any stop as if the Sage ruler of all things took no cognizance of their actions and which is done parhaps from a foresight they will persevere to the end in wickedness and having performed acts of moral vertues God allowes them a little calm in this life But in our sense when God passes over as undiscerned our faults he remits them without punishment and so seems to have been a stranger to our misdeeds but yet he never doth this that is never turns away his Face from our sins unless we first turn our Face upon them placing them before our Eyes and touched with a horrour at their deformity abjure and protest against them having done this we must then expose that abstract of wonders Christ Jesus before the Eternal Father that his wounded body may serve as a bulwark to defend us and appease his angry looks which implies the aversion of his Face or fury from us Our penitent having in this manner made his way he hopes the effect will follow that God averting his Face in that act will give him an abolition of his crimes that so he may reap the fruit of a Holy penitential fear We kow St. Peter fared not the worse when prompted by a low esteem of himself he requested his Lord to withdraw from him because a sinner No more did the good Centurion lose any thing in acknowledging his little of merit to have his house blessed and made happy by Christ's presence So our Penitent's awful respect in declining the Face of his Creatour springing from a sense of his own unworthiness and believing his sins an object unfit for an Eye so pure and unstained may perhaps draw benedictions upon him and contribute in a large measure to his happiness Wherefore he goes on still repeating turn away thy face from my sins The Application From this discourse we may learn the agitations of a Soul which hath once been defiled with sin sometimes he Figures God unto him as an angry judge and is affrighted to appear before him then again as a purity so compleat and Essential that though he should be conscious of no guilt as having been cleansed and washed as white as Snow he dares not yet stand to the examen Nay on the contrary it makes him petition to have that face which is the joy of Angels to be diverted from him we must then in imitation of our penitent fix only to this comfort that humility repentance and reverential thoughts though they keep us here depressed and under hatches will at last render that face we would now decline through the terrour of our Sins amiable and pleasing into our possession whereon we may gaze and feed our glorifyed Senses for all Eternity Amen CHAP. XX. Et omnes iniquitates meas dele And wipe away all my iniquities ST Cyril of Alexandria saith in the jâ—…stification of a sinner are required certain previous dispositions amongst which he reckons up faith hope repentance and fear Whence I conceive the apprehension of our Holy Penitent lest God should fasten his regards upon his iniquities mentioned in the preceeding verse was initiative and preliminary to his present address That his iniquities may be wiped away St. Austin holds it a thing most rare that any should embrace Christian Religion who have not first received within them an impression of the fear of God That the Ninivites became Penitent and shrowded themselves under a veil of Sackcloth and Ashes The only cause was a fear of vengeance threatned them by the preaching of Jonas St. Hierom upon the First Chapter of Malachy sayes behold O Lord how the fear of punishment diverts us from evil and that the priviledge of being your Children arises from a servile apprehension Our Penitent was not ignorant of this when after a dread conceived of God's judgments he immediately proceeds as if prepared by that terrour to demand an abolition of his crimes Wipe away my iniquities Besides he here explicates himself more fully that in case he do procure the Face of God to be averted then he is confident the sequel will be an expulsion of sin by grace For it were absurd that faith love and other qualities inherent should be necessary to dispose us for pardon and yet the formal effect to be extrinsecal and a justice not ours but imputed to us St. Paul desides this in his Epistle to the Colossians Christ hath freed us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the love of his Son Where you see the infusion of justice by which a Man becomes pious succeeds to the Remission of sin by which we cease to be impious and just as the Air by the same ray of the Sun hath not only its darkness expelled but also is filled with light so that true Son of Justice communicating unto Man his divine grace doth at once by this gift disperse the Clouds of sin and replenish him with the splendour of inherent Justice The same Apostlâ—… Rom. 5. takes away all doubt in this point saying that the grace of God is diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us and that no mistake in this Text may happen St. Austin explicates it in this Sense The charity of God is said to fill our hearts not with that love by which he loves us but by â—heâ—…by which we love him It is then in this fountain of love which springs within us whose over-flowing streams arise from Christ's donation in these we are washed we are sanctifyed and made just by this regeneration we are said to become a new Creature and from an Enemy purchase the title of being the Son of God all which powerfully import a mutation and real change within us St. John in his First Epistle sayes he that doth justice is just Abel was just in that he sacrificed unto God with all the circumstances of homage due unto a supream Being Noah just in that he gave credit unto God feared his judgements and obeyed his commands St. Luke affirms Zachary and Elizabeth to be just from their compliance and obedience to Divine precepts so that it is clear the Principle of their justification was inherent and that nothing extrinsick or imputative can be the formal cause of our actions for if not issuing from something within us we cannot own them to be ours Our Holy Penitent filled with supernatural illustrations was not a stranger to Divine Lawes established in order to Man's conversion Wherefore he knew well his Petition to have his iniquities strook off involved the gift of grace by whose power alone they were to be destroyed Nay even Natural Reason will lead us to this Truth for justification is a motion from sin to justice whence its name is derived as calefaction from heat Now it is evident to expell cold will not be thought calefaction unless the quality of heat be introduced So the bare remission of sin cannot amount to an act of justification without the consecution
Penitent insinuates the high contentment he once received when a darling to Heaven he had promises made him that out of his Line should issue forth the Worlds Saviour and as the perpetuity of his blood to continue in the Throne was fastned to his posterity upon a condition that they observed his Lawes which promise was evacuated he fears by his transgressions Wherefore now readmitted into favour he hopes to be restored to all his former priviledges and amongst all he most covets an assurance touching the coming of the Messias This is the joy of Salvation after which he languishes In imitation we must rejoyce in that the Incarnate word is come and redouble our joy in the reflection of his glorious qualities First that this sacred humanity is distained from all the corruptions of our nature and though it be of the same species with ours yet it far surpasses all created things even in the first rank of Angels Next his flesh miraculously framed by the operation of the Holy Ghost of the blood of a Virgin all immaculate was so pure as no ray of the Sun could be equalled to it Lastly into this unspotted flesh was infused a Soul of a beauty ineffable adorned with grace knowledge and all supernatural habits as God himself judged it not unworthy of his personal union Let then this accomplished wonder of all perfection be the subject of our prayer that we may possess the joy of thy Salvation Amen CHAP. XXVI Et spiritu principali confirma me And confirm me with a principal Spirit MEthinks our Penitent by this clause seems to have shaken off his Chains and fortifyed with the Seal of his pardon begins to fly at all He had laid claim to the Holy Ghost next he expostulates for the restitution of his primary effect which is joy Now he would have a principal Spirit which might lead him to perfection and by that means put him into the best posture of security from a relaps as our present condition can bear saying confirm me with a principal spirit This perfection or principal spirit so called because it leads to generous and noble exploits consists in a concourse of vertuous habits disposing the Soul to actions most holy and meritorious Our Penitent aims by it to endear himself to God and to prove just and obliging to his Neighbour As to the first this noble spirit settles the Soul in a perfect repose and as the Needle alwayes points towards the North-pole so all her affections guided by this spirit tend and rest quiet in God She looks upon herself in the condition of his spouse a quality the most sublime she can be capable off by which she is enabled to lead a life answerable to that title She hath no remorse of conscience as being at a great distance from sin she is enriched with peace sheltered under God's special Providence and hath power to bend his will by her prayer to any thing she desires because she desires nothing but what is good Her thoughts are all celestial her affections all pure and her life no less admirable than it is rare No wonder then if our Penitent after a grant of Jubilyes alwayes chearful alwayes ravished with pledges of Salvation should petition for this spirit of perfection which might secure all these advantages to him confirm me with a principal spirit It is this wisdom our Penitent aims at which irradiates enflames and gives to the Soul a rellish of Heavenly comforts this is the Evangelical Pearl for whose purchase the wise Merchant sold all he had and it is a good bargain for St. Paul sayes a Soul adorned with perfection is of such a value as the Earth deserves not to bear her and Solomon preferrs one single person fearing God before a thousand impious Sons nay God is pleased to own a special protection of his perfect Servants styling himself particularly the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob So that I doubt not one Soul endued with Perfection doth alone more glorify God than an infinity of others that languish and consume their lives in coldness and indevotion Our Penitent therefore becomes now ambitious of promoting God's honour supplicates for a spirit of perfection and though he knowes usually it is not attained to but by a long practice of vertues yet Almighty God is pleased sometimes to dispense in this proceeding and in a moment raises to a high degree such as he hath designed for his choicest favours and truly he had so far experienced God's liberal hand towards himself that he might reasonably hope to obtain whatsoever he made the subject of his request as here with all fervour and zeal he petitions comfirm me with a principal spirit Many Divines are of Opinion that Christ our Lord suffered more in the rude combat of his passion for the most perfect Souls than for others For though he offered up his blood for the redemption of all Mankind yet all did not equally share in the fruit of his passion Some only have conveyed to them by it sufficient means of their Salvation without any other effect others also receive from thence the true remission of their sins but perfect Souls are raised by this oblation to a strange pitch in a spiritual life and in consequence to that to a degree of most eminent glory Wherefore the passion of Christ is to them effectively more beneficial This position they prove out of the Canticles where Christ speaking to a beloved Soul sayes vulnerâsti Cor meum that is to say there is not a hair of her head dart of her Eye least motion of her heart or limb which cost him not a wound because they all import acts of obedience humility and love towards him and therefore it was a pleasing wound since it was to be to them matter of all their spiritual benedictions Whence you may see that Christ our Lord doth not like Creatures who love the less those persons that have caused unto them the greater sufferings for one act of gratitude on our part is of a vertue so soveraign as it heals and closes up all his wounds If then his passion however bitter in it self was made delightful to him in regard of the just whom he foresaw would make good use of it how ought it to affect those who reap the benefit it is this satisfaction after which our Penitent aspires for in this a double contentment arrives to perfect Souls First in that his love made him suffer so liberally for them Next in that they have contributed to allay the acerbities of his passion by the foreknowledge he had of their compliance with his grace O what solid matter of joy Now you must know that our Penitent looked upon himself asmuch concerned in the fruit and participation of Christ's merits as those who were to live after his comming and visible appearance upon Earth Our Petitioner in the preceding verse expresses himself in the Terms of thy salvation that is purchased by the merits
mercy than Justice for the one consists in a communicative vertue of what is good and as God is essentially good so he can alwayes breath forth these emanations of his goodness upon us Now Justice though it be equally essential to the Divine Essence with mercy and other Attributes yet in its operations ad extra or exteriour effects it depends upon the obliquity of our actions without which it hath no matter or Subject to work on So that mercy he can alwayes shower down upon us but Justice only when we offend he would not forget how the greater number of Angels stood the brunt of temptations when Lucifer perished with his proud adherents it was this mercy held them up at the instant of their Tryal and though our afflicted penitent found not this innocence preserving mercy yet he hopes to lay hold on that part where he is stiled a purifying mercy Let his Subjects fall from their obedience and throw curses at him let his Children prove unnatural and labour to dethrone him let a pestilential Disease depopulate his Country in fine let the Joy of his Life Absalom be sacrificed by the Hand of his own Souldier with smiles he will pass through all these Tests so they proceed from the hand of this all purifying mercy He values not the mediums but the end he tends to and when he thinks oâ— this he begins afresh to admire this mercy in the reward of the elect he knows not whether it exceeds more in the expectancy and furtherance of a sinners conversion or in those immense felicities he communicates by his presence For here he beholds a God courting his Creatures insensible as it were of injuries and dishonours from them and seconding their least good intents with the powerful succours of grace There he contemplates a God remunerating our small inconsiderable Acts of Vertue with the same Felicity wherewith he himself is blest and made happy For his Beatitude is to enjoy himself and contemplate his own beauty and perfections and this same Beatitude he imparts to us poor worms through the excess of his Mercy But whether our holy penitent more extolls the effects of his mercies in Heaven or Earth I know not yet of this I am sure he is reconciled to make it whilst he hath life the Theam of his Pen Heart and Tongue he will celebrate the praises of his innumerable mercies for all Eternity he hath scarce a Psalm which speaks not his zeal for this subject as if his quill had been dipped in this Fountain of mercies Another branch which growes up amidst the multitude of his mercies is that he distributes his blessings not so much in the measure of his wisdom as love and after his innumerable favours done to his Vineyard he defies the whole Mass of Creatures to tax him of any want on his part For should he reward us according to our actions which he in his praescience and eternal essence foresees will come to pass who of us should be left alive or who of us should be born Only the innocent should then be favoured and rather than it should be so he was willing to put it upon the Tryal how or what we might prove hereafter He foreknew that Lucifer should fall that Adam would sin Saul become disobedient and Judas betray him yet he forbare not for all this to throw his favours upon them to shew his mercy is ever in competition with Man's malice and like a good Physitian if one Medicine work no good he applyes another like a gâ—od Husbandman if his Land yield him no Crop one year he cultivates and labours it again the Second and Third by which it often happens that one fruitful season repaires the sterility of divers years past Just so God still goes on and though he sees no hope to stop our malice yet he stops not his mercy this proceeding made St. Austin cry Praise and Glory O Lord be to thee O Fountain of mercies the worser I grew and more perverse so much the nearer thou wast unto me It is said a small proportion of chastisement suffices a Father in order to his Son so God as a kind and loving Father thinks a little punishment enough for his Children St. Chrysostome says that after the Master of the Vineyard had his Servants beaten and slain by the Husbandmen he sent his Son and for all these their outrages required no other satisfaction than to see them abash'd and ashamed of their Cruelties and Ingratitude They will says he reverence my Son so that 't is evident their blushing not their bleeding he desired Whence St. Hierom makes a result of this Parable that in God's Clemency there was no Weight no Number no Measure nor likewise in the others Malice So that our holy penitent beholding in every transaction of God with Man this fulness of Mercy might with reason expostulate and entreat his pardon Secundùm multitudinem miserationum tuarum according to the multitude of thy mercies The Application Let every one examine his life from the time he had the use of reason and I am confident he will find many tyes of obligation to this great mercy nay amongst the mass of Christians I believe there is none but ranks himself a favourite in order to his largesses of mercy For his love is constant and knowes no change this great and good God hath persisted for an infinity of time in the perpetual resolution of gratifying us with his gifts his enflamed heart hath entertained a continual solicitude without any truce for our good Witness the Prophet Jeremy who sayes that God hath loved us with an everlasting Charity His love is eternal having alwayes decreed to enrich us with his favours St. Paul proclaims it that he hath loved us before the World was framed It is disinteressed without any advantage to himself or hope of return on our parts No other motive than the superabundance of his goodness like a fountain which runs over his natural goodness throwes blessings on all Creatures Plutarch speaking of love sayes it takes any occasion be it never so slight to oblige the beloved he wants no baits nor snares carrying about him the matter of his own bondage So God's love never takes leave of a Sinner nay where Man 's impiety extorts as it were from him the darts of his Justice he seems presently to relent and promises as he did after the Deluge to do so no more so that his love being eternal unchangeable and devested of all self ends what can we ask of God that issues not from his mercy wherefore let us with holy David cry have mercy on us O God according to the multitude of thy mercies Amen CHAP. IV. Dele iniquitatem meam Wipe away my iniquity OUr poor Criminal having thus prepared his Judge the next care is to lay open his condition and shew he implores God's purifying Mercy by whose vertue the Chains of our sins are loosened and dissolved Nor did it a
104. l. 7. nor well p. 106. l. 12. a little after p. 111. l. 3. his future p. 136. l. 23. injure p. 151. l. 12. palms p. 158. l. 6. communicates p. 160. l. 20. object p. 161. l. 1. for that p. 162. l. 16. Deity p. 163. l. 3. most love p. 165. l. 6. heeld p. 183. l. 7. preceding p. 184. l. 16. decides p. 186. l. 21. punishment p. 189. l. 15. account soever p. 202. l. 5. it is only our heart p. 203. l. 5. she seemed and â—… 25. interiour p. 221. l. 21. in his mind p. 225. l. at a more p. 231. l. 25 entertains p. 236. l. 25. possible and l. 27. abstruse p. 237. l. 17. should p. 248. l. 12. incentives p. 263. l. 8. blot out degree and in the place read will p. 278. l. 16. believe in thee p. 280. l. 2. in these p. 284. l. 29. affect p. 297. l. 26. blot out his and read all material p. 324. l. 25. beating p. 325. l. 21. obstructed p. 343. l. 25. Quires p. 355. l. 2. appartment p. 363. l. 9. premises p. 366. l. 19. after love adde to p. 369. l. 8. danger and. l. 15. this instruction p. 370 l. 1. of his heart p. 403. l. 1. word p. 365. l. 5. since as I said it is engraven CHAP. I. Miserere mei DEUS Have mercy on me O GOD. AT the first entrance our Kingly Prophet prefers his Petition and without any circumlocution expresses in direct terms what he would have Miserere mei Deus have mercy on me O God and he do's it with such confidence as if he had a right to be forgiven which minds me of a rare sentence of S. Gregory Nissen that Man cannot more willingly ask pardon than God is ready to give it The Divine Majesty expects if it may be so express'd with passion the conversion of a sinner and no sooner a repenting motion animates his heart but the whole Court of heaven is alarmed with joy and this joy is followed with showers of mercy No wonder then if our Petitioner make his address with so little Ceremony since he speaks to a Judge resolved to mercy upon his submission to a Father who is transported with joy at the sight of his long lost Son to a Creatour who hath framed every particle of his being and perfectly knows how frail weak and prone to innumerable failings he is if left to himself wherefore he cryes Miserere mei Deus have mercy on me O God He shelters this guilty me t'wixt God that made him and Mercy that must save him on these two he anchors all his hopes which being let down by a vigorous faith renders him secure amidst all the storms that hell and earth can raise so that now like a rock he stands braving all his enemies assaults who not long before was handed like a ball from one pleasure to another as if he had been made up of sensuality passion and a neglect of God Next in this exordium our Petitioner would insinuate a great truth that the first grace is a free gift of God and man a vessel of mercy not of merit hence he cryes Miserere mei Deus that is to say let him pine away in sorrow and repentance let him produce acts of ardent affection by which he prizes God above all things imaginable yet when all this is done he is a Child of perdition and clouded with the guilt of Sin unless an act of Grace be made him from his Sovereign Wherefore we must know that Grace expelling Sin by access unto the Soul finds there no merit nothing that can pretend to a justification neither Faith nor any other Vertue strikes the stroak since Grace is the basis or ground-work of all merit whence it s being is derived no less than a beauteous Flower from the Plant that gives it birth This piece of Divinity lay not hid to our penitent hence he acknowledges his imbecility in meriting any favour only he strives by holy acts of love and grief to dispose himself for mercy Nay though he should comfort himself with Nathan's words that he was already possessed of the first Grace yet to persevere in it so as not to fall again he knew must be the work of the same merciful hand for it is no less out of our reach to become just than to remain so without a constant supply of many actual Graces which must issue gratis from Heaven This kept him still in humility as never to presume of his own strength alwayes in fear without any security of happiness in this life So that having throughly scann'd the Condition of Man in this present State he concludes the best lesson suitable to our continual wants here is incessantly to repeat and entreat under this effectual form Miserere mei Deus have mercy on me O God Whil'st he thus layes all his hopes at the feet of mercy he cannot but bless the sweet proceedings of Heaven in requiring of us to compass our happiness that which is so conformable both to our Reason and Nature For can there be any thing more rational and delightful to Man than to love a Sovereign Good to congratulate the Divine Essence Divine Subsistences Divine Attributes and unchangeable perfections essentially seated in God Can there be any thing more just than to desire this greatness and goodness should have his Divine Laws fulfilled the Universe conserved for the Encrease and Accomplishment of his Service and that all praise and Benediction be poured forth before him by all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth Can there be any action more commendable than to conceive an extream detestation of Sin because injurious to His Supream Majesty and obstructive to his glory and yet in doing this we so attemper our selves for the reception of his favours that as in the Order of Natural things upon the Organization and fitted Dispositions of a Body he hath obliged himself to infuse a Soul so he hath no less engaged to vest that Mind with supernatural Grace which by acts of love and repentance shall be prepared for it But alas Amidst these pleasing reflections when he looks into himself he finds a check seeing he cannot even dispose himself for this happiness without a supernatural aid for though 't is true humane Nature by its own strength knowes that God is worthy of all love yet our knowledge in morality is much more capable of comprehension than practice 'T is not enough to have Wings to fly if they be so hamper'd as they cannot be display'd so this natural faculty in Man of loving God above all things is so weakned by original Sin and a million of Obstacles that we find the inclination of doing it far more ineffectual than the dictamens of our reason to have it done And no wonder when St. Thomas affirms our Will by original Sin is much more damnified than our understanding whence self love growes powerful in us and if it hath not a
great for it hath all the dimensions of greatness it reacheth from Heaven to Earth even to the Gates of Hell It is extended from one pole to another nay it is immense as God himself participating of his Divine nature it searches the abstrusest corners of our Heart and if the least Crany be put open to his light and grace it is presently replenished by this great mercy Ah! did we but know what mists of terrene affections the beams of his mercy have dispersed within us what a change they have made in our bad inclinations what dangers they have met and diverted from us We should even repine at Nature that hath not furnished us with more Hearts and Tongues to love and praise this great mercy He adds likewise secundùm that is according to the custome of thy great mercy which uses not to boggle at the remission of any sin nor to look so precisely upon the degree of the offendours past malice as upon his present repentance whence he grounds the Communication of his Grace by which we may discern the Sense our Holy King had of his transgressions which made him willing to huddle up his score and without giving in any particular to desire they mighâ—â—…ther in a cluster be cast and drowned in the Ocean of his Mercy We are taught by this two things First not to presume upon the value of our own actions so farr as from them to justifie our selves for in this kind none could plead more for himself than our holy petitioner he had with a Piety and fortitude unequalled run through many difficult and glorious enterprises wherein God was pleased to appear for him and own him his champion Yet he thinks good to hush up all this well knowing that praise is due alone to him under whose guidance and protection he had begun and set a fortunate period to them Next we are taught that reflecting upon our sins past we should never despair for as our good deeds we owe to God alone by whose inspiration moving us we do them so we must submit our bad deeds whereof we our selves are the sole Authors to his Mercy Whence we may see though he cannot concurr with us in doing ill his unspotted Nature being incapable of any obliquity yet it being done he will share with us in the undoing or repairing of our misfortunes And which is more no sooner hath this Mâ—rciful Hand dragg'd us out of the mire of Sin but 't is stretched forth to be joyn'd to ours in a happy nuptial bond promising by his Prophet to espouse us unto himself for ever in misericordia in the inseparable Union of his Mercy It is this great Mercy without end or beginning which hath decreed from all eternity to bring us off clear from all misery and place us glorious in his light inaccessible from the time that God was and loved himself he disposed us for his love and mercy have we not therefore reason to spend every moment of our Life in loving praising and glorifying this great mercy It is in all kinds infinite no excess of malice obstructs it no frequency of Commission or reiterated guilt renders it inexorable no time excludes it no not a desperate delay to the last moment O God thy judgments may be well said to be unfathomed Abysses wherein are lost our most Enormous crimes and from that loss we find our selves transferred unto the enjoyance of thee irradiated with the comfortable beams of thy mercy But above all this mercy never appears so great as in the admirable Mystery of the Incarnation where we behold the eternal Father giving up his only Son in behalf of Mankind vitiated and defiled with Sin rebellious and insolent against His Sovereign a Worm and poor scantling of putrefaction a prey for the Flames of Hell That I say a God most perfect in himself who hath no want should love so vile a Creature at such a distance from him and who could stand him in no stead and yet this eternal God full of greatness hath cherished Man in such a manner as to bestow upon him the dear production of himself coeternal consubstantial and equal to him in Greatness and Majesty and for what end To save him from ruine to enrich him with eternal Life this is that great mercy our Penitent now implores and he claims it by vertue of a promise made to Abraham that since he had not grudged him his only Sonne all Nations should be blessed in his Seed that the Eternal Death of him who is temporal should be redeemed by the temporal Death of him who is eternal How many Miracles found birth in the execution of this act of love and mercy First Nature was stopt as to the result of a humane subsistence in whose place was intimately applyed the personality of the Divine word and this infinite subsistence was adorned with graces vertues and priviledges supereminent a Mother enjoyed a fruitful Virginity and a delivery without pain in the fruit was found at the same instant the blood consolidated organized animated and deifyed So that the Second Person of the blessed Trinity assuming a new Being newly produced that is the essence of a holy humanity attyred himself with it becomes a good man and a master piece of love and mercy A remedy so necessary that without it all the purity of Angels and Holy Souls all the inflamed desires of the Patriarchs could never have merited with condignity this incarnate mistery For were all the groans put together all the tears sufferings and exquisite torments which Saints have endured for the love of God and on the other side but one single tear thrown in of Jesus Christ shed either at his birth or any time of his life this tear issuing from the flaming Furnace of his Heart Sacred and united to the Divine Word would exceed in value all you can think or imagine in the meritorious actions of Creatures So that this adorable mistery is not a mistery of just retribution springing from any humane or Angelical merit but 't is a mistery of goodness and supereminent mercy and in consideration of that prodigious design of love he is animated in his suit and believes he cannot receive a repulse because he acts it Secundùm magnam misericordiam tuam in the name of the Messias in whom all the Divine mercies from the beginning of the World issued forth unto mankind are comprised and consequently may be stiled a great and the greatest of mercies The Application Our Holy penitent having in the clear prospect of his prophetick View beheld this great work of mercy brake forth into this happy expression and couches a clause of all others the most efficacious to obtain the end he sues for we may learn from hence that our Mediator Jesus Christ is the best Sanctuary in all our distresses whether in regard of our past offences or of our impotency to repair our failings Methinks I hear our Petitioner to say O God what
little raise his confidence that his Judge was not tyed up to Lawes as the Ground-work of proceedings with offendours but his power is absolute to do all he pleases and his will such as to render what ever he doe's good and Just So that the least propension of this Will in order to a remission is sufficient to wipe away all the iniquities of the Earth Besides he considers that when God chastises he doth a thing extraneous to him and as Esay saies a work that is not his But to be merciful he owns it as a propriety annexed to his Godhead not to extenuate his Justice but to insinuate the love he bears to Man He embroyls not his Fancy with the niceties in Schools which dispute how Sin is remitted whether by the expulsion of any positive form and the introduction of another opposite to it Whether it be by the meer infusion of Grace or else only by taking away the obligation of a Sinner to eternal punishment he omits all these curious questions and attends only to the sweet effect to wit that he may be freed from his iniquity oft repeating in his Heart he had rather be a good Disciple than a great Master in the exact knowledge of his own misery When he looks back into his life past and remembers with what satisfaction and spiritual joy he had performed many acts of vertue he begins to be enfired with new flames of urging for a grant of his Petition Since he knowes that whilst he lyes under this attaindour of Treason he is capable of no right nor priviledge in the Charter given us by Heaven that should he do actions which in another condition might be praemiated would now be looked upon as a Jewel counterfeit and of no value He compares himself to a Plant in a Region far remote from the Sun whose Fruit never comes to maturity so his iniquity sets him at a great distance with God the light and life of Souls and consequently nothing can be expected from him which savours not of a Soyl accursed and doom'd to sterility so that as a misfortune seldome walks solitary he finds besides the unhappiness to have offended God this addition to be unable to do any thing acceptable unto him Then he goes on ruminating upon the sad consequences of his Sin which makes him fluctuate in his thoughts wholly unresolved how to comport himself Sometimes he appears like a Statue without motion and would eternally remain so since by no endeavours he can please his Creatour Then again I behold him bent upon the execution of all the good imaginable at least within the extent of his natural Force or Power that he may omit no Homage and Duty he owes to the Author of his Being But after all his restless solicitudes he observes the main Hinge of his happiness depends upon this Dele iniquitatem the cancelling of this Bond by which he is lyable to eternal punishment e're he can hope for admittance unto his wonted ravishing entertainments with his Divine Master He descants upon the proceeding of Almighty God with Sinners and would feign search into the secrets of his Providence why some are drawn from the depth of wickedness even when they seemed to be lost to the World and Heaven whilst others less guilty in the Eyes of men sadly perish without source or redress The preservation of the one he attributes to the immense goodness of God which sometimes dispenses as justly he may in his own lawes as to afford unto an unworthy sinner such powerfull calls that they are never resisted such melting affections as if they had been train'd up in the School of Divine love not in the Forge of iniquity It is fit he confesses the Divine Will which frames all Creatures should so dispose of what he hath made that when he pleases to raise any one out of corruption and render them instrumental to his Glory none ought or can justly repine at it He sustains this Argument with much heat himself being a party interessed still expecting to be the object of his choice mercy He dilates and expands his Soul under this inexhausted source like the Earth without Water thirsting for one drop of that Coelestial stream which might allay the anguish of his Mind and deface all the foul Characters of his iniquity his groans and unwearied sighs are fair Harbingers of that Noble Guest he once entertained with unspeakable delight and if he ever gain the repossession he protests that neither Angels Men Devils nor all the charmes in Creatures shall ever brand him with a new stamp of iniquity his Eyes by which his Soul receiv'd her first wound are become two floods of tears and if they prevail not to cleanse his stains at least they will testifie to the World he repented what he had done He casts not one glance towards Heaven which is not accompanied with hopes of meeting this mercy and this confidence is so grounded in him that were it decreed God would save but one Soul he hath courage enough to hope that his might be that one nay he builds so much upon these hopes that transporting himself to the consideration of many Sinners abandoned in their impieties it doth not at all deject him for he considers that God hath given us a free-will which he will never violence to our prejudice and though we cannot elevate this will to an act so perfect as naturally to merit the first Grace yet it may in such sort dispose us for grace by love and sorrow that God will doubtless gratifie us so prepared Whence 't is clear that as we fall not but by our own default so by vertue of a promise and contract made by Heaven we cannot finally perish but by an obstinate reluctancy of our own Hearts If he sees a Phararh sink into ruine irrecoverably he beholds likewise a Nebuchodonozer for the same crime struck down to rise again They were both Kings the sin of either alike detaining God's people in captivity yet the Fates of both very unequal Because the one retracts his misdeeds and raises a detestation of them the other persists in his Enormities without any truce or suspension At last he makes a Corollary of this discourse and concludes since some are preserved in Innocence by continued showers of Grace others by a sweet violence drawn from an Abyss of Sin to the upshot of happiness and none so entangled whom a true repentance will not set free he will never cease to importune Heaven till his iniquity be rased out let his Throat grow hoarse with clamours his Eyes droop and wax dimme his Heart rend asunder with grief he will spare no Particle of his whole Body nay glory in its ruine if by that means he can but unclog his Soul from the weight of Sin He judged it very reasonable that the Body having contributed to his Sin should share in the punishment as it had done in the crime and as it had concurred unto his
contribute to the drift of his Petition which is to appear every minute with a greater purity in the Eyes of his Creatour Amplius lava me wash me more from my iniquity The Application St. Bernard observes that if at any time God deprives us of what is good it is but to gratifie us with something that is better upon this reflection he reckons it a happiness in St. Paul that he was struck blind for immediately upon that stroke he was raised to the third Heavens and admitted unto secrets unfit to unfold to Man and afterwards receiving the sight of his Body with that restitution was superadded the clear Eye-sight of his Soul God sent Jeremy to the Potters shop that he might see how the broken Vessel was to be new moulded and come out better than before if then the Clay frequently recieves a better form and fashion than at first let us in imitation and with the same confidence of our holy penitent after our failings cry Lord wash me more Let our past harms warn us not to presume of our own strength this humble opinion will separate much of the dross of our actions and teach us to rely more upon God than our selves Let us oft lay before us the Seal of God's pardon this cannot but enflame our love and enfire our Hearts in the zeal of his service nay Christ seems to set it down as a rule that we proportion our love to our Obligations He little loves to whom little is forgiven that where a large score is struck off by his Mercy there must needs succeed an ambition to a more supereminent perfection wash me more from my iniquity In fine this quadrates with Habakkuk's prophecy If heretofore thou madest one step in the way of Death thou shalt now tread for it ten in the way of life So that every sinner is encouraged not only to recover his innocence but to improve it throughout the remainder of his life never ceasing to repeat Amplius lava me ab iniquitate wash me more from my iniquity Amen CHAP. VI. Et à peccato meo munda me And cleanse me from my sin IN the Series of Acts inordinate and deficient from that rectitude required to give them a denomination of good We find some which relate immediately to God as when with contempt we strike at things directly ordained to his glory and service these pass under the name of impiety Others there are whose first tendency levells at our Neighbour as when we traverse the light of Nature in doing to another what we would not have done unto our selves and these are styled by the appellation of iniquity Lastly there are certain treasons whereof we make our Bodyes instrumental and by which we are corrupted depraved and wrought into strange habitual Frailties these are properly expressed by the term of sin because by them we act against our selves Our Holy Penitent drawes the exordium of his Petition from a sense of his impiety when in this first verse he said have mercy on me O God for there he owns his Frailties as a Creature in respect of his Creatour and beggs his Gracious pardon In the next verse he confesses his iniquity whose full discussion as to injustice towards his Neighbour I reserve for another place In this third verse he surveys his own person beholds the Havocks and corruption made there by sin and now would feign apply a Salutary Medicament to which end he inserts this clause in his Petition A peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin that is from the filth and ordure which accompany sins of the flesh Amongst all the irregular motions whereof Man is capable there is none which leads unto Labyrinths so inextricable into precipices so disastrous as this unhappy sin of carnality In the first place it drawes a Cloud over the understanding and so depresses the faculties of the Soul as she becomes in a manner terrestrial that is unable to elevate her self beyond the objects of sense for the operations of the Soul are more perfect as they are more abstracted from materiality Now this sin wholly drowns and takes us up in the pursuit of sensible things and consequently must needs debilitate and weaken the Mind in her natural functions In other passions as Anger Fear Joy and the like there are still extant some Seeds of reason this destroyes all that is Man in us and makes Man by a thousand homages and venerations subject to that Sex which God and Nature have designed Mans inferiour as if it aimed not only at Mans destruction but to resolve the World into another Chaos For what shafts of Gods vengeance have fallen heavy upon Mankind that were not directed to the chastisement of this sin It was an inordinate appetite to mix with the Daughters of Gentiles that first gave birth to Monsters and Gyants and from their accursed off-spring the Earth became such a sink of abominations as no less than an universal inundation was able to wash away the stanch and infection of their impieties It was this foul pleasure which ministred Fuel to the consuming flames of Sodom and Gomorrah this blind passion led Israel ensnared by Madian Women in Idolatry a foundation to all the Calamities and derelictions by God which befel that chosen Nation At one time twenty four thousand Hebrews were punished with Death for Adultery and what a slaughter of sixty thousand persons did our sad Penitent behold and this in revenge of his own libidinous Acts as if the stains they had left behind could not be drawn out by a Sea of blood When his affrighted thoughts had layed before him all these dismal passages he trembles expecting every moment to be shivered and dispersed into Ashes by the decrees of a just avenger he approves the fancy of those who compose Venus of the Froth of the Sea brackish perfidious and the Seat of hazzards and disquiets the pleasure he hath had appears to him now but like a Froth or bubble which if not born away as easily it is by every blast will certainly of it self soon dissolve and work its own ruine and however the substance be fleeting it leaves notwithstanding a remembrance behind so bitter and distastful and so hardly clawed off as one would think that alone were a sufficient punishment for a trespass of so little satisfaction and for the storms and wastes it often makes in Kingdoms and private Families scarce any age hath not furnished many sad examples I am sure our Holy Penitent felt the smart of this bitter Truth in the desolation of his house in the dishonor and death of his Children in the rebellion of his Subjects and above all in the forfeiture of those large promises made by Heaven to him and his posterity all which found not their Tomb but in the corruption of this unhappy sin So that in this request to be cleansed from his sin he first declares the foulness of it evident in the horrid Disease Nature gives
influence to this Vnion since common reason teaches the stream is not to be regarded with equal esteem to the Source from whence it flowes Lastly what is the final End of all Arts and Sciences whether they ransack the bowels of the Earth or survey the immense bodies of the Heavens whether they examine things past or present but truth it sets all Men on work and can alone render them satisfied so that it may well be defined the source of motion and rest Our Penitent having thus run o're the vast extent of truth and observed how it animates the actions of Men takes occasion from thence to adore God's holy Providence that since he hath obliged us to a precept of confessing and acknowledging our failings with all integrity and fixed it as the sole means to expiate our faults he hath advantaged us with so powerful an inclination unto truth For if we be born so impetuously towards the acquisition the exhibition of it must needs flow as it were naturally from us and it is this motive which invites him to so frequent a repetition of his offences lest he should disguise any the lest tittle for he knows as an exact particular of our Sins accompanied with a perfect sorrow is very acceptable unto God so it is beneficial unto Man the return of such an account being alwaies an evenning of all â—cores an abolition of past Errours and a compleat act of grace Upon this consideration he is not affrighted that his Sin shall be evidenced like the Sun rayes to the World and of this harsh sentence to Nature he himself will be the Executioner he he will prâ—mulgate his enormities and every exhalation of infamy that shall arise from thence upon him he will receive as a blast of Zephir because he speaks a truth animated with Repentance a truth which speaks What he hath been and what now he is to witt an imp of perdition and now is become a subject of mercy because it is a Truth God will ever own in a truly repenting heart for veritatem dilexisti it is essential to one who hath an Eternal love of Truth But it is not enough to trace the steps of of our Lord Jesus as far as he is imitable by Man unless we lay the Foundation of a life of verity which is done by imbracing with a firm belief the Doctrine and Faith he taught and delivered to us for it is certain there is but one God and one truth First we cannot deny this unchangeable quality of Faith to spring from God the Primary Truth since we owe him the Author of Civil and natural Lawes both which are united and receive efficacy from the bond of Religion fâ—r all things are created to the service of Man and he to God's service so that by an act of Religious worship the homage of all other Creatures are involved in that of Man and consequently Religion seems of created things the final End and ultimate disposition unto God Now the means to attain to this Truth cannot be by the strength of natural reason for the matter of credibility is above Nature and Man by consenting to an act of Faith is raised above himself therefore it must be God moving us by his Grace which drawes the motions of our Will to submit to his revealed Truths The Centurion proclaims he believes yet withal adds help O Lord my incredulity which shews though he had done all that lay in his power yet something was wanting It remains then we render our selves fit subjects for the reception of so noble a Guest so rich a Donative as that of Faith the way to this preparation is first to practise a life of Truth that is moral vertues next to lay aside all prejudice that your understanding may work with out biass or restraint thirdly to examine the opinions of those whom the World hath unanimously reverenced for their knowledge sanctity and wisdom fourthly to receive the Decrees of the Church as things sacred since she is styled in Holy Scripture a pillar of truth a spouse all immaculate without any stain of errour remembring also from what authority her infallible placits flow witness the Apostles in their first Synod at Jerusalem who began with this Form to publish their resolves It is judged expedient by the Holy Ghost and by us Where you see that Divine Spirit still swayes and gives life to all Articles of Faith and indeed it was the closing farewell of our blessed Master Christ Jesus who promised to dispatch unto them his Disciples a Spirit of Truth to reside with and animate his Church to the Worlds end A verity of Justice is comprehended in that of integrity of life it being the very Nerves and Sinews of humane Society without which we should be like wild Beasts in desarts no leagues twixt Nations no amities contracted amongst Men no traffick or commerce so that in this sole lovely quality is seated the very life and Soul of humane conversation For behold thou hast loved truth The Application We are further taught in this clause that God hath a true Being that is all qualities suitable to a Divine Nature as to be Spiritual Independent Immortal Omnipotent all good wise merciful Soveraignly happy and a thousand other attributes so that he alone hath the verity of a Divine Being Whatsoever is imaginable and worthy of God this is in him in a Soveraign degree of perfection Nay whatever his infinite understanding can conceive this he enjoys without any diminution or reserve So that when our Petitioner points unto us how God loves truth he means that he loves himself and if herein we play the apt Scholar placing our affections on that inexhausted source of Beauty we shall then move according to the verity of humane Nature For our Being is to be reasonable and what can more decipher the Truth of our reason than by a disdain of this World to aspire unto him who is the final end in which we are to rest and for which we had our Being May our hearts then be ever fixed on this eternal verity Amen CHAP. XIV Incerta occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi The uncertain and hidden things of thy Wisdom thou hast made known unto me WHilst our Penitent with delight descants upon God's love to truth it were he thinks impious in him to stifle this great truth that he hath called him to his Councel unbreasted to him secret and hidden things and enriched him with the high Prerogative of Prophecy Ah what a change in this Holy King not long before when Nathan laid before him his offence under the shadow of a poor Man violenced in the depredation of his only sheep he is dull unfolds not the mystery and little dreams though it were plain enough himself is pointed at by which we may see what a mist of ignorance as well as other mischiefs sin draws along with it But now he transcends the limits of natural knowledge owns an irradiation
birth to the Soul and communicates unto her a new Being which is called Divine in that the Soul receives from it a resemblance unto God after a manner extraordinary whose more perfect knowledge is reserved for the light of glory which will make the discovery unto us All we can now say is that no sooner this divine gift inhabits our Souls but we are designed to eternal beatitude Almighty God beholds us with an Eye of satisfaction as his Children received into his Family as Solomon sayes by grace we contract an eternal alliance with God St. Thomas stiles Grace a participation of the Divine Nature for what the Divine Nature doth in God the same Grace by imitation doth in a Soul as the Divine Nature is in God the cause of his most transcending actions to wit love and union So Grace in a Soul is the spring of glory beatitude supernatural knowledge and heavenly affections by which she regulates all her works according to integrity and holiness Nay God obliges himself to give a Soul that can plead the title of Grace the Kingdom of Heaven and possession of eternal bliss No wonder then if after the sprinklings of Hysop that is penitential tears our Petitioner expects a Harmony of joy and gladness since the divine quality of Grace purchased by repentance is attended on by so many advantages What matter of joy to be spiritually regenerated the Son of God the Brother and Coheir with Jesus Christ wherefore St. Leo sayes this gift of being the Son of God to be authorized to call God Father exceeds all his other liberalities for by generation a Father communicates his Nature to his Son producing him in species alike So by Adoption he that adopts gives unto a stranger in desire and affection what he is in himself attributing unto him the prerogative of a Son entitling him to all his inheritance the same as if he were his Son by Nature now what Man doth to another out of affection God doth in effect For imprinting Grace in a Soul he gives himself and is really in her insomuch that were it possible God could be not immense Grace would render him afresh present to and in the Soul Certainly if ever that saying was verified where guilt hath raigned there grace did yet more powerfully sway it was in the person of our holy Petitioner his raptures and Enthusiastick throwes his prophetick notions Nay God's own Testimony of him that Repentance had moulded him even conformably to his own Heart sufficiently proved his Soul to float in floods of Grace and consequently must needs swell with a great portion of joy therefore with just reason he proclaims thou wilt give unto my hearing joy and gladness Again this possession of Grace is accompanied with the expectation of a Sovereign good For the understanding enlightned by Faith knowes that Mans's Beatitude is in God that this Beatitude is promised him as his final end and the means to attain unto this End is by Grace and acts of vertue So that he enjoyes it not but upon the terms of being one day eternally happy this certain expectation of Beatitude St. Bonaventure calls the Anchor and basis of Man in this life It keeps him from dejection placing still before his thoughts an infinite good and which is infallibly to be the abject of his future acquisition it choaks presumption casting him upon the mediums ordained to lead him to this end it draws his affections from terrene things and raises them to God as the supream object alone worthy to be loved and served What joy then to have our VVills carryed on by this gift of hope which sweetly entertains us in the contemplation of Eternity and this not as a thing doubtful for what would Cloud the severity of our comfort but as a reward to which we are entitled by grace and of which by this vertue of hope we have an earnest and pledge St. Paul to the Hebrews prescribes hope as a means to compass whatsoever we would have Let us approach with confidence to the Throne of Grace as if we needed only a firm hope to be able to scale the Throne of God and bear thence what so e're we desire St. Gregory observes there is no pleasure in this World which is not greater in the expectation than fruition by which we see what a strange Operation the very hope of some temporal object hath in us what ravishments then must needs proceed from a hope that is fixed on the source of perfections and to have this addition that after our imaginations have proposed all the delights that humane wit can frame yet they fall infinitely short of those joyes the Object of a supernatural hope will discover unto us Blame not then our Petitioner if he give himself the assurance of joy and gladness when once his Soul shall be enriched with Grace and divine hope inspired into him since their presence brings the highest satisfactions we are capable off in this World I observe after Christ had declared the remission of St. Mary Magdalens misdeeds he bids her go in peace to shew she is no more impious For as they are strangers to repose so rest and satisfaction are the natural effects of a good conscience When the Thief on the Cross had obtained mercy immediately follow the glad tidings he should exchange that very day his Gibbet into a Paradise St. Austin had no sooner stepped into the Paths of pennance but he found himself overwhelmed with joy which he thus describes On a suddain sayes he it grew delightful to me to be weaned from trifling pleasures and what before I feared to loose now with joy I dismiss for thou O supream Diety didst tear them from me and supplyedst them by thy own presence who art in all honour beauty and pleasure excelling You see what he got in exchanging a few Worldly joyes for a life of pennance in quitting a Creature he came to the enjoyment of his Creatour in abandoning that we must needs once lose and which we still apprehend will be ravished from us he arrived to an inestimable and never perishing good Nay reason may tell us as happy experience hath informed Saints that if his mercy be so great and transforms it self into so many Shapes of vertues in reward to sinners it must needs be much more admirable in order to the just For it is but equitable that those who must love and honour him should have a more ample share in the Treasures of his mercies than such who injure and daily offend him If when we are Enemies he fails not to give Testimonies of his love being reconciled and readmitted to his favour what will he not do If he bestow a kiss upon a treacherous Judas with what overflowing sweetness will he visit a loyal heart which breaths forth nothing but love and a conformity to his will if a sound of his voice as Man was so charming that many of the Apostles at his first call abandoned
action consists in its conformity with reason which rule cannot be squared out by external acts because the power that sets them on work cannot discern whether the object be sutable to reason or no. This alone belongs to the understanding and in sequel to the Will by whose direction it is led It is evident then that on the motion of the heart which expression comprizes the three faculties of the Soul as I said in the beginning depends the blame and praise of whatsoever we do For that an action may be said to be of Man the understanding must first give its approbation by which he doth it knowingly next the will is to make its election and in that owns its liberty Lastly the memory is for the most part filled with various Images of Terrestrial Objects by which it solicits the will to vain and bad desires so that if these three be reformed he questions not but to deface all the fantomes and representations of this World which have led him so astray and by a total diversion from all that is Earth to repose quietly in God That then his understanding may receive the irradiations of a holy light his will be consumed in the flames of a pure love his memory stript of all the species of vain objects he incessantly repeats Create in me O God a clean heart St Gregory sayes that Abel's Sacrifice was so highly acceptable unto God in that he had first offered up the same in his heart so that it was not the best of his flocks but the devotion of his heart which set a value upon that action Again the gloss sayes it is not the loudness of the voice but the lovingness of the heart which sounds sweetly in God's Ear so that if you strike not upon this string and according to those notes which our great Musitian hath set down you will but â—arr and make a dissonancy ungrateful to your Creatour This our Blessed Saviour sufficiently hinted in St. Matthew when he sayes They honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me Which imports that though our Lips Eyes Hands and every other part speak Sanctity and Holiness yet if our Heart that great Wheel give not motion to the rest the End will be nothing but disorder and confusion It is storied of St. Catharine of Sienna that reading this verset of David she petitioned for a new heart believing her own to be defiled with Sin for her love represented to her every the least defect as a monstrous deformity The issue of this her Address was that Christ our Lord appeared to her opened her breast took out her heart and thus left her heartless but not hopeless in this plight she continued somedays when her amorous maker returns and fills the void place he had left with his own heart O happy exchange so that for ever after this blessed Saint was wont to conjure our Saviour that he should have care of his own heart if then St. Catharine prosecuting the form of anothers petition met with so good success have we not reason to conclude the like amorous enterchange befel our holy prophet especially if we reflect upon what God sayes of him that he had found a Man according to his own heart that is who in all things follow the motion and impulse of that heart I gave him But I conceive this Exchange in the Legend of St. Catharine is not understood to be Physical and real the moral is when God destroyes in a sinners heart the foul Characters he there had forged he takes his pencil marks it for his own drawing upon it his divine gifts and favours whence St. Ambrose sayes at the latter day the reproach of a sinner will be to have blotted out the fair Images of innocence and simplicity of heart delineated by the Hand of God and in the Room to have set up his own Idol of shame and vanity lest then any of those hideous spectres may appear at that dreadful Tribunal he now implores that the Table of his heart as yet capable of other impressions may be run o're with the strokes of his mercy To this end he cryes Create in me O God a clean heart When the Machabees had regained the Temple of Sion their resolution to destroy the Altar prophaned by Antiochus was commended because all their Ceremonies of Purification whilst the Altar stood could never have washed away the opprobry of that contamination Our holy penitent was fixed on the same principle for beholding his soul contaminated by his transgressions his whole contrivance is that there may be no witness extant nor any Monument remain of his infidelity wherefore he begs a recreation or rather such a production of habits opposit to what he had contracted as it might not appear the same thing He would not have it created anew for he knew it to be incorruptible and immortal but that God would daign so to renew it as it might seem a new Creation for to restore it to its former condition of innocenâ—… was all one as to create it that whereas before his heart was like a World without a Sun excluded both from light and heat now upon this transmutation it might become more pure than Snow whiter than Milk and more beautiful than the polished Saphir That whereas before it was like a City burnt sacked and rased to the ground for the future it might prove a fortress impregnable against all the Worlds allurements That whereas before it was like a habitation deserted and made a refuge only for Toads Spiders and Snakes hereafter it might serve as a Temple for the Holy Ghost attended on with a retinue of supernatural and moral vertues That whereas before he had not Eyes but to prye into the faults of others for the time to come he might be quick-sighted only to discern his own misdeeds Lastly whereas he had left God to follow sin and at the same time became as it were a stranger to himself now he sues for a clean heart that he may recover himself and so return to his God hoping like the Prodigal Son to find some little Corner of retreat in his Fathers house though it be but in the nature of a hireling These are his aims and which he awaits as the effects of his Metamorphosed heart he knowes on its temper depends the consistence of all vertues and if that foundation be well laid it will be the more secure for him to reenter his formes possession He is not likewise ignorant that of all the gifts wherewith God hath ennobled Man it is not only our heart he exacts in requital hence it is that the Enemy of Mankind layes all his batteries particularly against it insomuch that St. Chrysostome affirms there is not any Nation City or Person in the whole World against whom so many designs are set on Foot both by open force and treachery as are machinated against a poor distressed heart and which is yet more
indevotion and an indiscreet Zeal Fortitude between rashness and cowardise so of the rest Wherefore the art is so to steer your course as to keep at an equal distance from them both yet alwayes mindful that if one be more dangerous than the other you are most to decline that as if I would embrace the vertue of hope which is beset with presumption and despair and my complexion cold and melancholly drawes me on the extremity of despair this certainly most threatens my ruine and therefore I am to look upon every spark of that with more apprehension than a fire which issues from presumption Our Holy Penitent knew that whilest he sailed in the Ocean of this World he must needs be flanked with two dangerous Rocks that is two opposite vices to any vertue he would embrace so that if he keep not a steady hand to the helm by the least diversion he is cast upon a shelf which will destroy him Wherefore it behoves him to fit himself with a right spirit a Spirit of vertue which leaning upon the Principles of reason might preserve him in that degree of honour wherein he is ranked amidst created Beings For as knowledge makes one knowing so vertue gives us the title of good and as the good of any thing consists in the just measure and proportion unto it he concludes this right spirit of vertue to be a purchase worthy his ambition since doubtless nothing to Man as Man is more sutable and agreeing than such actions as are produced conformable to a reasonable nature he anticipates his Son's Declaration and thinks nothing profitable pleasant or great which is not made so by vertue This right spirit will shower down spiritual comforts settle him in peace with God Angels and Men shelter him under the wings of God's Providence which never fails to cherish those who live according to the rules of vertue and after a life attempered with the Harmony of delightful actions it changes into sweeâ—…ss the grim face of Death making it a secure passage unto eternal Beatitude He is resolved to put in execution the practice both of intellectual and moral vertues and that they may prove meritorious he begs they may be infused into him that when he considers the infinity of God's Being and the immensity of his perfections he may forthwith pay him the just tribute of glory respect and submission all worship praise and possible endeavours of Piety That his omnipotency may never pass his thoughts without an entire obedience to his will that his inexhausted and unerring wisdom may draw him to acts of faith and firm assent to his divine word That the fidelity of his never failing promises may fix a reliance and assured hope in him That his unwearied goodness may ravish him into a charity and love never to be extinguished That his incomparable greatness may work him into the annihilation of himself before him and give him a true feeling of his own vileness That a terrour of his judgments may throw him into a course of rigid pennance for his misdeeds and his unspeakable favours be met with all the Testimonies of gratitude which a poor Creature can give He knowes that had he a Million of hearts lodg'd within his own person yet could they never reach that love his goodness merits and should he stoop even unto Hell nay lower were it possible it would still be short of that submission due to his greatness Wherefore though he be hopeless to pay what he owes he will shew at least he hath a will to be just nor doth he blush at his impotency since it springs from the excellency of his Creditour from whom likewise he expects to be enabled towards the discharge of his arrears and he conceives no treasure can be more effectual than that of a right spirit and therefore he incessantly repeats renew in my bowels a right spirit The Application God will be adored in spirit and truth wherefore man is to serve and honour him by a certain knowledge sutable to his intellectual nature now in the essence of God are contained wonders not to be comprehended by the natural force of our understanding Whence we are with our Holy Penitent to Petition for a right spirit that is the excellent light of faith by which we are raised to a more eminent knowledge of the Divinity than all the activity and vigour of our reason could ever reach In this knowledge consists eternal life in the ignorance of this eternal death For with what Face shall he one day ask Heaven of the adorable Trinity who hath never known that mystery Or claim a share in the fruit of our redemption who hath been ignorant of Jesus Christ Let us then beg for this heavenly wisdom by which we are taken off from the low affection to Creatures to fix our Eyes upon the greatness of our Creatour the wonders of his works and amidst a Million of ravishing objects which this right spirit presents to our meditation let us insist with a particular gust on this that our Souls are created for eternal bliss Amen CHAP. XXIII Ne projicias me à facie tua Cast me not away from thy face OUr Holy Penitent seems here to question the success of his precedent petition by which he had sued for a right understanding this argues how unsetled the mind of a sinner is that no sooner he had aimed at this irradiation but immediately he is struck with a terrour of his demerits and fancies his doom is to be eternally banished from the Face of God wherefore he cryes cast me not away from thy Face St. Hierom conceives this clause levels only at the communication of his Divinity in order to the Hypostatick union which he apprehends in punishment of his sin might be concealed from him and therefore he sayes cast me not away from thy face that is deprive me not of the knowledge of thy divine nature as it relates to Man in the great Sacrament of the incarnation It is this mystery he fears to be ravished off which brings along with it a fulness of time and wherein all the groans and labours of many longing Souls will cease and be at rest But the more vogued opinion layes this expression upon his anxiety touching his eternal reprobation He knew he was unworthy of eternal life through the forfeiture of grace he had made and whether being now a Vessel of dishonour the divine Artist will not leave him eternally in this reproachful mould is the just motive of his fear He remembers a passage in Exodus where our Lord threatens to obdurate the heart of Pharaoh and it is no less affrighting what St. Paul declares that God is merciful on whom he will have mercy and in the Fourth Chapter to the Corinthians God hath cast an obcaecation on the Minds of unbelievers Yet our Petitioner is too good a Divine as entertaining these reflections to make God the efficient cause of Man's obdurateness he knowes that
rather a fear to have stopt the sacred stream of God's extraordinary favours towards him For he was so well versed in the wayes of perfection as he knew the foundation of a life of Sanctity consists in the good management of divine inspirations and that the greatest Saints have from thence derived their happy success in a spiritual life We see no King nor Common-wealth if they find any person unfaithful in a slight Office that will entrust to him a more weighty charge and why should we think that God will be less prudent in the Government of Souls St. Prosper sayes that God imparts his graces in order and by degrees First distilling into them some little dropps of his grace and then a greater quantity in case those first be carefully improved it being a good earnest that he who acquits himself with fidelity in ordinary things will in matters of greater perfection come off with no less honour Whereas on the contrary the first step to the misfortune of a sinner is made by the neglect of God's early inspirations in the beginning For there is not any Pagan misbeliever or Christian whom he stirs not up to the common practice of vertue as obsequiousness to our Parents the avoiding Theft Luxury and the like and if they comply with these he fails not to enflame them with desires and gives them abilities to arrive at more sublime perfection Wherefore our Penitent fears he may have demerited in this Nature and begs not to be excluded from his face that is not to be deprived of those endearments wherewith he is wont to overwhelm such Souls as correspond with his inspirations and if hitherto he hath played the Coy one and scorned his dalliances for the future he will change his humour and cherish every the least motion of his dear Creatour He will aim at a perfect resemblance of his beloved in imitation of his wisdom he will discern good from evil and distinguish 'twixt the less and greater good alwayes embracing that which is best In order to his purity as much as is consistent with frail nature supported by grace he hopes to preserve himself from all stain and imperfection That some sparks of his charity may shine in him he will love that which God loves and love nothing but what he loves and upon the same motives whereon his love is grounded In a word he will unite all his faculties with God in as strict an alliance as this present condition of mortality will bear provided he be not exiled from his Face nor the flood-gates of gracious communications shut up in punishment of his past offences Whilst the person offended admits the offendour to his presence it argues there is not an utter breach between them wherefore till a sentence of banishment be passed he still retains some hope his aim then in this petition is to put a barr to this extremity of rigour He confesses it is a bitter thing to leave God but yet a far greater to be left by him and a main appearance of this is when he leaves us to the desires of our own heart like a Physitian who permits his patient in a desperate condition to eat and drink what he please He knowes the anger of God is great when he is not angry with a sinner and that it is a stroke of his goodness when his temporal chastisement immediately followes the offence so that if he please to afflict him and like a Jealous God issue forth his indignation upon the place for every misdemeanour He is ready to embrace with open arms what ever affliction he shall send and is willing to expose his breast to the direst shafts of his fury so it may but divert this great subject of his fears as to bee ternally cast out from his presence Neprojicias me c. The Application We behold by this clause how all along in this petition our Penitent hath been terrifyed with the ugly shape of sin and now he begins to apprehend the effects of sin which is Death For Death and sin considered apart are very frightful but once joyned together that is to dye in sin there is nothing more dreadful and this dismal stroke he fears when he sayes cast me not away from thy face St. John Damascene observes two derelictions of God the one seeming when he permits the just to fall into sin that by experiment of their frailty they might rise more humble and more watchfully attend to their Salvation This happened to our Penitent St. Peter and divers others The other is absolute and a final cashier for ever and this happens when after all remedies applyed a Soul remains stupid and incurable even to the last by his obstinate perseverance in wickedness so that God foreseeing this obdurateness withholds his special grace and so lets him end in his impenitency we are here therefore to joyn with our Petitioner and beg we may not come to this period or consummation of our iniquities but timely lay hold on the shield of his mercy Amen CHAP. XXIV Et spiritum Sanctum tuum nè auferas à me And take not from me thy holy Spirit THe workings of God's Holy Spirit in our Souls are great secrets and if to our selves unknown no wonder that to others they lye hid and though he be in us after a quite different manner than he is said to be ubiquitary by his essence presence and power yet his approach or recess is so insensible as the best persons during this life are left in suspence ignorant whether they be in a condition of love or hatred with their Creatour Of this blessed Job seemed to complain saying Chap. 19. If he come I shall not see him and when he retires I am in the same Cloud Notwithstanding God is pleased sometimes though rarely to dispense with his ordinary proceeding as to give such marks of his grace and friendship to a Soul that it is apparent even to the Eye of the Body Of this we have an example in the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in form of fiery tongues so replenishing their Minds with knowledge and enflaming their Hearts with charity as the whole World was in a short time laid prostrate to the power of their doctrine and miracles In this clause of the petition we have likewise reason to pass the same Opinion of our Holy Penitent that he had been gratified with the like visible communication of this divine gift The past transactions 'twixt God and his once happy Soul were fresh in his memory and how he had designed to reveal unto him many secrets of his Providence Nay had given him so many proofs of inhabiting grace as one must be strangely stupid not to acknowledge it Now here he seems to cheer himself with a confidence that after his petition for a clean heart and right understanding he is again in the enjoyment of his blessed presence by grace and charity wherefore he begs
should not want their protection Our Holy Penitent thought the best stratagem to fasten his God unto him was an humble acknowledgment of his fault joyned with a fervent prayer In the First part of his petition he had copiously set forth his own guiltiness and now he supplicates in a Subject the most grateful that can be to his Creatour for his delight is to be with the Sons of Men It was to draw the World unto him that he exalted himself upon the Cross his extended arms there sufficiently expressed with what dear embraces he would receive those that fly unto him with an humble and contrite heart His thirst there was not so much the effect of his torments as an excessive zeal for Man's Salvation How often hath he justifyed himself in his proceedings with Man insomuch as all his wisdom and love could not contrive more inducements than he hath set on foot to gain us to him and if he be continually rapping at our door can we think he will shut up the treasures of his holy spirit in despight of our importunity No no great Penitent fear not prefer your memorial it is only expected you ask and the grant is ready that his holy spirit shall not be taken from you A holy writer observes that God alwayes gives more than is asked of him Anna prayed for a Son God gave her one that was a Saint a Prophet and his chief favourite Solomon sued for wisdom to govern his People he received it not only to Rule but he was universally knowing besides an infinite store of wealth was bestowed upon him The Servant endebted ten thousand Talents demanded only a little forbearance and the whole debt was remitted to him wherefore our Penitent demanding only to keep what he already enjoyes by this providential act he not only secures his possession but gives earnest for a new supply Nay his goodness alwayes prevents the prayer of the afflicted giving them ease of their griefs before they ask his help resembling that fountain which calls and invites the thirsty to drink or like that Tree which bending its bowes offers its fruits unto gathering hands when ripe so that God's love needs no baits to allure his favours from him an affectionate heart doth more with him then all the charms in nature It is true St. Austin distinguishes between a willing a thing and a willing it stoutly and entirely But we have all reason to judge the velleity of our Penitent was fervent and efficacious when he hath so much confidence as to call God to witness of it Tu scis Domine omne desiderium meum ante te that he had exposed before him all the motions of his heart and left him to be judge whether any circumstance was wanting that might hinder the effect of his petition as not to be deprived of his holy spirit St. Austin sayes were it impossible for a sinner to hide himself from God he would advise him to get into some abstruce retreat and there lye close till the Cloud of his anger be blown over but since this cannot be done his best way to escape God's hands is to put himself into his hands and prostrate himself at his feet Our Penitent then is not ill advised that being already enrolled in the list of his retinue to endeavour to prevent his dismission by a non auferes à me For he hath many advantages whilst he is in which will be lost if once cashier'd Now he hath the Ear of his Sovereign can discourse his case with him and purchase a good word from many powerful friends but if once discarded like a desolate Orphan he will find no refuge Besides though God beheld in his all-seeing prospect the treachery of Judas and ingratitude of the Jews yet to cut off all matter of excuse he obliged them with all the endearings imaginable why shoul not then our Penitent hope to dwell in the lasting enjoyment of this divine spirit since he is resolved for the future to be led by his holy dictamens he will seek his Salvation with ineffable groans it is St. Pauls expression of such as are guided by the Holy Ghost he will with the Prophet Jeremy cry out for a fountain of tears that he may bewail as he ought his own and his peoples sins and since this divine spirit communicates himself in so many different wayes unto Creatures he begs he may return himself a gift and oblation to God by every thing that is capable of Action that by a constant and unwearied motion in his service this seed of glory he now possesses may at last conduct him to the beatifick vision where he shall no more apprehend what is now the subject of his Fear To have his holy spirit taken from him The Application St. Ambrose sayes that no man in this life can be long secure from falling into sin for whom the Devil cannot lay prostrate at the first attack he presses with redoubled assaults and leaves no stratagem unessayed to work his end In this warfare our Holy Penitent was not a Novice he knew there was no place in Man impregnable unless fortified by God's Holy Spirit This he expresses in another Psalm If you withdraw sayes he your spirit we shall presently resolve into dust that is corruption from whence we came For grace is a motion in the understanding and will to wit a certain action in both these powers which soon passes away unless fixed by a continued influence of his favours Wherefore we must take the admonition of St. Paul and be wary that the grace of God prove not a liberality in vain bestowed upon us But that we make the right use of it which is the remission of our sins and a passage unto eternal life CHAP. XXV Reddite mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation IT is not methinks easy to determine whether Man be more unfortunate in not having a discerning faculty of misery or through the mistakes he falls into about the object of his felicity How many have been seen to languish and pine away under an accident which they looked upon as their ruine and yet it proved their making whilest others again have triumphed and made jubilyes for seeming blessings that in the end became fatal to them who would not have looked upon the Patriarch Joseph when sold to the Madianites but as a slave and an abortive of fortune and yet without this cruelty of his Brethren in all likelyhood he had never handled the Scepter of Egypt Again who would not have envyed the success of our Penitent against Goliah and yet this glorious victory occasioned unto him a life full of disturbance for many years how to preserve himself This uncertainty in the event of things is managed no doubt by a special providence to teach us we ought to bear a temper unalterable amidst the various occurrences of this life not to be too much transported with joy nor cast down
mediums consequent to our eternal Election For God first designs our Beatitude and after this the means to arrive unto it as to have true faith to observe the Commandements to avoid sin to practice works of mercy to have a sincere repentance a perfect charity towards God and our Neighbour to bear adversity with patience and finally to persevere in grace these actions he knowes are the proper instruments to cause joy within him in order to this he resolves upon the punctual accomplishment of his commands and this vigorously like a Giant both with firm footing and with large and nimble paces nor will he discharge this Obligation in a cold manner simply to pay what he owes but with a serious application of his Mind offering them up to God and directing them to his glory with a most holy and pious zeal Next he resolves alwayes to do that which is most acceptable to God knowing that we cannot give him too much honour and that our fidelity engages us not to omit any occasion of doing good Lastly he will be assiduous in framing interiour and exteriour acts of vertues especially such as more immediately lead unto him he will conspire with heart and affection to all the services to all the acts of love praise and glorification that the most perfect Creatures ever have or shall give unto him His next design in pursuance of this joy is to have an Eye to himself whom he beholds like a plat of ground which must be cultivated and emboweld ere it be fruitful He undertakes this melioration with the tools of fortitude temperance and other vertues nor is he set on work by the comeliness of vertue or turpitude of vice his final end is the object of all his motion it is meerly to please God and glorify him in his Salvation He knowes the condition of this life is alwayes beset with dangers and hazzards alas his own experience had too freshly taught him this Truth and that we are in the midst of sworn mortal Enemies wherefore he is resolved to bear a strict band and purchase victory by a perfect abnegation of himself of his senses both interiour and exteriour of his memory understanding and will knowing it is a Nice and Ticklish Combat to overcome by Love His third contrivance to joy is not to fail in what he owes to his Neighbour He considers Man issuing from the hands of God and in a capacity if faithful to his Graces to return unto the same fountain Wherefore he fears to hate that person whom God may have designed to love for eternity and as he loves God not as a particular but universal good so he will cherish love and honour all Souls as being in a possibility of enjoying him This is the foundation our Holy Penitent layes for the superstructure of his joy remitting the rest to the disposal of that all comprehending Architect whose lines are drawn severally according to the rule of his providence For when a Soul whom he hath gratified with endearments of spiritual relishes and ineffable delights happens to forfeit by some default the subtraction of his grace sometimes upon her repentance he not only admits her again to his favour but also to her wonted ravishments nay to that degree as even she seems to have gained by her loss Sometimes again he is pleased barely to Seal his pardon without any further communication of those Enthusiastick throwes she used to feel in her amorous transports Now I find our Penitent in this his petition is desirous to regain all and this appears in divers others of his Psalms where he suffers strange convulsions in his desires to be united unto God and now born up with a restless longing he sighs forth restore me the joy of thy Salvation St. Gregory puts this distinction 'twixt corporal and spiritual pleasures that the former not had push us on to vehement desires for the acquisition but when enjoyed they presently cloy and beget a nauceousness the other give very little insentives when absent yet being once possessed they are still coveted because still creating new delights and though to be kept in desire and hope be a kind of torment in Earthly enjoyments yet it is not so when they relate to Heavenly treasures the reason is God hath deputed Earth for our hopes and Heaven for our bliss If here we are mindful of Celestial glory and make it the subject of our thoughts and desires every the least glimmering hope of that blessed state will produce ineffable joy within us There is nothing sayes St Basil which ought so much to ravish Man as to reflect that he is designed to so noble an end as to enjoy God's immense perfections for all eternity Whence he inferrs the sole way to anticipate our happiness is to think continually on him to consider that our Souls shall be translated and as it were dissolved into his divine essence Wherefore he exhorts us to the imitation of Painters who aiming at the performance of a rare piece have their Eyes alwayes fixt upon the Original But if we pervert this order and make the Earth our Heaven enjoy that we should but use what must be the issue for after a long enquest passing from one delight to another our thirst is never satisfied Whence the pleasures of this life are resembled to brackish waters which still the more you drink the more you encrease your thirst nay they have this additional circumstance of woe that their drowth shall never be quenched in this life nor in the next not in this for Christ our Lord positively declared it to the Samaritan that those who swill themselves with the puddle of Earthly pleasures shall be alwayes thirsty and panting after new refreshments Not in the next life for the whole extent of Hell could not afford the unfortunate rich man one drop of water a little to allay the vehemency of his enraging heat I remember Philo the Jew treating of Earthly delights calls them furta Coeli the plunder of Heaven So that who enjoyes them steals them from thence now as a thief retains what he hath got by rapine with a continual fear and jealousy which still moderates and allayes the contentment of his acquests so doubtless there is nothing transitory can give a true satisfaction to the owner Our Holy Penitent was very sensible of this Truth and grown weary of the World's prosperity confesses in another Psalm that his Soul could find no comfort but in the meditation of everlasting joy as in this the whole scope of his petition is that as Abraham was ready at God's command to sacrifice Isaac his sole joy and contentment in this life so he is ready to renounce his lovely Absalom or any thing most dear to him in this World that by this dispropriation he may make a passage to that lasting joy which attends his Salvation Wherefore he will never cease to implore restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation The Application Our
merits Hence it is that Jesus Christ being infinite in consideration of his person and his humanity being infinitely holy his actions are of an infinite value and merit If it be said his goodness is deficient in this ransom and that he contracted it only to some few St. John confounds them for speaking of the incarnation he seems transported with wonder and expresses it with a sic that is God so loved the World as he gave unto it his only Son Can we imagine then he loved it so little as to select a certain small number no no he loved it so much as he died for all There is no good person upon Earth who desires not out of charity all Men's Salvation and shall Jesus Christ the Saint of Saints be limited in this his charity St. Bridget in her Revelations recounts how Christ our Lord said once unto her I am much offended with those who say my Lawes are hard that I give not sufficient Grace to their observance and that my passion is to some no wayes beneficial by which they would ravish my goodness from me but at the latter day I will justify my self before the Angels and Saints and make it clear as the Sun there was no want on my part that there is not one Soul for whom I would not have endured as much as I have done for all and that the sole fault consists in the obliquity of their wills alwayes rebellious and contrary to mine St. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. speaking of certain Reprobate Hereticks sayes They deny him by which they are redeemed and St. Paul 1 Cor. c. 8. Thus thy Brother will perish for whom our Lord and Saviour dyed Whence it followes a person may be damned for whom Christ offered up his death by consequence he dyed for the Reprobate The councel of Trent Sess 6. c. 3. Christ dyed for all though as to the benefit of his death those only receive it unto whom his passion is applyed The price of his blood was given then for all Men though the success be different some more some less partaking the fruit of his passion He is a Saviour then to all in some degree of redemption even to those he shall judge and condemn as St. Austin on the 53. Psalm He shall judge all the VVorld who hath payed the ransome for all the VVorld In which appears his magnificence and copious redemption that would dye for Souls whom he foreknew would resist the charms of his grace to the last and as much as lyes in them render his passion fruitless nay he gloryes in that he came for the greatest sinners promising cure to the most desperate diseases nay to the impious in case they will comply with his prescriptions To bring this a little more home St. Thomas sayes the passion of Jesus Christ is like to a ray of the Sun which though it be created for the benefit of the whole World yet all reap not advantage by it there being some of a melancholy reserved humour who effect darkness and shut up their doors and windowes against his beams so the passion and death of our Saviour is offered up for the universal good of all Men but many loving the darkness of sin keep themselves barricadoed from his benign influence resisting the light of Faith and other attractives of his love Thus you see all have power to save themselves though such only are effectually saved unto whom the passion of Jesus Christ by our happy concurrence with his sufficient Grace is communicated and applyed as in the Fifth Chapter to the Hebrews he is cause of Salvation unto all those who obey him Our Learned Doctor upon these grounds hath reason to hope that when he shall have deciphered unto the wicked the wayes of God how full of mercy and obliging sweetness they are they will lend their cooperation and consent to the movings of his grace bear part with their Saviour's passion that they may likewise share in his glory acknowledging with faith and love all that is done or to be done by them the effects of his grace and so apply to themselves Christ's merits and satisfaction And the impious shall be converted to thee Impiety in the strict acceptation imports Atheism and a shaking off all acknowledgement of a Deity its usual mates are prophaneness and impurity by which all things sacred are contemned and Man degenerates into a brute What a task is it then to reduce an impious person Whom neither the fear of a divinity doth awe nor the charms of holy things allure nor finally the shame of a base action can move St. Austin treating of such as are enslaved to this vice sayes they resemble in nature to a Feaverish Distemper which still creates a thirst though you throw in an Ocean of liquor so where the flames of impiety have once taken hold to stop the wastes of its fury passes the art of reason or eloquence for the impious have neither Eye nor Ear nor any sense which is not depraved and turns all into the malignity of its own humour I remember St. Chrysostom makes a query why Herod fell so barbarously upon the massacre of so many Infants for sayes he he either believed the Prophecy or believed it not if he gave no credit to it it was sottish in him to embrue his hands in so much blood any spark of judgement would have dictated he ought to have contemned and slighted it Again if he believed it was a real prophecy issuing from the decree of Heaven it must needs be inviolable and could not want its effect At last he solves the question and throwes it upon this that a Soul drenched in impiety is above all things the most infatuated she is so unhappy as where there is no impulse from abroad to precipitate herself into inevitable ruine nay fruitlesly to attempt odious and impossible things It is of these impious holy Job speaks when he gives a relation of their Maxims They say unto God retire from us we scorn the knowledge of your wayes what is the Omnipotent that we must serve him and what benefit arises if we pray unto him These are the familiar blasphemies which the impious belch forth the presence of God they decline shutting up all the Avenues of Faith and Charity by which he may enter unto them The knowledge of his wayes and Commandements they abhor because they are contrary to their works to his power they submit not faigning to believe he is not omnipotent because he is merciful Finally they offer not up their supplications unto him because they would ask what is not fit for his supream wisdom and goodness to accord Our great Minister in despight of all these exorbitancies promises yet to himself the reduction of these Monsters and hopes to shape them to the resemblance in which they were created in which undertaking we need not doubt but he used all the Topicks of authority and reason apt to convince and
the terrours of the Law he sayes thou art not delighted c. Christ our Lord abrogated the bill of divorce practised amongst the Jews declaring that vvhosoever dismissed his wife and took another played the Adulterer Now it is most certain that it was alwayes unlawful though in the Law upon the score of the Jews proness and obstinacy in evil no punishment vvere ordained for the fame as there vvere for other crimes so that it vvas an evil permitted not approved off And this not as to the guilt but defect of chastisement If then the Law practised a kind of connivancy in forbearing the use of its coercive power to prevent a greater inconveniency that might ensue Why may vve not inferr vvith more reason that where the most perfect conditions as to the effect of a Sacrifice are found others of less moment may be omitted The legal Sacrifices not having power to conferr Grace nor without the internal worship of vertues as Charity Repentance and the like were grateful no more than our external good works at present are even in the highest and more perfect oblation if a disposition in the Mind be wanting wherefore our Petitioner enriched with all essential requisites of a lively faith love sorrow c. And being a person according to Gods own Heart I see not but with these circumstances he might rest fixed in his Oblation in Spirit and cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts This Clause hath set a work many great wits and pushed them on so far as to assert that Sacrifices were not commanded in the old Law but only permitted as a lesser Evil as to make them decline Idolatry which that gross people were so apt to slide into and to shew this was the end of that Institution they observe those Beasts were appointed and marked out for their Sacrifices which were the Deities adored by the Egyptians as a Sheep a Goat a Kid an Ox a Calf a Dove a Sparrow a Turtle that whilst they mangled and destroyed those Animals they might reflect upon that one supream God before whom all other powers must lye prostrate and by their destruction acknowledge his Sovereign Dominion Now I confess as to the Vniversal tye of the Law I go not along with this Opinion in matter of Sacrifice for before the written Law it is clear in the Sacrifice of Abel Noah and Abraham that they were Obligatory and likewise acceptable to God and this the Church confirms supplicating that this unbloody Sacrifice might find acceptance at his Hands as those of Melchizedeck and other just Patriarchs had done Nay in Exodus the 12. God makes an accurate and distinct settlement of the Ceremonies inflicting punishments on the infringers which speaks more than bare permission Nay he owns the perfume arising from a Sacrifice to be most Odoriferous and pleasing to him You must know then that one motive in the Institution of Sacrifices was to divert the Jews from dangers of Idolatry just as now one of the intentions in marriage may be to avoid fornication Another motive was to prefigure that bloody Sacrifice of the Cross to be offered up in the new Law for the end of the Law was to know love and obey Christ so that all their Sacrifices tended to his instruction They were as a kind of bond or engagement by vvhich the new Law vvas promised to them So that if they addressed them under that Form and attired vvith these circumstances they were questionless holy and grateful in the sight of God and in this sense the Law obliged all in general unto Sacrifice yet this hinders not but our Petitioner prevented with extraordinary Graces may be taught another method of Sacrifice and truly he insinuates as much in his 39. Psalm where he owns to have received a command to performe the will of God and adds he had done it and this in planting his Law that is Sacrifice in the midst of his Earth wherefore as to himself he might say Thou art not delighted with Holocausts c. I am not Ignorant there are many who lay the force of this expression upon the sole inefficacy of the Law whose Sacrifices and Sacraments did not Physically and really conferr Grace but only after a moral way prefigured and shadowed it forth depending more upon the disposition of him that offered than on any innate vertue contained in themselves and upon this ground our Petitioner might alledge that burnt-offerings would not serene his angry looks since they did but discover the Vlcer not heal it Yet the difficulty still remains that however inefficacious they were they had no other remedies so that they were duties to which they were obliged and the sole expedient to relieve them in distress Some were propitiatory to divert and shelter them from the storms of Gods vengeance and this was a victime for sin others were in thanksgiving for blessings received and for the continuation of them and was stiled a pacifick oblation part of this Animal was burnt the rest eaten by the Priests and those that offered the same Sacrifice likewise if not consumed the same day but reserved till the next was directed to the impetration of new benefits whence you may see that upon every turn and in all their Exigencies they were necessitated to flye unto the help of Sacrifices and how liberal and unwearied they were in that devotion appears by a just account as Josephus relates given into the President of Syria who was desirous to acquaint Nero by this with the greatness of their Common-wealth it was there found and exactly set down that they did Sacrifice at every one of their Solemn Sabbaths two hundred fifty six thousand five hundred Lambs So that you see their fervour was not slack and tepid in matter of Sacrifices and though they were a Nation of all others most addicted to avarice Yet in this they jumped not with the Opinion of Socrates who judged things of the least value most fit to be offered up to the Gods because as they stand not in need of our gifts so do they more value our affection then what we give but they on the contrary thought nothing better spent than what was laid out in Sacrifices a clear Evidence that the main part of their Religion consisted in these external rules Nay they were so bent upon them as St. Chrysostom by way of similitude sayes as a Physitian to cut off all opportunity from his Fevorish Patient that he might not ruine himself by intemperate draughts of cold water in a kind of passion throwes away that liquor and breaks the Vessel in which it was brought just so sayes he Christ the original and accomplishment of all their Figures appearing amongst them who came to make a perfect cure and free them from all their distempers saw he could not wean them from their habitual practises of the Law at that time not only unnecessary but even obnoxious to them without proceeding like a resolute Physitian by way
all unto him that suffers for his name It is a Sacrifice of what is most dear unto us that is the Friendship of Men For Christ foretold his Servants that they should be hated of the whole World so that by this immolation we forfeit what is natural and of all things most delightful to us But whilst we are in this consuming task we must remember that the Husbandman expects not the fruit of his labours until the seed he casts into the ground be corrupted and thence a plentiful Generation spring forth So we must continue perishing to the last that so we may rise under a new form never more to be crushed by the Flail or Mill of grinding persecutors but to flourish in eternal quiet as the just recompence of a troubled spirit Amen CHAP. XXXVI Cor contritum humiliatum Deus non despicies A contrite and humble Heart O God thou wilt not despise ST Chrysostom sayes no fond Lover dotes so much upon his Mistress as God doth on a Soul truly Penitent and then making an Apostrophe unto Tears he cryes O happy streams all principalities and powers strike Sail to you The countenance of a Judge affrights you not your accusing adversaries are struck dumb before you It is you alone that finds admittance and are entertained by your Sovereign you only can overcome the invincible and tye up the Omnipotent When I read these words of this great Saint upon the efficacy of Tears I am startled at the slender Character our Petitioner gives in this clause A contrite heart sayes he O God thou wilt not despise An expression which falls much short of a Lovers passion for to have no other return of a present than barely not to have it rejected argues the gift very little prized by the receiver and is in the next door to a contempt But yet the addition our Penitent makes of humble speaks very much and helps out the sentence For it imports that humility teaches him the excellency of God and at the same time his own nothing so that not to find a repulse in the exhibition of any homage rendered to a Being infinitely perfect is an endearing beyond what a poor Creature could any wayes in Justice expect and therefore in these lowly thoughts it seems to him he sets out God's mercy in saying A contrite and humble heart thou wilt not despise Wherefore it is evident our Petitioner relyes upon sure principles and speaks he is well read in Divinity for if satisfactory and penal works be a Sacrifice pleasing to God as is demonstrated in the precedent clause much more a contrite heart must needs be highly acceptable which is a total destruction of all love to sin a detestation and dislike against it which involves a passion of sorrow consequent to this hatred and a firm purpose to avoid all future relapses But the motive of this sorrow must be in that we have offended the Majesty of God who merits all love honor and obedience from us and therefore meerly in that sin is displeasing to him we are to retract and abominate our past misdeeds Our Holy Penitent the more effectually to create within him this lively compunction considers that by sin we deny unto God the just tribute of ohedience as if in a manner we would wrest his Scepter from his Hand and in sequel reduce him to nothing for God cannot be God nor subsist without a soveraign Empire over all things it being an attribute immediately resulting from his Divine and Infinite Majesty Next he weighs how God hates sin even to death witness his Commandements imposed under such heavy penalties on the transgressors The rebellious Angels our first parent Adam the universal Deluge conflagration of Sodom c. are frightful examples After he had run over all these punishments it was easy for him to judge of sin's horrour and how much it is abominated by God nay he yet stooped lower and beheld many eternally doomed to the flames of hell and this perhaps but for one only mortal sin After these dreadful presidents he proceeds further and in his prophetick view contemplates the Son of God innocent undefiled and set at a great distance from any sin to pass through the highest rigours of Justice and this meerly because he had taken upon him our iniquities Hence he concludes if the eternal Father be so severe to the dear production of himself in chastising the prevarications of another he will certainly redouble his stripes on Man for his own proper defaults Conformably to this meditation St. Austin sayes If a Redeemer be so roughly handled upon the score of anothers transgression what may a sinner expect in revenge of his own miscarriage Lastly our Penitent layes down how by sin we are declared Enemies to God enslaved to Satan odious in the sight of Angels and doomed to suffer in Hell without end which infinitely exceeds all the disasters of this life Besides we lose the grace and love of God a treasure above all other imaginable and whose forfeiture we ought more to deplore than all other misfortunes joyned together Wherefore one mortal sin is more to be lamented than all the disgraces and hardships which possibly may befall us in this World Our Petitioner having by these remonstrances alarm'd all the faculties of his Soul and so disposed them for action just like Souldiers commanded to Arms he then instructs them how to redeem all their dammages they have sustained by sin First they must abhorr their past misdeeds that is have such an aversion as heartily to wish they had never been committed and since the birth and essence of sin springs from the will it must be ruined by the same power retracting disowning and as much as in us lyes breaking the force of sin in becoming unvoluntary This done he reads unto them the efficacy of contrition by which our Souls are sanctifyed and all the Characters of sin defaced So that from Children of perdition in an instant we are declared heirs to eternal felicity the reason of this is that contrition comprizes a love of God above all things and the nature of charity is to make an absolute destruction of all vice which other vertues do not as having a repugnance only to the opposite sins So that there is no medium 'twixt charity and sin Man hath the one or the other but cannot enjoy them both together This is confirmed by the Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 53. The impiety of the impious shall not do him harm whensoever he shall be converted For love saith St. Gregory is nothing else but a flame and sin may be compared to rust So that when Christ said Many sins are forgiven her because she loved much it imports her Soul enkindled with a fire of divine love had worn away all the rust of her sins But what need we seek for authorities to strengthen this Doctrine when our Penitent had this happy Truth wrought in himself for no sooner he had cryed peccavi
the one Espouse the other Lord in the one he shews his love in the other the fear which is due unto him in the one the security with which we may come unto him and offer our petitions in the other the respect and reverence we owe to so great a Majesty As our Espouse he hath contracted with us a holy alliance by grace which we have forfeited through our infidelity and therefore to redeem this adulterate action nothing but a pure act of sorrow arising from the source of Charity will suffice to a reconciliation But as he is our Lord we ought were it possible to dissolve into nothing before him in acknowledgement of our guiltiness and satisfaction to his offended greatness So that this Sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart seems to be appropriated to these titles of Espouse and Lord ascribed in sacred writ unto him For love rooted in repentance is the most proper compensation for an injured and abused lover and fear joyned with humility is the best allay to an irritated Sovereign St. Gregory sayes a repenting sinner for the most part beginning his conversion is seised with a terrour and fear which the memory of his treason doth work within him this makes him for a time consume in the sad apprehension of deserved punishment for his crimes and whilst he remains in this plight he heholds God under the notion of a severe Judge but by degrees the bitterness of these terrours wearing off by some glimmering hopes of pardon obtained he still continues his penitential acts yet with this disparity that whereas at first he wept lest he should be brought to Execution now enflamed with a love of spiritual-delights he melts away in Tears lamenting that he is with held from his felicity So that love and fear are still the materials of this Sacrifice which God will not reject This same Doctor observes the several agitations of a Soul in this oblation of love and fear First she calls to mind in the glass of her sins where she was to wit on the brink of Hell Next weighing and affrighted at the Abyss of God's judgments considers where she may be then casting her Eye upon the miseries of this present life sadly reflects where she is Lastly she contemplates the joyes of eternity and filled with sighs and groans laments she is not there Thus you see how a Soul is distracted that hath ever tasted the bitterness of sin If she look back she is affrighted at the ghastly sight of her misdeeds and hath only this comfort which God declared to Ezechias upon his repentance that he had thrown all his sins behind him never to take a further view of them If she look upon what may befall her the judgements of God are unfathomed Abysses into which she cannot dive and the sole buckler she hath to rely on that he will not reject an humble and contrite heart If she fix her Eye upon the present state of things she beholds herself surrounded with dangers from abroad and her own frailties at home against which her only fence is humility and resignation to his blessed will If she raise her thoughts to the end for which she is created she can but languish after it and frame ardent desires for the possession In these distresses our Holy Penitent marches between love and fear his love cimented with fear keeps him from sinking into despair and his humility fortifyed with a true sorrow resolves him to a future constant obedience to God's Lawes Thus armed thus guarded with a train of hope and confidence trusting in God and alwayes distrustful of himself he concludes A contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise The Application We are here instructed how to prevent any repulse in our addresses to Heaven for a heart qualifyed with love and humility God will not reject this is declared in the person of St. Mary Magdalen that her love had purchased a compleat abolition of all her iniquities and Christ hath engaged that he who humbles himself shall be exalted St. Thomas says as there is no attribute wherein God more glories than in his mercy so above all he most delights in the humble it being a vertue which renders Men still capable of his favours and upon the same score he hates the proud because they have not recourse to his mercy as believing they want it not Let us then stick close to our Penitents doctrine and seek no other way to be great than what was practised by our redeemer he stooped even to the death of the Cross and so entered into his glory we likewise must either take up our own Cross or else with love and humility bear that which God shall please to lay upon our shoulders and if we thus sustain our load we need not fear that scornful World I know you not but on the contrary a happy invitation Come yee blessed into the Kingdom prepared as a recompence of your contrition and humility from the Worlds beginning Amen CHAP. XXXVII Benigne fac Domine in bona voluntate tua Sion Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion THe order of Charity prescribes that in the first place we love God next our selves and then our Neighbour As to God he is the primary and chief object which gives motion unto Charity because a goodness infinite which is the ground-work of our love is found essentially and most perfectly in him He being then the sovereign good of all things there is no goodness in Creatures which is not derived from him as the source and without whom they could not one moment subsist Insomuch as God is to me a greater good than I am to my self For though God be a thing distinct from me yet he is the good on whom both my self and all others depend wherefore I ought absolutely to wish and choose rather that God should be than that my self should be because it is better and more sutable to the inclinations of nature For Man is not carried by any natural propension to love himself more than God such an inclination were perverse and wicked Nay forbidden by the Law of nature that a Being created and imperfect should be preferred before one infinite and increated God therefore whose productions are all good never gave unto Man such a tendency The conclusion then is that we are carryed on by the impulse of nature to love God above all things even above our selves however this inclination be strangely thwarted by our passions and the corruption wrought in us by sin After God we are to love our selves in our spiritual wants and necessities beyond all our Neighbours in the most strict alliance either of blood or friendship Because the aim of Charity is to unite the Subject it informs with God and therefore St. Bernardin of Sienna sayes Whosoever defiles himself with sin under the Cloak of Charity this Charity is impious for that cannot be Charity which destroyes our own Charity
with a firm hope cry Lord thou shalt open my Lips The Application We are taught here when we begin to pray that we look upon our selves as infirm indigent and ulcerated Beggars who expect from the merciful hand of God to find some relief in our necessities and we must further reflect upon this great addition to our misery that as that the time was not tedious to him to whom the Saint replyed that the whole world was a great Volume expanded in which he read as it were in great Characters the wonders of its Creatour to which also alludes the Sentence of St. Chrysostom There is not any particle of a Creature be it of worth or not which issues not forth a voice more loud than a Trumpet and speaks the praises of God But above all it belongs to Man by many Titles of obligation to contribute to the praise and glory of God First his natural perfections more lively represent the Divine perfections as being created to his Image and enriched with an understanding able to comprehend supernatural things so that he alone in this Earthly Sphere can acknowledge and make a return of gratitude for all the visible productions we here behold Whence it is evident that Man is obliged to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving in the behalf of all Creatures it was upon this score the high Priest among the Jews was wont to have wrought in his Garment a draught of the World to insinuate that it was his part to discharge the duty of Adoration and acknowledgment unto God in the name of the universe Next Man may be aiding to the glory of God employing those gifts of grace he receives in acts of Religion obeying his Commandments embracing his Councels referring all his actions to his honour and evidencing by a holy life that all his endeavours are in order to him and his service For from hence is reflected a certain external glory upon God not only in that he is known loved and respected by such a life of Sanctity but also in that he hath such holy and generous Creatures just as it is the glory of a Father to have a Son vertuous and wise and who by his valour and sage conduct drawes the Eyes of the World with a kind of admiration upon him But the greatest glory Man can give unto God is in a state of Beatitude for when once there arrived he shall see him face to face without any interposed Veil he shall know the wonders of his essence cast his sweetness inconceivable and have his heart ravished with eternal affections He shall there praise him in a full consort for all Eternity This is the highest pitch of glory Man can give unto God in which he is partner with the Angels it is the final end of our Creation we are not put into this World upon any other design than by a constant progress in vertue to advance our selves daily to this end Here you may discern the general Heads of praise in which our Penitent will engage his mouth First he will praise him in the infinite variety of Creatures he hath framed in this inferiour World for Man's use and in his behalf he will powerforth his thanks and acts of gratitude resolving never to abuse them or design them contrary to that end for which they were made Next he will submit all his actions to be led and conducted according to the impulse and dictamens of those Graces he shall please to bestow upon him making his Body a holy chast and maâ—…rated victime to his Laws and by this means he will dispose himself for that last and highest service he is to render him in a compleat Beatitude where his Mouth shall never cease to celebrate his praise And my Mouth shall declare thy praise Whilest our Penitent thus in his thoughts runns over all these motives which might justly afford matter of praise to his grateful Tongue there occurs one more which must not be omitted since it exceeds all others and exalts the glory of God beyond all the submission of Men and Angels it is the mystery of the Incarnation in which Christ Jesus God-Man hath contributed the most to God's glory For he hath saved the World by the effusion of his pretious blood and nothing is more glorious to God than the Salvation of Mankind for good and holy persons will praise love admire contemplate enjoy and adore his perfections in the vast spaces of Eternity Now had he not dyed for Man no Paradise no felicity could have been for them so that God had remained under the privation of that glory he doth and is to receive from blessed Spirits for all Eternity Nay more not only Men do glorify God by Jesus Christ but the Angels likewise in whose concern the Church declares the Angels praise your Majesty the Archangels bow before you the Powers tremble with respect the vertues of Heaven and blessed Seraphims with like joy and love do glorify you So that all the external glory consecrated to God either in Heaven or Earth is in consideration of the divine person as it supports the sacred humanity of Christ Lastly Jesus Christ in Heaven doth praise and magnify the Divinity with an Air incomparable he doth it more copiously with more variety with a note more lively and ravishing than all the Choires of Angels and Saints put together The reason is that the most perfect knowledge and most ardent affection are the â—ources of the most sublime and magnificent Panegyricks Now the Soul of our Redeemer enjoyed without dispute a more clear and penetrating wisdom and knowledge of the Divinity is enflamed in that Abyss of essence to a higher degree than any other whatsoever and consequently his most pure Soul breaks forth into praises which outstrip and surpass by far all the Harmony both of Angels and the blessed spirits in Heaven I doubt not but our Penitent with much satisfaction let his Tongue strike upon this Theam for if the very thought of the Messias replenished his Mind with abundant joy what consolation to consider that by him alone God would derive to himself more glory than from the whole mass of Creatures that he was to share with him in this task of praise that he would procure encrease and magnify the honour of God to his utmost and since Angels and Men were to pay their homage of praise and benediction by and in the person of the Messias our Penitent would not be exempted from that priviledge of bearing a part in the confort and bless the divine goodness in that by the bloody Sacrifice of the Messias God's honour should be repaired and as many voices gained to promote his greatness as there were to be glorious spirits in Heaven that by his sacred Mouth the praises of his God his sovereign good and object of his love were to be ecchâ—…d forth in the midst of Paradise with what â—…y would he put a helping hand and conspire in this design
and second the generous intentions of the Messias by a million of toylâ—…e Labours might he but live to see the Day-break of his coming however he is resolved by him to offer up all his stock of praise and benediction And my Mouth shall announce thy praise Cassianus admires the goodness of God that possessing within himself an inexhausted Treasure of all good in whom cannot be found the least want of any thing desirable is yet pleased to play the Merchant with poor Creatures entrusting into their hands not only the visible stock of this inferiour World but also the dispensation of heavenly graces and this whilst he can expect no return this our Petitioner himself confesses in the last Chapter of the first of the Chronicles where He and the Princes of the people had made a large Offering of many Talents of Gold Silver and other Metals For reflecting then upon the state of Accounts 'twixt God and his Creatures he said Who am I and what is my people to offer any thing unto thee for all things come from thee and of thine own we have given So that none can offer unto God but what they have received from him Nay he is so indulgent as though we can return him nothing but what is his own yet let them be stamped with the mark of gratitude he will put them upon account as satisfactory In a word we can exchange nothing in return of all his benefit but the oblation of praise and is it not strange we should râ—fuseâ— him this Nay to encourage us though we give him but a trifle not worth the regarding yet if it be done with a real intent of serving him he blenches not at it but by his acceptance makes it valuable and of a price not to be esteemed I must needs then say our great Penitent hath pitched upon a right way of traffick and which is most suitable to the state of his affairs Wherefore I wonder not if in divers other Psalms he protests he will live no longer than he shall be able to remit unto his obliging Creditour the just tribute of praise and that he will be punctual in this commerce whilst he hath a Being which resolution he again here confirms And my Mouth shall send forth thy praise St. Bonaventure forbids two things in those that would praise the name of God to wit Pride and fear For if proud though he take up the Subject of anothers praise and descants upon it with much seeming zeal yet he alwayes so manages the Encomiums as to involve himself as a Party which spoils all for God will have no Riâ—al he communicates it is true unto his Creatures the participation of his divide essence I but in matter of glory he will be singular and protests that none shall bear a share with him in this he proclaims himself to be a Joâ—loâ—… God Next if the Praiser be timorous he can never be faithful for this unmanly passion like an Apoplexy seizes upon all the vital spirits Whinders the speech nay even be rayles any interest at the Face of danger So that you never see any thing great or generous to issue from a Coward wherefore our blessed Saviour declares he will not owne him at the Latter day who hath here blished and not dared to acknowledge him Our great Doctor was far exempt from these irregular motions As to the first he was the meekest of Men the Character he gives of himself shews he was not elevated with an Any conceit of his own worth when he pronounces in his Psalm That he is a Worm and not a Man the opprobry of Men and scorn of the people So that the brain blast of Pride did not stifle or any wayes obstruct those just Attributes he promises here to give unto his Maker As to the other branch of fear his Heroick exploits are abundantly set forth in the sacred History so that to go about to clear him from apprehension of terrour when God's â—…use â—ay 〈◊〉 â—…e were the same as to use Arguments in a glorious day to perswade the Sun shines Let us then conclude he was compleatly qualifyed in border to the performance of his task and that his Mouth was admirably fitted to Sing forth the praises of his God And my Mouth shall announce thy praise Whilst our Penitent goes on in his designe to make an Elogy of his Creatours praises he is startled at an opinion that God is glorifyed in the damnation of a Soul as much it in her Salvation But he soon recovered himself upon the principles he hath laid for as a rare and accomplished piece of work speaks more the art and perfection of the workman than one that is imperfect and be set with many faults so a blessed Soul adorned with many perfections and being lively image of her Maker doth more express the power wisdome and other Attributes of God than a lost Soul all stained with a horrid guilt of sin Again it would be indifferent to the most zealous in the love of God whether a soul perished or not because they desiring nothing but the glory of God and if that were equally concerned in the loss or Salvation of a Soul certainly either would be a like to them but it is most evident they practise the contrary entertaining passionate desires for the gaining of a Soul and much resenting nay with great desolation the ruine of any which evidences that God derives to himself more glory from a Soul enlivened by his grace than from another wallowing in the filth of sin Wherefore he concludes the task of God's praise cannot be carried on but by a life of Sanctity which he looks upon as a happy necessity that the glory of our Creatour is annexed to our greatest happiness For he hath produced all things to be finally referred to himself and if in this Creatures find likewise their interest and full delight how great an obligation is it That he hath linked his glory to our happy condition and utmost perfection that is whilst we procure unto God the greatest glory in the same action we purchase to our selves our greatest felicity So that our Penitent will never cease And my Mouth shall send forth thy praise The Application Here we are instructed that our Being is conferred upon us to no other end than to love praise and glorify God and to procure as much as in us lyes that others likewise discharge this designment of their Creation If then we direct our actions to our own praise sucking in the Air of humane applause we commit an act of injustice against God and pervert the noble employment allotted to our nature We play the Thief and plunder the lawful propriety of our Creator The utmost perfection of a stream is to be reunited to its source and that of Man to praise and glorify God in loving serving and manifesting his perfections and since all other Creatures conspire according to their capacity to render him glory Let us
and repented what he had done when the Prophet Nathan published his deliverance and that his sin was taken from him so that he had all reason to assert a contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise St. Ambrose sayes that pennance is as necessary to a sinner as any Balsom or Medicament can be to a dangerous wound For where parts by any hurt are disunited and by separation break off a necessary communication with the blood or vital spirits nature cannot of herself repair those breaches without the supply of remedies ordained in such extremities So likewise in any spiritual distemper which threatens the Souls ruine if the sovereign medicine of contrition whose principal ingredient is gathered in Heaven be not applyed she must needs run a hazzard of destruction Wherefore since pennance is the sole remedy of sin after Baptism this great Doctor exhorts us to make it our Refuge he bids us not to shrink at the face of sufferings but on the contrary fill our Soul with bitterness endure the storms of compunction remember the heart is to be contrite not crooked or broken but shivered into pieces by disgraces confusions tears sighs and acts of humility and when you shall be in these Agonies upon the account of vertue then may you joyn issue with our Holy Petitioner and say a contrite and humble heart O God thou wilt not despise But our Penitent adds the particle of humble to shew that a heart compleatly disposed for God's favourable aspect must have a stroak of humility because this vertue speaks obedience for Eccles Chap. 10. sayes as the beginning of Pride is the Seed of Apostacy from God so humility is a reduction to our duty St. Austin makes no distinction between pride and disobedience nor between humility and obedience but takes them in a manner for the same thing In his Fourth Book of the City of God he declares It is good to keep our hearts aloft not towards our selves for that is pride but unto God which is obedience and a vertue not to be found but in the humble Again on the Eighth Chapter of Gen. our proper will cannot but sink under a great weight of ruine if it prove rebellious to the will of a superiour power this the First Man contemning Gods command found too true and by this he learnt to distinguish between good and evil that is between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience So that we see the transgression of our first parent sprung from a secret Root of disobedience for puffed up with pride he would be his own Master and scorn to be subordinate to the Lawes of God this made him seise on the forbidden fruit and by that act of disobedience we are all made guilty So that to repair our innocency and begin a new life we must destroy the old man that is pride and self love And as by those unhappy instruments we fell from our righteousness it is by humility and a love to God above all things we must return to Justice and if our Hearts be vested with these noble qualities we shall alwayes have a stock to fashion out to our Creatour a Sacrifice that will not be despised It is feigned by the Poets that the Son of the Earth wrestling with Hercules still as he touched the ground he received a fresh vigour just so the humble minded Man who esteems himself to be but an Imp of the Earth the off-spring of Dust and Ashes in proportion as he bowes himself in acts of lowliness he will be raised and approach nearer to Heaven St. Austin speaking of the Centurions humility who judged himself unworthy to receive such a guest as our Saviour under his roof sayes that by confessing himself unworthy he rendered himself more worthy for there is no disposition so fit for the reception of God as to acknowledge and avow our own unworthiness But you must know there is a humility of the understanding another of the will this gives us a true knowledge of our nothing that brings us readily to submit Now to be humbled by the will and force honour and greatness to stoop this is Heroick and worthy a Prince but to be brought down by adverse fortune this humility carries with it little of wonder there being no great vertue for one that is humbled to become humble This vertue then to render it meritorious and accomplished in all points as to make our Heart a pleasing Sacrifice to God requires that we seriously consider our own faults and imperfections the wants and necessities incident to humane nature and which every one how charming soever in the outside they appear carry about them This will sufficiently evidence that instead of praise and veneration we ought to expect nothing but scorn and confusion from the sense of our own defects and conclude that honour and excellency belong not to us Thus you see the will is carried on by humility to decline all things which raise our hope or appetite above our deserts It is proper then to this vertue to check all excessive attempts in Man after the purchase of greatness and Earthly advantages Nor is it notwithstanding opposite to hope as a Theological vertue nor unto magnanimity as a Christian vertue For these stirr up to the pursuit of what is great in order to God and humility obstructs not this waving only that greatness which sides with the inordinate interests of the World St. Thomas sayes There is none but may believe and declare himself without a falshood to be the most vile Creature in the World according to the hidden defects he knowes in himself and the gifts of God unknown to him which are or may be in his Neighbour In fine Christ our Lord declared it to be the sole clew leading to Heaven it is the first and last step to bliss For in this life where all is storm and tempest torment war and temptation where nothing is secure and certain humility alone amidst these perills and dangers like so many rocks and shelves can bring us safe off and conduct us to the Haven of happiness Elias in that furious whirlwind terrible Earthquake and dismal Fire wrapt himself up like a bottom of Yarn and lay close to the Earth Job in that general destruction of all his goods rent his garments shaved his Head fell flat to the ground and worshipping said Naked I came into the VVorld and naked I shall return The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away blessed be his name The tempest afterwards encreasing upon him as boiles botches leprosy worms and a wife he fled to a Dunghill with a piece of potsheard in his Hand making choice of the humblest and safest place Our Holy Penitent likewise in that his persecution by Saul cryed out I was humbled and he delivered me So that he spake not at random but had experience how acceptable unto God is a contrite and humble heart The Scripture attributes two Names unto Christ