would have deposed against the Apostles and the Gospell which they brought with them who would have sayd to them you are great lyars we were that year in Hierusalem and we saw nothing of all this they would have sent them back into their counrrey with their books But this happen'd not for these miracles were so evident so notorious and confest of all the world that the Apostles who preached them were received by all the world The Gospells which containe them being published not one of the Pharisees who were enraged with spite against IESUS CHRIST and his Religion ever dared to contradict the narration of these miracles in the books which they composed But on the contrary all the enemies of christian Religion Iews Mahometans and Gentills have acknowledged these miraculous works 7. As concerning the miracles of the Apostles and primitive christians Aug. lib. 1. de Consen C. 10. Evang. which they wrought in the name of IESUS they were so frequent and so evident that Pagans not being able to reproach them by any artifice attributed them to magick as may be seen in S. Augustin But to attribute them to Magick is a malice as black and diabolical as magick it self For first Iulian the Apostate and so many others who were so much affected and addicted to magicians and to magick never could render sight to one blind or raise one only dead man Secondly magick hath no power but by the concurrence of the Devill and how came it that he would assist the Apostles to do miracles seeing that the Apostles by these miracles abolished the worship of the devills But if you are so incredulous that you will not belive any thing but what is before your eyes believe a miracle which you see the conversion of the world and confess that IESUS CHRIST by himself and by his Disciples hath made in the world the greatest the hardest and the best change that was ever made 8. He hath made the true God the God of Israel who was not known but in Palestine and to a few in the other parts of the earth to be known and adored by all the world He hath banished Idolatry discredited the devills who abused men silenced their oracles ruined their Temples demolished their Altars broken their Idolls abolished their sacrifices and annihilated their service He hath drawn men from murders impurities parricides and other abominations which they committed in the worship of these fals Gods And what is yet more wonderfull in the place of this false worship He hath planted and established a new religion tho' the more speculative points of it appear contrary to the maxims of reason The proper precepts and counsills of it pieces of great folly according to humane prudence and the opinion of infidells And the practise of it is the mortification the cross and the crucifixion of a man 9. The Iews and other Infidells must confess this at least that this change was a worke which could not be accomplished but by a man not only sent by God but extraordinarily assisted by him since the ancient Prophets who made so many invectives gave so many threats and worked so many miracles against Idolatry could not yet banish it from one only kingdom of Egipt one only City of Babilon nor from any other pagan Town Now this IESUS who is sent by God and extraordinarily assisted by him who negociates with so much success the affairs of his glory Iohn 14. 6. says that He is the Son of God that He is the Way and the Veritie and the Life that God and He are one and the same Thinge This is Iohn 10. 30. than most true else God would not have authorized but disown'd and punished him as the most detestable Impostor and blasphemer that had ever been And on the contrary He is extreamly angry with those who put him to death and hath punished and punishes yet at present this furious attempt with the most terrible and longest vengeance that He ever exercised in this world 10. Let us say then with S. Philip we have found the MESSIAS of whom Moyses and the Prophet wrote we have known him by certain and Iohn 1. 45. evident marks But to what serves it to have known and received him if instead of being our most good and amiable Redeemer we by not practising his doctrine nor following his examples do make him to be our most terrible and severe Judge what profits us to have carried the name and character of Christians if neglecting to be true Christians good and vertuous Christians we make by our fault that JEsus who was sent to be out Father and our Pastor become to us a stumblingblock and an Enemie 11. Let then every Christian look upon his Doctrine as a Law which obliges them as a Rule to which they must conform their lives as a Contract that God hath made with us which contains conditions under which He promises us his Paradise and not otherwise When then you read in this Law Rule and Contract any verity or have it otherwise proposed to you you must consider it ruminate upon it and apply it to your self and to your actions for God sayd it expressly to you and for this end As when you read or hear Vnless you bocom as little children you shal not enter into the kingdom of Heaven Vnless you do penance you shal perish Say in your self Certainly if I be not simple candid and innocent as an infant If I do not penance I shal not enter into the kingdom of Heaven Believe that when you shal be present at the terrible Tribunal of God They who flatter you now will not plead for you then they who say in complyance with you that 't is not necessary to follow so scrupulously this Law and Rule will not then excuse you God will judge you not according to your thoughts nor according to their little reasons nor according to the maxims of the world But according to that which is written in this Law and Rule and that with so much exactness that there shal not be one word not one syllable not one jota that shal not be infallibly accomplished And to say no more behold an irrevocable sentence of the eternal Verity which no excuse no pretext no reasons can put off They that obey not the Gospell shal undergoe eternal paines 2 Thes 1. 8. As on the contrary God promises to those that shal hear and profit by the instructions of CHRIST to be their recompence He promises to give them joyes delights treasures and eternal benedictions Amen DISCOURS IV OF THE SECOND ARTICLE And in IESVS-CHRIST his only Son our Lord. HAving shewn that JESUS-CHRIST is the true object of our Faith we must now consider what the Apostles propose to our beliefe in this Article concerning him Wherefore in the first place we will see what is IESUS-CHRIST to whom they give these names And in the second place Why they give these names to him
holy SACRAMENT Who is the Father of this coloured Ray 'T is the Sun But the Sun produced not the colour But it produced the Ray which is joyned with the colour and who is the mother of this coloured Ray 't is the glass but it made not the ray but it produced the radiant colour it cloathed the ray with this Robe of colour Who is the Father of IESUS MAN-GOD It is the eternal Father He begot not of his substance the Humanity of JESUS But He begot of his Substance the Person of his Son who is Man Who is the Mother of this MAN-GOD It is Mary she begot not the Divinity But she conceived the Man who is God the cloathed the Person of the Son of God with our humanity Which is the more ancient this coloured Ray or the glass The Ray as a Ray as the offspring of the Sun is a long time before the glass it is from the beginning of the world it is as ancient as the Sun But the Ray as coloured is younger than the Sun Who is the more ancient IESUS or Mary IESUS as God or as Son of God is long before Mary He is from eternity as the Father and the holy Ghost But JESUS as man is younger than his Mother This Ray being in the sun is so bright and resplendent that i◠dazells the eyes of them that look upon it but the same ray being descended here below and cloathed with a red colour is easily beheld so the son of God in the bosome of his Father is invisible ineffable inaccessible and incomprehensible But the same Son of God being cloathed with our humanity is made visible palpable and sensible to the end He might illuminate and instruct us that He might be the Director of souls and the Doctor of justice as He is called by the Prophets And He begins betimes to perform the charge He exercices the office from the beginning of his life 4. This insant newly born does preach his pulpit is the cradle his Auditory the univers his Doctrine is the contempt of the world He preaches not by word for He cannot speak but by example He preaches not to the eares But to the eyes He says that voluntary poverty is better than riches And the world on the contrary says that money is to be procured in the first place that a man must have it tho' he hazard his soul for it This divine infant says the humble simple innocent and mortifyd life is that which pleases God The World says a man must greaten himself appear glorious Machevalize subtily Circumvent and diceive craftily and live in delights and pleasures 5. Behold two Masters quite contrary two doctrines diametrically opposite It is necessary the one or the other be deceiv'd To say this infant is deceiv'd is horrible blasphemy He is the eternal Wisdom the increated Wisdom the Angel of the great Council It must then be confest that the Avaricious Ambitions Voluptuous and Machiavilians are grossly deceived 6. Let us then Conforme our selves to IESUS who is established by the eternal Father as our modell Let our life resemble his as an Image the Prototipe or original Let it be a copie an expression and a representation of his that we paticipating his vertues Spirit and graces in this life may be partakers of his glory in the other Amen DISCOURS VI. OF THE FOVRTH ARTICLE Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried THe Apostles who made in their Creed an abridgement of the principall Mysteries of our Faith having spoken of the Conception and of the Nativity of our Saviour pass his Life in silence and treat immediatly of His death to teach us the chiefe reason of his comming was to suffer and to redeem us by his Passion 2. He saw by the light of glory the abyss of sin and the Eternal damnation to which men were doom'd for the fault of their first Parents and for their own sins He had pity on them and prayed his Father to pardon them for the Love of Him What man on earth What Angel in Heaven knowing that the only Son of God a Son so amiable and so beloved demands pardon of his Father for men to whom He is like in nature What man or Angel say I knowing this would not have sayd surely surely the eternal Father will pardon mankind for the love of his Son who is a man and that also freely without any satisfaction No the Father does it not But He says Isaiah 53. 10. my Justice must have its cours my Son I will pardon men if you will answer for them and undergoe death for them The Son hath a great apprehension and horror of a death so cruell and ignominious we see it in the Prayer He made in the Garden which was an expression of that which He acted in the womb of his Mother after the instant of his Conception 3. Nevertheless He accepted not only with patience and resignation but also with pleasure and satisfaction the decrees of Gods Justice concerning him He offered himself most willingly and with an ineffable love not only to be nayled to the Cross but also to remaine and languish thereupon ' til the end of the world if it should so please his Father Ecce venio ut faciam voluntatem Heb. 10. 9. tuam He that should have seen this submission might with probability have sayd the eternal Father will content himself with his good will as He was satisfyd with the good will of Abraham and of Isaac at least the Justice of God will be contented that he suffer but one prick of a thorn or one stroke of a whip that He shed one drop of his Blood which is sufficient to sanctify the whole world No He wills that He suffer actually all the punishments humiliations and afflictions we sinners did deserve 4. A Sinner deserves to be depriv'd of the use of creatures since he abused them to be humbled and confounded becaus he would not be subject to the laws and will of God To be punished both in body and soul becaus he offended the infinitely high Majesty of the Creator And JESUS hath taken upon himself to satisfy for all these pains and punishments 5. He was depriv'd of the use of Creatures for what privation more rigorous than to be spoiled of his very cloathes to be as naked as a worme of the earth not to have so much as a poor shift to cover him not a drop of water to refresh his tongue in the agony of death One of his Apostles betrays him another denys him all forsake him and thô some holy Women followed him yet they were not permitted to assist him 6. He was humbled and confounded What greater humiliation than to be exposed to derision and rudeness of the rable and to insolence of soldiers Who treat him as the very scum of men who salute him in mocherie blindfold him buffet him pull off his beard who put a reed in his hand
body The spiritual is the union of grace with the soul And the civil is the union of a man with his neighbors and a good repute amongst them Now the detractor sometimes takes away the first life often the second and very frequently the third The first sometimes either by creating mortal enemies against the poor absent person or by representing him as dishonest and unfaithfull whereby he loses those employments without which he cannot nourish himself nor his The second often for soon or late the detracted person heares of the Detractor he conceives a hatred of him and resolves upon reveng ah he sometimes dyes in this disposition and with the Devills is damn'd for ever The third frequently for generally speaking detraction takes effect and deprives the detracted of the good opinion others have of him which is the cement of the commerce that is between them so the detractor takes away his civil life and obliges himself to restitutions and reparations both of the honor and good name and of all the expences dammages and interects caused by his detraction which will be very hardly made 8 To avoyd a vice so pernicious both to you and others follow the counsell of the holy Ghost Weigh your words in a just Eccl. 28. 29. ballance before you utter them Remembet that in the judgment of God they shall be all exactly weighed examined judged punished or recompenced we must render an account in judgment of a word which hurts not how much more of those which blacken our neighbor rob him of his honour and are the caus of so many enmities and dissentions Remember when you are in passion and quarelling with your neighbor That you utter not the Prov. 25. 8. things which your eyes have seen lest afterward you cannot amend it when you have dishonoured him says the sacred text And in effect a detractive word is soon let forth but not so soon recalled words have not handells to be pulled back again when they have eschaped but they have wings which makes them fly away irrevocably if you would repair the honor of your neighbor whither will you go to seek all those to whom you have spoken and all those who have spoken of it after you and if you find them how will you raze out of their minds the bad opinion of their neighbor which you have imprinted in them And yet 't is a thing absolutely necessary unless you go to the person whom you detracted and pray him to pardon you and to free you from the obligation of restoring But if he does not 't is a verity avowed by all Doctors that you stand oblig'd to repair his honor in defect whereof the Pope himself cannot absolve you Calumniate not nor detract then any person but have charity which as the Apostle says Covers a multitude of sins so you will enjoy quiet in your self and peace with others you will obtain the grace and favour of God in this world and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XL. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL AS Creation is attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son So sanctifieation of souls is attributed to the holy Ghost becaus 't is an effect of particular love and goodness The more usuall way He takes for this work is the administration of Sacraments which are the instrumental causes of his graces chanells and conduits of his benedictions Before we speak of each one in particular 't is good to treat of them in general and to consider what is common to all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace Wherefore I will put before your eyes their causes the nature and effects of them 1. Tâ—e Efficient Caus who instituted the Sacraments is IESVS lib. 4. c. 4. de SacrameÌ„t Trid. ss 7. can 1. CHRIST Who is the Authour of the Sacraments but IESVS our Lord these Sacraments came from heaven says S. Ambrose And the holy Ghost by the mouth of his Spouse assembled in the Councel of Trent If any one shal say that all the Sacraments of the new Law were not instituted by CHRIST our Lord let him be anathema IESVS hath given his Apostles and his Church commission to institute Feasts Fasts and the Ceremonies of the Office but the institution of Sacraments He reserv'd to himself 't is He alone that bâ—queathed them to the faithfull as the magasins of his merits chanells of his graces and authentick proofs of his Divinity Yes of his Divinity 2. For in the institution and administration of Sacraments IESUS shews that he is God since He exercises and makes appear divine perfections His Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Iustice and Providence 3. His Power They say usually in Philosophy that no creature however noble and eminent it may be can serve the Creator as an instrument to draw out of nothing another creature that a Seraphin cannot create no not instrumentally a drop of water or one only grain of sand Let them change now their tone and praise the power of IESVS CHRIST who makes use of common creatures to produce so excellent of material to to produce Spiritual of dead and inanimate creatures to create a divine life who makes use elements which are in the lowest order of nature to produce that which is most high and more excellent than all that is in nature who makes use of a little water to produce grace which is a participation of the life of God himself 4. He shews in this his Wisdom disposing of all things sweetly leading his creatures to their last End by means convenient and fitted to their nature If you had not bodys if you were as Angells S. Chryhom 60. ad Pop. Antioch separated from all corporeall matter God would give you his gifts purely spiritually and invisibly but becaus your souls are cloathed with terrestrial and materiall bodys God gives you his graces in material elements and in sensible signes 5. He exercises his Goodness for by the malediction thundred against the first man and his posterity corporeal creatures are Wisdom 4. becom to us temptations stumblingblocks and snares But by the Benediction of IESUS they are the matter of Sacraments conduits of his graces organs of our sanctification and instruments of our salvation 6. And whereas He is both mercifull and just in shewing us mercy he exercises his justice for man being by sin unjustly elevated against God who is infinitely above him he is justly punished and humbled seeing himself oblig'd to receive his salvation by corporal creatures which are so much below him 7. His Providence in sine herein does shine He foresaw that men are naturally inclin'd to an exterior worship and He provided Sacraments and Sacrifice which consist in exterior actions lest they should employ themselves in superstitions He sees that Vnity is necessary amongst his faithfull and to make them uniform in the exercise of Piety and divine service to unite them togeather in thâ— same Religion and the same Church He institutes exteriour actions
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
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
don to me becaus He esteems more that which is don to his members than what is don to himself let us weigh these words 4. First He says That which you have don to the least of mine He means chiefly the poor since He speakes of those that Matth 52. 40. hunger and thirst T is then a strang folly which displeases him extreamly to give your goods to flatterers to dissolute persons or to employ them to enrich your children to elevate or greaten your parents or to leave them wherewith to live in dilights in dissolutions whilst our Saviour hath not where with to live in the person of the poor is not this a great injustice to give to your child wherewith to live in superfluity and not to give to our Saviour wherewith to sustaine a poor life says S. Austin He says Wherewith to live in superfluity for you may merit if out of the spirit of charity and mercy you leave to your children or to your parents as to the members of JESUS CHRIST goods as alms wherewith to maintaine themselves according to their quality in Christian modesty and frugality not in superfluity and in the ambition of the world 5. You have don to me for the love of me if you give alms out of natural compassion 't is not christian charity but moral vertue if our of ostentation to be esteemed liberal 't is vanity if becaus the poor man is of the same countrey profession or condition that you are that he is a Soldier and you have been that he hath been a marchant and you are 't is to give an alms to a man to a soldier to a marchant and not to JESUS and becaus the poor man is his member Disciple or his Brother likewise if you give it to the end only that God may recompence you by temporal goods JESUS will not say to you you have given to me becaus in effect 't is not for IESUS that you give it but for your selves 't is not alms but avarice You have don to me He says not to my servants my faithfull but to me we must then consider IESUS in the poor and comport our selves towards them with the same dispositions that we would to IESUS and season our alms with all that is requisite to a most vertuous and meritorious action 6. First bestow your alms with tenderness commiseration and with bowells of compassion for mercy ought to make our hearts miserable by a sympathy of charity participating in the sufferances and afflictions of others 7. Secondly with benignity sweetness and affability the testimony of affection and benevolence and abstaine from all reproaches which would make a poor man suffer more by the confusion to which you put him than you pleasure him by the alms you give him 8. In the third place with interiour humility thinking that you are not worthy to give an alms to IESUS and in effect all that we do is nothing in comparison of that we should do and what we give less than our lives is less than that which in occasion we ought to give for God hath given his life for us and we ought to give also our lives for our 1. Ep. c. 3. bretheren says S. Iohn 9. In fine give prompty ioyfully and copiously let your good will exceed your power in giving a penny wish it were a pound an have also a desire to give it if you had it and if it were convenient in giving a mess of broth wish it were the best becaus it is for your best beloved who merits that we should consume the treasures of the world for the service of the least of his members 10i Let us conclude with the fine words of S. Augustine Brothers exercise mercy there is no other band to tye us to the love of Aug. in Psal 102 God and of our neighbor there is no other means to carry us from earth to heaven and a little after he adds Behold what you may buy how much you must give for it and when you must buy it Behold what you must buy Paradise is to be sold you may buy with money the kingdom of heaven eternal life and the possession of God What great favour what incomparable happiness if God did not permit it who would dare so much as to thinke of it ô if men be damn'd they deserve not to be pitied Satan will have good reason to laugh at them and say ô great fools they would give willingly the half of their goods to buy 30. or 40. years of life and of a life full of afflictions infirmities and miseries and they would not give it to buy millions of years of a most happy and delicious life And do not tell me so precious marchandise is not sold at a cheap rate and that you have neither gold nor silver nor means to buy it Bohold how much you must give for it a glass of cold water a little service if you have nothing els may procure you it our Saviour speaking to his poor Apostles sayd you have always poor with you and you may do good to them when you please He says not you may give to them But you may do good to them becaus many cannot give but every one can do good You may viset the sick and imprisoned and though you have nothing to give you may comfort them exhort them and do them other services The Son of God will not say you have not redeem'd me out of prison but you have not visited me that you may have no excuse You are a married woman t is not permitted you to give great alms of your husbands goods But t is permitted and it will be a good alms to serve assist and cherish with respect and tenderness for the love of God the old and infirme of your family You are a chamber-maid it would be theft and not alm◠to give to the Poor the goods of your Master against his will but it will be a Charity if you help this inferior servant if you assist her in the labor wherewith she is opprest You are a Counsellour an Advocate or a Solicitor you have many Children and little means and not able to give alms But you may assist with your credit counsell and service this poor widow this orphan poor man and the like persons whom commonly men neglect You may instruct in the Mysteries of faith and in what is necessary to salvation your domesticks servants neigbors and the poor that beg alms at your door this is the best alms you can bestow upon them an alms more excellent than the corporal so much as the soul is better than the body heaven than earth the grace of God than money or bread You have enemies that do you great injuries if so they are poor in vertue ô what an excellent alms would you bestow upon them if you procure it them and you will procure them vertue if you gain their affection by pardoning them and seeking their
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
are baptized but they stand obliged to follow them Which made great S. Basil say whosoever hath receiv'd the Baptisme of the law of grace is oblig'd to live according to the Gospell and hath oblig'd himself by an irrevocable contract to imitate IESUS CHRIST 5. I know well than to excuse your selves you say if I live not according to the world if I cloath not my self gorgeously if I lead a retired and mortified life I shal pass for an extravagant person they will not esteem me they will say I am an abhorrer of society and a man of another world You say true but what is this to say It is to say they will esteem you a christian that you will pass for a Disciple of IESUS This is that which you have promised in Baptisme T is in this the perfection of Christianity consists in declaring war against the world and its pomps in opposing its maxims and customs contradicting flesh and blood Take courage then says S. Chrysostom fight valiantly consider what Chrysost To 3 ser de Martyr you have promised under what condition you were made a Christian and in what war you are enrolled Think not to tryumph without Victory to be victorious without fighting to fight without enemies that are contrary to you 6. But some do say where are pastimes delights and pleasures forbidden in the ten commandements or in those of the Church If those frequent and almost continuall pastimes delights and pleasures are not against the first and chiefe of the commandements Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy forces they are at least against the second which our Saviour says is like to it For is this to love your neighbor as your self to employ in superfluous delights that which might deliver him out of great inconveniences and miseries you know that so many orphans so many other poor who are the children of God members of our Saviour are eaten with vermin for want of a little linnen that they are starved with cold and that they dye with hunger for want of assistance and the money wherewith you might succour them you spend in superfluities what insensibility is this where is the fraternal Charity or the Christian Compassion or the bowells of mercy which the elect ought to have The Prophet Amos 6. 6. Amos weighed well how much Charity was by this violated when he sayd Woe to you who seek exquisite meats and delicious wines and yee have not pity on the miseries of the people 7. S. Denys says that in his time if one desired Baptisme the c. 2. Eccle. Hier. parag 2. et 3. first thing he did was to intreat a Christian to be his God father the Christian on the one side desiring the salvation of the Petitioner and on the other weighing the weakness of a man with the weight of the affaire was troubled with fear and seized with apprehension to conduct him to the Bishop Nevertheless in fine he led him to the Prelate Who sayd to him that his designe ought not to be imperfect but entire and with all his heart as approaching to God who is entirely perfect and having declar'd to him the forme of life he ought to lead to live godly receiv'd from him promises and protestations to aspire with all his force to that perfection And that he might not undertake such a charg lightly and inconsiderately he made him pass 2 or 3 years in Catechumenate which was the Noviciate of Christianity where he exercised himself in fasting prayer and other penances to make tryal if he could apply himself to the austere and vertuous life of Christians By which you see that the answers made for you in Baptisme are not ayrie words they are according to this great Saint and other holy Fathers promises and protestations which oblige us By the same you see also what life the Christians of those times did lead to satiâ—fy the obligations contractd in their Baptisme 8. Do as they did renounce the Devill and all his pompes works and suggestions renounce the World with its vanities follies and maxims renounce your selves your flesh sensualitie selflove particular judgment and all the inclinations of the old man separate your will from his and turn to IESUS your God and the Source of your salvation Acknowledg the excellencie of your Dignitie the noble and divine Allyance to which you are elevated to whom you pertain by Baptisme Remember that you have the honour to be the members of IESUS-CHRIST not improperly nor metaphorically but really and truly Let us remember that he is our Head and that we must conform our selves to him otherwise we shal make a great deformitie in his body and dishonour him extreamly Would not this be a monstrous and unnatural deformitie if to the head of a handsom man were joyn'd the body of a beast the paws of a Lyon the belly of a hog the tail of a serpent IESUS is the Head of the Church we are the members of it what dishonor should we do him what unnatural deformitie should we make in his Body if we should be unlike to him if He being as meek as a lamb as pure as the sunbeam and as simple as a dove we should be cruel like lyons unclean like hogs and deceitfull as serpents Let us assure our selves that He will not suffer such deformitie in heaven and that to be associated to him in the life of glory we must be like to him in the life of grace Amen DISCOVRS XLIII Of Confirmation AS the eternal Father hath shewn effectually the ineffable love which He had for the world in giving his only and beloved Son in the Mistery of the Incarnation a love so wonderfull and prodigious that though admiration be the daughter of ignorance and IESUS be the infinite and eternal Science He speaks not of it but with astonishment and admiration Sic Deus dilexit mundum So IESUS hath shewn effectually the infinite love which He had for his Church in giving Her his holy Spirit who is equal coeternal and consubstantial with Him and his Father 2. But as in the distribution of graces where of the Apostle 1. Cor. 12. 10. speaks the holy Ghost is communicated to divers persons for different operations to some to worke miracles to others to interpret the holy scripture and the like so in Sacramental grace the holy Ghost is given for divers intentions to produce divers effects according to the difference of the ends for which IESUS instituted the Sacraments In Baptisme the holy Ghost is given us to be the Soul of our souls the life of our life and the Spirit of our spirit to create in us the spiritual and Christian life make us Children of God Members of IESUS CHRIST and Heirs of the kingdom of heaven In Confirmation He is given us to make us Souldiers of IESUS CHRIST to enrole us in his warfare and to
against other assaults permit themselves to be overcom by this becaus good natures are facile complaisant and condescending they have so much fear and confusion to do or omit any thing that may displeas another or which they apprehend may lessen their own honor or reputation that one only thought What will they think what will they say will render al predications remonstrances and exhortations uneffectual Say for example to this Gentleman or Duellist you live upon the brink of hell you may say every morning when you rise perhaps in the evening I shall go to bed in hell there needs no more than that a friend do pray you to serve him as a Second to be kill'd in this action and behold you are most meserable for an eternity Can there be any thing more foolish than to expose your self to be kill'd or to kill another man who never disoblig'd you to serve the caprice of a giddy and unreasonable head refuse couragiously these requests and they will trouble you no more with them I would willingly he will answer you But what will they say Say to this Lady the extravagance of your cloathes does prejudice much your salvation it consumes the best part of your time it fills your soul with pride and vanity it wedds your heart to trifles it renders you unable to pay debts to give necessary assistance to the Poor you would do well to cloath your self more simply and modestly I would do it willingly she will assure you But what will they say 13. But what are they you fear so much Atheists impious or at best light loose and libertine Christians good and vertuous soules solid and understanding persons will esteem and honour you If a Criple should laugh at you becaus you go straight would you do well to be asham'd of it and to counterfeit your self a criple If you study to pleas the humours and the fancies of the world you will never have don you will make your selves ridiculous regard them not Let them talk 't is your part do do well and theirs to speak ill you can no more hinder them from talking than you can doggs from barking 14. Whatsoever you do you will be the But of evill tongues your intentions will be judged your actions censured If you be meanly cloathed they esteem you a hypocrice if well cloathed according to your condition proud If thrifty avaricious if liberal prodigal if you pardon injuries a coward if you defend your right revengfull if you fast a dissembler If you nourish your self a glutton if peaceable negligent If vigilant in your duty turbulent If quick at mass indevout if long scrupulous if you preach mildly you lull people a sleep if vigorously you are passionate if you reprehend vices you are too violent if you reprehend them not a flatterer S. Iohn did neither eate nor drink they sayd he was possest IESUS did eate and drink they sayd He was a friend of good cheer All these overflowings of tongues are best stopt by a generous contempt of them when they shal have satisfyd their folly or their malice they will be weary of talking and will honor you for when you are vertuous the people of the world mock you in appearance but in effect they honor you they laugh at you exteriourly but interiourly esteem you 15. But suppose that in effect they laugh at you and contemne you Why are you confirmd the charg that Confirmation imposes on you is to endure affronts reproches and confusions for the glory of IESUS CHRIST to defend his doctrine and his Vertues with the peril of your honor and of your life as He hath endured confusions ignominies calumnies and a most infamouâ— and shamefull death for you He that shal be asham'd of me and of my words I will be asham'd of him before my Father And Mat. 10. .3 on the contrary He says He that shal confess me he that â—hal not be asham'd to acknowledg my Doctrine to practise my vertues and to be my Disciple I will confess him in the presence of my Father and his Angells I will acknowledg him for my servant praise his vertuous actions and adorn his head with a crown of Glory Amen DISCOURS XLIV of the Real Presence of the Body of IESVS CHRIST in the Eucharist IESUS CHRIST being both God and man hath always two intentions in his enterprizes He regards the glory of God and the salvation of men wherefore He willed that the Eucharist should be a Sacrifice and a Sacrament a Victime and a food In the quality of a Sacrifice and a Host it is referr'd to the glory of God in the quality of a Sacrament and food it is referr'd to the salvation of men I shal treat of it as a Sacrifice in another place In this I speak of it as a Sacrament and demonstrat that it contains really truly and substantially the precious Body of JESUS CHRIST 1. And to convince an understanding thar teceives the holy Scripture I need not other proof than the clear testimony of the Son Iohn 6. Matt. 26. 26. Mark 14 22. Luke 22. 19. 1. cor 11 Gal. 1. 12 of God who sayd The Bread which I will give you is my flesh And giving it to his Disciples in the last Supper This is my Body Which words He sayd not only before his death as the Evangelists depose But also after his Resurrection and Ascension as S. Paul does testify I have learned of our Lord says He and not of men that being in the last supper He sayd to his Disciples take eate This is my Body 2. Notwithstanding the evidence of these words Calvin is so bold as to say that what our Saviour held in his hand and gave to his Apostles was not his Body but bread a figure or shadow of his Body I would know if our Saviour deâ—iring to declare to us that He gave his Body could speak otherwise than He did If all the men in the world should employ a thousand years in seeking terms to express themselves could they speak more clearly than saying This is my Body And the bread which I will give you is my flesh 3. But suppose that these words are obscure to whom ought we to referr our selves for the meaning of them Either to Calvin who came more than fifteen hundred years after CHRIST or to the judgment of the Faithfull who lived in the times of the four first general Councells during which Calvin himself avows that the Church was in her purity The Gospell says that we must credit two or three good Witnesses behold here six authentik ones three of the Greek and three of the Latine Church S. Cyrill of Hierusalem who had place in the second 4. Mistagog cat general Council held in the year 381. teaching his people by the Scripture and according to the sense of the whole Church of his age speaks thus Since then our Saviour himself declares and says of bread This is my Body who