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

THE PREAMBLE to the Meditation.

BVt what a Gods name dost thou here, thou Pander Cupid? Art thou so brazen faced as to presume to abide where my loue IESVS is? Come hither you good Angels, thrust forth this wicked brat of that Cyprian strumpet, out of doores. Break his quiuer, snap his shafts a sunder. For what a shamelesse im∣pudence is this and saucy boldnes, of that blind elf, that such a cowar∣dly Iack as he should not quake & tremble at the aspect; yea euen but the shadow of my Lord IESVS; dread∣ful to heauen & earth But; o power∣ful arrowes of thy bow my Cha∣ster Cupid! my delight! my IESVS! In the Northeren seas they tel of a flowing Iland, which stands stil and

as it were, casts ankour as soon as shot into with burning shafts, en∣kindling fire as they fly. I beleeue it: For loe thy fiery shafts, very su∣denly stay and arrest the ankored barke of my hart, sayling in its ful course, and euen now most misera∣bly floating in the midst of the sea of the world. O loue I say not blind as he! For how directly shoots he at the marke, how dexterously and ready he discharges, & how power∣ful his shafts! Wherewith when S. Augustine was touched and woun∣ded once he cryed out:a 1.1 Lord thou shottest into our hart, with thy charity, and thy word we bare transfixed in our bowels. But the time shal come, my doughty warriour, when from the diuine bow of thy humanity bent and stretched on the Crosse; thou shalt snake and brandish seauen speares of perfect victory, true

symbols of the foyling, and vtter ruine of the enemy. For as the Pro∣phet Elizeus setting his hād to King Ioas his bow, blessed the arrow, with these words: The shaft of salua∣tion of the Lord and the shaft of saluation against Syria.b 1.2 so thy Diuinity susteyning the humanity, impressed a certaine more diuine force into those seauen last words of his where∣with like bow and arrowes they might trouble, dissipat, and quite transfix the hellish legions. For there truly are those shafts whereof once the royal Prophet sung: Thy ar∣rowes are sharp, people shal fal before thee; into the harts of the Kings enemyes. c 1.3 O holsome blow! O happy chance! O admirable force of ar∣rowes! For loe, the same both cure the crowned, & deeply wound those who seeme in their opinion to be whole. Goe to then, be thou my

hart the scope and bute, stand to it, why shrinkst thou? stand I say, and stoutly take the shaft of loue into thee. Yea doe thou shoot too, re∣tort, and wound againe. And be thou likwise as a heauenly bow: and doe thou stretch and streyne thy self with al thy nerues as much as thou canst. Let thy sighes and vowes shot like thunder-bolts and winged darts, freely mount vp the throne of God himselfe. But first be they fired with thy heat; that they may fly the swiftter: adde also flames, begg'd and fetched from heauen, and as the most louing IESVS is al fire, al loue, so doe thou kindle fire, burne, loue, breake into sighes, with frequent sobs, which reaching vnto God may instantly reuerberate, and returne to thee againe, and draw forth bitter teares from thee in great abundance.

But thou, o incomprehensible loue, diuine 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 indi∣gested Chaos thou conuerted, so that vast abysse of waters;d 1.4 with the heauenly dew of thy graces, tem∣per the flames of the boyling hart. For my hart like wax molt with the fire; with the sweet extasy of loue euen liquefyes with al, and so may I liquefy stil til I liquefy and melt away for altogether. Goe to then, with the finger of thy charity, expresse in me the liuely forme and image of thy loue, that after in my bowels I shal 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 diuine dewes, celestial flames.

Let this fire then burne and en∣crease in the midst of waters; and the fire of concupiscēce being vtter∣ly quenched, may these purer fla∣mes liue and eternally burne my hart, which neither the waters of tribulations, nor the roaring waues of temptations, nor any violence of sicknes, nor the Scilla of calumnia∣ting tongues, nor the gulfs of blas∣phemous mouths, nor lastly the fu∣rious Charibdes of any punishments may euer extinguish it, for endles Ages.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Lib. 9. Conf. c. 2.
• b 1.2

  4. Reg. 13.
• c 1.3

  Psal. 44.
• d 1.4

  Gen. 1.