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
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
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
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
to tyme He shewed them what a glory it would be for them to resemble their Maister in his Crosse and he made them knovv vvithall that they should not carry it alone but that in the place of his owne corporall presence which then was the obiect of their senses he would send them a comforter the Holy Ghost from heauen who should inhabit and sanctify their soules He promised them his Peace which should shew them a safe and quiet port wherin to ride in the very midst of all the difficulties and greatest daungers of this world He told thē in plaine tearmes that he loued them and he besought thē that as they loued him they would keepe his commaundements and that if they would doe so both he and his Father would come and visit and dwell with them He told them moreouer that euen his eternall Father loued them and that whatsoeuer they would akse they should be sure to haue whether they should aske it of himselfe or of his Father in his name yea and he desired them to aske somewhat of him that so their ioy might be full as if he had bid them try and be euen iudged by themselues whether he had said true or no. It serueth also to shew the very passionatenes as I may say of his loue (d) Agreat proofe of the tendernes the loue of our Lord Iesus that he was content to repeate the selfe same expressions of it many tymes To declare that he could not say that inough which he thought he could neuer doe too much We see how tenderly he called them his seruants his Disciples his friends and that he would tell them all his secrets his Sonnes and euen his little Sonnes whome yet he would not leaue as Orphans without a Father And now we shall heare him pray the eternall Father for them in most efficacious and obliging words That he would sanctify them in his Truth He presseth him by the highest points of diuine Rethoricke which could be though of He puts him in mind Of the eternall loue he bare the Sonne and of the faithfull seruice which he the Sonne had performed to the Father He also representeth the Fathers Mission of the Sonne and he avoweth That as the Father had sent him so had he seent them He begs the vnion of all his children with one another and of all those children with himselfe that so he being in God and they being in him they all might also come to be one in God In this (e) How earnest our Lord Iesus was for vs in his suyte to his eternall Father suite of his he is so importunate and proceeds so farre to vrge the same that in effect he tells the eternall Father that he will not be denyed therin Nor was he content that this should be an vnion of inferiour degree but an vnion with perfection and consummation Iust so as in a broath which is made of diuers meats there is an vnion of those meates in that broath and if they boyle in it till they euen boyle away there is not only an vnion of the meates but a consummation thereof into that broath And although in most places of holy Scripture when our Lord spake to his Apostles or Disciples he meant not that his words should be for them alone but that all the world should be comprehended in their persons to whome then he spake Yet his loue at that tyme was not content to intend vs only by way of inference but that dying flame would needs be sending out certaine flashes which yet extend themselues so farre as euen to lay expresse hold vpon euery one of our indiuiduall persons who haue the happines to be members of the holy Catholike Church Which they only are who beleeue the Doctrine of Christ our Lord by the preaching of the Apostles or of those Apostolicall men who haue a lawfull and direct mission from them And therfore he said for now I cite his owne very words I pray not only for them that is to say for his Apostles but for those others also who will beleeue in mee by their preaching that they be one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee so they also may be one in vs and the world may beleeue that thou hast sent me And that glory which thou hast giuen me I haue giuen to them that they may be one thing as we are one thing In thee and thou in mee that they may be (f) A strāg desire for Christ our Lord to make to God in our behalfe consummated in one and the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loued them euen as thou hast loued me I will O Father that they whome thou hast giuen mee may be with me there where I shall be That they may see the glory which thou hast giuen mee because thou louedst me before the framing of the world O thou iust Father the world hath not known thee but I haue knowne thee and these haue knowne that thou hast sent me And I haue made my name known to thē and I will make it knowne that the same very loue wherwith thou hast loued me may be in thē I in thē These amongst many others were the words of our bleffed Lord in that last diuine sermon of his Wherby we may see the amourous and restlesse desire which tooke possession of his hart wherwith he sollicited his eternall Father that we might behold the glory which he had giuen to him and placing as it were his whole (g) Our Lord Iesus did place his honour in beeing Lord by his eternal Father for vs. credit vpon the obteyning of these fauours for vs when he begs it to the end that so the world might come to know that the Father had sent him As if he should haue said that in the face of the world he had giuen his word both for our Redemption and Sanctification Vnion and for our right to raigne in heauen with himselfe and that if the eternall Father should not make good that word the world might haue reason not to beleeue that he was as he had said the Sonne of God The horrour and terrour and sorrow of Christ our Lord togeather with his Prayer in the Garden CHAP. 54. NO sooner had he ended that speach but instantly he went out with his Disciples ouer the Torrent of Cedron Ioan. 18◠He did perhaps passe ouer that Torrent without once tasting any droppe therof but the whole world was a kind of Torrent of affliction to him his whole life was that way wherin he did not only tast but take deepe draughts therof before he exalted his head Psalm 109. by ascending vp to heauen Already did the sensible or inferiour part of his soule begin to be obscure and sad with care He was pleased to leaue it after a sort to it selfe for the increase of that paine which he desired to suffer For els his
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
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
at thy feet that by the force of thy prayers the merits of thy Sonne our Lord may be applied to vs. And that so our soules may be discharged of all inferiour kindes of loue which presse vs downe as with grieuous weightes and then drag vs after theÌ„ in the chaines of bitter seruitude And procure thou at length that they may fly vp to God as to their true and only place of rest adoring him for euer and admiring thee A Recapitulation of diuers Motiues which ought to draw vs close to the loue of our Lord. CHAP. 95. BY the mercy of our Lord we haue partly seene the supereminency of his Loue to man in the whole course of his sacred life and death and withall we haue beheld the vnspeakeable Dignity of his person which is the thing that stamps the marke of true value vpon all that which he was pleased both to do and suffer for his creatures His hart may be accounted as the roote his actions and benedictions as the braunches and he desires that the loue which by way of retribution we must beare to him may be a good part of the fruite For although in holy Scripture he was pleased to call himselfe the Vine Ioan. 15. and vs the braunches yet his meaning clearly was that those braunches should not be as of the barren fig-tree which he cursed Marc. 13. or as of that vnnatural Vine with gaue him veriuyce insteed of wine Isa 5. but that they should be such as might deserue to be of his planting since for the fertility and abundant increase therof he came into the world and wrought himselfe for that end into the most bitter and ignominious death of the Crosse Now heerby as man he made himselfe able to pay vnto himselfe as God that debt which otherwise would not haue fayled to drag mankind into the bottomlesse pit of hell and to enchaine it for all eternity to an vnquenchable fire Many principall obligations which we haue to loue withall our soule this Lord of ours for such a loue may be deriued and drawne out of these particulars Euery mortall sinne is an offence not only against the law and will of God but euen against the nature and excellency of that infinite Maiesty So that the committing of any one (a) The grieuousnesse of any one single mortall sinne mortall sinne needeth an infinite reparation cannot possibly be expiated by the pennance of any one or all meere creatures though it should last as long as God is to be God Let vs therfore consider what a deale of loue there went towards the making of such an infinite satisfaction to God as in vertue wherof not only some one single sinne but millions of millions are discharged before the tribunall seat of God and that at the so little cost of man as I shall instantly declare They are innumerable sinnes which are committed by some one man in some one day and then to what may they arriue in his whole life by a miserable multiplication of his wicked acts who drinkes iniquity vp like water imagineth mischeif on his bed whereby the holy Ghost hath declared to our knowledge how delightfuly restlesly the wicked man is woÌ„t to sinne But yet if any one such creature should haue coÌ„mitted as many sinnes as were and will be committed by all mankind between the creatioÌ„ coÌ„sumatioÌ„ of the world when afterward he growes to be sincerely truly sory for it doth intyrely coniesse it do pennance for it according to the ordinace of God and his holy Church with constant purpose to abstaine from future tyme at the instant I say that he conceaues this true sorrow at his hart he is forgiuen all the guilt of all his sinnes And as for the punishment it may also be all forgiuen if the sorrow haue bin very intense and pure And in case it were not so very perfect it is supplied so far by the Sacrament of Confession as to make the punishment insteed of eternall become temporall But alwayes such a person of a rebell and traytour and child of wrath is made by one act of true Contrition if it be true indeed the seruant the Friend the Sonne euen the very spouse of God Nay he is not made so for only once but toties quoties as often as he returneth cordially froÌ„ sinne to God Besides our (b) It is nothing but infinite loue which obligeth our Lord to forgiue sinnes Lord forgiueth not sinners as not hauing power wherwith to punish them as men do sometymes for he is omnipotent He doth not forgiue them as not coÌ„sidering or not remembring or not weighing the deformity of sinne which many times is the case of men when they find themselues to be offended But God is of infinite wisedome and knowledge He numbers the haires of the head Luc 11. Psalm 7. Hâ—ebr 4. He weighes out the thoughts of the hart and he deuides betwene the marrow and the bones He differreth not his pardon one minute but the very instant of our true sorrow is the same with that of his forgiuenes He doth not reproach his penitents for their sinnes nor doth he vpbrayd his friends with the allegations of his former benefits as the custome of the world doth beare It is he who inuites and calls vs and euen wooes vs to his friendship and not we our selues and this he doth not for any benefit of his owne but only ours There (c) The incessant liberall goodnes of our Lord. is no minute of our life wherin he is not actually imparting worlds of blessings to vs many wherof we know who yet may be said to know nothing and incomparably the greater number wherof we neuer know till the next life Nay and euen vpon them who are actually at that very tyme offending and affronting and blaspheming him he is bestowing benefits which are both without measure and number And then doth he preserue them both in life and health and he giues them his beasts and birds and fish whereon to feed and he carries the torch before them both of Sonne and Moone and fixed Starres He doth them both exceeding honour and fauour he howseth them vnder the vault of heauen and he giues them the earth for a foote stoole he loades theÌ„ euen in that tyme of their treason with the offer of many superexcellent and supernaturall guifts expecting them euery minute to pennance though whilst he begets and breedes good thoughts in theyr harts they do nothing but brayne them by their sinnes And that which may confound vs with the admiratioÌ„ of loue is to obserue how many tymes when men are in the very top of their greatest crimes eueÌ„ then and very then he is executing his eternall decree of taking occasion euen by those sinnes to giue them such a degree of grace in such circumstances of tyme and place disposition as may make them his owne in most particuler manner
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
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
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
(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
Apostle saith He who is circumcised is bound therby to fulfill the Law And lastly Gal. 5. when he who was the eternal spring the ouerflowing riuer and the bottomlesse sea of all sanctity would be contented for our good for the drawing vs by his example to loue paine and shame to be accounted by men for a creature as odious and abhominable in the sight of God as all sinners are But he thought not all this too much so that he might free vs from the curse of that law to which he would be subiect Aduising and enabling vs heerby to Circumcise (l) The corporall Circumcision of Christ our Lord must teach vs how to circumcise our affections the inordinate affections of our harts which are as so many veynes wherby the bloud of lise is drawne from that true loue which is only due to such a Lord as this who is all made of loue Now because this miserable race of men would not fully correspond with that incomparable Charity of Christ our Lord it was so much the more agreable to the iustice of God the Father to acknowledge and revvard this vnspeakable humility of his sonne And therfore then it vvas that he stampt vpō him the name of Iesus Luc. 2. Phillip 2. to which the knees of all Creatures should be obliged to bow Celestiall vvhose charity he had surpassed terrestriall vvhose life he had instructed and Infernall vvhose pride he had confounded And heerby vve further see hovv infinitely are vve bound to this Lord for this strange loue of his vvho vvhen there should be question of taking such aname as might be proper to him laid all such names aside as might expresse the Maiesty of himselfe and made only choyce of that name of Iesus vvhich might declare his Soueraigne mercy to vs. The Names vvhich grovve from God are farre vnlike to those which are imposed by men for these latter are meere extrinsecall denominations and the former are a most exact abridgement and mappe of those Conditions which grow within So that together vvith this name our Lord Iesus vvas sublimed to the office and dignity of a perfect Sauiour of mankind Not (m) What an yowor thy and weake Sauiour Christ our Lord is made by the Sectaries such a Sauiour as the Sectaries of our age are miserably vvont to make him vvho conceaue him to haue only saued our soules from Hell vvhich is but a punishment of sinne as vvas sayd before and vvhich punishment hovv great soeuer it be is incomparably of lesse deformity and true misery and vvere farre rather to be accepted and chosen then the least sinne it selfe vvhich can be committed but such a one as doth chiefly saue our soules from the guylt of sinne and that by sanctifiyng vs indeed vvith his inherent grace and not by a kind of Iustice vvhich only is imputed to vs vvhilst the vvhyle indeed it is none of ours Through the vvāt vvherof the leaprousy of our soules should not be cleansed and cured but only they should be couered and clad as those deceauedmen conceaue with the robe of his innocency Our Lord giue them light to see and knovv hovv deeply dangerously they deceaue themselues and dishonour him vnder the pretence of piety and peruerse and counterfaite humility vvhilst they make him but such a Sauiour as this Audi Piliacap 88. This errour as Doctour Auila saith proceedeth from the want of knowing the loue which Iesus Christ doth beare to such as are in the state of grace whome his bowells of mercy would not permit that whilst himselfe was iust full of all good things he should say to such as he instifyed Content your selues with this That I abound with these good things and esteeme them for your owne in regard that they are in me although in your selues you remaine vniust impure and naked There is no head which would hold such language as this to his liuing members nor one spouse to another if he should deerly loue her And much lesse will that Celestiall spouse say so who is giuen for a patterne to the spouses of this world that so after his resemblance they may treate and loue their fellow spouses You mensaith S. Paule loue your wiues as Christ loued his Church who gaue himselfe ouer for it to sanctify it and to clense it by baptisme and by the word of life If then he sanctify and wash and clense it and that with his owne bloud which is the thing that giueth power to the Sacramēts to cleanse soules by his grace which they impart how can that soule remaine vniust and silthy which is washed and cleansed by a thing which is of so extreme efficacy And in conformity of that which was affirmed before the same Doctour Auila doth also cleerly shew afterward that such opinions as that do no way serue (n) The doctrine of imputatiue Iustice is expresly impugned by holy scripture and doth impeach the honour of Christ our Lord. either towards the verifying of the Scriptures or for the doing of Iesus Christ sufficient honour For since the payne sayth he which is due to sinne is a lesse euill to any man then the guilt of the same sinne and the iniustice and deformity which is caused therby it cannot be said that Christ our Lord doth saue his people from their sinnes if by his merits he only obtaine that they may not be imputed to them for their punishment vnlesse first he should take the guilt away by the guift of grace Nor yet that he obtayneth purity and piety for men vnlesse by detesting sinne they may keepe the law of God This is the iugdement of Doctour Auila We (o) The catholik Doctrine concerning this poynt therfore according to that truth which is reuealed by Almighty God and propounded to vs to be beleeued by the holy Catholike Church his imaculate Spouse doe cōfesse to the ioy and triumph of our hartes with irreuocable vowes of the highest gratitude that we can conceaue for such an infinite benefit not only that he is the Sauiour of vs from hell which is but as an effect but from sinne also it selfe which is the iust cause therof And not only so but that he saues vs further also from the want of all those helpes graces of the holy Ghost which are conueniēt vt sine timore Luc. 1. de manibus inimicorum nostrorum liberati seruiamus illi in sanctitate institia coram ipso omnibus diebus vitae nostrae That being deliuered from the hands of our enemyes we may serue him without feare in holynes iustice before him all the dayes of our life At the end of which dayes we shall be admitted to see a day in heauen which hath no end and which admits no cloud This I say is to be the precious fruyte of this morning sacrifice of his Circumcision to put vs into a state which can admit no euening For as S. Augustine sayth dies
very dunge doth saue both men beasts so greately hath God multiplyed his mercy How deere is this Oyle and yet how cheape It (b) How Grace is both deer cheape is cheape and common and withall it giueth health If it were not cheape it would neuer haue been powred vpon me if it were not wholsome it would neuer be able to recouer me Without doubt saith he there is a resemblance betwene the name of spouse and oyle nor did the holy ghost in vayne compare them to one another For my part vnlesse somewhat which is better do occurre to you I hold it to be for these three qualities For it shyneth it feedeth and it annoynteth It entertaines the fire it feeds the body it asswageth paine It is Light Food Phisicke Now see if it be not iust so in this name of the Spouse It shyneth when it is preached It feedeth when it is considered and asswageth and suppleth when it is inuoked Is not saith he this name of Iesus both Light Food Phisicke to you What doth so nourish and fat the soule which feeds vpon it All food of the soule is dry if it be not bedewed with this Oyle It is inspide if it be not sprinkled with this salt If (c) Obserue admire and imitate this sweet Saynt thou write I haue no gust in it vnlesse I may read the name of Iesus there If thou dispute or conferre it contents me not vnlesse I heare the sound of Iesus Iesus is hony in the mouth it is musicke in the eare and it is a melting kind of ioy in the hart Thus doth this holy Saint expresse himselfe in the place alleadged concerning this particular He also sheweth there at large how it is that (d) Our Lord Iesus is not only the Food but light also and the Phisicke of the whole world light illuminating the world and the pretious Phisicke curing all the wounds miseries therof as heere for breuities sake I haue onely shewed our of him that it is the food which strengthneth vs in all our weakenes Such hath beene the spirit of deuotion of the Saints in the Christian Catholike Church from the first to the rest and now at last in this present age towards this holy name of Iesus Nay we see that by his goodnes it is rather improued then decreased now For in very many Citties there are kept euery weeke though not in the same but different churches thereof deuout solemnities in memory and honor of this supereminent name of our Lord Iesus And we also see that the two great Lights of this last age of ours S. Ignatius of Loyola S. Teresa were so deerly deuoted to this holy name that the latter of them for this cause hath deserued to haue the name of her owne family as it were forgotten and that now she is knowne insteed therof by the Name (e) The Deuotion of S. Ignatius S. Teresa to the name of Iesus of IESVS as being called Teresa of IESVS And the former though he kept his owne name to his owne person yet to shew how intirely and how irreuocably he had giuen all away to the seruice of our Lord Iesus and withall to proue the reuerēce religiō which he bare to that diuine name of his he did in the instituting of his Society renounce the appellation of his owne name and (f) See in the life of the Saint he ordayned it to be eternally called vnder the honour and only auow of the holy Name of Iesus I omit heer to shew how supernaturally the Saint was concurred withall heerin by our Lord himselfe how by the visible head of his Church the Society hath bene successiuely confirmed vnder this Title but I only consider what deuotion these two so high seruāts of our Lord had to it in conformity of that spirit which hath still inflamed the hartes of the former Saints of the Catholike Church In this (g) The wonderful effects which haue beene wrought by the deuotion of Christiās to the holy name of Iesus Name it is that deuills haue beene cast both out of bodyes and soules That the faith hath bene planted among Pagās That worlds of miracles both corporall and spirituall haue bene wrought in confirmation therof That Martyrs haue bene made tryamphant ouer all the bitter torments which men or deuills could inflict That so many millions of vgly and importunate temptations haue bene ouercome millious of desolations motions of despaire driuen away millions of serene sweet comfortes brought into the soule and in fine that whatsoeuer is miserable and sinfull hath bene remoued and whatsoeuer is holy and happy hath bene procured for Christians at the liberall hand of our Lord. Yet all this is not so idly meant nor is to be so ill vnderstood as if these benefits would acrew to such as should only care to pronounce the bare Name of Iesus without any reuerence or faith and loue of him whose name it is But only they are praysed heer and that most worthily who are deuoted to his diuine name as signifying the Sauyour of the world who is expressed therby the same being a means by which the mind is made to ruminate and reflect often vpon him And they who ar not yet deuoted are exhorted to it as to the loue of a liuely picture of an admirable Originall or rather as of a curious cup wherin most pretious liquor is contayned or in fine as of the very compendium whole abbreuiated History of all that excesse which our Lord did say or do or els endure in this mortall life for the redemption of man And indeed how can they loue our B. Sauiour who delight not in that deere name of his which declares him so cleerly to be a Sauiour and who follow not the stepps of the holy seruants and Saints of God whose harts haue so tenderly melted in their deuotion to this sacred name of our Lord Iesus Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings CHAP. 16. BVT to returne againe and so to take our leaue of those Sheephards who were surprised by this new borne Lord of ours as if it had beene with the netts of loue neere at hand we may obserue how he tooke those three Kings by shooting them from a farre off with a starre which strooke them at the hart S. Augustine complaines but he doth it like himselfe after a most deer and tender manner that our Lord had also peirced his hart with loue Confes l. 9. cap. 2. Sagittaueras tu cor nostrum charitate tua gestabamus verba tua transfixa visceribus Thou hadst saith he O Lord shot through our hartes with thy loue and we bare thy words in our bowells wherby they were strucken from side to side In like manner did he shoot through the harts of these holy men in whose person he consecrated
the whole body of Gentilisine to himselfe Now (a) The difference betweene the arrowes of Gods mercy of his Iustice Psalm 119. God hath arrowes of diuers sortes The arrowes of his Iustice are pointed and they wound and kill Sagittae potentis acutae cum carbonibus desolatorijs Those arrowes of that mighty man are sharp and they carry at the heads therof certeyne coules as hoat as the fire of hell But the arrowes of his mercy and Charity are forked and barbed and though they wound it is farre from being to death vnlesse it be a sweet death of loue besides those arrowes do not loose their hold And so that Archer with his long Arme can by that very arrowe draw the wound and wounded person within his reach that so after the wound hee may giue the cure In this manner did our Lord by that starre both strike and draw those Magi after it Matt. 2. till at last they arriued in that stable which was then growne to be a heauen on earth There in the throne of his sacred Mothers armes they adored their Lord hauing already been made so rich as to receaue wherwith they might make a present to him and do him homage For (b) All comes frō God both the meanes wherby the mind wherwith any good is done of him it was that they had both the meanes and minde wherwith they made him a fit present which yet withall he was pleased should be such that it might as a man may say be two to one against himselfe For though by the Gold which they offered they did him homage as to their king yet the Frankencense fignified the Priesthood which he was to exercise in their seruice both at the last supper and vpon the Crosse and the Mirrhe was to put him in minde of his buriall which must suppose his precedent death Let him that can contemplate the ardent loue of our Lord which swells slames in euery circumstance of those actions which any way concerne this sacred Infancy of his For no sooner was he borne but he had his death and passion in his eye And besides it deserues our admiration to see with what suauity that diuine goodnes was pleased to gather the first flower of the Gentils with his holy hand It was said of God before Psalm 108. by the Prophet Dauid Quia ipse cognouit figmentum no strum record at us est quoniam puluis sumus He knew wherof we were made he remembred that we are but dust This was said longe ago but it is practised dayly and howerly on vs. And in conformyty of this knowledge his loue is neuer fayling to condescend to our naturall inclinations (c) The great goodnes of God in condescēding to man Sometymes he serues himselfe of our secular studies sometymes of our vaine curiosities yea and sometymes of our very sinnes wherby he may cyther dispose vs to a conuersion from heresy or any other impiety or els to a vocation to his better seruice So I think may any man obserue in himselfe that our Lord hath proceeded towards him so it is euident that he procceded with these Magi (d) The Magi were taken and brought to God by the bayte booke of their own naturall inclination For as they had much imployed thēselues vpon the contemplation of nature by meanes of the Starrs so by a starre which was the likelyest lure to which they might be drawne to stoope for though their eyes looked vpward for a while yet soone after it brought them downe vpon their knees at the sight of the diuine infant he vouchsafed to summon them to his seruice How certaine must it be that the loue of our Lord did subdue and melt the soules of these holy men after a strange manner whose messenger alone the starre did so illuminate and in flame them interiourly that they felt not the incommodities and daungers of so longe labourious a pilgrimage as they were making It may also be further seene by this That vpon the recouery of the sight therof for whilst they were in Ierusalem the starre was seene by them no more to teach vs that (e) Courts are not proper for contemplation of celestiall thinges Courts and store of company are not wont to intertaine but rather to estrange our internall eyes from the sight of heauen the sacred text doth thus declare in most weighty words the excesse of ioy which they were in Matt. 2. Videntes autem stellam gauisi sunt gaudio magno valde Vpon the recouery of the sight of the Starre they reioyced and it was with a mighty and most excessiue ioy And when it had led them to that stable where the Omnipotent Infant lay neither was the eye of their faith obscured not the edge of their most reuerent and withall most ardent loue abated but rather whet by that shew of humility and pouerty which they met withall And they opened their treasures they made litter as it were of their owne Royall persons and were so rauished by those diuine beames of Charity which passing from that Sphere of fire of our Lords sacred hart did seize on theirs that in their returne they had now no more thoughts of meaning to be regaled by Herod according to the purpose which they had made before For by (f) Vpon the sense of celestiall comforts the delights of this world grow contēptible that tyme they were fedd from the table of heauē with supernaturall visions and most sweet solid comforts of that kind from our Lord they carryed home another manner of heat and ioy then the Starre which was but a figure of our Lord could helpe them to in their going thither Though yet those holy soules were the least part of that obiect vpon which the loue of our Lord did meane to worke for we it was who in their persons were designed And therfore as the holy Catholike Church doth vse these words of S. Paul Tit. c. 3. in the office which she celebrates on Christians day Apparuit benignitas humanitas Saluatoris nostri Dei non ex operibus iustitiae quae fecimus nos sed secundum suam misericordiam saluos nos fecit c. The benignity and sweete mercy of God our Sauiour hath bene made cuident and cleare to vs not through any workes os iustice which we haue wrought but according to his owne mercy wherby he saued vs c. So may we also vse them in the consideration of this holy mistery of his Epiphany Nay we may doe it in some respects vpon a more particular reason For in the Natiuity our Lord did appeare manifest himself to the Iewes in chiefe but heer in (g) The Epiphany doth most properly belong to vs who descend from Gētiles the Epiphany he seems to haue had a particular ayme at the vocation of the Gentils from whome we find our selues descended Then he reueyled himselfe to vs who
were rebells and enemies to the Lord of life till that tyme obeying sense and bestiallity in all things and hating not onely Religion but euen very common sense and reason But he like a true sunne dispersed those clouds cleered vp the mist of ignorance and errour in our progenitours Who together with almost the whole world were so miserable as to worship stockes and stones insteed of God Nor were they more darke in the vnderstanding part then they were depraued in their will and if we be now in any better case we must onely impute such a diuine effect to an omnipotent cause which was the loue of our Lord who was wholly impatient to differ our conuersioÌ„ any longer and therfore vpon the very day of his Natiuity he directed and commaunded that Starre to prepare a way for the Epiphany The Prophet (h) This place deserues particular consideration Cap. 60. Esay in this mystery forseeing the beginning of the glorious state of the Church of Iesus Christ our Lord did thus by way of anticipation expresse himselfe Arise be illuminated Ierusalem because thy light is come and the glory of our Lord is risen vpon thee For behold darkenes shall couer the earth and a mist the people but vpon thee shall our Lord arise and his glory shall be seene vpon thee and the Gentills shall walke in thy light and Kings in the brightnes of thy rysing Lift vp thine eyes round about and se how all these are gathered together They are come to thee thy sonnes shall come from farre and thy daughters shall come from thy side Then shalt thou see and abound and thy hart shall meruaile and be enlarged when the multitude of the Sea shall be conuerted to thee the strength of the Gentills shall come to thee The inundation of Camells shall couer thee The Dromedaries of Madian and Epha All they of Saba shall come bringing gold and Frankenceuse and shewing forth payse to our Lord. The (i) How both the parts of this Prophesy are fulfilled latter part of this prophesy was most litterally fulfilled vpon this day of the Epiphany vpon these holy Magi as we clearly see by the sacred Euangelicall Text. And the former part which announceth the glory of the Christian Church hath bene as cuidently accomplished in the Communion of the holy Catholike Aposiolike Romane faith in the light wherof the Gentills were to walke And so many successions and Series of Kings when first they should be conuerted from Paganisme to this faith were to goe on in the brightnes of the rysing therof And such multitudes were then to come in to do her homage both from farre and neere as should amaze strike her through with ioy Nor was he able to expresse the plenty and abundance of that people otherwise then by the name of seas and inundations And (k) I dare make my reader my Iudge heere let any man who hath but the vse euen of coÌ„mon sense consider in what community of Christian people this prophesy hath bene fulfilled whether in the Catholike Romane which is spread farre and neere in all the fower quarters of the earth as Europe Affrique Asia and America or in any other present Sect of these parts of the world which neuer went further then to some Prouinces of Europe only Nor was euer euen heer such as now it is but onely since the tyme of Luther when also it is deuided into a world of sects Whether in the Catholike which conuerted all the Countries which euer were coÌ„uerted from Paganisme to the faith of our Lord or in any Sect at all which neuer conuerted any one but insteed therof hath peruerted as many as it could from the true faith to their owne carnall fancies Whether in the Catholike wherof such a world of Emperours and Kings and Queenes haue bene or els in any other now on foote which neuer had any one who was and did contynue of their coÌ„munion We (l) They are Catholiques only who adore our Lord Iesus as the Magi did Catholikes are they to whome our Lord did manifest himselfe according to the prediction of his holy Prophets We who finde him in the stable in the armes of his sacred and all-immaculate mother and We who adore him and present him not only with our hartes as his enemies do also pretend themselues to doe but with our Gold also by almes and all kind of Charity with our Incense by deuoâ—ion and piety and with our Mirrhe by mortification and pennance in vnion of that infinite loue of his wherby he hath made choice of vs to whome he would vouchsafe to be made knowne And therfore let vs follow S. Leo his counsell Ser. 2. de Epiphan who like a true supreme Pastour spake thus to the vniuersall flocke committed to his charge Let this most sacred day of the Epiphany be honoured by vs wheron the author of our saluation appeared and let vs adore him in heauen being so omnipotent to whome the Magi did expresse such veneration he being in his Cradle but an Infant It is shewed by the Presentation of our Lord Iesus in the Temple how infinite loue he bare to vs. CHAP. 17. THIS Omnipotent Lord Iesus hauing as it were emptied his fulnes or rather abridged the shew of his greatnes by growing into the narrow compasse of being a child in his Natiuity and hauing also submitted himselfe both to paine and shame in his Circumcision where he tooke to himselfe the sweet name of Iesus for our eternall good did proceed yet further shortly after in a most amourous obedience to that Law which we alone were subiect to Vnder the obligation heerof he was and vvould needs be presented in the Temple to Almighty God Luc. 2. as the first borne of all parents vvere bound to be in memory of that destruction Exod. 12. Exod. 13. Leuit. 12. vvhich God brought vpon the first borne of the Agyptians and so deliuering his ovvne people vvhich vvas the Children of Israell by meanes therof So punishing his enemies because they presecuted his friends or rather so punishing his enemies that they also might become his friends if they vvould not resolue to be their ovvne greatest enimies But yet vvitha I it vvas ordeyned in the old lavv that the first borne so offered by the parents vvhen once they had done that homage to the God of all things should not be so appropriated to his seruice as that the parents vvere vvholly to loose the comfort of them But (a) See heer the tender goodnes of almighty God towardes man Num. 8. all except they vvere of the Tribe of Leui vvho vvere to serue in Ecclesiasticall function might be redeemed recouered backe againe And that at so loe a rate as should not vndoe them hovv poore soeuer they might chance to be The beasts indeed and only they vvere to be sacrificed in Specie as they vvere offred to our Lord. This Oblation was therfore made by the people
of God for the perpetuating of the memory of so great a benefit Though yet no oblation was able to make that infinite Maiesty of the eternall God a Sauer for his hauing deliuered them by the death of the first borne of their enemies till he was pleased that his only sonne should come and offer himselfe in flesh and bloud for theyr deliuerance Coloss 1. he who was the first begotten of all Creatures and who performed that in deed and truth which all other oblations and Sacrifices did but only as figures in respect of him Now this Act of the Presentation of our Lord Iesus was made by our B. Lady Or rather he offered himselfe in those sacred and most pure hands of hers which he enabled for that excellent purpose with vnspeakeable and most ardent loue And as hereafter we shall see that he chiefely made oblation of himselfe in his sacred passion by way of propitiation for our sinnes and impetration of grace So the Presentation seems to carry a particular respect to worke by way of thanksgiuing for all the benefits which that open hand of God was by moments rayning downe vpon the Creatures And to the end that the goodnes of this Lord of ours may not be cast away vpō vs it will be necessary both now and very often heerafter to cast a carefull and well considering eye vpon the former (*) Cap. 2. discourse wherin we obserued the vnlimited knowledg of that diuine soule of Christ our Lord and wherby it is euident that all things concerning the Creatures for whome he would vouchsafe to be offered whether they were past or to come were as present to him as the very instant of tyme wherin then he liued In so much as there was not nor euer could be imparted the least benefit to mankind by Almighty God which was not present to his incomprehensible but all-comprehēding mind and for which our Lord Iesus did not offer himselfe then by way of thankes with most particular loue So that now we see our Lord surrendred vp into the hands of his eternall Father as if the world after a sort vvere dispossessed of him But so full of Charity vvas that Father as to ordayne the sonne to be sould backe againe (b) What soeuer is giuen to God is giuen vs backe againe with aduantage for the imparting of all those diuine sauours vvhich appeare to haue bene done to vs by him in the vvhole progresse of his holy life and death And vvheras he exercised vvith a perpetuity of burning loue those offices of a Lawgiuer a Maister a Father a Freind a Spouse and lastly of an omnipotēt Redeemer by his fiue sacred vvounds in this mistery vve find him to haue bene recouered and brought backe to vs vvith the payment of fiue Sicles vvhich according to the most probable opinion of computation doe not exceed tvvo shillings O omnipotent loue of our Lord IESVS who so would giue himselfe to vs as that indeed he choose rather not to giue himself but rather to innoble vs so farre as to enable vs to giue him somewhat for himselfe though the price fell infinitely short of the thing which was to be redeemed A price it was which fell short euen of being able to buy a very slaue and what proportion then could it carry with purchasing a God and King of glory sauing that his loue did make vp the rest His loue which was as pretious as God himselfe for God is loue and he being man is also God and so he was not only willing but euen able to pay as much as God was able to exact But we the while besides the contemplation of our owne obligation may doe wel to consider that course of prouidence loue which from the beginning of the world hath bene held with man in addressing him to an expectation and firme beleefe and loue of this diuine Redeemer Euen in the law of nature all was full of figures sacrifices were also offred then and (c) There is no truth of Religion where there is no visible Sacrifice wheresoeuer there is no visible Sacrifice there neither is nor cā there be any true Religion nor true worship of God and the mindes of many were indued with light according to the exigency of their state which ledd their inward eyes towards this marke In the tymes of the written Law another curtaine as a man may say was drawne and the faith of men grew more explicite then the Maiesty of the Church was increased the figures were both more and more significant and more euident and there was store of Prophets who expresly foretold the qualities of the Messias to come But now that he was indeed arriued no tyme was lost such loue as that could not be slacke and we haue seene how instantly the Sheepheards and in their persons such others as were neere at hand were inuited to that feast of ioy by the call of Angells After that the Magi and in their persons all the Gentills though neuer so farre off either in respect of tyme or place were drawne vnder the conduct of a Starre And now that such as were most particularly deputed for Gods seruice might be farre from not knowing their redeemer behould how he (d) Our Lord was declared by Saint Simeon to be come for the saluation both of Iewes and Gentils declares himselfe in the Temple to all the world by the mouth of holy Simeon Anna to be the Sauiour therof to be the glory of the Iewes and the light of the Gentills That so there might be none who should not tast of that fountaine of loue which was distilling into al those hartes which would receaue it It came not doubtles downe by drops into that of Simeon For instantly vpon the taking of that celestiall infant who was the Lord of life into his dying armes he fell into an extasis of ioy withall into a diuine deepe wearines of the world and was so deadly wounded by the loue of our Lord that he could not endure to looke vpon him but vpon the price of being willing to liue no longer How in the flight which our Lord Iesus made to Egypt he discouered his vnspeakeable Loue to man CHAP. 18. OVR Lord Iesus was no sooner brought backe into the power and designed to the vse of men but he was disposing himselfe by this incessant Charity to doe and suffer strange things for them For what stranger thing could there be then that he who created the whole world and who carries conducts it all by the word of his power in whose sight the Angells tremble the gates of heauen doe shiuer and in (a) What a poore Nothing the whole world is in comparison of God Matt. 2. comparison of whome all creatures are not so much as one poore single naked desolate grayne of dust that he I say should be content for loue of vs to feare and fly from such a thing as
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
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
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.
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
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
our Lord and in a word in re-acquiring for so much as can be done in this life that state of innocency and that perfect subordination of sense to reason and of reason to God which by Adam was lost in Paradise And if still it shall appeare to vs that euen supposing but ordinary grace this enterprise doe carry difficulty in the bosome of it yet consider at least that no great thing can be done without some difficulty Consider how (h) The infinite paynes vvhich is taken by vvorldly men for trash the souldier labours for a little pay The Courtier for a miserable suite the scholler for a smacke of vayne knowledge The Merchant for increase of gaine The husbandman for the hope of a good haruest The Sheepheard for the thriuing of his flocke Cōsider the torments which sicke and wounded men indure for the recouery of a little corporall health and the sensuall person for the obteyning of his bestiall pleasure And be thou sure to beleeue this most certaine truth that the perfect seruice of God deserues in no sort to be accounted painefull in respect of that deadly affliction and torment which the tyranny of our inordinate affections worldly pretences doth dayly and hourely put vs to And know this withall that still the strōger those passions grow the more vn worthy seruitude doe they also grow euery moment to hold thee in besides the mortall wounds which they oftē inflict vpon the soule wherin if it dye it is damned withall Wheras a true (i) The happines of a true seruant of God Disciple of this Doctrine of Christ out Lord hath the happines to study vnder the care and in the eye of an omnipotent Doctour He walkes perpetually secure because he is euer in conformity to the holy and wise wil of God He is dayly gayning vpon himselfe He is fed now and then with particular cōforts of Gods holy spirit in comparison wherof all the lying pleasures of flesh and bloud are no better then a smoky chimney to a tēder sight He findes himselfe generally to grow stated in a kind of quiet ioy and an immoueable peace of mind though this indeed admits of great variety of degrees more or lesse according to his indeauour and concourse with the diuine grace And although (k) The very desire of perfection is ◠good step towards it a man should neuer arriue to the very top of perfection yet that proportion wherof he cānot misse if he faithfully endeauour to procure it will be a liberall reward of greater paines then he can take For besides the contentment of being still in strife towards God he will find it seated in his very soule as a most certaine truth That the very meere desire of perfection if it be a sound one indeed giues such a sauoury kind of comfort as puts all the base contentment of this world to silence By this endeauour he shall also be defended not only from mortall but euen from willfull veniall sinnes And he is already possessed of as great security as can be had in this mortall life of ours that he is ordeyned for heauen in reward of that reuerence and obedience which heere he hath performed in learning and practising the diuine Doctrine of Christ our Lord which he came to teach vs with so infinite loue But yet further we ought to be his euerlasting slaues in that he was pleased that so principall a part of this very doctrine should not only be deliuered but should remaine recorded and written in holy Scripture for our instruction and comfort as partly we haue seen already and will yet appeare more particularly in the Chapter following Of the vnspeakeable Loue of our Lord Iesus in ordeyning that the greatest part of his diuine Doctrine should remaine in wryting and of the great benefit which growes to vs by the holy Scripture CHAP. 36. HOw clearly is our mercifull God as good as his word in fulfilling the promise which he was pleased to make to vs by the mouth of the Prophet Esay Isa 30. Non faciet auohere à te vltra Doctorem tuum erunt oculi tui videntes praeceptorem tuum c. and againe by the Prophet Ioel Filij Sion exultate laetamini in Domino Deo vestro quia dedit vobis Doctorem Iustitiae Our Lord will not make thy Doctour fly away any more and thine eyes shall see thy (a) A most tender expression of the loue of God in the teaching of man Teacher And thine eares shall heare the word of him who admonisheth thee behinde thy backe This is the way walke you in it and decline you neither to the right hand nor to the left Reioyce yee children of Sion and be ioyful in the Lord your God because he hath giuen you a Doctour of Iustice That God did giue vs this Doctour for the instruction of our soules we know by faith and we feele by grace and the Church his Spouse is dayly recomending it to our memory But (b) The holy Scripture doth most liuely represent Christ our Lord as it were to our very eyes that yet he was so to be heere as neuer to remoue euen as it were his visible instructing presence from vs this blessing is chiefly affoarded to vs by the holy Scripture For therby we are dayly and howerly told so many particulars of his sacred person how he lookt how he walkt how he spake how he groād how he wept how he prayed and how he preached so that besides his reall presence in the B. Sacrament for vpon that I shall reflect heereafter we esteeme our selues to haue him still euen personall after a sort amongst vs and to be as it were chayned with our eyes to that diuine countenance of his and vvith our eares to those heauenly vvords and vvith our harts to those immense benefits vvhich vve find him to haue povvred vpon our fore fathers and by them on vs. Our Lord forbid Psalm 32. that vve should be like that horse or mule which hath no vnderstanding but vvhen the Maister hath fed him full and fat doth abuse his care and giue him perhaps a kicke insteed of doing him painefull seruice yea and that for nothing else but because he had bene so liberally fed For euen such shall we be if the riches of Gods mercy towards vs should incline vs rather to a fastidious kind of contempt then to an obsequious reuerence respect If our (c) Consider well of this truth Lord IESVS had not bene so gratious as to inspire his seruants to write his story or to enable his Church to preserue it from the consumption of tyme and the Canker of Heresy and the inundation of Infidelity how willingly would we haue sould our selues into our shirts to haue obtayned so great a fauour at his hands If we should only haue knowne that when our Lord liued on earth he had conuersed with men had expressed himselfe to thē at large
by words sometimes by way of Sermōs sometimes of Parables sometymes at meales sometimes in the working of miracles That he spake at large Ioan. 14. at that supper which was the last he made on earth and in the Garden Luc. 22. when he boyled himselfe in a bath of bloudy sweate vpon that Crosse when he left his most pretious life in the midst of cruell torments and most bitter scornes which brake his hart though indeed he dyed of pure loue to vs but yet withall that those words of his were lost that they had not beene kept vpon record or if they had been kept that now they could be found no more What labour I say would we not endure what charge would we not vndergoe what danger would we not incurre with ioy so that by meanes therof one word of his might be recouered and knowne And in that case how should we be still sounding it out with our tongues and on grauing it vpon our harts and entertayning our selues day night in the cogitatiō contēplation therof But (d) They haue little knowledge of God who grow not in loue and reuerēce to him the more they treat with him now it may be feared that plenty it selfe hath made vs poore and familiarity hath bred contempt and that our queasy stomacks are ouercome and gone through the only smell of such a sumptuous feast as we are inuited to whilst such a world of those very words which Christ our Lord did vse in holy Scripture are set before not only our mind but euen our very eyes and eares by our holy mother the Church If it be so let vs pray that heerafter such a great ingratitude may be farre from vs and let vs beginne to cast our harts at the feete of our Lord for so incomparable a fauour The Canon of this holy Scripture is therfore that which doth containe as hath been said the chiefest part of that diuine Doctrine which our Lord IESVS came to teach on earth I say the chiefest part for it is not al. But our Lord IESVS taught many things both by himselfe and by his Apostles which we are all obliged to beleeue and yet they are not expressed in holy Scripture And so he told his Apostles and Disciples That (c) The proofe of Traditiō Ioan. 16. he had many things to say to them but that then they were not capable therof And the Text it selfe doth also affirme that he conuersed with them betwene his Resurrection and Ascension discoursing by the space of Fourty dayes Luc. 1. of the kingdome of God which is his Church And it cannot be but that then he told thē of many of those very things wherof he had knowne them to be incapable till that tyme and yet the holy Scripture giues very little account therof The Baptisme of infants was not particularly taught in holy Scripture the Sacraments indeed were instituted by our B. Lord and S. Paul said 1. Cor. 11. he would giue particular orders in that of the blessed Sacrament when he should arriue with the Corinthians but what those orders might be we can know no otherwise then by the tradition of the holy Church The Sabaoth was translated from the Saturday to the Sunday Many Ceremonies of the old Law were abrogated and some of them permitted as namely (f) S. Paul did circumcise Timothy Act. 15. Circumcision with many others and some euen commaunded for a tyme as the abstayning from the eating of bloud or strangled meates and the like But how long or short that tyme was to be we haue no newes out of holy Scripture Nay this Canon of the very Scripture it selfe wherin we are so happy as hath bene said and whervpon the Aduersaries of the Church for the disguysing of their disobedience and pride will needs pretend to relye as vpon the entiere rule of Faith the sole Iudge of controuersies in religion is no way declared to vs by any one text of holy Scripture But it is only authorized in respect of vs by the voyce sentence of the holy Church Many many other instāces might be also giuē by the cleare light wherof it would appeare that the whole Doctrine of our Lord is not conteyned in holy Scripture Nor (g) In what sense the holy Scripture may improperly be said to contayne the whole Doctrine of Christ our Lord. can it be truly said to be all cōtayned there in any sense vnlesse it be because the holy Scripture doth plainely shew the markes of the true visible Church of Christ our Lord and doth teach that the decrees therof Matt. 18. are to be obeyed in all things without appeale Which Church because it possesseth and dispenseth that whole Dopositum of true Doctrine concerning the seruice of God which S. Paul did so recommend to S. Timothy the holy Scrpture 1. Tim. 6. may in some sense be sayd to containe the whole doctrine of Saluation because it sends vs to the Church which doth indeed particularly containe and teach it all But neuerthelesse it is certaine and we still confesse it agayne and agayne to the vnspeakeable ioy of our harts that the holy Scripture it selfe holds the greatest part of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord. And therfore as I was saying much of that which I deliuered before concerning the excellency of his Doctrine both may and ought to be most fitly applyed to holy Scripture And because there occurreth somewhat concerning the particular eminency of this holy booke which hath not particularly bene touched before I will heere the rather reflect vpon it because we may easily see thereby the dignity of our Lords loue therin How carefull we must be not to berash in the vse of holy Scripture and of the great obscurity therof CHAP. 37. FIRST therfore for our comfort and to the end that no place at all might be left for doubt he was pleased that it should be written by the spirit of God wherby (a) The infallible truth of holy Scripture it growes to be as true as truth it selfe And in this we are of so firme beliefe as that there is not one little in it for the defence wherof from the least aspersion of the least iniury or errour we are not willing to lay down a million of liues This is an homage which we neither owe nor pay to any other booke But to this it is most due both for the irrefragable truth which it carrieth and for the loue wherwith our Lord resolued that in cases which did so much concerne vs he would haue vs know his mind Yet heerin his meaning was that still for our relying vpon the true sense thereof we should be ruled by our betters For els how (b) Howsoeuer holy Scripture is infallibly true in it selfe we shall grow into errour by it vnlesse it be interpreted by the Church infallible soeuer the holy Scripture were in it selfe we might make it through
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
all the rest which hath bene said as himselfe doth incomparably surpasse whatsoeuer other thing which it is euen in his power to giue I will also in this place sorbeare to hearken to that other diuine consort of Musicke which he made in that least Sermon of his next before his sacred Passion which S. Iohn relates in his holy Ghospell For that of the B. Sacrament is considered in a discourse therof a part and that of the infinite loue of our Lord in his last Sermon is toucht in the beginning of that of the Passion And we haue heere I hope bene shewed inough to make the loue of our B. Lord appeare Not only in regard of what he conceaued in his owne pretious hart towards man but moreouer for the abundant blessings which he hath imparted to the world exteriourly For we see to what greatnes and happines the meanest of vs is sublymed through the high account into which we are taken by Almighty God Only we must be sure that his infinite goodnes do not giue vs occasion and colour for contynuance in our wickednes For as much as in God all is infinite a like (i) All is a like Infinite in God and therfore euen the very infinitenesse of his Mercy doth shew vs how Infinite his Iustice also is and euen by the excesse of his mercy when men are sory for their sinnes we may inferre the intollerable rigour of his Iustice against such as are impenitēt The holy Scripture is also ful of most particular proofe how deepely our Lord doth detest al sinne and willfull sinners This hath bene pointed at before vpon another occasion in the discourse of the infinite power of God and in the end of the Passion it will also be resumed agayne For the present therfore I conclude concerning the most excellent Doctrine of Christ our Lord deliuered especially in holy Scripture and I passe on to the consideration of his Miracles Of the excessine Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man by the Mirac'es which he wrought on earth CHAP. 41. THE excessiue loue of our Lord Iesus was farre from being content to expresse it selfe towards man by any one single way alone but it was solliciting him in euery minute of his most holy life to try as many as might be found for our good He therfore considering with diuine wisedome that men were composed of flesh and spirit and consequētly (a) Men being cōposed of flesh and spirit are to be wrought vpō both by spirituall and sensible meanes that they must be wrought vpō aswell by sensible as by spirituall meanes knowing also that through the miserable disorder of their mindes they were then more capable would be more obliged by ease health of body then by graces powred into the soule he was therfore pleased to accompany the purity and perfection of his Doctrine with the power and Maiesty of his miracles And as by creation of the world he led men vp by meanes of visible things towards a knowledge and beliefe of the inuisible so in the case of our reparation and redemptiō he would also vse the corporall cure of men from sicknes as a disposition wherby theyr soules might be recouered from sinne Heerby our Lord doth euidently discouer to be a true perfect louer of mankind For as the property of loue is not (b) The measure of our loue of God is to exceed all measure to be tyed vp within the compasse of any ordinary law and the measure which that power vseth is to exceed all measure so did our Lord out of the nobility of his loue to man refuse to walke within so small a circle as the lawes of nature did lead him to These lawes of nature were made by almighty God at the creation of the world it is not al the power of heauen or earth vnder him which can inuert that order Psal 148. Praeceptum posuit non praeteribit He gaue the precept and it shall not passe away And it was good cheape for him who made al things of nothing to commaund that nothing should faile of that inuiolable course wherin all things were appointed to proceed According to the law of nature no returne is made from priuation to the habit as from a fixed blindnes to sight and much lesse from death to life But the law of the loue of our Lord IESVS did ouertop that other law made those things grow true and samiliar which otherwise were not only hard but impossible Moyst bodies were appointed by the law of nature to giue place and such as are heauy and solid to sinke downe below thē But yet when there was question of giuing comfort to his poore Apostles Matt. 14. the loue of Christ our Lord made him lay those lawes aside and he went walking towards them vpon the sea which was glad to performe the Office of a pauement to his pretious feete Penerration of bodies is a thing wherof nature cannot endure to heare but yet for the vnspeakeable loue which he bare to (c) The honour which was done by Christ our Lord to the purity of his B. Virgin mother the honour and excellency of his all-immaculate mother that ornament and glorious gemme of heauen earth he was not affrayd to giue that principle of Philosophy the lye And he passed out of those bowells of supreme Purity into those armes of matchlesse Piety without the least offence to her most entire Virginity But yet in this there is the lesse wonder because he wrought the like in fauour of his Apostles whom he loued by innumerable degrees lesse then his most excellent mother Isa 7. For in their case also his loue was transcendent in the selfe same kind vnto his lawes For hauing first passed through the sepulcher he went afterward through Ioan. 20. Ibid. through those doores which were shut betwene them him that so he might as it were perfume them all at once with his sweet breath of Peace But why doe I name those persons who were so highly priuiledged as if our Lord had only bene in loue with them and not indeed as yet indeed he was enamoured of all mankind so farre as to make his miracles distill down vpon them like so many drops of dew for their reliefe or comfort in all occasions And although these miracles of Christ our Lord could not haue bene wrought but by the omnipotent power of almighty God yet may that power be accounted to haue been but as a kind of instrumēt wherby he wrought them and that indeed they flowed from his loue as from their prime cause and roote He wrought no miracles for the ostentation of his power and therfore we see how often he precisely comaunded both men and deuills Marc. 3. 5. 7. Luc. 5. Luc. 4. Matth. 20. Matt. 21. Marc. 11. that they should not publish what he had done He wrought none for any commodity of
his owne or for the reliefe of any corporall necessity which he was and would be subiect to For though the Foxes had holes yet the Sonne of man had not where to lay his head And one morning when he returned from Ierusalem to Bethania he is said expresly to haue been h̄gry and he refused in the (d) Matt. 4. wildernes to turne certaine stones into bread for the satisfaction of his owne extreme hungar And his Apostles were soe oppressed in this kind Matt. 12. as that they were defended by him in gathering the eares of that corne which belonged to others yea and that vpon a Sabaoth day which did belong to God except their case had beene of precise necessity they coued not so well haue bene excused in doing it But the whyle though they fed themselues Christ our Lord did not so for if he had those malicious Iewes whose teeth were sharplier whet against him then all the rest or rather not against them at all but only in regard that they belonged to him would haue byn sure to haue bitten him vvith their reprehension So great therfore was his necessity and yet he would not stretch forth his arme of power to help himselfe by any supernaturall meanes Nor doe we find as I was saying that he who wrought such worlds of miracles for worlds of men did serue him selfe of any one to his owne aduantage Matt. 17. It is true that he did miraculously enable S. Peter to take a peece of money out of the belly of a fish to be paid as tribute to the Prince though he saith he was no way bound to doe it So that (e) Our Lord would rather worke a miracle then suffer the occasion of any scandall◠he who would not worke a miracle for the sauing of his owne deere life would yet be sure to doe it for preuenting the scandall of other men And withall that he might shew how obedient men ought to be to theyr tēporall Princes so that it be in things which indeed and truth are only temporall He wrought no miracles either by way of preuention or for the deliuery of himselfe Luc. 4. from his most wicked enemies sauing only when once or twice he grew inuisible to their eyes that so he might preserue himselfe for greater tormets afterwards Whē once he came to his Passion he told them indeed what he could haue obtained of God for his deliuerance Matt. 25. namely so many Legions of Angells And he gaue them also a tast of what he was able to do for himself Ibid. if he had been willing by the miracle which then he wrought vpon Malchus Ioan. 18. And by that other also of stryking thē who came to take him with sad astonishemēt to the ground by the only saying of Ego sum But he kept his miracles for the instruction ease of other men and the only Miracle which he wrought for himselfe was to make by the omnipotent force and power of loue a God of infinite and eternall Maiesty to vndertake for such wormes such a vvorld of misery He vvrought no miracles for the winning of fauour from great persons Luc. 23. Nor could the splendour of Herods fortune nor the extreme curiosity of his mind because it vvas but curiosity obtaine any one at the hands of our Lord. Matt. 13. Marc. 6. He vvas not desirous to win the affection and estimation of his ovvne cōpatriots For though it cannot be said but that he vvrought some miracles among them yet those some vvere so very fevv by reason of their incredulity that in comparison of such as he vvas pleased to vvorke in other places they may in a manner be accompted none He did not a vvhit depend vpon the acknovvledgment and seruice Luc. 17. which he might expect from such persons as he cured For we see he was not discouraged by the ingratitude of those Leapers from whome he well knevv that it was almost (f) One of ten returned to giue him thankes ten to one that he should not haue so much as thanks for his labour But the force and fire of pure and perfect loue alone it was which moued that diuine hart of our Lord to passe ouer the law of nature by working of miracles whensoeuer there were motiues and meanes to doe good to men therby Whilst himselfe the while who was the author of them all would yet lye as hath been said vnder the same lawes of nature so to worke the more easily vpō their soules by the admirable example of his sufferance whose bodies he had restored by a miraculous deliuerance 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 CHAP. 42. IF the meaning of Christ our Lord had bene but only to proue that he was God he might haue insisted vpō that course which formerly had bene held with the people of God in the old Testament At which tyme howsoeuer some miracles were wrought which tended to the comfort of the good as that of parting (a) Exod. 15. the Red sea when the children of Israell were to passe and of the (b) Exod. 13. pillars both of the Clould and that of Fire of (c) Ibid. the rayning downe (d) Deut. 3. Manna in the wildernes and some others yet these miracles which shewed the loue of God to the good were not so many by much as those others by which he shewed his power and iustice against the wicked As vve may easily see by the ten miraculous (e) Exod. 9. e. Plagues vvherby Pharao and the Egyptians vvere scourged the burning of Sodome (f) Genes 19. and Gomorrha the destruction (g) 4. Reg. 19. of Sennacherib and his army vvith many more Much lesse can those auncient miracles of mercy come into competition for n̄ber vvith the innumerable miracles of this kind vvhich vvere vvrought on earth by Christ our Lord. Of vvhome vve cannot find that euer he vvrought any one of reuenging Iustice Luc. 9. nay he rebuked S. Iames and euen the beloued S. Iohn himselfe for mouing him to reuenge by supernaturall meanes an affront vvhich the Samaritans had put vpon him Matt. 16. and them The Ievves indeed desired to see some signe from heauen vvhich might haue fed theyr curiosity but our Lord vvho loued them so infinitely much more then they did thēselues refused to humour them in that vvhich vvas not to haue profited them at all and vvhich it vvould haue cost him nothing to performe he resolued vvithall to vvorke another miraracle vvhich vvas figured in the Prophet Ionas in the belly of the vvhale vvhich imported the death of God for their sinnes wherby they were admirably to be relicued and himselfe beyond imagination to be tormeuted Amongst (i) Our Lord did neuer finally refuse the humble suyte of
how he loued that man Ibid. Yet Lazarus indeed his friends had obliged our Lord by particular seruices to his owne sacred person wheras the holy Text affirmes in many other places that his diuine pitty mercy did worke most tenderly also towards others vpon whom he had no other eye at all then as they were parts of mankind all which he did so deerly loue And therfore he pittied both their generall and particular miseries as appeares by the story of the widdow in the death of her sonne Luc. 7. Matt. 13. Mar. 8. Matt. 23◠and of the people in the wildernes for their distresse of hungar and especially of the citty of Ierusalem when with his eyes full of teares he lamented their misery as hath bene said else where The holy Scripture also affirmeth not only that he pittied them Matt. 1◠Marc. 8. but that himselfe would professe and say as much And besides he ordayned that the notice of it should be left to vs vpō record And what charming words were those when he would bid them Aske (1) Ioan. 16. and haue that their ioye might be full and when he would say What (2) Marc. 10. wilt thou haue me doe Yea and also in expresse termes Be it vnto thee (3) Matt. 15. as thou wilt thy selfe As if he were content that man should be as it were his owne caruer out of the very omnipotency of God and that the mercy of God were to haue no other measure then mans owne desire And when he would say My selfe will (4) Matt. 8. goe and cure the sicke person at thy house And when being the soueraigne King of glory he would yet become a begger of a cup of could water of the (5) Ioan. 4. Samaritan women whilst the while he was filling her soule with the water of grace which instantly might take all possibility of further thirst from her And when he would call them by many and most tender names as we haue shewed vpon another occasion And when he would begge of them that they would sinne no more And when he would so labouriously defend and plead the cause of S. Mary (6) Luc. 37. Magdalene his enamoured penitent And when he confounded that hypocrysy and pride of the Iewes and had such diuine pitty of the poore (7) Ioan. 8. Adultresse And whē he would goe as he did to him who was borne (8) Ioan. 9. blind whome himselfe would needs vouchsafe to seeke as soone as he was excommunicated by the Iewes And hauing found him he gaue him comfort and passed sometyme in his conuersation and withdrew that curtaine which he suffered still to hange betwixt him and others and told him at last in plaine powerful tearmes (9) Ibid. That the Sauiour of the world was then speaking to him The great laboriousnesse of Loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in the working of his Miracles is more declared CHAP. 43. NOVV withall this loue which our Lord expressed in the working of his miracles was no nice or wary kind of loue For it cost him excessiue paines labour and imployed him in iourneying through all that hilly cōtry on foote as may be seene throughout the whole Euangelicall history to find matter Matt. 9. Marc. 6. for his mercy of that kind to worke vpon And sometymes all Iewry not being able to containe and compasse in those bowells of his charity he would be breaking out into the skirts of the Gentiles Matt. 25. which he began to ennoble sanctifie by his presence And whersoeuer he were he was importuned by poore people to take pitty on them and he had so much towards them that he had none of himselfe But he prayed for them by night he laboured for them by day that so hard that as sometymes (1) Matt. 4. 12. 15. he had no bread to eate so at othertymes he had not so (2) Marc. 3. much as leaue or tyme to eate it in yea or so much as (3) Marc. 2. 3. euen scarce meanes to stirre through the presse of people which came about him At all howers was he ready to giue them health if they had beene ready alwaies to receaue it But the Country in sommer begin extremly hoat for them to haue repaired to him in the heate of the day would haue bene perhaps but to haue exchanged one sicknes for another Or els though the Patients would haue bene glad to be carryed or conducted the men vvho vvere to help them had not charity inough to endure the trouble But hovvsoeuer the Patients or their friends did stand affected the Phisitian was still at hand and he desired no better Fee then to be doing them fauour And (a) What troopes of sicke persons were brought to our B. Lord for eure Luc. 4. so therfore in the euenings about Sunne-set the holy Scripture shevves vvhat troopes of people of all those villages tovvnes and citties vvould come in about him Drawing out dying men into the sight of that truer brighter sunne vvhich vvas euer shining tovvards them as at noone day Not only did he cure them all but besides the benefit it self of their health he imparted it vvith so much tendernes of loue as not to permit that there should be so much as any one of them all vvhome he vvould not touch vvith his ovvne pure povverfull hands though he vvas infinitely able to haue cured them all at once Luc. 4. and vvith the least vvord of his mouth or euen vvith the wil of his hart At other tymes agayne he vvould accomplish their desires in another forme And as before he cured them by touching them vvith his owne sacred flesh to shew his loue so novv he vvould doe it by letting thē touch his garments Marc. 6. or his person to shevv his povver There might you haue seeme as if it had bene a very Market or Faire of sicke Folkes of all diseases both of body and mind which went Progresse with him whersoeuer he had a mind to goe Some leaning vpon staues some carried in mens armes and some in their beds vpon wheele barrowes A running (*) A running cāpe of souldiers who had been wounded by sinne camp it was of souldiers who had all beene wounded in the warre by their enemies and they hoped for help by flying towards the Cullours of this Captaine And we may make account that though he were the King both of heauen and earth yet he tooke not so much gust in being courted by the Angells of heauen as he did in being haunted by this hospitall which went euer creeping after him on earth This (b) Many Hospitalls in one hospitall had all kindes of hospitals made vp in one One hospital for al sortes of ordinary diseases as Feauers Dropsies Fluxes of bloud and the like Another for the Blind Another for the Lame Another for the Deafe Another for the Dumbe Another for
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
infallible truth we might be beaten blind with seeing and starued with surfetting as we see many others are and the very vastnes of those misteries which are opened to vs for our cōfort by Christ our Lord would make vs halfe doubt whether they were or could be true or no. The beloued Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn had lodged himselfe so long so neere the hart of our blessed Lord that he was easily able to discerne and declare how excellently he loued vs from the beginning and that withall his loue continued towards vs to the end Iesus autem Ioan. 13. cùm dilexisset suos in finem dilexit eos Nay the motion of the loue of his diuine hart towards man hauing bene so naturall in him it is no meruaile if it vvent more violently in the end of his sacred life then at the beginning All the passions of that happy soule were intyrely subiect to the commaund of his reason and he held it to be a thing agreable to the dignity immutability of the God he was to speake of all things as was toucht before after a positiue manner and wonderfully as we vse to say within compasse Superlatiues and Exaggerations vsed to be thin sowed in the blessed mouth of our Lord IESVS Nor is he in effect euer found to haue said any thing as seeming to haue bene transported with any extraordinary or passionate desire or care but (b) When he came towardes the passiō our Lord did seem to breake his pace only concerning that which he was to suffer in his sacred Passion and that which he was to doe in the night precedent to the same When formerly he was aduising his Apostles to haue great confidence in the prouidence of God by letting them see what a care he had euen of sparrowes and inferring therby that he would incomparably more haue care of them he exaggerated not the matter Matt. 10. but did only aske If themselues were not to be more esteemed then many sparrowes Wheras yet one soule is more in the sight of God not only thē many sparrowes but then al the whole material world put together When he had a mind to tell them what a misery it was for that wretch that he would make himselfe the betrayer of the sonne of man Matt. 8◠he only said wo be to that man it had been better for him if he had neuer been borne which was but a very plaine and positiue manner of expression For as much as not only this greatest sinne which euer was perhaps conceaued but the least mortall sinne that can be imagined without repentance doth make a man much more vnhappy then if he were vtterly depriued of being When he professed the omnipotency of his eternall Fathers power to deliuer him out of the hands of them who tooke and tyed him he told them only Matt. 26. that if he should pray for any helpe of that kind his Father would send more then twelue legions of Angells to his succour Wheras he might as good cheape haue said twelue thousand as twelue legions But our Lord IESVS was not wont to vse any superlatiue manner of speach and he hath had many seruants who haue carefully imitated him in this as in the rest But yet neuer thelesse whē he reflected vpō the thought of that passiō which he was resolued to vndergoe for the Redēption of mā the very desire of the approach of so happy a day made him cōfesse that he was in paine till it did arriue Luc. 12. Baptismo habeo baptizari quomodo coactor donec veniat Or rather he did not so much say that he was in paine as by words of interrogation in the way after a sort of seeming impatient he asked himselfe this very question in effect How much am I payned how straitely am I imprisoned til I haue my fil of suffering for the loue of man Iust (c) Our Lord did long for the tyme when he might institute the B. Sacrament so may we see that when the time of celebrating the feast of the Paschal lambe was come he grew euen greedily desirous to eate it in the company of his B. Apostles before his Passion And for their comfort he would not choose but say Luc. 22. Desiderio desider aui manducare vobiscum hoc Pascha antequam patiar That he desired it and that with desire vpon desire and such desire as could neuer be appeased till he were satisfied till that tyme of the last supper were past wherin he had resolued to impart vnspeakeable tokens of his loue to them and so the other tyme of his Passion wherin he was to endure the depth of all torments and affronts for the same loue were then immediatly to come In the euening therfore and within few howers of his Passion this enamoured Lord of ours hauing all the parts and passages therof in his eye and looking as it were in the very face of death and such a death he yet (d) Our Lord kept the shew of all his sorrow to himselfe Ioan. 13. laid vp all the sorrow in his owne hart and would discouer to his Apostles no other semblance then of ioy and comfort least his griefe might be a cause of theirs He conuersed with them after his ordinary and familiar manner he disposed himselfe first to eate the Paschall lambe with them After that he sate downe with them to a common Supper He kept his diuine countenance full of quietnes and peace He tooke them close about him on all sides He cheered them vp with his gratious eyes and he carued them with his liberall hands Nay with those hands to the dispēsation wherof his eternall Father had cōmitted all things he disdayned not then to wash the vncleane feete of those poore Apostles For which purpose first he put of his vpper garment as any hired seruant was to haue done Ioan. 13. and by the force of his owne armes he tooke a big vessell full of water out of that he silled a lesser He girt himselfe with a towell into which he tooke their corporall vncleanes as a figure of how he would purify their harts by his sacred Passion For then he was to beare the deformity of their sinnes vpon the shoulders of his body which was a kind of winding sheet to his soule When our Lord had thus performed this act of religion in eating of the Paschall lambe and of incomparable suauity in his conuersation of vnspeakeable humility in the Lotiō of his Apostles feete he returned to the table and amazed all the (e) The Angells might well be amazed to see the sonne of God giue his owne body in food to sinners Angells of heauen whose vnderstāding did euen agonize in seeing him performe that supereminent act of Charity when he instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and ordeyned the holy Sacrifice of the Masse which was so worthy of an infinite God This was done by diuine
into his And (e) No wonder is strange where God is the worke man Psalm 111◠what meruaile can it be that such wōders as these be wrought in man since it is the Creatour of man and of all things els who descends so low as to liue in him he of whom it is sayd that Gloria diuitiae in domo eius What meruaile is it if we be made so glorious and so rich since he vouchsafes to make pure and humble soules the house wherin he desires to be intertayned and euen to be the very couch wherin he delighteth to be enloyed by the most chast but yet most strayte imbracements of diuine loue What meruaile I say if such as receiue this food with pure affections doe lead euen in this world a life which is not of this world since the selfe same God who feeds all the spirits of heauen hath contryued (f) In some sort we are equall to the Angells euen in this life a way how to giue himselfe for the same food to mortall men The same food I say though it be dressed after a different māner and serued in vnder a disguise of the accidents of bread and wine as betwene two couered dishes according to the custome amōgst great persons Euen this of the disguise was also done out of an admirable diuine loue to vs who had not bene able in this fraile state of ours to see God and liue And besides we grow thus to haue a meanes of exercising most heroicall acts of Faith towards him To which acts of beleeuing in this life doth correspond the rewards and glory of perfect seeing in the next But the substance of the food is still the same both heere and there Apoc. 22. And (g) Our food in the blessed Sacramēt is the very same wher with the happy soules are feasted in heauen therfore S. Iohn according to the obseruation of Doctour Auila relates that it was one and not diuers Trees which he saw on both the bancks of that riuer which flowed out of the throne of God Vpon the one of which bancks being the tryumphant Church in heauē Christ our Lord doth sustaine them there and on the other bancke which is the militant Church wherof we haue the honor and happines to be members the same tree of life doth feed vs heere We are also taught this very truth by the sacred mouth of Christ our Lord himselfo Iohn 6. who said That he was the bread that came downe from heauen If therfore he be the bread of heauen he is the food of the inhabitāts of heauen and if that food be thus imparted to his childrē in this world it must be only their fault if they lead not euen heere a life of heauen We (h) How man ennobleth other food by eating it but he is ennobled by this see that in the case euen of common food how base soeuer that be it is raysed by being eaten to the dignity of becōming a part of him who eates it because the man is nobler then the meate and he assumeth it therfore vp to himselfe And what should then become of such as doe worthily feed vpon this bread of life this nourishmēt of heauē which is Christ our Lord but that for as much as this food is infinitely of better quality then our selues by eating it we should be transformed into it and of terrestriall in our conuersation should become celestiall and resemble the Angells in purity since we carry resemblance to them in the food we take which is the God and King of glory An infinite and of it selfe an incredible thinge this is that such creatures as we should be sublimed to such a height of dignity euen in this life But to the end that it might astonish vs the lesse when it should arriue and that our wonder might be all conuerted into loue it (i) The banquet of the B. Sacramēt was fortold by many Figures before it came was the good will of God to foretell vs of it long before and to reprosent it as it were to our very eyes by way of figures and shadowes that so being accustomed to consider those shadowes we might with more facility imbrace the body when it should be come For this is the accomplishment of al those figures of the (1) Exod. 11. Paschall lambe of the (2) Psalm 77. Manna of the bread of (3) Exod. 25. Proposition of the Banquet which King (4) Hester ◠Assuerus made of many others And as it was a body in repect of those former shadowes and figures so may it be accounted in some respects but as a figure in respect of the celestiall Banquet of eternall beatitude which shall be serued in hereafter as the second course of our delicious fare when we are to feed for all eternity The Sacramentall presence of our Lord IESVS doth stay no longer then the species of bread and wine remaine but the ayre vertue thereof doth still contynue till it be driuen thence And (k) The wonderful effects of the B. Sacramēt so great effects they are which grow vpon it in such as are carefull to comply with God as giues them aboundant testimony that no lesse then omnipotency it selfe is there Nay it is most certainly true that the blessed Sacrament doth worke and that very often in the soules of such as dispose themselues deuoutly to it so many and so wonderful effects sometimes in giuing strēgth of body where it was wanting before sometimes in the vtter extirpation of some passion sometymes in the infusion of some great vertue sometymes in changing at a very instant the whole sense of the soule making it all tryumph with ioy wheras immediatly before it was halfe dead of griefe as doth much declare and proue the diuinity of Christ our Lord. Yea and theyr soules doe feele it so as that if there were no other argument or authority in the whole world but what they find within themselues it might serue to giue them great assurance that Christ our Lord is no lesse then God A (l) The great life vigour which growes to the soule by the B. Sacrament Minerall this is soe full of Spirit that it leaues a liuely tincture in the violl wherinto it hath bene powred It perfumes the whole soule if it be well dissolued by acts of loue But then we must doe as we vse whē a roome is well perfumed to keepe the doores and windowes shut Recollection in this case doth euen import a man as much as his life Which yet if God bid him giue ouer and that his diuine Maiesty doe for the reasons of (m) Spirituall comforts must giue place to the exercise of charity obedience 2. Cor. 2. Charity or Obedience require him to open and impart himselfe to others he shall be still A good odour of Christ our Lord to God but withall he hath so much strength as not to be dissipated in
griefe of our Lord Iesus novv vve vvill but consider hovv infinitely the nature of God doth abhorre any one single sinne And hovv straitly our Lord IESVS had obliged himselfe out of loue to satisfy Gods Iustice for them all And hovv certainely he savv that the farre greater part of men vvould take no benefit at all by that bitter Passion But that some would not beleeue it some others vvould not apply it yea and that some would euen blaspheme it as thinking it impossible that God himselfe should be so good to them If vve consider that men vvho seriously desire to serue God vvith perfection are profoundly afflicted euē for the least discorrespondence to the motion of his holy Spirit and much more for any small defect into vvhich by their fault they may haue fallen And vvhen there hath beene question of greater sinnes there be men and vvomen vvho haue dyed as hath been sayd euen of pure repentance sorrovv for them And yet hovv fevv sinnes had they to be sory for in comparison of the sinnes of the vvhole vvorld And hovv little could they be sorry euē for their ovvne in cōparison of the griefe vvhich did seize the hart of our blessed Lord for those very sinnes Which (d) We shall greeue for onr sinnes after the rate of our know ledge and loue of God vvas so much greater then theirs as his knovvledge loue of God them his vnderstanding detestation of all sinne vvas greater If vve cōsider the seuerall kinds of sinne vvhich as hath been touched before vvere distinctly represented to the minde of Christ our B. Lord All the sinnes of Idolatry heresy offending after an infinite māner his most religious piety All the sinnes of pride his profound humility All the sinnes of vvrath his inuincible patience All the sinnes of cruelty and enuy those bovvels of his charity and mercy All the sinnes of gluttony and prodigality his his perfect pouerty and sobriety All the sinnes of abhominable bestiall and not so much as to be named sensuality his impenetrable supercelestiall purity If concerning Idolatry vve consider that it is either exteriour or interiour Exteriour vvhen Sacrifice is offred to a materiall externall Idoll interiour vvhen Christians or any other do lodge a creature in theyr harts which though they know not to be God yet they esteeme and obey and doe more honour to it then to God And if vve consider hovv for these seuerall kindes of sinnes he felt and vvas to feele a seuerall kind of Crosse an outvvard crosse to vvhich they vvould crucify his sacred body and another vvhich vvas inward to which he crucified his ovvne hart through griefe and loue In (e) How our Lord was wounded by the considetion of Gods iustice and bate of sinne and our great misery particular our Lord had his eye vpō that inflexible decree of God which dāned so many millions of Angells for one only sinne And how for one sinne he droue Adam out of Paradise Yea and how not only for the fault or guilt of sinne he is so terrible but euē for the penalty due to any one sinne although the fault be put away by pennance that he inflicteth excessiue paine in Purgatory if satisfaction be not made in this life He had besides in his sight the miserable weakenesse of man towards all good workes which weakenesse men cōtract by sinne besides the sinnes thēselues and these are the effects teliques therof And he well knew that they would make it very difficult for men to serue God without a great abōdāce ofgrace which he only could tell how to merit for thē Add to this that he cleerly saw all those vast affronts which in that night and the next day were to be done to himselfe with the hideous torments which he vvas sure they would inflict vpon him He also saw the Martyrdomes of all his Prophets past his Apostles and other Martyrs which were then to come the banishment and confiscation of his seruants persons and goods the contempt and prophanation of his Sacraments There was no place wheron he could tell how to rest the head of his hart The Synagogue was all in effect corrupt and almost dead and buried His Church vnder the name of Christian not then borne One of his Apostles was gone to betray him another would shortly deny him and the rest were vpon the point to runne from him His B. Mother in whom only he might haue taken intiere delight was to suffer martyrdome in her soule which was to be transpierced with a sword of sorrow Whithersoeuer he might cast his thoughs in the search of some little comfort they were bowed as it were and beaten backe againe into his owne sad hart which was become a whole Sea of sorrow How would he grieue for all this vvho grieued till he wept againe Ioan. 11. and till he was troubled and did groane in spirit for the only temporall death of Lazarus All these things I say being vvell considered and duely pondered I (f) It is no wonder if such incōparable causes of griefe did produce so strange effects in the wounded hart of our Lord Iesus cease to meruaile that such a generall muster of hell as this had like euen vvith the only apprehention therof to haue extinguished the pure lampe of his pretious life Or yet that it cost him so much shame vvith the horrour to see such a vvorld of filth cast before him vvhich novv he vvas to take vp and to make his ovvne as vvas able to put him into expresse Agony Or in fine that it drevv out that svveat and euen shovver of bloud as if it had bene to shevv the profound reason vvhich euen all his body had to blush therat Or els according to the deuoute contemplation of holy S. Bernard as if he should haue shed teares ouer all his body since his sacred eyes alone had not inough of the sluce for such a purpose Of the excellency of Prayer declared by occasion of that Prayer of our B. Lord in the Garden CHAP. 57. INFALLIBLY he must needs haue dyed vnder this huge weight of sorrow if particular force had not bene sent him by the good will of God as the sorrow of the same kind though incomparably of an inferiour degree hath depriued many others of their life Nor are we able to discerne visibly by what meanes this strength and succour came imparted to him but only by the visitation of the Angell and the feruour and perseuerance of his Prayer to the eternal Father (a) We ought to carry great deuotion reuerence to the Angells of God Now since our Lord who as God was the King of glory did not yet disdaine as man to accept that seruice and assistance from an Angell much more must we who are in the next degree to Nothing carry great deuotion to those blessed spirits who come to vs with succour in their hands at such times as when
the kingdom of God of the deuill The former being lead by Christ our Lord who marched in the head therof with his meeke and innocent humble little flocke The latter guyded by Iudas with a great multitude of followers who were tumultuous wicked bloudy enuyous and hypocryticall men But (b) Amost iust expostulatioÌ„ agianst the Traytour Iudas tell me O thou miserable creature since the SoÌ„ne of the virgin tooke but twelue Apostles out of the whole world and made choyce of thee for one of them what could moue thee to forget so high a benefit much more what could induce thee to conspire the death of such a benefactour Since he had giuen thee the charge of the little teÌ„porall meanes he had and that by consequence thou must needs be next at hand both at the receiuing of those Almes which were afforded to our Lord IESVS those others also which he would be euer imparting to the poore out of his little store how couldst thou freeze in that yce of thy malice and enuy euen then when thou wert as it were rosting round betweene those two burning fires of charity What colour euen of common sense couldst thou haue to sell that Lord for thirty peeces of siluer Matt. 17. to whome thou hadst seene the very Fishes of the Sea pay Tribute Matt. 17. and how a word of his mouth fed at seuerall tymes so many thousands of men and women in the wildernes Couldst thou being an Apostle sel that Lord for thirty peeces of siluer Matt. 16. when thy selfe hadst seene so lately that the enamoured penitent S. Mary Magdalene who was but newly conuerted from a life of sinne could find in her noble and tender hart to cast away as a man may say three hundred such peeces Marc. 14. as thy thirty were vpon a pretious oyntment wherwith to honor the head of our blessed Lord as it were in the way of a complement Since thou hadst found by dayly experience that he knew the thoughts both of his friends and them who would needs become his foes what phrensey was that which could make thee thinke that thou wert able to ouerreach him by the disguyse of a treacherous kisse wherby thou didst as bad as call him foole into the bargaine And since thou hadst seene that his body was not obnoxious to the obligations of other bodies but that the windes and seas obeyed him and that he could walke vpon the waters and become inuisible when he would what stupidity besides the impiety was that in thee to bid them be carefull to hold him fast and lead him safe wherby thou didst insinuate that he was but a kind of Iugler or Impostour who would worke himselfe out of their fingars by some tricke or other of Legier-de-main Hadst not thou seene the worlds of Miracles which he had wrought He who had restored eyes to the blind could not he haue bidden thyne eyes see no more He who had made Paralitiques stiâ—re and goe could not he haue made all thy bones and sinewes wither in thy skin He who only with a Lazarus veni foras had fetcht that dead man out of his graue Ioan. 11. had not he bene able with the burning breath of his mouth to haue spit thy kisse into thy throate and at the instant to haue depriued thee of life But tell me yet againe O thou Monster and insamy of mankind could those accursed feete of thine lead thee on to such a mischiefe which euen but that very night had bene washt wiped by those hands of mercy Could thy tongue become the forge of so much treachery as to salute him with Hayle Maister when thy errand was nothing els but to betray him could that mouth imploy it selfe in deliuering him vp to death by animating those wretched meÌ„ against him who yet needed no incouragement of thine which for diuers yeares had bene dayly fed both at his table and from his trencher If thy kisses were so cruell what vvere thy vvounds or rather vvhat wound vvas euer so mortall as thy trayterous kisse And although thine ovvne reprobate conscieÌ„ce did not strike thee through vvith horrouâ— vvould not the presece of all thy fellovv-Apostles beate thee blind vvith shame vvho vvere so many vvitnesses against thee of all those benefits which thou hadst receiued that euen then so lately at the hands of such a meeke and mercifull Lord And hadst thou no body to sell him to but those very men of the whole world who did hate him most And was it possible for thy Tygars hart not to relent at least when thou camest to behould that holy person of his And though now he were no more able to worke vpon thee as an obiect of loue yet was it possible that thou shouldest not be wrought vpon by him as he was growne to be an obiect of compassion For thou couldst not but discerne a great change in his diuine countenance towards palenes and weaknes since thou hadst seene him last before through the Agony which he had susteyned and the sweat of bloud which he had powred forth in the Garden At least wert thou able to receaue the sound of that celestiall voyce into thine eares which besides the sacred tune did expresse that sweet and charming ditty Marc. 14. Luc. 12. Amice ad quid venisti osculo silium hominis tradis My friend consider what it is about which thou comesi caust thou find in thy hart to betray the sonne of the Virgin with a kisse And was not euen this of power to make thee at length retract the treason which thou hadst contriued hadst thou more theÌ„ a LegioÌ„ of deuills in thee which at the hearing of his voyce would not leaue thee free for of other meÌ„ we read that he dispossessed theÌ„ of whole Legions all at once by the only word of his sacred mouth At least if there were no remedy but thou wouldst needs coÌ„mit that vast sinne it might haue serued thy turne to haue betraied him by a deputy or if thou must needs do it in sight it might yet haue beene froÌ„ a far of But to do it both in thine owne person that so very neere at haÌ„d as both to speake to him to heare him to embosome thy selfe by a kisse and so betray him was such a high straine of wickednes that we need no lesse then the assurance it selfe of Gods holy Spirit to make vs beleeue that it should be true O (c) The 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 mortall sinne which art both mortal immortall in that thou puttest the soule to death but a death which yet knows not how to dye What ruyne dost thou bring to the hart of man wherin thou raiguest what perfect miracles dost thou worke there in reuersall of those others which are wrought by Grace For as Grace illuminates as it inflames as it instructs as it enriches as it exalts as it delights as it vnites iust so dost
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 doe some villanous lying boy They buffeted him with their fists and in that they vsed him like some idle and base vvicked slaue They spit vpon him and so they did as good as say that he vvas an infamous most odious blasphemer who deserued to be the outcast both of God and man They blinded him thē they boat him againe and to make themselues merry as a Lord of mis-rule is vvont to doe in a iolly Christmas they vvould bid him Prophesy who had beaten him and therby they called him foole and sot And they alluded to the vvickednes of vvhich they vvould needs suppose him to haue bene guilty in aspiring to be accounted a Prophet by the people Such vvas (d) The inuincible loue of Lord did conquer the power of all their rage the excesse of their rage and our Lord the vvhile vttered not one vvord of reproofe nor shevved not one gesture of mislike though his thoughts vvere not silent but vvell imployed Yet not vpon securing himselfe from their vvrongs but vpon sorrovving prosōdly for their sinnes To haue seene any creature in that vvofull case vvould haue moued any cruell hart to pitty how much more to haue seen though it had not bene as he vvas also God but only man that excellent beauty of the diuine countenance of our Lord so abhominably defeated and euen murthered as it vvere by those perfidious Ievves For murthered it vvas by those cruel buffets insteed of odoriferous and pretious gumms it vvas imbalmed in their nastly and impure spittle And it may also be accounted to haue bene buried in that beastly cloath vvhervvith they blinded those svveet-sad-eyes The least of vvhat they did to him at that time doth inuolue such a deale of indignity as is beyond al conceit but (e) How infamous an affront it was for them to spit vpon our Lord. yet that of the spitting seemeth to exceed the rest It is an odious and infamous kindof affront not vsed to any flaue euen by his Lord vvho hath an absolute dominiō ouer him But if at any tyme it be it is to shew a meeting together of the extremity of contempt and hate in the hart of him who desires by this vgly meanes to shevv it selfe Nay when we do but spit for the meere discharge and ease of nature we procure to doe it so as that no person of respect may so much as see it If by errour it should fall vpon some stoole or andyron or euen but vpon a mans shoe he is not well till it be wyped And therfore I doe not wonder if they forbare to strike or euen to touch his face after they had so desiled it till first they had put a veyle betwene The true place of spittle is either the ground that instantly it may be trodden out orelse the fire where in a moment it may be consumed But now this vnholesome excrement which being deliuered out vpon necessity is not suffered to continue vpon the meanest basest creatures or cloathes we weare was thought good inough to dwell vpon the most pretious parts of the person of Christ our Lord. And although the Prophet Isay might meane by that great diffiguring of our Lord which he foresaw and foretold the whole troope of torments which came vpon his diuine person yet it seemes that this of his spittle was pointed at by him in particular manner The holy Scripture doth further say that they vttered many other most blasphemous things against him But whether it were that it would exceed the bounds of modesty for vs to heare of the words or deeds themselues which those miscreants vsed or els to the end that euery one might haue the greater merit to contemplate in pious manner what they were the holy ghost thought fit to wrap them vp in silence Which certainly was done vpon high designe and great mistery and S. Hierome saith that till the day of Iudgement should arriue we were not fully to know the strange meanes wherby that night they vexed our Lord in the house of the high Priest Yet whatsoeuer they either did or said it is certaine that the very things themselues were not so odious in the sight of God as was the ground from whence they grew An (f) The scornes which they put vpon our Lord were doubled by the root of malice frō which they came itch they had at the very rootes of their prophane harts in chafing and scratching wherof by doing those detestable dishonours to our Lord they did triumph and spring with a most petulant and pestiferous kind of ioy And so on the other side though the very outrages themselues were far more enormous then we can conceaue which declare the infinite patience and humility of Christ our Lord yet the liberall hart of loue wherwith he offred them all to God for our good and wherwith he behoulding vs all at that very time could haue bene content to suffer more as afterward we shall see he did is that which ought both to comfort and confound vs most How our Lord was solemnly adiudged worthy of death for Blasphemy and of the death of Iudas and how they send our Lord to Pilate CHAP. 62. BVT then as the importunate malice of them who had our Lord IESVS in charge kept him farre inough from taking any rest so the Priests and elders themselues might not so well be said to be gone to sleepe as to bed through the rage of enuy which in all likely-hood kept them both waking and thinking that euery minute was an age till it were day at which tyme they intended to persecute our Lord to death They did therfore all Confestim manè Marc. 15. at the very point and peepe of day call themselues togeather in the forme of a Councell Where the vvicked Cayphas giuing account to that vvhole assembly of vvhat had passed the night before amongst those fevv vvhich could be gathered togeather vpon the sudden did againe vvith the same hypocritical shew of piety presse our Lord that for the reuerence of the liuing God he would declare to them Whether he were the Christ or no Our Lord out of his knovvledge that whatsoeuer he should say they would netther beleeue him nor answere him nor yet dismisse him vvould vvillingly haue forborne his answere but being pressed by this coniuration he declared to them yet once againe to this effect That he was the Christ And that once the tyme would come when they would know it to their cost and beleeue it when it would be too late when they should see him sitting at the right hand of the power of God and comming downe vpon the clouds of the ayre Heere vpon they (a) Our Lord Iesus the God of life condemned to death solemly pronounced him to be an expresse blasphemer and that he vvas worthy of death And so they instantly carryed him away bound to Pilate Whilst the meaner sort were loading him with a thousand wrongs the
pronounce an vniust sentence against him but he tooke him into his house hand to hand And finding vpon the speach which passed betwene them that our Lord had no designe vpon the honours and aduantages of this world nor (f) Our Lord had nopretēce vpon any other kingdom then that of heau◠pretended to the exercise of any other kingdome then that of heauen to which he endeauoured to draw men by teaching them to obey God who is the supreme King therof and the Iudge for his part not caring what became of heauen or heauēly things Ioan. 18. he came quickly forth againe declared that he found the man not guilty How Pilate examined our Blessed Lord and how he sent him to Herod Of the scorne which Herod put vpon him How the returned him to Pilate and how Pilate resolued at last to scourge him CHAP. 63. BVT they persisted in their malicious clamours and protested that the prisoner had bene sowing rumours Luc. 13. making stirres throughout all Iury beginning at Galiley and proceeding as farre as that very place Now Galiley was belonging to the iurisdiction of Herod who had bene the murtherer of S. Iohn Baptist and betwene Pilate and him Ibid. there had bene ill (a) A curtesy of a Courtier quarter till that tyme. But he chauncing to be then at Ierusalem this Pilate put a Court-tricke vpon him for he sent the prisoner to him as if it had bene out of a kind of respect wheras chiefely it was because he would faine be rid of the cause To Christ our Lord nothing came amisse who still with his accustomed humility patience silence obedience and most ardent loue and desire of the saluation of mankind did apply himselfe to renounce any gust of his owne and gaue himselfe all away to theirs And this true Prince of Peace was cōtent to vndergoe all that paine and to endure all that scorne which would be put vpō him both at Herods Court and in the way Ibid. betwene him and Pilate vpon condition that so he might be an occasion of recōciling the emnities of those two though both conspired to his preiudice For he knew that by that curtesy Ibid. which Herod would take so kindly at the hands of Pilate from that tyme forward they would be friends This Herod was a famous infamous person for his sensuality his cruelty and a world of other vices And for as much as he had heard often speach of Christ our Lord and of the reputation which he had both for his wonderfull workes and for his admirable wisedome he had an (b) The curiosity of Herod Ibid. extreme curiosity to satisfy himselfe in those two points In conformity therof he earnestly desired to see some miracle of his working And for as much as concerned the fame of his wisedome he procured by a world of questions which he asked to see whether truth would answere to the voyce which ran of him But our Lord IESVS who was not come into the world to make men sport but to doe them good nor to satisfy the curiosity of their heads but to impart true sanctity to their harts would not vouchsafe to loose one word vpon that wretched King nor cared he through his loue to be suffering for vs to defend himselfe against all those impudent lyes which by the Priests and Elders were thundred out in a perpetuall storme of words against him Yet euen Herod himself could not be so vniust as to allow of the plea which was made in accusation of him for as much as concerned the substance of his cause but yet (c) The falle and foolish iudgemēt of the wife men of this world Ibid. conceauing by occasion of his continuall silence that either he was some silly fellow in himselfe or els perhaps that in comparison of him our Lord thought himselfe to be of farre inferiour speach and wit and therfore would not discredit himselfe by saying any thing he did contemne him with his whole guard of souldiers after a most disdaineful manner and in token therof he returned him to Pilate with a fooles coate vpon his backe This act amongst the rest bred an extraordinary contempt of Christ our Lord in the peoples minde in regard that Herod and his Court were esteemed as a kind of Touch wherby men might be knowne distinctly iustly for what they were But howsoeuer this contempt did our Lord vouchsafe to vndergoe and this coate of scorne was he contēt and glad to weare for our confusion in respect of our former vanity and for our instruction how we are to carry our selues in future occasions Which (d) Agreat lesson of many vertues at once must not be to stand vpon the reputation of our sufficiency wit or knowledge we who are but wormes and flyes when the King of glory the word the increated Wisedome of Almighty God wherby all things were made is content for our sakes to cast himselfe before the eyes of our Faith all contemned and derided as any Idiot or naturall foole might be Nor are we to care though our patience be accounted feare or our humility basenes or our silence simplicity Nor when it concernes the seruice of God and the good of soules are we to shrinke from our duty and good desires though all the world should despise and hate vs for it But when Pilate found that Herod had not thought him worthy of death he was glad of that occasion and pressed it hard vpon the Iewes as knowing indeed that it was not the zeale of Iustice but the rage of enuy which had incensed them against him Sometymes he questioned our Lord IESVS to see if any thing would come from him in the strength wherof he might acquite him But our Lord who desired nothing lesse then what might tend to his owne discharge and nothing more then what might tend to our aduantage was so profoundly and inuincibly silent as did amaze the Iudge Marc. 25. And woe had bene to vs if this silence of our Lord had not bene exercised by him through the merit wherof the eternall Father will looke with mercy vpon those millions of sinnes which be howerly cōmitted through the impertinent indiscrect and vncharitable impure speach of men Sometymes againe the Iudge would be vsing all the art he had to make them desist from their desire of his ruine Marc. 25. Luc. 23. and in particular he thought of two expedients The former of them was to punish him so cruelly out of very pitty as that with the sight therof they might be moued with compassion towards him So that he resolued to haue him scourged and to that end he deliuered him ouer to the discretion of his souldiers who had none The torment of Christ our Lord Audi Piiac 120. in this mistery of his flagellation is excellently pondered by Father Auila He faith therfore to this effect That (e) Note this for it deserueth all attention if a
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
should be pierced or but euē the typ of his eare should be publikely bored through for anothers fault would not thinke that he had wrought a kind of wonder of loue But now the sinewes are they which are truly sensible of sharpe and stinging paine Whereof we see the experience in them who are subiect to the tooth-ach Which as it is the thing that makes dogs mad so euen men are little better if indeed they haue it in extremity and all but because some one sinewe is fretted by the descent of rhewme which remaines about the roote of a tooth The torments therfore which our blessed Lord endured as before by his Crowne of thornes so now by the nayles of his hands and feet what were they but great things which wāt a name since they were suffered in parts which were the proper seates as a man may say of the sesitiue soule where the sinews meet wherby the whole body after a compēdious māner might be most afflicted To this let vs add the consideration of this other truth which was once touched before That through the perfection and purity of his complexion and constitution Christ our Lord had incomparably a quicker sēse of feeling then any creature who euer liued Againe let it be weighed how he was a continuall Maister of himselfe and was neuer to be put to any such saynting as men sometymes are subiect to who by any great excesse of lasting paine are brought from any feeling at all therof Yea the reason of Christ our Lord was so farre from being trāsported in the least degree as that he felt (e) Our Lord did feel euery one of his paynes as distinctly as it he had felt but only one the remainder of euery one of the buffets which had bene giuen him and of euery one of the stripes of his body of euery one of the thornes of his sacred head and of euery one of the nayles of his blessed hands and feete in as distinct and cleere and seuerall a manner as if he had suffered but that one only single paine whatsoeuer it were So also the seuerall causes which afflicted his minde did neither yeild to one another nor drowne nor maister them of the body but euery single griefe of his minde was as distinctly felt as any one of thē alone could be Wheras when others are subiect to seuerall paine and griefe the maister-paine is that which carryes away all their thoughts from the rest As a vehement fit of the Goute or Stone puts away all remēbrance of an ague and as a very killing griefe of minde will make a man forget any bodily paine Yet all this paine or rather all these multitudes of seuerall and most exceshue corporal paines togeather with a cleere beholding of the deadly and vndeserued malice wherwith they inflicted them vpon him were not of power either to winde him vp into the due estimation of his owne soueraigne dignity which was so prophaned or to let him down into any diminution of his charity or to make him behould mankind which by their sinnes must all be accompted to haue conspired togeather more or lesse to his death with any other eyes then of endlesse pitty though by instāts they wentin creasing their cruelty For howsoeuer a man might thinke that what they had already done must needs be al which they could doe and that nothing more remayned to be deuised which might add to the misery of our blessed Lord Yet see a while how farre the rage and wit of cruelty and of enuy is able to reach For by (f) The torments of our Lord still increased rearing the Crosse vp aloft in the ayre that it might fall with more strength and force into that hole which had bene made of purpose for it in the earth and that so it might be able to sticke fast therin what a dissolution must the whole frame of the body of our Lord needs find in all the ioynts therof Infallibly the parts of his pretious body were all disioynted And least it should be thought that this were but a pious and only possible imaginatiō without further grōd let it be remembred how Dauid said of these persecutors in the person of Christ our Lord Psalm 21. Dinumerauerunt omnia ossae mea They numbred all my bones Which cannot well be done whē they are fitted to their natural places but when they are once wel put out of ioynt they push forth and appeare to any eye with ease And in another place it is said of him in his owne person Ierem. 23. Contremuerunt omnia ossa mea which implyes such a generall kind of commotion of all the bones in the skinne as so many stones would be subiect to in any bagg if it were well shaken Nay his torments were moreouer of that kind as that during all those full three howers wherin he was hanging vpon the crosse they increased of themselues by the naturall weight of his owne body For that weight made fresh wounds both in his hands and feete by making the former grow higher and wider and the whole frame of his body more out of ioynt We (g) How the torments of Lord were renewed haue seene already how the wounds of his head had bin renewed increased by those blowes of the Reed and so also euen by the very weight therof they went increasing euery minute We haue seen how the wōds of his body which were giuen him by those scourges were renewed by the often putting on and off his cloathes And now they were all increased by the excessiue cold which his nakednes gaue him through his comming so lately from that fire of heate which his flagellation his coronatiō his procession and his creeping or crawling vp the hill had cast him into And that cold was also augmented afterward by another miraculous accident which was growing vpon the whole world at once as I must shortly shew And heere we see how the weight of his pretious body doth still increase the torment of his sacred hands and feete and consequently of the whole body it selfe Of the excessiue torments of our Lord and how he was blasphemed by all sortes of persons and of the diuine patience and Loue wherwith he bare it all CHAP. 70. THIS passion was so highly beyond all president of former ages and persons as that our Lord himselfe though he vsed at that all tymes else to carry his sufferance in profound silence did yet inuite vs thus long before to the consideration therof Ierem. 1. by the mouth of his holy Prophet O vos omnes qui trāfitis per viam attendite videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus O all you who passe by the way obserue see if there be any griefe like this of mine Vent saith another in the person of Christ our Lord in the Passion Psalm 68. in altitudinem maris tempestas demersit me I came into the depth of
hart with most blasphemous and bitter scoffs The people which past in troopes Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioan. 19. before him did with serpentine tongues and countenances full of scorne cry out vah to him And they accompanied it with the most contumelous gesture and iogge of the head which they could deuise as the holy Scripture it selfe doth insinuate And that interiection with the words that followed doe as bad as say after this manner Thou wretch thou hypocrite thou vgly impostor thou wert talking of wonders but to what an end hath thy wickednes brought thee now at last Thou hadst a minde to be a King but what beggar is so base as not to be thy better might it please your Maiesty to come downe from the crosse that we your most humble and faithfull seruants and vassalles may doe you homage Thou talkedst of being the Sonne of God the Sauiour of the world Will it please your Diuinity to be good to your Humanity Will it please you to let your Charity beginne at home and to saue your selle Thou talkedst of what thou couldst do if thou wert disposed and that the Temple was but a toye and that thou wert able to put it downe and rayse it vp againe in a trice Might your Omnipotēcy be intreated to beginne with throwing downe that Crosse and to cast away those nayles and by iuggling to play least in sight as in former occasions you haue been known to doe Vah wretched wicked thing the worst of creatures the out cast of the world we hate thee we abhorre thee we despise thee we spit at thee we defy thee The earth hath refused to be trod vpon any longer by those pernicious feete of thine the heauen is walled vp against the entry of such a miscreāt as thou There is no place for thee but hell dye therfore quickly and be damned These are infinite blasphemies and we all abhorre them all as we doe the deuill himselfe but infallibly they are but triuiall things in comparison of those others which were darted out indeed against our blessed Lord vpon the Crosse For (c) A demonstration that the blasphemies which were vttered against our blessed Lord were most enourmous thinges though the holy Scripture toucheth them in in few words since they acted their worst by the way of doing they would be sure not to fall short in saying And the rage they had would quicken vp their wits and the excessiue wrongs which then already they had done him would exact at their hāds a making good of what was past by the vttermost most demonstration of how deepely they detested him at that present The high Priests besides are recorded in holy Scripture to haue put scoffs vpon him after a particular manner and they sayd to this effect This fellow had a guift to helpe other folkes but he hath not the tricke to saue himselfe If he he the King of Israell let him come downe from the Crosse and we will belieue him The good mā did put his trust in God but if God haue a minde to him let him take him The barbarous souldiers also were still vpon their old haunt of scorning him Ibid. hauing bene bribed in all appearance by those wicked Iewes euen from the beginning when he was scourged and crowned with thornes And they were so voyd of pitty as to be offering him vinager though they did but euen that in iest and scorne at that tyme wheras wine was wont to be giuē to all men who were placed in that deadly trance Yea and euen one of those very theeues who then were suffering death togeather with him tooke tyme not to thinke of his owne torments or imminent death togeather with the danger of eternall damnation which he was in through the lust he had to be like those sauages vnder whome he suffered and he would needs be then at leasure to reproach blaspheme our blessed Lord. How our Lord Iesus did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructour vpon the Crosse and of the three first wordes which with incomparable Loue he vttered from thence CHAP. 71. SVCH was the cruelty of all kinds of people against our Lord as he was hanging vpon the Crosse and such was the affliction which in the inferiour part of his soule he felt vpon euery one of those particular paines and scornes Nor was there so much as one single word a signe gesture or a thought of malice in any one of all those many harts which wēt not to his by the way of griefe Yet see also how it wrought in the way of loue As soone as the Crosse was reard and that already they had set al those markes vpon him which were to carry him to his graue that still he was hearing the bitter scoffs blasphemies wherby they prophaned his sacred eares he went exercising two of his chiefe offices in a most admirable manner and in a most eminent degree These (a) Our Lord Iesus the Mediatour of our redemption and the Doctour of our soules by by way of instructiō were to be the Mediatour of our Redemption and the Doctour in that Chaire of the holy Crosse for our instruction He then turned himselfe in most gratious but most dolorous manner to his eternall Father beseeching him to forgiue al their sinnes who had any way concurred to that death of his Father sayth he forgiue them for they know not what they do Ibid. Of God as God he knew not how to hope for such a fauour in respect of them and therfore he coniures him by the tēder name of Father that so he remēbring him to be that most beloued Sonne Matt. 3. he in whome he was well pleased he might be mercifull to those wretches whose cause he had vndertakē to plead For howsoeuer they had found in their harts to giue him so many wounds of death with so much scorne and rage yet he could not find in his to forsake them in theyr sinns but to begge that they might haue grace to returne by penance And because he easily foresaw that the crime was so enormous of it selfe his vnspeakeable charity went seeking waies how to excuse the grieuousnes therof by taking a part from their malice and ascribing it to their ignorance who committed it And he who in that Agony in the Garden prayed but conditionally that the bitter Chalice of his punishment might passe from him had so much more (b) Out Lord had far more care of vs thē of himselfe care of them then of himself as to pray in absolute termes that the Chalice of Gods fury might not come to thē Not only he did it in absolute termes but he did it at his death when Fathers are not wōt to refuse their sonnes And he did it more ouer in the midst of those excessiue torments when euen enemies vse to gratify one another and he did it by way of represēting so good a reason for the obtayning of his suite
as wherby he would conuince and oblige the Eternall Father to graunt it It was true that they knew not that he was the naturall Sonne of God but that ignorance was their fault and a iust punishment of blindnes for their other sinnes And the workes which he had done did manifest him to be what he said he was And though he had not bene the Sonne of God yet their owne conscience told them that he could not but be a man of God and of a most innocent and holy life and therfore they ought in reason to haue been very farre from intending such a ruine as they brought him to There was therfore much to be said against them little for them But yet our Lord through his infinite loue did let passe that much Hebr. 5. and laid hold of that little And he was heard by the Father for his reuerence And many of those miserable men were conuerted by the mighty hand of God and not only many of them but many millions of our soules in after ages are dayly conuerted in the vertue and strength of this holy Prayer Now withall this soueraigne Doctour did then read many lessons in one Namely (c) The instuction which is giuen vs by this prayer of Christ our Lord. that we must excuse the faults and much more the disputable cases which occurre by way of question whether or no our neighbours haue done ill yea and euen we are to pardon our greatest enemies in admiration and imitation of this diuine charity of Christ our Lord. For whatsoeuer affronts or wrongs they may be offering to put vpon vs who sees not what fleabytings they must be in cōparison of the wo into which our Lord was cast vpō the crosse Besides that he was the King of glory and did suffer for vs who were the most wicked slaues of Sathan Since therefore we were forgiuen being the enemies of God and who were in all reason to be condemned to hell fire for our many and most grieuous sinnes what rigour shall we not deserue at his hands if we forgiue not our enemies for loue of him Now to let vs see withall how farre he was from loosing any thinge in the sight of God by induring the bitter paine and ignominy of the Crosse he tells vs in language plaine inough that the Father who before had deliuered all power into his hands did meane nothing lesse then to resume the same and he shewed euen then that he was God For instantly he (d) The admirable mercy of our Lord to the good Thiefe Luc. 23. subscribed the petition of the Good Thiefe who rebuked the blasphemy of his companion and besought our Lord that he would remember him when he should be in his kingdome with such a gratious Fiat and vpon one single and short request as may aboundātly let vs see that we serue no lesse thē an infinite God that it costs him nothing to giue kingdomes or rather that it costs him much but that he is content to impart them to vs at an easy rate Yea euen as easy as it is to aske so easy shall it be for vs to haue if death preuent vs of being able to doe other workes of pennance And besides we learne by this that our Lord is so liberall and so full of loue to our felicity as that he takes no day with vs if the disposition which we bring be good any more then he did to this happy Thiefe who heere did make so good a ful point of stealing as that after a sort he may be accōted to haue stolne away the kingdome of heauen and he obtayned that this sentence should be pronounced by the mouth of truth it selfe It shall be so and this very day thou shalt be with me in Paradise O infinite goodnes of our Lord who had fogotten as it were to speake when it cōcerned him to haue answered for himselfe but who had neuer yet learnt to hold his peace when his speach might cōcerne the comfort saluation of such as desired the same Hereby we may cleerly find the great force of Grace which at an instant is able to make a great Saint of the greatest sinner So that as we may not presume of Gods mercy at the last hower of our life because we see what became of he wicked Thiefe so by the good Thiefes exāple we are bound not to despaire therof Withall we may well perceaue in the person of Christ our Lord who was wholy innocent and of the good Thiefe who was growne penitēt of the wicked Thiefe who was hardened in his sinne that (e) There is no kind of people which is not in this life to beare a Crosse Bell. de sept verbis in this life of tryall there is no kind of mē who can expect to liue without their Crosse as heere we see that all three sorts of men are crucified Good men haue their Crosses and so haue the bad and so also haue they who of bad grow good But with this difference it goes that the Crosses of good men end in glory and of the bad in euerlasting torment and shame Now since our Lord was so mercifull to this good Thiefe though he had led all his life in sinne how much more would it concerne him not to be vnmindfull of his deerest friends and especially of his all-immaculate mother and his beloued Disciple This Mother and Disciple had found him out as he was passing betwene Pilats Court and Mount Caluary For as much as concernes the excessiue griefe which had dominion ouer the hart of the sacred Virgin I shall haue oportunity to speake heereafter of it and for the present I only take occasion heerby to loue the loue of our Lod who by ordayning that his blessed Mother with S. Iohn should be present neere his Crosse at the tyme of his Passion besides the enamoured penitent Saint Mary Magdalen and Mary of Cleophas and Salome was pleased to add to his owne former griefe this second griefe which consisted in that he saw them grieue And especially in discerning with the eyes of his minde the fulfilling of that sad prophesy of Simoon who foretold that the sword of sorrow Luc. 2. should one day pierce the very soule of his blessed Virgin-Mother He had no will to call her Mother in regard that he would not wōd her yet more deeply by putting her in mind of such a seeming miserable Sonne But especially he forbare (f) The reason why our Lord did not call our B. Lady by the name of mother from the Crosse to vse that name because he being so odious in the eyes of all that wicked and abused world it could not chuse but to haue bene of great disaduantage to her at that tyme to be known and considered for his mother by so many as were spectators there But he did that in other words with admirable charity which did liberally prouide for the comfort both of
Grace And from any one of these Vnions not only could he neuer be separated indeed but not so much as doubt that he might be so To say therfore that he was forsaken by God in respect of any of those former wayes of Vnion is grieuously to blaspheme the God of heauen and earth and to prophane the dignity and Maiesty of the soule of Christ our Lord and impiously to interprete and attribute that excesse of his diuine charity to the deepest dishonour which he could receâ—ue as that most wicked (*) Caluin Lib. 2. Instit. cap. 26. §. 10.21.12 in harm mc. 27. Matth. Sectary hath presumed to doe Affirming that our Lord despayred of Gods mercy vpon the Crosse when he vttered those words And that he felt the very paines of the damned in his soule the greatest wherof is the knowledge and feeling of hauing lost Almighty God And although he will pretend that he exalts the mercy of God heerby since God suffered his Sonne to endure the very paynes of hell for the reliefe of man yet besides the hideous blasphemy which these words doe euen of themselues inuolue the wretched Heretique is so blind withall as not to know or so wicked as not to confesse (d) A demonstratioÌ„ wher by that blasphemy is defected that the dignity of Christ our Lord was such in regard of the hypostaticall vnion with the diuinity that any one single sigh alone of his being applyed by faith and charity had bene of merit to saue innumerable millions of worlds of meÌ„ though euery of them had bene as wicked as that most wicked man himselfe If therfore one only sigh had beene inough for the redemption of the world then certainly those other many and most sublimely accomplished acts of vertue which that happy soule of Christ our Lord did worke through the whole course of his diuine life being accoÌ„panyed by those vnspeakable torments which he endured with a kind of infinite loue to vs in his sacred passion before his death will make his redemption of vs most superabundantly copious without needing to haue recourse to any such impious and hereticall blasphemy as that miserable man suckt from the authour of lyes to be dispersed by the disciples of his lewd Doctrine The Catholike Doctrine the truth is that which hath already bene declared That our Lord IESVS was content to be depriued of all sense feeling of diuine comsort which he expressed by those dolorous words of his And his pleasure also was that we should be told that he vttered them with a loud voyce Ibid. To (e) Why our Lord spake those words with a loud voyce the end that euen from the most remote corners of our hard harts we might heare theÌ„ and adore him for them And now as he asked not that question with a lowd voyce as if the eternall Father could not haue heard him if he should haue spokeÌ„ softly so neither did he aske it at all as not knowing or needing to be certified why he was so forsaken by him since our Lord knew all things And how should he be ignorant of that which so much concerned himselfe he who knew the secrets of all harts and how the eternall Father would dispose therof Colos 23 and in whome the all treasures of knowledge wisedom were heaped vp But he asked that question to the end that we might seeke for the Answere of it and seeking it might find it and finding it out might learne to know both the grieuousnes of sinne therby which was so sharpely punished vpon Gods owne only Sonne the infinite torments from which we are to be deliuered by such a costly meanes the inestimable value of grace for the purchase wherof to our vse Christ our Lord was content to sel whatsoeuer he could part withall both in body and reputation euen in the inferiour part of his very soule the vnspeakeable glory of the kingdome of heauen which was only to be opened thus by the Golden maister-key of the infinite loue of Christ our Lord. For vpon the only turning of this key towards vs those lockes do all fly open wherin the eternity of selicity is treasured vp for vs in the house of God Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus did expresse by the silence and solitude wherwith he endured those vnspeakeable torments vpon the Crosse and how the whyle he was negotiating our cause with God CHAP. 73. THIS Passion opens the doore of eternall felicity to vs but heere we see how for the tyme it did shut the gate of comfort against our B. Lord. For betwene the end of his three first speaches and this complaint which he made to his eternall Father which was the first of his fower last there passed vpon the point of three full howers during all which tyme this Sonne of the Virgin did not once so much as open his blessed mouth O that our Lord would heere graunte the suite of his humble seruants whilst they desire to haue some sight and tast of that dolorous condition wherin then he was lodged for our sinnes O that we might partake some little part of that amazement wherwith al the quires of heauenly spirits did abound when they saw their Creator planted in the ayre vpon a Crosse deformed from head to foote with torments prophaned with blasphemies attended in sileÌ„ce by darkenes yet withall so far from taking reuenge of any dishonor that had bene done him as that he suffered still with entire submission and with inuincible loue both of God and man But that which still me thinks makes the rest more strange and wherin more of the God appeares is that straÌ„ge kind of silence (a) The admirable silence of our Lord and how he did not once coÌ„plavne either of his paynes or our sinne wherof I spake before and that totall absence of expressing any manner of complaint by so much as any one word yea or euen sigh or groane It was said before that our Lord himselfe had inuited the world to behold the case wherin he was and if we were content to do so vpon the summons of Pilats Ecce homo how much more are we to six our harts vpon this tragicall figure of our owne making now that we are called to it by Christ our Lord. I cannot thinke of this strange spectacle what me thinkes I would nor can I yet say what I thinke but in weake and cloudy manner Our Lord giue vs grace to thinke and say heerof as we ought and that we any doe as he deserues But certainly since he hath giuen vs such faculties of mind as wherwith to wonder at strange things his meaning is that we should imploy them vpon such an obiect as is his bottomles hart in this tyme of his hanging vpoÌ„ the Crosse For then was he sacrificing himself vpon that Crosse as vpoÌ„ the Altar of whole world at once Then (b) The infinite affaires our Lord did
negotiate vpō the crosse did he as it were shut himselfe vp for the Redēption of mankind making dispatches which he sent by moments to the mercy and Iustice seate of God and speeding of all his memorialls concerning the erection and propagation of his Church the illuminating of Pagans the mollifying of lewes the reducing of Heretikes the instruction of all soules the propitiation of sinnes the satisfaction of all paynes the impetration of all graces and the retribution of thankes for all benefits There did he adore God in highest contemplation there did he prostrate himself with profound humiliation There did one of the extended armes of his soule reach to the Angells in heauen and the other to Lymbus below the earth his hart the while betwene them both was imbracing the whole race of mortall men with desire to make them all one with him in that kingdome of glory vpon the purchase wherof he was then disbursing his hart bloud He had nothing but deadly sorrow by him but he saw that ioy before him which he was eternally to take in the glory of God and good of man Hebr. 2. And therfore Proposito sibi gaudio sustinuit crucem confusione contempta If euer his hart did appeare to be an infinite kind of thing it was in those three howers of torments desolations and silence He was at that tyme withall the world or rather with as many little worlds as there had bene were were to be reasonable creatures in it but there was not any one of thē with him in the way of giuing him the least sensible comfort So that we may conclude that his Father and Sonne and seruant Dauid did most truly litterally prophesy of him when he said Psalm 10◠Vigilaui (c) The sad solitude of Christ our Lord. factus sum sicut passer solitarius in tecto He was kept well awake like a solitary sparrow vpon the roofe of a house which knowes not whither to retyre it selfe being strocken by the voyce of thunder and frighted on euery side by the flashes of lighning and battered euen to the very braines by an impetuous storne of rayne and hayle O thou innocent lambe of God which takest away the sinnes of the world Thou Lambe of God who art also God and becamst a Lābe that so thou mighest not only haue wooll wherof to be fleeced for the couering of vs but bloud also which thou wert glad to shed for the giuing of life to vs. And how deeply are the soules of vs thy seruants wounded to see this multiplication of thy miseries How cordially are we afflicted that we can but be astonished at this solitude and silence and those vast torments of thine Or rather how much are we ashamed that we scarce say true euen when we say that we are sory for them since we are so wicked withall as that we giue them not leaue to worke those effects vpon our soules for which they were suffered vpon thy pretious body How long shall we be the slaues of sinne since thou hast fought so hard for our liberty How long shall we care for the contentments of this life since thou who art more to vs then millions of liues didst for the loue and example of vs wretches contract and tye thy selfe to such an endlesse shame of reproach torment How come we to be so miserable as that we are able so much as to liue when we see that thou who art the King of glory and the God of life art thus going to dye Would not lesse deere Lord haue serued the turne for the accomplishment of our redemptiō but that thou must needs be thus obnoxious to such a vastity of anguish as now we see thee in Lesse would haue serued to satisfy the iustice of God since by reason of the Hypostaticall vnion any one act or sigh of thine would haue ouerbought many millions of worlds from hell But nothing could satisfy that vnquencheable heat of thy hart vnlesse thou hadst endured all this Chaos of confusion torment Because therby not only our saluation but our sanctification also was to be more nobly wrought more sweetly and more honorably for vs more gloriously for God and therfore more gustfully and delightfully for thee in the superiour part of thy soule howsoeuer in the inferiour it cost thee deere Of the vnspeakeable thirst of our Lord which he did indure and declare with incomparable Loue to man CHAP. 74. THERE remayned now a Prophesy to be fulfilled cōcerning the thirst of our Lord vpō the Crosse The torment of extreme h̄gar is sometymes so great as that we read of straite and long sieges of townes where the inhabitants haue bene driuen by the rage therof not only to eate vncleane beasts but euen mothers haue deuoured the very childrē of their owne body yea and euen the flesh of their owne Lymms And yet most certain it is and we take a kind of tast therof by our owne dayly experience that euery one of vs who haue at any tyme found our selues in extremity both of hungar and thirst haue felt the thirst incomparably more troublesome thē the hungar (a) The great torment of great thirst beyond that of hungar Such againe as haue trauelled sundry dayes in some dry and barren deserts as it hapneth to many in the Southern and Eastern parts of the world such as haue felt the malignity of burning feuers doe well vnderstād what I say Nor is there almost any treasure vpon earth which some such man would not be glad to giue for a glasse of water Now thirst is otherwise also caused by excesse of labour by heate by griefe of minde by payne of body and especially by the spending of much bloud And we seldome let bloud whē we are taking Phisicke though it be but in iest but it serues to giue vs increase of thirst How ardent then must the thirst of Christ our Lord needs haue beene in whome alone al the causes of extreme thirst did meet For during all that day and the whole precedent night he had bene perpetually in tormēt And besides his Agony and bloudy sweat in the garden he had bene dragged and buffeted and all inflamed by those cruell scourges thornes And lastly he had byn bored through with nayles vpō which he had now hunge almost three houres with streames of bloud continually flowing from him and his spirits were exhausted by a world of deadly sorrow at his hart to increase his thirst This torment he endured all that while without once so much as saying that he endured it Nether did he expresse himselfe now at last in this kind through the delight he meant to take or paine he meāt to driue away by drinking for already he was euen vpon the very pitch and brimme of death And he who in all that tyme had bene swallowing vp the want of drinke in silence could easily haue extended his patience to those next minutes which were 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
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
persons aliue Either for nobility and power out of the Citty of Rome which was the Empresse of the world or out of the Prouinces of Greece which was the Seminary of all morality and learning or out of the citty of Hierusalem which the opinion of sanctity the maiesty of Religious rites did easily outstrip all other places But (d) Why our Lord made not choyce of the noble wise or learned men of the world for conuersion therof 1. Cor. 1. he who afterward did condemne the pride pleasure of the world vpon the Crosse had before in the choice of his Apostles both confounded all discourse of flesh and bloud and withall he tooke care to magnify the attributes wherof I spake before of his power his wisedome and his goodnes By choosing as S. Paul affirmeth the meane things of the world to confound the noble the weake to cōfound the strong and the things which scarse were thought to haue any substance or being at all to confound other things which seemed as it were to beard and braue the vvorld It is true that he admitted of some few learned men for his Disciples as Gamaliel and Nathanael And of some fevv vvho vvere rich and noble as Lazarus Nicodemus and Ioseph of Arimathia that so he might not seeme to disdaine nobility and learning but yet his Apostles in a manner vvere all obscure and poore vnlearned men Both because such persons are vvont to goe more vvillingly after the call of Gods holy inspirations and partly also yea and chiefely to make the vvorld cōfesse that vvhen it should see vvhole Prouinces subdued to the faith of Christ our Lord by the preaching of his doctrine out of such ignorāt mouthes as theirs vvere knovvne to be it might be obliged to impute the same to no other cause but the omnipotēt povver of God the Father the infinite vvisedome of God the sonne vvho is Christ our Lord and the inexhausted goodnes of God the holy Ghost vvhich was able to doe such vvonders by such weake instruments Novv that (e) How Moyses in some respect was an extract of the Apostles 2. Cor. 2. vvhich vvas heere fulfilled in the person of the rude Apostles vnder the lavv of grace vvas punctually prefigured vnder the vvriten lavv in the person of Moyses vvho vvas but a sheepheard and a stammerer and so could haue no grace or guift of speech But Virtus Dei in infirmitate perficitur The strength and power of God is perfected and proclaymed in the weakenes of man And Moyses could not be so vntovvard either in fortune or nature for the busines which God imployed him in but the same God could vvith ease doe those wōderfull things by his meanes which he designed for the deliuery of his people from the seruitude of Pharao And this he wrought aftervvard in a more admirable māner by the ministery of his poore Apostles in freing soules from the tyranny of the spirituall Pharao which is the deuill The rebellious Angells and our fraile forefather Adam were grounded at the first in great priuiledges both of grace and nature but through disobedience and pride they all fell headlong downe The Angells to hell Adam into a deepe darke hole full of infirmity and worldly care But the Apostles had their foundation and first beginning in pouerty ignorance and simplicity and in fine in a being nothing of themselues And now as the pride of the former was abased so the humility of these latter as we shall see in the Chapter following was exalted by the holy and mighty hand of God whose name be euer blessed for the glory which he giues himselfe by his owne goodnes The incomparable Loue wherwith our Lord instantly rewarded the speedy obedience of the Apostles CHAP. 28. SVCH men as these they were whome our Lord designed to the Apostolate which yet was the most excellent and most eminent office in the Church of God And he vouchsafed to inuite them with such strength as well as with such tendernes of loue that they came when they were called They did it instantly and cheerfully and absolutely Saint Peter and S. Andrew Marc. 1. were casting their netts into the Sea and immediatly vpon the fight and voyce of our Lord Iesus who bad them come and follow him Matth. 4. they went and left their netts in the act of their falling into the water without staying so long as might serue to draw them vp againe And much lesse did they delay till they saw what draught they might chaunce to haue Ibid. S. Iohn and S. Iames were in the act of mending their netts and vpon the very first sight and hearing of the voyce of Christ our Lord who called them to him they did not so much as fasten one stitch or tye one knot but immediatly they put themselues vpon following him Leauing not only their netts but abandoning euen their very father through the desire they had to comply at full speed with the inspiration of God which spake more lowdly to their harts then the voyce of Christ our Lord as man had done to their eares of flesh and bloud S. Matthew as is touched Matt. 9. both before and afterward was in the (a) The admirable conuersion of S. Matthew Custome house in the midst of a world of reckonings accounts he was in the very act of sinning the company which he was in would not faile to encourage him in doing ill but yet our Lord had no sooner bid him follow him but he left all at the very instant without so much as saluting his friends yea this he did with such excesse of ioy as that to shew the comfort of his hart he feasted his new Lord and maister The world is full of men who can write and read but there are not so very many who cast account so well as this B. Apostle knew how to doe Preferring God before the world and the treasures of diuine grace before the corruptible riches of this life and lending such a watchfull and listning care to the inspirations of almighty God in the obedience wherof it was but for our Lord to call and him to come But neither he nor those others were in danger of (b) Men are far frō loosing by giuing much to God loosing any thing by obeying the voyce of Christ our Lord. To vvhom although for the tryall of their loue and for the increase of their merit he made no promise at all vvhen he called thē but only to those fishers that he would make them fishers of men yet aftervvards he made them knovv that they had to doe vvith a liberall God And for as much as they had left their little comodities to follovv him vvho seemed to haue lesse and for that they had so generously contemned the care of friends and goods for his loue and in regard that they had put themselues instantly and franckly vpon his seruice vvithout asking any day or desiring to be
assured of any coÌ„dition he vvas quickly pleased to shevv the very bovvells of his mercy tovvards them They vvere opened before but then did he let them see hovv he had lodged them all therin For (c) The vnspeakeable fauour with our Lord lesus imparted to his Apostles in regard that they had left their little All for him he admitted them instantly into his ovvne diuine conuersation he instructed them by his heauenly doctrine He gaue them a dominion ouer deuills that they might expell them out of the bodies of men He made them knovv that he vvould leaue them Ambassadours in his place betvvene God and the vvorld That they should haue povver to offer consecrate and consummate his owne pretious body and bloud And to remit or retaine the sinnes of men according to that spirit of vvisedome and the authority vvhich he vvould impart to them for that purpose And that so they must grow to be Treasurers of eternall riches and administrators of all his diuine Sacraments Doctours of the vvhole vvorld And they being so fraile and imperfect men as vve haue shevved before he assumed them to a kind of participation of his ovvne Empire ouer heauen and earth and to a spirituall kind of principality aboue all the Monarks of the vvorld And that vvhich more importeth then all this he declared that they should sit together with himselfe vpon his throne and at the day of Iudgement giue sentence vpon the Twelue Tribes of Israell vvherby the vvhole vvorld is designed So (d) How infinitely we gayne by giuing al to God that heere vve haue meanes to see at hovv high a rate that mony is put out to vse vvhich vve present to God I meane vvhat infinite gaine is raysed by making a deed of guift of the miserable litle thing which vve haue and are to that immense goodnes of his By hearkning with a diligent faith full hart to his holy inspirations vvherby he vvoes vs to become his that in exchange he may be ours It is true that he desires to haue all or none and he hath reason For if this soule of ours with being so poore a thing as it is be yet of such capacity as that nothing which is lesse then God himselfe can content and fill it what a brutish thought would it be in vs to conceaue That our God himselfe could be contented to inioy but a part of vs who are things of nothing and who were all created by him and who are his and only his by so many tytles that hell it selfe is a punishment which comes not home to the crime of our diuiding the soule betwene him creatures He being the sole and supreme truth all (e) All that which concerneth creatures is a meer lye whensoeuer it disobeyeth God or drawes vs from him Confes lib. 10. cap. 22. creatures no better then a pure perfect lye in whatsoeuer they say they are or would seeme to be otherwise then as they yield obedience to the diuine Maiesty S. Augustine doth excellently expresse this particular when reuersing the wandring steps of his ill gouerned youth in the way of confession to almighty God he deliuereth himselfe in this manner Thou art supreme truth who presidest ouer all things Loath I was to loose thee but through my couetousnes I desired to possesse a Lye together with thee This was the reason why I lost thee because thou disdainst to be enioyed in the company of a lye The Apostles therfore when they were called did instantly and wholly giue themselues away with all they had And though the goods which they left were not a matter in themselues of any moment yet they were esteemed to haue giuen much because those happy men reserued nothing to themselues And with the same affection through which they had left that little they were as ready to haue left a thousand worlds for the loue of Christ our Lord. And S. Peter afterward was not affraid to put our Lord in mind therof by these words of his innoceÌ„t and confident Matt. 19. ardent tender loue Behould we haue left all things and followed thee what therfore wilt thou doe for vs He said not that he had left his netts or his house or his boate or this or that but absolutely that he had left all things And (f) The infinite liberality of our Lord Iesus our Lord made him this answere with no lesse then the bounty of a God Amen Amen c. which declareth a most serious affirmation or protestation You who haue followed me shall sit vpoÌ„ thrones at the resurrection of the iust you shall iudge the twelue tribes of Israell And whosoeuer shall haue left his Father or mother or brother or sister or house or land for my names sake shall haue a hundred fold in this world and afterward shall possesse eternall life Yea so liberall is our Lord IESVS as to reward with no lesse then heauen for euery instant of that tyme which we dispose our selues to imploy vpon his seruice And yet his excellency is such as that euen the very only doing him any little seruice is of so great happines to a faithfull soule as that it alone is an ouer-pay foral the paines that can be taken in this life But to shew that our Lord is scarce able to differre the recompence of such as follow him with a ready will we shall see in the next Chapter how he takes some of them as it were into the ioyes of heauen before their tyme. And he who (g) Note heer the excellent loue of Christ our Lord. would not haue them present when he was tempted solitary and in act of penance because perhaps they were not so able to feed so soone vpon such crosses or hard crusts as those did yet resolue that he would not haue some of them absent when he was to be Transfigured vpon the hill But that in recompence of their beginning to doe him seruice for the strengthning of their Faith and Hope and Loue in the processe of it they should tast a dropp of that glory wherwith they were to be inebriated in heauen Of the excessiue Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man in the mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 29. THE Temptation and Transfiguration of our Lord IESVS are liuely instances of hovv hard things he desired to suffer and how excellent things he desired to doe for vs which two â—â—e the most certayne tokens (a) True loue desires not only to do great thinges but to suffer hard thinges Matt. 17. of true loue We haue already considered of his Temptation and now this Mystery of his Transfiguration is thus related in the sacred text That our Lord tooke Saint Peter S. Iames S. Iohn into the top of a high and solitary mountaine to the end that he might pray That whilst he (b) The manner of the Transfiguration of our Lord Iesus was praying he grew to be
is most toucht so is their paine augmented by speaking or thinking of things which concerne Almighty God whose breath they smell but vpon whose substance they are not suffered now to seed and yet all things els are a torment to them They thirst and pine they euen consume and melt and they cry out to our Lord and there is none but only himselfe who can comfort that swelling and gasping soule of theirs And though they seeme to be neere him yea and so they are in very deed yet they find themselues to be as in a prison out of which they know not how to breake Such affects as these doe raigne in the harts of some choyce seruants of God vpon the consideration which they haue of wanting certayne feeling communications of his diuine Maiesty in this woefull pilgrimage wherin they liue Yea it is not many yeares since one who was sicke of this sweetly sad disease was so happy as to dy of a flux of teares and another whose hart strings brake and he instantly dyed in exercising some acts of the loue of God and so it was found when he was opened Measure (e) The incomparable griefe of our Lord Iesus then by this what depth of sorrow it must cause in the hart of our B. Lord to be absented so from the feeling fruition of God whome he knew so well whom he loued so much and whome so perfectly he had inioyed before In comparison of whose knowledge and loue and ioy in God the knowledge and loue and ioy of all the other creatures put together is not so much as one single moate compared to the whole body of the earth And yet wheras they with all this griefe of theirs for wanting God haue yet through his goodnes some such kind of feeling of him still as makes it to be in the midst of paines a kind of most ioyfull sufferance our Lord was pleased to take the bitter without the sweet for himselfe and only to feele and penetrate the want vvherin he vvas of that good vvithout enabling the inferiour part to reflect vpon that same very good in the vvay of conceauing any Comfort by it The incomparable sorrow of Christ our Lord through his consideration of the dishonour of God and the sinne and misery of man togeather with the sight of what himselfe was to suffer CHAP. 56. NOVV if it vvould be of such vnsufferable paine for Christ our Lord to be only absented or estranged from Almighty God vvhich abseÌ„ce is no sinne but only a punishment and vvhich is not many tymes ' of any offence at all to the diuine Maiesty but serueth only for a probation of vertue and for a preparation to an increase of grace hovv may vve thinke that it vvould pierce his hart from side to side to see as hath been sayd that God prophaned his glory disgraced his lavv transgressed and all those creatures vvhom he had created after his ovvne Image to enioy heauen vvith eternall felicity to staÌ„d novv so neere vpon the tearmes of being damned to euerlasting misery He savv vvhat Adams happy state had beene and vvhat a miserable a state it vvas grovvne to be He savv that reason vvhich vvas a Queene vvas novv become the drudge of PassioÌ„ The sinnes of the vvhole world were to passe vpon his account nor was the least of them to be pardoned by the Iustice of God but in vertue of the sacred Passion which then he was about to vndergoe They were (a) The true cause of our Lords excessiue sorrow all represented to his dolorous afflicted mind as distinctly as they were distinct in their being coÌ„mitted and a million of tymes more cleerly then the men who coÌ„mitted them did euer see them Let a man but thinke how many sinnes he alone may haue committed in some one day of his life and then how many daies he hath liued how many of his sinnes he hath forgotten how many of his actions words thoughts are accounted sinfull in the sight of God which yet did not seeme so to him Let him thinke how many men there are in the towne where he may chance to be how many in the Prouince how many in the kingdome how many in all Europe how many in all the world at this tyme. Let him thinke how many there haue bene in the whole world throughout all the ages therof since the begining and how many there may be before the end And who shall now be able once to conceaue of the innumerable sinnes which haue bene are are to be coÌ„mitted by all this race of maÌ„kind Prouer. 14. since the iust man sinneth seauen tymes a day by veniall sinnes and many who goe for Saints with vs will be found to haue committed many and many Mortall What shall we therfore say of such wicked men as drinke iniquity vp like water Iob. 15. whether they be vicious Catholicks or blasphemous Heretiques or disobedient Schismatiques or perfidious Ievves or Prophane Pagans or bestiall Turkes and Mores What Legions what millioÌ„s what worlds of sinnes must there haue been presented to the soule of Christ our Lord to suffer for since for as much as concerned him he accepted the punishment of them all and that by so exact scales of diuine Iustice as that if any one of all those sinnes had not be committed the Passion of Christ our Lord had bene so much the lesse grieuous And it was to be their fault vvho vvould not by Faith Penance apply that Passion to their soules if they were not saued therby and not any defect of the Passion it selfe of Christ our Lord who savv knevv and counted and accepted euery one of their particular sinnes and made for as much as coÌ„cerned him oblation of an inestimable paymeÌ„t in discharge of the same particular sinne Not (b) Our Lord Iesus suffered not only for all the sinnes which were coÌ„mitted but for all those others also which would haue been committed without his grace only did he see and suffer for all finnes which already are and are heâ—reafter to be coÌ„mitted but also for all those other which vvould haue bene committed by them all if they had not bene preuented by the Grace vvhich grevv from God in contemplation of the Passion of Christ our Lord. For no lesse vvas his pretious bloud to be the Antidote preseruatiue against all sinnes vvhich might haue byn coÌ„mitted then it vvas to be the remedy and cure of such as vvould be committed indeed So that euery man did add somevvhat to this sorrovv of our Lord both good and bad past and present and to come vvithall their sinnes vvhether they vvere great or small of thought vvord or deed vvhether the vvere mortall or veniall of omission or commission vvhether actually they vvere or would haue been committed if they had not bene preuented by this costly meanes And if (c) Other considerations which do open the sight of the soule to discerne the loue and
paine that is to say any spirituall Crosse which the holy wise hand of God shall think fit to send vs and to do it for his sake who dyed vpoÌ„ that materiall Crosse And now we haue seene by all this holy History of our Lord IESVS that whether he be aliue or dead he is all ours and in despight of sinne he will make vs also wholy his if we will but now and then consider how he sold and abandoned himselfe for our benefit Psalm â—â— It was sayd by his seruant in his person Sicut aqua effusus sum I am powred out and spilt like water which euery base creature treads vpon Now water besides is a most obedient kind of thing It easily takes what impression you will it applyes it selfe to whatsoeuer place you will put it to Looke backe therfore and see if our Lord haue not bene powred out like water What place or posture or what kind of punishment did he refuse which they would put him in Or what thing was that which they would not make him subiect to which eyther the head could inueÌ„t or the hart inflict or the hand could act He seemed not in that part to haue bene so much a man as a very thing a passiue substance a liuelesse instrument a pile of grasse in the presence of a great winde vpon which they had all power to worke their will for he had giuen his away He turned head at nothing but accepted of all the scorne and paine which they could load him with In the (d) How our Lord was subiect to all kinds of oppressioÌ„ Garden we haue seene how for waÌ„t of others he was his own executioner tooke such sad thoughts into his hart as himselfe was not ashamed to expresse In his appreheÌ„sion or taking he was subiect to the fury of a popular tumult though it were coÌ„tenanced afterward by the lying face tongue of Iustice in the house of Annas and Cayphas to make that seeme laudable which indeed was damnable He was subiect in that house to the hypocrisy and enuy of the Priests of his owne Law togeather with the indignity which the Sycophant did him by that blow vpon his diuine face In the imprisonment of that night he was wholy subiect to the courtesy of those keepers of his who had only a care not to kill him before day that then they might after a manifold kind of manner In the examinations of Pilate he would submit himselfe to the Tribunall of a Pagan and in that of Herod to the scorne of the secular power of his owne Religion And both there afterward in Pylates Court to all the torments and shame which could be deuised by those disolute souldiers In his way to Mount Caluary he would be silent to that world of clamour and when he was arriued to the top of the hill those bloudy executioners were not so insolent cruell in commaÌ„ding as he was mild ready to obey If (e) How entirely our blessed Lord would needs submit himselfe to al kind of insoleÌ„cies they had a minde to binde him he meekely offered them his armes for that purpose If they had a mind to box beate him to plucke him by the venerable hayre or beard if to spit vpon his diuine face he neuer so much as turned it either from their rage or scorne but they strocke spit vpon him at their pleasure If they had a minde to strip him starke naked they did it he replyed not against it though I nothing doubt but that it was the greatest torment which he endured and they stripped him not only once but fower seuerall tymes and the last tyme of the fower did continue till that happy syndon his winding sheete receiued shut him vp from their eyes If they had a mind to scourge him he let them doe it in most bloudy manner which transformed that vnspeakeable beauty into a kind of leprousy at an instant If they would resolue that his imperiall head should be also wounded that after a manner both of torment reproach beyond example he did not so much as aske by what commission they did it but he submitted that diuine head to a crowne of long piercing thornes If not content with that they were yet desirous to renew his paines to giue him at once many wounds in that most sensible part of his body and that as often as they should list he lent them a Reed wherwith they might doe it by striking him vpon the head at theirfancy If yet they should resolue to pierce his body through through in the most liuely parts therof with cruell nayles he extended his hands feete to admit what soeuer they could deuise to doe If they had an humour to scoffe and to blaspheme him he had eares wherwith to heare them and yet he had a hart wherwith to pray for them whilst they were cursing him So truly and so entirely did he powre himselfe out as any water might be spilt which costeth nothing He powred forth his sighes and prayers in the presence of God and his teares in the view both of God and man He powred forth his bloud both through the anguish of his minde through the torments of his body He powred forth his honour in being so prophanely blasphemed and so opprobriously spit vpon and in being so shamefully and so often buffeted and stript of all his cloathes in the sight of all those worlds of people and lastly he powred forth his precious life which he resigned into the hands of his eternall Father A Conclusion of this discourse of the Passion of Christ our Lord and the vse which we are bound to make thereof For the greater that the loue and mercy is which he expressed therein the more excessiue will his rigour be for our contempt therof CHAP. 78. BVT howsoeuer this water of the fountaine of life were spilt with strange liberality for our good yet there fel not one drop for which we shall not be called to a most strict account if we be so wretched as not to saue it from being lost For we (a) The mystery of the Passion death of Christ our Lord doth looke very many wayes at once are to vnderstand that it was not any one onely part which was represented by Christ our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse but they were very many it coÌ„cernes vs much to marke theÌ„ all Not only doth the infinite mercy of God shine brightly in this mistery wherin we see that his own increated Sonne was content to dy for the saluation of man but his infinite Iustice also doth no lesse appeare since it would not be satisfied with lesse then the death of such a Sonne Not only may we heere discerne the pitty which he beareth towards sinners but he giueth vs also as cleere a prospect vpon his vnspeakeable detestation of sinne since for the abolishing therof he was then to imploy no lesse