THE DEVOUT HART OR ROYAL THRONE OF THE PACIFICAL Solomon. Composed by F. St. Lu●uic S. I. Translated out of Latin into English. Enlarged with Incentiue● by F. St. Binet of the same 〈◊〉 and now enriched with Hymns by a new hand. Printed by john Cousturier. 1634. TO THE R. WORTHY AND VIRTUOUS COUPLE, W. STANDFORD ESQr, AND ELIZABETH his wife. MY DEAREST, I here present you with a HART, not framed of flesh and blood, the seat and citadel of the vital spirits, but the image of a HART fully fraught with pious and amorous affects; a hart, not in idea, but lively deciphered with devout Embleams▪ Pictures (as Simonides saith) are silent Poesies, and Poesies speaking pictures. Both the one and the other are here exhibited to your views, accompanied with devout Meditations, where every title speaks but the love of JESUS. If you eye well and mark these silent Poesies, give care to these speaking pictures, but chiefly make use of the Meditations in the repose of your recollected thoughts, you will prove by a happy experience how proper they are to raise a soul to a sovereign aspiration of divine things. The Authors Preface points you forth his scope, and his whole discourse displays it better; to which I refer you, and myself and labours herein to your more fanourable acceptation, that could not be satisfied but with thus expressing and professing myself to all the world, to be Your most obliged and devoted H. A. TO THE AMOROUS AND DEVOUT HEARTS TO JESUS. I Present you, my HEART'S most dear to jesus, with a wounded HART, inflamed all with divine love. This is the Royal Throne of your Spouse the Pacifical Solomon, the Sanctuary wherein▪ God would have perpetual Sacrifice to be offered, the Tower which JESUS hath taken to defend against all hostile invasion; which being wrongfully usurped, and sacrilegiously profaned, he recovers, purgeth, expiates, then takes and consecrates for his Palace, Temple, and Tribunal. Here jesus exercises his commands, here he reigns, here he teacheth, here cutting off all demurs of appeals he pronounceth sentence of eternal predestination or reprobation; here he raiseth thunders and lightnings, here sweetly darts he rays of light, not usually seen in this sublunary Globe. Finally I offer here the HART, the heaven and Court of the supreme Moderator of souls. But why especially to you? Surely I should think this gift could be nowhere held in more esteem or taken for a greater favour, then by you, whom I know well to be not only singularly trained up and exercised in these diviner things, but so ardently affected to them, as that you set by the love of this one JESUS more than all the graces and favours of Kings & Princes in the world: Since in your souls the Cross of Christ and love of holy poverty, is deeper and more strongly impressed, than all those mushrooms of honours, that pelf of riches, those Grandsire's seals, and famous images of old, than all those goods, so commonly called, which men of your rank and quality either easily promise to themselves, or more ambitiously hunt after. I present to you a brief Table, wherein (speaking with modesty) I have succinctly delineated in short points of meditations the sum of all Christian perfection, and that merely for your sakes, and the rest who think and love the same with you; where no sooner shall you fix your eyes on that image of Divine love, how il pourtraicted soever with a ride pencil, but you shall easily discern, I ●ow, a lively Image, truly represented, of all those fair and goodly virtues you have form in your minds, and shall find no doubt by what ways and degrees the divine goodness hath led you to the top of this Mount, from whence, remaining yet on earth, you may contemplate even heaven it-self, that land of promise, and blessed inheritance of the children of God; and where you have the most calamitous regions of the unfortunate Egypt and Babylon, the mother of confusion, not only subject to your eyes, but trod upon and trampled underfoot. Accept then, my soul's most dear to heaven, this gift such as it is, not regarding so much the hand which gives, as the giver's hart. For my part I have but dipped, as I may say, my finger in the hony-combs, which here lie hid in certain figures and Images, as folded up in wax: but the Holy Ghost, I trust, will copiously derive the purest honey thence, and consequently open the very fountains of nectar it-self, and most abundantly due your minds with showers of divine graces; so do I heartily vow, so wish, remaining, Your most humble and obedient servant in Christ. STEVEN LUZVIC. THE HART CONSECRATED to the love of JESUS. THE HYMN. JESV, behold the hart dilates Itself to thee, and consecrates It's triple power, and all within. But oh! that heavy burden, sin, Draws to the earth, and makes it fall From high aspiring thoughts. Not all, Who now support, give it repose; Thou art the Atlas, here enclose Thyself within the hart, give rest To it, which otherwise oppressed, With the heavy load, the world, sinks down. Make it despise (to gain a crown) The earth, it's Nathir, and with thee It's Zenith make Eternity. THE INCENTIVE. 1. WHere our treasure is, there is our hart a Luc 12. . JESUS is a treasure, wherein our hopes, our riches, and all we have, are lodged & laid up in store. Where then shall we better place the hart, then in the hart, the Reliquary of the divinity it-self, at JESUS feet, the most sure Altar of the miserable, in his hands, the richest Magazine of all graces? 2. Lo here a hart burning all with love, how many and what flames it sends forth like a furnace. Happy & thrice happy he, who, but for Heaven, hath no love, no hart at all! 3. Go to then, all you pious and sincere hearts, come and consecrate yourselves to the honour and love of JESUS. For to whom better? since what we pay to him we allow ourselves; and what we take from him we quite forgo and lose for ever. THE PREAMBLE TO THE first Meditation. WHo shall sever us from the charity of Christ? (exclaims that great Apostle) tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? peril? persecution? or the sword? Sure I am, that death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principa●es, nor virtues, nor present, nor future things, nor fortitude, altitude, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ JESUS a Rom. 8. . This is the fire, which gliding from heaven consumes all things, burns all things; yea enkindles such flames as even the Ocean of evils, wherewith the flows, & abounds, ca not quenchit. This subtle, active, spreading, and devouring flame, takes force & vigour even from very crosses and torments themselves, surmounts all things, cleaves to one God, and with an inextricable knot is united with him. Whether it be the fire, which always suffers somewhat, or actuates this or that, I know not; this I am sure of, that the livelier it puts forth the force it hath, the less it yealds to the enemy, and is the hardlyer overcome. This fire, when once it takes on the little furnace of the hart, good God what strange, and how many heats, of love enkindles it there! They only know the excesses of this unquiet fever, who love JESUS dear indeed, & passionately thirst after him. Now shall you see this languishing hart break out into frequent, abrupt, and interrupting sighs, and now and then hear certain brief interjections withal, cast forth here and there by the poor soul, liquefying with a sweet ecstasy of love: Tell my beloved, o blessed spirits, that I languish all for love b Cant. 5. and that unless with the prop of his golden sceptre he come, as once Ass●erus to Hester c Ester 15. & powerfully sustain & hold up my fleeting soul, I shall faint at his feet: for now the unequal and feeble pulse even mortally beats, and now my face is foully dight with an asky and deadly colour, the ecstatical heat now wholly wastes the marrow, so as now remains in me nothing which suffers not of this fire. But anon you will wonder to see that hart excited with the same love of God, resuming as it were new strength, to be suddenly carried and snatched with violence into the thing beloved. I will rise, said the Spouse extremely enamoured with her beloved, I will compass the City, through streets and lanes, I will seek whom my soul loves d Cant. 3. ; nor will I give over till obtaining my desire I take hold of him. I will inquire of created things, & ask them, where is my God? I will seek and particularly demand of all; nor will I truly rest satisfied finding some image only of God in them superficially shadowed, or discovering but a glimmer only of divine perfections, for these will but excite my thirst, not quenh it wholly; but I will hunt further and constantly seek him, whom my soul's loves e Cant. 1. . For the hart inflamed with love, continually machinates & works something; nor hath divine love learned to be idle: it is always in action, and still proceeds from virtue to virtue, and if it rest at any time, and seem but to sabothize, it is no longer divine love f Greg. Hom. 30. in Euang. . Amidst these symptoms of this disease, the mind obteynes three things, and proves them in itself: for first, how much soever it occupyes it-self in difficult things, and seriously attends, to its own abasement, to a perfect contept of worldly things, to repress untamed and unbridled appetites, yet all these acts, most worthy and heroical, it puts in the last place, yea when it works and effects the most, thinks it hath done as good as nothing, and lastly accounts the time so long spent in the lists of virtue to be exceeding short, which even the sacred Scriptures record of the Patriarch jacob, whom the beauty and love of the fair Rachel had so taken & enveigled, as he reckoned years very tedious for toils, as weeks for days, days for moments g Gen. 29. . I have yet said but little: The hart which is enamoured with JESUS, thinks it cannot be broken or tamed with anything, and therefore dares provoke even death it-self, & challenge it to a single fight, as not his match, to scorn its weapons, and not so only, but insolently to insult upon this pale Goddess, who yet is she which tramples the Crowns and Sceptres of Kings and Caesar's, subdues the armed Sampsons' and lays them at her foot, forbids the Alexanders, not satisfied with one world, to spread their Ensigns any further; lastly, puts the Hel●n●●s, as deformed, under a base yoke. What more? This hart is so impatient of rest, delays, all things, as while most ardently it loves and seeks the only JESUS, and groans after him, it holds a moment for a year, regards not any thing else, nothing likes, nothing pleaseth, nothing satiates or recreates a whit, as to whom, besides JESUS, all things are nauseous and but dreams unto it. Lastly, for his sake, after whom it sighs and languishes with the heat of thirsting love, scorning the stinking lakes of worldly pleasures, and the filthy mire of the Egyptian bogs, like a Stag nigh perishing with thirst and deadly wounds, with a rapid course and willing mind, rushes through the brakes and craggy rocks of precipices, and hastes to the founteynes of endless waters, to God the living spring h Psal. 41. . Oh inexhaustible spring of love, quench this thirst, satiate this hunger! O beauty so ancient i August. Conf. lib. 10. cap. 21. and so young! take here possession of the hart devoted to thee. Be this I pray a Temple, a Chapel, an Altar consecrated to the true and only Godhead. Admit the incense k Exod. 37. & 40. in an odour of sweetness, which shall hereafter fume from this golden table, nor ever suffer, o God of my hart, the place thus duly dedicated to thy honour and love, to be ever once defiled with sordityes or crimes, but rather may it ever and ever stand inviolable and untouched. I. MEDITATION. The Preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quaesumus, etc. FIRST PRELUDE. Imagine God being in Heaven, seated on the Cherubins, most highly blessed, and in essential perfection infinite, to require here on earth an Inn to lodge in. 2. PRELUDE. Imagine the Tabernacle erected of old, through divine precept, by Moses a Exod. 26. there the Temple by Solomon b 3. Reg. 6. most sumpteously and magnificently built, and therein the Propitiatory reposed whence divine Oracles were afforded to men. The hart of a pious man & a Temple of the Godhead, and hath three parth with it, whereof the first the mind, is to be seen in the upper place. Here God in the production of things, as in a high Altar, proposeth the omnipotency to be seen and worshipped in the gouern'ment of them the highest wisdom, and the infinite goodness in the conservation. The interior part of the Temple is the other portion of the hart, the will; and here that infinite either goodness, or beauty above all things, exhibits it-self most amiable. Lastly for the out most face of the whole Temple stand the exterior senses which, as reason, & true piety would, religiously obey the will commanding duly divine things. 2. Point▪ Moreover, the Consecration of this Teple, the hart I mean devoted unto God, is performed with the same ceremonies, our Temples rightly dedicated are. The manner of sanctifying Temples is, to strew the pavements all with ashes; to affige twelve Crosses on the wall; to burn as many tapers set before them, to have water blessed after the solemn formulary of Processions, and in the Ashes sprinkled on the ground, the Greek & Latin Alphabet scored out. So his hart that would be the Oratory of the Godhead, should first be imbued with humility and the knowledge of his own nothing; be illustrated with excellent faith, signed with the love of the Cross and mortification, as well inward as outward, be instructed by the Holy Ghost; and lastly, in like manner, purely, and holily to be cleansed, with the heavenly waters of divine graces. 3. Point Now then the hart thus dedicated, with so many, and so chaste ceremonies, is so in the power and worship of the divinity, as hereafter without a great sacrilege, and a heinous crime, it may not be violated; & therefore thence forth, by no means, should ever any sordityes be seen there, or, as things profane, the idols c Ezech. 8. of worldly fantasies, be there suffered to have admittance. 4. Point. The Oratory of the hart should rather be dressed & adorned with the worthy tapestries of virtues and heavenly ornaments; and great care be had, that neither by night nor day the incense of prayer, the fire of divine love d Levit. 6. the gold e Apoc. 3. of charity be wanting, or frequent vows, prayers; holocausts, or the rest of victim ever fail. THE COLLOQVY. ARe we then to think that God truly inhabits on the earth? Since if Heaven, and the Heavens of Heavens be not able no contain thee, how much less, this house? a 3. Reg. 8. What? My dear then (O love!) it's even thy place, thy Temple, b Reg. 18. thy seat, thy Tribunal? My JESUS the delight of my soul, great this day I beseech thee, thy divine presence may consecrate my hart to thee, as I truly, freely, and voluntarily vow, give, and dedicate the same to thy Majesty. Possess it with the best right and assure it with so firm a tie, as I may not recover it again by any law or time surely I will not; but from this Propitiatory, begin thou to give Answers; yea send down from heaven, the fire of the Holy Ghost, now presently to consume the hosts, and holocausts laid on thy Altar. Pater. Aue. THE WORLD, THE FLESH, THE DEVIL, assail the hart, JESUS saves it for himself. THE HYMN. Mine eyes are open now I see The nets & snares prepare for me The world, and flesh have laid their baits T'allure my hart, the devil waits. While pleasures of a moment [past ere theyare enjoyed] entice: He last But first protector, midst those gins, Midst snares, & tangling nets of sins Lies lurking: And when he'spies The bird ensnared, out he flies: OIESV, may my prayer be he●●●, Spread forth thy nets, I am thy bird To catch my hart, he Pitfal make Set lime-twigs, do but touch & take. THE INCENTIVE. 1. THe world, with silk & golden chains, the devil, with horrid and crooked irons, the flesh with libidinous flames of Hell, through force, through craft, through industry, here openly, and here covertly labour very busily to ensnare, and entrap man's hart. Unless, good JESV, thou as from an ambush dost speedily rescue it, with thy succours, it is lost, it is undone. 2. Look, what the world sets forth to sale are all laid open, but the wines she carouseth in her golden cup lie hid the brimms are all besmeared with honey, the gall with in is it, that hurts, that kills. Happy he who by divine power can well acquit himself of these snares, these nets. 3. And now behold how amorously good JESUS. loves, embraceth, pulls this hart unto himself, and hugs and clings it to his hart, Do so good JESV; place my hart in thy Heaven; I say, with thy delights and love, fill, and overflow it. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. HElp here, O Lord of Saboth! Lo bring thy succours hither. The enemies invade thy Sanctuary to pollute the same; they seek the sacred fires to extinguish them; they violate the Altar of Holocauste to overthrow 〈◊〉; they bring in strange and foreign incense, sacrilegiously to burn to their Numen a Levit. 10. Send down thy auxiliary bands from heaven; the confederate host of Angels, those spirits, which wield and brandish thine arms; else certainly all things will demolish and utterly perish: Trains are set on every side, net and snares laid every where. God gingerly and take heed if you be wise. Here the world that cheating and perfidious Mountebank feet forth his wares, to sals, precious indeed and specious to the eye at first, but whem you heed them bitter, alas mere trumpery and counterfeit stuff. The purse this pedlery merchant shows you, believe me, is puffed up with wind rather then filled with coin. The diadems glittering all of gold, or rather glass, amid the few and bastard gemm's, affright with thorns and briers. The chains of gold or jewels take which you will, like iron fetters, honour not, but onerate, and straightly bind. What apparel? The Silkwormes excrements, with us being rare, and scarce, are therefore dear; for with the Thracians long a go, these silks have been but little worth; nor will they like us, if not wrought; or interwoven with gold and glitter here and there, with sparkling gems. But to what end? forsooth to shroud our nakedness and deformity with a precious mantle. With these allurements than the world seeks to entice to it the hart, and to that end promises huge mountains of gold, but yet performs beside the blasts and fickle winds of words, even just nothing. For what law can he keep or true fidelity, that wants them both? It is much for it to afford one a vulgar fame, to puff an empty breath of a little glory which by and by scarce sensible, it blows another way. For as often as you purchase the grace, not of the vulgar only, but even of Princes also with the least offence it is suddenly snatched away from you and leaves you gaping after it, with a light smatch only. Help, help again O Heaven! Behold here a new enemy at hand the Stygian Dragon, as anciently as subtlily trained up in this field, that Serpent I mean now so long since cast down to hell b Isaye. 14. from Heaven and that degree of dignity he aimed and aspired to. The Devil, I say, that Calumniatour, assays to rush into thy hold, and that he may havoc and disturb all things rangeth up and down like a fell Lion in a horrible manner, that with his dreadful roaring if he crush not the hart altogether, at least he may shake it shrewdly. Imagine him an Aspic, his throat to swell with poison his tooth already fastened in the wound, the very venom now ready to come forth, where the soul is as good as dead already. Conceive him a Basilisk: this as king of serpents, is more pernicious than the rest, as he, which with the only eyes inspireth death, like a thief enchants the ears with a false whistle and gently distils into the hart a pest with all: When being gotten in soaking the humour thence he pines it up, and kills it quite? Or shall I call him a Crocadille? You have then a sworn enemy no less of our salvation then of the heavenly Court, for he feigns our human tears, puts on our effects to deceive the better. Nor doth Proteus so transform himself into every figure, as this pragmatike of the world turns and winds himself every way into each slight. Nor doth this warrior use always the same weapons or manner of fight for now he takes prosperity for arms, and now adversity; nor leaves he any time or place for truce or respite. Help therefore, o you Citizens of heaven, help I say! In this combat the Anihonyes', the Hilarions, and the rest of Monks, most stout Champions, tremble, sweat, and change their colour; who surely were not ignorant of the forces of this Adversary. Is the Casket of the hart replete with celestial riches? with pride and presumption of mind he breaks it open, steals the treasure. Is the hart empty and void of the riches of virtues and the ornaments of divine graces? with despair he attempts to perpetrate any horrible fact; and always bends the artillery on that side he notes to be weaker than the rest, where he batters sore and shakes the wall, while happily the soul attends the less or makes the less resistance. And hold'st thou thy peace yet, ō God of Hosts? nor send'st thou as yet, thy subsidiary spirits, with Michael their invincible Captain, to appose a new and stand against this Pest, to chase, pursue, to put to flight, and then so bound to cast it into the inmost dungeon of Hell, where being once shut up, there may appear no way for it, to issue forth? Ay me poor wretch! the external forth thus foiled, the enemy begins to rage at home, the flesh rebels and proud for the good success of the noble victories got upon those stout adversary's of hers, tosseth the warlike firebrands of concupiscence, here the fires are more dreadful far than were the Grecians flames. Water, water, I call for? Rain down from Heaven whole clouds of graces, O the only prop, and stay of my hart, my God; quench with divine showers, those fiery weapons, forged with the hellish coals; c Ephes. 6. wherewith this impudent brat of Vulcan, Venus' wicked imp, lasciviously armed dares to assault this hart; which thou thyself wouldst have for Palace, Tower, and Temple. II. MEDITATION. The Preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras. etc. FIRST POINT. I Will consider the largeness & ampleness of my hart which nothing can fill, neither the vastness of the Heavens, the circuit of the earth, nor Angels, nor men, nor yet riches or delights, themselves and that but he only is able to fill and bresse it, who framed it for himself. 2. Point. Hence will I gather the worthiness and nobleness of my hart, while it contemns all created things nor useth them otherwise then as a footstool or stairs, by setting foot where on it may mount to God himself. So from the odour and beauty of flowers, ascends it to the sweetness and glory of the Creator, from the light of the San-climbs it to the light increated, from the framing of the world, it finds out the influence of divine love into other things, and discovers therein a certain plenty and affluence of his gifts. 3. Point. I will further weigh how great must the beauty of man's hart be, with whose love all things are so enamoured, as vehemently to wish have some place, in the secret cabinet thereof. The world, that woes it with alluremets of honours, riches, jewels, and with the same guile the flesh in presenting enticemets, pleasures, feasts, banquets, good fellowships, plays, revels, singing and enchanting bewitches it wholly: The devil, being pleased better to use violence, seeks rather with engines, and frightful terrors to address his way. Now these three enemies all conspire in one, and to work more effectually their ends with a wicked treason of the five senses, by undermining seek to surprise it. To the eyes they straight object what soever is pleasant & beautiful to behold; whether you would the deliciousness of flowers, or rather regard the lustre of Adamants & the rest of stones. To the ears, they apply their melodious ditties, both perilous & lascivious songs of Sirens. Odours & sweet perfumes are couveighed to the nostrils with full sails. For the palate the kitching fume, daintyes are dressed, and served up in full dishes; wines are fetched from Cellars, tempered for the anciens Consuls, Albana Tivoly, Romanesco, Falerna, and the like. And so likewise for the other senses delights are studiously sought for with all industry and art. 4. Point. JESUS on the contrary, together with the Angel Guardian, very seriously defends the Tower of the hart; he there succours it with the singular assistace of his divine grace, this here, in pouring forth light amid the thick obscureties therein, teacheth what to shun and what it is be done breaks the engines laid against it, repels the assaults of the world, detects the obscenes of the flesh. THE COLLOQVY. O MOST sweet JESV the love of my hart which thou hast consecrated for thyself? Oh permit not in the walls of this Temple the abominable figures of created things to be seen: barricado thy Tower besieged of all sides by enemies a Ezech. 8. with the countermure of thy fear, defend it with the flames of love. Thou easily detectest how false the things are which the world objects before our eyes, while here the miserable hart discerns nor heeds the nets nor poison. Then help it I beseech thee, O Lord of Saboth, in these straits, and send thy warlike squadrons, down from heaven, to its aid. THE MOST AMOROUS JESUS KNOCKS AT the door of the hart. THE HYMN. I Saw a little glimpse of light As I lay slumbering in the night, Which through a cranny of my wall Glanced on mine eyes & therewith-al, I heard one speak, and rapping hard, While all my doors were locked & barred With that I half awaked looked round, And in my hart a thief I found Discovered by the light. The walls Were bare, & naked, while he calls Who stood without, more light appears, T' augment my hopes, & lessen fears; Then, JESV, I cried out, come in, Here's nought but a privation sin. THE INCENTIVE. 1. HOw often hath JESUS, to enter into the Tower of thy hart, assailed it with arms, to wit, with the engines of love; that to the Angels thou might'st I be a Paradise, to him a Heaven; if thou let him in. O iron hart? O hart of Adamant? God still is knocking at thy Gates, and is not yet admitted in. 2. But how great is the favour of this loving Numen? God, even God himself attends thee, pries, and looks about him, watching time and place to enter in, that he might sweetly rest with thee. But thou sticktst upon it, while the Angelical spirits stand amazed thereat, as I may say, either at this goodness of God, or thy pertinacity, yet thou art nothing moved. 3. Oh ungrateful hart! oh perfidiousness! To whom wilt thou yield them, if to so patient and sweet a lover peevishly thou hold'st out longer. If thou fliest as coily as constantly he sues? THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. O Fairest soul among the fair, awake; for what Lethean sleep oppresseth thee? Thy little JESUS, the purest joy and delight of Heaven, raps at the door: the golden locks of his head are wet yea trickle with the nightly dews; his singers still the primest myrrh; a Cant. 5. he wholly drowned and melt with all beats at the gate of thy hart. Open then and let him in Alas how thy doors are frozen with the rock of Caucasus! How sound thou sleepest, oh slug, O fooslish soul! Or is it the noise perhaps of the Guests thou hast admitted in already, which so taked up, and stupifies thine ears, as thou canst not hear thy beloued's voice? Oh Guests, or haunting Ghosts I may call you rather! Oh sinister affections! Oh inordinate appetits! What a tumult have you made here? And thou, a stony hart! How long hast thou been so hard to hear, and deaf, as not to advert the Spouses voice, who to bless & enrich thee, merely pushed, with what wind of beatitude I know not, hath touched on this unfaithful Port? Alas! stay I beseech thee, stay awhile, most radiant Sun, nor with thy swifter steeds, make haste away; for if thou once substractst thyself, I fear thou wilt go far enough, and be long absent; a favour freely offered once, and lost by a repulse, is not easily recovered. The divine hand pow●● out its benefits for a day, an hour, a moment only, it lists not always to attend to work miracles, or to be curing maladies: the Angel moves the water of that Pool, b Probatica, joan. 5. but on a certain time of the day; if thou sufferest occasion once to slide away, or be taken by another, thou art to attend the return of another Angel-mover. Hasten therefore, O fairest of all beauties; what? sleepest thou yet? shake off this sluggishness. Is there a mutiny at home then quiet the tumults, command silence, bid the door be set open. And if thy Spouse now wearied with thy demurs should chance to divert from thee, and go his ways, follow him at the heels with cries, & prayers, and trying him outright, urge him hard, that he would deigned to return again to his Sanctuary. If yet being called upon he go flying still away. Like a she-Goat or nimble pricket on the mountains of Bethel: c Cant. 2. double thy cries, put out thy throat, & cry aloud, Draw me after thee and we shall ruun d Cant. 4. my beloved. If the watchmen of the walls lay hold on thee, and beat thee cruelly, yea take away thy cloak from thee: let all these mischiefs move thee nothing; the prey thou huntest for with all these same, is cheap enough. Sigh therefore and groan the while, and privily shoot forth the fiery shafts of vehement love; and if thou canst, wound him flying with the alluring tresses e Cant. 4. of thy desires, with which chains at least, so thrown upon him, stay his flight: and when thou art so happy as to overtake him, now grown at length more slack, through flight, thy wound, and chains so hampering him pray entreat, and beseech him, by the holy Wounds of his body; For his ancient and faithful mercy's sake, f Psal. 88 Isaiae 55. he would please to permit himself to be led back again to his Spouses house. But see you hold him fast g Cant. 3. nor let him go; he is a lightning, and passeth in an instant; he is a Sun whose revolution is without rest, nor ever stops but at the voice of the true joshua, and the courageous soul, fight valiantly against the Gabaonites. h joshua. 10. This Samson h joshua. 10. carries the gates of the City with him, when he feels himself but tampered in the enemy's snares, bind him, if you catch him; tie him fast, with the triple cord of love, for this is hardly broken k Eccl. Lastly if now being caught he try, as once the Angel did with jacob, by wrestling to struggle and escape away, tell him roundly, I will not let thee go till thou givest me thy blessing l Gen. 3. But hola thou happiest of souls thou dove, thou darling, take heed thou sufferest not thyself to be over-seen so any more; but as soon as thy beloued's voice shall sound the word that JESUS comes, boldly and confidently open both the leaves of thy hart unto him, receive him; hug him in thy arms, in thy bosom, in thy bowels with thy whole hart. III. MEDITATION. The Preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quaesumus, etc. FIRST POINT. THE lover JESUS, after a weary search in vain, of a quiet place to rest in, having spent therein a long and tedious night a broad with his head even hoary with the serene and nightly dews a Cant. 5. knocks at the gate of thy hart, b Apoc. 3. and because thou lockst him out; grieves and complains against. thee. 2. Point. I will seek out the cause of these so tedious and irksome delays, or what is it that stoup so our ears, that we cannot perceive the sound & voice of him that raps at the door. Surely it is, because the inordinate passions do mutiny and tumultuate with in us, and stir up, not one only, but many deaf and dismal tempests, now of anger, now pusilanimity, now self love, and many others; just as it happens in a wel-frequneted Tavern, where the Guests make such a noise among themselves, as one cannot hear another, that one knows not who comes in or who goes forth, or who knocks at the gate; such a world there is of Guests within, such a rabble of all sorts. 3. Point. I will weigh the danger, lest JESUS suffering a repulse so averted, turn a side into some byways and corners, so as after he may not be found with the miserable Spouse any more; whose complaints are read in the Canticles c Cant. 3. in this manner. I will seek whom my love's soul, in the streets & lanes, saying, Have you seen whom my soul loves? The watchmen of the City, have met with me, smit me, and wounded me. d Cant. 5. Which hurts, wounds, and tears, surely had not been if she had but presently set open her doors to her beloved. THE COLLOQVY. SHALL be framed much after the manner of the earnest instance made heretofore, by the two Disciples going to Emaus a Luc. 24. saying: Mane nobiscum Domine. Come into the secret Closet of my hart; for if thou once but turnest thy back, who can follow thee, or ever look to overtake thee, that Giant, who in a moment run'st from Heaven to earth, like a lightning and thunderbolt in an instant casts forth a flash, and vanishest with all; and if thou getst not a place to harbour with us, like a nimble kid or faun, thou takest thy flight to the mountains of Bethel, b Cant. 2. to the heavenly Quyers of blessed spirits. I know sometimes, the storms of my inordinate concupiscences arising make such obstre perous noise with in me, as the pulses sound without cannot be heard; but yet do thou good JESV, through thy power, wherewith thou art able to do all things break the brazen bars of the gate, trust back the iron bolts, and so the doors unlocked, enter into thy house and Sanctuary. Pater. Aue. JESUS SEARCHETH OUT THE MONSTERS lurking in the dark corners of the hart. THE HYMN. MY sins I thought l●y out of sight, But now I see, all comes to light, When he to search doth once begin, Who finds an Atom of a sin See there an ugly monster breaths, An other here, wish horrid wreathts, Is lurking in this darksome cave. Oh had I sooner what I have Of light; I think no loathsome beast Had in my hart, made-up his nest. Oh JESV, still thy beams dissilay, All this is but the break of day. Vouchsafe to send with lustre heat, To make it lightsome, fervent, neat. THE INCENTIVE. 1. SO long as JESUS is absent from my hart. Ah me! what monsters? what sordityes? what Gorgon's? what wicked fiends? what hells are centred there? 2. When JESUS enters into the hart, and therein pours his light, Good God? what foul, what horrible prodigies of vices the mind discovers there which the eyes had never yet detected? I say while JESUS puts forth his rays, what bestial manners? what perfidiousness? what blots of an ungrateful mind? what heinous crimes are represented in this detestable hart? 3. At these portents the very Angels tremble. Yet go thou on, my most sweet JESUS; Illuminate the darksome corners of the foul, cleanse this foul infamous stable. Amid this Cimmerian darkness, with glimpse of thy light bewray me to myself that being hateful to myself, I may abhor and shun myself and so at length may fly to thee, love nothing else but thee. Oh the only Darling of my soul! O only love of my hart, my little JESUS! THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. LOrd enter then into the Tower set open to thee, and dismantled wholly; which thou long since hast purchased with the price of thy blood, and in this thy triumphal entry, as it were, so shoot forth the divine rays of thy countenance, that the clouds being vanished quite and slunck away, the strange portents of vices, and restless Enemies, which lurk therein, may be constrained to fly away. Search Lord with thee shining lamp of thy knowledge all the hidden corners of this thy Sanctuary. Ay! what horrible beasts have we here? What harpies, what hydreas, or other monsters, more foul and virulent than these, harbour in this Porch of Hell? Ambition avarice, those base and detestable beasts, here set up their rests here the ominous screechoules, here the black and fatal progeny of ravens, have built their nest. Oh! my Dearly beloved, go on; Search with thy lantern a Soph. 1. the closest corners of the hart, and discovering the swarine of lewd concupiscences, which here even pester the miserable hart, crush & destroy them quite. I have groaned to thee long, but hitherto my sighs were intercepted, and the broken sound of my strained voice, the stronger outcries of the Enemies, have so choked and stifled, as we could not be heard. Above all things (for hence must you begin) survey, and illumine, my God, the abstruse and winding corners of my mind; and bringing in the light of the knowledge banish thence foul ignorance of things even necessary for the conservation of thy Sanctuary. Alas what a faint and languishing light of faith have we here? unless it borrow force of thy light, it cannot dissipate the fogs, nigh palpable, which here have place: whereas if thou shall but shed the lightest beam of thy presence thereinto, straight shall infidelity, apostasy, ignorance of thy mysteries, or any other error blinding the mind, even banish quite. Go forward then, bring thou thy clearest lamp, into the inmost cabins of my wil Alas! how foul it is? How like it is Augias' stable, or a sty for Swine? I blush thereat. How crooked and untoward is my will from thine, my God, who are even rectitude, sanctity and goodness it-self? Correct, direct this crookedness of mine; frame my vows and effects to the most just square and norm of thy divine wil But now bring that both of thine into the regions of the memory. Aim! what corners and windings have we here again, of brawls, of enmityes, which frequent thoughts of injuries feed, foster, & cherish, whereas indeed they should not once be thought upon. But as soon as thou shalt shine therein I know well those foul notes of ingratitude, unmindfulnes of benefits; memory of ini●ries, deeply rooted, shall clean be expunged thence: Go further now if you please, into those blind holes, search there with in those black and ugly dens; I say those secret allies of the hart and bowels. Oh how I tremble-at it, to see how many snakes there are! What spiders, what scorpions, and other such like plagues, and alas! what a huge swarm there is of them? How many busy buzzing gnats; peevish wasps, ill-favoured butterflies! What a vast throng of worms there is, and what a stench from thence exhales to heavenwards! O thou most burning Sun, who with darting of thy rays heretofore, didst suddenly scorch and wither the green and flourishing juy, b jon. 4. soak and dry up the noxious humour of concupiscence, which environs the hart, till thou hast quite exhausted al. The cloudy Pillar c Num. 1. in times past, detecting a far off, the snares of the Enemy, as a faithful Guide of the way, went before and conducted the people; So let thy heavenly rays of thy countenance strike then with a dread and horror, who have the face, or rather are so impudent, as to dare once hostily to invade the hart by thee so rescued, saved, and purchased for thyself. Be there no night hereafter in this place, but let a cloudles, serens, and perpetual day here reign: and as in the seats of the blessed Spirits, the Sun, nor Phebe's face is to be seen, but thou Sun of justice placed in the midst of a most bright and quiet Kingdom; spread'st round about and send'st forth a glorious light: d Apoc. 21. so, (I beseech thee) shine, burn, and flame forth in this little orb of my hart, O immense light, O dateless and infinite verity of my God. FOUR MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. THe eyes of our. Lord are more lucid than the Sun, a 2. Cor. 6. more bright than lightning, and yet saith he, I will survey Hierusaelems with lamps. (b) 1. Point. Consider in JESUS his absence with how many, and what mists of obscurities, the hart of man is beset. JESUS indeed, is the true light, which illumines a like the Angelical and sublunary world. For as well from Angelical spirits as humane minds, with light divinely shed, he banisheth the darkness of ignorance, and errors; which shining forth anon gives every thing its price and estimation; while the good, the evil, the profitable, and hurtful, are known, & distinguished as they are indeed; and lastly thou mayst easily discern, whither thou art black or white, even as the Sun arising gives to each thing its colours, which the dark and sable night had confounded before. 2. Point. Consider then, how powerfully JESUS, as soon as admitted to enter into the hart, expels & banisheth all sins from the secretest nooks thereof, to wit, his most capital enemies, wherewith he would not have any thing to do; and surely what society can be, between light & darkness a 2. Cor. 6. Mark this also, how aptly vices are expressed in the forms of Serpents, owls toads, dragons, and what else, in Styx or Libya, is more ugly, foul, pernicious. 3. Point. Behold how the Angels are astonished, seeing those monsters of vices so detected, & chased away by JESUS: What madness, say they, or blindness is this of men, to suffer so importune and vicious a pest to domineer and reign over them? THE COLLOQVY. LORD, how long shall the worms of sins possess and gnaw my bones, which in the accursed soil of my hart, without seed rise up alone of their accord? Shall these Stygian Dragons, and cruel vipers, stand always before the eyes of my mind, to strike and wound my soul with a thousand and a thousand terrors? Shall I eternally feel that galling prick of conscience, day & night, like furies, to wound, to lance, and murder me outright? search very seriously, good JESV, every corner of my hart; omit not the least path of this labyrinthian error, where thou studiously priest not, lest perhaps some dormouse, bats, worms, escape thine eyes. So truly is it fit thy seat should be expiated and purged from these Hellish fiends, which now for so many Ages passed thou willingly wouldst have to be dedicated and consecrated to thee. Pater. Aue. JESUS SWEEP● THE DUST OF SINS from the hart. THE HYMN. O JESV thou art come from Heaven, Findest lying all at, six and seven, In several shapes, my horrid sins To sweep away the broom begins; Not like the chips, when thou didst keep At home, and with the bosom sweep The dust, and little chips, which flew About the house, but now in view, Thou sweep'st, as chips cut from that tree Which was the source of misery, Those monsters, loathsome dust, where breeds Th'old serpent; on this filth he feeds. Hell's Scavendger, come take thy load, The muck the viper, serpent, toad. THE INCENTIVE. 1. GO to, you pure Inhabitants of Heaven, which joined prayers tyre out the gracious and benign JESUS, that he would deigned to cleanse this hart, of all its filth. For we silly dwarves, as woulded but of slime, can neither lift up our eyes to Heaven, nor open our lips to prayer. 2. Would any one believe? Oh force! Oh excess of divine love! God with a secret force applied, of holy affections, and a lively sorrow of the mind truly penitent, as certain besoms, confers succours of divine grace; wherewith from the flower of the hart he sweeps out the filth of ●innes. 3. Go on, my little JESV, and oh! expel, tread, crush under thy holy feet this poisonous virulence of serpents, which with their venom intoxicate and kill my soul. Destroy them quite, and so frame me a hart wholly according to thy hart. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. When Lucifer, foiled by the invincible forces of Michael a Apoc. 12. that great Leader of the heavenly Host, with his factious and rebellious squadrons, was cast down headlong into Hell, a new light was seen to shine in heaven, new peace to smile, new loves to burn, & new delights to pour forth themselves. Besides, the glorious victories acheived upon the Moabits, Iebus●ans, and other barbarous Nations, either expulsed or else constrained at least to pay tributes to the people of Israel, bred a general peace and joy to the whole Palestine. But alas! the Leader of this infernal Legion, thus precipitously thrown down, what a dreadful terror brought he unto sea & land? For hence amid the joyful & triumphant acclamations of the blessed Angels, this verse was rung into the ears of miserable mortals, Woe to sea and land, because the devil in a great rage descends unto you. b Apoc. 12. Hence truly, the open springs of all our evils, hence flow our tears, hence these so many snakes derive their being, which occupy and so cruelly torture our minds. But what is this? I am deceived. For methinks I see a huge shoal of serpents, chased away from the lurking den of the hart. But alas! how I fear, lest the enemies in their flight may leave therein some impression or print behind them. Surely thou excellent David didst daily exercise thyself, and sweepst thy spirit, as thou hast written of thyself c Psal. 76. yet with all thy study and exactness, do what thou couldst, thou couldst never bring to pass, but some little dust would always yet remain, or slimy trace be left behind, at least from the trailing of those serpents. It is very well: JESUS with new brooms in the Chapel of the hart stands sweeping out the dust, lest aught should escape his industry or eyes. O admirable thing! The blessed Spirits, stand amazed at this, either lowliness of mind, or officious diligence of his, and yield him thanks for that benefit bestowed on man. Go to then, O thou victorious and triumphant JESUS, spurn, trample this Hydra, a beast of so many wicked serpent's heads, kill him with thy flames, that hereafter he may have no entrance or place in thy Sanctuary. And thou, most Blessed Darling of my hart, fortify and prevent all the ways & passages of the enemy, and place strong Guards at the entryes and gates thereof, least happily they steal or rush in any where; for they are not all of one and the selfsame kind. Some there are which like dragons with a foul & ugly flight corrupt the air; some like Aspikes and vipers, crawl on the ground, some suddenly peep up like lizards, and leap away again; others like touds lie lurking at the very gate of the hart, upon advantage, yet slothful the while. These like bats be stir themselves by night only; they on the contrary of the race of harpies or hauks, appear by day, and attend their prey: So great necessity thou hast, dear soul, not to be idle at any time or place. Nor yet truly as soon as they are thrust out▪ by the power and industry of JESUS, is all the business quite done: For then the banished pests even choke the air again with an intolerable stench, thunder & lightnings, cast forth outrageous storms, they tumult, they rage, they mutiny, they trouble all things, and even menace and threaten all extremities, unless (which they claim as their right, and exclaim to be their due by title of victory) they may be suffered and have leave to return to their ancient home, again. But thou my sweet JESV, open the earth the while with a horrible rupture, and fold them up with a like ruin, to that, wherein of old thou threwest to Hell the double prodigies, those spirits, refractory and rebellions to thee. And that they may never be seen or heard of more, or raise any new tumult, being-bound, and sent to those dismal vaults beneath the ground, damn them to eternal darkness; that they may lose all hope of return again, or raging any more. V. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. FIRST POINT. HOw fierce and cruel a war God made in Heaven once against sin, may hence be gathered, in that he damned Satan and his Complices, precipitously thrown down from those happy seats of beatitude unto the extreme torments of everlasting fires. How implacable a war likewise he brought against the same very enemy on earth as easily appears, in that he feared not to descend into the lists of this mortal life a joan. 3. that fight foot to foot, and hand to hand, he might utterly defeat the devil's works, to wit, sin. Lastly, how deadly a hatred he bears in Hell to that wicked enemy, is clear enough by this, that not enduring sinners to remain any longer in these lists, bidding them depart, he banisheth them, into such miserable dungeons of eternal punishments. 2. Point. Attend beside, with what study and diligence, he command the monsters of vices, to pack away from our hart, like as a noble General in war, as soon as he hath taken some Town or fort, either by a sudden stratagem or assault, removes the ancient Magistrates, and pute the soldiers in Garrison from their rank and place, nor suffers any one to remain behind, that might stir up the least sparkle of any treason. 3. Point Now with what iubiley and joyful signs the Angels exult and triumph in a manner, when they behold that infamous rabble of portents to be thrust forth, and chased from our hart! How stand they amazed in the mean time, at so great a multitude and deformity of enemies! But how especially they admire, that infelicity or stupidity of ours, that we should ever seem to afford any place to such execrable and damned Ghosts as these. THE COLLOQVY. OH what dulness of mind is this, what stupidity of hart, that we should so long suffer these monsters, to rest and abide with us, as if they were some friends and familiars of ours! Oh truly admirable goodness of God who hath attended and expected us so long to return to the duty and office of good men; and now at last most powerfully hath brought us into liberty, wherefore we will steadfastly purpose, and determine hereafter, to die rather, then once to afford any place in our hart to sins. Pater. Aue. JESUS THE LIVING FOUNTAIN IN THE HART. THE HYMN. BEhold the fountains living springs: Both here & there in Angel bring▪ Souls soiled with ugly spots within: Oh how I now am loathing sin! Which nought could wash but streams of blood, That issued from Christ's wounds o flood: The source. from whence thy torrent flows, Is JESUS hart? 'tis that bestows e'en the lasts drop, to cleanse my spots. O scribbled hart, with blurs & blots Of horrid crimes! wash, wash, with tears, Thy sins. Thy paper written b●ares Being once made white, (what doth afford, All joy, content, repose) the WORD. THE INCENTIVE. 1. IF JESUS be absent, I am arid, dry and with out juice; so as neither I feel God, nor any thing of God. Oh cruel aridity! O fatal drought! 2. IF JESUS be present, he sheds divine dews of graces, he opens springs of incredible sweetness; the hart floats only and swimes, and sinks in these torrents of celestial delights. Oh grateful dews! O blessed springs! O ineffable delights! 3. Angelical hands lad hither those waters of life, sprinkle therewith my hart and soul, cleanse, & water them with endless springs of Paradise. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. O Wholesome streams of Siloe a john. 9 Whereof the blind no sooner drink, but they presently recover the Light of their eyes! O powerful waters of jordan, where in Naaman plunging himself, his flesh became immediately like the flesh of a little Child, and so was clean! b 4. Reg. 5. O profound Spring which streaming down in the midst of Paradise, c Gen. 2. thence divides it-self into four heads, so many rivers, wherewith it washeth a great part of the earth. The one called Phison▪ which passeth by the Region Heulach, with a most commodious river, for the use of mortals, washeses and waters all the parts of the world. The other Mi, passeth along by Ethiopia. The third Tigris, that rapid and violent stream, with scours the Assyrian▪ The fourth Euphrates, so renowned in the monuments of sacred Writ. And oh! to me sweet waters of Jacob's well! with one draught whereof the poor Samaritan woman d joan. 4. felt the thirst; and head of concupiscence slacked and quenched in her, which till that time no springs, nor yet whole floods, could take away quite, or so much as refresh or diminish never so little. Nor can I choose but admire thee, O prodigious springs, which with an endless stream sprungst from the jaw bone, with whose Herculean strength, Samson, as armed with a triple knotted club foiled and vanquished a thousand Philistines. e I●dic. 15. Lastly, O thou most blessed Spring, at whose waters, those so happy flames of nuptial affects, betwixt Isaac and Rebecca f Gen. 24. were anciently kinled! But, O miraculous things behold here from the bottom of the hart, an endless spring to arise, plenteously watering with seven channels the universal face of the earth. Behold there that master, pipe, more large and ample than the rest, from whose head as it were eternal waters flow into the other six. But ●ix thine eyes especially upon JESUS who keeping in the centre of the hart, in prodigal and profuse urns or cesterns distributes whole floods of graces. Hence mayst thou discern the primary springs of justification, to break forth, thence more copious streams of conservation to flow, and of the other side, the flux or flow of graces to swell again and grow into a vast sea of waters. These are dealt to such as first begin, those are offered them who walk the way of perfection, others with full channel are poured forth to such as climbing the sublime mount of virtue are got to the top. Casting thine eyes here also behold how in these streams of limpid, veins, certain little Ethiopes (who I know not) are washed, with the ministry of Angels, and how bring cleansed, from the coal-black race of crows they are transmitted into the candid family of doves. Come h● there than you dry & thirsty souls, flock you hither: Why drink you so long of those bloody streams of Egypt? Why carouse you so those muddy marish waters of the dirty Babylon? Why prise you those false bewitching cups of the world, to with, that C●cean hag? Here mayst thou rather, o thou fool, drink thy belly-ful of endless living waters; and wash if thou wilt, and rinsh thy whole mouth; with which draught thou mayst put off the old man, quench, thy thirst, take courage lastly derive thee a whole stream of water Springing to eternal life (a) g john. 4. Wherefore do thou wash me Lord from mine iniquity, which vow was familiar with David. h Psal. 50. Wash I pray and first my will, alas! defiled with the filth of extravagant and wand'ring affections; and especially with the sordid dust of self love. Wash my mind also, and with all wipe away all darkness of ignorance and error from it. Wash likewise my hands, ah! (how I blush for them) so foully dight with crimes. Wash my mouth; how I blush again! how slow, infamous, impudent Wash my tongue I even tremble to say it) so intoxicated with the poison of scurrility and calumny. Wash my palate, alas! with sootist relishes corrupted. Wash mine eyes, overcast with the noxious colours of wrath and melancholy humours: mine ears, enchanted with the enticing charms of witches, Sirens: my feet also soiled with the dust and mire of lewd concupiscence: my hair, and lastly cogitations, for these also are in foul plight: so is there nothing in me that is not impure and il affected. Ah! I die of thirst, and desire of thy love! Oh quench and extinguish the thirst, the heat of my dying hart! O eternal love! inexhaustible Spring! But your, thrice happy Citizens of heaven, o glorious Angels, who as certain rivers flow from this fountain of all good, receive and shut up first with full minds the whole spring it-self, them in the open lakes of your hearts, plunge this my dry and thirsty hart, drown it in the ocean of love. So I conjure your by that very love, which is the immense spring and fountain it-self, from whence you have taken both your nature and spirit, of whose draught you still live, and shall live, as long as Eternity lasts: very happy and blessed. VI MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. FIRST POINT. COnsider sin to be a true leprosy: for as this infects and foully spots the body; so that vitiates and corruptes every part of the hart and soul; and though the act be past, yet leaves a foul and ugly blot behind it. 2. Point. Consider further, this most ugly & foul blot is not washed away, but with the blood of the only immaculate Lamb: which neither the sacrifices or ceremonies of the old Law, nor fasts, nor other austerities of this kind can wipe away without the sprinkling of this blood: For without blood, remission is not had. a Heb. 9 3. Point. Consider lastly, that as heretofore the posts and threshal of the house being smeared with the blood of the Lamb, with held the sword now drawn and ready to strike, of the smiting Angel, from killing them in the house by a death so studiously prepared b Exod. 12. so with this blood, all hellish power is expelled, and restrained, that those wicked foes of our salvation may not touch the very entrance of our hart, or dare so much as look upon it: Lastly as the Priestly robes, yea the Sanctuary it-self was sanctified and hollowed by the blood of the Lamb c Exod. 29. so believe from the blood of Christ all sanctimony d Heb. 9 derives into our minds. THE COLLOQVY. LOrd wash me again, from mine iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. a Psal. 50. Wash the mind, and let all the clouds of ignorance vanish quite. Wash the will, and purge il appetits conceived from the false nuages of transitory things: wash the memory, and wipe away self-love growing, from an overweening of myself, and my own do. Cleanse my feet, hands, eyes, and tongue, nor let any thing remain in me, that is foul and polluted, or which may any ways offend thy Majesty, never so little. Pater. Aue. JESUS PURGETH THE HART WITH expiatory blood. THE HYMN. OHart lie open freely take, These sprinkled drops, enough to slake The flames of lust and quench the fire, Of bell it-self, O Hart desire Thy Lord, now is he entered in, To put to flight the devil sin, The world th● flesh: Behold he's gone, Thy contrite hart▪ ploughed, harrowd, sown, May, watered with his heavenly dew, Spring forth, and fructify anew: To which annex some pearlik drops, That thou with joy mayst reap thy crops. Raine follows wind; sigh, tears begin, And drown as with a deluge sin THE INCENTIVE. 1. ALthough the hart be unworthy and wholly uncapable of score of celestial graces, yet JESUS howsoever, of his sovereign goodness, powers thereon and sprinkles it at least with some little drops thereof, to instil thereby into the soul the first loves of heaven, and to excite a thirst thereof. 2. Behold in JESUS absence, how dry, dull untoward, poor, miserable the hart languisheth and pines away; how the Angels likewise scanding round about, and full of horror, are amazed the while, & with reverence are praying to JESUS to be moved at so great a misery of the humane hart. 3. Go to then, water, water, O most sweet JEUSV, this unhappy hart: sprinkle it at least with some little drop of the full fountains of thy sweetness. It is now enough, sweet JESUS; for lo the hart came presently to it-self again, as soon as it felt but one little drop of thy divine love to be sprinkled on it. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. Moyses', it is to no purpose to take the aspersour in hart a Exod. 24. Heb. 9 and with a purple thread to tie the hyssop so about it; with which dipped in the blood of the victim; thou busily purgeth the Altar, the volume of the Law, the whole people, attentively listening to the statutes and precepts of God: this shed & sprinkled blood, will not expiate sins, ror to the Tabernacle or Levits afford any sanctity a whit nor wipe away the spots of leprosy, nor cancel the stigma or seared print of sin; unless with all thou reguardst this fountain, this blood, which alone can wash away the monstruous sordidues and which shed on the tree of the Cross yield life to soul imparts a candour and beauty to them, and that like to the ●unne, which in the full of the Moon, pours forth his light upon her orb and to sick mortals makes her more amiable. Nor truly for aught else that water and blood so flowed from the side of dying JESUS; then to ennoble souls, being cleansed with that purple to wash their robes, to make them fit and apt, that crowned with victorious laurels they may eternally triumph, with the immaculate Lamb. Take therefore O JESUS, love of my soul, from this infinite bath of thine some few little drops, at least, and sprinkle thy Sanctuary therewith, I say, the ample field of my hart; whose sure possessino, thou hast taken to thyself long since. But you, O smiting Angels, go far away hence, the house is marked already, the signs of Tau is printed on the doors: begun I say; for where this mark is seen, it is a crime to enter in. Oh would to God, my JESUS dear beloved, with David's fervour, I could pray and obtain this favour at thy hands. Lord blot out my iniquities, wash me yet more from my wickedness, purge me of my sin. Thou shalt, sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Turn away thy face from my sins; and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me, O God, a clean hart, and renew a right spirit in my bowels. b Psal. 50, Let there be no corner, I beseech thee, which thou purgest not no portion of my soul, which thou blessest not with the fruit of thy precious blood. The swallow with her own blood restotes sight to her bling young ones. The blood of a Goat expels all manner of poison. Again, the blood of doves, let forth beneath the wings, quickens the dulled species of the eyes: nor is it fit my God, nor just that from thy precious blood, my hart should not feel likewise the same effects. The blood of victim shed from the sacrificed Holocausts, bred no corruption, nor stench, nor flies, that sordid creature, but rather eunn destroyed those importune and irksome things. The Sacrifice at Bethel c Gen. 35. offered up by jacob, they say, was so purely and holily performed that not a fly disquieted the Patriarch: busy in this rites. I will not, Lord I will not have my hart a Bethanues, or Temple of Bel d Ose. 10. a pestered with flies, and ruining all with filthy & corrupt gore: where Belsebub e 4. Reg. 1. gives forth his Oracles, and exhibits himself, awful and terrible to men, in despair of their salvation. How I hate these direful and dreadful Sacrifices, these rites! Thy blood, O sweet JESV, is always red with purple, and white with lilies intermixed. f Cant. 5. For these two colours thou affectest, the purple red, & snowy uhite; wouldst thy Cliens, and devotee's addicted to them, and to be known by them. This blood of thine, to thirsty souls quenches their heat, to hot and toiled spirits sends a humid breath; to broken and dismayed hearts, gives fortitude and courage. VII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. IN the midst of the Temple, was placed a huge brazen vessel, whece many channels issued forth, apt to communicate their waters, for the use of Priests and Levits, where with they washed themselves when they went to sacrifice. a Exod. 3. Weigh the munificence of God, who thought it not enough, for declaration of his famous and good will towards us, to water the hart of man with his own blood, unless he left us also a fountain famous for seven channels, from whence the gifts of graces might plentifully & prodigally flow into our minds, to wit seven Sacraments instituted to this end, to wash us, to expiate our sins, and to wipe all stains from the hart. 2. Point. Consider the grace, which flows from the fountains of the Sacraments, to be a golden water, which turns all it touches, into gold; and that so powerfully and divinely, as there is not the least action of our life (so it be sprinkled with the liquor of divine grace) which we ought not to make more reckoning of, then of all the treasures and riches of the world; as meritorious and worthy of eternal happiness. 3. Point. Consider now, how all graces, & merits depend of the only Son of God, and thence ●re derived by certain pipes or aqueducts as from the rock or head of these living waters: Wherefore we are most studiously to receive and keep this liquor of grace; lest any whit thereof should break from the banks of our hart; nor is any occasion of heaping merits to be omitted, which we greedily reach or catch not at. THE COLLOQVY TO the wounds of our Saviour. MY soul, O God, hath thirsted after thee; a Psal. 62. unless thou replenish it with heaunely waters, who shall recreate or refresh it? My soul is blacker than a coal; b Thren. 4. who shall wash it whiter than snow, c Psal. 50. unless thou pourest forth thy grace into it, which clearer than any crystal, falls from the streams of thy side, hands, and feet? Oh sacred springs of Syloe d joan 9 infusing light to the blind! Oh Springs of Elun, which refreshed the heat of the people of Israel e Exod. 15. dying nigh with thirst, amid those parched sands of that vast desert! Oh rock f Exod. 17. smit cruelly with the tongue and hand of the Synagogue! a rock, I say, not exhaling flames of fire, but pouring out abundant streams and floods of benedictions; which with a continued course, accompanied the pilgrim people into Palestine. Oh you wholesome jourdan waters of Naaman g 4. Reg. 5. flow with a copious channel into my hart, that no locks or sluice at any time may hinder your course. But your, O you heavenly Ministers of God and man's salvation dive and plunge in this fountain placed in the midst of the house of God, those Ethiopes our minds, I say, so ugly and deformed with the wretched colour of vices; that by your means, being rised and cleansed once they may issue forth like doves. Amen. Pater. Ave. JESUS RULES AND REIGNS IN THE loving & devout hart. THE HYMN. OMightie Sooner aigne, if you please, To deign a look & view our seas; Where hearts like ships with wind & tide Are sailing; some at anchor ride, Some with waves and boisterous winds Tossed to & fro; 'mongst them you find My floating hart, with every blast Of grief or of affliction past, As ' 'twere immersed with in the main. But yet, Great Monarch, if you deign To be my Neptune, or to guide The stern of my poor hart, beside The surges flying o'er my decks, Reign in my hart, let Hell play reks. THE INCENTIVE. 1. When JESUS sits in the hart, as in a Throne & there commands, the hart is a Paradise, our cogitations, affects, desires, are even as Angels, Cherubins, yea Seraphins, so here do all things burn with divine love. 2. God reigns nor rules not? Sin therefore sways and bears the rule, most tyrantlike; and strikes and wounds the miserable hart, already stretched on the cruel rack and torture, with terrors, scruples, horrid spectres, bestial appetits: no hart, but even a Hel. 3. Little King, great God, tame my rebellious hart, subdue it to thy hests, and eternally command it: Surely I will do what I can to dedicate and consecrate it to thee: do thou defend the place, wherein thou likest well to be shut up. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. THe pacifical Solomon in those days of old had built him a Throne of ivory 3. Reg. 10. six degrees or steps in height, on both sides whereof watched a Lion, very exquisitely wrought, the truest symbol of regal Majesty; and likewise for the people beneath in the midst of the Temple he erected a very eminent and stately Chapel. And so to thee Immortal God; the heaven is a Throne the earth a footstool. For thou sittest (as sacred scriptures b Psal. 17. tell) upon the wings of Cherubins, whence thou givest Oracles, prescribest laws to the world; and even with the only look, majesty, and state, becomest most terrible to the haughtiest mids. Hence thou exactst just punishments from the damned: hence thou inebriatst the blessed Citizens of Heaven, with the nectaral honey of thy goodness: lastly hence thou carrousest cups mingled with the gall of justice, and honey of pure goodness, to the earth, suspended between heaven and hell. Besides in the triumphant Church the celestial spirits, whom we call Thrones, are thy royal seat; and in the militant, the sacred Altar is thy lodging chamber, where thou sweetly takest thy rest. But nothing is thine own so much or due unto thee, with a better title, than the hart of man, which with a low abasement of thyself, and a singular obedience to thy father, thou hast lawfully recovered and bought with the price of immense labour and pains; yea redeemed with thy blood, & a shameful death on the Crosse. Here, o pacifical Solomon, thou rulest, there thou commands with a beck, in this soil or seat, as in thine own dominion, thou swayst in that manner, as there is none so bold or of so impudent a face, that dares, unbidden, step in a foot, or, not touched with the point of thy golden sceptre, c Ester, 5. look in adoors. Here thou hearest the humble suits, and petitions of thy subiets, here thou stiflest lewd desires, putst a bridle on the rebellious senses, tamest the insolence of carnal concupiscence, sweetnest the acerbity of labours. And, (O most happy kind of government!) thou alone sufficiently sillest the whole hart, attended with a most happy train of heavenly Citizens which thy retinue or Court can never depart from thy side, or vanish from thine eyes; so strongly tiest then the minds, hearts, and loves of all unto thee. Moreover in the basis or foundation of this royal edifice, stands faith, more clear than any Crystal; in which glass of Eternity, man's hart sees and beholds the past and future things. The whole frame sustains it-self, on that, thy surest and most constant truth; where with thou proppest and holds it up. For if faith lean not upon thee, it cannot hold the name or dignity, of faith. Now the steps by which they ascend into this Throne of the hart, are those which the Kingly Prophet insinuats, where he saith: They shall pass from virtue to virtue. d Psal. 83. Humility lies in the lowest place, obedience followers, anon piety ariseth then patience shows it-self; resignation attends and perseverance tops and crowns them al. The foundation faith consists of jaspar, each stair shines with his special gems. The first, is black with ieat, the second, green with the emarald, being the colour of hope, the third glissens with the purest crystal, the fourth is hard with the adamant, which no contrary violence or force can master; the fifth even sprinkles fire with the chrysolit, but the Carbuncle, the sixth, flashes forth both fire and flames at once: yet thou midst all, my sweetest JESV, o prodigy! not only sits secure, but even deliciatst thyself. There are beside, two little columns or pillastres of this Throne; love appears on the right hand, and fear of thy justice is to be seen on the left: yet sit'st thou so venerable with divine Majesty, in this humane seat of the hart; as the face of thine enemies, cannot behold the dignity of thy countenance, or endure thy aspect. There thou givest precepts, and art presently obeyed; commaundst, and thy hests performed in a moment. The Angels themselves, even the Cherubins and Seraphins, tremble to approach any nearer; as who know well enough, this little region to be properly thine, so only made for thee, and so due to thee by right of purchase, as whatsoever is less than thee, or shorter than eternity cannot please or satiate the hart; grown proud of such a Lord. For it is hungry and thirsty, nor lives contented with any owner, unless thou fix the seat of thy kingdom in its precincts. If thou be'st present with it desires no more; if absent, come in all created things at once, & woo it never so much, there will yet be place enough for more. If thou getst from thence, all felicity departs with thee: if thou abidest, all beatitude comes suddenly thither. Reign therefore, and eternally reign in my hart, O love of my hart. Quiet the motions of perturbations, nor ever suffer the unhappy hart; to thrust the King out of his seat; than which cannot happen a greater disaster to it. Nor suffer I say, o darling and delight of my hart, that one hart should be shared into many parts. For thou sufferest no rival. Oh suffer it not ever to be enticed with the allurements of worldly pleasure, which gate being once set open, I see how easily the enemy will rush in. Be thou to it a brazen, yea, a wall of fire, which may so roundly girt the Tower, as that no passage may be found unto it. But that only the Holy Ghost may come down from Heaven, whereto the hart lies open and enter therein, with a full gale and occupy the whole hart; that so I may truly profess and glory, My beloved to me and I to him. e Cant. 2. VIII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. MY Kingdom, is not of this world, (a) for my Kingdom is thy hart, o soul devout to God. 1. Point Consider how God seems to make but little reckoning of the rule, and government of heaven & earth, in regard of the dominion and care he hath of man's hart; wherein, as in a brief epitome or abridgement, he sums and collects together the whole perfection of the Universe. 2. Point. Consider again, how sweet the yoke of Christ is; compared with the most cruel and direful tyranny of the devil. For into what horrible vices and abominations, doth not this wicked Tyrant and cruel butcher of souls, draw men who are subject to him? How far this Lord differs from the genius of the world. For if this Impostor promise mountains of gold to his clients and followers, after a long & irksome bondage, after a tedious yoke, and loads of intolerable injuries, which it lays upon them, it really performs nothing but smoke of words & empty shadows. Lastly, how divers this Master's benity is from the hard & cruel apprenticeship of the flesh, which for a singular reward of most abject services, repaies nothing but a thousand sordities, and miseries, as well of the soul as body. 3. Point. But on the contrary, where JESUS rules in the hart, the appetits, which were before unbridled, comply with the law of reason, and the soule-it-self, reduced as it were into the form and order of a watch, being in tune and well disposed, poiseth all her thoughts, words, and works, with just weight and measure. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be with the most sweet JESUS, earnestly beseeching him he would take full possession of the hart, command therein, as in his Kingdom, and exercise an ample power upon all the faculties of the soul: that he would advance, pull down, every, impoverish; lastly frave it to each beck and sign of the most holy and divine wil Pater. Aue. JESUS TEACHETH the devout hart. THE HYMN. O JESV speak, thy servant hears, But thou must find me pliant ears, For of it-self my hart and will Is seeking drops that do distil From a limbeck that's raised on high With strains of wit, which soon are dry. Oh let me hear what thou dost speak (Peace) in my hart! Ah, if it leak, As doth a vessel pierced through, It naught avails to hear. For how Can I retain that in my breast, Except some heat of grace digest? Oh with thy lessons that impart! With thee I'll soon get all by hart. THE INCENTIVE. 1. BEhold here my little Doctor teaching from the pulpit of the hart. O speeches all of milk! O nectar! How affectiously the speeches! With what a grace he teacheth How joyfully the hart leaps, while it takes the words of eternal life. 2. Like Master like Scholar; especially if he take delight to hang on the lips of God, instructing as a Master; and with prompt and ready ears and mind but drink his inspirations. Here truly he plays not the man's, but teacheth the Angel's part, yea is indeed a very Angel. 3. Divine Doctor, teach me to do thy most holy will, every, where and in all things; for I require no more. I shall sure be wise enough, when thou alone shalt taste and relish with me. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. THe time will come, o delight of my soul, O Spouse of blood, a Exod. 4. when mount calvary shall be thine Academy, thy divine humanity, thy book; for wooden Chair, the hard Cross, where this volume shall be laid upon, for points, stripes, Lashes for commaes, for Auditary of so divine a Master, the wicked jews. All men shall read in that book, and if they mark, understand, how potent thou art, who canst so aptly link together, things by nature so far distant from each other; life with death, folly with wisdom, poverty with rich, strength, with weakness, gall with honey, high with low. Here the disciples of the. Cross shall learn; with what pretty slight of thy wisdom, the most tender worm b 2. Reg. 23. of thy humanity hanging on the line and hook of the Cross hath drawn out of the bowels of men's hearts, that horrid and cruel fish Leviathan c job. 40. and crushed his head: with how unusual an instrument, the engine of thy humility, thou overthrewest that mad Tower of Babel, brakest with thy meekness the adamantin hart of the jews, how with thy admirable sweetness and affability, like that worm (which seemed a prodigy to jonas) d jon. 4. thou didst so smit the root of that flourishing ivy, as suddenly all the leaves withered, that is the ceremonies of the ancient Sacrifices were abolished, Altars demolished, the priestly and regal power of the jews, the splendour of that flourishing nation, in times past, withered like a tree strooken and blasted from heaven. Lastly in this open and unfolded book, all posterity shall acknowledge what were those ancient mercies, of thine, e Psal. 88 hidden hitherto in the immense treasures of thy bowels, and even the Gentiles themselves whom the divine goodness might seem to have cast off for so many Ages past, shall now behold the most abstruse secrets of the highest things, hidden heretofore. But now, [most loving Doctor) do I see another. School set open to thee, the spacious Gallery of man's hart, a noble Lyceum, wherein thou Lord and Master teachest the soul, thy disciple within and instructest her with the precepts of thy most holy wil Speak therefore, I beseech thee Lord, the ears of my hart are open, speak O love of my hart, for thy words are sweeter than the honey, and the honey comb: f Psal. 18. milk and holy under thy tongue, the hony-comb distilleth from thy lips. g Cant. 4. Oh fiery words of love! Strong, efficatious, endless, thundering words, which impetuously throw all things to the ground, ruin Ceders, fetch up mountains by the root, rear the lowly hill lying in the plains strengthen collapsed minds, dash and crush the proud: Last; words of a most indulgent Parent, teaching his dearest child all manner of wholesome precepts. Lend thine ears then my hart; God is he that speaks. Hear my Child (for so JESUS advyses from the pulpit of the hart) do thou give thyself to me: Let me be thy possession, thy nurse, thy food, for nothing can satiate thine appetite without me. My Child, throw away those leeks and garlic of Egypt, turn thy face from the stinking waters of pleasure, and put thy mouth rather to my side, the wine-cellar of graces, whence at ease thou mayst draw and derive to thyself most sovereign and incomparable joys: For sake thyself and thou shalt find me; leave the vain contentments, of the senses, and thou shalt purchase to thyself the solid & sincere delights of Heaven. Learn of me, child, not to build thee worlds, or frame new Heavens, nor to work wounders, h Aug. serm. 10. de serm. Dom. but learn that I am me●k & humble of hart. i Mat. 11. Be always mindful of benefits bestowed upon thee; for nothing so exhausts the rivers of divine grace, as the blasting vice, of an ungrateful mind. Be present to thyself follow thine own affairs, square all thy actions to the exact rule of reason, and persuade thyself this, and have it always in thine eyes, that thine; and the felicity of all rests in me the only sovereign good. IX. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. THey shall be all docible of God. a joan. 6. 1. Point. Consider how Almighty God, from the first creation of things, hath proposed all his perfections to be openly read in the book of creatures. b Sap. 13. Rome▪ 1. For by the ample spaces of Heavens, he hath manifested his immensnes; by the diversity of celestial influences, the variety of his gifts and graces; by the splendour of the sun & moon, his beauty; by the admirable viciscitude of the seasons of the year, his providence; by the immoveable firmness & stability of the earthly globe, his constancy and immutability, by the plenty of his benefits wherewith he hath most copiously endowed us, his goodness; Lastly in the huge vastness and depth of the seas, he hath left the inexhaustible abyss of his essence expressed as it were in a painted cloth. 2. Point. Consider beside by what means the same God heretofore hath explicated his mysteries to us, with diverse Oracles of Prophets, & with the manifold shadows and figures of the old law. c 1. Cor. 10. Heb. 11. So the green bush d Exod. 3. untouched in the flames, signified the virginity and fecundity of the Virgin-Mother. The brazen Serpent e Num. 21. with whose aspect, erected in the wilderness, were cured the wounded, slung with serpents, expressed the Cross, & death of the son of God, to be the wholesome remedy of miserable mortals. The marriage solemnised between Solomon & the Egyptian, woman f 2. Reg. 11. & represented the hypostatical union of the eternal Word with the humane nature. 3. Point. But while these things seemed but small to the great immensity of his love, he himself being made man, came down unto us; and taking possession of the hart; and assuming to him the office of a Teatcher, instructs it, and delivers the art, not of working miracles, nor of building new worlds, but imbuing it with new precepts and altogether unheard of hitherto. Learn saith he of me, because I am meek, and humble of hart. g Mat. 11. 4. Point. I will endeavour to give my mind very frequently and seriously to learn this lesson by hart, wherein consists the sum of all Christian perfection, and I will examine myself how diligently hitherto I have behaved myself therein, and what method I will afterwards keep to be exact. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to the Holy Ghost, most earnestly craving him to afford me light to comprehend the divine mysteries; a hart docile & apt to receive such lights and motions; strength of memory, lest the species of things once received may easily vanish away; and force sufficient wherewith to execute what I shall think fit to be dove. Pater. Aue. JESUS PAINTS THE IMAGES OF THE LAST things in the table of the hart. THE HYMN. O Rare Apelles; lo the frame, My hart; but first prepare the same, Which is all slubbered o'er with sin, Wipe all away, and then begin To draw the shapes of virtue here And make the four last things appeare● That no Chimaeras of the brain, Or Fantasies I may retain. Besides vouchsafe to draw some Saint, Begin, sweet JESV, figure paint, Whom I may imitate, and love, As did Narcissus. From above Descend Apelles, thou divine, Come every day and draw some line. THE INCENTIVE. 1. NOthing is more miserable than the hart when it gives licence to wand'ring imaginations, and liberty to self love. My God what images! what fantasies! what enormities! what follies are depainted there! 2. But after that JESUS, the divine Painter, hath entered into the shop of the hart, & taken the hart it-self as a table to draw and paint therein, thou mayst straight discover the image of God and Trinity reform; the effigies of JESUS, and MARY drawn, the whole celestial Court represented, and the face of the gallantest virtues expressed; whether with greater lustre of colours, or feeling of piety, or delectation of the mind I can not say. 3. O most loving JESV, imbue my hart with the colours of Heaven, paint not shadows, but genuine and native images, snowy innocence, greene's of hope, the purest gold of charity; that so the closet of my hart may come to be a certain Cabinet or Reliquary of all perfections. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. MY hart (my JESUS) is an empty table, since thou hast wipped away thence the images and fading shadows of worldly things, and thrown down the idols which I myself had wickedly erected in thy Sanctuary; take then, I pray, thy pecils in thy hands, and dip them in the livelyest colours thou hast; that no series or tract of years, nor inclemency of the air, nor dust raised from the earth, may blemish or deface what thy alworking hand from the most absolute ideas of the eternal wisdom, hath divinely painted. For thou, o great Artisan, hast set down in writing with thy hand, those noble souls, Abraham, Isaac, jacob, and the rest of the family of the predestinate. Thou truly, art that admirable Author, who didst put the last hand to the azure orbs of Heaven, appliedst the purest gold to the Stars; the greene's of the emerald, to the herbs, the snowy candour to the lilies, the crimson to the rose, the purple to the violet, pale with yellow mixed. Thou sprincklest crystal on the adamant, the etherean brightness, on the saphir, the Vulcan flame; on the carbuncle: Lastly, thou hast endowed all things, as well sensible as insensible, with such variety of colours, and sweet delectation as the eye cannot be satisfied with beholding them. a Eccl. 1. And in this huge vastness of the world, my God, thou hast shown thy omnipotence, which the eye of the mind may well admire, though not conceive or comprehend but in the diversity of created things, which a strange knot, concording discord, and discording concord most streihtly ties together: thou hast impressed the lively image of thy infinite wisdom in the order of this universal Al; but there is not among all thy creatures any one, no not the least of them, wherein conspicuous draughts of thy goodness, shine not everywhere. Since therefore my hart is a void table, already sit to be wrought, draw I beseech thee divine Painter, and here delineate only these four images, which devouring time with no age may cancel or were out. And first frame in this table, that last grim, and dreadful line or period of my life, and let these here be the draughts of this sad image: Let me lie as dying, with eyes sunk into my head, with pale and deadly face, leaden lips, let death stand by threatening with a terrible iavelin in hand, here the devil menacing with weapons of temptation, there the Guard an Angel breaking his thrusts, in my defence. Above be the judge seen attending the passage & issue of the soul, let the children howl at the doleful bed; the servants, each providing for himself: add, if thou list, the cousin lying not far off, wherein the senselles corpse is to be laid, until that day, when the last trumpets found shall sumon the buried to arise. Oh wholesome and profitable Picturel whole only aspect will show me that is, my nothing, to myself; and laying the swelling winds, will hold me in my earth, that I grow, not proud yea will give me a generous and stout hart, that triumphantly I may trample on the trash and trumpery of the world, and creeping on the ground with frequent sighs preocupying death, before my death mount up to heaven. Now pious JESV, I pray draw, and finish also the other part of the table, of the other side; with due lineaments. Be that majesty set forth, wherewith as judge thou shalt appear one day, and be seen of all to handle and discuss the causes of the living and dead: let me here behold thee sitting in the clouds, with the mouth armed, with a two edged sword, and with an eternal separation severing the sheep from goats. On which image as often as I shall cast mine eyes, I may feel the bit and fear of thy dreadful justice cast upon me, whensoever I shall lash out like a fury, into the precipices of unbridled appetites. Go on heavenly Artificer, now must thou, paint a Hell, that lake so dreadful for its sulphur and flames, where the unhappy souls chained together, with howling and despairing cries fill all things, and with that tragedy publish their wretchedness, and miserable condition. So exhibit the whole, as I may seem to behold the unclean spirits, touch the darkness self as with the finger, feel the gnashing of teeth, hear the horrible blasphemies, their cries, their paths, their phlegm which in vain they cast forth against God, their bans and cursings, wherewith they cruelly tear one another, that being astonished with the sight of this picture, I may eternally sing thy mercies, b Psal. 88 which hath held me unworthy a thousand and a thousand times, from this lamentable abyss of infinite evils. Lastly, my good Painter, look where the rest of the ample space of my hart, seems void, I say not express, but shadow, I pray, the image at least of eternal glory and beatitude. Exhibit howsoever which a rude draught that house & royal seat, where thou layst open the most divine treasure which thou hast reserved for thy children, with the title of inheritance. Here let that great and blessed City of celestial Jerusalem, built all of gold c Apoc. 21. and precious stones, even dazzle the eyes; there let the Citizens of heaven be seen clothed with the sun that grave Senate of Patriarches and Apostles, with heads crowned with golden diadems, besides those valiant Heroes, who with the price of their blood and life, have purchased themselves immortal laurels. Figure also that mount, purer than crystal, wherein the candid mother of the lamb, and the rest of the virginal flock deliciat with the Lamb himself, amid the chaste delights and Quires. d Apoc. 14. Now than that these four pictures may the better be conferued, let them not be enclosed I pray in Mosaical work with certain little stones linked and cemented together, lest perhaps disagreeing with themselves they fly a sunder, but let one be set in ebony, another in cypress wood, the other be garnished round with plates of silver, all enamelled and set with topase stones; and finally the last be decked with the richest gems. Take off thy hand now if thou please, the work is fully finished. Yet one thing more remains, my divine Painter, of no small regard, forsooth, that to thine exquisite work thou add a curtain, least unluckily the dust, or moister air, or more untoward mind, may ever taint or least obscure so elegant and terse a picture. X. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. I Would to God they would be wise, & provide for the last things. a Deut. 32. 1. Point. Consider JESUS to be an excellent Painter, who with the only pencil of the mouth, to wit, the draught of one little word of fiat, painted the whole world with so great and artificious a variety of colours; and how in each creature he hath expressed very excellent lineaments of his power, wisdom, and goodness. 2. Point. Think what force hath the lively image and representation of death, particular judgement, and Hell, to restrain the lawless liberty of our life and too excessive mirth; and how much the remembrance of the heavenly glory prevails to stir up the mind in the course of virtue, and to take away the difficulties they use to meet with, who walk that way. 3. Point. Think this also with thyself, how the pictures and the images of the foresaid things expressed, at no time, should be wiped away from the table of the hart, this being the source of all our tears and errors, to be so careless and backward to conceive and premeditate before hand, what is to be exhibited in the last act and period of our life. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be made to God, beseeching him not to suffer, that either the delights and honours of the world, or prosperity & adversity may ever raçe out of our minds those pictures, whose affect is so necessary for us to our Salvation. Pater. Aue. JESUS BRINGS IN THE CROSS INTO the hart, and easily imprints it in the lover. THE HYMN. HAst thou no Harbinger to bring Thy furniture, so great a King, But must thyself in person come To order all, and hang this room? My hart alas! 〈◊〉 hardly brooks, To be transfixed with tenter book●; For nails and hamner, now I see, And ladder, all prepared for me. Ah! without sheets I see thy bed; Thy Cross, no bolster for thy head Except it be a crown of thorn, Thy canopy is Heaven forlorn. All things lament thy pains to see, JESV come in, I'll mourn with thee. THE INCENTIVE. 1. Go in lovely Cross enter lance, sponge, nails, scourge, bloody, thorns, get you in to the Closet of the hart. Welcome still, but on this condition that JESUS bring you in himself; for myrrh with JESUS, is admirable, and mere sweetness. 2. Thou sayest thou lovest JESUS; then needs must thou his Cross: for if otherwise thou boast to love JESUS, thou deceivest thyself and others. 3. Most sweet child; what have you and I to do with this lumber here? scarce art thou come into the world, but thou art oppressed with the weight of punishments. Oh plant thy seat in my Hart! and than shall I challenge Hell it-self: for if JESUS and I hold together, what Hercules can stand against us both? THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. MOst worthy Painter, a Psal. 87. I pray, take the table in hand again, for before thou, makest an end of thy work in the escutcheon of my hart, thou must needs paint thine arms, with some motto or other that by the device thou mayst be known to be the Master of the house. The Palaces of Kings, and their houses, as well in the Country as City, everywhere are wont to give forth their titles, arms, and names of their Ancestors, to wit, the monuments of their royal stock and ancient nobility. As for thine arms and tropheves of thy name good JESV; I take them to be thy Cross; nails, lance, crown ' of thorns scourges; that Pillar whereto thou wert bound; & those very cords, wherewith thou wast tied. I (said he) have, been trained up in labours from my youth. Go to then, for my sake, among those four images of the last things, which thou hast fully finished in all points, let these instruments, as Tropheye of thy Passion, be likewise pourtraited. The Cross would be of Cedar, that is painted in his proper colour; the spear sprinkled with blood, the nails dipped in the same die, the pillar marked with drops and streaks of blood; lastly, the cords and scourges with blood also, but so as washed away with tears here and there they make certain distinctions between. At sight of these arms, if they offer to encroach or approach nearer to the hart be the enemies dispersed; and fly as wax before the face of the fire. But ho● my Lord, print I pray that Cross more deep into my hart; if it be churlish & resist, use violence with it & soften it if need be; if with too much softness it prove i'll and diffuse it-self, constrain the parts, to consist and hold together; but be sure that every colour thou here workest with be well mixed with thy blood, for this colour pleaseth best, as being the simbol of love. Be this Cross to me sweet JESUS, as a buckler, to rebate and blunt the weapons of the enemies: be it a wall, or trench to gird me in; arms for me to assail my enemies with all, may it stir in me always, first a fresh and lively memory of thy passion, than a burning desire of suffering with alacrity for thee all hard and cruel things; no otherwise indeed then of those thorns were roses the blackberries; the whitest-lillyes: let this wood, cast into my-mind, turn the bitterness of the waters, into sweetness b Exod. 5. change gall into honey, aloes to sugar, Let the Cross be the mast of the sailing ship, wherein transported I may happily land at the haven of salvation; my bed; where couching as the Phoenix in her nest, and consumed with the flame of love, and turned to ashes I may dye Jacob's ladder c Gen. 28. to mount to Heaven by; the Pilgrim's staff to pass the jourdan d Gen. 32. the sheephook, to keep in the straying senses in their duties; Pharus whereto I may direct my course in the tempestuous Sea of the world, amid the thickest fogs or foulest weather. May the lance and scourges strike a terror to the proud and rebellious spirits, that menace a far-off, and revewing the assault by sits try to invade thy Sanctuary. Pitch Lord, and plant this Cross of thine in the turret of the hart; be it there a standard, which being aimed at, as the captains sign and sign of war, may all the faculties of my mind anon, be summoned with alarms, and pell-mell directly rush upon the enemy. Being armed with this Cross as with the keenest sword, I may cut off the wretched head of the cruel Holofernes e judgeth 13. and rise up against my Adversaries, like that Angel, who in a night alone foiled & vanquished at once, a huge army of the proud f 4. Reg. 19 Senacherib. Wherefore avaunt you hellish troops, pack hence away, & fly unto those darksome vaults. There is none of you that dares abide before the Tower of the hart, where the arms of the Supreme Numen are now set up: in sight whereof the Angelical squadrons stand in battle array; where not only horror and dread but imm●nent & most present ruin waits upon you. For death himself at the sight only of the Cross, turns his back; sin also takes his flight a long with him, and both together with th●ir common Captain Satan the devil, in great despair tumble headlong in the lowest Hel. XI. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. Pv●●● as a sign upon thy har●. a Cant. 8. Be thou as wax, for every form; I will be the seal, and imprint the arms of my passion in thee. 1. Point. In the conquered & vanquished Tower of the hart the victorious jesus, placeth the trophies & triumphs of his passion, forsooth, as Lord and Master of the place, lest any one hereafter may chance to challenge it to himself, or seek to invade it. 2. Point. There can be no such force or power of temptations, which with the lively apprehension of these arms may not utterly be defeated; no adversity so great, which may not cheerfully be borne; no such allurements of worldly pleasures; which with a generous loathing may not be rejected. 3. Point How happy the soul which is nailed with Christ upon the Cross! how rich, while under that wood are found to be the riches of Heaven & earth! how defensible & secure against all the power of Hell, being the imprenable Tower of Christians, whereon a thousand targets hang b Cant. 4. the whole armary of the strong, either to endure the shock of the enemies or to assail them. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be made by turning the speech, by way of Apostrophe, to all the symbols of Christ's Passion, as nails, lance, whips, and also unto Christ himself, craving most earnestly of him, as well to conserve in our minds the memory of those things which he hath suffered for our sakes, as to admit us into the society, and communion of his most bitter chalice; that we may also merit one day to enjoy our part of glory & eternal felicity. Pater, Aue. THE HART CONSECRATED TO THE love of JESUS is a flourishing garden. THE HYMN. JESUS, thy power and gracious will Is always drawing good from i'll, And life from death, and joy from groans, And Abraham's children mak●st of stones. Behold a quickset is my hart, With thorns and briars on every part; One drop of blood alone thou sheddest Will make a rose, wheres'er thou treadest: Oh may my hart sweet odours breath Of virtue! Ah! thy thorny wreath That pearled into thy brain made red And parple roses on thy head. Then for my sins, that I may mourn, With roses grant a pricking thorn. THE INCENTIVE. 1. IF JESUS, be in thy hart, thou needst not fear, the unlucky accidents of man's life, for he of very thorns makes sweetest roses. 2. The most sweet odour of the white & ruddy rose, which JESUS is, recreates and refreshes men and Angels, kills the ravenous fowls. Hence when the hart with JESUS is beset and closed in with roses, sin and the devil get them far enough; for they cannot abide the smell of them. 3. Wilt thou be a soft couch, wherein little JESUS may like to repose and rest in? let the Hart be crowned with the roses of virtues with the snowy flower, of innocence, with the purple of patience, and breathe the frangrancy of true devotion. Here JESUS feeds a Cant. 1. here he sleeps. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. Our little bed is flourishing a Cant. 1. our garden likewise is all beset with flowers. Here the sweet smelling balm exhales an odoriferous breath here amid the snows of lilies, the rose-grow all purple; here Cinnamon with safron, cassia mixed with myrrh, have a fragrant odour with them; there is nothing here that breathes not admirable sweetness to the smelling. Come therefore, O love of my hart, my beloved, that feedest among the b Cant. 2. lilies, who delightst in flowers, come into the sweet delicious bed, or rather, if thou wilt walk the spacious allies of the orchard and in the walks. Oh my Sun, dart those fruitful rays of thine eyes, and with thy sweetest breath more gentle than Zephyrus. inspire an odoriferous soul into the flowers, wherewith my hart being hedged in, like garden-plot; even smiles upon thee. Here the humble violet, fairer for her lownes, even woos thee with her soothing flatteryes, the higher sending her odours as she stoops the lower; a noble symbol of a lowly mind; which virtue; as a first begotten daughter thou hast kissed from the cradle and tenderly embraced, Here the lily rising somewhat higher, from the ground, amidst, the whitest leaves, in form of a silver cup, shows forth her golden threads of safron in her open bosom; a noble Hierogrisike of a snowy mind, a candid purity, and a clean hart, which now long since have been thy loves: for hence that strange obsequiousness of thine in those thy younger days, seeking and complying so with thy Virgin-Mother. Here now besides the pourpourrizing rose, the flower of Martyrs died with the sanguine tincture of their blood, represents that incredible love which put thee [o love piously cruel!) and nailed thee on the Cross; so as it is less to be wondered, it should dare so afterwards to cast the martyrs into flaming furnaces, into cauldrons of melted lead, into burning fires, with living coals; load them with Crosses gibbets, punishments, and take away those active souls, which yet these generous and noble Champions, very willingly laid down of their own accord. Here also that bitter myrrh, but bitter now no more, whose chief force consists, in preserving bodies from corruption; distils those first c Cant. 1. tears of hers more bitter than the later ones that follow after; but so much sweeter, as more powerful: This shows and represents those tears, sighs, pressures, labours, which thy darlings, Confessors, Monks, Anchorites, have taken voluntarily upon them, while in the doubtful course of this life the pious Pilgrims hied them to the heavenly country. But, O most sweet JESUS to ravish thee above the rest with admiration, and his love, the heliotropion of my hart, that flower, the genuine image of the Sun converts it-self to thee; whom therefore so assiduously it follows, for having so from nature such, a hidden force and sympathy with that eye of the world, the parent of all light. In this flower do nestle hearts inflamed with thy love, whose voice is even the very same, with that of thy Spouse; My beloved to me, and I to him. d Cant. 2. Deliciate thyself then, JESV the delight of my hart, amidst these amenityes of flowers, and from those fragrant & odoriferous garden beds, let the blessed Spirits thy companions wove them coronets, & delightful garlands, more pleasing, I dare say, to thy divine Majesty, than those of old, so offered up in Lachary e Zach. 6. wherewith the head was decked of the son of josedech, the high-Priest. Yea will I be a little bolder with thee; do thou thyself, my JESV, from thy Garden gather & pluck thee flowers make thee posyes, wreath thee chaplets, and do your Angels only help the while. My little JESUS first shall choose the gathered flowers himself, then shall you bind them up with a golden thread, & lastly he with these flowers these wreaths, these chaplets shall compass in the hart about, that with this preservative and odour of these flowers, he may banish from the mind all contagion that may vitiat or infect. Go to then go on you blessed Spirits, but I pray give him the rarest flowers into his hand, even the pride and honour of the eternal spring, which neither heat of sun may fade, nor tempest or showers deface nor obscure the lustre, beauty or dignity, which the divine graces prodigally have poured upon them. XII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. Our bed flourisheth, saith the Spouse. a Cant. 1. 1. Point. Consider JESUS to be truly a Nazarean, that is flowery or flourishing; for the loves to be conversant with the sweet odours, and flowers of virtues. Wherefore I will ponder, how grateful it is to him to repose and rest himself among the lilies of purity and chastity; the roses of martyrdom and mortification, the violets of humility and prayer; the Sunne-affecting marigolds, that is, the noble souls, and pliant to every beck, of the divine will; and other garden plots, of the rest of virtues, with whose loves, he is so taken, as that everywhere, at all occasions, he scents their odours and hunts after them. 2. Point. These flowers should never fade, with any weather, not with the parching heat of the sun, I say should not wither with the heat of carnal temptations, nor hang the head with the southerly wind of austere sadness; nor pinched with the cold and frozen blustering of the north, that is, not nipped or blasted with the evil breath of dulness in spiritual things: but should rather be continually watered with the dew of celestial graces, and from the substance of the hart, devoid of all corruption, draw and derive their juice & blood, where by they might prosper and flourish evermore. 3. Point. I will seem to behold the little JESUS, sporting in this little flowery garden of the hart, picking here and there, and plucking with his hand, now those flowers; the Angels remaining astonished at so great familiarity, and adoring the while. But for me I will resolve with myself, to keep especially the lily of chastity inviolable, without the least stain or blemish of its candour. THE COLLOQVY. TO the most Blessed Virgin, Mother and Disciple of all chastity, of whom I will crave the means first to keep chastity, and then earnestly beg her help and patronage, to vanquish easily all the temptations of the flesh. Aue maris stella. JESUS SINGS IN THE QVIRE OF THE hart, to the Angels playing on musical instruments. THE HYMN. IF thou within my hart wouldst a well; OIESV, than what Philom●l, Could warble with so sugared throat, To make me listen to her note? The Sirens of the world to me; Would seem to make no harmony. When they a long a large resound Of pleasures, thou dost them confound, Chanting a long, a large to me, With echoing voice, Eternity! A brief of pleasure, with like strain Thou soundest a long of endless pain, The Diapason, joys for me, To live in bliss eternally. THE INCENTIVE. 1. What do me hear my hart, what do we seem to hear. How sweet are these rapts? how sweetly this ●clestial harmony enchants the soul, and ravisheth it quite besides himself. Oh happy hover! O happy lot! when JESUS and the Angels sing in parts, to the melody of the Heavens. 2. When the hart sweetly respires, it sighs for and after, JESUS, and chants forth his praises with a glad some spirit. O music. O incredible consort! I hear methinks the Quires of celestial symphony to sound; and see myself in the midst of celestial joys. 3. Let thy voice sound in mine ears a Psal. 88 my Beloved. For to speak in a ward, most humbly prostrate at thy feet, I here, protest; that neither I do nor will ever love any other than the sweetest dolours and passions of JESUS. Away with these flatteryes of self: Away with these bewitching Prostitute of carnal pleasures. Sirens avaunt with your alluring charms of my affections, Let JESUS only sound in mine ears. For his voice is sw●●t and gracious his sface. b Isa. 48. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. O Sweet harmony! O divine comfort! Or are we mocked the white? I hear methinke a lute, the harp plays, the flutes and cornets wind, a whole Choir is kept in the hart; and if I be not deceived it is a song of three parts; they seem to play according to the number of the musicians that play. For the Angels here of th'one side, though they use diverse instruments; yet sounding but one thing seem to play but one part; then JESUS the skilful and most exquisite Musician tunes his voice, and bears his part; lastly the hart hath his. For amidst these numbers it sings and dances all at once. How quaintly and aptly the strings, wind instruments, and voice all agree: With how admirable a pleasure the numbers quaver and jump with al. But then how noble a Hymn is sung the while how curious & elegant JESUS stands in the midst, not only a singer, but as a rector of the Choir also with a magistrate rod in hand now lifted up, and then let fall; keeping the time, and ordering the key and air of the whole song. If you ask me the subject of the dicty the Royal Psalmist a Psal. 88 had designed and penned it long a go, when he said: I will chant the mercies of the Lord for ever. For to this purpose JESUS the prime Christ, records his ancient loves to the humane hart, & now mixing with admirable skill flats with sharps, sharps with flats, the tenor with the base, & running diversely divisions he touches with a sweet remembrance now with a moderate, now remiss, now slow, and now with a quick voice, the innumerable number of his benefits wherewith heretofore he hath wooed the hart: Wherefore recording things in this manner, now he stirs up pious desires, which he had often enkindled before, now with a graver tone, he exaggerats the horrid fears of sins, and hell, which he not rarely had inculcated heretofore, and now again with a sharper strain of the voice, call he to mind the lively and sudden impressions of compunction for sins, the agitations and excitations, of the mind, determining a change of life, new undertake of great things, heroical entreprises, and a thousand other of the sort; with which divine love is want to play and dully in the hearts of lovers. Mean while the Angels tune their instruments and strings to this argument, and while themselves for astonishment cannot open the mouth or express a word; they betake them to their instruments, and apply all the industry and art they have to play upon them, and with a sacred silence, tacitly admire the divine mercy towards men, and even with the gesture of this dumb admiration most vehemently stir up and incite themselves to magnify and extol the praises of God to the Heavens! whose manner is and chief delight, to rescue mortals from the jaws of hell, to put the burning coals of divine love the cold, tepid, and sloth full minds, and with water as it were to extinguish the flames of libidinous lust. Lastly with one glance or cast of the eye, as with a thunderbolt to ruin and depress the proud and haughty and for the humble and modest, with the only beck of his will to raise them suddenly. But what doth the hart while, in whose music roam is all this harmony made? Now it dilates it-self, now contracts, now it riseth, now falls, it fears, it hapes, it loves, it hates, it composeth and wholly frames itself and all its appetites to the rules, numbers, and sweet modulation of music. Then truly it observes and clearly discerns the difference between the celestial, that true, stable, melodious music, and the false voices, the harsh, the trembling, the broken, & ungrateful tunes of the world. For tell me I pray, what is that bewitching, or, as you call, delicious music of the world, but confusions of B●bel, mad bauling, strange clamours, uncouth noises? One sings the perilous tops of dignities, the smokes of honours, the uncertain degrees of Magistrates, the vain breath of popular glory: another with a sordid mouth sounds for the obseene and foul delectations of the flesh, bestial delights, wine, feasts, and banckets: another sings outrage in's angers: another with a feigned voice dissembles, choler and rancour, harbouring within. Some like rather to flatter, as Sirens, some with singing to plot and coner guile and deceit Thus are all the songs of the world but a hideous and tumultuous noise, no harmony; inarticulate and hoarse murmurs, no music; or if a harmony it be, it dulls truly as well the hearers as singers; and even kills with the very absurdness thereof, since peace indeed cannot rest with the wicked b Isa. 48. nor any quietness be among tumults, nor tranquillity, nor calms, amidst the black, & hideous storms and tempests of malice. Whereas on the contrary, heavenly music delights the hart, wipes away troubles and tediousness, composeth the evil motions of the sick mind, repels the force of the enemies lastly puts Satan to flight, as heretofore was signified in David; who restored Saul to his wits again being taken and vexed by an evil spirit, with the only playing on a harp. c 1. Reg. 16. Now therefore my hart (for now remains thy part) sing a joyful and triumphant song. Io, live JESUS Victorious, live he forever: live JESUS the triumphers, the terror of hell, & father of life. Live JESUS the Spouse of Virgins, the Doctor of Prophets, the fortitude of Martyrs. Live JESUS Prince of Heaven and earth, JESUS triumph, the only possessor of my hart. Let JESUS, I say, live; reign, and triumph eternaly. XIII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. FIRST POINT. I Will consider a triple music, whereof the first is heard in Heaven, the second in earth, the third in the hart of man, devout to God. The first truly, the Angels, frame of three parts, the Cherubins, Seraphins, Thrones, sing the treble, who with a most high and shrill contention of the voice, chant the divinest things, the eternity of God his immensity, power, and the rest of the divine attributes. The Virtues, Dominations, Principates, in a certain middle tenor are occupied in proclaiming the mysteries of grace, the Incarnation, of the Son of God, his virginal Nativity, Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascention. Lastly the Principates, Archangels, Angels, with a grave and lower tone, sing the creation and conservation of the world, and the rest of this kind. 4. Point. Attend now to the other music, made on earth, proclaiming the divine praises, which is the order, symmetry, and apt agreement of all the parts of the world, with and among themselves; in which Choir, the four elements with an harmonious discord play their parts admirably together. The Heavens likewise make up the consort, while they declare the glory of God to the whole world, for neither are the words or speeches, whose voices, may not be hard. a Psal. 18. 3. Point. The third symphony is held in the Temple of man's hart, and then is that melody made, when all the faculties of the soul, contain themselves within their parts and functions; when reason plays the treble, the inferior appetite bears the base, when our wii agrees with the divine and supreme will: and such is the sweetness of this harmony, as fills he mind with immense pleasure. And no marvel, while JESUS hmself moderats all this music with his most certain and temperate rules and measure. THE COLLOQVY. TO the blessed Spirits, whom I will invite, first, to sing praises to the Divinity: then will I also stir up myself to accommodate my voice with theirs: wherefore with all the endeavour of my mind, will I sing with them this divine verse, Lord thy will be done as in Heaven, so in earth. Pater. Aue. JESUS THE SON OF DAVID, PLAYS ON the harp in the hart, while the Angels sing. THE HYMN. When JESUS doth my hart inspire, As Orpheus, with his tuned lyre, The trees with power attractive drew, My hart deep rooted (where it grew In barren soil without content) So powerfully he draws, that rend From thence, it follows him, taketh root, And so self-love, which had set foot Is banished far, who charmed before My hart deluded. Evermore JESV be all in all, my part, My God, musician to my hart, And harmony, which solace brings Ah touch my hart, & tune its strings. THE INCENTIVE. 1. IF JESUS touch alone and move affects, which are the strings of our hart, good God how sweet, how divine a music he makes therein. But if self-love once play the Harper, and meddle with the quill, and touch the springs but never so little, ah me! it is a hellish horror, and no music. 2. When JESUS with a soft modulation steals into my hart there is straight such a sweetness in the marrow and bowels, as all things satisfy and please alike; life, death, prosperity, adversity: You would verily say my miseries were charmed by JESUS and his Angels. 3. Touch but the harp, little David, give it a lick with the quill, twang that only, I say, twang the domestical harp but never so lightly, whereon thy Gransier David played so long a go, and it is enough. It was it dispersed the horrid clouds of sadness and melancholy, & drove away the wicked Genius. O God, when I hear this David both father and son of the Royal Psalmist, playing on his harp, how my hart jumps the while, yea how ready it is to leap out of it-self. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. THe heavenly David in the midst of the Hale of the hart, with nimble fingers, tickles the harp, to the musical numbers. Come hither Angels, then come you dear souls to JESUS, come you all: Clear up your voices, and tune them to the pulse, and harmony of this harp. This sound, believe me, will banish Satan, and throughly purge away melancholy, that grateful seat of the wicked Genius. But why the harp (most sweet JESUS) rather then another? Yet should I think thou takest it not by chance: Unless perhaps it be that the form and sound of this Instrument. Ah! thou wouldst present that figure which in mount Caluary thou actedst so long a go; playing the Chorus of that sad Tragedy, in the public Theatre of Heaven & earth, in view of all? Ah, now I remember how thine arms and feet were then stretched forth on the tentours, as in the harp the strings are wont. How stiff were then the nerves and sinews of the whole body: But here love plays the harper, and yealds so forth a sound most like the harp, reaching far and wide, as far I say, as the highest, middle, & neither orb extend heaven, earth, & hell. Satan felt thee harper, and maugre all his power was constrained to compress his foaming anger, and bridle his implicable fury. Death lurking at the gates of hell, felt the fatal point of his dart (being no less than sin) to be suddenly rebated. But with us now at the sound of his harp, the rocks being rived & split, began to fly asunder, hearts harder than adamants to soften, wicked men touched with the prick of conscience to confess their crimes, to knock their breast, the proper seat of the penitent mind, and to give forth these words, most full of compunction, Truly the Son of God was here. a Mat. 27 Yea the sound went up to Heaven also; and suddenly stayed so the hand of the divine Nemesis, menacing eternal ruin and calamity to men, and now ready stretched forth to make a full revenge of all, as that by and by the same being voluntarily unarmed, and now as the case were altered quite hath given place to mercy, which hitherto had laid hid. But why do I call these things to memory? who knows my honey JESUS, whether, with this harp thou playest not somewhat else? What? I know not Unless perhaps with this sweet harmony of strings thou, wouldst signify the sweetest and sincerest pleasures, wherewith thou woo'st and courtst the hearts of pious men. For who are able to express with what deliciousness of thy pleasing tunes thou recreatst now and then, and erectest minds afflicted with the irksomeness and tediousness of a wretched and miserable life? And for that we silly men, are altogether unable, go on, o you Angelical spirits, and here sing again a new mottet of thanksgiving in our behalf. But you get you hence and far enough, you glozing dangers foul Sirens: Get you hence unclean wicked and deceitful world: I hate your rhymes, your idle sonnets; for your, music lines are nets, your notes, snares, your voice the foulers whistle. I curse and detest these cunnings tricks. Your balls and revels are the theatres of impudent & infamous scenes; ay execrat and detest these Masks and mummeryes. Therefore, o my hart, listen I pray, and when thou hearest the voice of thy God, anon being struck as it were and smil, give a sound with all, and attemper and ply thy voice to his, make his will and mine to jump and sympathise together: take heed thou yealdst not a rustic music; and a harsh ungrateful tone; sing to the numbers right, and dance with all whether adversity maane thee, or prosperity play with thee. But especially lend thine empty ears to the most sweet ditty of the divine Harper: who sweetly allures thee a far of, and nearer hand pulls thee with the sound of his harp. Come, for so he sings, come my friend come and thou shalt be crowned with the head of Amana, with the top of Sanir and Hermon; from the lions dens, from the hills of Leopard's. b Cant. 4. Take here the crown of flowers, which thou hast woven for thyself, fetched from the highest and steepest mountains tops not with out much labour and sweat receive the reward of the travels and combats, which thou hast fought: the prize of the victory which with taming and binding the lions and bears, those unruly beasts of thy passions thou hast most gloriously purchased. This harmony of JESUS singing to the hart, my soul, will procure there light, and gentle sleeps and imbue the whole breast with the nectar of divine consolations, that thou mayst not feel the acerbity of molestations, which are necessary to be drunk by mortals. Strike out therefore thy harp most strongly, my beloved, there shall no murmur at all obstreperate and dull thine ears; the closet of my hart is wholly vacant, that naught might hinder the sweetness of this harmony. And you again good Angels, tune your voices to the sound of this harp, and I the while from my immost bowels will sing these verse of the Psalms I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise be always in my mouth. c Psal. 33. For he hath taken compassion on me of his great mercy, he hath blotted out my iniquities. d Psal. 50. He hath delivered my soul from death. e Psal. 55. He hath crowned me in mercy and good works, He hath replenished my soul in good things. f Psal. 102. XIIII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quesumus, etc. FIRST POINT. COnsider how easy and expedit is the contemplation of spiritual things, when JESUS borne of the true stock of David, plays the harper, in the hart, and with the sound of his divine instrument drives away the wicked spirit; even as heretofore his great Grandsire David, restrained the intemperance of Saul. Attend beside how seriously the Angels accommodate their voice to the sound of the harp; that even look what they see JESUS to do for our good, they endeavour to do also, studying to accommodate themselves to our occasions. 1. Point. Consider JESUS hanging and nailed on the Cross seemed to have carried the figure of a harp with him, which being played on, gave forth as it were seven sounds, very full of hidden mysteries and the first stroke truly of his mystical harp was: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. a Luc. 23. When he held up and stayed the making of the world from falling, being then on the point to demolish quite, and with its ruin ready to swallow the impious Parricides of God. But, o most unlucky stroke? in the last strain a string broke and snapped asunder, and the soul & body of the most blessed JESUS being dissolved, the whole harmony of David's harp was utterly marred, which yet a little after the parts being resumed and handsomely united together, so newly raised again sung forth a triumphal song. 3. Point. Consider when JESUS is present what great festivityes are made, what divine rays do shine, what plenty of graces are poured forth, and what true and solid pleasures abound: but in the contrary JESUS being absent what hideous darkness over-casts the minds, whole squadrons of calamities, troubles, desperations, fears, mourning, tediousness sloth, molestations, and what not? come rushing in by troops. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to the Blessed Virgin, of whom, with the greatest endeavour of an earnest and submiss mind that may be, I will crave leave that what she led before, I may sing after her: My soul doth magnify the Lord, a Luc. 1. especially since the benefits I received from her son are likewise infinite; b Psal. 116. & I will further invite not only the Angelical spirits to sing; but all created things whatsoever, with that Psalm of David: Praise the Lord all you nations. Pater. Aue. JESUS RESTS IN the lover's hart. THE HYMN. BEhold my hart doth Christ enclose, While he doth sleep I do repose: As I in him, he rests in me. If he awake, I needs must be The cause, that made the noise within; For nought disquiets him but sin. But I with crosses, soon am vexed. With injuries and cares perplexed, And I, who should my will resign, Am soon disturbed grieve, fret, repine: Till JESUS doth his grace impart, Who gives repose unto my hart; O happy hart, with such a guest, Which here hath what he gives thee, rest. THE INCENTIVE. 1. SO long as the hart in God, and God rests in the hart (which is wrought with a holy consent of wills) let the Heaven's thunders and lighten, the earth quake, and move out of its seat, the elements tumult, the winds of temptations rage and make a hurly-burly; yet the hart shall be quiet and laugh at al. 2. When thou hast received JESUS, taking the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, take heed thou awake him no● deliciously sleeping there, either with the hideous noise of outrageous choler, or with the obstreperous clamour of the other passions, or by any other way of breaking silence, so much as with the hu●h only. 3. But do thou sleep, my little JESUS, and (as thou lists thyself) take thy rest, in God's name: We make thee a couch ready in the hart, we intent to love none but thee we, will never break our faith with thee; though the winds bluster and seas roar never so much. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. I Sleep and my hart wakes: a Cant 5. It is the voice of the most loving JESUS. Whist therefore you Heavens, earth hold your peace. JESUS sleeping in the bed of the hart, sweetly rests. You bustle in vain, o restless winds. The hart where JESUS takes his rest is safe enough the ship is now in the Haven, which the Master-hand of so divine a Pilot guides. Cease Aquilo, Ah thou cold, gelid, cruel stranger of the North; bridle thy most ominous blasts, for thou exhausts and driest up the rivers of celestial graces freesest the hearts of men, with a slothful ice, and nigh killest them with cold; thou strippest the trees of fruit and leaves, makest the earth even horrid with hoary frosts and winter downs, dashest the tallest ships and the best maned, and sinkest them in a fatal gulf. Cease thou Southern enemy, Stormy Auster, froward, hot rhewmatike (and which is worse) thou incentive and firebrand of lusts, bridle thy fatal breath wherewith thou burnest all things, stirrest humours, extinguishest the fires of divine love; sprincklest the nerves and synnews, dishartnest minds, and makes them languish. And do thou cease likewise, sweeping faun or succourer of the eastern coasts, thou fatal African not only familiar with tempest, but full of a pestilent and blasting breath thou rusflest here in vain, thou shalt never shake this hart, wherein JESUS takes his rest. But thou the fauner of the Eastern sun gentle Eurus, whether thou wouldst be called Subsolanus or Vulturnus rather, who art thought to blow the winds of a favourable and smiling fortune, remove those insolent blasts of thine. For the hart intentive to divine things, and all inflamed with love, hears and attends thee not. Now come I then to thee, my little JESUS, tell me, go to, what slumber, is this, which refreshed thy weary body with so gentle a shower of vapours? Thou being once tired in the heat of the day, sattest at the fountain, attending the poor Samaritan, woman b Io. 4 with whom, as the ancient jacob, with his Reb●cca, thou struckest a new contract of marriage. Again elsewhere being broken with toil of travelling sherwd iournyes, thou gottest to the mountain tops about the shutting in of the day c Luc. 6. to refresh thy wearied limbs with a short repose, when presently having now hardly begun to enter into prayer, thou wast fain abruptly to break it off. But what sleepest thou here now for. Nor do I think thou art so drowned in sleep, or so idle is to meditate on nothing: If thy love deceive me not, I should verily believe thou now revoluest in mind that sacred marriage which thou one day waste to contract with the Church, thy immaculate Spouse, at that most happy tree of the Cross, when the sleep of death should bind thee both hand and foot, and from thine open side that other Eve should issue forth, as once the form Eve had done our common Parent, who suddenly arose, so built of the bone of Adam, cast into that prophetical and ecstatical sleep. d Gen. 2. Or whether art thou not perhaps voluing and revolving many things within thee, studing and contriving with thyself, what dowry to make thy new Spouse, and peradventure thinkst upon the ornaments and dress for her head, earing, bracelets, carcanets, and wedding robes, all embroidered with the richest gems with such like nuptial honours, and presents fit for Spouses? Or thou designest, who knows? the form perhaps and solemn tables of Matrimony, which hereafter in the public Theatre of the world; thou art to celebrate with the Church and the holy Soul. It may be thou considerest what her poverty is, and want of all things, and what the rest of all her goodly stock of miseries; or wherein only she is richly furnished and abundantly well stored. Or perhaps thou thinkest of yet more full & happy things than these, which here thou dreamest on, while thou sleepest. For in those gentle slumbers; thou takest in the humane hart, thou now plottest perhaps in mind, the immense glory thou wilt afford the soul with a prodigal hand, who shall have the grace to receive thee courteously indeed. This doubtless, thou handlest, now voluest, revoluest destinest, and designest. O great jacob, while thou slept'st so, with thy head resting on a hard stone, what strange, what divine things there didst thou behold! And how many Angels were showed thee on that ladder going up and down, so pitched on the earth and reaching up to heaven. jacob (as we have in the sacred history) e Gen. 28. flying the more than deadly hate & fury which his brother Esau bore unto him, came to Luza where he made a stone his pillow, lying on the bare ground, in stead of a soft and easy bed, and behold he saw a ladder fixed on the ground extended to heaven, God leaning on the top thereof, and the Angels ascending and descending to and fro: when being astonished and amazed thereat, he cried out. The Lord is truly in this place, how terrible this place is! And presently anointed it, and set up an Altar in the place in all haste gave thanks to the Divinity, and put the name of Bethel to it. O little jacob! O most loving JESV, rest in my hart a while (if it trouble thee not too much) though indeed it be but a hart lodging, and thou hast but a stone for a pillow and bolstre only, yet surely it will be soft enough, as soon as thou shalt but pour thereon the oil of thy mercy. Let the hart then so daily consecrated, be called Bethel, that is the house of God. The house of vanity! Ah never be it said. But rather strengthen it my God, be sure thou found it well, lest the winds of inconstancy and tempests shake it. But stand it rather immoveable as the rock of Marpeia in the midst of the sea dashed with the waves & scornfully shaking them off. XV. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. THE PRELUDE. A Great storm was made in the Sea, so as the ship was even covered over with waves; but he slept. a Mat. 18. 1. Point. Consider the nest where in the holy soul should live and dye, is the thorny crown of the most loving JESUS; for this sticks so deep into the crown of the sacred head of the Spouse, as none may pull it off; and so is as safe being and a firm peace: and therefore will I sing with the most holy job: I will dye in my nest, and like to the Palm will multiply my days. b job. 39 And I will always cause, I say such a new increase of merits in me, as there shall no day slip wherein I add not some line or other to the absolute portrait of virtue and sanctity 2. Point. The bed wherein JESUS loves to rest, is the hart of pious men, and dedicated to his love. If JESUS lodge but there, though he sleep the while, all things go well and rest quietly; and it were to no purpose to fear any winds, storms, or thunders there. For the waves dashing thereon do but only foam and no more, against the rocks of Epirus; then break in their retire and soon after come to nothing. 3. Point. JESUS resting in the hearts of Martyrs, makes them so generous and stout as they can equally endure the torments of fire, and water: and no marvel; for while JESUS takes but his rest there, he gives them rest. So when we admit JESUS by receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist into the lodging chamber of our hart, there is nothing can trouble us or disturb us because JESUS is there who is our peace. c Rom. 16. Ephes. 2. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed, to the most sublime and divine Sacrament of the Eucharist: First extol its force and power, which at that time we feel in ourselves. For the soul which receives and retains JESUS in her house, how stout, how generous, how constant she becomes! Then invite JESUS that he would often deign to lodge in the Inn of thy hart, and there securly take his rest. But beware thou awakest him not in his sleep, nor ever suffer the noise of the world, and commotions of the mind to make any tumult there, or that any idle words (for the least thing hinders) should disturb his sweet and gentle sleeps. Pater. Aue. JESUS WOUNDS AND PIERCED THE hart with the shafts of love. THE HYMN. THe Devil's Archer, Erbinger Of lust blind Cupid did appear, But durst not stay to bend his bow, He saw the hart with arrows glow, Which made him slink away the chaste And spotless hart he cannot blast, Which being cleansed from sin, is shut From that blind hoy, whose only but Are hearts polluted, without white. Behold the wounds Christ makes, delight See where the Angels pointing stand, Give aim, by lifting up their hand; Or rather while the shafts ahound, Wish they had hearts that he might wound. THE INCENTIVE. 1. MY good Archer shoot, Ah shoot again! shoot through this hart of mine, with a million of shafts, this refractory & rebellious hart to thy divine love: slay and kill all love, which is not thine, or is adversary to it. O sweet wounds! o dear to me! o arrows dipped and tipped with honey. 2. And thou my hart, revenge those injuries so sweet, so acceptable, and for thy part also shoot thou again into the hart of JESUS with a thousand shafts, a thousand pious loves, a thousand balls of fiery love. 3. The hart is never in so good plight as when it is transfixed with a thousand points of sharpest love and pain; so that the true love of JESUS casts but the flames where with I pine, I burn with love. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. But what a God's name dost thou here, thou Pander Cupid? Art thou so brazen faced as to presume to abide where my love JESUS is? Come hither you good Angels, thrust forth this wicked brat of that Cyprian strumpet, out of doors. Break his quiver, snap his shafts a sunder. For what a shameless impudence is this and saucy boldness, of that blind elf, that such a cowardly jack as he should not quake & tremble at the aspect; yea even but the shadow of my Lord JESUS; dreadful to heaven & earth But; o powerful arrows of thy bow my Chaster Cupid! my delight! my JESUS! In the Northerens seas they tell of a flowing Island, which stands still and as it were, casts ankour as soon as shot into with burning shafts, enkindling fire as they fly. I believe it: For lo thy fiery shafts, very suddenly stay and arrest the ankored bark of my hart, sailing in its full course, and even now most miserably floating in the midst of the sea of the world. O love I say not blind as he! For how directly shoots he at the mark, how dexterously and ready he discharges, & how powerful his shafts! Wherewith when S. Augustine was touched and wounded once he cried out: a Lib. 9 Conf. c. 2. Lord thou shottest into our hart, with thy charity, and thy word we bore transfixed in our bowels. But the time shall come, my doughty warrior, when from the divine bow of thy humanity bend and stretched on the Cross; thou shalt snake and brandish seven spears of perfect victory, true symbols of the foiling, and utter ruin of the enemy. For as the Prophet Elizeus setting his hand to King joas his bow, blessed the arrow, with these words: The shaft of salvation of the Lord and the shaft of salvation against Syria. b 4. Reg. 13. so thy Divinity sustaining the humanity, impressed a certain more divine force into those seven last words of his wherewith like bow and arrows they might trouble, dissipat, and quite transfix the hellish legions. For there truly are those shafts whereof once the royal Prophet sung: Thy arrows are sharp, people shall fall before thee; into the hearts of the King's enemies. c Psal. 44. O wholesome blow! O happy chance! O admirable force of arrows! For lo, the same both cure the crowned, & deeply wound those who seem in their opinion to be whole. Go to then, be thou my hart the scope and bute, stand to it, why shrinkest thou? stand I say, and stoutly take the shaft of love into thee. Yea do thou shoot too, retort, and wound again. And be thou likewise as a heavenly bow: and do thou stretch and strain thyself with all thy nerves as much as thou canst. Let thy sighs and vows shot like thunderbolts and winged darts, freely mount up the throne of God himself. But first be they fired with thy heat; that they may fly the swiftter: add also flames, begged and fetched from heaven, and as the most loving JESUS is all fire, all love, so do thou kindle fire, burn, love, break into sighs, with frequent sobs, which reaching unto God may instantly reverberate, and return to thee again, and draw forth bitter tears from thee in great abundance. But thou, o incomprehensible love, divine spirit who so shadowest and sittest on the hart as heretofore in the first creation of things thou didst, when hatching the world from the rude, confused, and indigested Chaos thou converted, so that vast abyss of waters; d Gen. 1. with the heavenly dew of thy graces, temper the flames of the boiling hart. For my hart like wax moult with the fire; with the sweet ecstasy of love even liquefyes with all, and so may I liquefy still till I liquefy and melt away for altogether. Go to then, with the finger of thy charity, express in me the lively form and image of thy love, that after in my bowels I shall kindle, and take fire, and thou with water as it were shalt quench or temper the same, that there may be nothing found in me but divine dews, celestial flames. Let this fire than burn and increase in the midst of waters; and the fire of concupiscence being utterly quenched, may these purer flames live and eternally burn my hart, which neither the waters of tribulations, nor the roaring waves of temptations, nor any violence of sickness, nor the Scylla of calumniating tongues, nor the gulfs of blasphemous mouths, nor lastly the furious Charibdes of any punishments may ever extinguish it, for endless Ages. XVI. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones no●●ras, etc. THE PRELUDE. THou hast wounded my hart▪ with thy love: saith, the beloved Spouse to her Spouse, in the burden or holding of her song. a Cant. 4. 1. Point. Consider the hart to be like to that Island they say to be continually carried and posted here and there, with the waves of the northern sea, nor ever to rest till touched with burning shafts: so are men's hearts being tossed with the tempests of diverse concupiscences, nor can be stayed or kept in, but touched and struck with the dart of divine love. Hence that saying of S. Augustine being once carried away with the vogue and wind of evil affections and now ceasing from the course of his former impieties, Thou hast shot our hart, my God, with thy charity. b Cant. 4. 2. Point. Consider the blessed felicity and happy state to be wished for of the hart, c 2. Cor. 13. as well wounded with the love of JESUS as dying of the wound. For this is a kind of death whereof the Son of God himself and his holy Mother died; and which all pious souls are wont to dye of. 3. Point. Attend to what are the motions and exultations of the hart, touched with divine love. Charity (saith that great Coripheus of the Quire of JESUS his lovers] is patient benign, not envious, or seeking its private comodities. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to the Angels, beseeching them to drive away Cupid that infamous princock boy, that lewd stripling, to knap his arrows asunder, and to burst his quiver, that he may never more come near my hart, or offer any violence to it. THE HART INFLAMED WITH THE LOVE of JESUS shines all with light and flames. THE HYMN. COme Moses to the bush, draw ne'er: Now God Incarnate doth appear, Man's hart the b●●●sh (cease to admir●●●) With flames of love 〈◊〉 sets on fire. See here the scoriching flakes and f●me of pr●●er, which burn & not consume, But only dross of sin. Behold A hart refined of tried gold: A Bush wherein love so contrives, That JESUS, Phenix-like revives, Amidst sweet aromatike scents A bush wherein one that contents Is all in al. And now though rare One bird in bush is better far. THE INCENTIVE. 1. THe whole hart is all on fire these flames then either come from heaven; & derive from JESUS, or all these fires are sprung from hell and lewd desires. Ah my little soul! Why art thou so in doubt? Deliver thy whole hart to JESUS, that he only may inflame it with the fires of divine love. 2. Behold his hands, feet, hart, eyes, face, the whole body: JESUS is nothing else but fire, naught but little flames of love, whatsoever he doth, speaks, suffers, breath but love, and that the love of thee. 3. O love! o sweet love! o flames of love! Ah burn this hart I pray. Yea my soul, do thou burn thee to ashes too in the loves of my JESUS; and in these sweet flames, may it live, die, revive again, like another Phoenix. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. JESUS was on the top of mount Thabor, in the friendly company of S. Peter, james, john, Moses & Elias; a Mat. 17. when suddenly his face began to shine like the sun, his garments to be as white as snow, and the hill itself to glitter all with flashing rays, flowing from his countenance. But when Moses heretofore ascended on mount Sinai, to receive the law of God in stony tables b Exod. 29. the people beheld all the place to be set on fire to sparkle, to burn, to shine all over. Lastly Elias chariot a 4. Reg. 2. the fiery sword of the Cherubin, watching at the gate of Paradise, d Gen. 3. the four beasts of Ezechiel, e Ezech. 1. and all furniture about them, seemed not only to shine, but to burn also. But what-said the Spouse of her beloved and his chaste love? His lamp, said she, are lamps of fire and flames; many waters were not able to extinguish charity. f Cant. 8. O fires and living flames even in the midst of floods of waters! This is the fire which encloses the hart so, and sends forth such radiant and refulgent rays, as banishing all darkness, all things shine and burn both within and without. Of this lamp mercy is the oil; and that truly indeficient, as flowing from an inexhaustible channel, the very bowels of God. This is that wall of fire, which God had provised by the Prophet, g Zach. 2. which being interposed; the lion's crest would fall, the enemy be forced to turn his back, and he be smit & struck with a thunderbolt, who should once go about to set there to his sacrilegious hand. But of all these wonders, this is most to be wondered at, that as the green bush amidst the purest flames did burn untouched h Exod. 2. and impeached a whit, and God himself was heard to preach therein, as in pulpit; so the hart encompassed all with flames, & therewith round beset, most constantly always burns and is not consumed, but ever shines and flasheth ligth, since JESUS raises and resuscitates those fires, and feeds the immortal flames. Mark here, how high the smoke of these fires mounts up to heaven. Go to then, come hither with your thuribles and incense: How nigh in a moment the incense of such fires sends forth most sweet odours to Heaven! How speedily the vows and prayers comen. ded to this fume, arrive at the throne of heaven! The Heavens with this exhalation shall breathe forth Nectar: The air repurged shall savour sweetly, the threats and rage of Devils shall expire; for indeed they can no more endure these odours, the grunting snouts of swine abide the breath exhaling from the sweetest smelling lilies; and therefore shall they be enforced to fly away, and return again into the immost and most hidden receptacles of Hel. This is the fire, this the flame, which quenches the heat of concupiscence; for as one nail drives out another, so the fire of divine love expels and represseth the libidinous flames of base and carnal loves. Burn therefore my hart, o JESV, the darling of my soul, and let not the oil of the lamp be ever wanting: be this fire as a wall unto me; i Zach. 2. be it as a sun, and be this my chiefest ambition, that I burn and be consumed with this flame: Yea, and be reduced into ashes; then those ashes into a little worm, and presently become a new hart. O Metamorphosis of love! But first would I have the old be throughly tried, in the little furnace of his love, the dross, and all the dregs to be scoured thence, and no humane and terrene lees to be left behind, but merely to take a heavenly state upon it: to live a spiritual life, to feed on spiritual food to use a spiritual tongue, to have spiritual feet and hands; yea divine cogitations and affections, & not done by aspects only, but even Angelical. In sum may this hart, thus purged and purified, give forth hereafter naught but a lively and everlasting figure of a blessed immortality. So then do thou my dearest JESV) here fix thy hart, at last; dwell here in thy Palace; and here shoot forth the glittering rays, of thy glory, XVII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quesumus, etc. THE PRELUDE. I Came to send fire into the earth and what would I else but have it burn. a Luc. 12. 1. Point. Consider how necessary it is the hart inflamed with love, should mount up and vanish into vapours; and so great is the force of this flame, as it ascends to heaven straight, where it arrives without impediment: nor hath the world, without God, aught that can satiate and replenish the bosom of the hart. 2. Point. Consider, how subtle and active the flame of divine love is piercing, clear, never idle, unquiet, impatient to beheld shut up in any other place then in the bosom of the Crucifix; where as in a furnace of love, it purges and repurges over and over, and receives new life and vigour again. 3. Point. Note the matter and fuel of this fire to be all those things which Superiors enjoin, in the execution whereof is manifestly discovered what force there is in this fire, THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to Christ whom I will seem to behold with two burning lamps in his hands: I will beseech him, to purge whatsoever is unperfect or vicious in me, and to reduce the very hart to dust & ashes: that a new may arise like a Phoenix, which after he hath laid down the spoils or weeds of his mortality, resuscitates a new, and revives again from the tomb it-self, more beautiful and a great deal better. Pater Aue. JESUS CROWNS HIS DEAR HART WITH Palms and Laurels. THE HYMN. THe restless hart, which heretofore, Could not stand still, but evermore Was beating oft with throbs oppressed Till now could neu●r be at rest. It was ambitious, now I find▪ Naught could content th' aspiring mind: Had honours, pleasures, wealth good store, Yet ever craved, was seeking more: Which showed there was yet something still Which this capacious hart might fill. A triangle, the soul, hath three Distinctive powers. The Trinity Is such, that fills it; rest is found, Lo th' hart is quiet, new it's crowned. THE INCENTIVE. 1. YOu good Angels, wove you garlands with garlands, laurels with laurels, and crown therewith the fortunate hart, which then glories and triumphs most when with Olympian study; and labour of virtues and mortification it hath gained but this prize, for reward, to deserve to be beloved of JESUS. 2. O joyful! O festival day! wherein we may behold and gather even from thorns and toils the purest roses; from sweat and arms, palms and laurels; lastly of spittle, vinegar and clay immortal & eternal crowns: which JESUS, himself plants and fastens on with his own hand. 3. What slookst thou then, o poor hartland tremblest at the multitude of evils, which environ thee and beset thee round. Cast thine eyes rather on the laurels which attend thee after thy victory. For nothing can break or so much as move him whom the hope and expectation of palms erect susteynes. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. Go to, you Angels, go to, o blessed Spirits make hart with your palms and laurels, from your posyes, wove you garlands and with them deck you up the triumphant hart, victorious now after so many assiduous labours, Crowns are sacred, free from thunder, privileged from the heavens, and signify exemption and immunity. Now the winter is passed away the showers blown over and quite vanished a Cant. 2. Now the lyonly rage of the sworn and professed enemies of the hart is repressed, vanquished, & tamed: provide you eternal laurels, victorious palms, and give them into the hands of the most sweet JESUS that he may settle on the hart, the crowns or garlands so prepared. The magnanimous King David, affecting much the fat and fruitful olive symbol of mercy, humbly prays b Psal. 102. his hart, may be crowned with divine mercies. The penitent Magdalen c Luc. 7. and Peter d Marc. 26. weeping bitterly, resemble the Amaranth, an herb which in the midst of waters retains both its native bitterness and perpetual greene's. The voluptuous, worldly, and licentious men, are wholly taken with roses, and lillies. Let us crown ourselves say they, with roses, before they whither be there no meadow which our luxury runnes not over. e Sap. 2. O Phrygian luxury? O wantonness! But now a days forsooth the Princes and Potentates of the earth, crown not themselves so much with golden diadems and precious stones, as load them rather. O ambition! o pride! But what doth the most sweet JESUS, I pray! he loves the victorious palms, with these crowns he decks his dearest hart. For they indeed have truly merited those glorious wreaths who have not only constantly opposed the hart as a target to receive the shafts approaching of adverse fortune, but even as daring the enemy more slow to anger, have scorned and derided dead it-self. Surely the squadrons of Martyrs, and Quires of Virgins, triumphing in Heaven carry Palms in their hands: f Apoc. 10. howbeit the 24. Seniors beware on their heads crowns of gold g Apoc. 4. which through their glorious conquests and set triumphs by them made upon their enemies they had purchased to themselves. Bless therefore the Lord h Psal. 102. thou holy soul, through whose singular and especial favour thou hast atteined to the top of perfection Praise thy Lord i Psal. 147. through whose mighty power, thou hast walked and trampled on the sands of the sea, k Exod. 14. joshua. 3. crossed the jourdan with a dry foot, the people of hearts incircumcized, and enemies professed, looking, on the while, and gazing with amazement: to whom so vanquished, thou gavest laws, and laidst perpetual tributes on them, they being not able any ways to bar thee passage into the land of promise and ●egion of Pal●st●n●. Bless thy God ●hen o hart full of Heaven, and all of 〈◊〉 And since now thou hast ob●ned a certain pledge of felicity, an infallible hope, enter a God's name at thy pleasure, with a notable and triumphant pomp into the Capitol of the heavenly Jerusalem; whereso many purple King's triumph as have heretofore repressed their lewd concupiscences, and the insolence as well of their interior as exterior senses. join thee to the invincible Martyrs, and keep among the Quires of Virgins; let the body be thy triumphal chariot, which Saphires and Carbuncles, most precious jewels embellish as with so many twinkling stars. Let Clarity, Agility, Subtlety, Impassibility, those four dotes of the blessed body, be as so many wheels; and permit thyself to be drawn wheresoever the divine spirit sitting on the coach and wheels shall snatch thee, or fly thou where thou wilt thyself, divine love shall play the Coachman? Besides the Princes of darkness, sigh and groan as thy run before the chariot whom thou hast vanquished with the singular demission and lowliness of mind. Let death it-self be constrained likewise to put on the chains and follow after; since by the death of Christ thou hast triumphed upon it also, weakened and broken, and that already by the same guide and waggoner as before. Let the vanquished world come in and make a part of the said pomp; which than thou stoutly trampledst under-feets; when with a generous scorn and loathing, contemning its wealth and honours, thou mad'st no more reckoning of its vast immensnes, insolent carriages, and flaunting promises, then of a figure drawn in the water, or Chimaera laboriously framed in the foolish shop of the fantasy. Draw I say these ancient cruel enemies, now happily vanquished and tamed well loaden with cheines and reproaches, before the oval and triumphant chariot, that is, the rich bootyes, noble spoils, ample trophies and victories atcheived in many wars. But especially have care that sensuality above the rest, the chiefest part of the triumph, be tied and bound to the Chariot, which with an heroical fortitude thou hast conquered, & made more like indeed to a dead then a living thing, pale, meager and of so feeble forces as it may never after dare to appear in the field, or make any resistance. But now in warlike standards and ensigns let the cities and towers, which thou hast overthrown, be painted; which kind, let the mad tower be first set down, which thou had levelled with the ground, and let all the complices and confederates thereof, subdued and brought underyoke, and so cheyned together be led, as ambition, vanity, arrogance, and the rest of those military troops. Let another banner exhibit the bloody wars, to be read which thou hast valiantly attempted, fought, and the victories nobly achieved against luxury and rebellion of the senses. Let those gallant exploits be woven here in silk, and waved in banners, up and down through the air as thou passest,; wherewith thou hast mastered and tamed thy flesh, that fierce and cruel beast. Let the invincible courage of thy mind be here seen and read, as fasts, abstinences, austerities mortifications, wherewith, as with a sword and buckler, thou hast fought against this fierce and mischievous enemy. Let the Stygian Pluto also, that damned love of riches, be carried in an other flag; whom long since thou hast trod underfoot, in preferring religious poverty before all the treasures of the world. Let beside the dastard, weak, and languishing sloth, sitting on her snail, come forth in this triumph, which slow and sluggish beast, thou hast stirred up with the sharp prick of generosity and diligence, and beyond all hope provoked and prevailed with at last. Lastly in a table, higher than the rest, let this inscription be read, registered in capital letters, for a record and perpetual memory. THROUGH THE HELP, SUCCOURS, AND MERITS OF THE MOST LOVING JESUS, HAVE WE FAUGHT, AND VANQVISHED AND ARE NOW CONVEYED TO HEAVEN, TO TRIUMPH THERE AMIDST THE GLORIOUS PALMS AND LAURELS. But now what remains? forsooth this last of all; that when thou shalt consort thyself above, with those 24. Seniors, and Quires of Angels; thou lay down thy crown at the feet of the immaculate Lamb, l Apoc. 4. chanting with those blessed Citizens of Heaven this oval and triumphing song: Benediction & clarity, and thanksgiving honour, vert●e and fortitude, to our Lord for ever and ever. Amen. m Apoc. 7. XVIII. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras, etc. FIRST POINT. I Will fain myself to be armed at the top of the Hil, whither I had got with great endeavour, and much labour and trouble. I will cast and reflect the eyes of my mind on the diverse ways and traces I had passed thither; the precipices I escaped, and the perils of assassinates and wild beasts I have avoided: For so it is indeed with such as have attained to the top of perfection. For these should attentively consider with themselues as from an eminent place, how many and how great dangers, temptations, and sinister chances, being assisted by the divine mercy, they have escaped from the world, and all the rest of the enemies of man's salvation. 2. Point. I will consider the laws of these lifts to be such, that▪ None shall be crowned but who have lawfully fought & contended therein a 2. Tim. 2. The Palm belongs but to the Conqueror: b Apoc. 7. and I will admire also the goodness of God, for crowning us himself with his graces, and commanding the Angels to crown us with those laurels, which we have purchased to ourselves with our own virtues. 3. Point. I will ponder and weigh with myself, with what rivers of joys the hart flows, to whom is afforded to arrive to the top of divine love, and who already beholds his own perseurance; which only virtue makes us blessed and secure, without which the rest avail but little, or nothing, for perseverance alone is it, which is crowned. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to the most loving JESUS, to whom of duty all our crowns belong. For we are not conquerors so much as vanquished, while he indeed hath broken and subdued our refractory and rebellious hart. Wherefore to him as to amost mighty conqueror, and victorious Captain, with those 24. Seniors in the Apocalips a Apoc. 4. & 7. are we to offer up our crowns, palms, laurels, with this solemneverse of theirs; Benediction and clarity, and thancks. giving, honour and virtue, and fortitude for ever and ever be to JESUS the Conqueror and triumpher to come. Amen. Pater. Aue. JESUS CELEBRATES THE HEAVENLY Nuptials in the hart. THE HYMN. THe nuptial supper, now I see, O happy soul! prepar●●d for thee; The table's coberd: but what sea●, Hast thou for thy repose? What meat? Except a Lamb, I nothing find, The amorous Spouse is now so kind, That what ●e fed thee with before; From th'eye shallbe concealed no more. As with a fleece, in species white, He long in earth appeared in sight. As with a fleece, by grace gave heat: But now behold the Lamb thy meat. In ●im repose, freed from annoy By seeing, comprehend, enjoy. THE INCENTIVE. 1. JESUS the bloody Spouse or Spouse of blood a Exod. 4. leads his beloved, whom now long since he purchased with the price of his life, unto the Nuptial supper of the Lamb, into the heavenly Bride-chamber. The hart therefore (who admires not] is the banqueting room of these Nuptials and the Bedchamber of the Spouse JESUS himself. 2. It is a supper truly, because these joys are not afforded till after the toils of the day and labours past. Expect not lamps; here hanging on sumptuous and precious ceilings: These Palaces shine within, and without sun, moon, and stars. The Lamb himself is the lamp within, b Apoc. 21. and he the banquet Host, and Guest who is the Spouse. 3. Seest thou this royal Table here These things are all prepared for thee: Seekest thou daintyes? Hardly are thy seen of mortal eyes. Such as sit down here are always feeding, they drink without gluttony, are always satiated, and yet a-thirst, without any loathing or irksomeness at al. Behold all things are ready. Come to the wedding, the Spouse calls. c Mat. 22. THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. JESUS, receives the soul, whom he graciously beheld, though foully dight with her immundityes before, and now having cleansed her with purging waters, and adorned a Ezech. 16. with feminine bravery, takes her I say, not only to his Spouse, b Osee. 2. but if she keep her holily and chastely to him, casting her out of the most miserable banishment of this life, he leads her unto the great solemnity of the Nuptials, into the heavenly house of his Father: where he ties her eternally to him with an indissoluble knot of wedlock. Whereto belongs that sacred Epithalamium: Let us rejoice and exult; and give glory to him; because the Nuptials of the lamb are come, and his Spouse hath made herself ready, and she hath had given her shining and wh●e silk to wear. c Apoc. 19 It is surely a great matter to be reckoned of the family of the King of Kings, more to be accounted among his friends and familiars; but most of all to beheld the Son of God, the brother and coheyr of Christ: I will speak more boldly yet; this same is surely more honourable than all these to be called in the wedding the Spouse or Wife of the Lamb, that is, partaker in a manner of his bed and board, companion of his throne & crown. And this is that honour if I be not deceived, which the Prophet Esay means: d Isa. 56. I will give then a place in my house, and within my walls; and a better name than sons and daughters. For children being but a slender part or portion of parents, challenge and retain indeed much of their right and substance from them: but for man and wife, so great is the society and community between them of their whole life & of all their goods and titles, and they are bound together with so straight a tie, as how far so ever they be asunder, yet are held to be as is were in one place, and all one, which happens also in the celestial wedlock of JESUS with the soul. For who adheares to God is in all one spirit with him, as the Apostle e 1. Cor. 6. hath taught. Whence it is, that the soul perfectly united with God, is not only divine, but in a certain manner (if I may so say) is made God. And hence is all (whatsoever it is, which is surely very great) that dignity; profit, and sweetness of these nuptials. For look whatsoever else beside have any connexion with them, do all even flow from thence, as from an endless spring of all good and beatitudes; especially those three, (to say nothing of those of the body] to wit, the most singular and eminent dotes of the soul espoused & wedded to JESUS, as Vision, Comprehension, Fruition: f S. Tho. 1. 2. q. 4. ar. 3. Which are not procured her either of parents or nature it-self, but being so poor a Spouse, are most bountifully afforded her by JESUS the Spouse himself (as with Kings is wont when they match with any of low degree, most richly to endow their beloved Spouses, by reason of their nuptials had between them. But in regard these things of themselves are greater than can be worthily weighed by us, much less expressed, the divine Scriptures, do lightly shadow at least and adumbrate in a sort all the excellencies and delicious fruits thereof, with the pleasant and most apt figure (for our capacity) of royal nuptials, and a wedding supper. g Luc. 14. Mar. 22. The reason is, for that no noises of affairs & negotiations, nor cares, which commonly fall out by day, do not trouble or disturb the peace and delights of suppers; & for the feasts of royal Nuptials, they use especially to be very curious and dainty indeed, where no part of the senses abounds not with exquisite delights. Here the eyes are fed with various Emblems of the tapestries of the Hal most gallant to behold, with the gorgeous apparel of the Guests and waiters also, with the gold of the plates, and jewels of the whole furniture there. Here the ears are charmed with the artificious harmony of musical instruments & voices. Here the sent most sweetly is perfumed with the delicate odours of flowers and herbs, and boxes full of the sweetest ointments: the palate seasoned & relished with delicious wines, and the daintyest viands; purchased with the greatest study and industry; and sought for far and near by all the exquisite means that may be devised, and dressed especially by the rarest Cooks. Lastly, to the end the sense of feeling, the most brutish sense of all the rest, might not want it's peculiar delights also, the touching hath its proper delectation, from the softness of downy beds, and curious carpets, from the feathers, and down of swans and the like. Let us run over a while, if you please, the gardens & pictures of the great Assuerus, that from that feast, the royalest perhaps that ever was in the memory of men, by guess at least we may gather in some manner, what a banquet it is, which JESUS furnisheth forth in the hart of his Spouse. He then, as well, to show the riches of the glory of his Kingdom, and the greatness and the ostentation of his power; as also in the third year of his reign, to celebrate publicly the day wherein first he took a perfect possession of Susa the chief seat of his Kingdom, prepared a Persian, royal, and a sumptuous banquèt. For first Assuerus himself was the Master of the feast and who was he? He reigned from India to Ethiopea, from the East to the West: and what more? He gave laws to 27. Provinces, appointing so many Prefects and Governors to them, who in the King's name might administer justice. Assu●●●rus therefore was a mighty and most puissant King; yea truly he had conquered and subdued to his own dominion the whole world, h Ester. 1. if we believe but his own Epistle: i Ester. 13. though indeed I should think it rather to be no more than a mere exaggeration of insolent men, who extending their bounds a little wider, use to flatter themselves with the Empire straight of the whole world: But be it so as they boast of & make their brags, Assuerus yet shall seem but a fly compared with God himself; nor ever shall though he puss up himself never so much, arrive to the bulk and worth of an Elephant. JESUS, the Master of this feast, not only as God, but even also as man, is the Sovereign & supreme Lord of all things, in whose loins is written King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, k Apoc. 19 and at whose aspect & tribunal coming to judgement shall Assuerus himself appear one day, yea tremble and groan the while. The rest may likewise be gathered by this: Yet if you please let us survey them more particularly that our purpose & scope may appear more clearly. Susa was not the head-Citty of the kingdom of Persia, but a pleasant and most delicious Tempe, which that river Coaspes washed as it went a long; whose waters Kings, and those very far remote from thence, made use of for daintyest drink: and for the amenity of the place; it took the name of Lily, which Susa signifies in Persia. Here therofore they reposed and lodged themselves, and that truly in those royal and princely gardens, wodds and groves l Ester. 1. in the Spring especially as we may believe. Here not only the pleasant variety of flowers and herbs made a wanton dalliance but even of the beautifullest trees also; in disposing whereof in checkerwise, and distributing the allies, walks, and arbours the royal hands themselves, after the Country fashion, had labowred to some purpose. But what trow you was the rest of the garnishment of this festival Court Where the Pavilions were of a costly and rich stuff; of cerulean, aetherean, and of the colour of the Hyacinth, whose curteynes hung with strings of purple silk, fasten with ●●●inges made of ivory: at either end these rich and stately Canopyes were gallantly sustained with marble pillars; beneath lay humble pallots on the ground a pleasant pavement, to rest upon all of gold and silver, streyed with the fairest mantles and rich carpets (as the 70. Interpreters signify) wrought all over, embroidered and curiously set forth with needle-works of roses, and divers other flowers, glittering and beguiling the senses: besides all which, the pavement it-self shined all of a certain square stone, and that in quadruple wise; enterstinguished with in the emerald, and touchstone, and (as the Hebrew hath) with marble and Hyacinth being certain titles forsooth, diversified all in an admirable manner. And these for the most part were prepared for the common Guests; for I should think those of the better ●●●t, were all entertained in the i● most lodgings of those Princely Palaces, where with tapistryes and pictures, were all the rooms and lobbeyes sumpteously hang'd. Could there be ever any thing either for majesty more royal and magnificent or for luxury and delight more soft and delicious? O childish toys, & merely gugawes! O loose cogitations, of the soul, even bendingto the earth! why creepest thou on the earth, thou little much rump, and pleasest thyself so much with these trifles? Measure with the eyes of thy mind at least, the vast immensnes of the Heaven's gaze if thou canst, and behold the sun, moon, and the rest more than common people of that starry house; which are but only outward ornaments: for those within, far different from them, transcending not only the faculty of the senses, but even the agility of the mind also are merely laid out of sight. Hear the mellifluous Bernard: m Bern. ep. 114. that same indeed is the true and only joy, which is not of the creature, but is truly conceived of the Creator himself, and which being possessed by thee no man can take away from thee: where to compared all pleasure otherwise is but sorrow, all sweets but bitterness, all beauty deformity. Lastly all other things nought else but tedious and irksome, which otherwise might seem more pleasing and delightful. Now then, which is the other point; look we into the great Assuerus Guests n Ester. 1. and directours of the feast. Of these I note two sorts, some purple Heroes of the Persians' and chief Prefects of those Countries and Provinces 127. in number; who all (leaving magistrates of inferiors orders behind them in their rooms, to take up differences accurring the while) flock to thy City & Princely Court, to that great feast: the other Guests were the common sort of the City of Susa itself, from the highest to the lowest a vast people without head or certain number of them. But for the ministers and waiters there, I seem also to behold two orders of them some Prefects of the royal Palace; who as Sterwards, Vouchers, and Sewers of the feast appointed and placed the Guests, prescribing laws and rules to them to be kept amongst them; others to execute lesser and inferior offices, as Butlers, Tasters, Cup-brearers, and the rest of waiters all: But if compared with the Angels, as well the Pages, and others of that divine table; as the bidden Guests themselves, or either with the number or splendour, of the rest of the blessed Citizens of heaven, those are but dwarves; these Giants, those wretches, and for manners most commonly wicked, these blessed and happy; yea most holy these except a few, an ignoble and base people, and these not only most grave Senators, but Kings and Monarches all without exception. Behold here the Queen-mother of God (to amit the Spouse himselfc, behold, the Patriarches Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and all the rest of the Court of Heaven, and let the Medes and Persian Guests alone. Yet still Assuerus o Ester. 1. vaunts & Boasts of the bowels & dishes of his feast. Be it so, let us set down them to eat & drink our fill, for this is thesumme of al. The dishes, plates, and trenchers, are often changed; such is the multitude and variety there, and store of silver gold, and other precious vessels: For here they eat and drink also in gold, and cups made all of gems. As for the cups the Septuaginta aver there was one made of Carbuncles, surely of a vast and immense price, to wit, of thirty thousant talents, which of our florins comes to more than 101 millions. Let no man after this speak or wonder any more at the suppers, excess, costs of Cleopa●●●ra, L●●●llus, or Heliog●balus. But what was the meat now brought to the table? The sacred Scriptures speak not a word thereof for that perhaps all might guess then, if they would, as well by the Pe●●●sia● pomp, very usual in those things, and now brought into a proverb, as by the great ostentation touched above of the plates, cups, and dishes had in that feast. What the drink? Forsooth the best forts, as became the royal magnificence: there was abundance of all and the choicest p ibid. wines that could possibly be had, but on that condition that none should be compelled to drink more or less; but every-one have liberty to drink as much and as little as he would. Surely a wholesome and laudable law of the King. For this tyrannical order of Let him do reason or begun, sprung first no doubt from the Greek Taverns, of I know non what Caldus, B●●●berius, or Mero q Cicero. lib. 5. Tuscul. But now go to, thou great admirer of the Pe●●●sian banquet: what account makest thou of the gold, silver, jewels, in those cups and dishes? This gold, silver, jewels, believe me are but a harder kind of earth, whereto the sun & stars have given a colour and some lustre; whereon I say, lest avarice perhaps might set to great a price, nature had wissel hid them in the womb or bowels of the elements, and these also where they are most in use, and worn of all, become but cheap, and of little worth. But for meats and drinks what they are, appeareth then, when hardly being let down into the stomach they are straight egested thence. And wilt thou compare this filth, this dirt [to say no worse) with the riches, and delights of heaven, with the Nuptials of JESUS with the Euangelical supper, with the vision of the divine Essence, lastly with those delights and inexhaustible pleasures, which flow incessantly from that ocean of the highest good? The great lohn saw r Apoc. 6. & 21. this table in his apocalypse, and wondered at it; the royal Psalmist saw it likewise, and wholly astonished, exclaimed: ●hey shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of pleasure. s Psal. 55. But take here a little this simple taste thereof. All the goods of this world are nothing else, but as rinds and springs of the fruits of Paradise, cut off: and if the rinds and springs be such that men even ray with the love and desire of them, what shall the fruits themselves be, and the apples of Paradise it-self? and if such be the fruits and apples; what shall the rest be of those more solid and better meats? Surely they shall be such as they may always be eaten without loathing, and always desired without anxiety. t Bellarm. de fel. 88 And now finally how long have these feasts of Assuerus lasted? A hundred & eightye days at most; scarce half a year, especially if we speak of the feasts of the Peers and Nobles; for the common sort● continued hardly a week in these transitory delights. Take me here a hundred thousand years, yea a thousand millions of years of this Nuptial supper, which JESUS furni●eth in the lover's hart, and you shall find no end of the feast, which end yet, if you seek further, measure Eternity. As long as Heaven and God shall be, these Nuptials shall continue always. Not so, in this banquet of Su●a. For (oh inconstancy of humane things!) behold how in the tables of Assuerus himself mourning occupies the last of joys. u Pro. 14. After the Persian King had well caroused, & now all inflamed with B●●●cchus, deep in his cups, & thought he had done but little yet, if he showed not the Queen Vasth●, to his Guests; because the, either of pride or modesty rather, refused to come into the drunken presence of all those Princes, by the King her husband, she was foully & ignominiously entreated, in the very banqueting room it-self, were she feasted with her Ladies, being thrust from the royal throne and dignity, was refused and rejected by him. Go to now, and praise the feasts and nuptials of the great Assuerus, if you will; or rather be wise and admire, and love the celestial Nuptials of the Lamb. XIX. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quesumus, etc. THE PRELUDE. BLessed are they who are called to the Nuptial supper of the Lamb 1. Point. Consider the highest dignity (than which a greater cannot be imagined) as well of the soul, in love which JESUS, which from an abject and base condition is advanced to the Nuptials of God himself, as of the humane hart, wherein these divine Nuptials are celebrated. Whence comes it, O humane soul, saith S. Bernard, a Bern. ser. 2. de mut. aquae in vinum. whence happens this so inestimable glory to thee, that thou should●st deserve to be his Spouse, on whom the Angels wish to gaze? How happens this, that he should be thy Spouse, whose beauty the sun and moon admire, at whose b●ck are all things changed: What wilt thou yield to thy Lord for all he hath thus afforded thee, to be his companion at table, and compartener of his Kingdom; lastly his bedfellow, and to have the King himself to lead th●e into his chamber? And by and by behold with what arms of mutual charity, he is to be embraced, and loved again, who hath made such reckoning of thee; and at last: forget thy people, and thy father's house: Forsake carnal affects, unlearn secular manners abstain from former vices, commit all naughty customs to oblivion. 2. Point. Weigh how great, sincere, and solid, the pleasures, are like to be, which the spouse prepares for thee in the Nuptial supper: survey all things which under heaven, are precious delightful, and dear to men, in the air, earth, or ocean Sea, and then reason with S. Augustine thus: Is, my Lord, thou afford so much to us in prison; what wilt thou do in the Palace? For since here all things are so exceeding good and delectable, which thou hast conferred on the evil as well as the good; what will those be which thou hast laid up for the good only? If so various and innumerable thy gifts are, which now thou equally distribu●est to friends and enemies, how great and innumerabbe, how sweet and delect●ble shall they be, thou wilt bestow on thy friends only! If in this day of tears and mourning thou impar●st such things what wilt thou do on the nuptial day? Hearest thou this my soul, and yet exclaymest not? Blessed be he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God. b Luc. 14. 3. Point Attend to this also; how of the ten Virgins of the Gospel c Mat. 25. being all Virgins indeed, that is, espoused to Christ through true and sincere faith, and who had sometimes pleased the Spouse in carrying lamps of good works in their hands, five were become foolish, and from the nuptials and wedding supper on hard fortune! quite excluded. Beware thou be not of their number let thy lamp be always burning, and sending forth light; let the oil of charity abound in thy lamp, and even, flow over, and especially take heed thou never sleep or slumber a whit, nor be surprised unaware, suspecting nothing of death, or judgement, or be unprovided. Have continually ringing in thine ears, that voice of thy Spouse Vigilate, so often whispered in thy hart, that when that cry shallbe heard Behold the Spouse comes, go forth and meet him, thou maidst presently meet him cheerfully coming to thee, and with him enter into the wedding. For woe and a thousand woes to them, who unmindful wholly of so great a good, and deaf to the words of God, being taken napping drowned in sleep with their lamps extinguished, and so excluded from the sweetest nuptials of the lamb, shall be forced to cry out in vain, Lord, Lord open to us; on whom that iron bolt shall be obtruded, I know you not, or that wholly as lamentable; The gate is shut. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be directed to JESUS the Spouse. Especially thou shalt yield him thanks with all thy powers, for choosing thy soul to be his Spouse, for loving it so dear hitherto, and endowing it with the espousal gifts. Then shalt thou humbly beseech pardon of him, for having so coldly answered to his fervent love, wherewith he hath so often prevented thee; and sometimes perhaps for breaking thy faith to him so firmly engaged. Lastly by that his love, wherewith he hath so of ten prevented thee, shalt thou most earnestly beg at his hands, that through his grace thou mayst be continually vigilant, and provided for that last Advent, which is like to be at mid-nigh, when perhaps thou lest suspectest the same; that then thou mayst meet him, with thy burning lamp, and with the prudent Virgins enjoy him and his nuptial feast for ever. a Mat. 25. Pater. Aue. JESUS MANIFESTES HIMSELF AND THE MOST holy Trinity in the mirror of the hart. THE HYMN. THe Painter cannot draw a face, T' express to life each 〈◊〉, grace, And figure, with proportion fit Except the party drown doth sit: But here in th'heart' by being seen, God draws the picture which had been Before imperfect: though 'twere neat, And often touched, 'twas not complete. Till now, it lightened as upon see, True picture of the Trinity. The colours stemmed did fak and eye, But now sbal last eternally. While here the hart doth quiet sit, By vision God doth figure it. THE INCENTIVE. 1. THe hart which loves God truly and perfectly indeed, is a heavenly Paradise; so flowers it over and swims in delights; not the counterfeit, and transitory delights of this world, but of the other life; such as here, neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath ascended into man's hart a Rom. 8. 2. Here now JESUS stands not behind the wall, peeping at this Spouse through a grate; b Cant. 2. but, which she begged at his hands, shows her his face, the divine Essence, the three divine Persons, so clearly and manifestly indeed, as even the images themselves expressed, reflect again in the Crystal of the hart. O Paradise! O delights! O joys! 3. The hart faints through abundance of love and delights and nigh bursts with all, O man! what a beast thou art, if hearing of these pleasures, thou rather choosest the husks of swine? How like a block and stone, if yet thou lovest not JESUS? THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation. SO great is the future beatitude to the soul which loves JESUS dear indeed, that mortal men being drowned in sensuality & mire, cannot easily conceive it in the mind, nor less (without divine light and hope) expect it. For (which S. Paul a Rom. 8. took out of the prophecy of Esay. b Iza. 58. The eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it ascended into the hart of man, what God hath prepared for such as love him. Surely those two most wise and worthy men, to the end they might clearly propose the greatness and amplitude of the heavenly beatitude, assumed the first kind of measure to wit the spacious orbs of eyes seeming most capacious, which though shut in a little corner as it were, yet now and then get forth, wander & expatiate far and wide, not only, into the vast champain fields, huge mountain tops, and the golden and gemmy bowels of the waters, but with help especially of Mathematic instruments reach even to the very heavens themselves, well nigh of an infinite distance from us, and therein discover the lightest spots▪ changes, and errors. And yet this scantling is found to be less than so to conclude or comprehend beatitude. The eye hath not seen. Wherefore with the ●yes since we only apprehend things present, but with hearing moreover as by histories perceive those things which have been formerly acted, or now are wrought in any other place, or shall hereafter come to pass, the ears have seemed more apt to measure the thing proposed. But so neither, the immensnes of beatitude could be contained. Nor the ear hath heard. There remained now the vessel, for bulk surely not great, yet for capacity indeed most ample, the hart of man. For in the shop of the hart we frame, cherish, and embrace, as our proper issues, not only what our selves have seen, with our eyes, or heard by relation from others but even many other things also, which can not truly exist at all, as golden mountains, Chimaeras, Hippocentaures, and the like: And yet so neither, hath it ascended into the ha●t of m●n, what God hath prepared for such as love him. This thing according to S. Augustin. Is not comprehended through charity, it transcends as vows & wishes. Shall we therefore despair? No it cannot be esteemed, it may be yet purchased Go to yet let us value it, howsoever, and as well as beating the price, let us cheapen it as we can. I for my part am truly of this opinion, that we are much taken and carried away with nothing more than with pleasure, nor do I mislike them who are so, if they be solid▪ sincere and honest pleasures we hung so after. But believe me there can be nothing more sweet and delicious, than the ●oyes and iubelies of the hart, drowned in the love of JESUS, and wherein JESUS deliciats himself? For why? It is a Paradise truly and ●ot that terrestrial one (though for 〈◊〉 amenity of the soil and air, and the exceeding plenty of flowers, trees, and fruits, it were so glorious and the very name of Paradise it-self imports no less than a place of pleasures and delights] but is indeed a heavenly Paradise into the allies whereof and first walks, S. Paul being hardly admitted, was so lulled with all delights, that forgetting himself and all things else beside he was able to tell no more than this, I know a man; saith he, whether in body I know not, or without the body I know not God knows, to be ravished into the third heaven, and to have heard so mysterious words, as man might not utter. c 2. Cor. 12. But what were they whence so great a feeling of pleasure, and delight results? Touch we the thing it-self, with the needly of faith only. In that celestial Paradise of the blessed hart, JESUS laying his Pilgrim habit a side, and the veil of faith wherewith he was shrouded, shall exhibit his humanity to be seen and enjoyed face to face: I have said too little, yea his divine essence also. This perhaps were enough to beatitude yet will he cause the three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy-Ghost. to be so present, as they may not only be seen, but even seem in a manner to be touched also. Besides, in this native and most lucid mirror of all things, many other things, nigh infinite for number, for beauty and variety surely admirable, shall shine with all, with so new always & so fresh an ob●ect, that as long as eternity shall last they shall not breed any tediousness in the beholders, or ever diminish the thirst of seeing and beholding more, ●●ere therefore, as in a lively picture expressed in their colours, those mysteries of faith and religion shall be truly represented, which now hardly are but shadowed, and with all our endeavour never wholly attained The Incarnation of the Word in the Virgin, the Oeconomy of man's Redemption, the divine providence in administering things, the admirable and most hidden reasons of punishing the good and prospering the wicked: lastly, the laws, traces, and rapts of divine love, by which he hath at last conducted the hart which loves him; sweetly indeed and yet strongly, now by the pleasant, and then the horrid paths, now of joy then of sadness, into the seats of all beatitudes From the clear knowledge of all which verities, especially the object of the divine Nature, and Persons, and conceiving the images in the mind, of so excellent and admirable things, who sees not very sovereign and nigh incredible joys to arise? Queen Saba, scarce entering into the room where Solomon, was fell into so great admiration, and was so rapt and transported with delight, at the order pomp, magnificence, especially at the presence of the King himself, that recovering breath at last, which she had nigh lost, she cried out aloud: Blessed are thy men, & blessed thy servants who stand always before thee, and hearken to thy wisdom. d 3. Reg. 10. Yet these are but toys, chips, trifles, compared with the presence and sight of God. They report of S. Francis, that being once sadder than ordinary, he was so taken and ravished with the short modulation an Angel made with the lightest touch of his thumb on a Harp, as he seemed to himself to be no more on the earth, but to be conversant in heaven, amid the blessed Spirits there. e S. Bona● in vita S. Fran. Good God If these (which in heavenly delights is likely one of the least amongst them) so short and slight touches of the Angelical hand, as they could hardly be heard, were yet able to ravish the holyman, what would the harmony work of so many Angelical and humane voices, what exultations would be there what dances and iubelyes? Besides, if the meanest things in heaven, as songs and dances, so delight and tickle hearts, what will the rest do, both for number and dignity far greater? What is more poor and slender with us than a bare & simple thought of God? Yet David in his greatest troubles and afflictions when he felt himself most oppressed, with the tip of the lips only of his soul, as it were, would lick in this celestial 〈◊〉 divine honey, and therewith take extreme pleasure. I was mindful of God, saith he, and took delight. f Psal. 56. Again having but a thought only the fruition of God, of mere joy he could hardly contain himself; but sing in triumph. I have rejoiced in the things which have been told me we shall go into the house of the Lord. g Psal. 111. Which triumphal verse of the Royal Psalmist, when our Angelical Blessed Aloysius, being near his death through weakness, could not wholly bring forth, Rejoicing saith he, we go rejoicing, and with that so broken and abrupt verse in his mouth, even dying wouderfully exulted. Another time when the Kingly Prophet, not only considered that he was to go to the house of the Lord, but sending his soul as it were before him into those galleryes themselves and entryes of heaven, and privily laying his ears to the doors in a manner of the Nuptial Chamber, and obscurely hearing a kind of whispering (I know not) of some of the joys there within, it not only wiped away from him all sadness, caused in him through the form's exprobration objected to him of Where is his God? but dilating his breast, made him to pour forth his soul into most sweet and ecstatical pleasures: And wherefore? Because (saith he) I shall enter into the place of the admirable Tabernacle even to the house of God, in the voice of exultation, and confession, the sound of the Master of the feast. h Psal. 41. Lastly, another time, being yet mortal when creeping by stealth as it were he had secretly insinuated himself into the bower or conclave of the immortals, comparing them with himself and our humane affairs, he broke forth into these terms of joy, and congratulation: How lovely are thy Tabernacles oh Lord of virtues! my soul covets and longs after the galleries of the Lord My hart and my flesh, have rejoiced in the living God. Blessed are they, Lord, who dwell in thy house, they shall praise thee forever and ever. Because in thy galleries one day is better than a thousand, i Psal. 83. to wit, so great is the pleasure of the eternal light, Which (S. Augustin, expressly saith in these words k Aug. lib. 3. de lib. arb. c. ult. that though it were not lawful to enjoy it longer than a day, yet for that only, innumerable years of this life, full of delights and the abundance of temporal goods, were worthily and with reason to be contemned. For it was not falsely or slightly said, that better is one day in thy Galleries, than a thousand. So as it is less to be admired, that David should presently add this also: I have chosen rather to be an abject in the house of my God, then to dwel in the Tabernacles of sinners. l 1. Par. 9 I had rather, saith he, be in the lowest office of a doorkeeper in the porch of the Temple, and there watch at the entry as a slave before him, with the hope of enjoying this celestial beatitude, then with the hazard of losing it; in the most ample and sumptuous Palaces and houses, to be observed and courted, by a number of clients, and friends. Hence, that affection of the mind aspiring unto Heaven with a swift course, As the Hart, covets the fountains of waters, so my soul desires thee, O God. m Psal. 14. That kind of beast truly is fleet and swift, but then flies he with most speed, when either being chased by hounds, or bitten with serpents, he feels an extraordinary thirst, for then to quench that heat he runs headlong to the fountains, & flies like the winds. David thirsted likewise, and no less groaned & sighed after heaven. When shall I come and appear before the face of God? And for the great desire he had and love to the heavenly country and the felicity of the Blessed, which even absent he had tasted now and then, had so great a horror tediousness and aversion from humane things, as tears to him were of familiar as bread to others, nor used he food more frequently than tears, yea tears themselves were food unto him; so as oppressed with dolours neither would he take his food, or so much as think thereof; while to him thus vehemently thirsting after the presence of God, this gibing taunt was obbrayded to his face, Where is thy God? From all which this same may be ●athered, that if in these Galleries, though absent David and diverse other Saintly men have taken such pleasure, with what joys and delights may we not imagine those to swmme in, who are admitted into the secret closet and cabinet of the Spouse? If but a slight ray onli of the blessed vision, so dazzle the eyes of the mind; if but a drop of the water of Paradise and fountain of the chiefest good but lightly sprinkled; if but a crumb falling from the table of our Lord, so recreates and refresheth mortals, what will the whole sun himself do? what will the very Ocean of all good things? what will the table of our Lord himself confer to the immortals? Shall not the hart even swim trow you, in these delights, yea be wholly immersed, and drowned in them. XX. MEDITATION. The preparatory Prayer. Actiones nostras quesumus, etc. THE PRELUDE. When he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him, as he is: And whosoever hath this hope in him, sanctifies himself as he is holy. 1. Point. Consider how great a good, how excellent, how delectable it is, most clear to behold one God in essence, three in Persons, Father, Son, and Holy-Ghost, and that eternally in the mirror of the hart: Surely, the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it ascended into the hart of man what God hath prepared for such as love him: a Rom. 8. Taste with the inward sense these delights of the heavenly Paradise, and loath the leek, and garlic of AEgipt the miry bogs, the empty husks & filthiness of the world. Oh if thou couldst but take a taste or assay before hand with the glorious S. Augustin of the joys of the Blessed, thou wouldst say with him: How sweet to me suddenly it was to want those sweets of idly toys, and what before was a grief to lose was now a joy to forgo wholly thou eiectedst them from me, the true and chiefest sweetness, and enterdst thyself in; instead of them, sweeter far than all pleasure. b Lib. 9 Conf. cap. 1. 2. Point. Ponder how, much this same cogitation may and ought avail to endure and go through with any hart and difficult enterprise for God and our salvation. What changes suddenly and alterations of minds, those fruits wrought which come from the land of Promise, c Num. 13. which made them surmonut the difficulties, they feared so much before? What do not the wrestlers generously perform and suffer in sight of the goal and crowns proposed? Surely the sufferings of this time are not condign to the future glory, which shallbe revealed in us. d Rom. 8. With which only napkin, (as S. Gregory observes e in job cap. 7. that glorious and illustrious Champion of the Christian lists S. Paul. wiped away all the sweat of the infinite and most grievous labours and troubles he sustained; and so likewise the rest of Martyrs. But this especially when S. Adrian being a Soldiers, in the flower of his ●ge, beheld a great number of Christians to run very joyful and glad into torments, scaffolds, gibbets, Crosses, fires, as it were to a wedding, asked what hope it was that drew & led them to it: and when it was answered they hoped for those goods which the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath ascended into the hart of man, he was so moved and changed therewith, that presently he gave up his name to be put into the list, and under Maximian most stoutly and valiantly suffered Martyrdom. So much the hope of beatitude could work. 3. Point. See how immense and powerful is the divine love of JESUS, which through grace at last leads a man unto the vision it-self, of the divine effence, wherewith even God himself is blessed. Then think what thou oughtest to yield to recompense this love again: no less no doubt then reciprocal love. For when God loves, he would no more then to be loved again; knowing them who love him only, to be truly blessed. So S. Bernard in his 83. Sermon on the Canticles. But to the end thou mayst love God thou art wholly to empty thy hart from the love of all other things. For even as a vessel (which is S. Anselmes' discourse) the more water is in it or any other liquor, contains less oil; so the more the hart is taken up with other loves the more it excludeth this. There is yet another, that as stench is contrary to a good odour, and darkness to light, so is all other love contrary, to this: As therefore contraries do never agree well together; so this love agrees not with any other love in the hart. THE COLLOQVY. Shall be made to JESUS, the most dear lover of souls of whom shalt thou earnestly beg, to impart unto thee his divine love which this or the like form: My God, give me tby self; behold I love thee, and if this be too little may I love thee more. I cannot measure how much love I want, of that which were c●ough. This know I only, it goes i'll with me, without thee: and all abundance which is not my God, is mere poverty. Let the sweet power then of thy love devour me, grant I may live and dye with the love of thy love, since first thou hast so loved, as thou hast not only afforded me and done many great things for me; but hast likewise wouch safest to dye for me. a Exs. Aug. & S. Francisco. Lastly from the inward bowels make an act of the love of God above all things, and so conclude in thee wont manner with a Pater & Aue. AN INCENTIVE Of the Act of the love of God above all things. GOod God thou command me to love thee, and threatnest if I do it not: Is there any need of these chains for me to be tied to love theer Am I so void of sense, as to be ignorant of thy benefits, graces, perfections? Or rather do I want a hart, to love an infinite good? Now if love be to be recompensed with love, what love can parallel the divine love? Thou hast loved me eternally, even when I was not or possibly could love thee: Thou hast created the world, & conseruest it hitherto for my sake: Thou hast given order to the Angels to guard me: Thou wouldst be my reward beyond measure. Thou callest me a sinner to grace and penance. But yet is this far more lovely, most sweet Saviour, that being God, thou wouldst become man, to suffer so hard and cruel things and lastly dye on the Cross for me who had (cruel as I am] so engaged thee death. But this of all others is most sweet, that being near to death thou leftest me thy body and blood in the Sacrament, an admirable pledge of thy love towards me. Oh Love! o extasis of love! How thou deservest, my God, to be highly loved of all men, above all things. May I therefore so love thee (my JESUS,) Saviour of lovers and love of Saviour's, and so let the face of thy love even swallow me; that I may live and dye with the love of thy love, who through the love of my love, hast likewise vouchsafed to dye for me. Oh infinite goodness of God? A Formulary of the love of God above all things. O Great God, I love thee above all things; I love thee with all my hart, with all my soul, with all my powers, and merely of this same love I am sorry above all things for offending thee the infinite good: most firmly re oluing hence forth, through thy grace, to keep all thy commandments. And why do I love thee above all things? surely for this; for thy immense perfection, incomprehensible power, high●● wisdom, infinite sanctity and goodness, that is, for thyself, O Father, O Son, O Holy-Ghost three persons, one God, who art above all things. Amen. JESUS. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. FINIS.