Meditations collected and ordered for the vse of the English colledge of Lisbo by the svperiovrs of the same colledge.

THE FIRSTH MEDITATION. Of our Sauiours Resurrection.

1. COnsider first, how our Redeemer no sooner gaue vp the ghost vpō the Cros∣se, but his most powerfull and glorious soule, vnited to the Diuinity, tooke her way di∣rectly towards the place called Limbus Patrum; a•• hollow and darksome Caue vnder gro∣und, next doore, as I may say, to the hell of the damned; where were kept in prison and sad mourning all those pious soules, who de∣parted hence in grace, & had suffered in Purga∣tory what paines were due to their sinnes; but could not yet enter heauen, till the generall rau∣some was paid by Christ. Hither now went his glorious soule, accompanied with millions of Angells crying out before him to those darke Iaylers; Aperite portas, Principes, vestras, & in∣troibit Rex gloria: Open your gates, yee Princes, and the king of glorie shall enter in: which like thunder put them all to flight & eternall confu∣sion; and so, Conterendo portas aereas & vectes ferreos confringendo, by destroying the gates of brasse, and by breaking the barres of Iron, he en∣tred triumphantly, Inter mortuos non solum liber

sed & liberator. Among the dead not only free, but theire frceer. O sweetest charity, and most pro∣fonnd humility! charity, in going downe in per∣son to deliuer those poore prisoners, whereas his omnipotent word vvould haue serued, or twel∣ue legions of Angells at his command: his hu∣mility, in vouchsafing to visit in person those foule and base dungeons, and remaine there al¦most forty houres. The Apostle taketh notice of it; Quod autem ascendit, quid est nisi quod & des∣c••••dit primum in inferiores partes terrae? that he ascended, vvhat is it, but because he descended al∣soe first into the inferiour partes of the earth. As∣signing his ascension for an effect of such hu∣mility.

Conclude vvith ioy in thy heart for thy Lord's victory ouer death and hell: striue to imi∣tate his humility, in vvhat state and dignity so euer thou bee; and his charity, in seruing his ser∣uants and children vvith thy ovvne hands, not putting it of to others, as vsually vvee doe.

2. Consider secondly, hovv our all glorious & triumphant Lord, entring into those darke∣some dungeous, vvith the splendour of his pre∣sence turned them all into a lightsome Paradise, & gaue vnto those pious soules the full & bea∣tificall sight and vision of his Diuinity. O vvho can conceiue this sudden and great change from one extremity to another; from so many thou∣sand yeares of mourning and expectation, to a secure Eternity of ioy and blisse? See old Adam & Eue come forth out of their fiue thousand

yeares inprisonment, and, as yet halfe blus∣hing, cast themselues at their Sonnes and Sa∣uiours feet, vvith a publike confession of their ovvne fault, and of his grace and mercy. Behold the rankes of Patriarchs, Prophets, Priests, Kings and Martyrs, all in their due orders fal∣ling at his feet, in loyalty and homage, as to their supreme Soueraigne; and singing vvith full Quires: Dignus es Domine Deus noster, accipere gloriam & honorem, & virtutem, quia redemisti nos Deus in sanguine tuo, ex omni Tribu & lingua populo & natione &c. Thou art vvorthie, our lord, to receiue glorie and honour, and povver be∣cause thou hast redeemed us ó God in thy blood, out of everie tribe and tongue and people and nation &c. On the other side, who can apprehend the ouersvvelling ioyes, contents and iubilees of our Sauiour's glorious soule, to see such sudden & copious fruit of his death & passion? ô how vvell doth he thinke all bestovved? Pro eo quod laborauit anima eius, videbit & saturabitur: & dispertiam et plurimos, & fortium diuidet spolia. For that his soule hath laboured, he shall see and be filled, and I vvill distribute vnto him verte ma∣ny, and hee shall divide the spoiles of the strong.

Conclude to ioyne vvith these glorious soules in the praises of thy Sauiour: vvish them all a thousand ioyes vvith Eternity of blisse: beseech thy Father Abraham & the rest, to remember vs, labouring yet in the toiles of this mortall & dangerous passage.

3. Consider thirdly, hovv it is most credible

& in a manner not to be doubted but the soules in Purgatory also, vvere partakers of this ioyfull solemnity; and vvith a plenary indulgence vvere freed all Ab omni poena: from all paine. For hovv could our svvetest Iesus doe lesse, In die hac iucunditatis eius & laetitiae cordis, in this day of his mirth and ioy of hart, then apply the yet al most vvarme bloud of his death & passion to all that vvere any vvay capable of it, as the ho∣ly soules of Purgatorie vvere? Angells therefore are sent thither, who svveep cleare those fiery caues of that pious fevvest; & conduct them all to the glory of Limbus. But did the Hell of the damned and those lovver dungeons feele noe alteration to the so nigh presence of our trium∣phant Dauid? surely they did; but of shame, con∣fusion & greater torment: O see and laugh, my soule, at the great Goliath, Lucifer, vvith all those Princes of darknes sinking dovvne into the lovver abysses, Tanquam à facie fulguris: As at the presence of thunder: ô hovv doe they groa∣ne to see, hovv are they deceiued in procuring so malitiously and violently his death; of vvhom it is sayd and novv verified; O mors, ero mors tua, & morsus tuus, iuferne. O death, I vvill be thy death, and thy bite, ó hel. The like horrour felt the damned soules, and aboue all that of Iu∣das, and the wicked Theefe; who fell from so high a dignity, and so nigh and inuiting an oc∣casion of Eternall blisse & happines.

Conclude thou vvith ioy and iubilee of heart for thy Sauiour's glory; for the good soules deli∣uery,

and for the confusion of hell and the De∣uill: but yet vvith feare for thy selfe: for the bloud of Christ, hovv efficacious soeuer, doth not wash obstinate and peruerse soules: ô trust not to any dignity or vocation vvhatsoeuer; but, Gum timore & tremore operare salutem. VVith feare and trembling vvork thy safetie.

4. Consider fourthly, hovv our Blessed Re∣deemer hauing oft sayd, that he vvas to be three dayes & three nights in the bovvells of the earth, and that he vvas to rise the third day; such hast he made to comfort his afflicted Mother, and novv hope lesse Disciples; that he reduced the vvhole time into lesse than forty houres, to vvit from Friday three a clock, that he died, to Sun∣day foure in the morning: when accompanied with all those happy soules, he left those Infer∣nall caues robbed and sacked of all, and taking his course directly to the holy sepulcher, found there his sacred body, in the same manner, as it had been laid there on Friday-night, all bloudy, rent and torne. The glorious soules adore it vvith all due reuerence, & poure themselues out into nevv admirations, thankes-giuings, and praises: but the holy Angells bring together from all places the sacred bloud, that had been spilt, and other relikes belonging to the integrity of his body; & his most triumphant soule en∣tring into it, and shaking of the ointments and linnē, vvith which it vvas buried, clotheth it vvith new immortality, and gifts of glory, more bright and resplendent than a thousand sunnes;

the wounds glittering beyond all diamonds or precious stones: & thus he rose from his three-dayes sleep, penetrating all obstacles, and vnper∣ceiued of the Guards.

Conclude to be present in spirit at this so∣lemnity of the Resurrection, Quae facta est pro∣pter iustificationem nostram: which was done for our iustification but remember to shake of first all carnall and vvordly affections, in vvhich thou hast hitherto laine buried in the sepulcher of sinne and vice.

5. Consider fifthly, how at our Sauiour's ri∣sing a great earth-quake vvas made, and Angells in glittering shapes remoued the stone of the se∣pulcher and vvith terrour amazed the souldiers, vvho vvere set to guard it. But our Lord vvent straight to mount Caluary, vvhere the holy Crosse yet stood; vvhich all the Angells & soules present reuerenced and adored, as the royall and victorious standard of the vvorlds redemption: and he in the same place, vvhere he had on the Friday before prayed and offered himselfe as a holocaust to his Eternall Father, now vvith his face and eyes erected to heauen, giueth him im∣mortall thankes for the glorious victory be∣stowed on him ouer the vvorld, the Deuill, death, hell, & all his enemies; applying to him∣selfe the vvords of the Patriarch Jacob, vvhen he returned rich and prosperous from Mesopota∣mia: In baculo meo, vvith my staffe (of this Crosse towit) transiui Iordanum istum I passed ouer this Iordain (of my bitter passion) & nunc

cum duabus turmis regredior, and novv vvith tvvo troupes I doe returne (of Limbus and Pur∣gatory) rich in that his possession, prosperous in the successe, & glorious in the victory; Con∣uertens planctum suum in gaudium sibi. Turning his lamentation in to ioy. Finally to secure vs, that he rose not for himselfe onely, but for vs also; & to giue vs also a new pledge of his liberality and omnipotency, he commandeth those soules vvhose graues opened on the Friday, to goe take vp their bodies in glory and immortality; who afterward appeared to many in Jerusalem, and at the ascension by a singular priuiledge, moun∣ted vvith him to heauen.

Conclude to imitate thy Sauiour, Qui resur∣gens ex mortuis tam non moritur: vvho riseing from the dead, novv dieth not, ô my soule, Exua∣mus veterem hominem cum actibus suis, Let vs put of the old man vvith his actes, and putting on the nevv robe of grace, let vs neuer dye more by sinne, but liue euer to glory.