therof as shortly vvill be shevved more at large And since our blessed Lord vvas content to repeate the selfe same prayer thrice vve are to pitty the poore men vvho vvill needs be our aduersaries vvhilst they laugh and scoffe at vs for our often repetition of the same (f) That Repetitiō of the same prayers is commended by the example of Christ our Lord. Prayers Indeed if vve did but say them vvith the lips and tongue alone as they impose vpon vs tooke not care to accompany them vvith the application and attention of our minde they might still laugh on and the deuill vvould keepe them company therin But othervvise vve see by this mystery of the Garden that Repetition of Prayers is no ill custome if vve vse it as vve ought And then if still they vvill needs be laughing at as for the vse therof they vvill be faine to doe it alone for the deuill is not such a foole as to doe so too since he knovves he looses by the bargaine A heauy Agony to our Lord IESVS that vvas but a happy one for vs since he offred it to the eternall Father for the obtayning of comfort and strength not (g) That Agony of our Lord got cōfort for vs both in our afflictions of mind and diseases of body only in all the distresses of minde as vvas said before but in all the deadly diseases of body also vvhich might come to carry vs out of this life And it is in vertue of this Agony that vve see the seruants of God so full of patience and courage and sometymes euen of ioy vvhen they are vpō that bed euē as it were in the very iavves of death Nor vvhen they are abandoned by the help of the vvhole vvorld and vvhē their corporal strength is entirely gone can yet all the proud deuills in hell vvho are then imploying all the force and fraude they haue to their perdition disquiet their conscience or disturbe their peace What griefe it must needs cause to our blessed Lord to be estranged from feeling comfort in God CHAP. 55. BVT vvhat might that be the very apprehension vvherof vvrought so impetuously vpon our blessed Lord vvhome nothing had bene obserued to distemper in the least degree through all the course of his holy life vvhat kind of thing I say must that be vvhich durst assault his hart vvith sorrovv Or of vvhat had he bene ignorant till then the knowledge wherof at that tyme might be able to put the powers of his mind into that appearance of disorder His knowledge was still the same but his loue in some sort was not the same for it seemes as if euery minute of his life he had bene adding new feathers to those wings wherby his hart was flying towards the comfort of ours And knowing of how great aduantage to vs his humility and patience would be in the sight of God (a) Our Lord was pleased to suffer much for vs whom he loued so much it was only his pleasure at that tyme as hath been sayd to hide the comfort of his diuinity from the inferiour part of his soule wherby those apprehensions and reasons of griefe and desolation were of vnspeakeable torment to his minde Which so long as it was feeding vpon the cleere and sensible vision of God could not so much as once distract it from incessant ioy Whereas novv he vvas so very farre from ioy that vve see him as if he had been halfe ouercome with griefe To let vs knowe by the way that as all our burthens are light when they are carryed vpō our backs by the help of God so when he retyreth his holy hand there is not the least of thē which may not trouble the strongest Saint that liues But the obiect which caused such excessiue anguish to our Lord IESVS which wrought so farre euen vpon his sacred body as to make it vtter a prodigious svveat of very bloud and that not by drops but as it vvere by streames and flood Luc. 22. vvhich did not trickle but run downe a maine from the heauenly earth of his body to the terrestriall earth wheron he kneeled which was made a kind of heauen by drinking vp that quintessēce of life was (b) The dishonour of God and the perdition of man was the two edged sword which cut our B. Sauiours hart in funder the glory of God which he saw prophaned by the sinne of man and the soules of all mankind wherof he loued euery one a million of times more then his owne pretious life addicted to the eternall torments of hell fire For this was that sword with a double edge which did as it were cut his soule in sunder Who is also able to imagine what a sad affliction it must be to him to be depriued for one moment of the feeling of that soueraigne delight ioy wherewith he did so abound from the very instant of his Conception by the sensible shining of his diuinity vpon his whole soule which now in part was abridged thereof The want of any communication of Almighty God to a hart which hath seen light in light is of so great moment how little soeuer it be that it wōds that hart with much griefe which doth well discerne that nothing of that kind is little To know any thing of God by way of sensible experience doth kindle in the spirit a very furnace of desire to enioy the rest And how much sorrow then must it feele to be depriued euen of what it had The liues of Saintes are full of the sweet and sad complaints which they haue made to God vpon such occasions and in particular you may see store of this in the life of that great woman Blessed Mother Teresa of Iesus which was written by her selfe vpon the commaundement of her ghostly Father And not only did this holy Passion raigne among such soules departed as the Church esteemeth to be Saints but by the goodnes of God we haue met with some amongst the creatures who are yet in flesh and bloud who seruing God in great purity in conformity therof hauing bene admitted to some deere imbracemēts of that heauēly spouse of their soules haue gone lamētably mourning and that for a long tyme together like so many Turtles for the absence of their beloued through the wāt of that infinite Good wherof before they had beene admitted to take a taste They (c) The great sorrow which is felt by the spouse of Christ vpon any hiding of himselfe from a soule or euen by liuing in this Pilgrimage are so deeply wounded with loue that to be hindred from inioying him is wont to giue them excessiue griefe They feele it so much as they know not how they shall endure that want since the only remedy of all their other paines is the certaine (d) By often thinking vpō God meanes to increase this one paine of theirs For as a sore is most felt when it
diuine Soule of Christ our Lord through the high endowmentes wherewith it was enriched by the eternall Father Wherein no passion did euer once presume to lead the way to reason but was glad of so much honour as to follow it And though whatsoeuer concerned the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule may seeme little in respect of what is sayd concerning the reasonable which inuolueth both those others yet since nothing is little which is able to do seruice and homage to him who is so truly great it may deserue to be considered how those (k) The vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule were wholly in the hand of the will of Christ our Lord. Vegetatiue and Sensitiue powers were wholy in the hand of his will And so he could haue chosen whether his body should grow or whether his meate should nourish or whether his flesh should feele or whether his bloud vpon the inflicting of a wound should follow or whether his person should send out any such images or species of it selfe as whereby it might become visible to the eyes of others And (l) The body of Christ our Lord though it were a true and naturall body yet was it wholly in his power to determine how far it should be subiect to the conditions of such a body more or lesse in fine in his choice it was whether he would let himselfe be lyable to any of those propertyes and conditions to which the rest of man is subiect And now because the graces and perfections of his sacred body doe contribute to the excellency of his diuine person I will also procure to describe the supereminent beauty and dignity of that sacred flesh and bloud For thus we shall grow to haue a perfect notion of his whole person which will conuey such an influēce of valew vpon euery act of loue which afterward he will be shewed to haue expressed as I hope will make vs wholly giue our hart to him by way of homage for his incomparable benefits The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified CHAP. 4. THE Spirit of God in his holy Scripture doth prophetically delineate the beauty dignity of the sacred Humanity of our Lord Iesus I meane of his sacred flesh and bloud It speaketh of him thus Psalm 44. speciosus forma prae filijs hominum A (a) The beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. person indued with another manner of most excellent beauty then was euer to be seene in any other Creature And indeed euen abstracting from what is reuealed to vs by way of faith concerning his beauty in particular what kind of admirable thing must that Humanity needs be according to all discourse of reason On the one side let vs consider that this sacred body of his was compounded of no other matter but that purest bloud Royall of his al-immaculat virgin mother Royal (b) The dignity sanctity of his descēt it was by her discēt from so many kings Sacerdotall and Propheticall by her being also deriued from the Sanctity of Prophets of Preists Great prerogatiues were these but yet they are the least of them wherewith this holy body of our Lord was endued For it was much more dignified in that before it came to be his the body of the sacred virgin did cohabite with her owne most happy most accomplished soule Wherby (c) How sublimly spirituall the B. virgin was her very flesh was gowne after a sort to be euen Spirit as we see the very soules of sensuall persons to participate as it were the very nature of flesh Much more aduantage did it yet receiue in that the holy Ghost did frame this body of our B. Lord out of the bloud in the wombe of our B. Lady And most of all was it aduanced by this That in the instant when she conceaued his incomparable soule was infused and both his soule and body was Hypostatically vnited to the diuinity Of the happines of that soule already we haue spoken and euen by this little which heere is touched we may behould his body as the prime maister-peece of all visible beauty Amongst (d) Why the body of our B. Lord must needs be admirably beautiful the Children of this world we see indeed that euen they who are borne of handsome through the disorder which naturally accompanieth generation and besides it also growes sometymes through a disconformity which nurses haue to the mothers But his body was framed by the neuer erring hand of the holy Ghost heere the mother and the nurse were one and the same most holy Virgin Mary The excellency of Corporall Beauty doth consist (e) The conditiōs which are required for the making vp of perfect Beauty either in complexion for as much as concernes coulour or in feature or shape for as much as concernes proportion or in facility and grace for as much as concernes disposition and motion We see how any one of these partes of beauty if it be eminent doth affect the eye and hart of a beholder although such a person do either want the other two or haue them at the most but in some moderat degree And the perfection of any one part pleads the excuse of wanting any other And whether therfore shall we be so bold as to thinke that Christ our Lord was not endued with them all in all perfection or els so blinde as notwithstanding such vnspeakeable beauty as his was not to be enamoured of him It is not inough that a body haue only beauty for the perfection therof but (f) For the complemēt of Beauty there are requyred health strengh withall it must haue health and strength Now what want of health could the body of our B. Sauiour haue whose soule was not onely free but so infinitely farre from the curse both of Actuall and Originall sinne the true cause not only of sicknes but of death And what infirmity or weakenes could that Humanity be subiect to vnlesse he had would Isa 63. as indeed he would for our greater good which not onely was not obnoxious to any distemper of humours but withall it was made to be one person with allmighty God himselfe And now let him that can conceaue heerby the sublimity euen of his Corporall beauty Quis est iste saith the Prophet Esay Who is he that commeth out of Edom with his garments dyed from Bozra this beautifull one in his robe walking on in the multitude of his strength This S. Denis affirmes Decael Hierarch c. 7. to haue beene spoken in person of the (g) All the Angells in heauen were amazed to see the beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. Celestiall Spirits they being possessed with an admiration of the vnspeakable Beauty of Christ our Lord Whose diuinity was vested with our humanity as with a robe which once was white though it grew to be
to compreheÌ„d and vvhen it knevv from vvhat hand it came and found it selfe to be in possession of an absolute principality ouer all the Creatures and did contemplace al those Hierarchies of Celestiall spirits in heauen who being prostrate in his sight did adore him in that happy instant as S. Paul affirmes Tell me saith doctour Auila if euer this can possibly be told with what loue would this soule being such a one loue him who had glorified it to such a height with what kind of desire would it couet that some occasion might be offered wherby it might haue meanes to please so mighty a Creatour and benefactour Are the tounges of Cherubims and Seraphims able to expresse this loue Let vs further adde sayth he that vpoÌ„ this extreme desire it was declared to the soule of Christ that the will of God was to saue maÌ„kind which had perished by the sinne of Adam and that this blessed Sonne of his should for the honor of God and in obedience to his holy will encharge it selfe with this worke and should take this glorious enterprize to hart and should neuer rest till he had brought it to a perfect end And (e) It is loue which setteth all causes and creatures on worke for the obtaining their end for that the way which all Causes and Creatures hold is to worke for loue since they all do worke for some end or other which they desire the loue wherof being conceaued in their hartes doth make them worke therfore since Christ our Lord was to take this enterprise of the redemption of mankind vpon him it followeth that he would loue men with so great a loue that for the desire which he had to see them remedied and restored to their Tytle of glory he would dispose himselfe to do and suffer whatsoeuer might be fit for such an end And now sayth D. Auila since that soule which was so ardently desirous to please the Eternall Father did know so well what it was to do with what kind of loue would it turne it selfe towards men for the louing and imbracing of them through the obedience which he carryed to his Father We (f) Note this comparison see that when a peece of Artillery dischargeth a bullet with store of powder and that the buller goes glancing as by way of brickwall from the place to which it was designed it beateth backe with so much greater force as it was carried thither with greater fury Since then the loue which this soule of Christ conceaued towards God did carry such an admirable force because the powder of Grace which was in a manner infinite did giue the impulse and when after it had proceeded in a right line to wound the hart of the Father it rebounded from thence to the loue of men with what kind of sorce and ioy would it turne towards them both in the way of loue and help This Consideration is made in effect as heer is lyes by the holy man Doctour Auila to shew the infinite loue of Christ our Lord to vs. Wherin (g) We must clyme towardes the knowledg of the loue of Christ our Lord by degres we may also yet further helpe our selues by rysing as by so many degrees through the seuerall loues which are borne by creatures to one another For we fee hovv vehemently men haue loued their frind vve see hovv men haue loued themselues vve see hovv Saints haue loued their Sanctifier but vvhat trash is all this if it be compared vvith the loue of Christ our Lord to God vvhich loue is both the ground and measure of his loue to vs. We may iustly therfore cry out in the vvay of extreme admiration Aug. CoÌ„fes lib. 11. cap. 9. Quis comprchendet quis enarrabit There is no tongue there is no povver created which can comprehend and much lesse declare the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of this loue The mystery of the Incarnation is more partiticularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is woÌ„derfully expressed therby CHAP. 10. FOR the restoring therfore the streÌ„gthning of our vveake and vvounded soules to the eternall honor and glory of God the Father and in obedience to his vvise and holy vvill did Christ our Lord vvith incomprehensible loue vndertake the worke of our Redemption and sollicitously procure our sanctification for as much as concerned him but that could not be completely wrought without our concourse Because as S. Austen saith vvhen he speaketh of God to man Qui tecreauit sine te non te saluabit sine te He that created thee without thee will (a) We must cooperate with the grace of God or else the merits of Christ our Lord will neuer be applied to vs. not saue thee without thy selfe In this enterprise he resolued to employ and as it were to giue himself away from the first instant of his precious life vntill the last Any one only act of his through the infinite value of the diuine person to vvhich both his soule and body were hypostatically vnited had not only byn sufficient but abundant euen ex rigore Iustitiae for the redemption both of this world as many millions more of worlds as the omnipotency of God could haue created howsoeuer there be * Caluin Sectaries who tremble not to say That he selt euen the paines of the very damned soules in that soule of his as if the worke of mans redemption could not haue beene wrought otherwise Where by the way it well appeares euen to halfe an eye whether the Catholike Doctrine or that other do erect a higher Trophee to the honor of Christ our Lord. But the while euery single act of his being indeed so all-sufficient for the reconciliation of man to God it followeth heere as will be also touched elsewhere that some one only act was performed by him in the way of Iustice to appease that infinite Maiesty offended and (b) Consider heeâ— and wonder at the ardent loue of Christ our Lord to man that all the rest which were so many millions as he alone is able to number were performed in the way of ardent and tender loue to vs. So that Dauid had all reason to maguify the mercy of Almighty God and to acknowledge that Copiosa apud eum redemptio Psalm 129. that it was no pinching or scant redemption which was prepared for vs but abundantly of ouer measure and downe-weight And now it the bounty of God the loue of our Lord Iesus to man were such that where one single act of his might haue serued the turne of our Redemption he would not yet be content with doing the lesse where he had meanes to expresse the more how much lesse would it be agreable to those bowells of his Charity and mercy which vnder that very name of tendernesse Lue. â—â— are so often celebrated by his owne holy spirit in holy Scripture that he should redeeme vs by another lesse glorious and gracious
the more power he practiseth the more holynes he possesseth the more happy are the creatures vvhom he loues The (b) The power of Christ our Lord as man Power therfore vvhervvith Christ our Lord vvas endued as man vvas so vvonderfully great that he could vvorke vvhat miracles he vvould and at his pleasure vvas he able to inuert the order of all naturall things and all this by vvhat meanes he would think fit This Power he also had in as permanent a manner as vve haue said already that he had his Prophesy nor vvas it only obtayned for him by his particular prayers made to God from tyme to tyme according to the exigence of occasions as it hath beene graunted to some of the seruants of God But vve read that vvhen he vvas passing and doing other thinges Luc. 8. yet vertue euen then issued out of him vvherby the vvorking of miracles is meant And els vvhere it is also affirmed that the vertue which issued out of him Luc. 6. cured all diseases And the leaper vvho vvas recouered in the Ghospell vvas inspired by the good spirit of God to say thus to Christ our Sauiour O Lord if thou wilt Matt. 8. thou canst make me cleane And our Lord did shevv that he vvas not deceaued therin For instantly he said I will Be cleane Novv all this Power he employed for our good both corporall and spirituall but especially for our spirittuall good For euen in the Ghospell vvhen he cured mens bodyes by way of illuminating their eyes enabling their limmes and restoring their liues he cured also many of their soules and the seuerall infirmities vvhich they vvere subiect to as vvill be shevved els (c) In the discourse of the Miracles of Christ our Lord. vvhere Nor vvrought that holy omnipotent hand of his any outvvard miracle vvherin some invvard mystery was not locked vp as some rich Ievvel might be in some rare Cabbinet The (d) The sanctity of the soule of Christ our Lord. Sanctity also of Christ our Lord vvas supreme For Sanctity being nothing but a constant and supernaturall cleanes and purity of the soule wherby it is made acceptable and deare to God hovv holy must that soule needs be vvhich vvas so highly (e) The soule of no Saynt in heauen was to haue been any other then odious in the sight of God but for the merits of Christ our Lord. deere to him as that it is only in regard of that soule that all other soules are not odious and vgly in his sight Supreme I say was the Sanctity of Christ our Lord for by the grace of the Hypostaticall vnion he was made holy after a most high and incomprehensible manner and he became The beloued Sonne of God receauing grace beyond al power of expression That so from thence as from the treasure-house of Sanctity all men might take according to their capacity Not only as from the greatest Saint but as from the sanctifyer of them all and as I may say from the very dye of sanctity whereby all they who euer thinke of becomming Saints must take their coulour and luster all they who will may fetch what they desire out of this store So that we may see with ease inough how incōparably much more the Sāctity was of Christ our Lord then that of any or all the other creatures put togeather For among them God hath giuen drops to some and draughts to others but to him grace was communicated by streames and floudes beyond all measure or set proportion His soule indeed could not haue beene vnited to the diuinity without a most speciall grace but that being once supposed the other could not chuse but follow as connaturall And by the force of this Sanctity of Christ our Lord he was wholy naturally made incapable of sinne yea and of any morall defect whatsoeuer Concerning the Vertues which are called Theologicall namely Fayth Hope and Charity the last only of the three could lodge in him for the former two being (f) Why christ our Lord was vncapable of Fayth Hope Hope and Faith were incompatible with the cleare vision and perfect fruition of God which he still enioyed But (g) Christ our Lord possessed all the morall vertues in all perfection as for the morall vertues as Liberality Magnanimity Patience Purity Mercy Humility and Obedience withall the rest it appeares by the history of his sacred life and death that he had them all and that they were most perfect in him and euer most ready to be put in practise as not being impeached by so much as the offer of any contraryes All the guifts of Gods spirit were in him nay he was the resting and reposing place of that spirit This Soule of Christ our Lord was therefore inhabited by all the vertues Isa 11. and graces of God as heauen is by so many seueral quires of Angells in heauen but that which did sublime them all was Charity This soule if it be well considered will looke as if it were some huge wide bottomlesse sea of Christall but (*) The vnspeakeable working of the soule of Christ our Lord in the spirit of loue a Christall sweetly passed and transpierced with a kind of flame of loue It was vnspeakably quiet and yet in a kind of perpetuall agitation by the impulse thereof like the flame of some torch which is euer mouing and working yet without departing from it selfe It is like that kind of Hawke which keeping still the same pitch aloft in the ayre doth stirr the winges with a restlesse kind of motion whilest yet the body doth not stirre It spendes but wasteth not it selfe by spreading grace vpon all the seruants of God after an admirable manner Sometymes looking into the hartes of men and by that very looking changing them sometymes by sending as it were certaine inuisible strings from his hart to theirs and so sweetly drawing them to himselfe whilst (h) No soule can moue one pace towardes God but drawn by the loue of Christ our Lord. yet the world would ignorantly conceaue that they went alone But aboue all that which may strike our weake and darke mindes with wonder is to consider the profoundity and (i) The admirable order with still was held in the soule of Christ our Lord notwithstanding the wonderfull multiplicity of acts with he exercised al at once order which is held in that diuine Soule though it looked vpon almost infinite thinges at once Still did it adore the Diuinity still did it abase and euen as it were annihilate his owne humanity still did it most straitly imbrace with strong armes and patronize with the working bowels of tender mercy all the miseryes of al the Creatures in the whole world vnspeakably ardently thirsting after the glory of God and the felicity of man and eternally keeping all the facultyes of his mind erected vpon that high and pure law of Charity So excellent and so noble was this
reuiue and rayse it vp to receaue that homage without asking him so much as leaue O pretious sweet Humanity of Christ our Lord And (g) We at worthy of all punihment if wee become not euen the slaues of the Humanity of Christ our Lord. how shall we who know that thou wert humaned for vs and diddest not only descend to be a man but diddest degrade thy selfe further downe for the loue of vs how I say shall we sufficiently admire and loue thy Beauty which was so great euen in their externall eyes who had not withall the internall eyes of Faith wherwith thou hast enriched our soules And where shall we finde either holes or hills to hide or couer vs from thy wrath if we who are Christiās doe not by the eternall obsequiousnes of our harrs outstrip those obstinate but yet withall inconstant Iewes Obstinate in their mindes when they were grown to malice but inconstāt in mantayning those tender thoughts which they excellētly did sometymes oblige them to in the performance of so many Soueraigne signes of honour The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared CHAP. 6. VVHAT heauen on earth could euer make a man so happy as to haue beheld this sacred persō of our Lord Iesus in any of those postures which are described by the hand of the holy Ghost in holy scripture To haue (a) The incomparable grace of Christ our Lord in all his actions seen that god made mā as he was walking before the front of the Tēple whē his hart the while like a true Incensary was spending it selfe into the perfume of prayers which ascended before the Altar of the diuine mercy euen then and euen for them who there went in and out contemning and maligning him in the highest degree Mar. 11. Ioan. 20. To haue seene him walking and bestowing those deere limmes of his vpon those sands Mattb. 4. with incredible grace loue neere to that lake or sea of Galilea as if it had looked but like a kind of recreation when his enamoured soule was yet the while negotiating with his eternall Father Ibid. the vocation of his Apostles and by them the saluation of the whole world To haue seene him Luc. 4.16 c. standing vpon his sacred feet whilst with reuerence he would be reading in the Synagogue and then sitting downe afterwards when he would take vpon him the office of a teacher Ibid. 20. so pointing vs out by any little motion of his to the purity and perfection of euery action Marc. 3. To haue seene him sitting in the mindst of a roome with all that admiring multitude round about him whilst newes was brought him of the approach of his all-immaculate mother and of his kindred and domesticke friends who had reason to thinke euery minute to be a world of ages till their eies might be restored to that seate and Center of all ioy And he the while with diuine sweetnes and modesty looking round about him and lending a particular eye of mercy to euery soule there present and extending his liberall hand with an incomparable sweet noble grace did with his sacred mouth and with such a hart of loue as God alone is able to vnderstand adopt both them and all the world into his neerest deerest kindred vpon condition that they would do his Fathers will which was the only meanes to make them happy To (b) The infinite gratious goodnes of Christ our Lord. haue seene that sonne of God whose face is the delight and glory of all the Angells in heauen and at whose sacred feete they fall adoring with so profound reuerence deueste himselfe first of his vpper garment with such louely grace Ioan. 13.4 c. and gird the Towell about his virginall loynes with such modesty and fill the vessell full of water by the labour of his owne delicate armes with such alacrity and cast himselfe with such bottomelesse humility charity vpon those knees to which all the knees of heauen and earth were obliged to bow and from which the eternall Father was only to haue expected such an homage at the feete and for the comfort and conuersion of that diuell Iudas Yea and to wipe those very feete when he had washed them first and that perhaps with the teares of his owne sacred eyes to see if yet it might be possible to soften the hart of that Tygar who was able to defile such a beauty and to detest such a goodnes and who in despight of that prodigious mercy would needs be running post to hell by cōmiting that abhominable treachery They say the vale discouers the hill the darke shadow of a picture sets off the body which there is drawen Neuer was there such a peece of chiaro oscuro such a beautifull body as that of Christ our Lord neuer vvas there such a blacke shadovv as that vvretched man whome for the infamy of his crime I vvil forget to name But in fine to haue seene through the vvhole course of his life that holy Humanity sometymes svveating vvith excesse of labour some tymes grovvne pale vvith the rage of hungar some tymes pulled and vvracked seuerall vvayes at once by importunities sometymes pressed and as it were packed vp into lesse roome then his owne dimensions did require by crowdes of people and (c) Christ our Lord maintayned his grace and Beauty notwithstāding all the incōmodities to which he was put euer to haue beheld in his very face such an altitude of peacefull piety and such a depth of humility and such an vnlimitted and endlesse extent of Charity by remouing all diseases and dangers both of body and soule as heereafter (d) In the discourse vpon his Miracles will be shewed more at large for a man I say to haue had the sight of such an obiect would be sure I think to haue freed him from euer longing after any other Of Titus it was said that he was deliciae humani generis the very ioy and comfort of the world for the sweet receptiō which he vouchsafed to make to all commers Of Iulius Caesar it is recorded that being threatned with danger of a mutiny and defection in his army he spake to his souldiers this one only word Quirites (e) That word did shew that he held them no longer for souldiers of his but only as citizens of Rome and that thought pierced theyr harts with sorrow shame wtih such circumstances of grace and wisedome as that he drew al their hartes towards him at an instant It is true and it was much and there haue not beene many Caesars in the world But yet away with Caesar a way with Titus they were but durt and filth when they were at the best and now like damned spirits their soules are cursing God in hell And what Titus or Caesar dares shew himselfe when once there is question of grace and wisedome in presence
very dunge doth saue both men beasts so greately hath God multiplyed his mercy How deere is this Oyle and yet how cheape It (b) How Grace is both deer cheape is cheape and common and withall it giueth health If it were not cheape it would neuer haue been powred vpon me if it were not wholsome it would neuer be able to recouer me Without doubt saith he there is a resemblance betwene the name of spouse and oyle nor did the holy ghost in vayne compare them to one another For my part vnlesse somewhat which is better do occurre to you I hold it to be for these three qualities For it shyneth it feedeth and it annoynteth It entertaines the fire it feeds the body it asswageth paine It is Light Food Phisicke Now see if it be not iust so in this name of the Spouse It shyneth when it is preached It feedeth when it is considered and asswageth and suppleth when it is inuoked Is not saith he this name of Iesus both Light Food Phisicke to you What doth so nourish and fat the soule which feeds vpon it All food of the soule is dry if it be not bedewed with this Oyle It is inspide if it be not sprinkled with this salt If (c) Obserue admire and imitate this sweet Saynt thou write I haue no gust in it vnlesse I may read the name of Iesus there If thou dispute or conferre it contents me not vnlesse I heare the sound of Iesus Iesus is hony in the mouth it is musicke in the eare and it is a melting kind of ioy in the hart Thus doth this holy Saint expresse himselfe in the place alleadged concerning this particular He also sheweth there at large how it is that (d) Our Lord Iesus is not only the Food but light also and the Phisicke of the whole world light illuminating the world and the pretious Phisicke curing all the wounds miseries therof as heere for breuities sake I haue onely shewed our of him that it is the food which strengthneth vs in all our weakenes Such hath beene the spirit of deuotion of the Saints in the Christian Catholike Church from the first to the rest and now at last in this present age towards this holy name of Iesus Nay we see that by his goodnes it is rather improued then decreased now For in very many Citties there are kept euery weeke though not in the same but different churches thereof deuout solemnities in memory and honor of this supereminent name of our Lord Iesus And we also see that the two great Lights of this last age of ours S. Ignatius of Loyola S. Teresa were so deerly deuoted to this holy name that the latter of them for this cause hath deserued to haue the name of her owne family as it were forgotten and that now she is knowne insteed therof by the Name (e) The Deuotion of S. Ignatius S. Teresa to the name of Iesus of IESVS as being called Teresa of IESVS And the former though he kept his owne name to his owne person yet to shew how intirely and how irreuocably he had giuen all away to the seruice of our Lord Iesus and withall to proue the reuerēce religiō which he bare to that diuine name of his he did in the instituting of his Society renounce the appellation of his owne name and (f) See in the life of the Saint he ordayned it to be eternally called vnder the honour and only auow of the holy Name of Iesus I omit heer to shew how supernaturally the Saint was concurred withall heerin by our Lord himselfe how by the visible head of his Church the Society hath bene successiuely confirmed vnder this Title but I only consider what deuotion these two so high seruāts of our Lord had to it in conformity of that spirit which hath still inflamed the hartes of the former Saints of the Catholike Church In this (g) The wonderful effects which haue beene wrought by the deuotion of Christiās to the holy name of Iesus Name it is that deuills haue beene cast both out of bodyes and soules That the faith hath bene planted among Pagās That worlds of miracles both corporall and spirituall haue bene wrought in confirmation therof That Martyrs haue bene made tryamphant ouer all the bitter torments which men or deuills could inflict That so many millions of vgly and importunate temptations haue bene ouercome millious of desolations motions of despaire driuen away millions of serene sweet comfortes brought into the soule and in fine that whatsoeuer is miserable and sinfull hath bene remoued and whatsoeuer is holy and happy hath bene procured for Christians at the liberall hand of our Lord. Yet all this is not so idly meant nor is to be so ill vnderstood as if these benefits would acrew to such as should only care to pronounce the bare Name of Iesus without any reuerence or faith and loue of him whose name it is But only they are praysed heer and that most worthily who are deuoted to his diuine name as signifying the Sauyour of the world who is expressed therby the same being a means by which the mind is made to ruminate and reflect often vpon him And they who ar not yet deuoted are exhorted to it as to the loue of a liuely picture of an admirable Originall or rather as of a curious cup wherin most pretious liquor is contayned or in fine as of the very compendium whole abbreuiated History of all that excesse which our Lord did say or do or els endure in this mortall life for the redemption of man And indeed how can they loue our B. Sauiour who delight not in that deere name of his which declares him so cleerly to be a Sauiour and who follow not the stepps of the holy seruants and Saints of God whose harts haue so tenderly melted in their deuotion to this sacred name of our Lord Iesus Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings CHAP. 16. BVT to returne againe and so to take our leaue of those Sheephards who were surprised by this new borne Lord of ours as if it had beene with the netts of loue neere at hand we may obserue how he tooke those three Kings by shooting them from a farre off with a starre which strooke them at the hart S. Augustine complaines but he doth it like himselfe after a most deer and tender manner that our Lord had also peirced his hart with loue Confes l. 9. cap. 2. Sagittaueras tu cor nostrum charitate tua gestabamus verba tua transfixa visceribus Thou hadst saith he O Lord shot through our hartes with thy loue and we bare thy words in our bowells wherby they were strucken from side to side In like manner did he shoot through the harts of these holy men in whose person he consecrated
in the Temple With how vnspeable loue both to God and man did our Lord IESVS dispossesse himselfe for a while of the greatest ioy and comfort that he could receaue in this world which was the sweet society of his sacred mother wherein although through the eminency of grace which had beene communicated to her happy soule in the very first instant of her Immaculate Conception he could neuer haue found the least distraction from the immediate and most perfect seruice of Almighty God yet because the parents of his disciples and seruants would not all be such but would often be diuerting and diswading vs from corresponding with his inspirations and our obligations he was pleased not only to giue vs an example at large but euen to impart the very expresse words themselues wherby we might ouercome their intreaties And rather then we should not be instructed to forsake all flesh and bloud when once there should be question of Gods seruice and rather then we should not be armed well agaynst those temptatioÌ„s which might grow to vs from our Parents he was content to exemplify the case in his owne sacred person with a seeming diminution to his B. Mother For this it was that when the all-immaculate virgin spake to him in these tender words Sonne why hast thou so done to vs Lâ—â— 2. behold thy Father and I sorrowing did seeke thee Our B. Sauiour answered thus not in the way of reprehension as certayne course-harted people will needs conceaue but (e) In what sense our Lord Iesus spake to his B. mother out of compassion to them and out of instruction to vs Why is it that you sought me did you not knowe that I must be about those things which are my Father And to show that his meaning was but to benefit vs by that expression of himselfe and not to cast the least aspersion of imperfection vpon his most holy mother and S. Ioseph he caused his holy spirit to record it instantly after in holy Scripture that he departed from the Temple with them and came to Nazareth was subiect to them And heere let him that can consider and admire the vnspeakeable dignity and excellency of our B. Lady to whom the God of heauen earth would become a subiect And let him much more adore God for the infinite humility and Charity of our Lord IESVS (e) The incomparable loue of Lord in being so subiect to our B. Lady and S. Ioseph who vouchsafed by this stronge example of his to procure the quenching of our pride and the kindling of our loue by making himselfe a subiect to flesh and bloud for our sake he who was the superiour and soueraigne Lord of all the creatures both in heauen earth He shewed well what he was whilst yet he sate in the Temple amongst the Doctours Of whome he heard what they could say and he asked them to see what they would answere And many other things he also did at the same tyme though holy Scripture by wrapping them vp in silence doe rather leaue matter for our soules then for our senses to worke vpon For he did both pray his eternall Father for their conuersion to his diuine Maiesty and for the manifestation of his glory not only in their hartes vvho vvere present then but in as many as by their meanes should aftervvard come to knovv vvhat had passed there The sacred Text affirmes How all that heard him were aslonished at his wisedome and answeres and that seeing him they wondred And vve may vvell assure our selues that theyr admiring his diuine presence theyr being astonished at his vvisedome vvas to that holy soule of our Lord Iesus an occasion of much mortisication which nothing but ardent Charity could haue made him so willingly imbrace For he was then but twelue yeares old and he had bene bred in a poore and plaine appearance and he dwelt in the very depth of profound hamility And humility when indeed it is profound doth make a soule much more abhorre admiration and prayse then any hart which is vayne can appreh end and hate to be despised The vvhile if all they were so amazed by hearing him vvho vvere the Doctours of the law and vvho vvere likely to despise all the world in comparison of themselues and if the very sight of him made them wonder vvhose eyes vvere euen almost put out by the dust of Enuy and Hypocrysy vvhich the mind of pride had raysed into them which our Lord IESVS by the dropps of his diuine grace vvas procuring them to lay in a farre higher manner must (f) We are particularly bound to admire the wisedome and grace of our Lord Iesus we vvho are Christian and vvhome our Lord instructs not only at some certaine tymes as he did that people in the Temple but to vvhose harts he is euer preaching in a most particular manner happy are they who apply the eares therof to his sacred mouth adore the Maiesty of his wisedome and power and admire the dignity and beauty of his humanity and be inflamed and euen consumed with the sense of his eternall prouidence and ardent loue But yet withall we must consider that howsoeuer it be said and that most truely Thâ—it he proceeded in wisedome and age and grace with God and men this is only to be vnderstood of that kind of wisedome which might grow through experimentall knowledge by way of the senses which he had like vs though yet with this difference as (*) Cap. â—â— hath bene shewed that euen therin he was free from all possibility of errour which we are not For his wisedome otherwise was so great as not to be capable of any increase as nether was his grace wherof in the instant of his Conception that diuine soule of his had receiued all absolute fulnes But he may be truely said to haue increased dayly with God and men in Grace that is in Fauour because euery day more more his soule was beautified by new acts in the sight of God and daylie he made more and more discouery of himselfe to men according to the rates of their Capacity and they would not haue bene men but beasts and blockes if they had not bene taken by such an obiect We are taught withall by his growing thus in grace before God and men to performe our actions in such sort as that we must nether procure to please God alone by not caring for the edification of men nor yet men alone through Hipocrisy or want of purity in the intention but they both must goe together hand in hand as daily our Lord when he grew afterward to mans estate did effectually teach vs more and more Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in that he would vouchsafe to be Baptized CHAP. 21. VVHAT thought of man or Angell can reach to that humility which Christ our Lord being longe since growne to be a man and now vpon the poynt of
loue wherwith our Lord did make the way thither so easy to them We may well be assured of the truth of that testimony of S. Iohn Baptist when he said Ma. That he who should baptize after him would doe it in the holy Ghost And we may safely say that it was the holy Ghost which could eleuate such a poore peece of nature as common water is to an immediate instrument as now we find it for the washing saÌ„ctifying of all our soules For instantly after the Baptisme of Christ our Lord and the prayer which was made vpoÌ„ it he saw that the very heauens did open which had beene shut till then by the sinne of Adam Ibid. and the holy Ghost descended on him in a visible forme Which our Lord IESVS obteyned not for himselfe who was already full of it Ioan. 1. beyond all measure but he obteyned it for vs for of his fulnes we all receaue and so there is none of vs baptized vvhose soule is not highly visited by the holy Ghost And no meruaile if heauen hauing neuer bin seene open before that time such an aboundance of the holy Ghost vvere then communicated to the vvorld vvhich till then vvas little knovvne The promises and blessings of that old lavv vvere temporall terrene and a land slowing with milke and hony vvas (b) The seruile coÌ„dition of the people of God vnder the old law the fairest Lure vvherby that Carnall people could be made to stoope to any obedience to the commaundements of God But novv the earth vvas grovvne too poore a token for his diuine Majesty to send to then vvho vvere so beloued by his only begotten sonne that sonne vvho in contemplation of their good had performed such an act of heroicall call vertue in this holy Baptisme of his And therfore heauen vvas set open and the most pretious treasure therof Confes l. 13. cap. 7. sent dovvne to dravv men vp For the vncleanes of our spirit as S. Augustine sayth dissolueth it selfe downeward through a loue of cares and the sanctity of Gods spirit doth rayse vs vpward by a loue of secure repose That so our harts may ascend vp towards thee O God where thy spirit is carried ouer the waters and that we may arriue to that supereminent rest when our soules shall haue passed through these waters wherupon we can ground no rest But euen in respect of Christ our Lord himselfe though his soule vvere then already so full of grace as not to be capable of addition yet vvas it most agreable to the vsuall stile and the infinite iust goodnes of God that the humility of this action should be ansvvered and acknovvledged vvith vnusuall glory And therfore that he vvho had so abased euen as it vvere buried himselfe vp in vvater Ioan. 1. and submitted his head to one who was not worthy to vnty his shoe should be auovved from heauen vvith the Curtaines open dravvne To be the beloued sonne of God Matt. 3. And so a certaine and solemne instance vvas giueÌ„ of that truth vvhich may goe for the dayly and standing miracle of the Christian Catholike Church That as soone as a soule shall haue truly humbled it selfe for the loue of God euen then it receaues and feeles a revvard from heauen vvhich fills the hart full of ioy Glory then I say vvas due to his humility and for as much as nothing can pay loue but loue the attribute of Beloued was also due and best deserued by his loue And because his loue for the loue of God was so immense to man the holy Ghost it selfe which is the al and only infinite loue was sent downe vpon him in a visible manner by whome it was afterward to be conueyed to men And euen the very shape wherin God was pleased that it should appeare may serue to make vs know that all the actioÌ„ did begin end in loue For it was of a doue (b) The fruytes of the holy ghost are figured fitly in a Doue what creature is more apt for loue then this What creature is more fruitefull more speedy more sweet more stronge more honest and yet more amourous then this Deteyning her mate when he would depart with more desire and expecting him when he is absent with more ioy The doue was therfore the signe of the holy Ghost which descended vpoÌ„ Christ our Lord as soone as he was baptized to shew that his hart was ouerwhelmed with loue both to God and man Whilst for the pure glory of the one and the perfect good of the other he submitted himself to paine and shame for the sanctifying of sinners and that by a most sweet easy means to vs he cared not though he were accounted one himselfe Yea not being content to be only thought so heere by men the restlesnes of his loue did worke so fast vpon him as to make him not disdaine to be mistaken therin by the diuells also and to be tempted in the wildernes by the Prince of darcknes as the next discourse will declare Of the vnspeakeable Loue to vs which our Lord Iesus shewed in his being tempted in the wildernes by the Diuell CHAP. 23. IT is full of truth which hath bene said Omnis Christi actio vitâ—e nostrae est instructio Euery action of our Lord may serue for an instruction to vs in this life of ours Or rather it is most true that there is no action at all of his which instructs vs not many wayes (a) All the actions of Christ our Lord are as a hidden Manna to our soules which is not a kind of hidden Manna deliuering to euery hungry and thirsty soule a tast of that particular vertue which it needs That Christ our Lord would be baptized was to be enroled in the list of sinners according to the iudgment of men but in sine they were men who would make that iudgment with men he loued and he was come into the world to procure their good and at last he knew that he would deliuer them from that errour But for the sonne of God who was also God to abase and as it were forget himselfe so farre as to submit that superexcellent soule of his which was adored by al the Angells of heaueÌ„ to be subiect for the manifold benefit of man so farre as to be tempted by that damned spirit doth betoken such a strange loue to vs as puts all discourse to silence and the best created vnderstanding that euer was may be halfe excused if it shall loose the very witts with wonder If the difference be great betwene one man and another euen amongst good men homo homini quid praestat if it be great betwene a good maÌ„ a bad if it be yet greater between a most wicked man a most glorious Saint what difference shall we thinke there is betwene God and the diuell And what scales can haue the strings long enough to giue scope that one
of them may ascend as high the other descend as low as the things deserue And yet the loue of our Lord IESVS was so omnipotent as to make them able to incounter yea and he being the very toppe of altitude did become in some sort inferiour did put himselfe below that other whose habitation is amongst the Princes of darkenes in the very bottome of hell So immense was his desire of shewing loue to man that rather then not to procure it in the most obliging manner that could be thought he was content to let his greatest and most declared enemy that inueterate rebell the Diuell to please himselfe with an imagination that he was no more exempted from his power then other folkes And he suffered (b) O miracle of loue which could induce Christ our Lord to be carved by that diuel in the Ayre himselfe vvith a strange kind of exinanition to be carryed in the ayre tossed from place to place by that tempter as some chicken might be in the clawes of some cruell Bird of prey for the space of as many myles as it vvas from the wildernes to the Tēple If vve aske vvhat it vvas vvhich conducted him frō the riuer of Iordan to the vvildernes vvhich vvas the place of his Temptation the holy Scripture tells vs that it vvas his spirit which is his loue that led him thither And to shew that he vvent not vvith any ordinary pace but vvith a kind of vehemency of impulse though by one of the Euangelists it be said that he was led by another it is affirmed that he vvas no lesse thē driuen to the desert In all the actions of our Lord there is a double kind of loue inuolued as if it vvere both the meat and sauce vpon vvhich the soule of man may feed The actions themsclues I account to be as the very meate but the intention vvhich reigned in that enamoured hart of his is as the sauce vvhich giues it grace and sauour and keepes the appetite full of life We see heere in our Lord a loue of sollicitude an application to contemplation that he thought the very beasts to be company good inough for him And euen vvhilst he vvas ingulfed in the very bosome of his eternall Father he vvould yet endure to be (c) A strang indignity most strāgely indured by the strēgh of loue taken in the armes and tempted by that vvicked spirit We see hovv he gaue himselfe to prayer and fasting for the space of Fourty daies togeather And that hovvsoeuer through the aduantages vvhervvith he did abound it vvas in his hand vvhether although he fasted yet he vvould be hungry yea or no he made choyce at the end of that long fast to feele the paine thereof for vs. And then vve may wel be sure that there was neuer so great paine inflicted by hungar as that Both for the large extent of tyme into which that fasting was produced being of fourty contynued daies and nights and through the exact proportion of his constitution which endured not the least excesse of any superfluous moysture or peccant humour which in many is wont to make the weight of hungar much more tollerable But then if we consider that withall he was without the comfort of any of his reasonable creatures passing his tyme as the holy Scriptures say amongst the beasts That he could not but feele excessiue incommodity by lodging so long vpon the open ground That he windes and raines in the space of fourty dayes nights would be sure to blow hard and to fall heauily vpon him That his garments were loose and consequently could not defend him from that payne we shall perhaps haue cause to conclude that this tyme of his being in the desert gaue him as exquisite a kind of affliction as euer was endured vpon earth These I say were his actions and passions in this mystery of his temptation but the intention of our good which for loue of vs he had and the soueraigne doctrine and addresse which he directs vs by his holy spirit to fetch from thence in all occasions is that for which we are more if yet we may be more obliged to him The excellent examples and instructions which our Lord Iesus gaue vs with great Loue in this mistery of his Temptation CHAP. 24. CHRIST our Lord himselfe was farre from being able to grow light or vayne vpon the supernaturall fauours and visions wherwith he had bene enriched from heauen after the humility and charity which he had expressed to God and vs in his holy Baptisme and therfore most safely he might instantly haue put himselfe into conuersation with men of the world But (a) That spirituall men must arme thēselues wel against vanity leuity of hart yet because he well knew of what sōding metall poore man is made that his nauigation through the tēpest of this world is found to be so dangerous by his carrying so little balast of solid vertue in the bottome of his soule and so great a saile of self cōceite tyed to the mast of his giddy head and for that vpon the feeling of diuine comforts men vse sometymes to make effusion of those treasures which yet were giuen but that they might be improued or at least laid in against the comming as I may say of a deere yeare or tyme of tribulation it pleased his diuine wise Goodnes to shew and that not only by words but deeds how we were to carry our selues in such cases And that when such pretious liquor of extraordinary grace is conueyed into our harts by the hand of God we must procure to conuerse so much the more within and to stopp the bottle with extraordinary care least els the spirit fly a broade and the soule remaine in misery at home Nor was our Lord in any necessity of preparing himselfe by making such a kind of spiruuall exercise or recollection as this before he went in mission for the wynning of soules to his eternall Father in the vertue wherof he might cōtynue more vnited with God that as contēplation was to giue nobility to actiō so action might giue fecundity to contemplation But (b) Men are taught to recollect themselues before they enter vpon conuersing treating much with others for our instruction he shewed vs in himselfe what we were to doe and that before men must trust themselues with procuring by conuersation and exhortation to doe good to others they must in silence solitude make vpon their owne accounts in the sight of God Casting off their sinnes taking leaue of all occasions therof making obseruation of their errours past renewing good and particular purposes for the tyme to come and in fine preparing themselues for the doing and suffering with a sirme and faithfull hart whatsoeuer they shall find agreable to the holy and wife and strong will of God And because a mā who is to be truly Apostolicall must by the goodnes of God procure to be
Augustine which since it is so highly and clearly true I would to God it were written and worne about the neckes Aug. Cōfes lib. 1. cap. 22. and in the harts of all the world Iussisti Domine sic est vt poena sua sibi sit omnis inordinatus animus Thou hast ordeyned it O Lord and so it is That the very inordinate affection it selfe of euery one should be an affliction to him that hath it so the merit of euery action which is purely vndertaken and faithfully performed for the loue of God especially if it haue any thing in it of the heroicall will be sure to affect the mind with a particular kind of remuneratiō yea so particular as that the soule shall know it is for that The second (c) The 2. Temptaon was riches power att 4. c. 4. Temptation wherwith this inueterate lyer did tempt our Lord was by offering all riches and power which he shewed him from the Top of a high mountaine and he promised to giue him the whole world if he would adore him A lyer I say he is and so he was from the begin ning But yet amongst all his lyes he neuer told a greater then this That it should be in his power to giue the whole world away he who is not the owner of one leafe which growes therin nor is able to moue the least indiuisible graine of dust vpon the earth nor any moate in the ayre without the particular leaue of our Lord God All power is of God all pleasure is of him and in him And whatsoeuer is in creatures is but a poore participation of the infinite which in him is found And that which the deuill can doe is only to tempt vs to steale it from the true owner Wheruuto when he hath induced vs and that we once returne into our selues that which he leaueth behind in our soules is nothing but a miserable remorse of mind and an experimentall knowledge of extreame calamity and penury insteed of plenty and of infamy insteed of glory and of consuming paine insteed of any pure and perfect ioy Confes lib. 4. cap. 12. And most iustly as Saint Augustine sayth doth that which in it selfe is sweete grow bitter to thee if thou commit such an act of iniustice as vpon the reason of that sweetues to forsake and ossend our Lord who made it sweet And thou commest as he diuinely expresseth in another place To turne and tosse thy minde Confes l. 2. cap. 2. vp and downe superba deiectione inquieta lassitudine with a proud kind of basenes a resiles kind of wearines This is that bargaine to which the deuill if we hearken to him can bring a soule but to giue it one haires bread of happines is neither in his power nor in his will For his enuy and his hate to vs is such as that the smal counterfaite pleasure which we find in the act of any sinne is no small vexation griefe to him And if it were in his hand to make vs sinne without taking any corporall delight at all and to tosse vs from torments in this life to torments in the next he would find malice inough for that purpose and we should be sure neuer to tast any one drop of ioy by his consent But where was it that our Lord found patience and (d) The incomprehensible meeknes of our Lord Iesus meeknes inough to keepe him from rebuking that impure spirit from creating a new hell of torments into which he might haue bene precipitated for desiring to be adored by one whome he suspected ought to haue known to be the sonne of God where did he find it or where could he find it but in his owne pretious hart which is a profound Sea of loue to all such as will be capable therof and of pitty and patience euen to such as hunt after nothing but his dishonour 1. Pet. 2. For whē afterward our Lord was reuiled he answered not and when he was cursed he prayed for them who cast theyr curses vpon him And when now he was tempted he did not so much as turne against the deuill himselfe but stood only fast in his owne defence against that Prince of the Rebellious Angells who was still following his old maxime of beleeuing that he was fit to be adored will neuer be taught to chaunge it euen by the experience of those paines of hell which he hath tasted already for so many ages and is to doe for all eternities So spirituall so stiffe and so tough a sinne is that of Pride which as it will nouer be forsakē by those deuils so also is there none to which the misery of man in this life is more obnoxious The deuill knowing this at the least as well as we did reserue the Temptation of (e) The 3. temptatiō was to Estimation and Honour Honour for the last place he drew it as the most daungerous and deadly wounding arrovv out of his quiuer vvhervvith he hoped to fasten vpon the soule of Christ our Lord. He tooke him therfore out of the desert and carryed him to the pinnacle of the Temple and placing him vpō the top therof he would faine haue induced him to cast himself dovvn through an insinuation of sanctity vvhich might be in him For sayth he If thou be the sonne of God thou mayst safely doe it for it is written that he hath giuen his Angells charge ouer thee and that in their hands they shall beare thee vp Matt. 4. least perhaps thou knocke thy foote against a stoue The deuill is no foole or babe but he knovves it is most true that if any thing be able to shake a vertuous soule it is a Temptation of Pride an ambitiō of Honour for the sanctity which is imparted to it by our Lord God because through any yeilding to this Temptation both that sanctity is lost God vvith it With hovv pestilent successe hath he put this tricke vpon vvhole multitudes of mē at seuerall tymes vvho at those tymes vvere faythfull seruants Saints of God But this blast of vanity did so vndermine their soules as that they fell dovvne and rotted and did but serue to make a fire vvherat the deuill might vvarme himselfe But heer he mist his marke and although be brought the ground of his Temptation of Christ our Lord out of holy Scripture levvdly applyed the only true sense vvherof the spirit of Christ our Lord did knovv after his Ascension the holy Ghost hath still imparted it to the holy Catholique Church vvhere the spirit of God doth yet only rest and vvherby it is able to interprete truely that holy Scripture yet our Lord vvas easily able to giue him such an ansvvere out of the same Scripture as made him depart vvith shame inough It is shewed how we are to carry our selues in the vse of holy Scripture and we are instructed concerning Lent we are
assured of any coÌ„dition he vvas quickly pleased to shevv the very bovvells of his mercy tovvards them They vvere opened before but then did he let them see hovv he had lodged them all therin For (c) The vnspeakeable fauour with our Lord lesus imparted to his Apostles in regard that they had left their little All for him he admitted them instantly into his ovvne diuine conuersation he instructed them by his heauenly doctrine He gaue them a dominion ouer deuills that they might expell them out of the bodies of men He made them knovv that he vvould leaue them Ambassadours in his place betvvene God and the vvorld That they should haue povver to offer consecrate and consummate his owne pretious body and bloud And to remit or retaine the sinnes of men according to that spirit of vvisedome and the authority vvhich he vvould impart to them for that purpose And that so they must grow to be Treasurers of eternall riches and administrators of all his diuine Sacraments Doctours of the vvhole vvorld And they being so fraile and imperfect men as vve haue shevved before he assumed them to a kind of participation of his ovvne Empire ouer heauen and earth and to a spirituall kind of principality aboue all the Monarks of the vvorld And that vvhich more importeth then all this he declared that they should sit together with himselfe vpon his throne and at the day of Iudgement giue sentence vpon the Twelue Tribes of Israell vvherby the vvhole vvorld is designed So (d) How infinitely we gayne by giuing al to God that heere vve haue meanes to see at hovv high a rate that mony is put out to vse vvhich vve present to God I meane vvhat infinite gaine is raysed by making a deed of guift of the miserable litle thing which vve haue and are to that immense goodnes of his By hearkning with a diligent faith full hart to his holy inspirations vvherby he vvoes vs to become his that in exchange he may be ours It is true that he desires to haue all or none and he hath reason For if this soule of ours with being so poore a thing as it is be yet of such capacity as that nothing which is lesse then God himselfe can content and fill it what a brutish thought would it be in vs to conceaue That our God himselfe could be contented to inioy but a part of vs who are things of nothing and who were all created by him and who are his and only his by so many tytles that hell it selfe is a punishment which comes not home to the crime of our diuiding the soule betwene him creatures He being the sole and supreme truth all (e) All that which concerneth creatures is a meer lye whensoeuer it disobeyeth God or drawes vs from him Confes lib. 10. cap. 22. creatures no better then a pure perfect lye in whatsoeuer they say they are or would seeme to be otherwise then as they yield obedience to the diuine Maiesty S. Augustine doth excellently expresse this particular when reuersing the wandring steps of his ill gouerned youth in the way of confession to almighty God he deliuereth himselfe in this manner Thou art supreme truth who presidest ouer all things Loath I was to loose thee but through my couetousnes I desired to possesse a Lye together with thee This was the reason why I lost thee because thou disdainst to be enioyed in the company of a lye The Apostles therfore when they were called did instantly and wholly giue themselues away with all they had And though the goods which they left were not a matter in themselues of any moment yet they were esteemed to haue giuen much because those happy men reserued nothing to themselues And with the same affection through which they had left that little they were as ready to haue left a thousand worlds for the loue of Christ our Lord. And S. Peter afterward was not affraid to put our Lord in mind therof by these words of his innoceÌ„t and confident Matt. 19. ardent tender loue Behould we haue left all things and followed thee what therfore wilt thou doe for vs He said not that he had left his netts or his house or his boate or this or that but absolutely that he had left all things And (f) The infinite liberality of our Lord Iesus our Lord made him this answere with no lesse then the bounty of a God Amen Amen c. which declareth a most serious affirmation or protestation You who haue followed me shall sit vpoÌ„ thrones at the resurrection of the iust you shall iudge the twelue tribes of Israell And whosoeuer shall haue left his Father or mother or brother or sister or house or land for my names sake shall haue a hundred fold in this world and afterward shall possesse eternall life Yea so liberall is our Lord IESVS as to reward with no lesse then heauen for euery instant of that tyme which we dispose our selues to imploy vpon his seruice And yet his excellency is such as that euen the very only doing him any little seruice is of so great happines to a faithfull soule as that it alone is an ouer-pay foral the paines that can be taken in this life But to shew that our Lord is scarce able to differre the recompence of such as follow him with a ready will we shall see in the next Chapter how he takes some of them as it were into the ioyes of heauen before their tyme. And he who (g) Note heer the excellent loue of Christ our Lord. would not haue them present when he was tempted solitary and in act of penance because perhaps they were not so able to feed so soone vpon such crosses or hard crusts as those did yet resolue that he would not haue some of them absent when he was to be Transfigured vpon the hill But that in recompence of their beginning to doe him seruice for the strengthning of their Faith and Hope and Loue in the processe of it they should tast a dropp of that glory wherwith they were to be inebriated in heauen Of the excessiue Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man in the mistery of the Transfiguration CHAP. 29. THE Temptation and Transfiguration of our Lord IESVS are liuely instances of hovv hard things he desired to suffer and how excellent things he desired to doe for vs which two â—â—e the most certayne tokens (a) True loue desires not only to do great thinges but to suffer hard thinges Matt. 17. of true loue We haue already considered of his Temptation and now this Mystery of his Transfiguration is thus related in the sacred text That our Lord tooke Saint Peter S. Iames S. Iohn into the top of a high and solitary mountaine to the end that he might pray That whilst he (b) The manner of the Transfiguration of our Lord Iesus was praying he grew to be
transfigured before them That his face did shine like the sunne That his garments were as white as snow That Moyses and Elyas appeared also and were speaking with him That their discourse was of that excesse of loue which he would shew in the passion through which he was to passe in Hierusalem That S Peter was so rapt with ioy as to say That it was good being there and to beg of our Lord that there they might haue still remayned but that before he had ended his speach a bright cloud came downe which ouershadowed them and this voyce was thundred out from thence This is my beloued sonne in whome I am well pleased heare him Vpon the noyse of this voyce the Disciples fell prostrate vpō their faces as being much a frayd but our Lord Iesus drew neere and touched them said withall rise vp and doe not feare and when they looked vp they saw none but only Iesus And as they were going downe the hill he cōmaunded them not to speake of that vision till he should be risen from the dead This glorious miracle did shine in the exteriour of our Lord so vehemētly as to send the beames therof to his Disciples but it vvas the flame of loue which burning so hot in his diuine hart did breake out much more vpon them that so their soules and ours by theirs might be set on fyre He had then lately been telling them of his passion which was to come That he was to endure many and grieuous things That he was to be condemned by the high Priests That he was to suffer death and then to rise He had further said that for their good they must be imitatours of him and that howsoeuer the way of the Crosse might fall out to be hard and stony yet there was no remedy but they must runne it through And now least their mindes might haue bene oppressed with inordinate griefe or else assaulted afterward with vnbeliefe or at least discouraged by the difficulties of this life which he knew was to proue so painfull to them for the seruice of God his (c) A particular reason why our Lord would be transfgured before some of his Apostles hart of loue could no longer hould from expressing it selfe towards thē in some such kind as might not only strengthen them against all feare of future harme but might solace them also in aboundant māner both with the present sense of excessiue ioy and an infallible expectation of much more to follow afterward And when he had conueyed the notice of his passion like a bitter dose of pills into their mindes he did like a carefull Phisitian put a spoonfull of Conserue after it into their mouthes least otherwise they might chance to haue cast their Phisicke As generally in holy Scripture so particularly in this mistery of the Transfiguration and of the ioy which was commuicated to the Disciples by meanes therof the expressiōs euen of things which are very great are yet very positiue and playne as I shall also shew elsewhere And Saynt Peter only said Bonum est nos hic esse It is good for vs to be heere But (d) This seemes to haue been but a smal expressiō of ioy but inded it was very great and why though this may seeme to be but a leane and hungry kind of signification of his ioy for his hauing beene made participant of that high vision yet indeed it vvas such a one as could not well be more endeared To haue said that it had beene better to be in the top of that high mountaine with Christ our Lord then to haue bene in the midst of all the treasures and pleasures of the world below had bene to allow a kind of goodnes to these other things though infeririour to that which there he felt For to say that one thing is better then another doth leaue a power in that other thing to be good But by only saying that this was good it rather seemes to follow that whatsoeuer vvas lower and lesse then this would not be good S. Peter was heere in a kind of midle Region of the ayre betewne ordinary grace below glory aboue And as he could not say that his then present condition was any more then good in regard that nothing of this life was so good or indeed that it was absolutely good at all so neither could he say that it was any more then good in regard of the ioyes which are felt in heauen And therfore he said not that it was a soueraigne or an infinite good which is only enioyed in that next life by the sight of God Exod. 33. That sight is that Omne bonum which was promised by our Lord God that he would shew his seruant Moyses in heauen This other is that bonum which now was shewed to his Apostles heere on earth But though it were but bonum in comparison of that infinite good yet if this such as it vvas had bene set by the vvhole vvorld of worldly pleasures they would all haue streight appeared to be but durt and trash and this would haue shined like a second heauen of glory in comparison of them We must therfore be farre from thinking meanely of it but rather we are to call our wits about vs and to argue thus If some (e) What wonders the holy ghost doth worke in the soule of man influence or visitation of the holy Ghost whilst it doth but slip into the soule of man be able to comfort him when he was laid though neuer so low in the bed of distresse and desolation If some extraordinary communication of Gods Spirit can eleuate the soule not only aboue all other creatures but euen aboue it selfe so as not only to disgust it and that for euer from all humane hopes or feares but to make it halfe forget that there is any other thing but God If some true Reuelation or diuine imaginary vision such as our Lord doth sometymes cōmunicate to his friends fauorites in this life when and why it pleaseth him as we find recorded in their liues doth sometymes so inebriate and fixe and transforme thē into him as they may rather be said to swym and bath at ease in a sea of comfort then to trauell and trudge by land in a desert full of difficulties distresse what effect shall we thinke this vision of visions did worke in the mind of the B. Apostles Who saw not what they saw by imagination only but they had before the eyes both of their body and minde the humanity of Christ our Lord all in glory with Moyses and Elias doing him homage in the name of both those worlds which liued eyther vnder the law of nature or the written law The incomparable ioy which the Apostles tooke through the loue which our Lord Iesus shewed them in his Transfiguration and how himselfe was content to want the glory of it both before and after for the loue of them CHAP. 30. THE sunne
is that of Genesis Mira est profunditas c. Confes l. 12. c. 14. Wonderfull saith the Saint is the profoundnes of thy words wherof yet behold the superficies or appearance doth euen smile vpon vs little ones But yet the profoundnes therof in the same holy Scripture Proleg 2. fol. 10. as is aboundantly proued by Salmeron and amongst other instāces he sheweth how the Prophet Osee saith of his owne prophecy in the end therof Who is wise that he may vnderstand these things and who is intelligent that he may know them Which implyeth not yet an impossibility but only a great difficulty Iu Proaem l 1. Comment in Ose 2. Pet. 3. as S. Hierome notes And S. Peter affirmeth that there were some passages in the Epistles of S. Paul hard to be vnderstood which vnstable vnlearned people did peruert towards their owne perdition as they also did other scriptures So they also doe in these dayes whersoeuer heresy hath set her clouen foote And that complaint is most iustly made in these sad tymes of ours Epist 13. ad Paul which S. Hierome made in his tyme. Agricolae Coementarij fabri metallorum c. Clownes Daubers Smythes Wood-cleauers Butchers Dyers and the like cannot learne their trades without a teacher But euery prating old woman euery doting old man and euery wrangling Sophister and in fine who will may presume to lay hold vpon holy Scripture and to tosse it and teach it before they haue learnt it And for my part I confesse that in my life I haue nor heard of many thinges which might make a man laugh and weepe both at once then that one passing once in a prison of London from one chamber to another with a candle in his hand which the winde blew out and stepping in hard by to light it in a little Sellar where Ale and Beare was to be sould he found the Tapster very grauely leaning vpon a barrell with his Byble lying open before him And forsooth he was in study of the Prophesy of Ezechiell So that I know not whether ignorāce be more blind or pride more bold But these kind of men may learne to be confounded when they consider that euen the B. Apostles after they had heard so many Sermons and Parables deliuered and expounded by Christ our Lord himselfe And after hauing inioyed his diuine cōuersation for the space of three yeares together were yet so farre from vnderstanding the sense of holy Scriptures that our Lord himselfe was fayne immediatly before his Ascension to appeare to them expresly for this purpose that he might instruct them and open their meaning to them Which may sufficiently serue to shew how full of difficulty they are in thēselues how impossible to be vnderstood but by the particular fauour of that Doctor of our soules How the holy Scripture growes to be so very obscure and of the infinite wise loue which our Lord hath shewed to vs euen therin CHAP. 38. I Will touch in a few words out of Salmeron the chiefe reasons which make the holy Scripture so very hard Proleg 2. fol. 14. that so I may come to shew how the tender loue of our mercifull Lord doth euidently appeare to vs euen therin This (a) The height of the misteries of Christian Religion difficulty is partly caused by the magnitude and multitude of the mysteries which are there deliuered surpassing all humane vnderstanding and which are able euen to amaze the minde As that of the B. Trinity the Predestination and Reprobation of soules The Incarnation death and Resurrection and Ascension of the sonne of God The Institution of the B. Sacrament such like The variety euen of literall senses wherof the very same words are capable and which are assigned by the holy Fathers themselues besides those other senses which are misticall and spirituall The (b) Predictions of future thinges Predictions of Future things which doe abound in holy Scripture and which as they be hard euen in their owne nature so heere they were much harder to be vnderstood because the holy Ghost had sometimes an expresse designe to hide thē vnder certaine metaphors to the end that on the one side they might lye close frō the notice of wicked kings who otherwise would haue put the Prophets to present death and on the other side that those mysteries might grow in fit tyme by meanes of prayer and other diligences to be conceaued and knowne by the faithfull people of God The seeming of euident contradiction which is in seuerall places of holy Scripture As where it is affirmed that God said vpon the first day let light be made and light was made and yet it is also said That the sunne was made vpon the fourth day The variety (c) Variety of tongues of tongues wherin it was written and into which it is translated euery one wherof hath seuerall manners of speach and seuerall Prouerbes and Parables The great multitude of (d) Multitudes of Tropes Figures Tropes and Figures of all kinds which euery where doe so abound that euen the most learned haue inough to doe The extent (e) The arts and sciences which holy Scripture doth comprehend of so many Arts and sciences as are comprehended by holy Scripture without the vnderstanding wherof it cannot also be vnderstood The (f) Vniuersall propositions which yet are not vniuersally to be vnderstood multitude of vniuersall propositions which yet are not vniuersally to be vnderstood as All things are lawfull to me but all things are not expedient c. The great number (g) Places subiect to variety of sonses by reason of diuersities of natures persōs of places which are subiect to an ambiguous sense both by reason of diuers distinct persons in one and the same diuine nature as in the B. Trinity as also of diuers natures in one and the same person as the diuine and humane nature of Christ our Lord. The (h) The different states of the Church two different states of the Church Militant and Tryumphant and the (i) The double comming of Christ our Lord. double comming of our B. Sauiour once in humility to redeeme vs once in Maiesty to iudge vs. The (k) The suddaine change from one person to another suddaine and instant change of the persons who are brought in to speake and the persons also of them to whome the speach is made which is very often vsed in the Prophets and Psalmes Neither (l) The limitation of thinges inioyned to some and not to others and yet no limitation expressed are all things meant to be inioyned to all but some things only to certaine and peculiar persons by the not knowing of which difference vnaduised men are led on to errour The (m) The easy passage which is made from the letter to the spirit and from temporall thinges to eternall easy and frequent passage from the letter to the spirit from carnall things
into his And (e) No wonder is strange where God is the worke man Psalm 111◠what meruaile can it be that such wōders as these be wrought in man since it is the Creatour of man and of all things els who descends so low as to liue in him he of whom it is sayd that Gloria diuitiae in domo eius What meruaile is it if we be made so glorious and so rich since he vouchsafes to make pure and humble soules the house wherin he desires to be intertayned and euen to be the very couch wherin he delighteth to be enloyed by the most chast but yet most strayte imbracements of diuine loue What meruaile I say if such as receiue this food with pure affections doe lead euen in this world a life which is not of this world since the selfe same God who feeds all the spirits of heauen hath contryued (f) In some sort we are equall to the Angells euen in this life a way how to giue himselfe for the same food to mortall men The same food I say though it be dressed after a different māner and serued in vnder a disguise of the accidents of bread and wine as betwene two couered dishes according to the custome amōgst great persons Euen this of the disguise was also done out of an admirable diuine loue to vs who had not bene able in this fraile state of ours to see God and liue And besides we grow thus to haue a meanes of exercising most heroicall acts of Faith towards him To which acts of beleeuing in this life doth correspond the rewards and glory of perfect seeing in the next But the substance of the food is still the same both heere and there Apoc. 22. And (g) Our food in the blessed Sacramēt is the very same wher with the happy soules are feasted in heauen therfore S. Iohn according to the obseruation of Doctour Auila relates that it was one and not diuers Trees which he saw on both the bancks of that riuer which flowed out of the throne of God Vpon the one of which bancks being the tryumphant Church in heauē Christ our Lord doth sustaine them there and on the other bancke which is the militant Church wherof we haue the honor and happines to be members the same tree of life doth feed vs heere We are also taught this very truth by the sacred mouth of Christ our Lord himselfo Iohn 6. who said That he was the bread that came downe from heauen If therfore he be the bread of heauen he is the food of the inhabitāts of heauen and if that food be thus imparted to his childrē in this world it must be only their fault if they lead not euen heere a life of heauen We (h) How man ennobleth other food by eating it but he is ennobled by this see that in the case euen of common food how base soeuer that be it is raysed by being eaten to the dignity of becōming a part of him who eates it because the man is nobler then the meate and he assumeth it therfore vp to himselfe And what should then become of such as doe worthily feed vpon this bread of life this nourishmēt of heauē which is Christ our Lord but that for as much as this food is infinitely of better quality then our selues by eating it we should be transformed into it and of terrestriall in our conuersation should become celestiall and resemble the Angells in purity since we carry resemblance to them in the food we take which is the God and King of glory An infinite and of it selfe an incredible thinge this is that such creatures as we should be sublimed to such a height of dignity euen in this life But to the end that it might astonish vs the lesse when it should arriue and that our wonder might be all conuerted into loue it (i) The banquet of the B. Sacramēt was fortold by many Figures before it came was the good will of God to foretell vs of it long before and to reprosent it as it were to our very eyes by way of figures and shadowes that so being accustomed to consider those shadowes we might with more facility imbrace the body when it should be come For this is the accomplishment of al those figures of the (1) Exod. 11. Paschall lambe of the (2) Psalm 77. Manna of the bread of (3) Exod. 25. Proposition of the Banquet which King (4) Hester ◠Assuerus made of many others And as it was a body in repect of those former shadowes and figures so may it be accounted in some respects but as a figure in respect of the celestiall Banquet of eternall beatitude which shall be serued in hereafter as the second course of our delicious fare when we are to feed for all eternity The Sacramentall presence of our Lord IESVS doth stay no longer then the species of bread and wine remaine but the ayre vertue thereof doth still contynue till it be driuen thence And (k) The wonderful effects of the B. Sacramēt so great effects they are which grow vpon it in such as are carefull to comply with God as giues them aboundant testimony that no lesse then omnipotency it selfe is there Nay it is most certainly true that the blessed Sacrament doth worke and that very often in the soules of such as dispose themselues deuoutly to it so many and so wonderful effects sometimes in giuing strēgth of body where it was wanting before sometimes in the vtter extirpation of some passion sometymes in the infusion of some great vertue sometymes in changing at a very instant the whole sense of the soule making it all tryumph with ioy wheras immediatly before it was halfe dead of griefe as doth much declare and proue the diuinity of Christ our Lord. Yea and theyr soules doe feele it so as that if there were no other argument or authority in the whole world but what they find within themselues it might serue to giue them great assurance that Christ our Lord is no lesse then God A (l) The great life vigour which growes to the soule by the B. Sacrament Minerall this is soe full of Spirit that it leaues a liuely tincture in the violl wherinto it hath bene powred It perfumes the whole soule if it be well dissolued by acts of loue But then we must doe as we vse whē a roome is well perfumed to keepe the doores and windowes shut Recollection in this case doth euen import a man as much as his life Which yet if God bid him giue ouer and that his diuine Maiesty doe for the reasons of (m) Spirituall comforts must giue place to the exercise of charity obedience 2. Cor. 2. Charity or Obedience require him to open and impart himselfe to others he shall be still A good odour of Christ our Lord to God but withall he hath so much strength as not to be dissipated in
the kingdom of God of the deuill The former being lead by Christ our Lord who marched in the head therof with his meeke and innocent humble little flocke The latter guyded by Iudas with a great multitude of followers who were tumultuous wicked bloudy enuyous and hypocryticall men But (b) Amost iust expostulatioÌ„ agianst the Traytour Iudas tell me O thou miserable creature since the SoÌ„ne of the virgin tooke but twelue Apostles out of the whole world and made choyce of thee for one of them what could moue thee to forget so high a benefit much more what could induce thee to conspire the death of such a benefactour Since he had giuen thee the charge of the little teÌ„porall meanes he had and that by consequence thou must needs be next at hand both at the receiuing of those Almes which were afforded to our Lord IESVS those others also which he would be euer imparting to the poore out of his little store how couldst thou freeze in that yce of thy malice and enuy euen then when thou wert as it were rosting round betweene those two burning fires of charity What colour euen of common sense couldst thou haue to sell that Lord for thirty peeces of siluer Matt. 17. to whome thou hadst seene the very Fishes of the Sea pay Tribute Matt. 17. and how a word of his mouth fed at seuerall tymes so many thousands of men and women in the wildernes Couldst thou being an Apostle sel that Lord for thirty peeces of siluer Matt. 16. when thy selfe hadst seene so lately that the enamoured penitent S. Mary Magdalene who was but newly conuerted from a life of sinne could find in her noble and tender hart to cast away as a man may say three hundred such peeces Marc. 14. as thy thirty were vpon a pretious oyntment wherwith to honor the head of our blessed Lord as it were in the way of a complement Since thou hadst found by dayly experience that he knew the thoughts both of his friends and them who would needs become his foes what phrensey was that which could make thee thinke that thou wert able to ouerreach him by the disguyse of a treacherous kisse wherby thou didst as bad as call him foole into the bargaine And since thou hadst seene that his body was not obnoxious to the obligations of other bodies but that the windes and seas obeyed him and that he could walke vpon the waters and become inuisible when he would what stupidity besides the impiety was that in thee to bid them be carefull to hold him fast and lead him safe wherby thou didst insinuate that he was but a kind of Iugler or Impostour who would worke himselfe out of their fingars by some tricke or other of Legier-de-main Hadst not thou seene the worlds of Miracles which he had wrought He who had restored eyes to the blind could not he haue bidden thyne eyes see no more He who had made Paralitiques stiâ—re and goe could not he haue made all thy bones and sinewes wither in thy skin He who only with a Lazarus veni foras had fetcht that dead man out of his graue Ioan. 11. had not he bene able with the burning breath of his mouth to haue spit thy kisse into thy throate and at the instant to haue depriued thee of life But tell me yet againe O thou Monster and insamy of mankind could those accursed feete of thine lead thee on to such a mischiefe which euen but that very night had bene washt wiped by those hands of mercy Could thy tongue become the forge of so much treachery as to salute him with Hayle Maister when thy errand was nothing els but to betray him could that mouth imploy it selfe in deliuering him vp to death by animating those wretched meÌ„ against him who yet needed no incouragement of thine which for diuers yeares had bene dayly fed both at his table and from his trencher If thy kisses were so cruell what vvere thy vvounds or rather vvhat wound vvas euer so mortall as thy trayterous kisse And although thine ovvne reprobate conscieÌ„ce did not strike thee through vvith horrouâ— vvould not the presece of all thy fellovv-Apostles beate thee blind vvith shame vvho vvere so many vvitnesses against thee of all those benefits which thou hadst receiued that euen then so lately at the hands of such a meeke and mercifull Lord And hadst thou no body to sell him to but those very men of the whole world who did hate him most And was it possible for thy Tygars hart not to relent at least when thou camest to behould that holy person of his And though now he were no more able to worke vpon thee as an obiect of loue yet was it possible that thou shouldest not be wrought vpon by him as he was growne to be an obiect of compassion For thou couldst not but discerne a great change in his diuine countenance towards palenes and weaknes since thou hadst seene him last before through the Agony which he had susteyned and the sweat of bloud which he had powred forth in the Garden At least wert thou able to receaue the sound of that celestiall voyce into thine eares which besides the sacred tune did expresse that sweet and charming ditty Marc. 14. Luc. 12. Amice ad quid venisti osculo silium hominis tradis My friend consider what it is about which thou comesi caust thou find in thy hart to betray the sonne of the Virgin with a kisse And was not euen this of power to make thee at length retract the treason which thou hadst contriued hadst thou more theÌ„ a LegioÌ„ of deuills in thee which at the hearing of his voyce would not leaue thee free for of other meÌ„ we read that he dispossessed theÌ„ of whole Legions all at once by the only word of his sacred mouth At least if there were no remedy but thou wouldst needs coÌ„mit that vast sinne it might haue serued thy turne to haue betraied him by a deputy or if thou must needs do it in sight it might yet haue beene froÌ„ a far of But to do it both in thine owne person that so very neere at haÌ„d as both to speake to him to heare him to embosome thy selfe by a kisse and so betray him was such a high straine of wickednes that we need no lesse then the assurance it selfe of Gods holy Spirit to make vs beleeue that it should be true O (c) The 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 mortall sinne which art both mortal immortall in that thou puttest the soule to death but a death which yet knows not how to dye What ruyne dost thou bring to the hart of man wherin thou raiguest what perfect miracles dost thou worke there in reuersall of those others which are wrought by Grace For as Grace illuminates as it inflames as it instructs as it enriches as it exalts as it delights as it vnites iust so dost
And she expected the Resurrection with an vndoubt and most constant Faith without fluttering at the sepulcher betwene hope feare as others did How solid was her (g) Our B. Ladies inuincible Hope Hope in God when notwithstanding that S. Ioseph saw that she was great with child knew not at that tyme of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God in her sacred wombe And although she might both with great ease and honour haue vnbeguiled him by declaring the mystery yet she rather chose with strange contempt of herselfe to confide in God that without any help of her he would both preserue the espousalls from being dissolued and the fame of her virginity from being touched How nobly did she conside in God Matt. 2. who hauing bene enriched by the three Kings when they adored her Sonne in that stable made such hast as doubtlesse she did to giue all away to the poore in imitation and admiration of how God had emptied himselfe as it were of his Diuinity that he might fill her wombe with his holy Humanity In so much as that when within a few dayes after she went to Present our Lord IESVS in the Temple Luc. 2. she was (h) Returne to the Chapter of the Presentation of our Lord Iesus in the â—eÌ„ple Luc. â— Leuit. 12. not as was said before worth the price of a Lambe but was faigne to make an oblation of Doues which was appointed as proper to the poorest people Being at that Marriage of Cana where there was want of wine she was touched with pitty of their pouerty And though her Sonne our Lord had wrought no miracle till that tyme yet she conceaued in her hart such a most liuely Hope that by supernaturall meanes he would supply all wants as made her but propound the suite in few plaine words deâ—aunding wine for them in that very forme of only representing the necessity which our Blessed Sauiour himselfe was after pleased to vse when he cryed out Sitio vpon the Crosse Of the most ardent Charity both to God and man which raigned in the hart of the Blessed Virgin CHAP. 89. BVT who shal euer be able to expresse her excessiue Charity to God for his sake to man since according to the measure of the Grace which is infused into any soule so is Charity infused and therfore since we haue found her to be full of Grace we are also as sure that she was full Charity Our Lord make vs so happy as that once we may see that soule in heauen for till then we may ayme but we shall neuer be able to hit the marke of her greatnes We haue a Prouerbe and it is no ill one That (a) Out B. Lady was both a Pilgrime and a Post in her way to God the Pilgrime goes as farre as the Post the reason therof is this Because howsoeuer the Pilgrime walkes but slowly on and the Post runs day and night yet for as much as this latter through the much hast he makes doth vse to catch many falls the former who plaÌ„ts his feete at ease is perhaps at his iorneys end before him But now if the speed of the one and the certainty of the other might be so happy as to meete in any person what a deale of way would that creature ridd especially if the tyme should be long which were deputed to that trauaylo It is thou O Queene of heauen who wert that very creature runing on in the way of Sanctity with those most steady yet most swift affections of thy soule as being both the mother and the daughter of that God man thy Sonne our Lord of whome the Royall Prophet did foresee Psalm 18. and say That he exulted like a Giant who was preparing himselfe for his course Which was to be of lesse way then from that high hill of heauen to this low vale of earth But yet it was with this difference that as he made such hast from thence hither by his Incarnation so the hast thou madest was from hence thither by spiritualizatioÌ„ as I may say of thy selfe through thy growing by instants in all vertue For as in the first moment of her most sacred and Immaculate Conception her soule was indued with such a large portion of diuine Grace as might become the Dignity of Gods Mother to which from all eternity she was designed so did she instantly cooperate therewith in all perfection And that cooperation did as it were oblige Almighty God to inrich her with new degrees of Sanctification and that againe produced new acts of most humble and most faithfull loue in her by way of Retribution And in this manner did that happy (b) The continuall most happy strife betweene the Grace of God the soule of the sacred Virgin strife continue betwene the omnipotent and most communicatiue hand of God and that most capable pure holy hart of the Blessed Virgin during so many millions of millions of moment as might run out in seauenty two yeares of time which according to a very probable opinion was the last period of her mortall life So as this posting Pilgrime did set out in the way of Grace and of the loue of God as early as the first instant of her Immaculate Conception she continued therin till the last of her life which was very long And in all that tyme she lost no one minute and euery one of her acts was performed with incomparable and complete perfection And although in all that iourney they winde was euer on her side since the Fomes peccati or Concupiscence was neuer permitted once to breath against her nor any inclinatioÌ„ of sense to oppose the impulse of reason which droue her on yet in the running through that happy race of hers she was visited besides all the rest at (c) Of two admirable increases of Grace in the soule of the sacred Virgin two seuerall times by such a vehement power of Gods spirit namely at the instant of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God in her sacred wombe againe afterward vpon the descent of the holy Ghost which he sent from heauen into her hart that she had such wings added to her soule as made her no longer goe but fly and she sent all her thoughts into God incoÌ„parably with more force of loue theÌ„ any arrow is shot out of a bow by the strongest hand that liues And who shall then be able to measure that (d) The bottomlesse seâ— of the loue of God wherein the B-Virgin did for euer saâ—â— bottomlesse sea of her loue of God Who shall be able to soare into the height of those diuine contemplations wherby that soule was transformed in him farre and farre beyond the vnderstanding of all the spirits in heauen whilst yet she walked vp and downe the world in a garment of flesh and bloud amongst the children of men What sighes teares of admiration and most humble ioy would she be
changed their Lordes and formes of gouerment and not only the feilds haue bene bedevved but euen great Riuers haue beene dyed vvith bloud The (e) The great weakenesse of man euen besides his Wic kednes vveakenesse of man euen abstracting from expresse and malicious vvickednes is a lamentable thing to looke vpon Hovv often do vve erre in that vvherin vve procure least to faile vvho hath not desired and euen purchased many things vvhich he thought had beene a meanes to make him happy from vvhich yet he hath gathered nothing but the bitter fruit of misery No (f) The miserable incōstācy of man Cane is so vveake no vvinde is so inconstant and vvauering from the imoueable North as man is frō the Center of his rest by the variety of contrary dispositions which raigne in him Making him to be now merry and then melancholy now deuout then distracted Nay he sometymes who is valiant temperate wise happy within an hower after will be fearefull luxurious indiscreet and miserable and euen himselfe shall scarce know how that growes nor why So that not only euery Country and Citty family is vpon all warnings subiect to mutation towards the worse but there is no particular man who euen in his owne bosome hath not the woefull sense of such disorder confusion and restlesse variety of discourse that vnlesse our Lord God had vouchsafed and resolued vpon some remedy neither would our possessession haue beene free from desolation nor our bodies from destruction nor our soules from damnation S. Augustine exclaimeth thus by occasion of his owne particular and what then might he haue done vpon the general Tibi (g) How iustly my we all imitate that incōparable Saint in saying this Confes lib. 6. cap. 16. S. Leo ser 2. de Natiuit Dom. laus Tibi gloria fons misericordiarum ego fiebam miserior tu propinquior To thee be prayse to the be glory O thou fountaine of mercy I grew further of from thee by misery thou camest nearer me by mercy For when the world was at the worst and wickedest then did our Lord the God of heauen and earth whose very nature is goodnesse it selfe whose will is power and whose worke is mercy resolue vpon the remedy therof His (h) Nor should we content our selues in doing small seruices to such a Lord of loue as this pitty was not satisfied with contynuing the whole world to our assistance and seruice although by sinne we had forfeited the same It was not satisfied with mainteyning to vs the vse of our faculties and senses wherby we had yet procured to employ our selues wholly to his dishonor It was not satisfied with rayning downe sweet showers of other blessings blowing ouer many bitter stormes of vengeance which his iustice would faine haue powred vpon vs. In fine it was not satissied with such expressions as are wont to be made by the deerest partes of flesh and bloud nor would lesse serue his turne then to giue vs his owne only Sonne for our totall redresse And yet not only for the sauing vs from hell which is but the paine due to sinne but for the guilt also it selfe of sinne which is in comparably worse For so God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that (i) By Faith working with charity but Faith without workes is dead as sayth S. Iames. Prou. 22. whosoeuer should beleeue in him Ioan. 3. might not perish but haue euerlasting life And so that was verified which was said by the mouth of his holy Spirit Diues pauper obuiauerunt sibi Dominus autem operator vtriusque The rich man and the poore haue met one another and our Lord is the worker of both For who so rich as God he being the abundance and the very inexhaustednesse itselfe of all plenty and what is so poore a thing as man and such a man as was euen vpon the very brimme of dropping downe into the bottome of hell if our mercifull Lord had not put himselfe betwene him and home The Originall Roote and Motiue of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered CHAP. 9. THE Loue which our Lord Iesus was pleased to shew mankind is found to be very different from that which the men of this world are wont to beare to one another For either we loue them who are rich that they may reward vs or who are vsefull that they may help vs or who are beautifull that they may delight vs and the best kind of loue which we are wont to beare is when we giue it by way of gratitude for some benefits or fauours which vve haue receiued But (a) The differēce of the loue which our Lord beares to vs in respect of that which we beare to one another man in relation to Christ our Lord was so poore and so deformed a thing and so vvholly disobliging him to loue as that there vvas nothing in man which might so much as speake of challenging any at his hands It may also seeme a greater vvonder hovv he could induce himselfe to loue vs since as there vvas no merit on our side so there vvas no passion or blinde capriciousnesse on his vvhich yet is the thing that cooples creatures together many tymes in the chaynes of loue vvithout all desert For (b) The former doubt is solued by considering the first motiue of the loue of our Lord to vs. the soluing of this doubt at the very roote therof we must resort to the motiue of the loue of Christ our Lord. Amor de Dios. Which was not as Doctour Auila doth excellently shew any perfection in vs but only that which was in himselfe and which by his contemplation of his eternall Fathers wil was put in motion towards mankind It depended vpon that solemne decree which with infinite mercy was made by the most blessed Trinity of imploying him vpon the Redemption and Saluation of the world When therfore he became Incarnate in the pure wombe of his all-immaculate mother in the very instant of the Creation of that most holy soule which was infused into his pretious body it was indued vvith all those incomparable blessings and graces vvherof vve haue already spoken and all vpon no other originall ground but onely because our Lord God vvas pleased to amplify extend his bountiful hand ouer that sovvle and so to exalt his ovvne goodnes both tovvards it and vs. Nor euen vvas that soule then in case to haue performed any one act vvhich might be meritorious in the sight of God out of vvhose pure and primitiue grace and mercy those vnspeakeable benefits vvere bestowed But vvhen in that happy instant vvherin it vvas created it did first open the eyes (c) What vnspeakeable affections would be raysed in that soule by that sight of her already deified vnderstanding and did see her selfe freely made that excellēt thing vvhich God is only able
griefe of our Lord Iesus novv vve vvill but consider hovv infinitely the nature of God doth abhorre any one single sinne And hovv straitly our Lord IESVS had obliged himselfe out of loue to satisfy Gods Iustice for them all And hovv certainely he savv that the farre greater part of men vvould take no benefit at all by that bitter Passion But that some would not beleeue it some others vvould not apply it yea and that some would euen blaspheme it as thinking it impossible that God himselfe should be so good to them If vve consider that men vvho seriously desire to serue God vvith perfection are profoundly afflicted euē for the least discorrespondence to the motion of his holy Spirit and much more for any small defect into vvhich by their fault they may haue fallen And vvhen there hath beene question of greater sinnes there be men and vvomen vvho haue dyed as hath been sayd euen of pure repentance sorrovv for them And yet hovv fevv sinnes had they to be sory for in comparison of the sinnes of the vvhole vvorld And hovv little could they be sorry euē for their ovvne in cōparison of the griefe vvhich did seize the hart of our blessed Lord for those very sinnes Which (d) We shall greeue for onr sinnes after the rate of our know ledge and loue of God vvas so much greater then theirs as his knovvledge loue of God them his vnderstanding detestation of all sinne vvas greater If vve cōsider the seuerall kinds of sinne vvhich as hath been touched before vvere distinctly represented to the minde of Christ our B. Lord All the sinnes of Idolatry heresy offending after an infinite māner his most religious piety All the sinnes of pride his profound humility All the sinnes of vvrath his inuincible patience All the sinnes of cruelty and enuy those bovvels of his charity and mercy All the sinnes of gluttony and prodigality his his perfect pouerty and sobriety All the sinnes of abhominable bestiall and not so much as to be named sensuality his impenetrable supercelestiall purity If concerning Idolatry vve consider that it is either exteriour or interiour Exteriour vvhen Sacrifice is offred to a materiall externall Idoll interiour vvhen Christians or any other do lodge a creature in theyr harts which though they know not to be God yet they esteeme and obey and doe more honour to it then to God And if vve consider hovv for these seuerall kindes of sinnes he felt and vvas to feele a seuerall kind of Crosse an outvvard crosse to vvhich they vvould crucify his sacred body and another vvhich vvas inward to which he crucified his ovvne hart through griefe and loue In (e) How our Lord was wounded by the considetion of Gods iustice and bate of sinne and our great misery particular our Lord had his eye vpō that inflexible decree of God which dāned so many millions of Angells for one only sinne And how for one sinne he droue Adam out of Paradise Yea and how not only for the fault or guilt of sinne he is so terrible but euē for the penalty due to any one sinne although the fault be put away by pennance that he inflicteth excessiue paine in Purgatory if satisfaction be not made in this life He had besides in his sight the miserable weakenesse of man towards all good workes which weakenesse men cōtract by sinne besides the sinnes thēselues and these are the effects teliques therof And he well knew that they would make it very difficult for men to serue God without a great abōdāce ofgrace which he only could tell how to merit for thē Add to this that he cleerly saw all those vast affronts which in that night and the next day were to be done to himselfe with the hideous torments which he vvas sure they would inflict vpon him He also saw the Martyrdomes of all his Prophets past his Apostles and other Martyrs which were then to come the banishment and confiscation of his seruants persons and goods the contempt and prophanation of his Sacraments There was no place wheron he could tell how to rest the head of his hart The Synagogue was all in effect corrupt and almost dead and buried His Church vnder the name of Christian not then borne One of his Apostles was gone to betray him another would shortly deny him and the rest were vpon the point to runne from him His B. Mother in whom only he might haue taken intiere delight was to suffer martyrdome in her soule which was to be transpierced with a sword of sorrow Whithersoeuer he might cast his thoughs in the search of some little comfort they were bowed as it were and beaten backe againe into his owne sad hart which was become a whole Sea of sorrow How would he grieue for all this vvho grieued till he wept againe Ioan. 11. and till he was troubled and did groane in spirit for the only temporall death of Lazarus All these things I say being vvell considered and duely pondered I (f) It is no wonder if such incōparable causes of griefe did produce so strange effects in the wounded hart of our Lord Iesus cease to meruaile that such a generall muster of hell as this had like euen vvith the only apprehention therof to haue extinguished the pure lampe of his pretious life Or yet that it cost him so much shame vvith the horrour to see such a vvorld of filth cast before him vvhich novv he vvas to take vp and to make his ovvne as vvas able to put him into expresse Agony Or in fine that it drevv out that svveat and euen shovver of bloud as if it had bene to shevv the profound reason vvhich euen all his body had to blush therat Or els according to the deuoute contemplation of holy S. Bernard as if he should haue shed teares ouer all his body since his sacred eyes alone had not inough of the sluce for such a purpose Of the excellency of Prayer declared by occasion of that Prayer of our B. Lord in the Garden CHAP. 57. INFALLIBLY he must needs haue dyed vnder this huge weight of sorrow if particular force had not bene sent him by the good will of God as the sorrow of the same kind though incomparably of an inferiour degree hath depriued many others of their life Nor are we able to discerne visibly by what meanes this strength and succour came imparted to him but only by the visitation of the Angell and the feruour and perseuerance of his Prayer to the eternal Father (a) We ought to carry great deuotion reuerence to the Angells of God Now since our Lord who as God was the King of glory did not yet disdaine as man to accept that seruice and assistance from an Angell much more must we who are in the next degree to Nothing carry great deuotion to those blessed spirits who come to vs with succour in their hands at such times as when
wee are in greatest straites And as for the vse of prayer since it is an eleuation of the mind towards God a treaty of the soule with him Since he admits vs whensoeuer we apply our selues to haue audience Since not only he receaues vs if we come but he loues vs so deerly much as to inuite vs and commaund vs yea and to be highly offended if we refraine Since he inclynes himselfe to enrich vs with al heauenly graces vpon the only price of being desired by vs that he will make vs rich and that the more we aske the more we haue Since he is of so excellent condition as neuer to cast his benefits into our teeth which temporall Princes who are but dust and ashes otfen doe and yet the fauours which they cā afford are but trash and toyes and euen they are often tymes denyed and yet all men are glad to be their suytours Since according to the persons vvith whome we are accustomed to conuerse vve sucke their qualities into our selues therfore by negotiating the busines of our soules with that fountaine of Sāctity it is not possible but that we should improue our selues therin Since howsoeuer in other things the Saintes of God haue bene of different gust one excelling in exteriour penāce another in mortificatiō of himselfe within one addicting himselfe to action anotherto contēplation and the rest best to a life mixt of both yet there was neuer any Saint vnlesse some perhaps who haue bene conuerted and canonized both at once with some Martyrs Crowne who hath not bene diligēt in the vse of Prayer And lastly chiefely since we find it to be recommēded both by the Doctrine exāple of our Lord IESVS throughout the whole time of his holy life especially now in the garden whē he was to treate of the great affaire of our redemption And when after a sort it was put to a kind of question whether he should liue til the next day leaue his life vpō the crosse by the hands of others or else to dye that night of the pure griefe of his owne distressed and wounded hart Since we see him at an instant become victorious ouer al the powers of earth and hell And that he who immediatly before was so defeated immediatly afterward was so full of courage as to say to his Apostles in the third visit which he made thē at euery of which tymes he found them sleeping Rise vp Matt. 26. behold the man who is at hand to betray me Since by this example the practise of our blessed Lord both mentall and vocall prayer are set out vocall in few words though thrice repeated the mentall as being much the more excellent taking vp a farre longer space of tyme for when he fell into that Agony it is expressed by the Euangelicall history as hath bene said already that he persisted long in Prayer Ibid. Since the Apostles who were commaunded by our Lord to watch and pray least els they might enter into Temptation did for the present fall a sleep through their negligence in the vse of that holy exercise when they should haue waked and shortly after did forsake their Maister when they should haue accompanied him to his crosse Since these things I say are so and not only these but a thousand more which appeare in their workes who write of Prayer and much more in their harts and liues who vse it much What Christian soule is that which will not apply it selfe to this holy happy exercise Which howsoeuer it be a guift of God and depends vpon the liberality of his holy hand yet as he worketh in all things sweetly so doth he also in this particular and he is pleased to vse some men towardes the instruction of others the former exercising their charity and the latter their humility It (b) It is necessary to take counsayle in the vse of mentall Prayer of some good spituall maister wil therfore be wholly necessary for him who will study this art of arts to betake himselfe to some well experienced guide Though in regard that it is not so much a busines of the head as of the hart the best maister vnder heauen will be a pure and vertuous life For prayer and practise of vertue are very circular depēdant vpon one another And he who prayes deuoutly will liue vertuously and he who procures to lead a vertuous life will quickly be able to praye deuoutly And we see the effects of this happy exercise as hath been said by what it wrought in the wounded soule of our Lord IESVS and how it raysed him vp into so much strength as to enable him to goe and meete those enemies of God and him in the face whome not long before he besought his eternall Father that he would auert Wherby yet we must not vnderstand that we are authorized to thrust our selues into imminent and certaine danger of death whē without any disseruice to Almighty God or disaduantage to his cause we may auoyd the same But (c) How we are to carry our selues in the flight of persecution more or lesse only that when our Lord doth call vs to it and when the hower is come which he in his eternall prouidence hath prefixed we are to encounter to imbrace the Crosse with alacrity In former tymes the malicious Iewes had a minde to haue apprehended so to haue precipitated him downe from a hill Ioan. 7. but he made himselfe inuisible to their eyes and the cause is there assigned because his hower was not then arriued And so he could also heere haue as easily made himself insensible to their hands if it had not bene that the same hower of his which was not come before was come now And with vnspeakeable loue he was pleased that that other should be said to be no hower of his because it vvas not appointed for him to suffer in Luc. 22. But this vvas his hovver and it vvas also the hovver of those perfidious Ievves and of the Prince of darkenes by reason of the povver vvhich then vvas giuen them ouer Christ our Lord. The apprehension of Christ our Lord and a iust expostulation with the Traytour Iudas for that hideous treason of his togeather with a description of mortall sinne and the danger which we are put into by all voluntary veniall sinnes CHAP. 58. THE Traytour Iudas who made himselfe the keeper of that clocke for that tyme had woone it vp and set it so by the men vvhome he had put to vvorke that it vvas grovven ready euen then to strike For behould he came vvith a band of Pagan souldiers a great svvarme of Ievvish Officers to apprehend and sell his Mastier ouer into the possession of death Whosoeuer had seene those two troopes encounter one another might (a) Christ our Lord and Iudas did leade the two kingdoms of God the diuell haue beheld a most liuely picture in little of