The Handmaid to Private Devotion, Dedication 2
TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE and Religious Ladie the Countesse of DENBIGH.
May it please your Honour:
YOur conference with me, about my conference with the Iesuites, and your gracious acceptation of the relation and defence thereof, left in me such an impression of the Character of your Noble and Religious disposition, that I euer since desired the aduantage of some good opportunitie to testifie my dutifull respect to your Honour. The truth of God receiueth not onelyonly support, but great honour from the patronage and countenance of great Personages; and she much glorieth in finding so strong a Champion, euen in the weaker sexe. Albeit the Sun-beames are alwayes most bright in themselues, yet they neuer appeare so glorious to vsus as when they fall vponupon crystall glasse, or pretious stones: In like sort Religion and vertue (the raies of diuine light in the soule) although they shine alwayes brightly in themselues, yet they neuer seeme so conspicuous and resplendent, as when they receiue some luster from the subiect; when Nobilitie of birth and minde concurre; when ornaments of bodie and soule meete; when eminencie of grace & eminency of conditions toyne in one, and reflect mutually each on the other. And verily if your more then or dinarie fauour and respect to the Ministers of the Gospell, and to my selfe in particular, had not made this my voluntarie oblation a necessarie obligation to your Ladiship; yet your constancie in the truth, and louelove to Sion and her solemne and sacred assemblies, might iustly challenge to your Honour the Dedication of this part of my HAND-MAIDES Taske, which is to furnish Christian fastes and feasts with proper MEDITATIONS, HYMNES and PRAYERS. As our bodie liues to the soule, by which it liueth; so our soule should liue to God by whom it liueth. And no otherwise is the life of the bodie preserued by heate and moisture, then the life of the soule is maintained and kept by the heate of diuine louelove, and radicall moisture of teares bedewing the heart roote of a true penitent. To kindle the one and feede the other, I Dedicate and deuote the DEVOTION of this part of my HAND-MAIDE to your Honour. For the feasts representing to your Religious thoughts what Christ hath done for you, will (through the blasts of Gods Spirit) inflame the heate of heauenly louelove in you: and the fasts admonishing you what Christ hath suffered for you, must needs yeeld aboundant matter to supply the springs of godly sorrow. In heauen ioy taketh vp all times and parts; in hell sorrow; on earth they diuide. In heauen there is ioy without sorrow; in hell, sorrow without ioy; on earth sorrow and ioy act their parts; fasts and feasts hauehave their courses; mirth and mourning their turnes; and at euerie turne my HAND-MAIDE is readie to attend you, either with sackcloth for the one, or the wedding garment for the other. S. Bernard taking his ground from those words of the Prophet Ioel, Rent your hearts &c. and returne to the Lord with your whole heart; thus pleasantly descanteth therupon:*Non est ad Deum to…o corde redite, nisiscisso corde. We cannot returne vntounto the Lord with our whole heart vnlesse it be broken first with true contrition. There is no whole heart, but a rent heart; no sound heart, but a broken; & S. Ierome according in the same note, summeth vp the whole practice of a deuoute soule in her priuate carriage with God in these words*Dolet, & de dolore gaudet. She sorroweth after a godly manner, and reioyceth for that sorrow. Godly sorrow for sinne, and holy ioy for that sorrow, is the whole Deuoute man. Madame, if my Meditations vponupon the fasting, suffering, and death of our Sauiour make you sad and sorrowfull, remember out of S. Ierome that you ought to be ioyfull for such sorrow. If the piercing Texts of holy Seripture in the ADMONITIONS and HYMNES appointed for the Christian fasts, diuide betweene your soule and spirit, and bruse if not breake your heart with an holy sympathy, remember out of S. Bernard, that There is no returning to God with a whole heart, but by breaking it. And if you find in the whole Deuotion of Fasts, matter of pensiuenesse and griefe; in the Christian feasts, you shall hauehave store of oyle to make you a cheerfull countenance, and reuiue your deaded thoughts. The heart of a man is in continuall motion; it alwayes either dilateth it selfe, or contracteth: and the hidden man of the heart in like manner hath his Systole and Diastole, (as the Anatomists speake:) his heart continually either enlargeth it selfe by ioy, or contracteth it selfe by sorrow. And no doubt, when God bespeakes our hearts for himselfe, he especially expects and respects these motions thereof and affections producing them. He will hauehave vsus ioy in him, and sorrow and long after him. Ioy in his fauour, and sorrow in his displeasure. Ioy in his promise, and sorrow at his threates. Ioy in the holy Ghost, and sorrow in our owne spirits. Feast to him in a thankefull profession of his gracious goodnesse, and fast to him in an humble confession of sinfull wickednesse. Like the Heliotropium, turne alwayes to the Sunne; open when he sheddeth abroade his beames, and shut when he draweth them in: Inlarge our hearts with ioy at his gracious presence, and sorrowfully shut and contract them when he is, or seemeth to be absent from vsus. Thus if our ioy be the interpreter of our louelove to him, and our sorrow of our desire of him; if our ioy be holy, and our sorrow holy; if our feasts be feasts of Deuotion, and our fasts be fasts of contrition, our gracious Redeemer will vouchsafe to be present at both: he will feast and fast with vsus. At our fasts he will weepe for our spirituall, as he did for Lazarus his corporall death. At our feasts he will turne our water into wine, and rauish our soules with heauenly melodie. Our feasts shall be as temperate and holy as fasts, and our fasts as comfortable as feasts. A good conscience shall be vntounto vsus a continuall feast here, and the Marriage supper of the Lamb an euerlasting feast hereafter. To both which feasts, God by his Spirit, which biddeth you, bring you for his sake, who by his fasts and sorrowes on earth hath purchased for vsus euerlasting feasts and ioyes in heauen; In whom I rest,
Your Honour's to dispose of DANIEL FEATLY.