do assure you that your Sins are forgiven you and that hereafter you may presume to be the Adoptive Daughter of the Holy Ghost your demand is both difficult and without profit difficult because that I hold my self unworthy of the honour and priviledge of having Revelations without profit for you ought not to hope nor desire the infallible assurance of the remission of your Sins until the last breath of your life be spent when you shall have no more the power to be sorry for them Look at St. Paul who though rapt up to the third Heavens where he had so many Revelations yet he Chastises his Body and Mortifies his Flesh for fear That Preaching to others he should become a Reprobate himself And you that creep like a worm on Earth would you fain live in Security That is not reasonable dear and well-beloved Daughter too great a security is the Mother of Carelesness he that will not watch having his enemy hard by does expose himself to the danger of loosing his Life we must be always upon our Guard so long as we have occasion for Fighting Though these Verities cannot be contradicted and that the Testimony which our Spirit may give us to be the Children of God Quod testimonium reddit per effectum amoris filialis quem in nobis faciat D. Thom. in hunc locum is not Infallible however That ought not to be taken but as to Us and in the knowledge which we may have of it but as for the Holy Ghost it is most certain of a certainty of Faith that supposing the Grace of God in a man he is truly the adopted Son of the Holy Ghost because Grace cannot proceed but from that Eternal beginning St. James is of the same opinion for he says That all guifts come from above whence it follows that not finding a Father on Earth for this second Child we may justly derive his Pedigree from Heaven CHAP. IV. That there is in this Nativity a supposed Father as well as in that of Jesus SOme would fain take away from St. Joseph the Title of Lawful Spouse of our Blessed Lady because he was not the true Father of our Lord Jesus perhaps they grounded themselves on that Antient Tradition quoted by St. John Damascene Nicephorus Damasc lib. de fide 15. Nicephor ex Euodio lib. 1. cap. 7. Andreas Cret orat de dormitione virg Andrew of Crete other Authors viz. That the Virgins which were kept in the Temple when they came to be Marriagable were to be return'd home to their Parents houses But because that the Parents of the Blessed Virgin were already deceased the Priests to whom it belong'd to provide for them in that case thought it fit to deliver her over to Joseph only to be Guardian of her Chastity That Tradition might be further Authoriz'd by some certain Expression that the Fathers make use of as St. Chrysologue Josephus maritus solo nomine conscientia sponsus Chrysol ser 175. D. Bern. Hom. 2. in Evang. Missus who calls Joseph a Husband by Name and a Spouse by Conscience as St. Bernard who gives him the Title of Man because he was a Man of Virtue and no Married Man I grant that Joseph is not the true Filius ut putabatur Joseph Luke 1. but the supposed Father only of our Lord Yet it cannot be concluded thence that he was not the Lawful Spouse of our Lady such bad Phylosophy might bring us to stumble and totter in our Faith for the words of St. Luke are to be understood literally where it is said Suarez in 3 part Tom. 2. q 29. disp 7. sect 1. That the Angel Gabriel is sent to Mary Spouse to a man by Name Joseph Theology teaches us to distinguish three considerable things in Marriage viz. The Contract the Cohabitation and the Use the Contract is a mutual Consent of both Parties who do engage themselves willingly by a mutual Protestation of Marriage the Cohabitation is when both come to live together with a Resolution to partake each of them joyntly the Labours and Toyls of a Family and the use is the Power which both parties have to concur unanimously to the lawful Propagation of their Generation That last part without speaking of the second is not of the Essence of Marriage as you may find in the Decree of Eugenius in the Councel of Florence and in the four and twentieth Session of that of Trent and reason makes it appear for in the Marriage of Adam which was a true Marriage whilst they were in the Terrestial Paradice it is most evident they came not to enjoy the Rights of that Society So that the mutual consent of Wills without the use compleating essentially Marriage Joseph must be the true Spouse of Mary though he be but the suppos'd Father of Jesus 'T is an Honour and the ground of all his greatness for if St. Gregory Nazianzen willing to comprehend in short all what could be said to the advantage of his Brother-in-Law was content to conclude with these words Supremumscalae gradum cui Dominus innixus est Joseph obtinet sed quomodo Deus Dominus huic homini inixus est utique tanquam tutori pupillus quippe qui in hoc mundo sine pater natus est Ruper l. 3. de divin of l. 1. de glor hon fil hom That he was the Husband of Gorgonia so it is enough to say that Joseph is the suppos'd Father of Jesus for to comprehend in few words all that ever could be invented to set forth his praise and extol his merit This made the Abbot Rupert comparing the Genealogy of our Saviour to Jacobs Ladder say That Joseph was the last step thereof and that on that step Jesus does rest himself sweetly as the Orphan in the Arms of his Guardian who though he be not his Natural Father must perform the Duty of a Father to him as well to relieve the Mother in her necessities as to Foster and Cherish the Child to the utmost of his Power That being granted who shall be the suppos'd Father of the Child of Grace and of the Soul form'd on the Word-Incarnate by the operation of the Holy Ghost Filioli mei quos iterum partutio donec formetur in vobis Christus Gal. 4. v. 19 St. Paul would fain assume unto himself that Title of Honour when he speaks these words My little Children of whom I travail in Birth again untill that Christ be form'd in you Quidnam aluo illo beatius fuit qui tales filios parere potuit qui in se Christum haberent D. Chrysost tom 5. hom 10. de poenit versus initium My dear Reader here is what deserves a serious consideration to beget is an Action of a Father and yet the Child who is to proceed from that Generation must be call'd Christ It must be then that St. Paul is not the true Father for had he been the right
the same Grace which Magdalen received to wash off her sinful spots with her bitter Tears must not be a rule in its quantity for all forts of sinners For he that committed more Offences than Magdalen did ought to have a greater Repentance and shed more Tears than Magdalen Betwixt five hundred Pence and ten thousand Talents there is a great deal of difference I do respect and honour all the ravishing thoughts of those Holy and high Spirited men But let us reduce them all to an Unity let us find out one Guift one Payment one Satisfaction which by way of Eminency may be all Guift 〈◊〉 Payment all Satisfaction So that Offering it to God he must of necessity be contented and rest satisfy'd with our Oblation What is this precious Guift this plenary Satisfaction this absolute Payment Doubtless it is the Son of God a Son whom the Father hath given us and in giving him he gave us all that his Heavenly Court could afford so that if he demands of us that which appertains unto him and re-calls what he hath given us let us restore him back again his Son or at least another who may be like him and this is all that he can expect But how shall this be perform'd If it be true that the Phylosopher says Per quas causas quid componitur per easdem dissolvitur That by what causes a thing is compos'd by the same it is dissolv'd Then it must of necessity follow that we restore this Guift to God by the same ways we receiv'd it and by which this precious Guift descended down from Heaven to us He came forth from the abundant and fruitful memory of the Father the Original source of the Divine Persons he took his way through the Love of the Holy Ghost who cloath'd him with a Robe of mens wearing and hid him in a Virgins Womb for the space of nine Months The World hath seen him born in a Stable laid down in a Manger cry for Hunger tremble with Cold and die on a shameful Cross in the sight of all Nations There is the Child that God hath given us but he is not the Child that the Father will have from us because he has him already seated at his Right Hand in his full splendour and in all his Dimensions He aims at another who must be like him and who must also proceed from his Substance pass through the love of the Holy Ghost be clad like Christ be born die and buried with him for to rise up Glorious and mount Triumphing up to Heaven This is a second Child form'd by the model of the first and Him we must offer up to the Eternal Father for to clear off our Debts Here you have the Mystery of it 'T is true that the Son of God has found out a way for us to pay off our debts 't is the value and merits of his dying life but this price must be put into our hands He is upon his journey to Heaven what does he do for to leave us the handling of his Treasures he sends us his holy Ghost to whom he leaves his precious Blood together with all his merits as a Heavenly Seed wherein by the force of his Love he concurs to the conception not of the Son of God but of a Son altogether like the Son of God to the end that this Son so like unto the Son of God conceived in the Sacred Seed of Jesus after the model of the word Incarnate by the operation of the Holy Ghost may pass before God for an equivalent satisfaction and payment of all our Debts This is what St. Paul calls 2 Cor. 11. Pledge of the Holy Ghost which he reserves to give to men when that endeavouring to purchase Heaven they shall be demanded whether they have sufficient payment for its Acquisition St. Augustin is of a contrary Opinion for he will not have this payment to be called a Pledge but an Oblation to God Because that when the thing is restor'd for which the Pledge was laid out Pignus cum redditua res ipsa aufertur arrha autem de ipsa reddatur quae dando promittitur ut res quando redditur impleatur quod datum est non mutetur D. Aug. ser 15. de verb. dom statim initio the Pledge of course must be taken up and so God in giving us Heaven which is the purchase we aim at the Holy Ghost must take away his Pledge which is his Grace and that cannot be for it 's not the same with Grace as it is with Faith for Grace ought to subsist with Glory but Faith not so that this payment which St. Paul calls Pledge rigourously taken must be no Pledge but rather an Oblation to God which is a part of the thing we would fain buy and which cannot be taken away when the Contract is compleated And in effect Grace is the source and first beginning of Salvation which ends in Glory and hath its full consummation in Heaven Let us then give God this Gracious Child the second work of the Holy Ghost Aspicis Christum hominem Deum sed ostendit tibi Pater hominem servat tibi Deum D. Aug. Hom. 32. But we must give him to God in the same shape and Form as he gave Us his own Son reserving him Glorious with himself and suffering amongst us He did always cherish him within his Sacred bosom as him whom he doth engender from all Eternity Co-equal Consubstantial and of one and the same Nature But from himself he deals with him as with a Criminal and the chiefest of all Malefactors you would say that he doth not acknowledge him for his Son The same way we must offer and treat this second Son glorious and passible Glorious in the Cabinet of our Souls but passible in the exteriour of our Bodies Within we must consider him as the object of our most tender Affections give him a Princely attendance and Adore him without any dissimulation Exteriourly he must be a Crucify'd Love cover'd with Wounds Crown'd with Thorns and the perfect Portract of the man of sorrow Incarnate in a Virgins Womb 2 Cor. 4. v. 10. and laid down amongst the Beasts in a Manger for the Love of men But alas says St. Augustin our daily practice is quite contrary to this advice of St. Paul for Exteriourly we bear a most specious Jesus but Interiorly we cherish a most hideous Blackamore Christians in appearance and really nothing less in our hearts we shut up our Hearts with a Ring all guilded Annulo aureo corda obsignamus putridas intus paleas recondimus D. Aug. Ser. 10. Dom. 10. post Pent. and underneath lies nothing but dirt and Infection a heap of rotten straw the Apostle calls that To crucifie Jesus the second time You must beware never to offer that Child at the gates of Heaven he will never be taken for a Child conceiv'd in the Blood of Christ for he
to the Maxims of Theology that this Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate being that without the actual application of the Infinite Merits of our Saviour which is the main scope of all his Sufferings the Incarnation had been altogether unprofitable to each one in particular though most sufficient of it self to work the general Redemption of mankind So the Beams of the Sun though they be of their own nature capable to Heat and Enlighten yet they cannot work those effects on Bodies that will not admit of their Influences CHAP. VII That it is the Angel of Great Council who brings to the Soul the Word of her Conversion D. Thom. 22. q. 174. IT is certain that our Blessed Virgin was throughly instructed in the Mystery of the Incarnation in general however she knew not that her self in particular was appointed to be the Mother of the Emanuel Spiritualem conceptionem Christi quae est per fidem praecedit annunciario quae est per fidei praedicationem secundum quod fides est ex audita D. Tho. 3. p. q. 30. art 1. ad cum whose wonders she might have read of in Scripture It is the same case with man though he receives no Embassador to reveal unto him the Spiritual Conception of Jesus in his Heart he has notwithstanding the Faith which obliges him to believe that Grace is sufficient to operate that wonder though he be not assured by an Infallible certainty of its real possession However it was becoming and convenient that an Angel-Embassador should be dispatch'd towards the Virgin Citatus hic á D. Tho. art 2. in corpore Acceptum humanae restarationis principium ut Angelus á Deo mitteretur ad virginem partu consecrandam divino quia prima perditionis humanae fuit causa cum serpens a diabolo mittebatur ad mulâ—erem Spiretu superbiae decipiendam as well to reveal unto her the Decree of her Maternity as also to get her consent to the end it should be put in Execution It is by that way that the reparation of Mankind should begin says Venerable Bede That an Angel should be sent to the Virgin who was to be Consecrated by a delivery altogether Divine because that another Angel under the shape of a Serpent had deceiv'd the first Woman with the Spirit of Pride using all ways and Inventions possible to make her the accomplice of his Perfidiousness so the Arch-Angel made use of all the most pregnant Reasons he could afford to draw from the Virgin that Ecce the most Happy Source of our Salvation He does insinuate himself into her Favours by an extraordinary Salutation and never as yet practic'd says Origen for pronouncing the sweet Name of Mary he Honours her with three rare and wonderful Qualities Fulness of Grace Divine Communication Singular Benediction immediately he makes the Narrative of his Embassy discovers the Intention of the Prince who sent him the great advantages of the Dignity to which she is call'd the Grandeur and Excellency of the Fruit of her Womb and in fine for conclusion in few words after the fashion they treat with Great Folks he exhorts her to give her consent to all this Sacred Progress by the example of St. Elizabeth who by Divine Power was made Fruitful in her Sterility That being done the Virgin Consents the word is given the Mystery is accomplish'd and God is become flesh Contracting with Humane Nature The matter is otherwise carried on in our Conversions Notas facite in populis adventiones ejus Isaie 12. v. 4. an Angel must not suffice to bear the imployment there must be a narrow search made in the secret Cabinet of the Infinite Wisdom to find extraordinary Inventions to bring a sinner to give his Consent to his own Salvation Concilia cogitationes vias molimina ejus in redemptione generis humani Cornel hic The Prophet Isaih will have the Sacred Mystery of those Divine Inventions Preach'd over all the World all which inventions may be reduc'd to three things which if you will but Faithfully observe you will never do amiss The wise sets them down thus Eternal Verity Opportune Councel and the Crowing of the Cock Eternal Verity as being without any Errour Opportune Coouncel as conducing to a good end The Crowing of the Cock because it awakes us from Sleep which is the Image of Death And yet notwithstanding all those Inventions are for the most part Fruitless and without taking any effect in man though often represented and Preached efficaciously to him Here I find what is very strange that one Fiat draws all the World out of nothing One I will have it so conserves it in its Existence one Ecce brings down the only and dearly beloved Son of God from his Fathers Breast to his Servants Womb Three words of four Letters Fiat Volo Ecce works such high Mysteries without any opposition or difficulty and the whole Volume of Holy Scriptures infallibly Dictates of the Holy Ghost together with the secret Inspirations of his Love are not able to compass the Conversion of one obstinate Soul The Power of the Father Creates the Wisdom of the Son Conserves the Goodness of the Holy Ghost animates all things But as to the Justification of an Obdurate Sinner though the three Divine Persons contribute with all their Activity to it yet the Power of the Father is there without fear the Wisdom of the Son without Belief and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost without Love Liber literis exaratur palam contestans gloriam dei The Fathers Inventions in the Creation of the World to have himself obeyed are wonderful being that as St. Basil says All Creatures are as a great Volume written in very large Characters wherein all those Divine Wills and Pleasures are highly publish'd Adam after his dismal Fall is condemned to the labouring of the Earth a Mystical punishment to the end that he who would not obey his Creator by the motives of Justice should learn of this Terrestrial Element which being laboured brings forth Fruit in due Season how far less Rebellious is the Earth to the Stock and Plough than is an Obdurate Heart to receive the Inspirations of Heaven What can be more attractive than the amourous Inventions of the Son of God as well in the Examples of his Life whilst he convers'd amongst us as in the proofs which he left us of his Love when he withdrew his visible presence from us His Sacred Body expos'd on our Altars is that Preacher and Master mention'd by St. Lawrence Justinian Christus praeceptor est apertas codex in quo legendo meditando universa virtutum disciplina ediscitur Justinian l. 2. de humilit c. 12. who holds a Book in his Hand heretofore open'd on the Cross but now cover'd in the blessed Sacrament with the appearance of Bread and Wine Book of Life Copy of Truth Mirrour of Perfection It is there the Proud may learn and
with a generous heart all the difficulties and bad steps that he meets with in the Road if there be Hunger Thirst Cold or Heat he must be the first to feel it in his own proper Person Can there be a Christian if he be not a greater Coward than a Thersite who will not take a strong resolution to convert himself to Jesus Addit deinde Apostolus ibid. Et obliti estis consolationis quae vobis tanquam filiis loquitur c. follow his Colours fight under his Conduct being that besides Heaven which he does promise us as the reward of our Victories he does oblige himself to comfort us as often as we fight and as long as our Combat shall last CHAP. XXIX That the Immortality of our Soul ought to make us undervalue the World ARchimedes the Geometrician did boast in his days that he would make the Earth get out of its Center if any would assign him a point out of the Earth whereon he might fix one of the Rods of his Compass whether that be possible or no Cum interrogas unde sit anima utrum quasi regionem ejus patriam unde huc venerit nosse desideras propriam quandam habitationem animae ac patriam Deum ipsum credo esse à quo creata est substantiam vero ejus nominare non possum non enim eam puto esse ex his usitatis notisque naturis quas istis corporis sensibus tangimus D. Ang. tom 1. de quantitate anima cap. 1. circa initium I refer it At least I can tell for certain that the effect of his Art had never any Existence but in his own imagination And yet bragging that he would do it has acquired himself the admiration of all Antiquity If God had reserved those poor Pagans to live in the Age of the Evangelical Law they would have far greater reason to admire the inventions of him who placed Heaven and Earth out of their Center There was a Man who gave such strong shakes to Heaven and Earth that he forced them to change their Center He is the Son of God who taking humane flesh has brought himself to nothing and in the point of that humiliation has made himself the Center of the World Heaven did incline it self to come towards the Earth and the Earth leap'd with joy for having by a new transmigration found so perfect a settlement hard by its Center Quid de anima firmissime teneam non tacebo anima hominis immortalis est secundum quendam moâ—um suum non enim oâ—â— mâ—do de siâ—â—t Deus de quo dictum est quia sâ—lâ—s habet immortalitatem Paâ—lo â—nferius This wise Philosopher teaches us another Secret no less to be admired than the former which is not only to make the Earth change its Center getting it a place in the very middle of the Firmament but also to draw down the Firmament to give it place in the middle of the Earth The Christian Sed quod ita moritur alienata à vita Dei ut tamen in natura sua vivere non omnino desistat c. D. Aug. to 2. de natura origine animarum Epist 28. non longè à principio who has a firm belief of the immortality of the soul is an admirable Mathematician who can when he pleases set the Earth where Heaven is and Heaven where the Earth is He sets the Earth where Heaven is when that walking without the gallery of his sences he launces the thoughts of his spirit into Eternity for to contemplate the wonderful productions of Paradise and that glorious Inheritance whereof a Terrestrial creature pretends to take possession He sets Heaven where Earth is when with St. Paul he converses among men as if he had lived in the company of Angels entertaining nothing in his spirit but Angelical thoughts Seneca the moral Philosopher in an answer he makes to one of his Friends who earnestly desired that he would be pleased to prove the immortality of Souls makes it well appear Habet anima mortem suam cum vita beata caret quae vera animae vita dicenda est sed immortalis ideo nuncupatur quoniâ—â—â—qâ— alicumque vita etiamsi miserrima est nunquam 〈◊〉 vivere â— c. fuse that it lyes in the power of man to do that wonder telling of himself that he did exercise himself a long time in that imployment altogether Divine You have very much troubled me in my rest says he to his Freind for when I received your Letter I was giving my soul the fore-taste of glory and charming the drousiness of my Body by the sweet thoughts of the Immortality of my spirit D. Aug. to 3. l. 14. de Trin. c 4. statim mitio I was of belief that there was nothing in the world able to divert me from so happy an entertainment You have crost me in the object of my delights importuning me about a question of which all well-tempered souls ought not to have the least scruple You had obliged me more had you either abstained from writing or written to exhort me to live conformable to my belief Would to God that the effect of that repartee of Seneca had happened to be true among Christians and that such as are imployed to instruct the people Imago Dei invenienda est in animo hominis id est rationali sive intellectuali imago creatoris quae immortalitati ejus est insita Aug supra c. 3. were not obliged to trouble themselves to prove that verity so conformable to nature that the very Heavens according unto the saying of the learned Suares imprints in our bodies a certain feeling of immortality I must acknowledge with Aristotle in his charmes that some unfortunate genius jealous of so great an advantage has pierced our hearts through with a fatal nail and makes us like so many Estriches who can well strike at our flanks with our wings But the corruption of our nature which is no other than the Philosophers nail makes us always to incline downwards without giving us the liberty to look at Heaven until that a favourable Zephirus comes pleasantly on to solace our weakness by the powerful contribution of its forces and makes us to enjoy that innocent pleasure St. Augustin speaks of which is to live Immortal in the corruption of the Flesh by the serious meditation of Eternity And really if a Christian will but give himself the least leasure to think on this Subject he will soon find out Cleombrotus in hac animi magnitudine teperitur quem ferunt lecto Platonis libro ubi de immortalitate animae disputavit se praecipitem dedisse de muro atque ita ex vita migrasse ad eam quam credidit esse meliorem D. Aug. to 5. l. 1 civit c. 22. that his Spirit is immortal He knows well that Nature suffers no Powers to stand idle or useless She has given them sufficient
Caelo super c. Rom. c. 1. v. 18. with Scandalous Invectives shall they not fall into the same misfortune that the King of Jerusalem did and suffer the punishments which his Sentence did bear The Apostle Saint Paul speaks of a certain anger of God reveal'd by the Heavens to chastise the Impiety of some Souls who do retain his Verities in Injustice I know well that in the natural sense of the Letter Vera Dei cognitio quantum est de se inducit homines ad bonum Sed ligatur quasi captivitate detenta per injustitiae affectum per quam ut in Psalmo dicitur diminutae sunt veritates a filiis hominum D. Tho. in hunc locum he would speak of them who before the Incarnation though they had known the necessary Being of a Divinity highly establish'd in the Principles of Nature dare not nevertheless whether for fear or otherwise publish the belief of it But I am deceiv'd if he had not also a design to intimate unto Christians the Chastisements of Heaven ordain'd against them who in an unjust silence would detain captive the most adorable Mistery of the Incarnation And in effect what is it otherwise to hold the Verity of God in Injustice as St. Augustine remarks but to shut up Jesus Christ and his Graces in a Prison under the locks of a perverse will 'T is this consideration has mov'd me to choose among other Subjects which I bethought of to furnish matter to my Pen Spiritus Domini super me propter quod unxit me evangelirare pauperibus misit me sanare contritos corde Luke 4. v. 18. to treat of the Infirmities which are incident to our corrupt Nature having my self contracted a share of them in the Subterranean Mansion where the late Troubles have confin'd me for the space of two years And as the sick Body can have no sweeter thoughts than them of a Cure for his Distemper I resolv'd to treat of a Powerful Remedy for the Salvation of our Souls whose Health is infinitely more to be desir'd than that of the Body adoring always the receipt of our Soveraign Doctor fix'd on the Cross I will discourse of this Remedy with a methodical instruction of a singular application to each sinner in particular Contritis per penitentiam datur gratia sanans vulnera peccatorum Lyran in c. 4. Luck I may well give this little work the Title of the Second Nativity of Jesus among men being that it is the Accomplishment of his Adorable Incarnation We shall give it a further Light in our following Discourses For the present it will suffice to say in short that as it was necessary of a conditional necessity that the Son of God should Incarnate himself in the womb of the Virgin to re-establish Humane Nature in general in the Rights of Heaven Even so it is necessary of a like necessity that the same Son by the actual application of his Graces do descend into the Heart of each one in particular before they can pretend to the least Happiness of Paradice 'T is that actual application of the Graces and infinite merits of Jesus to each sinner in particular which may be well called the Second Nativity of Jesus Holy Virgin pardon me if you please I do not doubt but that at this sole word of Second Nativity your Heart Saintly jealous of the Title of Divine Maternity will straitly oblige me to put it out of all apprehension of any Ferreign Interest being that to You alone and with exclusion to all others doth appertain to be the true Mother of Jesus Multae mulieres beatificaverunt Sanctam Virginem illam ejus uterum optaverunt tales fieri matres D. Chrysost hom 450. in Matth. refertur in cat ad c. 12. Matth. and to Jesus to be your true Natural Son Ah! Princess of Heaven who would ever dare to contest with You the Honour of that Quality which is the Source of all our Happiness and the greatest of all your Titles If St. Chrysostome said heretofore That many Women Sanctifying your Person and Blessing the Sacred Fruit of your Womb have desir'd to be the Mother of God as you are they were but simple wishes which had rather for their Object the admiration and ravishment of your Felicity than the belief of ever being able to attain to it Your Dearly Beloved Son how ever has thaught you heretofore what we ought to understand by that way of speaking when that with his own mouth he did establish another kind of Maternity compatible with yours Quae est mater mea qui sunt fratres mei extendens manum in discipulos dixit ecce mater mea fratres mei Mat. c. â— 2. v 48. Do you remember O Blessed Virgin how you have heard him when as he stood at the gates of the Temple some one went to tell him that his Mother and Brothers were looking for him He dissembling but a dissembling replenish'd with Mysteries demands as if it were abruptly who is my Mother and who are my Brethren And at the same time stretching his Hand towards his Disciples there is said he my Mother there are my Brethren For who ever fulfils the will of my Father who is in Heaven he is my Brother my Sister and my Mother St. Jerome believes that he who brought this news to our Saviour was carried on by malice and evil Faith because that he would fain try if the Messias Non autem fastidiosè de matre sua sâ—â—â—sse existimaâ—â—â—â—s est cui in passione positus maximae sollicitudinis tribuit affectum D. Hilar. Canon 12. in fine who treated of no other thing before the Scribes and Pharisees but of the Will of God his Father and of the Marvails of Heaven would not suffer himself to be carried away with the unruly affections of Blood and Flesh thereby to interpret sinistrously the Purity of his Designes 'T is therefore he answers to the intention of his Adversary without any regard to the Literal signification of his Words And so makes appear that far from disowning her that was inseperably joyn'd to him in the fact of Predestination But on the contrary as Mary is no other than a Virgin and the Mother of God in the immovable project of Eternity So Jesus in the plenitude of times could not behold her otherwise than under this venerable Title which by the Law of Nature doth oblige to all respects He doth suppose then that she is his Natural Mother And adds a kind of Consanguinity of Love which ought to be found in all sorts of Faithful who by the accomplishment of the Caelestial wills shall deserve to engender again Jesus Christ in their Hearts In propria venit c. Joan. 1. v. 12. wherein not only the Women as St. Chrysostome says but also the men may be the Mothers of God What a Pleasure it is to hear St. John explain the sacred Subordination of that double
Alliance of men with God both in the Mystery of his Incarnation and in the Mystery of his second Nativity Our Saviour says he is come unto the World as if it were unto his own and his own did not receive him To them nevertheless Potestas est potentia stabilita per adventum Spiritus unde patet quod non est in aliquo potestas in quo non fuerit prius potentia naturalis quia est in hominis voluntate ut possit fieri potestas si non ponit obicem gratiae Hugo Card. in c. 1. Joan. that had receiv'd him he gave power to be made the Children of God That power says Hugo the Cardinal is a stable Power determin'd by Grace and fortified by the Holy-Ghost A Power says the same Doctor which supposes Nature already prepar'd to give it no obstacle nor opposition with a great difference however for the Natural Power which we have to be the Children of God may be seperated from the Almighty Power Because that is but a simple possibility far from any Act this follows the conditions of liberty which in the advantages of Grace is near to its effect Great God says St. Augustine is not your Love without measure for men You are not at all of the humour of the Children of the World who are afraid to have many Brothers Co-heirs that they alone might succeed without any Associates to the Inheritance of their Parents You are the only Son of the Father and yet you do not desire to remain the sole Heir of his Substance You call without any exception to the Rights of Heaven and Eternity all them who undervaluing the Dross of the World shall believe in your Gospel We must not wonder at it for the Wealth of the Earth being divided groweth less the Wealth of Heaven contrariwise by communication doth increase St. John pursuing the History of the Incarnation adds Quasi securitatem faciens ait verbum caro factum est quid ergo miraris quiahomines ex Deo nascuntur attende ipsum Deum ex hominibus natum D. Aug. to 9. tract 2. in Joan. sub finem And the Word is made Flesh Remark the Coherency Dear Reader he comes to establish the Second Nativity of Jesus in the stable Powers of our Liberty And to the end says the Great St. Augustine that this should not seem incredible to any that a pitiful Creature should be Honoured with a Title not imaginary but subsistant of Divine Filiation he says that God is made man as if he were to draw this consequence if the Omnipotent Power of a God infinitely Adorable contrary to the ordinary Laws has abased it self to the union of a Nature so abject of it self as Humane Nature is Who will doubt but that a sinner Anima namque habet aliquam propinquitatem ad Deum Treophilactus in c. 1 Joan. touch'd with the Graces of Heaven and Converted by a sublime elevation may approach to the Throne of the Divinity there to receive by pre-eminency the Title of a Filial Adoption What were you willing to teach us O Saviour of the World when nail'd on the wood of the Cross Cum vidisset Jesus matrem discipulum stantem quem dilegebat dixit matri suae mulier ecce filius tuus Joan. 19. v. 26. whereon you were rendering to men the last proofs of your Love looking with an Amorous Eye at your Mother you said unto her that from thenceforth St. John should be her Son Will you refuse her after your Death what you would not take from her during your Life What a heart-breaking would it be to the Virgin when after the Death of Jesus thinking to discourse of high affections to comfort her poor Heart afflicted for his absence she should be denied ever to call him again by this worthy Name of Son more sweet than Honey No this Commandment would be a thing impossible and Love that knows not what it is to Obey where there is question of a Division would never consent to the rigour of its practice 'T is that St. John at the foot of the Cross was the figure of the Adoptive Children of Grace And to the end that the Virgin should acknowledge them for such Love them and Cherish them as she who ought most to Interess her self in the common and particular good of men Our Saviour says to her Woman behold thy Son unspeakable Happiness to see that he who had for his Lodging the Bowels of Mary should be pleas'd to assign us for a residence her proper heart Or else let us say Sicut portavimus imaginem terreni portemus imaginem Celestis 1 Cor. c. 15. v. 49. that by his last Will and Testament he was to give her an excellent proof of his Affections by leaving his Image deposited in her For every sinner Converted by the Grace of God is the Image of Jesus Crucified according to the Apostle's Doctrine follow'd with a rare thought of St. Augustine D. Aug. lib. de Sancta virginitate for after he had said that the Virgin is our Mother Mother by Spirit as she is our Saviours by Nature he goes further and remarks that she bears her Spiritual Children in her Bosome not for the space of nine Months only but as long as they are in this Life and is not deliver'd of them untill she introduces them to Heaven That is also the aim and scope of all the design of this Work wherein we shall make appear how that by the powerful endeavours of Grace the Holy Ghost labours incessantly to make us conceive the word of Salvation whose term must be Jesus form'd in our Hearts and 't is that which I shall call hereafter the Child of Heaven and of Grace and particular Saviour I am deceiv'd if St. Mark would not fain speak of this Sacred Fruit when he tells us That the Messias one day took a little Child in his Arms Quem cum complexus esset Mark 9. Math. 18. v. 2. and having set him in the middle of his Apostles Embrac'd him tenderly Where St. Matthew adds That he told them if they would not become like unto that Infant they should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I omit divers Interpretations of this passage to speak of that of St. Jerome who by that Infant understands the Holy-Ghost and says That he who by Grace is Converted unto God D. Hieron in catena ad c. 18. Matth. receives the Holy-Ghost who bears him Testimony that he is a Child of God Who will doubt but that the Eternal Father will embrace this Infant for the resemblance he has with his First Born The Son acknowledge him for his Younger Brother and the Holy Ghost own him for his own Work In a word my Dear Reader Omnis qui filio Dei credit conservatur secundum Evangelicos actus conversus ambulat quasi puer Qui autem non convertitur ut fiat sicut puer
reality of this Mystery than to have recourse to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar and to say that after the Sacramental words pronounc'd by the Priest in the Consecration the Body of our Saviour is there really present not in Figure as our Adversaries say but really and in Substance Even so immediately after the last disposition of a Penitent Soul which is a true and hearty disliking his offences with a firm resolution of amendment God is really and truly present to that Soul by a most intimate and intire communication of his Nature and of all what he has so far that if it were possible that God should not be present with all other things by Presence Power Cornel. in c. 2. Act and Essence he must of necessity be found in a heart that is in the state of Grace The Royal Prophet did foresee somewhat of the greatness of these wonders Omnis consummationis vidi finem lâ—tum mandatum minis Ps 118. I have seen says he the end of all Consummation as if he had said I often imploy'd my understanding to consider the ways of the Infinite Wisdom of God in his government and conduct of men Quid enim latius hoc mandato dilectionis quo sic meus humana dilatatur ut intra substantiae suae palatium majestatum possit capere patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Rupert lib. 11. in Joan. cap. 3. the greatness of the care and esteem he has for them But I must ingeniously confess that the Master-piece of all his Wonders the Abridgement of his Clemency and the consummation of his Love is to see that a Sinner converted by the powerful Assistance and attractions of Grace receives and contains in the Substance of his Heart all the Three Persons of the Trinity And that all three do concur with all their activity to draw from the purest Affections of the Soul whereby to Organize a second Son of God Ut sit ipse primogentius in multis Fratribus Rom. 8. who without any prejudice to the First his Eldest Brother will bear his Image and perfect resemblance as being his younger Brother by Adoption Apoc. 22. Angels of Heaven use what Compliments you please to St. John who offers to prostrate himself at your feet tell him if you think it fit that you are his most humble Fellow Servants and that you will never admit of his submission For my part I will not fear to say that did I know for certain that a man were in the State of Grace I would make him a more profound Reverence than even to the sign of the Cross For though the Cross puts me in mind of the shameful Death on mount Calvary however it is but a Sanctification grounded on the bare touching of our Saviours Body which supposes no other Title of special presence besides the general which is Essential to all things I would behave my self towards him and in a manner treat him with as much respect as I would the most Happy and ever Blessed Virgin whilst she bore in her Chaste womb her dearly Beloved Jesus setting always aside the dignity of Mother which extols her above all degrees and orders of Saints and Angels to the Honour and Worship of Hyperdulium My reason for it is that as the real Existence of the Child in the Womb of Mary is the ground of my Respects Even so the intimate presence of the three Divine Persons in the justify'd Soul should oblige me to pay her my most humble Respects and Homages The Patriarchs and Prophets did with frequent Sighs wish and long for that Happy day which was appointed from all Eternity to let them see the Messias Ah! Earth they would say open your bosom and spread wide open your womb to bring us forth the fruit of life the Flower of the field the Lilly of the valleys Heavens give free passage to the sweet influence of that Coelestial dew which hath been so long since promis'd to us Moments shall be to us as days Days as Years Years as Ages and Ages as Eternity until we see the expected by all Nations Jesus the Redeemer of the World Let him come he shall possess our Hearts and have our Affections let him be Incarnate we will Adore him let him appear and we will all follow him If I durst authorize the design of this little work on the ardent Sighs of Patriarchs and Prophets and on their earnest desire to see Jesus in the state of his last Nitivity I might say that all the following discourses are but so many wishes lanc'd towards that happy moment wherein we shall see Souls disclose their Breasts and enlarge their Affections to give a free passage to the Sacred influences of the Divine Spirit who may give therein a second Nativity to Jesus Wishes which the Antient Bishop of Sevile did express in handsom terms and in the name of the Church Laetare ergo in Domino eo quod non sis fraudata a defiderio tuo nam quos tanto tempore gemitu tristi oratione continua concepisti nunc post glaciem hyemis post duritiem frigoris post asperitatem nivis velut secundam agrorum frugem laetos veris flores vel arridentes vinearum stipitibus palmites repente in gaudio peperisti Leand. episc Epispal orat de convers Gothorum which had seen the accomplishment thereof in the Conversion of the Goths Rejoyce you in the Lord O Mother for a time sad and very much perplex'd because you have not been disappointed in your expectations for at one only Birth you have engendred an Infinite number of People to your Christ Them that you have conceiv'd so long ago by the sadness of your Tears and the continuation of your Prayers you see them now engendred to your great satisfaction and joy even as we see with content a Rich Harvest in the fields the Flowers of Spring-time on little Hills and Blossoms on the Vine-trees after the Frost of Winter and when the sharpness of Cold and Snow are gone and past CHAP. III. Who ought to be the Father in this second Nativity THough humane nature has produc'd a Mother to the Son of God yet it was not in her Power to give him a Father and if it had she would not presume to offer him one for fear of losing the value and dignity of the price which this Divine Child was to give for the payment of our Debts If he be call'd the Son of man It 's either as St. Epiphane remarks that it is he who ought to be Incarnate according to the prediction of the Prophets Epiph. Adversus naetianos her 57. or as St. Gregory of Nazianzen observes Because he was descended from Adam the common Father of Mortals by the way of our Blessed Lady D. Greg. orat 4. de Theol. But the most solid reason in my judgment is that of St. Augustine who will have that the Messias be call'd the Son of man
of his main Grief and Sorrow is a sufficient strong argument to make you believe that you shall never purchace Heaven nor attain to any considerable stock of Virtue but by the Touch-stone of Mortification and Pennance For if Heaven suffers Violence and that the Son of God had it upon that account how can we pretend to it at a cheaper rate Whatever way you look upon this Spiritual Generation it can never be accomplish'd without Grief For first if you look upon the Soul when she receives the first Seed of the word of God what trouble what pains she is in to conceive the Fruit of Life what resistance she finds in her self to a strong resolution of Amendment A little more of my Unlawful Pleasures says St. Augustin to morrow to morrow I will withdraw from the World and quit all my evil Inclinations but why not this day See the Battle re-mark the resistance we ought to stand always in fear of some bad issue in us of the word of God seeing we are so backward to receive it Nec statim finis industriae addidisse sed tunc alterius laboris exordâ—um est ut lactentem infantiam sedulis nutrimentis studiis usque ad plenam Christi perducat aetatem D. Hier. in c. 3. ad Galat. so unwilling to entertain it and so prone to blot it clear out of our hearts Moreover what pains is man at to bring this fruit to perfection when once conceiv'd he must have it always in his arms wrapt it up in Clouts give it the Tunick of a right intention and the double Vest of Charity until that it comes to the perfect Age of Jesus But if this Seed be cast on a malicious and stony Heart what violence must there be to bring that fruit of Life to Perfection and tear assunder the obdurate Skin and Sinews of that rusty body of our inveterate malice What streams of Blood must run from the Mothers Womb and what cruel Gripings must she suffer before she comes to be deliver'd no love for the World nor there must be no Friendship for Flesh and Blood These are the preparations absolutely requir'd by the Prophet-Royal to make this new born Child appear in his full lustre to the World Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me Psal 118. The number of my Sins says he has made up for my poor Soul a net of Ropes wherein all Inspirations from Heaven are intangled and Putrify'd Putruerunt corruptae sunt cicatrices meae à facie insipientiae meae Psal 37. v. 6. as if they had fallen into a most rotten Sink My continual folly and my re-iterating so often my Crimes has thoroughly corrupted my Sores but my Remedy is near at hand a True Repentance to have ever offended so Patient and Merciful a God and therefore by the assistance of his Holy Grace I will break loose the Cords of all my Abominations and Crimes Laboravi clamans raucae factae sunt fauces meae Psal 68. v. 4. and will cry and call so long to the Heavens for relief to my weak endeavours that my Voice shall become altogether Hoarse Was ever poor man so intangl'd in the Ropes of his Old Imperfections as St. Augustine was But was ever poor man so perplex'd or did ever any man labour so much to get loose as he did in his Confessions he would move a stony heart to compassion Here you may see him stretch'd on the ground and suffer as much as one troubled with a Wind-Collick there you may perceive him get up of a sudden as one troubled with a Convulsion-fit here the running streams of his bitter tears make a channel from his Eyes over all his Face there he lies in his sad dumps without any feeling he goes Ecce intus eras ego foris ibi te quaerebam in ista formosa quae fecisti defermis irruebam me cum eras iterum non eram vocasti clamasti rupisti suditatem meam fragrasta duxi Sâ—ritum anhelo tihi gustani esurio tetigisti me exarsi in pacem tuam D. Aug. tom 1. lib. 10. confes c. 27. per totam he comes he speaks like one Distracted he is so tormented with his evil he calls God to his assistance he arms himself with Impatience against himself his Spirit sets him on but his Flesh retains him he will and will not and by not willing what he wills he puts himself to a deal of pain he sees that he must of necessity Break loose with the Devil if he aims to serve God and enjoy his Glory But the old acquaintance of Ladies those alluring and deceiptful pleasures of the World heretofore his greatest Joy and only Recreation now look at him with a Smiling countenance and renew his wounds to make him miscarry Augustin your doleful expressions moves me to compassion but you must have Patience It 's a Sentence pronounced at the Bar and by the Conclave of the Blessed Trinity that your Delivery must be with Grief and Sorrow and that you must undergo a great deal of hardship if you do intend to bring forth another Jesus on the Model of the Word-Incarnate CHAP. VI. That this Sorrowful Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate ACcomplishment is a term and a way of speaking much us'd by Phylosophers to express the last perfection of each Nature either in the constitution of her bare Being or in the further flourishing or ornament of her well-Being And as in the division of Beings there are found four sorts Metaphysical Physical Moral and Artificial so each has his accomplishment as well Essential as Accidental I do not here take the word Accidental in its rigorous signification for that which can be and not be without the corruption of its subject but only for all that does not enter into the precise constitution of the Essence Let us leave those terms to Phylosophers Let us come to the point and say that the Incarnation may be reduc'd to many states First if we do consider it in the Eternal and Infinite Conceptions of God not as yet determin'd by the difference of times then its Essential accomplishment shall be Gods Eternal determination of the same viz. That among many other means which he might make choice of for to work the Redemption of man he resolv'd the Incarnation of his dearly beloved Son with an obligation of Suffering which determination puts a stop to all other possible ways of Redemption to bring it to that of a Suffering and Crucified Love And in so doing I may reduce the Incarnation to a Metaphysical state But the Physical state is that Hypostatical Union ever to be Ador'd which has joyn'd together in the fulness of time those Extremities so far assunder the Divine and Humane Nature and which has given us the Divine Child Jesus and only delights of mankind for to put in Execution that work so much importing the Welfare and Happiness of all
Mortals The Incarnation in its Moral Being Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris Is 12. v. 3. is the wonderful Virtue of the Divine Sacraments which the Prophet-Royal calls The Fountains of our Saviour whence we ought to receive with joy the Waters of Grace which may conduce us to an everlasting Life So Baptism that represents his Death the Eucharist his Birth the Sacrament of Pennance his Resurrection are Moral Causes which by their formal Effects the Essential accomplishment of their Nature confers us Grace by the Virtue of the first Agent to whom they are only Instruments As for the Artificial Incarnation they are the amorous inventions of the Holy Ghost which bring along with them as many particular differences as they have divers Motives to bring us to good And as the Painter's design is never to leave off until he compleats the Pourtract according as he conceiv'd it in his mind even so the Holy Ghost whom our Saviour does promise to send to his Church has for the Sacred Object of his imployment to labour with so much Industry to the Conversion of sinners that he will never give over his undertaking until he forms in our hearts the perfect image of Jesus unless we do oppose him so far by our evil ways as to oblige him to withdraw his hand from us as from a piece of work altogether incapable of his impressions Delens quid adversum not erat chirographum decreti quo erat contrarium nobis ipsum tulit de medio affigens illud cruci Col. c. 2. v. 14. The Incarnation in its essential accomplishment is brought so far to its last Perfection that no more can be added to it for the Essences are like numbers which suffer no further Addition without an alteration of their Species Jesus has pay'd our Ransom in rigour of Justice The Title fix'd on the Cross in all Languages makes it out says St. Paul He found us a Soveraign Remedy to Cure us of all our Evils Justitia Dei per fidem Jesu Christi in omnes super omnes qui credunt in eum Rom. c. 3. v. 22. there is nothing wanting on his side to the general good of our Redemption but in as much as the general merit of the Incarnation before it brings to any one the particular efficacy of its influences does include an actual application on our side as an absolute condition of Contract the which not being perform'd does make all void we may say that its accidental Accomplishment is perform'd by the actual application of this general remedy without which the Passion of the Son of God though of Infinite Merit in it self shall be to me altogether unprofitable so that I shall remain in Darkness and sit in the shadow of Death if I do not by a special concurrance of my liberty work efficatiously the accomplishment of my own Salvation St. Paul comprehends all what I have said in few words A dimpleo ea quae desunt passionibus Christi Colos c. 1. v. 24 I do fulfill says he what things are wanting to the Passion of Christ I know that the Heretick Besa on a Commentary falsly Father'd upon St. Ambrose instead of these words I fulfill the things that are wanting sets down I fulfill the rest but his explication is groundless and without any reason being that the rest means something of an abundance and a surplus of a full sum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It does also import a great deal of ignorance of the very Rudiments of Grammar for the Greek word in its natural signification is only taken for a defect or want of some accidental Perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is further explain'd by the word Accomplish which in the Greek is taken as well for to Accomplish as for to Supply what is wanting of any thing The Angelical Doctor St. D. Tohm hic in comment Thomas takes this Accomplishment of what is wanting for a part of the Eternal Decree not as yet fulfilled which are the Merits and Co-operation of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ The Head who is Jesus and whose Merits are Infinite has acquir'd his last Perfection but his Members who are his Faithful Sons and who by proportion must have their particular merits receive not their Accomplishment but by measure and according as they do suffer with Christ Usque adeo praesentibus non terreor persecutionibus ut mihi parum esse videatur quod patior quoadusque in me passio impleatur D. Hier. in c. 1 ad Colos. It is therefore St. Paul says That he does supply the part which is wanting of that Eternal Decree by afflicting his own Body and that without any intermission as St. Jerome remarks until that the Passion of Christ be fully compleated and accomplish'd in him Arboreus taking the matter in another Sense says that the Apostles and the Evangelical persons who by the obligation of their Charge are called to the Conversion of Souls Idcirco hunc bonorum omnium autorem pro ratione nostri officij praedicamus suscipimus extollimus monentes unum quemque ut studeat pro viribus in Christo perfectus evadere Arborâ—s in c. 1. Col. have for Imployment to go over all the World with the Son of Gods Decrees and Orders and to supply in mens hearts the Sacrament of their particular Conversion in the Absence of Jesus who is no more on earth by his Corporal and Visible Presence Would you not say to hear this Doctor speak that he takes Jesus for a great Physician and that he looks upon the Apostles and Preachers as so many Apothecaries Jesus before he died did fix his Receipts for our Salvation upon the Cross The Apostles peruse them compose the Medicines and give it to the Sick to be taken Venancius Fortunatus to parallel the two Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul calls them the Gates of Heaven and the two Lanthorns of the Universe who by Orders from Heaven bring Light over all the World and labour to accomplish what is wanting to the Passion of the Son of God The one pours out of his Mouth Inflaming Words to bring the good to a high Perfection the other lets fly from his Pulpit Thunders to frighten Sinners St. Peter holds the first Place by virtue of his Charge and Supremacy but St. Paul surpasses him by his Profound Doctrine and Preaching as many as the one acquires by force of his Arguments and rare Eloquence Corda per hunc hominum referantur astra per illum Quos docet ille stylo suscipit iste polo. Fort. l. 3. Carminâ—m as chief Orator of the Church the other receives them into Glory as appointed Porter of Heaven by Jesus Christ and both strive with a Holy Emulation who shall best fill the Vacant Seats of the Revolted Angels with Souls Converted by them to a True Repentance These things supposed I may lawfully say without any offence
any want being you have the management of all my Treasures that also you have the Keys in your own custody I boarded you at my own Table where you have been serv'd with the Bread of Angels Upon what account then have you taken that resolution to serve another Master The obstinate Worldling continues still his purpose to have the World for his King whatever betides him Well says God you shall have it for your King being you are of that mind go on you will soon repent your bad choice You know not as yet the Master you desire to serve his Laws are most rigorous his Government Tyranical his Scepter a Rod of Iron I may soon let you see by a most sensible deduction what a sad thing it is to serve the World and how often you meet there with what you never look'd for The wishes of a Man in the World may be reduced to three heads either to content his ordinate appetite refusing nothing to his Senses or to have a great deal of Wealth to put himself in Vogue among the People or to have a good Issue of Children to suceeed him in his Inheritance and keep up his Name My opinion is that a Man's condition in the World is most unlucky in all those three respects But first I must tell you that your King the World has many Vice-Governours who will pretend to a Mastership over you so that by serving that unhappy King you bind your selves over to many Masters Covetousness will tell you that you are his Servant and that you have from him your Gold and Silver as a Reward for your good Service Letchery will alledge that you are his Servant because that he gave you a Feast of a moment for an Eternity of displeasure Hi velut irrâ—tionabilia pecora naturaliter in captionem in perniciem in his quae ignotant blasphemantes c. 2 Petr. 2. v. 12. Treachery gets into Judas and tells Jesus that he is none of his Servant for the Devil his Grand-master bought him to betray his Saviour and Lord for Thirty pence though he drinks with you he tells him he sells your Blood to me he is your Apostle but my Hireling Now as for the pleasure of the Body besides that it is to resent the Beast and the Epicurian Quid deliciarum foeditas mali non inducit sues ex hominibus facit imo vero etiam multo majores sus enim in luto volvitur stercore nutritur hic vero abominabilem magis mensam sibi construit iniquas commixtiones excogitans hic nullo cettè à daemonico discrimine separatur D. Chysost homil 58. in Matth. I will tell you that it could never as yet nor ever will afford it any true pleasure for they should be true and solid either by the cause that produces them or by the Subject that receives them or by the effects that follow them The cause that produces them is a vicious and corrupt nature which is cursed by the mouth of the Omniponent in Genesis What good could ever come from a bad Principle the Subject that receives them is Man who is it that ever was made happy by taking his pleasure I know that the foolish sort of this World have received from Satan a new kind of Religion wherein they have but two Articles the one is never to Think or trouble their mind for things to come The second Article is never to deny to their Appetites what pleasures the present time can afford But I remit such as are of that Belief to natural Theology which if received in their Hearts may dissolve all those Clouds of Ignorance if they do not set a stop to its light If they do I must then remit them over to experience which I may call a night Lanthorn The effects that follow do likewise shew the Malignity of the Cause for in exchange of one pleasure you have a thousand sorrows for a moment of Joy eternal Punishment their lamenting and the Tears that come from their Eyes are sufficient witness of the bitterness they do resent in their Hearts To find in the World a Child who gives any true content to his Parents Utile est mori sine filiis quam relinquere filios impios Eccl. 16. v. 4. is a rare thing on Earth he must be an Arabian Phoenix who can well be described yet never found out but once in an Age Their birth is waited on with Lamentation and Tears Pueritia tua adolescentiae tua inhonestamentum fuit adolescentiae senectutis dedecoramentum senectus Reipublicae flagitium Isidor lib. 2. Orig. c. 21. and with a deal of reason to the end the Fathers and Mothers should observe and set down in their memorials that the first day they became Parents they begin to spin a Thread which would lead them into a Labarinth of Afflictions It is better to depart this World without Children than to leave wicked ones behind says the Wise for you shall see some hardly come to the use of reason play such mad prancks Ossa ejus implebuntur vitiis adolâ—scentiae sua cum eo in pulvere dormient Job 20. v. 19. that they rather seem to be an Off-spring of Hell than the production of any Christian Race the Breasts that they have Sucked in my opinion were more full of Malice than of Milk being that their Souls are better stor'd with bad habits than their Bodies with any good substance which makes me believe that they will be rather the Blood-suckers of those that gave them the Breast and Birth than their Relievers and Staff of their old Age. Job confirms the same thing he says that an old Man will carry the Crimes of his Youth along with him to his Grave Equus iudomitus evadit durus filius remissus evadit praecipâ— Eccl. 30. A wild Horse you may be sure will be hard mouth'd and a wild youth will run head-long to his damnation if he be not strictly kept under and curb'd this is the feeling of the Holy Ghost and it must be very true A poor Father will run himself headlong into so many Inconveniencies Filii dum pueri sunt parentibus differunt capitis dolorem dum vero adoleverint cordis dolorem Proverbium Belgarum he will deprive himself of the influences of Heaven and Earth to have them fall on his Son thinking that he will be the Staff of his Old-age and the Pillar of his Family But it happens to the contrary for in lieu of a Staff of Old-age he has but a Reed full of wind and for a Son a Tyrant to torment him every day and every hour By sending him to the Academy he thought he should return home a true Nursery of Wisdom the Honour of Virtue and the unchangeable Defender of Justice but all his Hopes are chang'd into an Abiss of Sadness for he is become a Monster of Malice an abominable Scandal to all the World by day he is
Lights with such a deal of Liberality that you would say he would exhaust himself Per solem intelligi potest non iste visibilis sed ille de quo dicitur vobis qui timetis nomen domini orietur sel justitiae per pluviam irrigatio doctrinae quia bonis malis aparuit evangelisatus est chorus D. Aug. tom 4. de serm domini in monte lib. cap. 46. and deprive Himself of Himself for the good of the World so far as to oblige the very Rocks to open their bosoms and receive his Influence So our Saviour and Redeemer of our Souls true Sun of Justice seated in his Throne of Glory pours down with both Hands the Blessings and Divine Influences of his ardent Love all Breasts though never so hard are water'd with his Graces to let every one know that his design is to banish from our hearts the clouds of our Ignorance and the Obstinacy of our Malice The Prophet-Royal seems to dive further into the secrets of this comparison when he says that not only he is Enlightned with this Divine Light Non est qui se abscondat à calore ejâ—â— Psal 18. v. 7â— who presents himself without any resistance to receive his effects But also that Jesus is a fire who brings his heat into the most frozen Souls to molifie and dissolve their Ice Hence it comes that God sometimes dispatches an Angel from Heaven on purpose towards a Sinner obstinate in his Abominations Ite Angeli veloces ad gentem convulsam dilaceratam c. Isa 18. v. 2. who passed over all the days of his Life in the cold Winter of his In-devotions to open his Heart for to receive the Flames of his Love Another time he commands a Preacher Vocatio gentium hic describitur liberatis de manibus mundi Sathanae per Christum facta heu inquit terra quae es sita ultra Aethiopiam quae scates fluminibus id est terra in extremo orbe posita synec dochicè ultimas Vatabl. fererivo hist and an Apostolical Missioner to cross the Seas hazard his Life and break off all obstacles to meet with a poor Sumatre a Javan an Indian a Japanian to Preach the Gospel to him give him a full knowledge of the Mysteries of our Redemption make him to forsake his Barbarous ways and Behaviour as also the Worship of False Gods to live hereafter under the Government of one God and of one Law that requires and commands nothing but Love and Peace The Eternal Wisdom joyntly with his Paternal Providence are so forward to maintain the Union establish'd in the order of Creatures at their Creation that the grand pieces of the Universe would sooner quit their stations than fuffer any disorder or dis-union among them In case of necessity you would see the Earth ascend and the Firmament to descend sooner than suffer any void place within the inclosure of Nature The Divine Providence in matter of Grace and Communication of his Favours observes the same Rules for sooner than suffer any vacuity in a Soul or give occasion to any reasonable Creature to complain that he had not received sufficient means for his Conversion The Seraphins in Heaven who live only by the ardent Flames of Gods Love and who by their charge are always the next to his Throne as being the Angels of his Privy Council They would notwithstanding sooner forsake Heaven if it were necessary to bring into a Sinners Breast the Light of Grace and draw him out of all danger of everlasting loss by force of Cords and Ropes In funiculis Adam traham eos Osee 11. v 4. Non arbitreris istam asperam molestamque violentiam dulcis est suavis est ipsa te suavitas trahit D. Aug. tom 10. serm 2. dâ—â—verbis Apostoli You would sooner see the dead Carcasses revive and get out of their Graves to Preach to the Living than they should be depriv'd of sufficient means to work their Salvation St. Peter will have all men to humble themselves under the Powerful Hand of God and cast all their care on him because that being our common Father he has engaged himself to provide for us in all our necessities Omnem solicitudinem projicientes in eum quoniâ—m ipsi cura est de vobis 1 Petr. c. 5. v. 7. The Vessel of Election St. Paul who more particularly than the rest of the Apostles seems to extol the Uniformity of God's Graces says openly that in their distribution he keeps such an equality Idem Dominus omnium dives in omnes Rom. cap. 10. v. 12. that the Jew has nothing to boast of more than the Grecian because that he is absolute Lord of the one and of the other always resolved as for his part to open in such sort the Treasures of his Riches to this Man that the other shall have no occasion to say that he is positively excluded from any share CHAP. XIV That the Infidel and Still-born Children cannot complain of God Omnes homines vult salvos fieri ad agnitionem veriatis venire c. 1 Tim. cap. 2. THe Infidel cannot complain of God's proceedings in matters of Salvation though he had been hidden among the rest of wild Beasts in the Caves and Dens of the lower Thebaide had he been far more wild than Tygers and fierce than Lyons For the general propositions of Scripture which give us to understand Sine acceptione personarum judicat c. 1 Petr. 2. v. 17. that God wills not the death of any person but that every one be converted and live that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Truth Quinque modis vult Deus omnes salvos fieri 1 sâ—b conditione si ipsi volunt 2 cum impletione quia nullus nisi eo volente sanus fit 3. cum distributionis restrictione id est de omni genere aliquos colligit enim electos à quatuor ventis 4. de praesenti quas effectivè id est facit omnes velle quia omnes naturalitâ—r volunt salui fieri 5. de futuro siâ—qâ—e praecipit consulit exortatur ut salui fiant que omnia sunt signa divinae voluntatis Gozram ex glossa in c. 2. 1 Tim v. 4. that all the Earth is replenished with his Mercy that he acts without any exception or Partiality must fall out to be so true that Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass over than the least point should want its accomplishment For the Nature of general propositions is to subsist in their truth in each one of the Individuals that are within their Praecincts As for example all men are subject to Death this is a general Proposition Then John Peter Paul and so of the rest by Deduction must of necessity submit themselves to the rigours of Death God will have all men to be saved this is a general Proposition then of necessity the Infidel who falls under that
influences of his Liberalities The favours which God is pleased to do us are without number for whoever could exactly set down the Riches of the Earth the Profits of the Seas the Commodities of the Air the Necessity of the Fire the Fecundity of the Moon the Wonders of the Sun the Influences of the Heavens the Multitude of Beasts and the Number of Fishes the Beauty of Flowers Quid dicam quemadmodum clementia Dei humanae prospexit utilitati Foeneratum terra restituit quod acceperit usurarum cumulo multiplicatum homines saepe decepiunt ipsa foeneratorem suum forte defraudant terra fidelis manet c. D. Ambr. lib. 3. Hexam cap. 8. the Ornament of the Universe and the Diversity of so much Treasures all that appertain to Man by a free and authentical gift Signed Sealed and set up in the Register-Office of the Divinity Let all the Monarchs of the World be Assembled in one for to furnish Man with the least and meanest part of all those Goods their abilities shall become short And to the end that we should have our obligations all entire to him who with so liberal a hand gave us so much Riches he has deprived all other Creatures both of Understanding and Reason That not knowing what they were nor what they had they might not appropriate to themselves that whose Possession was reserved for Man only They commonly say of a Father after his death that he loved his Children dearly when he left them an ample and rich Patrimony or a Succession in a very good Estate an Inheritance without strife yet after his Decease it falls out that the Children are at a deal of pains and trouble to preserve their Goods The Gifts of God in the beginning were not accompanied with these incumbrances For if a Man had conserv'd himself in the Innocency of his Creation the Earth which is now become a Rebel to the Stock and Plough had opened her Bosom without the least violence to give him his Livelihood and which is more if in the same disorder we are in at present and where we suffer the punishment of Sin by the general revolt of all Creatures there were Men who would entirely submit themselves to the wise conduct of the Eternal Providence without being so over-earnest in the cares and concerns of the Earth Scripture assures us that they should be abundantly provided for in all their necessities For if God doth cherish all that came from his bountiful hands Considerate lilia agri quantus sic candor in foliis quemadmodum stipâ—ta ipsa folia ab imo ad summum videantur assurgere ut scyphi ex primant formam ut auri quaedam species intus effulgeat quae tamen vallo in circuitu floris obsepta nulli pateat injuirae D. Amb. lib. 3. Hexam cap. â— if he covers the Flowers with Purple and Scarlet if he nourishes maintains and preserves the little Birds of the Air if he keeps an exact account of each Leaf of a Tree what will he do for Man had he been the wickedest of all Mortals This Sun of Justice will never deny him the benignity of his Influences being that he will have the distribution thereof to be made as well to the good as to the bad with that differenc e that the good do participate not only with the bad of the common Goods of Nature which is equally shared but as yet receives by way of pre-eminency extraordinary favours Si foenum agri quod hodie est c. Matth. 6. v. 30. So we see Fathers and Mothers authorised by all good manners and customs make over a special and free Gift to one of their Children who will among all the rest be most obedient to their Commandments who will have more inclination to serve them and who by the effects of their good nature shall as a Stork render the Duties of Piety to them who gave them their Being a Gift Judged irrevocable by all Laws as well written as introduced by Custom chiefly when the cause of merit is exprest in the said donation And though it should be subject to a decision God who is the absolute Master of all Goods and owes nothing to no body advances whom he pleases and none can bring him to question for it much less find fault with him And as the Goods which concern the Salvation of Man imports him more than those who aim at nothing else but the present life So God besides the general Graces which he imparts to all without exception he reserves some particular Graces for them that he takes to be the most worthy objects of his Love The fashon whereby God loves us Quod homo homini det multae possunt esse causae Paulo inferius Deus non indiget aliquo cum ipse det omnibus vitam inspirationem comnia si peccaveris quid ei nocebis si multiplicatae fuerint iniquitates tuae quid facies contra eum patet ergo quod ex pura liberalitate deligat nos Deu. Hugo Card. in c. 3. Joan. is no less considerable For the manner of acting of all sorts of Powers is what extols and gives a lustre to the action God loves us not for our good Offices done to him being that we are declared Criminals by his Divine Majesty even from our Mothers Womb. It 's not for having continued Faithful in his Service since we were re-called by our Baptism to the Rights of an Adoptive Filiation being we no sooner came to the use of reason but we began to be refractory to the Holy Laws of Heaven It 's not by our loving him he receives any Surplus of Glory For as our Creation has added nothing to the merit of his Power by drawing us out of that Chaos So his reducing us to nothing would lessen in no respect the Dominion of his Grandeurs Seneca de Clementia Cinna was cherished by Octavius Caesar who chose him for one of his Favourites to whom he was more inclined to impart his most secret Affairs Cinna could not conserve himself any long time in that Honourable Imployment He detracts from his Prince murmurs against his designs censures all his best actions Caesar hears of it Caesar dissembles and seeing that Cinna had subject to complain that making him his Favourite he did not as yet Treat him according to his merit He takes on a resolution to advance him gives him Riches suffers him to have the handling of his Treasures sets him at his ease and invested him with the most Honourable Imployments that were in the Senate hoping that this wild Spirit overcome with so many Civilities would be constrained to bear him an affection Cinna more ungrateful than ever at the very first up-rising of the Commonwealth where all the Factious did Monopolise against the State nay against the very Person of Caesar casts himself amongst them he will be of the Party and makes himself the most concerned in
imployment about their own proper Objects otherwise the Author of Nature had fail'd in his work For example in vain had God so Artificially wrought out the Eyes which he has plac'd in mans Forehead as the Organs of his Visual Faculty if withall we could not behold the Beauty of Colours which cannot be said without Blaspheming against the Sacred Proceedings of the Divinity It 's therefore that the same Author of Nature who had grafted in each Faculty a seeking Inclination for its Object has likewise set in the Object other Inclinations for the inquisition of its faculty Man has a faculty of Understanding and Reasoning De animi immortalitate multi etiam philosophi gentium multa disputarunt immortalemesse animum humanum multis multiplicibus libris conscriptum memoriae reliquerunt D. Aug. tom 8. in Psal 88. which is as essential to him as his proper Nature being that it is his chief difference by Virtue of that faculty he passes when he pleases beyond all what is material among the Creatures shapes within himself their Species and having reduc'd them all to a small Volume he lodges them within the roof of his Understanding Nay which is more he takes his walk into the very imaginary spaces where he finds other Heavens other Worlds possible wonderful handsome if God had been pleas'd to reduce them to Act This is not as yet enough his activity admits of no bounds until it comes to the knowledge of an Eternal Immortal Impassible Being which must be the originary principle of all things If that be so and that our Spirits go beyond all Creatures to contemplate on that which is Eternal Immortal Impassible and that moreover the faculty ought to enjoy its Object we must conclude two necessary Verities the one that our Spirits are Immortal the other that they are Created to participate of that Immortality which God gives us as a reward for our good Service If the matter had gone otherwise Man who is Created to the Image and Resemblance of God to be the Happiest Creature in the World would remain the most miserable of all Creatures For if we do consider the strength of his Body Qui animae suae curam gerunt c. Paulo infra Lyons and Bulls surpass him If the length of his years Trees are far beyond him If the Subtility of his Eye-sight the Eagle surmounts him If the Health of his Body Ipse non oportere contraria facere existimantes Philosophiae ejusque solutioni ac purificationi ad hanc viam se convertunt sequentes illam qua praeit ac ducit Plato in Phaed. the Fish has the advantage If Riches the Bowels of the Earth may argue with him of Poverty If Contentment the Birds of the Air make but a mockery of his Pleasures If good Cloaths and Rich Garments the Roses and Lillies are cover'd with Satten with Purple and Scarlet Whereas he sees nothing on his back but the Spoils of dead Beasts It 's then necessary that there be another state wherein it must be found true Ubi mors ad hominem accesserit mortale quidem ipsius ut apparet moritur immortale vero saluum incorruptum abit c Plato ibidem that Man is the most Happy of all Creatures This cannot be here on Earth where Corruption joyn'd with Inconstancy Nurse of Alterations and Changes suffers not any thing to subsist long without decaying and finding its doom where it had its birth The Saviour of the World ordain'd the days of his Incarnation to teach all Faithful Souls the place so much to be desir'd of their Eternal rest he makes them a publick Lesson of it in the famous Sermon on the Mount where the common sort made up the main part of his Audience He proves by formal Induction of all the Beatitudes and Consolations which may happen to Man that there is none true or solid here to be found on Earth consequently that Heaven must be their place Quod si immortalis est anima cura sane opus habet c. Paulo infra Cercidas the Arcadian was at deaths door when being demanded if he did not fear so cruel a Separation Contrariwise my Friends hitherto 't was my Body that liv'd under the rigorous Laws of an urgent Destiny it must be restor'd to the Earth that demands it Nunc vero cum haec immortalis esse videatur nullum aliud fuerit ipsi refugium neque salus à malis praeter quam ut optima sapientissima fiat nihil enim aliud secum transiens anima ad inferos habit praeter eruditionem ac educationem Plato infra being that we must restore to every one what appertains to him As for my Spirit which is Immortal it goes to the Elisian Fields where it shall meet with Pythagoras the Phylosopher Olympus the Musician Hecate the Annalist Homer the Prince of Poets That brave repartee would sound better in a Christians mouth when his Frends exhort him to resign himself to Death if with a Spirit truly Faithful he would say Alas what is your reason to exhort me to take Death in good part I have no such great cause to desire a longer Life being that the Tears which drop from my Eyes at the hour of my Birth and the continual troubles which have accompanied the rest of my days have preached no other thing to me than the necessity of this passage For my part I hope in the Mercy of my God that he will admit me into the company of the Blessed Virgin Hamana anima ita immortalis est ut mori possit ita mortalis ut mori non possit c. Paulo inferius Ut ergo breviter dixerim immortaliter mortalis est mortaliter immortalis D. Greg. l. 4. Moral in c. 3. Iob. c. 7. Si cor hominis in manu Dei multo magis anima si anima in manu Domini est non utique anima nostra sepulchro simul cum corpore includitur nec busto tenetur sed quiete pia fungitur of all the Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and the rest of the Blessed For if the day that the Prisoner sees himself discharg'd of his Irons freed out of his slavery drawn out of a dark dungeon to enjoy his beloved Liberty live in the company of his Freinds and enjoy the sweet Air of his native country is pleasant and grateful to him Know that the moment of my departing brings me no less consolation my nature has loaden me with Irons my Body made me a meer slave my Actions have cast me into a dungeon if the Commissary knocks at the door I do rejoyce for it is to make me enjoy the true liberty live in the company of Gods servants and enjoy the sweet Air of Heaven the native country of all blessed souls why should I not then take death in good part being that I always believed the Center of my soul could be no other then the
nothing here but the bare use of things as all other Creatures nothing remains to him but the Immortal thoughts of Heaven to maintain himself in the advantage of his pretentions Let us then aim at Heaven our Native Soil if we be not willing to be placed among the number of Bruit Beasts and to the great undervaluing of the wise conduct of Jesus who by the thoughts of Immortality desires to wean our affections from the Earth and bring them to purchase an Immortal Glory CHAP. XXXI That the Angels are imployed to the Conversion of a Sinner I Do no more admire that Antiquity represented Love to be blind now that the super-adorable Sacrament of the Incarnation of Jesus has given us the full knowledge of that Riddle and taught us that we must not understand it of Humane Love but of Divine whereupon Theology gives us a notable distinction of those two Loves For Humane and Prophane Love which never labours but for its own Interest never does engage it self in the pursuit of any Object but what it supposes to be both good and worthy of Love and in so choosing it seems not to be blind But Divine Love by Loving renders what it Loves amiable can find therein no charms able to captivate tho' it Love but what proceeds from his own proper goodness It 's therein that it seems to be blind being that it loves a thing which is known before-hand to be nothing amiable Hypoâ—iposâ— A great Monarch moved to compassion at the disgrace of his Subject whom he sees reduced to that extremity as to Beg from door to door without the least overture of any ease to his misery Willing to release him out of that Thraldom becomes bound for him to his Creditors clears him of his Debts assigns him over a House of a thousand Crowns Rent commands his Officers to put him in possession of it and that none should dare to molest him in his Rights There is a great Love indeed This Subject forgets the good will and favour of his Prince he commits a crime of Leze Majestie in the first degree there he is condemned to die his Sentence is solemnly pronounced his Posterity must be blotted out of Mens memory a Piramide raised whereon in great Characters all Ages to come may see and read the horrour and grieviousness of his Offence Before the execution of that Sentence the Monarch comes and grants him his Pardon gives Orders that all the pieces of his Process be brought out of the Registers-Office of Parliament stands by and sees all burnt This is not all he commands upon pain of Death that a word should never be spoke of to his disgrace Of a meer Clown as he was he makes him a Gentleman gives him his Patents of Nobility and to confirm them he makes him a Knight of his own Order without doubt that is a particular Love This is not enough this Subject dies and leaves Children behind him who are like to be crossed by those that envied their Fathers great Fortune This Monarch apprehending such a disorder has an Inventory made of all his Goods puts the Money out to Use appoints a Prince of the Blood to be a Tutor to the Orphans and will have beyond all common Laws that he become accountable to him for the true Administration of his Charge Blind Love never to be paralel'd Jesus is our Monarch we are his Subjects Before the Creation what were we A no Being a meet negation a pure nothing Adam is no sooner come out of the Matrice of that Chaos but God puts him in Possession of Heaven and Earth expresly commanding all Nature to obey his Orders he commands his Angels to cast a Line and mark out the Platform of a Royal House of a magnificent Pallace of a Terrestrial Paradice All being set in good Order they bring him into that Inheritance he was not there full three hours when that by an Act of Fellony he becomes refractory to his Divine Majesty and by a manifest Rebellion he undervalues the Ordinances of his Sovereign through the unruly Appetite of a most vile concupiscence All Creatures would have been revenged of so great a disorder and the very insensible themselves drawing up his Process would have punished him in the very place but that the Dauphin of Heaven the Son and Heir of the Eternal Father undertakes to accommodate that matter makes himself to be put into his place takes from Humane Nature by Incarnation whereby to repair that disorder and make full satisfaction to the Parties offended in rigour of Justice through the Infinite Merit of his Proctorship The Criminal is restored to his Rights which he lost through his disobedience all the pieces of his Process are brought out of the Eternal Fathers Register-Office and nailed on the Cross never to be produced any more against the Transgressors does not this shew the greatness of God's Love for Men. Love goes on always increasing as the Morning-star and even as the fire never stops the course of its activity until that all combustible matters which entertains its action be taken away So the Divine love never gives over to spread its flames whilst it finds objects capable of its Impression And in case he finds none he creates some For man the second time becoming insolent and being surprised in Rebellion his Arms in his hands that is committing of actual sin was resolved to nail once more Jesus his Redeemer on the Cross as St. Paul tells me Action which ought to set a stop to the course of his love but that he puts a mask on his eyes and seems not to take notice of our insolencies he appoints his Priests to be Commissaries to examine and judge the Delinquents but with orders not to deal rigorously with them nor according to all the points of Law and that he will never fail to confirm the graces of Absolution which his Judges shall give so be that they do attest the repentance of the penitent Nay and which is more he is resolved to give them Letters of Nobility and make them Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost if they do but leave off their base trading with Creatures and exercise themselves in the noble actions of Heaven and Salvation And because that those extraordinary favours will be an object of contradiction and of revolt to Devils by reason of their ancient jealousie of our happiness God even to hinder their bad design has put us in the Safeguard and under the protection of good Angels making them our Overseers to manage his Graces in us and improve his Inspirations in our hearts whilst we shall remain in our minority The Articles of that Overseeing are distinctly set down in the Holy Scripture in the Book of Exodus Exod. 23. where among other advices which God gives to Moses and to all the popularity of Israelites for to pass happily through the Desarts never to be weary in their journey to get the victory
the means of the Species and Images which the Spirit of Man invisible Painter draws from all the material Objects I say Images which bear no other name in our Schools than that of diminitive entities so much they are to be admir'd in their smalness The Angels who are superiours to Man as well by the Nobility of their Nature as by the constitution of their Essence have also the shapes and Images of all Sublunary things which give them a full knowledge of their singularities after such wonderful ways that there is nothing here on Earth but is perfectly represented to them in Heaven by their Pourtraits which they do so artificially devise within themselves but with this difference that Man by the long experience of things which he knows and perceives by his Sences takes even the Copies thereof and forms their Images on the model of the objects whereas the Angel who has neither Organs nor Sences to shape those Images and intelligible Species receives them from God immediately and by way of infusion from the very moment of his existance A acknowledge which is the foundation and ground of all the Angels power in regard of Men moreover to shew that the Saints now Canonized in Heaven have a particular care of those that are as yet on Earth besides the Article of Faith which obliges us to believe that according as their Knowledge does increase to a greater perfection so their Charity also will become greater and of a more vast extent The same it is with Angels whose powers may be reduced to two Heads pursuant to the two sorts of knowledge they have in relation to men The first is relating to Man in the state of his corporal and individuall nature Banc. in 1 part D. Tho. q. 57. art 1 p 740. not only touching the generality of his Essence but as yet in the singular circumstances of the Accidents and special Rencounters which are to befall him So the Angel of St. Peter for Example from the very instant of his Creation received from God by infusion an intelligible Species whereby he might know him when he would come to the World and with such particular marks that he could in no wise be deceived in such sort that the same abstractive Image which he receives of St. Peter before he comes to the World is the self-same which brings him to his knowledge when he is in the World wherein he partakes of the Excellency of that Eternal Idea which being but One and most simple represents unto him without any change things possible and actual God gave not this knowledge to Angels of our Persons Angelis suis Deus mandavit de te c. Psal 90. Petrus de Natal l. 4 c. 141. De excelso coelorum habitaculo ad consulendos visitandos adjuvandum nos attrahit supereminens charitas Angelos propter Deum propter nos propter seipsos Author libri de diligendo Deo apud Aâ—g to 9. c 3. in â—ine nor of the accidents which happen to us but with that weighty obligation to have a special care of us God commanded his Angels says the Prophet-Royal to direct and secure your steps in the slippery Ways and paths of the Earth that your foot may not meet with a stumbling Stone which might give you a fall It 's so that the devout Pilgrim of Orleance continuing his Journey to St. James in Calice received no hurt by the Robbers who waited for him at the passage of a River to plunder him for his Angel Guardian transported him to the other side of the water sooner than his Enemies could put their hands to their Arms to take away with his purse his life which was dearer to him then all that the World could afford him The second knowledge of Angels on the fact of men is to know the Supernatural means necessary to their Salvation among which the most adorable Mystery of the Incarnation holds the first rank as the chiefest and whereof depends all the rest with this difference that at the first instant of their Creation Faith made them only believe the chief motive thereof whereas at the second moment they had seen in the word both the motive and the particular circumstances as are his Nativity in the Stable his Death on Mount Calvary his Resurrection from the Tomb the Sacrament of Baptism the Institution of the Eucharist and the rest which were to follow that general motive And this for two Reasons the one touches themselves the other regards Us That which touches Them is being that Jesus Christ according to St. Pauls Doctrine was appointed supream Head both of Angels and Men Hebr. 1. and the first among the second objects of their Beatitude they could not affix themselves to him but they must have had him in perspective by Faith and in enjoyment by the Word and in the Word That which relates unto Us is that the Angels by the Duty of their charge being obliged to procure the Salvation of Men and to be the Ministers thereof according to the same Apostle it was convenient that they should know all the appurtenances of the Incarnation Otherwise God would have ordained them to an end without giving them the means to attain to it it would be to make them Guiders and Leaders to Men without knowing where to conduct them and have no ground to exhort them to the veneration of those Mysteries if they had not a former knowledge of their merits Now if the Devils at the first instant of their Creation knew the substance of this Mystery yet they stopt there without passing any further Christus Dominus tantum innotuit daemonibus quantum voluit voluit autem quantum oportuit D. Aug. 9. civ c. 22. not only because they would not know the circumstances of it in the Word for That was a Priviledge reserved to the blessed and which was deny'd to the Devils as being Apostates and Rebellious Spirits but only as for the Incarnation brought to pass in the difference of times they remained always doubtful whether the Son of God should or could die for Men until that by three Actions which could not come but from an Agent who resented a fulness of Divinity To wit to resuscitate glorious from the Tomb to bring the Fathers out of Limbo and mount up to the Heavens by his proper Virtue they were compelled against their Inclinations to confess with respect and fear what they did obstinately contest before We must then fear no more the Devils in the enterprize of our conversions For besides that all their power is under conditions and so little advantagious to their ill-will for us that they cannot hurt us but with our own consent we are assured in the behalf of our good Angels that they have both the power to comfort strengthen and also assist us without limitation and a good will to discharge themselves faithfully of their duty without weariness and upon all occasions CHAP. XXXV How the