principall fauorits of the parent of all wisedome Or if notwithstanding the danger there had bene iust cause to encounter it were not two together being both to Christ sworne champions each to other affected friends and to all his enemies professed foes more likely to haue preuailed than one feminine heart timorous by kind and already amazed with this dreadfull accident But alas why do I vrge her with reason whose reason is altered into loue that iudgeth it folly to follow such reason as should any way impaire her loue Her thoughts were arrested by euery thread of Christs Sindon and she was captiue to so many prisons as the tombe had memories of her lost master Loue being her Iaylor in them all and nothing able to ransome her but the recouery of her Lord. What maruaile then though the Apostles examples drew her not away whom so violent a loue enforced to remaine which prescribing lawes both to wit and will is guided by no other law but it selfe She could not thinke of any feare nor stand in feare of any force Loue armed her against all hazards and being already wounded wtih the greatest griefe she had no leisure to remember any lesser euill Yea she had forgotten all things and her selfe among all things onely mindfull of him whom she loued aboue all things And yet her loue by reason of her losse drowned both her mind and memory so deepe in sorrow and so busied her wits in the conceit of his absence that all remembrance of his former promises was diuerted with the throng of present discomforts and she seemed to haue forgotten also him besides whom she remembred nothing For doubtlesse had she remembred him as shee should shee would not haue now thought the tombe a fit place to seeke him neither would she mourne for him as dead and remoued by others force but ioy in him as reuiued and risen by his own power For he had often foretold both the manner of his death and the day of his Resurrection But alas let her heauinesse excuse her and the vnwontednesse of the miracle pleade her pardon sith dread amazement hath dulled her senses distempered her thoughts discouraged her hopes awaked her passions and left her no other liberty but onely to weepe She wept therefore being onely able to weepe And as she was weeping she stouped downe and looked into the Monument and she saw two Angels in white sitting one at the head and another at the feet where the body of Iesus had bene layd They said vnto her Woman why weepest thou Iohn 20. O Mary thy good hap exceedeth thy hope and where thy last sorrow was bred thy first succour springeth Thou diddest seeke but one and thou hast found two A dead body was thy errand and thou hast light vpon two aliue Thy weeping was for a man and thy teares haue obtained Angels Suppresse now thy sadnesse and refresh thy heart with this good fortune These Angels inuite thee to a parley they seeme to take pitty of thy case and it may be they haue some happy tidings to tell thee Thou hast hitherto sought in vaine as one either vnseene or vnknowne or at the least vnregarded sith the party thou seekest neither tendereth thy teares nor answereth thy cryes nor relenteth with thy lamentings Either he doth not heare or he will not helpe he hath paraduenture left to loue thee and is loth to yeeld thee reliefe and therefore take such comfort as thou findest sith thou art not so lucky as to finde that which thou couldest wish Remember what they are where they sit from whence they come and to whom they speake They are Angels of peace neither sent without cause nor seene but of fauour They sit in the tombe to shew that they are no strangers to thy losse They come from heauen from whence all happy news descendeth They speake to thy selfe as though they had some speciall embassage to deliuer vnto thee Aske them therefore of thy master for they are likeliest to returne thee a desired answer Thou knewest him too well to thinke that hell hath deuoured him thou hast long sought and hast not found him on earth and what place so fit for him as to be in heauen Aske therefore of those Angels that came newly from thence and it may be their report will highly please thee Or if thou art resolued to continue thy seeking who can better helpe thee than they that are as swift as thy thought as faithfull as thine owne heart and as louing to thy Lord as thou thy felfe Take therefore thy good hap lest it be taken away from thee and content thee with Angels sith thy master hath giuen thee ouer But alas what meaneth this change and how happeneth this strange alteration The time hath bene that fewer teares would haue wrought greater effect shorter seeking haue sooner found and lesse paine haue procured more pittie The time hath bene that thy annointing his feet was accepted and praysed thy washing them with teares highly cōmended thy wiping thē with thy haire most curteously construed How then doth it now fall out that hauing brought thy sweet oyles to annoint his whole body hauing shed as many teares as would haue washed more than his feet and hauing not onely thy haire but thy heart ready to serue him he is not moued with all these duties so much as once to afford thee his fight Is it not he that reclaimed thee from thy wandring courses that dispossessed thee of thy damned Inhabitants and from the wilds of sinne recouered thee into the fold and family of his flock Was not thy house his home his loue thy life thy selfe his disciple Did not he defend thee against the Pharisie pleade for thee against Iudas and excuse thee to thy sister In summe was not he thy Patron and Protector in all thy necessities O good Iesu what hath thus estranged thee from her Thou hast heretofore so pitied her teares that seeing them thou couldest not refraine thine In one of her greatest agonies for loue of her that so much loued thee thou didst recall her dead brother to life turning her complaint into vnexpected contentment And we know that thou doest not vse to alter course without cause nor to chastise without desert Thou art the first that inuitest and the last that forsakest neuer leauing but first left and euer offering till thou art refused How then hath she forfeited thy fauour or with what trespasse hath she earned thy ill will That she neuer left to loue thee her heart will depose her hand will subscribe her tongue will protest her teares will testifie and her seeking doth assure And alas is her particular case so farre from example that thou shouldest rather alter thy nature than she better her Fortune and be to her as thou art to no other For our parts since thy last shew of liking towards her we haue found no other fault in her but that she was the earliest vp to
seeke thee readiest to annoint thee and when she saw that thou wert remoued she forthwith did weepe for thee and presently went for helpe to finde thee And whereas those two that she brought being lesse carefull of thee than fearefull of themselues when they had seene what she had said sodainely shrunke away behold she still stayeth she still seeketh she still weepeth If this be a fault we cannot deny but this she doth and to this she perswadeth yea this she neither meaneth to amend nor requesteth thee to forgiue if therfore thou reckonest this as punishable punished she must be sith no excuse hath effect where the fact pleadeth guiltie But if this import not any offence but a true affection and be rather a good desire than an euill desert why art thou so hard a Iudge to so soft a creature requiting her loue with thy losse and suspending her hopes in this vnhappinesse Are not those thy words I loue those that loue me and who watcheth early for me shall find me why then doth not this woman find thee that was vp so early to watch for thee Why doest thou not with like repay her that bestoweth vpon thee her whole loue sith thy word is her warrant and thy promise her due debt Art thou lesse moued with these teares that she sheddeth for thee her onely Master than thou wert with those that she shed before thee for her deceassed brother Or doth her loue to thy seruant more please thee than her loue to thy selfe Our loue to others must not be to them but to thee in them For he loueth thee so much the lesse that loueâ—h any thing with thee If therefore she then deserued well for louing thee in another she deserued better now for louing thee in thy selfe and if indeed thou louest those that loue thee make thy word good to her that is so farre in loue with thee Of thy selfe thou hast said that thou art The way the truth and the life If then thou art a way easie to find and neuer erring how doth she misse thee If a life giuing life and neuer ending why is she ready to dye for thee If a true promising truth and neuer failing how is she bereaued of thee For if what thy tongue did speake thy truth will auerre she will neuer aske more to make her most happy Remember that thou saidst to her sister that Mary had chosen the best part which should not be taken from her That she chose the best parâ— is out of question sith she made choise of nothing but only of thee But how can it be verified that this part shal not be taken from her sith thou that art this part art already taken away If she could haue kept thee she would not haue lost thee and had it bene in her power as it was in her will she would neuer haue parted from thee and might she now be restored to thy presence she would trie all fortunes rather than for go thee Sith therefore she seeketh nothing but what she chose and the losse of her choise is the only cause of her combat either vouchsafe thou to keep this best part that she chose in her or I see not how it can be true that it shall not be taken from her But thy meaning haply was that though it be taken from her eyes yet it should neuer be taken from her heart it may be thy inward presence supplyeth thine outward absence yet I can hardly thinke but that if Mary had thee within her she could feele it and if she felt it she would neuer seeke thee Thou art too hot a fire to be in her bosome and not to burne her and thy light is too great to leaue her mind in this darknesse if it shined in her In true louers euery part is an eye and euery thought a looke and therefore so sweet an obiect among so many eyes and in so great a light could neuer lye so hidden but loue would espy it No no if Mary had thee her innocent heart neuer taught to dissemble could not make complaint the out-side of a concealed comfort neither would she turne her thoughts to pasture in a dead mans Tombe if at home she might bid them to so heauenly a banquet Her loue would not haue a thought to spare nor a minute to spend in any other action than in enioying of thee whom she knew too well to abridge the least part of her from so high an happinesse For her thirst of thy presence was so exceeding and the sea of thy ioyes so well able to afford her a full draught that though euery parcell in her should take in a whole tide of thy delights she would thinke them too few to quiet her desires Yea doubtlesse if she had thee within her she would not enuie the fortune of the richest Empresse yea she would more reioyce to be thy Tombe in earth than a throne in heauen and disdaine to be a Saint if she were worthy to be but thy shrine But paraduenture it is now with her mind as it was with the Apostles eyes and as they seeing thee walke vpon the Sea took thee for a Ghost so she seeing thee in her hart deemeth thee but a fancy being yet better acquainted with thy bodily shape than with thy spirituall power But ô Mary it seemeth too strange that he whom thou seekest and for whom thou weepest should thus giue thee ouer to these painefull fits if in thee he did not see a cause for which he will not be seene of thee Still thy plaint and stint thy weeping for I doubt there is some trespasse in thy teares some sinne in thy sorrow Doest thou not remember his words to thee and to other women when he said Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for me but weepe for your selues and for your children What meanest thou then to continue this course Doth he sorbid thy teares and wilt thou not forbeare them Is it no fault to infringe his will or is not that his will that his words do import The fault must be mended ere the penance be released and therefore either ceasse to weepe or neuer hope to finde But I know this Logicke little pleaseth thee and I might as soone win thee to forbeare liuing as to leaue weeping Thou wilt say that though he forbad thee to weepe for him yet he left thee free to weepe for thy selfe and sith thy loue hath made thee one with him thou weepest but for thy selfe when thou weepest for him But I answer thee againe that because he is one with thee and thy weeping for him hath bene forbidden thee thou canst not weepe for thy selfe but his words wil condemne thee For if thou he are one for which soeuer thou weepest it is all one therefore sith for him thou maist not weepe forbeare all weeping left it should offend Yea but saist thou to barre me from weeping is to abridge me of liberty and restraint of
this empty Syndon lyeth here to no vse and this Tombe being open without any in it may giue occasion to some mercifull heart that shall first light vpon my vnburied body to wrap me in his shroud and to interre me in this Tombe O too fortunate lot for so vnfortunate a woman to craue no no I do not craue it For alas I dare not yet if such an ouer-sight should be committed I do now before-hand forgiue that sinner and were it no more presumption to wish it aliue than to suffer it dead if I knew the party that should first passe by me I would woo him with my teares and hire him with my prayers to blesse me with this felicity And though I dare not wish any to do it yet this without offence I may say to all that I loue this Syndon aboue all clothes in the world and this Tombe I esteeme more than any Princes monument yea and I thinke that coarse highly fauored that shall succeed my Lord in it and for my part as I meane that the ground where I stand shall be my death-bed so am I not of Iacobs mind to haue my body buried farre from the place where it dyeth but euen in the next and readiest graue and that as soone as my breath faileth sith delayes are bootlesse where death hath won possession But alas I dare not say any more let my body take such fortune as befalleth it my soule at the least shall dwell in this sweet Paradise and from this brittle case of flesh and bloud passe presently into the glorious Tombe of God and man It is now enwrapped in a masse of corruption it shall then enioy a place of high perfection where it is now it is more by force than by choise and like a repining prisoner in a loathed gaile but there in a little roome it should find perfect rest and in the prison of death the liberty of a ioyfull life O sweet Tombe of my sweetest Lord while I liue I will stay by thee when I die I will cleaue vnto thee neither aliue nor dead will I euer be drawne from thee Thou art the Altar of mercie the temple of truth the sanctuary of safeâ—ie the graue of death and the cradle of eternall life O heauen of my eclipsed Sunne receiue vnto thee this silly starre that hath now also lost all wished light O Whale that hast swallowed my onely Ionas swallow also me more worthy to be thy prey sith I and not he was the cause of this bloudie tempest O Cesterne of my innocent Ioseph take me into thy drie bottome sith I and not he gaue iust cause of offence to my enraged brethren But alas in what cloud hast thou hidden the light of our way Vpon what shore hast thou cast vp the Preacher of all truth or to what Ismaelite hast thou yeelded the purueiour of our life Oh vnhappy me why did I not before thinke of that which I now aske Why did I leaue him when I had him thus to lament him now that I haue lost him If I had watched with perseuerance either none would haue taken him or they should haue taken me with him But through too much precisenesse in keeping the Law I haue lost the Law-maker and by being too scrupulous in obseruing his ceremonies I am proued irreligious in losing him selfe sith I should rather haue remained with the truth than forsaken it to solemnize the figure The Sabboth could not haue bene prophaned in standing by his coarse by which the prophaned things are sanctified and whose touch doth not defile the cleane but cleanseth the most defiled But when it was time to stay I departed when it was too late to helpe I returned and now I repent my folly when it cannot be amended But let my heart dissolue into sighes mine eyes melt in teares and my desolate soule languish in dislikes yea let all that I am and haue endure the deserued punishment that if he were incensed with my fault he may be appeased with my penance and returne vpon the amendment that fled from the offence Thus when her timorous conscience had indited her of so great an omission and her tongue enforced the euidence with these bitter accusations Loue that was now the onely vmpire in all her causes condemned her eyes to a fresh showre of teares her breast to a new storme of sighes and her soule to be perpetuall prisoner to restlesse sorrowes But ô Mary thou deceiuest thy selfe in thy owne desires and it well appeareth that excesse of griefe hath bred in thee a defect of due prouidence And wouldest thou indeed haue thy wishes come to passe and thy words fulfilled Tell me then I pray thee if thy heart were dissolued where wouldest thou harbour thy Lord what wouldest thou offer him how wouldest thou loue him Thine eyes haue lost him thy hands cannot feele him thy feet cannot follow him and if it be at all in thee it is thy heart that hath him and wouldest thou now haue that dissolued from thence also to exile him And if thine eyes were melted thy soule in langour and thy senses decayed how wouldest thou see him if he did appeare how shouldest thou heare him if he did speake how couldest thou know him though he were there present Thou thinkest haply that he loued thee so well that if thy heart were spent for his loue he would either lend his own heart vnto thee or create a new heart in thee better than that which thy sorrow tooke from thee It may be thou imaginest that if thy soule would giue place his soule wanting now a bodie would enter into thine with supply of all thy senses and release of thy sorrowes O Mary thou diddest not marke what thy maister was wont to say when he told thee that the third day he should rise againe For if thou hadst heard him or at the least vnderstood him thou wouldest not thinke but that he now vsed both his heart and soule in the life of his owne body And therefore repaire to the Angels and enquire more of them lest the Lord be displeased that comming from him thou wilt not entertaine them But Mary whose deuotions were all fixed vpon a nobler Saint and that had so straightly bound her thoughts to his only affection that she rather desired to vnknow whom she knew already than to burthen her mind with the knowledge of new acquaintance could not make her will long since possessed with the highest loue stoope to the acceptance of meaner friendships And for this though she did not scornefully reiect yet did she with humilitie refuse the Angels company thinking it no discourtesie to take her selfe from them for to giue her selfe more wholly to her Lord to whom both she and they were wholly deuoted ought most loue and greatest duty Sorrow also being now the onely interpreter of all that sense deliuered to her vnderstanding made her conster their demand in a more doubtfull than true
thy selfe therefore that if either of malice or by fraud the coarse had bene remoued the linnen and myrrhe should neuer haue bene left and neither could the Angels looke so chearefully nor the clothes lye so orderly but to import some happier accident than thou conceiuest But to free thee more from feare consider these words of the Angels Woman why weepest thou For what do they signifie but as much in effect as if they had said Where Angels reioyce it agreeth not that a woman shold weepe and where heauenly eyes are witnesses of ioy no mortall eye should controll them with testimonies of sorrow With more than a manly courage thou diddest before my comming arme thy feet to runne among swords thy armes to remoue huge loades thy body to endure all Tyrants rage and thy soule to be sundred with violent tortures and art thou now so much a Woman that thou canst not command thine eyes to forbeare teares If thou wert a true Disciple so many proofes would perswade thee but now thy incredulous humour maketh thee vnworthy of that stile and we can affoord thee no better title than a Woman and therefore ô Woman and too much a Woman why weepest thou If there were here any coarse we might thinke that sorrow for the dead enforced thy teares but now that thou findest it a place of the liuing why doest thou here stand weeping for the dead Is our presence so discomfortable that thou shouldest weepe to behold vs or is it the course of thy kindnesse with teares to entertaine vs If they be teates of loue to testifie thy good will as thy loue is acknowledged so let these signes be suppressed If they be teares of anger to denounce thy displeasure they should not here haue bene shed where all anger was buried but none deserued If they be teares of sorrow and duties to the dead they are bestowed in vaine where the dead is reuiued If they be teares of ioy stilled from the flowers of thy good fortune fewer of these would suffice and fitter were other tokens to expresse thy contentment And therefore O Woman why doest thou weepe would our eyes be so drie if such eye-streames were behouefull Yea would not the heauens raine teares if thy supposals were truths Did not Angels alwaies in their visible semblances represent their Lords inuisible pleasures shadowing their shapes in the drift of his intentions When God was incensed they brandished swords when he was appeased they sheathed them in scabbards when he would defend they resembled souldiers when he would terrifie they tooke terrible formes and when he would comfort they carried mirth in their eyes sweetnesse in their countenance mildnesse in their words fauour grace and comelinesse in their whole presence Why then doest thou weepe seeing vs to reioyce Doest thou imagine vs to degenerate from our nature or to forget any dutie whose state is neither subiect to change nor capable of the least offence Art thou more priuie to the counsaile of our eternall God than we that are daily attendants at his throne of glory O woman deeme not amisse against so apparent euidence and at our request exchange thy sorrow for our ioy But ô glorious Angels why do ye moue her to ioy if you know why she weepeth Alas she weepeth for the losse of him without whom all ioy is to her but matter of new griefe While he liued euery place where she found him was to her a Paradise euery season wherein he was enioyed a perpetuall spring euery exercise wherein he was serued a speciall felicitie the ground whereon he went seemed to yeeld her sweeter footing the ayre wherein he breathed became to her spirit of life being once sanctified in his sacred breast In summe his presence brought with it an heauen of delights and his departure seemed to leaue an eclipse in all things And yet euen the places that he had once honored with the accesse of his person were to her so many sweet Pilgrimages which in his absence she vsed as chappels and altars to offer vp her prayers feeling in them long after the vertue of his former presence And therefore to feed her with coniectures of his well being is but to strengthen her feare of his euill and the alledging of likelihoods by those that know the certaintie importeth the cause to be so lamentable that they are vnwilling it should be knowne Your obscure glancing at the truth is no sufficient acquittance of her griefe neither cā she out of these disioyned ghests spell the words that must be the conclusion of her complaint Tell her then directly what is become of her Lord if you meane to deliuer her out of these dumpes sith what else soeuer you say of him doth but draw more humours to her sore and rather anger it than any way asswage it Yet hearken ô Mary and consider their speeches Thinke what answer thou wilt giue them sith they presse thee with so strong perswasion But I doubt that thy wits are smothered with too thicke a mist to admit these vnknowne beames of their pale light Thou art so wholy inherited by the bloudy tragedie of thy slaughtered Lord and his death and dead body hath gotten so absolute a conquest ouer all thy powers that neither thy sense can discerne nor thy minde conceiue any other obiect than his murdered coarse Thy eyes seeme to tell thee that euery thing inuiteth thee to weepe carrying such outward shew as though all that thou seest were attyred in sorrow to solemnize with generall consent the funerall of the maister Thy teares perswade thee that all sounds and voyces are tuned with mournfull notes and that the Eccho of thine owne wailings is the cry of the very stones and trees as though the cause of thy teares being so vnusuall God to the rocks and woods had inspired a feeling of thine and their common losse And therefore it soundeth to thee as a strange question to aske thee why thou weepest sith all that thou seest and hearest seemeth to induce thee yea to enforce thee to weepe If thou seest any thing that beareth colour of mirth it is vnto thee like the rich spoiles of a vanquished kingdome in the eye of a captiue Prince which puts him in mind what he had not what he hath and are but vpbraidings of his losse and whetstones of sharper sorrow Whatsoeuer thou hearest that moueth delight it presenteth the misse of thy maisters speeches which as they were the onely Harmony that thy eares affected so they being now stopped with a deathfull silence all other words and tunes of comfort are to thee but an Israelites musicke vpon Babylons bancks memories of a lost felicitie and proofes of a present vnhappinesse And though loue increaseth the conceit of thy losse which endeareth the meanest things and doubleth the estimate of things that are precious yet thy faith teaching thee the infinite dignitie of thy Maister and thy vnderstanding being no dull scholer to learne so well liked a
my sute is more than halfe a graunt If many drops soften the hardest stones why should not many teares supple the most stony hearts What anger so fiery that may not be quenched with eye-water sith a weeping suppliant â—ebateth the edge of more than a Lyons furie My sute it selfe would sue for me and so dolefull a coarse would quicken pitty in the most yron hearts But suppose that by touching a ranckled sore my touch should anger it and my petition at the first incense him that heard it he would percase reuile me in words and theâ— his owne iniurie would recoyle with remorse and be vnto me a patron to proceede in my request And if he should accompanie his words with blowes and his blowes with wounds it may be my stripes would smart in his guiltie minde and his conscience bleed in my bleeding wounds and my innocent bloud so entender his Adamant heart that his owne inward feelings would pleade my cause and peraduenture obtaine my sute But if through extremity of spite he should happen to kil me his offence might easily redound to my felicitie For he would be as carefull to hide whom he had vniustly murthered as him whom hee had felloniously stolen and so it is like that he would hide me in the same place where he had layd my Lord. And as he hated vs both for one cause him for challenging and me for acknowledging that he was the Messias so would he vse vs both after one manner And thus what comfort my body wanted my soule should enioy in seeing a part of my selfe partner of my Maisters misery with whom to be miserable I reckon an higher fortune than without him to be most happy And if no other meane would serue to recouer him but force I see no reason why it might not very well become me None will barre me from defending my life which the least worme in the right nature hath leaue to preserue And sith he is to me so deare a life that without him all life is death nature authoriseth my feeble forces to employ their vttermost in so necessary an attempt Necessitie addeth abilitie and loue doubleth necessitie and it often happeneth that nature armed with loue and pressed with neede exceedeth it selfe in might and surmounteth all hope in successe And as the equitie of the cause doth breath courage into the defenders making them the mote willing to fight and the lesse vnwilling to dye so guiltie consciences are euer timorous still starting with sodaine frightts and afraid of their own suspitions ready to yeeld before the assault vpon distresse of their cause and despaire of their defence Sith therefore to rescue an innocent to recouer a right to redresse so deepe a wrong is so iust a quarrell nature will enable me loue encourage me grace confirme me and the iudge of all iustice fight in my behalfe And if it seeme vnfitting to my sexe in talke much more in practise to deale with materiall affaires yet when such a cause happeneth as neuer had patterne such effects must follow as are without example There was neuer any body of a God but one neither such a body stolne but now neuer such a stealth vnreuenged but this Sith therefore the Angels neglect it and men forgeâ— O Iudith lend me thy prowesse for I am bound to regard it But suppose that my force were vnable to winne him by an open enterprise what scruple should keepe me from seeking him by secret meanes yea and by plaine stealth it will be thought a sinne and condemned for a theft O sweet sinne why was not I the first that did commit thee Why did I suffer any other sinner to preuent me For stealing from God his honour I was called a sinner and vnder that title was spread my infamie But for stealing God from a false owner I was not worthy to be called a sinner because it had bene too high a glory If this be so great a sinneâ— and so haynous a theft let others make choise of what titles they will but for my part I would refuse to be an Angell I would not wish to be a Saint I would neuer be esteemed either iust or true and I should be best contented if I might but liue and die such a sinner and be condemned for such a theft When I heard my Lord make so comfortable a promise to the theefe vpon the Crosse that he should that day be with him in Paradise I had halfe an enuie at that theeues good fortune wished my selfe in the theefes place so I might haue enioyed the fruit of his promise But if I could be so happy a theefe as to commit this theft if that wish had taken effect I would now vnwish it againe and scorne to be any other theefe than my selfe sith my booty could make me happier than any other theefes felicitie And what though my fellonie should be called in question in what respect should I need to feare They would say that I loued him too well but that were soone disproued sith where the worthinesse is infinite no loue can be enough They would obiect that I stole anothers goods and as for that many sure titles of my interest would auerre him to be mine and his dead coarse would rather speak than witnesses should faile to depose so certaine a truth And if I had not a speciall right vnto him what should moue me to venture my life for him No no if I were so happy a fellon I should feare no temporall arraignment I should rather feare that the Angels would cite me to my answere for preuenting them in the theft sith not the highest Seraphin in heauen but would deem it a higher stile than his owne to be the theefe that had committed so glorious a robberie But alas thus stand I now deuising what I would do if I knew any thing of him and in the meane time I neither know who hath him nor where they haue bestowed him and still I am forced to dwell in this answer that they haue taken away my Lord and I know not where they haue put him While Mary thus lost her selfe in a Labyrinth of doubts watering her words with teares and warming them with sighes seeing the Angels with a kinde of reuerence rise as though they had done honour to one behind her She turned backe and she saw Iesus standing but that it was Iesus she knew not O Mary is it possible that thou hast forgotten Iesus Faith hath written him in thy vnderstanding loue in thy will both feare and hope in thy memory and how can all these Registers be so cancelled that so plainely seeing thou shouldest not know the contents For him onely thou tirest thy feet thou bendest thy knees thou wringest thy handes For him thy heart throbbeth thy breast sigheth thy tongue complaineth For him thine eye weepeth thy thought sorroweth thy whole body fainteth and thy soule languisheth In summe there is no part in thee but is
are taken in their first steppe into this life receiuing in one their welcome and farewell as though they had bene borne onely to be buried and to take their pasport in this hourely middle of their course the good to preuent change the bad to shorten their impietie Some liue till they be weary of life to giue proofe of their good hap that had a kindlier passage yet though the date be diuers the debt is all one equally to be answered of all as their time expireth Psal 88. for who is the man shall liue and not see death sith we all dye and like water slide vpon the earth In Paradice we receiued the sentence of Death Gen. 5. and here as prisoners we are kept in ward tarying but our times till the Gaoler call vs to our execution Whom hath any vertue eternized or desert commended to posterity that hath not mourned in life and bene mourned after death no assurance of ioy being sealed without some teares Euen the blessed Virgin the mother of God was thrown downe as deepe in temporall miseries as she was aduanced high in spirituall honours none amongst all mortall creatures finding in life more proofe then she of her mortalitie For hauing the noblest sonne that euer woman was mother of not onely aboue the condition of men but aboue the glorie of Angels being her sonne onely without temporall Father and thereby the loue of both parents doubled in her breast being her onely Sonne without other issue and so her loue of all children finished in him Yea he being God and she the nearest creature to Gods perfections yet no prerogatiue either quitted her from mourning or him from dying and though they surmounted the highest Angels in all other preheminences yet were they equall with the meanest men in the sentence of Death And howbeit the blessed Virgine being the patterne of Christian mourners so tempered her anguish that there was neither any thing vndone that might be exacted of a mother nor any thing done that might be misliked in so perfect a matron yet by this we may ghesse with what curtesies death is likely to friend vs that durst cause so bloudy funerals in so heauenly a stocke not exempting him from the law of dying that was the authour of life and soone after to honour his triumphs with ruines and spoile of death Seeing therefore that Death spareth none let vs spare our teares for better vses being but an idoll sacrifice to this deafe and implacable executioner And for this not long to be continued where they can neuer profit Nature did promise vs a weeping life exacting teares for custome at our first entrance and for suting our whole course in this dolefull beginning Therefore they must be vsed with measure that must be vsed so often and so many causes of weeping lying yet in the debt sith we cannot end our teares let vs at the least reserue them if sorrow cannot be shunned let it be taken in time of neede sith otherwise being both troublesome and fruitlesse it is a double miserie or an open folly We moisten not the ground with precious waters they were stilled to nobler ends either by their fruits to delight our senses or by their operation to preserue our healths Our teares are water of too high a price to be prodigally powred in the dust of any graues If they be teares of loue they perfume our prayers making them odour of sweetnesse fit to be offered on the Altar before the throne of God if teares of contrition they are water of life to the dying and corrupting soules Apoc. 8. they may purchase fauour and repeale the sentence till it be executed 3 King 26. as the example of Ezechias doth testifie but when the punishment is past and the verdict performed in effect their pleading is in vaine 2 Kin 8.11 as Dauid taught vs when his child was dead saying that he was likelier to go to it than it by his weeping to returne to him Learne therefore to giue sorrow no long dominion ouer you Wherfore the wise should rather marke than expect an end Meet it not when it commeth do not inuite it when it is absent when you feele it do not force it sith the bruite creatures which Nature seldome erring in her course guideth in the meane haue but a short though vehement sense of their losses You should bury the sharpnesse of your griefe with the course and rest contented with a kind yet a milde compassion neither lesse than decent for you nor more than agreeable to your nature iudgement Your much heauinesse would renew a multitude of griefes and your eyes would be springs to many streames adding to the memory of the dead a new occasion of plaint by your owne discomfort The motion of your heart measureth the beating of many pulses which in any distemper of your quiet with the like stroke will soone bewray themselues sicke of your disease your fortune though hard yet is it notorious and though moued in mishap and set in an vnworthy lanterne yet your owne light shineth farre and maketh you markeable euery one will bend an attentiue eye vpon you obseruing how you ward this blow of temptation and whether your patience be a shield of proofe or easily entred with these violent strokes It is commonly expected that so high thoughts which haue already climed ouer the hardest dangers should not now stoupe to any vulgar or female complaints Great personages whose estate draweth vpon them many eyes as they cannot but be themselues so may not they vse the libertie of meaner estates the lawes of Nobilitie not allowing them to direct their deeds by their desires but to limit their desires to that which is decent Nobility is an ayme for lower degrees to leuell at markes of higher perfection and like stately windowes in the Northeast roomes of politicke and ciuill buildings to let in such light and lie open to such prospects as may affoord their inferiours both to finde meanes and motions to Heroicall vertues If you should determine to dwell euer in sorrow it were a wrong to your wisedome and countermanded by your qualitie If euer you mind to surceasse it no time fitter than the present sith the same reasons that hereafter might moue you are now as much in force Yeld to Wisedome that which you must yeeld to Time be beholding to your selfe not to Time for the victory make it a voluntary worke of discretion that will otherwise be a necessary worke of delay We thinke it not enough to haue our owne measure brim full with euill vnlesse we make it runne ouer with others miseries taking their misfortunes as our punishments and executing forreine penalties vpon our selues Yea disquiet mindes being euer bellowes to their owne flames mistake oft times others good for ill their follie making it a true scourge to them howsoeuer it seemed t was to others a benefit Iacob out of Iosephs absence sucked such surmises as he
affability and conuenient complements as common ciuility and vsuall curtesie requireth Mine apparell must be free from lightnesse or more gaudinesse then fitteth mine age company or calling it must be decent and comely not too open nor with any vnusuall or new fashioned dresses that other graue persons of my qualitie and calling that are well thought of do not vse it must be handsome and cleane and as much as may be without singularity that therein the stayednesse and seemely estate of my soule may be perceiued Alwayes when I am to go to any company either of my dwelling place or strangers I ought to forecast their disposition and what talke or action is likely to be tendred vnto me by their presence If I feare any detracting speeches let me arme my selfe not to seeme to approue them yea rather to dislike them and indeuour to turne their talke into some other matter and so in all vnlawfull kind of speech whatsoeuer Finally let this for conuersation be my chiefe rule alwayes to foresee and prouide my selfe against the occasions that by euery companie are likely to be offered me in the beginning to direct mine intention to talke either for dispatch of necessary busines if there be any or for maintaining mutual loue and charitie if it be merrie or ordinary talke This foresight of occasions and faults likely to be committed is the principall remedy against all sinne and therefore especially to be noted and vsed To conclude the vertues necessarie in conuersation are modestie decencie curtesie affabilitie meeknesse and ciuilitie shew of compassion to others miseries and of ioy at their welfare and of readinesse to pleasure all and vnwillingnesse to displease any the want of any of these where occasion requireth maketh it more faultie The vices chiefly to be auoyded are pride disdainefulnesse rudenesse frowardnesse lightnesse too much familiaritie churlishnesse and offensiue speeches Of my duty towards my selfe THe last point is to consider my duty towards my selfe and the care I ought to haue of mine owne particular first I must procure that which before is mentioned in all my actions to haue a badge of Christianity that is a pure and sincere affection and intention not seeking in any thing mine owne delights pleasure and contentment more then may stand with the honour and glory of God remembring that I am to serue him and not my selfe more then is necessary to inable me for his better seruice I being his more then mine owne Secondly I must procure to foresee in euery action at least in all the principall to fore-arme my selfe against those occasions of sinne that shall be offered in them and where it lyeth not in my power to auoide the occasion of any great sinne the more danger there is and the greater the sinne is that I am in danger of so much the more preparation must I vse to resist it the more earnestly aske for Gods grace Thirdly I must haue care of my senses as the meanes and entrance of temptations to which it is a principall helpe not to be easily drawne with euery noise or fancy to moue my head or eyes without there be good cause nor to be sodaine in motion and going hither and thither without deliberation I must also remember well that the eye is neuer satisfied with seeing nor the eare with hearing nouelties and therefore must I needs bridle the vnmeasurable appetite of both these senses by breaking off mine owne desires in that behalfe Fourthly because confusion and an vnsetled kind of life is the cause of many sinnes and an enemie to all vertue I must set down with my selfe some certaine order in spending my time allotting in euery howâ—e of the day some certaine thing to be done in the same and to haue times in the morning euening and after-noone deuoted vnto some good and godly exercise which I must though not by vow bind my selfe vnto when things of worldly affaires call me from them also to keepe due times of rising meales and going to bed and all other necessary times the obseruation whereof is the most necessarie for a regular and vertuous kind of life Fiftly it is a most necessarie rule of good life not onely to keepe order in my spirituall and temporall actions but also to perseuere and continue in one order hauing once set it downe with found aduice for the nature of man being apt to change we are giuen still to nouelties seeking new waies to perfection and confirming or habituating our selues in none Wherefore except necessitie charitie or greater spirituall good do require I must not flit from one exercise to another but first plant a good platforme with mature aduice and then resolue and fully determine to continue in the same Sixtly I must not â—â—mber my mind with many spirituall or externall exercises at once nor labour my selfe too much at the first for my force being distracted to many offices is the lesse able to performe any of them and is easily ouerlaboured without profit wherefore I must not thinke to get all vertues at once or cut off all imperfections together but hauing a generall resolution to get vertue and leaue all vice beginne with some one endeuouring to breake my selfe of some one fault whereto I am most inclined and procuring to get the contrarie vertue for the care of auoyding one offence will make me take heed of all the rest Seuenthly mans nature being so corrupt that without continuall violence and force it cannot attaine to vertue or leaue vice whereunto it is much inclined I must assure my selfe that care and watchfulnesse is euer necessary and because I am apt to fall I must often renew my good purposes knowing that I neuer can go on in vertue without falling and therefore I must euery morning thinke with my selfe that hitherto I haue done nothing and that by Gods grace that day I will beginne afresh as though it were the first day that euer I began to do any good thing Eightly I must not make small account of little sinnes nor be carelesse in committing them but alwayes carrie the mind that I would not offend God willingly euen in the least sinne for any thing and I must neuer thinke any thing little wherewith so high a Maiestie is offended for he that careth not to commit little sinnes giueth the diuell a great aduantage to draw him into greater Rules in sicknesse IF my sicknesse be great I shall not neede to force my selfe beyond my strength vnto any vocall prayers more then in the morning dutifully to commend my selfe vnto God with the Lords prayer and the confession of Christian faith or if I cannot well say so much now and then I must call vpon God with short prayers as Lord Iesus saue me Lord strengthen me Lord graunt me patience and such like In sicknesse when I can beare it it will be good sometimes to haue part of some good booke read vnto me but not ouermuch for feare of hurting my
meaning If saith she they came to ease my affliction they could not be ignorant of the cause and if they were not ignorant of it they would neuer aske it why then did they say Woman why weepest thou If their question did import a prohibition the necessitie of the occasion doth countermand their counsaile and fitter it were they should weepe with me than I in not weeping obey them If the Sunne were ashamed to shew his brightnesse when the father of lights was darkned with such disgrace if the heauens discolouring their beauties suted themselues to their makers fortune if the whole frame of nature were almost dissolued to see the author of nature so vnhaturally abused why may not Angels that best knew the indignitie of the case make vp a part in this lamentable consort And especially now that by the losse of his body the cause of weeping is increased and yet the number of mourners lessened sith the Apostles are fled all his friends afraid and poore I left alone to supply the teares of all creatures O who will giue water to my head and a fountaine of teares vnto mine eyes that I may weepe day and night and neuer ceasse weeping O my onely Lord thy griefe was the greatest that euer was in man and my griefe as great as euer happened to woman for my loue hath carued me no small portion of thine thy losse hath redoubled the torment of my owne and all creatures seeme to haue made ouer to me theirs leauing me as the vicegerent of all their sorrow Sorrow with me at the least ô thou Tombe and thaw into teares you hardest stones The time is now come that you are licensed to cry and bound to recompence the silence of your Lords Disciples of whom he himselfe sayd to the Pharises that if they held their peace the very stones should cry for them Now therefore sith feare hath locked vp their lips and sadnesse made them mute let the stones cry out against the murd erers of my Lord and bewray the robbers of his sacred body And I feare that were it well knowne who hath taken him away there is no stone so stony but should haue cause to lament It was doubtlesse the spite of some malicious Pharisee or bloudy Scribe that not contented with those torments that he suffered in life of which euery one to any other would haue bene a tyrannicall death hath now stolen away his dead body to practise vpon it some sauage cruelty and to glut their pitilesse eyes and brutish hearts with the vnnaturall vsage of his helplesse corps O yee rocks and stones if euer you must cry out now it is high time sith the light the life and the Lord of the world is thus darkned massacred and outragiously misused Doth not his tongue whose truth is infallible and whose word omnipotent commanding both winds and seas and neuer disobeyed of the most sensible creatures promise to arme the world and make the whole earth to fight against the senslesse persons in defence of the iust And who more iust than the Lord of iustice who more senslesse than his barbarous murtherers whose insatiable thirst of his innocent bloud could not be staunched with their cruell butchering him at his death vnlesse they proceeded further in this hellish impiety to his dead body Why then do not all creatures addresse themselues to reuenge so iust a quarrell vpon so senslesse wretches left of all reason forsaken of humanitie and bereaued of all feeling both of God and man O Mary why doest thou thus torment thy self with these tragicall surmises Doest thou thinke that the Angels would sit still if their maister were not well Did they serue him after his fasting and would they despise him after his deceasse Did they comfort him before he was apprehended and would not defend him when he was dead If in the garden he might haue had twelue Legions of them is his power so quite dead with his body that he could not now command them Was there an Angell found to helpe Daniel to his dinner to saue Toby from the fish yea and to defend Balaams poore beast from his maisters rage and is the Lord of Angels of so little reckoning that if his body stood in need neuer an Angell would defend it Thou seest two here present to honour his Tombe and how much more carefull would they be to do homage to his person Beleeue not Mary that they would smile if thou haddest such occasion to weepe They would not so gloriously shine in white if a blacke and mourning weede did better become them or were a fitter liuery for thy maister to giue or them to weare Yeeld not more to thy vncertaine feare and deceiued loue than to their assured knowledge and neuer erring charitie Can a materiall eye see more than an heauenly spirit or the glimmering of the twi-light giue better aime than the beams of their eternall Sunne Would they thinkest thou waite vpon the winding sheete while the coarse were abused or be here for thy comfort if their Lord did need their seruice No no he was neither any theeues booty nor Pharisees pray neither are the Angels so carelesse of him as thy suspition presumeth And if their presence and demeanour cannot alter thy conceit looke vpon the clothes and they will teach thee thine errour and cleare thee of thy doubt Would any thiefe thinkest thou haue bene so religious as to haue stolen the body and left the clothes yea would he haue bene so venturous as to haue stayed the vnshrowding of the coarse the well ordering of the sheets and folding vp the napkins Thou knowest that the Mirrhe maketh linnen cleaue as fast as pitch or glue and was a thiefe at so much leisure as to dissolue the Myrrhe and vncloath the dead what did the watch while the scales were broken the Tombe opened the body vnfolded all other things ordered as now thou seest And if all this cannot yet perswade thee beleeue at the least thy owne experience When thy maister was stripped at the crosse thou knowest that his onely garment being congealed to his goarie backe came not off without many parts of his skin doubtlesse would haue torne off many more if he had bene annointed with Myrrhe Looke then into the sheete whether there remaine any parcell of skin or any one haire of his head and sith there is none to be found beleeue some better issue of thy maisters absence than thy feare suggesteth A guiltie conscience doubteth want of time and therefore dispatcheth hastily It is in hazard to be discouered and therefore practiseth in darknesse and secresie It euer worketh in extreame feare and therefore hath no leisure to place things orderly But to vnwrap so mangled a body out of Mirrhed cloathes without tearing of any skinne or leauing on any Mirrhe is a thing either to man impossible or not possible to be done with such speed without light or helpe and with so good order Assure