way of truth and to feede their soules with the spirituall food of his coelestiall doctrine Oh most mercifull and blessed Iesus thy words are spirit and life which thou doest speake to thy Disciples and that knew thy Seruant Peter when he said Thou hast the words of eternall life For thy words are pure and sweet to the taste of them that loue thee yea more sweet then honie and the honie-combe They also knew that those who were sent by the chiefe Rulers to lay hands vpon thee were taken with such wonderfull admiration at the gracious words which did proceede out of thy blessed mouth that they were constrained to proclaime thy worthie praises telling them That neuer any man spake so graciously Oh most eloquent Orator streames of sweetnesse doe flow from thy lips Honie and Milke are euer plentifull vnder thy tongue Oh how powerfull how eloquent how wonderfull were the words which my Lord vttered to his Disciples in the end of his sweet Oration Hee exhorteth them to sow the seedes of true loue in their hearts and to shew forth the fruits thereof one to another After hee admonisheth them that they should be constant in their loue and permanent in their Faith towards him their louing Sauiour For hee that is destitute of the former can neuer be possessed of the latter And after those things he fore-telleth them what great dangers they should passe what tribulations troubles afflictions and calamities they should suffer after his departure that being fore-warned they might be better armed Lastly hee powreth forth his prayer vnto his heauenly Father for them that they might not shrinke backe like cowards in the day of their triall nor their Faith faile them in the bitter stormes of affliction but aboue all things oh my most sweet IESVS I am not able to wonder enough at thy earnest Exhortations which thou diddest vse to kindle the sparkes of feruent loue towards thee in the hearts of thy faithfull Disciples thou doest specially aboue all things charge and command thy Disciples that they loue thee and couet after nothing but thee Oh how great is the excellencie of true loue Oh how feruent is the vehemencie of a deuout spirit Oh how forcible is the preheminence of a charitable affection Thou didst commend and leaue loue my beloued Iesus as a most rare and precious Iewell to thy deare Disciples Therefore this is highly to be extolled of vs and chiefely to be desired by vs as our greatest riches and onely treasure Let him oh louing Iesus be abiected out of thy gracious fauour let him haue no taste of thy kindnes that doth not honour thy name and possesse his heart with thy loue Truely many riuers of water haue not beene able to put out the fire nor quench the flame of true loue for loue is as strong as death Verilie if I should giue all my substance were it neuer so great I would regard it as nothing rather then I would want or forgoe my true loue for hee that loueth thee faithfully my most louing Sauiour will leaue all things willingly take vp his Crosse chearefully and follow thy steps constantly Therefore who shall seperate mee from thy loue Oh my most sweet Lord What shall diuert the current of my affections from thee Shall tribulation or anguish shall persecution or hunger But because I can doe nothing without thy grace my gracious IESVS nor performe any thing without thy power set such a deepe stampe of thy loue in my heart that the print of it may neuer be raced out but abide in it for euer yea so wound my heart with thy sweetest loue that all my desires may be turned towards thee and that I may finde no ease but when I thinke vpon thee that I may loue thee with all my heart with all my soule with all my strength that my whole will desires and affections may couet nothing but thee Let all my cogitations be onely occupied in the meditation of thy loue Seperate and remoue from mee all other desires of the flesh oh my sweet Iesus that my whole heart may be solelie conioyned to thee in the day my soule humblie attend vpon thee in the night and that my spirit and bodie may chearefully seeke after thee when I awake earely in the morning for my soule thirsteth after thee oh God which art a liuing fountaine oh when shall I come before thy face when shall I appeare in thy presence And I doubt not oh most mercifull Lord but that I shall be loued of thy Father if I shall loue thee as thou hast taught thy Disciples and that thou and thy Father will come to mee and make your dwelling place with me And what doe I craue more what doe I couet so much as that my Iesus may dwell and remaine in mee Oh how happy were my state how blessed were my condition if I could truelie say my beloued as a bundle of Mirrhe vnto me will remaine betweene my breasts If I could imbrace my beloued Iesus I would hold him fast betwixt mine armes I would neuer let him depart any more from me his presence should be my pleasure in the day his societie should be my solace in the night Kindle my reines oh most louing Iesus with the burning sparkles of thy loue inflame my heart with the fire of an ardent deuotion towards thee so that I may long after thee alone my deare beloued Christ Iesus and euermore search for thee and neuer cease to seeke thee vntill I finde thee which by the vehemencie of thy loue and compassion of thy mercie wert willing to be cruellie crucified for my grieuous transgressions and to dye a shamefull death for my sinnes Ingraue the memorie of this thy great loue so deepe in the Table of my heart that it neither decay by length of daies nor be worne out by the iniquitie of the time A Meditation concerning Iesus his going vp into Mount-Oliuet and of his praying thrice in the Garden MED VI. My a Marke 14.34 soule is heauie euen vnto death Mans sinne doth b Luke 22.44 bloud and water from me draine For sinne I feele my Fathers angry c Marke 14.35 wrath For sinne I drinke this cup d Luke 22.42 of deadly paine IT was the custome of our louing Iesus to ascend vp often vnto the Mount Oliuet which was distant the space of a mile from Ierusalem that he might pray There also was a Towne named Gethsemani where there was a Garden scituated on the Mountaines into the which beloued Iesus was accustomed to enter specially at night time with his Disciples to pray Wherefore after he had ended his glorious and blessed Supper and also his sweet and comfortable exhortations made to his beloued and faithfull Disciples hee resorted towards this place late in the night accompanied with them Here oh my soule behold thy Iesus looke vpon that innocent Lambe which goeth of his owne accord to the slaughter Take a view of his
the end of that contemplation this shall be the summe of that felicity Because the sincere Diuinitie shal be vnderstood to be in his purity the incomprehensible Trinitie shall be comprehended in it The Mysteries of the Diuinitie shall be made manifest God shall be seene and shall be loued Also this vision and delight filling and satisfying the whole heart of man shall be the whole perfection and summarie consumation of that blessednesse All shall speake with one tongue and language there shall be reioycing without wearisomnesse one affection Loue eternall Truth shal appeare openly charity shall fill them immeasurably and there shall be a perfect and sound societie of body and soule The Humanitie being glorified shall glister like the Sun the fellowship of the flesh and Spirit shall be quiet and peaceable and there shall be one ioy of men and Angels one feast one speech and communication Loue shall not languish nor charity melt away all good things being present There shall be no affliction of delay because the blessed presence of the Diuine Maiestie shall be all things vnto all and there shall be a common omnipotencie of vvisedome peace righteousnesse and vnderstanding vnto all There shall not be a diuersity of tongues in that eternall peace but a peaceable and tuneable concord of manners and affections A description of perfect peace In that flood and streame of felicity aboundant saciety shall couet nor desire nothing else there shall be great happinesse for there shall be a heaped store of felicitie glory euermore encreasing and ioy superaboundant but who shall be fit for these things Who is capable of heauenly happines Verily the true Penitent the good Obedient the louing Companion and faithfull Seruant For a true Penitent is alwaies in labour and griefe hee is grieued vvith things that are past he laboureth to preuent and auoyde euils to come What true repentance is For it is true repentance without intermission of time to be grieued for our sinnes and offences And he repenteth truely vvhich doth so bewaile his trespasses committed that hee doth not afterward commit things to be lamented hee is a scoffer and not a true Penitent vvhich doth that still which hee may repent and that may grieue him If therefore thou wilt be a true Penitent cease from sinne and offend no more Because that repentance is vaine vvhich afterward is stained vvith some ensuing trespasse Euery good Obedient A good Obedient yeeldeth vp his consent and deniall that he can say My heart is readie oh God My heart is readie Readie to doe vvhatsoeuer thou hast commaunded readie to obey at thy becke It is prepared to attend vpon thee to minister to my Neighbours to keepe and vvatch my selfe and to rest and dwell in the contemplation of heauenly things A louing Companion A louing Companion is dutifull and beneficiall to all burdensome to none Hee is dutifull to all because hee is deuout before God kinde towards his Neighbour sober towards the World the Seruant of the Lord the Companion of his Neighbour the Lord of the World Hee hath things that are aboue him for his solace things that are equall to him for his fellowship things that are beneath him for his seruice he is a burthen to none but reduceth those things which are beneath to the profit of the meane and to the honour of the superiour following superiour things drawing the inferiour possessed of the former possessing the latter he is a faithfull seruant in the Meditation and contemplation of God and in the care and custodie of himselfe Therefore first vse all diligence to keepe and watch thy selfe afterward vnderstanding that thou canst not be able to keepe and preserue thee by thy owne industrie humbly entreat for the ayde of the Diuine clemencie Therefore that thou maiest behold the good Wee must flye vnto GOD in the time of necessitie vvell-pleasing and perfect vvill of thy Creator in thee faithfully in thy prayers solicite him that his royall Campe of Angels may pitch their Tents round about thee Desire zealously the protection of Christ thy Redeemer Crie vnto him and say Behold a poore sinner standeth at thy dore of mercie open to him that knocketh open thou oh sweet Sauiour which hast said Knocke and it shall be opened that I may declare vnto thee all my miseries and necessities which I suffer Powre out the secrets of thy heart before him and craue pardon for thy transgressions by a sorrowfull and true Confession Let Iesus Christ keepe the dore of thy heart For vvhen Iesus Christ keepeth the dore of the heart and is the Porter so that all of the Houshold of the heart enter in and come out by him Thousands of Angels forth-with are present reioycing at the gates of the outward senses so that no Straunger dare breake into those terrible Armies because of the reuerence and Maiestie of the Dore-keeper and the Watch and Ward of the Angels How a man ought to examine himselfe MOTIVE V. THou being a curious and strict examiner of thy integritie examine thy life by a diligent and daily inquisition Marke carefully how much thou doest profit and goe forward or how much thou doest decay and goe backwards vvhat thou art in manners vvhat thou art in affections how like thou art to God our Redeemer and Sauiour or how vnlike how nigh or how farre not by distances of places but by affections of manners Endeauour vvith all thy forces and all thy industrie to know thy selfe because thou art much better and more laudable if thou know thy selfe then if thy owne selfe being neglected and not regarded thou shouldest know the course of the Starres the vertue of herbs the complexions of men the natures of beasts and shouldst haue the science and knowledge of all celestial terrestrial things Therefore restore thy selfe to thy selfe and if not alwaies or often at least sometime Rule thy affections direct thy actions and correct thy foote-steppes let nothing remaine in thee vvhich is not rectified vvith necessarie Discipline place all thy transgressions before thy eyes place thy selfe before thy selfe as it were before another and so bewaile thy selfe Lament thy iniquities and immeasurable sinnes vvith vvhich thou hast offended thy God declare vnto him thy miseries shew vnto him the malice of thy aduersaries And when thou shalt humble thy selfe with teares before him I pray thee that thou be mindfull of mee How wee ought to be mindfull one of another in our prayers For I since the time I haue knowne thee in Christ doe loue thee and send vp mention of thee thither vvhere both an vnlawfull thought doth deserue punishment and an honest thought is not vnrewarded For when like a spirituall Priest I offer vp the calues of my lippes and a sorrowfull heart vpon the Altar of God I doe remember thee Thou also shalt doe the like office for me if thou wilt loue me and make me partaker of thy prayers I desire and
speeches vttered by his blessed mouth didst not thou attend vpon him preaching in the day didst thou not accompanie him praying in the night hadst thou so soone forgot his blessed Sermons went all in at one eare and out at the other didst thou remember no better his heauenly Exhortations hadst thou quite raced out of thy memorie his generall compassion towards all and his particular goodnesse towards thee why was thy soule starued for want of food in the middest of plentie why were thy spirits dryed vp with thirst being so neare a pure fountaine It was because thou haddest no grace to taste of that sweet coelestiall Manna or to drinke of that rocke of liuing water Couldest thou esteeme so rare a Iewell as my Sauiour Iesus at so base a rate wouldest thou sell his precious bloud at so low a price that was sufficient to pay the greatest price of our Redemption What base opinion mightest thou thinke the high Priest might haue of thee prouing so vilde a Traytor although to serue their owne turnes they allowed thy Treason Didst thou not thinke the whole World would daily hate thee when being a Disciple thou hadst so vildely betraied thy louing Master and craftily plotted the death of thy gracious Benefactor But woe be vnto thee and to all of thy condition it had beene better for thee thou haddest neuer beene then being to haue beene an instrument of such haynous such detestable such horrible Treason Keepe my soule oh Lord set a Watch before the dore of my heart that no couetous desire may haue passage into my bowels or enter into my brest to get dominion ouer my reason to wound my conscience to inflict my minde with noysome lusts and to confound my vnderstanding with greedy desires Let the memory of this sorrowfull day wherein thy couetous and damnable disciple Iudas sold thee my innocent and louing Sauiour Iesus vnto the murmuring and murthering Iewes draw out floods of teares from mine eyes and fetch out sorrowfull sobs and deepe sighes from my repenting heart to bewaile the horrour of my transgressions and to lament the innumerable multitude of my many most monstrous iniquities which brought thy most sacred bodie to the market there to be solde and from thence to be led to the slaughter cruelly to be slaine that with thy most precious bloud thou mightest pay the price of my Redemption which am a most wretched and sinfull creature yet let the sweet recordation of thy immutable loue and the ioyfull remembrance of thy immeasurable mercy so comfort mee in the midst of my miserie that although I finde much matter in my selfe to make mee feare yet that I may neuer despaire knowing that thou art alwaies willing to apply a soueraigne salue to a wounded soule and sweet consolation to a woefull conscience whensoeuer oh blessed Sauiour we acknowledge our maladie and faithfullie desire thy sauing helpe in our miserie Of the Preparation of Christs last Supper by the Disciples on Thursday of the washing of the Disciples feete performed by Iesus himselfe and of many exemplary actions of Iesus at the Supper MED III. Christ Iesus a Iohn 13.5 washed his Disciples feete They loath b Iohn 13.8 refuse but he enforceth it For c Iohn 13.2 Supper done to Symon thus said hee Vnlesse I doo 't thou hast no part with me d Iohn 13.8 THe first day of the sweet bread that is to say the fift day of the week in the euening of which day the Paschall Lamb was slaine and sweet bread was eaten according to the custome of the Iewes the Disciples came to Iesus seeing it was the time of the Feast and that their Maister had no resting place of his owne where he might lay his head and said vnto him Where wilt thou that wee prepare for thee to eate the Paschall Lambe Teach mee here my sweet Sauiour by thy example so to liue in the world that I may be prepared euery day to leaue the world esteeming my selfe as a Pilgrime still trauelling and euery day remouing not to build my palace of pleasure here in this transitorie world where all things are vncertaine subiect euery moment to miserie changes and mutabilitie Let neyther the pleasant baites of prosperitie nor the bitter brunts of aduersitie hinder me in my iourney whilest I trauaile toward the heauenly Ierusalem Let thy humilitie be my greatest honour in time of prosperitie let thy pouertie be my chiefest riches in time of aduersitie and let thy patience be my onely comfort in the sorrowfull day of affliction let thy quiet contentment calme the tumults of my grudging minde and barre out all repining thoughts seeing thou the Lord of all hadst not so much as a Cottage to couer thy head from the dew of heauen or to shadow thy face from the beames of the Sunne But my sweet Sauiour although thou wert poore in respect of thy Humanitie that thy pouertie might be our consolation in time of our distresses and to teach vs to beare with patience the heauie burden of our afflictions yet thou didst shew the bright beames of thy Diuinitie to thy Disciples when they saw that performed indeed which thou haddest told them in word when they met with the man in the Citie a meere stranger vnto them whose heart thou haddest prepared to make prouision for thee and thy Disciples to celebrate the Feast of the Paschall Lambe Oh happie man whom thou didst vouchsafe to choose for thy Hoste Oh blessed house prepared to receiue such a Guest Send thy holy Spirit my louing Sauiour as a Harbinger to prepare a lodging for thee in my heart and so furnish my minde with thy heauenlie graces that I may be able to giue thee such entertainment that thou maiest like and loue to dwell with mee for euer Now when the Table was prepared the Paschall Lambe made readie with other necessaries at euening Iesus came thither with his disciples and when the houre was come he sate downe to the Table Oh happy feast blessed are they my louing Sauiour which sit downe to meate at thy Supper Most happie and blessed are they oh most mercifull IESVS who are so dearely beloued of thee and so highly honoured by thee as to be made worthy to sit at thy Table Thou wilt giue them euerlasting food for their meate and water of life for their drinke so that after thy bountifull Feast they shall neuer know any hunger nor feele any thirst Graunt mee Oh bountifull Lord to taste of that heauenly food and to drinke my fill of that Coelestiall water so that my body may be thy holy Temple and my soule thine euerlasting habitation Behold oh my soule how thy louing IESVS sitteth amongst his Disciples a meeke Lambe among meeke sheepe except cruell Iudas who although hee were a deuouring Wolfe sate downe to the Table in their holy societie Oh most holy societie of thee and thy faithfull Disciples Oh most glorious companie of all but one who
should all my sences be afflicted with mourning vvhen my minde doth contemplate the wounds of thy body and meditate the sorrow of thy soule afflicted with the deadly pangs of thy bitter passion vvhich inflamed thy heart with excessiue heat and dried vp the moysture of thy bowels with immoderate thirst And how should mine eyes swell with weeping and my hart be wearied with groning to bewaile my sinnes which so sharpened the hearts of the Gentiles vvith the eagernesse of crueltie and so shortned the hands of the Iewes vvith the malice of impietie that they reteined no sparke of pitty in their hearts nor would extend their hands to giue thee any comfortable refreshing in thy greatest extreamity But as their hearts and bowels were filled with sharpe sower and malicious humors so they giue thee a sowre and bitter drinke compounded of Gall and Vinegar Oh nefarious horrible impiety oh detestable cruelty of the perfidious Iewes to be so stony-harted as not to afford so much as a draught of cold water to my dying Iesus vvho is able to giue water of life which shall so plentifully satisfie the longing desire of those that drinke of it that they shall neuer after be molested vvith thirst nor haue any necessity to drinke Oh would I had beene there my bountifull Iesu that my vveeping eyes might haue afforded thee store of water to haue slaked thy drinesse and quenched thy thirst Oh how extreame vvas the griefe of thy tender-hearted Mother Oh how sorrowfull vvas the sadnes of Iohn thy louing Disciple who loued thee so tenderly was beloued of thee so intirely Oh how dolorous was the lamentation of Mary Magdalene mourning for thee her kinde distressed Master who had forgiuen her many sinnes because shee had shewed thee much loue Who all did behold thee with their wofull eyes and did heare thee with their doleful eares complaine that thou wert dry and thirsty and no doubt but they did all wish with sighes desire with heauy groanes that they had beene able but alas they might not be suffred to giue thee some comfortable refreshing When the Diuell our ancient enemy did tempt thee in the Wildernesse thou wert pinched with hunger at thy death thou wert parched with thirst thy moysture dryed vp like a pot-shard and thy tongue cleauing to the rooffe of thy mouth Now what are these naturall wants and weak infirmities found in thy body but strong arguments vnto vs of thy true man-hood and true testimonies of thy humane nature that we might know that although thou wert indued with exceeding patience yet that thou being man wert subiect to our passions but as thy sacred Conception was free from all carnall corruption so thy pure Life was alwaies free from all sinnefull infection Thou hadst great cause my louing Sauiour to be molested with drinesse and grieued with thirst when as thy body was distempered with watching brused with cruell blowes and thy bloud exhausted with thy bleeding wounds yet such as was the inhumanity such was the cruelty of the pittilesse Iewes that in this extremitie they would not afford thee a cuppe of colde water But is it credible yea is it possible that my Sauior should be afflicted vvith thirst at his death who hath tolde vs and it is true that hee hath told vs that he hath the water of life Tell me my bountifull Iesu how was thy moisture consumed what caused thy thirst art thou not hee which cryed If any man thirst let him come to me drinke Ioh. 7.37 art thou able to satisfie others that are thirsty and art thou thy selfe oppressed with thirst art not thou he my louing Sauiour which said to the woman of Samaria that thou hadst the water of life that hee vvhich should drinke of this water should neuer thirst any more but that it should be a well of water in him springing vp vnto euerlasting life Thy speech my Sauiour is veritie and thy words are truth thou hast the water of life thou art able and as thou art able so thou art most willing to refresh our thirsty soules vvith this blessed vvater if vvee will resort to drinke of thy pure and Christall fountaine I will come vnto thee my sweet Iesu that thou mayest satisfie my soule vvith thine euerlasting bread and quench my thirst with this Water of life for my soule thirsteth after God which is a liuing Fountaine I will cry vnto thee the Lord my God my Sauiour my protector and I will say I thirst I thirst my bountifull Iesu Oh that I might haue but so much as a little taste of this Caelestiall water Oh how doe I long to drinke of this fountaine quench thou my thirst oh my sweet Iesu with this liuing Water for thou onely art able to quench my thirst because vvith thee there is the fountaine of life And graunt that my soule may still thirst with such a longing after thy loue that it may make haste to these waters of comfort Oh how dangerous and deadly were my malady how vnsufferable were my misery how damnable were my state how desperate were my case if I should not drink of this heauenly Fountaine But as the spring of these blessed and wholesome waters doth euer flowe and as thy vnstinted bounty oh my mercifull Sauiour euer aboundeth so thou doest neuer deny any thirsty soule to drinke of this liuing water Wherefore let the feruency of thy loue so inflame my soule that it may thirst and thirsting may runne vnto thee to be refreshed with this comfortable water I know oh my blessed Redeemer that thou wert not onely afflicted with thirst in thy body but that thou wert more affected with thirst in thy spirit Heare thou oh my thirsty soule the sweet word of thy Sauiour Oh with what exceeding mercy is it replenished with what inestimable Charity is it vttered He saith I thirst but he saith not I am pained grieued or afflicted And what dost thou thirst for so much oh my louing Lord Thou dost not thirst so much for wine which is pressed out of the grapes of the Vine or for water which floweth out of the Riuer but thy thirst is my saluation thy meat is my redemption Thou doest thirst for my faith my saluation my ioy this spirituall thirst did more affect thy soule then any naturall or humane thirst could afflict thy body Therefore thirst thou oh my soule after thy louing and merciful Sauiour as the thirsty Hart desireth the water Oh how canst thou but thirst after him who hath thirsteth so much after thee Let all things be they neuer so sower be pleasant vnto thee for his sake let all things be they neuer so bitter be most sweet vnto thee for his loue Refuse not to drinke of the bitter cup of affliction for his cause and hee will not faile to refresh thee in the time of thy calamitie his hand shall be stretched out to deliuer thee in thy necessitie Grant me my Lord that I may
offer vnto thee the wine of my true deuotion vvith the Mirrhe of mortification and gall of hearty contrition But as it might be dolefull vnto thee my soule to heare thy louing Iesus cry out Sitio I thirst so let it be ioyfull vnto thee to heare him take his farewel with Consummatum est It is finished Ioh. 19.30 Oh let the Meditation of this word be more sweet vnto me then the hony vvhich Sampson found in the carkasse of the Lyon vvhen he was hungry Iudg. 14 8. and more delectable vnto mee then the vvater vvhich hee found in the Iawbone of the Asse vvhen he vvas thirsty Iudg. 15.19 For now had my blessed Redeemer fulfilled the sacred decrees of the holy Scriptures concerning my saluation and appeased the wrath of his Father kindled against me for my sinnes Now he had cancelled the Obligation of my infinite debt and not vvith siluer and gold but with his owne most pretious blood purchased my Redemption And by his death conquered death hell and the deuill Oh happy death that hath redeemed mee to eternall life Oh glorious victory although my Sauiour obtained it so dearely Therefore let mee not be carelesse to sell that so cheape which my Sauiour hath bought so deare Let mee consecrate my soule and body wholly to him for they are his owne he hath dearely bought them Direct my spirit oh Lord by the leuell of thy perfect word let the meditation of my heart be day and night in thy sacred law that I may offer vp vnto thee daily the calues of my vnfained lippes speaking of thy meruailous kindnesse early in the morning and telling of thy manifold mercies late in the euening send downe a gratious raine of thy holy Spirit into the furrowes of my heart that the memory of thine innumerable benefits may perpetually flourish in my minde and thine euerlasting praises euermore sound in my mouth for thou alone art my Redeemer oh Lord God of my saluation A Meditation how CHRIST gaue vp the Ghost and of the wonders which were seene at his death MED XIX Strange a Mar. 15.38 wonders at our Sauiours death were wrought The graues did b Matt. 27.51 open and the dead came forth The Temple rent in c Luke 23.45 twaine Dumbe creatures sought T' expresse to blinded d Luk. 19.40 Iewes their makers worth LIft vp thine eyes oh my soule and behold how the countenance of thy Sauiour is couered with a deadly palenesse his sight beginneth to faile and his heart to faint yet a little before the departure of his soule and in his greatest pangs hee cryed out with a lowd voyce as if he had felt no paine saying Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and vvhen he had said thus bowing downe his head and closing his eyes he gaue vp the Ghost Luke 23.46 Now so soone as his blessed soule was dissolued from his breathlesse body the vaile of the Temple vvas rent into two peeces from the top the bottome the earth did quake the stones were rent the graues opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose out of their graues came into the holy Citie and appeared to many Awake thou now oh my soule lie no longer snorting in the bed of carelesse security vvhat wilt thou say what wilt thou doe oh my soule Thou seest that the earth trembleth quaketh that the stones doe cleaue in pieces and that the beholders are all amazed at the death of the Lord Iesus Oh! why art thou so senselesse oh my soule and as it were dead without motion at the recordation of the death and meditation of the Passion of thy Sauiour Oh let the sinnefull vaile of the Temples of thy head rend into peeces which couereth the eyes of thy vnderstanding let thy earthly body tremble with horror and thy stony heart cleaue in sunder with terror of thine impietie and now arise thou out of the graue of thine iniquitie let thine eyes waste and consume away with weeping and let thy heart melt away with sighing that thou mayest shew some signes of sorrow for thy sinnes and some tokens of true repentance for thy transgressions which caused the bitter Passion and procured the cruell death of thy innocent IESVS and cry out vvith the astonished Centurion Verely this man was righteous Hee was the Sonne of GOD Mat. 17. Lift vp thy hands crie out with a faithfull heart Oh my gratious Lord my sweet Sauiour and louing Redeemer how terrible were my trespasses how haynous were my transgressions that nothing but thy pretious blood could wash out the staines of mine iniquitie and nothing but thy death deliuer me out of the chaines of euerlasting captiuitie What shall I doe to gratulate the greatnes of thy loue how shall I perfectly rellish the goodnesse of thy mercy how shall I throughly tast the sweetnesse of thy compassion For how doth thy loue exceede in greatnesse how doth mercy abound in goodnes and how doth thy compassion excel in sweetnes that thou being the true and naturall Sonne of God shouldst be made man that we being sinnefull men should be made the sons of God yea when vvee were thine enemies vessels of sinne and vassals of Sathan And that thou being man shouldest be made subiect to the same passions to the same affections to the same afflictions that we are yea obnoxious to death to pay our debt but yet thy life was neuer infected with any sinfull action no not so much as affected with any euill cogitation Oh my kinde Iesu Oh thou innocent Lambe Oh my most louing Lord by how much the more I consider thy calamity by how much the more I ruminate thy mercy by so much the more cause I finde to be faithfully affected towards thee for the greatnes of thy loue and to be afflicted with thee for thy grieuous torments Oh let me behold in my serious meditation and see with the eye of mine vnderstanding how thy most sacred body is brused vvith cruell blowes thy tender flesh mangled with bleeding wounds thy venerable head perfored and pierced with a Crowne of pricking thornes thy beautifull forehead spotted and thy comely haire knotted with coniealed blood thy nosthrils offended vvith stinking spittle and thy blessed mouth distasted with gall and vinegar thy most bright eyes obscured with a vaile thy amiable face buffeted with fists and defiled with dust thy chast eares filled with reproaches thy naked body scourged with whips thy vveary shoulders shrinking and thy weake knees failing vnder the heauy burthen of the crosse thy most holy hands pierced thy blessed feet bored with sharpe iron nailes thy blessed side opened and thy heart wounded with a speare Oh let the remembrance of thy grieuous torments my louing Iesu let the memory of thy bleeding wounds and scornefull reproaches wound my heart with vvofull compunction and pierce into my hardened bowels that they may relent vvith tender compassion that I may feele some sense of painefull sorrow for thy
sake seeing thou hast suffered so much for my sinnes But before thou passe any further oh my soule doe thou not let it passe without earnest meditation how that although the hearts of the tormentors of mine afflicted Iesus were so poysoned with impietie and their hands so polluted with cruelty that they grieued his righteous soule vvith their scornes and reproaches killed his innocent body with their tortures yet that the fury of their malicious harts was so restrained and the violence of their cruell hands so repressed that they could not breake one bone of his blessed body as they did of the malefactors which were crucified with him because the sacred scripture had said they should not and therefore their hands were fettered that they could not Exod. 12.46 Num. 9.12 Zach. 12.10 Wherefore let this meditation comfort thy drooping heart oh my soule and consolate thy fainting spirits in the sowrest fits of any worldly misery and in the sorest conflicts of any affliction that can betide thee that no Tyrant be hee neuer so mighty or his heart neuer so malicious can imagine more in his cruell thoughts or act any more with his bloudy hands against thee then the Diuine prouidence hath predestinated and the counsell of the highest hath alwayes determined Let this resolution be as a pretious Balme to heale the wounds of thy sorrow and as a soueraigne Salue to cure thy soares that they may not fester with dispairefull repining or rancor with impatient mourning Let no dread of danger throw downe the Fort of thy hope let no Tempest of persecution shake the foundation of thy Faith and let no waues of affliction quench the flame of thy loue towards thy Sauiour but let the oyle of his sufficient grace so strengthen the sinewes of thy Faith when it waxeth feeble that thy heart neuer faile nor thy courage quaile when thou art molested with any sickenes or affliction of body or moued with any malady of thy mind being faithfully perswaded that no calamity can betide thee without his will nor no danger can come neere thy dwelling without his good pleasure and that no Tyrants although they be neuer so mighty can do but so much and no more against thee then hee in his wisedome knoweth to be profitable for thee For neither the prophane Gentiles nor the superstitious Iewes could doe any more vnto my innocent Iesus then he vvas willing to suffer who came to die for the sinnes of the people they could not do one iot more then was enacted in the highest Court of the Caelestiall Parliament determined by the secret Counsel of the Trinity confirmed by the euerlasting Statutes of the sacred Scriptures Confirme my mind oh Lord with a stedfast perswasion of thy power and comfort my weake nature with a resolute confidence in thy word that in the time of my aduersitie and day of my tribulation yea at the houre of my death I may commend my spirit into thy hands as thou didst thine into the hands of thy heauenly Father Oh what a consolation comfort may it be vnto me in my greatest misery to commend my soule into thy custody for there it shall remain in the safe harbor of eternal tranquility no more subiect to misery no more obnoxious to vanity the ioy that it shall possesse is vnspeakable the felicitie incomparable the continuance of it neuer decaying but alwayes durable without any change or ending Receiue my soule oh my louing Sauiour into thy hands that it may be safe vnder the shadowe of thy wings it is thine owne it came from thee and therefore let it returne vnto thee receiue my gift my bountifull giuer But because oh Lord nothing that is impure may appeare in thy sight neither canst thou behold any vncleane thing with thine eie purge my soule with the fire of thy spirit and wash away the spots of it with thy precious bloud that being beautified with the pure white robe of thy mercy Reu. 12.18 it may confidently approach vnto the Throne of thy Maiesty Oh let the affection of my loue be neuer defectiue towards thee and infuse that into me by the gift of thy grace which I am not able to obtaine by my owne strength captiuate all my sences that they may be obsequious to do thy will and frame all the members of my body to performe thy law that being partaker of thy death by true mortification of my flesh I may also be made partaker vvith thee of thy glorious Resurrection by the viuification of thy blessed Spirit A Meditation how the Lord Iesus was buried and of the lamentation of his Mother and other women for his death MED XX. Within a a Mar. 15.46 Tombe which in a Rocke was wrought Ioseph b Mar. 27.90 enshrines the body of our Lord. Wrapt in a c Luk. 23.53 Mark 15.46 cloath which hee of purpose bought Oh happy man that did such loue afford AS there was a wicked and couetous Iudas oh my soule amongst the faithfull Disciples of thy louing IESVS to betray him to a cruell death so there was a kinde Ioseph found among the Iewes who brought him honourably to his graue Oh who is able to relate the lamentation to expresse the sorrow and vtter the griefe of the Virgin Marie mourning for the death of her deare Sonne and other vvomen vvho did behold him vvith their compassionate eyes vvhen like an innocent Lambe he gaue vp the Ghost and bewailed his departure from them vvith floods of teares Now thinke that thou doest heare the Virgine Marie discouering the inward sorrowes of her heart of her grieued and wounded heart vttered out of her dolefull mouth passionate as she was a tender harted woman and more compassionate as shee vvas a louing Mother vvhen shee saw the vvounded and breathlesse body of her Sonne taken downe from the Crosse Let her sorrowfull words penetrate thine eares and pierce thy heart that thou maist bewaile the debts of thy sinnes as she lamented the death of her Sonne in this or the like manner Oh my most sweet Sonne what is my felicity which I had by thee in thy life Is it any thing else but extreame miserie at thy death how is my chiefest ioy changed into sorrow my mirth into mourning how is my reioycing turned into lamenting my cheerefulnesse turned into heauinesse nothing can mittigate my calamity nothing can ease my malady What hadst thou done oh my most deare Sonne what hainous crime hadst thou committed vvhat odious treason hadst thou perpetrated that thou wert condemned to die such a shamefull and bitter death Thy pure hands were neuer defiled with any euill actions and thy harmlesse heart did neuer harbour any vvicked cogitations thine eyes were neuer bewitched with worldly vanities nor thine eares delighted with lewd discourses thy mouth did vtter forth wisedome and thy tongue spake nothing but the truth thy whole life was a Mirrour of piety thy words deserued no reprehension thy deeds were without all
accuser and when it shall be sayd of mee behold the man and his vvorkes then I shall reduce and bring againe before mine eyes all my sinnes and offences For it shall be brought to passe by a certaine diuine power that good and euil works shal be recalled to the remembraunce of euery one and shall be seene in the view of the minde with a wonderfull speede and celeritie that the knowledge of them may accuse or excuse the conscience and that so both euery man seuerally and generally may be iudged together Euery man shall be iudged for his deeds And all the secrets of all men shall appeare and lie open vnto all For that which wee are ashamed At the day of iudgement all things shal be made manifest and blush at to confesse now shall then be manifest and apparant to all And there the reuenging and deuouring fire shall burne and consume whatsoeuer heere wee cloake and flatter by dissembling The swift fire shall rage and raigne euery where hauing gotten free scope and libertie And by how much the longer the Lord doth waite and tarry for our amendement so much the more strictly hee will iudge vs if vvee shall abuse and neglect his patience Why therefore doe vvee so earnestly couet this life in which the longer wee liue the more we sinne For by how much the more the dayes of our life are lengthened Nothing more mutable then humane condition by so much the more our faults and transgressions are augmented For euill things do daily increase but good things decay and are diminished Mans state doth neuer stand at a stay but is continually chaunged by prosperity and aduersitie and hee knoweth not when he shall die For as a blazing starre in the skie runneth swiftly and vanisheth away suddenly The shortnesse of mans life shadowed out by a double similitude or as a sparkle of fire is suddenly extinguished and turned into ashes so wee may see this life quickely ended and suddenly consumed For while man tarrieth willingly and liueth most pleasantly in this World and supposeth that hee shall liue long and purposeth many things to be done in long time hee is suddenly snatched away by death and the Soule is taken from the body before hee beware of it Yet the soule is separated with great feare much paine and bitter griefe from the body For the Angels come to take her that they may bring her before the Tribunall seat of a most fearefull Iudge then shee calling to minde her euill and most wicked workes which shee hath done day and night trembleth and seeketh to shunne and auoyd them and to desire a truce of them saying Graunt me the space yea but of one houre Then her workes as it vvere Our works will follow vs to iudgement speaking together shall answere and say Thou hast made vs wee are thy workes wee vvill goe forward with thee to iudgement Vices also shall accuse her with many and manifolde crimes and shall bring many false testimonies against her although one sufficeth to her damnation The Deuils also shall terrifie her vvith their gastly countenance and horrible aspect they shall persecute her and take holde of her as terribly so also horribly desirous to reteine her vnlesse there be one vvho can deliuer her from them Then the Soule finding the eyes shut the mouth and other sences of the body by which shee was wont to haue passage and to bee delighted in these outward things closed The state of a damned soule shall returne to her selfe and seeing her selfe alone and naked stricken vvith exceeding horrour shee shall faint in her selfe and fall downe vvith desperation And because for the loue of the world and pleasure of the flesh shee forsooke the loue of God shee wretched shall be quite forsaken in the houre of such great necessitie and shall be deliuered to the Deuils to be tormented in Hell So the soule of a sinner in the day wherein hee is ignorant and houre in which hee knoweth not is snatched away of death and is separated from the body and proceedeth forward full of miseries trembling and sorrowing and when shee hath no excuse which shee may alledge for her sinne shee fainteth and faileth with dreadfull feare to appeare before GOD shee is shaken and quaketh with exceeding horrour and is tossed and troubled with manifold tempests of perplexed thoughts and dispairefull cogitations the dissolution and separation of the flesh grieuing her and all being remoued out of her sight shee considereth her selfe and that time to which shee approacheth and after a little while she findeth in that that which can neuer be altered nor reuersed Shee considereth throughly how seuere the eternall Iudge commeth and what straight accounts she must make before the seueritie of such great Iustice For although shee haue escaped all the vvorkes vvhich shee could vnderstand yet for all that comming before a strict and seuere Iudge shee dreadeth those more which shee vnderstandeth not in her selfe Feare increaseth when shee thinketh she could not passe through the way of this life vvithout a fault neither that time which shee hath liued commendably is without offence if it be iudged pitty and mercy excluded For who is able to consider how many and how great euils vvee commit in moments of times Sinnes are of two sorts of commission and omission and what great good things wee neglect to doe For as the commission of an euill thing is sinne so the omission of a good thing is an offence For great is the losse and dammage when wee neither doe nor thinke good things but suffer our heart to wander stagger abroad through vaine and vnprofitable things Neuerthelesse it is a very hard and difficult thing to bridle the heart and keepe it from an vnlawfull cogitation Also it is a thing ouer-hard to execute earthly affaires without sinne Wherefore no man can perfectly comprehend and discerne himselfe But being busied toyled with many thoughts and cogitations he remayneth in some measure vnknowne vnto himselfe that hee knoweth not all those things which he tollerateth Why man is at his death fearfull Wherefore his departure out of the world being instant and pressing him hee is terrified with a more exact feare because although he remembreth that hee hath not omitted those things which he knew yet he dreadeth those things which he knoweth not Of the dignitie of the Soule MOTIVE III. OH Soule sealed with the Image of God adorned with his similitude Excellency of the Soule betrothed to him by Faith endowed with the Spirit redeemed by bloud associated with Angels capable of Beatitude heire of Goodnesse partaker of Reason what hast thou to doe with the flesh of whom thou sufferest so many euils Because of the flesh the sinnes of another are imputed to thee and thy vertues reputed as a stained and filthy clout and thou thy selfe art brought to nothing and reputed as nothing The flesh is no other thing vvith
let the time come I pray thee let that blessed time come wherein I may see that with my inward eyes which now I beleeue by faith which now I enioy by hope and apprehend a farre off And that I may embrace that with mine armes and kisse that with my ioyfull lips which I now long to haue with such thirstie desires as will neuer be satisfied vntill they be wholy possessed of it and that I be swallowed vp in the deepe Sea of thine infinite goodnesse oh my Sauiour and my God But praise thou oh my Soule my God my Sauiour and magnifie his Name For it is holy replenished with store of most holy delights whose quantitie is stinted with no measure nor qualitie subiect to any mutability Oh how good how sweet art thou Lord Iesus to the soule that seeketh thee Oh Iesus the Redeemer of those which were lost the Sauiour of those which are redeemed the hope of the banished the strength of those that are troubled the libertie of a Spirit afflicted with bondage the comfortable solace and sweet refreshing of a sorrowfull Soule which sheddeth teares and sendeth forth sweat while it runneth after thee the Crowne of the Tryumphing the onely reward and ioy of all celestiall Citizens the most plentifull Fountaine of all Graces the glorious Sonne of the highest God and also the highest God Roman 3.25 Matth. 9.12 Zach. 13.1 Psal 16.5 Iohn 10.7.9 Let all things praise thee which are in Heauen aboue and which are in Earth beneath Thou art great and thy name is wonderfull Oh exceeding glory of the high God and most pure brightnesse of eternall light oh life quickening euery life oh light illuminating euery light and preseruing them in eternall brightnesse A thousand thousands of glistering lights are before the Throne of thy Diuinity for euer Oh eternall and vnaccessible substance the most cleere sweet streame of a Fountaine hidden from the eyes of all mortall Creatures whose water is without beginning profunditie without any bottome depth without any end amplitude vnsearchable purity vncorruptible The heart of the highest God hath sent thee out from his bottomlesse deepenesse life hath sent forth life light hath sent forth light the Eternall hath sent forth the Eternall the incomprehensible hath sent forth the incomprehensible and coequall to himselfe in all things all of vs receiue from thy fulnesse For thou a most plentifull Fountaine doest send out from thy Treasures a precious Riuer of euery good thing of thy seauen-folde Graces vvith vvhose pleasant sweetnesse thou dost vouchsafe to sweeten the saltnesse of the salt Sea of our infirmities A riuer of the oyle of gladnesse a riuer of pure Wine a riuer of fierie courage The holy spirit the comforter is poured forth from thee and the Father into the World equall to both filling all things contayning all things the Spirit proceeding from thee proceeding from the Father one Spirit proceeding from both vniting both to wit the vnseparable connexion the glewe of perfect Vnion the Cyment that can neuer be dissolued the euerlasting knot of eternall coniunction of both and peace passing all vnderstanding This is the flood oh Lord of abounding and exceeding pleasure wherewith thou doest water continually that pleasant and glorious Citie Ierusalem which is aboue so that the furrowes thereof are filled with the streames of eternall delight Where the bright and glistering Organs sound out sweet songs of continuall reioycing whose melody exceedeth in sweetnesse neuer ceaseth but hath an euerlasting continuance With the sweet drops of this pleasant riuer the thirsty iawes of thy banished people oh Lord doe waite continually to bee refreshed by thee Suffer oh Lord the whelpes to drinke vp the droppes that fall from the Table of their Masters Let the Heauens send downe from aboue the comfortable deaw and let the clouds poure forth a gracious rayne oh Lord of that righteous Spirit vvhich thou diddest cause to streame downe vpon the famous first fruits of thy people an euident demonstration of our future tryumphing With the heauenly distillation of those fierie drops we pray thee oh Lord that thou wilt vouchsafe to purge renew illuminate enflame to make ioyfull confirme and vnite the harts of them which beleeue in thee that they may be one sauour one thing require and apprehend one thing with one minde that they may see and laud thee the GOD of Gods in Sion Glory thanks-giuing honour and dominion be ascribed to the inseparable Trinitie now and for euer AMEN Daemona non armis sed morte subegit Iesus The Authors deprecation or Petition for himselfe DEliuer mee from mine enemies oh my God and from them which hate mee because of their multitude I dread them and because of their might I am too weake to encounter them And I which euen vntill this day haue liued against my selfe vvill euen now begin through thy grace to liue to my selfe For we ought to liue so here in this World that when the body shall be deuoured of the Wormes in the graue the soule may reioyce with the Saints in Heauen We ought to seeke after the heauenly Ierusalem The Spirit is to bee directed towards that place to which it shall goe and wee ought to make hast thither where wee may alwaies liue and neuer stand any more in feare of our loue If we so deerely loue and highly esteeme this sliding fickle and fraile life in which wee liue vvith toyle labour and yet by eating drinking and sleeping can scant satisfie the necessities of the flesh and supply her daily wants wee ought farre dearer to esteeme and feruently to desire to attaine to eternall life in the Hauen of rest where we shall sustaine no labour where is alwaies the chiefest pleasure greatest happinesse happy liberty and endlesse blessednesse where men shall be like vnto the Angels of God and the righteous shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father How wonderfully and gloriously doest thou thinke that the soules of the iust shall excell in brightnesse when as the light of their bodies shall equall the splendour of the Sunne when as his golden beames doe shine clearest There shall be no sadnesse no pensiuenesse no paine no feare there shall be no labour no death but perpetuall health dwelleth there and abideth for euer there breedeth no spitefull malice no miserie of the flesh no dolefull calamitie There is no grieuous sicknesse no pinching want no carefull necessitie There is no hunger no thirst no colde no heate no wearisomnesse of Fasting no temptation of the enemie neither is there any will to sinne nor facultie to offend but ioy and gladnesse ouer-spreadeth all reioycing and exultation possesseth all Men there also associated with the Angels and freed from all fleshly infirmitie shall remaine and continue for euer There shall be infinite pleasure euerlasting blessednesse in which whosoeuer shall once be happily inuested hee shall surely and securely liue possessed with it for euer There shall be quiet rest from our toyling and tyring labours perpetuall peace vvithout any dreadfull feare of our enemies delightfull pleasantnesse proceeding from flourishing and continuall newnesse securitie arising from Eternitie delectablenesse and sweetnesse flowing from the glorious vision of GOD our omnipotent Creatour And who doth not hourely long and daily desire to dwell and remaine in this heauenly Paradise and celestiall Pallace of true and euerlasting pleasure both in regard of that perpetuall peace delightfull pleasantnesse neuer-decaying eternity and also in respect of the glorious Vision and sight of God who shall replenish vs with infinite ioy and immeasurable gladnesse No man shall be there a Pilgrime and Stranger but whosoeuer shall be admitted as vvorthy to come and enter into this celestiall City they shall dwell there for euer in their owne Country secure from all feare of any dreadfull danger alwayes ioyfull alwayes satisfied with the most delightfull sight of GOD their Creator And by how much the greater obedience any one shall performe towards God heere by so much the more bountifull reward hee shall receiue of him there and by how much the more entierly and deerely he shall long after God by so much the neerer hee shall approach vnto him and see him vvhom so exceedingly hee coueteth to view and desireth to behold To this Kingdome bring mee oh God by the merits of thy Sonne Christ IESVS FINIS
afford him any refreshing in his iourney he was so highly displeased that it made so faire a shew and bare no fruit that he cursed it and so it withered and became barren for euer Wert thou oh my gracious Lord so highlie displeased with this fruitlesse Tree and wert thou not grieuouslie offended with the vnthankfull Iewes No doubt but thou hadst iust occasion to haue cursed that vngratefull Nation whose hearts were so barren that they did beare no fruit and their mindes so deuoid of all common humanitie that although they euer stood in neede yet they did neuer deserue any drop of thy sweet and comfortable mercie Oh Lord who can worthilie land the immeasurable largenesse of thy infinite mercie who can throughly taste the sweetnesse of thy most excellent bountie It was thy desire to haue wonne them by mildnes it had beene thy delight to haue conuerted them by kindenesse thou diddest curse that barren tree which had store of leaues but no profitable fruit to teach that gracelesse Nation what thou did dest expect at their hands and what thou mightst haue iustly inflicted vpon them for the hardnes of their harts whose mouths were often filled with religious words their hearts and hands being euermore emptie of charitable works Be thou wise therefore oh my soule thinke not that thou hast done enough if thou vtterly condemne those inhumane and hard-hearted Iewes who had not so much kindnes as to offer thy Sauiour a crum of bread or a cup of colde water vnlesse thou thy selfe make some prouision to entertaine thy louing Iesus whensoeuer hee shall vouchsafe to come into thy Cottage to visit thee in kindnesse Oh how happie shalt thou be if thou art prouided to welcome so good a Guest whose acceptance shall bring thee eternall blessednesse and who is so kinde that he will dwell with thee for euer and where he remaineth their store is alwayes increased their riches are multiplyed in abundance he cannot he will not be chargeable vnto thee if thou wilt shew him infallible tokens of thy true loue and make any prouision be it neuer so meane to receiue him with chearefulnesse he expecteth no sumptuous preparation hee longeth for no daintie cates hee regardeth no magnificent pompe hee hateth vaine ostentation and outward glorie he can neuer abide to make any abode in that house which is not furnished with true humilitie Oh happie is that soule that is not vnprouided at his comming but standeth alwayes ready at the doore to open vnto him whensoeuer hee knocketh and is willing to enter Consider also ô my soule the great paines and diligent labours of thy industrious Sauiour who continued the day time in the Temple preaching and teaching the people and in the night praying or instructing his Disciples therefore if thou wilt shew thy selfe a faithfull seruant to so good a Lord and a louing Disciple to so kinde a Maister set him alwayes before thine eyes as a perfect patterne and liuely example to imitate him in the carefull execution of thy lawfull calling Weare not out the moment of thy poasting life in carnall delights fulfilling the lewd desires of the wanton flesh accounting worldly pleasure thy chiefest treasure and making thy bellie thy God for the end of such is eternall damnation God hath giuen man an vpright countenance that hee should lift vp his head and looke towards Heauen therefore derogate not so much from thy dignity as to haue thine eyes and thy thoughts still fixed vpon the earth like vnto the bruit beasts neuer well pleased but when like a Mole thou art turning ouer thy siluer and golden heapes Thou seest oh my soule that thy louing Sauiour Iesus did seeke by all meanes to benefit the Iewes his vnnaturall Country-men and to do them all good but they were alwaies so froward that they were euermore forward to doe him nothing but mischiefe and hurt who hauing exiled tender pittie from their eyes all humane compassion from their harts had not onely so much kindenes as to offer him a morsell of meat to refresh his weary body at night when he had laboured all day to feed their soules with spirituall bread but most vnkindely their chiefe rulers and the Scribes held a Councell against him complotted many strange inuentions forged many odious calumniations and imagined many false crimes cruelly to depriue him of his harmelesse life and to accelerate his speedy death because the good deeds which Christ did daily to the people were vnwelcome newes to their eares and bred nothing else but sorrow in their enuious mindes Therefore they raged with fury and conspired in bitternesse of their malice how they might entrap Christ Iesus by craft and subtiltie and so like an innocent Lambe lead him away to the slaughter for so fell was their hatred to the life of our Sauiour so greedie were they to hasten his death that had they not feared that the people would haue hindred their wicked purposes interrupting the course of their malicious practise they would haue vented their swelling spite and disgorged their full stomackes surcharged with malice against him on the feast-day but they suspected their cruell deede at that time would haue stirred vp greater tumults amongst the people which did reuerence Iesus as a Prophet for if they might haue had their owne will and satisfied the longing of their enuious humour they would haue spared no day nor regarded any place so they might haue split his innocent bloud Oh with what damnable counsell and diuellish deuises doe I heare thy furious enemies consulting against thee my innocent Iesus thou Lord of eternall glorie What false imaginations what monstrous inuentions what hellish stratagems what forged accusations did they coyne against thee their hearts burning and their hands itching to cut off thy blessed life to staine the earth with thy precious bloud and to worke as they wickedly wished thy finall destruction How cruelly doe these faithlesse Iewes conspire against thee those impious wretches said within themselues carried away with the violent current of their irefull imaginations let vs oppresse that righteous man let vs swallow him vp in our rage let vs sodainely deuoure him in our madnes let vs set traps to take him and lay snares to entangle him let vs roote him out from the land of the liuing that his name may neuer be remembred any more because he is obstinate in contradicting our words and peremptory in carping at our workes Wee cannot wee may not tollerate his arrogancie wee will not brooke his oppositions Hee layeth open our sinnes to increase our shame he professeth that hee hath the knowledge of God and nameth himselfe the Sonne of God He discloseth our secret thoughts hee is loathsome to our eyes wee cannot abide him in our sight the course of his life is opposite to our Lawes he is an open aduersary to our Decrees hee abstaineth from our wayes as though they were wicked defiled with vncleannesse and polluted with vices We are
and sorrowfull Disciples looke vpon them and view what store of teares doe fall from their eyes heare what pittifull sighes and grieuous grones doe come from their hearts while they see their louing Master vexed in his bodie and afflicted in his soule suffering the wrath of his Father for the guilt of our sinnes After my louing IESVS had told his sadfull Disciples the heauinesse of his soule pressed with the ponderous waight of our sinnes he departed from them about a stones cast and kneeling on the earth prayed vnto his heauenly Father saying My Father all things are possible to thee if it be possible remoue this Cup from mee yet not my will but thy will be done Learne here oh my soule of thine afflicted Sauiour where to seeke a salue for thy wounds and from whence thou maist hope for help when any fearefull danger doth hang ouer thy head or any present anguish torment thy hart poure forth thy prayers in his holy Sanctuarie let thy deuotion ascend vp to him that his benediction may descend downe vpon thee learne alwayes to submit thy wish to his will for if it be not his will to deliuer thee it will be his will alwayes to comfort thee if thou continue thy prayers with perseuerance and attend his appointed time with patience Consider how thy Sauiour prayed three times vttering the same words when his pangs in his Agonie were so grieuous and his paines so dolorous that his sweate ranne downe like drops of bloud so heauie was the displeasure of his Father against him for our sinnes so great was the burden of our iniquities imposed vpon his shoulders But in the extremitie of his passions and sorrow of his soule his heauenly father sent downe an Angell from heauen to comfort him for the Lord will neuer leaue them forsaken in their sorrow that call vpon him faithfully he hath commanded vs to call vpon him in our trouble and he will deliuer vs and as he hath commanded the one so will hee neuer faile to performe the other Draw me oh my louing Lord to the Garden where thou wert that I may see thee praying and suffer with thee in thy afflictions call me and say Come into my garden my sister my spouse make hast oh my Soule to come to thy Beloued because thy Beloued is gone vp into his garden to his bed of spices that hee may feede there and gather Lillies Let vs consider oh my Soule and meditate attentiuely vpon all things which our Iesus hath done let vs ruminate his feuerall actions which may afford vs consolation and tend to our instruction For we may take many examples from our louing Master which should euermore be proposed before our eyes that wee might alwayes imitate them in the course of our life Thou seest how our most gentle Master hath commanded his Disciples to lincke their hearts together with the bands of true loue and to arme themselues with patience against the daies of danger when he went to the mount Oliuet to pray Wherefore being about to enter into a fearefull fight to beginne a dangerous battell and to encounter many deadly foes hee animateth his courage and armeth himselfe with prayers Learne thou also by this his example in the day of thy tribulation and houre of thy affliction to haue thy speedy recourse vnto Prayer Wee can finde no better weapon wherewith to offend our foes Wee can vse no better shield wherewith to defend our friends Thou seest also my soule how thy Sauiour Iesus preparing himselfe to Prayer did leaue the companie of his Disciples and he onely selected three out of his number so that they three which before had beene spectators in mount Tabor of his glorious Transfiguration might now be companions and eye-witnesses of his grieuous Passion that in the mouth of two or three euery word might be established Learne thou also to leaue the societie of men when thou doest addresse thy selfe to talke with God When thy Sauiour did pray he ascended vp into a mountaine to teach vs that although our bodies doe remaine vpon earth yet our cogitations should mount and soare vp into heauen by the wings of deuout prayer he poured forth the compassion of his heart he being a good Shepheard doth diligently watch ouer his flocke the extremitie of his owne passions doe not make him forgetfull of his Brethren Oh great loue how constantly euen vnto the end did he tender and loue the little flocke of his faithfull Disciples being indeede their most kinde and louing Pastor when in the most grieuous fits of his heauy Agonie and greatest pangs of his Passion he was carefull to procure their rest in that little time which was limited vnto them Teach me my mercifull Iesu not onely to be tender-hearted towards my poore Brethren in the bright dayes of my flourishing prosperitie but breed also within my bowels such a feeling compassion towards them in the hard time of my clowdie aduersitie that I may not onely wish mine owne ease and labour for mine owne cause but also that I may be mindfull of others afflicted and doe for them what I may which are in the like wofull case Attend also to the lowly demeanour and humble gesture of thy gentle Lord when hee prayeth who kneeling meekely on his knees and falling flat on the earth with his face Luke 22.41 Mark 14.35 doth plainely discouer by the submissiue humiliation of his bodie the sincere humilitie of his minde Oh great worthy and wonderfull humilitie when as he being equall and coeternall with God doth prostrate himselfe to the earth when he prayeth his father as though hee were a most base and wretched creature and submitteth the issue of his Petition to the pleasure and will of his Father Oh how should I learne to humble my soule and prostrate my bodie which am indeed nothing else but a sinke of sinne and an vnsauorie lumpe of iniquitie When I addresse my selfe vnto holy prayer and come to put vp my petition to a God of such infinite glory should I not cast downe my high lookes should I not curbe mine aspiring thoughts should I not lay aside my proud attyre and put on the mourning garment of sorrowfull and true Repentance Oh how should I which am but dust and ashes yea indeede nothing else but a very masse of grieuous misery humble and cast downe my selfe when I approach to speake to such a glorious Maiestie I confesse I must stand aloofe off with the poore publican terrified with the horrour of my sinnes which lye so heauie vpon my head that I cannot lift vp mine eyes vnto heauen Teach me oh Lord for none but thou can teach me to learne this hard lesson of true humilitie This is the Ladder by which my prayers must ascend vp vnto thee and thy Graces descend downe vpon mee I cannot enter into the Palace of thy most ioyfull and glorious Eternitie vnlesse I passe through the straite dore of selfe-debasing humilitie But now oh my
attempt by anie force to rescue thee out of the hands of thy cruell foes thou diddest disclose vnto thy faithfull Disciples the dangerous daies that were to come and tell them of the bitter afflictions which were to ensue and that they should be like Sheepe scattered without a Shepheard But it was not that they should arme their bodies with weapons but their heads and soules with patience So indeed the loue of thy Apostle was full of zeale but yet it was barren void of knowledge who had beene often forewarned that thou shouldest suffer a cruell and shamefull death to fulfill the scripture and do the will of thy Father Wherefore oh my most mercifull Iesus so inflame my heart with thy loue that I may freelie confesse it with my mouth and so performe it with my heart that I may not onely be prepared to loose my libertie but to forgoe my life for the name of my Lord Iesus who is blessed for euer A Meditation how the Lord Iesus taken and bound was led to Annas his house where he was buffeted and how all his Disciples fied from him Iohn 18.13 MED VIII To a Ioh. 18.15 Annas first is Christ in b Io. 18.12.20 fetters lead From thence to c Iohn 18.24 Caiaphas where he beaten is And d Mat. 26.67 Marke 18.22 scourg'd and mockt spit on and almost dead All which h'endur'd to bring vs vnto blisse SO soone as false-hearted Iudas had saluted his faithfull Master Iesus with a deadlie kisse the hard-hearted Souldiers laid violent hands vpon my kinde Sauiour and did cruellie binde him Oh vngentle cords oh cruell hands and cursed hearts that did binde my Lord Iesus Come hither therefore oh my Soule and with inward sorrow of heart and with weeping eies lament with tender compassion for the currishnesse in words and crueltie in deedes vsed against thy mercifull Sauiour which patientlie suffered so manie bitter words and cruell blowes for thee and thy sinnes for it was now the houre of darknesse and they beganne to act with their mercilesse hands that which was conceiued in their malicious mindes reuiling him with blasphemous speeches and afflicting his precious bodie with deadlie blowes And thus they neuer ceased all that night long both with their venemous tongues and villanous hands to torment my meeke and patient Iesus Tell mee my sweet Sauiour vvhat vvere the contumelious words what were the outragious deedes which thou didst suffer of those dogged Souldiers vvhen they had laid their tormenting hands vpon thee For truely the wicked rose vp against thee and the Sinagogue of the mightie they sought thy life and set not God before their eyes They compassed thee about like Bees and burnt with furie against thee like fire among the Thornes Oh let some spectacle of their barbarous crueltie be presented vnto mee that mine eyes may waxe dim with weeping that my heart may be wounded with sorrow all my senses afflicted with mourning for my guiltie conscience doth tell mee that my sinnes were as fewell to kindle their rage and mine iniquities like wood to maintaine the fire of their furie Behold Oh my Soule vvith attentiue deuotion of minde and with store of teares flowing from thine eyes how furiously they rush vpon thy louing Sauiour and how cruelly with their bloudie hands they torture and vexe his blessed body One tuggeth him by his garment another haleth him by the armes one taketh holde of his necke another pulleth him by the haire and least he should get from them they binde him and drag him like an vntamed Bull to the shambles Oh most meeke Lambe Oh most milde sheepe how currishlie how cruelly art thou handled like a wicked theefe Yea was euer any common theefe so inhumanely and shamefully vsed although his life vvas odious and his deedes neuer so desperate Some hale him on this side some thrust him on that side some buffet him on the face others thumpe him on the backe After they haue reuiled and railed against him with most opprobrious words they passe from diuellish words to deadlie blowes so that they neuer cease by word nor deede to grieue and vexe mine innocent Iesus but imployed all the faculties of their minde and all the forces of their bodie to doe him all hurt who neuer meant them any harme I am not able to tell thee my sorrowfull soule one halfe of the odious words nor one moitie of the horrible deedes which those damned wretches vsed against thy harmelesse and louing Sauiour my tongue doth falter for griefe and my speech doth faile mee for sorrow for all of them bitterlie cursing him and cruellie beating him void of all mercie and raging with hellish furie they hale him like a most innocent Lambe to the slaughter And amongst all that cursed crew there was none so soft-hearted that either would pittie the woefull case or speake in the cause of my gracious Lord. Oh how should mine eies haue beene watered with teares and my heart haue beene wounded with sorrow to haue seene my mercifull Iesus so vnmercifullie abused so ignominiouslie and hatefullie misused whiles they hurrie him in their madnesse and hale him in their furie towards Hierusalem who went as an innocent Lambe among a company of deuouring Wolues not once opening his mouth to reproue them for their barbarous crueltie but did willingly sustaine the extremitie of their malice with a patient minde sometime haled by one and sometime thrust forward by another thinking the time long till they might bring him where they would haue him so greedy was their desire to doe a bad deede and they made such post-hast to hasten the death of the Lord of life Oh my most sweet Iesu what hast thou done What hast thou deserued that thou shouldest endure the sting of their malice and abide the tempest of their madnesse Verilie my Lord thou didst neuer offend them in thought but thy exceeding loue did moue thee to suffer all things with patience that thou mightst redeeme mee a most wretched sinner all others that with a contrite hart a broken spirit sue vnto thee for grace hauing an assured hope in thy blessed word and confidently beleeuing in thy gracious promises I am that wofull man which haue beene the occasion of thy torments and the cause of thy grieuous Passion The wicked man hath sinned and the righteous is punished The guilty hath trespassed and the innocent is tormented The vngodly hath offended and the godly man is condemned Oh my most louing Lord I haue eaten a sowre grape and thy teeth are set on edge I haue committed the trespasse and thou hast suffered the punishment Blush therefore oh my soule for shame smite thy heart for sorrow let thine eyes be dissolued into teares and sacrifice thy selfe vpon the Altar of true repentance because thou hast beene so forgetfully vngratefull towards thy louing IESVS for his maruellous kindnesse and so excessiuely vnmindfull of his excellent loue Oh my good Iesu what shall
lesse in returning a gracious answere vnto him yet Malchus whose eare he had a little before restored which Peter cut off gaue him a blow on the face saying Answerest thou the high Priest in that manner Iohn 18.22 Here my soule thou hast good occasion to eate thy bread vvith teares and to mingle thy drinke with weeping when thou dost meditate of this cruell blow giuen by a most wicked vngratefull wretch to my innocent Iesus And here thou maist admire at the incomparable mildnesse and wonder at the wonderfull patience of my gentle Sauiour who did modestly beare so great an iniurie that hee gaue not him an euill word who had done him such a cruell deede but said to him mildly friend if I haue spoken euilly beare witnesse of euill but if I haue said well why smitest thou mee Iohn 18.23 Oh how great was thy humilitie alwayes my good Iesus how exceeding was thy patience in all things euen vnto death But what shall I say oh thou barbarous vngratefull wretch how shall I speake bitter enough of thy monstrous crueltie which diddest smite him on the face contrary to all humanitie who of his owne accord did speedily heale the hurt and salue the wound which his disciple had giuen thee Oh monster amongst men vnworthy of any pittie whose name shall be odious to all that are good when they heare of thy crueltie Behold oh my sweet Iesus what plentifull matter is offered vnto me to breed a serious meditation in my minde and to engender a sincere compassion in my heart when I remember oh that I could continually remember it what clemencie what benignitie thou hast vsed towards me what calamity what indignitie thou hast suffered for mee for thou wert so treacherously betrayed so wrongfully apprehended so iniuriously bound so currishly haled so cruelly tormented and so vnmercifully beaten for the sinnes of my guilty soule But I pray thee my mercifull and gracious IESVS that as thou didst yeeld thy selfe a captiue to the Iewes so thou wilt grant me thy grace to subiugate all my senses to doe thy blessed will and to keepe them in true subiection to obey thy holy law and that I may captiuate all my vnderstanding to performe the duties of thy happie seruice which shall redeeme me from bondage and bring mee an euerlasting freedome as thy faithfull Apostle hath taught me A Meditation how the Lord Iesus was led from the house of Annas to the house of Caiaphas and also of the derisions rayling speeches and cruell scourging done vnto him there by the Iewes MED IX To a Mat. 26.57 Caiaphas house where Scribes assembled are And b Marke 14.55 Priests and Elders Iesus Christ is led After to c Iohn 18.28.29 Pilate where he meekely bare Their scoffes and d Iohn 19.2 thorny Crowne vpon his head A Wake now oh my Soule sleepe no longer in the bed of wanton sensualitie driue away drowsinesse from thine eyes and carelesse sloathfulnesse out of thy minde and turne thy selfe whollie to thy most sweet IESVS disdainefully dispised scornefully derided cruelly tormented and vnmercifully scourged Oh how should thy hart be fraughted with sadnesse and thy minde be filled with sorrow when thou shalt finde thy Lord thy God subiect to paines and afflictions blowes and reproches For hee was whipped all the night and hee was chastized in the morning Therefore let thine eyes waxe dimme with weeping let thy ioy be turned into mourning the voice of melody into wofull lamentation when thou dost meditate vpon the sorrowfull miseries and scornefull reproches which thy innocent Sauiour did suffer for thy sake Let all vaine cogitations and idle thoughts be chased out of my mind by which it may be fondly distracted and vainely shiuered in this godly Meditation so that it may be wholy reflected towards thee and thinke vpon nothing but thee my most mercifull Iesu Let it thinke vpon the contumelious reproches odious raylings and grieuous blowes vvhich thou didst suffer being vnder the hands of the wicked Priests as a harmelesse Sheepe amongst rauenous Wolues or in the midst of deuouring Lions And grant mee oh my sweet Lord that while I ponder these things in my minde teares of true repentance may fall from mine eyes and sighes of vnfained sorrow arise from my heart to bewaile the horrour of my sinnes which were as cruell tormentors to afflict thy body and as sharpe-pointed needles to enter into thy tender flesh Lastly let vs meditate deuoutly oh my soule how my kinde Iesus was posted ouer vnto Caiaphas after hee had beene derided and buffeted in the house of Annas Beholde how this innocent Lambe vvas haled to the shambles by the hands of those bloudie Butchers Behold thy beloued IESVS brought vvith his hands bound before Caiaphas the high Priest enuironed with a great multitude of Scribes and Pharises all cry out against him the base people raile vpon him with vile and odious words banning and cursing him for his blessed deedes they maliciously accuse him wrongfully charge him but their testimonies were found to be false and their witnesses vntrue Truely thou maiest say that which the Prophet spake of thee They deliuered mee into the hands of the vngodly and they cast me forth among the wicked and they haue not spared my life The strong were gathered against me and they stood like Giants against me But although their demean our towards thee my louing Sauiour was without all pietie and their words and deedes without all pittie yet thou diddest not open thy mouth to vtter any word of reproofe but thou didst heare their spitefull taunts with patience and answere their malicious calumniations with silence and therefore the high Priest began to be displeased and rising vp from his seate asked thee in his anger why thou diddest not answere to those things which were obiected against thee Mat. 26.62 Attend oh my soule and consider the vnspeakeable mildenesse of my sweet Iesus how patiently how humblie hee holdeth his tongue as one that were dumbe and could not speake and remaineth as one that were deafe when they reuile him in their madnes and raile vpon him in their furie sustaining with patience their false calumniations and forged obiections And therefore his wonderfull patience did make them more mad and his silence did the more exasperate them in their furie when they saw him so meekely to disgest the venome of their virulent tongues and so mildely to suffer the blowes of their violent fists so that being transported with choller beyond the limits of modestie carried with rage beyond the bounds of reason they belched out such impious and clamorous speeches against him Hast thou no tongue thou most wicked wretch Behold art thou dumbe and canst not speake one word What is become of thy babling Where are thy long discourses and plausible speeches which thou diddest make to the multitude in the Temple and to the seditious people in the streetes Then thou wert full of words and thy
tongue did not cease to prattle when multitudes did flocke after thee through the Cities and when the base people did swarme after thee through the villages and desarts And art not thou hee which preaching to the rude multitude in the Temple and pleasing their giddie humor with thy long orations was so impudent to inueigh against vs Pharises Doctors of law and Rulers of the people calling vs hypocrites checking vs rudely for our Manners and reproouing vs rashly for our Doctrine neither respecting the dignitie of our persons nor dreading the force of our authoritie Now behold wee haue thee sure enough thou canst not escape our hands thou art bound for feare of starting we are no babes to be wonne with faire wordes Now we haue thee thou wretch as thy wicked deedes haue deserued such shall be thy recompense Wee are none of the rude and base multitude thou canst not gull vs with thy flattering speeches nor beguile vs with false apparitions Suppose oh my wofull soule that thou doest heare the cruell Iewes bellowing out such bitter taunts against my harmelesse and innocent Iesus in the heate of their rage adding more cruell deeds to their cruell words for all of them like mad-men rush vpon him in their violent furie Some thumpe him with their hands some spurne him vvith their feet some strike him on the necke and as their hands vvere nimble to load him with blowes so their tongues were not idle from rayling and reuiling him with scornefull words Oh how wonderfully is my Lord derided how vnworthily is hee scorned Yea some so barbarous was their mindes and so brutish was their manners do spit in his face Who euer did see such grosse inhumanitie who doth not abhor such beastly inciuillitie They all striue who should doe him most hurt and contend one with another to doe him most mischiefe seeking by spightfull words to vexe his minde and by cruell blowes to wound his bodie Oh my louing Iesus how bitter are their speeches direfullie breathed out against thee How terrible are their practises so bloodilie inflicted vpon thee Why are not my vitall spirits damped with woe why are not mine eyes drowned in a flood of teares and why is not my soule ouer-whelmed with the waues of sorrow in this my sadde Meditation of thine afflictions and deuout contemplation of thy humane miseries Wherefore gush forth oh yee teares from the inward fountaine of my heart and ouerflow mine eies with your plentifull shewers But art thou made of flint Oh my hard heart that thou doest not breake into pieces Is thy substance of marble that thou doest not cleaue asunder when I meditate vpon these cursed inuectiue reproches and wicked deedes done to my innocent Iesus by the stony-hearted Iewes Alas for mee a most wretched sinner that my Lord should suffer such great and grieuous affliction for my sake and yet that I should still remaine sencelesse in my sins and haue no remorse of conscience for my hainous offences Haue mercy vpon mee most mercifull Lord because I call all these things to minde and haue them in my meditation but for want of true loue I am depriued of true deuotion and my hard heart is without all sense of sorrowfull contrition Therefore wound my heart my louing Iesus that I may be grieued with thee and suffer for thee that thou maist vouchsafe to shew me mercie that I may with more boldnesse approach vnto thy Maiestie Thou wert humbled and I disdaine my brethren vvith pride Thou wert pinched vvith hunger and I surfeit with abundance thou wert afflicted with torments and I spend my dayes in wanton pleasure Thou didst weepe to thinke vpon the vvofull destruction of Ierusalem but I am not touched with any tender affection of mercie when I see thousands oppressed vvith miserie I can finde no place my sweet Iesu to hide my face from confusion I can finde no remedie for my deadly maladie but in the vertue of thy comfortable mercie Oh cure my disease with this excellent medicine and salue all my vvounds with this pretious Balme that all mine affections may be so kindled vvith thy loue that I may reioyce to suffer and suffer vvith reioycing for thy glorious name vvho wert content to bee scorned and scourged to be accounted as an abiect amongst the vile and wicked that I might be raised out of the pit of endlesse miserie to be exalted for euer vvith thee in the Pallace of eternall glorie A Meditation how Peter denied his Maister three times in the house of Cayphas and of his weeping for the same MED X. Trembling with feare caus'd by a silly a Iohn 18.17 Maid Once twise yea b Luk. 22.60.61 thrice Saint Peter doth deny His blessed Lord c Mar. 14.72 Remembring what Christ sayd Goes forth repents and d Mat. 26.75 weeps most bitterly NOw let vs cease a while to meditate on my Sauiour and consider how Peter carried himself in the afflictions of his Master He was loath to leaue him because he did loue him and therefore although at the first hee fled yet hee returned againe with the other Disciple who by friendship brought him into the Pallace of the high Priest and as Peter stood there by the fire a maide looked vpon him and said to them that were by This man also was with Iesus of Nazareth But Peter who not long before had made such great brags of his loue was now so daunted with feare that he flatly denied his seruice saying I know not the man And a little after another sayd vnto him Art not thou also one of his Disciples So that now Peter was not content simply to denie him but hee beganne earnestly to forsweare him Now within a while after another came and said Verily thou art one of them And then Peter began to curse and sweare saying I know not the man whom thou speakest of and immediately the Cocke crew And the Lord who stood not far off in the hands of the wicked looked back vpon Peter not refusing faint-hearted Peter to be his seruant although he had denied and abiured him for his Maister Then Peter remembred the words which Iesus had spoken to him and he went out wept bitterly Mat. 26. Now let vs seriously meditate on the frailtie of Peter that seeing so stout a Souldier so soone daunted with feare we may take heed not to presume too much vpon our owne weakenesse lest we play the cowards and start backe as he did when wee are put to our tryall Consider oh my soule the feruency of his loue and greatnesse of his feare the willingnesse of his minde and weakenesse of his might I dare not say but that Peter did loue his Lord and was sorry for the distressed estate of his master although his heart fainted and his stomacke failed in the time of danger hee thought hee should haue beene able to haue performed in deedes that which he had so boldly boasted in wordes but alas hee
innocent blood and so eagerly desired to haue him put to a shamefull death that they cried out in a rage and exclaimed in their fury Set Barrabas at libertie and crucifie Iesus But when Pilate perceiued that nothing could calme the storme of their rage and represse the violence of their madnesse but effusion of his innocent blood then he commanded that my harmelesse Iesus should be cruelly scourged thinking that the streames of bloud running downe from his sacred body would haue allaide the heat of their malice quenched the flame of their fury But alas it was his life that they onely sought nothing but his innocent death could satisfie their bloody mindes yea nothing but cruell death could tame their bruitish rage Matth. 26. But stay here my soule that thou mayest reuiew againe thy innocent Iesus accused vniustly reuiled malitiously spitefully scorned and cruelly scourged by the commaundement of Pilate they crowned his head scornefully with pricking Thornes and did teare his tender flesh with their cruell whips Oh my most louing Lord oh my most mercifull Iesus mollifie my hard hart that it may be wholy dissolued into streames of sorrow with the memory of thy bitter scourging and that my soule may be wounded so that it may send forth deepe groanes at the meditation of thine afflictions Grant me oh my most mercifull LORD that my thoughts and affections may be so seriously affected vvith the remembrance of thy tedious Passion that my senses may be made partakers of thy grieuous paines for I my selfe most louing Lord am nothing able to performe that indeed which I doe desire and conceiue in my minde I doe often times purpose with my selfe to meditate on thy Passion and to thinke seriously vpon thine affliction and to ruminate in my secret thoughts what ignominious crueltie was acted against thee vvhen thou didst finish the worke of my redemption But alas my senses are replenished with such stupiditie and dulnesse that I am not touched vvith any sensible compassion because my vnderstanding is distempered with vaine and fond cogitations and my heart is become so hard that it is vnapt to conceiue any tender affection while I meditate vpon the grieuous paines and muse on the great afflictions which thou didst sustaine and patiently endure to satisfie the vvrath of thy Father due vnto me for my sinnes I cannot taste the sweetnesse I cannot relish the goodnesse of thy passion because the matter is tedious to my corrupted thoghts and vnpleasant to my carnall desires For so vnconstant and instable is my heart so mutable and variable are the motions of my minde that they are both soone distracted alienated and diuorced from that heauenly meditation by swarms of idle fantasies foolish cogitations But from whence oh Lord doe these noysome vveeds grow vp in my hart how is it that they finde such a fertile soile in my minde truly because my heart is not planted vvith thy loue nor my mind furnished with thy graces For I can neuer haue my fill of those things vvherein I take too much delight my minde cannot be drawne from their societie because they haue wonne my fauor haue gotten my loue Wherefore oh my most mercifull Iesus because I loue thee so little and dote vpon worldly vanities so much my hart slideth away from thee mine affections are diuerted from thee and I know oh Lord how prone ready I am to consent to euery wicked motion and how impotent and feeble I am to go about any good action Therfore I pray thee not to correct me in thy wrath nor to proceed against mee with seuerity of thy Iustice but to haue pitty on me a most miserable sinner and to confirme my vnconstant hart with a stedfast delight in thy loue to establish my wandring minde according to the multitude of thy mercies so that no pleasure be it neuer so sweet may be able to allure me to leaue thy blessed loue nor any tribulation be it neuer so bitter constraine me to forsake thy happy seruice driue all idle cares out of my minde purge all corrupt thoughts out of my hart and draw me wholy vnto thee that I may remember with a deuout compassion call to minde with a serious meditation how many what great grieuous torments what scornefull derisions thou didst suffer in thy most pretious body by the commaundement of Pontius Pilate who contrary to the equitie of thy cause and testimony of his owne conscience Ioh. 19.4 commaunded thee to be scourged without all pitty when as he himselfe with his owne words had iustified thy innocency Oh vvhat a flood of teares should streame from mine eyes what groanes and sorrowfull sighes should arise from the depth of my heart how should all my senses be ouer-whelmed with a sea of sorrow when I meditate on the flinty hearts and cruell hands of those tormentors who scourged my louing Redeemer My heart cannot conceiue the outrage of their tyranny my tongue is too weake to expresse their barbarous inhumanitie Who vvere as eager to lay violent hands vpon my poore Iesus as rauenous Wolues are greedy to deuoure a tender Lambe or hungry Lyons to ceaze vpon their prey They make haste to vnbinde his armes and to vntie his hands but it was not done to release him of his cruell bands or to afford him any little ease but that they might strip him of his garments to scourge his naked body with their tormenting whips and to make his veines spout out bloud with their cruell stripes Ah ruthfull spectacle to pittifull eyes and able to haue made a deepe impression of tender compassion in their hearts if they had not beene more heard then Marble What sauage thoughts raigned in their murdering mindes What monstrous indignitie was done vnto my louing Redeemer to be stripped of his garments and to stand naked before such vile and base vassals who cloathed the Heauens with exceeding glory and adorned the earth with admirable beauty Now when they had stripped him of his cloathes they bound him to a pillar to endure their cruell stripes hauing banished pitty from their hearts and imbraced cruelty with their hands somtime they lash him on the backe sometime they scourge him on the brest Now they let their smarting whips flie on his shoulders anon they strike him on his armes they suffer no part of his body to bee free from blowes and they grieue his righteous soule with bitter words whilest yet they are executing their cruell deeds But what Tygers heart harboured in their brest oh my innocent Sauiour which robbed them of grace and they disrobed thee of thy cloathes What hellish fury armed their hands which bound thee to a pillar and scourged thy blessed body how exceeding execrable is their sauage crueltie How rare and admirable is thy silent patience It was I it was I oh my most sweet Iesu which deserued to bee scourged with the whips of euerlasting torments And thou my most mercifull Sauiour
looking vpon my miserable wofull and distressed estate with thine eye of pitty wert willing to be scourged for me a most wretched sinner and being innocent to suffer for mine offences that the streames of thy pretious bloud might wash away the filthy staines of my hainous sins Alas how is the wonderfull glory oh my most sweet Lord of thy super-excellent beauty decayed how is the gracefull decency of thy amiable feature diminished And how much is the delightfull comelinesse of thy most sacred body disgraced Oh let mine eyes send forth a sea of teares and let my perplexed heart breake into pieces with exceeding sorrow to see my beloued Sauiour stained with his owne blood and leopard-like bespotted with deformitie who did farre excell all the sonnes of men with his glorious beauty Now thou seest oh my soule how the snow-white skin of the bodie of thy Sauiour is changed into a bloody tincture Thou maist see and sigh when thou seest how his tender flesh is made black and blew with the cruel blowes which cruell tormentors inflicted vpon him whose stony hearts had no sense of his grieuous paines when they saw with their eyes and yet alas they would not pitty his wofull case how the bloud ran out of his veines as water floweth out of a fountaine Mourne and lament oh my soule send forth deepe groanes and sorrowfull sighes at so pittifull a sight For now thou canst not say My beloued is white and ruddy Cant. 1.14 as sometime thou mightest But rather say my beloued is blacke and blew his pretious bloud gushing out of his veines and his tender flesh mangled with grieuous wounds Who is so cruelly minded and so stony-harted which cannot be moued to shed plentifull teares when he vieweth my sweet Sauior Iesus so sauagely abused without any pitty and so spitefully taunted and maliciously tormented without any mercy Now when those cursed Tormentors had almost tired their hands but yet not tamed the crueltie of their hearts they cloathe him with a vesture of purple colour set a crowne of sharpe thorns on his head and put a Reed for a Scepter into his hands calling him King in derision vvith their blasphemous mouthes whom they accounted more base then the meanest abiect in al the world Mat. 27.2 Is it possible for thee my sorrowfull soule to keepe backe the tide of thy streaming teares when thou dost meditate in thy perplexed minde and as it were view within thy secret thoghts how cruelly thy harmelesse Sauiour was tortured by those bloody tormentors how spitefully he was tanted and shamefully mocked by those blasphemous wretches There was no man oh my sweet Iesu that did afford thee so much as a signe of pitty in thy greatest paines thou mightest not haue a Chirurgion to stanch thy bleeding wounds no man sought to ease thy smart nor to bathe thy scourged body no man offered thee a cup of water to refresh thy fainting spirits Oh let shewers of teares trickle downe my cheekes and let a sea of sorrow ouer-flow my heart when I enter into a serious meditation of the grieuous paines derisions and afflictions which my innocent redeemer patiently endured Oh then let mine eyes send forth a flood of teares because my mercifull louing Iesus suffered all those intollerable extremities for mee a most wretched sinner that he might pay the price of my redemption and deliuer my soule from euerlasting captiuitie Oh how should I my bountifull Iesu sound the bottomlesse profunditie of thy vnspeakeable mercy And how can I search the endles depth of mine owne wretched miserie Touch my heart oh Lord by the vertue of thy holy spirit and teach me by the sacred documents of thine vnsearchable wisdome so that the affections of my heart may be faithfully affianced and for euer affixed vnto thy immeasurable loue and my minde euermore imployed in the diuine meditation of thy holy law Instruct mee to lay vp in the store-house of my perpetuall memorie how many how great and grieuous paines thou hast endured for me What should I render vnto thee in requitall of thine immeasurable loue how should I be able to demeane my selfe thankefully vnto thee when of my selfe I am so vile a creature that I cannot thinke dutifully of thee Wherefore open mine eyes oh my sweet Iesu that I may see the inestimable riches of thy bountie Infuse thy working grace into my vnderstanding that I may know acknowledge the greatnes of thy loue and goodnesse of thy gratious benefits Graunt me such a portion of thy grace that in the highest degree of my prosperitie I may meditate on thy pouerty so that my minde may be brideled from ambitious thoughts and my actions neuer transgresse the bounds of moderate humility And when I decke my body with costly attire let me thinke of thy nakednes that it may asswage my swelling pride and induce me to abate somewhat of my superfluitie to cloathe and relieue my poore brethren in their naked necessitie And when my Table is furnished with delicate meates and my cuppe filled with delicious wine then oh my louing Sauiour let me remember thy hunger Oh let me not forget thy thirst that I may be sober in my diet and temperate in my drinke and remember to refresh poore hungry Lazarus when he lieth crying and crauing at my gate When I enioy my libertie let me thinke of thine imprisonment that I may not let mine affections runne ryot but tame their wilde motions before they breake forth into desperate actions Let not worldly pleasure haue such soueraigne dominion ouer my peaceable thoughts but that I may alwayes haue some taste of the paines which thou didst suffer for my sinnes with patience and sustaine for my transgressions with silence Lastly let me neuer dispaire of thy potent mercy though by my owne merit I finde I haue deserued nothing else but hell and damnation Now that this blessed worke of thine excellent goodnesse oh my gratious Lord may be affected in mee make a deepe impression of thy loue in my bowels and ingraue the true character of thy kindnesse on my heart so that nothing may please my taste nothing breed my delight nothing affect my desires but onely thou my King God my Sauiour and my Redeemer Kindle the fire of thy loue within my bones that my ardent zeale may neuer be quenched towards my beloued Lord Iesus who did willingly abide the curse and die on the crosse to pay my debt and to deliuer my soule out of the prison of eternall death But stay not here my soule turne thine eyes toward thine afflicted Iesus view him harmlesse and innocent and see in what scornefull habit iniurious Pilate doth present him to the bloudy-minded Iewes his body is arraied in a roabe of purple his cheekes bedewed with blood running out of the veines of his head wounded with a Crowne of sharpe thornes A ruthfull spectacle which might haue made their stony-hearts haue melted with compassionate pitty But alas vvhat can
prepared for them from the beginning of the world Oh let my Prayer come before thy presence let the zeale of my heart and lifting vp of my hands towards thy Throne of mercie moue thee to grant the request of my humble petition Amen A Meditation how the Lord Iesus carrying his Crosse on his shoulders is led to Mount Caluarie to be crucified and of those things vvhich happened by the vvay MED XIII Our blessed Sauiour Christ the perfect a Iohn 19.17 gaine Doth b Matth. 27.32 beare the crosse whereon himselfe must die Simon of c Luk. 23.26 Cyrene sometimes they constraine To doe d Mark 15.21 it So saith the truth that cannot lie HE which will come after me let him denie himselfe take vp his Crosse and follow me Matth. 16.24 Runne and make hast oh my soule at the voice of our most sweet Redeemer who bearing his Crosse on his owne shoulders Ioh. 19.16.17 doth inuite thee to carrie thy Crosse if thou desire to follow his steps Oh how sweet how delectable how delightfull is it to carrie the Crosse after my Iesus His happinesse cannot be vttered his blessednesse cannot be imagined which doth follow thee my Lord Iesu in thy blessed pathes he walketh not in darknesse he commeth not neere the shadow of death but shall haue the light of life Come therefore oh my soule let vs follow our Iesus bearing his Crosse on his owne shoulders let vs leaue all and follow him with alacritie let nothing stop our passage let not any thing hinder vs in our course Looke vpon thy Lord thy Creator thy Redeemer Consider his tedious labour his grieuous afflictions his intollerable torments all of them vvithout any meane none of them hauing any moderation let thy vvhole minde be pondering on them let them be the continuall matter of thy daily meditation Let thy heart be wounded with the sword of sorrow and let thine eyes be drowned vvith a flood of teares let thy heauie groanes and sorrowfull sighes beginne in the morning and let them not cease in the euening Oh let the feruencie of thy lamentation demonstrate the burning zeale of thy compassion which thou doest beare to mine afflicted Iesus Mourne vvith true contrition of heart for thine iniquities and vveepe with hearty sinceritie for thy sinnes vvhich caused thy Christ to carrie so heauie a crosse Here is plentifull matter for thy meditation heere vvanteth no motiues to stirre vp in thee a feeling compassion for thou seest how hee is scorned and despised how cruelly how currishly hee is abused by the perfidious Iewes Who is so obdurate in heart oh my most patient Iesus vvho hath his affections so barren of compassion that hee hath no sense of sorrow when he entereth into a serious contemplation of the multitude of thine afflictions and meditateth on the bitternesse of the passions which thou didst suffer to pay the ransome of our sinfull soules and to deliuer them out of the bands of eternall captiuitie For all the night thou vvert wearied with the out-cries of contumelious tongues and tired with the violence of cruell hands hurried and haled from the Garden where thou wert with thy louing Disciples and although thou wert vvilling to goe of thy selfe yet the churlish crew of hard-harted Souldiers vvere so froward that their sturdie hands were alwaies readie to tugge and pull thee forward to vexe thy feeble body and to grieue thy righteous soule For it was their solace to procure thy sorrow it vvas their pleasure to augment thy paine and they thought euery moment a moneth before they did present thee to Annas where thou wert rebuked with taunting checkes buffeted with vngentle blowes on thy tender cheekes and after that thou hadst with exceeding patience endured the bitter tempest of their furie they brought thee from thence to the house of Caiphas there to abide another storme of their malicious crueltie Sometime they raile vpon thee vvith their cursed tongues sometime they thumpe thee with their cruell hands their speeches were full of odious spite their vvords vvere infected vvith malicious venome vvhich they belched against thee my louing Sauiour their deedes were nothing else but deadly cruelty their words sauoured of nothing but barbarous inhumanitie they scoffed and derided thee with bitter iests they defiled thy comely face with their filthie spettle Then vvithout any pittie alas how should they shew any pitty whose hearts were hardned with bloud-thirstie crueltie they bring thee in hast to the Court of King Herod where thou wert flouted at reputed as a sottish foole scorned contemned and derided like a simple Idiot their mirth was Bedlam-madnes their iestes were full of gall and bitternesse Now when they had acted their outragious villanies against thee and executed their diuellish deuises vpon thee my innocent Iesus yet all of them vvere too little to calme the tempest of their hatefull furie but then this cursed crew doth hurrie thee from the vngratious Court of proud Herod to the gracelesse house of Pontius Pilate vvhere thou vvert taunted and checked againe vvith cruell quips and sharply scourged with smarting vvhips stripped naked contrarie to all humanitie and beaten with bitter blowes without any pittie their whips were sharp to teare thy flesh their tongues were as keene as rasors to wound thy soule they pierced thy head with a crowne of thornes putting a feeble reede in thy hands flouted thee vvith the name of a King and bending their knees did worship thee in derision offending thy sacred eares vvith their cursed words and afflicting thy vvounded body vvith their bloudie hands and vvhen thou hadst beene so spitefully scorned bitterly scourged and vilely contemned at last thou wast wrongfully condemned to suffer a most shamefull and dolefull death But oh my sweet Iesu who did afford thee any comfort in thy exceeding sorrowes vvho did approach to cure thy bleeding wounds Alas there was no man by vvhich vvas moued vvith any sorrowfull compassion for thy vndeserued calamitie but euery man was forward to augment thy miserie Now they lay a most huge and heauy crosse vpon thy wounded shoulders the vveight of it doth make thy knees to tremble thy legges to faile and thy whole body to faint And thus thou doest goe forward to the place of execution guarded with a band of armed Souldiers and hemd in on euery side with a rabble of bloudie tormentors multitudes of the base and rude people doe flocke together out of euery quarter they crowd and thrust one another to see thee but alas it was not to afford thee any compassionate pittie but to laugh and reioyce at thy miserie They proclaime out the malice of their heart against thee in their madnesse and raile and reuile thee in the heat of their furie They all striue like Beares and fierce Lyons to approach neere vnto thee oh vvhat opprobrious speeches what hatefull and odious rayling what cursed words what vncharitable deedes did my most humble and patient Iesus suffer by those wicked
submit thy selfe to such slauish cruelty not sparing to shed thy most pretious bloud to compound of it a most soueraigne Medicine to cure my desperate malady Now what measure of wordes can be so great or what voyce so vehement as may fully expresse the extreame impietie of the bloudy Iewes towards my blessed Iesus When such hellish fury did rule and reuell in their fiery harts that in the middest of so many bitter paines and pangs of his body and insupportable anguish of his soule they did impose so ponderous and heauy a Crosse on his faint and feeble shoulders being framed extraordinarily in respect of the matter and also vnvsually in regard of the forme More gently were the two Theeues vsed which were led along with him who were constrained to endure no such labor for we may wel think they would vse more kindnes to those wicked persons then to my holy Iesus For we doe not read that they were put to the toile to beare their Crosses whose bodies vvere more able because they had not felt one fit of the grieuous paines nor suffered one iot of the great tortures wherewith my sorrowful Sauiour had beene all the night before extreamely vexed and cruelly tormented Heere thou hast iust cause oh my soule to cry out against the monstrous inhumanity and brutish crueltie of the Iewes acted against thy despised Iesus What imagination can sound the bottome of their sauage tyrannie What tongue is able to make a perfect relation of their horrible furie Was it not a most ruthfull Spectacle forcible enough to haue drawne streames of teares out of the dryest eye and to haue incited a multitude of heauy groanes out of the hardest heart to see my beloued Lord carry so heauy a burden vpon his painefull shoulders yet bleeding with cruell wounds lately without any meane or mercie inflicted vpon them was there euer cruelty like vnto this Oh my louing Lord Oh my most beloued Iesu thou art now become a laughing-stocke to the barbarous Gentiles and matter of derision to the perfidious Iewes They scorned despised flouted and derided thee bearing thy heauy Crosse with patience towards the place of execution whereon thou shouldest suffer a most bloody bitter and shamefull death And so went my Lord Iesus with constant humanity towards the place where he was to suffer the deadly pangs of their extreamest tyranny whose knees were so weake and legs so feeble that they were not able to support the weight of so heauy a burthen which with such disdainful indignation they had imposed vpon him that thereby they might so much the more increase his derision and multiply his dolorous affliction Oh yee most cruell tormentors doe yee neuer cease to molest vexe my humbled Lord Iesus Could not one cruell death haue quenched the flame of your blood-thirsting malice Oh vvhy doe you abuse his meeke-minded patience by compelling him to feele so many deadly passions Now when those malicious persecutors saw that my vvearyed Christ was so surcharged vvith his heauy Crosse being so weightie in respect of the ponderous substance and also so cumbersome in regard of the extraordinary length that although hee had a willing minde yet that he had not sufficient strength to carry so heauie a load then they compelled Simon of Cyrene the father of Alexander Rufus to ease him of his burthen and to follow my tyred Christ with that painefull Crosse What did their stonie hearts now begin to relent vvith any motiue of compassion towards my poore afflicted Iesus No for the Curres were more curteous that licked the loathsome soares of hungry Lazarus that lay crying and dying for want of foode at the gate of their churlish maister then those vncircumcised Gentiles and stiffe-necked Iewes were to my innocent Iesus For how should their mindes be affected with any sparke of pittie whose harts were drowned in so deepe a sea of impietie But because they were loth that my Sauiour should end his tedious life before hee came where hee should suffer a most painefull pittifull and shamefull death they graunted him a little ease that he might goe with better speed and make a little more haste to the place of execution where they should play like the infernall Furies the last act of their bloody Tragedie Oh my sadde and sorrowfull soule how canst thou calme the waues of thy flowing sorrow how canst thou how canst thou asswage the pangs of thy turbulent passions when thou dost meditate how many miseries mischiefes calamities and distresses were violently inflicted vpon my beloued Iesus by the hatefull handes of those bloudy tormentors Oh my most mercifull Iesu Oh my most louing Lord Oh why was not I with thee at that time my sweet Christ that I might haue carried thy heauy Crosse Oh how happily should I haue shut vp the last euening of my short and gloomy dayes Oh how blessedly should I haue finished my restles course if I had died with thee on thy sacred crosse Oh how sweet had the sharpe deadly pangs and dolorous paines beene vnto mee how ioyfull had dolefull death bene vnto me a sorrowfull sinner if I had died with thee my bountifull Lord and blessed Redeemer It may be thou wouldest haue bequeathed me some liberall gift of thine indulgent mercie as thou didst vnto that true though late repenting thiefe vvhich was crucified with thee For at that houre thou didst franckely bestow the riches of thy bountiful mercy and then thou gauest the treasure of thy mercifull bountie Then sweet streames of pure vvater did flowe out of the cleare fountaine of thy mercy comfortable to coole the heat of a thirsty tongue and medicinable to cure the spreading malady of a leperous soule infected with sinne Oh vvould I had bene there to haue had some sweet taste of that blessed fountaine If I had drunke neuer so little it would haue beene enough to haue quenched my thirst and yet I should still haue thirsted to drinke more although I had drunke neuer so much If the cursed churle damned glutton had had but one drop of this caelestiall water it had bin sufficient not onely to haue cooled the tip of his flaming tongue but also to haue extinguished the fire of his euer neuer-dying soule and of his continuall burning and neuer consuming body tormented in Hell fill my soule oh my sweet Christ with this comfortable vvater that may cure my sinfull soares and mittigate my deserued sorrow But as thou didst go toward the place vvhere thou shouldst offer vp thy selfe for a compleat sacrifice to appease the vvrath of thy angry Father to make an euerlasting attonement betweene him and vs his disobedient children thou saydst vnto those mourning women who could not containe their trickling teares nor deteine their sorrowfull sobs to see their louing and dearely beloued Lord so doggedly haled and currishly handled Weepe not for me ye daughters of Ierusalem weepe for your selues your children Luk. 23.28 And now thou sayst vnto me
23.46 Of his deere life What more could he d Ioh. 19.30 abide NOw blessed Iesus and my beloued Sauiour is come vnto Mount Caluarie where he was to make the last period of all his humane miserie by suffering a most bloudie vile and violent death being cruelly nayled to that Crosse which of late lay so heauie vpon his shoulders that his whole body did shake and tremble vnder the burthen Oh blessed Mountaine happy for thy dignitie happy for thy fertilitie because it pleased the Lord Christ to suffer vpon thee But who shall ascend vp to the Hill of the Lord where the Lord Iesus is crucified Truly he that hath innocent hands and a cleane heart He vvhich loueth the Lord Iesus with all his heart with all his soule with all his strength hee shall ascend vp to his Mountaine and shall be crucified vvith the Lord Iesus Hee which hath crucified his flesh and the concupiscence thereof shall be crucified and suffer with his beloued Iesus I desire to be crucified with thee oh my most sweet Iesu I long to suffer on the crosse with thee that I may be crowned by thee but I know that first it is needefull for mee that the world be crucified vnto mee and I vnto the vvorld Gal. 6.14 But now let vs see oh my sorrowfull soule how my innocent Iesus was vsed by the rough-handed and cruell hearted tormentor when he vvas come to the place of execution vvhere malefactors did suffer grieuous punishment for their hainous offences First hauing exiled all compassion and pittie from their heart they lay hold vpon him with their bloudie and polluted hands and then they hastily rob and disroabe him of his garments before a rude multitude of the basest and meanest of the people yea they strip him starke naked that hee might appeare more vile and contemptible in their eyes Here hast thou good cause and iust occasion my perplexed soule to ouer-flowe thy cheekes afresh vvith a flood of teares and to dilate and open thy heart that thy heauie groanes and sorrowfull sighes may haue their free passage when thou seest thy louing Iesus stripped naked by the hands of such dogged and cruell tormentors exposed to the eyes of the pittilesse people and extreame coldnesse and roughnesse of the weather Oh how was the beauty of thy excellent composed body obscured with spots of bloud how was the pure-white colour of thy skin made blacke and blew with bitter blowes my most beautifull Iesu Oh how spitefull and vnappeasable was their indignation how bitter was the miserie how great yea exceeding great was the ignominie of thy grieuous passion my louing Christ my mercifull Iesu For so sharp was the edge of their cruelty so eager was the malice of their hearts and inhumanitie of their hands against thee that thou art layde naked vpon the Crosse vvhen as such extremitie was not vsed but to most wicked vile and abiect persons who for their notorious crimes deserued no pittie such was their damnable impietie But vvhat a spring of bitter teares might arise in the vveeping eyes of thy sad and mourning Mother vvhat sword of sorrow did pierce her tender heart vvhen she saw her deerely-louing and deerely beloued Sonne so roughly disrobed of his cloathes and nakedly exposed to the view of the rude base and common people vvho came not with relenting hearts to shew any signe of sorrow at the execution of such bloudie crueltie but rather to solace themselues and to laugh deride and raile vpon thee in this extreamest miserie Now when those cruell tormentors had speedily turned my innocent Iesus out of his cloathes they layde his naked body vpon the Crosse and first they nailed his innocent hands and after his blessed feet with long strong nailes So that the streames of bloud spouting out of his veines changed the hew of his Crosse into a crimson colour Oh what grieuous paine what horrible tortures did those wicked vvretches procure to my blessed Sauiour Oh vvhat infernall furie had incensed their bloudie mindes what diuellish madnesse enraged their hearts so farre to degenerate from the ciuill nature of men into the sauage nature of beasts Oh spectacle full of sorrow oh sight full of ruth how grieuous vvould that pittifull sight haue beene to mine eyes when the very Meditation of it doth so deepely wound my heart Though I know that the immaculate Lambe was sacrificed on this woodden Altar that he might wash and cleanse my polluted soule with his pretious bloud take away the foule staines of my defiled flesh and by suffering so vile a death on the Crosse to deliuer me from a bitter curse due vnto mee for my great and grieuous sinnes Yet needes must mine eyes haue melted like Ice into teares my heart haue beene consumed with sobs and all my bowels pained with compassion if I had beene a wofull beholder of his dolefull Passion vnlesse mine eyes had beene more drie then a flint my heart more hard then iron and my bowels composed of brasse But indeede vvhat riuers of streaming teares should water my cheeks what heauy groanes and lamentable sighes should sound out of the bottome of my heart How should all mine affections be drowned in the vvaues of afflictions when I contemplate the hidious deformities of my vgly sinnes and seriously meditate on the cruell tyrannie of my trayterous transgressions which indeed were nothing else but cruell hands and a hard hammer to driue the iron-nailes into thy blessed hands and innocent feet and to crash their tender bones into pieces Wound my soule oh my sweet Iesu pierce my heart that it may streame forth blood let nothing but mournfull sighes be pleasant vnto my vveeping eyes let nothing but voices of horror and lamentation be delightfull vnto my dolefull eares so that all my senses may be true mourners to bewaile the crueltie of my sinnes and to shew some tokens of true repentance for the multitude of my transgressions which so pittifully wounded thy sacred body and so grieuously vexed thy righteous soule Crucifie my heart that it may die to wicked cogitations Crucifie my hands that they may haue no power to commit euill actions Crucifie mine eyes that they may want light in taking delight to gaze vpon vvorldly vanities Crucifie mine eares that they may be dull and depriued of hearing when they should listen to fruitlesse and friuolous words vnsauorie speeches lasciuious and wanton discourses Crucifie my tongue that it may haue no motion to vtter any opposite thing to the pure Law of my God or hurtfull to the commoditie of those which are godly and good Crucifie my Taste that it may not be allured with the wanton enticements of delicate meates nor so ouercome with the baytes of pleasant wine that the eyes of my vnderstanding be darke vvith the fumes of gluttony or my soule be polluted or my body defiled with filthie adulterie Crucifie the olde man sinne that hath beene my Tenant so long and hath had his habitation in
my bosome that being dead he may be carried out to his graue that my soule may be infected no longer vvith his carnall impietie and that I may no longer wilfully loue but willingly loath and for euer leaue his damnable company But now oh my sorrowfull soule turne thine eyes towards thy crucified Iesus meditate seriously in thy minde let it be the perpetuall matter of thy thoughts to thinke how thy louing Sauiour was most pittifully martyred and cruelly mangled tortured vvithout any pittie scorned at his death vvith vile indignitie and thought vnworthy of any mercy or kinde humanity that thou mayest mourne for thy sinnes in the morning and repent for thy misdeeds in the euening vvhich were hard-hearted and bloudie-handed executioners to crucifie thy innocent Iesus Crie out oh my vvretched and vvicked soule trembling at the vgly sight of thy grieuous sinnes and troubled vvith the horrour of thy guiltie conscience Cry out saying Oh my sweet Iesu oh my milde and mercifull Iesu how exceeding painefull are the pangs of thy Passion how violent are the streames of thy afflictions how cruelly is thy body wounded and thy soule pressed vvith the heauie vveight of my sinnes Oh how horrible how detestable how innumerable are my transgressions that tormented my Sauiour vvith so many heauie afflictions What a deere price didst thou pay for my Redemption At what a high rate hast thou bought me a most wretched sinner no summes of gold had it beene neuer so much no heapes of siluer had they beene neuer so great could rid mee out of Captiuitie It vvas onely thy pretious bloud that might pay the price of my ransome It was onely thy innocent death that vvas sufficient to purchase my freedome How is the naked body of my louing Redeemer and kinde Reconciler stretched out vpon the Crosse to deliuer mee from the bitter curse vvhich vvas due vnto me for my monstrous impiety and the execution of it readie to be serued vpon me for my intollerable iniquitie How firme are thy harmelesse hands fixed vnto thy Crosse how hard are thy innocent feete nayled vnto it Thou hast onely liberty to moue but Alas no where to lay downe thy weake and vvearie head Thou liest naked obiected to the blasts of the vvinde and storme of the weather thou hast no cloathes to keepe thee warme thou hast no shelter to keepe thee from harme Thou wert poore indeed at thy birth but now thou art more poore at thy death for at thy birth thou hadst a Stable for thy Chamber and a Manger for thy Cradle thou hadst swathling cloathes although they vvere course that might defend thee from colde and cherish thy tender body But at thy death thou art cruelly robbed of all thy garments thou hast not so much as a ragge to lay vpon thee the sharpnesse of the aire nippeth thy skin the furie of the windes stormeth against thy naked body thou hast no roofe to couer thy head from the blustering windes thou hast no place of harbour to protect thy body from the stormie weather Oh how hard is the bed thou liest vpon at the houre of thy death How hard is the pillow that lieth vnder thy head when thou art readie to yeeld vp thy breath How is thy blessed body debased by wretched men heere vpon the earth which is so highly honoured by the Angels in Heauen Oh how should my heart faint vvith bleeding vvounds of sorrow for my sinnes How should mine eies make my bed to flote with a flood of teares when I begin to call to an audit my hainous trespasses and to cast vp the infinit summes of my transgressions which caused my Lord to passe through such a great Campe of miseries and to abide the bitter brunts of so many calamities for vvhat hadst thou done oh my most sweet Lord what hadst thou done that thou should be so spitefully despised so maliciously martired so extreamely tortured and so cruelly tormented What wicked action had thy pure hands committed nay what good deed had they omitted that they should be so pittifully wounded How had thy innocent feet transgressed that they should be so seuerely punished How had any little particle of thy blessed body offended that it should be so grieuously tormented Truly thy deeds my blessed Sauiour were alwaies acted vvith integritie and thy words did vtter nothing but truth and sinceritie thy hands were alwaies cleane from sinfull actions thy heart vvas alwaies pure from vvicked cogitations It vvas thy meruailous loue thy miraculous mercie thine vnspeakeable pittie that did induce thee to suffer those torments vvhich were due vnto me for mine offences It was I my sweet Sauiour it was I my selfe that had so grieuously sinned It was thy wonderfull charitie it was thy charitable mercy to shed thy pretious bloud to cure the desperate disease of my deadly miserie But such oh such and so vile is the horrible ingratitude of my minde such and so great is the dulnesse of my memorie such and so hard is the stupiditie of my hart that I am vnthankfull for thy mercy forgetfull of thy bounty senselesse without any compassion yea quite colde without any zealous meditation of thy grieuous Passion Haue mercy vpon mee oh my most mercifull Lord haue mercie vpon mee Oh let the sweet dew of thy infinite mercie distill downe vpon my head yea rather let it bee infused into my heart that it may mollifie the hardnesse of mine affections moisten the drinesse of my bowels and fructifie my minde with the fruits of thy loue because I cannot yea rather because I am vnwilling to suffer vvith thee and loue thee so little vvho hath alwaies loued mee so much for I freely confesse I haue no sense of thy innarrable and innumerable sorrowes which thou didst suffer for the multitude of my sinnes Alas mine eyes are dry without teares my kinde Iesu my heart is so dead that it cannot breath forth any heauie groanes mine affections are starke colde without any heate of true deuotion so often yea rather so seldom as I enter into a meditation of thy bitter Passion and ruminate thy tedious paines and terrible pangs vvhich thou didst feele in thy most pretious body to reuerse the sentence of damnation pronounced against me for my sinnes and to purchase a gratious pardon for my condemned soule But pardon me forgiue me my most mercifull Lord I haue a hart of Iron my bowels are more hard then Marble vnlesse thou mollifie them they are vnapt to receiue any print of thy mercie or any impression of thy grace Take away from mee I pray thee my stonie heart giue mee a fleshie and tender heart that may be vvounded vvith the thornes of sorrowe for my rebellious thoughts yeeld forth dolefull groanes for my grieuous sins and bleed vvith the vvounds of compunction when my minde doth meditate on thy heauy Passion Oh why should not my heart my vvretched heart be pinched with some paine for the loue of thee vvhich didst vvillingly
tender to giue my beloued poore Friends but that it may also be pliable to forgiue my hatefull Foes seeing that thou wert not so much touched with the sense of thy owne afflictions and no doubt the paines of them were most grieuous vnto thee as thou wert mooued with zeale to pray for thy bloody enemies when they made a prey of thy garments and cast lots for thy vnseamed vesture Ioh. 19.24 Now though Pilate gaue wrongfull iudgement against thee to take away thy innocent life yet he seemed to honour thee at the houre of thy death when hee wrote on the Crosse Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes Matt. 27.37 Mar. 15.26 Luk. 23.38 Iohn 19.19 It pleased him to intitle thee a King by name but alas hee had no such conceit of thee in his secret thoughts But indeed thou wert worthy of a far more honorable Title being not onely King of the Iewes but also of the Gentiles Yea Creator and Gouernor of euery creature Neuerthelesse thou didst not clothe thy selfe with the vesture of our Humanitie that thou shouldst be honoured with any worldly dignity It was thy chiefest honor to do the will of thy heauenly Father Ioh. 14.31 thou camest not to depriue Herod of his Kingdome nor to gather any forces to deliuer the Iewes as they fondly dreamed of their Messias vainely expected at the comming of their King Thou camest to deliuer the people from the Captiuity of their sinnes and by shedding thy pretious blood to saue their soules Graunt me oh my sweet Sauiour that I may set open the dore of my heart that thou mayest enter which art the true King of glory and that I may stil desire althogh I am vnable to shew my selfe a louing and loyall subiect to receiue thee Send thy holy spirit as a Harbenger before thee to giue mee warning of thy comming and then I shall be prepared to entertaine my gratious Soueraigne with humility of minde and tokens of sincere loue I long oh my King for thy comming for I am assured if thou vouchsafe to enter into my cottage thou wilt bestow such a royall gift vpon mee that I shall beginne to disdaine the pompe of the vvorld and account nothing so deare vnto mee as thy loue Oh would my louing Sauiour would imbrace mee betweene his blessed armes Oh I vvish to liue I long to die betwixt thy louing imbracements thy armes vvere stretched out on the Crosse as if thou wert ready to receiue any penitent sinner refuse not to receiue me a wretched sinner who wounded with the horror of my sinnes doe come vnto thee as my Physition who is only able and willing to heale my wounds Let thy pretious blood stoppe the bloody issue of my sinnes thy mercy and nothing but thy mercy can cure my malady that one and that alone is all my remedy Graunt mee oh my sweet Iesu that I may bee able to say vvith thine Apostle I am crucified with thee Crucifie my wanton flesh with the nayles of thy feare mortifie my rebellious thoghts with dread of thy Iustice and Meditation of thy iudgements Let it be the ioy of my hart let it be the daily exercise of my minde let it be the obiect of all my thoughts to thinke on my Lord Iesus and him crucified I cannot wonder enough thogh I neuer cease to wonder at thee my Iesu my Sauiour and my Redeemer yet let me neuer cease to maruaile at the wonderfull worke of thy Passion which thou didst so patiently suffer that by thy innocent death thou mightest cancell the obligation of our infinite debt affixe it to thy Crosse that thou mightest deliuer vs poore and miserable wretches from the danger of the curse which was gone out against vs Oh how can my meditations attaine to the length of thy admirable loue how can my cogitations measure the bredth of thy clemency how should my deepest imaginations diue into the depth of thy mercy My eye is too dimme to perceiue the beauty my eare is too dull to heare the greatnesse my hart is too grosse to conceiue the goodnes my taste is too weake to rellish the sweetnes my tongue is too feeble to declare the worthines of thy loue no words be they neuer so many can expresse the quantity no eloquence be it neuer so excellent can relate the quality Oh with what humility of minde with what exceeding patience with what kinde and tender affections didst thou suffer the extreamest pangs of thy bitter afflictions How is my minde amazed with the bright beames of thy loue How are all my thoughts confounded with the greatnes of thy clemency How is my soule rauished with the goodnes of thy mercy What did mooue thee oh my sweet Sauiour but thy vnspeakeable loue what did induce thee but thy incomparable mercy to pay so deere a price for my Redemption Oh let the remembrance of thy infinite bounty neuer depart out of my minde Let all my affections be inflamed with the fire of thy loue Let the sweetnesse and greatnesse of thy mercies be my chiefest Meditations Mortifie my disobedient cogitations with thy feare and crucifie my rebellious actions on thy Crosse that although sinne must dwell and remaine in mee yet it may not raigne and rule ouer mee A Meditation concerning the derisions and scornefull speeches vttered to the Lord IESVS when hee was nayled on the Crosse by the Iewes and one of the Theeues which were crucified with him and of the second words he spake on the crosse MED XV. Twixt a Mat. 27.38 Mark 15.27 Theeues Christ suffered For no fault he shed His pretious bloud The b Mark 23.4 Iohn 19.6 Sunne thereat asham'd c Mar. 15.33 Matth. 27.45 and 27.52 Ore-uaild his face The graues gaue vp their dead With wonders more that cannot here be nam'd NOw ruminate oh my sorrowful and lamenting soule what scornefull speeches vvhat spitefull derisions and bitter reproaches were breathed out of the mouthes of the enuious Iewes against my patient and silent Iesus after they had nailed his pure hands blessed feet to the Crosse Call home all thy wandring cogitations that they may be soly and wholy intentiue to this heauenly and diuine meditation Let streames of teares gush out of my melting eyes let them penetrate into my bosome that they may mollifie my stony heart so that it may be so deepely wounded with sorrowfull compassion as if I had beene an eye-witnesse of his painefull Passion when his innocent hands and blessed feet streamed forth pretious blood yet the streames of it could not quench the fire of their malice they could not calme the rage of their stormy minds nor breed any one thought of pitty in their cruel hearts It was not sufficient for them to torment him with their bloody hands but now at his vndeserued death they raile and reuile him with their blasphemous mouthes for as their hearts were stony not apt to take any print of compassion and their hands filled with
neither dispaire with the heauy burden of my sinnes nor presume without feare to transgresse the bounds of thy holy law that although I haue runne long the wilde race of vnbrideled iniquitie yet at last I may returne home vnto thee out of the way of impietie vvith this faithfull and true repenting offender and be a companion vvith him in thy Paradice of euerlasting felicitie A Meditation concerning the lamentation of the Virgine MARY beholding her Sonne lifted vp vpon the Crosse standing by it accompanied with Iohn the Euangelist and Mary Magdalene MED XVI The blessed Virgin a Iohn 9.25 standing by the Crosse Of Christ our Lord Behold thy b Ibid. 26. Sonne sayd he Vnto his Mother Oh most grieuous losse That he must die who from all c Luke 23.14 faults was free NOw turne thy thoughts Oh my sorrowfull soule from the blasphemous reproches scornfull derisions and malicious slanders of the wicked Iewes insulting against my innocent IESVS And now thou hast heard how bountifull thy Sauiour was vnto the penitent Theefe that was sorrowfull for his owne iniquity and couragious to iustifie my mercifull Redeemer for his vnspotted innocency Meditate a while on the Lamentation of his blessed Mother whose heart was wounded with sorrow to see her Sonne so cruelly tormented when hee had neuer offended in word nor imagined any euill in thought How sharpe was the sting of dolour to wound her heart how intollerable was the griefe that did trouble her minde when shee saw his body bleeding with so many wounds before her wofull eyes and heard their bitter words and diuelish reproches cast out against him in the audience of her dolefull eares As shee had cause to reioyce at his blessed Birth so now shee had good occasion to mourne for his cruell death For though no doubt she was annointed with oyle of graces aboue her fellowes yet we may not thinke shee vvas quite exempted from the passions of a woman or void of the tender affections of a Mother when shee saw the harmlesse head of her louing and beloued Son bleeding with a Crowne of Thornes his innocent hands and blessed feete fastened to the Crosse with iron nailes Certainely shee knew that his Conception vvas so sanctified by the holy Ghost in her wombe that his most blessed body vvas alwaies free from the infection of impiety and his flesh neuer tainted vvith the corruption of iniquitie But yet shee knew hee did not suffer without sense of his paines and although he was endued with a supernaturall patience yet shee knew that he felt the pangs of his bitter Passion subiect by his humane nature to many infirmities as we are yet euer hauing a pure heart and cleane hands from the spots of sinne vvherewith our soules are polluted our bodies continually infected Wherefore thinke oh my soule that as her afflictions were grieuous so her lamentation vvas great suppose that thou doest see her with her face discolored with palenesse discouering her motherly sorrow to thy outward eies and that thou didst heare her mournefull tongue telling this dolefull tale to thy attentiue eares vvhich should cause thee to be a partner with her in her woe and sigh for thy sinnes which vvere the cause of her sorrow to see her beloued Sonne so cruelly crucified by the Gentiles and so disdainfully derided by the Iewes Thinke I say that thou doest see her vvatering her eyes vvith store of teares vttering these or the like words with her sorrowfull lips to her dearely beloued Son which words should draw out teares from thine eyes and driue out groanes from thy hart which shee pronounced with a dolefull accent in this or the like manner Oh what medicine be it neuer so soueraigne can asswage the rigour of my malady what salue be it neuer so precious can heale the wounds of my bleeding heart vvhat vvords be they neuer so comfortable can cheare vp my dolefull minde when I see thee my beloued Sonne so cruelly tormented and so ignominiously taunted Alas for me poore wretch thy sorrowfull Mother How intollerable is the paine how grieuous is the punishment that is inflicted vpon thee Thy death is not so bitter vnto mee and yet how loath I am to forgoe thee as these cruell torments which I see doe torture thy innocent body and doe greatly augment the sorrow of my perplexed minde As thy blessed life was the cause of my chiefest felicity so will thy bitter death be the beginning of my miserie Who shall afford mee comfort in the time of my calamity who shall giue me counsell who shall be my succour in the time of my necessitie vvhen I am separated from thee How shall I spend the daies with sorrowing and passe through the teadious nights with mourning But thou oh my GOD omnipotent vvhich art his eternall Father vvho canst not shut thine eies of compassion from thine afflicted Sonne comfort mee his sorrowfull Mother Thou seest the wounds of his body thou knowest the sorrowes of my heart and because thou art a Father of mercies and a GOD of all consolation looke downe vpon me out of thy holy Sanctuarie and as thou hast proued me to be thy faithfull Handmaide so let the sweetnesse of thy Fatherly loue temper the bitternesse of my griefe that although I be depriued from the humane societie of my Sonne yet the vvings of thy prouidence may still ouershadow mee and thy omnipotent arme safely protect me But as the Virgine Marie did bewaile the cruell and bloudie death of her innocent Sonne so Marie Magdalene vvith many teares gushing out of her eyes began to lament the wofull case of him her louing Master on this or such like manner Oh my deere Master oh my gracious Lord oh my blessed and bountifull benefactor I cannot liue without thy louing company I cannot abide without thy amiable Societie What tongue though it speake neuer so dolefull can truly relate my sorrow What vvords be they neuer so rhetoricall can ease my inward griefe vvhen I see I shall be separated from so louing and so kinde a Master Oh how tyrannous are the torments wherewith the bloudy tormentors doe torment thine afflicted body How sharpe are the arrowes of their malice vvherewith they vvound thy righteous soule How grieuous is the sight of their cruell deedes vnto mine eyes How odious are their dogged words vnto mine eares Yet my constant loue vnto thee will not giue mee leaue to leaue thee though it be a death vnto mee to see thy calamity so long as mine eyes may behold thee The sight of the bitter pangs of thy Passion doth affright me with horrour The signes of thy approaching death doth confound my senses with continuall terror I see thy head which I annointed with pretious oyntment cruelly pierced with Thornes pittifully bleedihg with many wounds I see thy harmlesse hands pierced with iron nayles and thy innocent feete stained vvith bloud which I bathed with the teares of mine eyes and vviped vvith the
haire of my head Oh how should I sufficiently bewaile the innocent death of my louing Iesus How doth my heart faint with sorrow and my senses faile me for griefe when I see the torments of his body and when I thinke vpon the affliction of his soule But alas the waues of sorrow doe stop the passage of my words my speech faileth and my voice fainteth for griefe Now thou hast heard my sorrowfull soule the lamentation of the Virgine Marie as a kinde Mother sorrowing for the death of her dearest Sonne and the pittifull mourning of Marie Magdalene sighing for the losse of so louing and kinde a Master Cease not thou to shed teares with thy weeping eyes and to sob vvith a broken and contrite heart for the cruell and shamefull death of thy louing Sauiour who died for thy hainous sinnes and suffered for thy horrible transgressions Grant me oh my most gratious Lord that my head may flowe with water and that mine eyes may be turned into a fountaine of teares For vvhere shall I goe to draw water but to the fountaine of my Sauiour Oh why should I cease to weepe for thy sake vvhen thou didst vveepe so often because of my sinnes Thou hast told me that they are happy and blessed that mourne for their sinnes and lament for their offences and that they shall be comforted in the day of their trouble and receiue consolation at the houre of their affliction Draw me oh Lord vnto thee that I may behold thee and take such hold of thee that thou maist neuer depart from me Receiue mee into the little number of thy louing and faithfull friends who would not leaue thee in thy extreamest miserie but did weepe and sigh to see thy calamitie so that being partaker with them of their sorrow by my meditation of thy bitter Passion suffered here vpon earth I may be made copartner with them of thine vnspeakeable ioyes in thy blessed Kingdome of heauen Oh let thine eares be open to the petition of my lips and let thy mercy grant the desire of my heart A Meditation concerning the obscuration and Eclipse of the Sunne about the ninth houre and of the fourth speech which the Lord spake on the Crosse MED XVII When Christ vpon the a Mar. 15.20 Crosse for vs was nail'd And that his Ghost was readie to b Mat. 27.50 depart The c Luk. 23.45 and Math. 27.45 Sun asham'd his splendant beames ore-vaild As blushing to behold so vile a part NOw call to minde my sinfull soule how the firmament was darkened the Sunne eclipsed and his beames obscured at the bitter Passion of thy Sauiour And meruaile not that the brightnesse of the Sunne vvas dimmed and that his golden beames did not shew forth their glorie vvhen as the Sonne of righteousnesse my innocent Iesus had his beautie obscured and his glory darkened with the clowdes of his grieuous and bitter Passion And if thou consider the cruelty of his enemies and the malice of his foes so virulent in the diuellish cogitations of their hearts and so violent in the bloudy actions of their hands thou maist thinke that the Sunne did as it vvere disdaine to afford them his comfortable heat or deny them his cheerefull light that so their eyes might be ouer-shadowed with darknesse as the light of their vnderstanding vvas obscured with malice But meditate not onely oh my soule on the horrible cruelty of the barbarous Gentiles and on the execrable spite of the bloudy Iewes and that their facts vvere so odious and their deedes so detestable that they seemed to depriue the Sunne of his splendant brightnes and to rob the earth of her chiefest comfort but more often thinke seriously of thy sins meditate sincerely of thy transgressions which darken the light of thy minde eclipse the beames of thy vnderstanding so that thou doest not see to tread in the path of harmelesse piety but doest wander beside it into the dangerous waies of damnable iniquity Wherefore let the light of thine eyes be obscured with weeping and thy heart ake with groaning as outward signes of thy inward sorrow as faithfull witnesses of thy serious and true repentance so that the bright beames of the comfortable loue of thy Redeemer may still enlighten thy heart and the light of his cheerefull countenance euermore shine vpon thee Oh let not the mistie vapours of my grosse offences my mercifull Sauiour so obscure the beames of thy mercy but that their gratious influence may still haue their powerfull operation in my minde and reuiue my dead heart with the liuely motions of feruent and true deuotion Let the vertue of thy Spirit so dispell and dispierce the thicke cloudes of my sinnes that my soule may be cherished vvith the heat of thy loue and see the brightnesse of thy glory But now cease thou my soule to behold the darkned Sun with thine amazed eyes and attend to thy voice of thy crying Sauiour with thine attentiue eares What mournefull tongue can vtter the sharpenesse of his agony vvhat thought can conceiue the greatnesse of his paine Oh how grieuous vvas the extreamity of his pangs vvhich made him lift vp his eyes vnto heauen and his earnest and loud voice vnto his Celestiall Father crying out in this wofull manner Eli Eli lammazabatani my God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Oh how vehement was the wrath of thy angry Father against thee my mercifull Iesu my louing Sauiour how violent vvere the torments that vexed thy body How grieuous were the afflictions that pressed and perplexed thy minde groaning vnder the heauie burden of our sinnes imposed vpon thine innocent shoulders Indeede our haynous sinnes our horrible transgressions moued false-hearted Iudas to betray thee and induced the stubborne-minded Iewes to reiect thee they made thy Disciples to flye for feare and to leaue their louing Master in time of danger they compelled thy head to bee crowned vvith pricking thornes thy face to be defiled with spettle thy body to be scourged with vvhippes they pierced thy hands and nailed thy feete they were the hammer and nailes that fastned thee to the Crosse These caused thy Father to punish thee with the seuerity of his iustice that thou being innocent mightst make satisfaction for our trespasses suffering a shamefull and cruell death to finish the great worke of our redemption and to deliuer our bodies and soules from eternall destruction These made thy louing Father seeme to withdraw his cheerefull countenance from thee because thou didst appeare so deformed to his eyes and vgly in his sight hauing put on the filthy ragges of our iniquitie although hee did alwaies loue thee and could neuer leaue thee being alwaies beautifull vvith the true ornaments of thy owne integrity Oh how should mine eyes water my bed with flowing teares and my heart labour with continuall groanes to weepe for the cruelty of my sinnes and to lament for the tyrannie of my transgressions which vvere such cruell tormentors to
torture thy body and such furious tyrants to vexe thy soule how great oh my sweet Iesu are the tortures which thou doest patiently endure for my sake how painefull how shamefull and cursed vvas the death vvhich thou didst suffer for my sinnes the punishment was great wherewith thy body was afflicted the anguish was grieuous wherewith thy soule was affected the thornes vvere sharpe that wounded thy sacred head the whips were terrible that scourged thy naked body the nailes were painefull that entred through thy hands and pierced thy feete nothing but markes of cruelty appeared to thine eyes nothing but scornefull reproaches of thine enemies sounded in thy eares But as thy outward afflictions were vnspeakeable so thy inward sorrow was more intollerable vvhen thou didst thinke how forgetfull vvee vvould be of thy mercies and how vnthankfull we would be for thy benefits And as thou my most deare Iesu in the fiercest fittes of thine agonie and sorest pangs of thy Passion didst call and crie to thy heauenly Father for succour so teach mee to lift vp my deuout heart pure hands and a lowde voice towards the seat of mercy when any outward affliction doth pinch my body or any inward tribulation presse my soule teach me oh Lord in the stormie daies of my greatest persecutions to meditate on thy vvonted goodnesse and when my soule is most perplexed with the horror of my guilty conscience to thinke on the multitude of thy mercies But forsake mee not my sweet Iesu vvhen my strength faileth vphold mee when my feete begin to slide and raise mee vp vvhen I begin to fall thou doest neuer leaue them vvithout comfort in time of their trouble vvho come vnto thee vvith confidence of thy promises and faithfully craue thy succour Oh suffer not my soule to be cast downe vvith immoderate mourning or my mouth to be filled vvith murmuring when thy hand lieth heauie vpon mee Comfort my drouping heart with some taste of thy heauenly consolation vvhen either the sword of persecution doth vvound my body or sorrow for my sinnes doth afflict my minde Let mee remember that thy children are in this vvorld as the Israelites were in the Desart they shall haue many cruell foes abide hunger and thirst runne through many dangers and drinke of the bitter waters of Mara before they can come into heauenly Canaan and chaw the Wormewood of affliction before they can eate of the fruit of the tree of life more sweet then milke and more delicate then hony Let me remember that Abraham the Father of the faithfull was often afflicted that Iacob thy beloued was constrained to flye for feare of Esau his rough-handed and hard-harted brother and then vngently intreated and vniustly rewarded for his faithfull seruice by Laban his churlish Vnckle That Dauid thy chosen vvas often in danger of his life pursued and persecuted by furious Saul before he was aduanced to his Kingdome Oh let mee not forget the many miseries and bitter afflictions which tumbled in heapes vpon Iob thy faithfull seruant Let their patience calme the turbulent motions of my repining minde and let the remembrance of their deliuerance arme my hart with a confident and stedfast resolution that the eye of thy carefull prouidence neuer sleepeth nor slumbreth but continually watcheth ouer thy faithfull and beloued and that thine omnipotent arme is then stretched out to rid them out of perill vvhen they seeme to be in a desperate case past all hope and farthest from succour And let me know that affliction is the best hope that thy children may expect in this worldly Lotterie but yet let the anchor of my hope take such sure hold on thy promises in the time of my misery that I may alwaies be assured that thou art able and neuer vnwilling to cure my maladie if I call faithfully vpon thy name and waite thy appointed time with patience abiding constant in thy loue and confident in thy vvord Grant mee oh my Lord Iesus to crie out vnto thee in the daies of my trouble to craue thy strong aide in the houre of my tribulation O let mee drinke a deepe draught of the fountaine of thy mercie vvhen my poore heart is parched with thirst in this world of miserie Heare me from Heauen and let my voice sound in thine eares that I may receiue comfort when I am distressed helpe me vvhen I am oppressed and peace of conscience when my soule is afflicted that when I feele the sweet taste of thy mercy my lips may shew thy praise and my tongue declare thy glory saying With my voyce I cried vnto the Lord with my voyce I prayed vnto the Lord and hee heard mee A Meditation concerning the fift and sixt words which the Lord Iesus spake on the Crosse to wit I thirst and It is finished MED XVIII When Christ our Lord the a Zach. 13.1 fountaine of all blisse Had said I b Ioh. 19.28 thirst and that the houre was come That hee to Death must yeeld for our c Rom. 4.25 amisse He said It 's d Ioh. 19.30 finisht now and all is done HEere Oh my soule consider not onely the woes but mark the words of thy dying Iesus thou didst heare him cry vnto his heauenly Father with feruencie of his affection vttering the vehemencie of his affliction and now heare thy wofull Iesus speaking vnto the wilfull deafe-eard and dead-hearted Iewes saying I thirst And although enuie had so parched vp their hearts that they had no sap of relenting pittie yet let his words pierce so deepe into thy tender heart that it may be wounded vvith true compunction and stirre vp actiue and liuely motions of compassion vvithin thy bowels so often as thou dost thinke on his necessity and so often as thou dost meditate on his calamity but alas thou dost seldome or neuer meditate on his humane misery Oh what grieuous infirmities miseries distresses and calamities did our fraile assumed nature bring vpon thee my louing sweet and mercifull Iesu How many great and vnsupportable torments did our sinne yea my sinnes made thine by imputation compell thee to suffer What did cause thee to doe it my blessed Sauiour but the ardent feruour of thy exceeding loue What worthinesse of merit was there in vs as a motiue to mooue thee it was thine vnspeakeable mercy and nothing but thine inestimable mercy which did induce thee But canst thou oh my sorrowfull soule containe thy teares within the little caue of thine eyes and suppresse thy groanes and represse thy sighes within the hollow corners and cauernes of thy heart when thou doest thinke on the extreame thirst of thy louing Iesus and of the small compassion that was shewed vnto him by the vnmercifull Iewes wherefore cry out with the voyce of mourning and lament in thy crying say vnto thy beloued Iesus Oh my most louing Lord oh my most gracious Reconciler oh my most mercifull Redeemer how should my sad sorrowfull soule be afflicted with heauinesse how
braue garments the Wormes shall be spread vnder thee and the Wormes shall be thy couering For the Iustice of God can iudge and determine no other thing but that which our works do deserue For hee which loueth the world more then God a place of pleasure The marks of a wicked worldling more then the House of Prayer gluttony more then abstinency letchery more then chastity followeth the Deuill and shall goe with him to euerlasting punishment What mourning do you thinke there shall be then what lamentation what sorrow and sadnesse when the wicked shal be separated from the fellowship of the righteous and from the sight of God and shall be deliuered into the power of the Deuils and shall goe with them into euerlasting fire and shall be there with them alwayes without end in perpetuall mourning and lamentation Because being banished farre from the blessed Countrey of Paradise they shall be tormented in the place of neuer-ceasing torments neuer to see the light any more neuer to obtaine any releasement or refreshing but by thousands of thousands of yeeres to be tormented in Hell neuer to be deliuered from thence where the tormentors are neuer tyred nor wearied neither hee vvhich is tormented euer dyeth For the fire there so consumeth that it alwaies preserueth The torments are so acted that they are alwaies renewed The quality of the paine shall be fitted to the quality of the offence But euery one shall endure paine of torment according to the quality of the fault and they that are guilty of the same sinne shall be sorted and ioyned to their like to be tormented No other thing shall be heard there but weeping and mourning groaning and howling lamentation and gnashing of teeth And nothing shall be seene there but Wormes and the terrible faces of the tormentors and most hidious monsters of the Diuels Cruell Wormes shall bite the innermost parts of the heart heere shall be paine there feares sighing astonishment and horrible terrour And they being miserable and wretched shall burne in euerlasting fire for euer The condition of the damned after death of the body and besides they shall be tormented in the flesh by fire in the spirit by the Worme of conscience there shall be intollerable griefe horrible feare incomparable stinke death both of soule and body without hope of pardon or mercie Neuerthelesse they shall so dye as they may alwayes liue and shall so liue as they may alwaies die The difference of a repenting and an obstinate sinner So the soule of a sinner is tormented in hell for his sinnes or being conuerted from her sinnes is placed in Paradise Now therefore let vs choose one of the two either alwaies to be tormented vvith the vvicked or to liue in ioy with the righteous For good and euill life and death are set before vs that vvee may put forth our hand to which vvee vvill If torments cannot terrifie vs at least let rewards allure vs. Of the reward of the heauenly Countrey the which all Christians ought to endeauour to obtaine MOTIVE IIII. IT is a reward to see God to liue with God to liue of God to be with GOD to be in God vvhich vvill be all things in all To haue GOD vvhich is the chiefest good where the chiefest good is there is the chiefest felicitie chiefest pleasure true libertie perfect charitie eternall securitie and secure eternitie there is true ioy full knowledge all beauty and all beatitude There is peace pietie goodnesse light vertue honesty ioyes mirth sweetnesse euerlasting life glory praise rest loue and sweet concord The exceeding ioyes of the righteous So the man shall be blessed with GOD in whose conscience sinne hath not beene found Hee shall see God at his desire he shall haue him at his pleasure hee shall enioy him to his euerlasting delight He shall flourish in eternity hee shall be glorious in truth hee shall shine in glory he shall reioyce in goodnesse so hee shall haue eternity of continuance so hee shall haue facilitie of knowledge and wisedome and felicity of rest and quietnesse For he shall be a Citizen of that Holy Citie of which the Citizens are Angels God the Father the Temple his Sonne the glorie and brightnesse the Holy Ghost the loue and charity Oh heauenly Citie A description of the celestiall Citie secure Mansion fertile and ample Countrey thou containest all which delighteth the people liue vvithout mourning the Inhabitants are quiet and peaceable persons hauing no want or necessity How glorious things are spoken of thee oh Citie of God! So that the Habitation of all vvhich reioyce is in thee All reioyce with mirth and exceeding ioy All are delighted and made ioyfull by God vvhose lookes are beautifull face faire and comely speech sweet and delectable hee is delightfull to be seene pleasant to be drunke sweet to be enioyed He pleaseth by himselfe alone he both sufficeth of himselfe for desert and also sufficeth of himselfe for reward neither is any thing sought without him because it is wholly found in him whatsoeuer is desired Iâ— God is all good It is alwaies pleasing and delightfull to behold him alwaies to be delighted in him and alwaies to enioy him In him the vnderstanding is clarified and the affection is purified to know and loue the truth And this is the sole and whole good of man namely to know and loue his Creator Therefore vvhat madnesse of vices doth moue vs to thirst after the bitter Wormewood of this World to follow the shipwracke of this sliding life To suffer calamitie to endure the Dominion of a vvicked Tirannie and not rather to flye and flocke together to the felicitie of the Saints to the societie of the Angels to the solemnitie of supernall and heauenly ioy and to the pleasantnesse of a contemplatiue life that vvee may enter into the Dominions of the LORD and see the superaboundant riches of his goodnesse There we shall be freed from toyling cares and shall see how sweet the Lord is and how great the multitude is of his exceeding sweetnesse We shall see the beautie of his glorie The happy estate of the iust in heauen the brightnesse of his Saints and honour of his Royall Maiestie We shall know the power of the Father the vvisedome of the Sonne the most liberall clemencie of the Holy Ghost and so vvee shall haue knowledge of the most high Trinitie Now vve see bodies by the bodie also we see the Images of bodies by the Spirit but then vvee shall see the Trinitie vvith the pure sight of the minde Oh happie vision to see God in himselfe to see him in vs and to see vs in him In which vision with happy pleasure and pleasant happinesse wee shall haue all whatsoeuer wee shall desire desiring nothing else besides and wee shall loue vvhatsoeuer wee shall see blessed with the loue blessed with the sweetnesse of the loue and pleasantnesse of the contemplation This shall be
couet to be present there vvith thee by remembrance when thou powrest forth deuout Prayers before God for thy selfe thy familiar acquaintance Parents and Friends Neither meruaile The iust are all the Image of God if I haue said I desire to be present if thou loue mee and therefore doest loue me because I am the Image of God I am as present to thee as thou art to thy selfe for whatsoeuer thou art I am the same substantiall For euery reasonable soule is the Image of God wherefore he which seeketh the Image of God in himselfe doth as well seeke his Neighbour as himselfe And hee vvhich shall light vpon it and finde the same Image by seeking knoweth the same in euery man For the sight of the soule is the vnderstanding therefore if thou seest thy selfe thou seest mee because I am no other thing then thou art And if thou louest the most righteous and great GOD thou louest me being the Image of God The loue toward God appeareth in the loue of our brethren And also I if I loue God doe loue thee And so while wee seeke one thing and bend and encline to one thing we are alwayes present together but in GOD in whom we loue one another That a man ought to be diligent and deuout in singing of Psalmes and in performing other Diuine exercises in the Church or else-where MOTIVE VI. VVHen thou shalt enter into the Church to pray or to sing leaue the tumultuous and disquietfull motions of thy vvauering cogitations vvithout dores Cares of externall things stop the passage of our prayers that they cannot ascend into Heauen and vtterly forget the care of externall things that thou maiest be at leasure to God alone For it cannot be that hee can talke with God at any time which holding his peace doeth also prattle to the vvhole World Be therefore earnest and deuout towards him which is earnest and intentiue towards thee heare him speaking to thee that hee may heare thee speaking to him And this shall be effected if thou shalt bee present at the performing of Diuine praises and holy exercises vvith due reuerence and diligent carefulnes and attend to the diuine Scripture I do not say that I can doe these things but that I would and it repenteth mee that I haue not done them it doth not grieue me to doe them But thou to vvhom greater grace is granted by vowes and deuout prayers turne the kind eares of the Lord to thee with thy teares and sighes and entreate him gently for thy grieuous transgressions and with spirituall songs laud and glorifie him in his workes For the heauenly Citizens are delighted in nothing so much as to behold it nothing can be performed more pleasant delightfull to the King of Kings as hee doth testifie The Sacrifice of praise shall honour me A Consort of heauenly Musick Oh how happy shouldest thou be if thou mightest once behold with spirituall eyes how the Princes goe before ioyned to the Singers in the middest of the Damosels playing on the Timbrels Thou shouldest see vvithout doubt with what care with what dancing and reioycing they are present among the Singers with vvhat care and dancing they are present to them which are silent to them vvhich meditate They are present with them which are silent they rule ouer them which prouide and gouerne all things in order Angels reioyce for the saluation of men For the supernall powers doe loue their fellow-Citizens and they all doe seriously reioyce together for them which receiue the inheritance of saluation they comfort furnish defend and prouide for all For they desire our comming because they expect the ruines of their Citie shall be thereby repaired They diligently enquire and vvillingly heare good things of the good they run carefully too fro in the midst of vs betweene God and vs carrying our sighes and groanes to him most faithfully bringing backe againe to vs his grace and fauour most deuoutly They will not disdain to be our companions which are made our seruants wee make them to triumph with ioy when we are conuerted to repentance Therefore let vs make hast to fulfill their ioy by vs. Woe vnto thee whosoeuer thou art vvhich doest desire to goe againe to thy vomit and to returne to the mire Doest thou thinke thou shalt haue them pacified and pleased at the day of iudgement vvhom thou vvilt depriue of so great and so long hoped for ioy They exceedingly reioyced when we came to the profession of true Religion euen as for them whom they did see called backe from the very gate of Hell What will it be then vvhen they shall see vs returne from the gate of Paradise and that they should goe backwards againe vvhich had one foote in heauen For although we haue our bodies here beneath yet wee may lift vp our hearts aboue Therefore let vs runne not vvith the steppes of the body but with the affections but with the desires but with sighs of the soule because not onely the Angels but also the Creator of the Angels doth vvaite for vs. GOD the Father doth vvaite for vs as children and heires that he may put vs in possession of all his good The Sonne of God doth waite for vs as Brethren and co-heires with him that hee may offer vs to GOD the Father the fruit of his Natiuitie and price of his blood The holy Ghost doth wait for vs for hee is loue and benignity Gods election irreuocable in which we are predestinated from Eternitie and there is no doubt but hee will haue his predestination to be accomplished Therefore because all the heauenly Court doth expect and desire vs let vs desire it with as great desire as we can For he shal come to it with confusion and blushing vvhosoeuer doth not vehemently desire to see it But vvhosoeuer is conuersant in the same by continuall prayer and daily meditation hee doth both depart from hence without griefe and is also receiued into it with great ioy Therefore wheresoeuer thou shalt be pray within thy selfe If thou shalt be farre from the place of prayer thou thy selfe art a place If thou shalt be in thy bed or in some other place pray thou and where the Temple of prayer is thou must pray often and the body being bowed downe the minde is to bee lifted vp to GOD. What gesture is to be vsed of him which prayeth For as there is no moment in vvhich man doth not vse or enioy the goodnesse and mercie of GOD So there ought to bee no moment in vvhich hee should not haue him present in memory Obiection of a faithlesse petitioner But you vvill say I pray daily and see no fruit of my prayer but as I come to it so I returne from it no body doth answere mee no body speaketh none giueth any thing at all but I seeme to haue laboured in vaine So speaketh mans foolishnesse nor marking what the Truth afterward
moue him I will confesse my sin because the acknowledgement of sinne is the beginning of saluation I carrie my selfe kindely towards men I exceede not in my garments I am carefull to obserue Ecclesiasticall Orders to pray and sing at houres appointed but my heart is farre from my God I looking vpon the outward part think all things are safe and well to me not feeling the inward Worme which gnaweth the inward bowels As it is recorded in the seauenth Chapter of Oseas Strangers haue eaten vp my strength and I knew it not And therefore vvholly occupied and imployed about those things which are without and altogether ignorant of the things within me I am powred out like water and brought to nothing forgetting things past neglecting things present not fore-seeing things to come I am vnthankfull for benefits receiued prone to euill and slow to good How euery man ought to consider himselfe MOTIVE XII IF I doe not looke vpon my selfe I know not my selfe but if I looke vpon my selfe I cannot tolerate or endure my selfe because I finde such great things in my selfe which are worthy of reprehension and confusion and by so much the more narrowly and more often I examine my selfe by so much the more are the abhominations I finde in the secret corners of my heart For from the very first moment I began to sin I could not let one day passe without sinne Neither as yet doe I cease to sinne but from day to day I adde sinnes to sinnes and I haue them before mine eyes When we sin without sense of sinne our soule is sicke euen vnto death I behold them yet I doe not groane nor sigh for them I see things to be blushed at neither doe I blush I looke vpon things to be grieued at neither am I grieued vvhich thing is a signe of death and a token of damnation For a member which feeleth not the paine is mortified and dead and a disease insensible is alwayes incurable I am vnconstant and dissolute neither doe I reforme my selfe but I returne daily to the sinnes I haue confessed neither doe I take heed of the Ditch into which I wretched creature haue fallen or into which I haue made or seene another fall into And when I should haue vvept and prayed for the euils I committed and for the good thinges I neglected oh griefe it turned to mee into the contrary For I was luke-warme and I was quite cold from the feruent heat of prayer and now haue remained colde vvithout sense and therefore I cannot bewaile my selfe because the grace of teares is departed from me Of the presence of the Conscience euery where MOTIVE XIII I Cannot conceale my sinnes because wheresoeuer I go my conscience is with me carrying with it whatsoeuer I haue layd vp in it either euill or good It keepeth the pledge which it hath receiued from me being aliue it will restore the same to me being dead If I doe euilly it is present If I seeme to doe well and therefore am lifted vp it is present Is present to me being aliue it followeth mee being dead there is inseparable confusion to mee euery-where according to the quality of the pledge it hath receiued So so in my owne house A sinner hath his accusers within himselfe and from my owne family I haue mine Accusors Witnesses Iudge and Tormentors My Conscience doth accuse me my Memory is the witnesse against mee Reason the Iudge my Will the Prison Feare the Executioner and my delight the Torment For how many vvicked delights there haue beene to procure my carnall pleasure so many Torments there shall bee in my grieuous punishment for we are thereby punished from vvhence we delighted Of the three Enemies of Man MOTIVE XIIII HElpe me oh my God because mine enemies haue besieged and compassed my soule round about namely the Body the World and the Diuell The flesh the first enemie of man I cannot flie from the body nor driue it away from me I must needes carrie it about mee because it is fast tyed and bound vnto me I may not destroy it I am compelled to nourish and sustaine it And when I make it fat I nourish mine aduersarie against my selfe For if I shall pamper my selfe and that I shall be lustie and strong the health and strength of it doth trouble and molest mee The world the second enemie of man Likewise the vvorld doth hemme mee in and besiege me on euery side and by fiue gates to wit by the fiue senses of the body namely the sight hearing tasting smelling and touching doth wound me with his arrowes and Death entreth by my vvindowes into my soule Mine eye looketh backe and turneth away my Vnderstanding Mine eare heareth and turneth aside the intention of my heart Smelling hindereth my deuout cogitation My mouth speaketh and deceiueth By touching the burning of Lust is stirred vp by any small occasion and vnlesse it be quenched it suddainely possesseth burneth and inflameth the whole body First it tickleth the flesh a little with thought afterward it defileth the minde with filthy delight and at last it subiugateth and captiueth the minde by consent vnto wickednesse Further the Diuell vvhom I cannot see The Diuell the third enemie of man and therefore can the lesse be vvarie of him hee hath bent his Bowe and made readie his Arrowes in it that he may suddainely wound me Hee hath declared that hee vvould hide his Snares and hath said The Diuel vseth gold and siluer for alluring baits to procure the soules bane Who shall see them Hee hath laid a snare in gold and siluer and in all things vvhich vvee abuse vvith them vvee are euilly delighted and are ensnared Hee hath not onely layde a Snare but also Birdlime The loue of possessions is Birdlime the affection of kindred The Diuels Bird lime the desire of Honour and the pleasure of the flesh by vvhich the soule is glewed and entangled that it cannot 〈◊〉 â—hrough the streetes of heauenly Syon vvith the wings of Contemplation The Arrowes of 〈◊〉 Diuell The Arrowes and Shafts of the Diuell are Anger Enuie Concupiscence and other vices vvith vvhich the soule is wounded And who is he which is able to quench his fierie Darts Oh lamentable griefe a faithfull soule is often wounded with these Darts and ouercome with these temptations Alas for me because I see warres prepared for mee on euery side Darts flie about euery where on euery side assailements on euery side dangers wheresoeuer I shall turne my selfe there is no safety no security I feare both those things which delight mee and also those things which make me sad and molest me I feare all things Hunger and refection sleepe and watching labour and resting doe fight against mee Ieasting is no lesse suspected of me then anger for I after giuen offence vnto many by ieasting Neither doe I lesse feare prosperitie then aduersity For prosperous things with their sweetnes make me carelesse
It is true that my conscience doth merit damnation and that my repentance doth not suffice for satisfaction But it is certaine that thy exceeding mercie doth surpasse all my vile iniquitie Therefore good Sauiour spare that of which thou art the Saluation yea thou that desirest not the death of a sinner Spare oh spare my sinfull soule for it being vtterly dismayed flieth from thy terrifying Iustice to thy comforting mercie that because the reward of her virginitie being corrupted oh heart-wounding sorrow is vnrecouerable the punishment of hatefull Fornication to her repenting at least may not be vneuitable because it is not a thing impossible to thy omnipotencie neither vnseemely to thy Iustice nor vnaccustomable to thy mercie Both because thou art good and because thy infinite mercie endureth for euer Which art blessed vvorld without end Amen A Meditation of S. Bernard concerning the Passion of Iesus Christ Diuided into twentie and one Sections SECTION I. LEt vs vvho are true Christians graced with so noble a name so high a stile and so glorious a title honour and celebrate with true sorrowfull relenting repenting harts the Funerall Obsequies of our noble Lord Iesus of Nazareth that meeke spotlesse innocent and harmelesse Lambe who did not so much as open his mouth being vnder the hand of the Shearer malitiously accused odiously reuiled innocently and wrongfully condemned of the furious and bloody Iewes extreamely tortured spitefully disdained shamefully spetted vpon and lastly cruelly crucified by the barbarous and brutish Gentiles It is an exployt full of honour full of renowne it is most healthfull and wholsome for our sickly soules that we Christians dayned worthie of such a gracious and honourable Name should reuerently adore louingly embrace valiantly imitate the weake infirmities scornefull disgraces base pouerty painefull labours sore and sorrowfull agonies the deadly pangs of the bitter Passion of our louing Redeemer and sweet Sauiour Christ Iesus the righteous For these are the powerfull instruments and most strong weapons by which the omnipotent vertue and the infinite inuestigable and vnsearchable wisedome of God hath mightily and wonderfully effected and wrought the restauration and renouation of the decayed World the eternall Saluation of vs men yea of vs most miserable and wretched men and the endlesse and vtter destruction of Hell Death and the Diuell Heb. 2.14 Luke 1.71 And in the working of this great worke and admirable misterie of our Saluation the Lord Christ was made lesser then the Angels that he might make vs equall with the Angels hee descended from his Throne of glory that hee might deliuer vs from ignominie Heb. 2 9. Hee being Lord of Lords tooke vpon him the shape of a seruant that he might make vs honourable hee willingly dispossessed himselfe of all his Royalties that he might eternally possesse vs with the euerlasting treasure and full inheritance of his heauenly Kingdome 2 Cor. 8.9 And who is hee if hee could tast his infinite kindnesse but alas who is able to sound the bottomlesse depth of this more then meruailous yea miraculous loue but vvould willingly forsake his goodly earthly possessions leaue all his worldly honours and dignities subiect euery moment to decay and vanity as soone gone as they are gotten disroabe the stout Bride of her gay and gorgious apparell and strip her naked from all her borrowed feathers cloath himselfe vvith the sackcloath of lowly humility cut off his curled lockes and sprinkle his head with ashes that he might truly humble prostrate and debase himselfe cast downe his high lookes curbe his proud aspiring and vntamed thoughts for Christ Iesus his meeke and mercifull Sauiour vvho came downe from Heauen out of the bosome of his Father being coeternall and coequall with him in euerlasting glorie leauing the ioyfull societie of blessed Angels aboue to conuerse here below amongst cursed men nay to abide and patiently to beare the curses and bitter taunts of blasphemous and fiery-minded men SECTION II. THis Lord Christ was tyrannically tortured cruelly crucified for our yea rather for my sins and hath sweetned his bitter crosse to all that zealously loue him faithfully beleeue in him Hee died a most shamefull cruell cursed death on the Crosse that he might deliuer vs from the curse of the condemning and killing Law and taken vs out of the iawes of the deuouring Lyon redeemed vs from Hell from infernall fire and euerlasting perdition Hee shed yea powred out his most precious blood spouting out the same from all the vaines of his pierced and martyred body that with his precious and soueraigne Balme he might salue all our deadly wounds and saue our dying soules He died and by his death killed death that we might liue eternally in him and by him And who may not amazedly admire the incomparable loue of so milde so mercifull and so potent a Sauiour Who cannot at least who ought not with rauished affections to loue and like ioyfull Simeon with both armes to imbrace so magnificent but for vs sinfull men and for our sakes made so humble and lowly and yet a most powerfull Redeemer The dulcet taste of vvhose loue doth farre exceede the Hony and the Hony-combe in sweetnesse And although the least drop of it be sufficient to fill all and euery part of an hungry soule yet it hath in it such a sauourie relish and an appetite procuring quality that the more the desirous soule eateth the more it coueteth the more it feedeth the more eagerly it longeth and thirsteth after it Why should we not patiently suffer and constantly endure whatsoeuer the inueterate malice of the Diuell can imagine against vs or the furious madnesse of vvicked men his wilfull Ministers can lay or impose vpon vs for Christ Iesus his cause for the honouring of his truly and honourable name and for our constant profession of a true Christian Faith Christ passed through the ignominie shame contempt of the Crosse to supernall dignity infinite Maiestie and endlesse glory all power authority was giuen vnto him for the aduancement of his euerlasting dominion both in heauen aboue and in earth beneath by God his heauenly Father all the Angels Gods heauenly Heraulds with ioyfull humility melodious Harmony and with continuall laud and thankes-giuing doe worship and adore his incomprehensible exceeding-glorious and eternall Maiestie and at the honourable name of Iesus let euerie knee be bowed of things in Heauen aboue and things in the darkest Caues of Hell belowe Where is thy glory oh Christian Where is thy reioycing Where is thy boasting not in Nobilitie honour and riches but in the glorious name of thy crucified Lord thy eternall God and euerlasting Sauiour and in the gratious gracefull and sweet name of Christ which is a name aboue all names farre surpassing all Noble honourable and glorious earthly titles and the highest stile of vvorldly Maiestie And whosoeuer is blessed in this name shall be truly blessed here vpon earth and afterward shall be eternally happy in Heauen
with an honourable triumph hath entred the heauens And behold he being crowned with glory and honour sitteth at the right hand of thy Maiestie who being our Aduocate maketh continuall intercession for vs that we being the children of wrath and disobedience by Nature may bee reconciled vnto thee for euer by the exceeding riches of thy grace For hee is flesh he is our brother Looke oh Lord vpon the amiable face of thy sweet Christ which became obedient vnto thee euen vnto death that thou being well pleased in beholding him mayest send downe the comfortable dewe of thy mercy vpon vs neither let his scarres depart for euer out of thy sight that thou mayest remember what a great satisfaction thou hast receiued of him for our sinnes I wish it might please thee to ballance the sinnes wherewith vvee haue deserued thy wrath and indignation together with the calamitie and sorrow which thy innocent Sonne hath suffered for vs. Certainely the waight of his heauy miserie vvill more then counterpoyse the waight of all our iniquities and it hath rather deserued that thou shouldest raine downe the sweet shewers of thy mercy vpon vs then that our sinnes haue demerited to kindle the fire of thy deuouring vvrath against vs that wee should vtterly be depriued of thy wonted clemency which should slake the fury of thine incensed ire and put out the flame of thy burning indignation But oh gratious and mercifull Father let euery tongue proclaime immortall thankes vnto thee and sound forth aloud thine eternall praises for the exceeding largenesse of thine immeasurable bounty vvhich hast not spared thine onely Sonne which was as deere and neere as thine owne heart vnto thee but hast deliuered him vp vnto death for vs all that we might haue him as a faithfull Aduocate and louing Mediatour before thee in Heauen And to thee oh Lord Iesus a most couragious and constant Louer and my gratious Redeemer what thankes be they neuer so many can I returne or what praises be they neuer so great may I vtter which might counteruaile the least iot of thy vvorthy merit when as I am but a base creature made of dust and shaped out of the clay whose breath is in my Nosthrils and I subiect euery moment to forgoe it although I commonly forget it and to returne againe into the wombe of the Earth from vvhence I vvas taken SECTION XIX FOR what oh sweet Sauiour shouldest thou haue done which thou hast not vvillingly done to finish the great worke of my saluation Thou hast diued and cast thy selfe ouer head and eares into the troublesome Ocean of thy stormy Passions that thou mightest draw mee wholly out aliue from those perillous Waters when the waues haue entered euen into thy Soule For thou diddest willingly subiect thy selfe to the paines of Death that thou mightest restore my soule vnto mee which I had so wilfully lost Luke 1.71 And now behold I am obliged vnto thee by a double debt because thou hast twise giuen mee my soule once by Creation and once by Redemption what haue I that I may more iustly giue thee then my soule But for thy precious soule vexed perplexed and troubled vvith so many and such heauy tribulations I finde not what recompence man can bee able to render vnto thee in any sort to gratifie the worthinesse of thy desert For if I should be able to giue thee Heauen and Earth and all their beautifull furniture and the glorious ornaments of them I could in no wise attaine the measure or discharge the infinite sum of such an euerlasting debt But that I may render both that which I owe and also that which is possible for mee is a matter wholly belonging to thy liberall bountie and must onely flowe from the sweet fountaine of thy beneficiall goodnesse Thou art to be loued oh Lord with all my heart vvith all my strength I must tread in thy path and follow thy steps vvhich hast endured all the extreamities of thy bitter Passions with exceeding patience and being Lord of life hast of thine owne accord vouchsafed to yeeld thy selfe vnto death to redeeme mee and all faithfull repentant sinners to the ioyes of eternall life And how shall that thing bee effected and wrought to mee but onely and wholy by thee through thy mightie power which is able to worke all things in Heauen aboue and in the Earth beneath Let my Soule cleaue vnto thee let it be vnited vnto thee with the bond of euerlasting loue because all the vertue and faculties of it depend onely vpon thee and because it must needs sinke into a bottomlesse pit of endles misery if it bee but a moment debarred from thy louing mercy And now oh Lord my gracious Redeemer I worship thee as true God I trust in thee I hope in thee I couet long to approach so neere vnto thee as the feeble wings of my mounting desires will carry me Let thy strong hand support my weakenesse Let the rich treasure of thy mercy supply the wants of mine infirmity Let the greatnesse of thine vnsearchable goodnesse neuer depart out of my remembrance Let a memoriall of thy bitter passion by which thou hast wrought mine euerlasting Saluation be perfectly written vvithin the palmes of my hands so that mine eyes may still be viewing it and let it be deepely ingrauen in my heart that mine inward thoughts and cogitations may euermore be meditating and musing vpon it Let thy Crowne of Thornes thy redde bloudy nailes thy pierced side thy grieuous vvounds thy precious bloud thy death and buriall bee euermore presented before the eyes of mine vnderstanding that I may vvater my Couch and make my bedde to swimme vvith teares of true sorrowfull repentance that I may duely and truely bewaile the multitude of my haynous sinnes vvhich haue beene like so many Iron-nayles to enter through thy harmelesse hands and innocent feete and like so many sharpe Speares to pierce thy blessed side to make thy wounded heart send forth plentifull streams of thy deere and precious bloud Lastly let the fresh remembrance of thy most glorious and victorious Resurrection and the blessed memory of thy triumphant Ascention comfort the fainting Spirits of my drooping soule with a sweet taste of ioy mittigate the sorrowes of my perplexed minde For in all these the sweet odour of life doth ascend vp into my nosthrils Raise thou oh Lord my spirit with their reuiuing odour from the death of sinne and out of the Graue of perpetuall darkenesse Touch my heart oh Christ that I may touch thee yea although it bee but the hemme of thy Garment that Vertue may come out of thee Matth. 14.32 Marke 6.56 Which may keepe me from the snares of Sathan and comfort me in the houre of tribulation so that the yoake of thy commaundements may be made easie vnto mee and the burthen of the Crosse which thou commandest mee to carry after thee may be light to my soule What am I a silly worme What is
that the infinitenesse of thy mercie may appeare the clearer in the cure of my grieuous maladie and the beames of thy glorie shine the brighter by my deliuerance Therefore I will come confidentlie vnto thee my most milde and mercifull Iesus because thy mercies are infinite that I may enioy with thee the euerlasting delights of the blessed Giue me therefore thy heauenlie bread oh my good Iesus thou which art the life of the world and graunt oh bountifull Lord that I may be enabled by thy grace to eate worthilie that I may remaine in thee eternallie and thou in mee euerlastingly for I desire this one thing it is the ioy of my heart and the contentment of my longing affections that I may dwell inseparablie with thee for euer and I will cleaue vnto none other but onely vnto thee oh my sweet Iesus because with thee is the fountaine of life and in thy light I shall see light A Meditation how the Lord Iesus fore-told his Disciples that hee should be betrayed by one of them that same night MED V. Amongst the a Mat. 26.20.21 twelue as Iesus sate at meates At his b Marke 14.14 last Supper thus to them he said Who c Luke 22.22 dips his hand in dish and with me eates By d Iohn 18.5 him the Sonne of man shall be betraid AFter our most louing and most gracious Iesus had fed his Disciples with his precious Bodie and refreshed them with his Bloud hee was troubled in spirit and said to his Disciples Verily verily I say vnto you that one of you shall betray mee which eateth with mee that the Scripture may be fulfilled he which eateth my bread shall lift vp his heele against mee Oh how hard is this saying my blessed and bountifull Sauiour Oh how harsh and bitter meats hadst thou reserued for thy Disciples at the end of thy Supper Thou didst feede them with sweet milke in the beginning and thou gauest them delicious honie in the middle when thou didst wash their feete and refreshedst them with thy precious body for their meate and with thy roiall bloud for their drinke But now in the end thou hadst reserued gall and Wormwood sowre sauce for their sweet meate when these sorrowfull words did passe out of thy blessed lips and that dreadfull speech was vttered by thy honie-flowing mouth Woe is me my sweet and louing Iesus I seeme to see the cheerefull countenance of thy deare disciples sodainely changed their hearts ouer-whelmed with floods of sorrow their mindes perplexed with excessiue griefe the heate of their desires quite extinguished and all their hopes whollie dashed so soone as those fearefull words had passed through their eares and pierced their hearts who of so sweet a beginning little expected so sowre a conclusion Had they not much matter of mourning and was it not a world of sorrow vnto them that thou being their Master Captaine Gouernour Gardian and Ruler shouldst be betraied to death and it did much more augment the matter of their woe and increase the heapes of their griefe that one of them should contriue this horrible Treason and be the Author of this bloudie attempt The first was a violent motiue to moue them to exceeding sorrow because they so dearly loued and were so entirely beloued of their louing Maister But the latter was so horrible to their eares and so terrible to their hearts that it quite abated all their former ioy vtterly amazed their perplexed mindes maruelling in their troubled cogitations who amongst such a little flocke of Sheepe should proue so woluish as to deuoure so good a Shepheard admiring that any one in their holie societie should so farre degenerate from his faithfull fidelitie as to betray the life of so bountious so milde and so mercifull a Master But heare oh my soule what his faithfull Disciples answered when they heard those lamentable words pronounced They looked one vpon another their faces being pale with feare and their hearts full fraughted with sorrow and scarcely could their tongues vtter any part of their inward griefe the floud of their woes did flow fast and rise to so high a tide in their hearts and they said with a trembling voyce what sorrowfull words are these which our deare Master doth vtter Who amongst vs shall proue such a cursed wretch as once to imagine or such a horrible traitor as once to complot such a detestable deede and execrable fact Such a hainous intention said euery one of them was farre from my thoughts such a hellish motion did neuer enter into my breast For how should such a Diuellish cogitation enter into our mindes or finde any harbour in our harts but our Lord cannot be deceiued Wherefore euery one of them turning to the Lord said Is it I Rabbi to whom blessed Iesus answered One of the twelue which dips his hand with me in the dish shall betray me But peraduenture many of them shouing their hand in the dish at that time they were not able to discerne who it should be Wherefore Iudas said What is it I Rabbi But louing Iesus otherwise not discouering him answered Thou hast said as though hee should say thou hast said and not I for we may thinke truely that if my louing Iesus had plainely discouered that cursed man to the rest of his louing and beloued Disciples they if we should compare their affections with other mens passions had not beene able to haue contained their hands but with one accord would haue assailed that most wicked traitor and haue ended his hatefull daies with a speedie death who allured with the baites of the Diuell went about to make sale of the blessed life of their deare and best beloued Maister For how wouldest thou haue beene able oh bold and couragious Peter to haue cooled the heate of thy furie and to haue held thy hands from taking vengeance vpon such a damnable Traitor when as thou didst not feare to make resistance against a great band of Souldiers in the defence of thy beloued Master For as their loue toward louing Iesus was without meane so their hatred toward hatefull Iudas would haue beene without moderation if his treacherous plot had beene openly discouered vnto them But I pray thee stay here a while oh my soule and ponder within thy inward thoughts with deuout meditation the sacred words and diuine speeches more sweet then honie the honie-combe which my most sweet Iesus vttered to his faithfull Disciples as he went to the place of his vniust apprehension which the Euangelist Iohn retaining in his memorie through the holy Ghost hath faithfully recorded in his heauenlie and most sacred Gospell Meditate there seriouslie vpon the wonderfull loue which hee had towards his loyall Disciples hee was their Lord and Master yet he did not disdaine to eate meate conforting with the meanest of them hee washed their feete hee gaue his bodie and bloud vnto them and after all these things did not cease to teach them the