eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and
the Sovereign of all his Empire would not be absolute nor his Dominion universal since that a Corrival or Competitor would have right to dispute with Him if not the superiority or the preeminence at least equality and independence 4. The Apostles say not only I believe God but I believe in God and these two expressions are very different for the first imports only an Act of Faith by which we believe that there is a God and what does come from Him as what He teaches us in the Scripture and what the Church proposes as revealed by Him But the other signifys not only an act of Faith but also of Hope and Love And we learn by this expression that it is not enough for a Christian to believe God but he must moreover hope in Him and love Him and so distinguish himself from the wicked and from the devill who can believe that there is a God and give credit to his word but becaus they confide not in him nor love him they believe not in God 5. But what is God This Question the disciples of learned Epictetus made to him who answered my Children if I could tell you what is God either He would not be God or I my self should be God He sayd true but he sayd not enough it is not only impossible to explicate what is God but whatsoever we can say of Him is infinitely below what we ought to say of Him Wherefore S. Austin says that we cannot say any thing that is worthy to be attributed to God becaus in this it is unworthy that it is possible to be sayd 6. Neverthelesse we ought to speak of Him for to make Him known and we must make Him known for to make Him to be loved and feared and we must make Him to be loved and feared for to avoyd sin which offends Him 7. The Scripture says that He is great and above all praise Magnus Dominus laudabilis nimis But we must not imagin that it Psal 47. 2. speaks of a material and corporeal greatnesse When we say that one King is greater then another this is not to say that he is of a greater and higher stature but that he is greater in Power and Dominions so when we say that God is great we mean not in material quantity length largness and other corporeal dimensions for He is a spirit and has no body nor parts But He is great in Nobility in Power in Wisdome in Goodness and other divine Petfections 8. He is great in Nobility He is so noble that all Kings and Emperours are but his servants and his slaves All crowns of the world depend on Him and he disposes of them at his pleasure He is so noble that the kings are his beggers they say to Him daily upon their knees give us this day our daily bread and if He should not giue it them they must necessarily want it He is so noble that Kings compared to Him are but wormes who can do less against Him then worms of the earth against you I am a worme sayd a great king in the light of his contemplation 9. He is great in Power Potens metuendus nimis The power which makes great ones of the world is commonly but to destroy they say Alexander the great Pompie the great becaus by their armies they have defeated millions of men ruined Towns and desolated Provinces And what power is this a scorpion a spider is able to destroy and kill à man a little contagious air may defeat a whole army and this power also of the great ones is so vain and weak that they cannot annihilate or reduce to nothing a little fly for always something of it remains But God is so powerfull that He can not only reduce all things to nothing but draw all things out of nothing even without any assistance without any labour and more easily then you look upon me for you may be wearied in looking on me or hindred from seeing me and God cannot be wearied nothing can hinder the execution of his will 10. He is great in Wisdom He is so wise that He makes all the actions of his creatures to contribute to his intentions also those that are done against His intention He lets the second causes acte as if He acted not He lets each cause move according to its genious and particular inclination the natural naturally the free freely and He makes all their actions to serve His designes as infallibly efféctually and happily as if He alone did do their actions purposely He makes likewise to contribute to the Execution of his Will and to the accomplishment of his intentions all that men do against his Will and all that opposes his intentions the impious do all they can to dishonour Him the infidells to ruine his Church the reprobate to afflict and destroy his Elect and He makes the attempts of the impious to conduce to his glory the infidelity of the infidells to the good of his Church the persecutions of the reprobare to the salvation of the elect What an ineffable wisdom 11. He is great and admirable in his Goodness He is an infinite sea and an Abiss of love mercy and liberality which without diminution flowes continually and abundantly In the order of nature what flowers what fruits what plants what animalls what voices what perfumes what colours what drugs what meats and drinks for our nourishment for our service remedy and divertissement 12. In the supernatural Order He shews us evidently his Goodness He accomplishes that which He sayd Mensuram bonam confertam Luke 6. 38. coagitatam supereffluentem dabunt in sinum vestrum He gives good stuffed shaken and overflowing measure into the bosoms of the saints One for example gave a morcel of bread to a poor man or a word of instruction for his salvation this action was so smal this word so soon past that one would not think them worthy to be remembred Nevertheless God forgets them not He will look upon them with complacence he will praise them and recompence them not for a hundred or a thousand years only but for ever so good He is and ardently amorous of good 13. To men in this life He gives graces with so much liberality Ephes 1. 8. and affluence that S. Paul says The riches of his grace have superabounded in us If then we are deprived of them or receive them slenderly it is not a defect of the source but our own fault becaus we make our selves unworthy of them not complying with them not esteeming them but neglecting contemning them Who would not admire the nobility of this Royal divine heart who vouchsafes to give all these goods not only to the elect who are thankful for them but also to his enemies who acknowledg him not who blaspheme him contemn him persecute him Nevertheless he suffers them he supports them he conserves them in health he gives them honours riches
contrary Parties do confidently affirm that they have the true sense and understanding of the Scriptures and that consequently they make to themselves Faiths Religions and models of Government to the utter destruction of Vnity Peace and Charity it self Is it not then Necessary for the avoyding of Heresies and Divisions and for the preservation of Vnity and Peace to harken also in this part to the Church and to adhere to her sense of the holy Scripture Wherefore the Apostles oblige us to follow her and to rest in her judgements to dispute against whom S. Austin with great reason tells us is Ep. 1 insolent madness And lest we might doubt which among all the Societies of men in the Christian world is the dwelling place of Faith the spring of truth an the true Church of the living God the Apostles mark her out to us by three evident Notes which are proper to her and distinguish her from all other Churches they teach us that she is One Holy Catholick 6. First they teach us that She is One for they make us not to say I believe Churches but I believe the Church which is the kingdom of the Son of God his flock and mystical Body You never find in the Gospell that the Son of God hath many kingdoms many flocks many mystical Bodys But always one kingdom one sheepfold one mystical Body In S. Matt. 4. 23. Ch. 13. 41. Iohn 10. 16. Rom. 12. Ephes 4. v. 4 Matthew JESUS went about preaching the Gospell of the kingdom And again He says in the Same Gospell that He will send his Angells and they shal gather all scandalls out of his kingdom There shal be made one fold and one Pastor We being many are one Body in Christ One Lord one Faith One Baptisme 7. I demand now the Church of England is it the true Church if so the Protestant Church in Holland is not that in Germany is not that in France is not there is but one true Church and these are many they have nothing that unites them they depend not one of another they have not the same Superiour But among Catholicks many Bishopricks many Republicks Nations and Kingdoms are one Church becaus they are united in the same Spiritual Head or supream Pastor 8. You will say that which unites us is Faith we are one Body by the Vnity of Faith But besides that this Vnity which also excludes not Schismaticks is not enough to make one Church We need not but look into the books of Luther Calvin Zuinglius to know the war they make with one another We need not but to read the Works of their successours to see their disagreement in Points of the greatest importance There is nothing for example so important to Faith as to know which are the Canonical Books in which we ought to learn the Christian Verities and they agree not as we have seen in them And if they agree not about the prime Principle How can agreement be expected in the things which are drawn from thence Many differences might be named about most important matters their pursuit also of those differences demonstrats they do not judg them light which stretches to the condemning one another for Hereticks and Schismaticks and sometimes to breaking into open arms one against another 9. But Catholicks however divided by countrey language particular interest civil dissentions or war Yet agree exactly in all points of Faith If you go to France Spain Poland Italy or the Indies You will see that they teach the same Doctrine that they make every where the same Catechismes 10. And are not there some will say to me Thomists Scotists And other Parties who dispute continually Yes but this is not but in school difficulties in Philosophical Points in Questions grounded upon humane reason as concerning Articles of Faith All agree in them not one contradicts not one questions them 11. Secondly the Apostles teach us that the true Church is holy I believe the holy Church This is not to say that All that are therein are Saints For she is the field of the husbandman Matt. 3. 21. Matt. 13. 47. Ron. 9. 21 where the Cockle is mixt with good corn She is the net which takes and holds bad fish with the good She is the house where there are Vessells of ignominy with those of honour She is the Arke of the true Noah where there are clean and unclean animalls Gen. 7. 2 But the true Church is holy becaus she hath means to Sanctify her self and many obtain it by those means We ask it there and obtain it of God by Sacrifice It is given by Sacraments conserv'd by the observance of the commandements of God increased by the practise of good and vertuous works 12. But Reformers have forbidden all these ways they have abolished among them the only sacrifice of the Mass they have diminished the Sacraments of seven that CHRIST instituted they retain but two Baptisme and the Eucharist which also they have made almost unprofitable For they say that Baptisme is not necessary for their children and so deprive them often of this remedy to the exclusion of them out of the kingdom of Heaven according to the express words of the Son of God They have used yet wors the Eucharist instead of the real Presence Iohn 3. 5. of our Lord and Savior Source of all sanctity who sanctifys our souls and bodys in this Sacrament they have not in their supper but a morcel of bread an inefficatious and empty Sacrament which contains not what it signifiys 13. As concerning the Commandements besyds that they preach but those which Moses gave and not those which JESUS-CHRIST added to sanctify his Church they say that they are impossible also with the grace of God And what man will undertake to execute that which he judges to be impossible 14. As touching good Works they deny the worth and merit of them And who will undergo difficulty to practise good works when he believes that they have no worth or merit that faith only justifys and suffices to salvation if these principles do not usher in the neglect of all good works it is not becaus the Doctrins do not afford it but becaus they act by some other motives What Sanctity then may one expect where there is no Sacrifice to obtaine it of God No efficatious Sacraments where by to receive it No possibility to obey the Commandements of God to preserve it no good works to increase it So they say not S. Luther S Calvin S. Beza as they say S. Gregory S Bernard S. Bonaventure whom they confess to have been of the Roman Church and experience shews that there are none so holy so vertuous so perfect None so devout towards God charitable towards their neighbor so sober chast modest and humble as are innumerable Souls who live entirely according to the maxims and the instructions of the Catholick Church 15. Thirdly the Apostles teach us that the true Church
of CHRIST is Catholick that is to say Vniversall or generall and the Apostles by putting this word oblige us to follow that Church whose Faith and Religion is receiv'd and publickly profest the longest Time by the most Persons and in most Places and so the Faith of the Roman Church hath been 16. Read but the Annales of Baronius or of Gualterus or The longuest Time the works of Bellarmin or Coccius and You will see that ever-since the Apostles the Church hath had from age to age the same Articles of Faith which the Roman Church teaches at this present Reformers confess that during the first four hundred years the Roman was the true Church if this Present were new they ought to shew who was the first Authour of this novellty what was the new doctrin that was taught in what time and in what place fâ—om what Church the Roman did seperate when she embraced this new doctrin and who were they that opposed this novellty These things are noted in every little alteration of Religion and one cannot shew them in the great pretended changes of the Faith of the Roman Church 17 All those that have been converted to the Faith of CHRIST By the most persons and have embraced Christian Religion have always taken the Roman and were converted by Romanists Other Religions convert not infidells and have never extended the Empire of IESUS in any Province of the Earth 18. We must put out our Eyes and burn all Histories not In most Places to see that the Roman Church only hath been extended in all the places where IESUS CHRIST is or hath been adored and that no other Congregation of Christians has ever had publick exercise of Religion throughout the world But we may read in S. Ireneus Tertullian S. Cyprian and S. Athanasius that in their times the Catholick Church was already in all the inhabited Earth and this in accomplishment of what David had often foretold saying that the Reigne and Empire of JESUS CHRIST that is to say CHRISTS Church should be extended throughout all the earth I wil give thee Gentills for thy inheritance and thy possession the ends of the Earth He Psal 2. Psal 71. shal rule from sea to sea and from the river even to the end of the round world 19. Follow then the Faith of the Romane and Catholick Church since these Notes evidently agree to Her and to no other church Heb. 11. 6. and since with out true and entire Faith t is impossible to please God 20 Have and hold inviolable Vnity with this Church since all Faith without this Vnity will not save You There is but one Vniversall Church out of which nobody is saved sayd the great Council of Lateran consisting of a 1215. Fathers And S. Paul Gallatians 5. 20 himself does teach expressly that not Sects only but also Dissentions Divisions or Seperations shal not possess the kingdom of God Wherefore S. Cyprian in the book of Vnity says Whosoever seperats from the true Church is excluded from the promises of the Church and who hath abandoned the Church of CHRIST shal never com to receive the recompences of CHRIST He is a stranger he is prophane he is an enemie of God for He connot have God for his Father who hath not the Church for his Mother S. Chrysostom testifys that separation from the In Ep. ad Ephes. 4. p. 822. de papt cont Don. lib. 1. c. 8. lib. 2. c. 6. Church or dividing of it is no less sin then falling into heresy nay S. Austin holds that it is greater then that of infidelity and Idolatry and for proof of what he says he alleadges the example of Core Dathan and Abiron and other Schismaticks of the ancient Testament who were sent living into hell and punished more rigorously than Idolaters who doubts says he that this was committed more criminally which was revenged more severely But he says things yet more terrible for he assures us that all they that are not in the true Church though they live extraordinarily well tho they give great alms and also shed their Ep. 152. and. lib. 4. de Bap. blood for the love of IESUS CHRIST if they die out of the Church nothing will profit them but shal be damn'd eternally All those that were out of the Arke of Noah which was a figure of the Church perished by the deluge Only they that laboured in the vineyard reciv'd the recompence of the pennie that is eternal life Members that remain not united to the body cannot have life Branches cut of from the tree cannot bring-forth fruit IESUS CHRIST is the Saviour of his Body which is the Church He is the Espouse of the Church and cannot have or acknowledg other children then those of his Spouse 21. Let us then resolve to live and die in the bosome of the Catholick or Roman Church There we may avoid damnation there we shal be assisted to obtain Salvation For there is Communion af Saints that is communication of good works and of prayers There then every one may help his neighbor the Living may succour also the Dead in Purgatory and the Saints in Heaven can help by their merits and their prayers sinners upon Earth Amen DISCOURS XIII OF THE TENTH ARTICLE The Forgiveness of Sins 1. HE that should know well the monstrous nature and malice of Sin the ingratitude impudence and insolence of the sinner the infinite Greatnes Sanctity and Majesty of him against whom it is committed and should also know what the Scripture expressly tells us that a God is thereby irritated exasperated put into anger and fury against the sinner such an one I say could not by any light of reason hope for pardon it would seem to him impossible that sins committed against God should be remitted and he would need the light of Faith to believe that a sinner may obtain remission of them Who would ever think that a God who hath need of none who had not respect to the celestial Principalities and who spared not so great a number of noble Spirits but condemn'd them all without exception to eternal flames would shew favour to worms of the earth to so ungratefull and base creatures after they have so many and so many times offended Him multiplying sins upon sins and reiterating the same sins Here then we have need of Faith and therefore the Apostles make us to believe that God will pardon sins and since they except none that He will remit all sorts of them how ever great and enormous they may be by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after by Absolution as often as we shal do true penance for them 2. Here we meet with an error and one of the most great and most pernicious of some Reformers They say that it belongs not to a sinner to absolve others from their sins and that it is an injury to the Son of God to ask pardon of our sins of any other On this
a poor man not through tenderness of heart but because JESUS hath commanded him and sayd that which you shal do to the least of mine shal be don to me Who Matth. 25. 40. ever shal give a cup of cold water to one of mine in the name of a Disciple shal receive reward He promises you nothing if you give an alms to a poor man becaus he is your countreyman of the same condition of the same nature with you but if you give to him Becaus he is a Christian and a Disciple of the Son of God in the name of a Disciple Matt. 10. 42. 13. Let us hear then with respect and put in practise this Word of JESUS Habete fidem Have faith It is the extream misery of a Christian to lose Faith whilst it subsists in the soul there remains always some hopes of salvation when it is once lost all is lost there is no recovery but by a miracle 14. Have divine faith not humane only You ought to believe what I say to you not because I say it but becaus God sayd it becaus God revealed it to his Church and the Church teaches you it by my ministery Divine faith believes all the words of the Scripture without exception if you believe some and not the other it is humane faith or opinion or phansie not divine faith which believes becaus God is the soveraign and infallible Verity who cannot deceive in any point if He could in one He might in all the rest 15. Have actual faith not habitual only It is very profitable to exercise often formal and express acts of faith especially in temptation and in occasion of Sin to do as our Savior who being tempted in the desart oppos'd to each temptation a text of holy scripture And S. Paul counsells us to make use of the shield of faith in every occasion are you tempted by imprudence to defer your conversion oppose to it this shield enliven your faith by Ephes. 6. 16. Luke 12. 40. these words of our Savior the Son of man will com in what hour ye think not Death and judgment will surprize you when you think least of it Are you tempted by injustice to do any injury to your neigbour oppose this shield actuate your faith by these words of JESUS Do not to another what thou wouldst not have don to thy self Are you tempted by choler to abuse another by your words actuate your faith by these words of our Savior He that is angry with his brother he that calls him fool shal be guilty of fire Are you tempted by impurity oppose this shield quicken your faith by these words of S. Paul know that all fornicators and unclean Eph. 5. persons have no part in the kingdom of IESUS-CHRIST Are you tempted to go in an open dress and to shew your breasts Stir vp your faith by these words of IESUS Woe to him by whom a Scandal comes that is to him who gives an occasion to one only person to commit a mortal Sin 16. Have firm and perfect faith which doubts not wavers not staggers not at all You must be more convinced and perswaded of all that the Church does teach than you are of what you see S. Peter having seen the glory of IESUS vpon Luke 17. 1. mount Thabor having heard the voice of the eternal Father This is my beloved Son says that he was yet more ascertain'd of it by the testimony of holy Scripture habemus firmiorem Propheticum 2. Pet. 1. 19. sermonem And since the sacred text does say Fornicators Avaricious Robbers and other sinners shal never possess the kingdom of God if they correct not in themselves these Vices you must be more certain never to be saved if you commit these sins and have not true repentance then of what you see or hear if you doubt of it or have doubted of it voluntarily you must accuse your self thereof as of a Sin of infidelity I say voluntarily For when thoughts do rise against faith if they displeas you or if you reject them promptly as soon as you perceive them there is no Sin But to avoyd the occasions of them do what S. Paul commands you avoyd those that would seduce you they will cast always into your mind I know not what maligne and venemous disposition if your calling be to serve though they would give you great wages serve them not if you pretend to marriage beware to marry them for you put your selves in danger of being seduced and when there should be no danger yet you may die and leave children who being bredvp by them will follow their errors and lose their souls Beware also to read or to have in your house naughty books some of your people may happen to read them and be perverted or prejudiced by them 17. Have explicit faith content not your selves to say I am a good Catholick I believe all Articles of faith but learn them in particular at least the principall and most remarkable To learn them you ought to hear as often as you can sermons catechismes to read Spiritual books to frequent devout persons who can instruct you to meditate upon them for to conceive the importance of them 18. And to make a publick profession of them you should of ten explicate them and make others to admire them You must not fear to oppose those who speak unworthily of them of God or of his Church nor be asham'd to practise the observances and devotions prescribed by the Church in consequence to them But remember this word of the Son of God He that shal be asham'd Luke 9. 26. of me before men I will be asham'd of him in the presence of my Father and his Angells 19. Have living faith animated with charity and fruitfull in good works otherwise S. Paul will say Your faith is vain for 1. Cor. 15. 17. Iames 2. yet you are in your sins S. Iames will say Shal dead faith be able to save you S. Bernard will say behold a fine honor you render to your God! you offer to him a dead carkess a faith joyn'd to infamous and stincking actions The Saints did not so they practised Heb. 11. vertue by their faith they converted kingdoms by the heroical actions of their faith they obtain'd the promises which God made to the true faithfull the possession and enjoyment of the principal object of faith the intuitive and clear vision of the essence of God in the happy eternity which God granr us all Amen DISCOURS XVII Of Hope 1. THe God of Hope says the Apostle replenish you with all Rom. 15. 13. sort of joy that you may abound in hope In which words he wills not only that we hope but he demands of God for all the Faithfull an abundance of this gift and vertue by which we may hope through the merits of IESUS-CHRIST to possess God and to enjoy eternal felicity This Vertue is so necessary that
and no man doubts to set any Painter or Graver on worke notwithstanding these words of the law God then forbids them to be made to the End divine worship be given to them and to signify this He adds Thou shalt not adore nor serve thâ—m He confirms us in this sense in the 26. chapter of Leviticus You shal not make to your selves an Idol and graven thing neither shal you erect Pillars nor set an Image of stone in your land for to adore it We gather this sense also from the reason which God gives of the command I am the Lord thy God all soveraign honor all divine worship all supream adoration is due to me I am a jealous God I Suffer not any divine worship but my own I connot allow my honour to be given to another Wherefore S. Austin and other Interpreters of scripture so understand these words that we make not images against the intention of the law if we make them not S. Aug. in Quest Iosue 22 30. for to adore them so the Israelites were fatisfyd that the Tribes of Ruben and Gad erected not an Altar against the intention of the law since they made it not for sacrifice but only for a monument S. Admire here the goodness of God who seperates us from idolatry the most vile foule and cruel servitude imaginable which made the poor idolaters to serve a thousand most vile and most base Masters which urged men and women in their publick service to actions so foul and impudent that impudence it self would blush to see or hear of them which engaged them to such inhumanities and cruelties in their sacrifices that we cannot without horrour speak or thinke of them And He does not only endeavour to free men from this most hard and pernicious slavery but moreover binds them to himself not that He hath any want of us He hath no need of our goods nor of our service He was most happy from all Eternity and would be for all Eternity without us But it is becaus He desires that we be perfect He will that we be happy and He sees that our perfection consists in loving and serving him And therefore He moves and solicits us to it by most effectual means He commands strictly and threatens the transgressours of his command to punish them in their children to the third and fourth generation and to move our mercenary hearts yet more He promises to recompence our obedience in thousands and all this is but a pledg and gage of the great goods which He prepared and promised us if we love him and keep his commandements 4. After such Commands threatnings and promises can we thinke that a great Church a Church so learned so curious and carefull in other points and so addicted to good workes would give supream honour divine worship and adoration to Saints and to their Relicks which she believes to be no Gods Nay to statues and pictures which she declares to have no Divinity or vertue and this with the loss of Gods favour forfeiture of his promises labour in this world eternal punishment in the other and without gain of any honor pleasure or profit whatsoever May be believe that CHRIST having banished Idolls out of the world for ever or out of the greater part of it as it was by the Prophets foretold He should and that the Turks who adore Isaiah 2. 18. Zachar. c. 13. V. 2. him not and the jews his greatest enemies enjoy the fruit and accomplishment of this promise and Christians who honor adore and love him should not but should live and dye in Image Saint and Host Idolatry He hath not made by himself or his Apostles Idolatry to cease one only moment of time if it be Idolatry to adore the B. Sacrament to honor the Saints their Relicks and their Images so as the Romane Church does honour them since these things have been so practised in all times in both Greek and Latine Church You see then that to make Catholicks Idolaters is to tear one of the most precious and replendent jewells out of the Crown of JESVS that it is to make the Prophets of his Father Lyars and that it is to give occasion to Infidells to make him this reproach Thy Prophets see vain things and divine a ly Is it Possible that the Catholick or universall Church the Church to which God promised that the gates of Hell shal not prevail against Matt. c. 16. v. 18. Matt. c. 28. v. 19. Iohn c. 16. v. 12. Osee c. 2. v. 19. Her That He would be with her all days even to the consummation of the world That He would preserve her from falling into errors and guid her into all truth the Church which God Espoused to himself for ever The Church which He obliged all to believe and follow I believe the holy Catholick Church Is it possible I say that she breaks always notoriously the first commandement by teaching and committing Idolatry It is impossible she should adore any other thing than God alone Note that I say Adore 5. For though this word Adore is used in the Bible and in the Hebrew Greek and Latine tongues to signify all sorts of honor supream and divine honor which is given to God only Psalme 96. where it is sayd adore him all ye Angells Inferiour honour which is given to Saints Iosuah 5. 14. where it is sayd that Iosuah adoted an Angell Humane and civill honor which is given to men on earth 3. kings 1. 23. where 't is sayd the Prophet Nathan adored David and in many other places it does signify these three different sorts of honour Nevertheless since this word Adore does signify in our language divine honor and worship proper to God alone I say 6. We adore not the Saints becaus we acknowledg not soveraign and supream excellency and perfection in them But we give them an inferiour honor according to their dignity their holiness and relation to God for according to the law of God and reason a proportionable honor is due to excellency 7. Secondly we honor and Venerate the Relicks of the Saints though with an honor inferior to that we give to the Saints themselves For we find in Relicks some dignity holiness and relation to God They were the living members of CHRIST and Tempells of the holy Ghost They are the Organs and Instruments of God by which He workes many miracles and imparts divers benefits to men and they shal be one day raised up again to be the habitations of glorious souls and to live and reign with CHRIST therefore they deserve some respect and the primitive Church as the holy Fathers testify did not deny it them Thirdly we adore not Images and pictures For we know and believe that there is no divinity in them Neither do we give them any inferior honor veneration or respect absolutely or for themselves or which is terminated upon them becaus we acknowledg not any vertue or perfection in them
in effect you are not more holy nor more learned nor wiser than S. Austin And hear what he sayd to a Pelagian Heretick That which the Fathers believed I belive what lib. 1 contra Iul. c. 2. circâ— med they taught I teach what they preached I preach Follow the example of this great and holy Doctor if you be wise and carefull of your salvation follow always Antiquity and Vniversality in your beliefe say with the whole Colledge of the Apostles I believe the holy and Vniversall Church And to all the reasons of humane Philosophy that Dissenters oppose Answer that S. Paul hath sayd Our faith ought not to be in the wisdome of men 1. Cor. 2. 5. but in the Power of God Amen DISCOURS XLV Of the Production Reception and Operation of the Eucharist S Peter having in the first chapter of his first epistle taught us that we are born again by the seed of the word of God bids us in the second to desire as new born children reasonable milk that we may grow unto salvation by which words he does not only invite us to suck yet more the milk of saving Doctrine but moreover to the participation of the holy Eucharist which here he also signifys by milk And in effect there are three great conformities and resemblances between the milk which a mother gives her child and the adorable Sacrament of the Altar Conformitie in the manner of their production conformitie in the manner of their reception Confirmitie in the manner of their operation 2. S. Austin in his frst sermon upon the Title of 33 Psalme brings this pat comparison Imagin that you enter into the house of a mother of many children Some of fifteen or Sixteen years of age other but four or five monthes old if you ask her what will you do with that bread T is she will say for the nourishment of my children And of what children of these great and little ones What for the nourishment of these little ones they have no teeth how will they eate that bread Yes that bread is for the nourishment of all my children both great and little but in divers manners the great shal eate it in the form you see it and becaus the little ones cannot eate it so I will concoct it in my stomake and change it into my blood and becaus they would have horrour to take my blood in its own form I will concoct it a second time by the heat of my heart in the limbick of my breast where it will becom white as snow sweet as sugar and liquid as wine The Son of God in his Divinity is living bread enlivening bread the bread of Angells The Celestial Spirits do not live are not nourished saciated and happy but by seeing loving possessing enioying God men also ought to be nourished with the same food but in this mortall life they are uncapable to enjoy God in his proper form they cannot see him openly and face to face what hath the Son of God don who compares himself in Scripture to a loving Mother He incarnated this bread this divine Word incorporated himself and took the form of flesh and blood And becaus men would have had fear and horrour to eate his flesh and drink his blood in the form He was He concocted this Bread a second time in the breast of this Sacrament by the heat of his heart by an ardent love He again transform'd this Word and cloathed himself with the species of bread and wine which are common and usuall with us to be the milk and nourishment of men who are his little children And as a mother giving her breast to an infant exposeth herself to many importunities incommodities and pinches which he gives her So our Saviour shut his Eyes to many considerations of his glory and of his interest which might have hindred Him from instituting this Sacrament He exposed himself to a thousand affronts which He receives and will receive to the end of the world from Hereticks bad Catholicks and vicious Priests that communicate in the state of sin and â—hough He be the Sovereign Purity the essentiall Sanctity who abhorrs sin infinitely yet is content to suffer all these injuries rather than deprive his well beloved children of the happiness of this breast 3. Jn the second place this Sacrament is compared to milk in the manner 't is to be receiv'd It must be taken as children take the brest with faith hunger and familiarity 4. An infant takes the breast with shut eyes he examins nothing but sucks the breast trusting to his mother a Dissenrer proposes questions as the Capharnaits how can this man gives us his flesh Psal 130. to eate How can so great a body be contained in so little a Host If I am not humble and if I exalt my Soul I shal be like to an infant that is weaned from the brest sayd the royal Prophet This happens to a Dissenter he exalts his Soul thinking that he hath much of knowledg and understanding he examins the power of the Omnipotent and will find that to be impossible which our Saviour sayd and he is weaned from this sacred brest Catholicks as humble simple docible children trust the Church their Mother who neither can nor would if she could deceive them they silence senses and shut the eyes of fallible reason to open only those of infallible Faith 5. They that have a lively faith of that which is contained in this Sacrament have a great appetite to it an earnest desire of it and therefore they reape incredible fruits from it The Virgin sayd in her canticle God fills the hungry with good things Such as approach to him with a Spiritual greediness and avidity see says S. Chrysostome with what readiness a little infant takes the teat with what force he joyns himself to the brest you would thinke that Hom 60. ad pop he would thrust himself into the brest of his mother or that he would suck out the heart and soul of his nource and if he be one only day without this refection he is wholy unquiet troublesome and insupportable Do the same says this holy Doctor go to the Body of IESUS amorously ardently and greedily as if you would lodg your self in the sacred side of JESUS unite your self to Him heart to heart soul to soul essence to essence and transform your self wholy unto Him and when by your fault you are depriv'd of this divine refection be sorry and troubled as having suffered a great loss 6. And after you have had the happiness to receive make good use of it This Sacrament hath a permanent Being and remaines as long as the species in the stomack that IESUS may have leasure to convers with us and we with Him We ought then to keep him company to court and entertain him by acts of adoration gratitude love oblation of our selves with resolution to serve Him well we must believe He coms to us full of
not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy foul and with all thy forces what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation Redemption and Passion of our Saviour Ought they not to burn with love should they not if it were possible love JESUS above all their forces thoughts and activity of their hearts If I owe my self wholy to him for making me what shal I add now for repairing me and repairing me in such a manner 14. Let us love him then since He so loved us let 's not love him only in words and compliments let us not content our selves to say I honour much my Saviour I love him with all my heart But let us love him in worke and Verity in doing in giving and in suffering for him for so He loved us And since his goodness is so infinite and his love to us so excessive that He preferred us not only before Angells but also before himself it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him it would be a strange folly to offend him to disoblige his goodness to lose his amity and his favour for honour pleasure profit or satisfaction of a Passion Do not so if you be wise Say rather with S. Austin all abundance all honour all felicity that is not you my God is but poverty vanity and misery say as S. Francis did my God You are my All Love him with all your heart since He his all your good love him with a sovereign love since He is sovereignly good love adore bless prayse glorify him now and ever Amen DISCOURS VII OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE He descended into Hell the third day He rose again from the dead IESUS appli'd himself so earnestly to our Salvation that whilst He was on earth He let not a moment pass without labouring for it And for this effect whilst his Body lay'd in grave He descended into Hell This world Hell signify's an inferiour and low place And therefore the holy Church makes use of it in divers occasions to signify divers inferiour places By this word she most often understands the place of everlasting damnation And so our Saviour called it in 1. Luke 36. S. Luk. where speaking of the unfortunate rich man says he was buried in hell Other times she uses this terme to signify Purgatory where they are who died in the grace of God but having not fully satisfyed the divine Iustice are further to be punished so in the Mass of the dead she prayes free ô Lord the souls of the faithfull departed from the paines of hell She makes use of it also to signify the place whither the souls of holy and just persons who were not subject to purgation or had duely satisfyd for their offences went before the death of the Saviour of the world expecting He should open them the gates of Heaven by his Passion 2. He descended not only by effect into these two last places making his power and goodness to appear by delivering the soules in them detained But in substance He descended into them his soul was really in those places and He honoured the soules that were in them and made them happy by his presence The third day he rose again from the dead He rose no sooner for to testify that He was truly dead and to fulfill the figure of Matt. 12. 40. him As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale so shal be the Son of man in the bowells of the earth He would be three days subject to the law of death to teach us mystically that by his death and Passion He had satisfyd the three Persons of the B. Trinity for the sins committed in the three states of the world in the Law of nature in the Law of Moses and in the Law of grace And to shew us that his Passion was the cause of the delivery of the ancient Fathers out of hell of the Redemption of men on earth and of the reparation of the Angelical thrones in Heaven He rose again By which words the Apostles teach us that He S. Iohn 10. return'd to life by his own power He sayd also in the Gospell I have power to lay down my life and to take it up againe and in another place I will raise up my Body in three daies after death 3. I know well that S. Peter and S. Paul teach in many places that his Father raised Him up to life because this miracle S. Pater is an effâ—ct of the omnipotency of God which thô common Ast. c. 3. 26. and c. 5. 30. S. Paul in the 4. 8. and 10. to the Rom. Phil. 28. and 9. to all the 3. Persons of the B. Trinity yet is attributed commonly to the Father 'T is true then that He rose up by his own Power and 't is true also that the eternal Father raised him to the end He might shew his goodness both ro him and us 4. First to him that his Body might receive the Glory which He merited by his labors humiliations and sufferances For He humhled himself says the Apostle being obedient unto death for the which thing God hath exalted him Note exalted him for his Resurrection was not a simple return from death to life but an entrance into a glorious life That Body which He layd down passible and mortall He receives impassible and immortal that which was inglorious now is glorious which was infirm now is powerfull which was a natural Body now is becom a spiritual These are the excellent qualities which S. Paul attributes to every 1. cor 15. matt 13 43. glorifyd Body But that of Glory or clarity delights me most for the body of every saint shal shine by it as the sun fulgebunt justi sicut sol and nevertheless one shal differ from another in this Quality as much as he exceeded him here in good works or as S. Paul says as one starr differs in glory from another What glory then what admirable splendor what ravishing beauty was given to the adorable Body of JSUS in recompence of his merits And what satisfaction and felicity will it be to see it when our eyes shal be able to behold it as hereafter they shall be by their impassibility These four qualities belong to the Body of the Son of God as a body glorifyd But as a Body Deifyd as subsisting in the Divinity it hath yet a farr other Glory Jt hath a supereminent ineffable and incomprehensible Glory as we may see in the next Discours 5. Wherfore the Son of God thanks his Father for that He brought his soul out of hell and his Body out of the sepulcher and that He raised him up again Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti psal 29. me Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam And He esteems so much this favour that He exhorts us to thanke God to praise and glorify
many sins exposed to so many temptations subject to so many corruptions designed to so many just punishments should confide in himself and presume to make himself happy sayd Aug. Ep. 54. ad Macedonium S. Austin This vain relyance which men have on their own selves and on the force of their free will is the cause that they rashly cast themselves into occasions of sin that they worke not their salvation with fear and trembling as the Apostle commands that they stand not upon their guard to keep themselves from falling that they pray not God fervently to hold them by the hand that they are not in a state of perpetual humiliation as the Saints advise them to be that they disdain those that humane frailty made to fall and that they glorify themselves in their good works whence it comes often that God chastises them to humble them He lets them fall into interiour aridities and desolations or into some furious temptations which cast them down to the brink of hell when they thought themselves at the gates of heaven and makes them say as David Ego dixi in abundantia mea non movebor in eternum avertisti faciem tuam factus sum conturbatus It seem'd Psal 29. 7. to me that I should never be troubled in the resolution I had to serve you ô my God You have withdrawn your grace and I find my self wholy perplex'd and in danger to be lost Hope not then in your selves nor in the force of your free will which is but weakness and misery hope in God and in his assistance but hope in him as you ought that is to say with great confidence 10. Blessed be the man who puts his confidence in God says Hieremie he is like to a tree planted by the water the leaf whereof is always green and which never fails to bring forth fruit Hierem. 17. 7. Collect of the 5. Sunday after Epiph. Wherefore the Church begging the favour of Gods protection makes a remonstrance to him that she relyes wholy upon the hope of his grace There his nothing that obliges us more to act faithfully for another then when we see that he confides in us and wholy depends upon us nor is there any thing that averts us more from succouring and assisting him than to see that he is diffident of us and can we think that our God will assist us powerfully when we confide not entirely but diffide in him Diffidence makes us un worthy of his favours it binds the hands of the Omnipotent and stops the cours of his particular graces 11. Give me a soul that hath a great confidence in God she would work miracles but if one staggers or diffides never so little in the Providence of God he will not have good success S. Peter finding the wind strong did not quite diffide since he cryd out Lord save me he had a little confidence since JESUS sayd to him ô thou of little faith But becaus he doubted he began to sink so certenly the reason why we are not powerfully assisted by God and that we do not the great works He would operate by us is becaus there is always in our hearts some grain of diffidence 12. Follow then the counsel of the holy Ghost Have confidence Prou. 3. 5. in the Lord and rely not vpon thy own prudence In all thy ways think on him and He will direct thy steps Have confidence you confide in a friend who never sayd to you trust in me who perhaps is chang'd and hath lost the love he had for you And will you not trust in God who is always the same and who says to you in his Scripture with so much tenderness and assurance I will not leave nor abandon Heb. 13. 5. thee Will you not trust in your God who can and will aide you powerfully if you cast your self into his armes In the Lord He is Master and He will shew it permitting you sometimes to be overwhelm'd by a tempest leaving you long in disgraces suits poverty infirmity and afflictions of Spirit But if you put great confidence in him though you be even past all remedy and ready to be lost He will strike the stroke of a Master will make a signal demonstration of his Providence and deliver you for his glory to the admiration of the world Rely not vpon your own prudence trust not in your ability 't is a weak support a rotten planck a reed and a foundation upon sand acknowledg in the presence of God that your light is but darkness that your Wisdom ss but folly demand his conduct invocate his mercy in the beginning in the progress and in theend of your actions In all your wayes think on him 'T is a great fault we commit and the cause of all our failings that we have not recours to God often enough nor fervently enough We are less able to do any thing that conduces to eternal life of our own selves than a child that hath never written is capable to write well if then you will do well you must not only recommend your self to JESUS in the beginning of your actions but often lift up your soul to him dart forth respectfull and affectionate aspirations and ask his grace and light If you do so He will direct your steps He will enlighten your understanding in perplexities strengthen your heart in temptations hold your hand in dangers direct your footsteps in his wayes He will make your actions succeed to acquisition of his grace in this world and to possession of his glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XVIII Of the Love of God CHarity is amongst Christian Vertues that which gold is amongst metalls ' that which the Palme is among trees that which the Lyon is amongst beasts that which a man is among all Creatures of this world that which the Seraphins are amongst Celestial creatures S. Ireneus calls it properly Eminentissimum Charismatum the most eminent and precious gift of the holy Ghost he agrees in this with the Apostle who having sayd that God hath chosen some 1. Cor. 12. 31. in his Church to be Apostles others to be Doctors others to work miracles He adds I will shew you yet a grace more excellent a gift of the holy Ghost more to be desir'd than to be an Apostle or a Prophet and this grace is charity of which he speaks immediatly One may be an Apostle and an ill man witness Judas a Prophet witness Balaam a Doctor witness Tertullian a Virgin witness the five foolish a worker of miracles witness they who will say have we not worked many miracles in your name But one cannot love God perfectly and Matth. 7. 22. have Charity without being good holy and pleasing to God 2. Here we ought to admire the Goodness and Providence of God who placed all our felicity and happiness in a thing so sweet and conformable to our nature And which poor as well as rich ignorant
urge and press What is it that urges and Pressess you to penance 'T is the Will of God who commands you by S. Iohn Baptist by the Apostles by the holy Doctors by the Councells of the Church and by the mouth of his own Son What is that which urges you 'T is the fear you ought to have to offend the greatness of God his infinite justice his Immensity and most adorable Presence What is that which urges you The fear of falling into new sins of dying in an ill state of losing the merit of your good Workes It is the example of the Saints who have don Penance all their life It is the charity of IESUS who incarnated himself who endured so much Who dyed upon the Cross to oblige you to it who hath expected you so long and so patiently with this intention who promises you pardon and to receive you if you do true Penance See then the changes which true penance makes that you may not so easily be deceived in a matter of so great importance The Prophet Ioöl expresses them in a few words Convert to me in all your heart in fasting and in weeping and Ioel. 2. 12. in mourning In rhe first place it makes a change in us Convert In the second it changes our heart convert to me in your heart In the third place It changes all the heart convert to me in all your heart in the fourth It rests not in the heart onâ—y but changes our exteriour Convert to me in fasting and in mourning 5. In the first place true penance changes and converts us Convert It is an admirable Chimistrie which transforms not metalls but souls ir changes not peuter into silver copper into gold but men into Angells from carnal terrestrial vitious and brutal it turns them into spiritual vertuous and divine men S. Paul calls him that is converted a new creature a new man and he says that by penance we are renew'd and reform'd becaus we devest our selves of the old Adam for to revest our selves with the new which is IESUS-CHRIST 6. This Word in your hearts notes the second change and teaches us that 't is the heart which must be first and Ephes 4. 24. chiefly changed It is the heart that God demands always when He speaks of conversion convert your selves to me in all your heart rent your hearts and â—n oâ— your garments says He by his Prophet Ioel. And by the Psalmist my God you will not despise a contrite Ioel 2. Psal 50. Ezech. 18. 31. and humbled heart and by the Prophet Ezechiel cast away all your prevarications and make your selves a new heart and a new Spirit A new spirit that is thoughts sentiments and opinions A new heart that is wills affections and desires quite other then before 7. Vpon which S. Gregory admonishes us of two Errors into part 1. Past c. 9. which we are apt to fall very dangerously we take often says he the thought of our understanding for the disposition of our heart the Idea of our imagination for the affection of our will You will find sometims Penitents whom the Confessor asking Are you well prepar'd to confession They will answer readily yes Sir we have made an act of contrition And how have they made it They have read in a book a prayer or forme of contrition my God it repents me from the bottome of my heart to have committed Sin becaus it displeases you I am sorry to have offended you becaus you are infinitely good and becaus they have sayd these or the like words in their understanding or with their mouth they thinke that they have made an Act of contrition 'T is well don to say these words provided you say true But to thinke you have made an Act of Contrition by saying them with your mouth or in your understanding is a most pernicious error For Contrition is not in the lipps nor in the imagination nor in the understanding but in the Will God requires not that you say you are sorry to have offended him but He wills that you be so in effect a man that harbours animosities in his heart or that restores not goods unjustly gotten may say a hundred times my God I am Sorry to have offended you and yet he will not have one grain of true repentance By what may one know that he has it by the effects if you make restitution if you leave off this unjust suit and repair damages if you fly this occasion of sin you shew probably that your heart is changed But if you content your self with words or imaginations one will say to you that you give to God the motion of your lipps But the affection of your heart is far from Him 8. Others change theyr lives and their hearts notwithstanding are not changed the change is made about them not in them they were heretofore frequenters of naughty houses and of ill companies Now they are ruined in their fortune health and reputation by their dissolutions Wherefore they go no more to those houses into those companies they make no more excesses they play no more becaus they have not wherewith to to defray the charges or their health will not permit them it is their purses or their bodies that are changed not perhaps their hearts I know not what confessions such do make theyr bodys and their tongues cease to commit the sin But their hearts perhaps cease not to love it and if God hath not the heart He makes little or no account of all the rest He loves so much the heart that He will have it all 9. He says by his Prophet Convert your selves to me with all Deut. 4. your heart And by Moses when you shal seek the Lord you will find him if you seek him in all your heart He demands not all your money but only a part in alms nor all your fruits but only a part in tithe but he will have all your heart without reserve restriction or division so that no affection whatsoever may remain in it to mortal sin no division permitted of your love which is as fatal to it and to your conversion as it is unto your heart He wills that you quit not one two three or four sins only but all without exception and not only for the present time but for ever for if there remain in your heart the least designe for the future your conversion is fals deceitfull and unfruitfull 10. The fourth conversion that true penance makes is of our exteriour it makes us to do exteriour workes of penance when these are in our power The Prophet sayd not only convert in your heart but moreover in fasting and weeping and in mourning And S. Iohn Baptist required exterior workes of penance when he sayd yield fruits worthy of penance And our Saviour sais not only that a good tree bears not bad fruit but he adds that it produces good and that it is by this that we must know
rigour and the severity of the last judgement concludes watch therefore praying at all times He speakes not to Religious or to Priests only but to all Christians He knew the impediments we should have the importance of our affaires and He says pray at all times It was by perseverance that the Cananean woman obtain'd of the Son of God the deliverance of her daughter as Saint Chrysostome hath noted she prayed with interior humility since she sayd whelps also eate of the crummes Chrysost hom 5. in Mart. S. Mrk. 7. 29. and with exterior for she prostrated at the feet of our Saviour with fervour of Spirit which she shewed by crying-out clamavit Nevertheless the Son of God rejected her and would not hear her But she strugled with him and got the Victory by her importunity so must you to have success stand obstinate in a holy obstinacy and pray unto the end And therefore our Saviour himself sayes to you in S. Luke It behoves you to pray always and not to be weary S. Luke 18. 1. 10. And what hinders you from praying Is it that you have not leasure that you have many affaires and affaires of importance this is that which should oblige you to pray for the more serious your affaires are the more it concerns you to have success in them and prayer is the means to obtain it You have not-leasure to pray Why not You find time for dinner supper and other necessities of the body notwithstanding your great affaires and why find you not time for the refection of your Soul it is as necessary to pray God well for to work your Salvation as to take your refection to preserve your life You have not time to pray Believe me you have enough if you manage it well Cut off superfluous visits idle words unproâ—â—table workes and conversations and unnecessary divertisements and there will remaine time to be employ'd in prayer But are you so prest with business that you cannot find now and then a quarter of an hour to spend in prayer At least then in working elevate often your heart to God by jaculatory prayers adore him from time to time and beg of him his love grace and guidance put a pin upon your sleeve that seeing it you may be minded of it ' til you are accustom'd to it for it behoves you to pray always What is that which hinders you Is it that you have offended grievously This is as if you should say I am too much wounded I must not go to the Surgeon On the contrary this should incline you more to go to him Com to me all ye who areburdened Says our Saviour He says not receive me communicate so much the more often and the more boldly the more you are burdened with sins but com to me to pray me and to ask help and succour of me however great and numerous may be your sins if you have a lively resentment of them if you desire to be deliver'd from them it is a good motive to shew God to obtain his mercy It is that which David did when he sayd I am poor and needy 'T is that which the Publican did saying God be mercifull to me a sinner 'T is that which the Church puts into your mouth we sinners do beseech thee to hear us What is that in fine that hinders you Is it that God heares you not that He rejects you and withdraws himself from you and that it is long since you beg'd of Him not temporal goods but spiritual and you obtain not This gives you cause to persever and to pray more fervently since He defers so long to hear you 't is a signe that what He will bestow upon you is most excellent and precious though He seems to refuse what you ask He is pleased with your devotions and if He delays to hear you it is for good reasons 'T is to exercise your patience to heat your desire to try your perseverance to augment your merit And if you have patience and persever importuning him Sooner or later He will accomplish your desires and give you grace in this World and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XXV OF FASTING And the Institution of Lent 1. IF the Apostle S. Paul were now on earth he would bewaile extreamly the horrible blindness of those who prefer the pleasure of their mouthes before the precept of the Church and the Salvation of their soules He would say to us what he sayd to the Philippians there are many amongst you of whom I weeping tell you that are enemies Philip. 3. 18. of the Cross of Christ that abhoâ—r all mortification of the flesh that have the belly for their God and shal have eternal damnation for their end for our fasts are not things indifferent or workes of supererogation they are workes of precept and obligation Some will say to me your fasts are not prescrib'd in Scripture they are commandements of men and therefore obâ—ige not other in Conscience But if a Dissenter should command his child a thing very profitable or necessary for his family and his child should say to him Father you are a man the Commandements of men oblige not in conscience I find not In the Scripture that God commands me to go to such a place or to do such a thing No he wiâ—l say to him But he commands thee to obey thy Father and thy Mother So I say to you It is not in Scripture that you must fast such a day that you keep suâ—h a holy day But God commands you in many Ephes. 6. Coloss 3. 20. Heb. 13. 17. places of the Scripture to obey the Church your Mother For the Apostle that sayd in the behalfe of God Children obey your Parents the same sayd also Obey your Prelates If men have not power to command other men nor to oblige them in Conscience whence comes it that JESUS-CHRIST sayd to his Apostles and Luke 10. 16. Matth. 23. 2. Matt. 18 17. Rom. 13. 2 to their successours who heares you heares me and who despises you despises me And to the people do all that they shal say to you whence is it that JESUS-CHRIST hath sayd He that heares not the Church esteeme him as a Pagan or a Publican Whence is it that S. Paul said He that resisteth Superiour power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist it purchase to themselves damnation But 't is to resist Superior power and to disobey the Church not to observe the fasts which She commands 't is to transgress an Apostolical command not to fast the Lent when you have not a legitimate excuse I say Apostolical command 2. And to prove this Verity I might alledg many testimonies of the ancient Fathers but becaus JEUS-CHRIST does say that we ought to give credit to two or three good Witnesses I will alledge the depositions of three or four of three parts of the world Africa Europe and Asia In Affrica Tertullian reports an
objection which the Catholicks de Ieiunio C. 1. 3. 13. cont Psychicos made against him who would have had them to keep three Lents the Apostles sayd they imposed no other Lent common to all then that in the time when CHRIST was taken from the Church his spouse by his death and Passion S. Hierome in Europe speaking of the Novelty of the Montanists says they observ'd three lents as if three Saviours had suffered but we observe but one of them according to the Tradition of the Apostles And the same holy Father writing to Marcella tels her the Ember dayes as well as the Lent were instituted by the Apostles In Asia S. Gregory of Nazianzen reprehending a Perfect named Epist 74 Celusius sayd to him you dispensing with your self from fasting do injury to the Lawes how will you keep humane lawes since you contemne divine 4. You wiâ—l not thinke the precept of fasting too severe if you consider the reasons which moved the Apostles to institute the Lent It was first to commemorate and honor the retreat and the penance of our Saviour in the desert to honor it I Rom. 8. 26. say by imitation according to our power For S. Paul says his servants must follow and imitate him to be one day with him In what must they follow and imitate him Not in preaching and in working miracles but in fasting or suffering for the love of him his Apostle declares it in these express words Let us shew that we are the Ministers or servants of God by our fasts our watchings our labors and other practises of 2. Cor. 6. 6. vertue Note in Fasts not in fasting once or twice a year as many do when they form some designe but many dayes as our Saviour hath given us example In the second place the Lent was instituted for the conversion of souls to purify our consciences from the ordure of sin by the practise of penance and by this sanctification to dispose us to receive worthily the Eucharist For the Prophet Ioel says fasting conduces much to a true conversion that it is one of the parts of penance convert your selves to me in fasting Ioel. 2. 14. The Lent is moreover fasted to make the anniversary funerall of our Saviours death But sorrow and funeralls are incompatible with good cheer for the holy Ghost distinguishes and opposes them to one another It is better says He to go to the house of mourning then to the house of banqueting 4. S. Paul tels us that many have their Belly for their God for this reason they are very eloquent and zealous to plead its cause they fight for their God with many arguments With some they would shew fasting to be superfluous or superstitious with others hurtfull or pernicious If you are predestinated will you not be saved say they without your fasting do you thinke God did expect your fasting to predestinate you Answer God did not expect our fasts but He foresaw them and other good workes for which He predestinated us to glory or this He did predestinate and this He does decree that by these means we shal obtaine that end not otherwise CHRIST fasted for you to deliver uou from this labor Why do you then afflict your selves in vain by fasting as if Christs fast did not suffice for your salvation without your little fasts Answer CHRIST also would be baptised and indeed for us not for himself and yet it follows not that I ought not to be baptized so though He fasted for me yet I ought to fast by his Example He suffered for us says S. Peter leaving us an example S. Peter 1. 2. Rom. 8. 17. that we may follow his footsteps and S. Paul if we suffer with Him we shal be also glorifyd with him Since you are resolv'd to fast why do you not chose rather to fast voluntarily than necessarily Have you not read in the Psalmist I will Sacrifice to you voluntarily Answer a fast commanded by the Church is better than that we take up by our own election for this proceeds out of one vertue to wit Temperance that from two Temperance and Obedience And if a commanded fast should proceed from obedience obly yet it would be so much better and more Excellent than the other how much the vertue of obedience is better than that of Temperance Obedience is I. Kings 15. 22. better than Victimes sayd Samuel to Saul And obedient Souls fast not as you suppose unvoluntarily with regret and sorrow but voluntarily with alacrity and gladness 5. The Epicurians and the Advocats of self love urge as they imagin yet more forcibly and to justify themselves make this remonstrance We must love our bodys as well as our souls for God created both and loves both and wills that we do love them But fasting and other austerities hinder sleep punish the body and weaken it prejudice health and shorten life and consequently by fasts and other austerities we act against the will of God the law of nature and are injurious to our selves Answer a fool according to his folly lest he seem to himself wise God Would have us to love our Body True but He wills us to love it truly and to love it truly is to procure it by the means of fasting prayer and other exercises of vertue true perfect and everlasting health What does it profit the flesh that You nourish it delicately if you nourish it for hell If you feed it so that it becoms the fuel of eternal fire would you not love it better if you curb it and afflict it here a little with hunger and with thirst to have it sound and glorious for all Eternity This is that which our Saviour says Qui amat animam suam perdet eam et qui odit in hoc mundo animam suam in vitam Eternam 1. Iohn 12. custodit eam He that loves this temporal life and therefore permits not his flesh to be molested nor afflicts it with fasting watching and other vertuous labors does not keep it to everlasting life Fasting hinders sleep I believe it and it was also instituted to hinder too much sleep that so you may have more time for prayer spiritual reading and other exercises of a Christian Fasting punishes and afflicts the body I doubt not of it if well practised And do you thinke it was instituted for other purpose than to punish it you will not then go to heaven if the way be not easy and pleasing to the flesh if it be not strew'd with flowers and sweet herbs And where then is the law of christianisme which is a law of mortification and of the Cross And what will becom of these words of our Saviour Strive to enter by the narrow gate You say fasting does prejudice health and shorten life The Church the Canon law good Phisitians and experience Quicqd Etc. legimus de Consecra dist 5. say quite the contrary the Church in the Collect of
body The spiritual is the union of grace with the soul And the civil is the union of a man with his neighbors and a good repute amongst them Now the detractor sometimes takes away the first life often the second and very frequently the third The first sometimes either by creating mortal enemies against the poor absent person or by representing him as dishonest and unfaithfull whereby he loses those employments without which he cannot nourish himself nor his The second often for soon or late the detracted person heares of the Detractor he conceives a hatred of him and resolves upon reveng ah he sometimes dyes in this disposition and with the Devills is damn'd for ever The third frequently for generally speaking detraction takes effect and deprives the detracted of the good opinion others have of him which is the cement of the commerce that is between them so the detractor takes away his civil life and obliges himself to restitutions and reparations both of the honor and good name and of all the expences dammages and interects caused by his detraction which will be very hardly made 8 To avoyd a vice so pernicious both to you and others follow the counsell of the holy Ghost Weigh your words in a just Eccl. 28. 29. ballance before you utter them Remembet that in the judgment of God they shall be all exactly weighed examined judged punished or recompenced we must render an account in judgment of a word which hurts not how much more of those which blacken our neighbor rob him of his honour and are the caus of so many enmities and dissentions Remember when you are in passion and quarelling with your neighbor That you utter not the Prov. 25. 8. things which your eyes have seen lest afterward you cannot amend it when you have dishonoured him says the sacred text And in effect a detractive word is soon let forth but not so soon recalled words have not handells to be pulled back again when they have eschaped but they have wings which makes them fly away irrevocably if you would repair the honor of your neighbor whither will you go to seek all those to whom you have spoken and all those who have spoken of it after you and if you find them how will you raze out of their minds the bad opinion of their neighbor which you have imprinted in them And yet 't is a thing absolutely necessary unless you go to the person whom you detracted and pray him to pardon you and to free you from the obligation of restoring But if he does not 't is a verity avowed by all Doctors that you stand oblig'd to repair his honor in defect whereof the Pope himself cannot absolve you Calumniate not nor detract then any person but have charity which as the Apostle says Covers a multitude of sins so you will enjoy quiet in your self and peace with others you will obtain the grace and favour of God in this world and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XL. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL AS Creation is attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son So sanctifieation of souls is attributed to the holy Ghost becaus 't is an effect of particular love and goodness The more usuall way He takes for this work is the administration of Sacraments which are the instrumental causes of his graces chanells and conduits of his benedictions Before we speak of each one in particular 't is good to treat of them in general and to consider what is common to all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace Wherefore I will put before your eyes their causes the nature and effects of them 1. Tâ—e Efficient Caus who instituted the Sacraments is IESVS lib. 4. c. 4. de SacrameÌ„t Trid. ss 7. can 1. CHRIST Who is the Authour of the Sacraments but IESVS our Lord these Sacraments came from heaven says S. Ambrose And the holy Ghost by the mouth of his Spouse assembled in the Councel of Trent If any one shal say that all the Sacraments of the new Law were not instituted by CHRIST our Lord let him be anathema IESVS hath given his Apostles and his Church commission to institute Feasts Fasts and the Ceremonies of the Office but the institution of Sacraments He reserv'd to himself 't is He alone that bâ—queathed them to the faithfull as the magasins of his merits chanells of his graces and authentick proofs of his Divinity Yes of his Divinity 2. For in the institution and administration of Sacraments IESUS shews that he is God since He exercises and makes appear divine perfections His Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Iustice and Providence 3. His Power They say usually in Philosophy that no creature however noble and eminent it may be can serve the Creator as an instrument to draw out of nothing another creature that a Seraphin cannot create no not instrumentally a drop of water or one only grain of sand Let them change now their tone and praise the power of IESVS CHRIST who makes use of common creatures to produce so excellent of material to to produce Spiritual of dead and inanimate creatures to create a divine life who makes use elements which are in the lowest order of nature to produce that which is most high and more excellent than all that is in nature who makes use of a little water to produce grace which is a participation of the life of God himself 4. He shews in this his Wisdom disposing of all things sweetly leading his creatures to their last End by means convenient and fitted to their nature If you had not bodys if you were as Angells S. Chryhom 60. ad Pop. Antioch separated from all corporeall matter God would give you his gifts purely spiritually and invisibly but becaus your souls are cloathed with terrestrial and materiall bodys God gives you his graces in material elements and in sensible signes 5. He exercises his Goodness for by the malediction thundred against the first man and his posterity corporeal creatures are Wisdom 4. becom to us temptations stumblingblocks and snares But by the Benediction of IESUS they are the matter of Sacraments conduits of his graces organs of our sanctification and instruments of our salvation 6. And whereas He is both mercifull and just in shewing us mercy he exercises his justice for man being by sin unjustly elevated against God who is infinitely above him he is justly punished and humbled seeing himself oblig'd to receive his salvation by corporal creatures which are so much below him 7. His Providence in sine herein does shine He foresaw that men are naturally inclin'd to an exterior worship and He provided Sacraments and Sacrifice which consist in exterior actions lest they should employ themselves in superstitions He sees that Vnity is necessary amongst his faithfull and to make them uniform in the exercise of Piety and divine service to unite them togeather in thâ— same Religion and the same Church He institutes exteriour actions
necessary to baptise an infant or the primitive Christians the holy Fathers nay or IESUS CHRIST himself who says so clearly and with such asseveration that it is necessary for him 7. From these Catholick Verities all married women ought to learn to have great care that their daughters and servants also know well all that is necessary for the essence of this sacrament and that they know well what I am about to say of it In case of necessity each one may baptize an infant also the Father or Mother in defect of another and if you will that the child be saved see what you must do You must take water not spittle aquavitae rosewater or any other made by art but natural water of fountaine sea river pit pond or well you must wet or wash the body of the infant with it the head if you can possibly and if you cannot wash the head you must put water upon the brest arme foot or upon some other naked part and the same persone that puts water must in putting it say distinctly with intention to purge him from original sin and to make him a member of the Church or at least to do what the Church does these words Infant I Baptise thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost But the Infant that should be perhaps baptized upon any other part than the head when the head appears you must baptise him again under condition saying Infant if thou art not baptized I baptise thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Becaus Baptisme that is given upon any other part 3. Part q. 66. ar 7. is not certen says S. Thomas And when you are not certen that the child is dead you ought to baptise him under condition and say If tbou art living I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost For as S Austin speaking of a Catechumen that fell into an Apoplexie having not demanded Baptisme says that he ought to be baptized becaus 't is better to put your self in danger of baptizing one unwilling than to be wanting to one willing So when you doubt if a child be living 't is better to put your self in danger of baptizing a dead child than not to baptize one living And becaus the life of these little creatures is sometimes so feeble and imperceptible that we thinke them wholy dead though a longtime after they give signes of life I say 't is good thar every woman should know all this for it happens sometimes that a woman falls into labour suddenly and unexpectedly and that the infant cannot be brought perfectly into the world alive or it is so weake that likely it will die before an ordinary Minister of this Sacrament can be had if those about her know not how to baptize the infant may be for want of this help depriv'd of Salvation and if this should happen but once in the whole world in a hundred years for to avoyd it every one should learn with great care how to apply this Sacrament so important is the salvation of a soul 8. And this again is of so great importance that very learned and pious Bishops and other Divines have counselled all Curates to baptise under condition all infants that had been baptized by women for though some know well the matter and the form of Baptisme they are nevertheless so surprized and in such a hurrie in these conjunctures that often they know not what they do and this is not only the judgment of those Bishops but Opus 65. parag vlt de Officio Sacerd. the express opinion of S. Thomas 9. In fine married women ought to learn that they are most culpable in the sight of God if their infant die before Baptisme becaus they defer it too long expecting Gossips or for other humane reasons or considerations or becaus they hurt themselves and lie down before their time if this happen with out your fault you may comfort your selves in your innocencie and adore the Providence of God but if you have hurt your selves by your fault leaping dansing putting your selves into great passion or by carrying too heavy burdens 't is an evill which hath no excuse and which deserves to be deplor'd all the rest of your life 10. But if it be so great a misfortune to those poor infantâ— not to receive the grace of Baptisme though without their fault It is no smal misery to lose it after we have receiv'd it and to lose it by our fault for a passion or a trifle especially since it is so hard to returne again by penance to the same newness in CHRIST and to obtain so full and entire remission of all sins as in Baptisme we receiv'd The justice of God exacts to this effect a second Baptisme a Baptisme not of elementary water but of teares a laborious painfull and sorrowfull Baptisme say the holy Fathers and the Council of Trent For sins commited after Baptisme are far greater more enormous and unworthy of pardon ss 14. c. 2 than the sins of infidells Christians that shal be damn'd will be more tormented in hell than Pagans they have the knowlegd of God they know or ought to know his holy will and his divine Commandements how great an evill it is to transgress them and to offend so high and so excellent a Majesty The Servant that knows the will of his Master and does it not shall be beaten Luk. 12. 47. with many stripes says IESVS CHRIST We are not strangers but domesticks of God his children and beloved We have the honor to be received to his table to eate of his bread and to be nourished with his flesh if then we offend him after so many favours he is very sensible of the offence it is a monstrous ingratitude as when one of your own betrays you you are wont to say if it were another it would not trouble me but such an one who pertains to me so neerly whom I have so much oblig'd ha this does pierce my heart so IESUS says si inimicus meus maledixisset mihi sustinuissem utique if a Turk a Iew a Pagan who is my enemy offend me the injury is not so sensible But you a Christian who have contracted amitle with me who have set at my table how have you the malice to commit sin which disobliges me extreamly we have receiv'd the grace of God by Baptisme the gifts of the holy Ghost the supernatural habits helps to overcom temptations if we sin notwithstanding these favours we have much less excuse Do not so if you be wise If you have yet baptismal grace If you are cloathed with this fine garment which S. Austin calls the Robe of silk with this robe of innocencie which is given you in Baptisme keep it carefully persever and walk in it til death for t is more honourable more pleasant more easie and
receive Baptisme The Councell of Trent assures us that penance hath been in all times necessary to obtain pardon of sins And this is so certen that Divines conclude that a Martyr a man that goes to suffer death for the Faith of IESUS CHRIST if he remember that he is in mortal sin is oblig'd to make a formal and express Act of penance and that in defect of it his Martyrdom will avail him nothing With more reason this formal act of penance is absolutely necessary to receive absolution For the councills declare that the Acts of the Penitent are the matter of this Sacrament without which the Sacrament subsists not and is null and amongst these acts the first the principal and most essential is repentance And hence it coms that 't is a great Sin and Sacriledg to confess without sorrow though you have but venial sins it would be much better if you have no other to say our Lords prayer and to communicate without confession than to confess without repentance 3. Now since it is not so easy to have in your heart true sorrow and regret for daily defects and a sincere and effective purpose to amend these venial sins take this counsell worthy to be put in practise if you have but these lesser sins add to the end of your confession some great sin of your past life for which you have more sorrow and repentance in this case the absolution will fall upon that sin not upon the venial sins of which you have no sorrow or true purpose of amendment 4. Secondly the Councell of Trent does teach us that this imperfect sorrow which is called Attrition ought to be supernatural it must be a gift of God and a motion of rhe holy Ghost And in the first Canon of the sixt session they pronounce Anathema against all that shal dare say a man without the prevening inspira ration of the holy Ghost can believe hope love and repent as be ought to receive the grace of justification 5. This Doctrine condemnes the practise of those Who use great diligence in examining their conscience but little or none in procuring covenient sorrow That is good and necessary but This is the more important if you fail in that a little a good confessor may supply by asking and examining you but if you have not this none can give it you it belongs to God only to bestow it on you and you ought to employ time care affection and fervour to obtaine it 6. In the third place the Council declares that supernatural Attrition ss 14. c. 4. leaves us in the state of sin if it be not actually followed by the absolution of a Priest If you are surprized by the Article of death in the state of mortal sin having Attrition only it avails you nothing to use all diligence to have one if in effect he coms not and absolves you dying you are lost doubt not of it for 't is on Article of Faith You will say God never obliges to a thing impossible shal I be damn'd for want of absolution since it was not my fault having used all possible means to have it I answer you shal not be damn'd for any sin you commit in that you are depriv'd of absolution but you shal be for the precedent sin of which you cannot have a remedy but by perfect Contrition or by Attrition with absolution And this is not only the doctrine of the Councel of Trent and present Church it was the beliefe of the primitive Christians as may be seen in the 180. Epistle of S Augustin 7. But to receive this necessary Absolution and cure from your spiritual Physician you must open your infirmity to him when you have lanced your heart with sharp Contrition or Attrition you must make all the corruption of mortal sins issue out of it by an entire Confession 8. Some say 'T is not necessary to confess all to a Sinner 't is impossible to declare this sin but I will have true repentance of it give alms and do great penances and God will pardon me Deceive not your selves God will not be a lyar to be mercifull S. Iohn 22. to you He sayd to Priests whose sins you shal remit are remitted And whose you shal retaine are retained The sins which you know you have committed and declare not to a Priest are not remitted by him and if he remits them not they are retained and God will never pardon them This hath ever been the sense of the Vniversal Church She always vnderstood that in those words of JESUS CHRIST which containe the institution of this Sacrament was instituted also and commanded an entire confession of mortal sins as the Councell of Trent declared Wherefore S. Austin preaching to sinners sayd flatter not your selves ss 14. c. 5 S. Aug. hom 49. ex 50. Say not I confess in my heart I confess to God this is not enough for so in vain the Son of God would have sayd to Priests All that you shal vnbind on earth shal be unbound in heaven And in effect who would go to Priests if by confessing to God alone they could obtain remission And again Be thou sorrowfull before Confession Confess let all the matter and putrefaction run out in Confession now exult and rejoyce that which remaines will easily be heald 9. By this we may understand why so many confess and so few are amended why so many receive this Sacrament and so few profit by it One great reason is that many make not a true perfect and entire Confession This defect hinders the operation of so great a Caus and makes the Sacrament invalid or unprofitable It happens either through negligence ignorance or shame 8. First through negligence They examin and Confess only the actions which they have don and not those which they ought to do and have not don they confess the sins of their persone and not those of their condition sins which they committed and not those which others committed by their occasion 9. Secondly through Ignorance For they must not think to be excused saying I have not confest such sins becaus I thought not to do ill if you omit any sin through gross ignocance or through culpable blindness God says to you in the scripture If you know not you shal not be known Becaus thou hast 1. Cor. 14. 38. Osee 4. 6. repelled knowledg I will repell thee If this ignorance or blindness be in you becaus you pray not God enough to enlighten you and make you know what displeases him or becaus you have thrust your self into an office of which you are uncapable or becaus you hear not sermons nor read good books which may instruct you nor desire that any one should tell you your faults you are not excused in the sight of God for not confessing them 10. Thirdly through shame which makes us to conceal voluntarily some sin most perniciously and criminally This want of integrity is pernicious since
the Wise-man says He that hides Prov. 28. 13. his sin cannot be corrected nor directed in the way of Salvation How can a Physician cure an infirmity hidden and unknown and how can the infirme be directed in the way of health when he hath not yet begun the way For the beginning of a good life is a confession of the evill says S. Austin It is likewise most criminal for 't is not only in its self a great crime but makes you to commit many other Sacriledges afterward in Confessions Sacriledges in communions and sins upon sins which will cast you into despair and into the mouth of hell But if you submit to the humiliation and shame which you have merited and confess entirely you rejoyce the the Angells and your Confessours with them you please the Son of God who desires nothing more than to pardon those who being penitent confess perfectly their sins 11. Let us com to Satisfaction which is the third part of penance and necessary to satisfy the justice of God and to compleat the cure of our souls For true penance is not that which the Calvinists do say perfect penance is not only that which many Catholicks do think Calvinists say that to do penance is to leave sinning and to amend ones life This is necessary but it suffices not many Catholicks thinke to do penance is to be sorrowfull for sins to confess them to a Priest receive absolution and to say a few prayers All this is necessary but 't is not enough To do entire and perfect Penance which appeases God averts his anger regains his favours and delivers us from the dreadfull effects of sin we must satisfy the justice of God by humble and fervent prayers by austerities and painfull works according to the multitude enormity and diversity of our offences For as often as the holy scripture speaks of penance it makes mention of works which afflict the flesh mortify sensuality and which are contrary to self love In Ioel Convert your selves to me in fasting and in weeping and in Ioel. 2. 12. Matt. 11. 2. Cor. 7. 11. S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom ult C. ult mourning In S. Matthew If in Tyre and Sydon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you they had don penance in haire-cloth and in ashes long ago And S. Paul says The sorrow which is according to God workes in us reveng by which we punish sin in our own selves Wherefore S. Austin tells us That 't is not enough to change the evill life into a better and to depart from past sins if we do not satisfy God by the regrets of penance by humble groanes by fasts and by Alms. 12. The primitive Christians were so firmly perswaded of this Verity that to avoyd the Vengeance of God and to satisfy his Iustice they willingly submitted to publick Penance in which they endured so many humiliations mortifications and confusions that it would seem incredible were it not attested by so great authority that we may not doubt of it 13. I know well that those rigorous observances are not now in use nevertheless they shew what was the sentiment of those great Saints who were the Disciples of the Apostles or the Disciples of their Disciples who had the spirit of God who read the Scriptures day and night who propagated the Church and watered it with their sweat and bood Those observances make known that 't is not so easy to appease God and to obtain full pardon as we imagin and that we we must employ ordinarily more than one hour one day or week to regaine his ancient favours and what we lost by sin 14. And to know that the present Church retaines the Spirit of the primitive read the Councill of Trent and you will see the Fathers Ss. 24 de Refor c. 8. order publick penance to be imposed for publick crimes if the Bishops dispence not with it And in the 14th ss chap. 8. they declare to Priests if through timerousness or too much condescendence and humane respects they give little penance for great crimes they make themselves partakers of the sins of others See if we are not in great danger and if we have not great reason to fear that we shal fall into the dreadfull hands of God What quarrells what drunkennesses what scandals are committed daily And what great penances are imposed for so many so great and enormous Crimes 15. But behold a doctrine of great Consolation which the Council of Trent does teach us 'T is that we may Satisfy the divine justice not only by the penances which the Confessor imposes Ss. 14. C. 9 not only by the prayers fasts alms austerities and mortifications which we assume voluntarily of our selves but moreover by all the humiliations and aflictions that befall us if we receive them as we ought When then God vouchsafes to send you Crosses and afflictions receive them not only with patience and resignation but with ioy and thankfullness kiss the hand that chastises you and adore the Justice that punishes you in this world to spare you in the other Say with the Prophet Micheas Iram Domini portabo quoniam peccavi ei I will suffer the anger of God Micheas C. 7. 9. I will endure willingly this affliction I will pardon them that afflict me for the love of God and for penance for my sins since I have been So rash as to offend Him 16. Let us conclude this Discourâ— with the words of the beloved Disciple Haec Scribo vobis ut non peccetis Be very carefull that you offend not God 't is the greatest evill that can befall you as often as you consent to a mortal sin you put your self in danger of damnation for you may die in this state without absolution You imagin that in this occasion you are secure of your salvation provided that you have time to say my God I aske you pardon you deceive your self for if you cannot have a Priest you must necessarily have perfect contrition and this is most hard and rare And if you have a Priest it helps you nothing without Attrition and you cannot have Attrition of your self 't is necessary that God do give it you by his powerfull grace and He owes you not this grace you have demerited it by your sin He hath not promised it to you and hath refused it to many But if by humane frailty you have sinned and averted your self from God beg instantly and humbly his grace through the merits of JESUS CHRIST to returne to Him by a true Conversion Returne by true sorrow for having offended a most adorable most amiable and most dreadfull Majesty Returne by an humble sincere and entire confession Returne by a satisfaction of Prayers Fasts and Alms you will be delivered from a most dangerous malady from a most infamous servitude from the sentence of eternal death You will recover sanctifying grace the gifts of the holy Ghost the merits of your
friends who may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS L. Of Holy Orders HItherto we have treated of Sacraments which were instituted to sanctify men in particular now we speak of the Sacrament of Order instituted for the General good publick Order Government and Ministery of the Church And becaus Dissenters deny it to be a Sacrament we will shew in the first place that 't is a true one Secondly we will consider what this sacred Signe does signify and in the third place the Documents we ought to draw from thence for the glory of God the Salvation of our Souls and the guidance of our lives 1. A Sacrament is an exteriour and sensible signe by which grace of the holy Ghost is given him that receives it worthily Now the Apostle S. Paul and after him the general Councell of Calcedon say expressly that grace of the holy Ghost is conferr'd in Ordination by imposition of hands Neglect not the grace that is in 1. Tim. 4. 14. 2. Tim. 1. 6. Concil calced an 451. Act. 1 5. can 2 thee which is given thee by Prophecie with imposition of the hands of Priesthood I admonish thee that thou resussitate the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands Hence the Councells and ancient Fathers have always acknowledged Ordination for a true and proper Sacrament and therefore in the general Councell of Florence this is numbred with them both Grecians and Latins approving it I might Fill pages with Citations of the holy Fathers But this of great S Austine will suffice He in his second book against the Epistle of Parmenean proves against the Donatists that the Sacrament of Order cannot be lost becaus Baptisme cannot Let them Explicate says He how the Sacrament of the the Baptized cannot be lost and the Sacrament of the Orderer may be For if both of them be Sacraments of which nobody doubts why cannot that be lost if this may be Here he calls Orders a Sacrament He shews it to be a proper and true one by comparing it whith Baptisme He assures us that nobody doubted of this Verity and if S. Austin may be credited not only all the Writers of his time but also all the Faithfull did believe the same 2. This external and sacred signe expresses two singular favours which Ecclesiasticks receive from God in their consecration The first is the highest dignity in the World For to a Priest is given Power over the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST to consectate and offer and distribute it and over his myistical Body which is the Church to remit sins administer Sacraments and to do the sacred functions of the characters imprinted in him A Power so much more excellent eminent and higher than other Dignities as the Spirit than the Body Heaven than Earth Divine things than humane and as Eternal than temporal S. Paul says 't is certaine by the consent of all the world Heb. 7. 4. that he who hath right to give his Benediction to another is more noble and high than he sine ulla contradictione quod minus est a meliore benedicitur But a Priest gives his Benediction to Princes Kings and Emperours his Dignity then is more high S. Chrysostome exhorting Priests to refuse Absolution and Communion S. Chry. Hom. 3. in Matt. Hom. ad 60. pop Antioch to all that are unworthy though they be Princes or Kings says to them you ought to do it and you can do it you ought to do it otherwise IESUS CHRIST will exact of you an account of his Blood and will punish you most terribly You can do it for your Power is greater than that of Princes of this world If you suspect the Testimony of this Saint becaus he was a Prelate of the Church hear the Prince of the world The Emperor Basil in an oration he made to his people in the eighth general Baron An 869. nn 55. Councell It belongs not to us Laymen to medle with the things of the Church it belongs to Priests and Prelats who have power to sanctify us to open heaven to us and shut it against us to bind us or els to to absolve us Our condition is to be fed as sheep to be sanctifyd conducted and unbound You will not thinke the words of these Great men strange or that they exagerate the Greatness of Priestly Power if you consider that it surpasses the spiritual Power as well as the temporal divine as well as humane For popes who excell in Authority and Grandeure if considered not as as Priests are less in Power than these For the Power of Priests extends upon the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST and that of Popes upon his mystical Body only which is his Church and therefore as much as his natural Body exceeds his mystical so much the Priestly Power surmounts the Papal S. John Baptist who surpassed all men who was the greatest that had risen among the sons of women for his sanctity Yet was less in Power than the least Priest of the Church He shewed with his fingar IESUS CHRIST But Priests produce Him in their hands and give Him for nourishment to others He only diposed the people to penance and Priests absolve them from their sins The Angells who though they can do great things upon creatures of the world they cannot put Christ at their Will upon the Altar but are content to adore love and admire Him there And Priests by vertue of their character have this Power and can offer Him in an unbloody Sacrifice for the salvation of the Living and the Dead 3. This Power of Priests being so great God out of his goodness adds in their ordination another favour to it He whose workes are perfect giving power gives likewise those things that are requisite for the legitimate and convenient use of it He replenishes Priests with abundant grace to make them worthy of their Character to exercise well the functions of it and to rendet them capable to sanctify the faithfull Noli negligere gratiam quae data est tibi per impositionem manuum Presbiterij Idoneos nos fecit Ministros 4. These particular favours which IESUS does to Priests admonish us of the Honour we are oblig'd to render them Honour God with all thy soul and honour Priests says Ecclesiasticus And S. Paul Priests that do well their duty deserve double honor 'T is by them says S. Hierome that we are converted and made Christians by them we are received into the Church by them we are delivered from our sins we reenter into the grace and favour of God by them we receive his blessings enjoy the precious Body of IESUS and offer to God the dreadfull sacrifice by them in fine the Sacraments are administred and the imperial heaven is opened to us We must not neglect them who are the Judges of Kings in the process of eternity them who the Prophet Malachy says are the Angells of our Lord. Malac 2.
7. Exod. 22. 28. Them whom God himself calls Gods becaus they are his Vice-Roys Officers of his Crown His Ministers of state Secretaries of his commandements Iudges of his people Embassadors of his Majesty Mediators between God and men who announce the will of God to men and who present the desires of men to God We respect Embassadors also those of barbarous and infidell Kings with much more reason those which the king of Kings does send to us sayd S. Chrysostome 5. To create in our hearts a great respect to Priests Some alleadg the example of wise Salomon who sayd to Abiather the Priest you are guilty of death but I will not condemne you becaus you have carried the Arke Or the Example of Constantine the Great who in the Councel of Nice would not sit down but after all the Bishops and upon a little seat below them all And when one presented to him papers of complaints against some Priests he burnt them without reading them and being angry with the persone that gave them to him sayd it belongs to Priests to judg Emperours and not to Emperours to judg and condemn Priests and should I see a Priest commit a sin I would cover him with my Royal cloak for fear that any one should see him Other propose the example of S. Antony This great Saint this Patriarke of so many thousands of Anchorets that lived like Angells This great Antony of whose amity Emperours made so great account This Antony whome wild beasts obeyed at whose Name Devills trembled whose life converted so many Souls to God This great S. Antony I say honoured so much Priests that if he met the least of them he fell upon his knees and rose not up till he had received his benediction Or of the Seraphicall Father S. Francis who sayd that if he should meet an Angel and a Priest he would rather kiss the hands of the Priest than of the Angel Or of S. Catherine of Sienna who kissed the wayes and paths in which Priests had past 6. Is it not pity to see now that some Christians neglect them or contemne them under pretence that some of them are vicious If it be so does it pertain to them to speak of their vices are they judges of their Judges are they wiser than Salomon greater than Constantine more devout than S. Antony more fervent than S. Francis more innocent than S. Catherine and more zealous of the honor of God than God himself Who sayd by his Prophet Touch not my annointed Psal 104. 15. 7. Let us take heed Venerable Priests and honourable Fathers that we be not the cause or at least the occasion of this temerity that by our indevotions and immodesties by our irreverence in the Chruch and our conversations with the world we be not the cause of the little respect now given to our character and vocation How is the gold darkned and the best coulour changed says the Prophet Hieremie What 's becom of that splendour that luster Thren 4. and glory which heretofore shin'd in Clergiemen of that honor respect reverence and filial fear which they had for Ptiests in the primitive Church How is all this so decayed and obscured T is becaus then they saw not Priests but at the Altar in the Confessional or in the pulpit and now they are seen in Taverns in playhouses and in worldly companies IESUS says to us you are the light of the world we must shine so then that men may see our good workes and may be moved to glorify our Father which is in heaven But if our light be darkness if we falsify by our actions Christs Doctrine and maxims this ill example of one of us will ruine more the piety of the Faithfull than many other by their doctrine and good examples will be able to repair You are the salt of the earth salt is drawn out of water but if it be reunited to it it disolves and loses the propriety it had to prevent corruption a Priest is seperated from the people by his consecration if he rejoyn himself to them by a worldly conversation he loses the authority which he had to preserve them from the corruption of sin We are judges of others we must not be criminall God will examin us more axactly judg us more severely and punish us more rigorously SAVIOR IESUS high Priest and Pastor of our sols permit not that we give you caus to do it permit not that it may be truly sayd as the people so the Priest you are our inheritance our Lot and our Portion permit not that our inheritance pertain to others more than to us Make that our mouthes be not employed but to resound your praises that our comportment and our manners do express and represent your actions that our hearts be not enflam'd but in your love Amen DISCOVRS LI. of Matrimony 1. THe Mistery of the Incarnation is an alliance so advantagious and pleasing to the holy Humanity of IESUS that He would have not only in Churches but also in particular houses a continual image and a lively representation of it This is the legitimate alliance of man and woman of which I have three things to shew First that 't is a true and a great Sacrament secondly the Dutys to which it does oblige you Thirdly the honour you owe to it 2. If we weigh holy things not by the ballance of the opinion of Dissenters But By the weight of the sanctuary and by the judgment of the Church We shal avow that the legitimate Edhes 5. 32. S. Ambr. c. 7. S. Aug. de bono conjug c. 18. c. 24. alliance of man and woman is one of the most holy great and mysterious Sacraments of the Church 'T is a true Sacrament For besydes that the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Ephesians This is a great Sacrament the Fathers of the Church teach it S. Ambrose speaking of an Adulterer says he loses the grace of the heavenly Sacrament S. Austin tels us in the marriages of Christians the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more value than the fâ—cundity of the womb And againe amongst infidells marriage hath for its end propagation and fidelity but amongst Christians it hath moreover the sanctity of the Sacrament Not only these but other holy Fathers the Councills and the Tradition of the Vniversal Church ever taught the same hence it was that in the Instruction of the Armenians given in the Council of Florence it is numbred with the other Sacraments Trid. ss 24. can 1. hoth Grecians and Latins consenting to it And that the Councill of Trent pronounces anathema against those that shal say marriage is not a proper Sacrament instituted by IESVS CHRIST 3. Let us say then that 't is a true Sacrament nay let us say that 't is a Great one Great in its Caus Great in its Mater and Great in its Effects S. Austin very indiciously did say that as in the primitive Church the holy
Ghost descended visibly upon those that were confirm'd so JESUS assisted visibly in the marriage in Cana to make kown that He is always invisibly in the marriage of the Faithfull 'T is He that gives your wife to you 'T is He that gives your husband to you 'T is He that ioyns and associates you together This is not an airy conceit 't is a certen Verity since the Scripture teaches it in saying That which God hath ioyn'd let not man seperate Matt. 19. 6. 4. The Matter of this Sacrament is not a little water oyle balme or other inanimâ—te creature 'T is your Bodies sanctifyd by Baptisme and consecrated in Confirmation your Bodys the Members of JESUS CHRIST Temples of the holy Ghost are employd to make this Great Sacrament 5. In fine 't is Great in its Effects It conferrs very great graces and in great number if it be received worthily with the dipositions and sentiment of piety that it deserves The ancient Israelites had the liberty to repudiate their wives if they did not please them Poligamy was permitted them they had sacrifice and the water of Iealosy to try the fidelity of their wives All these things having not been tollerated but by condescendence to that rude people IESUS CHRIST abrogated them and in this rendred marriage much more burdensome and aggravated the yoke Now since his Law is a Law of grace and sweetness since He says his yoke is sweet and his burden light it concern'd Him to recompence and ease married Christians by the abundant graces which He gives them in this Sacrament Yes in vertue of this Sacrament God gives you in the rest of your daies in divers occasions most great and powerfull graces if you put no obstacle to resist temptations to conduct well your family to bring up your children in the fear of God to endure patiently each others imperfections and to support the other burdens and inconveniences of marriage and they depriue themselves of all these graces who marry in an ill state in the state of mortal sin 6. This Sacrament being a symbole and a representation of the marriage of Iesus with his Church must imitate and express it In consequence to the alliance of JESVS with his Church there is betwixt them mutual tradition and communication of Bodys of Spirit and of Fortune IESUS as the Espouse of the Church gives her his precious Body and takes ours He ioyns them to His and makes of them his Members The Calvinists say that IESUS CHRIST is not in the Eucharist they say true He is not in their Eucharist He gives not his body to their pretended Church He delivers not his precious flesh to any other but his Spouse 'T is only the Romane Church 't is this true and legitimate Spouse 't is this only one and well beloved that enioys this Priviledg infallibly only and perpetually 7. The Lawyer sayd and it is true that a wife ought to lege adversus Cod. de crimine explicatae hered enter into society with her husband not only in humane things but moreover in divine socia rei humanae divinae And IESUS contents not himself to give his humane body to the Church but gives his divine Spirit the holy Ghost and you know that the holy Ghost is love and charity by the propriety of his Persone and by the condition of his emanation S. Paul then hath reason to say Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and delivered himself for it that He might Sanctify it A husband then must love his wife as JESUS loves his Church with a sincere and cordial love speaking to her with an open heart communicating to her his designes associating her in his enterprizes as IESUS hath revealed to his Church all that Ho received from his Father and associated her to all his operations also to the production of grace A wife must love and also reverence or honor as the Apostle says her husband as the Church loves and honours IESUS CHRIST she must love and Ephes. 25 honor the parents and friends of her husband as the Church loves and honours the Virgin Mother of her Espouse S. Iames and other Saints his friends Husband and Wife must love mutually one another with a true and pure love not with an inordinate sensuall or worldly love as they do who procure each other what is honourable or profitable upon earth though with eminent danger of losing heaven who espouse the passions reveng the quarrells please the senses and satisfy the foolish and inordinate inclinations of each other to the great prejudice of their souls and their Salvation 8. Christ loved not so his Church He loved not so his Mother his Apostles Martyrs Confessors and other friends but loved them in order to everlasting life Wherefore if you will love well love as Christ hath loved us love in order to everlasting life cut off occasions of sin seek occasions to do each other good to make one another vertuous and procure by prayers exhortations and good examples the salvation of each other 9. S. Paul desires that the man be so holy and give so good example to his wife that he convert her if she be an infidell and that the wife in like manner by her holy conversation do sanctify her husband though he should be a pagan and idolater 1. Cor. 7. 14. This will never be don by dunning him with complaints reproaches invectives or with other outcryes but as S. Monica converted her husband enduring patiently his injuries supporting his inperfections never answering him when he was in anger speaking to him of God more by her good example than by her words shewing him to the end a sincere faithfull and constant love 10. IESUS CHRIST sayd to the persecutors of his Church why do you persecute me so much He participates in the afflictions of his Church The Church partakes also in the sufferances of IESUS she is sorrowfull afflicted mortifyd when she considers Him in his Death and Passion so all ought to be common amongst married persons good things and bad joy and sorrow pleasure and displeasure and this will much conduce to the honor of so great a Sacrament which S. Paul says is worthy of all respect 11. Honorabile Connubium in omnibus Marriage honourable in all This is not to say among all men as Dissenters translate Els Heb. 13. 4. the marriage of a Brother with his Sister would be honourable and that of those who have vowed continence to whom the same Apostle says 't is damnable But in all things that is in all its Parts Circumstances and Appurtenances Honor it in the intention you have to marry for if it be bad and vicious all the sequel will be corrupted will you know why God is not in the marriage of many T is becaus they married not for the love of him they married for carnal or fond love for sensuall pleasure through ambition to have this man who