hath framed the partes of this world of ours and of all the bodies conteyned therin with such exact perfectiō that nothing can either be added or dimished without making it either lesse faire in it selfe or lesse fit for the other parts therof The very least of these things he gouerneth with that depth of Wisedome and addresseth it to the seuerall ends by soe apt and admirable wayes that not so much as a haire can fall frō a head nor a sparrow light on the ground nor a fly can eyther liue or dye but by his pleasure and prouidence (h) A most strange but most certaine truth euen that little miserable thinge doth serue as a part without which the whole as hath beene said would be lesse beautifull Nothing happens to him by channce nothing by surprise but all things are done by eternall Councell And which increaseth the wonder al this is determined by one simple act of his without any deliberation at all or the interposing of the least delay and this so perfectly and so fully that hauing with his owne infinite Wisedome contemplated his owne workes by the space of infinite ages he could neuer find that any thing was not most wisely done nor any thing which was capable of the least amendment or alteration The (i) The infinite goodnes of Christ our Lord as he is God infinitenes of his Goodnes doth also appeare by innumerable wayes but especially by this That although his diuine Iustice be euery whit as infinite as his Mercy yet his Mercy extending it selfe first to vs euen out of his owne intrinsecall eternall goodnes to vs and vpon no originall motiue on our parts his (k) How the mercy of God may be sayd to be greater then his Iustice whilst yet both are infinite Psal 44. Ose 13. Iustice doth neuer exercise or imploy it selfe vpon his Creatures but by reason of some former expresse prouocation from them and therfore it is most truely said That his mercy is aboue all his workes and that the perdition of Israell is from it selfe What shall we say in further proofe of his Goodnes but that he hauing made vs all of nothing and being able with the same ease to make a million of better worlds then this he doth yet so court wooe vs to loue him to be intirely happy in him as if himselfe might not be so vnlesse we would be pleased to graunt his suite To these miserable vngratefull creatures of his he doth so deerly and so many waies communicate himselfe as that no one of thē doth exist which doth not in euery moment of tyme participate of his diuine Goodnes in most abundant and various manner He seekes vs when we are lost he calls vs when we goe astray he imbraceth vs as soone as we dispose our selues to returne notwithstanding the millions of sinnes which we may haue cōmitted against him He (l) The diuers wayes whereby God communicateth his misteries to vs. makes himself all in all to vs now performing the office of a King by commaunding now of a Captaine by conducting now of a Mother by cherishing and continually of a Pastour by feeding vs sometymes with Comforts wherby we may be incouraged and sometimes by Crosses through the ouercomming wherof we may be fortified and refined Nor (m) Consider of this truth with great attention for it is of vnspeakable comfort is there any one instant in this whole life of ours wherin by vertue of his former grace we may not euen by some act of our very thought alone acquire new degrees of grace as will be shewed more largely afterward to euery one of which degrees a seuerall degree of eternall glory in heauen doth correspond and euery one of which degrees of glory though it should last but for an instāt is incomparably more worth them all the pleasures and treasures and honours which euer were or will be tasted in this world by all the race of man betweene the creation of Adam and the day of Iudgment If we consider this truth as we ought and if God of his mercy will inable vs to feele it in our very harts we shall instantly admire the infinite liberall goodnes of his diuine Maiesty who would not so much as permit any euill at all in the world if it were not to deriue more good from thence then otherwise would haue accrewed without that euill Rom. 8. For all thinges do cooperate to the good of Gods seruants as S. Paul affirmes and S. Augustine inferreth thereupon That euen our very sinnes when they are forsaken do cooperate as seruing to inflame vs with greater loue of God and consequently they bespeake for vs more resplendent thrones of glory in the kingdome of Heauen then without those sinnes we should haue had So infinite I say is the goodnes of God and so excessiue is his loue as will further yet appeare by that which followes wherby the excellency of the soule of Christ our Lord as Man is to be declared The Loue of our Lord Iesus as he is Man is much commended to vs by the consideration of the Excellency of his Soule CHAP. 2. SINCE the dignity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is a great part of the ground of his immense loue to Man as will be shewed particularly afterward it may heer come fitly in to point at the supreme excellency of this Soule First therefore it must be taken for graunted that Christ our Lord had an Vnderstanding which was created at that instant when he was endued with a true and naturall soule of man Heereupon it followeth that he had a knowledge also which was created which was distinct from his diuine knowledge This truth was thus declared by Pope Agatho S. Synod Act. 6. 8. We publish and confesse that the two Natures of Christ our Lord and ech of them had the naturall proprietyes which respectiuely belonged to such naturs And the Councell of Calcedon doth in like sort define That he tooke to himselfe a perfect reasonable soule without the want of any propriety belonging to such a one and that in all thinges it was like to that of ours excepting sinne There was anciently indeed an heresy of certaine persons who were called Gnostici as S. Irenaeus relates Affirming that Christour Lord was ignorant of many thinges Iran lib. 1. aduer haer ca◠17. and that he learned many thinges vnder the direction of some Maister as other men might doe And so also (a) The heretikes of al ages are lead by the same spirit of errour Calu. in Harmoni◠passim do Sectaries of this last age of ours blaspheme being lead by the same spirit of errour as well in this as many other thinges whilst they lay an imputation of ignorance vpon Christ our Lord. But the holy Catholike Church abhorreth all such impious conceit as this and so al her Doctours with S. Thomas do auow That (b) Christ our Lord man had
OF THE LOVE OF OVR ONLY LORD AND SAVIOVR IESVS CHRIST Both that which he beareth to Vs and that also which we are obliged to beare to Him DECLARED By the principall Mysteries of the Life and Death of our Lord as they are deliuered to vs in Holy Scripture With a Preface or Introduction to the Discourse IHS D. Aug. Confess lib. 10. cap. 29. O Amor qui semper ardes numquam extingueru Charitas Deus meus accende me O thou Loue which euer burnest and art neuer quenched O Charity my God do thou enkindle me Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XXII TO THE MOST GLORIOVS AND EVER-BLESSED PERPETVALL VIRGIN MARY the All-Immaculate Mother of our Lord God RECEAVE this Treatise O Queene of Heauen with thy Hand of grace which the hart of thy Seruant doth prostrate at thy purest Feet as a token wrapped vp in words of the most reuearing and admiring Loue which he owes wil euer be striuing to pay to thee And vouchsafe of thy Goodnes to present it to thy Son our Lord the sole Redeemer and Sauiour of the World since it aymes at nothing els but his glory which with infinite mercy he hath vouchsafed to place in the exchange of Loue with mortall Man Thy selfe and thou alone art that happy Creature who by the aboundant sloud of his Grace wert made able to swim through all the moments of this life in the Purity and Perfection of this dunne Loue. Nor didst thou euer fayle therof from the first instant of thy Immaculate Conception in the bowells of thy blessed mother to that other of thy Assumption in the armes of thy most beloued Sonne O suffer not his Creatures who are also adopted sonnes of thine to be still so vnlike their mother as to disperse and dissipate themselues by inordinate Loue vpon the transitory obiects of this world It is inough it is too much that hitherto we haue defiled our soules and that forsaking the cleere vntroubled spring of diuine Beauty we haue bene miserably glad to stifle and drowne our selues whilst yet we are the workes of his Hands and the ioy of his Hart in the muddy pooles of profane Delight Behold how we sigh groane in thy sacred eares some of vs vnder thè seruile yoke of present sinnes and some others vnder the sad effects and consequences of our former wickednes since we are full of weakene towards good workes and of an auersion from ioyfully and perfectly complying with the superexcellent wise and holy will of God Demaund of that God obtaine of thy Sonne that he will print himselfe fast vpon our Soules that so O glorious Queene O thou most certaine Comfort of the Afflicted we may be discharged by thy prayers from these chaynes which are striuing to dragge vs downe as low as Hell And once being free we may fly vp from whence we are fallen and adhere to God with thee by an Eternall Loue. THE PREFACE DECLARING THE POWERS belonging to the Soule of man with their proper obiects and acts and how all the whole world liues by Loue and that the obiect of our Loue must be only God directed by meanes of Iesus Christ our only Lord and Sauiour IT is the ancient and iust Complaint of our Holy and Wise forefathers that men affect the knowledg of certaine fâ—rraine and fruitlesse things not caâ—ing to consider or euen know themselues We are apt to woÌ„der at the huge height of mountaines the vnwearied walke of riuers the subtile course of seas the perpetuall motion of planets and in the meanetyme we reslect not vpö that which growes in our owne bosomes which yet is a fitter subiect for our admiratioÌ„ to worke vpon The most inestimable riches of the whole materiall world is but beggary and misery in comparison of the mind of Man For what Monarch had euer such Ambassadors and Spies as are his Senses or such Solicitours as are his Desires or such Officers and Executioners as are his Passions or such a Lord Steward of his Houshould as is his Reason or such a Secretary of State as is his Inuention or such a Treasurer as is his Memory or such a President of his Counâ—aile as is his Vnderstanding and which of them had euer so absolute a Dominion ouer his Countries Vassalls as man hath ouer himselfe by the vse and exercise of his will Of all these Powers the Vnderstanding Will are the most important as being they to which the rest are all reserred Verum or that which is True is the Obiect of the VnderstaÌ„ding the Obiect of the Wil is BònÌ„ or that which is Good The Act which the VnderstaÌ„ding exerciseth towards his Obiect of Truth is Knowledge for the Vnderstanding doth euer desire to know that which is exercised by the Wil towards the Obiect of God is Loue for al creatures which caÌ„ Loue are carried to a desire of that which is Good or at least which seemeth good to the. And indeed it may be truly sayd if it be discreetly vnderstood that there is no creature at all which hath not a Loue that it lookes after Euen all the inanimate Creatures do moue with a restles desire to their proper CeÌ„ter through a quality which is impressed vpon them by the common Creator of them vs. Fire flyes vpward earth falls downe ward they are driuen by their weight they aspire to their places By force you may with hold them but if you leaue them to themselues you shal quickly see where they haue a mind to be And as the actual Loue which a reasonable creature bears to any Obiect is accoÌ„ted for the weight wherby he is carried to his iourneyes end Amor meus pondus meÌ„ eò feror quocumque feror D. Aâ—â— Confes lib. 13. c. 9. so the weight or Virtus motiua of inanimate Creatures may well be accounted called their Loue wherby they are carried knowledg of Good Bad so also must he needs haue a more vniuersall and noble meanes for the reaching arriuing to the perfection of so excellent a nature From hence also it comes that as it is proper to him to apprehend his End so he must be enabled with all the meanes coÌ„ducing to it This last End of man is perfect complete Beatitude So as the true and vndoubted Obiect of his Will is Omne bonum which is All Good This Perfectió supposech of it self implyeth in any creature which can aspire therunto to be to liue to know So that if any man be asked whether he would be glad to Be to Liue to Know to be Happy he cannot doubt of it though he would vnlesse he were out of his wits then in effect he would be no man Now Beatitudo as saith Boetius est status omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus And (c) Confes lib. 10. c. 21. S. Augustine saith That if any man should be asked whether he would be happy or no all the world would say yea as
changed their Lordes and formes of gouerment and not only the feilds haue bene bedevved but euen great Riuers haue beene dyed vvith bloud The (e) The great weakenesse of man euen besides his Wic kednes vveakenesse of man euen abstracting from expresse and malicious vvickednes is a lamentable thing to looke vpon Hovv often do vve erre in that vvherin vve procure least to faile vvho hath not desired and euen purchased many things vvhich he thought had beene a meanes to make him happy from vvhich yet he hath gathered nothing but the bitter fruit of misery No (f) The miserable incōstācy of man Cane is so vveake no vvinde is so inconstant and vvauering from the imoueable North as man is frō the Center of his rest by the variety of contrary dispositions which raigne in him Making him to be now merry and then melancholy now deuout then distracted Nay he sometymes who is valiant temperate wise happy within an hower after will be fearefull luxurious indiscreet and miserable and euen himselfe shall scarce know how that growes nor why So that not only euery Country and Citty family is vpon all warnings subiect to mutation towards the worse but there is no particular man who euen in his owne bosome hath not the woefull sense of such disorder confusion and restlesse variety of discourse that vnlesse our Lord God had vouchsafed and resolued vpon some remedy neither would our possessession haue beene free from desolation nor our bodies from destruction nor our soules from damnation S. Augustine exclaimeth thus by occasion of his owne particular and what then might he haue done vpon the general Tibi (g) How iustly my we all imitate that incōparable Saint in saying this Confes lib. 6. cap. 16. S. Leo ser 2. de Natiuit Dom. laus Tibi gloria fons misericordiarum ego fiebam miserior tu propinquior To thee be prayse to the be glory O thou fountaine of mercy I grew further of from thee by misery thou camest nearer me by mercy For when the world was at the worst and wickedest then did our Lord the God of heauen and earth whose very nature is goodnesse it selfe whose will is power and whose worke is mercy resolue vpon the remedy therof His (h) Nor should we content our selues in doing small seruices to such a Lord of loue as this pitty was not satisfied with contynuing the whole world to our assistance and seruice although by sinne we had forfeited the same It was not satisfied with mainteyning to vs the vse of our faculties and senses wherby we had yet procured to employ our selues wholly to his dishonor It was not satisfied with rayning downe sweet showers of other blessings blowing ouer many bitter stormes of vengeance which his iustice would faine haue powred vpon vs. In fine it was not satissied with such expressions as are wont to be made by the deerest partes of flesh and bloud nor would lesse serue his turne then to giue vs his owne only Sonne for our totall redresse And yet not only for the sauing vs from hell which is but the paine due to sinne but for the guilt also it selfe of sinne which is in comparably worse For so God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that (i) By Faith working with charity but Faith without workes is dead as sayth S. Iames. Prou. 22. whosoeuer should beleeue in him Ioan. 3. might not perish but haue euerlasting life And so that was verified which was said by the mouth of his holy Spirit Diues pauper obuiauerunt sibi Dominus autem operator vtriusque The rich man and the poore haue met one another and our Lord is the worker of both For who so rich as God he being the abundance and the very inexhaustednesse itselfe of all plenty and what is so poore a thing as man and such a man as was euen vpon the very brimme of dropping downe into the bottome of hell if our mercifull Lord had not put himselfe betwene him and home The Originall Roote and Motiue of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered CHAP. 9. THE Loue which our Lord Iesus was pleased to shew mankind is found to be very different from that which the men of this world are wont to beare to one another For either we loue them who are rich that they may reward vs or who are vsefull that they may help vs or who are beautifull that they may delight vs and the best kind of loue which we are wont to beare is when we giue it by way of gratitude for some benefits or fauours which vve haue receiued But (a) The differēce of the loue which our Lord beares to vs in respect of that which we beare to one another man in relation to Christ our Lord was so poore and so deformed a thing and so vvholly disobliging him to loue as that there vvas nothing in man which might so much as speake of challenging any at his hands It may also seeme a greater vvonder hovv he could induce himselfe to loue vs since as there vvas no merit on our side so there vvas no passion or blinde capriciousnesse on his vvhich yet is the thing that cooples creatures together many tymes in the chaynes of loue vvithout all desert For (b) The former doubt is solued by considering the first motiue of the loue of our Lord to vs. the soluing of this doubt at the very roote therof we must resort to the motiue of the loue of Christ our Lord. Amor de Dios. Which was not as Doctour Auila doth excellently shew any perfection in vs but only that which was in himselfe and which by his contemplation of his eternall Fathers wil was put in motion towards mankind It depended vpon that solemne decree which with infinite mercy was made by the most blessed Trinity of imploying him vpon the Redemption and Saluation of the world When therfore he became Incarnate in the pure wombe of his all-immaculate mother in the very instant of the Creation of that most holy soule which was infused into his pretious body it was indued vvith all those incomparable blessings and graces vvherof vve haue already spoken and all vpon no other originall ground but onely because our Lord God vvas pleased to amplify extend his bountiful hand ouer that sovvle and so to exalt his ovvne goodnes both tovvards it and vs. Nor euen vvas that soule then in case to haue performed any one act vvhich might be meritorious in the sight of God out of vvhose pure and primitiue grace and mercy those vnspeakeable benefits vvere bestowed But vvhen in that happy instant vvherin it vvas created it did first open the eyes (c) What vnspeakeable affections would be raysed in that soule by that sight of her already deified vnderstanding and did see her selfe freely made that excellēt thing vvhich God is only able
vvith care that although he be as S. Augustine saith superior summo meo Confes l. 3. cap. 6. yet vvithall he is interior intimo meo And in another place Though he be omni luce clarior c. Ibid. lib. 9. cap. 1. yet he is omni secreto interior superiour to the highest part yet he is more interior then the most inward part of vs Cleerer then the clearest light and yet he is more internall then the most hidden secret Illuminating teaching by particular fauours those soules vvhich listen to him vvith particular attentioÌ„ according to the good counsaile of the same S. Augustine Audiat te intus sermocinantem Confes lib. 11. cap. 9. qui potest Let him that can be so happy giue eare to that which thou O God art saying to him there within And instructing all such as are desirous to saue their soules by doing him seruice not onely with a sufficiency but euen with an ouer-aboundance of his diuine grace Of the tender loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by the incommodity which he was subiect to whilst he deliuered his Doctrine to vs and of the surfet which some are sublect to if we take not heed by the aboundance of his blesÃngs CHAP. 33. THE Doctours and Teachers of this world vse to be at their ease when they giue their lessons and for feare least crouds should come in vpon them they are separated and secured by chaires or pulpits Many of them teach for hire many for ostentation and few for meere loue of God or of his creatures and the pure desire of their profit in vertue and learning And as for those Religious men who vndertake the troublesome taske of doing good to the world in this kind for the loue of our Lord that loue of theirs though (a) The great serâ—â—ce which is done to God the world by such as instruct youth in vertue learning for pure charity of most excellent seruice to God and man is but a sparke which hath conueyed it selfe out of the fornace of the loue of Christ our Lord by the merit of his Magistery who is the only originall maister of all mankind And he it is who obteyned grace for those others to become to be such as by his goodnes we see they are But yet by the great mercy of God it is made a rare case with these his seruants to be put vpon those extreme difficulties vnlesse it be amongst Heretikes and Pagans in the exercise of this function from which his ardent loue would neuer giue him leaue to be free For euen from his first to his last Baptisme that is from the Baptisme of water in the Riuer of Iordan to the Baptisme in the bloud of that Imaculat clambe which was himselfe vpon Mount Caluary he went teaching vp and downe the world in a kind of perpetuall motion And was subiect to a most vnkind continuall persecution by the most part of them whome he did most particularly apply himselfe to instruct and teach It is true that his Apostles and Disciples did follow him throughout with extreme affection and admiration but yet withall they were so very ignorant and vnlearned as could haue giuen no pleasure in teaching them to any other but to Christ our Lord. What (b) It is a great mor tification for a wise worthy person to betyed to the continuall conuersation of ignoraÌ„t rude people greater mortificatioÌ„ can there be then for a wise and worthy and noble person to be perpetually conuersing with certaine course vnpolished creatures without fashion without learning without meanes and without so much as aptitude to be the better by it And yet our Lord IESVS was dayly in conuersation with such as these Who knew not how to gather the fruit of that tree of his diuine wisedome though the weight therof did make the braunches stoope so low as that they might be within their reach How (c) The great meeknes of our Lord Iesus meekely did he liue in their sight which was a kind of most effectual Doctrine How continually did he accompany them how carefully did he defeÌ„d them how sweetly did he allure them and how strongly did he conuince them And all this he did in the midst of a thousand corporall incomodities of labour and hungar when after the day was spent in continuall pennance the nights would lay hold on him without a lodging The Foxes had holes Matt. 8. and the birds of the ayre had nests but the sonne of man the sonne of that all-Immaculate woman that virgin mother that type of purity that torch of charity had not a place where to lay his diuine head But to the consusion of impatient men who are angry euen with their best friends when they change to be pinched otherwise he was farre from caring for any other habitation but only that he might dwell in the hartes of men by loue Of his Apostles we read that once when they had wherwithall they went to Sichar to buy meate and returning they inuited our B. Lord to eate therof But he excused himselfe by saying Ioan. 4. that he had another inuisible food (d) The principall food our Lord Iesus was the glory of God the good of man Ibid. which they knew not of and that was the performance of his eternall Fathers will and the perfecting of the worke of the good of soules by the words of his diuine mouth And after this food he had so fierce an appetite that he ran panting towards it and that so very fast as to make himselfe weary though he were God and to be glad to make a seate of that well side to which the happy Samaritane came for water It is also true that Christ our Lord was often inuited to eate with others and he accepted therof nay and he was not inuited so much by their desires as he was by his owne loue to their soules for their good he made himselfe all to all For he did eate with them to the end that men might not want the Doctrine of his diuine example both in the point of Temperance and Patience But many of those meates were otherwise of much more mortification to him in seuerall kinds then the want therof could haue bene Since it was not in the power of that heaueÌ„ly wisedome to continue vntoucht by those teeth of malice which vpon all warnings were gnashing towards him But (e) The wicked vse which the lewes made of our Lords benignity towardes them Matt. 11. from his facility of descending into their company and the resolution that whilst he was there he would not shew any singularity they did with the hand of their caÌ„kered mind fetch reasons why they should sel him for a gluttoÌ„ drinker of wine This seems euen to haue pierced the tender hart of our B. Lord with vnkindnes and it drew him in effect to say Iohn the Baptist came to you in abstinence
you looke for some Traytour or seditious enemy of God and man your leuell is ill layed Though yet for the glory of God for the exercise of all vertue and for the recouery of the world from hell and sinne I am content to be mistaken for such a one Yet nothing could induce them to relent But as the manner is with men who when they are desperately resolued to doe a thing which their conscience telleth them that reason requires them to forbeare the greater the force of that reason is which is prest against them the more eagarly are they inflamed euen blinded with rage to worke their will As soone therfore as they had apprehēded bound him with far greater cruelty then any Christian hart knowes how to imagine it cannot be chosen but that they would dragge him more like a dogge then a man Not (g) What soeuer incommodity they indured was reuéged by the vpō our Lord. that he went vnwillingly but because the presse must needs be great and they were also in bloud against him and would all so desire to be the executioners of some particular affliction and affront vpon him that they could not but hinder one another And then if any of them were iustled if any chanced to st̄ble or fall vpon whom would they reuenge themselue but vpon him who with patience which was indeed diuine permitted himselfe to be carried in that painefull iourney to the howse of Annas vnder that cruell cudody which the accursed Iudas had aduised them to keep him in Of the blow which was giuen vpon the face of our B. Lord in the high Priests howse of the fall of S. Peter How our Lord was taxed first of Blasphemy and of the excessiue Loue of our Lord in dll these particulars CHAP. 60. SHALL I need to say that it shewed an infinite kind of loue in our Lord that he vvould vouchsafe to be presented before Annas and then before Cayphas at their seuerall hovvses Matt. 26. Luc. 22. Ioan. 18. and before all that race of persidious Ievves vvho thē very thē cōspired his death That he being the fountaine of vvisedom knovvledge and the King of glory vvould for our sakes be arraigned and be contented to passe vnder the censure of those slaues of the deuill vvho vvas his slaue And he in their prosecuting of that suite against him to maintaine that inuincible patience and profund silence notvvithstanding all their clamours and so seldome to haue opened that blessed mouth of his He referred himselfe that first tyme when he vvas examined about his Doctrine to the iudgment of themselues Ioan. 18. vvho had heard him teaching in the Temple And vvhen for saying but so in the vvay of anvvere to the high Priest a barbarous vvretch Ibid. vvho vvas attending in that Court knevv that he should please his betters by it stroocke that face vvith his polluted hand vvhich the Angells doe so reuere and reioyce to see he did not damne him nor strike him dead 1. Pet. 1. vvhich yet most easily most iustly he might haue done nor so much as sharpely rebuke or reprehend him for it though it vvere so levvd an affront as is neuer vvont to be put vpon any slaue in the vievv of Iustice But he asked him only vvith great meeknes why he strooke him if he had spoken well and if he had spoken ill Ibid. why did he not informe the Court against him By vvhich kind of plea our Lord though he vvere the Creatour of all things did not assume to himselfe the least aduantage aboue the vvickedest and basest thing aliue That so by suffering he might shevv hovv much he loued vs. For the more he suffered the more rich the Church vvas to be of merits so the more copious our Redemption Whilst these things vvere acting Psalm 120. in the house of Cayphas S. Peter who at the apprehension of Christ our Lord vvas fled avvay vvith the other Apostles for (a) Our Lord was euer in care to giue vs comfort our Lord IESVS vvas content to be vvholly abandoned euen by his dearest friends that it might serue for our comfort vvhen vve are forsaken by ours could find no resting place for his thoughts till together vvith S. Iohn he came after our Lord to the hovvse of Cayphas But vvhether it vvere that his countenance complayned of some perplexity or that the manner of his speach or habit made it be thought that he vvas a Disciple of Christ our Lord he vvas questioned by diuers and he denied his Maister to them all and said vvith oathes and protestations Marc. 14. that he did not so much as know the man A great offence in it self a iust punishmēt of a former fault which he had made in presuming vpon his ovvne strength For that vnspeakeable loue vvhich he bare to our blessed Lord vvhich vvas not only as of a friend to a friēd or as of a Disciple to his Doctour but of any indulgēt father who might halfe doate vpon a Sonne did seeme novv to him to be so cōnatural to his very soule as that he thought he could not loose it but vvith his life Wheras in very deed it vvas the meere guift of God and for such he ought to haue acknovvledged it and so distrusting himselfe he should haue confided in our Lord. It vvas therfore pleasing to our deere Redeemer to permit that denyall out of infinite loue both to S. Peter and to vs though it could not but goe the vvhile very deeply to his ovvne tender hart that S. Peter who was not only one of his friends but of his fauourities should forsweare that he did not so much as know him He (b) How our Lord did loue S. Peter euen in suffering him thus to full Ibid. loued S. Peter in suffering him thus to fall for therby he taught him how to stand more firmely afterward which is neuer to be done by any soule but vpon the ground of humility He loued him also most deerly in making him rise againe so soone both by the shew of his corporall presence to the others eyes of flesh and bloud and by the sweet pure light of his grace which was imparted to the eyes of his soule And that light had so much heat also with it as to draw vp the vapours which powred themselues down afterward at full speed through his cloudy eyes Our Lord be euer blessed for his owne infinite goodnes who in the bitterest of those sorrowes shewed such mercy and had such memory both of him and vs. For thus the world is filled with Sea-markes which instruct vs how to saile through the Tempest of this life towards the safe port of heauen That when we passe by a Iudas we may take heed of auarice and enuy because it ends in desperation And when we passe by a S. Peter we may forbeare to fall vpon selfe conceipt which will put vs vpon many sinnes and
thinke that we should need no exhortation to frequent the corporall works of Mercy as feeding the hungry and thirsty cloathing the naked visiting and comforting sicke persons and prisoners and the like since by his owne sacred mouth he hath told vs in his holy Ghospell that he will assume men to heauen if they shall haue done these works and adiudge men to hell it they doe them not But this blessed Lord of ours doth yet assigne such another reason in that very place as to a soule which hath tasted of his diuine loue is incomparably of more force then the former And it is that he hath vouchsafed to put his very selfe into the person of that beggar or distressed person Quod vni ex minimis meis fecistis mihi secistis Matt. 25. That so he might make vs happy by his receiuing from our miserable vnworthy hands a peece of courtesy and seruice Which he is pleased to apply to his owne most excellent diuine person And now since our (k) Spirituall workes of mercy are incoÌ„parably of more account with God then corporall Corpoall works of mercy to our neighbours are taken by himselfe as such liuely tokens of our loue to him who shall be able to declare how much more gratefully he will take it that we be carefull and liberall in the works of mercy which are spirituall So much more gratefull to him are these latter then those former works as the spirituall and immortall substance of the soule is more valuable then the base and dying substance of the body Nay one soule according to S. Chrysostome Orat. 3. contra Iudaeos is more worth then the whole materiall world put togeather Now the spirituall worke of mercy which is exercised by one man towards another in reducing such as erre in teaching such as are ignorant and in fine in drawing a soule from wickednes of life to Gods seruice doth produce as the instrument of God and by the helpe and strength of his holy hand l Miraculous thinges are wrought in the soule whoÌ„ it returneth to God 2. Pet. 1. strange things in the soule For it destroyeth the kingdome of Sinne it infuseth grace it maketh that man of an enemy and traytour which he was to God to become both his Sonne and Heire it enricheth him with the merits of Christ our Lord and it makes him partake of a diuine nature Nay it is most certainly and cleerly true that the man who coÌ„uerts a soule doth by the goodnes of our Lord acheiue a more great and glorious enterprise theÌ„ Christ our Lord himselfe was pleased to do by his illuminating of the blind or raysing of the dead or in fine by working any other miracle which was meerly corporall Since therfore this worke of helping soules is so very great how immense must that loue and mercy of our B. Lord haue bin who was pleased to (m) How easily great thinges are done in Gods seruice enable men thereunto and that at so easy a rate as that by the goodnes of God it is performed many tymes by the only exchange of a few words either of counsell to them or instruction of them or by prayer for them And by these happy men that is partly and daily fulfilled which was done in great measure Colos 2. by the blessed Apostle when he said Adimpleo ea quae desunt passionum Christi pro corpore eius quae est Ecclesia I fulfill those things which are waÌ„ting to the passion of Christ our Lord for that body of his which is the Church Not but that the passioÌ„ of Christ our Lord is all-sufficient in it selfe for the redeeming and sauing of a thousand worlds but that which the blessed Apostle doth insinuate as wanting to the passion of Christ our Lord was the application thereof by Faith and Pennance which last supposeth also Hope and Loue to the soules of Christians This I say is that wherin the B. Apostle imployed himselfe and this is that very thing to which the men of God do now attend and this in fine is that whereby we way testify our Loue to our Lord Iesus in a most excelleÌ„t manner And I begge of the same Lord that he will giue vs store of grace wherby we may loue him as we ought and serue him in such sort to all purpose 〈◊〉 he desireth and deserueth at our hands FINIS THE TABLE OF CHAPTERS Chap. 1. OF the Loue of our Lord Iesus Christ declared by shewing his Greatnes as he is God pag. 1 Chap. 2. The Loue of our Lord Iesus as he is Man is much coÌ„mended to vs by the consideration of the Excellency of his Soule pag. 10 Chap. 3. The power Sanctity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is considerd wherby we may also the better see his excessiue Loue. pag. 15 Chap. 4. The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified pag. 21 Chap. 5. How the Beauty of our Lord Iesus Christ did coÌ„uince coÌ„quer all lookers on sauing only where excesse of sinne had put out the eyes of the soule pag. 25 Chap. 6. The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared pag. 29 Chap. 7. The same discourse is prosecuted and concluded coÌ„cerning the excellent Beauty of our Lord especially of the attractiuenesse of his sight pag. 35 Chap. 8. How this infinite God superexcellent Man our Lord Iesus Christ did with incomparable loue cast his eye of mercy vpon mankind pag. 43 Chap. 9. The Originall Roote and Motiâ—e of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered pag. 48 Chap. 10. The mystery of the Incarnation is more particularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is wonderfully expressed therby pag. 52 Chap. 11. Of the immense Loue of Christ our Lord expressed to Man in his holy Natiuity pag. 57 Chap. 12. How by the Pouerty of our Lord Iesus in his Natiuity poore men are comforted and the rich are kept from being proud pag. 61 Chap. 13. Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus expressed to vs in his Circumcision pag. 66 Chap. 14. Of the name of Iesus and the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name pag. 75 Chap. 15. The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted pag. 78 Chap. 16. Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings pag. 82 Chap. 17. It is shewed by the PresentatioÌ„ of our Lord Iesus in the TeÌ„ple how infinite loue he bare to vs. pag. 90 Chap. 18. How in the flight which our Lord Iesus made to Egypt he discouered his vnspeakeable Loue to man pag. 96 Chap. 19. The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt pag. 101 Chap. 20. Of the
reuiue and rayse it vp to receaue that homage without asking him so much as leaue O pretious sweet Humanity of Christ our Lord And (g) We at worthy of all punihment if wee become not euen the slaues of the Humanity of Christ our Lord. how shall we who know that thou wert humaned for vs and diddest not only descend to be a man but diddest degrade thy selfe further downe for the loue of vs how I say shall we sufficiently admire and loue thy Beauty which was so great euen in their externall eyes who had not withall the internall eyes of Faith wherwith thou hast enriched our soules And where shall we finde either holes or hills to hide or couer vs from thy wrath if we who are Christiās doe not by the eternall obsequiousnes of our harrs outstrip those obstinate but yet withall inconstant Iewes Obstinate in their mindes when they were grown to malice but inconstāt in mantayning those tender thoughts which they excellētly did sometymes oblige them to in the performance of so many Soueraigne signes of honour The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared CHAP. 6. VVHAT heauen on earth could euer make a man so happy as to haue beheld this sacred persō of our Lord Iesus in any of those postures which are described by the hand of the holy Ghost in holy scripture To haue (a) The incomparable grace of Christ our Lord in all his actions seen that god made mā as he was walking before the front of the Tēple whē his hart the while like a true Incensary was spending it selfe into the perfume of prayers which ascended before the Altar of the diuine mercy euen then and euen for them who there went in and out contemning and maligning him in the highest degree Mar. 11. Ioan. 20. To haue seene him walking and bestowing those deere limmes of his vpon those sands Mattb. 4. with incredible grace loue neere to that lake or sea of Galilea as if it had looked but like a kind of recreation when his enamoured soule was yet the while negotiating with his eternall Father Ibid. the vocation of his Apostles and by them the saluation of the whole world To haue seene him Luc. 4.16 c. standing vpon his sacred feet whilst with reuerence he would be reading in the Synagogue and then sitting downe afterwards when he would take vpon him the office of a teacher Ibid. 20. so pointing vs out by any little motion of his to the purity and perfection of euery action Marc. 3. To haue seene him sitting in the mindst of a roome with all that admiring multitude round about him whilst newes was brought him of the approach of his all-immaculate mother and of his kindred and domesticke friends who had reason to thinke euery minute to be a world of ages till their eies might be restored to that seate and Center of all ioy And he the while with diuine sweetnes and modesty looking round about him and lending a particular eye of mercy to euery soule there present and extending his liberall hand with an incomparable sweet noble grace did with his sacred mouth and with such a hart of loue as God alone is able to vnderstand adopt both them and all the world into his neerest deerest kindred vpon condition that they would do his Fathers will which was the only meanes to make them happy To (b) The infinite gratious goodnes of Christ our Lord. haue seene that sonne of God whose face is the delight and glory of all the Angells in heauen and at whose sacred feete they fall adoring with so profound reuerence deueste himselfe first of his vpper garment with such louely grace Ioan. 13.4 c. and gird the Towell about his virginall loynes with such modesty and fill the vessell full of water by the labour of his owne delicate armes with such alacrity and cast himselfe with such bottomelesse humility charity vpon those knees to which all the knees of heauen and earth were obliged to bow and from which the eternall Father was only to haue expected such an homage at the feete and for the comfort and conuersion of that diuell Iudas Yea and to wipe those very feete when he had washed them first and that perhaps with the teares of his owne sacred eyes to see if yet it might be possible to soften the hart of that Tygar who was able to defile such a beauty and to detest such a goodnes and who in despight of that prodigious mercy would needs be running post to hell by cōmiting that abhominable treachery They say the vale discouers the hill the darke shadow of a picture sets off the body which there is drawen Neuer was there such a peece of chiaro oscuro such a beautifull body as that of Christ our Lord neuer vvas there such a blacke shadovv as that vvretched man whome for the infamy of his crime I vvil forget to name But in fine to haue seene through the vvhole course of his life that holy Humanity sometymes svveating vvith excesse of labour some tymes grovvne pale vvith the rage of hungar some tymes pulled and vvracked seuerall vvayes at once by importunities sometymes pressed and as it were packed vp into lesse roome then his owne dimensions did require by crowdes of people and (c) Christ our Lord maintayned his grace and Beauty notwithstāding all the incōmodities to which he was put euer to haue beheld in his very face such an altitude of peacefull piety and such a depth of humility and such an vnlimitted and endlesse extent of Charity by remouing all diseases and dangers both of body and soule as heereafter (d) In the discourse vpon his Miracles will be shewed more at large for a man I say to haue had the sight of such an obiect would be sure I think to haue freed him from euer longing after any other Of Titus it was said that he was deliciae humani generis the very ioy and comfort of the world for the sweet receptiō which he vouchsafed to make to all commers Of Iulius Caesar it is recorded that being threatned with danger of a mutiny and defection in his army he spake to his souldiers this one only word Quirites (e) That word did shew that he held them no longer for souldiers of his but only as citizens of Rome and that thought pierced theyr harts with sorrow shame wtih such circumstances of grace and wisedome as that he drew al their hartes towards him at an instant It is true and it was much and there haue not beene many Caesars in the world But yet away with Caesar a way with Titus they were but durt and filth when they were at the best and now like damned spirits their soules are cursing God in hell And what Titus or Caesar dares shew himselfe when once there is question of grace and wisedome in presence
septimus sine vesper a est nec habet occasum quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam That seauenth day of thine Conf. lib 13. cap. vlt. O God is without any euening nor doth that sunne euer set because thou hast sanctisied it to an eternall continuance This is that infinite benefit which is to be imparted to vs by this blessed Lord of ours and the meanes to conuey it is the office of his being our Sauiour which is declared in this Circumcision by his holy name of Iesus and wherof the next Chapter will tell vs more Of the name of Iesus the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name CHAP. 14. FOR as much as there is no Name which can go neer to expresse the nature of God the holy (a) The reason of giuing so many seuerall names to God as God Scripture to make some kind of signification of the infinite Beinge the other infinite petfections of his diuinity of the benefits which he besto wes vpon vs doth giue him many attributes and many names which may in some small measure declare the effects of his diuine perfections the Offices which he performeth towards his Creatures as namely to be Almighty of infinite wisedome of infinite goodnes of infinite mercy of Creatour of Conseruour of Gouernour of Father of the beginning and end of all things and the like In the selfe same manner (b) The reason also of giuing so many seuerall names to Christ our Lord. to expresse that immense sea of perfections and graces which the whole blessed Trinity did impart to Christ our Lord as man that is to say to that most sacred humanity vnited to the person of the sonne of God the eternall word those incomparable and innumerable guifts and benefits which he communicated to vs by meanes therof the same holy Scripture doth giue him also many seuerall Names and Titles as of King of Priest of Pastour of Doctour of Law-giuer of Spouse of Mediatour of Aduocate of Redeemer of Sauâ—our diuers others wherby he may the better be conceaued since he cannot be sufficiently declared by any one Of all these names of al the rest which may be raunged and reduced to these there is none so excellent nor which doth so include the rest as doth the superexcellent name of Iesus which declareth our Losd to be the Sauiour of the world S. Bern. serm 2. de Circum Dom. serm 15. sup Can. This was that Name which the holy S. Bernard could by noe meanes be made coÌ„tent to want amoÌ„gst so many other most honorable appellations as the Euangelicall Prophet Esay applyed to him This Prophet being full of ioy vpon the fore seing of our Redeemer doth expresse himselfe thus as S. Bernard noteth Puer natus est nobis filius natus est nobis c. A child is borneto vs A sonne is giuen to vs his principality is placed vpon his shoulder his name is called Admirable CoÌ„scllour The stroÌ„ge God The Father of the future age The Prince of Peace Great saith S. Bernard are these names but where is (c) The name of Iesus is the most comfortable of al the names of Christ our Lord. that name which is aboue all names that name of Iesus in which euery knee shall bow The freinds and fauourites of Christ our Lord haue walked in a very different way froÌ„ that wherin such persons of our tymes as are disaffected to this sacred Name wil needs imploy theÌ„selues We see how that both Cherubim Seraphim of flesh bloud the beloued disciple of our Lord Iesus his Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn who sucked in such a bundance from the diuine fountaine of that brest to which he vsed to lay his mouth did paint out no other word so often as that holy and diuine name of Iesus S. Paul (d) The great Deuotion of S. Paul to the Holy name of Iesus that full vessell of election being reprehended in that high vision of our B. Sauiour though in a most amourous and tender manner for persecuting him in the persoÌ„ of the ChristiaÌ„ Church was told by our Lord himselfe that he persecuted he saith not God nor Christ nor the Lord though he were all that but only Iesus And afterward he sayd moreouer to Ananias that this was the Name which Paule as a vessell of election was to carry ouer the earth among Gentiles and Kinges And so as I was saying it is admirable to consider how he was all taken with an vnspeakable delight to be euer in repetition of that sacred name in all his Epistles See also how the incomparable S. Augustine doth in his Confessions to our Lord relate that he was vehemently delighted in the reading of certaine bookes of Philosophy lib. 3. c. 4. which pointed him out to the search of wisedome But yet saith he in that so great delight this only cooled me tooke me off that I found not the name of thy Christ therin For this name O Lord through thy mercy this name of my (e) The name of Christ our Lord which S. Augustine had so greedily sucked vp in his infancy was the name of Sauyour of Iesus note how this Saynt esteemes the guift of deuotion to this holy name as a particular mercy Bern. ser 15. in Cant. Sauiour thy Some my yong and tender hart had euen in the very milke of my mother dronke vp deuoutly and carefully retayned and if any discourse whatsoeuer though neuer so learned so elegant and so true had wanted this name it did not carry me away entierely The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted CHAP. 15. THE day had need be long wherin I would pretend to make particular mention of the incredible deuotion and tender affection which the Saintes and holy seruants of God haue carried to this blessed name of Iesus S. Bernard whom I mentioned before shal therfore serue this turne insteed of many whose fifteenth Sermon vpon the Canticle I beseech my Reader euen in the name of Iesus that he will procure to read For there he may see how in this holy name it is that we meete with the remoue of al our cares He applyes to it that clause of the Canticles Oleum essusum nomen tuum Thy name (a) Note and loue this sweet contemplation of of S. Bernard vpoÌ„ the holy name of Iesus saith he is a pretious Oyle powred forth O blessed name O oyle which euery where is powred forth How farre froÌ„ heauen into Indea and from thence it runs ouer the whole earth We may well say it is powred forth since it hath not only distilled abundantly both in heauen and earth but it hath sprinkled euen them who are below the earth This Christ this Iesus being insused to the Angells and essused or powred out vpon men and those men who were growne rotten like beasts in their
all the rest which hath bene said as himselfe doth incomparably surpasse whatsoeuer other thing which it is euen in his power to giue I will also in this place sorbeare to hearken to that other diuine consort of Musicke which he made in that least Sermon of his next before his sacred Passion which S. Iohn relates in his holy Ghospell For that of the B. Sacrament is considered in a discourse therof a part and that of the infinite loue of our Lord in his last Sermon is toucht in the beginning of that of the Passion And we haue heere I hope bene shewed inough to make the loue of our B. Lord appeare Not only in regard of what he conceaued in his owne pretious hart towards man but moreouer for the abundant blessings which he hath imparted to the world exteriourly For we see to what greatnes and happines the meanest of vs is sublymed through the high account into which we are taken by Almighty God Only we must be sure that his infinite goodnes do not giue vs occasion and colour for contynuance in our wickednes For as much as in God all is infinite a like (i) All is a like Infinite in God and therfore euen the very infinitenesse of his Mercy doth shew vs how Infinite his Iustice also is and euen by the excesse of his mercy when men are sory for their sinnes we may inferre the intollerable rigour of his Iustice against such as are impenitēt The holy Scripture is also ful of most particular proofe how deepely our Lord doth detest al sinne and willfull sinners This hath bene pointed at before vpon another occasion in the discourse of the infinite power of God and in the end of the Passion it will also be resumed agayne For the present therfore I conclude concerning the most excellent Doctrine of Christ our Lord deliuered especially in holy Scripture and I passe on to the consideration of his Miracles Of the excessine Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man by the Mirac'es which he wrought on earth CHAP. 41. THE excessiue loue of our Lord Iesus was farre from being content to expresse it selfe towards man by any one single way alone but it was solliciting him in euery minute of his most holy life to try as many as might be found for our good He therfore considering with diuine wisedome that men were composed of flesh and spirit and consequētly (a) Men being cōposed of flesh and spirit are to be wrought vpō both by spirituall and sensible meanes that they must be wrought vpō aswell by sensible as by spirituall meanes knowing also that through the miserable disorder of their mindes they were then more capable would be more obliged by ease health of body then by graces powred into the soule he was therfore pleased to accompany the purity and perfection of his Doctrine with the power and Maiesty of his miracles And as by creation of the world he led men vp by meanes of visible things towards a knowledge and beliefe of the inuisible so in the case of our reparation and redemptiō he would also vse the corporall cure of men from sicknes as a disposition wherby theyr soules might be recouered from sinne Heerby our Lord doth euidently discouer to be a true perfect louer of mankind For as the property of loue is not (b) The measure of our loue of God is to exceed all measure to be tyed vp within the compasse of any ordinary law and the measure which that power vseth is to exceed all measure so did our Lord out of the nobility of his loue to man refuse to walke within so small a circle as the lawes of nature did lead him to These lawes of nature were made by almighty God at the creation of the world it is not al the power of heauen or earth vnder him which can inuert that order Psal 148. Praeceptum posuit non praeteribit He gaue the precept and it shall not passe away And it was good cheape for him who made al things of nothing to commaund that nothing should faile of that inuiolable course wherin all things were appointed to proceed According to the law of nature no returne is made from priuation to the habit as from a fixed blindnes to sight and much lesse from death to life But the law of the loue of our Lord IESVS did ouertop that other law made those things grow true and samiliar which otherwise were not only hard but impossible Moyst bodies were appointed by the law of nature to giue place and such as are heauy and solid to sinke downe below thē But yet when there was question of giuing comfort to his poore Apostles Matt. 14. the loue of Christ our Lord made him lay those lawes aside and he went walking towards them vpon the sea which was glad to performe the Office of a pauement to his pretious feete Penerration of bodies is a thing wherof nature cannot endure to heare but yet for the vnspeakeable loue which he bare to (c) The honour which was done by Christ our Lord to the purity of his B. Virgin mother the honour and excellency of his all-immaculate mother that ornament and glorious gemme of heauen earth he was not affrayd to giue that principle of Philosophy the lye And he passed out of those bowells of supreme Purity into those armes of matchlesse Piety without the least offence to her most entire Virginity But yet in this there is the lesse wonder because he wrought the like in fauour of his Apostles whom he loued by innumerable degrees lesse then his most excellent mother Isa 7. For in their case also his loue was transcendent in the selfe same kind vnto his lawes For hauing first passed through the sepulcher he went afterward through Ioan. 20. Ibid. through those doores which were shut betwene them him that so he might as it were perfume them all at once with his sweet breath of Peace But why doe I name those persons who were so highly priuiledged as if our Lord had only bene in loue with them and not indeed as yet indeed he was enamoured of all mankind so farre as to make his miracles distill down vpon them like so many drops of dew for their reliefe or comfort in all occasions And although these miracles of Christ our Lord could not haue bene wrought but by the omnipotent power of almighty God yet may that power be accounted to haue been but as a kind of instrumēt wherby he wrought them and that indeed they flowed from his loue as from their prime cause and roote He wrought no miracles for the ostentation of his power and therfore we see how often he precisely comaunded both men and deuills Marc. 3. 5. 7. Luc. 5. Luc. 4. Matth. 20. Matt. 21. Marc. 11. that they should not publish what he had done He wrought none for any commodity of
griefe and who did euen possesse the knowledge of infirmity His face was as if it were hiddden and despised and we had him in no estimation It was he indeed who bare our infirmities and who suffered our paines and we esteemed of him as of some Leaprous person and as one who had bene strucken by the hand of God and so deiected How truly were these things performed in the persō of Christ our Lord throughout the course and current of his Passion wil instantly be represented heere when first you (b) In the consideration of the Passion of Christ our Lord it is necessary to ponder his infinite Maiesty as he is God shall haue bene desired to looke a little backe with the eye of your consideration vpon the first Chapters of this whole discourse wherin the dignity of the person of Christ our Lord is touched For so when we shall haue coupled that former excellēcy with this present infamy shall withal haue weighed how the only reason that moued him to dispoyle himselfe of the one and to vest himselfe with the other was a desire of the glory of God which might redound to him by our good And that he emptyed himselfe out of his owne felicity to the end that we might partake therof in heauen And did euen as it were inebriate himselfe with the Chalice of affliction affronts and desolation that so in the strength of that he might secure vs from the eternall chaines of fire in hell I (c) The vse of these consideratiōs thinke we shal not be so blindly bold nor so wickedly vngratefull as not to detest our sins which were the cause of all his sorrow and continually to lament and serue loue that Lord who was pleased to vndergoe such penance for them Consider therfore I say that he whose Passion you are to read was the only Sonne of the sacred Virgin Mary that most excellēt and perfect pure Creature that euer was Cōsider that his humanity was framed by the hād and skill of the holy Ghost out of her Royall and all-immaculate bloud Consider that he was beautifull aboue all the Sonnes of men for cōplexion for constitution Psalm 44. and for grace and motion Consider the complete sanctity of his holy soule which animated that body so full of beauty The high purity the wide charity the profound humility the entyre conformity and transformity of his will into the will of God with al other vertues in the highest degree which God could communicate to a creature Consider the other incomparable guifts and graces which were imparted to him or rather ingulfed in him beyond all measure proportion That guift of Prophesy and Miracles That treasure of incorruptible wisedome That euer flowing riuer of his infallible Knowledge Experimentall Infused Beatificall Cōsider that this body and soule were knit by the indissoluble bond of Hypostaticall vnion to the second person of the most blessed Trinity who according to the words of the Creed of the Councell of Nice is God of God light of light true God of true God begottens not made consubstantiall with the Father by whom all things were made Consider if thou canst the infinite eternall simple vnchangeable independant essence and wisedome and power goodnes of this diuinity It being the fountaine of Immortality Purity Liberty Verity Clarity Peace Plenty Grace Glory Swauity Excellency Beauty Maiesty Felicity Prouidence Preseruation Protection Iustice Mercy Pitty Longanimity and Loue. Consider that to euery of these Attributes there belongs an addition of being infinite and that in a word he is the substāce and the summe the circumference and the Center of all Originall created perfection Of the most tender and diuine Loue and care which our Lord Iesus shewed at his entrance into the Passion in his last sermon and long prayer to his eternall Father CHAP. 53. THIS man this God this God and man did abandon himselfe so farre as to suffer hideous things for the loue of vs. And we are bound with our whole harts not onely to carry great compassion towardes him but to fly a mayne from all that which is any way offensiue to him who did voluntarily and with a kind of infinite charity cast himselfe into such a bed of Thornes for our sakes For as soone as our Lord had instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse and had therby (a) The Apostles ordayned Priests with authority to ordayne others to the end of the world ordayned his Apostles Priests who in the person of their successours and such as should lawfully be sent by them might perpetuate the celebratiō of those diuine misteries till the end of the world he went disposing himselse to that Passion which Iudas was already gone to bring vpon him And notwithstanding that he knew how vast things they were to be yet desired he with excessiue appetite to imbrace them This is plainely insinuated by that expression of the holy Prophet who saith of Christ (b) Our Lord did long for his fill of suffering for our sakes Ierem. Thren 30. our Lord Saturabitur opprobrijs which implyes a being hungry after the enduring of reproach and scorne for vs as a man might be after some curious and costly banquetting dish and that at the tyme of his Passion he should be sure to haue his longing satisfied But before he went forth to the place where he knew he should be betrayed and apprehended he resolued to take a kind of leaue of his Apostles he had intertayned thē with a large and amourous and most mysterious discourse And although as a man may say one of his feete were already in the graue and that he was soone to find the whole rage and fury of hell vpon him for the sending of the other after it he (c) Out Lord was tenderly carefull to comfort his Apostles in the middst of his owne greatest sorrowes applyed himselfe yet to comfort them and to forget himselfe as was sayd before with such a courage as might well become that man who was the naturall Sonne of God and with such a loue as might well declare the diuine pitty which he carried to the Sonnes of men For from hence it came that he tooke such tender care to arme them against all future feares He told them to this effect and almost in these very wordes That indeed he was to goe away but withall Ioan. 14.15.16.17 that he went to prouide a place for them He assured them that their afflictions whensoeuer they might happen should not last but quickly be conuerted into ioy and such a ioy as neuer should be taken from them He insinuated himselfe to their rude capacities by sweet and tender comparisons He made the eternall Father to be a husbandman that so himselfe might be the vine wherof they were to be the braunches He told them what care the Father himselfe would take to purge and purify their soules from tyme
to be amiable and easy to be endured And thus was the whole life which Christ our Lord did lead in this world an example and a liuing Doctrine of the actions which we were to performe and of the vertues which we were to practise This is said by S. Augustine Therfore to conclude this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord we haue (i) The summe of this whole discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord. seene how painefull it was with how great loue he endured it and with how heroicall vertue it was performed We haue seene the end and ayme he had therin which was not only the redeeming of vs from hell but the recouery of vs from sinne the inducing vs to fly from all inordinate desire of honour estate and vaine delights to imbrace after his exaÌ„ple for his loue the exercise of all vertue the mortification both of the inward and outward man Let vs take heed that we contemne not the treasures of his mercies least we be consumed by the fiery torrent of his Iustice Let vs not pretend to make him loose his labour for auoyding of a little labour of our owne He is the wisedome it selfe of God and can tell how to value to a haire such a huge indignity as that would be And of this truth we must be well assured for it is not only reuealed to vs by way of Faith but it is written in our harts by the law it selfe of nature and reason That (k) The more good God is to men the more bitterly will they be punished for the contempt of such goodnesse if a mercy be offered abused a vengeance will belong to that offence If the mercy be great the vengeance will not faile to be great and if the mercy be infinite the vengeance also will be infinite And though Christ our Lord be a Lyon and the roaring of a Lyon is a frighfull thing yet he is also a Lambe we haue seene how he hath bene shorne and slaine and this LaÌ„be is not willingly alienated from his loue to vs. But if he be then laesa patientia vertitur in furorem The more inuincibly patient he was the more implacably furious he will be And for my part I doe not heare in the whole booke of God any word which strickes with greater terrour then when it speakes of the wrath of the Lambe Apoc. 6. The holy Ghospell describing Christ our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse saith that they blasphemed him as they were passing by Many blaspheme him by their deeds who doe not so by their words Matt. 27. but hauing an Aue Rex in their mouthes they strike him with the Reed in their hands If we desire insteed of blaspheming to doe him seruice and so to be happy both in heauen and euen heere our way will be not to passe so lightly by his Crosse but there to behould contemplate him at good leasure For how miserably shall we be out of countenance at the hower of our death if our conscience may iustly then accuse vs that we could not so much as find in our harts now then to thinke of those bitter things which the Sonne of God God did find in his hart to endure and that with infinite loue for our saluation Our Lord (l) Our great ingratitude to God will make vs see how very wicked we are otherwise IESVS giue vs grace to know how very wicked things we are And this knowledge being once well grounded in vs and our Lord being desired that for the loue of his bitter Passion he will make vs see the loue he bare vs in it we shall grow to take delight in looking often vpon that book with the eyes of our soule and so they will be happily shut vp from the sight and loue of other obiects We shall then quickly find that the Crosse is no such cruell thing as we haue coÌ„ceaued but that it is short and light and the reward therof remaines for euer Besides that the memory of her friends is honorable afterward euen with the enemies therof Wheras those persecuting Iewes with Cayphas and Pilate Herod al the libertines of the world who indeed are the enemies of Christ our Lord Philip. 3. and of his Crosse as S. Paul affirmeth howsoeuer they triumphed for a tyme were soone either beate downe by disgrace like so many bladders or blsters or els blowne vp by a little tyme out of the estimation of God and man like so many squibbs And now they haue found their place in hel where they shall remaine as long as God is God and so will their successors in sinne succeed them also in their punishment from which our Lord deliuer both them and vs. Of the vnspeakeable Loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all CHAP. 79. OVR Lord IESVS hauing made his last Will and Testament in that night precedent to his death at which tyme he gaue vs his owne pretious body and bloud not only for the food of our soules in the blessed Sacrament but for a Sacrifice to God in the way of homage as to a Soueraigne Creatour by the institution of the Masse and being that night and the next day arriued so farre in the course of his bloudy and bitter Passion as after innumerable other affronts and torments to see himselfe both naked nayled through hands and feete vpon a Crosse the (a) The loue of our Lord Iesus did after asort increase with the torment which he â—â—dured â—â—â—our 〈◊〉 bowells of his mercy were so farre from being changed or cooled toward vs that the neerer they were to breake for griefe the faster he made them beate for loue And therfore as some tender-harted husband would haue done in fauour of his most faithfull and beloued wife who hauing setled his affaires in tyme of health by way of Testament wherby he had honorably prouided for her estate and comfort would yet wheÌ„ he drew neere to death in further proofe of his affection increase her ioynture by some Lordships and plucke of his ringe of greatest price from his owne fingar that he might put it vpon hers iust so was our Lord IESVS pleased to proceed with the holy Church his Spouse To whome notwithstanding the legacy of his owne pretious body which he had giuen vs already by Testament he did also now when he drew close vpon the confines of death with incomparable Charity (b) Our Lord Iesus bequeathed his B. mother to be also ours as it were by way of Codicill annexed to his last will Luc. 23. bequeath his sacred Mother to vs as it were by way of Codicille which he annexed to that former Will of his It hath bene seene already how our Lord vpon the death-bed of the Crosse did vtter seauen Words or rather declare himselfe by seauen seuerall speaches both to God