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
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