith a kind of greedy hart the same hand of strength vvhich before had made those armes and eyes to restore them as by a kind of second creation But O thou infinite God! and vvho shal euer be able to tell vs hovv the tendernes of this loue did make that very hart of thine a kind of most true interiour (f) How the hart of our Lord was the true hospitall of mercy Iob. 29. hospitall wherby all those other hospitalls vvere fed and vvhereinto their miseries vvere receiued and from vvhence they vvere supplyed vvith all that mercy vvherof they had need For if Iob had such a hart as made him be an eye to the blinde a foote to the lame and a Father to the Orphane for as much as he grieued at the miseries vvhich lay vpon poore people and procured to remoue them by vvorkes of mercy hovv much more are vve to beleeue it of Christ our Lord. In (g) No mercy must coÌ„pare with that of Christ our Lord. comparison of vvhose least mercy the greatest mercy of Iob vvas meere cruelty Tell vs therfore deere Lord hovv full that hart of thine vvas of eyes and hovv many vvayes they vvere looking all at once for our both teÌ„porall and eternall good For whilst thou wert curing the bodies of some thou hadst an ayme at the miraculous recouery of the soules of others He cured S. Peter and S. Andrew of the intricate netts and perplexed cares of worldly busines And S. Iames and S. Iohn Matt. 4. Marc. 1. Matt. 9. Marc. â—â— Luc. 5. Luc. 7. not only of wordly affaires but of wordly affections to their friends S. Matthew he brought from vnlawfull gaynes and S. Mary Magdalene from impure pleasures And euery one of these many many more at an instant by the only cast of a countenance or some one single word of his sacred mouth hauing first receaued a tincture from his enamoured hart How the corporall Miracles of our Lord Iesus had an ayme at the reformation of soules and did tend to the discouering and facilitating the beliefe of great Mysteryes CHAP. 44. THE corporall miracles themselues did all carry a kind of respect to the soules either of theÌ„ on whome they were wrought or els of others And that not only by way of purging them in point of life but of illuminating them also by way of most perfect vnderstanding and beliefe yea and yet further by vvay of vniting them to himselfe through pure and perfect loue Fitting euery thing vvith diuine vvisedome to euery person according to the seuerall disposition which he was found to haue Christ our Lord as S. Augustine saith did intend That whatsoeuer he wrought corporally S. Aug. serm 44. de verbis Domini might spiritually also be vnderstood He wrought not saith he those miracles for the miracles alone but that as those things which he exposed to the sight of men were acknowledged to be strange so those other things which he insinuated therby to the vnderstanding might be imbraced as true And S. Gregory declares to the same effect That the miraculous workes of Christ our Lord Hom. 21 in Euang. did shew one thing by the power which they expressed did declare another by the mistery which they coÌ„tained There (a) The relation which corporall diseases haue to spirituall was not therfore a corporal miracle wrought by Christ our Lord which had not also a relation to the discouery and cure of some spirituall disease of the minde The defenes of men did shew a not complying with heauenly inspirations Theyr blindenes a darknes of vnderstanding Their Feuers a boyling vp of sensual appetite which caused extreme disorder in the will Their leaprosies a rooted impurity of the soule Their Lunacies a mad inconstancy of the minde Their Paralisies an vnaptnes and weakenes towards all good workes Their dropsies a gredines after gaine together with a swelling vp of Pride And sinally their being possessed a state of men who were reprobately giuen ouer to sinne together with the bitter seruitude wherin the deuill holdeth such as become his slaues No one sigh was vttered by Christ our Lord no one teare was shed but with intention to instruct vs how to deplore our misery and how to implore the diuine mercy There was (b) The misteries which were contayned
the ceremonies which were sanctified by his miracles not a motion of his hand with relation to the cure of any man wherin some mistery was not wrapped vp or els some ceremony sanctified and recommended to the vse of the holy Church And so we see how in the administration of Baptisme those very ceremonies are imbraced by vs which Christ our Lord did vse to sicke persons of seuerall kindes all whose spirituall diseases doe meet in the person of an infant till he be baptized For he is spiritually deafe and therefore doth the Priest put his fingars into the childs eares and cryeth Ephata He is spiritually dumbe and therfore his tongue is touched with spittle And he is yet in the power of the deuill and a child of wrath and therfore is he exorcized as we see to haue bene done vpon possessed persons by our B. Lord. Oftentymes he cured both the bodies of sicknes and the soules of sinnes though the Patients desired but to be corporally cured And when he did not cure their soules it was only because they were not nor would not be well disposed to receiue that blessing But otherwise what he wrought vpō their bodies was ordayned by that diuine goodnes to the helpe of their foules if they hearkned to his inspirations they did instantly recouer both in the outward and inward man Many also of the miracles of Christour Lord (c) Many miracles were ordayned by our Lord to facilitate the beliefe of Christian Religion Ioan. 11. Matt. 14. Matt. 15. Marc. 8. did sweetly prepare a way for the beliefe of other nobler miracles which did also concerne the highest misteries of the Catholike faith As namely the raysing vp of Lazarus disposed men to beleeue the resurrection of the dead at the last day And those two miracles of the walking of our Lord vpon the sea and the stupendious multiplying of the loaues of bread in the desert doe both together open a faire and ready passage towards a beliefe of the Catholicke Doctrine concerning the reall presence of our blessed Lord in the most venerable Sacrament of the Altar For his walking on the sea shewed that his body was no way subiect to the ordinary conditions of a naturall body whensoeuer he should be pleased to exempt it from them although of it selfe it were a perfect naturall body And his multiplying of the loaues did deliuer in plaine language to the world the soueraigne power which he had and hath to multiply what and how much he would Which two points being accorded there remaines no difficulty in belieuing our doctrine of the reall presence of our Lord in the blessed Sacrament So (d) The cōclusion of this discourse of the miracles of Christ our Lord. that to cōclude the loue of our Lord IESVS in the working of his miracles was extraordinarily great Both because the things themselues were so greatly great and because they were wrought with such a perfect and pure intention of Gods greatest glory and our greatest good They tended not only as we haue seen to the cure of bodyes but also of soules And not only of soules to be conuerted at that tyme but through all ages also afterward by the discouery of our spirituall infirmities and by the institution of most holy ceremonies and by facilitating a beliefe of the highest misteries Making one miracle to be a step and introduction for another as I haue shewed in the particular of the blessed Sacrament And (e) Consider all these circumstāces with attention if for euery one of them alone a loyall and gratefull hart would find it selfe obliged to loue him withall the power it hath what effect ought such an aboundant cause as they all together doe make vp to worke in vs and how ought they to induce vs to honour and adore such an incessāt goodnes For if it would goe for a great fauour that a Principall man should once vouchsafe to visite a sicke beggar or leprous slaue the more principall the one of them were and the more base the other so much the greater fanour it would be And if to that visit he should be pleased to add the tendernes of some compassionate speach and almes and euen of corporall seruice about that creature and not only once but often and not only to one but to all the world how iustly would such a charity exact all admiration at our hands Let vs therfore loue and eternally adore our blessed Lord who being the God of heauen and earth vouchsafed to looke vpon such miserable creatures as we are with such eyes of pitty And (f) How those auncient miracles oblige vs to the loue of our Lord. although those former cures were not wrought for the recouery of our indiuiduall bodyes yet there is no single circumstance belonging to any one of them which giueth not a copious supply of instruction and comfort to our soules and especially that last and greatest miracle of all miracles of the institution of the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar So that to omit all other moderne miracles which yet are innumerable Christ our Lord doth still vvorke miracle vpon miracle in this blessed Sacrament For this is consecrated in thousands of places daily and hourely and it is imparted as easily and liberally to the worst and wickedest of vs all if euen now at last we haue a resolution to mend as it was to his own most blessed mother and his Apostles And this is not only a lasting miracle of instruction and direction and consolation both of body and soule as those others were but it is a miracle of high communication and perfect vnion Wherby the omnipotent Maiesty of God Matt. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. Ioan. 13. is content after a sort to make sinfull man become one thing with himselfe That diuine goodnes vouchsafing to leaue it to his Church by way of Legacy in the night precedent to his passion as euen now I am endeauouring to shew Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in the institution of the blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse CHAP. 45. OVR Lord God of his goodnes giue vs grace that in vs it may be verified which hath bene vttered by his owne sacred mouth Habenti dabitur Matt. 13. To him who hath shall be giuen And that since he hath indued vs with Faith in the beliefe of the misteries of his pretious life and death we may still haue Faith more and more wherwith to giue a firme feeling inflamed kind of assent to all the testimonies of his infinite loue which haue bene made to vs his miserable creatures For (a) What loades of mercy our Lord doth lay vpon our soules verily in this kind he layes such loade vpon vs and doth as it were so presse vs euen to death with his deare mercies that if the eyes of our mindes were not eleuated by his supernaturall grace and fixed therby vpon an
the inioyning and if it were possible for the very exchanging themselues by loue into one another And now as God is infinite in all things so is he infinite after a particular manner in his loue and by consequence he is infinite in his inuention How inspeakeable honour had it bene for man to haue bene though but admitted to the sight alone of Christ our Lord in the blessed Sacrament Num. 88. For if the sight of that brasen serpēt with faith in Christ our Lord who was then but to come so long after were able to cure the Israelites of the stings of serpents how much more would the only sight of our blessed Sauiour with faith haue sufficiently serued to cure their soules of all their sicknesse How much happines had it bene for vs to touch the sacred host with our hāds the senfible part of the same host being a garment which sits so close vpon the body and soule of Christ our Lord. For we know that a woman was cured of a bloudy flux Matt. 9 14. Marc. 6. Luc. 8. by the only touch of the hemne of his looser garment Such honour and happines had bene much for vs to haue receaued but it was nothing in cōparisō of the excessiue charity of our Lord which would not be satisfied with doing lesse then all For what could euen his omnipotency haue added to the trace which heere he hath deuised not only of a coniunction but of an vnion and that such an one as is the most internall which can be imagined being in the way of food S. Augustine sheweth how God hath made as able to feed vpon him by a meer spirituall manner in the mistery of the Incarnation and we may fitly apply the same wordes to this Sacramētall kind of feeding as indeed these two misteries haue great affinity with one another God (z) A passage of S. Augustine which well deserueth to be consi dered Manual cap. 26. became man sayth this incomparable Saint for mans sake that so man might be redeemed by him by whome he was created And to the end that God might be beloued by man after a kind of more familiar manner he appeared in the likenes of man That so both the internall and the externall senses of man might be made happy in him and that the eye of our hart might be fedd by the consideration of his diuinity and the eye of our flesh and bloud by that of his humanity That so whether we should worke inward or outward this humane nature of ours which was created by him in him might be sure to find store of food This S. Augustine sayth and if this might be well affirmed in respect of the Incamation of our Lord IESVS how much more may it be sayd in respect of the mystery of the blessed Sacrament where we feed not only spiritually but besides after a sacramentall and yet reall māner How we doe both feed and are fedd vpon in the blessed Sacrament and of the admirable effects which it must necessarily cause in such as do worthily receaue it and of the reason why it must be so and of the Figures which forshewed the same CHAP. 48. VVE may wel perceaue that our Lord IESVS is a great freind of (a) God is a great friend of vnion Vnion His person is distinct from the other persons of the B. Trinity but the essence is one and very same of them all When he was resolued to become man he was also pleased to knit mans nature to the nature of God by the Hypostaticall vnion An infinite honour this was to man for it grew true heerby that man was God and that God was killed vpon a Crosse for the loue of men Yet though by that vnion in his Incarnation he brought vs all to be his allies he did not personally vnite himselfe to vs all But by this last (b) How our Lord vniteth vs to himself sacramentall vnion of him and vs when purely we take his pretious body bloud into our selues vnder the quality and condition of food he maketh euery one of vs much more one with him And then no meruaile if the honour he doth vs if the ioy he giues vs when the fault is not our owne be the greatest which we can receaue in this world For we inioye none of the other mysteries of the life and death of our Lord IESVS but onely by faith and memory wheras this is present to vs in very deed and present so as the food which we receaue is present to vs. And so in like manner when no impediment is at hand it breeds a great loue of his goodnes and a great delight in his sweetnes in fine an vnion of vs both in one Though with this difference from other food that as S. Augustine was taught by our Lord we change not him into vs Confes l. 7. cap. 10. as by eating other food we vse to chāge it but we are changed into it by it if we approach to it with a pure and hungry soule so feeding in this B. Sacrament vpon him he feedeth also vpon vs. Nor is it strange that we should both feed and yet be fed vpon when Almighty God is a party to the contract Omnia quaecumpue voluit fecit He can doe what he will and he is pleased to will Psalm 113. that he and we should feed vpon one another And to such as endeauour to be truly and entirely and purely his he contenteth not himselfe with lesse then thus to come to them in person with desire of vnion And he is (c) The vnspeakeable benefits which are reaped by worthy receauing the B. Sacrament Psal 147. washing away all the dregs of sinne by that fountaine of grace He is thawing all frozen hardnes of the hart by the sweet breath of his Spirit Flabit Spiritus eius fluent aquae and he is consuming the rust of their selfe loue by that burning fire of his charity comforting them in all afflictions and satisfying them in all their doubts and wants illuminating their vnderstanding and composing their will and fixing their imaginatiō and possessing and imprinting himselfe vpon their memory calling in and consecrating their senses and sealing vp their harts to himselfe And changing at length the whole tast of their soules he make them loue that which he loues and hate that which is any way offensiue to him To conclude of deuills which perhaps they were they become as so many Angells in flesh bloud are naturalized after a sort with God grow to be euen very Christs according to that of the blessed Apostle who said of himselfe Viuo (d) O happy holy state ego Galat. 2◠iam non ego viuit verò in me Christus I liue yet now not I but Christ is he who liueth in me by my liuely imitation of his diuine vertues and by a perfect conformity or rather transformity of my spirit
our Redemption The misery is shewed and the errour is partly conuinced of such as doe not imbrace the beliefe of those diuine Mysteries CHAP. 50. VVHo shall therfore be euer able inough to admire this Soueraigne Lord of loue for the mercy which he hath shewed vs in this blessed Sacramēt of his most pretious body and bloud and for the care he hath taken of the cōpletenes of our comfort heerin Psalm 105. Quis loquetur potentias Domini auditas faciet omnes landes eius Who I say shall be able to declare Gods power and to proclaime his prayses And how much reason therfore is it that there should not be in the world any Priest or other faithfull Christian who will not set vp the rest of all his comfort in this life in frequenting this bread of heauen and in spending some part of his dayes and nights in preparing to receaue this diuine food with due deuotion If our Lord IESVS Lue. 14. tooke it ill in the Ghospell that they would not resort to that supper of his which was indeed a type of heauen it selfe and yet withall of this heauenly mystery how heauily wil he lay it to our charge if we be negligent in comming to this Table whē himselfe is both he who inuites to the banquet the very bāquet it self But O (a) The lamentable ingratitude of such as are not Catholiques misery to be eternally deplored euen with teares of bloud that in these woefull dayes of ours there should be any found with the name of Christians vpon their forehead who yet renounce the benefit yea and expresly blaspheme the inuiolable truth of this mystery Miserable creatures they are a thousand tymes miserable who do by this meanes eyther ignorantly or maliciously degrade and depose themselues from the most soueraigne point of Christian dignity which the infinite wisedome and loue of God himselfe was euen able with all his omnipotency to impart to the meanenes and weakenes of sinfull men Yet some of them being pressed as it were to death by the euident words of Hoc est corpus meum so often iterated by so many of the holy Euangelists haue begun of late yeares to affirme that they beleeue the reall presence of our Lord in the blessed Sacrament as well as wee but only that they dare not pronounce de modo But (b) Theyr speach de modo is a false and foolish stift our Lord doth know that they speake not as they meane but only to abuse the people Neither can they beleeue it as we doe according to their other particular declarations concerning this doctrine And yet in truth if they did beleeue the thing it selfe and did only differ de modo as they say they doe amongst which modo's or wayes they vnderstād our doctrine of Transubstantiation to be one how could they dare so wickedly blaspheme this our Doctrine cōcerning the modus yet professe that they are ignorant of the modus or way how the reall presence comes to be in the B. Sacrament But this (c) The scope of this book is not to teach faith but loue Treatise is not intended for the setling of the truth of the Catholike faith and to conuince them of errour who inpugne it but only to inflame the hart of the true Christian to heate of loue vpon those reasons and motiues which are already ministred by the light of faith to our soules That other taske hath bene performed by multitudes of our learned Authors wherof the world is ful I will only beseech them for the loue of our Lord IESVS that they will procure to purify their hartes from sensuality and other sinne which blindes that soule wherin it raignes till then we will wonder the lesse that men of so bestiall life as the founders of their religion were had no sight wherwith to pierce into so pure mysteries The carnall man cannot discerne of things belonging to God 1. Cor. ◠and if not of things which are but belonging to him how much lesse of the substance of this blessed Sacrament which is God himselfe as truly God as he is God who made heauen and earth In the meane tyme these people deserue much pitty at our hands who whet the teeth not only of infidelity against God but euen of Enuy against themselues For what doth it looke like but enuy since they refuse to beleeue and to imbrace so great a good vpon this cheife reason because they thinke it is too good to be true And (d) The counterfeyt sanctity and preposterous pretence of the humility of Sectaries this peruerse and preposterous humility togeather with a seeming to take such a counterfayte care of the dignity and Maiesty God is one of those bucklers vnder which they hide themselues from the darts of loue which he would faine be shooting at their soules For they say it is an indignity and what if a rat or a dogge should eate the blessed Sacrament and I know not what vnsauoury stuff of the kind But they consider not the while that God receaues farre more dishonour in being prophaned by a Iudas or any other obstinate sinner then if the body of our Lord should be eaten by as many rats as there are blaspheming Heretikes in the world That Sunne true Sunne of Iustice can well inough tell how to keep his beames from being defyled vpon any filthy dunghill And if he could not it would goe hard with him For the diuinity of Christ our Lord IESVS is actually intrinsecally in all the parts of all the creatures of the whole world both by essence presēce and power yea and in all the deuills of hell as truly as in any Angell of heauen or els that thing would instantly giue ouer to be And now if the (e) Note this most certay ne and apparant consequēce diuinity of Christ our Lord be in all vile places without any indignity the humanity how noble soeuer it be will be farre from disdayning to keep it company Little doe these deceaued creatures consider how low our mercifull Lord could be content to descend for the loue of man towards the receauing if there should be cause of dishonour by the meanes either of beasts or other men And I should thinke that the Temptation of Christ our Lord by the Prince of darkenes in the wildernes Matt. 4. might read them a lowd lesson vpon this subiect For there our B. Lord was not only tempted by the deuill but that diuine goodnes did suffer that sacred Sonne of the blessed Virgin to be taken as hath been said posted vp downe in those armes or hands which the infernall Spirit had assumed to himselfe for that purpose Or if they had rather looke vpon the Sonnes and slaues of the deuill then vpon himselfe Let them (f) Note also this consequēce behould how that holy humanity being so knit to God as that it made the selfe same person with him was
to tyme He shewed them what a glory it would be for them to resemble their Maister in his Crosse and he made them knovv vvithall that they should not carry it alone but that in the place of his owne corporall presence which then was the obiect of their senses he would send them a comforter the Holy Ghost from heauen who should inhabit and sanctify their soules He promised them his Peace which should shew them a safe and quiet port wherin to ride in the very midst of all the difficulties and greatest daungers of this world He told thē in plaine tearmes that he loued them and he besought thē that as they loued him they would keepe his commaundements and that if they would doe so both he and his Father would come and visit and dwell with them He told them moreouer that euen his eternall Father loued them and that whatsoeuer they would akse they should be sure to haue whether they should aske it of himselfe or of his Father in his name yea and he desired them to aske somewhat of him that so their ioy might be full as if he had bid them try and be euen iudged by themselues whether he had said true or no. It serueth also to shew the very passionatenes as I may say of his loue (d) Agreat proofe of the tendernes the loue of our Lord Iesus that he was content to repeate the selfe same expressions of it many tymes To declare that he could not say that inough which he thought he could neuer doe too much We see how tenderly he called them his seruants his Disciples his friends and that he would tell them all his secrets his Sonnes and euen his little Sonnes whome yet he would not leaue as Orphans without a Father And now we shall heare him pray the eternall Father for them in most efficacious and obliging words That he would sanctify them in his Truth He presseth him by the highest points of diuine Rethoricke which could be though of He puts him in mind Of the eternall loue he bare the Sonne and of the faithfull seruice which he the Sonne had performed to the Father He also representeth the Fathers Mission of the Sonne and he avoweth That as the Father had sent him so had he seent them He begs the vnion of all his children with one another and of all those children with himselfe that so he being in God and they being in him they all might also come to be one in God In this (e) How earnest our Lord Iesus was for vs in his suyte to his eternall Father suite of his he is so importunate and proceeds so farre to vrge the same that in effect he tells the eternall Father that he will not be denyed therin Nor was he content that this should be an vnion of inferiour degree but an vnion with perfection and consummation Iust so as in a broath which is made of diuers meats there is an vnion of those meates in that broath and if they boyle in it till they euen boyle away there is not only an vnion of the meates but a consummation thereof into that broath And although in most places of holy Scripture when our Lord spake to his Apostles or Disciples he meant not that his words should be for them alone but that all the world should be comprehended in their persons to whome then he spake Yet his loue at that tyme was not content to intend vs only by way of inference but that dying flame would needs be sending out certaine flashes which yet extend themselues so farre as euen to lay expresse hold vpon euery one of our indiuiduall persons who haue the happines to be members of the holy Catholike Church Which they only are who beleeue the Doctrine of Christ our Lord by the preaching of the Apostles or of those Apostolicall men who haue a lawfull and direct mission from them And therfore he said for now I cite his owne very words I pray not only for them that is to say for his Apostles but for those others also who will beleeue in mee by their preaching that they be one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee so they also may be one in vs and the world may beleeue that thou hast sent me And that glory which thou hast giuen me I haue giuen to them that they may be one thing as we are one thing In thee and thou in mee that they may be (f) A strāg desire for Christ our Lord to make to God in our behalfe consummated in one and the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loued them euen as thou hast loued me I will O Father that they whome thou hast giuen mee may be with me there where I shall be That they may see the glory which thou hast giuen mee because thou louedst me before the framing of the world O thou iust Father the world hath not known thee but I haue knowne thee and these haue knowne that thou hast sent me And I haue made my name known to thē and I will make it knowne that the same very loue wherwith thou hast loued me may be in thē I in thē These amongst many others were the words of our bleffed Lord in that last diuine sermon of his Wherby we may see the amourous and restlesse desire which tooke possession of his hart wherwith he sollicited his eternall Father that we might behold the glory which he had giuen to him and placing as it were his whole (g) Our Lord Iesus did place his honour in beeing Lord by his eternal Father for vs. credit vpon the obteyning of these fauours for vs when he begs it to the end that so the world might come to know that the Father had sent him As if he should haue said that in the face of the world he had giuen his word both for our Redemption and Sanctification Vnion and for our right to raigne in heauen with himselfe and that if the eternall Father should not make good that word the world might haue reason not to beleeue that he was as he had said the Sonne of God The horrour and terrour and sorrow of Christ our Lord togeather with his Prayer in the Garden CHAP. 54. NO sooner had he ended that speach but instantly he went out with his Disciples ouer the Torrent of Cedron Ioan. 18◠He did perhaps passe ouer that Torrent without once tasting any droppe therof but the whole world was a kind of Torrent of affliction to him his whole life was that way wherin he did not only tast but take deepe draughts therof before he exalted his head Psalm 109. by ascending vp to heauen Already did the sensible or inferiour part of his soule begin to be obscure and sad with care He was pleased to leaue it after a sort to it selfe for the increase of that paine which he desired to suffer For els his
you looke for some Traytour or seditious enemy of God and man your leuell is ill layed Though yet for the glory of God for the exercise of all vertue and for the recouery of the world from hell and sinne I am content to be mistaken for such a one Yet nothing could induce them to relent But as the manner is with men who when they are desperately resolued to doe a thing which their conscience telleth them that reason requires them to forbeare the greater the force of that reason is which is prest against them the more eagarly are they inflamed euen blinded with rage to worke their will As soone therfore as they had apprehēded bound him with far greater cruelty then any Christian hart knowes how to imagine it cannot be chosen but that they would dragge him more like a dogge then a man Not (g) What soeuer incommodity they indured was reuéged by the vpō our Lord. that he went vnwillingly but because the presse must needs be great and they were also in bloud against him and would all so desire to be the executioners of some particular affliction and affront vpon him that they could not but hinder one another And then if any of them were iustled if any chanced to st̄ble or fall vpon whom would they reuenge themselue but vpon him who with patience which was indeed diuine permitted himselfe to be carried in that painefull iourney to the howse of Annas vnder that cruell cudody which the accursed Iudas had aduised them to keep him in Of the blow which was giuen vpon the face of our B. Lord in the high Priests howse of the fall of S. Peter How our Lord was taxed first of Blasphemy and of the excessiue Loue of our Lord in dll these particulars CHAP. 60. SHALL I need to say that it shewed an infinite kind of loue in our Lord that he vvould vouchsafe to be presented before Annas and then before Cayphas at their seuerall hovvses Matt. 26. Luc. 22. Ioan. 18. and before all that race of persidious Ievves vvho thē very thē cōspired his death That he being the fountaine of vvisedom knovvledge and the King of glory vvould for our sakes be arraigned and be contented to passe vnder the censure of those slaues of the deuill vvho vvas his slaue And he in their prosecuting of that suite against him to maintaine that inuincible patience and profund silence notvvithstanding all their clamours and so seldome to haue opened that blessed mouth of his He referred himselfe that first tyme when he vvas examined about his Doctrine to the iudgment of themselues Ioan. 18. vvho had heard him teaching in the Temple And vvhen for saying but so in the vvay of anvvere to the high Priest a barbarous vvretch Ibid. vvho vvas attending in that Court knevv that he should please his betters by it stroocke that face vvith his polluted hand vvhich the Angells doe so reuere and reioyce to see he did not damne him nor strike him dead 1. Pet. 1. vvhich yet most easily most iustly he might haue done nor so much as sharpely rebuke or reprehend him for it though it vvere so levvd an affront as is neuer vvont to be put vpon any slaue in the vievv of Iustice But he asked him only vvith great meeknes why he strooke him if he had spoken well and if he had spoken ill Ibid. why did he not informe the Court against him By vvhich kind of plea our Lord though he vvere the Creatour of all things did not assume to himselfe the least aduantage aboue the vvickedest and basest thing aliue That so by suffering he might shevv hovv much he loued vs. For the more he suffered the more rich the Church vvas to be of merits so the more copious our Redemption Whilst these things vvere acting Psalm 120. in the house of Cayphas S. Peter who at the apprehension of Christ our Lord vvas fled avvay vvith the other Apostles for (a) Our Lord was euer in care to giue vs comfort our Lord IESVS vvas content to be vvholly abandoned euen by his dearest friends that it might serue for our comfort vvhen vve are forsaken by ours could find no resting place for his thoughts till together vvith S. Iohn he came after our Lord to the hovvse of Cayphas But vvhether it vvere that his countenance complayned of some perplexity or that the manner of his speach or habit made it be thought that he vvas a Disciple of Christ our Lord he vvas questioned by diuers and he denied his Maister to them all and said vvith oathes and protestations Marc. 14. that he did not so much as know the man A great offence in it self a iust punishmēt of a former fault which he had made in presuming vpon his ovvne strength For that vnspeakeable loue vvhich he bare to our blessed Lord vvhich vvas not only as of a friend to a friēd or as of a Disciple to his Doctour but of any indulgēt father who might halfe doate vpon a Sonne did seeme novv to him to be so cōnatural to his very soule as that he thought he could not loose it but vvith his life Wheras in very deed it vvas the meere guift of God and for such he ought to haue acknovvledged it and so distrusting himselfe he should haue confided in our Lord. It vvas therfore pleasing to our deere Redeemer to permit that denyall out of infinite loue both to S. Peter and to vs though it could not but goe the vvhile very deeply to his ovvne tender hart that S. Peter who was not only one of his friends but of his fauourities should forsweare that he did not so much as know him He (b) How our Lord did loue S. Peter euen in suffering him thus to full Ibid. loued S. Peter in suffering him thus to fall for therby he taught him how to stand more firmely afterward which is neuer to be done by any soule but vpon the ground of humility He loued him also most deerly in making him rise againe so soone both by the shew of his corporall presence to the others eyes of flesh and bloud and by the sweet pure light of his grace which was imparted to the eyes of his soule And that light had so much heat also with it as to draw vp the vapours which powred themselues down afterward at full speed through his cloudy eyes Our Lord be euer blessed for his owne infinite goodnes who in the bitterest of those sorrowes shewed such mercy and had such memory both of him and vs. For thus the world is filled with Sea-markes which instruct vs how to saile through the Tempest of this life towards the safe port of heauen That when we passe by a Iudas we may take heed of auarice and enuy because it ends in desperation And when we passe by a S. Peter we may forbeare to fall vpon selfe conceipt which will put vs vpon many sinnes and
might grow partakers of the diuine nature Isa 53.2 Pet. 1. We will behould that man to adore him with all the powers of our soule to lament the sad case into which our sinnes and his loue to vs haue cast him We will behould him and we wil wish withall that vpō the price of all our liues we were able to doe him any one faithfull seruice We will behould him as our soueraigne King though heere he vouchsafed to become a subiect to the basest slaues We will behould him as our law-giuer and yet our law our sacrifice and yet our Priest our Redeemer yet our Price We will behould him with profound reuerence that so we may reuerse al the acts of shame and paine which he accepted for our benefit By the (a) What we are to contemplate by the eyes of Faith in this mistery of the Flagellation of our B. Lord. eyes of faith and loue we wil behould his glory through that Crowne of thornes His stole of immortality through that purple robe His scepter of omnipotency through that Reed of scorne His incomparable beauty through the spittle which desiled his diuine countenance And insteed of those counterfait acts of homage which those Idolatrous souldiers did performe we will cast our selues all before him with entire humility and trembling loue Esteeming our selues worthy of a thousand Hells for (b) A costly remedy of a great disease hauing needed such a costly remedy of our miseries by the innumerable sinnes which we haue committed And wheras those wretches procured euen to breake his hart with the foole scoffe of Aue rex Iudaeorum we vow our selues to prayse him thus both with hart tongue All hayle O thou true King of Christian Catholikes All haile thou Sonne of God and of the Virgin We see thy sorrowes and they fill our soules with sadnes and we are wishing if it were thy will that we were so happy as to partake thereof O that our sighes were able to make a veyle wherwith to couer thy nakednes and our teares a bath wherwith to wash away thy vncleanenes our throughts a bed of flowers wherwith to refresh thy faintenes and our actions a banquet of fruite wherwith to recouer thee from that weakenes wherin we see that our sinns haue laid thee At least deere Lord let vs not be so miserable as to continue in those sinnes of ours since they are the cause of this excesse which hath beene wrought vpon thee But do thou make the rootes of our hartes tye thēselues hard about thy sacred feete that so like liuing plants they may grow vp vnder thee being watred by any one drop of thy omnipotent bloud distilling either from the piercing thornes of thy diuine head or from the stinging scourges of thy pretious body These corporall paines wherby we see that the body of Christ our Lord was so ouerloaden is that which Pilate bad the Iewes behould And whatsoeuer effect it wrought with them it breeds a very astonishmēt in vs not only in respect of what we see but much more by that which we are taught to beleeue and inferre by this obiect of our sight For as according to that of the B. Apostle Rom. 1. the inuisible things of God that is his infinite wisedome with the rest of his diuine attributes may be discerned after a sort by the vnderstanding through a consideration of the visible things which he hath made so by the vnspeakeable paines which we see inflicted vpon the sacred person of Christ our Lord who is the liuely image of God and the (c) Exteriour sufferance with patience is a great signe of great loue exteriour meekenes wherwith he bare them we may grow into contemplation of the excellency and perfection of his charity Howsoeuer therfore the exteriour of his flesh and bloud howsoeuer the diuine countenance which he carried being all cōpounded betwene extreme sorrow and extreme shame vpon the sense of that contempt and tormēt be an obiect which ought to draw vs all running after it yet if our Lord would giue vs leaue to diue so deepe we should wonder much more at the interiour of his soule then at the exteriour of his body Happy were we if we had eyes wherwith to looke into that hart which had so rich a mine of patiēce as could neuer be drawn dry by all the malice which was exercised by those laborious and malicious hands For how much soeuer we see there is more and more and yet still more to be seene whatsoeuer we can say or thinke is very farre frō being inough And we are still to remember that whatsoeuer the fruite of vertue be in all the actions and passion of our blessed Lord the roote from whence it riseth is euer most pure and perfect loue No interest no weakenes did worke on him but only an ardent desire of the glory of God to be manifested in the procuring of our eternall good The strength and purity of this loue doth most liuely appeare by the solitude and silence wherwith he suffered such hideous things as those To (d) A most pregnant signe of purity perfect confidēce in God not to care for comfort from creatures receaue crosses so as not to desire or care I say not for prayse but not so much as for any comfort from any creature is a cleere and pregnant signe of pure loue and perfect considence in God If so we can be content to suffer we haue cause to cast our selues at the feete of our Lord with humble thanks Cant. 2. for drawing vs so close after the odours of his pretious oyntments But the world is farre from this and our weake nature is willing to vphold it selfe by the wauering reed of humane consolatiōs which it wil needs cōceaue to be a staff strong inough to support vs. But we quickly find our errour to our cost And as if we did cast our selues vpon God he would not retire himselfe to let vs fall so by leaning vpon the comfort of creatures he permits vs then to sayle out of most tender mercy that afterward womay learne to stand fast in him The loue euen of the most ardent Seraphim is of little heate if it be set by the loue which raigned in the hart of Christ our Lord whilst he was scourged and crowned yet their loue may well be great since it groweth out of an immense ioy which they haue in the fruition and feeling of that euer present and infinite good which is God But heere our Lord did as it were infinitely excell that loue of theirs though all the sensible obiect which the inferiour part of his diuine soule had were the affronts which came frō the affliction wherin he was at that tyme and the top of shame and torment which so instantly afterward he was to find in the consummation of his Passion vpon the Crosse And what thē can heere become of any loue which we conceaue
follow him in the streets would not sayle to place theÌ„selues in the windowes making vp like some kennell of wide-mouthed dogs the full cry of Traytour Deuill Sorcerer Drunkard Idiot False prophet Hypocrite Blasphemer and a hundred reproaches more then these which their immortall malice would be sure to dart out against him And besides it is very probable that they would accompany these bitter words with barbarous deeds for what should hinder them since they had all power in their hands and such springs of poyson in their harts They below kicking him on as they would haue done some mad musled dogge when through the excesse of weaknes he was scarce able to goe and they aboue whilst he was resting would be casting vncleanesses vpon his sacred head Our Lord the while had his holy eyes cast down but his hart was raysed his hands were bound but his affections were at liberty and enlarged He went fulfilling the Prophesies Isa 53. Sicut homo non audiens sicut mutus non aperiens os suum Like a man who had not bene able to heare what they sayd against him and as farre from speaking to them as if he had bene wholy dumbe and as S. Gregory sayth Greg. in 3. psal pâ—enitent Qui cogitationes iniquorum nouerat blasphemantium voces non audiebat And he who knew euen all their wicked thoughts would not so much as seeme to heare their blasphemous words To confound our great impatience or to speake more properly our want of Faith and loue when we will not for the glory of God and in imitation of his diuine exaÌ„ple who endured so infinitely much for vs endure the least reproach or so much as any touch that way without reply and perhaps reuenge The Crucifixion of our Blessed Lord his quicke sense and seuerall paynes distinctly felt and of his vnspeakeable patience and Loue to vs therein CHAP. 69. THE hower was then all run out and our Lord IESVS who according to that of the blessed Apostle Philip. 2. Thought it no wrong to esteeme himselfe equall to his Father did empty himselfe not only by taking the nature of man vpon him but he did also humble himselfe withall to death yea and to the very death of the crosse which was the most opprobrious of all others They had stripped him thrice before starke naked in the Court of Pilate First when they went to scourge him then when they put on the Purple Robe and after when they disrobed him and led him towards the Crosse in his owne cloathes And now (a) The fomer scornes were put againe vpon our Lord but with circumstances which did much increase both his paine and shame they did the same againe but with the addition of two circumstances which did extremely increase both his shame and paine For his garments were euen baked as it were to his sacred body both by the length of tyme which had occurred betwene his beginning and ending that last and most dolorous procession of his betwene Pilats house and Mount Caluary as also by the weight of the Crosse which during part of that tyme lay with intollerable paine vpon his shoulders and lastly by the binding of his armes and hands both to his body and to one another These cloathes being growne so fast to his flesh and pluckt off by those rude hands with as much rigor as they could tel how to vse must needs increase his torment to a strange proportion It could not also choose but that his seÌ„se of shame was also raysed to a great height For before that sacred humanity was seene but by as many as could throng into Pilates Court But now vpon the top of Mount Caluary as if it had bene at a kind of generall day of Iudgement Romans Grecians Pagans Iewes and they of all the Prouinces of the East Priests and people men and women of all conditions and ages and in fine an Epitome of the whole world was present For the increase of his confusion and to hide the hatefull spots of their iniustice they led in his company two murthering theeues to execution that (b) Why they lead him in the company of thee us their notorious crimes might make some impression or influence of bad aspect vpon the innocency of our Lord IESVS And to the end that the worst in all respects might not be wanting to him they resolued that his Crosse should stand in the midst of the other two Marc. 15. as in the more honorable place of infamy This crosse they now brought him to and as before they laid it vpoÌ„ him they laid him now vpon it It was already bored through And if perhaps they had made those holes which were meant for his hands further off from those others which were deputed for his feete theÌ„ the leÌ„gth of his body would beare they must be faine to add to the rest of his tormeÌ„ts that other of the rack to make theÌ„ reach For their particular coÌ„fort who for his sake should be afflicted in the same kind by the persecutours of his Church The executioners being there with their haÌ„mers and nayles did extend spread him vpon that hard bed of death and they transpierst those hands of Charity and those seete of humility purity with sharpe stroÌ„ge nayles driuen in by a multitude of blowes making his pretious body the very anuile whervpon the hammer of our (c) Our sinnes were they which crucified our Lord by the hands of the Iewes sinnes did by the hands of those crucifiers beat so hard If any one of them relented at the sight of that diuine sweet sadnes through the compassion which such an obiect as that could not easily choose but exact euen of Tygars it tended but to the increase of his paine For the more kind they were the longer they were likely to dwell about doing that office and so the more cruell they fell out to be If on the other side as they woÌ„ded his hands with theirs so they had also in their will a vehement desire of his destruction and death that cruelty and sinne of their hart went streight to his and wounded him worse through his loue to them then through their hate they wounded him So that whether they were cruell to him more or lesse being considered in theÌ„selues yet in regard of him all wrought by (d) All wrought by way of increasing torment to our Lord. way of increasing torment The extreme parts of our body which be our head our hands and our feete haue all those veines and arteries and sinewes shut vp and as it were driuen by the direction of nature into a narrow compasse which goe at ease through larger parts The fleshly parts of the body are dull in comparison of those others and indeed so dull as that compared with these they can scarce in effect be said to feele Yet who is he that if being a person of honor he were content that his flesh
God whilst we are in working and to presse with instance Ibid. when we are concluding Father saith he into thy hands I commend my spirit 1. Cor. 6. And if we will procure to be one spirit with him as S. Paul exhorts vs all to be already (a) How we assure our selues to be cōmended by Christ our Lord. Hebr. 5. we may perceaue that Christ our Lord did no lesse pray for vs then for himselfe He prayed as the same Apostle sayd els where Cum clamore valido lacrymis with a lowd cry and with teares and therfore it is no meruaile if he were heard by the Eternall Father both for himselfe and vs. But yet so as that we must concurre with him and suffer pray cry out and weepe for our selues and for our sinnes since he hath traced out the way of doing it for the sinnes of others But the misery is many tymes that whilst we doe so often vsurpe this holy Prayer of our blessed Sauiour wherby we protest our selues to commend our spirit into the hands of God we doe but cōmend it only in word or at the most we doe but giue it with one hand and take it backe againe with the other and indeed we deliuer it ouer to his enemies by sinne or at least to strangers by fulfilling vaine and lesse good desires Wheras if we would doe it as Christ our Lord was found to doe we should no sooner bequeth our selues to the seruice of our Lord but that instantly we would take a lōg euerlasting leaue of a wretched world Our Lord when he had giuen his spirit to God expired Luc. 23. And we if we expire not if we dye not to the sinnes and vanities of this life the spirit will be still where it was and we doe but say we giue him that which indeed we reserue for others or at least for our selues But that other kind of alienation b There will be no true life and liberty vnlesse there be a true death to imperfection passion is the only way to haue a true possession of our soules Seruire Deo regnare est This bondage doth only bring perfect liberty This kind of expiring by death doth only inspire vs with true life Christ our Lord for loue of vs did leaue as we haue seene his life of nature that we might be animated by the life of grace And woe be to that wretched man who shall rather choose death then life and such a life as hath been bought to our hād by parting with such a iewell as was the life of Christ our Lord. He had vnspeakeable cause to loue his life but we haue no cause at all to be in loue with ours The reason why we may punish euen hate as one may say our bodyes with a iust and holy kind of hate is because otherwise they will be giuing ill counsell to the soule The (c) In what case we desire a separation betweene the body and the soule 2. Pet. ◠reason why in some cases we may wish so farre as may stand with the good will of God to haue this Tabernacle of our flesh and bloud dissolued by death may be because we doe highly apprehēd a feare of sinne and so we may be glad to dye the first death when we hope our selues to be in good state least afterward we may dye the second And besides we haue reason to long for the sight of God from which we are exiled in this Pilgrimage But Christ our Lord did euer see the face of God and the Superiour part of his soule was as glorious as closely vnited to the Diunity in the bitterest torments of the Crosse as now is it at the right hand of his Father And besides there could be no daunger that euer that impeccable soule could sinne As therfore there was no cause why Christ our Lord should of himselfe desire or euen admit of any separation of his soule from his body so whatsoeuer motiue it were that should induce him to it that must necessarily be acknowledged for a great one For neuer did nor neuer could any creature in any reason so deerly and delightfully loue the cōiunction betwene his soule and his body as Christ our Lord loued his Nor consequently could any or all the creatures so much apprehend and abhorre any separation of the body from the soule as Christ our Lord would haue apprehended and abhorred that of his if some mighty reason had not moued him to it Because (d) The reason why Christ our Lord must needs loue the coniunction of his body and soule after a most eminent māner no creature nor all the creatures put togeather had euer found any body so sweetly so continually and so perfectly obedient to all the dictamens of a holy soule as our Lord IESVS had sound his body and this is the only or at least the principall reason why any man should loue his body So that for Christ our Lord to indure that the coniunction of such a body and soule should be broken for how short a tyme soeuer was the Crosse beyond all the corporall Crosses which he endured in his Passion concerning himselfe Yet of this he admitted as we see And since there was no power which could oblige him to it in the way of force it doth cleerly appeare that he performed it vpon a commandement of loue For loue is the King of all affections and disposeth of them all at pleasure And amongst seuerall loues the Superiour loue is still the King to whom all inferiour loues giue place If then Christ our Lord did so deerly and so iustly loue his owne pretious life incomparably more then any of vs can by any possibility loue ours and if yet that loue were content to yield to his loue of vs and that indeed he dyed of pure and perfect loue which is yet declared further to vs by that sweet declyning of his head when he gaue vp the ghost let vs endeauour to conceaue what an infinite kind of loue this was And let vs beg of him by his owne pretious wounds that he will make vs in all things as like himselfe as he desires And that as a meanes therunto he will print himselfe thus crucified vpon our harts and that the eye of our mind may be euer looking at ease vpon this sweet figure the (e) The grace and beauty of the Crucifix sweetest that hath bene seene or can be conceaued the fittest to moue all the affections of a Christian hart whether they be of compassion or admiration And verily I thinke that it is not only faith which brings vs to be of this beliefe but that euen abstracting from the quality of the diuine persō of Christ our Lord the cause for which he suffered which yet indeed are the things that subdue vs most the very figure it selfe of an excellent man so exposed to publique view vpon a Crosse is the loueliest and the
then the very death of God And since Christ our Lord being the increated wisedome of the Eternall Father would needs vndergoe all those torments for the remission extirpation of sinne it is a cleere demonstratioÌ„ that he felt the weight of our sinnes more heauily then he did his bitter and opprobrious death since no wise man would accept to suffer a greater paine for the excusing of another which were lesse So that as by the humility and charity of God which is so liuely exprest in the crucifixion of our Lord IESVS we are obliged to loue him and to imitate his Humility and his Charity so by the consideration of that Maiesty of God which we may discerne and of the high purity of his nature and his great hate of sinne we are taught to reuere him and to tremble 2. Cor. 5. and to carry firme resolutions to serue him with all fidelity and care and rather to dy a thousand tymes then once to presume to offend him in the least degree S. Paul declareth to vs that Deus erat in Christo mundum reconcilians sibi The (b) How Christ our Lord is the Mediatour betweene God and man ommpotent God did descend to be vnited to the humanity of Christ our Lord that so he might reconcile the whole world to himselfe and yet neuerthelesse they are few who will be reconciled to saluation by our blessed Sauiours death in comparison of the multitudes which are to perish For so our Lord assured vs saying Matt. 7. The way to heauen is a hard and narrow way and few will dispose themseues to walke in it but the way to perdition is a wide and easy way and it will be walked in by many Now this streight way was the life and Doctrine of Christ our Lord according to what himselfe had sayd Ioan. 14. Egosum via veritas vita I am the way the truth and the life So that it is not the only death of Christ our Lord which saues the world but that death must be applyed to vs by such meanes as the wisedome of God hath ordayned This meanes consisteth in our meeting with God in the person of IESVS Christ our only Lord. For as God descended downe by him so by him we must ascend vp towards God For this cause he is said to be medius mediator the middle person and mediatour betwene God and man and indeed the only true medius terminus wherby we may euer grow to a good conclusion The desire of Christ our Lord is to rayse vs thither according to his own diuine promise But a man is not drawne to spirituall things by force or by the paces of his feete or by the knowledge of his head but by the prayers and pious affections of his hart and the reformation of his life by a faythfull cooperation with the grace of God So as if we meane to reape the benefit of this Passion we must first (c) Beliefe of the mistery of the passioÌ„ of Christ our Lord. belieue with a supernaturall and vndoubted faith that it was performed by God and man for the redemption of the whole world We must then reflect (d) Consideration vpon it with most cordiall and profound loue detesting (e) Detestation of sinne our sinns which were the causes of his suflerance and resoluing as I was saying to dye a thousand deathes rather then to offend him who was so much offended by them We must (f) Reflection vpoÌ„ the vertues of Christour Lord. consider the admirable vertties which he exercised with diuine perfection vpon the Crosse and in the whole course of his holy life and death his humility his patieÌ„ce his meekenes his silence his purity his conformity and his Charity And we are carefully to consider that it was in his power to haue suffered as much as he suffered if he had bene so disposed without letting vs knowne the maÌ„ner of it But he was pleased to doe it in the eye of the world to the end that the world might see the patterne of all that vertue which it was to imitate And that as by the substance of his death he would redeeme vs so by the circÌ„stances manner of it he would instruct and oblige vs to his loue For this it was Matth. 2. that when the Angell reuealed to S. Ioseph that the Sonne whome the sacred virgin should bring forth was to be called IESVS he assigneth a reason of giuing him that name the Office which he was to haue in sauing his people from their sinnes And as there are belonging to sinne a guilt or fault and a paine or punishment so was this IESVS to deliuer his people from them both and not to be a Sauiour by halfes yea and by the lesser halfe in deliuering them only from the punishment of hell as Libertines make theÌ„selues beleeue but especially to free them by his grace and the holy example of his life and death from committing the very sinnes themselues as was * 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 shewed before For the application also of this death and passion to the saluation of our soules we must be led by this example to suffer such Crosses with patience as our Lord by the hand of his Eternall and Fatherly prouidence shall haue appointed vs to imbrace as the way and meanes of our saluation Our Lord in his sufferance vpon the Crosse did sanctify and facilitate all the Crosses which should euer come to mankind And as it is most true that to all such as apply this Passion to their soules by faith and loue the eternity of their torment in hell is conuerted by vertue of this sufferance into the temporall paines of voluntary pennance or else of sickenes sorrow pouerty shame and the like imposed by our Lord God or else into the paines of Purgatory supposing that they haue not satisfied in this life and though the temporall Crosses which they indure are withall made light therby so wee be to the world for giuing life to men who are so vnworthily wicked as to (g) An vnworthy most wicked erâ—our thinke that Christ our Lord hath suffred all that men haue in effect no more to doe but to belieue that he did suffer it How can such people thinke that God is wise if he should haue committed such a folly How can they thinke that he is Iust if he would haue falne into such a partiality How can they thinke that he is holy if he should haue exercised such impiety Nay how can they thinke that he is merciful if he should haue acted such a part of cruelty as it would haue bene for him to take his owne very Essence and substance his owne increated vnderstanding the second person of the most glorious and euer blessed Trinity and to knit that person by hypostaticall and indissoluble Vnion to the body and soule of the sonne of the All-immaculate Virgin Mother by the ouershadowing of
and the world In the former three he aymed at our only good and in the latter to his owne which yet withall was also ours In the first of those three which was the prayer to his Father Pater dimitte illis non enim sciunt quid faciunt Father forgiue them for they know not what they doe those persecut ours of Christ our Lord were principally intēded by that diuine goodnes but yet withall those men were a kind of figure and represented after a sort all the sinners of the whole world in their persons and so he prayed for the forgiuenes of them all Luc. Ibid. In the second which was his speach to the good Thiefe Amen dico libi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso I tell thee that for certaine thou shalt be with me in Paradise this very day the same good thiefe was assured of his saluation after a most eminent manner but yet withall he was a Type and his person did expresse the character of all sinners truly penitent whome our Lord doth instantly restore to his grace fauour Ioan. 19. vpon their humble and constant desire thereof In the third which was the speach to his B. Virgin-Mother and his most beloued disciple Mulier ecce filius tuus and then Ecce mater tua woman behould thy sonne then to him behold thy mother as this sacred Virgin and this Disciple were in most particular manner designed to be the Mother and Sonne of one mother so yet S. Iohn therin did carry the person of all mankind by being made the Sonne of that most excellent Mother Such was the stile which our Lord held in his death and such it had euer bene throughout the whole course of his life to speake (c) How the speaches of Christ our Lord were many of thē meant chiefly to such as were then present to him and yet expresly also to such as were to succeed in the world afterward chiefly to thē who were present and yet expresly also to those others who were absēt thē vnborne And this truth doth abundantly appeare by the Euangelicall history and to doubt heerof were to say the sunne is darke Since God was content to be made man for the loue of men we are brought more easily to belieue that man shall be made a kind of God in heauen And so when we know and consider that through Christ our Lord who is the naturall Sonne of God we may all become the adopted Sonnes of God yea and so we are if we dispose our selues to be like God our Father and consequently to Christ IESVS our elder brother for that the Father and Sonne are so very like that one of thē is well knowne by the other it (d) How we are made the brothers of our Lord Iesus both by the fathers the Mothers side will seeme lesse strange and nothing disagreable to the infinite mercy of our Redeemer that as he had vouchsafed to make vs his brethren by the Fathers side who is God he would also be pleased to make vs his brethren by the mothers side as he was man adopting vs in the person of S. Iohn to be all the Sonnes of the sacred Virgin Nor did that deernes of his loue shine lesse in that he would cōmunicate his mother to vs thē in that he was pleased that al his other blessings should be common betwene him and vs. And as Ioseph the Patriarke loued his brother Gen. 41. by the mothers side with most tendernes so it seemes as if our Lord would euen oblige himselfe to affect vs with a greater tēdernes of loue now that he had receaued vs as it were into the same very bowells of purity which had borne himselfe As our Lord IESVS is our brother for many reasons especially because we are made his coheyres of eternall glory in the kingdom of heauen so in regard that we are made so by the benefit and purchase of his redemption consequently that he begot vs by so excellent a meanes to that rich inheritance he (e) How Christ our Lord is not only our brother but our father also Isa 9. Ephes 2. is also in holy Scripture called not only our brother but our Father And so the holy Euangelicall Prophet Esay speaking of the glorious Tytle of Christ our Lord setteth this downe among the rest that he is Pater futuri saeculi The Father of the future age that is of Christians whome by his faith and Sacraments he would beget to God This Tytle of Father cost him very deere for was there any Mother who by the way of naturall birth did bring forth any child with such excesse of torment to her selfe as this Father of ours IESVS Christ our Lord did with excesse of anguish and affliction beget euery one of them who of the children of wrath were to be made by his meanes the Sonnes of God And therefore as in course of naturall descent Christ our Lord was the Sonne of the sacred Virgin so if we consider him as the Father and regeneratour of vs all to grace then our Lord and the blessed Virgin may in some sort be accompted rather as the spouses then as the Sonne and Mother of one another This way of cōsidering Christ our Lord our B. Lady ought not seeme strange to vs since partly holy Scripture and partly the cōsēt of the holy Fathers of the primitiue Church do so expresly set it forth to our sight 1. ad Cor. 15. For frō hence it is that Christ our Lord is so often called the (f) How our Lord Iesus is called the second Adam our B Lady the second Eue. second Adam who was to repaire the ruines which the former had drawne downe about the head and eares of mankind And hence also it is that we see it manifestly insinuated in holy Scripture and cleerly and euidently expresled by the holy Fathers that as Christ our Lord came to supply the place of the former adam so our B. Lady was to vs a second a better Eue then the former that she wrought both for her selfe vs as a most eleuated instrument and partly as a cause of our restitution to that inheritance which had bene forfeited by the former But yet with this great difference that as betwene the former Adam and Eue the Originall prime poyson of the first sinne came chiefly and primitiuely from the serpent to Eue and then in a second kind of degree from her to Adam and frō him to vs So betwene this latter Adam and Eue which is Christ our Lord our B. Lady the roote ground of that grace wherby the redemption of the world was wrought came originally and fundamentally from God to Christ our Lord and after a secondary instrumentall manner through her Sonne our Lord to our B. Lady It is shewed how our Blessed Lady and Eue doe resemble one another and how they differ and our Blessed Lady is
that which he is pleased to impose For the truth of loue doth not consist in only thinking or talking or weeping or any such expression of the mind but in a faithfull pursite of his wil who is beloued and in a sincere complying with his good pleasures We must loue (b) The loue of correspoÌ„dence him with a loue of Correspondence obseruing his inspirations with great attention and answearing them with great affection and being farre from greeuing his holy spirit which by moments is soliciting vs to perfection Confes l. 11. cap. 9. Audiat te intus sermocinantem qui potest saith the diuine S. Augustine let him that can and who is he that cannot if he will giue eare to those holy motions giue way to those pious affections which our Lord is making and mouing in the soules of such as desire to serue him in particular manner We must loue him with a loue (c) The loue of commerce of CoÌ„merce not only answering with a great facility of inclination to his expresse and knowne inspirations but at all tymes and vpon all occasions as farre as our frailty will permit we must be procuring to dispatch our thoughts towardâ— him and be sweetly carefull to maintaine a perpetuall intercourse or traffique with him deploring our miseries and imploring his mercies and venting the breathing and longing of our harts to be once well vnited and for euer to be ingulfed in him Manual cap. 19. For why as S. Austen saith should there be a minute wherin we may not think of him since there is no minute wherin we are not fauoured and regaled by him And our Lord doth know that it is misery inough for the soule which loues him to be absent from him but euen for a minute and this alone ought to make keep vs huÌ„ble without putting him vpoÌ„ a kind of necessity of permitting vs to fal into other grosser sinnes for the punishing abating of our secret pride We must loue (d) The loue of entiere exchaÌ„ge him lastly with a loue of totall and entiere Exchange contracting our selues to him in all the courses of our life with an indissoluble knot of loue Louing all that which he loues prising all that which he esteemes and despising all that which he contemnes and abhorring all that which he mislikes In effect we must leaue to be our selues and we must striue and grow to be as so many little Christs according to that diuine saying of the blessed Apostle Viuo ego iam non ego viuit verò in me Christus Galat. â— I liue yet now it is not I but Christ our Lord liueth in me For this is the felicity of a ChristiaÌ„ to be like and to liue in Christ our Lord and he in vs by exchange or rather vnion of the will And without this resemblance more or lesse there is no thought to be had Rom. 8. of clyming so high as heauen For they who are predestinated to the felicity of raygning there are called in this life as the B. Apostle showes to a great resemblance and conformity with the Sonne of God But we are not (e) The vnspeakeable honour happines that it is to be like our Lord Iesus worthy to liue if we need to be either persuaded by the obtaying of promises or by the declining of punishments to become like this Lord of ours since the very thing it selfe euen abstracting from what it may import vs either towards Hell or Heauen is of the most excellent the most sublime and sweet condition that can be conceaued Our Lord giue vs grace to penetrate the much honor he hath done vs if â—â— were but in giuing vs leaue to be like himselfe and much more to ponder his immense Loue in commaunding vs that by louing him we will grow like him and in that Confes l. 1. cap. 5. as Saint Austen diuinely contemplateth after this manner he will be greiuously offended with vs and doth theaten to load vs with huge miseries in case we will not resolue to loue him whilst yet that very not louing him is the hugest misery which can be felt A strange (f) Our Lord doth place his nor our in our good Iohn 15. thing it is to see how that excellent Maiesty hath not disdayned to place the point of his great glory in our greatest good and not only in our being good but in that we should be growing better dayly For In hoc clarificatus est pater meus vt sructum plurimum asseratis saith our blessed Lord with his own sacred mouth By this is my Father glorified if you bring forth great store of fruite And he was not content that we should only liue by him and with him and in him by a life of grace and glory Iohn 10. but he would haue that life to be abundant Vt viâ—aÌ„ habeant abundantius habent To conclude therfore once for all our Lord might well say to mankind vnder the figure of that Vine of the old Testament in the way of expostulation and admiration Quid potui facere vineae meae non seci What thing is that which I haue bin euen able to do and which I haue not done to this vine of mine Looke backe (g) An aduise to the Reader Christian Reader vpon that which hath bin deliuered in this Discourse Looke vp to that incessant goodnes and inuincible patience of our Lord God Look downe vpon thine owne miseries and sinnes and consider that yet thou mayst be truly happy if thou wilt Let vs procure to be sorry and ashamed when we consider what a deale we loose for lacke of wit by the losse of tyme In euery moment wherof we might do great exployts euen within the Closets of our own hart and the little that we get in the long liues which we leade in this world for want of loue notwithstanding that God is infinitly communicable and that after a sort our soules are also infinitely capable Away therfore with sinne away with losse of tyme. And as for those happy soules whom already our Lord hath â—ounded with his loue let theÌ„ improue the rich TaleÌ„t Matt. 13. which they haue receiued that the more they abouÌ„d the more may still be giuen them that so they may still abound the more And (h) We cannot better shew our loue to God then by louing our neighbours for as much as we cannot reuenge our selues if I may so say vpon our Lord himselfe by doing him any reall good for all his goodnes towards vs because he is completly happy in himselfe let vs procure to send forth the beames of our pitty from the bowells of cliarity towards our neighbours since they are the creatures whome our Lord hath loued so much as to dye as well for theÌ„ vpon a Crosse as he hath done for vs. A body (i) The wonderfull value reward euen of corporall workes of mercy would
euer the beatificall vison of God Ioan. 8. Ioan. 11. our Lord Iesus as he was man had euer the beatificall vision of God This truth is thus declared in the Ghospell by the mouth of Christ our Lord I speake those thinges which I haue seene with the Father and where I am that is to say in Glory there shall my seruant also be For since he was from and in the very beginning the naturall Sonne of God and the vniuersall Father and head both of men Angells the influence whereof was to be deriued into all the members it was but reason and it could not be otherwise but that his Soule should be endued with this Beatificall knowledge as is declared by the holy Fathers By this knowledge he beheld and did contemplate the most B. Trinity after a manner incomparably more sublime and noble then any or all the other creatures put togeather And because by how much the more cleerely God is seene so much the more are creatures seene in him it will follow that the Soule of Christ our Lord did behould in God not only innumerable thinges but euen outright all those things concerning creatures which euer were at any tyme or which are or shall heereafter be since (c) It belongeth to Christ our Lord as le is our Iudge to know all â—â—inges vhich coÌ„terne the creatures vhom he is to iudg Matt. 28. â—8 he is the Lord of all the Iudge of all and hath all power giuen to him both in heauen and earth for the iust and orderly execution wherof it is euident that he must haue the knowledge of them all The Catholike Fathers and Doctours do also ascribe a second kind of knowledge to the soule of Christ our Lord which (d) Christ our Lord a Man had also infused knowledg they call Infused as being a kind of supernaturall light whereby it did certainely and clearely discerne and know all thinges created And although it be not so expresly contayned in holy Scriptures that Christ our Lord was indued with this knowledge in particular and distinct manner since they only affirme That he knew all thinges which is sufficiently made good by that beatificall vision whereof I spake before yet are there pregnant consequences weighty reasons which exact at our hands a firme beliefe that he had also this other Infused knowledge For the soule of Christ our Lord was alwayes truely Blessed he vvas not only a Runner tovvardes felicity as all other humane creatures are in this life but he vvas a Comprehender of it euen from the very first instant of his Conception It vvas necessary therfore that his soule being Blessed should haue all the endowments of a blessed Soule vvherof this Infused knowledge is one and vvhereby it did certainly and clearely know all thinges created vvhether they vvere natural or supernaturall And that in themselues and in their proper kind or element as they call it and not as only appearing and shining in another glasse as they are seene by that former Beatificall vision but directly and immediatly in themselues And for this it is that the incomparable S. Augustine doth declare That the Angels are endued both with a Morning and an Euening knowledge vnderstanding by the former the beatificall vision and by the latter the knowledge vvhich they call infused Our Lord Iesus had moreouer a third kinde of knowledge which is termed by the name of Experimentall This (e) Of the experimentall knowledg of Christ our Lord. knowledge is acquired by the industry of the senses and it was the fame in Christ our Lord for as much as concernes the meanes wherby it was gathered with the knowledge which we coÌ„passe in this life But yet with this great difference That in Christ our Lord it was without any danger of errour wheras in vs it is with very great difficulty of iudging right And it is in consideration of this kind of knowledge that the holy Euangelist affirmed Christ our Lord to proceed and grow Luc. 2. But those miserable men wherof I spake before hauing the sight of their Faith so short as not to discerne in his sacred soule any other kind of knowledge then this last did absolutely impute ignorance to it at sometymes of his life more then others as if it had not beene Hypostatically vnited to God in whome not onely the knowledge of all things but (f) Nothing is but so far as it is in God euen the very things themselues remayne and if they did not so remaine they could not be Now vpon this which concerneth the knowledge of Christ our Lord it followeth cleerly that he knew all things playnely which are which shall be and which euer were It followeth also that he neuer ceased in any one minute of his life from the consideration of what he knew since he had such knowledge as was wholly independant vpon those images or formes which vse to be impressed vpon the Phansy therfore the working of his knowledge was no way interrupted euen when he was sleeping And yet againe it followeth that hauing a perfect comprehension of all things created together with the causes and effects of them all he (g) Christ our Lord as Man was indued with the perfect knowledg of all arts and sciences consequently was endued with the truth of all Arts and Sciences He had moreouer a most sublime guift of (h) He had a most sublime guift of Prophesy Prophesy and that not after a transitory manner as others haue bene enriched with it by God but permanently and sticking as it were as close vnto him as his owne Nature And lastly it must follow that he was the possessour of all (i) Christ our Lord as Man was a most perfect possessor of prudence Prudence and the partes therof which might any way be fit either for the ordering of his owne actions or for the direction and gouerment of others So that by vvhat vve haue seene he might vvell be naturally the Maister and guide of al mankind which yet will more cleerly appeare by the Power and Sanctity of that pretious Soule The Power and Sanctity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is considered wherby we may also the better see his excessiue Loue. CHAP. 3. BESIDES the Consideration of the deuine Wisedome and knowledge of Christ our Lord I should deserue no excuse if vvhen there is question of his infinite Loue to vs I should not also touch vpon the Power and the Sanctity of his soule Which if they be seriously considered vvill greatly serue though I meane but euen to touch and go to set forth his dignity in himselfe and consequently it vvill put a more expresse and perfect stampe of value vpon his infinitely deere tender loue to vs. For (a) How euery seuerall excellency in Christ our Lord doth iustly rayse the valew of his loue the more he knowes and the more continually he cares and the more wisedome he enioyes and
the more power he practiseth the more holynes he possesseth the more happy are the creatures vvhom he loues The (b) The power of Christ our Lord as man Power therfore vvhervvith Christ our Lord vvas endued as man vvas so vvonderfully great that he could vvorke vvhat miracles he vvould and at his pleasure vvas he able to inuert the order of all naturall things and all this by vvhat meanes he would think fit This Power he also had in as permanent a manner as vve haue said already that he had his Prophesy nor vvas it only obtayned for him by his particular prayers made to God from tyme to tyme according to the exigence of occasions as it hath beene graunted to some of the seruants of God But vve read that vvhen he vvas passing and doing other thinges Luc. 8. yet vertue euen then issued out of him vvherby the vvorking of miracles is meant And els vvhere it is also affirmed that the vertue which issued out of him Luc. 6. cured all diseases And the leaper vvho vvas recouered in the Ghospell vvas inspired by the good spirit of God to say thus to Christ our Sauiour O Lord if thou wilt Matt. 8. thou canst make me cleane And our Lord did shevv that he vvas not deceaued therin For instantly he said I will Be cleane Novv all this Power he employed for our good both corporall and spirituall but especially for our spirittuall good For euen in the Ghospell vvhen he cured mens bodyes by way of illuminating their eyes enabling their limmes and restoring their liues he cured also many of their soules and the seuerall infirmities vvhich they vvere subiect to as vvill be shevved els (c) In the discourse of the Miracles of Christ our Lord. vvhere Nor vvrought that holy omnipotent hand of his any outvvard miracle vvherin some invvard mystery was not locked vp as some rich Ievvel might be in some rare Cabbinet The (d) The sanctity of the soule of Christ our Lord. Sanctity also of Christ our Lord vvas supreme For Sanctity being nothing but a constant and supernaturall cleanes and purity of the soule wherby it is made acceptable and deare to God hovv holy must that soule needs be vvhich vvas so highly (e) The soule of no Saynt in heauen was to haue been any other then odious in the sight of God but for the merits of Christ our Lord. deere to him as that it is only in regard of that soule that all other soules are not odious and vgly in his sight Supreme I say was the Sanctity of Christ our Lord for by the grace of the Hypostaticall vnion he was made holy after a most high and incomprehensible manner and he became The beloued Sonne of God receauing grace beyond al power of expression That so from thence as from the treasure-house of Sanctity all men might take according to their capacity Not only as from the greatest Saint but as from the sanctifyer of them all and as I may say from the very dye of sanctity whereby all they who euer thinke of becomming Saints must take their coulour and luster all they who will may fetch what they desire out of this store So that we may see with ease inough how incōparably much more the Sāctity was of Christ our Lord then that of any or all the other creatures put togeather For among them God hath giuen drops to some and draughts to others but to him grace was communicated by streames and floudes beyond all measure or set proportion His soule indeed could not haue beene vnited to the diuinity without a most speciall grace but that being once supposed the other could not chuse but follow as connaturall And by the force of this Sanctity of Christ our Lord he was wholy naturally made incapable of sinne yea and of any morall defect whatsoeuer Concerning the Vertues which are called Theologicall namely Fayth Hope and Charity the last only of the three could lodge in him for the former two being (f) Why christ our Lord was vncapable of Fayth Hope Hope and Faith were incompatible with the cleare vision and perfect fruition of God which he still enioyed But (g) Christ our Lord possessed all the morall vertues in all perfection as for the morall vertues as Liberality Magnanimity Patience Purity Mercy Humility and Obedience withall the rest it appeares by the history of his sacred life and death that he had them all and that they were most perfect in him and euer most ready to be put in practise as not being impeached by so much as the offer of any contraryes All the guifts of Gods spirit were in him nay he was the resting and reposing place of that spirit This Soule of Christ our Lord was therefore inhabited by all the vertues Isa 11. and graces of God as heauen is by so many seueral quires of Angells in heauen but that which did sublime them all was Charity This soule if it be well considered will looke as if it were some huge wide bottomlesse sea of Christall but (*) The vnspeakeable working of the soule of Christ our Lord in the spirit of loue a Christall sweetly passed and transpierced with a kind of flame of loue It was vnspeakably quiet and yet in a kind of perpetuall agitation by the impulse thereof like the flame of some torch which is euer mouing and working yet without departing from it selfe It is like that kind of Hawke which keeping still the same pitch aloft in the ayre doth stirr the winges with a restlesse kind of motion whilest yet the body doth not stirre It spendes but wasteth not it selfe by spreading grace vpon all the seruants of God after an admirable manner Sometymes looking into the hartes of men and by that very looking changing them sometymes by sending as it were certaine inuisible strings from his hart to theirs and so sweetly drawing them to himselfe whilst (h) No soule can moue one pace towardes God but drawn by the loue of Christ our Lord. yet the world would ignorantly conceaue that they went alone But aboue all that which may strike our weake and darke mindes with wonder is to consider the profoundity and (i) The admirable order with still was held in the soule of Christ our Lord notwithstanding the wonderfull multiplicity of acts with he exercised al at once order which is held in that diuine Soule though it looked vpon almost infinite thinges at once Still did it adore the Diuinity still did it abase and euen as it were annihilate his owne humanity still did it most straitly imbrace with strong armes and patronize with the working bowels of tender mercy all the miseryes of al the Creatures in the whole world vnspeakably ardently thirsting after the glory of God and the felicity of man and eternally keeping all the facultyes of his mind erected vpon that high and pure law of Charity So excellent and so noble was this