The holy court in five tomes, the first treating of motives which should excite men of qualitie to Christian perfection, the second of the prelate, souldier, states-man, and ladie, the third of maxims of Christianitie against prophanesse ..., the fourth containing the command of reason over the passions, the fifth now first published in English and much augemented according to the last edition of the authour containing the lives of the most famous and illustrious courtiers taken out of the Old and New Testament and other modern authours / written in French by Nicholas Caussin ; translated into English by Sr. T.H. and others.

§ 5. That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings, is a pow∣erfull lenitive against our Dolours.

AS for the second Modell, which is the Word Incar∣nate the true mirrour of Patience, and onely re∣ward of the Patient; It is a very strange thing, that all nature being so bent upon its conservation as to suffer nothing, Jesus Christ did miracles incomprehensible to the spirit of Angels, onely of purpose to suffer for man! For, how could dolour have laid hold on a God, of his own nature impassible, if it had not passed through all the heavens to take the divine word in the sanctuary of the Trinity, which otherwise was meerly impossible! but, the son of God, considering this Im∣possibility, and being fixed in the desire to sustein for us, took the body of man to suffer all that which the most cruell could invent, and all whatsoever the most miserable might undergo. Verily it is an effect of so prodigious a love that it found no belief in senses, per∣swasion in minds, example in manners, nor resemblance in Nature. We have heretofore heard of a Prince, who, desirous to offer himself to death for rhe preser∣vation of his subjects, took the habit of a Peasant to steal himself from his greatnesse, and facilitate his death. All histories say he laid down his purple, and crown, and all the ensigns of Royalty, retaining none but those of love, which caused him to go into his enemies army, where he left life to purchase an immortall tro∣phey for his reputation. But I must tell you, he had a mortall life, and in giving it, he gave that tribute to na∣ture, which he owed to nature from the day of his birth, and which of necessity he was to pay; yea, he gave it to buy the memory of posterity, and to beg honour, which is more esteemed by generous spirits, then life. But in what history have we read, that, a man glorious by birth, immortall by condition, necessarily happy, hath espoused humility which all the world despiseth, mor∣tality which the most advised apprehend, misery which the bravest detest; for no other occasion, but to have the opportunity to dy for a friend! And this is it which Je∣sus Christ did. He was by nature immortall, impassible, impregnable against all exteriour violencies: he took not the habit of a peasant, as Codrus, nor a body of air, as the Angell-conductour of Tobias; but a true body, a flesh, tender and virginall, personally united to the word of God; to quail it with toils, to consume it with travails: and lastly, to resign it as a prey to a most dolourous death; he casts tottered rags over his royall purple, and takes pains to stoop down to pull me out of the mire where I lay, and to take my miseries upon him, not sullying himself in my sins.

My God! what a prodigie is this? All ages have observed a thousand and a thousand industries of men which they found out to avoid the pains and torments of life; but never have we seen a man who sought to invent means, and to offer violence to his own conditi∣on; to become suffering, and miserable, according to the estimation of the world, since there are day and night so many gates open to this path: yet thou (Oh God of Glory! O mild Saviour!) hast done it. Thou

hast found a way how to accord infirmity with sove∣reign power, honour with ignominy, time with eterni∣ty, and death with life. It was not possible that sole God should endure death; or that sole Man could vanquish it; but man hath abided it, and God hath overcome it.

As for the quality of pains; it sufficeth to say, that if men judged of the greatnesse of Gyants by one of their footsteps impressed on the sand: and if we like∣wise measure the course of the sun by a small thread of shadow; one may have some grosse knowledge of so great a mystery, by the figures which forewent it. Now, all the sacrifices of the Mosaick law, and so many travails and sufferings of the antient Patriarchs were but a rough draught of the passion of Jesus Christ: from whence we may imagine what the originall was, sith the Copies thereof were so numerous and different throughout the course of all Ages.

The perpetuall sacrifice which was evening and morning made in the Temple, the twenty two thousand oxen, and the hundred and twenty thousand sheep which were sacrificed by Solomon at one feast of the de∣dication of the Temple (so much bloodshed, that it seemed a red sea to those who beheld it) was to no other end but to figure the blood of the immaculate Lamb, and of all its members which have suffered after it. But if so much preparation and profusion were needfull to expresse one sole shadow of his passion; what may we conjecture of the body, and the thing figured! Besides, if all the antient Patriarchs, who were so persecuted in times past, and all the Martyrs (who since the death of our Saviour have endured torments almost infinite in number, and prodigious in kinds) made but an assay or tryall of the dolours of this King of the afflicted; what an account shall we make of his pains, which ever ought to be as much adored by our wills as they are in∣comprehensible to our understanding! The Lamb was sacrificed from the beginning of the world (saith Saint John); He was massacred in Abel (saith S. Pauli∣nus;) tossed upon so many waves, in the person of No∣ah; wandring, in that of Abraham; offered up, in Isaac; persecuted, in Jacob; betraied, in Joseph; sto∣ned, in Moses; bruised, on a dunghill, in the patience of Job; blinded, in Samson; sawn, in Esay; flayed af∣terward, in the person of S. Bartholmew; roasted, in that of Saint Laurence; thrown out to Lions, in that of Saint Ignatius; burned, in that of Saint Polycarp; pulled in picees by four horses, and cast headlong into a ditch full of Serpents, in that of Saint Tecla; drowned, in that of S. Clement; exposed to wasps, in that of ma∣ny other Martyrs. From whence it commeth that the passion of Jesus is called a short Consummation by the Prophet Esay, and that Saint Paul hath said to the He∣brew, That by one sole Sacrifice he hath consummated those which were to be sanctified for all eternity. And S. Hilary clearly confesseth, That Jesus Christ the one∣ly Son of God desirous to fulfill this great and mysteri∣ous Sacrament of his pretious death, did passe through all imaginable dolours which were (as it were) melted and distilled together; to make of it a prodigious accom∣plishment.

Jesus is the stone with seven eyes, whereof the Pre∣phet Zachary speaketh, which the heavenly Father says he hath cut and engraven with his own hand, thereon figuring all the most glorious characters of pa∣tience. He is an Abysse of love, of mercy, of dolours, of ignominies, of blood, of lowlinesse and greatnesse, of excesse, of admiration and amazement, which swal∣loweth all thoughts, dryeth up all mouths, stayeth all pens, and drencheth all conceptions; Who now then, will dare to complain that he suffereth too much, that he doth too much, that he is treated with lesse tender∣nesse then he deserveth? O our coldnesse, and remiss∣nesse! whence can it proceed but from not studying enough on this incomparable Book which compre∣hends all secrets? we at least should consider the di∣vine Providence in the matter of the burdens of all the world; to diminish our nicenesse, to gain opinion and understanding which may alter our judgement.

A sage Roman shewing to an impatient man the whole world surrounded in a great deluge of miseries, said unto him, I assure my self, you would not so much play the milk sop, nor have a soul so effeminate, if you would think that the whole world swimmeth in a dreadfull sea of calamities. All things conform them∣selves to the nature of their originall; and we have else∣where said, that Bees bred in the dead body of a Bull carry the resemblance of their Progenitour, pourtray∣ed by certain little lineaments in their proper body. The world hath produced us, and Jesus Christ hath rege∣nerated us by his Death and most precious Bloud; ne∣ver should we rest untill we carry upon us some token of nature wailing, and of a God suffering: according to S. Pauls precept, Glorifie, and hear the Image of God in your body,

Notes

• Abscondit purpuram sub miseri•• vestimentis; ad lutum ubi jace∣bam, incli∣natur, non mergitur:
• Abbas Guerricus.
• Mortem nec solus Deus sentire, nec solus homo vincere po∣terat, homo suscepit, & Deus vicit. Faustus l. 1. de lib. ar∣bitr. The quali∣ty of the sufferings of our Saviour.
• 3 Reg. 8. 63. 22000 bul∣locks, and 120000 sheep sacri∣ficed for the dedication of Solomon his Temple.
• Apoc. 13. 8. Agnas acci∣sus est ab origine mundi. Our Saviour hath suffer∣ed in the person of all the just and the martyrs
• Confumma∣tio abbrevi∣ata. Isa. 10 12. Unâ oblati∣one con∣summavit in sempiter num satisfa∣ctos. Heb 10 14. Unigenitus Dei ad per∣agendum mort is suae sacramen∣tum, con∣summavit humana∣rum omne genus passi∣onum. Hilar. l. 10. de trinit.
• Zach. 39.
• Sence. l. 3. nat. quaest. Praeferri sci∣es quid dece∣at si cogi∣taveris or∣bem terra∣rum notare.
• Bees bear the figure of a ball on their bodies
• Glorisi care & portate Deum in corpore ve∣stro. 1 Cor. 6.