of grief or repentance he might have enjoyed for many years To recover then in some sort those years and lasting joyes we must here denounce war against our senses denying them the least contentment we must drag our Bodies after us as a slave would do his Chain that by this subjection we may preserve our obedience untouched to our Creatour and let our Soul which naturally covets Eternity deliciate her self in ravishments proper to her spiritual substance by this means we may strike off all the arrears of Time which the Apostle so seriously recommends unto us Now for the reason why he puts us upon this task of good Husbandry to repair our losses because the dayes are evil St. Austin tells us there are two things sayes he which give birth to these our unfortunate dayes One the common misery of Mankind derived from Adam's sin For cast your thoughts on the Mass of things created and you will find none so indigent so unsatisfyed and reduced to such straights as Man other Creatures are no sooner brought into the World but nature gives them a capacity of helping themselves Man after he is born for many years hath his understanding so tyed up that he resembles a meer Brute only surpassed by them in an industry to preserve natural life other Creatures find here those objects which quiet all their motions the elementary Bodies meet with their Centers which settle them in a full repose the natural appetite of Beasts encounters that which satiates and gluts all their avidities plants grow to a certain greatness proper to their species Man only is the unsatisfyed Being upon Earth for his understanding elevates his thoughts above the Heavens and all the powers of nature his will frames infinitely more desires than the World hath perfections so that there being found no Object upon Earth adequately proportioned to the vast capacity of his Soul it is necessary he still languish here in a State of dissatisfaction This casts him upon so many shelves of misery and makes him restless hoping still to find something to allay his desires Sometimes he fancies riches would do it but finding them ordained to the purchase of other things it cannot be a sovereign good thence he flyes to honour and observing that also to depend upon the breath and will of another he fastens on beauty this likewise he perceives to fade and perish by a thousand accidents this invites him to the acquisition of knowledge and after many a toilsome hour he finds only this proficiency how little we are capable of that the least plant of the Earth will puzzle and confront all his acquired Notions to render the true vertues of it Thus he passes on from the Essay of one delight to another still as unwearied as unsatisfyed and why all this But because my Mother hath conceived me in sin For my Mother conceiving me in sin received by inheritance the doom of Death and of miseries consequent to a mortal Life and so cannot but convey the like direful effects to her posterity Timon an Orator of Athens was wont to deliver so pathetically the miseries of Man in this Life that after his Oration which he held forth in publick it was usual for many of his Audience to hasten their passage unto Death by a course of violence some by precipices others by water some by poyson others by a ponyard or halter In fine they regarded not much the means so it might but have the effect that is to rid them from the Calamities to be sustained in this life In a word his Eloquence wrought so many Tragedies that the Senate was feign to make a recluse of him that by sequestring him from humane Society they might prevent the destruction of Mankind This person was an Infidel who considered only Man 's corporal necessities together with his failings in order to moral vertues and if from this Ground he could draw such efficacious perswasions what would he have done with the addition of our Penitent's Faith which teaches that eternal felicity or misery depend upon our actions here that we lye under the Obligation of many positive precepts against whose observance are laid continual Ambuscado's both from the malice of Hell deceit of the World and our own bad inclinations that in the midst of these imminent dangers we steer our Course to an Eternity of Joyes or Pain What Energy I say would this consideration add to the draught of our misery when we not only suffer here but suffer with so much hazzard of incurring the doom of Torments without end Ah blame not then our Penitent if he set before his Eyes and is willing also the petitioned should glance upon his condition in this state of mortality his own reflections will serve to keep him in a wary humility checked with the frailties and inconstancy of his own nature the notice also his dear Creatour may take of what mould he is made will stand he hopes in good stead for he knowes him so inclinable to pardon that if it may be said with reverence he lyes at catch for an opportunity to save us and if the least hold be given he presently fastens upon it and hastens away like a Souldier laden with a rich booty of which he fears the reprisal till he brings us to a place of security where we shall have no more reason to fear the irregular motions of corrupt nature no more to vent in sadness And my Mother hath conceived me in sin Holy Job that prodigy of humane Constancy amidst the smartest Tryals was yet so sensible of Man's misery in this life as to fall with bitterness upon the very day wherein he was brought forth wishing it might perish and never be reckoned amongst dayes in the course of the Zodiack Nay he goes so farr that he involves in his Anathema's every circumstance which concurred to his Conception or Nativity Expositors of Scripture excuse these maledictions in Job and free them from sin upon this score that he weighing the disproportion of Man's desires unto the objects he encounters in this life which hold him in a continued disquiet how naturally he sets his heart on riches honour beauty and other perishable goods with what difficulty they are attained with more preserved and with little satisfaction possessed Amidst these pensive Meditations beholding himself in the extremity of affliction his sensitive part crushed even to nothing brake forth into this seeming rage as to fly at every thing that had a hand in leading him to so much misery If this pattern of vertue might be allowed such Salleys that speak so much heat without any derogation from his innocence upon the meer consideration of that high pitch of distresses wherein he was plunged Our Penitent having been made a prey to sin and frailty may doubtless with all submissiveness as he doth expose his Nakedness as cast into the World without arms beset with Enemies bent upon his destruction both at home and abroad and
influence to this Vnion since common reason teaches the stream is not to be regarded with equal esteem to the Source from whence it flowes Lastly what is the final End of all Arts and Sciences whether they ransack the bowels of the Earth or survey the immense bodies of the Heavens whether they examine things past or present but truth it sets all Men on work and can alone render them satisfied so that it may well be defined the source of motion and rest Our Penitent having thus run o're the vast extent of truth and observed how it animates the actions of Men takes occasion from thence to adore God's holy Providence that since he hath obliged us to a precept of confessing and acknowledging our failings with all integrity and fixed it as the sole means to expiate our faults he hath advantaged us with so powerful an inclination unto truth For if we be born so impetuously towards the acquisition the exhibition of it must needs flow as it were naturally from us and it is this motive which invites him to so frequent a repetition of his offences lest he should disguise any the lest tittle for he knows as an exact particular of our Sins accompanied with a perfect sorrow is very acceptable unto God so it is beneficial unto Man the return of such an account being alwaies an evenning of all â—cores an abolition of past Errours and a compleat act of grace Upon this consideration he is not affrighted that his Sin shall be evidenced like the Sun rayes to the World and of this harsh sentence to Nature he himself will be the Executioner he he will prâ—mulgate his enormities and every exhalation of infamy that shall arise from thence upon him he will receive as a blast of Zephir because he speaks a truth animated with Repentance a truth which speaks What he hath been and what now he is to witt an imp of perdition and now is become a subject of mercy because it is a Truth God will ever own in a truly repenting heart for veritatem dilexisti it is essential to one who hath an Eternal love of Truth But it is not enough to trace the steps of of our Lord Jesus as far as he is imitable by Man unless we lay the Foundation of a life of verity which is done by imbracing with a firm belief the Doctrine and Faith he taught and delivered to us for it is certain there is but one God and one truth First we cannot deny this unchangeable quality of Faith to spring from God the Primary Truth since we owe him the Author of Civil and natural Lawes both which are united and receive efficacy from the bond of Religion fâ—r all things are created to the service of Man and he to God's service so that by an act of Religious worship the homage of all other Creatures are involved in that of Man and consequently Religion seems of created things the final End and ultimate disposition unto God Now the means to attain to this Truth cannot be by the strength of natural reason for the matter of credibility is above Nature and Man by consenting to an act of Faith is raised above himself therefore it must be God moving us by his Grace which drawes the motions of our Will to submit to his revealed Truths The Centurion proclaims he believes yet withal adds help O Lord my incredulity which shews though he had done all that lay in his power yet something was wanting It remains then we render our selves fit subjects for the reception of so noble a Guest so rich a Donative as that of Faith the way to this preparation is first to practise a life of Truth that is moral vertues next to lay aside all prejudice that your understanding may work with out biass or restraint thirdly to examine the opinions of those whom the World hath unanimously reverenced for their knowledge sanctity and wisdom fourthly to receive the Decrees of the Church as things sacred since she is styled in Holy Scripture a pillar of truth a spouse all immaculate without any stain of errour remembring also from what authority her infallible placits flow witness the Apostles in their first Synod at Jerusalem who began with this Form to publish their resolves It is judged expedient by the Holy Ghost and by us Where you see that Divine Spirit still swayes and gives life to all Articles of Faith and indeed it was the closing farewell of our blessed Master Christ Jesus who promised to dispatch unto them his Disciples a Spirit of Truth to reside with and animate his Church to the Worlds end A verity of Justice is comprehended in that of integrity of life it being the very Nerves and Sinews of humane Society without which we should be like wild Beasts in desarts no leagues twixt Nations no amities contracted amongst Men no traffick or commerce so that in this sole lovely quality is seated the very life and Soul of humane conversation For behold thou hast loved truth The Application We are further taught in this clause that God hath a true Being that is all qualities suitable to a Divine Nature as to be Spiritual Independent Immortal Omnipotent all good wise merciful Soveraignly happy and a thousand other attributes so that he alone hath the verity of a Divine Being Whatsoever is imaginable and worthy of God this is in him in a Soveraign degree of perfection Nay whatever his infinite understanding can conceive this he enjoys without any diminution or reserve So that when our Petitioner points unto us how God loves truth he means that he loves himself and if herein we play the apt Scholar placing our affections on that inexhausted source of Beauty we shall then move according to the verity of humane Nature For our Being is to be reasonable and what can more decipher the Truth of our reason than by a disdain of this World to aspire unto him who is the final end in which we are to rest and for which we had our Being May our hearts then be ever fixed on this eternal verity Amen CHAP. XIV Incerta occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi The uncertain and hidden things of thy Wisdom thou hast made known unto me WHilst our Penitent with delight descants upon God's love to truth it were he thinks impious in him to stifle this great truth that he hath called him to his Councel unbreasted to him secret and hidden things and enriched him with the high Prerogative of Prophecy Ah what a change in this Holy King not long before when Nathan laid before him his offence under the shadow of a poor Man violenced in the depredation of his only sheep he is dull unfolds not the mystery and little dreams though it were plain enough himself is pointed at by which we may see what a mist of ignorance as well as other mischiefs sin draws along with it But now he transcends the limits of natural knowledge owns an irradiation
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
little raise his confidence that his Judge was not tyed up to Lawes as the Ground-work of proceedings with offendours but his power is absolute to do all he pleases and his will such as to render what ever he doe's good and Just So that the least propension of this Will in order to a remission is sufficient to wipe away all the iniquities of the Earth Besides he considers that when God chastises he doth a thing extraneous to him and as Esay saies a work that is not his But to be merciful he owns it as a propriety annexed to his Godhead not to extenuate his Justice but to insinuate the love he bears to Man He embroyls not his Fancy with the niceties in Schools which dispute how Sin is remitted whether by the expulsion of any positive form and the introduction of another opposite to it Whether it be by the meer infusion of Grace or else only by taking away the obligation of a Sinner to eternal punishment he omits all these curious questions and attends only to the sweet effect to wit that he may be freed from his iniquity oft repeating in his Heart he had rather be a good Disciple than a great Master in the exact knowledge of his own misery When he looks back into his life past and remembers with what satisfaction and spiritual joy he had performed many acts of vertue he begins to be enfired with new flames of urging for a grant of his Petition Since he knowes that whilst he lyes under this attaindour of Treason he is capable of no right nor priviledge in the Charter given us by Heaven that should he do actions which in another condition might be praemiated would now be looked upon as a Jewel counterfeit and of no value He compares himself to a Plant in a Region far remote from the Sun whose Fruit never comes to maturity so his iniquity sets him at a great distance with God the light and life of Souls and consequently nothing can be expected from him which savours not of a Soyl accursed and doom'd to sterility so that as a misfortune seldome walks solitary he finds besides the unhappiness to have offended God this addition to be unable to do any thing acceptable unto him Then he goes on ruminating upon the sad consequences of his Sin which makes him fluctuate in his thoughts wholly unresolved how to comport himself Sometimes he appears like a Statue without motion and would eternally remain so since by no endeavours he can please his Creatour Then again I behold him bent upon the execution of all the good imaginable at least within the extent of his natural Force or Power that he may omit no Homage and Duty he owes to the Author of his Being But after all his restless solicitudes he observes the main Hinge of his happiness depends upon this Dele iniquitatem the cancelling of this Bond by which he is lyable to eternal punishment e're he can hope for admittance unto his wonted ravishing entertainments with his Divine Master He descants upon the proceeding of Almighty God with Sinners and would feign search into the secrets of his Providence why some are drawn from the depth of wickedness even when they seemed to be lost to the World and Heaven whilst others less guilty in the Eyes of men sadly perish without source or redress The preservation of the one he attributes to the immense goodness of God which sometimes dispenses as justly he may in his own lawes as to afford unto an unworthy sinner such powerfull calls that they are never resisted such melting affections as if they had been train'd up in the School of Divine love not in the Forge of iniquity It is fit he confesses the Divine Will which frames all Creatures should so dispose of what he hath made that when he pleases to raise any one out of corruption and render them instrumental to his Glory none ought or can justly repine at it He sustains this Argument with much heat himself being a party interessed still expecting to be the object of his choice mercy He dilates and expands his Soul under this inexhausted source like the Earth without Water thirsting for one drop of that Coelestial stream which might allay the anguish of his Mind and deface all the foul Characters of his iniquity his groans and unwearied sighs are fair Harbingers of that Noble Guest he once entertained with unspeakable delight and if he ever gain the repossession he protests that neither Angels Men Devils nor all the charmes in Creatures shall ever brand him with a new stamp of iniquity his Eyes by which his Soul receiv'd her first wound are become two floods of tears and if they prevail not to cleanse his stains at least they will testifie to the World he repented what he had done He casts not one glance towards Heaven which is not accompanied with hopes of meeting this mercy and this confidence is so grounded in him that were it decreed God would save but one Soul he hath courage enough to hope that his might be that one nay he builds so much upon these hopes that transporting himself to the consideration of many Sinners abandoned in their impieties it doth not at all deject him for he considers that God hath given us a free-will which he will never violence to our prejudice and though we cannot elevate this will to an act so perfect as naturally to merit the first Grace yet it may in such sort dispose us for grace by love and sorrow that God will doubtless gratifie us so prepared Whence 't is clear that as we fall not but by our own default so by vertue of a promise and contract made by Heaven we cannot finally perish but by an obstinate reluctancy of our own Hearts If he sees a Phararh sink into ruine irrecoverably he beholds likewise a Nebuchodonozer for the same crime struck down to rise again They were both Kings the sin of either alike detaining God's people in captivity yet the Fates of both very unequal Because the one retracts his misdeeds and raises a detestation of them the other persists in his Enormities without any truce or suspension At last he makes a Corollary of this discourse and concludes since some are preserved in Innocence by continued showers of Grace others by a sweet violence drawn from an Abyss of Sin to the upshot of happiness and none so entangled whom a true repentance will not set free he will never cease to importune Heaven till his iniquity be rased out let his Throat grow hoarse with clamours his Eyes droop and wax dimme his Heart rend asunder with grief he will spare no Particle of his whole Body nay glory in its ruine if by that means he can but unclog his Soul from the weight of Sin He judged it very reasonable that the Body having contributed to his Sin should share in the punishment as it had done in the crime and as it had concurred unto his
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
contribute to the drift of his Petition which is to appear every minute with a greater purity in the Eyes of his Creatour Amplius lava me wash me more from my iniquity The Application St. Bernard observes that if at any time God deprives us of what is good it is but to gratifie us with something that is better upon this reflection he reckons it a happiness in St. Paul that he was struck blind for immediately upon that stroke he was raised to the third Heavens and admitted unto secrets unfit to unfold to Man and afterwards receiving the sight of his Body with that restitution was superadded the clear Eye-sight of his Soul God sent Jeremy to the Potters shop that he might see how the broken Vessel was to be new moulded and come out better than before if then the Clay frequently recieves a better form and fashion than at first let us in imitation and with the same confidence of our holy penitent after our failings cry Lord wash me more Let our past harms warn us not to presume of our own strength this humble opinion will separate much of the dross of our actions and teach us to rely more upon God than our selves Let us oft lay before us the Seal of God's pardon this cannot but enflame our love and enfire our Hearts in the zeal of his service nay Christ seems to set it down as a rule that we proportion our love to our Obligations He little loves to whom little is forgiven that where a large score is struck off by his Mercy there must needs succeed an ambition to a more supereminent perfection wash me more from my iniquity In fine this quadrates with Habakkuk's prophecy If heretofore thou madest one step in the way of Death thou shalt now tread for it ten in the way of life So that every sinner is encouraged not only to recover his innocence but to improve it throughout the remainder of his life never ceasing to repeat Amplius lava me ab iniquitate wash me more from my iniquity Amen CHAP. VI. Et à peccato meo munda me And cleanse me from my sin IN the Series of Acts inordinate and deficient from that rectitude required to give them a denomination of good We find some which relate immediately to God as when with contempt we strike at things directly ordained to his glory and service these pass under the name of impiety Others there are whose first tendency levells at our Neighbour as when we traverse the light of Nature in doing to another what we would not have done unto our selves and these are styled by the appellation of iniquity Lastly there are certain treasons whereof we make our Bodyes instrumental and by which we are corrupted depraved and wrought into strange habitual Frailties these are properly expressed by the term of sin because by them we act against our selves Our Holy Penitent drawes the exordium of his Petition from a sense of his impiety when in this first verse he said have mercy on me O God for there he owns his Frailties as a Creature in respect of his Creatour and beggs his Gracious pardon In the next verse he confesses his iniquity whose full discussion as to injustice towards his Neighbour I reserve for another place In this third verse he surveys his own person beholds the Havocks and corruption made there by sin and now would feign apply a Salutary Medicament to which end he inserts this clause in his Petition A peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin that is from the filth and ordure which accompany sins of the flesh Amongst all the irregular motions whereof Man is capable there is none which leads unto Labyrinths so inextricable into precipices so disastrous as this unhappy sin of carnality In the first place it drawes a Cloud over the understanding and so depresses the faculties of the Soul as she becomes in a manner terrestrial that is unable to elevate her self beyond the objects of sense for the operations of the Soul are more perfect as they are more abstracted from materiality Now this sin wholly drowns and takes us up in the pursuit of sensible things and consequently must needs debilitate and weaken the Mind in her natural functions In other passions as Anger Fear Joy and the like there are still extant some Seeds of reason this destroyes all that is Man in us and makes Man by a thousand homages and venerations subject to that Sex which God and Nature have designed Mans inferiour as if it aimed not only at Mans destruction but to resolve the World into another Chaos For what shafts of Gods vengeance have fallen heavy upon Mankind that were not directed to the chastisement of this sin It was an inordinate appetite to mix with the Daughters of Gentiles that first gave birth to Monsters and Gyants and from their accursed off-spring the Earth became such a sink of abominations as no less than an universal inundation was able to wash away the stanch and infection of their impieties It was this foul pleasure which ministred Fuel to the consuming flames of Sodom and Gomorrah this blind passion led Israel ensnared by Madian Women in Idolatry a foundation to all the Calamities and derelictions by God which befel that chosen Nation At one time twenty four thousand Hebrews were punished with Death for Adultery and what a slaughter of sixty thousand persons did our sad Penitent behold and this in revenge of his own libidinous Acts as if the stains they had left behind could not be drawn out by a Sea of blood When his affrighted thoughts had layed before him all these dismal passages he trembles expecting every moment to be shivered and dispersed into Ashes by the decrees of a just avenger he approves the fancy of those who compose Venus of the Froth of the Sea brackish perfidious and the Seat of hazzards and disquiets the pleasure he hath had appears to him now but like a Froth or bubble which if not born away as easily it is by every blast will certainly of it self soon dissolve and work its own ruine and however the substance be fleeting it leaves notwithstanding a remembrance behind so bitter and distastful and so hardly clawed off as one would think that alone were a sufficient punishment for a trespass of so little satisfaction and for the storms and wastes it often makes in Kingdoms and private Families scarce any age hath not furnished many sad examples I am sure our Holy Penitent felt the smart of this bitter Truth in the desolation of his house in the dishonor and death of his Children in the rebellion of his Subjects and above all in the forfeiture of those large promises made by Heaven to him and his posterity all which found not their Tomb but in the corruption of this unhappy sin So that in this request to be cleansed from his sin he first declares the foulness of it evident in the horrid Disease Nature gives
to those who use it in excess next he hints the reliques and dreggs it leaves behind that if God's grace joyned with a great resolution happen to dislodge this petulent Guest yet still some footsteps or impressions remain apt to reenter and claim an interest Wherefore he could promise to himself no security unless an inundation of mercy fall upon him to purify and carry away all the remainder of bad inclinations grown into a habit and become as it were a second Nature in him Cleanse me from my sin and as it was not a slight stain he had contracted but all circumstances weighed the most indelible that springs from inordinate acts in carnal pleasures For Lawes Divine Natural and Humane seem to be violated in Adultery Divine in that two persons by marriage are made one flesh and both pass into the incommunicable Nature of individuality becoming the essential part of each other whence violation cannot happen to one without destroying the life of the other and breaking that bond which God hath knit together Natural Law is likewise by an adulterous act infringed because Marriage consists not in the sole possession of the Body but also nay principally in the affections of a reasonable Soul For the bonds of Marriage are not wrought by copulation but mutual consent and under a sacred Vow never to be retracted who then infringes these engagements must needs contract a note of infidelity and consequently strike at the main Hinge of humane Society to preserve which Nature chiefly tends in all her principles and essential motions Lastly a breach is made in humane Law by Adultery in that Marriage is not a private but domestick good which concerns not one but infinite Families strengthened by the Laws of the Church and publick Faith of Nations From hence Nature finds those who carefully cultivate her plants hence Commonwealths are enriched with Citizens the Church with Children By this we may see the malice of Adultery that drawes along with it the violation of so many Laws Christ enjoyns us a love of our Enemies and that the Sun should not set in our anger Yet in the treachery of Marriage-Bed permits a separation between Man and Wife how strictly soever united by indissoluble tyes as if such crimes surpassed the limits of pardon as if an evil so destructive that remedies could find no place and that this individual life once dissolved could no more be recalled than habit from privation Many Tyrants have subdued to therage of their cruelties the wealth liberty and lives of their Subjects who looking upon this power as given from Heaven over them patiently sustained all those depredations but if once they touched upon their wives and would involve them in the Mass of their impurities this rowsed up their fallen spirits cast them into rebellion nay pushed them to that extremity as never to desist untill they had deprived those of life who had ravished from them what was more dear than life untill they had reduced unto ashes the Authors of their infamy and taught them for the example of posterity this violence of all others will not be left unrevenged in this World There hath scarce been any Nation though Pagan or Infidel which hath not punished Adultery with Death or exquisite Torments Some by fire others by wild Horses some by the Halter others in pulling out their Eyes cutting off their Noses some by stones as in Moses Law Whence 't is clear that even the light of Nature taught there ought for the good of humane Society that a stop be made to this disorder Our Penitent having in his thoughts lay'd open all those Enormities of an Adulterous Act is surprised to see himself plunged in so many abominations to have heaped up to himself so much ignominy and infection as the reproach of them would last as long as time How sparingly do good Men treat of carnal subjects either in Writing or in the Pulpit lest the very articulate sound or Characters in this matter might offend chast Ears or cause worse effects in Hearts already tainted If then this poyson carry with it so much of malignity in the very name or lightest thought what corruption and noysomness must the sin it self produce Oh! how strong did this scent breathe in the Nostrils of our Penitent when once his understanding was awake and beheld with an Eye free from passion his Body dissolved into so many contaminations no wonder than if he so oft repeat in this Psalm the cleansing from his sin Every glimps of his past foul delights casts him into a blush beholding no other consequence of them than shame confusion and the threats of eternal destruction notwithstanding all this he sues for a Vesture of innocence and he does it to him who with a fiat or blast from his Mouth drew out of a dark Chaos that glorious Body of the Sun which so revives us To him who hath promised to let fall all the darts of his anger upon the true repentance of a sinner on this basis he fixes his Petition and doubts not but at last to find a happy issue to be drawn out of the mire of his sensualities and his leprous condition changed into the consistence of restored grace after this he sighs and groans nor is capable of any consolation untill that happy moment arrive which shall put a period to this longing demand Et à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin The Application We must consider that God is purity it self who hath nothing more in abomination than an impure Soul That Heaven inhabited by Angels is a place of honour where nothing defiled can have access Wherefore we ought to apprehend any stain of lubricity because most obstructive to our final Beatitude First in that it is according to St. Thomas peccatum maximae inhaerentiae a Sin that clings like Bird-lime to our Souls and of all others most hard to be clawed off it resembles a Phoenix who renews her self with the fire enkindled by the motion of her own Wings so a person inured to that vice even when he would give it over and bury it withall occasion of incentives doth often find the Coals to be blown afresh by the wings of thoughts so that whilst we live we ought never to be secure since 't is a combat of all others the most hazzardous and where the victory is most rare next it is a sin of impudency and when a Soul is devoid of shame what hopes can there be to reclaim her St. Hierom advises to a private admonition of our neighbour and gives this reason lest he break the curb of shame and dwell in his sin for ever By baptism we are made members of Jesus Christ and the chiefest homage we can pay to him as our Head is to preserve it unspotted from any smut of impurity A virginal integrity is so acceptable unto God that the Angels were they permitted would translate them Body and Soul into Heaven that
that Trophies were erected with this Inscription To the August Caesar Diocletian by whom Christian Religion is abolished and the worship of the God's improved These were the flinty soyls which gave life and growth to Christian Religion amidst these stony tryals the Church hath still kept herself firmly rooted in despight of all the storms tempests and whirlwinds of persecution The third property of Hysop that it is medicinal may justly be consigned to the furious assaults framed and put in Execution against the Church as St. Austin sayes Tyrants could never by obsequiousness and favour have so much contributed to the good of Martyrs as they did by their bloud-thirsting cruelties St. Paul glories in his tribulations and makes of them a ladder to lead him as it were by degrees unto Christian perfection whither he is no sooner arrived but his thoughts are filled with the expectation of a reward Nay he terms it a Crown of Justice as if every stroke of Persecution had contributed to the making up of his Crown unto which he had a right and just claim since hammered and compleated by his patient sufferings This same Apostle bids the Hebrews look back upon those past dayes wherein they had sustained immense Combats for the name of Christ as if those pleasing remembrances had been able to charm the most bitter afflictions Nay he thinks it a happiness when no burden was laid upon themselves if they did but converse and hold Society with the oppressed as if from them must needs issue forth some communication of what is good When our blessed Saviour had foretold to his Disciples the scandals of his passion and how the World would allot the same measure to them he gives the reason why these sharp decrees are made because sayes he you should fly to me for Sanctuary and only within my arms seek consolation and security St. Austin conformably to this Doctrine confesses Job to have lost all that God had given him yet he retained him from whom he had all to wit God our Lord sayes he hath given our Lord hath taken away the name of our Lord be praised Afterwards St. Austin rapt as it were into admiration cryes behold a Man with a Body mangled yet entire full of corruption yet comely wounded yet without a sore sprawling on a dunghil yet powerful in heaven Hence you may gather the exuberant Fruit of this sprinkled Hysop not a drop of it falls which carryes not along with it a vertue that transcends the malignity of persecution and the rage of Tyrants Who would then repine at adversity since Heaven hath laid it as the foundation at least medium to eternal felicity You that are poor tell me what you do want if you have God and the rich what possess they without God St. Paul relates how the Hebrews with joy sustained the rapine of their goods because they knew there is a more lasting and incomparably better inheritance prepared for them You that bewail the loss of a Friend remember he was not born to live alwayes here and perhaps was taken away lest malice might have seized him Besides if you truly love God you cannot be afflicted at your Friends Death since you know if he perish not to God he cannot perish to you and he alone can never be deprived of what is dear to him who makes God the Center of his happiness and places all that is precious in him since he is not lost unless we will If you groan under an infirm constitution know you should not desire to enjoy life but according to the tenour of its grant we breath under constellations which by their several influences create different humours and distempers and this is convenient to the good of the Vniverse unto which particular and private interests must give place Besides we learn by experience that since we can break and thwart our inclinations upon the score of health we may likewise do it from the motive of vertue and piety we hold it an act of Religion to wean our selves from sensual delights for the love of God let then resignation make that voluntary which accident or some providential decree hath reduced to a necessity you ought not therefore to calumniate this or that cause of your sickness but take it as a present from a most merciful and benign Parent ordained either for chastisement of your sins or tryal of your vertue this flatters not the unhappy humour of Avarice Ambition Lubricity and the like every access of a Feaver or other smart pain sets before us the lively Image of mortality and gives assurance we must one day quit all our Wordly interests It were not amiss also whilst our indisposition renders us unfit for humane Society that we fancy our selves as dead and consider what will be done in the World without us it subsisted before we were so will it remain when we are gone Who now seem so united in friendship that the thought of separation is horrid as Death will when a few dayes are slipped over after your Funeral seek other alliances and if by chance your memory be revived by any Casual discourse they will afford you a sigh perhaps and say you were good or wise or valiant or fair or some such Epethite you might deserve and is this worth all the labours and hazzards we run amidst a Million of designs in this uncertain life how blessed then is that sickness whose pains lead to Salvation and how fortunate that war which ends in eternal peace If the walls of a Prison affright propose to your self those immense spaces above the Heavens designed as a praemium of your restraint 't is true for the present you are deprived of a little fresh Air and of some other contentments depending on Liberty but he that trafficks for so great a purchase as eternal felicity may well venture something on the score of persecution How many disasters and Ambuscado's of Enemies have been avoided by Captivity what a change hath it wrought in many who by a necessity of Recollection have become supereminent Contemplatives and enlarged their Minds by Spiritual entertainments more than they could forfeit by the denyal of their Bodies liberty You are there free from Envy or detraction it being rare to find malice or cruelty to rage upon the prostrate A life in such a place is seldome attended on by scandals because adversity is the Companion a Mistress excelling in the wayes and maxims of goodness Nay could we fancy the World as really it is but a Prison we should rather think we have made an escape from Thraldome than lost our liberties Thus we see the sprinklings of Hysop that is the Seeds of Humility Patience and Constancy in the profession of Christ have furnished the Church Universal with Champions and every her particular Souldier in all encounters with Rules which if exactly observed cannot but end in Glory So that our Penitent hopes if once bathed in these purifying streams he shall be cleansed
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
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
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
the erecting this magnificent structure of the Church as by his ardent prayer to dispose the divine Architect unto this admirable work what a reproach will it be to us who find the Fabrick done to our Hands and who are our selves so happy as to be part of the materials if we do not so much as keep it in repair nor preserve it against any rebellious or violent effort To this performance is required a due obedience to the supream Pastour who as it were the form and Soul of this edifice Next a reverence and submission unto Bishops who are the pillars and great supports of it Lastly a respect to Priests who are a main ornament and useful to this glorious Fabrick Whereas then our Holy Penitent poured forth his prayers with so much fervour for the raising of these Evangelical walls it is our part now to make addresses unto Heaven that according to his promise it may continue pure unstained and invincible against all the malice of Earth and Hell Amen CHAP. XXXIX Tunc acceptabis Sacrificium Justitiae oblationes Holocausta Then thou wilt receive Sacrifice oblations of Justice and whole Burnt-offerings OUr Holy Penitent had entertained in his thoughts not only the Materials and Architecture of this Building but he went further and reached in his prophetick view the Sacrifices which were there to be offered up The first object display'd in this Temple is the Messias God-man who was a true Sacrifice oblation of Justice and Holocaust A Sacrifice in that he appeased God's anger frankly offered and with the purest intention that could be imagined this is expressed in John 14. That the World may know I love my Father and perform his commands arise sayes Christ to his Apostles and let us to the Cross For God having committed to him the affair of Man's Salvation lost by sin he was enflamed with a zeal of rendering all possible satisfaction and considering that if he should make himself a victime and present that Sacrifice to God it would be of an infinite value in regard of the infinity of his person and such a Sacrifice infinite would counter-ballance the infinite malice of sin and prove a satisfaction answerable to Man's offence Wherefore that God might have reparation of honor he designed an actual bloody Sacrifice of himself unto God for the sin of Adam and all Mankind And to this end likewise that God being appeased and satisfyed by the dignity of this Sacrifice might depose all animosity against Man and restore him to those expedients by which he may work his Salvation Amongst all the contrivances that can enter our thoughts none appear more excellent and noble both to ajust God's honor and Man's Salvation together than this immolation of himself upon the Altar of the Cross First it is very powerful to appease God's wrath for nothing more than death can be endured for God's honor nor can any Creature more absolutely avow himself unto him than in dying for his sake Wherefore St. Paul sayes of Christ ad Ephes 5. He gave himself up an oblation and host unto God in the perfume of sweetness Next it is very proper to cure Man's infirmity who by his disobedience and pride had forfeited his right to Paradise wherefore Christ submitting himself to the Cross and so accomplishing the will of his Father repaired those breaches we had made by our Rebellion Lastly it is very efficacious to purchase our love without infringing the liberty of our free-will For what can more charm us to love than to behold a person for my sole interest sustain the torments of a Cross which was the most infamous of all kind of punishments yet so great was the affection our Saviour Christ bare us that he deposited in the infamy and reproach of the Cross all that honor which his miracles his Doctrine and innocent life had purchased to him leaving them all hanging on it as a Trophey of his love The Cross then is the North Star of our comfort and hope for what can he deny us nay what will he not grant us who on the Cross hath made such large expressions of his kindness God is said to be the searcher of hearts that is he only knowes the sincerity of them whence some have taken occasion to murmur at the Maker in that he placed not a window before the Breast of every one But though we may be jealous of all the rest yet sure we cannot be of Christ upon the Cross nor of his love since he there even layes open his Bowels unto us upon this consideration Christ might justly promise to himself That when he shall be lifted up from the Earth that is upon the Cross he would draw the affections of all Mankind unto him How different is the proceeding of this our eternal Priest from the usual wayes of Men who upon a mean and trivial interest fall upon the destruction of their Neighbour whilst his design is to Sacrifice himself upon our score and by that means gain our love as a just Tribute to his eternal Father he might well assure himself this Sacrifice would be accepted he knew that God could not behold the Face of his Christ under this bloody posture for the redemption of guilty Souls and not be touched with the worth of this Sacrifice wherefore our Penitent may confidently repeat tunc acceptabis then that is at this plenitude of time a Sacrifice will appear which shall convey to Heaven an odor grateful unto God and serve as a balm to cure all the wounds of humane nature This Sacrifice was likewise an oblation of Justice for supposing that God would have sin punished because it is a decree of his eternal Law which cannot erre nor want its effect Again since Man was impotent to any compleat satisfaction for sin wherewith he was defiled and contaminated it was necessary some person exempt from all sin should interpose and take upon him out of love and goodness the discharge of our transgressions Now Christ was this happy Redeemer who replenished with mercy spared not his sacred humanity for our deliverance First he dragged us out of the misery wherein we lay after Adam's sin that by no action of ours we could recover grace or any wayes reach our justification this impotency Christ took away and purchased to all Mankind means of Salvation in case they make right use of it Next he freed us from the misery of sin and by his passion obtained a perfect enlargement for all those who faithfully cooperate with his grace Lastly he merited for the Soul and Body an exemption from the Calamities they sustain and endure in this life and afterwards the glory of Heaven if so be they persevere in sanctifying grace and all this upon the design of rendering a full satisfaction for all the sins of the World in rigour of Justice And since God was irritated by Man's contempt which sin involves Christ knowing that God could not receive more honour than
in this life If you consider the immense obligations you owe to your Redeemer you will lament in that you have but one life to Sacrifice for him that hath lost his own so worthy upon the Altar of the Cross for your sake You will repine that nature allowes you but a term of sixty years or thereabouts in this world to spin out in his service since he hath surrendered up his life for you of which one moment is more to be valued than all the duration and existence of Men and Angels This is the Sacrifice of Calves which our Penitent had in his prophetick view and it leaves a sweet relish in his Mind with which he concludes his petition It was doubtless matter of great joy to our Penitent to consider the powerful operation of Christ's Spirit that would draw Men from sensual pleasures and baits of this World induce them to contemn riches honors and Earthly glory and exchange these for hair-cloths fasting disciplines and other mortifications of the flesh and this to be acted by persons great in dignity swimming in a full plenty of wealth and endued with intellectual parts even to admiration Millions of these have shrowded themselves within the Walls of a poor habitation where cloathed with a course habit they have led a life wholly Angelical and made themselves a daily Sacrifice unto God beautifyed with a religious simplicity which surpasses all the wisdom of the World and so fulfilled the prophecy of our happy Penitent Then that is in the Church to be established and founded by the Messias they will lay Calves on thy Altar The Application Our Holy Penitent here entertains himself with the grateful returns which Christians were to make in consideration of Christ's eternal Sacrifice and certainly there is no state speaks so much a generous love to God as that of a contemplative life where we behold Men devested of all self love to become perfect slaves to the divine will freed from all adhesion to created things that in charity they might be united to God avoiding the World's conversation the better to enjoy God's presence that since they cannot live without him at least they might live with him as much as the condition of this mortal life will bear To contemplate so many thousand Families where Creatures anticipate their felicity by praising God incessantly and who seem not to subsist but by the dew of a Holy Love like the Seraphims in Heaven Ah let us then conclude with our Holy Penitent and bless the divine Providence who hath in the revolution of so many ages received the perfume of prayers and thanksgivings from an infinity of pure innocent Souls consecrated in a peculiar manner to his glory and service Amen FINIS A TABLE Of the principal matter of this BOOK A. Affliction WHy God conducts Souls by way of affliction Pag. 8 Adversity foundation to eternal happiness p. 143 Why God lengthens out our afflictions p. 380 381 Affliction of David p. 282 Anger Means hovv to avert God's anger p. 178 Adultery All Lavves violated by adultery p. 56 57 Punished by death and great torments by all Nations p. 58 It subverts the rules set dovvn for our education p. 303 It is a vvrong not to be repaired Ib. A passage of St. Paul terrible concerning adultery p. 304 The civil lavv permits parties interessed to be Judges Ibid. It is a kind of Sacriledge p. 305 306 B. Body It is fit the Body should share in the punishment of sin p. 36 Saints Bodies alvvayes had in veneration both in the old and nevv Lavv. p. 170 Divers examples of this subject ib. Why God favours Saints Bodies with the working of miracles p. 168 What David means by humbled bones p. 167 Beatitude To anticipate our Beatitude is here to think alwayes of it p. 248 249 Why we cannot be happy here p. 249 How sweet the thoughts of Beatitude p. 290 Good works the means to Beatitude ibid. C. Carnal Sins Carnal sins destroy both Body and Soul p. 52 53 Punishments of Heaven for carnal sins p. 53 54 Why carnal sins are most dangerous and most abominated by God ibid. Church A pillar of truth c. p. 127 Upon what terms God founded his Church p. 138 seq God punishes such as violate Temples or Churches p. 409 410 The sublime institution of the Church p. 422 seq Christ Christs presence how amiable p. 234 Christ loves to be with men p. 235 Christ dyed for all p. 280 seq Christ's Revelation to St. Bridget p. 283 Christ the source of all merit p. 316 Christ supream pastour of Souls p. 415 Christ Sovereign Bishop of the Church p. 416 Christ a true Holocaust p. 433 434 Christ a true oblation of Justice p. 431 Charity Order of charity p. 403 404 Conversion Of an Indian in Japonia p. 328 Sometimes wrought by outward preaching ibid. Sometimes by the inward operation of his spirit p. 329 D. Mystick Divinity It s definition and several operations from p. 259. unto 263 David Why David begged to be freed from temporal punishment p. 48 49 David the most accomplished Prophet p. 131 The world's creation revealed to David p. 131 132 The Incarnation Nativity and Passion revealed to David p. 133 134 135 The state of his conscience in order to God was revealed to him p. 135 David desired to be a Martyr p. 150 What means he by the joy of his Salvation p. 251 He was very meek and humble p. 3â—7 Death Death concludes all our merit p. 38 39 40 Desire Why our desires are never satiated in this life p. 43 44 Despair Why we should never despair p. 293 E. Men of all conditions are bound to give good example 86 87 seq F. Fear Difference of fear in the good and bad p. 43 Friend Loss of a friend not to be lamented p. 143 144 Faith Springs from God p. 126 and 216 Moral vertues c the way to faith p. 127 Faith teaches what we owe to God and our Neighbour p. 205 Faith of all things ought to be the most unquestionable ibid. God proceeds like a Soveraign in matter of faith ibid. This his proceeding a stroke of his goodness ibid. Christ our Master in matters of faith p. 207 208 The mysteries of faith our greatest comfort p. 208 209 What habitual faith is and its effects p. 210 211 G. God If God deprives us of one good it is but to give us a better p. 49 50 God never rejects a truly repenting heart p. 90 91 seq God will be justifyed in his proceedings with man p. 97 God a primary and essential truth p. 128 God is not the efficient cause of obdurateness p. 218 219 What sign of God's leaving us p. 226 Two derelictions of God p. 227 How God is lost by sin p. 232 God still gives more than we ask p. 231 235 How to escape God's anger p. 236 237 How comfortable the belief of God p. 288 Grace Definition of grace and