through the whole Man in such sort that every particle of him may feel its operation he is not I say so transported as not to consider what he asks and in that the great condescendency of God who disdains not to converse with Men he deals not with them as he doth with Angels where the superiour intelligences instruct the inferiour but by himself an increated wisdom he conveys unto our happy Ears the mysterious wonders of our Faith It is by him we are taught that all sin is forbidden even to the least thought or desire that God is to be loved above all things and sin to be abominated in the highest degree so that the exact observer of his Laws must be holy and enriched with all vertues there is nothing in our Faith that speaks not the greatness of God nothing that is not sublime transcending and what becomes not an infinite Majesty he layes down nothing of eternal things that sounds the least imperfection So that the compleat knowledge of them must needs involve a joy eternal since even in the transitory passage of this life we experience the most solid contentment and satisfaction we have to consist in the sweet Meditation of those Mysteries For alas without those hopes which Faith gives us what Captive more wretched than Man we are as banished into a Land of misery enslaved by sin where we truckle under the insolency of unruly passions which hurries into many disasters and calamities at last we finish a deplorable life by death in whose Face is seated nothing but dread and horrour After this corruption stanch and infection are the last farewell and monument of us so that without Faith we are centered within these myseries unable to carry our sight beyond the low condition of a brute and unreasonable Creature On the contrary faith teaches we are created to a supernatural and blessed end which we are to purchase by acts of Religion That our Souls are immortal by which resembling the Angels we are excluded from putrefaction and approach the nearer to God That he hath created all things of nothing in which belief we acknowledge his Omnipotency and cherish our own hopes that if he could extract us out of nothing with more facility can he after death rejoyn our disunited parts Our Holy Penitent figures to himself all these comforts resulting from divine faith and in sequel implores with instance that a right spirit may be renewed within him But I conceive our Holy Penitent looked not upon himself as wholy deprived of habitual faith for though every mortal sin disposes afar off unto its total ruine and truly merits it should be taken from us yet God is so merciful as to leave that foundation unalterable by sin unless directly undermined by an opposite act of infidelity In this petition then for a right spirit he pretends to the operation of habitual faith that is an actual and firm belief of Objects proposed by Faith His reason is that the lights and irradiations of Faith have a certain blessing from God to stir up and carry the will to what is good so that after an act of Faith produced in the understanding he knew his clean heart would no longer lye a sleep but grow up into a spark which would both enlighten and enflame as the Prophet Habakkuk sayes Chap. 1. The just Man lives by Faith that is Faith actuated and enlivened both preserves the Soul's life by grace and by merit opens a passage to eternal glory Run o're the World's History from the Creation and you will find habitual faith lying dead and frozen within us to have been the source of all our misery The reprobate Angels upon what score did they forfeit that precious title of being the Sons of God was it not in that they preferred a motion of self love before the motives of faith which would have rendered them stable and secure What a frivolous plea made Adam for his trespass lest his Wife upon his denyal might have grown sad as if a fear to offend God and ruine his whole posterity ought not to have prevailed in this temptation Had Cain considered the greatness of God his obligation to observe his Law in loving his Brother a petty suggestion of avarice or sting of envy could never have animated him to an action so horrid the Massacre of so many Infants by Herod's command wherein he thought to have involved the person of Jesus Christ was meerly upon the account of ambition the Jewish Oracles foretelling his raign and Empire which Herod understood to be of this World nor did the Jews put our Saviour to death but in order to the preservation of their City and themselves in the good Opinion of the Romans so that Men have been pushed on in all their crimes by humane reasons and interests whilst they laid aside those disswasives which Faith held forth to them and which had if duly weighed rendered them victorious witness St. John Chap. 5. The power of faith hath made a conquest of the World which is meant not of the habit but act of faith Our Holy Penitent applyes all this to himself having seen the shipwrack that befel him through a sluggishness in not giving life and activity to his faith For when he was tempted to impurity and other his transgressions that sprang from thence had he considered what faith teaches concerning mortal sin that it deprives a Soul of eternal glory adjudges her to the endless torments of Hell that it throwes a scorn and contempt upon a God whose greatness and Majesty is infinite and who merits from all Creatures a respect and love ineffable had he fixt himself on these sublime and supernatural reasons of Faith the Childish baits of flesh and blood could never have taken hold upon his unfortunate senses wherefore to prevent at least for the future he solicits a right spirit may be infused into him a spirit that may not be overgrown with rust like a sword in a scabberd for want of use but that it may prove active even to his very bowels which is to say that this noble quality of faith producing frequently acts by the consideration of its proper objects may gain his will memory sensitive and moving faculties and so happily conduct him to his designed Beatitude renew in my Bowels a right spirit After Faith thus enlivened as a necessary dependent comes in a troop of moral vertues which compleats the rectitude of his spirit he so much desires For vertue is a habit that enclines the Soul to perform actions sutable to a reasonable nature and though the Soul be sufficient of herself by her natural faculties to frame several acts of vertue yet it is with hardship and difficulty whereas this quality of vertue contributes a facility by which the good thence issuing is done with promptitude and delight It consists in a mediocrity between two extreams that is too little or too much For example Charity is between a coldness or
In order to this he first moves to have a clean heart created in him this shews him a wise and bold beggar that will not be content with scrapps but askes a treasure which may enrich and enable him to give to his Benefactour For this addresse implyes a reformation of all the faculties of his Soul the Scripture expressing frequently by the name of Heart both the understanding Will and Memory So that all these once purifyed and adorned with innocence he will be able to produce Heroick acts of faith and hope and the daily influence of divine favours still rising in his imagination must needs enkindle flames of Charity within him St. Hierom compares sanctifying grace with the essence of the Soul for as the powers and natural faculties which are the instrument of action flow from the essence So from grace are distilled into the powers of the Soul all those vertues by vvhich they are moved and carryed on to what they act Grace then is like a new Being vvhich elevates Man above his natural condition and puts him into a capacity of possessing God who is his supernatural end and by consequence it ought like a noble Queen be attended with a train of infused habits of Vertues The Theological furnish us with wings to fly in a straight Line unto God the Cardinal set us in a just comportment of holiness towards our Neighbour and our selves Nay when Sanctifying Grace shall no more be clogged with the Mass of the Body and relicks of sin her last operation will be to produce unto us the clear vision of God accompanied with beatifick love for the essential part of grace is the same thing with Glory and only distinguished like to what is perfect from that which is less perfect or as a thing begun from what is finished and compleat This Sanctifying Grace then is the fountain our Penitent thirsts after for the purifying his Heart and if once washed in this stream he may justly call it a clean heart witness the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 6. I will shower down upon you a pure water and it will cleanse you from all your iniquities If this stain consist in a perverse action unretracted Sanctifying grace recalls this perverse action by an habitual conversion unto God and submission to his Holy Will If it speak an offence to God grace repairs this injury and makes that injurious Action no more voluntary If his ugliness spring from an enmity with God grace appeases all his anger and changes it into a love of complacence as a necessary effect not that to love us he hath any need but because a Soul enriched with Grace is just and righteous and whilest it is in such a condition God cannot but delight himself in an object so worthy and deserving If his deformity involves an obligation to eternal punishment grace clears all that score raising a Soul to that degree as she is worthy of Heaven Now 't is impossible that being in a state capable of enjoying him she can be lyable to such a debt wherefore there is nothing so hideous and abominable in a sinner which grace doth not destroy Thus you see what an expedient our Holy Penitent hath pitched upon to arrive by it to his designed purity and if he obtain his demand he knowes his work is done that is the operation of grace is so infallible as the effect is not to be hindred For it is not possible that a Soul at the same time can be innocent and guilty holy and impious have a Right to Heaven and lyable to eternal death So that being once drowned in this purifying Ocean he receives a pledge of all the felicity that either the nature of Angels or Men is capable off But it may be objected that our Petitioner may fall short of his expectation even though he obtain his demand For we see many holy habits introduced with grace to lye as dead within us no wayes disposing us sensibly to supernatural actions Nay on the contrary that persons so enriched are often disturbed and harassed with the insolencies of perverse inclinations Now the reason of this is that the effects of Grace are spiritual and without the Sphere of sense so that these supernatural vertues being of a quite different rank from the vitious propensions of our corrupt nature they do not by their presence necessarily destroy them This position our Penitent admits knowing that God obliges not himself to communicate unto every Soul all kind of supernatural vertues as a necessary dependance on Sanctifying grace but that he distributes to some more to others less in reference either to their want their disposition or the Series of his Holy Providence which deals the measure of his favours according to his will Having weighed all this he recollects his thoughts as to his own particular and remembers how before he defiled himself with sin God had witnessed a satisfaction in the choice of him making him the object of his most obliging liberalities next he considers that when God is pleased to sign his pardon and letters of grace unto a sinner he doth not only free him from eternal punishment for what is past but restores all the treasure he had hoarded up in the sunshine of his favour nay more conferres an addition of grace in that very penitential act by which he concurs with his merciful call So that he hath reason to hope if he purchase a clean heart that is if it be sprinkled with the dew of sanctifying grace his understanding now stupified in the mists of sin will receive its wonted irradiations his will born down with the weight of earthly affections will breath forth again amorous languishments after eternal delights his memory which now records the ugly species of sensual pleasures will be taken up in the holy entertainments of a spiritual life and in sequel of this he thinks it not presumption to believe he shall find himself in the same if not better condition than before his fall and in possession of all those precious titles the Divine Oracle had once pronounced of him This meditation puts him upon great resolves how to preserve and improve the purity he sues for that it may more strictly unite him to God who is his final end his hope and beatitude wherefore every moment he redoubles his petition Create in me O God a clean heart Another motive of this his Petition is in that the heart is the source of all evil 'T is from thence that Homicide Adultery Theft and other sins arise which gave occasion unto many great wits to assert that internal transgressions alone were punished by God and if at any time the scourge of his anger seems to fall heavy upon external acts it was meerly upon the score of bad example whose consequences are for the most part very pernicious to Mankind Besides as the heart is the fountain of all evil so is it no less of all good For the goodness and malice of every
action consists in its conformity with reason which rule cannot be squared out by external acts because the power that sets them on work cannot discern whether the object be sutable to reason or no. This alone belongs to the understanding and in sequel to the Will by whose direction it is led It is evident then that on the motion of the heart which expression comprizes the three faculties of the Soul as I said in the beginning depends the blame and praise of whatsoever we do For that an action may be said to be of Man the understanding must first give its approbation by which he doth it knowingly next the will is to make its election and in that owns its liberty Lastly the memory is for the most part filled with various Images of Terrestrial Objects by which it solicits the will to vain and bad desires so that if these three be reformed he questions not but to deface all the fantomes and representations of this World which have led him so astray and by a total diversion from all that is Earth to repose quietly in God That then his understanding may receive the irradiations of a holy light his will be consumed in the flames of a pure love his memory stript of all the species of vain objects he incessantly repeats Create in me O God a clean heart St Gregory sayes that Abel's Sacrifice was so highly acceptable unto God in that he had first offered up the same in his heart so that it was not the best of his flocks but the devotion of his heart which set a value upon that action Again the gloss sayes it is not the loudness of the voice but the lovingness of the heart which sounds sweetly in God's Ear so that if you strike not upon this string and according to those notes which our great Musitian hath set down you will but â—arr and make a dissonancy ungrateful to your Creatour This our Blessed Saviour sufficiently hinted in St. Matthew when he sayes They honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me Which imports that though our Lips Eyes Hands and every other part speak Sanctity and Holiness yet if our Heart that great Wheel give not motion to the rest the End will be nothing but disorder and confusion It is storied of St. Catharine of Sienna that reading this verset of David she petitioned for a new heart believing her own to be defiled with Sin for her love represented to her every the least defect as a monstrous deformity The issue of this her Address was that Christ our Lord appeared to her opened her breast took out her heart and thus left her heartless but not hopeless in this plight she continued somedays when her amorous maker returns and fills the void place he had left with his own heart O happy exchange so that for ever after this blessed Saint was wont to conjure our Saviour that he should have care of his own heart if then St. Catharine prosecuting the form of anothers petition met with so good success have we not reason to conclude the like amorous enterchange befel our holy prophet especially if we reflect upon what God sayes of him that he had found a Man according to his own heart that is who in all things follow the motion and impulse of that heart I gave him But I conceive this Exchange in the Legend of St. Catharine is not understood to be Physical and real the moral is when God destroyes in a sinners heart the foul Characters he there had forged he takes his pencil marks it for his own drawing upon it his divine gifts and favours whence St. Ambrose sayes at the latter day the reproach of a sinner will be to have blotted out the fair Images of innocence and simplicity of heart delineated by the Hand of God and in the Room to have set up his own Idol of shame and vanity lest then any of those hideous spectres may appear at that dreadful Tribunal he now implores that the Table of his heart as yet capable of other impressions may be run o're with the strokes of his mercy To this end he cryes Create in me O God a clean heart When the Machabees had regained the Temple of Sion their resolution to destroy the Altar prophaned by Antiochus was commended because all their Ceremonies of Purification whilst the Altar stood could never have washed away the opprobry of that contamination Our holy penitent was fixed on the same principle for beholding his soul contaminated by his transgressions his whole contrivance is that there may be no witness extant nor any Monument remain of his infidelity wherefore he begs a recreation or rather such a production of habits opposit to what he had contracted as it might not appear the same thing He would not have it created anew for he knew it to be incorruptible and immortal but that God would daign so to renew it as it might seem a new Creation for to restore it to its former condition of innocenâ—… was all one as to create it that whereas before his heart was like a World without a Sun excluded both from light and heat now upon this transmutation it might become more pure than Snow whiter than Milk and more beautiful than the polished Saphir That whereas before it was like a City burnt sacked and rased to the ground for the future it might prove a fortress impregnable against all the Worlds allurements That whereas before it was like a habitation deserted and made a refuge only for Toads Spiders and Snakes hereafter it might serve as a Temple for the Holy Ghost attended on with a retinue of supernatural and moral vertues That whereas before he had not Eyes but to prye into the faults of others for the time to come he might be quick-sighted only to discern his own misdeeds Lastly whereas he had left God to follow sin and at the same time became as it were a stranger to himself now he sues for a clean heart that he may recover himself and so return to his God hoping like the Prodigal Son to find some little Corner of retreat in his Fathers house though it be but in the nature of a hireling These are his aims and which he awaits as the effects of his Metamorphosed heart he knowes on its temper depends the consistence of all vertues and if that foundation be well laid it will be the more secure for him to reenter his formes possession He is not likewise ignorant that of all the gifts wherewith God hath ennobled Man it is not only our heart he exacts in requital hence it is that the Enemy of Mankind layes all his batteries particularly against it insomuch that St. Chrysostome affirms there is not any Nation City or Person in the whole World against whom so many designs are set on Foot both by open force and treachery as are machinated against a poor distressed heart and which is yet more
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
should not want their protection Our Holy Penitent thought the best stratagem to fasten his God unto him was an humble acknowledgment of his fault joyned with a fervent prayer In the First part of his petition he had copiously set forth his own guiltiness and now he supplicates in a Subject the most grateful that can be to his Creatour for his delight is to be with the Sons of Men It was to draw the World unto him that he exalted himself upon the Cross his extended arms there sufficiently expressed with what dear embraces he would receive those that fly unto him with an humble and contrite heart His thirst there was not so much the effect of his torments as an excessive zeal for Man's Salvation How often hath he justifyed himself in his proceedings with Man insomuch as all his wisdom and love could not contrive more inducements than he hath set on foot to gain us to him and if he be continually rapping at our door can we think he will shut up the treasures of his holy spirit in despight of our importunity No no great Penitent fear not prefer your memorial it is only expected you ask and the grant is ready that his holy spirit shall not be taken from you A holy writer observes that God alwayes gives more than is asked of him Anna prayed for a Son God gave her one that was a Saint a Prophet and his chief favourite Solomon sued for wisdom to govern his People he received it not only to Rule but he was universally knowing besides an infinite store of wealth was bestowed upon him The Servant endebted ten thousand Talents demanded only a little forbearance and the whole debt was remitted to him wherefore our Penitent demanding only to keep what he already enjoyes by this providential act he not only secures his possession but gives earnest for a new supply Nay his goodness alwayes prevents the prayer of the afflicted giving them ease of their griefs before they ask his help resembling that fountain which calls and invites the thirsty to drink or like that Tree which bending its bowes offers its fruits unto gathering hands when ripe so that God's love needs no baits to allure his favours from him an affectionate heart doth more with him then all the charms in nature It is true St. Austin distinguishes between a willing a thing and a willing it stoutly and entirely But we have all reason to judge the velleity of our Penitent was fervent and efficacious when he hath so much confidence as to call God to witness of it Tu scis Domine omne desiderium meum ante te that he had exposed before him all the motions of his heart and left him to be judge whether any circumstance was wanting that might hinder the effect of his petition as not to be deprived of his holy spirit St. Austin sayes were it impossible for a sinner to hide himself from God he would advise him to get into some abstruce retreat and there lye close till the Cloud of his anger be blown over but since this cannot be done his best way to escape God's hands is to put himself into his hands and prostrate himself at his feet Our Penitent then is not ill advised that being already enrolled in the list of his retinue to endeavour to prevent his dismission by a non auferes à me For he hath many advantages whilst he is in which will be lost if once cashier'd Now he hath the Ear of his Sovereign can discourse his case with him and purchase a good word from many powerful friends but if once discarded like a desolate Orphan he will find no refuge Besides though God beheld in his all-seeing prospect the treachery of Judas and ingratitude of the Jews yet to cut off all matter of excuse he obliged them with all the endearings imaginable why shoul not then our Penitent hope to dwell in the lasting enjoyment of this divine spirit since he is resolved for the future to be led by his holy dictamens he will seek his Salvation with ineffable groans it is St. Pauls expression of such as are guided by the Holy Ghost he will with the Prophet Jeremy cry out for a fountain of tears that he may bewail as he ought his own and his peoples sins and since this divine spirit communicates himself in so many different wayes unto Creatures he begs he may return himself a gift and oblation to God by every thing that is capable of Action that by a constant and unwearied motion in his service this seed of glory he now possesses may at last conduct him to the beatifick vision where he shall no more apprehend what is now the subject of his Fear To have his holy spirit taken from him The Application St. Ambrose sayes that no man in this life can be long secure from falling into sin for whom the Devil cannot lay prostrate at the first attack he presses with redoubled assaults and leaves no stratagem unessayed to work his end In this warfare our Holy Penitent was not a Novice he knew there was no place in Man impregnable unless fortified by God's Holy Spirit This he expresses in another Psalm If you withdraw sayes he your spirit we shall presently resolve into dust that is corruption from whence we came For grace is a motion in the understanding and will to wit a certain action in both these powers which soon passes away unless fixed by a continued influence of his favours Wherefore we must take the admonition of St. Paul and be wary that the grace of God prove not a liberality in vain bestowed upon us But that we make the right use of it which is the remission of our sins and a passage unto eternal life CHAP. XXV Reddite mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation IT is not methinks easy to determine whether Man be more unfortunate in not having a discerning faculty of misery or through the mistakes he falls into about the object of his felicity How many have been seen to languish and pine away under an accident which they looked upon as their ruine and yet it proved their making whilest others again have triumphed and made jubilyes for seeming blessings that in the end became fatal to them who would not have looked upon the Patriarch Joseph when sold to the Madianites but as a slave and an abortive of fortune and yet without this cruelty of his Brethren in all likelyhood he had never handled the Scepter of Egypt Again who would not have envyed the success of our Penitent against Goliah and yet this glorious victory occasioned unto him a life full of disturbance for many years how to preserve himself This uncertainty in the event of things is managed no doubt by a special providence to teach us we ought to bear a temper unalterable amidst the various occurrences of this life not to be too much transported with joy nor cast down
with sadness upon any rencontre since the effects do often prove far different from what they promise and this by the unresistable ordinations of Heaven which can draw riches out of poverty make us great by humility give us honour by contempts In fine who needs no previous dispositions in Creatures to frame his productions Now to lead us in this labyrinth that we may not erre Divines distinguish a twofold joy The one is temporal which hath for its Object riches honour sensual pleasures and the like So that when our joy reaches but to the petty interests of this World this is poor and argues a baseness of Spirit which is angustiated within the limits of flesh and blood and hopes or fears only what may prove distastful or pleasant to their present state of Being The other branch of joy is eternal taking its specification from the object which is God without end or beginning it only looks upon him and it is he alone that gives the rise to all its motions One part of this joy is proper for us here whilest we are in viâ as Divines term it or pilgrimes upon earth the completion of the other we must expect in patria when we shall attain to the mansion of the blessed it is this joy St. Bernard meant when he sayes O good Jesu if it be so sweet a thing to weep for thee what will it be to rejoyce with aâ—d in thee So that we are here by a compunctive sorrow to crucify our selves daily and by this means dispose our selves for that joy which is necessarily consequent to such acts Our Holy Penitent followes this method in his petition he knows the effects of a heart pierced with a vertuous sorrow and repentance is peace joy and the like So that though we labour here to steep our selves in bitterness and anguish there results out of these agonies a certain contentment in performing our duties to God and this so great as it surpasses all the delights of this World Many Heathen Philosophers have been of Opinion that vertue it self was a sufficient reward unto such as embraced it that is there springs from good actions such a satisfaction in conformity to the dictamens of reason as they have preferred it before riches honour or any sensual pleasure we have seen them endure torments of all kind the hardship of want the rough trial of disgraces and all this with smileing looks and meerly from this Principle they took their cause to be good and that vertue commanded it believing her Lawes to be more sutable to a reasonable Soul than all the glory and plenty of the World attended on by injustice and impiety Our Hoâ—y Penitent by his own experience had learnt that in works of Piety there is found something which sensibly affects the agent with delight and be they never so knotty yet they are still sweetned with this that reason is their guide that the whole intellectual part applauds the action which concurrence of the Souls faculties cannot but be followed with an universal dilatation of the spirits and what is this but the height of joy If then moral actions looked upon as apparallel'd in their simple natural colours that is meerly confined to the limits of what is good and just by the light of reason prove such an Antidote against adversity as to make them receive the most embittered Arrowes of fortune with cheerful looks What may we expect when these are directed to a supernatural end when they are enriched with the merits of Jesus Christ after which our Holy Petitioner languished and whose efficacy had influence upon his repentance at the distance of so many preceeding ages as now it hath on ours after so many subsequent revolutions It is then for the joy of this Salvation he makes instance and what a value must this addition set upon his smallest sufferings Whence I wonder not to contemplate much of serenity in the Fore-heads of afflicted persons crushed for vertues sake for the tempest wherein they are agitated doth only bluster about them within they enjoy a Harmony and full peace of Mind even tasting a kind of Antipast or fore-notion of Paradise I observe in the Gospel of St. Luke how Christ our Lord gave a check to his Disciples when returning from the exercise of their Apostolick Commissions they seemed to glory in their power of casting out Devils and when he had terrified them with a Memorandum of the Angel's fall he prescribes rules how they should lay the foundation of their joy and satisfaction amidst their transcending employments saying Rejoyce in this that your Names are written in Heaven First he disallowes not of their joy but rather animates them to it only he dislikes the motive or more properly to say sets down what they ought to lay hold on as the basis of their exultations Rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven That they were zealous in God's service charitable had the gift of tongues of working miracles casting out Devils and the like these must not be the groundwork of their contentments but that they are by the efficacious Will of God transmitted to a supernatural end upon which foundation are built all the spirituall benefits of God towards them as their vocation justification and glorification From this Root springs their calling to be a Christian to be a member of Christ's true Church by means of which they obtain grace and by the right use of Grace eternal glorification This must give birth and life to their joy and no less to ours as it did to our Holy Penitent before his fall and now restored as he hopes to the wonted caresses of his Creatour he begins to breath after the assurance of his predestination which had often occasioned unto him abundant joy Wherefore he cryes restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation Yet whilest he petitioned for this solid contentment he was not ignorant that his Election must proceed from the merciful hand of God and the Collation of glory from the interest of his own merits God first puts us in an infallible condition to be happy and then so tempers the circumstances as we our selves may be a partial cause of our happiness he offers the occasions of merit this done he seconds our endeavours so powerfully as the effect to wit eternal glory cannot but follow So that the joy he sues for is an assurance to be in the state of grace and eternally predestinate that be his combats and assaults in this life never so furious he shall overcome Be his temptations never so vehement the issue will be glorious having his Eyes still fixt upon the Palms of Beatitude the assured guerdon of his conflicts in case I say he be in the number of the Predestinate But as to the infallible decrce of predestination our Holy Penitent knowes it is a secret shut up in the Cabinet of his great Councels the joy therefore he aims at here is that which arises from the
mediums consequent to our eternal Election For God first designs our Beatitude and after this the means to arrive unto it as to have true faith to observe the Commandements to avoid sin to practice works of mercy to have a sincere repentance a perfect charity towards God and our Neighbour to bear adversity with patience and finally to persevere in grace these actions he knowes are the proper instruments to cause joy within him in order to this he resolves upon the punctual accomplishment of his commands and this vigorously like a Giant both with firm footing and with large and nimble paces nor will he discharge this Obligation in a cold manner simply to pay what he owes but with a serious application of his Mind offering them up to God and directing them to his glory with a most holy and pious zeal Next he resolves alwayes to do that which is most acceptable to God knowing that we cannot give him too much honour and that our fidelity engages us not to omit any occasion of doing good Lastly he will be assiduous in framing interiour and exteriour acts of vertues especially such as more immediately lead unto him he will conspire with heart and affection to all the services to all the acts of love praise and glorification that the most perfect Creatures ever have or shall give unto him His next design in pursuance of this joy is to have an Eye to himself whom he beholds like a plat of ground which must be cultivated and emboweld ere it be fruitful He undertakes this melioration with the tools of fortitude temperance and other vertues nor is he set on work by the comeliness of vertue or turpitude of vice his final end is the object of all his motion it is meerly to please God and glorify him in his Salvation He knowes the condition of this life is alwayes beset with dangers and hazzards alas his own experience had too freshly taught him this Truth and that we are in the midst of sworn mortal Enemies wherefore he is resolved to bear a strict band and purchase victory by a perfect abnegation of himself of his senses both interiour and exteriour of his memory understanding and will knowing it is a Nice and Ticklish Combat to overcome by Love His third contrivance to joy is not to fail in what he owes to his Neighbour He considers Man issuing from the hands of God and in a capacity if faithful to his Graces to return unto the same fountain Wherefore he fears to hate that person whom God may have designed to love for eternity and as he loves God not as a particular but universal good so he will cherish love and honour all Souls as being in a possibility of enjoying him This is the foundation our Holy Penitent layes for the superstructure of his joy remitting the rest to the disposal of that all comprehending Architect whose lines are drawn severally according to the rule of his providence For when a Soul whom he hath gratified with endearments of spiritual relishes and ineffable delights happens to forfeit by some default the subtraction of his grace sometimes upon her repentance he not only admits her again to his favour but also to her wonted ravishments nay to that degree as even she seems to have gained by her loss Sometimes again he is pleased barely to Seal his pardon without any further communication of those Enthusiastick throwes she used to feel in her amorous transports Now I find our Penitent in this his petition is desirous to regain all and this appears in divers others of his Psalms where he suffers strange convulsions in his desires to be united unto God and now born up with a restless longing he sighs forth restore me the joy of thy Salvation St. Gregory puts this distinction 'twixt corporal and spiritual pleasures that the former not had push us on to vehement desires for the acquisition but when enjoyed they presently cloy and beget a nauceousness the other give very little insentives when absent yet being once possessed they are still coveted because still creating new delights and though to be kept in desire and hope be a kind of torment in Earthly enjoyments yet it is not so when they relate to Heavenly treasures the reason is God hath deputed Earth for our hopes and Heaven for our bliss If here we are mindful of Celestial glory and make it the subject of our thoughts and desires every the least glimmering hope of that blessed state will produce ineffable joy within us There is nothing sayes St Basil which ought so much to ravish Man as to reflect that he is designed to so noble an end as to enjoy God's immense perfections for all eternity Whence he inferrs the sole way to anticipate our happiness is to think continually on him to consider that our Souls shall be translated and as it were dissolved into his divine essence Wherefore he exhorts us to the imitation of Painters who aiming at the performance of a rare piece have their Eyes alwayes fixt upon the Original But if we pervert this order and make the Earth our Heaven enjoy that we should but use what must be the issue for after a long enquest passing from one delight to another our thirst is never satisfied Whence the pleasures of this life are resembled to brackish waters which still the more you drink the more you encrease your thirst nay they have this additional circumstance of woe that their drowth shall never be quenched in this life nor in the next not in this for Christ our Lord positively declared it to the Samaritan that those who swill themselves with the puddle of Earthly pleasures shall be alwayes thirsty and panting after new refreshments Not in the next life for the whole extent of Hell could not afford the unfortunate rich man one drop of water a little to allay the vehemency of his enraging heat I remember Philo the Jew treating of Earthly delights calls them furta Coeli the plunder of Heaven So that who enjoyes them steals them from thence now as a thief retains what he hath got by rapine with a continual fear and jealousy which still moderates and allayes the contentment of his acquests so doubtless there is nothing transitory can give a true satisfaction to the owner Our Holy Penitent was very sensible of this Truth and grown weary of the World's prosperity confesses in another Psalm that his Soul could find no comfort but in the meditation of everlasting joy as in this the whole scope of his petition is that as Abraham was ready at God's command to sacrifice Isaac his sole joy and contentment in this life so he is ready to renounce his lovely Absalom or any thing most dear to him in this World that by this dispropriation he may make a passage to that lasting joy which attends his Salvation Wherefore he will never cease to implore restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation The Application Our
himself to one who is the searcher of hearts and before whom the most secret motions are displayed he should nevertheless make this superfluous expression of his promptitude to perform what ever he would exact of him But we ought to justify our Penitent and believe that in this he aims at the Worlds satisfaction to the end after ages might read he declined not the use of those remedies the Law prescribed out of any defect of submission to the Law but meerly upon the score of God's dispensation who was pleased to accept of the interiour Acts of his repentance and in that acceptation would inform Mankind the heart is the thing he most considers The Application From hence we may learn this instruction that when we see our Neighbour deficient in what he owes to the eternal Law we must not immediately pass Sentence of Condemnation upon him the Judgements of God being far different from those of Men but referr all to that great day which will lay open all Truths especially in matters of omission where the causes are so inevident and where in we so often make the Innocent guilty If seriously we insist upon this principle then with confidence we may keep time with Holy David and cry If thou wouldest have had a Sacrifiice I had verily done it Amen CHAP. XXXIV Holocaustis non delectaberis Thou wilt not be delighted with Holocausts HAd our Petitioner couched this Clause in the present Tense and said Thou art not dedelighted with Holocausts it would have cleared the sense of the precedent disease and proved a satisfactory alligation for his omission of Sacrifice But being in the future it renders the expression dubious and may import that upon the establishment of a new Law all these Figurative oblations will cease and then the Incense of those appeasing Sacrifices would no more smell sweet in his Nostrils But however upon a more serious inspection it may bear this construction that an immediate and present effect would follow to wit whensoever he should offer Sacrifice it will be no wayes acceptable to him because as I said in the promises the lively Faith he had of the Law of grace put him in the same condition through a particular dispensation of Heaven as if he had not been under the Mosaick Yoak and therefore since he contributed on his part what was requisite to the perfection of an Evangelical Sacrifice God would supply the rest so that truly as to his particular he might say Thou art not delighted with Holocausts c. Upon these grounds our Petitioners argument carries weight and inferrs that if Holocausts be not countenanced by Heaven it were in vain to think of any other oblation for amongst all the legal Sacrifices that of Holocausts or Burnt-offerings was the most perfect and the most compleatly expresses the supremacy of God's power over us and the fulness of our subjection to him for in some Sacrifices part of them were burnt the rest applyed to the use of the Minister but in Holocausts all was consumed and by the total destruction of that offering was implyed a dependency of Fortune Life and Being on his orders and commands from whence they were derived I observe likewise in the sacred Text that if Sacrifices were not performed with a pure conscience and detestation of sin they were odious in the sight of God this appears in the First Chapter of Esay by whose Pen God declares that Incense was abominable to him and that he abhorred their Solemnities Again in the Prov. The Sacrifice offered up by an impious hand is abomination in his sight For the end of a Sacrifice is either in order to a reconciliation with God a return of thanks for benefits received or for the impetration of some new favour Now to pretend to any of these and not renounce all affection to Sin were rather to provoke than any wayes appease his anger But our Petitioner delivers not the thing with that horrour he touches not upon any abomination or severity on God's part but expresses it in the Negative of any satisfaction he will take in it which concludes his Sacrificing action would not be rejected upon the score of any real-guilt but as a thing unnecessary to him who was priviledged with the conditions of a more efficacious oblation and therefore justly he might cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts Again our Holy Penitent in his 30. Psalm explicates himself more clearly about this point his vvords are these Thou hast not required a burnt-offering for sin wherefore I will plant your Law in the midst of my heart since I said engraven in the Frontispiece of the Book that is my conscience I should in this manner perform your will What can be more evident to demonstrate he had orders to desist from any other Sacrifice then what were hatched and conveyed unto God from an unspotted Heart for by this Book is meant the secret of Gods proceedings with Man as appears in the Apocalips where is expressed that the Lamb alone was found worthy to open and unclasp the Book of God's secrets and this Book was unfolded to him by which he is taught That he is not delighted with Holocausts Holocausts c. Besides though the Law of Moses were abrogated as to their Ceremonial and judicial precepts Yet what depended on the Doctrine of Faith and morality was not cashierd but refined amplifyed and made more perfect Whence our Holy Petitioner by way of Amplification instructed in the more ample Elucidation of Faith to be unfolded in the Law Evangelical and enriched with a right Spirit not only to discern what is good from bad but likewise to embrace and pursue the wayes of vertue not only to know the wounds of humane nature but also the sovereign remedies for their cure presumed he might lay claim to a Law not of fear but love laid open to him in his prophetick Spirit A Law not only given by a Legislator but by him who was both a Lawgiver and Redeemer a Law not written in stone and which breathed forth anger but one that should be imprinted in the hearts of Men vvhose effects are Grace and Truth and by vvhich he should be related to them as their God and they to him as his people A Law not given to one single Nation but directed to the whole World in which repentance and remission of sins should be enacted and held forth A Law not consisting of shadowes but substance by the infusion of Faith and Charity and by the impletion of all figurative Sacrifices a Law not of slavery but freedome and love which vvith the Precepts vvould be communicated a spirit of Charity to enable them to the performance of vvhat vvas imposed and vvhere the Lords spirit is there liberty is found Hence though our Petitioner was still under the Law yet it vvas not as a bond-man performing his acts by constraint but as a Child born to his duties by affection and respect and therefore exempt from
and repented what he had done when the Prophet Nathan published his deliverance and that his sin was taken from him so that he had all reason to assert a contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise St. Ambrose sayes that pennance is as necessary to a sinner as any Balsom or Medicament can be to a dangerous wound For where parts by any hurt are disunited and by separation break off a necessary communication with the blood or vital spirits nature cannot of herself repair those breaches without the supply of remedies ordained in such extremities So likewise in any spiritual distemper which threatens the Souls ruine if the sovereign medicine of contrition whose principal ingredient is gathered in Heaven be not applyed she must needs run a hazzard of destruction Wherefore since pennance is the sole remedy of sin after Baptism this great Doctor exhorts us to make it our Refuge he bids us not to shrink at the face of sufferings but on the contrary fill our Soul with bitterness endure the storms of compunction remember the heart is to be contrite not crooked or broken but shivered into pieces by disgraces confusions tears sighs and acts of humility and when you shall be in these Agonies upon the account of vertue then may you joyn issue with our Holy Petitioner and say a contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise But our Penitent adds the particle of humble to shew that a heart compleatly disposed for God's favourable aspect must have a stroak of humility because this vertue speaks obedience for Eccles Chap. 10. sayes as the beginning of Pride is the Seed of Apostacy from God so humility is a reduction to our duty St. Austin makes no distinction between pride and disobedience nor between humility and obedience but takes them in a manner for the same thing In his Fourth Book of the City of God he declares It is good to keep our hearts aloft not towards our selves for that is pride but unto God which is obedience and a vertue not to be found but in the humble Again on the Eighth Chapter of Gen. our proper will cannot but sink under a great weight of ruine if it prove rebellious to the will of a superiour power this the First Man contemning Gods command found too true and by this he learnt to distinguish between good and evil that is between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience So that we see the transgression of our first parent sprung from a secret Root of disobedience for puffed up with pride he would be his own Master and scorn to be subordinate to the Lawes of God this made him seise on the forbidden fruit and by that act of disobedience we are all made guilty So that to repair our innocency and begin a new life we must destroy the old man that is pride and self love And as by those unhappy instruments we fell from our righteousness it is by humility and a love to God above all things we must return to Justice and if our Hearts be vested with these noble qualities we shall alwayes have a stock to fashion out to our Creatour a Sacrifice that will not be despised It is feigned by the Poets that the Son of the Earth wrestling with Hercules still as he touched the ground he received a fresh vigour just so the humble minded Man who esteems himself to be but an Imp of the Earth the off-spring of Dust and Ashes in proportion as he bowes himself in acts of lowliness he will be raised and approach nearer to Heaven St. Austin speaking of the Centurions humility who judged himself unworthy to receive such a guest as our Saviour under his roof sayes that by confessing himself unworthy he rendered himself more worthy for there is no disposition so fit for the reception of God as to acknowledge and avow our own unworthiness But you must know there is a humility of the understanding another of the will this gives us a true knowledge of our nothing that brings us readily to submit Now to be humbled by the will and force honour and greatness to stoop this is Heroick and worthy a Prince but to be brought down by adverse fortune this humility carries with it little of wonder there being no great vertue for one that is humbled to become humble This vertue then to render it meritorious and accomplished in all points as to make our Heart a pleasing Sacrifice to God requires that we seriously consider our own faults and imperfections the wants and necessities incident to humane nature and which every one how charming soever in the outside they appear carry about them This will sufficiently evidence that instead of praise and veneration we ought to expect nothing but scorn and confusion from the sense of our own defects and conclude that honour and excellency belong not to us Thus you see the will is carried on by humility to decline all things which raise our hope or appetite above our deserts It is proper then to this vertue to check all excessive attempts in Man after the purchase of greatness and Earthly advantages Nor is it notwithstanding opposite to hope as a Theological vertue nor unto magnanimity as a Christian vertue For these stirr up to the pursuit of what is great in order to God and humility obstructs not this waving only that greatness which sides with the inordinate interests of the World St. Thomas sayes There is none but may believe and declare himself without a falshood to be the most vile Creature in the World according to the hidden defects he knowes in himself and the gifts of God unknown to him which are or may be in his Neighbour In fine Christ our Lord declared it to be the sole clew leading to Heaven it is the first and last step to bliss For in this life where all is storm and tempest torment war and temptation where nothing is secure and certain humility alone amidst these perills and dangers like so many rocks and shelves can bring us safe off and conduct us to the Haven of happiness Elias in that furious whirlwind terrible Earthquake and dismal Fire wrapt himself up like a bottom of Yarn and lay close to the Earth Job in that general destruction of all his goods rent his garments shaved his Head fell flat to the ground and worshipping said Naked I came into the VVorld and naked I shall return The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be his name The tempest afterwards encreasing upon him as boiles botches leprosy worms and a wife he fled to a Dunghill with a piece of potsheard in his Hand making choice of the humblest and safest place Our Holy Penitent likewise in that his persecution by Saul cryed out I was humbled and he delivered me So that he spake not at random but had experience how acceptable unto God is a contrite and humble heart The Scripture attributes two Names unto Christ
the one Espouse the other Lord in the one he shews his love in the other the fear which is due unto him in the one the security with which we may come unto him and offer our petitions in the other the respect and reverence we owe to so great a Majesty As our Espouse he hath contracted with us a holy alliance by grace which we have forfeited through our infidelity and therefore to redeem this adulterate action nothing but a pure act of sorrow arising from the source of Charity will suffice to a reconciliation But as he is our Lord we ought were it possible to dissolve into nothing before him in acknowledgement of our guiltiness and satisfaction to his offended greatness So that this Sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart seems to be appropriated to these titles of Espouse and Lord ascribed in sacred writ unto him For love rooted in repentance is the most proper compensation for an injured and abused lover and fear joyned with humility is the best allay to an irritated Sovereign St. Gregory sayes a repenting sinner for the most part beginning his conversion is seised with a terrour and fear which the memory of his treason doth work within him this makes him for a time consume in the sad apprehension of deserved punishment for his crimes and whilst he remains in this plight he heholds God under the notion of a severe Judge but by degrees the bitterness of these terrours wearing off by some glimmering hopes of pardon obtained he still continues his penitential acts yet with this disparity that whereas at first he wept lest he should be brought to Execution now enflamed with a love of spiritual-delights he melts away in Tears lamenting that he is with held from his felicity So that love and fear are still the materials of this Sacrifice which God will not reject This same Doctor observes the several agitations of a Soul in this oblation of love and fear First she calls to mind in the glass of her sins where she was to wit on the brink of Hell Next weighing and affrighted at the Abyss of God's judgments considers where she may be then casting her Eye upon the miseries of this present life sadly reflects where she is Lastly she contemplates the joyes of eternity and filled with sighs and groans laments she is not there Thus you see how a Soul is distracted that hath ever tasted the bitterness of sin If she look back she is affrighted at the ghastly sight of her misdeeds and hath only this comfort which God declared to Ezechias upon his repentance that he had thrown all his sins behind him never to take a further view of them If she look upon what may befall her the judgements of God are unfathomed Abysses into which she cannot dive and the sole buckler she hath to rely on that he will not reject an humble and contrite heart If she fix her Eye upon the present state of things she beholds herself surrounded with dangers from abroad and her own frailties at home against which her only fence is humility and resignation to his blessed will If she raise her thoughts to the end for which she is created she can but languish after it and frame ardent desires for the possession In these distresses our Holy Penitent marches between love and fear his love cimented with fear keeps him from sinking into despair and his humility fortifyed with a true sorrow resolves him to a future constant obedience to God's Lawes Thus armed thus guarded with a train of hope and confidence trusting in God and alwayes distrustful of himself he concludes A contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise The Application We are here instructed how to prevent any repulse in our addresses to Heaven for a heart qualifyed with love and humility God will not reject this is declared in the person of St. Mary Magdalen that her love had purchased a compleat abolition of all her iniquities and Christ hath engaged that he who humbles himself shall be exalted St. Thomas says as there is no attribute wherein God more glories than in his mercy so above all he most delights in the humble it being a vertue which renders Men still capable of his favours and upon the same score he hates the proud because they have not recourse to his mercy as believing they want it not Let us then stick close to our Penitents doctrine and seek no other way to be great than what was practised by our redeemer he stooped even to the death of the Cross and so entered into his glory we likewise must either take up our own Cross or else with love and humility bear that which God shall please to lay upon our shoulders and if we thus sustain our load we need not fear that scornful World I know you not but on the contrary a happy invitation Come yee blessed into the Kingdom prepared as a recompence of your contrition and humility from the Worlds beginning Amen CHAP. XXXVII Benigne fac Domine in bona voluntate tua Sion Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion THe order of Charity prescribes that in the first place we love God next our selves and then our Neighbour As to God he is the primary and chief object which gives motion unto Charity because a goodness infinite which is the ground-work of our love is found essentially and most perfectly in him He being then the sovereign good of all things there is no goodness in Creatures which is not derived from him as the source and without whom they could not one moment subsist Insomuch as God is to me a greater good than I am to my self For though God be a thing distinct from me yet he is the good on whom both my self and all others depend wherefore I ought absolutely to wish and choose rather that God should be than that my self should be because it is better and more sutable to the inclinations of nature For Man is not carried by any natural propension to love himself more than God such an inclination were perverse and wicked Nay forbidden by the Law of nature that a Being created and imperfect should be preferred before one infinite and increated God therefore whose productions are all good never gave unto Man such a tendency The conclusion then is that we are carryed on by the impulse of nature to love God above all things even above our selves however this inclination be strangely thwarted by our passions and the corruption wrought in us by sin After God we are to love our selves in our spiritual wants and necessities beyond all our Neighbours in the most strict alliance either of blood or friendship Because the aim of Charity is to unite the Subject it informs with God and therefore St. Bernardin of Sienna sayes Whosoever defiles himself with sin under the Cloak of Charity this Charity is impious for that cannot be Charity which destroyes our own Charity