may any way annoy it yet from a higher principle 't is informed that its life depends upon the Head and that 't is oblig'd to expose its self in his defence Thence it comes to pass that the hands ward the blow which is aimd at the Head that they readily oppose themselves to the danger that threatens it and forgetting their proper interests sacrifice themselves for the preservation of this Chief Thence it is that soldiers jeopard their lives in the quarrel of their Soveraign slighting the hail of Musquets the brunt of Pikes and the Thunder of Canons to augment his Glory or widen his State They are never more valiant then when his Person is in danger the greatness of the hazard heightens their courage and opinion or nature perswades them that living more in him then in themselves their death is less considerable then his Many times it fals out that he for whom they sacrifice themselves is some old Dotard spent with labour and age and hath but a few moments to live In the mean time because they know he is the soul of the State and the Head of his subjects they are perswaded they preserve themselves in dying in his defence and imagine that as Fathers live again in their children the members receive a new beeing in their Head This Paradox finds belief amongst all complexions there is not the meanest soldier but ventures his life upon this Maxime and I rather conceive their courage quickned by this consideration then by the hope of profit and reputation because all men are neither ambitious nor covetous but all being members of the State are instructed by nature to die for the defence of their Head Forasmuch as Grace is much more powerfull then Nature Vivificati sunt Martyres ne amando vitam negarent vitaÌ„ negando vitam amitterent vitam ac fic qui pro vita veritatem deserere noluerunt moriendo pro veritate vixe unt Aug. Concil 20. in Psal 118. it hath so strongly imprinted this Maxime in the soul of the subjects of Jesus Christ that there are no torments can wear it our For the Grace that makes them Christians secretly disciplines them that they are parts of the Mysticall Body of the Son of God that their condition obliges them to expose themselves for his Glory that they ought to be his Victimes because they are his Members and that they are bound to imitate the Wisdome of the Serpent that hides his Head with his whole Body knowing very wel that 't is the Fountain of Life and provided he may secure that can receive no wound that 's mortall The Martyrs animated with this Faith defended Jesus Christ who lived in them they sufferd death saith Saint Augustine to secure themselves from death they parted with that life they had received from Adam to guard that they had received from the Son of God so that it happily fell out that those who would not relinquish Truth to save their lives recoverd that in Heaven which they lost upon Earth and liv'd above eternally being content for the profession of the Truth to die here below miserably They laughed at all the threats of Tyrants and whilst they were covered with obloquies loaded with irons and burnt with flames they drew strength from him for whose sake they suffered and lifting up their now-expiring voice said If God be for us who can be against us When they were told as Saint Augustine saith how all the world was banded against them they answerd couragiously why should we fear the world who die for the glory of hâ—m that made the world What hurt can this hatred doe us who are environed with the love of God And why should we trouble our selves if our enemies spoil us of our bodies seeing he that defends our souls will restore our bodies in glory where being united to our Head we shall triumph over griefs and executioners Though persecution doe not exercise the courage of the Martyrs and the peace the Church enjoys suffer not the Faithfull to expose their lives for the quarrel of Jesus Christ they cease not to be obliged to this duty in a thousand opportunities if occasion present not it self they must preserve a will to it if they cannot suffer death they must suffer shame and confusion for his glory and when the world shall overturn the maximes of the Gospel to set up the maximes of Libertinisme or Impiety then is it that Christians must call to mind that they are the Members of Jesus Christ that they must prefer his interests before their own honour and if they be so happy as to sacrifice their lives for the defence of their Head they must be so stout as to sacrifice their reputation who requires this duty of them as the surest testimony of their love The Tenth DISCOURSE That all is common among Christians as among Members of the same Body AS Mans Body is the perfectest Image of the Church the Members that compose it are also the liveliest representatives of Christians Both of them live in unity depend of the same Head and are inform'd with the same Spirit Both of them preserve their differences in their Unity and exhibit in their mutuall correspondence that agreeable variety that sets an estimate upon all the works of Nature Though these Mysticall and Naturall members conspire altogether for the publick good they cease not to have their different employments Each particular acts according to its capacity they never trespass one upon another and as there are none useless they have all their severall functions which they exercise without confusion and jealousie their faculties are answerable to their employments Nature gives every one what is necessary for them to act according to her orders and Grace never refuses the others what they stand in need of to operate according to its motions But the most wonderful resemblance I find between the members of these two Bodies is that their good and bad occurrences are common and that living in a perfect society no sad disaster happens to one but all the rest are affected with it One sole blow makes a thousand wounds at once and though there be but one part set upon all the rest testifie their compassion The foot seems to be in the body what the foundation is in the building 't is not the noblest part though one of the necessariest and it seems by the distance 't is aâ— from others it should have less communication with them In the mean time if it be prickt with a thorn the pain is dispersed through all the body Every member affords it some good office and the care they have to assist it testifieth what share they have in the misfortune The Tongue complains for it this faithfull Interpreter gives advice to all the rest to shew how much the evil concerns her she speaks of it as her own and to hear her talk one would think she had been hurt too The Eyes being more delicate and
as in that of an Elect. This Attribute is not lesse delicate then zealous all transgressions scandalize it nor does any thing bear the stamp of sin that does not offer it violence she hath more enemies then the rest of her sisters and if the other perfections of God are dishonoured by some particular crimes this is by all inquities of what kind soever Those that sin of infirmity and pretend to find their excuse in the cause of their offence dash only upon the power of the Almighty Those that sin out of ignorance and conceive themselves not guilty because they are blind offend only the wisdom of God Those that transgress out of malice and who are less excusable because more enlightned wound only the Goodness of God and though so highly criminal perswade themselves that wronging but one of his perfections the rest will be favourable towards them But all sinners together injure Holiness and as there is not one who turns not his back upon the Creator to embrace the creature neither is there any that dishonours not this Attribute whose principal design is to unite them to their Creator Though Sanctity be thus injuriously dealt with it ceaseth not to be most profitable to Christians and so well manageth their interests with those of God that it produceth all the miracles which so highly advance his Greatness and their merit All the other perfections study more our glory then our salvation Power makes only Kings and when it would draw admiration from mortals Singula Dei Attâ—ibuta singulos Angelorü hominü ordines effinxerunt Marsil Fisci de religione is content to raise Shepheards to the Throne Wisdom makes Philosophers and communicating to them a part of its light gives them the understanding of the works of God Providence makes Politicians or Prophets and discovering to both of them the secrets of futurity inspires them with a science which is not learnt in the Schools But Holiness more happy and more powerful makes Saints which are Gods Master-pieces separates them from the creatures and unites them to the Creator transforms them into him or to use the words of Scripture makes commenced Gods by Grace and perfect Gods by Glory 'T is to this height of honour that all Christians are destin'd They bear this glorious title in the Gospel Saint Paul treats them as Saints in all his Epistles and as their sanctity is an effusion of Gods it obligeth them to knock off from all things that they may be united to him and to cling so close unto him that nothing can separate them Therefore is it that the Religion that leads us to Holiness invites us to a Divorce with all things else The Son of God admits none into his School of whom he exacts not this promise The Church who imitates him as her Husband requires this disposition of all her Children when she conceives them in her womb by the operation of the Holy Ghost and the vertue of the waters of Baptism she will have them renounce the vanities of the world and like the Apostles forsake their riches in deed or in affection The first is matter of counsel the second of obligation Multum deseruit qui voluntatem babendi dereliquit à sequentibus Christum tanta relicta sunt quanta à non sequentibus defiderari potuerunt Greg neither is there any creature who is not bound to say with Saint Peter Ecce nos reliquimus omnia I know there are those that laugh at the Confession of this Apostle and with Saint Hierome find it no hard matter for a man to leave all whose whole demeans was but a skiffe and a net But had they well considered the vast extent of our hopes and our desires they would find this man left very much because he bid adiew to all things these two passions could possibly promise him This first disposition is not the only abnegation the Son of God requires of us it serves but for a step to ascend to a more difficult one and having injoyn'd us the contempt of riches obligeth us to deny our selves 'T is not enough to be admitted into his School for a man to forsake his goods he must withall renounce his inclinations and pursuing the evil into its very root offer up his will for an Holocaust Had he been content with the first disposition he had exacted no more of his Disciples then vain-glory had obtain'd of its vassal Philosophers have parted with their goods to defend themselves from covetousness or discontent which usually accompanies great fortunes The Ambitious are so deeply in love with glory that they contentedly part with all riches The Prodigal seem as it were angry with money and the lavish expences they make testifies they more undervalue then prize them But both of them are wedded to themselves the more they strip themselves of their goods the more are they wrapt up in their inclinations and the less they have of avarice the more are they puft up with pride and vain-glory Therefore is it that the Son of God willing wholly to to cure man passeth from Poverty to Self-denial and having counselled us to part with our riches commands us to shake hands with our selves Saint Paul following the steps of his Master teacheth us that they only who have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof deserve the name of Christians and speaking elsewhere of himself witnesseth that to live to God he was bound to crucifie himself with Jesus Christ He makes them pass for enemies to the Cross who love themselves and not content to declaim against uncleanness makes an invective against those stately sins which including man within himself left him not above the degree of beasts but to equal him with Devils Finally he will have all those who are risen with the Son of God to be taken up with the contempt of the Earth and to be quickned with the desires of Heaven Though this first condition of Holiness gives us occasion to see that there are very few Saints in the world the second which is union with God will more strongly perswade us of it For sin being nothing but a separation from God holiness which is so opposite thereto is nothing but an alliance with God Those that are most united to him are the greatest Saints nor does any thing more gloriously distinguish Christians from Philosophers then this happy connexion Every Sect hath formed an Idea of the supream good and done their utmost to fasten their Disciples to it The Epicures who acknowledge no other good but voluptuousness had no other passion but for this Goddess The Stoicks who adored nothing but the mind spent all their veneration upon this Idol and the Academicks who doated only upon Morall vertue laboured meerly to gain her But Christians who know that pleasure makes none but effeminate that the love of understanding renders men arrogant and that of vertue it self when it mounts not high enough makes only idolaters set
of nothing but by the priviledge they receive from the Son of God Finally banished persons are degraded from their nobility the loss of their honour is joyned with that of their riches and being driven from their Native soile they can no longer have any share in the Government or charge of the Common-wealth There was requisite an order of the Senate to restore Camillus to his dignities neither would he accept of the office of Dictator till recalled from his banishment All men are thus outed since the fall of Adam the same rebellion that made them poor made them base they lost their honour with their innocence and those that were little lower then the Angels are reduced to the condition of Beasts The world hath put on a new face ever since man chang'd their conduct as long as they were in subjection with God all the creatures were in subjection to them but since their insurrection all their subjects have rebelled and the Empire where they exercised their power is become the Theater of their punishment This gave Tertullian occasion to compare the world to a prison and to make us confess that these two places so different in shew were exceeding like really and in deed Si recogitemus ipsum magis mundum carcerem esse exisse nos è carcere intelligemus Tert. ad Mar. A prison is the receptacle of darkness the Sun darts no beames there and this glorions Luminary which penetrates the deep cannot enlighten the dungeon The world lies in ignorance all men are born blind and if Jesus Christ more powerful then the Sun be not pleased to enlighten them they live and die in a profound blindnesse The Prison deprives Captives of their Liberty if they be not loaded with irons they are at least kept close and being not able to quit those sad abodes without satisfying their obligations they long for death to be delivered from servitude The world in this particular is a perfect image of the Prison all sinners lie fettered in it their crimes compose their chains and every offence they commit is a new link making them stronger and more weighty The Prison is the mansion of Delinquents if an Innocent enter there 't is by misfortune Justice built those dismal habitations for the punishment of Criminals They are Hells upon Earth the common shoars of the state and when the Prince hath a mind to rid himself of some Subject who threatens his Principality with a sedition or a rebellion he sends him to expiate his offence in this dreadful dwelling since the fall of Adam the world hath lodg'd none but sinners if you except Jesus Christ and his Mother all men are guilty they live and die in this shameful condition and whatever care Grace takes to render them innocent there are very few who stand not in need of the flames of Purgatory to consume away what the Calentures of Charity could not But as in the Prison the Criminals are always in fear expecting with a thousand discontents the sentence of the Judge trembling lest being condemned the Officer drag them to execution and make them in some publick place an example to the people In the world men attend their judgement with the same trouble of mind They are apprehensive of the least sickness as personal summons obliging them to appear before the Throne of their Soveraign they tremble at every accident that threatens them with a dissolution and redoubting that arrest which must decide the business of their Eternity Qui se nondum intelligit exulē in hoc mundo nondum se intelligit peccatorem Aug. they live in continuall fear if they live not in blindness and ignorance Thus the world is our Banishment and our Prison we are Captives and Exiles and both these Qualities teach us that though we be justified we cease not to be Delinquents But withall we must confesse that we are Pilgrims and if this condition ease not our pain it does at least diminish our dishonour For every one knows that man was a Pilgrim in the state of Innocence that he lookt upon Heaven as his Countrey and though his life were not a Banishment it was a Pilgrimage Indeed sin made it grievous and changing the face of the Universe changed our condition with it For before the sin of Adam Paradise was a Temple every creature was an image of God Peregrinus erat Adam quia viator sed non Exul quia non erat praevaricator Rich. à San. Vic. and though man promised himself Heaven as the recompence of his merit he fail'd not to meet with some happiness upon Earth The place of his Pilgrimage was not yet the path of his Banishment he loved all things without danger nor feared any change in removing his affection and his thoughts daily raising him to his Creator he performed as many acts of Religion as he employed creatures for his use But now that his condition is changed and that world for a punishment of his offence hath lost its rest and beauty he is as well as Exile as a Pilgrim and the place of his Pilgrimage is become that of his Banishment so that his whole life must be spent in desires and sorrow He is necessitated to sigh perpetually after his dear Countrey to look upon the Earth as a strange place to distrust all creatures which are in his enemies hands for his destruction and to be like Passengers who return home assoon as possibly they can Nothing can stop these when they are ever so little affected with those they have left behind They rise before the Sun be up go to their rest after he is set and by the diligence they make a man would judge their most violent passion were to arrive at their beloved Countrey Thus ought Christians to make speed in the way of perfection they must continually put on that they may shorten their journey and remember that to be wedded to the Earth is to prolong their Banishment Pilgrims look upon all objects as indifferent if they meet with pleasant seats fruitful fields populous towns stately buildings they never lose the desire nor the thought of speedily returning into their Countrey they know very well that since they cannot possesse these goodly things neither ought they to long for them and that the love they spend abroad is injurious to their engagements at home Christians instructed in the School of the Son of God have nothing but contempt for the things of the Earth they behold all its beauties without dwelling upon them they take heed of pleasure as their mortallest enemy and they groan sometimes under the weight of their travels they confess nevertheless that the persecutions of the world are not so tragical as its caresses Experience teacheth us that the pain they endure in it encreaseth their desire of reviewing their dear Countrey and the pleasure they tast makes them lose the remembrance thereof For 't is impossible saith Saint Augustine that he should be
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
labour and is master of that with complacency which another cannot reach to but with much sweat of anxiety Thus the courage of the Martyrs supplies our weakness the knowledge of Doctors our ignorance the purity of virgins is in stead of continence in Marriage and the solitude of Anchorites is a supplement to the employments of those that are conversant in the world Hence 't is evident that he that is in the Body of the Church partakes of all the merits of the Faithful that without admitting himself into Religious Orders he shares in their travels if he be associated to them by charity without wearing their habit he participates of their vertues and that in an ordinary Secular condition he preacheth with the Dominicans sacrificeth with the Priests is in the desart with the solitary and is chaste in the highest degree of continency with the virgins But in this prerogative the Christian must defend himself from two mischiefs which strongly threaten him the first is Pride receiving with humility what he possesseth not but by right of Charity lest his own sufficiency make him lose the benefit of the Churches community The second is Idleness not to neglect the practice of vertues under a pretence of enjoying them in others but going forward with the highest industry in the way of perfection to store the Church with his pious endeavours and to adde new merits to the treasures of this charitable mother The Fourth TREATISE Of the Grace of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That Predestination upon which Grace depends is a hidden Mystery INasmuch as men are the children of Adam they are as curious as they are proud and as the haughtiness of their Father hath made them lose the remembrance of their misery his curiosity hath made them forget their ignorance They aspire to reign although they be slaves they would be masters of knowledge although they are born ignorant and these two unjust desires have made so deep an impression in their souls that all the punishments inflicted upon sin have not been able to suppress them I could pardon this imperfection of man had it any bounds nor would I find fault with an ignorant person desiring to be learned could he content himself with the knowledge of what might be known without danger or sin But the difficulty sets an edge upon his appetite there are no truths he is more eagerly inquisitive of then those God hath pleased to leave in the dark He mounts up to the Heavens to know their motions and influences he seeks his destiny in the Conjunction of the Planets and studies a Book whose Characters have abused all Astrologers and means to finde that in Stars which God hath lock'd up in his own Bosome He descends into the Abysses of the Earth out of Curiosity as much as Avarice he thinks knowledge is retired to the Center of the world and that he must confer with the spirit of lies to be acquainted with truth His Insolence hath passed as far as Religion he would fain penetrate its mysteries nor does God bring any thing to pass in the world the Causes and motives wâ—ereof he endeavours not to discover 'T is a crime in the State to comment upon the intentions of the Ministers thereof Sicut inquirere in vitam Principis ita in arcana ejus nefas est Taci Annal. Their prudence draws a curtain over the wheels they work by and they believe that he that shall sound the secrets of the Prince is not less guilty then he that would know the end of his life In the mean time we commit this crime against the mysteries of Faith we would make Religion a Science and we daily search for evidence and certitude in the region of ignorance and obscurity The desire we have to fathome the depths of Predestination is a certain proof of this Insolence For though there be nothing in the world more bid more in the dark there is not any thing man hath more curiously examined and made the employment of his busie undertakings seeking his fall in the fountain of salvation I should account my self very happy could I cure him of this malady and if describing the mystery hidden in eternity could make him see 't is an impiety to pretend to know more then God hath been willing to reveal Predestination is as certain as it is secret it makes up one part of Providence and if God have any care of his creatures he must needs lead them to their end There are none but the Epicures who fearing to trouble his rest have denyed him the knowledge of humane affairs The best of Philosophers have believed our fortune is in his hands and that having given us our beeing he must also give us our felicity Christian Religion hath confirmed us in this Creed and Faith perswading us that God hath regulated all things from Eternity obligeth us to believe that he hath ordained necessary means to ascertain our salvation Sufficiat eis scire quod non sit in quitas apud Deum cum cuim nulla merita invenisset Apostolus quibus Jacob apud Deum praecederet fratrem dicit Numquid apud DeuÌ„ est iniquitas absit Aug. lib. 4. contra duas Episto Pelag. Shee teacheth us that he beheld all his works before they proceeded out of Nothing that he hath drawn forth what he pleased not all that he was able That he created Men and Angels elected some out of Mercy rejected others out of Justice and that in these two contrary judgements he hath carried himself with so much evenness that no person hath any cause to complain Reason together with Faith instructs us that God loves all his creatures that his being Absolute makes him not unjust and acting according to the knowledge of the Cause he punisheth none that have not deserved it If he be no more liberall in his recompenses then severe in his corrections he fails not to be very observant of Justice if we be not sure that he hath respect to our merits we know at least that he hath to his own favours and that when he crowns our good works he crowns his own benefits and endowments The Scripture that knows very well that men are in love with their salvation and jealous of their liberty represents them often that God is absolute in his State that he is not to give account of his actions that his judgments being equitable in themselves have no need of our approbation nor are therefore less just because not conformable to our weak reasonings This divine Register insinuates to us that God is the master of his creature that he disposeth thereof as he pleaseth and that if Nothing whence he had his Beeing give him right enough to destroy him sin which he is guilty of gives him title enough to punish him But delivering all these reasons in different passages we are not permitted to deduce thence infallible consequences nay we may easily perceive the whole drift is rather to
and since the havock sin hath made in men we have no right to Vertue but what his mercy bestows upon us The ignorance of the last condition of Vertue hath thrown all the Philosophers into pride and blindness For not knowing the miseries of Original sin but seduced by self-love they have established their strength in their freedome and their happiness in reason they have given stately names to Vertue which helping to deceive them have fill'd their perswasion that she was rather an effect of their own labor then of Grace Therefore is it that S. Augustine observes that all the Philosophers considering the difficulties that accompany Vertue the combats that must be fought to gether have Christen'd her with a name which seems to take its beeing from force and which by a just judgement of God hath entertained them in their vanity hiding from them their weakness But Christians who have learnt humility in the School of Truth who have profited by their misfortune and are become wise by the miscarriages of Philosophers have called Vertue a Grace or a gift of God and will have her name an instance of their misery and of the liberality of their Soveraign This is it that the same Doctor saith in other terms opposing the vanity of Philosophers to the humility of Christians The Philosophers saith he loved their own glory and despised t hat of God they confided in their own strength and were not thankfull to him that lifteth up the humble and casteth down the proud But Christians instructed in a better School avoid the glory of the world and seek after that of God The experience they have of their infirmity makes them distrust their own abilities and since they know they can neither undertake nor execute any thing without the assistance of their Creator they invoke him when they begin their actions return him thanks when they have finished them and if they want courage or fidelity accuse themselves confessing ingenuously that all good things come from God and all evil from the creature Indeed God will be glorified in our weakness he will have all that we do rather an effect of his Grace then of our Liberty Omnia Dec attribuunt radicem meriti virtutum cilicet praemiūnon videntes nec in se nec in alio nisi Gratiam Dei Greg. Mag. and he takes pleasure to command us such things as exceed our power that the glory may be his 'T is perhaps for this reason that he saith in his Word that the Kingdome of Heaven cannot be gained but by violence and that he hath propounded to us so high a Conquest that the greatness thereof may oblige us to seek for his assistance It is not a Prodigy saith a Father of the Church to be born upon the Earth and scale Heaven to win that by Vertue that cannot be obtained by Nature that the whole world may know that if in this Conflict man get the victory 't is God that gives him the Courage to overcome and the Grace to triumph Therefore the great Origen considering the designs of God and the weaknesse of men Vult Dominus Jesus res mirabiles facere vult enim de Locustis Gigames de his quae in terra sunt caelestes vincere nequitias Orig. said with as much Congruity as Truth that this great Master took pleasure to work miracles in our favour that having drawn us out of nothing and then out of sin he would raise us to glory that having formed our body of the slime of the Earth he destined it for Heaven and that the Devils by their malice intending to oppose this design he gave us arms to fight them that those Pygmies vanquishing these Gyants the honour of the victory might be ascribed to him where the parties being so unequal the advantage was found on the weaker side 'T is upon the discovery of all these verities that Christians call Vertue by the name of Grace and confess that if she came not from Heaven they were never able to surpass all difficulties suffer all sorrows and despise all the delights of the Earth The Second DISCOURSE Of the Division of the Vertues of a Christian AS Physitians make an Anatomy of Mans Body thereby to discover its qualities and exercise a cruelty upon the Dead that they may benefit the Living Philosophers divide the Vertues that they may know them they separate that which is indivisible and break the sacred bonds that unite these dear Sisters that so they may peruse their beauties Or to express this Truth by a more noble comparison as the School-men divide the Divine Essence to illustrate its perfections separating Justice from Mercy Majesty from Love Wisdom from Power though they are but one and the same thing we are obliged to disjoyn the Vertues though they be all concentred in Charity and according to the opinion of S. Augustine are nothing but Charities disguised For taking leave to repeat a Principle often explained in another Work Charity is the onely Christian Vertue changing names according as her object changeth conditions When That is hid she is called Faith and with her obscure lights endeavours to discover that Sun which the splendor of his Majesty renders invisible when this object is absent she is called Hope which raiseth her soul towards him that stands at a distance onely to increase our desires when 't is armed with Thunder she is called Fear imprinting endearments of respect towards a Majestie that can annihilate all those that offend him Those Vertues that we stile Cardinal and which seem not directly to aim at the Supreme Good are but so many true Loves fastning us to him by different chains Temperance saith S. Augustine is a chaste Love which can suffer no parting of hearts obliging us to consecrate our selves wholly to his service whom we pretend to affect Valour is a generous Love making a Pleasure of Pain and gives proof of his Constancy in the hottest battery of Persecutions Justice is a regulated Love teaching us to command by obeying and subjecting us to our lawful Soveraign gains us an absolute Dominion over all the Creatures Prudence is a clear-sighted Love which is never seduced chusing by its illumination those means which are able to bring us to God and rejecting all others that may estrange us from him So that the Vertues are nothing but Charity in a several dress or to speak more correctly they are onely the different functions of Love But not to wander from this Principle which I honour because S. Augustine after Saint Paul is the author of it I will not forbear to divide the Vertues without interessing their Unity and to consider their divers employments without wronging their fair correspondence The same S. Augustine is of opinion that there are Two Principal Vertues which include all the rest The one consists in Action the other in Contemplation The one teacheth us the way we must walk in to go to God and the
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
Sacrifice that is offered is no longer a Sacriledge to be detested It is not Cruelty that makes Jesus Christ die but Piety 'T is no longer a Crime but an act of Religion to immolate him neither is he offered by the hands of Executioners but of Priests The Father receives this Sacrifice with Pleasure without Indignation the Son presents himself with Affection free from Sorrow Nature beholds it with Respect and no Horrour and Men partake of it Profitably and without Sin The fourth and last difference is that the Sacrifice of the Cross merits all and applies nothing and contrarily that of the Altar merits nothing and applies all For the comprehending of this Truth we must know that General Causes are the sources of all things nothing is produced here belowe that flows not from their fecundity the very operation of Particular Causes is an emanation of their vertue Did the Sun cease to shine all things of the world would not onely cease to act but also to subsist this goodly Star maintains them with its aspects and though he be not their Creator he is in some sort their Preserver But though he equally shed heat and light over all Creatures yet must we confess some receive his influences more favourably and apply them more faithfully With the Clouds he forms those Meteors which pleasantly ravish the eyes of the beholders with dew he enamels the Flowers which serve for an ornament to our Gardens with the Earth he produceth Gold and Iron which Avarice and Cruelty employed to a hundred different uses But did not these Causes that apply his power weaken his vertue and were there a Sun here belowe to receive his influences without confining them all the world are of opinion he would produce far nobler effects Virtus Causae generalis recipitur à causa particulari secundum suam agendi capacitatem D. Tho. and that in stead of Roses and Lilies we should see nothing but Stars in our Walks and Gardens But because he cannot act alone and the Causes that apply him debilitate his power we behold nothing here belowe answerable either to his excellency or beauty What we see in Nature we believe in Grace General Causes produce all but apply nothing Particular Causes produce nothing but apply all The death of Jesus Christ is the Spring-head of all Merit the Faithful can hope for nothing which is not acquired by that Sacrifice Heaven is not so much the recompence of their Vertue as of its Value and if the quality of Members which ties them to Jesus Christ as to their Head did not give them part in his merits they could not pretend to the inheritance of heaven In the mean time so powerful a Cause produceth nothing if not applied this fruitful Fountain sends forth no streams if there be no Chanels disposed to receive them Mors Christi Fons omnium bonorum Sacramenta vero Rivuli and this Star which darts forth so much heat and light makes neither flowers nor fruit grow up in the Church if there be not some secondary cause which conveys its vertue to us Therefore hath the Son of God instituted Sacraments in his Church which happily apply whatever he hath liberally merited for us upon the Cross They are so many Pipes issuing his blood into our hearts so many Suns carrying their influences into our souls but they have this unhappiness in applying his merits they weaken them and not being capable of receiving all his vertue neither have they the power of communicating it to us Every Sacrament operates in us according to its particular condition Baptism gives us our new birth Sacramenta novae legis representant passionē Christi à qua fluxerunt sicut effectus representant causam Hugo à Sancto Victor Confirmation strengthens us Repentance raiseth us Ordination designes us to the service of the Altar and being second causes they limit the vertue of this universal cause which they apply unto us But the Sacrifice of the Altar more happie and more powerful then the rest applies the merits of the Cross without any limitation It procures us all kinde of Graces hath the power to produce and raise us gives us life and strength unites us to God and takes us off from the world weakens concupiscence and sin and the Son of God finding himself applied by himself there are no wonderful effects which he cannot give a product to There he merits nothing because he is at the end of his Course in the place of his Rest and in the time of his Recompence But he applies all because being equal to himself he hath gained nothing by the Sacrifice of the Cross which he cannot communicate by the Sacrifice of the Altar Nothing can hinder his divine operations but our Weakness or our Malice for as he acts with Free causes without constraining them we must lend him our Will for our Sanctification that making him Master of our hearts we may in some sort assist him to raign absolutely in his State and prepare our selves worthily to receive at the Altar those Graces he hath merited for us upon the Cross The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the Obligation the Christian hath to sacrifice himself to God SInce the Son of God hath united in his person the Humane Nature with the Divine Deus erat homo factus est suscepit humanitatē non amisit divinitatem factus humilis mansit sublimis natus est homo non destitit esse Deus Aug. lib. de quinq haeres cap. 5. and mastering the difficulties which stood in opposition to the execution of so great a design hath effected this admirable Master-piece which accords baseness with greatness misery with happiness it seems he hath taken pleasure to conjoin in his person all those qualities which clash in others so that we may say he hath pacified all the differences that were in Heaven and in Earth Indeed he is the Father and the Son of the Church he produced her upon the Cross and is produced by her upon the Altar He is the Son and the Servant of his Father he associates two qualities which appear incompatible in men and tempering respect with love teacheth us that Gods being his Father hinders him not from being his Soveraign He is our Advocate and our Judge having pleaded our cause he pronounceth our sentence and I know not whether it be a ground of fear or of confidence in that we are assured that he that is entred into our obligations is admitted also into the rights of his Father and that one day he will punish those for whom he hath satisfied upon the Cross But if there be any qualities whose alliance ravisheth us in the person of Jesus Christ we must confess 't is that of Priest and Sacrifice These two are so different among men that nothing but a supream power or an extream love could unite them together When the Synagogue would represent us with the Sacrifice of the Son of God
his Content and having given him life by his power must give him Beatitude by his Goodness It is a question in Divinity whether man being a reasonable creature can have any other end then his Creator and whether the Angels who are his superiours in Nature and in Grace can be the objects of his felicity But not to engage in the decision of a thing which depends absolutely upon the will of God I may safely answer with Saint Augustine In rebus à Deo factis tam magnum bonum est natura rationalis ut nullum fit bonum quo beata sit nisi Deus Aug. de Nat. bon cap. 7. That man in the state he is now in can have no other end but God He is too noble saith that great Doctor to find his felicity in a creature he is destined for the supream good hath inclinations towards it which cannot be blotted out He would be wretched had he not some hope of possessing it his desires would become his torment were he not assured there was a possibility of satisfying them and whatever should be offered him in exchange of the good they would deprive him of would minister nothing but want and vexation of spirit But if this were an injustice to man it would be an injury to God For he hath two qualities whereof he is equally jealous The first is that of Creator which he communicates to none He cals neither Men nor Angels to his aid when he creates any thing the distance of Entity from Non-Entity is so great that it cannot be surmounted but by an infinite power and the creature is too weak to be raised to so high a degree S. Augustine believes 't is to violate the respect due to God to imagine that the Angels can become Creators and God himself who makes use of the Sun to preserve his works would not make use of it to create them lest men should ascribe an honour to it which he reserves for himself Gen. 1. Indeed we observe in Scripture that the fruits and flowers the trees and plants which owe their preservation to the beauties of the Sun were created two days before this glorious Luminary that all nature might learn that if it were their Preserver it never was their Creator The second Quality which God by no means communicates is that of the last end He is so jealous that he will not have us stay at the creature 't is a fault in our Religion to be in love with them Our love that it may be innocent must aim directly at God and whatever action a Christian does he sins if he propounds himself any other end then his Principle All the sins of the world are derived from this disorder men become not Criminals but because they close with the creature and of means designed them by God to arrive unto him make their last end and their supream felicity The cause or occasion of this Errour comes from this that the perfections of God are shed abroad in his creatures For he delineates himself in them when they are produced and hath been pleased to make them his Pourtraitures or his Images The Sun is an effusion of his Light The Heaven which encloseth the Universe is an image of Immensity The Earth which is centred upon its own weight represents us his Constancy the fields laden with fruits and adorned with flowers are the marks of his beauty and all the perfections that are dispersed in the several works of his hands are the rivulets of this Ocean or the rayes of this Sun Thence it comes to pass that sinners preserving in the root of their inclinations an appetite for the supream good fasten upon every thing that represents it and preferring the Copies before the Original court the creature and keep at distance from the Creator But if their blindness make them wander their misery reclaims them and they learn by woful experience that God only can cure them of their maladies Mans desires arise either from his weakness or from his want he covets what he stands in need of nor hath he ever recourse to wishes but when the things that he hath a mind to are out of his power Both these appetites cannot be satisfied with the possession of the Creature If the beauty that sparkles upon a face please our eyes it cannot charm our ears if riches protect us from poverty they cannot secure us from grief if glory have a powet to draw an ambitious man out of infamy or contempt it cannot deliver him from obloquy or envy and if Crowns and Scepters exempt Kings from servitude they cannot guard them from death Thus in whatever condition men find themselves they are obliged to ascend above the creatures to seek for him who being the Fountain of all good is also the remedy against all evil and with David to beg of him their cure and deliverance De necessitatibus meis erue me Being the supream Power he can free them from all their infirmities being a Light without the least shadow he can dispel all darkness being the the Prime Verity Jam non novimus bonum nisi promereri Deum ad illa produci quae promisit nec fâ—icitas hujus saeculi facit nos Beatos nec adverfitas miseros Aug. in Psal 128. he can disingage them from Errour and Falshood being Fountain of Life he can draw them out of the bosome of death and to conclude all in one word being the supream Felicity he is able to deliver them from all their miseries When they hope for him they are couragious when they desire him they are reasonable when they possesse him they are happy The sight of his Divine Essence satisfies all their wants remedies all their evils and contents all their desires the belief they have by faith the expectation they conceive by hope begins their felicity here below It is true that as the supream Good cannot be fully known upon Earth neither can happiness be perfect here and being never entirely possest in the region of mortality there are always miseries to be undergone and languishings to be endured The Second DISCOURSE That the perfect Felicity of a Christian cannot be found in this world HE was not much mistaken who considering that the Earth stood between Heaven and Hel said it held something of both these extreams Indeed Pleasure is here mixt with Grief Light confounded with Darkness Plenty attended with Want and men are happy and miserable both together But certainly we must confess that since the Earth was cursed for the sin of man it partakes more of the qualities of Hel then of Heaven For besides that all things here are in a confusion that the seasons are irregular that the Elements bid us battail that the wild Beasts either persecute us or despise us it is certain that Felicity is not to be met with here below and that man is exceedingly more miserable then happy All the world confesseth that Beatitude
between Life and Death Finally our Creator never loses his right over his creatures they are at his disposal in what place soever they are Their changing of form makes them not change condition and because they pass thorow three or four Elements they depend not lesse upon his Omnipotence The body of man is always the work of God and he may after its corruption restore its beauty and re-unite it to the soul like a wise Artist having reduced a statue to powder may by his skil restore it to the primitive form All the difficulties our spirit can suggest in this miracle are easily master'd by him that can do all things and having well weighed the wonders of the Creation it will be no hard matter to comprehend those of the Resurrection Inasmch as the body receives life in this and is re-united with the soul it is happily delivered from all the miseries it had contracted in its birth or during its life If Nature were mistaken in forming it the Authour of Nature corrects the faults in raising it He gives it its just dimension its lawful proportion and retrenching whatever was superfluous makes it a compleat piece But because it is not enough to take away the defects to render it happy God gives it advantages in glory which it had not in innocence For although the body before it was infected with sin was not rebellious against the minde nor subject to grief and death it was nevertheless capable of corruption The Natural heat consumed the substance and the waste it made was to be repaired by nourishment Though he were obedient yet was he an Animal and though he felt no disorders yet was he liable to infirmities his weight would have hindered him from following his soul to Heaven he could not walk upon the water nor penetrate the Chrystal and had he not prevented hunger and thirst by eating and drinking he had never held out against griefe and death Finally though he enjoyed the priviledges of Original Righteousness he wanted those of Glory and though innocent was neither incorruptible nor illuminated But in the Resurrection he shall receive all these qualities and as the soul is now corporeal because wholly engaged in the body by a happy retaliation the body will be spiritual because perfectly submitted to the soul and as the soul saith Saint Augustine though corporeal ceaseth not to be a spirit the body though spiritual ceaseth not to be a body It will change condition though it change not nature and will have advantages which shall set it free from all the miseries it now endures It s subtilty will surpass that of the light will penetrate all solid bodies nothing shall be able to withstand its desires and being no longer the Prison but the Temple of his soul will find no obstacles that stop it nor chains that intangle it It s agility will be so great that it will outstrip the winds and lightning will fly without wings thorow the spacious regions of the air will walk upon the water and not sink and in a moment passing from one end of the world to another will be no longer the clog and torment of the soul It s impassibility will free it from all the injuries of the Seasons and Elements the naturall heat which now consumes him shall no more corrode the naturall Moisture The Contraries that compose him will agree and being no longer tormented with hunger and thirst will stand in need neither of meat nor drink He will be in a state of consistency wherein he will have his just proportion nor will he expect from time his youth or old age he will enjoy an eternall spring of years which will never wither he will see the dayes passe on and never feel any declension in himself his budding verdure will fear no winter the Lillies and the Roses of his countenance will keep their freshness and as original righteousness served for a Garment for innocent man glory will be insteed of a robe to the blessed His brightness will surpass that of the Sun the raies which dart from his eyes will dim those of this Glorious Luminary and he will cast such lights and flames that the least glorified Body will be able to illuminate the Universe His immortality will be the Crown of his Happiness That pittilesse monster which exerciseth his rigour upon all men pursues them into the Grave reduceth them to powder after the worms have devoured them This Cruell one I say will have no more power over the Blessed he will discharge his fury upon the damned in Hell he will make a league with life to torment them Eternally and that which endures here but for a moment will last for ever in that dismall habitation to lengthen their pains according to the obstinacy of their crimes But he will respect his Conquerors and beholding the Blessed as the Members of him that hath defeated him upon the Crosse will not dare to set upon them afresh nor so much as appear in their presence Then shall the happinesse of men be perfect when a glorified soul shall inanimate an immortall Body and mutually communicating all their advantages the soul shall be happy in the felicity of the Body and the Body happy in that of the Soul All their differences shall be composed in this General peace the Soul shall forget all the Revolts of the Body nor shall the Body any more complain of the severities of the Soul but both of them remembring onely the Good offices they have done each other they shall reign in Heaven in a Community of Glory as they lived upon Earth in a Community of Merits But to arrive to this Happy condition the Spirit must war against the Flesh and Repentance give the faithfull those Priviledges Glory instates the Blessed in For though there be nothing more opposite to Rest then a Conflict yet is it the Conflict that gains us the victory Ex bello pax pugna enim nos praeparat victoriae victoria nobis obtinet triumphum Chry. and the victory that procures us the peace Though there be nothing more contrary to Happiness theu Pain it is notwithstanding austerity that subjects the Body to the Soul and makes us see in our Banishment a perfect Image of Glory For if it be true that the Blessed feel no Rebellion in their person and if their Body be perfectly subjected to their minde we must acknowledg that the Christian cannot pretend to any part of this advantage but by the help of repentance It is this vertue that tames the Pride of the flesh this faithfull minister of the Divine Justice which makes Charity reign in spite of Concupiscence and all the peace we have in the earth we owe it to the zeal and austerity of crucifixion If the Blessed be disengaged from the world if their condition be separated from ours and if finding all things in the Divine Essence meat cloaths and lodging be useless to them it seems Repentance
necessity of Grace in the state of Innocence and of Sin 156 Disc 3 That the Grace of a Christian ought to be more powerfull then that of Adam 160 Disc 4 Different opinions of the power of Christian Grace 166 Disc 5 Wherein precisely consists the power of Grace effectual 170 Disc 6 That the names that S. Augustine gives Christian Grace do sufficiently testifie that it is effectuall 175 Disc 7 That we may judge of the power of Grace over a Christian by the power of Concupiscence over a Sinner 180 Disc 8 That Grace effectuall doth not destroy Grace sufficient 186 Disc 9 Answers to some Objections against Grace effectual 193 A Prosecution of the same Discourse 197 Disc 10 That the Christian finds more rest in placing his salvation in Grace then in Liberty 202 The fifth TREATISE Of the Vertues of a Christian Disc 1. Wherein consisteth Christian Vertue 207 Disc 2 Of the Division of Christian Vertues 212 Disc 3 Of the Excellency and Necessity of Christian Faith 217 Disc 4 Of Christian Hope 222 Disc 5 A Description of Christian Charity 227 Disc 6 Of the Properties and Effects of Christian Charity 233 Disc 7 Of Christian Prudence Iustice Fortitude and Temperance 238 Disc 8 Of Christian Humility 243 Disc 9 Of Christian Repentance 248 Disc 10. Of Christian Self-denyall 253 The sixth TREATISE Of the Nourishment and Sacrifice of a Christian Disc 1 Of three Nourishments answering to the three Lives of a Christian 259 Disc 2 Of the Nourishment of Man in his Innocency and of that of a Christian 264 Disc 3 That the Body of Iesus Christ is the same to a Christian that Manna was to the Iewes 269 Disc 4 That this Nourishment bestows upon the Christian all that the Divel promised Man in his Innocence if hee would eat of the forbidden Fruit. 274 Disc 5 That this Nourishment unites the Christian with the Son of God 279 Disc 6 Of the Dispositions that the Christian ought to bring for the receiving of this Nourishment 283 Disc 7 That the Christian ows God the honour of the Sacrifice 288 Disc 8 That the Christian had need that the Son of God should offer up for him the Sacrifice of the Crosse and of the Altar 293 Disc 9 Of the Difference of these two Sacrifices and what the Christian receives from both of them 298 Disc 10 Of the obligation the Christian hath to sacrifice himself to God 303 The seventh TREATISE Of the Qualities of a Christian Disc 1 That the Christian is the Image of Iesus Christ 308 Disc 2 That the Christian is a Priest and a Victime 313 Disc 3 That the Christian is a Souldier and a Conqueror 317 Disc 4 That the Christian is a King and a Slave 322 Disc 5 That the Christian is a Saint 327 Disc 6 That the Christian is a Martyr 332 Disc 7 That the Christian is a Lover 338 Disc 8 That the Christian is an Excile and a Pilgrime 343 Disc 9 That the Christian is a Penitent 347 Disc 10 That the most glorious Quality of the Christian is that of a Christian 352 The eighth TREATISE Of the Blessedness of a Christian Disc 1. That every man desires to be happy and that he cannot be so but in God 357 Disc 2 That the Perfect Felicity of a Christian cannot be found in this world 361 Disc 3 That the Christian tasts some Felicity here below 365 Disc 4 That Happiness consists not in pleasure but in grief 368 Disc 5 That Happiness is rather found in Poverty then in Riches 372 Disc 6 That the Felicity of a Christian upon earth consists rather in Humility then in Glory 377 Disc 7 That Felicity is rather found in Obedience then in Command 381 Disc 8 What is the happinesse of a Christian in Heaven and wherein it consists 385 Disc 9 That the Soul and Body of the Christian shall finde their perfection in the Beatifical Vision 391 Disc 10 Of the Miracles that are found in the Christian's Beatitude 396 THE CHRISTIAN MAN OR The Reparation of NATURE BY GRACE The first TREATISE Of the Christian's Birth The first DISCOURSE That the Christian hath a double Birth IF MAN have pass'd for a Monster in the opinion of some Philosophers * Est inter Carnem Spiritum colluctatio discordantibus adversus se invicem quotidiana congressio ut non ea quae volumus ipsi faciamus dum spiritus coelestia divina quaerit caro terrena secularia concupiscit Aug. lib. 1. contra Julian because he is compos'd of two parts which cannot agree certainly the Christian may very well pass for a Prodigie in the judgement of the faithfull since the parts whereof he is made maintain a war as long as life For though the body of man contain within its Constitution all the Elements these four Enemies agree when they are mixt together The Fire is confounded with the Water without losing its driness and the Earth is united to the Air without losing its heaviness if they are at odds by reason of their Contrariety they embrace by reason of their sympathie and if somtimes they grow irregular there is always some external Cause that produceth the Disorder The Soul and Body are yet more opposite then the Elements it it is the strangest Marriage within the Confines of Nature Mirus amor corporis animi in tanta disparitate non potest esse sine fato Pla. and when God associated them together to make Man he had a minde to shew that he was absolute in the Universe In him we observe Sense with Understanding Passion with Reason Heaven with Earth Nevertheless God hath so well temper'd their qualities that these two so different parts cease not mutually to love one another The Soul stoops below the priviledg of her Birth to succour the Infirmities of the Body and the Body soares above the meaness of its Extraction to be serviceable to the more noble operations of the Soul If they are exercised at the provocation of some rebel-lust there is always found some common friend that takes up the difference Self-love is content to set them at one thereby to establish his Empire over sinners Haec cupiditas vana ac per hoc prava vincit in eis ac frenat alias cupiditates Aug. lib. 4. contra Julia. c. 3. and accompanies his Commands with so many charms that these two subjects wrong one another to obey him The spirit basely submits to the Body in the unclean conversations of the wanton and the body does homage to the soul in the pleasing caresses of the Ambitious these two parties joyn their forces to bid Grace battail and though Divine Justice hath divided them for their punishment they forget their quarrel and are reconcil'd to execute their vengeance But the Christian is of such a Composure that he can never taste any peace in his person Division seems to constitute one part of his Essence and till Glory shall put a
of God who made use of sin to destroy sin as saith the Apostle of the Gentiles De peccato damnavit peccatum and changing his death into a sacrifice made it a satisfaction for all our iniquities For if Baptism make us die to sin it is upon no other ground but because it imprints in our souls the merit and image of the death of Christ and by an invisible but a true and real grace works in us a desire to part with all that is derived from Adam This makes the * Infelix ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus Rom. 7. Saints that they cannot endure the rebellions of concupiscence that they employ all their strength to smother these embryo's that being true to Grace they resist all the motions of its Enemy groaning when they are compelled to follow or suffer his disorders They know that Christ died to oblige them to die to sin that he was not nail'd to the Cross but to crucifie them to the world nor buried in the grave but that the earth might be their sepulchre All that is in the world Crucifixus est Christus ut vos crucifigamini mundo mortuus est ut vos moriamini peccato saeculo vivatis Deo sepultus est ut vos consepeliamini illi per baptismum Apostolo dicente Consepulti sumus c. ut sicut ille semel surgens à mortuis jam non moritur ita vos vetustate mortalitatis per Baptismum mortificati vitale indumentum induti non iterum per peccata in anima in morte retrahamiâ—i Aug. de Expos Orat. Dom. Symbol Serm. 3. displeaseth them diversions are their torments that which is a recreation to sinners afflicts them and knowing very well the minde of the Lord Jesus they endeavour to fulfil it even with the loss of their own lives Saint Augustine entertained the Catechumeni heretofore with these obligations and expounding to them the doctrine of the Gospel taught them that Baptism engaged them in death Jesus Christ said he was crucified that you might be so to the world he suffered death that you might die to sin he was buried that you might be together with him and having put off the old man Adam and being cloathed with the new man Jesus Christ you may die no more in your souls by sin All the other Fathers speak the same language teaching us that there is a death and a life hid in Baptism producing real effects in our souls Thence ariseth the inclination all Christians have to die and to live thence proceed those obstinate conflicts they entertain self-love with thence spring those violent desires to be separated from the world and the flesh that they may be no longer subject to their tyranny But because this Mystery very much concerns our salvation it deserves a more ample explication from us that we may disclose the truths and obligations that lie wrapt up in it The Son of God is willing that as his death is the Principle so it should be the Rule and Example of our salvation as he died to deliver us he would have us die to honour him and as he entered not into glory but by the door of the Cross neither must we pass to the resurrection but by the gate of the Grave He died saith the great Apostle that by his death he might ruine the Empire of sin He died that losing all the imperfections he drew from Adam he might rise again to life everlasting He died that satisfying his Father we might be no longer responsible to his Justice All these considerations oblige us to die in Baptism Pro omnibus mortuus est ut qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est debet ergo vita hominis in se deficere in Christo proficere ut dicat cum Apostolo Vivo ego jam non ego Aug. Serm. de Epiphan if we intend to be the images of Jesus Christ we must destroy sin by death that dying we may be born again and making a sacrifice of our death we may be changed into spotless Victims But as the Son of God was not content onely to die but was willing to joyn the ignominy of the grave to the bitterness of his death Sicut Christus sepultus fuit in terra sic baptizatus mergitur in aqua Nicol. de Lyra. because there was a second punishment of sin comprised in those words of our Arrest Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return he will have our death followed with a funeral and that the same Sacrament that makes us die bury us together with him Consepulti sumus cum Christo. Burial addes to the dead corpse two or three notable conditions The first is Coemeteria extra urbes utnullum esset viveniuÌ„ cum mort uis mmercium that he that is buried is separated from the company of the living that he remains in the regions of death and hath no more commerce with the present world So the Christian is buried with the Son of God because he is removed from amongst wicked men neither doth the state of death into which he is entered suffer him to converse with them Quid est mori peccatâ— consepeliri cum Christo nisi damnandis operibus omnino non vivere nihil concupiscere carnaliter nihil ambire sicut qui mortuus est carne nulli detrahit nullum aversatur Prosp de vita contemp c. 21 He hath now no ears to hear calumnies no eyes to gaze upon the beauties of the earth no desires nor pretensions after the honours of the world and his death being attended with a funeral he protests aloud that he hath renounced all hopes of the things of the world The second condition of this state is the duration that goes along with it For though death be eternal in respect of the Creature nor can any but an Almighty power re-unite the soul with the body when once separated yet there seems to remain some faint hope as long as the body is not committed to the grave we watch it to see if that which appears a death be but a swoon or trance and there have been those that have died and rose again the same day without a miracle But when the body is laid in the sepulchre drooping Nature is then past all hope This dismal abode hath no intercourse with life 't is an everlasting habitation whence there is no return but by a prodigie Sepulchra eoruÌ„ domus illoruÌ„ in aeternuÌ„ jam quia constructa sunt sepulchra domus sunt sepulchra quia ibi semper crunt ideo domus in aeternum Aug. in Psal 48. 't is the place where worms serving for ministers of the Divine Justice discharge their fury upon men till being reduced to powder there remains nothing of these famous criminals Thus the Christians when baptized are as it were interred to
a Virgin This Prerogative hath repaired the scandal of the Crosse and if some impious wretches have thought meanly of him when they knew he suffered upon a Gibbet they could not chuse but highly admire him when they learnt that he was born of a Virgin The Fathers of the Church are of opinion That if the Son honoured * Nobilitas fuit nascentis in Virginitate parientis et nobilitas parientis in Divinitate nascentis Aug. Serm. 30. de Temp. his Mother by his Divinity the Mother honoured her Son by her Virginity Finally they thought if God must have a Mother she must be a Virgin and if a Virgin must have a Son he must needs be a God Though this be so extraordinary a Priviledge that Christ never communicated it to any mortall the greatest Monarchs are born of a woman that purchaseth her condition of a Mother with the expense of that of a Virgin yet hath he been pleased to honour every Christian with the same favour For they are born of the Church who like Mary is pure and teeming together Their Mother is a Virgin and as Age impairs not her fecundity neither doth the number of her Progeny sully her purity She is delivered of them without sorrow as she conceives them without sin and because she engenders the members of Jesus Christ she hath the same priviledge with her that brought forth their Head The Church is a Virgin saith * Et Virgoest et parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit numquid non virgo sancta Maria et peperit et virgo permansit sic est Ecclesia et parit et virgo est Aug. Ser. 117. de Temp. St Augustine she imitates Mary that conceived Christ Mary is a Virgin though she were delivered of a childe the Church also bears children and continues still a Virgin And if you well weigh her priviledges you shall perceive that even she also brings forth Jesus Christ seeing those that are baptized are his members Thus the Birth of Christians is as glorious by their Mothers side as by their Fathers they have as Christ their elder Brother a God for their Principle a Virgin for their Mother and a Kingdom for their Inheritance To all these Graces we may adde a Third which is common to them with their Head for the Holy Scripture silently hints that the word of the Virgin contributed something to the production of her son she yeelded her consent before she surrendred her wombe she spake to express her intentions and her word had so much vertue that it gave life to Jesus Christ This word * Verbum quod erat in principio apud Deum fiat caro de carne mea secundum verbum fiat mihi verbum non prolatum quod transeat sed conceptum ut maneat Bern. super missus est Hom. 4. Fiat which began the Incarnation was in a manner as powerful in her mouth as that which began the Creation and if we judge of the Cause by the Effects we are more obliged to this then to that which produced the whole world since one Jesus Christ is more worth then the whole Masse of Men and Angels together This Word as efficacious as it was humble glads heaven and earth repairs the disorders of the Universe and giving a product to a Divine * Expectat Angelus responsum expectamus nos verbum miserationis quos premit sententia damnationis Ecce offertur tibi pretium salutis nostrae statim liberabuntur si consentis si ergo tu Deum facias audire vocem tuam ille te faciet videre salutem nostram Bern. ibid. Redeemer laid an obligation upon all creatures But if with our Mysteries we may raise our contemplations let us say that the Virgin imitated the Eternal Father and as He conceived his Son by speaking she conceived him so too she declares his divine Originall and becoming the Mother of him of whom he is the Father she begat him if not by her Thought at least by her Word Her sacred Mouth began the work of our salvation her Virgin-Womb finished it and assoon as the Holy Maid returned her answer and contributed her blood the Word was found Incarnate in her bowels I confess this Miracle would be without a Paralel had Jesus Christ no brethren but since he was willing to honour them with all the Priviledges of his Nativity he was pleased also that his Spouse should be fruitfull as his Mother was Indeed the Church produceth us by speaking the water that regenerates us receives the vertue from her words and did not the Ministers pronounce them when they baptise us this Sacrament would have no power to give us a Being 'T is the lips of the Mother that quickens us her voice that draws us out of the bosome of death neither would all the water of the sea be able to wash away the least sin were it not enlivened with her word Shee acts as her Beloved doth makes things by her speech inspires a secret vertue into the Elements ennobles them above their nature and by a miraculous impression gives them an insluence upon the soul Shee imitates Mary her speech is prolificall and as her production is spirituall she needs only speak to enliven her children What is water saith Saint Augustine without the Word of God in the mouth of the Church but the commonest of the Elements but when quickned with her voice it becomes fruitfull and by the union of these two Principles together the Sacrament is compleated sins are absolved the dead are raised Christians are regenerated and sinners converted Let us adde Miracles upon Miracles to unfold the excellencies of Man a Christian and pronounce this fourth wonder in the Birth of Christ that without losing the quality of the Son of God Idem est in forma Dei qui formam suscepit servi idem est incorporcus manens et corpus assumens idem est in sua virtute inviolabilis in nostra infirmitate passibilis idem est à paterno non divisus throno et ab impiis crucifixus in ligno D. Leo Ser. 10. de Nat. hee assumed that of the Son of Man For having two Natures united in one person he relates to his Father from all Eternity and to his Mother in the fulnes of time from the one he received Divinity from the other humanity The manger that cradled him in his Temporal Birth obscur'd not the Glory of his eternal Birth Greatness was alwaies mixt in his Person with meannesse and as God and Man are never separated since first they were united Nihil ibi ab invicem vacat tota est in majestate humilitas tota in humilitate majestas nec infert unitas confusionem nec dirimit proprietas unitatem aliud est passibile aliud inviolabile tamen ejusdem est contumelia cujus gloria Leo Ser. 3. de passi Dom. in this divine composure may still be discerned an admirable Medley of
glory and humility which ravisheth Christians and confounds Infidels These cannot comprehend that the Son of Man is the Son of God that he that is equall to the Father is his servant that he gives Orders and receives them that he commands and obeyes that he comes down upon the earth and yet never leaves heaven that he dies and still lives that he is confin'd in a Sepulcher and yet fills the whole world This Miracle prepares us for the belief of another no lesse strange then the former For if we consult the Holy Scriptures we shall find that the Son of God was made the Son of man for no other end then to make us the Children of God he was humbled that we might be exalted and he hath facilitated the belief of our future greatness by the example of his debasement His birth is a pledge of ours he was born of a woman but to assure us that we might be born of God neither was he apparelled with the flesh in the womb but to perswade us that one day we shall be clothed with glory in the heavens And this is the Argument the most illuminated of the Evangelists makes use of to establish our second Generation for having taught us that Baptisme and Faith give us God for our Father fearing lest so high a promise find no credit in our understanding * Venit Filius ut illo participantemortalitatem nostram per dilectionem nos efficeret participes divinitatis suae per adoptionem Aug. de Cons Evangel he gives us the Generation of the Word for an assurance of our Regeneration and having ravished all men with those magnificent words He gave them power to become the Sons of God hee discovers the cause of that miracle and clearing us of one wonder by telling a greater he tells us man may become God since God by an excesse of love was willing to become man And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us This is the admirable argumentation of St. John and the solid establishment of our greatness 'T is by this unparallel'd example that hee prepares us for the belief of our mysteries this is the proof all the Fathers make use of to perswade us that the misery of our condition can no way hinder us from being the children of God since the glory of the Word was no obstacle to his being made man Give me leave to expresse these wonders in the words of S. August Vt homines nascerentur ex Deo primo ex ipsis natus est Deus Non quaesivit quidem nisi matrem in terra quia jam patrem habebat in coelo natus ex Deo per quem efficeremur natus ex foemina per quem resiceremur Noli ergo mirari quia efficeris Filius Dei pergrat am quia nasceris ex Deo per verbum ejus prius ipsum Verbum voluit nasci ex homine ut tu securus nascereris ex Deo diceres nasci voluit Deus ex homine ut immortalem me faceret pro me mortaliter nascitur Aug. Tract 2. in Joan. and to joyn the pomp of his eloquence to the majesty of my subject God that makes all things with so much justice was willing to bee born of a woman that men might might be born of him He sought out but one Mother upon the earth because he had already one Father in heaven being born of his Father he made us being born of his mother he re-made us associating by an admirable conjunction the quality of Creator with that of Redeemer Wonder not then if by grace ye are the Sons of God since ye are born of him by his word nor thinke it strange that ye shall be one day immortall in glory since God in his second Generation became mortall was willing to suffer death upon the Crosse for our salvation Thus his Charity makes us like him his goodness surpasseth the miseries of our nature and renders us partakers of his glory so that there is no Christian but may boast that his Baptisme confers upon him by grace all the advantages Jesus Christ possesseth by nature and that the Mystery of the Incarnation being repeated in the faithfull by their new Birth exalts them by a happy Indulgence to the greatness of Jesus Christ The Sixth DISCOURSE Of the Adoption of Christians and the advantages it hath above the Adoption of Men. IF it be true that the end why the Son of God was made the son of Man was that we might be made the children of God we need not think it strange that the adoption of a Christian is one of the chiefest effects of Baptism nor that man changing his condition by his regeneration change also his Father and Mother But it is a thing very well worthy our admiration to consider that he is adopted by a Father who having an onely Son equal to himself should in reason cast out all adopted children were he not obliged to accept them at the intreaty of his own proper Son Adoptio nuptiarum subsidium fortunae remedium supplet sterilitati vel orbitati Jurisc For to take this Truth at the rise and unfold the wonders contained in it we must know that Adoption was invented among men to supply the barrenesse of Parents or the death of children Indeed t is a thing never heard of that a Father to whom Nature hath given a Son should adopt another and seek that in a strange Family which he may find in his own He would beleeve himself to offend against paternal charity should he divide it and injurious to his Son should he assigne him coheirs Though this be his only one he never resolves to provide him companions neither hath he ever recourse to this remedy but when the death of his son makes it lawfull in making it necessary In the mean time the Eternal Father adopts us though he have an immortal Son he extends his affections to us and admits us into his Family to make us share in his Inheritance But that which most furprifeth us in this Oeconomy is That he undertakes this designe at the request of his Son nor does he honour us with the condition of Children till Jesus Christ hath honoured us with that of Brethren 'T is one of the chiefest motives of his incarnation and we may say that he had never chosen a Mother upon earth but that he might have Brethren in heaven He is the onely begotten in the bosom of his Father He shares not this quality with the Holy Ghost and as their processions are different one is the Son the other the Spirit of the Father the One remains in his bosom the Other in his heart the One proceeds by Knowledge the Other by Love But this onely Son is first born of the chaste spotless womb of the Virgin by his temporal birth he gains Brethren and clothing them with the robes of his merits obligeth his Father to avow them for his Children For we
of yet must we acknowledge that concupiscence remains in those that are baptised making havock in their souls aswell as in their bodies that it weakens their wills because it divides them obscures their understandings because it sheds darkness over them troubles their rest because it stirs up seditions in their person which end not but with their life Let us say then that this innocency is nothing but a freedom from sin which flowing from grace causeth that the disorders of concupiscence render us not guilty and that there must be an act of the will to occasion the loss of that which grace hath endued us with This binds us so powerfully to Jesus Christ that we find more strength in him then in Adam and are more secure in our Banishment then we had been in the earthly Paradise But this Innocence though never so substantial is not quiet its conflicts make up the best part of its glory its enemies prepare triumphs for it and 't is always arm'd because 't is well assured Heaven cannot be gain'd now but by violence The fourth Effect of Baptism is the weakening of our concupiscence For though it remain in the baptized for their exercise it loseth much of its vigour being left an orphan in respect of the father that gave it life it droops and languisheth and separated from sin it gives us no assaults but such as we may easily defend our selves from The grace that assists us is more potent then the adversary that sets upon us and 't is upon this occasion that we may say Stronger are they that are on our side then those that are against us A man must needs play the coward to suffer himself to be overcome in a combat where the victory depends upon his own will animated with Grace If we want help we may pray for it and the Christian hath this comfort to know that his own consent is necessary to his undoing True it is inasmuch as he is not ignorant that his victory is affix'd to Grace and that Grace is not so due unto him as that it may not be justly refused him he hath still reason to fear and distrusting his own strength is obliged to have recourse to the mercy of his divine Redeemer Though all Christians are persecuted by concupiscence Cecidit primus homo omnes qui de illo nati sunt de illo traxerunt concupiscentiam carnis Aug. Tract 5. in Joann yet is it not certainly known whether it be equall in all for it is so impotent in some it seems utterly extinct all their inclinations are so good we have great reason to beleeve that Grace is rather the Principle of their actions then corrupted Nature and having had a greater share in Jesus Christ at their Baptism they have lesse of Adam then others of his Posterity Nothing pleaseth them but vertue sin appears with no shape but that of horrour and whether it be that Grace hath weakened Concupiscence or fortified Nature they have none but holy desires and just and upright hopes Others on the contrary have so many bad inclinations that Baptism seems not to have regenerated them Adam appears more in their actions and in their words then Jesus Christ the old man is more thriving and operative in their persons then the new and did not faith instruct us that the Sacraments infallibly produce their effects we should with reason doubt whether they had received that of Baptisme or no. These two differences can proceed from nothing but from those two Principles which we are equally ignorant of to wit whether some men have more transgressed in Adam or more merited in Jesus Christ then others have unlesse we will lay all the blame and misfortune of the later upon their own constitution or upon the disorders of their Parents who many times make them undergo the punishment of their debauches To all these internall Effects may be added a great number of externall ones which makes us greatly admire the power of Baptism For by the vertue of this Sacrament the Christian is freed from the slavery of Satan he changeth his Master as he changeth his Condition Hell is shut against him Heaven is opened to him the Angels look upon him as one of their Companions and seeing in his soul the Mark of their Soveraign they are very tender and respective of his Grace and Priviledges Circumcision had not this advantage for if it distinguished a child from an Infidel enroll'd him in the number of the Israelites and by the belief of his Parents shed forth faith into his soul yet all Divines are of opinion that it gave him no entrance into Heaven and that dying in that state they went down into Limbo the skirts and fringes of perdition The heavens were not opened till the Ascension of Jesus Christ He it was that delivered our Fathers from their Captivity and that he might triumph over Hell aswell as over Earth made them partakers of his happiness But to give us a clearer apprehension of the right we have to Glory by Baptism Baptizato Domino Caeli sunt apâ—rti ut declaretur nobis quid ex Baptismo operari possemus Div. Thom. he was pleased that the Heavens should be opened when he received this Ceremony at the hands of his Precursor and the Confession of his Father declaring him his wel-beloved Son was an Earnest and Pledge assuring us that we should one day receive the same favour From this advantage there ariseth another which greatly promoteth the Condition of Christians As they are ingrafted into the person of Jesus Christ passing into a new order they live under other lawes and I can hardly believe that they are subject to that common Providence that rules over all men For the illustration of this Truth which may seem strange because it is new Effectus rerum omnium aut movent aut notant sydera sed sive quod evenitfaciunt quid immutabilis rei notitia prosiciet sive significant quid refert puovidere quod evitare non possis Sen. we must suppose that the sin of Adam hath not onely changed Man but the World also The Elements bid him battel the Starres persecute him and the fires of the Firmament sparkle with pernicious qualities to infest him Mans life depends upon their influences his constitution is altered by their motions and the greatest part of his adventures are regulated by their favourable or malignant aspects Astrologers therefore have some reason to search for good or bad successes in the starres and to learne from heaven what shall happen upon the earth 'T is a book wherein knowing men may read the alteration of Monarchies the events of battels the birth and death of Soveraigns and all those other accidents which surprise the vulgar This Opinion whether true or false pretends to be founded in scripture In sole posuit Tabernaculum suum Psal 18 and that there are some passages in it assuing us that the stars are the
merâ—es redditur Aug. Psal 103. Ser. 3 The doctrine of S. Augustine doth not destroy it self though he teach us that Grace is not due to the Creature he never told us that it was not due to Jesus Christ and where he said that it was justly refus'd Christians he alwaies presupposed that they had committed some Crimes which rendred them unworthy There is some secret in Grace which yet we understand not whereby it comes to passe that without destroying the vertue of its efficacy we may resist its operation its charms perhaps are not so strong that they are alwaies inevitable its powers rob us not of our liberty and though it be very often victorious yet it is sometimes worsted We have a miserable power remaining in us to resist its motions and did it infallibly without any intermission produce its effect the Saints would not complain of their Infidelity Whatever good we doe bears witness of the great Empire it hath over our wills since it changeth them without compelling them and a thousand times more powerfull then eloquence it makes the sinner act what he never had a mind to before it knowes how to conquer our rebellion and its charmes are so sweetly prevalent that they master the most obstinate and subject the most rebellious But the evill we doe is an argument that our liberty may resist it that at all times it acts not with the like force and if at its birth it work more vigorously in its progress it growes more languishing and remisse In this point consists all the difficulty this is the secret God hath not been willing to discover to us 't is the cause of our differences and I am of opinion this will never be understood till Jesus Christ raise up some new light in his Church I reverence Saint Augustine when he defends the party of grace when he sets it above mans freewill when he stiles it victorious and to expresse its efficacy affirmes that it infallibly produceth its effect I am ravished when I read that great Doctor how he makes man stoop to God the will to grace salvation to mercy But withall I respect the Councel of Trent teaching us that our liberty may resist grace that when it receives its impressions it may reject them and that in the very motion whereby 't is carried it may remain obstinate and unmoveable what ever is said to reconcile these two opinions doth not at all satisfie me and whatsoever answer is returnd I alwaies meet with difficulties great enough to perswade me that earth is not the mansion of light I honour S. Augustine and the Holy Sea I subscribe to the Anathema's the Church hath thundered out against Pelagians Calvinists and as I believe that Sin hath not destroyed the Liberty of Man neither do I believe that Free-will ruines the power of Grace But to return where I left I hold for certain that God is never wanting to the Covenant he made with the Christian in Baptism that he never forsakes him till he be forsaken by him and that there is always some secret infidelity on mans part that renders him unworthy of the assistance God would afford him his grace is many times offered to the Christian though it be not due to him and as he is constantly obliged to combat sin I conceive he hath continually some helps which he scarce ever fails of If God make us sensible of our weakness 't is that he may oblige us to have recourse to his goodness if he suffer us to fall 't is to punish us and the withdrawing of his grace supposeth always some notable infidelity When he pardons in Baptism 't is with as much Sincerity as Mercy he doth not quicken a sin that he hath made to die he goes not to Adam to seek for motives to destroy a man that begins to revive in Jesus Christ and I verily believe he never refuses grace to a Christian for an offence he hath so solemnly pardoned But we must certainly confess that we observe not our promises with the same faithfulness and that we are many times wanting to those oaths and protestations we have made in Baptism For the Christian publikely vows that he doth renounce the devil That he dies to himself to live to Jesus Christ That he will be crucified with him and as he takes his party he is resolved to fight his enemies Let us examine these promises in particular and see what they exact from us Baptism in those of age begins by Instruction in children by Exorcism it presupposeth that they are possest with Devils whom if they torment not as a Tyrant they command as a Soveraign If this Maxime be not true the Ceremonies of Baptism must pass for illusions and the Church to amaze us with vain fears increaseth the misery of our thraldom to augment the benefit of our deliverance when she sets us free from this shameful captivity she obligeth us to have no more commerce with the Evil spirit and knowing that the World is his State that it lives under his Laws follows his Maximes obeys his Directions she gives us in charge to hate it and to the end we may submit to her injunctions we promise by the mouth of our Godfathers to renounce the World as well as the Devil But because the grace that defaceth Sin destroys not Concupiscence but this monster still lives in our flesh stirs up disorders there makes parties and raiseth seditions we engage moreover to weaken his Empire to combat his designes to check his motions Thus the Christians in their Baptism are obliged to a War nay to Death they must die if they intend to live they must fight if they mean to overcome and knowing that the New man is a souldier they must consider Life as a Combat the Earth as the Pitched Field and the Devil the World and the Flesh as irreconcileable Enemies In the rere of these marcheth a terrible Troop of sins which Christians are bound to grapple with and subdue For the grace they have received in Baptism differs much from that which Adam received in the state of Innocence His was quiet and gave no alarms it subjected the Soul to God the Body to the Soul and the Senses to Reason its commands were executed without the least dispute it found no resistance in its subjects and as it commanded with Gentleness it was obeyed with chearfulness This of Christians is obliged to joyn Force with Sweetness and as the most part of its subjects are rebels they must be threatned to reduce them to their duty It commands always with the sword in the hand and knowing very well that when a people are up Justice can execute nothing if it be not assisted with force it must be feared that it may be obeyed Hence it is that it calls in severe vertues to its aid which make the Body afflict the Senses and swallow up the Passions But use what endeavour it will it findes by woful
produce him Therefore hath he received a name that perfectly expresseth his ineffable procession Charitas quae pater diligit filium filius patrē quae est Spiritus Sanctus ineffabilem communionem demonstrat Aug. de Trini for being the production of the Father and the Son he bears a name common to both and he is cal'd the Spirit because the Father and the Sonne call him so in Scripture Now this Spirit is the sacred Bond which conjoyns all Christians together he is not onely the soul but the unity and he it is who by admirable and secret Tyes entertaines a faire correspondence between all the parts of this great body The diffence of their conditions the contrariety of their humours the diversity of their designs hinders not the Holy Spirit from uniting them together nor that he that is the agreement of the Father and the Son be also the peace and agreement of the faithfull He it is that decided the differences between the Jewes and the Gentiles he it is who breaking down the partition Wall hath made of them one building he it is who perfecting the design of Jesus Christ hath happily taken out of the way all obstacles that impeded the unity of the Church and he it is who equalling the poor with the rich the freeman with the slave the learned with the ignorant hath framed that wonderfull body the most perfect Image of the Trinity Therefore must we acknowledge that all those figures that represent to us the person of the holy Ghost abundantly bear witnesse that his principall work is unity For sometimes he is called Fire because that element combines metalls in melting them and of two different substances makes a third which is neither one nor the other but rather both Sometimes he is called Water because he gives consistency to the earth watering it by secret veins and of a fluid sand makes a solid heap which serves for the foundation and centre of the whole Universe Therefore is it that the great Apostle of the Gentiles never speaks of unity Solliciti servare unitatem spiritus in vinculo pacis Epist but he mentions the holy Ghost as the source and fountain of it As often as he recommends peace to the faithfull he wisheth them him that reconciles men unto God by the remission of sin that separates them asunder Neither hath charity which is the principall effect of this ever to be adored Spirit any more worthy employment then to unite Christians together after he hath united them with the Trinity The second Alliance that he contracts with us is that he becomes the gift of God to men as he is the gift of the Father to the Son and of the Son to the Father back again If we beleeve prophane Philosophy Love is not onely the first production but the first profusion of the will This faculty is liberall assoon as it is amorous and parting with its love it makes a donation of whatever holds of its Empire Thence it comes to passe that all Lovers are prodigall that they engage their liberty stripping themselves of their goods and renouncing their own inclinations assoon as ever they begin to be affectionate Now as the holy Spirit is the Love of the Father and the Son so is He their mutuall gift they give themselves whatever they are in producing him and it seems the Son renders to his Father by the production of the Spirit all that he received by his birth Though we want termes to expresse the greatnesse of these mysteries Faith which supplies our impotency steps in to perswade us that the holy Spirit is the uncreated Liberality of the Father and of the Son from all eternity and t is the same faith that teacheth us that the holy Ghost is also the gift of God to the Christians and that at the same time he entered into alliance with them he bestowed his love upon them as a mark of his largesse wherein I observe two or three things worthy of admiration The first is that God makes us a Present equall to himself Dedit dona hominibus quale donum Spiritum sanctum magna est autem Dei misericordia donum dat aequale sibi quia donum ejus Spiritus sanctus est Aug. ser 44. de verb. Dom. which the truest and most affectionate Lovers never do for though gifts are the effects of love they never equall it and if the Lover makes not himself a slave to the person he loveth he can offer no Present equivalent to his affection Pearls and Diamonds are but weak expressions of his good will whatever contents others are but incentives to his desires he would be a Monarch that he might bestow a kingdom and in that height of fortune he would professe no prodigality can satisfie a Lover But God to whom nothing is impossible hath in presenting his love presented a gift commensurate to the greatnesse of that best love he would expresse that which he bestows equalls himself his Present is infinite and when he tenders us the holy Ghost he makes offer of a divine Person The second excellency of this Present is that it prevents our merit because it findes us in the state of sin and did God consult his justice as much as his mercy we should appear the objects of his wrath rather then of his love For he bestows his Spirit upon his enemies he sheds his love abroad in the hearts of beleevers and we receive this favour from him when we deserve nothing but chastisements The third excellency of this gift is that it is the source of all others for being the prime radicall donation 't is that from whence all the bounteous liberality of God issues and proceeds who confers no benefit upon us which bears not the image and superscription of this first and prime gratuity Whatever comes from heaven is a copy of the holy Spirit riches are the expresses of his bounty advantageous parts of soul or body are the marks of his goodnesse Graces and vertues are his immediate impressions and in a few words to comprehend the priviledges of this Divine Offertory we must say with S. Augustine 't is the Pandora thorow which all other gifts are bestowed upon us If the Angels descend from heaven to protect us if the Sun enlightens us if the Stars favour us if the Earth nourish us if the Trees shade us if the Eternal Word leave the bosome of his Father to take upon him our miseries 't is by the counsel and mediation of the holy Spirit and this gift that ravished the Apostle who tells us of it was nothing but an effect and consequence of that primitive largess which is the cause of all others Thence I infer that when we receive any grace we ought to look upward to the Holy Spirit and acknowledging him the fountain of all blessings profess our selves bound to render him the eternal calves of our lips This favour would take away all hope of gratitude
did not the following surpass it For the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Faithful as he is the Love of the Father and of the Son But to understand this truth we must inform you that the Word being begotten of the Father by the Understanding is his onely Son and that the Holy Ghost being produced by the Will is his Love The Father and the Son reciprocally love one another by this mutual charity they finde their happiness in this common dilection and should they cease to love they would cease to be happie Having a minde to exalt us to their happiness they raise us also to their love and pouring forth charity into our souls they make us capable of loving them For God is so great that he can neither be known but by his own Light nor lov'd but by his own Love the Holy Spirit must enlighten our Souls warm our Wills and by the purity of his flames purge away the impurity of our affections he transforms us into himself to make us happie This holy Love is a particular effect of the Holy Spirit the beams that heat us are an emanation from that Divine fire that burns the Seraphims and the charity that raiseth us above the condition of men is a spark of that personal charity wherewith the Father and the Son love each other from all eternity But that we may not challenge the Holy Spirit as sparing of his favours he hath vouchsafed to be the accomplishment of the Church as he is the accomplishment and perfection of the Trinity For though there be no defects in God though this Sun is never clouded nor eclipsed this Supreme Truth labours under no shadows nor errours this excellent Beauty hath no spots nor blemishes and this amiable goodness be full of charms and graces yet may the Holy Ghost be called the Complement thereof The Father begins this adorable Circle which the Son continues and the Holy Spirit finisheth he it is that bounds the Divine emanations draws forth the fruitfulness of those that cause his production and if it be lawful to speak of an ineffable mystery and to subject to the laws of Time Eternity it self God is not compleated but by the production of the holy Spirit He is the rest of the Father and the Son his person is the perfection of the Trinity and this Divine mystery would want its full proportion did it not include the Holy Spirit with the two Persons from whence he proceeded The holy Scriptures to afford us some light of this verity attribute all the perfection of the works of God to the blessed Spirit They represent him to us moving upon the waters in the Creation of the world finishing by his Fecundity what the Father and the Son had produced by their Power They teach us that it was he that gave motion to the Heavens influences to the Stars heat to the Sun They inform us that 't was by his vertue that the earth became fruitful and that from his goodness she received that secret Fermentation that to this day renders her the Mother and the Nurse of all things living And the Gospel to give this Truth its full extent instructs us that 't is the holy Ghost who by his graces in the Church makes up what Jesus Christ hath begun in it by his travels He is his Vicar and Lieutenant he came down upon the earth after the other ascended up to heaven nor hath he any other designe in his descension then to compleat all the works of Jesus Christ The Apostles were yet but embryo's in Christianity when the Son of God left them three yeers of conversation was not able to perfect them the greatest part of the discourses of their Divine Master seemed to them nothing but Aenigma's his Maximes Paradoxes his Promises pleasing Illusions every thing was a mormo to these timorous spirits ths name of the Cross scandalized them and so many Miracles wrought in their presence were unable to calm their Fear or heighten their Courage To finish these demi-works the Holy Ghost came into the world he descended upon their heads in the shape of fiery tongues to make them eloquent and bold he inspired them with Charity to cure them of Fear made them Lovers thereby to make them Martyrs he cleared their Understanding warmed their Will that light and heat being blended together they might more easily overcome Philosophers and Tyrants Finally he set up a Throne in their hearts that speaking by their mouthes and acting by their hands he might render them accomplisht pieces to the service of their Master And indeed we must acknowledge the Apostles changed their condition after the descent of the Holy Ghost their Fear vanished as soon as they were confirmed by his Strength the Cross seem'd strew'd with Charms as soon as they were kindled with his Flames they found Sweetness even in Torments Glory in Affronts Venit Vicarius Redemptoris ut beneficia quae Salvator Dominus inchoavit Spiritus sancti virtute consammet quod ille redemit iste sanctificet quod ille acquisivit iste custodiat Aug. Serm. 1. Feria 32. Pentec and Riches in Poverty This made S. Augustine say that the Holy Spirit came to finish in Power what the Son of God had begun in Weakness to sanctifie what the other had redeemed and to preserve what Christ had purchased If you seek saith the same S. Augustine what was wanting to the Apostles and what might be added to their perfection by the coming down of the Holy Ghost I will tell you Before that happie moment they had Faith but they had neither Constancie nor Fidelity they were able to forsake their possessions to follow Jesus Christ but they would not lose their lives to glorifie him they were able indeed to preach the Gospel but knew not how to signe it with their blood nor seal it with their death they were vertuous as long as they conversed with the Son of God up on earth but they were not grown up to perfection till the Holy Ghost had communicated to them his graces and adding force to charity had made them the Foundations of the Church the Fathers of the Faithful the Terrour of Devils and the Astonishment of Tyrants Finally 't is the holy Spirit according to the saying of S. John Damascen that perfects the Christians because 't is he that Quickens them by Grace and Deifies them with Glory So that we are obliged to confess that he enters into alliance with them that he is the same to the Church that he is to the Trinity and that after he hath been our Bond our Gift and our Love upon Earth he will be our Accomplishment in Heaven The Fourth DISCOURSE That the Holy Ghost seems to be to Christians what he is to the Son of God IT is not without ground that the Christian is called the Image of Jesus Christ since he is his other Self the one possessing by Grace what the other doth by
nihilo salvos facies illos nuila ergo hujus bona merita praecesseraut de quibus salvaretur imo talia praecesserant de quibus damnaretur Aug. in psal 55. and since the goodnesse of God is so jealous of our salvation it should of necessity furnish us with assistance upon all occasions There were some colour for this objection were Grace a debt but since 't is an Almes which God is no way bound to bestow upon any body I know not what pretence they have to complaine against its want of universality since in strictnesse of justice it might be refused to all the world The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Master of Grace he disposeth of it as pleaseth him and if sometimes he deny it there is none that can complaine The children of Adam lost it by the sin of their Father and the members of Jesus Christ lose it by their own The former are excluded by their birth the second by their infidelity The former are unfortunate the latter criminall and both of them living or dying in sin may justly expect nothing but condemnation But they reply 't is necessary that the holy Spirit acting in and by free creatures depend in his motions upon their will and concurre so gently with their free-will that they be rather the Authors then the Instruments of their salvation For we cannot conceive this dominion of the holy Spirit over mens hearts but withall we must apprehend some violence which diminisheth their merit and weakens their liberty Nature Reason and Faith furnish us with answers to satisfie these difficulties For when nature unites the soul and body together she intends that the Noblest should be the most powerfull that all the Authority appertains to him and that he shou ld be the Master of that part which is inferiour to him in dignity When morality united man with the Angel and gave Geniusse's to Philosophers and Emperours she was not afraid to injure the Liberty of Pupils by advancing the power of their Tutelary Angels nor did she never beleeve that Nocrates was a slave because obedient to his Familiar This Spirit whether good or bad indifferently applied him to all things he was his Councellor in his highest enterprises and the will of this Philosopher was so plyant to the motions of his genius that himself confesseth in Plato that he was rather Passive then Active Movebatur Socrates à Genio suo ut quaedam ageret à quibusdam abstineret saepe compellebatur Plut. de Socra daem In the mean time he complains not that he was forced he found pleasure in servitude and because his submission was voluntary he beleeved and that not without reason that obedience is no prejudice to liberty Faith perswades the same truth upon much stronger arguments for when it unites the holy Spirit with man it gives all the advantage to the Creator without supposing the least injury done to the creature it knows that God is more intimate with man then man with himself that he flows in upon the very essence of his will that he can change all his inclinations and being the Master of his workmanship can dispose of it as he pleaseth without the least umbrage of constraint His Providence leads men to their end with as much force as sweetness his force hurts not their liberty because accompanied with sweetnesse and his sweetnesse wrongs not his Majesty because attended with force whatever he does he always acts like a Soveraign his will findes no opposition that it surmounts not and when he intends to execute his designes he knowes as well how to prepare the heart of the guilty as of the innocent The first motions of Grace require no predispositions in the soul the second beget a consent without constraint and both of them bear away man with so much force and sweetnesse that he is never more free then when he is most powerfully drawn Sweetnesse so well tempers force that it is never violent and force so fully encourageth sweetnesse that it meets with no impediment it overcomes not Thus God is absolutely obeyed man sweetly born away the one findes his glory in his power the other his salvation in his obedience and both of them after a divers manner finish one and the same work This conduct is so distant from compulsion that the stronger it is the more gentle is it the more subject man is to it the freer his condition the lesse opposition hee hath the more happy is hee and perfect Jesus Christ owes one part of his Sanctity to the obedience hee rendered to the Holy Spirit the happy impotency hee was endued with not to resist him diminished neither his merit nor his liberty and hee blotted out our transgressions because hee was as necessarily as freely subject to his ordinances The nearer Christians approach to this state the more perfect are they the more powerfull their grace is the stronger is their liberty the more effectuall the inspirations of the Spirit are the easier and more acceptable is there conversion The sixth DISCOURSE That the Holy Spirit teacheth the Christian to pray NAture whose providence cannot be sufficiently admired hath beene pleased that those things that are most necessary should be most common and that as it were preventing the desires of men they should of their own accord offer themselves to those that enquire not after them There is nothing more necessary then light for besides that it is the channel whereby the Sun sheds his Influences upon the Earth it serves for a guide to them that walk discovers all the beauties of the world and happily expresseth those of its Creator So is there nothing more common in nature it is communicated to all people it suffers no partition and covetousnesse and ambition which have divided Sea and Land have found no way how to canton the light As the Aire is more necessary then this so is it also more common it enters into prisons where day never dawns it entertains those wretches with life who have lost their liberty it steales into the depths of the Sea and the bowels of the Earth neither is there any creature that is not refreshed by its acceptable humidity Grace imitates nature it is prodigall of its Treasures the more Christians stand in need of them the more frequently are they dispenced unto them and out of the care it takes of their salvation its good pleasure is that the most usefull favours are also the easiest to be obtained Prayer is an excellent proofe of this truth for in the condition we are there is no beleever that stands not in need thereof the daily miseries they suffer obliges them to make use of it and amongst so many enemies that set upon them they have no weapon but this wherewith to defend themselves 'T is the portion of the Church Militant and being still in conflict she cannot implore succour from heaven but by the mediation of Prayer Angeli beati de
from him who lived in poverty nor would receive any Disciples into his School that had not sold their goods and distributed them to the poor they demand Earth of him that reigns in Heaven the establishment of their welfare in this world from him who is the Father of that which is to come and taking no notice of their Creed they begge time of him who promiseth eternity But the holy Spirit disabuseth Christians when he either enlightens or instructs them For being the Spirit of the Son and knowing his intentions he never puts them upon those requests that are offensive to him When their hearts are encouraged with his Grace they preferre Conscience before Honour Vertue before Interest Grief before Pleasure and the will of God before their own inclinations If sometimes they petition for perishable goods 't is as farre as necessity obliges them and knowing that all such demands are dangerous 't is with feare that they always commence such suits with reservation that they continue them and with submission that they conclude them All their prayers are terminated with those words of our blessed Saviour to his Father in the Garden Not as I will but as thou wilt Finally the same Spirit teacheth them innocent Stratagems which they ought to make use of to pacifie the indignation of their Heavenly Father and to obtain those Graces they become Petitioners for Men are so little acquainted with God Quid oremus sicut oportet nescimus Rom. 8. that they know neither his minde nor his will his greatnesse exalts him so farre above us that we cannot approach unto him his designes are concealed from us and the Eternall Decrees he hath conceived in his breast are not to be penetrated by us 'T is with feare that we addresse our selves before him and being ignorant of his designes and resolutions wee have an apprehension that our desires may bid him defiance Wee have certain secrets to gain men we know by what arts we may insinuate into their fair opinion we have dexterity enough to take them with their interests and Rhetorick supplies us with inventions to triumph over their liberty without doing them the least violence But we know not how we are to treat with God his Majesty astonisheth us his Splendour dazles us and if his Mercy assure us his Justice confounds us because if we are miserable wee are besides more guilty The Holy Spirit assists us in this disorder whereto our sin hath reduced us Qui autem scrutatur corda scit quid desideret spiritus quia secundum Deum postulat pro Sanctis Rom. 8. For residing in the heart of the Father and of the Son he knows their most intimate cogitations he sounds those abysses which the Angels cannot descend into he sees their secretest intentions and teacheth us innocent artifices to appease them when provoked against us He spake no doubt by the mouth of Moses when that Prophet disarmed the Almighty and reduced to a loving impotency him whose power hath no other bounds but his will It was the Holy Spirit who fettered him by the hands of Moses and obliged him to demand leave to be avenged of his enemies Let me alone that my fury may waxe hot 'T is the same Spirit that daily disarms our God that pulleth the Thunder out of his hands and which gently forcing him willingly to be overcome by the prayers hee dictates to us triumphs over his fury by our perseverance 'T is he finally that teacheth us to desire that life that is knowne onely by Faith Est in nobis quaedam ut ita dicam docta ignorantia sed docta Spiritu Dei qui adjuvat infirmitatem nostram Aug. and possessed onely by Charity 'T is hee saith Saint Augustine that inspires us with that learned Ignorance whereby wee confesse that the happinesse that is promised us surpasseth our imagination wee know onely that his greatnesse exceedeth all those Ideas we can fashion of him so that wee reject all that are offered to our understanding knowing very well that faculty cannot conceive the good it is bound to hope for 'T is the Holy Spirit that mingles his light with our darknesse and leaving us in the ignorance of our felicity gives as much knowledge of it as is requisite to desire it For as Saint Augustine wisely observes if it were absolutely unknown of us it could never stir up any desire in us but besides were it fully revealed it could not provoke our hopes since according to the Maxime of the Apostle what a man sees he hopes not for nor wishes that which hee possesseth But the last and most admirable Stratagem of this Divine Spirit In quo clamamus Abba pater postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus Rom. 8. is that he accompanies our prayers with his groanes that without disturbing his own happiness he partakes of our distresses rendring himself in a sort miserable with us to make us happy with him for 't is by his motion that we send forth sighs by his grace that we groan and he so fully works these things in us that the Apostle attributing them to him is not afraid to say that he intercedes for us with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed In a word 't is this Spirit that teacheth us to mourn in the world that informs us that the Earth is our Banishment Heaven our Country that the one is to be endured the other to be hoped for Whoever knows how to profit by this instruction spends all his life in the doleful tone of the Turtle he sighs always when he considers that he is separated from JESUS and that living here belowe Nec parva res est quod docet nos Spiritus sanctus gemere insinuat enim nobis quia peregrinamur docet nos in Patriam suspirare ipso desiderio gemimus Aug. he hath onely the Earnest of that happiness which is promised him he weeps in these just desires and sheds tears much different from those of sinners They groan indeed burthened with Misfortunes the inseparable companions of Life they complain when they have lost their Liberty they sigh when they are oppressed with any Sorrow they murmure when they are betrayed by their friends or persecuted by their enemies But these Lamentations savour nothing of those mournful Accents of the Dove 'T is not Charity but Interest that fans this Passion 't is the spirit of the World and not that of God that makes them thus breathe out their souls in Sadness For as this last is Eternal so he sighs onely for Eternity as he proceeds from the Father and the Son he returns thither again and leads us with him and being the Spirit of Truth he occasions us to wish none but solid Goods nor to grieve for any but true Evils The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Holy Spirit remits the Sins of the Christian REpentance is one of the greatest advantages Christian Grace can possibly have above Original
Righteousness Poenitentia à poena nomen accepit quia anima cruciatur caro mortificatur Aug. For though it presuppose sin and that Man cannot repent if he have not done amiss yet is it a very present help against his Infirmity and an admirable Invention of Mercy to deliver him from his Transgression In the mean time the state of Innocence was deprived of it and whether these two priviledges were incompatible neither would God grant this favour to men who had no excuse for their sin because it was absolutely in their power not to commit it we see not that they had this Prerogative nor that Adam recovered from his Fall by the assistance of Original Justice His Conversion is an effect of the Grace of JESUS CHRIST If he bewailed his sin he is beholding to the merits of the Son of God Nullus hominum transit ad Christum ut incipiat esse quod non erat nisi cum poeniteat fuisse quod erat Homil. 50. and if he repented 't was not till he became Christian For the Divine Providence which turns our Evils into Remedies is pleased to make use of our weakness in the business of Repentance and fortifying our Liberty by the vertue of Grace settles us in a condition more humble indeed but more sure then that of Innocence Therefore is it not founded so much upon the Will as upon Grace drawing its force much less from Man then from Jesus Christ He it is that hath instituted the remedy in his Church by a Sacrament wherein the holy Spirit raiseth up sinners after he hath regenerated them by Baptism For as he is the Principle of our new life so is he the Restorer thereof as he gives it by his Grace so he repairs it by his Goodness he presides in this sacred Pool and working stranger Miracles then the Angel did at the pool of Hierusalem he convinceth the Obstinate enlightens the Blinde instructeth the Ignorant Indeed this Sacrament hath always been lookt upon by Christians as a chanel thorow which the holy Spirit pours forth his graces into the souls of sinners There it is that he works those prodigies which astonish all Christians there it is that he acts as God and by a victorious sweetness triumphs over the liberty of Criminals there it is that he changeth Persecutors into Apostles Wolves into Lambs Libertines into Believers and Lascivious persons into Continent In the Old Testament this Spirit changed men externally indued them with new strength made use of Samsons to tame Lions take Cities and defeat Armies The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson aad he slew a thousand men He changed the minde of those that he lifted up to the Throne and putting the Scepter into their hands inspired the Politicks into their soul and taught them that Science whereby Soveraigns govern States and Kingdoms The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee and thou shalt be changed into another man But now he changeth the hearts he causeth a Metamorphosis less glittering but more useful inspiring into the soul Repentance and Sorrow for Sin This Change is attributed to the holy Spirit because being the personal Love Est Spiritus sanctus in confitente jam ad donum Spiritûs sancti pertinet quia tibi displicet quod fecisti immundo spiritui peccata placent sancto displicent Aug. all the effects which designe any goodness are particularly applied to him and our Religion knows none greater then that wherein God receives his enemy into favour where not considering his Greatness he prevents him by his Mercy nor minding the many sins he hath committed treats with him not as a Rebellious Slave but as an obedient Son This belongs to the holy Spirit because being that sacred Bond that unites the Father with the Son from all Eternity it concerns him to reconcile sinners to God who are separated from him by their offences according to the language of the Prophet Your sins have separated between you and your God Finally this effect is so honourable to him that he is pleased to take it for his Name For the Church in her Oraisons calls it the Remission of Sins And as to flatter the ambition of Conquerours they bestow upon them the names of those Provinces they have reduced under their obedience the Church is of opinion that worthily to praise the holy Spirit to his Divine Qualities this glorious Title must be added and to specifie the victories he gains over sinners to name him by way of excellence The Remission of sins This Maxime is so true and the pardon of our offences so particularly attributed to the holy Ghost that the Ministers who are employed in this Sacrament must be quickned with his vertue to blot out sins For as Saint Augustine judiciously observes the Apostles received not the power to absolve the Guilty till they had received the holy Ghost nor did the Son of God say unto them Remit sins till he had before said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that they might know it was through his Name that they wrought this Miracle and that they were onely his Organs when they dispensed Grace in the State of their Soveraigne This will not seem strange to those that shall consider there is no greater power in the Church then to forgive sins For 't is in a manner to act upon a Non-entity 't is to imitate the power of God and to extract Grace out of Sin as the World out of Nothing Besides if we believe Saint Ambrose the Conversion of sinners hath something more difficult in it then the Creation of men For though in both these works God act upon nothing David telling us that to change a heart is to create it Create in me O God a clean heart and Saint Paul assuring us that our soul is created in good works when we are converted Creati in bonis operibus It seems God meets with more resistance in Conversion then in Creation Nothing obeys God when it hears his Word if it contribute not to his designes neither doth it oppose them and no sooner hath God made known his desire but it thrusts forth out of its barren womb The Heaven with its Stars the Earth with its Fields and the Sea with its Rocks He spake and they were made he commanded and they were created But Sin is a Non-entity rebellious against God it knows his minde and contemns it sets up parties in his State deboists his subjects and intrenching it self in their heart as in a Fort disputes the victory with their Soveraign Moreover there is no body but knows that God acts far more absolutely in the Creation of Men then in the Conversion of Sinners For when he drew man out of Nothing he advised with none but Himself he had no respect to his Liberty because he handled him as a Slave and speaking imperiously to him obliged him to appear before his Creator But when he Converts him he uses some kinde of
he is not master of the mind but because he is of the body nor hath he any command over the will of man but because 't is in his power to mutinie his passions But sinne reigns in all the faculties of man his darkness clouds the Understanding his malice depraves the Will his ingratitude weakens the Memory he enters where ever grace can and penetrating the very essence of the soule builds a Palace where the holy Spirit had erected a Temple When he is forced to quit the hold where he had intrench'd himselfe and yielding to grace is constrained to leave the sinner at liberty he sets on foot by his Ministers that violence he could not act by himselfe Concupiscence which is his daughter and his mother endeavours to execute his designes she takes pains in his directions and like a souldier that disputes the victory after the death of his Generall she does her utmost to enthrone him after his defeat For all the motions of this concupiscence favour sinne all the streams that issue from this fountain are unclean all the counsels that proceed from this Minister are suspected and all the assaults this Enemy makes against us are prejudiciall to our salvation she is not innocent in the greatest Saints * Concupiscentia causa est peccati vel defectione consentientis vel contagione nascentis Aug. lib. 6. Con. Jul. c. 19. she preserves her malignity in the very Empire of Grace she resists the Holy Spirit in the Temple he is adored in and as Divines confesse that as the Tree is inclosed in the kernell sinne is wrapt up in concupiscence This was the evill the Apostle of the Gentiles complains of writing to the Romans 't was that disorder he would but could not reforme 't was that rebellion he felt in his members and was not able to appease 't was that law of the flesh warring against that of God which he could not abrogate 't was finally that Monster that drew complaints from his mouth made him confesse his weaknesse and obliged him to wish for death that he might be delivered from his Tyranny For as Saint * Non quod volo ago sed quod nolo hoc ago quod odi concupiscere odi concupiscere tamen illud ago ex carne non ex mente non implet legem infirmitas mea sed legem laudat voluntas mea Aug. in Rom. Augustine observes very well 't was not in the power of the Apostle to cure that maladie which depended not upon his Will because it passed on in despite of him and his complaints which were marks of his piety were proofs also of his infirmity We must not say with the Pelagians that Saint Paul in his person represents that of a sinner whose bad Habit having weakened his liberty left him nothing but sighes and regrets for being thrown into a condition out of which 't was not in his power to come forth For though this interpretation be true and some Fathers who were very tender of the holinesse of the Apostle of the Gentiles have imagined that he could not be subject to these disorders Neverthelesse Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine who knew very well that Grace does not destroy Concupiscence were not troubled to acknowledge this in Saint Paul and to confesse That the Liberty of the greatest Saints is not so intire but it experienceth rebellions which it cannot master and that 't is onely in Eternity where Grace obtains a full triumphant victory over sin Si autem sicut melius sentit Ambrosius hoc etiam de seipso dicit Apostolus nec justorum est in hac vita tanta libertas propriae voluntatis quanta erit in illa vita ubi non dicitur Non quod volo ago Aug. lib. 6. cont Julian when the Saints shall no more say with Saint Paul I do that which I would not Indeed this complaint is an evident proof of the weakness that remains in man after he hath received the pardon of his sin Though he be in Grace he is not freed from pain though he be assisted by God he cannot chuse but tremble and though his Will be straight yet is it not so stedfast and constant as to overcome all that combates his good resolutions The experience he hath of his infirmity obligeth him to implore the succours of Heaven knowing very well that victory is never compleat upon earth he intreats an end of his life to obtain that of his conflict and being not ignorant that his vigour is abated by this Inmate which he can neither defeat nor divorce he implores an Aid that supplyes his impotency and renders him strong enough not to be worsted This is the Reason St Augustine made use of against the Pelagians For whereas they affirmed that Man had always a full freedom to correct himself nor that there was any state wherein Concupiscence held so great a command over the Will that he could not easily defend himself he confronted them with this passage of St Paul saying with that vigour of spirit that accompanies all his argumentations Confess that all those that have a mind to mend cannot do it since he that speaks in these terms 'T is not I that work gives a sufficient demonstration that his desire is strong but his power weak Say not that he can subdue sin by the meer abilities of his Will since he discovers his infirmity by his complaints and were he vigorous enough to bring all his forces into the field he would never utter those words Non quod volo ago Suffer him at least in whom you see the activity of free-will weakened to have recourse to the assistance of Grace and to seek for that out of himself which he cannot finde in himself But this misfortune is yet much greater in sinners newly converted then in the just who have a long time persevered in this vertue For if these last have not destroyed sin they have debilitated him and if they have not obtained a full victory they have gain'd some advantage over this Enemy if they have not quite obstructed his motions they have greatly check'd them and if they have not strength to be delivered they have courage enough to stand upon their guard and defend themselves But the others have encreased his power by their own cowardise they have added the tyranny of Habit to that of Concupiscence they are reduced to a wretched impotency to withstand since they have not crush'd him in his conception and their liberty is so small to defeat him that their slavery degenerates for the most part into down-right necessity Thence it came to passe that St Augustine being fallen into that deplorable condition complain'd that his bad Habit had fettered his Will that he groan'd under the weight of his irons that he could not break them though he had hammered them himself and having voluntarily thrown himself into the net he was necessarily held fast in it My Will saith he admirably in his
them But Saint Augustine informs us that he acts otherwise with sinners then with the godly and that he carries himselfe after another fashion with those he moves only Aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter habitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles Aug. Epist ad Sixtum then with those whom he inanimates He assists the former that they may be converted he helps the second that they may persevere in the former he inspires faith in the later charity to the one he opens the door of the Church to the other the gate of Heaven But finally 't is one and the same Spirit that aids all Christians in their different conversations 'T is he that triumphs over the Executioners in the Martyrs that combates Hereticks in the Doctours that subdues the flesh in the Continent that despiseth the pleasures of the world in the Anchorites that conquers sinne in the Penitents and that leads all the Elect from the Camp of the Church Militant into the bosome of the Church Triumphant The Ninth DISCOURSE That the HOLYSPIRIT is the CHRISTIANS Comforter SIn and Misery were borne into the world both upon a day assoon as ever man became criminall he became miserable Peccavit anima ideo misera est liberum arbitrium accepit quo usa est quemadmodum voluit lapsa est ejecta est de beatitudine implicata est misertis Aug. contra Fortu. Disp 2. punishment followed transgression so close upon the heeles that he lost his happinesse as soon as he had lost his innocence Ever since this fatall moment his life hath been but a continued Train of miseries insensibly leading him to the Chambers of death The Hydra of the Poets never was so fruitfully pregnant and Fiction with all it's inventions could never yet represent the story of our misfortunes Nor Age nor Sexe nor Condition give any person a dispensation Infants are wretched in the Cradle that innocent Age that hath no other sinne then that of Adam is sensible of pains as sharp as those that accompany old age Women who somtimes shake off obedience to their Husbands cannot escape the pangs of griefe and Kings who are so absolute in their State have no Guards that can stop sicknesse and sadnesse from entring into their Palaces These two enemies of man-kind creep every where their dominion knowes no bounds where ever there are men they finde subjects and create miserable Indeed Christians meet with a great deale of consolation in these distresses for besides that the hope of futurity sweetens their present evils that the example of Jesus Christ gives them encouragement that the constancy of Martyrs bear up their spirits they have received the Holy Spirit that comforts them in their troubles and supplies them with as many remedies as misfortune takes upon it shapes to assault them Let us reduce both of them to four heads and make it appear in their discourses that 't is not in vaine that man beares the name of miserable and the Holy Spirit that of a Comforter One of the fearfullest torments of man a sinner is that the two parts whereof he is made cannot agree In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum fit rixa tua tecum lucta est in illo corpore quamdiu vivimus pugnamus quamdiu pugnamus periclitamur Aug. The body and the soule are always upon bad terms their love is turned into hate and if there be any agreement between them 't is always to the disadvantage of the nobler part All is out of order in the master-piece of the Creation Earth is higher then Heaven the Beast domineers over the Angell the Spirit stoops to the Body and Passions are the Mistresses of Reason The Saints groan under this disorder they invoke death to be freed from this Tyranny and they intreat an end of their life that they may see an end of a Combate whose event is so doubtfull The Holy Spirit accommodates this difference by his grace for he takes part with the soule against the body he subjects the soule to God thereby to subject the body to the soule he sets things in the state they were in during the time of Innocence and so suppresseth the revolts of the flesh that if the Spirit be not absolute it is at least the strongest in the Saints 'T is the grace of our heavenly Comforter say the Fathers of the Church that sweetens our discontents that quencheth the impure flames that concupiscence kindles in our hearts that subdues those violent passions whose first motions are of so difficult coercion 'T is it that charmes those deceitfull hopes and desires that promise us felicity in the World and which finally following the Inclinations of this Spirit whereof it is the Image inables the Christian to be revenged of those rebells that disturb the quiet of his person The second punishment of guilty man is to see himselfe exiled from heaven and constrain'd to endure a banishment as long as life Indeed he undergoes here all the miseries of an exterminated person he is deprived of his goods and lives not but upon borrowing or almes he is driven out of Paradise fallen from all those honours that equal'd his condition to that of Angels and reduced to a deplorarable state Homo cum in honore esset non intellexit ideo comparatus est jumentis insipientibus Psal 48. rendring his fortune little different from that of beasts He never looks up to heaven but if there be any spark of piety remaining he bewailes his offence and is afflicted at his banishment Griefe puts these complaints in his mouth Wo is me because my habitation is prolonged He is afraid least the snares that are scattered in the place of his residence entangle him if he suffer any calamity he presently reflects upon the happinesse he hath lost and if he taste any pleasures he misstrusts lest they engage him in the world For Christians are threatned with this double evill and if they take not good heed they are in danger to love their exile and forget their Countrey they settle their fortune upon earth they build as if they never meant to remove they are strongly taken up with the present world and they lose all beliefe of the future and a man hath much adoe to perswade them that so delightfull an Abode is the place of their Banishment and the Theater of their Torment They must be made feele their miseries that they may have some desire towards another life and we think we have gained much upon their Spirit when they will be perswaded to look with an indifferent eye upon the place of their birth Therefore is it that Richardus de Sancto Victore divides men into three ranks the first is those that are fastened to their Countrey whom he calls Delicate Delicatus est cui patria dulcis fortis cui omne solum patria perfâ—ctus cui omnis terra exilium est
provoke him The Third TREATISE Of the Christians Head The first DISCOURSE That the CHRISTIAN hath two Heads ADAM and JESUS CHRIST IF Bodies with two Heads passe for Monsters humane Nature may very well passe for a Prodigie in that it hath two Chiefes upon which it depends and that as Adam communicates his Sin to it by Generation making it guilty and miserable Jesus Christ communicates his Grace to it by Baptisme making it innocent and happy 'T is true Nature might have expected great advantages from this first Head had he kept his originall Righteousnesse for our Divines confesse that Adam being Chiefe of all men received Grace not onely for himselfe but for all his Posterity that as his sinne passeth into his children by Generation Grace had passed into them by the same conveyance and that then they had been borne innocent as now they are borne criminall Together with grace he had communicated to them all the Priviledges he had received from God in the Creation Their bodies had been freed from those troublesome maladies that exercise our patience and originall righteousnesse had knit the body so close to the soule that their peace had never been disturb'd by these intestine divisions that set them so much at distance Nourishment had repair'd the radicall moisture that the naturall heat had consum'd and the fruit of the Tree of Life retaining something of our Sacraments had imparted to them a new vigour that had secur'd them against old Age and Death Their soul had not been worse provided for then their body for with Grace they had received all vertues and according to Saint Augustine either they had had the use of reason for their service or they had learn'd with so much easinesse that Ignorance had never been their Torment In this happy condition the Will had been more free then now it is the passions were so subject to reason that they had never been up but by his order Concupiscence that tyrannizeth over the children of Adam Summa in carne sanitas in anima tota tranquilitas Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. had not enslav'd the soule to the body and though the inferiour part had felt it's naturall inclinations Grace had so well moderated them that they had never undertaken any thing either against justice or honesty Thence it comes to passe that these austere vertues that have nothing else to do but to combate the motions of the flesh had serv'd rather for his ornament then for his defence Thence it followes that Grace had not been the Mistresse of the Will because having no bad inclinations she might have guided her selfe provided she were but supported nor had there been any danger that she that was not yet a Captive to sinne should have the chiefe disposall of his salvation we are not certain that if Adam had preserved his innocence his children had been impeccable neither know we if the sinne of other men had injur'd their posterity and if having lost the advantages of originall righteousnesse in their own behalfe they had lost them also as concerning their successours This condition is so conceal'd that we have nothing but weak conjectures of it every one extolls or debaseth it according to his humour and having neither Scripture nor Tradition for their rule all the world may diminish or adde something to their happinesse 'T is certain neverthelesse Sicut in Paradiso nullus aestus aut frigus sic in ejus habitatione nulla ex cupiditate vel timore bonae voluntatis offensio Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. that all the torments that came into the world with sinne had never discompos'd his quiet The Seasons had not been irregular the Elements had not bid him battel the Earth had been fruitfull without tilling and thorns that are the fruits of sinne had not dishonoured the face thereof Deluges that drowned the world Drought that makes the fields barren Pestilence that depopulates Cities and mows down the Inhabitants having no other cause but sinne had made no devastations in an innocent State and men being upon good terms with God had found their happinesse under the protection of his Grace having lived some Ages upon the earth Proinde si non peccasset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortalitate Aug. they had been translated into heaven where Glory consuming what they had of perishable had made them perfectly immortall without passing them through the pangs of immortality The two parts that compose man had not been separated the Master-piece of the Creation had not been ruin'd and the soul reigning with Angels had not beheld her body devoured by worms in the Sepulchre See here a rude draught of the state of Innocence and a slight shadow of the glorious advantages children had derived from their father had he kept originall righteousnesse but the evils he procur'd them surpasse the priviledges in number and quality For his sinne is the source and fountain of all misfortunes we are not guilty but because we are his Members we sinn'd by his will because we lived in his person and the offence of one man is become the obliquity of whole Nature because it was included in him as the Tree in the Kernell or as a River in the Head Quia vero per liberum arbitrium Deum deseruit justum Dei judicium expertus est ut cum tota sua stirpe quae in illo adhuc posita tota cum illo peccaverat damnaretur Aug. This is it that Saint Augustine teacheth us in those no lesse handsom then solid expressions Adam felt the just judgement of God because abusing his free will he was unjustly separated from him and punishment was inflicted upon him with his whole race because being in him as in the stock they had wholly transgress'd with him The same also he delivers with as much or more eloquence in his Enchiridion for searching out the cause of so many evils that assault us he concludes that the sinne of our first father is the originall thereof and that we are therefore criminall and miserable because we are a part of him Thence it comes to passe saith he that being banished out of Paradise after his transgression he was condemned to death with all his Posterity who living in him as in their Principle were infected with his prevarication as the branches wither in their stock and die in their root Thence it comes to passe that all children that descend from him and from his wife the Complice of his offence and of his punishment are the heirs of his corruption This sinne passeth into them by the channell of concupiscence and makes them sensible of a torment which seems the image of their disobedience since one part of themselves is revolted against the other This revolt engaging their soule in vanity and their body in pain leads them insensibly with the rebellious Angels to that last Judgement which will never have an end Let us
he encouraged his Apostles to Martyrdom and providing Graces for all his Members inspired them with strength to vanquish pleasure and subdue grief For though the Son of God be the Head of men in all the conditions of life because he was so before his birth nevertheless he exerciseth this Office in a time when others cannot Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Excedit humanum conditionem ista promissio nec tam de ligno Crucis quà m de Throno editur potestatis Leo. He founded his Church in dying he acted like a Soveraigne when they deprived him of life he pardoned offenders when they handled him as a delinquent he disposed of the kingdom of heaven when they disputed his kingdom upon earth and making his power appear in his weakness his innocence in his execution and his grandeur in his affronts he takes pleasure to confound the pride of his enemies But me thinks there is no quality makes him shine forth with so much pomp upon the Cross as that of being the Head For besides that it was in this place that he offered up himself for his Elect and by bonds as strong as they are secret united them to his Person that neither sin nor death can ever separate them from him it was there that he made that wonderful Bargain with them where charging himself with their sins he invested them with his merits and taking upon him the quality of a sinner communicated to them that of innocents There it was that he espoused the Church and accomplishing that Figure which preceded in the person of Adam and Eve he was willing to die that his Spouse might live For the holy Scripture not without a Mystery observes that Eve was taken from the side of Adam whilst he was asleep that all the world might know that the Church must proceed from the side of Christ when he hung dead upon the Cross God could saith S. Augustine have formed the woman of her husband whilst he was awake had there not been some Mystery couched under that Ceremony for if we say God chose that time to rid man from all sense of pain it was too violent not to awaken him and if we say man felt it not because God wrought the work he could as easily have taken away the rib when he was awake as when he lay asleep But he had a minde to express that in Paradise which was to be acted upon mount Calvary and teach us that as Eve issued from the side of her sleeping husband the Church should issue from the side of dying Jesus If this Mystery heightens the love and power of Jesus Christ we must confess it augments withal the obligations Christians have to death and sufferings For Christ conceived us in the midst of his wounds we are the children of his sorrows and his Church cost him much more pain and trouble then Eve did the first Adam Sicut dormienti Adae costa detrabitur ut conjux efficiatur ita Christo morienti de latere sanguis effunditur ut Ecclesia construatur communicantes namque corpori sanguini efficimur Ecclesia Christi conjux Aug. His spouse never broke his sleep she rose from his side without any pang or violence he found himself happily married when he awoke and he judged her a piece of himself more from his inclination then his grief But Jesus lost his life to bestow it upon the Church his body must be opened and his heart pierced to form his Bride this Maid was to be sought for in the bowels of her Father and an incision made into the side of the Parent to be the Midwife to this Posthuma As this Quality was dear bought and like David he was fain to mingle his own blood with that of the Philistims to purchase his Church his minde is that the children of so dolorous a Marriage breathe nothing but sufferings and remembring that they are the babes of a God dying upon the Cross they should pass their whole life in sorrow and tribulations For what likelihood is there that being born in pain and anguish they should seek after delights and pleasure That they should be crowned with Roses when their Head was encircled with Thorns That they should be ambitious after the glory of the world since he that gave them being died amongst ignominy and reproaches or that they should seek revenge for their injuries when he from whom they descend begged as a favour the pardon of his enemies Let us imitate our Chief because he is our Example let us remember that all our happiness depends upon our union and conformity with him Let us often meditate that the Father loves none but his onely Son That none can have a part in his Inheritance that is not united to Jesus Christ That he onely can ascend up into heaven that came down from thence That as there is but one Guilty man so there is but one Innocent and as all the Reprobate are involved in the sin of Adam all the Predestinate are wrapt up in the grace of Jesus Christ The Third DISCOURSE Of the strict Vnion of the Head with the Members and of that of Jesus Christ with Christians ALl Polititians acknowledge that the Soveraign being the Head of the State is united with his Subjects and that their union is so neer that their interests are in common He that offends the Prince wrongs the State he that attempts any thing against his sacred Person wounds all those that live in his Kingdom and as Nature teacheth all members to expose themselves for the preservation of their head the Politicks teach all Subjects to venture themselves for the defence of their Soveraign But forasmuch as the obligations are mutual and reciprocal the same Politicks read a Lecture to Kings that they are bound to preserve their Subjects to spare their blood and to handle offenders as corrupted members which are never cut off from the body but with sorrow and necessity The Prince must be sensible of every part of his State that perisheth every blowe that lights upon it pierceth his heart and his love towards it must be such that he be ready to lay down his life for them when he shall judge their safety to depend upon his death This is the reason Seneca sometimes made use of to sweeten the cruel humour of Nero and to instil clemency into the heart of that bloody Parricide Thou said he art the head of the Common-wealth whence thou mayst ghess how necessary Clemency is to thee since in pardoning others thou art pitiful to thy self and favouring thy subjects art kinde to him that lives in them as in his members If we believe this Philosopher there was a time when Nero profited by this advice and this Truth had so powerful an impression upon his spirit that he was witty to finde out pretences to spare the blood of delinquents For to use Seneca's own words When there came an offender before him who
was yet in the flower of his age he pardoned his youth Alterius aetate prima motus sum alterius ultima alium dignitati donavi alium humilitati queties nullam inveneram misericordiae causam mihi peperci Sen. lib. 1. de Clem. c. 1. and that extravagancy which ever accompanies it when he was stricken in yeers he pardoned his gray hairs and left death the charge of the execution when he was of a good House he respected his birth and balancing the good services of his Ancestors with his crimes conceived he did justice to them in shewing mercy to him when he was of an obscure mean Family he contemned an offender whose example could not any way prejudice the Common-wealth But when there was a prisoner presented whose crimes seemed to obstruct his Clemency and command his Severity he used an innocent stratagem and remembring that he was the Head of that transgressing Member he pardoned him in consideration of that Alliance and spared himself in the person of that delinquent Though all this Discourse make it evident that there is no stricter relation then that between Kings and their Subjects yet must we confess 't is rather Imaginary then Veritable For besides that experience teacheth us that Kings who live in pleasure seldom think of the miseries of their People Reason instructs us that there is nothing but Nature or Grace that can unite men to one another All those Alliances that are founded onely upon Inclinations or Duty stamp no Character and if Religion second not the Politicks they can neither oblige Subjects to expose their lives for the safety of their Prince nor Princes for that of their Subjects Whatever Oracles Morality pronounceth upon this occasion whatever Colours Eloquence adorns the actions of Souldiers with who have spilt their blood for the honour of their Soveraigns they never lookt upon them as their Head and if they set upon their enemies in spight of the thunder of the Canon 't was not so much for the preservation of their Person as out of a hope of Glory or expectation of a Reward There is no true Alliance but that which is established upon the Flesh or upon the Spirit and among so many Chiefs that govern their States there is none but Jesus Christ that is really united with his Subjects He lives in them by Grace and as Faith and Charity are able to make him present in all his members it is sufficient to be Faithfull or Charitable to make up one part of his Mysticall Body Thence it comes to passe that he shares with his members in all the Good or Evill they receive that his Glory hinders him not from having a fellow-feeling of their miseries and though in Heaven yet ceaseth not to suffer with them upon Earth The distance of place disjoyns him not from his Mysticall Body he is with men though among the Angels and this Bridegroom that reigns with the Church Triumphant fights yet with the Militant These two Churches make up his Spouse he loves them both as one he gives himself to both of them not imitating the Saints who leaving their ashes to the Church Militant translate their souls to the Church Triumphant he imparts himself to both without being divided to either and to take away all shadow of jealousie resides as truly among the Faithfull Caput nostrum est in coelo nos in illo ibi sursum Ecce jam pignus habomus unde nos fide spe charitate cum capite noâ—â—ro sumus in coelo in aeternuÌ„ quia ipsum bonitate divinitate unitate nobiscum est in terra atque ad consummatione saeculi Aug. in Psal 26. Ser. 2. as among the Beatificall He respects onely the difference of their conditions in the favours he confers upon them For the Church Triumphant being in possession he discovers to them his beauties declares to them his secrets and gives them a portion of his felicity But the Church Militant being still in hope he hides his face to increase her love he speaks to her darkly in Aenigma's to exercise her faith he takes her into his sufferings to increase her merits nor does he shew himselfe to her but under the vailes and curtaines of our Sacraments to put an edge upon her desires But he is equally united with both of them by that charity which makes him their Bridegroom and their Head We see also in the Scripture that he is sensible of all the outrages that are done to his members and that from Heaven above where he reigns with the Angels he suffers with the Faithfull upon the earth When Saul persecuted the Infant Church endeavouring to stiffle it in the Cradle when rage in his heart threats in his mouth arms in his hands sent him to make inquisition after her tender ones from Jerusalem as far as Damascus the Son of God complains of this violence as if done against his own Person and the neer relation he hath contracted with them obliged him to professe that in offending them they wounded him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Jesus Christ had sufficiently honoured the Faithfull saith Saint Augustine had he been contented to call them his Friends or his Brethren and one so glorious a condition had shrowded them from the rage and fury of so cruell a persecutor but he had prejudiced his love and his veracity had he used other terms Being the Head of the Christians and happily affianced to them he must of necessity mingle their injuries with his and to aggravate the greatnesse of this outrage he informed him that was the Authour that no man could offend the Christians but he must wound him nor hurt men but he must injure the only Son of God Let us hear Saint Augustine upon this Subject and see how he handles this mystery of Unity Jesus Christ was in Heaven when hee converted Saint Paul and of a Persecutor made him an Apostle Whence comes it then that in reproaching him with his Crime he saith Saul why persecutest thou me This furious Assasinate had he climbd up to Heaven to declare Warre against Iesus Christ Meant he to imitate the pride of those ambitious Angels that set upon him in the midst of his Glory Saul persecuced the Christians and not Iesus Christ that reigned with his Father in Heaven But because he lived in the Faithfull he suffered with his members and established that Maxime which this Apostle was one day to preach If one member suffer all the members suffer with it he uses this language to Saul and speaks to him with an Emphasis Why doest thou persecute me The glory wherewith I am surrounded renders thy attempts fruitlesse and whatever hatred thou hast conceived against me thou canst not injure my Greatnesse Know neverthesse that I live still in my Faithfull ones that they are my members that I am their Head and that in persecuting them thou persecutest me in their person Ought not this my Brethren to astonish
Fourth DISCOURSE That the Vnion of Christians with their Head is an Imitation of the Hypostaticall Vnion CHristian Religion acknowledgeth three wonderfull Unities which exercise her Faith enflame her Love and entertain her Piety The first is the Unity of Essence which is found in the Trinity For the same Faith that â—eacheth us there are three Persons in one God teacheth us also that he subsists in one and the same Essence and that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God This Truth soares so high above Humane Understanding that it cannot be conceived otherwise then by the light of Faith Reason would deceive should she be consulted with in this mystery Man would not be more faithfull Considera quod voceris fidelis non rationalis si dicas hoc non est exponcre sed expositione fugere respondeo in die judicii non damnor quia dicam nescivi naturam Dei mei si aâ—tem aliquid temere dixero temeritas poenam habas ignorantia veuiam meretur Aug. Ser. 1. de Trinitate should he labour to be more rationall in this subject and hee will fall into the Heresie of the Arrians or into that of the Sabellians did he not subject his Reason to his Faith The second is the Unity of Person in Iesus Christ which honours the Unity of Essence in the Trinity though it be in some sort opposite thereto For as there are three Persons in God which preserve their differences in the Unity of their Nature that the Trinity is neither confounded by the Unity Decuit cum summa quâ— in Deo est unitate congruere ut quomo o ibi tres personae una essentia it a hic convenientissima quadam contrarietate tres essentiae fint una persona Bern. lib. 5. de Consider cap. 9. nor the Unity divided by the Trinity There are three Natures in Jesus Christ that subsist in one and the same Person and which without losing their proprieties make one composition which is called God-Man There by a strange prodigie Flesh and Spirit agree with Divinity neither are the two Others swallowed up in This Each Nature preserves its rights and as the soul is not debas'd by being engaged in the Flesh the Divinity is not disparaged by being associated to both This shines forth by Miracles the Other Two are obscured by Injuries In a word the Son of God never loseth his Equality with his Father nor the Son of Man his Equality with his Mother The third Unity is that of the Body which is found between Christ and his Church for though there be so much difference between these two Persons Love hath combined them so neer together that not confounding their properties he hath made there of but one Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head and the Faithful the Members They live of one and the same Spirit their Interests are common though one raign triumphantly in heaven the other suffer miserably upon earth they fail not to be so perfectly knit together that the Body is happie in the Head and the Head is afflicted in the Members Of these Three admirable Unities the Second adores the First and the Third the Second For the principal designe of the Word in his Incarnation is to honour the Trinity of the Divine Persons by the Trinity of his Natures and to pay homage to the Unity of the Divine Essence by the Unity of his Person This Divine Compound is an Image of the Trinity it declares the wonders thereof by its constitution neither did he take pleasure to unite the Flesh and the Spirit with the Divinity but to express to the Faithful the ineffable Unity between the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit in the difference of their personal proprieties Indeed this incomprehensible Mystery was not preached among the children of men till the Word became Incarnate and their Understanding clarified with the light of Faith began not to conceive the Trinity of the Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence till it conceived the Trinity of the Natures in the Unity of the Person of the Word Finally the Third Unity renders honour to the Second seeing Jesus Christ entred not into society with his Church but in pursuance of the affinity he had contracted with Humane Nature It seems he was willing to extend the mystery of the Incarnation in that he made all men his Members to make them the children of God and not being able or not vouchsafing to unite himself personally with every Christian he became united to them in the unity of the Spirit and of the Body The First of these Marriages is the example of the Second and we cannot well express the Union of Jesus Christ with his Church but by that of the Word with our Nature The Resemblances are so wonderful that they justly deserve this Discourse to see if we can clear them The chiefest secret of this mystery is that the Plurality of Nature destroys not the Unity of the Person Verbum caro factum unus est Christus ubi nihil est alterius naturaeâ—quod sit utriusque D. Leo. Serm. 10. de nat Dom. For though the Flesh have its weaknesses and the Divinity its perfections in Jesus Christ 't is nevertheless an admirable Compound that preserves its unity in the difference of its Natures he acts sometimes as God sometimes as Man receives the adorations of Angels and the injuries of Men that obeys his Father and commands with him suffers upon the Cross and reigns in Glory that 's buried with the dead in the Grave and triumphs over the devil in hell But in these different conditions he ceaseth not to be one and the same subject who accommodating himself to the proprieties of his Natures mixes Greatness with Humility Joy with Sorrow Repentance with Innocence without interessing his Person The same wonder is met with in the Marriage of Christ with his Church they are different in their qualities and 't is a strange effect of Love that was able to finde out a means to unite together two subjects whose conditions are so dissonant The one is Soveraign because God the other a slave because redeemed the one innocent the other guilty the one reigns in Eternity the other sighs and groans in Time nevertheless their Union is so strict that without confounding their properties they compose one and the same Body and both together make up but one onely Jesus Christ Whence it comes to pass that S. Augustine who after S. Paul hath best understood this Mystery Totus Christus secundum Ecclesiam caput corpus est non quia sinc corpore non est integer sed quia nobiscuÌ„ integer esse dignatus est qui sine nobis semper est integer Veruntamen fratres quomodo corpus ejus nos si non nobiscum unum Christus Aug. in Serm. Quod tribusmodis Christus intelligitur delivers these words One onely Jesus Christ is the Body and
the Head of the Church not that he is not entire without this Body but he that is entire without us as Man and God was pleased to be entire with us as Head For how shall we be one Body with him if he were not one Christ with us and how shall he speak in our person if he give us not the liberty to speak in his Jesus Christ then and the Church make up but one Body and both of them together make that admirable Compound which by reason of the difference of its parts bears sometimes the name of Jesus Christ and sometimes the name of the Church This leads us to the second Resemblance between the Union of the Humanity with the Divinity and that of Jesus Christ with the Faithful For the former is so perfect that without offending the two Natures that subsist in the Word all that may be said of the one which is said of the other The Communication of Properties produceth that of Idiomes and without uttering blasphemies we attribute to Man all that may be attributed to God Thus without doing any violence to Truth we say that God is Man and that Man is God that Man commands over Death that God is subject to the dominion thereof that Man contains the whole world in his Innocency and that God is inclosed in the chaste womb of a Virgin that Man bears rule with his Father and that God obeys with his Mother All these manners of speech which else had been blasphemies are now great Verities and as if the Word had been willing to satisfie the unjust passion of Man that desired to be God he hath exalted him to his Greatness in uniting him to his Person and by priviledge hath conferred that upon him by Grace which by Nature he was no ways able to attain unto Such is the Union of Jesus Christ with his Church the communication of their Goods hath produced the communication of Dialects we speak of them so confusedly that there are no Elogies given to Jesus Christ which may not be given to his Spouse he loads himself with her sins and cloathes her with his merits he gives her part of his innocence and covers himself with her unrighteousness so that without prejudicing the Greatness of Jesus Christ and the Modesty of the Church we may say The Church is perfect in her Head and the Head imperfect in his Members the Church knows all things in her Head and Jesus Christ learns in his Members the Church is innocent in her Head and Jesus Christ guilty in his Members Thus is it that S. Augustine interprets the words of the Prophet Deus Deus meus ut quid me dereliquisti Quare hoc dicitur nifi quia nos ibi eramus nisi quia corpus Christi Ecclesia quomodo dicit delictorum meorum nisi quia pro delictis nostris ipse precatur delict a nostra sua fecit ut juftitiam nostram suam faceret Aug. in Psal 24. Expos 2. Longe à salute mea veâ—ba delictorum meorum and findes that this language that so happily expresseth the love of the Son of God does no way prejudice his innocence Indeed because he is the Head of the Church and this quality unites him with his Members it obliges him to speak of their sins as of his own to pay those debts for them he never contracted and in their name to satisfie the justice of his Father he had no ways offended How saith the same S. Augustine could Jesus Christ make this discourse without wounding his Innocence and Truth it self How could he attribute sins to himself that never committed any How can we believe him true when he made his confession upon the Cross were it not that we acknowledge he applied our offences to himself that he might communicate our righteousness to him and by the communication between the Head and the Members he is charged with our Crimes to enrich us with his Merits This will not seem strange to those that shall consider another parallel between the Marriage of the Humanity with the Divinity and that of Jesus Christ with the Church For though Joy and Sorrow be as incompatible as Sin and Innocence since according to the doctrine of S. Augustine man became not miserable till he became criminal we observe nevertheless both of them in the Person of the Son of God from the very moment of his Incarnation he joyned pain with pleasure during the course of his whole life he tasted the felicity of Angels and resented the miseries of men he is happie and afflicted and contrary to all the laws of Nature and Grace a glorious soul informs a passive body and that which beholds the Divine Essence Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem is obliged to make complaints and shed tears Therefore is it that I have always reverenced that Ancient who call'd Jesus Christ a Paradox because his composition startles Humane Reason associating in his Person Joy and Grief Innocence and Guilt in a word the Majestie of a God with the Weakness of a Man But inasmuch as this Mystery was unconceiveable because hid Jesus Christ was willing to manifest it by the union he contracted with the Church For there may be seen an Image or Representation of that which passed heretofore in the person of the Son of God pleasure may be observed with pain and by a strange wonder Jam in caelo est hic laborat quamdiu laborat Ecâ—lesia his Christus esuris hic sitit nudus est hespes est quicquid enim patitur corpus ejus se dixit paetâ— Aug. the condition of the Blessed twisted with that of the Miserable one and the same Jesus is still a Sufferer and still Glorious he reigns with his Father in heaven and suffers with his People upon earth he triumphs in the Angels and sighs in the Martyrs he is rich in Eternity and poor in Time he makes liberal largesses in his Glory and receives presents in his Poverty and he that possesseth all things in Himself hath need of all things in his Members Finally to conclude these Resemblances the Word uniting it self to the Humanity stoops to exalt it and enters into its Imperfections to give it admittance into his Power For though the Manhood remain in its natural condition yet was it adorned with so many Graces by this sacred Marriage that it became happily acceptable and found it self in a free necessity to love God without being able to offend him it appeared sanctified as soon as conceived glorious as soon as reasonable and by a priviledge which neither Men nor Angels shall ever enjoy it was no sooner drawn out of Nothing but was united to the Eternal Word These Miracles would remain without an Example did we not perceive some shadows thereof in the conjunction of Jesus Christ with the Church For in chusing her for his Spouse he hath endowed her with all the advantages so noble an Alliance could exact
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
hath vouchsafed to bear our miseries hath been pleased to speak our language The Church saith that great Doctor is made up of all the Faithful Quia ergo totus Christus caput est corpus Ecclesiae prepter a in omnibus Psalmis sic audiamus voces capitis ut audiamus voces corporis Aug. in Psal 56. because all the Faithful are the Members of Jesus Christ Though her Head be in heaven he fails not to guide her upon earth and though separated by the distance of places ceaseth not to be united to her by charity Wherefore Christ making the Head and the Body we ought not in the Psalms to separate the voice of the Head from that of the Body nor think it strange that he that never deserted the Church never held other language then his Spouse did This it it that he treats of elsewhere in clearer and fuller terms If Jesus be our Head and we his Body the Head and the Body compose whole Jesus Christ nor is Jesus Christ entire if he comprehend not both This Maxime must serve us as a light to explain the Scripture by with which if we are not always enlightned we are in danger to mistake For sometimes we meet with words that cannot be applied to the Head and which would involve us in an errour or in doubt did we apply them to the body there are others that cannot be appropriated to the Body and yet are uttered by Jesus Christ To unravel these difficulties we need but attribute to the Head what cannot agree to the Body remembring that Jesus Christ speaks sometimes in his own person and sometimes in the person of the Church He spake certainly in her name when he complained that his Father had forsaken him because we know very well the Son was never abandoned by the Father were it not when he sustained the person of Adam who was forsaken of God as soon as he became guilty But because this Truth is but too evident let us pass to the Third condition of the Marriage of Jesus Christ with his Church and see how they are two in one and the same passion One of the chiefest effects of Love is Anima est magis ubi amat quà m ubi animat to make us Live where we Love and to make us Suffer where we Live Experience better perswades us of this Maxime then Reason and 't is needless to prove a Truth which every man may evidence in himself A father knows he is more affected with the sorrows of his children then with his own a husband is not ignorant that he sufters less in his own person then in that of his wife and all Lovers proclaim that the injuries or discontents of their Mistresses wound them deeper then those that fall upon themselves Siqua sides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod in facies hoc mihi Paetc dolet Mart. That generous gallant wife was well acquainted with this Axiome who protested she felt not the blowe the Poniard gave her self but onely that which her husband was resolved to receive As Charity which unites Jesus Christ to the Church is stronger then Conjugal love so doth it more advantageously produce this effect in them Their sufferings are common the Son of God suffers no sorrows which the Church resents not and the Church endures no torments which the Son of God complains not of Therefore hath S. Augustine said that the Church suffered in Jesus Christ when jesus Christ suffered for the salvation of the Church and that Jesus Christ suffered in the Church when the Church was persecuted for the glory of Jesus Christ their complaints were proofs of their sufferings and as the Church complained in Jesus Christ when he cried out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Jesus complained in behalf of his Church when from the midst of his glory he said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me But as Saint Paul had learnt this truth from the mouth of the Son of God himself by whom he was informed that a man could not persecute the Church but he must persecute Jesus Christ there was not any of the Apostles who so highly exalted his labours as he did For knowing very well that he was a Member of the Church in which condition he could not suffer but Jesus Christ must suffer with him he speaks of his own sufferings as of those of his Master and out of a confidence which could arise from nothing but his love he boasts that in suffering he finished the Passion of Jesus Christ Adimpleo ea quae desunt passionum Christi He knew very well that nothing was wanting to the sorrows of the Son of God that the rage of the executioners was glutted upon his person that the Truth of Figures was accomplished in his death and that himself before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost had said aloud Consummatum est But he knew also that Jesus Christ had two Bodies that he suffered in one what he could not suffer in the other and that honouring his Father in both he sacrificed himself in his Members after he had sacrificed himself in his Person S. Augustine happily expresseth the meaning of S. Paul in these words Jesus Christ suffers no more in that flesh he carried into heaven but he suffers in mine that is still persecuted upon the earth nor are we to wonder at it because it is no more I that live but he that liveth in me And if this Maxime were not true Jesus Christ had never complained of the persecution of Saul nor ever Saul have been so bold as to say he had filled up what was wanting in the sufferings of Christ But a little to clear this passage we must say that the Son of God being the Pledge and Surety of sinners was willing to satisfie the justice of his Father and bear all the pains their sins deserved Passio Domini usque ad finem munâ—i producitur sicut in Sanctis suis ipse honoratur ipse diligitur in pauperibus ipse pascitur ipse vestitur ita in omnibus qui pro justitia adversae tolerant ipse compatitur Leo. de pass Dom. Ser. 19. Death being one of the severest and the sentence that designes us to it expresses no one kinde that we might fear all the Son will have them undergo all and by that stratagem of Love change all our Chastisements into Oblations of piety But because the Body his mother gave him could not suffer all these deaths their different kinds being incompatible and that one and the same man could not be nailed to the Cross devoured by wilde beasts choaked in the waters consumed by the flames he was pleased to associate a mystical Body which being compounded of different Members might undergo divers punishments and to satisfie the excess of his Charity might honour his Father by as many sacrifices as there were kindes of death in
more delight him Nay the Lascivious wanton is not so much in love with beauty as with pleasure because he placeth his affection sometimes upon objects that have no appearance of beauty and many times forsakes a handsome woman to court a deformed one Thus pleasure is a powerfull charm that masters all hearts plunders liberties and makes slaves that never complain of their bondage because they are voluntary Lovers that seek the secret of purchasing affection study nothing but complacency being assured they shall produce love in that heart where they have begot pleasure Flatterers never insinuate into the minds of great men but by rendring themselves acceptable nor doe their false Commendations steal in at the ears but because pleasure takes up the place of truth The very Devils though our mortall enemies seduce us not but because they please us and had they not found out the art of mixing pleasure with sin all their temptations would be fruitless But the will of man though never so free hath such an inclination toward pleasure that did she never so strongly barracado her self she could not possibly resist it she holds out against truth because she is blind and sees not the beauties 't is adorned with she secures her self against violence because she is free and naturally opposeth whatever seems to incroach upon her liberty she does not acquiesce in reason because she is deaf nor hears any discourse but such as charms the understanding by convincing it But pleasure hath allurements which she can no wayes withstand she trembles when ever it sets upon her she is afraid to lose her liberty in his presence and knowing the power it hath over her inclinations she cals in sorrow to her succour to guard her against this pleasing enemy If it be true that pleasure reigns absolutely over the will we need not think it strange that grace which is nothing else but a victorious suavity hath such advantage over her for besides that this Heavenly influence surpasseth all the delights in the world that charm us having more allurements then glory and beauty that makes so many Lovers and Martyrs it insinuates much deeper into the will then whatever ravisheth us mortals Tunc enim bonum concupisci incipit cum dulcescere incipit ergo benedictio dulcedinis est gratia Dei qua fit in nobis ut nos delectet cupiamus hoc est amemus quod praecipit nobis Aug. Being in the hands of Jesus Christ whom nothing can resist it glides into the very Center of our heart making impressions there that are never more strong then when they are most agreeable thence it cashieres all pleasures that have unjustly usurpt upon us and knowing all the weaknesses of the place it sets upon we need not wonder if she make her self mistresse Other pleasures enter not into the will but at the gate of the senses they have lost half their strength before they can make their approach and her inclinations being unknown to them they many times cause aversion intending to procure love But grace wooes the heart without the mediation of the senses and more powerfull then pleasures that act not upon all the faculties of the soul carries light into the understanding faithfulnesse into the memory and pleasure into the will so that we need not wonder if the sinner suffer himself to be overcome by a Divine quality that sheds delight into all the powers and faculties of the soul That which Grace effects thus agreeably by pleasure it brings to pass more powerfully by Love For according to the judgement of S. Augustine Amor imperiü babet super omnes animae vires propter hoc quod ejus objectum est bonum Aristo Di. Tho. and when God means to convert a sinner his sole design is to make him his Lover Love is the Master of all hearts There is no impossibility this passion undertakes not Miracles are his sports and all the prodigies Antiquity hath teem'd with are nothing but the effects of this Soveraign Scripture is never more eloquent then when it intends to express the force thereof nothing satisfies it in this design all words seem too weak to express its conceptions and finding no comparisons that answer the dignity of the subject it descends to the Tombes where having considered the Trophies of death is forc'd to confess that his power equals not that of Love it passeth to the very Center of the Earth observes the unrelenting hardness of Hel and comparing the pains of the damned with the anxiety of lovers leaves us in doubt whether Hel or Love be more pitiless But not to aggravate his power by such strange comparisons let it suffice to judg of him by his effects Though he be the son of the Wil yet is he the Master he disposeth so absolutely of his Mother that she hath no motions but what her Son inspires her with she undertakes nothing but by his orders 't is the weight that sets her a going the Loadstone that attracts her the King that governs her and she so absolutely depends upon his power that nothing but another love can dis-engage her she is so fierce or so free that neither violence nor fear can tame her she laughs at tortures preserves her liberty in the midst of fetters and many times torments make her but more wilfull Only Love mollifies her hardness his charmes gain upon her what sorrow cannot and experience teacheth us there is no surer Command then that which is founded upon Love In the mean time Vanity which is almost the inseparable companion of Greatness perswades Kings that 't is a debasement to seek the love of their subjects and seduced by this false Maxime they endeavour to make themselves feared not being able to make themselves beloved But God who hath formed the heart of man and knows how they may be vanquished without being forc'd owes all his Conquests to his Love he never appears more absolute then when he tames a rebellious Will when of an Enemy he makes a Lover and changing his inclinations sweetly compels him to fall in love with him Forinsecus terret per Legem intrinsecus delectat per Amorem Aug. His Power sparkles in his Corrections he astonisheth sinners when he loosens the mountains from their foundations when he makes the earth shake under their feet the thunder rumble over their heads and threatens the world with an universal Deluge or a general Conflagration But all these menaces convert not the Guilty the fear that terrifies them reduceth them not to their duty their heart remains criminal when their mouthes and their hands be innocent and if God inspire not his love into them he punisheth indeed their offence but changeth not their Will This prodigious Metamorphosis is reserved for his love 't is his charity that must triumph over rebels nor is there any thing but his Grace that by its imperious sweetness can oblige a sinner to love him I am not
that depended upon his Liberty made him in some sort the Author of his good or bad fortune but as hee dealeth now with infirme men whose Forces are weakned by Division he will have their Salvation depend upon his Will and gives them a Grace which seizing their heart makes them victorious in the midst of their Infirmities Thence it comes to pass saith Saint Augustine that the Liberty of Man though never so languishing perseveres in Good by the vertue of JESUS CHRIST when the Will of Adam with all its vigorous activity stood not out against the Temptation 'T is the glory of the Son of God and the assurance of a Christian who comforts himself when he sees that his Salvation is no longer founded upon the Inconstancie of his Liberty but upon the Stability of Grace and certitude of Predestination This Belief makes him not more insolent because he knows this Mystery is hid and that there is not any one upon earth that knows whether his name be written in the Book of Life It makes him not more lazie because he is not ignorant that Grace obligeth him to a combat that Glory is a Triumph that succeeds a Victory and that no body is received into heaven that hath not suffered with JESUS CHRIST upon earth But this Belief ministers them Tranquillity in the midst of all the miseries of life it sweetly mingles Hope with Fear in his soul at the sight of his Infirmity he trembles looking upon the vigour of his Grace he takes courage and having had so much experience of his frailty he comforts himself that his Salvation stands fixed upon the Rock of Grace he blesseth the mercy of the Almighty that hath found a secret whereby to vanquish us without forcing us which leaving us our Liberty fortifies our Weakness and gives us an assurance in our Banishment which our first Father never had in Paradise For to conclude this Discourse and this Treatise with the words of Saint Augustine Ille Adam nempe Job in stercore est cautior quam Adam in Paradiso nam Adam-in Paradiso consensitmulieri ut de Paradiso emitteretur ille in stercore respu â—t mulierem ut ad Paradisum admitteretur Aug. in Psal 29. Job was more happie in his misery then Adam in his innocence He was victorious on the Dung-hill this Other was defeated in his Throne He gave no ear to the evil counsel of his wife this Other was cajol'd by his He despised all the assaults of Satan this Other suffered himself to be worsted at the first Temptation He preserved his Righteousness in the midst of his Sorrows this Other lost his Innocence in the midst of his Pleasures Let us comfort our selves then in the Grace of JESUS CHRIST whereby the Infirmity of Man triumphs over the Malice of Satan Let us rejoyce because he enjoyns it his Disciples in the hope we have that his hand hath written our names in the Book of Life in Characters that cannot be blotted out Let us give Thanks to him who knowing our Weakness is willing to save us by his Power and protesting that his Grace is the Fountain of our Salvation beg it in our Prayers expect it from his Mercy and hope not for it onely by our Merits The Fifth TREATISE Of the Vertues of a Christian The first DISCOURSE In what Christian Vertue consists IF it be true that the Christian is an inward man we need not wonder if he be hid Condelector legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem Rom. cap. 7. nor that his vertues carry lesse splendour with them then those of Philosophers Inasmuch as all their beauty resides in the soul it can be perceived by none but by Angels Those that have not their lights cannot observe them and the same blindness that occasions their ignorance occasions also the neglect they conceive of them The Chastity of Lucrece hath received more Elogies then that of the Catharines and Cecilies because it sparkles with more pomp and the murder which should arraign her as guilty hath made her more notable and glorious The Constancy of Cato hath far more admirers then the undaunted Courage of the Martyrs Pride and Despair that forc'd him to sheath his sword in his own bowels to avoid something he called Servitude have heightned his Glory and his Crime in the soul of the children of Adam who can admire nothing but what is arrogant and pompous Thence it comes to passe that Christian Vertue which is humble and seeks no other witnesse but he that reads the the heart receives not always the approbation of men and wanders uon the Earth without any Elogy or Commendation Her Essence is conceal'd we have much adoe to discover her Proprieties and if Grace do not second Nature we shall be at a losse to define or describe her As every one hath form'd an Idea of her every one makes descriptions of her according to his own humour or his knowledge and we may say of Vertue what the Orator said of the Supream Good that men consulted rather their Inclination then Truth when they were minded to speak of it I wonder not that Philosophers who had no other light then that of Nature have injured Vertue in thinking to bestow commendations upon her But I wonder that Christians have followed them in their errours and that leaving the Fathers of the Church they have taken the Blinde for their Guides For there are some at this day that confound honesty with vertue Virtus houestas nomina diversa sunt res autem subjecta prorsus eadem Cicero de Offic. who would perswade us that whatever is honest is vertuous Wherein I find them little differing from those that place Vertue in Glory and imagine a crime lawful when it ceaseth to be shameful and begins to appear honourabble Seneca as proud as he was hath well taken notice that this error was prejudicial to vertue and that the ambitious would no longer court her when once she should oblige her Partisans to quit their honour to continue in their duty Some others not so much in love with glory but more in love with nature are perswaded that Vertue is nothing else but a naturall inclination guided by reason and perfected by Science so that to live according to the Laws of Nature was to live according to the Laws of Vertue This opinion is approved of by the Stoicks among Philosophers and by the Pelagians among Heretiques It infuseth blindness and arrogance into the spirit of those that side with it and the esteem it puffs them up with of Nature makes them neglect the assistance of Grace It seems they would retrive the state of Innocence that they have a design to perswade us that sin hath done no hurt to the will of man that he is as free under the captivity of Concupiscence as under the dominion of Original righteousness and that Nature having lost nothing of her primitive purity may serve for a guide to guilty
other happily guides us in it The one purifies our soul by Labour the other unites us to God by Prayer The one keeps the Commandments and the other receives the Recompence The one is afflicted with grief because it bewails his sins with the Penitents the other is bathed in pleasure because it participates in the felicity of the Blessed The same Doctor all whose Maximes are Truths gives us another Division of Vertues from the difference of our conditions and being not far from that Principle we are going to explain attributes but one Vertue to the Blessed and leaves all the rest to the Faithful They indeed finde all their happiness in the Supreme Good which they are in possession of their Love makes up the total of their felicity and that ineffable Union that transforms them into him they love is the onely Vertue that for ever takes them up in the fruition of Glory Prudence is not requisite because there is no darkness to be dissipated nor misfortunes to be prevented Fortitude is useless because there are no sorrows to struggle with Temperance serves to no end because all their delights are innocent and lawful Neither is there any employment for their Justice because in the Tabernacle of Glory there are neither miserable to be protected nor criminals to be punished Thus as that incomparable Doctor goes on they practise but one Vertue and by a happie encounter this Vertue is their recompence because uniting them to God it makes them finde their felicity in him 'T is true that as the Supreme Good contains all other Goods we may say also that all the Vertues are comprehended in this and their several denominations may be imposed upon it It is Prudence because it illuminates them with the brightness of God himself Fortitude because it unites them so firmly with him that nothing can separate them Temperance because it makes them chastly embrace the Chief Good and in the delights they taste of they seek not so much their Pleasure as his Glory Justice because it subjects them to their Soveraign making them finde their Happiness in their Submission But as there is some analogie between the condition of the Blessed and that of the Faithful at the same time that S. Augustine separates them he associates them again and confounding their Vertues together saith that during this life Love is the onely vertue of Christians and that there is none other but to love that which is amiable So that to facilitate the acquisition of that object we place our affections upon by chusing sutable and convenient means is Prudence Not to be discouraged or diverted by Grief is Fortitude Not to be drawn away by Pleasures is Temperance and not to be kept off by the vain pomp and grandetza's of the world is Justice He lodgeth these Vertues in Glory which he seems to have banished thence and acknowledgeth that the Blessed enjoy them as well as the Faithful but with this difference That upon the earth they are in Act in heaven in Habit upon the earth they serve for a Defence in heaven for an Ornament upon the earth in Exercise in heaven in their Acquiescence upon the earth they are the sure Land-marks guiding the Faithful to their journeys end in heaven they happily unite the Faithful in an inseparable Bond of Communion But because this Doctrine is not fully conformable to that which is commonly received and that we have borrowed from Philosophers the Division and the Quality of Vertues let us say with them that we judge of their number by our obligations and our necessities We are upon the earth for no other end but to Know and Love to Suffer and to Do our whole life is spent in these two employments and if we be not absolutely unprofitable we must raise our selves to the Knowledge and Love of the Supreme Good and resolve if we be not altogether lazie by our Courage to overcome all the difficulties which occur in the course of our life Thence it comes to pass that we have need of different Vertues Bonam vitam ego puto Deum cognoscere amare mala pati bona facere sic perseverare usque ad mortem Bern. and that according to the designes we form we are obliged sometimes to have recourse to the Divine vertues sometimes to the Moral Inasmuch as God is surrounded with Light that darkens us our Understanding must necessarily be cleared by Faith that we may know him In that he is an Infinite Good our soul must be fortified with Hope that we may search after him and our Will warmed with Charity that we may love him For though Good be amiable and the Supreme Good transcendently amiable yet is it so far above our reach that without Grace we cannot approach unto it and as we must be clarified by his Light that we may know him so must we be warmed by his Calentures that we may affectionately close with him Thus Faith Hope and Charity are the Vertues by means whereof we treat with God But because Man is born for Society in serving God he is bound to assist his Neighbour Charity hath a double respect having united us to the Supreme Good for love of it she unites us to our Like and obligeth us to love them as we do our selves Were this Vertue in its full vigour 't would be sufficient alone Lex venit in subsidium amicitiae Atistot and as Philosophers have observed that Laws would be useless did Friendship raign in mens hearts I dare affirm did Charity set up her throne in ours the Vertues would be idle among Christians or act onely by her orders and directions But whether we have not as yet attained this Perfection or that the number of Subjects contributes to the Greatness of Soveraigns she hath under her command Four Vertues which are called Cardinal that act by her motions and execute her designes Prudence clears our Understandings to act helps us to discern Good from Evil and Truth from Falshood For as there are Evils which under a fair shew deceive us and Lyes that finde more credit then some Truths Prudence must serve us for a Guide and in so important an election secure us from mistakes Justice gives every one his due makes our Interests yeeld to Reason preserves Peace in the inequality of our conditions and taking original righteousness for an example which made a harmony between foul and body this sets Man at union with himself and by a necessary consequence accommodates him with his neighbour Therefore is it that Repentance and Humility are as rivulets flowing from this Fountain and as rays issuing from this Sun For Repentance is nothing but a severe Justice that animates the sinner against himself that obliges him to act the part of a witness in accusing of a judge in condemning of an executioner in punishing himself Humility is nothing but a modest and true Justice which considering the Majestie of the Creator
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
first Communion and having received the Body of the Son of God became so resplendant with light that the Jews had taken them for Jesus Christ in the Garden of Olives had not the traitor Judas prevented their mistake by the perfidious kiss he gave his Master If this sacred Nutriment always produce not this Miracle at least we must acknowledge it gives us an Earnest of the Resurrection and a right to Immortality In which respect I finde it as powerful and as happie as the fruit of the Tree of Life One of the wonders of this Tree was in the judgement of all the Fathers to secure Man from dissolution and so firmly to unite the soul with the body that the number of yeers could not separate them Death respected not onely Original righteousness but the fruit of the Tree of Life and though it might grow from the mixture of the Elements which composed the body of Man it durst not set upon him as long as original righteousness maintained their good correspondence or this convenient remedy hindered their division Thus Man was not Immortal so much by his own constitution as by a borrowed assistance that the obligation he had to make use of it might instruct him that he owed all these advantages to the liberality of his Creator Now it is certain that the Eucharist works all these Miracles daily in the Church for it imprints an occult vertue in our bodies which is as a Pledge of the Resurrection it sheds abroad in our members the seeds of an eternal life and by a holy contagion which corruption it self cannot deprive us of communicates a certain right to Immortality For we have the word of the Son of God for a caution of this immutable verity and after the solemn promises he hath made in the Gospel we may without wronging his Greatness affirm that his Justice obligeth him to give the Christians a Resurrection and that he cannot deny a habitation in heaven to those bodies that have served him for temples upon the earth If he prevent not Death but suffer this faithful minister of his Vengeance to exercise so many cruelties upon our body 't is to deliver us from him with greater pomp and power if he give him leave to reduce us to dust 't is to make us rise out of the Grave as the Phoenix from her funeral-pile 't is finally that having had a part in his Shame we may share in his Glory and that it may be said of all the Elect what S. Augustine said heretofore of Lazarus that the Son of God forbore to cure him that he might raise him and was unwilling to lift him from his Bed that he might call him out of his Grave and seal his love by the greatness of his Miracle The Third DISCOURSE That the Body of Jesus Christ is the same to the Christian that Manna was to the Jews THe Types and Figures of the Old Testament are in respect of our Mysteries what Enigma's are in respect of Truth They conceal and discover them to our eyes their shadows have some glimmerings of light and these transparent clouds occasion the bright breaking forth of those Stars they rob us of They instruct the Learned and the least measure of understanding they have of the Gospel makes them easily conceive what the jews were not able to comprehend When this people saw the Manna descend in the wilderness they never minded the secrets to come and without diving into the designes of God believed that his Divine Providence was pleased to give them that miraculous bread in a place where Humane Prudence could not possibly procure any But there is not the meanest Christian instructed in the School of Jesus Christ but understands that it was a Figure of the Eucharist and that God intending to prepare our mindes for his Master-piece by this essay wrought this Miracle for no other end but to perswade us of those he would one day exhibit upon our Altars Indeed there is so much resemblance between the Manna and the holy Sacrament that if it be an Enigma 't is also a Glass wherein may be observed all the wonders that render it commendable That miraculous meat took its original from heaven it was formed according to the opinion of S. Augustine In illa superiori parte terrae ubi grando nix gignitur nascebatur manna in cibum inferioris terrae partis hominibus per angelos administrabatur Aug. where storms and rain are hatched The credulous multitude did not imagine it onely the work of Angels but dull gross as they were were perswaded that those blessed spirits fed upon it and that God to deal with them as he did with those Intelligences had given them the food of Angels Angelorum esca nutrivisti populum tuum That which the Jews conceited of Manna we have reason to believe of the Eucharist because the meat we eat being the work of the Priests may well be called the work of Angels For all Scripture teacheth us that the Ministers that wait at the Altars of the living God are Angels that more happie then those pure spirits they produce the body of their Master by their words and give a new life to him who is the Eternal Word of his Father This Bread came down from heaven by better right then Manna because Jesus Christ took his beginning from his Father who dwells in heaven and though conceived in Nazareth and born in Bethlehem was notwithstanding as truely denominated the dew of heaven as the fruit of the earth Manna took its name from the astonishment of the Jews Dixerunt ad invicem Manhu quod significat quid est hoc Ignorabant â— enim quid esset Exod. 16. the people enquiring into the cause of this prodigie named it in wondering at it and taught us that so great a Miracle could not be sufficiently expressed but by wonder and silent admiration The holy Scripture hath left it this glorious name that entering in the minde of this people we may admire the wonders God wrought to nourish them in the desarts But certainly we may truely say without offending the Israelites that their wonder arose from their ignorance that they had not been so ravished with this prodigie had they but known that the same Vapours which compound the Clouds might form Manna and that it was as easie for the Providence of God to nourish them with this meat as to nourish all the people of the earth with Rain and Dew They had certainly reserved their wonderment for the Eucharist had they had the knowledge of our mysteries For indeed it is the strangest and most glorious it seems the Son of God hath drained his power in producing it and recollecting all the miracles of his life would sum them up in this stupendious Sacrament He makes use of the mouth of a man to exhibit a God he will have a transient and perishable word produce the Eternal and Divine Word he will
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
only from his hands who sees her thoughts and knows her courage But the highest advantage of the Christian above the Martyr is that this mans trial endures but a few days Nature is so good a mother that she hath provided remedies for her children against the violent irruption of discontents she hath made the chains that unite the soul to the body so brittle that the least torments are able to break them tortures quickly end or we end with them and experience teacheth us that a punishment cannot be long when violent and extream Criminals must be husbanded if you will have them endure they must have respite if we intend to torture them for any long time their weaknes will rid them of their Exeeutioners and death stepping in to the succour of these wretches delivers them from their persecutors Therefore is the punishment inflicted upon Martyrs short many times one day saw both its beginning and its end and when Grace wrought no miracle for their preservation Nature used her endeavours to succour them But the Martyrdom of Christians lasts the best part of an age Repentance that afflicts them imitates the Divine Justice it makes an agreement between life and death lengthens that to prolong their misery and draws out the thred of their sorrows to prove them more durably miserable For mortification which constitutes the chiefest exercise of penitents is it not a long and cruell death which Disciplines the body afflicts the spirits nor gives any intermission to the disconsolate Penitentiary but to heighten his austerity This made S. Bernard say that the mortification of the flesh was a kind of punishment not so cruel indeed but much more irksome then that of Martyrs and recompensing the sweetnesse by the duration makes the penitent languish as long as he lives But after all these differences we must confesse that the Martyrs having been Christians as well as others have suffered a double punishment and living in penance were prepared for Martyrdom For as Tertullian observes the course of their life was a severe probation wherein they disposed themselves to grief by austerity to the prison by solitude to a short death by a long mortification Therefore tortures never startled these men who provided for them by a witty cruelty and in so happy an age the Church had no children who were not the Martyrs of Penance when they could not be of Persecution The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Lover THere is none but knows that the Son of God is a new Man that he is prodigious in his Constitution assembling Heaven with Earth Time with Eternity That he hath a God for his Principle and a Virgin for his Mother that he is the Son and the Father of his Spouse that he gave her life upon the Cross and receives life from her upon the Altar That he is the Priest and the Victim of his sacrifice the Judge and the Advocate of his parties and by a strange prodigy the Brother and the God of his Subjects As he is New in his composition he is New in his Councels and his Commandements Ille qui ven't vetustatem nostram sua novitate solvere mandato novo fecit hominem novum Aug. Serm. 39. de Temp. He will have his Disciples mutually love one another and Love to be the Fundamental Law of his State It seems he would alter nothing neither in Policy nor in Morality and leaving men in the Light Reason and Faith had already inspired them with was content to bequeath them a New Love His intendment is that all his Disciples be Lovers that all their Qualities be included in this and that the Christian find his full perfection in sole Charity 'T is in effect the only vertue recommended to us and when Jesus Christ lays the foundations of his Empire Charitas omnia suffert omnia credit omnia sperat animo sustiuet 1 Cor. 13. he requires nothing but Love from his subjects S. Paul confounds all the vertues with Charity and teacheth us that he that Loves is endued with Faith with Hope with Fortitude S. Augustin his faithfull Interpreter acknowledgeth but one vertue and if he gives it different names it is to express its divers effects or different qualities All the rest are reduced to this one and as the Passions are nothing but the motions of love we may say that the vertues are nothing but the Ministers of Charity The morality of a Christian is easie and succinct he is not bound to exercise himself in Patience to be established in Justice to be instructed in Prudence Charity gives him an interest in all these glorious Qualities and being a Lover he may boast himself Couragious Just Prudent Assoon as he knows how to Love he is able to guide himself his Light encreaseth with his Heat and without consulting the mysteries of the Politicks he becomes a Statesman assoon as ever he falls in love with Jesus Christ As pleasures cannot corrupt him grief cannot astonish him His Love inspires him with Magnanimity and Temperance and being united to God by Charity neither the Promises nor the Threats of the world are able to separate him he is incapable of committing an injustice as long as he keeps his affection and rendring his Soveraign his due learns at the same time to carry himself fairly towards his Equals and Inferiours If Love constitute the Christians vertue it constitutes his difference also For as Reason distinguisheth Man from Beasts makes him equall with the Angels and in Nature is accounted his principal advantage we may say that Charity divides the Christian from the sinner and being his richest ornament is also his noblest difference All the Faithful are clarified with the Light of Faith they receive in Baptism a Character which time cannot deface they flatter themselves with a hope which though unjust is notwithstanding sometimes true The Church which comes short of the Knowledge of her Beloved admits them to the Participation of her Mysteries and being unable to read their hearts suffers sacrilegious persons because she cannot tell how to hinder them Nay Jesus Christ himself honours them many times with his choicest favours discovers the secrets of Futurity to his enemies gives them an absolute power in his State and suffers those that offend him to drive away Devils and to cure the sick But Charity is the priviledge of his Friends 't is the glorious mark distinguishing them from Reprobates and the only vertue that is inconsistent with sin A man may be burnt in the flames and give testimony of his Courage in the midst of torments though he be not at all acceptable to God a man may dive into all the Mysteries of Religion and not be affected with them may give his goods to the poor and have his soul full of vain-glory But a man cannot have Charity and be upon ill terms with Jesus Christ those that love him are his Beloved and if he indulge some favours to those that fear
or serve him he cannot refuse Heaven to those that die in love with him Thence it comes to pass that Christians who know that all their advantage consists in Charity make this vertue their principal employment they despise not others for they possess all in this one But being fully perswaded it must be their felicity in heaven they make it their business whilst they are upon the earth These Divine Lovers can do nothing but love they imitate the Seraphims whose Essence and Exercise is Love they burn with the same Fire that makes them live they swim in flames and as if they had forgotten all the vertues to learn one they spend their whole life in this amorous entertainment If they fear 't is to offend him whom their soul loveth if they hope 't is to possess him if they rejoyce 't is for being united to him if they are afflicted 't is for being separated from him When they have to do with their Neighbour 't is upon this wheel that they move they look onely upon God in his Creatures and upon Jesus Christ in his Members if they sometimes adhere unto them out of a natural inclination Divine Love furnisheth them with wings to soar above them and with strength to be disentangled from them Finally Love so well manageth the whole course of their life that leaving Respect to Domesticks Hope to Mercenaries Fear to Slaves Light to the Learned they reserve onely Charity for themselves and are of the humour of that faithful Lover who being confined to solitude had no other diversion but her Love In consideration whereof Dei unicum opus est se intueri se amare Plato I finde their condition very glorious because they treat with God as God doth with himself for his whole happiness consists in knowing and loving Himself and should he intermit this employment he would cease to be happie He sees the Creatures in seeing himself he loves Them in loving Himself and without going forth of his own Nature he findes his felicity in his Knowledge and in his Love The Christian by an admirable priviledge is advanced to this high degree of glory Solus est Amor ex omnibus animae motibus in quo poteâ— Creatura respondere Creatori de simili mutuam rependere viâ—eÌ„ Bernard he enters into society with God treats with him as with his Peer and it seems being no longer his Slave becomes his Equal in becoming his Friend Greatness is so opposite to Love that Kings are fain in a manner to depose themselves when they have a minde to love their Subjects That Majestie wherewith they are encircled is fitter to strike Fear and Consternation then Confidence If they descend not from their Throne lay not by their Crown and Scepter they can have no Friends because no Equals Therefore hath Aristotle observed that Subjects could not contract Alliance with their Soveraigns that the disparity of their Conditions permitted not those privacies which maintain Friendship among men and as long as Kings remain in their Grandeur Subjects must continue in their Respect In the mean time Charity findes out an Expedient to unite the Christian with God exalteth the One without debasing the Other equals in some sort their conditions and as it obliged God to make himself Man hath given Man a power to make himself God Nor must we think it strange that this Vertue is the original of our Happiness because it is the source of our Merit and nothing makes us more commendable then Love Though every thing have its estimate in the Church Order banisheth Confusion and in this vast Body every part hath its priviledge and employments nevertheless the whole perfection consists in Charity he that knows best how to love is most accomplisht and without respecting his actions or his sufferings we consider onely the measure of his Love The Son of God would not have our merit fastned to those conditions which depend not upon our selves nor that Greatness or Riches should difference his Subjects He would not place Perfection in Alms because the Rich onely can dispense them he would not tye it to Preaching because that Gift is reserved for his Ministers he would not limit it to Austerity because that requires a strong Constitution he would not fix it in Martyrdom because that depends upon Persecution with which the Church is not always afflicted But he hath established it in Charity where nothing is easier then this Vertue The Ignorant and the Learned are equally admitted to it Kings are not more capable of it then their Subjects and if Martyrs pretend some advantage above the rest of the Faithful they have a greater obligation to their Love then to their Torments The greatest Saint is not he that hath Suffered most or Done most but he that hath Loved most All his Merit consists in Charity if occasions be wanting he hath recourse to his desires and he may boast that being a Lover he is Liberal in Poverty Learned in Ignorance a Martyr in the Serenity of conversation Though all these advantages oblige us to Love that which God witnesseth to us is the greatest endearment of affection for there are conditions in his Indulgencies which cannot be found in our Expressions and his love is so powerful and so noble that 't is easie to judge it cannot proceed but from an abyss of Goodness It is Eternal and before all worlds God expects not till we subsist to shew his kindness towards us his love makes inquisition after us in the confused heap of Nothing as well as his power he cherisheth us in what he is pleased to put into us and separating us from all those Creatures which shall never see the light makes us the objects of his Liberality Our Crimes stop not the current of his Love he loves us in our Delinquency and that which ought to provoke his Justice to punish us provokes his Mercy to deliver us In Non-entity he loves Ignorant Creatures in Sin he loves ungrateful ones to the former he gives Being to the later he gives Grace and to both of them he makes it appear that his Love is Eternal and Fruitful Men Love nothing but what is lovely either really or in shew they discover in their friends those qualities they plant not there and whatever height of greatness fortune shall advance them to they can bestow upon them only riches or honour if their favorites have any blemish in soul or body they cannot mend it and unhappy in their affections they are constrained either to hate the man for his imperfection or to love the imperfection for the man But God whose love is equally powerful and pregnant makes that amiable which he pleaseth to set his love upon he himself forms his own object he puts that in his friends which he means to esteem and by a prodigy which surpasseth all wonder Meretricem invenit virginem fecit faedam amavit ne faeda remaneret Au. he
in love with his Countrey that doats upon his Banishment or should have any passion for Heaven when he is strongly wedded to the Earth If he be stricken with Divine Love he spends his whole life in sighs he never beholds the stars but he sheds tears and though there be nothing below that afflicts him 't is enough that he is in a strange Land to account himself miserable His Banishment is his Torment and without inventing other racks to exercise his patience 't is enough to make him complain that he is condemned to travel David enjoyed a profound tranquillity when he sent up his sighs towards Heaven Heu mihi quia incolat us meus prolongatus est His state was not divided by a Civil War the Grandees had not conspired against his person his children had not as yet driven him from his Palace and the people at his detion were not cheated with the false promises of an unlawful Soveraign In the mean time he forbore not to lament and the remoteness from his Countrey was the sole cause of his tears Si amatur patria magna poenae illium si autem non amatur patria pejor est cordis poena Aug. Therefore had S. Augustine reason to utter these gallant words that to a man that loves his Countrey Banishment is an insupportable pain but yet he is more wretched who cherishing his Banishment contemns or forgets his Countrey Finally Pilgrims see nothing during their journey more agreeable then their Countrey the affection they bear the place of their Nativity ever defends its cause in heir heart Though it be but a rock environed with precipices they have some secret charms which makes them wish well to it and in the midst of fertile fields they have a longing for the air they first drew their breath in Christians are in this particular better grounded then Pilgrims For they see nothing here below that can equall the beauty of their Countrey whatever is presented to their eyes is but the shadow of that happiness they wait for there Earth is therefore fruitful because it receives the influences of Heaven and all that ravisheth here below owes its worth to the heat and light of the Sun Nothing can damage their Countrey but its greatness their understanding is too weak to conceive its Excellency and if it be not sufficiently esteem'd 't is because it is not sufficiently known Nevertheless 't is enough to love it to be acquainted as Saint Augustine saith that it is a blessed City whereof the Angels are the Citizens the Eternal Father the Temple the Son the Brightness the Holy Ghost the Love that 't is a City where men are never born nor ever die where perfect Health banisheth all Sickness where satiety expels hunger and thirst where rest admits of no labour and where we have nothing else to doe but to live reign and rejoyce eternally with God The Hope of this Happiness sweetens our present discontents and there is not any Pilgrim or Exile upon Earth who takes not courage when he thinks that after his tedious wanderings he shall enjoy a felicity that nothing can interrupt nor ever shall have an end The Ninth DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Penitent IF Baptism did wash away self-love together with sin and the Grace we receive in this Sacrament cleared us of ignorance and weakness as well as of malice we might boast that being innocent Repentance were useless But seeing there is no Christian who after his Baptism feels not bad inclinations which carry him to sin there is none but have need of this vertue and who after the imitation of the greatest Saints ought not to joyn the Quality of a Penitent to that of a Sinner For though light offences rob him not of Grace he is obliged to be troubled at them because they are displeasing to God and as long as he feels rebellions in his soul or in his body he must have recourse to austerity to stifle them But if sin make him lose the life he received in Baptism Repentance must give him a Resurrection and coming to the relief of this first Sacrament recover Grace by Sorrow and Contrition Thence it comes to pass that the Fathers have called Repentance a laborious Baptism because the sinner is washed thereby in his tears and obtains that with much difficulty which was easily gain'd in Baptism He is obliged to mingle his bloud with that of Jesus Christ and to apply the merits thereof by painfull and dolorous works of satisfaction His whole life ought to be spent in lamentation Poenitentia est Gratia vel virtus qua commissa mala plangimus semper odimus iterū plangenda committere nolumus for assoon as he ceaseth to be a Penitent he becomes a Sinner For Repentance according to the opinion of Divines is a Grace or a Vertue whereby often bewailing our sins we always hate them and constantly resolve never to commit them again This definition contains four things which happily express the nature of Repentance and remarking what it hath common with other vertues discovers also what it hath proper and peculiar to it self It is called Grace because it is the gift of God and finding us in a crime cannot be an effect of our merits For in that wretched condition we are rather objects of Gods Hatred then of his Love and when he delivers 't is of his Mercy and not of his Justice It is also called a Vertue because it fals under the Law combats sin and obtains our pardon It seems to belong to Vindicative Justice because like it it pronounceth sentences and invents punishments to torture offendors In a word it hath no other employment but to prevent the indignation of Heaven and to oblige it to clemency by its own severity It enters into the interests of God chastiseth that in time which he would chastise for Eternity and endeavours to proportion the correction to the offence of the transgressor But though in some things it agree with Vindicative Justice in others it is far different For Justice is in the Judge it pronounceth sentence from his mouth Non impunitum erit peccatum meum sed ideo nolo ut tu me punius quia ego peccatum meum punias Aug. in Psal 50. and borrows the hand of the Officer to put it in execution Repentance on the contrary is in the offendor resides in his soul expresseth it self by his mouth acts by his hands and contrary to all Natural and Civil Laws obligeth the Criminal to condemn and punish himself Justice cannot make sufferings welcome to those that undergo them though just yet are they compulsive and did not the Judges use force in their administration all crimes would pass unpunished But Repentance by a wonderful dexterity makes afflictions agreeable mixeth some sweetness with their severity and causing the guilty person voluntarily to embrace such penalties finds an expedient to make them suffer without murmuring Finally Justice
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
Afflictions seek after Pleasures value Riches despise Poverty we must conclude with Saint Augustine either that they are not Christians or but bad ones For as that incomparable Doctor saith there are many that bear the name of Believers and have neither their Faith nor their Vertue they wrong the Sacraments of the Church dishonour the Doctrine of Jesus Christ do despight to his Cross condemn his Example and being unwilling to regulate their lives according to his make it appear he is not their Master nor they his Disciples These wretches seek nothing but their Interests living in themselves they die to Jesus Christ and for the highest pitch of misfortune destroy others in losing themselves Their Evils become contagious they corrupt those that come neer them and fighting against the designes of the Son of God engage them in sin that he would deliver from thence They encroach upon the most eminent of his qualities and propounding themselves for examples to the Faithful strive to spread their impiety over the whole Church Let us defend our selves from their Infection and seeing we have no other Pattern then Jesus Christ let us try to regulate our life according to his Let us imitate his Actions because they are holy reverence his Maximes because true and that we may be the Copies of this glorious Original let us esteem those things he esteemed and despise those things he despised Let us be poor because he was born in a Stable and died upon a Cross let us not fear Hunger because he suffered it in the desarts not tremble at Nakedness because he had but one garment and that the Executioners robbed him of when they nailed him to the Cross Let us not be afraid of Persecutions because he underwent so many during his life nor let Death terrifie us because that which he chose was as cruel as ignominious if we himitate him upon Earth we shall be like him in heaven if we suffer with him we shall raign with him and if we share in his disgraces in Time we shall partake of his glory in Eternity The Eighth TREATISE Of the Happinesse of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That every man desires to be Happy and that he cannot be so but in God IF we may judge of the reasonableness of our desires by their constancy we must confess there is none more lawful then the passion we express for happiness because there is none more firm and durable All others change with time or humour we cure our selves of the vain desire of glory and are perswaded that vertue would be miserable had she no other recompence but reputation Age obstructs the desire of pleasure and when the body is spent with diseases or weakned with years we find little relish in those pleasures which solicit none but those who have too much ease or too much health Avarice it self is not always unsatiable and when he whom this vice masters finds his riches no longer serviceable to his designs he contemns them Curiosity and the passionate industry of knowledge grows flat with time the labour that accompanies it makes men repent of it Beati omnes vivere volumus nec quisquam est in hominum genere qui non huic sententiae antequam fit plane emissa consentiat Aug and there is scarce any man of parts but observes that the Earth is the mansion neither of Light nor Truth But the desire of Blessedness is immutable whatever change our condition is liable to this passion remains fixed in our souls nor can all the miseries that exercise our patience ever deface it Ask all people whose designs are more different then their faces we shall find they all conspire together in the search of felicity They may peradventure propound severall Ideas thereof but their desire is one and the same neither are there any wretches so miserable who have not a mind to be happy All conditions of the world agree in this point and their differences are so many paths whereby men resolve to arrive at the same end The Covetous seek felicity in treasures and as if nature had taught them that plenty attends this state they never pretend to enrich themselves but that thereby they may become happy Conquerours seek their felicity in victory and because nothing resists man in Beatitude their aim is in subduing their enemies to subject all things to their power The Learned are in love with science for no other end but because they are perswaded that felicity consists in the knowledge of the supream Verity and of all others by that light The Ambitious are passionate for honour because they have learnt that happiness is an Eternal Glory neither are they to be blamed because they are desirous of honour but for that they seek it where they neither can nor ought to find it The Lascivious doe not idolize beauty but because they have heard that this quality which charms them is inseparable in God from goodness and had not sin corrupted nature whatever is comely would infallibly be good Finally whatever men doe whatever designs they contrive whatever enterprises they execute they would fain meet with happiness If they engage in war Quaerunt in varietate Creaturarum quod amiserunt in unitate Creatoris Aug. they seek their happiness in victory if they agree with their enemies they fancy it in peace if they heap up riches they suppose it in abundance of wealth if they love women they are pleased with beauty and if they pretend to dignities they place their contentment in glory The truth is they are faulty aud miserable because they look for happiness where it is not and by a blindness which is the punishment of their sin would find that in the variety of the creatures which is no where to be found but in the unity of the Creator Thence it comes to pass that they spend themselves in desires form new projects and never content with what they possess heap Conquests upon Conquests if ambitious Treasures upon Treasures if covetous Novelty upon Novelty if Curious Their desires are not unjust because without bounds but because without prudence I condemn them not because they are insatiable but because they are blind and fix upon objects which entertain their Indigence and Consumption Every one blames Alexander the Great because he could not bound his Conquests that he passed from kingdome to kingdome that the Earth seem'd too scant for his ambition and what contented so many Kings could not satisfie him But for my own part I think Divine Providence had a mind to let us see in this Conquerour that there is nothing in the world that can satiate the desires of man that all the Scepters of the Universe have not charms enough to make him happy and that his heart larger then all Empires can be filled only with God Indeed inasmuch as God is his Creator he ought to be his felicity as he is the Principle of his Being he must be the object of
consists in the knowledge of the Supream Good and that no man can be truly content who is not acquainted with this prime Verity from whence all the rest flow as from their Fountain Profane Philosophy says the same concerning this Maxim neither hath she any Masters or Scholars who make not this confession that as the mind is more noble then the body 't is in the operations of that not in the senses of this that Beatitude is to be sought for In the mean time Earth is the habitation of obscurity we know God but in an Enigma we have only doubts and conjectures of his Greatness and though we are fully perswaded of his Existence we are altogether ignorant of his Essence If we consult our senses they cannot inform us of his Divine perfections and having neither shape nor colour our eyes nor our ears cannot tell us notice of him If our spirit reflect upon it self and elicite some act to know its Author in knowing it self it findes that the images it produceth are but Idols or phantasms and that the apprehensions it conceives of him are only mistakes and falshoods If Faith step in to the relief of the Understanding and obliging it to renounce its proper light clarifie it with what she brings 't is with so much obscurity that it hath more merit then satisfaction in its obedience I know very well that this vertue raiseth man abstracts him from sense gives him admittance into the light of God himself neither can he complain that reasoning is denyed him being prepared for an Intelligence But certainly she pays him these advantages with usury For he believes without knowing gives his senses the lye condemns his reason and obligeth himself to die for those truths he cannot yet understand Thus man is never happy in this world and whatever certainty he have of the mysteries of our Religion he will never attain to an evidence of them From this misfortune there arrives a second which is no whit less considerable For inasmuch as the Understanding is the Gandle of the soul which enlightens the will Nolunt homiues facere quod justum est sive quia latet sive quia non delectat Aug. and this blind faculty loves things according to the rate she knows them she never fully embraceth the Supream Good because she never perfectly knows it There is something always wanting to her love and to her happiness her possession is continually imperfect nor are her desires ever without discontent whatever tast she hath of felicity it rather sets an edge upon her love then any way appeaseth it and whatever pleasure she finds in transitory and perishable goods she feels by experience they may possibly divert her but no ways content her Their scantness causeth her indigence she continually changeth objects striving to find that in one which she cannot meet with in another she is like the Bees who sip upon all flowers to tast the dew that drops from heaven and being wearied with the various turnings and windings of the world is obliged to confess that Beatitude is found no where but in God but he is neither met with nor enjoyed upon Earth I proceed and say that should he suffer himself to be seen by his creature in the condition whereto sin hath reduced him it would prove rather a ground of fear and astonishment then of love and satisfaction There is so little proportion between God and Man that the one must needs be abased or the other greatly exalted that there may be some commerce between them The Majesty of God must be clouded by some allay of condescension and mans weakness strongly heightned by some gracious endowment or certainly the presence of God which is the felicity of the Angels in Heaven would occasion the misery of man upon Earth The Scripture tells us we cannot see him and live his aspect is formidable his splendour dazles our eyes his greatness chides our curiosity neither can we behold this Sun but we are in danger of losing our life together with our sight The righteous in the Old Testament repent their seeing him and though he temper his Majesty to accommodate it to our weakness they conceive this favour must be followed with their death Deum vidimus moriemur But should his Almightiness be proportionable to our misery and this Divine Sun like that of the Poets Vbi metus est ibi nulla vera felicitas Sen. lay by his rays that we may approach it the state of Earth would not suffer his presence to make us happy For our felicity that it may be true must be constant if we are not sure to keep the good we possess the apprehension of losing it traverseth our contentment and mingles restlesness with our pleasure Fear more afflicts us then the enjoyment can delight us we resent misery in the midst of felicity and we finde our happiness of the nature of those colours of the Cameleon that perish with the object that produceth them So then there is nothing durable in the world the noblest creatures are all subject to change whatever is possest may be lost The Soul though Immortal is not Immutable she that cannot die can sin and though Grace be an emanation of Glory it hath neither its constancy nor duration it is a kinde of Miracle that God works in favour of his Elect Qui se putat stare videat ne cadat Phil. 2. when he confirms them in Grace and though he give them assurance of their salvation he exempts them not from our miseries and infirmities And this is the last Reason I intend to make use of to let you see that the Earth is not the habitation of the Blessed All those that form any Idea of Happiness acknowledge that as it comprehends all Good it ought to exclude all Evil did it not include all of one sort it would not be perfect and did it not expel all of the other it would be miserable In the mean time the Earth is the region of Poverty Goods are very scarce but Evils come in crowds He that possesseth Riches languisheth after Honour he that raigns in a Kingdom does not always bear rule in his Person and if he triumph over his Enemies he seldom triumphs over his Passions He that bathes himself in Pleasures is drowned many times in Sin and he that is upon good terms with Fortune is for the most part at oddes with Himself Thus all men are miserable because they are indigent nor does the condition of their present life suffer them to associate all good things together to compose a perfect felicity It happens also by a necessary consequence that there are a thousand Evils from which they cannot defend themselves Their souls and their bodies are equally disposed to grief these two Delinquents which forsake not one another in the Sin share in the Punishment and Earth preventing Hell torments them both for company The Body bears an enemy in the bowels of it
that devours it the natural heat that inanimates it consumes it This wretched mother brings forth two Maladies which though natural are notwithstanding mortal if there be not some speedy remedies applied For Hunger and Thirst are punishments that cannot be avoided these two executioners harrase all the children of Adam and when the Son of God was incarnate he suffered their assaults he was hungry in the desarts thirsty in Samaria and the blood which the stripes and nails drew from his veins made him utter that word upon the Cross which exprest his Thirst as well as his Love Sitio The evils which arise from our Constitution are accompanied with others that arise from the confusion of the Universe Heat and Cold persecute us Summer and Winter bid us battel the Seasons grow irregular to make us suffer and the Elements jar to destroy us Our State is nothing now but a Country of enemies or strangers our Subjects either know us not or contemn us and this place which was heretofore the Threatre of our Glory is now the Scaffold of our Punishment Inasmuch as the Soul is more culpable then the Body she is also more miserable Corpus hoc animae pondus est poena premente illa urgetur in vinculis est Sen. ep 65. she suffers her own evils and those of the body too she resents her own pains and those of her slave her Temple is changed into a Prison her Host is become her Enemy nor is she less busied to subdue her Senses and her Members then to guide her Passions and her Faculties whatever attempt she make to procure peace in her State there are four miseries which she can never provide against The First is the revolt of the Passions which always disturb her rest Love and Hatred appear without her leave the first gets up by desires and hopes to be joyned to the object that gives it birth If he meet with any opposition to his designes he makes use of Anger and Boldness to master it if he be victorious he triumphs with Joy if defeated he falls into despair and is wholly given over to grief Hatred imitates Love she calls in the Passions to her aid that hold of her Empire and having discovered her enemy removes for fear if too weak or sets upon him with anger if she conceive her self strong enough When her enterprise succeeds well she triumphs as well as Love and when her endeavours are frustrated she also sinks into despair and sadness But that which is most troublesom in all these disorders is that they rebel in spite of Reason and the soul is forced to suffer these insurrections which she cannot help The Second misery she is sensible of is the irregularity of her actions though she consult with Prudence and Justice though she keep a mediocrity which constitutes Vertue she steps aside many times from her duty and under specious pretences falls into vitious extremes Sometimes she is too indulgent or too severe in punishing sometimes she is too reserved or too lavish in her presents sometimes she is too cowardly or too hardy in her combats Non est expectanda sinceritas veritatis à sensibus corporis nihil est enim sensibile quod non habeat fimile falso Aug. so that many times it falls out she commits a Crime when she thinks to practise a Vertue The Third misery which she can hardly avoid is Errour and Illusion For being a prisoner in the Body seeing nothing but through the Senses and so compelled to make use of these unfaithful messengers she is oftner engaged in a lye then in truth and is so badly informed of what she ought to love or hate that for the most part she confounds Good with Evil Vice with Vertue But the Fourth misery inseparable from her condition and contrary to her felicity is the weakness she resents in all her enterprises if she think to conquer Temptations she sinks under them if she thinks to mount up to heaven by holy contemplations her body like a clog weighs her down to the earth if she strive to combat her Inclinations she findes her Senses favouring their party and that she hath as many Enemies as she believes her self to have Subjects In the midst of so many miseries she hath onely one consolation that Grace is sufficient to make her victorious Sufficit tibi gratia mea But these words that comfort her teach her that the earth is not the mansion of Happiness because it is the Pitched Field where we must win the Victory to deserve the Triumph The Third DISCOURSE That the Christian tastes some Happiness here belowe THough the earth be not the habitation of rest and all the children of Adam are condemned to labour since the sin of their father yet fail they not to taste some Pleasure among their Sorrows The Divine Justice tempers its Chastisements with some Graces Mercy steps to the relief of these wretches and the merits of Jesus Christ obtain favours for them which are not onely the Pledges but the Antepasts of Felicity Enjoyment is mixt with Hope in our souls the same advantages that make us hope for Glory give us a title to possess it and the Vertues which make us Saints render us in some sort Blessed Faith is the first vertue that unites us to Jesus Christ she that initiates us into his Mysteries that enrols us of his Family makes us the Subjects of his State and the Members of his Mystical Body It clarifies our Understanding in subjecting it imparts some Flames together with its Lights that warm our Will and gain our consent to the belief of those Verities that surpass our apprehension But it s principal and most wonderful effect is to make Jesus Christ present in our souls and to give us a taste here belowe of the felicity of Angels for these Spirits are therefore happie because they are the Thrones of God lodging their Soveraign in the innermost recesses of their Essence Ambula per fidem ut pervenias ad patriam species non laetisicat in Patria quem fides non consolatur in via Aug. and are most intimately possest by him who is infinitely distant from the Wicked Now the Faithful partake of this happiness with them Jesus Christ dwells in their hearts by Faith and S. Paul tells us that those that believe in him possess him Christum habitare per fidem in cordibus vestris S. Augustine who so happily expresseth the words of this great Apostle assures us that this vertue hath the power to fill us with Jesus Christ that it makes Heaven stoop and Earth ascend and uniting the Faithful with the Beatified in some sort equals their different conditions It is a kinde of Miracle that Faith which believes onely things distant and obscure should make us see and possess them enlightning us by their darkness and giving us an approach to them by their remoteness For as S. Augustine saith when we believe in Jesus
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
us more happie They promise pleasures to the Wanton Inflant animos divitiae superbiam pariunt invidiam contrahunt luxui serviunt Sen. and conspire with him to corrupt Chastity they furnish Arms and Seconds to the Furious to take vengeance on their enemies they raise the Ambitious to offices and employments and complying with all Passions engage men in all kinde of impiety Therefore he judged aright who said that to give a sinful man Riches was to put a Sword into a mad mans hand or present poyson to a Desperado because not being under the command of Grace he will make use of them only to satisfie his ambition or to content his brutality So that the Philosophers preventing the Divines rightly discovered that Poverty was more Innocent then Plenty and that it was easier for men to preserve their liberty in the leanness of want then in the affluence of riches For besides that they wed us to the earth Multis parasse divitias non finis miseriaruÌ„ fuit sed mutatio Senec. Epist 17. they expose us to a thousand accidents which can neither be foreseen nor avoided and give fortune game at our person Therefore is it that Seneca said Those that will be happy must either be poor or like those that are so they must possesse their goods without being possessed by them and use them as Stewards rather then Proprietaries and they ought to be alwayes ready to part with them because they have them but in trust Religion out-bids Philosophy and requires farre other dispositions from her Children then this does from her Disciples For she will have them acknowledg that in Adam all is lost that they are fallen from their rights by his sin and being guilty are become miserable Perswaded of this Truth they live in the world as in a strange Country they possesse riches upon Loan and since their Goods were confifcated to their soveraign they enjoy them meerly from his mercy Though Jesus Christ re-instate them in their goods and being made Co-heirs with him may dispose of heaven and earth as their Inheritance yet are they obliged to regulate themselves by his Example and not to make use of their rights till after the generall Resurrection He carried himself thus during his life though Heire to his Father he disposed not of his estate a Cratch received him at his birth and a Cross served him for a Death-bed he lodged in a borrowed house and was buried in a strangers Sepulchre If he wrought some miracles for the Glory of his Father he did none for his own Interest when he created a piece of money in the mouth of a Fish it was to pay Tribute and when he commanded his Disciples to take the Asse which served to carry him in his triumph it was with the consent of the Owner Paupertate Christi non additur pecunia sed justitia Divitiae verae immortalitas ubi enim vera copia ibi nulla indigentiâ—â— Aug. He put not his absolute power in execution till after his Resurrection nor did he enjoy the priviledges due to his Birth till he was entred into Heaven The Christians tredding in his steps pretend nothing in this world but reserve the fruition of their right for the next They are content with the promises of Jesus Christ and living here upon hope expect the effects thereof in glory During this time they look upon Poverty as an innocent Usury which gives a value to what they give or part with here for the Son of God for they know saith S. Bernard That Jesus Christ who is a New Man is come down here below to teach us new things and that those that obey him finde rest in labour liberty in servitude and abundance in Poverty Their Goods are multiplyed in being distributed and as the husbandman casting his seed into the earth promiseth himself a hapgy harvest the Christian in communicating his goods to the Poor expects a great recompence at the generall Resurrection Till then he comforts himself with the advantages Poverty bestows upon him for he perceives that if riches have their good use they have also their bad They acknowledge the Custody of them troublesome the love of them contagious the losse of them sensible and if there be pain to get them there is more to keep them This made some Philosophers rid themselves of such attendants and gave comfort to others whom injustice or fortune had made bankrupt for as Seneca sayes excellently well We gain much in losing our riches if with them we lose our covetousness and we fail not continually to gain something even when we lose it not because the subject that entertained it being taken away there is some ground to hope either that it will dye for want of nourishment or at least do no hurt for want of power The Poverty of Christians is happier in this point then that of Philosophers for being inanimated with Grace they lose the desire of evil with the meanes of doing it nor are they innocent only out of impotency but out of deliberation They make their Poverty meritorious in making it voluntary if they choose it not they endevour to accept it and a misfortune or a chastisement they husband into a vertue The losse of their Goods causeth the assurance of their salvation and the rest of their souls they cease to fear assoon as they cease to love and they draw this advantage from their poverty that being no longer engaged to the Earth by their affection they are no more troubled with fear nor abused with hope But their greatest happiness is that they learn from Scripture that their condition is a holy Asylum and that heaven hath promised a particular protection to the Poor Evangelizare pauperibus misit me Luc. 4. They know that Christ came down from heaven to instruct them that his care of teaching them is a proof of his Missions that he hath pronounced them happy in his Sermons chose them for his Disciples hath designed them his favours made them the objects of his love and hath so particular an affection towards them that a man must be poor in deed or in desire to be taken notice of in his State Let us love Poverty then and despise riches seek Felicity in want and if Nature hath not brought us poor into the world let us become like those that are poor either by unbottoming our selves of our Goods or distributing them that raking part in the reproaches of Christ upon Earth We may be partakers of glory in heaven The sixth DISCOURSE That the Happinesse of a Christian upon Earth consists in Humility rather then in Glory THe Ambitious will hardly agree as concerning this Maxime and it will pass into their minde as an Errour rather then a Paradox Merces virtutis gloria honos alit artes omnesque incenduntur ad studia gloriâ For they believe that Honour is the nourishment of Vertue that she droops and languisheth when deprived of
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
is no wonder if an absolute power dazles the eyes of mortals and if those who look onely upon the bravery imagine it at least an image of felicity But certainly the more advised make not this judgement and Politicians who are acquainted with all the miseries of this pompous Majesty Tibi soli peccavi malum coram te feci Psal 51. esteem it more worthy of pity then envy For besides that a great fortune is a great servitude that Princes who command are bound to obey that those who incroach upon the liberty of others lose their own that those that strike terrour in others are not free from it themselves and that Soveraigns who bear rule with violence have as many enemies as they have subjects Divinity teacheth us that the Earth is inconsistent with Felicity For this according to the Idea we are able to form of it is an absolute Good which cannot be transferred to another 't is Mans ultimate End and which comprehending all kinde of pleasures fills his wishes and bounds his motions Now Regal power hath not one of these qualities it stirs up the desires of Monarchs whose Heart is larger then their State it findes nothing that can satisfie it and as long as it hath neighbours or equals it cannot think it self absolute Alexander is a fair witness of this Truth Never did Prince more enlarge his Conquests never did Soveraign behold more Crowns at his feet nor ever did Monarch see more different Nations subject to his will Jam in unum Regnum multa Regna conjecit jam Graeci Persaeque eundem timent hic tamen ultra Oceanum solemque fertur ipsi Naturae vim parat Senec. Ep. 94. In the mean time he accounted himself miserable in his Greatness poor in his Abundance and confined in his Empire He is troubled that there are some people who have not yet felt the violence of his Arms it grieves him that there are any men who are not his subjects nor can he belive himself a Soveraign as long as there are any free-men in the world Finally his ambition perswaded him that to be Absolute he must command the whole World and as the Heaven can bear but one Sun no more can the Earth endure but one Monarch Though all ambitious ones are not of the humour of Alexander and can be content with a part of the Universe yet are they always forced to confess that Felicity cannot be found in it because that it may be true it must be Eternal Solid and Unshaken if any of these qualities be wanting it will ever be exposed to Danger and threatned with Fear Now there is no power in the world that is not Short Feeble and subject to Change Scripture tells us that the life of Kings hath its bounds as well as those of their Subjects Omnis Potentatus vita brevis If they raign as Gods they shall die like Men If their State be durable their Persons are mortal That sentence pronounced against all the children of Adam gives no exemption to Soveraigns nay it seems that as their power is greater their life is shorter then that of ordinary men Kings saith the Wise-man live to day and are dead to morrow they have no certain day Death makes no truce with them and when the moment Divine Justice hath assigned them comes it proceeds to execution without considering whether those it sets upon be Slaves or Soveraigns Their power is not less weak then it is short and if Kings be miserable because mortal they are to be pitied because exposed to so many dangers Weakness is natural to them and Puissance accidental they cannot defend themselves but with borrowed hands and mercenary Arms though their Souldiers be their Subjects yet may they be debauched and whatever Oath they engage them with to assure their Fidelity they have reason to tremble as often as they think that their State and Person depends upon the Courage and Constancy of another That Prophet who is not less famous for his Eloquence then for the Miseries he endured hath observed that Kings are never more put to it then at the eve of a Battel Terrebit eum tribulatio angustia vallabit eum sicut Regem qui praeparetur ad praelium Job 5 because they see their Fortune in the hands of their Souldiers and that the same day which must decide their Differences may give a period to their Life and Kingdom But me thinks this Fear never ought to abandon Soveraigns and that in Peace as well as War their Power depends upon the fidelity of their Subjects A Pestilence may mowe down their States and change the most populous Cities into desolate Wildernesses Famine may rage thorow a whole Kingdom and notwithstanding all the care Husbandmen take to till the ground two months of Drought or Rain may render all their labours unprofitable and the most flourishing Kingdom of the world wretchedly miserable But admit these Evils which are too common prove not so formidable and Kings may finde that among their neighbours which is not to be met with at home Who will deliver them from the just apprehension the instability of Humane things ought to strike into the hearts of all the Monarchs of the earth What Prince is there that can promise that the violence of Strangers or the rebellion of his Subjects will not snatch his Crown from his head Who is there that after so many Examples past and present is not obliged to believe that States perish as well as Soveraigns that the Forms of Government change with the seasons and humours of men that Monarchies may be turned into Common-wealths and Common-wealths into Monarchies The Empire of the Syrians was it not seized by the Medes The Medes were not they obedient to the Persians And the Persians have not they stoopt to the Romanes This vast Republick which had swallowed all the Monarchies of the world did it not produce all our Kingdoms France Spain and England are they not pieces of this great Wrack and whatever is famous in Europe or Asia is it not from its dissolution is it not enriched with its damage and raised by its downfal What State ought not to fear having seen the ruine of this Colossus and what Republike or Monarchy is there which can promise it self Eternity having seen the deplorable End of this City which commanded all Kings and disposed of all Kingdoms But I will grant this Fear unjust nor that men are to be afraid of a Calamity which threatens the Universe at least Kings must confess that their Power is a glorious Servitude and that they bear not the Sword and Scepter so much to be feared as to cause obedience to Jesus Christ Quem regnare delectat uni omnium regnatori Deo subditus haereat Aug. and to put his will in execution For being but his Vice-gerents their power reacheth onely to punish the Wicked and reward the Good They ought not to accept the Authority
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