glory and humility which ravisheth Christians and confounds Infidels These cannot comprehend that the Son of Man is the Son of God that he that is equall to the Father is his servant that he gives Orders and receives them that he commands and obeyes that he comes down upon the earth and yet never leaves heaven that he dies and still lives that he is confin'd in a Sepulcher and yet fills the whole world This Miracle prepares us for the belief of another no lesse strange then the former For if we consult the Holy Scriptures we shall find that the Son of God was made the Son of man for no other end then to make us the Children of God he was humbled that we might be exalted and he hath facilitated the belief of our future greatness by the example of his debasement His birth is a pledge of ours he was born of a woman but to assure us that we might be born of God neither was he apparelled with the flesh in the womb but to perswade us that one day we shall be clothed with glory in the heavens And this is the Argument the most illuminated of the Evangelists makes use of to establish our second Generation for having taught us that Baptisme and Faith give us God for our Father fearing lest so high a promise find no credit in our understanding * Venit Filius ut illo participantemortalitatem nostram per dilectionem nos efficeret participes divinitatis suae per adoptionem Aug. de Cons Evangel he gives us the Generation of the Word for an assurance of our Regeneration and having ravished all men with those magnificent words He gave them power to become the Sons of God hee discovers the cause of that miracle and clearing us of one wonder by telling a greater he tells us man may become God since God by an excesse of love was willing to become man And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us This is the admirable argumentation of St. John and the solid establishment of our greatness 'T is by this unparallel'd example that hee prepares us for the belief of our mysteries this is the proof all the Fathers make use of to perswade us that the misery of our condition can no way hinder us from being the children of God since the glory of the Word was no obstacle to his being made man Give me leave to expresse these wonders in the words of S. August Vt homines nascerentur ex Deo primo ex ipsis natus est Deus Non quaesivit quidem nisi matrem in terra quia jam patrem habebat in coelo natus ex Deo per quem efficeremur natus ex foemina per quem resiceremur Noli ergo mirari quia efficeris Filius Dei pergrat am quia nasceris ex Deo per verbum ejus prius ipsum Verbum voluit nasci ex homine ut tu securus nascereris ex Deo diceres nasci voluit Deus ex homine ut immortalem me faceret pro me mortaliter nascitur Aug. Tract 2. in Joan. and to joyn the pomp of his eloquence to the majesty of my subject God that makes all things with so much justice was willing to bee born of a woman that men might might be born of him He sought out but one Mother upon the earth because he had already one Father in heaven being born of his Father he made us being born of his mother he re-made us associating by an admirable conjunction the quality of Creator with that of Redeemer Wonder not then if by grace ye are the Sons of God since ye are born of him by his word nor thinke it strange that ye shall be one day immortall in glory since God in his second Generation became mortall was willing to suffer death upon the Crosse for our salvation Thus his Charity makes us like him his goodness surpasseth the miseries of our nature and renders us partakers of his glory so that there is no Christian but may boast that his Baptisme confers upon him by grace all the advantages Jesus Christ possesseth by nature and that the Mystery of the Incarnation being repeated in the faithfull by their new Birth exalts them by a happy Indulgence to the greatness of Jesus Christ The Sixth DISCOURSE Of the Adoption of Christians and the advantages it hath above the Adoption of Men. IF it be true that the end why the Son of God was made the son of Man was that we might be made the children of God we need not think it strange that the adoption of a Christian is one of the chiefest effects of Baptism nor that man changing his condition by his regeneration change also his Father and Mother But it is a thing very well worthy our admiration to consider that he is adopted by a Father who having an onely Son equal to himself should in reason cast out all adopted children were he not obliged to accept them at the intreaty of his own proper Son Adoptio nuptiarum subsidium fortunae remedium supplet sterilitati vel orbitati Jurisc For to take this Truth at the rise and unfold the wonders contained in it we must know that Adoption was invented among men to supply the barrenesse of Parents or the death of children Indeed t is a thing never heard of that a Father to whom Nature hath given a Son should adopt another and seek that in a strange Family which he may find in his own He would beleeve himself to offend against paternal charity should he divide it and injurious to his Son should he assigne him coheirs Though this be his only one he never resolves to provide him companions neither hath he ever recourse to this remedy but when the death of his son makes it lawfull in making it necessary In the mean time the Eternal Father adopts us though he have an immortal Son he extends his affections to us and admits us into his Family to make us share in his Inheritance But that which most furprifeth us in this Oeconomy is That he undertakes this designe at the request of his Son nor does he honour us with the condition of Children till Jesus Christ hath honoured us with that of Brethren 'T is one of the chiefest motives of his incarnation and we may say that he had never chosen a Mother upon earth but that he might have Brethren in heaven He is the onely begotten in the bosom of his Father He shares not this quality with the Holy Ghost and as their processions are different one is the Son the other the Spirit of the Father the One remains in his bosom the Other in his heart the One proceeds by Knowledge the Other by Love But this onely Son is first born of the chaste spotless womb of the Virgin by his temporal birth he gains Brethren and clothing them with the robes of his merits obligeth his Father to avow them for his Children For we
we consider that the Apostles served as interpreters to the holy Ghost that he spake with their mouthes and that he resided in their hearts we shall not conceive it strange that he that subdued Egypt with an army of flies converted the world by a few fishermen This spirit which was the force of the Church was also the light as it assisted her in her combats Impleti Spiritu sancto loquumur repente linguis omnium arguunt fidenter errores praedicant saluberrimam veritatem exbortantur ad poenitentiam indulgentiam de divina gratia pollicentur Aug. epist 3. ad Volusi it instructed her in her doubts and as often as she would resolve a difficulty or settle an Article of faith she consulted the spirit of her welbeloved and finding truth in his answers she pronounced nothing but Oracles to her children I see nothing more venerable and august in the infancy of the Church then the first Councell held in the City of Jerusalem to decide a matter that might separate the Jews from the Gentiles It was not convened with so much pomp as others have been there appeared not the Ambassadours of Christian Princes because the whole Church was included within the walls of one onely City there were no Philosophers who made use of the vanity of their Sciences to impede the progresse of the truth of the Gospel there were no strange Nations because all the beleevers were of one Countrey the epitome of the Universe was not seen in one Convocation because the Church had not yet displayed her banner neither in Europe nor Africa But there might be seen the Lieutenant of Jesus Christ with a zeal worthy of his charge there was the Bishop of Jerusalem who was to water with his blood the Church that he had built by his example and instructed by his sermons there might you see the Apostle of the Gentiles take the interest of the people he had newly converted and prove by his reasons that the Gospel being the accomplishment of the Law they were not to make that live again which Jesus Christ had crucified with himself upon the Crosse But of all the circumstances that give an excellency to this Councell above all others I am ravished with none so much as with that great assurance and unshaken confidence the Apostles begin their decisions withall For they acquaint us that they were the Organs of the holy Ghost that he that resided in their hearts expressed himself by their mouthes that he pronounced his Oracles in their words and confirming all they had ordained he had no other sence but theirs Visum est spiritui sancto nobis It hath seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us Let Kings conclude their Edicts in termes never so absolute let them second their reasons with that imperious clause Such is our pleasure and let them prescribe laws to their subjects liberty they shall never perswade us that the holy Ghost is the Authour of their Ordinances and that he that spake by the mouth of the Apostles speaks by the mouth of Monarchs Infallibility is promised to none but to the Church and to the head thereof there is but that Assembly alone that makes the holy Ghost vocall Truth is suspected in the mouthes of Philosophers and Oratours Soveraigns are constrained to have recourse to force to make their laws valid and of credit The Church onely can impose obedience upon her children when she will Potest fieri ut homo mentiatur non potest fieriut veritas mentiatur ex v ritatis ore cognosco Christum ipsam veritatem ex veritatis ore cognosco Ecclefiam veritatis participem Aug. in Isa 57. because to her alone is promised the assistance of the holy Ghost He is her Authour because he formed her in her birth he is her strength because he defends her in persecution he is her light because he instructs her in her doubts and he is her Spirit because he gives her life motion and direction The second DISCOURSE That the Holy Ghost is the Heart of the Church THough there is not any part in a mans body useless or unprofitable yet Natural Philosophy acknowledgeth the Heart and the Head for the two principal The Head is placed in the highest and most eminent seat as the Soveraign having all the Senses as so many faithful ministers gives orders aad sheds influences thorow the whole body of the State thence every part receives Sense and Motion and no sooner is there any obstruction that hinders the commerce of the Head with the rest of the Members but they remain stupied or benummed The Heart is not inferiour to the Head in dignity And we may affirm the Body an Empire that obeys two Soveraigns without the inconvenience of a Schism and takes Law from two absolute Potentates without dividing their Royalty For the Heart resides in the midst of the Body as a King in his Kingdom conveys the Spirits thorow the Arteries dispenseth Life to all his Subjects so extremely sensible of the Publike good that not the least disorder can arise but he gives notice of it by his irregular motion As these two parts are the Noblest so are they most United their fair correspondence cements the peace of the Body their division threatens its ruine and when they no longer entertain a free communication the State must necessarily perish without any hope of recovery If we may compare Great things with Small Ecclesiae Corporis Christus est Caput Spiritus sanctus Cor. Thom. we may say that the Church is a mystical Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head and the holy Ghost the Heart They act diversly but to one and the same end The one Guides this great Body the other Quickens it the one gives it Motion the other Life As there is no misfortune that can divide them the Body which they constitute is immortal and whatever enemies set upon it they shall never be able to prevail against it all its Combats are attended with Victory Death despoils it of no parts which Eternity restores not again what it loseth upon Earth it recovers in Heaven and by a happie dispensation of Providence findes Rest in Persecution Life in Death Glory in Shame But as its greatest advantage is to have the holy Ghost for its Heart and the Son of God for its Head let us speak of the First till we shall have an opportunity to treat of the Second and let us discover those Graces and Blessings the Church receives from his guidance and direction Where that we may not pass the terms of our Comparison we say that the holy Spirit being the Heart of this great Body inanimates it by his Presence unites it by his Charity guides it by his Light and comforts it by his Goodness The Heart is the Noblest Seat of the Soul the Throne where she reigns the Centre of her Principality where she keeps her chief residence so that we may say 't is the
did not the following surpass it For the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Faithful as he is the Love of the Father and of the Son But to understand this truth we must inform you that the Word being begotten of the Father by the Understanding is his onely Son and that the Holy Ghost being produced by the Will is his Love The Father and the Son reciprocally love one another by this mutual charity they finde their happiness in this common dilection and should they cease to love they would cease to be happie Having a minde to exalt us to their happiness they raise us also to their love and pouring forth charity into our souls they make us capable of loving them For God is so great that he can neither be known but by his own Light nor lov'd but by his own Love the Holy Spirit must enlighten our Souls warm our Wills and by the purity of his flames purge away the impurity of our affections he transforms us into himself to make us happie This holy Love is a particular effect of the Holy Spirit the beams that heat us are an emanation from that Divine fire that burns the Seraphims and the charity that raiseth us above the condition of men is a spark of that personal charity wherewith the Father and the Son love each other from all eternity But that we may not challenge the Holy Spirit as sparing of his favours he hath vouchsafed to be the accomplishment of the Church as he is the accomplishment and perfection of the Trinity For though there be no defects in God though this Sun is never clouded nor eclipsed this Supreme Truth labours under no shadows nor errours this excellent Beauty hath no spots nor blemishes and this amiable goodness be full of charms and graces yet may the Holy Ghost be called the Complement thereof The Father begins this adorable Circle which the Son continues and the Holy Spirit finisheth he it is that bounds the Divine emanations draws forth the fruitfulness of those that cause his production and if it be lawful to speak of an ineffable mystery and to subject to the laws of Time Eternity it self God is not compleated but by the production of the holy Spirit He is the rest of the Father and the Son his person is the perfection of the Trinity and this Divine mystery would want its full proportion did it not include the Holy Spirit with the two Persons from whence he proceeded The holy Scriptures to afford us some light of this verity attribute all the perfection of the works of God to the blessed Spirit They represent him to us moving upon the waters in the Creation of the world finishing by his Fecundity what the Father and the Son had produced by their Power They teach us that it was he that gave motion to the Heavens influences to the Stars heat to the Sun They inform us that 't was by his vertue that the earth became fruitful and that from his goodness she received that secret Fermentation that to this day renders her the Mother and the Nurse of all things living And the Gospel to give this Truth its full extent instructs us that 't is the holy Ghost who by his graces in the Church makes up what Jesus Christ hath begun in it by his travels He is his Vicar and Lieutenant he came down upon the earth after the other ascended up to heaven nor hath he any other designe in his descension then to compleat all the works of Jesus Christ The Apostles were yet but embryo's in Christianity when the Son of God left them three yeers of conversation was not able to perfect them the greatest part of the discourses of their Divine Master seemed to them nothing but Aenigma's his Maximes Paradoxes his Promises pleasing Illusions every thing was a mormo to these timorous spirits ths name of the Cross scandalized them and so many Miracles wrought in their presence were unable to calm their Fear or heighten their Courage To finish these demi-works the Holy Ghost came into the world he descended upon their heads in the shape of fiery tongues to make them eloquent and bold he inspired them with Charity to cure them of Fear made them Lovers thereby to make them Martyrs he cleared their Understanding warmed their Will that light and heat being blended together they might more easily overcome Philosophers and Tyrants Finally he set up a Throne in their hearts that speaking by their mouthes and acting by their hands he might render them accomplisht pieces to the service of their Master And indeed we must acknowledge the Apostles changed their condition after the descent of the Holy Ghost their Fear vanished as soon as they were confirmed by his Strength the Cross seem'd strew'd with Charms as soon as they were kindled with his Flames they found Sweetness even in Torments Glory in Affronts Venit Vicarius Redemptoris ut beneficia quae Salvator Dominus inchoavit Spiritus sancti virtute consammet quod ille redemit iste sanctificet quod ille acquisivit iste custodiat Aug. Serm. 1. Feria 32. Pentec and Riches in Poverty This made S. Augustine say that the Holy Spirit came to finish in Power what the Son of God had begun in Weakness to sanctifie what the other had redeemed and to preserve what Christ had purchased If you seek saith the same S. Augustine what was wanting to the Apostles and what might be added to their perfection by the coming down of the Holy Ghost I will tell you Before that happie moment they had Faith but they had neither Constancie nor Fidelity they were able to forsake their possessions to follow Jesus Christ but they would not lose their lives to glorifie him they were able indeed to preach the Gospel but knew not how to signe it with their blood nor seal it with their death they were vertuous as long as they conversed with the Son of God up on earth but they were not grown up to perfection till the Holy Ghost had communicated to them his graces and adding force to charity had made them the Foundations of the Church the Fathers of the Faithful the Terrour of Devils and the Astonishment of Tyrants Finally 't is the holy Spirit according to the saying of S. John Damascen that perfects the Christians because 't is he that Quickens them by Grace and Deifies them with Glory So that we are obliged to confess that he enters into alliance with them that he is the same to the Church that he is to the Trinity and that after he hath been our Bond our Gift and our Love upon Earth he will be our Accomplishment in Heaven The Fourth DISCOURSE That the Holy Ghost seems to be to Christians what he is to the Son of God IT is not without ground that the Christian is called the Image of Jesus Christ since he is his other Self the one possessing by Grace what the other doth by
from him who lived in poverty nor would receive any Disciples into his School that had not sold their goods and distributed them to the poor they demand Earth of him that reigns in Heaven the establishment of their welfare in this world from him who is the Father of that which is to come and taking no notice of their Creed they begge time of him who promiseth eternity But the holy Spirit disabuseth Christians when he either enlightens or instructs them For being the Spirit of the Son and knowing his intentions he never puts them upon those requests that are offensive to him When their hearts are encouraged with his Grace they preferre Conscience before Honour Vertue before Interest Grief before Pleasure and the will of God before their own inclinations If sometimes they petition for perishable goods 't is as farre as necessity obliges them and knowing that all such demands are dangerous 't is with feare that they always commence such suits with reservation that they continue them and with submission that they conclude them All their prayers are terminated with those words of our blessed Saviour to his Father in the Garden Not as I will but as thou wilt Finally the same Spirit teacheth them innocent Stratagems which they ought to make use of to pacifie the indignation of their Heavenly Father and to obtain those Graces they become Petitioners for Men are so little acquainted with God Quid oremus sicut oportet nescimus Rom. 8. that they know neither his minde nor his will his greatnesse exalts him so farre above us that we cannot approach unto him his designes are concealed from us and the Eternall Decrees he hath conceived in his breast are not to be penetrated by us 'T is with feare that we addresse our selves before him and being ignorant of his designes and resolutions wee have an apprehension that our desires may bid him defiance Wee have certain secrets to gain men we know by what arts we may insinuate into their fair opinion we have dexterity enough to take them with their interests and Rhetorick supplies us with inventions to triumph over their liberty without doing them the least violence But we know not how we are to treat with God his Majesty astonisheth us his Splendour dazles us and if his Mercy assure us his Justice confounds us because if we are miserable wee are besides more guilty The Holy Spirit assists us in this disorder whereto our sin hath reduced us Qui autem scrutatur corda scit quid desideret spiritus quia secundum Deum postulat pro Sanctis Rom. 8. For residing in the heart of the Father and of the Son he knows their most intimate cogitations he sounds those abysses which the Angels cannot descend into he sees their secretest intentions and teacheth us innocent artifices to appease them when provoked against us He spake no doubt by the mouth of Moses when that Prophet disarmed the Almighty and reduced to a loving impotency him whose power hath no other bounds but his will It was the Holy Spirit who fettered him by the hands of Moses and obliged him to demand leave to be avenged of his enemies Let me alone that my fury may waxe hot 'T is the same Spirit that daily disarms our God that pulleth the Thunder out of his hands and which gently forcing him willingly to be overcome by the prayers hee dictates to us triumphs over his fury by our perseverance 'T is he finally that teacheth us to desire that life that is knowne onely by Faith Est in nobis quaedam ut ita dicam docta ignorantia sed docta Spiritu Dei qui adjuvat infirmitatem nostram Aug. and possessed onely by Charity 'T is hee saith Saint Augustine that inspires us with that learned Ignorance whereby wee confesse that the happinesse that is promised us surpasseth our imagination wee know onely that his greatnesse exceedeth all those Ideas we can fashion of him so that wee reject all that are offered to our understanding knowing very well that faculty cannot conceive the good it is bound to hope for 'T is the Holy Spirit that mingles his light with our darknesse and leaving us in the ignorance of our felicity gives as much knowledge of it as is requisite to desire it For as Saint Augustine wisely observes if it were absolutely unknown of us it could never stir up any desire in us but besides were it fully revealed it could not provoke our hopes since according to the Maxime of the Apostle what a man sees he hopes not for nor wishes that which hee possesseth But the last and most admirable Stratagem of this Divine Spirit In quo clamamus Abba pater postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus Rom. 8. is that he accompanies our prayers with his groanes that without disturbing his own happiness he partakes of our distresses rendring himself in a sort miserable with us to make us happy with him for 't is by his motion that we send forth sighs by his grace that we groan and he so fully works these things in us that the Apostle attributing them to him is not afraid to say that he intercedes for us with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed In a word 't is this Spirit that teacheth us to mourn in the world that informs us that the Earth is our Banishment Heaven our Country that the one is to be endured the other to be hoped for Whoever knows how to profit by this instruction spends all his life in the doleful tone of the Turtle he sighs always when he considers that he is separated from JESUS and that living here belowe Nec parva res est quod docet nos Spiritus sanctus gemere insinuat enim nobis quia peregrinamur docet nos in Patriam suspirare ipso desiderio gemimus Aug. he hath onely the Earnest of that happiness which is promised him he weeps in these just desires and sheds tears much different from those of sinners They groan indeed burthened with Misfortunes the inseparable companions of Life they complain when they have lost their Liberty they sigh when they are oppressed with any Sorrow they murmure when they are betrayed by their friends or persecuted by their enemies But these Lamentations savour nothing of those mournful Accents of the Dove 'T is not Charity but Interest that fans this Passion 't is the spirit of the World and not that of God that makes them thus breathe out their souls in Sadness For as this last is Eternal so he sighs onely for Eternity as he proceeds from the Father and the Son he returns thither again and leads us with him and being the Spirit of Truth he occasions us to wish none but solid Goods nor to grieve for any but true Evils The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Holy Spirit remits the Sins of the Christian REpentance is one of the greatest advantages Christian Grace can possibly have above Original
he hath made her worthy of his Love from the very first moment he began to love her and more powerful then those Bridegrooms who can onely advantage those they love in riches or honours he hath adorned her with all the graces her dignity could require or her condition suffer For if she be not yet glorious in all her Members if she sigh in the Poor be a captive in the Prisoner 't is because the Land of dying mortals where she lives is not capable of all the priviledges of her Bridegroom yet may she boast that she possesseth in her Head what she wants in her Body tastes that in the Blessed which she cannot taste in the Faithful and if she be Militant upon Earth is Triumphant in Heaven But nothing so much advanceth the Graces she hath received from Jesus Christ as the offences she committed during her Infidelity For she broke her word in the first of her children she listened to the promises of the Serpent by the ear of our first mother she erected Altars to devils by the hands of Idolaters she uttered blasphemies by the mouth of Libertines she had committed as many Adulteries as she had adored False Deities and her crimes emboss'd one upon another had branded her with the ignominious titles of Perfidiousness Adultery and Impudence In the mean time her Beloved forgave her all these faults wip'd away all her spots in the Laver of Baptism and making her a Bath of his own Blood returned her at the same time Holiness Innocence and Beauty But as his Power is equal to his Love he undertook a thing that Nature never durst attempt For finding her saith S. Augustine in her prostitution he restored her her Purity of an Adultress he made her a Virgin and repeating that miracle which he never wrought for any but his Mother and his Spouse Nuptiae Spirituales in quibus nobis magna castitate vivendum est sunt Christi Ecclesiae quia Ecclesiae concessit Deus in Spiritu quod mater ejus habuit in corpore ut Mater Virgo sit Aug. he bestowed Virginity with Pregnancy that being pure she might not complain that she was barren and being fruitfull she might not bee reproached as impure Thus the Church is treated by Christ her Beloved as he treated Humane Nature he hath honoured her with all the priviledges he bestowed upon his own Body and letting us see an Image of the Hypostaticall Union in the Mysticall Union he contracted with his Spouse he hath shewed us the dignity of a Christian that being a member of Iesus Christ he may aspire to the Glory of his Head and promise himself that having suffered with him upon Earth he shall one day reign with him in the Heavens The Fifth DISCOURSE That Jesus Christ treats his Mysticall Body with as much Charity as his Naturall Body THere is no Christian so little acquainted with the Mysteries of our Religion but knows that the Son of God hath two Bodies the one Naturall the other Mysticall the former he had from his Mother who yeelding her consent to the Angel furnished blood whereof the Holy Chost formed the Body of her only Son The second he hath from the Church which springing from his wounds upon Mount Calvary gives him as many Members as she bears Beleevers in her chaste Bosome Nonne in figura Mariae typum videmus Sanctae Ecclefiae ad hanc utique â—â—scen lit Sanctus Spâ—ritus huic virtus altissimi obumbravit binc Christus potens vi tute egrâ—ditur Ecclesia viro immaculata concubitu foecunda partu conc pit non viro sed Spiritu Aug. ser 10. de Temp. and makes him Head of all that acknowledge her for their Mother and whom shee owns for her Children These two Bodies have so much affinity that 't is hard to judge which of them Jesus Christ loves best and their priviledges so like that 't is easily perceived they belong both to one God For besides that they are both formed by the Holy Ghost and the Mothers that conceived them cease not to be pure notwithstanding they are pregnant they enjoy the same favours and are equally precious to the Son of God His Naturall Body by time received its full growth though he were perfect at the moment of conception he was so little that nothing but Faith could comprehend him to be the Temple of the Eternall Word his Members were fashioned in the space of nine moneths the naturall heat enlarged and fortified them and the nourishment they received gave them that just proportion Children ought to have at their Birth It was no small proof of the Humility of Iesus Christ saith Saint Augustine that he was willing to condescend to the Laws of Nature and waving his absolute power expect with patience till his members were fashioned to be born in the fulnesse of time Statim lucem lacrymis auspicatus molestus uberibus diu infans vix puer tarde homo Tert. He handles his Mysticall Body after the same manner expects its perfection with gracious tendernesse waits for those members his Father pleases to adde in the continuance of years he sees his Spouse grow up with joy and from heaven above is ravished when the Church by Baptism or by Repentance bestows upon him new Subjects to the compleatment of this Mysticall Body Sometimes he sees the Sauls become part of that whole they have endeavoured to destroy Sometimes he receives Augustines and drawing them from Errour to Truth makes them his Disciples and his Members Sometimes he converts other sinners and associating them to his Person with himself compleats his Church 'T is true as this Body is much greater then the Naturall there is required much more time to give it its ultimate perfection The Naturall was accomplished in twenty five years it had all its bignesse when ' rwas nailed to the Crosse neither was any thing wanting to that Master-piece of the Holy Ghost but Glory which was deferred till the Resurrection because it had hindered the work of our Salvation But the Mysticall commenced with the world nor shall end but with that Fabrick Adam and Abel were the first parts the Patriarchs and Prophets the Apostles and the Faithfull continue it and the last predestinated shall accomplish it at the end of the world It s full measure shall not be till the generall Resurrection and there will something still bee wanting to its perfection till the number of the Elect be compleated The Naturall Body could not grow but all the members must grow with it For there is such a Harmony in mans body that nature travels at the same time to perfect the whole Compositum The nourishment turned into blood passeth through the veins to the remotest parts one and the same matter takes a thousand different forms and the same aliment changeth the qualities that it may equally supply the needs of all the members Jesus Christ was subject to these Laws whilest he lived
in love with his Countrey that doats upon his Banishment or should have any passion for Heaven when he is strongly wedded to the Earth If he be stricken with Divine Love he spends his whole life in sighs he never beholds the stars but he sheds tears and though there be nothing below that afflicts him 't is enough that he is in a strange Land to account himself miserable His Banishment is his Torment and without inventing other racks to exercise his patience 't is enough to make him complain that he is condemned to travel David enjoyed a profound tranquillity when he sent up his sighs towards Heaven Heu mihi quia incolat us meus prolongatus est His state was not divided by a Civil War the Grandees had not conspired against his person his children had not as yet driven him from his Palace and the people at his detion were not cheated with the false promises of an unlawful Soveraign In the mean time he forbore not to lament and the remoteness from his Countrey was the sole cause of his tears Si amatur patria magna poenae illium si autem non amatur patria pejor est cordis poena Aug. Therefore had S. Augustine reason to utter these gallant words that to a man that loves his Countrey Banishment is an insupportable pain but yet he is more wretched who cherishing his Banishment contemns or forgets his Countrey Finally Pilgrims see nothing during their journey more agreeable then their Countrey the affection they bear the place of their Nativity ever defends its cause in heir heart Though it be but a rock environed with precipices they have some secret charms which makes them wish well to it and in the midst of fertile fields they have a longing for the air they first drew their breath in Christians are in this particular better grounded then Pilgrims For they see nothing here below that can equall the beauty of their Countrey whatever is presented to their eyes is but the shadow of that happiness they wait for there Earth is therefore fruitful because it receives the influences of Heaven and all that ravisheth here below owes its worth to the heat and light of the Sun Nothing can damage their Countrey but its greatness their understanding is too weak to conceive its Excellency and if it be not sufficiently esteem'd 't is because it is not sufficiently known Nevertheless 't is enough to love it to be acquainted as Saint Augustine saith that it is a blessed City whereof the Angels are the Citizens the Eternal Father the Temple the Son the Brightness the Holy Ghost the Love that 't is a City where men are never born nor ever die where perfect Health banisheth all Sickness where satiety expels hunger and thirst where rest admits of no labour and where we have nothing else to doe but to live reign and rejoyce eternally with God The Hope of this Happiness sweetens our present discontents and there is not any Pilgrim or Exile upon Earth who takes not courage when he thinks that after his tedious wanderings he shall enjoy a felicity that nothing can interrupt nor ever shall have an end The Ninth DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Penitent IF Baptism did wash away self-love together with sin and the Grace we receive in this Sacrament cleared us of ignorance and weakness as well as of malice we might boast that being innocent Repentance were useless But seeing there is no Christian who after his Baptism feels not bad inclinations which carry him to sin there is none but have need of this vertue and who after the imitation of the greatest Saints ought not to joyn the Quality of a Penitent to that of a Sinner For though light offences rob him not of Grace he is obliged to be troubled at them because they are displeasing to God and as long as he feels rebellions in his soul or in his body he must have recourse to austerity to stifle them But if sin make him lose the life he received in Baptism Repentance must give him a Resurrection and coming to the relief of this first Sacrament recover Grace by Sorrow and Contrition Thence it comes to pass that the Fathers have called Repentance a laborious Baptism because the sinner is washed thereby in his tears and obtains that with much difficulty which was easily gain'd in Baptism He is obliged to mingle his bloud with that of Jesus Christ and to apply the merits thereof by painfull and dolorous works of satisfaction His whole life ought to be spent in lamentation Poenitentia est Gratia vel virtus qua commissa mala plangimus semper odimus iterū plangenda committere nolumus for assoon as he ceaseth to be a Penitent he becomes a Sinner For Repentance according to the opinion of Divines is a Grace or a Vertue whereby often bewailing our sins we always hate them and constantly resolve never to commit them again This definition contains four things which happily express the nature of Repentance and remarking what it hath common with other vertues discovers also what it hath proper and peculiar to it self It is called Grace because it is the gift of God and finding us in a crime cannot be an effect of our merits For in that wretched condition we are rather objects of Gods Hatred then of his Love and when he delivers 't is of his Mercy and not of his Justice It is also called a Vertue because it fals under the Law combats sin and obtains our pardon It seems to belong to Vindicative Justice because like it it pronounceth sentences and invents punishments to torture offendors In a word it hath no other employment but to prevent the indignation of Heaven and to oblige it to clemency by its own severity It enters into the interests of God chastiseth that in time which he would chastise for Eternity and endeavours to proportion the correction to the offence of the transgressor But though in some things it agree with Vindicative Justice in others it is far different For Justice is in the Judge it pronounceth sentence from his mouth Non impunitum erit peccatum meum sed ideo nolo ut tu me punius quia ego peccatum meum punias Aug. in Psal 50. and borrows the hand of the Officer to put it in execution Repentance on the contrary is in the offendor resides in his soul expresseth it self by his mouth acts by his hands and contrary to all Natural and Civil Laws obligeth the Criminal to condemn and punish himself Justice cannot make sufferings welcome to those that undergo them though just yet are they compulsive and did not the Judges use force in their administration all crimes would pass unpunished But Repentance by a wonderful dexterity makes afflictions agreeable mixeth some sweetness with their severity and causing the guilty person voluntarily to embrace such penalties finds an expedient to make them suffer without murmuring Finally Justice
the faithfull and having deposed for the Divinity of him deposeth daily for the Innocence of these For we know by Scripture that the same Spirit that spake heretofore by the Prophets hath since spoken by the Apostles and having foretold the Ages past the wonders that Jesus ought to doe revealed them to the generations to come that all men might bee fully informed of the Mysteries concerning him to whom they were beholding for their salvation This Spirit is the testimony of Jesus and of the faithfull because he hath formed them and knows all their thoughts whereof hee is the first Principle and Author This also was he that descended upon the head of the Son of God in the forme of a Dove during the ceremonies of his Baptisme 't was he that discovered to S. John Baptist his Innocence and taught him without speaking that he was that Lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world And hee it is that daily performs the same office to Christians For having been their Master he vouchsafes to be their witnesse he speaks to the eternall Father in their behalfe having pleaded their cause he gives them assurance of their salvation The Rest that calmes the waves of their conscience is an effect of his testimony those sighes and groans he draws from the bottome of their heart those desires he inspires them with for everlasting good things those scorns he furnisheth them with for perishable ones are so many Earnests which the Elect have of his love and their salvation if there be some remainders now and then of Fear amidst their Hope 't is to preserve them from Negligence or from Pride and to make them profess that they finde in him a Divine Principle a wise Director a knowing Master and a faithful Witness The Fifth DISCOURSE That the presence of the Holy Spirit gives life to the Christian and his absence causeth his death ONe of the chiefest advantages we shall partake of in Glory is that God will be to us in stead of all things and that finding in him the accomplishment of all our desires we shall there meet with our perfect felicity He will be the Temple of the Blessed because they shall lodge in his Divine Essence He will be for a garment to them because they shall be cloathed with his light He will be their nourishment because he gives them eternal life and according to the language of S. Paul he will be All in all to these blessed inhabitants The Holy Spirit seems to have a minde to make us taste upon Earth the Happiness of Heaven inasmuch as he is all things to us in the Church that he informs us in our doubts comforts us in our afflictions assists us in our conflicts teacheth us in our prayers For Christians owe all that they are and all that they do to the holy Spirit They live by his presence act by his power understand by his light and love by his charity All their advantages flow from him If they are Saints 't is he that sanctifies them if they are free 't is he that sets them at liberty if they are generous 't is he that encourageth them and if they be wise 't is he that enlightens them In the mean time the most part of the Faithful are ungrateful to the holy Spirit Liberalitem Dei servitutem faciunt Tert. They attribute that to their own power which they derive from his and turning his grace into a slavery they would pass for the Authors of a work whereof they are at most but the Ministers Therefore will I spend this Discourse to let them see that the holy Spirit inanimates them and that as by his presence he makes them live so by his withdrawing himself he makes them die A Man and a Christian have some resemblance in their difference they live both of them by the Spirit and their life is rather spiritual then animal For though Man have a body composed of the Elements which hath need of the Air to breathe of the Earth to bear it of Food to nourish it and of Light to make it see yet is his soul the principle of his life This Form inanimates the heart giving it motion whereby all the other parts live The absence of the soul is the death of the body its presence the life and when grief or weakness separates them Man ceaseth to be a living creature Inasmuch as a Christian is more excellent then a Man by so much is his life more sublime and he hath a nobler principle of his Being For the holy Spirit is his Soul and paring off whatever defects that name may include he is the Form that inanimates the Believer Though he have an Understanding that reasoneth a Memory that preserves his conceptions and a Will free and absolute yet does he live by the holy Spirit and receive from him a supernatural life which makes him capable of God As long as he is united to this Spirit he is alive assoon as he is parted from him he is dead And 't is a miracle saith S. Augustine that the soul dead by sin does nevertheless enliven the body and that notwithstanding that imperfection Aliud est in anima unde corpus vivificatur aliud unde ipsa anima vivificatur Melius quippe anima quam corpus sed melius quam ipsa est Deus est ergo ipsa etiamsi sit insipiens injusta impia vita corporis Aug. Tract 19. in Joan. it have wherewithal still to reason in the finding out of Sciences and to manage it self in its affairs and negotiations It is true therefore that the absence of the holy Spirit greatly impaireth the vigour and clearness of Man for the life of Man as a Reasonable creature and as a Christian are so intimately united together that the one cannot be separated from the other without an extreme detriment and enfeebling of the creature The Christian merits not till he begin to reason Grace is idle in his soul when Reason is not yet formed in it and all Divines are of opinion that children baptized have no other merits but those of Jesus Christ Heaven is their Inheritance but not their Recompence they are in the condition of Heirs but not of Souldiers and the Crown they receive is rather the Consequence of their good Fortune then the Reward of their Labour Man is yet more deplorable when he loseth Grace then when the Christian loseth Reason for besides that none of his actions are any longer meritorious that he does nothing pleasing to God and having lost the Principle of his supernatural life he is destitute of all recompence and desert he hath moreover contracted this misfortune Vita infidelium peccatum est nihil est bonum sine summo bono ubi enim deest agnitio aeternae veritatis falsa virtus est etiam in optimis moribus Prosp sen 106 that he is become the slave of Concupiscence which throws Darkness over his
Sinners All his Actions testifie that he considers his Church as his Spouse and the Faithfull as his Children because he was willing to enter into their humiliations and to exalt them to his Greatnesses For though the Church be not Iesus Christ nor Iesus Christ the Church yet their union is so strict that they are two in one flesh two in one voice two in one passion and two in one rest Indeed if we examine these words well we shall find that they contain the chiefest conditions of the marriage of Iesus Christ with his Church and that they clearly explaine the priviledges which the quality of being members of the Son of God bestows upon the Faithfull They are both in one flesh because the Church is born of Iesus Christ upon the Crosse and that the Sacraments which produce and preserve her issued from the wounds of her Beloved They are two in the same flesh because in the Eucharist he nourisheth her with his Body and Blood and in that mystery tries to transform her into himself as hee was transformed into her in the Incarnation when he was made Man to become her Beloved Wherefore Saint Augustine hath very well observed Ut noveritis quia unus dicitur Christus caput corpus suum ipse dicit cum de conjugio loqueretur sunt duo in carne una ergo jam non duo sed caro una sed forte hoc dicit de quocunque conjugio Auli Paulum Ego autem dico in Christo Ecclesia fit ergo ex duobus una quaedā persona ex capite corpore ex sponso sponsa Aug. in Psal 30. that the Church was all things to Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ was all things to his Church She is his Mother because she conceived him in the womb of the Virgin she is his Daughter because she was born of his death and proceeding from his wounds honours as her Father him whom she loves as her Bridegroom she is his Sister because she fulfils the will of the Father and obtains that quality by her obedience Thus Jesus Christ and his Church are truly allied by flesh and may upon a better title then other conjugall parties say in the difference of their conditions they are but one Body They have also but one voice because they always speak together the Church is the Organ of her Beloved and Iesus Christ is the interpreter of his Church He expressed himself by her mouth before he was born upon Earth he speaks yet by her now that he is ascended up into Heaven and as their interests are inseparable their prayers are common and their language is equally entertained by the Father Thence it comes to passe that Saint Augustine unfolding this profound mystery teacheth us that the Son of God carries himself diversly towards the Faithfull according to the different qualities that separate or unite him to them He intercedes for them as their Chief Priest whose principall Office is to offer up mens prayers and to draw down blessings from Heaven upon their heads He hears their supplications with his Father to whom he is equall in Majesty he is willingly overcome by the tears of the distressed and having prayed for them as their Priest he hears them as their God Finally he prays in them as their Head he delivers the Word in the name of his Body he defends the interests of his members he pleads his own cause in pleading theirs and asks a Grace for himself in begging mercy for them Thence it comes to passe that the Father giving way to the Prayers of his Son so easily lends an ear to the Petitions of the Church because hee ownes the voice of Jesus Christ in that of his Spouse and grants that to the merits of the one which he might justly refuse to the demerits of the other He might answer us as David sometimes did that widow that made so eloquent a speech to him in behalf of Absalom Is not the hand of Joab with thee in this Loquatur Christus in nobis ut quem gerimus iu pectore babeamus in cre Cypr. For when he understands the innocent voice of his Son mingled with ours and sees that we make use of the merits and arguments of Jesus Christ to perswade him he may say to every sinner Is not the hand of Christ with thee in this Or beholding the accomplishment of that Figurative History acted heretofore in the family of Isaac where the Cadet got the blessing of his father by a mysterious surprise he might say The hands are Esau's but the voice is Jacob's because 't is true that the voice of the Son of God covers many times our bad actions and his innocent mouth obtains Graces for us in stead of punishments our guilty hands would deservedly draw down upon us Oftentimes out of an excess of love he loads himself with our sins and forgetting his Greatness appears before his Father as a Delinquent he puts on the habit of a servant takes the place of rebels and making a change advantageous for them takes their Offences and puts upon them his Merits Thence it comes to past that on the Cross where he stands the Caution of Sinners he complains that his Father forsakes though he be inseparable from him and beholding himself as the Victim of Sin useth language unworthy of his Innocence but worthy of his Love Orator ergo in forma Det orat in forma servi ibi creator hic creatus creaturam mutandam non mutatus assumens secum nos faciens unum hominem caput corpus oramus ergo ad illum per illum in illo dicimus cum illo dicit nobiscum longe à salute mea verb a delictorum Aug. praef in Ps 85. and the condition he was in This is it that S. Augustine acquaints us with in that discourse that comprebends as many Mysteries as Words If we consider Jesus Christ as equal to his Father he hears our prayers with him if we consider him in the form of a servant as like to sinenrs he presents his prayers with them there he is the Creator here he is created but remaining unchangeable is united to his Creature to change him and makes himself one man with him whereof they are joyntly the Head and Body Thus sometimes we pray to him and sometimes also we pray in him and he prays with us he speaks by our mouth we by his and living in one and the same Body we many times use the same language 'T is in the view of this Mystery that S. Augustine hath discovered a Secret to explain all those passages that seem to concern the Innocence of Jesus Christ For as by consequence of the Marriage contracted with the Church he is included in her obligations he speaks many times in the person of the Church and that we mistake not we must have this alliance always before our eyes and not be astonished that the Son of God who
us more happie They promise pleasures to the Wanton Inflant animos divitiae superbiam pariunt invidiam contrahunt luxui serviunt Sen. and conspire with him to corrupt Chastity they furnish Arms and Seconds to the Furious to take vengeance on their enemies they raise the Ambitious to offices and employments and complying with all Passions engage men in all kinde of impiety Therefore he judged aright who said that to give a sinful man Riches was to put a Sword into a mad mans hand or present poyson to a Desperado because not being under the command of Grace he will make use of them only to satisfie his ambition or to content his brutality So that the Philosophers preventing the Divines rightly discovered that Poverty was more Innocent then Plenty and that it was easier for men to preserve their liberty in the leanness of want then in the affluence of riches For besides that they wed us to the earth Multis parasse divitias non finis miseriaruÌ„ fuit sed mutatio Senec. Epist 17. they expose us to a thousand accidents which can neither be foreseen nor avoided and give fortune game at our person Therefore is it that Seneca said Those that will be happy must either be poor or like those that are so they must possesse their goods without being possessed by them and use them as Stewards rather then Proprietaries and they ought to be alwayes ready to part with them because they have them but in trust Religion out-bids Philosophy and requires farre other dispositions from her Children then this does from her Disciples For she will have them acknowledg that in Adam all is lost that they are fallen from their rights by his sin and being guilty are become miserable Perswaded of this Truth they live in the world as in a strange Country they possesse riches upon Loan and since their Goods were confifcated to their soveraign they enjoy them meerly from his mercy Though Jesus Christ re-instate them in their goods and being made Co-heirs with him may dispose of heaven and earth as their Inheritance yet are they obliged to regulate themselves by his Example and not to make use of their rights till after the generall Resurrection He carried himself thus during his life though Heire to his Father he disposed not of his estate a Cratch received him at his birth and a Cross served him for a Death-bed he lodged in a borrowed house and was buried in a strangers Sepulchre If he wrought some miracles for the Glory of his Father he did none for his own Interest when he created a piece of money in the mouth of a Fish it was to pay Tribute and when he commanded his Disciples to take the Asse which served to carry him in his triumph it was with the consent of the Owner Paupertate Christi non additur pecunia sed justitia Divitiae verae immortalitas ubi enim vera copia ibi nulla indigentiâ—â— Aug. He put not his absolute power in execution till after his Resurrection nor did he enjoy the priviledges due to his Birth till he was entred into Heaven The Christians tredding in his steps pretend nothing in this world but reserve the fruition of their right for the next They are content with the promises of Jesus Christ and living here upon hope expect the effects thereof in glory During this time they look upon Poverty as an innocent Usury which gives a value to what they give or part with here for the Son of God for they know saith S. Bernard That Jesus Christ who is a New Man is come down here below to teach us new things and that those that obey him finde rest in labour liberty in servitude and abundance in Poverty Their Goods are multiplyed in being distributed and as the husbandman casting his seed into the earth promiseth himself a hapgy harvest the Christian in communicating his goods to the Poor expects a great recompence at the generall Resurrection Till then he comforts himself with the advantages Poverty bestows upon him for he perceives that if riches have their good use they have also their bad They acknowledge the Custody of them troublesome the love of them contagious the losse of them sensible and if there be pain to get them there is more to keep them This made some Philosophers rid themselves of such attendants and gave comfort to others whom injustice or fortune had made bankrupt for as Seneca sayes excellently well We gain much in losing our riches if with them we lose our covetousness and we fail not continually to gain something even when we lose it not because the subject that entertained it being taken away there is some ground to hope either that it will dye for want of nourishment or at least do no hurt for want of power The Poverty of Christians is happier in this point then that of Philosophers for being inanimated with Grace they lose the desire of evil with the meanes of doing it nor are they innocent only out of impotency but out of deliberation They make their Poverty meritorious in making it voluntary if they choose it not they endevour to accept it and a misfortune or a chastisement they husband into a vertue The losse of their Goods causeth the assurance of their salvation and the rest of their souls they cease to fear assoon as they cease to love and they draw this advantage from their poverty that being no longer engaged to the Earth by their affection they are no more troubled with fear nor abused with hope But their greatest happiness is that they learn from Scripture that their condition is a holy Asylum and that heaven hath promised a particular protection to the Poor Evangelizare pauperibus misit me Luc. 4. They know that Christ came down from heaven to instruct them that his care of teaching them is a proof of his Missions that he hath pronounced them happy in his Sermons chose them for his Disciples hath designed them his favours made them the objects of his love and hath so particular an affection towards them that a man must be poor in deed or in desire to be taken notice of in his State Let us love Poverty then and despise riches seek Felicity in want and if Nature hath not brought us poor into the world let us become like those that are poor either by unbottoming our selves of our Goods or distributing them that raking part in the reproaches of Christ upon Earth We may be partakers of glory in heaven The sixth DISCOURSE That the Happinesse of a Christian upon Earth consists in Humility rather then in Glory THe Ambitious will hardly agree as concerning this Maxime and it will pass into their minde as an Errour rather then a Paradox Merces virtutis gloria honos alit artes omnesque incenduntur ad studia gloriâ For they believe that Honour is the nourishment of Vertue that she droops and languisheth when deprived of
necessity of Grace in the state of Innocence and of Sin 156 Disc 3 That the Grace of a Christian ought to be more powerfull then that of Adam 160 Disc 4 Different opinions of the power of Christian Grace 166 Disc 5 Wherein precisely consists the power of Grace effectual 170 Disc 6 That the names that S. Augustine gives Christian Grace do sufficiently testifie that it is effectuall 175 Disc 7 That we may judge of the power of Grace over a Christian by the power of Concupiscence over a Sinner 180 Disc 8 That Grace effectuall doth not destroy Grace sufficient 186 Disc 9 Answers to some Objections against Grace effectual 193 A Prosecution of the same Discourse 197 Disc 10 That the Christian finds more rest in placing his salvation in Grace then in Liberty 202 The fifth TREATISE Of the Vertues of a Christian Disc 1. Wherein consisteth Christian Vertue 207 Disc 2 Of the Division of Christian Vertues 212 Disc 3 Of the Excellency and Necessity of Christian Faith 217 Disc 4 Of Christian Hope 222 Disc 5 A Description of Christian Charity 227 Disc 6 Of the Properties and Effects of Christian Charity 233 Disc 7 Of Christian Prudence Iustice Fortitude and Temperance 238 Disc 8 Of Christian Humility 243 Disc 9 Of Christian Repentance 248 Disc 10. Of Christian Self-denyall 253 The sixth TREATISE Of the Nourishment and Sacrifice of a Christian Disc 1 Of three Nourishments answering to the three Lives of a Christian 259 Disc 2 Of the Nourishment of Man in his Innocency and of that of a Christian 264 Disc 3 That the Body of Iesus Christ is the same to a Christian that Manna was to the Iewes 269 Disc 4 That this Nourishment bestows upon the Christian all that the Divel promised Man in his Innocence if hee would eat of the forbidden Fruit. 274 Disc 5 That this Nourishment unites the Christian with the Son of God 279 Disc 6 Of the Dispositions that the Christian ought to bring for the receiving of this Nourishment 283 Disc 7 That the Christian ows God the honour of the Sacrifice 288 Disc 8 That the Christian had need that the Son of God should offer up for him the Sacrifice of the Crosse and of the Altar 293 Disc 9 Of the Difference of these two Sacrifices and what the Christian receives from both of them 298 Disc 10 Of the obligation the Christian hath to sacrifice himself to God 303 The seventh TREATISE Of the Qualities of a Christian Disc 1 That the Christian is the Image of Iesus Christ 308 Disc 2 That the Christian is a Priest and a Victime 313 Disc 3 That the Christian is a Souldier and a Conqueror 317 Disc 4 That the Christian is a King and a Slave 322 Disc 5 That the Christian is a Saint 327 Disc 6 That the Christian is a Martyr 332 Disc 7 That the Christian is a Lover 338 Disc 8 That the Christian is an Excile and a Pilgrime 343 Disc 9 That the Christian is a Penitent 347 Disc 10 That the most glorious Quality of the Christian is that of a Christian 352 The eighth TREATISE Of the Blessedness of a Christian Disc 1. That every man desires to be happy and that he cannot be so but in God 357 Disc 2 That the Perfect Felicity of a Christian cannot be found in this world 361 Disc 3 That the Christian tasts some Felicity here below 365 Disc 4 That Happiness consists not in pleasure but in grief 368 Disc 5 That Happiness is rather found in Poverty then in Riches 372 Disc 6 That the Felicity of a Christian upon earth consists rather in Humility then in Glory 377 Disc 7 That Felicity is rather found in Obedience then in Command 381 Disc 8 What is the happinesse of a Christian in Heaven and wherein it consists 385 Disc 9 That the Soul and Body of the Christian shall finde their perfection in the Beatifical Vision 391 Disc 10 Of the Miracles that are found in the Christian's Beatitude 396 THE CHRISTIAN MAN OR The Reparation of NATURE BY GRACE The first TREATISE Of the Christian's Birth The first DISCOURSE That the Christian hath a double Birth IF MAN have pass'd for a Monster in the opinion of some Philosophers * Est inter Carnem Spiritum colluctatio discordantibus adversus se invicem quotidiana congressio ut non ea quae volumus ipsi faciamus dum spiritus coelestia divina quaerit caro terrena secularia concupiscit Aug. lib. 1. contra Julian because he is compos'd of two parts which cannot agree certainly the Christian may very well pass for a Prodigie in the judgement of the faithfull since the parts whereof he is made maintain a war as long as life For though the body of man contain within its Constitution all the Elements these four Enemies agree when they are mixt together The Fire is confounded with the Water without losing its driness and the Earth is united to the Air without losing its heaviness if they are at odds by reason of their Contrariety they embrace by reason of their sympathie and if somtimes they grow irregular there is always some external Cause that produceth the Disorder The Soul and Body are yet more opposite then the Elements it it is the strangest Marriage within the Confines of Nature Mirus amor corporis animi in tanta disparitate non potest esse sine fato Pla. and when God associated them together to make Man he had a minde to shew that he was absolute in the Universe In him we observe Sense with Understanding Passion with Reason Heaven with Earth Nevertheless God hath so well temper'd their qualities that these two so different parts cease not mutually to love one another The Soul stoops below the priviledg of her Birth to succour the Infirmities of the Body and the Body soares above the meaness of its Extraction to be serviceable to the more noble operations of the Soul If they are exercised at the provocation of some rebel-lust there is always found some common friend that takes up the difference Self-love is content to set them at one thereby to establish his Empire over sinners Haec cupiditas vana ac per hoc prava vincit in eis ac frenat alias cupiditates Aug. lib. 4. contra Julia. c. 3. and accompanies his Commands with so many charms that these two subjects wrong one another to obey him The spirit basely submits to the Body in the unclean conversations of the wanton and the body does homage to the soul in the pleasing caresses of the Ambitious these two parties joyn their forces to bid Grace battail and though Divine Justice hath divided them for their punishment they forget their quarrel and are reconcil'd to execute their vengeance But the Christian is of such a Composure that he can never taste any peace in his person Division seems to constitute one part of his Essence and till Glory shall put a
period to his Controversies he is continually infested with a Domestick and intestine war Though Repentance subdue the Body by its Austerities and Prayer elevate the Soul by its Raptures both Soul and Body continually rebel against the Spirit of God Indicitur enim bellum non solum adversus suggestiones Diaboli sed etiam adversus teipsum sed ex qua parte tibi displices jungeris Deo idoneus eris ad vincendum te quia tecum est qui omnia superat quare autem permittitur ut diu contra te litiges donec absorbeantur omnes cupiditates ut intelligas in te poenam tuam In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum est rixa tua tecum sic vindicatur in rebellem contra Deum ut ipse sit sibi bellum qui pacem noluit habere cum Deo Aug. in Psal 75. The greatest Saints complain of these disorders and wish an End of their life to finde an End of their Conflicts The internal peace that always accompanies a good Conscience is not able to reconcile these two Enemies and experience teacheth us that peace and war wil sooner shake hands in a Kingdom then Concupiscence and Charity in a CHRISTIAN But certainly I never wonder at his Discord since he hath two Fathers two Births and two Principles He hath two Fathers because he came from Adam and from Jesus Christ and deriving from one the Life of Sin he derives from the other the Life of Grace Thus by a strange wonder he is at the same time Innocent and Guilty he hopes for heaven as his Inheritance and is affraid of hel as the place of his torment and pursuing the severall Interests he hath received from these two Parents he is toss'd continually between hope and fear He is * Primas homo Adam sic olim defunctus est ut tamen post illum secundus sit homo Christus cum tot hominum millia inter illum hunc orta sint ideo manifestum pertinere ad illum omnem qui ex illa successione propagatur nascitur sicut ad istum pertinet omnis qui gratiae largitate in illo renascitur unde fit ut totum genus humanum quodammodo sint homines duo primus secundus Ex sent Prosp 299. Adam and Jesus both together in his person he unites their names aswell as their qualities he resents their diverse inclinations and holding something of these two Fathers hee beares the Crime of the one and the Innocencie of the other They reigne successively in his person and the chief Imployment of his life is to make the first dye and the second live This Parricide is innocent all Christians are obliged to commit it neither doth Jesus Christ acknowledge them for his children who endeavour not to strangle this Father who made them liable to Death before he entitled them to Life They cannot dispense with themselves from this murder and whosoever spares Adam in his person gives evidence he hath no minde that Jesus Christ should reign there Adam himself allowes of this cruelty in heaven where he now triumphs amongst the Angels he desires to dye in his Children that he may see him live there who hath repair'd his breach and if there were any thing that could trouble his happinesse it would be this that he sees his sin still to reign in his posterity that he stifles Christ in their souls and makes him suffer death upon Earth by whose benefit he enjoys life in Heaven He complains that he cannot utterly perish in his off-spring that he reigns there to this day against his will and that for punishment of a sin whereof he made them stand convicted before they were born they continue to make him guilty after that he is dead But nothing afflicts him so much as to behold sin in some sort more powerfull then Grace that the One overspreads all mankinde the Other onely the * Contra carnis concupiscentiam ità confligunt Sancti non ei consentientes ad malum ut tamen ejus motibus quibus repugnantibus resistunt non careant in hac vita Aug. l. 1. Retra cap. 13. Faithfull that sin oftentimes destroyes all Grace but Grace can never wholly destroy all sin Lastly that Adam utterly exterminates Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ can never perfectly slay Adam These two Fathers are conveyed to their posterity by two different Productions the first is shamefull and guilty the second is glorious and innocent The first is inseparable from sin For though it be noble according to the Lawes of the world 't is alwaies ignominious according to the Laws of God and though it appeare innocent to the eies of men 't is alwaies Criminall in the sight of Angels The Saints acknowledge it with grief and though the Issue of lawfull Beds they cease not to confesse that they were * Nunquid David de adulterio natus erat de Jesse viro justo Conjuge ipsius quid est quod se dicit in iniquitate conceptum nisi quia trahitur iniquitas ex Adam Aug. in Ps 50. born in sin The second is ever joined with Grace it gives us God for our Father the Church for our Mother and Heaven for our Inheritance We cannot better expresse their differences then in the words of St. Augustine * Duae sunt nativitates una de terra alia de Coelo una de Carne alia de Spiritu una de mortalitate alia de aeternitate una de Masculo Foemina alia de Deo Ecclesia Aug. Tract 11. in Joan. Sicut eos vita spiritus regenerat sideles in Christo sic eos Corpus mortis in Adam generat Peccatores Illa enim carnalis generatio est haec spiritualis illa facit filios carnis haec spiritûs illa filios mortis haec Resurrectionis illa filios saeculi haec filios Dei illa filios irae haec filios misericordiae ac per hoc illa peccato originali obligatos illa omnis vinculo peccati liberatos August lib. 1. de Pecca men who tells us The one comes from the Earth and returns thither again the other comes from Heaven and ascends thither again the one draws it 's Originall from the Flesh the other from the Spirit the one tends to Death the other to Eternity the one proceeds from Man and Woman the other from God and the Church Or to deliver the same Truth in other terms we may adde with the same Saint That the Life of the Spirit regenerates the Faithfull in Jesus Christ and the Death of the Body begets sinners in Adam That of these two Births the One is Carnal the Other Spiritual The One produceth Angels the Other engenders Men The One designes them to Death the Other prepares them for the Resurrection The One renders them the children of the Devil the Other makes them the children of God The One exposeth them to his Wrath the Other to his Mercy Finally
making use of another Comparison he tels us That being like an old house that is ready to fall it was requisite we should be quite destroy'd that we might be re-built again Ita vitiis eramus immersi ut nulla ratione purgari possemus sed opus suit Regeneratione nam secundam nativitatem Regeneratio significat nos ut veterem domum quam evertere oportet Deus denuo condidit Theophyl ad Tit. c. 3. St. Augustin is of the same opinion when observing what havock sin hath made in our Nature he saith God deals with us as he doth with decay'd buildings which are good only to be thrown down that upon their ruines may be laid the foundation of a new structure wherein the wisdom of the Architect is to be admir'd who from a heap of rubbish hath been able to erect a stately Palace or a magnificent Temple But not to wander from the subject of our Discourse in such figurative expressions Qui gaudes Baptismi perceptione vive in novi hominis sanctitate tenens fidem quae per dilectionem operatur habe bonū quod nondum habes profit tibi bonum quod habes Prosp Sent. 325. let us hold to the simplicity of the Gospel affirming that Baptism is call'd the New-birth of a Christian because thereby he receives a New-Being and passing from the person of Adam into that of Jesus Christ he happily loseth those bad qualities he had contracted in his first conception He becomes a member of the Son of God he enters by Grace upon all the rights of his head he converseth with God as with his Father with whom not losing his respect he gains a familiarity till being insensibly disengaged from the Earth he aspires to Heaven as towards his lawful inheritance Indeed this Generation is but begun in Baptism it continues the whole course of a mans life nor is it finished till the generall Resurrection For though Sin be blotted out by Grace in a Christian Concupiscentia tanquam lex peccati manens in membris corporis mortis hujus cum parvulis nascitur in parvulis baptizatis à reatu solvitur ad agonem relinquitur ante agonem mortuos nulla damnatione prosequitur August neither can all that he hath received from Adam any longer shut the gate of Heaven against him yet there are a thousand disorders that hinder the compleat perfect establishment of Charity in his soul It lives as it were in an ungratefull and barren land where there can be no improvement without a kinde of violence Self-love opposeth all its designes and this Enemy who is often beaten but never vanquished gives it so many turns that were it not for the continual assistance it receives from God it could not preserve it self one moment But admit this dangerous Enemy persecute not the Christian with so cruel awar the bondage whereto Infancy hath reduc'd him suffers him not to make any great progress For the Grace that we receive in Baptism cannot make us operate as we have not yet the use of Reason neither have we that of Charity or of Faith we are faithfull without beleeving in God Charitable without loving him we possess a Treasure that we cannot dispose of and our happiness having some resemblance with our disaster we have no other merits but that of Jesus Christ as we have no other sins but those of Adam For this reason are we obliged to be very industrious as soon as we are out of our childhood and not to suffer all those advantages we receive from our New-Birth to lye useless and unprofitable we must have recourse to our Redeemer and conjure him by our prayers to finish the work he hath begun that perfecting us in Grace * Cum concupiscentia natus es ut eam vincas noli tibi hostes addere vince cum quo natus es ad stadium vitae hujus cum illo venisti congredere cum eo qui tecum procedit Aug. Ps 57. here we may one day be happily consummated in Glory hereafter But to return to the subject we have necessarily digress'd from Baptism bears not only the name of a New Birth but also that of a Resurrection Therefore the Great Apostle saith * An ignoratis quia quicunque baptizati sumus in Christs Jesu in morte ipsius baptizati sumus cum illo per Baptismum in mortem ut quomodo Christus surrexit à mortuis per gloriam Patris ità nos in novitate vitae ambulemus Roman 6. That the Christians are risen with Christ that his Death quickens their souls and that these two contraries agreeing in their person they are dead to Sin and alive to Grace This name more excellent then the rest does me thinks more fully discover the misery of Man and the happinesse of a Christian For if Baptism be a Resurrection if a Beleever be not only born again but raisd from the grave we must conclude that before this second Birth he was dead and if he had some symptoms of a natural and sensitive he had not any Principle of a supernatural and divine Life He was asmuch pre-engaged in Death as in Sin and according to the rules of Scripture he was truly dead because truly a sinner All the excuse he could alledg in his misery is that his Death was contracted by the fault of another and that as he transgressed not but by the will of his Father so neither was he obnoxious to death but by his hand In a word to comprehend this rightly He is the cause of our misfortune He committed the Crime that we contracted in our birth if he be guilty by design we are so by necessity and before we have the use of reason we are therefore sinners because we are his Children by the same means that he conveighs * Sicut omnium fuisii parens ità omnium peremptor quod infelicius omnium prius peremptor quà m parens Ber. death to us by the same doth he communicate sin he is our Parricide just as he is our Parent and which puzzles all Philosophie he commits as many murders as his posterity begets Children In this deplorable condition as Baptism finds us it not only gives us life but restores it nor is it meerly our Birth but our Resurrection This is it that St. Augustine with no lesse Eloquence then Learning delivers when he saith Resurrecturum humanum genus i◠saeculi consummatione post mortem nunc resurgit in Baptismo suscitandus est tunc populus Dei post soporem nunc suscitandus post infidelitatem liberandus est tunc à mortali conditione nunc liberatur ab ignorantiae caecitate renasciturus tunc ad aeternitatem nunc renascitur ad salutem August Serm. 163. de Tempore that the Church acknowledgeth two Resurrections in the world the first is in Baptism the second will be at the day of Judgment that the Christians shall then awake from their long sleep which
enjoy not this quality but after we are instated in the person of the Word nor can we have God for our Father but we must have Jesus Christ for our Head But when Grace hath made us his members Unicum Filium Deus habet quem de sua substantia genuit nos autem non de sua substantia genuit Creatura enim sumus quam non genuit sed fecit ideo ut fratres Christi secundùm modum faceret adoptavit Aug. lib. 3. contra Faust cap. 3. and being quickned by his Spirit we make up one body with him the Father loves us as his children looks upon us as a portion of Jesus Christ contracts an allyance with us that honours us and imitates that which he hath from all Eternity with his Son Thus we are his sons and his subjects he is our Lord and our Father and we bespeak him in the same language our Head doth we call him our Father and our God This Allyance is not only true because founded in Grace Vinculum igitur nostrae cum Deo Patre unionis Christum esse constat qui nos quidem sibi conjunxit ut homo Deo verò genitori suo sic unitus est ut naturaliter in eo sit Cyril Alex in Joan. but so proper that it relates only to the person of the Son agreeing not so much as to the holy Spirit For as he is not the Father of Jesus Christ so neither is he ours and as he hath other Alliances with him so hath he also with us The Father alone is our Father 't is to him that we addresse our selves when we use that name and knowing very well that we are inseparable from his Son we know very wel that the affection he bears us is an overflowing beam of that love he bears him of whom we have the honour to be members Though this mystery be wonderfull and 't is a hard matter to comprehend upon what motive Jesus Christ was willing to procure us this honour yet the condition wherein he found us redoubles the wonder For Adoption hath this advantage above Nature that 't is in its liberty to chuse the most accomplish'd Nature is blinde in her affections as well as in her productions she knows not for the most part what she does her works are many times defective and as if she had lost her light together with her innocence she brings forth Monsters as often as Men In the mean time she forbears not to love her imperfections she hath the heart of a Mother for all her productions and compels parents many times to embrace Monsters because they are their children In this particular Adoption is much happier then Nature it sees what it admits of chuseth upon knowledge of the cause loves that which is lovely and amiable nor does impart affections or goods but to persons that merit them Neverthelesse contrary to all these rules we finde that the Eternal Father adopts children born in sin and having nothing but the Apennage of Adam are rather the objects of his wrath then of his love He goes to seek them in the masse of perdition he separates them from the Guilty to render them innocent and applyes to them the merits of his Son to make them worthy of his inheritance For of all the Favours saith St * Promisit hominibus divinitatem mortalibus immortalitatem peccatoribus justificationem abject is glorificationem quicquid promisit indignis promisit ut non quasi operibus merces promitteretur sed gratia nomine suo gratia gratis daretur Aug. Psal 102. Augustine God the Father was pleased to honour us with he hath continually prevented our deservings he pardoned us in our delinquency heaped honour upon us in our misery To wretches condemned to death he hath promised immortality to the guilty innocence to base contemptible creatures glory to men divinity that we may receive all these favours as the gracious endearments of his mercy and not the recompences of our merits Thus our Adoption is founded upon his goodness he chose us but because it was his good pleasure he hath made us his Children because Christ hath made us his Brethren and in the apprehension of so great an advantage all we have to do is to humble our selves at the sight of our miseries and to give him thanks at the consideration of his mercies But to the end that this grace may appear more precious we must reckon up its Priviledges and allow the rest of this Discourse to its more noble Excellencies The Adoption of men is indeed an Allyance but we may without offence call it an imaginary one it hath no other foundation but the affection of him that adopts and the true or apparant merit of him that is adopted the conjunction is so impotent that it produceth nothing reall in their minds 't is as we have observed a meer denomination constituting no true relation between the two persons it unites and in this particular we must needs confess 't is much weaker then Nature For this tyes men with flesh and bloud her chains are so strong that 't is almost impossible to break them The Father looks upon his Son as a piece of himself the Mother beholds him as a portion of her own bowels nor can the Son die but both of them die in conceit with him Adoption hath nothing of this vigour in it it leans upon interests and as soon as he that is adopted hath no more any hope he hath no more love nor respect But the Christian Adoption is like that of Nature the links that compose it are of Diamond Missus est Filius non adoptione factus sed semper genitus Filius ut participata natura filiorum hominum ad participandam ettam suam naturam adoptaret etiam filios hominum Aug. lib. de Gra. Novi Test and the Grace that supports it is so firm that 't is able to subsift eternally It penetrates the very essence of the soul and cleanseth it from the spots of sin darts a light into the understanding heat into the Will plants the seeds of Glory in that intellectual substance gives it a true right and title to the kingdom of heaven and constitutes an Allyance between man and God so strict and combining that it imitates that that is between the Humanity and the Divinity by the mystery of the Incarnation From the very instant of Baptism the Christian is truly the Son of God the misery of his Nature the shame of his Birth and the Crime of his first Father hinders not Jesus Christ from being his Brother the Church from being his Mother nor eternal glory from being his portion But I wonder not at all that the Adoption of Christians is more substantial then that of men since it is celebrated with greater pomp and ceremony For when a man intends to adopt a child he needs only declare his will and make use of the Princes authority to make his
protects us from all disasters we have nothing to be afraid of but our own weakness and provided we remain true to Grace we may promise our selves victory over our greatest enemies God watcheth over us as over the members of his Son he hath a care of our Interests he blesseth all our designes he makes the hatred of our adversaries serviceable to our salvation and spite of the fury of all Divels that tempt us and the rage of all Tyrants that persecute us he at last brings us happily to Glory But that which I finde most admirable in this Allyance is that in some sort it makes us enter upon the rights of a Father over his Son Jesus Christ for we * Nomen Paternitatis ex divinis ad humanos Patres translatum est Damas de fide cap. 9. produce him on our Altars and in the souls of Beleevers we are his Fathers and his Mothers and by a manner as true as incomprehensible we give him a new life here below The Priests bring him forth by their words and the Church acknowledgeth she should not enjoy her Beloved upon the earth did not the Priests make him descend from heaven 'T is in this administration that more powerful then Joshua they command Jesus Christ and entring into the authority of his Father they prescribe him Lawes which never he dispenseth with when they speak he obeys he works an hundred miracles to comply with their Orders The Preachers †O praeclara O reverenda potestas vestra certè non est potestas post Deum sicut potestas vestra quod enim vobis dedit primo loco sancta Verbi Incarnatio vos de die in diem nobis ministratis nobis ex collatae potestatis officio Berâ—de Coena Dom. imitate the Priests and from their Mission receive the same power the others do from their Character their lips are fruitfull in the Church they never preach but they hold forth the Son of God their word is a sacred branch that gives life to their Auditors and by a strange miracle they are the Fathers of Jesus Christ and of the faithfull they travell with them both together and when God blesseth their labours they bring forth these two Twins at the same time This is the happinesse the great * Filioli mei quos iterum parturio donec formetur Christusâ—n vobis Gal. 4. Apostle of the Gentiles boasted of heretofore when he called the Galatians his children and forming Jesus Christ in their souls he endeavoured to perfect both by his Evangelical labours Thus Preachers and Priests take their fruitfulnesse from the Father Everlasting they have no authority over his Son but because they have the honour to be his Ministers nor do they enter into his power but because they have an interest in the divine Paternity This advantage is not so peculiarly theirs that it is not common to them with the faithful Every Christian may conceive Jesus Christ in his own soul and bring him forth in others he may be both Father and Mother and the Son of God teacheth us that so holy an Allyance is contracted by an humble obedience He that doth the will of his Father becomes his Mother he that preacheth by his good example becomes his Father and every Christian may boast he returns that to Jesus Christ he received from him in his Baptism But certainly we must acknowledge there is no person that more honourably possesseth this advantage then the blessed Virgin she is the Mother of the Son of God in so August a manner that she comes neer that of his Eternal Father 't is the noblest copy of that divine Original neither is there any creature to whom God hath more largely communicated his fecundity He takes pleasure to see himself imitated by the Virgin and to observe in the person of Mary the properties of his divine Hypostasis He begot his Son of his substance and Mary of her bloud He conceived his Word in his bosom and Mary in her womb He produced him by a vertue that constitutes his Person in the Trinity and Mary brings him forth by the same vertue communicated to her in the moment of the Incarnation He produceth him by the knowledge of his Greatness and Mary by the consideration of her Nothingness Finally the Father begetteth his Son equall to himself Et erat subditus illis Luc. 2. Quid fecit Verbum non capiebatur in se descendit ita etiam ut esset subditus illis sic mutavit confilium suum ut quod tunc caeperat usque ad trigesimum annum dimiserit Ber. de Resur Domin Ser. 3. and Mary bringeth forth her first-born like unto Men Shee holds the place of the Eternal Father upon earth she is the Regent of the Son in his Minority she prescribes laws to him that gives lawes to the Angels and Jesus Christ reverencing the Authority of his Father in the person of his Mother was obedient to her the space of thirty yeers Thus the Eternal Father hath nothing so proper that he communicates not to Christians the Allyance he contracts with them is so strict that together with him they are all the fathers of the same Son and we may say 't was drawn out of that communication seeing he reserves not that very quality that distinguisheth him from his own naturall Son As the holy Spirit is the sacred bond uniting all these divine Allyances he also is pleased to associate himself with the Christians and entertains so firm a union with them that he is as well their Spirit as that of the Father and the Son for he is shed abroad in our hearts by charity he erects his Throne in our hearts he quickens us by his presence leads us by his motions illuminates us by his light and warms us by his heat He is so well blended with us that he is more the Principle of our actions then we our selves If we pray he furnisheth us with words and conceptions he expresseth himself by our mouth weeps with our eyes works with our hands and as if he were incarnate in each of us he makes use of all our members to accomplish his designes This divine Spirit accommodates himself to all our affairs and conditions he acts diversly in the faithfull and as the soul diffused over all the body sees with the eys works with the hands hears with the ears so he preacheth by the Apostles suffers in the Martyrs instructeth in the Doctors and in his adorable Unity produceth an acceptable Diversity of operations and effects His infinite charity obligeth him to intermeddle with our affairs he comforts the miserable without troubling his own happiness he strengthens the weak and makes Maids and Children triumph in the infirmity of their Age and Sex he teacheth the ignorant and this Divine Master distils Truth into the Understanding without the mediation of the Senses Finally he is the Spirit of the Church the bond of the faithful the love of Christians
of yet must we acknowledge that concupiscence remains in those that are baptised making havock in their souls aswell as in their bodies that it weakens their wills because it divides them obscures their understandings because it sheds darkness over them troubles their rest because it stirs up seditions in their person which end not but with their life Let us say then that this innocency is nothing but a freedom from sin which flowing from grace causeth that the disorders of concupiscence render us not guilty and that there must be an act of the will to occasion the loss of that which grace hath endued us with This binds us so powerfully to Jesus Christ that we find more strength in him then in Adam and are more secure in our Banishment then we had been in the earthly Paradise But this Innocence though never so substantial is not quiet its conflicts make up the best part of its glory its enemies prepare triumphs for it and 't is always arm'd because 't is well assured Heaven cannot be gain'd now but by violence The fourth Effect of Baptism is the weakening of our concupiscence For though it remain in the baptized for their exercise it loseth much of its vigour being left an orphan in respect of the father that gave it life it droops and languisheth and separated from sin it gives us no assaults but such as we may easily defend our selves from The grace that assists us is more potent then the adversary that sets upon us and 't is upon this occasion that we may say Stronger are they that are on our side then those that are against us A man must needs play the coward to suffer himself to be overcome in a combat where the victory depends upon his own will animated with Grace If we want help we may pray for it and the Christian hath this comfort to know that his own consent is necessary to his undoing True it is inasmuch as he is not ignorant that his victory is affix'd to Grace and that Grace is not so due unto him as that it may not be justly refused him he hath still reason to fear and distrusting his own strength is obliged to have recourse to the mercy of his divine Redeemer Though all Christians are persecuted by concupiscence Cecidit primus homo omnes qui de illo nati sunt de illo traxerunt concupiscentiam carnis Aug. Tract 5. in Joann yet is it not certainly known whether it be equall in all for it is so impotent in some it seems utterly extinct all their inclinations are so good we have great reason to beleeve that Grace is rather the Principle of their actions then corrupted Nature and having had a greater share in Jesus Christ at their Baptism they have lesse of Adam then others of his Posterity Nothing pleaseth them but vertue sin appears with no shape but that of horrour and whether it be that Grace hath weakened Concupiscence or fortified Nature they have none but holy desires and just and upright hopes Others on the contrary have so many bad inclinations that Baptism seems not to have regenerated them Adam appears more in their actions and in their words then Jesus Christ the old man is more thriving and operative in their persons then the new and did not faith instruct us that the Sacraments infallibly produce their effects we should with reason doubt whether they had received that of Baptisme or no. These two differences can proceed from nothing but from those two Principles which we are equally ignorant of to wit whether some men have more transgressed in Adam or more merited in Jesus Christ then others have unlesse we will lay all the blame and misfortune of the later upon their own constitution or upon the disorders of their Parents who many times make them undergo the punishment of their debauches To all these internall Effects may be added a great number of externall ones which makes us greatly admire the power of Baptism For by the vertue of this Sacrament the Christian is freed from the slavery of Satan he changeth his Master as he changeth his Condition Hell is shut against him Heaven is opened to him the Angels look upon him as one of their Companions and seeing in his soul the Mark of their Soveraign they are very tender and respective of his Grace and Priviledges Circumcision had not this advantage for if it distinguished a child from an Infidel enroll'd him in the number of the Israelites and by the belief of his Parents shed forth faith into his soul yet all Divines are of opinion that it gave him no entrance into Heaven and that dying in that state they went down into Limbo the skirts and fringes of perdition The heavens were not opened till the Ascension of Jesus Christ He it was that delivered our Fathers from their Captivity and that he might triumph over Hell aswell as over Earth made them partakers of his happiness But to give us a clearer apprehension of the right we have to Glory by Baptism Baptizato Domino Caeli sunt apâ—rti ut declaretur nobis quid ex Baptismo operari possemus Div. Thom. he was pleased that the Heavens should be opened when he received this Ceremony at the hands of his Precursor and the Confession of his Father declaring him his wel-beloved Son was an Earnest and Pledge assuring us that we should one day receive the same favour From this advantage there ariseth another which greatly promoteth the Condition of Christians As they are ingrafted into the person of Jesus Christ passing into a new order they live under other lawes and I can hardly believe that they are subject to that common Providence that rules over all men For the illustration of this Truth which may seem strange because it is new Effectus rerum omnium aut movent aut notant sydera sed sive quod evenitfaciunt quid immutabilis rei notitia prosiciet sive significant quid refert puovidere quod evitare non possis Sen. we must suppose that the sin of Adam hath not onely changed Man but the World also The Elements bid him battel the Starres persecute him and the fires of the Firmament sparkle with pernicious qualities to infest him Mans life depends upon their influences his constitution is altered by their motions and the greatest part of his adventures are regulated by their favourable or malignant aspects Astrologers therefore have some reason to search for good or bad successes in the starres and to learne from heaven what shall happen upon the earth 'T is a book wherein knowing men may read the alteration of Monarchies the events of battels the birth and death of Soveraigns and all those other accidents which surprise the vulgar This Opinion whether true or false pretends to be founded in scripture In sole posuit Tabernaculum suum Psal 18 and that there are some passages in it assuing us that the stars are the
experience that its subjects are so mutinous that they cannot be brought in subjection They are rather tired then overcome and at the very instant they seem to submit to Grace they listen to Concupiscence and taking new courage from this rebel-lust they set upon their Soveraign afresh Thus our whole life is a continual Warfare we begin at our Baptism and we end not till our Death This is it that S. Cyprian expresseth so handsomely in his Treatise of the Deluge where speaking to the Neophytes he says You are baptized you have the honour to bear the character of Jesus Christ you have been admitted to his Table and his Flesh hath served for nourishment Take notice how this new kinde of life engages you in a combat where you must grapple with the whole family of sins If you overcome Covetousness Lust will set upon you if you foil Lust Ambition steps in its place and joyning craft to violence endeavours to perswade us that all his designes are reasonable If you master this combatant Envie Anger Drunkenness accompanied with their partisans will presently draw into a body to destroy you Therefore doth S. Augustine compare the condition of newly-converted Christians to that of the Jews when they went out of Egypt They saith he were delivered by Moses these are delivered by Jesus Christ they passed thorow the red Sea these pass thorow Baptism they saw all their enemies dead upon the shore these see all their sins drowned in the waters But remember my brethren that the Jews having passed the Red-sea were not suddenly landed in Palestine the wilderness and desarts exercised their patience hunger and thirst oppressed them a long time fiery serpents persecuted them and a thousand strange nations opposing their passage made them stand to their arms to defend themselves Thus the Christians spend their life in conflicts and finde the world a horrid desart where a hundred several monsters serve as trials of their courage and exercises of their vertue They sigh after their dear Country they long to reign with Jesus Christ but disciplined by these precedent Types and Figures they are taught that to arrive to his Triumphs they must share in his Combats Therefore ought they not to think it strange though being brethren of Jesus Christ and children of their heavenly Father they yet enjoy not their inheritance and if while they are on the earth treated like slaves or enemies they still feel the revolt of the Creatures the persecution of Satan the War of those two parts whereof they are composed Let us profit by these Examples and remember that if Heaven be our Inheritance 't is also our Recompence if we be Children we are also Souldiers and if God be Good enough to prevent our Deserts he is Just enough to require our Good Works The Tenth DISCOURSE The Regeneration of a Christian takes not away all that he drew from his first Generation AS Grace and Nature proceed from one and the same Principle Erat Deus in Angelis in prâ—â— homine naturä condens largiens gratiam Aug. they have in their differences certain wonderful resemblances which cannot be considered without ravishment They act both together and though sin have divided them yet does not Grace forbear to make use of Nature in its highest operations Their designes are alike onely they seek after God by diverse ways but Grace hath this advantage over Nature that it never wanders They have one and the same End as they have one and the same Beginning and when they seem to contest their onely designe is to make Man happie Both of them are admirable in their Variety Nature puts as many differences in mens Mindes as in their Countenances and though all faces have the same parts yet she ranks them with so much artifice that there appears a diversity in their very likeness Grace is not inferiour to Nature in this advantage all its productions are different and though the Saints are quickned with the same Spirit the Church recording their Panegyrick instructs us that they are singular in their species But one of their greatest resemblances is that Nature is flowe in her operations she brings not her works to pass without much labour and time one grain of Corn costs her a whole yeer and she needs the several Seasons to bring it to a perfect maturity Flowers that are not so useful as Fruits stand her not in less time and to give them their Colour and their Smell Winter and Spring are requisite Grace is yet more slowe then Nature for whether it finde resistance in its designes or labour in more difficult undertakings it perfects not but in Eternity what it begins in Time There remains something still to be reformed in the Creature and whatever excellency of endeavour it bestows upon the greatest Saints it continually meets with some disorders to be regulated some sin to be corrected some inclinations to be vanquished Thence it comes to pass that in Baptism where it gives life to the Christian it acts with so much weakness that wiping away the stain of sin it leaves notwithstanding Concupiscence there still For though by the vertue of this Sacrament we become new creatures that Adam dies and Jesus Christ is born in us yet are we but rude draughts unpolished works expecting their perfection from time and travel We are saith one Apostle but the embryo of a new creature and we bear the denomination of Children by reason of our Weakness as well as of our Innocence The Principles of Christian life are in our souls we have the seeds of all vertues but if we husband them not with great care they are choak'd among the thorns of our evil inclinations For the understanding a truth that so much concerns our salvation we must know that the grace of Baptism defaceth the sin of Adam invests us with the Innocence of Jesus Christ and giving us admittance into his rights bestoweth heaven upon us for our inheritance of children of wrath which we were before Salus hominis in Baptismate sacta est quia dimissum est peccatum quod ex parentibus traxit vel quicquid etiam propric ante Baptismum peccavit we become children of mercy and contracting a true alliance with the holy Trinity we renounce all affinity with flesh and bloud In this happy condition we are no longer afraid of the just wrath of God the thunders he threatens sinners with are no longer terrible to us and living securely under the shadow of Jesus Christ we know that the sole sin of Adam can no longer prejudice our salvation we meditate with delight upon those words of S. Paul There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus We have the earnest of our salvation in our selves Grace is a pledge of glory and remaining under the Conduct of the holy Spirit we are sure that under so good a guide we cannot miscarry But whatever hope our spirit flatters us with
Nature For if Jesus be the Natural Son of the Father the Christian is his Adopted one if Jesus be the Heir of the Father the Christian is the Co-heir of the Son according to the expression of the great Apostle if Jesus be Innocent the Christian is Justified if Jesus be born of the Spirit the Christian is regenerated thereby and receives in his Baptism what the Son of God received in his Birth Inasmuch as this last wonderfully exalteth the glory of the Faithful I conceive I ought to bestow this whole Discourse upon this matter and to make it appear that the Holy Ghost by an excess of bounty will be to every Christian what he is to Jesus Christ Faith teacheth us that though Jesus Christ be the Son of the Everlasting Father yet is he withal the Workmanship of the Holy Spirit he that was barren in Eternity became fruitful in Time he that produced nothing in the Heart of the Father produced the Word Incarnate in the Womb of the Virgin and he that before the world began was the Spirit of the Son in the fulness of time became his Principle The Scripture insinuates this Truth when it brings in the Angel speaking these words to the Virgin The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee And the Church teacheth it all her children in the Symbole of her Creed in these terms He was conceived of the Holy Ghost Et licet aliud quidem ex te aliud ex Patre sit jam non tamen cujusque suus sed unus utriusque erit Filius Sanctus Bern. super missus est homil Thence it comes to pass that his conception is so pure that sin hath no part therein and that he is free from shame as the mother that bare him was from sorrow He was so born saith Tertullian that he need not blush at the name of Son This great priviledge is granted the Christian in his Baptism and his second birth is as holy and as noble as his first was shameful and criminal In the one he is a sinner before he is reasonable and the slave of the devil as soon as he is the subject of Jesus Christ but in the other he is happily born again by the vertue of the Holy Spirit he receives grace as an earnest of glory he is adopted by the Father for his son acknowledged by Jesus Christ for his brother treated by the Angels as their equal and exalted to so high a condition that the holy Spirit disdains not to be stiled the Author and Principle thereof This is it that holy Scripture holds out to us by these words Vnless a man be born again of water and of the holy Ghost I would enlarge my self upon this meditation had I not explained it already in another passage of this Work Neither would it be any hard matter to make it appear that the Regeneration of a Christian is little inferiour in this particular to the Birth of Jesus Christ The second advantage that is common to them is that the same spirit which is their Principle is also their Director and that he that gives them life gives them conduct and motion These two Things are inseparable in Nature and in Grace the same causes that make us live make us act these Starres whose influences contribute so much to our birth are not lesse conducing to our fortune and as they are the Principles of our Being they are in some sort the Guides of our life if they have no dominion over our spirit they have over our humour and if they force not our liberty they many times sollicite our inclinations But not to rest in second Causes it is plaine the creature depends as well upon God in his motion as in his Being he governs men whom he hath created he guides Princes whom he hath raised to the Throne and he as absolutely hath their wills in his hands as their Scepter By the same reason the Holy Spirit which is the Principle of Jesus Christ is his Director he undertakes nothing but by his conduct and as he received his being from his goodnesse he submits all his actions to his power The Scriptures furnish us with a thousand proofes of so important a Truth all the Evangelists are the faithfull Witnesses thereof neither doe they ever take notice of the designs of the Son of God Ductus est Jesus à Spiritu quia Humanitas Christi erat organum Divinitatis ideo ad omnia movebatur instinctu Spiritûs sancti hoc igitur motu ivit in desertum locum aptum or ationi Glossa ordin but they make it appeare at the same time that the Holy Spirit is the first mover of them For if he retire into the desarts to converse with beasts if he enter the list wherein he seemes to injure his glory to assure our salvation if he spend dayes and nights there in prayers and fasting if he suffer his slave to tempt him and if he refuse not to combate him upon Earth that he had driven out of Heaven 't is because the Holy Spirit engageth him in the conflict and layes an obligation upon him to beare the punishment of our sins to deliver us therefrom if he passe from one Province to another if he leave a rebellious City to instruct another more obedient to his divine sermons 't is by the direction of his guide Jesus returned into Galile in the power of the Spirit If he work Miracles in Judea 't is not so much to magnifie his power In Spiritu Dei ejicio Daemonia as to comply with the motions of the Holy Spirit and though these signall wonders cost him but a few words or desires he never wrought them but his divine Principle obliged him thereto by some secret inspiration if he unfolds the Mysteries of our Religion if he declare to his Disciples the will of his Father and discover to them those grand designes contrived from all Eternity In ipsa hora exultavit Spiritu Sancto dixit confiteor tibi Pater Domine caeli terrae quod abscondisti haec à sapientibus prudentibus revelasti ca parvucis Luk. 10. and which were not to be executed but in time 't is the Holy Spirit that animates him to this discourse and obliges him to manifest that to men which till then he would not impart to the Angels If finally the Son of God offer himselfe up upon the Crosse for our salvation if he drown our sins in his blood if he reconcile us to his Father by his death and satisfie him with the losse of life and honour 't is the holy Spirit that engageth him in this Agony and who inspires him with love enough to vanquish the ignomy and paine thereof He offered himselse without spot to God by the Holy Ghost so that the life of the Son of God was spent in a continued obedience to the Holy Spirit he undertook nothing but by his orders executed nothing but by his
Salute sua sunt securi de nostra solliciti Greg. Mag. The Church Triumphant is wholly taken up with Allelujahs being freed from miseries she makes no vows but for us and she hath no other businesse but eternally to blesse him that is the Fountain of her blessednesse But the Church Militant who lives in a strange Countrey who hath as many enemies as neighbours and who is well assured that the very name she bears obliges her to combate importunes Heaven by her prayers sends up sighs to her Well-beloved and cals upon him for help by the frequency of supplications If Prayer be thus necessary 't is yet more common for the Son of God tels us that blessings cost us onely the pains to ask for them Ask and ye shall receive Saint Paul will have us use this remedy in all our distresses offering up this sacrifice in all places Volo vos orare omni loco and Saint Augustine the faithfull Interpreter of this great Apostle assures us that to pray well there is nothing required but to desire well that our intercession continues as long as our desires doe and that in keeping silence we speak to God when we addresse our wishes to him but though this remedy be so necessary and so common yet is it neverthelesse of difficult performance and to know well how to use it the holy Spirit must instruct us The Scripture whose words are Oracles conferres this Elogie upon him particularly it teacheth us that he it is that animates our prayers by his calentures that inspires us with this confidence which gives us boldnesse to call God our Father which draws tears from our eyes sighs from our hearts and with groanes that cannot be expressed whereof he is the Authour blots out our sins and comforts our miseries In a word if we beleeve the great Apostle we know not the art to pray if we have not learnt it in the School of the holy Spirit the evils that oppresse us may indeed inspire us with eloquence but not indite our prayer and whatever need we feel if Grace prevent us not we cannot obtain a remedy Self-love so blindes us that if we be led by it we shall rather beg our ruine then our salvation Man is in so profound an ignorance that he knows not what is profitable or prejudiciall to him he many times conceives designes the accomplishments whereof are sad and dismall to him and Seneca had reason to say that God was incensed when he granted our requests If the ambitious give the reins to his passion that possesses him he will never aske any thing but honours and not consulting whether Glory stain his humility all his vows will have no other aim but the increase of his Fortune If the Covetous take councell of his Interest his prayers serve onely his covetousnesse even to the injuring of his Creatour whom he will never strive to gain but that he may be the Minister of his unjust desires If the Lascivious pursue the motion of wantonnesse that tyranniseth over him perhaps he will grow insolent enough to demand of God the glutting of his brutish passion so that according to the language of the Scripture his prayer will be turned into sin and the more Petitions he puts up the more offences will he commit If a man who breathes nothing but revenge implore the aid of Heaven in that wretched condition his inclination stronger then his reason will oblige him to interesse the Son of God in his injuries and out of an impudence worthy to be punished endeavour to engage him in his quarrell who died upon the Crosse for the salvation of his enemies Finally the prayer of every sinner will be a high sacriledge and he will draw down upon his head the thunder of heaven even then when he thinks to appease its anger But when the Christian suffers himselfe to be guided by the Spirit he intreats nothing of God but what is well-pleasing to him all his conceptions are not lesse beneficiall to himselfe then glorious for Jesus Christ and as the Principle that quickens him is Divine all the Prayers that flow thence are Divine and Heavenly too The glory of God is always dearer to him then his salvation he never separates the publick good from his own private interest he prays for his Family when he petitions for the State and knowing very well that he is a living member of the mysticall body of Jesus Christ he never makes any supplications that are prejudiciall to the Church The second Advantage we draw from the assistance of the holy Spirit in Prayer is that he makes known to us the secrets to come and carrying us beyond the present time markes out all those disasters the injustice of our desires threaten us with Our ignorance is one of the chiefest causes of our misfortunes if we could read in those eternall Annals where mens adventures are imprinted we should perceive that the greatest part of our desires are more disadvantageous to us then the imprecations of our enemies we are inquisitive after the causes of our disgrace in the night of futurity we hasten our ruine by our impatience and Heaven may easily plead excuse for our mischances since they are very often the effects of our own prayers God never takes greater vengeance on us then when he grants us what we so earnestly importune him for nor is he ever more opposite to our salvation then when he shews himself most favourable to our requests our Fathers and Mothers contribute to our damnation their wishes make us miserable and we need not wonder that calamities overwhelm us seeing we live amongst the Anathema's of our nearest relations The holy Spirit happily remedies this disorder for knowing the full extent of Eternity he sees all the events that are to happen in the sequell of succeeding generations so that he never inspires us with meditations that are not profitable to us he diverts us from those wishes which are prejudiciall to our salvation he will not suffer us to ask a Curse instead of a Blessing and when he breathes in our heart or speaks by our mouth our prayers always carry their reward with them the very deniall of them is usefull and when he forbears to grant what we besought him for 't is to exercise our patience and crown our humility If he have so much respect to our interest he hath no lesse to the Glory of Jesus Christ and he so well sorts his honour and our good together that whatsoever is helpfull to us is honourable to him The greatest part of sinners intreat of God those things that are opposite to his will or unworthy of his greatnesse For whether passion transport them or ignorance blind them they require honours of him that was born in a Stable and died upon a Crosse they expect pleasures from him who spent his whole life in sorrow and whom the Scriptures by way of Excellency style a Man of Griefes they hope for riches
them But Saint Augustine informs us that he acts otherwise with sinners then with the godly and that he carries himselfe after another fashion with those he moves only Aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter habitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles Aug. Epist ad Sixtum then with those whom he inanimates He assists the former that they may be converted he helps the second that they may persevere in the former he inspires faith in the later charity to the one he opens the door of the Church to the other the gate of Heaven But finally 't is one and the same Spirit that aids all Christians in their different conversations 'T is he that triumphs over the Executioners in the Martyrs that combates Hereticks in the Doctours that subdues the flesh in the Continent that despiseth the pleasures of the world in the Anchorites that conquers sinne in the Penitents and that leads all the Elect from the Camp of the Church Militant into the bosome of the Church Triumphant The Ninth DISCOURSE That the HOLYSPIRIT is the CHRISTIANS Comforter SIn and Misery were borne into the world both upon a day assoon as ever man became criminall he became miserable Peccavit anima ideo misera est liberum arbitrium accepit quo usa est quemadmodum voluit lapsa est ejecta est de beatitudine implicata est misertis Aug. contra Fortu. Disp 2. punishment followed transgression so close upon the heeles that he lost his happinesse as soon as he had lost his innocence Ever since this fatall moment his life hath been but a continued Train of miseries insensibly leading him to the Chambers of death The Hydra of the Poets never was so fruitfully pregnant and Fiction with all it's inventions could never yet represent the story of our misfortunes Nor Age nor Sexe nor Condition give any person a dispensation Infants are wretched in the Cradle that innocent Age that hath no other sinne then that of Adam is sensible of pains as sharp as those that accompany old age Women who somtimes shake off obedience to their Husbands cannot escape the pangs of griefe and Kings who are so absolute in their State have no Guards that can stop sicknesse and sadnesse from entring into their Palaces These two enemies of man-kind creep every where their dominion knowes no bounds where ever there are men they finde subjects and create miserable Indeed Christians meet with a great deale of consolation in these distresses for besides that the hope of futurity sweetens their present evils that the example of Jesus Christ gives them encouragement that the constancy of Martyrs bear up their spirits they have received the Holy Spirit that comforts them in their troubles and supplies them with as many remedies as misfortune takes upon it shapes to assault them Let us reduce both of them to four heads and make it appear in their discourses that 't is not in vaine that man beares the name of miserable and the Holy Spirit that of a Comforter One of the fearfullest torments of man a sinner is that the two parts whereof he is made cannot agree In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum fit rixa tua tecum lucta est in illo corpore quamdiu vivimus pugnamus quamdiu pugnamus periclitamur Aug. The body and the soule are always upon bad terms their love is turned into hate and if there be any agreement between them 't is always to the disadvantage of the nobler part All is out of order in the master-piece of the Creation Earth is higher then Heaven the Beast domineers over the Angell the Spirit stoops to the Body and Passions are the Mistresses of Reason The Saints groan under this disorder they invoke death to be freed from this Tyranny and they intreat an end of their life that they may see an end of a Combate whose event is so doubtfull The Holy Spirit accommodates this difference by his grace for he takes part with the soule against the body he subjects the soule to God thereby to subject the body to the soule he sets things in the state they were in during the time of Innocence and so suppresseth the revolts of the flesh that if the Spirit be not absolute it is at least the strongest in the Saints 'T is the grace of our heavenly Comforter say the Fathers of the Church that sweetens our discontents that quencheth the impure flames that concupiscence kindles in our hearts that subdues those violent passions whose first motions are of so difficult coercion 'T is it that charmes those deceitfull hopes and desires that promise us felicity in the World and which finally following the Inclinations of this Spirit whereof it is the Image inables the Christian to be revenged of those rebells that disturb the quiet of his person The second punishment of guilty man is to see himselfe exiled from heaven and constrain'd to endure a banishment as long as life Indeed he undergoes here all the miseries of an exterminated person he is deprived of his goods and lives not but upon borrowing or almes he is driven out of Paradise fallen from all those honours that equal'd his condition to that of Angels and reduced to a deplorarable state Homo cum in honore esset non intellexit ideo comparatus est jumentis insipientibus Psal 48. rendring his fortune little different from that of beasts He never looks up to heaven but if there be any spark of piety remaining he bewailes his offence and is afflicted at his banishment Griefe puts these complaints in his mouth Wo is me because my habitation is prolonged He is afraid least the snares that are scattered in the place of his residence entangle him if he suffer any calamity he presently reflects upon the happinesse he hath lost and if he taste any pleasures he misstrusts lest they engage him in the world For Christians are threatned with this double evill and if they take not good heed they are in danger to love their exile and forget their Countrey they settle their fortune upon earth they build as if they never meant to remove they are strongly taken up with the present world and they lose all beliefe of the future and a man hath much adoe to perswade them that so delightfull an Abode is the place of their Banishment and the Theater of their Torment They must be made feele their miseries that they may have some desire towards another life and we think we have gained much upon their Spirit when they will be perswaded to look with an indifferent eye upon the place of their birth Therefore is it that Richardus de Sancto Victore divides men into three ranks the first is those that are fastened to their Countrey whom he calls Delicate Delicatus est cui patria dulcis fortis cui omne solum patria perfâ—ctus cui omnis terra exilium est
that fortifies our weakness when we are set upon that dissipates our darkness when we are blinded and sweetens our discontents when we are troubled Hee weeps with us without interessing his felicity he shares in our infirmities without prejudicing his Almightinesse he is sadded with our miseries without disquieting his own contentedness he puts sighs into our hearts words into our mouthes reasons into our understandings to expresse our wretchedness and to pacifie our Judge Postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus The union he contracts with us is so strict that the Scripture attributes to him what it would have us do and by a strange liberty makes him partakers of our miseries as we are made partakers of his happiness The last torment of man a sinner is the doubt he hath of his salvation Death is troublesom because the hour thereof is uncertain neither hath he that pronounc'd sentence upon us express'd the time of its execution All moments are to be suspected by us every day may be our last and the accidents that cause our dissolution are so involved in futurity that they daily seize us before we are provided for them Nescit homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit sed omnia in futuruÌ„ servantur incerta Eccl. 9. But our salvation is much more concealed then our death Predestination is much more secret and more important then the end of our life and the alarms so just an apprehension strikes us with are much more lawfull and amazing There is no man that hath read in the Book of the living nor that knows whether his name be written there the whole world trembles at the thought of that irrevocable judgment the Character of Baptism the vocation into the Church the power of working Miracles the love of Enemies the forgetting of Injuries and what-ever is most glorious and most difficult in Religion are no certain proofs of our predestination Fear is alwayes mix'd with hope in our souls the Grace that quickens us may forsake us the example of the Reprobate strikes us with astonishment and after the Treason and Despair of Judas there is no Saint but trembles This is the greatest pain that afflicts Christians Vae miseris nobis qui de electione nostra nullam adhuc Dei vocem cognovimus jam in otio torpemus vae etiam laudabili vitae hominum si remota pictate judicemur Greg. the cruellest punishment that exerciseth their patience the rudest torment that proves their charity Thus would it be an insupportable vexation did not the holy Spirit sweeten it by the inward testimony he witnesseth to our Conscience But he moreover gives us assurances of our salvation he makes us obscurely read over the Book of Life he takes us into that privie-Chamber where the definitive sentence of our Eternity is pronounc'd Ipse Spiritus testimonium reddit spiritui nostro quòd sumus filii Dei Rom. 8. he applyes to us the merits of Jesus Christ and interposes himself the caution of his promises he blots out those mortall discontents which labour to cast us into despair he heightens our hope by a prelibation of glory and handles us with so much tenderness that we have much adoe to beleeve that we can be miserable in the other world having been so happy in this The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the CHRISTIAN's Ingratitude towards the Holy SPIRIT IF that Philosopher had reason to say Nibil in rerum natura tam sacrum quod sacrilegum non inveniat Sen. There was nothing so sacred in Nature that meets not with some sacrilegious person to prophane it Divines may with greater justice affirm There is nothing so holy in Religion that wicked and ungodly men do not dishonour and by their malice desecrate its holyest mysteries The divine Mercy is the source of all Graces were not God mercifull we should be eternally miserable did not he remit the injuries done against him the first offence would cast us into despair and having once lost his grace we could expect nothing but punishments in the mean time his Mercy makes sinners presumptuous in their crimes that which should convert them hardens them and that which promiseth them impunity carryes them for the most part to impenitency The death of Jesus Christ is the last testimony of his love his wounds are so many bleeding mouthes breathing forth this Truth and when we begin to doubt of it we need but consider the streams of blood that issued from his veins In the mean time Positus est in ruinam in resurrectionem mulâ—orum Luc. 7. his death is often the occasion of our fall we perswade our selves that he that could finde in his heart to die for us is too much concern'd in our salvation to destroy us upon this vain hope we abandon our selves to all wickednesse and turn our Antidote into a poyson The holy Sacrament is the highest invention the charity of the Son of God could finde out none but an infinite Wisdome could designe it nor could any but an absolute uncontrolled Power put it in execution both of them are drained in this Mystery and when the Son of God is incarnated upon our Altars to enter into our hearts there is no other favour to be wished for upon earth Neverthelesse experience teacheth us that this Grace is not onely unprofitable Sumunt boni sumunt mali sorte tamen inaequali vitae vel interitus D. Thom. but pernicious to sinners that it conveighes death instead of life mixeth a sacriledge with a sacrifice and makes the devill enter into their soules by admitting Jesus Christ unworthily But not to stand upon the proofe of so known a Truth we need but represent the Grace of the Holy Spirit and the ingratitude of wicked men to be fully perswaded thereof He is the fruitfull source of all the blessings we receive from heaven he is the dispenser of all the merits of the Sonne of God nor can we expect any thing of the one but by the mediation of the other In the mean time we prophane his Graces cast off his Inspirations his goodnesse serves onely to set an edge upon our malice the more favourable he is to us the more rebellious are we against him and the more arts he useth to convert us the more barres do we oppose to resist him we may judge of this by the names he beares and by the attempts he makes to gaine us he gives testimony of his love and affection towards us The Holy Spirit is the Principle of our supernaturall life Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas ad Creationem pertinet nisi quis renatus fuerit ad regenâ—rationem Faith instructs us that 't is he that frees us from the state of sin to levell us a passage to Grace if we are the effects of his power in the world we are the works of his mercy in the Church so high a favour would challenge as high an acknowledgment so that
provoke him The Third TREATISE Of the Christians Head The first DISCOURSE That the CHRISTIAN hath two Heads ADAM and JESUS CHRIST IF Bodies with two Heads passe for Monsters humane Nature may very well passe for a Prodigie in that it hath two Chiefes upon which it depends and that as Adam communicates his Sin to it by Generation making it guilty and miserable Jesus Christ communicates his Grace to it by Baptisme making it innocent and happy 'T is true Nature might have expected great advantages from this first Head had he kept his originall Righteousnesse for our Divines confesse that Adam being Chiefe of all men received Grace not onely for himselfe but for all his Posterity that as his sinne passeth into his children by Generation Grace had passed into them by the same conveyance and that then they had been borne innocent as now they are borne criminall Together with grace he had communicated to them all the Priviledges he had received from God in the Creation Their bodies had been freed from those troublesome maladies that exercise our patience and originall righteousnesse had knit the body so close to the soule that their peace had never been disturb'd by these intestine divisions that set them so much at distance Nourishment had repair'd the radicall moisture that the naturall heat had consum'd and the fruit of the Tree of Life retaining something of our Sacraments had imparted to them a new vigour that had secur'd them against old Age and Death Their soul had not been worse provided for then their body for with Grace they had received all vertues and according to Saint Augustine either they had had the use of reason for their service or they had learn'd with so much easinesse that Ignorance had never been their Torment In this happy condition the Will had been more free then now it is the passions were so subject to reason that they had never been up but by his order Concupiscence that tyrannizeth over the children of Adam Summa in carne sanitas in anima tota tranquilitas Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. had not enslav'd the soule to the body and though the inferiour part had felt it's naturall inclinations Grace had so well moderated them that they had never undertaken any thing either against justice or honesty Thence it comes to passe that these austere vertues that have nothing else to do but to combate the motions of the flesh had serv'd rather for his ornament then for his defence Thence it followes that Grace had not been the Mistresse of the Will because having no bad inclinations she might have guided her selfe provided she were but supported nor had there been any danger that she that was not yet a Captive to sinne should have the chiefe disposall of his salvation we are not certain that if Adam had preserved his innocence his children had been impeccable neither know we if the sinne of other men had injur'd their posterity and if having lost the advantages of originall righteousnesse in their own behalfe they had lost them also as concerning their successours This condition is so conceal'd that we have nothing but weak conjectures of it every one extolls or debaseth it according to his humour and having neither Scripture nor Tradition for their rule all the world may diminish or adde something to their happinesse 'T is certain neverthelesse Sicut in Paradiso nullus aestus aut frigus sic in ejus habitatione nulla ex cupiditate vel timore bonae voluntatis offensio Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. that all the torments that came into the world with sinne had never discompos'd his quiet The Seasons had not been irregular the Elements had not bid him battel the Earth had been fruitfull without tilling and thorns that are the fruits of sinne had not dishonoured the face thereof Deluges that drowned the world Drought that makes the fields barren Pestilence that depopulates Cities and mows down the Inhabitants having no other cause but sinne had made no devastations in an innocent State and men being upon good terms with God had found their happinesse under the protection of his Grace having lived some Ages upon the earth Proinde si non peccasset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortalitate Aug. they had been translated into heaven where Glory consuming what they had of perishable had made them perfectly immortall without passing them through the pangs of immortality The two parts that compose man had not been separated the Master-piece of the Creation had not been ruin'd and the soul reigning with Angels had not beheld her body devoured by worms in the Sepulchre See here a rude draught of the state of Innocence and a slight shadow of the glorious advantages children had derived from their father had he kept originall righteousnesse but the evils he procur'd them surpasse the priviledges in number and quality For his sinne is the source and fountain of all misfortunes we are not guilty but because we are his Members we sinn'd by his will because we lived in his person and the offence of one man is become the obliquity of whole Nature because it was included in him as the Tree in the Kernell or as a River in the Head Quia vero per liberum arbitrium Deum deseruit justum Dei judicium expertus est ut cum tota sua stirpe quae in illo adhuc posita tota cum illo peccaverat damnaretur Aug. This is it that Saint Augustine teacheth us in those no lesse handsom then solid expressions Adam felt the just judgement of God because abusing his free will he was unjustly separated from him and punishment was inflicted upon him with his whole race because being in him as in the stock they had wholly transgress'd with him The same also he delivers with as much or more eloquence in his Enchiridion for searching out the cause of so many evils that assault us he concludes that the sinne of our first father is the originall thereof and that we are therefore criminall and miserable because we are a part of him Thence it comes to passe saith he that being banished out of Paradise after his transgression he was condemned to death with all his Posterity who living in him as in their Principle were infected with his prevarication as the branches wither in their stock and die in their root Thence it comes to passe that all children that descend from him and from his wife the Complice of his offence and of his punishment are the heirs of his corruption This sinne passeth into them by the channell of concupiscence and makes them sensible of a torment which seems the image of their disobedience since one part of themselves is revolted against the other This revolt engaging their soule in vanity and their body in pain leads them insensibly with the rebellious Angels to that last Judgement which will never have an end Let us
kingdom of Life but by Jesus Christ As all that are born of Adam are sinners all that are born again of Jesus Christ are justified and as all the sons and daughters of Adam are the children of the earth and death all the children of Jesus Christ are the children of heaven and of life This Maxime is so true that man makes no more progresse in perfection then according as he doth in allyance with Jesus Christ The more Faith he hath the lesse hath he of Errour and Falshood the more hope he conceives in the mercy of God the lesse confidence hath he in the favour of men the more he burns with the fire of Charity the lesse is he scorched with the flames of Concupiscence the more he is united to this innocent and glorious Head from whom all grace is derived the lesse is he fixt to that infamous and criminall Head from whom all sin takes it originall so that Christians as we have already proved ought to have no other care but to make Adam die and Jesus Christ live in their person if they intend to be innocent they must be Parricides if they will bestow life upon the Son of God they must inflict death upon their first Father if they meane to be quickned with the spirit of humility which raiseth men in debasing them they must renounce the spirit of vain-glory which lays men low in lifting them up and under a colour of making Gods of them makes them nothing but Devils or Beasts Finally mans unhappinesse flows from the shamefull alliance he contracted with Adam in his Birth Ex transgressione primi hominis universum genus humanum natum cum obligatione peccati victor Diabolus possidebat si enim sub captivitate non teneremur redemptore non indigeremus venit ad captivos non captus venit ad captivos redimendos nihil in se captivitatis ha bens sed carne mortali pretium nostrum portans Aug. de Verb. Apo. Ser. 22. and the Christians happinesse proceeds from the glorious alliance he contracted with Jesus Christ in Baptisme Thus the quality of a Chief in Adam is the source of all our Evils and the quality of a Chief in Jesus Christ is the Originall of all our Good and as Adam did not so much destroy us in being our Father as in being our Head neither doth Jesus Christ save us so much for being his Brethren or his Children as because we are his members because 't is in effect this quality that procures us all the rest neither is God our Father but because Jesus Christ is our Head The Second DISCOURSE Of the Excellencies of the Christians Head and the advantages they draw from thence THough all the alliances Jesus Christ hath contracted with men be as beneficiall to them as they are honourable yet must we confesse that the relation that unites him to them as their Head is the strictest and most advantageous 'T is much that he would be their King and giving them Laws had owned them for his Subjects 'T is more yet that he condescended to be their Brother and sharing his Eternall Inheritance with them made them Co-heirs together with Himself 't is more yet that he made them his Children and conceiving them in his wounds suffered death to give them life But 't is yet a more signall favour that he vouchsafed to make them his Members and joyning them to Himself in one body he is constituted the Head from whence they receive all those indearing influences which communicate to them the life of Grace and merit for them that of Glory Therefore also doth Saint Augustine when he examines the favours we have received from the Father preferre this before all others Nullum majus donum prastâ—re posset hominibus quam ut verbum suum per quod condidit omniâ— faccret illis caput illos ei tanquam membra coaptaret ut esset filius Dei silius hominis unus Deus cum patre unus homo cum hominibus Aug. in Psal 36. Ser. 3. and confesseth he never more sensibly obliged us then when he gave us his onely Son to be our Head God saith he could bestow no higher honour upon men then by uniting them with his Word by whom he created all things as the Members with their Head that he that was the Son of God might be the Sonne of Man and that by reason of his Divine Person subsisting in the Humane Nature he might be God with his Father and Man with his Brethren 'T is in effect from this glorious co-habitation that all our blessings are derived If the Father look upon us 't is because we are the Members of his onely Sonne If he hear our prayers 't is because Jesus Christ speaks by our mouth if he receive us into Glory 't is because he sees us cloathed with the merits of our Head if he admit us into his bosome 't is because the quality we bear renders us inseparable from his Word But if this alliance be beneficiall to Christians 't is honourable to Jesus Christ For though nothing can be added to his Grandeur who is equall to his Father and all the Priviledges he received from his Incarnation may passe for so many Humiliations Neverthelesse the dignity of being Head of the Church is so eminent that after that of the Son of God there is none so Venerable and August It gives Jesus Christ the same advantage over the Faithfull that the Head hath over the Members and to conceive what he is in the Church we must observe what this is in the Body The Head is the noblest seat of the Soul 't is that part of the Body where she acts her highest operations 't is there that she debates those subjects that are presented to her that she deliberates upon the accidents that happen 't is there that the memory preserves the species which may be called the treasures of wisdome and the riches of the Intellectuall faculty 't is there that the understanding conceives truths and the will pronounceth determinations In a word 't is there that the affairs concerning Peace and Warre Salvation or Damnation Time or Eternity are treated of Thus also is it in Iesus Christ that all those lights reside that govern the Church 't is in him that are shut up all the treasures of wisdome and from him that all Oracles proceed whereby the Faithfull are instructed The Head is the most eminent part of the Body Nature was willing that as it is the noblest so it should be placed nearest Heaven and the very situation should oblige all the other parts to shew it reverence It is the most exalted that it may more easily dispence its orders and that the spirits which convey sense and motion by the nerves may descend with more facility into all the parts of the body Iesus Christ also is in the highest place of his State he reignes in Heaven with his Father from thence he views all
you goes on Saint Augustine seeing the same thing happens to us every day and an ordinary and familiar example evidenceth the same truth For when ye are in the throng of an Assembly and some body treads upon your foot your tongue presently complains and though no body toucht it cries out you have hurt me what means it by that expression Might it not be replyed you are in safety the place you have in the body secures you from danger and if any part be offended 't is the foot not you In the mean time Truth and Charity require this language for being in the same body with the foot their good and bad are common he that hurts one hurts the other the society that unites them and the compassion that grows from their society constraines it to utter theâ—e complaints as just as they are true Let us apply this comparison and say though Iesus Christ suffer not in his Person he suffers in that of the Faithfull that making up one body with them he is sensible of their pains and taking part in their wrongs is offended when any one offends them By the same consequence a Christian can doe no good to other Christians but the Son or God is beholding to him for it For the Felicity he enjoyeth exempts him from all want nothing can be added to his riches by desires and he is so great and so happy that there is nothing he can either hope or fear yet is he indigent in the faithfull and he may be assisted in the person of the miserable he protests that in that terrible day when he will examine the good and bad works of his Subjects he will recompence the good offices done to the poor as done to himself nor will make any difference between the good usage he received in his naturall body and that he shall have received in his mysticall body he will equally pronounce sentence upon these different actions and every where confounding the Head with the Members will punish with as much severity those that have persecuted him in the poor as those that nailed him to the Crosse That which yee did to one of the least of mine yee did unto me This truth ought to comfort the good and strike terrour into the wicked For if Iesus Christ live still in the distressed if the condition of a Head which he preserves in Glory make him languish in the poor we must needs conclude that those that oppresse them are as guilty as the Pharisees that oppressed Jesus Christ Though his Innocence was clouded under the likenesse of sinfull flesh and the lustre of his Majesty obscured by the humility of his person his enemies did despite to a God when they thought only to injure a Man they committed a Parricide when they imagined they acted only a murder and the Father punisheth them as guilty of Treason against the Divine Majesty because the miracles of his Sonne took away all pretence from their zeal and all excuse from their offence The same judgement threatens those that persecute the poor For though nothing of worth shine forth in them that can render them considerable though Iesus be hid under the misery of their condition and reason cannot discover a happy man under an unfortunate one nor a Son of God under a child of Adam he will not fail to punish them as severely as those that knew him not in Judea because his words which are to be respected as Oracles suffer us not to doubt of this verity which makes up one of the chiefest Articles of our Faith But if it be an argument of terrour to the wicked 't is a ground of comfort and consolation to the godly For they may still succour the Son of God in wretched and distressed people they may imitate the piety of Martha and Mary Magdalen they may enjoy the priviledges which make up the glory of those blessed women they may still be the entertainers of Iesus Christ and receiving him in the person of the poor and strangers Ne quis vestrum dicat 〈◊〉 beati qui Christum suscipere in propriam domii meruerunt noli dolere noli murmurare quia temporibus natus es quando jam dominum non vides in carne non tibi abstulit istam dignationem cum uni inquit ex minimis meis fecistis mibi fecistis Aug. Serm. 27. de Verb. Dom. participate in their merits who received him himself into their houses The Son of God will not have us make any difference between his naturall and his mysticall body his hands and his feet are not dearer to him then the poor and all that is done to these may expect the same reward as that which was done to them If we beleeve S. Chrysostome there is more advantage by serving Christ in his afflicted members then there was to wait upon him in his own Person because there is more trouble in it and as our senses meet with nothing that can flatter them in that exercise our love is more pure and more disinteressed There was as much pleasure as honour to perform acts of service to the Son of God whilest he lived upon earth the Majesty of his Countenance the graciousnesse of his Aspect the Charms of his Conversation the Power of his Words were recompence enough to them that received him into their houses they had a certain adhaesion to his person from whence they were to be separated by death That visible presence which charmed their eyes diminished their merit and the love they bare to that body that was the workmanship of the Holy Ghost had imperfections which were to be purified by elongation But the Faithfull who serve the Son of God in the poor are free from this danger they behold nothing in these sad objects that can please their sense they must consult their faith to find Iesus Christ there they must doe violence to themselves to pay their homage at those shrines and that Image having no allurements all their devotion betakes it self purely to seek after Iesus Christ in Heaven But not to determine this difference 't is sufficient to know for our comfort that Iesus Christ is in the Christians that the glories of the one and the miseries of the other separate them not that he suffers in us without any abatement of his Felicity that we reigne in him without any prejudice to our merit that he is upon the Earth though cloathed with the Glories of Immortality that we are in Heaven though shrowded in the rags of misery that in the difference of our conditions Quoties ergo videmus aliquem indigentem agnoscamus ChristuÌ„ in illo quia ipse indigens membrum Christi est Bern. de Pass Domi. cap. 32. there is a perfect communication of good and bad things between him and us that his Grace is ours our sins are his with this difference onely that his Grace cancels our sins and our sins despoile not him of his Innocence The
Nature Thus was he torn in pieces by lions in the person of S. Ignatius devoured by flames in that of S. Laurence stoned in that of S. Stephen beheaded in that of S. Paul and this great Apostle that knew the desires of Jesus Christ rejoyced to accomplish them by his sufferings and to be one of those Victims whereby he adored the Justice and the Soveraignty of his Father But not to urge this conceit any further 't is enough that we learn from it that Jesus and the Church are united in their sufferings upon earth and by a necessary consequence assures us they shall be so one day in their rest in heaven For though the Church sigh here belowe she knows her Beloved will keep his word that having had a part in his sorrows she shall have a share in his triumphs and having been two in one Flesh they shall be two in one and the same Felicity She hath the promises of Jesus Christ for caution of her hope and when she remembers the prayer her Beloved made to his Father in her behalf she expects the performance with constancy of assurance Father I will that where I am there also my servants be Whenever Jesus Christ speaks to his Father 't is with so much respect that he seems rather a Servant then a Son when he asks that his Church may reign with him in his glory 't is with so much freedom of speech that he seems equal to his Father and that his demand is rather a determination then a prayer Volo Pater so that the Church who hath passed thorow all the degrees of unity with her Beloved expects this last with confidence and makes no more doubt of the Eternity of her rest then of the Verity of the words of her Beloved She believes that the union he hath contracted with her puts her in possession of her hopes that she enjoys in him what she hopes for in her self that she is glorious in her Body because she is so in her Head and that during the evils she suffers Ubi portio mea regnat ibi me regnare puto ubi caput meum dominatur ibi me dominari sentio D. Max. Serm. 3. she may boast her self happie because nothing is wanting to the felicity of her Beloved She hath now in Christ what she hopes for in her self and according to the judgement of S. Maxime she believes to raign there already where the most illustrious part of her Body reigns and conceives her self exalted above the Angels in the person of him that considers her as his Spouse and looks upon them as his Subjects The Seventh DISCOURSE That the quality of the Members of Jesus Christ is no more advantageous to Christians then that of the Brethren of Jesus Christ IT is not without great reason Unigenitus Dei factus est hominis filius ut qui Creator mundi erat fieret Redemptor Aug. that the same God that created us by his Power hath redeemed us by his Mercy For these two favours being extreme we should have had much ado equally to have acknowledged them Having but one heart to love with we must of necessity have divided our affections and the benefit of Redemption surpassing that of Creation we had been constrained to prefer our Redeemer before our Creator But the Divine Providence saith S. Bernard hath delivered us from this perplexity for he that drew us out of Nothing hath drawn us out of Sin and he that Created us is the same that Redeemed us so that without any fear of Jealousie we may compare these two benefits and give one the pre-eminence without injuring him of whom we have received them Me thinks I may say the same concerning the subject I am in hand with and free from any apprehension confront the quality of Brethren with that of Members because we hold them both of Jesus Christ and that the same who was pleased to be our Brother disdained not to be our Head Nature hath found out no alliance neerer then that of Brothers and Members and though she be so ingenious she hath not been able to link men in a stronger bond of relation then in giving them one and the same Father or one and the same Head Brothers are Slips of the same Stock if they ascend one degree they will finde that before their conception they made one portion of their Father and that before their birth they were a part of the bowels of their mother Friendship which is so much esteemed of in the world is but a Copie of this Alliance Friends are Brethren that our Will bestows upon us and Brethren are Friends that Nature stores us with but as that which is voluntary never equals that which is natural 't is very hard for Friends to love so tenderly as Brothers do Nevertheless if the affinity of these begin by Unity it insensibly tends to Division Brothers children are but Cousins their Grandchildren are yet at a farther distance and it falls out in time that those that issued from one father become by continuance of Generations strangers and enemies I know very well that Christians have priviledges that raise them above the condition of Men and that Grace more powerful then Nature hath given them a Father and Mother from whom they are never divided For the Son of God unites us to his Person in begetting us of children he makes us members and as if the Alliance of Father were not strict enough he becomes our Head that subsisting in him our life may be inseparable from his The Church imitates the charity of her Beloved she is so tenderly affected towards her children that she brings them up in the same bosome where she conceived them There are none but Hereticks that go out from her and they as Vipers must tear her bowels and offer violence to her Love in making a breach in her Unity Though other Mothers bear their children Nine months with an affection that solaceth their travel yet do they long to be eased of that painful load and the Infant desires to quit that troublesome prison Both of them do their utmost for a separation and if the children seek their liberty the mothers are as earnest after their delivery But the Church is so good a Mother she is never rid of her burden they always make a part of her inwards as they always are a part of the body of their Father they are born in the same place they are formed and as their Regeneration divides them not from Jesus Christ their Generation divorces them not from the Church But who sees not that to entertain this Union the quality of Members comes in to the assistance of that of Children and that the Faithful are much more knit together for being Members of the same Head then for being Children of the same Father We make up one Body with him Time that divides Brothers cannot divide Christians and as nothing but death can disjoyn the members
Common-wealth that their vertue though imperfect carried lustre with it and though no way comparable to that of true believers had notwithstanding beauty enough to condemn one day bad Christians But admit the vertue of Infidels be false that hinders not but they may have some assistance from Heaven to discern good from evil and to take from them that excuse wherewith the pride of man shelters it self having sinned through ignorance This was the motive that induced God to give the Law to the Jews Nulli enim hominum ablatū est scire utiliter quaerere Non tibi deput atur a◠culpam quod invitus ignorat se◠quod negligis quaerere quod ignoras Aug. and 't is the same that prevailed with him to indulge the Heathen some light which in my opinion cannot render them more culpable if it did not withall render them more capable to shake hands with sin This is it perhaps that Saint Augustine means in the nineteenth Chapter of his third Book of Free-will where he grants that God hath deprived no body of the meanes to seek after truth and that the power of finding it is common to all men If their mind may be enlightned with some heavenly light their will may be touched with some regret for their offences they may have good thoughts and good motions which they reject their being in Infidelity puts them not yet in the state of Reprobation God makes some difference between these delinquents and the damned he deals not with them as with the devils and if it be true that he suspends the torments of these I can easily be perswaded that he withholds the sins of those and that they have graces that disengage their Will for some moments from the tyranny of Concupiscence They act not always under the conduct of this enemy and though they are his slaves yet they have a Soveraign who never losing his rights can defend them when he please S. Thomas the truest Interpreter and most knowing disciple of S. Augustine was of the same opinion neither intended to dissent from his Master He judged right with him that whatever is done among Infidels and among Christians by the instigation of Concupiscence is sin but he did not believe that Mercy had utterly forsaken the Heathen and that she imparts no Grace unto them which though leaving them in errour disengageth them many times from sin If there be supernatural assistances that prepare us for Faith and make us conceive some good thoughts before we be made Believers there may also be some which not drawing the Heathen out of their Infidelity may preserve them from the committing of some offences and make them perform some actions which relate to the Supreme Good imperfectly known and imperfectly loved When God heretofore converted the Heathen Concilium Tridentinum pronunciat Anathem a in eos qui dicunt opera omnia quae ante justificationem quacunque ratione facta sint vera esse peccata Sess 6. Can. 7. he gave them not the light of Faith all at once this vertue was ushered in by some good dispositions there were some moments wherein they were Infidels and sinned not wherein they acted by the conduct of Grace and not by that of Charity and when following the inspirations of heaven they were not actually in sin though habitually they still remained it There is some Grace that is not absolutely inconsistent with Infidelity because there is some love that is not altogether incompatible with sin and as every day sinners feel supernatural motions that lift them up towards God and oblige them to do good works we may say also that Infidels receive some extraordinary supply that rectifies their intentions Ex quo apparet habere quosdam in ipso ingenio divinumquoddā naturaliter munus intelligentiae quo moveantur ad fidem si congrua suis mentibus vel audiant verba vel figna conspiciant Aug. de bono Perse cap. 14. and makes them act for a supernatural and divine end And certainly they are not destitute of all Graces because S. Augugustine observes some in them which he acknowledgeth not in the Jews For explaining that famous and difficult passage where Jesus Christ assures us that those of Tyre and Sidon had certainly repented had they seen the miracles he did in Judea this great Doctor avows that the Tyrians were not so blinde nor so hardned as the Jews that they had one advantage which holding from Nature and Grace prepared them for Faith A naturally-divine gift of understanding whereby they are moved to Faith that they had believed the miracles of the Son of God had they had the honour to have seen them Quoniam credidissent si qualia viderunt isti signa vidissent and that this Grace had produced its effect had the circumstance whereon it depended intervened But though it gave them a power of being converted 't was as useless to them as Christs miracles were to the Jews because neither of them were of the number of the predestinated Sed nec illis profuit quod credere poterant quia praedestinati non erant The same Doctor is not far from this opinion when writing against Julian he saith to that Heretick that they were more equitable then he who ascribed the vertues of the Heathen to the assistance of heaven and not to their own Free-will and who granted them some grace in their Infidelity which they acknowledged after their conversion Perhaps the impulse of S. Dennis at the death of the Son of God was of this kinde That the Oracle he pronounced was inspired into him from heaven and that he felt the effects of the Cross before he knew the vertue thereof 'T is to no purpose to object that S. Augustine slights this opinion having judged it not so bad as that of the Pelagians and that he condemns it Sed absit ut sit in aliquo vera virtus nisi fuerit justus absit autem ut sit justus vere nisi vivat ex fide justus enim ex fide vivit when he protests that there is no solid vertue where there is not a lively Faith and true Justice For if we take those words in the strictest acception we must confess that sinners whose Faith is dead can do no good works and that all those that are not just can practise no vertue Sinners are as arrogant as Infidels they contemn the humility of the Son which they do not imitate they are the slaves of the devil whose motions they follow and that remainder of Faith that languisheth in their soul seems to serve onely to render them more culpable then the Heathen When therefore S. Augustine saith that the vertue of these is not true because not quickned by Faith he speaks certainly of a perfect vertue agreeable to God profitable to him that practifeth it and which may merit eternal life for him Now there is no man but sees that the vertue of Heathens and Sinners
necessity of effectual Grace For all the world confesseth that this great Doctor never expressed himself more clearly then in the Eleventh Chapter of his Book of Correction and of Grace There it is that he distinguisheth the grace of Adam from that of Jesus Christ that he calls the first a grace of Possibility and the other a grace of effect 'T is there that he teacheth that the former was sufficient for man an innocent that the second is necessary for man a sinner and that in the disorders and infirmities he daily experienceth it would be impossible for him to continue any long time victorious if he had not some more powerfull assistance then that of Adam In the mean time when he speaks of the Grace of Possibility he professeth that it is not lost with Innocence that there remains one like it merited by Jesus Christ that if God refuse it to some 't is out of justice if he bestow it upon others 't is from his Goodness and if it were in some sort due to Innocent man 't is not at all due to man a Criminall because that Grace which was indulg'd the just in the Paradise of Eden is not now given to sinners in the Paradise of the Church He saith the same thing in the twenty sixt Chapter of the Book of Nature and Grace Non solum supernus medicus sanat vulnera ut illa non sint sed ut de caetero recte ambulare possimus quod quidem etiam sani non nisi illo adjuvante poteriâ—us Aug. For comparing the sinner with a man sick a justified person with one that is whole he determines that the former hath need of Grace that may cure him the second of grace that may support him and as the soundest eye cannot see unless disposed by light the justest man cannot live if he be not assisted by Grace This Comparison makes those that are acquainted with the Principles of S. Augustine judge that man perfectly justified stands not in need of a stronger Grace then man an innocent because his Will being fully possest by Charity 't is enough that he be endued with assistance that supports him without any more powerful one to transport and master him For the clearing of this answer we must remember that Grace in the state of Innocence upheld man because he was weak and in the state of sin cured him because he was diseased For as the Eye when sound needs nothing but light to see but when sore wants some Collyrium to heal it and prepare it for sight So Innocent man needed but one Grace to enlighten him but sinful man needs a Grace that may cure him Saint Augustine supposing this comparison saith that Grace cures a sick man when it converts a sinner that being an Eye-salve and a Light 't is withall a succour and a remedy But he addes when the sinner is made whole and perfectly justified he hath no more need as the Eye that is sound but of one Grace which having more of Light then of Collyrium preserves him in the state he is entred into by his Conversion and treats him more like an Innocent then a Criminall Fairly to reconcile the two parties that contest about this subject let us say that one and the same Grace may bear two different names That 't is sufficient because the will may resist it neither doth it always produce the same effects in man a sinner as in man an Innocent Let us say thai 't is Effectuall because never unprofitable always prevailing by some advantage over our liberty that it not only clears the understanding but warms the heart and being not in vain as that Sufficient Grace which never doth nothing nor Omnipotent neither as that Effecutall Grace that always does what it will 't is of a middle temper between both and may justly bear the name of Sufficient and Effectuall We must nevertheless acknowledge that this last begins and ends the work of our salvation that it disengageth our soul from the slavery of Satan breaks the fetters of those that lie under the tyranny of sin raiseth up the just when they fall foulely and putting the last Seal to their Predestination obtains for them perseverance without which they can neither conquer upon Earth nor triumph in Heaven The Ninth DISCOURSE Answers to some Objections that are made against Effectuall Grace INnocence and Truth have this misfortune that they are often assaulted but they have this advantage they still return victorious The former triumphs over Calumny the second over Falshood The former owes a piece of her beauty to slanderers that would oppress her The later owes much of her lustre to Hereticks that would obscure her This Maxime is clearly seen in the business of Grace which never seems more transparent then by doubts nor better established then by difficulties that oppose it Indeed all the Objections that have been made against her power have served only to support her and as all her combats have been the midwives of her victories all the writings of her adversaries have erected her so many Trophies Therefore I should stain her glory did I not rehearse the principal reasons humane Philosophy hath made use of to destroy her that their weakness may heighten her force and the vanity of their attempts occasion one part of her triumph The strongest Engine hath been planted against her is the Interest of Liberty which it seems cannot be preserved with the Necessity attributed to Grace For if she be the mistress of the Will if she always gain her consent if she take away her indifferency and suffer her not to follow her bad inclinations How can she be free in this Necessity This Objection is of no force Libertas arbitrii in admittend peccati abstinenâ—i à peccato possibilitate consistit ait Julia. lib. 1. operis imper because we have not yet rightly conceived the true Idea of Liberty and know not wherein its essence consists Some confound Voluntary with Free and believe that whatever we do voluntarily we do freely though otherwise we be in some sort necessitated to do it These certainly are not perswaded that Indifferency is essential to Liberty but on the contrary they imagine that as Necessity is a mark of a Will fixed and determined Indifferency is the argument of a Will doubtful and unresolved Seneca who was as jealous of his Liberty as any other Philosopher was of opinion that Man was never more free in Good then when he was so strongly fastned to it that nothing could separate him Wee shall better conceive of his meaning if we well apprehend the difficulty he would resolve He propounds an Objection which hath much resemblance with those which are started against Grace and demands if the Stars which he supposed inanimated could oblige us by their Light and Influence because being necessitated to give us both it seems they could do no otherwise and therefore we were not beholding to them See the
that depended upon his Liberty made him in some sort the Author of his good or bad fortune but as hee dealeth now with infirme men whose Forces are weakned by Division he will have their Salvation depend upon his Will and gives them a Grace which seizing their heart makes them victorious in the midst of their Infirmities Thence it comes to pass saith Saint Augustine that the Liberty of Man though never so languishing perseveres in Good by the vertue of JESUS CHRIST when the Will of Adam with all its vigorous activity stood not out against the Temptation 'T is the glory of the Son of God and the assurance of a Christian who comforts himself when he sees that his Salvation is no longer founded upon the Inconstancie of his Liberty but upon the Stability of Grace and certitude of Predestination This Belief makes him not more insolent because he knows this Mystery is hid and that there is not any one upon earth that knows whether his name be written in the Book of Life It makes him not more lazie because he is not ignorant that Grace obligeth him to a combat that Glory is a Triumph that succeeds a Victory and that no body is received into heaven that hath not suffered with JESUS CHRIST upon earth But this Belief ministers them Tranquillity in the midst of all the miseries of life it sweetly mingles Hope with Fear in his soul at the sight of his Infirmity he trembles looking upon the vigour of his Grace he takes courage and having had so much experience of his frailty he comforts himself that his Salvation stands fixed upon the Rock of Grace he blesseth the mercy of the Almighty that hath found a secret whereby to vanquish us without forcing us which leaving us our Liberty fortifies our Weakness and gives us an assurance in our Banishment which our first Father never had in Paradise For to conclude this Discourse and this Treatise with the words of Saint Augustine Ille Adam nempe Job in stercore est cautior quam Adam in Paradiso nam Adam-in Paradiso consensitmulieri ut de Paradiso emitteretur ille in stercore respu â—t mulierem ut ad Paradisum admitteretur Aug. in Psal 29. Job was more happie in his misery then Adam in his innocence He was victorious on the Dung-hill this Other was defeated in his Throne He gave no ear to the evil counsel of his wife this Other was cajol'd by his He despised all the assaults of Satan this Other suffered himself to be worsted at the first Temptation He preserved his Righteousness in the midst of his Sorrows this Other lost his Innocence in the midst of his Pleasures Let us comfort our selves then in the Grace of JESUS CHRIST whereby the Infirmity of Man triumphs over the Malice of Satan Let us rejoyce because he enjoyns it his Disciples in the hope we have that his hand hath written our names in the Book of Life in Characters that cannot be blotted out Let us give Thanks to him who knowing our Weakness is willing to save us by his Power and protesting that his Grace is the Fountain of our Salvation beg it in our Prayers expect it from his Mercy and hope not for it onely by our Merits The Fifth TREATISE Of the Vertues of a Christian The first DISCOURSE In what Christian Vertue consists IF it be true that the Christian is an inward man we need not wonder if he be hid Condelector legi Dei secundum interiorem hominem Rom. cap. 7. nor that his vertues carry lesse splendour with them then those of Philosophers Inasmuch as all their beauty resides in the soul it can be perceived by none but by Angels Those that have not their lights cannot observe them and the same blindness that occasions their ignorance occasions also the neglect they conceive of them The Chastity of Lucrece hath received more Elogies then that of the Catharines and Cecilies because it sparkles with more pomp and the murder which should arraign her as guilty hath made her more notable and glorious The Constancy of Cato hath far more admirers then the undaunted Courage of the Martyrs Pride and Despair that forc'd him to sheath his sword in his own bowels to avoid something he called Servitude have heightned his Glory and his Crime in the soul of the children of Adam who can admire nothing but what is arrogant and pompous Thence it comes to passe that Christian Vertue which is humble and seeks no other witnesse but he that reads the the heart receives not always the approbation of men and wanders uon the Earth without any Elogy or Commendation Her Essence is conceal'd we have much adoe to discover her Proprieties and if Grace do not second Nature we shall be at a losse to define or describe her As every one hath form'd an Idea of her every one makes descriptions of her according to his own humour or his knowledge and we may say of Vertue what the Orator said of the Supream Good that men consulted rather their Inclination then Truth when they were minded to speak of it I wonder not that Philosophers who had no other light then that of Nature have injured Vertue in thinking to bestow commendations upon her But I wonder that Christians have followed them in their errours and that leaving the Fathers of the Church they have taken the Blinde for their Guides For there are some at this day that confound honesty with vertue Virtus houestas nomina diversa sunt res autem subjecta prorsus eadem Cicero de Offic. who would perswade us that whatever is honest is vertuous Wherein I find them little differing from those that place Vertue in Glory and imagine a crime lawful when it ceaseth to be shameful and begins to appear honourabble Seneca as proud as he was hath well taken notice that this error was prejudicial to vertue and that the ambitious would no longer court her when once she should oblige her Partisans to quit their honour to continue in their duty Some others not so much in love with glory but more in love with nature are perswaded that Vertue is nothing else but a naturall inclination guided by reason and perfected by Science so that to live according to the Laws of Nature was to live according to the Laws of Vertue This opinion is approved of by the Stoicks among Philosophers and by the Pelagians among Heretiques It infuseth blindness and arrogance into the spirit of those that side with it and the esteem it puffs them up with of Nature makes them neglect the assistance of Grace It seems they would retrive the state of Innocence that they have a design to perswade us that sin hath done no hurt to the will of man that he is as free under the captivity of Concupiscence as under the dominion of Original righteousness and that Nature having lost nothing of her primitive purity may serve for a guide to guilty
man as well as to man an innocent Others following the Maximes of Aristotle place Vertue in Mediocricy and lest they should give the lye to an Infidel endeavour to suit the Maximes of the Gospel with those of Philosophy Seeing that Liberality must be as far distant from Prodigality as from Covetousness and that Fortitude if it be true must neither partake of Cowardise nor of Rashness they have confined all other vertues within these limits not considering that the noblest and most common find their perfection in their excess For Humility and Charity have no bounds the one descends to sin and nothingness the other ascends as high as God who is infinite Therefore says Saint Bernard Modus amandi Doum sine modo Bernard Love hath no measure and considering the greatness of its object endeavours to love according or as much as it is lovely But the most dangerous of all these Masters are those that confound reason with vertue and conceive man sufficiently vertuous when he is rationall they give a thousand fair glosses to this lye and making reason the chiefest or only good of man they suppose they have secured him from all vices in deputing him this Idol for the conduct of his life They will have her a Soveraign whose power is lawfull all whose decrees are just and her designs laudable They ascribe to reason what we doe to grace and not fearing to render her government tyrannicall they will have her reign absolutely over the will without constraining it illuminate the understanding without dazling it use passions without stifling them and employ the body without offering it the least injury or violence But these blind Dotards will not see that reason being a slave cannot be a Queen and so far is she from guiding man that she her selfe hath need of a star to enlighten her and a prop to support her For since the fall of Adam this Soveraign is a Captive all her subjects sleight her Laws and whatever vain Authority she slatters her self with she meets with as many rebellions as she gives commands Reason without Grace hath hitherto brought up none but proud Scholars and not to examine what she can doe she hath yet served for no other use but to swel Philosophers with vain glory and to perswade them that Original sin was a fable and the corruption of nature an illusion Idolaters have not so much resisted the Gospel as Philosophers Superstition hath with more ease struck sail then vain Philosophy and the gods that reason fashioned and set up have stood longer then those of wood and of marble Whatever is rumored of the Letters and Conferences between Seneca and Saint Paul I have always believed the conversion of that Stoick harder then that of the Covetous and most impudent Lascivious The Pride that inanimated his spirit was so strong a bulwark against grace that he had never stoopt to the Maximes of Christianity if that Conqueress of hearts had not employed all her charms and all her forces to bring him under It had never troubled him to part with his goods Annaeo Senecae non quidem ex toto virtus verum ex aliqua parte defuit affuit enim scribenti cesuit viventi Aug. though avarice be reckoned one of his sins be had suffered the torments which served for proofs to the Primitive Christians and his vain-glory had armed him with courage enough to endure those affronts that accompanied the Preaching of the Gospel But the love he bore his reason had never given him leave to believe without some miraculous work of Grace that man was born a criminal that his nature was corrupted his liberty weakned and that to the practising of vertue there was requisite some external assistance which God might refuse him without the least shew of injustice This Philosopher had he kept his opinions had been the first Authour of Pelagianisme in the world and his pride making him the capital enemy of grace had obliged him to side with reason against her But not to combat a Heresie the Church hath triumphed over so many ages since nor to condemn Seneca whom she hath anathematized in the person of Pelagius It contents me to say that vertue to the end it may be solid must be the gift of God that she cannot be acquired without grace of whose aid being destitute she is rather the shadow of vertue then true and reall vertue indeed If that of the Heathen be not a sin if all the circumstances of it be not bad and if we may not blame a son that succours his Father a Subject that desends his Prince a Citizen that dies for his Countrey we have great cause to bewail the misfortune of those who having not the light of faith could not direct all their actions to their first principle nor refer them to their last end Let us affirm then with S. Augustine Virtus est bona qualitas mertis quae recte vivitur qua nemo male utitur quam Deus in nobis operatur Aug. lib. 1. de lib. arb the Master of Vertue as well as of Grace that Vertue is a quality of the soul wherewith we live well which we cannot use ill which God works in us either to guide us or defend us Let 's give a little light to this definiition and say he cals vertue a quality because though it be an expression of the Divinity 't is not a substance but an accident to teach man that vertue is not naturall to him but adventitious and that he receives her as a present from the bounteous hand of God she is good because she communicates goodness to us and by her motions leads us on to the supream Good she learns us to live well because she knocks us off from our selves lifts us up to God and makes our interests give place to the interests of his Glory But inasmuch as mans life is civil this same vertue teacheth us to live well with our neighbour and to conspire together to find satisfaction upon Earth and felicity in Heaven We cannot use it ill because all her acts are just and she would change her nature should she change her inclination Nemo virtute abutitur quamvis allquando virtus sit occasio alicujus mali Isidor Wherein I find vertue happier then the faculties of the soul which are daily abused in the practise of sin For the memory is not lesse faithfull when it represents us an injury then when it minds us of a good turn The will is not lesse free when it commits a sin then when it practiseth a vertue nor hath the understanding lesse vivacity when it conceives an Errour then when it conceives a Truth But Vertue is so pure that she cannot be corrupted her intentions are so right they cannot be perverted and her beauty so resplendant that it admits of no spots nor imperfections Finally t is God that works her in us because he is the source of all our good things
and since the havock sin hath made in men we have no right to Vertue but what his mercy bestows upon us The ignorance of the last condition of Vertue hath thrown all the Philosophers into pride and blindness For not knowing the miseries of Original sin but seduced by self-love they have established their strength in their freedome and their happiness in reason they have given stately names to Vertue which helping to deceive them have fill'd their perswasion that she was rather an effect of their own labor then of Grace Therefore is it that S. Augustine observes that all the Philosophers considering the difficulties that accompany Vertue the combats that must be fought to gether have Christen'd her with a name which seems to take its beeing from force and which by a just judgement of God hath entertained them in their vanity hiding from them their weakness But Christians who have learnt humility in the School of Truth who have profited by their misfortune and are become wise by the miscarriages of Philosophers have called Vertue a Grace or a gift of God and will have her name an instance of their misery and of the liberality of their Soveraign This is it that the same Doctor saith in other terms opposing the vanity of Philosophers to the humility of Christians The Philosophers saith he loved their own glory and despised t hat of God they confided in their own strength and were not thankfull to him that lifteth up the humble and casteth down the proud But Christians instructed in a better School avoid the glory of the world and seek after that of God The experience they have of their infirmity makes them distrust their own abilities and since they know they can neither undertake nor execute any thing without the assistance of their Creator they invoke him when they begin their actions return him thanks when they have finished them and if they want courage or fidelity accuse themselves confessing ingenuously that all good things come from God and all evil from the creature Indeed God will be glorified in our weakness he will have all that we do rather an effect of his Grace then of our Liberty Omnia Dec attribuunt radicem meriti virtutum cilicet praemiūnon videntes nec in se nec in alio nisi Gratiam Dei Greg. Mag. and he takes pleasure to command us such things as exceed our power that the glory may be his 'T is perhaps for this reason that he saith in his Word that the Kingdome of Heaven cannot be gained but by violence and that he hath propounded to us so high a Conquest that the greatness thereof may oblige us to seek for his assistance It is not a Prodigy saith a Father of the Church to be born upon the Earth and scale Heaven to win that by Vertue that cannot be obtained by Nature that the whole world may know that if in this Conflict man get the victory 't is God that gives him the Courage to overcome and the Grace to triumph Therefore the great Origen considering the designs of God and the weaknesse of men Vult Dominus Jesus res mirabiles facere vult enim de Locustis Gigames de his quae in terra sunt caelestes vincere nequitias Orig. said with as much Congruity as Truth that this great Master took pleasure to work miracles in our favour that having drawn us out of nothing and then out of sin he would raise us to glory that having formed our body of the slime of the Earth he destined it for Heaven and that the Devils by their malice intending to oppose this design he gave us arms to fight them that those Pygmies vanquishing these Gyants the honour of the victory might be ascribed to him where the parties being so unequal the advantage was found on the weaker side 'T is upon the discovery of all these verities that Christians call Vertue by the name of Grace and confess that if she came not from Heaven they were never able to surpass all difficulties suffer all sorrows and despise all the delights of the Earth The Second DISCOURSE Of the Division of the Vertues of a Christian AS Physitians make an Anatomy of Mans Body thereby to discover its qualities and exercise a cruelty upon the Dead that they may benefit the Living Philosophers divide the Vertues that they may know them they separate that which is indivisible and break the sacred bonds that unite these dear Sisters that so they may peruse their beauties Or to express this Truth by a more noble comparison as the School-men divide the Divine Essence to illustrate its perfections separating Justice from Mercy Majesty from Love Wisdom from Power though they are but one and the same thing we are obliged to disjoyn the Vertues though they be all concentred in Charity and according to the opinion of S. Augustine are nothing but Charities disguised For taking leave to repeat a Principle often explained in another Work Charity is the onely Christian Vertue changing names according as her object changeth conditions When That is hid she is called Faith and with her obscure lights endeavours to discover that Sun which the splendor of his Majesty renders invisible when this object is absent she is called Hope which raiseth her soul towards him that stands at a distance onely to increase our desires when 't is armed with Thunder she is called Fear imprinting endearments of respect towards a Majestie that can annihilate all those that offend him Those Vertues that we stile Cardinal and which seem not directly to aim at the Supreme Good are but so many true Loves fastning us to him by different chains Temperance saith S. Augustine is a chaste Love which can suffer no parting of hearts obliging us to consecrate our selves wholly to his service whom we pretend to affect Valour is a generous Love making a Pleasure of Pain and gives proof of his Constancy in the hottest battery of Persecutions Justice is a regulated Love teaching us to command by obeying and subjecting us to our lawful Soveraign gains us an absolute Dominion over all the Creatures Prudence is a clear-sighted Love which is never seduced chusing by its illumination those means which are able to bring us to God and rejecting all others that may estrange us from him So that the Vertues are nothing but Charity in a several dress or to speak more correctly they are onely the different functions of Love But not to wander from this Principle which I honour because S. Augustine after Saint Paul is the author of it I will not forbear to divide the Vertues without interessing their Unity and to consider their divers employments without wronging their fair correspondence The same S. Augustine is of opinion that there are Two Principal Vertues which include all the rest The one consists in Action the other in Contemplation The one teacheth us the way we must walk in to go to God and the
other happily guides us in it The one purifies our soul by Labour the other unites us to God by Prayer The one keeps the Commandments and the other receives the Recompence The one is afflicted with grief because it bewails his sins with the Penitents the other is bathed in pleasure because it participates in the felicity of the Blessed The same Doctor all whose Maximes are Truths gives us another Division of Vertues from the difference of our conditions and being not far from that Principle we are going to explain attributes but one Vertue to the Blessed and leaves all the rest to the Faithful They indeed finde all their happiness in the Supreme Good which they are in possession of their Love makes up the total of their felicity and that ineffable Union that transforms them into him they love is the onely Vertue that for ever takes them up in the fruition of Glory Prudence is not requisite because there is no darkness to be dissipated nor misfortunes to be prevented Fortitude is useless because there are no sorrows to struggle with Temperance serves to no end because all their delights are innocent and lawful Neither is there any employment for their Justice because in the Tabernacle of Glory there are neither miserable to be protected nor criminals to be punished Thus as that incomparable Doctor goes on they practise but one Vertue and by a happie encounter this Vertue is their recompence because uniting them to God it makes them finde their felicity in him 'T is true that as the Supreme Good contains all other Goods we may say also that all the Vertues are comprehended in this and their several denominations may be imposed upon it It is Prudence because it illuminates them with the brightness of God himself Fortitude because it unites them so firmly with him that nothing can separate them Temperance because it makes them chastly embrace the Chief Good and in the delights they taste of they seek not so much their Pleasure as his Glory Justice because it subjects them to their Soveraign making them finde their Happiness in their Submission But as there is some analogie between the condition of the Blessed and that of the Faithful at the same time that S. Augustine separates them he associates them again and confounding their Vertues together saith that during this life Love is the onely vertue of Christians and that there is none other but to love that which is amiable So that to facilitate the acquisition of that object we place our affections upon by chusing sutable and convenient means is Prudence Not to be discouraged or diverted by Grief is Fortitude Not to be drawn away by Pleasures is Temperance and not to be kept off by the vain pomp and grandetza's of the world is Justice He lodgeth these Vertues in Glory which he seems to have banished thence and acknowledgeth that the Blessed enjoy them as well as the Faithful but with this difference That upon the earth they are in Act in heaven in Habit upon the earth they serve for a Defence in heaven for an Ornament upon the earth in Exercise in heaven in their Acquiescence upon the earth they are the sure Land-marks guiding the Faithful to their journeys end in heaven they happily unite the Faithful in an inseparable Bond of Communion But because this Doctrine is not fully conformable to that which is commonly received and that we have borrowed from Philosophers the Division and the Quality of Vertues let us say with them that we judge of their number by our obligations and our necessities We are upon the earth for no other end but to Know and Love to Suffer and to Do our whole life is spent in these two employments and if we be not absolutely unprofitable we must raise our selves to the Knowledge and Love of the Supreme Good and resolve if we be not altogether lazie by our Courage to overcome all the difficulties which occur in the course of our life Thence it comes to pass that we have need of different Vertues Bonam vitam ego puto Deum cognoscere amare mala pati bona facere sic perseverare usque ad mortem Bern. and that according to the designes we form we are obliged sometimes to have recourse to the Divine vertues sometimes to the Moral Inasmuch as God is surrounded with Light that darkens us our Understanding must necessarily be cleared by Faith that we may know him In that he is an Infinite Good our soul must be fortified with Hope that we may search after him and our Will warmed with Charity that we may love him For though Good be amiable and the Supreme Good transcendently amiable yet is it so far above our reach that without Grace we cannot approach unto it and as we must be clarified by his Light that we may know him so must we be warmed by his Calentures that we may affectionately close with him Thus Faith Hope and Charity are the Vertues by means whereof we treat with God But because Man is born for Society in serving God he is bound to assist his Neighbour Charity hath a double respect having united us to the Supreme Good for love of it she unites us to our Like and obligeth us to love them as we do our selves Were this Vertue in its full vigour 't would be sufficient alone Lex venit in subsidium amicitiae Atistot and as Philosophers have observed that Laws would be useless did Friendship raign in mens hearts I dare affirm did Charity set up her throne in ours the Vertues would be idle among Christians or act onely by her orders and directions But whether we have not as yet attained this Perfection or that the number of Subjects contributes to the Greatness of Soveraigns she hath under her command Four Vertues which are called Cardinal that act by her motions and execute her designes Prudence clears our Understandings to act helps us to discern Good from Evil and Truth from Falshood For as there are Evils which under a fair shew deceive us and Lyes that finde more credit then some Truths Prudence must serve us for a Guide and in so important an election secure us from mistakes Justice gives every one his due makes our Interests yeeld to Reason preserves Peace in the inequality of our conditions and taking original righteousness for an example which made a harmony between foul and body this sets Man at union with himself and by a necessary consequence accommodates him with his neighbour Therefore is it that Repentance and Humility are as rivulets flowing from this Fountain and as rays issuing from this Sun For Repentance is nothing but a severe Justice that animates the sinner against himself that obliges him to act the part of a witness in accusing of a judge in condemning of an executioner in punishing himself Humility is nothing but a modest and true Justice which considering the Majestie of the Creator
forceth the Creature to fall down before him and upon the sight of sin and nothingness to adore the Power and Mercy that drew him out of these two Abysses Temperance regulates our Pleasures and moderates our Delights lest their disorder obstruct our salvation and out of a blinde impetuosity finde Pain and Sorrow where we look for Pleasure and Content 'T is true she is not so taken up with Particular good as not to watch over the Publike For without encroaching upon the rights and priviledges of Justice she calms the Passions allays the storms and producing a tranquillity in the soul of Particulars contributes to that of Kingdoms because the quiet of States depends upon that of Families and 't is very hard that those Subjects that yeeld not obedience to the laws of Temperance should to those of Justice But as since the Fall of Adam Sufferings are as common as Actings and man spends his life in Pain as well as in Labour to these Three Vertues is added Fortitude as a Supply to combat and vanquish Griefs that set upon us Indeed the chiefest employment of Fortitude is to wrestle with whatever is most troublesom in the world It skirmisheth with those accidents that disquiet our Health or concern our Honour is armed against Fortune and defying that blinde potentate that seems the enemy of Vertue stands ready to receive all the assaults this insolent Tyranness makes upon those that slight her Empire Indeed when Valour is enlightned by Faith she laughs at an Idol who subsists onely in the mindes of those that fear it and may be called the work of their Fancie and Imagination she trembles not at the attempts of a false Deity and being assured that every thing is regulated by a Supreme Providence which cannot fail lays an obligation upon us to adore his Decrees though they condemn us and kiss his Thunders though they strike us dead Thus under the favourable shadow of these Vertues the life of a Christian passeth on calmly Faith affords him light to illuminate him Charity heats to inflame him Hope promises to encourage him Justice and Temperance their severall supplies to put him in action and Fortitude who her self is a whole Army gives undauntedness of spirit to fight and to triumph To all these Divisions this may be added namely that man being compounded of a body and a soul hath need of Vertues that may unite them together and subjecting the soul to God may subject the body to the soul For there is this order between these two parts that the body respects not the laws of the minde but as far as the mind respects the laws of God assoon as one dispenseth with his duty the other failes of his obedience and at the same time that the soul rebels against God the flesh maketh an insurrection against the soul To this day we bewail the mischiefs of this rebellion and all the Vertues are given us only to re-instate us in our Primitive Tranquillity The Theological Vertues undertake to subject the mind to God Faith captivates the Understanding and obligeth it to believe those verities it comprehends not Hope fils the Memory with the Promises of Jesus Christ and Charity sweetly divorceth the will from all perishable goods to fixe it upon the Supream Good The Vertues that are called Cardinal Prudentia se habet ad vera faâ—sa temperantia fortitudo ad prospera adversujustitiase habet ad Deum Proximum D. Thom. 2.2 have mixt employments exercising their dominion over soul and body Prudence enlightens them Justice accords them Temperance regulates their pleasures and Fortitude combats their griefs so that all these Vertues associated together restrain man in his duty and make him find his happiness in his obedience But because I destine another Discourse to treat of these last Vertues I conceive my self bound to bestow the remainder of this upon the former and to shew the reasons wherefore it was requisite that the Christian must be assisted with Faith Hope and Charity Grace hath some resemblance with Nature and we find in man some Image of a Christian Man cannot come to his End unless he know it and have some assurance of a possibility to obtain it The Christian cannot move towards God his sole end unless he know him by Faith love him by Charity and promise himselfe the enjoyment of him by Hope Man that he may work aright hath need of three succours he must know what he does he must be able to doe it and he must will it otherwise all his designs will be unprofitable nor will he form any enterprise which will not confound or grieve him The Christian whose salvation is his chiefe business hath need of the same aids but because his enterprise is extreamly difficult and sin that hath made strange devastations in his soul hath spread darkness over his Rational thrown weakness into his Irascible and scattered malice into his Concupiscible faculty Faith must enlighten the one Hope satisfie the other and Charity which is nothing but an effusion of the Divine Goodness shed it self into the last and amend it Or let us say that Faith discovers the Supream Good to the Christian by its Lights that thence there arise two affections in his soul the desire of possessing it which is love and a confidence of obtaining it which is Hope These three Vertues doe consummate the Christians perfection Faith illuminates him Hope elevates him and Charity uniting him to God makes him partake in same sort of the felicity of the Blessed The Third DISCOURSE Of the Excellency and Necessity of Faith GOd is so far above our apprehension by the Greatness of his Nature that in whatever state we consider him we have only a borrowed light to know him by In that happy condition wherein Innocence dispell'd all mans darkness suffering neither ignorance nor infirmity to engage him in these sins which are rather naturall then voluntary he had need of light to know him whose Image he had the honour to be Those infused verities he received in his Creation those faithful glasses that presented him his Creator and all the beauties of the Universe that expressed his Divine perfections had imprinted in him but a faint knowledge if Faith elevating his soul had not clarified him with its brightnesse But when man shall pass from Earth to Heaven and removing from the Order of Grace shall enter into that of Glory In lumine tuo videbimus lumeÌ„ Psal 35. he shall still have need of a borrowed light to behold the Divine Essence Though he be then a pure Spirit and his soul abstracted from matter act as the Angels yet all our Divines confess that his darkness must be enlightned his weakness supported that he may contemplate this Divine Sun who by a rare Prodigy hides himself in light and covers himself with his Majesty We are not therefore to wonder if Faith be necessary for man in the state whereto sin hath
souls light and certitude Having considered its essence 't is fit we consider its properties and effects which are so great it self must come in to gain them belief For the Scripture seems to attribute to Faith whatever is most august and reverential in Scripture It is the Principle of spiritual life and according to the language of Saint Paul the just doth live by Faith For though the lise of a Christian be composed of many parts Initium bonae vitae cui vita etiam debetur aeterna rectafides est Aug. as the body is of many members and to be in a vigorous condition which is the symptome of perfect health Faith must be animated with good works nevertheless Faith is the first principle and without it every one confesseth all vertues are dead or languishing Therefore when S. Bernard calls Charity the life of the soul he acknowledgeth at the same time that Faith conceives her Hope brings her forth the holy Spirit forms her Reading suckles her Meditation nourisheth her and Prayer fortifies her As Faith is the life of the soul so is it also the eye and he that takes it not for his Guide shall never come to Glory it enlightens all the other vertues and penetrates those clouds of darkness that surround them 'T is also an observation S. Bernard hath made that Christ was never so closely hid but Faith always discovered him If he be Incarnate in the womb of his mother Faith does him homage in the person of S. John If he be born in a manger Faith adores him with the Wise-men and acknowledgeth the Word in Infancie Majestie in Baseness and Power in Infirmity If he be presented in the Temple Faith receives him in the arms of Simeon and makes his Elogie by the mouth of that aged Saint If he enter the river of Jordan to be baptized among sinners Faith manifests him by the testimony of his Precursor and teacheth us that he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world If he die upon the Cross or lose his honour with his life Faith acknowledgeth his Innocence in the midst of his Punishment and begs a share in his Kingdom by the mouth of the good Thief If he be veiled upon our Altars and the outward species of the Sacrament conceal him from our eyes Faith adores him in the person of Believers and discovers his splendour under the clouds that encompass him This made S. Bernard utter those excellent words That Faith was very quick-sighted because it acknowledged Christ born in the Manger and dying upon the Cross But as if one sole vertue made up all our Glory I finde that our highest qualities take their being from its merit For if we be the children of God 't is because we are Believers and the great Apostle that describes the prerogatives of Mans nature discovering the humiliations of the Word Incarnate observes expresly that the quality of the children of God is an appendix of Faith and that heaven shall not be our inheritance but because this vertue was the principle of our Filiation He gave them power to become the sons of God even to them that believe in his Name This august quality is not indulged us in Baptism but because there we receive Faith and 't is so truely the effect of that Sacrament that the Believer that gives proof of his Creed in the midst of torments fails not to be the childe of God though he be not baptized If Faith advance us to dignity it also communicates power to us it gives Reputation to our Dominion that it grow not contemptible and makes us in some sort absolute in the State of our Master For the gift of Miracles is a priviledge of Faith These Prodigies that astonish the Universe convert Nations make Tyrants tremble tame Devils are donatives heaven hath promised to Faith rather then to Charity Every thing is possible to him that believeth this vertue may boast it self absolute and as if it were inseparable from Soveraignty it seems he that is a Believer becomes powerful Those men of renown whose Elogies Saint Paul makes in his Epistles owe all their priviledges to Faith 'T is by it that they subdued Tyrants changed Nature disordered the Seasons and altered the Elements It serves us for a Conduct in Peace and a Defence in War and whenever the Apostle arms the Christians he gives them nothing but Faith either to assault or repel their enemies He Christens one and the same thing with divers names and calling it sometimes a Buckler sometimes a Brestplate sometimes a Sword lets us see that 't is sufficient to procure as many victories as it stands assaults or sights battels Finally it seems God takes pleasure to fasten our Power to our Infirmity and treating us like Samson all whose strength lay in his hair he will teach all the world that the Miracles we work are not so much the effects of our Ability as of his Grace For Faith is nothing but a submission of minde and a blinde obedience which holding more of Credulity then Argument seems rather a mark of our Weakness then of our Strength In the mean time the Son of God that hath a minde to humble us in raising us up and to manifest his greatness in our abasement hath founded our ability upon belief and is pleased that the gift of Miracles should be the recompence of our Credulity But nothing more astonisheth me Creditis quia hopossum faccrevobis dicunt ci Utique Domine Tunctetigit ocu los corū diceus Secundum filem vestrā fiat vobis Matth. 9. then to consider that God hath in some sort subjected his own Power to our Faith and before he would heal the sick or raise the dead he requires our Belief as a preparative to his Miracles For he never undertook any Cure but he obliged the Patient to believe and if he were not in a condition to use his own Understanding he demanded that disposition in the Assistants or Witnesses The same Evangelist observes that his power was manacled by the Infidelity of sinners Et non poterat ibi virtutem ullam facere mirabatur propter incredulitatem corum Matth. 6. and that there were some Towns where he could work no Miracles because he found no Faith among them We need not wonder that the Son of God hath so greatly honoured this vertue because it gives him so much obedience and that of all the Sacrifices the Christian can offer him this seems the hardest and most honourable For it makes an Oblation of our Understanding takes from us the liberty of reasoning in our Mysteries it perswades us what we understand not and contesting at the same time against Reason and Sense makes a perfect Holocaust of the Christian It reduceth that insolent undertaker who would know every thing in Paradise to believe all without knowing any thing it makes him purchase Faith with the expence of his Reason and it seems
deceives men by the vanity of its promises This then is uncertain doubt makes up a part of its Essence and by a misfortune inseparable from it it ceaseth to be Hope as soon as it begins to be sure Therefore Seneca said she promised a doubtfull good and to her very favourites leaves all things dubious and uncertain But the Hope of a Christian is sure his certitude commensurate and all men that define it make it synonimous with Assurance That of Men is false what-ever fair colours its promises are dress'd with it cannot avoyd the denomination of a Lye Therefore the same Scripture that calls it uncertain calls it a lying vanity and finding nothing vain enough whereby to expresse its essence compares it to Dreams that abuse men in their sleep Vana spes mendacium viro insensato somnia extollunt imprudentem so that those that give ear unto it are like those poor Dreamers who being rich onely whilest they sleep lose all as soon as they awake their sleep enricheth them and when they awake they are plundred of all and reduc'd to their former poverty But the Hope of a Christian is true and being founded upon the promises of God who cannot lie never deludes the Beleever that listens to them If that of Men be false we need not wonder that it is miserable and for those imaginary contentments it allures us with gives nothing but reall pains For though we may flatteringly apprehend her as the most agreeable passion and endeavour to perswade our selves that she sweetens the disquietnesse of our longings true Philosophy confesseth her the cause of our Fear Desines sperare desines timere Senec. and that the only means to be free from distrustfull apprehensions is to be free from hope But the Hope of a Christian is accompanied with confidence and so close united to pleasure that it passeth for one part of our Felicity Finally the Hope of Worldlings is so often faulty that the Scripture calls it an Abomination and makes us know that all the pretences of sinners are nothing but Crimes The Lascivious promiseth himself nothing but Adulteries the Ambitious nought but Tyrannies the Furious plots vengeance the Covetous feeds himself with unjust gains and all of them saith S. Gregory never acknowledge their sin till the pleasure is past and grief succeds in the place thereof But the Hope of a Christian is Innocent produceth just desires in their souls and the Good they wait for makes them commence Saints upon Earth that they be perfected in heaven The Fifth DISCOURSE The Description of Christian Charity DIvinity teacheth us that God is so infinite that to expresse all his Greatnes he must have as many names as hee hath perfections Therefore is it that the Scripture calls him sometimes a Sun because his brightness dissipates the darkness of our hearts and discovers our intentions from the very depth of our wills Sometimes he is calld a Heaven because his Immensity incircles all his works and comprehends in his Nature whatever he produceth by his Power Sometimes hee is stiled a devouring Fire because he consumes our sins and because his holines more active then that Element burnes the souls of the Saints whom it purifieth Sometimes he is called a Flower because his beauty ravisheth us his odour perfumes us and his splendour dazels us In as much as Charity is his noblest and most excellent expression the Scripture handleth it with the same respect and perceiving that it cannot manifest all its Excellencies by one single name gives it as many Appellations as this Vertue hath different qualities And because every name is a kind of a Definition I beleive I ought to rehearse them in this Discourse which will contribute very much towards the knowledge of the Excellencies of Charity Saint John the Evangelist whom we may call the Disciple of Love as well as of Light Deus charitas est qui manet in charitate in Deo manet Deus in eo 1 Joh. 4. teacheth us that God is Charity and though in this definition he pretends not to perswade us that the Charity which makes us love God is God himselfe yet his design is to inform us that there is nothing can more happily transform us into God then this vertue because he vouchsafes to bear the name thereof and of all the things in the world there is none that expresse his Greatness in so noble an Hieroglyphick Therefore Saint Augustine ravished with this Speech hath uttered that which gives us the meaning thereof God is Charitie a short Elogie but exceeding great short in words but great in sense If you inquire how many Gods there are this Definition will tell you but one and if you ask what he is will assure you he is Love St. Bernard who following the steps of St. Augustine reviv'd his opinions in France Deus Charitas est quid pretiosius qui manet in charitate in Deo manet quid securius Deus in eo quid jucundius Bern. and made us see that in the matter of Grace we need consult no other Oracle heightens this Definition with as much learning as Eloquence God saith he is Charity what more precious he that abides in Charity abides in God what more secure and God abides in him what condition more agreeable Indeed we cannot possesse Charity in our hearts but together with it we must have the Divine Essence and their Union is so inseparable that the one cannot bee lost without the other This gave the Apostle of the Gentiles occasion to call Charity the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost because being the chiefest of his Gifts he never produceth it in a soul but he alwayes enters together with it Light is never dis-joyn'd from the Sun and if it be true that this noble quality subsisted some daies without adhering to that glorious Star the same power that united them may again separate them But the Holy Spirit and Charity are indivisible this fire is never without heat this Sun is never without brightnes and all Scripture would be false if Charity were not a certain proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls The same Apostle whom we stile the Panegyrist of Charity assures us that it is the fulfilling of the Law and the accomplishment of the Decalogue Indeed he lives holily that loves the Supream Good and at the same time those that may enjoy it with him He is perfect saith S. Augustine that can regulate his affection and govern himself with so much justice that he loves what is amiable and hates what is odious and proportioning his charity to the merit of the objects loves that differently which he cannot love equally Therefore is there not so great a necessity in reading holy Books in diving into the mysteries of Scripture to search out the meaning of the Prophets because in exercising Charity we may boast we have fullfilled all we have understood all Therefore saith the
its violence finds nothing impossible Thence is it that the ambitious conceive so many designs that surpass humane power and hardning themselves against all difficulties had rather break then bow Thence comes it to passe that the covetous undergoe so many miseries to fill their coffers and are exposed to the fury of all the elements to comply with that passion that tyrannizeth over them These attempts are the images of those Charity effects which is yet more active then Concupiscence For as her hope is founded upon God and the greatness of her Conquests heightens her courage whereby she travels for Eternity she believes there is no pain she ought not to suffer nor difficulties she must not overcome Nothing seems hard when it may serve her turn and measuring her force by her affection imagines nothing ought to check her enterprises Nihil difficile videtur amanti amor enim nomeÌ„ difficultatis erubescit Bern. She chides her laziness when she deliberates she is afraid her weaknesse should be objected to her when she parlies for composition and she is so used to overcome that she looks upon difficulties not so much as a true excuse as a shamefull pretence Thus the Martyrs have traversed the flames to find Jesus Christ The Virgins have provoked wild Beasts that they might be the sooner with their Beloved The Anchorites have contested with grief that they might carry Heaven by violence Finally Charity is of the nature of fire she cannot lie still she sets upon her body when she finds no other enemy and that she may not be unprofitable seeks for occasions of suffering when she wants those of acting And this is the second resemblance between these two Loves For Concupiscence hath her Martyrs as well as Charity she suffers for what she loves and as doing and suffering are mutually in the world she gives proof of her courage in these two different conditions From the evils she undergoes she extracts vanity she makes them her happinesse when they are past and lest they should slip out of her memory she ruminates upon them in her solitudes and entertains her self with them in companies she hath some satisfaction in her Martyrdome when she thinks it will be an argument of her Constancy or of her Fidelity nor is she troubled to be made the prey of Flames or of Lions provided she may evidence her Courage and her Affection Charity thrives better in this design then Concupiscence she hath made many more Martyrs then vain-glory hath as she takes her birth from the Crosse so is she never more vigorous nor content then when she swims in her own bloud she is witty to invent occasions of suffering and becomes her own tormentor when she can meet with no other The absence of her Beloved is the greatest part of her punishment and conceiving that torments may shorten her banishment she is inquisitive after them as the remedies of her languishing Therefore doe these Divine Lovers suffer always upon Earth the peace of the Church frees not them from persecution and though the Princes that govern them are Christians they meet with Tyrants that persecute them Every failing is their torture every moment makes them languish and they die a thousand times in a day because they will not die at last Indeed their Love which is as witty as cruel learns them innocent murders they commit Parricides without a Crime they kill Adam in their person that Jesus Christ may live there they take vengeance of this Father that made them guilty and destroying whatever they received from him of every one of their inclinations they make a reasonable sacrifice But the Master-piece of Love is that it makes that present which we love and in despight of absence unites us with it Remoteness is certainly one of the greatest torments of Love he shuns it as his mortallest enemy and employs all his stratagems to be secured from it he hath recourse to Presents knowing very well that they are the remembrancers of the absent and that 't is very hard to forget a person to whom we are beholding he entertains himself by the commerce of Letters he writes to those he cannot speak to he beguiles his Passion with a picture and not being able to see his friend he is satisfied with beholding his portraicture But when all these inventions content not he reflects upon himself and making use of his thoughts and desires he goes upon the quest and retrives him whose absence caused his punishment For the Understanding is an imperious faculty which by a Natural Magick renders absent things present excelling the Imagery of Painters because her Idea's can speak and the same spirit that gives them life infuses motion into them and speech If Love be not satisfied with this invention he obligeth the Will to enquire out what she affecteth and to quit the body and the soul to be united to the object of her sorrow To obey her Soveraign she commands her desires to bestir themselves to prevent the diligence of the windes and passeth Sea and Land to seek the Subject of her vexation to the worlds end She pursues the Posts she hath dispatched imitates the agility of Angels and like those spirits finding themselves wherever they operate clings in spight of absence to what she loveth In these admirable courses she arrives at her journeys end without passing any middle distance she traverseth Kingdoms in a moment and disengaging her self from the body she informs findes her self miraculously in the subject she loves Concupiscence works the same Miracles every day she makes use of the Understanding and of the Will for her satisfaction she employs these two faculties to content her Passion and when the ears or the eyes can tell her no news of the remote objects that torment her she hath recourse to her thoughts and desire to bring them to her presence But we must confess that Charity acts this part much better for though that which she loves be in heaven she journeys thither without weariness she goes to seek him whom the Angels enjoy Iter tuum ad caelum voluntas tua gradus tui affecius tui ambulas affectibus non pedibus accedis ad Deum amando recedis negâ—igendo stans in terra in caelo es si diligas Deum Aug. and leaving the Sun and Stars belowe her is swallowed up in that Abyss of Glory whose elongation caused her torment For S. Augustine excellently informs me our Affections are our Wings and our Will is our Guide to conduct us to heaven You think perhaps you must build a tower to ascend thither that the Angels must be invited down to assist you or that the wings of a dove must be borrowed to convey you thither but your Love is your Pole-star by your Desires you scale those heavenly regions by your negligence you stand at distance from them and loving God upon the earth you may boast your selves already in heaven For it is not with the
Soul as with the Body this cannot move without changing of place but that needs onely change her affection and presently she ascends she is where she would be her love makes all her objects present and assoon as over she sixeth her affection upon any thing 't is no longer at a distance This is it which he delivers admirably in another passage We can never be better then when we are with him whom nothing can equal in goodness we go thither not walking but loving and he is so much the neerer and at hand by how much our Love is more pure and vigorous Then letting us see the advantage Charity hath above Concupiscence he brings in God speaking these words which evidence an Oracle I command you to love me and I assure you that in doing so you shall enjoy me Sinners possess not all that they love there are covetous worldlings that sigh for gold and yet are poor Ambitious persons that are passionate for glory and yet are infamous but every one that loves me findes me I am with him that seeks for me his love makes me present in his soul assoon as he longs for me I am in his embraces and I leave off to be absent assoon as he begins to be in love with me Though there is not any lover that hath spoken more nobly of this residence of God in our souls by Charity then S. Augustine the Fathers his followers have used the same language and once instructed in the School of Divine Love have acknowledged that 't was impossible to love God and not to possess him Qui mente integra Deum desiderat profecto jam habet quem amat neque enim quisquam posset Deum diligere si hunc quem diligit non haberet Greg. mag in Moral See what S. Gregory saith in his Morals which differs little from what S. Augustine hath delivered in his Confessions The Believer that seeks after God without dividing his affections possesseth him already whom his soul loveth For he could never be amorous for him were he not filled with his love and inanimated with his presence S. Bernard who serves for an Interpreter to the Spouse in the Canticles and expresseth her minde with as much innocent nakedness as winning sweetness brings her in holding the same discourse She comforts her self in the absence of her Beloved by the belief she hath that she bears him in her heart and that she is the living throne of him who never forsakes her but to exercise her patience Let us conclude this Discourse with the highest operation of Love and say that this last effect is to transform Lovers into the things that they love and to stamp them with their qualities This property is so natural to Love that it remains with it even when it exerciseth its power over inanimate things If the Elements jar if they trouble the peace of the Universe by their contestations if these four bodies that compose all others seem to engage whole Nature in their quarrels 't is Love that obligeth them to the combat and when Fire and Water dispute in the bosome of the clouds or in the bowels of the earth they have no other designe but to transform each other Love hath a greater share in their difference then Ambition neither do they strive so much to destroy one another as to be united that they may be but one and the same thing Concupiscence succeeds wonderfully in this enterprise she imprints in men all the qualities of those objects she obligeth them to be in love with and by a strange Metamorphosis deprives them of their proper inclinations to indue them with strange external ones They become abominable as the things that they doat upon they change their Nature in changing their Love and we see by experience that Lascivious persons become effeminate as the women they caress that the Ambitious assume the vanity of that glory they court and the Covetous become as sensless as the metal they adore Similes eis fiant qui saciuns ea omnes qui confidunt in eis Psal 115. Therefore David justly wished that Idolators following the laws of Love might become like their Idols and might lose speech and motion for their love towards dumb and sensless gods that the Israelites might more easily defeat them in the combat But inasmuch as Concupiscence plays the deceiver she makes good but half her promises to her servants For she transforms them onely to their loss she changeth them meerly to make them miserable and of all the qualities the things they love are indued with she communicates none to them for the most part but bad ones The Lustful who contract the lightness of women gain not their beauty The Covetous who grow stupid as their metal extract not its value and the Ambitious who vapour like the glory they feed upon become not always Soveraigns But Charity which is more sincere and more powerful then Concupiscence happily transforms Christians into what they love she imprints upon them the qualities of heaven and makes them heavenly upon earth by different degrees it exalts them as high as Divinity it self she gives them what the devil promised their first father she changeth them into Gods by a holy Metamorphosis and makes them innocently obtain what Pride made them heretofore insolently covet For Mans most ancient passion is to be like God this was his crime and his desire in Paradise 't was upon this consideration that he listned to the devil and under this hope he violated the command of God His Pride was punished with an ignominious brand and he that pretended to an equality with his Soveraign saw himself reduced to the condition of his meanest Subjects This correction made him not forget his desire he preserved his arrogance in the midst of his misery and being but the relique of innocent man he could not forbear to wish to be a God Piety hath taught him an honest means to content his ambition Grace takes pains to assimilate him according to his desire the Vertues are so many draughts compleating this Image but Charity their Queen gives it perfection She it is that satisfies his longings and raising him above himself happily transforms him into God This is the end of all the designes of this august Vertue the Master-piece of her power the triumph of her glory and when she hath brought Man to this height of felicity she is content because he is happie Let us not advance so important a Vertue without caution let us make it appear that he who was so well acquainted with the nature of Love was not ignorant of his effects Let us make use of the words of S. Augustine Men saith he take their name from what they love they owe their condition to their affection as wives take the quality of their husbands and Lovers those of their Mistresses so in loving the earth they become earthly in loving heaven they become heavenly and carrying their
his Obedience or his Rebellion and thus it is always true that Repentance is a favour reserved for man and if it leane not upon the unconstancy of his mind it is founded at least upon the length of his life which seems therefore prolonged that he may have time to repent But if Repentance be not natural to man 't is at least necessary for a sinner if it be not his difference 't is his remedy if it be not his propriety 't is his only refuge and as Tertullian saith 't is the Table after the Shipwrack Man in Paradise might save himself by his Innocence this acceptable convoy had brought him through a Garden of Roses he had found pleasure with vertue he had conquered without fighting and though he had had no enemies he had not failed to triumph But now there remains only Repentance which swims in bloud or in tears which is covered with earth or with ashes which blots out no transgressions but by lamentations satisfies not the Justice of God but by preventing his arrests nor gaines any battles but those that cost him fighs or wounds The sinner following the Counsels of this austere Vertue is always animated against himself his whole life is spent in sorrow and since he lost Grace he is obliged to bid adiew to all pleasure his very reconciliation with God dispenseth not with him from this severity To be a Christian Nullus hominiū transit ad Christum ut incipiat esse quod non erat nisi eū poeniteat fuisse quod erat Aug. intitles him to be a Penitent 't is enough that he hath sinned in Adam to live in sadness and being a member of Jesus Christ he is bound over to penance For though the union he contracts with this adorable Head in Baptism happily deliver him from all his sins that he recovers Innocence with Grace and be freed from all those pains which are prepared for offenders in Hel he becomes Penitent in becoming Innocent and the same Sacrament that ties him to Jesus Christ engageth him in griefs and sufferings The Son of God uniting the Divinity with the Humanity in his Person is pleased also to unite all things that seemed incompatible Having surpassed the difficulties that withstood the accomplishment of this mystery having accorded power with weakness Non-Entity with Beeing Life with Death he would make Innocence friends with Repentance and charge himself with the pains our sins deserved without interessing the holiness that made him impeccable he was the most just and most afflicted of all men he was equally divided between the blessed and the penitent his soul resented grief with joy and at the same time that he reigned with the Angels he suffered with Mortals According to his example the greatest Saints have laboured to joyne Repentance with Innocence His Mother the purest of Virgins the Holiest of Women bare the infirmities of our nature without contracting the obligations and to imitate her Son was content to be miserable though she were not criminal Saint John Baptist who was a sinner but for some months who received Grace in his mothers belly who after the Virgin was the first object of the miracles of Jesus who was born without sin nor brought into the world with him the ignominious quality of a sinner This great Saint I say was the example of Penitents he spent his whole life in the Desarts he had no other covering then that of Trees or Rocks Earth served him for a Bed Sackcloth for a Garment Water for Drink and Locusts for Food He added the labours of preaching to the austerity of penance he reproved sin with boldness his generous freedome procured him the hatred of the great ones and for a recompence of so many vertues he lost his head at the intreaty of an incestuous woman Thence it comes to pass that the Christian having the honour to be a member of Jesus Christ is obliged to Repentance the favour he hath received in the Church gives him no dispensation from this duty and if he have the use of Reason when admitted to Baptism his Contrition must precede that Sacrament and recover his lost Innocence by the assistance of this vertue His obligation continues with his life For as the Grace of Christianity does not enfranchise him fully from Concupiscence but he groans still under the weight of his irons sees his heart divided between Self-love and Charity that both these principles make him act successively and having obeyed Grace obeys Sin again he is bound to run to sorrow to deface his light offences with Tears and to spend his whole life in Repentance It is the opinion of S. Augustine who carries this truth on farther and imposeth a more severe law upon Christians for be will not have Innocence it self to exempt them from Grief he will have them sigh not because of their sin but because of their banishment he will have them bewail their exile as long as long as it lasts and condemning their coldness that can finde any pleasure in this sad abode saith that the Believer who hath not an aversion for this mortal and perishable life can have no love for the Eternal and Beatifical his regret ought to be an argument of his love and that it becomes him to bemoan his abode upon earth if he have a real desire of being speedily translated to heaven This great Master of Grace seeks no other motives of Repentance then the miseries of life he thinks it sufficient to sad our hearts that we live under the tyranny of sin that we feel the rebellions of the flesh and suffer the persecution of the Elements the justice of these continued pains teacheth us that we are guilty the Prayer that Christ taught us confirms us in this belief and seeing we cannot be his disciples except we daily say Dimitte nobis debita nostra we must confess we are not free from sin otherwise the Church would abuse the Faithful the Son of God himself had involved us in an errour and as S. Augustine saith asking pardon for a sin we never committed we should utter a blasphemy because we should lye in the midst of our most august mysteries We cannot doubt then that Repentance is necessary for a Christian nor can we deny that to the end it may be profitable it must be severe especially if the precedent sins have been notorious For as Repentance is a kinde of Justice it proportions the Punishment to the Offence it respects the quality of the delinquents considers the Majestie offended and casting its eyes upon the torments of the damned strives to make some resemblance of them in the revenge it takes upon Criminals Let us carefully examine all these Reasons see the just motives we have to punish our selves and not to slatter our lazie negligence in so important a concernment let us consider the qualities of this Vertue Repentance is a Judgement where contrary to the ordinary Laws the same Delinquent is Witness
receives is digested by the Stomack and is turned to Blood in the Liver thence it is conveyed by the Veins into all the parts of the body which assimilating it into their substance gives it as many forms as they themselves have There by a strange prodigie the same aliment is softned into Flesh hardned into Bones stiffned into Sinews extended into Cartilages its superfluities are not useless and if we be-believe Physitians they serve to nourish our Hair and our Nails whereof the first is the ornament of the Head the second the defence of the Hand Who will not acknowledge that Man is very dear to God since he works so many Miracles to feed him and produceth so many several Meats to entertain a life common to him with beasts But inasmuch as that of the Soul is much more noble the nourishment whereby it is preserved is exceedingly more excellent and if in the order of Nature God hath made so many prodigies to nourish Man he works many more in the order of Grace to entertain the Christian For the body of his oncly Son is the food of the Faithful they live upon that Blood which begat them on the Cross that the same Principle which gave them their life may preserve it This Body is formed upon our Altars by the Word of Jesus Christ himself the Priests are onely the Ministers or Interpreters they repeat what he delivered in the Supper they do that in the Church that he did at Jerusalem and offering up this Sacrifice to the Eternal Father make provision to nourish the Faithful Thus in Nature and in Grace 't is the Word of God that makes us live and we may truely say Non in solo pane vivit homo sed in omni verbo quod procedit ex ore Dei But this Bread that nourisheth our souls is not of the same quality with that that nourisheth our Bodies For the Corn whereof this is made owes its Life to its Death nor can increase till it be corrupted but that which is exhibited to us upon our Altars felt corruption onely on the Cross where dying to procure us life he himself boasted that he was the Grain of Corn whose fruitfulness proceeds from its corruption Si mortuum fuerit multum fructum affert But now it is incorruptible in our Tabernacles death can no more injure it the Glory that invests it secures it from our fury as well as our wrongs We must acknowledge nevertheless that its presence depends upon the species that cover it it ceaseth to be with us when the heat hath digested them or time consumed them and though he remain by his Grace his body is absent which is tied to accidents as to chains his love hath forged for it He never dispenseth with this bondage the treachery of Judas could not make him violate the laws he had prescribed the blinde fury of Hereticks cannot compel him out of this prison and the impiety of Sinners hath not been able to force him to quit their hearts till the species that preserved him there be consumed by the natural heat He is as faithful to observe his promises as to obey the will of his Father and as the blasphemies of the Jews could not make him descend from the Cross to give them proofs of his Innocence and of his Divinity the sacriledges of prophane Christians cannot make him desert the Hoast where his love and fidelity hold him prisoner Though he be subject to all these humiliations to become our nourishment he is not liable for all that to all the conditions of Nutriment For he passeth not into our substance he is not changed into those that receive him and in his debasement he reserves himself the power to convert them into him His being our Food hinders him not from being our God he acts upon those that feed upon him he makes an impression of his Divine qualities in their souls and if he changeth not their Nature at least he makes them change their Condition and their Life Neither ought this to seem strange to those that consider that Natural meats communicate their qualities to us and by a mutual Metamorphosis we are changed into them when they are assimilated into us 'T is believed that Nero was therefore cruel because he suckt the milk of a cruel Nurse and that Achilles was therefore valiant because his Master nourished him with the marrow of Lions Experience it self teacheth us that people draw their humours from the earth that bears them and the heaven that covers them Those that are bred among Rocks are savage those that live in the fertile Plains are more tractable Therefore we need not wonder if the Christians feeding upon a Divine meat do so easily change their inclinations Auâ—ite officaciam communionem corporis sanguinu Domini nos Jesu Christo Jesus Christus nobis in unitate foederatur inenarrabili sicut ipse dicit Qui manducat carnem meum in me manet ego in eo Bern. because more powerful and successful then ordinary food it hath the vertue of conveying its own qualities and of changing the guests into it self And from this Principle do the Fathers draw the obligation the Christians have to be gods upon earth because they receive a God in the Eucharist who acting according to the extent of his power would transform them into himself were not his Divine operations hindered by the weakness or malice of the recipient But that which is begun upon Earth is happily perfected in Heaven where Divinity being the food of the Blessed raiseth them to a condition where leaving off to be Mortals they commence Gods Indeed the holy Scripture teacheth us that the Beatifical state is a Feast where God communicating his Essence to Angels and Men makes them in one dish taste all imaginable delights For though there be diversity of conditions among the Blessed though the degrees of Glory answer the degrees of Love and those who have been most affectionate are those that God most honours yet all Theology confesseth that the Divine Essence is the only object of their felicity that every one enjoys all without division that though common to all 't is notwithstanding proper to each particular that being wholly communicated to one it takes nothing from the rest and more excellent then the light which enlightens one man as perfectly as the whole world it is as fully communicated to the lowest Angel as to the highest Seraphim God is divided upon the Earth without interessing his simplicity he communicates himself to the faithful but in part and handling every one according to their Merit and his Grate is not always the same to one that he is to another He hath manifested his Wisdome in Solomon his Clemency in David his Patience in Job his Love in Saint Peter his Zeal in Saint Paul his Purity in Saint John and his other perfections in the rest of the Faithful But at the end of the world God
Gideon that won so many victories was but the Type of this For this mighty man entring the Camp of the Madianites and hearing one of their soldiers tell his fellow that in his sleep he saw a Cake fall from Heaven which routed their army he perswaded himself contrary to all appearance Sicut verbum Dei cibus est gladius ita corpus ejus Ber. that this Cake was his Sword and taking advantage from this dream set upon his enemies and defeated them Non est hoc aliud nisi gladius Gideonis But 't is very true that the Bread of Jesus Christ is the Sword of the Christians the same meat that nourisheth them defends them and the same remedy that cures their maladies subdues their enemies It s strength no way hinders its sweetness and like Manna there are charms in it that make it pleasing to every palate For the holy Scripture assures us that this Heavenly food was fitted to the appetite of the Israelites that never changing the fashion it altered the savour and following their inclinations complied with their tasts to satisfie their longing I know Saint Augustine is of opinion that this miracle was wrought onely in favour of the righteous and that the guilty were deprived of a Grace which in stead of heightning their devotion did only whet their stomack But the Scripture declares this miracle and the words thereof which are as true as Oracles inform us that Manna besides its natural taste had other rellishes according to the several appetites of those that gathered it If the Figure were thus advantageous for the body the Substance is much more beneficial for the soul For inasmuch as this Sacrament contains the source of Grace there is none but may from thence be communicated unto us though its principal effect be to maintain life it fails not to produce all Vertues and to satisfie the inclinations of all those that receive it It inspires Lovers with Charity weak persons with Courage Virgins with Purity Penitents with Sorrow and becoming all things to all upon Earth as well as in Heaven perfectly fulfils all the desires of the Faithful By its abundance it supplies all other Sacraments It gives us Jesus Christ in all his different relations and comprehending as well his Mysteries as their Graces makes us enjoy him living and dying humble and glorified acting and suffering For whether Eternity which in one indivisible moment includes all the differences of time recollect here all the Mysteries of Jesus Christ or whether this Sacrament comprehend all that it exhibits and being the Figure and Truth both together presents us the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God because it is the Sacrament thereof or finally whether Jesus Christ upon the Altars to comfort the Faithful who saw him not upon the Earth will by a miraculous way for their sakes accord the present with the past and let himself be enjoyed after his Death as he was seen before his Birth he gives himselfe wholly to them in this Mystery and fully communicates all that he is all that he hath done and all that he hath suffered for their salvation so that simple souls may consider him there as a child Hermites as solitary the Evangelists as a Divine Preacher the Martyrs as a Sacrifice the Prelates as a Pastor In hoc Sacramento judex advocatus sacerdos victima Leo Agnus Pastor Pascua Ber. and every one following his own piety may behold him in the condition which most affects him with pleasure or pain It was perhaps for this cause that the Moserabs in their Liturgy divided the Body of the Son of God into nine portions upon which they imposed the names of his chiefest Mysteries to teach us that he repeated them upon our Altars to content our piety and accomplishing the Figure of Manna exhibited himself in all these different estates thereby to accommodate himself to all our inclinations The Fourth DISCOURSE That this Nourishment gives the Christian whatever the Devil promised Innocent Man if he did eat of the Forbidden Fruit. THe Divine Providence is never more wonderful then when it employs the same means to save us the malice of the Devil had made use of to destroy us Thus let us magnifie his Oeconomy when we see our salvation somewhat resemble our fall and the same things that involved us in transgression deliver us out of it A Devil jealous of our happiness began our misery a Woman too easily listened to his words a man over-lightly complacent suffered himself to be cajoled by her and the beauty of the forbidden fruit charming his eyes seduced his mind and corrupted his will The Divine Wisdome imitating our fall in the work of our salvation made use of an Angel the Interpreter of his designs of a Virgin true to his Promises of a Man-God that satisfied his Justice and of a fruit not forbidden but commanded which really exhibits to the Christian all those advantages man was made to hope for in his Innocence For the Devil considering the just inclinations Nature and Grace had imprinted in the soul of man to seduce him promised him that if he would disobey God he should find his happiness in his rebellion and that the use of the fruit he was forbidden to meddle with should make him Immortal knowing Good and Evil and Christian Religion teacheth us that the Body of the Son of God received in the Sacrament with piety due to so great love produceth in us these effects and making us Men-Gods makes us Knowing and Immortal Let us examine these Promises and see what we ought to expect from the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes If the fear of death and the desire of life be not the most ancient passions of man we may affirm them the most natural and most violent He hath an apprehension of death before he knows what it is he desires Immortality before he believes it and whatever he does here below is only by defending himself from a dissolution to live for ever Every one seeks after the same end though by different mediums and he that would put the question to each particular would learn by their answers that they labour only to become Immortal Fathers mary not so much for the pleasure of the bed as for the desire they have to survive in their posterity and in spight of death gain a perpetuity to their Being as well as their Name Philosophers are not so much in love with Knowledge and Vanity as with Life whilst they spend whole nights in their books and leave the productions of their brain to posterity For they think to cozen death by this stratagem they believe their reputation will pierce the Generations to come and that living in the memory of men they shall in some sort enjoy Immortality Monarchs whose minde and body are equally barren leaving neither Children nor Vertues behinde them whereby they may be known to their Successors raise
that his Body is the Holocaust of his Love our Understanding must be the Victim of our Faith 'T is in this occasion that we ought to relie upon the Power and Truth of him that worketh this Miracle and examining the difficulties that combat our Faith we are onely to consider that he that hath drawn All things out of Nothing is still able to extract his Body out of the substance of the Bread Haec Sacramenta necessario fidem exigunt rationem non admittunt Bern. and change one thing into another since he was able to produce what was not This is the Mystery must be approached unto in the simplicity of Faith where we must believe Jesus Christ whom we do not see that Darkness being the midwife of Light we may behold him in heaven whom we have believed upon earth The second disposition of the Christian is derived from the second quality of this heavenly meat All Religion informs us that Heaven bestows this Nutriment upon us by the mighty power of its Love every effect we observe therein is a Miracle never will the Prodigies of Manna equal those of the Eucharist Tota ratio facti potentia facientis Aug. nothing is done here according to the laws of Nature God dispenseth with all those rules in other occurrences he obligeth himself unto and we may say that in this adorable Mystery he consults onely his Power and his Goodness He changeth the Elements without altering their qualities he sustains Accidents without their Substances he multiplies his Body without dividing it he nourisheth the Faithful with his Flesh without wasting it he is present in a thousand places at the same instant Whilst Men possess him the Angels do not lose him he is wholly in heaven and wholly upon the earth and as if the Incarnation were but an Essay of the Eucharist this gives all the world the same Body the other indulged onely to Judea Such a cloud of Miracles exact our silence and astonishment we must admire what we cannot comprehend and making Ignorance serviceable to Piety say with the Prophet Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis magnus in operibus suis Indeed if we admire the wonders of Nature if that which surpasseth our apprehension ravish our understanding if the disorder of the Elements or the irregularity of the Seasons strike a kinde of awe into us Ought we not greatly to respect a Mystery whose every circumstance is a Miracle and every effect a Prodigie But inasmuch as this Food is an Earnest of Glory and this Feast whereto the Faithful are invited is a figure of that Eternal Banquet which the Blessed sit down at we must bring along with us Desire and Hope God gives us nothing upon the earth which he doth promise us aforehand to occasion our desires But because Promises are not bare words Judaei quippe habebant quandam umbram nos veritatem Judaei fuerunt servi nos filii Judaei per mare transierunt ad Eremum nos per Baptismum intravimus in Regnum Judaei Manna manducaverunt nos Christum Judaei pruinam nos Deum caeli Salvia he many times gives us a part of what he hath promised Though the Law were but a shadow of Truth the Sacraments thereof but vain and empty Figures yet did they contain something that the Israelites were to hope for by them Manna had qualities expressing those of the Body of Jesus Christ The Law though obscure was an exposition of the Gospel and rightly understood obliged us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves The Sea which favoured their retreat in parting asunder and coming together again swallowed up the Egyptians darted forth some glimmerings of light amidst these shades of darkness and by sensible effects exhibited what was to be acted upon our souls in the Sacrament of Baptism The Land of Promise had some resemblance with that of the Living its plenty was an image of the felicity of heaven where nothing is wanting to the blessed inhabitants Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the pledges we receive in the New Testament are far more certain and substantial They exhibit the best part of what they promise they do what they make shew of and joyning the Figure with the Substance we may say that without depriving us of the quality of the Faithful they procure us that of the Blessed Baptism which raiseth us to the dignity of the Sons of God gives us admittance into his Inheritance we are already new creatures and though not yet perfected by Glory are notwithstanding begun to be wrought upon by Grace We are the members of Jesus Christ though we remain the members of Adam if the Charity the holy Ghost hath shed abroad in our hearts quench not Concupiscence at least it abolisheth the sin and though our righteousness be imperfect it fails not to be true The Incarnation raiseth our hopes and having seen a God made Man in being born of a Virgin we have not much ado to believe that Men may become Gods in being born of the Church But not to enter upon a deduction which would lead too far from the Subject of my discourse we need onely consider the Eucharist to be perswaded of this Verity It is a pledge wherein God performs what he promiseth 'T is part of that sum he bids us hope for Sacramenta prima erant praenvnitiativa Christi ideo ablata quia completa alia sunt instituta virtute majora utilitate meliora actu feliciora numero pauciora Aug. an Antepast of the felicity we expect neither is there any Christian who is not fully assured to possess Jesus Christ in heaven because he so entirely enjoys him on earth He waits with patience for the effect of so many gracious promises whereof he hath received such certain earnest he comforts himself in his discontents from the consideration of his advantages neither can he doubt that he that is so often sacrificed for his salvation will not wholly communicate himself for his happiness This infallible Gage exacts from us as much Desire as Confidence It is not enough to be assured of the promise of God we must long to have it effected our enjoyment ought to produce our yearning after it All Christians must be like Daniel men of desires and renouncing the things of the world fix all their pretensions towards heaven This Mystery that unites them to Jesus Christ must raise them as high as God and when his presence is vanished with the species the desires that Grace inspires them with must give them another rellish of what the natural heat hath made them lose by digestion This disposition prepares us for another more noble and more holy For if we are to express our longings because the Body of the Son of God is a pledge of his Promises we ought to be indued with Love and Fidelity because this Sacrament is a Marriage of his soul with ours Baptism is the Beginning and
the Eucharist the Consummation hereof we have engaged our word when we were admitted into the Church and receiving the character of our servitude we have given bond for our Faithfulness But in the Mystery of the Eucharist he deals with our souls as with his Spouse we become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he enters into our bosome and we into his his body and ours are animated with the same Spirit and partaking in all the qualities of our Beloved we have right to his most glorious priviledges But so noble an Alliance requires a great affection and much fidelity This Lover is jealous he will raign alone in the hearts that he possesseth as he cannot endure a Competitor in his State so neither can he a Rival in his Love he will have nothing loved but for his sake and because our adhesion to the Creature is not without imperfections he never beholds it without grief nor leaves it without punishment Whatever is prejudicial to Fidelity displeaseth he never breaks his word and therefore cannot endure we should fail of our duty He will keep what he hath once gotten and seeing his Power is equal to his Love he is as severe in his Revenge as he is liberal in his Favours When I consider the obligations we have to his Goodness I never wonder that his Justice corrects us but I am ashamed there should be any souls so negligently careless as to provoke him and that after so many favours any should be so wretched as to betray their duty and abandon Jesus Christ Nevertheless this crime is so common among Christians that those who will not break their word with an Enemy take no care to be true to the Son of God basely desert his party lodge the devil in the same Throne where they had seated their Soveraign and take an Adulterer into the bed from whence they have driven their lawful Husband If the remembrance of his favours cannot produce love in our souls the terrour of punishments must beget Fear For if he be our Beloved in the Eucharist he is also our Judge and having fruitlesly exhibited testimonies of his Goodness Qui enim manducat bibit indigne judicium fibi manducat hibit non dijudicans corpus Domini 1 Cor. 11. will sensibly inflict marks of his indignation The great Apostle of the Gentiles tells us that he that receiveth unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that the Devil being the Minister of the Divine Justice takes visible possession of the soul of that Delinquent that he erects an Altar in his heart and of his slave making his victime engageth him in despair having engaged him in Sacriledge Et post buccellū introivit in cum Satanas Joan. 13. Thus dealt he with Judas when he had communicated unworthily The Evangelist observes that he entred into his soul urged him to execute his abominable design for a light interest obliterated out of his mind the remembrance of all the favours he had received from his Master and tumbling him from one precipice to another from Covetousnesse tempted him to Treachery from Treason to Sacriledge Diabolus intravit in cor ut traderet eum Judas quomodo intravit in cor nisi immittendo iniquas persuasiones cogitatienibus iniquorum Aug. de Consen Evang from Sacriledge to Parricide and from Parricide to Desperation For when the wicked spirit that possessed him had counselled him to betray the Son of God he counselled him to hang himself and setting him against himself made him make use of his own hands to inflict a just and cruel death upon himself Finally there is no mystery wherein the Son of God manifests more love or more severity where he obligeth more dearly or punisheth more strictly or pardons more rarely and because the crimes committed here are the greatest it seems the vengeance inflicted upon them is most memorable The first of all sinners is a great Saint in Heaven The man that was our Father and our Parricide both together De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quod eum in inferno solverit Christus Ecclesia fere tot a consentit quod eam non inaniter credidisse credendum est Aug. Epist 99. ad Enod The Criminal who is accessory to all the transgressions of the world The Father that engageth all his posterity in his offences and his punishment The Rebel who makes an Insurrection of all his Descendants against their lawful Soveraign That unfortunate Chief who lives yet after his death sins still in his members and by a dreadful prodigy being happy in his person is miserable and guilty in his posterity That old man who is new born in every sinner and in one word That Adam who committed a fault whole nature bewails to this day found his pard on in his repentance and whiles he sees Hel pepled with his off-spring enjoys glory with the Angels in Heaven That great King whom God raised to the Throne against all humane probability That Stripling who without arms gave a Gyant battle That Shepheard whose Crook was turned into a Scepter who reckoned his victories by his combats and boasted that the Lord of Hosts had trained him up in the Discipline of War This Prince who forgetting all these favours joyned Murder to Adultery and made an Innocent dye to cloak the dishonour of a debauched woman This glorious Criminal who saw all the Vials of Heaven poured down upon his Head his Kingdome divided his subjects revolted and his own children in the head of an Army against him This famous Delinquent reigns in glory with the Son of God his tears have washed away his iniquities and his grief more powerful then his offence opened him the gate of Heaven That Apostle who having received so many testimonies of affection from his Master forsook him so shamefully in the Garden of Gethsemane denyed him so openly in the house of Caiaphas is as great in Heaven as he was upon Earth The Church to this day reverenceth his Injunctions the Popes boast themselves his Successours and all the faithful glory in being his children That young man full of zeal and and fury who intended to strangle Christianity in the very Cradle who was the boutefew of the first persecution against the Disciples of Jesus who stoned Saint Stephen by their hands whose cloaths he kept De caelo vocavi una voce percussi alia erexi elegi tertia implevi misi quarta liberavi coronavi Aug. hath found his salvation in his sin He was converted when he went about to plunge himself in the bloud of the first believers he received Grace when he was upon the very point of encreasing the number of Parricides in one moment he became a Preacher of the Gospel an Apostle of the Son of God and the Master of the Gentiles But the first that ever profaned the Body of Jesus Christ and committed a Sacriledge in approaching the Altar
Hebrews that they crucified again the Son of God and that contrary to his intention and that of his Church they would make him die twice in their person who died but once in his own Rursum crucifigentes sibimet ipsis Filium Dei ostentui habentes But inasmuch as the Sacrifice of the Altar is a Sacrifice of Religion it must of necessity be repeated and for the continual honouring of the Eternal Father must continually be immolated in our Temples Therefore is it that the Synagogue which was the Figure of the Church had some Sacrifices which were offered but once every yeer nor had been offered but once at all had they had the merit and value of that of the Cross But there were others offered every day which the Scripture for this reason calls Juge Sacrificium The Church which hath not less piety then the Synagogue imitates and outgoes it in this point because it offers a daily Sacrifice and never changeth the Victim For 't is always the same body she produceth and immolateth that satisfying her love she may render an honour to God which ends not but with the world Her Beloved who hath inspired her with this desire hath given her the means to put it in execution she acts by the vertue received from him she repeats his words to repeat his miracles she produceth upon the Altars him that produced her upon the Cross she becomes the mother of him whose daughter she is and by a happie exchange conceives in her chaste womb him that heretofore conceived her in his wounds Thus this Sacrifice of Love is repeated every day and the Victim being incessantly produced by the Priest the Eternal Father is continually honoured The second difference is that the Sacrifice of the Cross is General and that of the Altar Particular Upon the Cross the Son of God was offered up for the salvation of all men his love is extended over all the Nations of the earth he excludes no Condition from this universal benefit he looks upon the Gentiles together with the Jews he mingles the Guilty with the Innocent and making no distinction of persons dies as well for Slaves as for those that are Free Ne existimes pro illa tantummodo gente hanc hostiam offerri propterea extra muros extra civitatem occiditur ut intelligas quoniam communis est hostia pro humano genere oblata Aug. and for the Poor as well as for the Rich. Therefore neither was this Sacrifice offered in the Temple nor in the City of Jerusalem that all people might know this favour was not particular and the most desperately-wicked might pretend to it since the first that felt the effect thereof were Theeves and Murtherers But the Sacrifice of the Altar is particular being instituted in the Church it relates onely to the Faithful its Merit though infinite reacheth not to strangers excommunicated persons are banished from it neither are the Catechumeni admitted The wedding-garment is requisite for those that are received and being a Feast as well as a Sacrifice they must be the Friends of the Bridegroom that are partakers of it But the third and most notable difference is that upon the Cross the Sacrifice was blended with Sacriledge whereas upon the Altar it is altogether pure attended with nothing that makes it not acceptable to God It is one of the Miracles of Providence to make wicked instruments serviceable to its designes and to employ their very malice to the execution of its will and intendments Joseph ows his Greatness to the Hatred of his Brethren and their ill disposition well husbanded by the conduct of heaven made him sit upon the Throne of Egypt That prodigie of Patience whose example comforts all that are miserable is glorious by his very detriment and had not the devil been permitted to afflict him he would not be the wonder and astonishment of all the Righteous The Martyrs were not admired by Christians but because they were persecuted by Tyrants and had they not given proofs of their courage in the Conflict they never had triumphed with Jesus Christ in Glory But that which most astonisheth me is that the very Passion of the Son of God was not effected but by the malice of men and devils this Sacrifice is accompanied with a Sacriledge and the holiest action of the world is shrowded under the appearance of a murder In respect of the Son of God there is nothing more sacred then his death 't is the most illustrious testimony of his Obedience the last office of his Piety the greatest expression of his Love and the most memorable action of his Life There is no Creature that is not beholding to him for it Men owe him their Salvation the Angels their Crowns the Elements their Deliverance the Earth her Purity and Heaven its Ornament and Glory If we consider this Death in respect of the Jews we want words to express the horrour thereof with It was the most unjust Sentence that ever was pronounced the most shameful ignominious punishment that an Innocent ever suffered the most execrable attempt that ever was projected by Rebellious Subjects in a word the most abominable Parricide that ever was committed by unnatural Children Comparing the motive of the Jews with that of Jesus Christ we cannot say whether God was more honoured or more offended upon Mount Calvary nor whether Nature conceived more horrour or compassion at the Tragedie The Eternal Father was abundantly satisfied Ibi Deus per malos quidem sed tamen ipse bonus per injustos sed justus juste ita in eos vindicavit ut perimerentur multa hominum millia ipsa civitas everteretur Aug. in Psal 73. because in consideration thereof he forgat his injuries and our sins and consented that his enemies should become his heirs But on the other side he was mightily offended because he discharged his wrath upon Judea armed the Romanes against the Jews sackt Jerusalem and his Temple and his just indignation not satisfied with so many miseries persecutes to this day that vagabond and criminal Nation Nature imitates the minde of her Author all her parts testified their Anger and their Pity The Earth trembled to swallow up the executioners in her fearful abysses the Rocks clave asunder with grief the Stars sunk into the Firmament that they might not be the witnesses of this Parricide the Sun was eclipsed that it might not enlighten such prodigious wickedness and whole Nature being not able to destroy them endeavoured to die with her God that died for her Thus Sacriledge was mixed with the Sacrifice of the Cross the Father was Oftended even whilst he was Satisfied and the whole world was scandalized by the crime of the Jews at the same time when it was purified by the Blood of Jesus Christ But Sanctity is altogether spotless upon our Altars there appears not that Medley which makes a confused mixture of Love and Hatred in our hearts and the
Sacrifice that is offered is no longer a Sacriledge to be detested It is not Cruelty that makes Jesus Christ die but Piety 'T is no longer a Crime but an act of Religion to immolate him neither is he offered by the hands of Executioners but of Priests The Father receives this Sacrifice with Pleasure without Indignation the Son presents himself with Affection free from Sorrow Nature beholds it with Respect and no Horrour and Men partake of it Profitably and without Sin The fourth and last difference is that the Sacrifice of the Cross merits all and applies nothing and contrarily that of the Altar merits nothing and applies all For the comprehending of this Truth we must know that General Causes are the sources of all things nothing is produced here belowe that flows not from their fecundity the very operation of Particular Causes is an emanation of their vertue Did the Sun cease to shine all things of the world would not onely cease to act but also to subsist this goodly Star maintains them with its aspects and though he be not their Creator he is in some sort their Preserver But though he equally shed heat and light over all Creatures yet must we confess some receive his influences more favourably and apply them more faithfully With the Clouds he forms those Meteors which pleasantly ravish the eyes of the beholders with dew he enamels the Flowers which serve for an ornament to our Gardens with the Earth he produceth Gold and Iron which Avarice and Cruelty employed to a hundred different uses But did not these Causes that apply his power weaken his vertue and were there a Sun here belowe to receive his influences without confining them all the world are of opinion he would produce far nobler effects Virtus Causae generalis recipitur à causa particulari secundum suam agendi capacitatem D. Tho. and that in stead of Roses and Lilies we should see nothing but Stars in our Walks and Gardens But because he cannot act alone and the Causes that apply him debilitate his power we behold nothing here belowe answerable either to his excellency or beauty What we see in Nature we believe in Grace General Causes produce all but apply nothing Particular Causes produce nothing but apply all The death of Jesus Christ is the Spring-head of all Merit the Faithful can hope for nothing which is not acquired by that Sacrifice Heaven is not so much the recompence of their Vertue as of its Value and if the quality of Members which ties them to Jesus Christ as to their Head did not give them part in his merits they could not pretend to the inheritance of heaven In the mean time so powerful a Cause produceth nothing if not applied this fruitful Fountain sends forth no streams if there be no Chanels disposed to receive them Mors Christi Fons omnium bonorum Sacramenta vero Rivuli and this Star which darts forth so much heat and light makes neither flowers nor fruit grow up in the Church if there be not some secondary cause which conveys its vertue to us Therefore hath the Son of God instituted Sacraments in his Church which happily apply whatever he hath liberally merited for us upon the Cross They are so many Pipes issuing his blood into our hearts so many Suns carrying their influences into our souls but they have this unhappiness in applying his merits they weaken them and not being capable of receiving all his vertue neither have they the power of communicating it to us Every Sacrament operates in us according to its particular condition Baptism gives us our new birth Sacramenta novae legis representant passionē Christi à qua fluxerunt sicut effectus representant causam Hugo à Sancto Victor Confirmation strengthens us Repentance raiseth us Ordination designes us to the service of the Altar and being second causes they limit the vertue of this universal cause which they apply unto us But the Sacrifice of the Altar more happie and more powerful then the rest applies the merits of the Cross without any limitation It procures us all kinde of Graces hath the power to produce and raise us gives us life and strength unites us to God and takes us off from the world weakens concupiscence and sin and the Son of God finding himself applied by himself there are no wonderful effects which he cannot give a product to There he merits nothing because he is at the end of his Course in the place of his Rest and in the time of his Recompence But he applies all because being equal to himself he hath gained nothing by the Sacrifice of the Cross which he cannot communicate by the Sacrifice of the Altar Nothing can hinder his divine operations but our Weakness or our Malice for as he acts with Free causes without constraining them we must lend him our Will for our Sanctification that making him Master of our hearts we may in some sort assist him to raign absolutely in his State and prepare our selves worthily to receive at the Altar those Graces he hath merited for us upon the Cross The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the Obligation the Christian hath to sacrifice himself to God SInce the Son of God hath united in his person the Humane Nature with the Divine Deus erat homo factus est suscepit humanitatē non amisit divinitatem factus humilis mansit sublimis natus est homo non destitit esse Deus Aug. lib. de quinq haeres cap. 5. and mastering the difficulties which stood in opposition to the execution of so great a design hath effected this admirable Master-piece which accords baseness with greatness misery with happiness it seems he hath taken pleasure to conjoin in his person all those qualities which clash in others so that we may say he hath pacified all the differences that were in Heaven and in Earth Indeed he is the Father and the Son of the Church he produced her upon the Cross and is produced by her upon the Altar He is the Son and the Servant of his Father he associates two qualities which appear incompatible in men and tempering respect with love teacheth us that Gods being his Father hinders him not from being his Soveraign He is our Advocate and our Judge having pleaded our cause he pronounceth our sentence and I know not whether it be a ground of fear or of confidence in that we are assured that he that is entred into our obligations is admitted also into the rights of his Father and that one day he will punish those for whom he hath satisfied upon the Cross But if there be any qualities whose alliance ravisheth us in the person of Jesus Christ we must confess 't is that of Priest and Sacrifice These two are so different among men that nothing but a supream power or an extream love could unite them together When the Synagogue would represent us with the Sacrifice of the Son of God
Vanity but such as imprint Characters or produce effects in their souls they are as solid as glorious they raise men up to heaven make them heirs of the Eternal Father and brethren of his onely Son Their greatness depends not upon the opinion of people though they are unknown they are notwithstanding honourable sometimes Contempt augments their reputation and the less splendor they bear amongst men the more respect they finde with God Therefore I should betray the honour of the Christian if having spoken of his Vertues I should not speak of his Qualities and having described his Labours and his Sacrifices I should say nothing of his Rewards and Recompences True it is that as the parts of this work are mutually interwoven and the remotest have secret links that unite them all together in speaking of the Christians Birth I have handled his Noblest Qualities and have made it appear that he was the Brother and the Member of Jesus Christ that he was the adopted Son of the Eternal Father and the living Temple of the holy Ghost In making the Elogie of his Vertues I shewed that Faith made him a Believer Charity a Lover Austerity of life a Penitent so that having already spoken of these advantages there remains onely to supply what is behinde to compleat his Portraicture which I cannot better begin then in demonstrating in this Discourse that the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ For the happier explaining of this Verity we must know that the Word is the Image of his Father the Character of his Substance Qui videt me videt Patrē Joan. 14. the Express of his Greatness He gives himself this Title in the Gospel and teacheth his Disciples that in seeing Him they see his Father in his person Our Divines abound with Reasons of this Assertion to prove that this Elogie is not unworthy of the Eternal Word and that his being the lively Image of his Father no way hinders his being equal with him But not to trouble my self in the proof of a Truth Faith obligeth us to believe it is enough with the great S. Athanasius to let you see that this Divine Image hath none of those defects which are inseparably incident to those of our Carvers and Painters for Existimavit Philo Judaeus prohibitas esse à Deo picturas quia sunt mendacia the most exact Pieces that come from their hands are false because they are not that which they represent nor can all the industry of Art make them other then agreeable Illusions Though they are Lyers yet are they mute painting cannot make them speak and the highest commendation can be given them is to say that nothing but Speech is wanting to them Lastly they are dead Art less powerful then Nature cannot inanimate them what ever dexterity it useth it cannot enliven them they are children that expire in their very birth and could they speak would complain of the rigour of their Parents who in stead of making them Men have made them onely Idols Now this Image that so lively represents the Eternal Father hath none of these imperfections It is very far from a Lye because it is so conformable to its Original that 't is as well his Truth as his Copie It is not dumb because it is the Interpreter of the Father his Eternal Panegyrick his subsisting Word all whose works are so many expressions chanting forth the praises of their Authour It is not dead because it is the Fountain of Life wherein the Creatures before their birth and after their death live and by a perpetual Miracle enlivens all those works it hath produced Imago ista non falsa est quia Veritas non muta quia Verbum non mortua quia Vita Lib. de Incar Verb. This is it which S. Athanasius saith with as much pomp of Eloquence as Learning and Piety This Image is not mute because it is the Word not false because it is the Truth not dead because it is Life This same Son who is the Image of his Father is by a necessary consequence the Idea of all the Creatures they are all formed after this Divine Examplar and according as they more or less participate of his likeness they are more or less noble in their nature Men and Angels have no advantage above the rest but because they are the Transcripts of this Idea and others at most but the Footsteps thereof The Scripture teacheth us that Man was formed after this primitive Image that he was made after the similitude thereof and that in the very Creation he belonged not to the Father but by the mediation of the Son This Greatness was the occasion of his Fall for sollicited by the devil he was not content to be the Image of the Word but would also be that of the Father and pronounce these words which are onely true in the mouth of the Son Ego sum similis Altissimo This Crime was the cause of his disaster the Father to revenge his Son drove this Insolent that had encroached upon his rights out of Paradise and reduced Him to the condition of Beasts who had impudently aspired to the equality of his Word So great a misfortune had utterly ruined us without any hope of recovery had not the Son of God who was the Innocent occasion been also the Charitable remedy For seeing that men were become guilty in striving to imitate him that to revenge Him his Father had destroyed Them he resolved saith S. Bernard Per me Pater recipiat quos propter me amisisse videtur ecce venio talem me eis exhibebo ut quisquis gesticrit imitari fiat ei aemulatio in bonum Bern. to put himself in a condition wherein he may be securely imitated and where the desire of being like him being no longer a Crime is become a means to arrive to happiness He was made Man to serve for an Example to Man he submitted himself to his Father to teach them obedience he was abased to the shame of the Cross to teach them Humility and he forgave his Executioners their putting him to death to oblige them to pardon their enemies Therefore is it that S. Paul discovering the secrets of Predestination saith that his designe is to render the Elect conformable to his Image and to bestow Graces upon them which satisfying their desires may make them without committing a fault like his onely Son For this reason Tertullian says that the same Eternal Father forming the body of the First man at the Creation of the world Quodcunque limus exprimebatur Christus cogitabatur homo futurus Tert. de resurrect carn was taken up with Jesus Christ that the Slime represented him the Incarnation of his Word and that foreseeing the sin of Adam he already provided him a remedy It is true then that the Christian is the Image of the Son of God that Nature and Grace obligeth him to imitate this Pattern and that his perfection consists in
as in that of an Elect. This Attribute is not lesse delicate then zealous all transgressions scandalize it nor does any thing bear the stamp of sin that does not offer it violence she hath more enemies then the rest of her sisters and if the other perfections of God are dishonoured by some particular crimes this is by all inquities of what kind soever Those that sin of infirmity and pretend to find their excuse in the cause of their offence dash only upon the power of the Almighty Those that sin out of ignorance and conceive themselves not guilty because they are blind offend only the wisdom of God Those that transgress out of malice and who are less excusable because more enlightned wound only the Goodness of God and though so highly criminal perswade themselves that wronging but one of his perfections the rest will be favourable towards them But all sinners together injure Holiness and as there is not one who turns not his back upon the Creator to embrace the creature neither is there any that dishonours not this Attribute whose principal design is to unite them to their Creator Though Sanctity be thus injuriously dealt with it ceaseth not to be most profitable to Christians and so well manageth their interests with those of God that it produceth all the miracles which so highly advance his Greatness and their merit All the other perfections study more our glory then our salvation Power makes only Kings and when it would draw admiration from mortals Singula Dei Attâ—ibuta singulos Angelorü hominü ordines effinxerunt Marsil Fisci de religione is content to raise Shepheards to the Throne Wisdom makes Philosophers and communicating to them a part of its light gives them the understanding of the works of God Providence makes Politicians or Prophets and discovering to both of them the secrets of futurity inspires them with a science which is not learnt in the Schools But Holiness more happy and more powerful makes Saints which are Gods Master-pieces separates them from the creatures and unites them to the Creator transforms them into him or to use the words of Scripture makes commenced Gods by Grace and perfect Gods by Glory 'T is to this height of honour that all Christians are destin'd They bear this glorious title in the Gospel Saint Paul treats them as Saints in all his Epistles and as their sanctity is an effusion of Gods it obligeth them to knock off from all things that they may be united to him and to cling so close unto him that nothing can separate them Therefore is it that the Religion that leads us to Holiness invites us to a Divorce with all things else The Son of God admits none into his School of whom he exacts not this promise The Church who imitates him as her Husband requires this disposition of all her Children when she conceives them in her womb by the operation of the Holy Ghost and the vertue of the waters of Baptism she will have them renounce the vanities of the world and like the Apostles forsake their riches in deed or in affection The first is matter of counsel the second of obligation Multum deseruit qui voluntatem babendi dereliquit à sequentibus Christum tanta relicta sunt quanta à non sequentibus defiderari potuerunt Greg neither is there any creature who is not bound to say with Saint Peter Ecce nos reliquimus omnia I know there are those that laugh at the Confession of this Apostle and with Saint Hierome find it no hard matter for a man to leave all whose whole demeans was but a skiffe and a net But had they well considered the vast extent of our hopes and our desires they would find this man left very much because he bid adiew to all things these two passions could possibly promise him This first disposition is not the only abnegation the Son of God requires of us it serves but for a step to ascend to a more difficult one and having injoyn'd us the contempt of riches obligeth us to deny our selves 'T is not enough to be admitted into his School for a man to forsake his goods he must withall renounce his inclinations and pursuing the evil into its very root offer up his will for an Holocaust Had he been content with the first disposition he had exacted no more of his Disciples then vain-glory had obtain'd of its vassal Philosophers have parted with their goods to defend themselves from covetousness or discontent which usually accompanies great fortunes The Ambitious are so deeply in love with glory that they contentedly part with all riches The Prodigal seem as it were angry with money and the lavish expences they make testifies they more undervalue then prize them But both of them are wedded to themselves the more they strip themselves of their goods the more are they wrapt up in their inclinations and the less they have of avarice the more are they puft up with pride and vain-glory Therefore is it that the Son of God willing wholly to to cure man passeth from Poverty to Self-denial and having counselled us to part with our riches commands us to shake hands with our selves Saint Paul following the steps of his Master teacheth us that they only who have crucified the flesh with the lusts thereof deserve the name of Christians and speaking elsewhere of himself witnesseth that to live to God he was bound to crucifie himself with Jesus Christ He makes them pass for enemies to the Cross who love themselves and not content to declaim against uncleanness makes an invective against those stately sins which including man within himself left him not above the degree of beasts but to equal him with Devils Finally he will have all those who are risen with the Son of God to be taken up with the contempt of the Earth and to be quickned with the desires of Heaven Though this first condition of Holiness gives us occasion to see that there are very few Saints in the world the second which is union with God will more strongly perswade us of it For sin being nothing but a separation from God holiness which is so opposite thereto is nothing but an alliance with God Those that are most united to him are the greatest Saints nor does any thing more gloriously distinguish Christians from Philosophers then this happy connexion Every Sect hath formed an Idea of the supream good and done their utmost to fasten their Disciples to it The Epicures who acknowledge no other good but voluptuousness had no other passion but for this Goddess The Stoicks who adored nothing but the mind spent all their veneration upon this Idol and the Academicks who doated only upon Morall vertue laboured meerly to gain her But Christians who know that pleasure makes none but effeminate that the love of understanding renders men arrogant and that of vertue it self when it mounts not high enough makes only idolaters set
only from his hands who sees her thoughts and knows her courage But the highest advantage of the Christian above the Martyr is that this mans trial endures but a few days Nature is so good a mother that she hath provided remedies for her children against the violent irruption of discontents she hath made the chains that unite the soul to the body so brittle that the least torments are able to break them tortures quickly end or we end with them and experience teacheth us that a punishment cannot be long when violent and extream Criminals must be husbanded if you will have them endure they must have respite if we intend to torture them for any long time their weaknes will rid them of their Exeeutioners and death stepping in to the succour of these wretches delivers them from their persecutors Therefore is the punishment inflicted upon Martyrs short many times one day saw both its beginning and its end and when Grace wrought no miracle for their preservation Nature used her endeavours to succour them But the Martyrdom of Christians lasts the best part of an age Repentance that afflicts them imitates the Divine Justice it makes an agreement between life and death lengthens that to prolong their misery and draws out the thred of their sorrows to prove them more durably miserable For mortification which constitutes the chiefest exercise of penitents is it not a long and cruell death which Disciplines the body afflicts the spirits nor gives any intermission to the disconsolate Penitentiary but to heighten his austerity This made S. Bernard say that the mortification of the flesh was a kind of punishment not so cruel indeed but much more irksome then that of Martyrs and recompensing the sweetnesse by the duration makes the penitent languish as long as he lives But after all these differences we must confesse that the Martyrs having been Christians as well as others have suffered a double punishment and living in penance were prepared for Martyrdom For as Tertullian observes the course of their life was a severe probation wherein they disposed themselves to grief by austerity to the prison by solitude to a short death by a long mortification Therefore tortures never startled these men who provided for them by a witty cruelty and in so happy an age the Church had no children who were not the Martyrs of Penance when they could not be of Persecution The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Lover THere is none but knows that the Son of God is a new Man that he is prodigious in his Constitution assembling Heaven with Earth Time with Eternity That he hath a God for his Principle and a Virgin for his Mother that he is the Son and the Father of his Spouse that he gave her life upon the Cross and receives life from her upon the Altar That he is the Priest and the Victim of his sacrifice the Judge and the Advocate of his parties and by a strange prodigy the Brother and the God of his Subjects As he is New in his composition he is New in his Councels and his Commandements Ille qui ven't vetustatem nostram sua novitate solvere mandato novo fecit hominem novum Aug. Serm. 39. de Temp. He will have his Disciples mutually love one another and Love to be the Fundamental Law of his State It seems he would alter nothing neither in Policy nor in Morality and leaving men in the Light Reason and Faith had already inspired them with was content to bequeath them a New Love His intendment is that all his Disciples be Lovers that all their Qualities be included in this and that the Christian find his full perfection in sole Charity 'T is in effect the only vertue recommended to us and when Jesus Christ lays the foundations of his Empire Charitas omnia suffert omnia credit omnia sperat animo sustiuet 1 Cor. 13. he requires nothing but Love from his subjects S. Paul confounds all the vertues with Charity and teacheth us that he that Loves is endued with Faith with Hope with Fortitude S. Augustin his faithfull Interpreter acknowledgeth but one vertue and if he gives it different names it is to express its divers effects or different qualities All the rest are reduced to this one and as the Passions are nothing but the motions of love we may say that the vertues are nothing but the Ministers of Charity The morality of a Christian is easie and succinct he is not bound to exercise himself in Patience to be established in Justice to be instructed in Prudence Charity gives him an interest in all these glorious Qualities and being a Lover he may boast himself Couragious Just Prudent Assoon as he knows how to Love he is able to guide himself his Light encreaseth with his Heat and without consulting the mysteries of the Politicks he becomes a Statesman assoon as ever he falls in love with Jesus Christ As pleasures cannot corrupt him grief cannot astonish him His Love inspires him with Magnanimity and Temperance and being united to God by Charity neither the Promises nor the Threats of the world are able to separate him he is incapable of committing an injustice as long as he keeps his affection and rendring his Soveraign his due learns at the same time to carry himself fairly towards his Equals and Inferiours If Love constitute the Christians vertue it constitutes his difference also For as Reason distinguisheth Man from Beasts makes him equall with the Angels and in Nature is accounted his principal advantage we may say that Charity divides the Christian from the sinner and being his richest ornament is also his noblest difference All the Faithful are clarified with the Light of Faith they receive in Baptism a Character which time cannot deface they flatter themselves with a hope which though unjust is notwithstanding sometimes true The Church which comes short of the Knowledge of her Beloved admits them to the Participation of her Mysteries and being unable to read their hearts suffers sacrilegious persons because she cannot tell how to hinder them Nay Jesus Christ himself honours them many times with his choicest favours discovers the secrets of Futurity to his enemies gives them an absolute power in his State and suffers those that offend him to drive away Devils and to cure the sick But Charity is the priviledge of his Friends 't is the glorious mark distinguishing them from Reprobates and the only vertue that is inconsistent with sin A man may be burnt in the flames and give testimony of his Courage in the midst of torments though he be not at all acceptable to God a man may dive into all the Mysteries of Religion and not be affected with them may give his goods to the poor and have his soul full of vain-glory But a man cannot have Charity and be upon ill terms with Jesus Christ those that love him are his Beloved and if he indulge some favours to those that fear
Ignorant Bond and Free may securely imitate him Had he lived deliciously Talem se in omnibus rebus praebuit ut oivina clementia quò porrigi humana insirmitas quò possit evehi sentiremus Aug. de util Cred. he had disheartned the Miserable had he conquered Kingdoms and commanded Armies had he heaped up Riches or sought after Dignities the Poor and Fearful had never followed him and had he preferred Pleasure before Grief or Glory before Humility he had had none but the Ambitious or Voluptuous for his Disciples But having placed the felicity of the earth in the contempt of Pleasure and Honour there is none but may be of his School The Distressed comfort themselves in his sufferings they endure Persecution with complacency when they consider his Cross and finding their strength in his weakness they are not troubled when afflicted because they worship a God who was willing to live and die in sorrow The Great and the Rich also may imitate him for besides that they may forsake their goods and instate themselves in a voluntary poverty they ought not to esteem what Jesus Christ hath undervalued and if they are fully perswaded that he is the Eternal Wisdom it becomes them to believe that the condition he hath chosen is the surest and most holy Thence it came to pass that the Primitive Christians that had no other Morality then the Life of the Son of God distributed their goods to the Poor when they entered into the Church and were of opinion that it was to doubt of the Maximes of their Master not to follow his Examples Though Piety be now grown cold we have still light enough to know that the Christian is obliged to contemn Present things and to hope for Future He hath not embraced Religion to finde his acquiescence in this world He is no sooner admitted into the School of Christ but he learns that the earth is his Banishment and heaven his Country nor that he is to make any account of perishable goods further then they may conduce to the gaining of eternal he useth his Riches to purchase the glory of heaven endures persecutions as Trials embraceth poverty as an Advantage grief as an Exercise fasting as a Remedy and setting no estimate upon things but as they relate to his end accounts those most beneficial which take him off from the world and fix him upon Jesus Christ The true Christian saith S. Augustine never need trouble himself to grow rich if his ancestors have left him any possessions he ought to account them false that he may long after true ones and that the contempt he hath of Those may raise the opinion he hath of These For 't is a certain Maxime as the same Saint goes on that the man that loves Earthly goods hath but little minde towards those of Heaven and that he that is besotted with the delights of the present world never dreams of the pleasures of the world to come Finally the Christian is not Regenerated in the Church to seek for his happiness upon Earth he makes no reckoning of what the Wicked possess and he perceives that Riches and Honours are not the rewards of the Just Non ad hoc sumus Christiani ut terrenam nobis felicitatem quaetamus quaÌ„ plerumque habent latrones scelerati Aug. because God bestows them upon his enemies He suffers Infidels to raign to instruct his Disciples he abandons the fairest part of the world to them that persecute him to teach us that Heaven is our Patrimony and as he punisheth not all Crimes here belowe neither doth he recompense all Vertues to perswade us that there is another life where Misery and Happiness are real Therefore is it that all the Faithful finde not here matter of Joy and Rejoycing they use transitory things with so much discretion that they no way prejudice those Eternal ones they look for and believing themselves Pilgrims upon earth are afraid to meet with some Charm which making this Exile too agreeable may occasion them to lose the remembrance of their dear Countrey As the Christian ought to contemn Pleasures so is it his part to prize Sorrow and to remember that his two Births though never so different oblige him equally to suffer The First exposeth him to the persecution of the Creatures to the unfaithfulness of the Senses to the revolt of the Passions and because Criminal engageth him in Misery and Suffering Man is born of a woman Homo natus de muliere ideo cum reatu brevi vivens ideo cum metu multis repleretur miseriis ideo cum fleiu Bern. saith S. Bernard with Job therefore is his nativity mixed with shame and sin and whoever is the son of a woman is miserable and guilty he lives but a short time thefore spends his yeers in fear and trembles lest every day should be his last He is overwhelmed with miseries therefore he weeps continually and following the course of the Distressed endeavours to appease his Judge or mitigate his Pain with his tears His Second birth obligeth him to Sorrow Jesus Christ gave him life upon the Cross the Church conceived him in Persecution and his father and mother joyntly engage him in the Combat he is no Christian if he do not suffer he is unworthy of so fair a name if he be not afflicted nor does he yet believe if in the midst of his rest he resent no displeasures For as S. Augustine saith excellently well if he be truely faithful he must be zealous for the glory of Jesus Christ he cannot see his Person dishonoured or his Commandments violated but he is grieved at it Bad examples trouble him the Kingdom of Satan torments him the impiety of his Ministers vexeth him and when he hath none of these rude trials his being yet at a distance from heaven is enough to make him account himself miserable In the mean time he hath no other felicity but pain though he groan he knows that Delights are more tragical then Discontents he is glad of persecution and storming his spirit changeth his complaint into grateful acknowledgements because he is perswaded that Vertue is not preserved but by infirmities For his comfort he many times entertains himself with this Maxime he labours to establish himself in the belief of this Paradox and blesseth afflictions because if just they increase his Merit if guilty serve for his Correction And certainly we must câ—â—fess that in all these dispositions he imitates his Divine Pattern For as S. Augustine judiciously observes the Son of God despised riches to teach us that they are not solid goods and chose sorrow to let us see that they were not true evils He hath given us no counsel which he hath not practised beforehand all his admonitions were confirmed by his examples and knowing very well that actions perswade better then words he would have his life the pattern of ours If his Disciples imitate him not if they fear
Afflictions seek after Pleasures value Riches despise Poverty we must conclude with Saint Augustine either that they are not Christians or but bad ones For as that incomparable Doctor saith there are many that bear the name of Believers and have neither their Faith nor their Vertue they wrong the Sacraments of the Church dishonour the Doctrine of Jesus Christ do despight to his Cross condemn his Example and being unwilling to regulate their lives according to his make it appear he is not their Master nor they his Disciples These wretches seek nothing but their Interests living in themselves they die to Jesus Christ and for the highest pitch of misfortune destroy others in losing themselves Their Evils become contagious they corrupt those that come neer them and fighting against the designes of the Son of God engage them in sin that he would deliver from thence They encroach upon the most eminent of his qualities and propounding themselves for examples to the Faithful strive to spread their impiety over the whole Church Let us defend our selves from their Infection and seeing we have no other Pattern then Jesus Christ let us try to regulate our life according to his Let us imitate his Actions because they are holy reverence his Maximes because true and that we may be the Copies of this glorious Original let us esteem those things he esteemed and despise those things he despised Let us be poor because he was born in a Stable and died upon a Cross let us not fear Hunger because he suffered it in the desarts not tremble at Nakedness because he had but one garment and that the Executioners robbed him of when they nailed him to the Cross Let us not be afraid of Persecutions because he underwent so many during his life nor let Death terrifie us because that which he chose was as cruel as ignominious if we himitate him upon Earth we shall be like him in heaven if we suffer with him we shall raign with him and if we share in his disgraces in Time we shall partake of his glory in Eternity The Eighth TREATISE Of the Happinesse of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That every man desires to be Happy and that he cannot be so but in God IF we may judge of the reasonableness of our desires by their constancy we must confess there is none more lawful then the passion we express for happiness because there is none more firm and durable All others change with time or humour we cure our selves of the vain desire of glory and are perswaded that vertue would be miserable had she no other recompence but reputation Age obstructs the desire of pleasure and when the body is spent with diseases or weakned with years we find little relish in those pleasures which solicit none but those who have too much ease or too much health Avarice it self is not always unsatiable and when he whom this vice masters finds his riches no longer serviceable to his designs he contemns them Curiosity and the passionate industry of knowledge grows flat with time the labour that accompanies it makes men repent of it Beati omnes vivere volumus nec quisquam est in hominum genere qui non huic sententiae antequam fit plane emissa consentiat Aug and there is scarce any man of parts but observes that the Earth is the mansion neither of Light nor Truth But the desire of Blessedness is immutable whatever change our condition is liable to this passion remains fixed in our souls nor can all the miseries that exercise our patience ever deface it Ask all people whose designs are more different then their faces we shall find they all conspire together in the search of felicity They may peradventure propound severall Ideas thereof but their desire is one and the same neither are there any wretches so miserable who have not a mind to be happy All conditions of the world agree in this point and their differences are so many paths whereby men resolve to arrive at the same end The Covetous seek felicity in treasures and as if nature had taught them that plenty attends this state they never pretend to enrich themselves but that thereby they may become happy Conquerours seek their felicity in victory and because nothing resists man in Beatitude their aim is in subduing their enemies to subject all things to their power The Learned are in love with science for no other end but because they are perswaded that felicity consists in the knowledge of the supream Verity and of all others by that light The Ambitious are passionate for honour because they have learnt that happiness is an Eternal Glory neither are they to be blamed because they are desirous of honour but for that they seek it where they neither can nor ought to find it The Lascivious doe not idolize beauty but because they have heard that this quality which charms them is inseparable in God from goodness and had not sin corrupted nature whatever is comely would infallibly be good Finally whatever men doe whatever designs they contrive whatever enterprises they execute they would fain meet with happiness If they engage in war Quaerunt in varietate Creaturarum quod amiserunt in unitate Creatoris Aug. they seek their happiness in victory if they agree with their enemies they fancy it in peace if they heap up riches they suppose it in abundance of wealth if they love women they are pleased with beauty and if they pretend to dignities they place their contentment in glory The truth is they are faulty aud miserable because they look for happiness where it is not and by a blindness which is the punishment of their sin would find that in the variety of the creatures which is no where to be found but in the unity of the Creator Thence it comes to pass that they spend themselves in desires form new projects and never content with what they possess heap Conquests upon Conquests if ambitious Treasures upon Treasures if covetous Novelty upon Novelty if Curious Their desires are not unjust because without bounds but because without prudence I condemn them not because they are insatiable but because they are blind and fix upon objects which entertain their Indigence and Consumption Every one blames Alexander the Great because he could not bound his Conquests that he passed from kingdome to kingdome that the Earth seem'd too scant for his ambition and what contented so many Kings could not satisfie him But for my own part I think Divine Providence had a mind to let us see in this Conquerour that there is nothing in the world that can satiate the desires of man that all the Scepters of the Universe have not charms enough to make him happy and that his heart larger then all Empires can be filled only with God Indeed inasmuch as God is his Creator he ought to be his felicity as he is the Principle of his Being he must be the object of
his Content and having given him life by his power must give him Beatitude by his Goodness It is a question in Divinity whether man being a reasonable creature can have any other end then his Creator and whether the Angels who are his superiours in Nature and in Grace can be the objects of his felicity But not to engage in the decision of a thing which depends absolutely upon the will of God I may safely answer with Saint Augustine In rebus à Deo factis tam magnum bonum est natura rationalis ut nullum fit bonum quo beata sit nisi Deus Aug. de Nat. bon cap. 7. That man in the state he is now in can have no other end but God He is too noble saith that great Doctor to find his felicity in a creature he is destined for the supream good hath inclinations towards it which cannot be blotted out He would be wretched had he not some hope of possessing it his desires would become his torment were he not assured there was a possibility of satisfying them and whatever should be offered him in exchange of the good they would deprive him of would minister nothing but want and vexation of spirit But if this were an injustice to man it would be an injury to God For he hath two qualities whereof he is equally jealous The first is that of Creator which he communicates to none He cals neither Men nor Angels to his aid when he creates any thing the distance of Entity from Non-Entity is so great that it cannot be surmounted but by an infinite power and the creature is too weak to be raised to so high a degree S. Augustine believes 't is to violate the respect due to God to imagine that the Angels can become Creators and God himself who makes use of the Sun to preserve his works would not make use of it to create them lest men should ascribe an honour to it which he reserves for himself Gen. 1. Indeed we observe in Scripture that the fruits and flowers the trees and plants which owe their preservation to the beauties of the Sun were created two days before this glorious Luminary that all nature might learn that if it were their Preserver it never was their Creator The second Quality which God by no means communicates is that of the last end He is so jealous that he will not have us stay at the creature 't is a fault in our Religion to be in love with them Our love that it may be innocent must aim directly at God and whatever action a Christian does he sins if he propounds himself any other end then his Principle All the sins of the world are derived from this disorder men become not Criminals but because they close with the creature and of means designed them by God to arrive unto him make their last end and their supream felicity The cause or occasion of this Errour comes from this that the perfections of God are shed abroad in his creatures For he delineates himself in them when they are produced and hath been pleased to make them his Pourtraitures or his Images The Sun is an effusion of his Light The Heaven which encloseth the Universe is an image of Immensity The Earth which is centred upon its own weight represents us his Constancy the fields laden with fruits and adorned with flowers are the marks of his beauty and all the perfections that are dispersed in the several works of his hands are the rivulets of this Ocean or the rayes of this Sun Thence it comes to pass that sinners preserving in the root of their inclinations an appetite for the supream good fasten upon every thing that represents it and preferring the Copies before the Original court the creature and keep at distance from the Creator But if their blindness make them wander their misery reclaims them and they learn by woful experience that God only can cure them of their maladies Mans desires arise either from his weakness or from his want he covets what he stands in need of nor hath he ever recourse to wishes but when the things that he hath a mind to are out of his power Both these appetites cannot be satisfied with the possession of the Creature If the beauty that sparkles upon a face please our eyes it cannot charm our ears if riches protect us from poverty they cannot secure us from grief if glory have a powet to draw an ambitious man out of infamy or contempt it cannot deliver him from obloquy or envy and if Crowns and Scepters exempt Kings from servitude they cannot guard them from death Thus in whatever condition men find themselves they are obliged to ascend above the creatures to seek for him who being the Fountain of all good is also the remedy against all evil and with David to beg of him their cure and deliverance De necessitatibus meis erue me Being the supream Power he can free them from all their infirmities being a Light without the least shadow he can dispel all darkness being the the Prime Verity Jam non novimus bonum nisi promereri Deum ad illa produci quae promisit nec fâ—icitas hujus saeculi facit nos Beatos nec adverfitas miseros Aug. in Psal 128. he can disingage them from Errour and Falshood being Fountain of Life he can draw them out of the bosome of death and to conclude all in one word being the supream Felicity he is able to deliver them from all their miseries When they hope for him they are couragious when they desire him they are reasonable when they possesse him they are happy The sight of his Divine Essence satisfies all their wants remedies all their evils and contents all their desires the belief they have by faith the expectation they conceive by hope begins their felicity here below It is true that as the supream Good cannot be fully known upon Earth neither can happiness be perfect here and being never entirely possest in the region of mortality there are always miseries to be undergone and languishings to be endured The Second DISCOURSE That the perfect Felicity of a Christian cannot be found in this world HE was not much mistaken who considering that the Earth stood between Heaven and Hel said it held something of both these extreams Indeed Pleasure is here mixt with Grief Light confounded with Darkness Plenty attended with Want and men are happy and miserable both together But certainly we must confess that since the Earth was cursed for the sin of man it partakes more of the qualities of Hel then of Heaven For besides that all things here are in a confusion that the seasons are irregular that the Elements bid us battail that the wild Beasts either persecute us or despise us it is certain that Felicity is not to be met with here below and that man is exceedingly more miserable then happy All the world confesseth that Beatitude
himself with the pleasures of the body renounceth the priviledges of the minde betrays his duty and his dignity despoils himself of the inclinations of Angels and puts on those of Beasts and without changing his shape changeth condition and nature But inasmuch as most men are led more by interest then reason and those that are the slaves of pleasure are more sensible of grief then shame and dishonour it will not be amisse in this Discourse to let them see that the pleasures after which they so eagerly run are very tragical and contrary to their intention are turn'd into punishments The Divine Justice which leaves no crime unpunished hath been pleased that diseases should be natural penances and that the Stone and the Gout should be the recompence of our debauches Seeing sensuall pleasures are commonly criminal they are for the most part irregular having shaken off the yoak of reason they cast men into excesse and perswade them that 't is a kind of injustice and base servility to prescribe Laws to their desires abused by these false sophisms they pursue their inclinations without keeping any measure in their diversions they are drown'd in delights are lost in voluptuousnesse and draining their strength and their substance fall many times into diseases and poverty Thus by a just judgement of Heaven their disorders become their torments Ipsos voluptas habet non ipsi voluptatem cujus aut inopiâ torquentur aut copiâ strangulantur miseri si deseruntur ab illa miseriores si obruantur Sence and they finde sorrow where they expected felicity If to defend themselves from this misfortune they observe some rules in their pleasures they feel another punishment For these pleasures being short their soul is always languishing they have scarce done with one but they long for another and living always in expectation or inquiry can neither be secure from restlesnesse nor discontent Those who to remedy this evil endeavour to associate pleasures undertake an impossibility For whether nature intend to punish us because we are culpable or whether Grace be not willing to expose us to danger because we are weak Pleasures hold not so good intelligence as Paines These set upon us in a full body and joyn companies to render us wretched the Stone the Gout the Colick and the Palsie conspire together to exercise our patience whatever opposition these diseases may have they agree to ruine us and we many times behold distressed spectacles who have no part of their body free from torment But Pleasures are divided Self-love with all its subtilties cannot reconcile them the Birth of one is the Death of another and experience teacheth us that we have more strength to endure Griefs then to support pleasures when these slow in upon us with full tide they stifle us when they succeed they make us droop and languish and when they recompense their shortness by their excess they reduce us to complaints and groanings From all this Discourse we may conclude that bodily pleasure is an enemy to our happiness that it removes us from God engageth us in the Creature obligeth us to partake of their imperfections and is followed with misery and indigence Therefore following the rule of Contraries we shall not have much ado to perswade our selves that Felicity may be found in Grief and that the Christian is never more happie then when he is afflicted for Christs sake For the understanding of this Paradox we must remember that all earthly goods are onely mediums whereby to gain those of heaven that which leads us the safest way thither is the best neither is the Christian ever neerer his happiness then when he is in the way that soonest leads him thither Now there is no man so little skilled in our mysteries but knows that Grief is the surest and the speediest way to arrive at heaven Cohaeredes autē Christi si tamen compatimur ut simul conglorificemur Rom. 8. Si sustinemus conregnabimus 2 Tim. 2. 't is the path Christ hath marked out with his Blood that whereby he entered into his Greatness that which all the Martyrs have gone and the Scripture teacheth us in a hundred places that Glory is dispensed according to the measure of Sorrow that they that have suffered most upon earth shall be the happiest in heaven One of the most remarkable differences between Christian Grace and Original Righteousness is that this guided man to his happiness thorow a way strewed with roses and lilies the means were proportioned to the end and seemed as an Antepast or Earnest thereof He arrived to Glory by Honour to Pleasure by Delights to Plenty by Riches He had reigned over Beasts before he raigned with Angels he had passed from one Paradise to another and had been happie upon Earth before he had been so in Heaven But now Providence hath changed its conduct over men and whether it have a minde to chastis their Rebellion or to wean them from the World or to make them conformable to their Head it leads them by difficult ways thorow paths rugged with thorns and environed with precipices The means it indulgeth to bring them to their end are contrary to it and to make its proceeding admired they are guided to Life thorow the valley of Death to Liberty thorow Servitude to Light thorow Darkness to Pleasure thorow Pain All the Morality of a Christian propoundeth nothing but Crosses its Vertues are austere its Counsels difficult its Commands harsh and had it not found the means to sweeten all these anxities by Charity it would reduce the Faithful to despair For it obligeth them to hate Themselves and to love their Enemies orders them to forsake their Riches and their Parents Fides non habet meritum ubi humana ratio praebet experimentum Greg. to believe without knowledge obey without discerning love without interest pardon without resentment live without pleasure and die without regret All the Maximes of their Master confirm this Truth for he prefers the Poor before the Rich declares the Afflicted happie canonizeth them that suffer and promiseth his Kingdom to them that weep he practised what he taught his whole life was spent in labours or affronts he was born in a Stable died upon a Cross lost his Honour with his Life nor did his Father glorifie him till his Enemies had loaded him with reproaches and sorrows All his Apostles followed his steps they preached his doctrine with the hazard of their lives signed it with their blood sealed it with their death rendered up their souls among torments nor is there any torture the cruelty of men hath not invented to weary their Patience and trample upon their Courage All his faithful disciples seek for Grief in the Rest of the Church they finde Persecution in Penance are their own executioners and their whole life is an imitation of Martyrdom they provide for the Prison by Solitude dispose themselves for Banishment by removing from their Country prevent
if they intend not to use it according to the designes of their Soveraign and they are unworthy to rule if they have not courage enough to stifle the Evil in the birth or stop it in the progress They are deceived saith S. Augustine if they perswade themselves they are raised to the Throne onely to trample upon the heads of their Subjects they know not their obligations if labouring to subdue men they take no care to subdue vices nor are they victorious but in name if having gained some advange over their Enemies they suffer themselves to be routed by their passions or devoured by their sins I forbear to speak of the dangers that threaten their salvation as well as their power nor doe I intend to make a Catalogue of the faults they may possibly commit in Government though it be an infallible proof that Blessedness is not to be found in Royalty I am content with the holy Scripture to say That Kings cannot sin secretly Their Devotion is a scandall to the whole State They authorize the Evil they commit infect their subjects by their examples and as they are guilty of the sins they hinder not so doe they condemn themselves when they commit those they punish and by their actions give their Edicts the lye Thence it comes to passe that Christians finding more security in obedience then in command place their felicity in it and never think themselves happier then when they follow the motions of their Soveraign so that they have this advantage in humbling themselves they are exalted and submitting to God bring all the Creatures under their subjection For Man by submission enters into the Soveraignty of his Creator Magna utilitas est hominis jubenti Deo servire jubendo enim Deus utile facit quicquid jubere voluerit Aug. neither is any thing impossible to him when he obeys him that is Almighty Thus we see S. Peter walking upon the water at the command of the Son of God how this Element became solid under his feet respects his obedience or reverenceth Jesus Christ in his person Mans Body could never pretend to the glorious qualities of the soul were it not subject to her will but soaring above it self in obedience to her commands furnishing words to express her minde reports the meaning of others and offers some kinde of violence to it self to be subservient to her designes shee acknowledgeth the fidelity of its services in Glory and associating it to her own happiness communicates to it agility light and subtlety Thus may we say that the man who obeys God becomes Divine passeth into the condition of him that commands and despoyling himself of his miseries puts on the majesty of his Soveraign Transformation which is accounted a principall effect of Love is a priviledge also of obedience we are changed into God by submission as well as by Charity and God takes as much pleasure to exalt his servants as his Friends He gives Empires to his people when they obey his word and obligeth himself to raise them higher then all the nations of the world when they keep his commandments Si audieris voces Domini tui faciet te excelsiorem omnibus Gentibus If man become God by submission he degenerates into a beast by disobedience As long as Originall righteousness subjected the spirit to God it subjected the Body to the spirit Man felt no revolts in his person and though composed of flesh and blood had none but reasonable inclinations But assoon as he lost the respect was due to God his Body rebelled against his Soul he beheld irregular motions which made him extreamly ashamed and wondred that being still a man he felt the disorders of a Beast Finally Obedience is more acceptable to God then Sacrifice and more honourable to man then the highest Triumph Melior est Obedientia quà m Sacrificium Though God have reserved this Homage for himself and there is none but he alone to whom Victims are to be offered yet he prefers the merit of Obedience before the honour of Sacrifice and accounts himself more hallowed by him that stoops to his Word then that offers him Holocausts Nor are we to wonder at it saith S. Gregory because in our sacrifices we offer nothing but Bulls or other beasts but by our Obedience we immolate our wils and affections For this very reason is it more honourable then Triumphs In armis militum virtus locorum opportunitas auxilia sociorum multum juvant maximam verò partem quasi jure fortuna sibi vendicat qu ic quid est prospere gestum id poene omne ducit suum Cic. pro M. Mar. because it procures us more signall victories then those we gain over our Enemies The world sees nothing more illustrious then a victorious Prince The Sun once stood still as a witness of the conquest of Joshua and this glorious Luminary which beholds all things but with a transient aspect suspended his motion to have the pleasure of considering the advantages the Jews had over the Infidels In the mean time there is no action wherein humane Prudence hath less part Fortune presides over Battles accidents occasion good successes and many times the Dust and the Sun rob the most Courageous of their victory But admit all these misfortunes which cannot be avoided have no wayes assisted the Conquerour he must necessarily confess that his Prudence is beholding to the valour of his Souldiers and in vain hath he gallantly commanded if he be not honestly obey'd But he that masters his Passions shares his glory with none but the Grace of Jelus Christ Having subdued himself in the conflict Hoc est ex victoriâ suâ triumphare testarique nihil se quod dignum esset victore apud victos invenisse Senec. all the honour is his own and earth being unable to recompence him he promiseth himself a Triumph in Heaven The Eighth DISCOURSE What is the Happinesse of a Christian in Heaven and wherein it consists BLessedness hath so much relation to God that whatever is said of the One may be affirmed of the other God is infinite his Greatness hath no bounds he includes his whole State within himself nor does his power produce any thing which is not contained in his Essence Blessedness is infinite and the pleasure it promiseth is bounded neither with extent nor duration God comprehends all imaginable perfections nothing is dispersed in the creature which is not recollected in the Creator and he possesseth aswel the brightness of the Stars as the beauty of the meadowes and the fruitfulness of the fields Beatitude is an Epitome of all pleasures nothing is wanting to him that enjoys all things and according to the opinion of Philosophers it is a coacervation of all solid and true goods But inasmuch as God is so great that he cannot be conceived that his divine perfections raise him above our thoughts nor can we praise him but by wonder and silence Blessedness is
so excellent that we cannot so much as form an Idea of it we want words wherewith to expresse its excellencies and the Scripture tels us That eye hath not seen Eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the happiness God hath laid up for them that love him This last condition would impose silence upon us if the liberty we take to speak of God though incomprehensible did not permit me to write of Blessedness though unconceivable But as we cannot fail when treating of the perfections of God we follow the light of Faith I believe neither shall I wander in this vast Ocean of Glory Qui ducem sequitur fidem à veritate nunquam potest aberrare Aug. if I sayl by that Star and however shipwrack is not to be feared upon a sea where all those that are Drowned may boast themselves Happy Scripture which is our guide in the mysteries of Religion teacheth us that Beatitude consists in the love and knowledg of God For that which hath deliver'd these words Haec est vita aeterna ut cognascant te solū verum Deum hath told us also Qui manet in Charitate in Deo manet Deus in eo Knowledg would cool without Love and Love would be blinde without Knowledg All the faculties of our soul must finde their satisfaction in felicity The Understanding must see the Truth it believes the Will possesse the good it loves the Memory be filled with these two Things it hath so carefully recorded Ita sunt potentiae in essentia anima inter se conjunctae ut quicquid unam laedit alias laedat necesse est Mars Fisc If these Three Faculties be not content something will be wanting to the Christians felicity and as they are united in one and the same soul the pain of the one would be the Torment of the other When the Scripture seems sometimes to give the advantage to Knowledg over Love or to Love over Knowledg it is only more strongly to express the excellency of both and to make us comprehend that as he that clearly sees God is happy he that perfectly loves him cannot be miserable Thence it comes to pass that the Fathers of the Church are divided upon this subject whereof some have taken the part of Knowledg others that of Love Del visio sumnum bonum Aug. S. Augustin though the Panegyrist of Love hath notwithstanding so fully expressed himself in many passages of his Writings in behalf of Knowledg that he seems to have forgotten what he delivered elswhere concerning Love For he will have the End of all our Actions and the repose of all our Desires to be found in beholding the supreme Good That as he is miserable who knowing all things knows not the Creator that made them he likewise is happy that knows the Creator nor is there any addition to his happiness in that he knows the creatures together with him Finally he saith in another place that the clear vision of God is the whole recompence of a Christian and that nothing can be wanting to his happiness when he fully contemplates the Divine Essence But there are a thousand places beside where this Great Doctor placeth Felicity in Love and represents the Blessed to us as so many Lovers who finde their contentment in the possession of the Supream Good Thus saith he true Happiness consists in that joy which ariseth from Truth known and Goodness beloved Beata quippe vita est gaudium de veritate hoc enim est gaudium de te qui veritas es Aug. He assures us that the Blessed have no other employment then to love God and that all the vertues are useless in Heaven except Charity He teacheth us that enjoyment which is the Rest of Love is also its Recompence that as desires disquiet Lovers when they possess not what they long for the Divine Essence would be a torment to the Blessed if from their understanding it past not to their will and if having illuminated them with its light it warmed them nor with its flames Knowledge then and Love make up the felicity of the Saints in glory but both of them are very different from that which is found among the Faithful Our knowledge is always mixt with darkness faith though certain is notwithstanding obscure and though an effusion of the light of glory hath not its extent nor evidence We see God but in Enigma's upon Earth the species that discover him conceal him These glasses are too narrow to give us a full representation of his Greatness and our spirits are too weak to bear the lustre of his Majesty But in Heaven he fortifies the Blessed by the Light of Glory gives them a capacity to look upon him and piercing their understanding is himself both the species and the image There are three things in the world which oppose our Happiness and suffer us not to know God perfectly The first is his Greatness which dazies or astonisheth us whence it comes to pass that the Scriptures assign him for his abode either light that hides him from us or darkness that robs us of him The second is his absence for though he be every where yet is he at a distance when he will and as his presence is not fixed to the Earth which he fils so is it true to affirm of him that he is no where as to say he is in all places Nullibi est qui ubique est The third is the weakness of mans soul which cannot suffer the presence of his God finds the condign punishment of his pride where he sought for the satisfaction of his curiosity But all these impediments are taken away from the Blessed The Majesty of God is no longer formidable his Greatness which occasions our astonishment gives being to their felicity and love having banished from their hearts all fear they treat with their Soveraign as with their Beloved The absence of the Supream Good causeth not their doleance They are possessed by him whom they possess his Divine Essence penetrates their very souls and they are so full of him that those who see them are obliged to reverence them as Gods Finally the weakness of their faculties hinders not their contentment the same fire that burns them inanimates them the same light that clarifies strengthens them and the same God that searcheth all their inward parts preserves them If their Knowledge have this advantage their Love hath yet more and their Charity is much perfecter then ours Whatever pains we take to love God upon Earth our Love is never without some notable defects which enfeeble it It is blind because Faith that enlightens it is a candle whose lamp is always surrounded with a cloud or smoak It is faint and drooping because we possess not the Supream Good which we passionately affect and being separated from him we are as well his Martyrs as his Lovers It is divided because self-love is not
puts us in the same Liberty and reducing us to things absolutely necessary rids us of superfluities This is it that confines the Anchorites to their pulse that gives them sackcloath for a garment a Den for a Lodging a Mat for their Bed This is it that enricheth them by making them poor makes them finde Liberty in servitude and equalling their condition with that of Angels frees them from the need we have of the Creatures If the Blessed have no communication but with God if they have quitted Earth to live in Paradise if the Love and Magnificats they bestow upon God be their whole employment and if in this one object they finde all their Happiness and their Diversion Pennance and Solitude procure the same priviledges to the faithfull Their heart is no longer in the Earth they mount up to heaven by their desires converse more with Angels then with Men and already enjoying the priviledges of the Resurrection lead a new life in their Banishment and a happy life in their wilderness Let us imitate their holy Examples fit our selves for Glory by Austerity and subjecting the Body to the soul and the soul to God set us to shake hands with the world that our Conversation may be with Jesus Christ The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the Miracles which are found in the Beatitude of a Christian AS Nature and Grace have their extraordinary proceedings so have they their Miracles Haec utique Deus potestatis suae proponit signa suis in solatium extraneis in testimonium Tertul. and in Both of them we behold changes which require the endevours of an absolute omnipotence When the Sun stands still in the midst of his course when the Earth cleaves from her foundations and opens her bowels to devour her Children when the sea passeth his bounds and makes inquisition after Delinquents beyond his Banks There is no body but looks upon these irregularities as Prodigies and who conceives not that the author of Nature disorders her to punish us Though Grace be so powerfull and its victorious sweetness so often triumphs over the libertie of sinners it many times produceth occurrences which pass for Miracles When it converted the Doctor of the world disarmed his heart and his hands and changing his will in a moment of a Persecutor made him an Apostle it seems so strange a proceeding may well be ranked in the number of prodigies when it touched that Comedian who laughed at the Ceremonies of our Religion enlightened his spirit upon the Theatre made use of the water he prophaned to make a Sacrament and by a wonderfull conduct made him finde his salvation in his very sin we shall not offend its power if we call this effect a Miracle If Nature and Grace have their Prodigies Glory which is their perfection may boast of those it hath and as its order is the highest so is it most miraculous Therefore did the Great S. Bernard confess That there were Three Unions that ravished him The first That of Virginity with Pregnancy in the person of Mary The second That of the Humanity with the Divinity in the person of the Word and the Third That of Glory with the spirit of Man in the person of the Blessed For he could not comprehend how it came to pass that the Creature was not dazled with the brightness of the Creator that a drop of water should not be lost in an Ocean and that an Atome should be preserved in the Abysses of a Divine Essence But certainly he that shall well consider the state of Glory will finde it a perpetuall Miracle and that the Circumstances that accompany it are so many Prodigies whereof the first is that God communicates himself entirely to every one of the Blessed The Goods of the earth are such scantlings that they cannot be divided without being diminished we ravish that from our neighbour which we possess our selves we cannot grow rich but must inaccommodate him and whatever care we take not to deal unjustly we finde by experience that our Plenty is an occasion of Misery and Indigence to others Monarchs cannot enlarge the borders of their State but must encroach upon those of their Neighbours they cannot widen their own Kingdom but must make a breach in that of their Allies and all worldly things are so small that being shared occasions the division and poverty of Families But inasmuch as the Good which the Blessed are in possession of is infinite it is communicated to all without being divided The Felicity of one is no hinderance to that of another and as Vertue though common is nevertheless chaste the Divine Essence though wholly shed abroad into a man ceaseth not to be entirely infused into an Angel It takes not from the Cherubims what it indulgeth the Seraphims and communicating it self indivisibly to all its Subjects occasions neither Jealousie nor Envie Great Goods have this advantage that they never suffer by division Magna vera bona non sic dividuntur ut exiguum in singulos cadat ad unumquemque totū perveniat Sen. Ep. 73. They make some rich without making others poor and as they are conferred in full weight and measure every one is content and none miserable Covetousness which hath divided Sea and Land hath not yet divided Time That which measures the life of Kings measures that of their Subjects every one possesseth it in common and though we make divers uses of it it runs along equally to all people Ambition which hath cantonized Honour hath not yet found out the Secret of parting the Light this daughter of the Sun never thinks she sullies her purity by rendering it common she equally shines upon all Nations and did not the Earth interpose between the effusion of her brightness she would banish Darkness from the face of the Universe The Divine Essence whereof the Light is but a shadow is shed abroad into the soul of the Blessed without being divided is not parted by being communicated All Angels and all Men fully possess it and if it make some difference in their happiness 't is without want or jealousie The Second miracle of Glory is that one and the same Good produceth all kinde of content and satisfies all sorts of desires Seeing the Creatures are but weak rays issuing from God as from their Sun there is none of them that possesseth all perfections Nullum est bonum praeter summum quo vere possimus esse boni aut beati Aug. They are bounded in their Qualities as well as in their Essences They cannot relieve us in all our necessities and had not sin made them rebel against us there was not one of them could remedy our evils Light enlightens us but cannot warm us without its heat Meat nourisheth but clothes us not Garments cover us but cannot feed us Gold enricheth but cannot defend us Iron defends but does not enrich us One Good produceth but one single commodity that which serves for one use does not for
another and the remedy which cures a Disease cannot give consolation to a Discontent But the Blessed have this advantage that they finde in God whatever is necessary for them having all Perfections he fully contents their desires and one sole Good infused into their souls satisfies all their wants He that enlightens them warms them he that feeds them clothes them he that lodges them protects them he that imparts his perfections in several portions to the Saints here belowe communicates them all together to the Blessed and to express my self in the words of Saint Paul and S. Augustine his disciple God is All to All in Glory nor can we form any wishes whereof we finde not the accomplishment in his possession The Third Miracle is that the desire is not restless in heaven Those that are well acquainted with our Passions confess there is none more cruel then Desire For though it seem to supply us in our need we may say that the Remedy is more troublesome then the Disease and that it were better to retrench the most part of worldly things then to be troubled with longing for them This Passion puts us not upon the search of Good but by means of Grief 't is a spur which wounds us to make us go a needle that goads us to make us run a transportation of the soul which renders us miserable to render us happie Thence it comes to pass that Divines agreeing with Philosophers profess that Desires are the chiefest torment of the Damned that these delinquents are therefore wretched because their desires are hopeless Est in eis desiderium nec poenam generat quia desiderium omne transit in gaudium dum praesto est quicquid optatur qui quid deside ratur abunâ—at Aug. aut Greg. Mag. and this viper which they conceive in their bowels gnaws and devours them eternally But by an unconceiveable wonder the Blessed desire and are not at all disquieted they enjoy what they long for see what they hope and as the Goodness of God occasions their wishes his Presence begets their felicity The Good they desire is not absent the Good they possess is not wearisome and mixing Desire with Fruition they are everlastingly happie They long saith S. Augustine and their longing causeth no doleance because as soon as formed 't is turned into joy and the presence of the God they covet banisheth pain and causeth content This Miracle produceth a Fourth which makes the Blessed finde a possession which never disgusts them Duo sunt tortores cruci atum alternantes dolor timor si bene es times si male es doles Aug. Men cannot avoid being upon Earth and as Grief and Fear are two Passions which succeed to give them no respite Fruition and Desire are two states which alternately torment them Desire is always attended with Restlesness every man that makes Vows and puts up Requests declares publikely his want and misery and though raised to never so high a pitch of Fortune tells all the world that he suffers because he desires Fruition which seems the period and acquiescence of Desires and which by a necessary consequence ought to banish Grief out of the soul begets a sapless cloying of the appetite and condemns him to a punishment whereof he hath no right to complain because himself seems to have courted it In the mean time this misfortune is so common that there is no body but experienceth it and the goods of the Earth are so mean and beggerly that we cannot have them but we must despise them Their absence troubles us and their presence cloys us we make some account of them at a distance but when we approach them and taste the fruition of them we discover their imperfections are ashamed or disrelish them so that in whatever condition Fortune place us we cannot chuse but be miserable But the happiness which the Blessed enjoy is so great that as their Desires occasion not their Impatience neither doth their felicity nauseate into a distaste They daily discover new beauties in this infinite object they finde more sweetnesses then were promised them and confess that their happiness exceeds their hopes The Faithful have less love because less light present things distract them their senses which are at agreement with what they see seduce them and because they can form no noble Ideas of the Supream Good the desires they have towards it are faint and languishing But inasmuch as the Blessed know all the advantages it is attended with their love encreaseth with their light their pleasure is augmented by fruition and far distant from conceiving any disrelish their desire continues in the height of possession and they wish without pain what they possesse with assurance But the last miracle of glory and which is no whit inferiour to the rest is that the difference of conditions causeth no jealousie The variety of the world is one of its rarest ornaments Tota Naturae pulchritudo aut certe praecipuae in sua varietate sita est nec abest à varietate utilitas Mars Fisc The slowers which checker a walk imbellish it The Stars which make a hundred severall Figures in the Firmament set a lustre upon its beauty neither doth any thing make a Countrey more pleasant then the diversity of the parts that compose it Our eyes are ravished to behold rivulets creeping along the Meadows Fields stretching themselves out of sight Valleys which sink as low as the Center of the Earth and Mountains which strike Heaven with their tops The Riches and Beauty of a State depends upon its diversity if all Subjects were of the same condition there would be neither diversion for strangers nor accommodation for the Naturals The Ornament and Advantage of the Body Politick appears in this agreeable mixture of Poor and Rich Artists and Husbandmen Soldiers and Merchants Magistrates and Priests But it falls out by an inevitable misfortune that this difference of conditions which begets its beauty breeeds jealousie among the subjects For as their goods are not common because their conditions are different one is jealous of what the other possesseth The Grandees are proud and despise their inferiours the mean men are envious and murmure at the Optimacy Cum erit Deus omnia in omnibus qui minus habebunt non abhorrebunt ubi enim nulla est invidentia concors est differentia Aug. Every condition carries its own torment along with it Greatness is tortured with Pride and Misery afflicted with Envy But in Heaven the difference of conditions produceth their beauty and gives no occasion of jealousie All the Saints hold different stations their merit is the measure of their glory their crowns are proportionable to their labours and there is more variety in the Blessed then among the Stars In the mean time Peace bears rule in the diversity of their conditions Charity which unites them renders their contentment common though the Justice that rewards them makes their condition different Every one is glad of anothers good fortune and without interessing any one they finde that the felicity of particulars contributes to that of the Publick But it were to injure their dignity Non Nobis sufficit quia Christianum nomen accepimus si opera Christi non fecerimus Illi prodest quod Christianus dicitur qui castitatem diligit ebrietatem fugit superbiam odit invidiam respuit Aug. should we strive to express it silence and astonishment are the onely commendations we can give them because the Holy Scripture teacheth us that the Happiness God prepareth for those that love him is unconceivable Let us content our selves to wish what we cannot comprehend and finishing this Work with the Beatitude of Christians let us strive to merit it by the precedent advantages Let us profit by the Birth we received in Baptism follow the motions of the Holy Spirit that inanimates us imitate the examples of that ever to be adored Chief that governs us obey his Grace that masters us make use of those Vertues that assist us Entertain our life by the nourishment and our piety by the Sacrifice of the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ Doe nothing that may dishonour our Qualities and endeavour to make our selves worthy of that Glory which is promised to all true Christians in the other world FINIS