crimson through our sinnes Well might those spirits wonder and well might men be amazed to see their Lord and ours walking through those waies of Palestine and through those streetes of Ierusalem vnknown to men but adored by those Angells as their God He went like another and a better Ioseph seeking his brethren Like another and a better Moyses Gen. 37. Exod. 4. c. 1. Reg. 17. 1. Cor. 4. Luc. 10. procuring to deliuer his compatriots from the slauery of Egipt And like a a true valiant Dauid who came to fight against to defeate Golias by whome the Israelites were threatned with totall ruine More truely and more nobly by innumerable degrees then S. Paul was this Humanity of our Lord made a spectacle to the world to Angells to men That spectacle which kings and Prophets had reason to desire so much to see and which (h) The Patriarkes and Prophets would haue exulted to see this sacred Humanity Ioan. 8. Luc. 10. Abraham did so long to looke vpon and in spirit he did see it and it ioyed him at the very rootes of his hart And no meruayle if the beliefe therof did so ioy him the presence and sight wherof did by the testimony of Truth it selfe make those eyes so happy which beheld it How the Beauty of our Lord Iesus Christ did conuince and conquer all lookers on sauing only where excesse of sinne had put out the eyes of the soule CHAP. 5. INFALLIBLY this is true That if any Christian of common sense who were not withall of some extremely currish and diuellish nature should see any person of that admirable complexion feature and motion which was in the humanity of Christ our Lord euen abstracting from all those supernaturall aduantages and endowments which did abound in him although that person were made odious by any aduerse and hatefull circumstance as namely that he were some Iew or Turke or slaue or murtherer or otherwise some most hatefull hurtfull thing infallibly I say it is true that yet that presence would exact a kind of reuerence and loue or els at the very least a great compassion of his frailty or misery The (a) Nothing but Abysse of sinne could haue disobliged mē as it were from doting vpō the humanity of Christ our Lord. Scribes and Pharises alone had their soules so full of enuy auarice and hypocrisy that not only grace was quenched but euen very nature in a manner killed in them For else that diuinely-humane presēce of our Lord would haue subdued them to an ardent loue of his person and they must needs haue beene farre from finding in their wicked hartes to hate maligne that sweet humanity after such a reprobate and restlesse manner The people (b) The people of the Iewes vvere captiued in their harts to the sacred presence of Christ our Lord. Luc. 5. which was lesse wicked ran flocking after him whither soeuer he went when it was left to it selfe and not led prisoner by the power and passion of their blind guides And that not only when they had need of some miraculous cures for then they were fayne to vntyle some mens howses to let others in to his presence nor yet when he would be chauking out to them the way of life by the words of his diuine wisedome for then wanting roome in houses euen in publicke streetes the very earth seemed to little to hold both him and them who swarmed about him and he was fayne to go on shipboard whilst they remayned vpon the shore and from thence would he rauish both their greedy eyes their hungry eares and their panting hartes all at once Nay euen when he would be seeming as though he could be weary of them and to be ridd of company did retire to comtemplation in the desert where there was plenty of no earthly thing but penury so deepely yet were they taken by his diuine presence as (c) The people followed Christ our Lord being lead by no other interest but only the delight to see hear him speake Marc. 8. to forget themselues and to follow him on by thousands and to contynue three daies and nights in that wilderners with their wiues and Children not fearing to dye of hungar nor caring for the comfort of any other food but him But (d) There is nothing lost by leauing any contentment for the loue of God he on the other side pittied them for taking no pitty of themselues for his sake and did so multiply a few loaues fishes Ibid. v. 7. as that there might not only be inough to feed them but to spare Nor was that enamoured hart of his content that they should in hast Ibid. or with incomodity refresh themselues but he made them all sit downe vpon cushions of hay or straw and to be serued in order and at their ease whilst yet for ought we know himselfe did neither sit nor eate O infinite charity of his soule but O vnspeakable beauty and dignity of his body which was able to lead or rather which could not choose but draw so many thousands of rude persons into such appearance of distresse with their so much delight What kind of beauty and visible dignity must that needs be for his miracles alone would haue induced thē to declare him rather to be a Saynt or a prophet then to be a Prince which could persuade such multitudes of men to (e) A great argument to prooue the matchles visible beauty and dignity of Christ our Lord thinke and firmely purpose the making him their king who had the apperance in fortune but of a beggar And because his contempt of the world his profound humility and his inuiolable modesty did giue them little hope that he would accept that honour at their hands they treated amongst themselues as is affirmed by the sacred Text vt raperent eum in Regem to vse violence in procuring to draw him Ioan. 6. from that inferour degree of fortune wherein his infinite loue to them had lodged him though this indeed were then a point of Faith beyond their Creed What kind (f) Another demonstration to prooue this truth of grace sweet Maiesty did shine in him when they went no lōger now by thousands but by millions of soules of al natiōs ages strewing the earth vnderneath where he was to passe with palmes and garments and filling the ayre aboue with voyces of high applause and acclamation which ceremonies were not vsed but in triumphes and that vpon victories of Matth. 28. Ioan. 10. the highest ranke And Baronius makes it cleare that both for the multitude of persons who did assist and for the quality of demonstrations which were made there was neuer perhaps in the whole world a greater triumph then they exhibited in his honour For though he buried himselfe in the very bottome of contempt yet they being vrged by that matchlesse dignity of his person besides his wisedome and power did
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
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
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
in the Temple With how vnspeable loue both to God and man did our Lord IESVS dispossesse himselfe for a while of the greatest ioy and comfort that he could receaue in this world which was the sweet society of his sacred mother wherein although through the eminency of grace which had beene communicated to her happy soule in the very first instant of her Immaculate Conception he could neuer haue found the least distraction from the immediate and most perfect seruice of Almighty God yet because the parents of his disciples and seruants would not all be such but would often be diuerting and diswading vs from corresponding with his inspirations and our obligations he was pleased not only to giue vs an example at large but euen to impart the very expresse words themselues wherby we might ouercome their intreaties And rather then we should not be instructed to forsake all flesh and bloud when once there should be question of Gods seruice and rather then we should not be armed well agaynst those temptatioÌ„s which might grow to vs from our Parents he was content to exemplify the case in his owne sacred person with a seeming diminution to his B. Mother For this it was that when the all-immaculate virgin spake to him in these tender words Sonne why hast thou so done to vs Lâ—â— 2. behold thy Father and I sorrowing did seeke thee Our B. Sauiour answered thus not in the way of reprehension as certayne course-harted people will needs conceaue but (e) In what sense our Lord Iesus spake to his B. mother out of compassion to them and out of instruction to vs Why is it that you sought me did you not knowe that I must be about those things which are my Father And to show that his meaning was but to benefit vs by that expression of himselfe and not to cast the least aspersion of imperfection vpon his most holy mother and S. Ioseph he caused his holy spirit to record it instantly after in holy Scripture that he departed from the Temple with them and came to Nazareth was subiect to them And heere let him that can consider and admire the vnspeakeable dignity and excellency of our B. Lady to whom the God of heauen earth would become a subiect And let him much more adore God for the infinite humility and Charity of our Lord IESVS (e) The incomparable loue of Lord in being so subiect to our B. Lady and S. Ioseph who vouchsafed by this stronge example of his to procure the quenching of our pride and the kindling of our loue by making himselfe a subiect to flesh and bloud for our sake he who was the superiour and soueraigne Lord of all the creatures both in heauen earth He shewed well what he was whilst yet he sate in the Temple amongst the Doctours Of whome he heard what they could say and he asked them to see what they would answere And many other things he also did at the same tyme though holy Scripture by wrapping them vp in silence doe rather leaue matter for our soules then for our senses to worke vpon For he did both pray his eternall Father for their conuersion to his diuine Maiesty and for the manifestation of his glory not only in their hartes vvho vvere present then but in as many as by their meanes should aftervvard come to knovv vvhat had passed there The sacred Text affirmes How all that heard him were aslonished at his wisedome and answeres and that seeing him they wondred And vve may vvell assure our selues that theyr admiring his diuine presence theyr being astonished at his vvisedome vvas to that holy soule of our Lord Iesus an occasion of much mortisication which nothing but ardent Charity could haue made him so willingly imbrace For he was then but twelue yeares old and he had bene bred in a poore and plaine appearance and he dwelt in the very depth of profound hamility And humility when indeed it is profound doth make a soule much more abhorre admiration and prayse then any hart which is vayne can appreh end and hate to be despised The vvhile if all they were so amazed by hearing him vvho vvere the Doctours of the law and vvho vvere likely to despise all the world in comparison of themselues and if the very sight of him made them wonder vvhose eyes vvere euen almost put out by the dust of Enuy and Hypocrysy vvhich the mind of pride had raysed into them which our Lord IESVS by the dropps of his diuine grace vvas procuring them to lay in a farre higher manner must (f) We are particularly bound to admire the wisedome and grace of our Lord Iesus we vvho are Christian and vvhome our Lord instructs not only at some certaine tymes as he did that people in the Temple but to vvhose harts he is euer preaching in a most particular manner happy are they who apply the eares therof to his sacred mouth adore the Maiesty of his wisedome and power and admire the dignity and beauty of his humanity and be inflamed and euen consumed with the sense of his eternall prouidence and ardent loue But yet withall we must consider that howsoeuer it be said and that most truely Thâ—it he proceeded in wisedome and age and grace with God and men this is only to be vnderstood of that kind of wisedome which might grow through experimentall knowledge by way of the senses which he had like vs though yet with this difference as (*) Cap. â—â— hath bene shewed that euen therin he was free from all possibility of errour which we are not For his wisedome otherwise was so great as not to be capable of any increase as nether was his grace wherof in the instant of his Conception that diuine soule of his had receiued all absolute fulnes But he may be truely said to haue increased dayly with God and men in Grace that is in Fauour because euery day more more his soule was beautified by new acts in the sight of God and daylie he made more and more discouery of himselfe to men according to the rates of their Capacity and they would not haue bene men but beasts and blockes if they had not bene taken by such an obiect We are taught withall by his growing thus in grace before God and men to performe our actions in such sort as that we must nether procure to please God alone by not caring for the edification of men nor yet men alone through Hipocrisy or want of purity in the intention but they both must goe together hand in hand as daily our Lord when he grew afterward to mans estate did effectually teach vs more and more Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in that he would vouchsafe to be Baptized CHAP. 21. VVHAT thought of man or Angell can reach to that humility which Christ our Lord being longe since growne to be a man and now vpon the poynt of
shew of peÌ„nance you said he had a deuill my selfe am come to you without any shew of such austerities but I haue applyed my self to your coÌ„uersation And now you say that I am a glution I would fayne win your loue but I know not how I would faine inflame you to the seruice of God but your powder it so wet that no coales of mine can giue it fire And I would to IESVS that through our sinnes we did not see this verified also at this day when the Sectaries and Politiques of the world are so fastidious as that they make faces at his Doctrine whatsoeuer it be Nor will they be conuinced either by the exemplar visible austerity and pennance of some of our holy Religious Ordes which were consecrated in the person of S. Iohn nor by the applyable learned prudent humble charitable endeauour of some other Institutes which hide their mortifications for feare of frighting mens weake mindes and which were designed and recommended by the liuely example expresse Doctrine of Christ our Lord and his Apostles But woe be to them vvho in case of temporall infirmity haue so ill a constitution as to conuert their Phisicke into Poyson And (f) This disease both of body and mind is very dangerous vvoe vvill be to these others in the last day vvho in cases vvhich concerne the soule doe from truth take an occasion of continuing in errour Or rather I beseech our Lord IESVS euen by the memory and merit of that Doctrine vvhich vvith so ardent loue he deliuered heere on earth they may at last find themselues conuinced by it and that imbracing it vvith their vvill they may escape all vvoe The same discourse is continued concerning the great loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in his Doctrine CHAP. 34. I Haue vvillingly entertained my selfe vpon the consideration of some circumstances vvhich concerne the aduantages of this diuine Doctour of our soules beyond all the Doctours vvhich are or euer vvere or are to be Because though no argumeÌ„t should be dravvn from the very Doctrine it selfe to proue the loue of him that taught it yet his person alone and the very manner vvhich he held therin vvas such as ought to oblige the most rebellious mindes that liue to all obedience Our Lord IESVS himselfe notvvithstanding that he had incomparably the greatest humility that euer vvas possessed by any soule did yet vvell vnderstand and iustly prize the dignity of his ovvne person so farre as to knovv that he tooke no authority from his Doctrine but that his Doctrine tooke it all from him Yet so great vvas his goodnes that although he vvere as perfect God as he vvas perfect man he (a) The sectartes will be beleeued vpon their wordes yet Christ Lord would not exact so much of the Iewes vvould not yet oblige vs to beleeue it vnlesse first he had prooued it by infallible testimonies But that being once done he was not to indignify diminish any one vvord of his Doctrine and decrees by alleaging reasons and proofes but only simply to affirme it This point I touch diuers times because occasion is ministred very ofteÌ„ and euen Popes and Princes who are but dust and ashes doe hold this stile and are wont to send out their decrees and to make their Edicts in a positiue and expresse forme And whatsoeuer earnest asseuerations or reasons should be added for the grace strength therof would many tymes be but as a contrary meanes to that end So that the (b) Euen the play nnes of the deliuery of the doctrine of Christ our Lord giues it great authority plainenes of the deliuery of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord is a vehement proose of the diuinenes of it Since being voyd of all those helpes of art in the arme wherof all other Doctrines put their hope this alone is a Doctrine which dares expose it selfe playne and naked And in despight of the whole wicked world it liues it breathes it gathers ground and strength amongst all the venemous weeds of the world And in despite of ignorance sensuality and sinne it strikes at the roote not only of all things which are contrary to God and goodnes but euen of all things which are lesse good and perfect And it (c) The Trophees which the Doctrine of Christ our Lord erecteth in the hart of man erecteth Trophees and keepeth tryumphes in the profoundest part of the harts of the ciuilest the worthiest the learnedst the wisest and the holyest people of the whole world The more sublime authority this Doctrine hath and the more aduantage otherwise the more infinitely are we Catholikes bound to that diuine goodnes which with an eternall loue did make choyce of vs as the disciples thereof And to the end that we might the more easily conceaue it with the vnderstanding and the more faithfully retaine it with the memory it pleased that altitude of diuine wisedome to abase it self to our meane capacity And when the Doctrine of it selse would not perhaps haue bene so well receiued to set it out by allusions and Parables yea and many tymes euen they are borrowed but from the figures of meane bodies See euery where in the holy Ghospell as of Plowes of Corne of Netts of Fishes of Leauen of Mustard-seed and the like Establishing by that familiar and easy meanes a kind of commerce and traffique betwene things diuine humane in the mindes of men And indeed if this Doctrine had not bene brought by the sweet hand of God to carry a great proportion to mans nature assisted by his holy grace what possibility had there bene that it could haue wrought such wonders in the world Making (d) The diuine wonders which the doctrine of Christ our Lord hath wrought in the world so many Kings and Queenes for the loue of Christ our Lord become voluntary beggars Making youth become chast old age obedient knowledge humble austerity so sweete and pleasant as that there are and haue bene millioÌ„s of people in the Catholike Church and our Lord be euer blessed and praysed for it and he knoweth that it is true vvhatsoeuer any Soctary shal either say or thinke to the contrary vvho insteed of fine lynnen haue inclosed claspedthemselues vvithin Girdles of wyâ—e and shirts of haire Insteed of delighfull bathe haue taken frequent disciplines in bloud Insteed of curious and costly beds haue spent their vvhole nights vpon the hard ground Insteed of sumptuous banquets haue entertayned themselues in rigorous fasts And lastly insteed euen of lavvfull pleasures haue exercised themselues vvith great attention in the mortification of the faculties and senses both of the body and mind This I say they doe they haue done and that vvith all the secresy they could and only in conteÌ„plation of the loue of our Lord Iesvs in conformity to his diuine life and Doctrine vvhich requires men to looke vpon his example to liue therafter which proclaimes
and within our selues and to one another And then wil that be fulfilled which the blessed Apostle sayth 1. Cor. 10. That we are all one bread and one body we who are partakers of that diuine bread and of his Chalice But though this may be truly said to some proportion of all such as doe carefully and deuoutly come to this blessed Sacrament yet most eminently is it true of them who are fed therby in the state of holy Religion Whose perfect (g) The vnion of religious persons is a kind of miroculous thing Vnion hath so very much of the miracle in it that it conuinceth euen the most malicious tookers on For euen they when they are in their wits cānot ascribe it to any other cause then the powerful presēce of the grace of God the powerfull grace of his presēce that such a world of persons of so different incompatible nations ages humours descent dispositions and talents should liue together in as perfect a mutuall consent of mind as if they were all the twynnes of one and the same naturall mother The (h) Of other circumstances which do greatly shew the loue of our Lord. ardent loue of our Lord IESVS doth also as liuely appeare in other circumstances of this diuine Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Altar It is true that such as receaue Christ our Lord with great purity of hart are content as it were to be at cost and care to adorne their soules when they to be sit at this celestiall Banquet are receiued by him with an vnspeakeable communicatiō of himselfe and he imbraceth them with armes of so great delight and ioy as is very different from what he ordinarily doth to such as approach Iesse deuoutly to him At this we are not to wonder for the loue of our Lord IESVS to vs is not like the loue of men which if it be very great it puts them as it were out of their wits But the (i) The loue of our Lord doth no way derogate from his infinite wisedom loue of our Lord God doth not take him one haires breadth from home nor doth it derogate at all from his high wisedome Nor are there in the world any weights either of gold or diamonds so precise or nice as the weights of the wisedome of our Lord God whereby he values euery thought of preparation which is made more or lesse when we approach to his presence And accordingly he receaues vs either like his seruants or like his Sonnes But yet still this is true that there is no person in state of grace who may not celebrate if he be a Priest nor no other man or woman but may communicate otherwise of the body and bloud of Christ our Lord with great profit This (k) Our Lords loue doth still more and more appeare by the cōsideration of other circumstances Lord might haue annexed this incomparable benefit to the only state of perfect Chastity or only to such persons as had performed certaine grieuous penances or at least to such alone as had neuer dishonored or profaned either this soueraigne Sacrifice or most venerable Sacrament by ill receiuing it But his Charity would not endure that any one should be excluded from such a benefit if at last he would be content to loue him He might haue abridged vs to one only tyme of cōmunion in all our life or at least that we should not communicate aboue once a yeare But so farre he was from giuing any such restraint as this that he desires nothing more then that we should often repaire to this food of life Yea and he hath inspired his holy Church by his holy Spirit to counsaile her children to frequent it and to driue them out of her company by (l) They are excōmunicated who doe not communicate once in the yeare excommunication if at certayne tymes they doe not satisfye the longing which he hath to become therby one with them There is no necessity or important occasion in the world either corporall or spirituall either publicke or priuate for which this holy Sacrifice may not be offered And not only brings it profit to liuing men but to such as haue led vs the way to Purgatory where the paines are much discounted heereby as S. Augustine De cura pro mortuis possim and many other of the Fathers doe aboundantly shew So also in our receiuing the blessed Sacrament we of the layty are put to no stint heerin but euery Christian may communicate as often as his owne ghostly Father shall thinke fit And as when (m) The King of Glory vouchsafes to come and visit in person euery beggar we haue health of body we may in euery Church goe to him so when we are sicke we neede take no care in this for he wil be sure to come to vs. And if it were an incomparable mercy as we haue seene it to be in the last discourse of the miracles for our Lord IESVS to visit and cure the sicke of corporall diseases whilst himselfe was mortall how much more is he to be magnified by all the powers of our soules since he cōsines himselfe as a man may say to our Altars and bindes himselfe to be there at all the howers both of day and night and to be ready in all weathers and vpon all warnings and sometimes with small attendance to transport himselfe to the death-bed of euery beggar yea and of euery sinner who may perhaps haue profaned him in the same Sacrament to cure and comfort their afflicted soules And all this he doth now that he is glorious in heauen and sitting at the right hand of God Sometymes (n) He is pleased to be exposed for our cōfort opon our Altars for many howres together he is pleased that we shall not only receaue him which action is begun and ended as it were at an instant but moreouer vpon great solemnities as also vpō other particular occasions of the Church we may haue the cōfort to see the blessed Sacramēt with our corporal eyes for some good tyme together And sometymes it is exposed for the space of forty howers vpon our Altars And because he reapes much honor and vve much good by the meeting of many pious affections in one and for that the multitude of the faithfull is so great in euery good towne that no one Church can hould them for that purpose this mercifull Lord of ours is content to be carried in procession through the streets and publicke places and so to take homage from whole Cittyes at once whereby they (o) How we reuerse the dishonour which was done to our Lord in tyme of the Passion doe the best they can to reuerse the ignominies and affronts which he receiued in the many most paynfull and most shameful processions which he made to the house of Aunas of Cayphas of Pylate of Herod and of Mount Caluary in that night and morning of his bitter Passion for
to be amiable and easy to be endured And thus was the whole life which Christ our Lord did lead in this world an example and a liuing Doctrine of the actions which we were to performe and of the vertues which we were to practise This is said by S. Augustine Therfore to conclude this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord we haue (i) The summe of this whole discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord. seene how painefull it was with how great loue he endured it and with how heroicall vertue it was performed We haue seene the end and ayme he had therin which was not only the redeeming of vs from hell but the recouery of vs from sinne the inducing vs to fly from all inordinate desire of honour estate and vaine delights to imbrace after his exaÌ„ple for his loue the exercise of all vertue the mortification both of the inward and outward man Let vs take heed that we contemne not the treasures of his mercies least we be consumed by the fiery torrent of his Iustice Let vs not pretend to make him loose his labour for auoyding of a little labour of our owne He is the wisedome it selfe of God and can tell how to value to a haire such a huge indignity as that would be And of this truth we must be well assured for it is not only reuealed to vs by way of Faith but it is written in our harts by the law it selfe of nature and reason That (k) The more good God is to men the more bitterly will they be punished for the contempt of such goodnesse if a mercy be offered abused a vengeance will belong to that offence If the mercy be great the vengeance will not faile to be great and if the mercy be infinite the vengeance also will be infinite And though Christ our Lord be a Lyon and the roaring of a Lyon is a frighfull thing yet he is also a Lambe we haue seene how he hath bene shorne and slaine and this LaÌ„be is not willingly alienated from his loue to vs. But if he be then laesa patientia vertitur in furorem The more inuincibly patient he was the more implacably furious he will be And for my part I doe not heare in the whole booke of God any word which strickes with greater terrour then when it speakes of the wrath of the Lambe Apoc. 6. The holy Ghospell describing Christ our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse saith that they blasphemed him as they were passing by Many blaspheme him by their deeds who doe not so by their words Matt. 27. but hauing an Aue Rex in their mouthes they strike him with the Reed in their hands If we desire insteed of blaspheming to doe him seruice and so to be happy both in heauen and euen heere our way will be not to passe so lightly by his Crosse but there to behould contemplate him at good leasure For how miserably shall we be out of countenance at the hower of our death if our conscience may iustly then accuse vs that we could not so much as find in our harts now then to thinke of those bitter things which the Sonne of God God did find in his hart to endure and that with infinite loue for our saluation Our Lord (l) Our great ingratitude to God will make vs see how very wicked we are otherwise IESVS giue vs grace to know how very wicked things we are And this knowledge being once well grounded in vs and our Lord being desired that for the loue of his bitter Passion he will make vs see the loue he bare vs in it we shall grow to take delight in looking often vpon that book with the eyes of our soule and so they will be happily shut vp from the sight and loue of other obiects We shall then quickly find that the Crosse is no such cruell thing as we haue coÌ„ceaued but that it is short and light and the reward therof remaines for euer Besides that the memory of her friends is honorable afterward euen with the enemies therof Wheras those persecuting Iewes with Cayphas and Pilate Herod al the libertines of the world who indeed are the enemies of Christ our Lord Philip. 3. and of his Crosse as S. Paul affirmeth howsoeuer they triumphed for a tyme were soone either beate downe by disgrace like so many bladders or blsters or els blowne vp by a little tyme out of the estimation of God and man like so many squibbs And now they haue found their place in hel where they shall remaine as long as God is God and so will their successors in sinne succeed them also in their punishment from which our Lord deliuer both them and vs. Of the vnspeakeable Loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all CHAP. 79. OVR Lord IESVS hauing made his last Will and Testament in that night precedent to his death at which tyme he gaue vs his owne pretious body and bloud not only for the food of our soules in the blessed Sacrament but for a Sacrifice to God in the way of homage as to a Soueraigne Creatour by the institution of the Masse and being that night and the next day arriued so farre in the course of his bloudy and bitter Passion as after innumerable other affronts and torments to see himselfe both naked nayled through hands and feete vpon a Crosse the (a) The loue of our Lord Iesus did after asort increase with the torment which he â—â—dured â—â—â—our 〈◊〉 bowells of his mercy were so farre from being changed or cooled toward vs that the neerer they were to breake for griefe the faster he made them beate for loue And therfore as some tender-harted husband would haue done in fauour of his most faithfull and beloued wife who hauing setled his affaires in tyme of health by way of Testament wherby he had honorably prouided for her estate and comfort would yet wheÌ„ he drew neere to death in further proofe of his affection increase her ioynture by some Lordships and plucke of his ringe of greatest price from his owne fingar that he might put it vpon hers iust so was our Lord IESVS pleased to proceed with the holy Church his Spouse To whome notwithstanding the legacy of his owne pretious body which he had giuen vs already by Testament he did also now when he drew close vpon the confines of death with incomparable Charity (b) Our Lord Iesus bequeathed his B. mother to be also ours as it were by way of Codicill annexed to his last will Luc. 23. bequeath his sacred Mother to vs as it were by way of Codicille which he annexed to that former Will of his It hath bene seene already how our Lord vpon the death-bed of the Crosse did vtter seauen Words or rather declare himselfe by seauen seuerall speaches both to God
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
otherwise in the mystery of his appreheÌ„sion pag. 344 Chap. 60. Of the blow which was giuen vpon the face of our B. Lord in the high â—â—iests house of the fall of S. Peter How our Lord was taxed first of Blasphemy of the excessiue Loue of our Lord in all these particulars pag. 350 Chap. 61. The abundant must bitter scornes which our B. Lord indured with excessiue loue in that night precedent to his death pag. 358 Chap. 62. How our Lord was solemnly adiuged worthy of death for Blasphemy of the death of Iudas and how they send our Lord to Pilate pag. 366 Chap. 63. How Pilate examined our B. Lord sent him to Herod How Herod scorned him sent him backe to Pilate who resolued to scourge him pag. 372 Chap. 64. Of the cruell Scourging of Christ our Lord and how with incomparable patience and charity he endured the same pag. 377 Chap. 65. How our B. Lord was crowned with thornes blasphemed tormented with strang inuention of malice And how he endured all with incoÌ„parable loue pag. 382 Chap. 66. How we ought to carry our selues in consideration of the Ecce Homo And how our B. Sauiour did carry himselfe at that tyme with contempt of all humane comfort for loue of vs. pag. 388 Chap. 67. How the Iewes prefer Barabbas before Christ our Lord And how Pilate gaue sentence of death against him And with what incessant loue he endured all pag. 394 Chap. 68. How our Lord did carry his Crosse of the excessiue loue he shewed in bearing the great affronts which were done to him in his iorney to Mount Caluary pag. 399 Chap. 69. The Crucifixion of our B. Lord his quicke sense seuerall paynes distinctly felt of his vnspeakeable patience and loue to vs therin pag 404 Chap. 70. Of the excessiue torments of our Lord how he was blasphemed by all sortes of persons and of the diuine patience and loue wherwith he bare it all pag. 411 Chap. 71. How our Lord did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructor vpon the Crosse and of the three first words he vttered from thence pag. 419 Chap. 72. Of the darkenes ouer the world the desolation which our Lord endured with incoÌ„parable loue whilst he said to his eternall Father Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquisti me pag. 425 Chap. 73. Of the excessiue loue which our Lord expressed by his silence in the torments of the Crosse And how the while he was negotiating our cause with God pag. 432 Chap. 74. Of the vnspeakeable thirst of our Lord which he did endure and declare with incomparable loue to man pag. 437 Chap. 75. Of the entyere consummation of our RedemptioÌ„ wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse pag. 442 Chap. 76. Of our Lords last prayer of the separation of his soule from his body and of the grace and beauty of the Crucifixe pag. 447 Chap. 77. Of the great loue of God expressed in those prodigious things which appeared vpon the death of our B. Lord. And of the bloud and water which slowed out of his side c. pag. 453 Chap. 78. The Conclusson of this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord the vse which we are bound to make therof pag. 460 Chap. 79. Of the vnspeakeable loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all pag. 472 Chap. 80. How our B. Lady and Eue doe resemble one another and how they â—iffer And our B. Lady is proued to be the spirituall mother of all mankind pag. 478 Chap. 81. The externall Excellencies attractiuenesse of our B. Lady The reasons of congruity which proue her innocency purity and the innumerable motiues which oblige the world to admire loue her pag. 485 Chap. 82. Of the incoÌ„parable sanctity which is implyed to haue beene in our B. Lady by the consideration of the high dignity of her calling how that maÌ„ner of speach is to be vnderstood in holy Scripture wherby our B. Lady doth seeme in the eye of some to be disaduantaged pag. 424 Chap. 83. How the sanctity of our B. Lady doth much import to the honour of Christ our Lord. How notwithstanding all her excellency we auow her to be nothing in respect of Christ our Lord as God by innumerable degrees inferiour to him as man how much more honorably our Lord redeemed her theÌ„ others pag. 500 Chap. 84. Of the great eminency of our B. Lady beyond all others with an authority cited out of S. Augustine and that the way for vs to iudge rightly of her is to purify our soules pag. 506 Chap. 85. Of great Excellency of our B. Lady set out by the Figures Appellations and Allusions of the old Testament pag. 509 Chap. 86. The wonderfull excelleÌ„cies of our B. Lady which are declared in the new Testament be heere set forth pag. 514 Chap. 87. That our B. Lady was saluted full of Grace of seuerall kindes of Fulnes of Grace pag. 520 Chap. 88. The prayses of the B. Virgin are prosecuted by a testimony of S. Gregory And consideration is made of her diuine Vertues first of her admirable Faith and Hope pag. 527 Chap. 89. Of the most ardent Charity both to God man which raigned in the hart of the B. Virgin pag. 533 Chap. 90. The profound Humility and perfect Purity of our B. Ladyes both body soule And wherin the height thereof consisteth pag. 545 Chap. 91. Of the inexplicable Conformity of the will of the B. Virgin to the holy will of God in all thinges how deere soeuer it might cost her pag. 545 Chap. 92. Of the entyere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God and how many priuiledges and perfections were assembled in her pag. 551 Chap. 93. Of the seuerall deuotions that we are to carry to our Blessed Lady pag. 555 Chap. 94. Of the piety of our B. Lady towards vs now in heauen far more then when she liued on earth with a prayer to her pag. 580 Chap. 95. A RecapitulatioÌ„ of diuers Motiues which ought to draw vs close to the loue of our Lord. pag. 567 Chap. 96. Of the seuerall kinds of loue which our soules may exercise to our Lord Iesus with the Conclusion of the whole Treatise pag. 574. FINIS
OF THE LOVE OF OVR ONLY LORD AND SAVIOVR IESVS CHRIST Both that which he beareth to Vs and that also which we are obliged to beare to Him DECLARED By the principall Mysteries of the Life and Death of our Lord as they are deliuered to vs in Holy Scripture With a Preface or Introduction to the Discourse IHS D. Aug. Confess lib. 10. cap. 29. O Amor qui semper ardes numquam extingueru Charitas Deus meus accende me O thou Loue which euer burnest and art neuer quenched O Charity my God do thou enkindle me Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XXII TO THE MOST GLORIOVS AND EVER-BLESSED PERPETVALL VIRGIN MARY the All-Immaculate Mother of our Lord God RECEAVE this Treatise O Queene of Heauen with thy Hand of grace which the hart of thy Seruant doth prostrate at thy purest Feet as a token wrapped vp in words of the most reuearing and admiring Loue which he owes wil euer be striuing to pay to thee And vouchsafe of thy Goodnes to present it to thy Son our Lord the sole Redeemer and Sauiour of the World since it aymes at nothing els but his glory which with infinite mercy he hath vouchsafed to place in the exchange of Loue with mortall Man Thy selfe and thou alone art that happy Creature who by the aboundant sloud of his Grace wert made able to swim through all the moments of this life in the Purity and Perfection of this dunne Loue. Nor didst thou euer fayle therof from the first instant of thy Immaculate Conception in the bowells of thy blessed mother to that other of thy Assumption in the armes of thy most beloued Sonne O suffer not his Creatures who are also adopted sonnes of thine to be still so vnlike their mother as to disperse and dissipate themselues by inordinate Loue vpon the transitory obiects of this world It is inough it is too much that hitherto we haue defiled our soules and that forsaking the cleere vntroubled spring of diuine Beauty we haue bene miserably glad to stifle and drowne our selues whilst yet we are the workes of his Hands and the ioy of his Hart in the muddy pooles of profane Delight Behold how we sigh groane in thy sacred eares some of vs vnder thè seruile yoke of present sinnes and some others vnder the sad effects and consequences of our former wickednes since we are full of weakene towards good workes and of an auersion from ioyfully and perfectly complying with the superexcellent wise and holy will of God Demaund of that God obtaine of thy Sonne that he will print himselfe fast vpon our Soules that so O glorious Queene O thou most certaine Comfort of the Afflicted we may be discharged by thy prayers from these chaynes which are striuing to dragge vs downe as low as Hell And once being free we may fly vp from whence we are fallen and adhere to God with thee by an Eternall Loue. THE PREFACE DECLARING THE POWERS belonging to the Soule of man with their proper obiects and acts and how all the whole world liues by Loue and that the obiect of our Loue must be only God directed by meanes of Iesus Christ our only Lord and Sauiour IT is the ancient and iust Complaint of our Holy and Wise forefathers that men affect the knowledg of certaine fâ—rraine and fruitlesse things not caâ—ing to consider or euen know themselues We are apt to woÌ„der at the huge height of mountaines the vnwearied walke of riuers the subtile course of seas the perpetuall motion of planets and in the meanetyme we reslect not vpö that which growes in our owne bosomes which yet is a fitter subiect for our admiratioÌ„ to worke vpon The most inestimable riches of the whole materiall world is but beggary and misery in comparison of the mind of Man For what Monarch had euer such Ambassadors and Spies as are his Senses or such Solicitours as are his Desires or such Officers and Executioners as are his Passions or such a Lord Steward of his Houshould as is his Reason or such a Secretary of State as is his Inuention or such a Treasurer as is his Memory or such a President of his Counâ—aile as is his Vnderstanding and which of them had euer so absolute a Dominion ouer his Countries Vassalls as man hath ouer himselfe by the vse and exercise of his will Of all these Powers the Vnderstanding Will are the most important as being they to which the rest are all reserred Verum or that which is True is the Obiect of the VnderstaÌ„ding the Obiect of the Wil is BònÌ„ or that which is Good The Act which the VnderstaÌ„ding exerciseth towards his Obiect of Truth is Knowledge for the Vnderstanding doth euer desire to know that which is exercised by the Wil towards the Obiect of God is Loue for al creatures which caÌ„ Loue are carried to a desire of that which is Good or at least which seemeth good to the. And indeed it may be truly sayd if it be discreetly vnderstood that there is no creature at all which hath not a Loue that it lookes after Euen all the inanimate Creatures do moue with a restles desire to their proper CeÌ„ter through a quality which is impressed vpon them by the common Creator of them vs. Fire flyes vpward earth falls downe ward they are driuen by their weight they aspire to their places By force you may with hold them but if you leaue them to themselues you shal quickly see where they haue a mind to be And as the actual Loue which a reasonable creature bears to any Obiect is accoÌ„ted for the weight wherby he is carried to his iourneyes end Amor meus pondus meÌ„ eò feror quocumque feror D. Aâ—â— Confes lib. 13. c. 9. so the weight or Virtus motiua of inanimate Creatures may well be accounted called their Loue wherby they are carried knowledg of Good Bad so also must he needs haue a more vniuersall and noble meanes for the reaching arriuing to the perfection of so excellent a nature From hence also it comes that as it is proper to him to apprehend his End so he must be enabled with all the meanes coÌ„ducing to it This last End of man is perfect complete Beatitude So as the true and vndoubted Obiect of his Will is Omne bonum which is All Good This Perfectió supposech of it self implyeth in any creature which can aspire therunto to be to liue to know So that if any man be asked whether he would be glad to Be to Liue to Know to be Happy he cannot doubt of it though he would vnlesse he were out of his wits then in effect he would be no man Now Beatitudo as saith Boetius est status omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus And (c) Confes lib. 10. c. 21. S. Augustine saith That if any man should be asked whether he would be happy or no all the world would say yea as
hath framed the partes of this world of ours and of all the bodies conteyned therin with such exact perfectiō that nothing can either be added or dimished without making it either lesse faire in it selfe or lesse fit for the other parts therof The very least of these things he gouerneth with that depth of Wisedome and addresseth it to the seuerall ends by soe apt and admirable wayes that not so much as a haire can fall frō a head nor a sparrow light on the ground nor a fly can eyther liue or dye but by his pleasure and prouidence (h) A most strange but most certaine truth euen that little miserable thinge doth serue as a part without which the whole as hath beene said would be lesse beautifull Nothing happens to him by channce nothing by surprise but all things are done by eternall Councell And which increaseth the wonder al this is determined by one simple act of his without any deliberation at all or the interposing of the least delay and this so perfectly and so fully that hauing with his owne infinite Wisedome contemplated his owne workes by the space of infinite ages he could neuer find that any thing was not most wisely done nor any thing which was capable of the least amendment or alteration The (i) The infinite goodnes of Christ our Lord as he is God infinitenes of his Goodnes doth also appeare by innumerable wayes but especially by this That although his diuine Iustice be euery whit as infinite as his Mercy yet his Mercy extending it selfe first to vs euen out of his owne intrinsecall eternall goodnes to vs and vpon no originall motiue on our parts his (k) How the mercy of God may be sayd to be greater then his Iustice whilst yet both are infinite Psal 44. Ose 13. Iustice doth neuer exercise or imploy it selfe vpon his Creatures but by reason of some former expresse prouocation from them and therfore it is most truely said That his mercy is aboue all his workes and that the perdition of Israell is from it selfe What shall we say in further proofe of his Goodnes but that he hauing made vs all of nothing and being able with the same ease to make a million of better worlds then this he doth yet so court wooe vs to loue him to be intirely happy in him as if himselfe might not be so vnlesse we would be pleased to graunt his suite To these miserable vngratefull creatures of his he doth so deerly and so many waies communicate himselfe as that no one of thē doth exist which doth not in euery moment of tyme participate of his diuine Goodnes in most abundant and various manner He seekes vs when we are lost he calls vs when we goe astray he imbraceth vs as soone as we dispose our selues to returne notwithstanding the millions of sinnes which we may haue cōmitted against him He (l) The diuers wayes whereby God communicateth his misteries to vs. makes himself all in all to vs now performing the office of a King by commaunding now of a Captaine by conducting now of a Mother by cherishing and continually of a Pastour by feeding vs sometymes with Comforts wherby we may be incouraged and sometimes by Crosses through the ouercomming wherof we may be fortified and refined Nor (m) Consider of this truth with great attention for it is of vnspeakable comfort is there any one instant in this whole life of ours wherin by vertue of his former grace we may not euen by some act of our very thought alone acquire new degrees of grace as will be shewed more largely afterward to euery one of which degrees a seuerall degree of eternall glory in heauen doth correspond and euery one of which degrees of glory though it should last but for an instāt is incomparably more worth them all the pleasures and treasures and honours which euer were or will be tasted in this world by all the race of man betweene the creation of Adam and the day of Iudgment If we consider this truth as we ought and if God of his mercy will inable vs to feele it in our very harts we shall instantly admire the infinite liberall goodnes of his diuine Maiesty who would not so much as permit any euill at all in the world if it were not to deriue more good from thence then otherwise would haue accrewed without that euill Rom. 8. For all thinges do cooperate to the good of Gods seruants as S. Paul affirmes and S. Augustine inferreth thereupon That euen our very sinnes when they are forsaken do cooperate as seruing to inflame vs with greater loue of God and consequently they bespeake for vs more resplendent thrones of glory in the kingdome of Heauen then without those sinnes we should haue had So infinite I say is the goodnes of God and so excessiue is his loue as will further yet appeare by that which followes wherby the excellency of the soule of Christ our Lord as Man is to be declared The Loue of our Lord Iesus as he is Man is much commended to vs by the consideration of the Excellency of his Soule CHAP. 2. SINCE the dignity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is a great part of the ground of his immense loue to Man as will be shewed particularly afterward it may heer come fitly in to point at the supreme excellency of this Soule First therefore it must be taken for graunted that Christ our Lord had an Vnderstanding which was created at that instant when he was endued with a true and naturall soule of man Heereupon it followeth that he had a knowledge also which was created which was distinct from his diuine knowledge This truth was thus declared by Pope Agatho S. Synod Act. 6. 8. We publish and confesse that the two Natures of Christ our Lord and ech of them had the naturall proprietyes which respectiuely belonged to such naturs And the Councell of Calcedon doth in like sort define That he tooke to himselfe a perfect reasonable soule without the want of any propriety belonging to such a one and that in all thinges it was like to that of ours excepting sinne There was anciently indeed an heresy of certaine persons who were called Gnostici as S. Irenaeus relates Affirming that Christour Lord was ignorant of many thinges Iran lib. 1. aduer haer ca◠17. and that he learned many thinges vnder the direction of some Maister as other men might doe And so also (a) The heretikes of al ages are lead by the same spirit of errour Calu. in Harmoni◠passim do Sectaries of this last age of ours blaspheme being lead by the same spirit of errour as well in this as many other thinges whilst they lay an imputation of ignorance vpon Christ our Lord. But the holy Catholike Church abhorreth all such impious conceit as this and so al her Doctours with S. Thomas do auow That (b) Christ our Lord man had
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
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
and miseries which they found that our Lord had bene pleased to indure for thē and which the world doth so deepely feare and so deadly hate The Tyrant in the meane tyme Vide Maldonat in c. 2. Matt. after some six or seauen yeares expired according to the most probable opinion not disposing himself to lay downe that batbatous bloody minde wherby like a wolse he persecuted the lamb of God Ioan. 1. who taketh away the sinnes of the world and vvho during all that bitter banishment of his did neuer cease to vvooe him by inspirations and many other meanes to depart frō his dānable designe came at last to his due deserued end For he fel into the cōpasse of those impenitēt sinners vvhich S. Augustine discribeth thus after his diuine manner Confes l. 5. cap. 2. Subtrahentes se lenitati tuae offendētes in rectitudinē tuam cadentes in asperitatē tuam Videlicet nesciunt quòd vbique sis quem nullus circumscribi◠locus solus es praesens etiam his qui longè fiunt à te They withdrew thēselues saith he from thy mercy and they met with thy Iustice and they fell vpon thy rigor or reuenge And all because they knew not that thou O Lord art euery where whome no place doth circumscribe and who only art present euen to them who will needs make themselues far of from thee This was Herods case who in vayne did looke for the Lord of life heere or there to murther him who was not only heere or there but euery where Or rather with him there is no such thing as any where but only so far forth as it is made to be so by his Omnipresence Particularly our Lord had still bene knocking at his hart But the Tyrant locked him out seeking him in that wicked manner the more he sought him so the further of he was frō finding him though yet himselfe was found by him Confes lib. 4. cap. 9. For as the same S. Augustine saith els where of a sinner Quo it quo fugit nisi à te placido ad te iratum vbi non inuenit legem tuam in paena sua lex tua veritas veritas tu Whither goeth a sinner or whither flyeth he but from thee being pleased to thy selfe being offended And where shall he not find thy law to his cost and thy law is Truth and this Truth is thou thy selfe By this law of Iustice and by this Truth the tyrāt was found out at last For our Lord considering that he would not make vse of his loue to him by asking pardō resolued that he would make him an instrument of his own loue to vs by giuing vs an example which we might auoyd And so he (e) How the Iustice of God vpon Herod was grounded in his mercy loue to vs. Vide 10. seph l. 17. Antiquit. cap. 8. Euseb l. r. Hist Eccle siast strocke him with extreme afflictions of minde and vnspeakeable torments of body according to the description of Iosephus For within he was all burning as in fire his lyms were swolne his pudenda turned themselues into vermine and his whole body was of so hatefull a smel as that he might rather be thought a lining and feeling and talking dunghill then a ma and so he dyed Yet now though our Lord did shew his Maiesty as a God he would not yet forsake his owne humility patience and charity as man but he expected in Egypt till this hungry wolfe were dead And then vpon the admonition of an Angell he returned and went into Galilea and so to Nazareth where he remayned with his sacred mother and the holy Patriarche S. Ioseph his supposed Father Lue. 2. And he grew as the Euangelist saith and was strengthned being full of wisedome and the grace of God was with him Both which he shewed after an admirable manner at his disputing and teaching in the Temple as will appeare by that which followeth Of the great Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by his disputing and teaching in the Temple CHAP. 20. AS on the one side our Lord IESVS did omit noe exquisite diligence which might serue for the deliuery of himselfe to the knowledge and the loue of men so yet on the other he vsed it with so much caution as to make such as saw him rather to desire then to glut themselues vpon him For (a) How sweetly our Lord did manifest himselfe by degrees he being as he was the Souerayne originall light of the whole world chose to manifest himselfe to it which lay in darknes by degrees least otherwise insteed of being illuminated it might be dazeled He was twelue yeares old before he made any shew of himselfe but only by making those holy Pilgrimages to the Temple at three seuerall tymes of the yeare To which howsoeuer he were not bound in that tender age nor could he be indeed obliged at all yet it is most likely that euen before he would binde himselfe as now we se he did by his loue to giue vs that great example of his deuotion as also not to depriue his all-immaculate mother and S. Ioseph of that comfort which without him they could not so well enioy Those indeed were Pilgrimages (b) How Pilgrimamages to holy places ought to be performed which the world may looke vpon both for admiration imitation With what silence what introuersion what height of piety were they performed and hovv present to the minde of our B. Sauiour were all those persons of the world who vvould deny and deride such Religious iourneyes to holy places And such others also vvho both beleeuing practising the same would yet abuse that holy institution either by voluntary and long distractions or else by oftentation and for both those kindes of people would his loue sollicit him to be deeply sorry He saw also such others as would greatly honour him and his Saints by such deuotions and not only did he take particular larioy in euery one of them but by his merits and prayers and especialliy by euery one of those holy paces did he obtaine at the hands of his eternall Father that grace and strength wherby such actions might be well performed But when they were at Ierusalem in the frequent assembly of that people it was not so strange that the parents should loose the sight of the Child wherupon (c) The griefe of our B. Lady and Saint loseph vpon the losse of Christ our Lord in the Temple they sought him with griefe inough They thought that some of their freinds and kindred might haue procured to make him returne with thē as who would not haue byn glad to become as happy as he could by the excellent presence of our Lord. So as they looked him amongst their friends a dayes iourney off from Ierusalem and not finding him there they returned to the Citty full of care and found him the third day
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
and vse of Baptisme that ordinarily it shall be administred by her Priests and in her Churches and solemnized with her sacred and most significant * Ritual Roman Ceremonies as namely the signe of the holy Crosse Exorcisines Insufflations Inpositiou of hands together with salt and holy Oyle with diuers others vvhich are thought fit to accompany an action of so great importance and the figures vvherof vvere deliuered and recomended by Christ our Lord himselfe as S. Ambrose notes vvhen he cured that person vvho vvas possessed by a diuell both dumbe and deefe by putttng spittle vpon his tongue and thrusting his fingars into his eares and saying Ephata vvhich is Be opened at most of vvhich Ceremonies though Sectaries vvill take liberty to laugh and scoffe vve Catholikes vvill not be ashamed to reueale them as vve are taught to doe not only though chiefely for the authority and custome it selfe of the holy Church but partely also because vve see in the vvritings of most auncient and holy Doctours Vide Bellar de Sacram Bap. l. 18. c. 26. both frequent and venerable mention to be made therof Hovvsoeuer I say all this be true yet neuerthelesse it vvas the gratious pleasure of our blessed Lord and it is the practise of his true Spouse the holy Church in case that the person to be baptized be in any extremity of daunger to forbeare all those ceremonies vvhich cannot then conueniently be vsed And it sufficeth for the eternall saluation of that soule that the vvater be applyed those fevv sacred vvords pronounced vvhich are prescribed And this in those cases may be done not only by lay men but euen by vvomen and all in the vertue and through the loue and by the merit of the Baptisme of Christ our Lord. Lib. 2. in Luc. Tom. 5. ser de Baptismo For one man was went as S. Ambrose sayth but he washed all the world One man descended that we might all ascend One man tooke vpon him the sinnes of all that so the sinnes of all might dye in him Our Lord was baptized not meaning to be cleansed by those waters but to cleanse those very waters that so they being washed by the flesh of Christ our Lord which knew no sinne might be intytled to the right of Baptisme Ser. de Temp. And S. Augustine doth also say A mother there was who brought forth a sōne yet she was chast the water washed Christ and it was made holy by him For as after the birth of Christ our Lord the Chastity of the B. Virgin was glorisied so after his Baptisine the sanctisication of the waters was approued To her saith he afterward was virginity imparted and vpon it fecundity was bestowed as we shall instantly and cleerly see The discourse concerning Baptisme is contynued and the great Loue of our Lord in the institution of that Sacrament is more declared CHAP. 22. THIS Baptisme instituted thus by Christ our Lord is both a mistical kind of death and withall it is a new begetting of a soule to life The first Adam is put to death that Christ our Lord who is the second Adam may be formed in vs. The whole world lay drowned till thus it was fetcht from vnder water The holy Apostle speakes of Baptisme as of a kind of death Cap. 6. For he tells the Romans that they he were washed together with Christ our Lord by Baptisme vnto death that is to sinne which is the worker and cause of death That as our Lord rose from the dead by the glory of his Father so we may walke in newnes of life And shortly after whosoeuer of vs are baptized in Christ Iesus are baptized to his death And againe to the Colossians you are buried together with him in Baptisme in whom you are risen to life This Baptisme is also a Regeneration wherby we are made the adopted sonnes of God and the brethren Coheires and liuing members of Christ our Lord. And the same Lord sayth Ioan. 3. Vnlesse you be borne againe of water and the holy Ghost I. Pet. 1. you shall not enter into the kingdom of God And besides he hath regenerated vs into a liuing hope This ioynt Resurrection with our Lord is made to that newnes of life wherof the Apostle speakes els where Colos 2. Rom. 6. For by this Lauer we are renewed by which we are also borne agayne So that we see how this Baptisme of Christ our Lord according to the seuerall partes therof was a figure in the exteriour both of the burying of our soules from sinne and of the begetting therof to grace his descending into the waters signifying the one and his returne out of them the other This Sacrament which was procured for vs by the labour and loue of our Lord IESVS in a most particular manner doth imprint a Caracter vpon the soule which is indeleble for all eternities and wherby we are maked and knowne to be the sheepe of Christ our Lord. It is the gate or entrance of all the other Sacraments and auowed to be such by the Councell of Trent Concil Trident. sess 7. Can. 9. de Sacram in genere It is a necessary meanes for the taking away of Originall sinne and for cloathing the soule with the primitiue stole of Iustice. In former ages they who were baptized were called Illuminated persons and baptisme it selfe was called Illumination and the Sacrament of Faith Yea baptized persons are said to be Illuminated by the Apostle himself It takes away both the sinne and all that penalty which may by due to it It fills the soule which grace and vertue and it is both necessary to saluation it guideth to it The weight of which word (a) What thing the word Saluation doth import Saluation whosoeuer doth consider well withall that it is applyed to vs by such an obuious and familiar meanes as this will not be so apt to snarle and quarrell at the Ordination of God as if it were a point of cruelty to separate such persons from himselfe as reach not Baptisme through his inscrutable iudgments for the sinne of Adam to which the whole race of man is subiect as they will be to admire his mercy and adore his Charity for chalking out such an easy way wherby so many millions of creatures might with great facility decline the euerlasting torments of hell and be entytled to the eternall ioyes of heauē For this is the happy case of all them who dye in their infancy after Baptisme hauing formerly bene subiect to Originall sinne and the curse therof which is double death although afterward they were to haue had no effectuall meanes of euer producing so much as any one good thought For these soules are instantly to be translated by the only meanes of this holy Sacrament to the habitation and possession of that celestiall kingdome And there doe they feele and there doe they tast the incorruptible fruite of that incomparable
of them may ascend as high the other descend as low as the things deserue And yet the loue of our Lord IESVS was so omnipotent as to make them able to incounter yea and he being the very toppe of altitude did become in some sort inferiour did put himselfe below that other whose habitation is amongst the Princes of darkenes in the very bottome of hell So immense was his desire of shewing loue to man that rather then not to procure it in the most obliging manner that could be thought he was content to let his greatest and most declared enemy that inueterate rebell the Diuell to please himselfe with an imagination that he was no more exempted from his power then other folkes And he suffered (b) O miracle of loue which could induce Christ our Lord to be carved by that diuel in the Ayre himselfe vvith a strange kind of exinanition to be carryed in the ayre tossed from place to place by that tempter as some chicken might be in the clawes of some cruell Bird of prey for the space of as many myles as it vvas from the wildernes to the Tēple If vve aske vvhat it vvas vvhich conducted him frō the riuer of Iordan to the vvildernes vvhich vvas the place of his Temptation the holy Scripture tells vs that it vvas his spirit which is his loue that led him thither And to shew that he vvent not vvith any ordinary pace but vvith a kind of vehemency of impulse though by one of the Euangelists it be said that he was led by another it is affirmed that he vvas no lesse thē driuen to the desert In all the actions of our Lord there is a double kind of loue inuolued as if it vvere both the meat and sauce vpon vvhich the soule of man may feed The actions themsclues I account to be as the very meate but the intention vvhich reigned in that enamoured hart of his is as the sauce vvhich giues it grace and sauour and keepes the appetite full of life We see heere in our Lord a loue of sollicitude an application to contemplation that he thought the very beasts to be company good inough for him And euen vvhilst he vvas ingulfed in the very bosome of his eternall Father he vvould yet endure to be (c) A strang indignity most strāgely indured by the strēgh of loue taken in the armes and tempted by that vvicked spirit We see hovv he gaue himselfe to prayer and fasting for the space of Fourty daies togeather And that hovvsoeuer through the aduantages vvhervvith he did abound it vvas in his hand vvhether although he fasted yet he vvould be hungry yea or no he made choyce at the end of that long fast to feele the paine thereof for vs. And then vve may wel be sure that there was neuer so great paine inflicted by hungar as that Both for the large extent of tyme into which that fasting was produced being of fourty contynued daies and nights and through the exact proportion of his constitution which endured not the least excesse of any superfluous moysture or peccant humour which in many is wont to make the weight of hungar much more tollerable But then if we consider that withall he was without the comfort of any of his reasonable creatures passing his tyme as the holy Scriptures say amongst the beasts That he could not but feele excessiue incommodity by lodging so long vpon the open ground That he windes and raines in the space of fourty dayes nights would be sure to blow hard and to fall heauily vpon him That his garments were loose and consequently could not defend him from that payne we shall perhaps haue cause to conclude that this tyme of his being in the desert gaue him as exquisite a kind of affliction as euer was endured vpon earth These I say were his actions and passions in this mystery of his temptation but the intention of our good which for loue of vs he had and the soueraigne doctrine and addresse which he directs vs by his holy spirit to fetch from thence in all occasions is that for which we are more if yet we may be more obliged to him The excellent examples and instructions which our Lord Iesus gaue vs with great Loue in this mistery of his Temptation CHAP. 24. CHRIST our Lord himselfe was farre from being able to grow light or vayne vpon the supernaturall fauours and visions wherwith he had bene enriched from heauen after the humility and charity which he had expressed to God and vs in his holy Baptisme and therfore most safely he might instantly haue put himselfe into conuersation with men of the world But (a) That spirituall men must arme thēselues wel against vanity leuity of hart yet because he well knew of what sōding metall poore man is made that his nauigation through the tēpest of this world is found to be so dangerous by his carrying so little balast of solid vertue in the bottome of his soule and so great a saile of self cōceite tyed to the mast of his giddy head and for that vpon the feeling of diuine comforts men vse sometymes to make effusion of those treasures which yet were giuen but that they might be improued or at least laid in against the comming as I may say of a deere yeare or tyme of tribulation it pleased his diuine wise Goodnes to shew and that not only by words but deeds how we were to carry our selues in such cases And that when such pretious liquor of extraordinary grace is conueyed into our harts by the hand of God we must procure to conuerse so much the more within and to stopp the bottle with extraordinary care least els the spirit fly a broade and the soule remaine in misery at home Nor was our Lord in any necessity of preparing himselfe by making such a kind of spiruuall exercise or recollection as this before he went in mission for the wynning of soules to his eternall Father in the vertue wherof he might cōtynue more vnited with God that as contēplation was to giue nobility to actiō so action might giue fecundity to contemplation But (b) Men are taught to recollect themselues before they enter vpon conuersing treating much with others for our instruction he shewed vs in himselfe what we were to doe and that before men must trust themselues with procuring by conuersation and exhortation to doe good to others they must in silence solitude make vpon their owne accounts in the sight of God Casting off their sinnes taking leaue of all occasions therof making obseruation of their errours past renewing good and particular purposes for the tyme to come and in fine preparing themselues for the doing and suffering with a sirme and faithfull hart whatsoeuer they shall find agreable to the holy and wife and strong will of God And because a mā who is to be truly Apostolicall must by the goodnes of God procure to be
vvith care that although he be as S. Augustine saith superior summo meo Confes l. 3. cap. 6. yet vvithall he is interior intimo meo And in another place Though he be omni luce clarior c. Ibid. lib. 9. cap. 1. yet he is omni secreto interior superiour to the highest part yet he is more interior then the most inward part of vs Cleerer then the clearest light and yet he is more internall then the most hidden secret Illuminating teaching by particular fauours those soules vvhich listen to him vvith particular attentioÌ„ according to the good counsaile of the same S. Augustine Audiat te intus sermocinantem Confes lib. 11. cap. 9. qui potest Let him that can be so happy giue eare to that which thou O God art saying to him there within And instructing all such as are desirous to saue their soules by doing him seruice not onely with a sufficiency but euen with an ouer-aboundance of his diuine grace Of the tender loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by the incommodity which he was subiect to whilst he deliuered his Doctrine to vs and of the surfet which some are sublect to if we take not heed by the aboundance of his blesÃngs CHAP. 33. THE Doctours and Teachers of this world vse to be at their ease when they giue their lessons and for feare least crouds should come in vpon them they are separated and secured by chaires or pulpits Many of them teach for hire many for ostentation and few for meere loue of God or of his creatures and the pure desire of their profit in vertue and learning And as for those Religious men who vndertake the troublesome taske of doing good to the world in this kind for the loue of our Lord that loue of theirs though (a) The great serâ—â—ce which is done to God the world by such as instruct youth in vertue learning for pure charity of most excellent seruice to God and man is but a sparke which hath conueyed it selfe out of the fornace of the loue of Christ our Lord by the merit of his Magistery who is the only originall maister of all mankind And he it is who obteyned grace for those others to become to be such as by his goodnes we see they are But yet by the great mercy of God it is made a rare case with these his seruants to be put vpon those extreme difficulties vnlesse it be amongst Heretikes and Pagans in the exercise of this function from which his ardent loue would neuer giue him leaue to be free For euen from his first to his last Baptisme that is from the Baptisme of water in the Riuer of Iordan to the Baptisme in the bloud of that Imaculat clambe which was himselfe vpon Mount Caluary he went teaching vp and downe the world in a kind of perpetuall motion And was subiect to a most vnkind continuall persecution by the most part of them whome he did most particularly apply himselfe to instruct and teach It is true that his Apostles and Disciples did follow him throughout with extreme affection and admiration but yet withall they were so very ignorant and vnlearned as could haue giuen no pleasure in teaching them to any other but to Christ our Lord. What (b) It is a great mor tification for a wise worthy person to betyed to the continuall conuersation of ignoraÌ„t rude people greater mortificatioÌ„ can there be then for a wise and worthy and noble person to be perpetually conuersing with certaine course vnpolished creatures without fashion without learning without meanes and without so much as aptitude to be the better by it And yet our Lord IESVS was dayly in conuersation with such as these Who knew not how to gather the fruit of that tree of his diuine wisedome though the weight therof did make the braunches stoope so low as that they might be within their reach How (c) The great meeknes of our Lord Iesus meekely did he liue in their sight which was a kind of most effectual Doctrine How continually did he accompany them how carefully did he defeÌ„d them how sweetly did he allure them and how strongly did he conuince them And all this he did in the midst of a thousand corporall incomodities of labour and hungar when after the day was spent in continuall pennance the nights would lay hold on him without a lodging The Foxes had holes Matt. 8. and the birds of the ayre had nests but the sonne of man the sonne of that all-Immaculate woman that virgin mother that type of purity that torch of charity had not a place where to lay his diuine head But to the consusion of impatient men who are angry euen with their best friends when they change to be pinched otherwise he was farre from caring for any other habitation but only that he might dwell in the hartes of men by loue Of his Apostles we read that once when they had wherwithall they went to Sichar to buy meate and returning they inuited our B. Lord to eate therof But he excused himselfe by saying Ioan. 4. that he had another inuisible food (d) The principall food our Lord Iesus was the glory of God the good of man Ibid. which they knew not of and that was the performance of his eternall Fathers will and the perfecting of the worke of the good of soules by the words of his diuine mouth And after this food he had so fierce an appetite that he ran panting towards it and that so very fast as to make himselfe weary though he were God and to be glad to make a seate of that well side to which the happy Samaritane came for water It is also true that Christ our Lord was often inuited to eate with others and he accepted therof nay and he was not inuited so much by their desires as he was by his owne loue to their soules for their good he made himselfe all to all For he did eate with them to the end that men might not want the Doctrine of his diuine example both in the point of Temperance and Patience But many of those meates were otherwise of much more mortification to him in seuerall kinds then the want therof could haue bene Since it was not in the power of that heaueÌ„ly wisedome to continue vntoucht by those teeth of malice which vpon all warnings were gnashing towards him But (e) The wicked vse which the lewes made of our Lords benignity towardes them Matt. 11. from his facility of descending into their company and the resolution that whilst he was there he would not shew any singularity they did with the hand of their caÌ„kered mind fetch reasons why they should sel him for a gluttoÌ„ drinker of wine This seems euen to haue pierced the tender hart of our B. Lord with vnkindnes and it drew him in effect to say Iohn the Baptist came to you in abstinence
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
himselfe Of the great Loue of our Lord in conueying the Blessed Sacrament to vs vnder the species of bread and wine Why it is neyther necessary nor conuenient nor scarce possible for all Christians to communicate of the Chalice Of diners kinds of Vnion And how liberall our Lord is to vs in letting vs all frequent these diuine Mysteries so often CHAP. 49. AS the loue of our Lord IESVS was full of inuention in disposing him to performe this worke so (a) The great loue of our Lord doth admirably appeare by diuers circumstances was it also in the manner of contriuing and dispensing it according to the capacity of man And first concerning the formes or species vnder which he is presented to vs what other could haue bene thought of either more agreable or more gustful to the nature of man thē they of bread wine If for the punishmēt of our sinnes or the mortification of our senses he had bene pleased to ordaine that we should haue receiued him in the formes of pitch or inke as himselfe would therby haue bene subiect to no indignity at all so yet still we must haue acknowledged that it had bene infinite mercy for vs to haue receiued such a pretious Iewell as that in how course or homely case soeuer it had come But bread and wine are the very stanes of corporall strength and comfort and he confined his body and bloud to the species of these two creatures that so this superscription as it were of the Loue-letter which he was writing to vs might prepare vs for an expectation of those sublime and sweet contēts which lay within Yet (b) The Bloud of our Lord is alwayes together with his body and for that reason it was necssary for lay people to receaue both the body and the bloud distinct Nay there are many other reasons which make it neyther conueniēt nor yet possible to receaue them so because there are some who haue a naturall auersion from the tast and euen from the very sent of vvine which no man euer had from bread Because there are some countries so remote both from the Sunne and from the Sea as that there wine is hardly to be found Because in the infinite multitudes of Christians it would be impossible for all to receaue of the sacred Chalice without indangering yea and committing much irreuerēce Because some would be so sicke of pestilent feauers as that euen a drop of wyne would doe them hurt Because persecutions would be sometymes so great as that it might be fit to leaue the blessed Sacrament in the custody of some particular men and women to be receiued by themselues for their comfort in some great exigent of distresse and danger as was often done in the primitiue Church by the testimony of Tertullian and others and which could not be done with the Chalice for any long tyme or euen almost at all in any hoat country For these reasons I say and for many others which by the wisedom and loue of our Lord IESVS were thought conuenient and especially because his body is a liuing body and consequently it cannot be without the bloud he was pleased that both the bloud the body should remaine vnder the species both of bread wine that so he who receaued one might be sure to receaue them both And (c) In the sacrifice of the Masse the reason is very different howsoeuer for as much as concernes the Sacrifice of the Masse both the bread and wine are seueraly to be offered consecrated and consummated by the Priest for in these three acts the substance of the holy Sacrifice doth confist and not in the prayers or Scriptures which doe either precede or follow or interlace them since these latter doe but serue as an addition for deuotion for a spirituall ornament to that high action For as much I say as this Sacrifice which is dayly offered vp vpon the Altar is to be a most liuely representation of the bloudy Sacrifice of our Lord vpon the Crosse a representation for as much as concernes the manner of it but no representation for as much as concernes the thinge because both the one and the other is but only one and the very selfe same Sacrifice yet when there is only questiō of receauing the blessed body and bloud of our Lord ' IESVS in the nature of a Sacrament the same Lord was pleased (d) The Church is to ordaine of many things according to that spirit of discretion which reigneth in it to leaue it to that spirit of discretion wherwith he would eminētly indue his Church to ordaine when it should be conuenient for necessary it could no way be to vse both the bread the wine distinct and when but the one of them alone It is also well obserued by spirituall writers that the very species of bread and wine doe inuite and bespeake our soules to a very intrinsecall vnion both with God and our neighbour In these species we may cōsider that there is an vnion of two sorts The one of them hauing bene setled by nature the other growing on by industry or art The naturall (e) Two kinds of vnion which are shewed by bread wine vnion consisteth in this That many graynes doe grow vpon one eare of corne and many grapes vpon one cluster of the vine with great resemblance to one another The artificiall vnion which is made betwene them doth defeate the former naturall vnion that so that former may become more perfect For first by plucking off or pressing the grapes or breaking and grinding the graynes of Corne and then by separating the chaff and husks and branne and skinnes stones it growes to be one paste or liquor which is perfected and purified afterward by heate the must by the naturall heate which it hath and the bread by the heate of fire And thē we can not know which graine of corne in particular was white and which was browne or which grape was great which was small These (f) How these two kinds of Vnion are found in men Vnions also there are and are to be in men The naturall as they are men of flesh and bloud and the other supernaturall as they are faithfull Christians regenerated by grace and animated therin by his diuine Sacraments In vertue of the former vnion we loue our kindred and friends And because this loue doth vse to carry imperfection with it through the influence of selfe loue and the mixture of temporall vayne respects Christ our Lord commeth to vs in this supernaturall Sacrament and doth take as it were our soules and the desires therof all in peeces casting away that which is inordinate vnmortified and any way vnfit concerning honour or estate or delight or any other earthly thing whatsoeuer and he doth so boyle and bake vs in the blessed Sacrament by the fire of his charity as that we may grow to be perfectly vnited both to him
content for loue of vs to be spit vpon to be buffeted stript stareke naked scourged crucified blasphemed for the loue for the good of man I find it not so strange that a Iew who called Christ our Lord Impostour and Traytour should deny this Doctrine of the blessed Sacrament because he beleeues him to be a Traytour and a Lyer who said That the bread was his body I find it not so strāge that a Pagan or a Morisco should deny it for he also denies to beleeue that God did make himselfe man and dye But that a Christian who saith that Christ is God and who acknowledgeth those words of Hoc est corpus meum to haue bene spoken by his owne sacred mouth and that so immediatly before he dyed and besides in the nature of a last will and Testament which no ordinary wise man would haue penned in doubtfull and ambiguous termes that a Christian I say should cut himselfe out such a motly kind of faith at this and argue against Gods power by saying that his body must needs be subiect to all the qualities of other naturall bodyes whether he will or no and against his infinite mercy by not beleeuing that he would submit himselfe though he sayd he did to such indignities as they conceaue him to be subiect to by this kind of communication of himselfe this I say is strāge and I say agayne that it deserues to be eternally deplored with teares of bloud For in (g) The denyall of this doctrine doth shoot at the disgrace of Gods omnipotency or infinite wisedome or infinite loue in fine all the arguments which they bring against the probability of this diuine truth are but so many arrowes shot vp by them against his omnipotency And all those reasons wherby they would taxe it of any absurdity or inconuenience are but so many teeth which offer to carpe and teare away some part of his infinite wisedom And all those charges wherby they would lay aspersion vpon it of indignity are but so many protestations that they are not capable of the supereminent science wherof the blessed Apostle speakes Ephes 3. cōcerning the infinite goodnes and loue of Christ our Lord to man Of the Obligation which we haue to God for so great a benefit and who are most bound to be deuoted to it and why and how happy they must needs be who frequent it with deuotion CHAP. 51. LET the same loue of IESVS Christ our Lord intercede with the Eternall Father that they may not for euer be depriued of this food of life Without which it is no meruaile if they be dayly more and more disposing themselues to dye that fearfull double death both of body and soule And for our parts we who are Catholikes let (a) The great obligation which Catholiques haue to God for the blessing of our faith vs adore that excellent Maiesty for this high mistery and especially for that light of faith and grace wherby he hath enabled vs to beleeue it to loue him for it Nay let vs do it so much the more as there are too many in the world who dishonour and blaspheme him euen for this very excesse of his goodnes Which though he designed to all mankind yet to vs alone he hath giuen efficacious helpes wherby to gather the true fruite therof And so let (b) We must procure God amends for the faults of others vs double our deuotiō to this bread of Angells as that we may make Christ our Lord a kind of amends as I may say in respect of the much loue which he hath wholy lost vpon the vnbeleeuers blasphemers of this mystery so that we must pay not only our owne but others debts Especially it will concerne such of vs to be entirely deuouted to it as haue much dishonoured or prophaned this diuine Sacrament either by any notable want of preparation before the receauing it or of recollection afterward and much more if when they came to this Table they examined and looked vpon their conscience through the false spectacles of selfe loue and passion and not through the cleere pure christall glasse of the law of God For thus they taught themselues to beleeue grosse lyes insteed of truth and to walk in the darke through the most intricate and obscure waies of sinne and thereby they haue come to pollute themselues and prophane the holy thinges of God and to commit as many sacriledges as they receaued Sacraments and they would infallibly and most iustly haue dropt downe into hell if our Lord had not been infinitely mercifull towards them Such persons as these and there are too many such in the world when they communicated or celebrated in such a state of mind in mortall sinne as this did deserue to be strucken with suddē death at the Altar where they stood or before which they kneeled and there to haue made their entrance into the eternall torments of hell fire It (c) Our Lord might haue inflicted great punishmēts for this great fault and yet still haue been full of mercy had bene mercy and infinite mercy in God if giuing them grace to repent their sinnes afterward he had but strucken them at the present with some signe from heauen in the face of the world according to some such examples of his Iustice as were seen sometymes by the testimony of S. Cyprian and others in the primitiue Church Or els if he had depriued them of the vse of reason and made them mad and franticke for a while Or els if towards the sauing of their soules he had permitted them for a tyme to be possessed with Legions of deuills in their body and to be subiect to their rage by tearing their flesh with their owne hands and throwing themselues into fire and water and foaming and vttering dreadfull cryes and wandring by night in darke woods or els amongst the sepulchers of dead men as we find in the holy Ghospel that possessed persons did vse to doe This more then this seuerity might our Lord haue vsed against the prophaners of this mystery yet haue shewed excessiue mercy if withall he had giuen them grace to repent at last But these sinnes are frequent though the exemplar punishment be not so For our Lord expecteth vs to penance that so he may not be forced to take reuenge and this he doth in the bowells of his owne charity and the inuinciblenes of his patience for which let all the Angells prayse him But for this very reason of his infinite goodnes euen abstracting from the double trebble dangers which either delaies of our conuersion or relapses from grace doe vse to bring it will be tyme for vs all to turne the leafe that the good may be better and the bad may procure to be growing good For (d) Euen the excellency of the food makes the not digesting it the more daungerous but as for this food by grace we may digest it
if we will we are to know that the more nutritiue the food is in it selfe the more imminent wil our dāger be if we will needs be still so weake as to want that heat of loue wherwith it is to be digested by our soules And it may happen to vs heere as is vseth to doe in the case of common food that insteed of health we shall find our selues more desperatly sicke of surfetting by our approach to this bread of heauen But so on the other side if we prepare and purge our selues by penance if we arme strengthen our selues by prayer and practise of solid vertue this tree of life will fructify in our soules after a strange proportion and the more the oftner we shall feed thereon Nor shall we need to feare that by frequenting this mystery either the benefit which it will impart to vs or the veneration which we shall be enabled to carry towards it cā any way decrease but the contrary The (e) Why the frequenting this bread of Angells doth breed increase of reuerence and loue of God pleasures of the world glut a man for the tyme and he is ready to starue for hungar afterward And so the couersation of many is valued highly till it come to be inioyed but by custome and familiarity there growes contempt It is not it cannot be so in this case of ours For the honor and profit delight which is both found and felt by treating in this inward manner with the infinite spring and fountaine of all Good doth easily put vs out of feare that euer there can be any want of reuerēce but only with such as come not to it as they ought In all things but especially in this blessed Sacrament he is of infinite greatnesse and goodnes to such as will resort to him with h̄ble loue or rather who will but giue him leaue to resort to them and who lay no impediment in his way but that he may inioy them all as he desires For as much more willingly doth Christ our Lord repose in such a soule then euen in the Emperiall heauen it selfe as the preparing of that soule although it be yet but the seate of his grace did cost him more then the building of heauen though it be the seate of his glory For heauen did but cost him a word which was but one simple act of his will but the soule of man did cost him many a bitter sigh and many a salt teare and so many drops of his pretious bloud as that he had no more left to giue The next discourse is to giue vs a larger prospect vpon the obiect of his infinite sufferance as this is striuing to make vs feele and ponder the care he takes to keep vs from suffering any misery at all either of sinne or paine For in this diuine Sacrament of Sacraments to (f) The many offices which our Lord performes to soules in this B. Sacrament the poore oppressed Orphane he shewes himselfe a most deere and louing Father To the sicke and wounded patient an expert careful Phisitian To the negligent and wandring sheepe a pittifull and watchfull Pastour To the ignorant and vnlearned scholler a wise and most diligent Maister To the penitent and afflicted soule which splits with griefe for hauing offended such a Goodnes and melts with loue through the desire to enioy such a beauty he is a pardoner a protectour a perseruer a cherisher an illuminator an inflamer a companion a friend a spouse an all in all O fire (g) The conclusiō of this discourse in the way of prayer diuine O sacred food O heauenly feast So heauenly as thou dost incorporate thy selfe in vs vs in thee dost after a sort euen Deify our nature in this mortall life of ours by making it in a manner one thing with thyne Let thine eye looke backe vpon thine owne auncient mercies And since thou hast taken such strange pitty vpon thy Creatures by thy vouchsafing hitherto to dwell in such durty houses take pitty now at last vpon thy self And make henceforth these our harts such holy Temples as may become thee O thou King of glory to inhabit and therin for euer to be adored Let all the faculties of our soules and all the senses of our body hange like so many incensories before thy Altar and breath out eternal prayse of thy holy name and euen spend themselues wholy in thy seruice in contemplation of this infinite benefit Thou hast lodged a treasure as rich as thou thy selfe art rich in these fraile vessells of our soules Giue vs therfore grace to carry thē about with such a care to keep them safe from breaking as that the Iewell may be for euer ours Humble vs deere Lord by what other way thou wilt but let not our former sinnes be punished by our contemning or vnderualuing these soueraigne mercies Luc. 12. And since vpon thy bringing the fire of they holy Spirit into the world thou didst expect that it should be all inflamed do not permit that we should yet remaine so voyd of heate when thy vnspeakeable goodnes doth so often bring into our bosomes yea and into our very breasts that fornace of this very fire which is thy self this death of sinne this spring of vertue this bread of life this cure of passions this strength of weakenes this treasure of grace this banquet of ioy this roote of glory this conduit and conue yance of all good things Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus discoueuereth to mākind in his sacred Passion with a reflection vpon the dignity of his diuine person and the vse which heer we are to make thereof CHAP. 52. OVR Lord IESVS was figured in the old Testament Isa 1. Gen. 49. with great propriety by the flower of the roote of Iesse and by the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda A flower he was both through the sauour of his benesits and through the odour of his diuine conuersation as the precedent discourses will haue shewed and a Lion he was also by the nobility of his strength and Passion as will now appeare Fortitude is both actiue and passiue yea and the Passiue is farre the greater and farre the harder of the two The (a) The whole life of our Lord may in some sort be called a Passion course of his whole life was like a field so thicke so wed with crosses and cares that it may all be accounted to haue bene a kind of continued Passion but yet because the last day and night of the same life did so abound therwith it is this alone which is eminently knowne and called by that sad name In this state he was to be when the Prophet Esay foresaw and spake of him to this effect He hath no grace or beauty Isa 53. we haue seene him and there was nothing in him to be seene we desired that he might be contemned as the most abased thinge amongst men A man of
And she expected the Resurrection with an vndoubt and most constant Faith without fluttering at the sepulcher betwene hope feare as others did How solid was her (g) Our B. Ladies inuincible Hope Hope in God when notwithstanding that S. Ioseph saw that she was great with child knew not at that tyme of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God in her sacred wombe And although she might both with great ease and honour haue vnbeguiled him by declaring the mystery yet she rather chose with strange contempt of herselfe to confide in God that without any help of her he would both preserue the espousalls from being dissolued and the fame of her virginity from being touched How nobly did she conside in God Matt. 2. who hauing bene enriched by the three Kings when they adored her Sonne in that stable made such hast as doubtlesse she did to giue all away to the poore in imitation and admiration of how God had emptied himselfe as it were of his Diuinity that he might fill her wombe with his holy Humanity In so much as that when within a few dayes after she went to Present our Lord IESVS in the Temple Luc. 2. she was (h) Returne to the Chapter of the Presentation of our Lord Iesus in the â—eÌ„ple Luc. â— Leuit. 12. not as was said before worth the price of a Lambe but was faigne to make an oblation of Doues which was appointed as proper to the poorest people Being at that Marriage of Cana where there was want of wine she was touched with pitty of their pouerty And though her Sonne our Lord had wrought no miracle till that tyme yet she conceaued in her hart such a most liuely Hope that by supernaturall meanes he would supply all wants as made her but propound the suite in few plaine words deâ—aunding wine for them in that very forme of only representing the necessity which our Blessed Sauiour himselfe was after pleased to vse when he cryed out Sitio vpon the Crosse Of the most ardent Charity both to God and man which raigned in the hart of the Blessed Virgin CHAP. 89. BVT who shal euer be able to expresse her excessiue Charity to God for his sake to man since according to the measure of the Grace which is infused into any soule so is Charity infused and therfore since we haue found her to be full of Grace we are also as sure that she was full Charity Our Lord make vs so happy as that once we may see that soule in heauen for till then we may ayme but we shall neuer be able to hit the marke of her greatnes We haue a Prouerbe and it is no ill one That (a) Out B. Lady was both a Pilgrime and a Post in her way to God the Pilgrime goes as farre as the Post the reason therof is this Because howsoeuer the Pilgrime walkes but slowly on and the Post runs day and night yet for as much as this latter through the much hast he makes doth vse to catch many falls the former who plaÌ„ts his feete at ease is perhaps at his iorneys end before him But now if the speed of the one and the certainty of the other might be so happy as to meete in any person what a deale of way would that creature ridd especially if the tyme should be long which were deputed to that trauaylo It is thou O Queene of heauen who wert that very creature runing on in the way of Sanctity with those most steady yet most swift affections of thy soule as being both the mother and the daughter of that God man thy Sonne our Lord of whome the Royall Prophet did foresee Psalm 18. and say That he exulted like a Giant who was preparing himselfe for his course Which was to be of lesse way then from that high hill of heauen to this low vale of earth But yet it was with this difference that as he made such hast from thence hither by his Incarnation so the hast thou madest was from hence thither by spiritualizatioÌ„ as I may say of thy selfe through thy growing by instants in all vertue For as in the first moment of her most sacred and Immaculate Conception her soule was indued with such a large portion of diuine Grace as might become the Dignity of Gods Mother to which from all eternity she was designed so did she instantly cooperate therewith in all perfection And that cooperation did as it were oblige Almighty God to inrich her with new degrees of Sanctification and that againe produced new acts of most humble and most faithfull loue in her by way of Retribution And in this manner did that happy (b) The continuall most happy strife betweene the Grace of God the soule of the sacred Virgin strife continue betwene the omnipotent and most communicatiue hand of God and that most capable pure holy hart of the Blessed Virgin during so many millions of millions of moment as might run out in seauenty two yeares of time which according to a very probable opinion was the last period of her mortall life So as this posting Pilgrime did set out in the way of Grace and of the loue of God as early as the first instant of her Immaculate Conception she continued therin till the last of her life which was very long And in all that tyme she lost no one minute and euery one of her acts was performed with incomparable and complete perfection And although in all that iourney they winde was euer on her side since the Fomes peccati or Concupiscence was neuer permitted once to breath against her nor any inclinatioÌ„ of sense to oppose the impulse of reason which droue her on yet in the running through that happy race of hers she was visited besides all the rest at (c) Of two admirable increases of Grace in the soule of the sacred Virgin two seuerall times by such a vehement power of Gods spirit namely at the instant of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God in her sacred wombe againe afterward vpon the descent of the holy Ghost which he sent from heauen into her hart that she had such wings added to her soule as made her no longer goe but fly and she sent all her thoughts into God incoÌ„parably with more force of loue theÌ„ any arrow is shot out of a bow by the strongest hand that liues And who shall then be able to measure that (d) The bottomlesse seâ— of the loue of God wherein the B-Virgin did for euer saâ—â— bottomlesse sea of her loue of God Who shall be able to soare into the height of those diuine contemplations wherby that soule was transformed in him farre and farre beyond the vnderstanding of all the spirits in heauen whilst yet she walked vp and downe the world in a garment of flesh and bloud amongst the children of men What sighes teares of admiration and most humble ioy would she be
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
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
great Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by his disputing and teaching in the Temple pag. 107 Chap. 21. Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in that he would vouchsafe to be Baptized pag. 114 Chap. 22. The discourse concerning Baptisme is contynued and the great Loue of our Lord in the institution of that Sacrament is more declared pag. 120 Chap. 23. Of the vnspeakeable Loue to vs which our Lord Iesus shewed in his being tempted in the wildernes by the Diuell pag. 126 Chap. 24. The excellent examples and instructions which our Lord Iesus gaue vs with great Loue in this mystery of his Temptation pag. 13â— Chap. 25. The Temptations which the Diuell did seeke to put vpon our Lord Iesus are declared opened pag. 135 Chap. 26. It is shewed how we are to carry our selues in the vse of holy Scripture and we are instructed concerning Lent and we are incouraged towardes the vse of Pennance so this mystery of the Temptation is concluded pag. 140 Chap. 27. Of the great Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to mankind in the Vocation of his Apostles pag. 145 Chap. 28. The incomparable Loue wherwith our Lord instaÌ„tly rewarded the speedy obedience of the Apostles pag. 151 Chap. 29. Of the excessiue Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to maÌ„ in the mystery of the TransfiguratioÌ„ pag 157 Chap. 30. The incoÌ„parable ioy which the Apostles tooke through the loue which our Lord Iesus shewed theÌ„ in his TraÌ„sfiguration how himselfe was content to want the glory of it both before and after for the loue of them pag. 152 Chap. 31. The most excellent instructions which our Lord through his loue did giue to man in this mystery of the Transfiguration pag. 166 Chap. 32. Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by deliuering to vs his admirable Doctrine of the manner which he held in teaching vs. pag. 171 Chap. 33. Of the tender loue which 〈◊〉 Lord Iesus shewed by the incommodity which he was subiect to whilst he deliuered his Doctrine to vs and of the surfet which some are subiect to if we take not heed by the aboundance of his blessings pag. 176 Chap. 34. The same discourse is continued concerning the great loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in his Doctrine pag. 181 Chap. 35. The incomparable purity of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord and with how great loue he helpeth vs towards the practise therof pag. 186 Chap. 36. Of the vnspeakeable Loue of our Lord Iesus in ordeyning that the greatest part of his diuine Doctrine should remaine in writing and of the great benefit which growes to vs by the holy Scripture pag. 195 Chap. 37. How carefull we must be not to be rash in the vse of holy Scripture and of the great obscurity therof pag. 201 Chap. 38. How the holy Scripture growes to be so very obscure and of the infinite wise loue which our Lord hath shewed to vs euen therin pag. 209 Chap. 39. Of the great teÌ„dernes of the Loue of our Lord which is shewed to man by the expresse words of holy Scripture and first of the old Testament pag. 216 Chap. 40. The infinite teÌ„der Loue of our Lord which is expressed in the Scriptures of the new Testament pag. 226 Chap. 41. Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man by the Miracles which he wrought on earth pag. 233 Chap. 42. How all the miracles of the new Testament doe tend to mercy and how our Lord did neuer deny the suite of any one and of the tender manner which he held in granting them pag. 239 Chap. 43. The great 〈◊〉 of Loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in the working of his Miracles is more declared pag. 247 Chap. 44. 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 mysteries pag. 252 Chap. 45. 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 pag. 257 Chap. 46. How our Lord would not harken to those reasons which might haue disswaded him from shewing this great mercy to man Of the necessity of a visible Sacrifice and how our Lord himselfe doth still offer it pag. 264 Chap. 47. Of the iudgement which the holy Fathers of the Church haue alwayes made of this holy Sacrifice and B. Sacrament and the great veneration which they had them in and the â—â—â—iues wherby we may be induced to doe the like pag. 270 Chap. 48. How we do both feed are fedd vpon in the B. Sacrament 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 pag. 277 Chap. 49. Of the great Loue of our Lord in conueying the B. Sacrament to vs vnder the species of bread and wine Why it is neither necessary nor conuenient nor scarce possible for all Christians to coÌ„municate of the Chalice Of diuers kinds of Vnion And how liberall our Lord is to vs in letting vs all frequent these diuine Mysteries so often pag. 284 Chap. 50. The misery is shewed and the errour is partly coÌ„uinced of such as do not 〈◊〉 the beliefe of those diuine mysteries pag. 292 Chap. 51. Of the Obligation which we haue to God for so great a benefit and who are most bound to be denoted to it and why and how happy they must needs be who frequent it with deuotion pag. 298 Chap. 52. Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus discouereth to mankind in his sacred Passion with a reflection vpon the dignity of his diuine person the vse which heere we are to make thereof pag. 304 Chap. 53. Of the most tender diuine Loue care which our Lord Iesus shewed at his entrance into the PassioÌ„ in his last sermon long prayer to his eternall Father pag. 308 Chap. 54. The horrour terrour and sorrow of Christ our Lord togeather with his Prayer in the GardeÌ„ pag. 313 Chap. 55. What griefe it must needs cause to our B. Lord to be estranged from feeling comfort in God pag. 319 Chap. 56. The incoÌ„parable sorrow of Christ our Lord through his consideration of the dishonour of God and the sinne and misery of man togeather with the sight of what himselfe was to suffer pag. 324 Chap. 57. Of the excelleÌ„cy of Prayer declared by occasion of that Prayer of our B. Lord in the Garden pag. 331 Chap. 58. The apprehensioÌ„ of Christ our Lord a iust expostulatioÌ„ with the traytour Iudas for that hideous treason of his togeather with a descriptioÌ„ of mortall sin the danger which we are put into by all voluntary veniall sinnes pag. 335 Chap. 59. Of our Lords great loue to vs in permitting that fal of Iudas of that vnspeakeable mercy which he shewed
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
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
(c) The meanes of our Redemption was a more noble benesitt then the very Redemptiō it selfe meanes then by the guift of his owne only sonne as hath been said Though yet he might sufficiently haue done it either by the creating of some nevv man or by employing of Angells for that purpose or in fine by any one of so many millions of meanes as to his wisedome would neuer haue bene wanting if he had not bene pointed out to this by his loue to vs which did so abound But his Incarnation was the meanes wherby he would vouchsafe to accomplish the worke of our Redemption which may well be called a mystery as indeed it is for the many and diuine deepe secrets which are locked vp therin For by this the Pride of mā which sticks incomparably more close to his soule in our corrupted nature then any skinne doth to a body hath been shewed the way by an oueruling kind of reason how it might learne to (d) The Incarnation of Christ our Lord doth first reade vs a lesson of Humility and then of Glory become h̄ble By this the basenes of man was also taught how to clyme vp so farre as to grow to be a kind of God by a diminution as it were of the diuinity and an infusion and laying it as one may say to steep in the humility of the humanity of Christ our Lord that so by meanes of Grace we might swallow and sucke it vp as an infant would doe his nurses milke Hearken how diuinely S. Augustine doth expresse the altitude of Gods mercy and wisedome in particular and if euer you will admire the height and sanctity of that great man of God it may be now I (e) Obserue pōder the diuine discourse of this great Saynt D. Aug. Confes l. 7 cap. 18. was saith he in search of a way how to gett some strength which might be fit for the enioying of thee o God but I could meete with none till I imbraced the mediatour betwene God and man Christ Iesus who is also God aboue all things blessed for all eternities And who calleth vs and saith I am the way the truth and the lise And who is the food which yet I wanted strength to disgest till he mingled himselfe with our flesh that so thy (1) The second person of the B. Trinity wisdome by which thou didst create all things might frame it selse into the nature of (2) By his Humanity he did accommodate himself to our Capacity milke wherof we might sucke in this infancy of ours But I not being humble could not apprehend my Lord Iesus Christ who was so very humble Nor yet did I vnderstand what he meant to make vs learne (3) He meant to teach vs Humility thereby by that infirmity of his For thy (4) The sonne of God word which is the eternall truth being so highly exalted aboue the highest of thy Creatures doth rayse them vp vnto it selfe (5) The good Angells who were confirmed in grace for their humility who were obedient subiect to it And heere below among thy (6) The race of Adam inferiour creatures it built for it selfe (7) The precious body of Christ our Lord. a poore house of the same clay wherof we were made By (8) Humanity of Christ our Lord. which they were to be depressed frō their high concert of themselues (9) No mā who is not humble can be a true mēber of Christ our Lord. who would become subiect thervnto and so it might sucke draw them vnto it curing the tumour of their Pride and nourishing their loue (10) Christ our Lord became Incarnate to destroy our Pride To the end that they might not goe further on in vanity through any confidence in themselues but might rather acknowledge their owne infirmity when they should see the Diuinity it selfe lying as it were (11) By the participation of our fraile nature infirme before their feete by being content to weare the garment of our slesh and bloud And (12) Our Lord disdaines vs not though we come not to him till we be weary of the tyranny of sinne so being weary they might deiect and prostrate themselues vpon this (13) The way of ascending by the diuinity of Christ our Lord is first to prostrate our selues vpon his humanity humanity of Christ our Lord and it ascending vp might rayse them also vp together with it To such excesse grew the loue of Christ our Lord to vs degrading himselfe that he might exalt vs afflicting himselfe that he might ease vs and imptying himselfe of hiselfe that he might make vs full of him which first was made apparant euen to these eyes thē selues of our flesh and blood by the admirarable mystery of his Natiuity Of the immense Loue of Christ our Lord expressed to Man in his holy Natiuity CHAP. 11. VVE haue no reason to find it strāge that our Lord should be more taken by the circumstances of that seruice which he expecteth and exacteth of vs thē by the very seruice it selfe The whole world is his and he needs not any thing which we can giue He (a) The reason why God is more pleased with the manner and mind wherwith we do him any seruice then with the thing it selfe is the plenitude of all things and can receaue no substantiall increase at all but he is only capable of honour and glory at our hands and that doth only accrew to him on our part by the affection wherwith it is procured by vs. Now this truth of his regarding more the minde manner wherwith and wherin things are done then the very things themselues is declared to vs many wayes but (b) Our Lord did practise that in his owne person which he expecteth of vs. especially by the soueraigne example it selfe of Christ our Lord. For as if his pleasure to redeeme vs from the torments of hell and the slauery of sinne had been nothing as if his Incarnation which was an ineffable descent for the Diuinity to make had bene no great matter he letts vs further see by the manner of it what a meaning he had to binde vs yet faster to him by the chaynes of loue It would haue cost him nothing since he would needs become man for vs to haue vested his soule with the body of a perfect man all at once and as fully complete in all the functions and actions therof as afterward his owne sacred body was At ease he might also since there was no remedy but that he would needs become a Creature haue taken so much of the greatnes of the world to himselfe as would haue made him incomparably more glorious more triumphāt and more abundantly happy by a floud of temporall felicity then Salomon and all the Caesars did enioy But not the substance of our Redemptiō not the substance of his owne Incarnation could satisfy and quench the ardent desire which reigned in
restrayning it according to those conditions to which then he vouchsafed to let himselfe be subiect But howsoeuer he vvas no sooner deliuered from thence theÌ„ the poore (c) How our Lord as soone as he was borne did intertaine those poore she pheardes with a Quire of Angells Sheephards were wooed by him to receaue the token of his impatient and incomparable loue And according to that infinite finite wisedome which became his God head which is woÌ„t to gouerne inferiour Creatures by such as are superiour to them as also because he would both call and free those poore men at once from errour he disdayned not to sollicit them by a quire of Angells that the glory of so supernaturall and sublime a visioÌ„ might auert them from all that vvant of faith vvhich his poore appearance might easily haue inclined them to Those Angells proclaymed did appropriate as it vvere (d) All glory is due to God All glory to God vvhich vvas so highly and truly due to him per excellentiam for the admirable humility and charity vvhich vvas expressed by him in this act vvithall they published and applyed all good and peace to men But yet to men not so farre forth as they might only chance to be mighty or witty or noble or wealthy or learned And much lesse to such as should be giuen to repine or who should be so abounding and regorging with sensuall pleasures all which are the sadd effects of selfe loue and very contrary to the loue of our Lord Iesus in whome alone originally true peace is found but only it was bequeathed to men of a good will The (e) The condition of a will which is truly good property of which true good wil is to put euery thing in his due place And what place can deserue that the loue of our hartes should be lodged in it by vs but that deuine person of our only Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Who in this little space of one night hath knit vp such a world of testimonies of his deere loue to vs and who did cast himselfe downe from the top of glory to the bottome of misery that so he might carry vs vp to the place from whence himselfe was come And who though he were not only the true owner but the sole Creatour of the whole world and who created it no otherwise then by filling it with his very selfe was yet content to see his owne sacred humanity so depriued turned out of all as that no place should be emptye for the receauing of him Quia non â—rat ei locus in diuersorio but only such a one as might seeme rather to haue bene taken from beasts then giuen by men These (f) How rich those poore shepheards were mada at an instant Sheepheards indeed were of that good will which was so commended by the Angells and as such they carried not only peace from that sight of Christ our Lord and his blessed mother but ioy also And that no ordinary but an excessiue ioy which is another guift of the holy Ghost and a meere and mighty effect of his diuine loue To the participation wherof together with a most entire thanksgiuing the holy Catholike Church inuiteth all her faithfull Children in these most glorious and magnificent words vpon the day of this great Festiuity The Preface of the Masse vpon Christmasse day in the Preface of the most holy Sacrifice of the Masse Verè dignum instum est aequum salutare nos tibi semper vbique gratias agere Domine sancte pater Omnipotens aeterne deus Quia per incarnati verbi mysterium noua mentis nostrae oculis lux tuae clariatis infulsit vt dum visibiliter Deum cognoscimus per hunc in inuisibilium amorem rapiamur Et ideo cum Angelis Archangelis cum Thronis Dominationibus cumqueue omni miliâ—ia caelestis exercitus hymnum gloriae tuae canimus sine siue dicentes Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth Pleni sunt caeli terra gloria tua Hosanna in excelsis Benedictus qui venit in nomine Dommi Hosanna in excelsis It is reason that we giue thee eternall thankes O holy Lord O omniporent Father and eternall God in regard that by the mistery of the Incarnate Word a new light of thy splendour hath cleered vp the eyes of our minde That so whilst we are growne to know God after a visible manner we may be vehemently carried vp to the loue of inuisible things And therfore together with the Angells and Archangells with the Thrones and Dominations with all those Squadrons of that Celestiall Army we sing out this Himne of glory saying to thee without end Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Saboath the heaueÌ„s earth are ful of thy glory HosaÌ„ana in the highest Blessed be he who cometh in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest Thus I say doth our holy mother the Church exhort vs to reioyce and giue thankes to God for his great mercy in this diuine mistery and he is no true sonne of that mother who will not hearken to her voyce Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus expressed to vs in his Circumcision CHAP. 13. Luc. 2. BVT as for the loue which our Lord did shew to those poore Sheephards some ignorant carnall person may chaunce to say or at least to thinke That it did not cost him much Let such a one therfore looke vpon his painefull and shamefull Circumcision Paynefull and shamefull to him but of vnspeakeable loue and benefit to vs. And first for as much as concernes the paine it deserues to be considered that the soule and body of Christ of our Lord had another manner of vnderstanding (a) The soule and body of our B. Lord were more sensible of shame and payne theÌ„ any other and delicate feeling then any other Creature hath euer bene acquainted with Exod. 4. Num. 5. D. Aug. lib. 2. de gratia Christ cap. 31. Which circumstance I will not heere dilate because when afterward I shall haue reason to speak of his sacred passion the occasion will be fayrely offered But the paine must needs be excessiue to haue a part of the body so cut of by a violent hand and that not with a kinfe or any such sharpe instrument which would haue brought it to a speedy end but according to the custome with a stone which was ground into a blunt kind of edge and which must needs prolonge the torment of the patient Yet (b) Dishonour to a noble hart is far more insufferable then payne paine how great soeuer is but a toy to a generous minde in respect of reproach and shame And amongst all degrees of shame that is farre the greatest which implyeth the party to haue deserued it and that in the deepest kind Now as when there is question of pride the affectation and desire to haue a fame of sanctity is farre superiour
to any ambition of riches or strength or knowledge or any other such aduantage whatsoeuer so the infamy of impiety of sinne is that which of all other woundeth most This infamy is therfore the very thinge to which our Lord with strange contempt of himselfe did submit his diuine excellency And notwithstanding the perfect hatred which indeed he carryed to all that which looked like sinne he was yet content to lay that thought aside through the infinite loue which he bare to vs and he pinned that badge vpon his owne sleeue which was only to haue been worne by the traytours Rebells of Almighty God and he resolued to weare it being God himselfe By taking (c) Our Lord by the payne shame of his circumcision did satisfy for our sinnes he did purchase grace and fortify vs by his example this badge of sinne which was payne and shame to his owne person he did not only satisfy for the sensuality pride of man but he deliuered vs also from being subiect any longer to those tyrants both by the grace which he obtayned therby at the hands of his eternall Father and by the example which he gaue in this his Circumcision of a most profound contempt of himselfe And who is therfore that man who by way of retribution for the loue of this Lord will not now procure to follow his example and at least by little and little to weane himselfe frō estimation of honour and delight in pleasure since the king of glory did contēt himself for the loue of vs to be thought a sinner and to vndergoe the obligatiōs due to such a one Doctour Auila Cap. 76. in his Audi Filia vseth this excellent comparison If (d) Consider and ponder this comparison a King should goe vpon his bare feete and should be weary and should sweat through the length and sharpnes of the way hauing his back loaden with sackcloath and his face with teares as king Dauid did and had by occasion of the reuolte of his sonne Absalom what seruant or Courtier could there be of his who either for loue or shame would not also goe on foote and vnshodd and as like his king as he could be And so the holy Scripture affirmeth that all the seruants of Dauid did and all the people which accompanied him at that tyme. And the same authour saith afterward That the altitude of the state of perfect Christians is so great and that Christ our Lord hath wrought such a change in things by his holy example as that the bitter and the base of this world is growne to be honorable and delightfull And (e) Let worldlinges thinke as lightly as they will of this the perfect seruāts of God do find the truth of it at theyr very harts that he enableth his true seruants to cast the gorge when they are but to rast of that in the pursuite wherof worldly men are vpon the pointe of cutting the throates of one another Thus sayth Doctour Auila Fa. Arias doth serue himselfe of another comparison to this effect If a King sitting in his chayre of State should by a * Titulo de Redemtor Ca. 4. law command that the Caualleroes of his Court should weare their garments of plame stusse for the enriching of his kingdome or that for the defence therof they should accustome themselues to carry such or such a kind of weapō it is cleere that they would take themselues to be in obligation of obseruing that law But if the king himselfe at the very gate of his Royall Pallace should proclaime the same with his owne princely mouth for the example of others would gird such a weapon to his owne side put such a garmēt vpō his own back without doubt his Courtiers would take thēselues to be more straitly bound to keepe this law And as they should be honored who would obserne it so the breach therof would instly intytle the infringers of it to more grieuous punishmēt Now (f) Obserue this application and it will mooue thee God being in his Thron of glory did commaund both by the naturall written lawe that men should liue according to vertue and be caresull to imbrace those meanes which might conduce to their saluation This lawe he published by meanes of his Angells and other Creatures and the world was bound to obserue the same and the breach of it was both threatned and reuenged with the eternall fire of Hell But in the tyme of the law of grace God himselfe descended from his Imperiall throne came downe into the world apparailing himselfe with the garment of our flesh and bloud And with his owne sacred mouth be did proclaime his Euangelicall Law And in his owne sacred person he (g) The perfectiō of Christ our Lord complyed with all that vertue and sanctity in supreme perfection which he exacted at the hands of men And (h) His mortification he imbraced all the meanes of paine and shame wherby sincere and solid vertue is obtained So that there can be no doubt but that our obligation to keepe his law is much the greater since it is auowed by his owne example and consequently the fault in breaking it would be more inexcusable and the punishment due to it more intollerable And (i) Giue great attention to this circumstāce if when Christ our Lord was yet on earth and did commaund his Disciples to preach his will to the people of Israel and to moone men also by their example he commaunded that they should goe on foote and not only without money but euen without shoes that otherwise also they should be poorely cladd and did then protest that the people who would not heare their Doctrine should find themselues in worse case at the day of Iudgment then they of Sodome Gomorra how incomparably much more will it increase our damnation who haue bene taught by the very mouth and haue bene conuinced by the example not only of the Disciples but of Christ our Lord himselfe the king of glory if we imita e not his vertues and if we imbrace not his mortifications This is the summe and substance of that excellent discourse of Fa. Arias where he treates of Christ our Lord vnder the quality of his being our Redeemer And although he doe in generall propound it there as inducing vs to pennance and vertue vpon the consideration of the doctrine and example of Christ our Lord at large yet (k) That the consideration brought by Fa. Arrias doth very particularly belong to the Cu c̄cision of our Lord. it seemes very naturall that heer I should apply it in particular manner by occasion of this mistery of the Circumcision Wherein the first of that most pretious bloud was shedd wherby the world was to be redeemed and when he who was the true and supreme Law-giuer did diminish himselfe so much as to become obnoxious to that penalty of his owne Law since as his holy
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
Herod was That thing which once vvas Nothing and now was growne to be so hideously worse then Nothing as it is incomparably worse to be an enemy and persecutour of Christ our Lord then not to be at all But imediatly after the Presentation in the Temple our Lord Iesus was carryed to Nazareth a place remote almost fourescore myles And (b) The occasions of Herods feare Matt. 2. Luc. 2. the noyse of his Natiuity and of the Starre which ledd the Magi and of the Presentation in the Temple together with the prophesies of the King of the Iewes to be borne at Bethleem gaue Herod an all-arme of extreme feare least he who indeed was come to giue vs the kingdome of heauen had meant to rob men of earthly kingdomes But what sayth S. Augustine will his tribunall Ser. 30. de Tempore when he shall sitt as iudge be able to doe now that his Infaurs cradle is able so to fright proud Kings How much better shall those kings doe who seeke not to kill Christ like Herod but rather desire to adore him as the Magi did Him I say who at the hands of his enemies and for his very enemies did endure that death which now his enemies designed him to who being killed afterward did kill that very death in his owne body Leâ— (c) The duty of King sto this King of Kinges Kings carry a pious feare towards him who is sitting at the right hand of his Father whome this impious king did so feare whilst he was sucking at the breast of his mother This cruelty of his did extend so farre as to commaund the death of all the Infants within two yeares of age in Bethleem and all the places neere adjoyning who are esteemed as appears by Ecclesiasticall history to haue arriued to the number of about (*) Vide Salmeron Tom. 3. Tract 44. foureteene thousand That so he might be sure at least as he conceaued to make our Lord away who had not then in likelyhood the age of so many monthes But because some Children are more forvvard in grovvth then others and some errour might chaunce to arriue by the mistaking of age vvithin a little compasse he thought it vvas lesse ill to murther thousands more then needed then to aduenture the escape of that one vvho yet came voluntaryly to dye euen that the tyrant himselfe might not perish So different are the designes of God and man so different are their desires And the successe is also so very different as that the diuine Maiesty doth take sometymes the (d) God draweth good out of euill peruerse will of man yet without hauing any part in the peruersenes therof for the execution of his iust decrees yea not only such of them as are founded in iustice but euen in mercy also It would seeme to some who iudge of God by the lawes which they vse to prescribe for themselues that it had beene much more agreable to the greatnes of such a God as we describe not to haue permitted that such a Tyrant should liue to commit so vast a cryme as this How easely could our Lord with the least breath of his mouth Deutr. 4. which is a consuming fire haue blowne downe that painted wall how little would it haue cost him to haue strocken Herod lame or blind or mad or dead or to haue damned him to hell for all eternity and at an instant How soone could he haue sent that infamous Rebellious little worme who presumed after a sort to spit in the face of that high Maiesty into the bottomelesse pit of Nothing from whence with mercy he had beene drawne It might haue bene instantly and most easely done But the wisedome of God tooke pleasure to drawe great good out of great euill and his loue was that which did set his wisedome so on worke For (e) The wise mercy of God by this permission of his and by the publishing of Herods cruelty the notice of the mistery of his owne Natiuity was much inereased that so his loue to the soules of men might be declared And besides if tyrants were not permitted on earth there would be no Martyrs in heauen as S. Augustine saith And if this tyrant had then beene strocken by some suddayne death the mercy of God might haue seemed lesse wheras now by forbearance euen Herod also had tyme of penance though his Malice were such as that it made no vse therof And * The happines of the Innocents and their mothers against their owne the Tyrants will as for the happy Innocents who were murthered by that Tyrant vpon the occasion of Christ our Lord it is plaine that the world which would deplore their misery yea and their afflicted mothers who did also lament their owne infelicity were farre from iudging as they ought For how much better was it for those mothers to be created mothers of so many Martyrs who instantly went to a seat of rest and presently after the Resurrection of Christ our Lord were placed as a garland vpon his owne sacred head and carryed into an eternity of glory for hauing bene murthered in despight and for the hate of him then to haue contynued as they were but the mothers of Children like the rest Who if they had runne on in their owne naturall course they might perhaps haue ended it with the losse of their soules wheras novv they vvere not only saued but vvhich is more it vvas done vvithout their hauing euer so much as once offended God and so they vvere made the very flovver and first fruits of martyrs So that the loue of our Lord vvas exercised heerin vpon them all And (f) The loue of our Lord Iesus entreth euery where and vpon all occasions vvhere may vve not looke for this loue And vvhat place can be found vvhich is voyd therof since euen in the poysned Cuppe of the Tyrants hate the pretious liquor of his diuine loue did svvym so high as to fill the same To himselfe he tooke the most sad and painefull and shamefull part The compassion vvhich he had of the holy Innocents paine and death I meane of that little which they felt of paine in that passage for his sake vvas a kind of infinite thing That of the mothers vvas extreme for the sacred Text discribes them by vvay of Prophecy to haue bene so profoundly afflicted Ierem. 31. Matt. 2. as that not only they could not but euen they would not receaue comfort But as the loue of the tendrest mother to the only infant of her vvombe may go euen for hatred if it be compared to those vnspeakable ardours of affection vvhervvith the hart of our Lord doth euer flame tovvards all the Creatures for vvhome he dyed Esay 49. for although a mother should forget her sonne yet can not I forget you saith our Lord so may their griefe hovv great soeuer be termed a kind of ioy in respect of his Theirs grovving our of selfe loue
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
fit to encounter with all the difficulties to which man is subiect and for that the charity of man as man is so very could as not to looke vpon the miseries and calamities of others with that compassion which becomes the fellow creatures of so good a God vnlesse first they haue tryed the variety of Temptations in their owne persons and because it is not possible for a man without a more extraordinary grace then can be expected to apply fit remedies to such soules as shall be subiect to Temptation vnlesse himselfe haue bene sicke of the same or the like disease our Lord is therfore (c) They are not good Physitiās of others in spirituall diseases who haue not been sicke thēselues wont to suffer euen his best seruants such as he meanes to imploy most in making warre against vice and sinne to be infested in this kind with the assaults of the enemy But yet so as that he enableth them withall by his grace if they will not be wanting to themselues to returne victorious out of the battaile And not only by these skirmishes to abate the fury of their foes but to eate out the rust which their soules had contracted by their owne former sinnes insteed therof to fill them full of merit in themselues to make them expert and safe guides of others and in fine by such knocks to hammer out and to build vp and most richly to furnish such a house in their hartes as wherin the God and King of glory may not only be cōrent but euen glad to dwell They are therfore deepely in errour who thinke it be a signe of Gods disfauour if he suffer a soule to be much tempted The argument is rather good on the other side to proue that it is a token of his loue For vve see how Christ our Lord himselfe would be vsed heerin to secure vs therby that it was a happy state since himselfe did choose to be possest therof Especially (d) The example of our Lord Iesus in this Temptation of his doth both sanctify Temptatiōs to vs strengthen vs agaynst them considering that by going so before through his Temptations he hath brokē the hart of such others as should afterward lay hold on vs besides that he instructs vs how we are to carry our selues therin euen whilst they last And infallibly the loue of our Lord to vs is so very tender and so pure that by the merit of this Temptation of his he would haue obteyned the destruction and death of all Temptations if he had not forseene that they should suruiue for our greater good in case that we would vse them wel And we may iustly beleeue that since God refused to graunt the suite of the holy Apostle when he had begged thrice that Sathan might no longer buffet him with the motions of sense 2. Cor. 12. it was only for the preseruing him in humility and way of prouision of greater glory and he made him a promise of sufficient grace wherby he should tryumph after victory Besides this assistance of the grace of God which yet alone ought to be anchor inough for the soule of man in any difficulty whatsoeuer so that the man for his part doe concurre therwith as his frailty will permit it is certaine that his diuine Maiesty is so indulgent a Father to his deere children and doth so thirst not only after their solid good in the next life but euen after their comfort and ioye in this that ordinarily when he permitteth them to vndergoe any grieuous Temptation of the enemy he either armeth them before hand with some extraordinary comfort by way of preparatiue or els he visiteth them afterward in some most gratious manner by way eyther of remedy or reward We see that it is iust so in this Temptation of Christ our Lord and that before it in his Baptisme the heauens were opened to him and the holy Ghost did visibly descend vpon him And after it the Angells did make court about him and doe him homage and did serue at his table when the fast was ended And we also as miserable as we seeme to be in this life haue a promise from truth it selfe in another part of the holy Ghospell Luc. 22. that they who shall haue remayned faithfull to him in his Temptations that is to say in such afflictions as God doth either send or suffer shall both eate and drinke at his table in his Kingdome of eternall glory And to the end that this might happen to vs more completely it was the gratious pleasure of our Lord to permit himselfe to be assalted (e) The seuerall kinds of Temptatiō which were offered to our Lord Iesus by three seuerall wayes wherein all kinds of Temptations might be lodged or to which at least they might be all reduced That so in them we might be instructed and enabled to ouercome in all by his example helpe as we shall see the Chapter following The Temptations which the Diuell did seeketo put vpon our Lord Iesus are declared and opened CHAP. 25. THE first (a) The 2. Temptation was delight or pleasure Matt. 4. Luc. 4. was a Temptation of delight or pleasure where the deuill moued our Lord by occasiō of that cause of h̄gar wherin he found him to turne stones into bread if it were true that indeed he was the sonne of God But our Lord who knew that the Feend of hell would reape no proffit by the manifestatiō of his diuinity for as much as he was confirmed for al eternity in malice vpon his first fall frō Grace vvould not worke that miracle to no purpose and especially at the discretion of the deuill Or rather he would not through his deare and tender loue to vs worke a miracle wherby he was to be freed from suffering the paine of hungar which he felt afterward for our sakes But whilst he (b) In what kind our Lord was feeding whilst he was fasting fasted in one kind he was feeding vpon a banquet in another For the food which gaue him exquisite delight was to be doing the will of his eternall Father suffering for the deliuerance and good of men And from corporall food he would abstaine in this first publique act of his if it were but to reuerse that misery which was come into the world by Adam when he fedde with inordinate appetite vpon the forbidden fruit of Paradise In the meane tyme his refusal to make bread wherby he might haue bene fed in that wildernes was liberally rewarded to our Lord by his eternal Father afterward euen in the same very kind in the selfe same or like place of his so great merit For in a wildernes as he would needs suffer hungar he had meanes afterward to multiply a few loaues and fishes to such a quantity as serued to seed and ouerseed thousands of men besides women and children To shew that as according to that diuine saying of S.
Augustine which since it is so highly and clearly true I would to God it were written and worne about the neckes Aug. Cōfes lib. 1. cap. 22. and in the harts of all the world Iussisti Domine sic est vt poena sua sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus Thou hast ordeyned it O Lord and so it is That the very inordinate affection it selfe of euery one should be an affliction to him that hath it so the merit of euery action which is purely vndertaken and faithfully performed for the loue of God especially if it haue any thing in it of the heroicall will be sure to affect the mind with a particular kind of remuneratiō yea so particular as that the soule shall know it is for that The second (c) The 2. Temptaon was riches power att 4. c. 4. Temptation wherwith this inueterate lyer did tempt our Lord was by offering all riches and power which he shewed him from the Top of a high mountaine and he promised to giue him the whole world if he would adore him A lyer I say he is and so he was from the begin ning But yet amongst all his lyes he neuer told a greater then this That it should be in his power to giue the whole world away he who is not the owner of one leafe which growes therin nor is able to moue the least indiuisible graine of dust vpon the earth nor any moate in the ayre without the particular leaue of our Lord God All power is of God all pleasure is of him and in him And whatsoeuer is in creatures is but a poore participation of the infinite which in him is found And that which the deuill can doe is only to tempt vs to steale it from the true owner Wheruuto when he hath induced vs and that we once returne into our selues that which he leaueth behind in our soules is nothing but a miserable remorse of mind and an experimentall knowledge of extreame calamity and penury insteed of plenty and of infamy insteed of glory and of consuming paine insteed of any pure and perfect ioy Confes lib. 4. cap. 12. And most iustly as Saint Augustine sayth doth that which in it selfe is sweete grow bitter to thee if thou commit such an act of iniustice as vpon the reason of that sweetues to forsake and ossend our Lord who made it sweet And thou commest as he diuinely expresseth in another place To turne and tosse thy minde Confes l. 2. cap. 2. vp and downe superba deiectione inquieta lassitudine with a proud kind of basenes a resiles kind of wearines This is that bargaine to which the deuill if we hearken to him can bring a soule but to giue it one haires bread of happines is neither in his power nor in his will For his enuy and his hate to vs is such as that the smal counterfaite pleasure which we find in the act of any sinne is no small vexation griefe to him And if it were in his hand to make vs sinne without taking any corporall delight at all and to tosse vs from torments in this life to torments in the next he would find malice inough for that purpose and we should be sure neuer to tast any one drop of ioy by his consent But where was it that our Lord found patience and (d) The incomprehensible meeknes of our Lord Iesus meeknes inough to keepe him from rebuking that impure spirit from creating a new hell of torments into which he might haue bene precipitated for desiring to be adored by one whome he suspected ought to haue known to be the sonne of God where did he find it or where could he find it but in his owne pretious hart which is a profound Sea of loue to all such as will be capable therof and of pitty and patience euen to such as hunt after nothing but his dishonour 1. Pet. 2. For whē afterward our Lord was reuiled he answered not and when he was cursed he prayed for them who cast theyr curses vpon him And when now he was tempted he did not so much as turne against the deuill himselfe but stood only fast in his owne defence against that Prince of the Rebellious Angells who was still following his old maxime of beleeuing that he was fit to be adored will neuer be taught to chaunge it euen by the experience of those paines of hell which he hath tasted already for so many ages and is to doe for all eternities So spirituall so stiffe and so tough a sinne is that of Pride which as it will nouer be forsakē by those deuils so also is there none to which the misery of man in this life is more obnoxious The deuill knowing this at the least as well as we did reserue the Temptation of (e) The 3. temptatiō was to Estimation and Honour Honour for the last place he drew it as the most daungerous and deadly wounding arrovv out of his quiuer vvhervvith he hoped to fasten vpon the soule of Christ our Lord. He tooke him therfore out of the desert and carryed him to the pinnacle of the Temple and placing him vpō the top therof he would faine haue induced him to cast himself dovvn through an insinuation of sanctity vvhich might be in him For sayth he If thou be the sonne of God thou mayst safely doe it for it is written that he hath giuen his Angells charge ouer thee and that in their hands they shall beare thee vp Matt. 4. least perhaps thou knocke thy foote against a stoue The deuill is no foole or babe but he knovves it is most true that if any thing be able to shake a vertuous soule it is a Temptation of Pride an ambitiō of Honour for the sanctity which is imparted to it by our Lord God because through any yeilding to this Temptation both that sanctity is lost God vvith it With hovv pestilent successe hath he put this tricke vpon vvhole multitudes of mē at seuerall tymes vvho at those tymes vvere faythfull seruants Saints of God But this blast of vanity did so vndermine their soules as that they fell dovvne and rotted and did but serue to make a fire vvherat the deuill might vvarme himselfe But heer he mist his marke and although be brought the ground of his Temptation of Christ our Lord out of holy Scripture levvdly applyed the only true sense vvherof the spirit of Christ our Lord did knovv after his Ascension the holy Ghost hath still imparted it to the holy Catholique Church vvhere the spirit of God doth yet only rest and vvherby it is able to interprete truely that holy Scripture yet our Lord vvas easily able to giue him such an ansvvere out of the same Scripture as made him depart vvith shame inough It is shewed how we are to carry our selues in the vse of holy Scripture and we are instructed concerning Lent we are
incouraged towardes the vse Pennance and so this mystery of the Temptation is concluded CHAP. 26. BVT although our Lotd did vvhat he did vvith diuine vvisedome and that the same course may be taken by the Doctours and Pastours of his Church to ansvvere vvith holy Scripture to the obiections vvhich shall be brought out of Scripture eyther by the deuill or by his seruants yet this course is not so safe for euery ignorant and ordinary man but rather to remit himselfe to the beliefe and practise of the holy Catholike Church or at least to the iudgment of such learned Priests as are next at hand And as for dealing with the deuill himselfe it is no point eyther of wit or grace to chop Logicke with him And vve see that Luther got nothing by him out of the arguments which the Deuill pretended to bring out of holy Scripture Luth. de Missa Angulari Tom. 7. printed at VVitemberge Anno 1558. fol. 228. 229. D. Bernser 15. supra Psalm Qui habitat against the Sacrifice of the Masse for heereupon did Luther as himselfe doth plainly confesse impugne and detest that holy Sacrifice Besides it is the diuells custome as it is also of his disciples to falsify the text as S. Bernard notes him to haue done in this very place For it sayth not that the Angells had charge ouer him to beare him vp that he might not knocke his foote against a stone but that they might keepe him in all his wayes Wherupon the Saint doth challeng the deuil in these termes Quid malignè c. What is that O thou maligne spirit which he commaunded his Angells to doe It was that they should keepe him in all his waies Doth he peraduenture say In his precipices What kind of way was that to haue cast himselfe downe from the pinnacle of the Temple This is no way but a ruyne or if it be a way it is no way for Christ our Lord but for thee Thus saith Saint Bernard Now in this manner of cyting Scriptures the deuill is but too faithfully imitated in his infidelity and so hath he bene by the Sectaries of all ages Tom. 2. Hom. 31. in Lucam Wherupon Origen sayth of the Heretiques of his tyme As the deuill alledged the Scriptures so doth Marcion Basilides and Valentinus alledge them And then he giueth this aduise If at any tyme thou heere a man alleadge a testimony out of Scripture be sure thou doe not instaÌ„tly approue in thy minde what thou hearest himsay but first consider who it is that speaks and what his iudgment and beliefe is least else he may counterfeit himselfe to be that Saint which he is not and least being infected with the poyson of (a) Take heed of heresy how saintly soeuer it may looke Heresy he lye hidden like some wolfe in a sheeps cloathing yea least it be the deuill who speaketh to thee of out Scripture Now the same which Origen said of those Heretiques of his tyme is to be said with as much truth of many others in this age of ours And we are nether to beleeue what they say therin nor yet greatly to wonder at their boldnes deceipt in this kind of proceeding since the deuill whose cause they plead did point theÌ„ out to it so long agoe The study therfore of holy Scripture to the end of answering and consuting the aduersaries of God and his Church must chiefly be vsed by them who are called to the office of instructing others and for the present we wil coÌ„sider what else is taught vs heere by Christ our Lord. Our Lord IESVS fasted forty dayes and although there haue been Saynts in the Christian Church who haue miraculously been enabled to produce theyr fast into the same length yet doth it not belong to vs to imitate the same whose forces eyther of body or minde will not reach so far But yet by that excesse of our Lords fast we are obliged to doe what we can therin without great preiudice to our health which we are bound to keep for his seruice It will become vs to doe this so much the more as (b) Our whole life is a Temptation it is certaine that all this life of ours is neither more nor lesse then a contynuall subiection to Temptation And euen in the case of Christ our Lord himselfe it is said of the Deuill when he was confounded by the answere of our B. Sauiour that yet he departed not as one may say for good and all but only for a tyme. And therfore Christians must make account that they are euer to stand vpon their guard agaynst him For if the danger be still at hand it is agaynst all reason that we suffer the preuentious and remedies to be Farre of And since our heauenly Maister hath made vs with so much loue see what they are we haue no more to doe but to consider and worke after his example And though for as much as concerneth fasting we must euer be vsing it at least as farre as we are bound by the ordination of the holy Church yet it seemes that this action of our B. Lord doth oblige vs in a more particular manner to be exact and deuout in the fast of Lent For as much as according to the tradition of the Church and the expresse declaration of the holy (1) Diuus Hier. l. 2. con loui c. 11. D. Max. de leiu Quadras D. Ambr. ser 34. D. Augâ—epist 119. c. 15. Fathers his fast in the wildernes by the space of Fourty dayes did dedicate and sanctify and consecrate and auow the fast of Lent by diuine authority And so also in the (2) Hier. Ep. 54. ad Marcell Leo. ser 6. de Quadragis lgna Epist ad Philip. Fathers there is aboundance of proofe that as the institution of this fast is recomended to vs by the soueraigne example of our B. Lord so the precept therof and the appoiting of the tyme with other circumstances was deriued downe to Christians by no lesse then the Tradition of the Apostles But why should a hart which is truly and nobly Christian need the spurre of a coÌ„mandement to doe a thing which redoundeth so expresly to the honour and ought to be imbraced in imitation of such a mercifull louing Lord It must suffice vs to know that he is gone before vs by the way of penance that howsoeuer his Law did not oblige vs to follow him yet his Loue would A generous soule will not endure to spend the daies and nights in dalliance when such a friend and benefactour such as omnipotent creatour and bountifull redeemer is keeping so strict a watch or rather is passing the very pikes and entring the breach and that not for his owne but for our good For our good it was vvhich Christ our Lord did seeke in all our ignorances vvhich he tooke care to instruct in our miseries vvhich he applyed himselfe to remoue and in our comforts vvhich he
transfigured before them That his face did shine like the sunne That his garments were as white as snow That Moyses and Elyas appeared also and were speaking with him That their discourse was of that excesse of loue which he would shew in the passion through which he was to passe in Hierusalem That S Peter was so rapt with ioy as to say That it was good being there and to beg of our Lord that there they might haue still remayned but that before he had ended his speach a bright cloud came downe which ouershadowed them and this voyce was thundred out from thence This is my beloued sonne in whome I am well pleased heare him Vpon the noyse of this voyce the Disciples fell prostrate vpō their faces as being much a frayd but our Lord Iesus drew neere and touched them said withall rise vp and doe not feare and when they looked vp they saw none but only Iesus And as they were going downe the hill he cōmaunded them not to speake of that vision till he should be risen from the dead This glorious miracle did shine in the exteriour of our Lord so vehemētly as to send the beames therof to his Disciples but it vvas the flame of loue which burning so hot in his diuine hart did breake out much more vpon them that so their soules and ours by theirs might be set on fyre He had then lately been telling them of his passion which was to come That he was to endure many and grieuous things That he was to be condemned by the high Priests That he was to suffer death and then to rise He had further said that for their good they must be imitatours of him and that howsoeuer the way of the Crosse might fall out to be hard and stony yet there was no remedy but they must runne it through And now least their mindes might haue bene oppressed with inordinate griefe or else assaulted afterward with vnbeliefe or at least discouraged by the difficulties of this life which he knew was to proue so painfull to them for the seruice of God his (c) A particular reason why our Lord would be transfgured before some of his Apostles hart of loue could no longer hould from expressing it selfe towards thē in some such kind as might not only strengthen them against all feare of future harme but might solace them also in aboundant māner both with the present sense of excessiue ioy and an infallible expectation of much more to follow afterward And when he had conueyed the notice of his passion like a bitter dose of pills into their mindes he did like a carefull Phisitian put a spoonfull of Conserue after it into their mouthes least otherwise they might chance to haue cast their Phisicke As generally in holy Scripture so particularly in this mistery of the Transfiguration and of the ioy which was commuicated to the Disciples by meanes therof the expressiōs euen of things which are very great are yet very positiue and playne as I shall also shew elsewhere And Saynt Peter only said Bonum est nos hic esse It is good for vs to be heere But (d) This seemes to haue been but a smal expressiō of ioy but inded it was very great and why though this may seeme to be but a leane and hungry kind of signification of his ioy for his hauing beene made participant of that high vision yet indeed it vvas such a one as could not well be more endeared To haue said that it had beene better to be in the top of that high mountaine with Christ our Lord then to haue bene in the midst of all the treasures and pleasures of the world below had bene to allow a kind of goodnes to these other things though infeririour to that which there he felt For to say that one thing is better then another doth leaue a power in that other thing to be good But by only saying that this was good it rather seemes to follow that whatsoeuer vvas lower and lesse then this would not be good S. Peter was heere in a kind of midle Region of the ayre betewne ordinary grace below glory aboue And as he could not say that his then present condition was any more then good in regard that nothing of this life was so good or indeed that it was absolutely good at all so neither could he say that it was any more then good in regard of the ioyes which are felt in heauen And therfore he said not that it was a soueraigne or an infinite good which is only enioyed in that next life by the sight of God Exod. 33. That sight is that Omne bonum which was promised by our Lord God that he would shew his seruant Moyses in heauen This other is that bonum which now was shewed to his Apostles heere on earth But though it were but bonum in comparison of that infinite good yet if this such as it vvas had bene set by the vvhole vvorld of worldly pleasures they would all haue streight appeared to be but durt and trash and this would haue shined like a second heauen of glory in comparison of them We must therfore be farre from thinking meanely of it but rather we are to call our wits about vs and to argue thus If some (e) What wonders the holy ghost doth worke in the soule of man influence or visitation of the holy Ghost whilst it doth but slip into the soule of man be able to comfort him when he was laid though neuer so low in the bed of distresse and desolation If some extraordinary communication of Gods Spirit can eleuate the soule not only aboue all other creatures but euen aboue it selfe so as not only to disgust it and that for euer from all humane hopes or feares but to make it halfe forget that there is any other thing but God If some true Reuelation or diuine imaginary vision such as our Lord doth sometymes cōmunicate to his friends fauorites in this life when and why it pleaseth him as we find recorded in their liues doth sometymes so inebriate and fixe and transforme thē into him as they may rather be said to swym and bath at ease in a sea of comfort then to trauell and trudge by land in a desert full of difficulties distresse what effect shall we thinke this vision of visions did worke in the mind of the B. Apostles Who saw not what they saw by imagination only but they had before the eyes both of their body and minde the humanity of Christ our Lord all in glory with Moyses and Elias doing him homage in the name of both those worlds which liued eyther vnder the law of nature or the written law The incomparable ioy which the Apostles tooke through the loue which our Lord Iesus shewed them in his Transfiguration and how himselfe was content to want the glory of it both before and after for the loue of them CHAP. 30. THE sunne
doth fall farre short to expresse the beauteous brightnes of his face for if (a) The beauty of all glorified bodies any one of the glorified bodies shall be as bright as is the sunne then is it certain that if all the starres in heauē should be so many seueral s̄ns they would al be but as mud or inke in cōparison of the splēdour of Christ our Lord of what brightnes then must his face haue been His garmēts were said to haue byn as white as snow Ibid. that no dyer vpon earth was able to arriue to such a height of whitenes To shew that both art and nature may haue some little resēblance but are able to carry no full proportion with things of the other world They were ouershadowed with a cloud but euen that very cloud was bright For as the brightnes of this world is indeed but a kind of light-coloured blacke so that which in the other is least bright doth infinitely exceed whatsoeuer we can heere conceaue to be so most At the thundring of that voyce they were indeed strucken with feare yet we may safely say that they were more afrayd then hurt And (b) They are happy and glorious frightes which grow vpō soules vpon such supernaturall occasions 2. Pet. 1. howsoeuer for the tyme the high Maiesty of the mistery did ouerwhesme them yet withall it strucke such a deepe roote of most reuerent admiring loue into their harts as they neuer knew how to forget And S. Peter and S. Iohn could not faile in their seuerall Epistles to produce the Record of this Transfiguration of our Lord vpon the holy hill as a principall euidence of his glory and their ioy I imagine this terrour of theirs to haue bene resembled in some sort by that state of mind which the diuine S Augustine had found in himselfe though incomparably after an inferiour manner when he spake these wordes Confes l. 11. cap. 9. Quid est hoc quod interlucit mihi percutit cor mē sine laesione inhorresco inardesco Inhorresco in quantum dissimilis tui sum inardesco in quant̄ similis tui sum What is that o Lord which so brightly shootes in vpon me and which strikes my hart through without hurting it And I tremble with horrour and yet I burne with loue I tremble for as much as I am vnlike thee and for as much as I am like thee I burne with loue So did the Apostles tremble and so and much more then so did they burne with loue through the fire wherwith our Lord had inflamed them first But the same loue which wrought vpō them in this mistery by way of heare might also worke vpon them in that extaticall ioy which they receiued therby by way of light to make thē see of how sublime glory he was content to depriue his sacred humanity for loue of them both from his holy Natiuity till that tyme and from that tyme vntill his death For the superiour part of his happy soule from the very first instant of his conception and euen in the bottome of his bitterest passion did continually and as certainely enioy the (c) Our Lord Iesus was still indued with the Beautificall vision Beatificall vision of God as now it doth at the right hand of his Father So also did it in Iustice belong to his sacred flesh and bloud to inioy al the priuiledges of a glorified body as Clarity Immortality Subtility and Impassibility And because these indowments were incompatible with those dolours and death which he designed through the excesse of his loue to suffer for our more copious Redemption he did therefore suspend those influences of glory vpon his humanity So that the miracle falls out to be not to find him thus for a short tyme transfigured towards glory vpon that holy hill but to find him in this valley of misery throughout all those three and thirty yeares of his life transfigured towards humility and contempt and paine him I say who ought in right to haue regorged in complete glory The inferiour part of his soule that is to say the sensitiue appetite therof ought also to haue bene glorious intirely and at all the instants of his mortall life And yet for loue of vs he suspended also the glory due to that to the end that in his loue he might haue the larger leaue to suffer for vs. And that he might feele all those afflictiōs of mind for our sakes for the propitiation of our sinnes and for the purchase of grace from God which we find him to haue endured throughout the rest of all his sad dayes and nights and particularly to haue cost him once so deere as to haue made him pay a sweate of bloud Yea and for as much as concernes this feeling part of his soule we are not so very certaine that it was not suspended in him Luc. 22. euen for this short time of his trāsfiguration Nor was it necessary that it should feele the same ioy for those reasons vpon which his body was trāsfigured But of this we (d) in the middest of that glory the loue of our Lord carried him to speake of his passiō with Moyses and Elias are sure that euen then his speach was of the passion he was in contemplation of the causes why it was to be indured that might wel affect his mind with great sense of griefe Nay euen that very glory which his B. body might thē enioy may rather in some respects go for a surcharge to him of misery then for any accesse of felicity For that ease in suffering disgrace and difficulties which if he had would he might haue gotten as a man may say by the long contynued practice therof was now remoued by this glimse and tast of glory And he (e) The griefe which our Lord felt afterward must needs be the more paynfull to him for his hauing felt this glory soone before was after it to beginne the same lesson of feeling griefe againe as if he had neuer learnt it before And if a Prince falling into extreme calamity would feele it incomparably the more through that riches and abundance wherin he had liued till then how much more painfull to our Lord must those afflictions and persecutions needs be which came to him after his transsiguration then if the Transfiguration had neuer bene So that vpon all these reasons and by all these meanes he doth admirably expresse his tender loue to vs for as much as he would not only liue so long without that glory which was his due but moreouer because whē he would enioy it yet he would doe it but for so short a tyme againe because he sought our ioy comfort and not his owne therin Nay for as much as concerned himselfe his then future paine and scorne was perhaps to be felt by him with a quicker sense then if neuer he had admitted of that glory and ioy The
enriched his Church Whose faith he hath strengthned whose hope he hath reuiued whose charity he hath inflamed whose holy feare and reuerence he hath rooted deeply by meanes therof Instructing vs as Father Salmeron doth excellently obserue concerning the B. Trinity (f) The Father the Sonne the holy Ghost in the voyce in the sonne the cloud Concerning the Incarnation of Christ our Lord his Doctrine Preaching by the addresse which we receiue of harkening to him His pasion and death by the excesse which he was to fulfill in Ierusalem The certainty of his Resurrection and glory and consequently of our owne The abrogation of the old law through the establishmeÌ„t of the new by the Fathers voyce concerning the sonne It taught them of Lymbus from whence the soule of Moyses came It taught the Terrestriall Paradise where Elias is belceued to repose It taught the militant Church in the person of the three B. Apostles But let vs as I was saying giue eare to Christ our Lord whose doctrine his heauenly Father and ours hath assigned vs to For he it is who will teach vs both these and all things else which it may any way import vs to vnderstand as I will instantly beginne to shew Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by deliueriug to vs his admirable Doctrine and of the manner which he held in teaching vs. CHAP. 32. OVR Lord Iesus came into the world for three maine reasons amongst aboue many others To teach vs the way to heauen by his diuine Doctrine and to guide vs by his admirable example and to redeeme vs by his most pretious bloud But as we should be nothing the better for knowing the way to any place Ser. de Ascen Dom. 4. if still we were deteyned in some prison so neither as S. Bernard saith should we be the better for knowing our iorneyes end if withall we knew not the way which leadeth thither It pleased therfore our Lord Iesus to declare his doctrine to the world And because according to Aristotle Doctio Disciplina are Relatiues for as much as he is become our Doctour we are already made his Disciples if we will The same Aristotle was Alexanders Maister and his Father Philip King of Macedon did esteeme it for no small part of his owne happines that his sonne was borne in a time when he might be instructed by so worthy a person And yet that worthy person was a mortall wicked man whose vnderstanding though very eminent was yet full of errour in many things and his will more full of disorder Wheras this diuine (a) The difference of Christ our Lord from other Doctours Doctour of ours was both truth and sanctity it selfe A Doctour he was and that most excelleÌ„t and complete without euer hauing bene any mans Disciple Such others as haue neuer bene Disciples doe no more vse to proue good Doctours then men proue good Captaines who haue neuer bene souldiers or good superiours who haue neuer bene subiects I deny not but some haue bene good Doctours who neuer were the disciples of men as for example Moyses and the other Prophets But besides that all they were instructed by the wisedom of God in supernatuall manner yet neither did they teach in such perfection as may be compararable by innumerable degrees to this of our diuine Doctour Nor yet did they giue the hand together with the torch nor the wood together with the coale of fire nor strength to execute together with the direction of what men were to doe Wheras (b) The great efficacy which only belongs to the Doctrine of Christ our Lord. Christ our Lord together with those diuine words of his own sacred mouth did make such a high way by the sweete gratious breath of his holy spirit into the harts of such as heard them though yet sometymes they were deafe inough as made then receiue them and lay them vp in conformity therof to performe things in a short tyme of extreme difficulty and contradiction to sense with excessiue gust How infinitely therefore are vve obliged to this Lord of ours vvho vvas designed from all eternity and did accept that himselfe vvould (c) An vnspeakeable mercy that Christ our Lord would teach vs by him selfe teach vs by himselfe For there vvas no remedy his loue could not be satisfied vvith doing lesse then all Nor vvould he permit that any Doctour vvho vvas lesse then his very selfe should haue the chiefe instructing (d) We are also taught by ment but that is only as by the instruments of God of our soules Novv his Doctrine being his must needs be infallible because he is God And to the end that it might not be too high or hard for our capacities he resolued as it vvere to tame that diuinity of his and to take it and tye it vp in the nets and toyles of flesh and bloud And so being incarnate he vouchsafed to conuerse amongst vs and as it vvere to vvatch his tymes those mollis fandi tempora vvherin vve might be likeliest to receiue that treasure of diuÃne knowledge vvhich had power to remoue our grosse ignorance They vvho trauaile vp and dovvne the vvorld knovv by experience hovv glad they vse to be if vvandring out of the vvay they meete some man vvho sets them right though it be but tovvards a nights lodging in a poore Inne vvhich sometymes is incomodious inough And such as giue themselues to study and are either ignorant of vvhat they vvould fayne vnderstand or perplexed othervvise through any difficulty vvhich may occurre are vvont to accompany and attend vvith extraordinary reuerence and affection those teachers vnder vvhome they vvere brought vp and by vvhose meanes they acquired knovvledge Which (e) They are very vngratefull who perfourme not great respects to such as haue been theyr teachers kind of gratitude is so deeply rooted in the mindes of such as are ingenuous that as long as they liue they retaine the memory of that benefit and there is no strangenes or small vnkindnes vvhich can blot it out We must therefore beseech our Lord IESVS to make vs thankefull to his diuine Maiesty in a high degree for his vouchsafing to exercise the office of a teacher ouer vs. Not through the care he hath to keepe vs only from vvandring betvvene tovvne tovvne or to vvorke through the difficulties of humaine knovvledge vvhich vnlesse it be vvell vsed is better left then had Nor only doth he this for some certaine tyme vvherin a course of study may be ended but he teacheth vs spirituall things vvhich are to be as long loued as eternity it selfe and insteed of discharging by any later negligence of his our former obligations to loue and serue him for it he is euer calling vpon vs vvith nevv fauours And insteed of absenting himselfe from vs his essence povver and his grace is present to our soules yea so present and especially to such as serue him
though euery one will not reach so high That we must be perfect as our heauenly Father is perfect And that whoso euer will be so must sell all that he hath and giue it to the poore and follow our Lord and that such a one shall haue his treasure in heauen That if any man would come after our Lord he must deny himselfe and take vp his Crosse and follow him For he that would saue his life should loose it and he that would loose his life should saue it That his disciples must goe in Mission for the conuersion of soules without depending vpon the hauing of any viaticum or the wearing so much as shooes or carrying a wallet with them for any prouision That they must looke persecution and euen death it selfe in the face and not so much as premeditate what they are to say for themselues in those occasions These are the most fragrant flowers wherof that rich garment is wouen or rather these are the most choyce Iewells wherof that pretious Crowne is composed which Christ our Lord brought downe from heauen With intention to put it vpon the heads of all such persons as meant to be disciples of his Doctrine and to become Graduates in his schoole of Perfection And (c) The faithfull practise of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord makes men happy euen in this life verily euen in this life the study and practice of this Doctrine of Christ our Lord doth make men happy after a sort and put them heere into a kind of tast of that felicity wherof they are to take the whole daughts heerafter in the kingdome of heauen For so great is the purity power thereof as to lodge a man out of the reach of humane things by making him place his felicity euen in Crosses both of paine and shame wherof in such a world as this he shal be sure to haue no want And to make him see that his misery cōsists in nothing but in swaruing frō this way to his felicity Happy is he who feeles the truth of this in his soule and most miserable is he who although he feele it not will not yet beleeue that the thing is true For he who beleeues not this truth will neuer seeke it and he that seeks it not will neuer find it It cannot (d) Considerations which facilitate the practise of this Doctrine be denyed but that this Doctrine requires hard things at a mans hands But so it must be considered that he who teacheth it doth withall giue much grace wherwith to learne it A burthen is more or lesse grieuous according to the strength more or lesse which he hath who is to beare it And it is no heard matter for one who is of infinite power to giue vs strength to carry according to the weight of that which is to be imposed and especially if that power be accōpanied with a goodnes which is as infinite Indeed it we consider the Doctrine as it is in it selfe we may say it is not only hard but impossible and especially it will seeme so then when we accompany that thought with a deepe consideration of the miserable frailty of our nature the strength of our passions and the importunity of sensible obiects which solicite and haunt vs euen to death in euery corner But yet on the other side we shall beleeue it to be both possible and easy if we remember as I was saying the omnipotēt wise loue of Christ our Lord the aboundant grace which is deriued to vs from the merits of his holy life and death the exāple of many Saints who hauing bene made of the same metall with vs haue by the fauour of God and their good endeauours translated as it were their soules out of this wildernes of beasts into the paradise of Angells euen before they parted from their mortall bodies And not only hath this bene performed by Sains deceased but we doe most certainly know and conuerse with so good seruants of God as that in great measure they ariue to it also in this life So that we haue all reason to be full of hope that by the same meanes we may follow whither (e) Wear left without excuse it we do not follow where so many are gone before they haue gone before Or at least we are to confesse that the fault is no bodies but our owne if we doe it not For if it be a burthen Christ our Lord will make it light and if it be a yoke he will make it sweet And he who thirsteth after comfort is inuiced by the lowd cry of Christ our Lord to goe drinke therof at that liuing fountaine of his grace And a promise is made to all the world Ioan. 7. that whatsoeuer shall be asked of God in the name of Christ our Lord shal be graunted Matt. 11. And whosoeuer is either loaden with sinne or doth labour vnder those punishments which as the reliques of sinne doe hange vpon him is allured by the voyce of Christ our Lord himself to repaire to him that he may be refreshed And indeed what refreshing or comfort is there to be had in this life till selfeloue be laid downe and the pure and perfect loue of Christ our Lord be taken vp in the practise of his diuine Doctrine selfeloue and selfewill it is which puts vs to such paine in this pilgrimage For these are the rootes of all our inordinate affections which place vs as vpon a beacon where we are subiect to all the windes of perturbation and passion which can blow either of desires or hopes or feares or any other care whatsoeuer Yea and if we watch our selues well we shall find sometymes that euen concerning the same persōs or things we are in effect at the (f) This is most true how strág soeuer it may seem selfe same tyme both in hope and feare in loue and yet in hate in a burning kind of little enuy against them and yet vpon the mayne with an ardēt desire of their good And in fine we know not sometymes what our selues would haue nor what we ayle What meruaile is it then if we be often vnlike to what we had resolued to be that we are so extremely vnequall so mutable and so miserable How can we choose but be perfect slaues if thus we tye our selues to selfe loue which giues the plague death it selfe to al true liberty of spirit professed and imparted by the practice of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord which is only able to make men free This is not that prophane supposed liberty to (g) The levvd liberty of the Ghospell of sectaries which the sectaries of this age do intytle their Ghospel and which is indeed but expresse subiection to sinne and true slauery But true Christian liberty doth consist in vntying the soule from all imperfection sin in subduing mortifying our inordinate inclinations and passions acoording to the pure and perfect law of Christ
to spirituall from temporall to eternall from the Kings of Israell to the King Messias and so also there is often passage the other way from the spirit to the letter and so in the rest It is also made very hard by the Equiuocatiō (n) The ambiguity of the Hebrew tongue of words wherof the Hebrew tongue is so full Which since it was the first and consequently the most compendious and short of all others it must necessarily containe many seuerall significations in few words And from hence it growes that generally such variety hath bene found in the Translations of the old Testament and some part also of the new Nay (o) The misplacing of points c. the very difference in placing a point doth make sometimes a different sense and so doth the manner either of writing or pronouncing a proposition As namely whē it is ambiguous whether any thing be affirmatiuely or Ironically or Interrogatorily to be read This with more is shewed by Father Salmeron For these and for many other reasons the vnderstanding of holy Scripture is very hardly learnt and we see by sad experience what diuisions doe abound in the world by occasion therof when men will call disobedience and pride by the name of holy Ghost and Euangelicall liberty There are amongst Sectaries of seuerall cuts and kindes sixteene different opinions concerning their Doctrine of Iustification All which they seuerally doe yet pretend to be grounded in holy Scripture and yet this Scripture it is which they will haue to be so cleere and plaine And vpon those fower words Hoc est corpus meum This is my body there are almost fourescore diuersities of opinion Our aduersaries themselues doe by their deeds of disagreement with one another proclayme the difficulty of holy Scripture which yet in words they will deny that so they may be excused in making it say what they list The truth is this That indeed it is full of difficulty and our Lord who made it so did with infinite loue prouide therin for our good and that more wayes then one For (p) The many and great goods we get by the very difficulty of holy Scripture See Salmeron vhi supra therby we are obliged as Father Salmeron doth also further shew to confesse the vnspeakeable wisedome (q) We are brought to a great beliefe of the high wisedom or God of Almighty God which doth infinitely surpasse all knowledge or conceyte of ours euen then when he vouchsafeth to expresse himselfe by words the ordinary signification wherof we vnderstand And (r) Our pride is humbled by this meanes he depresseth pride in vs and depriues vs of all confidence in our selues Heerby (s) It spurres vs on to prayer Psalm 119. he doth also stirre vs vp to make with all humility most earnest prayer to his diuine in maiesty that he will open to vs the secrets of his law as we see S. Augustine did and all the Saints haue done especially King Dauid who was euer singing of this songe It also growes through the great obscurity of holy Scripture that the Church is filled with much variety (t) It breds great variety of diuine knowled◠in the Church of diuine knowledge neither is there that possibility to draw seuerall true senses out of plaine easy places as out of such as are obscure According to that of S. Augustine The obscurity of diuine Scripture is profitable for this that it begetteth bringeth to light seuerall Doctrines of truth whilst one man vnderstandeth it after one manner and another after another And (u) It breeds diligence in study and care to conserue in memory for this very reason also learned men are incited to a more diligent and earnest study therof And consequently they wil entertaine that knowledge with more gust which they haue acquired with more labour This (x) It inuiteth vs to purity of life obscurity is also a cause which makes vs purify our soules the more because like loues his like And holy things will neuer be well comprehended but by holy persons Moreouer it helpes to maintaine and make good that order (y) It helpes to maintaine the Church in due sub ordinatiō Order in the Church which our Lord God hath thought fit to hold in the dispensation of his guifts and graces For as the superiour Angells doe illuminate them who are inferiour so hath he bene pleased that amongst men some should excell others in learning and diuine knowledge who as Doctours and Pastours might interpret the same to others It (z) It saueth Pearles from being cast to swyne keepes impure and wicked persons from knowing those misteries which belong to God wherof they are vnworthy vncapable since they will not vse them well And our Lord himselfe hath said in his Ghospell that so it was fit to be and that seeing Marc. 4. Matt. 7. they might not see and that hearing they might not vnderstand and that pearles must not be cast before swyne And lastly the frailty of our corrupted nature is excellently prouided for by this meanes since through the difficulty which we find in holy Scripture we are (a) It nourisheth vs in reuerence and a holy awe kept in reuerence and in a kind of holy awe wheras if throughout they were familiar and gaue easy accesse to all cōmers they might through our fault grow instantly to be contemned On the (b) The Scripture is wouen both with hard and easy thinges and this is of great vse to vs. other side if all the parts thereof were hard a like we should giue ouer to seeke that which we despayred to find And therfore the good pleasure of our Lord hath bene to make the holy Scriptures obscure yet with a kind of plainenes and plaine but yet with an obscurenes That by their plainenes in some places they might illuminate vs and by their difficulty in others they might exercise vs. And that the easy places might helpe vs towards the vnderstanding of the hard and the hard might serue to imploy our wits and to make vs know withall how much we are bound to God for hauing made some others easy And this is the substance of that which Father Salmeron hath deliuered both concerning the reasons which make the holy Scriptures hard and the fruits which grow to vs therby Through which we may easily discerne the tender and wise care and loue of this diuine Doctour of our soules Not only in giuing vs such excellent lessons but for hauing done it in such an admirable manner as (c) A demonstration of the loue of our Lord to vs in this particular that whilst we are studying them we must almost in despight of our owne proud hartes be imploying our selues withall both vpon the exercise of prayer and the practise of the solide vertues of humility patience obedience purity and charity And if yet we shal not think that our Lord hath shewed vs loue
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
little stones or sands vpon the shore therof Yea be thou yet cleane at last be pure away with thy wicked thoughts out of my sight Make once an end of being peruerse Learne to doe wel seeke iudgment succour the oppressed Doe iustice to the Orphane defend the widdowe and then come and reproach me if I make not good my word For if thy sinnes should be as scarlet they shall become as while as snow and if they should be as red as vermilion they shall be as cleane as the purest wooll I know thou hast said Dixit Sion Dorminus dereliquit me c. Isa 49. Our Lord hath forsaken me our Lord hath forgotten me But what can the mother forget her infant or can she faile to take pitty vpon the child of her owne wombe And though she should yet will not I forget thee Behould I haue ingrauen thee in my very hands Quare ergo dixie populus c. Lerem 2. Why hath my people said to me We vvill depart and come to thee no more Can the virgin forget her gorgeous attires or can the Spouse forget the ornament which she weareth vpon her beast Yet my people hath forgotten me I cannot tell how long Vulgo dicitur c. Ierem. 3. It is commonly said among you if a man dismisse his wife and she marry another will that husband euer resort to her againe Shall not that woman be held for an impure defiled creature But thou hast committed Fornication with many louers and yet returne to me sayth our Lord and I will receaue thee Looke vp and consider where thou hast not prostituted thy selfe Thou hast gotten the face of a Harlot and thou wouldst not blush Yet now at last call vpon me and say Thou art my Father Et dixi c̄ fecisset haec omnia c. lerem 3. Thou art the conductor of my virginity For I for my part haue said to Sion after she had committed all her sinnes Returne to me and yet she returned not Returne to me O thou vntoward Israell saith our Lord I will not turne my face from thee because I am holy saith our Lord Ad punctum in modico dereliqui te c. Isa 54. In funiculis Adam c. Ose 11. and I will not be angry with thee for euer I haue forsaken thee for a short tyme but I will gather thee vp in great mercies For an instant of indignation I hid my face from thee but I haue taken pitty on thee with eternall mercy saith thy Lord and thy redeemer I will draw thee to my selfe in the cords af Adam in the bonds of loue And I will be as one who takes the yoke from off the necke of his cattle and giues the raines to his horse that he may feed These are the words of the holy Ghost by them doth he expresse the infinite loue which is borne to man And now it doth but remaine that we answere such loue withall the loue we haue To which if this Chapter will not haue obliged vs by making vs see the expression of Gods mercies in the old Testament wo be to vs but yet let vs try what may be done by the consideration of that which passed in the New wherof the next Chapter will informe vs. The infinite tender Loue of Christ our Lord which is expressed in the Scriptures of the new Testament CHAP. 40. SVCH as hath been seen is the stile which the God of heauē earth doth hold with his miserable and most sinfull creatures and this he hath held from all eternity he went executing it thus in tyme euen vnder both the law of nature and the written law when yet his Sonne our Lord had not taken flesh But as the mercies which were vouchsafed expressed by our Lord God to men in the old Testament were yet all designed and imparted by him in contemplation of Christ our Lord who was then to come so when the fulnes of that tyme was arriued and that indeed the increated word become incarnate for the saluation of man it was (a) It was fit not only in mercy but euen in iustice that vnder the law of grace the loue of God should appeare more cleerly thē before agreable not only to mercy but euen to iustice it selfe that the loue of God should triumph for our benefit more then euer And that not only in the solid proofe of loue but euen in the sweet and tender demonstrations therof For now our Lord spake no longer to vs by his Angells nor by his Prophets only but by his Sonne himselfe who was no more a perfect man then he was God And this God without the interposition or interpretation of any other creature did now in person conuerse with men He taught them by the words of his owne sacred mouth He cured them of all diseases by his miracles He assumed some to the dignity of being his Apostles and all the world to the honour and happines of being his Disciples He (b) How the seruants of God are dignified by Christ our Lord. declares how they who obey the will of God are his brothers his sisters and euen as it were his very mother Sometymes he calls men his seruants and when they haue carried themselues well therin he aduaunceth them to be not so much his seruants as his friends professing to impart all his secrets to them Looke in his last Sermon recorded by S. Iohn Sometymes he cals them his children yea and sometymes by the name of Filioli his little children to shew that innocent carefull tender kind of sweet affection which a mother would carry to her Infant We may see the whole history of his most blessed life all imbrodered by the hands of the holy Euangelists heere with teares there with sighes and euery where with abundance of corporall and spirituall labours both actiue and passiue for loue of vs Matt. 10. euen before the tyme of his pretious death Is any thing more liberall then his promisses where he entayles the inheritance of heauen to the guift of a cup of cold water Matt 25. without our bestowing so much cost as euen to heate it Nay and he is content to say that whosoeuer should performe any little worke of charity to any seruant of his he would take it in as deare part as if it had bene affoarded to his very selfe Is (c) His earnest protestations any thing more serious then his protestations of that truth which he came to teach vs for our good Amen Amen dico vobis Verily verily I tell you this and that And was it not a strāg descent for that Prima Veritas that roote and fountaine of all truth to helpe our blindnes and backwardnes in beleeuing by protesting things to be so as if his simple word had not deserued so well as to haue bene taken Is any thing more vniuersal then his Proclamations which thus he makes to all
infallible truth we might be beaten blind with seeing and starued with surfetting as we see many others are and the very vastnes of those misteries which are opened to vs for our cōfort by Christ our Lord would make vs halfe doubt whether they were or could be true or no. The beloued Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn had lodged himselfe so long so neere the hart of our blessed Lord that he was easily able to discerne and declare how excellently he loued vs from the beginning and that withall his loue continued towards vs to the end Iesus autem Ioan. 13. cùm dilexisset suos in finem dilexit eos Nay the motion of the loue of his diuine hart towards man hauing bene so naturall in him it is no meruaile if it vvent more violently in the end of his sacred life then at the beginning All the passions of that happy soule were intyrely subiect to the commaund of his reason and he held it to be a thing agreable to the dignity immutability of the God he was to speake of all things as was toucht before after a positiue manner and wonderfully as we vse to say within compasse Superlatiues and Exaggerations vsed to be thin sowed in the blessed mouth of our Lord IESVS Nor is he in effect euer found to haue said any thing as seeming to haue bene transported with any extraordinary or passionate desire or care but (b) When he came towardes the passiō our Lord did seem to breake his pace only concerning that which he was to suffer in his sacred Passion and that which he was to doe in the night precedent to the same When formerly he was aduising his Apostles to haue great confidence in the prouidence of God by letting them see what a care he had euen of sparrowes and inferring therby that he would incomparably more haue care of them he exaggerated not the matter Matt. 10. but did only aske If themselues were not to be more esteemed then many sparrowes Wheras yet one soule is more in the sight of God not only thē many sparrowes but then al the whole material world put together When he had a mind to tell them what a misery it was for that wretch that he would make himselfe the betrayer of the sonne of man Matt. 8◠he only said wo be to that man it had been better for him if he had neuer been borne which was but a very plaine and positiue manner of expression For as much as not only this greatest sinne which euer was perhaps conceaued but the least mortall sinne that can be imagined without repentance doth make a man much more vnhappy then if he were vtterly depriued of being When he professed the omnipotency of his eternall Fathers power to deliuer him out of the hands of them who tooke and tyed him he told them only Matt. 26. that if he should pray for any helpe of that kind his Father would send more then twelue legions of Angells to his succour Wheras he might as good cheape haue said twelue thousand as twelue legions But our Lord IESVS was not wont to vse any superlatiue manner of speach and he hath had many seruants who haue carefully imitated him in this as in the rest But yet neuer thelesse whē he reflected vpō the thought of that passiō which he was resolued to vndergoe for the Redēption of mā the very desire of the approach of so happy a day made him cōfesse that he was in paine till it did arriue Luc. 12. Baptismo habeo baptizari quomodo coactor donec veniat Or rather he did not so much say that he was in paine as by words of interrogation in the way after a sort of seeming impatient he asked himselfe this very question in effect How much am I payned how straitely am I imprisoned til I haue my fil of suffering for the loue of man Iust (c) Our Lord did long for the tyme when he might institute the B. Sacrament so may we see that when the time of celebrating the feast of the Paschal lambe was come he grew euen greedily desirous to eate it in the company of his B. Apostles before his Passion And for their comfort he would not choose but say Luc. 22. Desiderio desider aui manducare vobiscum hoc Pascha antequam patiar That he desired it and that with desire vpon desire and such desire as could neuer be appeased till he were satisfied till that tyme of the last supper were past wherin he had resolued to impart vnspeakeable tokens of his loue to them and so the other tyme of his Passion wherin he was to endure the depth of all torments and affronts for the same loue were then immediatly to come In the euening therfore and within few howers of his Passion this enamoured Lord of ours hauing all the parts and passages therof in his eye and looking as it were in the very face of death and such a death he yet (d) Our Lord kept the shew of all his sorrow to himselfe Ioan. 13. laid vp all the sorrow in his owne hart and would discouer to his Apostles no other semblance then of ioy and comfort least his griefe might be a cause of theirs He conuersed with them after his ordinary and familiar manner he disposed himselfe first to eate the Paschall lambe with them After that he sate downe with them to a common Supper He kept his diuine countenance full of quietnes and peace He tooke them close about him on all sides He cheered them vp with his gratious eyes and he carued them with his liberall hands Nay with those hands to the dispēsation wherof his eternall Father had cōmitted all things he disdayned not then to wash the vncleane feete of those poore Apostles For which purpose first he put of his vpper garment as any hired seruant was to haue done Ioan. 13. and by the force of his owne armes he tooke a big vessell full of water out of that he silled a lesser He girt himselfe with a towell into which he tooke their corporall vncleanes as a figure of how he would purify their harts by his sacred Passion For then he was to beare the deformity of their sinnes vpon the shoulders of his body which was a kind of winding sheet to his soule When our Lord had thus performed this act of religion in eating of the Paschall lambe and of incomparable suauity in his conuersation of vnspeakeable humility in the Lotiō of his Apostles feete he returned to the table and amazed all the (e) The Angells might well be amazed to see the sonne of God giue his owne body in food to sinners Angells of heauen whose vnderstāding did euen agonize in seeing him performe that supereminent act of Charity when he instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and ordeyned the holy Sacrifice of the Masse which was so worthy of an infinite God This was done by diuine
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
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
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
which afterward will cost and can be only cured by penance It was also an act of excessiue charity in Christ our Lord to let him feed vpon the experience of his owne frailty that so hauing a resolution to make him the supreme Pastour of his Church and to giue him the keyes of pardoning Matt. 16. and reteyning sinnes he might easily pitty others since he had fallen into so deepe a pit himselfe and all others also might be kept very farre from presuming to confide in their owne vertue since euen S. Peter was not able to secure himselfe from growing worse But as for those (c) A defence of S. Peter from the reproach which sectaries would lay vpnn him Luc. 22. wicked people who in the hatred they haue to the Catholike Church would impute to the head therof that in this denyall of his he had lost his faith they are not so much as to be heard For the holy Scripture insinuates no such things but the very contrary since Christ our Lord himselfe declared how he had prayed already to his eternall Father that S. Peters faith might neuer faile and moreouer the voyce of reason and the streame of all the holy * Aug. de correp gra c. 8. Chryshom 81. in Matth. Theophilact in c. 22. Lucaeâ— alij passim Fathers doth condemne that errour And we see how soone he returned to bitter penance for his fault And it was farre from the loue of our Lord to suffer that this most excellent Apostle should fall out-right into infidelity who had neuer offended him before but venially and only out of too free a hart Nor euen now but by the meere mistaking of the confines of Grace and nature which were not so well set out till afterward by the comming of the holy Ghost And of this we are certaine that before he had loued our Lord most vnspeakably tenderly and at a clap he had left all the world (1) Matt. 9. for him and had cast himselfe into the very (2) Matt. 14 Sea to approach him and at the apprehension of our Lord he had drawne his (3) Ioan. 18. poore single sword in his defence against so many hundreds of Armed men and he had woÌ„ded one of the hoaâ—est of them it was nothing but euen (4) Mare 14. the very passion of loue to our Lord that seized his hart which could carry him so instantly into so apparaÌ„t danger as it must be for him to put himselfe in the high Priests howse when he was but then newly come from wounding his seruaÌ„t Malchus And though this sinne of denying our Lord IESVS were a very great one yet all the deuills of hell cannot make it more then of meere frailty and his pennance for it began almost at the very instant when it was committed and that continued till the last moment of his life At which tyme he gaue insteed of teares his bloud vpon a Crosse as our Lord had done for him but with his head turned downeward through humility And the holy Scripture sheweth Luc. 24. how our Lord appeared to him alone after his Resurrection we heare not that he once rebuked him for that former sinne And before his Ascension vve are very sure since the holy Ghost it selfe hath said so that our Lord making S. Peter declare the loue which he bare him at three seuerall tymes before the Apostles he gaue him the charge both of them and all the rest who would be either lambes or sheepe of his flocke Ioan. 15. Now since our Lord himselfe vvho vvas offended and vvho best can tell hovv deepely did so svveetly and so magnificently forgiue and forget S. Peters sinne it is but a signe of a cankered and malicious minde to be exagerating the same vpon al occasions And let them vvho are so insolent in taxing this Prince of the Apostles for his sinne of frailty in denying Christ our Lord vvho is the head Note at that tyme vvhen truth could be discerned but as by the light of a candle Let them I say take heed that dayly themselues be not committing farre greater sinnes against the same truth vvhilst they are not only denying but blaspheming and afflicting it in the body of Christ our Lord which is his Church vvhich truth Isalm 19. they yet may see as by the light of the Sunne For in she sunne God hath placed his Tabernacle vvhich S. Augustine vnderstandeth of his Church The vvicked Priests suborned false vvitnesses against our Lord but he vvould not so much as reproach them for it much lesse conuince them of levvd practice nor enen open his mouth vvhen it might any vvay haue bene in his ovvne discharge Only vvheÌ„ Cayphas coniured him in the name (d) The high seuerence which our Lord did carry to the name of God Matt 26. of God to say whether he were the Sonne of God or no both because he had the place of high Priest at that tyme and yet further for the high reuerence vvhich he carryed to the holy name of God his ansvvere vvas expresse and cleere though short and meeke That he was the sonne of God And heerpon they declared him to be vvorthy of death as a blasphemer O false painted face of the world how vayne and deceiptfull are thy iudgments and how many are there now a dayes who if they should see a Cayphas sit with great solemnity authority and attendance vpon the cause of Christ our Lord who were coÌ„temptibly staÌ„ding at a barre and should heere a Cayphas affirme that he were an ennemy to the word of thé Lord or the State would infallibly ioyne with him against our Lord be drawne by those vayne appearances to beleeue for the tyme that they said true But whatsoeuer the thought of the people was of Christ our Lord his enamoured hart did so deadly thirst after their good and ours vpon any termes as that he being God did not abhorro to be accounted a blasphemer of God so that by the applicatioÌ„ of that pretious merit to vs we might of slaues become the Sonnes of his eternall Father And (e) The loue of our Lord Iesus to vs made him easily ouercomâ— all difficulties Ibid. howsoeuer it was an vnspeakeable detestation of that thing which raigned in his most reuerent soule yet was his loue to the name and imputation therof in effect as vnspeakeable since the more deeply he had cause to be auerted from it the more aboundantly he deserued by it for vs. But the Priest cried our Blasphemy what need haue we now of any witnesses Those hypocryticall eyes were cast vp to heauen the garments were rent and our Lord without his answering any one word was esteemed and decreed by them all to be worthy of death We haue read of Saints who haue bene armed with patience against all other affronts but when they haue bene called Heretiques they could not chuse but breake their pace and declare
that they detested that imputation But heere the Saint of Saints could be content to be called Blasphemer yet to make no demonstration that he tooke the least offence therat The abundant and most bitter scornes which our B. Lord indured with excessiue loue in that night precedent to his death CHAP. 61. EXCESSIVE was the indignity and dishonour which Christ our Lord endured at that first examination by Annas and Cayphas which yet will seeme but a kind of nothing if it be cōpared to that which followed in the rest of that woefull night when our Lord was imprisoned in the high Priests house And if at his being taken he were as well bound by ropes as the Traytour Iudas could deuise there is no doubt but that now they would lodge him in a dungeon low inough and load his delicate body with as many irons as it could beare It is true that the Prophet Hieremy had beene thrust downe into a deepe well the Prophet Daniell into a Lake of Lyons and the Patriarcke Ioseph was cast into a cesterne and the (a) The seruants of our Lord were cōforted by him in their afflictions but himselfe would feel none in his Martyrs of Christ our Lord haue suffered vnsufferable kinds of torment yet whatsoeuer affliction or feare they were subiect to the hād of God was there either to deliuer or at least to cōfort thē therin But our Lord had heere resigned al comfort he had resigned that hower that is the whole tyme of his bitter Passion to the Prince of darkenes and he had suspended the vse of his owne power for as much as concerned the receauing of any sensible consolation at all I would therfore be glad to know what dolorous infamous affront that could be which in that night of shame sorrow was not put vpon our blessed Lord by those instruments of the deuill If whilst he was yet abroad at liberty whilst he was rauishing them with his diuine words euen in spight of their peruerse harts whilst he was both dazeling the eye of enuy and hypocrisy with his sanctity and amazing them by the Maiesty obliging them by the mercy of his miracles they would yet be finding meanes to snarle against him and to vndermine him what kind of quarter is it likely now that they would keep with him when all the miracles which he wrought were to let them outrage him as much as they would and all the language which he vsed was that inuincible silence which he neuer brake in all that nights bitter durance If whilst he shewed so many tokens of his being the Sonne or at least a man of God they would yet take occasion from the facility and suauity of his conuersation to esteeme him as a drinker (1) Matth. 11. of wine If from his mercy and loue to the gayning of peruerted and impure soules that he was a man who (2) Ibid. liked to spend his tyme in bad company If frō his saying that he was auncient to (3) Ioan. 8. Abraham that he was proud and made himselfe God knowes what If from the wonders which he wrought vpon the Sabaoth (4) Luc. 13. that he was an irreligious and prophane person If from seeing that he did supernaturall things at other tymes that he performed them by a (5) Luc. 11. pact with the deuill If from their obseruation that his fanctity and benignity made the people loue him that (6) Luc. 23. he was a popular seditious and vnquiet person If from his auowing that he (7) Ioan. 10. and his Father were one that he was an expresse Blasphemer and as such a one they were once about to stone him If then I say they were so insolent and arrogant shall we thinke that now they could grow calme and tender-harted towards him When already they had seene him receaue a cruell buffet from that Sycophant in the very view of the high Priest and that the same high Priest did not so much as once reproue him for it which certainly he would haue done if that fellow had but presumed to beate his dogge Shall vve thinke that it gaue him any credit for them to obserue that one of his Disciples had betrayed and sold him to thē for a toy Shall we thinke that his meekenes would appease the rage of those hungry wolues they hauing bene so lōg in hunting after this innocent lambe Who in that tyme of his sheering no nor yet in his flaughtering afterward did not so much at open his mouth to make any one complaint Or rather shall we not conclude that they tooke offence euen from that very patience of his Which howsoeuer indeed it grew frō no other cause but only a profōd roote of loue they (b) His very patience made thē more outragious against him would yet impute it either to some witchcraft which might kindle their hate against him or cls to some extreme stupidity which might vrge them on to an increase of contempt Or finally shall we thinke that our Lord would change their mindes to make thē in some miraculous kind forbear him though otherwise it were much against their will which priuiledge yet he had neuer vsed to help himself thereby in his whole life It is not credible It is not possible But a most vndoubled truth it is that those wretches did afflict and dishonour him all they could and that our Lord was not only willing to endure al that but al the rest which they could deuise The holy Scripture it selfe doth this once giue such a view of what kind of Banquet was then set before this spouse of our soules to feed vpon as that the consideration therof which hath bene taken by deuout persons hath made tempests of sighes rise from their harts and floods of teares flow from their eyes through the compassion of his griefe and the admiration of his diuine loue in (c) A bitter Pottō sucking downe so greedely such huge draughts of the scalding bitter stuffe which in that dolorous night was put vpon him It tell vs Matt. 2◠that they strocke him with the Palmes of their hands that they did beate and buffet him that they spit vpon him that they hoodwincked him that they would be stryking him againe and that they scoffed and scorned him bidding him prophesy who it was that had strocken him But is it possible that the God of heauen and earth should suffer such thinges at their hands and that for the saluation of vs yea and euen of them and of all the world Yea so possible it is that God would suffer it as that it would haue bene wholly impossible that any who had not bene God should haue endured it Consider therfore heere what variety of affronts they found out for him and how euery one of them had a kind of particular reproach belonging to it They boxed him as hath bene said with their hands at large and therin they treated him as a
man would exhibite a spectacle wherby the lookers on were to be moued to loue that man would take care to giue it all those aduantages of grace and beauty which were any way to be attractiue of loue If he were to present an obiect wherby the spectators were to be strocken with feare he would not faile to accompany it with such instruments and demonstrations of terrour as might affect and afflict their mindes with feare And so heere since Pilates care and study was how to winne those implacable Harpies from that hungar and thirst after the destruction and death of Christ our Lord no doubt can be made but that he would adorne and dresse him in the most lamentable attyre of torments which he could deuise that so by the sight of that excessiue misery he might conuert their perfect malice into some little mercy This designe of his he was obliged to communicate with the Executioners who were to be his souldlers for els he had not bene true to his owne end And then I will leaue it to the reasonable imagination of any creature if such an insolent race of people as that vseth many tymes to be hauing receaued an expresse direction from their Commaunder for the execution of such a cruelty vpon a prisoner who was so persecuted by all the principall men and Magistrates of his owne profession were not likely to shew cruelty inough vpon that pretious body of our blessed Lord. Of the cruell Scourging of Christ our Lord and how with incomparable patience and charity the endured the same CHAP. 64. THEY strip thim therfore into the same nakednes wherin he was borne wherin he had neuer bene seene but in his infancy nor then but by the sight of the Angells and those farre purer eyes of the All-immaculate virgin mother They stripped him I say who in all the daies of his blessed life had neuer seene so much as any part of himselfe discouered naked but only those hands which were still imployed in shewing mercies There are millions of men and women in the holy Catholike Church who in their high loue of purity do neuer so much as looke euen vpon their owne face in a glasse and much lesse vpon any naked part of their body excepting only in the occasions of meere necessity when they shift their cloathes yea and then they do it very sparingly and with a kind of horrour euen to see themselues But from those necessities Christ our Lord was still exempt who in all his life did neuer shift or change his cloathes And that * Euthym. in cap. 27. Match Maldonat in cundem loium omnes recentiores cōmuniter Garment which was wouen without any seame at all by those pure hands of his sacred Mother did miraculously grow togeather with the body it selfe Now in the loue of mortification and purity all the Saints of the Church must not compare with him wherin he exceeded them all more then heauen doth excell the earth If therfore there be amongst vs so many thousands of sacred virgins who would rather giue vp their liues then they would once expose their naked bodies to open view Let vs beg of our Lord by his owne supreme purity that he will giue vs to vnderstand make vs sensible at the very rootes of our hartes of how (a) The excessiue affliction which it must giue to our B. Lord to be striped naked great a torment it was to him in the way of shame to be stript stark naked before those Pagan souldiers and to let that pretious banquet of his pure humanity be fed vpon deuoured by those petulant prophane eyes of theirs How great a torment was it to thee O Lord in the way of shame and yet withall how meekely didst thou endure it and how much ioy did it giue thee to be sacrificing the merit therof to the eternall Father for the impetratiō of all that Angelical purity which hath florished since that tyme in so many mortall bodies of flesh and bloud They tyed him then to a piller as naked as I haue heere bescribed as if there had beene danger that either like some slaue he would haue run away or els like a child he would be shrinking declining the strokes wherwith they had resolued to load him But he was inwardly bōd so fast Ose 12. with such cords of Adam which were chaines of loue as that in comparison therof those outward cords were but as threds of a spiders webbe which would haue bene farre from holding him to that piller against his will him who makes the foundations of the earth tremble the pillars of the world shake with the least breath of his Nostrills whensoeuer he thinks fit to worke vpon the world by way of terrour They began then to scourge our Lord Ioan. 1◠with excessiue cruelty And as a violent tempestof hayle would destroy a fruit tree which were in flower so did those cruell men not only blast that diuine sweet beauty of our Lord by breathing vpō it with the filthy ayre of their lasciuious and scornefull tongues but they brake through it with those scourges They clasped and circled him in with euery blow as so many snakes would doe some pretious and odoriferous plant which yet were so medicinall withall as to be able to cure a whole world of men of a whole world of diseases It is able to grieue any ciuill noble hart to see in Italy and especially at Rome how the barbarous Goths and Vandals when like an inundation they ouerflowed those florishing fields of the world did leaue the markes of their long nayles behind them in the ruines of so many sumptuous buildings and curious statues But what hath any sumptuous building or any curious statue to doe by way of comparison with that pretious humanity of our Lord. That Temple of the holy Ghost which the fulnes of the diuinity did substantially inhabite Colos 2. and that superexcellent Image that double Image of the eternall Father For an image he was of God euen as he was but man but then againe as God he was an Image begotten not made by the increated vnderstanding of the eternall God And what comparison thē cā there be betwene the barbarousnes of those Goths and Vandalls with these men of bloud who drew this holy house into such decay They did not only (b) How the house of Gods humanity was handled vnfurnish it but they procured to beate downe the walls and they made so many wide windowes in it with their rude hands as by which the soule would infallibly haue flowne out and forsaken it if it had not bene held fast perforce by the tye of loue that so it might liue to endure the rest of torment which was prouided for it A strange kind of ornament it was for that garment of his pretious humanity being hypostatically vnited to the diuinity to be so thicke ouercast and imbrodered with stripes insteed
of stitches as that it could now no more be knowe but only by the eyes of Faith of what stuffe it was made Which caused the Prophet Esay who foresaw him in this woefull traunce to declare that he was not to be discerned for who he was but mistaken for some base leprous person The bloud ran flowing out of his body through the force of their fury as formerly it had done in the gardē by the reflectiō which he made vpon the worlds impiety But not a word was heard to fal out of his sacred mouth wherwith he did euen kisse those very rodds since by their afflicting him whome he contemned he made a bath of delight and ease for vs. A bath of bloud that was which being vnited to the diuine person of the Sonne of God was adored by all the Angells as the bloud of God and (c) The infinite valew of the least drop of the bloud of Christ our Lord. whereof the least drop was able to haue redeemed milliōs of worlds And yet on the other side it was drawne out of that pretious body by cruell contumelious scourges it was spilt vpon the ground and troden vpon by those base vnbeleuers And this infinite Lord was content to accept this tormēt of the flagellation with excessiue loue and in particular manner he accepted it in satisfaction of the sinnes of sensuality which had bene and would be committed in that kind throughout the world We may therfore see whether our carnall pleasures the delights of sense be not wicked things since the pardon therof was to cost the Sonne of God so deere But as it will worke our pardon if we apply it to our soules by tymely pennance so if we shall continue to please our selues by those transitory and impure delights which did put our Lord to so deadly paine what kind of vengeāce shall we thinke that is which will be sure to seize vs both in body and soule How our blessed Lord was crowned with thornes and blasphemed and tormented further with strange inuention of malice And how he endured it all with incomparable Loue. CHAP. 65. YET this was not all for the souldiers who had receiued cōmission to scourge him in so bloudy manner to the end that by that cruelty the pitty of the Iewes might be awaked tooke the bouldnes out of their owne Capriccio to put the most ignominious withall most bitter torment vpon him which euer in the world had bene conceaued When therfore they had wearied thēselues in scourging him and there was now no more place for new wounds since all his sacred body was growne to be as it were one continued wound or rather a kind of Cake of bloud they vntyed him from the pillar they gaue him leaue to cloath himselfe though they had almost taken away the strength wherwith he might be able to doe it and they lent him for the present a little rest till they had resolued what they were to doe And because the Priests and Elders had charged him with procuring by fauour of the people to be made a King whome they had found by experience to be so subiect to themselues they (a) Why they resolued to crowne him with thornes thought it would carry a good proportion to the supposed cryme of his ambitiō if they could find some meanes to make him a conunterfeit kind of King and to afflict him in point both of ease and honor by the appearance of all those ornaments and demonstrations of respect seruice which are indeed of honour to true kings when they are truly meant but to him they were of excessiue affront and paine They made him then with his hands fast tyed sit downe all naked in most seruile manner for now they had stripped him the second tyme. And calling their whole troope of Guard togeather they clapt in imitation of the Princely robes of a King a purple mantle Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioau 19. about his backe which could not choose but sticke to his sacred flesh for there was no skinne betwene to part thē They put a Reed into his hands insteed of a Scepter and a plat of thornes vpon his head insteed of a Crowne They did then with incredible ioy of hart to see his misery salute him and say All haile O King of the Iewes Then would they be taking the Reed out of his hands and they would beate the Crowne more deeply into his head and then spitting in his face they kneeled downe and adored him in shew as they would their King All this did Christ our Lord endure for vs and he did it with a kind of infinite meekenes and loue not complayning therat nor declaring the least mistike therof either by pittying himselfe or blaming them But he confounded therby and that after a most puissant manner the arrogant pride of earth and hell offring vp (b) The Coronation of our Lord had a special ayme at the pardon cure of the sinnes of Pride his owne humiliation in propitiation for all the sinnes of the whole world especially for such as were committed in the way of pride and for the obteyning such grace at the hands of God by meanes heereof as might enable his true seruants to imitate his humility It ought to fill our soules with extreme confusion to find that we who professe to be the seruants of our Lord are yet so dull in deuising meanes how to expresse our reuerēce and loue towards him Our wits lye cleane another way And euen in Prayer we haue sometymes inough to doe to entertaine this spouse of our soules with aboundance of so much as mentall acts of loue and much more difficulty we find to performe them afterward by way of practise Yet heere these enemies of God man are teaching vs by their lewd example whose wits did serue them but too well to increase the torment of our Lord at an easy rate vnto themselues For when they had stript him naked in the sight of so many impure eyes and scourged him so cruelly as that it might seeme almost impossible to giue any increase ether of shame or torment behould how full they are of strange inuention and their malice findes meanes to deuise such exquisite waies to augment them both in such a measure as makes all that seeme little which was done before It is true (c) A comparison of his presēt scornes with the former that before he had most blasphemously bene spit vpon but it was at midnight and in Cayphas his house and but only by his keepers But heere it is done almost at noon day in the Vice-Royes Court and by a whole troope of Pagan souldiers He was then already come from being most cruelly scourged ouer all his most beautifull and most sacred body which gaue him paine beyond all expression but now behould they haue recourse to his diuine head which seemed as if till then it had escaped their rage And so that
being the most sensible part of al the rest and indeed the very source and seate of sense the former torment was not so great as it might haue bene But heere with hands which they arme with iron grauntlets they wreath sharpe thornes of great length into the forme of a hat Ioan. 19. which carryeth also the forme of an Imperiall Crowne and they clap it hard vpon and into his head which they beseige as it were round about with torments farre exceeding all humane conceipt It is true that before he had bene stroken at seuerall tymes in the high Priests house both with the fist and with the flat of the hand but now his head is beaten not with their hands for they could not haue so much as touched him without wounding themselues but the Reed which whilst it was in his hands serued for a note of scorne being taken into theirs became came an instrument of excessiue paine For laying load with it vpon his head their cruelty was so witty as to be able and that without any labour at all to themselues to make at once as many new wounds in that most sensible part of the whole body as there were thornes in that cursed-blessed-Crowne A fence of (d) The great torment which those thornes must needs giue our Lord. thornes made with care is able to keepe wild beasts within the prison of a Parke as well as if the inclosure were of wood or stone And although they haue hides which are like houses thatcht with hayre yet they dare not put themselues vpon the passing of such pikes as those If a single short thorne doe but enter into the most dull and fleshy part of the hand it puts a man out of patience till it be pluckt forth And if it chāce to get betwene the flesh and the nayle it makes a shift to goe for a kind of torment And many tymes it breeds the losse of a nayle and sometymes of a ioynt and it hath fallen out that it hath kept men so long from sleepe as to cast them into feuers and so to depriue thē by degrees of life What torment then did our blessed Lord endure when that faire Common of his forehead grew subiect to such an inclosure of thornes which imbraced as with so many cruell armes not only that part but all the rest of his diuine head round about We haue seene men wounded in so sensible partes of the body that the Tents which are put in doe giue them more paine euery tyme when they are drest then euen the very wounds themselues would doe And it groweth sometimes so farre as to make thē swoone And who shall then be able to comprehend the vnspeakeable torment which now was caused to our blessed Lord who had so many wounds in that fōtaine of his quicke feeling and so many seuerall Tents as there were thornes which did not only search the wōds but make them And euery one of them growing so much deeper and consequently bringing more parts of the head which till then had bene vntoucht into the same confederacy of cruell paine as those bloudy men would haue a mind to strike him at seuerall tymes ouer the head with that Reed And thus it was cleerly and completely fulfilled of Christ our Lord that A plant a pedis vsque ad verticem capitis Ioan. 1. from the very sole of the foote to the very crowne of his head there was not a spot free from bitter paine He felt (e) Our Lord felt that in his body which the Prophet Dauid all sinners feele in their soules Psalm 17. that in the vniuersall torment of his body which the Prophet Dauid found concerning the miseries of his soule when in the bitternes therof he thus expressed himselfe Non est sanitas in carne mea à sacie irae tuae non est pax ossibus meis à facie peccatorum meorum There is no health in my flesh by reason of thy wrath nor there is no peace in my bones by reason of my sinnes And verily it seems as if it had bene an expresse prophesy of the degrees wherby the tormēts of our Lord should grow vp at length to the top of torment towards the appeasing the wrath of God by the propitiation which he would offer for the sinne of man Since as soone as they had depriued the whole masse of his sacred flesh of health and beauty by that cruell scourging they put themselues vpon an inuention how to passe into and pierce his bones in the most noble and pretious part of him which was his head by that bloudy Crowning To such excesse as this did the sinne of man in generall arriue to such an outrage did those wretches in particular extend themselues and with such an extasis of loue did Christ our Lord apply his minde to the saluation for as much as might concerne him of the whole world as for that purpose to beare this infinite kind of paine shame with an infinite kind of loue and ioy in the Superiour part of his soule How we ought to carry our selues in the Consideration of the Ecce Homo Behould the man and how our Blessed Lord did carry himselfe both interiourly and exteriourly at that tyme and especially of his inuincible silence and contempt of all humane comfort for Loue of vs. CHAP. 66. BEEING thus drest vp he was led out by Pilates order to be seene and pittied by the people if that poore man might haue had his will Our Lord might then haue serued well for the very deuise and earacter of torment so he was as to such a one the word which Pilate gaue him Ioan. 19. was Ecce Homo Behold the man And verily it was no more then needed that Pilate should say he was a man for as they had vsed him he had scarce the resemblance of such a creature Himself had professed by the mouth of his holy Prophet I am a worme and no man Psalm 21. A worme which being trodden vpō did not repine that we who indeed are the true worms might not be oppressed by our inuisible enemy but be adopted Rom. 8. by the merit of his humility and charity into the liberty of the glory of sōnes of God A worme but a silly worme which spinns herselfe to death for the good of others and cōuerteth leaues which may serue for an Embleme of the vaine hart of man into a substance of vse and honor And though Pilate did not speake immediately to vs when he said behould the man yet this once we will doe as he desires And not only will we behould him but it shall be against our wils if euer we behould any thing els but only for the loue of him We will behould that man who became man being God and who being man grew yet so much lower then man as to be the outcast of men to the end that we who are the worst of men
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
the Sea and I haue bene euen drowned in the tempest He came into the depth of those thoughts wherof the holy Prophet said Psalm 91. that they were too very deepe Nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes tuae A Sea it was rather of mud then waters and he was plunged Psalm 68. in limo profundi non est substantia into that pit of mire from which he could nether be free nor find any resting place for his feete therein Nor is it strange that he should say that he was drowned when vpon the Crosse he came into the Tempest indeed since we find that in the garden where this Tempest was only present to his imagination it had almost cost him his life The imaginatiō of fearfull men doth often by way of anticipation represent things worse then they proue indeed because they seeme to feele whatsouer their weake harts are induced to feare But in the minde of our Lord IESVS Christ it could not be so for he foresaw things iust as they were to proue and that bare foresight had cast him into that bitter Agony it had made him powre out a sweat of bloud and it had forced him to say Marc. 14. that his very soule was sad euen to the death A wonderfull thing it were that a coale of fire should be buried and drowned in water yet should cōtinue still to burne Christ our Lord is this (a) The vnquēch able loue of our Lord. liuing coale of the fire of loue for though he were all steeped soaked and euen drowned in the water of affliction for our sinnes Cant. 8. Yet aquae multae non potuerunt extinguere caritatem The siery coale of his loue could not be quenched by those many waters Nay as wind doth kindle other coales so did these waters of tribulation kindle this of his loue to vs. Already vpon his condemnation the Tytle or cause of his death was deliuered in writing by Pilate to be fixed to the instrument therof which was his Crosse This tytle carried these words Matt. 27. Luc. 23. Marc. 18. Ioan. 19. Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes And for so much as concerned the intention of Pilate it was deliuered by a kind of chance But the superiour prouidence of God did ordayne for reasons of infinite wisedome that it should be so And although the wicked Iewes were scandalized therat and would faine haue had it changed from affirming positiuely Ibid. that he was king of the Iewes to a saying only That he had said so yet could they not be gratified therin The words were written in Hebrew Greeke and Latine which were the mother and maister-tongues of the world and so were to continue to the worlds end And now they were consecrated in most particular manner to the publique seruice of our Lord God and as such they are and will be vsed in the holy Catholike Church whatsoeuer is muttered by the aduersaries therof who are also the aduersaries both of the signe of the materiall Crosse of Christ and of the liuing Crosse also which is Mortification and Penance But the while though Almighty God had his ends heerin for our good as hath been sayd yet their malice went by other wayes and they vsed it to no other purpose which was only for the increase of his ignominy in the eyes of them who seeing such a glorious Tytle aboue and such a dolorous and deiected person vnderneath Matt. 17. Marc. 15. Luc. 23. Ioan. 19. might the more readily and profoundly contemne him and our Lord did with excesse of charity stoope to all The souldiers whilst he was suffering had so little care or thought of him as that instantly they were at leasure to fall to rifeling for his cloathes And they who made no difficulty to breake through teare his sacred body frō head to foote tooke care not to breake or cut his seam-lesse coate Our Lord was stil cōtent with all and not only was he resolued to giue his life for their soules but he gaue way that his cloathes should apparell the bodies of his persecutors He had said before that our bodies were more worth thē our garmēts Matt. 6. And if this be true in our case how much more infinitely true was it in his Both because through our Pride our cloathes be richer thē he euer wore and because our bodyes are so much baser thē that most pure and pretious body of his But these wretches did cast vp their account after another fashion marking all things els with great Figures but esteeming this Lord of all things for a meere Cypher The sacred Text doth further note that they being appointed to watch guard him whilst he was hanging vpō the Crosse were so far from bearing any part of his sorrow out of pitty as that they set (b) Barbarous wretches themselues downe at their ease which a man would scarce haue done at the death of any common rogue especially if it were a death of torment Let Pagans take their pleasures for a tyme when the Sonne of God is suffering such bitter paine for them Let the prophane souldiers of Pilate who figure out the libertines of this world sit downe and take their ease notwithstanding that our Redeemer made choyce of paine and by choosing it did facilitate and sanctify it vpon his owne sacred person to our vse But as for vs who are Catholikes and Caualliers of Christ let it be farre from vs to doate vpon delights which he auoyded and to abhorre affronts and paines Bernard ser 5. in festo omnium SS an vncomly thing for any inferiour member of a body to hunt after commodity and ease when the head of the same body should be crowned and pierced with thornes Pudeat sub capite spinoso mēbrum fieri delicatum Our head is crowned and we are not liuing parts of his body but the Canker of heresie hath consumed vs or at least the Gangrene of sensuality hath killed vs if we suffer not togeather with this head by true compassion which true compassion implyes not a pittying but a ioynt suffering according to our strength of body and the dictamen of true loue to the beloued and which if it be true indeed more easily your may perswade the soule which hath it not to liue then the body not to suffer The mortall life of our blessed Lord was drawing on apace towards an end but yet for the little while that it was to last he was not content with that one Crosse alone to which he was nayled by the cruell hands of those executioners but he admitted also of other crosses to which he was shot by the blasphemous tongues of all those kindes of people which were present They had put him out of the reach of their fingars that he might hange as he did vpon Irons in the ayre But yet they gaue him not ouer so for they wounded his
hart with most blasphemous and bitter scoffs The people which past in troopes Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioan. 19. before him did with serpentine tongues and countenances full of scorne cry out vah to him And they accompanied it with the most contumelous gesture and iogge of the head which they could deuise as the holy Scripture it selfe doth insinuate And that interiection with the words that followed doe as bad as say after this manner Thou wretch thou hypocrite thou vgly impostor thou wert talking of wonders but to what an end hath thy wickednes brought thee now at last Thou hadst a minde to be a King but what beggar is so base as not to be thy better might it please your Maiesty to come downe from the crosse that we your most humble and faithfull seruants and vassalles may doe you homage Thou talkedst of being the Sonne of God the Sauiour of the world Will it please your Diuinity to be good to your Humanity Will it please you to let your Charity beginne at home and to saue your selle Thou talkedst of what thou couldst do if thou wert disposed and that the Temple was but a toye and that thou wert able to put it downe and rayse it vp againe in a trice Might your Omnipotēcy be intreated to beginne with throwing downe that Crosse and to cast away those nayles and by iuggling to play least in sight as in former occasions you haue been known to doe Vah wretched wicked thing the worst of creatures the out cast of the world we hate thee we abhorre thee we despise thee we spit at thee we defy thee The earth hath refused to be trod vpon any longer by those pernicious feete of thine the heauen is walled vp against the entry of such a miscreāt as thou There is no place for thee but hell dye therfore quickly and be damned These are infinite blasphemies and we all abhorre them all as we doe the deuill himselfe but infallibly they are but triuiall things in comparison of those others which were darted out indeed against our blessed Lord vpon the Crosse For (c) A demonstration that the blasphemies which were vttered against our blessed Lord were most enourmous thinges though the holy Scripture toucheth them in in few words since they acted their worst by the way of doing they would be sure not to fall short in saying And the rage they had would quicken vp their wits and the excessiue wrongs which then already they had done him would exact at their hāds a making good of what was past by the vttermost most demonstration of how deepely they detested him at that present The high Priests besides are recorded in holy Scripture to haue put scoffs vpon him after a particular manner and they sayd to this effect This fellow had a guift to helpe other folkes but he hath not the tricke to saue himselfe If he he the King of Israell let him come downe from the Crosse and we will belieue him The good mā did put his trust in God but if God haue a minde to him let him take him The barbarous souldiers also were still vpon their old haunt of scorning him Ibid. hauing bene bribed in all appearance by those wicked Iewes euen from the beginning when he was scourged and crowned with thornes And they were so voyd of pitty as to be offering him vinager though they did but euen that in iest and scorne at that tyme wheras wine was wont to be giuē to all men who were placed in that deadly trance Yea and euen one of those very theeues who then were suffering death togeather with him tooke tyme not to thinke of his owne torments or imminent death togeather with the danger of eternall damnation which he was in through the lust he had to be like those sauages vnder whome he suffered and he would needs be then at leasure to reproach blaspheme our blessed Lord. How our Lord Iesus did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructour vpon the Crosse and of the three first wordes which with incomparable Loue he vttered from thence CHAP. 71. SVCH was the cruelty of all kinds of people against our Lord as he was hanging vpon the Crosse and such was the affliction which in the inferiour part of his soule he felt vpon euery one of those particular paines and scornes Nor was there so much as one single word a signe gesture or a thought of malice in any one of all those many harts which wēt not to his by the way of griefe Yet see also how it wrought in the way of loue As soone as the Crosse was reard and that already they had set al those markes vpon him which were to carry him to his graue that still he was hearing the bitter scoffs blasphemies wherby they prophaned his sacred eares he went exercising two of his chiefe offices in a most admirable manner and in a most eminent degree These (a) Our Lord Iesus the Mediatour of our redemption and the Doctour of our soules by by way of instructiō were to be the Mediatour of our Redemption and the Doctour in that Chaire of the holy Crosse for our instruction He then turned himselfe in most gratious but most dolorous manner to his eternall Father beseeching him to forgiue al their sinnes who had any way concurred to that death of his Father sayth he forgiue them for they know not what they do Ibid. Of God as God he knew not how to hope for such a fauour in respect of them and therfore he coniures him by the tēder name of Father that so he remēbring him to be that most beloued Sonne Matt. 3. he in whome he was well pleased he might be mercifull to those wretches whose cause he had vndertakē to plead For howsoeuer they had found in their harts to giue him so many wounds of death with so much scorne and rage yet he could not find in his to forsake them in theyr sinns but to begge that they might haue grace to returne by penance And because he easily foresaw that the crime was so enormous of it selfe his vnspeakeable charity went seeking waies how to excuse the grieuousnes therof by taking a part from their malice and ascribing it to their ignorance who committed it And he who in that Agony in the Garden prayed but conditionally that the bitter Chalice of his punishment might passe from him had so much more (b) Out Lord had far more care of vs thē of himselfe care of them then of himself as to pray in absolute termes that the Chalice of Gods fury might not come to thē Not only he did it in absolute termes but he did it at his death when Fathers are not wōt to refuse their sonnes And he did it more ouer in the midst of those excessiue torments when euen enemies vse to gratify one another and he did it by way of represēting so good a reason for the obtayning of his suite
be the last of his life But (b) The reason why our Lord declared his thirst this Lord of ours was pressed so close by his spirituall thirst of suffering as it were infinite things for the loue of vs and for the gayning instructing our soules by these examples of his inuincible patience as that it made him contemne euen forget his owne materiall thirst though it were to him of excessiue paine This Originall of Religious Obedience which is Christ our Lord doth also shew heerby the forme wherin Religious persons are to expresse themselues to their Superiours Which (c) A good lesson for Religious men is not to be so much by way of earnest desire of that which they would haue as by way of declaration of that wherof they are in want and when that is done the Superiours are to proceed as they see cause For so did Christ our Lord forbeare to desire to drinke and he only said That he was thirsty to those souldiers who were made his Superiours by his owne admirable humility and charity submitting himselfe entirely to their wills who were bribed and bent to doe him all the mischiefe they could For when he told them of his thirst what was it which they could find in their harts to giue him The same thing which they had offered him before in iest and in the way of scorne the same they were content to giue him now in earnest for a conclusion to all their cruell courtesies When they were going to crucify him they would not giue him wine til it were distempered with Gaul Matt. 27. Marc. 25. which is the Embleme of malice and bitternes And now that he is giuing vp the Ghost they present him with a spunge full of Vinegar which is the Embleme of rage and sowernes O vncharitable wretches and who made you of men such sauage monsters But O infinite Charity and meekenes and patience of Christ our Lord who accepted of al without the least reproofe of their impiety And as at the foote of the Crosse he had refused to drinke of that Gaul because it was mingled with wine to the end that he might be suffering whilst he liued without any drop of the wine of comfort yea or so much as the being knowne to want it so now that he was vpō the very point of death he refused not to drinke of that pure vinegar because it was all sharpe and sower He left those draughts which should haue any mixture of comfort in them with Crosses for those Martyrs whome he meant to make glorious by following his diuine example And by his taking the vinegar of tribulation he did conuert it into the wine of strength cōfort after a cōtrary māner to that wherby wicked men are wont through their ingratitude to turne the wine of his blessings into the vinegar and Gaul of sinnes agaynst him Abusing the abundance of his mercy and making that a motiue of their wicked liberty which would tye any honest hart so much the more inseparably to his seruice He also dranke this vinegar to (d) The many excellēt reasons why our Lord was pleased both to endure and to declare his thirst the end that as already he had sanctified the mortificatiō of the other senses by his example for the instruction and consolation of his faithfull seruants so also they might be taught by this to be far and very farre from all superfluous care of meate and drinke and much more from all inordinate delight therin since all the sweete meates wherwith our blessed Lord was pleased to make vp his mouth in this mortall life was but a draught of vinegar out of a sponge at his death By this drinking therfore he enableth vs to be content with course and common and vnpleasant meat and drinke and by the merit of his thirsting after this corporall drinke he hath killed and quenched our spirituall thirst after vaine and vicious delights which nourish and feed vp our soules in sinne And so also on the other side according to S. Augustines expositiō of the sixty eight Psalme our Lord IESVS did not only declare his extreme thirst of corporall drinke but also his ardent thirst after the saluation of his enemies and of all the world How infinitely therfore shall we be without excuse if we giue him not to drinke of our good deeds since he is so greedy of them and was so tormented for want therof Yea and how worthy shall we be of all reproach and paine if he hauing begun to vs in so sad a Cup with desire thirst of our good we shall not procure to resemble him by thirsting both in body and soule after the aduancing and increasing of his Glory Of the entyre consummation of our Redemption which was wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse and of the perfection of his diuine vertues expressed there CHAP. 75. OVR Lord IESVS hauing drunke this vinegar declared that whatsoeuer had bin prophesied to be accomplished by himselfe was now fulfilled and he signified it by saying this word Consummatum est All is fulfilled And as he who only refresheth and filleth the soule of man with whole flouds of ioy was already content to be tormented with thirst so now for the apparailing of our soules with the life of Grace he was ready to deuest himselfe of the life of Nature He had formerly complyed with the care which he had of our instruction and now we haue seeue how he hath accomplished our Redēption by his Passion By meanes of this Passion he finished the building of his Church And since he had formerly layd a note of folly Ioan. 19. vpon such a man as should beginne to rayse a building and not bring it afterward to perfection our Lord who was the increated Wisedome of the Eternall Father must needs be farre from falling into any errour of the same kind And indeed it was wholy necessary that in his great goodnes to vs he should not depriue vs of such a diuine example of perseuerance as now we haue obtayned by the Cons̄mation of his course of Passion vpon the Crosse since (a) All labour is lost without perseuerance Deut. 23. without perseuerance all our labour is but lost Our Lord did therfore perseuere and he did perfect that which he had begun If the workes of God are most truly sayd to be entirely perfect his Passiō was to be so in most particular māner which amōgst these other workes is said with a kind of eminency to be his worke Now what sufferance could be more perfect in the way of humility then for the Lord of life and glory most willingly to endure a death of excessiue contumely and shame at the hands of his Rebellious Sonnes and most wicked slaues What more perfect in the way of patience and purity of hart then to suffer without the accesse of any imaginable comfort as Christ our Lord vouchsafed to doe What more perfect in the
way of conformity and obedience then without once harkening to the inferiour part of the soule to range the Superiour to the will of God not only with solid patience but with supreme ioy What more perfect in the way of Charity then to endure the extremity of affront paine for his mortall enemies And at the very tyme when those enemies were tormenting him for him to be protecting them and negotiating their cause with bitter sighes in the cares of almighty God What more (b) The incomparable perfection of the worke of the passion of our Lord. perfect in the way of contemplation then in such distresse to be looking at ease so many wayes at once from the death and contumely of a Crosse as if it had bin from some tower of recreation and delight To haue God himselfe and all the world so perfectly and cleerly in his eye and all at once To be offering euery graine of all the Passion in forgiuenes of all the sinnes of the whole world wherof then he saw euery one more distinctly and cleerly thē any man did euer see any one of his own What more perfect in the way of diligence in giuing vs direction how to carry our selues then that when himself was so deeply wounded by those incomparable torments and affronts he would furnish vs with such diuine documents and examples drawne from his owne sacred person Wherby we may become victorious in all our combats find the edge of our afflictions so abated as that they should neuer cast vs vpon despaire What thing is more perfect in the way of corporall sufferance then so to suffer as that there may be nothing which suffers not There is nothing higher then the head and we haue seene how the head of Christ our Lord did suffer by that hideous crowne of thornes There is nothing lower then the feete and we haue seen how the feete haue suffered by cruel nayles There is nothing of a man more wide or large then his hands spread abroad at the armes end and we haue also seene how he suffered by nayles driuen through his hands Those hands wherin he said that he (1) Isa 49. had written vs and (2) Ioan. 12. wherby he would draw vs towards himselfe with diuine pitty when once he should be exalted vpon the Crosse In fine there is nothing more then all and we haue seene how he hath bene scourged all ouer pierc't and fettered and spit vpon and boxt and buffeted and bored and beathen through with Iron for the pure loue of vs. And euen whilst he was hanging vpon the Crosse in expectation of death he vouchsafed still to be affronted and blasphemed beyond all morall beliefe and he the while euen when vinegar was giuen him to drinke in that torment of thirst which he endured did regorge in the deernes of his loue to vs. He perfected (c) How our Lord Iesus did perfect the figures and sacrifices of the old law vpon the Crosse wherof he also fulfilled the prophesies Luc. 22. 1. Cor. 11. the imperfection of the old law in the law of grace which he did promulgate heere He perfected all the Sacrifices of the old Testament in this Sacrifice of himselfe vpon the Crosse the memory wherof he had already commaunded his Priests to perpetuate by the dayly oblation of his owne pretious body and bloud vpon their Altars He perfected all the Prophesies which were made concerning his owne life and death He perfected all those figures which had bene deliuered of him in the old Testament for the disposing of the mindes of the faithfull towards the beliefe of their Messias who was thē to come We haue heere the history of Noe. For as he was made drunke Genes 9. by the vine which he planted and had his nakednes discouered by his children so was our Lord stript naked more then once as we haue seene and that by his children of whome his Prophet in his person said Isa 1. Filios enutriui exaltaui ipsi autem spreuerunt me I tooke care to breed and bring vp my children and they tooke pleasure to despise and dishonor me He was also inebriated by the loue which he bare to his people which like a vine he planted with miracles and pruned with Doctrine and watered with bloud And that vine inebriated him also with another kind of wine the wine of torments and reproach wherwith he was stuft and cloyd By which kind of liquor although he were not because he would not be disgusted yet we haue heard him by his Prophet thus complaine of this vine after a most deere and killing manner Isa 5. Expectauit vt faceret vuas fecit autem labruscas I expected that my vine should haue yielded me wine for the comfort of my hart but it yielded me nothing but veriuyce which hath set my teeth on edge We haue heere a better then that (1) Num. 21. Brasen serpent the sight of whome will cure the bytings of all those serpents which are our sinnes We haue heere the true Dauid who kild that Gyant (2) 1. Reg. 17. Golyas being a figure of the Prince of darkenes with the fiue stones of his fiue sacred wounds and he cut of the Gyants head with the Gyants sword conquering the Deuill by death which was his weapon drawne by sinne The same might be shewed in al the other figures which were deliuered of our Lord in the old Testament which were perfected and fulfilled vpon the Crosse So that our Lord might iustly say Consummatum est The worke of my Passion the worke of mans redemption both in regard of the thing it selfe and of the manner how it hath bene wrought and borne is perfect consummate and complete Of our Lords last prayer to his eternall Father of his excessiue griefe and loue expressed in the separation of his soule from his body and of the grace beauty of the Crucifix CHAP. 76. THERE did now remaine no more but that our Lord IESVS hauing taken care of the whole world and hauing particulerly powred forth those seuerall benedictions vpō it frō that treasure-house of the Crosse should also commend himselfe into the hands of the eternall Father A te principium tibi desinit might the soule of Christ our Lord say to God He began his Passion with the inuocation of his Father Luc. 22. in the Garden he cōtinued it by praying to him whē the Crosse was erected with himselfe vpon it and now he concluded it by recommending himselfe into his hands still vnder the sweet and gracious tytle of his Father Instructing vs therby in all our actions especially in such as are of moment most of all when we are either endeauouring or enduring any thing which doth immediatly concerne the glory of God and the true good of men as this mistery of our redēption highly did to prepare our selues by Prayer before we beginne to eleuate our mindes often to
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
noblest Image and peece of Architecture that can be deuised The head being inclined downeward towards a kisse of peace and the armes extended abroad which shew that it is wholy against their will that they imbrace vs not because they are nayled And the whole frame of the body carrying and conuaying it selfe downe by degrees into a point after such a louely gracefull maÌ„ner as that not only the eye of Christianity but euen of curiosity it selfe can desire no more But (f) The straite obligation of Christians to our Lord Iesus Christ as for vs to whome it belongs in a farre superiour kind to this it will become vs to adore him who suffered so for vs withall the powers of our soule and to wish that in some proportion he would make vs able to pay our debts by euen dying for the loue of him as he vouchsaft to doe for loue of vs. In the meane tyme we may well be humble and wonder how we are able to belieue such things as these and yet to liue Of the great Loue of God expressed in those prodigious thinges which appeared vpon the death of our Blessed Lord. Of the hardnes of mans hart which keepes no correspondence with so great loue Of the bloud and water which flowed out of the side of Christ our Lord and how he did in all respects powre himselfe out like water for our good CHAP. 77. IT pleased the greatnes and goodnes of Almighty God that immediatly before the death of Christ our Lord Matt. 27. the veile of the Temple should rend it selfe that the earth should quake that the stones should cleaue that the Sepulchers should open and many of the dead should rise shew theÌ„selues in Ierusalem (a) The vse of the prodigiâ—â— which appeared vpon the death of our Lord Iesus so these thinges might serue for a figure of the great conuersions from the obstinacy and death of sinne which were to follow vpon the death of our B. Lord. As also to the end that those inanimate creatures might reproach the ingratitude of them who had life and reason and that the people of the other world might coÌ„demne the vast impiety of them of this who had murthered thus the Lord of life Now the same action lyes against all sinners of these dayes aswell as against them of those For whosoeuer do commit any mortall sinne doe by the testimony of S. Paul their best towards the recrucifying of our Lord Iesus Hebr. 6. and they preferre Barabbas before him as hath bene said And howsoeuer the finne of those persecutours seeme to haue beene greater then ours can be in regard that they concurred not only maliciously but immediatly to his destruction yet for as much as they did not though they ought to haue knowne expresly that he was the Sonne of God which we acknowledge and beleeue him to be and because the holy Ghost was not then descended as now he is into our soules or desires to be if we be ready to receaue him that sinne which would be lesse in it selfe is greater in vs. And we are not worthy to liue if we fly not from all that which giues disgust dishonor to such a Lord and if we suffer not with him who suffered so cruell things for vs. We shall else be lyable to that sad complaint of S. Bernard For speaking against the hardnes of mans hart which refuseth to relent towards the true loue of God wheras yet those very stones and earth relented he sayth most sweetly thus Bernard serm de Pass Dom. Solus homo non compatitur pro quo solo Christus moritur Christ our Lord dyed for man alone and yet man alone takes no compassion of Christ our Lord wheras yet other creatures for whome he dyed not had compassion that is in theyr kind they suffered with him The (b) The deadly malice of the Iewes to Christ our Lord which ouerliued his death malice of those Iewes was such as to thinke all that nothing which we haue heere described to haue bene inflicted vpon the persoÌ„ of Christ our Lord when he was aliue And therfore they thought that he could not be dead so soone Ioan. 19. Bloudy wretches they were For if malice had not put them out of their wits they would rather haue wondred how he could haue liu'd so long considering how barbarously he had bene treated But though he were dead their contempt hate was still aliue a Captaine looking on Ibid. had so little pitty as to pierce his sacred side with a Launce and to execute cruelty vpon his Corpes which no Ciuill person would haue done vpon the carcasse of a beast Our Lord before he dyed forsaw what they meant to do and resolued to suffer it and so to gayne the glory of ouercomming by suffering by being ouercome And he was pleased Rom. 5. that where their sinne and malice did abound there should his grace and loue superabound For behould he had reserued certain bloud and water next his hart and the Eagle S. Iohn who had eyes wherwith to behould the Sunne did see it issue out of his side He deliuered himselfe in these words Ioan. 19. Et continuò exiuit sanguis aqua That instantly bloud and water did issue forth As if he should haue sayd that they had lyen there to watch their tyme to the end that as soone as euer the ouerture should once be made by that point of the Launce they would instantly not fayle to spring out and spend themselues for the good of man For through the opening of that wound Beniamin was borne Gen. 35. though Rachel his mother dyed in trauaile And the Church of Christ our Lord doth proceed from thence and like another Eue it was fram'd out of the side of our B. Sauiour who was the second Adam when he was dead as the former Eue was framed out of the side of the first Adam Gen. 2. when he was sleeping And therfore no meruaile if the Church of Christ our Lord all her lawfull and faithfull children doe carry a most profound internall tender loue and reuerence to the Crosse of Christ our Lord especially to this sacred wound of his side as to the country from whence shee came and whether shee procures to goe And in conformity of this loue the same Church is carefull to be stil refreshing our memory of this Crosse making the (c) The frequent vse of the holy signe of the Crosse signe therof in all her Sacraments Ceremonies and Benedictions teaching her true Catholikes not to be ashamed therof but to blesse our selues often according to the custome of all ancient Saints with that holy signe vpon our foreheads vpon our mouths vpon our harts that so the whole man may be euer walking in remembrance of this mistery and that so we may be the better disposed to beare with patience and loue any contempt or
Virgin But this which I haue already said will suffice to shew how the one was a type and figure of the other and that the holy Fathers of the Church declare that howsoeuer they are both our Mothers in seuerall respects yet that the East and West are not so farre off from one another as this latter holy humble Eue doth in sanctity excell the former And now to the point of her being the Mother of vs all see further how * De sanct Virgin c. 6. Ambr. apud Bonau in spec Virg. c. 8◠Cyrillus Alex. hom con tra Nestorium S. Augustine saith she is the spirituall Mother of the members of the Church for as much as she cooperated to the end that the faithfull might be borne in the same Church S. Ambrose also saith If Christ be the brother of all beleeuers how can she choose but be the mother of Christ And so doth S. Bonauenture deliuer the blessed Virgin to be not only the particular Mother of Christ our Lord but the vniuersall mother of all the faithfull And S. Cyrill giues a massy reason heerof when speaking as to the blessed Virgin he professeth himselfe in these words By thee all those creatures who are retayned in the errour of Idolatry are conuerted to the knowledge of truth But the (b) An excellent cōsideration of S. Bernard vpō the sweet prouidēce of our Lord God concerning the B. Vir. cited by Pa. Arias Bern. ser sup missus est holy S. Bernard shall conclude this point when he saith to this effect Christ our Sauiour did suffice for the reparation of mankind because all our sufficiency doth come to vs by him and all that also wherof we haue need for our saluation Yet was it most conuenient for our good and comfort that he should be associated in this reparation of ours by such a companion as might be a mother and such a mother as that she being the mother of God might be also ours This holy Saint in the same place doth giue many reasons heerof full of conueniency and consolation which heere I shall not need to represent In his booke de imitat B. Virg. But it appeares clearly inough that as Father Arias notes for the multiplication of mankind in the course of nature God framed our first Father Adam And notwithstanding that he might haue giuen sufficiency of power to him alone for the multiplication of mankind if he had bene so pleased yet he would not doe it but he resolued to giue him a companion and helper which was our Grandmother Eue according to the sweet disposition of his diuine prouidence In the selfe same name Arias l. de imitat B. Virg. when the world was lost by sinne our Lord God hauing resolued to beget and multiply iust men who might be heires to the kingdome of heauen he gaue his only begotten Sonne to be Incarnate who by his life and death might beget and breed vs to saluation And although it be most true that this Father of ours is all sufficient by himselfe alone to performe this worke of our Regeneration because he is of infinite vertue and who according to the rigour of Iustice doth merit grace and glory for his children and doth obtaine pretious fauours and satisfy for all kind of sinne yet neuerthelesse God was pleased according to the designe of his owne excellent wisedome to giue to Christ our Lord the most sacred and most holy of all meere creatures his All-immaculate Virgin Mother Mary to be a companion to himselfe in the spirituall generation of the world as the mother therof who might assist and serue him in so great a worke Not by way of praying for vs or of iustifying vs or of giuing vs grace or glory as of her owne guift for al that is proper to the redeemer and Sauiour of the world but to the end that she might concurre to the reducing of sinners by the way of sweetnes and loue interceding and praying for them and offering vp for their good all those excellent operations seruices which she performed in this life to her blessed Sonne our Lord and so obtayning celestiall fauours for them and facilitating their way to heauen by discouering the infinite mercy and suauity of Almighty God to the eyes of their mind And if (c) A cleer consequence 1. Cor. 4. S. Paul might say in the word of truth I haue begotten you to the Ghospell how much more might this blessed Lady say it in a most eminent manner who did beare and bring forth our Lord IESVS and did both therby and otherwise so admirably and immediatly cooperate towards the saluation of the whole world Not only do many particular Fathers ascribe the title of Mother to our blessed Lady but the holy Catholike Church doth ioyntly glory in calling her by that sweet name and esteemes her selfe happy that she may haue recourse to her as such Nor giues she only way to all her faithfull children to acknowledge this maternity of hers in priuate manner but in that publike Office In the Office of the Church wherin she celebrates the prayse and memory of her Spouse at all the howers both of euery day and night as one who well vnderstands by that spirit of sanctity and truth in which she is guided that no honour doth more delightfully redound to our Lord IESVS then that which magnifyeth the happy creature who gaue him a body of her owne all-immaculate flesh and bloud The externall Excellencies and attractiuenesse of our Blessed Lady The reasons of congruity which prooue her innocency and purity and the innumerable motiues which oblige the world to admire loue her CHAP. 81. TO the end that we may be inuited and incouraged to gratitude towards Almighty God for giuing his glorions mother to be also ours and that we may both conceaue of her dignity comply with our own duty as is fit I wil procure to shew both what kind of excellent creature she is in her selfe of how admirable vse and aduantage to vs. Touching the (a) The glorious and holy extraction of our B. Lady Nobility of her descent it wil suffice to heere what S. Bernard saith There is somewhat of the celestiall Ber. ser super Signum magnum Apoc. 12. which shineth in the progeny of Mary That euidently she is descended of Kings that she is of the seed of Abraham that she is sponge from the stocke of Dauid And if this be little let it be further added that by a speciall priuiledge of sanctity she was knowne to haue bene granted to the world from heauen That long before she was pointed at from aboue to our forefathers That she was prefigured by misticall miracles and fore tould by propheticall Oracles For as much as may further concerne the sanctity of her extraction we must know that it came frō the tribe of Leui as wel as from that of Iuda For howsoeuer seuerall tribes were not generally
the world by way of generation from her most holy parēts That her soule was so inriched in contemplation of the merits of her only Sonne IESVS Christ our Lord and that by him and him alone she was redeemed but (f) How much more excellently our B. Lady was redeemed by Christ our Lord then any other but yet after a more excellent manner then other creatures as became the dignity and loue of such a Sonne to such a mother For whereas he redeemed all others by applying his merit to their soules in the way of redresse and remedy of the sinnes eyther originall or actuall into which they had fallen he had applyed it to hers by way of preseruatiue and for the keeping it euer in perfect innocency And this kind of more noble Redemption is so far from hauing diminished the glory of Christ our Lord as he is God as that it maketh a cleere demonstration not only of his infinite goodnes and power in regard of her but of his infinite wisedome in respect of himself Since both at all other tymes and especially in the Conception of this Queene of heauen he had a soueraigne care of her sanctity and did so studiously prepare and preserue that holy tree vntoucht by the dew or mist or euen breath of any imperfection or sinne wherof himselfe meant to be the fruite Of the great eminency of our Blessed Lady beyond all others with an authority cited out of S. Augustine and that the way for vs to iudge rightly of her is to purisy our soules CHAP. 84. THIS is therefore that which Catholicks teach concerning the excellency of the mother of God who are farre from fancying that she is any more then a meere creature and who belieue that she originally oweth all her greatnes to the Grace and goodnes of our Lord God But so also doe they belieue and teach that amōgst all the most excellent creatures of God this one doth incomparably excell Sicut lilium inter spinas Cant. 2. as a beautifull and odoriferous Lilly would doe amongst a cōpany of vnpleasant and ill fauoured thornes A beautiful Lilly she was both planted in the Garden of God wherin God planted himselfe as in a Garden Candens folijs virgultas aureas in caelum versas emittens The pure leaues of her excellent conuersation shining brightly in the eyes of all and the cogitations and affections of her soule being highly raysed towards heauen by fyery but most sweet contemplation And albeit this princely mother of God and vs were not free in nature of her selfe from the shame or spot of sinne as her Diuine Sonne was yet had she the high priuiledges of pure and perfect Sanctity granted to her with another manner of care and loue then fauours vse to be imparted by earthly Princes Who yet are wont to be so good to their Queens-mothers as gaue occasion to old Vlpian to record this custome L. Princeps ff de legibus Augusta licet legibus soluta non sit Princeps iamen eadem illi priuilegia concedit quae ipse habet Though the Queene saith he be not free in rigour from the law yet doth the King impart those priuiledges to her which himselfe inioyes In so much as that the incomparable Doctour S. Augustine that bright and burning lampe of the Church of God being in argument with the Heretique Pelagians who extolled the dignity of mans nature beyond the lymits of true faith and whome therfore the Saint was to represse as much as might be by declaring the great generall deformity of mankind and he doth therfore conclude all the world to lye vnder sinne he yet doth wholy except this blessed mother of God lib. 1. de nat gra c. 36. And he saith that euen for the honour of her Sonne our Lord he will not enter into so much as any questiō of her whensoeuer there is speach of sinne For we know sayth he that since she deserued to beare him who had no sinne she was supplyed with such store of grace as serued for the totall conquest of all sinne That Eagle (b) S. Augustine saw that truth with cleere eyes and if the brightnes of our B. Ladyes beauty and glory doe strike the weake sight of owles into a dazeling Let them in Gods name and by the helpe of his gratious hand procure to purify and fortify that sight of theirs and cease (c) The way to conceaue rightly of our B. Lady is to purify our owne soules to quarrell with the sunne for being so cleere For so will they quickly find and farre more to the comfort of their harts thē I can make thē know that our high veneration to the sacred Virgin is so far from derogating from God as that it adds vnspeakeably to the notion which we haue of him and to the supreme adoration which we carry to him For since notwithstanding that our B. Lady is proclaymed by vs to be such a world of purity and perfection as we belieue her to be which yet both came from the liberall guift of God and in comparison of him it is not only not much but euen very nothing at all how easily and yet how highly doe we grow to magnify and dignify God himselfe by the consideration and confession of her greatnes And therfore hauing cleered this doubt and discharged this scruple which in many is made but by hypocrisy and enuy though it goe maskt vnder the pretence of piety and zeale which forbids them as they say to belieue so honourably of our Blessed Lady I proceed for their instruction and our consolation to shew how the spirit of God hath declared it selfe by holy Scriptures and holy Fathers in her honour and fauour Of the great Excellency of our Blessed Lady set out by the Figures Appellations and Allusions of the old Testament CHAP. 85. VVE are now to looke backe vpon what was said and shewed before how Adam was a figure of Christ our Lord Eue of our B. Lady we are also to consider that as there are many other figures of him so are there also of her throughout the whole currēt of the old Testament according to that which was cited before out of holy S. Bernard Ser. super Signum magnum That this Queene of heauen was both cleerly foreseene particularly misteriously foretold by the holy writers who liued vnder the old law The principall figures of Christ our Lord after Adam were Abel Isaac Iacob Ioseph Gen. 2.4.22.29.37 Exod. 2. Ios 1. Iud. 13.1 Reg. 17.3 Reg. 2. Ion. 2. Moyses Iosue Samson Dauid Salomon and the Prophet Ionas And in the selfe same manner God was pleased that as there was an admirable simpathy and conueniency betwene this diuine Sonne and his Blessed Mother in other things so also there should be in this That her excellency in like manner should be prefigured both by Persons and Things throughout the course of holy Scripture Our
eyes of thine But (c) The B. Virgin did more esteeme perfect innocency and Sanctity then euen to be the mother of of God yet so highly didst thou esteeme the least degree of Grace and so profoundly did thy holy soule abhorre the least deflexion from the diuine Will by any little errour as that rather then to haue committed any one veniall sinne or voluntary imperfection with being the very Mother of God infallibly thou wouldst haue chosen to relinquish that high Maternity rather then to haue lost the least degree of perfect innocency and sanctity We therfore thy children of the holy Catholike Church that Church wherof thy Sonne our Lord is the mysticall head we the inferiour members thy selfe being the beautifull necke therof by which that head sendeth downe the influence of grace into the body and by which that body sendeth vp the odour and incense of prayers to the head We I say (d) We Catholiques subscribe to the prophesy of the greatnes of our B. Lady Psalm 44. subscribe to thy prophesy of thy selfe we admire thy excellency the beliefe whereof is planted in the roots of our hart from thence it shall grow vp vpon all occasions into our tongues which shall be as so many penns of ready writers to ingraue the memoriall of thy greatnes in all the mindes of mortall men And let woe be to the world if since by these high prerogatiues which we find to be giuen thee by the spirit of God himselfe so much seruice and prayse is due to thee as will neuer be fully paid though the creatures of God both in heauen earth were all distilled into one we who are but wormes of the earth and who are dayly sinning against thy Sonne and who by howers and minutes are both needing and finding the effects of that incarnate Mercy which by thy faithfull and free consent did become flesh and bloud in thy sacred wombe should not be doing thee all that homage which the most excellent pure creature can receaue the same being vnder God the maister-conduit of all Grace to vs. That our Blessed Lady was saluted full of Grace and of seuer all kindes of Fullnes of Grace CHAP. 87. SHE might well impart some to vs who was so full of it in her selfe For as soone as the Angell had saluted her with that profound admiring reuerence which he knew was due from a houshold seruant to the Mother of his Lord he bids her as hath been sayd Haile full of grace And as in the Passion of our most B. Lord when the Priests and Elders made their charge against him Luc. 23. before Pilate they said Inhenimus hunc c. We haue found this fellow c without vouâ—â—aâ—ing so much as to giue him a name because when there is a meaning by way of exaggeration to contemne a person the forbearing of the name doth shew a bitter and profound contempt as if no name could be found which were base inough for such a person so in this first part of the salutation of our B. Lady by the Angell Gabriel (a) The incomparable reuerence of the Angell in satuing the B. Virgin the admiration which he had of her was such as that to shew the great height therof and his not being able to expresse the reuerence he bare to her by any name he spake to her at that first tyme without a name and said Luc. 1. Haile full of grace our Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women As if he had deliuered himselfe in this manner O soueraigne Virgin I am seÌ„t to thee on the part of God I am to bring thee a newes which if it proue is to sill heauen earth with ioy On the part of God it is already resolued vpon but the consistory of the B. Trinity is at a pause till it obtaine thy free consent I know not by what name to call thee which may expresse thy Dignity my admiration but this I know that thou art a vessell full of Grace a spouse to whome God himselfe is making-Court a creature which is blessed beyond all the children of flesh and bloud and as such I salute thee with all reuerence The men who are so miserable as to loue to lessen the opinion of excelleÌ„cy in our B. Lady are desirous according to what I touched before to follow the Grammaticall sense of the Greeke word wherby they would barre her from being saluted by the Angell for fulof Grace and they will but admit her to be highly sauoured and accepted or gratiously beloued by our Lord God But (b) Euen that which we affirme of our B. Ladyes being full of Grace is most iustly inferred by what our aduer saries coÌ„fesse first though it should be as they say yet that which we assirme would follow vpon it by a necessary kind of consequence For if God had accepted and fauoured graciously beloued her in so high a manner as for shame they will not choose but graunt what doubt can be made either of the power or goodnes of that diuine Maiesty but that he would perfect his owne worke by filling her withall inherent Grace whome he had vouchsafed to assume into so high fauour as to make her his Pallace of pleasure and to vouchsafe of her purest flesh and bloud to build an eternall house of humanity which his owne increated wisedome was so to inhabite But besides that this truth doth grow euen from the inference of common sense let vs cast an eye towards the chiefe Fathers and pillars of the Church of God to see if they do not read gratia plena with vs and not gratiosa with our aduersaries and to leaue the questioÌ„ de nomine if euery where they doe not with deuout ioy of hart acknowledge that the Virgin was saluted and was indeed full of Grace Resort therfore for this purpose to the margine which will guide you to the way Canisius lib. 3. c. 6. 7. vpon his confideration of the salutation of our B. Lady by the Angell where you shall see this cleerly auowed both by the Latin Church and by the Greeke S. Hierome Sophronius S. Ambrose S. Augustine Eusebius Emissenus Petrus Damianus Venerable Bede Rupertus S. Bernard S. Thomas many others And so also is this done by S. Athanasius S. Ephiphanius S. Ephrem the Deacon S. Iohn Damascen S. Gregory of Neocaesaraea with many more whome I spare to name By them you shall find this sacred Virgin to be admired as a vessell full of Grace and resembled to a Riuer which runs with a full current of the holy Ghost to a field which is all loaden with fruite That her soule was shot through and through with that choice arrow of the loue of God which left no thought therof vnfilled with Grace In c. 1. Lucae And S. Ambrose hath these excellent words Bene itaque c. which couple the gratia and gratiosa both in one
She was iustly therfore said to be full of grace who alone obtayned the grace which neuer was merited by any other of being filled by the authour himselfe of grace But that which (c) Of the valew of the vulgar translatioÌ„ of the Bi. ble by S. Hierome ought to serue our turne is the vulgar edition which was made by the most learned S. Hierome and is authorized by the decrees of the Catholike Church Besides that diuers Councells haue also acknowledged her to haue bene full of grace in coÌ„formity of this salutation of the Angell And (d) Our B. Lady was saluted by the Angell in the Syriake toÌ„gue moreouer the Syriacke readeth thus Peace be to thee O thou full of grace And it is most probable and as good as certaine that the Angell did speake to our B. Lady in Syriacke which was the language of that time place and not originally in Greeke which for ought we know our B. Lady did not 〈◊〉 at that tyme. So that for our parts we will coÌ„template her with holy S. Bernard Ser. de Natiuit Virginis as a slower which the ayre of the holy Ghost did not only blou vpoÌ„ but breath through that so her delicious odours might abundantly bestow themselues vpon the world This salutation of the Angell with full of grace in his mouth was such a one and deliuered in such a sense as by the Testimony of S. Ambrose had neuer bene heard In 1. Lucae or found before according to the vnderstanding wherin it was allowed to her but was only reserued for her who was to be made the most worthy Mother of our Lord God Now what can be imparted more pretious in this life then the Treasure of (e) The incompable excellency of the Grace of God Grace or what proportion can exceed the fulnes therof The true value of this iewell is only to be exactly vnderstood by our Lord God himselfe because he only vnderstands the infinitnes of his glory which is that fruite wherof Grace is the seed He only is able out-right to penetrate the true deformity of sinne which is so incoÌ„patible with Grace as that although a soule were defiled withal the sinnes of the whole world one degree of Grace would expell and kill them all at the very instant that it should enter into that soule And so if any one soule had all that Grace which is in all created soules any one mortall sinne would instantly expell it all Not only doth it remoue deformity but it indues the soule with such excessiue beauty as makes it of odious to God and obnoxious to the eternall fires of hell most dearly amiable in the sight of that diuine Maiesty and it giues it tytle and right to the kingdome of heauen Not only doth it beautify but it doth dignify the soule subliming it as S. Peter saith to consort with God himselfe and that not after any ordinary manner but euen to partake of his diuine nature and such a soule is treated to all purposes as a daughter of the eternall Father a sister to Christ our Lord a most beloued spouse of the holy Ghost and a fellow-cittizen and sweet companion to all the Angells and Saints in the kingdome of God This Grace is no load but it lightneth it is no dead thing but perpetually it is liuing working wonders if it meete with no impedimeÌ„t in the soule as in our B. Ladies it neuer did As she was full of Grace so was that Grace full of fruite For Grace in a soule is the mother of all vertue nay if it be not fruitefull it is not Grace In that soule of the Blessed Virgin it did fructify in such strange proportion as no created thought can coÌ„prehend though shortly I will procure with reuerence to point therat But in (f) The misery of such as forfait the Grace of God for the coÌ„mitting of a vile sinne the meane tyme if the dignity and excellency of Grace be such how miserable is that man who for his inordinate desire of a temporall delight which besides that it drawes him downe to hell is past as soone as the name is vttered or for a sume of honour which at the most can make him happy but by heare-say or for the rickes of this world which is but durt one degree remoued and which may be stolne and must be left and whilst it is inioyed cannot make a man either healthfull or stronge and much lesse learned holy or wise will be so deadly foolish as to depriue himselfe of this celestiall patrimony of Grace which was bought for him at the high rate of the passion and death of Christ our Lord and was imparted to him with so much loue to the end that by him and with him and in him he might eternally be happy The (g) The vniust Cauill of some men against our B. La. dies honour in being full of Grace Act. 2. Act. 6. aduersaries of our Blessed Ladyes exellency whilst they deny her to be full of Grace deny that to Gods Mother which yet they must graunt to many seruants of his of whome the holy Scripture saith that they after their manner were also full of Grace Namely the Apostles and they who were present with them when the holy Ghost came downe And particularly it is said of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr That he was full of Grace And yet againe on the other side they doe vniustly accuse vs as though when we say that she was full of Grace we sought to equall her with her Sonne our Lord of whome it is also said by the beloued Disciple that he was full of Grace But (h) Of seueral plepitudes of Grace Ioan. 1. euen that disciple both in the same very place makes vs know that there are seuerall kindes of plenitude of Grace And that the plenitude of Christ our Lord was of the only begotten Sonne of God which was infinitely after a fort beyond the plenitude of our B. Lady as heâ—s being as of Mother was also incomparably beyond that of the Apostles and S. Stephen and all the Saints and Angells put togeather who are but wayters in the Court of heauen Not that there is any difference in the very being full amongst them who all are ful but the difference is in the capacity of the vessel into which that treasure is infused wherof some are more extended more capable and others lesse And it doth also consist in the various kindes of graces wherof some are more intense as also more pretious and sublime theÌ„ others The plenitude therfore of the B. Virgin presumes not to make the least comparison with that of Christ our Lord but so also must not the plenitude of other seruants and Saints once enter into competition with the plenitude of the most worthy mother of the euer liuing God The plenitude of Christ our Lord was of the originall fountaine of all Grace that of our Blessed Lady as of a sweet
herself vnworthy of honour So that finding her selfe at the very instant to be sublimed to such a height as that she did not yet esteeme her selfe one graine more worthy in her selfe then she did before Whervpon she tooke no titles which might then beloÌ„g so her present state as of Queene of Angells Lady Mistris of the world or elected Spouse of the holy Ghost Nor did she prefer herself before theÌ„ meanest creature of the earth but setling her soule in the lowest meanest place of theÌ„ all she gaue her self the stile of a hand-mayd or slaue In c. 1. Lucae S. Ambrose wonders at this Humility I woÌ„der not at him for so woÌ„dring for the Angells theÌ„selues are not able to do it as it deserues This vertue she also discouered in straÌ„ge maÌ„ner when vpoÌ„ those great prayses which S. Elizabeth proclaymed to be her due both for the prerogatiues which she had in her selfe for the wonders which had bin wrought in S. Iohn vpon the only hearing of her voyce this sacred Virgin refused out-right to accept therof and instantly running into her most humble hart she fell into that diuine Canticle Luc. 2. wherin she ascribes all the glory of her greatnes and of that felicity of hers which was to be celebrated for euer by all the Generations of the faithfull to the only omnipotent mercy of our Lord God Of the soueraigne Purity Greg. Niâ—â— in Orat. de humana Christi Generat Aug. de S. virginitate c. 4. Beda hom de Eest Annunt Anselm hom Intrauit Iesus Bern serm de Natiuitat Mariae apud Canisium l. 2. c. 14. of this sacred Virgin as it were a most blasphemous sinne to doubt so were it simplicity to dilate the consideration of a thing so cleere into any great length She imbraced Chastity she vowed it though formerly both in the law of nature euen in the written law there was little notice of it lesse practise And as fecundity was much esteemed by the Iewes so was the want therof a note rather of reproach infamy then otherwise The people of flesh bloud do often choose rather to be infamous with the losse of virginity theÌ„ glorious by the preseruation therof But this Queene of Virgins did loue not only to be contemptible in the eye of the world but euen to excuse her selfe from accepting to be the very mother of God rather theÌ„ she would endure to thinke that the flower of her virginity should once be touched Yet touched it was but first that was by the holy Ghost himselfe then instantly afterward by the increated Sonne of God who reposed so many moneths in that Angelicall Cradle of her sacred wombe But that touch was so farre from blasting it as that it indued it with most pretious odours which haue perfumed the world And if before that tyme her Virginity were but in flower it was now growne to be both in flower fiuite being highly sanctified sublimed by that Elixir (d) The sacred humanity of Christ our Lord. of heauen which turneth whatsoeuer it toucheth into gold The integrity of her sacred body was the least part of her diuine Purity for her soule was that which did excell That extended not only to the absence of any thing which was contrary to Chastity but (e) This indeed is true and perfect Purity to a forbearance of taking the least contentment or delight in any thing created but only in God for God No thought no care no desire or ioy did euer presume so much as to solicit that superexcelleÌ„t soule but only how to coÌ„ply with her vnspeakeable obligatioÌ„ to Almighty God by perpetuall working and yet profoundly contemplating those diuine attributes of his vpon which froÌ„ the first instaÌ„t of her Immaculate Conception till that other of her most glorious Assumption her mind as hath bene said did beate and boyle in continuall acts of most ardent loue This indeed was to be Chast in the most eminent degree To be doing that on earth which the Angels are doing in heauen Whose incessant actuall loue S. Augustine doth thus expresse Confes lib. 12. c. 11. Quod perseuerantissima castitate DeÌ„ hauriant that they are sucking vp God himselfe with a most perseruing Chastity and purity of minde When the Sonne of God and her was sucking at the sacred fountaine of her breast for the reliefe and maintenance of his pretious life how would that diuine Virgin (f) A happy exchaÌ„ge Mother be sucking the while at the fountaine of his Diuinity for the delighting inebriating of her soule How instantly did she vpon all occasions giue backe all prayses and attributes of estimation and honour to God though they had bene sent down to her by the TrÌ„pets of heauen and by tongues of truth it self as hath bene said When other creatures are praysed they seldome send the prayses backe as cleane as they come but their mindes being moystned by self-selfe-loue are still retayning some impression therof more or lesse Lumen siccum optimae anima It is an excellent choice soule which so flameth vp towards God as not to be softned or steeped in humaine affections It was with our B. Lady in the case of the prayse or honour which was done her as it would be with a wall of Diamond towards which some ball were sent and the harder it should be driuen the more forcibly and quickly it would returne againe What ball could be stronger driuen then that she should be proclaymed the Mother of God by an Archangell and what more stiffe repulse could be made to the prayse which did result therby then that instantly she should prostrate and protest her selfe to be no better then his slaue If such were the perfection of her Purity of hart at that tyme which I would to Christ we did not want words so much as to name what would it grow to be after so long cohabitation with that God her sonne for the space of tree and thirty yeares He (g) The power of the presence of Christ our Lord. whose presence euen for one minute in such sort as he was pleased to affaord it to her were able to make any dissolute and disordered hart become Saintly and pure and indeed to make a kind of heauen of hell it selfe I adore God in his B. Mother and I admire the perfection of her happy soule and in the least of her actions and words I see another manner of Abysse without a bottom then in all the Saints and Angells put togeather but that which most amazeth me is the plentiful RegioÌ„ of her purity the incorruptible fidelity of her soule towards God Which was so perfectly dead to it selfe and so full of springing life and motion to him as (h) The Non-plus vltra of the Purity of the B. Virgin that instantly shee did euer returne his graces back againe wrapped vp as in so many Loue-letters of adoring