The affections of a pious soule, unto our Saviour-Christ Expressed in a mixt treatise of verse and prose. By Richard Flecknoe. Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678? This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A00926 of text S115106 in the English Short Title Catalog (STC 11032). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 37 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 32 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A00926 STC 11032 ESTC S115106 99850325 99850325 15516 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A00926) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 15516) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 886:01) The affections of a pious soule, unto our Saviour-Christ Expressed in a mixt treatise of verse and prose. By Richard Flecknoe. Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678? [12], 49, [1] p. Printed by Iohn Raworth for William Brooke, dwelling at the upper end of Holborne in Turpius Rents, London : 1640. Running title reads: The affections of a pious soule, &c. Some print show-through. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library. eng Devotional literature -- Early works to 1800. A00926 S115106 (STC 11032). civilwar no The affections of a pious soule, unto our Saviour-Christ. Expressed in a mixt treatise of verse and prose. By Richard Flecknoe. Flecknoe, Richard 1640 6855 5 0 0 0 0 0 7 B The rate of 7 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2003-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-09 Daniel Haig Sampled and proofread 2003-09 Daniel Haig Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE AFFECTIONS OF A PIOUS SOULE , UNTO OUR Saviour-Christ . Expressed in a mixt Treatise of Verse and Prose . By Richard Flecknoe . LONDON , Printed by Iohn Raworth for William Brooke , dwelling at the upper end of Holborne in Turpins Rents , 1640. To the truly Noble , and Vertuous Lady , The Lady Nevill Brooke . Madame , BEhold my one weeks Meditation , which is yours all the yeer ; so I presume it may not come unseasonable to you now , though that dolorous time be past , and a more joyfull one ensued ▪ Even so it is , by the way of sorrow , we must arive to joy , which none in the next life can perfectly participate of with our Saviour Christ , without part of his paine and sufferings in this , Though not by Passion , yet by Compassion at least ▪ So , where the effect wants , if the will want not , it is sufficient . You ( Madam ) are ( we know ) of more Eminency of Fortune , then to feele the one , but of such Eminent devotion , as the other you are not without tender feeling of , which makes me with more Confidence , approach this to your fair hands , who yeild to none , in truly honouring you , RICH : FLECKNOI To The Towne-Reader . TO tell thee true , I am both sorrie and ashamed , to have spent so many idle houres with thee ; and therefore to avoyd the expence of more , have retired me from the Towne . This then to thee , is in part of acknowledgement of it , as of purpose to amend ; and as this shall find acceptance , so expect at convenient leisure to heare from me againe . For my disposition ( if thou knowest it not ) thou mayest , from this Ode of mine . ( 1 ) Free as I was borne I 'll live , So should everie wise man do : Only fools they are , that give Their freedoms to I know not who . ( 2 ) If my weaknesse cannot save it , But 't must go ; what e're it cost : Some more strong than I shall have it , Can make good what I have lost . ( 3 ) Still some excellencie should be More i' th' Master , than the Slave , Which in others till I see , None my libertie shall have . ( 4 ) Nor is 't excellencie enough , Time nor Chance can mar or make ; But 't must be more lasting stuffe , Shall from me my freedome take . ( 5 ) Wherefore beautie never shall On my libertie intrude : And proud greatnesse least of all , Cause 't is proud , once to conclude . ( 6 ) Those to whom I 'll give away , That which none too deare can buy , Shall be made of better clay , And have better souls than I. For the Treatise it selfe , by reason there are but too many of that depraved pallate , to whom all seems insipid and disgustfull , that is , seasoned with any taste of pietie , to occur to such infirme appetites , I have served up their meat in little pieces , thus cut up unto their hands , which in greater perhaps they would not like so well . To make it a more spreading work , if I would , I could have beat it thinner , ( the matter was plyable enough unto the hammer ) but I like not works of that raritie , defined by the Philosopher , Sub magna quantitate substantia parva . And hold in books as in coyne , those of most value in least quantitie the best . That I am so frequent in Latin citation , those I am sure who are verst in the language , will easily pardon it ; the rest , I hope , will not be difficile , when they shall find in the reading , the sense compleat without it . If any demand , why then I inserted it , I answer , works of this fabrick , consolidate and built upon authority of holy Writ , without frequent Texts of it , for foundation and cement , are worthily esteemed , but weake and loose-written things . Now that I chose the Latin to any other vulgar ; I presumed , as a builder , they would give me leave to provide my materials , when I supposed them at best hand to be got . But I detaine thee too long in the porch , unlesse with Malchus thou thinkest much to have an eare in the passion : Enter the work , and if thou receivest but as much profit in reading , as I entended thee in writing , we shall both be happy in it . Farewell : R. F. THE AFFECTIONS OF A PIOUS SOUL TO OUR Saviour Christ . UPon that day ( never to be forgotten , nor ever without teares to be remembred ) which stands markt to all posteritie , with the black note upon it , of his death , who is the life of all , it chanced a pious soule from those remoter parts of Gallilee , consining with the sea , came up to Hierusalem in search of our Saviour Christ . Where being arived , shee found all in noyse and uprore ; most part with thronging haste , flocking towards the Temple , and whispering somewhat of strange and admirable as they past along ; the rest in the streets effused , and waving up and downe with the tide of severall passions , here one exulting with insolent joy , another there as much depressed with griefe : this , silently weeping ; that , lowdly jocund ; so as you would have imagined both joy and griefe had inhabited there together ( as their extremes , they say , do neere confine . ) And if ( as Painters note ) the same lines serve to delineate both weeping and laughter too , you had seene them both exprest unto the life , in one piece there ; both yet set off with a deep shadow of admiration . Whereupon , she meeting with none , of whom seasonably shee might demand the cause of such discrepant affection : And easily conjecturing him she sought ( the exactest rule of order ) there , no where to bee found where such disorder was , retired her selfe to that part of the Citie , where Mount Calvary , like a swelling tumour arises on its side , both after so long journey to repose her wearied limbs , as also in silence and solitude of the place , to recollect a while from noyse and clamour of the Citie multitude . Here she was no sooner come , but behold a strange and horrid spectacle met her amazed eye . It was of three crosses erected on the Mount , whereon Death it seemes had affixed in trophie of that daies victorie , three persons crucified ; one of which ( hee whose Crosse stood in the middest , more eminent than the rest ) as one of more regard , was circumstanced with a lamentable and lamenting sort of women , weake of sex , yet of mightie griefe , few in number , but equall to many in affliction , the woes of a thousand being in every one . At sight of whom she straight drew towards the place ; ( led by compassion , animating her on , with this noble thought : how she being a member of the universall body , the griefe of everie one was in part her own . ) Where being arived , shee might perceive Mary the mother of Iesus , Mary her sister of Cleophas , and Mary Magdalen to be three of them , with whom being long conjoyned in affection ; by holy sympathy , shee soone became familiar with their griefe , ere with their cause of grieving ; and wept to see them weep . So long she cōtinued weeping , & as long ignorant , why ( griefe having so stopt up the passages of their voyces , they could not arive to words , and her teares drawne such a watry curtaine before her eyes , shee could not discerne who they bemoaned so , only thus much shee might perceive , his face ( whosoe're he was ) was so defaced with bloud , as a cleerer and lesse clouded eye than hers , might well be excused , it s not reading the contents of it ; untill at length , one of that sorrowfull company giving first a heave or two , like one oppressed under some ponderous waight , to raise her words above her woes , burst forth into this short exclamation , O Iesu , Iesu ; and said no more . At this shee strait great with suspition ( as sorrow is ever pregnant of suspect to be delivered of it , ( like those who seeke what willingly they would not find , and but hunt their owne feares with curiositie ) demanded of another , who it was they lamented so . When she surveying her with a wondring eye : And are you alone ( said shee ) so much stranger not only to Hierusalem , but to the world , to be ignorant who they have crucified here . Can you feele the earth-quake under you , and not know it is for his suffering who made the earth ? Can you behold the Heavens ▪ the Sun and Moone , lost in Cimerian darknesse , and not perceive hee who enlightned them is here ecclips'd ? Looke upon yonder rock , it cleft ( senslesse as it is ) that instant as hee died , and what a heart have you then , not to bee so much as sensible of his death ? But I forget my selfe , and whilst I seeke to find you out a griefe ( by invasion of speech ) have almost lost mine owne ; wherefore let me tell you in a word , and then make good my silence ; It is Iesus of Nazareth they have crucified here . At hearing of which , it was no griefe , no passion of the living that ceazed her ; but such a stupiditie , as death could not have rendred her more immovable for the time , so true it is , Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent : Senec. Untill at last , as if but then , the floud-gates of her tears were drawen up , they gushed forth in such abundance , as if each drop had stroven to fall first to the ground . In so much , as had you beheld Niobe weeping her childrens losse , you had seene an image , & but an image only of her weeping him ; and yet in this excesse of teares and griefe , as if she had beene all defective to exstimulate her heart , the more to grieve , and excitate affection to weep the more : In a sad and mournfull accent shee delivered this , To excitate the affection . Am I a Christian then , or no ? I can behold Christ suffering so , And feele no woe ? Though none , yet soft humanitie Shou'd make one man commiserate , When he beholds another die , Such interest hath he in the State : So verie Iufidels we see , Are not from pitie free . Then am I man , or am I none ? That can consider him as one , And make no moane ? Yet were I none , the Sun , the Moone , And such as but his creatures are , Would cause me feele his suffrings soone , Vnlesse I were more senslesse far , More dull than verie rocks and stones , That now burst forth in groanes . Am I a creature then , or not ? That my Creators so hard lot Should be forgot ? For sure I 'm none ; but nothing I Can let ( yet let not one teare fall ) Both God and man , and Maker dye , As I were not concern'd withall : Nothing 'mongst Christians , Creatures , men Am I ? or worser then ? Oh me , the whilst worthy of deepest hell , If I without a teare can see dim dye , More Infidell than Infidell , More stone than stones ; les man , the man am I. Having done this , shee began to weep againe ; then shreek , as if her soule would with her voyce have sallyed forth , accompanying her lamentations now with wringing her hands , now tearing her haire ; Architect Sorrow never contriving building , where was more varietie of sad prospective ; untill at last Eccho being sooner wearied with repeating her plaints than she with uttering them , to give it ease a while , though not her selfe , shee set her silent thoughts to task with the account of what her deerly Beloved had done & suffered for her , summing up everie particular most exact and carefully , as it was delivered her in Inventory , by one was present there . As first ( and in generall ) how voluntarily hee offered himselfe to sufferance for us : Oblatus est quia ipse voluit : Isa. 53. Even to the pointing out himselfe unto them , who came to apprehend him with an Ego sum : Whence ( said shee ) wee may collect , ( If we would be reciprocall ) there is a kind of will and forwardnesse requisite on our parts , in suffering for him againe . Next and in particular , what sufferings they were , he offered himselfe unto ; As how not one part alone , but all , even from head to foot , everie sense of him , and the whole exterior and interior man , was even surfetted ( as it were ) with the bread of dolour and affliction Saturabitur opprobriis , &c. His head crowned with thornes , and those such rigid and sharp-pointed ones , as the very skin of it was wholly separated from the skull , whilst those cruell Pioners digged all his blood out of that precious Mine . His face livid and swolne with the unmercifull souldiers heavy Iron Gantlets bruizing and buffeting it ; His shoulders gall'd with supporting his heavy Crosse , which , Oh with what excessive paine hee did ! whilst they ( all raw before with their scourging ) were , in that dolorous prease , even squeezed ( as it weare ) to a flat cake of congealed blood and gore . Then , to have his armes violently wracked out , whilest they nayled his hands unto the Crosse ; What a torment that ! For the nayles entring the most sinuous parts of them , and they shrinking ( as things naturally do ) at sence of paine , the fleshy , which were nayled to 't , and could not recoyl nor give , must of necessity be violently divulsed from them . As for his scourged body , it was all torne and mangled with their bloody whips : Wherefore at one glance of the eye to passe it over , as too pitious a spectacle long to be look'd upon , & come to his boared feet . How those huge boystrous Nayles must needs have torne & riven them , whilst his dying body hung swayed upon them with all its weight , is not without horrour and cold sweat to be imagined ; ' Mean while , what vying was there betwixt his hands & feet , which should indure most pain and torment ( all at his cost , God knowes ) What tossing and retossing of his dolorous life with suffering betwixt them ? Now this taking it at rebound , now that , till lighting in death's hazzard , the sport ended ; A cruell sport the while ! Then for his Senses , how were they all tormented in him , and he in all of them ! His eyes in seeing-nothing but what disconsolated and afflicted him ; either his Enemies rejoycing at his suffering ( which commonly as much agravates , as pity aleviates the paine o' th' sufferer ) or else his friends ( those few poore friends he had ) so extreamly grieving at it , as even derived from them , a fresh grief to him again , and forced him the comforted , to become their their Comforter . Filiae Hierusalem nolite flere super me , &c. Luk. 23. 28. His ears played upon from every side , with whole volleyes of fearfull blasphemies , as : alios salvos fecit seipsum non potest salvum facere , He could save others , and cannot save himselfe Matth. 27. 42. Or else with such bitter scornes and taunts as these , Si Rex Israel est descendat de cruce &c. Let him now descend from the Crosse if he be the King of Israel . Ibid. which to a man sensible of his honour had been most grievous , but to a God most intolerable ( unlesse perhaps he were enamoured of griefe as sure he was that day , even to Espouse it on the Crosse and take denomination from thence , of vir dolorum , the very husband of it , as Esaias had prophecyed of him long before ) For his smelling I will not offend the nice & delicate with commemorating the abhominable stench of those filthy and loathsome Crachets ( the very Entrails of the Jewes malice ) hung clottering in his face , that face in quem desiderant Angeli prospicere : Which so much delighted the Angels to behold , of which then they might well say indeed , vidimus eum & non erat ei species neque decor , that they had seen it , and there was neither feature nor beauty in it . For his taste , to have nothing administred it to sweeten the bitternesse of death , but Gall and Vinegar ; When for other Malefactors most pleasant wines were allowed & provided at the publike cost ; O it was cruell ! barbarous cruell that ! But he foresaw it necessary for us ( whilst we live here where the wheele of affliction , with variety of new suffering every day fetches its turne about us ) to have for Imitation his great Example of patiently suffering all . For his feeling , we have spoken of that before , if it were not altogether unspeakeable what he felt . But alas all this of the exterior compared to his Interior suffrings , is but as a single drop of water to the whole Ocean or the Center-point of Earth , unto the vast circumference of Heaven ; for the soule , as an instrument strung with finer strings than the body , is of more delicate resentment , more sensible of everie little touch ; And how rudely did they play upon it ? Hee could not speake to them , though nothing but sugar and honey , like the Bridegroome in the Canticles ; but in churlish and bitter speech they repartyed againe . If in soft and silken phrase he question'd them , either in pure disdaine and spight , they not vouchsaf'd him answer : So , Si interrogavero , non respondebitis mihi , &c. Luk. 22. Or else it was in words , as hard as Semai's to David were , everie one accompanied with a stone , so crosse , so contrarie were they in words unto him : But in action , it goes a thought beyond imagination , how contrarie they were , putting sinister interpretation still , to disguise the right meaning , on whatsoever he did . If he cured their sick , it was to breake their Sabbaoth ; if he cast their Devils out , it was in the name of Beelzebub . They held him for Libertine , if hee eat or drunk with them , if not for Samaritan ; so well hee might say of them ; Cecinimus vobis , & non saltâstis ; lamentavimus , & non planxistis ; &c. Mat. 11. but they went further yet . Pericles could say of the Samians ( not content with courtesies they received from those of Athens ) that they were , Infantibus similes , qui cibum non nisi illachrymando admittebant , &c. Plutarch . Like children , who whilst they were benefited , cryed : But what should one say of these ? Never men borne in the disgrace of better Nature , had such antipathy with their best good , as they : For marke how this perverse , wicked , and viperous generation ( out-doing spight it selfe ) requited him for love with hatred ; for good , with ill ; and for honouring them , with dishonouring him againe . And first of their hatreds to him , let this be sufficient argument , that they could not so much as endure his sight ( and when wee once withdraw our eyes from any one , 't is signe we have withdrawne our affection before ) but whilst he projected such right and full beames of love on them , as even reflected them to his very hart ; the sons of Iacob never , with more oblique & auerted eyes , beheld their brother Ioseph , than they did him . Now if ( as they say ) the chiefest attraction of love bee love , and he holds no commercewith humanitie , who will nor give , nor take affection : What should one think or say of this malignitie ? But for more ample declaration of their inhumanitie to him , wee are to note ; how that hate and aversion from a thing , which the more civill creature doth expresse by simple flight and avoydance ; the more savage and effe●ate doth by violent assault : So Naturalists observe in the wild Bull , such hatred and nocivenesse to man , as but object unto it the picture of one , and presently with horne & hoofe it furiously sets upon it . And mark now , if they did not the like by him , when Pilat proposing him unto them with an , Ecce homo , Behold the man ; they stantly bellowed out , Crucifige , crucifige eum ; Let him be crucified ; so as hee might well say of them , Tauri pingues obsiderunt me ; that hee was encompassed with Bulls on everie side . But the proofe of love consisting in action , Probatio ( enim ) amoris , exhibitio est operis , &c. Greg. Let us from thence behold his love to them , as their hatreds to him againe , and so consider how they rewarded him , for good with ill . You know wee have compassion for none , but those wee have passion for ; and where the soyle is hate , there pitie never growes . Now what compassion had he for them ? Miserior super turbam , &c. and that not only in words , but in effect , multiplying bread for the hungrie , and for the thirstie , ( for those who were necessitous ) hee ( as we may say ) turned stones into water ; for the delicious , hee turned water into wine ( sweetly violencing all natures but theirs the while ) for their sick , he restored them unto health , their dead unto life againe . ( To say nothing of his spirituall benefits , since they were of nature so carnall , they had scarce a capacitie of them ) and how did they requite him ? Audite coeli , & obstupescite ! So little compassion had they of him , as when he came to die ; at what time others hate leaves the condemned to pitie , these pursue him farther than ever any 's did ( within the limits of humanitie ) not only to death , but even after it , when , Unus militum lancea latus ejus aperuit et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua : One of the Souldiers pierced his side with a lance , and presently there streamed forth bloud and water . A barbarisme and inhumanitie , no water could expiate enough , but that which then issued from his sacred side ; no fire , but of that charitie which made him then shed his last drop of bloud . But to proceed ; for his food , they repayed him with the bread of dolour , panem doloris , &c. and for his drink , with gall and vinegar . Their infirmities , as fast as he took them of them , they laid them upon him : Infirmitates nostras ipse portavit , &c. And lastly , for giving them life , they crucified him to death , oh unheard of ingratitude ! unparallel'd wickednesse , never to be wrapt up in silence , nor never unfolded in speech , but with detestation ! men worthy to be banished humane societie , so little of man they had in them ! but whither ? for beasts were lesse beasts than they , Bos enim cognovit possessorem suum , &c. Devils , lesse Devils ; for they acknowledged him yet the son of God : Quid mihi et tibi est Iesu fili Dei altissimi , &c. As things then worse than man , beast , or Devill ; let them still be Jewes , sacrilegious in all , both to the God that made them , and the god they made ; which if it were selfe-interest ( as of most wicked mortals it is ) most sacrilegious were they even to that . Now how for honoring them , they repayed him with dishonouring him againe ; and how whilst ( in a manner ) his whole endevour was to exalt them above all other people , theirs only was under all others to depresse and abase him for it : Quasi opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis , holding him ( as the Prophet said ) for the most abject of people , and opprobrious of men ; there needs no other testimony of it , but that one act of theirs , of preferring a Barrabas to him ; Non hunc sed Barrabam , &c. A seditious , to one who instructed them in nothing but meeknesse and humilitie , Discite àme quia mitis sum et humilis corde , &c. A thiefe to one who had given them all they had : De cujus plenitudine omnes accepimus . And a murtherer to him , from whom they had receiv'd their very lives and being , In ipso enim vivimns , movemur et sumus , &c. O good God! — But it is better to say nothing here , then not to say enough ; and let Silence , the tongue of Admiration , take up , where ours of necessitie must leave : This was such an affront , such an indignitie ! as ( we may imagine ) sunk ( heavie as lead ) so deep into the bottome of his divine hart ▪ no humane thought hath fathome-line enough to sound the depth of it . Wherefore , as a thing wholly inscrutable , let us give it over . Whilst this was discoursed unto her , in that method and order as we have set it downe , you might perceive her , by often varying colour ; gesture of body , and motion of the eye , taking all the severall formes of griefe , of pitie , of indignation , and the like , as in so tender a soule could be imprest , till ariving to this last period , she was so brimfull of affection , as able to containe no more : Thus at the foot of the crosse shee powred it forth . The Affection . A Dithyrambus in contemplation of our Saviour crucified . O God , and is it thou I see here suffring under their hands now , Vnder whose feet both heaven and earth do bow , Annd is it thou ? I heare Them so blaspheme , as my affrighted eare Even tingles with dire horror of 't , and feare ? O mee , What do I heare and see ? O eares amaz'd with hearing , eyes with seeing , O endles goodnesse of an endles being ! Deare heart , that hadst the heart , With such a life o part : Deare life that couldst forgoe A soule that lov'd thee so , And O deare soul wouldst take So sad farewell for my unworthy sake : And hast thou done all this for me ? For all this then , what shall I do for thee ? When thou demand'st it , shall I grutch Thee this small hart , as t were too much ? Shall I be so peorly neere , To hold my life for thee too deere ? Or think my soule too much for thee , Who nothing thoughtst enough for me ? Oh no , I am thy thrall , And here before thee prostrate fall Offring up heart , life , soule , and all . And being armed with this strong and vertuous resolve , how shee longed like some young and noble Warriour , to experience her yet untried force and valour , in the encounter with some adversarie paine , perplexitie , or distresse , might put her bravely to it ; that whilst in any part or sense of her , shee , found a difficultie in the fight , she presently might say : This this my Saviour , for my sake would have made nothing of , and slight it so . Or if shee fainted , or lost heart cry out with that great Champion of the Apostles , Quis nos seperabit à charitate Christi , &c. What is it can seperate us from the charitie of Christ ? Tribulatio , an angustia ? &c. Encouraging her selfe , and resuming a strength from thence to dare and challenge the worst of affliction . And this from no selfe-presumption neither ( shee well knowing how of her selfe she could do nothing ) Non quasi ex nobis aliquid , &c. But from the confidence , or rather assurance , she had in him who assisted her , Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat , &c. No , no , ( would shee say ) I can doe nothing I , but God and I can do all : And if any imagine it a presumption to name my selfe with God , let them know I hold it a greater presumption for any to name themselves without him . How gladly for his sake would shee have embraced a contumely and scorne , would have abhorr'd an eye of flesh & bloud ( I meane such eyes as the Devill opened in Paradise long since ; not such as our Saviour opened on the Crosse to day ) how greedily would shee have put up an injurie and affront , even as a jewell in the cabinet of her heart , to weare on that generall day , when all our braverie here ; shall be quite out of fashion , and they onely accounted gloriously brave , who have such jewels as those to weare : And never stood on such nice termes , the whilst , as : Had I deserved it , it would never have grieved me ; or from any , but such and such from whom I least expected it , it had beene far more tollerable , &c. And ( I pray ) from whom could our Saviour lesse have expected the payment of those injuries and affronts ( which past so currantly with him ) than from the Jewes , whom he had obliged not only with all the ties of Humanitie , but of Divinitie too ? Who ever stood more out of the way of contempt and scorn than he ? by birth , above all exception noble , ex stirpe Davidis , &c. borne of the Royall Stem : of such dignitie of aspect , as it was said of him , Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum : He was faire and lovely above the sons of men . And to conclude , of life and manners so irreprehensible , as hee put his verie enemies to it , with urging them , Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato ? &c. to find out a blame or fault in him . And let any now that find themselves agrieved , they are not respected according to their merits and deserts , examine where they ever have deserved so much of respect as he , and had so little paid ; and if they finde it so , I 'll say they have reason and just cause to complaine indeed . No , these are but rags of patience the poor and wretched soule puts on , whilst the gallant and richer scornes to weare such piec'd-up stuffe ; this is for those who never endevour to limb and pourtraiture in the table of their hearts , any brave and noble piece , because they never take patterne by any but base and ignoble ones . Inspice & fac secundum exemplar quod tibi in monte monstratum , &c. Did they but consider our Saviours sufferings , their own would shrink to nothing in comparison . Which whilst she considered , it made her so brave in purpose and resolution , as even death it selfe would have appeared lovely and amiable to her , which now since hee died for us , to those who truly love him , even seemes to have exchanged darts with love indeed : As thus they fable it : Love and death o' th' way once meeting , Having past a friendly greeting , Sleep , their wearie eye-lids closing , Laid 'em downe , themselves reposing : Love , whom divers cares molested , Could not sleep ; but whilst death rested , All in haste away he posts him , But his haste full deerly costs him . For it chanc'd that going to sleeping , Both had given their darts in keeping Vnto Night , who , Errors mother , Blindly knowing not one from t'other , Gave Love deaths , and ne're perceiv'd it , Whilst as blindly Love receiv'd it : Since wch time their darts confounding , Love now kils in stead of wounding : Death a joy in hearts distilling , Sweetly wounds in stead of killing . And thus in various cogitation she wandred about ( Mount Calvary affording a large and ample field for her devotion to exspaciate in ) her pious thought still going in circle from her Beloved unto her selfe , and from her selfe to him againe , untill at last it was suddenly surprized by the unexpected arivall of some new-commers there , who tending directly towards the crosse , made her feare some ill intention in it , till espying Ioseph of Aramathea , a principall amongst them , she assured her feares , there was nothing but good intended ; as indeed their comming onely was , to take downe the body from the Crosse , and bury it . To which every one lending a ready and pious hand , it had soone beene done , had not this impediment occurred in the doing it , that their griefes for his death rendred them so nigh dead themselves , as they scarcely could performe the offices of the living ; and those who swouned not for love of him , would swoune for verie sorrow they loved him not enough , confirming what they report with admiration of the effects of divine love . O heavenly darts Of love , unto heaven loving harts ; Whether ye wound or spare , How equally yee mortall are ? For if yee wound them , presently They with the sweetnesse dye ; And if yee spare 'em , then With bitternesse they dye agen . O sacred flame To hearts , once melted in the same , Whether or no yee burne , How both to their destruction turne ? For if yee burne , they presently In flames consume and dye : If not , in teares they then Consume , and dye agen . So as like two wayes that run Their severall course , then joyne in one ; And whilst diversly they tend , One and the same is still their end . So both equally destroy , Be it sorrow , be it joy ; Or in water , or in flame , The end of both is still the same . Neither is it to be so much admired , they thus could dye ( as it were ) for him ; but the greatest wonder is , that they could live , now hee was dead who was their very life ; hee who had so many attractive sweets in him , as drew all to him ; but such , who like Scarrebs delighted to live in stench , Curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum , &c. Hee who had such divine magick in his face , as charm'd all that beheld it , and was of so ravishing entertainment besides , hee spake all flame and fire ; Nonne cor nostrum ardens in nobis erat dum loqueretur , &c. Able to burne and dissolve the ice of as many hearts , as ever the cold of death , or tepiditie had frozen up , provided that venomous serpent had not first fixt its black tooth in them ; for then the Pollinctori will tell you , that hearts envenom'd will not burne . No wonder then ( I say ) that him who they so loved living , they so lamented dead : It being by Natures Lawes decreed , wee then should love things most passionately and deerest , when wee were deprived of them : Whether because the appetitive & irrascible power , then joyntly move more strongly towards the object , than can joy alone in the fruition of it ; or that our sharp appetite of things wee want is soone blunted with the enjoying them . Certaine it is , whatsoever the cause be , such is the effect , as they well experienced everie one of them ; his blessed mother , whilst shee called to mind , what a deere and amiable son ; his friends , what a true and constant friend ; and what a kind and loving Master his Disciples had lost of him : In remembrance of which , when they had buried him ( as with all due rites and ceremonies of griefe they did : his sacred mother embalming him with her teares , the holy Magdalen with her sweet unguents , for which her memorie is so pretious in the Gospell , as there never occurs mention of any , but her name enters as an Ingredient . ) They departed each one with somewhat to foment their memories of him : One , with the thought of his sweet and gentle conversation of life ; another , with that of the excessive love he declared unto them in death . Amongst the rest , our pious Soule , ever to have a memoriall of his passion , digged him a new monument in her bosome , and buried him in her heart . FINIS .