the likeness he may have to this Model Let us see then what it concerns him to do that he may gain it and afterwards we will consider the obligations so great an advantage requires at our hands Grace hath more analogie with Art then with Nature For when this makes a man at the same time she is busie about all the parts whereof he is composed and as if she were afraid to make them jealous one of another she hollows the eyes when she bores the ears and fashions the tongue as soon as the heart But Art less happie or less powerful then Nature contrives her works successively one while she makes a hand and divides it into five fingers whereby it becomes as useful as it is handsome presently it opens an eye then the mouth and effecting that at divers turns which it could not do at once finisheth the Picture with much time and labour Grace imitating Art more then Nature spends whole moneths to form Jesus Christ in our souls In our Birth we are but rude draughts of the New man our vertues are not acquired all at an instant and whether Grace finde resistance in our Wills or Concupiscence combat her designes she thinks her progress very considerable if in a whole yeer she can enrich us with one vertue and having spent much sweat to finish us is obliged to say by the mouth of S. Paul Filioli quos iterum parturio donec formetur in vobis Christus She calls us little to teach us that we are still growing she puts us in minde that she still travels with us that we may comprehend 't is at divers passes that she brings us forth she says she teems with us till Christ be again formed in our hearts to perswade us that our production is not wrought in a moment and to make us the Images of Jesus Christ she must successively employ the Lights of Faith the Fervours of Charity the Vigours of Repentance and the Submissions of Humility For all this it often falls out that the Christian is not perfect when he dies that he is but a defective Image of the Son of God and that there is need for the flames of Purgatory to supply the negligence of our labour and the weakness of our vertue Nevertheless if he will during his life make use of a double address and joyn two Arts together to express Jesus Christ in himself he may make his designes happily succeed Painting and Carving do both of them make Images but the ways they take are extremely different for the Carver useth nothing but the Chizel he hews away whatever is superfluous in the Marble or in the Wood it seems to search for the Statue in its matter takes away that which covers it strips it to enrich it destroys it to perfect it and removes the form of a tree or of a stone onely to give it that of a Man or of a Beast The Painter goes a quite contrary way for he finisheth the Picture by laying Colour upon Colour draws the Pencil a hundred times over his work addes one dash upon another and emboldening bright Colours by dark ones extends Fields depresseth Valleys raiseth Mountains and does all those wonders which couzen our eyes and ravish our understandings To the compleating of a Christian and to form the Image of Jesus Christ in his soul these two contrary arts must be associated and the Statuaries industry and the Painters dexterity joyntly imitated Sculptoris Artem imitetur Christianus detrahat quotidie quod sibi nocet quod Deo displicet Hugo de sanct Vict. he must every day lop off some imperfection deface some bad habit pare away some vitious inclination and as if he sought for the beauty of Grace under the rubbish of Sin remove whatever seems to hide it from us But at the same time we must imitate the Painter adde vertue to vertue joyn patience to humility heighten constancy by sweetness mingle many good works together and by that pleasing medley perfect the Image of Jesus Christ The Pencil-must be sorted with the Chizel chop off as-Carvers do useless Pleasures superfluous Riches excessive Honours and at the same time like the Painter adde the practise of vertue the exercise of good works and the patient suffering of advesities Finally the most excellent disposition is so to engrave the Image of Jesus Christ in our heart that nothing can blot it out We draw figures upon the sand but a little wind blows them away we paint the water but the least storm spoils our fancy we cut in brasse and marble and these characters stand the fury of time and endure many ages The Image of Jesus Christ meets with all these different subjects in Christians sometimes 't is formed upon souls that have no more consistence then the sand or waves the wind of temptation scatters the impressions of grace and the least occasion makes them lose advantages they had received in the Sacrament of Repentance There are others more constant which keep the form they have taken who amidst the storms of grief preserve the character they bear and more lasting then brasse lose not in the flames what they have received from the Sacraments If we are of this number there remains no more to make us perfect but to render to Jesus Christ the submissions are due to him from his Images The first is to depend upon his will and to acknowledge that as we hold our being from his power so we expect the preservation thereof from his goodness There are some pieces that survive the Artists that have wrought them and having been made by mortal hands cease not in some sort to enjoy a kind of eternity There are other images which cannot subsist but by those that have given them their being Our presence produceth them in a Glass our absence quite defaceth them and they cease to live assoon as we cease to inanimate them Vt in nobis quasi in quodā speculo Divinae bonitatis forma resplendeat D. Leo. Christians are like these later Images The presence of Jesus Christ is necessary for their preservation and the Grace that produced them is the same that preserves and upholds them The second duty is to express him so happily that he may be seen in our person and that we may be taken for second Jesus Christs For if a picture be good it makes us know him it represents we see the lineaments of his face observe his behaviour and discover his very humours If the Christian be the Image of the Son of God he must have his air expresse his vertues imitate his actions and follow his motions The last duty of an Image is to serve for the glory of him whom it represents Could it speak it would publish nothing but his praises and would witness that being only his it espouseth no other Interests but what are his The Christian is bound to be of the same mind because he is the Image of the
THE Christian Man OR THE REPARATION OF NATURE BY GRACE Written in French BY JOHN FRANCIS SENAVLT And now Englished LONDON Printed for M. M. G. Bedell and T. C. and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in FLEETSTREET 1650. AN ADVERTISEMENT To the READER IT cannot be amiss for preventing of misapprehension or scandall by way of Advertisement to premonish the READER that the Authour which is very obvious to be perceived is a Roman Catholick whose opinions in what-ever repugnant to the established Doctrine of the Church of England the Translators intent is no way either to defend or promote That some such passages there may be and indeed are especially in the Sixth Treatise where he expresseth himself too grosly concerning the Christians Nourishment in the Sacrifice of the Altar as they usually phrase it as elsewhere glancing at Purgatory and other the espoused Tenents of the Church of Rome enforced by the necessity of the Discourse is no wonder to any man of Ingenuity the wonder is that there are no more All which rather then to cause a Chasme in the Work and so be guilty of an incivility to the Author are left to the Readers censure and which may give no small satisfaction the entire Peice delivered by way of Discourse far from any magisterial dogmatizing so that with some his modesty may soonest prove prejudiciall which siding with no Party doth therfore engage him upon the defensive against all those who pressing their opinions with too much heat think all expressions crude that are not peremptory Besides the whole intendment of the Author being to the praise and glory of the Grace of God which how remarkable in a Romanist and advantagious to Christianity none but a Pelagian will deny will I hope make the whole Work at least a passable Errour If therefore thy affection to the Subject shall invite thee to buy and thy charity to the Publisher who professeth himself no Master of Language bear thee company when thou readest in pardoning his Mistakes and giving a candid interpretation to his Intentions Thou wilt finde as thy honour to be a Man so thy perfection and happinesse to be a Christian man In the mean time referring thee to the Authors own Preface to usher thee in to the following Treatises the onely designe of this Preloquium is not at all to commend the Original but to prevent if possible any prejudging the Translation as scandalous to the Truths we professe by advancing contrary Doctrines under the disguise of well-worded Theologie which if so in the Authors native Stile will even upon that score perswade none but those who account all expressions true because handsome whereas this being a Translation wants that vanity of allurement having indeed the same face but the eys put out Read therefore and let thy Charity give it light or read not and thou art charitable still by leaving it in the dark Every way 't is at thy disposall Vnhappy He that is seduc'd by what himself is allow'd to guide Farewel The PREFACE SInce 't is the duty of Physicians to cure those diseases they have found out me thinks it concerns me having discover'd the miseries of Man a Criminal to let you see the advantages of Man justified and to search in the purity of Grace the cure of Nature corrupted by sin To acquit my self of this obligation is my businesse in this Work where by an innocent Murder I slay Man the Sinner to give birth to Man the Christian This seems to have been the principal designe of the Son of God and that next to the Glory of his Father he had no other motive for his Incarnation Nature though never so powerfull and wise forms onely our body and having prepared the organs for the operations of the soul leaves Morality the care of completing what she hath meerly decyphered This goes a step higher and finding Liberty and Reason in Man endeavours to husband them by her advice and precepts But if she be not assisted by Faith she fils her disciples with much vanity and in stead of making them Men many times renders them Divels Religion undertakes what Nature and Morality corrupted knew not how to accomplish she tryes to form the Christian Man by the Grace of Jesus Christ and in her School to teach him those verities he has not been able to learn in those of Philosophers To change his Inclinations she changeth his Beleef and giving him another Principle then what he received at his Birth makes him a new Creature In this Work I describe the miracles of Religion I report the means she useth to execute so high an Enterprize and as in guilty Man I took notice of the devastations of Sin in the Christian Man I observe the happy effects of Grace I consider him in all his Conditions and taking him at his Birth I lead him to his Happiness I look upon all his advantages and lest Pride should ruine him I present him with all his infirmities that perceiving what he hath drawn from Adam and what he hath received from Jesus Christ he may shake hands with the first and close with the second Not to wander in so difficult a path I have taken the Fathers of the Church for my Guides I tread in the steps of those Great Men she reverenceth as her Masters and knowing very well that a man cannot easily fail with those that destroy'd Heresies I stick to their opinions that so I may not fall into Errour But because S. Augustine seems one of the most famous and most sound he is one of those I most diligently consult From the beams of this Sun I borrow my Light I am instructed in the School of this Great Doctor and after the example of the Church I have drawn out of his Books the most part of those Truths I deliver in This. And as I do not lesse admire his profound Humility then his deep knowledge I labour to profit by both and defending his opinions without any eager heat I not onely reverence all those the Church doth not condemn but I am ready to renounce all my own when-ever she shall disprove them Having given the world this account of my opinions I conceive my self oblig'd to make information of my proceeding and order in this Work I promote very few Conceits which are not supported by the Authority of the Fathers and if somtimes I fail to relate their words faithfully I beleeve I never swerve from their meaning I have enriched my Margent with many passages which are not inserted into the Discourse but I hope I have no wayes disobliged the Reader in making him partaker of those Treasures I have discovered in Antiquity nor that he will be offended if like a Prodigall I keep no measure in my Largesses For what concerns the order I suppose I have very carefully observ'd it avoyding that confusion which is often incident to Works of this length and to impart some general Notion of
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
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
more sensible express more regret they are not content only to look upon the offended part but they shed tears to comfort it and many times cure it by that innocent remedy The Head which is seated in the most eminent place of the body stoops to succour this poor afflicted he forgets his condition to satisfie his love and giving a fair example to Soveraigns instructs them they ought to be sensible of all the miseries of the meanest of their subjects the Heart Nemo regi tam vilis sit ut illum perire non sentiat qualiscunque pars imperii sit Senec. which from the centre where it is lodged equally enlivens all the parts discovers its sense of pain by its regrets and mixing its sighs with the tears of the eyes and the complaints of the mouth gives a loud testimony it cannot be at quiet when the members it inanimates are afflicted The Hands that are the faithful ministers of the body discover their sorrow by their quickness of dispatch being more active then the rest they presently visit the distressed part they sound the malady apply remedies to it and evidence that if they be not so tender they are more serviceable then the Eyes or Tongue If all things were well regulated in the Church if the Faithful acted according to the motions of Grace and if Charity that combines them together were as lively in their Hearts as in those of the primitive Christians we should see in the mystical Body of Jesus Christ what we behold every day in the natural body of Man The affliction of one of these quickned Members would equally touch all the rest every one would do his office according to his power and imitating the good intelligence of parts composing the same body some would weep as the eyes others complain as the mouth and others assist as the hands This certainly was the consideration that wrought so much upon S. Paul's affections Docet utique Paulus saue veritatem patitur sua aliorum simul mala infirmitates tolerat solatur simul de communisalute de toto orbe sollicitus Ansel and obliged him to pronounce those words flowing from the greatness of his love Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not For as he came neerer Jesus Christ then other Christians did being closer united to this Head he sunk deeper into his minde and remembring the complaints he himself had drawn from his mouth when he persecuted the Church he endeavoured to repair that offence by compassion and in Mercy to imitate him whom he represented in Authority All Christians are bound to live in this disposition if they mean to satisfie their duty they must be afflicted with the miserable weep with those that weep and calling to minde that they are the Members of the same Body they must see no Innocents persecuted no Godly distressed but they must do their utmost to comfort them by condoling their misfortunes 'T is perhaps for this reason that the Church is called a Dove because sighs are as natural to her as to that Bird who having lost her mate spends her life in grief and solitude The Church is a widow and consequently solitary her Husband left her when he ascended up to heaven and though she be honoured with his presence being deprived of his sight she cannot secure her self from that anxiety her love works in her but she mourns as the Dove because being made up of as many Members as she hath Believers she is constrained to give her self over to Sorrow when she sees them in Calamity or in Danger Having considered the Afflictions of the Church let us consider the subject of her Joy and behold the community of Goods she hath set up among her children in that which Nature hath erected among members of the same body The union of these later is so great that though they have different offices yet cease they not to take pains one for the other The eyes see and hear not saith S. Augustine the ears hear and see not the hands act and hear not the feet walk and act not nevertheless their correspondence is so good that the eyes hear by the ears the ears see by the eyes the hands walk by the feet and the feet act by the hands so that if we ask the ears Can they judge of Colours they would answer Being in the unity of the body they are always with the eyes and if they see not themselves they are inseparable from those whose office it is to see for them Thus continues S. Augustine as the eyes say we hear by the ears and the ears We see by the eyes and both of them We act by the hands all is common among these parts their difference destroys not their unity and though their employments be divers they live in so perfect a society that the advantages of the one part make up the riches of all the rest If Christians be Members of Jesus Christ they enjoy the same priviledges all their goods are common and if envie divide them not from their Head they possess in Him whatever is wanting in Themselves The Alliance they have with his Body enriches them with another's good without any injustice and like the members of a man which act in one anothers behalf they foretel things to come by the mouth of the Prophets they are understood of all Nations by those that have the gift of Tongues they work miracles by the hands of the Apostles and they attribute to themselves without vanity whatever the Saints are able to do in the mystical Body of Jesus Christ For one of the secrets of the Natural body saith S. Augustine is that the relation of the members is so perfect that each particular labours not so much for it self as for others The eye is the onely part that can see but it sees not for it self alone it is the candle of the feet in their walking of the hands in working and of all the other members in their employments Indeed if it discover any danger threatning the foot it endeavours to protect it and gives notice that it may be avoided The hand acts onely but not for it self alone it defends the face if stricken at courageously opposeth any enemy that braves it and knowing that their interests are common valiantly suffers the evil to deliver the body from it All the members are silent there is none but the tongue that speaks but she is their interpreter and furnisheth them with words to express their like or dislike their sorrow or joy Thus must we confess in the mystical body of Jesus Christ the Faithful receive no benefit which is not reckoned as pertaining to the rest If they be prudent 't is to counsel the simple if they work miracles 't is to convert Infidels or to confirm weak Believers if they have the spirit of Prophecie 't is to instruct the ignorant if they have the gift of
the Eucharist the Consummation hereof we have engaged our word when we were admitted into the Church and receiving the character of our servitude we have given bond for our Faithfulness But in the Mystery of the Eucharist he deals with our souls as with his Spouse we become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he enters into our bosome and we into his his body and ours are animated with the same Spirit and partaking in all the qualities of our Beloved we have right to his most glorious priviledges But so noble an Alliance requires a great affection and much fidelity This Lover is jealous he will raign alone in the hearts that he possesseth as he cannot endure a Competitor in his State so neither can he a Rival in his Love he will have nothing loved but for his sake and because our adhesion to the Creature is not without imperfections he never beholds it without grief nor leaves it without punishment Whatever is prejudicial to Fidelity displeaseth he never breaks his word and therefore cannot endure we should fail of our duty He will keep what he hath once gotten and seeing his Power is equal to his Love he is as severe in his Revenge as he is liberal in his Favours When I consider the obligations we have to his Goodness I never wonder that his Justice corrects us but I am ashamed there should be any souls so negligently careless as to provoke him and that after so many favours any should be so wretched as to betray their duty and abandon Jesus Christ Nevertheless this crime is so common among Christians that those who will not break their word with an Enemy take no care to be true to the Son of God basely desert his party lodge the devil in the same Throne where they had seated their Soveraign and take an Adulterer into the bed from whence they have driven their lawful Husband If the remembrance of his favours cannot produce love in our souls the terrour of punishments must beget Fear For if he be our Beloved in the Eucharist he is also our Judge and having fruitlesly exhibited testimonies of his Goodness Qui enim manducat bibit indigne judicium fibi manducat hibit non dijudicans corpus Domini 1 Cor. 11. will sensibly inflict marks of his indignation The great Apostle of the Gentiles tells us that he that receiveth unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that the Devil being the Minister of the Divine Justice takes visible possession of the soul of that Delinquent that he erects an Altar in his heart and of his slave making his victime engageth him in despair having engaged him in Sacriledge Et post buccellū introivit in cum Satanas Joan. 13. Thus dealt he with Judas when he had communicated unworthily The Evangelist observes that he entred into his soul urged him to execute his abominable design for a light interest obliterated out of his mind the remembrance of all the favours he had received from his Master and tumbling him from one precipice to another from Covetousnesse tempted him to Treachery from Treason to Sacriledge Diabolus intravit in cor ut traderet eum Judas quomodo intravit in cor nisi immittendo iniquas persuasiones cogitatienibus iniquorum Aug. de Consen Evang from Sacriledge to Parricide and from Parricide to Desperation For when the wicked spirit that possessed him had counselled him to betray the Son of God he counselled him to hang himself and setting him against himself made him make use of his own hands to inflict a just and cruel death upon himself Finally there is no mystery wherein the Son of God manifests more love or more severity where he obligeth more dearly or punisheth more strictly or pardons more rarely and because the crimes committed here are the greatest it seems the vengeance inflicted upon them is most memorable The first of all sinners is a great Saint in Heaven The man that was our Father and our Parricide both together De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quod eum in inferno solverit Christus Ecclesia fere tot a consentit quod eam non inaniter credidisse credendum est Aug. Epist 99. ad Enod The Criminal who is accessory to all the transgressions of the world The Father that engageth all his posterity in his offences and his punishment The Rebel who makes an Insurrection of all his Descendants against their lawful Soveraign That unfortunate Chief who lives yet after his death sins still in his members and by a dreadful prodigy being happy in his person is miserable and guilty in his posterity That old man who is new born in every sinner and in one word That Adam who committed a fault whole nature bewails to this day found his pard on in his repentance and whiles he sees Hel pepled with his off-spring enjoys glory with the Angels in Heaven That great King whom God raised to the Throne against all humane probability That Stripling who without arms gave a Gyant battle That Shepheard whose Crook was turned into a Scepter who reckoned his victories by his combats and boasted that the Lord of Hosts had trained him up in the Discipline of War This Prince who forgetting all these favours joyned Murder to Adultery and made an Innocent dye to cloak the dishonour of a debauched woman This glorious Criminal who saw all the Vials of Heaven poured down upon his Head his Kingdome divided his subjects revolted and his own children in the head of an Army against him This famous Delinquent reigns in glory with the Son of God his tears have washed away his iniquities and his grief more powerful then his offence opened him the gate of Heaven That Apostle who having received so many testimonies of affection from his Master forsook him so shamefully in the Garden of Gethsemane denyed him so openly in the house of Caiaphas is as great in Heaven as he was upon Earth The Church to this day reverenceth his Injunctions the Popes boast themselves his Successours and all the faithful glory in being his children That young man full of zeal and and fury who intended to strangle Christianity in the very Cradle who was the boutefew of the first persecution against the Disciples of Jesus who stoned Saint Stephen by their hands whose cloaths he kept De caelo vocavi una voce percussi alia erexi elegi tertia implevi misi quarta liberavi coronavi Aug. hath found his salvation in his sin He was converted when he went about to plunge himself in the bloud of the first believers he received Grace when he was upon the very point of encreasing the number of Parricides in one moment he became a Preacher of the Gospel an Apostle of the Son of God and the Master of the Gentiles But the first that ever profaned the Body of Jesus Christ and committed a Sacriledge in approaching the Altar
this Cordiall And as servile souls are gained by Profit generous souls are wonne by Honour They would perswade us that of all externall goods it is the noblest and the most faithfull the Noblest because it relates to the minde and never descends so low as to the senses as Interest or Pleasure doe the most Faithfull because it never abandons vertue and accompanies men even to their Grave Delights quit us with life these pleasing Syrenes bear us company till death and at their departure leave us nothing but shame and repentance Riches are not more faithfull then Pleasures and as they descend not with our Bodies into the Grave neither doe they pass with our souls into the other world But Glory is inseparable from Vertue as the shadow from Light it is the onely Inheritance the dead may dispose of that which makes them survive in the world and preserves them from oblivion after their dissolution Finally Honour and Vertue are so closely combined together that they cannot be divided without occasioning their destruction They are Twins whose destiny is so like that the Death of the one leaves the other livelesse and the onely way to banish vertue out of the world is to exterminate Glory thence which serves her for a nourishment and a recompence But whatever the Ambitious would say there needs but a little reason to confesse that there is nothing in the world more jejunely brittle then Glory nor that men ever treated vertue more injuriously then when they assigned Honour for her Recompence For if Glory be a Good 't is a strange one and is oftner the fortunate mans portion then the deservings Honorary It reacheth not always to us and when dispenced with Justice it rests in the minde of those that know or publish our worth so that we should be happy without knowing it and receive honour without any contentment But certainly did we know it our satisfaction would not be the more For the Good that produceth Beatitude must be constant and immutable if it be subject to change 't is to loss and whatever good may fail is not productive of true felicity Now there is nothing in the world that depends more upon fortune then honour 't is the work of opinion 't is a rumour founded upon the Capriciousness of the people who look upon nothing but appearances and in their Judgements for the most part consult nothing but their interest or pleasure If Conquerors are unhappy because victories which are their master-peices depend upon fortune I account them not less miserable because Glory which is the reward of their courage depends upon the opinion of the vulgar and that in this point their Subjects and their Souldiers become their Judges and their Soveraigns If their Felicity be such that they can force men to render them that honour they deserve they ought to take heed least those that commend them deceive Qui laudant mendaces sunt qui laudantur vani Aug. and being Masters of their tongues they be not also of their hearts May they not be afraid also that the judgment of wise men is not the same with the vulgar that whilst they are adored by servile and mercenary souls they are blamed by free and generous ones who more considering the actions then the persons prize vertue in a slave and condemn vice in a Monarch But what satisfaction can they have in the midst of their Triumphs if the reproaches of their consciences give their commendations the lye Plures magnum saepe nomen salsis vulgi rumoribus attulerunt quo quid turpius excogitari potest nam qui falso praedicantur suis ipsi necesse est laudibus erubescant Boet. l. 4. de Conso will they not be extreamly wretched amidst the acclamations of the people if they blame what others appland and if they are conscious that in the managing of a state or in the Conquest of a Province they have laboured more for their own Glory then for the good of their Subjects Are they not more worthy of punishment then Honour if they have preferred reputation before their Duty and have ruin'd their neighbours onely to gain the name of Conquerors But admit for their satisfaction that their desires are lawfull their Conquests just the praises they receive true who can tell whether the opinions of men agree with those of Angels who is sure that Heaven approves what the Earth so highly values and whether God prepare not punishments for those victories men solemnize with Triumphs True glory depends upon him that reads the heart who sees the intentions in the ground of the will Therefore saith the Apostle That he indeed was praise-worthy that received commendations from the mouth of God Illuminabit abscondita tenebrarum manifestabit consilia cordium tunc laus erit unicuique à Deo 1 Cor. 4. and not from that of men Men are mistaken in their words as well as in their thoughts as they judge not but by the appearances they blame an obscure vertue and cry up a glittering vice David therefore would not have his glory depend upon the judgement of his subjects He committed his Reputation as well as his Crown into the hands of God and protested in his Psalms that as he owed his Victories to the protection of the Almighty from him also did he expect glory as the recompence Apud te laus mea The Philosophers were of the same minde because that defining glory they would not have it grounded upon the opinion of the Vulgar but upon the judgement of the wise Gloria vera bonorum consensus est Senec. and that he onely was honourable who by his worth had gained the approbation of honest men But who knows not that vertue is too generous to seek her felicity where she will not so much as look for her reward she looks upon honour as her slave rather then her master and when she acts she consults not so much her reputation as her conscience she is so noble that she looks after no other end but God and so just that she requires no other witnesse but he that must be her Judge This Maxim is not so severe but it hath been embraced by Philosophers For though the Romans committed this outrage against vertue as to subject it to Glory and these grand Politicians to animate their Citizens to generous and difficult actions had perswaded them that none entred into the Temple of Honour but through that of Vertue yet Seneca rightly acknowledged that there was injustice in this proceeding that it was to subject the Soveraign to his slave and that sometimes there were occasions offered where a man must betray his Honour to preserve his Vertue Piety had taught the chast Susanna this Maxim when seeing that she could not preserve her chastity without the losse of her reputation she sacrificed her honour to her duty and preferred the approbation of Angels to the opinion and esteem of men Glory then
is not the true happiness of Christians because they are obliged to renounce it and there is great reason to believe that Humility hath more Analogy with Beatitude because it accompanies the Blessed in the midst of their Grandeurs Indeed this vertue is the foundation of Christian Religion it is that which the Son of God came to teach us by his words and actions The way he held to come to us and that we must walk in to come to him Let us explain these Verities and make it appear that the true Glory of a Christian consists in Humility This vertue is so necessary and withall so difficult that God was fain to become Man to teach it us Philosophers who were informed with vain glory knew not the name of it and if it came amongst them it past rather for a fault then a perfection Aristotle confessed that Modesty was a species of Vertue but consisting in a mediocrity Magister noster per quem facta sunt omnia vocat genus humanum dicit discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde Forte putaebas dicturum discite quomodo caelos feci astra Aug. it suffered not man to debase himself below his inferiours or his equals The Son of God was united to flesh to read us this lesson and confirming by his words what he had taught us by his examples hath made it the principal subject of his entertainments He that knew all things hath propounded his humility only as imitable and he chose rather to make his Disciples humble then learned The Incarnate Wisdom opening his School upon Earth taught us not the secret to create worlds to dart thunderbolts to govern states but to mitigate our anger to abase our pride Inasmuch as he became like us in humbling himself we become like him laying our selves low and by a strange prodigy humility gives us accesse to him as Pride puts us at a distance from him Man was ruined in striving to grow great his vanity gave birth to his misery nor did he fall from his Greatnesse but because he would climbe above his defarts To draw him out of this abysse the Son of God threw himself into it and to place him higher then the Angels he descended lower then Man He was laden with their sins and languishings that by different degrees he might descend to the very Center of debasement His humility was the passage to his glory his Father exalted him because he vouchsafed to be humbled and his Crosse which was the last proof of his Patience became the Fountain of his Greatnesse According to his example we cannot aspire to honour but by humility we enter into grace by lowliness arrive at glory by humility and we finde that this vertue producing its contrary restores us those high immunities Vanitie had ravished from us If after death it lead us to glory whilst we live it gives us some earnests thereof nor are we ever more content then when most humble The Earth is not the mansion of pleasure because in it man is always exposed to danger he findes enemies in all places and which way soever he turns he is apprehensive of detriment Prosperity makes him insolent the sweetness that flatters corrupts him and this pleasing enemy hath no charms which may not engage him in sin Frangitur adversis qui prosperis corrumpitur Aug. Adversity renders him a coward its batteries slat his courage and this fierce enemy hath no afflictions which are not sufficient to cast him into despair The vertues offer him their assistance in his need Repentance who boasts her self the punisher of all offences and the protectresse of all vertues sets upon pleasures and by its severities masters their allurements Patience suffers the pains of life struggles with discontents and mingling tears with bloud triumphs over grief and death Humilitas est maxima disciplina Christiana ipsâ námque conservatur omnis virtus nam nihil citius eam violat quuā superbia Aug. But we must needs acknowledge that these vertues without humility would grow insolent of their good success and man would finde his defeat in his victory if this faithfull Confident did not minde him that his strength depends upon grace and that the Christian who is not humbled cannot subdue Satan who is a proud spirit To establish us in a vertue which causeth our felicity upon Earth we must remember that it is not true if it reside not in the will as well as in the understanding not perfect if it have not as much heat as light and little exceeds that of Devils if it pass not from knowledge to affection Therefore he that means to be humble must despise himself Having made some good progresse in the practise of this duty he must wish that others may despise him and being perfectly established in this disposition he must finde his joy in contempt ann his torment in honour The Seventh DISCOURSE That Felicity is found rather in obedience then in command IF there be any thing in the world the possession whereof can promise us felicity we must confess it is the power of commanding For Kings are Gods Vicegerents the Interpreters of his Intentions Ego ex omnibus mortalibus electus sum qui in terris Deorum vice fungerer Ego vitae necisque gentibus arbiter quid cuique mortalium fortuna datum velit meo ore pronuntiar Sen. de Clem. and the Disposers of Life and Death Fortune saith a Heathen expresseth her self by their mouth acts by their hands and sheds abroad happinesse or misery through a state by their conduct Their wils are laws their aspects more powerful then those of the stars and as they please to dispense sweetness or indignation they make Cities happy or miserable All their soldiers devote themselves to death for their service all Swords are drawn in their quartel Peace and War is in their hands nor are there any Subjects whose losse or safety depends not upon their orders They dispense at their pleasure liberty and servitude content and sorrow and all that hold of their Crown confesse they are the Authors of their good or bad fortune When they appear in publick it seems they are Suns which fill the Firmament when they speak all the world is attentive when they are angry they make their Kingdomes tremble and when they punish an offendor they astonish all Innocents The holy Scripture which cannot flatter Soveraigns and ranks them among slaves when compared with the Almighty makes them pass for Gods when compared with men it prescribes no bounds to their power allots them no Judge but their Creator and whatever exorbitance they have committed teacheth us they are to render an account to none but him from whom they hold their Crown If Priests have a power to reprove them God onely hath a right to punish them and when they abuse their Authority their subjects have only prayers and tears to reduce them to their duty Therefore it
Continence to our relief to defend us from pleasures that tickle us sometimes we demand help of Fortitude to combat griefs that assault us sometimes we throw our selves into the arms of Justice to deliver us from enemies that oppress us But in Heaven all these Vertues are idle onely Charity is active and yet rests in acting her action is to love what she sees her rest to possess what she loves and her felicity to know that she shall never lose what she enjoys If you cannot suffer saith S. Augustine that the Vertues to which we owe Heaven be banished thence imagine them there more for your ornament then defence never conceive that they fight but perswade your selves that they triumph and having vanquished all their enemies enjoy a Peace which shall endure for all Eternity The Ninth DISCOURSE That the Christians Soul and Body shall finde their Perfection in Beatitude MAn is such a hidden Creature that he cannot well be known without Faith He is mistaken as often as he intends to pass judgement upon himself and the errours that have appeared in his own definition have given us occasion to conclude that he was ignorant of his own essence when he consulted his Sense he believed he was nothing but a Body and if there were a spirit that informed him it was perishable and mortal when he consulted his Pride he conceited himself a pure Spirit which either for his penalty or for his trial was included in a Body as in a prison from which he should be delivered by death These two errours produced two grand disorders in the world The first engaged Man in the love of his Body and the oblivion of his Soul he made no account but of sensual Pleasures and knowing no life but the present never troubled himself about the future He was of opinion that Death was the end of his Being and that nothing remaining of him after his dissolution he need fear neither any Punishment nor expect any Recompence The second errour made him so mightily undervalue his Body that he repined at it as a Slave and handled it as a Rebel he had recourse many times to Death that being delivered from this enemy he might mix with pure Intelligences and raign with Gods or Devils Faith which corrects our errours obligeth us to believe that Man is neither an Angel nor a Beast that he is compounded of a Body and a Soul and if he have the First common with Beasts he hath the Second common with Angels The same Faith perswades him that Death deprives him of his body but for a time onely that at the General Resurrection it shall be re-united to the soul to partake of its good or bad fortune Therefore treating here of the felicity of Christians I am necessarily to speak of the two parts that compose them and of the different happiness the Divine Justice prepares for them respectively Inasmuch as the soul is the noblest she is also most happily provided for and her Beatitude infinitely surpasseth that of the body Tunc nec falli nec peccare homines possunt veritate illuminati in bono confirmati Aug. When she quits her prison and is purified of all her imperfections by the grace of Jesus Christ she enters into Glory and receives all the advantages which are due to her dignity and condition Ignorance which is a brand of sin is quite defaced by the brightness that enlightens her her weakness is fortified by a supply which being much more powerful then that of Grace raiseth her to a condition wherein she cannot desert the good nor embrace the evil and where as Saint Augustine saith she is in a happy impotency to wander from her duty and estrange her self from the Supream good Assurance succeeds in the place of fear rest in stead of conflicts triumphs after victories she is no longer constrained to resist the motions of the flesh because this rebell is become obedient and losing in the Resurrection whatever he drew from Adam at his Birth hath now none but just and holy inclinations The Spirit is no longer busied to maintain a war against sin because this Monster cannot enter Heaven he groans not now under the revolt of the passions and as all the vertues are peaceable they finde neither enemies to subdue nor rebels to tame Her knowledge is no longer accompanied with doubts and darkness she learnes without labour is not afraid to forget and drawing light and wisdom from the very Fountain knows all things in their Principles In this happy condition there remains nothing for the Christian to wish for his soul is penetrated by the Divine Essence his understanding clarified with the light of glory his will inflamed with the love of God and all his powers and faculties finding their particular perfection in one object he confesseth that the promises of God exceed his hopes Though his body have been polluted by his birth and corrupted by death it findes life in the Resurrection and Purity in Glory For assoon as the Trumpet of the Angel shall have declared the will of God every soul shal reassume her own body reuniting her self with it shall give it a part in her happiness The greatness of this wonder hath found no belief in the mindes of Philosophers though they were perswaded of the Immortality of the soul they would not consent to the Resurrection of the body and having seen it made a prey to wilde Beasts or fuel for the flames they judged there was no power in the world could restore it again The spirit of man hath favoured this errour and believing his eyes rather then his light could not finde in his heart to place that part of man in heaven which he saw committed to the grave he was afraid to weary the power of the Almighty if he should oblige him to so many miracles and not comprehending how a body reduc'd to powder or smoak could take its primitive form chose rather to leave it in the Earth then draw it thence with so much violence But had he thought of the Creation he had never doubted of the Resurrection and Reason her self had perswaded him that seeing God was able to finde the body in Non-Entity where it was not he might very well finde it in the waters or in the slames where there was yet some remainder thereof If Nothing were not rebellious to him Nature cerrainly will not be disobedient and if he could make that which was not he may as easily repair what now is not Nothing perisheth in respect of the Creator the dead are not less his subjects then those that never were born and if he could make Non-Entity hear him he may well make death obey him The miracle of Resurrection is perhaps attended with more pomp then that of the Creation but there is less difficulty in it and he that could vanquish the distance between Entity and Non-Entity will have no great matter to do to master the opposition