account they do ill in believing that they being sinners can by Baptisme wash away the sins of others and do injury to the Son of God by going themselves or by carrying their children to their Ministers to have their sins remitted by this Sacrament since it belongs to the Son of God to wash away sins by Baptisme Heaven declar'd this Verity to S. Iohn Baptist Vpon whom thou shalt see the holy Ghost Iohn 1. 33. descending He it is that Baptizes But who is so weak that does not answer easily that they baptize on the part of God in his Name and by his Command that they go not to their Ministers as men but as God's Deputies and Vicegerents to be baptized I say the same of Absolution we absolve from sins not of our own selves but in the Name of God as his Deputies and Ministers by the Power Authority and Commission which He hath given us 3. Behold the Commissions and Patents of it Whatsoever You shal Matt. 18. unbind on earth shal he unbound in heaven and in Saint Iohn Whose sins you shal forgive they are forgiven them And whose You Iohn 20. shal retain they are retained These words of our Saviour are as clear as the Sun but let us suppose they have need of interpretation To whom shal we recurr for the interpretation of them To one that came a 100 or sixscore years ago or to the ancient Fathers of the first ages when according to Reformers themselves the Church was in her purity S. Chrysostom speaks great things vpon this subject Lib. 3 de Sacerdotio and seems to have foreseen all the evasions of Reformers First he says that the Son of God communicated to his Apostles the same power that He received from his Father and this great Saint speaks so after our Savior himself For in the same time He sayd to his Disciples whose sins you shal remit they are remitted He sayd to them I send you as my Father sent me But our Savior had not only power to declare that sins are remitted by faith but He had power also to remit them In the second place S. Chrysostom says If a king should give to a favourit power to imprison and to deliver prisoners what favour would this be Yet this would be nothing if compar'd with the power of Priests there is as much difference 'twixt these powers as between heaven and earth Thirdly he says that the Priests of the old Law had not power but to judg the leaprosie of the body and to judg of it only not to cure it ours have power to judg of sin which is the leaprosie of the soul and also to cure her of it Aug. hom 49. ex 50. S. Amb. Lib. 1. de Penit. c. 7. S. Austin says let no body flatter himself saying I confess in my heart I confess to God this is not enough and on this account in vain the Son of God would have sayd to Priests All that you shal unbind on earth And S. Ambrose speaking to the Novatians who sayd that men have not power to remit sins says Why baptize you if men have not power to remit sins for Baptisme is the remission of sins and what if Priests attribute to themselves the power that is given them either by Baptisme or by Penance Let us leave Dissenters and consider the wonders of this Power that we may with those in the Gospell glorify God who gave such power to men I confess that there are not many Misteryes in our Matt. 9. Religion which I more admire than this and you will admire it with me if you consider with me the circumstances of it 4. The first is that this Power is Divine it pertains not properly but to him who receiv'd an injury to remit and pardon it It belongs then to God to remit offences against him Wherfore the Pharisees hearing our Savior say to the Paralitick thy sins are forgiven thee and not believing that He was God thought that He blasphem'd What would they have then thought what wouâ—d they have sayd if they had known as we know that JESUS CHRIST would give to men and to sinful men this Power 5. A Power in the second place so soveraign that 't is definitive without appeal The sentences which Priests pronounce and all that they justly ordain on earth is ratifyd infallibly in heaven When you have confest with necessary dispositions if the Priest say to you I absolve thee c. fear not that God will condemn you He cannot fail in his promise and He promised to absolve you if the Priest absolve you legitimatly 6. And this is don with so much Authority and Majesty that this Power is perfectly Royal for the Priest absolves not praying If he should say over you the misereatur only or should pray God to absolve you you would not be absolv'd JESUS-CHRIST wills that he say I absolve thee and heaven and earth shal melt rather than you shal fail of absolution how ever great and enormous your sins may be 7. This is a fourth Circumstance of this Power that it is most ample absolute and general without exception restriction or modification For there is no sin which the Church cannot remit since the Son of God hath sayd absolutely and without reserve Whose sins you shal remit shal be remitted 8. But that which is to be admired most in this Power is the facility and convenience we have to vse it 'T is true that having committed a sin it is not so easy as some think to have a true repentance of it We must ask it instantly of God and indeavour to obtain it of him by good works But when we have obtain'd it what is more easy than to find a Priest who may absolve us Have we not great cause to be astonished and to cry out my God! How have you been so liberal as to give this Power to your Church and to so many Priests If you had given it but to the Pope or to Patriarks or to Bishops or for one only time of the life of each one the excess of liberality would not have seem'd so great but for always for so many times and to so many Priests What excess of love of grace and mercy ô how will a soul that considers well thiâ— Benefit melt with dilection how will she burn with the love of such a Benefactor How often will she kiss those sacred wounds How often will she bless that adorable Blood which purchased her so great a good How often will she say my soul bless thou our Lord. On the contrary What regretts shal we have in hell if we are damn'd for having neglected contemn'd or prophan'd so great a Benefit The devout Rupertus was wont to say he had no pity on Christians that were damn'd and when one sayd to him why have you not if a dog should be so afflicted we should be moved to compassion I have none sayd he for 't is
he not who is Wisdom 3. 5. worthy of God Invenit illos dignos se Blessed a thousand times his holy and vertuous life which disposes him to such a glory blessed his happy death which will be to him as a door to enter into an immortall life Blessed his understanding which shal see one day openly and face to face the divine Essence his Will that will love God and enjoy him for all Eternity Blessed a thousand times his head upon which the holy Trinity will put a Crown of Glory in the presence of the Vnivers Blessed and happie his hands which shal carry always palmes as the ensignes of his Victories Blessed his feet and his steps since he shal walk upon the celestial Glob in the company of Angells Blessed and happy a thousand times all the members of his body and the powers of his soul which shal be filled and satiated with all sorts of delights joys glory happiness and with eternall Beatitude What I say of this elect Soule I say to every one that shal do violence to himself to rise out of the state of sin to overcom his passions to keep the commandements and to live according to the maxims of the Gospell Violenti rapiunt illud the Matthew 11. 12. Violent beare heaven away they that do violence to themselves to their vices and their passions obtain Heaven God grant us the grace to whom be honour glory praise and benediction for ever Amen DISCOURS XV. OF THE TWELFTH ARTICLE Life Everlasting Amen IN this last Article is declar'd to us the End for which we were created for which we were made Christians and to which all Laws Sacraments Vertues and other things are directed we ought then to believe firmly and to ruminate often that after the Resurrection there shal be in the Vnivers two conditions the one most happy the other most miserable and that neither of them shal ever end that every one of us shal be either of the one or of the other of the right hand or of the left of the number of the good or of the bad of them that go to heaven or of those that go to hell And that 't is now the time to look to our affairs fitting our selves to be of the happy side for after this there shal be no more time for us This doubtless we shal do if we consider and ponder well What is Eternal Life and how great are the goods of it 2. S. John in the Apocalyps speaking of sinners says their Apoc. 28. 8. part shal be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death The second or everlasting death then is when the soul and the body are depriv'd of their Beatitude and confind to the fire of hell And on the contrary eternal life is when they are freed from those and all other evills and do enjoy the eternal Goods of heaven 3. These are so great that the Apostle who was rapt up into heaven would not describe the Greatness of them he speaks not of them but with astonishment neither eye hath seen says he nor eare hath heard nor hath the heart of man conceiv'd what God â—ath prepar'd for them that love him Nevertheless for to attain to some knowledg or rather to some slender conjecture of their greatness fourt hings shal be considered 4. First the liberality of God towards all men in this life cast the eyes of your consideration with S Austin upon the extent of the Vnivers see what stately buildings there are what chambers richly furnished what beauteous gardens what pleasant medows what odoriferous and coloured Flowers what sorts of savory fruits what delicious meats what delicate wines what sweet odours what melodious voices what sumptuous garments what dogs for chase what birds of prey for recreation It is God that gives all these things to men But to what men And who are they that more usually enioy them Atheists Infidells and others that forget him and incessantly offend him Now if He do so much good to his enemies what will he reserve for his friends If He be so liberal to give how much more to recompence if He be so charitable to those that offend him how much more to those who love him if He be so magnificent to those He owes but punishments how much more to those to whome He hath made so many promises Run through in your mind all that you have ever seen heard or imagin'd all that is great rich magnificent precious pleasant and desirable all that is nothing if compar'd with that which God hath prepar'd for you if you love him for all that may be seen recounted or desired and it is impossible to see decipher or desire the great goods which God hath promiss'd and prepar'd for those that love him 5. To have a second conjecture of them you need not but weigh and consider the iourneys and toyles of Apostles the torments of Martyrs the watchings and austerities of confessors the temptations combats and Victories of Virgins the alms and charities of Widdows the heroical vertues of other Saints and that after so many toyles so many sufferances penances mortifications good works services merits the Apostle says that Rom. 8. 18. the very sufferances and afflictions themselves of this life are little in comparison with the glory of heaven And again the tribulation which at present is momentary and light works above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us note above measure exceedingly 2. Ior. 4. 17. 6. Nevertheless a third consideration will make this weight of glory to surpass yet much more all value and esteem of it For Heaven is not only the Salary of the Saints but also the recompence of the merits of JESUS Consider what He is in his divine Person what He is with God his Father the ardent love He had for him the Zeal which He had for his Glory the great services He did him what He suffered for his honour what his pretious Blood is worth the Glory of Heaven is the Salary of all that given by a King most liberal in his gifts and most magnificent in his recompences 7. Hell also though very low may serve us for a footstool and a step to mount up to Heaven by contemplation and to make a guesse at the felicities of it What is hell 't is an abyss a Collection a Rendevow of the most excessive sorrows bitternesses and afflictions imaginable What is it to be damn'd 'T is to be eternally in a prison most deep most obscure and most incommodious to be eternally in captivity under a Tyrant most insolent most cruell and most barbarous not to have one mite of bread in an eternal and most ravenous hunger not a drop of water in a most burning thirst not a ray of light in the greatest darkness not a moment of rest in an unsuportable and eternal weariness to be eternally afflicted with all the miseries a humane body is
is good and deserves to be loved for God is so good great holy powerfull and worthy to be loved that if He did desire it we should sacrifice our selves for his service though there were neither heaven for those that love him nor hell for those that love him not 11. We should do as the blessed Spirits do it is IESUS that gives the Counsel putting these words into our mouths Your will be don in earth as it is in heaven that is as the Angells do it they do the will of God and obey his Orders with a free pure and disinteressed love all that they pretend is to obey God to do his will all the recompence that they passionately desire is to receive new Orders to be employd again in his service purely for the love of him 12 This is not sayd that a faithfull soul may not hope and keep the commandements for reward or retribution as the Prophet says he did But that it be not the principal yet less the only aime of our love for as S. Bernard says perfect love of God intends no recompence but merits much The loving soul receives from the hands of God ineffable and incomprehensible goods but though she should not though there should be no Paradise nor reward she would not omit to love God serve him and to be pleasing to him and if she practises vertue for reward the reward which she desires is the increase of her love if she is glad to merit to be higher in heaven this is not to have there more of honor and glory but it is to have more of love if I merit much says she I shal see God more clearly and perfectly in heaven I shal glorify him more excellently I shal praise him more advantagiously I shal be united to him more strictly and intimatly I shal love him more ardently and so love is the true salary of love 13. In fine your love must not be idle and paralitick but active to render service to God and to do good works for his glory Charity works great things where it is and where it works not there it is not says S. Gregory S. Iohn 14. 23. 1. Ep. 3. 18. Psai 96. 10. He that loves me will keep my word says IESUS My little children says his beloved Disciple let us not love in word and tongue only but in work and veritie and the Royal Prophet You that love our Lord hate ye evill he says not only commit not evill but hate it He says not hate it in your self but absolutely hate it If you love God you will hate sin wheresoever it is found you will destroy it in your self and in your neighbor also if if you can if one should say I abuse not my friend but is not sorry that another does nor hinders him when he can may one truly say he loves him Let us conclude with a reflexion upon these words of JESUS I Came to cast fire upon the earth and what desire I but that it be inflam'd Luke 12. 49. And does He not move solicit and stir up our hearts to this fire and flame of love by all possible wayes 14. He prevents us with great love He lou'd us more than riches He was made poor for us more than honours He suffered a thousand infamies more than his ease and pleasure He led a life in pain and labor more than his body He depriu'd it of glory and of life more than the Angells He redeem'd them not And though we are so ungratful and unworthy as not to return love for love He tryes yet other means 15. He heaps Benefits upon us and makes us presents to engage our mercenary hearts He practises the counsel He gives us by the Wiseman and by his Apostle Give meat and drink to your enemy Prov. 25. 21. Rom. 12. 20. when he hath need and you shal heap upon him burning coales to heat his love to you so many prosperities that are sent you so many morcells of bread you eate so many creatures that serve you are so many burning coales He heaps upon you to heat your love so many presents He makes you to gain your affection so many baits he laies to catch your heart Et si parva sunt ista adiiciet majora And if it seems to you that all this is too little and that your heart is yet worth more He assures you that all the favours whiich he hath don you and which he does you yet every day are not but gages and pledges of the great Goods He hath prepar'd and promis'd you if you love him Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard 1. Cor 2. 9 nor the heart of man can comprehend the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him says S. Paul 16. But since we esteem not these promises enough and are like those Israelites who contemn'd she desirable land He lifts up his hand He commands us ro love him and threatens punishments if we do not Is not this to be extremly desirous of our love to put as it were a dagger to our throats and say to us love me J will kill you if you will not He does not only say it but he does it he damnes us eternaly if we love him not 17. And when He sees that fear of future punishments doe not sufficiently move our hearts He sends us sometimes afflictions to force our love He takes away all you love in this world becaus you love not well that which ought to be loved above all things He removes from you all that may amuse and employ your heart that it may be in a manner forced for want of other object to unite it self to Him ô great God what can you do more to have this heart which you so passionately desire you besige it on all sides and it renders not neither the preventions of your love nor the attractives of your benefits nor your promises of paradise nor your strict commands nor threats of hell nor constrains of afflictions can open this lockt heart Extremis morbis extrema remedia 18. When a passionate lover hath tryed all wayes and finds them unsuccesfull he coms to the last makes use of a charm composes a love potion JESUS makes use of this artifice to gain our affection He puts himself upon our Altars and into our Tabernacles there he is the charm of love They say that in a charm of love to render it more powerfull the Lover ought to mix with it some of his own substance some drops of his blood and JESUS puts all his blood into this potion not a part of his substance only but all his substance Body Soul and Divinity 19. What think you Judg you not that God ought to have your heart after so many pursuances do they not inflame you to beg that of God which is so necessary and which you cannot have of your own selves Aske it of God fervently humbly frequently aske it of
body The spiritual is the union of grace with the soul And the civil is the union of a man with his neighbors and a good repute amongst them Now the detractor sometimes takes away the first life often the second and very frequently the third The first sometimes either by creating mortal enemies against the poor absent person or by representing him as dishonest and unfaithfull whereby he loses those employments without which he cannot nourish himself nor his The second often for soon or late the detracted person heares of the Detractor he conceives a hatred of him and resolves upon reveng ah he sometimes dyes in this disposition and with the Devills is damn'd for ever The third frequently for generally speaking detraction takes effect and deprives the detracted of the good opinion others have of him which is the cement of the commerce that is between them so the detractor takes away his civil life and obliges himself to restitutions and reparations both of the honor and good name and of all the expences dammages and interects caused by his detraction which will be very hardly made 8 To avoyd a vice so pernicious both to you and others follow the counsell of the holy Ghost Weigh your words in a just Eccl. 28. 29. ballance before you utter them Remembet that in the judgment of God they shall be all exactly weighed examined judged punished or recompenced we must render an account in judgment of a word which hurts not how much more of those which blacken our neighbor rob him of his honour and are the caus of so many enmities and dissentions Remember when you are in passion and quarelling with your neighbor That you utter not the Prov. 25. 8. things which your eyes have seen lest afterward you cannot amend it when you have dishonoured him says the sacred text And in effect a detractive word is soon let forth but not so soon recalled words have not handells to be pulled back again when they have eschaped but they have wings which makes them fly away irrevocably if you would repair the honor of your neighbor whither will you go to seek all those to whom you have spoken and all those who have spoken of it after you and if you find them how will you raze out of their minds the bad opinion of their neighbor which you have imprinted in them And yet 't is a thing absolutely necessary unless you go to the person whom you detracted and pray him to pardon you and to free you from the obligation of restoring But if he does not 't is a verity avowed by all Doctors that you stand oblig'd to repair his honor in defect whereof the Pope himself cannot absolve you Calumniate not nor detract then any person but have charity which as the Apostle says Covers a multitude of sins so you will enjoy quiet in your self and peace with others you will obtain the grace and favour of God in this world and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XL. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL AS Creation is attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son So sanctifieation of souls is attributed to the holy Ghost becaus 't is an effect of particular love and goodness The more usuall way He takes for this work is the administration of Sacraments which are the instrumental causes of his graces chanells and conduits of his benedictions Before we speak of each one in particular 't is good to treat of them in general and to consider what is common to all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace Wherefore I will put before your eyes their causes the nature and effects of them 1. Tâ—e Efficient Caus who instituted the Sacraments is IESVS lib. 4. c. 4. de SacrameÌ„t Trid. ss 7. can 1. CHRIST Who is the Authour of the Sacraments but IESVS our Lord these Sacraments came from heaven says S. Ambrose And the holy Ghost by the mouth of his Spouse assembled in the Councel of Trent If any one shal say that all the Sacraments of the new Law were not instituted by CHRIST our Lord let him be anathema IESVS hath given his Apostles and his Church commission to institute Feasts Fasts and the Ceremonies of the Office but the institution of Sacraments He reserv'd to himself 't is He alone that bâ—queathed them to the faithfull as the magasins of his merits chanells of his graces and authentick proofs of his Divinity Yes of his Divinity 2. For in the institution and administration of Sacraments IESUS shews that he is God since He exercises and makes appear divine perfections His Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Iustice and Providence 3. His Power They say usually in Philosophy that no creature however noble and eminent it may be can serve the Creator as an instrument to draw out of nothing another creature that a Seraphin cannot create no not instrumentally a drop of water or one only grain of sand Let them change now their tone and praise the power of IESVS CHRIST who makes use of common creatures to produce so excellent of material to to produce Spiritual of dead and inanimate creatures to create a divine life who makes use elements which are in the lowest order of nature to produce that which is most high and more excellent than all that is in nature who makes use of a little water to produce grace which is a participation of the life of God himself 4. He shews in this his Wisdom disposing of all things sweetly leading his creatures to their last End by means convenient and fitted to their nature If you had not bodys if you were as Angells S. Chryhom 60. ad Pop. Antioch separated from all corporeall matter God would give you his gifts purely spiritually and invisibly but becaus your souls are cloathed with terrestrial and materiall bodys God gives you his graces in material elements and in sensible signes 5. He exercises his Goodness for by the malediction thundred against the first man and his posterity corporeal creatures are Wisdom 4. becom to us temptations stumblingblocks and snares But by the Benediction of IESUS they are the matter of Sacraments conduits of his graces organs of our sanctification and instruments of our salvation 6. And whereas He is both mercifull and just in shewing us mercy he exercises his justice for man being by sin unjustly elevated against God who is infinitely above him he is justly punished and humbled seeing himself oblig'd to receive his salvation by corporal creatures which are so much below him 7. His Providence in sine herein does shine He foresaw that men are naturally inclin'd to an exterior worship and He provided Sacraments and Sacrifice which consist in exterior actions lest they should employ themselves in superstitions He sees that Vnity is necessary amongst his faithfull and to make them uniform in the exercise of Piety and divine service to unite them togeather in thâ— same Religion and the same Church He institutes exteriour actions
Divinity You know that Divinity acknowledgeth and reverenceth in God three principal Perfections Power Wisdom Goodness You know that the Scriptures and the Fathers doe attribute to each one of these Divine Persons one of these Perfections tho' all three be common to them all Omnipotence to the Father because He is the source and origin of Divinity Wisdom to the Son because He is begotten by the way of understanding and of knowledg Goodness to the Holy Ghost because He is produced by the way of Will and Love These are three Divine Persons which inseperably and indivisibly applyd themselves to the Creation to the Conservation and to the Government of the Univers These are the three fingers of God as the Prophet I say calls them who sustaine conserve and govern the world Those are their three infinite Perfections which are apply'd unto this worke For if we consider the matter out of which the World was drawn we shal admire an infinite Power If we consider the manner in which the World is governed we shal acknowledge an incomprehensible Wisdom If we consider the End to which this World is designed we shal see and love an ineffable Goodness 4. First we shal admire an infinite Power For if there were so Excellent a workman that could make a Cup of gold of a lumpe of silver he would be admired but if he should make a golden Cup of a mass of lead he would be a workman far more Excellent and yet more if he should make it of a barre of Iron and yet more if he made it of a piece of wood but if he made it of a grain of sand he would pass for a demy God and we would say that his power is almost infinite Ought he not than to be God indeed and to have a power entirely infinite for to make not a Cup of gold but Heaven and Earth Angells and men and all the other Creatures and to make them of nothing as our God did whom we confess in this Article to be the Creatour of Heaven and Earth 5. If his Divinity and his infinite Omnipotencie appeare so Clearly in the matter of which he made the world his Divinity and his incomprehensible Wisdom appears yet more in the manner by which he governs it This Wisdom say I shines so brightly in the conduct of the Univers that we need not but to open our Eyes for to see it as clear as the day For we see that the Heavens turne about us in so regular so constant and so unvariable an order that the seasons of the year serve us by quarters and that they succeed one another with a vicissitude so proportioned to our life We see that the animalls that have not judgement and also that the plants which have not sense performe all their functions with so much industry and perfection and commodity for our service as if they had judgment All this makes us to conclude that there must be in the Univers a Sovereign Wisdome a divine Spirit most intelligent and most provident who rules governs and directs all these things and who by an ineffable Goodness obliges them to serve us 6. For God created all these things for us He governs them all for us and to shew us this his admirable Goodness He created man the last of all as the End to which He referred his works For the end is always the first and the principall in the intention of the Workman and the last in the Execution of the worke And we experience to our great profit that they all tend unto this End and that they conspire to serve and intertaine us some to beare us others to nourish cloath cure and reioyce us T is then for you ô man that the heavens move that starrs glitter that fire warms that air refreshes that rivers run that the earth produces fruits that animalls live and labor and it is for you in fine that God conserves and employs all these Creatures when you thinke least of it when you recreate when you sleep when you injure and offend him He then thinkes on you He acts for you and makes all Nature to labor and sweat for you He says to you not by word but by work you disoblige me extremely you commit sin which displeaseth me infinitely But nevertheless take the presents which I make you taste and see that I am a sweet Lord. For is it not to be very sweet to give you so many sweetnesses and dainties in return to so many bitternesses which you present me daily Ha! we cease not to offend him and He ceases not to caress us what admirable Goodness should we not be monsters of ingratitude and abortives of nature if our hearts be not softened and gained by so many favours 7. Moreover we must note that we are obliged to God for all the good He hath don to other creatures When a Father employes a Tayler nourishes him payes him for his labor gives him stuff to make a robe for his daughter 't is not the robe that is obliged to him and if also the robe should have sense and understanding it would not be much obligd to thanke him since he hath not don all this to the robe for love of the robe but for love of his daughter 't is the daughter then that hath the obligation and who ought to thank her father for it so we are oblig'd to God for all the beauty goodness qualities and proprieties that He hath distributed among his creatures becaus 't is not for them but for us that He hath given them all these qualities and perfections to the end we may thank him prayse him love him serve him and keep his commandements He gave them the Countries of Nations Says the Royal Prophet and Psal 104. 44. they possêssed the labours of people that they might keep his justifications and seek his law Ô how ill does he that serves not God! ô what injustice does he commit against his Creatour T is an insupportable ingratitude not to acknowledg honor and love such a Benefactor 8. If you lett a poor Cottage to your neighbor you will that he pay you rent for it and if he should fail you would cry out against him How comes it then says S. Chrisostome that you pay not the tribute of thanks to your great God that you hom 12. ad Rom. serve him not cordially who hath placed you in this world in this glorious Pallace which He built and which wholy appertains to him If you have a Vineyard which you neither made nor planted nor cultivated but have received it by inheritance letting it to a farmer you will have the half or the thirds of the fruits of it though that the farmer be poor and hath many Children God hath lett you a Vineyard or field to farme and how vouchsafe you not to pay him not only not the fourth part of the revenew of it not also the tythe perhaps not the twentieth part
a Virgin was a Mother Mother of a Man-God Morher of God and Mother of Man these I say are things which surpass Nature and are the subjects of our admiration I admire not sayd S. Cyprian the stabylity of the earth which stands by its own weight in the midst of the Vnivers I admire not the volubility of the firmament which moves day and night and hath no Center in which it may end its motion I admire not the inconstancie of the Moon which never remains in the same state but increases or decreases every moment I admire not the Sun which shews it self always full which is infatigable in its cours and marches as a Gyant to communicate its light and heat to all the quarters of the world But I admire God made man I admire a God in the womb of a Virgin I admire the Omnipotent an impotent infant And we may add I admire the Creator made a Creature the Lord and Soverign a subject and a slave and the Iudg a criminal in appearance In all the other wonders of nature I finde some reasons that do satisfy me But in this Mistery I have nothing els but that which the prophet Abacuc did say I have considered your works and am astonished 2. Born of the Virgin Marie This is the second Birth of the Son of God In his first He issued forth of the Vnderstanding of the Father from all eternity In this He came forth of his mothers womb in time The eternal birth is admirable the temporal is amiable I honor and reverence the eternal I embrace and love the temporal I rejoyce in that and I enjoy this I glorify God for the first and I thanke him for the second the eternal created me and the temporal repaired me It would have nothing profited me to have been created if I had not been redeemed by IESUS begotten of the Father I was created by IESUS born of the Virgin I was redeemed I have then more obligation to IESUS born of the Virgin than to IESUS begotten of the Father And I find many marvells in this second birth as well as in the first I will explicate the marvells of these his births and of his Conception by a comparison so proper and so natural so clear and so intelligible that the most indocible may come by it to a competent knowledg of these misteries 3. Amongst all the creatures purely corporal there is not one that expresses God so naturally as the Sun You see the Sun produces a Ray which is its offspring There is nothing more visible than the Sun producing its Ray nothing also is more clear bright and visible than the Ray and nevertheless there is nothing that we have so much difficulty to eye we cannot fix our eyes upon it not through want of light but through excessive clearness and through the weakness of our sight So the Son of God is begotten by his Father in the light of his Divinity by the way of understanding and of knowledg there is nothing then more intelligible than this Generation and nevertheless there is nothing that we are so unable to understand 't is darkness to us by reason of the weakness of our understanding Thô the Ray be the offspring of the Sun it is nevertheless as ancient as the Sun and if the sun had been from all Eternity its Ray would have also been eternal So though IESUS CHRIST according to his Divinity be the Son of God thc Father He is nevertheless as ancient as his Father He is from all Eternity even as his Father The Sun by its Ray warms the air makes the earth fruitful and produces gold and silver metalls and mineralls in the heart of it So the eternal Father by his Son Created Heaven and earth men Iohn ◠and Angells and does by him his works omnia per ipsum facta sunt The Sun loses nothing by giving Being to its Ray on the contrary the ray is the glory beauty and ornament of the Sun So the Son of God is the splendor of the Father and the figure of his substance 't is the Father's great perfection to begett a Son who is God as He and the same God with him The Ray coms forth of the Sun and is sent down to us but it coms forth of it without comming from it you see it in the Sun thô it be upon the earth So when faith teaches us that the Son of God descended from heaven and came into this world this is not to say he left the bosome of his Father He always remain'd there thô He appeared here The Sunbeam coms into this Church and passes through red glass How did it enter into it how did it go out of ir I know not It went into it without opening it it went out of it without breaking it so the Son of God came into this world and passed through the blessed womb of the Virgin How was He there conceiv'd I know not How was He brought forth I know not He was conceiv'd there He was brought forth without opening without breaking and without prejudicing the Virginal wombe The ray passing through the glass beautifies it renders it more clear and resplendent So JESUS passing through the womb of Mary rendred her Virginity more pure more holy and more sacred Matris integritatem non minuit sed sacravit What hath the Ray don in this glass it hath borrowed a little redness it is becom coloured the glass hath cloathed it with a red colour And what did JESUS in the womb of Mary He borrowed humane nature which is made if a little red earth Adam that is to say red earth He made himself man there the Virgin cloathed him with our humanity The ray borrowing of the glass this red colour deprived not the glass of it JESUS borrowing of Mary our humane nature did not any hurt or prejudice to Mary The sunbeam before it entred into the glass was a Ray but it was not colour nor coloured But since 't is entred into this glass and is com into this Church 't is a coloured Ray 't is a radiant colour 't is a colour which is a Ray So IESUS before the incarnation was God from all eternity But He was not man Now since He is entred into Mary He is a humanised God He is a Deified man is a God who is man and a man that is God The support and the subsistance of this red colour that appears here is the Ray for this colour subsists not but by this Ray So what is the support and the subsistance of the holy Humanity T is the Son of God it hath no subsistance besydes him This Sunbeam as a Ray or light of the Sun is in all the world But as a coloured Ray it is not every where it is only here and in some other places IESUS as God and Son of God is in every place But as man He is not every where He is but in Heaven and in the
having taught Christs Victorious Resurrection teach us in this Article his tryumphant Ascension By his Nativity He went forth into the field to fight by his Passion and death He fought the battle By his Resurrection He overcame his enemies and by his Ascension He tryumphs His tryumphant chariot was a thousand thousand of celestial spirits Psal 67. 18. and according to the translation of S. Hierom innumerable thousands He tryumphed not only over enemies of flesh and blood but also over devills sin and death The spoils He carried with him were not flocks of sheep and troops of other beasts but innumerable multitudes of souls which He redeem'd out of Prison and rescued out of the jawes of Hell Thou art ascended high thou hast taken Captivity says the Rayal Prophet to him Psal 67. 10. With all this glorious traine He ascended not carried in a chariot as Elias nor by Angells as Abacuc the Prophet and S. Philip nor did He ascend only by the force and agility He recived in his resurrection but moreover by the power and vertue He had as God 2. He Ascended into heaven There are three Heavens according to the scripture Airy Statry and Emperial and He mounted above all heavens as his Apostle says so passing the Air Sun and all â—phes 4. the heavens He mounted to the most high and sublime place of the world 3. He sits at the right hand of God the Father God is a spirit a pure and incorporeal Being who hath neither side nor hand noâ— part How does He sit then at his right hand And if He sits in a seat or Throne of what matter is it made is it of wood marble gold silver or Diamant I know well 't is answered the Apostles accommodate themselves to our low manner of understanding and of speaking and that by this session at the right hand of the Father they express the equality and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son When we see one speak to the king on knee we conclude he is a Vassall But if we see one sit upon a throne neer the king and at his right hand we say he is a Prince or Sovereign The Apostles say JESUS sits at the right hand of the Father this is to say He is Sovereign Omnipotent and infinite as the Father equal coessential and coeternal with the Father 4. Yes But JESUS as man is not consubstantial nor coeternal with the Father and yet He is at the right hand of the Father not only as God but also as man as S. Leo expresly teaches in his first sermon of the Ascension You will say the humane nature of JESUS is in the Throne of God and at the right hand of the Father becaus being as it were ingraffted and inserted in the Being of God in the subsistance of the Word and making but one Person with him 't is served and reverenced as God 5. You say true but this solues not the difficulty For this holy Humanity is united to the Word and subsisting in his Personality from the first instant of Christs Conception and nevertheless to speak properly it is not but since the day of his Ascension that the Humanity is elevated to the glory of the Father and seated at his right hand as the church says in the Canon of the Mass that day 6. For to clear then these difficulties we must remember that in the Mistery of the incarnation the Son of God communicating his subsistance to the holy Humanity should have made it at the same time participant of all the perfections and Attributes of which a created Nature may be capable For if in a perfect marriage the Woman espouses not only the Person of her husband but also his nobility prerogatives and Honours shal not the sacred Humanity which is married much more perfectly and inseparebly to the Word receive from him the Perfections that are communicable to It A Vegetative soul penetrating the stock of a little tree makes it live with a Vegetative life A sensitive soul informing the body of a Lamb makes it live with a sensitive life An intellectual soul animating the body of a man makes it live with a reasonable life and the divine Word actuating filling and possessing the holy Humanity shal He not make it live with a divine life Ought He not to communicate to it his proprieties and his Attributes since He is united to it more strictly perfectly and nobly than any soul is to her Body or form to its matter 7. Nevettheless the divine Word to procure our salvation and to accomplish the work of our Redempion suspended in his Incarnation the communication of divers of his perfections For if JESUS had been immortall how should he have dyed for us If He had been impassible how would He have suffered for us If He had been independent and sovereign how would have he given us an example of obedience subjecting himself to his holy Mother But in the day of his Ascension He made an entire effusion of himself and of all his excellencies and perfections that were communicable to Humanity 8 This is that which He asked of his Father in the Vigil of his death when He sayd Now glorify me o Father with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before all ages Vpon which S. Iohn 17. 5. Lib. 11. in Io. C. 17. Colloss 2. 9. S. Cyrill of Alexandria says The Saviour asks to be glorifyd not with an accidental glory but with a natural glory and a little after The glory which He always had as God He asks now as man This is moreover that which S. Paul teaches us when he says the plenitude or fullness of the Divinity inhabits corporally in him that is in his Humanity says the same S. Cyrill And this is that wich ought to rejoyce us in this Mistery This is that which renders this Mistery dear and precious to JESUS to the Virgin and to all the Church 'T is in the Ascension properly that JESUS Man God sits at the right hand of the Omnipotent 't is in the Ascension that He was receiv'd into the Throne of God and that He entred into the Glory of his Father 9. He sits that is to say He is no more subject to labours tributary to wearines lyable to humane miseries and infirmities 10. He is at the right hand of the Omnipotent that is He hath the superintendence and the administration of Heaven and earth of men and Angells of spiritualls and temporalls What honor what happiness for us to know and to be assured that a persone of the same nature with us hath the keyes of life and death of Heaven and hell that He governs all and does whatsoever He sees good 11. He is in the Throne of God that is He entred into the real actual and eternal enjoyance of his Empire 12. He is in Glory of the Father that is He is received into a full entire and perfect possession of all the
if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his Soul And so if we will be good Christians we ought to love our Neighbors there is nothing that we ought not to lose pleasure riches honor and also if need be life it self for the Salvation of our neigbors And this the beloved Disciple and faithfull Interpreter of his Master teaches us in these clear words In this we know the Charity of God becaus He hath given his life for us and we ought also to give our life for our Brothers He does not say 1. Ep. 3. only that 't is expedient that it is a Salntary counsell but that we must give our lives for their salvation and to move us more He puts before our eyes the example of IESUS-CHRIST S Iohn 13. who made his love of us the rule of our love of others I give you a new commandement that you love one another as I have loved you And lest we should less note it He repeats it again in the Iohn 15. same Gospell This is my Precept that you love one another as I have loved you 7. Though this Vertue be so pleasing to God and so important to our Salvation nevertheless men fail in this the most and to say nothing of all those who live in hatred envie discord contention scandal which are the common pests of the world and the mortal ennemies of charity there are many who seem to have good intelligence who make mutuall visits complements offers of service Yet love but in word and tongue not in work and verity they will not open their purs nor use their power nor apply their pains and labor for the assistance of their neighbor in necessity 8. Others love their kindred and relations but with a natural inordinate and hurtfull love they procure them what is honourable or profitable upon earth though they put them into eminent danger of losing heaven they give them what pleases the senses and satisfys their foolish inclinations though to the prejudice of their souls and their salvation and if they see them desirous to renounce the world and to betake themselves to a vertuous cours of life they call upon them and to shew their love diswade them from it and recall them to the usuall and libertine cours of life so they seem to love but do truly hate to be good friends but are the worst of enemies and the maxim of our Savior is verefyd in them The enemies of a man are his domesticks Matt. 10 9. Others in fine extend their love beyond Relations but to those only from whom or by whose means they expect honor pleasure or profit This is an imperfect love a love of concupiscence and interest and not of charity which seeks not proper interest but loves God and in him or for him or for the love of him all others though they be our enemies becaus they are his images redem'd by the precious blood of IESUS capable to know serve and possess him and becaus it is his Will intimated to us by this general precept to love our neighbors and particularly commanded in S. Matthew I say to you love Mat. 5. 44. your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute and calumniate you that you may be children of your Father 10. But the first and most necessary effect of this good will and love which is exacted of us for our ennemies is to pardon them for this is the first mercy and charity that we can doe them and the most necessary alms we can bestow upon them What good can we do them if first we do not pardon them but keep in our hearts odium enmity bitterness and a desire to take reveng of them Wherefore the Son of God who endeavours by all means our Salvation does not only command this charity and mercy but moreover obliges us to it by other pressing motives He promises us his greatest mercy which is the pardon of our sins if we pardon others dimittite dimittemini and he assures us that his Father will treat us most rigorously if we do not Sic Pater meus celestis faciet vobis so my heavenly Father will cast you into the prison of hell if you forgive not others from your hearts And S. Iames tells us judgement Iames 2. 13. without mercy shal be donâ— to them who shal not have don mercy S. Austin praying for the soul of his deceased Mother sayd I know that she led a holy and innocent life but woe to a laudable life if you examin it without mercy Whatsoever life you lead woe to you woe to you if you have enmitie you shal be judged without mercy and woe to a laudable life if judged without mercy What laudable thing do you You pray woe if you have bitterness woe to you notwithstanding your prayer for that he Psal 11â— remembred not to do mercy let his prayer be turn'd into sin says the Psalmist Your prayer condemns you saying our Lords prayer you demand Vengeance against your self you say I pardon such a person but I will not speak to him I will not that he com into my house and after this you say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us God will hear you He will not speak to you favourably nor admit you into his house and if you be not admitted into heaven whether shal you go What laudable action do you you give alms woe to you if you have malice woe to you notwithstanding your alms S. Paul says if you should give all your goods to the poor if you 1. Cor. 13 have not charity you are nothing and by charity in this place he understands the love of neigbours What vertuous action do you you fast woe to you notwithstanding your fast if you have dissention In Isaiah the Iews Isay 58. 3 complain'd to God We have fasted and you have not regarded us God answers them with all your fasts you do your wills you press your poor debtours you have debates and contentions What laudable thing perform you Sacrifice woe to you if you have malice God says by Osee and twice in the Gospell I love and will rather mercy then your sacrifice And therefore many Osee 6. great Saints offering to God the most meritorious sacrifice that can be offer'd to him the sacrifice of their lives have interrupted it to obey this Commandement of mercy in the hour of their death when they had time little enough to elevate themselves to God to offer and to unite themselves to him they remembred their enemies pray'd for them and desired their good 11. These heroical vertues of the Saints were extracts and copies of those which we admire in IESUS-CHRIST the King of Martyrs and the Saint of Saints He being unjustly and most cruelly nailed to the Cross mock'd blasphem'd did not do as some do they think that they exercise great acts
of charity and patience towards their enemies when they say I will not reveng my self I leave reveng to God let God do to him according to his deserts know you well what you do says S. Austin you make your self judg of your neighbor you will not or you cannot execute your sentence but you desire that God should be the Executioner of it He that will be revenged says Ecclesiasticus shal find reveng of our Lord and keeping he will keep his sin He says not he that will reveng himself but he that will be revenged shal be the object of the divine vengeance You will not reveng your self nor hurt your neigbor but you desire that God would reveng the injury that he hath don you this ir to desire to be revenged it is to incurre the Vengeance of God The Son of God does quite otherwise upon the Cross He prayes God to pardon them He excuses them as much as he can He seeks reasons to diminish the greatness of their crimes Pardon them sayes He for they know not what they do He expects not his Resurrection to pray for them when the abundance of glory and the charms of its delight would blot out the sense of his paines He prayes for them in the midst of most bitter torments when He hath his enemies before his eeys who offend him actually his eares ringing with their blasphemies his mouth full of gall and bitterness his body all cover'd with wounds When He prays for himself He sayes my God when He prayes for his enemies He says my Father to incline Him by the sweetness of this appellation when He prays for himself in the garden it is with condition If it be possible here He prays absolutely my Father I beseech you to pardon them by these thornes which pierce my head by these teares which fall from my eyes by these wounds which are as so many mouthes that demand your pardon If so rare and prodigious an example of charity does not move us nothing in the world will move us 't is in vain to say more God have mercy on us and convert us Amen DISCOURS XX. OF THE NECESSITY OF GRACE I Treat not in this discours of natural graces not of those which Divines call gifts gratis given not of habitual grace which is a most noble and excellent quality by which we are made children of God most pleasing to his Majesty and heires of his Paradise 't is called habitual becaus it remains always in us as a habit when we have once receiv'd it ' til we lose it by consenting to a mortal sin 't is also named sanctifieng and justifieng grace becaus it sanctifys us and renders us holy and just before God But here I speak only of actual Grace which is a good motion a holy inspiration an interiour light a secret touch a supernatural aide by which the holy Ghost wakens us and excites us to rise out of sin or to the practise of some good work It is called actual becaus it makes us do acts of Vertue and it remains not always in us but passes as an act or as a flash of lightning I will shew the necessity we have of this grace becaus it imports very much to be well convinced of it and to put in practise the Documents which are drawn from it 2. God the omnipotent Creator having reposed from all Eternity and satisfyd himself in the plenitude of his divine Being in the enjoyance of his infinite Perfections in the fecundity of his adorable Emanations in the society of his divine Persons and willing by a sally of love and by a powerfull inclination of his natural Goodness to communicate himself out of himself created man in the beginning of time to his own image and resemblance that by grace and particular priviledge he might be partaker of the same felicity which the Creatour possessed in himself by the prerogative of his Nature He created him I say to his own image and resemblance to his Image in the Vnderstanding to his resemblance in the will to his image in reason to his resemblance in dilection to his image in the kâ—owledg of verity to his resemblance in the love of vertue having so created him He made him Lord of all the creatures and as a little God in this world lodged him in a garden of delights He honoured him with one only commandement very easy to be observ'd that meriting by his own acts the Beatitude prepar'd for him he might have more honor and contentment to enjoy it not as a present freely given but as a crown happily and gloriously obtain'd by conquest Satan perceived this and raging with envie desir'd to frustrate the designe feating that man whom he esteem'd much inferiour to himself should merit by his humility and obedience the glory of heaven which he had lost by his arrogancy and rebellion and seeing well that he could not vanquish him by force made use of fraud and artifice and having induced him to transgress the commandement of God gave him traiterously two mortal wounds contrary to the two prerogatives he receiv'd from God in his creation Ignorance of good against the light of his understanding Concupiscence of evill against the rectitude of his will From these two accursed sources have flown all the dismal evills which destroy our nature and principally the two more notable Delict and Crime Delict coms from ignorance Crime proceeds from concupiscence Delict is the omission of good commanded Crime is the commission of evill prohibited For such infectious wounds two remedies were necessary man had need of counsel and of aide consilio auxilio indigebat of counsel to cleare his ignorance of aide to correct his concupiscence of counsel to enlighten his understanding of aide to fortify his will of counsel to make him know verity of aide to make him love vertue This is that wherewith the divine Word incarnated for for the salvation of men hath enriched us abundantly who came as S. Iohn says full of Grace and Verity Grace there S. Iohn 1. is Aide Verity there is counsel 4. But is not this a wonder capable to ravish the highest Scraphins with admiration to see that the Son of God defer'd so long a remedy so necessary The Son of God resolv'd from all Eternity to make himself man He made promises of it from the beginning of ages and nevertheless He defers more then four thousand years the execution of a designe so worthy of himself so conformable to his goodness so conducible to his glory so advantagious to men ô my God how wonderfull are you How incomprehensible is the Abyss of your secrets You are so jealous of your honour how permit you then the evill Spirit your mortal Enemy to tyrannize so over your creatures to possess your dominion to be adored instead of you for the space of four thousand years you have so mortal and irreconcilable hatred of sin how permit you Idolatry a sin so
the first saturday in lent says this solemn fast was holily instituted for the health both of soul and body And in the Decretalls of Gratian we read that many who had infirmities their goods being confiscated and they reduced to poverty so that they could not make good cheer were cured by this forced dyet All good Phisitians will tell you that for one hurt by fasting fifty are killed by eating and drinking And Experience shews that the more abstemious usually enjoy better health and longer life It is true that Fasting macerates and weakens bodys that are not well accustomed and hardned by it But it strengthens souls and makes them reign they are disposed by it to prayer and contemplation they please God by it satisfy his justice merit and impetrate of Him Benefits temporal and eternal The servant body then must indure theses paines and labours by which accrew so many and so great advantages to the lady soul nor does the Soul do injury to the body making it to fast but much obliges it She exempts it from punishments which it merited by rebellions for nothing appeases more the anger of God nothing averts better the thunderbolts of his justice then fasting and other macerations of the body which proceed out of true conversion and compunction of heart Witness the Ninivites It is doplorable that they who glory in the name of Christians have not so much sight and judgment as those poor Pagans the Son of God hath reason to say that they shal rise in judgment and condemn them Ionas sayd not to the Ninivites fast put on hair-cloth do pennance but only fourty days and Ninive shal be subverted and yet Pagans as they were had the light to know that to appease God it was necessary to fast and to do penance they published a fast so general and severe that all from the greatest to the least from the eldest to the youngest also bruit beasts fasted three days and nights without any meat or drink Should the Church command such a fast how would they cry-out against her but he Creatour approv'd this Edict and pardoned the sins of those that had so fasted 6. To be short if austerities be unlawfull and forbidden we must condemn all the ancient Anchorets and a great part of the primitive Christians who fasted almost daily in bread and water through the Spirit of penance and mortification we must condemn the Religious of the present Church who weaken their bodys by the exercises of penance We must condemn our Savior who fasted and spent whole nights in prayer upon mount olivet to give us example we must condemn the holy Ghost who exhorts us by the Apostle earnestly to shew that we are the Ministers or servants of God by Patience by Watchings 2. Cor. 6. 6. and fastings by longanimity and sweetness by the sincerity of our words by chastity and by cordial charity 7. These are the vertues and dispositions which ought to accompany our fasts They who have not health or strength for the one ought to addict themselves with more zeal to the practise of the other shewing that they are the faithfull servants of God and true Children of the Church By much patience You say you cannot fast because you are big with child or you are a nource And well says S. Chrysostome God excuses you from this fast But He requires another of you S. Chryâ— hom 22. ad pop which is that you abstain from anger this abstinence will do no hurt to the fruit you bear on the contrary the too ardent Passion by which you are transported may hurt it much and make it to dye without Baptisme By longanimity and sweetness If God say to you in judgment why have you not fasted if you answer I had a great weakness of stomake a continual and great giddiness of my head when I fasted And well if you say true God will admit of this excuse But what will you answer when He will reply why have you not pardoned your ennemie Why have you not thrown that hatred out of your heart which filled you with gall and betterness One sweet word sayd to salute your neighbor and to gain his heart would it have burnt your mouth or caused dizziness in your head By sincerity of words you are sick they command you to eate flesh obey your Phisitian and Confessor but eate not that flesh which is forbidden you I fear I shal see one day that many eate flesh in the Lent not boyled but raw and also humane flesh by calumny and detraction it is the Scripture that speaks so the harmfull approach upon me and eate my flesh sayd the Royal Prophet And holy Iob why do you persecute me Psal 26. 2. and are filled with my flesh They make a conscience to put their teeth into a piece of dead flesh and they make no scrupule to tear with their tongue the living flesh of their neighbor by calumnies and murmurations which is wors By Chastity fast not only with the mouth for it is not the mouth only that offends God make all the members of your body to fast Impure looks touches lacivious thoughts and delectations are carnal meats these are prohibited in all times and chiefly in the Lent he that fasts not commits but one or two sins a day but he that consents to dishonest thoughts commits sometimes more than ten By cordial Charity The holy Fathers say fasting is not only instituted to punish the body but also that we may have more means and leasure to give alms to viset sick and to practise other workes of charity fiat refectio pauperis abstinentia jejunantis Either you fast or not if you fast you should give to the poor what you would spend in a supper if you do not fast seeing you honor not God by abstinence honour him by mercy corporal or spiritual We ought to fast so in charity towards our neigbor We must fast in charity also towards God and not for terrene and temporal Ends. 8. The Son of God says to us When you fast wash your face Matt 6. 18. that is to say purify your intention Make not a fast of Gallen to be well and in good health nor the fast of the Avaricious to spare the purse but the fast of a Christian to obey the Church to have more means to give alms more leasure to practise good works the spirit more free to pray to satisfy the justice of God to make the funerall of our Saviours death to dispose our selves to communion to honor and imitate the fast of JESUS in the desert so having accompanied Him in his penance and fast on earth we may merit to be satiated by the torrent of pleasure with him in heaven Amen DISCOURS XXVI OF ALMS BLessed is the man that considers the necessities of the poor to have pity on him God will treat him sweetly and mildly in the day of judgement Psal in the day which the Royal Prophet
cals the evill day The Sentence of the Iudg will be favourable to him He will say to him with an Encomium I have been hungrie and you have given me meat ad that it may prove so He forewarns and says to us make your selves friends give alms do good to the Poore that they and the alms which you put into their bosomes may plead and intercede for you Let us then consider who must give alms To whom they must be given and how men ought to give them 1. Who is he that must give Alms All Christians that pretend to obtaine one day the kingdom of Heaven we need no other proof then the word of IESUS and the definitive sentence which He will pronounce in favour of the elect and against the reprobate Com ye blessed of my Father possess the kingdom for you have given Get ye gon from me ye cursed into everlasting fire for you have not given All either are saved for giving or damned for not giving alms every one then is obliged to give them And in the same chapter He compares the whole Church to an assembly of Virgins whereof some are admitted to a nuptial feast for having furnished their lamps with oyle the others are excluded for having none 9. Hence S. Chrysostome concludes if those that were Virgins Hom. 22. in Io. that is to say that had no other great sins were banished from heaven for not giving alms with more reason those who have committed sins and have not redeemed them by alms shal be condemn'd He adds let us have then this oyle of mercy if we will enter with the Espouse for what ever we shal do t is impossible without alms I say again 't is impossible to approach to the door of the Kingdom of heaven 2 Can we be saved without Charity without loving God and being beloved of God no surely Now his beloved Disciple says If any one having the goods of this world and seeing his brother in 1. Iohn 3. 17. necessity shuts up his bowells of charity from him how does the Love of God remain in him He says not seeing his brother in extream necessity but simply in necessity T is then an error to believe the commandement of giving alms obliges not but when our neigbor is in extream necessity Yes it obliges when he is in a great and notable poverty as are so many in these deplorable times For as Vasquez reasons very well the precept of charity obliges all as well poor as rich to succour their neigbor when he is in extrem necessity nature it self teaches it without other positive command and 't is principally to the rich that the holy Scripture makes this commandement of alms T is not then only in extream necessity the rich are oblig'd to give but also in a considerable and important need command the rich of this 1. Tim. c. 17. 1. Cor. 22. 26. world to give easily says S. Paul And he gives in another place the reason of it we are parts and members of the Mystical Body of IESUS But when one member hath receiv'd any hurt all the other suffer with it all contribute to the help of it if a thorn hath entred into the foot the back bends the eyes open and seek it the hand pulls it out and if they should do otherwise it would be irregular monstrous and unnatural with much more reason in the body of the Church which hath JESUS for its head and the holy Ghost for its soul the members are oblig'd to solace and serve each other with a sincere and cordial charity S. Peter Confirms the saying of S. Paul and adds another reason that we are not independent Proprietors and Masters of the riches Epist 1. c. 4. 10. talents gifts and graces which we receiv'd from God He obliges us to be good Economists and Dispensers of them to assist and serve the necessities of our neighbors with them if then we employ them not but only keep them we do against the intention of the Master that lends them and on the contrary if we employ them in dissolutions and other Superfluities we do contrary to the will of him who intrusts us with them If an Economist of a great house should reserve to himself all the bread and wine and other provisions and refuse to give them to the children and servants according to the order of his Master would he not merit to be punished if on the contrary he distributes them faithfully would he not gaine the salary promised to him The power and authority you have God hath given you to protect this Widow and this Orphan that are oppressed the understanding Science industry which are in you you receiv'd from God to assist and instruct the ignorant and these goods you possess God made you the steward of them to Communicate them to the Poor after you have had the honor and the prerogative to take of them what is necessary for your person and your family if you do not He will say to you as to the naughty servant in the Gospell Why have you not employ'd well my money If you do as you ought He will say to you Com faithfull Servant enter into the joy of thy Matth. 5. Lord. Let us see then to whom we ought to give 3. Charity obliges us to give to all that are in necessity but especially to the faithfull to others we must give alms as to the creatures and the images of God but to the faithfull moreover as to the members of IESUS CHRIST and for the love of Him and so to IESUS CHRIST in them for He will say in iudgment I have been hungrie I have been thursty I have been sick IESUS then is sick and suffers in his members and IESUS receives our help and assistance in them if we bestow our alms so our charity will be more acceptable to him and more meritorious to us than if we did give them to his own person if you had lived in that golden age when IESUS was visible to the world would you not have been ravished with joy to have lodged Him served and entertain'd Him you merit more if you do it to a poor man says S. Chrysostom for the charmes of his pleasing Countenance and his Comportment would allure your hearts and force them by a sweet attraction to will him good but when you do it to him in the person of the Poor who are so disagreable your faith is more lively your charity more generous and your piety more disinteressed since self love finds not there her reckning It seems IESUS should say in the last iugdment to S. Matthew you made me a banket in your Conversion to Zacheus you receiv'd me into your house to S. Martha you log'd me in your Castle you serv'd me with great diligence No He will not praise them principally for these good offices But He will say to them That which you have don to the least of mine you have
amity Know brothers sayd S. Austin that there are Aug hom 5. ex 50. post medium two sorts of alms the one of the heart the other of the purs you may excuse your selves sometimes from this but not from that the alms of the heart is to pardon your enemies to love cordially your neighbors to have pity and compassion on the poor to be sorry you have not wherewith to succour them and to pray God that the rich may help them our Saviout says not only give and it shal be given to you but he says first pardon and you shal be pardoned Behold how easily and at how small a rate you may buy the kingdom of heaven see now when or in what time you must buy it The time of buying it is the time of this life only do not as the foolish Virgins who neglected to make provision of oyle till they were called before the Bridgroom and whilst they went to buy it the Bridchamber door was shut and they excluded for ever Imitate rather the wise Virgins make in time provision of oyle and be not surpriz'd by death Remember that two sorts of oyle are necessary for us shat of God on us for woe to the most laudable life if God examin it without mercy sayd S. Austine and ours upon our neighbor for judment without mercy to him who shal not have don mercy But if you open to your neighbour your bowells of mercy God will open his to you and so happy are the mercifull for they shal obtaine mercy Amen DISCOURS XXVII of the Commandements in general IT was with great reason that God giving the Law to his people did use this Preface Ego sum Dominus Deus tuus I am the Lord thy God For by many most just Titles He is our Lord and hath right to command us And to oblige us to pay dutys to his commandements and Orders and principally three we must study them we must keep them and we must love them 1. In the first place we must study them learn them and meditate upon them Some will say Who is he that is ignorant of them what little schoolboy is there amongst us that does not know the ten commandements Yes they can rehearse them but this is not enough We must study them learn the sense and meaning of them and search into the depth of them David was a great Prophet and he studied them searched into them meditated upon them and prayed God to teach him them Give me understanding sayd he to God and I will learn thy justifications and to learn them he contemplated them attentively And in effect if it be necessary to study the rules of grammer and of rhetorick to learn to speak well is it not necessary to study the Law of God and his Gospell to learn to live well sayd S. Austin And S. Ambrose makes us to consider that in she book of Ecclesiastes the holy Ghost says not only Mandata ejus serva keep his Commandements Eccles 12. 13. but observa Note them and search into them diligently For the Decalogue given to Moses does nor declare so clearly all things that are necessary to be don nor forbid so expressly many sins which render us most criminal before God we must then ponder them examin and consider all the words beg light of the holy Ghost to find out the sense meaning and intention of God 2. Moreover the Commandements of the Decalogue were given to men as men But God gave moreover many to the Iews as Iews which made S. Paul say He that made himself a Iew receiving Circumcission oblig'd himself to keep Gal. 5. 3. all the Law of Moses And to learn it well the Israelites in the time of the Prophet Esdras made a Lecture of it four times a day and in the time of S. Paul on all Saturdays so 2. Esdras 9. 3. also the Son of God hath given other Commandements to Christians as Christians which made the same Apostle say to the faithfull They who obey not the Gospell shal suffer eternal paines 2. Thes 1. 8. We must be then solicitous to learn the Evangellical Commandements to read the books which treat of them to assist at Sermons and Catechismes which teach them to beg the grace of God to understand them and to learn them not only nor chiefly for to know them but to keep them and to put them in practise Thou hast very much commanded thy commandements to be kept says the Royal Prophet Note very much very much 3. It is wonderfull to see with what earnestness and instance God recommended to his people the memory and observance of them First He wrote them upon Tables of stone to teach us to engrave in our hearts what He vouchsafed to write with his own hand Secondly He commanded a Tabernacle to be made and within it an Arke of incorruptible wood cover'd with fine gold to lodge therein the Tables In the third place that the king of the people should write with his own hand these holy Commandements In the fourth place He Commanded the people that having passed Jordan and entred into the land of promise they should place great stones upon the shore upon which the Commandements should be written that all might be ascertain'd if they kept them not they should not enjoy long that happy land And because they would not be always there to read them often He commanded them to be written upon the doores of all their houses to be imprinted in their hearts and in the hearts of their children Behold his words these wordes Deut. 6. 5. which I command thee shal be in thy heart and thou shalt tell them to thy children and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house and walking on thy journey sleeping and rising And thou shalt bind them as a signe in thy hand and thou shalt write them in the entrie and on the doores of thy house And becaus profit and recompence are the baits of humane hearts He makes promises so advantagious to the observers of them that they would be incredible if any other then himself did make them I will send you rain in time and season the earth Levit 26. shal bring forth its Spring and the trees shal be burdened with fruits I will give peace in your coastes you shal sleep and there shal be none to fright you five of yours shal pursue a hundred strangers and a hundred of you ten thousand I will respect you and make you increase you shal be multiplyd and I will establish my Covenant with you Note that 't was to the Iews He made these great promises whom He was wont to recompence with worldly goods when they observ'd his Commandements and chastise them with temporal punishments when thy transgrest them becaus they were material gross and terrestrial But to Christians He promises Spiritual and Celestial goods recompences that are eternal so great so charming and so excellent that
this Vertue another Saint Charles the Cardinal Boromeus honoured so much the holy scripture that also studying it he read it always kneeling and uncover'd The seraphical Saint Francis commanded that papers which had the name of God written in them should not be Prophan'd but plac'd in decent and convenient places S. Lewis forbid painting and graving of the Cross upon the pavement for fear the people should tread upon it On Festivalls and Vigills in honor of the Saint celebrated or of the Mistery solemnized he gave dinner to two hundred Poore and serv'd them at the table He fasted all fridays of the yeare and in those of Advent and Lent he eate neither fish nor fruit becaus these two Times are consecrated to God 6. If these great Saints were now on earth what would they say what would they do seeing the comportment of men What thinke they now in heaven seeing the irreligion of those who will not allow them any honor though God does honor them and honor be a due salary of their Vertue who count it superstition Luke 15. 6. Luke 16. Apoc. 5. 8. and 8. 4. Matth. 18. 10 to implore their intercession though they have credit and favour in the sight of God do hear our prayers do know our necessities have experienced our miseries and have Charity and affection for us as the scriptures tell us What thinke they seeing the indevotion of others who rise in the morning and go to bed at night as beasts who sit down to table at noon as Epicurians and pass over the day as if there were no God who even fear to assist often at the Sacrifice to frequent the Sacraments to adore God and pray him as they ought lest men laugh at them and call them devotes or hypocrites though they are not ashamed to do ill in open street What do they think in fine seeing such irreverences of men towards holy things They employ the time of holy days in playing in visits and drunkenness if they discours for pleasure and recreation it seems not well seasoned if it clash not upon Priests or Religious Persons if they com to the Church it is not to appease God but to offend him to see and to be seen They prophane the holy scripture and use it in their jests meriments and Scurrilities 7. Si Ego Pater ubi est honor meus If I am the Father where is my honour He might have sayd if I am King If I am Iudg. If nature teaches the most barbarous to honour their father who is more worthy of honor than He from whom we have received not Body only but also Soul and All 8. If we honor the King and also the Courtiers for his sake should we not honor the King of kings so great powerfull and Soveraign that all the Kings of the world are his Uassalls and are but wormes in respect of Him 9. If we honor Iudges becaus they have some Power in this world ought we not to honor him who is infinitely powerfull and from whom all power is dereiv'd And give also an inferiour honour to the Saints whom God does so much honor that He makes them our Iudges You shal sit says our great Iudg upon S. Matth 19. 28. 1. Kings 2. 30. seats judging the twelue Tribes of Israel Let us remember then what God says to Samuel whosoever shal glorify me I will glorify him and they that contemne me shal be base If we neglect the service of God if we respect not his friends and althings that specially appertain to him sooner or later we shal be contemn'd coâ—â—r'd with shame dishonour and infamy But if we honour him as we ought we shal be replenished with glory either in this world by the good odour of our reputation or in the other by the crown of justice which God reserves for us in Heaven Amen DISCOURS XXX OF THE SECOND COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in Vaine For the Lord will not hold him innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in Vaine Exod. 20. THe royal Prophet representing to us the name of God as holy represents it at the same time as terrible and dreadfull Holy and terrible is his name Let us confess to thy great name becaus it is terrible and holy And he joy ns Majesty and power with Sanctity to imprint in our hearts reverence and to stricke terrour into us lest we should at any Psal 110 Psal 98. time dishonour him And God assures us in this Commendement that he will punish us for it that we may not pretend ignorance to be any caus of it The Lord will not hold him Innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in vaine In other sins the mercy of God pleads in favour of sinners demands pardon strives S. Iames. 2. 13. with justice and sometimes overcoms it and mercy exalteth it self above iudgment says S. Iames But in this sin the Verity of God joyns it self to justice and obliges God to punish the prophaner lest his word do fail Is it not then a misery which de serves to be deplor'd with teares of blood to see that there is nothing so licenciously and frequently prophan'd and abus'd by Christians as the name of God by pronouncing his holy name irreverently violating Vowes unworthily swearing falsly or prophanely Cursing or blaspheming detestably 2. But some will say Oathes are they essentially naught Is it not permitted to swear sometimes Yes 't is lawfull since the Scripture permits and approves it Saints have practised it and God himself vouchsafes to sweare The Prophet Hieremy permits us Hierem 4. 2. Psal 62. 12. Apoc. 10. 6. Gen. 14. 22. 3. kings 17. 1. Rom. 19. 2. Cor. 1. 23. Gal. 1. 20 Gen. 22. 16. Hier. 22. 24. Luke 1. 73. Psal 109 to sweare in the name of God provided it be with all necessary circumstances David praises those that sweare by the true God not by fals Deities as Pagans did Angells Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have sometimes sworn An Angel in the Apocalyps lifts up his hand to heaven and sweares by him that lives for ever and ever that after judgment there will be no more time In the book of Genesis the Patriarke Abraham says to the King of Sodom I lift up my hand to the most high Majesty of God who possesses heaven and Earth In the third book of kings the Prophet Elias sayd by the living God in whose sight I stand S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans God is my witness that without intermission I make a memory of you In the second to the Corinthians I call God to witness upon my soul that sparing you I came not any more to Corinth And in the Epistle to the Galatians Behold before God that I ly not God himself whose least word is more firm then heaven and earth having nothing greater then himself vouchsafes to sweare by himself and by
common to all Christians by which they may pay to God their Duties and receive from him his favours 8. But IESUS is not only the Authour and Institutor of Sacraments He is moreover the Dispencer of them who vouchsafes to confer and administer them to you to confer them I say not only as an universall and general caus but also as a special and particular 9. The Nature and the Essence of a Sacrament is to be a visible and effective signe of divine and invisible grace And they have very great resemblance with the Authour of grace with the subject of grace and with the effect of grace The Authour of grace is IESUS CHRIST Man God and the Sacraments represent him very naturally For as IESUS CHRIST if one may speak so is but a holy and wonderfull Compositum of the divine Word and humane nature so a Sacrament is but a compositum of the word of the Priest and of the material Element The subject of grace is the person that receives it he is composed of body and soul And the matter of the Sacrament is applyed to his body and the form which consists in words teaches excites and animates the faith and the devotion of his soul The effects of grace are different and very well represented by the exteriour signes or Sacraments The effect of Baptismal grace is to cleanse the soul from original sin and to temper the ardours of concupiscence and what is more proper to represent these effects than water The effect of Eucharistical grace is to feed nourish and cherish our souls and what is more proper to signify this nourishment than the species of bread we may say the same of the other Saments as we shal see God ayding when we treat of each one In particular let us content our selves at present to see that the Sacraments are practical and effective signes of the grace they signify of which only it now remains to speak 10. This word Grace in the Scripture and in the language of the Faithfull is taken in divers senses First it is taken sometimes for all favours that God does us also in the order of nature other times for free gifts of God term'd graces gratis given becaus they are not given for the deserts not for the benefit of the Receiver but for the good of the Church as the gifts of prophecie preaching and working miracles 11. 'T is not in any of these senses that 't is taken treating of the Sacraments 'T is taken for habitual and sanctifying grace which is a most excellent quality that Sanctifys us and renders us holy and just before God that makes us children of the eternal Father Brothers and Coheires with IESUS CHRIST living Temples of the holy Ghost Kings of heaven and Partakers of the Divine nature says S. Peter 2. Ep. 1. ss 7. can 6. 13. 'T is an article of Faith declar'd by the councell of Trent that all sacraments of the christian Church give Sanctifying grace to all that receive them worthyly If there were a Confessor so rich and liberal that he would give five or six Guinnies to all that should com and confess to him and as often as they should com who would not go would he not be opprest with people We are not Christians if we believe not firmly that as often as we confess or receive other sacrament as we ought we acquire a greater treasure than if one should give us a thousand guinnys yes in the ballance of Gods judgment and in the esteem of wisemen one only degree of grace is more precious and more worth than all the riches of the Indies becaus grace is of a superior order to all the goods of nature 14. But by the sacraments you receive not only one degree of grace but many In Isaiah it is sayd You shal draw waters in joy out of the Saviours fountaines 'T is not sayd you shal receive they shal be given you But you shal draw t is not sayd out of cisterns But out of fountaines if it were sayd you shal receive grace you might think that you should receive but as much as one would give you But since t is sayd that you may draw and also out of fountaines which cannot be drain'd you may take as much of it as you will The measure of the greater or lesser quantity of water that you draw out of a fountaine is not in the fountaine it self but in the greatness or littleness of the vessell wherein you draw it so the measure of the greater or lesser grace you receive in sacraments is not in the sacraments themselves but in the greater or lesser disposition which you bring it you com to them with much of faith attention contrition humility devotion fervour and love of God you will receive in them much grace if you go to them with little disposition you will receive but little and consequently 't is more profitable to confess and to communicate one only time with-great devotion than 5. or 6 times with little disposition 14. Moreover the sacraments give not only habitual and sanctifying grace but also actual and auxiliary graces which ayd us to obtain the end for which each Sacrament was instituted I explicate my self when you receive holy Orders in a good state and with the disposition that you ought in the sanctifying grace which you receive is included a promise which God makes you to give you actual graces to perform well the divine office to instruct the people to administer the Sacraments and to do other ecclesiastical functions to which you are apply'd and consecrated by holy Orders If you marry in a good state and as a christian in the sanctifying grace which you receive is containd a promise that God makes you to give you in occasions actual and auxiliary graces to live peaceably with your husband to breed up well your children to resist temptations against conjugal chastity and to practise other vertues to which marriage obliges you By which you see the great prejudice you do your selves when either you neglect or receive unworthily the Sacraments you deprive your selves of innumerable graces which God would oblige himself to give you in the rest of your life as the appurtenances and attendants of the grace which you should have receiv'd 16. This will render you extreamly culpable in the judgment of God and you will dye with great regret seeing you had so souveraigne remedies and helps and that you neglected so much to profit by them know that the Sacraments are talents of inestimable value but which are given us with an obligatioâ— to gain by them In S. Matthew IESUS compares himself to a Lord who gave Talents to his servants and finding that he who had receiv'd Mat. 25. but one had not gaind with it sayd cast the unprofitable servant out into exteriout darkness there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth What then would He have don to him if he had lost his talent what
would He have don to him if he had receiv'd and lost many and what will IESUS say to us what will he do to us if we shal have abused or not used and profited in vertue by the talents of the sacraments He hath given us what weeping what regrets what gnashing of teeth and what rage against our selves for having lost so good so easy and so frequent occasions to make good our salvation to advance in vertue to load our selves with merits and to enrich our selves for eternity But vertuous people will reioyce will admire their own happiness and will acknowledg their wisdom in receiving them often becaus they will see that these Sacraments were most rich talents and were gages and infallible promises of the inestimable incomprehensible and infinite glory which they shal possess for ever Amen DISCOVRS XLI Of the Necessitie and Nature of Baptisme WHen great S. Hierome says we are not Christians by birth he speaks of the carnal birth and not of the spiritual for in the Sacrament of Baptisme we are made Christians we are regenerated in the life of grace This Sacrament is a spiritual birth the first and the most necessary of all the Sacraments the door through which we enter into the Church To know evidently the necessity of it we must acknowledg three verities founded upon the principles of Christian Religion received by all Doctors and drawn from express passages of holy scripture 1. The first is that all Children which are conceiv'd by the ordinary way all except the Virgin are sported with original sin are enemies of God objects of his just wrath â—laves of the Devill Children of perdition and victimes of eternal death I say conceiv'd by the ordinary way to make you understand that the Son of God being not conceiv'd by this way but by the operation of the holy Ghost his Conception was not only exempt from all impurity but hath been the source and origin of all purity of our souls and bodys I have moreover added the Virgin excepted becaus according to the maxim of S Aâ—stin when we speak of sin we speak not of the Virgin she having been prevented with all the graces and advantaged with all the priviledges that an Omnipotent and loving Son could bountifully bestow on her whom He chose to be his Mother These two then excepted T is an Article of faith that all Children though their Parents be faithfull and in the state of grace are soiled with sin and are fruits of malediction and damnation They are soiled with sin For in Adam all have sinned says S. Paul and nothing that is soiled shal Rom. 5. 12. Apoc. 21. 27. Ephes. 2. 3. enter into heaven says S. Iohn They are the objects of Gods anger we were by nature the children of wrath says S. Paul and the anger of God is not a passion but a punishment the wrath of God upon this stilborne infant is never appeased For he that hath not faith the wrath of God remaines upon him says IESUS CHRIST in S Iohn but this infant hath neither actual nor habitual faith not actual for he is uncapable of it not habitual for he could 3. 36. not receive it but by the Sacrament and he is dead without it the wrath of God remaines upon him 2. After all this how do some flatter themselves in their sins and say that God made us not to cast us away that his mercy permits him not to be so rigorous as they say that he will spare us though we die in the state of sin made He these poor infants to cast them away and nevertheless He permits them to be lost the mercy of God is greater than you can possibly imagin and notwithstanding this great mercy this infinite mercy hinders him not to exercise such a severity upon these little creatures And if He be so severe to them for one only sin which they incurre by the misfortune of their condition what will He be to you for so great a number of sins which you commit not by ignorance constraint surprise but so freely and voluntarily 3. 'T is a second Verity that original sin was an evill so desperate and incurable that there was not any pure Creature possible that could remedy this evill that nothing less was necessary than the humiliation blood and death of a God for a medecine to t is mortal maladie 'T is easy to prove it by the malice of sin which offends an infinite Majesty but 't is not necessary since it is a common doctrine that 't is not but to extreme maladies that one applyes extreme remedies sin must be a very dangerous and extreme evill since a remedy so powerfull strange extraordinary and extreme was necessary for it Ha! you know not ô sinner what is a mortal sin for if you knew it you would rather die a thousand times than commit it you would rather eate your tongue than pronounce one only blasphemy or fals testimony you would rather burn your hand than reach it out to a dishonest or unjust action 4. This precious and inestimable treasure of the merits and passion of IESUS is a most powerfull remedy for original sin but nevertheless unprofitable and uneffectuall if it be not apply'd to us Suppose that you have here the best medecine in the world if the infirme person take in not it serves for nothing so though the precious blood of IESUS and the infinite merits of his passion be more than most sufficient to deliver us from sin if they be not appropriated and appli'd to us by the Sacrament they are uneffectuall and unprofitable So we see the Scripture attributes 1. Ep. 1. 7. Ephes. 5. 26. 1. Pet. 1. 19. Tit. 3. 5. Iohn 3. 3. 6. S. Austin ep 20. ad Hierom lib. 3. ep 9. ad Fidu Aug. lib. 3 de Orig. Animae 9. c. to the water of Baptisme the same effects it attributes to the blood of IESUS CHRIST becaus water aplyes the vertue of it The blood of IESVS CHRIST cleanses us says S. Iohn IESVS CHRIST cleanseth his Church by the Baptisme of wator says S. Paul S. Peter We are saved by the blood of the immaculate Lamb. S. Paul God hath saved us by the Baptisme of regeneration In S. Iohn IESUS repeats twice with great instance that none may pretend ignorance Amen Amen I say to thee if any one be not regenerated of water and the holy Ghost he shal not enter into the kingdom of heaven Hence the primitive Christians if an infant was in danger ran hastily to the Church and in great fear lest the infant should dye without the sacrament Hence S. Cyprian says without Baptisme infants are lost Hence S. Austin gives us this caveat say not teach not if you will be a Catholick that infants departing before Baptisme can com to remission of their original sins Now I make your selves Iudges whom we ought to belive either a Quaker or some other Reformer who say that t is not
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
are baptized but they stand obliged to follow them Which made great S. Basil say whosoever hath receiv'd the Baptisme of the law of grace is oblig'd to live according to the Gospell and hath oblig'd himself by an irrevocable contract to imitate IESUS CHRIST 5. I know well than to excuse your selves you say if I live not according to the world if I cloath not my self gorgeously if I lead a retired and mortified life I shal pass for an extravagant person they will not esteem me they will say I am an abhorrer of society and a man of another world You say true but what is this to say It is to say they will esteem you a christian that you will pass for a Disciple of IESUS This is that which you have promised in Baptisme T is in this the perfection of Christianity consists in declaring war against the world and its pomps in opposing its maxims and customs contradicting flesh and blood Take courage then says S. Chrysostom fight valiantly consider what Chrysost To 3 ser de Martyr you have promised under what condition you were made a Christian and in what war you are enrolled Think not to tryumph without Victory to be victorious without fighting to fight without enemies that are contrary to you 6. But some do say where are pastimes delights and pleasures forbidden in the ten commandements or in those of the Church If those frequent and almost continuall pastimes delights and pleasures are not against the first and chiefe of the commandements Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy forces they are at least against the second which our Saviour says is like to it For is this to love your neighbor as your self to employ in superfluous delights that which might deliver him out of great inconveniences and miseries you know that so many orphans so many other poor who are the children of God members of our Saviour are eaten with vermin for want of a little linnen that they are starved with cold and that they dye with hunger for want of assistance and the money wherewith you might succour them you spend in superfluities what insensibility is this where is the fraternal Charity or the Christian Compassion or the bowells of mercy which the elect ought to have The Prophet Amos 6. 6. Amos weighed well how much Charity was by this violated when he sayd Woe to you who seek exquisite meats and delicious wines and yee have not pity on the miseries of the people 7. S. Denys says that in his time if one desired Baptisme the c. 2. Eccle. Hier. parag 2. et 3. first thing he did was to intreat a Christian to be his God father the Christian on the one side desiring the salvation of the Petitioner and on the other weighing the weakness of a man with the weight of the affaire was troubled with fear and seized with apprehension to conduct him to the Bishop Nevertheless in fine he led him to the Prelate Who sayd to him that his designe ought not to be imperfect but entire and with all his heart as approaching to God who is entirely perfect and having declar'd to him the forme of life he ought to lead to live godly receiv'd from him promises and protestations to aspire with all his force to that perfection And that he might not undertake such a charg lightly and inconsiderately he made him pass 2 or 3 years in Catechumenate which was the Noviciate of Christianity where he exercised himself in fasting prayer and other penances to make tryal if he could apply himself to the austere and vertuous life of Christians By which you see that the answers made for you in Baptisme are not ayrie words they are according to this great Saint and other holy Fathers promises and protestations which oblige us By the same you see also what life the Christians of those times did lead to satiâ—fy the obligations contractd in their Baptisme 8. Do as they did renounce the Devill and all his pompes works and suggestions renounce the World with its vanities follies and maxims renounce your selves your flesh sensualitie selflove particular judgment and all the inclinations of the old man separate your will from his and turn to IESUS your God and the Source of your salvation Acknowledg the excellencie of your Dignitie the noble and divine Allyance to which you are elevated to whom you pertain by Baptisme Remember that you have the honour to be the members of IESUS-CHRIST not improperly nor metaphorically but really and truly Let us remember that he is our Head and that we must conform our selves to him otherwise we shal make a great deformitie in his body and dishonour him extreamly Would not this be a monstrous and unnatural deformitie if to the head of a handsom man were joyn'd the body of a beast the paws of a Lyon the belly of a hog the tail of a serpent IESUS is the Head of the Church we are the members of it what dishonor should we do him what unnatural deformitie should we make in his Body if we should be unlike to him if He being as meek as a lamb as pure as the sunbeam and as simple as a dove we should be cruel like lyons unclean like hogs and deceitfull as serpents Let us assure our selves that He will not suffer such deformitie in heaven and that to be associated to him in the life of glory we must be like to him in the life of grace Amen DISCOVRS XLIII Of Confirmation AS the eternal Father hath shewn effectually the ineffable love which He had for the world in giving his only and beloved Son in the Mistery of the Incarnation a love so wonderfull and prodigious that though admiration be the daughter of ignorance and IESUS be the infinite and eternal Science He speaks not of it but with astonishment and admiration Sic Deus dilexit mundum So IESUS hath shewn effectually the infinite love which He had for his Church in giving Her his holy Spirit who is equal coeternal and consubstantial with Him and his Father 2. But as in the distribution of graces where of the Apostle 1. Cor. 12. 10. speaks the holy Ghost is communicated to divers persons for different operations to some to worke miracles to others to interpret the holy scripture and the like so in Sacramental grace the holy Ghost is given for divers intentions to produce divers effects according to the difference of the ends for which IESUS instituted the Sacraments In Baptisme the holy Ghost is given us to be the Soul of our souls the life of our life and the Spirit of our spirit to create in us the spiritual and Christian life make us Children of God Members of IESUS CHRIST and Heirs of the kingdom of heaven In Confirmation He is given us to make us Souldiers of IESUS CHRIST to enrole us in his warfare and to
arme and fortify us against his enemies 3. That there hath been always in the Church a particular Sacrament to make us soldiers of IESUS CHRIST appears in the Acts Acts. 8. 17. where S. Peter and S. Iohn gave the holy Ghost by imposing Episcopal hands upon the Samarians whom Philip the deacon had converted and baptized The same S. Paul did to the disciples of Acts. 19. 5. and 6. Tertull de Prescrip c. 40. S. Iohn at Ephesus It apears also in Terâ—ullian who says that Satan Ape of the Divinitie and ambitious of the honor we give to God in our Mysteries incited the Idolaters to counterfeit in their superstitious ceremonies the Sacraments of the Church He proves it by induction in the first Sâ—craments Satan says he Counterfeits our Baptisme he baptizes those that belive in him our Confirmation he markes in the forehead those who are his souldiers and our Eucharist he makes an oblation of bread Oâ—her Fathers say that this Sacrament is Pentecost for us that is to say the holy Ghost is given to us in it with abundance of his grace and for the same end for which He was sent to the Apostles in the day of Pentecost IESUS ascending into heaven commanded them not to preach the Gospell not to appear abroad till they had received him He knew their frailty He knew that without his aide they would be overcom Behold S. Peter he had been baptized he came from communion and becaus he was not strengthned with this vertue he trembles and shrinks at the voice of a poor maid but after Penâ—ecost he is so couragious that he speaks undauntedly in a full Consistory he says to the Iudges and high Priests We must rather obey God than men You see then that this Sacrament makes souldiers of IESUS CHRIST and gives us force to fight for him wherefore it imprints a Character and it belongs to a Bishop only to conferr it He administers it with the thumb with Unction of sacred Chrisme composed of oyle and balme he makes the signe of the Cross upon the forehead and gives a little stroke upon the cheek 4. It imprints a character in our soul for characters are imprinted in us by some Sacraments to mark and distinguish us from other men and to designe us paticularly to the service of God by Baptisme we are made his subjects by holy Order Officers and Ministers of his Church and by Confirmation we are made his Soldiers 5. I know well that by Baptisme we are also made spiritual soldiers and for this we use unction in it But this is only to fight in our own quarrell against the Devill and other particular Enemies As the Burgesses of a Town though they are not by profession soldiers faile not to have arms and to fight in need in defence of their persones or their countrey 6. But by Confirmation we are made soldiers to fight not in our particular quarrells but in those of IESUS-CHRIST soldiers by office and profession to the end we fight for him against Tyrants against the World and against the Enemies of his Religion 7. And hence it proceeds that every one may Baptize in necessity and that a Bishop only may Confirm for to make a subject of a king we need not but to cause a child to be born in his kingdom But to raise and enrole soldiers belongs not but to Captaines so to make us Vassalls of IESUS on needs not but to make us to be borne in the Church his kingdom which is don by Baptisme But to make us his soldiers by Confirmation one must be a Bishop or Prelate of the Church 8. In making us soldiers He gives us arms and force by the grace of this Sacrament And hence it is that the Bishop gives it with his thumb the strongest of all the fingers He gives it by unction to signify the interiour Vnction and force by which we are fitted to appear in the field Balm is thereto added becaus we must fight publickly for IESUS and if we do well we are a good odour to the son of God and to his Church Christi bonus odor sumus in omni loco 9. This unction is made in the form of a Cross becaus the Cross is the standard and the ensigne of the warfare in which we enrole our selves 10. This Cross is made in the forehead the seat of bashfulness to teach us that thenceforth we must not be asham'd of the Cross of IESUS that we ought to embrace with a holy boldness the reproaches confusions humiliations and the mortifications which occurre in the practise of Christian vertues and to make us know that we must be ready to receive and endure affronts and ignominies for the defence of Iesus He gives us a little blow 11 It was not in vain nor without much reason that IESUS instituted a particular Sacrament so great a Sacrament a Sacrament which imprints a character which a Bishop only can conferr which gives such plenitude of the holy Ghost to arme and fortify us not only against Tyrants but also against the Persecutors of christian piety and devotion For christian Religion which is almost freed from the persecution of pagans is at present tyranized by the babble raillery and derision of wordly souls Wherefore S. Bernard sayd the Church may truly say In pace amaritudo mea amarissima my affliction is most bitter in the time of Isay 38. 17. peace It was bitter in the death that Tyrants made the Martyrs to endure more hitter in the infidelity of Hereticks But 't is most bitter in the ill life of Christians who mock and laugh at the piety of devout Souls For this is much more hurtfull than that of Tyrants In the persecution of Tyrants Christians dared not to pray nor to exercise devotion in publick they sought caves grotes and private houses but they served God freely at least in these places the persecution of worldlings is the caus that many dare not serve God as they ought in particular houses for fear to be called devotes they dare not frequent the Sacraments or be assiduous at divine service becaus they call them hypocrites they dare not be conscientious and restrain'd from unhandsom words and insolent actions becaus they call them scrupulous a sin detestable and wholy unnatural to persecute christianity in chrichristianity it self to have sworn fidelity to IESUS in the Sacrament of Baptisme and laugh at those who are faithfull to him not to serve God themselves and to deride those that serve him a sin not of frailty nor of ignorance but of malice and contempt which drawes from them the grace of God indurates and disposes them to impenitence and reprobation The children of Hely who averted the people from devotion 1. Kings 3. 14. committed an abominable crime in the sight of God which could not be expiated by victimes says the holy Scripture 12. This temptation is so dangerous also to devout souls that they who stand invincible
shal henceforth dare to doubt of it And He affirming and saying This is my blood who is he that shal doubt of it saying 't is not his blood Heretofore in Cana of Gallilee He changed water into wine is He not worthy to be believed changing wine into into blood Vnder the species of bread the Body is given and under the species of wine the blood is given his Body and his blood is receiv'd into our members That which seems bread is not bread though the taste preceives it such but the Body of Christ and that which seems wine is not wine though the taste represents it such but rhe Blood of Christ S. Cyrill of Alexandria who assisted in the third general Councel held at Ephesus in his 13. book upon Leviticus in the middle says Lest we should have horour of flesh and blood put upon our Altars God condescending to our weakness infuses into the things we offer to wit into bread and wine the vertue of life converting them into the verity of his own flesh S. Crysostome preaching to the people brings in our Saviour speaking thus to them Many Parents give their children to others Chrysost ham 61. ad pop Antioch to be nourished But not so I with my own flesh J nourish you and set my self as meat before you J took upon my self flesh and blood for you and the very same flesh and blood I deliver again to you Let vs ioyn to the Golden mouth to the Ambrosian mouth that is to say S. Ambrose to S. Chrysostom This bread before the Sacramental words is bread but when the consecration is don of bread is made the flesh of CHRIST by what words of IESUS CHRIST by the word which made althings the Heaven was not before the creation the sea was not the earth was not but He spoke and they were made He commanded and they were created so I answer you before the Consecration this was not the Body of Christ but after Consecration J say to you that 't is the Body of IESUS IESUS hath spoke the words In Africa they Spoke as they did in Italy becaus they had there the same faith which made S. Cyprian or the Authour of the supper of our Lord to say the bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples being changed not in appearance but in nature was made flesh by the omnipotency of the Word In fine great S. Augustine in a sermon upon the Title of the 33 Psalm admiring these words And He was carried in his own hands sayd this cannot be understood of David nor of any other than of Iesus CHRIST for who is he that can carry himself in his hands But IESUS CHRIST carried himself in his hand when He sayd to his Disciples take eate This is my Body If you will weigh with me the circumstances of the Institution of this Sacrament you will have no difficulty to embrace the faith of these holy Doctors and you will see the great injury they do our Lord who say that He gave to his Disciples but only bread as the figure and the memory of his Body 4. Let us consider first who He is that says these words This in my Body T is the Son of God who is all Power â—isdom Goodness We may well comtemplate in Him these Perfections since He himself considers them to accomplish this Mistery T is S. Iohn that says it JESUS knowing that the Father gave athings into his hands Iohn 13. that He came from God and goes to God whereas he had loved his that were in the world unto the end He loved them IESUS in the last supper considers that his Father gave althings into his hands that He had an infinite power and nothing was impossible to Him He considers that He came from God that He is the increated Wisdom produced by the Father by way of understanding and knowledg He considers that He had excessively loved men making himself man for them that it was the property of his infinite Goodness to Communicate it self to them more and more and to love them unto the end Ought He to consider all these things to give them a morcel of bread And is this a Donary beseeming such a Donor In the second place to whom does He speak Saying This is my Body To his beloved Disciples to whom He had sayd I will not call you servants but my friends becaus I have made known to you all that I have received from my Father He speaks to his Apostles to whom He was accuâ—â—omed to speak clearly without Parable or figure or if He proposed any to them He explicated the same presently He sayd to them You have the priviledg to know the secrets of the kingdom of God but to the rest I propose them in Parables He speaks to his Embassadors whom He sends to instruct the world Is it not to Embassadors that a King is wont to discover his designes to open the secrets of his heart to give particular Instructions that they may negotiate the better his affaires And IESUS saying that He gives his body saying it I say to his Friends Apostles Embassadors shal He â—ave deceived them and instead of his precious Body shal He have given them a morcel of bread Let us Consider in the third place the Circumstance of Time He eates first the Paschal Lamb with them and afterward to mount up to a higher Misterie to pass from the figure to the reality from the image to the verity from the promise to the accomplishment and from the shadow to the Body He gives them his precious Body If the bread that He gave them were not his Body but a figure only it would be in vain that He gave it it would be an unprofitable and superfluous repetition not of word but deed since the Paschal Lamb was a figure more express more distinct and more significant of his Body than a morcel of bread In giving it to them He sayd with desire I have desired to eate this Pasche with you before I suffer This desire was not only to eate the Paschal Lamb with his Disciples since He had eaten it so often with them and that He had had this desire lo long with desire I have desired says He that is J have long since vehemently desired and this desire of IESUS this great desire of IESUS this desire which the amorous heart of JESUS hath had so long shal it not have had for object but to eate with his Apostles a morcel of bread He sayd before I suffer and S. Paul in which night He was betrayd 1. Cor. 11. 23. to make vs know that being neer his death He made his Will and Testament and He declares it in express words This Chalice is the new Testament in my blood A wise man who loves his children making his Will speaks as clearly as he can if any one makes it in doubtfull and ambiguous words 't is becaus he is little intelligent in
affairs or will leave suits not goods to his heires if my Father had left me a house and you would contest with me saying 't is a paper or painted house he means what Judg would hear you what impartial Arbiter would not condemn you would you not injure me and yet more my father if he had meant a paper house would he not have declared his intention IESUS our celestial Father makes his Testament He declares his last Will He says that He leaves me his precious Body and you say 't is not his true Body 't is a figure of his Body goe you are a mocker if it was not but his figure would He not have sayd so as well as you would He have sayd This is my Body instead of saying this is my figure He is upon his departure in his last supper He goes to death and afterward to the imperial heaven when a loving husband is vpon his deathbed or bids farwell to his dear spouse for a journey somewhat long is it not then that he opens his heart to her and discovers to her his secrets is it not then that he speaks to her without ambiguitie that he gives her testimonyes of his greatest affection and leaves her the more precious presents And JESUS being in the vigill of his death giving his farwell to the Church his Spouse and depriving her of his Visible presence shal He have spoken obscurely and equivocally to her shal He shal He have deceived her in a matter of so great importance and for all nuptial presents for the gage of his amity for the testimonie of his tender affections for a supplement of his absence shal He have left her only a morcell of bread The manner also in which He accomplishes this Mistery ought to be considered if this be but a morcel of bread Why promises He it so long before why speaks He of it with so much pomp Why prayses He the effects and necessitie of it so much Why prefers He it before the Manna the bread which I will give you is my flesh he that shal eate of this bread hath everlasting life If you eate not my flesh you shal not have life in in you This is not as the manna your fathers have eaten If that which He gives is but a mite of bread the manna was to be prefer'd before it It was the figure of the Body of IESUS CHRIST as well as Calvins bread and much more express for it was mouldedâ— by hands of Angells the bread of Calvinists by the hands of men that came from heaven and their bread from a bakers oven that had all sorts of tasts their bread hath but one After He had promised it so long time and so solemnly He gives it but washes first the feet of his Disciples He makes them a long and sublime sermon He recommends to them puritie and charitie He makes to his Father a very long prayer and if all this tended but to give them a piece of bread I make you judg 5. Let us consult moreover the practise and the Pietie of the primitive Christians and we shal see that their faith and the religious S. Ambr. lib. 3. de Spirit Sto. c. 12 S. Crysos hom 24. in 1. ad Cor. Et in orat de Philogonio Ceremonies which they practised in respect of the Eucharist were-very contrarie to the error of the Calvinists they adored the holy Sacrament upon the Altar with the worship of Latria which cannot be given but to God only we adore the flesh of CHRIST yet this day in the sacred Mysteries says S. Ambrose S. Augustine upon these words of the Psalme Adore his footstool sayd Christ hath given us his flesh to eate but nobody eates this flesh but after that he hath adored it S. Chrysostome Let us imitate at least the Mages who seeing Christ but in a manger adored Him with great fear and you see Him not in a manger but upon an altar 6. They feared extreamly to let fall upon the ground the least S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom 26. Origen hom 13. in Exod. particle of the Eucharist or one drop of the chalice as S. Austin and Origen do testify They required not only purity of body and sanctitie of soul to touch or receive this Sacrament but they demanded sanctiâ—ie to see it and to look upon it as appears in the first epistle S. Chrysostome wrote â—o Pope Innocent where he complains that soldiers sent by his enemies had entred in a tumultuous manner into the Church and he exagerats as a bold attempt that many of them who were not yet baptized had seen the holy Hosts They exposed not also to the Catechumens the secret of this Sacrament it was the secret of the Church which was not revealed but to her Children and it was a crime to speak of it in the presence of Catechumens or of Infidells this is seen in the epistle which the Synod of Allexandria wrote to the Catholick Bishops where the Council complains that the Arians were not asham'd to speak of the Mysteries in the presence of Catechumens and what is wors before infidells 7. Now I appeal to your consciences if the Christians of the primitive Church did believe that the Eucharist is but a morcel of bread which minds us of the body of IESUS would they have adored it with supream worship would they have thought it so great an incongruitie to let fall the least crum of it would they have required such puritie of body and soul to receive it to touch it or to hear or speak of it 8. All the Articles of our faith are equally true but there are none of them so express in scripture none taught so clearly by the holy Fathers less opposed in primitive times confirmed by so many miracles received so unversally in Europe in Asia and in Africa as this For amongst all Catholicks Hereticks Schismaticks amongst Grecians Latines Hebrews Abyssins or Ethiopians which have been and which are at present Calvin only with his Partie hath obstinately denyed it I leave you to thinke with whom you should chuse to rise and appear at the day of judgment either with S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostom and all the other holy Doctors of the east west south and north who florished in the time when the Church was in her greatest puritie and vigour or with Calvin who came fifteen hundred years after the institution of this Sacrament 9. Follow the counsell which the holy Ghost gives you by the Wiseman Ne transgrediaris terminos antiquos quos posuerunt Patres tui Passe not the bounds which your Ancesters have put hold the beliefe of those primitive Christians and the doctrine of these holy Fathers who were taught by the Apostles or by their Successours who read the holy Scripture day and night who meditated upon it seriously who were particularly assisted by the holy Ghost to understand it well who were desinteressed and free from passion for
friends who may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS L. Of Holy Orders HItherto we have treated of Sacraments which were instituted to sanctify men in particular now we speak of the Sacrament of Order instituted for the General good publick Order Government and Ministery of the Church And becaus Dissenters deny it to be a Sacrament we will shew in the first place that 't is a true one Secondly we will consider what this sacred Signe does signify and in the third place the Documents we ought to draw from thence for the glory of God the Salvation of our Souls and the guidance of our lives 1. A Sacrament is an exteriour and sensible signe by which grace of the holy Ghost is given him that receives it worthily Now the Apostle S. Paul and after him the general Councell of Calcedon say expressly that grace of the holy Ghost is conferr'd in Ordination by imposition of hands Neglect not the grace that is in 1. Tim. 4. 14. 2. Tim. 1. 6. Concil calced an 451. Act. 1 5. can 2 thee which is given thee by Prophecie with imposition of the hands of Priesthood I admonish thee that thou resussitate the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands Hence the Councells and ancient Fathers have always acknowledged Ordination for a true and proper Sacrament and therefore in the general Councell of Florence this is numbred with them both Grecians and Latins approving it I might Fill pages with Citations of the holy Fathers But this of great S Austine will suffice He in his second book against the Epistle of Parmenean proves against the Donatists that the Sacrament of Order cannot be lost becaus Baptisme cannot Let them Explicate says He how the Sacrament of the the Baptized cannot be lost and the Sacrament of the Orderer may be For if both of them be Sacraments of which nobody doubts why cannot that be lost if this may be Here he calls Orders a Sacrament He shews it to be a proper and true one by comparing it whith Baptisme He assures us that nobody doubted of this Verity and if S. Austin may be credited not only all the Writers of his time but also all the Faithfull did believe the same 2. This external and sacred signe expresses two singular favours which Ecclesiasticks receive from God in their consecration The first is the highest dignity in the World For to a Priest is given Power over the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST to consectate and offer and distribute it and over his myistical Body which is the Church to remit sins administer Sacraments and to do the sacred functions of the characters imprinted in him A Power so much more excellent eminent and higher than other Dignities as the Spirit than the Body Heaven than Earth Divine things than humane and as Eternal than temporal S. Paul says 't is certaine by the consent of all the world Heb. 7. 4. that he who hath right to give his Benediction to another is more noble and high than he sine ulla contradictione quod minus est a meliore benedicitur But a Priest gives his Benediction to Princes Kings and Emperours his Dignity then is more high S. Chrysostome exhorting Priests to refuse Absolution and Communion S. Chry. Hom. 3. in Matt. Hom. ad 60. pop Antioch to all that are unworthy though they be Princes or Kings says to them you ought to do it and you can do it you ought to do it otherwise IESUS CHRIST will exact of you an account of his Blood and will punish you most terribly You can do it for your Power is greater than that of Princes of this world If you suspect the Testimony of this Saint becaus he was a Prelate of the Church hear the Prince of the world The Emperor Basil in an oration he made to his people in the eighth general Baron An 869. nn 55. Councell It belongs not to us Laymen to medle with the things of the Church it belongs to Priests and Prelats who have power to sanctify us to open heaven to us and shut it against us to bind us or els to to absolve us Our condition is to be fed as sheep to be sanctifyd conducted and unbound You will not thinke the words of these Great men strange or that they exagerate the Greatness of Priestly Power if you consider that it surpasses the spiritual Power as well as the temporal divine as well as humane For popes who excell in Authority and Grandeure if considered not as as Priests are less in Power than these For the Power of Priests extends upon the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST and that of Popes upon his mystical Body only which is his Church and therefore as much as his natural Body exceeds his mystical so much the Priestly Power surmounts the Papal S. John Baptist who surpassed all men who was the greatest that had risen among the sons of women for his sanctity Yet was less in Power than the least Priest of the Church He shewed with his fingar IESUS CHRIST But Priests produce Him in their hands and give Him for nourishment to others He only diposed the people to penance and Priests absolve them from their sins The Angells who though they can do great things upon creatures of the world they cannot put Christ at their Will upon the Altar but are content to adore love and admire Him there And Priests by vertue of their character have this Power and can offer Him in an unbloody Sacrifice for the salvation of the Living and the Dead 3. This Power of Priests being so great God out of his goodness adds in their ordination another favour to it He whose workes are perfect giving power gives likewise those things that are requisite for the legitimate and convenient use of it He replenishes Priests with abundant grace to make them worthy of their Character to exercise well the functions of it and to rendet them capable to sanctify the faithfull Noli negligere gratiam quae data est tibi per impositionem manuum Presbiterij Idoneos nos fecit Ministros 4. These particular favours which IESUS does to Priests admonish us of the Honour we are oblig'd to render them Honour God with all thy soul and honour Priests says Ecclesiasticus And S. Paul Priests that do well their duty deserve double honor 'T is by them says S. Hierome that we are converted and made Christians by them we are received into the Church by them we are delivered from our sins we reenter into the grace and favour of God by them we receive his blessings enjoy the precious Body of IESUS and offer to God the dreadfull sacrifice by them in fine the Sacraments are administred and the imperial heaven is opened to us We must not neglect them who are the Judges of Kings in the process of eternity them who the Prophet Malachy says are the Angells of our Lord. Malac 2.
7. Exod. 22. 28. Them whom God himself calls Gods becaus they are his Vice-Roys Officers of his Crown His Ministers of state Secretaries of his commandements Iudges of his people Embassadors of his Majesty Mediators between God and men who announce the will of God to men and who present the desires of men to God We respect Embassadors also those of barbarous and infidell Kings with much more reason those which the king of Kings does send to us sayd S. Chrysostome 5. To create in our hearts a great respect to Priests Some alleadg the example of wise Salomon who sayd to Abiather the Priest you are guilty of death but I will not condemne you becaus you have carried the Arke Or the Example of Constantine the Great who in the Councel of Nice would not sit down but after all the Bishops and upon a little seat below them all And when one presented to him papers of complaints against some Priests he burnt them without reading them and being angry with the persone that gave them to him sayd it belongs to Priests to judg Emperours and not to Emperours to judg and condemn Priests and should I see a Priest commit a sin I would cover him with my Royal cloak for fear that any one should see him Other propose the example of S. Antony This great Saint this Patriarke of so many thousands of Anchorets that lived like Angells This great Antony of whose amity Emperours made so great account This Antony whome wild beasts obeyed at whose Name Devills trembled whose life converted so many Souls to God This great S. Antony I say honoured so much Priests that if he met the least of them he fell upon his knees and rose not up till he had received his benediction Or of the Seraphicall Father S. Francis who sayd that if he should meet an Angel and a Priest he would rather kiss the hands of the Priest than of the Angel Or of S. Catherine of Sienna who kissed the wayes and paths in which Priests had past 6. Is it not pity to see now that some Christians neglect them or contemne them under pretence that some of them are vicious If it be so does it pertain to them to speak of their vices are they judges of their Judges are they wiser than Salomon greater than Constantine more devout than S. Antony more fervent than S. Francis more innocent than S. Catherine and more zealous of the honor of God than God himself Who sayd by his Prophet Touch not my annointed Psal 104. 15. 7. Let us take heed Venerable Priests and honourable Fathers that we be not the cause or at least the occasion of this temerity that by our indevotions and immodesties by our irreverence in the Chruch and our conversations with the world we be not the cause of the little respect now given to our character and vocation How is the gold darkned and the best coulour changed says the Prophet Hieremie What 's becom of that splendour that luster Thren 4. and glory which heretofore shin'd in Clergiemen of that honor respect reverence and filial fear which they had for Ptiests in the primitive Church How is all this so decayed and obscured T is becaus then they saw not Priests but at the Altar in the Confessional or in the pulpit and now they are seen in Taverns in playhouses and in worldly companies IESUS says to us you are the light of the world we must shine so then that men may see our good workes and may be moved to glorify our Father which is in heaven But if our light be darkness if we falsify by our actions Christs Doctrine and maxims this ill example of one of us will ruine more the piety of the Faithfull than many other by their doctrine and good examples will be able to repair You are the salt of the earth salt is drawn out of water but if it be reunited to it it disolves and loses the propriety it had to prevent corruption a Priest is seperated from the people by his consecration if he rejoyn himself to them by a worldly conversation he loses the authority which he had to preserve them from the corruption of sin We are judges of others we must not be criminall God will examin us more axactly judg us more severely and punish us more rigorously SAVIOR IESUS high Priest and Pastor of our sols permit not that we give you caus to do it permit not that it may be truly sayd as the people so the Priest you are our inheritance our Lot and our Portion permit not that our inheritance pertain to others more than to us Make that our mouthes be not employed but to resound your praises that our comportment and our manners do express and represent your actions that our hearts be not enflam'd but in your love Amen DISCOVRS LI. of Matrimony 1. THe Mistery of the Incarnation is an alliance so advantagious and pleasing to the holy Humanity of IESUS that He would have not only in Churches but also in particular houses a continual image and a lively representation of it This is the legitimate alliance of man and woman of which I have three things to shew First that 't is a true and a great Sacrament secondly the Dutys to which it does oblige you Thirdly the honour you owe to it 2. If we weigh holy things not by the ballance of the opinion of Dissenters But By the weight of the sanctuary and by the judgment of the Church We shal avow that the legitimate Edhes 5. 32. S. Ambr. c. 7. S. Aug. de bono conjug c. 18. c. 24. alliance of man and woman is one of the most holy great and mysterious Sacraments of the Church 'T is a true Sacrament For besydes that the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Ephesians This is a great Sacrament the Fathers of the Church teach it S. Ambrose speaking of an Adulterer says he loses the grace of the heavenly Sacrament S. Austin tels us in the marriages of Christians the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more value than the fâ—cundity of the womb And againe amongst infidells marriage hath for its end propagation and fidelity but amongst Christians it hath moreover the sanctity of the Sacrament Not only these but other holy Fathers the Councills and the Tradition of the Vniversal Church ever taught the same hence it was that in the Instruction of the Armenians given in the Council of Florence it is numbred with the other Sacraments Trid. ss 24. can 1. hoth Grecians and Latins consenting to it And that the Councill of Trent pronounces anathema against those that shal say marriage is not a proper Sacrament instituted by IESVS CHRIST 3. Let us say then that 't is a true Sacrament nay let us say that 't is a Great one Great in its Caus Great in its Mater and Great in its Effects S. Austin very indiciously did say that as in the primitive Church the holy