and little Zacheus who climed the Tree to looke downe vpon him that was higher then the skie Then the Wise men of the East were not worthy of that name who came so farre to see him Saint Ierome might haue made a better wish then aboue all things to haue seene Christ in the flesh But our Sauiour himselfe condemnes these men when he saith the Queene of Saba shall rise vp in iudgement against this Generation for shee came farre to heare the wisedome of Salomon and behold a greater then Salomon is heere And Luke 10.25 Blessed are the eyes that haue seene what you see for I say vnto you many Prophets haue desired to see that which you see and could not see it Which is ment of seeing Christ Iesus in his mortall estate Foelix qui potuit fontem boni visero lucidum To apply that speech vnto this sence If the eye of a man were suddenly made able to behold the Heauens the Sun and Moone and Starres in their iust splendure and bignesse Or to see the whole earth with all the creatures in it at once Vuo distincto intuitu How would his mind bee rapt with admiration But the sight of God manifested in the flesh was a farre more admirable obiect the extasie of men and Angels and as I may say the proper end why the eye was created Of which fight if the senselesse creatures had beene made capable How thinke you would the Sunne haue desired to shine continually in that climate where Hee breathed And the other parts of the earth haue contended that they also might haue receiued the impression of His sacred feete enuying the felicity of Canaan Then let all true Christians honour the happy memories of those blessed Saints who were ordained to see that Iust One and to bee eye-witnesses of that Mysterie into which the immateriall Angels do delight to pry And as for vs wee that had not that prerogatiue to see him in the flesh yet for increase of our deuotion let vs euer beare Him in our fancies and vse all meanes that wee may seeme to see him that with a readier passage wee may feele him and beare him in our hearts This is the recompence of absence and onely solace vnto true loue by imagination to fill vp the distance of time and place and transforme things past into things present Quem vidistis pastores whom saw yee shepheards tell vs tell vs. We saw the Omnipotent infant and Angels worship him But where and when and how tell mee some circumstance that I may seeme to see him Vidimus Deum parvulum pannis inuolutum matrem vbera admouentem Wee saw God a little one swadled and lying in a cribbe and his mother giuing him suck O happy sight O vnspeakeable mysterie O gratissimi vagitus per quos eternos ploratus euasimus O foelices pannim quibus peccatorum sordes abstersimus O praesepe splendidum vbi iacuit panis angelorum Lacta Maria creatorem tuum lacta virgo gloriesa O foelicia oscula lactentis labijs impressa It is S. Austens meditation Sapientia si oculis cerneretur quantos amores excitaret sui Wisedome saith Plato if it could be seene with bodily eyes how would it stirre vp men to loue it But the wisedome of God became visible and manifested in the flesh and how should it stirre vp men to loue it This did so inflame the beloued Disciple him which dranke wisedome our of the bosome of our Lord that his Epistle which is wholly precepts of loue hee beginnes with mention of seeing Christ and repeates the same word againe and againe That which wee haue seene with our eyes which wee haue looked vpon and our hands haue handled of the word of life For the life appeared and we haue seene it and it appeared that I say which wee haue seene and heard declare wee vnto you And the whole number of the twelue when after his last farewell hee ascended how stood they gazing on him as being loth to loose the last minute of his visible presence And no maruell for the very sight no doubt conueighed vnto the faithfull a benigne influence prefigured in the old Testament where to looke stedfastly vpon the brasen Serpent was soueraigne against the poysonfull sting of fierie Serpents What deuout Christian now liuing would not giue the whole world if he had it for to see him To see him either in his childe-hood or in in his youth in his humilitie or in his maiestie When it pleased him sometimes to make his glorious deitie shine through his man-hood as Saint Ierome thinkes he did when he called S. Peter S. Andrew who therefore presently laid away and followed him Heare the meditation of the blessed Father S. Austen vpon this poynt Hei mihi quia videre non potui Dominum angelorum heu quod tam inaestimabili pietati presens obstupescere non merui And further Cur ô anima c. Wherfore ô my soule wast thou not present that thou mightst haue beene pierced through with sharpest griefe when thy Sauiours side was pierced with a speare where thou couldst not haue endured to haue seene the hands and feet of thy maker rent with nailes that thou mightst haue swounded to haue seene the bloud of thy redeemer spilt that thou mightest haue condoled with the blessed virgin O gracious good Lady what streames of teares may I thinke flowed out of thy most chaste eyes when thou beheldedst thy innocent thy onely son bound scourged murdered flesh of thy flesh bone of thy bone so cruelly cut mangled And further vtinā cum felice Iosepho dominum meū de cruce deposuissem cur non fui deosculatus loca vulnerum c. Thus holy men were wont to incense their loue and their deuotion to cleanse their imaginations from the idols of carnall beautie which hauing entred at the eyes haunt the disquiet fancies of poore youth and cannot be spelled nor expelled but with the image of God incarnate For this cause our venerable ancestors from all clymates of the Christian world haue resorted to the holy Cittie that although they could not see their Sauiour yet they might see and worship where his feete had trode or walked where he wept and swet and bled and died There was the price of our redemption numbred that earth and that heauens shal witnesse that there the summe was tendered and that innocent heart-bloud powred out which none can powre into his breast againe This made good Paula and her daughter Eustochium Romane Ladies of the honourable family of the Grachi remoue with all their substance to Bethleem and there they liued and there they died with S. Ierom. This made S. Helen honour of our English nation the happy mother of great Constantioe so deuoutly to visite euery place where our Lord conuersed and euery where to erect so many famous memories so many goodly Churches This caused S. Ierom to spend the greatest part of his life there There hee
commented there he indited there hee translated And for this cause many learned Diuines amongst whom S. Ierom Eusebius with diuers of late memorie haue carefully described all the sacred places and religious monuments of the Holy land that those which haue not seene them really might see them imaginarily and nourish their Diuine cogitations without supestition without any great cost or trouble I that they might see Canaan a farre off as Moses did from mount Phasga Now looke what hath been said concerning deuotion nourished by sight the same is true likewise of the other learned sense namely hearing as the hearing of musicke or eloquent discourse which being vsed without curious scrupulositie and affectation how greatly they increase the loue of God and of his true worship it appeares to any liberall and ingenious disposition vnlesse any man thinke the vse of musicke proper to stirre vp vanity to nourish pleasure to maintaine lightnesse and obscenitie And not 1 To raise vp mens minds to meditation of heauenly ioyes whereof musick may seeme a kinde of type 2 To confider the harmonie and consent of the world how all Ages all Nations all Languages praise Him 3 Out of the mouthes of Babes sucklings hee prepareth praise 4 To expiate the eares which haue beene polluted by wanton madrigals and lasciuious ditties 5 To kindle the affections with loue of God 6 Lastly to praise him with learned hymnes who is the giuer of all excellencies Vnlesse any man thinke that eloquence was giuen naturally to adorne folly and flatteries to ouerthrow right to colour falshood and deceaue simplicity and to be misvsed when it is appliyed to strengthen truth to sweeten diligence and commend pietie Quis ita desipiat vt hoc sapiat saith Saint Augustine 4. de Dectrina Chr. And if any man obiect that Saint Austin could not resolue himselfe concerning the lawfull vse of artificiall Musicke in Churches it is false For though hee speakes of his owne experience that the delight of his sense did sometimes preuaile aboue reason yet hee confesses the excellent vse of Musick for deuotion And for being too scrupulous hee checkes himselfe calling it nimia seueritas and concludes that hee approues the custome of the Church Vt per oblectamenta aurium infirmior animus in affectum pietatis assurgat That by delight of the eare the weake minde of man might rise vp into pious affections whereof hee makes himselfe an example with delightsome remembrance how hee was moued to teares at the hearing of artificiall Church Musicke Cum reminiscor lachrymas quas fudi ad cantus ecclesiae tuae magnam instituti huius vtilitatem agnosco Besides what Saint Austine saith there of artificiall musicke may bee as well an argument against plaine song and common tunes in Churches which affect some men as much and of many are sung with as great affectation Againe if for this difficulty they would wholy reiect the lawfull vse of musicke let them reade the two chapters next going before they shal find that he maketh the same difficulty in the vse of all the senses which if they will refuse therefore then must they neither see nor smell nor eate nor drinke But this holy man there expresses his carefulnesse to auoide sin as also did Saint Athanasius whom hee there citeth But how farre their spirit was from preiudicing others or from scrupling mens consciences in the vse of the approued Institutions of the Church their other speeches and actions are sufficient witnesses Wherefore to shorten this discourse let vs all endeuour to haue a zealous and deuout loue of Christ both that which riseth out of knowledge and vnderstanding and that which riseth out of sense and affection And to this purpose vse all those meanes which the practise of most holy Fathers and the law of Nature her selfe doth warrant which is not sensuall loue but affectionate and holy raised out of sense As they which saw Christ loued him the more not for the lineaments of his body but being enflamed with consideration that they should see their Creator become Flesh who is in his owne Nature inuisible That they should see the same passions as in themselues in him which was Impassible and all their owne infinrmities without deformitie of sinne That man might not now chuse but loue God vnlesse he would not loue himselfe This I say bred admiration and loue in them a spirituall loue yet raised out of sense and is chiefe part of that which wee properly call deuotion And thus much of the first part of my Text namely the loue of Christ being seene Where I haue shewed how much sight augmenteth loue And how all other sensible meanes and externall practises are incitements and inuitations to encrease deuotion Deuotion which is the onely happinesse of this life and to be preferred before wisedome subtilty or discourse being indeed the end and perfection of all The delicious taste of heauenly ioyes which God giues vnto his Saints here that they may long after the fruition of the whole Whereof Saint Austine speakes in the 40 chap. of the 10. booke of his Confessions Et aliquando intromittis me Domine in affectum multum inusitatum introrsum ad nescio quam dulcedinem quaesi perficiatur in me nescio quid erit quod vita ista non erit Now to the second part which is the loue of Christ not seene Quem cum non videritis diligitis whom yee loue though yee haue not seene This not onely S. Peter heere but S. Paul also with many other Worthies haue admired to see how soone the world without compulsion consented to follow and to loue Him whom they neuer saw How so many thousands and millions were moued with such a strange instinct to leaue their goods their wiues their children parents their deerest Country and lastly to loose their liues so willingly for loue of him whom they neuer saw This amazed the vnbeleeuing world to see her number daily minished and most furious persecutors become the hottest louers What secret influence so raigned in mens hearts what cruel loue made them so impatient that they ranne showting to their death Wherefore forsooke they all their present ioyes which they not onely saw but caryed in their eyes to loue him whom they saw not Crying Hunc amemus huno amemus Nothing could bribe them or abalienate their mindes Youth was not moued with beauty nor old age with money nor children with feare of death nor States-men with preferment No contumelies no disgraces preuailed they suffered all things they endured all things and all this for the loue of him whom they neuer saw The new married preferred the graue before the bed Honourable and beautifull maides choose rather to bee called virgins of Christ then queenes to great Princes The fraile sexe was crowned with Martyrdome and compassionate mothers ouercomming nature beheld with cheerefull countenance their swete infants killed for the loue of Christ as wee read of that happy childe which died
before Their bodies how much the stronger so much the longerenduring of sicknesse of consumption of death Vaine-glorious cruell dissembling rising by the ruines of others Lastly what is man-age but the Giantnesse of sinne and the power of miserie But when these ages of childe-hood youth and man-hood are worne into old age then you haue the recapitulation of humane miserie the infirmitie of childe-age the incorrigibilitie of Boy-age the subtiltie of Man-age and all these greater here then in the former Ages Here the prodigalitie of youth is dried vp into auarice pride and lust bee sinnes here out of fashion but not out of vse vndecent and vnbeseeming vices Here wisedome doateth and of power to sinne is left a will to sinne the greater torment Lastly what is old age but the store-house of repentance and obliuion the ragges of life the ashes of a lustfull body and wearinesse of a wandring minde Atque hi sunt manes quos patimur these are the miseries which we suffer in all ages sin and sorrow and folly vexation and bitternesse of spirit Hence spring complaints and discontent either for want or disease or the frustration of our hopes or some other euill No prosperitie without change and in the midst of laughter the heart is heauie What way and course of life can a man cut out wherein there is not trouble and vexation of spirit Theologie neuer so full of questions the law as full of difficulties as men of quarrels Physicke as manifold in cures as the appetite in absurd desires In Courts few prosper and those that prosper perish The Countrey makes beasts and the Citie Diuels Single life is solitarie and marriage ill company This is the miserie of life Now followes the life of Miserie Who knowes not that life and all the comforts of life they bee but increase of afffliction to those that are plunged in griefe What pleasure is there in melodie to a man that mournes And to him that is in an ague how vnseasonable is the discourse of loue and iollitie Eternitie of torment is the hell of hell so continuance or life in miserie there is the misery of misery Space of time diminishes sorrow that is past but increaseth that which is present because it weakens patience and prolongs the hope of deliuerance Therefore the Patriarch complaines that his dayes were few and euill Not euill and few For to haue a short time allotted him and yet euill dayes intermixed is more euill But being afflicted with euill yeares to haue them shortened is lesse euill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O daies few and euill briefe and tedious How it lies vpon vs beloued to lengthen them by good deeds And so much the more because the shortest of the yeare is certaine but the shortest of our life is vncertaine Let vs frustate the tenure of iniquitie and in euery age doe the vertue of the age not the sinne of the age that so not liuing after custome but after truth nor making profusion of the bloud of CHRIST that it may not faile vs at our greatest neede wee may preserue the seale of our redemption inuiolate and bee bold euery one of vs to pray O my GOD let not the end of my deuotion bee suddaine but after much mortification of heart and long consumption of languishing desires to see thee make a ripe dissolution of my flesh and spirit close vp my wearied thoughts and receiue mee to thy mercie Amen Liue sweete IESV and reigne with the Father and Holy Ghost one God c. The end of the second Sermon THE THIRD SERMON Of the loue of Christ 1. PET. 1.8 Whom you loue though yee haue not seene THAT which blessed Saint Peter commends in the dispersed Iewes of Asia Pontus Cappadocia that they loued Iesus whom they had not seene The same is the praise of all deuout Catholickes who haue liued these many yeares that being scattered from sea to sea vnder euery starre and throughout all lands yet they loue their one Head vnseene as they loue their many fellow-members vnseene Which is a singular commendation in the Daughter of Christ dispersed His espoused Church so deerely to affect Him whom Shee neuer saw Whereas the daughters of men make sight a necessary antecedent of affection and will esteeme highly of no obiect vntill the eye haue set a price of it This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though contained in the aduerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else vnderstood not expressed in the originall implies another loue of Christ namely as hee was visible in the state of Mortality making that to be the greater but this the harder As if hee should say You loue Christ whom you haue not seene How much more vehement would your loue haue beene if you had seene him These then be the two parts of my Text First the loue of Christ being seene Secondly the loue of Christ being not seene If any man loue not our Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Of all the senses there is none so proper a mediator of loue as is the sight It is the beginning of loue according to the Prouerb exaspectu nascitur amor and it is the perfection thereof whilst we desire to see that whereof we haue much read or heard Therefore we loue our eves aboue all parts of our body giuing them the names of the most louely creatures in the world as the Sunne and Moone O oculi gemiua sydeva And that which wee loue deerest wee compare it to the eye as Ocule ocelle ni and Psal 7.8 Keepe mee as the apple of an eye Now the causes why sight so much procureth loue First it is the most spirituall sense and may bee called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corporall minde whereby we vnderstand things sensible By reason of which affinity videre is put for intelligere For this cause the mind best liketh that obiect which is commended to her by the eye Secondly it is the quickest sense and therefore doth soonest fire the affections According to that Segnius irritant animos immissa per aures quam quae sunt oculis subiecta sidelibus Thirdly it is the surest euidence and most certaine demonstration Whence by metaphor the word demonstration is drawne And therefore the fruition of eternall happinesse is called Vision Lastly it is the most vnwearied and vnsatiable sense the eye being neuer satisfied with seeing Which makes for the continuance of loue For loue hateth nothing more then mutability and fastidious inconstancie For these causes I say sight is the most peculiar Factor for Loue. Now that wee may the better vnderstand this loue of Christ which they had that saw him in the flesh let vs consider a little of the diuers kindes of loue There is a sensuall loue or rather lust which the base Iewes nor other Infidels euer suspected in Christ Iesus although hee loued the two sacred sisters of Bothania and though Saint Iohn leaned in his bosome and many woemen vsed to
with the constant martyr Romanus How willingly his mother gaue him to the hands of the tormentor kissing him but once which was as little as a mother could doe Nee immorata est fletibus tantum osculum Impressit vnum vale ait dulcissime Et eum beatus regna Christi intraueris Memento matris Now if a man inquire into the inward mouing cause for which the world was so strangely carried away with affection vnto Christ hee shall find it to bee faith Which faith though the Scripture opposeth to vision yet calleth it a kinde of sight So faithfull Abraham desired to see Christs day and saw it and reioyced By faith Moses indured patiently as if he had seene the inuisible And by the eye of faith all the Saints since the Apostles beleeuing them that saw him haue loued him as firmly as if themselues had seene him They seeing the head beleeued of the body wee seeing the body beleeue concerning the head Namque habet fides oculos suos quibus quodammodo videt verum esse quod nondum videt For faith hath it eyes whereby in some manner it sees that to be true which as yet it sees not saith S. Austē Faith is opposed to the corporall view of things visible and to the demonstratiue knowledge of things intelligible Which knowledge is also called intuitiue knowledge Now the bodily sight of Christ in his humilitie was onely proper to them that liued in his time Though by imagination wee can likewise represent vnto our selues the same But the sight of his spirituall and glorified body shall be the reward of all And as for the intelligible visiun of invisible glory of the Godhead of Christ and of the eternall Trinitie they that see it here in twy-light shall then behold it as at noone day and loue it there with incomparable feruencie of spirit if they continue here in that modell of warmth which this life affoordeth The hope whereof how greatly doth it sustaine the patience of his absence and confirme the constancy of louing Christ vnseene when we haue so good assurance to see his spirituall body and that happinesse which neuer eye hath seene Where if he shew his fiue wounds and the veritie of all which hee did and suffered in this life what can be wanting to the destruction of that which is in part and conuerting faith into vision Meane while wonderfull is that grace which makes vs now to loue him For although the conuersion of the world the strange preseruation of the Catholicke Church the authoritie of the same Church the bloud of so many Martyrs the fulfilling of Prophecies the superexcellent learning of Catholicke Writers and Catholick Gouernours with many other vnanswerable arguments haue in a manner demonstrate the whole truth of Christian Religion Insomuch that hee which will not now beleeue without seeing wonders is himselfe a wonder saith S. Austen Yet in many ages when God hath permitted generall inundations of Gothes and Vandals of Turkes and Saracens ouer the Christian world which the old serpent hauing spued out of his mouth desired to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the woman to bee carried away of the floud or when fearefull tempests of heresie doe obscure the Church that for a time neither Sunne nor moone appeare till controuersies bee determined till ancient records bee se arched and vnquiet nouelists suppressed the safest way was alwayes to cast himselfe into the bosome of the Church that faith might support where knowledge failes and the loue of Christ continue where he was not seene Faith is the subsistence of matters hoped for and the euidence of things not seene by the firme embracing whereof in the midst of all miserable temptations and inuestigable errours the faithfull louers of Christ Iesus haue loued him whom they neuer saw neither with the eye of sense nor the eye of reason Great friendship hath there beene betwixt men which neuer saw one anothers faces yet true report of wisedome and vertue hath bred strange coniunction and familiaritie of mindes as if their soules had met together in the night when their bodies rested or because that mindes being incorporeall neede not visible presence to vnite them nor are their loues separated by distance of place Which if it be true in natural loue and humane affection how much more certaine is it in spirituall and Diuine where not onely similitude of nature combines but also vnitie of spirit If thou louest none but whom thou seest saith S. Austen then shouldst thou not loue thy selfe Neque enim teipsum nisi in speculo vides Many men there be whose wisdome will not suffer them to bee credulous their hands haue eyes and their hearts haue eyes they beleeue that which they see and they will loue that which they see vnknowne vnbeleeued vnseene vnloued But vnto the most of faithfull Christians Almightie God hath left more things to bee beleeued then knowne that there might bee place for reward For hope that is seene is no hope Euery one could not liue at that time when Christ was liuing nor see the wonders which he wrought or which his Prophets did before him or his Apostles after him Yet many will say hereafter if we had liued in those times or if whe had talked with one risen from the dead we had surely repented Indeede the Tyrians Sidonians if they had seene the miracles at Corazin and Bethsaida they would haue turned their purple into sackcloth but they had sufficient helpes and so hast thou neither knowest thou whether thou mightst be so obdurate through thine owne first wilfull negligence that the sight of Christ wold haue caused no more loue in thee then it did in Herod who defired of long to see him and not beleeuing Moses and the Prophets neither wouldest thou beleeue if one should rise from the dead S. Austen sayes hee was often tempted to desire a signe from God concerning him selfe but by Gods grace he alwayes resisted that temptation So our Sauiour taxeth the Gentleman of Cana in Galilee whose sonne was sick at Capernaum Vnlesse you see signes and wonders you will in no wayes beleeue The Atheist if he might see the Diuell he would hate him And the Idolater if hee may haue a palpable visible God hee will worship him Make vs Gods to goe before vs cry the Israelites as if things that were inuifible were not They that desire to see the holy Cittie vpon distrust or curiositie which is concupiscence of the eye or dwelling farre off greatly indanger their present estate their fame their liues and neglect their necessary functions I see not how they can warrant that action Against which S. Gregorie Nissen speakes in an Epistle of his Locall motiou saith he makes thee not neerer vnto God which is in all places And it is better to goe a pilgrimage from thy body to God then from thy countrey to Iurie for whilst wee are at home with the body wee are steangers vnto God Ierusalem is not now