which the Sacrament excites And it would restore also health of body more effectually for when you are in or neere your agony and dispaired of by Phisicians if the Sacrament should repaire your force and strength this would be a miracle which God who disposes althings sweetly does not usually or without necessity But if you receive it sooner He would dispose second causes by the secrets of his providence to renew your health in case He should judg it necessary for your salvation 6. The third effect which the Apostle atributes to this Sacrament is the remission of sins And if he be in sins they shal be remitted him He says expressy If he be in sins becaus he supposes the Sicke hath already received Penance and that by absolution his sins have been remitted But if he hath not rightly accomplished Confession and Communion and knows it not or if by humane frailty he hath committed a mortal sin after his Confession and is ignorant of it such remainders with all venial sins would be remitted and a good part of the temporal punishment due to them relaxed by this Sacrament If then we are depriv'd of it by our fault or if we receive the Sacrament unfruitfully or if by our negligence a Soul depart out of this world without receiving the grace of it 't is a great fault and God does make this complaint of it The wound is not sured nor mollifyd with oyle 7. S. Bernard writes that S. Malachy was intreated to visit and Vitâ S. Malach. carry the holy oyles to a Gentlewoman dying near his monastery who so reioyced in the presence of the holy Prelate that she seem'd to be quite reviv'd she demanded the Sacrament but the Assisstant seeing her so changed desired the Prelate to forbeare The Saint condescended to their request and returned with the holy oyles No sooner he arrived at the Monastery but he heard the Cryes of divers who sayd that she was dead he runns and coms to her and finds her dead Behold him in the greatest sorrow in lamentations tears groans and complaints of himself for a fault whereof he was not guilty T is my fault Lord 't is my fault since she desired it I should not have defer'd it he protests to all the Assistants that he will weep in consolably that is Soul should never rest til he had restored to the dead the grace which she had lost he remains by the corps and instead of holy Oyle waters it all night with his precious tears This holy water frightens and puts death to flight for the next morning the dead opened her eyes as if she had been wakened out of sleep then sits up and making a low inclination to the Bishop says The prayer of faith hath saved the infirme By which you see how soliciâ—ous we should be to receive the effects and reap the fruits of this Sacrament 8. And to reap them with full hands and in abundance we must receive it with necessary dispositions and 't is certaine that Sacramental Confession must if possible precede it becaus this Sacrament is one of those which Divines call Sacramenta Vivorum that is which ought not to be received but by the faithfull who are already in the life of grace I say if possible for if one should be so depriv'd by a sudden accident that he cannot Confess we must neuertheless administer to him this Sacrament But there are three other dispositions which a devout soul should have in receiving it One in respect of God another in respect of himself and the third in respect of his neighbor 9. First you must offer to God a sacrifice of your life accepting death with resignation to his holy Will with great submission to the Orders of his Providence and to render honor and homage to his divine Perfections and say my God I submit with all my heart to the sentence of death you have pronounced against me from the beginning of the world I offer my life to you to do homage to your Souveraintie and Justice I acknowledg and protest that I have most justly deserv'd it not only by teason of original sin but as often as I have sinned in all my life 10. He that is in this disposition of a Victime and a Holocaust in the sight of God will have also the necessary spirit of humility He will renounce all pride ambition vain glory and ostentation he will abhorr the spirit of those vain souls who disire passionately to be praised in gazetts celebrated in histories that their hearts or bodys be emâ—auâ—med put into ledden coffins carried to the grave with pomp with famous and magnificent obsequies and funeral discourses who build for themselves or make to be built high and glorious tombes who fix their names and armes upon the walls of Churches and cause Epitaphes to be composed Aug. lib. 9. confess c. 13. in their praises S. Austin praises his Mother for that she had not the least thought of such a Vanity And the Scripture blames the ambition wherewith they buried the king Asa They buried him in his sepulcher which he digged for himself in the City of David and they layd him upon his bed full of Spices and odoriferous 2. Paral. 16. 14. oyntments and they burnt it upon him with exceeding ambition says the sacred Text. 12. In fine the holy oyle minds you of the Parable of the Virgins that they who had kept Virginity were not saved becaus they wanted the oyle of mercy with much more reason they cannot be saved who having committed impurities and other sins shal be presented to their Judg not having redeem'd their crimes by the workes of Charity You ought to do it all your life but if you have failed if you have not made the lamp to be carried before you make it at least to follow after you that you may not be wholy in darkness when you go into the other world JESUS having given us his sweat blood and life deserves well that you give him a good part of your goods also during your life when they are more necessary for you But since you have omitted it give him a little part of them at least in the houre of your death when your goods are useless to you 't is He who gave them to you who is the Proprietor of them and nevertheless desires for your good to receive of them in the persone of the Poor 13. I conclude with these words of S. Salvian You are avaricious But you are not enough I exhort you to be yet more you love Lib. 2. con Av. a ritiam in fine riches love them at your death as well as in your life you fear the poverty of this life fear also that of the other carry your riches with you into the other world they will be more necessary there than here to avoyd the paines of Purgatory in the way to redeem you in case you are cast in to that Prison and to make
urge and press What is it that urges and Pressess you to penance 'T is the Will of God who commands you by S. Iohn Baptist by the Apostles by the holy Doctors by the Councells of the Church and by the mouth of his own Son What is that which urges you 'T is the fear you ought to have to offend the greatness of God his infinite justice his Immensity and most adorable Presence What is that which urges you The fear of falling into new sins of dying in an ill state of losing the merit of your good Workes It is the example of the Saints who have don Penance all their life It is the charity of IESUS who incarnated himself who endured so much Who dyed upon the Cross to oblige you to it who hath expected you so long and so patiently with this intention who promises you pardon and to receive you if you do true Penance See then the changes which true penance makes that you may not so easily be deceived in a matter of so great importance The Prophet Ioöl expresses them in a few words Convert to me in all your heart in fasting and in weeping and Ioel. 2. 12. in mourning In rhe first place it makes a change in us Convert In the second it changes our heart convert to me in your heart In the third place It changes all the heart convert to me in all your heart in the fourth It rests not in the heart onâ—y but changes our exteriour Convert to me in fasting and in mourning 5. In the first place true penance changes and converts us Convert It is an admirable Chimistrie which transforms not metalls but souls ir changes not peuter into silver copper into gold but men into Angells from carnal terrestrial vitious and brutal it turns them into spiritual vertuous and divine men S. Paul calls him that is converted a new creature a new man and he says that by penance we are renew'd and reform'd becaus we devest our selves of the old Adam for to revest our selves with the new which is IESUS-CHRIST 6. This Word in your hearts notes the second change and teaches us that 't is the heart which must be first and Ephes 4. 24. chiefly changed It is the heart that God demands always when He speaks of conversion convert your selves to me in all your heart rent your hearts and â—n oâ— your garments says He by his Prophet Ioel. And by the Psalmist my God you will not despise a contrite Ioel 2. Psal 50. Ezech. 18. 31. and humbled heart and by the Prophet Ezechiel cast away all your prevarications and make your selves a new heart and a new Spirit A new spirit that is thoughts sentiments and opinions A new heart that is wills affections and desires quite other then before 7. Vpon which S. Gregory admonishes us of two Errors into part 1. Past c. 9. which we are apt to fall very dangerously we take often says he the thought of our understanding for the disposition of our heart the Idea of our imagination for the affection of our will You will find sometims Penitents whom the Confessor asking Are you well prepar'd to confession They will answer readily yes Sir we have made an act of contrition And how have they made it They have read in a book a prayer or forme of contrition my God it repents me from the bottome of my heart to have committed Sin becaus it displeases you I am sorry to have offended you becaus you are infinitely good and becaus they have sayd these or the like words in their understanding or with their mouth they thinke that they have made an Act of contrition 'T is well don to say these words provided you say true But to thinke you have made an Act of Contrition by saying them with your mouth or in your understanding is a most pernicious error For Contrition is not in the lipps nor in the imagination nor in the understanding but in the Will God requires not that you say you are sorry to have offended him but He wills that you be so in effect a man that harbours animosities in his heart or that restores not goods unjustly gotten may say a hundred times my God I am Sorry to have offended you and yet he will not have one grain of true repentance By what may one know that he has it by the effects if you make restitution if you leave off this unjust suit and repair damages if you fly this occasion of sin you shew probably that your heart is changed But if you content your self with words or imaginations one will say to you that you give to God the motion of your lipps But the affection of your heart is far from Him 8. Others change theyr lives and their hearts notwithstanding are not changed the change is made about them not in them they were heretofore frequenters of naughty houses and of ill companies Now they are ruined in their fortune health and reputation by their dissolutions Wherefore they go no more to those houses into those companies they make no more excesses they play no more becaus they have not wherewith to to defray the charges or their health will not permit them it is their purses or their bodies that are changed not perhaps their hearts I know not what confessions such do make theyr bodys and their tongues cease to commit the sin But their hearts perhaps cease not to love it and if God hath not the heart He makes little or no account of all the rest He loves so much the heart that He will have it all 9. He says by his Prophet Convert your selves to me with all Deut. 4. your heart And by Moses when you shal seek the Lord you will find him if you seek him in all your heart He demands not all your money but only a part in alms nor all your fruits but only a part in tithe but he will have all your heart without reserve restriction or division so that no affection whatsoever may remain in it to mortal sin no division permitted of your love which is as fatal to it and to your conversion as it is unto your heart He wills that you quit not one two three or four sins only but all without exception and not only for the present time but for ever for if there remain in your heart the least designe for the future your conversion is fals deceitfull and unfruitfull 10. The fourth conversion that true penance makes is of our exteriour it makes us to do exteriour workes of penance when these are in our power The Prophet sayd not only convert in your heart but moreover in fasting and weeping and in mourning And S. Iohn Baptist required exterior workes of penance when he sayd yield fruits worthy of penance And our Saviour sais not only that a good tree bears not bad fruit but he adds that it produces good and that it is by this that we must know
THE CHRISTIAN DUTY COMPOSED BY B. BERNARD FRANCIS STUDENT IN DIVINITY ISA. 30. 21. THIS IS THE WAY WALK IN IT 1. COR. 14. 38. If any man know not he shal not be known IHS PRINTED AT AIRE BY CLAUDE FRANÇOIS TULLIET M.DC.LXXXIV with Licence of Superiors TO THE READER GOd desires so cordially and seeks so earnestly our salvation that He calls it his worke and his affaire by excellence His Son Io 4. 34. sayd to his Disciples I have meat you know not T is to do the will of my Father and to accomplish his worke And to his Mother in the Temple Knew you not that I must labour in the affaires of my Father And in the Vigil of his death Father I have accomplished the worke you have given me to do Becaus 't is the worke of workes the affaire of affaires and the ayme and end of other workes He employes in it not men only but also Angells All the Angelicall Spirits that are sent Heb. 1. 14. into this world are sent for the salvation of the Elect says S Paul What say I men and Angells He employes in it his divine Perfections For if He exerciseth his Power in working miracles Wisdom in inventions to convert us Patience in expecting us to penance Goodness to allure us Iustice to frighten us Mercy in pardoning us Providence in removing occasions of sin 't is for our salvation And to the end there be nothing in Him or of Him that is not employ'd in this great work He sends the adorable Persons that proceed from him He sends his beloved Son who applyes himself to it with so great tenderness and affection that from thence He takes his name with so much fervour and Zeal that he spends in it his sweat and blood He sends the holy Ghost who shews likewise His Zeal when our salvation is in danger we being in the state of sin what does He not to draw us out of it and to convert us He excites us wakens us threatens us importunes us knocks almost incessantly at the doores of our hearts and if we open them to Him He Enters into our soules dwells in them animates them governs and conducts them workes by them our good workes in our prayers He prayes cryes groanes in us and by us in temptations He aydes us in perplexities Enlightens us in afflictions comforts us May not the Eternal Father say Quid debui facere vineae meae non feci What should I have don for the salvation of men that I have left undon He hath desired it most earnestly He hath design'd to it his creatures Employ'd in it his Servants Favourits infinite Perfections and the divine Persons of his Son and of his holy Spirit How coms it to pass then that so few are saved even amongst Christians One reason is that very many are yet ignorant of the ways ordinain'd by God to go to heaven Another is that the greater part also of the Faithfull are negligent and careless in the use of the means prescribed to be saved they will not labour and strive to enter by the narrow gate and therefore our Saviour sayes they shal not Wherefore desiring the salvation of every one with all my heart I shew the First and put before their eyes the plain and open wayes to Heaven and to correct the negligence of the other I add the most pressing and urgent motives to walke and run in those wayes Peruse this worke good Reader with the same intention and desire that I present it to you Consider not who made it nor how 't is made but what is therein sayd to you If you shal becom more knowing in the Faith and Law of Christ and in ptactise more Dutifull to Him it will abundantly recompence the labour of YOUR WELL WISHING FRIEND AND SERVANT IN CHRIST F. B. APPROBATIONS JNfrascripti testamur nos librum perlegisse tui Titulus The Christian Duty Idiomate Anglicano a V. Adm. P. Bernardo a Sancto Francisco Ordinis FF Minorum Recoll Provinciae Angliae compositum in quo nil Fidei Orthodoxae vel bonis moribus contrarium deprehendimus verum è contra salutari plenum devotione solidaque refertum doctrina Quem idcirco Communi Bono vtiâ—issimum praeloque dignum Iudicavimus Hac 29 Octobris An. Domini 1683 In Conventu nostro FF Min Recoll Anglorum Duaci F Pacificus a Sto. Albino F. Bonaventura a Sta. Anna S. Theologiae Lector S. Theologiae Lector The Licence of the Superior Ego F. Gervasius a Sto. Francisco Provinciae Angliae FF Min. Recoll Minister Provincialis facultatem concedo ut hoc opus cui Titulus The Christian Duty a V. Adm. Patre Bernardo a Sto. Francisco compositum et eiusdem Provinciae Theologorum judicio approbatum typis mandetur Datum Ariae 9. Septembris An 1683. F. Gervasius â Sto. Francisco qui Supra Imprimatur liber cui Titulus The Christian Duty a Reverendo Patre Bernardo à Sancto Francisco conscriptus Actum in Vicariatu Audomarensi die decima septima Septembris Anno 1684. De Mandato B. DE LARRE Secret DISCOURS I. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE I believe in God AMongst the noble actions which the holy Penitent David practised to appease God and satisfy his justice This is one of the most notable Docebo iniquos vias tuas impij ad te convertentur I will teach sinners thy wayes my God and the impious shal be converted to Thee These words shew me how to do well this worthy fruit of Penance I must not flatter I must not tickle eares but I must teach Docebo And whom must I teach The poor as well as the rich the little and ignorant as well as the great and learned my self also as well as others for we are all sinners and I must teach sinners iniquos And what is it that I must teach Not the conceits of Plato not the discourses of Aristotle but thy wayes ô my God! Vias tuas the ways by which we must go to Thee And why must I teach not to receive popular praise Not to be esteemed learned but that sinners be converted to thee ô my God! impij ad te convertentur The wayes by which we go to God are Faith and the Mysteries which it teaches Hope Charity Grace good Works the Commandements and the Sacraments These wayes God aiding I will open plainly teach practically and urge earnestly that sinners may be converted into them and unto God And first I will consider the material object or the Mysteries of Faith which the Apostles propose in their Creed to us and begin with these words I believe in God 2. That there is a God nature teaches us the Pagans them selves confessed it and it is a thing so manifest that the scripture tells us that none but fools deny it 3. This word God in the singular number teaches us that there is but one And if he were not the only one he would not be God He would not be
prosperities he invites them to penance by summons and inspirations which would reclaim tygers and if they return to him he receives them he pardons them he embraces them with inconceivable Clemency and sweetness 14. Nevertheless He is so great and terrible in Iusticè that though the death and Passion of JESUS-CHRIST is capable to redeem a hundred thousand worlds He sees notwithstanding an infinity of Iews of Pagans of Turcks Hereticks of bad Catholicks in the mass of corruption in the way of perdition He draws them not powerfully out of it through a most profound and incomprehensible but most just judgement and he accomplisheth the verity of this word of this tunder-clap many are Mat. 20. 16 called but few elect 15. He is great and admirable in his independence and in the plenitude of his Being He is naturally sufficient to himself most content with himself most happy in himself and has no need of any thing without himself He had from all eternity power to produce creatures heaven earth and all that is in them and he hath not created them but in time for to shew that he had no need of them for to make known that since he hath been perfectly happy without them from eternity he created them not for any S. Austin◠12. de Civit. c. 17. sub fin want he had of them but by a free goodness and by a pure and disinteressed charity Let us make an end of speaking of Him whose greatness has no end who is infinite in his Essence and infinite in Perfections for 't is to mafle as infants 't is to obscure his perfections to speak of them so imperfectly and if He were not infinitely mercifull and condescendent it would be a punishable temerity to speak so lowly so grossly and so unworthily of Him Yet this is enough to make us see what a Majesty we offend and whom we make our enemy when we commit a mortal sin And after this shal we not endeavour to conceive a lively repentance of our sins shal we content our selves with a little sorrow and which regards nothing but our own interests if we detest our sins because they rob us of our merits subject us to the tyranny of the devill engage us to Eternal damnation if we have no other motive 't is to feel and resent a scratch of a pin which we have received and not a great stroake of a sword which we have given The injuries that sin does to the Creatour are without comparison greater then those which it does to the Creature 16. For to avoyd them then Let us remember that God is infinitely noble If a Prince tho' a stranger that appertains not at all to us were in this Country we would not abuse or injure him but would honor him and treat him with respect and shal we dare to offend our God our Sovereign the King of Kings This King who is so great that all the Kings of the earth in respect of Him are but slaves and wormes of the earth Let us consider that He is infinitely powerfull We fear to offend the Powers of this world because they can punish us deprive us of our liberty estates or temporal life and shal we dare to offend the omnipotent God who by one word one act of his Will can reduce us to dust who after He has killed the body will cast our soules into Eternal flames Let us consider that He is infinitely Wise that all things ly open to his sight that he can not forget any thing that whatsoever excuse we forge for to flatter our conscience and to diminish the greatness of our offenses He sees the greatness of them He knows all the circumstances of them and pierceth the bottome of our hearts He knows that 't is neither violence nor poverty nor necessity that makes us to commit sin but that 't is because we have not the fear of God nor the due love of him Let us consider that He is good and that He has always been so to us T is a great injustice a very unnatural malice to offend a person that has never given us any cause who has never disoblig'd us all his life We know that 't is God who created us who conserves us at present and hath preserved us from a thousand dangers He who hath given us more than we have desir'd more than we should dare to desire and what is above all desire who has given his own life and died upon the Cross by pure charity towards us After all these graces shal wee have the malice to commit a mortal sin which infinitely displeases Him Let us remember that He is infinitely just and that his justice ought to have its cours His Prophet sayd I feared all my Iob. 9. 82. works knowing that thou wouldest not spare the offender He leaves not unpunished the least failings what will he do then to mortal sins to great Crimes We must hold it then as most certaine that if we commit these sins we shal suffer soon or late most bitter and grievous torments in this world or in the other Let us in fine consider that He is independent that He depends not of any one in his Being nor in his designs nor in his operations that if He associate sometimes his creatures in the Execution of his designs 't is by an Excess of goodness and not out of indigence If He could have need of us we might thinke that He would be obliged to pardon us and to seek our amitie But he needs us not He has been well without us from all Eternity he will be well without us for all Eternity and if we honour not his mercy in heaven we shal honor his justice by our sufferances in hell from which I pray God to keep us by his mercy Amen DISCOURS II. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE The Father Almighty Creatour Of Heaven and Earth THe first verity expressed in these words requires as much vertue and strength of Faith as any other Verity revealed It obliges us to believe and adore a pluralitie of divine Persons in a most perfect Unitie of nature and to Confess that in the Diety there is a Person who intellectually produces a coeternal and consubstantial Son Hence the Apostles truly call Him Father and his Paternity or fatherhood is so proper to Him that 't is not an Attribute or Quality but that which enters the intrinsecal and individual constitution of Him Father also of us because he created us conserveth us at present and nourisheth us Father again because he redeemed us by his own Son makes us his Children by adoption governs and directs us and conducts us to the inheritance of eternal life 2. Almighty or Omnipotent This signifies a perfection not so proper to him as is that of Fathêr Omnipotence also is not his particular Attribute or Quality but to him appropriated and attributed You know that the faith of the church adores three Persons subsisting in the
for a scepter and thorns upon his head for a crown as if He were a king of the Theater To be decry'd and condemn'd as a blasphemer as a seducer as ambitious as sedicious as an Imposter What confusion greater then to be dragd through the streets of Hierusalem with hues and cries as a fool and as an extravagant person from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to the Pretory To be less esteem'd then Barrabbas a seditious person and a murtherer to be esteem'd more wicked more unworthy to live and more worthy of the cross then he What indignity more intollerable than to receive foule and fiâ—thy matters in token of vility and baseness not upon his garments or hands only but upon his most venerable and adorable face this indignity was so ignominious in Israel that if a child receiv'd it from his father he was to bear the confusion Numb 12. 14. of it at least seven daies To be short What greater contempt than to die not the death of Nobles nor with honourable persons not in private and in prison not in the night by torch light but the death of slaves with infamous persons in a high and publick place at mid-day in the sight of more than two hundred thousand persons 7. What shal I say of the punishments receiv'd in his sacred Body He suffered more horrible harsh and bitter torments than were ever suffer'd by any creature upon earth The Prophet Isaiah calls him by excellence the man of Paines Abel was murthered c. 33. 3. Zachary was stoned Isaiah sawed Lazarus covered with ulcers and not one of them is called the man of Paines We have heard of men to whom their vertues or their vices their birth or their condition have given honourable or shamefull Names But we have not heard but of IESUS-CHRIST only to whom Paine hath given a name He is the Man of Pains because He did bear all our paines He is the man of Paines becaus He suffered in all his members and He is the man of Pains becaus He was pierced through with Pains exposed Sacrificed and given wholy over to sufferances and Pains 8. But the sufferances in his soul will make appear yet better the Greatness of his Paine He sayd in the Garden my soul is sorrowfull to death It would seperate my soul and Body if I shoul not hinder it for to endure yet more To whatsoever part He casts his sight He sees objects of the greatest sorrow His soul is nail'd to a most hard Cross before his Body is Crucifyd and the Cross of his Soul is much more harsh and insupportable then that of his Body The three nails of this interiour cross are the injuries don to his Father the Commpassion of his Mother and the damnation of his brothers Philosophy teaches us that a paine is more sharp and bitter when 't is received in a power more pure and immaterial IESUS was pierced with paine not only in the inferior part of his soul but also in the superior which is wholy spiritual in the part in which He was blessed and his Beatitude also contributed to the increas of paine says S. Laurence Justinian He de tryumphali Christi Agone saw by the light of glory God face to face He knew clearly the Greatness of his Majesty the outrage and the injury that sin does him he loved him with a most ardent and excessive love and therefore He could not be but excessively afflicted seeing the Ocean of sins committed against that most high adorable and amiable Majesty The wounds of his Body were made by hands of Torterers hands indeed most cruell and inhumane Yet their activity had stil limits But the wounds of his heart were inflicted by the hand of love by the love which He had for his Father a love ineffable and incomprehensible If a soule that loved God well could have as much contrition as she would desire ô how would she pierce herself with sorow How willingly would she bathe herself in her tears ô how would she calcinate her poor heart JESUS had as much of sorrow as He desired and He desired as much of it as He had love for his Father his sorrow was equal with his love If He had seen but one only mortal sin committed against him whom He so loved He would have grieved infinitely ô how then was He afflicted when He saw so many so different and so enormous 9. The love which he had for his Mother was another nail that pierced his heart and which fastned him to this interior Cross He sees her present at all the Misteries of his bitter Passion He sees all the wonds of his Body united in her heart and we may say that his compassion was another Passion 10. He looks below His soul is sorrowfull He sees the torments of hell wherein so many shal be plunged notwithstanding his sufferances for them He sees that their wounds are incurable that they abuse his Blood death and merits and that after so many remedies they damne themselves for trifles and what He indured for them would serve but as oyle and sulphur to inflame the divine Justice to punish their ingratitude more rigorously 11. S. Austin wholy astonished at the sight of CHRISTS sufferance cry's out ô Son of God whither hath your humility descended whither hath your charity been inflamed whither hath your piety extended it self The Wiseman sayd that you have don every thing in number weight and measure But in this work of your Love You have observ'd neither number nor weight nor measure You have exceeded all hopes and desires You have made an excess that could not be imagined The Angells were astonished considering this wonder a God whipt a God cover'd with spittle the King of kings crown'd with thorns a God crucifyed for slaves a God pierced with sorrows for worms of the earth of whom He had no need and knowing that they would be ungratfull for so great a Benefit What transport what excess and if He were not God I might say with Pagans what folly of Love Gentibus stultitia 12. After a love so cordial undeserv'd and so excessive shal we not love him If the least slave had don the same for us He would be Master of our hearts and seeing a God hath don it shal He not be Qui non diligit Dominum Iesum Anathema sit 1. cor 16. 22. says S. Paul since JESUS suffer'd for us if any one love him not let him be Anathema Curs'd excommunicated and abhorred of all creatures But if any one should not love him and moreover be so ungratfull as to offend him what punishment would You wish him holy Apostle He adds it not nor can one wish him a pain so great as he deserves there should be a new hell to revenge an ingratitude so monstrous and enormous 13. For as S. Bernard sayd if Moses speaking to the Iews who had but a gross and imperfect Law who had
their fault they have well deserv'd it since they might have saved themselves so easily 9. But th'o we have so much convenience to make use of this great Benefit and to help our selves by this Power Yet if we should be so ill advised as to lose the grace of God by consenting to a mortal sin we should hazard our salvation Wherefore the Royal Prophet advises us that if we have innocence to take great care to keep it to be solicitous not to offend God and for Psal 36. this effect to remember that He is just and that his justice obliges him to punish sinners and to favour and save the Just Beware to say when temptation solicits you I 'le tast the sweetnes of this pleasure I will satisfy my desire when I have taken my pleasure and contented my passion I will do penance I 'le go to confession and be absolu'd Will you do penance you might do it if it depended but on you if you could do it of your self But the Son of God says to you in the Gospell You can do nothing without me you cannot then do penance if God does Iohn 15. not make you do it you cannot have repentance if God does not give it to you This gift is an effect of his benevolence and You provoke his vengeance by your sin t is an effect of his goodness and you draw severity t is an effect of his mercy and you irritate his anger The ordinary effect of his anger is to abandon a sinfull soul to deliver her up to the tyrannie of her passions to let her fall from sin into sin from precipice into precipice The people Isa 64. 5. Deut. 32. 35. sayd to him in Isaiah You are angry and we are fallen into sin we are becom unclean And He himself in Deuteronomie The Vengeance that I will take of them is that I will permit that they do fall And yet more terribly by Ezechiel if the Iust shal be turn'd from his Iustice and shal do iniquity I will lay a stumblingblock before Ezec. 3. 20. him Snares shal be layed and occasions of sin Will be given you by the permission of God who will also substract from you his efficacious grace in punishment of your sins 10. S. Chrysostom S. Basil and other Fathers Speaking of the Chrys hom 3. in Ep. ad Heb. S. Basil de Humil. in med sin of S. Peter who denyed so weakly and deplorably his Master say that our Saviour left him in his own weakness and permitted him to fall in punishment of his rashness becaus he had presumed of himself and sayd though all the rest should abandon their Master he would die with him rather then deny him if God let S. Peter fall into a mortal sin in punishment of a venial have you not reason to fear that in punishment of a mortal sin which you commit He will let you fall into another and in punishment of the second into a third fourth fifth and into other sorts of crimes as Cain Pharao Saul and in fine into obduration 11. But you will say the grace of God is so powerful that there is no understanding so blind but He can enlighten it no heart so hard but He can soften it no will so rebellious but He can overcom it T is true But God hath not promised his Victorious grace to any sinner in particular He owes it to none and He refuses it to many 12. But hath not our Saviour sayd I will not reject him that coms to me Yes but He adds Nobody coms to me unless my Father draw him 13. But S. Austin Says Are not you drawn pray God to draw you and the Son of God makes us this promise Ask and you shal receive Yes you shal receive all that you ask as you ought and as God wills you to ask otherwise you will obtain nothing for S. Iames says to many of us you ask and Iames. 4. 3. you receive not becaus you ask amiss You ask not so much nor in the manner as a thing so precious deserves to be demanded says S. Augustine Salomon prayed God to give him Continence and he asked it not slackly or tepidly but with his whole heart as the Scripture tells us and yet he obtain'd it not he became about his old age most carnal and voluptuous becaus he asked it not with that confidence and perseverance which God required of him As when the holy Scripture Says He that shal invocate the name of our Lord shal be saved this is not to say all they that invocate him in what manner soever but they that invocate him with the faith piety and purity of conscience that God requires Do you not then see that by consenting to a mortal sin You hazard your salvation that you endanger your happy eternity You may be surprised in this state by a sudden and unprouided death which arrives daily by so many accidents If it should not Yet you will not get out of this mire if God draw you not out of it and He being not obliged 't is a doubtfull case whether or no He will All the assurance you have of it is a perhaps If you commit the sin perhaps God will draw you out of it exercising his mercy in respect of you perhaps he will leave you in it exercising his justice upon you the first is not more to be hop'd then the second is to be fear'd Nay experience makes us see that in this case more are the objects of his justice then of his mercy for we find more that fall into the second third or hundredth sin then they that truly rise after the first And if you have difficulty to resist a temptation now when you are powerfully assisted by God how will you when these great helps shal be drawn from you If you do not when you are free how will you when you are a slave of sin If you do not when you are well cover'd and armed with the grace of God and gifts of the holy Ghost how will you when you shal be naked and unarm'd If you do not when you are strong and in good health how will you do it when you shal be weak and wounded Are you then in the state of grace Say as holy Iob and do as he till I fail I will not depart from my innocency Iob. 27. 5. my justification which I have begun to hold I will not forsake Amen DISCOURS XIV OF THE ELEUENTH ARTICLE The Resurrection of the flesh IT was so necessary that this Article should be well established in our faith that after the Apostles had made the Faithfull to profess it in their Creed S. Paul yet proves it by many Arguments He solves also the objections that might be made against it and assures us so much of it that he says if our Bodys do not rise again neither is CHRIST Cor. 1. 15. Cor. 2. 5. 10. risen up again And in
the second to the Corinthians We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of CHRIST that every one may receive the proper things of the body according as he hath don either good or evill For justice requires that we be recompenced and chastised in the same things which have contributed to good or evill But the greater part of sins are caused or Committed by the body 't is then reason that it rise again and feel the punishments due to them It concurrs likewise to vertuous actions 't is mortifyd by holy souls subjected to rigours of penance and to labours of a christian life it sufferrs prisons and punishments in Confessors torments and death in Martyrs 't is deprived of its pleasures in Virgins and in Widows and crucifyd in all true Christians it is then very just that it should participate in the satisfactions pleasures and recompences of Heaven The flesh says Tertullian is the Tertull. de Resur Carnis hinge of our salvation and if the soul be united to God 't is it that gives her capacity the flesh is washed to the end the soul be cleansed the flesh is annointed that the soul be consecrated the flesh is shadowed by imposition of hands that the soul be illuminated in Spirit the flesh is fed with the Body and Blood of JESUS-CHRIST to the end the soul be nourished by God they cannot then be seperated in recompences having been so joyn'd in actions And 't is vain to alleadg against this Verity the low condition of the flesh for the same Father says the flesh which God form'd to the resemblance of a man-God which He animated by his breath to the resemblance of his life which He fortifyd with his Sacraments of which He loves the purity approves the austerity and esteems the labours and the sufferances shal it not rise again It will never be that He leave in eternal death the works of his hands the care of his Spirit the tabernacle of his Breath the heir of his Liberalities the keeper of his Law the Victime of his Religion and the Sister of his CHRIST It will then be raised up again and in this God does as a Potter who seeing his Pot ill made breaks it to repair it better so God having form'd man of earth and finding him deprav'd by sin broke him by death to which he doom'd him but with design to repair and make him better in the day of the Resurrection 2. But if any one should aske me how that which is withered and rotten can becom living and flourishing again He needs not but to consider the Omnipotency of the Creator or with S. Paul the grain of corne which rots to rise again Foole 1. Cor. 15. Cgrysol Ser. 59. it first do die All things in this world according to S. Chrysologue are images of our Resurrection the Sun sets and rises the day is buried in darkness and returns months years seasons fruits seeds die in passing and rise again returning and to touch you with a sensible example as often as you sleep and wake you die in a certain manner and rise again Let us now reflect upon the words of this Article 3. The Apostles say not The Resurrection of the man though this he true But of the flesh for to teach us that when the man dies his soul dies not and therefore in the Resurection is nor raised-up again but reunited only to the body since nothing can be raised again to life unless it first be dead 4. They say not the Resurrecton of the body but of the flesh becaus the holy Ghost would afford us a means to Confute the errour of certain Hereticks who would sustain as in the first ages of the Church some did that we should rise not in a body of flesh but form'd of air 5. They use moreover these terms to convince orhers who in the time of the Apostles thought that the Resurrection of which the Scripture speaks signifys not that of the body but only that by which the Soul is raised out of the death of sin to the life of grace 6. In fine this word Resurrection makes us understand that we shal receive the same bodys which we had for since rising again signifys returning to life again It must be the same flesh which was dead that rises and returns to life 7. We All then shal have the same bodys which now we have but intire and perfect without want or superfluity without the imperfection of youth or the defect of old age None shal rise blind or purblind deaf or dumb lame or crooked too great or too little nor with any other defect or imperfection Becaus 't is God alone whose works are perfect that will raise us up He will not in this work make use of natural causes from which all defects proceed 8. Nevertheless the Resurrection of the Elect and that of the Reprobate will be very different The blessed Souls shal receive bodys like to Christs endowed with Light Subtility Agility and Impassibility that will shine as clear as Starrs that will penetrate and pass through althings as beams of the Sun through glass that will move as swiftly as lightning That will be impassible and immortal so that nothing in the world can hurt them They will enter into their bodys with great joy and gladness with many benedictions and congratulations ô my body such a soul will Say ô my dear companion and most faithfull friend receive now with ioy the fruit of thy labours mortifications and pains in the works of holiness thou hast been in miseries and in sufferances be thou now in felicity and in happiness and let us praise together the Authour of our good but the reprobate Souls will reenter into their bodies with great a version rage and many maledictions of those members which they go to animate for to render them sensible of ineffable and eternal torments Domine quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo Lord says the Royal Prophet who shal dwell in thy tabernacle or who shal rest in thy holy hill He answers Psal 14. Qui ingreditur sine macula operatur justitiam He declares that two things are absolutely necessary to avoid evill and to do good one without the other suffices not Quis habitabit who shal be that happy that fortunate person that shal com to the glorious Resurrection and shal dwell amongst the Blessed O what happy lot attends him happy a thousand times the womb that bore him and the breasts which He did suck happie the paines taken to bring him up ô how well was it employd happie earth that he tramples under feet one ought to strew with flowers the paths which he honours with his steps happie air that he breaths one ought to sweeten it with all the perfumes of Arabia happie the bread which he eates one ought to nourish him with all that is most precious in nature and what deserves
mercies and his favours Amen DISCOURS XXII OF NOT DEFERRING GOOD WORKES THat which learned Hypocrates sayd in a certain occasion we may apply to penance and the practise of other good Workes Life is short Art is long occasion flyes away swiftly the experience is dangerous Life is short it is but seventy or eighty years infancy and chilhood cuts off a good part of it another part is made unprofitable by extream old age sleep and other necessities of the body take up at least a third part of it all which being deducted the remainder will be found to be but short Art is long 't is a trade full of difficulty a high and hard enterprize for such as accustome themselves to the wayes of the world to do penance and satisfy an infinite Justice for many and great sins and after that to acquire vertue and perfâ—ction Occasion flyes away swiftly It slides away insensibly it is bald behind having escaped it cannot be retaken when the conveniency to do penance to acquire perfection is past we shal not recover it again The Experiment is dangerous for the dignity of a mans body sayes the Interpreter of Hypocrates and I 'le say to my purpose for the dignity of the reasonable soul It is an Experience very dangerous to try whether or no we have don true penance and practised solid vertue there is nothing less at stake than our soul than our eternal salvation if we experience in the hour of our death that our penance hath been fals that our vertues have been wanting or defective it is an irreparable fault we commit it but once but it is for all Eternity Whence comes it then that we lose so easily the fair occasions which God presents us to labor in a worke of so great consequence delaying our conversion to old age or to the time to com which perhaps will never be for us I desire to destroy utterly so penicious an abuse by three powerfull reasons First that the Conversion which you pretend to make hereafter is uncertaine Secondly harder and thirdly less fruitfull 2. It is a maxime in Divinity that God is absolute Master of his goods independent in his gifts and that He gives them as He pleases You say you will convert your self hereafter that nothing presses and you have leasure enough Know that you will never do it without a particular favour of God Know that He owes it not to any He hath refused it to many and when you delay to leave your evill and negligent life adding sin to sin you give him cause to refuse it to you also Consider the workes of God Amos 1. 2. sayes the holy Ghost by the mouth of the Wise man and see that none can correct whom He hath despised of this Predicament were those of Damascus Tyre Moab and others of whome the Creator sayes non convertam I will not Convert them of this number were the Iewes to whom the Son of God did say I go S. Iohn 8. S. Iohn 12. 33. and you will seek me and you will die in your sin and those of whom the Evangelist sayd that they could not believe bécause God had blinded them and hardned their hearts that they might not be converted It is rhen a strange folly It is to build upon quick sands it is to establish a designe of the greatest importance upon an uncertaine event to defer your conversion to old age or to future time You let the time slide away the occasions and inspirations which God gives you to do penance and advance in piety who hath ascertain'd you that He will give you them hereafter You dispose of your self and make the appointement of your life as if you were the Master of it you speak of your conversion as if it depended on you only you say I will now take my pleasure content my passion satisfy my inclination afterward I will convert myself will apply my self seriously to the affaires of my salvation Poor man you imagin that God will take your measures that He will accommodate himself to your little projects and regulate his thoughts designes and conduct according to the levell of your rash thoughts You deceive you self You imagin that you have leasure enough to convert your self But if God call you out of this world suddenly will you convert your self in old age if you dye in the flower of your age will you becom vertuous in declining years if you dye this year how will you do it The evill spirit deals with men as the Phisitian or Apothecarie with his Patient when he sees the sick cannot swallow a whole pill he devides it and makes him swallow it by piecemeal Satan to seduce our first parents and o make them fall boldly into sin sayd to them You shal not dye at present seeing it impossible to perswade you that you shal not dye because you see daily the contrary before your eyes he devides the pill to make you swallow it he says to you you shal not die so soon he makes you believe that you will not die this year afterward he perswades you that you will not dye in the following year nor in the year after that so by little and little he perswades you what you would not believe in general that you shal not dye ' til it happens to you as to our first parents that sad experience makes you see the contrary when on a sudden you will be surprized when you think least of it 3. But if you should not be surprized by sudden death and your life should be a hundred years 't is a folly to believe that you will convert your self more easily in the latter season of your age then in the present The word of God tells you so expressly Adolescens juxta viam suam etiam cum senuerit non recedet Prou. 22. 6. ab ea it rarely happens that a man withdraws himself in old age from the way he followed in his youth And by Hieremie He says if the Ethiopian can change his skin and the Leopard his spots you may Hierem. 13. 23. Iob. 20. 11. becom vertuous when you are accustomed to vice And therefore the holy Ghost sayes by the mouth of Iob of one that had not mortifyd but given himself to vices in his youth his bones shal be filled with the vices of his youth and shal accompany him to his grave for the infirmities of the soul the inclinations and vicious customs which we quit not in good time remain commonly with us until old age now old age being feeble weak impotent not able to do violence to it self and thinking of little els then of maintaining the short life that rests seldom purges it self from evill customs the old are as much inclin'd to ambition detraction anger as they were at the age of 30 years so that the first part of the maxime of the holy Ghost is verifyd in them that the infirmities of their youth have
the flower of your age whilst you have the most fine strong and vigorous part of your age and which God will accept if you present it to him but will perhaps reject you if you offer to him but old age the remainder of your time Give then your selves now entirely to God break at once all those fetters which hinder you resolve at this present to divorce without delay all those evill habits and affections to creatures and you will see that being so unbound you will seem to be another man unloaden of a heavy burden freed from a cruel tyranny brought into a terrestial Paradise you will say as S. Austin when he was converted You have broken ô Lord my chaines and I will sacrifice to you a host of praise Amen DISCOURS XXIII OF TRVE PENANCE IF we have never so little of understanding and good nature we wâ—ll acknowledg the great obligations we have to God in that He having exercised his justice upon the apostate Angells and having left them in their misery without remedy He vouchsafed to have mercy on us and instituted a meanes to wit penance by which we may obtain pardon of our sins aâ—d regain his favour I will here consider only the necessity of it and the Conversions which it makes in us remitting the rest to the discours upon the Sacrement Misericordiae Domini quia non sumus consumpti sayd the Prophet Ieremiah It is a great mercy of our Lord that He darts Lament 3. 22. not forth the thunderbolts of his justice upon our criminal heads When we are in the state of sin He hath good reason to do it we deserve it more than justly It is a mercy incomparably greater that He vouchsafes to think of us to have thoughts of peace reconciliation and accommodation Ego cogito cogitationes pacis But t is a mercy above all thought and hope that He vouchsafes for this effect to send to us Ambassadors for Christ we are Legates says S. Paul Woe to us if we receive 2 Cor. 5. 20. them not with gratitude for so great a favour woe to us if we hear them not since 't is not the custome to send Ambassadors but for affairs of the greatest consequence What is that which God desires of us what is the affaire these Embassadors must nogotiate with us It is to induce us to penance This is that which Prophets Apostles and Doctors have always announced on the part of God Convert and do penance from all your iniquities Ezech. 18. 30. 2. Cor. 5. 20. Sayes the Prophet Ezechiel And the Apostle For Christ we beseech you to be reconciled to God O my God what is this What goodnes what mercy God vouchsafes to seek us to exhort us to pray us to be reconciled to him by Penance And He complains of the fals Prophets and complying Preachers that negociate not this afâ—aire Thy Prophets not mine have seen fals and foolish things to thee nor have they opened thy iniquities to provoke thee to penance 2. This word penance coms from the word pain and this word pain is derived from the latine word pone behind because pain does always follow sin If we offend God and imagin to escape unpunished we imagin a thing that never hath been and never will be a thing impossible This made holy Iob say I fear'd all my works knowing that thou didst not spare the Iob. 9. 28. offender For if the sinner himself does not punish sin during this life by penance he will fall into the hands of the Lord says Ecclesiasticus who will punish it terribly in the other world And we see in the scripture that the holy Ghost attributes to Ecclus. 2. 22. impenitence the punishments that God inflicts on men and to penance the pardon and the mercy that He does them the same Prophet Iob speaking of an obstinate Soul sayd Let his Iob. 24. 19. sin lead him even into hell let mercy forget him becaus God hath given him place to do penance and he abused it and on the contrary the sacred text does say that God pardoned the Ninivites becaus they did penance 3. Let us suppose you have a suit at law in which you have a tryall for your estate honor and also for your life your Soliciter tells you such a paper is wanting Your Advocate tells you if you will gain your Suit 't is necessary to have such a writing the wife of your Iudg who hath an affection fort you says to you I heard often my husband and other Iuâ—ges who Spoke of your business Say that you must have such a writing to gain your Suit the Iudg who is favourable to you likewise sayes I shal be forced to condemn you if you produce not such a paper will you not be voyd of Iudgment sense and reason if you use not all indeavours to produce this writing You have a process of the greatest importance in the Tribunal of the justice of God which must be judged in the hour of your death The question is not about lands or other temporal goods but of possessing the kingdom of heaven or being burnt eternally in hell The Preacher who is your Soliciter who solicits your salvation with all affection says to you that to gain your suit you must do penance S. Peter S. Paul S. Iohn Evangelist and the other Saints who are Acts. 2. 38. your Advocats declare to you that it is necessary for you S. Peter Do penance to have pardon of your sins S. Paul God announces unto all men that they do penance S. Iohn They shal be in the greatest affliction if they do not penance The Church which Acts. 17. 30. Apoc. 2. 22. is the Spouse of your Iudg tells you that to be saved you must follow the exhortation which S. Iohn Baptist made you saying Yield fruits worthy of penance The son of God who is your Iudg says to you twice in the same place to move you the more If you do not penance I will condemn You You shal perish all Will you not then be Ennemies to your own salvation Luke 13. 3. 5. and fools in the highest degree if you do not penance 4. Do penance then if you be Wise do it at present not expecting longer you have not perhaps ever don it well perhaps you will never do it so well as you may now if you let this present time and occasion slip perhaps there will be no more time for you The Son of God declares to you that He will call you when you thinke least of it S. Paul tells you that when you shal think that you enioy a profound peace and are sure to live then a sudden death shal surprize you the examples of so many that die suddenly or before they expected admonish you to lay hold on the present time say not then we have time enough that nothing presses to do penance It is quite contrary There is nothing that does not
this Vertue another Saint Charles the Cardinal Boromeus honoured so much the holy scripture that also studying it he read it always kneeling and uncover'd The seraphical Saint Francis commanded that papers which had the name of God written in them should not be Prophan'd but plac'd in decent and convenient places S. Lewis forbid painting and graving of the Cross upon the pavement for fear the people should tread upon it On Festivalls and Vigills in honor of the Saint celebrated or of the Mistery solemnized he gave dinner to two hundred Poore and serv'd them at the table He fasted all fridays of the yeare and in those of Advent and Lent he eate neither fish nor fruit becaus these two Times are consecrated to God 6. If these great Saints were now on earth what would they say what would they do seeing the comportment of men What thinke they now in heaven seeing the irreligion of those who will not allow them any honor though God does honor them and honor be a due salary of their Vertue who count it superstition Luke 15. 6. Luke 16. Apoc. 5. 8. and 8. 4. Matth. 18. 10 to implore their intercession though they have credit and favour in the sight of God do hear our prayers do know our necessities have experienced our miseries and have Charity and affection for us as the scriptures tell us What thinke they seeing the indevotion of others who rise in the morning and go to bed at night as beasts who sit down to table at noon as Epicurians and pass over the day as if there were no God who even fear to assist often at the Sacrifice to frequent the Sacraments to adore God and pray him as they ought lest men laugh at them and call them devotes or hypocrites though they are not ashamed to do ill in open street What do they think in fine seeing such irreverences of men towards holy things They employ the time of holy days in playing in visits and drunkenness if they discours for pleasure and recreation it seems not well seasoned if it clash not upon Priests or Religious Persons if they com to the Church it is not to appease God but to offend him to see and to be seen They prophane the holy scripture and use it in their jests meriments and Scurrilities 7. Si Ego Pater ubi est honor meus If I am the Father where is my honour He might have sayd if I am King If I am Iudg. If nature teaches the most barbarous to honour their father who is more worthy of honor than He from whom we have received not Body only but also Soul and All 8. If we honor the King and also the Courtiers for his sake should we not honor the King of kings so great powerfull and Soveraign that all the Kings of the world are his Uassalls and are but wormes in respect of Him 9. If we honor Iudges becaus they have some Power in this world ought we not to honor him who is infinitely powerfull and from whom all power is dereiv'd And give also an inferiour honour to the Saints whom God does so much honor that He makes them our Iudges You shal sit says our great Iudg upon S. Matth 19. 28. 1. Kings 2. 30. seats judging the twelue Tribes of Israel Let us remember then what God says to Samuel whosoever shal glorify me I will glorify him and they that contemne me shal be base If we neglect the service of God if we respect not his friends and althings that specially appertain to him sooner or later we shal be contemn'd coâ—â—r'd with shame dishonour and infamy But if we honour him as we ought we shal be replenished with glory either in this world by the good odour of our reputation or in the other by the crown of justice which God reserves for us in Heaven Amen DISCOURS XXX OF THE SECOND COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in Vaine For the Lord will not hold him innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in Vaine Exod. 20. THe royal Prophet representing to us the name of God as holy represents it at the same time as terrible and dreadfull Holy and terrible is his name Let us confess to thy great name becaus it is terrible and holy And he joy ns Majesty and power with Sanctity to imprint in our hearts reverence and to stricke terrour into us lest we should at any Psal 110 Psal 98. time dishonour him And God assures us in this Commendement that he will punish us for it that we may not pretend ignorance to be any caus of it The Lord will not hold him Innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in vaine In other sins the mercy of God pleads in favour of sinners demands pardon strives S. Iames. 2. 13. with justice and sometimes overcoms it and mercy exalteth it self above iudgment says S. Iames But in this sin the Verity of God joyns it self to justice and obliges God to punish the prophaner lest his word do fail Is it not then a misery which de serves to be deplor'd with teares of blood to see that there is nothing so licenciously and frequently prophan'd and abus'd by Christians as the name of God by pronouncing his holy name irreverently violating Vowes unworthily swearing falsly or prophanely Cursing or blaspheming detestably 2. But some will say Oathes are they essentially naught Is it not permitted to swear sometimes Yes 't is lawfull since the Scripture permits and approves it Saints have practised it and God himself vouchsafes to sweare The Prophet Hieremy permits us Hierem 4. 2. Psal 62. 12. Apoc. 10. 6. Gen. 14. 22. 3. kings 17. 1. Rom. 19. 2. Cor. 1. 23. Gal. 1. 20 Gen. 22. 16. Hier. 22. 24. Luke 1. 73. Psal 109 to sweare in the name of God provided it be with all necessary circumstances David praises those that sweare by the true God not by fals Deities as Pagans did Angells Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have sometimes sworn An Angel in the Apocalyps lifts up his hand to heaven and sweares by him that lives for ever and ever that after judgment there will be no more time In the book of Genesis the Patriarke Abraham says to the King of Sodom I lift up my hand to the most high Majesty of God who possesses heaven and Earth In the third book of kings the Prophet Elias sayd by the living God in whose sight I stand S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans God is my witness that without intermission I make a memory of you In the second to the Corinthians I call God to witness upon my soul that sparing you I came not any more to Corinth And in the Epistle to the Galatians Behold before God that I ly not God himself whose least word is more firm then heaven and earth having nothing greater then himself vouchsafes to sweare by himself and by
his life And the Psalmist says expresly The Lord hath Sworn 3. It is true then that absolutely speaking an Oath that is accompanied with all its circumstances is neither mortal nor venial sin on the contrary it is a vertuous and meritorious action It is an Act of the vertue of Religion which hath for its object the payment to God and his divine Perfections the honour and homage that we owe him When an oath is well made we honor the Immensitie Science and Veracity of God Calling him to witness what we say we acknowledg him to be in all places present with all his creatures to know all that passeth in this world and to be the Soveraign and infallible Verity Source and Origin of all verity who authorizes by his testimony all truthes 4. There are divers sorts of oathes But that I may not burden your memory I will distinguish them into 3. kinds only which Divinity calls Assertory Promissory Execratory 5 First the Assertory is when you ascertain any thing that is past or present calling God to witness what you say calling him I say either by himself as when you say by God before God I say this in the presence of God or by some creature S. Matt. 5. that hath relation to him as when you say by my soul by this light by this fire so JESVS-CHRIST says in the Gospell that to sweare by heaven is to sweare by the Throne of God to sweare by the earth is to swear by the footstool of his feet 6. Secondly the Promissory is when you promis under oath to do or not to do any thing And You commit perjury and offend God mortally if you have not an intention to do or not to do what you promis or if you know that you cannot do it or if afterward you voluntarily fail to do what you promised in a matter of importance 7. In the third place the Execratory or oath of imprecation is then when to assure any thing you call God not only to witness what you say but you call him moreover to reveng the ly in case you say not true as when you say God punish me may I die presently never may I go out of this place Never may I see God the Divell take me if this be not true it is as much as if you sayd if I say not true I will that God permit that I die that I never depart from hence that the Divell carry me away c. 8. And it happens sometimes that God takes such swearers at their word and sends them the evill which they wished Niceforus Calixtus says that three Calumniators accusing the Bishop Narcissus of Adultery one of them sayd that he would dye if what he affirmed was not true another that he would be burnt the third that he might never see The first died suddenly the second was burnt with his house by a spark of fire that fell from his lamp the third having seen the punishment of his complices repented of his fault and wept so bitterly that he lost his sight 9. The Prophet Hieremiah above cited marks out to us the conditions wherewith an oath must be accompanied that it be not vitious but vertuous and meritorious Iurabis vivit Dominus in veritate in justitia judicio He permits you to sweare by the life of God or other oath provided that it be with truth with justice and with discretion 10. First with truth this circumstance is so absolutely necessary to an oath that if you swear an untruth or are not sure of what you sweare it is a perjury though it should be about the vallue of a pin I say though it should be upon the matter of a pin for it is not in this sin as in other kinds of crimes wherein the levitie of the matter makes the sin to be but venial here the levitie of the matter diminishes not the sin but encreases the malice of it for it is a greater contempt of God to abuse his authority and to call him to witness an untruth for a thing that is friyolous and of little consequence 11. And we must not only not sweare to assert an express and formally But not also to confirm a disguised and palliated untruth I call palliated lyes equivocations ambiguous words and of a double meaning for these deceive men they are subtil and crafty cheats And is it not a great evill to make use of the name of God and his credit to cheat and deceive men S. Isidore and S. Bernard tell us that what ever artifice of equivocation we use in swearing God who sees our conscience S. Isod lib. 2. sent 6. 31. S. Ber. lib. de mod bene vivendi ser 32. Aug. Ep. 224. ad Alipium takes our words according to the sense that he to whom we sweare does understand them S. Augustine concludes the same I doubt not says he but you ought to keep the fidelity of your promise according as he to whom you swore did understand it and not according to the ambiguity of your word whence it follows that those are perjured who contenting themselves to perform their words according to their own concealed sence of them have deceived the thoughts and expectations of him to whom they swore and consequently shal not be saved since the Prophet says that to go to heaven one must not in swearing deceive his Neighbor Qui jurat proximo suo non decipit 12 Secondly you must sweare with justice that is to say you must not sweare but that which is just and lawfull And therefore they sin grievously who swear to reveng themselves or to do any thing displeasing to God They are not at all oblig'd to keep such oathes since nobody can be oblig'd to do ill Nay they are oblig'd not to keep them becaus the Law of God obliges them not to do such things 13. In the third place it must be with judgment that is with prudence and maturity for things necessary and of importance and by reason of some obligation grounded in a vertue as charity justice or obedience For to sweare lightly rashly without just cause or necessity though it be for verity is a sin and moreover the cause of many inconvenients It is an irreverence and a dishonour of God to call him for witness in things that are frivolous or of little or no importance 'T is as if Lackeys playing in the court of Whitehall should call the King to be Arbitrator in all their childish disputes and differences 14. But take the inconveniences which do follow this accursed language from Ecclesiasticus or rather from the holy Ghost A man that is given to swearing shall be filled with iniquity and Ecclus. 33. 12. his house shal be always afflicted He shal be filled with his own sins which he commits by swearing lightly and also with those of others who will learn to sweare by his example and through the force of custome forsweare also themselves
cause by its effects the original by the copy such a Master such a man such Parents such children commonly speaking It is the gain of the Parents you will gain the affection and the praises of your children They will say after your death Thankes be to God who gave us Parents so exemplar vigilant and vertuous It is your gain you will gain Heaven for S. Paul says if a woman continue in faith and love in sanctification and sobriety and breed up her children in the same she shal obtain salvation 1. Tim. 2. 18. Amen DISCOVRS XXXIIII OF THE FIFTH COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not kill THis Commandement forbids us to kill without legitimate Authority either our own selves or any humane creature either positively by putting the cause of death or negatively by not removing it if in our power To which the Son of God hath added But I say to you Whosoever shal be angry shal be in danger of judgment Nevertheless since our Saviour Matth. 5. is the perfect modell and Idea of the elect and that we see in the scripture He hath been sometimes angry It seems that imitation of him in this point is an action not permitted Mark 3. 5. only but vertuous and meritorious To clear this point in which the difficulty of this commandement consists and to make this discours beneficial We will see first whether or no there was any anger in IESUS-CHRIST Secondly the difference of his and ours and thirdly the remedies of ours Lord rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy anger says the Royal Prophet Our Saviour IESUS-CHRIST is He transported with fury Is He subject to any passion as to Psal 6. make his blood boil his eyes sparkle his mouth froth to set his face on fire and afterwards to make it pale to disorder his soul in her functions and to deprive her of her empire and command for these are the proper effects and symtoms of anger which made the Stoicks after many disputes upon this subject say a wise man is not subject to these passions It is certaine that in our Saviour as he is God there is no such Passion for his Divinity being most pure simple and invariable cannot be subject to these transports and alterations 3. Nevertheless the holy Ghost in the Scripture to condescend to our infirmity and to accommodate himself to our manner of speaking and understanding attributes to God many things which pertain not to him properly but only by Analogy and likeness to that which is seen in creatures so He attributes to him anger which is no other thing in him than his justice which is called anger becaus it hath the same effect as anger but not the weakness and imperfection of anger He that is angry revenges the injury receiv'd but with transport and commotion God by his justice punishes sin but with tranquillity without passion Thou judgest with Wisd 12. 18. tranquillity says the holy Ghost in the book of Wisdom 4. But if we consider JESUS-CHRIST as man I will say with Divines that the passions love hatred choler and joy sorrow desire and fear being appurtinances to humane nature certainly were in IESUS-CHRIST as man But without the imperfections wherewith original sin hath soiled them which hath made them in us strong and vigorous and to revolt continually The Passions of IESUS were not such He had absolute command over them they were perfections natural organs and instruments which He apply'd to holy uses Wherefore the Saints dared not call them simply Passions but Propassions to signify that in this holy Soul there were some dispositions which held the place of passions and therefore are called propassions as the Pronounes are so called becaus they hold the place of Nounes So the sacred Historians recount that IESUS entring into the Temple raised in himself anger ouverthrew the tables of the Marchands and chased them out as doggs May we imitate him in this Is it good to raise anger in our selves ought we not to confess it We need not absolutely speaking 't is neither vice nor imperfection but a good action and a vertue to raise anger provided it be seasoned with all necessary circumstances and like to that of IESUS But becaus we are commonly so frail and so imperfect that we know not how to use this knife without cutting our own selves all things well considered it is better to deprive our selves of it and not be angry 5. For the anger of JESUS was furnished with two conditions which commonly ours does want wherefore his was most vertuous and laudable ours vicious and reproachfull That of IESUS never prevented or surprized Him He had it not but when in what manner and so much as He would In in effect 't is sayd in the Gospell that He troubled himself and not that He was troubled S. Iohn 11. 13. S. Marke 14. 33. And again in the Vigill of his Passion He began to fear not before though He had a longtime the object present in his Spirit Anger did not prejudice the use of his reason it cast no darknes nor obscurity into his understanding it hindred him not to proceed most wisely and with entire circumspection in his actions His rod says Hieremiah is a watching rod which Hierom. 1. 11. hath open eyes to see where it strikes and how it strikes his anger is a zeal and not a passion most reasonable and most just Ours on the contrary is generally blind inconsiderate and rash It prevents the judgment and darkens reason and is the cause we know not what we do and that we do nothing that is good 6. All that you say or do in passion is never well sayd or well don and though you should speak golden sentences though you should do wonders they make no account of them they attribute them to your passion and not to you as they attribute to the liquor all that a man says or does in drink becaus they know a man drunk with liquor or with passion is uncapable to say or do any thing of worth So the Civil Laws I. Quocqd Si. de Reg Iur. 4. king 3. declare we ought not to regard what you say or do in the heat of passion if you persever not in it when your anger is allayed Eliseus finding himself moved by a just anger would not pronounce his Oracles and instruct the Kings but called a Musitian to appeas first the commotion by the gravity of his musick He knew well that a soul troubled with passion is uncapable Psal 106 27. S. Iames. 1. 20. of celestial lights And that anger of man works not the justice of God It belongs not but to IESUS and to his holy Mother to do a thing well in the heat of passion 7. Moreover there is a second difference of his and our anger His is never mixt with bitterness nor exercised with a desire of vengeance when He is angry and punishes us it is not out
body The spiritual is the union of grace with the soul And the civil is the union of a man with his neighbors and a good repute amongst them Now the detractor sometimes takes away the first life often the second and very frequently the third The first sometimes either by creating mortal enemies against the poor absent person or by representing him as dishonest and unfaithfull whereby he loses those employments without which he cannot nourish himself nor his The second often for soon or late the detracted person heares of the Detractor he conceives a hatred of him and resolves upon reveng ah he sometimes dyes in this disposition and with the Devills is damn'd for ever The third frequently for generally speaking detraction takes effect and deprives the detracted of the good opinion others have of him which is the cement of the commerce that is between them so the detractor takes away his civil life and obliges himself to restitutions and reparations both of the honor and good name and of all the expences dammages and interects caused by his detraction which will be very hardly made 8 To avoyd a vice so pernicious both to you and others follow the counsell of the holy Ghost Weigh your words in a just Eccl. 28. 29. ballance before you utter them Remembet that in the judgment of God they shall be all exactly weighed examined judged punished or recompenced we must render an account in judgment of a word which hurts not how much more of those which blacken our neighbor rob him of his honour and are the caus of so many enmities and dissentions Remember when you are in passion and quarelling with your neighbor That you utter not the Prov. 25. 8. things which your eyes have seen lest afterward you cannot amend it when you have dishonoured him says the sacred text And in effect a detractive word is soon let forth but not so soon recalled words have not handells to be pulled back again when they have eschaped but they have wings which makes them fly away irrevocably if you would repair the honor of your neighbor whither will you go to seek all those to whom you have spoken and all those who have spoken of it after you and if you find them how will you raze out of their minds the bad opinion of their neighbor which you have imprinted in them And yet 't is a thing absolutely necessary unless you go to the person whom you detracted and pray him to pardon you and to free you from the obligation of restoring But if he does not 't is a verity avowed by all Doctors that you stand oblig'd to repair his honor in defect whereof the Pope himself cannot absolve you Calumniate not nor detract then any person but have charity which as the Apostle says Covers a multitude of sins so you will enjoy quiet in your self and peace with others you will obtain the grace and favour of God in this world and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XL. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL AS Creation is attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son So sanctifieation of souls is attributed to the holy Ghost becaus 't is an effect of particular love and goodness The more usuall way He takes for this work is the administration of Sacraments which are the instrumental causes of his graces chanells and conduits of his benedictions Before we speak of each one in particular 't is good to treat of them in general and to consider what is common to all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace Wherefore I will put before your eyes their causes the nature and effects of them 1. Tâ—e Efficient Caus who instituted the Sacraments is IESVS lib. 4. c. 4. de SacrameÌ„t Trid. ss 7. can 1. CHRIST Who is the Authour of the Sacraments but IESVS our Lord these Sacraments came from heaven says S. Ambrose And the holy Ghost by the mouth of his Spouse assembled in the Councel of Trent If any one shal say that all the Sacraments of the new Law were not instituted by CHRIST our Lord let him be anathema IESVS hath given his Apostles and his Church commission to institute Feasts Fasts and the Ceremonies of the Office but the institution of Sacraments He reserv'd to himself 't is He alone that bâ—queathed them to the faithfull as the magasins of his merits chanells of his graces and authentick proofs of his Divinity Yes of his Divinity 2. For in the institution and administration of Sacraments IESUS shews that he is God since He exercises and makes appear divine perfections His Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Iustice and Providence 3. His Power They say usually in Philosophy that no creature however noble and eminent it may be can serve the Creator as an instrument to draw out of nothing another creature that a Seraphin cannot create no not instrumentally a drop of water or one only grain of sand Let them change now their tone and praise the power of IESVS CHRIST who makes use of common creatures to produce so excellent of material to to produce Spiritual of dead and inanimate creatures to create a divine life who makes use elements which are in the lowest order of nature to produce that which is most high and more excellent than all that is in nature who makes use of a little water to produce grace which is a participation of the life of God himself 4. He shews in this his Wisdom disposing of all things sweetly leading his creatures to their last End by means convenient and fitted to their nature If you had not bodys if you were as Angells S. Chryhom 60. ad Pop. Antioch separated from all corporeall matter God would give you his gifts purely spiritually and invisibly but becaus your souls are cloathed with terrestrial and materiall bodys God gives you his graces in material elements and in sensible signes 5. He exercises his Goodness for by the malediction thundred against the first man and his posterity corporeal creatures are Wisdom 4. becom to us temptations stumblingblocks and snares But by the Benediction of IESUS they are the matter of Sacraments conduits of his graces organs of our sanctification and instruments of our salvation 6. And whereas He is both mercifull and just in shewing us mercy he exercises his justice for man being by sin unjustly elevated against God who is infinitely above him he is justly punished and humbled seeing himself oblig'd to receive his salvation by corporal creatures which are so much below him 7. His Providence in sine herein does shine He foresaw that men are naturally inclin'd to an exterior worship and He provided Sacraments and Sacrifice which consist in exterior actions lest they should employ themselves in superstitions He sees that Vnity is necessary amongst his faithfull and to make them uniform in the exercise of Piety and divine service to unite them togeather in thâ— same Religion and the same Church He institutes exteriour actions
necessary to baptise an infant or the primitive Christians the holy Fathers nay or IESUS CHRIST himself who says so clearly and with such asseveration that it is necessary for him 7. From these Catholick Verities all married women ought to learn to have great care that their daughters and servants also know well all that is necessary for the essence of this sacrament and that they know well what I am about to say of it In case of necessity each one may baptize an infant also the Father or Mother in defect of another and if you will that the child be saved see what you must do You must take water not spittle aquavitae rosewater or any other made by art but natural water of fountaine sea river pit pond or well you must wet or wash the body of the infant with it the head if you can possibly and if you cannot wash the head you must put water upon the brest arme foot or upon some other naked part and the same persone that puts water must in putting it say distinctly with intention to purge him from original sin and to make him a member of the Church or at least to do what the Church does these words Infant I Baptise thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost But the Infant that should be perhaps baptized upon any other part than the head when the head appears you must baptise him again under condition saying Infant if thou art not baptized I baptise thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Becaus Baptisme that is given upon any other part 3. Part q. 66. ar 7. is not certen says S. Thomas And when you are not certen that the child is dead you ought to baptise him under condition and say If tbou art living I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost For as S Austin speaking of a Catechumen that fell into an Apoplexie having not demanded Baptisme says that he ought to be baptized becaus 't is better to put your self in danger of baptizing one unwilling than to be wanting to one willing So when you doubt if a child be living 't is better to put your self in danger of baptizing a dead child than not to baptize one living And becaus the life of these little creatures is sometimes so feeble and imperceptible that we thinke them wholy dead though a longtime after they give signes of life I say 't is good thar every woman should know all this for it happens sometimes that a woman falls into labour suddenly and unexpectedly and that the infant cannot be brought perfectly into the world alive or it is so weake that likely it will die before an ordinary Minister of this Sacrament can be had if those about her know not how to baptize the infant may be for want of this help depriv'd of Salvation and if this should happen but once in the whole world in a hundred years for to avoyd it every one should learn with great care how to apply this Sacrament so important is the salvation of a soul 8. And this again is of so great importance that very learned and pious Bishops and other Divines have counselled all Curates to baptise under condition all infants that had been baptized by women for though some know well the matter and the form of Baptisme they are nevertheless so surprized and in such a hurrie in these conjunctures that often they know not what they do and this is not only the judgment of those Bishops but Opus 65. parag vlt de Officio Sacerd. the express opinion of S. Thomas 9. In fine married women ought to learn that they are most culpable in the sight of God if their infant die before Baptisme becaus they defer it too long expecting Gossips or for other humane reasons or considerations or becaus they hurt themselves and lie down before their time if this happen with out your fault you may comfort your selves in your innocencie and adore the Providence of God but if you have hurt your selves by your fault leaping dansing putting your selves into great passion or by carrying too heavy burdens 't is an evill which hath no excuse and which deserves to be deplor'd all the rest of your life 10. But if it be so great a misfortune to those poor infantâ— not to receive the grace of Baptisme though without their fault It is no smal misery to lose it after we have receiv'd it and to lose it by our fault for a passion or a trifle especially since it is so hard to returne again by penance to the same newness in CHRIST and to obtain so full and entire remission of all sins as in Baptisme we receiv'd The justice of God exacts to this effect a second Baptisme a Baptisme not of elementary water but of teares a laborious painfull and sorrowfull Baptisme say the holy Fathers and the Council of Trent For sins commited after Baptisme are far greater more enormous and unworthy of pardon ss 14. c. 2 than the sins of infidells Christians that shal be damn'd will be more tormented in hell than Pagans they have the knowlegd of God they know or ought to know his holy will and his divine Commandements how great an evill it is to transgress them and to offend so high and so excellent a Majesty The Servant that knows the will of his Master and does it not shall be beaten Luk. 12. 47. with many stripes says IESVS CHRIST We are not strangers but domesticks of God his children and beloved We have the honor to be received to his table to eate of his bread and to be nourished with his flesh if then we offend him after so many favours he is very sensible of the offence it is a monstrous ingratitude as when one of your own betrays you you are wont to say if it were another it would not trouble me but such an one who pertains to me so neerly whom I have so much oblig'd ha this does pierce my heart so IESUS says si inimicus meus maledixisset mihi sustinuissem utique if a Turk a Iew a Pagan who is my enemy offend me the injury is not so sensible But you a Christian who have contracted amitle with me who have set at my table how have you the malice to commit sin which disobliges me extreamly we have receiv'd the grace of God by Baptisme the gifts of the holy Ghost the supernatural habits helps to overcom temptations if we sin notwithstanding these favours we have much less excuse Do not so if you be wise If you have yet baptismal grace If you are cloathed with this fine garment which S. Austin calls the Robe of silk with this robe of innocencie which is given you in Baptisme keep it carefully persever and walk in it til death for t is more honourable more pleasant more easie and
speaking of the future time as present according to custome of the Prophets sayd From the rising of the sun even to the going down great is my Name amongst the gentills and in every place is Sacrificed and offered to my name a clean Oblation He speaks not of the improper Sacrifice of contrition and other good works which according to Calvin and others are unclean nor of the Sacrifice of the Cross which was ofâ—er'd but in one place and but once and therefore the prophecie is not verifyd but in the Eucharist which is a true and proper Sacrifice since there is efâ—usion or oblation of blood for remission of sins This is the Chalice in my blood which is shed for you A clèan Sacrifice the Body and Blood of JESUS Offered in all times and places by vertue of these words of CHRIST Do this in commemoration of me And in effect the Apostles did so as it appeares in the Acts whilst they were ministring to our Lord Says S. Luke the holy Ghost sayd seperate me Paul and Barnabas that is whilst they were sacrificing for so the greek does signify and so Erasmus does translate The same hath been practised by their Successors ever since as Controvertists clearly shew out of the holy Fathers I will give you the words of three or four who lived during the times of the four first General Councills that you may see the beliefe and practise of those golden ages S. Ambrose upon the 38th Psalme says Though CHRIST Sc Ambr. in Psal 38. is not seen to offer now yet He himself is offered upon earth Nay He himself is manifested to offer in us whose speech does sanctify the Sacrifice which is offered S. Austin Since wee see this Sacrifice foretold by Malachias Aug lib. 18. de civit Dei c. 35 offered to God in every place by the Priesthood of CHRIST according to the order of Melchisaâ—eck and the Jews Sacrifice to cease why do they yet expect another CHRIST S. Chrysostome the Oracle of the greek and eastern Church sayd Becaus this Sacrifice is offered in many places are there many Christs No for as He who is offered every where is one body and not many bodys so the Sacrifice is but one Chrysost hom 17. in ep ad Heb. Nice 1. can 18. In fine the first most general Nicene Councill complaining that in some particular Churches Deacons gave communion to Priests made this Convincing determination Neither Rule nor Custome hath delivered that they who offer not present the Body of CHRIST to them that offer By which words 't is evident the Fathers of this great Councill believed the Eucharist was not only a Sacrament containing really the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST But moreover a true and proper Sacrifice offered by Priests 3. Would it not now grieve a Christian heart to see poor Catholicks of England so miserably harrassed pillaged emprisoned hated hanged by their own Allies and countreymen as they have been now a hundred years for the profession of that great worke of Christianity which Christ and his Apostles taught them and that they should undergoe the same disgrace and ruine by such as call themselves Christians yea the only pure ones for that very self same act of Religion for which both the Apostles themselves and all primitive Christians were so cruelly persecuted by Jew and Pagan But the God of mercies look in his good time upon our Persecutors favourably becaus they do it ignorantly and in incredulity and becaus they are the far greater Sufferers being deprived of a Sacrifice so acceptable and glorious to God and so profitable and necessary to men 4. If we consider Him who offers what He offers and the manner in which he offers we shal see that 't is a Sacrifice exceedingly glorious and pleasing to God For in this oblation the principal Offerer and Sacrificer is JESUS CHRIST the object of his Fathers complacence and the subject of his most tender loves who is equall to him in Greatness to whom He Sacrifices You are a a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedeck Psal 109 Heb. 5. 6. Gen 14. 18. says the Royal Prophet and S. Paul speaking of our Saviour becaus He offers continually by Priests unbloody Sacrifice under the species and formes of bread and wine which were the offerings of Melchisedeck The Priest is but his instrument and Minister when he says This is my Body it is evident that the Priest Speaks not of his own body but of that of JESUS CHRIST and seeing he says not This is the body of JESUS CHRIST But this is my Body 't is clear by this that it is not properly he that speaks but t is JESUS that speaks by his mouth who of the things proposed makes his Body and Blood says S. Chriysostom Hom. de Tradit Iudae 5. That which he offers is not dead and corruptible flesh of Lambs or other things as the ancient Sacrifices which were not pleasing to God in themselves nor in their substance as too base to be the objects of his delights but only pleased Him as they were figures shadows and representations of the Victime of this Sacrifice which is the precious flesh of the man-God Deifyd flesh living and enlivening holy and Sanctifying flesh flesh united to the Divinity subsisting with the Divine nature in the Persone of the Word 6. The manner in which He offers it is admirable and gives to God the greatest Glory Jt is offered as a most perfect holocaust since in this Sacrifice God is perfectly honoured as the Soveraign Authour of all Being for the man-God losing in honor of his Father the Sacramental Being which He hath here shews that God produced Him hath right to destroy Him and suffers no loss in his destruction He honors the justice of his Father in that He avows He hath deserved death and annihilation for the sins of men for whom He made himself a Propitiatour He honors his mercy in that He transfer'd upon his innocent son the debts of criminal servants and in that He accepts the sacrifice of his precious Body and mystical effusion of his Blood instead of the true and real death that we deserve He honors Him as the last end for losing the Being which He hath here to honor Him He shews that he holds it for the greatest happiness and felicity if his Father thinks it fit to be annihilated for his service 7. This august Sacrifice being so glorious and pleasing to God cannot fail to be extreamly profitable and advantagious to men T is a magasin of Spiritual treasures which furnishes us where with to satisfy the great abligations we have to God 't is a most powerfull meanes to obtaine of him all favours necessary for our souls and bodys T is a Host of praise and an Eucharisticall Sacrifice T is an impetratory Host and propitiatory Oblation Isaiah sayd if one should make a fire with all the wood of mount Libanus Isay
goods works the Angells will rejoyce upon it in heaven the Faithfull will be edifyd upon earth Devills will rage for envy in hell The eternal Father will adopt you for his child the Son will make you one of his members the holy Ghost will dwell in you as in his Temple The B. Trinity will adorne you with a triple Crown they will make you happy by Beatifical Vision by perfect Fruition and by possession of eternal Goods Amen DISCOURS XLVIII of Purgatory 1. Though there be but one only Church in the world yet this may be divided into three Parts or Orders which according to their divers conditions beare different names and Titles That which reignes with God in Heaven and happily passed from the Combate to the Victory and from Victory to Tryumph is called the Tryumphant Church That which fights yet upon Earth and environed with Devills and with Sinners labours to vanquish the one and to convert the other is called Militant And that which Expiates its sins in the flames of Purgatory and satisfys the justice of God by the greatness of its paines is called Suffrante Of this I shal now treat and that the Living and the Dead may reap profit by this Discours I divide it into two Parts In the first I will shew that there is a Purgatory in which souls do suffer In the second we will see by what means we may and ought to help those poor soules 2. Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur Blessed are they who dye in our Lord who die so perfect in Faith and Charity who depart Apoc. 14. 13. hence so purged by true and entire Penance that they are free from all spot of sin and not lyable to any punishment due to it But they that are not so pure and clean as so many are not must necessarily feel the severity of Gods justice which leaves no sin unpunished and must be purged before they can be blessed as Scriptures Fathers and reason make evident to every vnbyassed understanding In the second Book of the Machabees we read that Iudas Machabeus that valiant Champion who was high Priest or chief Bishop of the Church and Defender of the true Faith and Religion sent 12. thousand Drachmes to Hierusalem that sacrifice might be offered for the Dead And the Authour of the book concludes It is a holy and salutary cogitation to pray for the dead that they may be delivered from their sins And this was the general practise of the Church as appears by their set form of Office for the Dead in their book Mahzor translated and set forth by Bishop Genebrard Munster and Fagius in Annot upon 14. of Deut Whitaker lib. 1. cont Dureum foâ— 81. 1. Ep. c. 4. This custome is yet observed by the Iews which is so evident that Protestants themselves confess it S. Peter in the new Testament furnishes us with a strong proof of Purgatory in the third chapter of his first Epistle He teaches us that the Son of God descended and Preached to them that were in prison who had been incredulous sometime in the days of Noah This passage connot be applyd to the Fathers that were detain'd in Limbo nor to the damned that were lockt up in hell For the first never were incrudulous as were those to whom the Son of God did speak The second deserv'd not that IESUS CHRIST should preach or Evangelize as the text says good news to them or should mitigate their torments by the happiness of his presence Since according to the Scripture in hell there is no redemption It remaines then that He speaks of the Souls in Purgatory and of those particularly that gave not credit to the preaching of Noah who nevertheless being moved by the deluge and by the present perill called upon God and converted themselves to him by penance But to Expiate the paines due to their sins were doom'd to prison and to punishment until the comming of the Redeemer who preached to them the grace of Redemption drew them out of prison and led them with Him into Heaven S Paul says That he who upon the foundation of faith makes a building 1. cor 3. 12. of Gold silver and precious stones That is of solid and perfect vertues He shal receive reward but he that hath made a building of wood hay stubble that is of imperfections or venial sins Aug. in Psal 37. Psal 6 shal be saved but by fire S. Austin explicates of Purgatory this text and cites moreover to the same purpose these words of David Lord reprove me not in your fury and correct me not in your anger Lord says David according to the explication of Saint Austin permit me not to be of the number of those to whom you will say Go ye accursed into Eternal fire and purify me in this life so that I may not need to be purged by the fire that corrects those lib. de Monog c. 10. who shal be saved Tertullian in the second age of the Church speaking of the devotions of Widdows of his time says that every year on the anniversary of their husbands death they made offerings for them and that they prayed God to give them refreshment they believed then that they were in paines We might alledge many other ancient Fathers But there is no need to cite them since lib. 3. Institut c. 5. n. 10. Calvin himself confesseth that the holy Fathers who lived a 1300 years before his time prayed for the Dead and that which he answers to this is the ancient Fathers were men who were deceived as if he were an Angel or rather a God that could not Erre But if we should have nither Scripture nor Tradition for this Verity yet common sense would teach it For let us suppose that there is a man as there may be who having committed blasphemies murders adulteries and other sins in great number and being upon his death-bed repents converts himself to God and dyes whither shal his soul go Not to hell for God never reiects a contrite and humbled heart and He hath promised mercy to all that shal conuert themselves by true and sincere penance Shal he go strait to heauen and as strait as one that hath serued God well and kept his commandements all his life what appearance of it and where would be the verity of this word of S. Paul a man shal reap that which he hath sown where would be Gal. 6. Psal 61 Rom. 2. 6. Apoc. 22 Matt. 16. the truth of this which the Royal Prophet the Apostle the Evangelist and our Saviour himself hath sayd God will render to every one according to his workes We need not but consider what is God and what is sin to avow a Purgatory in which an imperfect soul is purifyd before she may or would be pesented to God who is Purity it self 3. Wherefore a soul in Purgatory murmures not she complains not of too much rigour on the contrary she embraces
and suffers those torments voluntarily she knows how disagreable she is to the Sanctity and Purity of God that she is a debtour to his justice and that she deserves those torments she desires the justice of God should have its cours and as she loves God more than her own self she is glad the injury don to his Majesty is revenged also at her own cost she will remaine in that prison untill her debt be entirely payd either by her own sufferances or by the satisfactions and suffrages of others 4. For we may ayde those poor afflicted soules they are in communion of spiritual goods with us they are members of the same mystical Body children of the same Church Citizens of the same City and there is such an union such a simpathy and communication betwixt members of the same Body children of the same family inhabitants of the same City that we cauterize a member that is well to cure that which is ill that the labour of a child of a family profits his brother who labours not that one citizen ss 25. in Decret de purg can pay debts and satisfy for another We can then help these souls especially in three manners First by Prayers as the Councel of Trent declares For a good and devout praier is not only meritorious to him that makes it but also impetratory and satisfactory for others Secondly by the Sacrifice of Mass for this is the most See Dis XLVI n. 9. Tobie 4. 18. profitable suffrage that can be offered to God for the help of the dead as not only the aforesayd Councel but also the Fathers of the primitive Church declare Thirdly by Alms. Venerable Toby sayd to his son Put your bread and wine upon the Tomb of the just becaus in that time the Poor assembled in Cemeterys or Churchyards and alms of bread and wine were given them for the souls departed He sais upon the Tomb of the just becaus alms gâ—ven for souls that are in hell avail them not but those that departed out of this world in the state of grace they profit much wherefore S. Austin reproved the avaricious who excused themselves from such alms by the great Aug. lib de decem cordis c. 12. number of their children when we sayd he reprehend you for your auarice you say that if you give not so much as you desire 't is becaus you have many children It is a fals pretence wherewith you maske your avarice For if one of your children dye are you more charitable than you were if you keep your goods for them you would send a part to him he hath now more need of it then ever But if you have not means to give alms for the poor souls succour them by other workes 5. All vertuous actions don in the state of grace and especially the painfull if Offered for the dead give them great refreshment But those confort them most of which they are the Cause either by their instructions or by their good examples For Divinity â—eaches us that if we are the cause of any good as often as 't is don after our death our accidentall glory in heaven is increased and if we are in purgatory our torments are diminished as on the contrary our paines there are augmented if any sin be committed by our bad example 6. Let us give eare then to the dolefull lamentations of those poor souls who implore our help Meseremini mei Miseremini mei Saltem vos amici mei Have pity on me have pity on me at least you who are my friends she says twice Have pity on me Have pity on me Lest you increas my paines Have pity on me to ease me in my sufferances Have pity Be touched with compassion of so great miseries For judgment without mercy shal be don to him who shal not S. Iames 2. 13. have don mercy But on what will you exercise mercy but on misery and what greater misery then that of a poor creature who owes very much and is pursued and pressed by a rigorous Iustice and hath not wherewith to pay What greater misery then that of a poor soul upon whom the revenging hand of the Omnipotent is layed then of a poor soul in torments so Excessive that if a dog should be so tormented it would move you to compassion Of me a soul created to the image of God redeemed by the precious blood of IESUS marked with his character embellished with his graces designed to his glory He will say in iudgment I have been thirsty and you have given me drink I have been Matt 25 35. in prison and you have visited me I have been naked and you have clothed me I have been a stranger and you have received me into your house You do all these good workes of charity if you deliver a poor Soul out of Purgatory you are the caus that she is satiated with a torrent of pleasute you redeem her out of a very obscure and painfull prison you cloth her with the stole of glory and you make her to be received and lodg'd in heaven At least you who are the caus or occasion that this soul is in pain have pity on her you have made her to offend God by your impure words by your bad examples or by your sollicitations having so great part in the debt will you not contribute to the satifaction At least you friends what is becom of the affection you testifyd to your friend where are the offers of service where are the protestations so often made that you would never abandon her forget you her becaus she is seperated from you and turne you your back to her when she hath the greatest need of Succour It appears now that you were a friend of fortune only and the afliction of your friend is the touchstone which shews the falness of your friendship At least you my friends your Ancestours have made themselves debtours to the justice God by the sins which they committed to leave you goods will you be so ungratefull and so cruell as to refuse them a little part of them you swimme in delights and they are in torments you rest in feathers and they lie in flames You complain not of a large refection you give to J know not whom and you refuse your afflicted mother a little dinner which you might send her by the poore In fine if you be so mercenary as to seek your interest in all your actions remember that these poot Souls are in the gtace of God must go to heaven and you must one day succeed in their present place and if you shal deliver them they will not be ungratefull Blessed are the mercifull for they shal obtaine mercy If you give an amls for a soul in Purgatory you do at once two workes of mercy corporal mercy to the poor in want and Spiritual to the soul in paines you make the poor man your friend and the poor soul your debtour when you
depart out of this world they will remember your courtesie will returne you the like and receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS XLIX of Extreme Vnction AN Ancient being asked what is the touchstone of perfect amity He answered wisely that it is adversity a true friend does as the heart inclines always to the left side and places more affection where he sees more affliction IESUS then loves us with a sincere and cordial love since He instituted a Sacrament expressly to comfort us and to strengthen us in our last infirmity when honors dignities offices and riches fail us Though this Verity be assured us both by the greek and Latine Church as appears by the general Councel of Florence in the Instruction of the Armenians which was without contradiction admitted by the Grecians Nevertheless Dissenters endeavour to take from us this signal demonstration of Christs Providence and love and to deprive us of this powerfull help in time of our greatest need Wherefore in the first place I will shew yet farther that 't is a true and proper Sacrament in the second the effects of it and in the third the dispositions we ought to have to receive it 2. To evince the first I need no other proof then the clear words of S. Iames If any one be sick amongst you let him bring in the Priests of the Church and let them pray over him anoiling him Iames. 5. 4. with oyle in the name of our Lord. And the prayer of Faith shal save the sick and our Lord will alleviate him and if he be in sins they shal be remitted him Here we have all that Dissenters themselves require to the essence of a Sacrament to wit an exteriour signe or symbole a promise of Grace and divine institution The exteriour signe or Symbole is Vnction with oyle and the prayer of Faith the promise is Alleviation of the sick and remission of sins and the institution thereof is gathered from the constant and firme promise of the Apostle for he would not have promised so confidently and absolutely had not our Lord instituted and commanded it Innoc â—p ad Decentium c. 8. Hence S. Innocent says expressy and clearly that this Vnction is a Sacrament declared by S. Iames and therefore not given to them that are yet in penance since the other Sacraments are refused them This Testimony of antiquity shal suffice since the Epistle is certaine He an ancient learned holy man wonderfully commended by S. Austin S. Hierome and S. Chrysostome and never reprehended by any of the Ancient for teaching the Vnction of sick to be a Sacrament Wherefore the Magdeburgenses prove by this Testimony that Christians of the fift age had a custome to annoynt their Magdâ—bur Cent. 5. c. 6 S. Aug. in speculo et ser 215 Cyrysost lib. 3. de sacerd Origen hom Z. â—n Levit. sick But they did not hold it as a pious custome only but as a necessary duty for S. Austine S. Chysostome Origen and other Fathers expressly tell us that the words of S. Iames appertaine to us rhat Christians ought to do now and in all times what this Apostle writes concerning the infirme And you will avow they had grear reason if you consider with me the admirable and saving effects of this Sacrament which are naturally represented by the effects of olive oyle and exprest by the words of the Apostle 3. First he Says the Prayer of Faith shal save the sick This Sacrament saves his soul by giving grace and force to withstand the terrours and temptations of the ennemie in the hour of death For 't is then he plays his planks and applyes all his forces to tempr us more furiously as the holy Fathers tell us becaus he sees his time is short and that we are least able to resist when through the greatness of paines we can hardly lift up our minds to God Somtimes he sets upon us as a Lyon with violence Othertimes as a Dragon laying snares to entrap us he tempts us to infidelity suggesting apparent reasons against Faith to Presumption and to confidence in our selves or to despaire and diffidence in the mercy of God exagerating the rigour of his justice the grievousness and great number of our sins the little or no penance we have don he tempts us to impatience in the rigour or length of the disease to murmuration against God to fear and diffidence in his Providence T is then that Friends should ayde you powerfully by servent prayers T is then that Confessors should assist and especially the Poor for their souls are at least as dear and precious to JESUS as those of the Rich the rich have generally Domesticks or friends that can exhort them and that have leasure to help them to dye well the Poor have them not nor such provision of good thoughts instructions and spiritual arms as the Rich by the advantage of their education and their 1. Pet. 5. reading The infernal woolf who roves about seeking whom he may devour sleeps not in this occasion the Pastor then ought to be vigilant and present in a time of so great importance the gift of gifts the grace of graces the most precious and desirable is final perseverance with out this grace all the other benefits serve for nothing In effect what will it profit me to have been created redeemed and justifyed if I die not in the state of grace and this Sacrament disposes me to persever in it 4 In the second place the Apostle says that God will alleviate the sick persone or raise him up For this Sacrament restores health of body to those who otherwise should dye if it be necessary or profitable to the salvation of the soul as the holy Councel of Trent and before it that of Florence assembled from all parts of the world declare This makes many Catholicks subject to this reproach which the Scripture made to Asa king of Iuda Neither in his infirmity did he seek our Lord but rather trusted in the art of Phisicians There was not then in the Church a remedy instituted for the cure of infirmities as there is now nevertheless the Scripture complains that he made recours to Phisicians rather than to God how much more will He complain of them who recurr not to the Sacrament which JESUS hath left us a remedy so easy and so commodious but in the utmost extremity when they can do no more And when you expect the Agony to receive or make this Sacrament to be received you put your selves in danger to be prâ—vented by death which happens too often and the fault is irreparable moreover when you receive it so late having not the use of reason and knowing not what is don to you you receive it less fruitfully since you have not actual devotion which would dispose you to receive it more worthily answering to the prayers of the Priost ioyning yours with his exercising acts of Faith Hope Charity and of other vertues
than Tyrants 257 they censure althings 259 Confirmation obliges us to endure their censures and derisions 259 D Detraction defined 234. T is a mortal sin in a matter of importance 234. 'T is a greater sin than Robbery 235. It kills also the hearers if they oppose it not 335. It kills the Detracted by a triple murder 236. Remedies of detraction 237. E Eucharist containes really the Body and Blood of Christ Dise 44. It is compared to milk in its Production 268. In the manner it ought to be received 269. In the manner of its Operation 271. Communion in one kind defended 271. Examples move more than words 281. F Faith necessary to believe sins may be remitted 72. The Excellency and Necessity of it 88. Divers sorts of it 88. None suffices to salvation but living Faith 89. Many practise not according to their Faith 91. How a good Christian regulates his actions by Faith 91. Exhort to true Faith 92. Fasting necessary 148. The Lent was instituted by the Apostles 149. The motives to institute it 149. Objections against fasting solved 150. It s lawfullness demonstrated 153. Vertues that must accompany it 153. The ends and intentions we ought to have in it 154. Frauds are very common and pernicious 231. G God is necessarily One only 2. He is ineffable 2. Great in Nobility 3. In Power 3. In Wisdom 4. In Goodness 4. In justice 5. In indepedence 5. Documents from these Perfections 6. He is Father for divers reasons 8. He shews an infinite Power in Creating 9. Incomprehensible Wisdom in Governing 9. Ineffable Goodness in designing the Creatures to our service 10. We are obliged to thanke him for all the good He has don to them 11. Motives to Gratitude 11. Grace divided 113. What is actuall Grace 114. In how happy a state man was created and how he fell from it 114. How necessary Grace is and how freely given 115. We must distinguish carefully its motions from those of Nature 117. How they may be distinguished 118 We must be gratefull for it 118. We must not be proud when it had produced good in us but live in feare 118 Sanctifying or Habitual Grace What and how Excellent 113 241. H Heaven How great are the Goods of it 83. Four considerations to guess at their Greatness 84 motives and meanes to obtain them 86 Hell has divers significations 38 What it is to be damned 85 Hope stands with fear 95 What we ought to hope 95 of whom we ought to hope 97 Catholicks are not touched with the malediction of those that trust in men 97 who are subject to it 97 Relyance on our selves is caus of many inconveniences 97 We must hope with great Confidence 98 Exhor to confidence in our Lord 99 Holy Ghost why so called 60 Why called Gift 6 The necessity an excellency of this gift 62 We offend the holy Ghost in divers manners 6â— I Idolatry cannot be imputed to the Romane Church 169. She adores not Saints nor Relicks nor Images 170. 171. She prayes not Saints to give things desired 172. Builds not Temples Erects not Altars nor offers Sacrifice to them 172. 173. Images are not absolutely forbidden to be made but only to the end they may be adored 167. 168. Imitatours of the world reproved and their objections answered 211 212. Iudgment Particular and General 49. Reasons for a Generall Iudgment 50. This is a great Consolation to the Elect 52 Description of the general Iugdment Disc 10. What things will be therein Examined 57. Paraphrase of the Sentence of condemnation 58 Rash Iudgment Three Circumstances necessary to make it a mortal Sin 228 Causes of râ—sh Iudgment 22â— It s bad effects 229. Remedyes for it 330. L Love of God the most Excellent Vertue 100. It s necessity 101. It s necessary qualities 102 motives to love God 10â— Love of Neighbours very necessary vertue 107. Every reasonable Creature is our Neighbor 108. How we truly love our Selves and neighbors 108. 109. How ill this command is observ'd by many 110 The first and most necessary Effect of the love of our Ennemys is to pardon them 111 Motives to love and pardon them 111 112. Lyes of three Sorts 230 We ought not to speak an officious or Idle ly to save a man 231 Mass See Sacrifice M Matrimony a true Sacrement 303. A great One 304. Dutyes to which it Obligeth 305. Honour we owe to it 307. Merit Catholick Doctrine concerning it 12â— See good Works O Oathes Sometimes lawfull 181. Division and Description of them 181. 182. Conditions requisite to make them lawfull 182 183. We cannot Swear to confirm a palliated untruth 183 Divers bad causes of Swearing 185. Order a true Sacrament 298. It Confers to Priests two singular favours 299 300. P Parents Why God has not recommended to them in the Decalogue their duty in respect of children 198. They owe them Nourishment 198 Instruction 200. good Examples 201. correction 202 Exhort to educate well children 202. Penance Necessary 134 279 Conversions it makes 137 138 Two dangerous Errours concerning Penance into which we are apt to fall 138 Fruits of true Penance 140 means to obtain true Penance 140 Exhort to do Penance in the present time 136 Prayer Very necssary 141 What things are to be asked in Prayer 141 How we ought to pray 142 143 144 Excuses of indevout removed 146 R Religion Vertue may be practised in all Occasions and Times 175 The practise of it by the Vnderstanding 176 By the Will 176 by exteriour Actions 176 177 The practise of it in respect of Gods Attributes 177 It obliges us to honour God also in his Friends and Servants in Times and Places particularly consecrated to his service 177 Irreligion indevotion and irreverence reprehended 178 Exhort to honor God c. 178. Restitution must be perfect 224. 'T is absolutely necessary 224. All that concurr to an injury are obliged to it 225. It obliges always 225. Motives to avoyd injustice 225. Resurrection proved 79. the words of the article declared 80 We shal rise in the same Bodys but without defect 81 The Resurrection of the Elect and that of the Repâ—oâ—ate very different 81. Robbery defined and its definition explicated 222. It obliges to perfect Restitution 224 S Sacraments all instituted by Christ 238 He shews therein divine Perfections 239 They represent their effects very properly 240 They conferr sanctifying grace more or less according to the disposition of the Receiver 241 They give also auxiliary graces 242 Exhort to frequent them 242 Sacrifice in the new Law 273 T is very acceptaâ—le and glorious to God 275 greatly advantagious to men 276 Very beneficial to Souls in Purgatory 277 How to be offered 278. Salvation of men earnestly desired by God and the most important worke Epist to the Reader 'T is to be procured by the securest way 43. Satisfaction third Part of Penance must be made according to the multitude Enormity and diversity of our offences 283 We may satisfy the divine Iustice by all Crosses that befall us 28â— Motives to fly sin and to returne to God by true Penance 285 Scandal What properly 210 'T is sometimes a Word 211 Often Actions 211 Othertimes Omissions 213 What Actions are not to be omitted and what are to avoyd Scandal 214 Motives to avoyd it 215 Sin the greatest evill 245 248 In Christians t is far greater than io infidells 248 By sinnlng mortally we hazard Salvation 76 Carnal sins Contrary to mans nature and abominable to God 216 Species or Kinds of them 217 218 Individuums or particulars innumerable 219 Remedies of them 219. Sunday why instituted 189 How to be observed 189 190 Exhort to observe it well 191 T Tradition necessary to excuse Christians from observance of the Iews Sabbath 187 188 189 V Vnction of the Sick a true and proper Sacrament 292. It s Saving Effects 203. 294. 295. Dispositions requisite in the Receiver 296 297. Exhort to Charity 297. W Works of supererogation proved 121 good Works necessary to Salvation 122 123 Why God requires them 123 'T is necessary to be fruitfull in them 124 We must apply our Talents in them faithfully 124 Many Christianâ— lofe or abuse them 125. Exhort to practise good workes 127 We must not defer our Conversion and the practise of good Works Discours 22. FIN