other than a delivery from prison a laying downe of a burthen the end of a Pilgrimage the unmanacling of the Soule the discharging of a due debt to Nature the returne into our true Country the dore that opens into a never fading life the entrance into the celestiall Kingdome and the Vsher that was to conduct her to her blessed Saviour with whom she had mentally conversed ever since he left the earth Since which time there be who avouch that she never willingly saw any man The Assumption What honor could to this great Queene be done More then be taken up to heauen high And there haue GOD for Father Spouse Sonne The Angells wayte the World stand wondring by Her assumption The same modesty I have shew'd in treating of her death I shall reserve in discoursing of her Assumption which by many of the Fathers all of the Romish Church and some of the Reformed is held for an undoubted truth though upon no sounder proofes than the former produce concerning her departure hence Bullinger directly backs this opinion Lib. de origine erroris cap. 16. We doe beleeve saith he that the wombe of the God-bearing Virgin and the Temple of the holy Ghost that is her sacred body to have beene assumed into heaven Brentius leaves it indifferent to us to beleeve whether or no she ascended in Soule in body or both It might well be saith he that as Enoch was translated in body into heaven and as many bodies of the Saints did rise with Christ Homil. 1. in Die Assump Virgin See Athanasius on this very point a Father of great repute both with the Latines and the Greekes in his serm in Evang. de sanctissima Deipara And Iohannes Rivius in his Booke de abusibus Ecclesiae though hee dares not maintaine her corporal Assumption yet hee will not deny it as being a thing probable enough So Mary also might in body be assumed into Heaven But most certain it is that she obtained everlasting Felicity And some ther be who demand why God might not manifest his power by her privy to so many divine secrets and mysteries as well as by an Angell or as by Elias who after long prayer was taken up in a Fiery Chariot Some againe who hold that the dead who arose with Christ ascended with him into Glory and were not againe reduc't into Ashes thinke the Assumption of Mary altogether as likely Damascen saith the workes of the Deity are therefore possible because omnipotent and that there are some things which though they are wholly omitted in holy Scriptures yet upon evident reasons they are believ'd and exemplifies his position in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Dammianus argues thus That as conceiving without sinne shee brought forth her Sonne without paine a curse laid on all other women so might it well be that she who was without sinne might overcome Death the reward of it Some goe about to prove it by the Text Ps 131. Arise Lord into thy rest thou and the Arke of thy Sanctification Nay I have read a moderne Oratour who thus elegantly describes the manner of it When saith hee the Soule of this Sweet one reactuated her body she arose in Triumph from her Sepulcher and was assumed into Heaven In her passage thither the orbes bowed and bended themselves to make her a triumphant Arch through which shee might passe in greater state The Sunne with his brightest beames imbrac't her that it might be said A woman was cloath'd with the Sunne The Moone stooped to her that it might be divulg'd the Moone was under her feet The brightest of the Starres intermove themselves to make her a radiant Crowne c. But this description is no more theologicall than the consent of the orbes is Philosophicall and is no way correspodent to the dignity of our Sacred subject on whose triumphant entry into Heaven having beene a faithfull and reverent Attender I will now returne to vindicate her honour here on Earth and make an Apology to Christians with shame and horrour I speake it for Christs owne Mother It may please then the gentle Reader to understand that two questions arise amongst the Moderne Divines The one whether or no she merited to be the Mother of God the other which way she could deserve that greatest of Glories For the first they affirm that never any Creature merited so great a blessing as the incarnation of Gods owne Sonne For he sent say they his Sonne into the world not urg'd thereto by our merits but out of his owne meere Grace and Goodnesse It was a worke of his Charity and condescending not of retribution or obligation and therefore that he chose not the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of Christ as she was a Virgin humble obedient adorn'd with Faith Charity and other divine vertues but because God had decreed her to beare his onely Sonne therefore his best pleasure was she should be Mistresse of perfections suteable to so high a Calling Wherfore Saint Paul saies Because God hath predestinated us therefore he calles justifies and glorifies us and not because we are just therefore he electeth us Againe they argue thus that all our merits depend on Christ and are deriv'd from him and therefore she was without all desert before her Sonne had imparted it to her That this was well knowne to her is manifestly proved by her divine Hymne in which she acknowledgeth all good to proceed from him and therefore to him ascribeth all honour and glory Others her Champions who couragiously fight not onely for her heavenly but earthly triumph confesse that she was not prefer'd to that supreme dignity by desert but by Congruity as they call it that is not that she was absolutely worthy of so great a grace but that since God had fixed a decree to send his dearely beloved Sonne amongst us she of all others was the fittest to conceive and beare him But here againe they differ about the way in that so many waies they hold her capable of this inestimable Diadem Some give the preheminency to her Virginity and say the love of that drew the Sonne out of the bosome of his Father into her hallowed wombe and therefore the Text saies not that a faithfull an obedient or an humble shall conceive but a Virgin Others attribute this supreme favour to her Faith by which as Saint Paul demonstrates all the miraculous workes of the old Testament have beene begunne and perfected Wherefore her Cousin Elizabeth said to her Blessed art thou because thou hast beleeved Some ascribe this infinite honour done her to her Humility to which all other vertues flow no otherwise than the waters naturally runne to the lowest places This caus'd her to say in her gratefull Hymne Thou hast regarded the lowlinesse of thy Hand-maid Others impute the conferring of this greatest blessing on her to her obedience in that she committed all to the will of the highest with this protestation Behold the
set his owne stampe She was no wiser than a poor Fly who enamour'd of the beauty of the flame longs to try if it be as sweet as faire and is consumed with her owne folly Had our blessed one supplied her roome in Paradice the forbidden fruit had perchance beene yet untasted and man uncursed for she was altogether void of curiosity proper to that weaker sexe and the very bane of it Our dearest Princesse therefore was deservedly a Queene ere borne receiv'd a Crowne sooner than sight an◠found her Throne seated upon th◠threshold of life And wha◠Crowne was she presented with Not one to compose which the East and the West joyned thei◠treasures but a Crowne in the making whereof every vertue an◠all the Graces had a hand No◠did any vaine mortall place it o◠her sacred Temples but Go◠himselfe who thought nothing too deare nor omitted any ornament that might embellish thi◠goodly edifice wherein himself◠meant to reside Having thus adorn'd and honour'd her h◠plac'd her in this lower world fo◠the good and admiration of all for the conversation of a few Though borne on earth she lived here like a Native of Heaven Her infancy As we may guesse at the neatnesse of a house by the entry into it so we may judge of her lifes remainder by the very beginning Sabellicus affirmes that * she no sooner saw the light Sabellicus sets downe how shee dispos'd of every particular hour but she ador'd the Creator of it and lifted up her heart and eyes to the great Infuser of all her incomparable excellencies She lov'd God ere she had seene man The defect of her tongue could not hinder the operation of her soule in which ere she could speake she acknowledg'd his unspeakeable goodnesse In her Religion preceded the use of reason and she apprehended Gods mercies long ere she was capable of his nature and wisedome Ere she could utter holy words she made holy signs by which she made knowne the sanctity of her heart The first word she learn'd to lispe was Iehovah She sent forth many a sigh for sinne not having committed any and bewailed that of which she was utterly ignorant The rowling of the cradle put her in minde that she was newly enter'd into the tempest of this life the infinite dangers whereof to escape she made Vertue her Pilot. We will not here with some Writers of her Life dispute whether or no she had the same ordinary Education with other children nor with them affirme that she entred the Temple at three yeares old and lived close by the Altar and was fed miraculously by an Angell as also that it was there revealed to her that she should be deliver'd of the Messias I will not make one steppe out of Gods own path frō which I never yet saw the greatest wit to swerve but it was in danger of sticking fast Yet hath a pious charity often swallowed more than all this If from the hand of an Angell she there received food naturall or supernaturall sure I am the wonder is not so great as that of the Incarnation where the wombe included the Word And why should we with difficulty beleeve that this white spotlesse soule was illuminated with Revelations by the divine object of her chaste vowes who undoubtedly deserved to be rapt up if it were possible a story higher than was Saint Paul It is likely enough saith Mantuan God would have the Temple of his Spirit to dwell in the Temple of his service The same Author affirmes that she there liv'd a pretty Nun and Spunne and wove the sacred Vestments till her eleventh or twelfth yeare when her prudency and shame and the care of her Reputation forbade her to accompany even the very Priests themselves men whom God had selected out of the Masse of the vulgar to teach his Will to instruct his people and to sing his praise These curiosities and bold conjectures let us rather beleeve then contest with the broachers for it is wisedome to grant what we cannot confute Let us then imagine that this holy Recluse confined her body to this sacred solitude and a spare diet and warily kept her soule from the surfets to which carnall delights invite all things humane And it is consonant both to reason and truth that her exercise there was pious like the place They who goe about to take away her writing and reading tongue are impiously ridiculous since it evidently appeares that she was well read in the Scriptures by her divine Hymne uttered in Zacharies house * Ancient and eminent Authors affirme her to have beene learned in the Hebrew tongue all which you shall finde quoted in Cedrenus On her reading attended Meditation on her Meditation Prayer or her Prayer Action as the louely fruit of the precedent Thus busied the day left her the night found her Her sleeping cogitations we may suppose were sutable to her waking and her very 1 dreames divine She had not a thought that was her owne all belong'd to God She was slow to speake saith Sabellicus but ready to obey all holy advice He◠tongue was not so swift as he◠Wit which made it follow fo◠direction in all the requisites 〈◊〉 speech In a word she might wel◠usurpe that of the Church When 〈◊〉 was a little one I was pleasing to th◠most high When upon matur◠deliberation she left the Temple she still liv'd as if she had been◠in it Though in body she was sociable she fetter'd her soule fro◠wandring abroad her true conversation being in heaven Thi◠flourishing Vine planted her selfe amongst the Olives She was more choice of her company then of her food or rayment both which God knows were course enough She knew temperancy to be Gods and Natures Favorite in that it conduceth to the service of the former and the preservation of the later She therefore made this heavenly vertue judge of her Appetite lest it should long after excesse the mother of all uncleannesse Her soule gave laws to her body which it could not infringe without the injunction of a strict pennance She devour'd Gluttony it selfe and made the flesh subject to the command of the spirit Her fare saith Cedrenus required no vessell nor need she to wash her hands after her greatest meale Her dyet defide the fire as of no use From the Earths face the Cows dugge and the Fountains brimme she readily fetched her sustinance She was as ignorant of the Persian luxury as the superstition To this her cloathing was correspondent for which her backe was beholding to her fingers Her hands were the purveyours to her other members She had one eye fixed on heaven and the other cast upon the earth being intentive on the Glories of the one and the Necessities of the other and at once acted Martha and Magdalene It is very credible that she sowed and spunne and maintain'd life with labour Hee who gives life to all things suffer'd his then
that she bewailed the ingratitude the obstinacy and impiety of her Nation who revil'd him that blessed them and tortur'd him who came to save them With what amazement and sadnesse was her heart surprised think ye when the newes came of her Sonnes being apprehended But when she saw him forsaken by his friends bound by his enemies accused before the high Priests derided by Herod despis'd by the people scourg'd and tortur'd by the command of Pilate his body trembling torne and pierced besmear'd with his owne bloud and hung between two Theeves then and never till then did the Sword foretold by Simeon passe through her Soule Luther saies this Prophecy of Simcon was spoken to her not to Ioseph for on her alone the whole weight of sorrow was to be laid True it is that many differ about the interpretation of this Sword To cleare all doubts we must take notice that the holy Scriptures mention foure sorts of Swords The first is a Corporall or materiall sword and of this Christ speakes to Peter All that use the Sword shall perish with the Sword The second is a spirituall Sword of which Saint Paul makes mention when he saies Receive the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God The third is a Sword of Scandall or Ambiguity with which the Apostles themselves were strucken when they forsooke their Master The fourth is the Sword of Griefe or Tribulation Psal 33. Ps 105. Gen. 37. With this the Prophet David averres the Soule of Ioseph to have beene pierc'd when his death was plotted first by his trecherous Brothers next by his incontinent Mistresse That this Sword whereof Simeon Prophecied could be no materiall one is evident in that we read not of any violent death she suffered That it could not be the sword of the Spirit is manifest for the word of God was her daily delitious food at the same time when Simeon made this Prophecy Origen indeed will have it to be the sword of Ambiguity or Infidelity which erroneous opinion of his is refuted by many great Fathers of the antient Church and by Franciscus Lumbertus an accute Protestant Doctor of the moderne in these words In exposit Evang Lucae cap. 2. Those saith he who will have this to be the sword of Infidelity are not to be hearkened to for besides that they can produce no proofe of this their opinion it is contradictory to the Text most rash and most untrue How can it be that the sword of Infidelity should penetrate the brest of Gods sacred Mother into which infidelity never made the least impression From the leginning her Faith was most firme and intire Let therefore those Blasphemies and wicked slanders of canall men be put to silence I will attribute nothing to the blessed Virgin but what I reade in the holy Writ where she is pronounced blessed because shee beleev'd We have many testimonies of her Faith but of her Infidelity not one word is extant in the sacred Scriptures Yet this prophane assertion is not a whit strange or to be marvelled at in Origen who held that Christ dyed for the Angels and the Starres and whose soule was indeed no other than a Mynt of Heresies Her passive Fortitude and Patience at the Death of her Sonne Melan. in cap. 27. Matth. Melancton affirmes that her sorrow was much asswaged by her faith which assured her of his Resurrection She knew she had borne the Messias whose bloud was to wash away the sinnes of the world Wherefore she might well be amaz'd distrustfull she could not be at all The holy Spirit certified her this was not a destroying death but a triumphing Her Faith the oftner it was tryed in the furnace of affliction the brighter still it shewed She stood with the affection of a Mother the passion of a woman but with the constancy and fortitude of a man in beholding her owne bloud spilt her owne flesh rent and mangled before her face With an unshaken confidence and a true internall valour she beheld his body naked and scourg'd his hands and feet nailed to the Crosse yet sometimes the strings of her relenting mournefull heart were ready to cracke with the very thought of his cruell tortures and afflictions but as often againe they were strengthened and comforted with a full assurance that he should overcome them all and death it selfe She stood here her Sonne onely excepted the prime patterne of a sollid Faith and constant Patience to all posteritie in that neither the feare of Tribulation of persecution of the wracke of the scourge or death it selfe could divide her from her Christ She committed not that errour most incident to women many of which gentle sexe perish in the midst of their Lamentations and will neither admit of Counsell nor Comfort She did not teare her haire scratch her face batter her bosome seeke to stifle her selfe or gave any other desperate signe of a ragefull sorrow nor did she curse her enemies or make imprecations for Vengeance or so much as murmur against them but attended the sad event with the same calmenesse of minde with which this meeke Lambe did his end Her arriage was beyond the Levell of Censure and in all things sutable â—o the modesty and gravity of such a Matron She fear'd not at all the fury of the Iewish Souldidiers that environ'd her but stood lecure and fac'd danger Though she was an eye witnesse of his passion and saw his Limbs distended and wrack'd yet did not the evils she saw wound her so deep as those she heard The Roman Fencers used to have Wards or Covers to save their Eares She had greater need of such to barre the entrance of blasphemies able to provoke God if his mercies were not above all his workes utterly to deface Nature and reduce the world to its first Chaos She heard him call'd a Drunkard a Blasphemer a breaker of the Sabboth both a lover of Publicans and Sinners nay a very Divell who was her and Gods onely delight Yet did not all these killing objects these impious slanders drive her into the mercilesse gripes of despaire for she was confident that the two persons of the Trinity would not forsake the third Melan. in loco praedic Melancton commending this dismall story to our sad and serious contemplation adviseth us That when Tribulations and Death it selfe come upon us we should imitate this holy Virgin who mixed a heart killing sorrow for his death with a joyfull assurance of his Resurrection Consider saith he what a Conflict the Faith of Mary had There was in her an extreme griefe linked with Faith and Hope Let us in our death thus comfort our â—elves and harbour the same â—houghts with Mary still fixâ—ng on God the Eyes of our Faith And verily we must â—eleeve that no small measure of Beliefe was required to temper and asswage â—o great a * Sophronius ser de Assump Beatae Virg. maintains that she suffered more than all the Martyrs
him they thus expound it That the Evangelists would not make his Mother the first witnesse of his Resurrection though indeed she was knowing that her testimony by the Iewes would be more suspected than that of Mary Magdalen I dare not positively conclude any thing herein but I may safely maintaine that this her delight for his Resurrection counterpois'd her griefe conceived for his death In her was now made good that of the Psalmist According to the multitude of the griefes of my heart thy Comforts have rejoyced my soule and that of her Sonne Blessed are they that mourne for they shall bee comforted And who makes question but that she who with such unutterable pleasure discover'd his Resurrection faithfully and closely waited on him till his Ascention She who was as inseparable to him as his shadow without doubt was on the Mount * Epiphanius contra haeres libel Aetij Olivet with other of the faithfull when in the sight of them all he ascended She heard doubtlesse his last words received his last benediction and her sight waited on him till the clowds imbrac't him which it in vaine essay'd to penetrate What Soule not it selfe transported with the view of a heavenly object can suppose much lesse expresse what her contentment was when she saw her owne flesh flye above the reach of Envie into the Armes of Glory When she beheld this high Priest his Sacrifice ended and God fully appeas'd enter Heaven there to sit on the right hand of his Father and to be the uncessant and eternall Mediatour betwixt him and man With bended knees erected hands and eyes she worships him ascending and when her sight failes her adoration continues Her zeale passeth all the orbes betweene him and her with greater facility and subtility then the Lightning shooteth through the Ayre Great is the vigour and force of the Spirit when all things else set apart it is wholly intentive on the Meditation of its Creatour When by contemplation it is separated from the body it thinkes onely on him lives onely to him and is as it were drown'd in an inundation of his love When it hath extinguisht the scorching lawlesse desires of the flesh and kindled the holy ones of the Spirit the body rebels no longer but becomes obedient to it in all things When it hath once fixed its eyes on this beloved object it never removeth them thence When it is once illuminated with the beames of the holy Ghost it is presently turn'd into all Eye all Spirit all Light no otherwise than those things the fire once layes hold on are turn'd into fire it selfe Of those who live in Wedlocke it is said that they are two in one flesh and why may it not be said of Christ and the Soule wedded to him that they are two in one Spirit And if ever it might be reported of any surely of this Holy Virgin who though she was devided from her Redeemer in Body yet in soule she was united to him When her eyes were growne dimme with her so long dwelling on that part of Heaven where they left and lost him she cast them downe on the earth the poverty whereof she commiserated in that it was deprived of this one Iewell in value above all it had left And now She returnes into the holy City not disconsolate and dejected as other women are when they lose their onely childe but with a cheerfull look for her Sons victory who had triumphed not onely over the Iew but death and hell it selfe She made her will lacky Gods and though she desired to be dissolved and be with Christ yet since it was his best pleasure she should continue longer here below she readily assented resolving by her example on earth to furnish heaven with Saints Dammianus sayes that after her Sonnes decease she remained ten daies in Prayer and Fasting expecting with a fervent longing the promised comming of the Spirit Saint Luke witnesseth that sixe score men and women were assembled in one rome and joyned in hearty prayer of the which Mary the Mother of IESUS was one And as he names her last so her wonted Humility perswades me that she had the last and * S. Bernlard In serm de â—erb Apocalyp Signum nagnuÌ„ lowest place and sate beneath the other sinfull women of inferiour quality in remembrance of her humble Lord now exalted And it is more than probable that she was present with the Apostles when the Holy Ghost came upon them and that she there received the first fruits of the Spirit After which time we reade no more of her in holy Writ For where and with whom how strictly and how piously she liv'd after the Ascention of Christ Serm. 5. de Assump Virg. till the houre of her death saith Idelphonius is onely knowne to God the searcher of hearts and to the Angels her diligent Visiters The reason which many alledge why neither the rest of her life nor death are penned by the holy Evangelists is this that the Apostles were so busied about the conversion of the Iewes and the Gentiles enlarging of the Christian Church That they had no time to set downe the particular Acts of her life after her Sonnes Ascention nor the severall Circumstances of her death as where when and how she dyed Some Authours peremptorily maintaine upon what ground I know not that she liv'd to her seaventieth yeare and to her last houre dwelt in Ierusalem neare to her Sonnes Sepulchre Damascen ser de dormit Virg. Others upon no better warrant averre that she went with Iohn into Asia and continued with him at Ephesus till her death and urge the authority of Ignatius who affirmes that she wrote to him in these words I will come with Iohn to see thee and thy friends c. Concerning her death Some avouch that the Apostles and the most eminent of the Primitive Church were present at it Serm de dormit Virg. Damascen saith that Christ was also there in person and that he thus spake to her Come my blessed Mother into the rest I have prepar'd for thee and that shee thus in way of answer prayed to him Into thy hands O my Sonne I commend my Spirit Receive that deare Soule which thou hast preserved free from all rebuke As I will not justifie all these their Assertions for true so on the other side I will not condemne them as erroneous not being able to convince them of untruth and for ought I know they may have pass'd by unwritten Tradition from man to man I will therefore affirmatively say nothing but this that most assuredly her death was welcome to her in that she had so often both meditated and practised it having many times by austerity and contemplation departed this life ere she left it If that of Seneca be true that to dye well is to dye willingly then certainly she dyed the death of the Righteous She was not ignorant that Death to the just is no
expels not for a time onely but for ever the venome of the most deadly sinnes This is she who was on Earth a Confirmer of the good and a reformer of the reprobate All her Visitants were but so many Converts whose bad affections and erronious opinions the sweetnesse of her discourse had rectified The Leprosie of sinne was her daily cure and they whom vice had blinded were by her restored to their inward sight and their prostrate soules adored divine Majesticall vertue residing in this sacred Temple The conference with her rais'd them above themselves and enfranchis'd their soules till then chained to their bodies The knowledge of her humbled the most proud natures for the lustre of her Merits render'd their owne obscure O make the emulation of this chaste Turtle your onely study and not in words onely but in deeds also shew your selves Proficients for Vertues meditated and not acted do but puffe us up the more wee easily beleeving that wee are what we resolve to be On this ground your beliefe that shee amongst you who shall constant tread in her paths shall at lengtâ— arrive at the Celestiall Paradiâ— which now she inhibits and 〈◊〉 receive this salutation not from an Angell but from God him selfe Welcome thou fair soule full of Grace enter into the Glory I have prepared foâ— thee To the Masculine READER FOr to you also though of a different sexe this booke belongs to whom the sacred subject of it brought the same eternall benefit shee did to her owne kinde Neither doth she onely require your Gratitude but your Imitation whose meanest perfection farre excels all your so long vanted masculine merits I doubt not but by the more and lesse knowing oâ— you I shall be diversly judged The first will argue mee of indiscretion in that I chose not a Matter of a higher nature whereby to make a demonstration of my sufficiency To these I shape this answer that my Invention could not soare higher for whether wee regard her person or her divine G fts shee is in Dignity next God himselfe There is nothing of so sublime a straine as Vertue which enters Heaven when Subtility and Curiosity are justly excluded It is vertue must save us for in knowledge the Divell himselfe farre exceeds us There is no Argument as I take it so important or concernes us so much as that of our salvation These men would have mee busie my selfe in the Physicks to finde out of what not wherefore I am made Or in the Mathematickes to learne how farre it is to Heaven not how to come thither Or in Divinity to bee inquisitive whether or no Christs miraculous feeding of so many wâ— by augmentation or multâ—plication of the Loaves anâ— Fishes Whether or no theâ— who were born with sight afterwards lost it being restored to it againe by Christ saâ— better after the Cure thaâ— they did before their blindnesse And whether or no thâ— Dead who rose with our Saviour ascended with him oâ— were againe reduc't to dust To these needlesse accute follies 〈◊〉 not How many are there now in Hell who while they liv'd here were esteem'd the Organs of the Sciences the Temples of VVisedome nay Oracles as if they had beene form'd in Heaven and sent downe hither full fraught with Gods owne secrets yet now detest their former vaine Knowledge as much as the Darkenesse they lived in But in this kingdome of Woe and Horrour none of vertues subiects ever resided Let them therefore censure on they shall not so much as shake my security for I know it fares with universall Learning as with the Vniverse wherein there are more Delinquents then Iudges The opinions of these can well tollerate because they proceed from Science though erronious But there are some whom I have heard to passe their casting verdicts on the most meriting Authors who deserve themselves to bee hang'd for so often violating their owne mother tongue did not their ignorance pleade their pardon Let these poore wretched things who what they heare in the last company vent for their owne in the next share amongst them my scorne and pitty as being far below my anger I am not ignorant that he who feares the pale meager Family of the Zoili must onely write to his owne Lar. If to the truely vertuous the truely understanding I can approve these my humble indeavours and draw any one soule but one degree nearer to goodnesse my holy ambition and my no small labour shall receive an ample satisfaction It now remaines that as to these latter I seeke to approve all my actions so to them likewise essay to iustifie thiâ— present worke I am the firsâ— to my knowledge who hath written in our vulgar tonguâ— on this our blesled Virgin drawne thereto I confesse bâ— the strength rather of affection than of ability Yet with all I professe that I am her admirer not her Idolater and that I no way allow of theiâ— profane custome who robbâ— God of his Honour and bestow it on her But this I wilâ— say that though I impure noâ— the late troubles and affliction of the Protestant party in Germany to the small reverence there paid her many of Gods iudgements according to Saint Austin being secret none uniust yet truely I beleeve that the undervaluing of one so great and deere in Christs esteeme cannot but bee displeasing to him and that the more we ascribe to her setting Invocation apart the more gratious we appeare in his fight I have beene as cautious in the penning of this Treatise as possibly I could and in imitation of Vertues owne selfe have kept the meane But all pretenders to Divinity know that without the helpe of Ecclesiasticall History we can speake little of her life or death so sparing is the holy Writ in the mention of her The scholasticall and Ecclesiastical Writers inserted in this Booke to trust or distrust too much is alike erronious and therefore I referre all to the discretioÌ„ of the Reader I will onely adde this that since the finishing of this story I have read a booke of the now Bishop of Chichester entituled Apparatus c. and am glad to finde that I have not digressed from him in any one particular I conclude with this protestation that if I have swerved in any the least point from the tenents received in the English Church I shall bee most ready to acknowledge my selfe a true Penitent Farewell Meditationes poeticae Christianae in annunciationem beatae Virginis W. A. Aue Maria. GAvisa es quondam perque omnia secula gaude Omnia quae gaudI secula tempus habet Stipasti quae laetitia castum aluear alui Aequum est laetitiae mella ut in aure bibas Tu gaudI verbum peperisti dicit Avete Omnibus atque omnis terrarevibrat Ave. Sed tu salvificum genuisti in secula Salve Nostra eccho nudum nomen honoris Ave. Gratia plena Quam sunt plena suo distenta alvearia melle Quod flore evario
Humility is base and degenerate There is a third proud one of the Hypocrite Hypocriticall humility who though he be ambitious of dignities and seeks them by all cunning and undermining wayes yet to be reputed humble he seemes to flie them This Humility is false and fained A fourth there is philosophicall Philosophicall humility and morall and this consists in the knowledge of a mans selfe and his miserable condition so that by a naturall light he can see to humble himselfe and be serviceable to all men yet no further then the dignitie of his estate allows and humane reason requires So that in this mans opinion it should not be humility but basenesse in a Gentleman to pardon an injury done him or to place himselfe in an Hospitall as a servant to attend the sicke and needy This Humility will not endure the Christian Test A fifth Mosaicall Mosaicall or Iudaicall Humility or Iudaicall offers it selfe to our consideration and this hath a neare resemblance of the true one for by the perusall of the written Law we come to know our selves more perfectly then all the Philosophers of the world can teach us To this purpose Saint Paul saith From the Law comes the knowledge of sinne and in another place I had not knowne concupiscence to bee a sinne had not the Law said Thou shalt not covet In this Mirrour we discerne our originall corruption and all our disordinate passions and affections together with our ignorance and frailty By this Touchstone we finde all our moral philosophical vertues to be but counterfeit But this carries with it a very detrimentall discommoditie for it leads us beyond hope of salvation and there leaves us For when a man shall consider that an unattainable perfection and an exact observance of the Law is required at his hands wherein he is commanded to honour God with all his soul and with all his might and to love his neighbour as himselfe and yet withall shall discover in himselfe an utter disabilitie to execute these holy commands a frozen dijection wil so benumme all his thoughts that not one of them will be of force to uphold it selfe from sinking into the bottomlesse pit of despaire But with the true Christian Humilitie it is otherwise which having first made a submissive acknowledgement of its owne ingratitude The true Christian Humility pride avarice injustice impietie and infinite other imperfections by a strong apprehension layes hold on the mercie of God in Christ And this goodnesse of God towards us makes our sinnes more odious even in our own eies no otherwise then the tender kindnesse of his Father made the prodigall childe more clearly see his owne errour and disobedience For this makes that speech of God to the Iewes When you come into the Land of promise then you shall know your sinnes as if he should have said How often have you distrusted me and not onely murmur'd against me but abandon'd me and ador'd Idols making them your guides and attributing to them the benefits you have received from me so the regenerated Christian being once entred into the spirituall Kingdome of Christ sees more clearely his sinnes then he did before his calling as having received a greater Light The excellency of this vertue in a Christian is beyond humane expression Not amisse a learned Father of the Church stiles this the Treasurer of all other vertues Hieron in Epist ad Celant The antient Christians commonly usurpe Humility for vertue it selfe Christ cals it poorenesse of Spirit and discoursing of mans Beatitude sets it in the Front This and Pride are at endlesse oddes for this is sociable and loves company wheras pride affects solitude and is for the most part alone In the Empire of Pride two cannot stand quietly together whereas in the dominions of Humility an infinite number may be placed without either combat or strife Pride is never void of feare and doubt whereas this stands secure with Ionas in the bottome of the Sea Pride is ever ambitous of the first seate this of the lowest and therefore is as much extoll'd by all men as the other cride downe Pride assumes all to it selfe and is full of selfe-love This refuseth even its owne due and undervalues it selfe as knowing that it can justly call nothing its owne but sinne Pride stormes at an injury receiv'd this embraceth all occasions that may exercise its patience Pride like all things puft up and light is wavering and blown here and there by every gust of Fortune this in stability is a rock not in hardnesse being soft and white as the Downe of Swans Yet though this Vertue be of all other the most innocent and submissive it is withall the most powerfull for as nature so God abhors vacuity and therefore finding the humble utterly empty of affectation presumption and what else is derogatory to his honour hee fils him with his grace and spirit What should I say more Humility is fearelesse in danger free in bondage rich in poverty quiet in persecution noble and gloriorious in ignominy lofty in lownesse joyfull in anguish and happy in the midst of misery This made Moses speechlesse Abraham to acknowledge himselfe dust and ashes Iohn the Baptist to esteeme himselfe a meer Voyce and Saint Paul to account himselfe the greatest of all sinners This Iewell was so faire in Christs eye that to purchase it he underwent not only poverty misery and all indignities but even execration and malediction What would we judge of a great Prince who in stead of enlarging his Territories should abase himselfe so farre as to become a poore subject Why this did Christ who being of all things the greatest and best from all eternity by humility became of all the lowest and descended even to the profession of service to the meanest of his creatures It is also an evident marke of his humility that he chose to be borne of simple and obscure Parents whereas he might if he would have allyed himselfe to the greatest Princes This gave occasion to the Iewes to mocke him saying Is not Ioseph his Father and Mary his Mother True it is that he was of the House of David but when he was borne it was in its declination and of no repute As the Moone fourteene dayes together to our sight encreaseth and fourteene againe diminisheth till at length it be seene no more so in the fourteene generations from Abraham to David the House of David received advancement in honour and splendour and was in his time at the full height but in the fourteene following generations it was in the wane and in the dayes of Christ neere utter extinction And whereas he might have inserted Sarah Rebecca and many other Saints in his Genealogy he placed Tamar Raab Ruth Bersabe and others of an incestuous race to shew the world that though he hated sinne he abhorred not sinners What man is there who having a lascivious wife detected of whoredome will take her
point is much cōtroverted and I leave it to the discreete Reader what to beleeve Lib. 18. Moral ca. 27. tenent of the true and ancient Catholicke Church that she conceiv'd immediately after the Angels speech whom I had rather follow then accompany many of these later times who oppose it I will onely produce a few testimonies and that of Gregory the great shall be the Leader The Angell saith he declaring and the Spirit approaching instantly the Word is in the wombe and presently in the wombe the Word is made flesh the incommutable essence coeternall to him with the Father De Symbol ad Catechum and the holy Ghost still remaining Him secondeth Saint Austin of all the Fathers the most subtle and sollid These ensuing are his owne words When the Angell saluted the Virgin then did the holy Ghost make her fruitfull then did that woman conceive a man without a man then was shee replentsht with grace then shee receiv'd the Lord that hee might be in her who made her And in another place he writeth thus Make no delay Serm. 2. infesto Annun Domin O Virgin say but the word speedily to the Messenger and receive thy Sonne give thy Faith and feele the vertue of it Behold saith she the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy word Here was no delay at all the divine Agent returneth and Christ enters the Virginall wombe The mother of God is suddenly made fruitfull and is predicated happy throughout all ages She presently conceived the Divinity of the Word without the fellowship of a man In this celebration of the Nuptials betweene God and nature while my affection advanceth one steppe my reverence retires another Here Reason is transformed into Admiration Eloquence into silence Some are rather solicitous to search into the profundity of the Mystery than humbly to acknowledge it and by Reason seeke to pry into that which excludes all reason What was before time it selfe This conception was predestinated before Time from all eternity is believed not comprehended by man for that transcends the understanding of man which was before his nature No eyes but those of Faith can penetrate this Wonder All things in God are above reason nothing above Faith Here a Virgin conceives without the losse of Chastity a Maide remaines an immaculate Mother Eternity is here encompass'd by time glory masked in misery A thing finite containes Infinity a mortall encloseth eternity Here the Sonne is as antient as his Father elder than his Mother and is made of her whom he made Here is a concurrence or a congregation of Miracles It is a miracle that in the forming of such and so great an issue the aide of man should be utterly excluded and that as he was man he was onely made of the pure bloud of the Virgin It is a miracle that the ordinary number of dayes required in the forming of a humane body is not here observ'd but in a very moment without succession of time a body is fram'd and animated But a greater miracle than all these is that at the same instant wherein the soule is joyned to the body the Divinity and Humanity are united in one person and the eternall Word is inseperably linkt with the flesh so that the Son of God and man is the same in the Virgins wombe As for the manner of her conception I doe not more mervaile at the supernaturall strangenesse of it then I doe at the daring inquisition and sensuall expression of some who relate it in words as grosse as their owne understandings I only wish I could free the most learned and ingenious Erasmus from the just imputation of a lascivious folly in the Essaying to unfold this sacred Mystery He compares God to a Woer the Angell to a sollicitour and Mary to the beloved and proceeds further than either the divine Will Eras in Annotat Lei in Appendice ad Antapologiam Sutoris or humane modesty permit He treates of this venerable this stupendious encounter betweene the Divinity and Humanity in the same amorous phrase with which the Poets describe the wanton meeting of Dido and Aeneas in the Cave I will not rip up the particulars in which he is faulty this way lest I runne into the same errour which in him I reprehend and imprint a blush on the cheekes of my bashfull Readers This conception was as spotlesse and as cleare from all pollution as is a sweet Odour when it enters the sense Here saith Saint Austin Serm. 11. in natal Domini the Word is the Husband the Eare the Wife in this glorious splendour is the Sonne of God conceiv'd in this purity generated Of the same cleare Lib. 1. de operib spiritus sancti cap. 9. and cleane sense is Rupertus on this very passage When the truely believing Maide saith he opening at once her minde and mouth said Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word in the very instant to make good the words of the Angell the holy Ghost came upon her and enter'd through the open dores of her Faith What part did he enter first the Chappell of her chaste bosome then the Temple of her holy and incorrupt wombe her bosome that she might be made a Prophetesse her wombe that shee might become a mother Now for the time of this conception whether or no it were precisely on the 25. day of March I will not strive to chaine any mans beleefe to a resolution herein though I finde many old and great Doctors of the Church to have held it for a truth Many questions here arise which I have neither time nor desire to discusse I will onely looke into the deportment of this incomparable creature after that she knew she was become the receptacle of a Deity The meere apprehension of such an unheard of honour in other women would have begotten pride arrogancy and disdaine not onely of all their sexe but of mankinde it selfe They would have repin'd at their breathing of common ayre and scorning the earth they trod on have nourisht an ambition to walke on the battlements of heaven But this Maide above imagination excellent the more she was grac'd and dignified the more she was humbled When all men admir'd and even ador'd her and judg'd her worthy to be presently assumed into heaven she was ready to creepe into the center of the earth and there to hide her thinking that every one pointed at her as undeserving that supreme dignity confer'd on her by God himselfe And whereas others would have studied nothing but rich Tissues and embroyderies to weare and the most costly Persian Carpers to tread on she meditated simplicity in apparell and a good pain of shooes to beare her afoot journey over the steepe and flinty mountaines intending to bestow a Visit on her cousin Elizabeth Lus. The Visitation 39. And Mary arose in those dayes and went into the Hill Country 40. And entred into
her selfe It was charity that cheer'd her up and sent her on this congratulating Embassy Lastly it was Charity that invited sanctity it selfe enclosed in this happy Maide to hasten to the sanctification of the childe in the wombe of Elizabeth Having patiently passed the troubles and annoyances of her voyage she with joy at length arrives at her cousins habitation into which she no sooner puts her head but the reverend Prophetesse having no other revealer nor prompter than the holy Spirit immediately knoweth the Mother of her Lord to be there present and knowing doth acknowledge it and acknowledging doth magnifie her perfections professeth her house blessed in being graced with her vouchsafing to be in it She at first sight discernes in her so many and so great concealed vertues and mysteries that a man would judge she had beene present at the enterview of her and the Angell Nor did she conceale these her excellencies but did describe them with such skill and zeale that Fame was even proud to repeat them Could the domesticall servants thinke you having heard their Mistresse predicate her divine qualities and transcendent condition containe themselves from divulging a joy which a narrow humane bosome is not capacious enough to receive Could they abstaine from justly boasting that a beauteous blessed Maide resided then in their house which together with their soules were by her glorious presence enlightened But I can no longer with-hold my pen from setting downe the journey it selfe and their mutuall salutations in the same words wherein the Text commends them to us And Mary arose in those dayes and went into the hill-Country with haste to a City of Iuda and enter'd into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth And it came to passe as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the Babe sprang in her belly and Elizabeth was filled with the holy Ghost and she cryed with a loud voyce and said Blessed art thou amongst women because the fruit of thy wombe is blessed And whence commeth this to passe that the Mother of my Lord should come to me For loe as soone as the voyce of thy salutation sounded in mine eares the Babe sprang in my belly for ioy And blessed is shee that believ'd for those things shall be performed which were told her from the Lord. Then Mary said My soule magnifieth the Lord and my spirit reioyceth in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the lowlinesse of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed Because he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name And his mercy is from generation to generation on them that feare him Hee hath shewed strength with his arme he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts He hath put downe the mighty from their seates and hath exalted the humble and meeke He hath filled the hungry with good things the rich he hath sent empty away He hath upholden Israell his servant being mindefull of his mercy As he hath spoken to our fathers to wit Abraham and his seed for ever In this salutation of Elizabeth the springing of the Babe in her wombe at the sound of our sweetest Ladies voyce requires not only our observation but astonishment He that was greater than all the Prophets as yet not borne and enclosed in the narrow compasse of the Wombe no sooner heard the charming voyce of this heauenly Nightingale but he leaped for joy essaying then and there to exercise the office of the Fore-runner of his Master The asseveration of some that this was not an effec◠of the Virgins vertue S. Bernard saies that if an Jnfant was so over-joyd at the sound of her voyce what will the joy of the Celestiall inhabitants be when they shall see and heare her Serm. 1. de assump Mariae but of the Word incarnate◠may be admitted fo◠good if we onely have an eye to her Vertue and exclude the aide and power of the divine Grace But all Wisedomes Children are by Truth her selfe informed that many things are lawfully attributed to secondary Causes the primary and efficient cause not rejected And this way we may impute to Mary what worke soever God with her co-operating hath wrought either in the house of Zachary or else where for the benefit and instruction of us poore mortals Neither will any sound and sollid judgement attribute any thing to the conspicuous merits of the Virgine Mary or any other Saint without the concurrence and predication of the divine Grace who by those Saints that serve and feare him distributes his gifts and favours to Mankinde That sentence of Christ is no way obscure Ioh. 14. He that beleeves in 〈◊〉 shall do the works that I do and greater By many examples the Scriptures do confirme the comming of Saints to any mans dwelling to conferre upon him both Grace and Happinesse Three Angels came to Abraham Gen. 18. whom he entertain'd taking them for pilgrims when the Patriarch forthwith with became fortunate in the obteining of that for which so long he had offer'd up vows to God namely a sonne his wife and he being by the course of nature past the generation of children Gen. 19. Againe two Angels came to Lot and lodg'd in his house at Sodome and sav'd their host and his two daughters from being reduc't to cinders with their City Iacob visited wicked Laban Gen. 30. to whom God granted a singular blessing for that idolater in so much that he himselfe confessed it saying I have learned by experience that God hath blessed me for thy sake Elizeus to expresse the kindnesse he received at the hands of his hostesse 4. Kin. 4. the Shunamite restored her dead sonne to life The Apostles themselues brought peace and felicity to all hospitable men whose dwellings they enter'd And shall the arrivall of Gods owne mother at the house of Zachary prove onely vaine and fruitlesse in bringing no divine consolation to her kindred Yes surely Elizabeth tasted the fruit of her all-gladding presence for she could not conceale the pleasure conceived in her heart but utter'd it in the best words she could Iohn himselfe also tellisht it and by his motion gave what signes he could of the content and worship he receiv'd and payd Neither could it otherwise be but the Mansion of Zachary and the adjacent countrey were both delighted and sanctified by the three moneths residence of her who bore not about but in her the Author and consummatour of all piety Their joy questionlesse was beyond imagination great in that they had never before seene Gods gifts and graces passing through so pure an organ of his Spirit But the aged Prophetesse her selfe doubtlesse was in a holy delitious Trance at the very first steppe she made over her threshold and thought her house but halfe blest till the other foot was in Their mutuall salutation surely was low and submissive which I cannot better expresse then by the supposition of the
in that the passion of the minde is greater than that of the body and shee in soule felt most because her love to him was above all others sorrow If we â—onceive that she was so without bowels as not to grieve for the death and passion of her dearest and onely Sonne we must withall beleeve with the Maniches that he had a phantasticke body not made of his Mothers flesh No doubt when after man had left and betray'd him she heard him cry out that God himselfe had forsaken him also her teares her sighes her groanes her countenance her very posture her dolefull voyce all united their forces to expresse the greatnesse of her sorrow Listen and you shall heare her thus lament O my dearest Sonne Her Lamentation is also expressed by S. Bernard Serm. qui incipit Signum magnum that thou who healest others shouldst thy selfe be wounded That thou who freest others shouldst thy selfe be bound That thou who art the Fountaine of Life and Creator of the waters shouldst thy selfe be thirsty That thou who cloathest all things shouldest thy selfe stand naked O my dearest Master how hast thou trespassed against this obdurate Nation that it should so thirst after thy pretious bloud Thou wouldest have cover'd them under the wings of thy gratious Providence as Henne doth her Chickens but they those rather to perish than to come thither for shelter With them the lead are more sensible of thy passion than the living and their devouring Sepulchers more mercifull then they themselves O my Sonne my Sonne that I should see thee suffer and not be able to succour thee O that I were an oblation as spotlesse and as gratiâ—us in thy Fathers sight as thou thy selfe that all thy afflictions all thy torments might be mine Were my power correspondent to my will I would rescue thee from Legions of thy enemies But alas I am a weake woman and all my strength lyes in my tongue which will onely serve mee to deplore thy losse and that I truely doe from the very bottome of my heart Thus or to this purpose questionlesse she bewail'd him dying but when she once beheld him dead Love and Beauty being banisht that face and saw withall their malitious cruelty survive him when she view'd his very carkasse pierc't and water together with bloud flowing thence when she had leisure to imbrace his dead body to number his wounds to kisse them and to Essay with the holy water of her eyes to wash away his stripes she then was so wholly oppressed with anguish of soule that she ardently at that instant desired her soule if possibly might transmigrate out of her living body into his dead one True it is that many affirme she felt not those torments which other women endure in Child-birth who are liable to the malediction laid upon Eve But if at his comming into the world she was not sensible of any paine at all certainely at his going out the griefes of all women contracted into one equals nothers alone And assuredly her sorrow was much increased when she saw Mary Magdalen and the other women so vehemently to grieve whom his death not so nearly concern'd as it did her nor were they so able as she to judge of his value Then questionlesse in this or the like phrase she renewed and redoubled her complaints O my sweetest Sonne I bewaile mine owne and the wretched condition of all those whose soules thou hast feasted so many yeares with thy mellifluous Language My griefe is answer able to my affection If Samuel lamented the death of a reprobate King if David wept over wicked Absolon with this exclamation Absolon my Sonne O my Sonne Absolon can my teares be too prodigally powr'd upon thee who art Sonne to me and Righteousnesse it selfe Who shall forbid or hinder me for crying out Iesus my sweet Sonne O my sweet Sonne Iesus If thou didst weepe over Ierusalem as lamenting her destruction then at hand shall I not bewaile thy neere approaching end Thou didst then compassionate the future Ruine of those very stones which now with a silent gratiâ—â—de seeme to condole and weepe for â—hee When thou cam'st to the Tombe â—f Lazarus thou wert so farre from â—prehending the teares of others that â—hou wepst thy selfe for company Thy â—â—ne example then warrants the justâ—sse of my griefe for when thou wert â—wing the small paine thou felt'st in 〈◊〉 sleeping of thy foot was and ought 〈◊〉 be more to mee than the eternall â—epe of Lazarus could be to thee and as thy teares for him weretokens 〈◊〉 thy humane nature not signes of by diffidence in that thou knew'st 〈◊〉 would forthwith arise so are mine 〈◊〉 thee witnesses of my wretched elate not of my distrust who am asâ—â—red of thy speedy resurrection Nor be I onely grieve my owne griefe for 〈◊〉 for mans sake I rejoyce in thy Fathers Grace who delivers thee to death and in thy Charity who dost suffer it So likewise in mans behalfe I am griev'd that he should be the cursed cause of those thy extreme torments for as not to joy in the benefits thy death hath brought with it would argue his ingratitude so not to condole for the tortures that attend it would demonstrate his cruelty And here I faithfully promise thee that both I while life and thy Church while the world doth last shall yearely spend this dolefull * time of thy Tragicall expiration in Prayer S. Bernard cals this Hebdomadam poenosam the weeke of pennance and the high Dutch Die Martyr Wocken the Martyrs weeke fasting severity of discipline maceration of the flesh and contrition of the spirit as becomes thy mournefull Mother and â—â—y gratefull Spouse to doe Thus condoling thus bemoaâ—ing hers and the generall losse â—e attended his herse to the Seâ—â—lchre provided by Ioseph where â—ever man was laid before for it â—as not fit that Incorruptibility â—â—ould succeed corruption in the â—â—me lodging This fragrant â—lower was no sooner set in the â—â—ound but she sent many a deare â—â—op after it to fasten it at the â—oot for she knew within three â—ayes it should spring up againe â—ot to grow in the earth but to be â—â—anslated into Heaven there for â—ver to flourish and perfume the â—elestiall habitation Nor were â—er eyes saith Damascen closed with his Monument but watched â—hemselves almost blinde with a greedy expectation to see the temple of his body built up againe which three dayes since was destroyed After many a longing looke she espied the Tombe to open and her onely joy to issue forth whom full well she knew by the countenance and figure of his Humanity but farre better by the cleere proofes of his Godhead for the Graves delivered up their dead many of which appear'd to their friends in the holy City Some and those of great authority in the Church affirme that after his Resurrection she of all others saw him first and wheras the Scripture seemeth to inferre that Mary Magdalen first beheld
heat of carnall concupiscence This last priviledge is implyed in the first and may perchance safely be received The truth is we may securely give her all humane attributes not encroaching on the divine for she was in dignity above all but God himselfe Faith and Charity the fulnesse of the Law were in her at full She was in an active and contemplative life admirable The Tongue esteemed the worst part in a woman was in her the best which well might charme Eares offend them it could not Her Soule weigh'd her Conceptions and gave them a rayment of vertues owne hiew for certainly so cleere thoughts were apparell'd in as faire words She who both after her conception and at other times is commended to us by the sacred Scriptures for laying up all holy Sayings in her heart can we imagine that she could speake amisse Neither could she commit any undecent Act who liv'd in a Light to others inâ—ccessible They who maintaine that for a time the whole Militant Church was in her alone have probability to backe them for I know not in whom else it could remaine when his Apostles Disciples Friends Kindred and all others forsooke Christ she onely excepted who would not leave him who from before his birth had stucke to her I will conclude with this Assertion That if ever the Soule of any mortall enjoyed here on earth the embraces of her heavenly Spouse and tooke from him a kisse sweeter than all the Easterne Odours this was she Apostrophe Authoris And here O blessed Virgin J leave to discourse further of thee and direct my speech to thee O thou eternall glory of thy sexe had the Queene of Sheba seene thee as she did Salomon shee had not so soone beene delivered out of the Trance into which her Admiration cast her In thee shee might have discovered all the perfections of which woman kinde is capable who wer 't indeed vertually thy sexe In thee Aspatia might have found her Modesty Livia her Prudency Sulâ—â—iâ—a her Majestie and Gravity Cornelia her Patience Lucretia her Chastity Porcia her Fortitude Tanaquill her Industry Plautina her frugality and all these in eminency But why talke I of the Heathen to thee who didst not onely outstrip in manifold vertues all the Femall but the Masculine Saints themselves Thou didst excell Abel in Jnnocency Abraham in Faith Isaac in Obedience David in Gentlenesse the Prophets and Apostles in Piety and the Martyrs in Patience O thou whom Heaven would have of the same constancy purity and sublimity with it selfe thou art so farre from having an equall that all thy sexe cannot afford a worthy witnesse of thy Excellenties O thou Mother of the true Moses who never put on the yoke of Pharaoh but stood free in the middest of Eâ—ypt Thou rodde of Iesse alwaies straight who broughtst forth the fruit of life thou wert here a terrestriall Paradice whereinto Serpent never entred on which Gods malediction was never impos'd and hast no doubt now in the coelestiall Paradice a conspiouous seate above all the Angelicall orders and next thy glorifi'd Sonne himselfe For if Christs promise to all his fellow feeling members that if they suffer with him they shall raigne with him if they dye with him they shall live with him what eminent place in Heaven shâ—lt thou have assigned thee who iâ— soule didst suffer for him more than all his Martyrs O thou bashfull Morne that didst prâ—cede and produce our Sunne Thou Circumscription if J may so say of the uncircumscribed Thou roote to this Herbe of Grace Thou Mother of our Creatour Thou Nurse to him by whom all things are fed Thou Comprehender of the incomprehensible Thou bearer of him whose word sustaines the Globes Thou who didst impart flesh to him who wanted nothing else Thou Sarah thou Mother of many Nations who brought forth our Isaac our Laughter when a just sorrow conceiv'd for a losse esteem'd irreparable had clouded this inferiour world O pardon gratious Princesse my weake endeavours to summe up thy value which come as short of thee as my head does of Heaven Nothing that is not it selfe glorified can expresse thy glory to the height Thou deserv'st a Quire of Queenes here and another of Angels in Heaven to sing thy praises Were all the Earths brood the droppes the sands of the sea and the starres of heaven tongued they could not all expresse thee so well as silent extasie I confesse O my sweetest Lady that now I have said all I can of thee I have but but done like Timanthes a great Master in his Art who being to expresse the vastenesse of a Cyclops in a small table drew onely his Thumbe by which the spectators might judge of his large proportion To give thee an estimation answer able to thy merit is a thing impossible J must therefore be content to doe by thee as the antient Heathen did by the Imagâ—s of their Gods on whose heads when by reason of their height they could not place the Crownes offer'd to their Deities they humbly layd them at their feet FINIS