A SERMON Preach'd in the Chappel of HIS EXCELLENCY THE SPANISH EMBASSADOR On the Second Sunday of ADVENT December 4. 1687. On which was Solemniz'd the Feast of St. Francis Xaverius of the Society of JESVS Apostle of the INDIES and Kingdom of JAPAN By the R. F. LEWIS SABRAâ— of the same Society PERMISSU SVPERIORVM LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers 1687. A SERMON Preach'd in the Chappel of his Excellency The SPANISH Embassador On the Second Sunday of Advent December 4. 1687. Caeci vident claudi ambulant leprosi mudantur surdi audiunt mortui resurgunt pauperes Evangelizantur beatus qui non fuerit scandalizatus in me Matt. 11. 5 6. The blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead rise to life the poor have the Gospel preached to them and happy is he who is not scandalized in me IT is a weighty Doubt which in this Sundays Gospel St. John moves by his Disciples his Chains not allowing him the liberty to offer it himself to our Blessed Lord to be resolved a Tu es qui venturus es Matt. 11. Are you he who is to come Are you that Saviour whom for so many Ages the sighing Prophets have asked gracious Heaven hath promised the longing Earth expected An Important Quaere For what can be of a nearer concern than not to mistake our God b Haec est vita aeterna ut cognoscant te solum Deum verum quem misisti Jesum Christum Joan. 17. 'T is that Life everlasting which we hope for to know by the light of Glory our sole true God and him he hath sent Jesus Christ And 't is the only way leading to that Life to know Both here by the light of Faith. But doth the Voice then question the Word that formed and sent it Is that Head-Mystery concealed from St. John than whom a greater Prophet is not born of a Woman No certainly The Eternal Father lately bore in his presence witness to Christ at the Bank of the River Jordan Even when yet inclos'd in his Mothers Womb he owned his Lord and Prophesied of him before he could speak Lately he proclaimed him to be the Lamb of God which takes away the Sins of the World T is at the very proposal of this Doubt that he receives that high Character of c Major inter natos mulierum propheta Joanne Baptista nemo est Luc. 7. Joan. 1. More than a Prophet becoming by this his Embassy also an Apostle for d Ut sibi quaerens illis disceret Hier ad Aglas as St. Jerom observes St. John proposes the Doubt of his mistaken Disciples that they may be instructed by Jesus his Answer 'T is their Ignorance e Non suae sed discipulorum ignorantiae Joannes consulit Hil. sup Matt. says S. Hilary that he designs to remove not his own Knowledge that he would improve Christians of England if I may call by one Name People of so different a Belief of such opposit Persuasions the Church of God asks in her Gospel the same Question this Day Tu es Are you the Lord And well she may when she finds her Subjects so divided about him * Matt. 24. Here is Christ says one with my Band only No There is Christ in that other different Party says a Second He is within says a Third this Private Spirit of mine singles him from amongst the false ones He was in the Wilderness another pretends there he had been hidden for many Ages till we lately discover'd him Thus each Sect each Party each Division challenges him He is not in all these so different so opposite Beliefs for he is not f Non enim est dissentionis Deus sed pacis 1 Cor. 14. the God of Dissention but of Peace and Unity To correct these various Errors to redress so dangerous Mistakes the true Church in imitation of St. John asks him this Day the same Question Tu es Are you the Lord you that are Adored by my Children Worshipped on my Altars I know each Sect will answer Here he is this is his true Worship which I pay But we are never the nearer some unquestionable and potent Proof must be offered Hence our Blessed Lord answered not the Disciples of St. John by a bare Assertion I am he All Deceivers and Antichristian Cheats could give in that Answer for themselves each false Prophet was ever the readiest to cry out The Word of the Lord the pure Word of the Lord. Jesus brought Facts in lieu of Words and elsewhere assures us that if he had g Si ego testimonium perhibeo de meipso testimonium meum non est verum Joan. 5. 31. with bare words born witness to himself and challenged thereupon to be believed it ought to have been held as a false one and not to have been regarded This was his Answer The blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead rise to life Behold the First Proof and Mark Miracles unquestionable by reason of their greatness number evidence The poor are preached unto behold the Second to wit those unusual Means humanly of no force used to convert and subdue the World by poor silly ignorant Men and again their refusal of all human Helps towards so vast an Enterprise And happy is he who is not scandalized in me behold the Third to wit those eminent supernatural Gifts and Blessings bestowed on those who embraced his Poverty and Abjection so unknown unto or despised by the World which were undeniable Proofs of his Apostles Holiness We agree all about the Messias convinced by those undoubted Marks now observed but many are the more miserable and guilty whilst they debate about his Doctrin and Law and so neither receive the one nor obey the other How shall a well-meaning Man clear these Doubts and find out his true Doctrin Church Worship whom he owns to be his God and Redeemer Could any of this Churches Witnesses give the same Evidence and Proofs which Christ gave for himself our Differences would be at an end our Doubts cleared our Faith setled Christian Auditors God most mercifully offers us many one I will produce this Day the great Apostle of the Indies and the Kingdoms of Japan Xaverius All things concur to move me to speak of him First my Text for I intend to prove that his Life and Actions give the same Answer the same Proofs for the truth of the Catholic Church which Christ gave to evince himself to be the true Messias So that if we proceed on those Motives which Christ himself judged the clearest and safest we must all be Catholics or no Christians Next the general Devotion of the pious World towards this great Apostle of our Days during this Octave of his Feast exacts it of me Again the
he shall convert When Landed if he goes towards the Royal City Meaco I invite you to view this Great Champion fitted for his Mighty Atchievements Behold a poor despicable Man bare-headed and bare-foot in ragged Cloaths and that in a Country where Poverty is held such a Disgrace and so heavy a Curse of Heaven that they believe the Poor out of a possibility of being Happy even in the next Life with one Companion and an Interpreter himself knowing but few Words of their Language carrying on his Back a Pack of Church-stuff and for his whole Provision a little Rice dry'd by the fire Thus he continues two months Journey thro' Mountains of Snow such that even in Towns no House hath there any Communication with another but by cover'd Galleries endeavouring in every little Town to preach the Gospel beaten and kick'd out of each dragg'd by the feet out of two to be stoned to Death if a sudden miraculous Storm had not rescued him putting his Enemies to flight Behold being lost in a Wood he accepts to carry the Portmanteau of a Japonian Gentleman only to have him for Guide and follows him well mounted a whole day sweating under his double Burden till in the Evening he is found by his Companion and Interpreter fainting under it half dead his Feet and Legs wounded all over with Brambles and Thorns and covered with gore Blood. Is not this a sad Original of a poor contemptible Wretch Can any thing be possibly perform'd by so slighted a Creature in such hard Circumstances Humanly speaking Nothing Yet this Man converts a considerable Part of different Kingdoms subdues Kings and whole Courts hath whole Towns following him into the open Fields to hear him Preach from a Tree is offered Divine Honors by the chiefest Bonzies of those Kingdoms even if he will accept them Churches Altars and Sacrifices this man converts the lasting Errors of many Ages breaks inveterate Customs destroys there and in other Kingdoms 40000 Idols worshiped in that degree of violent Superstition that those blind Infidels offered to many Human Blood and sacrificed their very Children subdues Hearts Barbarous Inhuman Lewdly loose and prodigiously Prophane to Meekness Humility Chastity Devotion so that Isay's Prophetical Promises made to the Catholic Church were then perfectly accomplished The Children of Aliens shall build up thy Walls and their Kings shall serve thee Thou shalt suck the Aedificabunt silii peregrinorum murostuos Reges eorum ministrabunt tibi Is 60. Suges lac gentium mamilla Regum lactaberis Isa 49. Milk of Nations and the Breasts of Kings shall nurse thee And after such an Apostolical Conversion of Nations to Christianity can any one wish for a more unquestionable a more convincing Proof of the True Faith and Admirable Vertues of Xaverius But observe now with me How highly he values that strange disproportion of his Condition and his Employ what a Poverty and Abjection what Sufferings he courts the most certain Mark of a true Apostle 'T is the first evident Proof which St. Paul gave of his Mission a complete Patience that is which loves the Burden that it bears One night Xaverius sleeping in In omni patientià 2 cor 12. the same Chamber with Father Simon Rodriguez who first deserv'd â—mplius Domine amplius in Portugal the Name of Apostle and bequeath'd it to his whole Order was observ'd by him with a most pressing eagerness to cry out often More Oh more Lord Tho' often importun'd he would never open to Father Rodriguez the occasion and meaning of those words till taking his last leave of him at his Embarquing for the Indies he owned that God had then offered him a large view of vast Seas swell'd with Billows torn with Tempests covered with Shipwrecks of deserted Islands of barbarous Wildernesses and every where Want Poverty Hunger Thirst Wearisomness Dangers Persecutions Sweat and Toil thus discovering to him what he was to suffer for his holy Name Behold a double Picture of Xaverius a double Prospect the one of his Life the other of his Mind that full of Sufferings Wants Miseries this of a high value for so holy tho' so heavy a Cross What was the whole Treasure of this Legat à Latere of the Pope sent to a whole New World An old patch'd Cassock a Mat to lie on a little Box of Writings and Catechisms a Crucifix a Breviary a Hair-shirt Iron-pointed Chains and Disciplines Behold the whole Inventory From the beginning he courted Want and Misery His first perpetual Vow made at Venice in the hands of His Holiness's Nuncio Veralli was of Poverty Next to prepare himself to his first Mass he withdrew to Monselire near Padua for forty days where he took up in a forlorn Hovel deserving well the Name he gave it of his Bethlehem where exposed to all the injuries of the Air he lay on the cold ground begging the little Bread he eat His following station was at Bolonia where tho' he labour'd incessantly the whole Day and pray'd the best part of the Night yet he refused the pressing Charity of those who offer'd him their Table and accepted only what Bread he begg'd from door to door The Count of Castagnera enquiring of him in the King's Name what he likely would want in his long Voyage to the Indies urging him to use freely his Master 's Royal Bounty had this answer from him My Lord he wants nothing who stands in need of nothing I owe much to His Majesty's gracious care for me but much more to my God's Providence you will not dissuade me from relying on it and on it only till it abandons me On Ship-board he refus'd the Vice-Roy's Table and liv'd of what he begg'd in the Sip where he cook'd the poor Souldiers and Passengers Meat wash'd their Linen serv'd day and night the Sick laying them in the Chamber and on the Bed assigned for him sleeping himself ever on the Cables When from Goa he begun his first Mission of 600 miles all the Vice-Roy could oblige him to accept of towards it was one pair of Shoes to keep off the excessive heats of burning Sands I know some less acquainted with the secrets of God will ask what need there was of ambitioning so naked a Poverty Why there should be so much Virtue where there appears so little Discretion Why Human helps should be cast away as if it were not enough to obey that Scripture If you abound with Divitiae si asfluant nolite cor apponere Psal 61. 11. Riches fasten not your heart to them Such men have forgot our Blessed Lord's Instructions given to his Apostles when he first sent them to preach They are I fear as little disposed to seek true Perfection as the young man in Matthew 19. 1. who counsell'd by Christ to sell all give it to the poor and follow him not able now to pretend Ignorance steptback and dejected at the very thought of abandoning all withdrew from Christ I
Prayers said over it Arm'd with it alone he Encountred those Tygers who in numerous Troups came out of their Forest in the Island Sancian and ever devoured those Portugueses who ventured out of their Trenches Casting it at them he so put them to flight that they have not since been seen in that Island Do we believe God is Honor'd by our Vows but most singularly by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass It was by vowing a certain number of Masses that this Saint in a moment conquered the stubborn Heart of a Great Man at Malaca recalling him from an impious Despair the whole City was equally scandalized and afflicted at and disposing him to a due Contrition a firm Confidence in the Sacred Merits and precious Blood of Christ a happy Death Are Pilgrimages to Places of particular Devotion in use amongst us as approved by the pious Practice of all Ages and Christian Nations This Saint undertook one of Fifty Miles to the Sepulchre of St. Thomas and God approved his Devotion by a Revelation of his Divine Will touching what he asked to be directed in The Gift of Prophecy he often made use of to call upon the Prayers of the Faithful for the Dead at the moment they departed this Life at a vast distance of Place as in particular for John Galvan and at another time for John d'Araos two Portugueze Merchants If we Honor the glorious Trophy of our Redeemer's Cross he planted it in almost all the Towns and High-ways of the East-Indies and of several Kingdoms of Japan Such Miracles were wrought in favor of those who resorted to them that in their presence they might adore their Crucified Lord as raised a tender Devotion in all those pious Neophites towards that glorious Standard the Pledge of Jesus's Victories over Sin and Death So that the Christians of Amboyno Besieged in their Castle by the Javares a Heathenish and Barbarous Nation unconcerned for themselves only sought to withdraw from the Savage Fury of their Enemies that Cross which Xaverius had arbor'd there well knowing that Jesus could equally be Honored or Insulted over in his Cross They covered it with Cloth of Gold and hid it under Ground then opened their Gates to their Enemies who having sought in vain the Cross could not prevail with any one even of the weaker Sex or tenderest Age to discover where it lay tho' most of them were maimed many killed for that Refusal I conclude with an Observation of St. Augustin on Miracles which he says are wrought either per publicam Justitiam or per Lib. octog trium Q Q. signa publicae Justitiae that is by a Virtue which God publishes to the World or by the Signs Sacraments Practices of Piety and Virtue That is whenever a Miracle is wrought 't is certain either that the Person or that which he uses or would persuade to is very Holy and that God declares it so Take whether you please Do these Miracles wrought by Xaverius prove him a Saint a Servant of God who had intimate Communications with his Lord was highly favored by him If so can any one be persuaded that so holy a Man used not his sincerest Endeavors to attain the Knowledge of the true Faith and Religion or that God who so extraordinarily favored him refused to reveal unto him so important a Truth Can we conceive a Man of a Sanctity so approved by Almighty God to have been an Idolater a Man of an unsound Faith Superstitious Ignorant Deluded If you had rather conclude the Means he used in the working of these Prodigies were holy and that God declared them such it follows That all Catholic Devotions and Practices and those Points of Belief from which they naturally flow in which all Sectaries dissent from us are very holy and confirm'd by the Divine Authority of Miracles I must confess I cannot conceive what a Thinking Man can yet object to these Miracles wrought by Xaverius whereby he may lessen the Obligation laid on him to betake himself to the Bosom of that Catholic Church to the Sincerity of whose Doctrin only to the Piety of whose Practices God gives so miraculous an Approbation as all these Prodigies make up Can it be objected by any particular Man that he himself hath seen no one of like Miracles This would be as plausible a Plea for an Atheist against the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles Herod himself if this be received is not guilty for mocking Erat cupiens signum Videre our Blessed Lord he never saw him work a Miracle tho' he much desired and sought it from Christ himself 'T is the same Impiety to require a fresh Miracle for the truth of Catholic Belief after these so publickly wrought by Xaverius as to exact the like in proof of Christ's Divinity after those which he and his Apostles wrought And considering the Conversions in the greatest part of the new World effected by Xaverius's Miracles I cannot but say to such an one in St. Augustin's words * Accepimus Majores nostros visibilia miracula sequutos esse per quos id actum est ut necessaria non essent posteris Nec jam nobis esse dubium debet iis esse credendum qui cum ea praedicarent quae pauci assequuntur se tamen sequendos populis persuadere potuerunt Aug. de ver Relig. cap. 25. Quisquis etiam num quaerit prodigium magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 8. We are taught that our Ancestors followed visible Miracles after which none others are necessary to guide us We cannot doubt but that we ought to believe those Apostles who Preaching such things as few can conceive or reach yet persuaded whole Nations to follow them For what Doctrin it was Xaverius confirmed by his Miracles is a known thing and out of debate Whoever after such requires yet a Miracle is to me himself a great Prodigy who refuses to believe what a World doth not doubt of I know some will object That should an Angel come from Heaven to teach them otherwise than the Gospel doth we ought even not to return him any other Answer than Anathema That Miracles are then only to be considered and valued when the Doctrin in favor whereof they are wrought is known to be true and sound This had been an excellent Plea for the Scribes and Pharisees against Christ The Jews had a positive Command to believe no Worker of Miracles Deut. 13. that should teach them a Doctrin contrary to what they had received from Moses they were bid in Doubts of that nature to have their recourse to the High-Priest and they forfeited their Life who refused to obey him The Scribes Pharisees Priests judging of the Miracles of Christ by his Doctrin condemned both as when he Cured upon the Sabbath-day and reproached him as a Magician for casting out Devils in the Power of Beelzebub Did Christ alter his Method Did he
know that is a harsh word to those that live at ease and would willingly compound with God for some part when he advises the giving up of the whole And since it was a principal part of the Godly Reformation by suppressing all Religious Houses to abolish the very Memory of Voluntary Poverty no wonder if the Teachers in a Congregation grounded on Principles so opposite to the Counsels of Christ cannot produce One in their numerous Multitude who would ever serve God gratis and professedly follow this or any other Evangelical Counsel No God would not permit that so holy an Imitation of Jesus should make a part of their Sheeps-cloathing But sure those who discover not in this two-fold Poverty a Divine Vertue have forgot the Condition those Men of God liv'd in even under the Old Law of which the World was not worthy they forget in the New the Poverty Circuierunt in melotis in pellibus caprinis egentes angustiati c. Heb. 11. 37. of Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary from the poor Hovel he was laid in the Manger of to the borrowed Sepulcher he was laid in they forget that the Happy in the first Rank amongst Jesus's Disciples are the Poor of Spirit who by this Vertue have a just Claim to Heaven they forget the Apostles first left not only Unlawful Gains and the Publican's Counter but also both their Boat and their Net that is the enjoyment of present Possessions and the hopes or desires of future Purchases and then were imitiated by all the faithful Believers who laid at the Apostles feet without any reserve the sin of Ananias and Saphira after so holy a Profession the value of all they had These these our Apostle did imitate not without an infinity of Christian Motives He believed Christ teaching him that Riches and Wealth are Thorns and it would have been impossible to have over-run all the East as he did in a way strew'd with Thorns His Life was short only ten years being allotted him to preach the Gospel to above twenty Kingdoms or Nations he was then following the Apostle's Advice to redeem time because the days are Ephes 5. Etiam cum detrimento corporalium commodorum ad quaerenda capescenda bonaaeterna spatia temporis comparare Hom. 1 10. Ex. 50 Ipsi mundo omnes divitiae omnes dignitates universarum cupiditatum materiae refundantur sancto beatoque commercio ematur Christiana Libertas fiantque Filii Dei de paupertate divites c. Ep. ad Demet. Aâ—ctius terrena constringunt adepta quam concupita Illa velut extranea repudiantur ista velut membra possidentur Ep. 34. ad Pauliâ— evil that is saith St. Augustin to withdraw the least part of it from the anxious cares of acquiring increasing preserving Earthly Goods that all may be bestowed on the seeking and attaining Eternal Bliss He was to break the Chains of others and consequently first to secure to himself a full Liberty following that advice of St. Prosper Let the Children of God return to the World its Riches and Dignities the food of all our sensual desires and by a holy and blessed Trafique buy Christian Liberty rich in their Poverty and the contempt of transitory things which as St. Augustin observes 't is easier to slight when dispossess'd of them than not to love whil'st we enjoy them Those we easily reject as not belonging to us these we hugg as our own members and parts of us For these reasons Xaverius by the help of God's Grace most Poor in Effect Poorer in Spirit measur'd several times the whole Extent of the Indies content in his Sufferings happy in his Wants till in the Island of Sanciano he died as he had lived as poor as abandoned as an Apostle in an open Cottage on a poor Mat destitute of all Human Help or Comfort having nothing of the Earth to leave but his Body the readier to take possession of that Kingdom of Heaven to which he had so good a Title of Evangelical and Apostolical Poverty Beatus qui non fuerit scandalizatus in me Thrice happy is he to whom the Poverty the Abjection the Cross of Christ is not a Scandal that frights from his Service who dares seek in them the Gifts of God in what an unmeasurable proportion doth he receive them Witness Xaverius who might have wrote from almost each part of the Indies what he writ from the most miserable Coast of Piscaria where Nature seemed to have forgot to provide for the Necessities of the Inhabitants If there be true Joy possessed on Earth 't is that which they experience who labor here I hear one say sometime O Lord moderate your Favors here below or take me to your self 't is too severe a Punishment thus to love and to live thus far from you These Joys his Heart then swelled with when he single and alone had all the Sick of that Coast to Tend all the Afflicted to Comfort the Ignorant to Instruct the Sacraments to Administer to all so that he seldom could allow himself three Hours to rest These interior Joys ever attended him at the holy Altar and when he was at his Meditations often forced him to rip open the Cloaths that covered his Breast and by the application of cold Water to moderate those Divine Flames that consumed his Breast ever sighing out amorously Enough O Lord this is more than frail Nature can support Even when all the Powers of his Soul were oppressed with Sleep that habitual Flame raised such pious Dreams as forced from him devout Expressions of his tender Love for God when awake his Soul was so entirely possessed with that Love that Rays of Glory frequently environed his Face bright Glimmerings of that pure Flame within which drew so violently his Soul towards Heaven as to heave frequently his Body from the Earth especially at that admirable Sacrifice of Love the Holy Mass No wonder he should pass the whole Night when on Land at the Foot of Altars in Churches or in some Grove where he could give a larger scope to his warm Affections No wonder when at Sea he ever should be absorpt in Contemplation from Midnight to Sun-rising during which time the Seamen never seared a Storm That besides the two Hours of fixed Meditation which he stole from his daily Apostolical Labors even in these his Mind should be so lodged where his Love ever dwelt that his God never was entirely ecclipsed from his sight If then Virtue according to St. Augustin's Definition be nothing else but well ordered Love Definitio brevis vera virtutis est ordo amoris De Civit. l. 15. c 22. Ille dilectionis nobis ordo servandus est Deum principaliter diligamus propter ipsum in ipso ea quae diligenda sunt quantum ipse praecipit diligamus l. 3. 10. V. cont Apocal. 3. 18. how great was this Saint's Virtue that put so great a distance in his Love betwixt God and all
things else that they all vanished frequently from his Thoughts whilst God only ever reigned in his Heart If the Second Duty of Charity be to love all things else for Gods sake in view only of the Report which they have to him and in the Measure he requires as St. Prosper observes how perfect was the Love of Xaverius for God when for his sake he embraced so tenderly what Nature so much loaths so much abhors As Toils Want Disgraces Dangers Pains Death and even hated all what Sense is charmed with or what natural Inclinations most affect whenever it failed that they opposed the increase of his Charity This this is the surest Test the infallible Proof of a Divine and truly Apostolical Mission that richest of Gods Gifts that Flaming Gold so prized in the Revelations the Love of God. The Second unquestionable Mark by which if we may believe our Blessed Lord his true Disciples are to be discerned is their tender Love for their Neighbor a passionate Zeal for In hoc cognoscent omnes quod discipulimei istis si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem Joan. 13. his Salvation In this Virtue Xaverius perfectly Copied the great Apostle of the Gentiles His Voyages over most dangerous Seas and his Journeys ever afoot by Land in the pursuit of such Sinners as wandered from God led him so far in Ten Years time that he might with a far flower Motion have gone often round the Globe of the Earth Yet in the Transports of his Zeal he designed as his Letters witness not only to Preach the Gospel to the vast Empire of China and Tartary but after he had subdued those to the sweet Yoke of Christ to return thence by the North into Europe that he might retrieve those Lost recover those Separated Hereticks and gather them again within the Pales of that One Sheepfold of the Catholic Church where they should hear again with due Submission the Voice of their own only Shepherd Nothing could fright his Zeal not the three Shipwrecks he had suffered not the Danger he had run like another St. Paul for three Days and Nights exposed on a narrow Plank to the mercy of the most boistrous Waves and loudest Storms He often dream'd before he was designed for the Conversion of the new World that he carried an Indian on his Shoulders he groaned under that Burden 'T was not One but a Million of them he bore after in his Heart weeping often most bitterly when he reflected on the almost inevitable danger of Eternal Misery they unhappily were exposed unto He highly valued the Conversion of any one single Soul rightly apprehending its worth Redeemed with the most precious Blood of his Saviour and capable to love and possess God for all Eternity Hence he suddenly engaged himself in a long Sea-Voyage only to use that Opportunity of winning to a true Repentance One single loose Liver who was on Shipboard To retrieve three Souldiers from their wicked Life he consined himself for a whole Lent to their most uneasie Company Day and Night He sent word to the only two impenitent Sinners he had left at Ternate that whenever they should let him know that they had a thought of Repenting and altering their lewd Life he should instantly repair to them from the utmost Extremity of the East to favor their pious Disposition and direct them in so happy a Design He seemed comfortless when he observed that some Merchants led by Covetousness had discovered Countries to which his Zeal for the Instruction of the Ignorant and Conversion of Sinners had not yet brought him As long as he found Children to Catechise Europeans to Preach unto Indians to Instruct unmindful of himself he joyned Nights unto Days in those Apostolical Functions without allowing his wearied Body and decayed Spirits the least refreshment of Food or Rest Then and then only he conceived himself with the blessed Martyr Ignatius Nunc incipio esse discipulus Christi S. Ig. Epist ad Rom. to begin to be a Disciple of Christ a Member of the Society of JESVS All other Virtues ever wait on their Queen Charity They were in Xaverius in as large a measure His Humility was so unfeigned and great that he never blamed the Stubbornness Blindness or other ill Dispositions of those Souls in whose Conversions his Endeavors were frustrated or who opposed the progress of the Gospel but sincerely persuaded that his Sins put the whole obstruction to Gods Graces condemned himself to severe Penances for their Expiation Tho' the Character of Legat à Latere from his Holiness seemed to add such a Lustre to his Mission and on several occasions could favor his Apostolical Attempts yet his Humility never permitted him to publish it or to use the Power it conferred save once not long before his Death when he conceived that nothing else could open him an Entrance into the Empire of China which the Avarice and Envy of Alvares Governor of Malaca had shut up His Obedience was so ready so punctual so nicely exact that he consulted his Superior and Father St. Ignatius on every occasion even at that vast distance and never swerved from his precise Orders acknowledging that the least Letter of the Alphabet the least i which in Latin signifies Go dropt from Ignatius's Pen should move him to abandon without the least reluctancy his greatest Enterprises for the Glory of God tho' at the same instant the largest prospect of certain Hopes the fairest appearance of Success should Court his Stay yet that small Letter should lead him with Joy to any part even of the unhabitable World. His Chastity was so Entire that his Confessors judged him to have preserved that tender Virginity unsullied without the least Blemish So well guarded that when the Enemy not daring to assail him awake attempted by immodest Dreams to disturb the innocent Repose of his Soul the violent motion of his Body in rejecting from him those Phantômes of tempting Objects and the more eager reluctancy of his Soul made him bleed To omit the Particulars of his other Vertues I shall conclude with the Maxim and Practice which gave them their first birth favored their growth and preserved them in their full lustre This great Principle of a Christian Life he had learnt from St. Ignatius at his first Conversion it had from that moment been deeply engrave in his Memory and the sense of it in his Heart a Tantum proficies quantum tibi ipsi vim intuleris Your Self-denials your Mortifications the violence you use in curbing your own Inclinations are the measure of your advancement in Gods Service He knew that Sacrifices have ever been the chiefest part of Divine Worship and that no Victims are so acceptable as a mortified b Cor contritum humiliatum Deus non despicies Psal 18. a contrite and humble Heart He had learnt from our Blessed Lord how the Kingdom of God that especially of his particular Graces and Favors
weigh'd the Authority of these Miracles of St. Xaverius as here discuss'd will yet refuse to receive the Word of God from this his Apostle whose Mission is by them so unquestionably proved and will still reject the Catholic Faith which he offers because he pretends obscurity and difficulty in some of her Mysteries With whom can I rank such but with those Jews who seigned to seek with Zeal and Concern the true Faith saying to Christ How long will you afflict our Soul with suspence by these obscure uncertainties If you are the Christ Quousque animam nostram tollis si tu es Christus dic nobis palam Loquor vobis non creditis Opera quae ego facio in nomine Patris mei haec testimonia perhibent de me Joan. 20. say so plainly to us What answered our blessed Lord to these Hypocrits I speak clearly and distinctly enough yet you believe not But where O Lord where do you in plain and express words tell them you are their expected Messias and the Son of God The Miracles I work in the Name of my Father by my Servants are a sufficient witness to me to the Truth which I teach by them 'T is in vain to seek for a clearer we have none for the general Articles of Christianity I conclude then that all who act reasonably in the choice of their Religion and own those grounds to be the surest which our blessed Lord proposed as such and will not bottom their Salvation on any other must declare themselves necessarily Catholics or no Christians Pauperes Evangelizantur the Poor have the Gospel preached to them St. Hierom observes That Poverty in Effect and in Spirit is the two-fold Character of a true Apostle and the most unquestionable proof of Divine Wisdom and Power in him who thus qualifies those he singles out to preach his Doctrin and blesses their endeavors with a success which could not possibly attend their condition so seemingly despicable if a Divine Power supply'd not their want of all those Materials which Human Wisdom would judge absolutely necessary for so great a Work. It follows that the most surprizing of those Miracles which accompanied the Apostles Preaching was the Conversion of so great a part of the World from Errors and Vices From Errors suck'd in with the first Milk establish'd by Laws confirm'd by Custom strengthen'd by Superstition proportion'd to the short sight of Human Sense and Misapprehensions fitted to the universal Corruption of Manners sympathizing with the most general and violent Inclinations fostering the most pleasing Sins From Vices authoriz'd by Example heighten'd by Evil Habits follow'd with Passion chang'd into a second Nature And this by Men who were to teach a Doctrin that soars above the reach of Reason that contradicts our Senses that requires a contempt of what vitious Nature most covets a free choice of what she most dreads or repines at and offers on all hands a severe Check to that loose Liberty all men are naturally so fond of By Men who promis'd not in this Life any of those so-valu'd Advantages of Fortune but rather threatned with Crosses Afflictions Losses Miseries Separation from Kindred Relations Friends Contempt Persecution Banishments Chains and those other severe Trials which the Gospel proposes as a necessary Test of the sincerity of those who undertake to serve God By Men in fine not countenanc'd by Great Ones to whose Ends they served not not supported by the Interest of Friends not considerable by their private Fortunes not upheld by any siding Faction but Poor Abject unknown to all Single Proclaimers of harsh Truths and appearing at first under the odious Character of Unknown Strangers superciliously condemning the ancient Laws Customs Devotion Faith Religion of the Land. This O this is the great Miracle not exposed to the least Jealousie of Forgery to any suspicion of Deceit All these Circumstances attended Xaverius's Mission He was sent to convert a newly-discover'd World the which savage Cruelty blind Superstition and all the odious Vices which Human Souls and Bodies are capable of held enslav'd With reason did Paul the Third sending St. Xaverius to the Indies mind him that God whenever he employs any one in a Work that surpasses Human Forces supplies him with a strength capable to effect whatever is impossible to Nature with reason he warned him that he was sent to tread on the footsteps of the first Apostle of the Indies St. Thomas What Preparatives think you are made for so vast a Conquest He hath one Evenings warning allow'd him to put himself in readiness and his whole Equipage is his Breviary Truly O Lord these strange Methods of yours Abscondisti haec à sapientibus prudentibus revelasti ea parvulis Mat. 11. Contemptibilia primo elegit Deus ut confunderet eos qui apud homines magni habentur 1 Cor. 7. are hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to little ones thus still you choose those first who are contemptible to confound those whom the world esteems great This Man whose Employ is to destroy Idolatry in one half of the World to root out Vices to alter the Laws and Customs of Nations to oppose himself to all the Corruptions of Nature and bad Habits to change the Belief and Practices of Courts and People observe him well in his first or last Missions and promise if you can any success to his Undertakings After that for some time he bestow'd his Labors on the Reformation of the Christians at Goa his first Mission is to Comorino 600 miles distant thence he passes to the great Kingdom of Travancor Piscaria is his next station whence he brings the Light of the Gospel to the Molucan Islands and thence to those of Moro. Some of these Nations were so barbarous that they either furiously shot with Arrows or treacherously poyson'd such Strangers as unhappily entred their Country and fed on the Bodies of their nearest Relations Others parch'd by a scalding Sun so barren as scarce to yield a small part of the Necessaries for Life All wholly Idolatrous or acquainted with the sole Name of Christianity abandoned to the foulest Vices barbarously Savage or most stupidly Dull These Xaverius attempts to conquer alone without the help often of an Interpreter or any knowledge of their Language able only without a Miracle to yield some mute Services to their Sick without any Provision to relieve him in most pressing wants without any Human Help or Comfort wandring thro' Desarts crossing Valleys swell'd with floods breaking his way thro' thick Woods without any other Guide besides God's Providence in Hunger and Thirst in Sweat and Labors in Dangers from savage Beasts and fiercer Men. If he projects the Conversion of Japan what Difficulties doth not offer a Voyage of many thousand miles by Seas beset with Pirates expos'd to merciless Whirlwinds full of unknown Quicksands and Rocks no Christian Power even known or heard of there to support him or protect those whom