enriched his Church Whose faith he hath strengthned whose hope he hath reuiued whose charity he hath inflamed whose holy feare and reuerence he hath rooted deeply by meanes therof Instructing vs as Father Salmeron doth excellently obserue concerning the B. Trinity (f) The Father the Sonne the holy Ghost in the voyce in the sonne the cloud Concerning the Incarnation of Christ our Lord his Doctrine Preaching by the addresse which we receiue of harkening to him His pasion and death by the excesse which he was to fulfill in Ierusalem The certainty of his Resurrection and glory and consequently of our owne The abrogation of the old law through the establishmeÌ„t of the new by the Fathers voyce concerning the sonne It taught them of Lymbus from whence the soule of Moyses came It taught the Terrestriall Paradise where Elias is belceued to repose It taught the militant Church in the person of the three B. Apostles But let vs as I was saying giue eare to Christ our Lord whose doctrine his heauenly Father and ours hath assigned vs to For he it is who will teach vs both these and all things else which it may any way import vs to vnderstand as I will instantly beginne to shew Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by deliueriug to vs his admirable Doctrine and of the manner which he held in teaching vs. CHAP. 32. OVR Lord Iesus came into the world for three maine reasons amongst aboue many others To teach vs the way to heauen by his diuine Doctrine and to guide vs by his admirable example and to redeeme vs by his most pretious bloud But as we should be nothing the better for knowing the way to any place Ser. de Ascen Dom. 4. if still we were deteyned in some prison so neither as S. Bernard saith should we be the better for knowing our iorneyes end if withall we knew not the way which leadeth thither It pleased therfore our Lord Iesus to declare his doctrine to the world And because according to Aristotle Doctio Disciplina are Relatiues for as much as he is become our Doctour we are already made his Disciples if we will The same Aristotle was Alexanders Maister and his Father Philip King of Macedon did esteeme it for no small part of his owne happines that his sonne was borne in a time when he might be instructed by so worthy a person And yet that worthy person was a mortall wicked man whose vnderstanding though very eminent was yet full of errour in many things and his will more full of disorder Wheras this diuine (a) The difference of Christ our Lord from other Doctours Doctour of ours was both truth and sanctity it selfe A Doctour he was and that most excelleÌ„t and complete without euer hauing bene any mans Disciple Such others as haue neuer bene Disciples doe no more vse to proue good Doctours then men proue good Captaines who haue neuer bene souldiers or good superiours who haue neuer bene subiects I deny not but some haue bene good Doctours who neuer were the disciples of men as for example Moyses and the other Prophets But besides that all they were instructed by the wisedom of God in supernatuall manner yet neither did they teach in such perfection as may be compararable by innumerable degrees to this of our diuine Doctour Nor yet did they giue the hand together with the torch nor the wood together with the coale of fire nor strength to execute together with the direction of what men were to doe Wheras (b) The great efficacy which only belongs to the Doctrine of Christ our Lord. Christ our Lord together with those diuine words of his own sacred mouth did make such a high way by the sweete gratious breath of his holy spirit into the harts of such as heard them though yet sometymes they were deafe inough as made then receiue them and lay them vp in conformity therof to performe things in a short tyme of extreme difficulty and contradiction to sense with excessiue gust How infinitely therefore are vve obliged to this Lord of ours vvho vvas designed from all eternity and did accept that himselfe vvould (c) An vnspeakeable mercy that Christ our Lord would teach vs by him selfe teach vs by himselfe For there vvas no remedy his loue could not be satisfied vvith doing lesse then all Nor vvould he permit that any Doctour vvho vvas lesse then his very selfe should haue the chiefe instructing (d) We are also taught by ment but that is only as by the instruments of God of our soules Novv his Doctrine being his must needs be infallible because he is God And to the end that it might not be too high or hard for our capacities he resolued as it vvere to tame that diuinity of his and to take it and tye it vp in the nets and toyles of flesh and bloud And so being incarnate he vouchsafed to conuerse amongst vs and as it vvere to vvatch his tymes those mollis fandi tempora vvherin vve might be likeliest to receiue that treasure of diuÃne knowledge vvhich had power to remoue our grosse ignorance They vvho trauaile vp and dovvne the vvorld knovv by experience hovv glad they vse to be if vvandring out of the vvay they meete some man vvho sets them right though it be but tovvards a nights lodging in a poore Inne vvhich sometymes is incomodious inough And such as giue themselues to study and are either ignorant of vvhat they vvould fayne vnderstand or perplexed othervvise through any difficulty vvhich may occurre are vvont to accompany and attend vvith extraordinary reuerence and affection those teachers vnder vvhome they vvere brought vp and by vvhose meanes they acquired knovvledge Which (e) They are very vngratefull who perfourme not great respects to such as haue been theyr teachers kind of gratitude is so deeply rooted in the mindes of such as are ingenuous that as long as they liue they retaine the memory of that benefit and there is no strangenes or small vnkindnes vvhich can blot it out We must therefore beseech our Lord IESVS to make vs thankefull to his diuine Maiesty in a high degree for his vouchsafing to exercise the office of a teacher ouer vs. Not through the care he hath to keepe vs only from vvandring betvvene tovvne tovvne or to vvorke through the difficulties of humaine knovvledge vvhich vnlesse it be vvell vsed is better left then had Nor only doth he this for some certaine tyme vvherin a course of study may be ended but he teacheth vs spirituall things vvhich are to be as long loued as eternity it selfe and insteed of discharging by any later negligence of his our former obligations to loue and serue him for it he is euer calling vpon vs vvith nevv fauours And insteed of absenting himselfe from vs his essence povver and his grace is present to our soules yea so present and especially to such as serue him
by words sometimes by way of Sermōs sometimes of Parables sometymes at meales sometimes in the working of miracles That he spake at large Ioan. 14. at that supper which was the last he made on earth and in the Garden Luc. 22. when he boyled himselfe in a bath of bloudy sweate vpon that Crosse when he left his most pretious life in the midst of cruell torments and most bitter scornes which brake his hart though indeed he dyed of pure loue to vs but yet withall that those words of his were lost that they had not beene kept vpon record or if they had been kept that now they could be found no more What labour I say would we not endure what charge would we not vndergoe what danger would we not incurre with ioy so that by meanes therof one word of his might be recouered and knowne And in that case how should we be still sounding it out with our tongues and on grauing it vpon our harts and entertayning our selues day night in the cogitatiō contēplation therof But (d) They haue little knowledge of God who grow not in loue and reuerēce to him the more they treat with him now it may be feared that plenty it selfe hath made vs poore and familiarity hath bred contempt and that our queasy stomacks are ouercome and gone through the only smell of such a sumptuous feast as we are inuited to whilst such a world of those very words which Christ our Lord did vse in holy Scripture are set before not only our mind but euen our very eyes and eares by our holy mother the Church If it be so let vs pray that heerafter such a great ingratitude may be farre from vs and let vs beginne to cast our harts at the feete of our Lord for so incomparable a fauour The Canon of this holy Scripture is therfore that which doth containe as hath been said the chiefest part of that diuine Doctrine which our Lord IESVS came to teach on earth I say the chiefest part for it is not al. But our Lord IESVS taught many things both by himselfe and by his Apostles which we are all obliged to beleeue and yet they are not expressed in holy Scripture And so he told his Apostles and Disciples That (c) The proofe of Traditiō Ioan. 16. he had many things to say to them but that then they were not capable therof And the Text it selfe doth also affirme that he conuersed with them betwene his Resurrection and Ascension discoursing by the space of Fourty dayes Luc. 1. of the kingdome of God which is his Church And it cannot be but that then he told thē of many of those very things wherof he had knowne them to be incapable till that tyme and yet the holy Scripture giues very little account therof The Baptisme of infants was not particularly taught in holy Scripture the Sacraments indeed were instituted by our B. Lord and S. Paul said 1. Cor. 11. he would giue particular orders in that of the blessed Sacrament when he should arriue with the Corinthians but what those orders might be we can know no otherwise then by the tradition of the holy Church The Sabaoth was translated from the Saturday to the Sunday Many Ceremonies of the old Law were abrogated and some of them permitted as namely (f) S. Paul did circumcise Timothy Act. 15. Circumcision with many others and some euen commaunded for a tyme as the abstayning from the eating of bloud or strangled meates and the like But how long or short that tyme was to be we haue no newes out of holy Scripture Nay this Canon of the very Scripture it selfe wherin we are so happy as hath bene said and whervpon the Aduersaries of the Church for the disguysing of their disobedience and pride will needs pretend to relye as vpon the entiere rule of Faith the sole Iudge of controuersies in religion is no way declared to vs by any one text of holy Scripture But it is only authorized in respect of vs by the voyce sentence of the holy Church Many many other instāces might be also giuē by the cleare light wherof it would appeare that the whole Doctrine of our Lord is not conteyned in holy Scripture Nor (g) In what sense the holy Scripture may improperly be said to contayne the whole Doctrine of Christ our Lord. can it be truly said to be all cōtayned there in any sense vnlesse it be because the holy Scripture doth plainely shew the markes of the true visible Church of Christ our Lord and doth teach that the decrees therof Matt. 18. are to be obeyed in all things without appeale Which Church because it possesseth and dispenseth that whole Dopositum of true Doctrine concerning the seruice of God which S. Paul did so recommend to S. Timothy the holy Scrpture 1. Tim. 6. may in some sense be sayd to containe the whole doctrine of Saluation because it sends vs to the Church which doth indeed particularly containe and teach it all But neuerthelesse it is certaine and we still confesse it agayne and agayne to the vnspeakeable ioy of our harts that the holy Scripture it selfe holds the greatest part of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord. And therfore as I was saying much of that which I deliuered before concerning the excellency of his Doctrine both may and ought to be most fitly applyed to holy Scripture And because there occurreth somewhat concerning the particular eminency of this holy booke which hath not particularly bene touched before I will heere the rather reflect vpon it because we may easily see thereby the dignity of our Lords loue therin How carefull we must be not to berash in the vse of holy Scripture and of the great obscurity therof CHAP. 37. FIRST therfore for our comfort and to the end that no place at all might be left for doubt he was pleased that it should be written by the spirit of God wherby (a) The infallible truth of holy Scripture it growes to be as true as truth it selfe And in this we are of so firme beliefe as that there is not one little in it for the defence wherof from the least aspersion of the least iniury or errour we are not willing to lay down a million of liues This is an homage which we neither owe nor pay to any other booke But to this it is most due both for the irrefragable truth which it carrieth and for the loue wherwith our Lord resolued that in cases which did so much concerne vs he would haue vs know his mind Yet heerin his meaning was that still for our relying vpon the true sense thereof we should be ruled by our betters For els how (b) Howsoeuer holy Scripture is infallibly true in it selfe we shall grow into errour by it vnlesse it be interpreted by the Church infallible soeuer the holy Scripture were in it selfe we might make it through
vvith care that although he be as S. Augustine saith superior summo meo Confes l. 3. cap. 6. yet vvithall he is interior intimo meo And in another place Though he be omni luce clarior c. Ibid. lib. 9. cap. 1. yet he is omni secreto interior superiour to the highest part yet he is more interior then the most inward part of vs Cleerer then the clearest light and yet he is more internall then the most hidden secret Illuminating teaching by particular fauours those soules vvhich listen to him vvith particular attentioÌ„ according to the good counsaile of the same S. Augustine Audiat te intus sermocinantem Confes lib. 11. cap. 9. qui potest Let him that can be so happy giue eare to that which thou O God art saying to him there within And instructing all such as are desirous to saue their soules by doing him seruice not onely with a sufficiency but euen with an ouer-aboundance of his diuine grace Of the tender loue which our Lord Iesus shewed by the incommodity which he was subiect to whilst he deliuered his Doctrine to vs and of the surfet which some are sublect to if we take not heed by the aboundance of his blesÃngs CHAP. 33. THE Doctours and Teachers of this world vse to be at their ease when they giue their lessons and for feare least crouds should come in vpon them they are separated and secured by chaires or pulpits Many of them teach for hire many for ostentation and few for meere loue of God or of his creatures and the pure desire of their profit in vertue and learning And as for those Religious men who vndertake the troublesome taske of doing good to the world in this kind for the loue of our Lord that loue of theirs though (a) The great serâ—â—ce which is done to God the world by such as instruct youth in vertue learning for pure charity of most excellent seruice to God and man is but a sparke which hath conueyed it selfe out of the fornace of the loue of Christ our Lord by the merit of his Magistery who is the only originall maister of all mankind And he it is who obteyned grace for those others to become to be such as by his goodnes we see they are But yet by the great mercy of God it is made a rare case with these his seruants to be put vpon those extreme difficulties vnlesse it be amongst Heretikes and Pagans in the exercise of this function from which his ardent loue would neuer giue him leaue to be free For euen from his first to his last Baptisme that is from the Baptisme of water in the Riuer of Iordan to the Baptisme in the bloud of that Imaculat clambe which was himselfe vpon Mount Caluary he went teaching vp and downe the world in a kind of perpetuall motion And was subiect to a most vnkind continuall persecution by the most part of them whome he did most particularly apply himselfe to instruct and teach It is true that his Apostles and Disciples did follow him throughout with extreme affection and admiration but yet withall they were so very ignorant and vnlearned as could haue giuen no pleasure in teaching them to any other but to Christ our Lord. What (b) It is a great mor tification for a wise worthy person to betyed to the continuall conuersation of ignoraÌ„t rude people greater mortificatioÌ„ can there be then for a wise and worthy and noble person to be perpetually conuersing with certaine course vnpolished creatures without fashion without learning without meanes and without so much as aptitude to be the better by it And yet our Lord IESVS was dayly in conuersation with such as these Who knew not how to gather the fruit of that tree of his diuine wisedome though the weight therof did make the braunches stoope so low as that they might be within their reach How (c) The great meeknes of our Lord Iesus meekely did he liue in their sight which was a kind of most effectual Doctrine How continually did he accompany them how carefully did he defeÌ„d them how sweetly did he allure them and how strongly did he conuince them And all this he did in the midst of a thousand corporall incomodities of labour and hungar when after the day was spent in continuall pennance the nights would lay hold on him without a lodging The Foxes had holes Matt. 8. and the birds of the ayre had nests but the sonne of man the sonne of that all-Immaculate woman that virgin mother that type of purity that torch of charity had not a place where to lay his diuine head But to the consusion of impatient men who are angry euen with their best friends when they change to be pinched otherwise he was farre from caring for any other habitation but only that he might dwell in the hartes of men by loue Of his Apostles we read that once when they had wherwithall they went to Sichar to buy meate and returning they inuited our B. Lord to eate therof But he excused himselfe by saying Ioan. 4. that he had another inuisible food (d) The principall food our Lord Iesus was the glory of God the good of man Ibid. which they knew not of and that was the performance of his eternall Fathers will and the perfecting of the worke of the good of soules by the words of his diuine mouth And after this food he had so fierce an appetite that he ran panting towards it and that so very fast as to make himselfe weary though he were God and to be glad to make a seate of that well side to which the happy Samaritane came for water It is also true that Christ our Lord was often inuited to eate with others and he accepted therof nay and he was not inuited so much by their desires as he was by his owne loue to their soules for their good he made himselfe all to all For he did eate with them to the end that men might not want the Doctrine of his diuine example both in the point of Temperance and Patience But many of those meates were otherwise of much more mortification to him in seuerall kinds then the want therof could haue bene Since it was not in the power of that heaueÌ„ly wisedome to continue vntoucht by those teeth of malice which vpon all warnings were gnashing towards him But (e) The wicked vse which the lewes made of our Lords benignity towardes them Matt. 11. from his facility of descending into their company and the resolution that whilst he was there he would not shew any singularity they did with the hand of their caÌ„kered mind fetch reasons why they should sel him for a gluttoÌ„ drinker of wine This seems euen to haue pierced the tender hart of our B. Lord with vnkindnes and it drew him in effect to say Iohn the Baptist came to you in abstinence
to all the (e) The abnegatiō of ones self which is required by the doctrine of Christ our Lord. Luc. 14. Ioan. 12. Ioan. 6. vvorld as instantly I shall touch againe that If any man would come after him he must deny himselfe take vp his Crosse follow him For he that would saue his life should loose it and he that would loose his life for him should saue it If a sectary or libertine shal heare this Doctrine he vvil be sure to say that it is Durus sermo A bit vvhich hath a bone in it so bigge as that he knovves not hovv either to chavv or svvallovv and much lesse digest it And yet this very bit this bitter pilwhich is so vnsauoury to the man vvho is all made of flesh and bloud being vvrapped vp in the golden vvords of our Lord doth in the taking it dovvne grovv so full of delight and gust through the puissance vvhich it hath ouer the soules of such as doe seriously sincerely loue him that no pennance in this life could be so grieuous to them as if they should be boüd from doing pennance And see now by this whether the Doctrine of Christ our Lord be not of strange power and strength and whether his diuine Maiesty haue not infinitely loued vs who hath made weake men so able and so willing to imbrace it for the loue of him This (f) This doctrine as it is on the one side effica cious and strong so on the other it is smooth sweet strength wherwith the Doctrine of Christ our Lord abounds is no rude or course kind of strength but rather it is like some one of those most excellēt Minerall Phisicks which is exactly well prepared For together with the discharging of peccant humours which vseth to carry with it a kind of paine it is a cordiall withall and it comforts the very substance of the soule incompably more excellently then that other Phisicke can the nature of the body Besides there is not heere any one receipt alone for the cure of soules as there be Empericks inough in the world who withall their bragges haue but some one medicine or two for the corporall cure of as many patients as they may chance to haue But heere are fully as many helpes as there can be motions in the minde this Doctrine is fit to worke vpon them al. For who sees (g) The seuerall wayes wherby the hart of man is holpen by that Doctrine of Christ our Lord. not how it abounds with exact commandements expresse prohibitions high and holy counsailes heroicall examples a clear notice of benefits already receiued and faithful promises of more sweet admonitions seuere reprehensions and terrible threats To the end that no man may be able to defend or euen excuse his disobedience with any appearance of reason but that euery one may as he ought submit himselfe What misery can that be whereof heere he may not find a remedy what doubt wherof he may not find a solution What pious affection wherof he may not find an inflamation What vertue would he obtaine or what vice would he auoyd wherin he shall not find a world of counsaile addresse And in a word what thought of God or of himselfe can he haue with any relation to his comfort either for this life or the next which being a good student of this Doctrine of Christ our Lord he may not easily apparaile in that rich and choyce wardrobe of his with iaculatory prayers and aspirations I say not only significant but which haue withall so much of the ardent of the great and of the noble as it will become the eares of God to heare will not become his mercifull hart not to harken to The incompar able purity of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord and with how great loue he helpeth vs towards the practise therof CHAP. 35. THIS diuine Doctrine of our Lord IESVS doth no way abrogate the morall law or ten commaundements but it doth auow and ratify the same Though for as much as concernes the Iudiciall and Ceremoniall lawes vnder which the people of God did liue before the coming of our Messias it perpetuated only the reall verities which were conteyned therin and it did destroy and bury though yet with honour those partes therof which were but figures of the comming of Christ our Lord. We say therfore most properly that to be the Doctrine of this diuine Doctour wherby either some Truthes were reuiued which through the wickednes of men were neglected and laid to sleepe before his comming or els wherby some others were published to the world which in perfection did exceed the former and many of them were not so properly inioyned in the nature of a comaundement as they were taught vs by the counsailes of Christ our Lord. This (a) Wher and how the body of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord is deliuered Doctrine of Christ our Lord is partly deliuered to vs by the Tradition of the holy Catholike Church as we shall see afterward and partly in holy Scripture And in this holy Scripture most of those particulars are conteyned and expressed which shew the perfection and purity of his heauenly Doctrine This is done after a most particular manner in that diuine sermon wherby his Disciples and we in them if we also will be his Disciples Cap. 5.6 and elsewhere in all the parts of the ghospell were instructed vpon that hill and S. Matthew deliuereth it by the words of our Lords owne sacred mouth He proclaimeth the eight Beatitudes where he annexeth not felicity to the comodities and pleasures of this life But to pouerty of spirit meekenes mornefulnes hungar and thirst after Iustice mercifulnes purity of hart Peace making and to the being persecuted and reuiled for the cause of Christ our Lord. He lets men know withall that for no respect they must breake the least tittle of the law of God That men must not be angry nor giue any iniurious word to others That we must not consent to so much as the least dishonest thought That no man or woman must be diuorced vpon the committing of lesse then Fornication and that neither of thē shall marry againe till the other dye That we must not sineare at all That we must not so much as resist oppression That we must loue euen our very enemies That we must giue Almes and fast and pray without ostemation That in all things we must haue a most pure intention That we must cast away all sollicitude concerning our selues and leaue all to the good prouidence of God That we must reforme our selues but not so much as iudge any other man That we must cut of and cast away all occasions causes of scandall and sinne how neere or how deare so euer they may be to vs. That we must striue to enter into he auen by the (b) Of mortification and penance narrow gate That we must aspire to chastity
to spirituall from temporall to eternall from the Kings of Israell to the King Messias and so also there is often passage the other way from the spirit to the letter and so in the rest It is also made very hard by the Equiuocatiō (n) The ambiguity of the Hebrew tongue of words wherof the Hebrew tongue is so full Which since it was the first and consequently the most compendious and short of all others it must necessarily containe many seuerall significations in few words And from hence it growes that generally such variety hath bene found in the Translations of the old Testament and some part also of the new Nay (o) The misplacing of points c. the very difference in placing a point doth make sometimes a different sense and so doth the manner either of writing or pronouncing a proposition As namely whē it is ambiguous whether any thing be affirmatiuely or Ironically or Interrogatorily to be read This with more is shewed by Father Salmeron For these and for many other reasons the vnderstanding of holy Scripture is very hardly learnt and we see by sad experience what diuisions doe abound in the world by occasion therof when men will call disobedience and pride by the name of holy Ghost and Euangelicall liberty There are amongst Sectaries of seuerall cuts and kindes sixteene different opinions concerning their Doctrine of Iustification All which they seuerally doe yet pretend to be grounded in holy Scripture and yet this Scripture it is which they will haue to be so cleere and plaine And vpon those fower words Hoc est corpus meum This is my body there are almost fourescore diuersities of opinion Our aduersaries themselues doe by their deeds of disagreement with one another proclayme the difficulty of holy Scripture which yet in words they will deny that so they may be excused in making it say what they list The truth is this That indeed it is full of difficulty and our Lord who made it so did with infinite loue prouide therin for our good and that more wayes then one For (p) The many and great goods we get by the very difficulty of holy Scripture See Salmeron vhi supra therby we are obliged as Father Salmeron doth also further shew to confesse the vnspeakeable wisedome (q) We are brought to a great beliefe of the high wisedom or God of Almighty God which doth infinitely surpasse all knowledge or conceyte of ours euen then when he vouchsafeth to expresse himselfe by words the ordinary signification wherof we vnderstand And (r) Our pride is humbled by this meanes he depresseth pride in vs and depriues vs of all confidence in our selues Heerby (s) It spurres vs on to prayer Psalm 119. he doth also stirre vs vp to make with all humility most earnest prayer to his diuine in maiesty that he will open to vs the secrets of his law as we see S. Augustine did and all the Saints haue done especially King Dauid who was euer singing of this songe It also growes through the great obscurity of holy Scripture that the Church is filled with much variety (t) It breds great variety of diuine knowled◠in the Church of diuine knowledge neither is there that possibility to draw seuerall true senses out of plaine easy places as out of such as are obscure According to that of S. Augustine The obscurity of diuine Scripture is profitable for this that it begetteth bringeth to light seuerall Doctrines of truth whilst one man vnderstandeth it after one manner and another after another And (u) It breeds diligence in study and care to conserue in memory for this very reason also learned men are incited to a more diligent and earnest study therof And consequently they wil entertaine that knowledge with more gust which they haue acquired with more labour This (x) It inuiteth vs to purity of life obscurity is also a cause which makes vs purify our soules the more because like loues his like And holy things will neuer be well comprehended but by holy persons Moreouer it helpes to maintaine and make good that order (y) It helpes to maintaine the Church in due sub ordinatiō Order in the Church which our Lord God hath thought fit to hold in the dispensation of his guifts and graces For as the superiour Angells doe illuminate them who are inferiour so hath he bene pleased that amongst men some should excell others in learning and diuine knowledge who as Doctours and Pastours might interpret the same to others It (z) It saueth Pearles from being cast to swyne keepes impure and wicked persons from knowing those misteries which belong to God wherof they are vnworthy vncapable since they will not vse them well And our Lord himselfe hath said in his Ghospell that so it was fit to be and that seeing Marc. 4. Matt. 7. they might not see and that hearing they might not vnderstand and that pearles must not be cast before swyne And lastly the frailty of our corrupted nature is excellently prouided for by this meanes since through the difficulty which we find in holy Scripture we are (a) It nourisheth vs in reuerence and a holy awe kept in reuerence and in a kind of holy awe wheras if throughout they were familiar and gaue easy accesse to all cōmers they might through our fault grow instantly to be contemned On the (b) The Scripture is wouen both with hard and easy thinges and this is of great vse to vs. other side if all the parts thereof were hard a like we should giue ouer to seeke that which we despayred to find And therfore the good pleasure of our Lord hath bene to make the holy Scriptures obscure yet with a kind of plainenes and plaine but yet with an obscurenes That by their plainenes in some places they might illuminate vs and by their difficulty in others they might exercise vs. And that the easy places might helpe vs towards the vnderstanding of the hard and the hard might serue to imploy our wits and to make vs know withall how much we are bound to God for hauing made some others easy And this is the substance of that which Father Salmeron hath deliuered both concerning the reasons which make the holy Scriptures hard and the fruits which grow to vs therby Through which we may easily discerne the tender and wise care and loue of this diuine Doctour of our soules Not only in giuing vs such excellent lessons but for hauing done it in such an admirable manner as (c) A demonstration of the loue of our Lord to vs in this particular that whilst we are studying them we must almost in despight of our owne proud hartes be imploying our selues withall both vpon the exercise of prayer and the practise of the solide vertues of humility patience obedience purity and charity And if yet we shal not think that our Lord hath shewed vs loue
to tyme He shewed them what a glory it would be for them to resemble their Maister in his Crosse and he made them knovv vvithall that they should not carry it alone but that in the place of his owne corporall presence which then was the obiect of their senses he would send them a comforter the Holy Ghost from heauen who should inhabit and sanctify their soules He promised them his Peace which should shew them a safe and quiet port wherin to ride in the very midst of all the difficulties and greatest daungers of this world He told thē in plaine tearmes that he loued them and he besought thē that as they loued him they would keepe his commaundements and that if they would doe so both he and his Father would come and visit and dwell with them He told them moreouer that euen his eternall Father loued them and that whatsoeuer they would akse they should be sure to haue whether they should aske it of himselfe or of his Father in his name yea and he desired them to aske somewhat of him that so their ioy might be full as if he had bid them try and be euen iudged by themselues whether he had said true or no. It serueth also to shew the very passionatenes as I may say of his loue (d) Agreat proofe of the tendernes the loue of our Lord Iesus that he was content to repeate the selfe same expressions of it many tymes To declare that he could not say that inough which he thought he could neuer doe too much We see how tenderly he called them his seruants his Disciples his friends and that he would tell them all his secrets his Sonnes and euen his little Sonnes whome yet he would not leaue as Orphans without a Father And now we shall heare him pray the eternall Father for them in most efficacious and obliging words That he would sanctify them in his Truth He presseth him by the highest points of diuine Rethoricke which could be though of He puts him in mind Of the eternall loue he bare the Sonne and of the faithfull seruice which he the Sonne had performed to the Father He also representeth the Fathers Mission of the Sonne and he avoweth That as the Father had sent him so had he seent them He begs the vnion of all his children with one another and of all those children with himselfe that so he being in God and they being in him they all might also come to be one in God In this (e) How earnest our Lord Iesus was for vs in his suyte to his eternall Father suite of his he is so importunate and proceeds so farre to vrge the same that in effect he tells the eternall Father that he will not be denyed therin Nor was he content that this should be an vnion of inferiour degree but an vnion with perfection and consummation Iust so as in a broath which is made of diuers meats there is an vnion of those meates in that broath and if they boyle in it till they euen boyle away there is not only an vnion of the meates but a consummation thereof into that broath And although in most places of holy Scripture when our Lord spake to his Apostles or Disciples he meant not that his words should be for them alone but that all the world should be comprehended in their persons to whome then he spake Yet his loue at that tyme was not content to intend vs only by way of inference but that dying flame would needs be sending out certaine flashes which yet extend themselues so farre as euen to lay expresse hold vpon euery one of our indiuiduall persons who haue the happines to be members of the holy Catholike Church Which they only are who beleeue the Doctrine of Christ our Lord by the preaching of the Apostles or of those Apostolicall men who haue a lawfull and direct mission from them And therfore he said for now I cite his owne very words I pray not only for them that is to say for his Apostles but for those others also who will beleeue in mee by their preaching that they be one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee so they also may be one in vs and the world may beleeue that thou hast sent me And that glory which thou hast giuen me I haue giuen to them that they may be one thing as we are one thing In thee and thou in mee that they may be (f) A strāg desire for Christ our Lord to make to God in our behalfe consummated in one and the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loued them euen as thou hast loued me I will O Father that they whome thou hast giuen mee may be with me there where I shall be That they may see the glory which thou hast giuen mee because thou louedst me before the framing of the world O thou iust Father the world hath not known thee but I haue knowne thee and these haue knowne that thou hast sent me And I haue made my name known to thē and I will make it knowne that the same very loue wherwith thou hast loued me may be in thē I in thē These amongst many others were the words of our bleffed Lord in that last diuine sermon of his Wherby we may see the amourous and restlesse desire which tooke possession of his hart wherwith he sollicited his eternall Father that we might behold the glory which he had giuen to him and placing as it were his whole (g) Our Lord Iesus did place his honour in beeing Lord by his eternal Father for vs. credit vpon the obteyning of these fauours for vs when he begs it to the end that so the world might come to know that the Father had sent him As if he should haue said that in the face of the world he had giuen his word both for our Redemption and Sanctification Vnion and for our right to raigne in heauen with himselfe and that if the eternall Father should not make good that word the world might haue reason not to beleeue that he was as he had said the Sonne of God The horrour and terrour and sorrow of Christ our Lord togeather with his Prayer in the Garden CHAP. 54. NO sooner had he ended that speach but instantly he went out with his Disciples ouer the Torrent of Cedron Ioan. 18◠He did perhaps passe ouer that Torrent without once tasting any droppe therof but the whole world was a kind of Torrent of affliction to him his whole life was that way wherin he did not only tast but take deepe draughts therof before he exalted his head Psalm 109. by ascending vp to heauen Already did the sensible or inferiour part of his soule begin to be obscure and sad with care He was pleased to leaue it after a sort to it selfe for the increase of that paine which he desired to suffer For els his