Chapter 68

Wherein he beginneth to treat of the consideration of Christ our Lord, and of the mysteries of his life and death, and of the great reason we have to exercise ourselves in this consideration; and of the gre●● fruits which grow from thence.

THEY¹ who are much exercised in the knowledge of themselves, (in respect that they are continually viewing their defects so near at hand) are wont to fall into great sadness, and disconfidence, and pusillanimity; for which reason, it is necessary that they do exercise themselves also in another knowledge, which giveth comfort, and strength, much more than the other gave discouragement. And against this inconvenience there is no other knowledge (which may compare with that) of Jesus Christ our Lord, especially if we consider, how he suffered, and died for us. This is the cheerful news, which in the new law was preached, to all such as are of broken hart; and hereby is ministered a kind of Physic, which is more efficacious towards their comfort, than they can be discomforted, by the wounds, and soars of their ownesoules.

This crucified Lord, is he, who cheereth them up, whom the knowledge of their own sins afflicteth; and he it is that absolveth, whom the law condemneth, & maketh them sons of God, who were slaves of the Devil. This Lord they must procure to know; and they who are subject to the spiritual debts, which they have made by fin; and they who find straitness, and bitterness of sorrow at their hart, when they consider themselves; must approach to him, and they shall find themselves well therewith; as heretofore others that were afflicted, and indebted, did resort to David, and found help in his society. For as we use to give counsel, that they who are to pass a river, should look upward, or, at least, out of the water; lest their heads may else be subject to some trouble, by staring upon the running stream; so, whosoever shall find himself dismayed, by the contemplation of his own miseries, if he will cast up his eyes to Jesus Christ upon the Cross, he may recover strength. For it was not said in vain; My soul was troubled within me; and for this reason, I remembered thee, of the land of jordan, and of the hills of Hermon, & of the little hill. For the mysteries which Christ did work in his Baptism, & Passion, are able to quiet any tempest of distrust, which riseth in the hart of man. And so it doth; both for that reason aforesaid; as also, because there is no² book so efficacious, towards the instructing of a man, in all kind of virtue, nor how heartily sinne aught to be abhorred, and virtue loved; as the Passion of the Son of God. And again, because it is an extreme ingratitude, to put such an immense benefit of love, into oblivion, as that was, in Christ to suffer for us.

It is therefore fit for thee, after the exercise of the knowledge of thyself to employ thy mind, upon the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. S. Bernard teacheth us this, by saying, whosoever hath any feeling of Christ, doth know how much it belongeth to Christian piety, and how necessary it is, and what fruit it bringeth to the servant of God and a servant of the redemption of Christ, to remember with attention, for, at least, the space of one hour in a day the benefits of the Passion, and Redemption of Christ Jesus our Lord; to enjoy it sweetly in our souls, and to settle it faithfully in our memories. This S. Bernard said, & this he did. And besides this, thou art to know, That God, when he was pleased to communicate the riches of his Divinity to men, embraced the means of making himself a man, that by such baseness, and poorness, he might conform himself to the small capacity of such as were base, and poor (and by joining himself to them, he might raise them up, to his own height;) so that the way, by which God hath used to communicate his Divinity to men, hath been, by means of his sacred Humanity.

This is that gate, by which, whosoever entereth, shallbe saved; and it is the stair, by which we must ascend to heaven. For God the Father, is pleased to honour the humanity, and humility, of his only begotten Son; so far, as not to make friendship with any creature, who believeth not in him; nor to grant his familiar conversation, but to such as meditate upon him, with much attention. Since therefore, there is no reason that thou shouldst forbear to desire so great blessings, see³ that thou make thyself a slave, to this sacred Passion. For as much as, by it thou wert delivered, from the captivity of thy sins, & from the torments of hell; and those other blessings, do also come to thee by this. Do⁴ not esteem it a trouble to think of that, which he, through his great love of thee, did think no trouble to endure.

Be thou, one of those souls to which the Holy Ghost speaketh, in the⁵ Canticles, Go forth you daughters of Zion, and behold Solomon the King, with that garland upon his head, wherewith his Mother there crowned him, in the day of his espousal, and in the day, of the joy of his hart. In no place of the Holy Scripture, is it read, that King Solomon was crowned with any crown, or garland, by the hands of his Mother, upon the day of his espousal. And therefore, because according to the history, it cannot agree to Solomon, who was a sinner; we must necessarily (since the Scripture cannot speak untruth) underst and it of another true Solomon, who was Christ; and that with great reason. For Solomon doth signify peaceable; & that name was imposed upon him, because he made no wars in his time, as his Father David had done. And therefore God was not pleased, that David, who was a⁶ man of blood, but his peaceable Son, should build that famous Temple of Jerusalem, wherein he would be adored.

Now if the name of peaceable, were imposed upon Solomon, because he was peaceable, according to the peace of the world (which sometimes wicked Kings maintain); upon how much more reason, is this name, due⁷ to Christ, who made the spiritual peace between God and ma●, to his own so great cost; the pain of all our sins, which caused the enmity between God and us, falling headlong upon him. He also made peace, between those people which had been so contrary to one another; namely the jews and Gentiles, taking away that wall of enmity, which stood between them, as S. Paul saith; That is to say, the Ceremonies of the old Law, and the Idolatry of the Gentills. To the end, that both the one, & the other, having left their particularityes, and th●se rites which they derived from their ancestors, might submit themselves, to the new Law under one Faith, one Baptism, and one Lord; hoping ●o participate the same inheritance, as being all the sons of one Father of heaven, who begot the● a second time by water, and the Holy Gho●●, with more honour, and advantage, than they were engendered before of flesh, by their Fathers, to misery and shame. All these blessings came by Christ Jesus, who is the pacifier of heaven, a●d earth; and of one people with another; and of a man with himself; whose war, as it is m●●● troublesome, so the peace is more desired. Th●● peace could not be made, by the other Solomon, but he had the name of the true pacifier, only in figure; as the peace of Solomon, which was temporal, is a figure, and shadow of that, which as spiritual, and which hath no end.

If then, thou do well remember, O thou spouse of Christ, (which in reason thou must never forget) the Mother of this true Solomon, who was, and is the blessed Virgin Mary, thou shalt find her to have crowned him, with a fair garland; giving him flesh, without any sin, upon the day of the Incarnation, which was the day of the conjunction, and espousal of the divine word, with his sacred humanity; and of the word being made man, with his Church, which Church we are. From that sacred womb, did Christ issue as a spouse, who riseth from his bed of state, and he beginneth⁸ to run his Career, like a strong Giant; taking the work of our redemption to hart; which was the hardest thing, that he could enterprise. And at the end of this Career, he did, upon the day of our Good friday, espouse⁹ his Church by words de prasenti; For which, he had taken pains, as¹⁰ jacob did for Rachel. And then was she drawn, out of his side, when he was reposing in the sleep of death, as¹¹ Eve was out of adam's, whilst he slept.

And for this work so excellent, and of so great love, which, in that day was wrought, Christ called that day, his day, when he saith in the¹² Gospel, Your Father Abraham, rejoiced to see my day; he saw it, & he rejoiced thereat. Which was accomplished, as S chrysostom saith, when the death of Christ was revealed to Abraham, by the resemblance of his son Isaac, whom God commanded him to¹³ sacrifice, in the mount Moria, which is mount Zion. Then did he see this painful day, and he rejoiced at it. But at what did he rejoice? was it perhaps at the scourges, at the● afflictions, and at the torments of Christ? No; it is certain that the affliction of Christ, was so great, as to be sufficient for the making of any hart, though never so cheerful, to be even oppressed with compassion. And if you believe not me, let those three beloved Apostles tell you this truth; to whom he said, My¹⁴ soul is sad, even to the death. What did their hearts feel in themselves, at the sound of that word, which useth to wound their hart, with the sharp knife of sorrow, who hear it spoken but a fare off. And his scourges, torments, nails, and Cross, were so full of torment to him, that whosoever should see them, (though he had a most inflexible hart) could not choose but be moved by them. Yea, & I know not, but that those very wretches that tormented him, seeing his meekness in suffering, and their own cruelty in afflicting, must needs sometimes have compassion, of one that suffered so much; and even for them, though they knew not that. If therefore they, who abhorred Christ, might be afflicted by the sight of his torments, unless their hearts were made of hardest stone; how shall we say, of a man, who was so greatly God's friend, as Abraham was, that he rejoiced to see the day, whereon Christ was to endure so much?

Footnotes

1. He beginneth here and continueth till the the 8●. Chapter a discourse upon the meditation of the sacred Passion of our Lord jesus▪ as excellently written perhaps, as any hath been seen in this age. I am sure I never saw any, that I liked so well. ↩

2. This is the book of Books. ↩

3. If we mean not to be wholly miserable, we must become slaves to the Passion of Christ our Lord. ↩

4. Note, and be ashamed of thy ingratitude. ↩

5. Cant. 3. ↩

6. Not of cruelty towards his subjects, but of conquest over his enemies. ↩

7. Christ our Lord is the true Solomon, the true Prince Peace. ↩

8. Psalm. 18. ↩

9. Christ espoused the Church to himself upon the Cross. ↩

10. Genes. 19 ↩

11. Gen. 2. ↩

12. joan. 8. ↩

13. Genes. 22. ↩

14. Watt. 10. Mare. 14. ↩