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

How our Sauiour practised all the most Excellent acts of Loue. CHAPTER. XVII.

1. HAuing spoken at large of the acts of Di∣uine Loue, that you may more easily and holily conserue the memorie thereof, I present you with a collection or abridgement of it. The Charitie of IESVS CHRIST doth presse vs, saieth the great Apostle: Yea truly, THEO: it doth force, or vse a violence against vs by its infinite sweete∣nesse, which shines in the whole worke of our Redemption, wherein appeared the benignitie and loue of our Sauiour towards men. For what did not this Diuine Louer doe in matter of Loue?

1. he loued vs with a LOVE OF COMPLACENCE, for his delightes were to be with the children of men, and to draw man to himselfe becōming man. 2. he loued vs with a LOVE of BENEVOLENCE enri∣ching man with his diuinitie, so that man was God. 3. he vnited himselfe vnto vs in an incōprehensible coniunctiō, whereby he adhered, and ioyned him∣selfe so neerely indissolubly, and infinitly to our nature, that neuer was any thing so straightly ioyned and pressed to the humanitie, as is now the most sacred Diuinitie, in the person of the Sonno of God. 4. he ranne wholy into vs, and as it were, dissolued his greatnesse to bring it downe to the forme and figure of our littlenesse, whence he is instyled a Source of liuing water, dewe and rayne of Heauen.

5. He was in extasie, not onely in that, as S. DENIS saieth, by the excesse of his louing good∣nesse, he became in a certaine manner out of him∣selfe, extending his prouidence to all things, and beeing in all things; but also, in that, as S. Paule saieth, he did in a sort forsake, and emptie him∣selfe; drayned his greatnesse and glorie; deposed himselfe of the Throne of his incomprehensible Maiestie, and, if it be lawfull so to saie, annihilated himselfe, to stoope downe to our humanitie, to fill vs with his Diuinitie, to replenish vs with his goodnesse, to rayse vs to his dignitie, and bestow vpon vs the Diuine beeing of the children of God. And he, of whom it is so frequent written, I LIVE SAIED OVR LORD, pleased afterwards according to his Apostles language to saie, I liue, now not I, but man liues in me, man is my life, and to die

for man, is my gaines, my life is hidden with man in God. He that did inhabit in himselfe, lodgeth now in vs: and he that was liuing frō all eternitie in the bosome of his eternall Father, becomes mortall in the bosome of his temporall mother. He that liued eternally by his owne Diuine life, li∣ued temporally a humane life: And he that from eternitie had bene onely God, shall be for all eter∣nitie man too: so did the loue of man rauish God, and draw him into an Extasie!

6. Sixtly how oftē by loue did he admire, as he did the Centurion, and the Cananee? 7. he beheld the young man who had till that houre keept the Commandements and desired to be taught perfe∣ction. 8. he tooke a louing repose in vs, yea euen with some suspension of his senses, in his mothers wombe and in his infancie. 9. he was wonderfull tender towards little children, which he would take in his armes, and louingly dandle a sleepe; towards MARTHA and MAGDALEN, towards La∣zarus ouer whom he wept, as also ouer the Citie of Hierusalem. 10. he was animated with an incō∣parable Zeale, which, as S. DENIS saieth, turned into iealousie, turning away so farre as he could all euill from his beloued humane nature, with ha∣zard, yea with the price of his blood, driuing away the Deuil the Prince of this world, who seemed to be his Corriuall and Competitor.

7. He had a thousand thousand languors of Loue: for from whence could those Diuine words proceede; I haue to be baptised with a baptisme, and how am I straitened vntill it be dispatched? The houre in which he was baptised in his bloode

was not yet come, and he languished after it, the loue which he bore vnto vs vrging him there∣vnto that he might by his death, see vs deliuer••d from an eternall death. He was also sad, and sweate blood of distresse in the garden of Oliuet; not onely by reason of the exceeding griefe which his soule felt in the inferiour part of reason; but also through the singular loue which he bore vnto vs in the superiour portiō thereof, sorrow begetting in him a horrour of death, yet loue, an extreame desire of the same; so that there was a hote com∣bat, and a cruell agonie, betwixt desire and hor∣rour of death, vnto the shedding of much blood, which streamed downe vpon the earth as from a liuing source.

8. Finally THEO: this Diuine Louer died a∣mongst the flames and ardours of Loue; by reason of the infinite charitie which he had towards vs; and by the force and vertue of Loue, that is, he died in Loue, by Loue, for Loue, and of Loue: for though his cruell torments were sufficient to haue kild any bodie; yet could death neuer make a breach in his life, who keepes the keyes of life and death, vnlesse Diuine Loue, which hath the hand∣ling of those keyes, had opened the Port to death to let it sacke that Diuine bodie, and dispoyle it of life. Loue not being content to haue made him mortall onely, vnlesse it had made him die withall. It was by choice, not by force of torment that he died. No man doth take my life from me, saieth he, but I yeeld it of my selfe and I haue power to yeeld it, and I haue power to take it againe. He was offered, saieth Isaie, because he himselfe

would and therefore it is not saied that his Spirit went away, forsooke him, or separated it selfe frō him; but cōtrariwise that he gaue vp his Spi∣rit, expired, rendred vp the Ghost, yeelded his Spirit vp into the hands of the eternall Father; so that S. ATHANASIVS remarketh, that he stooped downe with head to die, to the end he might consent, and bend towards deaths approch, which otherwise durst not haue come neere him: and crying out with a lowde voice, he gaue vp his Spirit into his Fathers hands, to shew, that as he had strength and breath enough not to die, so had he so much Loue, that he could no longer liue, but would by his death reuiue those, which without it could neuer eschew death, nor pretend for true life. Wherefore our Sauiours death was a true sa∣crifice, and a sacrifice of Holocaust, which him∣selfe offered to our Sauiour to be our Re∣demption: for though the paines and do∣lours of his Passion were so great and vio∣lent, that any but he had died of them, yet had he neuer died of them, vnlesse he himselfe had pleased, and vnlesse the fire of his infinite Charitie had consumed his life. He was then the Priest himselfe, who offered vp himselfe vnto his Father, and sacrificed himselfe in Loue, to Loue▪ by Loue, for Loue, from Loue.

9. Yet beware of saying, THEOTIME, that this death of Loue in our Sauiour, passed by way of rauishment: for the obiect which his Cha∣ritie had to moue him to die, was not so amia¦ble, that it could force this heauenly soule ther∣to,

which therefore departed the bodie by way of extasie, driuen on and forced forwards by the abundance and force of Loue, euen as the Myrrhetree is seene to send foorth her first iuyce by her onely abundance, without being strayned or pressed, according to that which he himselfe saied, as we haue noted. No man taketh my life away from me, but I yeelded it of my selfe. O God THEO: what burning coles are cast vpon our hearts to inflame vs to the exercise of holy loue towards our best Sauiour, seeing he hath so louingly practised them towards vs who are his worst seruants! The Charitie then of IESVS-CHRIST doth presse vs.