eyes of thine But (c) The B. Virgin did more esteeme perfect innocency and Sanctity then euen to be the mother of of God yet so highly didst thou esteeme the least degree of Grace and so profoundly did thy holy soule abhorre the least deflexion from the diuine Will by any little errour as that rather then to haue committed any one veniall sinne or voluntary imperfection with being the very Mother of God infallibly thou wouldst haue chosen to relinquish that high Maternity rather then to haue lost the least degree of perfect innocency and sanctity We therfore thy children of the holy Catholike Church that Church wherof thy Sonne our Lord is the mysticall head we the inferiour members thy selfe being the beautifull necke therof by which that head sendeth downe the influence of grace into the body and by which that body sendeth vp the odour and incense of prayers to the head We I say (d) We Catholiques subscribe to the prophesy of the greatnes of our B. Lady Psalm 44. subscribe to thy prophesy of thy selfe we admire thy excellency the beliefe whereof is planted in the roots of our hart from thence it shall grow vp vpon all occasions into our tongues which shall be as so many penns of ready writers to ingraue the memoriall of thy greatnes in all the mindes of mortall men And let woe be to the world if since by these high prerogatiues which we find to be giuen thee by the spirit of God himselfe so much seruice and prayse is due to thee as will neuer be fully paid though the creatures of God both in heauen earth were all distilled into one we who are but wormes of the earth and who are dayly sinning against thy Sonne and who by howers and minutes are both needing and finding the effects of that incarnate Mercy which by thy faithfull and free consent did become flesh and bloud in thy sacred wombe should not be doing thee all that homage which the most excellent pure creature can receaue the same being vnder God the maister-conduit of all Grace to vs. That our Blessed Lady was saluted full of Grace and of seuer all kindes of Fullnes of Grace CHAP. 87. SHE might well impart some to vs who was so full of it in her selfe For as soone as the Angell had saluted her with that profound admiring reuerence which he knew was due from a houshold seruant to the Mother of his Lord he bids her as hath been sayd Haile full of grace And as in the Passion of our most B. Lord when the Priests and Elders made their charge against him Luc. 23. before Pilate they said Inhenimus hunc c. We haue found this fellow c without vouâ—â—aâ—ing so much as to giue him a name because when there is a meaning by way of exaggeration to contemne a person the forbearing of the name doth shew a bitter and profound contempt as if no name could be found which were base inough for such a person so in this first part of the salutation of our B. Lady by the Angell Gabriel (a) The incomparable reuerence of the Angell in satuing the B. Virgin the admiration which he had of her was such as that to shew the great height therof and his not being able to expresse the reuerence he bare to her by any name he spake to her at that first tyme without a name and said Luc. 1. Haile full of grace our Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women As if he had deliuered himselfe in this manner O soueraigne Virgin I am seÌ„t to thee on the part of God I am to bring thee a newes which if it proue is to sill heauen earth with ioy On the part of God it is already resolued vpon but the consistory of the B. Trinity is at a pause till it obtaine thy free consent I know not by what name to call thee which may expresse thy Dignity my admiration but this I know that thou art a vessell full of Grace a spouse to whome God himselfe is making-Court a creature which is blessed beyond all the children of flesh and bloud and as such I salute thee with all reuerence The men who are so miserable as to loue to lessen the opinion of excelleÌ„cy in our B. Lady are desirous according to what I touched before to follow the Grammaticall sense of the Greeke word wherby they would barre her from being saluted by the Angell for fulof Grace and they will but admit her to be highly sauoured and accepted or gratiously beloued by our Lord God But (b) Euen that which we affirme of our B. Ladyes being full of Grace is most iustly inferred by what our aduer saries coÌ„fesse first though it should be as they say yet that which we assirme would follow vpon it by a necessary kind of consequence For if God had accepted and fauoured graciously beloued her in so high a manner as for shame they will not choose but graunt what doubt can be made either of the power or goodnes of that diuine Maiesty but that he would perfect his owne worke by filling her withall inherent Grace whome he had vouchsafed to assume into so high fauour as to make her his Pallace of pleasure and to vouchsafe of her purest flesh and bloud to build an eternall house of humanity which his owne increated wisedome was so to inhabite But besides that this truth doth grow euen from the inference of common sense let vs cast an eye towards the chiefe Fathers and pillars of the Church of God to see if they do not read gratia plena with vs and not gratiosa with our aduersaries and to leaue the questioÌ„ de nomine if euery where they doe not with deuout ioy of hart acknowledge that the Virgin was saluted and was indeed full of Grace Resort therfore for this purpose to the margine which will guide you to the way Canisius lib. 3. c. 6. 7. vpon his confideration of the salutation of our B. Lady by the Angell where you shall see this cleerly auowed both by the Latin Church and by the Greeke S. Hierome Sophronius S. Ambrose S. Augustine Eusebius Emissenus Petrus Damianus Venerable Bede Rupertus S. Bernard S. Thomas many others And so also is this done by S. Athanasius S. Ephiphanius S. Ephrem the Deacon S. Iohn Damascen S. Gregory of Neocaesaraea with many more whome I spare to name By them you shall find this sacred Virgin to be admired as a vessell full of Grace and resembled to a Riuer which runs with a full current of the holy Ghost to a field which is all loaden with fruite That her soule was shot through and through with that choice arrow of the loue of God which left no thought therof vnfilled with Grace In c. 1. Lucae And S. Ambrose hath these excellent words Bene itaque c. which couple the gratia and gratiosa both in one
the Sea and I haue bene euen drowned in the tempest He came into the depth of those thoughts wherof the holy Prophet said Psalm 91. that they were too very deepe Nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes tuae A Sea it was rather of mud then waters and he was plunged Psalm 68. in limo profundi non est substantia into that pit of mire from which he could nether be free nor find any resting place for his feete therein Nor is it strange that he should say that he was drowned when vpon the Crosse he came into the Tempest indeed since we find that in the garden where this Tempest was only present to his imagination it had almost cost him his life The imaginatiō of fearfull men doth often by way of anticipation represent things worse then they proue indeed because they seeme to feele whatsouer their weake harts are induced to feare But in the minde of our Lord IESVS Christ it could not be so for he foresaw things iust as they were to proue and that bare foresight had cast him into that bitter Agony it had made him powre out a sweat of bloud and it had forced him to say Marc. 14. that his very soule was sad euen to the death A wonderfull thing it were that a coale of fire should be buried and drowned in water yet should cōtinue still to burne Christ our Lord is this (a) The vnquēch able loue of our Lord. liuing coale of the fire of loue for though he were all steeped soaked and euen drowned in the water of affliction for our sinnes Cant. 8. Yet aquae multae non potuerunt extinguere caritatem The siery coale of his loue could not be quenched by those many waters Nay as wind doth kindle other coales so did these waters of tribulation kindle this of his loue to vs. Already vpon his condemnation the Tytle or cause of his death was deliuered in writing by Pilate to be fixed to the instrument therof which was his Crosse This tytle carried these words Matt. 27. Luc. 23. Marc. 18. Ioan. 19. Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes And for so much as concerned the intention of Pilate it was deliuered by a kind of chance But the superiour prouidence of God did ordayne for reasons of infinite wisedome that it should be so And although the wicked Iewes were scandalized therat and would faine haue had it changed from affirming positiuely Ibid. that he was king of the Iewes to a saying only That he had said so yet could they not be gratified therin The words were written in Hebrew Greeke and Latine which were the mother and maister-tongues of the world and so were to continue to the worlds end And now they were consecrated in most particular manner to the publique seruice of our Lord God and as such they are and will be vsed in the holy Catholike Church whatsoeuer is muttered by the aduersaries therof who are also the aduersaries both of the signe of the materiall Crosse of Christ and of the liuing Crosse also which is Mortification and Penance But the while though Almighty God had his ends heerin for our good as hath been sayd yet their malice went by other wayes and they vsed it to no other purpose which was only for the increase of his ignominy in the eyes of them who seeing such a glorious Tytle aboue and such a dolorous and deiected person vnderneath Matt. 17. Marc. 15. Luc. 23. Ioan. 19. might the more readily and profoundly contemne him and our Lord did with excesse of charity stoope to all The souldiers whilst he was suffering had so little care or thought of him as that instantly they were at leasure to fall to rifeling for his cloathes And they who made no difficulty to breake through teare his sacred body frō head to foote tooke care not to breake or cut his seam-lesse coate Our Lord was stil cōtent with all and not only was he resolued to giue his life for their soules but he gaue way that his cloathes should apparell the bodies of his persecutors He had said before that our bodies were more worth thē our garmēts Matt. 6. And if this be true in our case how much more infinitely true was it in his Both because through our Pride our cloathes be richer thē he euer wore and because our bodyes are so much baser thē that most pure and pretious body of his But these wretches did cast vp their account after another fashion marking all things els with great Figures but esteeming this Lord of all things for a meere Cypher The sacred Text doth further note that they being appointed to watch guard him whilst he was hanging vpō the Crosse were so far from bearing any part of his sorrow out of pitty as that they set (b) Barbarous wretches themselues downe at their ease which a man would scarce haue done at the death of any common rogue especially if it were a death of torment Let Pagans take their pleasures for a tyme when the Sonne of God is suffering such bitter paine for them Let the prophane souldiers of Pilate who figure out the libertines of this world sit downe and take their ease notwithstanding that our Redeemer made choyce of paine and by choosing it did facilitate and sanctify it vpon his owne sacred person to our vse But as for vs who are Catholikes and Caualliers of Christ let it be farre from vs to doate vpon delights which he auoyded and to abhorre affronts and paines Bernard ser 5. in festo omnium SS an vncomly thing for any inferiour member of a body to hunt after commodity and ease when the head of the same body should be crowned and pierced with thornes Pudeat sub capite spinoso mēbrum fieri delicatum Our head is crowned and we are not liuing parts of his body but the Canker of heresie hath consumed vs or at least the Gangrene of sensuality hath killed vs if we suffer not togeather with this head by true compassion which true compassion implyes not a pittying but a ioynt suffering according to our strength of body and the dictamen of true loue to the beloued and which if it be true indeed more easily your may perswade the soule which hath it not to liue then the body not to suffer The mortall life of our blessed Lord was drawing on apace towards an end but yet for the little while that it was to last he was not content with that one Crosse alone to which he was nayled by the cruell hands of those executioners but he admitted also of other crosses to which he was shot by the blasphemous tongues of all those kindes of people which were present They had put him out of the reach of their fingars that he might hange as he did vpon Irons in the ayre But yet they gaue him not ouer so for they wounded his
of stitches as that it could now no more be knowe but only by the eyes of Faith of what stuffe it was made Which caused the Prophet Esay who foresaw him in this woefull traunce to declare that he was not to be discerned for who he was but mistaken for some base leprous person The bloud ran flowing out of his body through the force of their fury as formerly it had done in the gardē by the reflectiō which he made vpon the worlds impiety But not a word was heard to fal out of his sacred mouth wherwith he did euen kisse those very rodds since by their afflicting him whome he contemned he made a bath of delight and ease for vs. A bath of bloud that was which being vnited to the diuine person of the Sonne of God was adored by all the Angells as the bloud of God and (c) The infinite valew of the least drop of the bloud of Christ our Lord. whereof the least drop was able to haue redeemed milliōs of worlds And yet on the other side it was drawne out of that pretious body by cruell contumelious scourges it was spilt vpon the ground and troden vpon by those base vnbeleuers And this infinite Lord was content to accept this tormēt of the flagellation with excessiue loue and in particular manner he accepted it in satisfaction of the sinnes of sensuality which had bene and would be committed in that kind throughout the world We may therfore see whether our carnall pleasures the delights of sense be not wicked things since the pardon therof was to cost the Sonne of God so deere But as it will worke our pardon if we apply it to our soules by tymely pennance so if we shall continue to please our selues by those transitory and impure delights which did put our Lord to so deadly paine what kind of vengeāce shall we thinke that is which will be sure to seize vs both in body and soule How our blessed Lord was crowned with thornes and blasphemed and tormented further with strange inuention of malice And how he endured it all with incomparable Loue. CHAP. 65. YET this was not all for the souldiers who had receiued cōmission to scourge him in so bloudy manner to the end that by that cruelty the pitty of the Iewes might be awaked tooke the bouldnes out of their owne Capriccio to put the most ignominious withall most bitter torment vpon him which euer in the world had bene conceaued When therfore they had wearied thēselues in scourging him and there was now no more place for new wounds since all his sacred body was growne to be as it were one continued wound or rather a kind of Cake of bloud they vntyed him from the pillar they gaue him leaue to cloath himselfe though they had almost taken away the strength wherwith he might be able to doe it and they lent him for the present a little rest till they had resolued what they were to doe And because the Priests and Elders had charged him with procuring by fauour of the people to be made a King whome they had found by experience to be so subiect to themselues they (a) Why they resolued to crowne him with thornes thought it would carry a good proportion to the supposed cryme of his ambitiō if they could find some meanes to make him a conunterfeit kind of King and to afflict him in point both of ease and honor by the appearance of all those ornaments and demonstrations of respect seruice which are indeed of honour to true kings when they are truly meant but to him they were of excessiue affront and paine They made him then with his hands fast tyed sit downe all naked in most seruile manner for now they had stripped him the second tyme. And calling their whole troope of Guard togeather they clapt in imitation of the Princely robes of a King a purple mantle Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioau 19. about his backe which could not choose but sticke to his sacred flesh for there was no skinne betwene to part thē They put a Reed into his hands insteed of a Scepter and a plat of thornes vpon his head insteed of a Crowne They did then with incredible ioy of hart to see his misery salute him and say All haile O King of the Iewes Then would they be taking the Reed out of his hands and they would beate the Crowne more deeply into his head and then spitting in his face they kneeled downe and adored him in shew as they would their King All this did Christ our Lord endure for vs and he did it with a kind of infinite meekenes and loue not complayning therat nor declaring the least mistike therof either by pittying himselfe or blaming them But he confounded therby and that after a most puissant manner the arrogant pride of earth and hell offring vp (b) The Coronation of our Lord had a special ayme at the pardon cure of the sinnes of Pride his owne humiliation in propitiation for all the sinnes of the whole world especially for such as were committed in the way of pride and for the obteyning such grace at the hands of God by meanes heereof as might enable his true seruants to imitate his humility It ought to fill our soules with extreme confusion to find that we who professe to be the seruants of our Lord are yet so dull in deuising meanes how to expresse our reuerēce and loue towards him Our wits lye cleane another way And euen in Prayer we haue sometymes inough to doe to entertaine this spouse of our soules with aboundance of so much as mentall acts of loue and much more difficulty we find to performe them afterward by way of practise Yet heere these enemies of God man are teaching vs by their lewd example whose wits did serue them but too well to increase the torment of our Lord at an easy rate vnto themselues For when they had stript him naked in the sight of so many impure eyes and scourged him so cruelly as that it might seeme almost impossible to giue any increase ether of shame or torment behould how full they are of strange inuention and their malice findes meanes to deuise such exquisite waies to augment them both in such a measure as makes all that seeme little which was done before It is true (c) A comparison of his presēt scornes with the former that before he had most blasphemously bene spit vpon but it was at midnight and in Cayphas his house and but only by his keepers But heere it is done almost at noon day in the Vice-Royes Court and by a whole troope of Pagan souldiers He was then already come from being most cruelly scourged ouer all his most beautifull and most sacred body which gaue him paine beyond all expression but now behould they haue recourse to his diuine head which seemed as if till then it had escaped their rage And so that
follow him in the streets would not sayle to place theÌ„selues in the windowes making vp like some kennell of wide-mouthed dogs the full cry of Traytour Deuill Sorcerer Drunkard Idiot False prophet Hypocrite Blasphemer and a hundred reproaches more then these which their immortall malice would be sure to dart out against him And besides it is very probable that they would accompany these bitter words with barbarous deeds for what should hinder them since they had all power in their hands and such springs of poyson in their harts They below kicking him on as they would haue done some mad musled dogge when through the excesse of weaknes he was scarce able to goe and they aboue whilst he was resting would be casting vncleanesses vpon his sacred head Our Lord the while had his holy eyes cast down but his hart was raysed his hands were bound but his affections were at liberty and enlarged He went fulfilling the Prophesies Isa 53. Sicut homo non audiens sicut mutus non aperiens os suum Like a man who had not bene able to heare what they sayd against him and as farre from speaking to them as if he had bene wholy dumbe and as S. Gregory sayth Greg. in 3. psal pâ—enitent Qui cogitationes iniquorum nouerat blasphemantium voces non audiebat And he who knew euen all their wicked thoughts would not so much as seeme to heare their blasphemous words To confound our great impatience or to speake more properly our want of Faith and loue when we will not for the glory of God and in imitation of his diuine exaÌ„ple who endured so infinitely much for vs endure the least reproach or so much as any touch that way without reply and perhaps reuenge The Crucifixion of our Blessed Lord his quicke sense and seuerall paynes distinctly felt and of his vnspeakeable patience and Loue to vs therein CHAP. 69. THE hower was then all run out and our Lord IESVS who according to that of the blessed Apostle Philip. 2. Thought it no wrong to esteeme himselfe equall to his Father did empty himselfe not only by taking the nature of man vpon him but he did also humble himselfe withall to death yea and to the very death of the crosse which was the most opprobrious of all others They had stripped him thrice before starke naked in the Court of Pilate First when they went to scourge him then when they put on the Purple Robe and after when they disrobed him and led him towards the Crosse in his owne cloathes And now (a) The fomer scornes were put againe vpon our Lord but with circumstances which did much increase both his paine and shame they did the same againe but with the addition of two circumstances which did extremely increase both his shame and paine For his garments were euen baked as it were to his sacred body both by the length of tyme which had occurred betwene his beginning and ending that last and most dolorous procession of his betwene Pilats house and Mount Caluary as also by the weight of the Crosse which during part of that tyme lay with intollerable paine vpon his shoulders and lastly by the binding of his armes and hands both to his body and to one another These cloathes being growne so fast to his flesh and pluckt off by those rude hands with as much rigor as they could tel how to vse must needs increase his torment to a strange proportion It could not also choose but that his seÌ„se of shame was also raysed to a great height For before that sacred humanity was seene but by as many as could throng into Pilates Court But now vpon the top of Mount Caluary as if it had bene at a kind of generall day of Iudgement Romans Grecians Pagans Iewes and they of all the Prouinces of the East Priests and people men and women of all conditions and ages and in fine an Epitome of the whole world was present For the increase of his confusion and to hide the hatefull spots of their iniustice they led in his company two murthering theeues to execution that (b) Why they lead him in the company of thee us their notorious crimes might make some impression or influence of bad aspect vpon the innocency of our Lord IESVS And to the end that the worst in all respects might not be wanting to him they resolued that his Crosse should stand in the midst of the other two Marc. 15. as in the more honorable place of infamy This crosse they now brought him to and as before they laid it vpoÌ„ him they laid him now vpon it It was already bored through And if perhaps they had made those holes which were meant for his hands further off from those others which were deputed for his feete theÌ„ the leÌ„gth of his body would beare they must be faine to add to the rest of his tormeÌ„ts that other of the rack to make theÌ„ reach For their particular coÌ„fort who for his sake should be afflicted in the same kind by the persecutours of his Church The executioners being there with their haÌ„mers and nayles did extend spread him vpon that hard bed of death and they transpierst those hands of Charity and those seete of humility purity with sharpe stroÌ„ge nayles driuen in by a multitude of blowes making his pretious body the very anuile whervpon the hammer of our (c) Our sinnes were they which crucified our Lord by the hands of the Iewes sinnes did by the hands of those crucifiers beat so hard If any one of them relented at the sight of that diuine sweet sadnes through the compassion which such an obiect as that could not easily choose but exact euen of Tygars it tended but to the increase of his paine For the more kind they were the longer they were likely to dwell about doing that office and so the more cruell they fell out to be If on the other side as they woÌ„ded his hands with theirs so they had also in their will a vehement desire of his destruction and death that cruelty and sinne of their hart went streight to his and wounded him worse through his loue to them then through their hate they wounded him So that whether they were cruell to him more or lesse being considered in theÌ„selues yet in regard of him all wrought by (d) All wrought by way of increasing torment to our Lord. way of increasing torment The extreme parts of our body which be our head our hands and our feete haue all those veines and arteries and sinewes shut vp and as it were driuen by the direction of nature into a narrow compasse which goe at ease through larger parts The fleshly parts of the body are dull in comparison of those others and indeed so dull as that compared with these they can scarce in effect be said to feele Yet who is he that if being a person of honor he were content that his flesh
should be pierced or but euē the typ of his eare should be publikely bored through for anothers fault would not thinke that he had wrought a kind of wonder of loue But now the sinewes are they which are truly sensible of sharpe and stinging paine Whereof we see the experience in them who are subiect to the tooth-ach Which as it is the thing that makes dogs mad so euen men are little better if indeed they haue it in extremity and all but because some one sinewe is fretted by the descent of rhewme which remaines about the roote of a tooth The torments therfore which our blessed Lord endured as before by his Crowne of thornes so now by the nayles of his hands and feet what were they but great things which wāt a name since they were suffered in parts which were the proper seates as a man may say of the sesitiue soule where the sinews meet wherby the whole body after a compēdious māner might be most afflicted To this let vs add the consideration of this other truth which was once touched before That through the perfection and purity of his complexion and constitution Christ our Lord had incomparably a quicker sēse of feeling then any creature who euer liued Againe let it be weighed how he was a continuall Maister of himselfe and was neuer to be put to any such saynting as men sometymes are subiect to who by any great excesse of lasting paine are brought from any feeling at all therof Yea the reason of Christ our Lord was so farre from being trāsported in the least degree as that he felt (e) Our Lord did feel euery one of his paynes as distinctly as it he had felt but only one the remainder of euery one of the buffets which had bene giuen him and of euery one of the stripes of his body of euery one of the thornes of his sacred head and of euery one of the nayles of his blessed hands and feete in as distinct and cleere and seuerall a manner as if he had suffered but that one only single paine whatsoeuer it were So also the seuerall causes which afflicted his minde did neither yeild to one another nor drowne nor maister them of the body but euery single griefe of his minde was as distinctly felt as any one of thē alone could be Wheras when others are subiect to seuerall paine and griefe the maister-paine is that which carryes away all their thoughts from the rest As a vehement fit of the Goute or Stone puts away all remēbrance of an ague and as a very killing griefe of minde will make a man forget any bodily paine Yet all this paine or rather all these multitudes of seuerall and most exceshue corporal paines togeather with a cleere beholding of the deadly and vndeserued malice wherwith they inflicted them vpon him were not of power either to winde him vp into the due estimation of his owne soueraigne dignity which was so prophaned or to let him down into any diminution of his charity or to make him behould mankind which by their sinnes must all be accompted to haue conspired togeather more or lesse to his death with any other eyes then of endlesse pitty though by instāts they wentin creasing their cruelty For howsoeuer a man might thinke that what they had already done must needs be al which they could doe and that nothing more remayned to be deuised which might add to the misery of our blessed Lord Yet see a while how farre the rage and wit of cruelty and of enuy is able to reach For by (f) The torments of our Lord still increased rearing the Crosse vp aloft in the ayre that it might fall with more strength and force into that hole which had bene made of purpose for it in the earth and that so it might be able to sticke fast therin what a dissolution must the whole frame of the body of our Lord needs find in all the ioynts therof Infallibly the parts of his pretious body were all disioynted And least it should be thought that this were but a pious and only possible imaginatiō without further grōd let it be remembred how Dauid said of these persecutors in the person of Christ our Lord Psalm 21. Dinumerauerunt omnia ossae mea They numbred all my bones Which cannot well be done whē they are fitted to their natural places but when they are once wel put out of ioynt they push forth and appeare to any eye with ease And in another place it is said of him in his owne person Ierem. 23. Contremuerunt omnia ossa mea which implyes such a generall kind of commotion of all the bones in the skinne as so many stones would be subiect to in any bagg if it were well shaken Nay his torments were moreouer of that kind as that during all those full three howers wherin he was hanging vpon the crosse they increased of themselues by the naturall weight of his owne body For that weight made fresh wounds both in his hands and feete by making the former grow higher and wider and the whole frame of his body more out of ioynt We (g) How the torments of Lord were renewed haue seene already how the wounds of his head had bin renewed increased by those blowes of the Reed and so also euen by the very weight therof they went increasing euery minute We haue seen how the wōds of his body which were giuen him by those scourges were renewed by the often putting on and off his cloathes And now they were all increased by the excessiue cold which his nakednes gaue him through his comming so lately from that fire of heate which his flagellation his coronatiō his procession and his creeping or crawling vp the hill had cast him into And that cold was also augmented afterward by another miraculous accident which was growing vpon the whole world at once as I must shortly shew And heere we see how the weight of his pretious body doth still increase the torment of his sacred hands and feete and consequently of the whole body it selfe Of the excessiue torments of our Lord and how he was blasphemed by all sortes of persons and of the diuine patience and Loue wherwith he bare it all CHAP. 70. THIS passion was so highly beyond all president of former ages and persons as that our Lord himselfe though he vsed at that all tymes else to carry his sufferance in profound silence did yet inuite vs thus long before to the consideration therof Ierem. 1. by the mouth of his holy Prophet O vos omnes qui trāfitis per viam attendite videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus O all you who passe by the way obserue see if there be any griefe like this of mine Vent saith another in the person of Christ our Lord in the Passion Psalm 68. in altitudinem maris tempestas demersit me I came into the depth of
paine that is to say any spirituall Crosse which the holy wise hand of God shall think fit to send vs and to do it for his sake who dyed vpoÌ„ that materiall Crosse And now we haue seene by all this holy History of our Lord IESVS that whether he be aliue or dead he is all ours and in despight of sinne he will make vs also wholy his if we will but now and then consider how he sold and abandoned himselfe for our benefit Psalm â—â— It was sayd by his seruant in his person Sicut aqua effusus sum I am powred out and spilt like water which euery base creature treads vpon Now water besides is a most obedient kind of thing It easily takes what impression you will it applyes it selfe to whatsoeuer place you will put it to Looke backe therfore and see if our Lord haue not bene powred out like water What place or posture or what kind of punishment did he refuse which they would put him in Or what thing was that which they would not make him subiect to which eyther the head could inueÌ„t or the hart inflict or the hand could act He seemed not in that part to haue bene so much a man as a very thing a passiue substance a liuelesse instrument a pile of grasse in the presence of a great winde vpon which they had all power to worke their will for he had giuen his away He turned head at nothing but accepted of all the scorne and paine which they could load him with In the (d) How our Lord was subiect to all kinds of oppressioÌ„ Garden we haue seene how for waÌ„t of others he was his own executioner tooke such sad thoughts into his hart as himselfe was not ashamed to expresse In his appreheÌ„sion or taking he was subiect to the fury of a popular tumult though it were coÌ„tenanced afterward by the lying face tongue of Iustice in the house of Annas and Cayphas to make that seeme laudable which indeed was damnable He was subiect in that house to the hypocrisy and enuy of the Priests of his owne Law togeather with the indignity which the Sycophant did him by that blow vpon his diuine face In the imprisonment of that night he was wholy subiect to the courtesy of those keepers of his who had only a care not to kill him before day that then they might after a manifold kind of manner In the examinations of Pilate he would submit himselfe to the Tribunall of a Pagan and in that of Herod to the scorne of the secular power of his owne Religion And both there afterward in Pylates Court to all the torments and shame which could be deuised by those disolute souldiers In his way to Mount Caluary he would be silent to that world of clamour and when he was arriued to the top of the hill those bloudy executioners were not so insolent cruell in commaÌ„ding as he was mild ready to obey If (e) How entirely our blessed Lord would needs submit himselfe to al kind of insoleÌ„cies they had a minde to binde him he meekely offered them his armes for that purpose If they had a mind to box beate him to plucke him by the venerable hayre or beard if to spit vpon his diuine face he neuer so much as turned it either from their rage or scorne but they strocke spit vpon him at their pleasure If they had a minde to strip him starke naked they did it he replyed not against it though I nothing doubt but that it was the greatest torment which he endured and they stripped him not only once but fower seuerall tymes and the last tyme of the fower did continue till that happy syndon his winding sheete receiued shut him vp from their eyes If they had a mind to scourge him he let them doe it in most bloudy manner which transformed that vnspeakeable beauty into a kind of leprousy at an instant If they would resolue that his imperiall head should be also wounded that after a manner both of torment reproach beyond example he did not so much as aske by what commission they did it but he submitted that diuine head to a crowne of long piercing thornes If not content with that they were yet desirous to renew his paines to giue him at once many wounds in that most sensible part of his body and that as often as they should list he lent them a Reed wherwith they might doe it by striking him vpon the head at theirfancy If yet they should resolue to pierce his body through through in the most liuely parts therof with cruell nayles he extended his hands feete to admit what soeuer they could deuise to doe If they had an humour to scoffe and to blaspheme him he had eares wherwith to heare them and yet he had a hart wherwith to pray for them whilst they were cursing him So truly and so entirely did he powre himselfe out as any water might be spilt which costeth nothing He powred forth his sighes and prayers in the presence of God and his teares in the view both of God and man He powred forth his bloud both through the anguish of his minde through the torments of his body He powred forth his honour in being so prophanely blasphemed and so opprobriously spit vpon and in being so shamefully and so often buffeted and stript of all his cloathes in the sight of all those worlds of people and lastly he powred forth his precious life which he resigned into the hands of his eternall Father A Conclusion of this discourse of the Passion of Christ our Lord and the vse which we are bound to make thereof For the greater that the loue and mercy is which he expressed therein the more excessiue will his rigour be for our contempt therof CHAP. 78. BVT howsoeuer this water of the fountaine of life were spilt with strange liberality for our good yet there fel not one drop for which we shall not be called to a most strict account if we be so wretched as not to saue it from being lost For we (a) The mystery of the Passion death of Christ our Lord doth looke very many wayes at once are to vnderstand that it was not any one onely part which was represented by Christ our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse but they were very many it coÌ„cernes vs much to marke theÌ„ all Not only doth the infinite mercy of God shine brightly in this mistery wherin we see that his own increated Sonne was content to dy for the saluation of man but his infinite Iustice also doth no lesse appeare since it would not be satisfied with lesse then the death of such a Sonne Not only may we heere discerne the pitty which he beareth towards sinners but he giueth vs also as cleere a prospect vpon his vnspeakeable detestation of sinne since for the abolishing therof he was then to imploy no lesse