say that God does not require of us all the good that He enables us to do and this is the ground of works of superero gation and doing more then is commanded Now if God do not require all but only thus much to do well then the doing better then well is a stock which God gives us to offer Him liberal services beyond the band of duty And what pride is it for man to acknowledg this sweet providence of his Creatour and to pâ—aise his mercifull indulgence in not exacting so much as He might and giving him a way and meanes to shew his voluntary and unexacted love to him We give surely by this more honor and glory to God then they who say that God requires of us all that He enables us to do yea and more commanding things impossible and then punishes us for not doing them Far be such a thought of God from a Christian heart God commands nothing but what is honourable profitable and also easy with his grace That which He demands to save us is that we do good workes conformable to our supernatural Being and to the high end to which we are designed that we do them in a competent and convenient Quantity and that we do not abuse or lose the Talents which He lends us but use these well in the practise of them as shal be seen God Matt. 3. 10. aiding in this Discours 6. Now the axe is put to the root of the tree every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit shal be cut down and cast into the Matt. 7. 19. Matt. 20. fire says S. Iohn Baptist And our Saviour himself in the Gospell confirms the Sermon of his Precursor and repeats his words Every tree that beares not good fruit shal be cut down and shal be cast into the fire It is not then enough for to be saved to have only the Psal 61. 13. Matt. 16. 27. Rom. 2. 6. 2. Cor 5. 10. Apoc. 2. 23. leaves of Saintlike words or only the flowers of holy and good desires or only the rinds and the exteriour of good fruit but we must have good and perfect fruit which are the workes of Vertues And in S. Matthew He calls the Elect not Speakers not designers not complementers but Workemen Voca operarios So in divers other places of holy Writ it is sayd God will render unto every one not according to his designes or fine discourses but according to his workes He that made you without you will not save you without you sayd S. Augustine And explicating these words of David I sought God with Aug. Ep. 21. ad Prob. c. 13. Psal 76. 2. my hands since God hath no body sayes he how can one seek him with the hands he answers that is to say with good workes And this is not that God is hard to bestow his gifts and to do good to his creatures but 't is that He would do it reasonably and decently according to the rules of his providence and infinite Wisdom He hath united his glory and our interests in procuring our Salvation He will exercise and make seen his adorable perfections his Power Wisdom and incomprehensible Goodnesse The glory of his power shin'd more when he overcame Egipt by an army of flies when he defeated Holofernes by the hand of a woman than when He made use of powerfull armies Erit memoriale nominis tui cum manus feminae dejecerit eum And this same power shines yet more gloriously when He ruines the empire of Satan beates down the reigne of sin and of the world conquers heaven and beares away the Crown of glory by feeble instruments He shews his Wisdome which demands that his goods and gifts be not undervalued that one give them not to the unworthy who contemne them 't is to have little esteem of them and dispise them if we will not labor to obtaine them He makes his goodness seen in that he vouchsafes to make use of his creatures in an employment so honourable and so glorious We hold it a great honor to be employed by a King in the regency and the government of a Kingdom how much more honor is it to be associated with a God in his more great and noble actions to conquer the kingdom of heaven to sanctify our soules and to enrich our selves with christian Vertues 7. The Scripture speaking of the glory of heaven sayes it is a salarie a harvest a crown for to teach us that if we will be saved we must necessarily labor sow fight Each one shal receave his reward according to his labor says S. Paul to the Corinthians 1. cor 3. 8. Gal. 6 7 2. Tem. 2. 5. and to the Galatians a man shal not reap but what he hath sown And to Timothy No man shal be crown'd but he that hath fought legitimatly A servant that should not have don any evill but should have held his armes closed all the day and year would he have the impudence to demand a salary a labourer that shouâ—d neither have sown nor planted would he hope to gather or reape any thing A Soldier that hath play'd whilst that others fought would he have the boldness to desire to be crown'd The Son of God who is our modell was not contented to desire our Salvation and to demand it of his Father He laboured for it and to succeed in it we must apply our selves to vertuous workes efficaciously and seriously and in the second place as good trees we must produce these good fruits plentifully 7. The Son of God saies in S. Iohn I am the Vine you the Iohn 15. 5. branches He that abides in me and I in him he brings forth much fruit He sayes not simply fruit but much fruit then He adds if any abide not in me he shal he cast forth as the branch and shal wither and shal be thrown into the fire He was so much concern'd for the fecundity of his branches that He suffered death to merit grace for them to produce an abundance of good fruit He delivered himself sayes S. Paul that He might redeem us from all iniquity and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable a pursuer of good workes Wherefore the Apostle ceased not to pray for the Collossians Ep. ad Tit. 2. 14. Colloss 1. 10. 2. Thess 2. 17. that they might walke whorthy of God in althings pleasing fructifying in all good workes And in like manner prays God to exhort comfort and confirme the Thessalonians in every good worke and word But he makes us see yet more the necessity of this fecundity or abundance of good workes in the second Epistle to S. Timothy for behold how he deciphers there an elect soule who aspires seriously to the happy life and who shal obtaine it she is sayes he a Vessel unto honor sanctifyd and profitable to our Lord ready and disposed to every good worke He sayes ready or prepared 2. Tim. 2 21. because every
him for it Psallite Domino fancti ejus confitemini memoriae sanctificationis ejus psal 29. 6. This is that which many never did that of which many never thought Our devotions are often but productions of self love practises of interest and reflections vpon our selves If we pray God we demand not of him but that which concerns our spiritual or temporal profit If we thanke him 't is but for the good which He hath don us or those of our family this is to love our selves and our salvation this is good but not perfect If we are perfect Christians and loving Disciples of IESUS we will love him more than our own selves be concern'd in his interests and pray God his Father for the exaltation of his glory and the accomplishment of his designes We will thank Him often that He revived his Son and restored Him the life which our sins had taken from him that He elevated him and placed him at his right hand 7. Secondly God shews in this Mistery his Goodness also to us for as his Son was incarnated for us as He liv'd and died for us so He is raised to life again for us We are quickned with him are raised-up with him and his Resurrection is an assurance and pledg of ours If there be no resurrection of the dead neither 1. Cor. 15. Christ is risen again says S. Paul But now Christ is risen again from the dead the first fruits of them that sleep by a man death and by a man the Resurrection of the dead and as in Adam all die so also in Christ all shal be made alive We shal all indeed rise again says the same Apostle But we shal not all be changed to witt into a better and more glorious state But only such as conform themselves to IESUS-CHRIST who is their Rule mirour and modell 8. He contributed much to his glorious Resurrection He merited it and dispos'd himself to it by his sufferances humiliations patience and other most perfect and heroical acts of vertues which He practised He by dying taught us to dye to sin by rising again to rise to a new life and by dying no more to live profit and persever to the end in sanctity and holiness as his Apostle declares and urges much in his epistle to the Romans Rom. 6. 9. Let not then men deceive themselves Let them not think to be glorifyd in Heaven if they be not Sanctify'd on earth Let them not think to enter into a glorious life any other way then that of sufferances of mortifications and Christian vertues This is the only way which the Son of God prescrib'd which our Saviour beate and which the saints have followed Hear S. Paul and S. Bernahas By many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom Acts. 14. 21. of God they say not that 't is a salutary Counsel 't is a more assured way But we must that 't is necessary to pass not through two or three but through many suffetances to com to the kingdom of God There is nothing more clear more firm and certain then the words of the son of God who says He S. Luke 9. 23. that will com after me Let him renounce himself and carry his cross daily and follow me Now in good earnest will they dare to say that living as they do in the world hanting almost continually balls commedies places of lewdeness banquets other pleasures and pastimes is to renounce one self and to carry daily the cross and to follow Christ He tels his Disciples in the day of his Resurrection what way S. Luke C. 24. He went Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into his glory Note ought It was necessary that Christ should suffer and that He should enter by this means into his glory into the glory which was his own to which He had so much right and will they think without suffering any thing to tame their passions and without mortifying themselves to enter into the glory to which they have no right into the glory which they have so often demerited and which they have renounced by so many Crimes We cannot have this glory but in quality of the heires of God and coheirs of Iesus Christ and his Apostle declares that to obtain this favour we must suffer with Iesus Christ. Rom. .8 17. We shal not be more priviledged than his Parents favourits and beloved friends all the Saints suffered with him all either were Martyrized or led an austere humble and penitent life S. Iohn Apor 7. 14. in the Apocalips seeing the assembly of them one sayd to him that they came out of great tribulation they are happily arrived they tooke then a good way and we if wise will follow the same and leave the other way 10. We see in the Church two different ways two different lives of those that have any desire to save themselves one is of those who lead a holy life mortifyd devout perfect and fervent in good works The other is of them that lead a life not in the sight of men Criminal but slack negligent and imperfect they commit not great Crimes but they do not also much good and withall they will that selflove be always satisfyd they treat themselves well they pass their time in sports walks superfluous visits and other divertisments which they terme innocent they do no injury to any but they concern not themselves in the necessities of their neighbours All without exception approve and commend the first way not one or very few will have the boldness to warrant the second way this way then at least is uncertaine fallible and dangerous And S. Augustin says when Lib. 1. de Bapt. C. 3. the salvation of our soules is concern'd we fail against the love we owe to our selves if we take not the surest way 'T is a maxime of the Law that we must not leave the certaine for the uncertaine and that we must use the more precaution where there is more danger Common sense and experience shew that by how much a loss is greater we apprehend the danger of it with more fear by how much an evill is more terrible we avoyd the peril of it with more care Does it not seem to you a great loss to lose the kingdom of heaven the possession and the enioyance of a God And is it not a great evill to be burnt a live to be always burning and not consuming 'T is an infinite loss an infinite evill We must then avoyd I will not say the danger but the appearance of danger for we cannot have too much assurance in a matter of so great importance I pray our Lord to give us grace to live so holily that we may be found worthy of this immortall Resurrection and of the happy Eternity Amen DISCOURS VIII OF THE SIXTH ARTICLE He Ascended into Heaven sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty THe Apostles
shal henceforth dare to doubt of it And He affirming and saying This is my blood who is he that shal doubt of it saying 't is not his blood Heretofore in Cana of Gallilee He changed water into wine is He not worthy to be believed changing wine into into blood Vnder the species of bread the Body is given and under the species of wine the blood is given his Body and his blood is receiv'd into our members That which seems bread is not bread though the taste preceives it such but the Body of Christ and that which seems wine is not wine though the taste represents it such but rhe Blood of Christ S. Cyrill of Alexandria who assisted in the third general Councel held at Ephesus in his 13. book upon Leviticus in the middle says Lest we should have horour of flesh and blood put upon our Altars God condescending to our weakness infuses into the things we offer to wit into bread and wine the vertue of life converting them into the verity of his own flesh S. Crysostome preaching to the people brings in our Saviour speaking thus to them Many Parents give their children to others Chrysost ham 61. ad pop Antioch to be nourished But not so I with my own flesh J nourish you and set my self as meat before you J took upon my self flesh and blood for you and the very same flesh and blood I deliver again to you Let vs ioyn to the Golden mouth to the Ambrosian mouth that is to say S. Ambrose to S. Chrysostom This bread before the Sacramental words is bread but when the consecration is don of bread is made the flesh of CHRIST by what words of IESUS CHRIST by the word which made althings the Heaven was not before the creation the sea was not the earth was not but He spoke and they were made He commanded and they were created so I answer you before the Consecration this was not the Body of Christ but after Consecration J say to you that 't is the Body of IESUS IESUS hath spoke the words In Africa they Spoke as they did in Italy becaus they had there the same faith which made S. Cyprian or the Authour of the supper of our Lord to say the bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples being changed not in appearance but in nature was made flesh by the omnipotency of the Word In fine great S. Augustine in a sermon upon the Title of the 33 Psalm admiring these words And He was carried in his own hands sayd this cannot be understood of David nor of any other than of Iesus CHRIST for who is he that can carry himself in his hands But IESUS CHRIST carried himself in his hand when He sayd to his Disciples take eate This is my Body If you will weigh with me the circumstances of the Institution of this Sacrament you will have no difficulty to embrace the faith of these holy Doctors and you will see the great injury they do our Lord who say that He gave to his Disciples but only bread as the figure and the memory of his Body 4. Let us consider first who He is that says these words This in my Body T is the Son of God who is all Power â—isdom Goodness We may well comtemplate in Him these Perfections since He himself considers them to accomplish this Mistery T is S. Iohn that says it JESUS knowing that the Father gave athings into his hands Iohn 13. that He came from God and goes to God whereas he had loved his that were in the world unto the end He loved them IESUS in the last supper considers that his Father gave althings into his hands that He had an infinite power and nothing was impossible to Him He considers that He came from God that He is the increated Wisdom produced by the Father by way of understanding and knowledg He considers that He had excessively loved men making himself man for them that it was the property of his infinite Goodness to Communicate it self to them more and more and to love them unto the end Ought He to consider all these things to give them a morcel of bread And is this a Donary beseeming such a Donor In the second place to whom does He speak Saying This is my Body To his beloved Disciples to whom He had sayd I will not call you servants but my friends becaus I have made known to you all that I have received from my Father He speaks to his Apostles to whom He was accuâ—â—omed to speak clearly without Parable or figure or if He proposed any to them He explicated the same presently He sayd to them You have the priviledg to know the secrets of the kingdom of God but to the rest I propose them in Parables He speaks to his Embassadors whom He sends to instruct the world Is it not to Embassadors that a King is wont to discover his designes to open the secrets of his heart to give particular Instructions that they may negotiate the better his affaires And IESUS saying that He gives his body saying it I say to his Friends Apostles Embassadors shal He â—ave deceived them and instead of his precious Body shal He have given them a morcel of bread Let us Consider in the third place the Circumstance of Time He eates first the Paschal Lamb with them and afterward to mount up to a higher Misterie to pass from the figure to the reality from the image to the verity from the promise to the accomplishment and from the shadow to the Body He gives them his precious Body If the bread that He gave them were not his Body but a figure only it would be in vain that He gave it it would be an unprofitable and superfluous repetition not of word but deed since the Paschal Lamb was a figure more express more distinct and more significant of his Body than a morcel of bread In giving it to them He sayd with desire I have desired to eate this Pasche with you before I suffer This desire was not only to eate the Paschal Lamb with his Disciples since He had eaten it so often with them and that He had had this desire lo long with desire I have desired says He that is J have long since vehemently desired and this desire of IESUS this great desire of IESUS this desire which the amorous heart of JESUS hath had so long shal it not have had for object but to eate with his Apostles a morcel of bread He sayd before I suffer and S. Paul in which night He was betrayd 1. Cor. 11. 23. to make vs know that being neer his death He made his Will and Testament and He declares it in express words This Chalice is the new Testament in my blood A wise man who loves his children making his Will speaks as clearly as he can if any one makes it in doubtfull and ambiguous words 't is becaus he is little intelligent in