in that of Isaac it was obliged to separate the Priest from the Victime and to arm the hands of the Father to immolate his only Son In the mean time Jesus Christ unites them in his person and in this adorable Sacrifice which he offers to his Father whether on the Cross or on the Altar he is both the Priest that consecrateth and the Victime that is immolated Inasmuch as Jesus Christ saith Saint Augustine is our God and our Temple he is also our Sacrifice and our Priest He is the Priest that reconciles us he is the Sacrifice whereby we are reconciled and the same Doctor admiring the novelties of the sacrifice of the Cross expresseth his wonder by these words The Altar of the Sacrifice is new because the Immolation is new and admirable For he that is the Sacrifice is the Priest the Sacrifice according to the Flesh the Priest according to the Spirit and both according to his Humanity He that offereth and he that is offered is one and the same person and these qualities which have so little analogy are found united in the sacrifice of the Cross Inasmuch as the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ and this glorious title obligeth him to transcribe his original he ought to sacrifice himself as he did and to be both the Priest and the Oblation together Indeed if we descend into the Mysteries of our Religion and consider with the eye of Faith what we are not able to discover with the light of reason we shall find that we are immolated upon the Altar with the Son of God and that after his example we are both the sacrificers and the sacrifice For Jesus Christ is not offered all alone in our Temples he is immolated by the hands of the Priests and at the same time that he offers his natural body to his Father he offers also his mystical body so that offering himself to his Father by his Church and offering his Church together with himself he teacheth all the Faithful to joyn the quality of Priests with that of Victimes This is it that Saint Augustine informs us of in his Book De Civitate Dei Per hoc sacerdos est ipse offerens ipse oblatio cujus rei Sacramentum quotidianū esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificiū quae cum ipsius capitis corpus sit seipsam per ipsū discit offerre Aug. lib. 10. de Civit. ca. 6. where searching into our mysteries he finds that the Church offers her self with her Beloved upon our Altars and that in the same sacrifice she is both Priestess and Oblation His words are too elegant to be omitted neither must it be a less Doctor then he that must appear that Protector of so important a Verity 'T is particularly saith he in unity that the sacrifice of Christians consists where being many in number we make up but one body with Jesus Christ this is it that the Church daily does in this Sacrament which is so well known to the Faithfull wherein is demonstrated that in the Oblation she offers she her self is offered that after the example of her Beloved she may be in the same sacrifice Priestess and Victime From this passage may easily be inferred that the Faithful are offered with Christ upon the Altar that the Host that contains him is large enough to contain all his members and that his mysticall body being immolated with his natural body he obligeth all Christians to associate as he doth the quality of Victime with that of a Priest But if leaving the Altar we consider the Faithful in the course of their life we shall see there is none but ought to sacrifice himself and who either in his body or in his soul may not find Victimes to offer to God There is no more need of providing Buls or Goats with the Jews to lay upon our Altars The time of the Mosaical Law is past truths have succeeded figures and if we rightly understand the secret of our mysteries Noli extrinsecus thura comparare sed dic In me sunt Deus vota tua noli extrinsecus pecus quod mactes inquirere habes in te quod occidas Aug. in Psal 51. it becomes us to offer those things these Animals represent We have whereof to sacrifice within our selves there is not any passion in our soul nor part in our body whereof we may not make an innocent Victime Indeed Christian Religion converting the sinner into a sacrifice obligeth him to immolate to God all that he is He is deficient in the lawfullest of his duties if his whole life be not a sacrifice and being compounded of soul and body he ought to sacrifice both that he may have the honour to be a perfect Holocaust The vertues are auxiliaries which facilitate these means and it seems these glorious habits are given us for no other end then to teach us to sacrifice to God all the faculties of our soul Inasmuch as the will is the noblest and this Soveraign being once perfectly gained over to God gives him an absolute dominion over all the rest there are some vertues which have no other employment but to be made victimes Sorrow which discovers to man the excess of his crime labours to convert him it bruiseth his heart by the violence of a holy contrition and if it cannot draw bloud from this sacrifice it draws tears which are more acceptable to God then the bloud of beasts This made David say that the spirit broken and afflicted was a true sacrifice and that he who sometimes refuseth Goats and Lambs never despiseth a heart that Repentance and Humility offers up unto him Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus Obedience comes in to the succour of grief this beats down the pride of the will masters that imperious faculty and changing her triumph into a sacrifice obligeth her to die to her own inclinations that she may live to those of the Grace of Jesus Christ But love happily finisheth this design he burns the victime with his flames to render it an Holocaust and finding the means to put to death an immortall power teacheth us that a pure spirit may offer sacrifices to God For there is no lover but knows that love imitates death that he commits innocent murders and by stratagems which himself is only privy to makes sin die in us that Grace may live If the will become a Victim by means of Charity the understanding is offered up to God by the intervening of faith This vertue subjects it to her Empire perswades truths she explicates not she obligeth a man to suspend his judgement to renounce his reason and to give his senses the lye she engageth him to offer as many sacrifices as she propounds mysteries and by a power which would seem tyrannical were it not legitimate forbids him the use of reasoning in matters of religion The memory after the example of the understanding is immolated to God by remembrance and forgetfulness These two
among men the meat he eat assimilated into his substance every part took what was needfull for it and whilest his hands that were to work so many miracles were strengthned his legs that were to bear him over all Palestine were alike fixed and consolidated 'T is so with his Mysticall Body the parts that compose it grow according to their employments they take their bulk and nourishment from his Word and from his Grace nothing remains uselesse in that great Body every particular hastens to perfection and in the difference of conditions all the members receive their growth and dimension This is it that the Apostle had a minde to acquaint us with by those words which being well understood will greatly serve to the clearing of this mystery Speaking the truth in love let us grow in him thorough all things who is the Head Christ From whence we learn that we grow not in our selves but as much as we grow in Jesus Christ and that 't is from the union we contract with him that our greatnesse and perfection is derived Both these Bodies were a Sacrifice to God assoon as Iesus Christ was Incarnate he immolated himself to his Father in the Womb of his Mother he made it appear by the thoughts of his heart that he respects his body as a Holocaust and he testifieth by the language of his Prophets reported by his Apostles that he was cloathed with our flesh only to make an oblation of it Sacrifice wouldest thou not but a body hast thou prepared me His design is to supply the unprofitablenesse of the Law to offer to his Father a Victime well-pleasing to him and meritorious for us that finding our salvation in his losse we might be reconciled to God by his Death Id Sacrificium succedit omnibus illis sacrificiis veteris Testamenti quae immolabantur in umbra futuri propter quod dicit OblationeÌ„ noluisti corpus autem aptasti mihi quia pro illis omnibus sacrificiis oblationibus corpus ejus offertur participantibus ministratur Aug. lib. 16. de Civ Dei His mother who was as well acquainted with his designes offered him in the Temple in that Spirit and Simeon answering her thought speaks to her onely of her sorrows A Sword shall passe thorow thy Soul Iesus Christ exhibited himself as a Sacrifice during his life he entertains his Disciples with this Discourse and testifies he was not at rest till he should be offered up for an oblation He finished in the arms of the Crosse what he had begun in the Womb of his Mother he was immolated to his Father by the hands of the Executioners he made their fury serviceable to his piety and of a Gibbet erected an Altar of a Sacriledge a Sacrifice of a Patient a Holocaust he fully satisfied the Iustice of his Father Thus his Mysticall Body is a Victime which he daily offers for the glory of the same Father He will have every beleever immolated that the members imitating their Head may have the honour to lose their life in the holy severity of an acceptable sacrifice Therefore doth Saint Paul so often invite us to discharge this duty he speaks to us of nothing but Oblations and Altars he exhorts us to offer our selves to God in a sweet smelling savour and he would have us looking upon our selves as reasonable and living sacrifices our whole life should be but one continued Oblation Saint Augustine treading in the steps of his Master teacheth us the same Truth and far differing from their judgement who would mingle Roses with Thorns in Christianity tels us that the life of the Faithfull if it be ordered according to the Maximes of the Gospel is but a languishing and a painfull Martyrdome This Circumstance discovers another and the Sacrifice of these two Bodies leads me insensibly to their persecution For the Natural Body of the Son of God was not exempted from sorrow because innocent his Trials began with his Life he had Enemies assoon as he had Subjects and if he saw Kings at his Cradle paying their Homages Positus est in signum cui contradicetur Luc. 2. he saw others conspiring his Death He was forced to commit his Safety to his Flight to seek an Asylum in Egypt and to passe his minority in a Countrey where his people spent the years of their Infancy the continuance of his life was not much different from his beginning hee lived not in security but whilest he lived unknown hee purchased his quiet with the losse of his Glory nor did he see himself without Enemies but during the time he got his living by the sweat of his brows Assoon as ever he began to appear he began to be persecuted Passionem auteÌ„ Christi non illuÌ„ diem solum appellamus quo mortuus f it sed totam vitam ejus Tota enim vita Chriâ—i crux fuit Martyrium Bernard The Preaching of the Gospel drew upon him the hatred of the Pharisees the lustre of his miracles made an end of him they plotted his death when he had raised Luzarus from the grave and the rage of these cruell men ended not with this life for they made war upon him after his death they endeavoured to destroy his Mysticall Body having destroyed his Naturall Body and God suffered them to have successours in their malice that the condition of these two Bodies might be alike Indeed the Church never wanted persecutors she hath seen all the Princes of the Earth armed against her Children Three full Ages have exercised her patience she hath watered the whole Earth with her blood neither is there any corner in the world wherein she hath not given testimony of her courage The conversion of Heathen Princes hath not been the end of her persecutions Sinners have succeeded Tyrants the good have found tormentors in the person of the wicked Every beleever hath found by experience that the Maxime of Saint Paul is true and that it is impossible to live piously and not to be persecuted All those that will live godlily in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Indeed their persecution hath appeared glorious and 't is in this particular that they have another resemblance to the Naturall Body of the Son of God For his Father glorified him upon the Crosse hee would have his Innocence known at his Death that his Executioners should be the first witnesses of it that to the confusion of the Jews the Judge that condemned him should make his Apology that the Theeves that suffered with him should publish his Royalty and the Soldiers that nailed him to the Crosse become his Adorers But as if so many miracles had not sufficiently magnified his onely Son he would have whole Nature weare mourning for him The Sun must bewail his Death and the Earth tremble with amazement the rocks cleave asunder with pangs of sorrow and all creatures celebrate the obsequies of a dying God Indeed there never was a more dolefull and more
agnosce â—e in ipso tentatum te in illo agnosce vincentem Aug. Jesus Christ saith he was tempted by the evil spirit in the desart or rather we were tempted in him for 't is from us that he took Flesh from him that we derive Salvation 't is from us that he receives his Death from him that we receive our Life 't is from us that he had these affronts cast upon him from him that we have Honours conferred upon us 'T is therefore for our sakes that he suffered Temptation and for his sake that we carry away the victory Or to say the same thing in other words If we were tempted in him 't is in him also that we overcame the devil our enemy He certainly could have difcarded him from his person and using him like a rebellious slave have punished his rash boldness by commanding him to hell but had he not been willing to be tempted he had not taught us to overcome by his example nor had the combat he fought in the wilderness procured us the honour of a Triumph Thus the quality of Head is injurious to Jesus Christ and honourable to Christians because in that exchange it obliged him to make with them he endured the shame of the Temptation and purchased for them the advantage of the Victory Finally to conclude this Discourse The Son of God was willing to bear the reproaches of the Cross and to merit for us the priviledges of Glory For being charged with our iniquities he suffered death the punishment of them permitted Shame to be added to Cruelty that spoiling him of Life Si moriamur saltem cum libertate moriamur Cicero in Verâ—em de Crucis supplicio agens they might withal rob him of his Honour and he might give up the ghost as an Offender and a Slave together In the mean time his Punishment purchased our Glory his Death merited our Immortality and in stead of taking vengeance of our crimes he procures us his own advantages It seems saith S. Augustine the Father mistook himself he treats his onely Son as a Delinquent and handles Men as Innocents he crowns him with Thorns these with Glory and confounding the Sinner with the Just confounds Chastisements with Rewards But if we consider that the Son of God took our place and we his that he is our Head and we his Members we shall finde that his Father had reason to punish him and to reward us because having made a change with us he is become Guilty we Innocent Let us therefore be thankful to Jesus Christ who disdained not a quality which investing him with our Nature chargeth him with our sins and our infirmities and uniting him to us as to his Members obliges him to be tempted to make us victorious Ille quippe Christianorum caput in omnibus tentari voluit quia tentamur sic morivoluit quiae morimur sic resurgere quiae resurrecturi sumus Aug. in Psal 9. Serm. 2. and to suffer the death of the Cross to obtain for us the glory of Immortality The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the duties of Christians as Members toward Jesus Christ as their Head THough the duties of the Head and of the Members are reciprocal and that composing one Body they are obliged to a mutual correspondence arising from Necessity as well as Love yet there is no man but will acknowledge that as the Members receive more assistance from the Head ten the Head from the Members so are they tied to greater expressions of dependence Nature which is an excellent mistress in this matter instructs us that the life of the Members depends upon the Head and their very preservation obliges them to three or four duties without which they can no ways subsist Their Interest requires that they be inseparably fastned to that from whence they receive their life lest their division with their death deprive them of all those advantages which spring from the union they have with their Head Thus we see that the Hand which is one of the most ingenious parts of the body and which may be called the Mother of all Arts and the faithfullest Minister of the Soul loseth its dexterity and comeliness as soon as separated from the Head that enlivens it The Feet though not so noble as the Hands are yet as necessary being the moveable Foundations of this living building are destitute of all strength when they have no commerce with the Head This indeed ceaseth not to act and move though provided neither of Hands nor Feet when Nature fails it hath recourse to Art and being the throne of the Soul ransacks all her treasures of Invention to execute that by it Self Omnis salus omnis vita à capite in caeterae membra derivatur Galen was wont to be put in execution by its Members But though the hands are so industriously subtil and the legs so vigorously strong they are absolutely useless because their separation deprives them of the influences of their head This Maxime so notorious in Nature is much more evident in Grace For the Son of God hath no need of his Members 't is Mercy and not Necessity obligeth him to make use of them He is not at all more powerful when united to them nor more feeble when separated from them Faith tells us he can do all things without them whereas they can doe nothing without him Therefore is he compared to the Vine and they to the Branch to acquaint them that all their vertue flows from his and being pluckt from his Body can as the Branch expect nothing but the fire Therefore the first obligation of Christians is to unite themselves to Jesus Christ to seek their life in this union and to believe that their death is the infallible consequence of their division This is it that Saint Augustine represents us in this Discourse which though long cannot be tedious because there is nothing in it that is not delightfull and necessary As the Body hath many members which though different in number make up but one body so Jesus Christ hath many members which in the diversity of their conditions constitute also but one body so that we are always with him as with our Head and drawing from him our strength as well as our life we can neither act nor live without him We with him make up a fruitful Vine that bears more Grapes then Leaves but divided from him we are like those Branches which being good for nothing are destin'd to the slames when stript off from the Vine Therefore doth the Son of God so earnestly affirm it in the Gospel that without him we can doe nothing that our interests as well as our love Domine si fine te nihil totum in te possumus Etenim quicquid ille operatur per nos videmur nos operari potest ille multum totum sine nobis nos nihil sine ipso Aug. in Psal 30. may engage us to be united to his
forceth the Creature to fall down before him and upon the sight of sin and nothingness to adore the Power and Mercy that drew him out of these two Abysses Temperance regulates our Pleasures and moderates our Delights lest their disorder obstruct our salvation and out of a blinde impetuosity finde Pain and Sorrow where we look for Pleasure and Content 'T is true she is not so taken up with Particular good as not to watch over the Publike For without encroaching upon the rights and priviledges of Justice she calms the Passions allays the storms and producing a tranquillity in the soul of Particulars contributes to that of Kingdoms because the quiet of States depends upon that of Families and 't is very hard that those Subjects that yeeld not obedience to the laws of Temperance should to those of Justice But as since the Fall of Adam Sufferings are as common as Actings and man spends his life in Pain as well as in Labour to these Three Vertues is added Fortitude as a Supply to combat and vanquish Griefs that set upon us Indeed the chiefest employment of Fortitude is to wrestle with whatever is most troublesom in the world It skirmisheth with those accidents that disquiet our Health or concern our Honour is armed against Fortune and defying that blinde potentate that seems the enemy of Vertue stands ready to receive all the assaults this insolent Tyranness makes upon those that slight her Empire Indeed when Valour is enlightned by Faith she laughs at an Idol who subsists onely in the mindes of those that fear it and may be called the work of their Fancie and Imagination she trembles not at the attempts of a false Deity and being assured that every thing is regulated by a Supreme Providence which cannot fail lays an obligation upon us to adore his Decrees though they condemn us and kiss his Thunders though they strike us dead Thus under the favourable shadow of these Vertues the life of a Christian passeth on calmly Faith affords him light to illuminate him Charity heats to inflame him Hope promises to encourage him Justice and Temperance their severall supplies to put him in action and Fortitude who her self is a whole Army gives undauntedness of spirit to fight and to triumph To all these Divisions this may be added namely that man being compounded of a body and a soul hath need of Vertues that may unite them together and subjecting the soul to God may subject the body to the soul For there is this order between these two parts that the body respects not the laws of the minde but as far as the mind respects the laws of God assoon as one dispenseth with his duty the other failes of his obedience and at the same time that the soul rebels against God the flesh maketh an insurrection against the soul To this day we bewail the mischiefs of this rebellion and all the Vertues are given us only to re-instate us in our Primitive Tranquillity The Theological Vertues undertake to subject the mind to God Faith captivates the Understanding and obligeth it to believe those verities it comprehends not Hope fils the Memory with the Promises of Jesus Christ and Charity sweetly divorceth the will from all perishable goods to fixe it upon the Supream Good The Vertues that are called Cardinal Prudentia se habet ad vera faâ—sa temperantia fortitudo ad prospera adversujustitiase habet ad Deum Proximum D. Thom. 2.2 have mixt employments exercising their dominion over soul and body Prudence enlightens them Justice accords them Temperance regulates their pleasures and Fortitude combats their griefs so that all these Vertues associated together restrain man in his duty and make him find his happiness in his obedience But because I destine another Discourse to treat of these last Vertues I conceive my self bound to bestow the remainder of this upon the former and to shew the reasons wherefore it was requisite that the Christian must be assisted with Faith Hope and Charity Grace hath some resemblance with Nature and we find in man some Image of a Christian Man cannot come to his End unless he know it and have some assurance of a possibility to obtain it The Christian cannot move towards God his sole end unless he know him by Faith love him by Charity and promise himselfe the enjoyment of him by Hope Man that he may work aright hath need of three succours he must know what he does he must be able to doe it and he must will it otherwise all his designs will be unprofitable nor will he form any enterprise which will not confound or grieve him The Christian whose salvation is his chiefe business hath need of the same aids but because his enterprise is extreamly difficult and sin that hath made strange devastations in his soul hath spread darkness over his Rational thrown weakness into his Irascible and scattered malice into his Concupiscible faculty Faith must enlighten the one Hope satisfie the other and Charity which is nothing but an effusion of the Divine Goodness shed it self into the last and amend it Or let us say that Faith discovers the Supream Good to the Christian by its Lights that thence there arise two affections in his soul the desire of possessing it which is love and a confidence of obtaining it which is Hope These three Vertues doe consummate the Christians perfection Faith illuminates him Hope elevates him and Charity uniting him to God makes him partake in same sort of the felicity of the Blessed The Third DISCOURSE Of the Excellency and Necessity of Faith GOd is so far above our apprehension by the Greatness of his Nature that in whatever state we consider him we have only a borrowed light to know him by In that happy condition wherein Innocence dispell'd all mans darkness suffering neither ignorance nor infirmity to engage him in these sins which are rather naturall then voluntary he had need of light to know him whose Image he had the honour to be Those infused verities he received in his Creation those faithful glasses that presented him his Creator and all the beauties of the Universe that expressed his Divine perfections had imprinted in him but a faint knowledge if Faith elevating his soul had not clarified him with its brightnesse But when man shall pass from Earth to Heaven and removing from the Order of Grace shall enter into that of Glory In lumine tuo videbimus lumeÌ„ Psal 35. he shall still have need of a borrowed light to behold the Divine Essence Though he be then a pure Spirit and his soul abstracted from matter act as the Angels yet all our Divines confess that his darkness must be enlightned his weakness supported that he may contemplate this Divine Sun who by a rare Prodigy hides himself in light and covers himself with his Majesty We are not therefore to wonder if Faith be necessary for man in the state whereto sin hath
what I intend to those that shall take so much pains as to peruse it I will lay down a plain and easie Scheme which shall present you with a short prospect of the whole Christian Man I begin the first Treatise with his Birth which as it is the fruitful source of all the Allyances he contracts with God I cannot speak of it soundly and to the purpose without discovering some of his Qualities and letting you see that assoon as he is regenerated he is the adopted child of the eternal Father because he is the Temple of the holy Ghost and the Brother of the Word Incarnate To this I add some other Priviledges concomitants of his Baptism all which declare the misery he hath avoided and the happiness he hath obtain'd From thence I passe to the second Treatise which represents the Spirit of the Christian and which comprehends all the obligations we have to follow his motions to act according to his orders and to obey his inspirations because none are truly the children of God but those that are quickned by his Spirit Quicunque enim Spiritu Dei aguntur ii sunt Filii Dei Rom. 8. And because the Christian is but a part of a mystical Body whereof there is a Head to guide it as wel as a Spirit to enliven it in the third Treatise I describe the neer relations and close connexions this glorious quality communicates to him with Iesus Christ the advantages he receives from thence and the just duties he is obliged to return to this adored Head The fourth Treatise discovers all the secrets of Grace which seem to be nothing else but a sacred chain uniting the Christian with the son of God and with the Holy Ghost and putting him at their disposal to be conducted safely in the way of Salvation The vertues that flow from Grace as streams do from their fountain are the subject of the fifth Treatise demonstrating a new Morality which the Philosophers were ignorant of and which severing man from himself fastens him happily to his Principle Forasmuch as he lives by Grace and vertues in the sixth Treatise I set before him a heavenly Nourishment that preserves his life and withall affords him some pledges of Immortality But because this food is also a Victime speaking of his Nourishment I speak of his Sacrifice and I lay down the just Reasons the Christian hath to offer up himself to God with Iesus Christ In the seventh Treatise I discourse of his glorious Qualities which I had not touched in the former wherein I make it appear that being the Image of the Son of God he is also a Priest and a Sacrifice a Souldier and a Conqueror a Slave and a Soveraign a Penitent and an Innocent Lastly to compleat the Christian who is but rudely drawn in Baptism who as long as he is upon earth is always imperfect I lead him to Glory where finding his Happiness in the knowledge and love of the supreme Good he is happily transformed into God There he patiently waits for the resurrection of his Body that the two parts whereof he is composed being reunited there may be nothing wanting to the perfection of his happiness and that both Soul and Body being freed from the bondage of sin he may reign for ever with the Angels in Heaven Thus you see in a few words the drift and scope of the whole Work where if I have repeated something that I formerly delivered in the Guilty Man it is because the Cure depends upon the Disease Subjects are illustrated by their contraries and it is impossible to conceive the Advantages of Grace without comprehending all the Miseries of Sin A TABLE OF THE TREATISES DISCOURSES The First TREATISE Of the Christian's Birth Disc 1. That the Christian hath a double Birth page 1 Disc 2. That Man must be renewed to make a Christian of him page 6 Disc 3. That the principal Mysteries of Iesus Christ are applyed to the Christian in his Birth page 10 Disc 4. That Grace is communicated to the Christian in his Birth as Sin is communicated to Man in his Generation page 15 Disc 5 Of the Resemblances that are found between the Generation of Iesus Christ and that of a Christian page 19 Disc 6 Of the Adoption of Christians and the advantage it hath above the Adoption of Men. page 24 Disc 7 Of the Allyances the Christian contracts in his Birth with the Divine Persons page 29 Disc 8 Of the Principal Effects Baptism produceth in the Christian page 34 Disc 9 Of the obligation of a Christian as the consequence of his Birth page 39 Disc 10 That the Regeneration of a Christian takes not from him all that he drew from his first Generation page 43 The Second TREATISE Of the Spirit of a Christian Disc 1. That every Body hath its Head and what that of the Church is 48 Disc 2 That the Holy Ghost is the Heart of the Church 53 Disc 3 That the Holy Ghost is in a sort the same to Christians that he is to the Father and to the Son in Eternity 57 Disc 4 That the Holy Ghost seems to be the same to Christians that he is to the Son of God 62 Disc 5 That the Presence of the Holy Ghost giveth life to the Christian and his Absence causeth Death 67 Disc 6 That the Holy Ghost teacheth Christians to pray 72 Disc 7 That the Holy Ghost remits the sins of the Christian 77 Disc 8 That the Christian in his infirmities is assisted by the strength of the Holy Ghost 83 Disc 9 That the Holy Ghost is the Christians Comforter 89 Disc 10 Of the Christians ingratitude toward the Holy Ghost 94 The third TREATISE Of the Christian 's Head Disc 1 That the Christian hath two Heads Adam and Iesus Christ 100 Disc 2 Of the Excellencies of the Christian's Head and the advantages they draw from thence 105 Disc 3 Of the strict Union of the Head with his Members and of that of Iesus Christ with Christians 110 Disc 4 That the Union of Christians with their Head is an Imitation of the Hypostatical Union 115 Disc 5 That Iesus Christ treateth his Mystical Body with as much charity as he doth his Natural Body 120 Disc 6 That the Church is the Spouse of Iesus Christ because she is the Body and of the community of their Marriage 125 Disc 7 That the Quality of the Members of Iesus Christ is more advantageous then that of the Bretbren of Iesus Christ 130 Disc 8 That Iesus Christ hath taken all his Infirmities from his Members and that his Members derive all their strength from him 134 Disc 9 Of the duties of Christians as Members towards Iesus Christ as their Head 139 Disc 10 That all things are common among Christians as between members of the same Body 144 The fourth TREATISE Of the Grace of a Christian Disc 1 That Predestination which is the source of Grace is a hidden Mystery 150 Disc 2 Of the
Person For if it be true Lord addes Saint Augustine that we can doe nothing without thee 't is in thee onely that we effect all that we bring to pass all our ability is from thee 't is thou that workest what we seem to work and being convinced by these Truths we are obliged to say that thou canst do all things without us but we can doe nothing without thee These words happily express all the obligations of the Faithfull and make them clearly discern that liberty can doe nothing without grace and that the members divided from their Head with all their naturall endowments and advantages are good for nothing but to be eternally burnt in Hel. From this first obligation is derived a second no whit lesse considerable For seeing the members draw life from their Head and their division causeth their ruine they are bound absolutely to depend upon him nor to have any other designes then his As they live by a borrowed life they ought to act by a forain vertue and to abandon themselves so fully to him that inanimates them as to have no other conduct but his Thence it comes to pass that self-deniall is the first vertue recommended to a Christian that renouncing himself he may obey Jesus Christ and conceiving himself in a strange body may act by his motions who is the Head thereof Philosophy hath laid down this position that man ought to purchase his liberty with the expence of his riches that 't is better be poor then be a slave and that 't was a gainfull bargain where parting with the goods of fortune we purchased the quietness of mind she hath also judged very well that the body is to be tam'd when it grows rebellious against reason that nourishment is to be retrencht as provender from an unruly wanton horse and his stomack taken down by the ascetick discipline of Fasts and Watchings But it never enterd into her Theorems that to be happy a man must renounce his understanding unlord his reason to become learned condemn his judgement to become wise Indeed Philosophy knew not that we are the members of a Body whereof the Eternall Word is the Head and that this condition that raiseth us as high as the light of Faith forbids us the pure use of Reason commanding us to soar above our own thoughts to search into his mind who will be the Principle of our Life For there is no body but sees that this obligation is as just as honourable that since Christians are rather Gods then men because of the union they have contracted with the Word Incarnate they ought to act rather by his motion then their own reason and remember that seeing he is the Head that quickens them he ought to be the Principle that guides them The whole drift of the Gospel labours to perswade us this Truth all its commands and counsels insinuate this obligation into us and when the Son of God gives order to us to renounce our own will to combate our inclinations to love our enemies and to hate our friends 't is only to teach us that being no longer at our own disposall we ought to have no other mind but what he inspires into us by his Grace A Third Obligation slows from this which is to be conformable to our Head to imitate his actions having followed his motions and to be made so like him that he may not be ashamed to own us for his members Nature exacts not this condition from the parts that compose mans body she will not have them resemble their Head because there would be insolence and impossibility in the very desire 'T is enough that they receive his influences that they obey his motions and that their whole imitation consist in their meer subjection But Morality and the Politicks will have the members that make up a Mysticall Body adde imitation to their other duties that they be regulated by their Head as by their model that they study his inclinations and be the perfect copies of this first Originall Thus we see that Kings are the inanimate examples of their subjects the living Laws of their States and the prime Masters of their people Every one makes it his glory to imitate them they are perswaded that whatever they doe is lawfull and that those that are the Images of God may very well be the Examplars of men Though this Maxime be true yet it is dangerous For as Greatness does not always inspire Goodness Quid est aliud vitia incendere quam authores illos Deos vel reges inscribere dare morbo exemplo Divinitatis aut Majestatis excusatam lieentiam Senec. nor are Sovereigns the most perfect and those that may doe what they will doe not always what they should it fals out many times that the greatest are the most vicious and the readiest way to corrupt a whole State is to set before it the Examples of the Governours Therefore hath Philosophy invented Ideas of Wisdome and despairing to finde among men models which may be securely transcribed hath made a Romance of Princes by the same artifice discovering their irregularity her own impotency But the Eternall Father giving us Jesus Christ for our Head hath withall propounded him for our Example he will have our life fully conformable to his that his actions be our documents that we be admitted into his School when we are united to his Body that we seek for perfection where we found life and that we be as well his Images as his Members This is it that Saint Bernard acquaints us with Our Head shall not reign in glory without his Members provided they be one with him by Faith and conformable to him in their Manners Both these conditions are necessary Union without Conformity is but meer hypocrisie and Conformity without Union is pure vanity He that is united to Christ and imitates him not cannot escape a fearfull separation one day by an Eternall Anathema and he that imitates him without believing will perceive in time that his imitation was but counterfeit and that he was so much more opposite to Jesus Christ the more he appeard only conformable to him We must therefore joyn these two duties together if we will have them usefull and having been united to our Head by Faith conform to him by good works that we be not reproached to have despised him whom we cannot find in our hearts to imitate But the chiefest obligation the quality of being Members of the Son of God exacts from us is to expose our life for his Glory as he expos'd his for our salvation Nature and Politicks teach us the justice of this duty and we need only consider how the members carry themselves toward the Head and subjects demean themselves towards their Soveraigns to understand what is our duty towards Jesus Christ Though every part of the body love its own preservation carefully avoiding whatever is contrary thereto and by a naturall providence abominates whatever
for all the world that according to the saying of our Saviour ill interpreted it may be carried by violence and without passing thorow the Church a man may scale heaven The desire of their Salvation is the source of these unjust desires They chuse not this side nor embrace this opinion but because they believe it favours their hopes Vanity is mixt with Interest being the children of Adam they imitate the pride of their Father they are guilty of his crime before they are aware nor do they consider that whilst they go about to subject Grace to their Liberty they follow his steps who had a minde to be god for no other end but that he might live an Independent in respect of his Soveraign But were they far enough from the vain oftentation of their first father they would certainly fall into his misfortune whilst they think to avoid it For all Theologie assures us that Men and Angels were lost because their Grace being subjected to their Liberty made them not constant in good they made ill use of their advantage because they were masters of it nor did they fall into sin but because their salvation was put into their own hands Their Fall teacheth us that we can have no weaker support then our selves that the Grace which relies onely upon our own Will is very frail and that sinners that ground their hope upon the certainty of their resolution are very blinde or very proud The Angels were much more illuminated then we their light was much purer then ours their strength was not mixt with weakness These pure spirits were not embodied in flesh and blood and Nature being happily united with Grace in their person banished all disorders that are in the creature by reason of sin In the mean time all these advantages hindered them not from falling the first temptation shook their Liberty because not submitted to Grace The beauty of Lucifer dazled them and struck them in love his promises made them forget those of God and the hope they fancied of raigning with that proud Angel made them side with him in his rebellion All these misfortunes have no other Cause but the weakness of Liberty and he that should ask these wretched spirits in the midst of their torments would receive no other answer but that their Grace was unprofitable because it depended upon their Will Neither are you to object that the faithful Angels were saved by the same succour the other neglected because all Divines are not agreed and 't is disputed in the Schools of the assistance they received to oppose the rebellion of Lucifer The greatest part of the Fathers were of opinion that the mystery of the Incarnation was revealed to them at that instant that they drew force from Jesus Christ that they fought under his banner that they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and that they owe their triumphs to the Sacrifice of his death S. Augustine is of this belief and though according to his Principles Si utrique boni squaliter creati sunt istis mala voluntate cadentibus illi amplius adjuti ad eam beatitudinis plenitudinem unde se nunquā casuros certissimi fierent pervenerunt Aug. l. 12. de Civ Dei c. 9. it seems we must conclude that the good Angels were not recompensed but because their Will made good use of their Grace he unsays it in other places and confesseth ingenuously that they received new assistances and that they were victorious because they were better seconded then the others I know what may be said in answer to this passage but I finde it so clear and uttered in such strong expressions that those that explain it will pardon me if I remain in my opinion and if with S. Augustine I believe that the good Angels owe not their salvation to Grace Sufficient but to that Christian Grace the Word Incarnate merited for them by his travels Though Man was not advantaged equal to the Angels neither in Nature nor in Grace because they were Hierarchies and one was the rule of the other yet every one confesseth Mans Will was created right his Understanding cleared his Senses faithful and his Passions obedient He felt not those revolts which now trouble our rest the Flesh warred not against the Spirit and those two parts notwithstanding their difference were not as yet enemies original righteousness composed their quarrels and living in good intelligence under the dominion of this prerogative they conspired together mans felicity Sufficient Grace was always offered him whatever enterprise he took in hand this faithful companion never left him she came to his aid as often as he called upon her or rather preventing his desires and his necessities waited his orders and directions Nevertheless amidst all these priviledges miserable man lost himself the first temptation made him forget his duty though he knew that his Soul was taken out of Nothing and his body formed of the slime of the earth he suffered himself to be perswaded that in violating the Laws of God he could make himself immortal Whence think you proceeded this misfortune and what was the cause of so dismal a disgrace 'T was not the strength of the temptation for that was ridiculous and we cannot yet conceive how it could make any impression upon the minde of a Rational creature 'T was not Concupiscence for this infamous daughter was not born before her Father nor had Sin as yet given her a Being 'T was not the refusal of Grace for it was due to man in this state or at least was never denied him 'T was then his Liberty which was the cause of his misfortune his Will which without being forced by temptation corrupted by the Senses or sollicited by the Passions made no use of Grace and so fell headlong into sin If it be true that Free-will was so impotent in the state of Innocence What can we expect in the state of sin And if Sufficient Grace supported by original righteousness hindered not Man from falling What assistance can we promise our selves thence now that it is assaulted by Concupiscence Let us rest our Salvation upon a surer Foundation let us implore some more vigorous Grace let us give our Liberty leave to be over-born by its motions let us grow wise by our Fathers losses and not pitch our hope upon a succout which ruined him onely because he was subject to his Will Grace is changed with Nature as this is not in her primitive purity neither is the other in her primitive weakness JESUS CHRIST is come to be the Founder of a New Order in the world and because he findes men in infirmities which they had during the state of Innocence he furnisheth them with stronger Graces that the Remedie surpassing the Disease may afford them a perfect Cure When he had to do with Adam whose vigour was natural because his Forces were not yet divided he left his Salvation at his own disposal and giving him a Grace
to know our power Fortitude to employ it Temperance to moderate it Justice to rule it and as this Divine Spirit can never be exhausted but knows how to give a hundred colours to the same thing thereby to discover all the different beauties thereof Let us adde with him that Prudence concerns the choice of means Temperance the use of pleasures Fortitude that of afflictions and Justice the distribution of all these Finally he concludes that it belongs to Prudence to foresee hidden things to Temperance to desie pleasures to Fortitude to attaque them and to Justice to regulate their interests But because these duties savour still of the description let us speak of those that denote the necessity of these Vertues and say that honesty which is inseparable from them is composed of four parts without which it cannot possibly subsist The first is Knowledge which serves it for a conduct and a light The second is the Interest of Society which ought always to be preferred before that of particulars The third is a certain magnanimity which seems as it were the soul of all honourable Actions and the defence of all Vertues The fourth is Moderation which keeps every one within his duty not suffering him to undertake any thing that may be disadvantageous to his neighbour Light appertains to Prudence the care of the Community to Justice Glorious enterprises to Fortitude and the regulating of Pleasures to Temperance Therefore hath that excellent Copier of Saint Augustine venerable Bede who being able to be a great Master of his own Head chose rather to be an humble Disciple of that learned Doctor observed that the Vertues coming in to the help of man a sinner seemed to have a mind to cure four great wounds which Original sin had inflicted upon him The first is Ignorance which is born with him which involves him in darknesse assoon as ever nature exposeth him to the light For he is Ignorant assoon as Criminal and as Grace is necessary to deliver him from sin Prudence is requisite to defend him from Errour and Falshood she irradiates his mind with a Heavenly Light gives him the spirit of discerning between Good and Evil and severing apparent good from reall keeps him from wandering in the course of his life The second wound is that of Concupiscence which seems particularly to have set upon the Concupisicible appetite which she hath engaged in the love of sinful sensualities and diverts from innocent contentments against this agreeable enemy Heaven hath given him Temperance whose businesse 't is to undeceive this irregular appetite to make use of charms to suppresse his unjust inclinations and to reduce him to a condition where he wisheth only reasonable things The third wound is Weakness which plungeth man in idleness suffering him not to act frights him from Vertue because of the difficulties 't is accompanied with and representing Death as a Spectrum Grief as a Monster strives to deter him from his duty by such fearful apprehensions against this great inconvenience which may be called the root of all other Fortitude stands up which heightens our courage fils the man with hope and activity animates him with glory the companion of difficulty and changing our diseases into remedies makes us find honour in pain and Immortality in Death The fourth and deepest wound is the malice of the will which may be called a Natural Injustice which is troubled at the prosperity and rejoyceth at the adversity of his neighbour when a man minds nothing but his own interests believes whatever is profitable is lawful placeth right in force duty in pleasure and is perswaded that glory being inseparable from profit there is nothing beneficial which at the same time is not honourable Morality to rid him of so Potent an enemy hath given him Justice which supplying the loss of Original righteousness teacheth him to prefer his duty before his interest and his conscience before his reputation This excellent Vertue which is the soule of all the rest undertakes to regulate mans actions to appease all disorders wherein his guilty birth hath engaged him For she submitteth his mind to God his body to his mind and having made this double agreement tries to accommodate man with his neighbour and to establish peace in his state after she hath brought it into his person Nothing distinguisheth this Vertue from Original righteousness but the resistence it meets with in those things it would regulate for the first took no pains to be obeyed she had to doe with tractable subjects the soul and body had not as yet clash'd their inclinations though different were not opposite and these two parts that make up man were not contrary in their designs so that Original righteousness had no hard task to manage a peace which seemed founded as well in Grace as in Nature But Christian Justice meets with insolent subjects who acknowledge not their Soveraign obey her not but by compulsion who being born in sedition think it their duty to live in disobedience nevertheless when assisted with Prudence to chuse means of accommodation seconded with Temperance to suppress pleasures and manfully supported by Fortitude to overcome grief she gains that by violence which Original righteousness did by sweet compliance and if she be not so quiet she may boast at least she is more glorious To express the same Truth in other words and to give it a new beauty in setting it out in new colours we may say that Prudence is busied in discussing those things that deceive us to discern truth from falshood and to secure us from being surprised with a lye Temperance is employed to suppress those things that charm our affections and whose allurements pleasingly heighten our appetites Fortitude is engaged to vanquish those things that terrifie us it revives our spirits and as a General of an Army that heartens his soldiers endeavours to rally that Courage Grief or Danger had in a manner routed Justice is busied in regulating those concernments wherein lies our interest and which under a colour of some gain would set us upon some violent course to compass it Wherefore Seneca said that perillous things were to be mastered by Valour pleasurable things to be moderated by Temperance Things that abuse us to be examined by Prudence and those that tempt and fain would corrupt us to be regulated by Justice If it be true that Vertue respects only our person and that according to the opinion of some Philosophers who would make her the slave of our interests her sole object is man we may say without thwarting their conceit that Prudence considers things without us which being hid and obscured by the distance of places and times cannot be foreseen but by the light of this Vertue which seems to be a natural kind of prophesie According to this principle Temperance regulates things that are below us in the inferiour Region of the soul reduceth the passions and the senses to their duty and entertains reason
was given up to the fury of Satan To his Sacriledge he added a Parricide and expiating these two offences by a violent death taught us there was never any crime more severely punished upon Earth then what was committed against Jesus Christ in the Eucharist so that a man cannot dispose himself too carefully when he is to approach this holy communion and seeing the Son of God recollects all his Graces in this Sacrament thereby to oblige us we ought to come accompanied with all kind of Vertues worthily to receive him The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Christian owes God the Honour of a Sacrifice SAcrifice is the most ancient duty of the creature towards his Creator It is the soul of Religion precedes affection and before man can be obliged to love God he is bound to offer him a Sacrifice For love presupposeth some society between God and man which is not so much an effect of Nature as of Grace but Sacrifice supposeth nothing but dependance which is inseparable from the creature and engageth him assoon as ever he proceeded out of Nothing to acknowledge his Original by a solemn homage From hence may be inferred that Sacrifice is an honour can be rendred only to God and that 't is changed into Sacriledge when offered to a meer creature Neither is this hard to be conceived if we consider the divers motives we have to offer Sacrifices to God since sin hath corrupted nature The first is to reconcile us to him and to mitigate his anger by the merit of the victime The second is to be united to him knowing very well that as his Indignation is the soucre of all our evils his Grace is the fountain-Head of all our good whence it came to pass that in the Old Testament there were peace-offerings offered to him for the salvation of sinners which testified by their dying mouths that to be removed from God was to be miserable The third is to obtain eternal glory which makes us find our happiness in the union it procures us with God and destroying whatever we had of mortal or perishable happily transforms us into him Holocaustum dicitur sacrificium cum totū accenditur quandò totum ardet totum absumitur igne divino Aug. Therefore were Holocausts immolated wherein the oblation wholly consumed by the flame figured out this Truth and by a silent language taught us that man should never be happy till he was despoiled of all his corruption that he might be perfectly consummated in God Now all men confesse that God only can bestow Grace remit sins which brave his Majesty sanctifie souls in uniting them to himself and glorifie them by communicating to them his Essence Therefore by a necessary consequence they acknowledge that as from him only these favours are to be obtained we have no other way to intercede for them but by sacrifice The Law punished those with death that erected Altars to strange gods and offered those honours to vain idols which could not be safely given to true men Nature her self though never so blind sacrificeth to none but those she conceives at least to be Gods and sin being not able to quench all her lights she retains this belief in her errour that Divinity only deserves the honours of sacrifice Faith confirms this Truth and strongly perswades us that if the creature adores not his Creator he is miserable and if he encroach upon the honour due to him he becomes guilty Creatura rationalis si non colit Deum misera est quia privatur Deo si colit Deum non vult se coli pro Deo Aug. Sacrifice then is a divine worship whereby a reasonable creature honours his Creator and publiquely professeth that as he hath received being from him 't is from him likewise that he expects felicity But though there is nothing in God which being God himself deserves not this homage and all his perfections may justly require it we must confess nevertheless there are three that oblige us to this duty and which in the state of innocence as wel as sin demand this sacrifice The first is the Soveraignty he hath over his creature For he depends of him in Creation and Preservation He had no right to exist before he issued from Nothing in these profound abysses he could not so much as desire or ask any thing and being not yet in nature could have no pretensions of aspiring either to Grace or Glory Being now reduced from Non-Entity he depends still upon his Soveraign he could not be able to subsist one moment without assistance from him he cannot act but by his impulses and though he be free in his operations he that gave him being must give him motion his preservation is a consequence of his Creation the same power that produced him preserves him and unless he be strangely impudent he must confess he depends not less upon God in his Entity then in his Non-Entity There is no need that the Earth should open under his feet to swallow him up that thunder should fall upon his head to crush him to ashes nor that the waters should flow from their couch to drown him God needs only withdraw his hand and he perisheth let him but cease to preserve and he moulders into annihilation Dependency therefore and servitude constitute one part of his Essence he is a slave assoon as a creature and though God be Almighty we may say without offence he can produce neither man nor Angel able to support themselves without him and who in the progress as well as beginning of his life depends not absolutely upon his All-sufficiency This is it that obligeth both of them in their Creation to offer sacrifices to him 't was their first reflexion towards their Principle their first duty towards their Soveraign and their primitive inclination towards their last end If they do not acquit themselves 't is their fault if dazled with their own light and charmed with their own beauty they fail of this their lawfull homage they need seek no other cause of their crime nor of their fall I pretend not to expresse the nature of this sacrifice because it is unkown to us but I will say thus much thatthe Angels being pure spirits seek not oblations out of their own person they stoop before the Almighty at the presence of his greatness they offer him what they are bound to by Creation and refuse not to submit to him by the motion of their proper will as they did from all Eternity in their nature For men there is great likelihood being compounded of a body and a soul they would joyn external sacrifice to internal and to the end they might offer all they had received presenting him an Holocaust of their person they would employ their mouths to praise him and their hands to serve him having made use of their understandings to know him and their wils to love him we might believe also that acknowledging all the goods of the
different ways make two contrary sacrifices This faculty calls to mind the benefits received from its Creator and forgets the injuries received from Enemies Between these two exercises it is equally divided and whatever outrage sin hath committed in our soul she finds that the art of oblivion is harder then that of retaining or learning 'T is upon the first that the love of enemies is founded which seems the most troublesome sacrifice of Ghristian Religion and upon the other acknowledgment or the action of thankfulness which is the justest duty of the creature towards his Creator Though the body be the least moity of man yet is it not destitute of Victims which it furnisheth him with to appease God and according to the different vertues that inform it offers sacrifices which are little inferiour to those of the minde Repentance afflicts it a hundred severall ways and this vertue no less austere then witty invents every day new means to tame its rebellion and of a disobedient slave to make a voluntary sacrifice Sometimes she punishes his boldness by fasting sometimes abates his strength by watchings sometimes lets him bloud by disciplines sometimes tames his pride with ashes Finally by these divers artifices she lets us see that a penitent is nothing but a man armed against himself who offers a sacrifice of Justice when he is more offended at his own sins then those of his neighbour Repentance cals in Continence many times to her aid for when this rebel resists grief she forbids him the use of the most lawful pleasures and depriving him of whatever he loves makes a victim of him which suffers the more the slower his sorrow is and his sacrifice more sharp and irksome But because the eye and the mouth are the most guilty parts of man repentance obligeth the first to bewail his sins changeth his fountain of flames into flouds of tears compels this complice of impurity to become the Minister of sorrow forceth this faithful Interpreter of the heart to betray it no more with his glances and to be closed to all objects which might trouble his rest or pervert his good designs she deals more imperiously with the mouth for seeing this is guilty of two contrary evils and his silence is sometimes as criminal as his words this part is condemned to two different punishments sometimes being obliged to keep silence sometims to speak of his silence and of his discourse is composed one and the same sacrifice The mouth is obliged to open in chanting forth the praises of its Creator and having discharged this part of duty when the words are no longer answerable to the greatness of the subject it hath recourse to silence and by wonder and astonishment makes amends for those faults committed by too much liberty This double sacrifice hath its value and its price and the Scripture which tels us that God is pleased with praises acquaints us also that silence when arising from a great respect is not unacceptable to him By the first we profess that he is the Authour of all perfections that ours are derived from him and because speech is an advantage we hold from his goodness it ought to be consecrated to his honour By the second we tacitly confess that as his Divine Essence cannot be known neither can it be expressed and that of all the ways we have to magnifie him by silence is most agreeable to his greatness and our humility After that man hath immolated his body and his soul he is obliged to tender his goods and to offer him a sacrifice of all that he possesseth Alms and Poverty are his assistants in so pious a design and these two vertues by different mediums arrive at the same end for Alms parts goods with God and looking upon Jesus Christ in the person of the poor restores that to his indigence which he received of his bounty 'T is true in this point his meaning is much different from those that address themselves by way of sacrifice for they when they offer a victim slay him at the Altar to testifie that their presents are useless to God because being the source of all good nothing can be given him which he possesseth not in himself But he that doth Alms hath this satisfaction Noli contemnere Christum in coelo sedentem in terra egentē veniet cum retributione vita aeterna igne aeterno Aug. that his sacrifice is not unprofitable to Jesus Christ because though he be happy in his person he is indigent in his members Poverty out-bids Alms despoils a man of all is of the nature of the Holocaust where he that sacrificeth reserving nothing to himself gives all wholly to God This forsakes not goods only but the very desires also renounceth all pretensions to the Earth and not content to offer God what is in possession bestows upon him whatever may be hoped for so that this sacrifice being as large as Hope we may say it comprehends all that this passion which is boundless promiseth the Ambitious or the Covetous Thus the Christian acquits himself of the promise he made in Baptism and consecrating his soul by Charity his body by Repentance and his Riches by Alms or Poverty satisfies both his obligations and his promises Ipse homo Dei nomini consecratus Deo devotus in quantum mundo moritur ut Deo vivat sacrificiū est Aug. For Saint Augustine teacheth me that he that dies to the world to live to Jesus Christ is a true sacrifice when following the motions of Grace he useth his body to the Glory of his Creator striving to quench the fire of self-love by that of Charity making his members servants to justice in being serviceable to repentance he becomes a sacrifice wel-pleasing to God and may boast that in satisfying the duties of Christianity he acquits himself of the obligation of the sacrifice with which Christians can no way dispense The Seventh TREATISE Of the Qualities of the Christian The first DISCOURSE That the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ ALthough men are dignified by Qualities being the marks either of their Birth or Desert yet must we confess that they adde nothing to their Persons nor imprint any Character upon their Soul or Body They are fair illusions which pleasingly deceive us Dreams that amuse men awake Charms that inchant those that are in love with them They owe their Lustre to our Blindness their Grandeur to our Ignorance For the highest dignities which so much disquiet the Ambitious are but the Errours of their Understanding and the Idols of their Imagination should we pare away from Great Personages the attendance of their followers the pomp of their habits and the magnificence of their houses Magna Fortuna magna Servitus Senec. we should finde their Charges meer Chimera's and that which we call Fortune nothing but a False Greatness or a Real Slavery But inasmuch as the Qualities of a Christian are not the works of
soever they turn their eyes they may without vanity utter these words Whatever we see is ours and though we leave the propriety to particular persons we cease not to enjoy the soveraignty with God But we need not wonder if these slaves are rich because they are free and that the same quality which instates them in plenty puts them into liberty Man is so free that he cannot be compell'd Sin that deprives him of Grace robs him not of his Liberty and into whatever condition he throws himself is still his own Master It is true that according to the language of Saint Paul he becomes the slave of sin and free from Grace when he becomes Guilty and on the contrary free from sin and the fervant of Grace when justified Although in these two states so opposite Liberty is always mixt with Servitude St Thomas and St Augustine Masters with whom we cannot easily mistake teach us That in the state of sin there is a reall Thraldome and a false Liberty because man departing from God wanders from his duty and subjecting himself to his passions is a slave in earnest and free only in appearance On the contrary there is a reall liberty in the state of Grace and an apparent servitude because Man does what he will in that he does what he ought that he is free because reasonable and master of himself because the slave of Jesus Christ This is it that the Word Incarnate had a minde to teach us with his own mouth when he said We should be free indeed if the Son made us free and this is it that Saint Augustine would have us understand by those excellent words We were the slaves of self-love and now that we are made free we may boast that we are the Slaves of Charity Neither is there any Divine that does not acknowledg that our will is never more free Omnia propter Electos then when she is most submitted to God and that true Liberty is the recompence of so happy a Bondage I may well give it this name because it produceth Glory and that all the slaves of the son of God are Soveraigns But that we may rightly conceive of the Greatnesse of this Priviledg we must remember that Servitude is the daughter of Sin that men were not slaves till they became Guilty and that Nature which laboured to equal their Conditions is not she that created this shamefull difference which distinguisheth them one from another They were all Kings before their Defection Innocence was the character of their Royalty and as long as they were the Images of God they were his Vicegerents in the world But sin that deprived them of Grace ravish'd from them their Liberty gave them as many Masters as they have bad inclinations and making this misfortune passe from their person into their estate many times imposed Tyrants over them under a colour of constituting lawfull Soveraigns We had for ever remained in this shamefull Bondage had not the son of God who draws our salvation out of our fall made us recover Liberty by Servitude For Grace bringing us in subjection unto his will hath put all Creatures under us his love subjecting our soul to his Empire hath made us the Masters of our Body this insolent slave is is become obedient and as it revolted not against the soul but because the soul was revolted against God it returned to its duty as soon as she betook her self to her respect and acknowledged his Soveraign as soon as she acknowledged her Creator Thus our Rule is founded upon our submission our Liberty established upon our vassalage and we command our Body because we obey our God Vis serviat animae tuae caro tua Deo serviat anima tua debes regi ut possis regerc Aug. This is it that Saint Augustine expresseth so handsomly When the soul is the servant of God she is the Mistresse of the flesh when Reason is subject to Grace she is the queen of Passions and reduceth these rebels to obedience so that the most assured means to re-enter upon our ancient Priviledges is to submit to God and to seek our greatnesse in our debasement The Son of God hath furnished us with a rare Example in his Life he ascended not to Glory but by the ladder of humility He was content to be his Fathers servant before he would be adored as his Son and in heaven it self where he raigns with him he still retains this humble deportment Saint Paul teacheth us that he wisheth not the accomplishment of his mysticall body but that he may be subject to his Father Cum autem subjecta fuerint illi omnia tunc ipse filius crit subjectus ei 1 Cor 15. having subjected all things to himself It seems he chose the Virgin for his mother because she was devoted to the service of the Altar and had protested that she would eternally remain the servant of the Lord He boasts of it by the mouth of a Prophet he will have all the world know that his service is founded upon his birth and that he is the slave of the eternall Father because the Son of his handmaid Ego servus tuus filius Ancillae tuae Humane Laws acknowledge three sorts of Slaves The First Servi sunt alii à Conventione alii à fortuna alii à natura Arist 2. Poli. those that sell themselves and to gain a small livelihood engage their Liberty and become Slaves to enrich their friends or children Others are those that Fortune throws into Fetters whom the loss of a Battel subjects to the mercy of the Conqueror and according to the Laws of War become the prisoners of their enemies The Last are those who are born of slavish parents and who seem to have less reason to complain because their servitude preceded their Birth and Nature conspired with Fortune to deprive them of their Liberty The Son of God was pleased to be of this number he desired his Thraldom might be natural Partus sequitur ventrem and that the same mother that made him a Man might make him his Fathers Servant and we cannot deny that he is liable to this condition because all Laws ordain that the Childe is of the same quality with the Mother It seems she had inspired him with this desire in giving him a being and that at the same time she conceived him she imprinted in his soul the minde of a Slave The Naturalists assure us that Mothers have so much power over the bodies of their children in the moment of conception Matres dum concipiunt foetibus desideriorū signa quaedam inurunt Plin. that they express upon them their Longings and Imaginations and those extraordinary marks they bring along with them into the world are certain proofs of so known a Truth But the Scripture acquaints us that the Virgin more happie and more powerful then other mothers hath made an impression upon the soul and body of her
himself with the pleasures of the body renounceth the priviledges of the minde betrays his duty and his dignity despoils himself of the inclinations of Angels and puts on those of Beasts and without changing his shape changeth condition and nature But inasmuch as most men are led more by interest then reason and those that are the slaves of pleasure are more sensible of grief then shame and dishonour it will not be amisse in this Discourse to let them see that the pleasures after which they so eagerly run are very tragical and contrary to their intention are turn'd into punishments The Divine Justice which leaves no crime unpunished hath been pleased that diseases should be natural penances and that the Stone and the Gout should be the recompence of our debauches Seeing sensuall pleasures are commonly criminal they are for the most part irregular having shaken off the yoak of reason they cast men into excesse and perswade them that 't is a kind of injustice and base servility to prescribe Laws to their desires abused by these false sophisms they pursue their inclinations without keeping any measure in their diversions they are drown'd in delights are lost in voluptuousnesse and draining their strength and their substance fall many times into diseases and poverty Thus by a just judgement of Heaven their disorders become their torments Ipsos voluptas habet non ipsi voluptatem cujus aut inopiâ torquentur aut copiâ strangulantur miseri si deseruntur ab illa miseriores si obruantur Sence and they finde sorrow where they expected felicity If to defend themselves from this misfortune they observe some rules in their pleasures they feel another punishment For these pleasures being short their soul is always languishing they have scarce done with one but they long for another and living always in expectation or inquiry can neither be secure from restlesnesse nor discontent Those who to remedy this evil endeavour to associate pleasures undertake an impossibility For whether nature intend to punish us because we are culpable or whether Grace be not willing to expose us to danger because we are weak Pleasures hold not so good intelligence as Paines These set upon us in a full body and joyn companies to render us wretched the Stone the Gout the Colick and the Palsie conspire together to exercise our patience whatever opposition these diseases may have they agree to ruine us and we many times behold distressed spectacles who have no part of their body free from torment But Pleasures are divided Self-love with all its subtilties cannot reconcile them the Birth of one is the Death of another and experience teacheth us that we have more strength to endure Griefs then to support pleasures when these slow in upon us with full tide they stifle us when they succeed they make us droop and languish and when they recompense their shortness by their excess they reduce us to complaints and groanings From all this Discourse we may conclude that bodily pleasure is an enemy to our happiness that it removes us from God engageth us in the Creature obligeth us to partake of their imperfections and is followed with misery and indigence Therefore following the rule of Contraries we shall not have much ado to perswade our selves that Felicity may be found in Grief and that the Christian is never more happie then when he is afflicted for Christs sake For the understanding of this Paradox we must remember that all earthly goods are onely mediums whereby to gain those of heaven that which leads us the safest way thither is the best neither is the Christian ever neerer his happiness then when he is in the way that soonest leads him thither Now there is no man so little skilled in our mysteries but knows that Grief is the surest and the speediest way to arrive at heaven Cohaeredes autē Christi si tamen compatimur ut simul conglorificemur Rom. 8. Si sustinemus conregnabimus 2 Tim. 2. 't is the path Christ hath marked out with his Blood that whereby he entered into his Greatness that which all the Martyrs have gone and the Scripture teacheth us in a hundred places that Glory is dispensed according to the measure of Sorrow that they that have suffered most upon earth shall be the happiest in heaven One of the most remarkable differences between Christian Grace and Original Righteousness is that this guided man to his happiness thorow a way strewed with roses and lilies the means were proportioned to the end and seemed as an Antepast or Earnest thereof He arrived to Glory by Honour to Pleasure by Delights to Plenty by Riches He had reigned over Beasts before he raigned with Angels he had passed from one Paradise to another and had been happie upon Earth before he had been so in Heaven But now Providence hath changed its conduct over men and whether it have a minde to chastis their Rebellion or to wean them from the World or to make them conformable to their Head it leads them by difficult ways thorow paths rugged with thorns and environed with precipices The means it indulgeth to bring them to their end are contrary to it and to make its proceeding admired they are guided to Life thorow the valley of Death to Liberty thorow Servitude to Light thorow Darkness to Pleasure thorow Pain All the Morality of a Christian propoundeth nothing but Crosses its Vertues are austere its Counsels difficult its Commands harsh and had it not found the means to sweeten all these anxities by Charity it would reduce the Faithful to despair For it obligeth them to hate Themselves and to love their Enemies orders them to forsake their Riches and their Parents Fides non habet meritum ubi humana ratio praebet experimentum Greg. to believe without knowledge obey without discerning love without interest pardon without resentment live without pleasure and die without regret All the Maximes of their Master confirm this Truth for he prefers the Poor before the Rich declares the Afflicted happie canonizeth them that suffer and promiseth his Kingdom to them that weep he practised what he taught his whole life was spent in labours or affronts he was born in a Stable died upon a Cross lost his Honour with his Life nor did his Father glorifie him till his Enemies had loaded him with reproaches and sorrows All his Apostles followed his steps they preached his doctrine with the hazard of their lives signed it with their blood sealed it with their death rendered up their souls among torments nor is there any torture the cruelty of men hath not invented to weary their Patience and trample upon their Courage All his faithful disciples seek for Grief in the Rest of the Church they finde Persecution in Penance are their own executioners and their whole life is an imitation of Martyrdom they provide for the Prison by Solitude dispose themselves for Banishment by removing from their Country prevent