vvould faine haue hindred their childreÌ„s death but his grovving out of pure and perfect loue out of a thirst of their instant and eternall good he permitted it to his ovvne bitter griefe And by (g) A stroÌ„g comfort to such as are persecuted for the cause of Christ our Lord. the selfe same measure vve may also discerne the same loue vvhich by our Lord is borne to all the rest of his seruants vvhome he suffereth to suffer for his truth and he deserueth to be adored vvith all our soules since he makes euen them vvho pretend meane to be our greatest enemies to be the chiefest instuments of our glory and good The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt CHAP. 19. THIS act of so great loue vvas in the hart of our Lord Iesus but he contents not himselfe to loue vs only vvith his hart vnlesse vvithall he may put himselfe to further paine and shame And behould vvhen he vvas fast a sleepe in those deere armes of his all-imaculate and most holy mother and in house with that holy Patriarcke S. Ioseph an Angell appeared to that Saynt being also at that tyme a sleepe Requiring him to rise Matt. 2. and take the child and his mother and to fly into Egipt and there to remaine till he should be willed to returne because Herod would procure to destroy the child But where shall we find meanes wherewith to admire and adore this Lord of ours Who for the discouery of the infinitenes of his loue would vouchsafe so farre to ouer shadow the omnipotency of his power as that he being the Lord of Angells would be directed by an Angell a Obserue the strange humility charity patience of our Lord in this Mystery and being God himselfe would be disposed of by a man and being the seate and Center of all true repose would be raysed from his rest at midnight together with that heauenly Virgin to be sent flying from the face of an angry tyrant in so tender yeares into a Country so remote so incommodious so barbarous and so Idolatrous It was a iourney of (*) Three hundred English â—â—yles See Baradius Tom. 1. l. 10. cap. 8. twelue daies at the least for any stronge traueller could not be of lesse then thirty or forty for this little family which was forced to be fleeting thus from home This family which was compoÌ„ded of a man in yeares who loued to conuerse in the howse of his owne holy hart a most pure and most delicate virgin who was not wont to be shewing herselfe to strange places and persons and that excellent diuine infant who would permit himself to want as much assistaÌ„ce as that weake state could need which must needes increase the trouble both of them and him Their pouerty without all doubte was very great for though the Magi when they opened and offred of their treasures to him must be thought to haue left inough for the contynuall entertainement of such a company yet by a circumstance which may be considered heere it will be euident that they were growne poore againe For at the Prosentation of our Lord in the Temple wherof I haue already spoken but heer it will be fit to looke backe vpon it once agayne our B. Lady was and would be purified Not that she had need of being purisied she in comparison of whose high purity the most pure Seraphims of heauen are but drosse and dust but because our Lord her Sonne would be subiect to the imputation of sinne by Circumcision our B. Lady his mother would be thought subiect to the comon shame of mothers by purification To which heroicall act of contemning her selfe our Lord by his example had drawne her thereby withall did make vs knowe that it was not impossible for meere creatures by meanes of that grace (b) The omnipotency of Gods grace which is imparted to vs with so much loue to abandon and dispise our selues and not only to be content but euen delighted in being dispised by others Now at the Purification of al women an oblation was to be made by order of the law and a lambe was to be offred by the rich and a paire of Turtle doues or two yong Pigeons Leuit. 12. by the poore And (c) A demonstration to prooue what shift our B. Lady made to grow quickly poore agayne since this latter was the offring which the B. Virgin made it is cleere that through her charity to others her selfe would needs become poore againe She hauing such a stronge example of pouerty before her eyes as that God should make himselfe a naked child for the good of men and she not fayling to learne and lay vp the lesson of this vertue which was the first that was made to her by our B Lord. So that since they were persons so very poore and so vnfit for trauaile and to take a iourney of so great imcommodity and lengh without so much as an ynch of any ground of hope that after such or such a tyme expired they should returne was such a dish ful of difficultyes for them to feed vpon as could neuer haue been digested if it had not been dressed and sawced with the most ardent loue of our Lord lesus By this example of his he hath giuen vs stronge comfort in all those banishments distresses which we may be subiect to And it hath wrought so well with the seruants of God as that they haue triumphed with ioy for the happines of being able to suffer shame or sorrow for his sake But (d) The great change which was wrought in Egypt after the Presence of our Lord Iesus especially did it worke wonders in that rude and wicked Country of Egypt For he had no soeuer perfected the mistery of our redemption vpon the Crosse but through the odour of his sacred infancy that Prouince did early get a kind of start beyond all the others of the vvorld in breeding and nursing vp huge troopes of famous Marlyrs Anchorites Eremits and other holy Monks in the strongest Mortification and penance which hath beene knovvn in the Christian vvorld And novv let vs see vvho hath the face vvhervvith to deny or the hart vvhervvith to doubt the effects of the infinite loue vvhich our Lord did shevv by this flight of his into Egipt Where such a renouation of the invvard man vvas made as that insteed of dogs and catts and serpents and diuels vvhich vvith extraordinary diligence of superstition were vsually there adored beyond the other parts of the world so many Tryumphant Arches were erected there so shortely after in honour of Christ our Lord as there were high and happy soules who consecrated themselues to his seruice in a most pure and perfect manner with detestation of all those delights which flesh and bloud is wont to take pleasure in And they imbraced with the armes both of body and soule all those difficulties
to all the (e) The abnegatiō of ones self which is required by the doctrine of Christ our Lord. Luc. 14. Ioan. 12. Ioan. 6. vvorld as instantly I shall touch againe that If any man would come after him he must deny himselfe take vp his Crosse follow him For he that would saue his life should loose it and he that would loose his life for him should saue it If a sectary or libertine shal heare this Doctrine he vvil be sure to say that it is Durus sermo A bit vvhich hath a bone in it so bigge as that he knovves not hovv either to chavv or svvallovv and much lesse digest it And yet this very bit this bitter pilwhich is so vnsauoury to the man vvho is all made of flesh and bloud being vvrapped vp in the golden vvords of our Lord doth in the taking it dovvne grovv so full of delight and gust through the puissance vvhich it hath ouer the soules of such as doe seriously sincerely loue him that no pennance in this life could be so grieuous to them as if they should be boüd from doing pennance And see now by this whether the Doctrine of Christ our Lord be not of strange power and strength and whether his diuine Maiesty haue not infinitely loued vs who hath made weake men so able and so willing to imbrace it for the loue of him This (f) This doctrine as it is on the one side effica cious and strong so on the other it is smooth sweet strength wherwith the Doctrine of Christ our Lord abounds is no rude or course kind of strength but rather it is like some one of those most excellēt Minerall Phisicks which is exactly well prepared For together with the discharging of peccant humours which vseth to carry with it a kind of paine it is a cordiall withall and it comforts the very substance of the soule incompably more excellently then that other Phisicke can the nature of the body Besides there is not heere any one receipt alone for the cure of soules as there be Empericks inough in the world who withall their bragges haue but some one medicine or two for the corporall cure of as many patients as they may chance to haue But heere are fully as many helpes as there can be motions in the minde this Doctrine is fit to worke vpon them al. For who sees (g) The seuerall wayes wherby the hart of man is holpen by that Doctrine of Christ our Lord. not how it abounds with exact commandements expresse prohibitions high and holy counsailes heroicall examples a clear notice of benefits already receiued and faithful promises of more sweet admonitions seuere reprehensions and terrible threats To the end that no man may be able to defend or euen excuse his disobedience with any appearance of reason but that euery one may as he ought submit himselfe What misery can that be whereof heere he may not find a remedy what doubt wherof he may not find a solution What pious affection wherof he may not find an inflamation What vertue would he obtaine or what vice would he auoyd wherin he shall not find a world of counsaile addresse And in a word what thought of God or of himselfe can he haue with any relation to his comfort either for this life or the next which being a good student of this Doctrine of Christ our Lord he may not easily apparaile in that rich and choyce wardrobe of his with iaculatory prayers and aspirations I say not only significant but which haue withall so much of the ardent of the great and of the noble as it will become the eares of God to heare will not become his mercifull hart not to harken to The incompar able purity of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord and with how great loue he helpeth vs towards the practise therof CHAP. 35. THIS diuine Doctrine of our Lord IESVS doth no way abrogate the morall law or ten commaundements but it doth auow and ratify the same Though for as much as concernes the Iudiciall and Ceremoniall lawes vnder which the people of God did liue before the coming of our Messias it perpetuated only the reall verities which were conteyned therin and it did destroy and bury though yet with honour those partes therof which were but figures of the comming of Christ our Lord. We say therfore most properly that to be the Doctrine of this diuine Doctour wherby either some Truthes were reuiued which through the wickednes of men were neglected and laid to sleepe before his comming or els wherby some others were published to the world which in perfection did exceed the former and many of them were not so properly inioyned in the nature of a comaundement as they were taught vs by the counsailes of Christ our Lord. This (a) Wher and how the body of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord is deliuered Doctrine of Christ our Lord is partly deliuered to vs by the Tradition of the holy Catholike Church as we shall see afterward and partly in holy Scripture And in this holy Scripture most of those particulars are conteyned and expressed which shew the perfection and purity of his heauenly Doctrine This is done after a most particular manner in that diuine sermon wherby his Disciples and we in them if we also will be his Disciples Cap. 5.6 and elsewhere in all the parts of the ghospell were instructed vpon that hill and S. Matthew deliuereth it by the words of our Lords owne sacred mouth He proclaimeth the eight Beatitudes where he annexeth not felicity to the comodities and pleasures of this life But to pouerty of spirit meekenes mornefulnes hungar and thirst after Iustice mercifulnes purity of hart Peace making and to the being persecuted and reuiled for the cause of Christ our Lord. He lets men know withall that for no respect they must breake the least tittle of the law of God That men must not be angry nor giue any iniurious word to others That we must not consent to so much as the least dishonest thought That no man or woman must be diuorced vpon the committing of lesse then Fornication and that neither of thē shall marry againe till the other dye That we must not sineare at all That we must not so much as resist oppression That we must loue euen our very enemies That we must giue Almes and fast and pray without ostemation That in all things we must haue a most pure intention That we must cast away all sollicitude concerning our selues and leaue all to the good prouidence of God That we must reforme our selues but not so much as iudge any other man That we must cut of and cast away all occasions causes of scandall and sinne how neere or how deare so euer they may be to vs. That we must striue to enter into he auen by the (b) Of mortification and penance narrow gate That we must aspire to chastity
is most toucht so is their paine augmented by speaking or thinking of things which concerne Almighty God whose breath they smell but vpon whose substance they are not suffered now to seed and yet all things els are a torment to them They thirst and pine they euen consume and melt and they cry out to our Lord and there is none but only himselfe who can comfort that swelling and gasping soule of theirs And though they seeme to be neere him yea and so they are in very deed yet they find themselues to be as in a prison out of which they know not how to breake Such affects as these doe raigne in the harts of some choyce seruants of God vpon the consideration which they haue of wanting certayne feeling communications of his diuine Maiesty in this woefull pilgrimage wherin they liue Yea it is not many yeares since one who was sicke of this sweetly sad disease was so happy as to dy of a flux of teares and another whose hart strings brake and he instantly dyed in exercising some acts of the loue of God and so it was found when he was opened Measure (e) The incomparable griefe of our Lord Iesus then by this what depth of sorrow it must cause in the hart of our B. Lord to be absented so from the feeling fruition of God whome he knew so well whom he loued so much and whome so perfectly he had inioyed before In comparison of whose knowledge and loue and ioy in God the knowledge and loue and ioy of all the other creatures put together is not so much as one single moate compared to the whole body of the earth And yet wheras they with all this griefe of theirs for wanting God haue yet through his goodnes some such kind of feeling of him still as makes it to be in the midst of paines a kind of most ioyfull sufferance our Lord was pleased to take the bitter without the sweet for himselfe and only to feele and penetrate the want vvherin he vvas of that good vvithout enabling the inferiour part to reflect vpon that same very good in the vvay of conceauing any Comfort by it The incomparable sorrow of Christ our Lord through his consideration of the dishonour of God and the sinne and misery of man togeather with the sight of what himselfe was to suffer CHAP. 56. NOVV if it vvould be of such vnsufferable paine for Christ our Lord to be only absented or estranged from Almighty God vvhich abseÌ„ce is no sinne but only a punishment and vvhich is not many tymes ' of any offence at all to the diuine Maiesty but serueth only for a probation of vertue and for a preparation to an increase of grace hovv may vve thinke that it vvould pierce his hart from side to side to see as hath been sayd that God prophaned his glory disgraced his lavv transgressed and all those creatures vvhom he had created after his ovvne Image to enioy heauen vvith eternall felicity to staÌ„d novv so neere vpon the tearmes of being damned to euerlasting misery He savv vvhat Adams happy state had beene and vvhat a miserable a state it vvas grovvne to be He savv that reason vvhich vvas a Queene vvas novv become the drudge of PassioÌ„ The sinnes of the vvhole world were to passe vpon his account nor was the least of them to be pardoned by the Iustice of God but in vertue of the sacred Passion which then he was about to vndergoe They were (a) The true cause of our Lords excessiue sorrow all represented to his dolorous afflicted mind as distinctly as they were distinct in their being coÌ„mitted and a million of tymes more cleerly then the men who coÌ„mitted them did euer see them Let a man but thinke how many sinnes he alone may haue committed in some one day of his life and then how many daies he hath liued how many of his sinnes he hath forgotten how many of his actions words thoughts are accounted sinfull in the sight of God which yet did not seeme so to him Let him thinke how many men there are in the towne where he may chance to be how many in the Prouince how many in the kingdome how many in all Europe how many in all the world at this tyme. Let him thinke how many there haue bene in the whole world throughout all the ages therof since the begining and how many there may be before the end And who shall now be able once to conceaue of the innumerable sinnes which haue bene are are to be coÌ„mitted by all this race of maÌ„kind Prouer. 14. since the iust man sinneth seauen tymes a day by veniall sinnes and many who goe for Saints with vs will be found to haue committed many and many Mortall What shall we therfore say of such wicked men as drinke iniquity vp like water Iob. 15. whether they be vicious Catholicks or blasphemous Heretiques or disobedient Schismatiques or perfidious Ievves or Prophane Pagans or bestiall Turkes and Mores What Legions what millioÌ„s what worlds of sinnes must there haue been presented to the soule of Christ our Lord to suffer for since for as much as concerned him he accepted the punishment of them all and that by so exact scales of diuine Iustice as that if any one of all those sinnes had not be committed the Passion of Christ our Lord had bene so much the lesse grieuous And it was to be their fault vvho vvould not by Faith Penance apply that Passion to their soules if they were not saued therby and not any defect of the Passion it selfe of Christ our Lord who savv knevv and counted and accepted euery one of their particular sinnes and made for as much as coÌ„cerned him oblation of an inestimable paymeÌ„t in discharge of the same particular sinne Not (b) Our Lord Iesus suffered not only for all the sinnes which were coÌ„mitted but for all those others also which would haue been committed without his grace only did he see and suffer for all finnes which already are and are heâ—reafter to be coÌ„mitted but also for all those other which vvould haue bene committed by them all if they had not bene preuented by the Grace vvhich grevv from God in contemplation of the Passion of Christ our Lord. For no lesse vvas his pretious bloud to be the Antidote preseruatiue against all sinnes vvhich might haue byn coÌ„mitted then it vvas to be the remedy and cure of such as vvould be committed indeed So that euery man did add somevvhat to this sorrovv of our Lord both good and bad past and present and to come vvithall their sinnes vvhether they vvere great or small of thought vvord or deed vvhether the vvere mortall or veniall of omission or commission vvhether actually they vvere or would haue been committed if they had not bene preuented by this costly meanes And if (c) Other considerations which do open the sight of the soule to discerne the loue and
her and the whole world For he gaue this blessed mother of his to be the mother of S. Iohn and in his person of all mankind by these words of his Woman behold thy Sonne And he gaue to S. Iohn and to all the world in him a tytle of calling and knowing the sacred Virgin by the name of Mother when he sayd to him Behold thy Mother Ibid. So sweet a songe did this dying Swan of ours deliuer so rich did he make his holy Catholike Church when departing out of the world he left it such a legacy as this wherof heerafter I shall speake a part Of the darcknes which possessed the world and the excessiue desolation which our Lord endured with incomparable Loue whilst he was saying to his eternall Father Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquisti me CHAP. 72. ALL these former seuerall words so full of diuine consolation and instruction were vttered with vnspeakeable loue by our blessed Lord soone after the rearing of his Crosse with himselfe vpon it And then did a kind of darkenes ouerspread all the earth Matt. 17. Marc. 15. It was not possible that it should grow at that tyme by any naturall cause of an Eclipse for then it could not haue lasted so very long that is to say three whole howers Ibid. Ab hora sexta vsque ad nonam Besides that the Sunne Moone were then in such relation and position in respect of one another as that the Sunne could be no way Eclipsed then And in fine if this darknes had growne by an Eclipse it could not haue reached to be vniuersall ouer the whole earth as yet the holy Scripture saith it was and so it hath bene testified and proued not only by the EuaÌ„gelists whose word is of all authority with vs Christians but also by S. Denis Areopagita See this Apud Bell. de 7. verb. Dom. Lucianus the Martyr Tertullian others who wrote therof at once in seuerall parts of the world Besides that Phlegon a Pagan which may serue for the confusion of Iewes and Atheists in this point affirmeth how in that yeare and vpon that very day and hower when our Lord did suffer The day was turned into so expresse night as that the starrs were then seene in the firmament This (a) The reason of that miraculous darcknes which did ouerspred the earth darkenes was drawne vpon the world by the miraculous power of God to declare the perfect innocency of our Lord IESVS and the enormity of their sinne who had condeÌ„ned him whose sentence he reuersed after this omnipoteÌ„t manner And as in some respects it could not but be of excessiue terrour to see a Noone day turne Mid-night as it were at an instant and that without any naturall cause at all so yet it was an effect of the infinite loue of God and of the former prayer of Christ our Lord when he beged the forgiuenes of their sinnes For this was then a meanes of the conuersion and of the pennance afterward of all that troope of people as S. Luke affirmeth wherby the greater part of them is only to be vnderstood who continued till the end of the Passion Luc. 27. For they saw the wonderfull things which happened and they returned into the citty beating euery one his brest through excesse of sorrow And so euery one of them went raysing a Trophey to the infinite mercy of our Redeemer (b) The infinite mercy of our Lord God who gaue such abundance of effectuall grace euen to theÌ„ who had made theÌ„selues his deadly enemies and that before he was taken downe from the Crosse as if it had bene euen in reward of all their wickednes and cruelty agaynst him But as now the whole world was ouer-wrought with a material darkenes by the miraculous hiding of the sunne which did such homage to the Creatour of all things as by absenting it selfe to make a kind of veâ—â—e wherby his nakednes might the lesse appâ—â—â—e so also were the harts in effect of the whâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—orld and especially of those cruell persoâ—â— tours growne spiritually darke by the abundance of sinne which puts out the light of grace whersoeuer it enters Now to these two kinds of darkenes which were at that tyme in the world and worldly men another kind of obscurity did correspond in Christ our Lord in such sort as that we may securely affirme that since the world was created and inhabited there was neuer any such generall darkenes as that For by the light as a man may say of that darkenes euen halfe an eye would easily discerne how mightily the Power the Wisedome the Sanctity the Angelicall beauty the Princely Maiesty the diuine Dignity and the incomparable Felicity and glory of the true and naturall Sonne of God (c) The darcknes of desolation of Christ our Lord and how his supreme dignity was also obscured was obscured at that tyme. The sunne was doubly gone for besides the darkning of the materiall Sunne himselfe who was the true Sunne seemed no more a Sunne but rather a moone and that all Eclipst For as the Moone when she is Eclipst though she haue her globe all bright towards the heauen yet is it all blake towards the world iust so Christ our Lord though in the superiour part of his soule he saw God and was as high in glory as now when he is raigning in heauen yet in the inferiour part therof there was a most profound darkenes and desolation This drew out of his mouth those words of the Psalme wherof it seemes he was in coÌ„templation at that tyme. Matt. 27. Psalm 21. Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquistime My God my God why hast thou for saken mee Misterious words which were vttered to shew the vnspeakeable affliction of Christ our Lord. Who for the greater glory of God the Father and through the excesse of his loue to vs and for the more abundant propitiation and satisfaction of our sinnes for the more complete crowning of his owne humility patience and supreme purity of mind was pleased to want all kind of prorection which might be of any comfort to him In other respects he was as hath bin said so conioyned and vnited to Almighty God as that it was wholy impossible that euen for any one instant he should euer be separated or abandoned by him For as God he was vnited by way of Essence to the Father as man he was vnited to the Diuinity by hypostaticall Vnion Bell. Ser. de sept verbis as a soule which saw the face of God from the very first instant of his Conception he was vnited to him by the Vnion of glory And as that vessell of sanctity which was not only all filled but ouerflowed by the holy Ghost whose guifs he receiued not according to any set or limitted measure but beyond all measure I say as he was this vessel of sanctity he was vnited to God by will and
God whilst we are in working and to presse with instance Ibid. when we are concluding Father saith he into thy hands I commend my spirit 1. Cor. 6. And if we will procure to be one spirit with him as S. Paul exhorts vs all to be already (a) How we assure our selues to be cōmended by Christ our Lord. Hebr. 5. we may perceaue that Christ our Lord did no lesse pray for vs then for himselfe He prayed as the same Apostle sayd els where Cum clamore valido lacrymis with a lowd cry and with teares and therfore it is no meruaile if he were heard by the Eternall Father both for himselfe and vs. But yet so as that we must concurre with him and suffer pray cry out and weepe for our selues and for our sinnes since he hath traced out the way of doing it for the sinnes of others But the misery is many tymes that whilst we doe so often vsurpe this holy Prayer of our blessed Sauiour wherby we protest our selues to commend our spirit into the hands of God we doe but cōmend it only in word or at the most we doe but giue it with one hand and take it backe againe with the other and indeed we deliuer it ouer to his enemies by sinne or at least to strangers by fulfilling vaine and lesse good desires Wheras if we would doe it as Christ our Lord was found to doe we should no sooner bequeth our selues to the seruice of our Lord but that instantly we would take a lōg euerlasting leaue of a wretched world Our Lord when he had giuen his spirit to God expired Luc. 23. And we if we expire not if we dye not to the sinnes and vanities of this life the spirit will be still where it was and we doe but say we giue him that which indeed we reserue for others or at least for our selues But that other kind of alienation b There will be no true life and liberty vnlesse there be a true death to imperfection passion is the only way to haue a true possession of our soules Seruire Deo regnare est This bondage doth only bring perfect liberty This kind of expiring by death doth only inspire vs with true life Christ our Lord for loue of vs did leaue as we haue seene his life of nature that we might be animated by the life of grace And woe be to that wretched man who shall rather choose death then life and such a life as hath been bought to our hād by parting with such a iewell as was the life of Christ our Lord. He had vnspeakeable cause to loue his life but we haue no cause at all to be in loue with ours The reason why we may punish euen hate as one may say our bodyes with a iust and holy kind of hate is because otherwise they will be giuing ill counsell to the soule The (c) In what case we desire a separation betweene the body and the soule 2. Pet. ◠reason why in some cases we may wish so farre as may stand with the good will of God to haue this Tabernacle of our flesh and bloud dissolued by death may be because we doe highly apprehēd a feare of sinne and so we may be glad to dye the first death when we hope our selues to be in good state least afterward we may dye the second And besides we haue reason to long for the sight of God from which we are exiled in this Pilgrimage But Christ our Lord did euer see the face of God and the Superiour part of his soule was as glorious as closely vnited to the Diunity in the bitterest torments of the Crosse as now is it at the right hand of his Father And besides there could be no daunger that euer that impeccable soule could sinne As therfore there was no cause why Christ our Lord should of himselfe desire or euen admit of any separation of his soule from his body so whatsoeuer motiue it were that should induce him to it that must necessarily be acknowledged for a great one For neuer did nor neuer could any creature in any reason so deerly and delightfully loue the cōiunction betwene his soule and his body as Christ our Lord loued his Nor consequently could any or all the creatures so much apprehend and abhorre any separation of the body from the soule as Christ our Lord would haue apprehended and abhorred that of his if some mighty reason had not moued him to it Because (d) The reason why Christ our Lord must needs loue the coniunction of his body and soule after a most eminent māner no creature nor all the creatures put togeather had euer found any body so sweetly so continually and so perfectly obedient to all the dictamens of a holy soule as our Lord IESVS had sound his body and this is the only or at least the principall reason why any man should loue his body So that for Christ our Lord to indure that the coniunction of such a body and soule should be broken for how short a tyme soeuer was the Crosse beyond all the corporall Crosses which he endured in his Passion concerning himselfe Yet of this he admitted as we see And since there was no power which could oblige him to it in the way of force it doth cleerly appeare that he performed it vpon a commandement of loue For loue is the King of all affections and disposeth of them all at pleasure And amongst seuerall loues the Superiour loue is still the King to whom all inferiour loues giue place If then Christ our Lord did so deerly and so iustly loue his owne pretious life incomparably more then any of vs can by any possibility loue ours and if yet that loue were content to yield to his loue of vs and that indeed he dyed of pure and perfect loue which is yet declared further to vs by that sweet declyning of his head when he gaue vp the ghost let vs endeauour to conceaue what an infinite kind of loue this was And let vs beg of him by his owne pretious wounds that he will make vs in all things as like himselfe as he desires And that as a meanes therunto he will print himselfe thus crucified vpon our harts and that the eye of our mind may be euer looking at ease vpon this sweet figure the (e) The grace and beauty of the Crucifix sweetest that hath bene seene or can be conceaued the fittest to moue all the affections of a Christian hart whether they be of compassion or admiration And verily I thinke that it is not only faith which brings vs to be of this beliefe but that euen abstracting from the quality of the diuine persō of Christ our Lord the cause for which he suffered which yet indeed are the things that subdue vs most the very figure it selfe of an excellent man so exposed to publique view vpon a Crosse is the loueliest and the
grauest and greatest of them who would needs goe with him to testify the excesse of their malice though it be not the vse of men of rancke to cheapen themselues by accompanying criminall persons in the publique streets would not fayle to hold most hypocritical discourses As protesting in their zeale to the lavv of God hovv much it grieued them that the Pagan Iudge to vvhome they vvere going should be forced to knovv that amongst the men of their Religion vvhich the prisoner vvas there should be a creature so impious so blasphemous as most vvickedly they accused him to be Our Lord IESVS in the meane tyme vvas not to seeke for patience in the bearing of vvhatsoeuer affront they could put vpon him nor vvould he vvho had endured the greater refuse the lesse Novv a (b) The sinne of the Iewes was greater against our Lord then that of the Gentiles lesse offence it vvas in them for him to be presented before a Pagan and prophane person vvho had no knowledge at all of the true God or of his law then before a congregation of men who had the custody of his auncient Testament for whose saluation and perfection they being his owne chosen people he was particularly come into the would And so the more fauoured they had bene the more faulty they were in persecuting Christ our Lord that euen for no other cause but only for the very zeale which he had of their good They might haue considered how earnestly they had cōcurred to the sinne of Iudas and therfore they should haue feared his punishment which was the falling into a greater sinne For when he saw that they were then going actually to procure the death of Christ our Lord and when he began to looke in vpon himselfe and vpon what he had done then discerning cleerly the deformity of his sinne which the deuill had before procured to hide he hunge (c) The lamentable of death of Iudas Matt. 27. himselfe by the necke his body brake in the middle and his bowells fell about his feete and instantly his soule sirnke downe into the lowest place of hell How would that accident strike the hart of Christ our Lord with sorrovv For as our Lord is incomparably more sory for our sinns then for his own paines so vvas this a greater thē that fin For to finish in despaire of Gods omnipotent mercy is the most grieuous sinne vvhich man is able to commit It strooke I say our Lords hart vvith griefe yet those vvretches vvere not touched by it tovvards remorse But notwithstanding that Iudas restored to them the price wherby he had bene wrought to act that treason and did declare himselfe to haue sinned in betraying that innocent bloud they neither relented in themselues nor tooke compassion of him but seornefully made answere that it was not a thing which belonged to them and that all was to run vpon his account A memorable example of how truly and miserably they are deceaued who serue the world the flesh or the deuill For (d) Consider seriously of this truth whatsoeuer may be promised before hand yet in fine when the turne is serued no care is taken of their comfort but they may with Iudas goe hange themselues And so they doe many tymes and more I beleeue in our only country of England then in all the rest of Europe put togeather Matt. 29. But the thirty peeces which Iudas restored to the Priests were not cast into the Treasury but imployed vpō the Purchase of a place to a pious vse And S. Augustine noteth how it was by a most particular prouidence of God Serm. 128. de coena Dom apud Ariam that the price of the bloud of Christ our Lord should not serue for the expence of liuing sinners but for the buriall of deceased Pilgrimes that so with the price of his bloud he might both redeeme the liuing and be a retraite for the dead The hate of those malicious Priests Elders to Christ our Lord and consequently his loue to them and vs since for their particular and our generall good he was content to endure so much at their hands appears yet more plainely by other circumstances For the tyme when they persecuted our Lord was the day of the greatest solemnity and deuotiō of the whole yeare It was the feast of the Paschal when all the Iewish world was come to Ierusalem Luc. 22. to assist at those sacrifices and ceremonies of the the law in the Temple And as the affronts were so much greater then if they had bene done at a more priuate tyme the malice of the high Priests so much the more eager since they could not be perswaded to put it of to a lesse busy day so was the loue of our Lord excessiue euen heerin who was contented with the publicity of his shame at that tyme because by meanes therof the notice of his Passion togeather with the miracles succeding it would the more speedily be spred and more readily beleeued shortly after throughout the world The circumstance of Pilates person doth plainely also shew the particular rancour of their hart since they hated Christ our Lord so much as that it made them earnest glad to shew themselues subiect to that Romane Iustice They detested the subiection which they were in to Rome They loued not Cesar whome they tooke to be a Tyrant and Vsurper ouer them they loued not Pilate whome they knew to be a most corrupt and wicked Iudge they loued not the exercise of his Iudicature which serued but to refresh the memory of their owne misfortune in their hauing lost the vse of that power But their predominat malice to Christ our Lord made them content to gnaw and swallow all such bones as those When Pilate was come sorth they began to make their charge against the prisoner accusing him in bitter termes of most odious crimes but still as the manner of such persons is only in generall termes Which yet out of the (e) The base conceit which the lewes had of Christ our Lord. base cōceit they had of Christ our Lord and the pride which they tooke in themselues they thought would haue sufficiently induced Pilate to proceed against him And so indeed they did as good as say when afterward being pressed to produce their proofe they insinuated that it was more then needed For if the man had not bene wicked they would not Ioan. 18. said they haue brought him thither And withall they did not so much as vouchsafe to giue our Lord any particular name but they only sayd Inuenimus hunc c. We haue sound this fellow disturbing the peace of our people Luc. 23. and forbidding that Tribute should be paid to Cesar and declaring himselfe to be a King Yet Pilate being moued by the sight of the person of Christ our Lord did beyond his custome forbeare to make such hast as at the instant to
to Cesar the vniust weake man was forced by his owne vicious feare to giue sentence against our Lord. Nor would he go one foote out of his pace nor put himselfe to the trouble of defending his owne innocency against the calumniations of the Iewes which yet with all ease he might haue done in case they should haue complayned against him But he rather chose to condēne innocency it self to that reward of wickednes and life to death and he permitted that charity should be tormented by the hāds of implacable malice and enuy Luc. 23. For the holy Scripture sayth That he deliuered him ouer to the will and appetite of the Iewes (e) He destroied his owne words by his deeds Matt. 27. washing first his hands and protesting by that ceremony that he was innocent from shedding the bloud of our Lord IESVS Wheras the ignorant hypocrite ought rather to haue cleansed his hart from so great impiety as it is for a Iudge to neglect his duty for humane respects What hope might then Christ our Lord conceaue that any other thing could befall him then the very quintessence of that worst which might be deuised Since they were to be his guides into what Labyrinths of torment would they not lead him How would they not incense the vulgar by telling certaine graue and well countenanced lyes wherof we haue some dregs remayning to these days of ours what bribes would they not fasten vpon those souldiers that so they might add the vttermost of any circumstance which might increase his shame and torment And our blessed Lord saw it all and if therin he had seene a million of tymes more thē that he had a hart prepared to beare it all vpon condition that it might doe vs good How our Lord did carry his Crosse and of the excessiue Loue he shewed in bearing the great affronts which were done to him in his iorney to Mount Caluary CHAP. 68. THEY did therfore then take of his purple Robe and put vpon his backe his owne former cloathes that so as he went the world might know for his greater scorne and shame euen by the first appearance that it was he And then they loaded his weake wounded shoulders with the Crosse wheron he was to be crucified which was a point of barbarous and vnwonted cruelty For wheras men are accustomed out of meere humanity to hide the instrument of the execution from other criminall persons they did not only not hide it in the case of Christ our Lord but they made him carry it as if he had double deserued death But the Crosse was so very heauy and he was growne both therby and otherwise so deadly weake that not being able to walke vnder it they constrayned another to assist him Luc. 23. Now when we see that Christ our Lord who was so enamoured of the Crosse was yet vnable to fetch strength inough out of his owne weakenes for the carrying it we may well imagine that the world went hard with him And (a) It is the pleasure of God that we helpe to beare the crosse of Christ our Lord. withall we must know once for all that since his Crosse was not wholy to be carryed by himselfe alone he will haue all his seruants assist him in it imbrace those Crosses which shall come for the exercise of our patience the testimony of our true loue in whatsoeuer forme the good will of God shall be pleased to send them Whether they be in that of sicknes or shame or banishment or losse of goods or spirituall desolation or corporall torments for the cause of Christ our Lord or in fine though it should be death it selfe The place to which they led our Lord and where they meant to crucifie him Luc. 23. was Mount Caluary without the citty of let usalem As he was going his misery seemed so great and he was so disfigured with durt and sweate and bloud and so weakned with the excesse of affliction he whome formerly the world had bene so much obliged to that the obiect wrought vpon many women who were lesse ill disposed And as they were following him in the midst of a mighty troope of men who went to see him put to death they did bitterly bewayle his misfortune But our Lord Ibid. though in his hart he accepted their compassion of him in gratefull part yet (b) Our Lord Iesus had no gust but in suffering for vs. through his loue to suffer and to suffer home for the loue of vs he refused to take complacence in that pitty of theirs And he aduised them to transferre their care of him to a consideration of themselues Letting them know the calamities which were comming towards them and their posterity and that if he who was innocency it selfe were so afflicted for the sinnes of others how grieuously should men be punished for their owne This was then the aduise which with perfect loue he gaue to them and in them to vs and all the world (c) Whet we are to looke for comfort in afflictions instructing vs how to seeke for the comfort of our afflictions not in the pittifull teares or moaning tongues or fawning entertaynements of others but in the Testimony of a good consciēce a strong hope in God and a faithfull obedience to his holy will Ibid. And by his asking If such things as those were executed in the greene wood wherby he insinuated himselfe what would be done to the dry wood wherby he aymed at them he doth with the oracle of his owne inuiolable truth stop vp the mouths of wicked and prophane persons For they say that the Greene wood which is Christ our Lord did suffer all vpon his owne person and that as for them who are dry wood they haue nothing to suffer for themselues but that it sufficeth to beleeue that he suffered all But heere our Lord is expresse in shewing that our sight of his miseries in the way of punishment must spurre vs vp to make vs bitterly lament our owne miseries in the way of sinne and that the seeing or beleeuing of those afflictions endured by him for vs would not serue our turne vnlesse we applyed them to oursoules by true contrition By these externall acts of loue and by thoughts when the occasions of acting fayled did our Lord goe wearing out that long way betweene Pilits house and Mount Caluary Hauing (d) Our Lord was cōpassed in on euery side by great affronts the perfidious Priests and Elders on the one side and the prophane scoffing souldiers on the other The executioners were close at his heeles the publique Cryer leading him the way and proclayming him for a seditious and a trayterous person in the eares of all that world The people would be running sometymes before him and sometymes behind as the manner is in such cases shouting out reproaching him euery one according to his owne fancy or rather phrensy And they who could not
hart with most blasphemous and bitter scoffs The people which past in troopes Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioan. 19. before him did with serpentine tongues and countenances full of scorne cry out vah to him And they accompanied it with the most contumelous gesture and iogge of the head which they could deuise as the holy Scripture it selfe doth insinuate And that interiection with the words that followed doe as bad as say after this manner Thou wretch thou hypocrite thou vgly impostor thou wert talking of wonders but to what an end hath thy wickednes brought thee now at last Thou hadst a minde to be a King but what beggar is so base as not to be thy better might it please your Maiesty to come downe from the crosse that we your most humble and faithfull seruants and vassalles may doe you homage Thou talkedst of being the Sonne of God the Sauiour of the world Will it please your Diuinity to be good to your Humanity Will it please you to let your Charity beginne at home and to saue your selle Thou talkedst of what thou couldst do if thou wert disposed and that the Temple was but a toye and that thou wert able to put it downe and rayse it vp againe in a trice Might your Omnipotēcy be intreated to beginne with throwing downe that Crosse and to cast away those nayles and by iuggling to play least in sight as in former occasions you haue been known to doe Vah wretched wicked thing the worst of creatures the out cast of the world we hate thee we abhorre thee we despise thee we spit at thee we defy thee The earth hath refused to be trod vpon any longer by those pernicious feete of thine the heauen is walled vp against the entry of such a miscreāt as thou There is no place for thee but hell dye therfore quickly and be damned These are infinite blasphemies and we all abhorre them all as we doe the deuill himselfe but infallibly they are but triuiall things in comparison of those others which were darted out indeed against our blessed Lord vpon the Crosse For (c) A demonstration that the blasphemies which were vttered against our blessed Lord were most enourmous thinges though the holy Scripture toucheth them in in few words since they acted their worst by the way of doing they would be sure not to fall short in saying And the rage they had would quicken vp their wits and the excessiue wrongs which then already they had done him would exact at their hāds a making good of what was past by the vttermost most demonstration of how deepely they detested him at that present The high Priests besides are recorded in holy Scripture to haue put scoffs vpon him after a particular manner and they sayd to this effect This fellow had a guift to helpe other folkes but he hath not the tricke to saue himselfe If he he the King of Israell let him come downe from the Crosse and we will belieue him The good mā did put his trust in God but if God haue a minde to him let him take him The barbarous souldiers also were still vpon their old haunt of scorning him Ibid. hauing bene bribed in all appearance by those wicked Iewes euen from the beginning when he was scourged and crowned with thornes And they were so voyd of pitty as to be offering him vinager though they did but euen that in iest and scorne at that tyme wheras wine was wont to be giuē to all men who were placed in that deadly trance Yea and euen one of those very theeues who then were suffering death togeather with him tooke tyme not to thinke of his owne torments or imminent death togeather with the danger of eternall damnation which he was in through the lust he had to be like those sauages vnder whome he suffered and he would needs be then at leasure to reproach blaspheme our blessed Lord. How our Lord Iesus did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructour vpon the Crosse and of the three first wordes which with incomparable Loue he vttered from thence CHAP. 71. SVCH was the cruelty of all kinds of people against our Lord as he was hanging vpon the Crosse and such was the affliction which in the inferiour part of his soule he felt vpon euery one of those particular paines and scornes Nor was there so much as one single word a signe gesture or a thought of malice in any one of all those many harts which wēt not to his by the way of griefe Yet see also how it wrought in the way of loue As soone as the Crosse was reard and that already they had set al those markes vpon him which were to carry him to his graue that still he was hearing the bitter scoffs blasphemies wherby they prophaned his sacred eares he went exercising two of his chiefe offices in a most admirable manner and in a most eminent degree These (a) Our Lord Iesus the Mediatour of our redemption and the Doctour of our soules by by way of instructiō were to be the Mediatour of our Redemption and the Doctour in that Chaire of the holy Crosse for our instruction He then turned himselfe in most gratious but most dolorous manner to his eternall Father beseeching him to forgiue al their sinnes who had any way concurred to that death of his Father sayth he forgiue them for they know not what they do Ibid. Of God as God he knew not how to hope for such a fauour in respect of them and therfore he coniures him by the tēder name of Father that so he remēbring him to be that most beloued Sonne Matt. 3. he in whome he was well pleased he might be mercifull to those wretches whose cause he had vndertakē to plead For howsoeuer they had found in their harts to giue him so many wounds of death with so much scorne and rage yet he could not find in his to forsake them in theyr sinns but to begge that they might haue grace to returne by penance And because he easily foresaw that the crime was so enormous of it selfe his vnspeakeable charity went seeking waies how to excuse the grieuousnes therof by taking a part from their malice and ascribing it to their ignorance who committed it And he who in that Agony in the Garden prayed but conditionally that the bitter Chalice of his punishment might passe from him had so much more (b) Out Lord had far more care of vs thē of himselfe care of them then of himself as to pray in absolute termes that the Chalice of Gods fury might not come to thē Not only he did it in absolute termes but he did it at his death when Fathers are not wōt to refuse their sonnes And he did it more ouer in the midst of those excessiue torments when euen enemies vse to gratify one another and he did it by way of represēting so good a reason for the obtayning of his suite
be the last of his life But (b) The reason why our Lord declared his thirst this Lord of ours was pressed so close by his spirituall thirst of suffering as it were infinite things for the loue of vs and for the gayning instructing our soules by these examples of his inuincible patience as that it made him contemne euen forget his owne materiall thirst though it were to him of excessiue paine This Originall of Religious Obedience which is Christ our Lord doth also shew heerby the forme wherin Religious persons are to expresse themselues to their Superiours Which (c) A good lesson for Religious men is not to be so much by way of earnest desire of that which they would haue as by way of declaration of that wherof they are in want and when that is done the Superiours are to proceed as they see cause For so did Christ our Lord forbeare to desire to drinke and he only said That he was thirsty to those souldiers who were made his Superiours by his owne admirable humility and charity submitting himselfe entirely to their wills who were bribed and bent to doe him all the mischiefe they could For when he told them of his thirst what was it which they could find in their harts to giue him The same thing which they had offered him before in iest and in the way of scorne the same they were content to giue him now in earnest for a conclusion to all their cruell courtesies When they were going to crucify him they would not giue him wine til it were distempered with Gaul Matt. 27. Marc. 25. which is the Embleme of malice and bitternes And now that he is giuing vp the Ghost they present him with a spunge full of Vinegar which is the Embleme of rage and sowernes O vncharitable wretches and who made you of men such sauage monsters But O infinite Charity and meekenes and patience of Christ our Lord who accepted of al without the least reproofe of their impiety And as at the foote of the Crosse he had refused to drinke of that Gaul because it was mingled with wine to the end that he might be suffering whilst he liued without any drop of the wine of comfort yea or so much as the being knowne to want it so now that he was vpō the very point of death he refused not to drinke of that pure vinegar because it was all sharpe and sower He left those draughts which should haue any mixture of comfort in them with Crosses for those Martyrs whome he meant to make glorious by following his diuine example And by his taking the vinegar of tribulation he did conuert it into the wine of strength cōfort after a cōtrary māner to that wherby wicked men are wont through their ingratitude to turne the wine of his blessings into the vinegar and Gaul of sinnes agaynst him Abusing the abundance of his mercy and making that a motiue of their wicked liberty which would tye any honest hart so much the more inseparably to his seruice He also dranke this vinegar to (d) The many excellēt reasons why our Lord was pleased both to endure and to declare his thirst the end that as already he had sanctified the mortificatiō of the other senses by his example for the instruction and consolation of his faithfull seruants so also they might be taught by this to be far and very farre from all superfluous care of meate and drinke and much more from all inordinate delight therin since all the sweete meates wherwith our blessed Lord was pleased to make vp his mouth in this mortall life was but a draught of vinegar out of a sponge at his death By this drinking therfore he enableth vs to be content with course and common and vnpleasant meat and drinke and by the merit of his thirsting after this corporall drinke he hath killed and quenched our spirituall thirst after vaine and vicious delights which nourish and feed vp our soules in sinne And so also on the other side according to S. Augustines expositiō of the sixty eight Psalme our Lord IESVS did not only declare his extreme thirst of corporall drinke but also his ardent thirst after the saluation of his enemies and of all the world How infinitely therfore shall we be without excuse if we giue him not to drinke of our good deeds since he is so greedy of them and was so tormented for want therof Yea and how worthy shall we be of all reproach and paine if he hauing begun to vs in so sad a Cup with desire thirst of our good we shall not procure to resemble him by thirsting both in body and soule after the aduancing and increasing of his Glory Of the entyre consummation of our Redemption which was wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse and of the perfection of his diuine vertues expressed there CHAP. 75. OVR Lord IESVS hauing drunke this vinegar declared that whatsoeuer had bin prophesied to be accomplished by himselfe was now fulfilled and he signified it by saying this word Consummatum est All is fulfilled And as he who only refresheth and filleth the soule of man with whole flouds of ioy was already content to be tormented with thirst so now for the apparailing of our soules with the life of Grace he was ready to deuest himselfe of the life of Nature He had formerly complyed with the care which he had of our instruction and now we haue seeue how he hath accomplished our Redēption by his Passion By meanes of this Passion he finished the building of his Church And since he had formerly layd a note of folly Ioan. 19. vpon such a man as should beginne to rayse a building and not bring it afterward to perfection our Lord who was the increated Wisedome of the Eternall Father must needs be farre from falling into any errour of the same kind And indeed it was wholy necessary that in his great goodnes to vs he should not depriue vs of such a diuine example of perseuerance as now we haue obtayned by the Cons̄mation of his course of Passion vpon the Crosse since (a) All labour is lost without perseuerance Deut. 23. without perseuerance all our labour is but lost Our Lord did therfore perseuere and he did perfect that which he had begun If the workes of God are most truly sayd to be entirely perfect his Passiō was to be so in most particular māner which amōgst these other workes is said with a kind of eminency to be his worke Now what sufferance could be more perfect in the way of humility then for the Lord of life and glory most willingly to endure a death of excessiue contumely and shame at the hands of his Rebellious Sonnes and most wicked slaues What more perfect in the way of patience and purity of hart then to suffer without the accesse of any imaginable comfort as Christ our Lord vouchsafed to doe What more perfect in the
and the world In the former three he aymed at our only good and in the latter to his owne which yet withall was also ours In the first of those three which was the prayer to his Father Pater dimitte illis non enim sciunt quid faciunt Father forgiue them for they know not what they doe those persecut ours of Christ our Lord were principally intēded by that diuine goodnes but yet withall those men were a kind of figure and represented after a sort all the sinners of the whole world in their persons and so he prayed for the forgiuenes of them all Luc. Ibid. In the second which was his speach to the good Thiefe Amen dico libi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso I tell thee that for certaine thou shalt be with me in Paradise this very day the same good thiefe was assured of his saluation after a most eminent manner but yet withall he was a Type and his person did expresse the character of all sinners truly penitent whome our Lord doth instantly restore to his grace fauour Ioan. 19. vpon their humble and constant desire thereof In the third which was the speach to his B. Virgin-Mother and his most beloued disciple Mulier ecce filius tuus and then Ecce mater tua woman behould thy sonne then to him behold thy mother as this sacred Virgin and this Disciple were in most particular manner designed to be the Mother and Sonne of one mother so yet S. Iohn therin did carry the person of all mankind by being made the Sonne of that most excellent Mother Such was the stile which our Lord held in his death and such it had euer bene throughout the whole course of his life to speake (c) How the speaches of Christ our Lord were many of thē meant chiefly to such as were then present to him and yet expresly also to such as were to succeed in the world afterward chiefly to thē who were present and yet expresly also to those others who were absēt thē vnborne And this truth doth abundantly appeare by the Euangelicall history and to doubt heerof were to say the sunne is darke Since God was content to be made man for the loue of men we are brought more easily to belieue that man shall be made a kind of God in heauen And so when we know and consider that through Christ our Lord who is the naturall Sonne of God we may all become the adopted Sonnes of God yea and so we are if we dispose our selues to be like God our Father and consequently to Christ IESVS our elder brother for that the Father and Sonne are so very like that one of thē is well knowne by the other it (d) How we are made the brothers of our Lord Iesus both by the fathers the Mothers side will seeme lesse strange and nothing disagreable to the infinite mercy of our Redeemer that as he had vouchsafed to make vs his brethren by the Fathers side who is God he would also be pleased to make vs his brethren by the mothers side as he was man adopting vs in the person of S. Iohn to be all the Sonnes of the sacred Virgin Nor did that deernes of his loue shine lesse in that he would cōmunicate his mother to vs thē in that he was pleased that al his other blessings should be common betwene him and vs. And as Ioseph the Patriarke loued his brother Gen. 41. by the mothers side with most tendernes so it seemes as if our Lord would euen oblige himselfe to affect vs with a greater tēdernes of loue now that he had receaued vs as it were into the same very bowells of purity which had borne himselfe As our Lord IESVS is our brother for many reasons especially because we are made his coheyres of eternall glory in the kingdom of heauen so in regard that we are made so by the benefit and purchase of his redemption consequently that he begot vs by so excellent a meanes to that rich inheritance he (e) How Christ our Lord is not only our brother but our father also Isa 9. Ephes 2. is also in holy Scripture called not only our brother but our Father And so the holy Euangelicall Prophet Esay speaking of the glorious Tytle of Christ our Lord setteth this downe among the rest that he is Pater futuri saeculi The Father of the future age that is of Christians whome by his faith and Sacraments he would beget to God This Tytle of Father cost him very deere for was there any Mother who by the way of naturall birth did bring forth any child with such excesse of torment to her selfe as this Father of ours IESVS Christ our Lord did with excesse of anguish and affliction beget euery one of them who of the children of wrath were to be made by his meanes the Sonnes of God And therefore as in course of naturall descent Christ our Lord was the Sonne of the sacred Virgin so if we consider him as the Father and regeneratour of vs all to grace then our Lord and the blessed Virgin may in some sort be accompted rather as the spouses then as the Sonne and Mother of one another This way of cōsidering Christ our Lord our B. Lady ought not seeme strange to vs since partly holy Scripture and partly the cōsēt of the holy Fathers of the primitiue Church do so expresly set it forth to our sight 1. ad Cor. 15. For frō hence it is that Christ our Lord is so often called the (f) How our Lord Iesus is called the second Adam our B Lady the second Eue. second Adam who was to repaire the ruines which the former had drawne downe about the head and eares of mankind And hence also it is that we see it manifestly insinuated in holy Scripture and cleerly and euidently expresled by the holy Fathers that as Christ our Lord came to supply the place of the former adam so our B. Lady was to vs a second a better Eue then the former that she wrought both for her selfe vs as a most eleuated instrument and partly as a cause of our restitution to that inheritance which had bene forfeited by the former But yet with this great difference that as betwene the former Adam and Eue the Originall prime poyson of the first sinne came chiefly and primitiuely from the serpent to Eue and then in a second kind of degree from her to Adam and frō him to vs So betwene this latter Adam and Eue which is Christ our Lord our B. Lady the roote ground of that grace wherby the redemption of the world was wrought came originally and fundamentally from God to Christ our Lord and after a secondary instrumentall manner through her Sonne our Lord to our B. Lady It is shewed how our Blessed Lady and Eue doe resemble one another and how they differ and our Blessed Lady is
prooued to be the spirituall mother of all mankind and of the mercifull prouidence of our Lord God therein CHAP. 80. THE sinne of eating the forbidden fruite was no sooner committed but God did curse and threaten the Serpent in this māner Inimicitias ponam inter te mulierem semen tū semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum c. I will put emnities betwene thee and the woman and betwene thee with thy seed and her with her seed and shee shall bruize thy head c. Now this woman and her seed is Christ our Lord and our B. Lady togeather withall the faithfull who were to follow And the serpent and his head is the deuill all his wicked members whether they be Pagās Iewes Turkes Heretikes or loose Catholikes In (a) Our B. Lady was Preordained 〈◊〉 trīph ouer sinne hell this Spirituall warre so great honour is done to our Blessed Lady by God himselfe that by him it is fore-tould that she shall be victorious therin For howsoeuer the Sectaries of this age out of a malignity which they carry against this euer-blessed Virgin will not haue it to be read ipsa cōteret shee shall bruize the serpents head but ipse cōteret that is Christ our Lord shall doe it yea howsoeuer diuers of the auncient Fathers doe according to the Hebrew letter read it Ipse though not out of any such reason as is suggested by these aduersaries of her honour yet it is plaine that the vulgar translation which is of the greatest authority of any other in the whole Catholike Church and was made by S. Ierome who besides his sanctity was the learnest man in those tongues who liued thē or perhaps hath liued since in the world doth read Ipsa and not Ipse Apud Canisium l. 5 c. 9. Ambr. de suga saeculi l. 7. Aug. lib. 11. c. 36. Greg. lib. 1. mor. c. 38. Beda in Genesim Bern ser 2. sup mis sus and so also doth S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Gregory Venerable Bede S. Bernard and many more And indeed whether the lection be Ipse or Ipsa the sense will fall out to be in effect the same Because if we read Ipsa the B. Virgin is to be vnderstood to haue this priuiledge from God through Christ our Lord and though we should read Ipse yet we know euen therby that Christ our Lord was not pleased to do it but by her and he expressed for her honour that it should be done by the seed of her and that none but such as are her seed shall euer be able to ouercome the Serpent Vpon this reason it is that the holy Fathers are so frequent and expresse in styling our blessed Lady Mater viuentium The mother of such as liue by grace as Eue was called Mater viuetium the mother of such as liued by nature though afterward she deserued both to be accompted and called Mater morientium the mother of such as dy by sinne Hieron de Scrip. Eccles Epiph. l. 1 to 2. hist 31. S. Irenaens whome S. Epiphanius and S. Hierome calleth the Successour of the Apostles the Disciple of S. Policarpe and the Martyr of Christ who florished within an hundred and odd yeares of Christ our Lord himselfe doth often and at large and expresly shew the cōparison which in some respects is to be made between our B. Lady and our Grandmother Eue Irenaeus l. 3. contra haeres c. 33. but I will only cite one passage or two out of him As Eue proouing disobedient grew to be a cause of death both to her selfe the whole race of mankind so Mary hauing a man predestinated for that purpose but yet she being still a Virgin and being also obediene was made a cause of saluation both to her selfe and all mankind And shortly after he affirmeth That that knot which was tyed by the disobedience of Eue Lib. 5. aduersus haeres c. 19. was loosened by the faith of Mary And in another place he saith expresly that the Virgin Mary by her obedience to God was made the aduocate of the Virgin Eue. Iustinus the Martyr who was yet more ancient then Irenaeus wryteth thus of Eue our blessed Lady In dial c̄ Tryphone A man was borne of a Virgin that so by the same way wherby disobedience had entred by the same might pardon be obtayned For Eue being yet a Virgin by conceauing that word of the serpent brought forth disobedience and death but the Virgin Mary after she had conceaued faith with gladnes the Angell Gabriell bringing her that ioyfull message made answere thus Be it vnto me according to thy word Tertullian saith Cap. 7. carne Christi Eue beleeued the serpent Mary beleeued Gabriell that which the former sinned in beleeuing the latter by beleeuing did blot out S. Austen sayth that the disobedient Eue deserued punishment but Mary by her obedience obtayned the pardon of it S. Epiphanius who is his auncient sayth Lib. 3. haeresi 78. That Eue was made the cause of death to men for death came by her into the world but Mary was the cause of life by whome life was begotten to vs and the Sonne of God came into the world by her And where sinne abounded there did grace ouer abōd and whence death proceeded thence did life also proceed to the end that death might be exchanged into life And againe he sayth els where From Eue all the generatiō of mankind is descended in earth but heere this life is brought into the world by Mary that she might bring forth him who liueth and she is made the mother of the liuing S. Chrysostome sayth Hom. interdict arboris ad Adam apud Canis l. 4. de Mar. Deip. l. 16. apud Coc. cium lib. 3. Thesau art 50. super fignum magnum de laud. vir apud Can. ibid. death came by Adā life came by Christ. The Serpent seduced Eue Mary gaue consent to Gabriell The seducing of Eue brought death but the consent of Mary begot a Sauiour to the world S. Bernard sayth as to Eue Thou wert too cruell by whome that serpent did infuse that deadly poyson euen into thy very husband but the Beleeuing Mary did reach forth the Antidote or remedy both for men and women The former ministred errour this latter the propitiation of errour the former suggested that offence and the later brought forth the redemption of the same Make hast therfore sayth he in another place O Eue to Mary Let this daughter answere for her mother let her remoue the reproach of her mother let her satisfy the Father for the mother for behold if man were cast downe by a woman he is not to be raysed vp but by a women With the same facility I might alleadge a great number of other holy Fathers to proue both the proportions and disproportions which runne betwene our Grandmother Eue and the most blessed Mother of God and vs the All-immaculate
dispatching vp to that throne of Maiesty in whose light so inaccessible to other folkes she did so cleerly see the bottomlesse pit of nothing from whence the sweet strong hand of God had brought her and the worse then nothing of sinne from which he had preserued her by his first abundant Grace and that afterward he had inriched and sublimed her so farre as both in dignity and sanctity to make her the very top and Crowne of all meere creatures If (e) A most excellent affect of S. Augustine Confes l. 11. cap 2. S. Augustine could say to God with incredible internall ioy of hart Et intrem in cubile meum c. Let me enter into my most retyred chaÌ„ber and let me singe Loue-songes to thee sighing out certaine vnspeakeable groanes in this pilgrimage of mine And calling the heauenly Ierusalem to remembrance with my hart enlarged and turned vp towards it Ierusalem which is my Country Ierusalem which is my mother And I will remember thee who art the ruler of it and the illuminatour the tutour the Father the spouse the chast and stronge delight the solid and sincere ioy and all vnspeakeable good things put togeather because thou art the only true and supreme good What kind of notes and songes of Angelicall and Seraphicall loue do we thinke that this spiritual Nightingall this Turtle this both euer-liuing and dying Swanne would still be singing and sweetly mourning out to God In respect of whome although S. Augustine being set not only by other men but eueÌ„ by many other Saints were as a furnace of fire being compared with some single coale yet the same S. Augustine in respect of her was no more then a single sparke in respect of a whole sphere of fire An inexplicable thing it is to consider the (f) Profound rest perpetuall motion were coupled in the soule of the sacred Virgin profound rest togeather with the perpetuall strife and motion of her soule of loue which was both continually inioying God and yet coÌ„tinually earning towards him CoÌ„tinually labouring to doe him most faithfull seruice and yet continually feeding vpon the pretious fruits of those very labours But because she foÌ„d that Man was the thing which he most loued next to God as being his Image by Creation and his owne purchase by Redemption and that she most actually most purely cleerly saw the Sonne of God and her at that tyme in such labour and pursuite of mans good with so much forgetfullnes as it were of his owne Maiesty and glory and that afterward he left his life vpon a Crosse for our Saluation it (g) The incomparable and most ardent loue which our B. Lady beares to â— all mankind is not to be declared nor yet conceaued by vs what an vnquenchable loue she also had to the good of men Imploring God for all that mercy which their misery did need and by her owne excellent example giuing them patternes which they were to follow and procuring both increase of comfort to them who had store and the accesse therof to such as she found to be in want therof This may euidently appeare by those two excellent patternes of that whole peece of her loue which haue so often bene produced and which she deliuered at S. Elizabeths house the mariage of Cana. Especially if the circumstances be pondered well both of the difference in Dignity betwene her person and theirs and the hast that she made to be communicating her fauours to Gods creatures Towards whome the ardour of her affection was so great that it seemed by the much hast she made in those two mysteries as if she had not bene able to containe it The impenetrable profound Humility and the perfect supercelestiall Purity of our B. Ladies both body and soule and wherin the height thereof consisteth CHAP. 90. I Come froÌ„ the Theologicall to some chiefe Morall vertues behould how deep she â—aid the foundatioÌ„ of Humility that her building might reach vp as high as heauen She considered with perfect clarity of vnderstanding that from all eternity she had bene nothing as was touched before till the omnipotent mercy of God did preuent her with those first vnspeakeable vnconceaueable graces without any merit on her part She knew well as hath bene said that (a) The ground of our B. Ladyes most profound Humility she was no more then a meere creature of the race of the sinfull Adam and that she might haue fallen into as many as grieuous sinnes as the rest of mankind was subiect to if the sweet goodnes of God had not preuented and presered her still with most particular fauours By the light of this knowledge the most sacred Virgin did esteeme her selfe as the meanest creature of the world and she cordially despised herselfe as a thing in herselfe who deserued to be of no account at all Not but that she well knew what guiftes she had receiued of our Lord God or that she tooke herselfe into contempt as thinking meanely of them for them she esteemed and she reueared God for them as she had cause but she esteemed herselfe in herselfe no more for them then if she had not had them at all She was yet further from conceauing that she was to contemne herselfe as if she had comitted any sinne for true (b) True Humility is euer grounded vpon Truth Humility is grounded euer vpon certaine truth and therfore as indeed she did neuer sinne so neither could she think that she had sinned but she despised herselfe because she cleerly saw that of herselfe alone she had nothing which was good but that all was of God and that to him all thanks were due as they also were for his preseruing her from all those sinns into which she might haue fallen if our Lord had not preuented her by his grace This meane conceipt of her selfe the most sacred Virgin made appeare when she was told by the Angell in the name of God that she was elected to that highest Dignity of being the Mother of the Sonne of the most high which was the greatest Dignity wherof any meere creature could be capable But yet she was so far from taking complacence in her selfe vpon that reason that the text affirmes her to haue bin troubled at them So that the Angell thought it his part to giue her comfort afterward by letting her know that it was not he but God himselfe who did her that honour But (c) How our B. Lady was troubled and in what seÌ„se she was not so the while we must not thinke that this trouble of hers was any such thing as could depriue her of the cleare discourse of reason or of the peace of that immoueable soule though for as much as it was a motioÌ„ of holy feare modest shame to find herselfe so much esteemed it shewes what an impenetrable sort of humility she had in that deepe sweet hart of hers how profoundly she thought