Chapter 69

Wherein he prose●uteth, that of the former Chapter; & pondereth this passage of the Canticles, in contemplation of the passion of Christ.

BUT, that thou mayst not marvel so much at this, do thou hearken to another thing, yet more strange; and which is expressed by these words of the Canticles. That this garland, was put upon his head, in the day of the joy, or triumph of his hart. The day of his so excessive grief, as that no tongue is able to unfold it, dost thou call the day of his joy? And that, no joy which was counterfeit, and exterior only; but they call it, the day of the joy, of his very hart. O¹ thou joy of the Angels, and thou full river of their delight, in whose face they desire to look, & by whose most puissant waters, they are swallowed up, by finding themselves within thee, and by swimming, in that over abounding sweetness of thine; and what is that, at which thy hart rejoiceth, in this day of thine afflictions? At what dost thou rejoice, in the midst of those scourges, those nails, that dishonour, & that death? Is it true perhaps, that they did not afflict thee? Yes verily, they did afflict thee; and more thee then they could have afflicted any other; though it were but even for the delicacy of thy complexion. But because our miseries do afflict thee yet more, than thine own afflictions, most gladly didst thou resolve to suffer them, because thereby thou didst remove ours.

Thou art he, who saidst, to thy beloved² Apostles, a little before thy Passion, With³ desire, have I desired, to eate this paschal with you, before I suffer. Thou art he, who saidst before,⁴ I came into the world, that I might bring fire; & what do I desire, but that it should burn. With a baptism I am to be baptised, and how am I straitened, till it be effected? This fire of the love of thee, which thou desirest may be kindled, till it may inflame, and burn us wholly up, and till it transform us into thee, thou still art blowing, by the blessings, which by thy life thou bestowedst on us; & thou makest it burn, by the death which thou enduredst for us. And who amongst us, is so well natured, as that he would have loved thee, unless thou hadst died for the love of us; thereby to give us life, who are dead, for lack of loving thee. But now, who willbe would so cold, and moist, as that (seeing thee so fair, and flourishing a tree (whereof whosoever doth eat, shall live) to be thus kindled upon the Cross; & burned up by that fire of torments, which they gave thee; and yet more, by that love wherewith thou suffered'st them) he will not yet be kindled now at last, to love thee; and to do it, even to the death? Who willbe so deadly obstinate, as to shut himself up, against that importunate⁵ request, wherein thou didst persist, from the time that thou wert borne of the womb of the B. Virgin, and that she took thee into her arms, and laid thee in the manger; till the same hands, and arms of hers, took thee again, when being dead thou wert taken from the Cross, and wert delivered over, to the holy Sepulchre, as into another womb.

Thou⁶ didst burn thyself, that we might not freeze in the cold; Thou didst weep, that we might rejoice; Thou didst suffer, that we might repose; and thou wert baptised, even by the shedding of thy blood, that we might be washed from our sins; and yet thou saidst withal, O Lord, How do I live, in the straitness of affliction, till this Baptism be accomplished. Giving us thereby to understand, what an imflamed desire thou hadst to give us remedy, though thou knewest, that it would cost thee thy life.

And as the Spouse, desireth the day of his marriage, that he may enjoy his end; so dost thou desire the day of thy Passion, to deliver us, by thy pains, from our miseries. One hour, O Lord, did seem to thee a thousand years till thou camest to dye for us; conceiving, that thy life, would be well employed, if it were laid down for thy servants. And because that which is desired, doth carry joy after it, when it is accomplished; it is no marvel, if the day of thy Passion, be called the day of thy joy, since it was so desired by thee. And⁷ although the grief of that day, were excessive; in so much as it is said, in thy person, O all you that pass by the way, attend, and see, if there be any grief like mine; yet the love which flamed in thy hart, was incomparably greater. For if it had been needful, in respect of our good, that thou shouldst have passed, through a thousand times as much as that; and that thou shouldst have continued upon the Cross, till the end of the world; thou didst place thyself upon it, with firm determination to do, and suffer, whatsoever might have been necessary for our remedy. So that thou didst love, more than thou didst suffer; and more was thy love able to prevail with thee, than the want of love in those wretches that did torment thee. So then did thy love remain conqueror; and that being so lively a flame, those great rivers of many afflictions, that came against thee, were not able to quench it. And therefore, although the torments gave thee sorrow, and sound grief; yet thy love took pleasure in that benefit, which we were to receive thereby. For this it is called, the day of the joy of thy hart; & this day, did Abraham see, & he rejoiced, not that he wanted compassion of thy pains, but because he saw that the world was to be redeemed by them.

In this day therefore, Go forth you, daughters of Zion (you being the souls, who behold God, from the tower of Faith) to see your peacemaking King; who, by his affliction, goeth no conclude the desired peace. Look I say upon him, since your eyes were given you for that purpose. And amongst all the ornaments of his espousal, which he weareth, look upon that crown of thorns, which his divine head, doth carry. Which although it were plaited, and put on, by those of the Court of Pilate, (who were Gentills) yet is his Mother said to have placed it upon his head; which Mother in that sense, was the Synagogue, of the race whereof Christ descended, according to the flesh. For by the accusation of the Synagogue, and at the will thereof, Christ was so tormented.

Now⁸ if any man say, that this is a new kind of ornament; for a spouse to wear a dolorous crown, instead of a garland; for ornaments of hands and feet, sharp nails, which might pass and pierce them through; scourges instead of a girdle; and the hair of his head, and face glued together with his own blood; his sacred beard, pulled off from his cheeks, and they discoloured with buffeting; and that soft bed, (which, in the case of persons newly espoused, use to be filled with precious odours) being converted into a bitter Cross; and that, erected in place where malefactors were put to death: what hath this extreme abasement to do with the ornaments of an espousal? What hath this being accompanied by thiefs to do, with being in the society of friends, who should joy in doing honour to the new spouse? What fruit, or musick●● or pleasure, may it be, which here we see; since the Mother, and the friends, of the spouse, do ease grief, and drink tears; and the Angels of peace, weep bitterly.

There is nothing further off from an espousal, than all that, which here appeareth. But yet this novelty, is not to be wondered at; because the Spouse, and the manner of the espousal, is all new. Christ, is a new man; both because he is without sin; and because he is both God, & man; and we are they, whom he espouseth to himself; we who are deformed, poor, and full of misery; and this he doth not, to permit us to remain so, but to kill that which is evil in us, and to impart to us that which is good in him. For this reason, it was fit, according to the divine ordinance, that he should pay for us; taking upon him our place, and resemblance; to the end, that by seeming a debtor, which he was not, and by enduring that bitter chastisement which he deserved not, he might take away our deformity, and might communicate his beauty & riches to us. And⁹ because no man who seeketh a Spouse, can make her good, if she be evil; nor celestial, if she be infernal; nor can he give her a beautiful soul, if it be deformed; therefore is it that men seek spouses, which are already virtuous, beautiful, and rich; and upon the marriage day, they go well adorned, to enjoy those advantages, which the others have, and which themselves did not give. But this Spouse ours, doth find no soul, either good, or fair, unless he make it such. And that which we are able to give him, as a Dowry, is the debt that we have contracted by our sins. And because he was pleased to abase himself to us, we have¹⁰ apparelled him, so, as we ourselves were apparelled; and he hath so clothed us, as he is clad. For, destroying the¹¹ old man, under the habit which he took of a man; he hath placed in us, a new and celestial man, after his image. And this he brought to pass, by these ornaments, which seem to be deformity and frailty; but are, indeed, most high honour, and greatness; since they were able to defeat our so obdurate, and inveterate sins; and to bring us, to the grace and friendship of our Lord, which is the top of all that, which can be aimed at.

This is that glass, wherein thou art often, to behold thyself, every day; to beautify thereby, whatsoever thou seest deformed in thy soul. And this is that figure, which is placed on high; to the end, that whosoever shallbe bitten by any serpent, may look up to it, and so his wounds may be cured. And whensoever any thing which is good doth grow to thee, it willbe conserved by thy looking hither; giving thankes to our Lord, by the means of whose affliction, all our blessings, are derived to us.

Footnotes

1. Note, and learn hereby to love God. ↩

2. Lue. 22. ↩

3. Note & wonder at these words. ↩

4. Lue. 12. ↩

5. Our Lord jesus doth make no other suit to us, but that we will love him, only it must be with true love. ↩

6. Note. ↩

7. The vast love of God in Christ our Lord. ↩

8. A strange kind of marriage. ↩

9. The difference of Christ our Lord the spouse of our souls, & carthly spouses. ↩

10. He took our misery, that so he might communicate to us his glory. ↩

11. Sinne. ↩