meanes of her sinne did Adam sinne and so haue wee all done after him Such a kinde of refreshinge was allowed to Christ our Lord against his paine and torment of thirst which was to encrease the same paine and torment So saith Saint Cyrill In stead of some wholesome drinke which might refresh him they gaue him a bitter and hurtfull drinke and that curtesy which they would seeme to vse in giuing him somewhat to take was conuerted into cruelty by giuing him so vile a thing And this did Saint Luke chap. 23. signify saying that the soldiers putting a scorne vpon our Lord did offer him vineger The Psalme recounts the iniury and affliction which hereby they put vpō Christ our Lord amongst the rest of his torments saying Psal 68. They gaue mee gall in steed of meate and in my thirst they gaue mee vineger to drinke That is to say they were so farre from hauing compassion of me in my miseries so great was the cruelty which they vsed towards me that when I came with my Crosse vpon my backe to the place of torment in steed of some aromaticall wine such as they vsed to giue dying men for their comfort they gaue mee wine corrupted and mingled with gall and mirrhe which being so very thicke was become as a most bitter and most hurtful meate And being afterward nayled vpon the very Crosse hauing my blood exhausted and I being totmented with thirst and declaring the thirst I had they gaue mee vinagre mingled with gal to drinke This was the torment of thirst which Christ our Lord suffered vpon this Crosse and thus was he content to be abandoned and by meanes of this and the rest which he endured there all faithfull Christiās are to comfort thēselues in their corporall infirmities and must be animated to endure them with Patience to imitate our Lord thereby and conforme themselues to his holy wil. So saith Saint Gregory To the end that sicke persons may conserue the vertue of Patience in their sicknesses they must cōtinually consider the paines which our God and our Redeemer did suffer at the hands of his owne creatures how many affronts how many buffets how many spittings how many scourges and how many thornes he endured for our saluation and particularly how to bestow the sweetnes of heauen vpon vs he tooke when he was most thirsty the bitternes of gall for himselfe This is the saying of Saint Gregory Besides this Christ our Lord declared by many examples and testimonies of the holy Ghospell how great blessings are contained in corporall infirmities and how great fruites are gathered from thence by such as endure them with Patience By this meanes of sicknesse he drew many to his Faith and to his grace and to the obedience of his Ghospell and he cured them so of many sinnes For when they found themselues sicke they went in search after health of the body and then belieuing and doing penance for their sinnes they obtained also health for their soules So doth the holy Euangelists informe vs often For speaking of those woemen who with great deuotion faith followed Christ our Lord Saint Luke saith chap. 8. Our Lord going to preach amongst those Citties and townes diuers woemen followed him whom he had deliuered from impure spirits cured of their infirmities Some of these were Marie Magdalen and Ioanna the wife of Chusa a lawyer of Herods and Susanna and many others And they following our Lord did supply him out of their meanes with necessaries for the sustentation of his life By these words the holy Euangelist giues vs to vnderstād that their hauing bene sicke and cured by our Lord was the way to make them beleeue in him to follow him both in body and soule And of the womā who was sicke of a bloody fluxe Matth. 9. Marc. 5. and had found no remedy by her Physitians S. Matthew declares the same and that her infirmity had made her looke for remedy in Christ our Lord to be beleeue and confide in him with so liuely faith that shee obtained health both in body and soule And the same thing happened to the paralitike Mat. 9. Mar. 2. for whom the roofe of the house was taken of that he might be brought before our Lord for his infirmity was the cause why he made himselfe be carryed presented to him and that he would beleeue in him with sorrow for his sinnes and so obtaine pardon thereof The same also happened to innumerable other sicke persons whose sicknesses were the cause why they sought out Christ our Lord and gaue eare to his word and beleeued in him and amended their liues and obtained true cure of their soules A great blessing of God is this kinde of corporal infirmity since it is the roote and occasion of so high a good as it is for man to know his sinnes and to be sory for them and to obtaine a cleane and healthfull soule and eternall happines afterward Saint Gregory aduises sicke persons to consider this well that so they may vnderstand the great benefit of sicknesse and thus he saith Let sicke persons consider how profitable the sicknes of the body is for the health of the soule how great a gift of God it is For it makes a man enter into himselfe and knowe his weakenes and his sinnes and the miseries to which he is subiect It makes him feare God and reforme his life that so by meanes of penance he may be made cleane from his former sinnes and may be bridled and fortified towards the not cōmitting others afterward Saint Gregory Nazianzen relates how being one day present with Eudoxius a holy man who was sicke and interpreting at the request of the sicke man the seauenty second Psalme wherein the holy Ghost declares how God is wont to visit his seruants in this life with the scourges of sicknesses and other afflictions that holy man whom some cōceiue to haue bene Saint Basill lift vp his eyes to heauen and exclamed saying I giue thee thankes ô celestiall Father and Creatour of mankinde for that thou doest vs good against our wills that is thou sendest vs infirmities other miseries which wee would not haue whereby yet thou doest good to our soules by exercising this exteriour man which is the body thou clensest the interiour man which is the minde and thou carriest vs on towards eternall happines by aduersities and contradictions to our gust And Saint Gregory addes further that the Saint spoke those words as reioycing and delighting in his sicknesse This diuine effect of sicknesse is thus declared in holy scripture by the mouth of the wise man Prou. 20. The signe of the hurt and the secret woundes of the belly doe cure mens euills His meaning is that both the exteriour hurts of the body which are not very grieuous and those also which are deep and dangerous and doe pierce euen into the most inward parte of the bowells doe clense the soule
it in this manner in the interiour part of his hart O most happy Crosse how long is it since I haue loued desired thee it is now three and thirty yeares since I liue enamoured of thee and I all enkindled with the flames of this desire and loue to see myselfe conioyned to thee O thou most pretious wood wherupon the iust price for sinne shall be payed and the diuine iustice shall remaine fully satisfied and my Father shall be perfectly glorified and man shall be saued freed from sinne and death and eternall damnation shal make his entry into the Kingdome of heauen O with how good a will I suffer my selfe to be nayled to thee and will so continue vpon thee till I leaue to liue And because the affection and desire which Christ our Lord had to suffer was the cause of that vnspeakable Patience wherewith he endured all the sorrowes and torments of the Crosse let vs cōsider the testimonies of the Ghospel wherin he declared the frāke will desire which he had to suffer and wherwith he offered himselfe to his Passion and death He discouered this his pleasure in that he manifested and declared many times and in particular manner to his disciples how he was to suffer in Ierusalem and the torments kinde of death which he was to suffer Once he said thus to them Matt. 16. It is fit that I goe to Ierusalem and that I suffer many torments at the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees and chief Priests and that I be put to death by them And Saint Peter perswading him not to endure it he reproued him in sharpe manner for seeking to hinder his Passion It is cleer that since he knew so long before what he was to suffer he might haue auoided it and fled from it if he would and since he did not so it is plaine he had an affection and desire to suffer it Another time going vp to Ierusalem some few dayes before that Easter when he suffered he said thus to them Matt. 20. Behould we are going vp to Ierusalem and the son of man is to be deliuered vp to the Princes of the Priests to the Scribes who will condemne him to death and will deliuer him ouer to the Gentiles to the end that he may be scorned scourged and crucified by them As if he had said Behould how without being carryed or compelled we goe in a most voluntary manner to Ierusalem where those thinges which concerne my Passion and death are to be accomplished to the end that you may vnderstād how willingly I offer my selfe to that Passion and death whereby I am to saue the world He also discouered the great affection and desire which he had to suffer by his going to that garden which was so notorious a place and where he knew his enemies would seeke and finde him out as also in that being there and knowing that his enemies came to apprehend him he went not thence to some other place where they might not finde him but he went by that very way where they were cominge towards him he went to meet them and animated his disciples to goe with him saying Matt. 26. Rise vp and let vs goe for he who will betray mee is neer at hand So saith Saint Ierome when he declares these words Our Lord wēt to encounter his persecutors without any feare at all of his Passion and he voluntarily deliuered himself to them that they might depriue him of his life and he said to his disciples Rise vp and let vs goe as if he had said let not our enemies finde vs heer like fearfull men but let vs goe with good courage to receiue them and let them see the confidence and cheerfullnes wherewith we offer our selues to death Being gone forth to meet his enemies and already standing before them and they hauing many lights wherby they looked vpō him he being well knowen to them and especially to Iudas yet was it not in their power to know him then because he gaue them not that power not concurred with that faculty of their minde wherby they were to haue knowen him till such time as he discouered himselfe to them by saying It is I declaring thereby how truly it was in his owne hād not to be takē or so much as touched by thē vnles he would himselfe So saith Saint Chrysostome Our Lord stāding in the middest of his enemies did blinde their eyes this he did to make them know that not onely they could not haue apprehended him but not so much as haue seen him if himselfe had not giuen thē power to doe it He also declared thus much by making them returne and fall backward to the ground like dead men and that with one onely word discouering cleerly thereby how easy a thing it had bene for him to defend himselfe from them to take away both their strength and life if he had bene pleased He had formerly bene in feare in the garden to declare the weakenes of mans nature and by the immense loue which he bore to man he ouercame all that naturall feare and he being ouercome by that very loue and by the extreame desire which he had to suffer for the saluation of mankinde wēt forth to receiue his enemies as if they had bene his most beloued friēds And first hauing made it plaine that they could not once haue touched him nor so much as haue knowen him if he had not bene so pleased he then gaue thē leaue and power to doe what they would to him And this he declared by saying This is your houre and the power of darcknes This is that hower wherein liberty is giuen you to the end that you and the Princes of darcknes by your meanes may execute both his power his cruell wil vpon my person This affection wherewith Christ our Lord offered himselfe to the torments of death and this inuincible Patience wherewith he endured them had bene prophecied by Esai 53. chap. in these words He offered himselfe to death because he would The same Prophet had said The eternall Father had layd all our sinnes vpon Christ our Lord to the end that he might satisfy for them all and all those sinnes might be destroyed consumed by the vertue of his Passion And instantly he declares the manner how he layd them vpon him which was not by forcing or constraining him to suffer but by infusing an immense charity into him and by inspiring mouing his heart thereby to the end that voluntarily and freely with extreame readines and gladnes he might offer himselfe to death And declaring the Patience wherewith he suffered that death he saith As a sheepe he opened not his mouth So great was the Patience the desire and loue wherewith he endured the torments which he tooke vpō him for the discharge of our sinnes that he opned not his mouth either to defend himself or complaine of others Like a quiet sheepe
taught that the diuells could do no hurt to the swine vnles our Lord had giuen them leaue as neither the diuell nor any other creature can doe vs any hurt at all vnlesse God giue thē power to that purpose and vnlesse he worke by meanes of the diuel or that other creature which doth vs hurt whatsoeuer it be For though God be not the cause of any fault or sinne yet is he the cause of the punishment which is brought on by reason of the sinne or fault is receiued by meanes thereof So saith Saint Athanasius Since the diuels haue not so much as power ouer swine which are but the goods of men it is cleer that they haue no power ouer men who are made according to the image of God and so wee haue no cause to feare the diuells but onely God And the same did he declare concerning the hurt which might growe to vs from any other creature that it also proceeds from the hand of God saying Matt. 10. Two sparrowes are of so little value that they are sold for a toy and yet God hath so particular care and prouidence ouer euery one of them that not one can fall dead to the ground or be taken in a snare without his disposition will And thē how much more will he take care of men and not consent that any creature should so much as touch them either in soule or body or so much as in their goods without his leaue In this māner did Christ our Lord declare that all ills of punishment proceed to vs from the hād of God He also shewed how he ordaines them all to the good of soules that is to the end that sinners may be cōuerted and iust persons saued because he desires not the death of a sinner but that he may be conuerted and liue particularly he procures this when he takes their goods from them as Saint Augustine notes saying thus When God visits his seruants with the want of thinges necessary for this life and makes them suffer hunger or thirst as he proceeded with the Apostles he failes not thereby of the promise which he made them that nothing should be wanting to them For these temporall goods are helpes and kinds of Physicke to the soule and God is the Physitian who best knowes when to minister them and when to remoue them and so when they are wanting to vs as they are many times wee must knowe that God Almighty is the cause thereof for the exercise of our vertue and for the good of our soules And speaking in particular of that which Christ our Lord did with the Gerasins in depriuing them of their goods when he gaue the diuells leaue to drowne their swine Saint Ierome saith Christ our Lord gaue thē not that liberty by way of granting their desire or to performe their will but to the end that the losse of their goods might be profitable to the owners for their soules be an occasion of their saluation And the spirituall profit which came to them hereupon as Saint Chrisostome obserues was that they might knowe the power which diuells had to doe men hurt if God did not hinder them and so they might be thankefull to him for defending them by his diuine prouidēce as also to the end that they might feare and fly from sinne by meanes whereof men grewe subiect to the power of diuells to be vexed by them in this life with temporall paines and in the next with eternall torments These are the motiues reasons which a faithfull Christian must consider to the end that he may beare the losse of temporall goods with Patience namely the exāple of Christ our Lord that it comes from the hand of God and for the good of his soule And thus the losse of temporal goods will be of greater profit to him then the encrease thereof would haue bene For that little temporall losse will be the occasion of a great spirituall gaine The Saints of God haue confessed experimented this truth Whilest the blessed Laurentius Iustinianus he who afterward was Patriarch of Venice was one day out of his Monastery the house fell on fier and that parte thereof was burnt where he kept the prouisions of food which he had laid vp for the whole yeare When the Saint came home from abroad the Religious men tould him what had past and they were afflicted by occasion of so great a losse But the Saint cōsidering how it came ordained by the prouidence of God who so deerly loues vs and who in all thinges procures the good of soules and especially of such as serue him receiued this losse with much contentment though not for the losse it selfe but because the will and ordination of Almighty God was accomplished thereby And so with a cheerfull contenance he said to his Religious What hurt is there my children in this which hath happened to vs It is no ill but good it is no losse but gaine since by meanes thereof wee shall better execute our good desires in practising pouerty and Patience It is a great benefit to the seruant of God and of much merit and value when he may distribute his goods to the poore and imploy them vpon the workes of mercy but if he chāce to loose his goods if they be stolne from him if gotten away by iniustice or lost by any other accident and if he accept of that losse with much Patience and with much contentment for the loue of God and to conforme himself with his diuine will who so ordained he ordinarily doth aduantage his soule more and it doth merit more and please God more by this course then by the other For this Act of the vertue of Patience resignation is more pure free frō selfe loue thereby a man doth more deny and mortify his owne will doth more exercise Faith and hope in God as also the loue of his and the estimation of his holy will And so wee see that our Lord hath takē away these goods by some sinister accident from many Saints which they would haue giuen away in almes to affoard them meanes of greater merit thereby and for the exercise of that rare Patience wherwith they accepted and loued their aduersity and had gust therein as proceeding from the will of God Saint Iohn the Patriarch of Alexandria a man of rare mercy towards miserable men and euen a very miracle of mercy sent from Alexandria to the Adriaticke sea thirteene ships full loaden with marchandise and thinges of value which he had raised out of the Reuenues of his Church that so they might be sold in diuers parts remote and the whole price be giuen by him to poore people in the way of almes as his custom was Now it pleased Almighty God that vpon the rising of a great tempest at Sea al the goods were cast away and the shippes returned empty to Alexādria And God did thus ordaine because he more esteemed the
from sinne An admirable mercy of God i◠this and a most singular testimony of his loue and of the most ardent desire which he hath of our saluation For man being forgetfull of himselfe and carelesse of his saluation and in stead of vertue louing vice not walking on towards heauen but towards hell Almighty God is pleased to visit him with sicknesse and tribulation against his will whereby he makes him enter into himselfe and to abhorre the sinne which he loued before and to forsake the way of hell wherin he was going and to pursue the way of heauen which he had left and to fly from many sinnes into which formerly he had fallen This is that mercy of God which Saint Isidorus ponders saying Almighty God seeing that many men will not reforme themselues vpon the motion and at the instance of their owne will sends them aduersities that being troubled afflicted they may be amended and so growe to loue those things which formerly they loued not And finding that some are so inclined and prompt to sinne he scourges them with infirmities of the body to the end that they may giue it ouer and he leaues them sicke because it is better for them to be broken by sicknesse and paine and so to obtaine the eternall saluation of their soules then to liue full of health and full of sinne and so to walke on towards hell This is the saying of Saint Isidorus And because sicknesse doth not produce so excellent and diuine effects in all Christians to take away their former sinnes and to hinder such as are future but onely in some who when they are sicke doe enter seriously into their owne hearts and haue contrition for their sinnes and change their liues it is therefore necessary for all men vpon obseruing that they are sicke to opē the eyes of their soule to examine their consciences well and to consider seriously of all those thinges which may giue impediment to their saluation and confessing their sinnes with sorrow giue a faithfull account of all to their ghostly Father instantly put all things in order with great diligence which concerne the amendment and reformation of their liues least otherwise that sicknesse which God did send a man with loue and mercy and to the end he might be clensed from sinne and so be saued doe not growe to serue but as a preface and beginning of those endles torments which are to be suffeby him in the next life as it will be to all them who will not profit by the sicknesses which God sends So saith the same Saint The scourge of aduersity and tribulation doth then clense the soule from sinne when the man changes his manner of life for vnles he change his life his sinnes remaine where they were So that vpon the whole matter euery scourge aduersity which God sends a man in this life is either to be as a spirituall Purgatory for his sinnes committed and of the penalty to which he is subiect for the same or els it will serue for a beginning of that other paine which he is to suffer afterward For certainly the paines and torments which are eternally to be suffred by some in the life to come are begun to be suffered some of them euen in this life The truth which this holy Doctor hath drawē out of holy scripture carries great force with it and the Holy Ghost therein doth teach vs and confirme by the example of many sinners that God did scourge them with great infirmities and because they profited not thereby they passed on from temporall paine and death to eternall And this ought to moue vs much to receiue any sicknesse as a most pretious gift of God and to giue him great thankes for it and to profit by it making a change of our life to the better to the end that being cleer both of guilt and paine we may make a short and certaine entry into eternall life And so that may be fulfilled in vs which Ecclesiasticus chap. 3 saith A great infirmity of the body makes a mās minde sober that is it cleers it from sinne and doth moderate and iustify it in all thinges THE VIII CHAPTER Of other great benefits which are drawen from corporall infirmities when they are borne with Patience BEsides this so excellent effect of clensing and freeing the soule from sinne infirmity of the body vses to produce diuers others which are very high of incomparable benefit Which dispose the soule to the end that it may receiue giftes from God that it may better and perfect it selfe more in vertue and increase in merit and that it may praise and glorify almighty God more and that a man may so become a particular instrumēt of the glory of God which shines in him either by his freeing him from that sicknesse with particular prouidence and loue or by giuing him admirable vertue and strength wherby to endure it with so great Patience that it may be seen how it is God who helpes him to endure so much and with so good a will in contemplation of eternall life Those blinde men to whom Christ our Lord gaue their sight at his entry and issue out of the Citty of lericho Luc. 18 Mat. 20. had neither seen his miracles nor heard his doctrine but had onely met with the fame of the wonderfull thinges which he did and of the mercy which he vsed towards all and thereby they grew to beleeue in him with so great faith and deuotion that before all those troopes which followed him they did with great cries confesse him to be the true Messias and the Sauiour of the world saying Iesus thou sonne of Dauid haue mercy on vs. And after when they receiued their sight they followed our Lord praising and glorifying God Many of the children of Israell and of the wise and prudent men of the people had heard the doctrine of Christ our Lord and seen his miracles with their owne eyes yet they had not embraced his faith nor had they bene moued by his works to glorify Almighty God whilest yet these blinde men by the onely fame of the workes of Christ our Lord which had come to their eares receiued his faith and glorified and confessed our Lord. And the cause thereof was in regard that the blindenes and pouerty of these men made them more capable and better disposed to consent to those diuine inspirations wherewith Christ our Lord toucht their hearts and called them to receiue the light of faith which Christ our Lord offered thē as also to the end that the fier of diuine loue might more easily inflame their soules with true deuotion and moue them to glorify the diuine Maiesty The Ghospell expresses not that Christ our Lord did pardon their sinnes or that he bad them sinne no more as he had done to other sicke persons but that he gaue them light both in body and soule to the end that they might see and beleeue
comforted in this kinde of tribulation and be encouraged to beare it with Patience resoluing to take it at the hand of God and resigning themselues to his diuine will to the end that he may doe and dispose of them as shall be most pleasing to himself And let them remaine firmly perswaded in their very hearts that so long as they conserue a hatred against sinne and a firme resolution to comply with the commaundments of God and that chiefly for the loue of him and through an effectuall desire and will to please God in those thinges which he hath ordained although they be much afflicted withall and loue without any comfort or sensible feeling of deuotion yet in truth they are the friends of God they are in the state of grace they walke on towards saluation eternall life they are pleasing to God by their good workes and he will neuer abādon or forsake them For thus hath he promised to such as with loue perseuer in his seruice saying to euery one of thē as he said Iosue 1. and Heb. 13. I will not forsake thee nor take my hand off from thy defence THE XII CHAPTER Of the necessity and fruite of Patience and how it is a signe of the elect and predestinated of God BY many waies did Christ our Lord declare the great fruites and merits of Patience in his holy Ghospell First by hauing ordained that tribulations and aduersities should be the way to heauē which cannot be well borne and without disaduātage to the soule but by the vertue of Patience This ordination of his did he discouer to vs in that himself being come into this world to saue it and to restore man to the grace glory of the eternall Father which man had lost by sinne he was pleased that his most holy life should be assaulted and exercised from the first instant of his birth to the last when he expired vpon the crosse by many persecutions aduersities of many kindes And this is that which was signified by Simeō Luc. 2. when taking the infant Iesus into his armes he said to the Virgin This infant shall be set vp for a signe which shall be contradicted Christ our Lord was the signe of mans reconciliation to God and of the pardon of sinne and of eternal life for Christ our Lord wrought all this And as a cause is a signe of the effect so Christ our Lord was the signe of all the good which came to man and of that mercy and loue which God shewed him but yet withall he was a signe contradicted by the diuell and by the world A signe he was against which al the louers of the world and all maligne spirits did by their meanes dart forth the arrowes of persecutiōs of iniuries of torments and contradictions both in word deed This is that way which Christ our Lord chose for himselfe in this world and since all the elect and predestinated of God are to be like Christ our Lord as Saint Paul Ro. 8. declareth saying They whom God elected and approued from al eternity he ordained that they should be like his sonne who is the perfect image of the eternall Father it followeth that they all must walke in the way of tribulations and aduersities as Christ our Lord did to the end that being partakers of his Passion they may also partake the honour of the sonnes of God the glory of being kings in heauen This is explicated by Saint Gregory in these words He asketh what is the reason why God afflicts and abases them in this life imposing contempt and paine vpon them whom he hath elected from all eternity to become so very high and glorious in the Kingdome of heauen And he answeres his owne question thus Because God sees that he is to recompence and reward men with such immense and eternall benedictions in heauen for this very cause doth he afflict them cōcerning these inferiour things of the earth depriuing them of things of small value and inflicting paines vpon them which last not long Since therefore it is so certainly true that a man can not beare the aduersities of this life to the profit of his soule and with the fruite of vertue and the merit of eternall glory but by fortifying his heart through the the vertue of Patience it followes that Patience is that thing which carries men on with security and certeinty through the right way to heauen which is that of tribulations and that consequently the same Patience is the marke of such as are elected and predestinated by Almighty God For all men both good and bad haue aduersities tribulations in this l◅ though some more then others and therefore the onely hauing them is no signe of predestination but the suffering thē with Patience that indeed is the signe which distinguishes them who are elected and predestinated frō such others as are not so This did holy Iudith lib. Iud. c. ◠confesse saying that all they who haue bene pleasing to God haue passed faithfully through many tribulations He saith not that they only had tribulations but that they perseuered faithful therein to God and obedient to his diuine will which signifies that they exercised true Patience in their tribulations This very ordination did our Lord discouer also in that being able to cast all those damned spirits into the bottomles abisse of hell and to keepe them shut vp there till the end of the world without giuing then power to goe once out from thence yet he doth not so but allowes them liberty to goe forth to remaine in the aire amongst men though yet withall for as much as concernes themselues they carry the very paine of hell about them Of this wee haue a testimony in the Ghospell For Christ our Lord being in the company of the Gerasens Luc. 8. and hauing cast a legion of diuels out of a certaine man they besought him not to cast them into hell which he graunted so he gaue them liberty to possesse a heard of swine which they drowned And that liberty which our Lord gaue to those diuels to remaine here amōgst mē he allowes to innumerable others he doth it to the ēd that they may assault mē with seuerall temptations that so they may exercise Patience and humility by suffering their attempts and by ouercoming the persecution of the diuells So saith Saint Chrysostome The diuells desired of Christ our Lord that he would not cast them downe into that bottome that is out of the world into that darkenes and Abisse of Hell as the diuells had deserued and our Lord forbore to cast thē downe and suffered them to remaine in this world to the end that vertuous men might not loose those crownes of glory which they were to gaine by resisting those diuells and by fighting with them and ouercoming their temptations Since therefore for the suffering of the persecutions vexations of diuells resisting their temptations and continuing in combate against
them the vertue of Patience is so necessary it followes that it is the fruite and effect of Patience to conserue the soule in such sorte as that it may receiue no hurt from temptatiōs and assaults of the diuell and to encrease their merits in heauen by the victory ouer those temptations and thereby to manifest by an experimentall way who are truly iust and elect of God So doth the holy scripture declare to vs in many places It saith in Ecclesiasticus c. 27. As the furnace of fier tries the pots of the potter so doth temptation and tribulation try iust men The meaning is that as the hot burning furnace doth examine and declare which vessells are good and fitly tempered and which indeed are they which being cast into the fier are not cracht or broken therby but remaine hard and whole and fit for the vse of man and as it doth also shew which other of them are ill made for they cracke and breake in the hot furnace so doth temptation and tribulation whether it be offered by diuels or by men declare and shew who are iust and holy And these are they who through the euills and temptations which they endure are not broken or ouercome by impatiēce or other sinnes but through the vertue of Patience perseuer firme and constant in the practise of vertue and the keeping of the lawe of God THE XIII CHAPTER How pleasing the vertue of Patience is to God and of the great fauours which he affoardes them who suffer with Patience ANother way whereby Christ our Lord declared the fruit and merit of Patience is the particular fauours extraordinary benefits which he vouchsafed to to men who suffered aduersity with Patiēce Christ our Lord came to the Piscina of Hierusalem and amongst so many sicke persons as he found there he imparted only to one of them who had remained there sicke eight thirty yeares so great a fauour and so illustrious a benefit as it was both to cure his body and to iustify his soule And the cause why our Lord bestowed this blessing rather vpon him then any of the rest was because he endured his sicknesse with more Patience then others As is plaine in that he hauing bene sicke so many yeares made no cōplaint but answered so meekly to what was asked Saint Chrysostome obserues this and saith Christ our Lord Io. 5. did not aske the sicke man if he had any desire to be cured as if he had doubted of his will but only for the manifesting of his Patience who hauing been eight and thirty yeares and daily hoping for health which he could not finde did yet neuerthelesse continue without going away and despaired not being there to teach vs also that the reasō why he cured rather him then others was his great Patience Let vs declare another exāple to the same purpose Christ our Lord Io. 9. cured a man who was borne blinde and for the constancy where with he confessed the same Lord and defended his truth the Pharisees did persecute and affront him both by word and deed and they cast him as an excommunicate persō out of the Sinagogue The good man obeyed this vniust comandment endured that wrōg with Patience and Christ our Lord who knew it al seeing the afflictiō wherein his faithfull seruant was the Patience wherewith he bore it sought him out of set purpose and spake to him after this manner with great affability loue Doest thou beleeue in the sonne of God which was as much as to say Wilt thou beleeue that he who cured thee is the true sōne of God And euen as he was speaking these wordes he did withall infuse a most excellent clear light into the most inward part of his soule to make him know and beleeue that he who had cured him was not onely a Prophet and a Saint as already he had confessed him to be but also the true and naturall sonne of God for the question did import so much And so he beleeued and asked Who is he O Lord And that Lord answered him thus It is euen he who is speaking with thee Then instantly he fell prostrate adored him This so admirable fauour to seeke him and comfort him and honour him and communicate so great light of faith grace to him did God vouchsaffe to this mā for his hauing been so faithfull in confessing him and so patient in suffering that wrong which they had done him in regard of Christ our Lord. So saith Saint Chrysostome they who with Patience suffer the iniuries which are imposed on them for mainteining the truth of Christ our Lord these men are greatly fauoured and honoured by him as wee see by the example of the blinde man whom the Iewes cast out of the Tēple for the Lord of the very tēple sought him out he receiued him with great loue and as a soldier who had fought valiantly he crowned him with a crowne of inestimable worth and beauty such as was the eminent grace pawne of heauen which he bestowed vpon him So great account as this doth Christ our Lord make of a faithfull and patient man and so much doth he esteem him that omitting many others he seekes him out with care he comforts him by his words he ioyes his heart by his presence he honours him by his fauours and he aduances him by his gifts This doth Saint Thomas obserue in these words The Euāgelist by relating that Christ our Lord sought out the blinde man whom he had cured giues vs to vnderstand that he was diligent in harkening him out because he found more faith and vertue in him then in others whereby wee may inferre that he more esteems one iust person thē ten thousand sinners This wee are tould by S. Thomas And though it be no exaggeration at all to say that God doth more loue one iust man thē the whole world of sinners put together since absolutely speaking he onely loues such as are iust with the loue of grace yet considering how greatly God esteems the saluation euen of sinners and the care he hath to conuert them to say that God more loues to saue fauour one iust man then many thousand of sinners is no sleight expressiō but doth greatly discouer the particular prouidēce and care which God carries towards iust persons and it giues matter also of much confidence to them who serue him that through his goodnes they are to be greatly fauoured and assisted by him towards their saluation Christ our Lord did also discouer the value and fruite of Patience in this that when he would vouchsaffe any great vnusual benefits to any he first disposed and prepared them by the exercise of Patience He was pleased Matt. 15. to feed foure thousand men with seauen loaues of bread and before he would impart this benefit to them he made them stay three daies in the patient sufferance of hunger the paines of being in a desert and continuing
Luc. 21. of the paine and persecutions and torments and death which them selues were to suffer in their owne persons for preaching that Ghospell which they were to carry throughout the world For thus he said You shall be persecuted and vexed and brought before Iudges who in respect of mee will torment and sake your liues frō you Hauing prepared them with the notice of these miseries which were to grow vpon them he made them knowe that Patience was the remedy which they must procure to the end that by those crosses they might receiue no hurt but rather incōparable benefit And he said thus to them One haire of your heads shal not perish and in Patience you shall possesse your soules Which was as if he had said Although you may haue many enemies and powerfull opposits yet shall you be so assisted defended by Almighty God who takes most particular care of you that you shall not receiue the least hurt thereby and by the Patience which you shall haue in your tribulations wherby in expectation of celestiall benedictions you shall remaine firme and constant in my seruice to the very end you shall conserue and securely possesse the safty and spirituall life of your soules till you carry thē to the glory of heauen This is the first remedy which must be vsed for suffering the miseries of this life with Patience namly that euery mā in his owne heart reuolue and consider with attention what miseries and aduersities may happen to him in this life whether they be sicknes pouerty iniuries offered by men temptations of diuells or else troubles and difficulties in any bodies particular office or state And let him perswade himselfe that if they come vpon him they shal come ordained by Almighty God and for the good of his soule yea and that it is greatly fit for his saluation that they come vpon him For they are meanes where by Almighty God doth addresse and order his predestination And let him accept of them from that instant for that very time when they may chance to come and let him dispose him selfe with courage to receiue them willingly and with thankesgiuing when they shall be sent For a man being thus prouided and prepared will receiue and suffer them with more Patience and aduantage of his soule So saith Saint Chrysostome The aduersity which comes vpō men suddenly and vnexpected is wont to be very grieuous and much felt but that which is considered before it comes and for which wee are ready and prepared is more easily endured when it arriues Another meanes for suffering tribulatiō with Patiēce is seriously to consider and ponder the most happy successe which they haue and the conclusion which they make when they carry themselues well therein to the glory of God their owne greatest good Christ our Lord gaue this remedy to his disciples for when he tould them things which troubled thē he instantly also told them of that comfort and glory which was to follow vpon that paine When he tould them sometimes that the sonne of man was to suffer Matt. 16. and 20. and be crucified in Hierusalem he instantly also added that most glorious end of his Passion and death by saying And the third day he shall rise againe And when he said thus in the garden Mat. 26. you all shall suffer scandall this night vpon my occasion he added immediatly after But when I shall be risen from the dead I will goe to Galile before you As if he should haue said neither will I remaine in death nor shall you perish in that scandall for I will rise from the dead you being free from all danger shall follow mee And Matt. 13. Luc 21. hauing annoūced the extreme persecutiōs tribulations which they were to suffer for preaching the Ghospel he tels them withall of the admirable fruite which was to grow to them thereby namely the very preaching it selfe of the Ghospell ouer the whole earth and that it should be beleeued and receiued by all the nations of the world It would seem that from such impediments of persecution and death of the preachers themselues it might follow that they should not be able to preach the Ghospell nor perswade any body to imbrace it and yet wee see he saith that so great fruit would follow that it should be preached and receiued ouer the whole world and that all nations were to be saued by their faith in it their obedience to it This is that which wee are to consider and ponder in our tribulation namely the admirable fruite and glorious end to which we arriue thereby and in contemplation hereof wee must animate our selues to suffer not only with Patience but euē with ioy So saith the blessed Saint Marke the Ermite When you shall be vexed and shall haue receiued some temporall losse or some affront and dishonour doe not looke onely vpon the present ill but cast also your eye vpon those diuine fauours of grace and glory which hereafter you are to receiue for that ill you will certainly finde that you shall gather abundant fruit from tribulation and that he who persecutes you will proue the Author of great benedictions to you both in this life the next This also is aduised by Ecclesiasticus c. u. saying In the daies of thy prosperity remēber thy misery and in those of thy misery call thy prosperity to minde for an easy thing it is for God to giue euery one his paiment reward according to his workes in the houre of his death His meaning is this as Saint Gregory declares In the time when thou hast either temporall or spiritual prosperity remember the afflictions which may happē to thee either in body or soule that so thy prosperity may not make thee proud but that thou mayest be conserued in humility And so also in the time of thy aduersity whether it be spirituall or temporall remember the blessings of grace and diuine consolations which thou hast enioyed at other times and those also which afterward thou maiest receiue that so thou be not dismaied nor ouercome with sorrow but maiest suffer all kinde of affliction with Patience and courage By this consideration doth S. Paule animate vs to endure all the tribulations and aduersities of this life with contentment and strength of minde saying thus 1. Cor. 4. All the trouble and tribulation of this life how long soeuer it may be accounted to last doth yet passe away euē in a moment and is but light how heauy soeuer it may seem and as a meritorious cause which is grounded and rises from the grace of Christ our Lord it workes in vs an inestimable and most sublime waight of glory beyond all that which can be expressed or euen conceiued and which is not to be temporall but eternall THE XV. CHAPTER Of other meanes whereby wee are to obtaine and conserue the vertue of Patience namely to consider our sinnes and to resort to Almighty God for the