not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy foul and with all thy forces what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation Redemption and Passion of our Saviour Ought they not to burn with love should they not if it were possible love JESUS above all their forces thoughts and activity of their hearts If I owe my self wholy to him for making me what shal I add now for repairing me and repairing me in such a manner 14. Let us love him then since He so loved us let 's not love him only in words and compliments let us not content our selves to say I honour much my Saviour I love him with all my heart But let us love him in worke and Verity in doing in giving and in suffering for him for so He loved us And since his goodness is so infinite and his love to us so excessive that He preferred us not only before Angells but also before himself it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him it would be a strange folly to offend him to disoblige his goodness to lose his amity and his favour for honour pleasure profit or satisfaction of a Passion Do not so if you be wise Say rather with S. Austin all abundance all honour all felicity that is not you my God is but poverty vanity and misery say as S. Francis did my God You are my All Love him with all your heart since He his all your good love him with a sovereign love since He is sovereignly good love adore bless prayse glorify him now and ever Amen DISCOURS VII OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE He descended into Hell the third day He rose again from the dead IESUS appli'd himself so earnestly to our Salvation that whilst He was on earth He let not a moment pass without labouring for it And for this effect whilst his Body lay'd in grave He descended into Hell This world Hell signify's an inferiour and low place And therefore the holy Church makes use of it in divers occasions to signify divers inferiour places By this word she most often understands the place of everlasting damnation And so our Saviour called it in 1. Luke 36. S. Luk. where speaking of the unfortunate rich man says he was buried in hell Other times she uses this terme to signify Purgatory where they are who died in the grace of God but having not fully satisfyed the divine Iustice are further to be punished so in the Mass of the dead she prayes free ô Lord the souls of the faithfull departed from the paines of hell She makes use of it also to signify the place whither the souls of holy and just persons who were not subject to purgation or had duely satisfyd for their offences went before the death of the Saviour of the world expecting He should open them the gates of Heaven by his Passion 2. He descended not only by effect into these two last places making his power and goodness to appear by delivering the soules in them detained But in substance He descended into them his soul was really in those places and He honoured the soules that were in them and made them happy by his presence The third day he rose again from the dead He rose no sooner for to testify that He was truly dead and to fulfill the figure of Matt. 12. 40. him As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale so shal be the Son of man in the bowells of the earth He would be three days subject to the law of death to teach us mystically that by his death and Passion He had satisfyd the three Persons of the B. Trinity for the sins committed in the three states of the world in the Law of nature in the Law of Moses and in the Law of grace And to shew us that his Passion was the cause of the delivery of the ancient Fathers out of hell of the Redemption of men on earth and of the reparation of the Angelical thrones in Heaven He rose again By which words the Apostles teach us that He S. Iohn 10. return'd to life by his own power He sayd also in the Gospell I have power to lay down my life and to take it up againe and in another place I will raise up my Body in three daies after death 3. I know well that S. Peter and S. Paul teach in many places that his Father raised Him up to life because this miracle S. Pater is an effâ—ct of the omnipotency of God which thô common Ast. c. 3. 26. and c. 5. 30. S. Paul in the 4. 8. and 10. to the Rom. Phil. 28. and 9. to all the 3. Persons of the B. Trinity yet is attributed commonly to the Father 'T is true then that He rose up by his own Power and 't is true also that the eternal Father raised him to the end He might shew his goodness both ro him and us 4. First to him that his Body might receive the Glory which He merited by his labors humiliations and sufferances For He humhled himself says the Apostle being obedient unto death for the which thing God hath exalted him Note exalted him for his Resurrection was not a simple return from death to life but an entrance into a glorious life That Body which He layd down passible and mortall He receives impassible and immortal that which was inglorious now is glorious which was infirm now is powerfull which was a natural Body now is becom a spiritual These are the excellent qualities which S. Paul attributes to every 1. cor 15. matt 13 43. glorifyd Body But that of Glory or clarity delights me most for the body of every saint shal shine by it as the sun fulgebunt justi sicut sol and nevertheless one shal differ from another in this Quality as much as he exceeded him here in good works or as S. Paul says as one starr differs in glory from another What glory then what admirable splendor what ravishing beauty was given to the adorable Body of JSUS in recompence of his merits And what satisfaction and felicity will it be to see it when our eyes shal be able to behold it as hereafter they shall be by their impassibility These four qualities belong to the Body of the Son of God as a body glorifyd But as a Body Deifyd as subsisting in the Divinity it hath yet a farr other Glory Jt hath a supereminent ineffable and incomprehensible Glory as we may see in the next Discours 5. Wherfore the Son of God thanks his Father for that He brought his soul out of hell and his Body out of the sepulcher and that He raised him up again Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti psal 29. me Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam And He esteems so much this favour that He exhorts us to thanke God to praise and glorify
most holy Spirit and the Son likewise is a most holy Spirit But they appropriate this name to him because his Emanation or Procession is so farr above our thoughts and our expressions that there is no language in the world that can express his Person for want of a proper name And becaus we are accustomed to call those things spirits of whose origin and manner of production we are ignorant So we call the wind spectres Angells and our souls spirits and we are likewise very ignorant in the production and procession of the holy Ghost 4. Secondly the Apostles appropriate this name to him because He proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one only Source and not as made or created nor as begotten but produced by the Will by an ineffable way which Divines term Spiration a breathing and impulse of the Will towards the thing beloved 5. Thirdly this name is appropriated to him becaus He is the Spirit of our spirit the Soul of our soul the Life of our life For He is given to the Souls of the just to animate and govern them He is not given so to a Bishop or a Priest in his ordination if he be in the state of sin He is not in him to sanctify him but to operate and act by him Hence it is that a Bishop or a Priest that is in sin and hath not grace gives nevertheless the grace of God by the Sacraments becaus he is the instrument of the holy Ghost as a penne gives to paper characters which it hath not becaus it is the instrument of rhe Writer 6. The Church moreover appropriated to this glorious and holy Spirit the name of Love and Charity becaus He is produced by the Will the authour of Love or by the mutual love and dilection of the eternal Father and the Son 7. From this second name which the Church attributes to the holy Ghost proceeds the third which is that of Gift Donum Dei Altissimi the Gift of the most high For that which is dō by pure love is dō freely and liberally and donation is a free and liberal action The two first names appropriated to the holy Ghost referr him to the Father and the Son but this of Gift relates him to Creatures that are capable to receive him and to enioy him as are men and Angells only and this Gift is the first the most necessary and the most excellent of all gifts that God ever gave or can give to us 8. He is the first and cause of all the rest for there is a great difference 'twixt the love of God and the love of men When we love any one 't is becaus we find in him some goodness some beauty or other Perfection Gods love supposes not its object in any creature but He puts it in them God begins not to love us with a love of Benevolence becaus we are good but we are good becaus He loves us so when the eternal Father gives us his only Son in the Incarnation He gave us first his Love and He gave not to us his Son but by his holy Spirit and by his Love He was conceived of the holy Ghost So God loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son 9. This Gift is so necessary that without it all the other Benefits profit very little the work of creation is appropriated to the Father the Incarnation to the Son the Sanctification to the holy Ghost the two first Benefits are unprofitable to us without the third In the creation God gave us Being He made and design'd for our service all the creatures of this world But our Saviour says to us What profit hath a man if He should gaine the whole world and lose himself and he will lose himself infallibly Luke 9. 25. if the holy Ghost sanctifys him not The Incarnation and the Death of the Son of God would not much availe us without the comming of this holy Spirit the torments of JESUS would have made him die and not have made us live He might have satisfyd without restoring us to grace a king offended by his Vassal may receive from him satisfaction and not receive him into favour nor restore him to his former state and to the priviledges which he had lost When I see the Saviour in the Crib or on the Cross I know not whether it be to satisfy only or moreover to restore us to the rights we lost by sin when He rises up again from death I know not whether it be for recompence of his death or to give us life When He ascends to Heaven I know not whether it be to give a convenient place ro his Body or to prepare also a place for us But when He sends the holy Ghost to sanctify us He ascertains us that we reenter into grace and that He applys to us his merits He hath sealed us and given the pledg of the Spirit in our 2. Cor. 1. 22. 1. Ep. 4. 13. hearts says S. Paul And the beloved Disciple In this we know that we abide in him and He in us becaus He of his Spirit hath given to us 10 What admirable favour and what incomparable grace that God vouchsafs to give us his Spirit Love divine and admirable Heart If one should give to a Philosopher the spirit of Aristotle or of Plato to an Orator the spirit of Cicero or Demostenes to a Phisitian the spirit of Hypocrates or of Galen and to a Divine the spirit of S. Thomas or of S. Augustin would not this be a singular favour God gives you not the spirit of Aristotle Cicero Hypocrates but his own Spirit the Spirit of Verity Wisdom and Sanctity When one hath the heart of a person one hath all If you be in the state of grace you have the heart of God for properly speaking the holy Ghost is the heart of God ô Father of mercies and Father of the miserable how deigne you to give them your heart T is that chosen souls are your treasure and you put your heart upon your treasure Quid retribuam Domino 11. What acknowledgment what satisfaction and what return can we make Love is not pay'd but by love nothing corresponds to a heart but another heart and what heart can correspond to the heart of God What love can answer his Would you not desire to be all heart Would you not wish to have as many millions of hearts as there are drops of water and grains of sand in the sea would you not referr apply and consecrate them to the love of God And what would this be compared to the heart of God which He hath given us It would be less than a grain of dust compared to all in Heaven and in Earth But He desires not so much He demands but only one but He will have it all He commands you to give it him Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and if you refuse it him He will damn you
is good and deserves to be loved for God is so good great holy powerfull and worthy to be loved that if He did desire it we should sacrifice our selves for his service though there were neither heaven for those that love him nor hell for those that love him not 11. We should do as the blessed Spirits do it is IESUS that gives the Counsel putting these words into our mouths Your will be don in earth as it is in heaven that is as the Angells do it they do the will of God and obey his Orders with a free pure and disinteressed love all that they pretend is to obey God to do his will all the recompence that they passionately desire is to receive new Orders to be employd again in his service purely for the love of him 12 This is not sayd that a faithfull soul may not hope and keep the commandements for reward or retribution as the Prophet says he did But that it be not the principal yet less the only aime of our love for as S. Bernard says perfect love of God intends no recompence but merits much The loving soul receives from the hands of God ineffable and incomprehensible goods but though she should not though there should be no Paradise nor reward she would not omit to love God serve him and to be pleasing to him and if she practises vertue for reward the reward which she desires is the increase of her love if she is glad to merit to be higher in heaven this is not to have there more of honor and glory but it is to have more of love if I merit much says she I shal see God more clearly and perfectly in heaven I shal glorify him more excellently I shal praise him more advantagiously I shal be united to him more strictly and intimatly I shal love him more ardently and so love is the true salary of love 13. In fine your love must not be idle and paralitick but active to render service to God and to do good works for his glory Charity works great things where it is and where it works not there it is not says S. Gregory S. Iohn 14. 23. 1. Ep. 3. 18. Psai 96. 10. He that loves me will keep my word says IESUS My little children says his beloved Disciple let us not love in word and tongue only but in work and veritie and the Royal Prophet You that love our Lord hate ye evill he says not only commit not evill but hate it He says not hate it in your self but absolutely hate it If you love God you will hate sin wheresoever it is found you will destroy it in your self and in your neighbor also if if you can if one should say I abuse not my friend but is not sorry that another does nor hinders him when he can may one truly say he loves him Let us conclude with a reflexion upon these words of JESUS I Came to cast fire upon the earth and what desire I but that it be inflam'd Luke 12. 49. And does He not move solicit and stir up our hearts to this fire and flame of love by all possible wayes 14. He prevents us with great love He lou'd us more than riches He was made poor for us more than honours He suffered a thousand infamies more than his ease and pleasure He led a life in pain and labor more than his body He depriu'd it of glory and of life more than the Angells He redeem'd them not And though we are so ungratful and unworthy as not to return love for love He tryes yet other means 15. He heaps Benefits upon us and makes us presents to engage our mercenary hearts He practises the counsel He gives us by the Wiseman and by his Apostle Give meat and drink to your enemy Prov. 25. 21. Rom. 12. 20. when he hath need and you shal heap upon him burning coales to heat his love to you so many prosperities that are sent you so many morcells of bread you eate so many creatures that serve you are so many burning coales He heaps upon you to heat your love so many presents He makes you to gain your affection so many baits he laies to catch your heart Et si parva sunt ista adiiciet majora And if it seems to you that all this is too little and that your heart is yet worth more He assures you that all the favours whiich he hath don you and which he does you yet every day are not but gages and pledges of the great Goods He hath prepar'd and promis'd you if you love him Neither eye hath seen nor eare hath heard 1. Cor 2. 9 nor the heart of man can comprehend the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him says S. Paul 16. But since we esteem not these promises enough and are like those Israelites who contemn'd she desirable land He lifts up his hand He commands us ro love him and threatens punishments if we do not Is not this to be extremly desirous of our love to put as it were a dagger to our throats and say to us love me J will kill you if you will not He does not only say it but he does it he damnes us eternaly if we love him not 17. And when He sees that fear of future punishments doe not sufficiently move our hearts He sends us sometimes afflictions to force our love He takes away all you love in this world becaus you love not well that which ought to be loved above all things He removes from you all that may amuse and employ your heart that it may be in a manner forced for want of other object to unite it self to Him ô great God what can you do more to have this heart which you so passionately desire you besige it on all sides and it renders not neither the preventions of your love nor the attractives of your benefits nor your promises of paradise nor your strict commands nor threats of hell nor constrains of afflictions can open this lockt heart Extremis morbis extrema remedia 18. When a passionate lover hath tryed all wayes and finds them unsuccesfull he coms to the last makes use of a charm composes a love potion JESUS makes use of this artifice to gain our affection He puts himself upon our Altars and into our Tabernacles there he is the charm of love They say that in a charm of love to render it more powerfull the Lover ought to mix with it some of his own substance some drops of his blood and JESUS puts all his blood into this potion not a part of his substance only but all his substance Body Soul and Divinity 19. What think you Judg you not that God ought to have your heart after so many pursuances do they not inflame you to beg that of God which is so necessary and which you cannot have of your own selves Aske it of God fervently humbly frequently aske it of
many sins exposed to so many temptations subject to so many corruptions designed to so many just punishments should confide in himself and presume to make himself happy sayd Aug. Ep. 54. ad Macedonium S. Austin This vain relyance which men have on their own selves and on the force of their free will is the cause that they rashly cast themselves into occasions of sin that they worke not their salvation with fear and trembling as the Apostle commands that they stand not upon their guard to keep themselves from falling that they pray not God fervently to hold them by the hand that they are not in a state of perpetual humiliation as the Saints advise them to be that they disdain those that humane frailty made to fall and that they glorify themselves in their good works whence it comes often that God chastises them to humble them He lets them fall into interiour aridities and desolations or into some furious temptations which cast them down to the brink of hell when they thought themselves at the gates of heaven and makes them say as David Ego dixi in abundantia mea non movebor in eternum avertisti faciem tuam factus sum conturbatus It seem'd Psal 29. 7. to me that I should never be troubled in the resolution I had to serve you ô my God You have withdrawn your grace and I find my self wholy perplex'd and in danger to be lost Hope not then in your selves nor in the force of your free will which is but weakness and misery hope in God and in his assistance but hope in him as you ought that is to say with great confidence 10. Blessed be the man who puts his confidence in God says Hieremie he is like to a tree planted by the water the leaf whereof is always green and which never fails to bring forth fruit Hierem. 17. 7. Collect of the 5. Sunday after Epiph. Wherefore the Church begging the favour of Gods protection makes a remonstrance to him that she relyes wholy upon the hope of his grace There his nothing that obliges us more to act faithfully for another then when we see that he confides in us and wholy depends upon us nor is there any thing that averts us more from succouring and assisting him than to see that he is diffident of us and can we think that our God will assist us powerfully when we confide not entirely but diffide in him Diffidence makes us un worthy of his favours it binds the hands of the Omnipotent and stops the cours of his particular graces 11. Give me a soul that hath a great confidence in God she would work miracles but if one staggers or diffides never so little in the Providence of God he will not have good success S. Peter finding the wind strong did not quite diffide since he cryd out Lord save me he had a little confidence since JESUS sayd to him ô thou of little faith But becaus he doubted he began to sink so certenly the reason why we are not powerfully assisted by God and that we do not the great works He would operate by us is becaus there is always in our hearts some grain of diffidence 12. Follow then the counsel of the holy Ghost Have confidence Prou. 3. 5. in the Lord and rely not vpon thy own prudence In all thy ways think on him and He will direct thy steps Have confidence you confide in a friend who never sayd to you trust in me who perhaps is chang'd and hath lost the love he had for you And will you not trust in God who is always the same and who says to you in his Scripture with so much tenderness and assurance I will not leave nor abandon Heb. 13. 5. thee Will you not trust in your God who can and will aide you powerfully if you cast your self into his armes In the Lord He is Master and He will shew it permitting you sometimes to be overwhelm'd by a tempest leaving you long in disgraces suits poverty infirmity and afflictions of Spirit But if you put great confidence in him though you be even past all remedy and ready to be lost He will strike the stroke of a Master will make a signal demonstration of his Providence and deliver you for his glory to the admiration of the world Rely not vpon your own prudence trust not in your ability 't is a weak support a rotten planck a reed and a foundation upon sand acknowledg in the presence of God that your light is but darkness that your Wisdom ss but folly demand his conduct invocate his mercy in the beginning in the progress and in theend of your actions In all your wayes think on him 'T is a great fault we commit and the cause of all our failings that we have not recours to God often enough nor fervently enough We are less able to do any thing that conduces to eternal life of our own selves than a child that hath never written is capable to write well if then you will do well you must not only recommend your self to JESUS in the beginning of your actions but often lift up your soul to him dart forth respectfull and affectionate aspirations and ask his grace and light If you do so He will direct your steps He will enlighten your understanding in perplexities strengthen your heart in temptations hold your hand in dangers direct your footsteps in his wayes He will make your actions succeed to acquisition of his grace in this world and to possession of his glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XVIII Of the Love of God CHarity is amongst Christian Vertues that which gold is amongst metalls ' that which the Palme is among trees that which the Lyon is amongst beasts that which a man is among all Creatures of this world that which the Seraphins are amongst Celestial creatures S. Ireneus calls it properly Eminentissimum Charismatum the most eminent and precious gift of the holy Ghost he agrees in this with the Apostle who having sayd that God hath chosen some 1. Cor. 12. 31. in his Church to be Apostles others to be Doctors others to work miracles He adds I will shew you yet a grace more excellent a gift of the holy Ghost more to be desir'd than to be an Apostle or a Prophet and this grace is charity of which he speaks immediatly One may be an Apostle and an ill man witness Judas a Prophet witness Balaam a Doctor witness Tertullian a Virgin witness the five foolish a worker of miracles witness they who will say have we not worked many miracles in your name But one cannot love God perfectly and Matth. 7. 22. have Charity without being good holy and pleasing to God 2. Here we ought to admire the Goodness and Providence of God who placed all our felicity and happiness in a thing so sweet and conformable to our nature And which poor as well as rich ignorant
as well as learn'd weak and sick as well as strong and healthy and in a word all the world may have by his Grace And because He desires that we bee perfect and wills that we be happy He commands us to love him 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Vpon which S. Austin Quid mihi es miserere ut loquar Quid tibi sum ego ut amari te jubeas a me nisi faciam minaris ingentes miserias parva ne est ipsa miseria si non amem te O my God! have pity on me pardon me if I am bold to speak being but dust and ashes what is this to say that you command me to love you ought one to command a Vassal to love his Prince an Infant to love his Father a Spouse to love her Espouse a Creature to love the Creator are not you my Soveraign my Father my Espouse my All and my Creator Nevertheless you threaten me with great miseries if I love you not is there in the world a greater misery then not to love you is it not the misery of miseries to be depriv'd of your love You command me to love you what mercy 'T is too much honor to have the permission of it a Vassall would not dare say to his Prince Sr. I love you he may say I honor your Majesty I have much affection for your service but not I love you and I may say it to my God not only without temerity but with much merit He permits it He desires it He commands it 4. Nevertheless we have this misfortune among many others and which is not of the lesser that we often make more account of things which we ought to consider less You find many who say this day is the feast of S. Matthew to morrow Ember day or Easter is at hand we must hear Mass fast prepare our selves for communion You find very few that ever sayd in their lives we must make an Act of the love of God and nevertheless it is a commandement of God which obliges more stricly than those of the Church it is the first and greatest commandement it is an affirmative commadement Note affirmative the affirmative Precepts are those which command some action the negative are those which forbid to act to obey negative commandements we need not but abstain from acting to observe these commands Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not swear Thou shalt not Steal there is no need to do any thing 't is enough to abstain from killing swearing robbing It is not so in the affirmative We fulfill them not by doing nothing but by practising Acts which they command Now the Commandement of loving God is affirmative which obliges to expresse and formal acts and without doubt obliges sometimes and men think not of it They employ every week half an hour at least in hearing Mass to obey the command of the Church 't is well don and if they did not they would offend God But how coms it to pass that they employ not half a quarter of an hour nither every week nor every month nor every year to make an act of the love of God to obey this commandement of God which our Saviour published with is own mouth thou shalt love thy God 5. Belive me and you will believe one that desires your salvation with all his heart resolve from this present to employ some little space of time in the exercise of the love of God and give it the qualities and conditions of true love els it is not Charity and loses its value and its merit The love of God must have at least three qualities It must be a love that is Soveraign Pure and Active 6. The love of God is a love of preference it will be a king or nothing it cannot live without reigning and it cannot reign but Soveraignly The Son of God says in the Gospell He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me Matthew 10. 37. and he that loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me And to shew that we ought not only not prefer them before God but that we ought to postpose them much and to neglect them for him He says in S. Luke if any one com to me and hates not Luke 14. 26. S. Iohn 12. 25. his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own life he cannot be my Disciple And in S. Iohn he that loves his life shal lose it and he that hates his life in this world does keep it to everlasting life S. Austin explicating these words sais they are to be understood of the love of preference which we ought to testify to our Savior Aug. trâ—ct 51. in Io. in occasion when his commandement is in opposition with the love of any Creature whatsoever that is Your heart ought to be in this disposition that in case you must lose your suit goods husband wife children honor life or commit a mortal sin you will chuse rather to lose all than commit it if you have not this sincere and cordial Will you have not the true love of God you are in the state of damnation if you die in it your process is wholy ended you are condemn'd and damn'd eternally 8. He that loves not God more than himself inverts the order of charity says S. Prosper he had reason to say inverts Is not this a horrible inversion perversion and a prodigious disorder to love a particular good more than the universall the stream more then the source the ray more then the sun the image more than the prototype the nothing more than the All the creature which is but dust and putrefaction more then the most high most excellent and infinite Majesty of the Creator 9. It is this disorder that makes that a mortal sin also in a thing which seems not to be of great importance does merit hell It seems very rigorous to damne one for stealing a crown but you must not only regard the value of a crown but that you make more account of a piece of a silver then of God himself since you will lose his amitie and Him for it 10. In the second place the love of God must be a pure and disinteressed love S. Paul says nor only that charity seeks the 1. Cor. 13. 5. the glory of God and his divine interests but that it seeks not its own interests Non quaerit quae sua sunt S. Thomas treating of this Verity concludes with all Divines that charity is not a mercenary love a love of profit and of interest but a free and disinteressed love a love of amity and benevolence a love by which we will good to God not for the love of our selves but for the love of him we love him not in regard of our profit but in regard of his goodness not becaus He does good to us or that He may do us good but becaus He
depart out of this world they will remember your courtesie will returne you the like and receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS XLIX of Extreme Vnction AN Ancient being asked what is the touchstone of perfect amity He answered wisely that it is adversity a true friend does as the heart inclines always to the left side and places more affection where he sees more affliction IESUS then loves us with a sincere and cordial love since He instituted a Sacrament expressly to comfort us and to strengthen us in our last infirmity when honors dignities offices and riches fail us Though this Verity be assured us both by the greek and Latine Church as appears by the general Councel of Florence in the Instruction of the Armenians which was without contradiction admitted by the Grecians Nevertheless Dissenters endeavour to take from us this signal demonstration of Christs Providence and love and to deprive us of this powerfull help in time of our greatest need Wherefore in the first place I will shew yet farther that 't is a true and proper Sacrament in the second the effects of it and in the third the dispositions we ought to have to receive it 2. To evince the first I need no other proof then the clear words of S. Iames If any one be sick amongst you let him bring in the Priests of the Church and let them pray over him anoiling him Iames. 5. 4. with oyle in the name of our Lord. And the prayer of Faith shal save the sick and our Lord will alleviate him and if he be in sins they shal be remitted him Here we have all that Dissenters themselves require to the essence of a Sacrament to wit an exteriour signe or symbole a promise of Grace and divine institution The exteriour signe or Symbole is Vnction with oyle and the prayer of Faith the promise is Alleviation of the sick and remission of sins and the institution thereof is gathered from the constant and firme promise of the Apostle for he would not have promised so confidently and absolutely had not our Lord instituted and commanded it Innoc â—p ad Decentium c. 8. Hence S. Innocent says expressy and clearly that this Vnction is a Sacrament declared by S. Iames and therefore not given to them that are yet in penance since the other Sacraments are refused them This Testimony of antiquity shal suffice since the Epistle is certaine He an ancient learned holy man wonderfully commended by S. Austin S. Hierome and S. Chrysostome and never reprehended by any of the Ancient for teaching the Vnction of sick to be a Sacrament Wherefore the Magdeburgenses prove by this Testimony that Christians of the fift age had a custome to annoynt their Magdâ—bur Cent. 5. c. 6 S. Aug. in speculo et ser 215 Cyrysost lib. 3. de sacerd Origen hom Z. â—n Levit. sick But they did not hold it as a pious custome only but as a necessary duty for S. Austine S. Chysostome Origen and other Fathers expressly tell us that the words of S. Iames appertaine to us rhat Christians ought to do now and in all times what this Apostle writes concerning the infirme And you will avow they had grear reason if you consider with me the admirable and saving effects of this Sacrament which are naturally represented by the effects of olive oyle and exprest by the words of the Apostle 3. First he Says the Prayer of Faith shal save the sick This Sacrament saves his soul by giving grace and force to withstand the terrours and temptations of the ennemie in the hour of death For 't is then he plays his planks and applyes all his forces to tempr us more furiously as the holy Fathers tell us becaus he sees his time is short and that we are least able to resist when through the greatness of paines we can hardly lift up our minds to God Somtimes he sets upon us as a Lyon with violence Othertimes as a Dragon laying snares to entrap us he tempts us to infidelity suggesting apparent reasons against Faith to Presumption and to confidence in our selves or to despaire and diffidence in the mercy of God exagerating the rigour of his justice the grievousness and great number of our sins the little or no penance we have don he tempts us to impatience in the rigour or length of the disease to murmuration against God to fear and diffidence in his Providence T is then that Friends should ayde you powerfully by servent prayers T is then that Confessors should assist and especially the Poor for their souls are at least as dear and precious to JESUS as those of the Rich the rich have generally Domesticks or friends that can exhort them and that have leasure to help them to dye well the Poor have them not nor such provision of good thoughts instructions and spiritual arms as the Rich by the advantage of their education and their 1. Pet. 5. reading The infernal woolf who roves about seeking whom he may devour sleeps not in this occasion the Pastor then ought to be vigilant and present in a time of so great importance the gift of gifts the grace of graces the most precious and desirable is final perseverance with out this grace all the other benefits serve for nothing In effect what will it profit me to have been created redeemed and justifyed if I die not in the state of grace and this Sacrament disposes me to persever in it 4 In the second place the Apostle says that God will alleviate the sick persone or raise him up For this Sacrament restores health of body to those who otherwise should dye if it be necessary or profitable to the salvation of the soul as the holy Councel of Trent and before it that of Florence assembled from all parts of the world declare This makes many Catholicks subject to this reproach which the Scripture made to Asa king of Iuda Neither in his infirmity did he seek our Lord but rather trusted in the art of Phisicians There was not then in the Church a remedy instituted for the cure of infirmities as there is now nevertheless the Scripture complains that he made recours to Phisicians rather than to God how much more will He complain of them who recurr not to the Sacrament which JESUS hath left us a remedy so easy and so commodious but in the utmost extremity when they can do no more And when you expect the Agony to receive or make this Sacrament to be received you put your selves in danger to be prâ—vented by death which happens too often and the fault is irreparable moreover when you receive it so late having not the use of reason and knowing not what is don to you you receive it less fruitfully since you have not actual devotion which would dispose you to receive it more worthily answering to the prayers of the Priost ioyning yours with his exercising acts of Faith Hope Charity and of other vertues
prosperities he invites them to penance by summons and inspirations which would reclaim tygers and if they return to him he receives them he pardons them he embraces them with inconceivable Clemency and sweetness 14. Nevertheless He is so great and terrible in Iusticè that though the death and Passion of JESUS-CHRIST is capable to redeem a hundred thousand worlds He sees notwithstanding an infinity of Iews of Pagans of Turcks Hereticks of bad Catholicks in the mass of corruption in the way of perdition He draws them not powerfully out of it through a most profound and incomprehensible but most just judgement and he accomplisheth the verity of this word of this tunder-clap many are Mat. 20. 16 called but few elect 15. He is great and admirable in his independence and in the plenitude of his Being He is naturally sufficient to himself most content with himself most happy in himself and has no need of any thing without himself He had from all eternity power to produce creatures heaven earth and all that is in them and he hath not created them but in time for to shew that he had no need of them for to make known that since he hath been perfectly happy without them from eternity he created them not for any S. Austin◠12. de Civit. c. 17. sub fin want he had of them but by a free goodness and by a pure and disinteressed charity Let us make an end of speaking of Him whose greatness has no end who is infinite in his Essence and infinite in Perfections for 't is to mafle as infants 't is to obscure his perfections to speak of them so imperfectly and if He were not infinitely mercifull and condescendent it would be a punishable temerity to speak so lowly so grossly and so unworthily of Him Yet this is enough to make us see what a Majesty we offend and whom we make our enemy when we commit a mortal sin And after this shal we not endeavour to conceive a lively repentance of our sins shal we content our selves with a little sorrow and which regards nothing but our own interests if we detest our sins because they rob us of our merits subject us to the tyranny of the devill engage us to Eternal damnation if we have no other motive 't is to feel and resent a scratch of a pin which we have received and not a great stroake of a sword which we have given The injuries that sin does to the Creatour are without comparison greater then those which it does to the Creature 16. For to avoyd them then Let us remember that God is infinitely noble If a Prince tho' a stranger that appertains not at all to us were in this Country we would not abuse or injure him but would honor him and treat him with respect and shal we dare to offend our God our Sovereign the King of Kings This King who is so great that all the Kings of the earth in respect of Him are but slaves and wormes of the earth Let us consider that He is infinitely powerfull We fear to offend the Powers of this world because they can punish us deprive us of our liberty estates or temporal life and shal we dare to offend the omnipotent God who by one word one act of his Will can reduce us to dust who after He has killed the body will cast our soules into Eternal flames Let us consider that He is infinitely Wise that all things ly open to his sight that he can not forget any thing that whatsoever excuse we forge for to flatter our conscience and to diminish the greatness of our offenses He sees the greatness of them He knows all the circumstances of them and pierceth the bottome of our hearts He knows that 't is neither violence nor poverty nor necessity that makes us to commit sin but that 't is because we have not the fear of God nor the due love of him Let us consider that He is good and that He has always been so to us T is a great injustice a very unnatural malice to offend a person that has never given us any cause who has never disoblig'd us all his life We know that 't is God who created us who conserves us at present and hath preserved us from a thousand dangers He who hath given us more than we have desir'd more than we should dare to desire and what is above all desire who has given his own life and died upon the Cross by pure charity towards us After all these graces shal wee have the malice to commit a mortal sin which infinitely displeases Him Let us remember that He is infinitely just and that his justice ought to have its cours His Prophet sayd I feared all my Iob. 9. 82. works knowing that thou wouldest not spare the offender He leaves not unpunished the least failings what will he do then to mortal sins to great Crimes We must hold it then as most certaine that if we commit these sins we shal suffer soon or late most bitter and grievous torments in this world or in the other Let us in fine consider that He is independent that He depends not of any one in his Being nor in his designs nor in his operations that if He associate sometimes his creatures in the Execution of his designs 't is by an Excess of goodness and not out of indigence If He could have need of us we might thinke that He would be obliged to pardon us and to seek our amitie But he needs us not He has been well without us from all Eternity he will be well without us for all Eternity and if we honour not his mercy in heaven we shal honor his justice by our sufferances in hell from which I pray God to keep us by his mercy Amen DISCOURS II. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE The Father Almighty Creatour Of Heaven and Earth THe first verity expressed in these words requires as much vertue and strength of Faith as any other Verity revealed It obliges us to believe and adore a pluralitie of divine Persons in a most perfect Unitie of nature and to Confess that in the Diety there is a Person who intellectually produces a coeternal and consubstantial Son Hence the Apostles truly call Him Father and his Paternity or fatherhood is so proper to Him that 't is not an Attribute or Quality but that which enters the intrinsecal and individual constitution of Him Father also of us because he created us conserveth us at present and nourisheth us Father again because he redeemed us by his own Son makes us his Children by adoption governs and directs us and conducts us to the inheritance of eternal life 2. Almighty or Omnipotent This signifies a perfection not so proper to him as is that of Fathêr Omnipotence also is not his particular Attribute or Quality but to him appropriated and attributed You know that the faith of the church adores three Persons subsisting in the
Divinity You know that Divinity acknowledgeth and reverenceth in God three principal Perfections Power Wisdom Goodness You know that the Scriptures and the Fathers doe attribute to each one of these Divine Persons one of these Perfections tho' all three be common to them all Omnipotence to the Father because He is the source and origin of Divinity Wisdom to the Son because He is begotten by the way of understanding and of knowledg Goodness to the Holy Ghost because He is produced by the way of Will and Love These are three Divine Persons which inseperably and indivisibly applyd themselves to the Creation to the Conservation and to the Government of the Univers These are the three fingers of God as the Prophet I say calls them who sustaine conserve and govern the world Those are their three infinite Perfections which are apply'd unto this worke For if we consider the matter out of which the World was drawn we shal admire an infinite Power If we consider the manner in which the World is governed we shal acknowledge an incomprehensible Wisdom If we consider the End to which this World is designed we shal see and love an ineffable Goodness 4. First we shal admire an infinite Power For if there were so Excellent a workman that could make a Cup of gold of a lumpe of silver he would be admired but if he should make a golden Cup of a mass of lead he would be a workman far more Excellent and yet more if he should make it of a barre of Iron and yet more if he made it of a piece of wood but if he made it of a grain of sand he would pass for a demy God and we would say that his power is almost infinite Ought he not than to be God indeed and to have a power entirely infinite for to make not a Cup of gold but Heaven and Earth Angells and men and all the other Creatures and to make them of nothing as our God did whom we confess in this Article to be the Creatour of Heaven and Earth 5. If his Divinity and his infinite Omnipotencie appeare so Clearly in the matter of which he made the world his Divinity and his incomprehensible Wisdom appears yet more in the manner by which he governs it This Wisdom say I shines so brightly in the conduct of the Univers that we need not but to open our Eyes for to see it as clear as the day For we see that the Heavens turne about us in so regular so constant and so unvariable an order that the seasons of the year serve us by quarters and that they succeed one another with a vicissitude so proportioned to our life We see that the animalls that have not judgement and also that the plants which have not sense performe all their functions with so much industry and perfection and commodity for our service as if they had judgment All this makes us to conclude that there must be in the Univers a Sovereign Wisdome a divine Spirit most intelligent and most provident who rules governs and directs all these things and who by an ineffable Goodness obliges them to serve us 6. For God created all these things for us He governs them all for us and to shew us this his admirable Goodness He created man the last of all as the End to which He referred his works For the end is always the first and the principall in the intention of the Workman and the last in the Execution of the worke And we experience to our great profit that they all tend unto this End and that they conspire to serve and intertaine us some to beare us others to nourish cloath cure and reioyce us T is then for you ô man that the heavens move that starrs glitter that fire warms that air refreshes that rivers run that the earth produces fruits that animalls live and labor and it is for you in fine that God conserves and employs all these Creatures when you thinke least of it when you recreate when you sleep when you injure and offend him He then thinkes on you He acts for you and makes all Nature to labor and sweat for you He says to you not by word but by work you disoblige me extremely you commit sin which displeaseth me infinitely But nevertheless take the presents which I make you taste and see that I am a sweet Lord. For is it not to be very sweet to give you so many sweetnesses and dainties in return to so many bitternesses which you present me daily Ha! we cease not to offend him and He ceases not to caress us what admirable Goodness should we not be monsters of ingratitude and abortives of nature if our hearts be not softened and gained by so many favours 7. Moreover we must note that we are obliged to God for all the good He hath don to other creatures When a Father employes a Tayler nourishes him payes him for his labor gives him stuff to make a robe for his daughter 't is not the robe that is obliged to him and if also the robe should have sense and understanding it would not be much obligd to thanke him since he hath not don all this to the robe for love of the robe but for love of his daughter 't is the daughter then that hath the obligation and who ought to thank her father for it so we are oblig'd to God for all the beauty goodness qualities and proprieties that He hath distributed among his creatures becaus 't is not for them but for us that He hath given them all these qualities and perfections to the end we may thank him prayse him love him serve him and keep his commandements He gave them the Countries of Nations Says the Royal Prophet and Psal 104. 44. they possêssed the labours of people that they might keep his justifications and seek his law Ô how ill does he that serves not God! ô what injustice does he commit against his Creatour T is an insupportable ingratitude not to acknowledg honor and love such a Benefactor 8. If you lett a poor Cottage to your neighbor you will that he pay you rent for it and if he should fail you would cry out against him How comes it then says S. Chrisostome that you pay not the tribute of thanks to your great God that you hom 12. ad Rom. serve him not cordially who hath placed you in this world in this glorious Pallace which He built and which wholy appertains to him If you have a Vineyard which you neither made nor planted nor cultivated but have received it by inheritance letting it to a farmer you will have the half or the thirds of the fruits of it though that the farmer be poor and hath many Children God hath lett you a Vineyard or field to farme and how vouchsafe you not to pay him not only not the fourth part of the revenew of it not also the tythe perhaps not the twentieth part
holy SACRAMENT Who is the Father of this coloured Ray 'T is the Sun But the Sun produced not the colour But it produced the Ray which is joyned with the colour and who is the mother of this coloured Ray 't is the glass but it made not the ray but it produced the radiant colour it cloathed the ray with this Robe of colour Who is the Father of IESUS MAN-GOD It is the eternal Father He begot not of his substance the Humanity of JESUS But He begot of his Substance the Person of his Son who is Man Who is the Mother of this MAN-GOD It is Mary she begot not the Divinity But she conceived the Man who is God the cloathed the Person of the Son of God with our humanity Which is the more ancient this coloured Ray or the glass The Ray as a Ray as the offspring of the Sun is a long time before the glass it is from the beginning of the world it is as ancient as the Sun But the Ray as coloured is younger than the Sun Who is the more ancient IESUS or Mary IESUS as God or as Son of God is long before Mary He is from eternity as the Father and the holy Ghost But JESUS as man is younger than his Mother This Ray being in the sun is so bright and resplendent that i◠dazells the eyes of them that look upon it but the same ray being descended here below and cloathed with a red colour is easily beheld so the son of God in the bosome of his Father is invisible ineffable inaccessible and incomprehensible But the same Son of God being cloathed with our humanity is made visible palpable and sensible to the end He might illuminate and instruct us that He might be the Director of souls and the Doctor of justice as He is called by the Prophets And He begins betimes to perform the charge He exercices the office from the beginning of his life 4. This insant newly born does preach his pulpit is the cradle his Auditory the univers his Doctrine is the contempt of the world He preaches not by word for He cannot speak but by example He preaches not to the eares But to the eyes He says that voluntary poverty is better than riches And the world on the contrary says that money is to be procured in the first place that a man must have it tho' he hazard his soul for it This divine infant says the humble simple innocent and mortifyd life is that which pleases God The World says a man must greaten himself appear glorious Machevalize subtily Circumvent and diceive craftily and live in delights and pleasures 5. Behold two Masters quite contrary two doctrines diametrically opposite It is necessary the one or the other be deceiv'd To say this infant is deceiv'd is horrible blasphemy He is the eternal Wisdom the increated Wisdom the Angel of the great Council It must then be confest that the Avaricious Ambitions Voluptuous and Machiavilians are grossly deceived 6. Let us then Conforme our selves to IESUS who is established by the eternal Father as our modell Let our life resemble his as an Image the Prototipe or original Let it be a copie an expression and a representation of his that we paticipating his vertues Spirit and graces in this life may be partakers of his glory in the other Amen DISCOURS VI. OF THE FOVRTH ARTICLE Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried THe Apostles who made in their Creed an abridgement of the principall Mysteries of our Faith having spoken of the Conception and of the Nativity of our Saviour pass his Life in silence and treat immediatly of His death to teach us the chiefe reason of his comming was to suffer and to redeem us by his Passion 2. He saw by the light of glory the abyss of sin and the Eternal damnation to which men were doom'd for the fault of their first Parents and for their own sins He had pity on them and prayed his Father to pardon them for the Love of Him What man on earth What Angel in Heaven knowing that the only Son of God a Son so amiable and so beloved demands pardon of his Father for men to whom He is like in nature What man or Angel say I knowing this would not have sayd surely surely the eternal Father will pardon mankind for the love of his Son who is a man and that also freely without any satisfaction No the Father does it not But He says Isaiah 53. 10. my Justice must have its cours my Son I will pardon men if you will answer for them and undergoe death for them The Son hath a great apprehension and horror of a death so cruell and ignominious we see it in the Prayer He made in the Garden which was an expression of that which He acted in the womb of his Mother after the instant of his Conception 3. Nevertheless He accepted not only with patience and resignation but also with pleasure and satisfaction the decrees of Gods Justice concerning him He offered himself most willingly and with an ineffable love not only to be nayled to the Cross but also to remaine and languish thereupon ' til the end of the world if it should so please his Father Ecce venio ut faciam voluntatem Heb. 10. 9. tuam He that should have seen this submission might with probability have sayd the eternal Father will content himself with his good will as He was satisfyd with the good will of Abraham and of Isaac at least the Justice of God will be contented that he suffer but one prick of a thorn or one stroke of a whip that He shed one drop of his Blood which is sufficient to sanctify the whole world No He wills that He suffer actually all the punishments humiliations and afflictions we sinners did deserve 4. A Sinner deserves to be depriv'd of the use of creatures since he abused them to be humbled and confounded becaus he would not be subject to the laws and will of God To be punished both in body and soul becaus he offended the infinitely high Majesty of the Creator And JESUS hath taken upon himself to satisfy for all these pains and punishments 5. He was depriv'd of the use of Creatures for what privation more rigorous than to be spoiled of his very cloathes to be as naked as a worme of the earth not to have so much as a poor shift to cover him not a drop of water to refresh his tongue in the agony of death One of his Apostles betrays him another denys him all forsake him and thô some holy Women followed him yet they were not permitted to assist him 6. He was humbled and confounded What greater humiliation than to be exposed to derision and rudeness of the rable and to insolence of soldiers Who treat him as the very scum of men who salute him in mocherie blindfold him buffet him pull off his beard who put a reed in his hand
for a scepter and thorns upon his head for a crown as if He were a king of the Theater To be decry'd and condemn'd as a blasphemer as a seducer as ambitious as sedicious as an Imposter What confusion greater then to be dragd through the streets of Hierusalem with hues and cries as a fool and as an extravagant person from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to the Pretory To be less esteem'd then Barrabbas a seditious person and a murtherer to be esteem'd more wicked more unworthy to live and more worthy of the cross then he What indignity more intollerable than to receive foule and fiâ—thy matters in token of vility and baseness not upon his garments or hands only but upon his most venerable and adorable face this indignity was so ignominious in Israel that if a child receiv'd it from his father he was to bear the confusion Numb 12. 14. of it at least seven daies To be short What greater contempt than to die not the death of Nobles nor with honourable persons not in private and in prison not in the night by torch light but the death of slaves with infamous persons in a high and publick place at mid-day in the sight of more than two hundred thousand persons 7. What shal I say of the punishments receiv'd in his sacred Body He suffered more horrible harsh and bitter torments than were ever suffer'd by any creature upon earth The Prophet Isaiah calls him by excellence the man of Paines Abel was murthered c. 33. 3. Zachary was stoned Isaiah sawed Lazarus covered with ulcers and not one of them is called the man of Paines We have heard of men to whom their vertues or their vices their birth or their condition have given honourable or shamefull Names But we have not heard but of IESUS-CHRIST only to whom Paine hath given a name He is the Man of Pains because He did bear all our paines He is the man of Paines becaus He suffered in all his members and He is the man of Pains becaus He was pierced through with Pains exposed Sacrificed and given wholy over to sufferances and Pains 8. But the sufferances in his soul will make appear yet better the Greatness of his Paine He sayd in the Garden my soul is sorrowfull to death It would seperate my soul and Body if I shoul not hinder it for to endure yet more To whatsoever part He casts his sight He sees objects of the greatest sorrow His soul is nail'd to a most hard Cross before his Body is Crucifyd and the Cross of his Soul is much more harsh and insupportable then that of his Body The three nails of this interiour cross are the injuries don to his Father the Commpassion of his Mother and the damnation of his brothers Philosophy teaches us that a paine is more sharp and bitter when 't is received in a power more pure and immaterial IESUS was pierced with paine not only in the inferior part of his soul but also in the superior which is wholy spiritual in the part in which He was blessed and his Beatitude also contributed to the increas of paine says S. Laurence Justinian He de tryumphali Christi Agone saw by the light of glory God face to face He knew clearly the Greatness of his Majesty the outrage and the injury that sin does him he loved him with a most ardent and excessive love and therefore He could not be but excessively afflicted seeing the Ocean of sins committed against that most high adorable and amiable Majesty The wounds of his Body were made by hands of Torterers hands indeed most cruell and inhumane Yet their activity had stil limits But the wounds of his heart were inflicted by the hand of love by the love which He had for his Father a love ineffable and incomprehensible If a soule that loved God well could have as much contrition as she would desire ô how would she pierce herself with sorow How willingly would she bathe herself in her tears ô how would she calcinate her poor heart JESUS had as much of sorrow as He desired and He desired as much of it as He had love for his Father his sorrow was equal with his love If He had seen but one only mortal sin committed against him whom He so loved He would have grieved infinitely ô how then was He afflicted when He saw so many so different and so enormous 9. The love which he had for his Mother was another nail that pierced his heart and which fastned him to this interior Cross He sees her present at all the Misteries of his bitter Passion He sees all the wonds of his Body united in her heart and we may say that his compassion was another Passion 10. He looks below His soul is sorrowfull He sees the torments of hell wherein so many shal be plunged notwithstanding his sufferances for them He sees that their wounds are incurable that they abuse his Blood death and merits and that after so many remedies they damne themselves for trifles and what He indured for them would serve but as oyle and sulphur to inflame the divine Justice to punish their ingratitude more rigorously 11. S. Austin wholy astonished at the sight of CHRISTS sufferance cry's out ô Son of God whither hath your humility descended whither hath your charity been inflamed whither hath your piety extended it self The Wiseman sayd that you have don every thing in number weight and measure But in this work of your Love You have observ'd neither number nor weight nor measure You have exceeded all hopes and desires You have made an excess that could not be imagined The Angells were astonished considering this wonder a God whipt a God cover'd with spittle the King of kings crown'd with thorns a God crucifyed for slaves a God pierced with sorrows for worms of the earth of whom He had no need and knowing that they would be ungratfull for so great a Benefit What transport what excess and if He were not God I might say with Pagans what folly of Love Gentibus stultitia 12. After a love so cordial undeserv'd and so excessive shal we not love him If the least slave had don the same for us He would be Master of our hearts and seeing a God hath don it shal He not be Qui non diligit Dominum Iesum Anathema sit 1. cor 16. 22. says S. Paul since JESUS suffer'd for us if any one love him not let him be Anathema Curs'd excommunicated and abhorred of all creatures But if any one should not love him and moreover be so ungratfull as to offend him what punishment would You wish him holy Apostle He adds it not nor can one wish him a pain so great as he deserves there should be a new hell to revenge an ingratitude so monstrous and enormous 13. For as S. Bernard sayd if Moses speaking to the Iews who had but a gross and imperfect Law who had
eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and
ascertain'd testimony of God who cannot deceive or be deceived Habitual faith is when 't is permanent as a habit and remains in us ' til we lose it by infidelity Actual faith is when we exercise formally and expresly an act of beliefe upon a revealed Verity Implicite is when we believe not the Articles of Religion but confusedly in general and in gros as when we say I believe all that the Church believes Explicit is when we believe distinctly and in particular that there is one God in three Persons that the Son of God was made man and the like important verities Interior faith is when we believe in heart without making known by any signe whether we believe or no. Exteriour is when we make profession of our belief by words or by external and visible actions dead faith is when it is depriv'd of the love of God and of other vertues Living faith is when it is animated by charity and the practise of good works 6. Humane faith conduces not to justification nor consequently to salvation this the Apostle expressly teaches when he says By Ephes 2. 8. 2. Cor. 5. 2. grace you are saved through faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God And again we are not sufficient to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 7. Habitual faith suffices not for an Adult or one that hath sufficient use of reason but he must believe actually the Mysteries of faith For he that coms to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek him says S. Paul And S. Heb. 11. Iohn .. 3. 18. Iohn He that does not believe is already judged He says not he that hath not faith but he that does not believe which expresses a formal act I sayd habitual faith suffices not one that hath sufficient use of reason for infants and such as have not the use of reason may be saved by habitual faith which they receive when they are spiritually regenerated by Baptisme For this habitual gift of faith and the other habitual and supernatural gifts of Hope and Charity which they then by the merits of CHRIST receive justify them makes them adoptive children of God heires of his kingdom and remains in them for these effects and to be the sources of correspondent acts when they shal com to the use of reason 8. Implicit faith suffices not to be saved It is not enough to say I believe all that the Church believes you are oblig'd to know and believe explicitly that there is one God in three Persons Father Son and holy Ghost Creatour Saviour Sanctifier the Incarnation of JESUS-CHRIST his Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension his comming to Judgment if any one committed to your care should be ignorant of these Misteries you would be more culpable then if you should permit them to work on Christmas day this being only against a precept of the Church that against a Commandement of God And for the same reason if others who do not particularly pertain to you should be ignorant of those mysteries you would offend against charity if you instruct them not more then if you should leave them in ignorance of their obligation to hear Mass on Easter day 9. Interior faith suffices not It is not enough to have a firm faith in our heart we must make a profession of it by our words Rom. 10. 10. and actions For with the heart we believe vnto justice but with the mouth Confession is made to sâlvation says S. Paul We receive body and soul and all from God we must acknowledg and honour him as He commands us though with the loss of all 1. Cor. 13. Galat. 5. 6. S. Iames. 2. 14. Matth. 7. 21 S. Matt. 25. 41. Aug. Lib. de Fide Oper. C. 15. Tom. 4. ◠med 10. Dead faith in fine suffices not for if a man hath all faith and have not charity he is nothing says S. Paul And in another place he assures us that the faith only which works by charity is that which profits and conduces to salvation S. Iames confutes largly dead faith and thus concludes You see then Brethren how that by works a man is justifyd and not by faith only Our Saviour himself declares it insufficient to salvation when He says Not every one that says Lord Lord which is not sayd without Faith but he that does the will of my Father shal enter into the kingdom of Heaven And in the same Gospell He blames those He sends into everlasting fire not becaus they believ'd not in him but becaus they did not good Works and this passage S. Austin also urges much against the Solifideans 11. Catholicks believe this but many among them fail in the practise of it What Christian works what supernatural works conformable to their faith and what works more perfect than those of Pagans do they Tbey labour to maintain themselves to nourish and provide for children and the Pagans did so They honor their Parents the Pagans respected also theirs they injure none and honest Pagans did not They love their Benefactors I will not say what Pagan but what Tyger does not They love their friends and such as do love them the Publicans or Pagans do they not the same and what reward shal you have sayd our Saviour You must do works conformable to your faith supernatural Matth. 5. 46. heroical and worthy of the recompence we pretend to 12. A good Christian acts not by natural inclination nor by humane reason nor by maxims of policie nor by temporal interest but hath faith for the Principle of his actions and for the Rule of his life He labours and gains money not for the love of it nor of any honour or pleasure he may get by it but for a necessary entertainment of himself in the service of God and to give Alms because faith teaches him to use it for these ends He nourishes and provides for children not because they are his but because they are Gods creatures his Images and the Members of JESUS-CHRIST He abstains from sensual delights and carnal pleasures not because a man is too noble and born to higher things than to be a slave to his body but because JESUS-CHRIST recommended it He does no injury to any not because he would have the repute of an honest man but becaus JESUS hath forbidden him He suffers injuries and affronts and pardons them not because it is the property of a great courage to contemne and look upon them as unworthy of his anger as a Lyon or an Elephant slights the cries of little dogs but because CHRIST commands us to pardon injuries to do good to those that hate and persecute us He serves faithfully his Master not becaus his Master nourishes him well and gives good wages but becaus God sayd by the mouth of S. Paul Servants render obedience to your Masters as to JESUS-CHRIST He gives alms to
if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his Soul And so if we will be good Christians we ought to love our Neighbors there is nothing that we ought not to lose pleasure riches honor and also if need be life it self for the Salvation of our neigbors And this the beloved Disciple and faithfull Interpreter of his Master teaches us in these clear words In this we know the Charity of God becaus He hath given his life for us and we ought also to give our life for our Brothers He does not say 1. Ep. 3. only that 't is expedient that it is a Salntary counsell but that we must give our lives for their salvation and to move us more He puts before our eyes the example of IESUS-CHRIST S Iohn 13. who made his love of us the rule of our love of others I give you a new commandement that you love one another as I have loved you And lest we should less note it He repeats it again in the Iohn 15. same Gospell This is my Precept that you love one another as I have loved you 7. Though this Vertue be so pleasing to God and so important to our Salvation nevertheless men fail in this the most and to say nothing of all those who live in hatred envie discord contention scandal which are the common pests of the world and the mortal ennemies of charity there are many who seem to have good intelligence who make mutuall visits complements offers of service Yet love but in word and tongue not in work and verity they will not open their purs nor use their power nor apply their pains and labor for the assistance of their neighbor in necessity 8. Others love their kindred and relations but with a natural inordinate and hurtfull love they procure them what is honourable or profitable upon earth though they put them into eminent danger of losing heaven they give them what pleases the senses and satisfys their foolish inclinations though to the prejudice of their souls and their salvation and if they see them desirous to renounce the world and to betake themselves to a vertuous cours of life they call upon them and to shew their love diswade them from it and recall them to the usuall and libertine cours of life so they seem to love but do truly hate to be good friends but are the worst of enemies and the maxim of our Savior is verefyd in them The enemies of a man are his domesticks Matt. 10 9. Others in fine extend their love beyond Relations but to those only from whom or by whose means they expect honor pleasure or profit This is an imperfect love a love of concupiscence and interest and not of charity which seeks not proper interest but loves God and in him or for him or for the love of him all others though they be our enemies becaus they are his images redem'd by the precious blood of IESUS capable to know serve and possess him and becaus it is his Will intimated to us by this general precept to love our neighbors and particularly commanded in S. Matthew I say to you love Mat. 5. 44. your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute and calumniate you that you may be children of your Father 10. But the first and most necessary effect of this good will and love which is exacted of us for our ennemies is to pardon them for this is the first mercy and charity that we can doe them and the most necessary alms we can bestow upon them What good can we do them if first we do not pardon them but keep in our hearts odium enmity bitterness and a desire to take reveng of them Wherefore the Son of God who endeavours by all means our Salvation does not only command this charity and mercy but moreover obliges us to it by other pressing motives He promises us his greatest mercy which is the pardon of our sins if we pardon others dimittite dimittemini and he assures us that his Father will treat us most rigorously if we do not Sic Pater meus celestis faciet vobis so my heavenly Father will cast you into the prison of hell if you forgive not others from your hearts And S. Iames tells us judgement Iames 2. 13. without mercy shal be donâ— to them who shal not have don mercy S. Austin praying for the soul of his deceased Mother sayd I know that she led a holy and innocent life but woe to a laudable life if you examin it without mercy Whatsoever life you lead woe to you woe to you if you have enmitie you shal be judged without mercy and woe to a laudable life if judged without mercy What laudable thing do you You pray woe if you have bitterness woe to you notwithstanding your prayer for that he Psal 11â— remembred not to do mercy let his prayer be turn'd into sin says the Psalmist Your prayer condemns you saying our Lords prayer you demand Vengeance against your self you say I pardon such a person but I will not speak to him I will not that he com into my house and after this you say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us God will hear you He will not speak to you favourably nor admit you into his house and if you be not admitted into heaven whether shal you go What laudable action do you you give alms woe to you if you have malice woe to you notwithstanding your alms S. Paul says if you should give all your goods to the poor if you 1. Cor. 13 have not charity you are nothing and by charity in this place he understands the love of neigbours What vertuous action do you you fast woe to you notwithstanding your fast if you have dissention In Isaiah the Iews Isay 58. 3 complain'd to God We have fasted and you have not regarded us God answers them with all your fasts you do your wills you press your poor debtours you have debates and contentions What laudable thing perform you Sacrifice woe to you if you have malice God says by Osee and twice in the Gospell I love and will rather mercy then your sacrifice And therefore many Osee 6. great Saints offering to God the most meritorious sacrifice that can be offer'd to him the sacrifice of their lives have interrupted it to obey this Commandement of mercy in the hour of their death when they had time little enough to elevate themselves to God to offer and to unite themselves to him they remembred their enemies pray'd for them and desired their good 11. These heroical vertues of the Saints were extracts and copies of those which we admire in IESUS-CHRIST the King of Martyrs and the Saint of Saints He being unjustly and most cruelly nailed to the Cross mock'd blasphem'd did not do as some do they think that they exercise great acts
of charity and patience towards their enemies when they say I will not reveng my self I leave reveng to God let God do to him according to his deserts know you well what you do says S. Austin you make your self judg of your neighbor you will not or you cannot execute your sentence but you desire that God should be the Executioner of it He that will be revenged says Ecclesiasticus shal find reveng of our Lord and keeping he will keep his sin He says not he that will reveng himself but he that will be revenged shal be the object of the divine vengeance You will not reveng your self nor hurt your neigbor but you desire that God would reveng the injury that he hath don you this ir to desire to be revenged it is to incurre the Vengeance of God The Son of God does quite otherwise upon the Cross He prayes God to pardon them He excuses them as much as he can He seeks reasons to diminish the greatness of their crimes Pardon them sayes He for they know not what they do He expects not his Resurrection to pray for them when the abundance of glory and the charms of its delight would blot out the sense of his paines He prayes for them in the midst of most bitter torments when He hath his enemies before his eeys who offend him actually his eares ringing with their blasphemies his mouth full of gall and bitterness his body all cover'd with wounds When He prays for himself He sayes my God when He prayes for his enemies He says my Father to incline Him by the sweetness of this appellation when He prays for himself in the garden it is with condition If it be possible here He prays absolutely my Father I beseech you to pardon them by these thornes which pierce my head by these teares which fall from my eyes by these wounds which are as so many mouthes that demand your pardon If so rare and prodigious an example of charity does not move us nothing in the world will move us 't is in vain to say more God have mercy on us and convert us Amen DISCOURS XX. OF THE NECESSITY OF GRACE I Treat not in this discours of natural graces not of those which Divines call gifts gratis given not of habitual grace which is a most noble and excellent quality by which we are made children of God most pleasing to his Majesty and heires of his Paradise 't is called habitual becaus it remains always in us as a habit when we have once receiv'd it ' til we lose it by consenting to a mortal sin 't is also named sanctifieng and justifieng grace becaus it sanctifys us and renders us holy and just before God But here I speak only of actual Grace which is a good motion a holy inspiration an interiour light a secret touch a supernatural aide by which the holy Ghost wakens us and excites us to rise out of sin or to the practise of some good work It is called actual becaus it makes us do acts of Vertue and it remains not always in us but passes as an act or as a flash of lightning I will shew the necessity we have of this grace becaus it imports very much to be well convinced of it and to put in practise the Documents which are drawn from it 2. God the omnipotent Creator having reposed from all Eternity and satisfyd himself in the plenitude of his divine Being in the enjoyance of his infinite Perfections in the fecundity of his adorable Emanations in the society of his divine Persons and willing by a sally of love and by a powerfull inclination of his natural Goodness to communicate himself out of himself created man in the beginning of time to his own image and resemblance that by grace and particular priviledge he might be partaker of the same felicity which the Creatour possessed in himself by the prerogative of his Nature He created him I say to his own image and resemblance to his Image in the Vnderstanding to his resemblance in the will to his image in reason to his resemblance in dilection to his image in the kâ—owledg of verity to his resemblance in the love of vertue having so created him He made him Lord of all the creatures and as a little God in this world lodged him in a garden of delights He honoured him with one only commandement very easy to be observ'd that meriting by his own acts the Beatitude prepar'd for him he might have more honor and contentment to enjoy it not as a present freely given but as a crown happily and gloriously obtain'd by conquest Satan perceived this and raging with envie desir'd to frustrate the designe feating that man whom he esteem'd much inferiour to himself should merit by his humility and obedience the glory of heaven which he had lost by his arrogancy and rebellion and seeing well that he could not vanquish him by force made use of fraud and artifice and having induced him to transgress the commandement of God gave him traiterously two mortal wounds contrary to the two prerogatives he receiv'd from God in his creation Ignorance of good against the light of his understanding Concupiscence of evill against the rectitude of his will From these two accursed sources have flown all the dismal evills which destroy our nature and principally the two more notable Delict and Crime Delict coms from ignorance Crime proceeds from concupiscence Delict is the omission of good commanded Crime is the commission of evill prohibited For such infectious wounds two remedies were necessary man had need of counsel and of aide consilio auxilio indigebat of counsel to cleare his ignorance of aide to correct his concupiscence of counsel to enlighten his understanding of aide to fortify his will of counsel to make him know verity of aide to make him love vertue This is that wherewith the divine Word incarnated for for the salvation of men hath enriched us abundantly who came as S. Iohn says full of Grace and Verity Grace there S. Iohn 1. is Aide Verity there is counsel 4. But is not this a wonder capable to ravish the highest Scraphins with admiration to see that the Son of God defer'd so long a remedy so necessary The Son of God resolv'd from all Eternity to make himself man He made promises of it from the beginning of ages and nevertheless He defers more then four thousand years the execution of a designe so worthy of himself so conformable to his goodness so conducible to his glory so advantagious to men ô my God how wonderfull are you How incomprehensible is the Abyss of your secrets You are so jealous of your honour how permit you then the evill Spirit your mortal Enemy to tyrannize so over your creatures to possess your dominion to be adored instead of you for the space of four thousand years you have so mortal and irreconcilable hatred of sin how permit you Idolatry a sin so
urge and press What is it that urges and Pressess you to penance 'T is the Will of God who commands you by S. Iohn Baptist by the Apostles by the holy Doctors by the Councells of the Church and by the mouth of his own Son What is that which urges you 'T is the fear you ought to have to offend the greatness of God his infinite justice his Immensity and most adorable Presence What is that which urges you The fear of falling into new sins of dying in an ill state of losing the merit of your good Workes It is the example of the Saints who have don Penance all their life It is the charity of IESUS who incarnated himself who endured so much Who dyed upon the Cross to oblige you to it who hath expected you so long and so patiently with this intention who promises you pardon and to receive you if you do true Penance See then the changes which true penance makes that you may not so easily be deceived in a matter of so great importance The Prophet Ioöl expresses them in a few words Convert to me in all your heart in fasting and in weeping and Ioel. 2. 12. in mourning In rhe first place it makes a change in us Convert In the second it changes our heart convert to me in your heart In the third place It changes all the heart convert to me in all your heart in the fourth It rests not in the heart onâ—y but changes our exteriour Convert to me in fasting and in mourning 5. In the first place true penance changes and converts us Convert It is an admirable Chimistrie which transforms not metalls but souls ir changes not peuter into silver copper into gold but men into Angells from carnal terrestrial vitious and brutal it turns them into spiritual vertuous and divine men S. Paul calls him that is converted a new creature a new man and he says that by penance we are renew'd and reform'd becaus we devest our selves of the old Adam for to revest our selves with the new which is IESUS-CHRIST 6. This Word in your hearts notes the second change and teaches us that 't is the heart which must be first and Ephes 4. 24. chiefly changed It is the heart that God demands always when He speaks of conversion convert your selves to me in all your heart rent your hearts and â—n oâ— your garments says He by his Prophet Ioel. And by the Psalmist my God you will not despise a contrite Ioel 2. Psal 50. Ezech. 18. 31. and humbled heart and by the Prophet Ezechiel cast away all your prevarications and make your selves a new heart and a new Spirit A new spirit that is thoughts sentiments and opinions A new heart that is wills affections and desires quite other then before 7. Vpon which S. Gregory admonishes us of two Errors into part 1. Past c. 9. which we are apt to fall very dangerously we take often says he the thought of our understanding for the disposition of our heart the Idea of our imagination for the affection of our will You will find sometims Penitents whom the Confessor asking Are you well prepar'd to confession They will answer readily yes Sir we have made an act of contrition And how have they made it They have read in a book a prayer or forme of contrition my God it repents me from the bottome of my heart to have committed Sin becaus it displeases you I am sorry to have offended you becaus you are infinitely good and becaus they have sayd these or the like words in their understanding or with their mouth they thinke that they have made an Act of contrition 'T is well don to say these words provided you say true But to thinke you have made an Act of Contrition by saying them with your mouth or in your understanding is a most pernicious error For Contrition is not in the lipps nor in the imagination nor in the understanding but in the Will God requires not that you say you are sorry to have offended him but He wills that you be so in effect a man that harbours animosities in his heart or that restores not goods unjustly gotten may say a hundred times my God I am Sorry to have offended you and yet he will not have one grain of true repentance By what may one know that he has it by the effects if you make restitution if you leave off this unjust suit and repair damages if you fly this occasion of sin you shew probably that your heart is changed But if you content your self with words or imaginations one will say to you that you give to God the motion of your lipps But the affection of your heart is far from Him 8. Others change theyr lives and their hearts notwithstanding are not changed the change is made about them not in them they were heretofore frequenters of naughty houses and of ill companies Now they are ruined in their fortune health and reputation by their dissolutions Wherefore they go no more to those houses into those companies they make no more excesses they play no more becaus they have not wherewith to to defray the charges or their health will not permit them it is their purses or their bodies that are changed not perhaps their hearts I know not what confessions such do make theyr bodys and their tongues cease to commit the sin But their hearts perhaps cease not to love it and if God hath not the heart He makes little or no account of all the rest He loves so much the heart that He will have it all 9. He says by his Prophet Convert your selves to me with all Deut. 4. your heart And by Moses when you shal seek the Lord you will find him if you seek him in all your heart He demands not all your money but only a part in alms nor all your fruits but only a part in tithe but he will have all your heart without reserve restriction or division so that no affection whatsoever may remain in it to mortal sin no division permitted of your love which is as fatal to it and to your conversion as it is unto your heart He wills that you quit not one two three or four sins only but all without exception and not only for the present time but for ever for if there remain in your heart the least designe for the future your conversion is fals deceitfull and unfruitfull 10. The fourth conversion that true penance makes is of our exteriour it makes us to do exteriour workes of penance when these are in our power The Prophet sayd not only convert in your heart but moreover in fasting and weeping and in mourning And S. Iohn Baptist required exterior workes of penance when he sayd yield fruits worthy of penance And our Saviour sais not only that a good tree bears not bad fruit but he adds that it produces good and that it is by this that we must know
rigour and the severity of the last judgement concludes watch therefore praying at all times He speakes not to Religious or to Priests only but to all Christians He knew the impediments we should have the importance of our affaires and He says pray at all times It was by perseverance that the Cananean woman obtain'd of the Son of God the deliverance of her daughter as Saint Chrysostome hath noted she prayed with interior humility since she sayd whelps also eate of the crummes Chrysost hom 5. in Mart. S. Mrk. 7. 29. and with exterior for she prostrated at the feet of our Saviour with fervour of Spirit which she shewed by crying-out clamavit Nevertheless the Son of God rejected her and would not hear her But she strugled with him and got the Victory by her importunity so must you to have success stand obstinate in a holy obstinacy and pray unto the end And therefore our Saviour himself sayes to you in S. Luke It behoves you to pray always and not to be weary S. Luke 18. 1. 10. And what hinders you from praying Is it that you have not leasure that you have many affaires and affaires of importance this is that which should oblige you to pray for the more serious your affaires are the more it concerns you to have success in them and prayer is the means to obtain it You have not-leasure to pray Why not You find time for dinner supper and other necessities of the body notwithstanding your great affaires and why find you not time for the refection of your Soul it is as necessary to pray God well for to work your Salvation as to take your refection to preserve your life You have not time to pray Believe me you have enough if you manage it well Cut off superfluous visits idle words unproâ—â—table workes and conversations and unnecessary divertisements and there will remaine time to be employ'd in prayer But are you so prest with business that you cannot find now and then a quarter of an hour to spend in prayer At least then in working elevate often your heart to God by jaculatory prayers adore him from time to time and beg of him his love grace and guidance put a pin upon your sleeve that seeing it you may be minded of it ' til you are accustom'd to it for it behoves you to pray always What is that which hinders you Is it that you have offended grievously This is as if you should say I am too much wounded I must not go to the Surgeon On the contrary this should incline you more to go to him Com to me all ye who areburdened Says our Saviour He says not receive me communicate so much the more often and the more boldly the more you are burdened with sins but com to me to pray me and to ask help and succour of me however great and numerous may be your sins if you have a lively resentment of them if you desire to be deliver'd from them it is a good motive to shew God to obtain his mercy It is that which David did when he sayd I am poor and needy 'T is that which the Publican did saying God be mercifull to me a sinner 'T is that which the Church puts into your mouth we sinners do beseech thee to hear us What is that in fine that hinders you Is it that God heares you not that He rejects you and withdraws himself from you and that it is long since you beg'd of Him not temporal goods but spiritual and you obtain not This gives you cause to persever and to pray more fervently since He defers so long to hear you 't is a signe that what He will bestow upon you is most excellent and precious though He seems to refuse what you ask He is pleased with your devotions and if He delays to hear you it is for good reasons 'T is to exercise your patience to heat your desire to try your perseverance to augment your merit And if you have patience and persever importuning him Sooner or later He will accomplish your desires and give you grace in this World and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XXV OF FASTING And the Institution of Lent 1. IF the Apostle S. Paul were now on earth he would bewaile extreamly the horrible blindness of those who prefer the pleasure of their mouthes before the precept of the Church and the Salvation of their soules He would say to us what he sayd to the Philippians there are many amongst you of whom I weeping tell you that are enemies Philip. 3. 18. of the Cross of Christ that abhoâ—r all mortification of the flesh that have the belly for their God and shal have eternal damnation for their end for our fasts are not things indifferent or workes of supererogation they are workes of precept and obligation Some will say to me your fasts are not prescrib'd in Scripture they are commandements of men and therefore obâ—ige not other in Conscience But if a Dissenter should command his child a thing very profitable or necessary for his family and his child should say to him Father you are a man the Commandements of men oblige not in conscience I find not In the Scripture that God commands me to go to such a place or to do such a thing No he wiâ—l say to him But he commands thee to obey thy Father and thy Mother So I say to you It is not in Scripture that you must fast such a day that you keep suâ—h a holy day But God commands you in many Ephes. 6. Coloss 3. 20. Heb. 13. 17. places of the Scripture to obey the Church your Mother For the Apostle that sayd in the behalfe of God Children obey your Parents the same sayd also Obey your Prelates If men have not power to command other men nor to oblige them in Conscience whence comes it that JESUS-CHRIST sayd to his Apostles and Luke 10. 16. Matth. 23. 2. Matt. 18 17. Rom. 13. 2 to their successours who heares you heares me and who despises you despises me And to the people do all that they shal say to you whence is it that JESUS-CHRIST hath sayd He that heares not the Church esteeme him as a Pagan or a Publican Whence is it that S. Paul said He that resisteth Superiour power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist it purchase to themselves damnation But 't is to resist Superior power and to disobey the Church not to observe the fasts which She commands 't is to transgress an Apostolical command not to fast the Lent when you have not a legitimate excuse I say Apostolical command 2. And to prove this Verity I might alledg many testimonies of the ancient Fathers but becaus JEUS-CHRIST does say that we ought to give credit to two or three good Witnesses I will alledge the depositions of three or four of three parts of the world Africa Europe and Asia In Affrica Tertullian reports an
cals the evill day The Sentence of the Iudg will be favourable to him He will say to him with an Encomium I have been hungrie and you have given me meat ad that it may prove so He forewarns and says to us make your selves friends give alms do good to the Poore that they and the alms which you put into their bosomes may plead and intercede for you Let us then consider who must give alms To whom they must be given and how men ought to give them 1. Who is he that must give Alms All Christians that pretend to obtaine one day the kingdom of Heaven we need no other proof then the word of IESUS and the definitive sentence which He will pronounce in favour of the elect and against the reprobate Com ye blessed of my Father possess the kingdom for you have given Get ye gon from me ye cursed into everlasting fire for you have not given All either are saved for giving or damned for not giving alms every one then is obliged to give them And in the same chapter He compares the whole Church to an assembly of Virgins whereof some are admitted to a nuptial feast for having furnished their lamps with oyle the others are excluded for having none 9. Hence S. Chrysostome concludes if those that were Virgins Hom. 22. in Io. that is to say that had no other great sins were banished from heaven for not giving alms with more reason those who have committed sins and have not redeemed them by alms shal be condemn'd He adds let us have then this oyle of mercy if we will enter with the Espouse for what ever we shal do t is impossible without alms I say again 't is impossible to approach to the door of the Kingdom of heaven 2 Can we be saved without Charity without loving God and being beloved of God no surely Now his beloved Disciple says If any one having the goods of this world and seeing his brother in 1. Iohn 3. 17. necessity shuts up his bowells of charity from him how does the Love of God remain in him He says not seeing his brother in extream necessity but simply in necessity T is then an error to believe the commandement of giving alms obliges not but when our neigbor is in extream necessity Yes it obliges when he is in a great and notable poverty as are so many in these deplorable times For as Vasquez reasons very well the precept of charity obliges all as well poor as rich to succour their neigbor when he is in extrem necessity nature it self teaches it without other positive command and 't is principally to the rich that the holy Scripture makes this commandement of alms T is not then only in extream necessity the rich are oblig'd to give but also in a considerable and important need command the rich of this 1. Tim. c. 17. 1. Cor. 22. 26. world to give easily says S. Paul And he gives in another place the reason of it we are parts and members of the Mystical Body of IESUS But when one member hath receiv'd any hurt all the other suffer with it all contribute to the help of it if a thorn hath entred into the foot the back bends the eyes open and seek it the hand pulls it out and if they should do otherwise it would be irregular monstrous and unnatural with much more reason in the body of the Church which hath JESUS for its head and the holy Ghost for its soul the members are oblig'd to solace and serve each other with a sincere and cordial charity S. Peter Confirms the saying of S. Paul and adds another reason that we are not independent Proprietors and Masters of the riches Epist 1. c. 4. 10. talents gifts and graces which we receiv'd from God He obliges us to be good Economists and Dispensers of them to assist and serve the necessities of our neighbors with them if then we employ them not but only keep them we do against the intention of the Master that lends them and on the contrary if we employ them in dissolutions and other Superfluities we do contrary to the will of him who intrusts us with them If an Economist of a great house should reserve to himself all the bread and wine and other provisions and refuse to give them to the children and servants according to the order of his Master would he not merit to be punished if on the contrary he distributes them faithfully would he not gaine the salary promised to him The power and authority you have God hath given you to protect this Widow and this Orphan that are oppressed the understanding Science industry which are in you you receiv'd from God to assist and instruct the ignorant and these goods you possess God made you the steward of them to Communicate them to the Poor after you have had the honor and the prerogative to take of them what is necessary for your person and your family if you do not He will say to you as to the naughty servant in the Gospell Why have you not employ'd well my money If you do as you ought He will say to you Com faithfull Servant enter into the joy of thy Matth. 5. Lord. Let us see then to whom we ought to give 3. Charity obliges us to give to all that are in necessity but especially to the faithfull to others we must give alms as to the creatures and the images of God but to the faithfull moreover as to the members of IESUS CHRIST and for the love of Him and so to IESUS CHRIST in them for He will say in iudgment I have been hungrie I have been thursty I have been sick IESUS then is sick and suffers in his members and IESUS receives our help and assistance in them if we bestow our alms so our charity will be more acceptable to him and more meritorious to us than if we did give them to his own person if you had lived in that golden age when IESUS was visible to the world would you not have been ravished with joy to have lodged Him served and entertain'd Him you merit more if you do it to a poor man says S. Chrysostom for the charmes of his pleasing Countenance and his Comportment would allure your hearts and force them by a sweet attraction to will him good but when you do it to him in the person of the Poor who are so disagreable your faith is more lively your charity more generous and your piety more disinteressed since self love finds not there her reckning It seems IESUS should say in the last iugdment to S. Matthew you made me a banket in your Conversion to Zacheus you receiv'd me into your house to S. Martha you log'd me in your Castle you serv'd me with great diligence No He will not praise them principally for these good offices But He will say to them That which you have don to the least of mine you have
are baptized but they stand obliged to follow them Which made great S. Basil say whosoever hath receiv'd the Baptisme of the law of grace is oblig'd to live according to the Gospell and hath oblig'd himself by an irrevocable contract to imitate IESUS CHRIST 5. I know well than to excuse your selves you say if I live not according to the world if I cloath not my self gorgeously if I lead a retired and mortified life I shal pass for an extravagant person they will not esteem me they will say I am an abhorrer of society and a man of another world You say true but what is this to say It is to say they will esteem you a christian that you will pass for a Disciple of IESUS This is that which you have promised in Baptisme T is in this the perfection of Christianity consists in declaring war against the world and its pomps in opposing its maxims and customs contradicting flesh and blood Take courage then says S. Chrysostom fight valiantly consider what Chrysost To 3 ser de Martyr you have promised under what condition you were made a Christian and in what war you are enrolled Think not to tryumph without Victory to be victorious without fighting to fight without enemies that are contrary to you 6. But some do say where are pastimes delights and pleasures forbidden in the ten commandements or in those of the Church If those frequent and almost continuall pastimes delights and pleasures are not against the first and chiefe of the commandements Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy forces they are at least against the second which our Saviour says is like to it For is this to love your neighbor as your self to employ in superfluous delights that which might deliver him out of great inconveniences and miseries you know that so many orphans so many other poor who are the children of God members of our Saviour are eaten with vermin for want of a little linnen that they are starved with cold and that they dye with hunger for want of assistance and the money wherewith you might succour them you spend in superfluities what insensibility is this where is the fraternal Charity or the Christian Compassion or the bowells of mercy which the elect ought to have The Prophet Amos 6. 6. Amos weighed well how much Charity was by this violated when he sayd Woe to you who seek exquisite meats and delicious wines and yee have not pity on the miseries of the people 7. S. Denys says that in his time if one desired Baptisme the c. 2. Eccle. Hier. parag 2. et 3. first thing he did was to intreat a Christian to be his God father the Christian on the one side desiring the salvation of the Petitioner and on the other weighing the weakness of a man with the weight of the affaire was troubled with fear and seized with apprehension to conduct him to the Bishop Nevertheless in fine he led him to the Prelate Who sayd to him that his designe ought not to be imperfect but entire and with all his heart as approaching to God who is entirely perfect and having declar'd to him the forme of life he ought to lead to live godly receiv'd from him promises and protestations to aspire with all his force to that perfection And that he might not undertake such a charg lightly and inconsiderately he made him pass 2 or 3 years in Catechumenate which was the Noviciate of Christianity where he exercised himself in fasting prayer and other penances to make tryal if he could apply himself to the austere and vertuous life of Christians By which you see that the answers made for you in Baptisme are not ayrie words they are according to this great Saint and other holy Fathers promises and protestations which oblige us By the same you see also what life the Christians of those times did lead to satiâ—fy the obligations contractd in their Baptisme 8. Do as they did renounce the Devill and all his pompes works and suggestions renounce the World with its vanities follies and maxims renounce your selves your flesh sensualitie selflove particular judgment and all the inclinations of the old man separate your will from his and turn to IESUS your God and the Source of your salvation Acknowledg the excellencie of your Dignitie the noble and divine Allyance to which you are elevated to whom you pertain by Baptisme Remember that you have the honour to be the members of IESUS-CHRIST not improperly nor metaphorically but really and truly Let us remember that he is our Head and that we must conform our selves to him otherwise we shal make a great deformitie in his body and dishonour him extreamly Would not this be a monstrous and unnatural deformitie if to the head of a handsom man were joyn'd the body of a beast the paws of a Lyon the belly of a hog the tail of a serpent IESUS is the Head of the Church we are the members of it what dishonor should we do him what unnatural deformitie should we make in his Body if we should be unlike to him if He being as meek as a lamb as pure as the sunbeam and as simple as a dove we should be cruel like lyons unclean like hogs and deceitfull as serpents Let us assure our selves that He will not suffer such deformitie in heaven and that to be associated to him in the life of glory we must be like to him in the life of grace Amen DISCOVRS XLIII Of Confirmation AS the eternal Father hath shewn effectually the ineffable love which He had for the world in giving his only and beloved Son in the Mistery of the Incarnation a love so wonderfull and prodigious that though admiration be the daughter of ignorance and IESUS be the infinite and eternal Science He speaks not of it but with astonishment and admiration Sic Deus dilexit mundum So IESUS hath shewn effectually the infinite love which He had for his Church in giving Her his holy Spirit who is equal coeternal and consubstantial with Him and his Father 2. But as in the distribution of graces where of the Apostle 1. Cor. 12. 10. speaks the holy Ghost is communicated to divers persons for different operations to some to worke miracles to others to interpret the holy scripture and the like so in Sacramental grace the holy Ghost is given for divers intentions to produce divers effects according to the difference of the ends for which IESUS instituted the Sacraments In Baptisme the holy Ghost is given us to be the Soul of our souls the life of our life and the Spirit of our spirit to create in us the spiritual and Christian life make us Children of God Members of IESUS CHRIST and Heirs of the kingdom of heaven In Confirmation He is given us to make us Souldiers of IESUS CHRIST to enrole us in his warfare and to
in effect you are not more holy nor more learned nor wiser than S. Austin And hear what he sayd to a Pelagian Heretick That which the Fathers believed I belive what lib. 1 contra Iul. c. 2. circâ— med they taught I teach what they preached I preach Follow the example of this great and holy Doctor if you be wise and carefull of your salvation follow always Antiquity and Vniversality in your beliefe say with the whole Colledge of the Apostles I believe the holy and Vniversall Church And to all the reasons of humane Philosophy that Dissenters oppose Answer that S. Paul hath sayd Our faith ought not to be in the wisdome of men 1. Cor. 2. 5. but in the Power of God Amen DISCOURS XLV Of the Production Reception and Operation of the Eucharist S Peter having in the first chapter of his first epistle taught us that we are born again by the seed of the word of God bids us in the second to desire as new born children reasonable milk that we may grow unto salvation by which words he does not only invite us to suck yet more the milk of saving Doctrine but moreover to the participation of the holy Eucharist which here he also signifys by milk And in effect there are three great conformities and resemblances between the milk which a mother gives her child and the adorable Sacrament of the Altar Conformitie in the manner of their production conformitie in the manner of their reception Confirmitie in the manner of their operation 2. S. Austin in his frst sermon upon the Title of 33 Psalme brings this pat comparison Imagin that you enter into the house of a mother of many children Some of fifteen or Sixteen years of age other but four or five monthes old if you ask her what will you do with that bread T is she will say for the nourishment of my children And of what children of these great and little ones What for the nourishment of these little ones they have no teeth how will they eate that bread Yes that bread is for the nourishment of all my children both great and little but in divers manners the great shal eate it in the form you see it and becaus the little ones cannot eate it so I will concoct it in my stomake and change it into my blood and becaus they would have horrour to take my blood in its own form I will concoct it a second time by the heat of my heart in the limbick of my breast where it will becom white as snow sweet as sugar and liquid as wine The Son of God in his Divinity is living bread enlivening bread the bread of Angells The Celestial Spirits do not live are not nourished saciated and happy but by seeing loving possessing enioying God men also ought to be nourished with the same food but in this mortall life they are uncapable to enjoy God in his proper form they cannot see him openly and face to face what hath the Son of God don who compares himself in Scripture to a loving Mother He incarnated this bread this divine Word incorporated himself and took the form of flesh and blood And becaus men would have had fear and horrour to eate his flesh and drink his blood in the form He was He concocted this Bread a second time in the breast of this Sacrament by the heat of his heart by an ardent love He again transform'd this Word and cloathed himself with the species of bread and wine which are common and usuall with us to be the milk and nourishment of men who are his little children And as a mother giving her breast to an infant exposeth herself to many importunities incommodities and pinches which he gives her So our Saviour shut his Eyes to many considerations of his glory and of his interest which might have hindred Him from instituting this Sacrament He exposed himself to a thousand affronts which He receives and will receive to the end of the world from Hereticks bad Catholicks and vicious Priests that communicate in the state of sin and â—hough He be the Sovereign Purity the essentiall Sanctity who abhorrs sin infinitely yet is content to suffer all these injuries rather than deprive his well beloved children of the happiness of this breast 3. Jn the second place this Sacrament is compared to milk in the manner 't is to be receiv'd It must be taken as children take the brest with faith hunger and familiarity 4. An infant takes the breast with shut eyes he examins nothing but sucks the breast trusting to his mother a Dissenrer proposes questions as the Capharnaits how can this man gives us his flesh Psal 130. to eate How can so great a body be contained in so little a Host If I am not humble and if I exalt my Soul I shal be like to an infant that is weaned from the brest sayd the royal Prophet This happens to a Dissenter he exalts his Soul thinking that he hath much of knowledg and understanding he examins the power of the Omnipotent and will find that to be impossible which our Saviour sayd and he is weaned from this sacred brest Catholicks as humble simple docible children trust the Church their Mother who neither can nor would if she could deceive them they silence senses and shut the eyes of fallible reason to open only those of infallible Faith 5. They that have a lively faith of that which is contained in this Sacrament have a great appetite to it an earnest desire of it and therefore they reape incredible fruits from it The Virgin sayd in her canticle God fills the hungry with good things Such as approach to him with a Spiritual greediness and avidity see says S. Chrysostome with what readiness a little infant takes the teat with what force he joyns himself to the brest you would thinke that Hom 60. ad pop he would thrust himself into the brest of his mother or that he would suck out the heart and soul of his nource and if he be one only day without this refection he is wholy unquiet troublesome and insupportable Do the same says this holy Doctor go to the Body of IESUS amorously ardently and greedily as if you would lodg your self in the sacred side of JESUS unite your self to Him heart to heart soul to soul essence to essence and transform your self wholy unto Him and when by your fault you are depriv'd of this divine refection be sorry and troubled as having suffered a great loss 6. And after you have had the happiness to receive make good use of it This Sacrament hath a permanent Being and remaines as long as the species in the stomack that IESUS may have leasure to convers with us and we with Him We ought then to keep him company to court and entertain him by acts of adoration gratitude love oblation of our selves with resolution to serve Him well we must believe He coms to us full of
7. Exod. 22. 28. Them whom God himself calls Gods becaus they are his Vice-Roys Officers of his Crown His Ministers of state Secretaries of his commandements Iudges of his people Embassadors of his Majesty Mediators between God and men who announce the will of God to men and who present the desires of men to God We respect Embassadors also those of barbarous and infidell Kings with much more reason those which the king of Kings does send to us sayd S. Chrysostome 5. To create in our hearts a great respect to Priests Some alleadg the example of wise Salomon who sayd to Abiather the Priest you are guilty of death but I will not condemne you becaus you have carried the Arke Or the Example of Constantine the Great who in the Councel of Nice would not sit down but after all the Bishops and upon a little seat below them all And when one presented to him papers of complaints against some Priests he burnt them without reading them and being angry with the persone that gave them to him sayd it belongs to Priests to judg Emperours and not to Emperours to judg and condemn Priests and should I see a Priest commit a sin I would cover him with my Royal cloak for fear that any one should see him Other propose the example of S. Antony This great Saint this Patriarke of so many thousands of Anchorets that lived like Angells This great Antony of whose amity Emperours made so great account This Antony whome wild beasts obeyed at whose Name Devills trembled whose life converted so many Souls to God This great S. Antony I say honoured so much Priests that if he met the least of them he fell upon his knees and rose not up till he had received his benediction Or of the Seraphicall Father S. Francis who sayd that if he should meet an Angel and a Priest he would rather kiss the hands of the Priest than of the Angel Or of S. Catherine of Sienna who kissed the wayes and paths in which Priests had past 6. Is it not pity to see now that some Christians neglect them or contemne them under pretence that some of them are vicious If it be so does it pertain to them to speak of their vices are they judges of their Judges are they wiser than Salomon greater than Constantine more devout than S. Antony more fervent than S. Francis more innocent than S. Catherine and more zealous of the honor of God than God himself Who sayd by his Prophet Touch not my annointed Psal 104. 15. 7. Let us take heed Venerable Priests and honourable Fathers that we be not the cause or at least the occasion of this temerity that by our indevotions and immodesties by our irreverence in the Chruch and our conversations with the world we be not the cause of the little respect now given to our character and vocation How is the gold darkned and the best coulour changed says the Prophet Hieremie What 's becom of that splendour that luster Thren 4. and glory which heretofore shin'd in Clergiemen of that honor respect reverence and filial fear which they had for Ptiests in the primitive Church How is all this so decayed and obscured T is becaus then they saw not Priests but at the Altar in the Confessional or in the pulpit and now they are seen in Taverns in playhouses and in worldly companies IESUS says to us you are the light of the world we must shine so then that men may see our good workes and may be moved to glorify our Father which is in heaven But if our light be darkness if we falsify by our actions Christs Doctrine and maxims this ill example of one of us will ruine more the piety of the Faithfull than many other by their doctrine and good examples will be able to repair You are the salt of the earth salt is drawn out of water but if it be reunited to it it disolves and loses the propriety it had to prevent corruption a Priest is seperated from the people by his consecration if he rejoyn himself to them by a worldly conversation he loses the authority which he had to preserve them from the corruption of sin We are judges of others we must not be criminall God will examin us more axactly judg us more severely and punish us more rigorously SAVIOR IESUS high Priest and Pastor of our sols permit not that we give you caus to do it permit not that it may be truly sayd as the people so the Priest you are our inheritance our Lot and our Portion permit not that our inheritance pertain to others more than to us Make that our mouthes be not employed but to resound your praises that our comportment and our manners do express and represent your actions that our hearts be not enflam'd but in your love Amen DISCOVRS LI. of Matrimony 1. THe Mistery of the Incarnation is an alliance so advantagious and pleasing to the holy Humanity of IESUS that He would have not only in Churches but also in particular houses a continual image and a lively representation of it This is the legitimate alliance of man and woman of which I have three things to shew First that 't is a true and a great Sacrament secondly the Dutys to which it does oblige you Thirdly the honour you owe to it 2. If we weigh holy things not by the ballance of the opinion of Dissenters But By the weight of the sanctuary and by the judgment of the Church We shal avow that the legitimate Edhes 5. 32. S. Ambr. c. 7. S. Aug. de bono conjug c. 18. c. 24. alliance of man and woman is one of the most holy great and mysterious Sacraments of the Church 'T is a true Sacrament For besydes that the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Ephesians This is a great Sacrament the Fathers of the Church teach it S. Ambrose speaking of an Adulterer says he loses the grace of the heavenly Sacrament S. Austin tels us in the marriages of Christians the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more value than the fâ—cundity of the womb And againe amongst infidells marriage hath for its end propagation and fidelity but amongst Christians it hath moreover the sanctity of the Sacrament Not only these but other holy Fathers the Councills and the Tradition of the Vniversal Church ever taught the same hence it was that in the Instruction of the Armenians given in the Council of Florence it is numbred with the other Sacraments Trid. ss 24. can 1. hoth Grecians and Latins consenting to it And that the Councill of Trent pronounces anathema against those that shal say marriage is not a proper Sacrament instituted by IESVS CHRIST 3. Let us say then that 't is a true Sacrament nay let us say that 't is a Great one Great in its Caus Great in its Mater and Great in its Effects S. Austin very indiciously did say that as in the primitive Church the holy