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
to spirituall from temporall to eternall from the Kings of Israell to the King Messias and so also there is often passage the other way from the spirit to the letter and so in the rest It is also made very hard by the Equiuocatiō (n) The ambiguity of the Hebrew tongue of words wherof the Hebrew tongue is so full Which since it was the first and consequently the most compendious and short of all others it must necessarily containe many seuerall significations in few words And from hence it growes that generally such variety hath bene found in the Translations of the old Testament and some part also of the new Nay (o) The misplacing of points c. the very difference in placing a point doth make sometimes a different sense and so doth the manner either of writing or pronouncing a proposition As namely whē it is ambiguous whether any thing be affirmatiuely or Ironically or Interrogatorily to be read This with more is shewed by Father Salmeron For these and for many other reasons the vnderstanding of holy Scripture is very hardly learnt and we see by sad experience what diuisions doe abound in the world by occasion therof when men will call disobedience and pride by the name of holy Ghost and Euangelicall liberty There are amongst Sectaries of seuerall cuts and kindes sixteene different opinions concerning their Doctrine of Iustification All which they seuerally doe yet pretend to be grounded in holy Scripture and yet this Scripture it is which they will haue to be so cleere and plaine And vpon those fower words Hoc est corpus meum This is my body there are almost fourescore diuersities of opinion Our aduersaries themselues doe by their deeds of disagreement with one another proclayme the difficulty of holy Scripture which yet in words they will deny that so they may be excused in making it say what they list The truth is this That indeed it is full of difficulty and our Lord who made it so did with infinite loue prouide therin for our good and that more wayes then one For (p) The many and great goods we get by the very difficulty of holy Scripture See Salmeron vhi supra therby we are obliged as Father Salmeron doth also further shew to confesse the vnspeakeable wisedome (q) We are brought to a great beliefe of the high wisedom or God of Almighty God which doth infinitely surpasse all knowledge or conceyte of ours euen then when he vouchsafeth to expresse himselfe by words the ordinary signification wherof we vnderstand And (r) Our pride is humbled by this meanes he depresseth pride in vs and depriues vs of all confidence in our selues Heerby (s) It spurres vs on to prayer Psalm 119. he doth also stirre vs vp to make with all humility most earnest prayer to his diuine in maiesty that he will open to vs the secrets of his law as we see S. Augustine did and all the Saints haue done especially King Dauid who was euer singing of this songe It also growes through the great obscurity of holy Scripture that the Church is filled with much variety (t) It breds great variety of diuine knowled◠in the Church of diuine knowledge neither is there that possibility to draw seuerall true senses out of plaine easy places as out of such as are obscure According to that of S. Augustine The obscurity of diuine Scripture is profitable for this that it begetteth bringeth to light seuerall Doctrines of truth whilst one man vnderstandeth it after one manner and another after another And (u) It breeds diligence in study and care to conserue in memory for this very reason also learned men are incited to a more diligent and earnest study therof And consequently they wil entertaine that knowledge with more gust which they haue acquired with more labour This (x) It inuiteth vs to purity of life obscurity is also a cause which makes vs purify our soules the more because like loues his like And holy things will neuer be well comprehended but by holy persons Moreouer it helpes to maintaine and make good that order (y) It helpes to maintaine the Church in due sub ordinatiō Order in the Church which our Lord God hath thought fit to hold in the dispensation of his guifts and graces For as the superiour Angells doe illuminate them who are inferiour so hath he bene pleased that amongst men some should excell others in learning and diuine knowledge who as Doctours and Pastours might interpret the same to others It (z) It saueth Pearles from being cast to swyne keepes impure and wicked persons from knowing those misteries which belong to God wherof they are vnworthy vncapable since they will not vse them well And our Lord himselfe hath said in his Ghospell that so it was fit to be and that seeing Marc. 4. Matt. 7. they might not see and that hearing they might not vnderstand and that pearles must not be cast before swyne And lastly the frailty of our corrupted nature is excellently prouided for by this meanes since through the difficulty which we find in holy Scripture we are (a) It nourisheth vs in reuerence and a holy awe kept in reuerence and in a kind of holy awe wheras if throughout they were familiar and gaue easy accesse to all cōmers they might through our fault grow instantly to be contemned On the (b) The Scripture is wouen both with hard and easy thinges and this is of great vse to vs. other side if all the parts thereof were hard a like we should giue ouer to seeke that which we despayred to find And therfore the good pleasure of our Lord hath bene to make the holy Scriptures obscure yet with a kind of plainenes and plaine but yet with an obscurenes That by their plainenes in some places they might illuminate vs and by their difficulty in others they might exercise vs. And that the easy places might helpe vs towards the vnderstanding of the hard and the hard might serue to imploy our wits and to make vs know withall how much we are bound to God for hauing made some others easy And this is the substance of that which Father Salmeron hath deliuered both concerning the reasons which make the holy Scriptures hard and the fruits which grow to vs therby Through which we may easily discerne the tender and wise care and loue of this diuine Doctour of our soules Not only in giuing vs such excellent lessons but for hauing done it in such an admirable manner as (c) A demonstration of the loue of our Lord to vs in this particular that whilst we are studying them we must almost in despight of our owne proud hartes be imploying our selues withall both vpon the exercise of prayer and the practise of the solide vertues of humility patience obedience purity and charity And if yet we shal not think that our Lord hath shewed vs loue
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
griefe and who did euen possesse the knowledge of infirmity His face was as if it were hiddden and despised and we had him in no estimation It was he indeed who bare our infirmities and who suffered our paines and we esteemed of him as of some Leaprous person and as one who had bene strucken by the hand of God and so deiected How truly were these things performed in the persō of Christ our Lord throughout the course and current of his Passion wil instantly be represented heere when first you (b) In the consideration of the Passion of Christ our Lord it is necessary to ponder his infinite Maiesty as he is God shall haue bene desired to looke a little backe with the eye of your consideration vpon the first Chapters of this whole discourse wherin the dignity of the person of Christ our Lord is touched For so when we shall haue coupled that former excellēcy with this present infamy shall withal haue weighed how the only reason that moued him to dispoyle himselfe of the one and to vest himselfe with the other was a desire of the glory of God which might redound to him by our good And that he emptyed himselfe out of his owne felicity to the end that we might partake therof in heauen And did euen as it were inebriate himselfe with the Chalice of affliction affronts and desolation that so in the strength of that he might secure vs from the eternall chaines of fire in hell I (c) The vse of these consideratiōs thinke we shal not be so blindly bold nor so wickedly vngratefull as not to detest our sins which were the cause of all his sorrow and continually to lament and serue loue that Lord who was pleased to vndergoe such penance for them Consider therfore I say that he whose Passion you are to read was the only Sonne of the sacred Virgin Mary that most excellēt and perfect pure Creature that euer was Cōsider that his humanity was framed by the hād and skill of the holy Ghost out of her Royall and all-immaculate bloud Consider that he was beautifull aboue all the Sonnes of men for cōplexion for constitution Psalm 44. and for grace and motion Consider the complete sanctity of his holy soule which animated that body so full of beauty The high purity the wide charity the profound humility the entyre conformity and transformity of his will into the will of God with al other vertues in the highest degree which God could communicate to a creature Consider the other incomparable guifts and graces which were imparted to him or rather ingulfed in him beyond all measure proportion That guift of Prophesy and Miracles That treasure of incorruptible wisedome That euer flowing riuer of his infallible Knowledge Experimentall Infused Beatificall Cōsider that this body and soule were knit by the indissoluble bond of Hypostaticall vnion to the second person of the most blessed Trinity who according to the words of the Creed of the Councell of Nice is God of God light of light true God of true God begottens not made consubstantiall with the Father by whom all things were made Consider if thou canst the infinite eternall simple vnchangeable independant essence and wisedome and power goodnes of this diuinity It being the fountaine of Immortality Purity Liberty Verity Clarity Peace Plenty Grace Glory Swauity Excellency Beauty Maiesty Felicity Prouidence Preseruation Protection Iustice Mercy Pitty Longanimity and Loue. Consider that to euery of these Attributes there belongs an addition of being infinite and that in a word he is the substāce and the summe the circumference and the Center of all Originall created perfection Of the most tender and diuine Loue and care which our Lord Iesus shewed at his entrance into the Passion in his last sermon and long prayer to his eternall Father CHAP. 53. THIS man this God this God and man did abandon himselfe so farre as to suffer hideous things for the loue of vs. And we are bound with our whole harts not onely to carry great compassion towardes him but to fly a mayne from all that which is any way offensiue to him who did voluntarily and with a kind of infinite charity cast himselfe into such a bed of Thornes for our sakes For as soone as our Lord had instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse and had therby (a) The Apostles ordayned Priests with authority to ordayne others to the end of the world ordayned his Apostles Priests who in the person of their successours and such as should lawfully be sent by them might perpetuate the celebratiō of those diuine misteries till the end of the world he went disposing himselse to that Passion which Iudas was already gone to bring vpon him And notwithstanding that he knew how vast things they were to be yet desired he with excessiue appetite to imbrace them This is plainely insinuated by that expression of the holy Prophet who saith of Christ (b) Our Lord did long for his fill of suffering for our sakes Ierem. Thren 30. our Lord Saturabitur opprobrijs which implyes a being hungry after the enduring of reproach and scorne for vs as a man might be after some curious and costly banquetting dish and that at the tyme of his Passion he should be sure to haue his longing satisfied But before he went forth to the place where he knew he should be betrayed and apprehended he resolued to take a kind of leaue of his Apostles he had intertayned thē with a large and amourous and most mysterious discourse And although as a man may say one of his feete were already in the graue and that he was soone to find the whole rage and fury of hell vpon him for the sending of the other after it he (c) Out Lord was tenderly carefull to comfort his Apostles in the middst of his owne greatest sorrowes applyed himselfe yet to comfort them and to forget himselfe as was sayd before with such a courage as might well become that man who was the naturall Sonne of God and with such a loue as might well declare the diuine pitty which he carried to the Sonnes of men For from hence it came that he tooke such tender care to arme them against all future feares He told them to this effect and almost in these very wordes That indeed he was to goe away but withall Ioan. 14.15.16.17 that he went to prouide a place for them He assured them that their afflictions whensoeuer they might happen should not last but quickly be conuerted into ioy and such a ioy as neuer should be taken from them He insinuated himselfe to their rude capacities by sweet and tender comparisons He made the eternall Father to be a husbandman that so himselfe might be the vine wherof they were to be the braunches He told them what care the Father himselfe would take to purge and purify their soules from tyme
were Relatiues and that after a sort it would redound vpon them both a like there could be no doubt but that howsoeuer he were so vnworthy as not to be gratefull to her for her sake yet he would not faile to be so for his owne What kind of (a) How our Lord was as it were obliged to fill our B. Lady with all perfectiō thing must they therfore make Almighty God who allow him not to haue endued our Blessed Lady withall the priuiledges and prerogatiues of sāctity and grace wherof a pure creature could be capable since he tooke flesh of her and that she was ordayned from all eterniry to giue a new being and nature and life to himselfe Wherby he was to atcheeue the most glorious enterprize which euer he had vndertaken or euer would And so much more wicked is it to thinke any such thing of God euen because he is God and is not a whit the emptier for filling any other with himselfe And because he is supreme goodnes and knowes not how to be ouercome with curtesy But now since he descended to this Incarnation in the B. Virgins wombe especially and expresly for the meere cōmunication of himselfe to all his reasonable creatures what flouds of grace must he needs be beleeued to haue rayned downe vpon that happy soule by whose only meanes vnder himselfe he was afterward to deriue himselfe to others Yea and finally if this blasphemy could be a truth that God had sought his owne and not our end therby and that it were possible to conceaue God to be wise and not conceaue him to be also good yet euen wisedom alone would haue obliged him to doe all that for her which could possibly haue bin done to a created nature since himselfe was to be so highly interessed therby his very body hauing bin wholy hers The glory or shame of any mother and her Sonne are so neere of kinne that they will not part and how much more of this Sonne and mother since this mother gaue this Sonne all the humane nature he had by the operatiō of the holy Ghost And (b) That body which our B. Lady gaue to Christ our Lord is that very body which is to raigne eternally at the right hād of God that very body so bestowed by her as to remaine raigne at the right hand of God for all eternity It is therfore of much honour to Christ our Lord the more honorable and excellent his Blessed Mother was And by this we way also easily discerne the immensity of height to which our Blessed Lady is exalted She being raysed vp so neere to the Deity of Christ our Lord it selfe and beholding that omnipotent God both personally and eternally to subsist and liue in her nature And by the infinite merit of that person of his to be working such store of spirituall miracles in the world adorning men heere with guifts of grace and crowning them afterward with glory So great is our Blessed Lady so much more as shall be shewed afterward and her adnersaries and ours haue no cause to scandalize themselues with vs for saying so For to that which they are wont to say that we equall her to Christ our Lord I will desire them to receaue this short true answere that afterward I may proceed in her prayses without any further feare of offending them By so good a worke we all acknowledge and beleeue our Lord IESVS to be true and perfect God and that our Blessed Lady though the most excellent meere creature that euer was to haue bin no more then a meere creature Now (c) There lyes no comparisort at all betweene our B. Lady and Christ our Lord as God it followes heervpon that there was is more excellency in him as God then her by more millions of degrees then there is greater quātity in the bulke of the whole world then in the least little moate which wanders vp and downe in the ayre For in a word he is infinite she but finite therfore there lyes no kind of comparison betwene them two Let it be also considered that euen what she had of dignity and greatues did all originally as will further be shewed afterward depend vpon that first Grace wherby she was elected without any merit at all of hers through the only goodnes of God who drew her by his diuine vnderstanding before all eternities and did execute it afterwards vpon her when the fulnes of tyme was come out of the whole race of mankind with intention to make her that happy creature which should giue flesh and bloud and life to the increated Word and Wisedome of God the secōd person of the most holy Trinity Which diuine life of his he would afterward lay downe vpon the Crosse for the redemption of the world and the totall destruction of our death That (d) The ground Originall cause of all our B. Ladies sanctity out of the same free goodnes she was made a most pure vessell of the holy Ghost at the very first instant of her sacred and immaculate Conception that so as she was to be the mother of God she might also be made most worthy of so incomparable a dignity And that to this end she was most beloued adorned and enriched withall that plenitude of diuine graces and vertues prerogatiues which might any way be conuenient for the incomprehensible high office to which she was assumed That not only she was infinitely inferiour indeed of her selfe a meere Nothing in respect of God but that she was also incōcomparably of lesse excellency and dignity then Christ our Lord as he was man And that since euen the soule of Christ our Lord himselfe did not deserue that first Grace wherby it pleased God to assume and vnite it hypostatically to the second person of the most blessed Trinity in vertue of which vnion the Grace and merit of that soule after a sort was infinite so much lesse could the soule of the B. Virgin deserue the first Grace which was imparted to it whervpon all her other greatnes did originally depend That (e) The great preheminēce of Christ our Lord euen as he is man beyond our B. Lady Christ our Lord did merit as it were infinitely of himselfe and for himselfe but that the Blessed Virgin could neuer haue merited any thinge but in vertue of the merits of Christ our Lord. That Christ our Lord was absolutely and of himselfe by nature holy and indued at the first instant wherin his soule was vnited to the Word with such an immensity of all diuine graces as was wholy incapable of any increase That he was our sole Redeemer and Sauiour and for himselfe did need no Sauiour nor Redeemer That he was not conceaued in the way of ordinary generation but by way of Obumbration of the holy Ghost in the most pretious and pure wombe of the all-immaculate Luc. 1. and B. Virgin But that she came into
any one Matt. 8. the innumerable creatures who needed desired miraculous cure from Christ our Lord we heare not of any one who was finally frustrate of his suite Nay he reiected not the very deuills thēselues whom he suffred to enter into that heard of swyne His eyes were but as so many conduyts wherby he brought into his hart all the miseries that he saw and then by the same way he sent his mercies out for reliefe therof It is true that sometymes he seemed as if he would not graunt theyr suytes as in the case of the Cananean woman but it was but seeming For indeed Matt. 15. he meant not onely to cure the Daughter but to glorify the mother for that full cluster of vertues which shee had of humility patience perseuerance and such an eminency of Faith withall as that himselfe was not only pleased to commend her for it but being the true increated wisedome and knowledge of God he would yet be content to seeme obliged to be in admiration to make this exclamation in her honour O mulier magna est sides tua fiat tibi sicut vis O womā great is thy Faith be it vnto thee as thou wilt And this he did though himselfe was he who both gaue her grace to conceaue it by his inspiration and occasion to expresse it by the appearance which he made of her reprehension There was no tyme nor place nor seuerall disease of body nor disposition of mind to which this diuine Phisitian of the whole man did not accomodate himselfe with vnquencheable charity and incessant care Which was a million of tymes greater in him towards euery beggar then any Physitian of this world could euer tell how to carry towards the only Sonne of his soueraigne king whom he had in cure If (k) Our Lord did accōmodate himself to the cure of all men according to theyr seuerall dispositiōs and necessities Marc. 5. men had feeling of their infirmity and with all so much desire to be recouered as might serue to carry them to the places where he was to be he gaue them leaue by the increase of their labour to grow in merit If they cryed out as not being able to come quickly to him he would expect till they arriued and then would cure them as he did the ten leaprous persons all leaprous in their bodies but nyne of them more leaprous in their soules since they were vngrateful to such a goodnes If their miseries were great although their knowledge and beliefe in him were very small he would seeke such out without being sought Luc. 17. Ioan. 5. Marc. 9. Luc. 9. 4. 5. 8. Marc. 10. Matt. 9. Marc. 2. Matt. 20. as he did the man vvho lay at the Probatica piscina eight and thirty yeares If it vvere peraduenture a kind of a midle case he vvould meet them in the halfe vvay or he vvould require them to be brought to him or he vvould stay as if he stayd not for them till they came of themselues or he vvould cast to goe vvhere they vvere to come or els where he knevv them to be he vvould not fayle to goe And hovvsoeuer it vvere if he savv thē in need of helpe he vvould cure them sometymes though they did not so much as aske it of him Matt. 12. Luc. 14. 5. Ioan. 9. Luc. 9. Matt. 150 Marc. 6. Which was the case of the mā with the withered hand and the man vvho vvas Hydropicque and that other also vvho vvas borne blind And vvhen at seueral tymes he fed men women and children by thousands in the desert there vvas not one of them vvho opened his mouth to aske him meate but their distresse vvas the only Solicitour of his mercifull hart to shevv thē pitty If they deliuered him their ovvn petitiōs Marc. 1. 12. Luc. 7. they vvere sure to be gratiously hard if their case were exposed by the intercessiō of others they were also as sure not to be reiected To teach vs therby vvhat high cōfidēce we ought to haue in the prayers of saints since he heard such sinners for one another Novv the manner of his cures vvas vvithall so deerly svveet as that they seeme euen to exceed the mercy of the very cures themselues Hovv tenderly vvould he be carrying himselfe tovvards those poore creatures in all their necessities Sometymes he vvould performe the base Office of leading blind beggars by his ovvne hand he would conduct both blind and deafe and dumbe persons out of company Marc. 7. 8. that he might enioy them alone and so make thē knovv vvithall vs by thē that for the cure of al our spirituall diseases it is fit for vs sometymes to retyre our selues hand to hand vvith God Nay those hands of his vvould not disdaine to touch the loathsome and polluted flesh of leapers And though many make great dainty Matt. 8. to serue sicke persons who are subiect to lesse foule diseases wheras our Lord had sayd that in seruing them Matt. 25. we should be giuing comfort to himselfe yet to the eternall glory of his name and by the merit of his example and through the power of his grace we will acknowledge and be glad that in his holy Catholike Apostolicque Romaine Church the Spirit of this holy practice doth still liue And (1) The good custome of seruing in Hospitals that there are thousands and many thousands amongst vs of all conditions sexes and ages who in imitation of our Lords humility and charity are dayly visiting sicke persons Instructing comforting and feeding them both in body and soule procuring to ease them in their paines and making their beds and drying their sweats and wyping their sores It were a shame that the seruants of God should not imploy themselues in these good exercises when they consider how Christ our Lord did put those omnipotent fingars of his owne Mare 7. Ibid. into the eares of those poore creatures and into their mouthes Ioan. 9. Ioan. 11. and how himselfe made plaisters for their eyes and how he would sigh and groane to consider sinne in their soules the miserable effects therof in their very bodyes of flesh and bloud We see how he prayed and how he wept at the raysing of Lazarus and how through the excesse of loue wherwith he desired to restore him to life the Scripture saith Infremuit spiritu Ioan. 11. which betokned as it were a kind of tumult and tempest of his affections which were working and wrastling with God in the behalfe of that dead man In so much as the lookers on did wonder to see that so great a Prophet and the worker of so many and strange miracles should lament weep like another ordinary person And they easily inferred thereby that those teares other greater demonstrations of griefe must needs proceed from some puissant cause and so they said to one another in the way of wondring Behould
how he loued that man Ibid. Yet Lazarus indeed his friends had obliged our Lord by particular seruices to his owne sacred person wheras the holy Text affirmes in many other places that his diuine pitty mercy did worke most tenderly also towards others vpon whom he had no other eye at all then as they were parts of mankind all which he did so deerly loue And therfore he pittied both their generall and particular miseries as appeares by the story of the widdow in the death of her sonne Luc. 7. Matt. 13. Mar. 8. Matt. 23◠and of the people in the wildernes for their distresse of hungar and especially of the citty of Ierusalem when with his eyes full of teares he lamented their misery as hath bene said else where The holy Scripture also affirmeth not only that he pittied them Matt. 1◠Marc. 8. but that himselfe would professe and say as much And besides he ordayned that the notice of it should be left to vs vpō record And what charming words were those when he would bid them Aske (1) Ioan. 16. and haue that their ioye might be full and when he would say What (2) Marc. 10. wilt thou haue me doe Yea and also in expresse termes Be it vnto thee (3) Matt. 15. as thou wilt thy selfe As if he were content that man should be as it were his owne caruer out of the very omnipotency of God and that the mercy of God were to haue no other measure then mans owne desire And when he would say My selfe will (4) Matt. 8. goe and cure the sicke person at thy house And when being the soueraigne King of glory he would yet become a begger of a cup of could water of the (5) Ioan. 4. Samaritan women whilst the while he was filling her soule with the water of grace which instantly might take all possibility of further thirst from her And when he would call them by many and most tender names as we haue shewed vpon another occasion And when he would begge of them that they would sinne no more And when he would so labouriously defend and plead the cause of S. Mary (6) Luc. 37. Magdalene his enamoured penitent And when he confounded that hypocrysy and pride of the Iewes and had such diuine pitty of the poore (7) Ioan. 8. Adultresse And whē he would goe as he did to him who was borne (8) Ioan. 9. blind whome himselfe would needs vouchsafe to seeke as soone as he was excommunicated by the Iewes And hauing found him he gaue him comfort and passed sometyme in his conuersation and withdrew that curtaine which he suffered still to hange betwixt him and others and told him at last in plaine powerful tearmes (9) Ibid. That the Sauiour of the world was then speaking to him The great laboriousnesse of Loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in the working of his Miracles is more declared CHAP. 43. NOVV withall this loue which our Lord expressed in the working of his miracles was no nice or wary kind of loue For it cost him excessiue paines labour and imployed him in iourneying through all that hilly cōtry on foote as may be seene throughout the whole Euangelicall history to find matter Matt. 9. Marc. 6. for his mercy of that kind to worke vpon And sometymes all Iewry not being able to containe and compasse in those bowells of his charity he would be breaking out into the skirts of the Gentiles Matt. 25. which he began to ennoble sanctifie by his presence And whersoeuer he were he was importuned by poore people to take pitty on them and he had so much towards them that he had none of himselfe But he prayed for them by night he laboured for them by day that so hard that as sometymes (1) Matt. 4. 12. 15. he had no bread to eate so at othertymes he had not so (2) Marc. 3. much as leaue or tyme to eate it in yea or so much as (3) Marc. 2. 3. euen scarce meanes to stirre through the presse of people which came about him At all howers was he ready to giue them health if they had beene ready alwaies to receaue it But the Country in sommer begin extremly hoat for them to haue repaired to him in the heate of the day would haue bene perhaps but to haue exchanged one sicknes for another Or els though the Patients would haue bene glad to be carryed or conducted the men vvho vvere to help them had not charity inough to endure the trouble But hovvsoeuer the Patients or their friends did stand affected the Phisitian was still at hand and he desired no better Fee then to be doing them fauour And (a) What troopes of sicke persons were brought to our B. Lord for eure Luc. 4. so therfore in the euenings about Sunne-set the holy Scripture shevves vvhat troopes of people of all those villages tovvnes and citties vvould come in about him Drawing out dying men into the sight of that truer brighter sunne vvhich vvas euer shining tovvards them as at noone day Not only did he cure them all but besides the benefit it self of their health he imparted it vvith so much tendernes of loue as not to permit that there should be so much as any one of them all vvhome he vvould not touch vvith his ovvne pure povverfull hands though he vvas infinitely able to haue cured them all at once Luc. 4. and vvith the least vvord of his mouth or euen vvith the wil of his hart At other tymes agayne he vvould accomplish their desires in another forme And as before he cured them by touching them vvith his owne sacred flesh to shew his loue so novv he vvould doe it by letting thē touch his garments Marc. 6. or his person to shevv his povver There might you haue seeme as if it had bene a very Market or Faire of sicke Folkes of all diseases both of body and mind which went Progresse with him whersoeuer he had a mind to goe Some leaning vpon staues some carried in mens armes and some in their beds vpon wheele barrowes A running (*) A running cāpe of souldiers who had been wounded by sinne camp it was of souldiers who had all beene wounded in the warre by their enemies and they hoped for help by flying towards the Cullours of this Captaine And we may make account that though he were the King both of heauen and earth yet he tooke not so much gust in being courted by the Angells of heauen as he did in being haunted by this hospitall which went euer creeping after him on earth This (b) Many Hospitalls in one hospitall had all kindes of hospitals made vp in one One hospital for al sortes of ordinary diseases as Feauers Dropsies Fluxes of bloud and the like Another for the Blind Another for the Lame Another for the Deafe Another for the Dumbe Another for