Chapter 103

Wherein he beginneth to declare that word, which saith, And the King, will desire thy beauty. And how great a matter it is, that God should be content to place his love, upon a man. And that this is no corporeal beauty; and how dangerous such kind of beauty is.

A Strange thing it is, that there should be any such beauty in a creature; as to draw the blessed eyes of God upon it; so far, as to be desired by him. It is a most happy thing, for a soul to be enamoured upon the beauty of God; but neither is it strange, that an ugly thing, should love the perfection of all beauty or is it worthy of thanks, if a creature, do love his Creator; since he owes him all that, and doth yet further, receive for it, an eternal reward. But, for God to be enamoured, and delighted in any of his creatures; this indeed is to be admired, and most soveraingly to be acknowledged; and it giveth us reason, of incomparable glory, and joy. If¹ it be matter of much honour for a man to be imprisoned for Jesus Christ (and S. Paul did call himself, as by the most noble title he could have, a² Prisoner of Jesus Christ, having his body restrained by chains of iron, and his soul by chains of love;) what kind of thing shall we say it is; for man, to have taken God prisoner, by the love of God. If it be great riches, for a man not to have any hart of his own, but wholly to have given it to God; what kind of thing will it be, for us to have the hart of God, as our own; which he gives to them, to whom he gives his love; and after his hart, he sendeth all that, which he is; for theirs without doubt we are, to whom we give away our hearts.

Many, and great are those benefits, which that infinite divine goodness, imparteth to men. But yet as if all the rest deserved to be little esteemed, in respect of this, job³ said. O Lord, what thing is man that so thou shouldst magnify him, and place thy hart upon him. Giving us so to understand; that since, by Gods giving his hart to man, he giveth himself; there⁴ is as much difference, between giving the hart for love, & the giving of other things, as there is, between giving of God, & giving of creatures. And if we own our thanks to him for other of his gifts; the principal reason is, because he imparteth them with love. And if we ought to rejoice by occasion of the benefits themselves, much more ought we to do it, in regard that we have found favour, and love, in those most sublime eyes of God.

This⁵ indeed, is our true greatness wherein we may glory, and not because we love him. For⁶ cursed is that man, who maketh any account of himself, and who prizeth himself, for the works he doth; but only, in regard that so high a King, (whom all those quires of Angels do adore) would, through the excess of his goodness, be content to lone so base things, as ourselves. Consider therefore now, O virgin, if it be not reason for thee to hear, and to see, and to incline thine care to God; since the reward thereof, is, that he will desire thy beauty. Certainly, although the things that he should require, were full of difficulty, they would grow easy, to be accomplished, by the addition of such promises as these. And how much more than must it be easy, since the thing itself, which he commandeth, is, by his grace, not hard. But thou wilt say perhaps, how cometh the soul to have beauty, since of itself, it is sinful? and of sinners it is⁷ written, That the face of such, is more black, than coals.

If this Lord of ours, went in search of the beauty of bodies, it were no miracle if he should find such a kind of beauty as were corporeal. For as himself is beautiful, so did he create all things beautiful; that so they might carry with them, some little obscure trace, of his own incomprehensible beauty; in comparison whereof, all other beauty, is mere deformity. But we know, that David speaking of the spouse, of this great King, Psalm. 44. saith, That all her beauty is interior, and in her soul. And this he saith, with great reason. For⁸ the beauty of a Body, is a mere toy; and may be enjoyed by him, who is the owner of an ugly soul. Now for what doth it serve, if a man have deformity in that, which is of more value; and if he have beauty, in that which is of no importance? For what doth that beauty serve, which the eyes of men may look upon; when yet there is deformity within, which is penetrated by the eyes of God? On the outside an Angel, in the inside a Devil.

Not⁹ only, doth this corporeal beauty not profit a person, towards the making him beloved by God; but for the most part, it giveth occasion of making him, unbeloved. For, as spiritual beauty giveth understanding and wisdom; so is the other wont to take it away. It is no small war, which many times is waged, between Chastity, humility and recollection on the one side; and beauty of the body, on the other. And much better had it been for many women, to have had a countenance extremely deformed (that so they might not have been fought withal) then great beauty with great vanity, whereby they were vanquished. God delivereth it thus, for no small mischief, when he saith, to such a soul, Thou¹⁰ hast lost thy wisdom, by thy beauty. And he saith elsewhere, Thou hast made thy beauty abominable. And this he affirmeth; because when lewdness of mind is accompanied with beauty of body; such beauty becomes abominable, and groweth to be true deformity.

I well see, and confess, if the minds of men and women, which look upon objects of beauty, were¹¹ pure in seeking God, and none but God in his creatures; that how much more beautiful the objects were, so much more, would it be to them, a bright glass, wherein they might behold God's beauty. But where now liveth he, or she, who hath not cause to fear, what the Scripture saith; That¹² the creatures are grown to be as a snare, and as a trap for the feet of fools? such, as they are, who use them towards the offence of God; & who remain & rest, only in them; whereas they were created, to the end that we might the better serve God, and ascend to him, by their means, as by a ladder. Of this troop was S. Augustine, for a while; but he lamented it¹³ afterward; and said, I rushed, O Lord, upon those creatures, which thou hadst made fair; and I, the while, was deformed. And where, is now so great purity, in any woman of beauty, as that she will so much more carefully keep clean her soul, as men discern more beauty in her body?

We do, naturally, more fly, from defiling ourselves, when we are very clean, then when we are not altogether so; and yet many, proceed in contrariety to this rule; who if they were foul, would¹⁴ not sinne so much; and even from their being clean, they fetch a kind of reason, to become filthy. Of these it is, that the¹⁵ Scripture saith, As the ornament of gold, is in the snout of a boar, so is the fair woman, who is foolish. Little honour, would the boar think that he received, by having that gold in his snout; nor would he, for all the shining thereof, forbear to foul it, and to thrust it into stinking dirt. Just so, is the sensual woman, who employeth her beauty, (without so much as the rising of her stomach), in a thousand dishonesties, and loathsome actions, both of body and soul.

Now¹⁶ if beauty do not help, but hinder the keeping of one's own soul clean, what thinkest thou that it procures, in the souls of them that look upon it? O how happy a thing it were, for them, not to have eyes, wherewith to look, nor feet wherewith to go; nor hands wherewith to adorn themselves; nor humour either to see, or to be seen; since by occasion of these things, there groweth a resolute desire, of an unjust delight; & the giving of so many mortal wounds, to their soul, as they entertain such resolute desires. And of these who shallbe able to count the number?

What will here, these wretched men; and these miserable women be able to say, (who in appearance are so fair, and in very deed so deformed) when that beauty of their body, shall once fail, whereupon they have employed so much pains? And when they shall be grown to stink, as truly in their sepulchres, as their souls did truly stink, whilst here they went, under the cover of their fair bodies. And when they shallbe presented, wholly naked, & destitute of all graces, before the eyes of him, whom they took no care to please; & when they shallbe confounded, with the shame of their secret sins. Finding then, by experience, that the day is come, wherewith God threatened them thus so long before, I destroy the names, of the Idols, of the earth. An¹⁷ Idol, is this beautiful and sinful woman, who will needs be counterfeiting the true God, and painting herself as God did not make her; & procuring that the hearts of men may wickedly be employed on her; and executing, to this purpose, all she can; and desiring, even to do that, which she cannot. The names of those men, who are so often mentioned by these women, God will destroy; and they shall know, that it serves for nothing, to be so mentioned in the mouths of flesh and blood; if withal, their names be razed, out of the book of God.

Concerning this kind of beauty, I admonish thee, O Virgin of Christ, that thou do not so much, as call it to mind. For¹⁸ if even women, who are vain, do pass without any great care thereof, (where they are not seen by men) & do (as it were) lay up, their beauty, against such a time, as when it may be seen, either by store of people, or some renowned Prince; how much more, is the Virgin of Christ to proceed thus? Expecting that day, when she is to be seen, by all the Angels of God, at once; yea, and by the Lord, both of Men and Angels. Then, will a face of lamentation, show fairer, than a countenance of gamesome pleasure; and a mean garment, than a precious; and virtue of mind, than beauty of body. Yet do not think, that it sufficeth, if thou keep thine own hart free from this vanity; for it concerneth thee also, to take heed, and heed again, that thou give no occasion, that such as look upon thee, may divert their hart, one hours' breadth from God.

The vain Virgins of this world, desire to seem handsome in the eyes of men; but the Virgin of Christ, aught to fear, and fly, from nothing so much, as to seem pleasing and handsome. For¹⁹ what greater folly can there be, than to desire that, which is dangerous, both to themselves, and others Remember, what S. Hierome saith to a Virgin, Take heed, that thou give no occasion to any, of conceiving any ill desire. For thy spouse is jealous; and a worse thing it is to commit adultery, against Christ, then against a husband. And elsewhere, he saith, Remember how I have told thee that now thou art made the sacrifice of God. And the sacrifice, is the thing which giveth sanctification, to other things; and whosoever shall worthily partake of this sacrifice, shallbe also partaker of the sanctification. Procure²⁰ therefore in this manner; that (by occasion of thee, as of a divine sacrifice) other women may also be sanctified, with whom thou art so to live, that whosoever shall touch thy manner of life, either by looking on it, or hearing of it, may feel in themselves the force of thy sanctification; and desiring to behold thee, may become worthy, of being made a sacrifice. All this is said by S. Hierome.

Footnotes

1. A strange thing it is that the great God should be taken with the love of the base creature, Man. ↩

2. Eph. 1. Phil●p. 1. ↩

3. job. 7. ↩

4. A sovereign cordial, against all the corrosives of this life. ↩

5. The true glory of a Christian. ↩

6. And now let Protestant's consider, what shrewd presumptuous people these Papists are. ↩

7. Th●en. 4. ↩

8. What a toy exterior beauty is. ↩

9. Beautiful persons have no such great bargain of it as they conceive. ↩

10. Ezech. 16. & 28. ↩

11. Di quibus in terris. ↩

12. Sap. 14. ↩

13. And so, as that never man, I think, did it more bitterly, and yet more sweetly, than he. ↩

14. And so much the more will they have to answer for. ↩

15. Prou. 11. ↩

16. He grows on to another excellent consideration. ↩

17. An Idol she is more ways than one. ↩

18. Note this reason, which is so well set of, by an excellent comparison. ↩

19. How true is this and yet how little considered. ↩

20. An advice & the reason of it; which well becometh the wisdom, & sanctity of that great Doctor. ↩