ascertain'd testimony of God who cannot deceive or be deceived Habitual faith is when 't is permanent as a habit and remains in us ' til we lose it by infidelity Actual faith is when we exercise formally and expresly an act of beliefe upon a revealed Verity Implicite is when we believe not the Articles of Religion but confusedly in general and in gros as when we say I believe all that the Church believes Explicit is when we believe distinctly and in particular that there is one God in three Persons that the Son of God was made man and the like important verities Interior faith is when we believe in heart without making known by any signe whether we believe or no. Exteriour is when we make profession of our belief by words or by external and visible actions dead faith is when it is depriv'd of the love of God and of other vertues Living faith is when it is animated by charity and the practise of good works 6. Humane faith conduces not to justification nor consequently to salvation this the Apostle expressly teaches when he says By Ephes 2. 8. 2. Cor. 5. 2. grace you are saved through faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God And again we are not sufficient to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 7. Habitual faith suffices not for an Adult or one that hath sufficient use of reason but he must believe actually the Mysteries of faith For he that coms to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek him says S. Paul And S. Heb. 11. Iohn .. 3. 18. Iohn He that does not believe is already judged He says not he that hath not faith but he that does not believe which expresses a formal act I sayd habitual faith suffices not one that hath sufficient use of reason for infants and such as have not the use of reason may be saved by habitual faith which they receive when they are spiritually regenerated by Baptisme For this habitual gift of faith and the other habitual and supernatural gifts of Hope and Charity which they then by the merits of CHRIST receive justify them makes them adoptive children of God heires of his kingdom and remains in them for these effects and to be the sources of correspondent acts when they shal com to the use of reason 8. Implicit faith suffices not to be saved It is not enough to say I believe all that the Church believes you are oblig'd to know and believe explicitly that there is one God in three Persons Father Son and holy Ghost Creatour Saviour Sanctifier the Incarnation of JESUS-CHRIST his Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension his comming to Judgment if any one committed to your care should be ignorant of these Misteries you would be more culpable then if you should permit them to work on Christmas day this being only against a precept of the Church that against a Commandement of God And for the same reason if others who do not particularly pertain to you should be ignorant of those mysteries you would offend against charity if you instruct them not more then if you should leave them in ignorance of their obligation to hear Mass on Easter day 9. Interior faith suffices not It is not enough to have a firm faith in our heart we must make a profession of it by our words Rom. 10. 10. and actions For with the heart we believe vnto justice but with the mouth Confession is made to sâlvation says S. Paul We receive body and soul and all from God we must acknowledg and honour him as He commands us though with the loss of all 1. Cor. 13. Galat. 5. 6. S. Iames. 2. 14. Matth. 7. 21 S. Matt. 25. 41. Aug. Lib. de Fide Oper. C. 15. Tom. 4. ◠med 10. Dead faith in fine suffices not for if a man hath all faith and have not charity he is nothing says S. Paul And in another place he assures us that the faith only which works by charity is that which profits and conduces to salvation S. Iames confutes largly dead faith and thus concludes You see then Brethren how that by works a man is justifyd and not by faith only Our Saviour himself declares it insufficient to salvation when He says Not every one that says Lord Lord which is not sayd without Faith but he that does the will of my Father shal enter into the kingdom of Heaven And in the same Gospell He blames those He sends into everlasting fire not becaus they believ'd not in him but becaus they did not good Works and this passage S. Austin also urges much against the Solifideans 11. Catholicks believe this but many among them fail in the practise of it What Christian works what supernatural works conformable to their faith and what works more perfect than those of Pagans do they Tbey labour to maintain themselves to nourish and provide for children and the Pagans did so They honor their Parents the Pagans respected also theirs they injure none and honest Pagans did not They love their Benefactors I will not say what Pagan but what Tyger does not They love their friends and such as do love them the Publicans or Pagans do they not the same and what reward shal you have sayd our Saviour You must do works conformable to your faith supernatural Matth. 5. 46. heroical and worthy of the recompence we pretend to 12. A good Christian acts not by natural inclination nor by humane reason nor by maxims of policie nor by temporal interest but hath faith for the Principle of his actions and for the Rule of his life He labours and gains money not for the love of it nor of any honour or pleasure he may get by it but for a necessary entertainment of himself in the service of God and to give Alms because faith teaches him to use it for these ends He nourishes and provides for children not because they are his but because they are Gods creatures his Images and the Members of JESUS-CHRIST He abstains from sensual delights and carnal pleasures not because a man is too noble and born to higher things than to be a slave to his body but because JESUS-CHRIST recommended it He does no injury to any not because he would have the repute of an honest man but becaus JESUS hath forbidden him He suffers injuries and affronts and pardons them not because it is the property of a great courage to contemne and look upon them as unworthy of his anger as a Lyon or an Elephant slights the cries of little dogs but because CHRIST commands us to pardon injuries to do good to those that hate and persecute us He serves faithfully his Master not becaus his Master nourishes him well and gives good wages but becaus God sayd by the mouth of S. Paul Servants render obedience to your Masters as to JESUS-CHRIST He gives alms to
is good and deserves to be loved for God is so good great holy powerfull and worthy to be loved that if He did desire it we should sacrifice our selves for his service though there were neither heaven for those that love him nor hell for those that love him not 11. We should do as the blessed Spirits do it is IESUS that gives the Counsel putting these words into our mouths Your will be don in earth as it is in heaven that is as the Angells do it they do the will of God and obey his Orders with a free pure and disinteressed love all that they pretend is to obey God to do his will all the recompence that they passionately desire is to receive new Orders to be employd again in his service purely for the love of him 12 This is not sayd that a faithfull soul may not hope and keep the commandements for reward or retribution as the Prophet says he did But that it be not the principal yet less the only aime of our love for as S. Bernard says perfect love of God intends no recompence but merits much The loving soul receives from the hands of God ineffable and incomprehensible goods but though she should not though there should be no Paradise nor reward she would not omit to love God serve him and to be pleasing to him and if she practises vertue for reward the reward which she desires is the increase of her love if she is glad to merit to be higher in heaven this is not to have there more of honor and glory but it is to have more of love if I merit much says she I shal see God more clearly and perfectly in heaven I shal glorify him more excellently I shal praise him more advantagiously I shal be united to him more strictly and intimatly I shal love him more ardently and so love is the true salary of love 13. In fine your love must not be idle and paralitick but active to render service to God and to do good works for his glory Charity works great things where it is and where it works not there it is not says S. Gregory S. Iohn 14. 23. 1. Ep. 3. 18. Psai 96. 10. He that loves me will keep my word says IESUS My little children says his beloved Disciple let us not love in word and tongue only but in work and veritie and the Royal Prophet You that love our Lord hate ye evill he says not only commit not evill but hate it He says not hate it in your self but absolutely hate it If you love God you will hate sin wheresoever it is found you will destroy it in your self and in your neighbor also if if you can if one should say I abuse not my friend but is not sorry that another does nor hinders him when he can may one truly say he loves him Let us conclude with a reflexion upon these words of JESUS I Came to cast fire upon the earth and what desire I but that it be inflam'd Luke 12. 49. And does He not move solicit and stir up our hearts to this fire and flame of love by all possible wayes 14. He prevents us with great love He lou'd us more than riches He was made poor for us more than honours He suffered a thousand infamies more than his ease and pleasure He led a life in pain and labor more than his body He depriu'd it of glory and of life more than the Angells He redeem'd them not And though we are so ungratful and unworthy as not to return love for love He tryes yet other means 15. He heaps Benefits upon us and makes us presents to engage our mercenary hearts He practises the counsel He gives us by the Wiseman and by his Apostle Give meat and drink to your enemy Prov. 25. 21. Rom. 12. 20. when he hath need and you shal heap upon him burning coales to heat his love to you so many prosperities that are sent you so many morcells of bread you eate so many creatures that serve you are so many burning coales He heaps upon you to heat your love so many presents He makes you to gain your affection so many baits he laies to catch your heart Et si parva sunt ista adiiciet majora And if it seems to you that all this is too little and that your heart is yet worth more He assures you that all the favours whiich he hath don you and which he does you yet every day are not but gages and pledges of the great Goods He hath prepar'd and promis'd you if you love him Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard 1. Cor 2. 9 nor the heart of man can comprehend the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him says S. Paul 16. But since we esteem not these promises enough and are like those Israelites who contemn'd she desirable land He lifts up his hand He commands us ro love him and threatens punishments if we do not Is not this to be extremly desirous of our love to put as it were a dagger to our throats and say to us love me J will kill you if you will not He does not only say it but he does it he damnes us eternaly if we love him not 17. And when He sees that fear of future punishments doe not sufficiently move our hearts He sends us sometimes afflictions to force our love He takes away all you love in this world becaus you love not well that which ought to be loved above all things He removes from you all that may amuse and employ your heart that it may be in a manner forced for want of other object to unite it self to Him ô great God what can you do more to have this heart which you so passionately desire you besige it on all sides and it renders not neither the preventions of your love nor the attractives of your benefits nor your promises of paradise nor your strict commands nor threats of hell nor constrains of afflictions can open this lockt heart Extremis morbis extrema remedia 18. When a passionate lover hath tryed all wayes and finds them unsuccesfull he coms to the last makes use of a charm composes a love potion JESUS makes use of this artifice to gain our affection He puts himself upon our Altars and into our Tabernacles there he is the charm of love They say that in a charm of love to render it more powerfull the Lover ought to mix with it some of his own substance some drops of his blood and JESUS puts all his blood into this potion not a part of his substance only but all his substance Body Soul and Divinity 19. What think you Judg you not that God ought to have your heart after so many pursuances do they not inflame you to beg that of God which is so necessary and which you cannot have of your own selves Aske it of God fervently humbly frequently aske it of
also for venial for little lies detractions and derisions of their neighbor in things of smal importance for words or unprofitable actions good God! who would believe our judg would be so rigorous as to exact an account of his creatures for an unprofitable worde If Preachers should affirm it without the Word of God clear for it would not men cry-out against them as Impostors 9. They know they shal be damned not only for their own sins but again for those of others to which they contributed And they see now clearly that they contributed to an infinity of sins in others either before they were committed to witt by ill councel or bad example or when they were committed being the cause of them by putting the objects or the subjects or by giving assistance to commit them And after they were committed approving or not exteriourly disapproving them or not avoiding the hante of those that committed them for to give them a horrour of them 10. They know they shal not only be comdemn'd for sins of Commission but mpreover for sins of Omission they will expect to hear Go yee accursed into eternal fire for I was hungrie I was thirsty and you have not given me to eate and drink I was naked and you have not clothed me And if they are to be condemn'd for not giving corporal nourishment how much more for not giving spiritual the life of the soul being of more importance a thousand times then that of the Body if those that refuse material bread to poor strangers shal be so grieuously punished what will becom of them who give not the spiritual bread of instruction corection and good counsel to their children domesticks and strayed neigbours 11. In fine they know they shal not only be condemn'd for sins of omission and commission but shal moreover be answerable for good works which they have don with any imperfection which shal be found mixt with any impurity of intention with self-selflove secret vanity or any other vicious circumstance Cum accepero tempus Ego justitias judicabo when I shal hold my Psal 74 2. sopho 1. 12. great day I will judg also just works and by his Prophet Sophonias He says Scrutabor Hierusalem in lucernis I will search narrowly the devout soul and that no secret crany may escape me I will light a candle How then will He sound a reprobate soul signifyd by Babylon if He examin so rigorously a devout soul signifyd by Hierusalem 12. Sinfull souls I say know all this and much more they know also that their Iudg is not now a Lamb but is becom a Lion that the time of mercy is now past and the time of justice and reveng is com I leave now you to think in what horrible desolation they must be expecting nothing but as the Prophet Hieremy says the whirlewind of the Lords indignation Hierem. 23. 19. Matt. 25. 41. to com upon them And what whirlewind what tempest what thunderclap what Lyons roaring shal be this voice Go ye accursed into eternal fire prepar'd for the Devill and his Angells As many words so many thunderbolts and Anathemas 13. Depart hence reproved soul I banish thee for ever from my Paradise and from my Grace Get thee gon strayed sheep I will be no more thy Pastor be gon rebellious servant I will no more be thy good Master be gon unnatural child I will be no more thy Father be gon adulterous spouse I will be no more thy espouse get thee gon ungratfull creature thou shalt never have any part in my kingdom nor in my delights nor in my amity nor in my company nor in any thing that pertains to me Get thee gon thou accursed I excommunicate and anathematize thee for ever I strike thee with the sentence of eternal malediction thou shalt be accursed in thy understanding which shal never have a good thought cursed in thy will which shal always rage with spite and desperation accursed in thy eyes which shal never see any light in thy eares which shal never hear the harmonious musick of the Angells cursed in thy mouth which shal never have one only drop of water in thy feet and hands which shal be always bound in the chamber where thou shalt dwell which shal be but a furness in the company which You shal have which shal be but Devills cursed in every thing that can happen to thee Go accursed into fire where thou shalt not have for lodging but a prison for bed but coales for cloathes but flames for meat but serpents for drink but gall for musick but blasphemies and for rest but torments Get thee gon into fire which shal endure ever which shal inflame thee and not light thee burn thee and not consume thee as long as I shal be I will be thy enemy as long as this fire shal be fire it shal torture thee as long as eternity shal endure thou shalt remain in this pain Depart go into the fire prepared for the Devill and his Angells I prepared it not for thee t is against my inclination that I send thee thither But thou hast transgrest my Commandements neglected and profaned my Sacraments abused my graces and hast been ungratefull for an infinity of favours go ungratefull go accursed go unfortunate depart from my presence I will never have pity on thee My Dear Brothers and sisters behold a shadow but a very slender and imperfect one of the sentence which shal be pronounced against the Reprobate Thinke on it if you be wise think upon it in the presence of God to whom be honour praise glory benediction for ever and ever Amn. DISCOURS XI OF THE EIGHTH ARTICLE I believe in the holy Ghost IT is reported in the Acts of the Apostles that S. Paul Acts. 10. entring into the Town of Ephesus and finding there some Faithfull demanded of them if they had receiv'd the holy Ghost and they answered we know not so much as that there is a holy Ghost If we should put now the same Question to many Christians they might make the same answer or at least they might say we know not what is the holy Ghost To exclude and banish farr from Christians an ignorance so pernicious the Apostles employ this Article to instruct us concerning his adorable and amiable Person 2. They teach us that He is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son since they made us to say before I believe in God the Father I believe in Iesus Christ his Son and now I believe in the holy Ghost They teach us also that this Person is God with the Father and the Son since they make us say I belive in the holy Ghost They do not only make us to profess that there is a holy Spirit But to believe in Him to reverence Him as God and to love him as our sovereign Good 3. They call him holy Ghost or Spirit which is common to the Father and the Son For the Father is a
most holy Spirit and the Son likewise is a most holy Spirit But they appropriate this name to him because his Emanation or Procession is so farr above our thoughts and our expressions that there is no language in the world that can express his Person for want of a proper name And becaus we are accustomed to call those things spirits of whose origin and manner of production we are ignorant So we call the wind spectres Angells and our souls spirits and we are likewise very ignorant in the production and procession of the holy Ghost 4. Secondly the Apostles appropriate this name to him because He proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one only Source and not as made or created nor as begotten but produced by the Will by an ineffable way which Divines term Spiration a breathing and impulse of the Will towards the thing beloved 5. Thirdly this name is appropriated to him becaus He is the Spirit of our spirit the Soul of our soul the Life of our life For He is given to the Souls of the just to animate and govern them He is not given so to a Bishop or a Priest in his ordination if he be in the state of sin He is not in him to sanctify him but to operate and act by him Hence it is that a Bishop or a Priest that is in sin and hath not grace gives nevertheless the grace of God by the Sacraments becaus he is the instrument of the holy Ghost as a penne gives to paper characters which it hath not becaus it is the instrument of rhe Writer 6. The Church moreover appropriated to this glorious and holy Spirit the name of Love and Charity becaus He is produced by the Will the authour of Love or by the mutual love and dilection of the eternal Father and the Son 7. From this second name which the Church attributes to the holy Ghost proceeds the third which is that of Gift Donum Dei Altissimi the Gift of the most high For that which is dō by pure love is dō freely and liberally and donation is a free and liberal action The two first names appropriated to the holy Ghost referr him to the Father and the Son but this of Gift relates him to Creatures that are capable to receive him and to enioy him as are men and Angells only and this Gift is the first the most necessary and the most excellent of all gifts that God ever gave or can give to us 8. He is the first and cause of all the rest for there is a great difference 'twixt the love of God and the love of men When we love any one 't is becaus we find in him some goodness some beauty or other Perfection Gods love supposes not its object in any creature but He puts it in them God begins not to love us with a love of Benevolence becaus we are good but we are good becaus He loves us so when the eternal Father gives us his only Son in the Incarnation He gave us first his Love and He gave not to us his Son but by his holy Spirit and by his Love He was conceived of the holy Ghost So God loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son 9. This Gift is so necessary that without it all the other Benefits profit very little the work of creation is appropriated to the Father the Incarnation to the Son the Sanctification to the holy Ghost the two first Benefits are unprofitable to us without the third In the creation God gave us Being He made and design'd for our service all the creatures of this world But our Saviour says to us What profit hath a man if He should gaine the whole world and lose himself and he will lose himself infallibly Luke 9. 25. if the holy Ghost sanctifys him not The Incarnation and the Death of the Son of God would not much availe us without the comming of this holy Spirit the torments of JESUS would have made him die and not have made us live He might have satisfyd without restoring us to grace a king offended by his Vassal may receive from him satisfaction and not receive him into favour nor restore him to his former state and to the priviledges which he had lost When I see the Saviour in the Crib or on the Cross I know not whether it be to satisfy only or moreover to restore us to the rights we lost by sin when He rises up again from death I know not whether it be for recompence of his death or to give us life When He ascends to Heaven I know not whether it be to give a convenient place ro his Body or to prepare also a place for us But when He sends the holy Ghost to sanctify us He ascertains us that we reenter into grace and that He applys to us his merits He hath sealed us and given the pledg of the Spirit in our 2. Cor. 1. 22. 1. Ep. 4. 13. hearts says S. Paul And the beloved Disciple In this we know that we abide in him and He in us becaus He of his Spirit hath given to us 10 What admirable favour and what incomparable grace that God vouchsafs to give us his Spirit Love divine and admirable Heart If one should give to a Philosopher the spirit of Aristotle or of Plato to an Orator the spirit of Cicero or Demostenes to a Phisitian the spirit of Hypocrates or of Galen and to a Divine the spirit of S. Thomas or of S. Augustin would not this be a singular favour God gives you not the spirit of Aristotle Cicero Hypocrates but his own Spirit the Spirit of Verity Wisdom and Sanctity When one hath the heart of a person one hath all If you be in the state of grace you have the heart of God for properly speaking the holy Ghost is the heart of God ô Father of mercies and Father of the miserable how deigne you to give them your heart T is that chosen souls are your treasure and you put your heart upon your treasure Quid retribuam Domino 11. What acknowledgment what satisfaction and what return can we make Love is not pay'd but by love nothing corresponds to a heart but another heart and what heart can correspond to the heart of God What love can answer his Would you not desire to be all heart Would you not wish to have as many millions of hearts as there are drops of water and grains of sand in the sea would you not referr apply and consecrate them to the love of God And what would this be compared to the heart of God which He hath given us It would be less than a grain of dust compared to all in Heaven and in Earth But He desires not so much He demands but only one but He will have it all He commands you to give it him Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and if you refuse it him He will damn you
he be great 5. This too great care which they have to enrich and greaten them hinders the care they ought to have to instruct and teach them Bring them up says S. Paul in erudition and correction Iphes 6. of our Lord that is bring them up in good learning and correction according to the law or will of God And since the holy Ghost recommends so often and so instantly to Prov. 1. and 4. and 6. children to hear with attention the instructions of their Parents without doubt He supposes that the words which they will speak to them will be as they ought to be words of edification and salvation not maximes of vanity ambition avarice and worldliness as they are so often in these times 6. The Venerable Tobias who was but in the Mosaical Law Iob. 4. 2. that terrestrial and imperfect law gave to his Son quite contrary Documents We are in the law of grace a perfect law and therefore he will condemn us in the day of judgment hear what he sayd to his Son Be mindfull of God all the dayes of your life and take great heed that you never consent to sin Bless God in all times and pray him to guide you in all your actions and that all your designes may be according to his will That which you would not have don unto your felf never do unto another Turn not away your eyes of compassion from any poor persone for by this means God will not avert the eyes of his mercy from you Be mercifull in what manner you can if you have an abundance of goods give abundantly if you have but little you can give but little but give it with a good heart alms will be a great confidence before God to all that give it avoid the conversation and haunt of sinners consult the wise in your enterprises You must give to your children all these instructions and others yet more perfect becaus they are in the law of grace you must imprint in them the maxims of Christianity a great respect for holy things for humility patience pardon of enemies the contempt of worldly things the love of God a great zeal for his glory and of all that contributs to his service 7. And forget not that workes are more powerfull than words that examples perswade much more than reasons that one heares with more respect him who practises what he teaches than him who contradicts and denyes his doctrine by his life that Princes themselves as powerfull as they are are yet more absolute by their examples and gain more upon their subjects by their vertues than by their Edicts that therefore Christ our Master began first to do and then to teach And his great Apostle proposing himself for Preacher to the Faithfull proposed himself also for their Example Be ye Imitators of me as I also of Christ if then you will educate your children well as you are oblig'd have more care to instruct them by examples than by words 1. Cor. 11 1. 8. Philo calls Parents the visible Gods of their children They have you always before their eyes as the modells of their actions they consider you as the sources of their Being preservation and good fortune they naturally follow you and glory in the imitation of you and if they learn not vertue of you of whom may they learn it to teach them vertue well make them to practise it and practise you it with them take them with you to prayers to Mass and Vesperas and see that they comport themselves in them reverently and devoutly give alms in their presence and do it by them to the end you may induce them to it command them to give it with respect for to honor IESUS-CHRIST in the persone of the poor take them with you to visit the poor sick and prisoners make them read with you the lives of Saints the workes of Granado or other good books especially on sundays and holy-days make examins of Conscience Acts of Faith Hope Charity Gratitude and Contrition with them they will take these things from you will deliver them to their children and so these good practises will pass unto many generations and you will have the merit of them and the glory before God 9. But if they will not imitate you and practise your instructions you must do that which S. Paul adds make use of chastisement in defect where of God will chastise you and that most severely as appeares by many and most authentike examples Ephes. 6. Hear then and put in practise the admonitions of rhe holy Ghost withdraw not Discipline from a child for if thou shalt strike him with the rod he shal not die Thou shalt strike him with the rod and Prov. 23. deliver his soul from hell He that loves his child accustoms him to stripes that he may rejoyce in his later end Flatter thy child and he will make thee afraid play with him and he will make thee sorrowfull Eccles. 31 10. Let us Make an end with this word of S. Hierom The salvation of the Children is the gain of the Parents if you procure the salvation of your children mortifying the natural tenderness and love you have for them to correct their imperfections and choose rather to leave them poor and low then to enrich and raise them against Conscience you will gain the favour of God He will say to you as to Abraham Becaus you have been so faithfull to me that you spared not your son for the love of me I will bless your family and give you a happy posterity And on the contrary if you do as Hely you will be punished as he he was blind and feeble he could not himself chastise his children but the law of God commanded him to bring them to the Iudg to accuse them of their disorders to demand justice against them and to make them to be condemn'd to death and becaus he did it not he was himself condemn'd God obliges you not to so great severity but to chastise them at least when they offend him He commands so strictly your children to honor you why should you not recommend to them the render of the honor which they owe him He punishes them so rigorously if they obey you not why should you not punish them when they obey not him He spared not his own Son his most innocent and amiable Son He preferr'd your salvation before his life Why should you spare your child your ungodly intemperate dissolute and vicious child Will you Iose both his and your own soul to shew a fond love or to make him great The salvation of the children is the gain of Parents if your children worke their salvation you will gain repose when they are prudent and vertuous you have no disquiet no sting of conscience no interiour nor exteriour trouble concerning them It is the gain you will gain honor and reputation in the world for Parents are known by their children the
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