Of the love of our only Lord and Saviour, Iesus Christ: Both that which he beareth to vs; and that also which we are obliged to beare to him. Declared by the principall mysteries of the life, and death of our Lord; as they are deluiered [sic] to vs in Holy Scripture. With a preface, or introduction to the discourse.

How our blessed Lord was crowned with thornes, and blasphemed, and tormented further, with strange inuention of malice: And how he endured it all, with incomparable Loue.

CHAP. 65.

YET this was not all; for the souldiers who had receiued cōmission to scourge him in so bloudy manner, to the end that by that cru∣elty the pitty of the Iewes might be awaked; tooke the bouldnes, out of their owne Ca∣priccio, to put the most ignominious, & with∣all most bitter torment vpon him, which euer, in the world, had bene conceaued. When therfore they had wearied thēselues in scour∣ging him, and there was now no more place for new wounds (since all his sacred body, was growne to be as it were one continued wound, or rather a kind of Cake, of bloud) they vntyed him from the pillar; they gaue him leaue to cloath himselfe, though they had almost taken away the strength wherwith he might be able to doe it; and they lent him, for the present a little rest, till they had resolued, what they were to doe. And because the Priests and Elders, had charged him with pro∣curing,

by fauour of the people, to be made a King, whome they had found by experience, to be so subiect to themselues; they(a) 1.1 thought it would carry a good proportion to the sup∣posed cryme of his ambitiō, if they could find some meanes, to make him a conunterfeit kind of King, and to afflict him in point both of ease and honor; by the appearance of all those ornaments, and demonstrations, of respect & seruice, which are indeed of honour to true kings, when they are truly meant; but to him they were of excessiue affront, and paine.

They made him then, with his hands fast tyed, sit downe, all naked in most seruile manner, for now they had stripped him, the second tyme. And calling their whole troope of Guard togeather, they clapt (in imitation of the Princely robes of a King) a purple mantle,* 1.2 about his backe, which could not choose but sticke to his sacred flesh, for there was no skinne betwene, to part thē. They put a Reed into his hands, insteed of a Scepter; and a plat of thornes vpon his head, insteed of a Crowne. They did then, with incredible ioy of hart to see his misery, salute him, and say, All haile, O King of the Iewes. Then would they be taking the Reed out of his hands, and they would beate the Crowne more deeply into his head; and then, spitting in his face, they kneeled downe, and adored him, in shew, as they would their King. All this did Christ our Lord endure for vs, and he did it with a kind of infinite meekenes and loue; not complay∣ning

therat, nor declaring the least mistike therof, either by pittying himselfe or blaming them. But he confounded therby (and that af∣ter a most puissant manner) the arrogant pride of earth and hell; offring vp(b) 1.3 his owne hu∣miliation in propitiation for all the sinnes of the whole world, & especially for such as were committed in the way of pride, and for the obteyning such grace, at the hands of God, by meanes heereof, as might enable his true seruants, to imitate his humility.

It ought to fill our soules with extreme confusion, to find that we, who professe to be the seruants of our Lord, are yet so dull in deuising meanes how to expresse our reuerēce and loue towards him. Our wits lye cleane another way. And euen in Prayer, we haue sometymes, inough to doe, to entertaine this spouse of our soules, with aboundance of so much, as mentall acts of loue; and much more difficulty we find to performe them afterward by way of practise. Yet heere, these enemies of God & man, are teaching vs, by their lewd example, (whose wits did serue them but too well) to increase the torment of our Lord at an easy rate, vnto themselues. For when they had stript him naked, in the sight of so many impure eyes; and scourged him so cruelly, as that it might seeme almost impossible to giue any increase, ether of shame or torment; be∣hould how full they are of strange inuention; and their malice findes meanes to deuise such exquisite waies to augment them both, in such

a measure, as makes all that seeme little, which was done before.

It is true(c) 1.4 that before, he had most blasphemously bene spit vpon, but it was at midnight, and in Cayphas his house, and but only by his keepers. But heere it is done, al∣most at noon day, & in the Vice-Royes Court, and by a whole troope of Pagan souldiers. He was then already come, from being most cru∣elly scourged, ouer all his most beautifull and most sacred body, which gaue him paine beyond all expression; but now, behould they haue recourse to his diuine head, which seemed as if till then, it had escaped their rage. And so, that, being the most sensible part of al the rest, and indeed the very source, and seate of sense, the former torment was not so great, as it might haue bene. But heere, with hands, which they arme with iron grauntlets, they wreath sharpe thornes, of great length, into the forme of a hat,* 1.5 (which carryeth also the forme of an Imperiall Crowne) and they clap it hard vpon, and into his head, which they be∣seige, as it were, round about, with torments, farre exceeding all humane conceipt. It is true that before, he had bene stroken, at seuerall tymes, in the high Priests house, both with the fist, and with the flat of the hand; but now his head is beaten, not with their hands (for they could not haue so much as touched him, with∣out wounding themselues) but the Reed, which, whilst it was in his hands, serued for a note of scorne, being taken into theirs, be∣came

came an instrument of excessiue paine. For laying load with it vpon his head, their cruel∣ty was so witty, as to be able (and that with∣out any labour at all to themselues) to make at once, as many new wounds in that most sen∣sible part of the whole body, as there were thornes, in that cursed-blessed-Crowne.

A fence of(d) 1.6 thornes made with care, is able to keepe wild beasts within the prison of a Parke, as well as if the inclosure, were of wood or stone. And although they haue hi∣des, which are like houses, thatcht with hayre; yet they dare not put themselues vpon the pas∣sing of such pikes as those. If a single, & short thorne, doe but enter into the most dull and fleshy part of the hand, it puts a man out of patience, till it be pluckt forth. And if it chāce to get, betwene the flesh, and the nayle, it makes a shift to goe for a kind of torment. And many tymes, it breeds the losse of a nayle, and sometymes of a ioynt; and it hath fallen out, that it hath kept men so long from sleepe, as to cast them into feuers, and so to depriue thē, by degrees, of life. What torment then did our blessed Lord endure, when that faire Com∣mon of his forehead, grew subiect to such an inclosure of thornes, which imbraced, (as with so many cruell armes) not only that part, but all the rest of his diuine head, round about?

We haue seene men wounded in so sen∣sible partes of the body, that the Tents which are put in, doe giue them more paine euery tyme when they are drest, then euen the very

wounds themselues would doe. And it grow∣eth sometimes so farre, as to make thē swoone. And who shall then be able to comprehend the vnspeakeable torment which now was caused to our blessed Lord, who had so many wounds in that fōtaine of his quicke feeling; and so many seuerall Tents, as there were thornes, which did not only search the wōds but make them. And euery one of them grow∣ing so much deeper, and consequently brin∣ging more parts of the head (which till then had bene vntoucht) into the same confedera∣cy of cruell paine, as those bloudy men would haue a mind to strike him, at seuerall tymes, ouer the head, with that Reed.

And thus it was cleerly, and complete∣ly fulfilled of Christ our Lord, that; A plant a pe∣dis vsque ad verticem capitis,* 1.7 from the very sole of the foote, to the very crowne of his head, there was not a spot, free from bitter paine. He felt(e) 1.8 that, in the vniuersall torment of his body, which the Prophet Dauid found, concerning the miseries of his soule; when, in the bitternes therof, he thus expressed himselfe. Non est sanitas in carne mea à sacie irae tuae: non est pax ossibus meis à facie peccatorum meorum. There is no health in my flesh by reason of thy wrath, nor there is no peace in my bones, by reason of my sinnes. And verily it seems, as if it had bene an expresse prophesy, of the degrees wherby the tormēts of our Lord should grow vp, at length, to the top of torment, towards the appeasing the wrath of God by the propi∣tiation which he would offer for the sinne of

man. Since as soone as they had depriued the whole masse of his sacred flesh, of health and beauty, by that cruell scourging; they put themselues vpon an inuention, how to passe into, and pierce his bones, (in the most noble and pretious part of him, which was his head) by that bloudy Crowning. To such excesse as this did the sinne of man in generall arriue, & to such an outrage did those wretches in parti∣cular extend themselues; and with such an ex∣tasis of loue did Christ our Lord apply his minde, to the saluation (for as much as might concerne him) of the whole world; as for that purpose, to beare this infinite kind of paine & shame with an infinite kind of loue and ioy, in the Superiour part of his soule.

Notes

• (a) 1.1

  Why they resolued to crowne him with thornes.
• * 1.2

  Matt. 27. Marc. 15. Ioau. 19.
• (b) 1.3

  The Corona∣tion of our Lord had a spe∣cial ayme at the pardon, & cure, of the sinnes of Pride.
• (c) 1.4

  A com∣parison of his presēt scornes with the former.
• * 1.5

  Ioan. 19.
• (d) 1.6

  The great tor∣ment, which those thornes, must needs giue our Lord.
• * 1.7

  Ioan. 1.
• (e) 1.8

  Our Lord felt that in his body, which the Prophet Dauid & all sinners feele in their soules. Psalm. 17.