Sermon for Spy Wednesday: On the Lorrd’s Passion

Greater love than this no-man hath that a man lay down his life for his friends.” —John xv. 13.

Be vigilant in mind, brethren, so that you may not fail to profit by the mysteries of the passing time. Very abundant are the graces now being offered. Come with clean vessels to receive them: present devout minds, watchful senses, chaste affections, and pure consciences, for so great a largess of the divine bounty. Such special vigilance at this holy season is required of you, not only by the particular manner of life which you have embraced, but also by the general practice of the Church whose children you are. For during the present hallowed week all Christians, with more than their ordinary fervour, practise piety, give example of modesty, cultivate humility, put on gravity, in order to show in some way how they compassionate the sufferings of Christ. Who indeed can be so irreligious as not to be softened to sorrow during these blessed days? Who so proud as not to feel humble ? Who so vindictive as not to forgive? Who so self-indulgent as not to deprive himself? Who so sensual as not to practise self-restraint ? Who so hardened in evil as not to repent? We have a right to expect such a general conversion of heart, because we are now

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ON THE LORD’S PASSION 135 approaching the passion of the Lord, which is as capable to-day as at the beginning of shaking the earth, . of rending the rocks, and of opening the sepulchres (Mark xxvii. 51, 52). We are also drawing near to the day of His resurrection, whereon we shall celebrate a solemn feast to the Lord Most High. And would to God we were able to rise in fervour and alacrity of soul even to “ the highest great things He hath done ” (Ps. lxx. 19)! For here upon earth nothing better could be done than that which hath been accomplished by the Lord in these days. Nothing better or more profitable could be recommended to mortals than that they should celebrate annually with a perpetual rite and with “ longing of soul the remembrance thereof ” (Is. xxvi. 8), and should “‘ publish the memory of the abundance of Thy sweetness,” O Lord (Ps. exliv. 7). And both the passion and the resurrection are for our sakes, since in both we find for ourselves the fruit of salvation, in both “ the life of our spirit ” (Is. xxxviii. 16). Wonderfully efficacious is Thy passion, Lord Jesus, which has put to flight the passions of all of us, which has made atonement for all our iniquities, and is found an unfailing remedy for every disease of our souls. For what sickness can be so much unto death as to be incapable of cure by that death of Thine ?

Now, my brethren, in the passion of the Saviour, there are three things in particular which demand our consideration : what He suffered, the manner in which ‘He suffered, and the cause of His suffering. In the first, we have commended to us patience; in the second, humility, and charity in the third. Incomparable indeed was the patience He showed when

“ the wicked wrought upon His back ”? (Ps. cxxviii. 3), | when His Body was so extended on the cross that all | His bones might be numbered (Ps. xxi. 18), when that strong Tower which defended Israel was pierced through on every side, when His Hands and Feet were digged | (ibid. 17): because He was “led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer He opened | not His mouth ” (Is. liii. 7), neither murmuring against | the Father Who sent Him to suffer, nor against the human race, for whose sake He paid back what He took not away (Ps. lxviii. 5), nor even against His own peculiar people, from whom He received so much evil in return for so much goodness. There are some persons who, when made to suffer for their sins, submit with all humility, and this is reputed to them unto patience (Gen. xv. 6). There are others who have to endure affliction, not so much in satisfaction for sin, as for their trial and the increase of their merit, and this is accepted and commended in them as a more perfect patience. Surely, then, patience must be supposed to have reached its highest possible perfection in Christ, Who “in the lot of His inheritance ”’ (Ps. civ. 11), was condemned to a most cruel death as a robber by that very people to whom He had come as in a special sense their Saviour: and that although He was absolutely free from all sin, both personal and original, and even incapable of | advancing in merit or grace. For He it is “in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead—not in any mystical manner, but—corporally ’’ (Col. ii. 9), in Whom God abideth, not in figure but substantially, “ reconciling the world to Himself ’’ (2 Cor. v. 19), Who, finally, is “full of grace and truth” (John i. 14), not co-

ON THE LORD’S PASSION 137 operatively but personally,* that so He may accomplish His work : “ His work which is strange to Him,” as says the Prophet Isaias (Is. xxviii. 21). That is to say, it is really His work because the Father gave it to Him to do (John xvii. 4), and yet it is strange or foreign to Him, because the sufferings and humiliations of the passion were so little in keeping with His Divine Majesty. In this way, then, has He given us an example of patience in what He suffered.

If you now consider with care the manner in which He suffered, you will acknowledge Him to be not only meek but also humble of heart (Matt. xi. 29). For “in humility His judgment was taken away” (Is. liii. 8) when to blasphemies so dreadful and accusations so false He made no reply. “ We have seen Him,” says the Prophet, “‘ and there was no sightliness in Him” (ibid. 2): He was no longer “ beautiful above the sons of men ” (Ps. xliv. 3), but rather “ the

‘reproach of men and the outcast of the people” (Ps. xxi. 7), “ despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows ... as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted,” so that now there was “ no beauty in Him nor comeliness ” (Is. liii. 2-4). O most abject and most exalted! Most humble and most sublime! The reproach of men and the glory of the angels! No man is loftier than He, nor yet is there any more lowly. For He was all defiled with spittle, was “ saturated with reproaches”’ (Jer. Lam. iii. 30), was “ condemned to a most shameful death ’’ (Wisdom ii. 20), “ and was reputed with the wicked ” (Is. liii. 12). And shall such humility, carried to such a degree, yea, carried beyond all degrees and measures: shall such humility beheld to merit nothing? Therefore the humility of Christ was as wonderful as was His patience, and both were equally incomparable.

Besides, both His humility and His patience will appear much more magnificent when considered in connection with His charity, which was their cause. Because “ on account of His exceeding charity wherewith He (God) hath loved us ” (Ephes. ii. 4), in order to redeem a slave the Father “spared not even His own Son” (Rom. viii. 32), nor did the Son spare

Himself. Exceeding in truth was that charity, because it went beyond all measure, transgressed all limits, proved itself superior to every other affection. “‘ Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends ” (John xv. 13). But Thou Thyself, O Lord Jesus, hast shown a greater love in laying down Thy life, not for Thy friends, but for Thine enemies.

For “ when we were as yet enemies, we were reconciled ” by Thy death to God the Father and to Thyself

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(Rom. v. 10). What other charity, therefore, can be anywhere found comparable to this, whether in the past, or in the present, or in the future? ‘“‘ Scarce for a just man will one die” (Rom. v. 7): but Thou hast endured Thy passion for the unjust and died for our sins, Who didst come to justify sinners by Thy grace, to make servants Thy brethren, captives Thy co-heirs, and to set ‘exiles upon thrones in Thy kingdom. There is no other circumstance which so enhances the glory of Christ’s patience and humility as the fact that “ He hath delivered His Soul unto death and hath borne the sins of many and hath prayed for the transgressors ” (Is. liii. 12) “ that they might not perish ” (Wisdom xviii. 19). “A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation ” (1 Tim. i. 15). For“ He was offered because it was His own will” (ibid. 7). Observe that He was not only offered willingly, but was offered because He willed it. He alone had power to lay down His life: no man could take it away from Him: He offered it of His own will. “ When He had taken the vinegar, He said: It is consummated ” (John xix. 30). That is to say: all is fulfilled ; nothing further remains to be done; there is nothing more to detain Me in this mortal life. ‘‘ And bowing His Head’”’—to show that He was “obedient unto death ” (Phil. ii. 8)— “ He gave up the ghost ” (John xix. 30). Who else has ever had this power of resigning himself when he wished to the sleep of death? The liability to death, my brethren, is undoubtedly a great weakness of our nature ; but to die in this manner is a proof of almighty power. For “the weakness of God is stronger than men ” (x Cor. i. 25). It is indeed true that men are sometimes mad enough to lay criminal hands on their own lives. But that is not to lay down their lives: it is rather to subject them to violence and to break them by force than to lay them down at will. Thou, O impious Judas, didst certainly possess the unhappy power, not indeed of laying down thy life, but of hanging thyself; and it was not thine own will but the pressure of the rope that caused thy most wicked spirit to take its flight, rather torn from thee than dismissed at thy pleasure. He alone “hath delivered His Soul unto death’’ Who alone by His own power hath returned to life. He alone had the power to lay down His life Who alone had the power to take it up again, being absolute Master both of life and of death.

Worthy, therefore, is that charity so amiable, that humility so admirable, that patience so insuperable ; worthy beyond doubt is that “holy and unspotted Victim,” so acceptable to God ; worthy is “ the Lamb That was slain to receive power’’ (Apoc. v. 12), to accomplish that for which He came, to “ take away the sin of the world” (John i. 29). Now I affirm that the sin which prevailed upon the earth was threefold. You suspect, I suppose, that I am alluding to “ the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life ’’ (x John ii. 16) ? We have here in truth, a threefold cord, and “ a threefold cord is not easily broken ” (Eccles. iv. 12). Therefore many draw this triple cord of vanity, or perhaps I should have said that many are drawn by it. But— as indeed it is only natural to anticipate—the previously mentioned triple cord of virtues prevails in the elect. For how can the recollection of Christ’s patience fail to exclude all sensual delight? How can the con-

ON THE LORD’S PASSION I4I sideration of His humility fail to repress in us the pride of life ? And as for His charity, the very thought of it ought so to occupy the mind and so to engage all the faculties of the soul as to extinguish completely the concupiscence of the eyes, which is the vice of curigsity. Thus the Saviour’s passion supplies us with three efficacious antidotes against the three cardinal vices of the world.

But besides this triple concupiscence there are three kinds of sin, and I have been thinking of explaining to you how they also are effaced by the power of the cross. I think you will derive greater profit from such a discussion. First, there is original sin; secondly, what I would call personal sin ; and thirdly the singular sin of Deicide. By original sin is meant that most grievous sin which has been transmitted to us from the first Adam, “in whom we have all sinned ” (Rom. v. 12), and because of whom we are all made liable to death: a most grievous sin, undoubtedly, since it has so completely corrupted, not alone the entire human race, but even every individual member of the human race, so that there has been none left untouched by it, no, not so much as one.* From the first of men to the last it extends its malign influence ; and in each individual human person its poison is diffused “ from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head ” (Is. i. 6). In another sense also it is universal, in that, namely, it occupies every stage of our human existence, from the day when our mothers conceived us until the day of our restoration to our common mother, the earth. How otherwise can it be true what is written, “ A heavy yoke is upon the children of Adam from the day of their coming out of their mother’s womb until the day of their burial into the mother of all” (Ecclus. xl. 1)? We are conceived in shame, fostered in darkness, brought forth in sorrow. Before birth we burden our unhappy mothers, and we rend them like vipers in the very act of being born: the wonder is that we are not rent ourselves. Our first utterance is a wail of woe, which is nothing surprising, since we have entered now the valley of tears. Thus, the words of holy Job are perfectly applicable to us, ‘‘ Man, born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries ’’ (Job xiv. 1). How true this is we have been taught not by words alone but also by bitter experience. “Man. born of a woman,” says the Patriarch. What could be more humiliating ? And lest we should perhaps feel inclined to console ourselves with the thought of the bodily pleasures to be found in sensible things, here, at our very entrance into the world, we receive a terrible admonition of our exit therefrom, when it is added, “ living for a short time.” Furthermore, lest we should suppose that even the short space intervening between our entrance and our exit shall be free for our enjoyment, we hear the words, “ filled with many miseries.” Yes, indeed, ‘‘ man is filled with many miseries,” many and multiform, miseries of body and miseries of mind, miseries in his sleep and miseries in his wakefulness, miseries whithersoever he turns. For even Christ Himself, born of a Virgin, yea, “ made of a woman ” (Gal. iv. 4), but of one “ blessed among

ON THE LORD’S PASSION 143 women ” (Luke i. 42), Christ, Who said to His Mother, “Woman, behold thy son ” (John xix. 26), even Christ, “living for a short time ” upon earth, was “ filled with many miseries,” being pursued by plots, insultingly interrogated, subjected to injuries, tortured with chastisements, laden with reproaches.

Have you any doubts, my brethren, as to the sufficiency of Christ’s obedience to atone for all the guilt of the primeval transgression? Indeed, it is more than sufficient, because “ not as the offence, so also is the gift. For judgment indeed was by one unto condemnation: but grace is of many offences unto justification ’’ (Rom. v. 16). Great assuredly was the malice of that first sin, which had power to corrupt not only the person who committed it, but even the very nature to which he belonged. Nevertheless, for each individual more grievous than the guilt he inherits from Adam is that which he owes to himself, when he now recklessly “‘ yields his members as instruments of iniquity unto sin ” (Rom. vi. 13), no longer held captive by the sin of another, but by his own personal fault. But gravest of all is the third kind of sin, committed against the Person of the Lord of Majesty, when wicked men wickedly slew the Just One (Acts vii. 52), when the most cruel of homicides, nay, rather of deicides—if it is allowable to use the word—laid sacrilegious hands on the Son of God Himself. What comparison can there be between either of the other kinds of sin and this, which appalled and convulsed the whole universe and” well nigh threw the world back again into the chaos whence it was drawn? Suppose a certain nobleman has invaded with a hostile army and laid waste the territory of his king ; and suppose another who, after being admitted to the table and to the council of his royal master, with a traitor’s hand has strangled the monarch’s only son : does not the former appear almost innocent and undeserving of punishment as compared with the latter? So, my brethren, is every other sin in comparison with the sin of deicide. And nevertheless even this sin He took upon Himself Who made Himself ‘‘sin’’ for our sakes, He Who knew no sin (2 Cor. v. 21), in order that “ of sin He might condemn sin in the flesh ”’ (Rom. viii. 3). For by means of this sin both original and actual sin have been blotted out : yea, this sin of deicide has been the means of destroying itself.*

I have now an argument which, by proving the destruction of the most heinous kind of sin, proves the same a fortiori of the two less grievous kinds. My argument is this. The Lord Jesus “ hath borne the sins of many and hath prayed for the transgressors” “‘ that they might not perish,” saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”’ (Luke xxiii. 34). Thy irrevocable word has gone forth, O Lord, and “ it shall not return to Thee void, but it shall do whatsoever Thou mayest please and shall prosper in the things for which Thou hast sent it’’ (Is. lv. 11). “Behold ye now the works of the Lord, what wonders He hath done upon the earth ”?” (Ps. xlv. 9). He was scourged, crowned with thorns, pierced with nails, hung upon a cross, saturated with reproaches : and nevertheless, forgetful — of all His sufferings, He cried out, “ Father forgive © them.” On the one side are the many miseries of His Body, on the other, the many mercies of His

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Heart; here bitter pain, there tender compassion ; within the “oil of gladness ” (Ps. xliv. 8), without the “drops of Blood trickling down upon the ground ” (Luke xxii. 44). The mercies of the Lord are many (2 Kings xxiv. 14), but many also are the miseries of the Lord. Shall the miseries vanquish the mercies, or shall the mercies prevail over the miseries? Let thine “ancient mercies” (Ps. Ixxxviii. 50), O Lord, have the victory: let wisdom conquer malice (Wisdom vii. 30). Great indeed is the wickedness of Thine enemies : but is not Thy mercy much greater, O Lord ? Yes, “much in every way ` (Rom. iii. 2). “Shall evil be rendered for good ? ” He asked by the movth of the Prophet, “ because they have digged a pit for My Soul” (Jer. xviii. 20). Truly they dug for Him the pit of impatience, exposing Him to many and most grievous temptations to anger. But what was their little pit in comparison with the bottomless abyss of His meekness? Rendering evil for good, they dug a pit for His Soul. But charity is not easily entrapped, is not easily thrown down; “charity never falleth away ” (I Cor. xiii. 8), never plunges into a pit, and requites evil with multiplied good. God forbid that “ dying flies should spoil the sweetness of the ointment” (Eccles. x. 1) which flows from Thy Heart, O Lord Jesus! For in Thy Heart “ there is mercy ” and in Thy Heart also “plentiful redemption ” (Ps. exxix. 7). The sufferings Thou endurest are the “ dying flies,’ and the blasphemies uttered against Thee are also “dying flies,” and “dying flies,” too, are the insults heaped upon Thee by “a perverse and exasperating generation ” (Ps. lxxvii. 8).

But Thou, O Lord, what dost Thou do? At the very il, II time when Thy hands are lifted up upon the cross, when the morning sacrifice is becoming now the evening holocaust (Exod. xxix.), in the power of that incense which has ascended to heaven, which has covered the earth, and perfumed even the nether world, Thou dost cry aloud, “ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and art heard for Thy reverence (Heb. v. 7). Oh, how bountiful Thou art to forgive! (Is. lv. 7). “Oh, how great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord! ” (Ps. xxx. 20). Oh, how different are Thy thoughts from our thoughts! (Is. lv. 8). Oh, how fully is thy mercy confirmed even upon the wicked ! (Ps. cxyi. 2). What a wonderful thing it is! The Lord Jesus, on the one hand, cries out, ‘‘ Father, forgive them”; on the other hand the Jews vociferate, “ Crucify Him, crucify Him” (Luke xxiii. 21). “‘ His words are smoother than oil ” (Ps. liv. 22), but theirs are like darts (ibid.). O charity, patient and compassionate! For “charity is patient’ (xr Cor. xiii. 4), and that is sufficient ; charity is kind also (ibid.), and that is perfection. “‘ Be not overcome by evil ” (Rom. xii. 21)—there is abounding charity, “ but overcome evil by good ” (ibid.)—there you have charity superabounding. For it was not the patience alone but the “ benignity of God ” that led the Jews to penance (Rom. ii. 4) ; because charity that is benignant loves even those whom it suffers from, and loves them with ardour. Patient charity dissembles the faults of the sinner, it awaits his repentance and bears with him meanwhile. But benignant charity draws him, leads him on, and “ causeth him to be converted from the error of his way ” (James v. 20) ; for benignant “ charity covereth a multitude of sins” (x Peter iv. 8). You

ON THE LORD’S PASSION 149 are stones, O ye Jews, but you have struck against a |’ softer stone, calling forth therefrom the sweet sound of ¿y i mercy and the oil of charity (Deut. xxxii. 13). Good J 2

Jesus, how Thou wilt make them that desire Thee to

“drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure ” (Ps. xxxv. 9), since Thou dost so saturate with the oil of Thy mercy « even those who nailed Thee to the cross !

It is clear, then, that the passion of Christ is abund- | antly efficacious to exhaust all sins of every kind (Heb. ix. 28). But how can I be sure that it has been offered for me? Most certainly it has been offered for me, because it could not have been offered for anyone else. Might it not have been offered for the angels, perhaps you will say? But the angels had no need of it. Orfor the demons? But they had no capacity to avail ofit. Hence it is written, ‘‘ He (Christ Jesus) emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness—not of the angels, nor (God forbid !) of the demons, but—of men, and in habit found as a man” (Phil. ii. 7). He was by nature the Son and He made Himself a servant. And not only did He assume the form of a servant in order that He might bear the yoke with us, but He assumed the form of a wicked servant in order that He might suffer in our stead, of the “servant of sin” (John viii, 34) in order to pay the penalty of sin, whereas in Him sin had no place. Notice how the Apostle does not say, “in the likeness of man,” but in “ the likeness of men.” The reason is, because the first man was created neither in the reality of sinful flesh nor “in the likeness of sinful flesh ” (Rom. viii. 3), whereas Christ willed to immerse Himself truly and | profoundly in all our human miseries, so that the devil’s keen eye might not be able to discover that “ great mystery of godliness”? (1 Tim. iii. 16). “In habit,” therefore, and in every habit, He was “ found as a man,” nor in what belonged to His Human Nature, did He appear in anything distinguished from the rest of men. It was indeed because He was so completely “in habit found as a man ” that He was crucified. He manifested His Divinity to a few in order that there might be some who believed, but to the rest He remained hidden, “ for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory ” (x Cor. ii. 8). Another reason why He thus associated ignorance to the sin of the deicides was this: in order that such ignorance might afford Him some shadow of an excuse for pardoning them.

The first Adam, he who “ hid himself from the face of the Lord God ” (Gen. iii. 8), left us two things as an inheritance, viz., labour and sorrow: labour in action, sorrow in suffering. He himself knew nothing of either in the paradise of pleasure which he was given “to dress it and to keep it” (ibid. ii. 15), to dress it with delight and to keep it with fidelity, both for himself and for his descendants. But Thou, O Lord Jesus, didst ‘‘ consider labour and sorrow that Thou mightest deliver them into Thy hands” (Ps. x., juxta Heb. 14), or rather that Thou mightest deliver Thyself into their hands, being ‘‘ stuck fast in the mire of the deep” (Ps. lxviii. 3), so that these “ waters came in even unto Thy Soul ” (ibid. 2). Hear how He prays to the Father: “See My abjection and My sorrow’ (Ps. xxiv. 18), because “I am poor and in labours from My youth” (Ps. lxxxviii. 16). He hath laboured in patience, as the Prophet bears witness

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(Is. i. 14); “His hands have served in” labours (Ps. lxxx. 7). Listen now to what He says about sorrow : “ O all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there beany sorrow like to My sorrow ” (Jer. Lam. i. 12). “ Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our Sorrows (Is. lii. 4), a “Man of sorrows ° (ibid. 3), poor and afflicted, “ tempted in all things like as we are, without sin” (Heb. iv. 15). During His mortal life He experienced the pain of labour, and endured at His death the labour of pain, whilst He “ wrought salvation in the midst of the earth’ (Ps. lxxiii. 12). Therefore, so long as I live I shall be mindful of all the labours He endured in His preaching, of the fatigue of His journeyings, of His temptations and fastings, of His watchings in prayer, of His tears of compassion. Never shall I| forget the sorrows He experienced, the revilings He had to bear, the spittings, the blows, the mockeries, the reproaches, the nails, and all the countless afflictions which came upon and overwhelmed Him, His fortitude is a support to me, I am also advantaged by His resemblance to me in suffering, yet so if I am willing to follow His example and to walk in His footsteps. Otherwise, at my hand also shall be required “the just Blood That hath been shed upon the earth ” | (Matt. xxiii. 35), and I shall be considered a sharer in the unparalleled sin of the Jews, because, namely, I shall have shown myself ungrateful for such an excess of charity, because I shall have “ offered an affront to the spirit of grace,” because I shall have “‘ esteemed the Blood of the testament unclean ” (Heb. x. 209), because I shall have trampled on the Son of God. There are multitudes who endure labour and pain, yet rather from necessity than by the choice of their own will. Such as these are not conformed to the image of the Son of God (Rom. viii. 29). And there are some who submit to these things voluntarily, and who, nevertheless, have neither part nor lot in Christ. The profligate watches the whole night long, not alone with patience, but even with pleasure, in order that he may be able to satisfy his wicked desire; the brigand watches, sword in hand, to despoil the traveller ; the thief watches in order to break into the rich man’s house. But the toil and trouble of these and of all other such persons have nothing in common with the labour and pain which Christ has consecrated. There are, however, men of good will, who, from the sole desire of Christian perfection, exchange riches for poverty, or at least if they do not actually possess riches they renounce the hope thereof, leaving all things for the sake of Him Who left all things for their sake (Luke xviii. 28), and these follow Him ‘“‘whithersoever He goeth’’ (Apoc. xiv. 4). As for myself, if I thus follow the Saviour, I find in this the strongest of proofs that His passion and the resemblance of His Humanity to mine have not been without profit to me. And this, my brethren, is the relish, this is the fruit to be found in the endurance of labour and sorrow.

See, therefore, O man, what great things the Majesty of God hath done for thee (Ps. cxxv. 3). With regard to all the things that are in heaven or under heaven, He merely “spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created ” (Ps. cxlviii. 5). What is easier than to speak a word? But although He created thee with a mere word, was it with a mere word

ON THE LORD’S PASSION I5I thou wast recreated ? For three and thirty years “ He was seen upon earth and conversed with men” (Bar. iii. 38), who only took occasion from His actions and words to slander and insult Him ; and to such straits was He reduced that He “had not where to lay His Head ” (Matt. viii. 20). Wherefore this? Because the Word had put aside, as it were, the subtlety of His Divine Nature and assumed to Himself a coarser form. For He was made flesh, and consequently could no longer act (if I may so speak) with the same swiftness and delicacy as when He created the world. But just as our human thought clothes itself in sensible sound without the least diminution of its essence either before or after expression ; so did the Son of God unite Himself to flesh without subjecting His Divinity to any degradation or to any composition with foreign elements, either before or after the Incarnation. In the bosom of the Father He was invisible, whereas here upon earth “our hands have handled of the Word of life,” and “that which was from the beginning . . . we have seen with our eyes ” (xr John i. r). This Divine Word, however, because He had assumed to Himself a most pure Body and a most holy Soul, regulated freely His bodily actions: for not only was He Wisdom and Justice by essence, but He was entirely free from any “law in His members fighting against the law of His mind ’’* (Rom. vii. 23). With regard to my word,

2.—(Translator.

it is neither wisdom nor justice; nevertheless it is capable of both: both may be either united or at variance with it, although the latter more easily. For it is more our custom to obey the vices of the flesh than to regulate its actions and passions, owing to the fact that we are prone to evil in every age from our youth (Gen. viii. 21), and pursue our guilty pleasures in the face of whips and swords, yea, under the very dart of death.

Happy the man whose thought—for our thought is our word—directs all his operations according to the rule of righteousness, so that there may be purity in the intention and rectitude in the action! Happy he who supports his bodily afflictions for justice sake, so that whatever he suffers, he suffers for the sake of the Son of God, Who is essential Justice, excluding all impatience from his heart, and sounding forth from his mouth only thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Is. li. 3)! Whosoever lifts himself up in this manner can also, like the palsied man in the Gospel, take up his bed and go into his house (Mark ii. rr). Our bed is our body in which we formerly lay languid, the slaves of our desires and our lusts. But we now have taken it up and are bearing it as a burden, being obliged to obey the spirit: we carry our dead, for “the body indeed is dead because of sin” (Rom. viii. 10). We only walk, however, we do not run: “for the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things” (Wisdom ix. 15). We also are going to our house. Do you ask, to what house? The house of the grave in the earth, the “mother of all” (Ecclus. xli.), for it is written, ‘‘ Their

ON THE LORD’S PASSION 153 sepulchres shall be their houses for ever ” (Ps. xlviii. 12) ; or rather that house which ‘“‘ we have of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven ” (2 Cor. v. 1). Now if we are able to walk under such a burden, what. do you suppose we shall do when we are relieved of that burden? Shall we not run? Shall we not fly ? Yea, and “ upon the wings of the winds ” (Ps. xvii. 11). My brethren, the Lord Jesus has embraced us by taking upon Himself our labours and sorrows ; let us in return “embrace Him with the two arms, so to speak, of patience and purity of intention, by acting and suffering for justice, sake, by directing our actions according to the rule of justice, and by bearing our sorrows for the love of justice. Let us also say with the Spouse in the Canticle, “ I held Him and I will not let Him go” (Cant. iii. 4). And let us say to Him with the Patriarch, “ I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me” (Gen. xxxii. 26). For what more remains now but the blessing? What but the kiss remains after the embrace ? Oh, if I cleave thus closely to my God, surely I may be permitted to cry out with the Spouse, “Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth” (Cant. i. 1). Meantime, “feed us, O Lord, with the bread of tears and give us for our drink tears in measure ” (Ps. lxxix. 6), until Thou hast brought us to that “ good measure and pressed down, and shaken together and running over which Thou wilt give into our bosoms” (Luke vi. 38), Thou Who art Thyself “in the bosom of the Father ” (John i. 18) and over all things God blessed for ever. Amen.