will see that by the former of them you were bound to lodge your loue vpon our lord after a very particular manner because the contract of marriage obliges either partie to loue the other And on the second day our lord shewed the loue which he bore to you and he gaue you strength to pay according to your weakenes the loue which you owe to him For what haue you out of your owne stocke but obligations and what meanes haue you to pay any thing towards the coming out of debt you being a poore ingaged creature who indeed deserued to be euer kept in prison in miserie and in chaynes Psal 106. as Dauid saith But the rich Iesus Christ hath giuen you the plenty of his grace whereby you may know and loue him and may ouercome your contraries and plucke downe that strong Golias which is the Deuill who biddes battaille against all such 1 king 17. as resolue to serue Christ our Lord. It is not reason I say it is notreason that you should forgett what you owe nor how God hath enabled you to pay And for that which God hath giuen you you are much the more bound to serue him For to be a religious woman is the coÌ„dition of many but to receiue soe particular lights and fauours from heauen wherewith to serue our lord is the case of few Abraham bestowed guifts euen vpon those children which hee had by lesse principall wiues but he left his inheritance and estate to the lawfull sonne of that wife of his who was most beloued that wee may vnderstand thereby the difference of the guifts of God which hee imparteth in this life to seuerall persons Our lord be thanked for that your lines and lottes are fallen into the best ground forasmuchas grace was giuen yow whereby to make you chaunge your state of life and to despise the world with your whole heart and to despise also your selfe and to obey the superiour of your Monastery as your mother and to loue all your sisters and Almighty God more then the very apples of your eyes This is that caelestiall fauour which was done you that you might be rich and well supplied with all thinges necessary in Christ our Lord crucified and from thence comes this soe hopefull and happy change which you haue made in the manner of your life and that inuisible beauty wherewith your soule is endewed And what now remaines but that you be like one who hath acquired great worldly riches and who instantly entertaines seruants to â—eepe it And soe you must be carefull to keepe that which our lord hath giuen you least els your soule turne beggar after it hath beene soe rich which is a kind of life of more affliction and greife then theirs whoe neuer knew what belonged to riches Remember what your spouse saith and conceiue that he saith it to you as indeed he doth Now thou art whole soe thou sinne noe more least a worse thing happen to thee Liue with a holy doubt and care how you may keepe that safe which our lord hath giuen you and how yet withall you may gaine fine other talents to the fiue you haue and whether or noe you haue oyle in your lampe and that such as may bee able to last many yeares And till the very houre of your death let this worde sound in your eares Behold your spouse comes Matt. 25. goe forth to meete him For if you liue with this care you will still be well employed and you will not haue leasure to cast your eyes vpon any thing of this life For this alone suffices to giue vs enough to thinke vpon yea and to grow weake withall The holy scripture saith that this alone is enough to breake our sleepes And if you haue not this care I shal be full of sorrow for it For by the want thereof vanity and curiosity doe streight enter in and as many tales of the liues of others as they make who take noe heede to their owne And soe by little and little a soule growes to be seauen times worse then it was before I expect not to receiue such fruites and soe full of bitternesse at your charitable handes but rather the fruites of benediction and sweetnes like a tree which is planted neare the streames of water which with the leaues and with the fruite giues that man a gladd heart who tooke care thereof But yet if by humane frailty you be fallen into any negligence as it happens sometimes see that instantly you wake and breake of that sleepe least it proue inâ—â—tall to you And beg pardon of our lord who is full of mercy and benignity For though he be angry with the defectes of such as haue already knowne him and will punish them yet he driues not away his children and he giues them correction not with fury but with the rod of a Father Goe you therefore instantly to him though you know you haue offended him for perhaps hee may haue shewed you his anger to the end that yow should remoue it from him by your humility and purpose of amendment He will instantly forgiue you and sometimes he impartes particular fauours euen as if it were in recompence of our carelessenes Take heed you grow not stiff and fixed in tepidity for this is a disease very hardly cured And yet on the other side you must not be dismayed if you be not alwayes in soe great feruour as were fit For you are but a woman and noe Angell you are but weake and not indewed with much strength The greatest courtesy you can doe your greatest enemy is to remaine fallen in the way as some cripple might be in a slough of mire with the bones as it were of your soule broken through distrust as if now you had noe more to doe with the busines of getting vp to heauen Our lord's pleasure is that you should thinke highly of his goodnes and that he driues them not away who knowing their owne weaknes goe and seeke for strength and remedy at his hands And indeed our pride is soe very great that for the cure thereof he lettes vs fall many times to the committing of these very things which had formerly beene very farre from vs that soe being fallen we may rise againe And then knowing by experience what kinde of thinges we are we grow to thanke our lord for that which he is to vs and from that time forward we despise our selues we begin to liue with greater doubt and care and feare least we happen to loose that a second time which had beene lost by vs once before Thus doth our most wise phisitian and most louing father draw our cure out of our very woundes themselues and life out of our death and he shewes his goodnes by our wickednes And though we fight sometimes against him with the weapons of sinne which giues him prouocation yet his goodnes steps out like a conquerour and impartes a thousand millions of benefits
thy body embrodered ouer with soe many stripes as that it was noe casye thing to nunber them Hee whoe beholding thee shall loue himselfe and not thee shall doe thee an extreame wrong Hee whoe seeing thee in such a plight shall flye from that which may make him like to thee and hee whoe hath but little desire to suffer for thee doth not know thee with perfect loue For hee whoe soe knowes thee doth euen dye for loue of thee when he considers that thou dyedst for him and he more desires dishonour for thy sake then hee esteemes honour then all that which the whole world which is both a deceiuer and doth deceiue can giue Away with it away let it all hould his peace in comparison of thy Crosse whatsoeuer it be in this world which florishes most and yet is soe soone withered And let worldly people be euen confounded with shame since thou soe much to thy cost hast fought ouercome by thy Crosse Yea and lett them euen alsoe be ashamed who are held for seruants of thine and yet reioyce not in that which is contrary to the world notwithstanding that thou wert soe reproached and abandoned and contradicted by this blinde world which neither doth nor yet can see that Truth which is Thy selse For my part I am resolued to hould thee fast though all other things be wanting to mee which yet in true account can neither deserue the name of all things nor indeede of any thing but of perfect misery and a meere nothing rather then I will remaine of any other colour then thou art though otherwise the world wherein I liue might be all mine For all those things which are not the thing which thou thy selfe art are rather affliction and burden then true happines but in thy being ours and our being thine consists our true ioy and riches for thou alone art all our true good I had forgotten my selfe my deere brethren in that whereof I beganne to speake and to beseech and admonish you in the name of Christ our Lord that you be not troubled nor brought to wonder at a straunge thing and not familiarly knowne by the seruants of God at these persecutions or rather the shadowes thereof which are come vpon vs. For this hath beene nothing but a tryall and examen of that lesson which we haue beene learning continually by the space of fiue or six yeares saying that we must suffer we must suffer for the loue of Christ our lord Behould wee are now at the very gates Let vs not be troubled like children whoe are not willing to repeat their lesson But comfort your selues in our Lord and in the strength of his power who loues you and whoe will defend you And though he be but one yet he can doe more then all the rest for hee is omnipotent You neede not alsoe feare that hee wants knowledge how to doe it for he can be ignorant of nothing And now consider whether it be reason that any man should be moued whoe is tyed to Almightie God with those three soe hard knotts of an infinite power an infinite wisedome and an infinite loue Let not the menaces of them who threaten you breede you any trouble For I for my part giue you to vnderstand that I vallew not all their threates at the weight of one single haire For I am noe where but in the hand of Christ our Lord and I haue great compassion of their blindenes For the ghospell of Christ our Lord which I haue preached in that towne is hidden from their eyes 2. Cor. 4. and S. Paule affirmed that the God of this world which is the deuill did blinde the soules of the Infidells to the end that the glory of the ghospell might not shine vpon them But I desire much and I cordially begg of our Lord that he will haue mercy on them and that he will heape benedictions vpon them in liew of the curses which they cast on mee and glory for the dishonour which they doe mee or to speake more truely for that which they desire to doe mee For as for mee I am fixed in this that there is noe honour for a man vpon this earth but to be dishonoured for Christ our Lord. Doe you alsoe my deere freinds after the same manner and be Disciples of him whoe gaue a kisse of peace to that person and called him freind who had sould him Matth 20. to his enemyes And vpon the Crosse he said Pardon them Father Luc. 23. for they know not what they doe Consider in all your neighbours how they are the creatures of God and that God desires their saluation and then you will take heede of wishing ill to that man to whome God desires soe much good Remember how often you haue heard from my mouth that wee must loue our enemyes and that with great repose of minde and without speaking ill of any Passe ouer this fitt of tyme for our Lord will quickly bring on another And be very well awake that you may not goe backe to reuerse any one lott of that good which you haue begunne for this would be extreamely ill done But settle this truth in your hartes that he whome you haue followed is the lord of heauen and earth and of life and death And that in fine though all the world should say nay his truth must preuaile Labour you to follow that truth and whilest you are doeing soe doe not onely forbeare to feare men but feare not deuills noe nor euen Angells if it were possible for them to be against you Be very carefull to be silent amōgst men but be sure that your hartes speake much in prayer to God from whome all our good is to come And his pleasure is that we should obtaine it and especially by meditating vpon the passion of Iesus Christ our Lord. And if you suffer any thing by the tongues of euill men for in fine you suffer nothing els take it in discharge of your sinnes and as a particular fauour of God whoe will make you cleane by the tongues of those euill men as it might be with some brush or rubber for those tongues will be fowle thereby since they vtter fowle things and your selfe will grow cleane by suffering and you will be sure of happines in the other world But in the meane tyme I will not by any meanes that you esteeme your selues for better then them whome thus you see to goe in errour Because you know not how long your selues may continue in doeing well nor they in doeing ill But worke your saluation in feare and in humility and soe hope that your selues shall gett to heauen as not to iudge with all that your neighbour is not to goe thither And soe value the fauours which God hath done to you as that withall you touch not vpon the imperfections of your neighbours For you know what happened betweene the Pharisee Luc. 18. and the Publicane by which example we
Ps 41. therefore will I remēber thee the land of Iordan Hermō the little hill Hee who behoulds himselfe and there discouers soe many abhominations is troubled at himselfe and he hath reason And not finding one houre exactly well spent in his whole life but seeing his sinnes to be many great his good deedes to be so few weake what should he doe but be troubled when he findes himselfe soe vnable to make a good accounte before soe strict a Iudge Only he must remēber Christ our lord cōsidering what he wrought in the land of Iordan vpon that little hill and bewayling his sinnes and receiuing the holy Sacraments hee must liue in obedience to the commaundemēts of God and of his Church and soe as a sonne he may hope for the inheritance of heauen He must alsoe call to minde that which was wrought by our lord in those hills of Hermon which are many in the little hill alsoe Which whether it be that of Horeb where God gaue the lawe or whether it be some other hill doth not soe much import vs who are Christians whose vnderstanding Iesus Christ hath opened towards the conceiuing of the scriptures and he vnderstands them who vnderstands Christ our Lord in them who is shutt vp therein as a graine of corne may be in an eare or as wine is in the grape And therefore the end of our law is Christ our Lord for all the lawe rests in him Cor. 10 The hills of Hermon both they which are within the land of promise and without it as also the little hill doe all signify but one hill which may iustly be said to be a little one and to be of Herman And this is Mount Caluary where our redemption was wrought by the shedding of the blood of the sonne of God Now to the end that wee may knowe how well this name may be applyed to Mount Caluary it is to be vnderstood that Hermon signifies malediction And how can Mount Caluary be better expressed then by the name of malediction since it was the place to which they carryed malefactours to be executed whome the scripture calls accursed because they were to be soe punished And because Christ our Lord saw that we were to be accursed and adiudged to euerlasting malediction hee was pleased through the immensenes of his Charitie to take our maledictions vpon himselfe I meane the punishment of our sinnes that soe his benediction might descend on vs. S. Paule expresses thus much after this manner Gal. 3. Christ was made malediction that so his benediction might be communicated to the Gentiles He was blessed and we were cursed But now the case is altered and we chaunge persons with one another He tooke the place of the accursed in being tormented vpon the Crosse which was dew to vs and wee are admitted to the freindship of God and to be his sonnes and the inheritours of the kingdome of heauen with a thowsand other benedictions which came from our Blessed lord Iesus Christ in whome they remaine for euer O wonderfull exchaunge that life should dye to the end that death may liue Benediction is accursed that soe malediction may be blessed The sound man is wounded that soe the wounded man may be cured The sonne is treated as a slaue that soe the slaue may be adopted for a sonne They most cruelly handle him who deserues all pitty and all the fauour and Regalo falls vpon that person who deserued hell In fine what shall we say They apprehend the innocent and they release the guilty The iust man payes for sinnes Innocency is cōdemned and the wicked man is iustified What did Christ our lord choose for himselfe Our afflictions and our miseries to be his recreations delights What shall wee say to such a charity as this but that we are to praise and blesse this lord day and night who hath wrought our redemption and saluation by a way which put him to soe much cost This is indeede that hill of Hermon that little hill and this soe truly as that he was esteemed by the relation of the Prophett Esay Esay 53. for the meanest amongst men And for this reason our Lord himselfe saith Ps 21 I am a worme and noe man but the dishonour of men and the abasement of the people O thou honour of men and angels and how canst thou be the dishonour of men Thou who art the aduancement of thy people and who art the glory both of heauen and earth what could make thee grow to be the abasement of thy people but onely thine owne great Charitie For thou to honour vs didst endure soe great dishonour that as wee are wont to say of some very base vnworthy man that he dishonours his whole stocke soe did they alsoe say of thee that thou dishonouredst the whole race of mankinde Bee thou Blessed without end For all the honour which all the race of mankinde possesses comes from thee and through thee Thou gauest it by the coniunction of thy selfe to them making thy selfe man and dying for men and exalting them to an equallity with Angells and euen with Seraphins if themselues will and ordeyning that the sonnes of sinnefull Adam they may become the sonnes of God and the heyres of thy Father and coheyres with thee as being thy bretheren and yet thou O Lord art called the dishonour and abasement of the people Thou didst abase thy selfe O Lord to exalt vs thou didst abase thy selfe belowe all men that thou mightest rayse vs about the Angells What shall wee render to thee O Lord for soe great fauours but onely that we must tenderly and profoundly knowe that if wee haue any thing if wee be fitt for any thing and if we be any way acceptable to almighty God it is wholly by thee And wee must yeild thee all thankes and praise for that thou being what thou art wouldest yet vouchsafe to offer thy selfe to sufferance of soe great afflictions for such wretched things as wee are Thou diminishedst thy selfe in that little hill that thou mightest exalt vs to that great hill Thou dyedst on Mount Caluary to the end that wee might liue in the mountaine of heauen And by the malediction which fell vpon thee there thou diddest purchasse and thou wilt impart to vs that happy benediction of thine Come you blessed of my father possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you They cursed thee O Lord and thou blessedst vs. Thy death giues vs life and thy affliction ease Since thou wert content to be iudged it is reason that thou alsoe be our Iudge Lett vs therefore reioyce since hee who loues vs soe much is to be our Iudge and wee will goe confidently to iudgment since the Iudge is of our owne flesh and bloud If wee know not what wee may doe for the pleasing of Almighty God lett vs looke vp to Christ our Lord and he will teach vs meekenes from that Crosse Who being
for it is not fitt that eyther you or I should haue an eye to our owne ease but that although wee should know that after this life wee must suffer paine yet heere we must also take courage to suffer afflictions for loue loue is content with nothing but loue Christ our lord suffered for our loue Christ our lord carried the Crosse and lett vs help him to cary it on Christ our lord is dishonoured and I renounce honour Christ our lord suffered torments and therefore they shall be welcome to me He was subiect to many necessityes and I submitte my selfe to the same For me he made himselfe a stranger and I desire not to be the owner of any single thing wherein my heart may rest He dyed for me and lett my life be a continuall death for the loue of him Gal. 2. Let me liue yet now not me but let Christ our lord liue in me and that Christ who was crucified exhausted abandoned by all the world and receiued alone by Almighty God This Christ I loue vpon the Crosse will I seeke him and from thence haue I noe desire to finde him Let him dispose of me how he will for my part I will suffer affliction for him Let him choose whether he will giue me any reward or noe for the very suffering it selfe is an abundant reward And if he would graunt me a great suite I would desire noe other then to haue afflictions for thereby I may know that I loue him and that he alsoe loues me since he layes me vpon the Crosse where himselfe lay For though I haue noe ayme at mine owne profitt yet I know full well that if I continue vpon the Crosse he will cary me to his Crowne To him be glory through the eternity of all eternityes Amen A Letter of the Authour to one who formerly had beene a disciple of his and then being of the Society of Iesus was growen to be at the poynt of death He congratulates his departure hence and his goeing to enioy the fruites of his labour in his Order and he giues him great hope of the eternall kingdome by meanes of the bloud of Christ our Lord. THE grace of the holy Ghost be euer with you Though heere they say that you are vpon the point of passing into the land of the liuing soe as a man may thinke that whilest I am writing this you may already be enioying the deare imbracements of our allswcete Iesus yet I thought it not amisse to venture this letter towards you congratulating with you your promotion to that Prebēd in the Church of the celestiall Ierusalem where without all ceasing God is praised and seene face to face Goe in a good houre most deare father goe I say in a good houre both to see all Good and to possesse it for all eternity Goe in a good houre to the bosome of the celestiall father where he entertaines those lambes of his with glory which heere he fed with his grace and corrected with his discipline Now my good Father shall you see the fauour which God did you in calling you to a Religious life and in giuing you grace in the strēgth whereof you dispising the world might follow him by the way of the Crosse For now in recompence thereof he will giue you heauen for your Religious Order and glory for that Crosse which you haue borne for his sake Blessed be our lord Iesus Christ who hath goodnes enough to induce him to giue such glory to such wormes of the earth raising vp the poore man out of the dust that he may sitt amongst the Princes of his people Happy is the houre of our corporall death since thereby wee are exalted intitled to take our seate amōgst those princes who liue eternally in the high presence of God O day which is the end of labours and the end also of sinnes and in which wee ascend to serue our Lord in good earnest and not as wee are wont to doe heere below where wee are all discomforted through the imperfections of those seruices which we performe to God For heere a man goes halting faynting with hunger through his desire to please that diuine Maiesty to serue him with all the soule But in heauē this desire is perfected that in so cōpleat a manner that all the whole man is imployed in the seruice praise of God without being subiect to the least impedimēt which may interpose it self Blessed be God who hath soe soone beene pleased to gather you vp into his granary least mallice might els haue chaunged your mind and to shew you the riches of his bounty Sap. 4. who for soe few yeares of seruice imparts an eternity of reward Sir this is God this I say is God this is the fruit of his passion this is the valew of his grace this is our happy encounter to haue fallen into the hands of such a Lord to know him to loue him though it be with many imperfections But he washes them away by his bloud making vs partakers of his Sacramēts And the paternall loue which he beares vs both makes him easily encline to pardon our faults to be very copious in rewarding our seruices And he cōducts vs through the middest of the red sea Psal 102. to the land of promise diuiding vs from our sinnes as farre of as the East is from the West and drowning them in his bloud Soe that although wee may see them still yet wee shall see them dead they will serue but to giue vs matter reason to praise our Lord Exod. 14. who hath cast both the horse and horseman into the sea Goe Sir with the benediction of our lord God to enioy the riches of your deer Father which he gayned for you with the launce in his hād by shedding his owne bloud who neuer fay les to succour all such as place theire hope loue in him It is true that wee shall misse you that wee shall thinke our selues to be all alone when we are heere without you but since God hath desined you to this great happynes let vs who loue you hould it for our owne And wee who in our owne right shall lament will yet reioyce with you in yours like the brothers of Rehecca who is goeing to be espoused with Isaak which signifies i◠And therefore wee say to you you are our brother and wee desire that you may encrease to thousands of thousands Gen. 24. and that your seede may possesse the gates of your enemyes I doe not pretend to tell you how you must prepare your self for this Feast for there you haue them who can doe it and who will helpe you to passe on out of the hands of men into the hands of God And let our lord who came into the world for you and who ascended vp to the Crosse for you Ps 22. be he who succours you in such sorte that though you