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 HART CONSECRATED to the loue of IESVS. (Book 1)

THE HYMNE.

IESV, behold the hart dilates It-selfe to thee, and consecrates It's triple power, and al within. But oh! that heauy burden, sinne, Drawes to the earth, and makes it fal From high aspiring thoughts. Not al, Who now support, giue it repose; Thou art the Atlas, here enclose Thy selfe within the hart, giue rest To it, which otherwise opprest, With the heauy load, the world, sinks down. Make it despise (to gaine a crowne) The earth, it's Nathir, and with thee It's Zenith make Eternity.

THE INCENTIVE.

1. WHere our treasure is, there is our harta 1.1. IESVS is a trea∣sure, wherin our hopes, our riches, and al we haue, are lodged & laid vp in store. Where then shal we better place the hart, then in the hart, the Reliquary of the diuinity it-self, at IESVS feet, the most sure Altar of the miserable, in his hands, the richest Magazin of al graces?

2. Loe here a hart burning al with loue, how many and what flames it sends forth like a furnace. Happy & thrice happy he, who, but for Hea∣uen, hath no loue, no hart at al!

3. Goe to then, al you pious and sincere harts, come and consecrate your selues to the honour and loue of IESVS. For to whom better? since what we pay to him we allow

our selues; and what we take from him we quite forgoe and loose for euer.

THE PREAMBLE TO THE first Meditation.

WHo shal seuer vs from the cha∣rity of Christ? (exclaymes that great Apostle) tribulation? or distresse? or famine? or nakednesse? peril? perse∣cution? or the sword? Sure I am, that death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Princi∣pa••es, nor vertues, nor present, nor future things, nor fortitude, altitude, nor depth, nor any other creature, can seperate vs from the charity of God, which is in Christ IESVSa 1.2. This is the fire, which gliding from heauen consu∣mes al things, burnes al things; yea enkindles such flames as euen the Ocean of euils, wherewith the

flowes, & aboundes, c̄a not quench∣it. This subtil, actiue, spreading, and deuouring flame, takes force & vigour euen from very crosses and torments themselues, surmounts al things, cleaues to one God, and with an inextricable knot is vnited with him. Whether it be the fire, which alwayes suffers some-what, or actu∣ates this or that, I know not; this I am sure of, that the liuelyer it puts forth the force it hath, the lesse it yealds to the enemy, and is the hardlyer ouer∣come. This fire, when once it takes on the litle furnace of the hart, good God! what strange, and how many heates, of loue enkindles it there! They only know the excesses of this vnquiet feauer, who loue IESVS dearely indeed, & passionately thirst after him.

Now shal you see this languishing hart breake out into frequent, ab∣rupt,

and interrupting sighs, and now and then heare certayne briefe interiections withal, cast forth here and there by the poore soule, lique∣fying with a sweet extasy of loue: Tel my beloued, o blessed spirits, that I languish al for loueb 1.3 and that vn∣les with the prop of his golden scepter he come, as once Ass••erus to Hesterc 1.4 & powerfully susteyne & hold vp my fleeting soule, I shal faint at his feet: for now the vne∣qual and feeble pulse euen mortally beates, and now my face is fouly dight with an asky and deadly co∣lour, the extatical heat now wholy wastes the marrow, so as now re∣maynes in me nothing which suffers not of this fire.

But anon you wil wonder to see that hart excited with the same loue of God, resuming as it were new strength, to be sodainly caryed and

snacht with violence into the thing beloued. I wil rise, said the Spouse extreamly enamoured with her be∣loued, I wil compasse the Citty, through streets and lanes, I wil seeke whom my soule louesd 1.5; nor wil I giue ouer til obteyning my desire I take hold of him. I wil enquire of created things, & aske them, where is my God? I wil seeke and perticularly demand of al; nor wil I truely rest satisfyed finding some image only of God in them su∣perficially shadowed, or discouering but a glimmer only of diuine perfec∣tions, for these wil but excite my thirst, not quenh it wholy; but I wil hunt further and constantly seeke him, whom my soules louese 1.6. For the hart enflamed with loue, conti∣nually machinates & workes some∣thing; nor hath diuine loue lear∣ned to be idle: it is alwayes in action, and stil proceedes from vertue to

vertue, and if it rest at any tyme, and seeme but to sabothize, it is no longer diuine louef 1.7.

Amidst these symptomes of this disease, the mind obteynes three things, and proues them in it-selfe: for first, how much soeuer it occu∣pyes it-self in difficult things, and seriously attends, to its owne abase∣ment, to a perfect cont̄ept of world∣ly things, to represse vntamed and vnbridled appetites, yet al these acts, most worthy and heroical, it puts in the last place, yea when it workes and effects the most, thinks it hath done as good as nothing, and lastly accounts the tyme so long spent in the lists of vertue to be ex∣ceeding short, which euen the sacred Scriptures record of the Patriarch Iacob, whom the beauty and loue of the faire Rachel had so taken & en∣veigled, as he reckoned yeares very

tedious for toyles, as weekes for dayes, dayes for momentsg 1.8. I haue yet said but litle: The hart which is enamoured with IESVS, thinks it cannot be broken or tamed with anything, and therefore dares pro∣uoke euen death it-self, & chalenge it to a single fight, as not his match, to scorne its weapons, and not so only, but insolently to insult vpon this pale Goddesse, who yet is she which tramples the Crownes and Scepters of Kings and Caesars, sub∣dues the armed Sampsons and layes them at her foot, forbids the Alexan∣ders, not satisfyed with one world, to spread their Ensignes any further; lastly, puts the Hel••n••••s, as deformed, vnder a base yoke. What more? This hart is so impatient of rest, delayes, al things, as while most ardently it loues and seekes the onelie IESVS, and groanes after him, it holds a mo∣ment

for a yeare, regards not any thing els, nothing likes, nothing pleaseth, nothing satiates or recrea∣tes a whit, as to whom, besides IESVS, al things are nauseous and but drea∣mes vnto it. Lastly, for his sake, af∣ter whom it sighes and languishes with the heat of thirsting loue, scor∣ning the stinking lakes of wordly pleasures, and the filthy mire of the Aegyptian bogs, like a Stag nigh pe∣rishing with thirst and deadly wounds, with a rapid course and willing mind, rushes through the brakes and craggy rocks of precipi∣ces, and hastes to the founteynes of endles waters, to God the liuing springh 1.9.

Oh inexhaustible spring of loue, quench this thirst, satiate this hun∣ger! O beauty so antienti 1.10 and so yong! take here possession of the hart deuoted to thee. Be this I pray a

Temple, a Chapel, an Altar conse∣crated to the true and only Godhead. Admit the incensek 1.11 in an odour of sweetnes, which shal hereafter fume from this golden table, nor euer suffer, o God of my hart, the place thus duly dedicated to thy honour and loue, to be euer once defiled with sordityes or crimes, but rather may it euer and euer stand in∣uiolable and vntouched.

I. MEDITATION.

The Preparatory Prayer.

Actiones nostras quaesumus, &c.

FIRST PRELVDE.

IMagin God being in Heauen, sea∣ted on the Cherubins, most highly blessed, and in essential perfection infinit, to require here on earth an Inne to lodge in.

2. PRELVDE.

Imagin the Tabernacle erected of old, through diuine precept, by Moysesa 1.12 there the Temple by Salomonb 1.13 most sumpteously and magnificently built, and therein the Propitiatory reposed whence diuine 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 vpper place. Here God in the production of things, as in a high Altar, pro∣poseth the omnipotency to be seen and worshiped in the gouern'ment of them the highest wisdome, and the infinit goodnes in the conserua∣tion. The interiour part of the Tem∣ple is the other portion of the hart, the wil; and here that infinit either goodnes, or beauty aboue al things, exhibits it-self most amiable. Lastly for the out most face of the whole Temple stand the exteriour senses which, as reason, & true piety would, religiously obey the wil comman∣ding duly diuine things.

2. Point▪ Moreouer, the Consecra∣tion of this T̄eple, the hart I meane deuoted vnto God, is performed with the same ceremonies, our Temples rightly dedicated are. The manner

of sanctifying Temples is, to strew the pauements al with ashes; to af∣fige twelue Crosses on the wal; to burne as many tapers set before them, to haue water blessed after the solemne formulary of Proces∣sions, and in the Ashes sprinckled on the ground, the Greeke & Latine Alphabet scored out. So his hart that would be the Oratory of the God-head, should first be imbued with humility and the knowledge of his owne nothing; be illustrated with excellent faith, signed with the loue of the Crosse and mortifi∣cation, as wel inward as outward, be instructed by the Holy Ghost; and lastly, in like manner, purely, and holily to be cleansed, with the hea∣uenly waters of diuine graces.

3. Point Now then the hart thus dedicated, with so many, and so chast ceremonies, is so in the power and

worship of the diuinity, as hereafter without a great sacriledge, and a hainous crime, it may not be viola∣ted; & therefore thence forth, by no meanes, should euer any sordityes be seen there, or, as things prophane, the idolesc 1.14 of worldly fantasies, be there suffred to haue admittance.

4. Point. The Oratory of the hart should rather be dressed & adorned with the worthy tapistries of vertues and heauenly ornaments; and great care be had, that neither by night nor day the incense of prayer, the fire of diuine loued 1.15 the golde 1.16 of cha∣rity be wanting, or frequent vowes, prayers; holocausts, or the rest of victimes euer faile.

THE COLLOQVY.

ARe we then to thinke that God truly inhabits on the earth? Since if Hea∣uen, and the Heauens of Heauens be not able no conteyne thee, how much less, this house?a 1.17 What? My deare then (O loue!) it's euen thy place, thy Temple,b 1.18 thy seat, thy Tribunal? My IESVS the delight of my soule, gr̄at this day I beseech thee, thy diuine presence may consecrate my hart to thee, as I truely, freely, and volun∣tarily vow, giue, and dedicate the same to thy Maiesty. Possesse it with the best right and assure it with so firme a tye, as I may not recouer it againe by any law or tyme surely I wil not; but from this Propitia∣tory, begin thou to giue Answeres; yea send downe from heauen, the fire of the Holy Ghost, now presen∣tly to consume the hoasts, and ho∣locausts laid on thy Altar.

Pater. Aue.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Luc 12.
• a 1.2

  Rom. 8.
• b 1.3

  Cant. 5.
• c 1.4

  Ester 15.
• d 1.5

  Cant. 3.
• e 1.6

  Cant. 1.
• f 1.7

  Greg. Hom. 30. in Euang.
• g 1.8

  Gen. 29.
• h 1.9

  Psal. 41.
• i 1.10

  August. Conf. lib. 10. cap. 21.
• k 1.11

  Exod. 37. & 40.
• a 1.12

  Exod. 26.
• b 1.13

  3. Reg. 6.
• c 1.14

  Ezech. 8.
• d 1.15

  Leuit. 6.
• e 1.16

  Apoc. 3.
• a 1.17

  3. Reg. 8.
• b 1.18

  Reg. 18.