affairs or will leave suits not goods to his heires if my Father had left me a house and you would contest with me saying 't is a paper or painted house he means what Judg would hear you what impartial Arbiter would not condemn you would you not injure me and yet more my father if he had meant a paper house would he not have declared his intention IESUS our celestial Father makes his Testament He declares his last Will He says that He leaves me his precious Body and you say 't is not his true Body 't is a figure of his Body goe you are a mocker if it was not but his figure would He not have sayd so as well as you would He have sayd This is my Body instead of saying this is my figure He is upon his departure in his last supper He goes to death and afterward to the imperial heaven when a loving husband is vpon his deathbed or bids farwell to his dear spouse for a journey somewhat long is it not then that he opens his heart to her and discovers to her his secrets is it not then that he speaks to her without ambiguitie that he gives her testimonyes of his greatest affection and leaves her the more precious presents And JESUS being in the vigill of his death giving his farwell to the Church his Spouse and depriving her of his Visible presence shal He have spoken obscurely and equivocally to her shal He shal He have deceived her in a matter of so great importance and for all nuptial presents for the gage of his amity for the testimonie of his tender affections for a supplement of his absence shal He have left her only a morcell of bread The manner also in which He accomplishes this Mistery ought to be considered if this be but a morcel of bread Why promises He it so long before why speaks He of it with so much pomp Why prayses He the effects and necessitie of it so much Why prefers He it before the Manna the bread which I will give you is my flesh he that shal eate of this bread hath everlasting life If you eate not my flesh you shal not have life in in you This is not as the manna your fathers have eaten If that which He gives is but a mite of bread the manna was to be prefer'd before it It was the figure of the Body of IESUS CHRIST as well as Calvins bread and much more express for it was mouldedâ— by hands of Angells the bread of Calvinists by the hands of men that came from heaven and their bread from a bakers oven that had all sorts of tasts their bread hath but one After He had promised it so long time and so solemnly He gives it but washes first the feet of his Disciples He makes them a long and sublime sermon He recommends to them puritie and charitie He makes to his Father a very long prayer and if all this tended but to give them a piece of bread I make you judg 5. Let us consult moreover the practise and the Pietie of the primitive Christians and we shal see that their faith and the religious S. Ambr. lib. 3. de Spirit Sto. c. 12 S. Crysos hom 24. in 1. ad Cor. Et in orat de Philogonio Ceremonies which they practised in respect of the Eucharist were-very contrarie to the error of the Calvinists they adored the holy Sacrament upon the Altar with the worship of Latria which cannot be given but to God only we adore the flesh of CHRIST yet this day in the sacred Mysteries says S. Ambrose S. Augustine upon these words of the Psalme Adore his footstool sayd Christ hath given us his flesh to eate but nobody eates this flesh but after that he hath adored it S. Chrysostome Let us imitate at least the Mages who seeing Christ but in a manger adored Him with great fear and you see Him not in a manger but upon an altar 6. They feared extreamly to let fall upon the ground the least S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom 26. Origen hom 13. in Exod. particle of the Eucharist or one drop of the chalice as S. Austin and Origen do testify They required not only purity of body and sanctitie of soul to touch or receive this Sacrament but they demanded sanctiâ—ie to see it and to look upon it as appears in the first epistle S. Chrysostome wrote â—o Pope Innocent where he complains that soldiers sent by his enemies had entred in a tumultuous manner into the Church and he exagerats as a bold attempt that many of them who were not yet baptized had seen the holy Hosts They exposed not also to the Catechumens the secret of this Sacrament it was the secret of the Church which was not revealed but to her Children and it was a crime to speak of it in the presence of Catechumens or of Infidells this is seen in the epistle which the Synod of Allexandria wrote to the Catholick Bishops where the Council complains that the Arians were not asham'd to speak of the Mysteries in the presence of Catechumens and what is wors before infidells 7. Now I appeal to your consciences if the Christians of the primitive Church did believe that the Eucharist is but a morcel of bread which minds us of the body of IESUS would they have adored it with supream worship would they have thought it so great an incongruitie to let fall the least crum of it would they have required such puritie of body and soul to receive it to touch it or to hear or speak of it 8. All the Articles of our faith are equally true but there are none of them so express in scripture none taught so clearly by the holy Fathers less opposed in primitive times confirmed by so many miracles received so unversally in Europe in Asia and in Africa as this For amongst all Catholicks Hereticks Schismaticks amongst Grecians Latines Hebrews Abyssins or Ethiopians which have been and which are at present Calvin only with his Partie hath obstinately denyed it I leave you to thinke with whom you should chuse to rise and appear at the day of judgment either with S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostom and all the other holy Doctors of the east west south and north who florished in the time when the Church was in her greatest puritie and vigour or with Calvin who came fifteen hundred years after the institution of this Sacrament 9. Follow the counsell which the holy Ghost gives you by the Wiseman Ne transgrediaris terminos antiquos quos posuerunt Patres tui Passe not the bounds which your Ancesters have put hold the beliefe of those primitive Christians and the doctrine of these holy Fathers who were taught by the Apostles or by their Successours who read the holy Scripture day and night who meditated upon it seriously who were particularly assisted by the holy Ghost to understand it well who were desinteressed and free from passion for
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
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
in effect you are not more holy nor more learned nor wiser than S. Austin And hear what he sayd to a Pelagian Heretick That which the Fathers believed I belive what lib. 1 contra Iul. c. 2. circâ— med they taught I teach what they preached I preach Follow the example of this great and holy Doctor if you be wise and carefull of your salvation follow always Antiquity and Vniversality in your beliefe say with the whole Colledge of the Apostles I believe the holy and Vniversall Church And to all the reasons of humane Philosophy that Dissenters oppose Answer that S. Paul hath sayd Our faith ought not to be in the wisdome of men 1. Cor. 2. 5. but in the Power of God Amen DISCOURS XLV Of the Production Reception and Operation of the Eucharist S Peter having in the first chapter of his first epistle taught us that we are born again by the seed of the word of God bids us in the second to desire as new born children reasonable milk that we may grow unto salvation by which words he does not only invite us to suck yet more the milk of saving Doctrine but moreover to the participation of the holy Eucharist which here he also signifys by milk And in effect there are three great conformities and resemblances between the milk which a mother gives her child and the adorable Sacrament of the Altar Conformitie in the manner of their production conformitie in the manner of their reception Confirmitie in the manner of their operation 2. S. Austin in his frst sermon upon the Title of 33 Psalme brings this pat comparison Imagin that you enter into the house of a mother of many children Some of fifteen or Sixteen years of age other but four or five monthes old if you ask her what will you do with that bread T is she will say for the nourishment of my children And of what children of these great and little ones What for the nourishment of these little ones they have no teeth how will they eate that bread Yes that bread is for the nourishment of all my children both great and little but in divers manners the great shal eate it in the form you see it and becaus the little ones cannot eate it so I will concoct it in my stomake and change it into my blood and becaus they would have horrour to take my blood in its own form I will concoct it a second time by the heat of my heart in the limbick of my breast where it will becom white as snow sweet as sugar and liquid as wine The Son of God in his Divinity is living bread enlivening bread the bread of Angells The Celestial Spirits do not live are not nourished saciated and happy but by seeing loving possessing enioying God men also ought to be nourished with the same food but in this mortall life they are uncapable to enjoy God in his proper form they cannot see him openly and face to face what hath the Son of God don who compares himself in Scripture to a loving Mother He incarnated this bread this divine Word incorporated himself and took the form of flesh and blood And becaus men would have had fear and horrour to eate his flesh and drink his blood in the form He was He concocted this Bread a second time in the breast of this Sacrament by the heat of his heart by an ardent love He again transform'd this Word and cloathed himself with the species of bread and wine which are common and usuall with us to be the milk and nourishment of men who are his little children And as a mother giving her breast to an infant exposeth herself to many importunities incommodities and pinches which he gives her So our Saviour shut his Eyes to many considerations of his glory and of his interest which might have hindred Him from instituting this Sacrament He exposed himself to a thousand affronts which He receives and will receive to the end of the world from Hereticks bad Catholicks and vicious Priests that communicate in the state of sin and â—hough He be the Sovereign Purity the essentiall Sanctity who abhorrs sin infinitely yet is content to suffer all these injuries rather than deprive his well beloved children of the happiness of this breast 3. Jn the second place this Sacrament is compared to milk in the manner 't is to be receiv'd It must be taken as children take the brest with faith hunger and familiarity 4. An infant takes the breast with shut eyes he examins nothing but sucks the breast trusting to his mother a Dissenrer proposes questions as the Capharnaits how can this man gives us his flesh Psal 130. to eate How can so great a body be contained in so little a Host If I am not humble and if I exalt my Soul I shal be like to an infant that is weaned from the brest sayd the royal Prophet This happens to a Dissenter he exalts his Soul thinking that he hath much of knowledg and understanding he examins the power of the Omnipotent and will find that to be impossible which our Saviour sayd and he is weaned from this sacred brest Catholicks as humble simple docible children trust the Church their Mother who neither can nor would if she could deceive them they silence senses and shut the eyes of fallible reason to open only those of infallible Faith 5. They that have a lively faith of that which is contained in this Sacrament have a great appetite to it an earnest desire of it and therefore they reape incredible fruits from it The Virgin sayd in her canticle God fills the hungry with good things Such as approach to him with a Spiritual greediness and avidity see says S. Chrysostome with what readiness a little infant takes the teat with what force he joyns himself to the brest you would thinke that Hom 60. ad pop he would thrust himself into the brest of his mother or that he would suck out the heart and soul of his nource and if he be one only day without this refection he is wholy unquiet troublesome and insupportable Do the same says this holy Doctor go to the Body of IESUS amorously ardently and greedily as if you would lodg your self in the sacred side of JESUS unite your self to Him heart to heart soul to soul essence to essence and transform your self wholy unto Him and when by your fault you are depriv'd of this divine refection be sorry and troubled as having suffered a great loss 6. And after you have had the happiness to receive make good use of it This Sacrament hath a permanent Being and remaines as long as the species in the stomack that IESUS may have leasure to convers with us and we with Him We ought then to keep him company to court and entertain him by acts of adoration gratitude love oblation of our selves with resolution to serve Him well we must believe He coms to us full of
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
he not who is Wisdom 3. 5. worthy of God Invenit illos dignos se Blessed a thousand times his holy and vertuous life which disposes him to such a glory blessed his happy death which will be to him as a door to enter into an immortall life Blessed his understanding which shal see one day openly and face to face the divine Essence his Will that will love God and enjoy him for all Eternity Blessed a thousand times his head upon which the holy Trinity will put a Crown of Glory in the presence of the Vnivers Blessed and happie his hands which shal carry always palmes as the ensignes of his Victories Blessed his feet and his steps since he shal walk upon the celestial Glob in the company of Angells Blessed and happy a thousand times all the members of his body and the powers of his soul which shal be filled and satiated with all sorts of delights joys glory happiness and with eternall Beatitude What I say of this elect Soule I say to every one that shal do violence to himself to rise out of the state of sin to overcom his passions to keep the commandements and to live according to the maxims of the Gospell Violenti rapiunt illud the Matthew 11. 12. Violent beare heaven away they that do violence to themselves to their vices and their passions obtain Heaven God grant us the grace to whom be honour glory praise and benediction for ever Amen DISCOURS XV. OF THE TWELFTH ARTICLE Life Everlasting Amen IN this last Article is declar'd to us the End for which we were created for which we were made Christians and to which all Laws Sacraments Vertues and other things are directed we ought then to believe firmly and to ruminate often that after the Resurrection there shal be in the Vnivers two conditions the one most happy the other most miserable and that neither of them shal ever end that every one of us shal be either of the one or of the other of the right hand or of the left of the number of the good or of the bad of them that go to heaven or of those that go to hell And that 't is now the time to look to our affairs fitting our selves to be of the happy side for after this there shal be no more time for us This doubtless we shal do if we consider and ponder well What is Eternal Life and how great are the goods of it 2. S. John in the Apocalyps speaking of sinners says their Apoc. 28. 8. part shal be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death The second or everlasting death then is when the soul and the body are depriv'd of their Beatitude and confind to the fire of hell And on the contrary eternal life is when they are freed from those and all other evills and do enjoy the eternal Goods of heaven 3. These are so great that the Apostle who was rapt up into heaven would not describe the Greatness of them he speaks not of them but with astonishment neither eye hath seen says he nor eare hath heard nor hath the heart of man conceiv'd what God â—ath prepar'd for them that love him Nevertheless for to attain to some knowledg or rather to some slender conjecture of their greatness fourt hings shal be considered 4. First the liberality of God towards all men in this life cast the eyes of your consideration with S Austin upon the extent of the Vnivers see what stately buildings there are what chambers richly furnished what beauteous gardens what pleasant medows what odoriferous and coloured Flowers what sorts of savory fruits what delicious meats what delicate wines what sweet odours what melodious voices what sumptuous garments what dogs for chase what birds of prey for recreation It is God that gives all these things to men But to what men And who are they that more usually enioy them Atheists Infidells and others that forget him and incessantly offend him Now if He do so much good to his enemies what will he reserve for his friends If He be so liberal to give how much more to recompence if He be so charitable to those that offend him how much more to those who love him if He be so magnificent to those He owes but punishments how much more to those to whome He hath made so many promises Run through in your mind all that you have ever seen heard or imagin'd all that is great rich magnificent precious pleasant and desirable all that is nothing if compar'd with that which God hath prepar'd for you if you love him for all that may be seen recounted or desired and it is impossible to see decipher or desire the great goods which God hath promiss'd and prepar'd for those that love him 5. To have a second conjecture of them you need not but weigh and consider the iourneys and toyles of Apostles the torments of Martyrs the watchings and austerities of confessors the temptations combats and Victories of Virgins the alms and charities of Widdows the heroical vertues of other Saints and that after so many toyles so many sufferances penances mortifications good works services merits the Apostle says that Rom. 8. 18. the very sufferances and afflictions themselves of this life are little in comparison with the glory of heaven And again the tribulation which at present is momentary and light works above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us note above measure exceedingly 2. Ior. 4. 17. 6. Nevertheless a third consideration will make this weight of glory to surpass yet much more all value and esteem of it For Heaven is not only the Salary of the Saints but also the recompence of the merits of JESUS Consider what He is in his divine Person what He is with God his Father the ardent love He had for him the Zeal which He had for his Glory the great services He did him what He suffered for his honour what his pretious Blood is worth the Glory of Heaven is the Salary of all that given by a King most liberal in his gifts and most magnificent in his recompences 7. Hell also though very low may serve us for a footstool and a step to mount up to Heaven by contemplation and to make a guesse at the felicities of it What is hell 't is an abyss a Collection a Rendevow of the most excessive sorrows bitternesses and afflictions imaginable What is it to be damn'd 'T is to be eternally in a prison most deep most obscure and most incommodious to be eternally in captivity under a Tyrant most insolent most cruell and most barbarous not to have one mite of bread in an eternal and most ravenous hunger not a drop of water in a most burning thirst not a ray of light in the greatest darkness not a moment of rest in an unsuportable and eternal weariness to be eternally afflicted with all the miseries a humane body is