For this did Christ, in the canticles, invite us to a
heavenly banquet, after he was come into his garden,
and had reaped his myrrh and his spice, to forewarn
us of the joy that after this harvest should presently
ensue, namely, that having sowed in this garden a
body, the mortality whereof was signified by these
spices, he now reaped the same, neither capable of
death, nor subject to corruption. For this also was
Mary permitted to mistake, that we might be informed
of the mystery, and see how aptly the course of our
redemption did: answer the process of our condemn-
ation.
But though he be the gardener that hath planted
the tree of grace, and restored us to the use and eating
of the fruit of life - though it be he that soweth his
gifts in our souls, quickening in us the seeds of vir-
tue, and rooting out of us the weeds of sin ; - yet is he,
nevertheless, the same Jesus he was ; and the borrow-
ed presence of a mean labourer neither altereth his
person, nor diminislieth his right to divine titles.
Why, then, canst thou not as well see what in
truth he is, as what in shew he seemeth? It is be-
cause thou trusteth more to thy senses than to thy be-
lief, and sufferest thy fancy to find more than faith
will avouch : it is for this cause that thy love was
thought worthy to see him, yet thy faith unworthy to
know him. Thou didst seek for him as dead, and
therefore dost not know him seeing him alive ; and
because thou believest not of him as he is, thou dost
only see him as he seemeth to be. I cannot say thou
art faultless, because thou art so unwilling in thy be-
lief ; but thy fault deserveth favour, because thy cha-
rity is so great ; and therefore, O merciful Jesu, let
an excuse be pleaded for her whom thou art minded to
forgive.
She thought to have found thee as she left thee, and
she sought thee as she last saw thee ; being so over-
come with sorrow for thy death, that she had neither
room nor respite in her mind for any hope of thy
life; and was so deeply entombed in the grief of thy
burial, that she could not raise her thoughts to any
conceit of thy resurrection.
But oh, Mary, since thou art so desirous to know
where thy Jesus is, why dost thou not name him when
thou askest for him ? Thou saidst to the angels, that
they had taken away thy Lord, and now the second
time thou askest for him. When thou speakest of him
what him dost thou mean ? or how can a stranger
understand thee, when thou talkest of thy Lord ? —
Hath the world no other Lords but thine ? or is the
demanding by no other name but him, sufficient to
define whom thou demandest ?
But such is the nature of thy love ! It judgeth
that no other should be entitled Lord, since the whole
world is too little for thy Lord's possession ; and that
all creatures cannot choose but know him, since all
the creatures of the world are too few to serve him. -
And as his worth can requite all loves, and his love
alone content all hearts, so thou deemest him to be so
well worthy to be owner of all thoughts, that thou
thinkest no thought can be well bestowed upon any
other.
Yet thy speeches seem more sudden than sound -
more peremptory than well pondered. Why dost thou
say so resolutely, that if this gardener have taken him,
thou wilt take him from him ? Thou shouldst con-
sider whether he took him from love or malice. If it
were for love, thou mayest assure thyself that he will
be as wary to keep, as he was venturous to obtain him,
and therefore thy policy was weak, in saying thou
wouldst take him away, before thou knowest where he
was, since none are so simple as to betray their trea-
sure.
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