Soul as with the Body this cannot move without changing of place but that needs onely change her affection and presently she ascends she is where she would be her love makes all her objects present and assoon as over she sixeth her affection upon any thing 't is no longer at a distance This is it which he delivers admirably in another passage We can never be better then when we are with him whom nothing can equal in goodness we go thither not walking but loving and he is so much the neerer and at hand by how much our Love is more pure and vigorous Then letting us see the advantage Charity hath above Concupiscence he brings in God speaking these words which evidence an Oracle I command you to love me and I assure you that in doing so you shall enjoy me Sinners possess not all that they love there are covetous worldlings that sigh for gold and yet are poor Ambitious persons that are passionate for glory and yet are infamous but every one that loves me findes me I am with him that seeks for me his love makes me present in his soul assoon as he longs for me I am in his embraces and I leave off to be absent assoon as he begins to be in love with me Though there is not any lover that hath spoken more nobly of this residence of God in our souls by Charity then S. Augustine the Fathers his followers have used the same language and once instructed in the School of Divine Love have acknowledged that 't was impossible to love God and not to possess him Qui mente integra Deum desiderat profecto jam habet quem amat neque enim quisquam posset Deum diligere si hunc quem diligit non haberet Greg. mag in Moral See what S. Gregory saith in his Morals which differs little from what S. Augustine hath delivered in his Confessions The Believer that seeks after God without dividing his affections possesseth him already whom his soul loveth For he could never be amorous for him were he not filled with his love and inanimated with his presence S. Bernard who serves for an Interpreter to the Spouse in the Canticles and expresseth her minde with as much innocent nakedness as winning sweetness brings her in holding the same discourse She comforts her self in the absence of her Beloved by the belief she hath that she bears him in her heart and that she is the living throne of him who never forsakes her but to exercise her patience Let us conclude this Discourse with the highest operation of Love and say that this last effect is to transform Lovers into the things that they love and to stamp them with their qualities This property is so natural to Love that it remains with it even when it exerciseth its power over inanimate things If the Elements jar if they trouble the peace of the Universe by their contestations if these four bodies that compose all others seem to engage whole Nature in their quarrels 't is Love that obligeth them to the combat and when Fire and Water dispute in the bosome of the clouds or in the bowels of the earth they have no other designe but to transform each other Love hath a greater share in their difference then Ambition neither do they strive so much to destroy one another as to be united that they may be but one and the same thing Concupiscence succeeds wonderfully in this enterprise she imprints in men all the qualities of those objects she obligeth them to be in love with and by a strange Metamorphosis deprives them of their proper inclinations to indue them with strange external ones They become abominable as the things that they doat upon they change their Nature in changing their Love and we see by experience that Lascivious persons become effeminate as the women they caress that the Ambitious assume the vanity of that glory they court and the Covetous become as sensless as the metal they adore Similes eis fiant qui saciuns ea omnes qui confidunt in eis Psal 115. Therefore David justly wished that Idolators following the laws of Love might become like their Idols and might lose speech and motion for their love towards dumb and sensless gods that the Israelites might more easily defeat them in the combat But inasmuch as Concupiscence plays the deceiver she makes good but half her promises to her servants For she transforms them onely to their loss she changeth them meerly to make them miserable and of all the qualities the things they love are indued with she communicates none to them for the most part but bad ones The Lustful who contract the lightness of women gain not their beauty The Covetous who grow stupid as their metal extract not its value and the Ambitious who vapour like the glory they feed upon become not always Soveraigns But Charity which is more sincere and more powerful then Concupiscence happily transforms Christians into what they love she imprints upon them the qualities of heaven and makes them heavenly upon earth by different degrees it exalts them as high as Divinity it self she gives them what the devil promised their first father she changeth them into Gods by a holy Metamorphosis and makes them innocently obtain what Pride made them heretofore insolently covet For Mans most ancient passion is to be like God this was his crime and his desire in Paradise 't was upon this consideration that he listned to the devil and under this hope he violated the command of God His Pride was punished with an ignominious brand and he that pretended to an equality with his Soveraign saw himself reduced to the condition of his meanest Subjects This correction made him not forget his desire he preserved his arrogance in the midst of his misery and being but the relique of innocent man he could not forbear to wish to be a God Piety hath taught him an honest means to content his ambition Grace takes pains to assimilate him according to his desire the Vertues are so many draughts compleating this Image but Charity their Queen gives it perfection She it is that satisfies his longings and raising him above himself happily transforms him into God This is the end of all the designes of this august Vertue the Master-piece of her power the triumph of her glory and when she hath brought Man to this height of felicity she is content because he is happie Let us not advance so important a Vertue without caution let us make it appear that he who was so well acquainted with the nature of Love was not ignorant of his effects Let us make use of the words of S. Augustine Men saith he take their name from what they love they owe their condition to their affection as wives take the quality of their husbands and Lovers those of their Mistresses so in loving the earth they become earthly in loving heaven they become heavenly and carrying their
that his Body is the Holocaust of his Love our Understanding must be the Victim of our Faith 'T is in this occasion that we ought to relie upon the Power and Truth of him that worketh this Miracle and examining the difficulties that combat our Faith we are onely to consider that he that hath drawn All things out of Nothing is still able to extract his Body out of the substance of the Bread Haec Sacramenta necessario fidem exigunt rationem non admittunt Bern. and change one thing into another since he was able to produce what was not This is the Mystery must be approached unto in the simplicity of Faith where we must believe Jesus Christ whom we do not see that Darkness being the midwife of Light we may behold him in heaven whom we have believed upon earth The second disposition of the Christian is derived from the second quality of this heavenly meat All Religion informs us that Heaven bestows this Nutriment upon us by the mighty power of its Love every effect we observe therein is a Miracle never will the Prodigies of Manna equal those of the Eucharist Tota ratio facti potentia facientis Aug. nothing is done here according to the laws of Nature God dispenseth with all those rules in other occurrences he obligeth himself unto and we may say that in this adorable Mystery he consults onely his Power and his Goodness He changeth the Elements without altering their qualities he sustains Accidents without their Substances he multiplies his Body without dividing it he nourisheth the Faithful with his Flesh without wasting it he is present in a thousand places at the same instant Whilst Men possess him the Angels do not lose him he is wholly in heaven and wholly upon the earth and as if the Incarnation were but an Essay of the Eucharist this gives all the world the same Body the other indulged onely to Judea Such a cloud of Miracles exact our silence and astonishment we must admire what we cannot comprehend and making Ignorance serviceable to Piety say with the Prophet Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis magnus in operibus suis Indeed if we admire the wonders of Nature if that which surpasseth our apprehension ravish our understanding if the disorder of the Elements or the irregularity of the Seasons strike a kinde of awe into us Ought we not greatly to respect a Mystery whose every circumstance is a Miracle and every effect a Prodigie But inasmuch as this Food is an Earnest of Glory and this Feast whereto the Faithful are invited is a figure of that Eternal Banquet which the Blessed sit down at we must bring along with us Desire and Hope God gives us nothing upon the earth which he doth promise us aforehand to occasion our desires But because Promises are not bare words Judaei quippe habebant quandam umbram nos veritatem Judaei fuerunt servi nos filii Judaei per mare transierunt ad Eremum nos per Baptismum intravimus in Regnum Judaei Manna manducaverunt nos Christum Judaei pruinam nos Deum caeli Salvia he many times gives us a part of what he hath promised Though the Law were but a shadow of Truth the Sacraments thereof but vain and empty Figures yet did they contain something that the Israelites were to hope for by them Manna had qualities expressing those of the Body of Jesus Christ The Law though obscure was an exposition of the Gospel and rightly understood obliged us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves The Sea which favoured their retreat in parting asunder and coming together again swallowed up the Egyptians darted forth some glimmerings of light amidst these shades of darkness and by sensible effects exhibited what was to be acted upon our souls in the Sacrament of Baptism The Land of Promise had some resemblance with that of the Living its plenty was an image of the felicity of heaven where nothing is wanting to the blessed inhabitants Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the pledges we receive in the New Testament are far more certain and substantial They exhibit the best part of what they promise they do what they make shew of and joyning the Figure with the Substance we may say that without depriving us of the quality of the Faithful they procure us that of the Blessed Baptism which raiseth us to the dignity of the Sons of God gives us admittance into his Inheritance we are already new creatures and though not yet perfected by Glory are notwithstanding begun to be wrought upon by Grace We are the members of Jesus Christ though we remain the members of Adam if the Charity the holy Ghost hath shed abroad in our hearts quench not Concupiscence at least it abolisheth the sin and though our righteousness be imperfect it fails not to be true The Incarnation raiseth our hopes and having seen a God made Man in being born of a Virgin we have not much ado to believe that Men may become Gods in being born of the Church But not to enter upon a deduction which would lead too far from the Subject of my discourse we need onely consider the Eucharist to be perswaded of this Verity It is a pledge wherein God performs what he promiseth 'T is part of that sum he bids us hope for Sacramenta prima erant praenvnitiativa Christi ideo ablata quia completa alia sunt instituta virtute majora utilitate meliora actu feliciora numero pauciora Aug. an Antepast of the felicity we expect neither is there any Christian who is not fully assured to possess Jesus Christ in heaven because he so entirely enjoys him on earth He waits with patience for the effect of so many gracious promises whereof he hath received such certain earnest he comforts himself in his discontents from the consideration of his advantages neither can he doubt that he that is so often sacrificed for his salvation will not wholly communicate himself for his happiness This infallible Gage exacts from us as much Desire as Confidence It is not enough to be assured of the promise of God we must long to have it effected our enjoyment ought to produce our yearning after it All Christians must be like Daniel men of desires and renouncing the things of the world fix all their pretensions towards heaven This Mystery that unites them to Jesus Christ must raise them as high as God and when his presence is vanished with the species the desires that Grace inspires them with must give them another rellish of what the natural heat hath made them lose by digestion This disposition prepares us for another more noble and more holy For if we are to express our longings because the Body of the Son of God is a pledge of his Promises we ought to be indued with Love and Fidelity because this Sacrament is a Marriage of his soul with ours Baptism is the Beginning and
Ignorant Bond and Free may securely imitate him Had he lived deliciously Talem se in omnibus rebus praebuit ut oivina clementia quò porrigi humana insirmitas quò possit evehi sentiremus Aug. de util Cred. he had disheartned the Miserable had he conquered Kingdoms and commanded Armies had he heaped up Riches or sought after Dignities the Poor and Fearful had never followed him and had he preferred Pleasure before Grief or Glory before Humility he had had none but the Ambitious or Voluptuous for his Disciples But having placed the felicity of the earth in the contempt of Pleasure and Honour there is none but may be of his School The Distressed comfort themselves in his sufferings they endure Persecution with complacency when they consider his Cross and finding their strength in his weakness they are not troubled when afflicted because they worship a God who was willing to live and die in sorrow The Great and the Rich also may imitate him for besides that they may forsake their goods and instate themselves in a voluntary poverty they ought not to esteem what Jesus Christ hath undervalued and if they are fully perswaded that he is the Eternal Wisdom it becomes them to believe that the condition he hath chosen is the surest and most holy Thence it came to pass that the Primitive Christians that had no other Morality then the Life of the Son of God distributed their goods to the Poor when they entered into the Church and were of opinion that it was to doubt of the Maximes of their Master not to follow his Examples Though Piety be now grown cold we have still light enough to know that the Christian is obliged to contemn Present things and to hope for Future He hath not embraced Religion to finde his acquiescence in this world He is no sooner admitted into the School of Christ but he learns that the earth is his Banishment and heaven his Country nor that he is to make any account of perishable goods further then they may conduce to the gaining of eternal he useth his Riches to purchase the glory of heaven endures persecutions as Trials embraceth poverty as an Advantage grief as an Exercise fasting as a Remedy and setting no estimate upon things but as they relate to his end accounts those most beneficial which take him off from the world and fix him upon Jesus Christ The true Christian saith S. Augustine never need trouble himself to grow rich if his ancestors have left him any possessions he ought to account them false that he may long after true ones and that the contempt he hath of Those may raise the opinion he hath of These For 't is a certain Maxime as the same Saint goes on that the man that loves Earthly goods hath but little minde towards those of Heaven and that he that is besotted with the delights of the present world never dreams of the pleasures of the world to come Finally the Christian is not Regenerated in the Church to seek for his happiness upon Earth he makes no reckoning of what the Wicked possess and he perceives that Riches and Honours are not the rewards of the Just Non ad hoc sumus Christiani ut terrenam nobis felicitatem quaetamus quaÌ„ plerumque habent latrones scelerati Aug. because God bestows them upon his enemies He suffers Infidels to raign to instruct his Disciples he abandons the fairest part of the world to them that persecute him to teach us that Heaven is our Patrimony and as he punisheth not all Crimes here belowe neither doth he recompense all Vertues to perswade us that there is another life where Misery and Happiness are real Therefore is it that all the Faithful finde not here matter of Joy and Rejoycing they use transitory things with so much discretion that they no way prejudice those Eternal ones they look for and believing themselves Pilgrims upon earth are afraid to meet with some Charm which making this Exile too agreeable may occasion them to lose the remembrance of their dear Countrey As the Christian ought to contemn Pleasures so is it his part to prize Sorrow and to remember that his two Births though never so different oblige him equally to suffer The First exposeth him to the persecution of the Creatures to the unfaithfulness of the Senses to the revolt of the Passions and because Criminal engageth him in Misery and Suffering Man is born of a woman Homo natus de muliere ideo cum reatu brevi vivens ideo cum metu multis repleretur miseriis ideo cum fleiu Bern. saith S. Bernard with Job therefore is his nativity mixed with shame and sin and whoever is the son of a woman is miserable and guilty he lives but a short time thefore spends his yeers in fear and trembles lest every day should be his last He is overwhelmed with miseries therefore he weeps continually and following the course of the Distressed endeavours to appease his Judge or mitigate his Pain with his tears His Second birth obligeth him to Sorrow Jesus Christ gave him life upon the Cross the Church conceived him in Persecution and his father and mother joyntly engage him in the Combat he is no Christian if he do not suffer he is unworthy of so fair a name if he be not afflicted nor does he yet believe if in the midst of his rest he resent no displeasures For as S. Augustine saith excellently well if he be truely faithful he must be zealous for the glory of Jesus Christ he cannot see his Person dishonoured or his Commandments violated but he is grieved at it Bad examples trouble him the Kingdom of Satan torments him the impiety of his Ministers vexeth him and when he hath none of these rude trials his being yet at a distance from heaven is enough to make him account himself miserable In the mean time he hath no other felicity but pain though he groan he knows that Delights are more tragical then Discontents he is glad of persecution and storming his spirit changeth his complaint into grateful acknowledgements because he is perswaded that Vertue is not preserved but by infirmities For his comfort he many times entertains himself with this Maxime he labours to establish himself in the belief of this Paradox and blesseth afflictions because if just they increase his Merit if guilty serve for his Correction And certainly we must câ—â—fess that in all these dispositions he imitates his Divine Pattern For as S. Augustine judiciously observes the Son of God despised riches to teach us that they are not solid goods and chose sorrow to let us see that they were not true evils He hath given us no counsel which he hath not practised beforehand all his admonitions were confirmed by his examples and knowing very well that actions perswade better then words he would have his life the pattern of ours If his Disciples imitate him not if they fear
primus amorem fixit secundus sparsit tertius extinxit Richar. de Sanct. Vict. the second those that look upon the whole earth as their Countrey whom he calls Courageous the third those that look upon the World as the place of their banishment whom he calls Perfect To speak truth the first are sordid because they have confin'd their love to a corner of the world the others are generous because intending it over all they have weakened it and the third are accomplish'd because having wholly stifled it their hopes are altogether taken up with heaven they long for this eternall habitation the moments that stop them here below seeme ages the diversions illusions the pleasures torments the happinesse of the World a dangerous temptation Now the Holy Spirit comforts them in this reasonable disgust he inspires them with the desire of heaven points out the glory of the blessed fills them with hope of the shortening of their exile and makes them say with David I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. But the most substantiall Comfort he makes use of to mitigate and sweeten their troubles is to give them an Antepast of felicity to render them happy in the midst of their miseries and to shed his graces into their spirit with so much complacency that conversing with men they may relish the blisse of Angels For he is the earnest of our blessednesse the Assurance of our salvation the Caution of the promise of Jesus Christ and if we may say so he is a portion of the felicity which is promised us in Glory The third grievance of Man a Sinner is That the Earth is not only a place of Banishment but a Countrey of Enemies where all creatures serving as Instruments of the Divine Justice make warre upon him which ends not till he dyes For though he boast himselfe the Lord of the Universe though the sinne of his father perswade him into this errour though Concupiscence that reigns in his soule heightens the desire thereof nor can all the miseries he endures shake him out of this hope yet is he dealt with as a Criminall Every Element threatens him with a thousand dangers and into what ever corner of his State he retires he findes either Executioners or Rebels Poisons are mixt with nourishment upon the earth rocks lye in ambush for him upon the Sea the fire inflames thunder to destroy him Qui in cunctis delinquimus in cunctis ferimur ut impleatur quod dicitur Et pugnabit pro co contra infensatos orbis terrarum Greg. Mag. hom 35. in Evan. and the aire scatters contagions to infect him There is no part of the world that conspires not against him heaven punisheth his iniquities as well as earth the Sun which is the fountain of life makes him dye the Aspects of the heavenly bodies are fatall to him nor is there any Star in the Firmament which hath not some power to infest him But that which redoubles these displeasures is That all these Creatures are in the hands of his Enemy to afflict him for the devill is the Prince of the world The Scripture that designes him this Quality teacheth us that he disposeth of the Elements under the good pleasure of God to persecute man sometimes he darts down Thunderbolts and though he execute the determinations of Heaven he fails not to content his own malice he raiseth Tempests upon the Sea and Storms upon the Land forms Lightnings in the air and successively makes use of wet and drought to produce barrenness Admit this Stratagem succeed not he tries another so much more dangerous in that it appears more taking for he imployes the creatures to seduce us he discovers beauties to make us Idolaters spreads nets to catch us Creaturae Dei in odium factae sunt et in tentationem animabus hominum et in muscipulam pedibus insipientium Sapient cap. 14. and of every creature makes a Lure to engage us into sin Greatness serves to swell us with vanity riches to nuzzle us in covetousnesse beauties to awaken our wantonnesse and food which is necessary for our life to plunge us into sensuality Hee makes weapons of all the parts of our body deals with our senses to corrupt us nor is he ever more terrible then when he arms our selves against our selves Finally To leave nothing unattempted he perverts what-ever is most necessary in the world and mixes disorders in those actions that cannot be dispensed with to the end that thinking to preserve our lives we may be instrumentall to his malice and our ruine Marriage is the nursery of the world Posuit in comestione gulam in generatione luxuriam in dominatione supcrbiam in correctione iram in conversatione invidiam Aug. 't is that Sacrament that repairs the havock death makes that entertains families supplyes Kingdoms with Ministers of State and Souldiers peoples heaven replenisheth the orders of Angels and consummates the number of the Elect In the mean time our Enemy hath rendered it dangerous in rendering it unchaste he turns the remedy into a poyson and making sinners licentious of a married couple makes many times a pair of Adulterers Eating is the subsistence of life 't is that to man that Marriage is to the world it protects us from famine that tends to death it repairs our strength with pleasure and if it be the most necessary of our remedies 't is also the most delightfull But the Divel hath tempred it with gluttony and excesse thereby to corrupt it he occasions debauchments at feasts and we vitiously please our palate when we think onely to supply our necessity Government is one of the usefullest inventions of the Politick or rather of Providence The power of Kings preserves justice in States their Scepter is a terrour to the wicked and a support to the good God shews himself visible in their person and we look upon them with as much respect as Infidels did heretofore upon their false Deities In the mean time the pride that steals into Greatness through the malice of the Divel dimms their lustre makes their power odious and many times makes their lawfull Authority degenerate into a most insupportable Tyranny Correction and Conversation are equally necessary the one entertains society the other eliminates offences the one polisheth our manners the other perfects them the one renders us civil the other vertuous mean while the subtilty of the malignant spirit scatters anger into Correction envie into Conversation and corrupting the fruits and effects of each hinders us from profiting by the advice and entertainments of our friends Who would not lose all patience amidst such a throng of miseries did not the holy Spirit give us strength to vanquish the fury of our Enemies prudence to defend us against their plots and subtilties Spiritus adjuvat infirmitatem nostram Rom. 8. and consolation to support us against the bitternesse of our afflictions For he it is