in his Throne drawing from thence the eternal Son of God O who can be so wicked to behold the lines of this merciful proceeding drawn forth and not presently joyn issue with our holy preacher to abandon the pernicious wayes of sin and become a Disciple in the Rudiments of vertue To behold a Redeemer living in the Hearts of Men before he came to live upon Earth to see all the Sanctity of the World addressed to him to speak of nothing but him and all conspire to his glory If before he came he had so many tongues and voices to set him forth and that the Law and service of God had no other aim than to engrave the Messias in the Hearts of Men what expressions ought to enflame our zeal after his birth life cross and triumphant glory These are the wayes our Graduate will distill into the Minds of the wicked and certainly he did it with an excess of fervour and delight helped on by the consideration that out of his seed the Saviour of Israel was to be born And it is clear he kept close to this Theam even to the last making it his Testament and the subject of his expiring words to his Son Solomon That he should be sure to walk in the wayes of the Lord that in the exact observance of his judgments and Commandment written in the Law of Moses were fastned the succession of his Crown saying This done thou shalt not want one of thy posterity to sit upon the throne of Israel These are the wayes if happily taken will preserve the wicked from ruine give them eternal life secure them from Hell and open a passage to all the delights of Heaven as St. John sayes To the end that all who believe in the should possess eternal bliss Wherefore our Penitent egged on by so many powerful motives to the discharge of his task will never fail in what he hath promised to teach the wicked the wayes of God The Application Our Penitent instructs us here by his example that there is no employment so acceptable unto God as to disperse in our Neighbour the clouds of Ignorance and imbue him with principles of wisdome His Son Solomon was perhaps taught by this clause to address so happily his petition And Joel the prophet makes it the great subject of good tydings he foredeclared to the Church Be glad yea Sons of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God who hath given you a teacher of righteousness Aristotle being asked why Commonwealths did not assign pensions for Masters that taught and instructed others as they did to other offices of the State made this reply because there could be no reward answerable to their desert if he thought certain notions in natural knowledge to be so valuable what a price would he have set on such as convey the sublime mysteries of heaven unto us Let us then instruct our Neighbour by good example by doing charity to the distressed and by wholesome Documents every one according to his Talent and Ability And in doing this we follow the steps of a great Saint who believed he could in nothing better express his gratitude and zeal for God's honour than in the Reduction of Souls to the way of Salvation Amen CHAP. XXVIII Et impii ad te convertentur And the impious shall be converted to thee BY this clause our Penitent destroyes the Opinion of some in those modern times who assert that Christ died not for all Men but only for the elect for if the impious be not excluded from the participation of his precious Blood surely there is none that are impiety being a crime that directly strikes against the honour of God and is a complaet rebellion against his Divinity Now if our Divine by his preaching was confident to reduce such offendours whom can we imagine shall be excepted nor can they say we are put into a worse condition by the Evangelical Law in which a plenitude of benedictions are showred down upon us and which as far exceeds the Mosaick as a thing real the type and figure that represents it St. John Chap. 1.2 sayes Christ is a propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole World First Christ satisfied for Adam's disobedience and original sin witness St. Paul ad Rom. Chap. 2. As death entered by the default of one so life by the justice and obedience of one Again St. John sayes Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World that is original sin for the Greek version puts it in the Singular Number so Bede Theophilact and St. Thomas understand it The Angelical Doctor adds that the Son of God was incarnate rather for original sin which was an universal evil whose venome infected all Mankind than for the actual and personal sins of the World but as no sin is irremissible to an infinite mercy by consequence after original sin he made satisfaction for all actions and transgressions which were mortal The reason is that mortal sins not only deprive the Soul of the vision of God for all eternity but likewise exposes it to the everlasting torments of Hell the Son of God then whose nature is all goodness considered the misery of these sins and offered up his life and death for their expiation For without sanctifying grace our works are not meritorious nor can they satisfy for any venial sin Wherefore deprived of grace by original sin we could not by our selves no not by the assistance of the blessed Angels satisfy for the least venial sin Because though they be endued with grace yet no pure Creature can merit condign grace Wherefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ should make satisfaction for our least failing as St. Austin sayes excellently well that to save an infinity of VVorlds we ought not to cast one glance of the Eye contrary to the will of God Whence it is clear no Creature can satisfy for the least sin since to do it we must offer up something more valuable than the whole VVorld If then we could not free our selves from the least deviation without the interposition of his merits much less were we in a capacity to relieve our selves from the guilt of Enormous Crimes and if as to these the fruit of his passion was not applyed unto all it must be either from the inefficacy of satisfaction or a defect of commiseration and goodness towards his Creatures It cannot be the first for his merits are infinite by reason of the divine person from whence they proceed for actions belong to the person according to Philosophy It was likewise infinite in regard of his humanity because it was sanctifyed and deifyed by the divinity which was like a certain sanctifying and deifying form unto that sacred humanity now as the greatness of merit is not only measured by the quality of the work but also by many circumstances and especially in consideration of the dignity of the person that
little raise his confidence that his Judge was not tyed up to Lawes as the Ground-work of proceedings with offendours but his power is absolute to do all he pleases and his will such as to render what ever he doe's good and Just So that the least propension of this Will in order to a remission is sufficient to wipe away all the iniquities of the Earth Besides he considers that when God chastises he doth a thing extraneous to him and as Esay saies a work that is not his But to be merciful he owns it as a propriety annexed to his Godhead not to extenuate his Justice but to insinuate the love he bears to Man He embroyls not his Fancy with the niceties in Schools which dispute how Sin is remitted whether by the expulsion of any positive form and the introduction of another opposite to it Whether it be by the meer infusion of Grace or else only by taking away the obligation of a Sinner to eternal punishment he omits all these curious questions and attends only to the sweet effect to wit that he may be freed from his iniquity oft repeating in his Heart he had rather be a good Disciple than a great Master in the exact knowledge of his own misery When he looks back into his life past and remembers with what satisfaction and spiritual joy he had performed many acts of vertue he begins to be enfired with new flames of urging for a grant of his Petition Since he knowes that whilst he lyes under this attaindour of Treason he is capable of no right nor priviledge in the Charter given us by Heaven that should he do actions which in another condition might be praemiated would now be looked upon as a Jewel counterfeit and of no value He compares himself to a Plant in a Region far remote from the Sun whose Fruit never comes to maturity so his iniquity sets him at a great distance with God the light and life of Souls and consequently nothing can be expected from him which savours not of a Soyl accursed and doom'd to sterility so that as a misfortune seldome walks solitary he finds besides the unhappiness to have offended God this addition to be unable to do any thing acceptable unto him Then he goes on ruminating upon the sad consequences of his Sin which makes him fluctuate in his thoughts wholly unresolved how to comport himself Sometimes he appears like a Statue without motion and would eternally remain so since by no endeavours he can please his Creatour Then again I behold him bent upon the execution of all the good imaginable at least within the extent of his natural Force or Power that he may omit no Homage and Duty he owes to the Author of his Being But after all his restless solicitudes he observes the main Hinge of his happiness depends upon this Dele iniquitatem the cancelling of this Bond by which he is lyable to eternal punishment e're he can hope for admittance unto his wonted ravishing entertainments with his Divine Master He descants upon the proceeding of Almighty God with Sinners and would feign search into the secrets of his Providence why some are drawn from the depth of wickedness even when they seemed to be lost to the World and Heaven whilst others less guilty in the Eyes of men sadly perish without source or redress The preservation of the one he attributes to the immense goodness of God which sometimes dispenses as justly he may in his own lawes as to afford unto an unworthy sinner such powerfull calls that they are never resisted such melting affections as if they had been train'd up in the School of Divine love not in the Forge of iniquity It is fit he confesses the Divine Will which frames all Creatures should so dispose of what he hath made that when he pleases to raise any one out of corruption and render them instrumental to his Glory none ought or can justly repine at it He sustains this Argument with much heat himself being a party interessed still expecting to be the object of his choice mercy He dilates and expands his Soul under this inexhausted source like the Earth without Water thirsting for one drop of that Coelestial stream which might allay the anguish of his Mind and deface all the foul Characters of his iniquity his groans and unwearied sighs are fair Harbingers of that Noble Guest he once entertained with unspeakable delight and if he ever gain the repossession he protests that neither Angels Men Devils nor all the charmes in Creatures shall ever brand him with a new stamp of iniquity his Eyes by which his Soul receiv'd her first wound are become two floods of tears and if they prevail not to cleanse his stains at least they will testifie to the World he repented what he had done He casts not one glance towards Heaven which is not accompanied with hopes of meeting this mercy and this confidence is so grounded in him that were it decreed God would save but one Soul he hath courage enough to hope that his might be that one nay he builds so much upon these hopes that transporting himself to the consideration of many Sinners abandoned in their impieties it doth not at all deject him for he considers that God hath given us a free-will which he will never violence to our prejudice and though we cannot elevate this will to an act so perfect as naturally to merit the first Grace yet it may in such sort dispose us for grace by love and sorrow that God will doubtless gratifie us so prepared Whence 't is clear that as we fall not but by our own default so by vertue of a promise and contract made by Heaven we cannot finally perish but by an obstinate reluctancy of our own Hearts If he sees a Phararh sink into ruine irrecoverably he beholds likewise a Nebuchodonozer for the same crime struck down to rise again They were both Kings the sin of either alike detaining God's people in captivity yet the Fates of both very unequal Because the one retracts his misdeeds and raises a detestation of them the other persists in his Enormities without any truce or suspension At last he makes a Corollary of this discourse and concludes since some are preserved in Innocence by continued showers of Grace others by a sweet violence drawn from an Abyss of Sin to the upshot of happiness and none so entangled whom a true repentance will not set free he will never cease to importune Heaven till his iniquity be rased out let his Throat grow hoarse with clamours his Eyes droop and wax dimme his Heart rend asunder with grief he will spare no Particle of his whole Body nay glory in its ruine if by that means he can but unclog his Soul from the weight of Sin He judged it very reasonable that the Body having contributed to his Sin should share in the punishment as it had done in the crime and as it had concurred unto his
Death might not prey on a treasure that deserves to be immortal wherefore let us never cease to cry with our holy Penitent à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin Amen CHAP. VII Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco Because I know my iniquity AFter all these supplications our Petitioner now comes to give a reason why so confidently he requires an Act of Grace At the first view it seems a strange one and to imply his greater guilt It is this because he knowes his iniquity Ignorance where the fact is palpable makes a great plea in offendours our criminal on the contrary acknowledges his trespass declares he knowes what he has done and from thence claims and pretends a rationality in his petition had he in lieu of this inserted a Repentance of his misdeeds a detestation of his past failings this might have carried some weight in order to a remission But we must reflect injuries done to God and Man are things very disparate and quite of another nature For I may consider many disobligations I have thrown upon my Neighbour and yet not retract in my will those ill Offices because I may have received the like from him and many humane Lawes have allowed this retaliation so that to retain a memory of the harms I have done to Man may signifie nothing of vertue or pious amendment But when I look upon any miscarriage in my Duty towards God this glance must needs reproach me of ingratitude there can be no pretence or shadow of excuse to justifie any failing towards the Divine Majesty Since we are overwhelmed on all sides with his favours and benedictions whence the Sequel of such a consideration inevitably will humble confound and cast us upon the storms of Repentance Our Petitioner therefore knowing his iniquity virtually declares by it he disowns what he hath done or rather owns it to be exorbitant and from this confession layes claim to his Justice which upon the conversion of a sinner engages to abolish and raise out of his memory all past iniquities Because I know my iniquity This knowledge evidences the return of Grace to his Soul In the 35. Psalm he describes his own condition in the state of sin My iniquities surrounded me and I could see nothing St. Austin exclaims against that day wherein he committed sin and questions whether he may call it day since he was involved in a profound obscurity and then he goes on saying he will rise and disperse the mists of his iniquities that he may see the fountain of all goodness Our Petitioner again in the 48. Psalm gives Man when enslaved by sin the title of Beast nay with something of aggravation assimilating him to a Foolish Beast He remembred how Adam after his fall was cloathed with Skins of Beasts which attire was but a Symbol of his Mind bestiatized and made Savage by transgressions St. Thomas speaking of those Clouds of darkness wherein poor sinners lye groveling sayes it proceeds from a propension bent upon evil aversed from God and deprived of grace The opposite beams then which fill our Souls with light and serenity must needs draw their source from a love of what is good an adhaesion to God and a sweet repossession of grace and in these splendours our Petitioner finds himself First they raise his Soul to an Object infinitely good and amiable and after vehement affections enkindled towards this Sovereign felicity his Eyes are unsealed and beholds the Ghastly shape of his sins which cast him into exclamations against his own unworthiness upon reiterated addresses for mercy and pardon and at last admitted into favour he learns by that inestimable gift under whose Dominion he now lives what it is to offend God how monstrous a thing sin is and therefore will not conceal his new acquired notions but proclaim Quoniam c. because I know my iniquity It was not an abstract knowledge of his iniquity he alledges for this may consist with the most innocent and spotless Soul and was found in Adam before his fall But 't is what he had learnt by dear experience he had tasted that Tree which imports knowledge of good and evil but alas far different from those pure Idaeas which reside in Souls that were never involved in the shades of sin for such survey with an intellect as it were Angelical the commands of God and in obedience to his Law make use of their knowledge but to avoid the prevarication But our Petitioner looks upon the deformity of sin in all its circumstances of the Abyss of ruine it drawes upon us and having with the Cananean cryed for mercy then he confesses his nakedness then he layes open his failings and blushes not at the knowledge of his iniquity because they are now washed in a Christal stream and their past horrours serve but to raise in him a detestation of them and to invite him at the same time to admire the Wisdom of God that thus by his penitential acts will manifest his Justice and lastly to praise his mercy that hath given him a perfect knowledge of his iniquity as a certain Land-mark to preserve him from future Shipwrack because I know my iniquity I remember the Prodigal Son when languishing in misery and perishing for hunger pitched only upon this remedy that he would tell his Father he had sined against Heaven and him In like manner our Petitioner layes aside the thought of any good he may have done offers to the view of his eternal Father all the wounds of his cauterized Soul and that he might engage himself to a compleat discovery confesses he is not ignorant but knowes all the Windings and extravagant progressions of his iniquity how they had led him from Adultery to Homicide thence to Pride Vanity and Sole reliance on his own greatness and power and when he had summed up all his ingratitudes he gives this account Domine opus tuum vivica illud Lord I know my Sin So likewise I know the temper of the delinquent how he is composed of frailties unable of himself to set his hand to any good vvork to any supernatural motion Wherefore he hopes this consideration may something take off and render his deviations less irregular Yet on the other side he will not flatter himself into a blameless condition he knows a support of Grace ever attended him amidst his predominant passions and smartest tryals by whose means he might have been victorious This brings him on his Knees and drawes from him an humble confession Because I know my iniquity It was this knowledge fixing him on the basis of humility which prepared him for those sublime and supernatural communications he afterwards received from his dear Creatour What are his Psalms but a Series of raptures and coelestial ravishments a Tabernacle of sacred mysteries vvith vvhich his understanding was fed that vve may see to vvhat pitch Man is capable of arising from this knowledge of our Sins How confidently did St.
Idols and plunge themselves in transgressions of the highest nature However he did not here forget his promise but at the prayer of Moses reassumed them into his Sovereign Protection the same Night which was blest with the institution of the sacred Synaxis or Eucharist was also conscious of the horrid Treason of Judas and yet this Monster of ingratitude according to all Divines might have sheltred himself from God's wrath by a true Repentance Thus all along we see God justifyed in his Clemency towards sinners so that victory must needs remain to him when questioned by blasphemous Tongues for creating those who were to perish A Nabuchodonozer speaks for him a Thief upon the Cross a St. Paul a Magdalen and a Million of others that have redeemed by a few hours repentance what had been contracted in many years impieties and wickedness Our holy Penitent will also come in for a witness First he cryes what return shall I make to my God for all he hath done to me he praises blesses his holy name and then layes open his enormous crimes believing it is but reasonable to do him all right that hath dealt to him so much of mercy and though every thought of his sins afflicts him yet he glories that his Creatour's goodness will appear resplendent through his deformity he is content to become nothing that he might add the least tittle to God's Honour and greatness He values not his own confusion so God may be justifyed and this sweet experienced truth made good that the Divine will is that all shall be saved and to this end proportions sufficient means to all so that none can perish but through their own Impenitency and Perseverance in sin The Church would not style Adam's sin a happy sin if our Redemption and the merits of Christ's sacred passion were not extenedd to all even the highest offendour St. Paul sayes as Death found its entrance by the default of one so life was restored by one whence it is clear the remedy brought to us by Christ reached as far as the Disease St. John entitles him a Sun which enlightens every one that comes into this World there is none wrapped up in so black a Cloud of sins who may not if they will take in the Rayes of his Mercy and by their Deliverance justify God's Promises to Man In the production of every the least Creature saith St. Thomas the power wisdom and goodness of God are made manifest how much more then are they exalted in the Transmutation of a Soul from the Privation of Justice to the Possession of a Supernatural Gift of Righteousness whence St. Paul sayes God doth predestinate us according to the councel of his will that we may praise and diffuse abroad his glory Ah then let us give unto God what is his due as near as we can by despair we condemn our selves in rendring our Judge Inexorable and deaf to Mercy By Hope animated with Repentance we quit our scores of guiltiness and justify the hand that wipes them off To our justification by his grace he doth not only invite us to dispose our selves for it promising to refresh such as are oppressed c. But declares he is at the door of our hearts knocks solicits and expects but our consent to enter in at last defies the World to object the least failing on his side having done to his Vineyard what ever could be required to make it thrive To conclude God will be still justified that sinner who doth finally perish is the Author of his ruine by his own impenitency rejecting graces abundantly sufficient offered to him So that in the height of his misery when it is too late he will be forced to acknowledge crying O Lord thou art just and thy judgements equitable That sinner again who hath imitated our Penitent in having had timely recourse to the throne of mercy will not blush to unfold his wickedness since he now breaths a new life of grace which obliges him to proclaim how just God is in his promises and glorious in his Mercies That thou mayest be justifyed in thy words and overcome when thou art judged The Application In this clause we read the clear view our Holy Penitent had of the unquestionable proceedings of God with Man for beholding in his all-displaying Eye the ingratitude of Millions of Souls who would abuse his favours yet did not this restrain his munificence to them he first gave them a Being added to this Being the exhibition of his Graces all sufficient nay in a greater proportion than to many of the elect and to the acquisition of these benefits he made his only Son instrumental by whose blood is conveyed to them a capacity of Salvation Now if afterwards they come to perish it is through their own malice in misusing his gracious endearments and proving refractary to his commands for since he had conducted them indiscriminately with the predestinate by a supernatural Providence with which all along he obliged them what wisdome prudence or justice were it to gratify Traytors obstinate even unto death in rebellion with his Glory So that the motive of their reprobation is a foresight of their final perseverance in Sin their guiltiness gives matter of God's hatred and eternal damnation the effect of their impenitency 'T is true it was not in their power to be born or not be born but to fight generously or be vanquished by the Devil this depends on us It seems unreasonable that a King opening a Tournament and proposing a reward to the Conquerour should admit onely that person into the list whom he feresaw would be victorious So God in Creating an infinity of persons whereof the greater part would become reprobate is not to be blamed no more than that Prince who lets all run at the ring though it cannot be gained but by one for if we be foyld it is by our own Cowardize and remissness Thus the goodness of God appears in the Creation of Reprobates and no less his justice in pouring vengeance upon them so that he would be justified in his words and silence any blasphemous Tongue nay though these unfortunate wretches miss of their particular end that is paradise to which they are created yet the general design of their Creation to wit the promotion of his Glory will take effect for after his patience hath been strained if it may be so expressed in supporting their insolencies he will give lustre to his Saints Glory by the opposition of their misery just as a Moor sets off a great beauty Wherefore let us keep consort with our Holy Penitent avowing his just providence and submitting to all his Decrees as most equitable and worthy our Adorations Amen CHAP. XI Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum For behold I am conceived in iniquity OUr Penitent here appeals to the World whether he hath not reason being reinvested with the rich ornament of Grace to stand up and maintain Gods proceedings with his
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
any stop as if the Sage ruler of all things took no cognizance of their actions and which is done parhaps from a foresight they will persevere to the end in wickedness and having performed acts of moral vertues God allowes them a little calm in this life But in our sense when God passes over as undiscerned our faults he remits them without punishment and so seems to have been a stranger to our misdeeds but yet he never doth this that is never turns away his Face from our sins unless we first turn our Face upon them placing them before our Eyes and touched with a horrour at their deformity abjure and protest against them having done this we must then expose that abstract of wonders Christ Jesus before the Eternal Father that his wounded body may serve as a bulwark to defend us and appease his angry looks which implies the aversion of his Face or fury from us Our penitent having in this manner made his way he hopes the effect will follow that God averting his Face in that act will give him an abolition of his crimes that so he may reap the fruit of a Holy penitential fear We kow St. Peter fared not the worse when prompted by a low esteem of himself he requested his Lord to withdraw from him because a sinner No more did the good Centurion lose any thing in acknowledging his little of merit to have his house blessed and made happy by Christ's presence So our Penitent's awful respect in declining the Face of his Creatour springing from a sense of his own unworthiness and believing his sins an object unfit for an Eye so pure and unstained may perhaps draw benedictions upon him and contribute in a large measure to his happiness Wherefore he goes on still repeating turn away thy face from my sins The Application From this discourse we may learn the agitations of a Soul which hath once been defiled with sin sometimes he Figures God unto him as an angry judge and is affrighted to appear before him then again as a purity so compleat and Essential that though he should be conscious of no guilt as having been cleansed and washed as white as Snow he dares not yet stand to the examen Nay on the contrary it makes him petition to have that face which is the joy of Angels to be diverted from him we must then in imitation of our penitent fix only to this comfort that humility repentance and reverential thoughts though they keep us here depressed and under hatches will at last render that face we would now decline through the terrour of our Sins amiable and pleasing into our possession whereon we may gaze and feed our glorifyed Senses for all Eternity Amen CHAP. XX. Et omnes iniquitates meas dele And wipe away all my iniquities ST Cyril of Alexandria saith in the jâ—…stification of a sinner are required certain previous dispositions amongst which he reckons up faith hope repentance and fear Whence I conceive the apprehension of our Holy Penitent lest God should fasten his regards upon his iniquities mentioned in the preceeding verse was initiative and preliminary to his present address That his iniquities may be wiped away St. Austin holds it a thing most rare that any should embrace Christian Religion who have not first received within them an impression of the fear of God That the Ninivites became Penitent and shrowded themselves under a veil of Sackcloth and Ashes The only cause was a fear of vengeance threatned them by the preaching of Jonas St. Hierom upon the First Chapter of Malachy sayes behold O Lord how the fear of punishment diverts us from evil and that the priviledge of being your Children arises from a servile apprehension Our Penitent was not ignorant of this when after a dread conceived of God's judgments he immediately proceeds as if prepared by that terrour to demand an abolition of his crimes Wipe away my iniquities Besides he here explicates himself more fully that in case he do procure the Face of God to be averted then he is confident the sequel will be an expulsion of sin by grace For it were absurd that faith love and other qualities inherent should be necessary to dispose us for pardon and yet the formal effect to be extrinsecal and a justice not ours but imputed to us St. Paul desides this in his Epistle to the Colossians Christ hath freed us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the love of his Son Where you see the infusion of justice by which a Man becomes pious succeeds to the Remission of sin by which we cease to be impious and just as the Air by the same ray of the Sun hath not only its darkness expelled but also is filled with light so that true Son of Justice communicating unto Man his divine grace doth at once by this gift disperse the Clouds of sin and replenish him with the splendour of inherent Justice The same Apostlâ—… Rom. 5. takes away all doubt in this point saying that the grace of God is diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us and that no mistake in this Text may happen St. Austin explicates it in this Sense The charity of God is said to fill our hearts not with that love by which he loves us but by â—heâ—…by which we love him It is then in this fountain of love which springs within us whose over-flowing streams arise from Christ's donation in these we are washed we are sanctifyed and made just by this regeneration we are said to become a new Creature and from an Enemy purchase the title of being the Son of God all which powerfully import a mutation and real change within us St. John in his First Epistle sayes he that doth justice is just Abel was just in that he sacrificed unto God with all the circumstances of homage due unto a supream Being Noah just in that he gave credit unto God feared his judgements and obeyed his commands St. Luke affirms Zachary and Elizabeth to be just from their compliance and obedience to Divine precepts so that it is clear the Principle of their justification was inherent and that nothing extrinsick or imputative can be the formal cause of our actions for if not issuing from something within us we cannot own them to be ours Our Holy Penitent filled with supernatural illustrations was not a stranger to Divine Lawes established in order to Man's conversion Wherefore he knew well his Petition to have his iniquities strook off involved the gift of grace by whose power alone they were to be destroyed Nay even Natural Reason will lead us to this Truth for justification is a motion from sin to justice whence its name is derived as calefaction from heat Now it is evident to expell cold will not be thought calefaction unless the quality of heat be introduced So the bare remission of sin cannot amount to an act of justification without the consecution
of Justice which is the End we tend to in this motion Besides justification is not bestowed on us by God meerly to avoid punisment it is designed as well to fit us for Heavenly rewards this St. Paul testifyes ad Rom. 8. That God glorifyes whom he hath justifyed of which glory a simple absolution cannot be the Subject since no person by a judicial sentence clearing him from guilt is thought by that to merit a reward but to exchange the condition of an enemy for that of a friend of a domestick nay of a childe this must needs be wrought by something more than a bare condition In this Petition then he implores virtually the infusion of justifying grace a divine quality inherent it the Soul which like a bright ray of the Sun disperses all the Clouds of sin before whose presence without a miracle it cannot subsist one sole moment It likewise enclines the Soul to Christian duties and from that source do flow all the vâ—rtuous and pious action we perform For as sin expells justice being opposite to habitual grace not only by way of privation but contrariety So a supream act of love opposes habitual sin and by a contrary working as an efficient cause destroyes it Whence infusion of grace and deletion of sin do as infallibly succeed to such an act of love as the infusion of a rational soul into a Body after humane generation Thus our Petitioner like a quaint Pen-man so couches his demands as to comprize in them much more than the letter seems to express Wipe away all my iniquities This word all is emphatick and expresses with some energy a desire not only to have those sins which appear before him and reproach his ingratitude to be remitted But also what ever are set upon his score in that eternal Book of accounts and contracted by him either through ignorance inadvertence or oblivion in not discharging what he owes for their expiation Our Petitioner had reason to add this Particle and frame his Petition full if we reflect upon what Solomon sayes Ecclesiast ch 8. That all things concerning another life shall here be wrapt up in doubts and uncertainties No security of our state whether markt out to punishment or reward For were there any means to this discovery the benefits of God would lay it open yet we find these indiscriminately dispenced to the just and impious to preserve some in humility he loads them with afflictions lest others should despair he fills them with abundant consolations some he draws by the Lure of temporal blessings so to buoy them up from despair or in reward of some moral vertue others he steeps in the bitterness of wants and disgraces to stop the Carreer of pride and excess and by a paternal correction he presents an opportunity by which they are either deterred from sin or may satisfy in this life for their transgressions Sometimes again the doom of punishment begins here which is to last for eternity so that neither adversity nor prosperity give us any light into the state of Men's consciences whence our Penitent fearing lest any unknown guilt may stain his Soul petitions that all his iniquities may be taken away St. Paul confesses after a severe inquisition of himself though he found no matter of accusation yet he durst not trust to his own justification knowing well the judgments of God and Men are very different and if we groap so much in our own concerns what madness upon every slight conjecture and surmise to pass sentence of condemnation upon our Neighbour This savours not the Spirit of an Apostle who would have no other Vmpire than Christ the true searcher of hearts and the same maxime was fixed in our Holy Penitent who not daring to secure himself from all imputations cryes out wipe away all my iniquities that no sin upon what account contracted may escape the Seal of God's pardon How many have been seen who beheld themselves with an Eye of satisfaction as patterns of innocency as possessing within themselves the treasure of grace to a great proportion and yet brought to the Test were found empty Vessels and poor Objects of frailty and malice St. Peter told his blessed Master he was ready to attend him unto Prisons nay even to Death it self but the event proved he had not the Ground-work of such a fortitude within him St. Paul whilst he played the fierce Lyon preying upon the Blood of Christians believed all his flames were enkindled by a just zeal of God's Holy Lawes and how do we know but many actions of ours may proceed from a gross ignorance which will not render us inexcusable at the latter day what greater Evidence of integrity than to Sacrifice life in any cause and yet this we have seen done on either side of two opinions diametrically opposite to each other Both these propose unto themselves Almighty God above all things amiable as the motive of their sufferings yet without dispute one of the two must needs be involved in errours and in the total privation of grace Hhw justly then doth our Penitent suspending all judgement of his condition beg that all his iniquities may be taken away that if he have not perfect Charity he may obtain it if he go astray he may be reduced into the right path if in darkness he may be filled with light and since we are ignorant of our own state and that God hath reserved the knowledge of this Truth to himself he is resolved in his petition never to omit this clause Et omnes iniquitates meaâ— dele and wipe away all my iniquities The Application In pursuance of this design we are in regard of our own infirmity and indisposition never to Lull our selves in security since God's promises in order to the remission of sins require on our part that we be worthily disposed for the reception of the Sacraments Now to have an infallible assurance of this fitted disposition or that we are not guilty of some secret pride some mortal sin undiscovered some inordinate cleaving to the World and the like is by God's Providence locked up in his own Breast so to keep us humble wary and in fear of his judgments Wherefore all we have to do is to hope in the mercy of God in the merits of Christ's passion and efficacy of the Sacraments and then conclude with the same Prayer of our Penitent that all our defects and transgressions whether known or concealed to us may be blotted out Amen CHAP. XXI Cor mundum creâ— in me Deus Create in me O God a clean heart OUr Holy Penitent in the Ten precedent Verses working like an expert Carver by way of defalcation had still desired he might be brought into shape by cutting off all those Excrescencies which made him monstrous in God's Eye Now he petitions believing his whole frame vitiated and unfit for his design that a new model might be drawn up of him and new materials inserted in the whole structure
when they prevaricate by injustice falshood irreverence to God impenitency and the like they act against a Law-giver which is God himself and against a Law that took birth with their Creation and is the Model and Rule of humane Lawes which without conformity to this Law are not Lawes but injustice and tyranny I will teach the wicked thy wayes The third remonstrance of our enflamed Doctour is to inform the wicked that positive Divine Lawes are necessary not only to rectify their wandring steps but also to preserve the just in their righteous paths The reason is Man is designed to a supernatural end to arrive at which his natural faculties are deficient wherefore it was requisite he should have supernatural precepts and rules proportioned to the sublime condition of his end Besides after he had exchanged a state of innocency for that of sin and corruption he stood in need of a Master who might instruct him how disastrous a thing sin is how necessary to have a redeemer all which Divine Lawes do open unto him Again to observe even the Lawes of Nature would have been a hard task if he aspired not after somthing more sublime for the efforts of his Soul are so clogged by the violence of his passions and his nature so weakned by sin that unless divine positive laws had engaged man unto heavenly pursuits scarce would he ever have been able to reach the perfect observance of the Law of nature Lastly it was necessary he should have alwayes before his Eyes his dependency and subjection unto God so to be stirred up to the performance of his duty and by giving testimony of his faithful obedience merit something at his hands wherefore his Creation was no sooner finished but God laid a command upon him that he might know even in Paradise he had a Master Next he consecrated the Seventh day to works of his service obliging the first inhabitants of the Earth to its observance Moreover those first Men of the World were obliged to the supernatural vertues of Faith Hope and Charity without which acts they could not be saved now those decrees were positive Lawes and superadded to those of nature so that in all times Men were never left purely to the Law of nature but it was intermixed with several positive ordinations that might help them on more advantagiously in the way of their Salvation Our Holy Penitent having thus exposed before the wicked the endearing providence of God over mankind who never abandoned them to the sole instinct of nature and conduct of their own Reason but like a careful Master teaching them his will by himself and giveing them particular directions to lead them in the way of vertue he would not stop there but proceed to a further elucidation of God's benefits towards them that at last overcome by his goodness they might lay down their arms and think it no dishonour to lye prostrate at the feet of so noble a Conquerour which if our penitent can effect he will repeat with much joy I will teâ—ch the wicked thy ways Our zealous convert plyes the Iron whilst it is hot hoping to render the wicked more malleable wherefore he produces the Mosaick law given by God to sanctify the Children of Abraham and dispose the World for the knowledge belief and honorable reception of Jesus Christ The Law consisted in precepts moral ceremonial and judicial The first contained the Ten Commandments and divers others relating to them and though the Law of nature led to their observance yet many errours were committed in reference to them which were cleared and better regulated by positive Lawes The Ceremonial were ordained in order to the worship of God regulating what belongs to the Sacraments Temple institution of fasts and bloody Sacrifice of Beasts wherein God manifested his justice declaring that sin deserved Death and likewise his Mercy in that he would exchange the death of a sinner for that of a poor animal The third are judicial which conspire to the establishment of a rare Government amongst the Jews that by an admirable policy being kept in peace Religion might flourish the number of their Laws amount to above six hundred an Argument of God's indulgence towards them For the Jews being stupid and of a gross apprehension uncapable of being led by general rules as not knowing how to apply them in particular emergencies he was pleased in every point to satisfy and instruct them Nay his particular providence here in appears that delivering so many Articles for their observance he seems to take upon him the whole care of providing for their temporals as well as spirituals as if he would keep a watch over every step and motion of theirs to the end all things might be exact and setled in the highest order He designed them likewise to be a pattern of Holiness and Sanctity to the Gentiles that by their example they might be drawn from the corruption of Idolatry to the real sentiments of vertue and religion wherefore he planted them in the midst of the habitable world Lastly it was just that Nation should be the most Religious and Pious from whence Jesus Christ was to issue forth that they might prefigure publish and engrave him in the hearts and minds of Men by their holy Ceremonies and legal observances which were all to represent him and the wonders of his life and death for this cause the kingdome of the Jews was prophetick and their religious actions a figure of the qualities condition and mysteries of Jesus Christ Nay all the worship and service which God required of that Nation and all the Exercise of their Religion was meerly to foretel announce expect and receive the Messias wherefore St. Paul calls it a holy Law abounding in Ceremonies and all tending to this effect I cannot doubt but our great Doctour and Prophet did with much Energy insist upon the designed End of the Mosaick Law which is Jesus Christ representing to the wicked that the sole way to Salvation was by repentance and belief in the Messias exhorting them to joyn with him in the practice of Heroick acts of vertues so to expedite his coming and repeat after him this his daily Prayer who will give us from Sion the Saviour of Israel He told them there was not a sigh or languishment any prayer or good work directed for the accelleration of this mystery which had not its effect that Abraham advanced it much by his prodigious act of obedience in offering to Sacrifice his Son and after he had run over all the Gests of Saints till his time he conclude all these motives would have been little efficacious without the charity mercy and love of God to lost Man St. John attributes the glory of this Action to love alone and if some have compared the vigour of love to equal that of death I dare give it a higher Encomium and will say it was so generous as to transport it self up to Heaven and assault the Divinity
Death than she did the dishonour to herself and Family Solomon sayes a Thief may have some excuse in that extremity of hunger urged him to his villany at least in rendering seven-fold he makes satisfaction But an Adulterer hath no plea nor can the Indies ballance the wrong done by him Our Holy Penitent revolving all these truths in his Mind hath reason to joyn in his petition the crimes of homicide and adultery together since both are Coincident in his malice both injurious to our Neighbour both destructive to the very Lawes of nature and both exemplarly punished in all ages by Divine Justice Wherefore he may justly insert Free me from blood c. When I read a passage in St. Paul 2 Cor. Chap. 7. it appears terrible the resentment God entertains of Adultery He there sayes if the Husband be in the number of the faithful and the Wife of the unfaithful he shall not dismiss her But if she be unfaithful to his bed then he may lawfully forsake her so that God seems to be more offended in that she keeps not her saith with her Husband than in being disloyal to him insinuating by this that he will give no quarter to an adulterous act How odious this Crime is to humane Society appears in that the Civil Law permits the Father or Husband of the Adulteress if taken in the fact to offer violent hands and immediately destroy both the offendours and though the Cannons seem to disallaw of this Law as unjust because it precipitates the guilty into an evident hazzard of their eternal Salvation Yet still it concludes how monstrous an exorbitancy Adultery is in the judgements of Men when to punish it they allow parlies interessed to be both Accusers and Judges which in no other circumstance hath ever been permitted Adultery is a commerce between persons who are not linked together in a conjugal tye and from thence it is cloathed with the turpitude of fornication and is a sin against charity Next it is a violation of a bond indissoluble by which the Author of Nature hath united one to another and superadded to fortify this Chain the blessing and vertues of a Sacrament I remember the Councel of Trent in favour of this Sacrament teaches that God by it bestowes a particular grace that as in Baptism we purchase as it were a new Being regenerated and born to a spiritual life as in confirmation we receive a Grace strengthening us in our Faith as in the Eucharist an encrease of heavenly blessings is showred down upon us the like in the rest of the Sacraments So in that of marriage a grace is communicated which perfits and refines the natural love they bare to one another before they married Insomuch as that love which before was perhaps seated in some corporeal charm or grace afterwards becomes wholly sacred and no attractive appears which carries not along with it a pious allurement and which makes them whilest they tread the paths of vertue to have a horrour of any thing that may alter or diminish it Now this holy effect is evacuated by Adultery so that it may be called a kind of Sacriledge dissolving the sacred union of hearts which is made by marriage and therefore I wonder not if St. Cyprian terms it Summum delictum the highest crime that Man can be guilty of Our sad Penitent alarmed with the outcryes of blood on the one side and Adultery on the other for which as an Enemy to God and Nature he deserves to be exterminated hath no refuge but to the God of his Salvation and he repeats it again and again that he would daign to save him from the doom of both protesting a true repentance of both and that for the future like a Lamb in the shearers hands he will be silent endure all the opprobâ—ios his Subjects shall cast upon him and make a return of all the good he can Lastly he will extinguish for ever within him all the Fires of concupiscence and unlawful desires so he may be sheltered from these crying sins under the beams of his mercy Free me from blood O God God of my Salvation The Application The way to preserve our selves from this torturing guilt is to be well versed in the precept of charity For by this same vertue by which I love God I am likewise carried on to love my Neighbour So that whensoever I injure him I violate the Law of love towards God which obliges not only to love him but all that belongs to him Now as Man is the most excellent Creature in this inferiour World and most capable to render him honour and glory there can be no violence offered to him which reflects not upon the Sovereign Lord he serves for whose respect we ought to cherish what he would have cherished I must not then love my Neighbour because he is rich beautifull well fashioned or to me particularly obliging but I must love him because I love God to whose Family he belongs and in a place of Eminency by the priviledge of his Being I must love him in that 〈◊〉 the glory of God to which he may contribute much by the Conversion of his own and other Souls to his Service why should I then plot mischief against him for whom Jesus Christ hath a value why should I aim at his Death to whom God imparted life for whom our redeemer suffered Death and would if needful do it again What need I care if they be malicious to me since I love them nor for what they are in themselves not for what they are to me but meerly for the love I bear to my dear Sigiâ—…r Let us stick close to this Principle and pray Free me from blood c. Amen CHAP. XXX Et exultabit Lingua mea justitiam tuam And my Tongue shall exalt thy Justice AT the first glance one might Censure our Petitioner as not placing aright his acts of gratitude ascribing to God's Justice rather than mercy his deliverance from sin but you must know it is far from him nay contrary to the Doctrine he delivered in the preceeding Chapter to think he could merit any thing de condigno or by the value of his own works without sanctifying grace which is the sole effect of God's mercy His meaning therefore is that supposing he be enriched with the Donative of Grace he may then lay claim to his Justice for a reward St. Paul Tim. 4. sayes A Crown of Justice is reserved and will be justly given to him First he calls Heaven a Crown of Justice because it is given by way of Justice in consideration of the worth of merit Next that God will give it as a thing to which he hath a right and Lastly he styles God a just Judge in Testimony he doth it by vertue of his Office that is to observe the Rules of Justice The Arausican Councel chap. 28. declares that a recompence is due to good works but grace which is not due must go before and
give life to them and truly it is rational that since God threatens punishment to the wicked deeds of Men he should likewise propose a recompence to vertuous actions otherwise he might be said to be more enclined to severity than sweetness which is much repugnant to his nature Again sanctifying grace is a quality so sublime that it dignifies and exalts the works of that subject it informs above all the Worlds greatness Now there being nothing but eternal glory which surpasses grace a meritorious action animated by grace cannot be recompenced to the worth but by glory whence it followes that grace by a title of right and condignity merits eternal glory Lastly sanctifying Grace is communicated by God unto a Soul with the circumstance of an affectionate Amity by which in the first place he loves her and this love of friendship moves him to pardon all her offences to receive her into his favour and adorn her with the incomparable Ornament of this Celestial quality This done Man becomes a Friend of God in his first justification is raised to a pitch of greatness so transcending as his works are worthy of Heaven as performed by a friend of God who hath an affection for her and by that will render her compleatly happy Upon these motives and supposition of a grant to the preceeding clause of his petition he will blazon forth the Iustice of God not in the remission of his sin for this he acknowledges to his pure mercy but upon the score of a recompence which his goodness hath promised This consideration awakens him from sluggishness and as the Labourer endures patiently the fatigues of his task in hopes of his salary at Night so will our Petitioner unweariedly sustain the traverses of this life and amidst his tribulations every thought of Paradise shall move his Tongue to exalt O Lord thy Justice Merit is defined a service which obliges to a retribution or a good work done freely and which God accepts of as the price of eternal life Now albeit good actions arising from grace by which they are supernaturallized are in a certain manner rendered worthy of eternal life even without the promise of God yet they can no wayes oblige God to give it unless he first engage his word to this effect For he is the Sovereign Lord of the World and most particularly of just Men and their good deeds yet can they not so much sway with him as to put a constraint on his will to let them share with him in his Heavenly Kingdom For when all the just had consecrated to his honour all the good works imaginable he might justly say I accept of these in discharge of your past debts and obligations due to me for your Creation conservation grace and power I have given you to act So that when any one makes an oblation of his person fortune or any other his goods unto God he must not present it in way of a gift but with humility as in satisfaction of a debt nor yet as if he would clear all scores but as a small parcel of that great Summ which he owes Wherefore that Man may have an unquestionable right to Heaven by the value of his good works being so engaged to God as he is it was necessary a contract or stipulation should pass by which God should please to declare he would give him Heaven in recompence and upon this ground he should have a title to demand and obtain it In this proceeding his Mercy and Justice meet his mercy in that he accepts the works of the just for more than the bare discharge of their obligations His Justice in that he is pleased to give the rate of Heaven in return of their good works by this means Saints are humbled in the excellency and value of their merits for by it they know that Heaven is so bestowed by way of Iustice as they are notwithstanding unspeakably obliged to the Divine mercy which passing over the debts accepts of their works for Heaven this certainly will give them immortal resentments of gratitude for which they will powre forth an infinity of praises and benedictions throughout the vast spaces of eternity to a Benefactour who treats them so nobly with such signal favours as to become a Debtor even to his own debtors St. Austin admiring this Mystery sayes God hath made himself a Debtor to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising what he pleased unto us For all things are depending on him nor can they oblige him but as far as he will oblige himself by his incomparable Charity and inviolable Fidelity Our great Penitent ravished in the contemplation of these truths cannot but unloose his Tongue to celebrate the praises of the Divine Iustice which so attempers the circumstances of our Salvation that we may claim it as our due He hires us into his Vineyard and if we prove faithful to our task he will not fail in his promise to give us a salary he often reflects what a comfort it will be to a beatifyed Soul to have contributed something to her own happiness In this liberty and free will which God hath given us he beholds the perfection and greatness of the Soul that neither the most charming beauties the most ravishing delights the most glorious dignities the most amiable vertues in spiritual entertainments nay nor the most eminent hopes of glory can work any impression or impose any necessity upon her actions but according to the mtasure of her will Again she hath a vigour impregnable fortifyed with God's grace against all sin and misfortunes that neither the allurements of what is lovely nor the horrid face of what is frightful can make any entrance by force for the Soul is above all the machinations of Men can resist them and meerly because it pleases her so to do Let them speak fair let them bribe threaten weep attack thunder lighten muster the Elements into storms and fury nothing finds admittance but at her disposal So that these words in the Apocalips may justly be applyed to her I have been dead and am living She was dead by Original sin and is revived by the Grace of Jesus Christ she hath put into her Hands the Keys of life and death that is free will which may open to her either Paradise or Hell After this survey of Man's liberty in this life by which he is free either to the acting of what is good or bad he makes a pause upon the apprehension that Man would have been more perfect were he limited to vertue and incapable of any vitious action as God himself is and all the blessed by a clear vision But he solves this objection considering that God alone by nature is impeccable it is a priviledge wherein none can share with him as being infinitely perfect and can admit of no imperfection St. Ambrose sayes that only the substance of the Divinity is a Being that cannot dye to wit by the death of
sin All other reasonable Creatures in this sense are mortal and if the blessed in heaven be impeccable it is not by their nature but by the power of glory communicated in which they were invested by God after they had given proof of their vertues whilest they were Viatours and under their Tryal Now as to Man the experience of his frailty helps him on to discern more clearly as the obscurity of the Night renders a fair Day the more resplendent and reverence this excellency in God Next he ought not to repine that he is not here glorious for this life is his place of Combat and the Crown is not given till the Victory be gained wherefore as long as he lives he enjoyes a liberty by which he may sin and be overcome and by which he may vanquish Lastly God decreed this liberty to Man and gave him a faculty by which he might with a full swinge of his Will be take himself to good or evil to the end he might be capable of merit or demerit for if he acted by the impulse of necessity he could merit no recompence for his vertue nor punishment for his sin no more than a tree which bears good or bad fruit and by this means the divine Justice could not be discerned either in the condemnation of the wicked or in the reward of the just Our great Penitent in the issue of this meditation hath reason to set his Tongue a work and spend it self in exalting this powerful and remunerating Iustice of God which happily converts to our advantage what at the first glance appears the Subject of our ruine and resign himself to those dangers wherein the perfection of his free will may involve him since by his grace which he implores he may embrace and practise what is pleasing to him And if to the end he carry on this noble resolution he hath an assurance to bless his Iustice for all Eternity And my Tongue shall exalt thy Iustice. St. Austin upon this place is of Opinion that our Penitent means the Messias whose Justice he will extoll in that by his merit both Men and Angels are rescued from the slavery of sin To which I agree nor do the premises any waies derogate from this interpretation for the merits of Jesus Christ are the source and cause of Sanctifying grace which grace dignifyes the works of the just and raises them to the degree of merit Now that which is cause of the cause is likewise cause of the effect and consequently the merits of Jesus Christ are cause of the merits of Saints as St. Paul to the Galatians Chap. 1. He hath blessed us with all spiritual benediction in Jesus Christ Next the merits of Jesus Christ contribute to the merits of Saints in that he hath obtained by his actions and sufferings a promise from God to accept the merits of Men in order to Heaven for it was in consideration of him and upon the score of his torments that this promise was made unto us It is this St. Peter in his Second Epistle Chap. 3. hints at when speaking of Christ he sayes by him he hath made us great and precious promises to the end we might by them be made partakers of the Divine Nature Now as Grace is the Fountain of the merits of Saints and God's promise the accomplishment both the one and the other proceeding from the merits of Jesus Christ it followes that the merits of Saints subsist not but by those of Christ Nor have they a dependency only by way of simple condition or necessary circumstance but they flow from them as from the root fountain and principal cause without which they would have no Being Our Holy Doctor therefore will praise and set forth the divine Justice under several Notions First as he is the Principium or Off-spring whence all remission of sin and collation of grace is derived and without which all Mankind had been eternally wrapt up in the darkness of sin so that the just and superabundant ransom he hath paid for us merits the Adorations and praises of all hearts and tongues Next he will extoll him under the title of a remunerating Iustice in that after he hath taught us how to fight put arms into our hands and hath stood by us to confirm our courage exacting only a firm will to overcome doth yet dispense his Crowns with applause as if we had done all our selves O who can then asperse and lay a charge upon this Opinion as if it injured Christs merits doth the fulness of a stream dishonour the source from whence it flowes or the excellency of any fruit injure the Root that gives birth to it so the merits of the just being only the rivulets and fruit of Christ's superabundant satisfaction cannot certainly in the least derogate from his they only serve in an inferiour degree to extol and do homage to the infinity of Christ's merit Wherefore Our Penitent will incessantly tune forth And my Tongue shall exalt thy Justice The Justice of God beholds Creatures in three several relations First it is distributive by which he allots unto every Creature faculties proportionable to carry them on to the End for which they were created To the Soul which he hath designed to contemplate and love him he hath given an understanding and will the Body doomed to labour he hath framed with Arms and Hands The Sun whose Office is to enlighten the World he hath vested with a lasting brightness which never fails to perform its task in fine every animal Tree Plant or what ever is existent in the World hath a vertue proper to the designment of its Creation Whence St. Dennis sayes that God is communicable in his Justice distributing to every one according to the dignity of its nature and bounding within limits most equitable the manner beauty order Ornament the inequalities and proportions of all Creatures accommodating every thing with that which is proper to it Our Penitent will not be silent in order to this his distributive Iustice he will admire the works of God give his approbation without the least Censure and confess that this wise Architect hath ballanced all things with equity and justice and if he may be so happy as to manage his individual Being conformably to those proprieties and qualities he hath received from his Creatour he will with confidence proclaim that his tongue shall exalt his justice In the second consideration his punitive justice hath place by which he inflicts a punishment on sinners the reason of this is that a sinner living contrary to the wil of God and disobedient to his order setling his contentment on things forbidden by his Sovereign doth by these his wayes throw a contempt upon him Wherefore it is most just reparation should be made and since he hath rebelled in breaking the Commands of his Creatour it is fit he should be afflicted with torments and enslaved by that will he hath so much scorned and set at naught
they are to wade through in making good their fidelity to God they throw themselves upon the points of Halberts and other instruments of severity without the least whining or flinching at their sharpness they take in as it were with the same relish the Gall of misfortunes and desolations and the Hony of prosperities and comforts No stormy season hinders their Journey and that which disturbs soft and effeminate Spirits is to them matter of joy and repose because they possess what they desire to wit affliction so that all things which pass under the name of Adversity are not so but to the wicked who make ill use of them in prizing the Creature more than the Creatour Hence it is that the general spirit of Saints have carried them on to be ambitious of suffering and to reckon it amongst one of the choice favours of Heaven for they had learnt by experience that if God with one Hand reaches unto them the Cup of his passion it is but by snatches and as it were a sup whilst with the other he gives them large draughts of consolation It is noted in the sacred Text that God laid open the person of Job to all the assaults of Satan but with this reserve that he touch not upon his life and this not in regard that death would have ecclipsed the glory of that great Champion but because he would not be deprived of such a Combatant to whose conflict he and his blessed Angels were intent with much satisfaction and so would not lose the pleasure of seeing this stout skirmish fought out to the last 'twixt him and his Enemy And as the Heathen Emperours took great delight to see a Christian enter into the list with a wild Beast so the King of Heaven is solaced with the sight of one of his Saints when he maintains a Fight against those fierce Beasts of Hell Seneca out of the principles of humane wisdom drew this excellent saying that no object was more worthy in the Eyes of the gods than to behold a stout Man with a settled countenance unmoved to struggle with adverse Fortune and truly the delay our blessed Saviour made in sending succour to his Disciples endangered by a storm at Sea sufficiently hints unto us the pleasure God takes to see the Just row against the stream tugg and wrestle with all the might they can against the stream and afflictions of this World Thus you see how happy our Holy Penitent hath ajusted his Sacrifice to the lines of God's will and that he never spake more emphatically than when he said A Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit St. Bonaventure sayes that honor is due to God in four several respects and in like manner we ought in as many wayes render it unto him First in consideration of many blessings and this is to be returned by our gratitude and acts of thanksgiving Next we owe him honor in that he hath laid his commands upon us and this we perform by our obedience and submission to his Laws Thirdly his greatness and sovereignity exact it at our hands and this is paid by the vertue of Latria and adoration Lastly honor is due unto him in that he hath been offended and injuriously treated by sin Now the honor due to him in this point is restored by Penitential acts and by a troubled spirit Because in regard of his displeasure and to make reparation for the contempts thrown upon his Majesty he is ready to humble himself and apply all his endeavour to works of piety so far as even to afflict himself that he might honor the Divine Justice which requires that sin should never go unpunished Wherefore God is delighted in these painful satisfactory acquittances which we often give him written in our sweat and blood And Jesus Christ makes of them a present to his Father with his own from whence the value of ours is derived and there they find acceptance not upon the score of any contentment it is to God that we are tormented either in Soul or Body but meerly in that by them his Justice is honored and exalted and the Palms of our victory more resplendent This anxiety of spirit supported with a patient resignation and strengthened with a fervent prayer purchased to the distressed Anna and to the Jewish Nation that great Prophet Samuel This same disturbance of Spirit carried on by a generous submissive resolution against all the Machinations of Saul put into the Hands of our Penitent the Scepter of Juda in a word it seems to be a principle setled in Heaven that without this Sacrifice of a troubled spirit he will not part with his blessings It may be objected that God knowes the Hearts of Men and what they will do and therefore he need not this external Testimony Next that Christ's merits being of an infinite value ours appear altogether superfluous to which I answer First that his external glory consisting in the visible homages payd to him by his Creatures this would be wanting should he give them no occasion to make it manifest and shew unto the World he hath dependants who value no suffering in proportion to the duty they owe him Besides the satisfaction we shall take in Heaven to have done something to merit our Beatitude will certainly be a great addition to our Contentment As to the other though I confess the merits of Christ all sufficient yet this will not excuse us from offering what we can in satisfaction for the Honor and glory of all our actions belong to God now it being an Act of injustice to defraud any one of his revenue no less is it against equity to deprive God of the glory due unto him Wherefore a life that contributes not to his glory is perverse and wicked Again he that owns a Tree hath likewise right to the fruit it bears if the Land be mine the Crop also is at my disposal the labour and service of a Horse is due to his Master In like manner all that we are all the good we do or shall do is the work of God and a present with which he enriches us that we might be able to give something to him Wherefore as all is his our duty binds us to consecrate all our interiour and exteriour actions to promote his honor and glory And since it is reasonable sin should be punished our Holy Penitent submits to the decree exposes himself to be wracked and tortured by what punishment the Divine Majesty shall think good either in Mind or Body nor can he ever repine whilst he reflects That a Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit The Application Here we are taught there is no Sacrifice conveyes an odour so pleasing unto Heaven as that of a Soul angustiated upon the score of God's cause The oblation of a Holocaust imports the reduction of it to Ashes that of a troubled spirit is a transmutation into the Holy Ghost who promises to be the intellect to be the Tongue nay
the erecting this magnificent structure of the Church as by his ardent prayer to dispose the divine Architect unto this admirable work what a reproach will it be to us who find the Fabrick done to our Hands and who are our selves so happy as to be part of the materials if we do not so much as keep it in repair nor preserve it against any rebellious or violent effort To this performance is required a due obedience to the supream Pastour who as it were the form and Soul of this edifice Next a reverence and submission unto Bishops who are the pillars and great supports of it Lastly a respect to Priests who are a main ornament and useful to this glorious Fabrick Whereas then our Holy Penitent poured forth his prayers with so much fervour for the raising of these Evangelical walls it is our part now to make addresses unto Heaven that according to his promise it may continue pure unstained and invincible against all the malice of Earth and Hell Amen CHAP. XXXIX Tunc acceptabis Sacrificium Justitiae oblationes Holocausta Then thou wilt receive Sacrifice oblations of Justice and whole Burnt-offerings OUr Holy Penitent had entertained in his thoughts not only the Materials and Architecture of this Building but he went further and reached in his prophetick view the Sacrifices which were there to be offered up The first object display'd in this Temple is the Messias God-man who was a true Sacrifice oblation of Justice and Holocaust A Sacrifice in that he appeased God's anger frankly offered and with the purest intention that could be imagined this is expressed in John 14. That the World may know I love my Father and perform his commands arise sayes Christ to his Apostles and let us to the Cross For God having committed to him the affair of Man's Salvation lost by sin he was enflamed with a zeal of rendering all possible satisfaction and considering that if he should make himself a victime and present that Sacrifice to God it would be of an infinite value in regard of the infinity of his person and such a Sacrifice infinite would counter-ballance the infinite malice of sin and prove a satisfaction answerable to Man's offence Wherefore that God might have reparation of honor he designed an actual bloody Sacrifice of himself unto God for the sin of Adam and all Mankind And to this end likewise that God being appeased and satisfyed by the dignity of this Sacrifice might depose all animosity against Man and restore him to those expedients by which he may work his Salvation Amongst all the contrivances that can enter our thoughts none appear more excellent and noble both to ajust God's honor and Man's Salvation together than this immolation of himself upon the Altar of the Cross First it is very powerful to appease God's wrath for nothing more than death can be endured for God's honor nor can any Creature more absolutely avow himself unto him than in dying for his sake Wherefore St. Paul sayes of Christ ad Ephes 5. He gave himself up an oblation and host unto God in the perfume of sweetness Next it is very proper to cure Man's infirmity who by his disobedience and pride had forfeited his right to Paradise wherefore Christ submitting himself to the Cross and so accomplishing the will of his Father repaired those breaches we had made by our Rebellion Lastly it is very efficacious to purchase our love without infringing the liberty of our free-will For what can more charm us to love than to behold a person for my sole interest sustain the torments of a Cross which was the most infamous of all kind of punishments yet so great was the affection our Saviour Christ bare us that he deposited in the infamy and reproach of the Cross all that honor which his miracles his Doctrine and innocent life had purchased to him leaving them all hanging on it as a Trophey of his love The Cross then is the North Star of our comfort and hope for what can he deny us nay what will he not grant us who on the Cross hath made such large expressions of his kindness God is said to be the searcher of hearts that is he only knowes the sincerity of them whence some have taken occasion to murmur at the Maker in that he placed not a window before the Breast of every one But though we may be jealous of all the rest yet sure we cannot be of Christ upon the Cross nor of his love since he there even layes open his Bowels unto us upon this consideration Christ might justly promise to himself That when he shall be lifted up from the Earth that is upon the Cross he would draw the affections of all Mankind unto him How different is the proceeding of this our eternal Priest from the usual wayes of Men who upon a mean and trivial interest fall upon the destruction of their Neighbour whilst his design is to Sacrifice himself upon our score and by that means gain our love as a just Tribute to his eternal Father he might well assure himself this Sacrifice would be accepted he knew that God could not behold the Face of his Christ under this bloody posture for the redemption of guilty Souls and not be touched with the worth of this Sacrifice wherefore our Penitent may confidently repeat tunc acceptabis then that is at this plenitude of time a Sacrifice will appear which shall convey to Heaven an odor grateful unto God and serve as a balm to cure all the wounds of humane nature This Sacrifice was likewise an oblation of Justice for supposing that God would have sin punished because it is a decree of his eternal Law which cannot erre nor want its effect Again since Man was impotent to any compleat satisfaction for sin wherewith he was defiled and contaminated it was necessary some person exempt from all sin should interpose and take upon him out of love and goodness the discharge of our transgressions Now Christ was this happy Redeemer who replenished with mercy spared not his sacred humanity for our deliverance First he dragged us out of the misery wherein we lay after Adam's sin that by no action of ours we could recover grace or any wayes reach our justification this impotency Christ took away and purchased to all Mankind means of Salvation in case they make right use of it Next he freed us from the misery of sin and by his passion obtained a perfect enlargement for all those who faithfully cooperate with his grace Lastly he merited for the Soul and Body an exemption from the Calamities they sustain and endure in this life and afterwards the glory of Heaven if so be they persevere in sanctifying grace and all this upon the design of rendering a full satisfaction for all the sins of the World in rigour of Justice And since God was irritated by Man's contempt which sin involves Christ knowing that God could not receive more honour than
what was paid him by the way of Sacrifice and that by how much the victime excelled his glory went in the like proportion He presented his sacred humanity personally united to the Word by way of Justice on the Tree of the Cross as a just compensation of all indignities thrown upon him by the World and for this end he exposed his Body to all the highest severities of Justice Thus God accepting this oblation of Justice punished in his Son all the sins of Mankind Wherefore as a disobedience to God's Law a Pride in thwarting his greatness and a pleasure in our conversion to a Creature are found in sin all these were confronted in Christ's passion by a prodigious obedience an incomparable humility and a perpession of the most exquisite torments that could be inflicted so that there was not the least punctilio of equity wanting in this oblation of Justice Our Holy Penitent weighing this terrible account could not but tremble It is true God was contented with Abrahams good intention and stopped the Execution of Isaac but when his eternal Law to punish sin was in question which he will have inviolable he spares not his only Son and if on him the darts of his anger fall so heavy and this for anothers transgression what may not a miserable sinner justly expect for his own sins in his own person If this be done on the green branches what havock will be made of those that are withered if the Innocent have this measure what will become of the Guilty but however these dismal reflections may affright our penitent yet he is still boyd up with hope and confidence in this oblation of Justice Lastly this Sacrifice is a perfect Holocaust the excellency of which consists in the total destruction of the thing offered In confirmation of this St. Paul asserts that Christ annihilated himself in becoming obedient to the Death of the Cross Look on his passion and you will see him reduced to a moral nothing First at his last Supper he throws himself at the Feet of his Apostles he washes dryes and kisses even those of a perfidious Judas in the garden of Olivet he not onely prayes with bended knees but is prostrate on the ground bedewed with a bloody sweat the most prodigious effect of terrour that ever hapned in nature In the sequel of his passion he is branded with false accusations and ignominious reproaches derisions and scorns He receives the highest indignities from the vilest of persons as to be buffeted spit on crowned with Thorns fastned on the Cross between two Thieves as the ring leaders and this at their Paschal solemnity in the populous City of Jerusalem where he forfeited all that reputation which the wonders of his power and sublime communications of his wisdom had purchased to him so that many who had been his spectators and of his audience in whose opinion he had passed for a signal person a great Prophet a Man incomparable in vertue and sanctity nay who looked upon him as the promised Messias and Son of God gave him then the Character of an Hypocrit and condemned all his miracles as meer illusions and the effects of Art magick and his Sermons as dreams of phantastick babling Nay the Prophet Esay stiles him the last and outcast of Men disfigured mishapen and laden with infirmities insomuch that he was esteemed as one Leperstrook and the object of God's vengeance O what a Holocaust was this He that is Lord and Creatour of the World King of Heaven and Sovereign Judge over the living and the dead is destroyed in his honor and reputation his Eyes wax dimm and dark his Face pale and wan his Tongue furred and swoln his Lips black and blew and his whole Body mangled in such sort as they numbred all his Bones so that it was as it were but one wound and all these outrages are compleated in his Execution upon the Cross which kind of death was so abominable as Tostatus sayes it is an injury done to God himself that a Creature created after his Image should dye on the Cross Cicero sayes it is an act very hainous to bind a Citizen of Rome a Villany to scourge him and in a manner a Parricide to kill him but what then will it be to put him on a Cross Heretofore God made himself known by destroying Pharaoh and all his Host but now he will get himself a Name and Fame by playing the Holocaust and dying upon the Cross Thus you see how justly our Petitioner might assert this Sacrifice to be an oblation of Justice and a Holocaust or whole burnt offering which would be accepted off For certainly God was never more honoured than by Christ offered up on the Cross because the glory there given him outvyes all the injuries and affronts that had been or ever shall issue from the ugly Face of sin But the Fire of his love stopt not here his sacred humanity would further yet honour God by a Sacrifice which should not be confined to a short space of three hours to a little 〈…〉 Nation of the Jews nor to the narrow hill of Mount Calvary wherefore by a generous design he instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist where this same humanity without effusion of blood might honour God by a Sacrifice that would last to the worlds end and be every day reiterated not upon one single mountain but in millions of places throughout all kingdomes where there is any Priest to offer up this Sacrifice to God's honor and as a tribute to his infinite greatness Our great God beholding this admirable contrivance of his incarnate word and of a Soul most pure and holy allyed to his Son by a personal union and relishing this honor he should receive from this Sacrifice begun at a great distance to nose the sweet odour it would evaporate even up to Heaven this gave him a distast as it were of the Mosaical Sacrifices which revealing to our Holy Penitent made him cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts But this is more clearly expressed by the Prophet Malachy where God requires the Temple Gate to be shut the Fire of his Altar for the destruction of victimes no more to be kept in and confesses he is cloy'd with them upon the prevision of that excellent Sacrifice to be made to him in the Evangelical Law Again as a Sacrifice is directed not only to express God's supream Dominion over us but likewise to acknowledge our thanks for his divine favours now the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ accomplished in vertue would not be ungrateful For God had given himself unto it by a personal union in a manner the most obliging and most sublime that is any way consistent with a Creature in return of this he would consecrate himself unto him with all the circumstances of perfection by which a Creature can be made his And which cannot be more than by a Sacrifice wherein he himself is destroyed and as much as may be