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
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
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
Lactantius sayes the Law is just which imposes on Criminalls a punishment they merit and that Iudge is upright and good who spares not offendours because the chastisement of the wicked is a preservation of the good So God is not blamable if he fall heavy upon the wicked that they may no longer oppress and injure the innocent for it would not be a vertue in God to behold his Servants in this great World tread his Lawes under foot blaspheme his Holy Name thwart in every thing his Sacred will commit exorbitancies of all kind and amidst all these disorders remain as stupid and incensible No no God hath a vertue dreadful to the impious which is his avenging Iustice Our Penitent finds here likewise matter enough for his Tongue that God having had so much reason to execute his Justice upon his criminal Head hath yet been pleased to hold in his Thunderbolts as that they have not as he deserved reduced him to ashes Wherefore he will amend his life so to avoid the terrours of this dreadful power and if he be not for the future led by the charms of his sweetness unto the observance of his lawes then he will submit to this his punitive right it being just he should not forfeit it upon his score or that of any unrepenting sinner So that in all events his Tongue shall exalt thy Justice The third reflection of God's Iustice towards his Creatures is styled remunerative by which he fills with ineffable and endless joy such as have served him faithfully in this life for as it becomes not his Majesty to let the infringers of his Lawes to the last go unpunished no less is it sutable to his goodness not to reward the obedient services of his Friends They have studied here to please him to confirm themselves to his desires and promote his Glory as much as lay in them Nay were it possible to make any addition to his treasure and perfections they would have done it Wherefore their good God being invincible and not to be overcome by the good will or affection of any Creature thinks himself engaged to confer by way of recompence eternal honour riches and joyes unto those Souls who have her served and gloryfied him by their vertuous actions Our penitent laies hold on this justice and and it is the great Theam on which he promises here to dilate himself but whilst he is busied in this his duty he is confounded to consider that all he can possibly give to God is a bare and simple good will the plenitude of his perfections admitting no encrease but on the other side he receives effective and solid blessings God draws no profit out of our good works yet he sets such a value on them as to think Heaven it self not too great a price for them We can only glorifie him in the film or outside by witnessing an esteem we have for his service but he glorifies us intimately and to the lowest Center of our Soul which he will replenish with splendour delight and glory and all these great things he will not do gratis as a favour at discretion but by vertue of an engagement and under a title of Justice that we might more firmly hope for our felicity and possess it in the most noble manner of enjoyment O what a stroke of goodness even in this his Iustice Therefore our Penitent will never cease And my Tongue shall exalt thy Iustice The Application Christ our Lord declared those blessed who hungered and thirsted after Iustice. Now this Iustice consists in the aggregation of all vertues to be humble chast or patient suffices not to qualify any person with the title of just For if we are guilty of any one inordinate act we forfeit our whole right to Iustice Our Penitent therefore in the precedent clause sued to be freed from the crimes of homicide and adultery hoping as to the rest he was innocent and nothing of an enormous Nature could be laid to his charge supposing then to be cleared from these he raises his hopes after that promised recompence to wit He himself would be our too great reward and whosoever should glorify him should be glorifyed by him Let us then exalt this Iustice which seems wholly to lay aside his own interest that he may stand engaged to those who owe him all what demonstration of his goodness is this even in his Iustice as to be himself our happy portion for all eternity Amen CHAP. XXXI Domine labia mea aperies Lord thou shalt open my Lips OUr Holy Penitent conscious of the sublimity of the Subject he hath undertaken warily considers his inabilities and that the Tongues of Angels do but stammer when they would set forth his Perfections yet willing to express his gratitude he cannot be silent holding it a less fault to praise him unworthily than not to praise him at all and his deficiency hath at least this plea of comfort that it springs from the excellency of the Being he would extoll But since his duty binds him to say something like a sage Oratour he would fortifie himself with all the helps imaginable His first contrivance is to dispose his Lips which is a main Instrument of Speech and the best way to fit them to a right temper is to put them into the hands of him that made them whence he desires that he who shapes the tongues of infants into eloquence would open and frame his lips that they may tune forth his praises and ravish men with the love of him upon this design he cryes Lord thou wilt open my Lips It is couched in Genesis that after God had framed Man out of a mass of Clay he breathed into him a spirit of life Our Petitioner like a Clod of dull Earth lyes exanimated and as it were dead in sin and though some life of grace be put into him yet he is as in a trance and it is necessary his Lips and Teeth be wrenched open that he may speak and to speak to the purpose it was also necessary words should be put into his Mouth and such words as are enlivened with a Spirit of Wisdome which he alone could give who is an increated source of knowledge and if once thus prepared he will do wonders his Lips shall no more be employed in the vain Art of Arithmetick to cast up the number of his People so to rely more on the strength of a Multitude than on the divine assistance No more shall his Lips give out unlawful orders for the death of the Innocent No more taken up in the luxurious courtships of women So that if the divine goodness shall please to lift up these floudgates he doubts not but to convay a stream which bacting upon the stones of his repenting breast will make up a fine harmony in the ears of his Creatour wherefore he begs Lord thou wilt open my Lips It is storied of Creesus King of Lydia that seeing a City wherein he was besieged attacked
in which the immolated victime suffered a real mutation both in that Christian oblation without effusion of blood which he celebrated the night before his death as also in the bloody Sacrifice of himself which he might have hindred but would not he is then a true Priest Again his power not being confined to Sacraments nor to certain words and ceremonies as that of Men who are Priests after him and not depending upon the impression of any Character since he was setled in it sufficiently by his Hypostatick union he enjoyes a degree of Priesthood with eminency above all other Men invested with this sublime dignity Wherefore doubtless this his Priesthood above all other things was most acceptable to God because by this title and quality he hath wrought the Worlds Salvation hath reconciled Souls unto God and put them into a condition of rendering him glory in all Eternity So that among all the sublime qualities of Jesus Christ that of his Priesthood hath been the most beneficial to the World for by it he hath made up all the breaches of sin both in Heaven and Earth appeased God's anger by his Sacrifice and restored us to his lost grace and favour Next he is not only Priest but sovereign Bishop empowred to institute ordain and govern at his pleasure in all spiritual things which relate unto God and the Salvation of Souls wherefore St. Peter Ep. 1. C. 2. Stiles him the Bishop and Pastour of Souls St. Paul likewise to the Hebrews Chap. 7. sayes It was fit we should have a Bishop holy innocent unpolluted and separated from sinners who hath no necessity of offering Sacrifice daily for his own sins So that Christ is not reduced to that extremity as to offer Sacrifice for the expiation of his own faults he hath no need to purify himself since he hath a Sanctity which outvyes that of Angels his only task is to enlighten purify and improve others that he might transmit them from the perfection and spiritual treasures of this life to the perfection and eternal treasures of the next At this his sovereign Chair doth aim that is the acquisition of immortal felicity he hath laid down for our safe passage and firm footing two planks to wit the Cross and pennance he is mediatour between God and Man an intercessour for us he assists at our right Hand that we might not be overthrown and amidst the storm of Stones which fell upon St. Stephen he is awake and upon his Leggs ready to run to his succour so that he hath all the conditions of a powerful and careful Prelat The Prophet Joel had in his prospect this Prince of Ecclesiasticks when in his 2. Chapter he exhorts the Daughters of Sion to skip for joy and fly to the Lord their God because he had given unto them a Doctor of Justice to teach them a spiritual life how to separate their Souls from affection to Creatures and unite themselves to God This he did in commanding us to renounce our selves and follow him to carry with him our Cross to be perseverant in prayer to practise vertues to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves In fine his Doctrine permits no vice cherishes all vertues raises Man above himself and his nature and besides his Commandements he gives admirable Councels of chastity poverty and obedience and other precepts leading to perfection which if exactly weighed would evidence as clear as the Sun beams that he is the greatest Master and Doctor of a spiritual life He is then Head of the Church because the Founder from whence she hath received her Life and Being by the seeds of his grace by the preaching of his Apostles by all the good works and stratagems he hath set on foot to draw Souls unto Faith and Baptism From whom she hath received her subsistence and nourishment in the provision of the Sacraments and of a multitude of gifts and graces in order to the propagation and defence of the Church He hath likewise setled here an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy resembling that of Angels and lastly he overwhelms her with the load of his favours transmitting daily her Members to his Church Triumphant where he invests them with glory nor will cease untill he hath made of the Souls issuing from the militant here beneath a Church glorious and without the least stain or wrinkle This Saint of Saints this Prince of Ecclesiasticks this Doctor of Justice is the Corner stone on which our Penitent had fixed his Eye and petitioned to be the Basis of Jerusalem's fair Walls so that having such a foundation what noble superstructure might he not expect and truly this edifice was squared out to the highest Ideas of perfection First we see an addition of the three Theological vertues that is so polished and refined as it gives them quite another lustre as to Faith the mysteries of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation and the holy Eucharist are in the Evangelical Law drawn as it were out of a Cloud into the Sun-beams and therefore St. Paul styles the written Law a Schoolmaster which taught the Jews only the first Rudiments of Religion whereas Christian Faith proposes ravishing objects and discovers the wonders of the said mysteries distinctly which begets reverence and devotion in the Hearts of Men. As to hope which enflames our courage to the Execution of generous undertakings the Jews had very obscure revelations of eternal beatitude nor could they hope for it till the coming of the Messias and Redeemer who was to open Heaven's Gates and have the honor to be the first Man that entered there in the interim they were fed with promises of Earthly rewards which rendered Souls Mercenary and their intentions more gross whilst the Evangelical Law unfolds the wonders of Heaven the glory of a Resurrection and engages for our immediate reception into that place of immortal felicity after this life supposing we are distain'd from all guilt of sin As to Charity the Soul of vertues and devotion it must needs receive from the Evangelical Law many degrees of heat and fervour since it renders our faith and hope more perfect For where the knowledge is greater of things more worthy of love and where our hopes are heightned to a more valuable expectation there doubtless will be found the production of a more ardent desire and affection After this rare piece which much embellished the structure are disposed the Sacraments which like a great water about the circumvallation serve both to secure the inhabitants from the assaults of their Enemies and to strengthen them in the noble exploits of vertues So that by this succour and powerful aid they are obliged in honour and conscience to a more eminent degree of Sanctity We see that Arts and Sciences are improved by success of time and those Masters which come after are more expert than the former Now this proceeding we behold in divine precepts not out of any deficiency in the Law-giver but because after Adam's sin
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
Death might not prey on a treasure that deserves to be immortal wherefore let us never cease to cry with our holy Penitent à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin Amen CHAP. VII Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco Because I know my iniquity AFter all these supplications our Petitioner now comes to give a reason why so confidently he requires an Act of Grace At the first view it seems a strange one and to imply his greater guilt It is this because he knowes his iniquity Ignorance where the fact is palpable makes a great plea in offendours our criminal on the contrary acknowledges his trespass declares he knowes what he has done and from thence claims and pretends a rationality in his petition had he in lieu of this inserted a Repentance of his misdeeds a detestation of his past failings this might have carried some weight in order to a remission But we must reflect injuries done to God and Man are things very disparate and quite of another nature For I may consider many disobligations I have thrown upon my Neighbour and yet not retract in my will those ill Offices because I may have received the like from him and many humane Lawes have allowed this retaliation so that to retain a memory of the harms I have done to Man may signifie nothing of vertue or pious amendment But when I look upon any miscarriage in my Duty towards God this glance must needs reproach me of ingratitude there can be no pretence or shadow of excuse to justifie any failing towards the Divine Majesty Since we are overwhelmed on all sides with his favours and benedictions whence the Sequel of such a consideration inevitably will humble confound and cast us upon the storms of Repentance Our Petitioner therefore knowing his iniquity virtually declares by it he disowns what he hath done or rather owns it to be exorbitant and from this confession layes claim to his Justice which upon the conversion of a sinner engages to abolish and raise out of his memory all past iniquities Because I know my iniquity This knowledge evidences the return of Grace to his Soul In the 35. Psalm he describes his own condition in the state of sin My iniquities surrounded me and I could see nothing St. Austin exclaims against that day wherein he committed sin and questions whether he may call it day since he was involved in a profound obscurity and then he goes on saying he will rise and disperse the mists of his iniquities that he may see the fountain of all goodness Our Petitioner again in the 48. Psalm gives Man when enslaved by sin the title of Beast nay with something of aggravation assimilating him to a Foolish Beast He remembred how Adam after his fall was cloathed with Skins of Beasts which attire was but a Symbol of his Mind bestiatized and made Savage by transgressions St. Thomas speaking of those Clouds of darkness wherein poor sinners lye groveling sayes it proceeds from a propension bent upon evil aversed from God and deprived of grace The opposite beams then which fill our Souls with light and serenity must needs draw their source from a love of what is good an adhaesion to God and a sweet repossession of grace and in these splendours our Petitioner finds himself First they raise his Soul to an Object infinitely good and amiable and after vehement affections enkindled towards this Sovereign felicity his Eyes are unsealed and beholds the Ghastly shape of his sins which cast him into exclamations against his own unworthiness upon reiterated addresses for mercy and pardon and at last admitted into favour he learns by that inestimable gift under whose Dominion he now lives what it is to offend God how monstrous a thing sin is and therefore will not conceal his new acquired notions but proclaim Quoniam c. because I know my iniquity It was not an abstract knowledge of his iniquity he alledges for this may consist with the most innocent and spotless Soul and was found in Adam before his fall But 't is what he had learnt by dear experience he had tasted that Tree which imports knowledge of good and evil but alas far different from those pure Idaeas which reside in Souls that were never involved in the shades of sin for such survey with an intellect as it were Angelical the commands of God and in obedience to his Law make use of their knowledge but to avoid the prevarication But our Petitioner looks upon the deformity of sin in all its circumstances of the Abyss of ruine it drawes upon us and having with the Cananean cryed for mercy then he confesses his nakedness then he layes open his failings and blushes not at the knowledge of his iniquity because they are now washed in a Christal stream and their past horrours serve but to raise in him a detestation of them and to invite him at the same time to admire the Wisdom of God that thus by his penitential acts will manifest his Justice and lastly to praise his mercy that hath given him a perfect knowledge of his iniquity as a certain Land-mark to preserve him from future Shipwrack because I know my iniquity I remember the Prodigal Son when languishing in misery and perishing for hunger pitched only upon this remedy that he would tell his Father he had sined against Heaven and him In like manner our Petitioner layes aside the thought of any good he may have done offers to the view of his eternal Father all the wounds of his cauterized Soul and that he might engage himself to a compleat discovery confesses he is not ignorant but knowes all the Windings and extravagant progressions of his iniquity how they had led him from Adultery to Homicide thence to Pride Vanity and Sole reliance on his own greatness and power and when he had summed up all his ingratitudes he gives this account Domine opus tuum vivica illud Lord I know my Sin So likewise I know the temper of the delinquent how he is composed of frailties unable of himself to set his hand to any good vvork to any supernatural motion Wherefore he hopes this consideration may something take off and render his deviations less irregular Yet on the other side he will not flatter himself into a blameless condition he knows a support of Grace ever attended him amidst his predominant passions and smartest tryals by whose means he might have been victorious This brings him on his Knees and drawes from him an humble confession Because I know my iniquity It was this knowledge fixing him on the basis of humility which prepared him for those sublime and supernatural communications he afterwards received from his dear Creatour What are his Psalms but a Series of raptures and coelestial ravishments a Tabernacle of sacred mysteries vvith vvhich his understanding was fed that vve may see to vvhat pitch Man is capable of arising from this knowledge of our Sins How confidently did St.
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
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
admires the greatness of his clemency and sweetness that designs to lodge in so despicable a place as his conscience the inestimable treasures of his wisdom hence enfired with a glowing flame of love he can think on nothing but him study no satisfaction that relates not to him and abhorrs all sensual pleasure whatsoever In sequel of this arises a delight and sweetness which surpasses all that is Earth Nay even the capacity of Man in this life as many Saints have witnessed the same crying out O Deus contine undas gratiae That such a torrent of delights overwhelmed them as if they were not moderated they must needs have opened a passage unto Death O! Who would not be overcome by such a conquering spirit confirm me with a principal spirit Another effect of this spirit is to settle the Soul in a great quiet and repose free from all joy grief or the like for every thing is at rest when in its proper place and center Now God is our Souls final end nor can she be more intimately united unto him in this life than by the power of this Celestial Philosophy wherefore the storms of passions very little molest a Soul enriched with this spirit all things pass in peace and tranquility and though it be true that we must still labour in a certain languishment and desire until we reach our Center yet this is so attempered by the goodness of God as it is no wayes Irksome A holy person expresses this very pathetically saying My Lord and God who art the support and strength of those who faithfully seek you at the entrance of your Paradise I behold you and beholding I cannot yet say what Object I have bofere me because I see nothing that is visible there is only one thing I dare owne to know that I am both ignorant of what I see nor shall I be ever able to know it For raising my Soul to the highest pitch I find you infinite and incomprehensible beyond the access of my imagination and whilest my thoughts would go on and make a further inquisition a mist of ignorance surrounds me But Oh my God what is this ignorance but a learned ignorance Nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis this obscure Night is a splendour overspread with delights the sum of my joy and consolation in this life is to consider that you are infinity it self incomprehensible and an inexhausted Treasure What felicity one day to possess in glory a good without end and which exceeds what the understanding can imagine the heart desire or tongue can express and that these Clouds which now involve us shall break forth into a Day of eternal Sun-shine By which you may see that holy persons in these admirable transactions though they are left in darkness and meet not with a compleat allay of all their desires yet it breeds no disquiet and all the rest is supplyed by a perfect submission to the will of God not desiring even Heaven it self but according to the measure of his degree Our Holy Penitent having received the fruit of one part of this meditation by his gracious deliverance from the servitude of sin he now covets to be sheltered under the secure Bastion of this principal spirit Confirm me c. Some expositours understand by this principal spirit the first person of the blessed Trinity unto whom power is peculiarly attributed Whence they inferr in this petition he pretends to a gift of Rule and Government that by his prudent orders circumstanced with Religion he might induce his Subjects to pay what they owe to God himself and to one another By which that chosen Nation committed to his guidance might flourish and he himself make some reparation for the sufferings thrown upon them in punishment of his transgressions Others conceive that by this clause he aims at the Spirit of Prophecy because in the subsequent verse he undertakes to play the Master and teach the wicked Principles of Heaven to which nothing would more conduce than a prophetick faculty Notwithstanding these Opinions I adhere to my first conception that the spirit of perfection is the scope of his desires because it includes the others for perfection is styled by Masters of spirituality a spirit of wisdom and by consequence proper for a Governour and as to Revelation it is most certain that contemplatives are illuminated and receive irradiations which naturally they could not attain to they are often so surcharged with supernatural lights and knowledge a prospect of the World's Scene being laid open to them as even ravished with admiration they seem to suffer with an excess of communications which made our Holy Penitent in some such like transport cry out Anima mea cognoscit nimis that the divine operations within his Soul exceed the limits of her capacity Wherefore we conclude that perfection is an abreviate of Gods Vniversal favours to Man and that our Holy Penitent in this his petition comprehends what soever he can ask confirm me with a principal spirit The Application We are taught in this clause to aspire unto perfection which consists in these degrees The first is to obtain grace and charity this perfection is requisite to all Christians and is so essential to a spiritual life that without it we cannot make one step towards Heaven The second perfection is of councel and consists in a certain disposition of the Soul to perform readily and without difficulty on her part not only what is commanded but also works of supererogation and this in a manner more pure and more spiritual than usually is done to this Christ our Lord exhorts us in the fifth of St. Matthew Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect The third perfection consists in eternal felicity where we shall be united to a sovereign good by a clear vision and fervent love This is called our final perfection because there is none greater The other two branches are but the means to arrive at this The subject then of our petition must be to attain to our Beatitude and this is truly to be confirmed with a principal spirit Amen CHAP. XXVII Docebo iniquos vias tuas I will teach the wicked thy wayes OUr Holy Penitent like a Souldier compleatly armed who expects but the Signal to fall on believes himself now fittted for great designs His first undertaking is to chaulk out the wicked the Paths of Salvation an enterprize worthy so great a Prince and so great a Penitent and which Christ our Lord an increated wisdom made the sole motive of his becoming Man This he declares in express terms asserting that he came not to call the just but sinners Upon this foundation I conceive he imposed upon us an obligation of loving our Neighbour as our selves By vertue of which command we are to expose our corporal life and fortune for the preservation of our Neighbours spiritual good if Christ sets so high a value on a drop of water or scrap of
merits Hence it is that Jesus Christ being infinite in consideration of his person and his humanity being infinitely holy his actions are of an infinite value and merit If it be said his goodness is deficient in this ransom and that he contracted it only to some few St. John confounds them for speaking of the incarnation he seems transported with wonder and expresses it with a sic that is God so loved the World as he gave unto it his only Son Can we imagine then he loved it so little as to select a certain small number no no he loved it so much as he died for all There is no good person upon Earth who desires not out of charity all Men's Salvation and shall Jesus Christ the Saint of Saints be limited in this his charity St. Bridget in her Revelations recounts how Christ our Lord said once unto her I am much offended with those who say my Lawes are hard that I give not sufficient Grace to their observance and that my passion is to some no wayes beneficial by which they would ravish my goodness from me but at the latter day I will justify my self before the Angels and Saints and make it clear as the Sun there was no want on my part that there is not one Soul for whom I would not have endured as much as I have done for all and that the sole fault consists in the obliquity of their wills alwayes rebellious and contrary to mine St. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. speaking of certain Reprobate Hereticks sayes They deny him by which they are redeemed and St. Paul 1 Cor. c. 8. Thus thy Brother will perish for whom our Lord and Saviour dyed Whence it followes a person may be damned for whom Christ offered up his death by consequence he dyed for the Reprobate The councel of Trent Sess 6. c. 3. Christ dyed for all though as to the benefit of his death those only receive it unto whom his passion is applyed The price of his blood was given then for all Men though the success be different some more some less partaking the fruit of his passion He is a Saviour then to all in some degree of redemption even to those he shall judge and condemn as St. Austin on the 53. Psalm He shall judge all the VVorld who hath payed the ransome for all the VVorld In which appears his magnificence and copious redemption that would dye for Souls whom he foreknew would resist the charms of his grace to the last and as much as lyes in them render his passion fruitless nay he gloryes in that he came for the greatest sinners promising cure to the most desperate diseases nay to the impious in case they will comply with his prescriptions To bring this a little more home St. Thomas sayes the passion of Jesus Christ is like to a ray of the Sun which though it be created for the benefit of the whole World yet all reap not advantage by it there being some of a melancholy reserved humour who effect darkness and shut up their doors and windowes against his beams so the passion and death of our Saviour is offered up for the universal good of all Men but many loving the darkness of sin keep themselves barricadoed from his benign influence resisting the light of Faith and other attractives of his love Thus you see all have power to save themselves though such only are effectually saved unto whom the passion of Jesus Christ by our happy concurrence with his sufficient Grace is communicated and applyed as in the Fifth Chapter to the Hebrews he is cause of Salvation unto all those who obey him Our Learned Doctor upon these grounds hath reason to hope that when he shall have deciphered unto the wicked the wayes of God how full of mercy and obliging sweetness they are they will lend their cooperation and consent to the movings of his grace bear part with their Saviour's passion that they may likewise share in his glory acknowledging with faith and love all that is done or to be done by them the effects of his grace and so apply to themselves Christ's merits and satisfaction And the impious shall be converted to thee Impiety in the strict acceptation imports Atheism and a shaking off all acknowledgement of a Deity its usual mates are prophaneness and impurity by which all things sacred are contemned and Man degenerates into a brute What a task is it then to reduce an impious person Whom neither the fear of a divinity doth awe nor the charms of holy things allure nor finally the shame of a base action can move St. Austin treating of such as are enslaved to this vice sayes they resemble in nature to a Feaverish Distemper which still creates a thirst though you throw in an Ocean of liquor so where the flames of impiety have once taken hold to stop the wastes of its fury passes the art of reason or eloquence for the impious have neither Eye nor Ear nor any sense which is not depraved and turns all into the malignity of its own humour I remember St. Chrysostom makes a query why Herod fell so barbarously upon the massacre of so many Infants for sayes he he either believed the Prophecy or believed it not if he gave no credit to it it was sottish in him to embrue his hands in so much blood any spark of judgement would have dictated he ought to have contemned and slighted it Again if he believed it was a real prophecy issuing from the decree of Heaven it must needs be inviolable and could not want its effect At last he solves the question and throwes it upon this that a Soul drenched in impiety is above all things the most infatuated she is so unhappy as where there is no impulse from abroad to precipitate herself into inevitable ruine nay fruitlesly to attempt odious and impossible things It is of these impious holy Job speaks when he gives a relation of their Maxims They say unto God retire from us we scorn the knowledge of your wayes what is the Omnipotent that we must serve him and what benefit arises if we pray unto him These are the familiar blasphemies which the impious belch forth the presence of God they decline shutting up all the Avenues of Faith and Charity by which he may enter unto them The knowledge of his wayes and Commandements they abhor because they are contrary to their works to his power they submit not faigning to believe he is not omnipotent because he is merciful Finally they offer not up their supplications unto him because they would ask what is not fit for his supream wisdom and goodness to accord Our great Minister in despight of all these exorbitancies promises yet to himself the reduction of these Monsters and hopes to shape them to the resemblance in which they were created in which undertaking we need not doubt but he used all the Topicks of authority and reason apt to convince and
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
what was paid him by the way of Sacrifice and that by how much the victime excelled his glory went in the like proportion He presented his sacred humanity personally united to the Word by way of Justice on the Tree of the Cross as a just compensation of all indignities thrown upon him by the World and for this end he exposed his Body to all the highest severities of Justice Thus God accepting this oblation of Justice punished in his Son all the sins of Mankind Wherefore as a disobedience to God's Law a Pride in thwarting his greatness and a pleasure in our conversion to a Creature are found in sin all these were confronted in Christ's passion by a prodigious obedience an incomparable humility and a perpession of the most exquisite torments that could be inflicted so that there was not the least punctilio of equity wanting in this oblation of Justice Our Holy Penitent weighing this terrible account could not but tremble It is true God was contented with Abrahams good intention and stopped the Execution of Isaac but when his eternal Law to punish sin was in question which he will have inviolable he spares not his only Son and if on him the darts of his anger fall so heavy and this for anothers transgression what may not a miserable sinner justly expect for his own sins in his own person If this be done on the green branches what havock will be made of those that are withered if the Innocent have this measure what will become of the Guilty but however these dismal reflections may affright our penitent yet he is still boyd up with hope and confidence in this oblation of Justice Lastly this Sacrifice is a perfect Holocaust the excellency of which consists in the total destruction of the thing offered In confirmation of this St. Paul asserts that Christ annihilated himself in becoming obedient to the Death of the Cross Look on his passion and you will see him reduced to a moral nothing First at his last Supper he throws himself at the Feet of his Apostles he washes dryes and kisses even those of a perfidious Judas in the garden of Olivet he not onely prayes with bended knees but is prostrate on the ground bedewed with a bloody sweat the most prodigious effect of terrour that ever hapned in nature In the sequel of his passion he is branded with false accusations and ignominious reproaches derisions and scorns He receives the highest indignities from the vilest of persons as to be buffeted spit on crowned with Thorns fastned on the Cross between two Thieves as the ring leaders and this at their Paschal solemnity in the populous City of Jerusalem where he forfeited all that reputation which the wonders of his power and sublime communications of his wisdom had purchased to him so that many who had been his spectators and of his audience in whose opinion he had passed for a signal person a great Prophet a Man incomparable in vertue and sanctity nay who looked upon him as the promised Messias and Son of God gave him then the Character of an Hypocrit and condemned all his miracles as meer illusions and the effects of Art magick and his Sermons as dreams of phantastick babling Nay the Prophet Esay stiles him the last and outcast of Men disfigured mishapen and laden with infirmities insomuch that he was esteemed as one Leperstrook and the object of God's vengeance O what a Holocaust was this He that is Lord and Creatour of the World King of Heaven and Sovereign Judge over the living and the dead is destroyed in his honor and reputation his Eyes wax dimm and dark his Face pale and wan his Tongue furred and swoln his Lips black and blew and his whole Body mangled in such sort as they numbred all his Bones so that it was as it were but one wound and all these outrages are compleated in his Execution upon the Cross which kind of death was so abominable as Tostatus sayes it is an injury done to God himself that a Creature created after his Image should dye on the Cross Cicero sayes it is an act very hainous to bind a Citizen of Rome a Villany to scourge him and in a manner a Parricide to kill him but what then will it be to put him on a Cross Heretofore God made himself known by destroying Pharaoh and all his Host but now he will get himself a Name and Fame by playing the Holocaust and dying upon the Cross Thus you see how justly our Petitioner might assert this Sacrifice to be an oblation of Justice and a Holocaust or whole burnt offering which would be accepted off For certainly God was never more honoured than by Christ offered up on the Cross because the glory there given him outvyes all the injuries and affronts that had been or ever shall issue from the ugly Face of sin But the Fire of his love stopt not here his sacred humanity would further yet honour God by a Sacrifice which should not be confined to a short space of three hours to a little 〈…〉 Nation of the Jews nor to the narrow hill of Mount Calvary wherefore by a generous design he instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist where this same humanity without effusion of blood might honour God by a Sacrifice that would last to the worlds end and be every day reiterated not upon one single mountain but in millions of places throughout all kingdomes where there is any Priest to offer up this Sacrifice to God's honor and as a tribute to his infinite greatness Our great God beholding this admirable contrivance of his incarnate word and of a Soul most pure and holy allyed to his Son by a personal union and relishing this honor he should receive from this Sacrifice begun at a great distance to nose the sweet odour it would evaporate even up to Heaven this gave him a distast as it were of the Mosaical Sacrifices which revealing to our Holy Penitent made him cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts But this is more clearly expressed by the Prophet Malachy where God requires the Temple Gate to be shut the Fire of his Altar for the destruction of victimes no more to be kept in and confesses he is cloy'd with them upon the prevision of that excellent Sacrifice to be made to him in the Evangelical Law Again as a Sacrifice is directed not only to express God's supream Dominion over us but likewise to acknowledge our thanks for his divine favours now the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ accomplished in vertue would not be ungrateful For God had given himself unto it by a personal union in a manner the most obliging and most sublime that is any way consistent with a Creature in return of this he would consecrate himself unto him with all the circumstances of perfection by which a Creature can be made his And which cannot be more than by a Sacrifice wherein he himself is destroyed and as much as may be