God whilst we are in working and to presse with instance Ibid. when we are concluding Father saith he into thy hands I commend my spirit 1. Cor. 6. And if we will procure to be one spirit with him as S. Paul exhorts vs all to be already (a) How we assure our selues to be cōmended by Christ our Lord. Hebr. 5. we may perceaue that Christ our Lord did no lesse pray for vs then for himselfe He prayed as the same Apostle sayd els where Cum clamore valido lacrymis with a lowd cry and with teares and therfore it is no meruaile if he were heard by the Eternall Father both for himselfe and vs. But yet so as that we must concurre with him and suffer pray cry out and weepe for our selues and for our sinnes since he hath traced out the way of doing it for the sinnes of others But the misery is many tymes that whilst we doe so often vsurpe this holy Prayer of our blessed Sauiour wherby we protest our selues to commend our spirit into the hands of God we doe but cōmend it only in word or at the most we doe but giue it with one hand and take it backe againe with the other and indeed we deliuer it ouer to his enemies by sinne or at least to strangers by fulfilling vaine and lesse good desires Wheras if we would doe it as Christ our Lord was found to doe we should no sooner bequeth our selues to the seruice of our Lord but that instantly we would take a lōg euerlasting leaue of a wretched world Our Lord when he had giuen his spirit to God expired Luc. 23. And we if we expire not if we dye not to the sinnes and vanities of this life the spirit will be still where it was and we doe but say we giue him that which indeed we reserue for others or at least for our selues But that other kind of alienation b There will be no true life and liberty vnlesse there be a true death to imperfection passion is the only way to haue a true possession of our soules Seruire Deo regnare est This bondage doth only bring perfect liberty This kind of expiring by death doth only inspire vs with true life Christ our Lord for loue of vs did leaue as we haue seene his life of nature that we might be animated by the life of grace And woe be to that wretched man who shall rather choose death then life and such a life as hath been bought to our hād by parting with such a iewell as was the life of Christ our Lord. He had vnspeakeable cause to loue his life but we haue no cause at all to be in loue with ours The reason why we may punish euen hate as one may say our bodyes with a iust and holy kind of hate is because otherwise they will be giuing ill counsell to the soule The (c) In what case we desire a separation betweene the body and the soule 2. Pet. ◠reason why in some cases we may wish so farre as may stand with the good will of God to haue this Tabernacle of our flesh and bloud dissolued by death may be because we doe highly apprehēd a feare of sinne and so we may be glad to dye the first death when we hope our selues to be in good state least afterward we may dye the second And besides we haue reason to long for the sight of God from which we are exiled in this Pilgrimage But Christ our Lord did euer see the face of God and the Superiour part of his soule was as glorious as closely vnited to the Diunity in the bitterest torments of the Crosse as now is it at the right hand of his Father And besides there could be no daunger that euer that impeccable soule could sinne As therfore there was no cause why Christ our Lord should of himselfe desire or euen admit of any separation of his soule from his body so whatsoeuer motiue it were that should induce him to it that must necessarily be acknowledged for a great one For neuer did nor neuer could any creature in any reason so deerly and delightfully loue the cōiunction betwene his soule and his body as Christ our Lord loued his Nor consequently could any or all the creatures so much apprehend and abhorre any separation of the body from the soule as Christ our Lord would haue apprehended and abhorred that of his if some mighty reason had not moued him to it Because (d) The reason why Christ our Lord must needs loue the coniunction of his body and soule after a most eminent māner no creature nor all the creatures put togeather had euer found any body so sweetly so continually and so perfectly obedient to all the dictamens of a holy soule as our Lord IESVS had sound his body and this is the only or at least the principall reason why any man should loue his body So that for Christ our Lord to indure that the coniunction of such a body and soule should be broken for how short a tyme soeuer was the Crosse beyond all the corporall Crosses which he endured in his Passion concerning himselfe Yet of this he admitted as we see And since there was no power which could oblige him to it in the way of force it doth cleerly appeare that he performed it vpon a commandement of loue For loue is the King of all affections and disposeth of them all at pleasure And amongst seuerall loues the Superiour loue is still the King to whom all inferiour loues giue place If then Christ our Lord did so deerly and so iustly loue his owne pretious life incomparably more then any of vs can by any possibility loue ours and if yet that loue were content to yield to his loue of vs and that indeed he dyed of pure and perfect loue which is yet declared further to vs by that sweet declyning of his head when he gaue vp the ghost let vs endeauour to conceaue what an infinite kind of loue this was And let vs beg of him by his owne pretious wounds that he will make vs in all things as like himselfe as he desires And that as a meanes therunto he will print himselfe thus crucified vpon our harts and that the eye of our mind may be euer looking at ease vpon this sweet figure the (e) The grace and beauty of the Crucifix sweetest that hath bene seene or can be conceaued the fittest to moue all the affections of a Christian hart whether they be of compassion or admiration And verily I thinke that it is not only faith which brings vs to be of this beliefe but that euen abstracting from the quality of the diuine persō of Christ our Lord the cause for which he suffered which yet indeed are the things that subdue vs most the very figure it selfe of an excellent man so exposed to publique view vpon a Crosse is the loueliest and the
content for loue of vs to be spit vpon to be buffeted stript stareke naked scourged crucified blasphemed for the loue for the good of man I find it not so strange that a Iew who called Christ our Lord Impostour and Traytour should deny this Doctrine of the blessed Sacrament because he beleeues him to be a Traytour and a Lyer who said That the bread was his body I find it not so strāge that a Pagan or a Morisco should deny it for he also denies to beleeue that God did make himselfe man and dye But that a Christian who saith that Christ is God and who acknowledgeth those words of Hoc est corpus meum to haue bene spoken by his owne sacred mouth and that so immediatly before he dyed and besides in the nature of a last will and Testament which no ordinary wise man would haue penned in doubtfull and ambiguous termes that a Christian I say should cut himselfe out such a motly kind of faith at this and argue against Gods power by saying that his body must needs be subiect to all the qualities of other naturall bodyes whether he will or no and against his infinite mercy by not beleeuing that he would submit himselfe though he sayd he did to such indignities as they conceaue him to be subiect to by this kind of communication of himselfe this I say is strāge and I say agayne that it deserues to be eternally deplored with teares of bloud For in (g) The denyall of this doctrine doth shoot at the disgrace of Gods omnipotency or infinite wisedome or infinite loue in fine all the arguments which they bring against the probability of this diuine truth are but so many arrowes shot vp by them against his omnipotency And all those reasons wherby they would taxe it of any absurdity or inconuenience are but so many teeth which offer to carpe and teare away some part of his infinite wisedom And all those charges wherby they would lay aspersion vpon it of indignity are but so many protestations that they are not capable of the supereminent science wherof the blessed Apostle speakes Ephes 3. cōcerning the infinite goodnes and loue of Christ our Lord to man Of the Obligation which we haue to God for so great a benefit and who are most bound to be deuoted to it and why and how happy they must needs be who frequent it with deuotion CHAP. 51. LET the same loue of IESVS Christ our Lord intercede with the Eternall Father that they may not for euer be depriued of this food of life Without which it is no meruaile if they be dayly more and more disposing themselues to dye that fearfull double death both of body and soule And for our parts we who are Catholikes let (a) The great obligation which Catholiques haue to God for the blessing of our faith vs adore that excellent Maiesty for this high mistery and especially for that light of faith and grace wherby he hath enabled vs to beleeue it to loue him for it Nay let vs do it so much the more as there are too many in the world who dishonour and blaspheme him euen for this very excesse of his goodnes Which though he designed to all mankind yet to vs alone he hath giuen efficacious helpes wherby to gather the true fruite therof And so let (b) We must procure God amends for the faults of others vs double our deuotiō to this bread of Angells as that we may make Christ our Lord a kind of amends as I may say in respect of the much loue which he hath wholy lost vpon the vnbeleeuers blasphemers of this mystery so that we must pay not only our owne but others debts Especially it will concerne such of vs to be entirely deuouted to it as haue much dishonoured or prophaned this diuine Sacrament either by any notable want of preparation before the receauing it or of recollection afterward and much more if when they came to this Table they examined and looked vpon their conscience through the false spectacles of selfe loue and passion and not through the cleere pure christall glasse of the law of God For thus they taught themselues to beleeue grosse lyes insteed of truth and to walk in the darke through the most intricate and obscure waies of sinne and thereby they haue come to pollute themselues and prophane the holy thinges of God and to commit as many sacriledges as they receaued Sacraments and they would infallibly and most iustly haue dropt downe into hell if our Lord had not been infinitely mercifull towards them Such persons as these and there are too many such in the world when they communicated or celebrated in such a state of mind in mortall sinne as this did deserue to be strucken with suddē death at the Altar where they stood or before which they kneeled and there to haue made their entrance into the eternall torments of hell fire It (c) Our Lord might haue inflicted great punishmēts for this great fault and yet still haue been full of mercy had bene mercy and infinite mercy in God if giuing them grace to repent their sinnes afterward he had but strucken them at the present with some signe from heauen in the face of the world according to some such examples of his Iustice as were seen sometymes by the testimony of S. Cyprian and others in the primitiue Church Or els if he had depriued them of the vse of reason and made them mad and franticke for a while Or els if towards the sauing of their soules he had permitted them for a tyme to be possessed with Legions of deuills in their body and to be subiect to their rage by tearing their flesh with their owne hands and throwing themselues into fire and water and foaming and vttering dreadfull cryes and wandring by night in darke woods or els amongst the sepulchers of dead men as we find in the holy Ghospel that possessed persons did vse to doe This more then this seuerity might our Lord haue vsed against the prophaners of this mystery yet haue shewed excessiue mercy if withall he had giuen them grace to repent at last But these sinnes are frequent though the exemplar punishment be not so For our Lord expecteth vs to penance that so he may not be forced to take reuenge and this he doth in the bowells of his owne charity and the inuinciblenes of his patience for which let all the Angells prayse him But for this very reason of his infinite goodnes euen abstracting from the double trebble dangers which either delaies of our conuersion or relapses from grace doe vse to bring it will be tyme for vs all to turne the leafe that the good may be better and the bad may procure to be growing good For (d) Euen the excellency of the food makes the not digesting it the more daungerous but as for this food by grace we may digest it
grauest and greatest of them who would needs goe with him to testify the excesse of their malice though it be not the vse of men of rancke to cheapen themselues by accompanying criminall persons in the publique streets would not fayle to hold most hypocritical discourses As protesting in their zeale to the lavv of God hovv much it grieued them that the Pagan Iudge to vvhome they vvere going should be forced to knovv that amongst the men of their Religion vvhich the prisoner vvas there should be a creature so impious so blasphemous as most vvickedly they accused him to be Our Lord IESVS in the meane tyme vvas not to seeke for patience in the bearing of vvhatsoeuer affront they could put vpon him nor vvould he vvho had endured the greater refuse the lesse Novv a (b) The sinne of the Iewes was greater against our Lord then that of the Gentiles lesse offence it vvas in them for him to be presented before a Pagan and prophane person vvho had no knowledge at all of the true God or of his law then before a congregation of men who had the custody of his auncient Testament for whose saluation and perfection they being his owne chosen people he was particularly come into the would And so the more fauoured they had bene the more faulty they were in persecuting Christ our Lord that euen for no other cause but only for the very zeale which he had of their good They might haue considered how earnestly they had cōcurred to the sinne of Iudas and therfore they should haue feared his punishment which was the falling into a greater sinne For when he saw that they were then going actually to procure the death of Christ our Lord and when he began to looke in vpon himselfe and vpon what he had done then discerning cleerly the deformity of his sinne which the deuill had before procured to hide he hunge (c) The lamentable of death of Iudas Matt. 27. himselfe by the necke his body brake in the middle and his bowells fell about his feete and instantly his soule sirnke downe into the lowest place of hell How would that accident strike the hart of Christ our Lord with sorrovv For as our Lord is incomparably more sory for our sinns then for his own paines so vvas this a greater thē that fin For to finish in despaire of Gods omnipotent mercy is the most grieuous sinne vvhich man is able to commit It strooke I say our Lords hart vvith griefe yet those vvretches vvere not touched by it tovvards remorse But notwithstanding that Iudas restored to them the price wherby he had bene wrought to act that treason and did declare himselfe to haue sinned in betraying that innocent bloud they neither relented in themselues nor tooke compassion of him but seornefully made answere that it was not a thing which belonged to them and that all was to run vpon his account A memorable example of how truly and miserably they are deceaued who serue the world the flesh or the deuill For (d) Consider seriously of this truth whatsoeuer may be promised before hand yet in fine when the turne is serued no care is taken of their comfort but they may with Iudas goe hange themselues And so they doe many tymes and more I beleeue in our only country of England then in all the rest of Europe put togeather Matt. 29. But the thirty peeces which Iudas restored to the Priests were not cast into the Treasury but imployed vpō the Purchase of a place to a pious vse And S. Augustine noteth how it was by a most particular prouidence of God Serm. 128. de coena Dom apud Ariam that the price of the bloud of Christ our Lord should not serue for the expence of liuing sinners but for the buriall of deceased Pilgrimes that so with the price of his bloud he might both redeeme the liuing and be a retraite for the dead The hate of those malicious Priests Elders to Christ our Lord and consequently his loue to them and vs since for their particular and our generall good he was content to endure so much at their hands appears yet more plainely by other circumstances For the tyme when they persecuted our Lord was the day of the greatest solemnity and deuotiō of the whole yeare It was the feast of the Paschal when all the Iewish world was come to Ierusalem Luc. 22. to assist at those sacrifices and ceremonies of the the law in the Temple And as the affronts were so much greater then if they had bene done at a more priuate tyme the malice of the high Priests so much the more eager since they could not be perswaded to put it of to a lesse busy day so was the loue of our Lord excessiue euen heerin who was contented with the publicity of his shame at that tyme because by meanes therof the notice of his Passion togeather with the miracles succeding it would the more speedily be spred and more readily beleeued shortly after throughout the world The circumstance of Pilates person doth plainely also shew the particular rancour of their hart since they hated Christ our Lord so much as that it made them earnest glad to shew themselues subiect to that Romane Iustice They detested the subiection which they were in to Rome They loued not Cesar whome they tooke to be a Tyrant and Vsurper ouer them they loued not Pilate whome they knew to be a most corrupt and wicked Iudge they loued not the exercise of his Iudicature which serued but to refresh the memory of their owne misfortune in their hauing lost the vse of that power But their predominat malice to Christ our Lord made them content to gnaw and swallow all such bones as those When Pilate was come sorth they began to make their charge against the prisoner accusing him in bitter termes of most odious crimes but still as the manner of such persons is only in generall termes Which yet out of the (e) The base conceit which the lewes had of Christ our Lord. base cōceit they had of Christ our Lord and the pride which they tooke in themselues they thought would haue sufficiently induced Pilate to proceed against him And so indeed they did as good as say when afterward being pressed to produce their proofe they insinuated that it was more then needed For if the man had not bene wicked they would not Ioan. 18. said they haue brought him thither And withall they did not so much as vouchsafe to giue our Lord any particular name but they only sayd Inuenimus hunc c. We haue sound this fellow disturbing the peace of our people Luc. 23. and forbidding that Tribute should be paid to Cesar and declaring himselfe to be a King Yet Pilate being moued by the sight of the person of Christ our Lord did beyond his custome forbeare to make such hast as at the instant to
to be amiable and easy to be endured And thus was the whole life which Christ our Lord did lead in this world an example and a liuing Doctrine of the actions which we were to performe and of the vertues which we were to practise This is said by S. Augustine Therfore to conclude this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord we haue (i) The summe of this whole discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord. seene how painefull it was with how great loue he endured it and with how heroicall vertue it was performed We haue seene the end and ayme he had therin which was not only the redeeming of vs from hell but the recouery of vs from sinne the inducing vs to fly from all inordinate desire of honour estate and vaine delights to imbrace after his exaÌ„ple for his loue the exercise of all vertue the mortification both of the inward and outward man Let vs take heed that we contemne not the treasures of his mercies least we be consumed by the fiery torrent of his Iustice Let vs not pretend to make him loose his labour for auoyding of a little labour of our owne He is the wisedome it selfe of God and can tell how to value to a haire such a huge indignity as that would be And of this truth we must be well assured for it is not only reuealed to vs by way of Faith but it is written in our harts by the law it selfe of nature and reason That (k) The more good God is to men the more bitterly will they be punished for the contempt of such goodnesse if a mercy be offered abused a vengeance will belong to that offence If the mercy be great the vengeance will not faile to be great and if the mercy be infinite the vengeance also will be infinite And though Christ our Lord be a Lyon and the roaring of a Lyon is a frighfull thing yet he is also a Lambe we haue seene how he hath bene shorne and slaine and this LaÌ„be is not willingly alienated from his loue to vs. But if he be then laesa patientia vertitur in furorem The more inuincibly patient he was the more implacably furious he will be And for my part I doe not heare in the whole booke of God any word which strickes with greater terrour then when it speakes of the wrath of the Lambe Apoc. 6. The holy Ghospell describing Christ our Lord vpoÌ„ the Crosse saith that they blasphemed him as they were passing by Many blaspheme him by their deeds who doe not so by their words Matt. 27. but hauing an Aue Rex in their mouthes they strike him with the Reed in their hands If we desire insteed of blaspheming to doe him seruice and so to be happy both in heauen and euen heere our way will be not to passe so lightly by his Crosse but there to behould contemplate him at good leasure For how miserably shall we be out of countenance at the hower of our death if our conscience may iustly then accuse vs that we could not so much as find in our harts now then to thinke of those bitter things which the Sonne of God God did find in his hart to endure and that with infinite loue for our saluation Our Lord (l) Our great ingratitude to God will make vs see how very wicked we are otherwise IESVS giue vs grace to know how very wicked things we are And this knowledge being once well grounded in vs and our Lord being desired that for the loue of his bitter Passion he will make vs see the loue he bare vs in it we shall grow to take delight in looking often vpon that book with the eyes of our soule and so they will be happily shut vp from the sight and loue of other obiects We shall then quickly find that the Crosse is no such cruell thing as we haue coÌ„ceaued but that it is short and light and the reward therof remaines for euer Besides that the memory of her friends is honorable afterward euen with the enemies therof Wheras those persecuting Iewes with Cayphas and Pilate Herod al the libertines of the world who indeed are the enemies of Christ our Lord Philip. 3. and of his Crosse as S. Paul affirmeth howsoeuer they triumphed for a tyme were soone either beate downe by disgrace like so many bladders or blsters or els blowne vp by a little tyme out of the estimation of God and man like so many squibbs And now they haue found their place in hel where they shall remaine as long as God is God and so will their successors in sinne succeed them also in their punishment from which our Lord deliuer both them and vs. Of the vnspeakeable Loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all CHAP. 79. OVR Lord IESVS hauing made his last Will and Testament in that night precedent to his death at which tyme he gaue vs his owne pretious body and bloud not only for the food of our soules in the blessed Sacrament but for a Sacrifice to God in the way of homage as to a Soueraigne Creatour by the institution of the Masse and being that night and the next day arriued so farre in the course of his bloudy and bitter Passion as after innumerable other affronts and torments to see himselfe both naked nayled through hands and feete vpon a Crosse the (a) The loue of our Lord Iesus did after asort increase with the torment which he â—â—dured â—â—â—our 〈◊〉 bowells of his mercy were so farre from being changed or cooled toward vs that the neerer they were to breake for griefe the faster he made them beate for loue And therfore as some tender-harted husband would haue done in fauour of his most faithfull and beloued wife who hauing setled his affaires in tyme of health by way of Testament wherby he had honorably prouided for her estate and comfort would yet wheÌ„ he drew neere to death in further proofe of his affection increase her ioynture by some Lordships and plucke of his ringe of greatest price from his owne fingar that he might put it vpon hers iust so was our Lord IESVS pleased to proceed with the holy Church his Spouse To whome notwithstanding the legacy of his owne pretious body which he had giuen vs already by Testament he did also now when he drew close vpon the confines of death with incomparable Charity (b) Our Lord Iesus bequeathed his B. mother to be also ours as it were by way of Codicill annexed to his last will Luc. 23. bequeath his sacred Mother to vs as it were by way of Codicille which he annexed to that former Will of his It hath bene seene already how our Lord vpon the death-bed of the Crosse did vtter seauen Words or rather declare himselfe by seauen seuerall speaches both to God
both extremely laborious withall very lickerish after all the delightfull obiects which it lookes vpon And for listening gazing it growes first to cheapning then to buying by the disorder distēpered heate therof it blowes with vehemet desire vpon them And so it rayseth a dust into the eye of the vnderstāding wherby it is made as blind almost as the blind will it selfe And wherby it growes persuaded that how deere soeùer that cōterfeit ware do cost it may proue a kind of sauing bargaine to vs in the end Now what a case are we therfore in if our Loue being so restles a thing as it is so resolued to be euer feeding vpon some obiect or other we suffer that to be such a one as besides the endles tormes of the next life can neuer bring vs to any true rest in this For the soule can neuer rest in the possession or fruition of any creature The reason heerof is playne because the rest of any thing consisteth in the attayning inioying of that last end to which it was ordayned in the creation therof And therfore the soule of man being made for the fruition of God whose glorious vision is only able to make vs say It is inough what meruaile is it that it can take no lasting true contentment in any thing which is lesse then God The holy S. Bernard sayth heervpon to this essect It is no meruaile that the soule of man can neuer be satisfied with the possessions honours pleasures of this world For the soule desires to feed vpon such a meat as may carry proportion to it selfe Now the entertaiments of this life carry no proportion at all to the soule in the way of giuing it entiere satisfactiō For the soule is spirituall immortall and all these obiects are either temporall or carnall And therfore as he who were ready to starue for lacke of meate would be ridiculous if he should thinke to kill his hungar by going to a window gaping there like some Camelion to take in the ayre which ayre is no cōpetent and proportionable food for a body of flesh bloud iust so a man who shal pretend to satisfy fulfill the desires of a spirituall immortal substāce as we know the soule to be by feeding fowly vpon the Carrion of Corporall thinges is at least as very a foole as the former And besides his folly his losse of labour in the meane time he wil heerafter grow to suffer by it so much more hē the otherr as the eternall dānation of a soule is a matter incōparably more considerable then the death of a mortall body No it is God alone who can quēch the infini e appetite of his reasonable creatures He alone made the whole world for vs vs for himself he only is our Center place of rest He only is that first Truth which our vnderstāding should aspire to know the only Good which our Will should be so inflamed to Loue. And because as hath bene said the question is but of the Meanes wherby we must tend to this most perfect End and for that by the treachery of our sēses we are induced to place our harts the affectiōs therof vpon dāgerous vicious obiects it is therfore shat I am procuring to set that one before vs which is the most strōg sweet perfect meanes which may not only inuite but assist vs also admirably otherwise towards the ariuing to our last End The line which leades to this faire full point the way which guides vs to this eternall habitation is that top of beauty and excellency Iesus Christ our Lord vpon whom if we can perswade our selues to fasten the rootes of allour Loue we shall not only be happy there but euē heere And to the end that we may consider the innumerable inualuable reasons which we haue to loue this Lord of ours I haue laboured first to shew the vnspeakeable dignity of his person then the infinite loue it selfe which he hath borne to vs. And this I haue deduced out of the principal misteries of his most sacred life bitter death as they haue bene deliuered to vs in holy Scripture And although whilst I treate of the Loue of our Lord to vs in euery one of the particular mysteries I do also shew the straite obligation into which we are cast of returning loue for loue to him yet I procure to do it more expresly towards the end of the book in the two last Chapters The holy ghost be he who by sweetly breathing vpō our soules may inable vs to do this duty well which hath bene so highly deserued of vs which only is able to make vs happy OF THE LOVE OF OVR LORD IESVS CHRIST declared by shewing his Greatnes as he is God CHAP. 1. THE Loue of our Lord Iesus Christ to this wretched and wicked creature Man is such a Sea without any bottome and such a Sunne without all Eclipse that not only no fadome can reach it must not so much as any eye behould it as indeed it is And whither soeuer we looke either vp or downe or towards any side we shall find our selues ouer wrought by the bulke and brightnes thereof Now (a) The quality of the persōs which loue each other giueth price and value to the loue it selfe because the loue of any one to any other doth take a tincture from the quality of the persons betweene whome it pasles therefore the loue of our Lord to vs is proued heereby to be infinite and incomprehensible because the dignity and Maiesty of his person is incomprehensible and infinite It will therefore be necessary to declare some part of the excellency of his person And for his sake who loued vs with so eternall loue I beg in this beginning an exact attention Because (b) The reason why exact attention is heere required what I am to say in this place being the ground whereon the rest of this discourse must rise will both giue it clearer light and greater weight and more certaine credit Nor can any thing which shall be deliuered in the progresse heerof be so high or deep or wide or hard to the beliefe whereof the soule wil not be able to flye at full ease and speed betweene the wings of faith and loue when it considers and ponders well who it is of whō we speake Our Lord Iesus Christ being perfect God and perfect Man as God is the only begotten eternall sonne of his Father and wholy equall to him And because (c) The generatiō of the Son of God he is begotten of him by an act of Vnderstanding proceeding out of that inexausted fountaine of his wisedom as if it were out of a wombe he is therefore called the Wisedome begotten the Word the Image and the Figure of his Father from whome togeather with the Sonne the Holy Ghost proceeds And for as much as the
the more power he practiseth the more holynes he possesseth the more happy are the creatures vvhom he loues The (b) The power of Christ our Lord as man Power therfore vvhervvith Christ our Lord vvas endued as man vvas so vvonderfully great that he could vvorke vvhat miracles he vvould and at his pleasure vvas he able to inuert the order of all naturall things and all this by vvhat meanes he would think fit This Power he also had in as permanent a manner as vve haue said already that he had his Prophesy nor vvas it only obtayned for him by his particular prayers made to God from tyme to tyme according to the exigence of occasions as it hath beene graunted to some of the seruants of God But vve read that vvhen he vvas passing and doing other thinges Luc. 8. yet vertue euen then issued out of him vvherby the vvorking of miracles is meant And els vvhere it is also affirmed that the vertue which issued out of him Luc. 6. cured all diseases And the leaper vvho vvas recouered in the Ghospell vvas inspired by the good spirit of God to say thus to Christ our Sauiour O Lord if thou wilt Matt. 8. thou canst make me cleane And our Lord did shevv that he vvas not deceaued therin For instantly he said I will Be cleane Novv all this Power he employed for our good both corporall and spirituall but especially for our spirittuall good For euen in the Ghospell vvhen he cured mens bodyes by way of illuminating their eyes enabling their limmes and restoring their liues he cured also many of their soules and the seuerall infirmities vvhich they vvere subiect to as vvill be shevved els (c) In the discourse of the Miracles of Christ our Lord. vvhere Nor vvrought that holy omnipotent hand of his any outvvard miracle vvherin some invvard mystery was not locked vp as some rich Ievvel might be in some rare Cabbinet The (d) The sanctity of the soule of Christ our Lord. Sanctity also of Christ our Lord vvas supreme For Sanctity being nothing but a constant and supernaturall cleanes and purity of the soule wherby it is made acceptable and deare to God hovv holy must that soule needs be vvhich vvas so highly (e) The soule of no Saynt in heauen was to haue been any other then odious in the sight of God but for the merits of Christ our Lord. deere to him as that it is only in regard of that soule that all other soules are not odious and vgly in his sight Supreme I say was the Sanctity of Christ our Lord for by the grace of the Hypostaticall vnion he was made holy after a most high and incomprehensible manner and he became The beloued Sonne of God receauing grace beyond al power of expression That so from thence as from the treasure-house of Sanctity all men might take according to their capacity Not only as from the greatest Saint but as from the sanctifyer of them all and as I may say from the very dye of sanctity whereby all they who euer thinke of becomming Saints must take their coulour and luster all they who will may fetch what they desire out of this store So that we may see with ease inough how incōparably much more the Sāctity was of Christ our Lord then that of any or all the other creatures put togeather For among them God hath giuen drops to some and draughts to others but to him grace was communicated by streames and floudes beyond all measure or set proportion His soule indeed could not haue beene vnited to the diuinity without a most speciall grace but that being once supposed the other could not chuse but follow as connaturall And by the force of this Sanctity of Christ our Lord he was wholy naturally made incapable of sinne yea and of any morall defect whatsoeuer Concerning the Vertues which are called Theologicall namely Fayth Hope and Charity the last only of the three could lodge in him for the former two being (f) Why christ our Lord was vncapable of Fayth Hope Hope and Faith were incompatible with the cleare vision and perfect fruition of God which he still enioyed But (g) Christ our Lord possessed all the morall vertues in all perfection as for the morall vertues as Liberality Magnanimity Patience Purity Mercy Humility and Obedience withall the rest it appeares by the history of his sacred life and death that he had them all and that they were most perfect in him and euer most ready to be put in practise as not being impeached by so much as the offer of any contraryes All the guifts of Gods spirit were in him nay he was the resting and reposing place of that spirit This Soule of Christ our Lord was therefore inhabited by all the vertues Isa 11. and graces of God as heauen is by so many seueral quires of Angells in heauen but that which did sublime them all was Charity This soule if it be well considered will looke as if it were some huge wide bottomlesse sea of Christall but (*) The vnspeakeable working of the soule of Christ our Lord in the spirit of loue a Christall sweetly passed and transpierced with a kind of flame of loue It was vnspeakably quiet and yet in a kind of perpetuall agitation by the impulse thereof like the flame of some torch which is euer mouing and working yet without departing from it selfe It is like that kind of Hawke which keeping still the same pitch aloft in the ayre doth stirr the winges with a restlesse kind of motion whilest yet the body doth not stirre It spendes but wasteth not it selfe by spreading grace vpon all the seruants of God after an admirable manner Sometymes looking into the hartes of men and by that very looking changing them sometymes by sending as it were certaine inuisible strings from his hart to theirs and so sweetly drawing them to himselfe whilst (h) No soule can moue one pace towardes God but drawn by the loue of Christ our Lord. yet the world would ignorantly conceaue that they went alone But aboue all that which may strike our weake and darke mindes with wonder is to consider the profoundity and (i) The admirable order with still was held in the soule of Christ our Lord notwithstanding the wonderfull multiplicity of acts with he exercised al at once order which is held in that diuine Soule though it looked vpon almost infinite thinges at once Still did it adore the Diuinity still did it abase and euen as it were annihilate his owne humanity still did it most straitly imbrace with strong armes and patronize with the working bowels of tender mercy all the miseryes of al the Creatures in the whole world vnspeakably ardently thirsting after the glory of God and the felicity of man and eternally keeping all the facultyes of his mind erected vpon that high and pure law of Charity So excellent and so noble was this
diuine Soule of Christ our Lord through the high endowmentes wherewith it was enriched by the eternall Father Wherein no passion did euer once presume to lead the way to reason but was glad of so much honour as to follow it And though whatsoeuer concerned the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule may seeme little in respect of what is sayd concerning the reasonable which inuolueth both those others yet since nothing is little which is able to do seruice and homage to him who is so truly great it may deserue to be considered how those (k) The vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule were wholly in the hand of the will of Christ our Lord. Vegetatiue and Sensitiue powers were wholy in the hand of his will And so he could haue chosen whether his body should grow or whether his meate should nourish or whether his flesh should feele or whether his bloud vpon the inflicting of a wound should follow or whether his person should send out any such images or species of it selfe as whereby it might become visible to the eyes of others And (l) The body of Christ our Lord though it were a true and naturall body yet was it wholly in his power to determine how far it should be subiect to the conditions of such a body more or lesse in fine in his choice it was whether he would let himselfe be lyable to any of those propertyes and conditions to which the rest of man is subiect And now because the graces and perfections of his sacred body doe contribute to the excellency of his diuine person I will also procure to describe the supereminent beauty and dignity of that sacred flesh and bloud For thus we shall grow to haue a perfect notion of his whole person which will conuey such an influēce of valew vpon euery act of loue which afterward he will be shewed to haue expressed as I hope will make vs wholly giue our hart to him by way of homage for his incomparable benefits The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified CHAP. 4. THE Spirit of God in his holy Scripture doth prophetically delineate the beauty dignity of the sacred Humanity of our Lord Iesus I meane of his sacred flesh and bloud It speaketh of him thus Psalm 44. speciosus forma prae filijs hominum A (a) The beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. person indued with another manner of most excellent beauty then was euer to be seene in any other Creature And indeed euen abstracting from what is reuealed to vs by way of faith concerning his beauty in particular what kind of admirable thing must that Humanity needs be according to all discourse of reason On the one side let vs consider that this sacred body of his was compounded of no other matter but that purest bloud Royall of his al-immaculat virgin mother Royal (b) The dignity sanctity of his descēt it was by her discēt from so many kings Sacerdotall and Propheticall by her being also deriued from the Sanctity of Prophets of Preists Great prerogatiues were these but yet they are the least of them wherewith this holy body of our Lord was endued For it was much more dignified in that before it came to be his the body of the sacred virgin did cohabite with her owne most happy most accomplished soule Wherby (c) How sublimly spirituall the B. virgin was her very flesh was gowne after a sort to be euen Spirit as we see the very soules of sensuall persons to participate as it were the very nature of flesh Much more aduantage did it yet receiue in that the holy Ghost did frame this body of our B. Lord out of the bloud in the wombe of our B. Lady And most of all was it aduanced by this That in the instant when she conceaued his incomparable soule was infused and both his soule and body was Hypostatically vnited to the diuinity Of the happines of that soule already we haue spoken and euen by this little which heere is touched we may behould his body as the prime maister-peece of all visible beauty Amongst (d) Why the body of our B. Lord must needs be admirably beautiful the Children of this world we see indeed that euen they who are borne of handsome through the disorder which naturally accompanieth generation and besides it also growes sometymes through a disconformity which nurses haue to the mothers But his body was framed by the neuer erring hand of the holy Ghost heere the mother and the nurse were one and the same most holy Virgin Mary The excellency of Corporall Beauty doth consist (e) The conditiōs which are required for the making vp of perfect Beauty either in complexion for as much as concernes coulour or in feature or shape for as much as concernes proportion or in facility and grace for as much as concernes disposition and motion We see how any one of these partes of beauty if it be eminent doth affect the eye and hart of a beholder although such a person do either want the other two or haue them at the most but in some moderat degree And the perfection of any one part pleads the excuse of wanting any other And whether therfore shall we be so bold as to thinke that Christ our Lord was not endued with them all in all perfection or els so blinde as notwithstanding such vnspeakeable beauty as his was not to be enamoured of him It is not inough that a body haue only beauty for the perfection therof but (f) For the complemēt of Beauty there are requyred health strengh withall it must haue health and strength Now what want of health could the body of our B. Sauiour haue whose soule was not onely free but so infinitely farre from the curse both of Actuall and Originall sinne the true cause not only of sicknes but of death And what infirmity or weakenes could that Humanity be subiect to vnlesse he had would Isa 63. as indeed he would for our greater good which not onely was not obnoxious to any distemper of humours but withall it was made to be one person with allmighty God himselfe And now let him that can conceaue heerby the sublimity euen of his Corporall beauty Quis est iste saith the Prophet Esay Who is he that commeth out of Edom with his garments dyed from Bozra this beautifull one in his robe walking on in the multitude of his strength This S. Denis affirmes Decael Hierarch c. 7. to haue beene spoken in person of the (g) All the Angells in heauen were amazed to see the beauty of the body of Christ our Lord. Celestiall Spirits they being possessed with an admiration of the vnspeakable Beauty of Christ our Lord Whose diuinity was vested with our humanity as with a robe which once was white though it grew to be
reuiue and rayse it vp to receaue that homage without asking him so much as leaue O pretious sweet Humanity of Christ our Lord And (g) We at worthy of all punihment if wee become not euen the slaues of the Humanity of Christ our Lord. how shall we who know that thou wert humaned for vs and diddest not only descend to be a man but diddest degrade thy selfe further downe for the loue of vs how I say shall we sufficiently admire and loue thy Beauty which was so great euen in their externall eyes who had not withall the internall eyes of Faith wherwith thou hast enriched our soules And where shall we finde either holes or hills to hide or couer vs from thy wrath if we who are Christiās doe not by the eternall obsequiousnes of our harrs outstrip those obstinate but yet withall inconstant Iewes Obstinate in their mindes when they were grown to malice but inconstāt in mantayning those tender thoughts which they excellētly did sometymes oblige them to in the performance of so many Soueraigne signes of honour The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared CHAP. 6. VVHAT heauen on earth could euer make a man so happy as to haue beheld this sacred persō of our Lord Iesus in any of those postures which are described by the hand of the holy Ghost in holy scripture To haue (a) The incomparable grace of Christ our Lord in all his actions seen that god made mā as he was walking before the front of the Tēple whē his hart the while like a true Incensary was spending it selfe into the perfume of prayers which ascended before the Altar of the diuine mercy euen then and euen for them who there went in and out contemning and maligning him in the highest degree Mar. 11. Ioan. 20. To haue seene him walking and bestowing those deere limmes of his vpon those sands Mattb. 4. with incredible grace loue neere to that lake or sea of Galilea as if it had looked but like a kind of recreation when his enamoured soule was yet the while negotiating with his eternall Father Ibid. the vocation of his Apostles and by them the saluation of the whole world To haue seene him Luc. 4.16 c. standing vpon his sacred feet whilst with reuerence he would be reading in the Synagogue and then sitting downe afterwards when he would take vpon him the office of a teacher Ibid. 20. so pointing vs out by any little motion of his to the purity and perfection of euery action Marc. 3. To haue seene him sitting in the mindst of a roome with all that admiring multitude round about him whilst newes was brought him of the approach of his all-immaculate mother and of his kindred and domesticke friends who had reason to thinke euery minute to be a world of ages till their eies might be restored to that seate and Center of all ioy And he the while with diuine sweetnes and modesty looking round about him and lending a particular eye of mercy to euery soule there present and extending his liberall hand with an incomparable sweet noble grace did with his sacred mouth and with such a hart of loue as God alone is able to vnderstand adopt both them and all the world into his neerest deerest kindred vpon condition that they would do his Fathers will which was the only meanes to make them happy To (b) The infinite gratious goodnes of Christ our Lord. haue seene that sonne of God whose face is the delight and glory of all the Angells in heauen and at whose sacred feete they fall adoring with so profound reuerence deueste himselfe first of his vpper garment with such louely grace Ioan. 13.4 c. and gird the Towell about his virginall loynes with such modesty and fill the vessell full of water by the labour of his owne delicate armes with such alacrity and cast himselfe with such bottomelesse humility charity vpon those knees to which all the knees of heauen and earth were obliged to bow and from which the eternall Father was only to haue expected such an homage at the feete and for the comfort and conuersion of that diuell Iudas Yea and to wipe those very feete when he had washed them first and that perhaps with the teares of his owne sacred eyes to see if yet it might be possible to soften the hart of that Tygar who was able to defile such a beauty and to detest such a goodnes and who in despight of that prodigious mercy would needs be running post to hell by cōmiting that abhominable treachery They say the vale discouers the hill the darke shadow of a picture sets off the body which there is drawen Neuer was there such a peece of chiaro oscuro such a beautifull body as that of Christ our Lord neuer vvas there such a blacke shadovv as that vvretched man whome for the infamy of his crime I vvil forget to name But in fine to haue seene through the vvhole course of his life that holy Humanity sometymes svveating vvith excesse of labour some tymes grovvne pale vvith the rage of hungar some tymes pulled and vvracked seuerall vvayes at once by importunities sometymes pressed and as it were packed vp into lesse roome then his owne dimensions did require by crowdes of people and (c) Christ our Lord maintayned his grace and Beauty notwithstāding all the incōmodities to which he was put euer to haue beheld in his very face such an altitude of peacefull piety and such a depth of humility and such an vnlimitted and endlesse extent of Charity by remouing all diseases and dangers both of body and soule as heereafter (d) In the discourse vpon his Miracles will be shewed more at large for a man I say to haue had the sight of such an obiect would be sure I think to haue freed him from euer longing after any other Of Titus it was said that he was deliciae humani generis the very ioy and comfort of the world for the sweet receptiō which he vouchsafed to make to all commers Of Iulius Caesar it is recorded that being threatned with danger of a mutiny and defection in his army he spake to his souldiers this one only word Quirites (e) That word did shew that he held them no longer for souldiers of his but only as citizens of Rome and that thought pierced theyr harts with sorrow shame wtih such circumstances of grace and wisedome as that he drew al their hartes towards him at an instant It is true and it was much and there haue not beene many Caesars in the world But yet away with Caesar a way with Titus they were but durt and filth when they were at the best and now like damned spirits their soules are cursing God in hell And what Titus or Caesar dares shew himselfe when once there is question of grace and wisedome in presence
of this sacred and precious Humanity this deerly sweet and yet most subtile and searching beame of diuine splēdour wherof the Sunne from which it flowed is no lesse then the Diuinity it selfe We make account to haue beheld many excellent beautyes of flesh and bloud But there (f) No other corporall beauty is so exact as not to haue some defect was neuer any yet since that of our our first parents which had no fault excepting this of our B. Lord and his sacred mother which did incomparably exceed that of Adam and Eue. Some pictures indeed and statues we haue seene which farre exceed any Naturall either of men or women And we haue discerned a countenance in some of them which doth as it were euen breath and speake the very soule and deliuer ouer into the hand of our minde whatsoeuer vertue or noble affection we will call for But now since all (g) There this no meanes of approaching to the expressiō of the excellēt beauty of Christ our Lord by any picture or gatue which this cannot be done pictures or statues grow either from the imitation of some originall life which hath exteriourly byn seene by the eye or els from the fancy of the painter or sculptour who conueys and ferries ouer his inuention into a picture or statue by the skill and maistery of his hand so miserably must euery such expression shrinke and fly out of sight if once it be compared to this deuine deere Lord of ours as there is an infinite distance on the one side betweene the paynter or sculptour who deuised that picture or statue and the Holy Ghost on the other who drew this sacred person out of the purest bloud of our B. Lady I allowe that painters who haue skill in drawing by seeing of a man may finde with ease if he be gracefull in the disposition of his person a (h) A true token more or lesse of grace in the disposition of a mans person ready signe therof is this If whilst he falleth into any posture without particular designe and as it were by chance it be decent and natural and fit to be put into a picture Wheras on the other side if a man be either rude or els affected howsoeuer you shall bid him place his body he will euer be as if he were a kind of forced imprisoned thing and the painter can neuer please himselfe in taking the posture of such a man The disposition and behauiour of our B. Sauiour was so easy and so naturall and withall so sweete and gracefull as infallibly there was neuer any motion or disposition so amiable as that And therfore vvhether he sate or vvalked or stood or kneeled or spake or only looked or vvhatsoeuer els in fine he did it vvas the topp of that vvhich could be done for grace and therfore it vvas no meruayle if vvhersoeuer he vvent he vvonne their harts and if therin they vvere glad to keepe his picture We dayly meete vvith some vvho are deformed both in feature and coulour and yet if they haue a svveet behauiour and especially if their mindes be perfectly vvell composed vvithin the very (i) The sāctity of the soule doth euen bestow vpon the body a kind of beauty sanctity of their soules breathes out such an influence vpon their bodyes as to make them pleasing This is certainly true and vve dayly meet vvith it by experience such povver hath vertue as to make an eye both forgiue and moreouer euen to like deformity in an obiect vvhere it desireth beauty or rather to procure that a persō vvho othervvise vvas deformed should not only not seeme but not so much as be so through the grace vvhich is communicated to it by the soule Then (k) By that account how incomparable was the beauty of our B. Lord from that Horison let vs take the height of this Starre of Beauty and contemplate the best vve can hovv much more Beautifull gracefull must that exteriour Beauty of our B. Sauiours most holy person haue bene vvhich yet of it selfe vvas so exact through the tincture vvhich still it vvould be receiuing from his most gracious and most glorious soule Hovv vvould it shine through euery action and motion of his body hovv povverfully vvould it inuite hovv streightly vvould it oblige and hovv ardently vvould it inflame the vvell disposed minde of man to admiration and loue The same discourse is prosecuted and concluded concerning the excellent Beauty of our Lord especially of the attractiuenesse of his sight CHAP. 7. IF their feete which carried newes of Peace were beautifull as by the testimony of our Lord himselfe they are hovv beautifull must those feete be Isa 52. vvhich carried not only nevves of Peace but that very Incarnate Peace it selfe which passeth all vnders̄tanding Phil. 4. Hovv (a) The liberality of the hands of our Lord Iesus Cantic 5. beautifull vvere his hands vvhich are described by the spouse vvho knovves them best and hath tasted oftnest of their bounty to be of gold full of pretious stomes for their riches and vvithall to be round and smoth to declare therby that those riches and graces are dayly and hovverly dropping dovvne on vs Hovv beautifull vvere those svveete and sacred lipps of his that treasure-house of diuine graces which locked vp let out that Ievvel of the vvords of eternall wisedome according to our capacities and occasions We (b) The wisedome power of his speech Matth. 21. Luc. 4. Ioan. 7. Mar. 7. perceaue in the Ghospell hovv they vvere amazed and yet vvith much delight to heare him speake how they auovved that neuer man had spoken like him how they acknowledge him to haue a kind (c) His inimitable grace of inimitable authority and power of language Which yet vvas so farre from incroaching vpon the possessions of his meekenes modesty which is a part of beauty that the Prophei long before he vvas borne foresaw hovv he vvas to be no clamorous or contentious person but that so softly he would (d) The admirable meeknes and modesty of his speach Isa 41. Matth. 12. Ibid. 2. Cor. 10. speake as to make no noyse in the streets And it is also said of him That he would not breake the bruised reed nor so much as quench the smoaking flaxe as if he would rather make his owne eyes water then offend the poorest creature vpon earth And the Apostle also not longe after his death being earnest with the Corinthians that they would be carefull to conserue their spirit coniures them to it by the meekenes and modesty of our Lord Iesus as by vertues which shined in him after an extraordinary manner How (e) The sweetnen of his diuine voyce Matth. 11. sweete was that voyce of his which inuited all the world to bring in their loades and to discharge them all vpon his shoulders and when through the compassion of our extreeme need to be refreshed he could not
saith that vpon the very first (p) The soueraigne power which the aspect of Christ our Lord had ouer creatures aspect it was able to draw all such as lookt vpon it For if there be such vertue in a lodestone or a peece of amber as that it can draw to it rings of iron and straw how much more easely saith this Saint could the Lord of all the creatures draw to himselfe whom he was pleased to call So delighfull therfore and soe plentifull was this beauty and dignity of our Lord IESVS And if it appeared powerfull in their eyes at the first when they beheld it but by startes and glances much (q) The felicity of thē who might behold the person of Christ our Lord at pleasur Bernard serm 20. in Cant. more would it doe so afterward in the sight of his Apostles Disciples who had liberty and commodity to feed their senses at large vpon that sacred obiect In contemplation of this beauty in great part it was that they gaue themselues away to him without resuming themselues any more husbands forsaking theyr wiues and children their parents rich men their whole estates poore men the very instruments of their profession that they might haue the honour happines to follow him And to such excesse they grew therin that they did not endure Matth. 16. to heare so much as any speach euen of the Passion it selfe of our Lord though by it their redemption were to be wrought For till the Holy Ghost was sent to inhabite their soules after his Ascension they could (r) The vnspeakeable gust which the Apostles had to be euer looking vpō Christ our Lord. not content themselues to weane the outward man from the gust and ioy of looking on him But though our Lord were pleased to nourish their faith and withall to teach them how to find him reigning in their hartes by with drawing his corporall presence frō their eyes yet that loue was iust and due which they bore to him whome God had giuen to be Incarnate for a spouse to the Church and to all elected soules so to draw their hartes more powerfully by that sacred sight of his person then formerly they had beene withdrawne by vnlawfull pleasures Nay euen great part of our felicity in heauen is to consist in our behoulding the most sweete presence of the humanity of our blessed Sauiour and to enioy his embracemēts and yet the forme of his diuine face shall be the very same which in this life it was For (s) The figure of the persō of our Lord Iesus was so excellent as that neither doth glory now make it other thē it was neither did passibility mortality disgrace it Matth. 17.3 part q. 45. art 1. ad 1. so we find that after his Resurrection he continued to be knovvne by his former countenance and so he was also before that in his Transiguration as S. Hierome notes S. Thomas teacheth That his forme was not changed into another but onely that there was an addition of such splendour as belonged to a glorified body As on the other side the Passibility and Mortality which for our good he would haue it subiect to did no way depriue it both of perfect most powerfull beauty How this infinite God and super excellent Man our Lord Iesus Christ did with incomparable loue cast his eye of mercy vpon mankind CHAP. 8. VVE haue now beheld with the eye of our Consideration being illuminated by the light of Faith the incomparable excellēcy of the person of Christ our Lord and Sauiour consisting of his Diuinity as God and of his most holy soule and most beautifull and pretious flesh and bloud as Man And now this eternall God this second person of the euer Blessed Trinity the consubstantiall sonne of the eternall Father Colos 2. In whome the treasures of knowledge and wisedome were laid vp and in whome and by whome Ioan. 1. for whome were created all things and without him was made nothing that was made This God I say with being all that I haue already expressed being infinitely more then we know yea and more then we can explicitely beleeue did not onely cast the eye of his compassion vpon the misery of man but he resolued to reach out his helping hād towards the redresse therof He had created the world and made this man the Lord of it and (a) The indowments of Adam at his first creation indued him in the person of Adam with many precious guifts wherof some were supernaturall as Originall Iustice Grace and a kind of Immortallity with many others and some were incident as Connaturall to that condition wherof he was made namely an Vnderstanding freewill wherwith he was to know and loue Apoc. 2. first last the Creatour and Center of vs all A precept of Obedience was giuen to this forefather of ours to abstaine from tasting of the forbidden fruite which he contemning vpon his wiues pernicious counsell did (b) Vpon the first sinne of Adam his supernaturall guifts were destroyed his naturall guyfts decayed forfaite out right those supernaturall guiftes and deserued that those others which were but naturall should be so wounded and weakned as vve find them to be by sad experience This trying of conclusions cost him deere for instantly the vvhole state of his house vvas changed and his Passions vvhich vvere meant to be but inferiour officers became the Lords of that Reason vvhich vvas appointed to gouerne both them and him Novv then it is no meruaile if vvhen this vvas done he played the vnthrift and laid so many debtes and rent-charges vpon his land that in some sense a man may say The profits do scarce quitt the cost For (c) How soone the roote of sinne did beare aboundāce of bitter fruyte hence grevv that pride that enuy and malice vvhich being rooted in the hart did fructify so shortly after in the hand of the accursed Cain and in a vvord that consummation of all impiety grevv from thence vvhich did prouoke and dravv vvith a kind of violence a resolution from Almighty God to drovvne the vvhole vvorld except eight persons But euē those fevv vvere inough to make the rest of mankind the heires of their corrupted nature And so vve see vvhat a vvorld vve haue of this vvherin vve liue What a coyle doth this (d) The disorder of the Irascible Concupiscible is the ground out of which almost all our sinnes do grow Irascible and Concupiscible keepe in our bodies and soules vvhen either vve desire that for our selues through an inordinate loue of our selues vvhich lookes vpon vs vvith a face of ioy or pleasure or vvhen we vvould inflict matter of greefe or paine vpon others through an inordinate auersion from them The very schooles of sinne haue beene sett open in the vvorld and revvards haue bene propounded for such as haue excelled therin The Prouinces of the earth haue often
changed their Lordes and formes of gouerment and not only the feilds haue bene bedevved but euen great Riuers haue beene dyed vvith bloud The (e) The great weakenesse of man euen besides his Wic kednes vveakenesse of man euen abstracting from expresse and malicious vvickednes is a lamentable thing to looke vpon Hovv often do vve erre in that vvherin vve procure least to faile vvho hath not desired and euen purchased many things vvhich he thought had beene a meanes to make him happy from vvhich yet he hath gathered nothing but the bitter fruit of misery No (f) The miserable incōstācy of man Cane is so vveake no vvinde is so inconstant and vvauering from the imoueable North as man is frō the Center of his rest by the variety of contrary dispositions which raigne in him Making him to be now merry and then melancholy now deuout then distracted Nay he sometymes who is valiant temperate wise happy within an hower after will be fearefull luxurious indiscreet and miserable and euen himselfe shall scarce know how that growes nor why So that not only euery Country and Citty family is vpon all warnings subiect to mutation towards the worse but there is no particular man who euen in his owne bosome hath not the woefull sense of such disorder confusion and restlesse variety of discourse that vnlesse our Lord God had vouchsafed and resolued vpon some remedy neither would our possessession haue beene free from desolation nor our bodies from destruction nor our soules from damnation S. Augustine exclaimeth thus by occasion of his owne particular and what then might he haue done vpon the general Tibi (g) How iustly my we all imitate that incōparable Saint in saying this Confes lib. 6. cap. 16. S. Leo ser 2. de Natiuit Dom. laus Tibi gloria fons misericordiarum ego fiebam miserior tu propinquior To thee be prayse to the be glory O thou fountaine of mercy I grew further of from thee by misery thou camest nearer me by mercy For when the world was at the worst and wickedest then did our Lord the God of heauen and earth whose very nature is goodnesse it selfe whose will is power and whose worke is mercy resolue vpon the remedy therof His (h) Nor should we content our selues in doing small seruices to such a Lord of loue as this pitty was not satisfied with contynuing the whole world to our assistance and seruice although by sinne we had forfeited the same It was not satisfied with mainteyning to vs the vse of our faculties and senses wherby we had yet procured to employ our selues wholly to his dishonor It was not satisfied with rayning downe sweet showers of other blessings blowing ouer many bitter stormes of vengeance which his iustice would faine haue powred vpon vs. In fine it was not satissied with such expressions as are wont to be made by the deerest partes of flesh and bloud nor would lesse serue his turne then to giue vs his owne only Sonne for our totall redresse And yet not only for the sauing vs from hell which is but the paine due to sinne but for the guilt also it selfe of sinne which is in comparably worse For so God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne to the end that (i) By Faith working with charity but Faith without workes is dead as sayth S. Iames. Prou. 22. whosoeuer should beleeue in him Ioan. 3. might not perish but haue euerlasting life And so that was verified which was said by the mouth of his holy Spirit Diues pauper obuiauerunt sibi Dominus autem operator vtriusque The rich man and the poore haue met one another and our Lord is the worker of both For who so rich as God he being the abundance and the very inexhaustednesse itselfe of all plenty and what is so poore a thing as man and such a man as was euen vpon the very brimme of dropping downe into the bottome of hell if our mercifull Lord had not put himselfe betwene him and home The Originall Roote and Motiue of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered CHAP. 9. THE Loue which our Lord Iesus was pleased to shew mankind is found to be very different from that which the men of this world are wont to beare to one another For either we loue them who are rich that they may reward vs or who are vsefull that they may help vs or who are beautifull that they may delight vs and the best kind of loue which we are wont to beare is when we giue it by way of gratitude for some benefits or fauours which vve haue receiued But (a) The differēce of the loue which our Lord beares to vs in respect of that which we beare to one another man in relation to Christ our Lord was so poore and so deformed a thing and so vvholly disobliging him to loue as that there vvas nothing in man which might so much as speake of challenging any at his hands It may also seeme a greater vvonder hovv he could induce himselfe to loue vs since as there vvas no merit on our side so there vvas no passion or blinde capriciousnesse on his vvhich yet is the thing that cooples creatures together many tymes in the chaynes of loue vvithout all desert For (b) The former doubt is solued by considering the first motiue of the loue of our Lord to vs. the soluing of this doubt at the very roote therof we must resort to the motiue of the loue of Christ our Lord. Amor de Dios. Which was not as Doctour Auila doth excellently shew any perfection in vs but only that which was in himselfe and which by his contemplation of his eternall Fathers wil was put in motion towards mankind It depended vpon that solemne decree which with infinite mercy was made by the most blessed Trinity of imploying him vpon the Redemption and Saluation of the world When therfore he became Incarnate in the pure wombe of his all-immaculate mother in the very instant of the Creation of that most holy soule which was infused into his pretious body it was indued vvith all those incomparable blessings and graces vvherof vve haue already spoken and all vpon no other originall ground but onely because our Lord God vvas pleased to amplify extend his bountiful hand ouer that sovvle and so to exalt his ovvne goodnes both tovvards it and vs. Nor euen vvas that soule then in case to haue performed any one act vvhich might be meritorious in the sight of God out of vvhose pure and primitiue grace and mercy those vnspeakeable benefits vvere bestowed But vvhen in that happy instant vvherin it vvas created it did first open the eyes (c) What vnspeakeable affections would be raysed in that soule by that sight of her already deified vnderstanding and did see her selfe freely made that excellēt thing vvhich God is only able
his sacred hart to shew his loue to vs (c) Our Lord God would not be satisfied with lesse then becomming a poore naked child for vs. Lue. 2. vnlesse for our sakes he had withall bene borne a child and had become therby obnoxious to all the impotencies miseries of that age in sucking crying and swathing with a thousand other incommodities This King of glory was also pleased to commend his loue as much by pouerty as he had done already by infirmity and instantly (d) The excessiue pouerty of our Lord. to put himselfe insteed of a Pallace into a stable at the townes end of Bethleē all abandoned and open such as are vsed in hoat countries And there the B. Virgin-mother did stay and suffer many dayes which any vagabond Gypsy would haue found difficulty to do Our Lord was layd in a Maunger insteed of a Cradle of gold vnder a Rocke insteed of a rich Cloth of State He was wrapped in cloutes insteed of being adorned with Imperall robes He was attended by the Oxe and the Asse insteed of Counsellours of his State Officers of his Crowne and magistrates of his kingdome And all that at such a tyme of the yeare then which a harder and colder could not be found and euen in the very first hower after midnight to shew that his loue would not giue him leaue to stay till the second This mistery of the holy Natiuity of our B. Lord was meant by him as all those others also were of his life and death not only as a meanes of our redemption (e) Our Lord Iesus bacame man that he might redeeme vs and that we might imitate him but as a most iust motiue also of our Imitation of those vertues which shine therin and especially of Humility Patience Charity and Pouerty The originall sinne which descendeth to vs by our fore-Fathers being accompanied by our owne actuall sinnes had greatly dissigured the Image of God which was made in vs and for the enabling vs to repayre and reforme the same it concerned vs much to haue some such excellent true patterne as this according to which we might mend our selues It concerned vs also much as is excellently pondered by Father (*) Titulo de Dios. Arias that on the one side this Guyde or patterne should be visible (f) It was wholly necessary that our Guide to heauen should be both vifible Infallible and perceptible by our other senses For besides that it is a most cōnatural thing and carryeth great proportion to man who is compounded both of body and soule that he should ascend by visible and corporeall things to such as are spirituall and inuisible man became by his sinne extremely vncapable and blynd towards the knowledge of those inuisible things and therfore it imported much that the example which he was to follow should be visible And on the other side it was wholy fit that this Guide should be infallible and knowne to be vnable to erre for otherwise men could not follow him without much daunger or at least without much feare of errour Now God of himselfe was not visible and so he could not be this Guide according to that former condition and man as man could not be securely free from errour and so he could not be a Guide according to the latter The (g) The diuiue inuentiō of loue wher by our Lord was pleased to negotiate our saluation In serm de Natiuit Dom. apud Ariam loto citato remedy therfore was resolued vpon by Almighty God That for our good he would become and be borne a man that so being man God might be visible and man being God might be infallible And this is briefly declared by the incomparable S. Augustine saying Man who might be seene was not to be imitated by men because he might erre and God who might securely be imitated could not be seene And therfore to the end that man might haue a Guide who might both be imitated and be seene God vouchsafed to become man Iustly therfore doth Father Arias expresse himselfe Titulo de Dios c. 1. in this admiring manner O how great was the mercy of God! O how deepe a Sea was it full of mercies that he would so accomodate himselfe to our weakenes and condescend to our basenes For as much as because man was not able to see any other thē the workes of flesh and bloud he who was the Creator of the Angelicall spirits would make himselfe man And for as much as he who holdeth his Imperiall seate and throne in the highest heauens and who conuersed only in heauen and was there beheld by the Angells would grow to be visible in this inferior world and conuerse and treat with mortall men that so by his example he might teach them the way to eternall blisse All this is deliuered by the holy and learned Father Arias How by the Pouerty of our Lord Iesus in his Natiuity poore men are comforted and the rich are kept from being proud CHAP. 12. BY the pouerty which our Lord Iesus was pleased both to feele in himselfe and to declare to vs in this sweet mistery of his Natiuity he shewed euen in other respects particular loue to all the world For (a) It ought to be of much comfort to poore people to consider that Christ our Lord would be borne so poore he gaue comfort therby to all such as should be borne of parents who vvere poore that so that accident might no lōger be summed vp in the account of mens great misfortunes according to the custome of the vvorld vvhen they should see that the true king of glory would vouchsafe to keepe them cōpany therin And as for such others as doe or shal descend of rich progenitours our Lord with ardent Charity did giue them also now alesson of humility by his owne being borne in so great pouerty For (b) By this so poore Natiuity rich men are obliged not to vaunt thē selues vpon that occasion who is he that can be excused in such a vanity as to take much pleasure and glory in that which Christ Iesus would not countenance by his example This pouerty is counted to vs by another circumstance which is very considerable For his sacred and imaculate Mother was as highly noble euen according to the extraction of bloud as a creature could be she being lineally as hath byn said descended from so many Prophets Kings Preists Now for our Lord to permit that so high nobility should be left in the hands of such necessity as euen with ours we may feele him to haue bene subiect to as it heapes the more contēpt vpō him so it doth more proclaime his loue to vs. I omit to shew how that although that purest wombe of the B. Virgin were in some respects a more glorious Pallace then heauen it selfe could haue holpen his humanity vnto yet in others it might goe for a kind of prison to his body as
restrayning it according to those conditions to which then he vouchsafed to let himselfe be subiect But howsoeuer he vvas no sooner deliuered from thence theÌ„ the poore (c) How our Lord as soone as he was borne did intertaine those poore she pheardes with a Quire of Angells Sheephards were wooed by him to receaue the token of his impatient and incomparable loue And according to that infinite finite wisedome which became his God head which is woÌ„t to gouerne inferiour Creatures by such as are superiour to them as also because he would both call and free those poore men at once from errour he disdayned not to sollicit them by a quire of Angells that the glory of so supernaturall and sublime a visioÌ„ might auert them from all that vvant of faith vvhich his poore appearance might easily haue inclined them to Those Angells proclaymed did appropriate as it vvere (d) All glory is due to God All glory to God vvhich vvas so highly and truly due to him per excellentiam for the admirable humility and charity vvhich vvas expressed by him in this act vvithall they published and applyed all good and peace to men But yet to men not so farre forth as they might only chance to be mighty or witty or noble or wealthy or learned And much lesse to such as should be giuen to repine or who should be so abounding and regorging with sensuall pleasures all which are the sadd effects of selfe loue and very contrary to the loue of our Lord Iesus in whome alone originally true peace is found but only it was bequeathed to men of a good will The (e) The condition of a will which is truly good property of which true good wil is to put euery thing in his due place And what place can deserue that the loue of our hartes should be lodged in it by vs but that deuine person of our only Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Who in this little space of one night hath knit vp such a world of testimonies of his deere loue to vs and who did cast himselfe downe from the top of glory to the bottome of misery that so he might carry vs vp to the place from whence himselfe was come And who though he were not only the true owner but the sole Creatour of the whole world and who created it no otherwise then by filling it with his very selfe was yet content to see his owne sacred humanity so depriued turned out of all as that no place should be emptye for the receauing of him Quia non â—rat ei locus in diuersorio but only such a one as might seeme rather to haue bene taken from beasts then giuen by men These (f) How rich those poore shepheards were mada at an instant Sheepheards indeed were of that good will which was so commended by the Angells and as such they carried not only peace from that sight of Christ our Lord and his blessed mother but ioy also And that no ordinary but an excessiue ioy which is another guift of the holy Ghost and a meere and mighty effect of his diuine loue To the participation wherof together with a most entire thanksgiuing the holy Catholike Church inuiteth all her faithfull Children in these most glorious and magnificent words vpon the day of this great Festiuity The Preface of the Masse vpon Christmasse day in the Preface of the most holy Sacrifice of the Masse Verè dignum instum est aequum salutare nos tibi semper vbique gratias agere Domine sancte pater Omnipotens aeterne deus Quia per incarnati verbi mysterium noua mentis nostrae oculis lux tuae clariatis infulsit vt dum visibiliter Deum cognoscimus per hunc in inuisibilium amorem rapiamur Et ideo cum Angelis Archangelis cum Thronis Dominationibus cumqueue omni miliâ—ia caelestis exercitus hymnum gloriae tuae canimus sine siue dicentes Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth Pleni sunt caeli terra gloria tua Hosanna in excelsis Benedictus qui venit in nomine Dommi Hosanna in excelsis It is reason that we giue thee eternall thankes O holy Lord O omniporent Father and eternall God in regard that by the mistery of the Incarnate Word a new light of thy splendour hath cleered vp the eyes of our minde That so whilst we are growne to know God after a visible manner we may be vehemently carried vp to the loue of inuisible things And therfore together with the Angells and Archangells with the Thrones and Dominations with all those Squadrons of that Celestiall Army we sing out this Himne of glory saying to thee without end Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Saboath the heaueÌ„s earth are ful of thy glory HosaÌ„ana in the highest Blessed be he who cometh in the name of our Lord Hosanna in the highest Thus I say doth our holy mother the Church exhort vs to reioyce and giue thankes to God for his great mercy in this diuine mistery and he is no true sonne of that mother who will not hearken to her voyce Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus expressed to vs in his Circumcision CHAP. 13. Luc. 2. BVT as for the loue which our Lord did shew to those poore Sheephards some ignorant carnall person may chaunce to say or at least to thinke That it did not cost him much Let such a one therfore looke vpon his painefull and shamefull Circumcision Paynefull and shamefull to him but of vnspeakeable loue and benefit to vs. And first for as much as concernes the paine it deserues to be considered that the soule and body of Christ of our Lord had another manner of vnderstanding (a) The soule and body of our B. Lord were more sensible of shame and payne theÌ„ any other and delicate feeling then any other Creature hath euer bene acquainted with Exod. 4. Num. 5. D. Aug. lib. 2. de gratia Christ cap. 31. Which circumstance I will not heere dilate because when afterward I shall haue reason to speak of his sacred passion the occasion will be fayrely offered But the paine must needs be excessiue to haue a part of the body so cut of by a violent hand and that not with a kinfe or any such sharpe instrument which would haue brought it to a speedy end but according to the custome with a stone which was ground into a blunt kind of edge and which must needs prolonge the torment of the patient Yet (b) Dishonour to a noble hart is far more insufferable then payne paine how great soeuer is but a toy to a generous minde in respect of reproach and shame And amongst all degrees of shame that is farre the greatest which implyeth the party to haue deserued it and that in the deepest kind Now as when there is question of pride the affectation and desire to haue a fame of sanctity is farre superiour
very dunge doth saue both men beasts so greately hath God multiplyed his mercy How deere is this Oyle and yet how cheape It (b) How Grace is both deer cheape is cheape and common and withall it giueth health If it were not cheape it would neuer haue been powred vpon me if it were not wholsome it would neuer be able to recouer me Without doubt saith he there is a resemblance betwene the name of spouse and oyle nor did the holy ghost in vayne compare them to one another For my part vnlesse somewhat which is better do occurre to you I hold it to be for these three qualities For it shyneth it feedeth and it annoynteth It entertaines the fire it feeds the body it asswageth paine It is Light Food Phisicke Now see if it be not iust so in this name of the Spouse It shyneth when it is preached It feedeth when it is considered and asswageth and suppleth when it is inuoked Is not saith he this name of Iesus both Light Food Phisicke to you What doth so nourish and fat the soule which feeds vpon it All food of the soule is dry if it be not bedewed with this Oyle It is inspide if it be not sprinkled with this salt If (c) Obserue admire and imitate this sweet Saynt thou write I haue no gust in it vnlesse I may read the name of Iesus there If thou dispute or conferre it contents me not vnlesse I heare the sound of Iesus Iesus is hony in the mouth it is musicke in the eare and it is a melting kind of ioy in the hart Thus doth this holy Saint expresse himselfe in the place alleadged concerning this particular He also sheweth there at large how it is that (d) Our Lord Iesus is not only the Food but light also and the Phisicke of the whole world light illuminating the world and the pretious Phisicke curing all the wounds miseries therof as heere for breuities sake I haue onely shewed our of him that it is the food which strengthneth vs in all our weakenes Such hath beene the spirit of deuotion of the Saints in the Christian Catholike Church from the first to the rest and now at last in this present age towards this holy name of Iesus Nay we see that by his goodnes it is rather improued then decreased now For in very many Citties there are kept euery weeke though not in the same but different churches thereof deuout solemnities in memory and honor of this supereminent name of our Lord Iesus And we also see that the two great Lights of this last age of ours S. Ignatius of Loyola S. Teresa were so deerly deuoted to this holy name that the latter of them for this cause hath deserued to haue the name of her owne family as it were forgotten and that now she is knowne insteed therof by the Name (e) The Deuotion of S. Ignatius S. Teresa to the name of Iesus of IESVS as being called Teresa of IESVS And the former though he kept his owne name to his owne person yet to shew how intirely and how irreuocably he had giuen all away to the seruice of our Lord Iesus and withall to proue the reuerēce religiō which he bare to that diuine name of his he did in the instituting of his Society renounce the appellation of his owne name and (f) See in the life of the Saint he ordayned it to be eternally called vnder the honour and only auow of the holy Name of Iesus I omit heer to shew how supernaturally the Saint was concurred withall heerin by our Lord himselfe how by the visible head of his Church the Society hath bene successiuely confirmed vnder this Title but I only consider what deuotion these two so high seruāts of our Lord had to it in conformity of that spirit which hath still inflamed the hartes of the former Saints of the Catholike Church In this (g) The wonderful effects which haue beene wrought by the deuotion of Christiās to the holy name of Iesus Name it is that deuills haue beene cast both out of bodyes and soules That the faith hath bene planted among Pagās That worlds of miracles both corporall and spirituall haue bene wrought in confirmation therof That Martyrs haue bene made tryamphant ouer all the bitter torments which men or deuills could inflict That so many millions of vgly and importunate temptations haue bene ouercome millious of desolations motions of despaire driuen away millions of serene sweet comfortes brought into the soule and in fine that whatsoeuer is miserable and sinfull hath bene remoued and whatsoeuer is holy and happy hath bene procured for Christians at the liberall hand of our Lord. Yet all this is not so idly meant nor is to be so ill vnderstood as if these benefits would acrew to such as should only care to pronounce the bare Name of Iesus without any reuerence or faith and loue of him whose name it is But only they are praysed heer and that most worthily who are deuoted to his diuine name as signifying the Sauyour of the world who is expressed therby the same being a means by which the mind is made to ruminate and reflect often vpon him And they who ar not yet deuoted are exhorted to it as to the loue of a liuely picture of an admirable Originall or rather as of a curious cup wherin most pretious liquor is contayned or in fine as of the very compendium whole abbreuiated History of all that excesse which our Lord did say or do or els endure in this mortall life for the redemption of man And indeed how can they loue our B. Sauiour who delight not in that deere name of his which declares him so cleerly to be a Sauiour and who follow not the stepps of the holy seruants and Saints of God whose harts haue so tenderly melted in their deuotion to this sacred name of our Lord Iesus Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings CHAP. 16. BVT to returne againe and so to take our leaue of those Sheephards who were surprised by this new borne Lord of ours as if it had beene with the netts of loue neere at hand we may obserue how he tooke those three Kings by shooting them from a farre off with a starre which strooke them at the hart S. Augustine complaines but he doth it like himselfe after a most deer and tender manner that our Lord had also peirced his hart with loue Confes l. 9. cap. 2. Sagittaueras tu cor nostrum charitate tua gestabamus verba tua transfixa visceribus Thou hadst saith he O Lord shot through our hartes with thy loue and we bare thy words in our bowells wherby they were strucken from side to side In like manner did he shoot through the harts of these holy men in whose person he consecrated
vvould faine haue hindred their childreÌ„s death but his grovving out of pure and perfect loue out of a thirst of their instant and eternall good he permitted it to his ovvne bitter griefe And by (g) A stroÌ„g comfort to such as are persecuted for the cause of Christ our Lord. the selfe same measure vve may also discerne the same loue vvhich by our Lord is borne to all the rest of his seruants vvhome he suffereth to suffer for his truth and he deserueth to be adored vvith all our soules since he makes euen them vvho pretend meane to be our greatest enemies to be the chiefest instuments of our glory and good The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt CHAP. 19. THIS act of so great loue vvas in the hart of our Lord Iesus but he contents not himselfe to loue vs only vvith his hart vnlesse vvithall he may put himselfe to further paine and shame And behould vvhen he vvas fast a sleepe in those deere armes of his all-imaculate and most holy mother and in house with that holy Patriarcke S. Ioseph an Angell appeared to that Saynt being also at that tyme a sleepe Requiring him to rise Matt. 2. and take the child and his mother and to fly into Egipt and there to remaine till he should be willed to returne because Herod would procure to destroy the child But where shall we find meanes wherewith to admire and adore this Lord of ours Who for the discouery of the infinitenes of his loue would vouchsafe so farre to ouer shadow the omnipotency of his power as that he being the Lord of Angells would be directed by an Angell a Obserue the strange humility charity patience of our Lord in this Mystery and being God himselfe would be disposed of by a man and being the seate and Center of all true repose would be raysed from his rest at midnight together with that heauenly Virgin to be sent flying from the face of an angry tyrant in so tender yeares into a Country so remote so incommodious so barbarous and so Idolatrous It was a iourney of (*) Three hundred English â—â—yles See Baradius Tom. 1. l. 10. cap. 8. twelue daies at the least for any stronge traueller could not be of lesse then thirty or forty for this little family which was forced to be fleeting thus from home This family which was compoÌ„ded of a man in yeares who loued to conuerse in the howse of his owne holy hart a most pure and most delicate virgin who was not wont to be shewing herselfe to strange places and persons and that excellent diuine infant who would permit himself to want as much assistaÌ„ce as that weake state could need which must needes increase the trouble both of them and him Their pouerty without all doubte was very great for though the Magi when they opened and offred of their treasures to him must be thought to haue left inough for the contynuall entertainement of such a company yet by a circumstance which may be considered heere it will be euident that they were growne poore againe For at the Prosentation of our Lord in the Temple wherof I haue already spoken but heer it will be fit to looke backe vpon it once agayne our B. Lady was and would be purified Not that she had need of being purisied she in comparison of whose high purity the most pure Seraphims of heauen are but drosse and dust but because our Lord her Sonne would be subiect to the imputation of sinne by Circumcision our B. Lady his mother would be thought subiect to the comon shame of mothers by purification To which heroicall act of contemning her selfe our Lord by his example had drawne her thereby withall did make vs knowe that it was not impossible for meere creatures by meanes of that grace (b) The omnipotency of Gods grace which is imparted to vs with so much loue to abandon and dispise our selues and not only to be content but euen delighted in being dispised by others Now at the Purification of al women an oblation was to be made by order of the law and a lambe was to be offred by the rich and a paire of Turtle doues or two yong Pigeons Leuit. 12. by the poore And (c) A demonstration to prooue what shift our B. Lady made to grow quickly poore agayne since this latter was the offring which the B. Virgin made it is cleere that through her charity to others her selfe would needs become poore againe She hauing such a stronge example of pouerty before her eyes as that God should make himselfe a naked child for the good of men and she not fayling to learne and lay vp the lesson of this vertue which was the first that was made to her by our B Lord. So that since they were persons so very poore and so vnfit for trauaile and to take a iourney of so great imcommodity and lengh without so much as an ynch of any ground of hope that after such or such a tyme expired they should returne was such a dish ful of difficultyes for them to feed vpon as could neuer haue been digested if it had not been dressed and sawced with the most ardent loue of our Lord lesus By this example of his he hath giuen vs stronge comfort in all those banishments distresses which we may be subiect to And it hath wrought so well with the seruants of God as that they haue triumphed with ioy for the happines of being able to suffer shame or sorrow for his sake But (d) The great change which was wrought in Egypt after the Presence of our Lord Iesus especially did it worke wonders in that rude and wicked Country of Egypt For he had no soeuer perfected the mistery of our redemption vpon the Crosse but through the odour of his sacred infancy that Prouince did early get a kind of start beyond all the others of the vvorld in breeding and nursing vp huge troopes of famous Marlyrs Anchorites Eremits and other holy Monks in the strongest Mortification and penance which hath beene knovvn in the Christian vvorld And novv let vs see vvho hath the face vvhervvith to deny or the hart vvhervvith to doubt the effects of the infinite loue vvhich our Lord did shevv by this flight of his into Egipt Where such a renouation of the invvard man vvas made as that insteed of dogs and catts and serpents and diuels vvhich vvith extraordinary diligence of superstition were vsually there adored beyond the other parts of the world so many Tryumphant Arches were erected there so shortely after in honour of Christ our Lord as there were high and happy soules who consecrated themselues to his seruice in a most pure and perfect manner with detestation of all those delights which flesh and bloud is wont to take pleasure in And they imbraced with the armes both of body and soule all those difficulties
publishing his Ghospell did expresse in his holy Baptisme and consequently to that Charity which cast him vpon the practise of this profound impenetrable humility For it was (a) Our Lord Iesus began all from Charity we must beginne all from Humility not in him as it is in vs who must beginne with acts of humility as with the foundation that so we may arriue to Charity afterward which is the consummation of a spirituall building But in him all moued at the very first from pure and perfect Charity which was as a kind of cause of his humility They want not good ground of reason who affirme that betwene the Birth and death of Christ our Lord he neuer performed an act of greater loue then in being thus Baptized For as the expression of true loue consisteth more in doing then in saying so consisteth it also much more in suffering then in doing And as the least sinne is more abhorred by a soule which is faithfull to God then the sensible toâ—ments euen of Hell it selfe So the dishonor for that soule to be thought sinfull which is not only pure but wholly impeccable as that of Christ our Lord and Sauiour was doth sarre outstrippe all other aspersion and infamy whatsoeuer as was also insinuated else where Yet (b) By how rugged waies our Lord Iesus was content to passe in his loue to vs. by these rugged wayes would he passe and vpon these bitter pills would he seed yea and he did it with vnspeakeable ioy for loue of vs. And not only had he bene content to be Circumcised which shewed as if he had bene obnoxious to Originall sinne but to declare that the his loue longer he liued amongst vs the more care he to vs. tooke to shew how he loued vs he now vouchsafed to be baptized which according to all apparence did betoken as if he had been subiect euen to actuall sinne To this let it be added that since Circumcision was ordayned by the law to which although he were not boÌ„d indeed yet was it thought that he was bound it might not only seeme fit but euen iust that he should be Circumcised both to doe honour to the law and to preuent all scandall of the people But for him to receiue the Baptisme of S. Iohn was no appointement of the law of God but a meere voluntary deuotion which might haue bene forborne without any sinne or the iust offence of any man And (c) It was a farre greater act of humility for our Lord to be baptized theÌ„ to be circumcised therfore as I was saying it was admirable humility performed out of vnspeakeable charity that for our example and benefit our Lord would fasten such a marke of actuall sinne vpon himselfe But the gratious eye of our Lord being lodged vpon the miseries of man and his hart beeing full of most ardent desire of our felicity he contemned himselfe and resolued to enter into the waters Luc. 7. And though S. Iohn being then the greatest among the sonnes of men did well know and with a most deiected faythfull hart acknowledge how farre he was from being worthy to baptize that true naturall Sonne of God yet so precise was the pleasure of Christ our Lord in this particular that the holy Baptist betooke himselfe to his obedience And our Lord vouchsafed to let him know and vs withall that perfect Iustice is not obserued where the heroycall acts of Humility and Charity are not performed S. Iohn had bene preaching the doctrine of pennance to the levves immediatly vvherupon they vvere baptized by him in Iordan Matt. 3. And the holy Scripture affirmes that Christ our Lord vvas baptized after them as resoluing belike to be the last of the company And vvithall it is very probable by the sacred Text Ibid. that he vvould also be present at the sermon of S. Iohn like a common Auditour and being the increated wisedome of God he vouchsafed to seeme as if he had needed to be taught by man What proclamations are these of his affection to vs and of direction how we are to proceed with others It being reason that we should blush euen to the bottome of our harts when we take our selues in the manner of striuing for precedence euen of our equalls whilst yet we see the SoÌ„ne of God place himselfe after all his inseriours And (d) Lay good hold on these lessons when we shall thinke much to resort for Sacraments other spirituall comforts to such as we conceaue to be any way of inferiour TaleÌ„ts to our selues Or els when we shal haue shame to frequent the remedies of sinne when heere we may behould the Sauiour of all our soules and the institutor of all the holy Sacraments through ardent charity assist at a sermon and receaue the water of Baptisme with profound humility from the tongue from the hand of a mortall man himselfe being the King and the God of men But the seuerall spirituall aduices which our Lord IESVS did giue vs by the example of his high vertues in this mistery though they be in themselues of great importance towards the shewing of his loue yet doe they lessen when they are compared to that maine drift which he had in this holy Baptisme of his For his prime (e) The principall scope which it seemes that Christ our Lord had in his being baptized meaning was vpon the cost of his Humility and Charity expressed by his being thus baptized to institute a more high soueraigne Baptisme in the nature of a Sacrament By the grace wherof all soules might be washed and cleansed from sinne as certainly as any body is from spots vpon the application of common water O boundles sea of loue which no baÌ„cks of our iniquity could keepe in from breaking out ouer the whole world His loue it was which made him vndergoe the paine of putting his pure naked body vnder water and of shame to be thought a sinfull creature That so by the merit of such loue as water washeth other creatures himselfe might wash euen the very water yea and sanctify all the water in the world towards the beautifying of soules by the meanes of his pretious merits How clearly doth it shew that Christ our Lord is an equall and incomparable kind of friend to all for he placed the remedy of all the Originall sinne of little children and both of the Originall sinne and actuall of such as are already coÌ„uerted baptized to the faith of Christ our Lord when they are of yeares not (f) How good cheape a Christian man be Baptized in the taking of generous wines nor in the application of costly Bathes nor in the drinking pearles and pretious stones distilled into some pretious liquor but only in being touched by a little pure simple water wherin the beggar is as rich as the King And howsoeuer his holy Church which is inspired and guided by his holy spirit hath ordeyned in the exercise
shew of peÌ„nance you said he had a deuill my selfe am come to you without any shew of such austerities but I haue applyed my self to your coÌ„uersation And now you say that I am a glution I would fayne win your loue but I know not how I would faine inflame you to the seruice of God but your powder it so wet that no coales of mine can giue it fire And I would to IESVS that through our sinnes we did not see this verified also at this day when the Sectaries and Politiques of the world are so fastidious as that they make faces at his Doctrine whatsoeuer it be Nor will they be conuinced either by the exemplar visible austerity and pennance of some of our holy Religious Ordes which were consecrated in the person of S. Iohn nor by the applyable learned prudent humble charitable endeauour of some other Institutes which hide their mortifications for feare of frighting mens weake mindes and which were designed and recommended by the liuely example expresse Doctrine of Christ our Lord and his Apostles But woe be to them vvho in case of temporall infirmity haue so ill a constitution as to conuert their Phisicke into Poyson And (f) This disease both of body and mind is very dangerous vvoe vvill be to these others in the last day vvho in cases vvhich concerne the soule doe from truth take an occasion of continuing in errour Or rather I beseech our Lord IESVS euen by the memory and merit of that Doctrine vvhich vvith so ardent loue he deliuered heere on earth they may at last find themselues conuinced by it and that imbracing it vvith their vvill they may escape all vvoe The same discourse is continued concerning the great loue which our Lord Iesus expressed in his Doctrine CHAP. 34. I Haue vvillingly entertained my selfe vpon the consideration of some circumstances vvhich concerne the aduantages of this diuine Doctour of our soules beyond all the Doctours vvhich are or euer vvere or are to be Because though no argumeÌ„t should be dravvn from the very Doctrine it selfe to proue the loue of him that taught it yet his person alone and the very manner vvhich he held therin vvas such as ought to oblige the most rebellious mindes that liue to all obedience Our Lord IESVS himselfe notvvithstanding that he had incomparably the greatest humility that euer vvas possessed by any soule did yet vvell vnderstand and iustly prize the dignity of his ovvne person so farre as to knovv that he tooke no authority from his Doctrine but that his Doctrine tooke it all from him Yet so great vvas his goodnes that although he vvere as perfect God as he vvas perfect man he (a) The sectartes will be beleeued vpon their wordes yet Christ Lord would not exact so much of the Iewes vvould not yet oblige vs to beleeue it vnlesse first he had prooued it by infallible testimonies But that being once done he was not to indignify diminish any one vvord of his Doctrine and decrees by alleaging reasons and proofes but only simply to affirme it This point I touch diuers times because occasion is ministred very ofteÌ„ and euen Popes and Princes who are but dust and ashes doe hold this stile and are wont to send out their decrees and to make their Edicts in a positiue and expresse forme And whatsoeuer earnest asseuerations or reasons should be added for the grace strength therof would many tymes be but as a contrary meanes to that end So that the (b) Euen the play nnes of the deliuery of the doctrine of Christ our Lord giues it great authority plainenes of the deliuery of the Doctrine of Christ our Lord is a vehement proose of the diuinenes of it Since being voyd of all those helpes of art in the arme wherof all other Doctrines put their hope this alone is a Doctrine which dares expose it selfe playne and naked And in despight of the whole wicked world it liues it breathes it gathers ground and strength amongst all the venemous weeds of the world And in despite of ignorance sensuality and sinne it strikes at the roote not only of all things which are contrary to God and goodnes but euen of all things which are lesse good and perfect And it (c) The Trophees which the Doctrine of Christ our Lord erecteth in the hart of man erecteth Trophees and keepeth tryumphes in the profoundest part of the harts of the ciuilest the worthiest the learnedst the wisest and the holyest people of the whole world The more sublime authority this Doctrine hath and the more aduantage otherwise the more infinitely are we Catholikes bound to that diuine goodnes which with an eternall loue did make choyce of vs as the disciples thereof And to the end that we might the more easily conceaue it with the vnderstanding and the more faithfully retaine it with the memory it pleased that altitude of diuine wisedome to abase it self to our meane capacity And when the Doctrine of it selse would not perhaps haue bene so well receiued to set it out by allusions and Parables yea and many tymes euen they are borrowed but from the figures of meane bodies See euery where in the holy Ghospell as of Plowes of Corne of Netts of Fishes of Leauen of Mustard-seed and the like Establishing by that familiar and easy meanes a kind of commerce and traffique betwene things diuine humane in the mindes of men And indeed if this Doctrine had not bene brought by the sweet hand of God to carry a great proportion to mans nature assisted by his holy grace what possibility had there bene that it could haue wrought such wonders in the world Making (d) The diuine wonders which the doctrine of Christ our Lord hath wrought in the world so many Kings and Queenes for the loue of Christ our Lord become voluntary beggars Making youth become chast old age obedient knowledge humble austerity so sweete and pleasant as that there are and haue bene millioÌ„s of people in the Catholike Church and our Lord be euer blessed and praysed for it and he knoweth that it is true vvhatsoeuer any Soctary shal either say or thinke to the contrary vvho insteed of fine lynnen haue inclosed claspedthemselues vvithin Girdles of wyâ—e and shirts of haire Insteed of delighfull bathe haue taken frequent disciplines in bloud Insteed of curious and costly beds haue spent their vvhole nights vpon the hard ground Insteed of sumptuous banquets haue entertayned themselues in rigorous fasts And lastly insteed euen of lavvfull pleasures haue exercised themselues vvith great attention in the mortification of the faculties and senses both of the body and mind This I say they doe they haue done and that vvith all the secresy they could and only in conteÌ„plation of the loue of our Lord Iesvs in conformity to his diuine life and Doctrine vvhich requires men to looke vpon his example to liue therafter which proclaimes
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
all the rest which hath bene said as himselfe doth incomparably surpasse whatsoeuer other thing which it is euen in his power to giue I will also in this place sorbeare to hearken to that other diuine consort of Musicke which he made in that least Sermon of his next before his sacred Passion which S. Iohn relates in his holy Ghospell For that of the B. Sacrament is considered in a discourse therof a part and that of the infinite loue of our Lord in his last Sermon is toucht in the beginning of that of the Passion And we haue heere I hope bene shewed inough to make the loue of our B. Lord appeare Not only in regard of what he conceaued in his owne pretious hart towards man but moreouer for the abundant blessings which he hath imparted to the world exteriourly For we see to what greatnes and happines the meanest of vs is sublymed through the high account into which we are taken by Almighty God Only we must be sure that his infinite goodnes do not giue vs occasion and colour for contynuance in our wickednes For as much as in God all is infinite a like (i) All is a like Infinite in God and therfore euen the very infinitenesse of his Mercy doth shew vs how Infinite his Iustice also is and euen by the excesse of his mercy when men are sory for their sinnes we may inferre the intollerable rigour of his Iustice against such as are impenitēt The holy Scripture is also ful of most particular proofe how deepely our Lord doth detest al sinne and willfull sinners This hath bene pointed at before vpon another occasion in the discourse of the infinite power of God and in the end of the Passion it will also be resumed agayne For the present therfore I conclude concerning the most excellent Doctrine of Christ our Lord deliuered especially in holy Scripture and I passe on to the consideration of his Miracles Of the excessine Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to man by the Mirac'es which he wrought on earth CHAP. 41. THE excessiue loue of our Lord Iesus was farre from being content to expresse it selfe towards man by any one single way alone but it was solliciting him in euery minute of his most holy life to try as many as might be found for our good He therfore considering with diuine wisedome that men were composed of flesh and spirit and consequētly (a) Men being cōposed of flesh and spirit are to be wrought vpō both by spirituall and sensible meanes that they must be wrought vpō aswell by sensible as by spirituall meanes knowing also that through the miserable disorder of their mindes they were then more capable would be more obliged by ease health of body then by graces powred into the soule he was therfore pleased to accompany the purity and perfection of his Doctrine with the power and Maiesty of his miracles And as by creation of the world he led men vp by meanes of visible things towards a knowledge and beliefe of the inuisible so in the case of our reparation and redemptiō he would also vse the corporall cure of men from sicknes as a disposition wherby theyr soules might be recouered from sinne Heerby our Lord doth euidently discouer to be a true perfect louer of mankind For as the property of loue is not (b) The measure of our loue of God is to exceed all measure to be tyed vp within the compasse of any ordinary law and the measure which that power vseth is to exceed all measure so did our Lord out of the nobility of his loue to man refuse to walke within so small a circle as the lawes of nature did lead him to These lawes of nature were made by almighty God at the creation of the world it is not al the power of heauen or earth vnder him which can inuert that order Psal 148. Praeceptum posuit non praeteribit He gaue the precept and it shall not passe away And it was good cheape for him who made al things of nothing to commaund that nothing should faile of that inuiolable course wherin all things were appointed to proceed According to the law of nature no returne is made from priuation to the habit as from a fixed blindnes to sight and much lesse from death to life But the law of the loue of our Lord IESVS did ouertop that other law made those things grow true and samiliar which otherwise were not only hard but impossible Moyst bodies were appointed by the law of nature to giue place and such as are heauy and solid to sinke downe below thē But yet when there was question of giuing comfort to his poore Apostles Matt. 14. the loue of Christ our Lord made him lay those lawes aside and he went walking towards them vpon the sea which was glad to performe the Office of a pauement to his pretious feete Penerration of bodies is a thing wherof nature cannot endure to heare but yet for the vnspeakeable loue which he bare to (c) The honour which was done by Christ our Lord to the purity of his B. Virgin mother the honour and excellency of his all-immaculate mother that ornament and glorious gemme of heauen earth he was not affrayd to giue that principle of Philosophy the lye And he passed out of those bowells of supreme Purity into those armes of matchlesse Piety without the least offence to her most entire Virginity But yet in this there is the lesse wonder because he wrought the like in fauour of his Apostles whom he loued by innumerable degrees lesse then his most excellent mother Isa 7. For in their case also his loue was transcendent in the selfe same kind vnto his lawes For hauing first passed through the sepulcher he went afterward through Ioan. 20. Ibid. through those doores which were shut betwene them him that so he might as it were perfume them all at once with his sweet breath of Peace But why doe I name those persons who were so highly priuiledged as if our Lord had only bene in loue with them and not indeed as yet indeed he was enamoured of all mankind so farre as to make his miracles distill down vpon them like so many drops of dew for their reliefe or comfort in all occasions And although these miracles of Christ our Lord could not haue bene wrought but by the omnipotent power of almighty God yet may that power be accounted to haue been but as a kind of instrumēt wherby he wrought them and that indeed they flowed from his loue as from their prime cause and roote He wrought no miracles for the ostentation of his power and therfore we see how often he precisely comaunded both men and deuills Marc. 3. 5. 7. Luc. 5. Luc. 4. Matth. 20. Matt. 21. Marc. 11. that they should not publish what he had done He wrought none for any commodity of
any one Matt. 8. the innumerable creatures who needed desired miraculous cure from Christ our Lord we heare not of any one who was finally frustrate of his suite Nay he reiected not the very deuills thēselues whom he suffred to enter into that heard of swyne His eyes were but as so many conduyts wherby he brought into his hart all the miseries that he saw and then by the same way he sent his mercies out for reliefe therof It is true that sometymes he seemed as if he would not graunt theyr suytes as in the case of the Cananean woman but it was but seeming For indeed Matt. 15. he meant not onely to cure the Daughter but to glorify the mother for that full cluster of vertues which shee had of humility patience perseuerance and such an eminency of Faith withall as that himselfe was not only pleased to commend her for it but being the true increated wisedome and knowledge of God he would yet be content to seeme obliged to be in admiration to make this exclamation in her honour O mulier magna est sides tua fiat tibi sicut vis O womā great is thy Faith be it vnto thee as thou wilt And this he did though himselfe was he who both gaue her grace to conceaue it by his inspiration and occasion to expresse it by the appearance which he made of her reprehension There was no tyme nor place nor seuerall disease of body nor disposition of mind to which this diuine Phisitian of the whole man did not accomodate himselfe with vnquencheable charity and incessant care Which was a million of tymes greater in him towards euery beggar then any Physitian of this world could euer tell how to carry towards the only Sonne of his soueraigne king whom he had in cure If (k) Our Lord did accōmodate himself to the cure of all men according to theyr seuerall dispositiōs and necessities Marc. 5. men had feeling of their infirmity and with all so much desire to be recouered as might serue to carry them to the places where he was to be he gaue them leaue by the increase of their labour to grow in merit If they cryed out as not being able to come quickly to him he would expect till they arriued and then would cure them as he did the ten leaprous persons all leaprous in their bodies but nyne of them more leaprous in their soules since they were vngrateful to such a goodnes If their miseries were great although their knowledge and beliefe in him were very small he would seeke such out without being sought Luc. 17. Ioan. 5. Marc. 9. Luc. 9. 4. 5. 8. Marc. 10. Matt. 9. Marc. 2. Matt. 20. as he did the man vvho lay at the Probatica piscina eight and thirty yeares If it vvere peraduenture a kind of a midle case he vvould meet them in the halfe vvay or he vvould require them to be brought to him or he vvould stay as if he stayd not for them till they came of themselues or he vvould cast to goe vvhere they vvere to come or els where he knevv them to be he vvould not fayle to goe And hovvsoeuer it vvere if he savv thē in need of helpe he vvould cure them sometymes though they did not so much as aske it of him Matt. 12. Luc. 14. 5. Ioan. 9. Luc. 9. Matt. 150 Marc. 6. Which was the case of the mā with the withered hand and the man vvho vvas Hydropicque and that other also vvho vvas borne blind And vvhen at seueral tymes he fed men women and children by thousands in the desert there vvas not one of them vvho opened his mouth to aske him meate but their distresse vvas the only Solicitour of his mercifull hart to shevv thē pitty If they deliuered him their ovvn petitiōs Marc. 1. 12. Luc. 7. they vvere sure to be gratiously hard if their case were exposed by the intercessiō of others they were also as sure not to be reiected To teach vs therby vvhat high cōfidēce we ought to haue in the prayers of saints since he heard such sinners for one another Novv the manner of his cures vvas vvithall so deerly svveet as that they seeme euen to exceed the mercy of the very cures themselues Hovv tenderly vvould he be carrying himselfe tovvards those poore creatures in all their necessities Sometymes he vvould performe the base Office of leading blind beggars by his ovvne hand he would conduct both blind and deafe and dumbe persons out of company Marc. 7. 8. that he might enioy them alone and so make thē knovv vvithall vs by thē that for the cure of al our spirituall diseases it is fit for vs sometymes to retyre our selues hand to hand vvith God Nay those hands of his vvould not disdaine to touch the loathsome and polluted flesh of leapers And though many make great dainty Matt. 8. to serue sicke persons who are subiect to lesse foule diseases wheras our Lord had sayd that in seruing them Matt. 25. we should be giuing comfort to himselfe yet to the eternall glory of his name and by the merit of his example and through the power of his grace we will acknowledge and be glad that in his holy Catholike Apostolicque Romaine Church the Spirit of this holy practice doth still liue And (1) The good custome of seruing in Hospitals that there are thousands and many thousands amongst vs of all conditions sexes and ages who in imitation of our Lords humility and charity are dayly visiting sicke persons Instructing comforting and feeding them both in body and soule procuring to ease them in their paines and making their beds and drying their sweats and wyping their sores It were a shame that the seruants of God should not imploy themselues in these good exercises when they consider how Christ our Lord did put those omnipotent fingars of his owne Mare 7. Ibid. into the eares of those poore creatures and into their mouthes Ioan. 9. Ioan. 11. and how himselfe made plaisters for their eyes and how he would sigh and groane to consider sinne in their soules the miserable effects therof in their very bodyes of flesh and bloud We see how he prayed and how he wept at the raysing of Lazarus and how through the excesse of loue wherwith he desired to restore him to life the Scripture saith Infremuit spiritu Ioan. 11. which betokned as it were a kind of tumult and tempest of his affections which were working and wrastling with God in the behalfe of that dead man In so much as the lookers on did wonder to see that so great a Prophet and the worker of so many and strange miracles should lament weep like another ordinary person And they easily inferred thereby that those teares other greater demonstrations of griefe must needs proceed from some puissant cause and so they said to one another in the way of wondring Behould
the Leaprous Another for the Paraliticques Another for the Lunatiques and another for persons who were possessed by deuils who would euer haue contynued so vnlesse that right hand of God had cast them out But (c) A straÌ„ge spectacle what a spectacle then would it haue bene to see a number of diseased distressed and defeated persons at an instant all become new men All the Dumbe being able to speake the Deafe to heare the Lame to goe the blind to see the mad men to discourse with reason and the dying men to shew health and strength How I say would they looke with a face of wonder and amazement vpon one another as scarcely beleuing what they felt and heard and saw when they found the scene of all the world to be so changed at once For then Christ our Lord of whome S. Peter said Act. 10. Quod pertransijt benefaciendo curing all such as were oppressed by the diuell euen as fast as he could goe was rayning (d) The great labour and the great loue of our Lord. downe from those liberall hands of his the seuerall blessings wherof euery one had greatest need And this he did with a hart so tenderly behoulding in euery particular creature the image of his eternal Father that it made him loue the meanest of them a million of tymes more then his owne pretious life And so obseruing how in euery one of theÌ„ that Image was growne to be defaced which himselfe had made he tooke care to reforme it which no power but his could arriue vnto There haue bene in the world certaine ambitious sculptours who conceauing theÌ„selues withall to be of matchlesse Skil would take pleasure and pride when they were in making any curious Image or statue to leaue some eare or fingar or some part of the foot vnfinished Therby sending out a secret kind of defiance to any other of their profession who would presum to make that like the rest But (e) The omnipotent power lone of the diuine Artificer this heauenly Sculptour of ours who made not only the formes but the matter also of the creatures was both more cunning more charitable then the former For at the first he made al the Images of his Father most complete nor was there any want of that perfection vvhich they could desire And aftervvard vvhen they grevv to be defaced broken through the falls vvhich they tooke by actual sinne besides Adams fall which infected theÌ„ vvith original sinne one of theÌ„ wanting an arme another an eye for all these and the like vvere the effects and fruits of sinne he vvas pleased to bring vvith a kind of greedy hart the same hand of strength vvhich before had made those armes and eyes to restore them as by a kind of second creation But O thou infinite God! and vvho shal euer be able to tell vs hovv the tendernes of this loue did make that very hart of thine a kind of most true interiour (f) How the hart of our Lord was the true hospitall of mercy Iob. 29. hospitall wherby all those other hospitalls vvere fed and vvhereinto their miseries vvere receiued and from vvhence they vvere supplyed vvith all that mercy vvherof they had need For if Iob had such a hart as made him be an eye to the blinde a foote to the lame and a Father to the Orphane for as much as he grieued at the miseries vvhich lay vpon poore people and procured to remoue them by vvorkes of mercy hovv much more are vve to beleeue it of Christ our Lord. In (g) No mercy must coÌ„pare with that of Christ our Lord. comparison of vvhose least mercy the greatest mercy of Iob vvas meere cruelty Tell vs therfore deere Lord hovv full that hart of thine vvas of eyes and hovv many vvayes they vvere looking all at once for our both teÌ„porall and eternall good For whilst thou wert curing the bodies of some thou hadst an ayme at the miraculous recouery of the soules of others He cured S. Peter and S. Andrew of the intricate netts and perplexed cares of worldly busines And S. Iames and S. Iohn Matt. 4. Marc. 1. Matt. 9. Marc. â—â— Luc. 5. Luc. 7. not only of wordly affaires but of wordly affections to their friends S. Matthew he brought from vnlawfull gaynes and S. Mary Magdalene from impure pleasures And euery one of these many many more at an instant by the only cast of a countenance or some one single word of his sacred mouth hauing first receaued a tincture from his enamoured hart How the corporall Miracles of our Lord Iesus had an ayme at the reformation of soules and did tend to the discouering and facilitating the beliefe of great Mysteryes CHAP. 44. THE corporall miracles themselues did all carry a kind of respect to the soules either of theÌ„ on whome they were wrought or els of others And that not only by way of purging them in point of life but of illuminating them also by way of most perfect vnderstanding and beliefe yea and yet further by vvay of vniting them to himselfe through pure and perfect loue Fitting euery thing vvith diuine vvisedome to euery person according to the seuerall disposition which he was found to haue Christ our Lord as S. Augustine saith did intend That whatsoeuer he wrought corporally S. Aug. serm 44. de verbis Domini might spiritually also be vnderstood He wrought not saith he those miracles for the miracles alone but that as those things which he exposed to the sight of men were acknowledged to be strange so those other things which he insinuated therby to the vnderstanding might be imbraced as true And S. Gregory declares to the same effect That the miraculous workes of Christ our Lord Hom. 21 in Euang. did shew one thing by the power which they expressed did declare another by the mistery which they coÌ„tained There (a) The relation which corporall diseases haue to spirituall was not therfore a corporal miracle wrought by Christ our Lord which had not also a relation to the discouery and cure of some spirituall disease of the minde The defenes of men did shew a not complying with heauenly inspirations Theyr blindenes a darknes of vnderstanding Their Feuers a boyling vp of sensual appetite which caused extreme disorder in the will Their leaprosies a rooted impurity of the soule Their Lunacies a mad inconstancy of the minde Their Paralisies an vnaptnes and weakenes towards all good workes Their dropsies a gredines after gaine together with a swelling vp of Pride And sinally their being possessed a state of men who were reprobately giuen ouer to sinne together with the bitter seruitude wherin the deuill holdeth such as become his slaues No one sigh was vttered by Christ our Lord no one teare was shed but with intention to instruct vs how to deplore our misery and how to implore the diuine mercy There was (b) The misteries which were contayned
the ceremonies which were sanctified by his miracles not a motion of his hand with relation to the cure of any man wherin some mistery was not wrapped vp or els some ceremony sanctified and recommended to the vse of the holy Church And so we see how in the administration of Baptisme those very ceremonies are imbraced by vs which Christ our Lord did vse to sicke persons of seuerall kindes all whose spirituall diseases doe meet in the person of an infant till he be baptized For he is spiritually deafe and therefore doth the Priest put his fingars into the childs eares and cryeth Ephata He is spiritually dumbe and therfore his tongue is touched with spittle And he is yet in the power of the deuill and a child of wrath and therfore is he exorcized as we see to haue bene done vpon possessed persons by our B. Lord. Oftentymes he cured both the bodies of sicknes and the soules of sinnes though the Patients desired but to be corporally cured And when he did not cure their soules it was only because they were not nor would not be well disposed to receiue that blessing But otherwise what he wrought vpō their bodies was ordayned by that diuine goodnes to the helpe of their foules if they hearkned to his inspirations they did instantly recouer both in the outward and inward man Many also of the miracles of Christour Lord (c) Many miracles were ordayned by our Lord to facilitate the beliefe of Christian Religion Ioan. 11. Matt. 14. Matt. 15. Marc. 8. did sweetly prepare a way for the beliefe of other nobler miracles which did also concerne the highest misteries of the Catholike faith As namely the raysing vp of Lazarus disposed men to beleeue the resurrection of the dead at the last day And those two miracles of the walking of our Lord vpon the sea and the stupendious multiplying of the loaues of bread in the desert doe both together open a faire and ready passage towards a beliefe of the Catholicke Doctrine concerning the reall presence of our blessed Lord in the most venerable Sacrament of the Altar For his walking on the sea shewed that his body was no way subiect to the ordinary conditions of a naturall body whensoeuer he should be pleased to exempt it from them although of it selfe it were a perfect naturall body And his multiplying of the loaues did deliuer in plaine language to the world the soueraigne power which he had and hath to multiply what and how much he would Which two points being accorded there remaines no difficulty in belieuing our doctrine of the reall presence of our Lord in the blessed Sacrament So (d) The cōclusion of this discourse of the miracles of Christ our Lord. that to cōclude the loue of our Lord IESVS in the working of his miracles was extraordinarily great Both because the things themselues were so greatly great and because they were wrought with such a perfect and pure intention of Gods greatest glory and our greatest good They tended not only as we haue seen to the cure of bodyes but also of soules And not only of soules to be conuerted at that tyme but through all ages also afterward by the discouery of our spirituall infirmities and by the institution of most holy ceremonies and by facilitating a beliefe of the highest misteries Making one miracle to be a step and introduction for another as I haue shewed in the particular of the blessed Sacrament And (e) Consider all these circumstāces with attention if for euery one of them alone a loyall and gratefull hart would find it selfe obliged to loue him withall the power it hath what effect ought such an aboundant cause as they all together doe make vp to worke in vs and how ought they to induce vs to honour and adore such an incessāt goodnes For if it would goe for a great fauour that a Principall man should once vouchsafe to visite a sicke beggar or leprous slaue the more principall the one of them were and the more base the other so much the greater fanour it would be And if to that visit he should be pleased to add the tendernes of some compassionate speach and almes and euen of corporall seruice about that creature and not only once but often and not only to one but to all the world how iustly would such a charity exact all admiration at our hands Let vs therfore loue and eternally adore our blessed Lord who being the God of heauen and earth vouchsafed to looke vpon such miserable creatures as we are with such eyes of pitty And (f) How those auncient miracles oblige vs to the loue of our Lord. although those former cures were not wrought for the recouery of our indiuiduall bodyes yet there is no single circumstance belonging to any one of them which giueth not a copious supply of instruction and comfort to our soules and especially that last and greatest miracle of all miracles of the institution of the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar So that to omit all other moderne miracles which yet are innumerable Christ our Lord doth still vvorke miracle vpon miracle in this blessed Sacrament For this is consecrated in thousands of places daily and hourely and it is imparted as easily and liberally to the worst and wickedest of vs all if euen now at last we haue a resolution to mend as it was to his own most blessed mother and his Apostles And this is not only a lasting miracle of instruction and direction and consolation both of body and soule as those others were but it is a miracle of high communication and perfect vnion Wherby the omnipotent Maiesty of God Matt. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. Ioan. 13. is content after a sort to make sinfull man become one thing with himselfe That diuine goodnes vouchsafing to leaue it to his Church by way of Legacy in the night precedent to his passion as euen now I am endeauouring to shew Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus shewed to vs in the institution of the blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse CHAP. 45. OVR Lord God of his goodnes giue vs grace that in vs it may be verified which hath bene vttered by his owne sacred mouth Habenti dabitur Matt. 13. To him who hath shall be giuen And that since he hath indued vs with Faith in the beliefe of the misteries of his pretious life and death we may still haue Faith more and more wherwith to giue a firme feeling inflamed kind of assent to all the testimonies of his infinite loue which haue bene made to vs his miserable creatures For (a) What loades of mercy our Lord doth lay vpon our soules verily in this kind he layes such loade vpon vs and doth as it were so presse vs euen to death with his deare mercies that if the eyes of our mindes were not eleuated by his supernaturall grace and fixed therby vpon an
infallible truth we might be beaten blind with seeing and starued with surfetting as we see many others are and the very vastnes of those misteries which are opened to vs for our cōfort by Christ our Lord would make vs halfe doubt whether they were or could be true or no. The beloued Apostle and Euangelist S. Iohn had lodged himselfe so long so neere the hart of our blessed Lord that he was easily able to discerne and declare how excellently he loued vs from the beginning and that withall his loue continued towards vs to the end Iesus autem Ioan. 13. cùm dilexisset suos in finem dilexit eos Nay the motion of the loue of his diuine hart towards man hauing bene so naturall in him it is no meruaile if it vvent more violently in the end of his sacred life then at the beginning All the passions of that happy soule were intyrely subiect to the commaund of his reason and he held it to be a thing agreable to the dignity immutability of the God he was to speake of all things as was toucht before after a positiue manner and wonderfully as we vse to say within compasse Superlatiues and Exaggerations vsed to be thin sowed in the blessed mouth of our Lord IESVS Nor is he in effect euer found to haue said any thing as seeming to haue bene transported with any extraordinary or passionate desire or care but (b) When he came towardes the passiō our Lord did seem to breake his pace only concerning that which he was to suffer in his sacred Passion and that which he was to doe in the night precedent to the same When formerly he was aduising his Apostles to haue great confidence in the prouidence of God by letting them see what a care he had euen of sparrowes and inferring therby that he would incomparably more haue care of them he exaggerated not the matter Matt. 10. but did only aske If themselues were not to be more esteemed then many sparrowes Wheras yet one soule is more in the sight of God not only thē many sparrowes but then al the whole material world put together When he had a mind to tell them what a misery it was for that wretch that he would make himselfe the betrayer of the sonne of man Matt. 8◠he only said wo be to that man it had been better for him if he had neuer been borne which was but a very plaine and positiue manner of expression For as much as not only this greatest sinne which euer was perhaps conceaued but the least mortall sinne that can be imagined without repentance doth make a man much more vnhappy then if he were vtterly depriued of being When he professed the omnipotency of his eternall Fathers power to deliuer him out of the hands of them who tooke and tyed him he told them only Matt. 26. that if he should pray for any helpe of that kind his Father would send more then twelue legions of Angells to his succour Wheras he might as good cheape haue said twelue thousand as twelue legions But our Lord IESVS was not wont to vse any superlatiue manner of speach and he hath had many seruants who haue carefully imitated him in this as in the rest But yet neuer thelesse whē he reflected vpō the thought of that passiō which he was resolued to vndergoe for the Redēption of mā the very desire of the approach of so happy a day made him cōfesse that he was in paine till it did arriue Luc. 12. Baptismo habeo baptizari quomodo coactor donec veniat Or rather he did not so much say that he was in paine as by words of interrogation in the way after a sort of seeming impatient he asked himselfe this very question in effect How much am I payned how straitely am I imprisoned til I haue my fil of suffering for the loue of man Iust (c) Our Lord did long for the tyme when he might institute the B. Sacrament so may we see that when the time of celebrating the feast of the Paschal lambe was come he grew euen greedily desirous to eate it in the company of his B. Apostles before his Passion And for their comfort he would not choose but say Luc. 22. Desiderio desider aui manducare vobiscum hoc Pascha antequam patiar That he desired it and that with desire vpon desire and such desire as could neuer be appeased till he were satisfied till that tyme of the last supper were past wherin he had resolued to impart vnspeakeable tokens of his loue to them and so the other tyme of his Passion wherin he was to endure the depth of all torments and affronts for the same loue were then immediatly to come In the euening therfore and within few howers of his Passion this enamoured Lord of ours hauing all the parts and passages therof in his eye and looking as it were in the very face of death and such a death he yet (d) Our Lord kept the shew of all his sorrow to himselfe Ioan. 13. laid vp all the sorrow in his owne hart and would discouer to his Apostles no other semblance then of ioy and comfort least his griefe might be a cause of theirs He conuersed with them after his ordinary and familiar manner he disposed himselfe first to eate the Paschall lambe with them After that he sate downe with them to a common Supper He kept his diuine countenance full of quietnes and peace He tooke them close about him on all sides He cheered them vp with his gratious eyes and he carued them with his liberall hands Nay with those hands to the dispēsation wherof his eternall Father had cōmitted all things he disdayned not then to wash the vncleane feete of those poore Apostles For which purpose first he put of his vpper garment as any hired seruant was to haue done Ioan. 13. and by the force of his owne armes he tooke a big vessell full of water out of that he silled a lesser He girt himselfe with a towell into which he tooke their corporall vncleanes as a figure of how he would purify their harts by his sacred Passion For then he was to beare the deformity of their sinnes vpon the shoulders of his body which was a kind of winding sheet to his soule When our Lord had thus performed this act of religion in eating of the Paschall lambe and of incomparable suauity in his conuersation of vnspeakeable humility in the Lotiō of his Apostles feete he returned to the table and amazed all the (e) The Angells might well be amazed to see the sonne of God giue his owne body in food to sinners Angells of heauen whose vnderstāding did euen agonize in seeing him performe that supereminent act of Charity when he instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and ordeyned the holy Sacrifice of the Masse which was so worthy of an infinite God This was done by diuine
grace to vvant this soueraigne meanes wherby to protest the faithfull and incommunicable homage vvhich she ovves to him For (c) The Oblation of Sacrifice is the highest act of religion a Sacrifice is a worship of Latria and the supreme act of religion wherby through the oblation and externall mutation of some corpor all thing according to the particular rites and sacred ceremonies which are perfourmed by persons who are peculiarly deputed for that purpose and are called Priests the excellency of the diuine Maiesty and the supreme Dominion which it hath ouer the life and death of all the creatures is acknowledged and protested Now therfore Christ our Lord vvould not depriue vs of this blessing But as vvith great aduātage to vs he had already changed the Circumcisiō of the old law into Baptisme so also was the diuine Goodnes pleased to make all those figuratiue Sacrifices of the same old lavv yeild vp their possession in the nevv and giue place to this one other most excellent Sacrifice of his ovvne most pretious body and bloud The Sacrifices of the old lavv vvere bloudy Num. 1. 3. and they vvere offred by that braunch of the Tribe of Leui which descended from Aron But yet Melchisedech also vvas a Priest and that long before Gen. 14. Psal 109. and he offred an vnbloudy Sacrifice and it consisted of bread wine Novv Christ our Lord vvho is our true high Priest did summe vp all the Sacrifices of both those kindes into his ovvne sacred selfe For as those former bloudy Sacrifices did prefigure the Sacrifice of his pretious life vpon the Crosse so that other of bread and vvine did prefigure the Sacrifice of the holy Masse And so truely and properly is this last a Sacrifice and so truly vvas he the Priest vvho offered it first in this last supper of his and so truly did he ordaine his Apostles to do the like by those vvords Hocfacite in meam commemorationem Doe this in commemoration of me Luc. 22. in their persons all those others also of succeding ages vvere appointed to doe it vvho should in like manner be ordayned by them that vnlesse this truth be sincerly and religiously granted vve shall neuer be able to verify those vvords of the holy Ghost vvherby it vvas prophesied thus by Dauid Psal 109. concerning Christ our Lord and so vnderstood by the holy Fathers of the Church as vve shall shortly see Tues sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech But a true and lawfull Priest he is after the order of Melchisedech and a Priest he is to be till the end of the vvorld And although he be raigning still in heauen yet continually doth he exercise this office of his by his deputies vvho are true Catholicke Priests And principally it is he vvho offereth vp his ovvne body and bloud together vvith them he being the only true Originall Priest and these other though properly truly Priests yet being but partakers of his Povver Order by his grace Novv this body and bloud of our Lord IESVS vvho is the one only Sacrifice and vvho vvas offered vp in a bloudy māner vpon the Crosse is novv offered dayly in an vnbloudy manner vpon our Altars Conteyning (d) The sacrifice of the Masse is both Propitiatory Impetratory and of thanksgiuing doth benefit both the quick dead Mala. ◠in it selfe all sufficiency and aboundance of grace both for the liuing and dead for the propitiation of sinne and the paines vvhich follovv it the thanksgiuing for benefits already receiued the impetration of graces to be heereafter graunted by Almighty God And this is that Sacrifice wherof Malachy did so cleerly prophesy vvhen reprouing the Sacrifices of the old lavv he spake thus as in the tyme of the lavv of grace Ab ortu solis vsque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus c. From the rysing of the sunne to the going downe therof great is my name among the gentiles And in euery place there is sacrificing and there is offered to my name a cleane oblation because my name is great among the Gentills sayth the Lord of Hosts Of the iudgemēt which the holy Fathers of the Church haue alwayes made of this holy Sacrifice and B. Sacrament and the great veneration which they had them in and the motiues whereby we may be induced to do the like CHAP. 47. VVELL might the Prophet say that this Sacrifice vvas pure and cleane since it is no lesse then God himselfe though not as God but man And the cheife Priest also is God vvho dayly offereth vp the same together vvith the subordinate Priest And although no Quire of Angells can speake as magnificently of it as the thing deserues yet the Fathers of the Church haue done theyr best to acknovvledge and admire it And for the comfort of my reader I vvill cite him a fevv of the many passages vvhich are found in them Who is more the Priest of God sayth (a) Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 3. S. Cyprian then our Lord Iesus Christ who offered a Sacrifice to God the Father he offered that which Melchisedech offered towit bread and wine that is to say his owne body and bloud When we offer this Sacrifice sayth (b) Cyril Hierosol one of the fathers of the first Councell of Nice in Catech. mist 5. Saint Cyrill we afterwards make mention of the dead We erect not Altars to Martyrs saith (c) August de ciuit Dei l. 22. c. 10. Idem Confes l. 9. c. 13. S. Augustine but we offer Sacrifice to him alone who is the God both of them and vs. This S. Augustine saith and he relateth els vvhere of his mother That when she was dying she desired him to remember her at the Altar where she was wont to be present euery day and from whence she knew that holy Sacrifice (d) The body of our Lord. to be dispensed wherby the hand wryting was blotted out which was contrary to vs. Our flesh sayth (e) Tertul. l. deresurrect carnit cap. 8. Tertullian doth secd vpon the body and bloud of Christ that the soule also may be made fat with God The bread which our Lord gaue to his Disciples as (f) Cypr. de coena Domini S. Cyprian saith of the Reall Presence being changed not in shew but in substance by the omnipotency of the word was made flesh That as in the person of Christ the humanity was seene and the diuinity lay hid so hath the diuine essence vnspeakeably powred it selfe into this inuisible Sacrament We doe rightly beleeue sayth (g) Gregor Nyssen in oratione catechistica cap. 37. S. Gregory of Nisse that bread being sanctified by the word of God is transmuted into the body of the word of God We know and haue it for most assured sayth (h) Cyril Ierosol cathe Myst. 4. S. Cyrill Bishop of
Hierusalem that this bread which is seene by vs is not bread although the tast esteeme it to be bread but that it is the body of Christ Many mothers saith (i) Chrysost hom 83. in Matt. S. Chrysostome put out their children when they are borne to be nurst by others but Christ our Lord would not doe soe but doth nourish vs with his owne body and so doth conioyne glew vs to himselfe O miracle (k) Chrysost l. 3. de Sacerde tio O benignity of God sayth the same S. Chrysostome He that sitteth aboue with the Father at the same instant is handled by the hands of all and he deliuers himselfe vp to such as will receaue and imbrace him And in (l) Chrysost hom 24 c. 10.1 Epist ad Corinth another place he sayth thus That which is in the Chalice flowed out of his side and of that doe we communicate This indeed as sayth S. (m) Saint Ephrem who was familiar with Saint Basil the great lib. de natura Dei non serutanda cap. 5. Ephrem exceedeth all admiration all speach and all conceipt which Christ our Sauiour the only begotten sonne of God hath done To vs who are clad with flesh he hath giuen fire and spirit to eate namely his body and his bloud My bread sayth (n) Ambros l. 4. de Sacra menâ—is S. Ambrose is vsuall bread but this bread is bread before the words of the Sacrament but wheÌ„ the coÌ„secration once doth come of bread it is made the flesh of Christ. Let vs therfore settle this point how that which is bread can be made the body of Christ By consecration This consecration of what speach and words doth it consist Of the words and speach of our Lord Iesus For all the rest which is said is either prayse giuen to God or there are particular prayers made for the people and for Kings and others But when he comes to the tyme of making the B. Sacrament the Priest doth no longer speake in his owne words but in the words of Christ The speach therfore of Christ is that which makes this Sacrament What speach of Christ Thevery same wherby al things were made Our Lord commaunded and the heauen was made Our Lord commaunded and the earth was made Our Lord commaunded and the sea was made Our Lord commaunded al the creatures were made Thou seest therfore how effectually the speach of Christ doth work If (o) Note this consequence then there be such power in the speach of our Lord Iesus as to make those things be which were not how much more effectually will it worke towards the making of them be which are and to make them be changed into other then what they were Therefore (p) Marke well the expresse authority of this Saint that I may answere thee I say That it was not the body of Christ before the consecration but after the consecration I say to thee that then it is the body of Christ. Christ was carried sayth (q) Aug. in Psal 33. Conc. 1. Ibid. S. Augustine in his owne hands when commending his body to his Apostles he said Hoc est corpus meum this is my body for then he carried his body in his hands And agayne Our Lord would place our saluation in his body and bloud But how did he commend his body and bloud to vs In his humility For vnlesse he were humble he would not be eaten and drunke The good Pastour sayth (r) Greg. in hom 14. in Euang. S. Gregory the great laid downe his life for his sheepe that he might turne his body and bloud into our Sacrament might feed the sheepe which he had redeemed by the nutriment of his flesh Vnder the species of bread sayth S. (s) Cyril Ierosol in Catech. Myst 4. Cyrillus Ierosolymitanus the body is giuen thee and vnder the species of bloud the wine that so thou maist become participant of his body bloud So shall we by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Carryers of Christ when we shall haue receiued his body and bloud into our body and so as S. Peter saith we shall be made consorts of the diuine nature And according to that of S. (t) Cyril l. 10. in Iohn c. 11. Cyrill if any man shall mingle wax which is melted by fire with other wax which is also melted in such sort that they both doe seeme to be but one made of both so by the coniunction of the body and bloud of Christ our Lord he is in vs and we in him S. (u) Greg. l. 4. Dialog c. 58. Gregory doth surther say What faithfull soule can doubt but that in the very hower of the Sacrifice the heauens doe open at the voyce of the Priest and that in this mystery of Christ Iesus the Quires of the Angells doe assist the highest and the lowest things doe meete Terrestriall and Celestiall things are ioyned and there is made one thinge of things which are visible and inuisible Heere then we are taught by the holy Fathers of the Church whome I might haue cited to this purpose both more at large and more in number the inscrutable loue of our Lord IESVS to mankind expressed in these high mysteries of the blessed Sacrament and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse But how shall we be able to disingage our selues for being euen ouerwhelmed with the huge weight therof since the superexcellent Humanity of our (x) The incompable dignity of the person of Christ our Lord. Lord IESVS consisting of that pretious body which first was framed out of purest bloud of the all-immaculate Virgin by the only hand of the holy Ghost and of that glorious soule which in the first instaÌ„t of the creation therof was hypostatically vnited to God the sonne the second person of the most B. Trinity and the same person being indiuisible from the other two of God the Father and God the holy Ghost that this person I say of Christ our Lord should be communicated to all the Priests of the holy Catholike Church to be offred daily ouer all the world and to be receiued into the brest both of them and al the other faithfull children of that mother as often as theÌ„selues should desire What Cherubim is able to discouer the greatnes of this benefit and what Seraphim hath his hart hoat inough to breath out such ardent flames of loue as grow due to God vpoÌ„ this account How full of reason was the exclamation and admiration of holy Dauid when he said Psalm 34. 9. That there was none like to God in the cogitations which he interteyned for our Good No man no creature could euer haue aspired to such a happines or so much as to haue conceaued that euen the diuine nature it selfe had bene able to expresse such goodnes But God is God and God is loue and the loue euen of Creatures is full of (y) How full of Inuention great loue is inuention for
the inioyning and if it were possible for the very exchanging themselues by loue into one another And now as God is infinite in all things so is he infinite after a particular manner in his loue and by consequence he is infinite in his inuention How inspeakeable honour had it bene for man to haue bene though but admitted to the sight alone of Christ our Lord in the blessed Sacrament Num. 88. For if the sight of that brasen serpēt with faith in Christ our Lord who was then but to come so long after were able to cure the Israelites of the stings of serpents how much more would the only sight of our blessed Sauiour with faith haue sufficiently serued to cure their soules of all their sicknesse How much happines had it bene for vs to touch the sacred host with our hāds the senfible part of the same host being a garment which sits so close vpon the body and soule of Christ our Lord. For we know that a woman was cured of a bloudy flux Matt. 9 14. Marc. 6. Luc. 8. by the only touch of the hemne of his looser garment Such honour and happines had bene much for vs to haue receaued but it was nothing in cōparisō of the excessiue charity of our Lord which would not be satisfied with doing lesse then all For what could euen his omnipotency haue added to the trace which heere he hath deuised not only of a coniunction but of an vnion and that such an one as is the most internall which can be imagined being in the way of food S. Augustine sheweth how God hath made as able to feed vpon him by a meer spirituall manner in the mistery of the Incarnation and we may fitly apply the same wordes to this Sacramētall kind of feeding as indeed these two misteries haue great affinity with one another God (z) A passage of S. Augustine which well deserueth to be consi dered Manual cap. 26. became man sayth this incomparable Saint for mans sake that so man might be redeemed by him by whome he was created And to the end that God might be beloued by man after a kind of more familiar manner he appeared in the likenes of man That so both the internall and the externall senses of man might be made happy in him and that the eye of our hart might be fedd by the consideration of his diuinity and the eye of our flesh and bloud by that of his humanity That so whether we should worke inward or outward this humane nature of ours which was created by him in him might be sure to find store of food This S. Augustine sayth and if this might be well affirmed in respect of the Incamation of our Lord IESVS how much more may it be sayd in respect of the mystery of the blessed Sacrament where we feed not only spiritually but besides after a sacramentall and yet reall māner How we doe both feed and are fedd vpon in the blessed Sacrament and of the admirable effects which it must necessarily cause in such as do worthily receaue it and of the reason why it must be so and of the Figures which forshewed the same CHAP. 48. VVE may wel perceaue that our Lord IESVS is a great freind of (a) God is a great friend of vnion Vnion His person is distinct from the other persons of the B. Trinity but the essence is one and very same of them all When he was resolued to become man he was also pleased to knit mans nature to the nature of God by the Hypostaticall vnion An infinite honour this was to man for it grew true heerby that man was God and that God was killed vpon a Crosse for the loue of men Yet though by that vnion in his Incarnation he brought vs all to be his allies he did not personally vnite himselfe to vs all But by this last (b) How our Lord vniteth vs to himself sacramentall vnion of him and vs when purely we take his pretious body bloud into our selues vnder the quality and condition of food he maketh euery one of vs much more one with him And then no meruaile if the honour he doth vs if the ioy he giues vs when the fault is not our owne be the greatest which we can receaue in this world For we inioye none of the other mysteries of the life and death of our Lord IESVS but onely by faith and memory wheras this is present to vs in very deed and present so as the food which we receaue is present to vs. And so in like manner when no impediment is at hand it breeds a great loue of his goodnes and a great delight in his sweetnes in fine an vnion of vs both in one Though with this difference from other food that as S. Augustine was taught by our Lord we change not him into vs Confes l. 7. cap. 10. as by eating other food we vse to chāge it but we are changed into it by it if we approach to it with a pure and hungry soule so feeding in this B. Sacrament vpon him he feedeth also vpon vs. Nor is it strange that we should both feed and yet be fed vpon when Almighty God is a party to the contract Omnia quaecumpue voluit fecit He can doe what he will and he is pleased to will Psalm 113. that he and we should feed vpon one another And to such as endeauour to be truly and entirely and purely his he contenteth not himselfe with lesse then thus to come to them in person with desire of vnion And he is (c) The vnspeakeable benefits which are reaped by worthy receauing the B. Sacrament Psal 147. washing away all the dregs of sinne by that fountaine of grace He is thawing all frozen hardnes of the hart by the sweet breath of his Spirit Flabit Spiritus eius fluent aquae and he is consuming the rust of their selfe loue by that burning fire of his charity comforting them in all afflictions and satisfying them in all their doubts and wants illuminating their vnderstanding and composing their will and fixing their imaginatiō and possessing and imprinting himselfe vpon their memory calling in and consecrating their senses and sealing vp their harts to himselfe And changing at length the whole tast of their soules he make them loue that which he loues and hate that which is any way offensiue to him To conclude of deuills which perhaps they were they become as so many Angells in flesh bloud are naturalized after a sort with God grow to be euen very Christs according to that of the blessed Apostle who said of himselfe Viuo (d) O happy holy state ego Galat. 2◠iam non ego viuit verò in me Christus I liue yet now not I but Christ is he who liueth in me by my liuely imitation of his diuine vertues and by a perfect conformity or rather transformity of my spirit
into his And (e) No wonder is strange where God is the worke man Psalm 111◠what meruaile can it be that such wōders as these be wrought in man since it is the Creatour of man and of all things els who descends so low as to liue in him he of whom it is sayd that Gloria diuitiae in domo eius What meruaile is it if we be made so glorious and so rich since he vouchsafes to make pure and humble soules the house wherin he desires to be intertayned and euen to be the very couch wherin he delighteth to be enloyed by the most chast but yet most strayte imbracements of diuine loue What meruaile I say if such as receiue this food with pure affections doe lead euen in this world a life which is not of this world since the selfe same God who feeds all the spirits of heauen hath contryued (f) In some sort we are equall to the Angells euen in this life a way how to giue himselfe for the same food to mortall men The same food I say though it be dressed after a different māner and serued in vnder a disguise of the accidents of bread and wine as betwene two couered dishes according to the custome amōgst great persons Euen this of the disguise was also done out of an admirable diuine loue to vs who had not bene able in this fraile state of ours to see God and liue And besides we grow thus to haue a meanes of exercising most heroicall acts of Faith towards him To which acts of beleeuing in this life doth correspond the rewards and glory of perfect seeing in the next But the substance of the food is still the same both heere and there Apoc. 22. And (g) Our food in the blessed Sacramēt is the very same wher with the happy soules are feasted in heauen therfore S. Iohn according to the obseruation of Doctour Auila relates that it was one and not diuers Trees which he saw on both the bancks of that riuer which flowed out of the throne of God Vpon the one of which bancks being the tryumphant Church in heauē Christ our Lord doth sustaine them there and on the other bancke which is the militant Church wherof we haue the honor and happines to be members the same tree of life doth feed vs heere We are also taught this very truth by the sacred mouth of Christ our Lord himselfo Iohn 6. who said That he was the bread that came downe from heauen If therfore he be the bread of heauen he is the food of the inhabitāts of heauen and if that food be thus imparted to his childrē in this world it must be only their fault if they lead not euen heere a life of heauen We (h) How man ennobleth other food by eating it but he is ennobled by this see that in the case euen of common food how base soeuer that be it is raysed by being eaten to the dignity of becōming a part of him who eates it because the man is nobler then the meate and he assumeth it therfore vp to himselfe And what should then become of such as doe worthily feed vpon this bread of life this nourishmēt of heauē which is Christ our Lord but that for as much as this food is infinitely of better quality then our selues by eating it we should be transformed into it and of terrestriall in our conuersation should become celestiall and resemble the Angells in purity since we carry resemblance to them in the food we take which is the God and King of glory An infinite and of it selfe an incredible thinge this is that such creatures as we should be sublimed to such a height of dignity euen in this life But to the end that it might astonish vs the lesse when it should arriue and that our wonder might be all conuerted into loue it (i) The banquet of the B. Sacramēt was fortold by many Figures before it came was the good will of God to foretell vs of it long before and to reprosent it as it were to our very eyes by way of figures and shadowes that so being accustomed to consider those shadowes we might with more facility imbrace the body when it should be come For this is the accomplishment of al those figures of the (1) Exod. 11. Paschall lambe of the (2) Psalm 77. Manna of the bread of (3) Exod. 25. Proposition of the Banquet which King (4) Hester ◠Assuerus made of many others And as it was a body in repect of those former shadowes and figures so may it be accounted in some respects but as a figure in respect of the celestiall Banquet of eternall beatitude which shall be serued in hereafter as the second course of our delicious fare when we are to feed for all eternity The Sacramentall presence of our Lord IESVS doth stay no longer then the species of bread and wine remaine but the ayre vertue thereof doth still contynue till it be driuen thence And (k) The wonderful effects of the B. Sacramēt so great effects they are which grow vpon it in such as are carefull to comply with God as giues them aboundant testimony that no lesse then omnipotency it selfe is there Nay it is most certainly true that the blessed Sacrament doth worke and that very often in the soules of such as dispose themselues deuoutly to it so many and so wonderful effects sometimes in giuing strēgth of body where it was wanting before sometimes in the vtter extirpation of some passion sometymes in the infusion of some great vertue sometymes in changing at a very instant the whole sense of the soule making it all tryumph with ioy wheras immediatly before it was halfe dead of griefe as doth much declare and proue the diuinity of Christ our Lord. Yea and theyr soules doe feele it so as that if there were no other argument or authority in the whole world but what they find within themselues it might serue to giue them great assurance that Christ our Lord is no lesse then God A (l) The great life vigour which growes to the soule by the B. Sacrament Minerall this is soe full of Spirit that it leaues a liuely tincture in the violl wherinto it hath bene powred It perfumes the whole soule if it be well dissolued by acts of loue But then we must doe as we vse whē a roome is well perfumed to keepe the doores and windowes shut Recollection in this case doth euen import a man as much as his life Which yet if God bid him giue ouer and that his diuine Maiesty doe for the reasons of (m) Spirituall comforts must giue place to the exercise of charity obedience 2. Cor. 2. Charity or Obedience require him to open and impart himselfe to others he shall be still A good odour of Christ our Lord to God but withall he hath so much strength as not to be dissipated in
if we will we are to know that the more nutritiue the food is in it selfe the more imminent wil our dāger be if we will needs be still so weake as to want that heat of loue wherwith it is to be digested by our soules And it may happen to vs heere as is vseth to doe in the case of common food that insteed of health we shall find our selues more desperatly sicke of surfetting by our approach to this bread of heauen But so on the other side if we prepare and purge our selues by penance if we arme strengthen our selues by prayer and practise of solid vertue this tree of life will fructify in our soules after a strange proportion and the more the oftner we shall feed thereon Nor shall we need to feare that by frequenting this mystery either the benefit which it will impart to vs or the veneration which we shall be enabled to carry towards it cā any way decrease but the contrary The (e) Why the frequenting this bread of Angells doth breed increase of reuerence and loue of God pleasures of the world glut a man for the tyme and he is ready to starue for hungar afterward And so the couersation of many is valued highly till it come to be inioyed but by custome and familiarity there growes contempt It is not it cannot be so in this case of ours For the honor and profit delight which is both found and felt by treating in this inward manner with the infinite spring and fountaine of all Good doth easily put vs out of feare that euer there can be any want of reuerēce but only with such as come not to it as they ought In all things but especially in this blessed Sacrament he is of infinite greatnesse and goodnes to such as will resort to him with h̄ble loue or rather who will but giue him leaue to resort to them and who lay no impediment in his way but that he may inioy them all as he desires For as much more willingly doth Christ our Lord repose in such a soule then euen in the Emperiall heauen it selfe as the preparing of that soule although it be yet but the seate of his grace did cost him more then the building of heauen though it be the seate of his glory For heauen did but cost him a word which was but one simple act of his will but the soule of man did cost him many a bitter sigh and many a salt teare and so many drops of his pretious bloud as that he had no more left to giue The next discourse is to giue vs a larger prospect vpon the obiect of his infinite sufferance as this is striuing to make vs feele and ponder the care he takes to keep vs from suffering any misery at all either of sinne or paine For in this diuine Sacrament of Sacraments to (f) The many offices which our Lord performes to soules in this B. Sacrament the poore oppressed Orphane he shewes himselfe a most deere and louing Father To the sicke and wounded patient an expert careful Phisitian To the negligent and wandring sheepe a pittifull and watchfull Pastour To the ignorant and vnlearned scholler a wise and most diligent Maister To the penitent and afflicted soule which splits with griefe for hauing offended such a Goodnes and melts with loue through the desire to enioy such a beauty he is a pardoner a protectour a perseruer a cherisher an illuminator an inflamer a companion a friend a spouse an all in all O fire (g) The conclusiō of this discourse in the way of prayer diuine O sacred food O heauenly feast So heauenly as thou dost incorporate thy selfe in vs vs in thee dost after a sort euen Deify our nature in this mortall life of ours by making it in a manner one thing with thyne Let thine eye looke backe vpon thine owne auncient mercies And since thou hast taken such strange pitty vpon thy Creatures by thy vouchsafing hitherto to dwell in such durty houses take pitty now at last vpon thy self And make henceforth these our harts such holy Temples as may become thee O thou King of glory to inhabit and therin for euer to be adored Let all the faculties of our soules and all the senses of our body hange like so many incensories before thy Altar and breath out eternal prayse of thy holy name and euen spend themselues wholy in thy seruice in contemplation of this infinite benefit Thou hast lodged a treasure as rich as thou thy selfe art rich in these fraile vessells of our soules Giue vs therfore grace to carry thē about with such a care to keep them safe from breaking as that the Iewell may be for euer ours Humble vs deere Lord by what other way thou wilt but let not our former sinnes be punished by our contemning or vnderualuing these soueraigne mercies Luc. 12. And since vpon thy bringing the fire of they holy Spirit into the world thou didst expect that it should be all inflamed do not permit that we should yet remaine so voyd of heate when thy vnspeakeable goodnes doth so often bring into our bosomes yea and into our very breasts that fornace of this very fire which is thy self this death of sinne this spring of vertue this bread of life this cure of passions this strength of weakenes this treasure of grace this banquet of ioy this roote of glory this conduit and conue yance of all good things Of the infinite Loue which our Lord Iesus discoueuereth to mākind in his sacred Passion with a reflection vpon the dignity of his diuine person and the vse which heer we are to make thereof CHAP. 52. OVR Lord IESVS was figured in the old Testament Isa 1. Gen. 49. with great propriety by the flower of the roote of Iesse and by the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda A flower he was both through the sauour of his benesits and through the odour of his diuine conuersation as the precedent discourses will haue shewed and a Lion he was also by the nobility of his strength and Passion as will now appeare Fortitude is both actiue and passiue yea and the Passiue is farre the greater and farre the harder of the two The (a) The whole life of our Lord may in some sort be called a Passion course of his whole life was like a field so thicke so wed with crosses and cares that it may all be accounted to haue bene a kind of continued Passion but yet because the last day and night of the same life did so abound therwith it is this alone which is eminently knowne and called by that sad name In this state he was to be when the Prophet Esay foresaw and spake of him to this effect He hath no grace or beauty Isa 53. we haue seene him and there was nothing in him to be seene we desired that he might be contemned as the most abased thinge amongst men A man of
griefe and who did euen possesse the knowledge of infirmity His face was as if it were hiddden and despised and we had him in no estimation It was he indeed who bare our infirmities and who suffered our paines and we esteemed of him as of some Leaprous person and as one who had bene strucken by the hand of God and so deiected How truly were these things performed in the persō of Christ our Lord throughout the course and current of his Passion wil instantly be represented heere when first you (b) In the consideration of the Passion of Christ our Lord it is necessary to ponder his infinite Maiesty as he is God shall haue bene desired to looke a little backe with the eye of your consideration vpon the first Chapters of this whole discourse wherin the dignity of the person of Christ our Lord is touched For so when we shall haue coupled that former excellēcy with this present infamy shall withal haue weighed how the only reason that moued him to dispoyle himselfe of the one and to vest himselfe with the other was a desire of the glory of God which might redound to him by our good And that he emptyed himselfe out of his owne felicity to the end that we might partake therof in heauen And did euen as it were inebriate himselfe with the Chalice of affliction affronts and desolation that so in the strength of that he might secure vs from the eternall chaines of fire in hell I (c) The vse of these consideratiōs thinke we shal not be so blindly bold nor so wickedly vngratefull as not to detest our sins which were the cause of all his sorrow and continually to lament and serue loue that Lord who was pleased to vndergoe such penance for them Consider therfore I say that he whose Passion you are to read was the only Sonne of the sacred Virgin Mary that most excellēt and perfect pure Creature that euer was Cōsider that his humanity was framed by the hād and skill of the holy Ghost out of her Royall and all-immaculate bloud Consider that he was beautifull aboue all the Sonnes of men for cōplexion for constitution Psalm 44. and for grace and motion Consider the complete sanctity of his holy soule which animated that body so full of beauty The high purity the wide charity the profound humility the entyre conformity and transformity of his will into the will of God with al other vertues in the highest degree which God could communicate to a creature Consider the other incomparable guifts and graces which were imparted to him or rather ingulfed in him beyond all measure proportion That guift of Prophesy and Miracles That treasure of incorruptible wisedome That euer flowing riuer of his infallible Knowledge Experimentall Infused Beatificall Cōsider that this body and soule were knit by the indissoluble bond of Hypostaticall vnion to the second person of the most blessed Trinity who according to the words of the Creed of the Councell of Nice is God of God light of light true God of true God begottens not made consubstantiall with the Father by whom all things were made Consider if thou canst the infinite eternall simple vnchangeable independant essence and wisedome and power goodnes of this diuinity It being the fountaine of Immortality Purity Liberty Verity Clarity Peace Plenty Grace Glory Swauity Excellency Beauty Maiesty Felicity Prouidence Preseruation Protection Iustice Mercy Pitty Longanimity and Loue. Consider that to euery of these Attributes there belongs an addition of being infinite and that in a word he is the substāce and the summe the circumference and the Center of all Originall created perfection Of the most tender and diuine Loue and care which our Lord Iesus shewed at his entrance into the Passion in his last sermon and long prayer to his eternall Father CHAP. 53. THIS man this God this God and man did abandon himselfe so farre as to suffer hideous things for the loue of vs. And we are bound with our whole harts not onely to carry great compassion towardes him but to fly a mayne from all that which is any way offensiue to him who did voluntarily and with a kind of infinite charity cast himselfe into such a bed of Thornes for our sakes For as soone as our Lord had instituted the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the holy Sacrifice of the Masse and had therby (a) The Apostles ordayned Priests with authority to ordayne others to the end of the world ordayned his Apostles Priests who in the person of their successours and such as should lawfully be sent by them might perpetuate the celebratiō of those diuine misteries till the end of the world he went disposing himselse to that Passion which Iudas was already gone to bring vpon him And notwithstanding that he knew how vast things they were to be yet desired he with excessiue appetite to imbrace them This is plainely insinuated by that expression of the holy Prophet who saith of Christ (b) Our Lord did long for his fill of suffering for our sakes Ierem. Thren 30. our Lord Saturabitur opprobrijs which implyes a being hungry after the enduring of reproach and scorne for vs as a man might be after some curious and costly banquetting dish and that at the tyme of his Passion he should be sure to haue his longing satisfied But before he went forth to the place where he knew he should be betrayed and apprehended he resolued to take a kind of leaue of his Apostles he had intertayned thē with a large and amourous and most mysterious discourse And although as a man may say one of his feete were already in the graue and that he was soone to find the whole rage and fury of hell vpon him for the sending of the other after it he (c) Out Lord was tenderly carefull to comfort his Apostles in the middst of his owne greatest sorrowes applyed himselfe yet to comfort them and to forget himselfe as was sayd before with such a courage as might well become that man who was the naturall Sonne of God and with such a loue as might well declare the diuine pitty which he carried to the Sonnes of men For from hence it came that he tooke such tender care to arme them against all future feares He told them to this effect and almost in these very wordes That indeed he was to goe away but withall Ioan. 14.15.16.17 that he went to prouide a place for them He assured them that their afflictions whensoeuer they might happen should not last but quickly be conuerted into ioy and such a ioy as neuer should be taken from them He insinuated himselfe to their rude capacities by sweet and tender comparisons He made the eternall Father to be a husbandman that so himselfe might be the vine wherof they were to be the braunches He told them what care the Father himselfe would take to purge and purify their soules from tyme
soule being vnited to the diuinity would haue bene farre from feeling any thing but vnspeakeable ioy But leauing eight of his Disciples not farre of he tooke to himselfe the three whom he fauoured most Marc. 14. S. Peter S. Iames and S. Iohn as the fittest to be eye witnesses of his afflictiō because they had beene fortified by hauing bene present at his Transfiguration Matt. 17. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. He bad them watch and pray least else they might enter into Temptation But the lead of their sad harts drew downe and closd ' the doores of their heauy eyes making them sleep after a sort whether they would or no. Our Lord had by that tyme retyred himselfe a little euen from them into perfect (a) Solitude is fit for such as pray solicitude Not that he had need therof who knew not what be longed to a distraction but to teach vs in such cases what we are to doe Yea and to make euen men of the highest prayer and contemplation not to contemne the preparations and helpes which weaker persons are wont vse When he had prayed a while he went to visit his Apostles And so he did agayne at two seueral tymes afterward for no paine of his owne was able to make him forget them And although in all reason they were to haue been sharply reprehended for such a dulnes yet he would not open his mouth towards the holding of any such language But (b) The wōderfull meeknes of our B. Lord. he pittied them rather and bad them at the last sleepe on and to the extreme confusion of such as for tryflles are cholerickly transported against their seruants he excuseth and defendeth and euen comendeth them for the promptitude and good desire of their minde although their body of flesh bloud were fraile Returning therfore againe to pray his soule was ouer wrought with griefe in such excesse that his valiant hart which knew not what belonged to feare and his silent tongue which vsed not to vent it selfe by speach were not ashamed to professe that he was all seized with terrour that he was oppressed with a kind of wearines that he was surcharged with so profound sorrow as made him say That his soule was sad euen to the death What a blessed goodnes was this in him to plucke vp those stakes dikes which formerly had made it impossible for such thought as those to breake in and ouerflow him and now to giue way to such (c) The weakenes of our Lord hath obtayned strength for his seruants in their sufferāce weakenes in himselfe that by the merit therof so much grace might be applied to men and not only to men but euen to tender and delicate Virgins as that in vertue therof they might be able with patience and euen with ioy to endure as cruell Martyrdomes as euer the rage of the most barbarous Tyrants could inuent For as we grew to haue perfect life by the obediēce of his death and true honour by his humility and shame so by this weakenes of his we haue gayned strength by his wearines alacrity and by his griefe his faithfull seruants haue obteyned ioy in their greatest misery From hence we may also gather an other fruite of cōfort that since our Lord himselfe went so farre in the expression of his distresse his seruants must not thinke when thēselues should be much deiected by their crosses in the inferiour part of their soule that therfore God is angry with them if still in the superiour they will imitate this Lord of ours Who notstanding he desired that the Chalice might haue passed from him did yet resigne himselfe with intire abnegatiō of his owne wil accepting thus Luc. 22. imbracing the wil of God Pater si est possibile transeat à me Calix iste attamen non mea voluntas sed tua siat Father if it be possible let this Chalice passe frō me yet not my will but thine be done Now as the charity was vnspeakeable which our Lord IESVS was pleased to expresse both in bearing such a vveight as this for our Redemption in letting vs heare the groanes which it cost him for our instructiō consolation so who shall be able to sound into that bottomlesse pit of his profound humility which drew the God of glory to submit himselfe to such indignity and to make him content to need the comfort of a creature though he were an Angell which Angell must come downe from heauen like a prince of glory whilst the creatour of all the Angells was planted there so full of misery And that he would find himselfe in such necessity of (d) How he persisted in prayer persisting in his prayer sometymes (1) Luc. 22. vpon his knees sometymes (2) Marc. 14. prostrate vpon the ground often repeating the same Prayer and that in the selfe same words as if it had bene like to proue a kind of doubtfull case what would become of him at last But of that there was no doubt at all for besides his Hypostaticall vnion with the diuinity his happy soule was fully in God And both by the straytes into which he was content that the inferiour part therof should be cast for as much as concerned any sense of cōfort as also by the course which he tooke to become victorious in the end he went recording wayes and rules for vs wherby we might also conquer all our enemies Our blessed Lord in the meane tyme was labouring as it were for life to such plunges was he brought as to find himselfe in expresse agony Luc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the holy Euangelist declares Now this is the state of dying persons in the last moments of their life when the eyes being already dymme the teeth being knit the hart strings being straynd and all the noble partes being in commotion as this Globe of the lower world vvould be in a generall earth quake the diuorce of the body and soule seemeth neere at hand And it is to be noted that this grevv in him vvithout any torment then inflicted vpon his body and only from the (e) The excessiue anguish of mind which our Lord Iesus felt anguish of his minde Hovv exquisite therfore and hovv insufferable must that anguish be But the more closely he vvas to be set vpon by that Sea of sorrovv vvhich seemed as if instantly it vvould svvallovv him vp the more firme vvas his hope in God and so also must ours be in such occasions And after the rate of our discomforts so is our Prayer to be increased Forvve see it is affirmed of our blessed Sauiour that vvhē he vvas grovvne to be in Agony he produced his prayer into great length Ibid. Et factus in agonia prolixius orabat Prayer is therfore that vvhich still he recommends to vs heerby and vve see vvith hovv profound reuerence it must be made and vvhat high estimation vve are to make
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
being the most sensible part of al the rest and indeed the very source and seate of sense the former torment was not so great as it might haue bene But heere with hands which they arme with iron grauntlets they wreath sharpe thornes of great length into the forme of a hat Ioan. 19. which carryeth also the forme of an Imperiall Crowne and they clap it hard vpon and into his head which they beseige as it were round about with torments farre exceeding all humane conceipt It is true that before he had bene stroken at seuerall tymes in the high Priests house both with the fist and with the flat of the hand but now his head is beaten not with their hands for they could not haue so much as touched him without wounding themselues but the Reed which whilst it was in his hands serued for a note of scorne being taken into theirs became came an instrument of excessiue paine For laying load with it vpon his head their cruelty was so witty as to be able and that without any labour at all to themselues to make at once as many new wounds in that most sensible part of the whole body as there were thornes in that cursed-blessed-Crowne A fence of (d) The great torment which those thornes must needs giue our Lord. thornes made with care is able to keepe wild beasts within the prison of a Parke as well as if the inclosure were of wood or stone And although they haue hides which are like houses thatcht with hayre yet they dare not put themselues vpon the passing of such pikes as those If a single short thorne doe but enter into the most dull and fleshy part of the hand it puts a man out of patience till it be pluckt forth And if it chāce to get betwene the flesh and the nayle it makes a shift to goe for a kind of torment And many tymes it breeds the losse of a nayle and sometymes of a ioynt and it hath fallen out that it hath kept men so long from sleepe as to cast them into feuers and so to depriue thē by degrees of life What torment then did our blessed Lord endure when that faire Common of his forehead grew subiect to such an inclosure of thornes which imbraced as with so many cruell armes not only that part but all the rest of his diuine head round about We haue seene men wounded in so sensible partes of the body that the Tents which are put in doe giue them more paine euery tyme when they are drest then euen the very wounds themselues would doe And it groweth sometimes so farre as to make thē swoone And who shall then be able to comprehend the vnspeakeable torment which now was caused to our blessed Lord who had so many wounds in that fōtaine of his quicke feeling and so many seuerall Tents as there were thornes which did not only search the wōds but make them And euery one of them growing so much deeper and consequently bringing more parts of the head which till then had bene vntoucht into the same confederacy of cruell paine as those bloudy men would haue a mind to strike him at seuerall tymes ouer the head with that Reed And thus it was cleerly and completely fulfilled of Christ our Lord that A plant a pedis vsque ad verticem capitis Ioan. 1. from the very sole of the foote to the very crowne of his head there was not a spot free from bitter paine He felt (e) Our Lord felt that in his body which the Prophet Dauid all sinners feele in their soules Psalm 17. that in the vniuersall torment of his body which the Prophet Dauid found concerning the miseries of his soule when in the bitternes therof he thus expressed himselfe Non est sanitas in carne mea à sacie irae tuae non est pax ossibus meis à facie peccatorum meorum There is no health in my flesh by reason of thy wrath nor there is no peace in my bones by reason of my sinnes And verily it seems as if it had bene an expresse prophesy of the degrees wherby the tormēts of our Lord should grow vp at length to the top of torment towards the appeasing the wrath of God by the propitiation which he would offer for the sinne of man Since as soone as they had depriued the whole masse of his sacred flesh of health and beauty by that cruell scourging they put themselues vpon an inuention how to passe into and pierce his bones in the most noble and pretious part of him which was his head by that bloudy Crowning To such excesse as this did the sinne of man in generall arriue to such an outrage did those wretches in particular extend themselues and with such an extasis of loue did Christ our Lord apply his minde to the saluation for as much as might concerne him of the whole world as for that purpose to beare this infinite kind of paine shame with an infinite kind of loue and ioy in the Superiour part of his soule How we ought to carry our selues in the Consideration of the Ecce Homo Behould the man and how our Blessed Lord did carry himselfe both interiourly and exteriourly at that tyme and especially of his inuincible silence and contempt of all humane comfort for Loue of vs. CHAP. 66. BEEING thus drest vp he was led out by Pilates order to be seene and pittied by the people if that poore man might haue had his will Our Lord might then haue serued well for the very deuise and earacter of torment so he was as to such a one the word which Pilate gaue him Ioan. 19. was Ecce Homo Behold the man And verily it was no more then needed that Pilate should say he was a man for as they had vsed him he had scarce the resemblance of such a creature Himself had professed by the mouth of his holy Prophet I am a worme and no man Psalm 21. A worme which being trodden vpō did not repine that we who indeed are the true worms might not be oppressed by our inuisible enemy but be adopted Rom. 8. by the merit of his humility and charity into the liberty of the glory of sōnes of God A worme but a silly worme which spinns herselfe to death for the good of others and cōuerteth leaues which may serue for an Embleme of the vaine hart of man into a substance of vse and honor And though Pilate did not speake immediately to vs when he said behould the man yet this once we will doe as he desires And not only will we behould him but it shall be against our wils if euer we behould any thing els but only for the loue of him We will behould that man who became man being God and who being man grew yet so much lower then man as to be the outcast of men to the end that we who are the worst of men
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
Grace And from any one of these Vnions not only could he neuer be separated indeed but not so much as doubt that he might be so To say therfore that he was forsaken by God in respect of any of those former wayes of Vnion is grieuously to blaspheme the God of heauen and earth and to prophane the dignity and Maiesty of the soule of Christ our Lord and impiously to interprete and attribute that excesse of his diuine charity to the deepest dishonour which he could receâ—ue as that most wicked (*) Caluin Lib. 2. Instit. cap. 26. §. 10.21.12 in harm mc. 27. Matth. Sectary hath presumed to doe Affirming that our Lord despayred of Gods mercy vpon the Crosse when he vttered those words And that he felt the very paines of the damned in his soule the greatest wherof is the knowledge and feeling of hauing lost Almighty God And although he will pretend that he exalts the mercy of God heerby since God suffered his Sonne to endure the very paynes of hell for the reliefe of man yet besides the hideous blasphemy which these words doe euen of themselues inuolue the wretched Heretique is so blind withall as not to know or so wicked as not to confesse (d) A demonstratioÌ„ wher by that blasphemy is defected that the dignity of Christ our Lord was such in regard of the hypostaticall vnion with the diuinity that any one single sigh alone of his being applyed by faith and charity had bene of merit to saue innumerable millions of worlds of meÌ„ though euery of them had bene as wicked as that most wicked man himselfe If therfore one only sigh had beene inough for the redemption of the world then certainly those other many and most sublimely accomplished acts of vertue which that happy soule of Christ our Lord did worke through the whole course of his diuine life being accoÌ„panyed by those vnspeakable torments which he endured with a kind of infinite loue to vs in his sacred passion before his death will make his redemption of vs most superabundantly copious without needing to haue recourse to any such impious and hereticall blasphemy as that miserable man suckt from the authour of lyes to be dispersed by the disciples of his lewd Doctrine The Catholike Doctrine the truth is that which hath already bene declared That our Lord IESVS was content to be depriued of all sense feeling of diuine comsort which he expressed by those dolorous words of his And his pleasure also was that we should be told that he vttered them with a loud voyce Ibid. To (e) Why our Lord spake those words with a loud voyce the end that euen from the most remote corners of our hard harts we might heare theÌ„ and adore him for them And now as he asked not that question with a lowd voyce as if the eternall Father could not haue heard him if he should haue spokeÌ„ softly so neither did he aske it at all as not knowing or needing to be certified why he was so forsaken by him since our Lord knew all things And how should he be ignorant of that which so much concerned himselfe he who knew the secrets of all harts and how the eternall Father would dispose therof Colos 23 and in whome the all treasures of knowledge wisedom were heaped vp But he asked that question to the end that we might seeke for the Answere of it and seeking it might find it and finding it out might learne to know both the grieuousnes of sinne therby which was so sharpely punished vpon Gods owne only Sonne the infinite torments from which we are to be deliuered by such a costly meanes the inestimable value of grace for the purchase wherof to our vse Christ our Lord was content to sel whatsoeuer he could part withall both in body and reputation euen in the inferiour part of his very soule the vnspeakeable glory of the kingdome of heauen which was only to be opened thus by the Golden maister-key of the infinite loue of Christ our Lord. For vpon the only turning of this key towards vs those lockes do all fly open wherin the eternity of selicity is treasured vp for vs in the house of God Of the excessiue loue which our Lord Iesus did expresse by the silence and solitude wherwith he endured those vnspeakeable torments vpon the Crosse and how the whyle he was negotiating our cause with God CHAP. 73. THIS Passion opens the doore of eternall felicity to vs but heere we see how for the tyme it did shut the gate of comfort against our B. Lord. For betwene the end of his three first speaches and this complaint which he made to his eternall Father which was the first of his fower last there passed vpon the point of three full howers during all which tyme this Sonne of the Virgin did not once so much as open his blessed mouth O that our Lord would heere graunte the suite of his humble seruants whilst they desire to haue some sight and tast of that dolorous condition wherin then he was lodged for our sinnes O that we might partake some little part of that amazement wherwith al the quires of heauenly spirits did abound when they saw their Creator planted in the ayre vpon a Crosse deformed from head to foote with torments prophaned with blasphemies attended in sileÌ„ce by darkenes yet withall so far from taking reuenge of any dishonor that had bene done him as that he suffered still with entire submission and with inuincible loue both of God and man But that which still me thinks makes the rest more strange and wherin more of the God appeares is that straÌ„ge kind of silence (a) The admirable silence of our Lord and how he did not once coÌ„plavne either of his paynes or our sinne wherof I spake before and that totall absence of expressing any manner of complaint by so much as any one word yea or euen sigh or groane It was said before that our Lord himselfe had inuited the world to behold the case wherin he was and if we were content to do so vpon the summons of Pilats Ecce homo how much more are we to six our harts vpon this tragicall figure of our owne making now that we are called to it by Christ our Lord. I cannot thinke of this strange spectacle what me thinkes I would nor can I yet say what I thinke but in weake and cloudy manner Our Lord giue vs grace to thinke and say heerof as we ought and that we any doe as he deserues But certainly since he hath giuen vs such faculties of mind as wherwith to wonder at strange things his meaning is that we should imploy them vpon such an obiect as is his bottomles hart in this tyme of his hanging vpoÌ„ the Crosse For then was he sacrificing himself vpon that Crosse as vpoÌ„ the Altar of whole world at once Then (b) The infinite affaires our Lord did
be the last of his life But (b) The reason why our Lord declared his thirst this Lord of ours was pressed so close by his spirituall thirst of suffering as it were infinite things for the loue of vs and for the gayning instructing our soules by these examples of his inuincible patience as that it made him contemne euen forget his owne materiall thirst though it were to him of excessiue paine This Originall of Religious Obedience which is Christ our Lord doth also shew heerby the forme wherin Religious persons are to expresse themselues to their Superiours Which (c) A good lesson for Religious men is not to be so much by way of earnest desire of that which they would haue as by way of declaration of that wherof they are in want and when that is done the Superiours are to proceed as they see cause For so did Christ our Lord forbeare to desire to drinke and he only said That he was thirsty to those souldiers who were made his Superiours by his owne admirable humility and charity submitting himselfe entirely to their wills who were bribed and bent to doe him all the mischiefe they could For when he told them of his thirst what was it which they could find in their harts to giue him The same thing which they had offered him before in iest and in the way of scorne the same they were content to giue him now in earnest for a conclusion to all their cruell courtesies When they were going to crucify him they would not giue him wine til it were distempered with Gaul Matt. 27. Marc. 25. which is the Embleme of malice and bitternes And now that he is giuing vp the Ghost they present him with a spunge full of Vinegar which is the Embleme of rage and sowernes O vncharitable wretches and who made you of men such sauage monsters But O infinite Charity and meekenes and patience of Christ our Lord who accepted of al without the least reproofe of their impiety And as at the foote of the Crosse he had refused to drinke of that Gaul because it was mingled with wine to the end that he might be suffering whilst he liued without any drop of the wine of comfort yea or so much as the being knowne to want it so now that he was vpō the very point of death he refused not to drinke of that pure vinegar because it was all sharpe and sower He left those draughts which should haue any mixture of comfort in them with Crosses for those Martyrs whome he meant to make glorious by following his diuine example And by his taking the vinegar of tribulation he did conuert it into the wine of strength cōfort after a cōtrary māner to that wherby wicked men are wont through their ingratitude to turne the wine of his blessings into the vinegar and Gaul of sinnes agaynst him Abusing the abundance of his mercy and making that a motiue of their wicked liberty which would tye any honest hart so much the more inseparably to his seruice He also dranke this vinegar to (d) The many excellēt reasons why our Lord was pleased both to endure and to declare his thirst the end that as already he had sanctified the mortificatiō of the other senses by his example for the instruction and consolation of his faithfull seruants so also they might be taught by this to be far and very farre from all superfluous care of meate and drinke and much more from all inordinate delight therin since all the sweete meates wherwith our blessed Lord was pleased to make vp his mouth in this mortall life was but a draught of vinegar out of a sponge at his death By this drinking therfore he enableth vs to be content with course and common and vnpleasant meat and drinke and by the merit of his thirsting after this corporall drinke he hath killed and quenched our spirituall thirst after vaine and vicious delights which nourish and feed vp our soules in sinne And so also on the other side according to S. Augustines expositiō of the sixty eight Psalme our Lord IESVS did not only declare his extreme thirst of corporall drinke but also his ardent thirst after the saluation of his enemies and of all the world How infinitely therfore shall we be without excuse if we giue him not to drinke of our good deeds since he is so greedy of them and was so tormented for want therof Yea and how worthy shall we be of all reproach and paine if he hauing begun to vs in so sad a Cup with desire thirst of our good we shall not procure to resemble him by thirsting both in body and soule after the aduancing and increasing of his Glory Of the entyre consummation of our Redemption which was wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse and of the perfection of his diuine vertues expressed there CHAP. 75. OVR Lord IESVS hauing drunke this vinegar declared that whatsoeuer had bin prophesied to be accomplished by himselfe was now fulfilled and he signified it by saying this word Consummatum est All is fulfilled And as he who only refresheth and filleth the soule of man with whole flouds of ioy was already content to be tormented with thirst so now for the apparailing of our soules with the life of Grace he was ready to deuest himselfe of the life of Nature He had formerly complyed with the care which he had of our instruction and now we haue seeue how he hath accomplished our Redēption by his Passion By meanes of this Passion he finished the building of his Church And since he had formerly layd a note of folly Ioan. 19. vpon such a man as should beginne to rayse a building and not bring it afterward to perfection our Lord who was the increated Wisedome of the Eternall Father must needs be farre from falling into any errour of the same kind And indeed it was wholy necessary that in his great goodnes to vs he should not depriue vs of such a diuine example of perseuerance as now we haue obtayned by the Cons̄mation of his course of Passion vpon the Crosse since (a) All labour is lost without perseuerance Deut. 23. without perseuerance all our labour is but lost Our Lord did therfore perseuere and he did perfect that which he had begun If the workes of God are most truly sayd to be entirely perfect his Passiō was to be so in most particular māner which amōgst these other workes is said with a kind of eminency to be his worke Now what sufferance could be more perfect in the way of humility then for the Lord of life and glory most willingly to endure a death of excessiue contumely and shame at the hands of his Rebellious Sonnes and most wicked slaues What more perfect in the way of patience and purity of hart then to suffer without the accesse of any imaginable comfort as Christ our Lord vouchsafed to doe What more perfect in the
then the very death of God And since Christ our Lord being the increated wisedome of the Eternall Father would needs vndergoe all those torments for the remission extirpation of sinne it is a cleere demonstratioÌ„ that he felt the weight of our sinnes more heauily then he did his bitter and opprobrious death since no wise man would accept to suffer a greater paine for the excusing of another which were lesse So that as by the humility and charity of God which is so liuely exprest in the crucifixion of our Lord IESVS we are obliged to loue him and to imitate his Humility and his Charity so by the consideration of that Maiesty of God which we may discerne and of the high purity of his nature and his great hate of sinne we are taught to reuere him and to tremble 2. Cor. 5. and to carry firme resolutions to serue him with all fidelity and care and rather to dy a thousand tymes then once to presume to offend him in the least degree S. Paul declareth to vs that Deus erat in Christo mundum reconcilians sibi The (b) How Christ our Lord is the Mediatour betweene God and man ommpotent God did descend to be vnited to the humanity of Christ our Lord that so he might reconcile the whole world to himselfe and yet neuerthelesse they are few who will be reconciled to saluation by our blessed Sauiours death in comparison of the multitudes which are to perish For so our Lord assured vs saying Matt. 7. The way to heauen is a hard and narrow way and few will dispose themseues to walke in it but the way to perdition is a wide and easy way and it will be walked in by many Now this streight way was the life and Doctrine of Christ our Lord according to what himselfe had sayd Ioan. 14. Egosum via veritas vita I am the way the truth and the life So that it is not the only death of Christ our Lord which saues the world but that death must be applyed to vs by such meanes as the wisedome of God hath ordayned This meanes consisteth in our meeting with God in the person of IESVS Christ our only Lord. For as God descended downe by him so by him we must ascend vp towards God For this cause he is said to be medius mediator the middle person and mediatour betwene God and man and indeed the only true medius terminus wherby we may euer grow to a good conclusion The desire of Christ our Lord is to rayse vs thither according to his own diuine promise But a man is not drawne to spirituall things by force or by the paces of his feete or by the knowledge of his head but by the prayers and pious affections of his hart and the reformation of his life by a faythfull cooperation with the grace of God So as if we meane to reape the benefit of this Passion we must first (c) Beliefe of the mistery of the passioÌ„ of Christ our Lord. belieue with a supernaturall and vndoubted faith that it was performed by God and man for the redemption of the whole world We must then reflect (d) Consideration vpon it with most cordiall and profound loue detesting (e) Detestation of sinne our sinns which were the causes of his suflerance and resoluing as I was saying to dye a thousand deathes rather then to offend him who was so much offended by them We must (f) Reflection vpoÌ„ the vertues of Christour Lord. consider the admirable vertties which he exercised with diuine perfection vpon the Crosse and in the whole course of his holy life and death his humility his patieÌ„ce his meekenes his silence his purity his conformity and his Charity And we are carefully to consider that it was in his power to haue suffered as much as he suffered if he had bene so disposed without letting vs knowne the maÌ„ner of it But he was pleased to doe it in the eye of the world to the end that the world might see the patterne of all that vertue which it was to imitate And that as by the substance of his death he would redeeme vs so by the circÌ„stances manner of it he would instruct and oblige vs to his loue For this it was Matth. 2. that when the Angell reuealed to S. Ioseph that the Sonne whome the sacred virgin should bring forth was to be called IESVS he assigneth a reason of giuing him that name the Office which he was to haue in sauing his people from their sinnes And as there are belonging to sinne a guilt or fault and a paine or punishment so was this IESVS to deliuer his people from them both and not to be a Sauiour by halfes yea and by the lesser halfe in deliuering them only from the punishment of hell as Libertines make theÌ„selues beleeue but especially to free them by his grace and the holy example of his life and death from committing the very sinnes themselues as was * 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 shewed before For the application also of this death and passion to the saluation of our soules we must be led by this example to suffer such Crosses with patience as our Lord by the hand of his Eternall and Fatherly prouidence shall haue appointed vs to imbrace as the way and meanes of our saluation Our Lord in his sufferance vpon the Crosse did sanctify and facilitate all the Crosses which should euer come to mankind And as it is most true that to all such as apply this Passion to their soules by faith and loue the eternity of their torment in hell is conuerted by vertue of this sufferance into the temporall paines of voluntary pennance or else of sickenes sorrow pouerty shame and the like imposed by our Lord God or else into the paines of Purgatory supposing that they haue not satisfied in this life and though the temporall Crosses which they indure are withall made light therby so wee be to the world for giuing life to men who are so vnworthily wicked as to (g) An vnworthy most wicked erâ—our thinke that Christ our Lord hath suffred all that men haue in effect no more to doe but to belieue that he did suffer it How can such people thinke that God is wise if he should haue committed such a folly How can they thinke that he is Iust if he would haue falne into such a partiality How can they thinke that he is holy if he should haue exercised such impiety Nay how can they thinke that he is merciful if he should haue acted such a part of cruelty as it would haue bene for him to take his owne very Essence and substance his owne increated vnderstanding the second person of the most glorious and euer blessed Trinity and to knit that person by hypostaticall and indissoluble Vnion to the body and soule of the sonne of the All-immaculate Virgin Mother by the ouershadowing of
to match with one another yet that rule had no place in these two but the Sacerdotall and the Royall often matched togeather her exteriour beauty was such as became the mother of that Sonne Psal 44. Ambr. de instit vir c. 7. S. Thom in 3. distinct 3. q. 1. art 2. quaestiuncula 1. ad 4. of whome it was said Speciosus forma prae filijs hominum Beautifull beyond the most beautifull of the Sonnes of men And yet a beauty it was of such an admirable holy kind as that according to the testimony of antiquity it had the property to quench all flames of lust in the behoulders Blessed be our Lord who hath prouided so sweet a remedy for our misery For knowing as Father Arias noteth in his booke of the Imitation of our B. Lady that one of our greatest enemies was the inordinate loue of women to men and men to women he hath for the redresse of this inconuenience giuen a man to the world who is his owne only begotten sonne and whome women might both loue and euen by that very louing they might become pure and chast And so also hath he bestowed a most beautifull womā vpon the world which is this glorious Virgin Mother by the loue of whome men might deliuer themselues from sensuality and become the Disciples of her high purity For by louing this man and this woman men are spiritually as it were conuerted into them and doe giue ouer after a sort to be themselues And from hence it hath proceeded that since God became man and was pleased to be borne of the blessed Virgin the feilds of the earth haue produced innumerable roses of virginity both in men women And the Church hath bene filled with this rare treasure wherewith the world in former tymes was not acquainted There (b) Diuers reasons of congruity which cōuince the B. Virgin to haue been free from all kind of spot Damase ser 1. de Natiuitat Virg. could be no such defect of power wisedom or goodnes in our Lord God but that since he was pleased to take his whole humanity from one Creature he would also be carefull of that excellent creature in strange proportion Since the diuinity it selfe would vouchsafe to be hypostatically and indissolubily vnited to the flesh which he would take of her body in her wombe that wombe of which is elegantly and most truely said that it was Officina miraculorum the very shop and mint-house of miraculous things how can it be that he should not preserue her from all those sinnes and shames which the rest of mākind was subiect to He would not liue so long in that holy Tabernacle of hers where she was euer imbracing him with her very bowells and then haue a hart so hard as to goe away as it were without paying her any house-rent out of his riches He came into the world to dissolue the workes of the diuell 1. Ioan. 3. euen in the greatest enemies and rebells to him that could be found and therfore he would be sure to preuent the soule of that body which was but the other halfe of his owne with such store of benedictiōs as wherby the very ayre and sent of any sinne whatsoeuer might be farre from breathing vpon her Christ our Lord descended from heauē to aduance the kingdome and glory of God and he could not then giue way that the hart which had conceaued him with such faith which had adored him with so much loue in her imaculate wombe which had so liberally fed him at the table of her sacred brest lodged him in the bed of her holy bosome and couered him with the robes of her pretious armes which had so diligently attended him in that Pilgrimage of Egipt Matt. 2. and had serued him so purely both with body and soule in all the rest of his life death that this hart I say should euer be in case to giue consent to sinne wherby she should of the spouse of god haue become according to her then present state a lymme of Sathan and be in fine the mother of Christ our Lord yet a Traytour to him and both at once Nay she was not only voyd of sinne but abounded (c) The sublime sanctity of our B. Lady Luc. 1. Cant. 7. in sactity whose sacred wombe was foreseene foretold to be Aceruus tritici vallatus lilijs A rich heape of corne compassed in with a faire and sweet inclosure of Lyllies And as those Lyllies of her purest body gaue him a body of such beauty so did that bread of heauen abundantly feed and euen feast her soule with his plenty The Prophet Ieremy was sanctified in his mothers wombe and she was therfore to be much more sanctified who was to apparaile Sanctity it selfe with a pretious body made by the holy Ghost of her purest bloud And being sanctified then farre and farre beyond that holy Prophet that priuilege must needs serue her afterward to so good purpose as that hauing bene holyer in her mothers wombe then he she grew afterward when she came into the world or rather whē she had brought the Sauiour therof into it to be incomparably much and much more holy S. Iohn (d) The great aduantage which our B. Lady had aboue all pure creatures Luc. 1. Baptist also was sanctified in his mothers wombe at the presence and vpon the very hearing of our B. Ladyes voyce as S. Elizabeth doth expresly say he was freed from his Originall sinne and indued with the vse of reason and he exulted and did exercise the operations of his soule which was the ground and foundation of all the admirable sanctity which florished in that Precursour afterward according to the high office to which he was called So as this mother of God himselfe who was the meanes of those benedictions to S. Elizabeths house by her presence must euer infallibly haue bene as farre beyond S. Iohn Baptist in sanctity Psalm 1. as she was in dignity For of him it is said that he was not worthy to vnty the latchet of our B. Sauiours shoo though yet he were the greatest Matt. 11. amongst the Sonnes of mē wheras she had ben made worthy to giue him all the flesh bloud he had It is a most certaine rule of what we are to belieue concerning the proceeding of Almighty God which S. Augustine giues vs in these words lib. 3. de lib. arb c. 5. Quicquid tibi vera ratione melius occurrerit id scias fecisse Deum whatsoeuer thou canst conceaue to be best according to the dictamen of rectified reason know that so it is done by Almighty God Now who sees not that it was fitter better that the mother of God should haue bene humble then proud discreet then rash beleeuing then incredulous and in fine a perfect Saint then a grieuous sinner Her glorious person is high inough out of reach assumed to heauen and
and fructifying Riuer and that of the other Saints as of inferiour streames So as all of theÌ„ deriue whatsoeuer good they haue from Christ our Lord. But as for others multae filiae congregauerÌ„t diuitias tu verò supergressa es vniuersas The Angells and Saints are all of them full of merits and celestiall graces but the Mother of our Lord God outstrips them all The prayses of the Blessed Virgin prosecuted by a testimony of S. Gregory and an entrance is made into the consideration of her diuine Vertuâ—s and first of her admirable Faith and Hope CHAP. 88. LET vs consider (a) Our B. Lady is far superiour to al Saints in Sanctity Greg. in 1. Reg. 1. what the holy S. Gregory saith to this purpose Potest Montis nomine Beatissima semper Virgo Maria Dei genitrix designari c. The euer most B. Virgin Mary the mother of God may be designed by the name of a Mountaine For a Mountain she was by the dignity of her election which exceeded all the altitude of any elected creature Was not Mary saith he a sublime Mountaine who to the end that she might arriue to conceaue the eternall Word did erect or rayse the high top of her merits euen vnto the Throne of the Deity aboue all the Quires of Angells For of the most superexcellent Dignity of this Mountaine Esay by way of Prophesy doth say In the latter dayes there shall be prepared in the top of the Mountaines the Mountaine of the house of our Lord. For this was a Mountaine in the top of the Mountaines because the altitude of Mary did shine aboue all Saints This I say Beda l. 2. Histor c. 2. is alleadged by the holy S. Gregory the great who by S. Bede is most worthily called the Apostle (b) A due prayse of S. Gregory of our Country whose high estimation deuotion to the sacred Virgin it is all reasoÌ„ that we should imbrace imitate Since he was the man vnder God who with most tender care and loue of him and vs coÌ„uerted vs in the person of our Progenitours from Paganisme to the faith of the Sonne of this Virgin And we may well reioyce in hauing such a Father and guide to follow whome we may iustly esteeme to haue bene one of the greatest Saints in the whole Church of God since the Apostles And perhaps it would trouble a man to set such another by him in all respects both for the great nobility of his birth the highest dignity of his calling the clarity of his wit the eminency of his learning his high contemplation in prayer his admirable humility his ardent charity imbracing with his loue such barbarous Nations so farre of and cherishing neere at hand all kind of Pilgrimes and poore people And lastly his most sweet inuincible patience and ioy in the midst of so many great calamities and Crosses as were imposed vpon him by wicked Princes by plagues by famine and by warre lastly by a body al loadeÌ„ with diseases and paines throughout all the course of his life togeather with a soule which was deeply wounded for all the sinnes of the world In so much as the holy Church hath all reason to say as she doth thus (c) Rom. Bren. infesto S. Greg. of him Admirabilia sunt quae dixit fecit scripsit decreuit praesertim infirma semper aegra valetudine It is an admirable thing to consider the things which he said which he did which he wrote and which he decreed especially being euer subiect to a body which was so weake and sickly But to returne and therby to clyme towards this Mountaine of ours wherby this Saint vnderstands our B. Lady it must first be graunted that the vertues are so neere of Kinne to one another as that it must breed no wonder if somewhat which I shall range vnder some one might be also reduced to some other head But this perpetuall Virgin was a very Mappa mundi (d) The B. Virgin is the very Mappe of vertues of the world of them all And as in a Mappe of the world the seuerall kingdomes therof are set out in seuerall colours that they may be discerned with greater ease so is it in the case of her diuine vertues as will be seene in our ponderation therof I will only with reuerence and admiration point out the chiefe that so by them we may contemplate the rest and these shall be her Faith Hope and Charity her Humility Purity and which includeth both Obedience PatieÌ„ce her most intiere Conformity to the will of God In all which vertues and in all the rest we belieue her to haue beene as perfect as S. Ambrose doth insinuate when he saith thus of her Lib. 2. de Virginitate Non tam vestigia pedis c. She seemed to grow in the degrees of vertue more swiftly then euen she could moue her feete For as much as (e) Her inexplicable Faith concerned her Faith she beleeued that supreme mystery of the B. Trinity which lay so hidden in the law of nature and was so little knowne euen in the tyme of the written law She had formerly vnderstood therof in the holy Scriptures but now vpon the words of the Angell she cleerly imbraced with her belefe the person of the Father from whome the Sonne was to be sent the person of the Sonne whome she was to conceaue the person of the holy Ghost who was to worke that high mystery in her Not only did she expresly belieue the mystery of the IncarnatioÌ„ of the Sonne of God which till that tyme had bene but shadowed vnder types and figures but she beleeued that in coÌ„teauing him herselfe should both continue a Virgin and yet be a mother Al this more theÌ„ this she beleeued that before the Ghospel was receaued before her Sonne was borne into the world and much more before he had wrought any miracles without demaÌ„ding any signe or proofe therof Iud. 6. Luc. 8. as Gedeon Zacharias had done And she beleeued theÌ„ with a far-far greater certainty and clarity of Faith then any thing had euer bene beleeued before Her Faith in fine was so great as that she was canonized for it by the holy Ghost in the mouth of S. Elizabeth And S. Augustine was not affraid to say Aug. de S. Virg. principio that although to be chosen for the mother of God was a kind of infinite felicity and fauour yet it (f) Our B. Lady was more happy in her great Faith theÌ„ in being the mother of God S. Tho. 3. p. q. 27. art 4. ad 2. was a greater to haue bin inriched by the hand of God with such a cleere and liuely Faith For by vertue of this Faith she also continued to belieue and to assist at the Passion of her Sonne our Lord when his owne people crucified him and when his Apostles were fled away as hath bene seene
dispatching vp to that throne of Maiesty in whose light so inaccessible to other folkes she did so cleerly see the bottomlesse pit of nothing from whence the sweet strong hand of God had brought her and the worse then nothing of sinne from which he had preserued her by his first abundant Grace and that afterward he had inriched and sublimed her so farre as both in dignity and sanctity to make her the very top and Crowne of all meere creatures If (e) A most excellent affect of S. Augustine Confes l. 11. cap 2. S. Augustine could say to God with incredible internall ioy of hart Et intrem in cubile meum c. Let me enter into my most retyred chaÌ„ber and let me singe Loue-songes to thee sighing out certaine vnspeakeable groanes in this pilgrimage of mine And calling the heauenly Ierusalem to remembrance with my hart enlarged and turned vp towards it Ierusalem which is my Country Ierusalem which is my mother And I will remember thee who art the ruler of it and the illuminatour the tutour the Father the spouse the chast and stronge delight the solid and sincere ioy and all vnspeakeable good things put togeather because thou art the only true and supreme good What kind of notes and songes of Angelicall and Seraphicall loue do we thinke that this spiritual Nightingall this Turtle this both euer-liuing and dying Swanne would still be singing and sweetly mourning out to God In respect of whome although S. Augustine being set not only by other men but eueÌ„ by many other Saints were as a furnace of fire being compared with some single coale yet the same S. Augustine in respect of her was no more then a single sparke in respect of a whole sphere of fire An inexplicable thing it is to consider the (f) Profound rest perpetuall motion were coupled in the soule of the sacred Virgin profound rest togeather with the perpetuall strife and motion of her soule of loue which was both continually inioying God and yet coÌ„tinually earning towards him CoÌ„tinually labouring to doe him most faithfull seruice and yet continually feeding vpon the pretious fruits of those very labours But because she foÌ„d that Man was the thing which he most loued next to God as being his Image by Creation and his owne purchase by Redemption and that she most actually most purely cleerly saw the Sonne of God and her at that tyme in such labour and pursuite of mans good with so much forgetfullnes as it were of his owne Maiesty and glory and that afterward he left his life vpon a Crosse for our Saluation it (g) The incomparable and most ardent loue which our B. Lady beares to â— all mankind is not to be declared nor yet conceaued by vs what an vnquenchable loue she also had to the good of men Imploring God for all that mercy which their misery did need and by her owne excellent example giuing them patternes which they were to follow and procuring both increase of comfort to them who had store and the accesse therof to such as she found to be in want therof This may euidently appeare by those two excellent patternes of that whole peece of her loue which haue so often bene produced and which she deliuered at S. Elizabeths house the mariage of Cana. Especially if the circumstances be pondered well both of the difference in Dignity betwene her person and theirs and the hast that she made to be communicating her fauours to Gods creatures Towards whome the ardour of her affection was so great that it seemed by the much hast she made in those two mysteries as if she had not bene able to containe it The impenetrable profound Humility and the perfect supercelestiall Purity of our B. Ladies both body and soule and wherin the height thereof consisteth CHAP. 90. I Come froÌ„ the Theologicall to some chiefe Morall vertues behould how deep she â—aid the foundatioÌ„ of Humility that her building might reach vp as high as heauen She considered with perfect clarity of vnderstanding that from all eternity she had bene nothing as was touched before till the omnipotent mercy of God did preuent her with those first vnspeakeable vnconceaueable graces without any merit on her part She knew well as hath bene said that (a) The ground of our B. Ladyes most profound Humility she was no more then a meere creature of the race of the sinfull Adam and that she might haue fallen into as many as grieuous sinnes as the rest of mankind was subiect to if the sweet goodnes of God had not preuented and presered her still with most particular fauours By the light of this knowledge the most sacred Virgin did esteeme her selfe as the meanest creature of the world and she cordially despised herselfe as a thing in herselfe who deserued to be of no account at all Not but that she well knew what guiftes she had receiued of our Lord God or that she tooke herselfe into contempt as thinking meanely of them for them she esteemed and she reueared God for them as she had cause but she esteemed herselfe in herselfe no more for them then if she had not had them at all She was yet further from conceauing that she was to contemne herselfe as if she had comitted any sinne for true (b) True Humility is euer grounded vpon Truth Humility is grounded euer vpon certaine truth and therfore as indeed she did neuer sinne so neither could she think that she had sinned but she despised herselfe because she cleerly saw that of herselfe alone she had nothing which was good but that all was of God and that to him all thanks were due as they also were for his preseruing her from all those sinns into which she might haue fallen if our Lord had not preuented her by his grace This meane conceipt of her selfe the most sacred Virgin made appeare when she was told by the Angell in the name of God that she was elected to that highest Dignity of being the Mother of the Sonne of the most high which was the greatest Dignity wherof any meere creature could be capable But yet she was so far from taking complacence in her selfe vpon that reason that the text affirmes her to haue bin troubled at them So that the Angell thought it his part to giue her comfort afterward by letting her know that it was not he but God himselfe who did her that honour But (c) How our B. Lady was troubled and in what seÌ„se she was not so the while we must not thinke that this trouble of hers was any such thing as could depriue her of the cleare discourse of reason or of the peace of that immoueable soule though for as much as it was a motioÌ„ of holy feare modest shame to find herselfe so much esteemed it shewes what an impenetrable sort of humility she had in that deepe sweet hart of hers how profoundly she thought
herself vnworthy of honour So that finding her selfe at the very instant to be sublimed to such a height as that she did not yet esteeme her selfe one graine more worthy in her selfe then she did before Whervpon she tooke no titles which might then beloÌ„g so her present state as of Queene of Angells Lady Mistris of the world or elected Spouse of the holy Ghost Nor did she prefer herself before theÌ„ meanest creature of the earth but setling her soule in the lowest meanest place of theÌ„ all she gaue her self the stile of a hand-mayd or slaue In c. 1. Lucae S. Ambrose wonders at this Humility I woÌ„der not at him for so woÌ„dring for the Angells theÌ„selues are not able to do it as it deserues This vertue she also discouered in straÌ„ge maÌ„ner when vpoÌ„ those great prayses which S. Elizabeth proclaymed to be her due both for the prerogatiues which she had in her selfe for the wonders which had bin wrought in S. Iohn vpon the only hearing of her voyce this sacred Virgin refused out-right to accept therof and instantly running into her most humble hart she fell into that diuine Canticle Luc. 2. wherin she ascribes all the glory of her greatnes and of that felicity of hers which was to be celebrated for euer by all the Generations of the faithfull to the only omnipotent mercy of our Lord God Of the soueraigne Purity Greg. Niâ—â— in Orat. de humana Christi Generat Aug. de S. virginitate c. 4. Beda hom de Eest Annunt Anselm hom Intrauit Iesus Bern serm de Natiuitat Mariae apud Canisium l. 2. c. 14. of this sacred Virgin as it were a most blasphemous sinne to doubt so were it simplicity to dilate the consideration of a thing so cleere into any great length She imbraced Chastity she vowed it though formerly both in the law of nature euen in the written law there was little notice of it lesse practise And as fecundity was much esteemed by the Iewes so was the want therof a note rather of reproach infamy then otherwise The people of flesh bloud do often choose rather to be infamous with the losse of virginity theÌ„ glorious by the preseruation therof But this Queene of Virgins did loue not only to be contemptible in the eye of the world but euen to excuse her selfe from accepting to be the very mother of God rather theÌ„ she would endure to thinke that the flower of her virginity should once be touched Yet touched it was but first that was by the holy Ghost himselfe then instantly afterward by the increated Sonne of God who reposed so many moneths in that Angelicall Cradle of her sacred wombe But that touch was so farre from blasting it as that it indued it with most pretious odours which haue perfumed the world And if before that tyme her Virginity were but in flower it was now growne to be both in flower fiuite being highly sanctified sublimed by that Elixir (d) The sacred humanity of Christ our Lord. of heauen which turneth whatsoeuer it toucheth into gold The integrity of her sacred body was the least part of her diuine Purity for her soule was that which did excell That extended not only to the absence of any thing which was contrary to Chastity but (e) This indeed is true and perfect Purity to a forbearance of taking the least contentment or delight in any thing created but only in God for God No thought no care no desire or ioy did euer presume so much as to solicit that superexcelleÌ„t soule but only how to coÌ„ply with her vnspeakeable obligatioÌ„ to Almighty God by perpetuall working and yet profoundly contemplating those diuine attributes of his vpon which froÌ„ the first instaÌ„t of her Immaculate Conception till that other of her most glorious Assumption her mind as hath bene said did beate and boyle in continuall acts of most ardent loue This indeed was to be Chast in the most eminent degree To be doing that on earth which the Angels are doing in heauen Whose incessant actuall loue S. Augustine doth thus expresse Confes lib. 12. c. 11. Quod perseuerantissima castitate DeÌ„ hauriant that they are sucking vp God himselfe with a most perseruing Chastity and purity of minde When the Sonne of God and her was sucking at the sacred fountaine of her breast for the reliefe and maintenance of his pretious life how would that diuine Virgin (f) A happy exchaÌ„ge Mother be sucking the while at the fountaine of his Diuinity for the delighting inebriating of her soule How instantly did she vpon all occasions giue backe all prayses and attributes of estimation and honour to God though they had bene sent down to her by the TrÌ„pets of heauen and by tongues of truth it self as hath bene said When other creatures are praysed they seldome send the prayses backe as cleane as they come but their mindes being moystned by selfe-loue are still retayning some impression therof more or lesse Lumen siccum optimae anima It is an excellent choice soule which so flameth vp towards God as not to be softned or steeped in humaine affections It was with our B. Lady in the case of the prayse or honour which was done her as it would be with a wall of Diamond towards which some ball were sent and the harder it should be driuen the more forcibly and quickly it would returne againe What ball could be stronger driuen then that she should be proclaymed the Mother of God by an Archangell and what more stiffe repulse could be made to the prayse which did result therby then that instantly she should prostrate and protest her selfe to be no better then his slaue If such were the perfection of her Purity of hart at that tyme which I would to Christ we did not want words so much as to name what would it grow to be after so long cohabitation with that God her sonne for the space of tree and thirty yeares He (g) The power of the presence of Christ our Lord. whose presence euen for one minute in such sort as he was pleased to affaord it to her were able to make any dissolute and disordered hart become Saintly and pure and indeed to make a kind of heauen of hell it selfe I adore God in his B. Mother and I admire the perfection of her happy soule and in the least of her actions and words I see another manner of Abysse without a bottom then in all the Saints and Angells put togeather but that which most amazeth me is the plentiful RegioÌ„ of her purity the incorruptible fidelity of her soule towards God Which was so perfectly dead to it selfe and so full of springing life and motion to him as (h) The Non-plus vltra of the Purity of the B. Virgin that instantly shee did euer returne his graces back againe wrapped vp as in so many Loue-letters of adoring
very soule yet neither in so many yeares was that Mare pacificum that profound Sea of her sweet soule once troubled at it nor at the foote of the crosse did she vtter any one word of lesse Cōformity nor expresse otherwise any little shew of womanish weake cōplaint Nay S. Ambrose who considers her in this most dolorous but yet most glorious state dares not affirme the she did so much as weep Stantem lego flentem non lego Ambr. de obitu Valent prope sinem I read saith he that she was standing at the foote of the Crosse but I doe not read that she was weeping for the Crucifix And to increase the wonder let it be further considered as it is most true though she had such griefe as hath bene said for the torment and death of Christ our Lord which was the effect yet incomparably she had more griefe for the dishonour of God and the sinne of man which was the cause therof But still howsoeuer she was all resigned and so in conformity of the most excellent will of God as still to stand like an immoueable marble tower in the midst of such a world of waues To conclude therfore concerning her vertues she had not in her whole life one thought wherby she did not exercise some vertue or other in all perfection Nay if we be so miserable as by one and the same act of ours to offend sometymes against many vertues at once (f) Our B. Lady did exercise at once many vertues in the top of perfectiō how much more sure was her diuine soule to be like a huge rich Carbuncle cut full of faces or squares to cōply by euery act of hers with the obligation perfection of many vertues at once And those vertues had the very properties which her own excellent person had for they were not only most purely faire for as much as cōcerned thēselues but most chastly attractiue and actually fruitfull in the mind of others And God alone is able to n̄ber vp those innumerable millions of vertuous acts of all kindes which haue bene wrought by Christians in imitation contemplation of her vertues And not only haue men produced them by her example but when that was done they haue refined perfected them in a high degree And yet still withall they conceaue and consider and feele themselues in their very harts to be but as vnprofitable seruants as Christ our Lord cōmaundeth all the world to thinke they are when they should haue done all they could Wherin no soule hath reasō to find difficulty whē it remembers this holy mother of God who would know her self by no better name then of his slaue The entiere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God is prosecuted And it is shewed how a world of priuiledges and perfections which seeme incompatible were assembled in her CHAP. 92. VERILY we Christian Catholikes are much bound to God for infinite (a) Out Lord doth seeke to draw vs to him by obiects of incomparable strength sweetnes fauours it deserueth to go amongst the greatest of them that he sets before vs such puissant yet delightfull obiects as these A God incarnate dying vpon a Crosse and an Angell incarnate and more then a whole Quire of Angells in the person of his B. Virgin Mother at the foote therof They draw vs vp towards them by depressing vs downe below our selues For euen what Saint will not run out of cōntenance as farre as the feete of shame can carry him and shrinke into a feeling knowledge that he is indeed a kind of nothing if he be cōpared I say not only to Christ our Lord but to our B. Lady When the body is tormented the mind will help to hold it vp but when the Martyrdome is indured by a sword of such sorrow in the soule what is able to stay it but such a perfect obedience and patience and loue as hers which tyed it after an immoueable manner to the pillar of Gods will and which (b) The house of our B Ladies hart was immoueable planted that house of her hart vpon a rocke so firme as could not once be shaken by all the waues of earth and hell The visible Sunne did hide it selfe at that tyme as in the discourse of the Passion was declared so also did the inuisible Sonne which was the the Sonne of this sacred Virgin hide himselfe in her For where did he shine and burne but there Cant. 2. Dilectus meus mihi ego illi was then the word of them both hand to hand and she might well affirme in a much more eminent manner Coloss 3. then S. Paul that her life was hidden vp with Christ in God What (c) Our B. Lady did abound with thinges which seem incompatible with one another a world of things which seeme incompatible with one another do we see encounter and imbrace themselues in this sacred Virgin In her we see affliction and ioy Nobility and pouerty A cleere knowledge that she was the Cedar of Excellency with a perfect contempt and making herselfe the shrubb of hysop by humility The fire of Charity and the snow of Purity Her person vpon earth her conuersatiō in heauen A child of Adam in nature and his mother in Grace and a child of Christ our Lord in grace his mother in nature So that shee is both mother and daughter nay she is both Virgin Mother In her sacred wombe she coupled God and man Eecl 42. Et qui creauit me requieuit in tabernaculo meo and he sayth she who created me hath reposed in this (d) Her sacred wombe Tabernacle of mine She gaue a new and that an Eternall being to him who gaue the totall being which is inioyed both by her and all other creatures She was Grauida as S. Bernard saith but not Grauata great with child but it was a burthen without any weight For she carried him in her wōbe who carried and conducted both him and the world in his three fingars S. Bern. hom 3. super Missus est post med She was turbata non perturbata troubled at the salutation of the Angell but not disturbed by it as is also affirmed by the same S. Bernard She is a faire full riuer which could neuer fall but did ouer flow so far as to be a Sea but subiect to no tempest and alwayes if we will we may glasse our selues in her smooth shining waters A Sea she is to saile in and a port to rest in She is also a well sealed vp Fons signatus Cant. 4. but yet we may all draw that from thēce which will quench our thirst for she is not only well but water She is also a garden shut vp but yet we all may gather of those excellent Hortus cōclusus Cant. 4. and odoriferous flowers Nay though she be a garden herselfe is also a flower and the
hands of our hart Most happy are those soules to whom our Lord imparts a cordiall and filiall deuotion to this Queene-mother of heaueÌ„ for they read that truth written in their owne harts which others do but read in bookes Namely that it is a great signe of Predestination to be particularly deuoted to her And if I were disposed to proue that an auersion of the hart from doing her honour and seruice were an euident signe of Reprobation in punishment of that and other sinnes I (e) The filthy life and fearful end of such as haue opposed to the honour of B. Lady Vide Canis l. 5. c. 20. should need but to make a Catalogue of such as haue maligned her For the proofe of this latter truth let Nestorius Iouinianus Heluidius with the impure Apostata's of this last age be looked vpon and let their wicked life otherwise be coÌ„sidered togeather with the fearfull end to which many of them did arriue And so also let them looke backe with their memory vpon Copronymus that most flagitious Emperour that bloudy laciuious Sorcerer who by lawes solemnely made did depriue our B. Lady both of her due estimation and inuocation Apoc. 13. Et aperuit os suum in blasphemias ad Deum blasphemare nomen eius Tabernaculum eius and he opened his mouth in the way of blasphemy against God and his holy Tabernacle And afterward he dyed blaspheming God himselfe through the torments of most loathsome diseases which carried him from hence to hell On the (f) Compare the persons who haue beene deuoted much to our B. Lady with those others other side let it be weighed what excellent Princes they were who from tyme to tyme haue done right to this Queene of heauen by erecting Temples in her honour As Constantine the great S. Helene S. Pulcheria and Charlemaine to omit innumerable others And what worthy holy persons they also were who haue written in her prayses and commended themselues with humble deuotion to their intercession and who withall haue filled the world with the odour of their exemplar and holy liues as namely S. Athanasius S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Gregory Nazienzen Petrus Chrisologus S. Iohn Damascene with troupes of other Fathers of the Greeke Church and of the Latine S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Hierome S. Gregory Venerable Bede S. Anselme S. Bernard and worlds of others whose bookes are full besides the testimonies of prayers to Saints and sometymes to such as had then lately liued with themselues and how much more to this Blessed mother of God this Saint Superiour to all Saints vnder Christ our Lord whose honour they haue defended from all Heretikes Some of whome had taken pleasure and pride either to degrade her body from integrity or her soule froÌ„ SaÌ„ctity and who haue withal discouraged disswaded the world from procuring by their prayers to her to obtaine the effects of Gods mercy towards her children And when it shall be found what a difference there is betwene these two troopes of men both her aduersaries I hope by so liuely examples will be reduced and her humble sernants and obedient Sonnes will be animated to the increase and doubling of their deuotion towards her Which the Saints of all ages haue delighted in and which supposing that she is the mother of God the very light of reason doth inforce and which God himself hath approued by innumerable most vndoubted both corporall and spirituall miracles in all the corners of the Christian world The pitty of our B. Lady towards vs now that shee is in heauen is set out and shewed to be farre beyond what it was when she liued on earth And this discourse is concluded with a Prayer to her CHAP. 94. IF whilst (a) A particular poÌ„deration of our B. Ladyes vnqueÌ„chable charity whilst she liued on â—â—â—th 〈◊〉 1. she was heere in this mortall life she would vouchsafe being the mother of God to expresse such an act of Humility and Charity as cost her pure feete so many painefull steps ouer that hilly Country to S. Elizabeth If she put herselfe vpon that labour immediatly after she was announced the mother of God If it was not any visit of complement but that by her presence she was the meanes of enriching the body and soule and Sonne of that Saint with celestiall graces And that she went not to come quickly away againe but staid assisting seruing her for the space of three moneths in all which time S. Ambrose excellently poÌ„ders Luc. 2. l. 1. CoÌ„ S. Luc. c. â— how much S. Elizabeth must needs be sanctified by the diuine conuersation of the sacred Virgin since the first shew of her presence wrought such wonders in her If the sanctification of S. Iohn were the first spirituall increase which our Lord incarnate wrought in harts and it was done by meanes of this B. Virgin and the first corporall miracle was also wrought by her meanes at the Marriage of Cana when she would descend so low as to assist at the dynner of people who were so very poore as that they were not able to haue wine inough for their most solemne Feast If of herselfe without being desired she had an eye vpon their wants and a hart which wrought towards the reliefe therof If she had compassion of them not only concerning some such thing as bread which had bene of meere necessity but for the obtayning of wine which is a creature chiefely ordayned for our delight and comfort If to procure it she solicited her Sonne our Lord to worke a miracle in their fauour which till that tyme he had neuer done and yet he would not faile to graunt her suite If as soone as by her prayers for them she had induced Christ our Lord to giue them wine she did instantly turne her praying to him into a kinde of preaching to them aduising them to doe whatsoeuer he should require at their hands through the deere solicitude and feare she had least otherwise they might haue fayled of due obedience especially when she knew in what manner he went to worke the miracle which was first to haue the vessells filled with water which might haue seemed to be a very contrary meanes to the desired end which was to helpe theÌ„ to a supply of wine If these things I say were done by her when her Charity was far lesse (b) A coÌ„parison of what our B. Lady was on earth to what shee is now in heanen her state incomparably inferiour to that which now it is what persoÌ„ is that so vnworthy whome this Queene of heaueÌ„ wil not auow own froÌ„ heauen What wound of any soule is that so grieuous which she will disdayne to dresse what waÌ„t of coÌ„fort can that be so extreme which she wil not imploy herself to remoue by interceding to her Sonne our Lord Now that those Lillyes of Purity and those Violets of her Humility those red Roses of her burning
Charity Patience at the Crosse are trāsplanted out of the desert of this world into that gardē of God in heauen For thither is she assumed both in soule body to the fruition of more glory then is possessed by all the Angells and Saints There is she ingulfed in the bright vision of God where she sees and in whome she loues all the soules which haue recourse to her with incomparable Charity and care And if S. Augustine could truly say of his deceased friend Nebridius who was gone to God Confes l. ◠c. ◠I am non ponit aurem ad os mē c. He doth not now lay his eare to my mouth but he applyes that spirituall mouth to that spring of thine and he drinketh wisedome after the vttermost rate of his owne greedy thirst being happy for all eternity Neither yet doe I thinke that he is so inebriated with thee as that he can forget me since thou O Lord whome he is drinking art mindfull of vs. If S. Augustine I say could thus reflect vpon Nebribius who shall be euer able to expresse the perpetuall memory or rather the euer presēt sight and care of vs which the mother of our Lord God now raigning in such glory as becometh such greatnes hath incē parably more tēderly more liuely of vs then S. Augustines Nebridius could haue of him So much more as she was made our mother heere so much more as now that she is there she drinkes whole seas of God for any one drop which Nebridius could drink consequētly as she is more perfectly happy trāsformed into that Abisse of charity God himself whose loue desire care of our eternall good is infinite Proceed therfore O thou glorious Queen in being glorious raigne thou for euer vnder God alone ouer all his creatures Proceed in being gracious to vs thou who wert so ful of Grace euen before thou wert made the mother of God Thy soule did magnify our Lord at the visit which thou gauest to S. Elizabeth with (c) The princely gratitude of our B. Lady expressed in the Magnificat to our Lord God more delight ioy thē euer had bene cōceaued by any creature And thou didst thē most diuinely expresse his goodnes to thee in a māner of Court so choice noble as might wel declare that thou wert born a Queen thou didst singe Magnificat to our Lord for hauing respected as it were cast an eye of fauour towards thee And how truly indeed wert thou as good as thy word therin when thou saidst that thou didst Magnify or make great our Lord. For whilst he was bestowing those great fauours vpon thee according to those other words of thine Fecit mihi magna qui potēs est sanctū nomē eius Our Lord hath done great things to me and his name is holy thou wert euen very then returning those great things againe to him with the additiō of thine owne most humble thāks So that the greater he made thee the more great and glorious he was also made by thee And besides how couldst thou mak him shew more glorious and more great then in saying that with the cast as it were but of an eye he had made such a mother for himself as thou This Magnificat of thyne is celebrated with diligent and dayly deuotion by the holy Catholike Church in memory of that high ioy which thou hadst in thy Angelicall hart when the holy Ghost expressed it selfe by that well tuned Organ of thy tongue But now O soueraigne Lady that thou art all transformed in God thou art singing it out in a far higher straine Thou canst not say any more that he but casts an eye of fauour towards thee for now he lookes vpō thee with a full face and thou art able to see him as thou art scene 1. Cor. 13. And since the more thou seest of him the more dost thou also see of vs. Vouchsafe to implore his mercy towards the reliefe of our misery which thou canst not but find to be extreme Behould vs who are children of thy soule since by Faith thou becamst the mother of all such as were to liue by Grace And intercede thou for vs with that Sonne of thy sacred wombe whose lawes though we haue transgressed and whose Passion though we haue renewed and whose grace though we haue quenched by our innumerable sinnes yet for as much as frō our soules we are sory for thē that there was mercy in store for his very Crucifiers let it not be wāting to vs who are procuring as thou knowest to be his seruants Since we fly to the sanctuary of thy feete for succour since with the most reuerend of our thoughts we take hold of that Altar of thy purest wombe wherin the Iudge of the quicke and dead did make the first Sacrifice of himselfe to his eternall Father for the redemption of the world defend vs by thy prayers O Queene of pitty from that sword of Iustice which is ready to fall vpon our heads Thou saidst that all Generations should call thee Blessed and we are a part of them withall the powers of our soules we blesse both thee and God for thee and we vow our selues to belieue whatsoeuer excellency may be ascribed to a meere creature And we make this protestation withall that so farre we are frō derogating therby from the worship of Latria which is only due to God as that we know not in this world how to do him more high honour and seruice then by offering him first to himselfe and next by honoring and praysing thee For the greater thou art the greater do we acknowlege him to be who made thee what thou art or nothing Obtaine of that holy Spirit who ouer-shadowed thee heere which doth as it were ouerwhelme thee there in that region of eternall blisse that we also may be quickned inspired by it so may be walking on towards heauē by those paces which thy pure feete haue traced out I cannot beseech thee to obtaine wine for vs as thou didst for them of Cana for we want no wine since we are nourished by the milke of thy maternall loue which is better thē the best most pretious wine And we may also be inebriated as oftē as we shall wel dispose our selues by that Vinum germinaus virgines Lach. 9. that pretious bloud in the body of thy Sonne our Lord in the venerable Sacrament of the Altar But the misery is that our soules want mouths wherwith to tast it or rather they are all crammed with the corrupted food of delight in creatures and our blindnes is such through the mist of passiō which ouergrowes vs that we see not what we eate and much lesse can we discerne the sad effects which it works within and amongst them this one that it depriues vs of gust in heauenly things It is therfore O Queene of heauen that we cast our selues humbly
thinke that we should need no exhortation to frequent the corporall works of Mercy as feeding the hungry and thirsty cloathing the naked visiting and comforting sicke persons and prisoners and the like since by his owne sacred mouth he hath told vs in his holy Ghospell that he will assume men to heauen if they shall haue done these works and adiudge men to hell it they doe them not But this blessed Lord of ours doth yet assigne such another reason in that very place as to a soule which hath tasted of his diuine loue is incomparably of more force then the former And it is that he hath vouchsafed to put his very selfe into the person of that beggar or distressed person Quod vni ex minimis meis fecistis mihi secistis Matt. 25. That so he might make vs happy by his receiuing from our miserable vnworthy hands a peece of courtesy and seruice Which he is pleased to apply to his owne most excellent diuine person And now since our (k) Spirituall workes of mercy are incoÌ„parably of more account with God then corporall Corpoall works of mercy to our neighbours are taken by himselfe as such liuely tokens of our loue to him who shall be able to declare how much more gratefully he will take it that we be carefull and liberall in the works of mercy which are spirituall So much more gratefull to him are these latter then those former works as the spirituall and immortall substance of the soule is more valuable then the base and dying substance of the body Nay one soule according to S. Chrysostome Orat. 3. contra Iudaeos is more worth then the whole materiall world put togeather Now the spirituall worke of mercy which is exercised by one man towards another in reducing such as erre in teaching such as are ignorant and in fine in drawing a soule from wickednes of life to Gods seruice doth produce as the instrument of God and by the helpe and strength of his holy hand l Miraculous thinges are wrought in the soule whoÌ„ it returneth to God 2. Pet. 1. strange things in the soule For it destroyeth the kingdome of Sinne it infuseth grace it maketh that man of an enemy and traytour which he was to God to become both his Sonne and Heire it enricheth him with the merits of Christ our Lord and it makes him partake of a diuine nature Nay it is most certainly and cleerly true that the man who coÌ„uerts a soule doth by the goodnes of our Lord acheiue a more great and glorious enterprise theÌ„ Christ our Lord himselfe was pleased to do by his illuminating of the blind or raysing of the dead or in fine by working any other miracle which was meerly corporall Since therfore this worke of helping soules is so very great how immense must that loue and mercy of our B. Lord haue bin who was pleased to (m) How easily great thinges are done in Gods seruice enable men thereunto and that at so easy a rate as that by the goodnes of God it is performed many tymes by the only exchange of a few words either of counsell to them or instruction of them or by prayer for them And by these happy men that is partly and daily fulfilled which was done in great measure Colos 2. by the blessed Apostle when he said Adimpleo ea quae desunt passionum Christi pro corpore eius quae est Ecclesia I fulfill those things which are waÌ„ting to the passion of Christ our Lord for that body of his which is the Church Not but that the passioÌ„ of Christ our Lord is all-sufficient in it selfe for the redeeming and sauing of a thousand worlds but that which the blessed Apostle doth insinuate as wanting to the passion of Christ our Lord was the application thereof by Faith and Pennance which last supposeth also Hope and Loue to the soules of Christians This I say is that wherin the B. Apostle imployed himselfe and this is that very thing to which the men of God do now attend and this in fine is that whereby we way testify our Loue to our Lord Iesus in a most excelleÌ„t manner And I begge of the same Lord that he will giue vs store of grace wherby we may loue him as we ought and serue him in such sort to all purpose 〈◊〉 he desireth and deserueth at our hands FINIS THE TABLE OF CHAPTERS Chap. 1. OF the Loue of our Lord Iesus Christ declared by shewing his Greatnes as he is God pag. 1 Chap. 2. The Loue of our Lord Iesus as he is Man is much coÌ„mended to vs by the consideration of the Excellency of his Soule pag. 10 Chap. 3. The power Sanctity of the Soule of Christ our Lord is considerd wherby we may also the better see his excessiue Loue. pag. 15 Chap. 4. The dignity of the pretious body of Christ our Lord is declared wherby the excellency of his loue is magnified pag. 21 Chap. 5. How the Beauty of our Lord Iesus Christ did coÌ„uince coÌ„quer all lookers on sauing only where excesse of sinne had put out the eyes of the soule pag. 25 Chap. 6. The admirable visible grace and disposition of the person of Christ our Lord is further declared pag. 29 Chap. 7. The same discourse is prosecuted and concluded coÌ„cerning the excellent Beauty of our Lord especially of the attractiuenesse of his sight pag. 35 Chap. 8. How this infinite God superexcellent Man our Lord Iesus Christ did with incomparable loue cast his eye of mercy vpon mankind pag. 43 Chap. 9. The Originall Roote and Motiâ—e of the infinite Loue of Christ our Lord to the Saluation of man is discouered pag. 48 Chap. 10. The mystery of the Incarnation is more particularly lookt into and the loue of our Lord Iesus is wonderfully expressed therby pag. 52 Chap. 11. Of the immense Loue of Christ our Lord expressed to Man in his holy Natiuity pag. 57 Chap. 12. How by the Pouerty of our Lord Iesus in his Natiuity poore men are comforted and the rich are kept from being proud pag. 61 Chap. 13. Of the vnspeakeable loue which our Lord Iesus expressed to vs in his Circumcision pag. 66 Chap. 14. Of the name of Iesus and the incomparable loue which our Lord doth shew to vs by that name pag. 75 Chap. 15. The same discourse concerning the holy Name of Iesus is further prosecuted pag. 78 Chap. 16. Of the great loue which our Lord shewed to vs in his Epiphany or Manifestation to the Gentiles in the person of the three Kings pag. 82 Chap. 17. It is shewed by the PresentatioÌ„ of our Lord Iesus in the TeÌ„ple how infinite loue he bare to vs. pag. 90 Chap. 18. How in the flight which our Lord Iesus made to Egypt he discouered his vnspeakeable Loue to man pag. 96 Chap. 19. The great Loue of our Lord Iesus is further shewed in his flight to Egypt pag. 101 Chap. 20. Of the
otherwise in the mystery of his appreheÌ„sion pag. 344 Chap. 60. Of the blow which was giuen vpon the face of our B. Lord in the high â—â—iests house of the fall of S. Peter How our Lord was taxed first of Blasphemy of the excessiue Loue of our Lord in all these particulars pag. 350 Chap. 61. The abundant must bitter scornes which our B. Lord indured with excessiue loue in that night precedent to his death pag. 358 Chap. 62. How our Lord was solemnly adiuged worthy of death for Blasphemy of the death of Iudas and how they send our Lord to Pilate pag. 366 Chap. 63. How Pilate examined our B. Lord sent him to Herod How Herod scorned him sent him backe to Pilate who resolued to scourge him pag. 372 Chap. 64. Of the cruell Scourging of Christ our Lord and how with incomparable patience and charity he endured the same pag. 377 Chap. 65. How our B. Lord was crowned with thornes blasphemed tormented with strang inuention of malice And how he endured all with incoÌ„parable loue pag. 382 Chap. 66. How we ought to carry our selues in consideration of the Ecce Homo And how our B. Sauiour did carry himselfe at that tyme with contempt of all humane comfort for loue of vs. pag. 388 Chap. 67. How the Iewes prefer Barabbas before Christ our Lord And how Pilate gaue sentence of death against him And with what incessant loue he endured all pag. 394 Chap. 68. How our Lord did carry his Crosse of the excessiue loue he shewed in bearing the great affronts which were done to him in his iorney to Mount Caluary pag. 399 Chap. 69. The Crucifixion of our B. Lord his quicke sense seuerall paynes distinctly felt of his vnspeakeable patience and loue to vs therin pag 404 Chap. 70. Of the excessiue torments of our Lord how he was blasphemed by all sortes of persons and of the diuine patience and loue wherwith he bare it all pag. 411 Chap. 71. How our Lord did exercise the Offices of Redeemer and Instructor vpon the Crosse and of the three first words he vttered from thence pag. 419 Chap. 72. Of the darkenes ouer the world the desolation which our Lord endured with incoÌ„parable loue whilst he said to his eternall Father Deus Deus meus vt quid dereliquisti me pag. 425 Chap. 73. Of the excessiue loue which our Lord expressed by his silence in the torments of the Crosse And how the while he was negotiating our cause with God pag. 432 Chap. 74. Of the vnspeakeable thirst of our Lord which he did endure and declare with incomparable loue to man pag. 437 Chap. 75. Of the entyere consummation of our RedemptioÌ„ wrought by Christ our Lord vpon the Crosse pag. 442 Chap. 76. Of our Lords last prayer of the separation of his soule from his body and of the grace and beauty of the Crucifixe pag. 447 Chap. 77. Of the great loue of God expressed in those prodigious things which appeared vpon the death of our B. Lord. And of the bloud and water which slowed out of his side c. pag. 453 Chap. 78. The Conclusson of this discourse of the Passion of our B. Lord the vse which we are bound to make therof pag. 460 Chap. 79. Of the vnspeakeable loue of our Lord Iesus in bequeathing to vs vpon the Crosse his All-immaculate Virgin Mother to be the Mother of vs all pag. 472 Chap. 80. How our B. Lady and Eue doe resemble one another and how they â—iffer And our B. Lady is proued to be the spirituall mother of all mankind pag. 478 Chap. 81. The externall Excellencies attractiuenesse of our B. Lady The reasons of congruity which proue her innocency purity and the innumerable motiues which oblige the world to admire loue her pag. 485 Chap. 82. Of the incoÌ„parable sanctity which is implyed to haue beene in our B. Lady by the consideration of the high dignity of her calling how that maÌ„ner of speach is to be vnderstood in holy Scripture wherby our B. Lady doth seeme in the eye of some to be disaduantaged pag. 424 Chap. 83. How the sanctity of our B. Lady doth much import to the honour of Christ our Lord. How notwithstanding all her excellency we auow her to be nothing in respect of Christ our Lord as God by innumerable degrees inferiour to him as man how much more honorably our Lord redeemed her theÌ„ others pag. 500 Chap. 84. Of the great eminency of our B. Lady beyond all others with an authority cited out of S. Augustine and that the way for vs to iudge rightly of her is to purify our soules pag. 506 Chap. 85. Of great Excellency of our B. Lady set out by the Figures Appellations and Allusions of the old Testament pag. 509 Chap. 86. The wonderfull excelleÌ„cies of our B. Lady which are declared in the new Testament be heere set forth pag. 514 Chap. 87. That our B. Lady was saluted full of Grace of seuerall kindes of Fulnes of Grace pag. 520 Chap. 88. The prayses of the B. Virgin are prosecuted by a testimony of S. Gregory And consideration is made of her diuine Vertues first of her admirable Faith and Hope pag. 527 Chap. 89. Of the most ardent Charity both to God man which raigned in the hart of the B. Virgin pag. 533 Chap. 90. The profound Humility and perfect Purity of our B. Ladyes both body soule And wherin the height thereof consisteth pag. 545 Chap. 91. Of the inexplicable Conformity of the will of the B. Virgin to the holy will of God in all thinges how deere soeuer it might cost her pag. 545 Chap. 92. Of the entyere Conformity of the B. Virgins will to the will of God and how many priuiledges and perfections were assembled in her pag. 551 Chap. 93. Of the seuerall deuotions that we are to carry to our Blessed Lady pag. 555 Chap. 94. Of the piety of our B. Lady towards vs now in heauen far more then when she liued on earth with a prayer to her pag. 580 Chap. 95. A RecapitulatioÌ„ of diuers Motiues which ought to draw vs close to the loue of our Lord. pag. 567 Chap. 96. Of the seuerall kinds of loue which our soules may exercise to our Lord Iesus with the Conclusion of the whole Treatise pag. 574. FINIS