the smoke which blindes. Seest thou a man
besotted with the loue of this or that woman, and of that doting affection towards her,
that hauing ••uffered for her sake,
in his honor, his estate, and his health; if he do not take vp himselfe in
time, and looke out some remedy for this sore, you may boldly say he is blind.
Saint Iohn painting foorth the fall of Lucifer, saith, That
the bottom lesse pit was ope∣ned with a key; (for Lucifer, according
to Rupertus, had the first handsell of hell) and from forth that
infernall pit, there went out such a thicke smoke, that it darkened the Sun and
the Starres. And this is the stampe and figure of him that shall throw himselfe
downe headlong into the bottomlesse pit of dishonestie, whence commeth forth so
much smoke, that it blindeth the Sun of the vnder∣standing, and darkneth those
starres of the faculties of the soule.
From these circumstances do I draw the difficulty of Mary
Magdalens Con∣uersion; grounding my supposition vpon these three
truths.
The first, That for God to iustifie a soule, is a farre greater
matter than to cre∣ate heauen and earth, and all that therein is. This hath
beene prooued else∣where. And Iob exprest as much, when he said, The
creating of me was the least of thy mercies towards me, Exaltare
(saith Dauid) Exalt thy selfe ô God aboue the
heauens, and let thy
glory be vpon all the earth, that thy beloued may bee deliuered. So that
if we should put into the one hand of God, the world created; and into the
other, a soule conuerted; the glory of this hand is the greater. And there are
two very good reasons for it:
The one, For that in the creating of the world, God had no
repugnancie or resi∣stance; but in the
conuerting of a soule, he may meet with opposition, by reason of mans peruerse
will, Et qui creauit te sine te, non saluabit te sine te, For though bee
created thee without thy will, he will not saue thee w••thout thy will. God takes more plea∣sure in
conuerting a soule, than in all the rest of those wonders which he wrought with
his hands, Auerte oculos tuos à me, quia ipsi me auolare fecerunt,
Turne away thine eyes from me; for euen they haue made me flye away.
Auolare is the same in that place, as Superbire, inflare. Rabby
Salomon renders it, Insolentior factus sum animo. To see thy eyes
heretofore so withdrawne from me, and now so busie in behol∣ding
••e. So great is the contention,
which is betwixt the loue of God, and the loue of the world, betweene the
desires of the flesh, and of the Spirit, That the one doth striue to take the
sword out of the others hand:
—Alterius vires, subtrahit alter amor.
Plotinus calls Loue a Painter: Diuine Loue, that paints;
and humane Loue, that paints: This painteth forth our felicitie in riches,
beauty, and feasting; That, in pouerty, teares, and fasting. For, to ingraue
such an image as this in our hearts, to paint such a picture, we must blot out
all those colours, which any other loue hath drawne there.
The other, For that in creating the world, God did not shew
himselfe to bee weary, but made it as it were a kind of entertainment, and
passe-time, Ludens in orbe terrarum: But in redeeming mankind, he was
wearied out, euen to the shed∣ding of his blood, and the loosing of his
life.
The second truth is, That it is the easiest thing in the world
with God, to in∣rich a sinner with his grace. God sent Ieremy to the
Potters house, who begin∣ning to worke vpon a peece of clay, it not fadging to
his mind, he tore it in sun∣der, and molding it anew, fashioned it afterwards
to his owne good liking and content. Cānot I deale by you as the potter doth
with his clay? Is my power lesse than his? Noah kept a Lyon in the
Arke, but he continued still a Lyon. But our Sauiour Christ in his Church
turnes the Lyon into a Lambe, The pots in the Lords