Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A55658
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A president of female perfection Presented to the serious meditation and perusal of all modest women, who desire to live under the government of vertue, and are obedient to her laws. Containing an historicall discourse of the best and pincipallest [sic] for holiness and vertue of that sex. Illustrated with sundry poems and figures, pertinent to the story. By a person of honour.
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Person of honour.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing P3199BA; ESTC R230777
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76,647
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337
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is borne Behold the Angels singing his birth Do you desire to behold the married Here you have Zachary and Elizabeth The unmarried Here you have Symeon Widdows Here you have Anna. Priests Here againe you have Zachary Wise men Here you have them from the East Ideots You have here the Shepheards But here is to be noted that these keepers of Beasts heare the voyce of the Angels before any of the other first receive the Gospell and first divulge it And in this they were more happie then Augustus himselfe who though he had made a firme Peace by Sea and Land and had now the third time shut up the Temple of Ianus yet was he ignorant of the blessed Peace concluded on betwixt God and Man O how much sometimes Ignorance avails in Divine matters Kings Potentates the Rulers of the Earth and the wise of this world are asleepe while Christ is borne These most simple of Mortals and innocent as the creatures they tend watch all night and therefore are first made partakers of these joyfull news As their owne wooll not yet dipt in any dye readily drinks in any colour they please to bestow on it So their minds voyd of all humane wisedome greedily suckt in the Divine Faith is the Compendium of Salvation and humane knowledge of times the obstacle of Faith Aristotle having confined to Heaven the Maker and Moover of it would never have beleeved his birth here below Plato would have derided this miraculous relation who the more he attributed to God the lesse would he have expected his so humble comming into the world Neither would the Stoicks who held God to be a fire nor Hipocrates who thought him to be a warm'th ever have look't for him clad in flesh and bloud Wherefore they are here elected witnesses of this strange truth whose Science was of ability strongly to beleeve not wittily to dispute O what proficients in Faith did these rusticall Swaines prove in a moment What a profound secret is imparted to them Let us examine the verity of this by that infallible Touch-stone the text And there were in the same Country Shepheards abiding in the field keeping watch by night because of their flocke and loe the Angell of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone about them and they were sore afraid Then the Angell said unto them Be not afraid for behold I bring you tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people That is that unto you is borne this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a signe unto you you shall finde the Childe swadled and layd in a Cratch And straight way there was with the Angell a multitude of heavenly Souldiers praysing God and saying Glory be to God in the high Heaven and Peace on Earth and towards men good will And it came to passe that when the Angels were gone away from thence into Heaven that the Shepheards said one to another Let us goe then unto Bethlem and see this thing that is come to passe which the Lord hath shewed unto us so they came with haste and found both Mary and Ioseph with the Babe layd in the Cratch And when they had seene it they publisht abroad the thing that was told them of that Childe Here three things especially are remarkable First their forwardnesse in believing Secondly the speed they made to see what they had believed and Thirdly to publish what they had seene That they quickly believed appeares by the haste they made to see They no sooner saw him but they found him to be the King of Israell indeed yet withall to be a Shepheard They instantly discerne this to be the Shepheard who was to lay downe his life for his flocke The Prince of all Shepheards whose sheepe-fold is the world The Shepheard that was to seperate the Goates from the Sheepe They discover'd this to be the immaculate Lambe that was to take away the sinnes of the world They disclos'd this Lamb to be the greatest Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah Whom now they looke on in the Cratch Saint Iohn shall hereafter behold on his Throne These men in whom there was no guile as they could not deceive others so they could not in this be deceiv'd They needed not suspect any fallacy and therefore might safely relate this divine wonder to all they met The second witnesses of this Miracle are the Wise men After God had laid open the Treasure of his divine secrets to Idiots he shewes them also to the wise It seemes the Earth at this time was become the Booke of Gods greatest Mysteries and Heaven the Index In this they finde the Star of this King of the Iewes which having beene before the declarer of his Nativity they now make their guide in their journey The Starre performing this duty to its Creator at length brings them to Bethlem where they view him in the Crateh whose Nativity before they had found in the Heavens To him they doe Homage tender adoration and pay Tribute and opening their Treasures make him an oblation of Gold Incense and Mirrhe Whom before they had in vaine sought in the Heavens they now finde on the earth and in the most sorded part of it a Stable full of severall stinkes where he to whom none are worthy to be servants had two dull Beasts for his Companions Returne now you Sonnes of wisedome to your owne home by much more learned by more than much more happy than when you set out Heaven is now set open to you which before your unbeliefe kept shut against you If you be Chaldaeans or Persians or both spreade through those Nations the fame of that which you have seene Publish in all places this the greatest mystery of Piety which God is onely able to produce â—â—ly faith can apprehend Of all â—reatures to man onely belongs the â—ift of Reason by the rule whereof he â—asures all things But doc not you â—e so lest you fall not onely into an â—rreparable but a damnable errour follow you the instruction of Faith and where ere you come with a holy â—ide proclaime that God is manifeâ—â—ed in the flesh justified in the Spirit â—â—ene by Angels reveal'd to Shepâ—â—ards found out and ador'd by you â—our selves and hereafter to be assum'd and to sit in glory farre above those starres you daily read Goe and give out that there is nothing greater in Heaven than what you have found in a Stable Yet ere you depart convince the stiffe-necked Iewes of their lofty but grosse errour in diligently seeking to know God in that part wherein he will lye hid aâ—â— in taking no notice of him iâ—â— that part wherein he would be knowne in looking for 〈◊〉 Saviour from * The Iews when ever it lighteneth set open their windowes for they hold their Saviour shall come in lightening On this reade Buxdorfius Heaven whâ—â— is already borne on earth Yet now I consider their obstinacy better
and Mother be Stranger to see In one soule both God and Humanity As hee was God thou still art Mayd Who can This wonder scan Hee made thee Mother as hee was but man Thou succkl'st him upon thy breasts and he To ransome thee Open'd his side upon his passion tree me blessed Virgin and receive thy Crowne Of full Renowne Where Death and Time have laid their Scepters downe There sing with us how three doe sit upon The glorious Throne One of which three is two yet all but one THus holy Virgin have I shadow'd o're Thy Picture in a rude unpollisht score That wish'd t' have limm'd it with as lively grace As ever Painter drew the sweetest face Yet would I not idolatrize thy worth Like some whose superstition sets thee forth In costly ornaments in cloaths so gay So rich as never in the Stable lay These make thy Statues now as famous be For pride as thou wert for Humility I cannot thinke thy Virgin bashfulnesse Would weare the Lady of Lorettos dresse Though farre more glorious robes to thee were given Meekenesse and Zeale on Earth Glory in Heauen Take then the honour thou hast justly wonne Praise above Angels but below thy Sonne Faults escaped in Printing PAge 74. line 4. reade glorious 10â— in the margin reade not onely marâ— Moderne 128.14 for it reade is 16 16. for penurious reade poore 182 1â— Lambertus 194.14 in stead of siâ— reade from 205.6 Jdelphonsus 213 1â— for consent reade concent 246. fâ—â— Christs r. Christ 247. for brought broughtst 248.11 for silent r. a silenâ— 248.13 dele but. This Blessed Virgin had the grace deuine To be deriu'd from IESSE 's blooming rod And rijse elect from DAVID 's golden line To be the Daughter Mother Spouse of GOD THE FEMALL GLORY OR The life of the Virgin MARY HIstory offers to our view Myriads of holy Virgins in Beauty and vertue equally attractive whose due praise the Catholike Church doth at this day solemnely sing but with a more elevated voyce as duty on our part and merit on hers commands the laud of that most excellent Princesse the Virgin Mother of God There be who affirme that what ever the Creator saw beautifull in heaven or earth he bestowed in the limming of this rare Piece not that she might be stiled the most faire amongst the daughters of women but by a heavenly prerogative the alone Faire the alone Lovely Looke how many parts Her externall Beauty so many arts you might discerne of the Celestiall Limmer And this is no way repugnant to reason it selfe for if Christ was faire above the sonnes of men Galatinus should not she be so above their Daughters since from her alone he received his flesh Gregory Nazianzen proclaimes that she surpass'd all women in lovelinesse Andraeas sayes that she was a Statue carved by Gods own hand Others of those first and purer times not without admiration observe that God was almost fifty Ages in the meditation of the structure of this stately Pallace And truely our beliefe may easily digest this that his omnipotency would make her fit to be the Mother of his Son Empresse of this lower world and the blessed Conduit through which should passe the mystery of mans Redemption Yet finde I a ridiculous description of her in Epiphanius a Priest of Constantinople who affirmes that her Face was of the colour of Wheate her visage long and her nose sutable her haire yellow and her eye-browes blacke But what authority he hath for this neither I nor I thinke he himselfe can well tell for surely simple Antiquity was not either curious or skilfull to deliver it by tradition or picture to posterity I verily beleeve he had it from his owne dreames or rather fancy Mopsa is as much beholding to our incomparable and inimitable Sydney for a delineation as is my divine subject to this curious Impertinent Whether her beauty chiefly consisted in colour in Symmetry of parts or both I know not sure I am the streame of other more judicious pious Authors carries me not into an opinion but a strong beleefe of her heavenly forme Cardinall Cajetan and Galatinus with what truth I cannot say certainely with more probability then he maintaine that her excellent temperature her conformity of members her firme and constant Complexion free'd her from all contagion and diseases And Dyonisius goes further affirming that she was no other then a walking Spring Such variety of sweet odours her very pores breath'd out on all that came neare her as we reade of Alexanders living body and the Aegyptian Carkasses which by a thin spare dyet observed in life even after death sent forth a most sweet perfume Sylvanus Razzius recounts a pleasing story of a certaine Clerke who by many prayers implor'd and obtain'd the blessing of her fight but with this condition that he should see her but with one eye and that one he should lose He willingly embrac't it but when she appear'd drest in all her Beames not being able with one eye to take a full view of her he opened the other also chusing rather to forfeit his sight for ever then to loose one minute of the inconceiveable content he enjoyed in the sight of so glorious a spectacle Were this true it would make a brave example of a devout soule ravisht with the view of a divine object Her internall Beauty If the Inne was so splendent so sumptuous what may we thinke of the amiable guest that lodg'd in it her minde beset with thoughts cleare and radiant as her owne eyes He that dares attempt the expression of these her internall gifts is ignorant of her sublimity he who dares not knows not her humanity her sweetnesse As no stile can ascend so high as her exalted worth so on the other side none can descend so low as her Humility Encourag'd therfore by her meeknesse not my owne sufficiencie I shall endeavour to limme her soule in little since in great neither my time nor ability will let me which will appeare an enterprise as hardy and vaine as his who should strive to limmit the light or circumscribe the Ayre Know then modest Reader and receive this knowledge with the same extasie and zeale I write it that her internall luster was farre greater then her externall like in this unto the Tents of Kedar as soone cover'd with dust and almost burned up with the heat of the Sunne as soone beaten and shaken with tempestuous weather but in the meane time inwardly all glittering with glory and magnificence O ye Angels to you it is onely given not to sinne but on her is conferr'd what you cannot merit to beare and the reparation of mans ruine The Apostles those holy Tapours of the primitive Church sometimes burnt dimme and were obscur'd with the fogge of sinne but her brightnesse nothing vitious could lessen much lesse utterly extinguish She was indeed vertues prime and great example and all the accomplisht women of the Ages past present