The cynosura, or, A saving star that leads to eternity discovered amidst the celestial orbs of David's Psalms, by way of paraphrase upon the Miserere.

To the Right Honorable and Illustrious Lady ANNE Countess of SHREWSBURY.

MADAM,

IT is the great Voice of the Church taught by her Heavenly Espouse, that according to the ordinary course set down by his Providence, none arrived to the knowledge of good and evil, can reach their Beatitude; but by the wings of Pennance. 'Tis a Decree passed immediately after our First Pa∣rents transgression, that he should not eat his Bread, but at the rate of sweaty Browes: And though God seems to dispense in this severe Sentence in the old Law, promising to the exact observers of it, long life, abundance of wealth, a plen∣tiful posterity, and the like: Yet this was done (as he will leave no vertue unrewarded) in regard that Hea∣vens Gates were then shut up: But when Christ had cleared their passage unto Eternal felicity, and clapt the Thorns (which were the fruit of our sins) upon his own Head, then they recovered so high a Being, and grew to that value, as the heavier God layes his Hand upon us, the more his love appears: So that now the

mark of our happiness is the Son of God not glorify∣ed, but scourged, spit upon, crowned with Thorns, torn with Whipps, and nailed to the Cross.

Hence it is we find our sweet Redeemer born in Tears, bred up in obscurity, and concluding the upshot of his life with all the circumstances of infamy and pain; at the opening of his grand commission to preach unto the World, his first Exordium was an exhortation unto pennance, as if it were the sole Loadstone to draw Heaven towards us: And St. Paul his great Disciple declares it; nay he makes no exception, that all those who would be happy must crucify their flesh with their vices.

Thus you see, Madam, that every Hand, whe∣ther innocent or guilty, whether noble or vulgar, ought to be stretched forth to sow the bitter Seed of pennance: If we have sucked in vertue even with our Milk, and thrived with a daily encrease in the sequel of our life, yet we ought not (sayes St. Austin) descend into the Tomb but by the way of pennance: Again if we have com∣plyed with the Frailties of our corrupt nature, and tres∣passed against the duty we owe to our good God, pen∣nance likewise must be our Sanctuary: So that pen∣nance is furnished with two Wings to bear us up to Heaven; the one is fashioned out by love, which prompts us to become by a course of severity, a true Copy of our suffering Original; the other is framed by strokes of Justice, and exacts worthy fruits; that is, such as

may in some proportion be answerable to our failings; and though this other have not a motive altogether so Heroick, yet it speaks a great vertue, because it puts us upon a task the most knotty that can be imagined, as to appease the face of an angry God. Besides, it renders that Action just and equitable, in that it aims to repair the injury and contempt thrown by sin up∣on his greatness: Wherefore we ought not to blush upon either of these accounts to wear the Liveries of pen∣nance: If on the former we mortify our senses upon Earth, and vest our selves with the habit of Christ shaped out to the Image of his Death, it is a perfect Metamorphosy wrought by the power of love, and for which Figure the very Angels (were they capable of sensible impressions) would be glad to exchange with us: If on the latter; that is, the score of satisfaction, it Cancels all our Bonds of guilt, it raises us from an Abyss of misery, to the high dignity of Grace, by which we are adopted Sons and Heirs to Heaven. So that a penitential life cannot but find veneration amongst all wise Men, and be highly acceptable in the sight of God; since by our humiliations we labour to contribute to his honor and greatness.

But Madam, you may perhaps upon this discourse wonder to behold in the Courts of Christian Prin∣ces so much of glory, pomp, and magnificence which suit so ill with the Characters of the Cross. I confess at the First glance it might startle any one, were it not that a multitude of persons, both

Illustrious in Blood, and eminent in Sanctity, have taught by their Example, that the glittering of the World, and a penitential Heart are not things in∣compatible: It were to groap in the Sun-beams to play the Ignorant in this Truth, that is, not to acknow∣ledge that in all ages since Christ's visible appearance upon Earth, Princes and Ladies of no less extraction have been found, who under a Cloth of Tyssue, and the richest Ornaments have covered their tender Bodies with Hair-cloths: Who amidst the delicacies of the Court, have macerated themselves with fasting, and seasoned their repasts with bitter ingredients: VVho have more valued one hours entertainment between God and their happy Souls, than all the Balls and Masques to which external compliance the greatness of their condition in some sort obliged them. For the essen∣tial part of pennance consists in the interiour disposition of the Mind; that is, in the operation of the under∣standing and will. The understanding first re∣presents unto us a God disobeyed, and scorned; and his Justice (by this indignity stirred up to vindicate his ho∣nor) threatning nothing but ruine and desolation in this distress, the understanding further suggests that we have no refuge but to the throne of mercy, whereupon the will falls to work, laments what is passed, protests against any future complyance with bad inclinations, and seised with a holy sorrow and affliction, submits to any compensation shall be required: These are the pre∣paratories to justification, and when once they are com∣pleated

by a ray of Faith, strengthened with hope, and animated with charity, this vertue of pennance growes up to that efficacy, as to obtain, in consideration of the excellency of its acts, and fervency of the Agent a full remission of all sin: Whence it is evident this grand work of pennance may be wrought within the precincts of our interiour, and consequently the vain ap∣pearance of precious attyre, and ceremonies of great∣ness may possibly reach only to the film or out-side, whilest within they possess humility, purity, tem∣perance and other Christian vertues.

To give a further elucidation of this point, you will please Madam to know, that Christ our Lord in his copious Redemption had two main designs: The one to gain the Hearts of Men to the obedience of his Lawes, which were so frozen and marble like as he foresaw a slight wound received upon their score would have little effect; wherefore he used all the endear∣ing motives imaginable to work them to their duty, and what greater than to receive upon his Back the stripes due to anothers transgression. It is related of St. Gre∣gory the great, that he never beheld the pourtraiture of Abraham with his Arm lifted up to Sacrifice Isaac, but it drew Tears from him; and for us to behold the Eternal Father abandoning his own and only Son to all the outrages which accursed miscreants could inflict upon him, without any resentment of our obligations, especially since they were directed to lead us into the enjoy∣ment of eternal felicity, is certainly a wonder be∣yond

all the prodigies he ever wrought, we see that very Tygers are won by the unresistable power of good turns; wherefore Christ our Lord hoped by this Engin to make a breach into us, and if once he made an Entry into our Hearts, he knew we would presently Capitulate, and surrender at least with colours flying; that is, conform our selves to his commands though upon the large Articles of enjoying many sensual pleasures, which his indulgent Rules allow to the more Earthy part of Man∣kind.

Besides this rational design of working us to a Complyance with his precepts, he had yet another more sublime in his superabundant satisfaction, which was to teach us the Law of love; now this is an Enemy to mercenary aims, and carryes us beyond the Crude prin∣ciples of doing no more than what is precisely command∣ed. St. Peter tells us his drift in this so rigorous a dis∣charge of our debts, that (sayes he) we might fol∣low and trace his steps. For he knew this affli∣ctive way so necessary to us, as things now stand after our corruption in sin, that albeit one groan of his had been sufficient through the dignity of his infinite person to have redeemed a million of Worlds, yet he was content to load himself with all the injuries that Man can endure, believing his commands would prove less efficacious than the model and pattern of an immense love, repre∣sented lively unto us in his own actions.

It is storied of a King amongst the Grecians, that he had a person very deformed, as it could not but

create in the sense of the beholders a great distast: How∣ever his goodness and wisdom so wrought upon his Subjects, that all the irregular Lines of nature in their Sovereign, they looked upon as strokes of perfe∣ction.

If then opinion had so much power as to work Men into a belief, that very Monsters of nature are quaint perfections, why should not the authority and ever adorable example of our Lord Jesus Christ, find so much credit amongst Men, as to effect, That poverty, chastity, contempt, patience, per∣secutions, and the like; which till then the VVorld had entertained with horrour, might afterwards be had in as much veneration; since he had daigned to honor them by his sufferings, raise them by his greatness, fix them by his authority, and fortify them by his ad∣mirable example: He had reason to perswade him∣self that Men would no more spartle at fasting, hair-cloths, watching in prayer, unwearied labors, and austerities of all kind, since he himself their Lord and Master had followed the same track; all the Documents he hath chaulked out to us from the Crib through the whole course of his mortal life even unto the Cross, had no other aim than to draw us from the love of fading objects, and to divert us from placing any fe∣licity in them.

Nor truly Madam hath this design proved unsuc∣cessful; for his example hath put millions of gene∣rous hearts upon the task of sufferings, and justly

possessed them, that the greatest honor is to be hum∣ble, the greatest victory to be patient and for∣give, the greatest abundance to be poor, the greatest delicacies to fast, the greatest pleasures to macerate their Bodies, the greatest happi∣ness to enjoy nothing of what the World calls happy: And all this because their Heavenly Master had read this Lesson to them in his own actions, and though they could not by all their crucifying inventi∣ons in contemning the World and themselves for his sake reach to a compleat return, at least they hoped by them to express their gratitude, and manifest how truly they were the spoils of his amorous conquests.

This little Treatise Madam, is grounded upon a famous President to publish to the world what pennance can do: It sets before our Eyes a King who had great failings, but by penitential acts he so redeemed them, as I question whether succeeding ages gained not more by his misfortunes, than if he had never lost his in∣nocence; and as it is said of the incredulous Apostle, that his slow belief cleared to us all mists of doubt, so the miscarriages of our great Penitent warn us both of our own weakness, not to trust to our selves in dangerous occasions, as also of God's enclining mercy so to shield us from despair.

Next, we are taught by this Royal Penitent, that being drawn from the mire of sin; God confines not his mercy to a bare pardon, but afterwards gives us means to arrive at a high pitch of perfection.

I confess Madam, I have a holy ambition to see you great in this noble warfare, since the most eminent Saints and most innocent Souls that ever were upon Earth, have made it their glory to fight under these co∣lours, and this passion in me springs not only from a common zeal of Christianity to promote others in Gods favour, but out of a particular respect to your person, having had the happiness to be employed and serve many of your relations in affairs of no small importance: Where∣fore fear not to take up the arms of pennance, they will not blemish your fair hand, but prove to your advantage in what posture soever you stand with your dear Creatour; for in these Christian conflicts simply to obey, secures you from being overcome, and every vertuous sally beyond what is commanded will purchase fresh Laurels to you; the greatness of your birth prompts ••ou not to be ungrateful, and the temper of your Sex is not usually of Adamant against the impressions of love, especially when wrought upon by an accomplished perfection, and by all the endearing obligations imaginable, and albeit before this address you may have happily rendered your self a Captive to the sacred charms of your suffering Redeemer, yet if the perusal of these poor descants may add but one Spark to those your holy enkindled flames, I shall think my labour in this Subject well spent, by which I hope will be evidenced how much your eternal good is valued by

MADAM

Your truly devoted Servant Nicolas Cross.