The devout hart or Royal throne of the pacifical Salomon. Composed by F. St. Luzuic S.I. Translated out of Latin into English. Enlarged with incentiue by F. St. Binet of the same S. and now enriched with hymnes by a new hand

IESVS BRINGS IN THE CROSSE INTO the hart, and easily im∣prints it in the louer. (Book 11)

THE HYMNE.

HAst thou no Harbinger to bring Thy furniture, so great a King, But must thy self in person come To order al, and hang this roome? My hart alas! 〈◊〉〈◊〉 hardly brooks, To be tran••fixt with tenter book••; For nayles and hamner, now I see, And ladder, al prepar'd for me. Ah! without sheets I see thy bed; Thy Crosse, no bolster for thy head Except it be a crowne of thorne, Thy canopy is Heauen forlorne. Al things lament thy paynes to see, IESV come in, I'l mourne with thee.

THE INCENTIVE.

1. GOe in louely Crosse enter launce, spunge, nayles, scourge, bloudy, thornes, get you in to the Closet of the hart. Wel∣come stil, but on this condition that IESVS bring you in himself; for mirrh with IESVS, is admirable, and meere sweetnes.

2. Thou saist thou louest IESVS; then needes must thou his Crosse: for if otherwise thou boast to loue IESVS, thou deceiuest thy self and others.

3. Most sweet child; what haue you and I to doe 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 then shal I chalenge Hel it-self: for if

IESVS and I hold togeather, what Hercules can stand against vs both?

THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation.

MOst worthy Painter,a 1.1 I pray, take the table in hand againe, for before thou, makest an end of thy worke in the escuchion of my hart, thou must needs paint thine armes, with some motto or other that by the deuise thou mayst be known to be the Master of the house.

The Palaces of Kings, and their houses, as wel in the Countrey as Citty, euery-where are wont to giue forth their titles, armes, and names of their Ancestours, to wit, the mo∣numents of their royal stock and ancient nobility. As for thine armes and tropheues of thy name good IESV; I take them to be thy Crosse;

nailes, laūce, crown' of thornes scour∣ges; that Pillar whereto thou wert boūd; & those very cords, wherewith thou wast tyed. I (sayd he) haue, been trained vp in labours frō my youth.

Goe to then, for my sake, among those foure images of the last things, which thou hast fully finished in al points, let these instruments, as Tropheye of thy Passion, be like∣wise pourtraited. The Crosse would be of Cedar, that is painted in his proper colour; the speare sprinckled with bloud, the nayles dipt in the same dye, the pillar marked with drops and streakes of bloud; lastly, the cords and scourges with bloud also, but so as washt away with teares here and there they make certain distinctions between. At sight of these armes, if they offer to en∣croch or approach neerer 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 Crosse more deep into my hart; if it be chur∣lish & resist, vse violēce with it & sof∣ten it if need be; if with too much softnes it proue il and diffuse it-self, constraine the parts, to consist and hold together; but be sure that euery colour thou here workest with be wel mixed with thy bloud, for this colour pleaseth best, as being the simbol of loue. Be this Crosse to me sweet IESVS, as a buckler, to re∣bate and blunt the weapons of the enemyes: be it a wal, or trench to girt me in; armes for me to assaile my enemyes with al, may it stirre in me alwayes, first a fresh and liuely me∣mory of thy passion, then a burning desire of suffring with alacrity for thee al hard and cruel things; no otherwise indeed then of those thor∣nes were roses the black-berries; the whitest-lillyes: let this wood,

cast into my-mind, turne the bitter∣nes of the waters, into sweetnesb 1.2 change gaul into hony, alloes to su∣gar, Let the Crosse be the mast of the sayling ship, wherein transpor∣ted I may happily land at the hauen of saluation; my bed; where cou∣ching as the Phenix in her nest, and consumed with the flame of loue, and turned to ashes I may dye Iacobs ladderc 1.3 to mount to Heauen by; the Pilgrims staff to passe the Iour∣dan d 1.4 the sheep-hooke, to keep in the straying senses in their dutyes; Pharus whereto I may direct my course in the tempestuous Sea of the world, amid the thickest fogs or fowlest weather. May the launce and scourges strike a terrour to the proud and rebellious spirits, that menace a far-off, and reuewing the assault by sits try to inuade thy Sanctuary. Pitch Lord, and plant

this Crosse of thine in the turret of the hart; be it there a standard, which being aymed at, as the Captayns signe and signe of warre, may al the faculties of my mind anon, be sum∣moned with alarmes, and pel-mel directly rush vpon the enemy. Being armed with this Crosse as with the keenest sword, I may cut off the wretched head of the cruel Holofernes e 1.5 and rise vp against my Aduer∣saries, like that Angel, who in a night alone foyled & vanquished at once, a huge army of the proudf 1.6 Senacherib. Wherefore auant you hellish troops, packe hence away, & fly vnto those darkesome vaults. There is none of you that dares a∣bide before the Tower of the hart, where the armes of the Supreame Numen are now set vp: in sight whereof the Angelical squadrons stand in battle array; where not only

horrour and dread but imm••nent & most present ruine waits vpon you. For death himself at the sight only of the Crosse, turnes his back; sinne also takes his flight a long with him, and both togeather with th••ir common Captain Sathan the deuil, in great dispaire tumble headlong in the lowest Hel.

XI. MEDITATION.

The preparatory Prayer.

Actiones nostras, &c.

THE PRELVDE.

Pv•••••• as a signe vpon thy har••.a 1.7 Be thou as wax, for euery forme; I vvil be the seale, and imprint the armes of my passion in thee.

1. Point. In the cōquered & vāquished Tower of the hart the victorious Ie∣sus, placeth the trophies & triumphs

of his passion, forsooth, as Lord and Master of the place, least any one he∣reafter may chance to chalenge it to himself, or seek to inuade it.

2. Point. There can be no such force or power of tēptations, which vvith the liuely apprehēsion of these armes may not vtterly be defeated; no ad∣uersity so great, which may not cheer∣fully be borne; no such alluremēts of worldly pleasures; which with a gene∣rous loathing may not be reiected.

3. Point How happy the soule which is nayled with Christ vpō the Crosse! how rich, while vnder that wood are found to be the riches of Heauen & earth! how defensible & secure against al the power of Hel, being the impre∣nable Tovver of Christians, whereon a thousand targets hangb 1.8 the whole armary of the strōg, either to endure the shock of the enemyes or to assaile them.

THE COLLOQVY.

SHal be made by turnīg the speach, by way of Apostrophe, to al the symbols of Christs Passion, as nailes, lance, vvhips, and also vnto Christ himself, crauing most earnestly of him, as wel to conserue in our minds the memory of those things which he hath suffred for our sakes, as to admit vs into the society, and communion of his most bitter cha∣lice; that we may also merit one day to enioy our part of glory & eternal felicity.

Pater, Aue.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Psal. 87.
• b 1.2

  Exod. 5.
• c 1.3

  Gen. 28.
• d 1.4

  Gen. 32.
• e 1.5

  Iud••••••h 13.
• f 1.6

  4. Reg. 19.
• a 1.7

  Cant. 8.
• b 1.8

  Cant. 4.