strictly and how piously she liv'd after the Ascention of Christ till the houre of her death saith Idelphonius is onely knowne to God the searcher of hearts and to the Angels her diligent Visiters The reason which many alledge why neither the rest of her life nor death are penned by the holy Evangelists is this that the Apostles were so busied about the conversion of the Iewes and the Gentiles enlarging of the Christian Church That they had no time to set downe the particular Acts of her life after her Sonnes Ascention nor the severall Circumstances of her death as where when and how she dyed Some Authours peremptorily maintaine upon what ground I know not that she liv'd to her seaventieth yeare and to her last houre dwelt in Ierusalem neare to her Sonnes Sepulchre Others upon no better warrant averre that she went with Iohn into Asia and continued with him at Ephesus till her death and urge the authority of Ignatius who affirmes that she wrote to him in these words I will come with Iohn to see thee and thy friends c. Concerning her death Some avouch that the Apostles and the most eminent of the Primitive Church were present at it Damascen saith that Christ was also there in person and that he thus spake to her Come my blessed Mother into the rest I have prepar'd for thee and that shee thus in way of answer prayed to him Into thy hands O my Sonne I commend my Spirit Receive that deare Soule which thou hast preserved free from all rebuke As I will not justifie all these their Assertions for true so on the other side I will not condemne them as erroneous not being able to convince them of untruth and for ought I know they may have pass'd by unwritten Tradition from man to man I will therefore affirmatively say nothing but this that most assuredly her death was welcome to her in that she had so often both meditated and practised it having many times by austerity and contemplation departed this life ere she left it If that of Seneca be true that to dye well is to dye willingly then certainly she dyed the death of the Righteous She was not ignorant that Death to the just is no other than a delivery from prison a laying downe of a burthen the end of a Pilgrimage the unmanacling of the Soule the discharging of a due debt to Nature the returne into our true Country the dore that opens into a never fading life the entrance into the celestiall Kingdome and the Vsher that was to conduct her to her blessed Saviour with whom she had mentally conversed ever since he left the earth Since which time there be who avouch that she never willingly saw any man The Assumption What honor could to this great Queene be done More then be taken up to heauen high And there haue GOD for Father Spouse sonne The Angells wayte the world stand wondring by The same modesty I have shew'd in treating of her death I shall reserve in discoursing of her Assumption which by many of the Fathers all of the Romish Church and some of the Reformed is held for an undoubted truth though upon no sounder proofes than the former produce concerning her departure hence Bullinger directly backs this opinion We doe beleeve saith he that the wombe of the God-bearing Virgin and the Temple of the holy Ghost that is her sacred body to have beene assumed into heaven Brentius leaves it indifferent to us to beleeve whether or no she ascended in Soule in body or both It might well be saith he that as Enoch was translated in body into heaven and as many bodies of the Saints did rise with Christ So Mary also might in body be assumed into Heaven But most certain it is that she obtained everlasting Felicity And some ther be who demand why God might not manifest his power by her privy to so many divine secrets and mysteries as well as by an Angell or as by Elias who after long prayer was taken up in a Fiery Chariot Some againe who hold that the dead who arose with Christ ascended with him into Glory and were not againe reduc't into Ashes thinke the Assumption of Mary altogether as likely Damascen saith the workes of the Deity are therefore possible because omnipotent and that there are some things which though they are wholly omitted in holy Scriptures yet upon evident reasons they are believ'd and exemplifies his position in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Dammianus argues thus That as conceiving without sinne shee brought forth her Sonne without paine a curse laid on all other women so might it well be that she who was without sinne might overcome Death the reward of it Some goe about to prove it by the Text Arise Lord into thy rest thou and the Arke of thy Sanctification Nay I have read a moderne Oratour who thus elegantly describes the manner of it When saith hee the Soule of this Sweet one reactuated her body she arose in Triumph from her Sepulcher and was assumed into Heaven In her passage thither the orbes bowed and bended themselves to make her a triumphant Arch through which shee might passe in greater state The Sunne with his brightest beames imbrac't her that it might be said A woman was cloath'd with the Sunne The Moone stooped to her that it might be divulg'd the Moone was under her feet The brightest of the Starres interwove themselves to make her a radiant Crowne c. But this description is no more theologicall than the consent of the orbes is Philosophicall and is no way correspondent to the dignity of our Sacred subject on whose triumphant entry into Heaven having beene a faithfull and reverent Attender I will now returne to vindicate her honour here on Earth and make an Apology to Christians with shame and horrour I speake it for Christs owne Mother It may please then the gentle Reader to understand that two questions arise amongst the Moderne Divines The one whether or no she merited to be the Mother of God the other which way she could deserve that greatest of Glories For the first they affirm that never any Creature merited so great a blessing as the incarnation of Gods owne Sonne For he sent say they his Sonne into the world not urg'd thereto by our merits but out of his owne meere Grace and Goodnesse It was a worke of his Charity and condescending not of retribution or obligation and therefore that he chose not the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of Christ as she was a Virgin humble obedient adorn'd with Faith Charity and other divine vertues but because God had decreed her to beare his onely Sonne therefore his best pleasure was she should be Mistresse of perfections suteable to so high a Calling Wherfore Saint Paul saies Because God hath predestinated us therefore he calles justifies and glorifies us and not because we are just therefore he electeth us
her blush at her owne exaltation Her lowlinesse was such that it was nearer the rejecting of all commendations then entertaining a comparison betweene her selfe and him to whom she had professed her selfe an hand-maid And no lesse is her shame or rather indeed her trembling when pennes prophanely prodigall ascribe that honour to her which is onely proper and due to that Deity from which she received her grace and being I will not with Lipsius ascribe as much to her Milke as to her Sonnes Bloud Neither dare I side with those who averre that she is halfe of that sacrifice that ransom'd us and Gods partner here Nor is my penne so impiously valiant as to justifie that God made himselfe the patterne and communicated to her by Grace whatsoever hee had by Nature Nor am I of his bold opinion who sayes If man had never sinned yet Christ should have taken flesh to honour her These men would have her in all things equall to Christ himselfe Neither her modesty nor mine will admit of this blasphemous flatterie I willingly allow her to be the vessell but not the fountaine of Grace I am much taken with his Tenent who holds that God made all things for the use of Man because he would amply furnish him with matter enough to busie his head lest he should bee so audacious as to enquire into his secrets encroach upon his prerogatives We need not thanks to his infinite goodnesse bee so dangerously venturous since he affords us a large scope and ground enough safely to extol this his Favourite second to none that ever bore flesh either in her owne desert or his esteeme To begin with her birth it was miraculous as it alwayes falls out where Nature failes and God supplies as he did here in Anna the blessed mother of this more blessed maid And here by the way I must insert an observation derived from Gods sacred Word that for the most part the children of sterility are fruitfull in sanctity and all good works Samson was the sonne of barrennesse and kept the people in obedience So was Isaac and gave precepts to the seed of Abraham So was Samuel and foretold the misery of servitude to the Iewish Synagogue So was Ioseph and with his counsell govern'd all Aegypt So was our hallow'd subject who brought forth the Sonne of glory The slaves of the Tyrians rebelling against their Masters and having subdu'd them by a generall consent decreed that hee amongst them who the next morning could first discover the Sunne rising should be their King One of them of a more gentle disposition then the rest having hidden his Master by name Strato from the others fury secretly askt his advise in this so important affaire who bade him look into the West for there he should sooner discern the approach of the Sunne then they who sought him in the East This wise counsell he obey'd and while the rest fixed all their eyes on the East he from the highest part of the City by his Rayes in the West first discover'd his ascension in the East So in Anna the happy mother of this wonder of women being then in the occident or set of life the prophetick world foresaw the brightnesse of the dazeling light she then teem'd with At length the worlds greedy expectation was satisfied and this Cynthia this chast Starre was delivered of a Plannet farre greater and brighter then her selfe of whose all gladding shine the first man participated and the last shal I may as properly as dolefully call them Plannets since they never rested but were in perpetuall motion while in this lower orbe they ran their fatall courses in which they were often clowded never quite eclipsed The day of the Nativity of this most perfect of Saints I finde thus described by Nicolaus Vernulaeus a late Writer and a professor of eloquence The description I onely insert for the elegancy for I must condemn it as guilty of Levity and Vanity and no way sutable to the Majesty Gravity and Modesty of this our sacred subject The Sunne saith he this day burnisht his face the better to illustrate the world and to appeare gracious in her sight who carried in her breast a fire purer and clearer than his owne Rayes The earth put on her freshest greene and the flowers spread their dainty leaves and made a sweet exchange of odours with her yet hung their heads to see themselves both in colour and sent so farre surpass'd The trees advanc'd their curled heads and compos'd their lookes within the Christall streames who seemed to dance after their owne mumur Amongst the Beasts their King layd by his fiercenesse and not one of his subiects was found savage or polluted that day Then was the Proverbe cross'd for the Worme being trod on would not turne againe lest she should prove unlike her meekest Mistresse In the very bowels of the earth the minerals and the stones more pretious assumed their quicker sparkes as Emblems of her splendour The Ocean had not a wrinckle in his face thousands of Halcions hover'd o're his head and his Tritons blew so lowd that their notes sounded the very bottome of the Deep Within his vast Dominions was no discord that day for the greater of the fish forsooke their prey and the smaller swumme in that security that the Sprat at bearded the Dolphin and playd with the nose of the overgrown Whale The birds sung their choisest aires the fowles flew nearer the earth to salute her and their Towring Lord the Eagle brought his young ones to try their eyes at this new borne Light The ayre it selfe was like her gentle and being invisible came to steale a kisse from her cherry lips soft and smooth as were his owne The windes conceiving their silence would best please kept themselves within their dens onely Zephirus was let loose to fanne the Pinke and Violet and play the wanton with the Rose Thus farre Vernulaeus Of all things created man alone to whom being sicke she was to bring a soveraine Antidote was found least joyfull least gratefull Yet were there some no doubt of Gratitudes children who lay prostrate before her and did homage to their sweetest Lady who might better be called the Mother of the living then Eve since she like a Murdresse gave her children death ere birth and defaced those Images whereon God had set his owne stampe She was no wiser than a poor Fly who enamour'd of the beauty of the flame longs to try if it be as sweet as faire and is consumed with her owne folly Had our blessed one supplied her roome in Paradice the forbidden fruit had perchance beene yet untasted and man uncursed for she was altogether void of curiosity proper to that weaker sexe and the very bane of it Our dearest Princesse therefore was deservedly a Queene ere borne receiv'd a Crowne sooner than sight and found her Throne seated upon the threshold of life And what Crowne was she presented with Not one
Kingdome shall be no end To this her answer was How shall that be since I know no man It is true it is true most blessed Virgin thou knowest no man but let thy modesty rest secure for the operation of God and not of man is here required God should never be conceived in thee wert thou not a Virgin nor borne of thee shouldest thou not remaine such Thou canst not be spotted with the conception or birth of an issue so immaculate This feare is as needlesse as that of defiling thy fairest fingers with the purest fountaine If Obededon having received the Arke within his walles was so enriched with all manner of Treasure that Felicity was voyced to have descended from heaven into his house what shall we judge of thy supreme blisse O glorious Virgin who art not to be the receptacle of a wooden Arke but of his only Sonne With confidence therefore consent to thy owne happinesse and the Redemption of all Humanity But indeed I do not wonder at her astonishment when I consider her bashfulnesse Mee thinks I see her now casting her eyes up to heaven now fixing them on the earth and now againe on the Ambassadour himselfe resolving to give up her soule rather then her virginity Harsh must the word conception needs sound to her who was a votary nere to know man whose onely love was prayer whose onely childe was piety But when the Angell urged Gods will she forthwith yeelded a handmaid to her Lords desire Let us intentively listen to the text And the Angel answer'd and said unto her The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God And behold thy cousen Elizabeth shee hath also conceived a sonne in her old age and this is the sixt moneth with her who was called barren For with God nothing shall bee impossible And Mary said Behold the handmaid of the Lord bee it to mee according to thy word See here united an incomparable humility and an obedience even unto death For the consenting to be the mother of God was not easie to her in that a meek and humble spirit with greater difficultie ascends the highest steppe of Honours Throne then a proud descends thence to the bottome it being a thing in nature farre harder to climbe then to come downe If any man shall yet rest unsatisfied and shall make a further enquirie after this difficulty he may please to consider that her humility ballanc't her Sonnes exalted and her owne dejected estate and as well meditated the care the diligency the reverence and obsequiousnes as the dignity and excellency of her whom God would vouchsafe the most glorious title of Mother She wisely weighed that the Angels were not worthy to wait on him and therefore the service of her whole life must as farre exceed as the name of Gods Mother did excell that of Servant or Angell If Saint Peter yet in the dawn of Grace could so clearly discerne his Masters greatnesse as that he cryed out Depart from me a sinner as deeming himselfe unworthy of his presence If the Centurion for the same respect thought his house too base to receive him what should she thinke who was not to take him into her ship or her lodging but into her wombe where he was to remaine not a visitant but a dweller Full well also she understood that her consent was not onely required to be the parent of the Almighty but the Spouse also of his holy Spirit to whose inspirations she ought a greater obedience then others having received from the same spirit a greater measure of grace and honour She clearly foresaw that she was not onely chosen to conceive the Son of God to bring forth to nurse and governe him but also perforce to yeeld him up such being the divine pleasure to a three and thirty yeares persecution and lastly to the cursed death of the crosse the salvation of others depending on his destruction And that she did foresee all this plainly appeares by the speech of the Angell to her who after he had foretold the conception and birth of Christ added And he shall be called Iesus that is a Saviour An awfull reverence and an inconceiveable joy divided without doubt her all-holy heart when she contemplated her future being a mother to the Messias Can a man imagine any thing more difficult more bitter for humane nature to overcome Yet did her active vertue vanquish all these impediments and with an humble ravisht soule she expected the entrance of him into her sacred wombe whom already she had surely seated in her heart Here before we proceed to her conception we must observe two things not amply and fully enough express'd very remarkable in the Angelicall salutation First the dignity of the Ambassadour next the worth of her to whom his Embassy was directed together with her many vertues equally eminent in this divine Dialogue Concerning the first he was not a man but an Angell neither an Angell of an inferiour order but of the supreme Hierarchy which choise and pure spirits having received infinite ornaments and graces from their Lord and Master retained still his favour and ever stood before him S. Gregory stiles him a principall Angell treating of principall things Some have not feared to call him the supreme Angell as Damascen and others Truth will answer for him that amongst all the celestiall spirits none are so predicated in holy Writ as he and Michael to whom the Declaration and Exposition of so high Mysteries so often were committed as in Daniel Zachary and Mary is specified Some will have his name to signifie God and man and that this Etymology containes a miraculous mystery Amongst these is Proculus Arch-Bishop of Constantinople Geber saith he signifies man El God alluding to his Embassy which treated of his approaching birth who was both God and man Saint Bernard judgeth the servant of Abraham to have beene a type of Gabriel for he was sent by his Master not to seek any Virgin that came next to hand but such a one as the Lord God had prepared for the Sonne of his Lord. This Gabriel saith Saint Chrysostome the Painters present to us winged not that God created him so but to denote the sublimmity and agillity of the celestiall Nature as also to admonish us that with gratefull hearts wee acknowledge him to have for our cause descended from his highest habitation And sweetly Chrysologus An Angell treated with Mary concerning our salvation because an Angell had dealt with Eue touching our damnation This blessed Spirit and Saint Iohn the Evangelist Damianus compares to two Lyons which carefully guard this our sacred subject I will not here seeke to satisfie the over-curious and needlesse doubts of Luther and others whether she knew Gabriel to be an Angell or no nor whether or no
and scourg'd his hands and feet nailed to the Crosse yet sometimes the strings of her relenting mournefull heart were ready to cracke with the very thought of his cruell tortures and afflictions but as often againe they were strengthened and comforted with a full assurance that he should overcome them all and death it selfe She stood here her Sonne onely excepted the prime patterne of a sollid Faith and constant Patience to all posteritie in that neither the feare of Tribulation of persecution of the wracke of the scourge or death it selfe could divide her from her Christ She committed not that errour most incident to women many of which gentle sexe perish in the midst of their Lamentations and will neither admit of Counsell nor Comfort She did not teare her haire scratch her face batter her bosome seeke to stifle her selfe or gave any other desperate signe of a ragefull sorrow nor did she curse her enemies or make imprecations for Vengeance or so much as murmur against them but attended the sad event with the same calmenesse of minde with which this meeke Lambe did his end Her carriage was beyond the Levell of Censure and in all things sutable to the modesty and gravity of such a Matron She fear'd not at all the fury of the Iewish Souldidiers that environ'd her but stood secure and fac'd danger Though she was an eye witnesse of his passion and saw his Limbs distended and wrack'd yet did not the evils she saw wound her so deep as those she heard The Roman Fencers used to have Wards or Covers to save their Eares She had greater need of such to barre the entrance of blasphemies able to provoke God if his mercies were not above all his workes utterly to deface Nature and reduce the world to its first Chaos She heard him call'd a Drunkard a Blasphemer a breaker of the Sabboth a lover of Publicans and Sinners nay a very Divell who was her and Gods onely delight Yet did not all these killing objects these impious slanders drive her into the mercilesse gripes of despaire for she was confident that the two persons of the Trinity would not forsake the third Melancton commending this dismall story to our sad and serious contemplation adviseth us That when Tribulations and Death it selfe come upon us we should imitate this holy Virgin who mixed a heart killing sorrow for his death with a joyfull assurance of his Resurrection Consider saith he what a Conflict the Faith of Mary had There was in her an extreme griefe linked with Faith and Hope Let us in our death thus comfort our selves and harbour the same thoughts with Mary still fixing on God the Eyes of our Faith And verily we must beleeve that no small measure of Beliefe was required to temper and asswage so great a sorrow If we conceive that she was so without bowels as not to grieve for the death and passion of her dearest and onely Sonne we must withall beleeve with the Maniches that he had a phantasticke body not made of his Mothers flesh No doubt when after man had left and betray'd him she heard him cry out that God himselfe had forsaken him also her teares her sighes her groanes her countenance her very posture her dolefull voyce all united their forces to expresse the greatnesse of her sorrow Listen and you shall heare her thus lament O my dearest Sonne that thou who healest others shouldst thy selfe be wounded That thou who freest others shouldst thy selfe be bound That thou who art the Fountaine of Life and Creator of the waters shouldst thy selfe be thirsty That thou who cloathest all things shouldest thy selfe stand naked O my dearest Master how hast thou trespassed against this obdurate Nation that it should so thirst after thy pretious bloud Thou wouldest have cover'd them under the wings of thy gratious Providence as a Henne doth her Chickens but they chose rather to perish than to come thither for shelter With them the dead are more sensible of thy passion than the living and their devouring Sepulchers more mercifull then they themselves O my Sonne my Sonne that I should see thee suffer and not be able to succour thee O that I were an oblation as spotlesse and as gratious in thy Fathers sight as thou thy selfe that all thy afflictions all thy torments might be mine Were my power correspondent to my will I would rescue thee from Legions of thy enemies But alas I am a weake woman and all my strength lyes in my tongue which will onely serve mee to deplore thy losse and that I truely doe from the very bottome of my heart Thus or to this purpose questionlesse she bewail'd him dying but when she once beheld him dead Love and Beauty being banisht that face and saw withall their malitious cruelty survive him when she view'd his very carkasse pierc't and water together with bloud flowing thence when she had leisure to imbrace his dead body to number his wounds to kisse them and to Essay with the holy water of her eyes to wash away his stripes she then was so wholly oppressed with anguish of soule that she ardently at that instant desired her soule if possibly might transmigrate out of her living body into his dead one True it is that many affirme she felt not those torments which other women endure in Child-birth who are liable to the malediction laid upon Eve But if at his comming into the world she was not sensible of any paine at all certainely at his going out the griefes of all women contracted into one equals not hers alone And assuredly her sorrow was much increased when she saw Mary Magdalen and the other women so vehemently to grieve whom his death not so nearly concern'd as it did her nor were they so able as she to judge of his value Then questionlesse in this or the like phrase she renewed and redoubled her complaints O my sweetest Sonne I bewaile mine owne and the wretched condition of all those whose soules thou hast feasted so many yeares with thy mellifluous Language My griefe is answerable to my affection If Samuel lamented the death of a reprobate King if David wept over wicked Absolon with this exclamation Absolon my Sonne O my Sonne Absolon can my teares be too prodigally powr'd upon thee who art Sonne to me and Righteousnesse it selfe Who shall forbid or hinder me for crying out Iesus my sweet Sonne O my sweet Sonne Iesus If thou didst weepe over Ierusalem as lamenting her destruction then at hand shall I not bewaile thy neere approaching end Thou didst then compassionate the future Ruine of those very stones which now with a silent gratitude seeme to condole and weepe for thee When thou cam'st to the Tombe of Lazarus thou wert so farre from reprehending the teares of others that thou wepst thy selfe for company Thy owne example then warrants the justnesse of my griefe for when thou wert living the small paine thou felt'st in the sleeping of thy
foot was and ought to be more to mee than the eternall sleepe of Lazarus could be to thee And as thy teares for him were tokens of thy humane nature not signes of thy diffidence in that thou knew'st he would forthwith arise so are mine for thee witnesses of my wretched estate not of my distrust who am assured of thy speedy resurrection Nor doe I onely grieve my owne griefe for as for mans sake I rejoyce in thy Fathers Grace who delivers thee to death and in thy Charity who dost suffer it So likewise in mans behalfe I am griev'd that he should be the cursed cause of those thy extreme torments for as not to joy in the benefits thy death hath brought with it would argue his ingratitude so not to condole for the tortures that attend it would demonstrate his cruelty And here I faithfully promise thee that both I while life and thy Church while the world doth last shall yearely spend this dolefull time of thy Tragicall expiration in Prayer fasting severity of discipline maceration of the flesh and contrition of the spirit as becomes thy mournefull Mother and thy gratefull Spouse to doe Thus condoling thus bemoaning hers and the generall losse she attended his herse to the Sepulchre provided by Ioseph where never man was laid before for it was not fit that Incorruptibility should succeed corruption in the same lodging This fragrant Flower was no sooner set in the ground but she sent many a deare drop after it to fasten it at the root for she knew within three dayes it should spring up againe not to grow in the earth but to be translated into Heaven there for ever to flourish and perfume the celestiall habitation Nor were her eyes saith Damascen closed with his Monument but watched themselves almost blinde with a greedy expectation to see the temple of his body built up againe which three dayes since was destroyed After many a longing looke she espied the Tombe to open and her onely joy to issue forth whom full well she knew by the countenance and figure of his Humanity but farre better by the cleere proofes of his Godhead for the Graves delivered up their dead many of which appear'd to their friends in the holy City Some and those of great authority in the Church affirme that after his Resurrection she of all others saw him first and wheras the Scripture seemeth to inferre that Mary Magdalen first beheld him they thus expound it That the Evangelists would not make his Mother the first witnesse of his Resurrection though indeed she was knowing that her testimony by the Iewes would be more suspected than that of Mary Magdalen I dare not positively conclude any thing herein but I may safely maintaine that this her delight for his Resurrection counterpois'd her griefe conceived for his death In her was now made good that of the Psalmist According to the multitude of the griefes of my heart thy Comforts have rejoyced my soule and that of her Sonne Blessed are they that mourne for they shall bee comforted And who makes question but that she who with such unutterable pleasure discover'd his Resurrection faithfully and closely waited on him till his Ascention She who was as inseparable to him as his shadow without doubt was on the Mount Olivet with other of the faithfull when in the sight of them all he ascended She heard doubtlesse his last words received his last benediction and her sight waited on him till the clowds imbrac't him which it in vaine essay'd to penetrate What Soule not in selfe transported with the view of a heavenly object can suppose much lesse expresse what her contentment was when she saw her owne flesh flye above the reach of Envie into the Armes of Glory When she beheld this high Priest his Sacrifice ended and God fully appeas'd enter Heaven there to sit on the right hand of his Father and to be the uncessant and eternall Mediatour betwixt him and man With bended knees erected hands and eyes she worships him ascending and when her sight failes her adoration continues Her zeale passeth all the orbes betweene him and her with greater facility and subtility then the Lightning shooteth through the Ayre Great is the vigour and force of the Spirit when all things else set apart it is wholly intentive on the Meditation of its Creatour When by contemplation it is separated from the body it thinkes onely on him lives onely to him and is as it were drown'd in an inundation of his love When it hath extinguisht the scorching lawlesse desires of the flesh and kindled the holy ones of the Spirit the body rebels no longer but becomes obedient to it in all things When it hath once fixed its eyes on this beloved object it never removeth them thence When it is once illuminated with the beames of the holy Ghost it is presently turn'd into all Eye all Spirit all Light no otherwise than those things the fire once layes hold on are turn'd into fire it selfe Of those who live in Wedlocke it is said that they are two in one flesh and why may it not be said of Christ and the Soule wedded to him that they are two in one Spirit And if ever it might be reported of any surely of this Holy Virgin who though she was devided from her Redeemer in Body yet in soule she was united to him When her eyes were growne dimme with her so long dwelling on that part of Heaven where they left and lost him she cast them downe on the earth the poverty whereof she commiserated in that it was deprived of this one Iewell in value above all it had left And now She returnes into the holy City not disconsolate and dejected as other women are when they lose their onely childe but with a cheerfull look for her Sons victory who had triumphed not onely over the Iew but death and hell it selfe She made her will lacky Gods and though she desired to be dissolved and be with Christ yet since it was his best pleasure she should continue longer here below she readily assented resolving by her example on earth to furnish heaven with Saints Dammianus sayes that after her Sonnes decease she remained ten daies in Prayer and Fasting expecting with a fervent longing the promised comming of the Spirit Saint Luke witnesseth that sixe score men and women were assembled in one rome and joyned in hearty prayer of the which Mary the Mother of IESUS was one And as he names her last so her wonted Humility perswades me that she had the last and lowest place and sate beneath the other sinfull women of inferiour quality in remembrance of her humble Lord now exalted And it is more than probable that she was present with the Apostles when the Holy Ghost came upon them and that she there received the first fruits of the Spirit After which time we reade no more of her in holy Writ For where and with whom how