A treatise of the loue of God. Written in french by B. Francis de Sales Bishope and Prince of Geneua, translated into English by Miles Car priest of the English Colledge of Doway

A wonderfull historie of the death of a gent∣leman who died of loue vpon the Mount-Oliuet. CHAPTER. XII.

1. BEsides that which hath bene saied, I haue light vpō a historie, which being extreamly admirable, is yet more credible to sacred Louers; since, as the holy Apostle saieth Charitie doth ea∣sily beleeue all things that is, she doth not easily suspect one of lying; and vnlesse there be signes of apparent deceite in that which is proposed, she makes no difficultie to beleeue it: but especially when they are things which doe exalt and magni∣fie God's loue towards man, or man's loue towards God; because Charitie being the Soueraigne

Q••eene of vertues, following the manner of a Princ••sse, who takes cōtēt in things that are for the renowne of her Empire, and dominion. And beit, the relation I am to make, be neither so much di∣uulged nor confirmed, as the greatnesse of the mi∣racle which it containes would require, yet is it not therefore voyde of truth: for as S. Augustine saieth excellently well: scarcely can we know miracles, though most famous, euen in the places where they are wrought; and euen though such as haue seene them relates them, we haue difficultie to giu•• credit vnto them; yet are they no lesse true for all this: and in matter of Religion, well borne soules take more delight to beleeue those things which containe difficultie and admiration.

2. A valiant illustrious and vertuous knight, went vpon a time beyond ••ee into Palestin, to visit the holy Land where our Sauiour performed the work of our Redemption; and to begin this holy exercise worthily, he first of all confessed, and communicated deuotely, immediatly, after went straight to Nazareth, where the Angell announ∣ced vnto the most Sacred virgin, the Blessed Incar∣nation, and where the most adorable conception of the Eternall word was finished, and there this worthy Pilgrime set himselfe to the contempla∣tion of the heauenly Boun•• is depth, who daigned to put on mans nature, to recouer him from per∣dition; from thence he passed to Bethleem, the place of the Natiuitie, where, it is not to be spokē, what an abundance of teares he poured forth, in contemplation of those wherewith the Sonne of God, the virgins little babe, had watered that

holy stable, kissing and rekissing a thousand times that sacred earth, and licking the dust, vpon which the prime infancie of the Diuine child was recei∣ued in Bethleem: He went into Berthabara, and from thence to that little place in Bethania, where calling to mind, that our Sauiour was there vnue∣sted to be baptised, he also vnuested himselfe, and going into Iordaine, washing himselfe and drin∣king the waters thereof, he thought, he saw his Sauiour receiuing Baptisme at his Precursors hand, and the holy Ghost descending visibly vpon him, in the forme of a doue, the Heauens remai∣ning open, from whence, as it appeared to him, the voice of the Eternall Father issued, saying: This is my beloued Sonne, in whom I am pleased: From Bethania he takes his way towards the De∣sert where he beheld with the eyes of his mind, the Sauiour of the world-fasting, fighting, and vanquishing the Enemie, together with the An∣gels who serued him with admirable foode. From thence he makes towards the Mount THABOR, where he saw our Sauiour transfigured; thence to the mountaine of SION, where he saw our Sauiour againe, as he apprehended, vpon his knees in the last supper washing the Disciples fe•• ••, ād then di∣stributing vnto them his sacred bodie in the holy EVCHARISTE: he passeth the Torrent of CEDRON, and betakes himselfe to the Garden of GETHSE∣MIN••, where with a most amiable dolour, his heart dissolued into teares, while he proposed vnto him∣selfe his deare Sauiour sweating blood in the ex∣treame Agonie which he there endured; and soone after takē, corded ād led to Hierusal••, whither also

he goes, throughly to follow the footesteps of his Beloued, and saw him in Imagination haled hither and thither; to ANNAS; to CAIPHAS, to PILATE, to HERODE, whipped, buffetted, spit vpon, crowned with thornes, presented to the people, sentenced to death, loden with his Crosse, which he carries, and in carrying it met his dolorous mother, and the daughters of Hierusalem bewailing him. Fi∣nally this deuote Pilgrime mounts vnto the Moūt Caluarie, where he sees in Spirit the Crosse laied vpon the ground, and our Sauiour quite naked whom they throw downe, and most cruelly naile him to it hand and foote. He goes on, contempla∣ting how they reare vp the Crosse, and crucifie him in the aire, blood flowing out from euery part of his diuine bodie. He lookes vpon the poore sa∣cred virgin, trāspearced with the sword of sorrow, and then againe he eyeth his crucified Sauiour, whose 7. last words he marks with an incompa∣rable loue, and at the length he saw him dying, soone after, dead. Then receiuing the wound of th•• Lance, and by that holes passage shewing his Diuine heart, then taken downe from the Crosse, and carried to his Sepulcher, whither still he followes him sending out a Sea of tea••es vpon the ground, which was watered with his Redee∣mours blood; he enters into the sepulcher and bu∣ries his heart with his Maisters bodie; afterwards rising with him, he goes to Emaus, and sees what passed betweene the Maister ād his two Disciples. In fine returning by the Mount Oliuet, where th•• Mysterie of the Ascension was accomplished, and there seeing the last prints and footesteps of his

heauenly Sauiours feete, falling groueling vpon them, and kissing thē a thousand, thousand times with the sighes, of an infinite loue, he begunne to draw towards him the force of all his affections, as an Archer the string of his Bowe, when he is about to shoote, then raising himselfe, and stret∣ching his eyes and hands to heauenward. O IESVS, saied he, my sweete IESVS, I haue now no further to search and follow thee in Earth. Ah then IESVS, IESVS my LOVE, grant vnto my poore heart that it may follow thee, and flie after thee to Heauen; and in these feruent words, he presently breathed out his sole to Heauen, as a blessed arrow, which he, as a diuine Archer, shot at the white of his most happie Obiect. But his fellow's, and ser∣uants, who saw this Louer so sodainly fall downe as dead, amaised at the accidēt, rāne with speede for the Doctor, who when he came, he found him quite dead; and to giue a certaine Iudgment of so sodaine a death, he made enquirie, of what complection, nature and disposit••on the deceased partie was, and he found, that he was of a most sweete ād amiable nature, maruellous deuote, and feruent in the loue of God. Wherevpon, quoth the Doctor, doubtlesse his heart split with excesse and feruour of loue. And to confirme his iudgment the more, he opened him, and found this generous heart open, with this sacred Motto engrauen in it, IESVS MY LOVE! Loue then, plaied Deaths parte in this heart, seperating the soule from the bodie, without the concourse of any o∣ther cause. S. Bernardin of Sienna, a learned and pious Authour relates this Historie, in the first

of his Sermons of the Ascension.

3. An other Authour also, well neare of the same Age, who out of humilitie concealed his name worthy to be named; in a booke intitled, A MYRROR OF THE SPIRITVALL, makes mention of an historie yet more admirable: for he saieth that in PROVINCE there liued a Lord much addicted to the Loue of God, and exceeding deuote to the Blessed Sacrament. Now vpon a time being ex∣treamly afflicted with a disease, which caused him cōtinually to rēder, the Holy Cōmuniō, which was brought vnto him, who not daring to receiue it, least he might be forced to cast it vp againe, he besought the Pastour, to applie it at least to his breast, and with it to make the signe of the Crosse ouer him; This was done, and in a moment, his breast inflamed with Diuine Loue, opened, and drew into it selfe the heauenly foode, wherin his beloued was contained, and at the same instant de∣parted life. I must in very deede confesse that this historie is extraordinarie, and such as would re∣quire a more waightie testimonie: yet after the true historie of S. CLARE DE MONTE PALCO, which all the world may, euen to this day, see; and that of S. Francis his STIGMATS, which is most certaine, my soule meets with no∣thing which is hard to be beleeued amongst she effects of Diuine Loue.