equanimity and patience the devill himselfe knew not how to calumniate his pride would not allow him to own such expressions of power and so that temper of passivenesse was accepted as divine often when the thunder and lightning of the other side of their Commission passed for diabolicall Patience then seemeth a property which God doth not allow the devill so much as to counterfeit the possession of He is permitted to transfigure himself into an Angel of light rather then into the forme of a resigned contented sufferer as being an unalienable prerogative of Christ and the most dangerous delusion whereby he could worke upon the spirits of men and therefore this is the speciall difference between the suggestions of good and evill spirits to us when they come both clothed in pious supervestures that the hand of the proud spirit leaves alwaies some elation disquiet or impatience in us to vent and divulge the virtues and graces he seemeth to dispense but the sincere inspiration of the holy spirit alwaies calmeth and stilleth any emotion or impatience in the possession of his graces and leaves no heat or glowing in our hearts that solliciteth us to evaporate that spirit of joy and peace by which they are solaced but humbly and patiently to enclose them within the humility of our own breasts And thus true Christians by the virtue of their Comforter cording to Christs advice possesse their soules in patience which giveth them so inviolable a possession of their mindes as the devill can neither distraine them by the power of his ministers injuries nor distract them by the paintings of his owne artifices Wherefore God doth punish the devill by allowing him the exercising of the patience of his Saints as S. Gregory saith Holy Job was more Sathans torturer then Sathan was the others tempter for Jobs felicity was not repealed by God but only translated out of prosperity into adversity which is the mother-tongue of the Saints Patience is so unintelligible even to the devils subtilty as if he could conceive it he might quench his flames with it but God in punishment of his first strange impatience in not resting quieted with his condition hath made eternall impatience the fuell of his tortures and on the contrary Patience which induceth an equality in the Saints in all their various vexations of this life is a kinde of image of the state of their beatitude while in all their externall commotions they retaine a smooth and even composure of mind which is a kind of image of eternity that is alwaies the same and in relation to this S. Paul states the highest virtue of the glory of Christ in this Coloss 1.2 of remaining in all patience and longanimity with joy so as that work which all the voluptuary arts are long about and after much labour make but a little joy and quickly looseth it again patience finisheth in a moment and converteth all into delight and satisfaction and treasureth it up as an eternal provision nay patience is so powerfull as it can turne into pleasure all those occurrences which sensuality must run away from to save her petty joyes All sorts of injuries of fortune or of time are presently translated by this vertue into nourishment and delectation for patience as Tertullian saith hath God answerable for all she layes up in his hand if she deposite an injury in his hand he is her revenger if a losse he is her reimburser if a sickness he is her mediciner if death he is her reviver What a freedome doth God allow Patience to make him her debtor of all she commits to his trust And thus we see unless we can finde somewhat that God cannot convert into joy there is nothing that doth not return that profit to Patience The Philosophers commended Patience highly because they accounted suffering an evill which that did asswage and mitigate but a Christian may in regard that it is good for him to suffer esteem Patience as the best of his virtues because it keeps him the longest in that which is so good for him Fortitude or active courage runs through difficulties with all the haste it can Patience goes on leisurely and enjoyes the good of suffering and on it begets mortification and humility which are the legitimate issue of a regenerate man and by this constant assuefaction inurement to sufferings some become by degrees as it were impassible and lovers of trialls for as fire doth no longer burn ashes the which receiving no hurt from it doe seeme to love the fire and to cherish and conserve it so one that is consummated in Patience comes often to a state of being no more diminished by afflictions then ashes are by fire and to desire rather to keepe alive the fire of his tribulations then to exstinguish it for perfect Patience doth not decline suffering but suppresses immoderate sorrow which is the best office for it is so provident as not to deduct at all from the matter of our meriting but only to mitigate the molesting part of our affliction and thus contriveth our advantages so well as we may enjoy the deserving portion of our troubles and not be desolated or oppressed by the sorrowfull property of them We see also Christs method in carrying them who were to convert the world through all sorts of tortures that their Patience might be a meritorious miracle which was a better quality then their powers of speaking all tongues casting out of devills or curing all diseases Their patience in their own wounds was a more advantageous grace then their gifts of cures upon all maladies for by that they improved their own soules and by this they did but repaire the bodies of others they were but organs to passe these miracles into the world but they were owners of the other divine quality And the residence of the Holy Ghost in them may be said to be express'd by their Patience and by their other miracles only a transition of him through them Whereupon S. Chrysostom saith that to suffer patiently is a greater gift then to raise the dead for indeed we are but debtors to God for this and we have Christ our debtor for the other and it may be there will be as many pearles even in number hanging upon the crownes of the Apostles and Martyrs depending on their Patience as on their powers S. Justin Martyr one of the greatest lights of the primitive times confesseth that the stupendious equality and constancy of the Christians in all their pressures convinced him of a divine inspiration thereof and Antiquity testifies infinite numbers of conversions upon the same perswasion Before Christ dignified Patience and rendred it so meritorious the Heathens were so disposed to honour it by the light of nature as this transcendency of it in Christians easily prevayled with them to seeke an author of it even above all that they had before accepted for their gods of whom they had no records but of their delights and volupties
patient in tribulation knowing all our hope must rise out of sufferances as they are the ligaments and connections of the body to a crucified head Wherefore I will desire you for your comfort as well as your conviction in this point to cast your thoughts upon the Crosse and consider only the last miracle which Christ was pleased his body should exhibit to us after his soule was departed from it You may note how out of that wound which Longinus the Souldier gave him after he was dead there issued the two greatest mysteries of the Church to oblige us to beleeve that much more the head himselfe never woundeth or permitteth to be offended any of the members of his living body upon earth but upon some speciall reason which alwaies resulteth to the good of that part he striketh unlesse the part it selfe prove the impediment by some miscarriage in the state of cure Wherefore that portion of his body amongst you which is now bleeding under his hand need feare nothing but their own ill diet irregularity in their hurts for they may prove so healthfull to you as they may convert even the diseases of your naturall bodies into a good constitution of your souls and the regiment of your selves in this case is prescribed by S. Paul 1. Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand in the faith doe manfully and be strengthened upon occasion of the same infirmity in his time Vigilate state in fide viriliter agite confortamini This prescript containeth a direction to your three constitutions of Sufferers Doe manfully relateth to you as you are men Be strengthened belongeth to you as Christians Watch and stand in the faith respecteth you as Catholikes and if you apply these remedies respectively to your infirmities even every one of these your three Vae Vae Vae's upon earth shall afford you a Sanctus in heaven and so as Men Christians and Catholikes weeping here you may attain to the singing eternally of Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus in heaven CHAP. IV. Of the manner of discharging these duties of Sufferings WE may observe that Christ spake neither so frequently nor so cleerly of any one thing to his Disciples as of the sufferings and passions he was to undergoe and yet they never understood him in them They were alwayes either in such feare or such wonder concerning them as they never durst aske the question for the explication of their perplexities They quickly sought the explication of all his Parables Mar. 9.31 that seemed referred either to his power or his promises but in this point of his disparagements and his passions they seemed so little desirous of an illumination as when he was ready to be seized according to his prediction and upon the point of separation from them he is faine to reproach them that they were dejected only not desirous to be informed whither he was going John 15.5.6 whereupon depended all their reperations The apprehension of sufferance and passion seâ—meth to have such a quality as is reported of the Torpedo for it often stupifies and benummeth our nature so as it leaves not so much as even curiosity stirring in it towards an inquisition of reliefe In like manner there may be many who have heard much of our exposure to sufferings and afflictions in this life and yet remain little inlightned in the right conception of them and which is worse little inquisitive of that method whereby we must extract benefit and utility out of them Wherefore it is requisite to exhibit as faire a copy of that method as I can let forth to their comprehensions that they may not be dismaied by this Onus Domini Jer. 23. The burthen of the Lord. nor be deluded by this supposition that they are all the spirituall children of Abraham who have this marke of the Covenant of sufferances upon their bodies or their fortunes for it is not this moral circumcision or uncircumcision that intitles us to the promises but the spirituall signature of Christ upon the heart it is not the exterior infliction of misery that qualifies us for the reward proposed nor a present immunity and quiet that ejects us out of the society of Christs passions it is the interior disposition in both cases that constituteth the rightfull title to remuneration In those who are actually exercised under their crosses it is the patient and pious resignation which intitleth them to the conditions of the Covenant and in those who are in a present suspension or truce enjoying a serene conveniency it is the preparation and disposure of their hearts to accept humbly all orders of God in how sharp a stile soever they shall be issued against their persons or estates This frame of the mind is their evidence before the eyes of God of their right to the contract of suffering members of Christ Job's disposition in his quotidian sacrifices was no worse an odour to God then the suavity of his patience fuming up from that meane altar whereon he lay offering up his ashes The materiall part of affliction doth not sanctifie no more then the same part in alms or charity doth expiate they are both but Egena elementa Gal. 4.9 Barren elements of themselves the heart and the spirit wherewith they are designed animateth and enliveneth them Wherefore we may say of sufferings that which Christ said of a case not much unlike to this Mar. 7.15 That no affliction which goeth into a man doth actually sanctifie him but it is the spirit of sufferance which resideth in him that must render him holy for out of the heart only good intentions and humble conformities doe issue so as the externall crosses that fall upon the man doe not formally purifie him it is what comes out of the heart as the emissions of humility patience and charity which his heart sendeth forth to meete and imbrace all Gods pleasures which can onely hallow and sanctifie the man Therefore I may very fitly say if any man hath eares to heare let him heare that you may not prove so unhappy as to beare the weight and heat of the day and to forfeit at last your hire for though God saith He chastiseth every child he receiveth he doth not say He receiveth every one that he chastiseth S. James therefore when he proposeth to his distressed country-men The esteeming it all joy their falling into various trialls and temptations coupleth this reason with his proposition James 1.2 Knowing that the probation of your faith worketh patience So that the benefit must be derived from the effect of tribulation which is the producing of patience the which doth not naturally spring out of misery for this is but the matter or the subject whereon this virtue is exercised not the spirit or forme of this holy disposition For which reason the Apostle compleateth his advise by proceeding to direct them how to compasse this necessary adjunction to the matter of their afflictions to render them subjects of joy saying
If any of you want wisdome let him aske it of God who giveth it to all men abundantly So as this joy is a spirit extracted out of patience not inherent in the matter of passion and patience is a virtue too celestiall to be educed as it were ex traduce by the materiall body of affliction It is infused by the holy spirit which S. Paul confirmeth when he saith Rom. 5. that Tribulation worketh patience shewing the reason of this operation in the next words after the sequence of many good productions derived from one another he setteth this for the effective cause of all because The charity of God is powred forth in our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 So as it is the spirit of God moving upon these Waters which divideth the light from the darknesse not the Chaos it selfe that actively produceth these two lights of patience and hope although the troubles and confusions of this world may be the elements out of which the spirit may extract them For sufferings seeme to be to patience that which matter is to the artificer for though the art be seated in the minde yet it cannot be actuated and expres'd but by some matter that supports it so patience though it be a spirituall disposition inherent in the soule cannot be exercised but upon some passion and contrariety which is the subject that renders it visible and discernable for the Theory of this virtue can no more assure us of our abilities in it then the studie of all the Geometricall rules of Sculpture can ascertain a Statuary of his sufficiency untill he hath experimented it upon either stone and brasse or waxe or clay at least some matter is requisite to reflect to him the sight of his notions formed and reduced to their last terme which is a visible exhibition of them So there must be some afflictions though not the severest yet some at least of a softer quality which must minister some matter of contrariety and vexation to be as the ground and subject exposing to our selves the worke of our patience upon it Wherefore as joy in tribulations must be derived from Patience so this vertue must be acquired by Prayer They who look lower then God for patience doe commonly look also lower then heaven for the order of their afflictions and so fall short both in the knowledge of the nature of their evils and their remedies For they who rely on nature or morall reason for their cure may well be judged to impute their malady to Fortune Whereupon S. James giveth this further advise to that of our petitioning and postulating of wisdome James 6. that We must aske in faith without any doubting or haesitation not tossing in an irresolution of referring our crosses to the eye of Providence or to the blindnesse of Fortune Such a wavering aestuation of spirit the Apostle saith must not expect to receive any thing Our prayer therefore must be as fixed in the beliefe of Gods speciall providence in all contingencies as it is in the confession of a God for the one involveth the other and then we shall finde such a joy in patience as our reason it selfe shal witnesse to be divine as being beyond her reach so much as she must avow it to be Digitus Dei Wherefore I beseech you to beware of the fluctuation of these times betweene the strength of morall reason and the rest of faith for there is nothing so injurious to reason as under the pretence of exalting it to raise it out of the owne sphere of activity exacting such effects of Reason as are not to be found lower then the orbe of grace For they who assigne themselves peace and repose in all tribulations out of the stock of Phylosophie prejudice Reason much by their over-promising for it For Morall Phylosophie at the highest is but as it were a Meteor suspended in the ayre betweene the earth of a meere sensuall 1 Cor. 15. The first man of earth earthly The second man from heaven heavenly and the firmament of a spirituall man It is not so much raised above the man who is de terrâ terrenus as it is below him who is de coelo coelestis wherefore all the sweet-sounding and harmonious tongues of the Phylosophers are but sounding brasse or tinkling cymbals when they come to be used without the charity infused by the fiery tongues of Sion We shall find the hollownesse of such tongues which raised their noise to our eares very light when we take them into our hands to weigh against the heavinesse and gravations of sad crosses and oppressions Methinks many of the Heathen Phylosophers supposed in their prescripts concerning the minds insensiblenesse in all the passions and pressures of the body that the body had but such a coexistence of place with the mind as we say those bodies of aire have with the Angels that assume them in which those spirits are onely as movers in a moveable subject not at all united or affected thâ—â— matter appeareth about them which is not informed by them but assumed by them to expose them to our sight and so is only moved by them without any connexion to them So sure their suppositions that the minde may remaine unconcerned in all the sufferances and tortures of the flesh require that our bodies should be but such ayery matter rather moved only then informed by our soules For that apathie the Stoicks propose in all the bodies distresses cannot hold in that connexion our soules and bodies have with one another and so whosoever shall relye upon their conclusions shall finde their conceits ayery and vacuous and their owne bodies too solid and too closely conjoyned to their souls not to be affected with the burthens and pressures of it Wherefore our faith teacheth us to resort to a higher Principle residing in our soule and yet is no part of it which is the Holy spirit of God infused by his grace whereby we are instructed in the incapacities and deficiencies of our owne nature and the detection of our minds inability in her own single power proveth her enforcement nay inablement to resent all the bodies grievances yet to bear them without distraction or reluctancy and this discernment of that obnoxious state the soule is exposed unto showeth her That as she can doe nothing of her selfe but suffer and complain so in virtue of that supplementall aid she can rejoyce in tribulations and professe Phil. 4.14 I can doe all things in him that strengthens me Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat Whereupon we must be possessed of this principle that peace of minde doth not spring up in affliction as the plants did in Paradise Genes 2. without either raine or culture Patience which is the dew of heaven must be drawn from thence and this as it is attracted only by the meanes Elias used to open heaven so likely it holds this analogy with his small cloude he could
with joy giving thankes to God and the Father who hath made us worthy unto the lot of the Saints in light CHAP. VIII Answers and Resolutions to some subtile Temptations AFter the chiefe Priests Scribes Mar. 12. and Elders had laid before Christ Jesus all the stones of offence and scandall their wits could pick out of the Law or the Prophets all which he converted into touch-stones of his wisdome and humility and so rendred all these tryalls attests of his purity and sincerity in these excellent graces then they excogitated a more subtile temptation for him which was to tempt him by his owne perfections For then they sent to him some of the Pharisees Ibid. 12. and of the Herodians who were to work upon his tendernesse and compassion of the publick to ensnare him by his benignity and charity to others and to that purpose they moved him in a point of commiseration to his Countrey asking him with a Preface of his praises whether they might not ease themselves of the publique tribute And this they thought a likely way to insnare his goodnesse when all their other projects could not infirme his vertue In like manner our subtilest enemy may have found many of you answering and corresponding faithfully in all his examinations of you in your own particular sorrows losses and distresses and finding you thus armed in your owne persons with JOB's Dominus dedit Iob. 1.21 Our Lord gave and our Lord hath taken away Dominus abstulit he is very likely to attempt you by your owne graces of piety and tendernesse of others and devotion to your Countries redemption from error or a present apprehension of a totall extirpation of those few seeds are still dispersedly left in it of Catholike Religion And this tentation may well be presented you with praises of your owne vertues and pressed more upon your devotion as a solicitude properly affected to the love of your Religion This is so fine and soft an insinuation of motions to disquiet and discordance from Gods order as you may very easily be slid into it upon this so smoothe and faire suggestion thereof as a practise of vertuous duty I shall therefore endeavour to detect unto you the danger of this so subtile illaqueation and insnarement in this net may be made of your owne pieties For when Sathan stands among the sonnes of God he is in the most dangerous position for the children of men that is when in the shape of some vertue he introduceth a temptation First then we must lay this for ground-work of all our peace of spirit a firme immovable perswasion of the divine providence in all occurrencies This rock the devill doth not attempt to batter in the minds of sober and pious persons but worketh to undermine it by arguments and consequences When any thing occurreth incongruent to our reason concerning the government of such affaires as seeme properly to appertaine to Gods interest as the miscariage and adversity of Gods cause and his Churches periclitation in these advantages the serpent hath over our weak and dim power of reasoning he alwaies inforceth this subtilty upon us That Gods hand cannot be in matters so opposite to his goodnesse To which our faith answereth easily enough when it is awake but when our mindes are in that state the Psalmist confesseth even his to have been reduced unto Psal 118 28. My soule hath slumberd for tediousnesse of Dormitavit anima mea prae taedio when our spirits are growne drowsie and heavy under the burthen of their encumbrances then he presseth this point upon us when the vivacity of our faith is a little relaxed Psal 72. But my feet were almost moved my steps almost slipped seeing the peace of sinners and by watching this opportunity we know the tempter hath shaken even the greatest Saints as we know David himselfe avoweth in Mei autem penè moti sunt pedes penè effusi sunt gressus meì pacem peccatorum videns So as this is a temptation to be precautioned by the best advises can be provided For what the enemy aimeth at in the first place is not to subvert directly our faith but to supplant our peace and quiet of spirit and when he hath raised this mist in our discoursing faculty then all the images are set before us seeme to have farre different proportions from the realities themselves One of the most safe admonitions therefore is to watch upon our pronenesse to passion either in griefe anger or enmity for an intemperance in any of these upon the several occasions which respect each of them doth first cloud that serenity of mind which should keep the light of Gods providence cleere to our apprehension and then insensibly we sink into chagrins and dissavours of Gods present judgements Therefore let us alwayes check the first motions to any excesse of sorrow though the occasion be never so legitimate as even for the persecution of the Church in that case we must seek to represse any immoderate resentment of it though the colour seeme such as admits of no over-doing in it yet all extremities even of zeale in this exigence weaken and enfeeble our Reason and so leave us worse armed against our opponent who alwayes seeketh to deduce some reason of repining and disrespect to Gods order out of this argument of Gods unconcernment in the safety of his children Therefore in all provocations to griefe we must attend the preserving of our spirits as little overcast by sadnesse as we possibly can for in this obscurity the enemy soweth what we feele growing up before we see it cast into us For which cause let this be a generall receit for all emergencies in matter of disconsolation to oppose studiously the first motions towards any inordinate sorrow or resentment That I may then give you some particular satisfaction in this case of yours which may seeme so devout a disquiet in order to the Churches sufferings I must desire you to lay this in your minds as a deep and immoveable foundation That the verity of the Church is not questioned by the vicissitude of states into which she is translated You may consider that your faith telleth you the roots of the Church are growing in a rock and are watred and kept alive by a supernaturall irrigation with the dew of heaven so as no storm can loosen them nor no heat penetrate so far as to offend them The particular branches of this stemme may wither or be removed according to the intemperance of the places they are planted in as we see that many single shafts and bodies of particular Churches which are but sprigs in respect of the Universall are now eradicated even in the first ground they were planted as we see in the desolation and barrennes of Mount Sion it selfe and the land of Canaan which we may call the garden of Eden where the tree of life first sprang up and where the Church seemed to all humane reason rooted
remoter kindred of this blessed Testator who hath left the whole Catholike stock of the Country proportionate meanes to their callings of being edified by his Testament the which you must endeavour to dispense to them according to their severall qualifications and while you doe providently manage this portion of example he hath left you you may enrich your selves so as if Christ shall please to call you to the honour of drinking of this his owne cup you may also leave this rich talent of Martyrdome improved to your survivors and heires that every Martyr may seeme to adde somewhat to the stock of the Nations merit to counter-balance in the sight of God somewhat the provocation of the other part and that by the descent of this spirit of sacrifice amongst you there may be a successive provision made of such holy hoasts out of this family of God the which will alwayes propagate by this generating death to the end this spirituall progeny may be continued by the fruitfull seed of Martyrdome untill it shall please God to regenerate the whole Nation by that way which may seeme strange to many Nicodemuses by making her enter againe into her mothers wombe Wherefore I may lawfully charge all you that are his heires and executors with this Commission from him Take an example Jam. 5.10 brethren of labour and patience the Prophets which spake in the name of the Lord Behold we account them blessed that have suffered And for that part of you which remaines in the outward court of the Tabernacle and so are not appointed to the Altar of Holocausts you are called to take an instruction from this sacrifice which may silence all your complaints to wit that your clothes as it were are but used as this your brothers person was for it is your goods onely that are quartered and drawne from you so that if you should seeme too sensible of that separation it might be reproached to you that your worldly substances were more inviscerate in your hearts then the hearts of those your brothers were in their bodies whereof they so cheerfully accept the sequestration I beseech you then by the bowels of Jesus Christ to act your parts as graciously and to bring in your offerings with as much alacrity every one according to the severall divisions of graces 1 Cor. 12. and the same spirit that each of you may be as S. Peter saith a good dispenser of the manifold grace of God And thus while you offer your different oblations with the same fidelity the service of the temple may be consummate between you when one part of the body furnisheth the blood and the other the fat of the sacrifice Psal 65. My mouth hath spoken in my tribulation holo causts with marrow wil I ofter to thee By this consort of zeale in all parts the Church among you may sing with the Psalmist I ocutum est cor meum in tribulatione mea holocausta medullata offeram tibi And this is the most promising course can be pursued to plead for a mitigation of Gods chastisements on his little flock and to mediate the reduction of the straying part of the Nation into the fold Wherefore the Apostles advice to his Countrymen is very apposite in this occasion of yours Meb 13.7 Remember your Prelates who have spoken the word of God to you the end of whose conversation beholding imitate their faith I will not follow this invitation which seems to call me to say over the office of the Martyrs in honour of this supremest vocation of Christianity since I may presume that all those among you who stand candidat for this dignity of whitening their robes in the bloud of the Lambe are better qualified then my selfe for this election Wherefore I will rest in this payment of my humble reverence to this particular Saint who hath so lately overcome with the same armes of the Lambe of God slaine from the beginning so is now according to his promise Apoc. 3.21 sitting with him on his throne invested with power over nations humbly beseeching him to intercede unto his Head Christ Jesus for those hands unhappy unto themselves that have been so beneficiall to him and to solicite him for his brothers remaining in the foulenesse of this earth that those who are not called to the honour of washing their robes as he may at least be furnished with the grace of watching and keeping their garments Apoc. 16.15 that they walk not naked and shew their turpitude but may be found in all their temporall despoilments and devestures clothed with that silke which is the justification of the Saints and so may be dressed in their wedding Garment for the marriage supper of the Lambe Apoc. 19.8 And this which is my supplication to Christ by the intercession of this Saint desires all that be witnesses of it to be partners in the same petition to the Lambe of God and to him who sitteth upon the throne After this little usuall Parenthesis which stands like an Island in a stream that rather beautifies the river in breaking a while the course of it I wil carry you on in the same current of Motives to joy we were upon which I designed to branch out into severall channels that might run through and refresh the different estates of the sufferers among you unto all which the Apostle offereth this generall congratulation Phil. 1.28 To you it is given for CHRIST not only that you beleeve in him but also that you suffer for him These are words that do highly extoll the grace of sufferance for Saint Paul paralleleth it here with the grace of beleeving nay it seemes an exaggeration of that of suffering to a degree above the other his saying that to them was given not only to beleeve but to suffer as some superaddition of an extraordidinary gratification from God And surely if we reflect considerately upon the grace of suffering virtuously for Christ we shall finde that it is the accomplishment of our faith and the last term of Christian perfection in this life for it is not only a demonstration of our faith and hope but an unquestionable evidence of our love For what the Apostle Saint James saith of beleeving and working James 21.18 supposing the occasion holdeth adequately between loving and suffering for to any who shall confide in their untryed love I may say with the Apostle You have love and I patience shew me your love without patience and I will shew you my love by my patience you love God while you are benefited doe not the heathens doe the same This application doth quadrate me thinkes to this case for indeed it is not possible to shew our love when we are called to suffer without manifesting it by a religious patience and by that we doe cleerly evidence our love Therefore it is excellently said by a holy man That a Christian who knoweth not how to suffer knoweth as little how
These considerations I am certain may justifie my giving you joy of your present conditions and if you take it you will need solicite no other reparatory for if the poverty of Christ doth thus enrich you O! what may you hope for in the plenitude of his treasure from such a master as is able to furnish joy to the followers of him in his sorrow what may be expected at the entring into that masters joy Thus I have visited the principall stations of our Crosse-bearers and according to my best capacity I have offered the hungry meat the strangers hospitality the prisoners society I have served every one faithfully with their severall portions of consolation which the great master of the family distributeth to them through my hands therefore I shall now exhibit unto them all collectively this Pharmacum Catholicum this Canonike or universall receipt of Saint Paul applyable to all conditions Phil. 1.28 In nothing be terrified of the adversaries which to them is cause of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God for to you it is given for CHRIST not only that you beleeve in him but also that you suffer for him CHAP. XIII A Summary of the precedent Treatise WHen I view these sheets mee thinks they call to my minde the Booke sent to the Prophet Ezekiel written full with these three Contents Lamentations A Song and Wee whereunto the three Covenants of Sufferance the subject of my lines may be not improperly accommodated For the first of them as Men answereth well to the Lamentations of the Prophet as consisting altogether of sorrow and labour And the second as Christians reporteth to the Song which signifieth praising and gladnesse for under the notion of Christians we may fitly sing and rejoyce in our obligation to suffer And the last as Catholikes relateth not unfitly to the third of Wee For as Persecution and the Crosse was the Mother so affliction hath alwayes been one of the nurses of Catholike Religion And the state of Christians standing in the middle doth like the Sun in the Skie inlighten the orbes above and below it for this condition of suffering as members of Christ disasperates the thorns left in the sides of the sonnes of Adam and sweetens that Cuppe mingled with Myrrhe which we take from the hand of our mother the Catholike Church who gathereth Myrrhe with all her Aromaticall spices And I would to God there were but as much similitude between the persons as between the Commissions of the Prophet and mine for he was sent to treat of these subjects with people in your condition the Church of God in persecution and captivity to enjoyn them Lamentation for their sinnes to promise them joy to their obedience and to denounce Woe against their inconformity Which offices I have discharged to the best of my capacity and I may owne the charge from God in that order wherein all good gifts come from above Jam. 1.17 from the Father of lights and more precisely by Saint Pauls direction 2 Cor. 3.9 of Communicating to the necessities of the Saints Rom. 12.13 without arrogating any thing towards the least glimpse of pretending an extraordinary warrant The Apostle investeth us with this honour of being Gods coadjutors Wherefore the meanest of that function may avouch his Spirit for the author of what tendeth to the communicating of his good impulses to the refection and solace of his desolated brothers So that whatsoever in these lines shall bring any drop of consolation passeth my pen but as through a pipe which giveth conveyance only no virtue to what is transfused And I desire there may be no more ascribed to my inke then ought to be to the durt or the water of Siloe John 9.24 which were used in the blinde mans cure for it may be truly answered to all such as shall receive any benefit by my pen Give glory unto God for we know this man is a sinner They who will benefit by these my prescriptions must be desired to enter into a serious consideration of these three points which doe naturally issue from the heads of our triple covenant The first is the misery of our estate as sonnes of Adam The second is the dignified condition of the members of Christ The third is security of being such by our incorporation into the Catholike Church the which only is his body and his spouse The first may be ministred against all refractory humour that exasperateth our grievances the which we may-sweeten by this reflection that We are born to sorrow as birds to fly Job 5.7 This may well asswag our distempers to consider sufferance not as an estate of compulsion but of consonancy to our condemned nature The second may present to us our sentence of sorrow converted into a gratification by proving the means of our connexion to such an head who by putting the griefs and dolours of our nature into his bosome hath taken out the sting and hath taught us to kill their venome by imbracing them And the third ascertaineth us to be within that circle wherein the eternall benefit of all the sorrows of the head or members are limited and determined This triangle of meditation is well proportioned to all your suffering hearts in which forme I have drawn this present of my heart unto you and having borrowed of Saint Paul the most of what I have presented to you to make up the want of weight in what is of mine owne stock I will borrow this also from him 2 Cor. 12.15 This little labour I most gladly bestow and will my selfe moreover be bestowed for your soules If I may make a request to you upon this present it shall be to retain châ—ifly the second of these three points I have treated which are your obligation to suffer your manner of bearing the Crosse and your merit in the faithfull carriage thereof There is little danger of your forgetting the first in these times nor any feare of Gods forgetting of the last both in this time and in eternity Heb. 6.10 God is not unjust that he should forget your work and love which you have shewed in his name So as all the difficulty rests in your coÌ„plying faithfully with the Evangelicall manner of suffering exhibited so fairely to you in the practise and precepts of our Saviour Christ Jesus who as Saint Peter urgeth it to us 1 Pet. 2.21 suffered for us leaving us an example that you may follow his steps which I have set out before you as fairly figured and impressed upon these papers as my skill can afford their edition I have shewed you their Marches towards friends and their Postures to enemies in the exercises of all sorts of charities active and passive I have exposed unto you the Apostles and the Martyrs following of Christ in the same track all making one procession of the Crosse I have removed all those stumbling blocks and stones of scandall I could find in
is able to keepe my deposite unto that day Apoc. 13.10 Apo. 22.11 with this reply of the Apostle and Master of the Gentiles Haec patior sed non confundor scio enim cui credidi certus sum quia potens est servare depositum meum in illum diem remembring alwayes that there is no promise but upon fidelity even unto death Here is as Saint John saith The patience and the faith of Saints which expecteth Gods time for all mutations and untill that fulnesse of time be come we must acquiesce to what the Angel signified to Saint John and you may take it for an instruction apposite to these times He that hurteth let him hurt yet and he that is in filth let him be filthy yet and he that is just let him be justified yet and let the holy be sanctified yet And these two effects are consequents of one another for the impiety of the unrighteous is raised by their exercising and perfecting pious patients whose sanctity is refined by the others inquination Gods wisdome maketh use of all evills which he permitteth but to extract goods and so alloweth all vicissitudes their times untill he Who is the first and the last cometh to render to every man according to his works Wherefore doing good let us not faile for in due time we shall reape not failing Let this be then your consolation in all that displeaseth you that it proceedeth from his order who can be pleased with nothing but what is just Having thus summed up all the parcells and fractions of these lines I shall seale the totall with this signet of our Apostle and Doctor of all sufferers glorious Saint Paul Gal. 6.9 Thanks be to God who hath given us the victory by our Lord JESUS CHRIST 1 Cor. 15.57.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be stable and unmoveable abounding in the work of our Lord alwayes knowing that your labour is not in vain in our Lord. Now me thinks upon my delivery of this masculine issue of Catholike Religion the throes of my labour may be easily forgot but there is a harder worke belonging to this birth which is to Christen it with sincere humility the Sacrament as I may call it that entreth all these sorts of children into that Covenant whereby they become acceptable to God as being marked with the Character of Christs spirit and disposition who sought not his own glory in any of his works and hath left this rule John 7.18 He that seeketh the glory of him that sent him he is true and injustice in him there is not Wherefore in all humblenesse raising my heart and bending my knees to the originall Crucifix upon whose image I now fix mine eyes I lay myselfe and this issue of my spirit at his feet unfainedly acknowledging the first motion of this designe to have issued from his holy suggestion to me a particular zeale for the procuring you some comfort in these times of your destitutions of all ordinary succours and the abundance of extraordinary tentations I humbly therefore praise his goodnesse in this choice of me the youngest of his house to blow these sparkles of consolation among you riseing from that coale wherewith he hath been pleased to touch my lips and in a true sense of his mercy and my own meannesse I ought not to beleeve any thing I have written in this work so worthy the offering up to God as what I have not writ in it which is my name This manner of consumption and annihilation of self-regard may breath out some odour of humility which is like to be of better savour then any other quality of the oblation If now then I most humbly offer up to the honour of his holy Spirit all my propriety in this labour that the work thus consecrated may have this property of an hoast the having no longer any owner but Gods name and that by this means there may be no thoughts shed upon the author by the way but the whole praise and glory may passe up directly and intirely to the holy Spirit the Father of lights from whom all good gifts descend this is the greatest contribution I can bring towards the obtaining a blessing upon this worke that by the immediate and single glory which you render to God in acknowledging to him this solicitude for your necessities he may be moved to give the greater efficacy to these administrations of comfort Cast then I beseech you your thoughts at least upon such an object as my eyes are now fixed upon and looking on the Author of faith Heb. 12.1 and the consummator Christ Jesus who joy being proposed to him sustained the Crosse contemning confusion Let me beseech you to joyne with me in this Petition to him for a blessing upon my labours and his promised beatitude upon your sufferances A Prayer to CHRIST represented by a Crucifix GRacious Lord Jesus casting our eyes and thoughts upon your Crosse and considering how by your owne disfiguring you have repaired in us the image we had defaced of our creation we may joyfully accept this image of our Redemption stamped upon us by our present Crosses whereby we are conformed to you crucified and so intitled to that similitude we may expect by but looking upon you glorified O! let this present object have in some degree such an operation and make us like you upon the Crosse by looking on you in that distressed exposure that we may derive now from that sight these virtues of Patience Humility and Charity somewhat perfected as we shall then partake Joy Glory and Love consummated by that other vision of you Glorious Lord Jesus who are now risen from this throne of your humility to that of your Majesty give us leave to challenge this your promise of drawing all things after you when you were thus exalted be pleased then to draw our humility and fidelity after yours that they may extend even unto death that when we finde any naturall reluctancy against our crosses and humiliations we may feele a more powerfull attraction of our conformity after your precedency O! we have no excuse left when we looke upon your hands stretched out upon the Crosse in an equall expansion on both sides to active and passive Charity the one extended to the reliefe of the necessities of others the other reached forth to the toleration of all their injuryes whom you were relieving encompassing thus the whole globe of Charity Be pleased O Lord to fasten us in this manner unto the Crosse with you that being perfect Crucifixes in our dispositions as well as in our disfigurements by the World we may have the neerer configuration to your image when we shall no longer neede to labour a likenesse to you but the very seeing you shall transforme us into the same similitude Grant then O Lord while we are in this laborious resemblance of you that the character of your patience may be as visible upon us as that of your passion and that our enemies by the virtue of our wants may be releeved in their own necessities while our prayers growing the richer by our patience we may the better purchase their remissions This effect was a grace pertaining to your Crosse which we humbly beg may in some measure be conferd on ours that upon this ladder we may scale heaven our selves and open the gates to our enemies These were the consequences of your Crosse and we may become one Spirit with you by our adherence to you submissively plead for some such resultancies from our sufferings that being enabled by your grace to say with you that we have glorified God upon earth and consummated the work that was apointed us we may expect our presentation from you unto the glorious Trinity in the list of those that are come out of great tribulation and having abundance of teares in our eyes to wipe off when we come to be led by the Lambe to the fountaines of the Water of life the plenty of these waters have stood here in our eyes may fill our vessels the fuller of those celestiall springs Be pleased then O Lambe of God! 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