Weigh well with thyself, my soul, the immense goodness and mercy of God, manifested in these torments; behold, him that spreadeth the heavens with clouds, vesteth the green and pleasant fields with flowers, and he, that liberally bestoweth clothing upon every creature, behold him, I say, stark naked! Consider what cold, this precious body, being wounded, suffered; when they had not only despoiled him of his garments, but his very skin was not entire, neither were his wounds bound up, but exposed to the injury of the air. If St. Peter, being well clothed, could not overcome the cold of the forepassed night, what cold dost thou think, this delicate body suffered, being in every place wounded, and all naked.
Then, consider, how Christ was fastened to the cross, and what torment he suffered when the sharp nails pierced the most sensible parts of his tender body. Weigh, with thyself, that the Blessed Virgin, who beheld these things with her eyes, and hearing the frequent blows of the mallet, in driving the nails into the hands and feet of her Son, was not insensible, but that the heart of the Mother was pierced, with the hands, and feet of the Son.
When Christ was made fast upon the cross, presently they lifted it up and put it into a hole, there before prepared; behold how these wicked torturers of the innocent Jesus, pricked forward with their own malice, let the heavy cross fall into the hole with such violence, that
