Celestial amities: or, A soul sighing for the love of her saviour.: By Edward Reynell, Esq;

The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love, in taking Humane Nature upon him.

WIth what admiration is not the heart of man seized on, when he entereth into the great Abysses which are discovered in our Redemption, and when he seeth Jesus [a Saviour] to reveal unto us the secrets and wisdome of heaven, by his blessed Incar∣nation.

For what saw he in our Nature, but a brutish body, and a Soul all covered over with crimes, and wholly drenched in remediless miseries? Or what could he set before him, but a miserable ungracious wretch, cast

forth upon the face of the Earth, wallowing in un∣cleanness, abandoned to all sorts of scorns and inju∣ries: And yet behold how the Prince of Glory look∣ing on us with the eyes of his mercy, taketh us, wash∣eth, cloatheth, adorneth, and tyeth us to himself, by a hand of infinite Love: He laid aside the beautiful Angels, and came upon earth to seek this lost crea∣ture, though a Foe to his Honour, and injurious to his Glory.

See, O my Soul! How that God [far beyond all other created Essences] hath been so liberal, as to be∣stow himself on thee! He bowed the Heaven, and came down, rendering his sacred Person subject to all the misery of humanity; to bruises, to tearings, to shatters, to violences, oppositions, and tyrannies; and all to accomplish a King of sorrow, calamity, and scorn. He laid aside all the Prerogatives of his most perfect Soul, exposing it to labours, to tears, and griefs, to those stupendious Throws in the Garden, which made him cry out in those expressive words, My God! My God! To what a point hast thou let me to be brought! and in the end, to be commended even to death it self.

How alas! didst thou abandon thy body to heat, to cold, to weakness, to hunger, to thirst, to travel, to weariness, to fear, to sadness of Soul, and death it self?

What was it but Love, and Love alone, that brought down God from heaven, to be incarnate in the womb of a Virgin, and to suffer all the hardships [not sin∣ful] to which humane Nature is subject? So that thou art not able to conceive the multitude and greatness,

nor any way comprehend the worth of his mercies. And what then canst thou say, but only lie gasping with admiration, of so vast, so unknown a goodness, and sigh out the rest in the Center of thy heart?

Good God What sublimate is made in the Lim∣beck of Love? What attractive was there in Humane Nature, to draw thee from the highest part of the hea∣vens to its love? Thou (out of thy goodness) wouldst not lose him, who (through his own weakness) de∣lighteth to lose himself.

O miracle! That humane Nature should be thus tyed to the Divine! That glory should be separated from the estate and condition of glory, yeilding his Soul up as a prey to sadness! O dear Saviour! Thou stretchest out thy hand to him, who turns his back to thee. Man flyeth as a Fugitive, and thou pursuest him even to the shaddow of Death: What may we say more of so profuse a Bounty? Oh how thou courtest sinful flesh! Being not content to pardon his crimes, but even through thy own death to procure him a Kingdom.

All the ancient Patriarchs, who were persecuted in times past, and all the glorious Martyrs, who since our Saviour have endured such torments, made but a tryal of his Dolours: Impatient souls then as we are! Can we expect a greater motive to suffering, then to have our Saviour for an example? Who then will complain? Or who is the man who cannot bear a small burden (to which he is tyed by duty and nature) when he beholds this great Abyss of love, of mercy, of dolours, of ignomy, of blood, of lowliness, of ad∣miration and amazement, which swalloweth up all

thoughts, dryeth up all mouths, and stayeth all Pens and hands.

And canst thou, O my Soul! after all this, think any cross heavie, any affliction hard to endure? Canst thou chuse but be vexed and enraged at thy repinings? O my great and only good! Suppress those unreason∣able follies which boyl in my Breast; Make me know that whatsoever happens, good or bad to me, is my best portion, because it comes from thee. O rich Treasure! O mass of glory! In proportion to which, all the labours and tribulations which Men or Divels can heap on me, are nothing considerable.

Thou hast seen also, O my Soul! with what unpa∣rallell'd addresses, and exquisite inventions the Lord hath sought thee, and wooed thy love. He gave thee heaven and earth, with all their creatures, for thy mo∣tives to serve and love him. He made himself thy fel∣low and brother in flesh and blood; yea, he hath heaped on thee all the Names and Titles of Endear∣ment, which either Nature or Use have introduced among mankinde. He is thy Father, thy Spouse, thy Friend, thy Ransomer out of danger, thy Redeemer from thraldome and slavery, thy Saviour from death and misery; yea, he is thy food, thy drink, thy self.

O Eternal Wisdomed How truly then didst thou say, It was thy delight to be with the Sons of men: Can Angels boast of such Priviledges, of such ten∣dernesses, of such Extasies of Love? No, None but so weak a Nature as Ours, was able to neces∣sitate Goodness it self, to so deep a condescendence as this; and none but all goodness could so appro∣priate it self to all infirmities. O melting good∣ness,

that fillest every Corner thou findest capable of thy perfection!

We find the holy Phrenzie of Love, to have pos∣sessed many of the Saints of God, here on earth, Mo∣ses, out of his extream love to his Country-men, wish∣ed himself blotted out of the Book of God, Exod. 32.32. S. Paul wished himselfe accursed, unless his brethren might be saved with him, Rom. 9.3. But if ever any exceeded in Love, above all the Love that was in the world; it was thou O Saviour! Joh. 10.20. who in the excess of thy Love to thy very Enemies, wouldest suffer thy Self to be taken, delivered up, and shameful∣ly put to death, for them.

And in consideration whereof, it seems S. Hierom cryes out; Oh, ungrateful man to thy God, whosoever thou art! considerest thou not the wonderful Love of him who is the Lord of heaven, to be delighted thus to do, and to suffer for thee? And thinkest thou thy selfe better, when thou art in the company of the wicked, and prophane? Return Shunamite, return. And surely, methinks, we should not here so greedily seek after the delights and contentments of Nature; seeing the God of Nature so roughly handled in the world, which he built with his own hands. Ah! should not the Example of our Saviour, make us ashamed, when we nearly consider the sorrow of his life, and the ig∣nomy of his death!

We read of one further, who) considering this height of mercy, which aboundeth with all Riches, and hath the plenitude of all happiness) cryeth out in a great Extasie; O Love! What hast thou done? Thou hast changed God into man; thou hast drawn him out of the

lustre of his Majesty, to make him a Pilgrim here on Earth; thou hast shut him nine moneths in the wombe of a Virgin; thou hast annihilated the Kingdom of Death, when thou taughtest God to dye.

Ah, Love indeed! which drowneth all humane thoughts, which swalloweth all earthly affections, which causeth the Spirit to forget it selfe, and to look on nothing but Heaven. A Love which An∣gels study, and admire, whichman could not be with∣out, and conceived in that fire, which Jesus came to enkind••e on earth, to enflamethe whole world.

Alas! who can chuse but admire to think, how thou, O blessed Jesus descendest from the highest part of Heaven, to take our Nature upon thee, to charge thy self with our debts; to lay our Burdens and Mi∣series on thy own shoulders, to lodge in the silly Cot∣tage of our Heart; to be dispoiled of all for us; to become our Riches, by thy Poverty; Strength to us, by thy weakness. To become Contemp∣tible, to make us Glorious; and full of Suffer∣ings, to ease our servitude. To make thy selfe of a King, of Glory, a man of Sorrows, and to pur∣chase our happiness with as many wounds, as thou hadst ••embers.

And shall none of those Arrowes and shafts, fly∣ing on every side of thee (O my Soul!) wound thee to him? shall none of his Favours, Benefits, and Affections, descend into thee, to fill and replenish thee with flames of thankfulness and love? Canst

thou still continue obdurate in the midst of those bur∣ning ardors, and not be wholly captivated with his Bounty; yea, altogether inebriated with the Exta∣sies of his Love? Canst thou think of the infinite love of thy Saviour, in suffering for thee, and not ad∣mire his goodness? Canst thou read the History of his life [a life of Dolours from the Cradle to his Grave] and peruse it, without compassion? canst thou think of his death, and not commix the waters of thine eyes, with those of his water, and blood? Ah! canst thou consider all this, and not perpetually languish with fervent desires; yea, cause thy soul to melt and dissolve with spiritual languour, on the heart of thy beloved?

O mirrour! O Perfection! mine eyes dazel in be∣holding thy Love; my Pen fails in writing thy Praises. O blind, if thou knowest not! O insensible, if thou neglectest it! and O unfortunate, if thou loosest it! Go and see the Ashes of those who have been burnt with the worlds love, and thou shalt see nothing com∣parable to his Love, who came to put us into the pos∣session of all his greatness, by surcharging himselfe with our miseries.

It may be, thou hast seen some to die on an Earth∣ly Scaffold, who with the sweetness of their counte∣nances, terrified the most terrible aspects of their Executioners. They did, they spake, they suffered, they ordered their death, as matter of triumph. They comforted others, in a time, when they had much to do, not to complain themselves; But here, here is a Banquet, which carries with it all the benefits of Life, yet attended with an Edict of Death. Here's Cruelty

mingled with Delights, Joy with Sorrow, and Plea∣sures with Funerals.

Ah! what more could he possibly have done, then thus to suffer for us? He hath washed us in his blood, he hath regenerated us into his Love. If we endure any thing for him, he endureth with us; he weepeth for us, he prepareth eternal springs of consolations for us; yea, he mingleth all our griefs in the inexpli∣cable sweetnesses of his bounty.

O the excellency of divine Love, which thus cau∣seth a Calm to be found in a Tempest, Safety in the midst of Dangers, Life on the brinck of Death, Com∣fort in Disasters, an Upholding in the midst of Weak∣ness, and which protects so many people under the shadow of its Branches. Happy Souls! which flyes hence into heaven, enricht with the purple stains of so heavenly a Fountain! yea, happy are the wounds from whence flow so much virtue and goodness.

What greater mercy could there be, then to see a Humane Nature, sought unto by God, which was once despoiled of the Robe of Honour, and Diadem of Glory, as a just chastisement of its Rebellions, and condemned to a Prison of Flames and Darkness, even then, when it was unable to free it selfe; and when neither Angel, nor Man, could deliver it from the misery whereinto it was plunged; To see it (I say) sought unto by God, when it flew from him; and to consider how so heavenly a Father (transport∣ed with unspeakable love) said unto it, Take my on∣ly Son to redeem thee from thy many remediless ca∣lamities: And this onely Son disdaineth not to be∣come its Ransom, and delivered himself for it, to Tor∣ments

so enormious, and Confusions so hideous.

What shall we further admire in the ineffable my∣stery of the Incarnation? Can there be any thing in the world greater then a Man-God? If we cast our eyes on our heavenly Father, we there see a work of the power of his Arm, wherein he seems to have ex∣hausted all his strength. The Heaven and the Stars (saith Gregory Nyssen) were but the works of the Fingers of this divine Majesty; but in the Incarnati∣on, he proceedeth with all the extent of his might, with all the Engines of his power, and Miracles of his greatness.

Blessed Jesus! who can chuse but love and adore thee, who wert not content onely to reconcile us to thy Father, but espousedst our Nature, and unitedst it to thy selfe by an indissoluble Band, we naturally use to shew an aversion, and dislike to such persons as are loathsome, mishapen, and infected; and if, with those defects, we find a Soul, wicked, ungrate∣ful, and an Enemy to God, we conceive him with such horror, as that we had need be more then men to endure him. But were not we in as bad estate as this? for besides the mis-fortunes and calamities which en∣compassed us on all sides, were we not Enemies to God, by being too much a friend to our selves? and yet all this while, he accepteth us, and appropriateth us unto himselfe amongst all these contrarieties.

Notes

• Tu deum in ho∣minem demutatum voluisti, tu deum abbreviatum pau∣l sper à majestatis suae immenfitate, &c. Zeno. Ser. de Fide, Spe. & Charit.