secures her self against violence because she is free and naturally opposeth whatever seems to incroach upon her liberty She does not acquiesce in reason because she is deaf nor hears any discourse but such as charms the Understanding by convincing it But Pleasure hath allurements which she can no ways withstand She trembles whenever it sets upon her she is afraid to lose her liberty in his presence and knowing the power it hath over her inclinations she calls in Sorrow to her succour to Guard her against this pleasing Enemy If it be true that Pleasure reigns absolutely over the Will we need not think it strange that Grace which is nothing but a Victorious suavity hath such advantage over her For besides that this Heavenly Influence surpasseth all the delights in the World that charm us having more allurements than Glory and Beauty that makes so many Lovers and Martyrs Tunc enim bonum concupisci incipit cum dulcescere incipit ergo benedictio dulcedinis est gratia Dei qua fit in nobis ut nos delectes cupiamus hoc est amemus quod praecipit nobis Aug. it insinuates much deeper into the Will than whatever ravisheth us Mortals Being in the hands of Jesus Christ whom nothing can resist it glides into the very Center of our Hearts making Impressions there that are never more strong than when they are most agreeable thence it cashiers all Pleasures that have unjustly Usurp'd upon us and knowing all the weakness of the place it sets upon we need not wonder if she makes her self Mistress Other Pleasures enter not into the Will but at the Gate of the Senses they have lost half their strength before they can make their approach and her inclination being unknown to them they many times cause aversion intending to procure Love But Grace wooes the Heart without the mediation of the Senses and more powerful than Pleasures that act not upon all the faculties of the Soul carries light into the Understanding Faithfulness into the Memory and Pleasures into the Will so that we need not wonder if the Sinner suffer himself to be overcome by a Divine quality that sheds delight into all the powers and faculties of the Soul That which Grace effects thus agreeable by Pleasure Amor imperium habet super omnes animae vires propter hoc quod ejus objectum est bonum Arivis D. Tho. it brings to pass more powerfully by Love For according to the Judgement of St. Augustine Grace is nothing else but Charity and when God means to convert a Sinner his sole design is to make him his Lover Love is the Master of all Hearts there is no impossibility this Passion undertakes not Miracles are his sports and all the Prodigies Antiquity hath produced are nothing but the effects of this Sovereign Scripture is never more Eloquent than when it intends to express the force thereof Nothing satisfies it in this design all words seem too weak to express its conceptions and finding no comparisons that answer the dignity of the Subject it descends to the Tombs where having considered the Trophies of Death is forced to confess that his power equals not that of Love It passeth to the very Center of the Earth observes the unrelenting sadness of Hell and comparing the pains of the Damned with the anxeity of Lovers leaves us in doubt whether Hell or Love be more pitiless But not to aggravate his power by such strange comparisons let it suffice to Judge of him by his Effects Though he be the Son of the Will yet is he the Master he disposeth so absolutely of his Mother that she hath no Motions but what her Son inspires her with She undertakes nothing but by his Orders 't is the Weight that sets her a going the Load-stone that attracts her the King that Governs her and she so absolutely depends upon his Power that nothing but an other Love can dis-engage her She is so fierce or so free that neither Violence nor Fear can tame her She laughs at Tortures preserves her Liberty in the midst of Fetters and many times Torments make her but more wilful Only Love mollifies her hardness his Charms gain upon her what sorrow cannot and Experience teacheth Us there is no surer command then that which is founded upon Love In the mean time Vanity which is almost the inseparable Companion of Greatness perswades Kings that 't is a debasement to seek the Love of their Subjects and seduced by this false Maxim They endeavour to make themselves feared not being able to make themselves Beloved But God who hath formed the Heart of Man and knows how they may be Vanquished without being forced owes all his Conquests to his Love He never appears more absolute then when he tames a Rebellious Will when of an Enemy he makes him a Lover and changing his Inclinations sweetly compels him to fall in Love with him Forin secus terret per legem intrinsecus delectat per amorem Aug. His Power sparkles in his Corrections He astonisheth Sinners when he loosens the Mountains from their Foundations when he makes the Earth shake under their Feet the Thunder rumble over their Heads and threatens the World with an Universal Deluge or a general Conflagration But all these Menaces convert not the Guilty The fear that terrifies them does not reduce them to their Duty their Heart remains Criminal when their Mouths and their Hands be Innocent and if God inspire not his Love into them he punishes indeed their Offence but changes not their Wills This Prodigious Metamorphosis is reserved for his Love 't is his Charity that must Triumph over Rebels Nor is there any thing but his Grace that by its Imperious Sweetness can oblige a Sinner to Love him I am not afraid to injure Mans Liberty in using Terms so Significant Because supposing Grace to be nothing but Love it can do no Violence to the Will For of all the things in the World there is none freer then Love A Man cannot complain that he is forc'd when nothing but Charms of affection are imployed to gain him And if there are some Lovers that have blamed the Rigour of their Mistresses there is none that have found fault with their Love If it be an Evil 't is a Voluntary one it hurts none but those that willingly Embrace it and of so many Punishments that torment Us there is none more Innocent because none more Free Crowns may be snatched from Soveraigns Confidence may be taken from Philosophers Orators may be convinc'd any man may lose his Life but what ever Stratagems are made use of what ever Violence men Practice a Lover cannot be forc'd nor his Love extorted from him Seeing then Grace is nothing but Charity and Charity nothing but a Holy Love We must not apprehend Violence nor imagine that the Assaults of this Divine Quality can at all injure our Liberty because it does not dis-engage us from Evil but by obliging
Alliance of men with God both in the Mystery of his Incarnation and in the Mystery of his second Nativity Our Saviour says he is come unto the World as if it were unto his own and his own did not receive him To them nevertheless Potestas est potentia stabilita per adventum Spiritus unde patet quod non est in aliquo potestas in quo non fuerit prius potentia naturalis quia est in hominis voluntate ut possit fieri potestas si non ponit obicem gratiae Hugo Card. in c. 1. Joan. that had receiv'd him he gave power to be made the Children of God That power says Hugo the Cardinal is a stable Power determin'd by Grace and fortified by the Holy-Ghost A Power says the same Doctor which supposes Nature already prepar'd to give it no obstacle nor opposition with a great difference however for the Natural Power which we have to be the Children of God may be seperated from the Almighty Power Because that is but a simple possibility far from any Act this follows the conditions of liberty which in the advantages of Grace is near to its effect Great God says St. Augustine is not your Love without measure for men You are not at all of the humour of the Children of the World who are afraid to have many Brothers Co-heirs that they alone might succeed without any Associates to the Inheritance of their Parents You are the only Son of the Father and yet you do not desire to remain the sole Heir of his Substance You call without any exception to the Rights of Heaven and Eternity all them who undervaluing the Dross of the World shall believe in your Gospel We must not wonder at it for the Wealth of the Earth being divided groweth less the Wealth of Heaven contrariwise by communication doth increase St. John pursuing the History of the Incarnation adds Quasi securitatem faciens ait verbum caro factum est quid ergo miraris quiahomines ex Deo nascuntur attende ipsum Deum ex hominibus natum D. Aug. to 9. tract 2. in Joan. sub finem And the Word is made Flesh Remark the Coherency Dear Reader he comes to establish the Second Nativity of Jesus in the stable Powers of our Liberty And to the end says the Great St. Augustine that this should not seem incredible to any that a pitiful Creature should be Honoured with a Title not imaginary but subsistant of Divine Filiation he says that God is made man as if he were to draw this consequence if the Omnipotent Power of a God infinitely Adorable contrary to the ordinary Laws has abased it self to the union of a Nature so abject of it self as Humane Nature is Who will doubt but that a sinner Anima namque habet aliquam propinquitatem ad Deum Treophilactus in c. 1 Joan. touch'd with the Graces of Heaven and Converted by a sublime elevation may approach to the Throne of the Divinity there to receive by pre-eminency the Title of a Filial Adoption What were you willing to teach us O Saviour of the World when nail'd on the wood of the Cross Cum vidisset Jesus matrem discipulum stantem quem dilegebat dixit matri suae mulier ecce filius tuus Joan. 19. v. 26. whereon you were rendering to men the last proofs of your Love looking with an Amorous Eye at your Mother you said unto her that from thenceforth St. John should be her Son Will you refuse her after your Death what you would not take from her during your Life What a heart-breaking would it be to the Virgin when after the Death of Jesus thinking to discourse of high affections to comfort her poor Heart afflicted for his absence she should be denied ever to call him again by this worthy Name of Son more sweet than Honey No this Commandment would be a thing impossible and Love that knows not what it is to Obey where there is question of a Division would never consent to the rigour of its practice 'T is that St. John at the foot of the Cross was the figure of the Adoptive Children of Grace And to the end that the Virgin should acknowledge them for such Love them and Cherish them as she who ought most to Interess her self in the common and particular good of men Our Saviour says to her Woman behold thy Son unspeakable Happiness to see that he who had for his Lodging the Bowels of Mary should be pleas'd to assign us for a residence her proper heart Or else let us say Sicut portavimus imaginem terreni portemus imaginem Celestis 1 Cor. c. 15. v. 49. that by his last Will and Testament he was to give her an excellent proof of his Affections by leaving his Image deposited in her For every sinner Converted by the Grace of God is the Image of Jesus Crucified according to the Apostle's Doctrine follow'd with a rare thought of St. Augustine D. Aug. lib. de Sancta virginitate for after he had said that the Virgin is our Mother Mother by Spirit as she is our Saviours by Nature he goes further and remarks that she bears her Spiritual Children in her Bosome not for the space of nine Months only but as long as they are in this Life and is not deliver'd of them untill she introduces them to Heaven That is also the aim and scope of all the design of this Work wherein we shall make appear how that by the powerful endeavours of Grace the Holy Ghost labours incessantly to make us conceive the word of Salvation whose term must be Jesus form'd in our Hearts and 't is that which I shall call hereafter the Child of Heaven and of Grace and particular Saviour I am deceiv'd if St. Mark would not fain speak of this Sacred Fruit when he tells us That the Messias one day took a little Child in his Arms Quem cum complexus esset Mark 9. Math. 18. v. 2. and having set him in the middle of his Apostles Embrac'd him tenderly Where St. Matthew adds That he told them if they would not become like unto that Infant they should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I omit divers Interpretations of this passage to speak of that of St. Jerome who by that Infant understands the Holy-Ghost and says That he who by Grace is Converted unto God D. Hieron in catena ad c. 18. Matth. receives the Holy-Ghost who bears him Testimony that he is a Child of God Who will doubt but that the Eternal Father will embrace this Infant for the resemblance he has with his First Born The Son acknowledge him for his Younger Brother and the Holy Ghost own him for his own Work In a word my Dear Reader Omnis qui filio Dei credit conservatur secundum Evangelicos actus conversus ambulat quasi puer Qui autem non convertitur ut fiat sicut puer
to the Maxims of Theology that this Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate being that without the actual application of the Infinite Merits of our Saviour which is the main scope of all his Sufferings the Incarnation had been altogether unprofitable to each one in particular though most sufficient of it self to work the general Redemption of mankind So the Beams of the Sun though they be of their own nature capable to Heat and Enlighten yet they cannot work those effects on Bodies that will not admit of their Influences CHAP. VII That it is the Angel of Great Council who brings to the Soul the Word of her Conversion D. Thom. 22. q. 174. IT is certain that our Blessed Virgin was throughly instructed in the Mystery of the Incarnation in general however she knew not that her self in particular was appointed to be the Mother of the Emanuel Spiritualem conceptionem Christi quae est per fidem praecedit annunciario quae est per fidei praedicationem secundum quod fides est ex audita D. Tho. 3. p. q. 30. art 1. ad cum whose wonders she might have read of in Scripture It is the same case with man though he receives no Embassador to reveal unto him the Spiritual Conception of Jesus in his Heart he has notwithstanding the Faith which obliges him to believe that Grace is sufficient to operate that wonder though he be not assured by an Infallible certainty of its real possession However it was becoming and convenient that an Angel-Embassador should be dispatch'd towards the Virgin Citatus hic á D. Tho. art 2. in corpore Acceptum humanae restarationis principium ut Angelus á Deo mitteretur ad virginem partu consecrandam divino quia prima perditionis humanae fuit causa cum serpens a diabolo mittebatur ad mulâ—erem Spiretu superbiae decipiendam as well to reveal unto her the Decree of her Maternity as also to get her consent to the end it should be put in Execution It is by that way that the reparation of Mankind should begin says Venerable Bede That an Angel should be sent to the Virgin who was to be Consecrated by a delivery altogether Divine because that another Angel under the shape of a Serpent had deceiv'd the first Woman with the Spirit of Pride using all ways and Inventions possible to make her the accomplice of his Perfidiousness so the Arch-Angel made use of all the most pregnant Reasons he could afford to draw from the Virgin that Ecce the most Happy Source of our Salvation He does insinuate himself into her Favours by an extraordinary Salutation and never as yet practic'd says Origen for pronouncing the sweet Name of Mary he Honours her with three rare and wonderful Qualities Fulness of Grace Divine Communication Singular Benediction immediately he makes the Narrative of his Embassy discovers the Intention of the Prince who sent him the great advantages of the Dignity to which she is call'd the Grandeur and Excellency of the Fruit of her Womb and in fine for conclusion in few words after the fashion they treat with Great Folks he exhorts her to give her consent to all this Sacred Progress by the example of St. Elizabeth who by Divine Power was made Fruitful in her Sterility That being done the Virgin Consents the word is given the Mystery is accomplish'd and God is become flesh Contracting with Humane Nature The matter is otherwise carried on in our Conversions Notas facite in populis adventiones ejus Isaie 12. v. 4. an Angel must not suffice to bear the imployment there must be a narrow search made in the secret Cabinet of the Infinite Wisdom to find extraordinary Inventions to bring a sinner to give his Consent to his own Salvation Concilia cogitationes vias molimina ejus in redemptione generis humani Cornel hic The Prophet Isaih will have the Sacred Mystery of those Divine Inventions Preach'd over all the World all which inventions may be reduc'd to three things which if you will but Faithfully observe you will never do amiss The wise sets them down thus Eternal Verity Opportune Councel and the Crowing of the Cock Eternal Verity as being without any Errour Opportune Coouncel as conducing to a good end The Crowing of the Cock because it awakes us from Sleep which is the Image of Death And yet notwithstanding all those Inventions are for the most part Fruitless and without taking any effect in man though often represented and Preached efficaciously to him Here I find what is very strange that one Fiat draws all the World out of nothing One I will have it so conserves it in its Existence one Ecce brings down the only and dearly beloved Son of God from his Fathers Breast to his Servants Womb Three words of four Letters Fiat Volo Ecce works such high Mysteries without any opposition or difficulty and the whole Volume of Holy Scriptures infallibly Dictates of the Holy Ghost together with the secret Inspirations of his Love are not able to compass the Conversion of one obstinate Soul The Power of the Father Creates the Wisdom of the Son Conserves the Goodness of the Holy Ghost animates all things But as to the Justification of an Obdurate Sinner though the three Divine Persons contribute with all their Activity to it yet the Power of the Father is there without fear the Wisdom of the Son without Belief and the Goodness of the Holy Ghost without Love Liber literis exaratur palam contestans gloriam dei The Fathers Inventions in the Creation of the World to have himself obeyed are wonderful being that as St. Basil says All Creatures are as a great Volume written in very large Characters wherein all those Divine Wills and Pleasures are highly publish'd Adam after his dismal Fall is condemned to the labouring of the Earth a Mystical punishment to the end that he who would not obey his Creator by the motives of Justice should learn of this Terrestrial Element which being laboured brings forth Fruit in due Season how far less Rebellious is the Earth to the Stock and Plough than is an Obdurate Heart to receive the Inspirations of Heaven What can be more attractive than the amourous Inventions of the Son of God as well in the Examples of his Life whilst he convers'd amongst us as in the proofs which he left us of his Love when he withdrew his visible presence from us His Sacred Body expos'd on our Altars is that Preacher and Master mention'd by St. Lawrence Justinian Christus praeceptor est apertas codex in quo legendo meditando universa virtutum disciplina ediscitur Justinian l. 2. de humilit c. 12. who holds a Book in his Hand heretofore open'd on the Cross but now cover'd in the blessed Sacrament with the appearance of Bread and Wine Book of Life Copy of Truth Mirrour of Perfection It is there the Proud may learn and
c. Psal 77. v. 11. But ungrateful and most unmannerly People for all acknowledgment begin to contest with him and disown that ever they were oblig'd to him in the least Bona repromissoris sibi ascribit peccator c Is it possible that this ungrateful People have already forgotten the Favours which God did them in Babylon when that resenting much the Affronts done them by the Idumeans he brought them out of their Captivities There they were Chain'd Cuffed and Bolted and have they so soon forgotten him who broke and struck off their Irons Was it not a great proof of his Love to have sent Moses arm'd with his Omnipotent Power to bring them from Pharaoh's Jurisdiction and Slavery Coram patribus eorum fecit mirabilia in terra Egypti c. Psal 77. v. 23. The notorious Signs and Prodigies which Egypt hath seen shall be the Memorials of his Love Do they remember who it was that commanded the Seas to give them a free passage through their main Gulphs when that their Enemies came close on their backs And after all this they are so bold as to ask God the question How or where has he shew'd them any Love Before they should return any such Answer they should cast all Creatures into the fire being that they are in this point so many convincing proofs and witnesses of their Ingratitude They are not to be excus'd Qui etiam proprio filio non pepercit sed c. Rom. 8. v. 52. I must confess however they are in some respects to be Pardon'd For though they had the Laws of God in their Hands yet they did not as yet see or know the Author of Grace the Word-Incarnate But if a Christian should demand of God Sic Deus dilexit mundum ut filium suum c Joan. 3. v. 16. wherein have you lov'd me I would willingly conjure all Creatures to appear at his Tryal as Evidence of so hainous a Crime and as Executioners of so great a Malefactor But my God why should I dissemble where Truth is so plain For even among Christians we may soon find some of so Brazen a face Cum filio dato omnia donavit nobis ut ce dant in bonum nostrum superiora quidem scilicet divinae personae ad fruendum rationales spiritus ad convenidum omnia inferiora ad utendum D. Thom. in comment Eph. ad Rom. cap 8. as to pronounce the words or at least shew by their Actions that they do not believe that God has a Love for them yea without doubt For how can you think of them otherwise to receive daily the Divine Inspirations to see at all hours and moments the amorous Inventions of God to convert us to hear the Eternal Father repeat so often and in such express terms that he Lov'd the World so far as to give his Dearly Beloved Son to redeem it and not to be mov'd in the least to requite his Love with Love again it is not in Conscience to repeat those Blasphemous words wherein have you Lov'd me I do not find it expedient to give any further Answer to the Ingratitude of Christians then to set before their Eyes the wise conduct of Jesus in the management of our Conversions to let the Soul know that if she makes good use of the first Grace she receives Nonne est ipsa beata vita quam omnes volunt audimus nomen hoc rem ipsam omnes nos appetere fatemur non enim sono delectamur c. Paulo infra Nota est igitur omnibus hominibus quia una voce si interrogari possent sine ulla dubitatione velle responderent D. Aug. tom 1. lib. 10. confess cap. 20. per totum God will never deny her the continuation of his Graces until that her Conversion be fully compleated But because that the sufficient Grace whereof we spoke heretofore is a general term that comprehends all the particular Graces which precedes the Justification as Dispositions requisite to the Introduction of that Noble form I suppose with St. Augustin that the first Thought that falls into a Reasonable mans Heart whatever state he is in is a great desire to be Sav'd A desire which the Divines call a Velleity of Salvation to which God concurs with his special assistance to make this weak desire come to a perfect will For to comprehend the merit of that Grace Quae sursum sunt sapite non quae super terram Coloss 3. v. 2. it should be necessary to remark with St. Augustin and other Saints that all Spiritual Gifts all Graces and Favours which God of his Infinite Mercy communicates to our Hearts have no other end or aim but to stir up our Wills to Actions conducing to Salvation Which to perform after a sweet way God indues the Soul with two attractive Powers he fixes one to the objects of our Conversion and the other to its beginning and ground He orders that the Object shall lance a thousand Lustres of Beauty towards the poor Sinners Soul Quae oculus non vidit c. 1 Cor. 2.9 and so many brightsome Beams whereby Heaven is represented to him as a place of Rest where all Tears all Labours all Crosses and Sufferings are Divinely changed into so many Splendours and Lights of Glory where Saints are Sweetly reduc'd and Happily necessitated to Love freed of all Misery and replenish'd with that Saintly Pleasure which takes its source from the Divine Essence These are the Charms which the Object pours down into our Hearts and to the end that its ravishing Beauties should the sooner come to lodge therein God shapes them either into so many Figures which he knows will draw our Affections to them or at least reforms the former Species we had of them by giving them a more lively colour His Charms are altogether as great for the Understanding and Will the concurring Principles of our Conversion but Principles so corrupted since the Fall of Adam and so disorder'd in their Inclinations that besides the difficulties they meet with in the practice of Virtues they are blindly perswaded that all good and felicity resides where Vice even sits in its Thone with Authority But God to bring them from that errour takes off all contradictions makes all difficulties plain drives away all dark Clouds clears the understanding and helps on the Will in the pursuit of things which she thought impossible whilst she was plunged in the dirt of sin and lead by the inclinations of corrupt Nature then she finds that there is more satisfaction and pleasure to die on the Cross than she had of inclination to live in the flesh and is very well pleased to gather Roses amongst Bushes and Thorns However let us not be perswaded that the faculties of the Soul to work her Conversion requires only the intimate presence of God without any further concurrence of any created Principle I do acknowledge that God has the power of Essential
in any way alienate the property of his Gifts being that he cannot renounce the rights of Omnipotency and therefore who ever receives from him remains still accountable to him for what he receives But if we must come to give up our Accounts and pay to God all our Debts we must of necessity restore him all that we have being that we have all from him Jacobi 1. Omne donum desursum est descendens à Patre luminum And if we must fully obey the commands of Justice that is to restore to one another in the same kind or equivalent to it what appertains unto him what shall become of man He can no more restore the same kind since all the Gifts he received from God are become worse in his hands he would be over-much favour'd to be received to an Infamous cession of all Goods But if he be constrain'd to restore the equivalent where will he find whereby to acquit himself for as St. Augustin says Non est Creaturae moliri officium quo justu Creatoris recompenset praesidium Medit 7. it lies not in mans Power to clear scores with his Creator he is too far engag'd in his Debts the Immensity of his Favours surpass our Thoughts and is far beyond our acknowledgements Moreover let man in no wise ground the Immunity of his Debts on those vain Immensitas donorum superat cogitationes sensum Chrys serm 69. in cant serm 12. in Psal 40. and frivolous assurances that his Creditor is of so good a heart as not to call him to an Account and that he will be satisfy'd with the bare acknowledgment of his Insufficiency No no God values more his Goods than so he values not ours but he will not have us set any under-value on what we receive from his liberal Hands much less abuse his Favours being that he gives them by weight number and measure he will have us to return him the same Account A Doctor of the Synagogue seem'd not to know this weighty obligation Quae sunt Dei Deo Matth 22. when thinking to surprize our Saviour he puts the question to him Whether it be Lawful to pay Tribute to Caesar the answer was made home Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what appertains to God Had the Doctor the wit fully to conceive this Divine Answer he might understand more of our Saviours mind than he did he might easily conclude that he would fain say That though Caesar had received the Tribute and Taxes of his People yet Caesar and his People were oblig'd to render daily to God the Sovereign Homage of their Persons as also the Tribute of their Goods to be the better prepar'd for that dreadful day on which he has appointed to receive the general Accounts of all Creatures David with all his Riches with all his Power and Pomp as often as he thought of that indispensable obligation which hangs over our Heads to give up our Accounts to God was forc'd to own his Insufficiency and laying down his Royal Scepter and Crown at the feet of his Creditor doth ingeniously confess that he is Insolvable saying What have I worthy to be presented to my Lord Master for what he has been pleas'd to bestow on me Quid retribuam Domino pro-omnibus quae retribuit mihi Psal 115. v. 3. I will take the Chalice of Salvation or as Didimus explains it I will take the Chalice of Jesus and invoke the Name of the Lord As if he would say now I have found whereby to satisfie my Creditor his Divine Majesty thought perhaps that Humane Nature was so poor and brought so low that she had not in the World wherewith to discharge the least of her Debts True it is that of her own stock and proper Substance she is altogether insolvable But the day will come that the Messias will raise up her fortune and repair all her losses with the most happy advantage she is to receive by his Incarnation The Eternal Word will leave us a Cup fill'd with the purest Blood of his Sacred Veins to which we shall remit his Eternal Father to receive what is his due For seeing that the chief reason which makes us insolvable is that the Guifts of God are Infinite and our Payments limited this Blood is of an Infinite price consequently in giving it for to acquit us of all our Debts we shall be reputed to have made full satisfaction St. Augustin thinking to have found whereby to clear his Accounts with his Divine Majesty begs that he would be pleas'd to accept of his Vows in payment of all his Debts and doubts not but by that voluntary Oblation to clear off all his scores with God O God of Love if I give my self altogether to you if I prostrate my heart at the Feet of your Altars if I freely Sacrifice all my designs to your good will and pleasure and if by disowning my self I do engage to you my Free-will and Liberty to serve you for ever reserving only to my self the bare use of my Life and that I do firmly resolve to pass over my days in a full submission to your Commandments will you not be satisfied Why then these are my Promises Et vere quisquis bene cogitat quid voveat Domino out quae vota reddat hoc exigitur hoc debetur D. Aug. in Psal 15. such are my Vows Hence this Holy Doctor concludes That to consecrate himself to God in this kind is to give God that which is His by Right The Seraphick Doctor St. Bonaventure considering sinners as so many Criminals brought before the Bar of Gods high Court of Justice who notwithstanding upon their Repenpentance have found favour in the sight of their Prince but with that obligation to satisfie the injur'd party remits them to that Parable of the five hundred Pence brought down by our Saviour to justifie the Repentance of Magdalen whose examples must be our Instruction She says nothing for her own justification her heart is over-whelm'd with Grief to have ever offended so bountiful and merciful a God streams of Tears run down from her Eyes to cool the burning flames of her ardent Love Mountains Woods and Solitary places how often have you seen her strike her tender Body With Chains of Iron and give Bloody marks of her true Repentance to her dearly Beloved Jesus But to what purpose is all this Mortification and Pennance seeing she had already received a general discharge and full Absolution of all her sins It was says this Holy Doctor To satisfie in as much as lay in her the party concern'd and affronted by all her abominations and crimes as also to rid her self of the pain which of course would have follow'd her offences But he adds Si Magdalena tot lachrymis reddidit quingentorum denariorum debita quantis reddi debebunt fletibus decem millia peccatorum debita D. Bona Ser. 3 â—om 22. post pent That
the same Grace which Magdalen received to wash off her sinful spots with her bitter Tears must not be a rule in its quantity for all forts of sinners For he that committed more Offences than Magdalen did ought to have a greater Repentance and shed more Tears than Magdalen Betwixt five hundred Pence and ten thousand Talents there is a great deal of difference I do respect and honour all the ravishing thoughts of those Holy and high Spirited men But let us reduce them all to an Unity let us find out one Guift one Payment one Satisfaction which by way of Eminency may be all Guift 〈◊〉 Payment all Satisfaction So that Offering it to God he must of necessity be contented and rest satisfy'd with our Oblation What is this precious Guift this plenary Satisfaction this absolute Payment Doubtless it is the Son of God a Son whom the Father hath given us and in giving him he gave us all that his Heavenly Court could afford so that if he demands of us that which appertains unto him and re-calls what he hath given us let us restore him back again his Son or at least another who may be like him and this is all that he can expect But how shall this be perform'd If it be true that the Phylosopher says Per quas causas quid componitur per easdem dissolvitur That by what causes a thing is compos'd by the same it is dissolv'd Then it must of necessity follow that we restore this Guift to God by the same ways we receiv'd it and by which this precious Guift descended down from Heaven to us He came forth from the abundant and fruitful memory of the Father the Original source of the Divine Persons he took his way through the Love of the Holy Ghost who cloath'd him with a Robe of mens wearing and hid him in a Virgins Womb for the space of nine Months The World hath seen him born in a Stable laid down in a Manger cry for Hunger tremble with Cold and die on a shameful Cross in the sight of all Nations There is the Child that God hath given us but he is not the Child that the Father will have from us because he has him already seated at his Right Hand in his full splendour and in all his Dimensions He aims at another who must be like him and who must also proceed from his Substance pass through the love of the Holy Ghost be clad like Christ be born die and buried with him for to rise up Glorious and mount Triumphing up to Heaven This is a second Child form'd by the model of the first and Him we must offer up to the Eternal Father for to clear off our Debts Here you have the Mystery of it 'T is true that the Son of God has found out a way for us to pay off our debts 't is the value and merits of his dying life but this price must be put into our hands He is upon his journey to Heaven what does he do for to leave us the handling of his Treasures he sends us his holy Ghost to whom he leaves his precious Blood together with all his merits as a Heavenly Seed wherein by the force of his Love he concurs to the conception not of the Son of God but of a Son altogether like the Son of God to the end that this Son so like unto the Son of God conceived in the Sacred Seed of Jesus after the model of the word Incarnate by the operation of the Holy Ghost may pass before God for an equivalent satisfaction and payment of all our Debts This is what St. Paul calls 2 Cor. 11. Pledge of the Holy Ghost which he reserves to give to men when that endeavouring to purchase Heaven they shall be demanded whether they have sufficient payment for its Acquisition St. Augustin is of a contrary Opinion for he will not have this payment to be called a Pledge but an Oblation to God Because that when the thing is restor'd for which the Pledge was laid out Pignus cum redditua res ipsa aufertur arrha autem de ipsa reddatur quae dando promittitur ut res quando redditur impleatur quod datum est non mutetur D. Aug. ser 15. de verb. dom statim initio the Pledge of course must be taken up and so God in giving us Heaven which is the purchase we aim at the Holy Ghost must take away his Pledge which is his Grace and that cannot be for it 's not the same with Grace as it is with Faith for Grace ought to subsist with Glory but Faith not so that this payment which St. Paul calls Pledge rigourously taken must be no Pledge but rather an Oblation to God which is a part of the thing we would fain buy and which cannot be taken away when the Contract is compleated And in effect Grace is the source and first beginning of Salvation which ends in Glory and hath its full consummation in Heaven Let us then give God this Gracious Child the second work of the Holy Ghost Aspicis Christum hominem Deum sed ostendit tibi Pater hominem servat tibi Deum D. Aug. Hom. 32. But we must give him to God in the same shape and Form as he gave Us his own Son reserving him Glorious with himself and suffering amongst us He did always cherish him within his Sacred bosom as him whom he doth engender from all Eternity Co-equal Consubstantial and of one and the same Nature But from himself he deals with him as with a Criminal and the chiefest of all Malefactors you would say that he doth not acknowledge him for his Son The same way we must offer and treat this second Son glorious and passible Glorious in the Cabinet of our Souls but passible in the exteriour of our Bodies Within we must consider him as the object of our most tender Affections give him a Princely attendance and Adore him without any dissimulation Exteriourly he must be a Crucify'd Love cover'd with Wounds Crown'd with Thorns and the perfect Portract of the man of sorrow Incarnate in a Virgins Womb 2 Cor. 4. v. 10. and laid down amongst the Beasts in a Manger for the Love of men But alas says St. Augustin our daily practice is quite contrary to this advice of St. Paul for Exteriourly we bear a most specious Jesus but Interiorly we cherish a most hideous Blackamore Christians in appearance and really nothing less in our hearts we shut up our Hearts with a Ring all guilded Annulo aureo corda obsignamus putridas intus paleas recondimus D. Aug. Ser. 10. Dom. 10. post Pent. and underneath lies nothing but dirt and Infection a heap of rotten straw the Apostle calls that To crucifie Jesus the second time You must beware never to offer that Child at the gates of Heaven he will never be taken for a Child conceiv'd in the Blood of Christ for he
doth not bear the form and resemblance of one The general redemption of mankind was compleated on the Cross and by Sufferances never expect that the Spirit of God will work upon any other example The Holy Ghost never begets Children to God but betwixt the Arms of the Cross consequently he can never beget any there but Crucify'd Children CHAP. II. That the Conversion of a Soul is a second Nativity of Jesus THe Gospel relates unto us how Nicodemus who took all the Actions of Jesus for so many Prodigies Rabbi scimus quia à Deo venisti Magister nemo enim potest facere haec signa quae tu facis nisi fuerit Deus cum eo John 3. ver 2. Nisi quis natus fuerit denuo non potest videre regnum Dei Ibid took an occasion to visit him by night Being come Master says he we know that your Mastership comes from Heaven for none could work such high wonders as you do if God had not gone along with him Whereupon our Saviour replies Verily I tell you that whoever is not Regenerated the second time shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven As if he had said in plainer terms You have seen me revive the Dead change Water into Wine Cure the Sick multiply the Bread cast Devils out of mens Bodies These and many more such Actions have daz'led your eyes and forc'd your mouth to confess ingeniously that they must be the works of Divine Power I do receive and approve of your sentiments for they are conformable to Reason But I will have you to know that there is another wonder worthy of your astonishment which is That to be sav'd you must be born the second time This poor man was altogether astonish'd Qui solam carnalem Nativitatem novit quae non potest denuo fieri ideo modum secundae quaerit Glossa Interlin ad haec verba who had no other Theology than that of his Senses and who did not as yet comprehend the secrets of Heaven falls presently on that Proposal this main difficulty How can that be done That a man must be born twice over that an Old man of threescore years with the full extention of his Body must be reduced to the form and state of a new born Child must he re-enter into his Mothers womb there to be retain'd a Prisoner the space of nine Months That must be perform'd either by Rarefaction or Condensation of Matter That in the Mother This in the Child who did ever hear speak of the like thing Some one perhaps may ask me the same Question Non mireris quia dixi oportet vos nasci denuo Spiritus ubi vult spirat Ver. 7.8 seq and seeing it in the front of this Chapter The second Nativity of Jesus may tell me that it is an impossible thing that Jesus should be born the second time For the Virgin must have been re-call'd on Earth to become his Mother once more And if for to be born twice he must die as often it would be necessary that Jesus who is once already dead and never dies any more should die the second time for to revive again which cannot be Dear Reader I have no other Answer for the clearing of your doubt Si propter haereditatem temporalis nascitur aliquis ex visceribus matris carnalis propter haeriditatem Patris Dei sempiternam nascitur peccator ex visceribus Ecclesiae D. Aug. tract 12. in John com 9. refer tur in Catena but the same which our Saviour gave to Nicodemus Verily I tell you that whoever is not regenerated by water and the Holy Ghost cannot be sav'd For even as being dead by Original sin you are regenerated by the water of Baptism so being dead by your Actual sins you are re-call'd to life by the water of your bitter Tears in the Sacrament of Pennance A Regeneration which cannot be accomplish'd before that Jesus be new born in our hearts by a new conception of Love which I call The second Nativity of Jesus which takes its Being and all its Value from the First The Relations of the one to the other are admirable For as the first Nativity of Jesus in the Sacred womb of the Virgin was by the Hypostatical Union of the Divine Person with Humane Nature to appropriate to himself all her Actions So the second Nativity of Jesus in a Soul is accomplish'd by the intimate Union of his Presence by which he becomes the most happy source and off-spring of all her Actions and renders them meritorious of Heaven And as Jesus in as much as he was man alone could not operate that great work of our Redemption Si tamen compatimur ut conglorificemur Rom. 8. v. 17. Si commortui sumus convivemus si sustinebimus conregnabimus 2 Tim. cap. 2. ver 12. Si enim complantati suâ—â—us similitudini mortis ejus Simul resurrectianis erimâ—s Rom. 6. v. 5. if by the means of that Union he had not acquir'd the Power and Dignity of it Even so it is impossible without that second Nativity of the Son of God in us to do any particular Action that might deserve Heaven To say that it is to injure and intrench upon the Rights and Prerogatives of the first Nativity to refer the consummation of particular Salvation to the necessity of a second Nativity it is to destroy the Essential Subordination of those two terms suffer and suffer with so often Preach'd by the Apostle and to have that Physick only laid on a sick mans Table should do him good without taking it In the Passion of the Son of God we have a most powerful remedy for all our distempers but its effect in us depends on the compassion as a condition without which nothing turns to our advantage The Spirit is not as yet fully inform'd of the secrets contain'd in this second Nativity And therefore I must explain more at large the manner and order observ'd in it And of what nature is that Union of the Soul with Grace which brings God to be present with Man by a stricter tye than that of the Substantial Form which gives him Life For it 's not an Union like that which brings the Sun to be present to the very bowels of the Earth by the emission of his Influences to produce therein all sorts of Mettals Neither is it an union of Authority and Pre-eminency as that of a King or Monarch who is not present in all the Provinces of his Dominions but by the Officers of his Crown No for all those presences to speak properly not being personal cannot produce such Holy and real approaches as are found in that intimate union of the Soul with God to make him appear in the full lustre of a second Nativity What then Lib. 12. de Deo trino uno c. 9. the Learned Suarez the second St. Thomas of our Age finds no comparison more proper to express the
by a certain Antithesis to let us understand the difference that is between his Divine and his Humane Filiation And that the qualities he bears grounded on the rights of his Eternal Birth on his Fathers side are different from what he has founded on the Prerogatives of his Temporal Birth on his Mothers side What a solid Answer St. Peter gives â—â—h 16.13 who being question'd by Jesus Christ What did the World think of the Son of man Answered You are Christ Son of the living God All the rest were of so shallow a judgment as to believe that some mortal man was Father to Jesus as well as to St. Iohn the Baptist and to the Prophet Elias But St. Peter who already came to understand the secrets of his Master made a publick confession and an open acknowledgment of his Divine Filiation Ah! Peter replyes Jesus My Father has discover'd unto you the Mystery and has told you that I had no Father on Earth It is true then that our Saviour has but one Heavenly Father Christus non de substantia Spiritus Sancti sed de potentia nec generatione sed jussione benedictione conceptus est D. Aug. ser 6. de temp tom 10. But on Earth he is conceiv'd of the Holy Ghost in the Sacred womb of the Virgin Mary not by way of Emanation as in the bosom of the Father For as St. Augustin subtilly remarks He does not proceed from the Substance but by the Power of the Holy Ghost not by way of Generation but by way of command and by Coelestial Benediction If we must thus speak of the Paternity of the Messias in the Incarnation of the Eternal word whom must we acknowledge to be the true Father of the second Child form'd according to the model of the first I say that neither of both has a Father on Earth and that the Holy Ghost has supply'd the Office of a Father to both For as the Angel Embassador to assure the Virgin who having banish'd from her heart all love of Worldly Creatures could not comprehend how she could be a Mother Luc. 1. v. 35. told her presently Paraclitus autem Spiritus quem mittet Pater in nomine meo ille vos docebit omnia Joan. 4. v. 26. Ego rogabo patrem alium paraclitum dabit vobis ut mâ—neat vobiscumin aeternum Spiritum veritatis ibid. v. 16. That the Holy Ghost should come upon her that the Virtue of the most high should over-shadow her and that the Holy who should be born of her should be call'd the Son of God So our Saviour before he mounted up to Heaven assur'd his Apostles who could not conceive the height of the Mysteries committed unto them That he would send the Holy Ghost who by the infusion of his Graces would come within our Hearts pouring himself into our Souls Alium paraclitum nominavit non juxta naturae differentiam sed juxta operationis diversitatem Didimus in Cathena would frame them all according to the word Incarnate to form thereof another Jesus Christ That being so may I not lawfully say that the Holy Ghost does perform the Duty and Parts of a Father to both Non enim accepistis Spiritum servitutis iterum in timore sed accepistis Spiritum adoptionis filiorum in quo clamamus Abba pater Rom. 48.1.16 This is St. Paul's Doctrine in his Epistle to the Romans where after he had said That such as suffer the operation of the Spirit of God are the Children of God set at liberty and freed from all slavish fear He Imprints in their hearts the same pretensions of Love which he had imprinted in the heart of Jesus towards the recognizance of the one and self same Father who both adopt them after the coming and their receiving the Holy Ghost an active Adoption which is particularly attributed to the Holy Ghost for though that Grace and all her appurtenances are common Goods flowing from the liberal distributions of the whole Trinity yet because Love is a property of the Holy Ghost and as the Graces which we receive from him are beams deriv'd from that love he reserves to himself those communications by right of property The same Apostle goes on to confirm the certainty of that Adoptive Filiation when he says That the Holy Ghost gives Testimony to our Spirit Ipse enim Spiritus testimonium reddit Spiritui nostro quod sumus Filii Dei Rom. 8. v. 16. that we are the Children of God I know that our Adversaries giving a sinister interpretation to this passage would fain say that this testimony gives them an assurance of Faith Qui habet testimonium salvabitur non damnabitur eccè ergo Spiritus obligans adoptans testificans of the necessity of their Salvation and that therefore their Conscience ought to be free from all fear But it is to give the Lye to St. Paul who speaking of himself in another place dares not assure himself of his Justification though his Conscience be without any remorse of Crime Nicol. Gozram in hunc locum his design was only to fortifie our hopes but still notwithstanding he will have us to work out our Salvation with fear and Trembling 1 Cor. cap. 4. For this Testimony is not of Faith nor of Infallibility but of conjecture only and of moral confidence St. Basil gives you the form of it Basil in reg Brevioribus interog 296. For some one asking him the question what certainty could we have of being the Children of God he answers That if laying our hand to our breast we can say with David I hate Iniquity I have cherish'd and always fulfill'd the Law I have prais'd my Creator seven times a day at midnight my custom is and always was to get up and confess my sins I did ever shun bad Company and had always Justice for the Rule of my Actions or else if we find that we have the three conditions quoted by St. Bernard Bern. de 4. orandi modis viz. A Spirit elevated towards Heaven a Body subject to reason and an ardent desire to advance still in Virtue If you find your self so compos'd you may lawfully conceive a moral certainty of your Salvation but never look further for an Infallible certainty which might bring you to a false Peace an enemy to your Salvation which ought to be wrought out with fear and diffidence This was St. Gregory's advice to the noble Matron Gregoria who instantly pray'd him to give her satisfaction in this point Daughter says he you tell me Rem difficilem inutilem postulasti difficilem quidem quia indignus ego sum cui revelatio fieri debeat Inutilem vero quia secura de peccatis tuis fieri non debes nisi cum jam in die vitae tuae ultimo plangere eadem peccata non vobis D. Greg. l. 6. epist ep 186. that you will not let me rest until that I
of his main Grief and Sorrow is a sufficient strong argument to make you believe that you shall never purchace Heaven nor attain to any considerable stock of Virtue but by the Touch-stone of Mortification and Pennance For if Heaven suffers Violence and that the Son of God had it upon that account how can we pretend to it at a cheaper rate Whatever way you look upon this Spiritual Generation it can never be accomplish'd without Grief For first if you look upon the Soul when she receives the first Seed of the word of God what trouble what pains she is in to conceive the Fruit of Life what resistance she finds in her self to a strong resolution of Amendment A little more of my Unlawful Pleasures says St. Augustin to morrow to morrow I will withdraw from the World and quit all my evil Inclinations but why not this day See the Battle re-mark the resistance we ought to stand always in fear of some bad issue in us of the word of God seeing we are so backward to receive it Nec statim finis industriae addidisse sed tunc alterius laboris exordâ—um est ut lactentem infantiam sedulis nutrimentis studiis usque ad plenam Christi perducat aetatem D. Hier. in c. 3. ad Galat. so unwilling to entertain it and so prone to blot it clear out of our hearts Moreover what pains is man at to bring this fruit to perfection when once conceiv'd he must have it always in his arms wrapt it up in Clouts give it the Tunick of a right intention and the double Vest of Charity until that it comes to the perfect Age of Jesus But if this Seed be cast on a malicious and stony Heart what violence must there be to bring that fruit of Life to Perfection and tear assunder the obdurate Skin and Sinews of that rusty body of our inveterate malice What streams of Blood must run from the Mothers Womb and what cruel Gripings must she suffer before she comes to be deliver'd no love for the World nor there must be no Friendship for Flesh and Blood These are the preparations absolutely requir'd by the Prophet-Royal to make this new born Child appear in his full lustre to the World Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me Psal 118. The number of my Sins says he has made up for my poor Soul a net of Ropes wherein all Inspirations from Heaven are intangled and Putrify'd Putruerunt corruptae sunt cicatrices meae à facie insipientiae meae Psal 37. v. 6. as if they had fallen into a most rotten Sink My continual folly and my re-iterating so often my Crimes has thoroughly corrupted my Sores but my Remedy is near at hand a True Repentance to have ever offended so Patient and Merciful a God and therefore by the assistance of his Holy Grace I will break loose the Cords of all my Abominations and Crimes Laboravi clamans raucae factae sunt fauces meae Psal 68. v. 4. and will cry and call so long to the Heavens for relief to my weak endeavours that my Voice shall become altogether Hoarse Was ever poor man so intangl'd in the Ropes of his Old Imperfections as St. Augustine was But was ever poor man so perplex'd or did ever any man labour so much to get loose as he did in his Confessions he would move a stony heart to compassion Here you may see him stretch'd on the ground and suffer as much as one troubled with a Wind-Collick there you may perceive him get up of a sudden as one troubled with a Convulsion-fit here the running streams of his bitter tears make a channel from his Eyes over all his Face there he lies in his sad dumps without any feeling he goes Ecce intus eras ego foris ibi te quaerebam in ista formosa quae fecisti defermis irruebam me cum eras iterum non eram vocasti clamasti rupisti suditatem meam fragrasta duxi Sâ—ritum anhelo tihi gustani esurio tetigisti me exarsi in pacem tuam D. Aug. tom 1. lib. 10. confes c. 27. per totam he comes he speaks like one Distracted he is so tormented with his evil he calls God to his assistance he arms himself with Impatience against himself his Spirit sets him on but his Flesh retains him he will and will not and by not willing what he wills he puts himself to a deal of pain he sees that he must of necessity Break loose with the Devil if he aims to serve God and enjoy his Glory But the old acquaintance of Ladies those alluring and deceiptful pleasures of the World heretofore his greatest Joy and only Recreation now look at him with a Smiling countenance and renew his wounds to make him miscarry Augustin your doleful expressions moves me to compassion but you must have Patience It 's a Sentence pronounced at the Bar and by the Conclave of the Blessed Trinity that your Delivery must be with Grief and Sorrow and that you must undergo a great deal of hardship if you do intend to bring forth another Jesus on the Model of the Word-Incarnate CHAP. VI. That this Sorrowful Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate ACcomplishment is a term and a way of speaking much us'd by Phylosophers to express the last perfection of each Nature either in the constitution of her bare Being or in the further flourishing or ornament of her well-Being And as in the division of Beings there are found four sorts Metaphysical Physical Moral and Artificial so each has his accomplishment as well Essential as Accidental I do not here take the word Accidental in its rigorous signification for that which can be and not be without the corruption of its subject but only for all that does not enter into the precise constitution of the Essence Let us leave those terms to Phylosophers Let us come to the point and say that the Incarnation may be reduc'd to many states First if we do consider it in the Eternal and Infinite Conceptions of God not as yet determin'd by the difference of times then its Essential accomplishment shall be Gods Eternal determination of the same viz. That among many other means which he might make choice of for to work the Redemption of man he resolv'd the Incarnation of his dearly beloved Son with an obligation of Suffering which determination puts a stop to all other possible ways of Redemption to bring it to that of a Suffering and Crucified Love And in so doing I may reduce the Incarnation to a Metaphysical state But the Physical state is that Hypostatical Union ever to be Ador'd which has joyn'd together in the fulness of time those Extremities so far assunder the Divine and Humane Nature and which has given us the Divine Child Jesus and only delights of mankind for to put in Execution that work so much importing the Welfare and Happiness of all
difference of times to give us four remarkable proofs of his Eternal Care The first he brings Man from nothing by Creation The second when that Man had forgot his Respects to his Creator he resolves to repair his loss by uniting Humane Nature to the Divine in the Incarnation of his Son The third he prepares for him in Heaven an Immortal Crown in order to enjoy for ever in Glory the sight of his Divine Essence And the fourth when that by his Actual Sin he shall come to loose all right to that Glory by the loss of present Justice in this Life he offers him the means of a Repentance by the Feelings he gives him of his Conversion All these aforesaid Actions are the worthy Imployments of his Divinity but the Conversion of a Sinner of all seems the chiefest as for the Creation it was as it were necessary or at least most convenient that God should give actual Existence to Man being that his possibility was in his Thoughts from all Eternity otherwise it might be said That Power was faulty being not reduc'd to Act To assign him a state of Glory where after his Pilgrimage he might find his Center and final Settlement that follows immediately the way of acting of the first Principle who at the same instant as he gives Being to a Creature gives him his Settlement and final rest As for the Hypostatical Union in the Incarnation perhaps the design was taken in the most Sacred Conclave of the Blessed Trinity before the Fall of Adam Besides it was reasonable that the Son should raise the Honour of the Father very much interessed in the loss of Man the Noblest Master-piece that ever came from his hands if he had remain'd without remedy after his Offence But as for the Conversion of a Sinner in particular and after the re-establishment of Humane Nature by the general remedy of Redemption common to all men to undertake as yet his conduct and the transporting of him from the state of his actual Sin to that of Grace 't is the effect of his Infinite Love I must confess but it is also an Imployment worthy of his Divinity reserv'd for Jesus alone Reason makes it out for we say that the resemblance makes things known the World is the Work of God and known for such because its Perfections bear the resemblance and Portract of its Maker Grace which has Converted the Sinner comes far nearer to the Likeness of God for what goodness could render the Soul good make her partaker of Gods Grace and the Object of his Sovereign Love What Power could give her a Right to Heaven or to any part of its Glory what cause could procure her Eternal Felicity without any limitation or bounds but an Infinite Goodness a first Cause Primique referret luminis effigiem sanctaque imitamina formae Greg Naz. carm 4. an Eternity by Essence St. Gregory thinking on the imployment that God had before the worlds creation what was his occupation and pastime says that all his study was to render his perfections communicable but his perfections are all represented to the life in the conversion of a Soul consequently the worthyest imployment that God had before the Worlds creation out of himself was to manage the conversion of Souls and think of means to bring to pass so noble an undertaking in the difference of time Quos praescivit predestinavit conformes fieri imaginis filij sui ut sit ipse primogenitus in multis fratribus Rom. 8. v. 19. I do ingeniously confess that the first and chief imployment of the Eternal Fathers is to produce his only Son and to love him But after that the most honourable imployment his goodness could ever make choise of is to produce outwardly Children by the most Noble Generations that can be imagined without any prejudice to the pre-eminency of his first Paternity to wit in unity of supposit and love the first born of his Children is Jesus The rest of men are younger Brothers Sicut Deus pater suam naturalem bonitatem voluit aliis communicare perticipando eis similitudinem suae bonitaris ut non solus sit bonus sed etiam actor bonorum ita filius Dei voluit conformitatem suae filiationis ut non solus sit ipse filius sed etiam primogenitus filiorum D. Tho. in hunc locum Pauli less shared withal for all Laws favour the first born but notwithstanding they have the same Father same Inheritance same Rights same Coat of Arms So that as the Generation of the Word is God's first imployment within himself the Adoptive Generation which is performed by the conversion of a Sinner shall hold the first rank without him For even as in the super-adorable labours of his Divine fecundity he powers forth his knowledge without measure until that he meets with his Holy Ghost who setting a stop to his emanations seems as it were by violence to retain the course of his action This love must force it self to render its fecundity without any limitation both of acknowledgement and love among creatures capable of its impression So before the conversion of a Soul he proposes himself for Object of our thoughts and his Holy Ghost for the scope of our love to honour us with the same Objects which his knowledge and love have in the blessed Trinity Debuit per omnia fratribus assimilari Heb c. 2. for all filiations must have a reference to the first filiation and the nearer their reference is the more excellent they will be Moreover it is a prerogative belonging only to him who is above all Genus and Species and has a right of Sovereignty over all Categories to destroy all Genus and Species as well as to redress them to their ends if once they swerve from it God alone has a right of absolute and Universal Sovereignty then he can as well reduce all Genus and Species of Beasts to nothing as he brought them out of nothing to give them a Being Venit filius hominis quaerete c. Luke 19. v. 10. Mat. 18. v. 11. Cum dicit quod perierat sub intelligendum est genus humanum omnia enim elementa suum ordinem servant sed homo eravit quia suum ordinem perdidit Remigius in catena ad c. 18. Matth. All humane nature in her Species was misled from the end for which God had created her It was then an imployment suitable and reserved to the sole power of a God to work the establishment of so great a disorder True it is that actual sin is only a personal offence but because that it is a raising up against God and that God is the Center and last end of all the Species in that respect we may say that all sinners are gone astray from their Species Hence I do conclude that when a sinner converts himself to God it is not enough to conceive a displeasure for having offended him his peculiar good
are free to receive or to refuse the Divine Inspiration this is all the inequality for the want of Inspiration as well as of Respiration deprives us of Life This of the Life which we have common with all Sensitive Creatures That of the Life which makes us capable of Heaven and Glory 'T is this Messenger from Heaven that goes in Post towards those Licentious Livers Annuncia populo meo scelera eorum domui Jacob peccata eorum Is 58. v. 2. that take delight to live constantly in the puddle of Sin and with the assistance of the worm of their Guilty Conscience makes them to apprehend the fatal issue of their everlasting Perdition and Woe if they do not follow his Calling and make good use of his Correction 'T is that Inspiration that meets at all hours at the gate of Honest and Godly Livers for to summons them to a further Progress in Virtue and never to be satisfied with the degree of Perfection which they have acquir'd until the final Grace do Crown all their Labours That being suppos'd Fratres videre ne in vacuum gratiam Dei recipiatis 2 Cor. c. 6. v. 1. the Apostle St. Paul that Faithful Heart to Gods Inspirations exhorts us above all things to conceive a great esteem for those Divine Callings My Brethren says he beware you receive not the Grace of God in vain he is a liberal Prince to them that esteem his favours but he will shut up his hand to such as undervalue them Gratia ejus in me vacua non fuit 1 Cor. 15. v. 10. The Atheist who in the impiety of his Belief imagines that all things are Governed by I do not know what Principle of Fatal Necessity despises and sets at nought all Inspirations Gratia in me vacua non fuit id est otiosa qui ea usus est ad quod data est sibi D. Tho. in com hujus loci when that God though highly offended with his Blasphemy awakes in him that light of the Prophet grafted in our hearts from our Mothers Womb which gives us to understand that there is a God whose private checks he smothers with the corruption of licentious life and conversation the most part of our cross-grain'd Christians do the same when they give the deaf Ear to that Internal reprehension that puts them in mind of their solemn Vow made to God in their Baptism to renounce Satan and all his allurements and never to follow the course their disordinate appetite The very Religious and Solitary Souls are in some respects guilty of the same crime when the Holy Ghost invites them to think on their former fervency which brought them to resolve couragiously to forsake the World that by the serious consideration thereof he might revive in their hearts those Seraphick flames yet notwithstanding they are content to lead a languishing kind of life which certainly will lead them to their utter destruction and loss We must confess that it is crime of less Majesty Divine Cadunt secus viam volucres Coeli comedunt cadunt in petroso ubi non habent Terram multam cadunt in spinas suffocantur Ex Mat. c. 13. v. 5. to despise his Graces But we must also ingeniously acknowledge that this Heavenly Seed will hardly ever grow or take root in our hearts more impenetrable to the sacred influences of Love then are the Rocks of Caucasus to the Rays of the Sun Notwithstanding we must not fail of our courage Audi justi semen filioli mei quos iterum parturio donec formetur in vobis Christus qui enim in animo suo partus fidei feret semen ei Christus est D. Amb. in Psal 38 all the virtues come in a body to the fight Perseverance will have the Victory God holds up the arm of the Labourer whilst he is at work The comparison of the Grain of Wheat brought down by our Saviour to this purpose makes it appear For what a deal of pains is taken and how difficult it is to raise up that little creature to perfection the Labourer must cast it into the Earth as if he were to destroy it it must rot there under the Dung Winter declares open Wars against it and comes thundering upon it with all its rigour blocks it up in Prisons of Ice a lift of a Spade wounds it to death and for all Funeral Ceremonies turns it off with a kick into a Tomb of Snow The very Birds after its death threaten to have a fling at it However it bounces up against all those assaults Ast ubi se geniculata jam spica sustulerit vaginae quaedam futurae frugi parantur in quibus graâ—â—m formatur interius ne teâ— ejus priâ—â—â—dia aut frigus laedat aut â—â—lis aestus exurat c. Vide D. Amb. l. 3. Heâ—â—m c. 8. per totum and assures it self of a Victory over all its Enemies if it be so that the Sun will give it a favourable look And so it happens for the Sun no sooner appears in its Spring but this little Grain as if it were getting out of its Tomb begins to cleave asunder the great clods of Earth that cover it and appear with its green Bonnet over the ground turn up its Reeds in form of Pillars with little Mouldings at equal distance through which springs up an Ear with as many Pikes to Guard it as it has Grains in its little Purses Aliud est semen diaboli aliud semen Christi quod feritur ad justiciam quod seminâ—nt Christus regnum est Dei quod seminâ—t diabolus peccatum est D. Amb. lib. 3. Hexam c. 10. God when he has visited a sinner in the sweetness of his Blessings with a good inspiration to alter his life and consecrate his heart unto him there is a Grain of Wheat cast into a Conscience but it must increase Oh! what Pains what Convulsions what a deal of Labour must be taken The Dirt and Infection of Carnal concupiscence rots it the Ice which has Frozen our hearts in the service of God deprives it of all liberty to appear outwardly the winds of Pride gives it a thousand Battles The Snow of Hypocracy does persecute it self-Self-love the most cruel of all leads the rest of the Domestick Enemies towards it with a resolution either to smother it in its Cradle or at least to wither it and leave it without any vigour Qui administrat semen seminanti panem ad manducandum proestabit multiplicabit semen vestrum augebit incrementa frugum justitiae vestra 2 Cor. 9. v. 10. But fear nothing dear Soul be only faithful to your God hear his voice follow his call and you shall soon see that the Sun of Justice will free you from all those difficulties bring together your affections scattered by the Storm of Temptations change that obstinate and stony heart that made you insensible of all his corrections he will put into
Passion if there be no greater Friendship than to expose his Life for his Friends You ought to love me above all Creatures for I suffer'd Death upon your account You are my Dove by the Communication of my Spirit if the simplicity of that little Creature which has been to me a Symbol in my Baptism and a Faithful Messenger to the good man Noah in the Deluge giving you to understand that I had no Gaul in my heart against you though you deserv'd I should have reserv'd some to Chastise you for all your Abominations and Crimes you may learn further by her Example to live so in this World that you never wet the foot of your Affections nor loiter as the Crow did to feed on dead Carcasses but to be always in a readiness to return to me when I shall open unto you the window of my heart a Mystical Ark pierc'd with a Lance for your Love You are my Immaculate by the use of the Holy Sacraments that my Flesh and Blood which is to you Food and refreshment in the Eucharist be not a bit to poison you as another Judas by the indisposition of your ill prepar'd and ill affected Conscience but rather a Sweet Nector to increase and fortify the Life of your Soul and perfume all her Faculties with the delicate scent of Piety that I may take pleasure to reside constantly in your heart Dixit insipiens in corde suo non est Deus Psal 13. v. 1. This second invention of Love prevails but very little or rather nothing at all with Christians and why so Nam ita superè peccat inverecundè ne si non esset Dâ—us Lyran. in Psal 13. Their excuse will be Ignorance they did not know who it was that spoke The fool said in his heart it is not God that knocks It is therefore that the Soul sends her Lacquey to the door to tell that Madam is not within that he that knocks may come another time or if he has any Packet to leave it and it shall be given to Madam when she comes from her walk That Lady is the Soul the Lacquey is the Body Caro concupiscit adversus spiritum spiritus autem adversus carnem Gal. 5. v. 17. for when God calls us to infuse some good Notions into our Souls the Body is always contrary as St. Paul says to the Spirit is hard by to make opposition Let us consider I pray the malice of that excuse What is the reason that a Body gives orders to tell that he is not within when he is call'd for It is either because he is not drest and in a condition to appear or that the person that looks for him is not grateful to him or that he is Indebted to him and having not wherewithall to pay him he commands his Servants to tell that he is not within O great God be not offended with the Impudence of that bold Harlot who gives Orders to tell that she is not within when you call for her For in good earnest she is not within she is far from you her Sins have carried her away to some Foreign Region as far off as another Prodigal Child and though she had been within she wants the Robe of Charity she is in no condition to appear Her Face is made black with the Cole of her Crimes your sight would make her horrible moreover your company is nothing acceptable to her Quae enim participatio justitiae cum iniquitate c. 2 Cor. 6. v. 14. for betwixt Light and Darkness there is no Communication Belial and Jesus never lodge under the same Roof but what troubles her mind most is that she is your Debtor and accountable to you for so great a number of Graces that she has not wherewithal to make you the least satisfaction an excuse without ground apology without any reason Ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis Psal 104. v. 4. Let it be so as you will have it that she is far from her God Is it not God that gathers together the scattered Sheep and leaves Ninety Nine in Heaven to look for one that is lost on Earth If she be naked and without the Ornaments of Charity is it not Jesus that cloaths them without any other cost charge or trouble only to be willing to receive them But she has not wherewithal to make satisfaction let her not trouble her mind with any and if she had she cannot of her self merit the least degree of Grace in the rigour of Justice whilst she is under the Law of sin It is enough that the precious Blood of Jesus is of an Infinite value to make all those excuses frivolous and never to be admitted of The third invention of Love that Jesus imploys in our search is to set before our eys the labours he undergoes upon this account as a loving Father to his Children though debauch'd out of all measure after the respect and authority of a Father could not prevail with them no more than his sweet alluring words and his threatnings he comes at last with a sad countenance the tears in his eyes and fetches a languishing sigh from the bottom of his Heart Ungrateful will you always continue the subject of my Afflictions At the age that I am in I should by course take my rest Yet it is Then that I see my self engaged in a thousand troubles and all this upon your account I deprive my self of all contentments for to advance your Fortune I expose my life to many hazards for to preserve yours if you have not the good nature to requite my affections at least have compassion of my Labour and Toyl God does the same Aperi mihi quia caput meum plenum est rore c. Cant. 5. v. 2. as you may see in many places of Scripture My hair says he is all wet with the dew and therefore opens the door to let me in A Man who has travelled all night upon some earnest occasion will come to the door of a Lodging two hours before day in the morning he appears there all in a Fog and dung-wet the first that meets with him is moved with compassion Oh! Poor Traveller I see you are sadly wet and how says he could I avoid it Here I have stood these two long hours under all this Rain knocking at the door and as yet I see no body come to let me in Servire me fecisti in peccatis tuis c. Isa 43. v. 24. It 's so with the Saviour of the Word I ran says he all night in Post hast to meet with a Soul at her up-rising I went through thick and thin Frost and Snow in a Cold Windy Rainy Season I arrived early before the break of day at her door I knock'd I call'd and recall'd I knock'd again and again but no body appeared and here I am wet and weary and have nothing for all my Labour But here I discover another Mystery
For if our Saviour's hair be wet with the dew for having tarried too long a time at the door of our Souls it must of necessity follow that he was bare-headed Even as a Man who is desirous to hear what is said or see what is done in a Lodging stoops down takes off his Hat draws nearer for fear that he should not hear the voice of them from whom he expects his answer En ipse stat post parietem nostrum respiciens c. Cant. 2. v. 9. In pariete propriae voluntatis fenestras reperit Deus inclinationis nimirum ipsius voluntatis per quas respiciat gratiae intuitu quasi per cancellorum foramina inspirationum suarum radios immitat Gislerius in cap. 2. Cant. expo 3. v. 9. So that in the ardent desire he has to hear and see what is doing within doors he willingly suffers all foul weathers The Holy Ghost makes use of the same Comparison Lo here he is says he speaking of the Spouse hidden behind the wall who looks in through the openings and chincks of the door for he is so desirous to know what we do and whether we hear his voice or no that he spares not to stoop down and look in through those overtures with a great deal of attention for fear that our answers should be so weak that he could not over-hear them Have we spoke the good word have we produced an act of amendment of life God is over-joy'd as if he had found what he look'd for he gives notice to the Angel-keeper Oh! I have heard her voice at last that Soul hitherto always gave me the deaf Ear Here she comes now to the Door now she is mine I heard her say that she would quit the World and all its allurements to follow me I am extraordinary well satisfy'd now for all my Labours Vos de deorsum estis ego de supernis sum c. John 8. v. 28. The third excuse that Worldings bring down to justifie their crooked ways is that they are not of the same Religion that Jesus Christ is of and therefore they can have no Communication with him without undervaluing their own Profession Pray dear Jesus let us know what Religion you are of I am says he from above and you are from below I am from Heaven and you from the World Above and below Heaven and Earth are far asunder We must not think it strange then if betwixt God and us there is so little correspondence if he goes among the great ones to purchase their Souls they will be very free with him they will tell him plain down-right that they are none of his Profession they will warn him away from Court for they will have none of his Maxims there Jesus makes an open Declaration in his Gospel that though he be King of all the World yet that his Kingdom as for the Dominion of Lucre and Profit was not here below For Humility was his Prerogative the Cross his Scepter the Thorn his Crown Calvary his Pallace Labour and Toyl Afflictions and Crosses his Revenues The Martyrs his Regiments the Disciples his Guards Filij Agar exquierent sapientiam que de terra est Baruch 3. v. 23. and the Poor Apostles his Officers The care of Great ones is quite contrary for all their Study is to amplifie their Estates by the utter Destruction of their Inferiors and Ruine of the Vulgar sort To shun Crosses to follow Ambition to suppress Devotion and all Christian Exercise to follow the Maxims of a most unlucky Policy that makes no further use of true Religion than as long as they see it consist with their Designs Matchiavel's Doctrine the most wicked of all Mortals If he goes to knock at the door of Ecclesiastical Persons he shall receive no better welcom Obliti sunt Deum qui nutrivit eos c. Baruch 4. v. 8. For if Jesus be a vigilant Pastor over all his Flock and feeds his Sheep with his own Flesh and the Blood of his Veins to give them Life everlasting if well received the most part of Church-men will be either wicked or unprofitable wicked for not honouring the greatness of their Character and Sacerdotal Ministry by the good example of their holy life and conversation unprofitable for their want of courage to arm themselves manfully to resist the often incursions of Satan that Infernal Wolf who devours the Flock of Jesus not daring to bark for fear of blows Totus mundus in maligno positus est 1 John 4. v. 19. Go over all other States and Conditions their return shall be the same their answers alike and their obstinacy in all points equal So that what ever endeavours our Saviour makes to convert us and call us to himself Arvinae toris membrorum moles robusta pinguesci ut saginatus in poenam charius pereat c. Cypr. ad donat though they be very efficacious yet they are often without effect Because that it seems we made a Vow to destroy our selves A State truly deplorable if our dear Jesus had not a greater Love and Care of us than we seem to have of our own Salvation CHAP. XII That to become Servants to God we must know the World IT is a true Maxim generally received among Phylosophers that to speak pertinently of a thing we must have a full knowledge of its Nature which cannot be acquired but either by Definition or Description The first makes appear it's Essence in the constitutive Principles of its Being the second discovers its principal properties by the Operations that strike at our Senses My aim is to let the Soul know that to convert her God sets before her eyes what a deplorable thing it is to serve the World I cannot perform this methodically but by describing its properties to the end that we conceive as much esteem for it and no more than it has of real and well-grounded conditions which render it worthy of Love What is the World Omne quod est in munda concupiscentia carnis est c. John 2. v. 16. If I make my Addresses to Scripture there I shall find the three main Pillars that bear it up Concupiscence of the Eyes Disorder of the Flesh and Pride of Life If I consult the Phylosopher he will tell me that it is a Sophistical and cheating Argument that always deceives by Equivocation that places the shadow for the real Existence of things That has but Negative Principles and would fain conclude affirmatively If I put the Question to Astronomers their answer will be that it is a stray'd and wandering Star that has no fix'd or settled place and whence they can draw no assured ground to know the Horoscope or Fortune of any Creature that it is a Body formed in the Region of the Air which having no support but a light and inconstant Cloud vanisheth away as soon as it begins to appear The Mathematician is much of the same opinion he
a greedy Crow carried on by his Venereal Flames to all rotten Carcasses and slaves to Venus By night he is no better than a Ravenous Wolf that lives by the spoil of the very poor every where he goes he has the repute of a Devil his Body is the Hell of his Soul you hear nothing come from his Mouth but dark and Sacrilegious words These are the smoaky stinking vapours which the very Satanick Impiety that consumes his Heart breaths out at every moment The thoughts of Heaven and of his Salvation are as rare with him as if he had been already confirm'd in his everlasting misfortune There is a man of the World for you harnis'd like a Mule in a Waggon full of Maledictions Virtuous Ladies are as rare as Children well Bred. The Philosopher who in the open Streets of Athens with a Lanthorn in his hand at noon-day look'd for a Virtuous man Elevatae sunt filiae Sion ambulaverunt extento collo Isa 3. v. 6. might very well take one in each hand to find out a Wise and Virtuous Lady For Vanity seems to be so incident to that Sex that on all occasions they would have themselves ador'd as so many Divinities but that the ugliness of their Feet even as the Peacock forces them to acknowledge the frailty and weakness of their Nature If the foolish fancies of Love have once got into their Breasts there is no talking to them of living any longer under their Mothers wings Their Stubborness their Impudence their Boldness turns clear from their Hearts and Faces all Respect all Modesty all Shame The World has got such an Influence over their Affections as being their King that after he had treated them as the Scullions of his Kitchen he leaves them as a Reward for all their Service an everlasting repentance for having ever lov'd him so much Ut pulvis à turbine sic opes ab aliis ad alios subinde ventilantur atque jactantur umbrae qui instar manibus teneri nequaquem possunt nec desperatae carentibus nec satis certae possidentibus Greg. Naz. in orat ad Julianum tributorum exequatorem In fine perhaps the great Wealth Estates Possessions and Riches that the World gives to some will be a sufficient motive to retain them in his Service Alas how can they be ignorant that these are so many Nets to intangle them further in their slavery and render them incapable ever to enjoy the liberty of true born Children of God which might wean them from all the Terrestrial Affections and transport their love towards Heaven the originary land of their Nativity they are Tokens sold and bought very dear and for which he expects extraordinary service with a thousand sorts of compulsions and violence However all this might be born with if we were but sure of its constant enjoyment and long possession But we see in the twinkling of an eye a Rich man made the most miserable of Mortals now a Craessus presently a Craetes It is then very true by the deduction of those three heads that he who forsakes the service of God to live under the Government of a Tyrannical Prince forsakes his Father to meet with his Enemy turns tail to his Happiness to face his Misfortunes declines from his true and well-affected Judge to cast himself into the hands of his Tormenter Vadam post amatores meos qui dant panes mihi aquas meas Ozee 2. v. 5. An non est hoc durae frontis meretriciae impudentiae ut in suo scelere glorietur dicat sequar amatores meos c. D. Hier. hic That our God makes use of that knowledge to Convert a Sinner Scripture makes it out where you may find in Hosea the Prophet a man who resolves to forsake the Service of God to follow his Passions and rank himself under the Tyrannical Laws of this corrupt World I will go says he after my Lovers that give me both Linnen and Woollen and Oyle to Drink as if he would say the ways of God are very Austere in his House they speak of no other thing but of carrying of Crosses renouncing ones Self banishing proper Love practising Mortification and wearing of Hair-Cloath I grudge those ways I will hereafter give Obedience to the World whose Maxims are far more sweet the company more grateful and the Commandments more conformable to Nature What says St. Hierome To glory in their Iniquity and declare openly that they will forsake God to follow the World and to run after its unlawful Allurements is it not to bear the front and face of a bold Impudent Strumpet Spinis electorum viae sepiuntur dum dolorum punctiones inveniunt in hoc quod temperaliter concupiscunt quasi interposita materia vis eorum obviat quorum nimirum defideria perfectionis difficultas impugnat D. Greg. 34. moral cap. 2. No no says our Saviour I stop you there you shall not find what you look for in the World I will set Bushes Thorns and great Stones in the way where you think to pass through that at last you shall be constrain'd to come back You think to live at your Ease in the World I will contrive it so that all Creatures shall rise up against you to controul your Designs You think to meet with Friends but I will order it that your nearest Relations shall be the first that will trouble your Settlement you think to enjoy your Liberty with more ease and less contradiction Vadam revertar ad virum meum priorem nam dum diversitatibus mundi quem diligit anima morderi coepit tunc plenius intelligit quanto illi cum priore viro melius fuit eos ergos quos voluntas prava pervertit plerumque adversitas corrigit Idem Greg. supra by withdrawing your self from my conduct I will render you a far greater Slave than any of the Criminals at the Chain in their Gallies Those sound Corrections and Divine Reproaches had so much power over that wavering Spirit that at last he is forc'd to acknowledge his fault and openly declare that he would return to his former Master because says he it is better to be with him than here where I find but the bare shadow of good luck and contentment Whereas in Gods Service I shall have all assurance of Glory and everlasting Felicity CHAP. XIII That we cannot complain of the want of sufficient means for our Conversion WE must suppose for a ground of this our Discourse that all Gods Graces tending to our Conversion may be reduc'd to two equal Divisions That is to the Graces that begin and dispose us to our Coversion and all those Graces are comprehended under the term and notion of less sufficient to Salvation or to the Graces which do effectually concur to our Conversion and those we call actual and efficacious Graces This is the Doctrine of all true Divines against Calvin Bellarm. tom 3. controvers l. 1.
Lights with such a deal of Liberality that you would say he would exhaust himself Per solem intelligi potest non iste visibilis sed ille de quo dicitur vobis qui timetis nomen domini orietur sel justitiae per pluviam irrigatio doctrinae quia bonis malis aparuit evangelisatus est chorus D. Aug. tom 4. de serm domini in monte lib. cap. 46. and deprive Himself of Himself for the good of the World so far as to oblige the very Rocks to open their bosoms and receive his Influence So our Saviour and Redeemer of our Souls true Sun of Justice seated in his Throne of Glory pours down with both Hands the Blessings and Divine Influences of his ardent Love all Breasts though never so hard are water'd with his Graces to let every one know that his design is to banish from our hearts the clouds of our Ignorance and the Obstinacy of our Malice The Prophet-Royal seems to dive further into the secrets of this comparison when he says that not only he is Enlightned with this Divine Light Non est qui se abscondat à calore ejâ—â— Psal 18. v. 7â— who presents himself without any resistance to receive his effects But also that Jesus is a fire who brings his heat into the most frozen Souls to molifie and dissolve their Ice Hence it comes that God sometimes dispatches an Angel from Heaven on purpose towards a Sinner obstinate in his Abominations Ite Angeli veloces ad gentem convulsam dilaceratam c. Isa 18. v. 2. who passed over all the days of his Life in the cold Winter of his In-devotions to open his Heart for to receive the Flames of his Love Another time he commands a Preacher Vocatio gentium hic describitur liberatis de manibus mundi Sathanae per Christum facta heu inquit terra quae es sita ultra Aethiopiam quae scates fluminibus id est terra in extremo orbe posita synec dochicè ultimas Vatabl. fererivo hist and an Apostolical Missioner to cross the Seas hazard his Life and break off all obstacles to meet with a poor Sumatre a Javan an Indian a Japanian to Preach the Gospel to him give him a full knowledge of the Mysteries of our Redemption make him to forsake his Barbarous ways and Behaviour as also the Worship of False Gods to live hereafter under the Government of one God and of one Law that requires and commands nothing but Love and Peace The Eternal Wisdom joyntly with his Paternal Providence are so forward to maintain the Union establish'd in the order of Creatures at their Creation that the grand pieces of the Universe would sooner quit their stations than fuffer any disorder or dis-union among them In case of necessity you would see the Earth ascend and the Firmament to descend sooner than suffer any void place within the inclosure of Nature The Divine Providence in matter of Grace and Communication of his Favours observes the same Rules for sooner than suffer any vacuity in a Soul or give occasion to any reasonable Creature to complain that he had not received sufficient means for his Conversion The Seraphins in Heaven who live only by the ardent Flames of Gods Love and who by their charge are always the next to his Throne as being the Angels of his Privy Council They would notwithstanding sooner forsake Heaven if it were necessary to bring into a Sinners Breast the Light of Grace and draw him out of all danger of everlasting loss by force of Cords and Ropes In funiculis Adam traham eos Osee 11. v 4. Non arbitreris istam asperam molestamque violentiam dulcis est suavis est ipsa te suavitas trahit D. Aug. tom 10. serm 2. dâ—â—verbis Apostoli You would sooner see the dead Carcasses revive and get out of their Graves to Preach to the Living than they should be depriv'd of sufficient means to work their Salvation St. Peter will have all men to humble themselves under the Powerful Hand of God and cast all their care on him because that being our common Father he has engaged himself to provide for us in all our necessities Omnem solicitudinem projicientes in eum quoniâ—m ipsi cura est de vobis 1 Petr. c. 5. v. 7. The Vessel of Election St. Paul who more particularly than the rest of the Apostles seems to extol the Uniformity of God's Graces says openly that in their distribution he keeps such an equality Idem Dominus omnium dives in omnes Rom. cap. 10. v. 12. that the Jew has nothing to boast of more than the Grecian because that he is absolute Lord of the one and of the other always resolved as for his part to open in such sort the Treasures of his Riches to this Man that the other shall have no occasion to say that he is positively excluded from any share CHAP. XIV That the Infidel and Still-born Children cannot complain of God Omnes homines vult salvos fieri ad agnitionem veriatis venire c. 1 Tim. cap. 2. THe Infidel cannot complain of God's proceedings in matters of Salvation though he had been hidden among the rest of wild Beasts in the Caves and Dens of the lower Thebaide had he been far more wild than Tygers and fierce than Lyons For the general propositions of Scripture which give us to understand Sine acceptione personarum judicat c. 1 Petr. 2. v. 17. that God wills not the death of any person but that every one be converted and live that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Truth Quinque modis vult Deus omnes salvos fieri 1 sâ—b conditione si ipsi volunt 2 cum impletione quia nullus nisi eo volente sanus fit 3. cum distributionis restrictione id est de omni genere aliquos colligit enim electos à quatuor ventis 4. de praesenti quas effectivè id est facit omnes velle quia omnes naturalitâ—r volunt salui fieri 5. de futuro siâ—qâ—e praecipit consulit exortatur ut salui fiant que omnia sunt signa divinae voluntatis Gozram ex glossa in c. 2. 1 Tim v. 4. that all the Earth is replenished with his Mercy that he acts without any exception or Partiality must fall out to be so true that Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass over than the least point should want its accomplishment For the Nature of general propositions is to subsist in their truth in each one of the Individuals that are within their Praecincts As for example all men are subject to Death this is a general Proposition Then John Peter Paul and so of the rest by Deduction must of necessity submit themselves to the rigours of Death God will have all men to be saved this is a general Proposition then of necessity the Infidel who falls under that
our Innocency among them that glory in nothing more than in Vice It 's there that a man must have a great deal of force and courage where Virtue cannot uphold Her Prerogatives but by force of Arms. You shall find but very few Mercury's in the World Qui cum sapientibus graditur sapiens erit amicus stultorum similis efficietur Eccles 13. v. 20. to shew and set you in the way of Virtue when you happen to fall out of the Road For every one following the beaten ways which lead to perdition know not the secret and by-paths by which the Wise make their escape to arrive at the Port of their everlasting rest The Israelites mixing themselves with God's Enemies learned among them in a short time to make Idols prophane the Sanctuary undervalue Divine Worship They had been far more happy if as Job whom Origen calls the Pidgeon among the Kites the Lilly among the Thorns the Lamb among the Wolves they had got out of the company of Infidels without a spot as he departed blameless out of the Society and Congregation of the Hussites People may tell me that 't is hard to break off so with his Friends contrary to the rules of civility But I answer that it is a great piece of folly that a man should suffer himself to be consumed by the flames of a scorching Fire rather than remove himself a little further off Never was a wicked Man a good Friend It 's a great honour says St Isidore to have bad livers to be his Enemies Isid lib. 2. soliloque for it 's an evident sign that he whose licentious life we do abhor will have but very little authority or none at all to leave in us any Impression of his evil qualities Sicut multa bona habet communis vita Sanctorum sic plura mala affert societas malorum sicut ergo optandum est ut boni pacem habeant ad invicem sic optandum est ut mali sint ap invicem discordes Beda in locis communibus cap. 62. For it 's not enough to have the object present for to invite us to consent to action there must be moreover an inclination and a natural Instinct in the Agent and something in the object also able to draw the Agent to action which shews that a good Christian who has made it his aim and conduct of his life to shun above all things the company of the wicked will easily escape their contagion if by a serious discussion he comes to understand their malice If there were no other consideration for to invite us to fly from evil company but that of our own proper Interest it 's more than sufficient for being it is true that where two or three are assembled in God's name God is there present to powre down his Blessings on them Also by the rules of opposition I must conclude that where two or three are assembled but not in God's name there God is never present otherwise than well-stor'd with Maledictions which he thunders down on their heads If the Fire of Heaven descend on such an Assembly it 's not the Fire of the Holy Ghost No no they must be the Thunder-bolts of God's Indignation and Wrath. St. Ambrose speaking of St. Peter in his dangers of Shipwrack makes this subtile Observation that whilst he was alone in his Vessel he had all things to his hearts desire a brave Sun clear Sky calm Sea favourable Wind Judas comes no sooner in but the Sun darkens the Skies are cloudy the Sea swells up the Wind blows high a Storm comes on the Bark is in danger Shipwrack is near at hand You would say that the hand which gives a motion to that Element commands both Heaven Wind and Weather to cry vengeance and be angry with all the company upon Judas's account and only for his consideration So often the good are punished when they do happen among bad livers Et dixerunt ad invicem nonne cor nostrum ardens erat Luk. 74. ◠32 Would to God that all our conversations were as profitable to our Neighbours as that of Jesus was to the Pilgrims of Emaus who returning from Jerusalem had the happiness to meet him in the Road They draw near him they speak to him they hear his discourse with attention being come to their Lodging one says to another tell me in good earnest was not your heart all in a flame as mine was whilst he discoursed with us in the way Did you not feel in your self a lightness of heart As for my part the way appeared to me very short I thought I was not a quarter of an hour going all that long Journey But what do you think was the subject of Jesus's discourse Was it of Histories made for pleasure of Romances of Discourse without any ground of unprofitable words of common Affairs and of no Consequence No no he gives them a right understanding of Scripture of the Mistery of the Incarnation of other Misteries of Faith of the Resurrection and of the Wonders of Heaven The Prophet Isaiah complains of a great misfortune which happened to him Vae mihi quia tacui quia vir pollutus labiis ego sum in medio populi polluta labia habentis ego habito Isa c. 6. v. 5. viz. to have conversed with over-much familiarity among a People who had their lips polluted A Conversation which was so prejudicial to him that in accusing himself of it he cries wo be to me who for suffering my self to be carried on by the current of common and unprofitable discourse have already forgotten to speak of God extinguish'd the Spirit of fervour which did heretofore animate me to publish his Glory in all places wherever I went It is certain D. Chrost in c. 6. Isaiae D. Hieron ibid. says St. Cyril and St. Jerome that one of the greatest faults which Saints might have committed is to be over-much familiar with Worldlings For besides that overmuch familiarity breeds contempt we do easily contract the habits of them whose company is grateful to us One shall come out of his Cloister pure as an Angel Ebriosus convictores in amorem vini traxit impudicorum coetus fortem si liceat virum emollit Seneca lib. 3. de ira who at his return shall surpass the deformity of an Ethiopian The brave Meditations which were the grateful entertainments and Glorious Imployments of his Spirit in Prayer shall be confounded with so many Worldly shapes and evaporated into Millions of extravagant discourses His heart which you might see to vent out so many devout Aspirations and Holy Affections for his God lances out no more but the prophane Darts of a more prophane and unruly Love That Soul peaceable and far from all troubles naturally inclined to Virtue becomes tepid lazy and has no more for her constant entertainment but perpetual distractions I know that what is related in the Gospel of Scribes Pharisees Valdè
stuft up with Earth and Dung Those light-footed Deers are the days of her life which with a great deal of speed conducted her to Death That jeering smile shewed the vanity of all her greatness and Pleasures This breaking of the Vessel the seperation of the Soul from the Body In fine Omnes eodem eogimur omnium Versatur urna serius ocius Sors exitura nos en aeternum Exitium impositura Cymba Horat. lib. 2. Carm. the whole exposed to the publick view was a brave instruction to the Youth of Rome to curb them and stop the course of their insolency But let us not seek for so Antient a fact let us go and open some Tomb wherein of late days is cast some rare young Beauty which Death had overcome Imagine with your self dear Reader this Carcass to be left in your Chamber Ask it the question What is become of those fair eyes which were but two days since seen to open with such Majesty Circum ferabatur apud Aegyptios inter pocula sceletus hoc est corporis ossea duntaxat compage exextantiseffigies in memoriam ut ajunt manerotis isidis alumni quem annis innocentibus immatura morte fata praeripuerant Herodot l. 11. Petron. in Satyrico and give a bold look at the admirers to shut down their lids for shame to be dazled with fear to grow black with sadness to be inflamed with anger to grow mild and smile at a Lover Where are those optick Veins which carried by their continuation the usual ray on the very door-case of the Eye to receive the Species and frame the Image of such as were represented Exteriourly Where are those Tunicks and little thin skins which locked up so artificially all humours that nothing should annoy this great little Master-piece of Nature All That is no more but a stinking Dunghill mixed with nasty Blood more horrible to be seen than ever was the Carcass of Helena which Menippus had perceived in the dark Dungeon of Hell But what is become of that pure white proper and well set Body so pamper'd so carefully wash'd so curiously deck'd so interlac'd with thousands of Sky-colour'd Veins which Nature had fram'd as a Net to intangle all men in her Love all is nothing now but a rotten lump of Flesh where Worms have taken up their quarters to feed at their ease Let us go further to find out the Heart first alive and at last dead whence proceeded all Passions as so many Sovereign Ladies and Queens of that little World Alas It 's now but a small handful of ashes the least touch will reduce it to dust as the Apples of the Lake Asphatite where Sodom and Gomorrah stood heretofore There is no young man in the World let him be the greatest Ranter that ever was heard of if he will but consider seriously this doleful pourtraiture he will conceive a distast of all Earthly pleasures he will stop the course of his Debauch'd life knowing for certain the day will come that infallibly he will be brought to the same condition Damascenus in historia Balaam Josaphat testatur priscas Sanctorum reliquias religiosè in theca ex collo pendente gestasse non tantum venerationis sed memoriae mortis causa Tradition gives us to understand of the Patriarch Noah how after he had made an end of building an Ark and received Orders to get into it with all his Family The first thing he would have observ'd in his new House was that his Children should think often of Death as a strong motive to keep them from Vice and Deadly Sin And to bring them to this good Custom he commands them to go look for the Bones of Adam's Body which being all found and brought home to the Community except the hinder part of his Head which they left on the Mount Calvary for the accomplishment of the Messias Mysteries To one he he gives the Thigh-bone to another that of an Arm and to all the rest each one his proportion To the end they might always think that if God by his special Grace delivered them out of all danger of Shipwrack and Deluge Yet they were not exempted from the inevitable Laws of Death If Jonathan thought of that Sentence in time he would not take the news of his Death so much to Heart And we should not know by Scripture the weakness of his Courage and the main excess of his Grief which made him say with a weeping Tone Alas for having tasted a little Honey must I die so soon I did as yet but begin to receive the sweet Air of Life and here already I am summon'd to march off to take up my Lodging in the thick and dark shadows of an Eternal Night Nature to me is a most Cruel Step-mother to shew me so much of her Pleasures and presently to cut me off before I tasted of their sweetness We must then acknowledge that of all Exteriour means the most serious thought of Death is the strongest to move Youth to their Conversion Ponite quotidie ante oculos vestros finem vestrum cogitate cujus erunt quid vobis proderunt quae post vos remanebunt haec cogitate haec inter vos die ac nocte in secreto in publico tractate S. Anselm ad Burgundium macherum ejus conjugem Epist As for Kings Princes and Monarchs who by the eminency of their Dignities should seem to be out of all fear being that all Creatures shew them their Obedience as to the Gods of the Earth What made them undervalue and forsake their Scepters and Crowns to live in a Desart as Josaphat Son to the great Abenner Who was it that oblig'd them to quit their Palaces and Royal Houses for to lead in a Cloister the Life of a poor Religious man as a Charles the Great Who perswaded them to have a greater esteem for the Cross of Jesus than for the Richest Treasures the World can afford as a Constontine but the Thoughts of Death Leonitus in the Life of the Ancient Fathers relates That at the Coronation of the Emperours in the City of Constantinople before they had gone further in their Ceremonies Vide apud Xiphilium in domit funebre convivium domitavi there would come a number of Sculptures every one with his Marble in his Hand who Addressing themselves to the Emperour ready to be Crown'd would make him this Complement Sacred Majesty according to the Custom of your Predecessors and the Order Establish'd in the Ceremonies of your Vnction here we do Prostrate ourselves at your Feet with these Marbles and our Request is to be inform'd by your Majesty what form we shall give your Tomb O my God! what different Ceremonies have we here On the one side I see Pallaces Louvres and Imperial-Houses preparing to receive the Prince with a great deal of Honour And on the other side I hear of nothing but Stones Tombs and Sepulchres wherein he is to
difference of times a Friend for to make his beloved to resent the effects of his Friendship we must not seek for him in the World Jacob c. 4. v 4. Quicunque ergo voluerit amicus esse hujus saeculi inimicus Dei constituitus For St. James assures us in his Masters behalf that whoever takes the World for his Friend has God at the same time for his mortal Enemy Parmenion did no sooner imagine that he had a better Friend in the World than Alexander but Alexander out of hand forgot him and dismist him out of his Court. Dyrce the Thebeian seeing that Lycus her Husband had an affection for Antiopa she could not bear that affront she has Antiopa tied to the Horns of a furious Bull and turns off her Husband Lycus as a Man unworthy of her company Mundi amor Dei pariter in uno corde cohabitare non possunt quemadmodum jidem oculi Coelum pariter terram nequaquam aspiciunt Auctor lib. de 12. abusionibus inter opera Augustini God will have us to believe that he is in love with Men and that the least glance we give at Creatures to the prejudice of what we owe unto him he takes it to be criminal and cannot conceal his feelings of it Though it be true that he lets us sometimes run at random that we may know to our own cost how rigorous are the Laws of all other Friendships but his but it is to the end that having learned by experience how all things underneath him are subject to change we come to confess that of necessity we must get out of the World for to find a perfect Friend and so insensibly withdraw our selves from all Earthly troubles to settle better the compass of reason and find a Friend who shews that he loves us by saving our Souls CHAP. XXVII That we cannot meet with a better Friend than JESUS IF the Catastrophes and Bloody Tragedies of the amities of the World constrain us by reason to detest their alliances Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum c. Psal 4. v. 3. the rare qualities which render Jesus amiable above all things Rebus intelligibilibus tanta est pulchritudo ut illa sit Archetybos nostra simulata umbrarilis pendens nascens à corporeis lineamentis illa in lumine claritatis suae haerens in hac est Deus formâ—sitimus c. Egubinus in Psal 44. shall have no less power to engage our affections in the pursuit of his Love I do not think it strange what St. Augustine says in his Confessions where he accuses himself to have wept in his younger days reading in Virgil the love which Dido and Aeneas had one for another For though the continuance happen'd to be disgraceful to Dido this Poet nevertheless represents the beginning with such a deal of chaste motions that St. Augustine could not read without Tears the fatal end of so innocent a Love He makes that Princess appear so ravished musing upon the happiness she had to have lodged her affections in so worthy a subject that she could never be out of her dumps unless it were to relate the perfections of her Friend and by that sweet evaporation ease the heat of those Fires which consumed her Heart If she looks on his bright Armour and Martial Forehead Virgil 4. Aeneid she believes that there is nothing in the World can withstand the greatness of his courage If he opens his Mouth for to broach a Discourse she finds therein so much Grace and Charms that she thinks it a wonder to see Mercurius and Mars agree so well together in one Subject Now she takes in her Arms the little Ascanius Son to Aeneas for Aeneas was the Widower of Lavinia as Dido was the Relict of Sichaeus and looking into the pollished Christal of his Eyes where the Image of his Father in her fancy did shine she flatters her self with hopes to have the like consolation by the Rights of a Lawful Marriage Another time she takes her Sister Anne aside and discharging her Heart to her Credo equidem nec vana fides gâ—nu esse deorum â—bidem says I must not tell you a lie my dear Sister there is a Man above all Men For my part I do believe and am not deceived he must be of the Race of the Gods It seems to me that this is the discourse of Magdalen and Martha of their dearly beloved Jesus Magdalen over-light in her Friendship whilst she remained a Slave to the World and Subject to its Laws had no sooner seen the Face of the Messias and washed his Feet in the Pharisee's House but coming back to her Lodging all in a sweat Ah! my dear Sister let me hear no more talk of the World Jesus has gained my Heart I shall never Love any other what a wretch am I to begin so late to understand his Merits he is both handsom sweet and gracious he is affable withal they made me believe that nothing came from his Mouth but Thunders Remissa sunt ei peccata multa quia dilexit multum Lucae 7. v. 47. from his Eyes but Lightnings and from his Hand but Thunderbolts It 's true but they are Thunderbolts without any hurt Lightnings without any terrour a Thunder without noise Ardor charitatis in ea rubi ginem peccatorum combussit peccata cremabâ—lia sunt ad faciem ignis stare non possunt D. Greg. ex Hugone Card. in c. 7. Lucae I never expected from him so favourable a reception as I had The company begins to grumble at me but he most graciously took my defence in hand they would fain blame my actions but he was pleased to justifie me before all and which is more he was so merciful to me as to give me the full absolution of all my Sins Let Dido burn if she please in her flames for Aeneas For my part I will never have any Friend but Jesus at this present I do renounce with all my Heart all other amities for to live and die in Jesus my sweet Love Deligebat Jesus Martham Sororem ejus Mariam Lazarum ille languens illae tristes omnes dilecti sed diligebat eos languentium Salvator imo etiam mortuorum suscitator tristium consolator D. Aug. tom 9. Tract 49. in cap. 11. Joan. Magdalen had reason for besides that Jesus by his proper Nature inexhaustible source of the primitive Love is worthy to be lov'd above all things by a Love of benevolence the effects which we do receive dayly of his Friendship ought to render him amiable to us and worthy of Love which may be both sensible and of proper Interest For if we come to consider the favours he gives us they are without number if we take notice after what fashion he bestows them they are without example If of the times wherein he does them there is not a moment of our lives but is under the
properly is no other thing in St. Augustine's opinion than a languishing tepidity to produce the actions of the Spirit That puts all the Members of the Flesh into a Lethargy when there is question to obey the commandments of the Soul this idleness becomes a Tyrant if permitted to command absolutely and our proper feelings will become Arms of iniquity Languor iste tyranus est si vis te tiâ—anni esse victorem Christum invoca imperatorem D. Aug. verb. Apost serm 12. if we have not recourse to the Store-house of the Cross and take thence the Shield of Mortification on which Jesus our true Captain having received their most violent attacks has disabled them thereby to teach us how to prevent their effects You would say that St. Cyprian intends to make of Man a Smiths Shop Caro autem sic utitur anima sicut faber maleo vel incude in qua format omnium turpitudinem idola D. Cypr. in Prolog tract de operibus carn Christi The Flesh is the Smith his Hammer is Concupiscence he makes of his Soul an Anvil The Flesh armed with her Concupiscence strikes with both Arms full stroaks on our Soul to forge therein the Idols of pleasure and expose them to a publick adoration And a little after falling from the Analogy of that comparison he casts himself on another where he compares the Flesh to Circe the Witch that mingles in her Pottage a mortal Poyson Mens ebria corpus contumeliis applicat junctis amplexibus ambo in mortiferas suavitates elapsi obdormiunt Idem ibid. For as soon as the Spirit does taste of that Potion of the Flesh there he lies drunk of a sottish Love which makes him give over to Concupisence a full right in all his pretentions and giving one another an unfortunate kiss they both fall into the fatal Bed of common perdition But all those actions proceeding from a bad Faith and grounded on a deceitful Cheat can give no gain of cause to the Body if the Soul be pleased to make use of the pieces which will easily justifie her Rights and Titles Nay without going any further let her use the Right she has of a substantial Information and she shall soon see the Body brought to his Duty By the right of a substantial Information Non est caro dictatrix peccati nec inventrix malitiae nec cogitatus format nec agenda disponit sed officina est spiritus qui in ea per eam quaecunque affectaverit peragit consummat D Cypr. supra the Soul has such an assendance over the Body that as the Body in the Being of Nature cannot boast to possess life but for so long a time as the Soul will stick to him So in the Moral Being of the practice of Good and Evil to make an action good or bad the Body will contibute nothing if the Soul does not co-oporate the Flesh does not dictate the SIN she does not invent the malice she does not dispose the thoughts she is only the Work-house of the Spirit where the Good and Evil begins and is consumated If the Soul cannot redeem her self from the Tyanny of the Body by the right of her Information Quis me liberabit c. Rom. 8. v. 25. let her have recourse to the means which St. Paul does prescribe in like occurrences who sighing under so cruel a Thraldom seems to cry for strength and assistance to God through Jesus Christ. When St. Augustine was on the point to break with all Worldly pleasures D. Aug. lib. 8. Concess c. 11. Ibi tot pueri puellae ibi juventus multa omnis aetas graves viduae virgines in omnibus ipsa continentia nequaquam sterilis sed faecunda mater filiorum gaudiorum de marito te Domine irridebat me irrisione exhortatoria quasi diceret tu non poteris quod isti est istae an vero isti etistae They all presented themselves unto him under the colours of a malicious compassion to mollifie with their Charms the force of his Courage To what purpose would they say do you engage your self in a life whereof the ordinary practice is to be among Chains Crosses Wheels and Gibbets But this great Saint considering on the other side the powerful Grace of Jesus as a Victorious Princess which carried in her right hand the List and Names of so many young Children of chaste Virgins of Noble Matrons snatcht from the World and the Flesh to serve God suffers himself to be easily perswaded that God who makes no exception of persons will not refuse him the efficacious assistance of the same Grace He fights then under that hope he invokes Jesus to his aid and notwithstanding the contradictions of the Flesh he appears Stout and Couragious against all occasions of Vice This Example will let those that are in Love with Liberty see that it is not incompatible with effectual Grace because this according to St. Augustine is a Victorious pleasure charming our Soul a Tryumphant Love predominant over our Will and a powerful perswasion captivating our understanding Forasmuch as God hath made Man free never taking that from him which once he hath bestowed upon him he could not have imployed a more gracious nor more effectual way to gain Him than pleasure All Creatures are taken with it and the Poet had reason to say there is nothing that is not sweetly Master'd by Pleasure The Ambitious seek not so much the reputation in Honours as the pleasure because they contemn them as soon as they cease to be agreeable The Covetous is not so much provoked with profit as pleasure in the desire of Wealth because he spends many times prodigally to procure other things that more delight him Nay the Lascivious Wanton is not so much in Love with Beauty as with pleasure because he placeth his affections sometimes upon Objects that have no appearance of Beauty and many times forsakes a handsom Woman to Court a deformed one Thus pleasure is a powerful Charm that masters all Hearts Plunders Liberties and makes Slaves that never complain of Bondage because they are voluntary Lovers that seek the secret of purchasing affection study nothing but Complacency being assured they shall produce Love in that Heart where they have begot pleasure Flatterers never insinuate into the minds of great Men but by rendring themselves acceptable nor do their false commendations steal in at the Ears but because pleasure takes up the place of Truth The very Devils though our Mortal Enemies seduce us not but because they please us and had they not found out the Art of mixing Pleasure with Sin all their Temptations would be fruitless But the Will of Man though never so free hath such an inclination toward pleasure that did she never so strongly barracado her self she could not possibly resist it She holds out against Truth because she is blind and sees not the Beauties 't is adorned with she
us to Love God If Grace cannot force our Will because it is a Victorious Love it ought less to constrain it Because according to the Language of St. Augustine 't is a pleasant perswasion For this great Man considering that he was to deal with Free-will on one side and the Power of Grace on the other that he was to maintain the Empire of God and the Liberty of Man He hath always exprest himself so happily that he never prejudic'd either And as indeed Grace never forces Man but perswades him it holds some thing of Eloquence or of Reason that Triumphs over Liberty without compelling it Rhetorik is an Art that teaches us to perswade Truth Orators are agreeable Soveraigns that bear Rule over the minds of their Auditors that calm their Passions change their Designs and gently force their Wills Therefore was it unhandsomely done of that Ancient to compare Pericles with Pisistratus Quid enim inter Pisistratum Periclem inter fuit nisi quod ille armatus hic sine armis Tyrannidem gessit Cicero because this Tyrant domineer'd but over Mens Bodies that Orator exercised a Dominion over their Souls The one made use of Violence the other imploy'd nothing but Sweetness The one procur'd the hatred of his Subjects the other the Love of his Auditors For no man could complain of Pericles because he used nothing but Eloquence to perswade his command was founded upon Reason his Chief force consisted in Truth he subjected no understandings but by clearing them nor changed any Mens Wills but in taking them by their Interests or their Inclinations In a word Eloquence may boast her self a Soveraign that Reigns without Arms Subdues People by her Word convinceth Philosophers by her Reasons and Subjects Monarchs by her Power She protects the Innocent comforts the Distressed condemns or absolves the Guilty and she Animates the Advocates or the Judges produceth different Miracles in their Souls Whether she inchant the Ears by the Harmonious Cadencies of her Periods whether she excite Love and hatred by her Gestures her principal design is to master the Liberty of Man She appears complacent that she may be perswasive nor doth she require the attention of her Auditors but that she may get their consent 'T is true never any man complains of her Violence because she is Sweet and he that has chang'd his mind at the hearing of an Orator never accused him of Tyranny 'T is certainly upon this ground that St. Augustine calls Grace a very Powerful perswasion because imitating Eloquence it clears our Spirits calms our Passions and gains our Consent it hath this advantage over Eloquence that it hath no need of our Ears to win our Hearts it transmits it self by its self into the inmost recesses of the Soul finds out Reason in her Throne without employing the Senses carries Light into the Understanding and kindles Love in the Will Thus she perswades what she will to the obstinate Subdues Rebels without Arms makes her Subjects will what she desires they should and when she displays all her Forces she works the Conversion of a Sinner in a moment This certainly was the power Jesus Christ made use of when he laid St. Paul flat at his feet when he Converted that Persecutor into an Apostle chang'd his Heart and his Tongue and made him that breath'd nothing but murther say Lord what wilt thou have me to do He lost not his Liberty for having lost his Fury He chang'd not his Nature for having chang'd his Judgement nor can we say that the perswasion that gain'd his consent was less free or more Violent for being too sudden Grace knows how to be obeyed without making us Slaves She can perswade without compelling and more Powerful then Eloquence is able to make us Love what we hated before That great Orator that guided the Roman Common-Wealth with his Tongue and made his Opinion so Dexterously pass into the Soul of his Auditors That Gallant Man I say hath wrought Miracles by his Eloquence which we have much ado to allow the Grace of Jesus Christ to effect He could boast that he alter'd the Resolution of Coesar defending the Cause of Ligarius that he shook the Papers out of the Hands and the hatred out of the Heart of that Conquerour that he made him re-call the Sentence he had already pronounced in his Soul that he overcame him by his Reasons that he Subdued all by his Arms and trampled upon the pride of a Tyrant that had Triumph'd over the Liberty of Rome In the mean time we have much ado to believe that Grace can work Miracles We weaken its Virtue to preserve our own Free-will We are not content that Jesus Christ should be as Powerful as an Orator and when we hear of these Victorious Graces and of these invinsible perswasions we imagine as if there were a design to oppress the Publick Liberty Let us ascribe that to Grace which we grant to Eloquence Let us confess that the Son of God knows how to imprint Truth in our Spirit and Love in our Heart to perswade us Infallibly Let us acknowledge that he is not to seek by what Stratagems to gain our Inclinations that his Grace more intimate then Concupiscence is able to become the Mistress of our Wills and whatever command she Exercises over us she never destroys our Liberty because she hath no other design then to redeem it out of Servitude Let us then conclude with the Example and Doctrine of St. Augustine that the Profession of a Christian and the Excellency of the Children of Grace is not to Prophesie future things nor to hurl the point of their Intelligence into the hidden Mysteries of Holy Scripture but to be Magnanimous and Couragious in the frequent Combats which Concupiscence give us for that is the only imployment which will make appear how strong the Love is which we bear to Jesus CHAP. XXXIX That the Grace of JESUS leaves that weighty obligation on all Christians to be both Souldiers and Conquerors THe God whom we adore takes his Glory as well from War as from Rest and if he be call'd in Scripture the God of Peace he is as often called the Lord of Hosts Multitudo militiae Caelestis His Angels are the Souldiers that wait upon him to the Battle who avenge him of his Enemies The Stars which keep watch as Centinels about his Palace bear the name of the Militia in the Language of the Prophets And all those that serve him for Ministers in his Embassies serve him for Combatants in his Conquest Labora sicut bonus miles Christ 2. Tim. 2. Therefore did the Angels who gave notice to the Shepherds of the Birth of Jesus Christ take their name from their principal imployment and called themselves the Heavenly Host And when the Son of God was taken in the Garden of Olives and blamed Saint Peter Nemo coronabitur nisi vicerit neque vicet nisi certaverit Quis autem
Disciples that he would destroy the World in the dreadful day of his Vengeance so that professing to imitate the Son of God we are obliged to hate what he never loved and to defend our selves from a Traytor who imploys Lying Grief and Pleasure to gain us to his Party He tries to deceive us that so he may corrupt us Duplicem aciem mundus producit contra milites Christi blanditur ut decipiat minatur ut frangat adutrosque aditus occurit Christus non vincitur Christianus Aug. de sanct vinc He sets up Maxims which under a pretence of maintaining Society introduce Libertinism amongst Men he makes Debauches pass for Recreations Revenge for greatness of Courage Impurity for a Lawful Affection If he cannot seduce us he goes about to terifie us casts pannick fears into weak Souls makes them apprehensive of Grief or Infamy Perswades a Young Man that Chastity is a blemish to his Reputation A Woman that Modesty spoils the lustre of her Beauty A Gentleman that the forgetting of Injuries damps his Courage and being a Tyrant makes use of fear to keep his Subjects in obedience But when he meets with generous Souls who reject his Maxims and contemn his Threats he hath recourse to Pleasures and imploys Charms to soften the obdurate This last Battery is the most to be feared because the sweetest This is that which enervates the Sampsons Masters the Davids and Tryumpths over the Solomons Engages these great men in a Lie by blinding them terrifies them by making them Cowards and breeding fear in their Hearts with Love causes them to apprehend the loss of those things he makes them passionately affect He lays before their eyes whatever may allure them makes pleasure enter in at their Senses and forgetting no kind of Artifice to render wickedness agreeable widens his Empire and increases the number of his Subjects If we be Christians indeed we must give battle to this Enemy oppose the Maxims of the Gospel against his falshoods destroy Errour by Truth and protest that being the Subjects of Jesus Christ we acknowledge no other Laws but those of his Church To evacuate those Terrours wherewith he shakes our Courage we must discern true Honour from false fix our Glory in our Duty and remember that the true Disciples of Jesus Christ ought always to prefer Virtue before Honour and Conscience before Reputation To defend us from the Pleasures the World tempts us with we must look upon their end and represent the shame and grief that never forsakes them Finally we must beg Grace of Jesus Christ who hath overcome the World that assisted with his favour we may vanquish his Enemies with all the Errours wherewith he would seduce us the fear wherewith he would astonish us and the Pleasures wherewith he would enchant us For it is not enough for the Christian to be a Souldier if he be not also Victorious his Condition is more painful than that of Souldiers For though these are the Victims of Glory and of Death that for a little pay they expose themselves to a thousand dangers they are not responsible for the Success of the Battle and provided they lend their Heart and Hand to their General there is nothing more can be expected from their Valour But the Christians are such Soldiers as must be Victorious 'T is not enough that they Fight they must win the Field they must overcome here if they mean to Reign with Christ hereafter 'T is true Omne quod natum est Deo vincit mundum Joan. 16. v. 5. he hath this advantage over all other Captains he inspires courage into his Souldiers and gives them Victory who engage in the Combat so that 't is their fault if they be defeated and the Glory of their Commander if they remain Conquerours Their Birth obliges them to this Duty For the Scripture teacheth us that those that are born of God overcome the World that Grace which contains Glory in the seed is able to preserve them from Sin and that leaving them to the Spirit that Inanimates them they remain impeccable in his Hands St. Bernard is of this mind and will have their Victory over Temptation a certain Proof of their Adoption The Virtues themselves they have received at their Baptism are helps which facilitate the Defeat of their Enemies For Faith is not only their strength but their Victory and renders them as well Conquerours as Souldiers Hope doth heighten their Courage and giving them the Almighty for their Second makes them gain as many Victories as they Fight Battles Charity that finds nothing impossible which measures its Power by its Courage and more prevalent than Death over-turns whatever resists it inspres them with so much force that they vanquish all griefs and Master all Difficulties But if there be any Virtue that renders them invinsible we must confess 't is their despoiling themselves of the Goods of the Earth For Satan never catches us but by those things that engage us He seduces only by those things that please us and when Self-denial hath perfectly separated us they lose the boldness to set upon us and the hope of over-coming us Therefore doth St. Augustine admirably conclude that he that only loves that good which cannot be taken from him is truly invinsible And Seneca founded upon the same Principle had reason to say that Alexander was vanquished by Diogenes because he found a Philosopher to whom he could give nothing and from whom he could take nothing away Indeed the Ambitious are not Subdued but because they are affraid to lose their Honour the Immodest are not gain'd but because they have a mind to preserve their Love nor are the Covetous engaged in Iniquity but because they cannot resolve to part with Riches But the Saints who are wedded only to God laugh at Tyrants and Devils and cruelty being not able to ravish from them what they love they happily assume the quality of Conquerour with that of a Souldier Let us adde that the Believer is invinsible if he be persectly united to Jesus Christ our strength depends upon this Union and when the Devil breaks the secur'd Bonds he hath an advantage against us He defeated us in the Person of Adam He vanquished all men in one He gain'd a hundred Victories in one Duel But he hath lost all his advantages again by Jesus Christ in Him we are Conquerours and as St. Augustine says his Victory would not be persect if he did not still Conquer the World in his Members Let us therefore unite our selves to him that we may be invinsible When we feel the Solicitations of the Flesh or the Devil and these two Tyrants confederate together endeavour to over-power us Let us implore the assistance of our Head and nothing presuming upon our own abilities but promising our selves all from his Grace render the Honour to Him of whom we hold the Victory CHAP. XL. That the Thoughts of Hell does bring the Sinner to his