which bleyes not when his throate is cut so went he in sufferance and silence as he was carryed to death and as an innocent and still lambe which is silēt quiet whilest they sheere him so our most blessed Lord did in quiet silence and repose endure that fierce outrage wherewith his enemies tormented him and that most cruell fury wherewith they put him to death By these and other testimonies did Christ our Lord declare the immense loue and most ardent desire which he had to suffer the torments and death which he endured for man yea yet to endure greater torments to suffer more deathes if his enemies had power to giue him more wheereupon wee may inferre the vnspeakeable Patience and ioy wherewith he suffered them Wee must ponder and continually meditate with a very profound and deep consideration vpon these examples of Patience which shine in the life and Passion of Christ our Lord and thereby we must be animated to suffer endure with true Patience all those euills of punishment which may happē to vs in this life how great or tedious soeuer they may be For therefore saith Saint Efrem the afflictions and tribulations of this life seem grieuous and intolerable to vs because wee consider not the Passion and death of Christ our Lord. Let vs therefore allwaies carry before our eyes imprint in our hearts this death and Passion of his and all those examples which he gaue vs therin of Patience and let vs imitate him by suffering all the contradictions and penalties of this life with a good will And since it becomes a soldier to follow his captaine with much labour and with offering himselfe to troubles and wounds and dangers of death though he be but a mortall man who cannot giue him strength wherewith to fight nor can raise him from death if he should by in the combat nor can giue him who conquers any other reward then some tēporall thing of small value how much more is it reasonable that wee follow and imitate Christ our Lord Sauiour by suffering with Patience Since he giues strength to them who follow him wherewith to suffer and cōforts wherewith to do it cheerfully and deliuers them who imitate him from eternall death and and bestowes the most excellent reward vpō them of eternall life For as the Apostle saith it is a word most faithfull true worthy of all estimation that if wee dy with Christ our Lord that is to say if wee dy to our sinnes and ill desires abhorring and mortifying them as Christ our Lord died to his corporall life we shall lead a most glorious and blessed life together with him And if we suffer the sad and painfull things of this world and euen death it selfe with Patience for the loue of Christ our Lord and in imitation of him wee shall reigne with him for euer in his celestiall Kingdome THE VI. CHAPTER Of the Patience wherewith wee ought to suffer the losse of temporall goods and of the example which Christ our Lord gaue vs herein THough any one of the paines torments which were suffered by Christ our Lord may serue for a sufficient motiue to animate vs to endure all the afflictions and tribulations of this life with Patience yet that kind of paine endured by him which carries most resēblāce to the Crosse which most vsually is to be suffered by vs doth vse to comfort induce vs best to suffer it and for this reason wee will treat of some particular Crosses for which we may finde particular examples of Patience in the Passion of Christ our Lord. One of the ills of punishment which happens ordinarily to men is the losse of their estate temporall goods which befalles them sometimes because they are robbed sometimes they loose them by meanes of fier and shipwrackes sometimes by vniust suites in lawe sometimes they are coosened of them sometimes they are put to preiudice by the intemperate seasons of the yeare By what way or meanes soeuer we growe to loose our temporall goods wee must eudure it with Patience accepting it at the hand of God and conforming our selues to his holy will The particular example which must comfort vs in this afflictiō and giue vs heart to beare it with Patience is to see that Christ our Lord was vniustly stript of all his cloathes in his most sacred Passiō by those most base soldiers who crucified him He liued poore in this world and because he loued and extreamely delighted in pouerty he possessed no temporall goods at all Those things which he receiued by way of almes to sustaine his Apostles to deuide amongst the poore he had already bestowed There remained no more to him but his cloathes and of those they stript him and left him naked that nakednes was accōpanyed with great cold and great shame which he suffered by remayning in that sorte till he dyed From others who are executed mē take not their cloathes till they be dead but from our most blessed Lord they tooke his whilest yet he was aliue and he was pleased to ēdure this being dispoiled of his cloathes and this paine and shame in remaining naked that he might suffer for vs and withall might giue vs an example of Patience Let vs therefore animate our selues by this example of Christ our Lord to suffer any want or losse of temporall goods and let vs say thus in our owne hearts Since Christ the Kinge of glory and the vniuersall Lord of the whole world would needes for loue of me and for my saluation endure pouerty and the want of temporall goods was content that they should strip him of all his cloathes and expose him naked to the ayre and put him to the shame of appearing so to the whole people most iust it is that I for loue of him and for the saluatiō of mine owne soule should endure this want of meanes and this losse or wrong whereby I am depriued of the temporall goods which once I had And let vs consider for the better exercise of our Patience that whatsoeuer preiudice or temporall losse wee haue doth come to vs from the hand of God and for the good of our soules This did Christ our Lord discouer to vs by another example and testimony of the holy Ghospell Matt. 8. Luc. 5. Mar. 8. He went into the country of the Gerasens where he found two men tormented with diuells He cast the diuells out and so cured the men by the power of his word The diuells besought him that since he had cast thē out of those men he would giue them leaue to enter into a great heard of swine which was feeding in those fields hard by and which belonged to the inhabitāts of that Citty Our Lord gaue them leaue to doe it and instantly they possessed those swine which might arriue to the number of two thousand they carried them with extreame fury into the sea where they were drowned Hereby wee are
in him deuotion wherewith to confesse praise follow him Vpon which wee may inferre that they were already good men and in the fauour of God and so this is prooued to be that effect of sicknesse which wee are now declaringe Namely that it disposes such as are good to receiue new giftes from God and to better them and perfect them by their growing in vertue and by making thē increase in merits both of grace and glory The blessed Euagrius Bishop of Antioch and disciple of Saint Macharius relates that going one day in company of other seruants of God to visit that most holy man Iohn a Moncke of Aegypt and a great Prophet and much reuerenced by the Emperour Theodosius as being one of the greatest Saints of that time one of those cōsorts of his fell sicke of a violent burning feauer and besought the Saint to cure him But the Saint made him answere in these words Thou desirest to driue that from thee which it imports thee for the good of thy soule to keepe For know that as bodies are washed and clensed with salt-peter and other thinges of that nature and doe so become more beautifull and more pleasing to the eye so are soules more clensed by corporall sicknesse made more beautifull and acceptable to the eyes of God Thus said this Saint And this is the effect which is produced by sicknesse in good men Namely that the soule growes thereby in purity and grace and in all those vertues whereby they are to please and serue God And let vs now cast our eyes vpō some other examples which may declare to vs how sicknesse makes men become instruments of the glory of God that so his power and goodnes may shine more in them When Christ our Lord was curing the mā who was borne blind his disciples asked him 10.9 what sinne it was which had caused blindnes in that man whether it were of him or of his parents Christ our Lord made them this answere That it was neither for his nor his parēts sinne but to the end that the workes of God might be manifested in him His meaning was that neither the actuall sinne of him nor of his parents was the cause of his being borne blinde nor was that blindnes imposed on him in punishment of any sinne which either his parents or himselfe had committed but he was borne blinde by the good will of God to the end that by giuing him sight the world might growe to see those workes which were proper to the diuinity namely the working of Miracles by his proper vertue which might testify and declare that he who wrought them was true God By these wordes did Christ our Lord discouer his vnspeakeable goodnes and liberality and most sweet prouidence which sometimes permittes small inconueniences to arriue to the body thereby to bestow great benedictions vpon the soule and to honour his seruants after an extraordinary manner making thē admirable instruments of his glory as he proceeded with this blinde man whō he made blinde to the end that deliuering him by this miracle it might grow publike that himselfe was the true God and Sauiour of the world and that as such he might be beleeued and obeyed and glorified both by that blinde mā who receiued the benefit and by all those others also who would profit by the notice thereof And so by imparting a great blessing to the soule of that blinde man by the light of faith grace which he gaue he declared the glory of his diuinity Let vs produce another example of the same nature When Lazarus was fallen sicke his sisters sent a messenger to our Lord 10.11 who said looke heer O Lord for he whom thou louest is sicke Now in that Lazarus was sicke being so good a man and so much beloued by Christ our Lord wee are taught that sicknesse is a great gift which God not onely bestowes vpon sinners for their cōuersion but also vpon iust and holy men for the bettering of their soules and for their encrease in grace and merit and therefore when God sends sicknesse it should be receiued with a right good will Saint Augustine saith he who loues God loues that which God loues and therefore it is that he loues corporall sicknesse which is the worke and gift of God O how full it is of all reason that a man who is the seruant of God should receiue that sicknesse which God sends him with a great good will and a cheerfull heart If a man being sicke God should giue him health he would receiue it very readily and with much ioy and thanksgiuing and yet certainly ought he to receiue that sicknesse wherewith God visits him with greater affection and thankesgiuing as being a most profitable gift of God This is deliuered by Saint Augustine And although it be true that for the point of not sinning through impatience it suffices to endure and beare the infirmity without desiring to be quit of it by vnlawfull meanes as wee declared before yet to gaine and merit much more therby and to obtaine greater giftes and graces from God a man as Saint Augustine faith must receiue it with much contentment and with a very affectuous manner of thankesgiuing And it is fit that wee proceed after this manner in regard that sicknesse is of much greater profit to many seruants of God then health would be and it is a great gift of God towards all giues them meanes of much spirituall good and for this reason doth God giue it to whom he loues as he did to Lazarus whom he loued much Our Lord hauing receiued this message from the two fisters said to them who brought it This sicknesse is not to death but for the glory of God and to the end that the sonne of God may be glorified by occasiō therof His meaning was that that infirmity was not to end in death because though the man were to dy yet he was not to continue dead but shortly to returne to this present life and so it was not ordained for his death but for the glory of God And the particular glory of God to which it was ordained was that the son of God might be glorified by occasiō of that sicknesse death which followed thereupon he giuing life to the dead man perfect health to him who at that time was sicke so he was knowē by meanes of that worke with faith and obediēce to be the true God and Sauiour of the world By these examples did Christ our Lord discouer to vs how the sicknesse of his seruants might turne to his glory which happens sometimes by his freeing them from their infirmities and from the dangers paines therof of by such particular and extraordinary meanes of his diuine prouidence as greatly serue to manifest the loue and care which he hath of them and inuite all such as knowe thereof to praise and loue confide in his goodnes more and more At other times
Luc. 21. of the paine and persecutions and torments and death which them selues were to suffer in their owne persons for preaching that Ghospell which they were to carry throughout the world For thus he said You shall be persecuted and vexed and brought before Iudges who in respect of mee will torment and sake your liues frō you Hauing prepared them with the notice of these miseries which were to grow vpon them he made them knowe that Patience was the remedy which they must procure to the end that by those crosses they might receiue no hurt but rather incōparable benefit And he said thus to them One haire of your heads shal not perish and in Patience you shall possesse your soules Which was as if he had said Although you may haue many enemies and powerfull opposits yet shall you be so assisted defended by Almighty God who takes most particular care of you that you shall not receiue the least hurt thereby and by the Patience which you shall haue in your tribulations wherby in expectation of celestiall benedictions you shall remaine firme and constant in my seruice to the very end you shall conserue and securely possesse the safty and spirituall life of your soules till you carry thē to the glory of heauen This is the first remedy which must be vsed for suffering the miseries of this life with Patience namly that euery mā in his owne heart reuolue and consider with attention what miseries and aduersities may happen to him in this life whether they be sicknes pouerty iniuries offered by men temptations of diuells or else troubles and difficulties in any bodies particular office or state And let him perswade himselfe that if they come vpon him they shal come ordained by Almighty God and for the good of his soule yea and that it is greatly fit for his saluation that they come vpon him For they are meanes where by Almighty God doth addresse and order his predestination And let him accept of them from that instant for that very time when they may chance to come and let him dispose him selfe with courage to receiue them willingly and with thankesgiuing when they shall be sent For a man being thus prouided and prepared will receiue and suffer them with more Patience and aduantage of his soule So saith Saint Chrysostome The aduersity which comes vpō men suddenly and vnexpected is wont to be very grieuous and much felt but that which is considered before it comes and for which wee are ready and prepared is more easily endured when it arriues Another meanes for suffering tribulatiō with Patiēce is seriously to consider and ponder the most happy successe which they haue and the conclusion which they make when they carry themselues well therein to the glory of God their owne greatest good Christ our Lord gaue this remedy to his disciples for when he tould them things which troubled thē he instantly also told them of that comfort and glory which was to follow vpon that paine When he tould them sometimes that the sonne of man was to suffer Matt. 16. and 20. and be crucified in Hierusalem he instantly also added that most glorious end of his Passion and death by saying And the third day he shall rise againe And when he said thus in the garden Mat. 26. you all shall suffer scandall this night vpon my occasion he added immediatly after But when I shall be risen from the dead I will goe to Galile before you As if he should haue said neither will I remaine in death nor shall you perish in that scandall for I will rise from the dead you being free from all danger shall follow mee And Matt. 13. Luc 21. hauing annoūced the extreme persecutiōs tribulations which they were to suffer for preaching the Ghospel he tels them withall of the admirable fruite which was to grow to them thereby namely the very preaching it selfe of the Ghospell ouer the whole earth and that it should be beleeued and receiued by all the nations of the world It would seem that from such impediments of persecution and death of the preachers themselues it might follow that they should not be able to preach the Ghospell nor perswade any body to imbrace it and yet wee see he saith that so great fruit would follow that it should be preached and receiued ouer the whole world and that all nations were to be saued by their faith in it their obedience to it This is that which wee are to consider and ponder in our tribulation namely the admirable fruite and glorious end to which we arriue thereby and in contemplation hereof wee must animate our selues to suffer not only with Patience but euē with ioy So saith the blessed Saint Marke the Ermite When you shall be vexed and shall haue receiued some temporall losse or some affront and dishonour doe not looke onely vpon the present ill but cast also your eye vpon those diuine fauours of grace and glory which hereafter you are to receiue for that ill you will certainly finde that you shall gather abundant fruit from tribulation and that he who persecutes you will proue the Author of great benedictions to you both in this life the next This also is aduised by Ecclesiasticus c. u. saying In the daies of thy prosperity remēber thy misery and in those of thy misery call thy prosperity to minde for an easy thing it is for God to giue euery one his paiment reward according to his workes in the houre of his death His meaning is this as Saint Gregory declares In the time when thou hast either temporall or spiritual prosperity remember the afflictions which may happē to thee either in body or soule that so thy prosperity may not make thee proud but that thou mayest be conserued in humility And so also in the time of thy aduersity whether it be spirituall or temporall remember the blessings of grace and diuine consolations which thou hast enioyed at other times and those also which afterward thou maiest receiue that so thou be not dismaied nor ouercome with sorrow but maiest suffer all kinde of affliction with Patience and courage By this consideration doth S. Paule animate vs to endure all the tribulations and aduersities of this life with contentment and strength of minde saying thus 1. Cor. 4. All the trouble and tribulation of this life how long soeuer it may be accounted to last doth yet passe away euē in a moment and is but light how heauy soeuer it may seem and as a meritorious cause which is grounded and rises from the grace of Christ our Lord it workes in vs an inestimable and most sublime waight of glory beyond all that which can be expressed or euen conceiued and which is not to be temporall but eternall THE XV. CHAPTER Of other meanes whereby wee are to obtaine and conserue the vertue of Patience namely to consider our sinnes and to resort to Almighty God for the
but he conserued them in being and life and he gaue them holy inspirations and all the actiōs which he performed and all the wordes which he vttered were ordayned to make them doe penance that they might not be lost and damned but become saued soules in heauen At that time did he endure the society and the sinnes of that miserable Iudas with vnspeakable Patience Our Lord perceiued well the malice and ingratitude of his hart the thefts which he committed vpon the almes which was deliuered to his care that trechery wherwith he knew he would sell him ouer to his enemies and yet did he not cast him out of his company nor did he depriue him of the dignity and authority of his Apostolate wherof he had made himselfe so vnworthy nor spake he any word of affront to him nor shewed him any offended or vntoward countenance but he affoarded him al those common benefits and fauours which be imparted to the rest of his Apostles By these examples of Patience which our Lord gaue vs in the time of his life and course of his preaching he taught and perswaded vs to haue Patience whereby wee are to suffer all the crosses and contradictions of this life and all the persecutiōs oppressions and iniuries of mē not giuing place nor so much as entry into our harts to ill will or hatred against any man nor for complaints or murmuring either against God or mā nor yet to any inordinate grief but suffering them with a moderate firme cōstant minde which swarues not from the rectitude and rule of vertue and is desirous that in all thinges the will of God may be fulfilled So saith Saint Cyprian most excellently describing the example of the Patience of Christ our Lord by these wordes What glory is so great as that a man may become like God in the exercise of Patience enduring the inconueniences of this life and the iniuries of men as God doth long endure the offences which sinners commit against him Which Patience Iesus-Christ our Lord did teach vs as he was man not onely by word but by deed also For he said he came into the world to worke the will of his father And amongst those other admirable vertues whereby he discouered to vs the power of his diuinity one was the Patience whereby he imitated his eternall Father and so all those thinges which he did from the time when he was borne with mortall flesh into this world did carry the seale and stampe of Patience vpon them For he tooke on him as hath been said the waight of all the sinnes of men that he might pay by suffering for them He was tempted by the enemy and yet he did him noe hurt for it but was onely content to ouercome him He endured the horrible wickednes of Iudas with a Patience so large as lasted till the end of his life He endured the Iewes who were incredulous vngratefull proud rebellious and contrary both to his doctrine and to his example And he indured them in such sorte as to heape benefits vpon them and to treate them with meekenes and to receiue such of them to his fauour and friendship as would be conuerted to him What greater Patience and what greater clemency can be conceiued then by meanes of shedding his blood to purchase and to impart a life of grace and glory to them who through hatred and by most wicked meanes tooke a course to spill that very blood And since wee are the members and disciples of Christ our Lord who is the way of saluation and life it selfe it will become vs to follow his example These ar the wordes of Saint Cyprian THE III. CHAPTER How Christ our Lord endured the company of the wicked and of the example of Patience which he gaue vs thereby ONe of the thinges which good men finde most difficulty to endure in this life is the society and conuersation of wicked men whilest they continue in their wickednes For in regard that they abhorre sinne so much and haue such feeling of the offences which are committed against God and of the losse and damnation of soules for them to see those offences before their eyes and to obserue their neighbours to lie vnder the wrath of God condemned and lost according to the state of present iustice yet not feeling their own misery by reason of the great blindenes and obstinacy wherein they are and to see withall that they can prouide no remedy for this so great mischiefe nor giue any impediment to these offences against God and to this losse of soules they receiue I say herby intollerable paine and carry their hearts euen trāspersed from side to side with the sword of sorrow and haue extreame desires to depart out of the society conuersation of such sinners and to be still remayning farr from thē And in regard this misery happens sometimes to good men because sometimes the wicked are such persons as whose company they cannot leaue because they are either sonnes or parents or brothers or husband or wife or their gouernours or seruaunts of the same Lord or subiects of the same Prelate their paine grief doth extreamly increase vpō this occasion Now how vehemēt this torment is for good men to endure and how great desire they haue for as much as may concerne themselues to depart out of their company Christ our Lord himself did ōce declare in waightie wordes Matt. 17. Marc 9. When he descēded from the Moūt Thabor he came to those troopes of people which were expecting him and he found his disciples much afflicted and confounded in that men had brought one to them who was both a possessed a lunaticke person whom they were not able to cure And by occasion thereof the Scribes and Pharisees who were present reproached them as wanting vertue from heauen to send deuills out and they affirmed that their Master did it in the power of Belzebub Saint Marke signifies thus much by saying that Christ our Lord foūd the Scribes in debate and argument with his disciples And then our Lord said to them O you incredulous and rebellious generation how long shall I remaine conuerse amongst you how long shall I expect you and endure your obstinacy malice By these wordes did Christ our Lord declare the trouble which the wickednes and conuersation with vitious persons who would not be conuerted and hindered the conuersion of others did put him to and that he felt that paine more then death it selfe So saith Saint Chrisostome Our Lord signified by this that he euen desired death and that his Passion was not to be troublesom or grieuous to him but that the thing whereof he was most sensible and which afflicted him most was to conuerse with rebellious sinners who made resistance to the truth and vpon whom he sawe that the fruite both of his life and death would be lost Now as this was an immense torment to Christ our Lord so is it very
taught that the diuells could do no hurt to the swine vnles our Lord had giuen them leaue as neither the diuell nor any other creature can doe vs any hurt at all vnlesse God giue thē power to that purpose and vnlesse he worke by meanes of the diuel or that other creature which doth vs hurt whatsoeuer it be For though God be not the cause of any fault or sinne yet is he the cause of the punishment which is brought on by reason of the sinne or fault is receiued by meanes thereof So saith Saint Athanasius Since the diuels haue not so much as power ouer swine which are but the goods of men it is cleer that they haue no power ouer men who are made according to the image of God and so wee haue no cause to feare the diuells but onely God And the same did he declare concerning the hurt which might growe to vs from any other creature that it also proceeds from the hand of God saying Matt. 10. Two sparrowes are of so little value that they are sold for a toy and yet God hath so particular care and prouidence ouer euery one of them that not one can fall dead to the ground or be taken in a snare without his disposition will And thē how much more will he take care of men and not consent that any creature should so much as touch them either in soule or body or so much as in their goods without his leaue In this māner did Christ our Lord declare that all ills of punishment proceed to vs from the hād of God He also shewed how he ordaines them all to the good of soules that is to the end that sinners may be cōuerted and iust persons saued because he desires not the death of a sinner but that he may be conuerted and liue particularly he procures this when he takes their goods from them as Saint Augustine notes saying thus When God visits his seruants with the want of thinges necessary for this life and makes them suffer hunger or thirst as he proceeded with the Apostles he failes not thereby of the promise which he made them that nothing should be wanting to them For these temporall goods are helpes and kinds of Physicke to the soule and God is the Physitian who best knowes when to minister them and when to remoue them and so when they are wanting to vs as they are many times wee must knowe that God Almighty is the cause thereof for the exercise of our vertue and for the good of our soules And speaking in particular of that which Christ our Lord did with the Gerasins in depriuing them of their goods when he gaue the diuells leaue to drowne their swine Saint Ierome saith Christ our Lord gaue thē not that liberty by way of granting their desire or to performe their will but to the end that the losse of their goods might be profitable to the owners for their soules be an occasion of their saluation And the spirituall profit which came to them hereupon as Saint Chrisostome obserues was that they might knowe the power which diuells had to doe men hurt if God did not hinder them and so they might be thankefull to him for defending them by his diuine prouidēce as also to the end that they might feare and fly from sinne by meanes whereof men grewe subiect to the power of diuells to be vexed by them in this life with temporall paines and in the next with eternall torments These are the motiues reasons which a faithfull Christian must consider to the end that he may beare the losse of temporall goods with Patience namely the exāple of Christ our Lord that it comes from the hand of God and for the good of his soule And thus the losse of temporal goods will be of greater profit to him then the encrease thereof would haue bene For that little temporall losse will be the occasion of a great spirituall gaine The Saints of God haue confessed experimented this truth Whilest the blessed Laurentius Iustinianus he who afterward was Patriarch of Venice was one day out of his Monastery the house fell on fier and that parte thereof was burnt where he kept the prouisions of food which he had laid vp for the whole yeare When the Saint came home from abroad the Religious men tould him what had past and they were afflicted by occasion of so great a losse But the Saint cōsidering how it came ordained by the prouidence of God who so deerly loues vs and who in all thinges procures the good of soules and especially of such as serue him receiued this losse with much contentment though not for the losse it selfe but because the will and ordination of Almighty God was accomplished thereby And so with a cheerfull contenance he said to his Religious What hurt is there my children in this which hath happened to vs It is no ill but good it is no losse but gaine since by meanes thereof wee shall better execute our good desires in practising pouerty and Patience It is a great benefit to the seruant of God and of much merit and value when he may distribute his goods to the poore and imploy them vpon the workes of mercy but if he chāce to loose his goods if they be stolne from him if gotten away by iniustice or lost by any other accident and if he accept of that losse with much Patience and with much contentment for the loue of God and to conforme himself with his diuine will who so ordained he ordinarily doth aduantage his soule more and it doth merit more and please God more by this course then by the other For this Act of the vertue of Patience resignation is more pure free frō selfe loue thereby a man doth more deny and mortify his owne will doth more exercise Faith and hope in God as also the loue of his and the estimation of his holy will And so wee see that our Lord hath takē away these goods by some sinister accident from many Saints which they would haue giuen away in almes to affoard them meanes of greater merit thereby and for the exercise of that rare Patience wherwith they accepted and loued their aduersity and had gust therein as proceeding from the will of God Saint Iohn the Patriarch of Alexandria a man of rare mercy towards miserable men and euen a very miracle of mercy sent from Alexandria to the Adriaticke sea thirteene ships full loaden with marchandise and thinges of value which he had raised out of the Reuenues of his Church that so they might be sold in diuers parts remote and the whole price be giuen by him to poore people in the way of almes as his custom was Now it pleased Almighty God that vpon the rising of a great tempest at Sea al the goods were cast away and the shippes returned empty to Alexādria And God did thus ordaine because he more esteemed the
from sinne An admirable mercy of God i◠this and a most singular testimony of his loue and of the most ardent desire which he hath of our saluation For man being forgetfull of himselfe and carelesse of his saluation and in stead of vertue louing vice not walking on towards heauen but towards hell Almighty God is pleased to visit him with sicknesse and tribulation against his will whereby he makes him enter into himselfe and to abhorre the sinne which he loued before and to forsake the way of hell wherin he was going and to pursue the way of heauen which he had left and to fly from many sinnes into which formerly he had fallen This is that mercy of God which Saint Isidorus ponders saying Almighty God seeing that many men will not reforme themselues vpon the motion and at the instance of their owne will sends them aduersities that being troubled afflicted they may be amended and so growe to loue those things which formerly they loued not And finding that some are so inclined and prompt to sinne he scourges them with infirmities of the body to the end that they may giue it ouer and he leaues them sicke because it is better for them to be broken by sicknesse and paine and so to obtaine the eternall saluation of their soules then to liue full of health and full of sinne and so to walke on towards hell This is the saying of Saint Isidorus And because sicknesse doth not produce so excellent and diuine effects in all Christians to take away their former sinnes and to hinder such as are future but onely in some who when they are sicke doe enter seriously into their owne hearts and haue contrition for their sinnes and change their liues it is therefore necessary for all men vpon obseruing that they are sicke to opē the eyes of their soule to examine their consciences well and to consider seriously of all those thinges which may giue impediment to their saluation and confessing their sinnes with sorrow giue a faithfull account of all to their ghostly Father instantly put all things in order with great diligence which concerne the amendment and reformation of their liues least otherwise that sicknesse which God did send a man with loue and mercy and to the end he might be clensed from sinne and so be saued doe not growe to serue but as a preface and beginning of those endles torments which are to be suffeby him in the next life as it will be to all them who will not profit by the sicknesses which God sends So saith the same Saint The scourge of aduersity and tribulation doth then clense the soule from sinne when the man changes his manner of life for vnles he change his life his sinnes remaine where they were So that vpon the whole matter euery scourge aduersity which God sends a man in this life is either to be as a spirituall Purgatory for his sinnes committed and of the penalty to which he is subiect for the same or els it will serue for a beginning of that other paine which he is to suffer afterward For certainly the paines and torments which are eternally to be suffred by some in the life to come are begun to be suffered some of them euen in this life The truth which this holy Doctor hath drawē out of holy scripture carries great force with it and the Holy Ghost therein doth teach vs and confirme by the example of many sinners that God did scourge them with great infirmities and because they profited not thereby they passed on from temporall paine and death to eternall And this ought to moue vs much to receiue any sicknesse as a most pretious gift of God and to giue him great thankes for it and to profit by it making a change of our life to the better to the end that being cleer both of guilt and paine we may make a short and certaine entry into eternall life And so that may be fulfilled in vs which Ecclesiasticus chap. 3 saith A great infirmity of the body makes a mās minde sober that is it cleers it from sinne and doth moderate and iustify it in all thinges THE VIII CHAPTER Of other great benefits which are drawen from corporall infirmities when they are borne with Patience BEsides this so excellent effect of clensing and freeing the soule from sinne infirmity of the body vses to produce diuers others which are very high of incomparable benefit Which dispose the soule to the end that it may receiue giftes from God that it may better and perfect it selfe more in vertue and increase in merit and that it may praise and glorify almighty God more and that a man may so become a particular instrumēt of the glory of God which shines in him either by his freeing him from that sicknesse with particular prouidence and loue or by giuing him admirable vertue and strength wherby to endure it with so great Patience that it may be seen how it is God who helpes him to endure so much and with so good a will in contemplation of eternall life Those blinde men to whom Christ our Lord gaue their sight at his entry and issue out of the Citty of lericho Luc. 18 Mat. 20. had neither seen his miracles nor heard his doctrine but had onely met with the fame of the wonderfull thinges which he did and of the mercy which he vsed towards all and thereby they grew to beleeue in him with so great faith and deuotion that before all those troopes which followed him they did with great cries confesse him to be the true Messias and the Sauiour of the world saying Iesus thou sonne of Dauid haue mercy on vs. And after when they receiued their sight they followed our Lord praising and glorifying God Many of the children of Israell and of the wise and prudent men of the people had heard the doctrine of Christ our Lord and seen his miracles with their owne eyes yet they had not embraced his faith nor had they bene moued by his works to glorify Almighty God whilest yet these blinde men by the onely fame of the workes of Christ our Lord which had come to their eares receiued his faith and glorified and confessed our Lord. And the cause thereof was in regard that the blindenes and pouerty of these men made them more capable and better disposed to consent to those diuine inspirations wherewith Christ our Lord toucht their hearts and called them to receiue the light of faith which Christ our Lord offered thē as also to the end that the fier of diuine loue might more easily inflame their soules with true deuotion and moue them to glorify the diuine Maiesty The Ghospell expresses not that Christ our Lord did pardon their sinnes or that he bad them sinne no more as he had done to other sicke persons but that he gaue them light both in body and soule to the end that they might see and beleeue
that chief fruite of his most sacred Passion which are those spiritual and celestiall blessings through which we possesse God heer by grace afterward by eternall glory And therfore doth God giue vs afflictions and paines in this life not because our affliction or paine is pleasing to him but for that incomparable benefit which he knowes that wee ar to obtaine by meanes herof and which he ordained from all eternity to bestowe vpon vs in reward of that Patience wherwith wee beare it This is said by Rusbrochius And now by this consideration must wee faithfull Christians be greatly moued and encouraged to suffer corporall sicknesse and all other euills of punishment with great contentment For if the diuell as Saint Iohn Chrysostome saith when he propoundes to the heart of man some temporary and euen momentary delight the fruite and punishment whereof are most grieuous and eternall torments doth induce and ouercome him so farre as to winne him to expose himselfe to so great a misery for so flēder a delight how much more is it reason that wee who are the faithfull seruants of Iesus Christ when he proposes to our hearts those immense and eternall ioyes of heauen be moued and perswaded to receiue a sicknes or some other light and short trouble and to endure it with Patience which bringes forth such fruite and reward after it as is eternall life and an euerlasting kingdom of glory and aboue all which produces the fruite of pleasing and glorifying Almighty God which is incomparably the greatest reward and fruite which can be conceiued THE IX CHAPTER Wherein it is confirmed by the example of Saints how great the fruite of sicknes and other tribulation is and how this is an effect of Gods mercy which he she was towards his friends BEcause it is of so great importance to haue an vnderstanding feeling of this truth namely that it is a worke of vnspeakable loue in God to send vs sicknesses and other afflictions which he expresses toward his greatest friends and he prooues and perfects them thereby and makes thē worthy of most beautifull and most pretious crownes of glory wee will confirme it by the example of some very emiment Saints Timothy that holy Bishop and the disciple of Saint Paule was sicke of a paine in his stomacke 1. Tim. 5. which is a grieuous and irkesome disease and had also many other infirmities And Saint Paule louing him much and very tenderly and well knowing the great need he had of health that so he might with gust vndergoe all those difficulties which the office of a Bishop exacted at his hands did not yet take away this sicknes nor desire of Almighty God that it be taken away He cured other sicke persons Act. 9. and that with so great facility that it cost him no more thē to put of his girdle or to take out some handkercher which had wiped of his sweat then to giue it that it might be laid vpon those sicke persons and instātly the men were cured And he obtained so very easily that which he vsed to aske of God as that begging once the liues of two hundred seauēty and six persons who were going with him to Rome and were in danger of perishing by the way God did grāt the suite and freed them from death at his request and yet to this disciple of his whō he loued so much he neither gaue health by miracle nor did he beg the cure of God but permitted him to continue sicke as he was And for some ease in those infirmities which he had he gaue noe other thē that ordinary remedy which any vulgar friend would haue prescribed saying doe not still drinke water alone but take a little wine for that paine of stomacke which you endure and for the many other infirmities which you suffer But why then did not Saint Paule free his disciple Timothy from these sicknesses Because he knew that they were great testimonies of the loue which God bore him and that they were profitable to his soule by occasioning him to growe in Patience and humility and fauour in the sight of God Saint Gregory Nazianzen had many and grieuous sicknesses in his age they were both greater grew in effect to be continuall Amongst the rest he had the goute which tormented him much and so as that he could not stirre but carryed And thus howsoeuer he were of strong constitutiō his many acts of penāce and continuall infirmities consumed him at last and he came to dy at the age of 65. yeares as Caesar Baronius collects by the writings of the Saint Notwithstanding that he was still so sicke he yet laboured much and by those labours he greatly benefited the Church and by his infirmities he greatly benefited himselfe for he carryed them with Patience had much comfort therein Saint Basil was tormented with most grieuous sicknesses and sometimes they brought him to the very dores of death Yea they were so continuall that the paine he suffered whē he was best in health might passe for grieuous sicknesse in another Himselfe in his Epistles speaks therof and in one of them he saith I haue had many sicknesses and one of then hath succeeded another and now I am also sicke and there is scarce an houre of my life wherein I expect not my death And in another letter of his he saith If when I am best according to the apparance I haue of health they account mee amongst them who are giuen ouer from thence it may be vnderstood what kinde of thing I am when I am fallen into an expresse disease And it was matter of great admiratiō that vnder the waight of so many so great sicknesses he could labour so hard by writing disputing preaching gouerning and going as it were in pilgrimage to preach the Ghospell in diuers parts of the world that being so wasted with such paines of body and distempers of blood he should not slack one whit in the care and solicitude which he carryed in effect to all the Churches of the East which were mightly persecuted by heretikes And by meanes of these infirmities that most holy Doctor did mightily augment the merits of his most pure life Saint Gregory the Pope was exercised by Almighty God with extraordinary infirmities and most sharpe paines which continued a long time with him He had certaine seasons of the goute so long and tedious and which gaue him so excessiue paine that in one pang thereof it continued with him no lesse thē two yeares He saith thus in one of his Epistles I haue such torment by the goute that my life is grieuous to mee I daily faint vnder my paine and I expect the remedy of death He had also in his body an interiour ardour of heate which did as it were euen broyle and dry vp his very bowells And in all these infirmities and torments his heart was in such conformity to the wil of God he so greatly did desire
remedy thereof ANother meanes which wee must vse for the conseruing of Patience in aduersity is to consider the many sinnes which wee haue committed in this life and how iustly we deserue the aduersity which we suffer for the same and indeed all these which may possibly come vpon vs in this world and to moue our selues to compunction for the same and euen to a desire that wee may be punished for them by Almighty God with mercy in this life Christ our Lord himselfe admonished vs of this meanes in the holy Ghospel There fell a Tower neer the Poole of Siloe by the Citty of Ierusalem which killed eighteene persons Luc. 13. and againe after this some of the Galileans being in oblation of the Sacrifice of certaine beasts Pilate sent out a squadrō of soldiers who killed them and so mingled their blood with the blood of the beasts which they had sacrificed Now when they related this accident to Christ our Lord he said thus to them Doe not conceiue that those Galileans were the greatest sinners of all the Galileans in regard that this aduersity of suddene death came thus vpō them for it is not so but I say to you that if you doe not penance you all shall perish And so also doe not thinke that those eighteene men vpon whom the tower of Siloe fell were the wickedst men who d'welt in Ierusalem for it is not so but I declare to you that if you doe not penance you all shall perish By these diuine speeches Christ our Lord taught vs two thinges The one that those sad accidēts and deaths which men call disastrous doe many time come in the way of punishment for sinne but yet that God doth not alwaies punish sinners in this life with such calamities as these but he doth often either reserue thē for their punishment in the other world or els expect that they should voluntarily doe penance and so inflict some punishment vpon themselues in this life And secondly he lets vs knowe that when such afflictions and tribulations happen to others we must be sure to enter into our owne soules and to consider the sinnes which wee haue committed and how iustly wee merit all kinde of punishment for them we must conceiue in our hearts a great repentance and grief for hauing committed them in penance and satisfaction for the same we must punish and mortify our bodies with penall workes and be willing to accept whatsoeuer troubles or tribulations it may please God to send vs. A most certaine truth it is that God sends aduersity to his true and faithfull seruants who yet haue sinned in this life to the end that suffering them with Patience they may discharge and satisfy for those sinnes which they haue committed As that holy Virgin Sara confessed saying Iob. 3. Blessed be thou ô God of our fathers for that when thou art offended with vs and doest send vs troubles and afflictions it is then that thou shewest great mercy towards vs For in the time of tribulation wherby thou punishest thou pardonest the sinnes of them who inuoke thy name with a true heart Thus doth God proceed with mā by meanes of tribulation Some who are in sinne he induces by this meanes to do penance wherby they grow to be free from the offences into which they had fallen and such as are in the state of grace he occasions to exercise Patience whereby he deliuers them from those penalties which they had incurred for their former sinnes And so great care hath God to shew this mercy to this elect that he permits other men either through ignorance or malice to afflict and trouble them and by occasion and vnder the title of faults which they haue not cōmitted in the sight of God Iust as the brethren of Ioseph Exod. 1. who finding themselues to be afflicted and punished in Aegypt for the supposed offence of being spies which they had not committed came to know that indeed God sent them that punishment for the sinne which they had cōmitted in selling their brother And so they confessed it saying This punishment is iustly inflicted on vs for wee haue sinned against our brother and this trouble is come vpon vs for that sinne Saint Esrem relateth of himselfe that being a boy and going into the fields to play he hunted a calfe of another mans so hard and threw so many stones at it as that he killed it at length And walking about a moneth after through that field againe he fell out to take him rest amongst some shepheards who were looking to their flockes a parte of which flocke was wanting that night for it had bene scattered by some rauenous beasts The Lords of the flocke thought they had been theeues who did that hurt that Efrem was some Camerade of theirs They accuse him and take him for a theefe And whilest he was in prison and much afflicted an Angell appeared to him in his sleepe demaunding the cause of his being there He answered that he had been taken without any fault of his Then the Angell said I know well that thou art free from any fault in this but remember that thou madest a fault not long agoe in killing the calfe of that poore man and so thou wilt see that now thou art iustly taken made prisoner in the part of God and that his iudgments are very iust He also tould him of others who were there imprisoned for offences which indeed they had not committed but they had committed other sinnes in regard whereof God sent them that punishment which they had iustly deserued The Angell vanished Efrem speaking after with those prisoners found that to be true which the Angell had told him and they were executed for offences which they had not committed and satisfied thus for others which had been committed by them These are the iust iudgments of God whereby he gouernes the world and addresses his elect to the end of eternall happines for which he chose them And from hence wee must learne to thinke holily of God in all those tribulations and aduersities which he may send vs in this life confessing and acknowledging that he proceedes most iustly with vs because for our sinnes wee deserue those punishmēts which he sends vs yea and others which are incomparably greater And we must know confesse moreouer that herein he shewes vs an vnspeakable kinde of mercy for as much as by the light and short punishments of this life he not onely deliuers vs from those fierce paines of Purgatory but also from the eternall torments of Hell Thus did that holy Tobias proceed in the tribulations which God sent him for he receiued thē willingly for his sinnes and acknowledged that the punishment was very iust that he deserued both that a farre greater And he acknowledged that God shewed him a soueraigne kind of mercy for as much as he punished him that so he might deliuer him both from the faults and from the