Emissenus The eternal nights of hell have been visited by the rays of God plaints and clamours ceased direful chains fell off executioners were amazed and the whole habitation condemned to eternal pains shook under the feet of this admirable Conquerour The Prophet pursueth (b) (b) (b) Parata sedes tua c. Elevaverunt flumina c. Mirabiles elationes maris The seat of glory O Saviour was prepared for thee from all eternity and thereinto thou makest a victorious triumphant entry after so great an inundation of sufferings All the waves of persecutions have roared over thy head and have buried thee in the acerbities of death How much the more this sea of passions immeasurably swelled so much the more thou appearedst resplendent in the supream eminency of thy glory and triumphs 6. (b) (b) (b) The sweetness of the repose of Jesus and all the elect in the state of the resurection Transfer your consideration from thence to the effect of our Saviours glorification which consisteth in repose and stability represented by the Angel which appeared at the resurrection sitting on a solid stone This verily is the great day which we may call the mystical Sabbaoth and the eternal repose of Jesus It is said in the mystery of the creation (c) (c) (c) Complevitque Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat requievit die septimo ab universo opere quod patrarat benedixit diei septimo sanctificavit illum Genes 2. 1. The relation of the resurrection to the creation that God rested on the seaventh day and casting his eye on all these great works which he drew out of nothing he thereupon took satisfaction in his spirit and impressed them all as with the seal of his approbation To speak according to our understanding it was an incomparable comfort to the heart of the Sovereign Creatour to behold in six days so goodly a world where before that time reigned an huge imaginary vacuum accompanied with a sad horrour of darkness And to consider how a Nothing in the hands of a great work-man was a mighty thing having been as the ground of the greatness beauty of the universe What contentment to see a heaven distended as a Pavilion over all creatures which already circumvolved with so much impetuousness and besides to see it enameled with so great a number of stars in the peaceable silence of the night and in the day to see it enlightened with a sun which is the visible Image of God invisible the eye of the world the heart of nature the treasury of heat light and influences that animate illustrate and quicken all the parts of this great work To see a moon to serve for a sun by night so constant in her in constancy so regular in her increasings and waynings so measured in all her course so effectual and fruitfull in the impressions she maketh on nature To see days and nights return into our hemisphere at a time prefixed to agree as brothers sisters to afford time one to another and to yield it one in winter another in summer with so much integrity that all therein goes in compass To see the order of seasons a delicious spring-tide strewed all over with flourishing beauties a summer with harvests an Autumn with its fruits and a winter which is as the depository of nature dies to live again with the first rays of renovation To see the Sea so spacious in its extents so fertile in its productions so concluded in its limits to see the floud and ebbe of the Ocean the tomb of curiosity the impetuous stream of rivers the eternal veins of fountains the height of mountains the depth of valleys the winding of hillocks the wideness of fields To see so prodigious a quantity of trees herbs flowers so curious in beauty so wholsom in their utility and so divers in their multiplicity To see so many speckled birds flying in the air which they fill with their natural musick so many fishes to swim in the chrystal of waters so strange a variety of beasts armed some with horns some with teeth some with spurs other with saws many with paws And lastly man who contracteth in himself all the draughts and works of the divine hand and epitomizeth the whole world in his perfections and beareth the most animated character of the living God Is it not true that God casting his eye on this had a certain delight therein as the Master of a family when he sees a house which he had long time designed to be raised in one night entirely perfect throughly furnished and in all kinds accommodated with whatsoever concerns necessity and beauty Here raise your thoughts above all that is mortal The joys of the heart of Iesus in the first instant of the resurrection and momentary Imagine with your self the ineffable joy of the heart of Jesus and the profound repose of his spirit when at the first instant of his resurrection he represented unto himself not creatures elements plants and a corruptible world but a world of wisdom understanding love beauty force and felicity A Church which was to take birth from his The goodly world he beheld in his Jdaea's at the day of his resurrection bloud life from his death and spirit from the most subtile spirits of his heart He then saw this Church as a great Temple divided into two parts whereof one made the Quire another the body In the Quire he beheld an infinite number of Angels who chanted a song of triumph in honour of his victories He saw in his idea the number of the elect who should accompany the magnificent legions of Intelligences He saw about him those sacred first-fruits of immortals whom he very lately had taken out of Limbo and himself he beheld in the front of so many clean and purified souls rejoycing to busie the earth in the memory of his triumphs and to make heaven happy by his sweet aspects He beheld himself as in a picture in that manner Ecce equus albus qui sedebat super cum vocabatur fidelis verax In capite ejus diademata multa vestitus erat veste aspersa sanguine c. Apoc. 19. wherein S. John presenteth him in his Apocalyps all laden with crowns clad in a white garment imbroidered with precious drops of his bloud which gave him a lustre a thousand times more honourable than that of diamonds and rubies and after him an infinite number of celestial Courtiers who waited on the triumph of his resurrection He heard acclamations which gave him the title of True and Faithful voices of trumpets of water and thunder which ceased not to resound Alleluja O what a source of joy did then over-flow the breast of God that treasury of chast delights From the Quire he cast his eyes on the body of his great Temple and saw in magnificent idea's all the state of the Church militant which is compared to
light and Article 3 assistance of the holy Ghost that he would be pleased to direct this act to his glory and that you have framed to your self a lively thought of the presence of God and that actually you may meditate to select the points and articles proposed sweetly attentively affectionately and not to want matter for every point it is good to weigh the causes the effects the tenents and utmost limits of the mystery we meditate on As in the first point of the knowledge of your self Seven ways to dilate ones self in meditating in abundance upon sundry thoughts contained in this third article What man is according to nature A reasonable creature intelligent capable of the knowledge of God Who made it God himself He would that his Divine hands saith S. Basil should serve him as a womb What are the essential parts thereof A soul a body an understanding a memory a will What are the accidentals A general mass of so many little parcels as have their names and entertainments O the powerful hand which hath composed such a master-piece Where was it made In the earth and not in Heaven to teach him humility And to what end made To praise God and serve him and to save himself in praising and serving him Who hath concurred to its creation God Hath he made use of Angels No He would attribute the honour of such a work to himself And how did he make it He was not content with one single word as in the creation of the world but he put his hand thereto to shew it was a more supream effect of his power And when did he make him After other creatures to prepare the world for him as a cradle as a Temple as a Hall to banquet in and such like things You see these circumstances who what where what help wherefore when and how in every subject of what kind soever will lead you along The second manner to dilate your self when you meditate history is to represent the divers persons with their words actions and passions As in the mysterie of the Resurrection The souldiers shivering for fear the Person of our Saviour all enlightened with splendour saying Courage I have overcome all power is given to me in Heaven and earth I come to wipe away your tears to make your faces bright-shining to put you into possession of an eternal felicity and such like things On the other side Magdalene who seeketh her Master and not content to behold the Angels speaketh these words which Origen prompteth her All these goodly comforters Onerosi sunt mihi omnes consolatores quaero Creatorem ideò mihi gravis est ad videndum omnis creatura Ego non quaero Angelos sed etam qui secit me Angelos are burdensome to me I seek the Creatour and therefore I cannot see any creature without anxietie I seek not Angels but him who hath made both me and Angels The third to represent things to your self by certain images figures and similitudes as Hermas cited in the Bibliothec of the Fathers who meditating on the joy of worldlings imagined to himself a delicious meadow enameled all over with flowers where certain fat and plump sheep cropped the grasse and skipped to and fro with many jumps in the delights thereof And in an instant this meadow became vast plain drie lean parched and barren and the same sheep appeared starven scabbie and full of botches a rude surly shepherd driving them to feed among thorns and brambles Afterward he applied all that to the voluptuous and made to himself a perfect representation of their life to avoid their unhappiness The fourth to extend your self by comparing of one thing to another as did Saint Gregorie Nazianzen S. Gregory in his Hymns meditating upon the love of God Tell me confidently O my soul what thou desirest for I will please thee Thou wouldst perhaps have Gyges his enchanted ring to gain a kingdom Thou wouldst have all that which is in thy hand changed into gold the desire of the fabulous Mydas Thou wouldst covet palaces stuffed with gold and silver rich possessions curiosities boundless honours Poor distracted man dost thou not see thy God is all that and above all that and incomparably more than that Thy God is the true riches the true glory the true repose without him all thy blessings would be curses and with him all thy afflictions may be turned into felicities The fifth to make sometimes a dialogue God and the intellectual creatures sensible insensible enterchangeably speaking as did S. Aug. meditating upon Aug. Solil 31 Circuibam omnia quaerens te propter omnia derelinquens me Interrogavi terram si esset Deus dixit mihi quòd non Tu quis es unde hoc tale animal Domine Deus meus unde nisi â—â—u the perfections of God He went wheeling round about the world and asked in heaven in earth sea and depths addressing himself to every one in particular Are you God And these creatures answered No those have lyed who deified us And after he had run all over the world he entereth into himself and saith to himself Who art thou From whence cometh this creature my Lord and my God from whence but from thee By these ladder-steps he mounteth to the knowledge of his Creatour and plungeth himself in the abysses The sixth to make sometimes a gradation ascending from degree to degree as in meditating on these words of S. John God so loved the world that he Joann 3. Sic Deus dilexit mundum ut filium suum unigenitum daret gave his onely-begotten Son If God should onely appoint a bird to bring the news of thy salvation would it not seem to thee to deserve many thanks But what if a reasonable creature What if a man endowed with all manner of excellencies What if an Angel What if an Archangel a cherubin a Seraphin What if all the angels and all the blessed spirits But all these in comparison of his Son are but as a little drop of water to the vast Ocean And he hath given thee his Son O prodigie O superabundance of love The seventh easie and fruitfull is to ponder that which you meditate on with application to your self attentively considering the actions and words of our Saviour to form ours To examin carefully your deportments and see how oftentimes they wander from this rule of perfection to repeal them to square them to level them as much as you can according to the model which is set before your eyes After the discussion of every point the lights follow 4 Article of the manner of meditation in the fourth place which are maxims and conclusions drawn from the discourse we have made As if we have meditated upon the knowledge of our selves to derive this fruit from thence That we have nothing of our selves but ignorance weakness Lights vanity misery That we are wholly Gods That it is a
honour of God and the reverence of sacred things shall not accompany all your pretences For if you ground your piety upon any temporal respects you resemble that people which believes the highest mountains do support the skies 2. There are no sins which God doth punish more rigorously nor speedily than those which are committed against devotion and piety He doth not here take up the scourge against naughty Judges usurers and unchaste persons because the Church is to find remedy against all faults which happen in the life of man But if a man commit a sin against Gods Altar the remedy grows desperate King Ozias felt a leoprofie rise upon his face at the instant when he made the sume rise from the censor which he usurped from the high Priests Ely the chief Priest was buried in the ruins of his own house for the sacriledge of his children without any consideration of those long services which he had performed at the Tabernacle Keep your self from simonies from irreverence in Churches and from abusing Sacraments He can have no excuse which makes his Judge a witness 3. Jesus was violently moved by the zeal which he bare to the house of his heavenly Father But many wicked rich men limit their zeal onely to their own families They build great Palaces upon the peoples bloud and they nothing care though all the world be in a storm so long as they and what belongs to them be well covered But there is a revenging God who doth insensibly drie up the roots of proud Nations and throws disgrace and infamy upon the faces of those who neglect the glories of Gods Altars to advance their own He who builds without God doth demolish and whosoever thinks to make any great encrease without him shall find nothing but sterility Aspiration O Most pure Spirit of Jesus which wast consummate by zeal toward the house of God wilt thou never burn my heart with those adored flames wherewith thou inspirest chaste hearts Why do we take so much care of our houses which are built upon quick-silver and roll up and down upon the inconstancies of humane fortunes while we have no love nor zeal towards Gods Church which is the Palace which we should chuse here upon earth to be as the Image of heaven above I will adore thy Altars all my life with a profound humility But I will first make an Altar of my own heart where I will offer sacrifice to which I doubt not but thou wilt put fire with thine own hand The Gospel upon Tuesday the fourth week in Lent S. John 7. The Jews marvel at the learning of Jesus who was never taught ANd when the festivity was now half done Jesus went up into the Temple and taught And the Jews marvelled saying how doth this man know letters whereas he hath not learned Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me If any man will do the will of him he shall understand of the doctrine whither it be of God or I speak of my self he that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glorie but he that seeketh the glorie of him that sent him he is true and injustice in him there is not Did not Moses give you the Law and none of you doth the Law Why seek you to kill me The multitude answered and said thou hast a Devil who seeketh to kill thee Jesus answered and said to them One work I have done and you do all marvel Therefore Moses gave you circumcision not that it is of Moses but of the Fathers and in the Sabbath ye circumcise a man If a man receive circumcision in the Sabbath that the law of Moses be not broken are you angry at me because I have healed a man wholly in the Sabbath Judge not according to the face judge just judgement Certain therefore of Jerusalem said Is not this he whom they seek to kill And behold he speaks openly and they say nothing to him Have the Princes known indeed that this is Christ But this man we know whence he is But when Christ cometh no man knowerh whence he is Jesus therefore cried in the Temple teaching and saying Both me you do know and whence I am you know and of my self I am not come But he is true that sent me whom you know not I know him because I am of him and he sent me They sought therefore to apprehend him and no man laid hands upon him because his hour was not yet come But of the multitude many believed in him Moralities 1. IT appears by this Gospel that Jesus was judged according to apparences not according to truth It is one of the greatest confusions which is deeply rooted in the life of man that every thing is full of painting and instead of taking it off with a spunge we foment it and make our illusions voluntary The Prophet Isay adviseth us to use our judgement as men do leaven to season bread All the objects presented to our imaginations which we esteem are fading if we do not adde some heavenly vigour to help our judgement 2. To judge according to apparences is a great want both of judgement and courage The first makes us prefer vanity before truth the second gives that to silk and golden clothes which is properly due to virtue We adore painted coals and certain dark fumes covered outwardly with snow But if we did know how many great miseries and what beastly ordure is hidden under cloth of gold silk and scarlet we would complain of our eyes for being so far without reason It is a kind of Apostacy and rebellion against Gods providence to judge without calling God to be a president in our counsel or to take in hand any humane inventions without the assistance of his Spirit 3. God is pleased to lodge pearls within cockles and bestows his treasures of wisdom and virtue many times upon persons who have the most unfashionable outsides to countercheck humane wisdom He makes his orators of those who are speechless and numbers of frogs and flies to overthrow mighty armies He makes Kings out of shepherds and serves himself of things which are not as if they were The most pleasing Sacrifice which he receives upon earth is from the humble and when we despise those we divert the honours of God We offer Sacrifice to the worlds opinion like the Sages of Egypt who did light candles and burn incense to Crocodiles The Jews lost their faith to follow apparences and there is no shorter way to Apostacy than to adore the world and neglect God 4. An ill opinion make folks many times pass a rash judgement They mount into Gods chair to judge the hearts of men The chaste doves are used like Ravens and Ravens like Swans Opinion puts false spectacles upon our eyes which make faults seem virtues and virtues crimes Yet nevertheless we should think that virtuous persons will not conceive an ill suspition of their neighbour without a very sure
this fire I see lightning flashes to issue forth This is the fire of the love of God and these lightnings are the eruptions he made by communicating himself to man Consider O soul redeemed with the bloud of the sonne of God that thou canst not live without love on what side soever thou turnest thou necessarily must love and God foreseeing this necessity would that thou lovest like him that thou take the object of his love for the object of thine own his manner of loving for thine his scope and contentment for thine And where thinkest thou hath God the heavenly Father placed his love from all eternity but in himself Because he alone is worthy to be originally beloved as the source and fountain-head of all beauties and bounties which are the two baits of affections excessively as he who hath neither end nor beginning He loves himself by his holy Spirit which is his own substance and he loves himself necessarily because love is his Essence O soul if thou couldest a little lift up thine eyes surcharged with so many terrestriall humours and behold in the bosome of the heavenly Father the eternall Fire-brand which he gives for a rule of thy love what secrets and what mysteries of love wouldst thou learn there mightest thou observe the four conditions which constitute all the excellency of love to wit Purity Simplicity Fervour and Communication First thou must learn to purifie thy love this love being most pure and excellent for it is God himself produced in the bosome of God it is the first of Sanctities holy by origin by object by example and by form It is the holy Ghost burning in the heart of the eternall Father S. Thomas teacheth us a very singular piece of Theology in the Treatise he wrote of charity S. Thom. opusc 61. De Dilectione omne receptum est in recipiente per modum recipientis where he saith every thing placed in another is measured and adapted to that which receiveth it as water which is round in a round vessell and square in a square vessell For if the thing received be lesser then that which received it it by this reception gets a state of excellency and a Title of worth above its Nature so saith he the visible species are ennobled in our eyes and the Intelligible in our understanding This admitted I say that if we onely consider the love of God in that manner as we do in men as drawn from exteriour objects yet would it be a matter of a marvellous value to be received into the heart of God and to be conform to the Diviniâ—y but when Divinity telleth us that this love produced of God is the substance of God received in God hinself and inseparable from his essence what greatnesse and what purity must we conceive in this love of God and if he will that this same love which is all his should be not onely the object but the efficient cause of ours by the infusions Charitas Dei dâ—ffusa est in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanâ—tum Rom. 5. 8. he worketh in our hearts O how much shame ought we to have so to defile our love with contaminations and impurities of the earth Secondly you must know this love is most simple and totally as well in this unity as in the Essence of God and although he love creatures as the tokens and footsteps of his bounty which are in kinds so manifold in multitude so innumerable yet is he not devided nor severed because he gathers all those creatures together in his bosome where their beginning and end is and therein uniteth them as rayes of his benignity contracted and drawn together into one Centre in a burning-glasse Monas genuis monadem in se suum reflexit amorem it a explicat S. Thom 1. part 9. 23. Fornacem custodiens in operibus ardoris Eccl. 43. 3. Thereupon thou shouldst be sorry to see thy heart torn and divided by so many objects which divert thy affections and hinder thee from simply giving them to God for whom they are made Thirdly thou must understand this love is most ardent since the bosome of the eternall father is as a great Fornace which with its flames enkindleth all the chaste loves that burn whether they be in heaven in the heart of Angels or whether on earth in the souls of the elect Ah! how much oughtst thou to blush and to be ashamed considering how in stead of enkindling thy love with the sacred fires of this eternall fornace thou hast sought to beg a profane fire from the eyes of a wretched woman which hath burnt thee to the bones thou hast gone door after door to all sorts of creatures opening thy heart to forraign flames whereby thou hast gone about to burn even the sacrifice of the living God Ah? Thou insensible creature knowest thou not that Nadab and Abihu for putting ordinary Levit 10. fire into their Incensories when they came to the Altar of the synagogue were devoured as unfortunate victimes with the proper coles of their own sacrifices and dost thou think it will be lawfull for thee to approach the Altar of the eternall Testament with this forraign love which thou lodgest in thy heart Art not thou afraid to hear those thundring words This Sacrifice shall be a punishment to thee since thou hast Crysol serm 26. sums de sacrificio pâ—nam quia feciâ—â— de propitistione peccatum made a sinne of thy propitiation Lastly faithfull soul thou shouldst know the love of God is most communicative for it is streamed forth in his eternall productions by two emanations of understanding and will as by two Conduit-pipes of Glories and beauties And not content with this this eternall communication being involved in a profound obscurity unknown to all creatures he hath cleft the cloud in five places and is come to communicate himself to the world by five admirable wayes of his magnificence which are Creation Conservation the Incarnation of the word Justification and Exaltation of the soul to beatitude O! how thou shouldest be confounded hereupon to see thy heart so narrow and streightned in the exercise of good works Look back again upon thy second modell and attentively The love of Jesus towards his heavenly Father consider how Jesus the pattern of all chaste amities loved his eternall Father and on earth rendered him that honourable tribute of love which could not well have been payed to a God so justly loved but by a loving God and who did with so much perfection love Jesus alone passed with an incomparable eminency those nine degrees whereof we spake before which are as nine spheres of love This most blessed foul which had an exact knowledge of all the excellencies of increated beauty loved him according to its science equalling his fervours to its lights It first of all entred into the solitude of love which made a little fortunate Island of the heart wherein there was
If it be a last necessity which assaileth us we must put on the countenance of a Saint to receive it and confidently believe that if it take all Hope from us it will by little and little take away also all our Despair It is very dangerous at that time to trust our own thoughts and to entertain dotages of the mind rather we should seek by the comfort of a confident Confessour and by other good friends to strengthen our selves against the storm which most commonly onely threatneth us in the haven § 4 Divine Remedies IF our soul have leisure to take wings and to raise it self above it self let us look upon Divine Remedies Remedies for this Passion whereof we may make use to divert or vanquish this direfull Passion which is verily one of the most poisonous of reasonable nature And first of all let us consider how God being neither capable of Hope nor Despair faileth not to invite us to the one and to withdraw us from the other by the operations which he exerciseth on the visible world Venerable Bede saith excellently well in his Observations An excellent saying of venerable Bede that he hath three sorts of Habitations wherein he hath lodged six divers things In heaven he hath placed Verity and Eternity On earth Curiosity and Repentance In hell Misery and Despair Why should we then take to us a Passion of the damned which is not made for the world wherein we live It is a remarkable thing that God to make us hope hath oftentimes strained the laws of Nature doing things which seemed impossible to all humane judgements and in works of Grace he daily also produceth miracles drawing to salvation and glory people meerly desperate according to the opinion of the world How could we have one sole touch of Despair were we truly faithfull since God engageth even his goodnesse and power to make us hope all that which according to Non est impossibile apud Deum omne verbum Luc. 1. Ipse dixit facta sunt ipse manda vit creata sunt Psal 148. Man is desperate There is nothing impossible to the omnipotency of God He did but speak a word and it was sufficient to vindicate from nothing all this vast world of Creatures So soon as he ordained it so soon it was done And he hath indifferently let us know his greatnesse as well in the production of the least things as in the creation of the most noble and eminent There are three things which are opposite to admirable Magnus in magnâ— nec parvus in minimis Aug. serm de Temp. What hindereth the production of admirable works works First the weaknesse of the Agent created Secondly the indisposition of the subject Thirdly the frequency of things seen and used But God takes away these three obstacles to do miracles in Nature He gives to Active creatures a strength meerly particular and wholly Divine to work above their force He gives to Passive a power of submission and a capacity to receive the supernaturall impression of agents and brings forth effects which are not onely great but God when he pleaseth takes away all the obstacles which oppose thereunto wholly extraordinary And which is more we therein observe five Excellencies which are as five raies of their glory to wit Efficacy Durance Utility the End and the Means which render all these works of God infinitely recommendable It is by his command that burning pillars walk in the air to serve as a standard The wonders which God makeâ—h to appear in the â—ld Testaâ—eâ—â— by the help of his creatures for six hundred thousand fighting-men That the sea parts in sunder and divides it self into two banks of Chrystall to make a rampart for his people That the Clouds of heaven showr bread of Angels That Rocks open their sides to pour forth fountains That armies of Flies and Caterpillers destroy legions all of iron and steel That the Sun stands still in the midsts of his career That whales make a temple of their belly for a Prophet That Sepulchres yield forth the dead alive All this is done in nature by the ministery of Angels and the service of men but by the virtue of God alone to whom it belongeth to do miracles the soul of Jesus Christ it self having not been but the instrument S. Thom 3. q. 13. 2. of the World united to it in such like operation What is it we ought not to hope from a God from whom we can despair of nothing and who holdeth Totall Nature at his service to help our confidence But not content with it he passeth to miraculous works of Grace wherein he causeth unexpected productions I will give you an excellent consideration God indifferently treateth elect souls as reprobate during life without shewing that he despaireth of their salvation to encourage you never to despair either of your own salvation or that of other sinners It is that God albeit by his prescience he cannot be ignorant of the successe of souls which are out of the sweetnesse of his predestination and who are not reckoned in the number of his Elect yet whilst they are involved in bodies he treateth them as his own not shewing that he despaireth of their happinesse Divines teach us that there is not any one destitute God never faileth with necessary succours sufficient Grace to save us Psalme 18. August ibid. Non est qui se abscondat à calore ejus of the help of sufficient Grace to work his salvation not any one who is not visited with inspirations necessary for this purpose Thus doth S. Augustine interpret the passage of the 18. Psalme There is none who can hide himself from his heat The ardour of the Word Divine pierceth through the coldest shadows of death The Sunne is very generall and there is not a creature in the world so little which hears not news of him yet all night long he retireth from us And there are many people who are plunged in nights so tedious and irksome that they seem to be as it were eternall But this sun of Grace penetrateth into the Desperate people whom God visited to their end darkest obscurities It finds out men who have nothing of man but skin and figure and speaketh to them with its raies which are so many tongues from heaven It spake to Herod after the murder of fourteen thousand Innocents It spake to Nero in the agitations of a mind troubled with the image of his crimes It spake to the Emperour Theophilus when dying he held between his hands the head of Theophobus his Constable to satiate his revenge Lastly It makes us pronounce aloud the excellent saying of S. Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cleâ— Alex. protrept There are no Cimmerians for the Word of God He makes allusion to certain people whom we now call Georgians or else to those who antiently inhabited in the territory of Rome in
the assistance of God upon their Arms. He also shewed himself very sensible of the favours of Heaven and desired that God should first of all triumph in all the good successes that accompanied his Standards which he expressed visibly when having defeated the Generals of King Antiochus in manifold assaults and gotten a little rest to his dear countrey he took a pressing care to cause the Temple to be repaired and cleansed that had been horribly profaned by the Infidels It was an incomparable joy to all the people when after so many desolations that had preceded he celebrated a Triumphant Dedication by which he caused the hopes of his Nation to reflourish His cares extended even beyond the World wherein we live and one may well affirm that he was the first of the Antient Fathers of the Old Testament that expressed more openly the charitable offices that ought to be rendred to the souls of the Deceased This manifestly appears in an encounter which he had with Gorgias Generall of the Army of the Enemy in which he lost some Souldiers and when he came to visit the field of battell to view the Dead and to cause them to be carried to the Sepulchre of their Fathers he found that some amongst them had in their clothes certain pieces of the offerings presented to the Idols thinking perhaps that it was lawfull for them to accommodate themselves with it for their use though in effect the Law forbad it This gave a shock at first unto his conscience that was very delicate and he deplored the unhappinesse of those forsaken people that had loaded themselves with profane Booties yet when he thought that that befell them more for want of consideration and by the hope of some little gain then by any consent that they had given to Idolatry he sent twelve thousand Drachmes into Jerusalem to cause Sacrifices to be offered for the rest of their Souls This made him to be honoured with very particular favours of heaven for he hath been sometimes seen in a combat environed with celestiall virtues that watched for his protection and filled his enemies with terror His very dreams were not without a mystery witnesse that which shewed him the Prophet Jeremy and the high Priest Onias who prayed before the face of God for the safety of the People the former of which two put into his hand a guilded sword telling him that it was that wherewith he should bring down to the earth the enemies of his Religion The great love that he had for God reflected it self continually towards his neighbour on whom he contemplated the image of the first beauty He bore in his heart all that were afflicted and burned with a most ardent love for the good of his dear countrey The zeal of Justice possessed his soul and he had no greater delights in the world then to succour widows orphans and all necessitous persons They ran to him as to their true Father they ranged themselves under the shadow of his virtue and found there a refreshment in their most parching heats His conversation was sweet his speech affable his manners without avarice He never sold his Protection nor made any Traffick of his Valour He knew not what it was to buy his neighbours lands to build palaces to plant orchards to make gardens and to heap up treasures He was rich for the poor and poor for himself living as a man untyed from all things else and fastned to virtue alone by an indissoluble knot of duty His Temperance passed even to admiration so greatly did he contemne those pleasures and delights that others regard as their chief felicity He never dreamed of causing the beautifull women-prisoners to be preserved for himself because he was skilfull in the trade of defending Ladies honours rather then assaulting them He never had any Mistresse being perpetually Master of himself and one shall have work enough to find out his wives name it is not read that he had any other children but Virtues and Victories He lived as an Essean estranged from all the pleasures of the flesh and tasted no other contentment in the world then to do great actions He never enterprised the warre against King Antiochus to make himself great and to reign but for the pure love of his Religion and dear countrey Traytours and corrupted spirits blame him for having taken up arms saying That it behoved them rather to suffer the Destinies then to make them That it behoved them to obey the Powers that God had set over their heads That it was a great rashnesse to think to resist the forces of all Asia with a little handfull of souldiers that it could not chuse but provoke the conquerours and draw upon the vanquished a deluge of calamities The world hath been full in all times of certain condescending Philosophers who accommodate themselves to every thing that they may not disaccommodate themselves for virtue They care not what visage is given to Piety so that they find therein their own advantages By how much the more mens spirits are refined to search out reasons to colour the toleration of vices by so much the more their courages are weakned and neglect to maintain themselves in duty There are some that had rather lie still in the dirt then take the pains to arise out of it Judas considered that King Antiochus was not contented with having brought the Jews to a common servitude but would overthrow all their Laws and abolish entirely their Religion He did not believe that it was lawfull for him to abandon cowardly the interests of God He thought that there are times wherein one ought rather destroy ones self with courage then preserve ones self with sluggishnesse He looked not so much upon his strength as upon his duty He perswaded himself that a good Cause cannot be forsaken of God and that we ought to essay to serve him applying our wills to his orders and leaving all the successe of our works to his disposall This great zeal that he had of Justice was accompanied with a well tempered prudence As he never let loose himself in that which was absolutely of the Law so did he never use to rack himself by unprofitable scruples that are ordinary enough to those that are zealous through indiscretion Some of his Nation shewed themselves so superstitious that being assaulted by their enemies on the Satturday they let their throats be cut as sheep without the least resistance for fear of violating the Sabbath if they should put themselves upon a defence Judas following the example of his father Matathias took away that errour which tended to the generall desolation of his countrey and shewed by lively reasons that God who hath obliged us to the preservation of our selves by the Law of Nature had never such an intention as to give us for a prey to our enemies by an indiscreet superstition That it was a good work to defend the Altars and ones countrey against the Infidels and
that it was not to break the Sabboth but rather to sanctifie it Following these pathes he was the first of all the Jews that made a League with the Romans which hath seemed a little harsh to Rupertus and some other Divines But we must consider what Saint Paul saith That if all commerce with the Gentiles had been forbidden to the Jews and to the first Christians they should have been constrained rather to go out of the world then converse in it Never did this great Captain in his most pressing necessities cause the Roman souldiers to come into Palestine fearing lest their approach might bring some damage and profanation to an Holy Land But forasmuch as he saw himself environed all round with Kings that bowed under the puissance of the Roman Empire he thought that it would be convenient to endeavour to gain their friendship to obtain more easily Justice against the oppressions of his neighbours He employed the power of the Infidels not to torment the faithfull but to ruine infidelity He sought to those into whose hands God had put the Power to have the exercise of it to the glory of him that had communicated it to them this was not a crime but a most exquisite piece of prudence The false high Priest Alcimus Judas's adversary did not use the matter so who caused the Armies of Antiochus to come to the destruction of the Altars and to the massacre of his brethren which caused him to be smitten with a stroak from heaven and rendred him execrable to the memory of men But we must acknowledge that of all the great qualities that hath shined in this so famous man Valour hath alwayes held one of the upper ranks He was made for Military virtue and furnished with all the necessary conditions that make Generalls of Armies and Conquerours An elevated birth an happy beginning that he had made under his father science of Warre Authority Happinesse Vigilancy Activenesse Boldnesse Government and whatsoever is best in the profession of Arms had contributed to make of him the wonder of his age He was a Lion's heart that found security in dangers and would not have even Crowns themselves if he did not pluck them out of the midst of thorns One cannot read without admiration the two books of the Maccabees in considering the great progresses that he made in so little time and so many various encounters In the space of six years he sustained the great and prodigious forces of three Kings of Asia opposing himself with a little flying Camp against Armies of fourty sixty an hundred thousand men which he put into disorder and confusion He defeated in ranged battels and in divers combats nine Generalls of the Infidels killing some with his own hand and carrying away their spoils The first amongst them was Apollonius who was of an high repute in Antiochus his Reign because that he had been employed in the principall businesses of the Realm treating with the Romans and the Egyptians for his Master It is the very same that entred into Jerusalem with an army of two and twenty thousand men and under pretence of Peace made there an horrible spoil Assoon as he had heard that Judas Maccabeus had put himself into the field with a strength very little considerable he thought that being Governour of Syria and of Phenicia and at that time upon the place the businesse concerned him above all others and therefore he collects together great troops to stop the progresse of the Jews and to succeed with all security But the valorous Maccabeus prevented him so vigorously that he had not the leasure well to bethink himself he gave him battle wherein his men seeing the assaults of the faithfull people that seemed the assaults of giants began to stagger Whatsoever pains he took to rally them fear had so farre gained upon them that they destroyed themselves for fear of being destroyed Judas by Joseph Gorians report made that day the heads of his enemies to fall under his cuttle-ax as fast as the ears of corn-fall under the hook of the reaper He chose Apollonius out of the middle of his best souldiers and ran to him challenging him to a duel in which the other was overcom in the sight of a trembling army and Judas took away his sword which he used the rest of his dayes in so many glorious combats Seron that was Lieutenant under Apollonius pushed on with vengeance and with glory that made him long since seek out an occasion to make himself renowned thinking that Apollonius his defeat was but a stroke of Fortune and that he should quickly bring Judas into good order rallyed all his forces increasing his army as much as possibly he could which gave at first a great terrour to the Hebrews seeing that the heads of that Hydra which they thought had been cut off pushed forth so suddenly They had journied and fasted the very day of the combat and seemed all discouraged but Judas exhorted them with an ardent speech that put fire and spirit into all his Army It fell so opportunely upon the enemy that Seron thought he had to do rather with hungry wolves then men and although he came with a great deal of bravery to the encountre he quickly perceived that he had sung the Triumph before the Victory and had very much ado to retire with a whole skin contenting himself to run away after he had had the hope of conquering Lysias that was the Almighty under King Antiochus grew mad to see himself out-braved by so small an army of men contemptible and knew not what account to give the King his Master to whom he had promised to root out the remainders of the Jewish people so that there should not be any memory of them left behind He chose on divers occasions three of the best Generalls of all the Armies which were Ptolomy Gorgias and Nicanor Ptolomy made not any great brags Gorgias was vain enough to promise himself the victory and perswaded himself that he was very dreadfull But Judas though he had then but three thousand men badly armed defeated him and took his camp which was filled with great riches which gave a great temptation to the Jewish Army that desired nothing but readily to throw themselves upon the booty Yet their Conductour that knew the art of Warre and that many busying themselves about the spoils had lost their honour and their life gave a strict command that they should not touch that prey of the Infidels before the defeat was perfected and thereupon set himself to pursue his enemies that were in a disorder and after he had killed a good number of them put the rest to flight Nicanor that was the third of those Generalls after he had experimented the valour of Judas with the losse of his men resolved not to commit his reputation to the incertainty of combats but put off the Lions skin to take the Foxes endeavouring to surprise Judas by treachery seeing that he