Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	call_v	lord_n	soul_n	6,288	5	5.4233	4	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A72883	Of the love of our only Lord and Saviour, Iesus Christ Both that which he beareth to vs; and that also which we are obliged to beare to him. Declared by the principall mysteries of the life, and death of our Lord; as they are deluiered [sic] to vs in Holy Scripture. With a preface, or introduction to the discourse.	Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655.	1622 (1622)	STC 17658; ESTC S112463	355,922	614

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 theÌ„ 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 vpoÌ„ 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 froÌ„ 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 embracemeÌ„ts 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 persoÌ„ of our Lord Iesus was so excellent as that neither doth glory now make it other theÌ„ 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 excelleÌ„cy 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 haÌ„d 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 aboundaÌ„ce 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 eueÌ„ 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

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 vpoÌ„ 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 coÌ„clusion of this discourse of the miracles of Christ our Lord. that to coÌ„clude 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 circumstaÌ„ces 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 incessaÌ„t 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

goodnes immediatly vpon his hauing washed the Apostles feete And our Lord was pleased by that vnspeakeable humility of his to prepare and exalt them to a participation of so high mysteries as were to follow Ioan. 7. The holy Ghost was not then descended because the sonne of man was not asceÌ„ded vp to heauen And therfore it is no meruaile if S. Peter were at that tyme to seeke concerning the reasoÌ„ why our Lord would vse such an excesse as that But he was told that he should vnderstand the mystery afterward Ioan. 13. and then he would easily know withal that (f) The great purity which is requisite to a Catholique Priest no purity in this world could be too great for the disposing of themselues to that which they went about which was to be ordeyned Priests and not only to partake but also to dispense the pretious body and bloud of our blessed Lord. Our Lord IESVS did therfore take bread into his hands he blessed it and gaue therof to his Disciples when first he had pronounced the words of Consecration ouer it Declaring and consequently making it to be that very body of his which was to be offred vpon the Crosse That being done he also tooke the Chalice and he consecrated that in like manner affirming and therby also making it to be that very bloud which was to be powred out afterward for the saluation of the world He authorized and commaunded them withall to doe the like in commemoration of what he should haue done and suffered for them Now incomparable was the loue which our Lord shewed heerin both in substance circumstance In (g) Most strong in substance most sweet in circumstance substance because he gaue himselfe for the food of his seruants and in the manner of it because he did it in such a sweet and tender fashion towards them at such a tyme when yet his owne hart was oppressed with sorrow through the foreknowledge and expectation of his bitter PassioÌ„ which was theÌ„ at hand Nay he was pleased as appeareth by the words of the sacred Text to be (h) In the very consecration he speake and thought of his Passion feeding his thoughts actually vpon how he was to giue his body vp by his bitter Passion and to shed his bloud by a violent and most dishonorable effusion euen whilst he was graunting that legacy and consecrating the same body and bloud of his for the comfort and ioy of mankind vnder the familiar and delightful formes of bread wine He was taking his leaue of them though yet he knew not how to leaue them But as he went from them in that visible manner according to which he had conuersed vvith theÌ„ til that tyme so yet he vvould bind himself to come in person to them for their comfort though in another forme vvhensoeuer they should haue a mind to call him How our Lord would not harken to those reasons which might haue disswaded him from shewing this great mercy to man Of the necessity of a visible Sacrifice and how our Lord himselfe doth still offer it CHAP. 46. IF reason might haue preuailed it seemes that he should haue taken heed vvhat he vvas about doe Matt. 7. That if Pearles were not to be cast to swyne much lesse vvas this inualuable ievvell to be mis-spent vpon so many vvho vvould continually be vvallovving in the filth of sinne That there vvould be a vvorld of Pagans Iewes Heretiques and vvho vvould not beleeue and would blaspheme the truth therof That millions of Catholikes though they did beleeue it would not yet frequent it but would rather for beare this bread of life this fountaine of heauenly water then the muddy miserable gust of some carnal pleasure or some base interest of the world which yet doth but lead them from a Purgatory in this life to a Hell in the next That some would do worse then to abstayne for notwithstanding that they resolued still to sinne they would yet presume with Sacrilegious mouth to prophane this Lord of heauen and earth to bring God into that house wherof the deuill had possession and dominion And in fine that they would be too few who would often resort to it with due reuerence of that Maiesty with hungar after true sanctity with loue of that immense beauty and with that purity of hart which might forbid them to lauish and wast themselues away in pursuite of creatures This might haue seemed to be the voyce of reason which was to haue diuerted our blessed Lord from submitting himselfe to such indignity as he seemed by his mercy to grow subiect to But (a) How the infinite loue of our Lord made answere in our behalfe to this infinite wisedome he on the other side would needs vnderstand it to be otherwise And that he being an infinite God it vvould become him well to be infinitely good That it should not be long of him if all the world were not inchayned to him by loue That if any man would either vnder-value the benefit and much more if he would abuse it otherwise a most rigorous account should be asked therof And that in the meane tyme it would be comfort inough for him if such as were resolued to serue him might be incorporated to him not only by supernaturall grace but by this supersubstantiall bread which should cause an vnspeakeable vnion betwene him them This was a principall reason why our Lord was pleased to institute both this diuine Sacrifice and Sacrament in this last supper of his but he did it besides for the fulfilling of Prophesies and the perfecting of the figures of the old Testament He was not come as himselfe had formerly affirmed To breake the law but to fulfill it And therfore as he was pleased to eate the Paschall lambe with all those Ceremonies which the law required and which till then were to be of force so (b) The Paschall lambe was a figure both of the death of Christ our Lord and of the B. Sacrament the same being partly a figure of the Passion and Death of our Lord IESVS and much more properly of the Blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse it became his Truth and Goodnes to ordaine and institute them at that tyme. For his Church in euery one of the states therof aswell vnder the law of nature as the written law was the Spouse of Christ our Lord and in vertue of that only coniunction it vvas acceptable and pleasing to the eternall Father But particularly it was to be so vnder the Law of Grace vvhen once it should come to be fed by his sacred body and inebriated by his pretious bloud And therfore as in those former tymes the Church of Christ our Lord had neuer bene without her Sacrifices neither is there indeed or can there be any true Religion without a reall and proper Sacrifice so much lesse vvould he permit that Spouse vnder the lavv of

and within our selues and to one another And then wil that be fulfilled which the blessed Apostle sayth 1. Cor. 10. That we are all one bread and one body we who are partakers of that diuine bread and of his Chalice But though this may be truly said to some proportion of all such as doe carefully and deuoutly come to this blessed Sacrament yet most eminently is it true of them who are fed therby in the state of holy Religion Whose perfect (g) The vnion of religious persons is a kind of miroculous thing Vnion hath so very much of the miracle in it that it conuinceth euen the most malicious tookers on For euen they when they are in their wits caÌ„not ascribe it to any other cause then the powerful preseÌ„ce of the grace of God the powerfull grace of his preseÌ„ce that such a world of persons of so different incompatible nations ages humours descent dispositions and talents should liue together in as perfect a mutuall consent of mind as if they were all the twynnes of one and the same naturall mother The (h) Of other circumstances which do greatly shew the loue of our Lord. ardent loue of our Lord IESVS doth also as liuely appeare in other circumstances of this diuine Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Altar It is true that such as receaue Christ our Lord with great purity of hart are content as it were to be at cost and care to adorne their soules when they to be sit at this celestiall Banquet are receiued by him with an vnspeakeable communicatioÌ„ of himselfe and he imbraceth them with armes of so great delight and ioy as is very different from what he ordinarily doth to such as approach Iesse deuoutly to him At this we are not to wonder for the loue of our Lord IESVS to vs is not like the loue of men which if it be very great it puts them as it were out of their wits But the (i) The loue of our Lord doth no way derogate from his infinite wisedom loue of our Lord God doth not take him one haires breadth from home nor doth it derogate at all from his high wisedome Nor are there in the world any weights either of gold or diamonds so precise or nice as the weights of the wisedome of our Lord God whereby he values euery thought of preparation which is made more or lesse when we approach to his presence And accordingly he receaues vs either like his seruants or like his Sonnes But yet still this is true that there is no person in state of grace who may not celebrate if he be a Priest nor no other man or woman but may communicate otherwise of the body and bloud of Christ our Lord with great profit This (k) Our Lords loue doth still more and more appeare by the coÌ„sideration of other circumstances Lord might haue annexed this incomparable benefit to the only state of perfect Chastity or only to such persons as had performed certaine grieuous penances or at least to such alone as had neuer dishonored or profaned either this soueraigne Sacrifice or most venerable Sacrament by ill receiuing it But his Charity would not endure that any one should be excluded from such a benefit if at last he would be content to loue him He might haue abridged vs to one only tyme of coÌ„munion in all our life or at least that we should not communicate aboue once a yeare But so farre he was from giuing any such restraint as this that he desires nothing more then that we should often repaire to this food of life Yea and he hath inspired his holy Church by his holy Spirit to counsaile her children to frequent it and to driue them out of her company by (l) They are excoÌ„municated who doe not communicate once in the yeare excommunication if at certayne tymes they doe not satisfye the longing which he hath to become therby one with them There is no necessity or important occasion in the world either corporall or spirituall either publicke or priuate for which this holy Sacrifice may not be offered And not only brings it profit to liuing men but to such as haue led vs the way to Purgatory where the paines are much discounted heereby as S. Augustine De cura pro mortuis possim and many other of the Fathers doe aboundantly shew So also in our receiuing the blessed Sacrament we of the layty are put to no stint heerin but euery Christian may communicate as often as his owne ghostly Father shall thinke fit And as when (m) The King of Glory vouchsafes to come and visit in person euery beggar we haue health of body we may in euery Church goe to him so when we are sicke we neede take no care in this for he wil be sure to come to vs. And if it were an incomparable mercy as we haue seene it to be in the last discourse of the miracles for our Lord IESVS to visit and cure the sicke of corporall diseases whilst himselfe was mortall how much more is he to be magnified by all the powers of our soules since he coÌ„sines himselfe as a man may say to our Altars and bindes himselfe to be there at all the howers both of day and night and to be ready in all weathers and vpon all warnings and sometimes with small attendance to transport himselfe to the death-bed of euery beggar yea and of euery sinner who may perhaps haue profaned him in the same Sacrament to cure and comfort their afflicted soules And all this he doth now that he is glorious in heauen and sitting at the right hand of God Sometymes (n) He is pleased to be exposed for our coÌ„fort opon our Altars for many howres together he is pleased that we shall not only receaue him which action is begun and ended as it were at an instant but moreouer vpon great solemnities as also vpoÌ„ other particular occasions of the Church we may haue the coÌ„fort to see the blessed SacrameÌ„t with our corporal eyes for some good tyme together And sometymes it is exposed for the space of forty howers vpon our Altars And because he reapes much honor and vve much good by the meeting of many pious affections in one and for that the multitude of the faithfull is so great in euery good towne that no one Church can hould them for that purpose this mercifull Lord of ours is content to be carried in procession through the streets and publicke places and so to take homage from whole Cittyes at once whereby they (o) How we reuerse the dishonour which was done to our Lord in tyme of the Passion doe the best they can to reuerse the ignominies and affronts which he receiued in the many most paynfull and most shameful processions which he made to the house of Aunas of Cayphas of Pylate of Herod and of Mount Caluary in that night and morning of his bitter Passion for

Testament an (b) Iudas Apostle one of the twelue whom God had elected out of the whole world to be his Embassadours one who had liued neere three yeares in the sight and tast of that fountaine of sanctity Christ our Lord and of that stream of purity charity his all-immaculate mother whom all generations shall call blessed One who had wrought miracles Luc. 2. and exercised dominion ouer the Princes of darknes by commaunding them to depart out of possessed persons One before whome the King of glory had kneeled downe to wash his seate one who had bene fed with the body of our blessed Lord which he gaue with his owne sacred hands This man this Monster to shew vvhat a monstrous thing euery liuing man is sure to be at the instant that he deserues to be forsaken by the omnipoteÌ„t mercy of our Lord God made such hast to hell as that he suffered not his eyes to sleepe nor his eye lids to slumher till hauing entred into a part with those perfidious Ievves for thirty peeces of siluer he put himselfe vpon betraying and by a kisse this Lord of life into the hands of death This Lord (c) The loue of our Lord to vs in the losse of Iudas gaue vvay to this inestimable offence against himself that it might be a great and lovvd vvarning Peece of meeknes for as much as he vouchsafed to suffer of humility feare for as much as Iudas presumed to do To the end that no priuiledge of fauour or possessioÌ„ of present vertue might make any man rely vpoÌ„ his ovvne strength which is al but vveakenes 2. Cor. 7. But that adhering to God by faith hope loue we might worke our saluatioÌ„ with a filiall seare a treÌ„bling ioy For the whole race of mankind was nothing at all in the way of nature and to nothing it would instantly all returne if it vvere not conserued by the omnipotency of God as by a kind of continuall nevv creation And in the way of grace vve are all lesse then nothing and the holyest soule vvhich euer vvas might instantly plunge it selfe in sinne if it vvere abandoned by Gods grace If then we haue our being both in the state of nature and of grace by the particular fauour of our Lord God it follovves that the more graces he giues and the more fauours he shevves to a soule so much the more must it be subiect to him And they are to serue but as so many bills of debts vvherby it is bound to find hovv base and beggarly a thing it is of it selfe and consequently hovv profoundly humble and gratefull it must be to our Lord vvho only knevv hovv to enrich it For our Lord is a great God and vve are vveake vnvvorthy thinges vvho can giue him nothing by vvay of retribution but only a continuall faithfull and humble acknovvledgment that vve are (d) How we are to entertaine the memory of Gods fauours of our owne sinnes nothing vvorth And as through his infinite goodnes vve may call to mind euen our greatest sinnes vvith much comfort vvhen once vve haue done true penance for them so through his infinite greatnes the soule which receiueth fauours and visitations of him in particular manner must thinke of them with great apprehension and feare vnlesse they be intertayned with much humility and improued by Prayer and other industry The griefe which our Lord IESVS had for euery single sinne of the whole world was excessiuely great as we haue shewed How excessiue therfore must it needs haue been to see this hideous sinne of this Apostle And by the measure of his griefe we may find the measure of his former loue for loue it was which made him grieue The thing which might comfort him in that affliction was to coÌ„sider what an innumerable number of soules would take warning by this sinne of Iudas As soone therfore as that treacherous kisse was giuen and that our Lords sacred words and inspirations were contemned by that miserable creature our Lord IESVS went on towards the troope enquiring whome they sought And when they told him that it was IESVS of Nazareth Ioan. 18. he instantly answered that he was the man But as on the one side they saw him a man so on the other he then gaue himselfe Gods truest (e) The Maiesty of our Lord Iesus euen when he he was mortal seemed miserable Name of Ego sum I am though they vnderstood it not But he thought good to let them see that he had somewhat in himselfe of the God And so resoluing to try all imaginable wayes for the mollifying of their marble harts and perceauing that the mildnes which he had vsed with Iudas succeeded not he gaue such a Maiesty to those two words as serued to cast them to the ground We may imagine heerby with what terrour he wil appeare when he comes as Iudge who in his very Passion wherin he meant but only to suffer could so declare his power We may also well perceaue heerby that they were strangely confirmed in malice since a miracle of that nature being wrought vpon the persons of themselues had no meanes to make theÌ„ rise to pennance But they rose by the permission of God to continue in their sinne and to aske our Lord the same questioÌ„ a second time and a second tyme to receaue an Answere to the same effect Our Lord (f) Our Lord had no care of himselfe but much of his Apostles Ibid. adding further by way of commaundement that they should suffer his Apostles to retire themselues whatsoeuer they might haue a mind to doe with him And it seemes to haue bene impossible for that diuine Lord to haue cast his thought vpon any creature to whome he must not be shewing mercy For when S. Peter in detestation that they should presume to lay hands vpon his Maister had picked out one of the busiest of them Ioan. 18. and had cut of his right eare our Lord was so willing to suffer as to mislike the impedimeÌ„t which his disciple was about to giue And by a touch of Malchus eare with his omnipotent hand he cured that enemy who came to lead him to the Passion hauing repressed his friend who went about to hinder it And euen as they were binding him he made no resistance at all he reproached them not by declaring their sinnes he vpbraided not the miracles which so aboundantly he had wrought vpon them or theirs he framed no quarell against them but only this action of vnkindnes Luc. 22. That he bauing imployed himselfe so much vpon instructing and teaching them to their good liking in the Temple they should now come forth against him with swords and Clubbes as they would haue done against some insoleÌ„t bloudy thiese As if he had said If you come indeed to seeke the true Redeemer and Saniour of your soules you shall find to your comfort that I am he But if

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 ChristiaÌ„s 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 inconstaÌ„t in mantayning those tender thoughts which they excelleÌ„tly 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 persoÌ„ 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 maÌ„ as he was walking before the front of the TeÌ„ple wheÌ„ 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 coÌ„miting 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 notwithstaÌ„ding all the incoÌ„modities 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 receptioÌ„ which he vouchsafed to make to all commers Of Iulius Caesar it is recorded that being threatned with danger of a mutiny and defection in his army he spake to his souldiers this one only word Quirites (e) That word did shew that he held them no longer for souldiers of his but only as citizens of Rome and that thought pierced theyr harts with sorrow shame wtih such circumstances of grace and wisedome as that he drew al their hartes towards him at an instant It is true and it was much and there haue not beene many Caesars in the world But yet away with Caesar a way with Titus they were but durt and filth when they were at the best and now like damned spirits their soules are cursing God in hell And what Titus or Caesar dares shew himselfe when once there is question of grace and wisedome in presence

changed their Lordes and formes of gouerment and not only the feilds haue bene bedevved but euen great Riuers haue beene dyed vvith bloud The (e) The great weakenesse of man euen besides his Wic kednes vveakenesse of man euen abstracting from expresse and malicious vvickednes is a lamentable thing to looke vpon Hovv often do vve erre in that vvherin vve procure least to faile vvho hath not desired and euen purchased many things vvhich he thought had beene a meanes to make him happy from vvhich yet he hath gathered nothing but the bitter fruit of misery No (f) The miserable incoÌ„staÌ„cy of man Cane is so vveake no vvinde is so inconstant and vvauering from the imoueable North as man is froÌ„ the Center of his rest by the variety of contrary dispositions which raigne in him Making him to be now merry and then melancholy now deuout then distracted Nay he sometymes who is valiant temperate wise happy within an hower after will be fearefull luxurious indiscreet and miserable and euen himselfe shall scarce know how that growes nor why So that not only euery Country and Citty family is vpon all warnings subiect to mutation towards the worse but there is no particular man who euen in his owne bosome hath not the woefull sense of such disorder confusion and restlesse variety of discourse that vnlesse our Lord God had vouchsafed and resolued vpon some remedy neither would our possessession haue beene free from desolation nor our bodies from destruction nor our soules from damnation S. Augustine exclaimeth thus by occasion of his owne particular and what then might he haue done vpon the general Tibi (g) How iustly my we all imitate that incoÌ„parable Saint in saying this Confes lib. 6. cap. 16. S. Leo ser 2. de Natiuit Dom. laus Tibi gloria fons misericordiarum ego fiebam miserior tu propinquior To thee be prayse to the be glory O thou fountaine of mercy I grew further of from thee by misery thou camest nearer me by mercy For when the world was at the worst and wickedest then did our Lord the God of heauen and earth whose very nature is goodnesse it selfe whose will is power and whose worke is mercy resolue vpon the remedy therof His (h) Nor should we content our selues in doing small seruices to such a Lord of loue as this pitty was not satisfied with contynuing the whole world to our assistance and seruice although by sinne we had forfeited the same It was not satisfied with mainteyning to vs the vse of our faculties and senses wherby we had yet procured to employ our selues wholly to his dishonor It was not satisfied with rayning downe sweet showers of other blessings blowing ouer many bitter stormes of vengeance which his iustice would faine haue powred vpon vs. In fine it was not satissied with such expressions as are wont to be made by the deerest partes of flesh and bloud nor would lesse serue his turne then to giue vs his owne only Sonne for our totall redresse And yet not only for the sauing vs from hell which is but the paine due to sinne but for the guilt also it selfe of sinne which is in comparably worse For so God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that (i) By Faith working with charity but Faith without workes is dead as sayth S. Iames. Prou. 22. whosoeuer should beleeue in him Ioan. 3. might not perish but haue euerlasting life And so that was verified which was said by the mouth of his holy Spirit Diues pauper obuiauerunt sibi Dominus autem operator vtriusque The rich man and the poore haue met one another and our Lord is the worker of both For who so rich as God he being the abundance and the very inexhaustednesse itselfe of all plenty and what is so poore a thing as man and such a man as was euen vpon the very brimme of dropping downe into the bottome of hell if our mercifull Lord had not put himselfe betwene him and home The Originall Roote and Motiue of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered CHAP. 9. THE Loue which our Lord Iesus was pleased to shew mankind is found to be very different from that which the men of this world are wont to beare to one another For either we loue them who are rich that they may reward vs or who are vsefull that they may help vs or who are beautifull that they may delight vs and the best kind of loue which we are wont to beare is when we giue it by way of gratitude for some benefits or fauours which vve haue receiued But (a) The differeÌ„ce of the loue which our Lord beares to vs in respect of that which we beare to one another man in relation to Christ our Lord was so poore and so deformed a thing and so vvholly disobliging him to loue as that there vvas nothing in man which might so much as speake of challenging any at his hands It may also seeme a greater vvonder hovv he could induce himselfe to loue vs since as there vvas no merit on our side so there vvas no passion or blinde capriciousnesse on his vvhich yet is the thing that cooples creatures together many tymes in the chaynes of loue vvithout all desert For (b) The former doubt is solued by considering the first motiue of the loue of our Lord to vs. the soluing of this doubt at the very roote therof we must resort to the motiue of the loue of Christ our Lord. Amor de Dios. Which was not as Doctour Auila doth excellently shew any perfection in vs but only that which was in himselfe and which by his contemplation of his eternall Fathers wil was put in motion towards mankind It depended vpon that solemne decree which with infinite mercy was made by the most blessed Trinity of imploying him vpon the Redemption and Saluation of the world When therfore he became Incarnate in the pure wombe of his all-immaculate mother in the very instant of the Creation of that most holy soule which was infused into his pretious body it was indued vvith all those incomparable blessings and graces vvherof vve haue already spoken and all vpon no other originall ground but onely because our Lord God vvas pleased to amplify extend his bountiful hand ouer that sovvle and so to exalt his ovvne goodnes both tovvards it and vs. Nor euen vvas that soule then in case to haue performed any one act vvhich might be meritorious in the sight of God out of vvhose pure and primitiue grace and mercy those vnspeakeable benefits vvere bestowed But vvhen in that happy instant vvherin it vvas created it did first open the eyes (c) What vnspeakeable affections would be raysed in that soule by that sight of her already deified vnderstanding and did see her selfe freely made that excelleÌ„t thing vvhich God is only able

Herod was That thing which once vvas Nothing and now was growne to be so hideously worse then Nothing as it is incomparably worse to be an enemy and persecutour of Christ our Lord then not to be at all But imediatly after the Presentation in the Temple our Lord Iesus was carryed to Nazareth a place remote almost fourescore myles And (b) The occasions of Herods feare Matt. 2. Luc. 2. the noyse of his Natiuity and of the Starre which ledd the Magi and of the Presentation in the Temple together with the prophesies of the King of the Iewes to be borne at Bethleem gaue Herod an all-arme of extreme feare least he who indeed was come to giue vs the kingdome of heauen had meant to rob men of earthly kingdomes But what sayth S. Augustine will his tribunall Ser. 30. de Tempore when he shall sitt as iudge be able to doe now that his Infaurs cradle is able so to fright proud Kings How much better shall those kings doe who seeke not to kill Christ like Herod but rather desire to adore him as the Magi did Him I say who at the hands of his enemies and for his very enemies did endure that death which now his enemies designed him to who being killed afterward did kill that very death in his owne body Leâ— (c) The duty of King sto this King of Kinges Kings carry a pious feare towards him who is sitting at the right hand of his Father whome this impious king did so feare whilst he was sucking at the breast of his mother This cruelty of his did extend so farre as to commaund the death of all the Infants within two yeares of age in Bethleem and all the places neere adjoyning who are esteemed as appears by Ecclesiasticall history to haue arriued to the number of about (*) Vide Salmeron Tom. 3. Tract 44. foureteene thousand That so he might be sure at least as he conceaued to make our Lord away who had not then in likelyhood the age of so many monthes But because some Children are more forvvard in grovvth then others and some errour might chaunce to arriue by the mistaking of age vvithin a little compasse he thought it vvas lesse ill to murther thousands more then needed then to aduenture the escape of that one vvho yet came voluntaryly to dye euen that the tyrant himselfe might not perish So different are the designes of God and man so different are their desires And the successe is also so very different as that the diuine Maiesty doth take sometymes the (d) God draweth good out of euill peruerse will of man yet without hauing any part in the peruersenes therof for the execution of his iust decrees yea not only such of them as are founded in iustice but euen in mercy also It would seeme to some who iudge of God by the lawes which they vse to prescribe for themselues that it had beene much more agreable to the greatnes of such a God as we describe not to haue permitted that such a Tyrant should liue to commit so vast a cryme as this How easely could our Lord with the least breath of his mouth Deutr. 4. which is a consuming fire haue blowne downe that painted wall how little would it haue cost him to haue strocken Herod lame or blind or mad or dead or to haue damned him to hell for all eternity and at an instant How soone could he haue sent that infamous Rebellious little worme who presumed after a sort to spit in the face of that high Maiesty into the bottomelesse pit of Nothing from whence with mercy he had beene drawne It might haue bene instantly and most easely done But the wisedome of God tooke pleasure to drawe great good out of great euill and his loue was that which did set his wisedome so on worke For (e) The wise mercy of God by this permission of his and by the publishing of Herods cruelty the notice of the mistery of his owne Natiuity was much inereased that so his loue to the soules of men might be declared And besides if tyrants were not permitted on earth there would be no Martyrs in heauen as S. Augustine saith And if this tyrant had then beene strocken by some suddayne death the mercy of God might haue seemed lesse wheras now by forbearance euen Herod also had tyme of penance though his Malice were such as that it made no vse therof And * The happines of the Innocents and their mothers against their owne the Tyrants will as for the happy Innocents who were murthered by that Tyrant vpon the occasion of Christ our Lord it is plaine that the world which would deplore their misery yea and their afflicted mothers who did also lament their owne infelicity were farre from iudging as they ought For how much better was it for those mothers to be created mothers of so many Martyrs who instantly went to a seat of rest and presently after the Resurrection of Christ our Lord were placed as a garland vpon his owne sacred head and carryed into an eternity of glory for hauing bene murthered in despight and for the hate of him then to haue contynued as they were but the mothers of Children like the rest Who if they had runne on in their owne naturall course they might perhaps haue ended it with the losse of their soules wheras novv they vvere not only saued but vvhich is more it vvas done vvithout their hauing euer so much as once offended God and so they vvere made the very flovver and first fruits of martyrs So that the loue of our Lord vvas exercised heerin vpon them all And (f) The loue of our Lord Iesus entreth euery where and vpon all occasions vvhere may vve not looke for this loue And vvhat place can be found vvhich is voyd therof since euen in the poysned Cuppe of the Tyrants hate the pretious liquor of his diuine loue did svvym so high as to fill the same To himselfe he tooke the most sad and painefull and shamefull part The compassion vvhich he had of the holy Innocents paine and death I meane of that little which they felt of paine in that passage for his sake vvas a kind of infinite thing That of the mothers vvas extreme for the sacred Text discribes them by vvay of Prophecy to haue bene so profoundly afflicted Ierem. 31. Matt. 2. as that not only they could not but euen they would not receaue comfort But as the loue of the tendrest mother to the only infant of her vvombe may go euen for hatred if it be compared to those vnspeakable ardours of affection vvhervvith the hart of our Lord doth euer flame tovvards all the Creatures for vvhome he dyed Esay 49. for although a mother should forget her sonne yet can not I forget you saith our Lord so may their griefe hovv great soeuer be termed a kind of ioy in respect of his Theirs grovving our of selfe loue

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 coÌ„pared 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 coÌ„forted 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 haÌ„d of God was there either to deliuer or at least to coÌ„fort theÌ„ 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 froÌ„ 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 theÌ„ for a toy Shall we thinke that his meekenes would appease the rage of those hungry wolues they hauing bene so loÌ„g 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 froÌ„ no other cause but only a profoÌ„d roote of loue they (b) His very patience made theÌ„ 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 theÌ„ 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 PottoÌ„ 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. 2â— 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

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. Â§. 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 vpoÌ„ the crosse did he as it were shut himselfe vp for the RedeÌ„ption 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 theÌ„ 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 10â— 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 LaÌ„be 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 redemptioÌ„ 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 coÌ„cerning the thirst of our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse The torment of extreme hÌ„gar 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 childreÌ„ 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 theÌ„ 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 vnderstaÌ„d 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 wheÌ„ 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 tormeÌ„t 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 vpoÌ„ 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 meaÌ„t 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

Charity Patience at the Crosse are traÌ„splanted out of the desert of this world into that gardeÌ„ of God in heauen For thither is she assumed both in soule body to the fruition of more glory then is possessed by all the Angells and Saints There is she ingulfed in the bright vision of God where she sees and in whome she loues all the soules which haue recourse to her with incomparable Charity and care And if S. Augustine could truly say of his deceased friend Nebridius who was gone to God Confes l. â— c. â— I am non ponit aurem ad os meÌ„ c. He doth not now lay his eare to my mouth but he applyes that spirituall mouth to that spring of thine and he drinketh wisedome after the vttermost rate of his owne greedy thirst being happy for all eternity Neither yet doe I thinke that he is so inebriated with thee as that he can forget me since thou O Lord whome he is drinking art mindfull of vs. If S. Augustine I say could thus reflect vpon Nebribius who shall be euer able to expresse the perpetuall memory or rather the euer preseÌ„t sight and care of vs which the mother of our Lord God now raigning in such glory as becometh such greatnes hath inceÌ„ parably more teÌ„derly more liuely of vs then S. Augustines Nebridius could haue of him So much more as she was made our mother heere so much more as now that she is there she drinkes whole seas of God for any one drop which Nebridius could drink consequeÌ„tly as she is more perfectly happy traÌ„sformed into that Abisse of charity God himself whose loue desire care of our eternall good is infinite Proceed therfore O thou glorious Queen in being glorious raigne thou for euer vnder God alone ouer all his creatures Proceed in being gracious to vs thou who wert so ful of Grace euen before thou wert made the mother of God Thy soule did magnify our Lord at the visit which thou gauest to S. Elizabeth with (c) The princely gratitude of our B. Lady expressed in the Magnificat to our Lord God more delight ioy theÌ„ euer had bene coÌ„ceaued by any creature And thou didst theÌ„ most diuinely expresse his goodnes to thee in a maÌ„ner of Court so choice noble as might wel declare that thou wert born a Queen thou didst singe Magnificat to our Lord for hauing respected as it were cast an eye of fauour towards thee And how truly indeed wert thou as good as thy word therin when thou saidst that thou didst Magnify or make great our Lord. For whilst he was bestowing those great fauours vpon thee according to those other words of thine Fecit mihi magna qui poteÌ„s est sanctuÌ„ nomeÌ„ eius Our Lord hath done great things to me and his name is holy thou wert euen very then returning those great things againe to him with the additioÌ„ of thine owne most humble thaÌ„ks So that the greater he made thee the more great and glorious he was also made by thee And besides how couldst thou mak him shew more glorious and more great then in saying that with the cast as it were but of an eye he had made such a mother for himself as thou This Magnificat of thyne is celebrated with diligent and dayly deuotion by the holy Catholike Church in memory of that high ioy which thou hadst in thy Angelicall hart when the holy Ghost expressed it selfe by that well tuned Organ of thy tongue But now O soueraigne Lady that thou art all transformed in God thou art singing it out in a far higher straine Thou canst not say any more that he but casts an eye of fauour towards thee for now he lookes vpoÌ„ thee with a full face and thou art able to see him as thou art scene 1. Cor. 13. And since the more thou seest of him the more dost thou also see of vs. Vouchsafe to implore his mercy towards the reliefe of our misery which thou canst not but find to be extreme Behould vs who are children of thy soule since by Faith thou becamst the mother of all such as were to liue by Grace And intercede thou for vs with that Sonne of thy sacred wombe whose lawes though we haue transgressed and whose Passion though we haue renewed and whose grace though we haue quenched by our innumerable sinnes yet for as much as froÌ„ our soules we are sory for theÌ„ that there was mercy in store for his very Crucifiers let it not be waÌ„ting to vs who are procuring as thou knowest to be his seruants Since we fly to the sanctuary of thy feete for succour since with the most reuerend of our thoughts we take hold of that Altar of thy purest wombe wherin the Iudge of the quicke and dead did make the first Sacrifice of himselfe to his eternall Father for the redemption of the world defend vs by thy prayers O Queene of pitty from that sword of Iustice which is ready to fall vpon our heads Thou saidst that all Generations should call thee Blessed and we are a part of them withall the powers of our soules we blesse both thee and God for thee and we vow our selues to belieue whatsoeuer excellency may be ascribed to a meere creature And we make this protestation withall that so farre we are froÌ„ derogating therby from the worship of Latria which is only due to God as that we know not in this world how to do him more high honour and seruice then by offering him first to himselfe and next by honoring and praysing thee For the greater thou art the greater do we acknowlege him to be who made thee what thou art or nothing Obtaine of that holy Spirit who ouer-shadowed thee heere which doth as it were ouerwhelme thee there in that region of eternall blisse that we also may be quickned inspired by it so may be walking on towards heaueÌ„ by those paces which thy pure feete haue traced out I cannot beseech thee to obtaine wine for vs as thou didst for them of Cana for we want no wine since we are nourished by the milke of thy maternall loue which is better theÌ„ the best most pretious wine And we may also be inebriated as ofteÌ„ as we shall wel dispose our selues by that Vinum germinaus virgines Lach. 9. that pretious bloud in the body of thy Sonne our Lord in the venerable Sacrament of the Altar But the misery is that our soules want mouths wherwith to tast it or rather they are all crammed with the corrupted food of delight in creatures and our blindnes is such through the mist of passioÌ„ which ouergrowes vs that we see not what we eate and much lesse can we discerne the sad effects which it works within and amongst them this one that it depriues vs of gust in heauenly things It is therfore O Queene of heauen that we cast our selues humbly

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 ã€ˆâ—Šã€‰ 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

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 incoÌ„parably much more the SaÌ„ctity 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

diuine Soule of Christ our Lord through the high endowmentes wherewith it was enriched by the eternall Father Wherein no passion did euer once presume to lead the way to reason but was glad of so much honour as to follow it And though whatsoeuer concerned the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule may seeme little in respect of what is sayd concerning the reasonable which inuolueth both those others yet since nothing is little which is able to do seruice and homage to him who is so truly great it may deserue to be considered how those (k) The vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule were wholly in the hand of the will of Christ our Lord. Vegetatiue and Sensitiue powers were wholy in the hand of his will And so he could haue chosen whether his body should grow or whether his meate should nourish or whether his flesh should feele or whether his bloud vpon the inflicting of a wound should follow or whether his person should send out any such images or species of it selfe as whereby it might become visible to the eyes of others And (l) The body of Christ our Lord though it were a true and naturall body yet was it wholly in his power to determine how far it should be subiect to the conditions of such a body more or lesse in fine in his choice it was whether he would let himselfe be lyable to any of those propertyes and conditions to which the rest of man is subiect And now because the graces and perfections of his sacred body doe contribute to the excellency of his diuine person I will also procure to describe the supereminent beauty and dignity of that sacred flesh and bloud For thus we shall grow to haue a perfect notion of his whole person which will conuey such an influeÌ„ce of valew vpon euery act of loue which afterward he will be shewed to haue expressed as I hope will make vs wholly giue our hart to him by way of homage for his incomparable benefits The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified CHAP. 4. THE Spirit of God in his holy Scripture doth prophetically delineate the beauty dignity of the sacred Humanity of our Lord Iesus I meane of his sacred flesh and bloud It speaketh of him thus Psalm 44. speciosus forma prae filijs hominum A (a) The beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. person indued with another manner of most excellent beauty then was euer to be seene in any other Creature And indeed euen abstracting from what is reuealed to vs by way of faith concerning his beauty in particular what kind of admirable thing must that Humanity needs be according to all discourse of reason On the one side let vs consider that this sacred body of his was compounded of no other matter but that purest bloud Royall of his al-immaculat virgin mother Royal (b) The dignity sanctity of his desceÌ„t it was by her disceÌ„t from so many kings Sacerdotall and Propheticall by her being also deriued from the Sanctity of Prophets of Preists Great prerogatiues were these but yet they are the least of them wherewith this holy body of our Lord was endued For it was much more dignified in that before it came to be his the body of the sacred virgin did cohabite with her owne most happy most accomplished soule Wherby (c) How sublimly spirituall the B. virgin was her very flesh was gowne after a sort to be euen Spirit as we see the very soules of sensuall persons to participate as it were the very nature of flesh Much more aduantage did it yet receiue in that the holy Ghost did frame this body of our B. Lord out of the bloud in the wombe of our B. Lady And most of all was it aduanced by this That in the instant when she conceaued his incomparable soule was infused and both his soule and body was Hypostatically vnited to the diuinity Of the happines of that soule already we haue spoken and euen by this little which heere is touched we may behould his body as the prime maister-peece of all visible beauty Amongst (d) Why the body of our B. Lord must needs be admirably beautiful the Children of this world we see indeed that euen they who are borne of handsome through the disorder which naturally accompanieth generation and besides it also growes sometymes through a disconformity which nurses haue to the mothers But his body was framed by the neuer erring hand of the holy Ghost heere the mother and the nurse were one and the same most holy Virgin Mary The excellency of Corporall Beauty doth consist (e) The conditioÌ„s which are required for the making vp of perfect Beauty either in complexion for as much as concernes coulour or in feature or shape for as much as concernes proportion or in facility and grace for as much as concernes disposition and motion We see how any one of these partes of beauty if it be eminent doth affect the eye and hart of a beholder although such a person do either want the other two or haue them at the most but in some moderat degree And the perfection of any one part pleads the excuse of wanting any other And whether therfore shall we be so bold as to thinke that Christ our Lord was not endued with them all in all perfection or els so blinde as notwithstanding such vnspeakeable beauty as his was not to be enamoured of him It is not inough that a body haue only beauty for the perfection therof but (f) For the complemeÌ„t of Beauty there are requyred health strengh withall it must haue health and strength Now what want of health could the body of our B. Sauiour haue whose soule was not onely free but so infinitely farre from the curse both of Actuall and Originall sinne the true cause not only of sicknes but of death And what infirmity or weakenes could that Humanity be subiect to vnlesse he had would Isa 63. as indeed he would for our greater good which not onely was not obnoxious to any distemper of humours but withall it was made to be one person with allmighty God himselfe And now let him that can conceaue heerby the sublimity euen of his Corporall beauty Quis est iste saith the Prophet Esay Who is he that commeth out of Edom with his garments dyed from Bozra this beautifull one in his robe walking on in the multitude of his strength This S. Denis affirmes Decael Hierarch c. 7. to haue beene spoken in person of the (g) All the Angells in heauen were amazed to see the beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. Celestiall Spirits they being possessed with an admiration of the vnspeakable Beauty of Christ our Lord Whose diuinity was vested with our humanity as with a robe which once was white though it grew to be

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