The affections of a pious soule, unto our Saviour-Christ Expressed in a mixt treatise of verse and prose. By Richard Flecknoe.

THE AFFECTIONS OF A PIOUS SOUL TO OUR Saviour Christ .

UPon that day ( never to be forgotten , nor ever without teares to be remembred ) which stands markt to all posteritie , with the black note upon it , of his death , who is the life of all , it chanced a pious soule from those remoter parts of Gallilee , consining with the sea , came up to Hierusalem in search of our Saviour Christ .

Where being arived , shee found all in noyse and uprore ; most part with thronging haste , flocking towards the Temple , and whispering somewhat of strange and admirable as they past along ; the rest in the streets effused , and waving up and downe with the tide of severall passions , here one exulting with insolent joy , another there as much depressed with griefe : this , silently weeping ; that , lowdly jocund ; so as you would have imagined both joy and griefe had inhabited there together ( as their extremes , they say , do neere confine . ) And if ( as Painters note ) the same lines serve to delineate both weeping and laughter too , you had seene them both exprest unto the life , in one piece there ; both yet set off with a deep shadow of admiration .

Whereupon , she meeting with none , of whom seasonably shee might demand the cause of such discrepant affection : And easily conjecturing him she sought ( the exactest rule of order ) there , no where to bee found where such disorder was , retired her selfe to that part of the Citie , where Mount Calvary , like a swelling tumour arises on its side , both after so long journey to repose her wearied limbs , as also in silence and solitude of the place , to recollect a while from noyse and clamour of the Citie multitude . Here she was no sooner come , but behold a strange and horrid spectacle met her amazed eye . It was of three crosses erected on the Mount , whereon Death it seemes had affixed in trophie of that daies victorie , three persons crucified ; one of which ( hee whose Crosse stood in the middest , more eminent than the rest ) as one of more regard , was circumstanced with a lamentable and lamenting sort of women , weake of sex , yet of mightie griefe , few in number , but equall to many in affliction , the woes of a thousand being in every one .

At sight of whom she straight drew towards the place ; ( led by compassion , animating her on , with this noble thought : how she being a member of the universall body , the griefe of everie one was in part her own . ) Where being arived , shee might perceive Mary the mother of Iesus , Mary her sister of Cleophas , and Mary Magdalen to be three of them , with whom being long conjoyned in affection ; by holy sympathy , shee soone became familiar with their griefe , ere with their cause of grieving ; and wept to see them weep .

So long she continued weeping , & as long ignorant , why ( griefe having so stopt up the passages of their voyces , they could not arive to words , and her teares drawne such a watry curtaine before her eyes , shee could not discerne who they bemoaned so , only thus much shee might perceive , his face ( whosoe're he was ) was so defaced with bloud , as a cleerer and lesse clouded eye than hers , might well be excused , it s not reading the contents of it ; untill at length , one of that sorrowfull company giving first a heave or two , like one oppressed under some ponderous waight , to raise her words above her woes , burst forth into this short exclamation , O Iesu , Iesu ; and said no more .

At this shee strait great with suspition ( as sorrow is ever pregnant of suspect to be delivered of it , ( like those who seeke what willingly they would not find , and but hunt their owne feares with curiositie ) demanded of another , who it was they lamented so . When she surveying her with a wondring eye : And are you alone ( said shee ) so much stranger not only to Hierusalem , but to the world , to be ignorant who they have crucified here . Can you feele the earth-quake under you , and not know it is for his suffering who made the earth ? Can you behold the Heavens ▪ the Sun and Moone , lost in Cimerian darknesse , and not perceive hee who enlightned them is here ecclips'd ? Looke upon yonder rock , it cleft ( senslesse as it is ) that instant as hee died , and what a heart have you then , not to bee so much as sensible of his death ? But I forget my selfe , and whilst I seeke to find you out a griefe ( by invasion of speech ) have almost lost mine owne ; wherefore let me tell you in a word , and then make good my silence ; It is Iesus of Nazareth they have crucified here .

At hearing of which , it was no griefe , no passion of the living that ceazed her ; but such a stupiditie , as death could not have rendred her more immovable for the time , so true it is , Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent : Senec. Untill at last , as if but then , the floud-gates of her tears were drawen up , they gushed forth in such abundance , as if each drop had stroven to fall first to the ground . In so much , as had you beheld Niobe weeping her childrens losse , you had seene an image , & but an image only of her weeping him ; and yet in this excesse of teares and griefe , as if she had beene all defective to exstimulate her heart , the more to grieve , and excitate affection to weep the more : In a sad and mournfull accent shee delivered this , To excitate the affection . Am I a Christian then , or no ? I can behold Christ suffering so , And feele no woe ? Though none , yet soft humanitie Shou'd make one man commiserate , When he beholds another die , Such interest hath he in the State : So verie Iufidels we see , Are not from pitie free . Then am I man , or am I none ? That can consider him as one , And make no moane ? Yet were I none , the Sun , the Moone , And such as but his creatures are , Would cause me feele his suffrings soone , Vnlesse I were more senslesse far , More dull than verie rocks and stones , That now burst forth in groanes . Am I a creature then , or not ? That my Creators so hard lot Should be forgot ? For sure I 'm none ; but nothing I Can let ( yet let not one teare fall ) Both God and man , and Maker dye , As I were not concern'd withall : Nothing 'mongst Christians , Creatures , men Am I ? or worser then ? Oh me , the whilst worthy of deepest hell , If I without a teare can see dim dye , More Infidell than Infidell , More stone than stones ; les man , the man am I.

Having done this , shee began to weep againe ; then shreek , as if her soule would with her voyce have sallyed forth , accompanying her lamentations now with wringing her hands , now tearing her haire ; Architect Sorrow never contriving building , where was more varietie of sad prospective ; untill at last Eccho being sooner wearied with repeating her plaints than she with uttering them , to give it ease a while , though not her selfe , shee set her silent thoughts to task with the account of what her deerly Beloved had done & suffered for her , summing up everie particular most exact and carefully , as it was delivered her in Inventory , by one was present there .

As first ( and in generall ) how voluntarily hee offered himselfe to sufferance for us : Oblatus est quia ipse voluit : Isa. 53. Even to the pointing out himselfe unto them , who came to apprehend him with an Ego sum : Whence ( said shee ) wee may collect , ( If we would be reciprocall ) there is a kind of will and forwardnesse requisite on our parts , in suffering for him againe .

Next and in particular , what sufferings they were , he offered himselfe unto ; As how not one part alone , but all , even from head to foot , everie sense of him , and the whole exterior and interior man , was even surfetted ( as it were ) with the bread of dolour and affliction Saturabitur opprobriis , &c.

His head crowned with thornes , and those such rigid and sharp-pointed ones , as the very skin of it was wholly separated from the skull , whilst those cruell Pioners digged all his blood out of that precious Mine . His face livid and swolne with the unmercifull souldiers heavy Iron Gantlets bruizing and buffeting it ; His shoulders gall'd with supporting his heavy Crosse , which , Oh with what excessive paine hee did ! whilst they ( all raw before with their scourging ) were , in that dolorous prease , even squeezed ( as it weare ) to a flat cake of congealed blood and gore . Then , to have his armes violently wracked out , whilest they nayled his hands unto the Crosse ; What a torment that ! For the nayles entring the most sinuous parts of them , and they shrinking ( as things naturally do ) at sence of paine , the fleshy , which were nayled to 't , and could not recoyl nor give , must of necessity be violently divulsed from them . As for his scourged body , it was all torne and mangled with their bloody whips : Wherefore at one glance of the eye to passe it over , as too pitious a spectacle long to be look'd upon , & come to his boared feet . How those huge boystrous Nayles must needs have torne & riven them , whilst his dying body hung swayed upon them with all its weight , is not without horrour and cold sweat to be imagined ; ' Mean while , what vying was there betwixt his hands & feet , which should indure most pain and torment ( all at his cost , God knowes ) What tossing and retossing of his dolorous life with suffering betwixt them ? Now this taking it at rebound , now that , till lighting in death's hazzard , the sport ended ; A cruell sport the while !

Then for his Senses , how were they all tormented in him , and he in all of them ! His eyes in seeing-nothing but what disconsolated and afflicted him ; either his Enemies rejoycing at his suffering ( which commonly as much agravates , as pity aleviates the paine o' th' sufferer ) or else his friends ( those few poore friends he had ) so extreamly grieving at it , as even derived from them , a fresh grief to him again , and forced him the comforted , to become their their Comforter . Filiae Hierusalem nolite flere super me , &c. Luk. 23. 28. His ears played upon from every side , with whole volleyes of fearfull blasphemies , as : alios salvos fecit seipsum non potest salvum facere , He could save others , and cannot save himselfe Matth. 27. 42. Or else with such bitter scornes and taunts as these , Si Rex Israel est descendat de cruce &c. Let him now descend from the Crosse if he be the King of Israel . Ibid. which to a man sensible of his honour had been most grievous , but to a God most intolerable ( unlesse perhaps he were enamoured of griefe as sure he was that day , even to Espouse it on the Crosse and take denomination from thence , of vir dolorum , the very husband of it , as Esaias had prophecyed of him long before ) For his smelling I will not offend the nice & delicate with commemorating the abhominable stench of those filthy and loathsome Crachets ( the very Entrails of the Jewes malice ) hung clottering in his face , that face in quem desiderant Angeli prospicere : Which so much delighted the Angels to behold , of which then they might well say indeed , vidimus eum & non erat ei species neque decor , that they had seen it , and there was neither feature nor beauty in it . For his taste , to have nothing administred it to sweeten the bitternesse of death , but Gall and Vinegar ; When for other Malefactors most pleasant wines were allowed & provided at the publike cost ; O it was cruell ! barbarous cruell that ! But he foresaw it necessary for us ( whilst we live here where the wheele of affliction , with variety of new suffering every day fetches its turne about us ) to have for Imitation his great Example of patiently suffering all . For his feeling , we have spoken of that before , if it were not altogether unspeakeable what he felt .

But alas all this of the exterior compared to his Interior suffrings , is but as a single drop of water to the whole Ocean or the Center-point of Earth , unto the vast circumference of Heaven ; for the soule , as an instrument strung with finer strings than the body , is of more delicate resentment , more sensible of everie little touch ; And how rudely did they play upon it ? Hee could not speake to them , though nothing but sugar and honey , like the Bridegroome in the Canticles ; but in churlish and bitter speech they repartyed againe . If in soft and silken phrase he question'd them , either in pure disdaine and spight , they not vouchsaf'd him answer : So , Si interrogavero , non respondebitis mihi , &c. Luk. 22. Or else it was in words , as hard as Semai's to David were , everie one accompanied with a stone , so crosse , so contrarie were they in words unto him : But in action , it goes a thought beyond imagination , how contrarie they were , putting sinister interpretation still , to disguise the right meaning , on whatsoever he did . If he cured their sick , it was to breake their Sabbaoth ; if he cast their Devils out , it was in the name of Beelzebub . They held him for Libertine , if hee eat or drunk with them , if not for Samaritan ; so well hee might say of them ; Cecinimus vobis , & non saltâstis ; lamentavimus , & non planxistis ; &c. Mat. 11. but they went further yet .

Pericles could say of the Samians ( not content with courtesies they received from those of Athens ) that they were , Infantibus similes , qui cibum non nisi illachrymando admittebant , &c. Plutarch . Like children , who whilst they were benefited , cryed : But what should one say of these ? Never men borne in the disgrace of better Nature , had such antipathy with their best good , as they : For marke how this perverse , wicked , and viperous generation ( out-doing spight it selfe ) requited him for love with hatred ; for good , with ill ; and for honouring them , with dishonouring him againe .

And first of their hatreds to him , let this be sufficient argument , that they could not so much as endure his sight ( and when wee once withdraw our eyes from any one , 't is signe we have withdrawne our affection before ) but whilst he projected such right and full beames of love on them , as even reflected them to his very hart ; the sons of Iacob never , with more oblique & auerted eyes , beheld their brother Ioseph , than they did him . Now if ( as they say ) the chiefest attraction of love bee love , and he holds no commercewith humanitie , who will nor give , nor take affection : What should one think or say of this malignitie ? But for more ample declaration of their inhumanitie to him , wee are to note ; how that hate and aversion from a thing , which the more civill creature doth expresse by simple flight and avoydance ; the more savage and effe●ate doth by violent assault : So Naturalists observe in the wild Bull , such hatred and nocivenesse to man , as but object unto it the picture of one , and presently with horne & hoofe it furiously sets upon it . And mark now , if they did not the like by him , when Pilat proposing him unto them with an , Ecce homo , Behold the man ; they stantly bellowed out , Crucifige , crucifige eum ; Let him be crucified ; so as hee might well say of them , Tauri pingues obsiderunt me ; that hee was encompassed with Bulls on everie side . But the proofe of love consisting in action , Probatio ( enim ) amoris , exhibitio est operis , &c. Greg. Let us from thence behold his love to them , as their hatreds to him againe , and so consider how they rewarded him , for good with ill .

You know wee have compassion for none , but those wee have passion for ; and where the soyle is hate , there pitie never growes . Now what compassion had he for them ? Miserior super turbam , &c. and that not only in words , but in effect , multiplying bread for the hungrie , and for the thirstie , ( for those who were necessitous ) hee ( as we may say ) turned stones into water ; for the delicious , hee turned water into wine ( sweetly violencing all natures but theirs the while ) for their sick , he restored them unto health , their dead unto life againe . ( To say nothing of his spirituall benefits , since they were of nature so carnall , they had scarce a capacitie of them ) and how did they requite him ? Audite coeli , & obstupescite !

So little compassion had they of him , as when he came to die ; at what time others hate leaves the condemned to pitie , these pursue him farther than ever any 's did ( within the limits of humanitie ) not only to death , but even after it , when , Unus militum lancea latus ejus aperuit et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua : One of the Souldiers pierced his side with a lance , and presently there streamed forth bloud and water . A barbarisme and inhumanitie , no water could expiate enough , but that which then issued from his sacred side ; no fire , but of that charitie which made him then shed his last drop of bloud . But to proceed ; for his food , they repayed him with the bread of dolour , panem doloris , &c. and for his drink , with gall and vinegar . Their infirmities , as fast as he took them of them , they laid them upon him : Infirmitates nostras ipse portavit , &c. And lastly , for giving them life , they crucified him to death , oh unheard of ingratitude ! unparallel'd wickednesse , never to be wrapt up in silence , nor never unfolded in speech , but with detestation ! men worthy to be banished humane societie , so little of man they had in them ! but whither ? for beasts were lesse beasts than they , Bos enim cognovit possessorem suum , &c. Devils , lesse Devils ; for they acknowledged him yet the son of God : Quid mihi et tibi est Iesu fili Dei altissimi , &c. As things then worse than man , beast , or Devill ; let them still be Jewes , sacrilegious in all , both to the God that made them , and the god they made ; which if it were selfe-interest ( as of most wicked mortals it is ) most sacrilegious were they even to that . Now how for honoring them , they repayed him with dishonouring him againe ; and how whilst ( in a manner ) his whole endevour was to exalt them above all other people , theirs only was under all others to depresse and abase him for it : Quasi opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis , holding him ( as the Prophet said ) for the most abject of people , and opprobrious of men ; there needs no other testimony of it , but that one act of theirs , of preferring a Barrabas to him ; Non hunc sed Barrabam , &c. A seditious , to one who instructed them in nothing but meeknesse and humilitie , Discite àme quia mitis sum et humilis corde , &c. A thiefe to one who had given them all they had : De cujus plenitudine omnes accepimus . And a murtherer to him , from whom they had receiv'd their very lives and being , In ipso enim vivimns , movemur et sumus , &c. O good God! — But it is better to say nothing here , then not to say enough ; and let Silence , the tongue of Admiration , take up , where ours of necessitie must leave : This was such an affront , such an indignitie ! as ( we may imagine ) sunk ( heavie as lead ) so deep into the bottome of his divine hart ▪ no humane thought hath fathome-line enough to sound the depth of it . Wherefore , as a thing wholly inscrutable , let us give it over .

Whilst this was discoursed unto her , in that method and order as we have set it downe , you might perceive her , by often varying colour ; gesture of body , and motion of the eye , taking all the severall formes of griefe , of pitie , of indignation , and the like , as in so tender a soule could be imprest , till ariving to this last period , she was so brimfull of affection , as able to containe no more : Thus at the foot of the crosse shee powred it forth .

The Affection . A Dithyrambus in contemplation of our Saviour crucified . O God , and is it thou I see here suffring under their hands now , Vnder whose feet both heaven and earth do bow , Annd is it thou ? I heare Them so blaspheme , as my affrighted eare Even tingles with dire horror of 't , and feare ? O mee , What do I heare and see ? O eares amaz'd with hearing , eyes with seeing , O endles goodnesse of an endles being ! Deare heart , that hadst the heart , With such a life o part : Deare life that couldst forgoe A soule that lov'd thee so , And O deare soul wouldst take So sad farewell for my unworthy sake : And hast thou done all this for me ? For all this then , what shall I do for thee ? When thou demand'st it , shall I grutch Thee this small hart , as t were too much ? Shall I be so peorly neere , To hold my life for thee too deere ? Or think my soule too much for thee , Who nothing thoughtst enough for me ? Oh no , I am thy thrall , And here before thee prostrate fall Offring up heart , life , soule , and all .

And being armed with this strong and vertuous resolve , how shee longed like some young and noble Warriour , to experience her yet untried force and valour , in the encounter with some adversarie paine , perplexitie , or distresse , might put her bravely to it ; that whilst in any part or sense of her , shee , found a difficultie in the fight , she presently might say : This this my Saviour , for my sake would have made nothing of , and slight it so . Or if shee fainted , or lost heart cry out with that great Champion of the Apostles , Quis nos seperabit à charitate Christi , &c. What is it can seperate us from the charitie of Christ ? Tribulatio , an angustia ? &c. Encouraging her selfe , and resuming a strength from thence to dare and challenge the worst of affliction . And this from no selfe-presumption neither ( shee well knowing how of her selfe she could do nothing ) Non quasi ex nobis aliquid , &c. But from the confidence , or rather assurance , she had in him who assisted her , Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat , &c. No , no , ( would shee say ) I can doe nothing I , but God and I can do all : And if any imagine it a presumption to name my selfe with God , let them know I hold it a greater presumption for any to name themselves without him .

How gladly for his sake would shee have embraced a contumely and scorne , would have abhorr'd an eye of flesh & bloud ( I meane such eyes as the Devill opened in Paradise long since ; not such as our Saviour opened on the Crosse to day ) how greedily would shee have put up an injurie and affront , even as a jewell in the cabinet of her heart , to weare on that generall day , when all our braverie here ; shall be quite out of fashion , and they onely accounted gloriously brave , who have such jewels as those to weare : And never stood on such nice termes , the whilst , as : Had I deserved it , it would never have grieved me ; or from any , but such and such from whom I least expected it , it had beene far more tollerable , &c. And ( I pray ) from whom could our Saviour lesse have expected the payment of those injuries and affronts ( which past so currantly with him ) than from the Jewes , whom he had obliged not only with all the ties of Humanitie , but of Divinitie too ? Who ever stood more out of the way of contempt and scorn than he ? by birth , above all exception noble , ex stirpe Davidis , &c. borne of the Royall Stem : of such dignitie of aspect , as it was said of him , Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum : He was faire and lovely above the sons of men . And to conclude , of life and manners so irreprehensible , as hee put his verie enemies to it , with urging them , Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato ? &c. to find out a blame or fault in him . And let any now that find themselves agrieved , they are not respected according to their merits and deserts , examine where they ever have deserved so much of respect as he , and had so little paid ; and if they finde it so , I 'll say they have reason and just cause to complaine indeed . No , these are but rags of patience the poor and wretched soule puts on , whilst the gallant and richer scornes to weare such piec'd-up stuffe ; this is for those who never endevour to limb and pourtraiture in the table of their hearts , any brave and noble piece , because they never take patterne by any but base and ignoble ones . Inspice & fac secundum exemplar quod tibi in monte monstratum , &c. Did they but consider our Saviours sufferings , their own would shrink to nothing in comparison .

Which whilst she considered , it made her so brave in purpose and resolution , as even death it selfe would have appeared lovely and amiable to her , which now since hee died for us , to those who truly love him , even seemes to have exchanged darts with love indeed : As thus they fable it : Love and death o' th' way once meeting , Having past a friendly greeting , Sleep , their wearie eye-lids closing , Laid 'em downe , themselves reposing : Love , whom divers cares molested , Could not sleep ; but whilst death rested , All in haste away he posts him , But his haste full deerly costs him . For it chanc'd that going to sleeping , Both had given their darts in keeping Vnto Night , who , Errors mother , Blindly knowing not one from t'other , Gave Love deaths , and ne're perceiv'd it , Whilst as blindly Love receiv'd it : Since which time their darts confounding , Love now kils in stead of wounding : Death a joy in hearts distilling , Sweetly wounds in stead of killing .

And thus in various cogitation she wandred about ( Mount Calvary affording a large and ample field for her devotion to exspaciate in ) her pious thought still going in circle from her Beloved unto her selfe , and from her selfe to him againe , untill at last it was suddenly surprized by the unexpected arivall of some new-commers there , who tending directly towards the crosse , made her feare some ill intention in it , till espying Ioseph of Aramathea , a principall amongst them , she assured her feares , there was nothing but good intended ; as indeed their comming onely was , to take downe the body from the Crosse , and bury it . To which every one lending a ready and pious hand , it had soone beene done , had not this impediment occurred in the doing it , that their griefes for his death rendred them so nigh dead themselves , as they scarcely could performe the offices of the living ; and those who swouned not for love of him , would swoune for verie sorrow they loved him not enough , confirming what they report with admiration of the effects of divine love .

O heavenly darts Of love , unto heaven loving harts ; Whether ye wound or spare , How equally yee mortall are ? For if yee wound them , presently They with the sweetnesse dye ; And if yee spare 'em , then With bitternesse they dye agen . O sacred flame To hearts , once melted in the same , Whether or no yee burne , How both to their destruction turne ? For if yee burne , they presently In flames consume and dye : If not , in teares they then Consume , and dye agen . So as like two wayes that run Their severall course , then joyne in one ; And whilst diversly they tend , One and the same is still their end . So both equally destroy , Be it sorrow , be it joy ; Or in water , or in flame , The end of both is still the same .

Neither is it to be so much admired , they thus could dye ( as it were ) for him ; but the greatest wonder is , that they could live , now hee was dead who was their very life ; hee who had so many attractive sweets in him , as drew all to him ; but such , who like Scarrebs delighted to live in stench , Curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum , &c. Hee who had such divine magick in his face , as charm'd all that beheld it , and was of so ravishing entertainment besides , hee spake all flame and fire ; Nonne cor nostrum ardens in nobis erat dum loqueretur , &c. Able to burne and dissolve the ice of as many hearts , as ever the cold of death , or tepiditie had frozen up , provided that venomous serpent had not first fixt its black tooth in them ; for then the Pollinctori will tell you , that hearts envenom'd will not burne . No wonder then ( I say ) that him who they so loved living , they so lamented dead : It being by Natures Lawes decreed , wee then should love things most passionately and deerest , when wee were deprived of them : Whether because the appetitive & irrascible power , then joyntly move more strongly towards the object , than can joy alone in the fruition of it ; or that our sharp appetite of things wee want is soone blunted with the enjoying them . Certaine it is , whatsoever the cause be , such is the effect , as they well experienced everie one of them ; his blessed mother , whilst shee called to mind , what a deere and amiable son ; his friends , what a true and constant friend ; and what a kind and loving Master his Disciples had lost of him : In remembrance of which , when they had buried him ( as with all due rites and ceremonies of griefe they did : his sacred mother embalming him with her teares , the holy Magdalen with her sweet unguents , for which her memorie is so pretious in the Gospell , as there never occurs mention of any , but her name enters as an Ingredient . ) They departed each one with somewhat to foment their memories of him : One , with the thought of his sweet and gentle conversation of life ; another , with that of the excessive love he declared unto them in death . Amongst the rest , our pious Soule , ever to have a memoriall of his passion , digged him a new monument in her bosome , and buried him in her heart .

FINIS .