A Christian duty composed by B. Bernard Francis.

DISCOURS VI. OF THE FOVRTH ARTICLE (Book 6)

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried (Book 6)

THe Apostles who made in their Creed an abridgement of the principall Mysteries of our Faith, having spoken of the Conception, and of the Nativity of our Saviour, pass his Life in silence, and treat immediatly of His death: to teach us the chiefe reason of his comming was, to suffer, and to redeem us by his Passion.

2. He saw by the light of glory the abyss of sin, and the Eternal damnation to which men were doom'd for the fault of their first Parents, and for their own sins; He had pity on them and prayed his Father to pardon them for the Love of Him. What man on earth: What Angel in Heaven, knowing that the only Son of God, a Son so amiable, and so beloved, demands pardon of his Father for men, to whom He is like in nature: What man or Angel, say I, knowing this, would not have sayd, surely, surely, the eternal Father will pardon mankind for the love of his Son, who is a man, and that also freely, without any satisfaction; No, the Father does it not; But He says, * 1.1 my Justice must have its cours; my Son, I will pardon men, if you will answer for them, and undergoe death for them. The Son hath a great apprehension and horror of a death so cruell and ignominious; we see it in the Prayer He made in the Garden, which was an expression of that which He acted in the womb of his Mother after the instant of his Conception.

3. Nevertheless He accepted not only with patience and resig∣nation, but also with pleasure and satisfaction the decrees of Gods

Justice concerning him; He offered himself most willingly and with an ineffable love not only to be nayled to the Cross, but also to remaine and languish thereupon 'til the end of the world, if it should so please his Father: Ecce venio ut faciam volunta∣tem * 1.2 tuam. He that should have seen this submission, might with probability have sayd: the eternal Father will content himself with his good will, as He was satisfyd with the good will of Abraham and of Isaac; at least the Justice of God will be contented that he suffer but one prick of a thorn, or one stroke of a whip, that He shed one drop of his Blood, which is sufficient to san∣ctify the whole world; No: He wills that He suffer actually all the punishments, humiliations, and afflictions we sinners did deserve.

4. A Sinner deserves to be depriv'd of the use of creatures, since he abused them; to be humbled and confounded, becaus he would not be subject to the laws and will of God; To be punished both in body and soul, becaus he offended the infinitely high Majesty of the Creator. And JESUS hath taken upon himself to satisfy for all these pains and punishments.

5. He was depriv'd of the use of Creatures; for what privation more rigorous, than to be spoiled of his very cloathes? to be as naked as a worme of the earth: not to have so much as a poor shift to cover him, not a drop of water to refresh his ton∣gue in the agony of death? One of his Apostles betrays him: another denys him: all forsake him: and thô some holy Women followed him, yet they were not permitted to assist him.

6. He was humbled and confounded; What greater humiliation than to be exposed to derision and rudeness of the rable, and to inso∣lence of soldiers? Who treat him as the very scum of men: who salute him in mocherie, blindfold him, buffet him, pull off his beard: who put a reed in his hand for a scepter, and thorns upon his head for a crown, as if He were a king of the Thea∣ter? To be decry'd and condemn'd as a blasphemer, as a se∣ducer, as ambitious, as sedicious, as an Imposter: What confu∣sion greater then to be dragd through the streets of Hierusalem with hues and cries, as a fool, and as an extravagant person, from Caiphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod to the Pretory? To be less esteem'd then Barrabbas a sedi∣tious

person, and a murtherer? to be esteem'd more wicked, more unworthy to live, and more worthy of the cross then he? What indignity more intollerable than to receive foule and fi••thy matters in token of vility and baseness, not upon his gar∣ments or hands only, but upon his most venerable and adora∣ble face? this indignity was so ignominious in Israel, that if a child receiv'd it from his father, he was to bear the confusion * 1.3 of it at least seven daies: To be short, What greater contempt, than to die not the death of Nobles, nor with honourable per∣sons, not in private and in prison, not in the night by torch light: but the death of slaves, with infamous persons, in a high and publick place, at mid-day, in the sight of more than two hundred thousand persons.

7. What shal I say of the punishments receiv'd in his sacred Body? He suffered more horrible, harsh, and bitter torments than were ever suffer'd by any creature upon earth. The Prophet Isaiah calls him by excellence the man of Paines. Abel was mur∣thered, * 1.4 Zachary was stoned, Isaiah sawed, Lazarus covered with ulcers, and not one of them is called the man of Paines. We have heard of men, to whom their vertues or their vices, their birth or their condition, have given honourable or shamefull Names; But we have not heard but of IESUS-CHRIST only to whom Paine hath given a name; He is the Man of Pains, because He did bear all our paines; He is the man of Pa∣ines, becaus He suffered in all his members; and He is the man of Pains, becaus He was pierced through with Pains, ex∣posed, Sacrificed, and given wholy over to sufferances and Pains.

8. But the sufferances in his soul will make appear yet better the Greatness of his Paine. He sayd in the Garden, my soul is sor∣rowfull to death: It would seperate my soul and Body, if I shoul not hinder it, for to endure yet more.

To whatsoever part He casts his sight, He sees objects of the greatest sorrow: His soul is nail'd to a most hard Cross, before his Body is Crucifyd; and the Cross of his Soul is much more harsh, and insupportable, then that of his Body. The three nails of this interiour cross are the injuries don to

his Father: the Commpassion of his Mother: and the damna∣tion of his brothers.

Philosophy teaches us that a paine is more sharp and bitter, when 'tis received in a power more pure and immaterial. IESUS was pierced, with paine not only in the inferior part of his soul, but also in the superior, which is wholy spiritual, in the part in which He was blessed: and his Beatitude also contri∣buted to the increas of paine, says S. Laurence Justinian. He * 1.5 saw by the light of glory God face to face: He knew clearly the Greatness of his Majesty: the outrage and the injury that sin does him: he loved him with a most ardent and excessive love: and therefore He could not be but excessively afflicted seeing the Ocean of sins committed against that most high, adorable and amiable Majesty; The wounds of his Body were made by hands of Torterers: hands indeed most cruell and inhumane: Yet their activity had stil limits; But the wounds of his heart were inflicted by the hand of love, by the love which He had for his Father: a love ineffable and incomprehensible; If a soule that loved God well, could have as much contrition as she would desire; ô how would she pierce herself with sorow▪ How wil∣lingly would she bathe herself in her tears! ô how would she calcinate her poor heart! JESUS had as much of sorrow as He desired, and He desired as much of it as He had love for his Father: his sorrow was equal with his love; If He had seen but one only mortal sin committed against him whom He so loved, He would have grieved infinitely; ô how then was He afflicted when He saw so many, so different, and so enormous!

9. The love which he had for his Mother, was another nail that pierced his heart, and which fastned him to this interior Cross. He sees her present at all the Misteries of his bitter Passion; He sees all the wonds of his Body united in her heart: and we may say that his compassion was another Passion.

10. He looks below: His soul is sorrowfull: He sees the torments of hell, wherein so many shal be plunged notwithstanding his sufferances for them. He sees that their wounds are incurable, that they abuse his Blood, death, and merits, and that after so many remedies they damne themselves for trifles, and

what He indured for them, would serve but as oyle and sulphur to inflame the divine Justice to punish their ingratitude more rigo∣rously.

11. S. Austin wholy astonished at the sight of CHRISTS sufferance cry's out: ô Son of God? whither hath your humi∣lity descended! whither hath your charity been inflamed! whi∣ther hath your piety extended it self! The Wiseman sayd, that you have don every thing in number, weight, and measure, But in this work of your Love, You have observ'd neither num∣ber, nor weight, nor measure; You have exceeded all hopes and desires; You have made an excess that could not be imagined; The Angells were astonished considering this wonder: a God whipt! a God cover'd with spittle! the King of kings crown'd with thorns! a God crucifyed for slaves! a God pierced with sorrows for worms of the earth, of whom He had no need, and knowing, that they would be ungratfull for so great a Bene∣fit. What transport! what excess! and if He were not God, I might say with Pagans, what folly of Love! Gentibus stultitia.

12. After a love so cordial, undeserv'd, and so excessive, shal we not love him? If the least slave had don the same for us, He would be Master of our hearts; and seeing a God hath don it, shal He not be? Qui non diligit Dominum Iesum Anathema sit, * 1.6 says S. Paul: since JESUS suffer'd for us, if any one love him not, let him be Anathema, Curs'd, excommunicated, and abhorred of all creatures. But if any one should not love him, and moreover be so ungratfull as to offend him, what punishment would You wish him holy Apostle. He adds it not; nor can one wish him a pain so great as he deserves; there should be a new hell to revenge an ingratitude so monstrous and enormous.

13. For as S. Bernard sayd, if Moses speaking to the Iews, who had but a gross and imperfect Law. who had not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST, sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy foul, and with all thy forces; what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation, Re∣demption, and Passion of our Saviour? Ought they not to burn with love? should they not, if it were possible, love JESUS

above all their forces, thoughts, and activity of their hearts? If I owe my self wholy to him for making me, what shal I add now for repairing me, and repairing me in such a manner?

14. Let us love him then, since He so loved us; let's not love him only in words and compliments; let us not content our selves to say, I honour much my Saviour, I love him with all my heart: But let us love him in worke and Verity: in doing, in giving, and in suffering for him: for so He loved us; And since his goodness is so infinite, and his love to us so excessive, that He preferred us, not only before Angells, but also before him∣self: it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him; it would be a strange folly to offend him, to disoblige his goodness, to lose his amity and his favour, for honour, pleasure, profit, or satisfaction of a Passion. Do not so if you be wise: Say rather with S. Austin, all abundance, all honour, all felicity, that is not you my God, is but poverty, vanity, and misery; say as S. Francis did, my God You are my All! Love him with all your heart, since He his all your good: love him with a sovereign love, since He is sovereignly good: love, adore, bless, prayse, glorify him now, and ever. Amen.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Isaiah. 53. 10.
• * 1.2

  Heb. 10. 9.
• * 1.3

  Numb. 12. 14.
• * 1.4

  c. 33. 3.
• * 1.5

  de tryum∣phali Christi Agone.
• * 1.6

  1. cor. 16. 22.