torment them Jeremy weighs the wrongs Nebuchodonozer had done to Jerusalem by dishonouring Matrons deflowring Virgins killing little Children tormenting the aged burning houses their robberies and spoils and yet all these he passes over in silence though he took it much to heart and presses only the prophanation of the Temple having made of it a stable for his Horses When the Angel appeared to Joshuah with a drawn sword and commanded him to put off his Shooes as before he had done to Moses in the flaming bush enjoyning him the like many grave Doctors assert thâ—… this Angel was the Son of God wherein he would insinuate two things First the reverence they ought to bear to that place where in a manner so particular he was pleased to manifest himself Next that against those who should lose this respect he had Fire and Sword ready to vindicate his honour For the Majesty of a King or regal power upon Earth is respected throughout the whole jurisdiction of his Crown but yet much more where he hath his Throne and Chair of state So God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the Nations of the World ought in all places to have homages of submission and obedience paid unto him but especially in places dedicated to religious acts in Heaven at the right hand of his Father is the supream throne of his greatness in the Synagogue he had the propitiatory and in the Temple his Sacrarium and as to a Temple or Church wherein God is to be honoured Nilus sayes a Christian should bear no less respect to this his Holy Tabernacle than if he were in Heaven Because the glory of God is more apparent in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar and from thence a greater reverence may justly be required than from all the Temples that were in past ages dedicated to God's honour For in this dread Sacrifice God is adored honoured appeased loved and served by his Son Jesus Christ in all the Corners of the World where this mystery is celebrated all the adorations and homages of other Creatures contribute nothing to his Glory if compared to what he receives here by his Son because he is an object infinite and as a King receives more honour from the submission of a Prince than of an ordinary vulgar person in like manner the adorations rendered to God by Jesus Christ do glorify him more than those of all Men and Angels together by the Mouth of Malachy the Prophet God sayes my name is great among the Gentiles because in all places a pure oblation is offered up unto me which Theodoret explicates an unspotted Lamb taking away the sins of the World and which is Sacrificed unto him in this mystery The Master of the Family Matth. 20. having had his Servants ill treated by the labourers in his Vineyard sent his Son to reduce them to obedience saying they will respect him So God the Father would render his Son present in this mystery to induce all Christians to pay their duties to his greatness Who would not then Combat in the presence of their King We may reasonably expect to live with Angels and with them contemplate the divine essence since now we live with Jesus Christ himself who is the Food of our Souls he who gives himself to be eaten here will not deny us to see and behold him in eternity Now our Holy Penitent in his prophetick view beheld this Hill of Sion as a place marked out for the admirable structure of the Evangelical Temple whereof the Messias was to be the Corner stone and therefore he calls it holy wherein Sacraments conferring grace by their proper vertue were to be administred upon this score he preferrs the Gates of Sion before all the tabernacles of Jacob He forespeaks the building of this Sion and that God will there be seen in his glory as much as the Cloudy Scene in this World can represent him and as on mount Sinai the written Law a carnal and Earthly Law was given so on Mount Sion should be enacted a Law Evangelical holy spiritual and heavenly These fore-notions imprinted in our Petitioner a reverence to this model of perfection and stirrs him to implore his mercy in her behalf that since it is to be a Law of love all powerful to conduct Souls unto a great pitch of sanctity in this life and glory in the next he will hope his prayer may contribute somthing to draw from his liberality a confirmation of his gracious promises unto her in this confidence with much fervour and zeal he repeats Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion The Application We have a Lesson here of Charity which shews us inexcusable if we fail to endeavour the succour of our Neighbour For there is none so impotent but may lend the assistance of his prayers and how powerful that is to avert danger appears in that God seems willing to prevent the Prophet Jeremies mediation commanding he should not resist him that is he should not stand between him and the destruction of his people as if it were in the power of this Prophet by means of his prayer to hold God's Hand and force him to a merciful composition Besides we are much encouraged to relieve the distressed in this supplicating way by the form of prayer which Christ prescribes in that we should conjure him under the title of Father nay more our Father which speaks I have a right to ask not only as I am your Child but likewise to intercede for him who hath the same relation unto you and by that an alliance towards me which naturally exacts my help if then as a Maker you can destroy as a Father nature will prompt you to save In fine God playes not the stately like the great Princes of this World but gives audience upon the place whether in behalf of your self or Neighbour Nay he excludes not his greatest Enemies but doth treat with them of peace upon the least overture they make Ah! let us then daily present our supplications before his throne of grace in behalf of all persons capable of eternal Salvation Amen CHAP. XXXVIII Vt edificentur muri Jerusalem And let the Walls of Jerusalem be built BY the Walls of this Sion or Jerusalem for they are usually taken for the same thing is meant the Prelats and Pastours of this happy Congregation within whose circumference or direction we are all piously to walk and to whose care and protection all Mankind is committed Our Penitent beholds the Messias as the foundation and prop of this eternal structure for the Office of a Priest consists in the power of administring sacred things and to offer prayers gifts and Sacrifices unto God for the remission of sins and this in the name of the universal Church Now Iesus Christ was constituted by God over all Souls with a plenary authority to reconcile them to him and for this end he offered up a true and real Sacrifice
THE CYNOSURA Or a SAVING STAR That leads to ETERNITY Discovered amidst the Celestial Orbs of DAVID'S PSALMS By way of Paraphrase upon the MISERERE Humanum est errare Divinum quid emendare To do amiss is incident to humane Nature To repair our failings something Divine Si non traheris ora ut traharis If you be not moved to repentance pray you may be moved St. Aug. LONDON Printed by I. Redmayne for Thomas Rooks at the Lamb and Ink-bottle at the Entrance into Gresham Colledge next Bishops-gate-street 1670. To the Right Honorable and Illustrious Lady ANNE Countess of SHREWSBURY MADAM IT is the great Voice of the Church taught by her Heavenly Espouse that according to the ordinary course set down by his Providence none arrived to the knowledge of good and evil can reach their Beatitude but by the wings of Pennance 'T is a Decree passed immediately after our First Parents transgression that he should not eat his Bread but at the rate of sweaty Browes And though God seems to dispense in this severe Sentence in the old Law promising to the exact observers of it long life abundance of wealth a plentiful posterity and the like Yet this was done as he will leave no vertue unrewarded in regard that Heavens Gates were then shut up But when Christ had cleared their passage unto Eternal felicity and clapt the Thorns which were the fruit of our sins upon his own Head then they recovered so high a Being and grew to that value as the heavier God layes his Hand upon us the more his love appears So that now the mark of our happiness is the Son of God not glorifyed but scourged spit upon crowned with Thorns torn with Whipps and nailed to the Cross Hence it is we find our sweet Redeemer born in Tears bred up in obscurity and concluding the upshot of his life with all the circumstances of infamy and pain at the opening of his grand commission to preach unto the World his first Exordium was an exhortation unto pennance as if it were the sole Loadstone to draw Heaven towards us And St. Paul his great Disciple declares it nay he makes no exception that all those who would be happy must crucify their flesh with their vices Thus you see Madam that every Hand whether innocent or guilty whether noble or vulgar ought to be stretched forth to sow the bitter Seed of pennance If we have sucked in vertue even with our Milk and thrived with a daily encrease in the sequel of our life yet we ought not sayes St. Austin descend into the Tomb but by the way of pennance Again if we have complyed with the Frailties of our corrupt nature and trespassed against the duty we owe to our good God pennance likewise must be our Sanctuary So that pennance is furnished with two Wings to bear us up to Heaven the one is fashioned out by love which prompts us to become by a course of severity a true Copy of our suffering Original the other is framed by strokes of Justice and exacts worthy fruits that is such as may in some proportion be answerable to our failings and though this other have not a motive altogether so Heroick yet it speaks a great vertue because it puts us upon a task the most knotty that can be imagined as to appease the face of an angry God Besides it renders that Action just and equitable in that it aims to repair the injury and contempt thrown by sin upon his greatness Wherefore we ought not to blush upon either of these accounts to wear the Liveries of pennance If on the former we mortify our senses upon Earth and vest our selves with the habit of Christ shaped out to the Image of his Death it is a perfect Metamorphosy wrought by the power of love and for which Figure the very Angels were they capable of sensible impressions would be glad to exchange with us If on the latter that is the score of satisfaction it Cancels all our Bonds of guilt it raises us from an Abyss of misery to the high dignity of Grace by which we are adopted Sons and Heirs to Heaven So that a penitential life cannot but find veneration amongst all wise Men and be highly acceptable in the sight of God since by our humiliations we labour to contribute to his honor and greatness But Madam you may perhaps upon this discourse wonder to behold in the Courts of Christian Princes so much of glory pomp and magnificence which suit so ill with the Characters of the Cross I confess at the First glance it might startle any one were it not that a multitude of persons both Illustrious in Blood and eminent in Sanctity have taught by their Example that the glittering of the World and a penitential Heart are not things incompatible It were to groap in the Sun-beams to play the Ignorant in this Truth that is not to acknowledge that in all ages since Christ's visible appearance upon Earth Princes and Ladies of no less extraction have been found who under a Cloth of Tyssue and the richest Ornaments have covered their tender Bodies with Hair-cloths Who amidst the delicacies of the Court have macerated themselves with fasting and seasoned their repasts with bitter ingredients VVho have more valued one hours entertainment between God and their happy Souls than all the Balls and Masques to which external compliance the greatness of their condition in some sort obliged them For the essential part of pennance consists in the interiour disposition of the Mind that is in the operation of the understanding and will The understanding first represents unto us a God disobeyed and scorned and his Justice by this indignity stirred up to vindicate his honor threatning nothing but ruine and desolation in this distress the understanding further suggests that we have no refuge but to the throne of mercy whereupon the will falls to work laments what is passed protests against any future complyance with bad inclinations and seised with a holy sorrow and affliction submits to any compensation shall be required These are the preparatories to justification and when once they are compleated by a ray of Faith strengthened with hope and animated with charity this vertue of pennance growes up to that efficacy as to obtain in consideration of the excellency of its acts and fervency of the Agent a full remission of all sin Whence it is evident this grand work of pennance may be wrought within the precincts of our interiour and consequently the vain appearance of precious attyre and ceremonies of greatness may possibly reach only to the film or out-side whilest within they possess humility purity temperance and other Christian vertues To give a further elucidation of this point you will please Madam to know that Christ our Lord in his copious Redemption had two main designs The one to gain the Hearts of Men to the obedience of his Lawes which were so frozen and marble like as he foresaw a
love and inquisition in Heaven reserved for our fruition And which will be communicated more or less in proportion to the Zeal and Purity of Hearts we have here in seeking It is then in order to this happy enjoyment that our Penitent sues again and again to be more freed from his iniquity Besides Vertues have in them an admirable Sympathy which makes they never jarr but mutually conspire to unite themselves and the Subjects they inhabit to the most perfect Object and since this Union is only found in glory it is consequent we must needs here be in perpetual motion sometimes rooting out this imperfection otherwhiles acquiring that perfection untill we arrive at him who is the beginning and end of all our agitations He remembred with what wariness God gave his command to Adam advising even not to touch the Fruit he must not tast off well knowing the consequences which attend occasions of sin Hence he gathers this lesson if we must not play with danger much less harbour the lest atome of sin within us for it is of such a malignity as the Ocean upon the breach of a bank rushes not in with more violence than sin doth and over-flowes that Soul where once it finds admittance Who will grant nothing must receive no Petitions it was not without reason the Jews forbad the eating of Fat that they might not be allured to devour what was offered in their Sacrifice Our Holy Petitioner implores then a preservative as well as pardon this more implyes not only a fuller deletion of his iniquity but also a stalling of dangerous occasions he now suspects every motion of his enemy he hath seen from his own too dear experience that a spark hath grown up to a masterless incendium and this now happily extinguished should he again dally but with the least resemblance or shaddow of sin would in him appear monstrous after the tast of so signal a mercy This made him cry wash me Lord not only from sin but more even from all danger and occasions of sin For in the midst of imminent occasions of sin not to decline from Vertue and noble resolutions is a possibility more speculative than reducible to practice Nor was our penitent so transported with his change as not to have a solicitude for prevention of the like disaster His repentance was not by halves this made him stand alwayes upon his guard alwayes in fear and still panting after more purity and more relaxation from his chains of iniquity Wash me more that is more than others this clause of his Petition he judged not unnecessary for he believed the stains of his guilt were drunk in more deeply and were more fixt than in the Soul of any other the greatest offendour and consequently his cure required the application of a more Sovereign remedy If the Leprous Condition of Naaman Cyrus found not a compleat redress untill his seventh Lotion in Jordan what streams must he seek out whose infirmity speaks a contempt of God What multiplicity of reiterated bathings will suffice to cleanse that Crimson Dye whose reeking smoak ascends to Heaven to purchase thence a consuming fire Whose numberless offences he himself compares to the sands of the Sea and confesses he cannot entertain a thought of them without horrour He reckons up many signal Favours he had received from the liberal hand of God how he was pickt out from amidst his Fathers flocks being the youngest and least considerable of all his children to be made Author of liberty unto Israel how God had sheltred him as it were under his Wings from all his Enemies and so ordained that their greatest malice proved matter of his greatest glory how God had entrusted into his hands the Rule and guidance of his elect people and given him wisdom and courage to acquit himself of that weighty charge with immortal honour How God had promised not to confine his munificence unto his person but that he would settle the succession of his Regal Dignity to his posterity for ever And above all how from his line and seed should issue forth an abstract of all his liberalities to Mankind the Saviour of the World When he had registred all these Obligations and passed on to survey what return he had made he found so high ingratitude so much of disloyalty that to rank himself with other sinners were to add presumption to his heap of sins He supplicates therefore that to the Enormity of his Crimes may be proportioned the Measure of his pardon that as the deformity of his sin was unparalell'd so likewise might the stroke of that pencil exceed which was to correct all his imperfections and beautify him with a touch of perfection wash me more from my iniquity When he had thus framed his Petition implying in this word more first a necessity of greater helps than others proportionably to the greatness of his transgressions next a desire to be free from the least venial sin and lastly to be secured even from occasions of sin He ventures yet a little further and following the Dictamens of flesh and blood makes instance for a relaxation of the temporal punishment due to his Sin wash me more that is not only in taking away his doom to eternal torments but also the temporary satisfactions he must here make His sensitive part shrinks at the foresight of contradictions he was to wade through and would feign obtain this additional remission Man's natural affection to the Body from a strict Union it hath with the Soul raised in our Petitioner a great tenderness of it insomuch as not to plead for it were to violate he thought the Articles of Friendship made by nature between them Yet he had alwayes such an Eye to the Decrees of Heaven that after all his supplications he totally submits He will not repine at any pressure but with an entire resignation drink in the bitterest draughts of temporal afflictions if his Divine Justice so require He values 't is true his Body in it self God and nature having imprinted this love in him but when its depression may conduce to the purifying of his Soul upon whose happiness it mainly depends reason teaches we must then let it sink and though it be drown'd in an Ocean of torments our Penitent hath this consolation that his Petition is granted as to the effect for he shall see it rise again wholly distained in the waters of tribulation he shall find his past sorrows grown up into Jubileys and Exultations and his heart more sensible of that mercy which gave him constancy in his sufferings than if by a pure act of grace he had been released from sin without any satisfaction in his own person If then he be purified either according to his own wish by an exemption from sufferings which his frail Nature suggests or else by an inundation of afflictions which he hath merited by his crimes He hath still this comfort that he sues not in vain since both will
deplorable that most of its Enemies are hatched and trained up within its own Breast who like the Viper tears asunder the womb that bare them Besides they are all armed compleatly against it whilest this defendant to preserve it self against so many Harpyes and ravenous VVolves hath nothing but a poor will and this weakned extreamly enfeebled by original sin so that many times it is so overpowred what by the charms of objects presented to her what by their importunity and near approach that unable to make any offensive nay or so much as defensive play all she can do is to disown and disavow any compliance protesting against the violence of all her mutinous passions In these distresses our Penitent knew well it was necessary to have a clean heart that is a heart stâ—…d in that perfection as might diminiâ—… the effects of â—…iginal sin for a Soul arrived once at perfection performs acts of vertues with such facility as if he seemed not to have forfeited 〈◊〉 â—ustiâ—es and though usually this happiness is not purchased but by a long tract of unwearied practise yet God can supply all this by a superabundant Collation of his Grace and with these hopes he confidently and incessantly tunes forth create in me O God a clean heart The Application Here we are taught that in all our actions we must attend to the sincerity of our intentions for it is not the material thing we do that gives a value to them but the source from whence they spring and if that be qualifyed with a pure designment to aim only at God's glory then it is evident they proceed from a heart fashioned by the hand of God and directed by his all-moving Spirit St. Austin sayes we shall be rewarded or punished according to the will by which we have acted Abraham lost not his Son nor likewise did he lose his merit because it is the same moral goodness which resides in the inferiour and exteriour act and if the one be obstructed this takes not off the esteem due to the other just as the Sun is still luminous though a Cloud sometimes hinders the effect of his beams Let us bless therefore our good God who contents himself with the heart and let us dispose that alwayes ready for his service Amen CHAP. XXII Et Spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis And renew in my Bowels a right spirit OUr Holy Penitent in this clause keeps the method of a wise Petitioner having an Eye not only to his present succour but also how to settle a constant supply For to have implored a dean heart would avail him little without a sentinel and guard to protect this fountain from impure hands He was not ignorant that the will is a blind faculty that must be directed wherefore he petitions here in behalf of his understanding that it may receive those lights which are necessary for his conduct in all the occurrences of this life Renew in my Bowels a right spirit This spiritual rectitude consists in two heads to wit faith and morality The first teaches what we owe to God the other what is due to our Neighbour and our selves the first discovers unto us the perfections and attributes of God and of these gives us a most certain knowledge not lyable to any errour because it is grounded on the Testimony of God which is more infallible than our reason senses or apparitions of the dead Now that this certitude in matter of Faith ought to be of all things most unquestionable is evident For Man is obliged to prefer God before all created things to set a value upon the works of his service beyond any proper interest of riches honour nay of life which is frankly to be exposed in defiance of all the cruelties that can be inflicted rather than to fail in the least tittle of what Faith prescribes as due to our Creatour It were then very severe we should be tyed to forfeit what is most precious to us in this World and to sustain that which we most abhor and all this for a thing that is dubious uncertain and lyable to errour Wherefore in all reason the knowledge we have by Faith ought to be the most depurated from dross of doubt or vacillation Now what can be more secure and satisfactory than to be taught by God himself instructed by his word and revelation who is a supream verity and cannot reveal a falshood and which is conveyed unto us by the Church who is the immediate receptacle of Divine truths so that it is inconceivable how any expedient could be found more efficacious to quiet the minds of Men in religious duties than this of Revelation In other vertues God seems to treat with us familiarly and as equalls laying down reason to move us to embrace them but in matter of Faith he playes the Sovereign he commands forbids threatens promises and delivers things which surpass all imagination and this without any evidence or reason of their existence now though at the first glance this proceeding seems harsh yet seriously weighed it will be found a stroke of his goodness for whilst we believe amidst these Clouds and obscurity it speaks more loud an act of our free will which is the spring of merit presupposing the existence of grace For if where we most contradict our selves there is a Subject of greater merit certainly in nothing Man doth more devest himself of his inclinations than in acts of Faith for he renounces his natural way of knowledge by reason and sense he Sacrifices his understanding to God's simple word and believes all the greatnesses and wonders of the Divine Being and mysterious works meerly because he hath said it Our Holy Penitent desirous to be irradiated with these unerring notions petitions that a right Spirit may be resetled in him for supposing Man's End or Beatitude which is to know serve love and glorify God in all Eternity we must in order to this end raise our understanding and affections to objects which outstrip the power of sense and exceed the reach of our natural reason the acts of Religion by which we pay our duty to God being supernatural and justly proportioned to Beatitude to which they tend now Man of himself without some light from above cannot frame any supernatural act of himself he knowes not what homage and service is due to his Sovereign Monarch nor with what Sacrifices he ought to appease his anger and pay the tribute of thanks and adoration wherefore he begs that he himself would teach him and be his Master that he may not like the Gentiles follow the vain dictamens of sense but serve him as he would be served and in that manner as might be most agreeable to his divine will which he shall infallibly perform if he daign to fill him with his right Spirit and renew in my bowels a right Spirit But whilst he sues that this Spirit all guiding of Truth may be infused into his bowels that is diffused
indevotion and an indiscreet Zeal Fortitude between rashness and cowardise so of the rest Wherefore the art is so to steer your course as to keep at an equal distance from them both yet alwayes mindful that if one be more dangerous than the other you are most to decline that as if I would embrace the vertue of hope which is beset with presumption and despair and my complexion cold and melancholly drawes me on the extremity of despair this certainly most threatens my ruine and therefore I am to look upon every spark of that with more apprehension than a fire which issues from presumption Our Holy Penitent knew that whilest he sailed in the Ocean of this World he must needs be flanked with two dangerous Rocks that is two opposite vices to any vertue he would embrace so that if he keep not a steady hand to the helm by the least diversion he is cast upon a shelf which will destroy him Wherefore it behoves him to fit himself with a right spirit a Spirit of vertue which leaning upon the Principles of reason might preserve him in that degree of honour wherein he is ranked amidst created Beings For as knowledge makes one knowing so vertue gives us the title of good and as the good of any thing consists in the just measure and proportion unto it he concludes this right spirit of vertue to be a purchase worthy his ambition since doubtless nothing to Man as Man is more sutable and agreeing than such actions as are produced conformable to a reasonable nature he anticipates his Son's Declaration and thinks nothing profitable pleasant or great which is not made so by vertue This right spirit will shower down spiritual comforts settle him in peace with God Angels and Men shelter him under the wings of God's Providence which never fails to cherish those who live according to the rules of vertue and after a life attempered with the Harmony of delightful actions it changes into sweeâ—…ss the grim face of Death making it a secure passage unto eternal Beatitude He is resolved to put in execution the practice both of intellectual and moral vertues and that they may prove meritorious he begs they may be infused into him that when he considers the infinity of God's Being and the immensity of his perfections he may forthwith pay him the just tribute of glory respect and submission all worship praise and possible endeavours of Piety That his omnipotency may never pass his thoughts without an entire obedience to his will that his inexhausted and unerring wisdom may draw him to acts of faith and firm assent to his divine word That the fidelity of his never failing promises may fix a reliance and assured hope in him That his unwearied goodness may ravish him into a charity and love never to be extinguished That his incomparable greatness may work him into the annihilation of himself before him and give him a true feeling of his own vileness That a terrour of his judgments may throw him into a course of rigid pennance for his misdeeds and his unspeakable favours be met with all the Testimonies of gratitude which a poor Creature can give He knowes that had he a Million of hearts lodg'd within his own person yet could they never reach that love his goodness merits and should he stoop even unto Hell nay lower were it possible it would still be short of that submission due to his greatness Wherefore though he be hopeless to pay what he owes he will shew at least he hath a will to be just nor doth he blush at his impotency since it springs from the excellency of his Creditour from whom likewise he expects to be enabled towards the discharge of his arrears and he conceives no treasure can be more effectual than that of a right spirit and therefore he incessantly repeats renew in my bowels a right spirit The Application God will be adored in spirit and truth wherefore man is to serve and honour him by a certain knowledge sutable to his intellectual nature now in the essence of God are contained wonders not to be comprehended by the natural force of our understanding Whence we are with our Holy Penitent to Petition for a right spirit that is the excellent light of faith by which we are raised to a more eminent knowledge of the Divinity than all the activity and vigour of our reason could ever reach In this knowledge consists eternal life in the ignorance of this eternal death For with what Face shall he one day ask Heaven of the adorable Trinity who hath never known that mystery Or claim a share in the fruit of our redemption who hath been ignorant of Jesus Christ Let us then beg for this heavenly wisdom by which we are taken off from the low affection to Creatures to fix our Eyes upon the greatness of our Creatour the wonders of his works and amidst a Million of ravishing objects which this right spirit presents to our meditation let us insist with a particular gust on this that our Souls are created for eternal bliss Amen CHAP. XXIII Ne projicias me à facie tua Cast me not away from thy face OUr Holy Penitent seems here to question the success of his precedent petition by which he had sued for a right understanding this argues how unsetled the mind of a sinner is that no sooner he had aimed at this irradiation but immediately he is struck with a terrour of his demerits and fancies his doom is to be eternally banished from the Face of God wherefore he cryes cast me not away from thy Face St. Hierom conceives this clause levels only at the communication of his Divinity in order to the Hypostatick union which he apprehends in punishment of his sin might be concealed from him and therefore he sayes cast me not away from thy face that is deprive me not of the knowledge of thy divine nature as it relates to Man in the great Sacrament of the incarnation It is this mystery he fears to be ravished off which brings along with it a fulness of time and wherein all the groans and labours of many longing Souls will cease and be at rest But the more vogued opinion layes this expression upon his anxiety touching his eternal reprobation He knew he was unworthy of eternal life through the forfeiture of grace he had made and whether being now a Vessel of dishonour the divine Artist will not leave him eternally in this reproachful mould is the just motive of his fear He remembers a passage in Exodus where our Lord threatens to obdurate the heart of Pharaoh and it is no less affrighting what St. Paul declares that God is merciful on whom he will have mercy and in the Fourth Chapter to the Corinthians God hath cast an obcaecation on the Minds of unbelievers Yet our Petitioner is too good a Divine as entertaining these reflections to make God the efficient cause of Man's obdurateness he knowes that
with a firm hope cry Lord thou shalt open my Lips The Application We are taught here when we begin to pray that we look upon our selves as infirm indigent and ulcerated Beggars who expect from the merciful hand of God to find some relief in our necessities and we must further reflect upon this great addition to our misery that as that the time was not tedious to him to whom the Saint replyed that the whole world was a great Volume expanded in which he read as it were in great Characters the wonders of its Creatour to which also alludes the Sentence of St. Chrysostom There is not any particle of a Creature be it of worth or not which issues not forth a voice more loud than a Trumpet and speaks the praises of God But above all it belongs to Man by many Titles of obligation to contribute to the praise and glory of God First his natural perfections more lively represent the Divine perfections as being created to his Image and enriched with an understanding able to comprehend supernatural things so that he alone in this Earthly Sphere can acknowledge and make a return of gratitude for all the visible productions we here behold Whence it is evident that Man is obliged to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving in the behalf of all Creatures it was upon this score the high Priest among the Jews was wont to have wrought in his Garment a draught of the World to insinuate that it was his part to discharge the duty of Adoration and acknowledgment unto God in the name of the universe Next Man may be aiding to the glory of God employing those gifts of grace he receives in acts of Religion obeying his Commandments embracing his Councels referring all his actions to his honour and evidencing by a holy life that all his endeavours are in order to him and his service For from hence is reflected a certain external glory upon God not only in that he is known loved and respected by such a life of Sanctity but also in that he hath such holy and generous Creatures just as it is the glory of a Father to have a Son vertuous and wise and who by his valour and sage conduct drawes the Eyes of the World with a kind of admiration upon him But the greatest glory Man can give unto God is in a state of Beatitude for when once there arrived he shall see him face to face without any interposed Veil he shall know the wonders of his essence cast his sweetness inconceivable and have his heart ravished with eternal affections He shall there praise him in a full consort for all Eternity This is the highest pitch of glory Man can give unto God in which he is partner with the Angels it is the final end of our Creation we are not put into this World upon any other design than by a constant progress in vertue to advance our selves daily to this end Here you may discern the general Heads of praise in which our Penitent will engage his mouth First he will praise him in the infinite variety of Creatures he hath framed in this inferiour World for Man's use and in his behalf he will powerforth his thanks and acts of gratitude resolving never to abuse them or design them contrary to that end for which they were made Next he will submit all his actions to be led and conducted according to the impulse and dictamens of those Graces he shall please to bestow upon him making his Body a holy chast and maâ—…rated victime to his Laws and by this means he will dispose himself for that last and highest service he is to render him in a compleat Beatitude where his Mouth shall never cease to celebrate his praise And my Mouth shall declare thy praise Whilest our Penitent thus in his thoughts runns over all these motives which might justly afford matter of praise to his grateful Tongue there occurs one more which must not be omitted since it exceeds all others and exalts the glory of God beyond all the submission of Men and Angels it is the mystery of the Incarnation in which Christ Jesus God-Man hath contributed the most to God's glory For he hath saved the World by the effusion of his pretious blood and nothing is more glorious to God than the Salvation of Mankind for good and holy persons will praise love admire contemplate enjoy and adore his perfections in the vast spaces of Eternity Now had he not dyed for Man no Paradise no felicity could have been for them so that God had remained under the privation of that glory he doth and is to receive from blessed Spirits for all Eternity Nay more not only Men do glorify God by Jesus Christ but the Angels likewise in whose concern the Church declares the Angels praise your Majesty the Archangels bow before you the Powers tremble with respect the vertues of Heaven and blessed Seraphims with like joy and love do glorify you So that all the external glory consecrated to God either in Heaven or Earth is in consideration of the divine person as it supports the sacred humanity of Christ Lastly Jesus Christ in Heaven doth praise and magnify the Divinity with an Air incomparable he doth it more copiously with more variety with a note more lively and ravishing than all the Choires of Angels and Saints put together The reason is that the most perfect knowledge and most ardent affection are the â—ources of the most sublime and magnificent Panegyricks Now the Soul of our Redeemer enjoyed without dispute a more clear and penetrating wisdom and knowledge of the Divinity is enflamed in that Abyss of essence to a higher degree than any other whatsoever and consequently his most pure Soul breaks forth into praises which outstrip and surpass by far all the Harmony both of Angels and the blessed spirits in Heaven I doubt not but our Penitent with much satisfaction let his Tongue strike upon this Theam for if the very thought of the Messias replenished his Mind with abundant joy what consolation to consider that by him alone God would derive to himself more glory than from the whole mass of Creatures that he was to share with him in this task of praise that he would procure encrease and magnify the honour of God to his utmost and since Angels and Men were to pay their homage of praise and benediction by and in the person of the Messias our Penitent would not be exempted from that priviledge of bearing a part in the confort and bless the divine goodness in that by the bloody Sacrifice of the Messias God's honour should be repaired and as many voices gained to promote his greatness as there were to be glorious spirits in Heaven that by his sacred Mouth the praises of his God his sovereign good and object of his love were to be ecchâ—…d forth in the midst of Paradise with what â—…y would he put a helping hand and conspire in this design
they are to wade through in making good their fidelity to God they throw themselves upon the points of Halberts and other instruments of severity without the least whining or flinching at their sharpness they take in as it were with the same relish the Gall of misfortunes and desolations and the Hony of prosperities and comforts No stormy season hinders their Journey and that which disturbs soft and effeminate Spirits is to them matter of joy and repose because they possess what they desire to wit affliction so that all things which pass under the name of Adversity are not so but to the wicked who make ill use of them in prizing the Creature more than the Creatour Hence it is that the general spirit of Saints have carried them on to be ambitious of suffering and to reckon it amongst one of the choice favours of Heaven for they had learnt by experience that if God with one Hand reaches unto them the Cup of his passion it is but by snatches and as it were a sup whilst with the other he gives them large draughts of consolation It is noted in the sacred Text that God laid open the person of Job to all the assaults of Satan but with this reserve that he touch not upon his life and this not in regard that death would have ecclipsed the glory of that great Champion but because he would not be deprived of such a Combatant to whose conflict he and his blessed Angels were intent with much satisfaction and so would not lose the pleasure of seeing this stout skirmish fought out to the last 'twixt him and his Enemy And as the Heathen Emperours took great delight to see a Christian enter into the list with a wild Beast so the King of Heaven is solaced with the sight of one of his Saints when he maintains a Fight against those fierce Beasts of Hell Seneca out of the principles of humane wisdom drew this excellent saying that no object was more worthy in the Eyes of the gods than to behold a stout Man with a settled countenance unmoved to struggle with adverse Fortune and truly the delay our blessed Saviour made in sending succour to his Disciples endangered by a storm at Sea sufficiently hints unto us the pleasure God takes to see the Just row against the stream tugg and wrestle with all the might they can against the stream and afflictions of this World Thus you see how happy our Holy Penitent hath ajusted his Sacrifice to the lines of God's will and that he never spake more emphatically than when he said A Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit St. Bonaventure sayes that honor is due to God in four several respects and in like manner we ought in as many wayes render it unto him First in consideration of many blessings and this is to be returned by our gratitude and acts of thanksgiving Next we owe him honor in that he hath laid his commands upon us and this we perform by our obedience and submission to his Laws Thirdly his greatness and sovereignity exact it at our hands and this is paid by the vertue of Latria and adoration Lastly honor is due unto him in that he hath been offended and injuriously treated by sin Now the honor due to him in this point is restored by Penitential acts and by a troubled spirit Because in regard of his displeasure and to make reparation for the contempts thrown upon his Majesty he is ready to humble himself and apply all his endeavour to works of piety so far as even to afflict himself that he might honor the Divine Justice which requires that sin should never go unpunished Wherefore God is delighted in these painful satisfactory acquittances which we often give him written in our sweat and blood And Jesus Christ makes of them a present to his Father with his own from whence the value of ours is derived and there they find acceptance not upon the score of any contentment it is to God that we are tormented either in Soul or Body but meerly in that by them his Justice is honored and exalted and the Palms of our victory more resplendent This anxiety of spirit supported with a patient resignation and strengthened with a fervent prayer purchased to the distressed Anna and to the Jewish Nation that great Prophet Samuel This same disturbance of Spirit carried on by a generous submissive resolution against all the Machinations of Saul put into the Hands of our Penitent the Scepter of Juda in a word it seems to be a principle setled in Heaven that without this Sacrifice of a troubled spirit he will not part with his blessings It may be objected that God knowes the Hearts of Men and what they will do and therefore he need not this external Testimony Next that Christ's merits being of an infinite value ours appear altogether superfluous to which I answer First that his external glory consisting in the visible homages payd to him by his Creatures this would be wanting should he give them no occasion to make it manifest and shew unto the World he hath dependants who value no suffering in proportion to the duty they owe him Besides the satisfaction we shall take in Heaven to have done something to merit our Beatitude will certainly be a great addition to our Contentment As to the other though I confess the merits of Christ all sufficient yet this will not excuse us from offering what we can in satisfaction for the Honor and glory of all our actions belong to God now it being an Act of injustice to defraud any one of his revenue no less is it against equity to deprive God of the glory due unto him Wherefore a life that contributes not to his glory is perverse and wicked Again he that owns a Tree hath likewise right to the fruit it bears if the Land be mine the Crop also is at my disposal the labour and service of a Horse is due to his Master In like manner all that we are all the good we do or shall do is the work of God and a present with which he enriches us that we might be able to give something to him Wherefore as all is his our duty binds us to consecrate all our interiour and exteriour actions to promote his honor and glory And since it is reasonable sin should be punished our Holy Penitent submits to the decree exposes himself to be wracked and tortured by what punishment the Divine Majesty shall think good either in Mind or Body nor can he ever repine whilst he reflects That a Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit The Application Here we are taught there is no Sacrifice conveyes an odour so pleasing unto Heaven as that of a Soul angustiated upon the score of God's cause The oblation of a Holocaust imports the reduction of it to Ashes that of a troubled spirit is a transmutation into the Holy Ghost who promises to be the intellect to be the Tongue nay