Answer he returns to these Philosophers 'T is a great argument of a firm Will not to be able to change and we are not to imagine that a man will not a thing when he wills it so strongly that 't is not in his power not to will it at all For who is so unadvised as to deny that the Wil is free when she is no longer in danger to quit her resolution to embrace a contrary nay who ought not rather to judge that she is never so free as when her resolution is so firm that it becomes eternal Indeed if we believe he wills a thing who may not will it Must we not believe that he wills it much more when he wills it so powerfully that he is past all danger of not willing it But he could not better resolve this Doubt then when opposing Constraint against Necessity he saith The later may be found with Liberty and if we have no obligation to a man that does us a courtesie because he was forced to it we have notwithstanding to him that does it because he cannot do otherwise and hath imposed this necessity upon himself with which he cannot possibly dispense This opinion hath its Reasons to back it and though it seem somewhat singular hath notwithstanding Philosophers for its Protectors whose judgement 't is that the Will is never more free then when 't is less indifferent For if Liberty say they be nothing but a fixation of the Will we must acknowledge that she is never more free then when by many indifferent acts she is so united to her object that she cannot possibly undo her self Otherwise perfect Love would deprive us of Liberty the use of that power would destroy it and it would follow that to have a long time acted freely we should cease to be free They confess that Indifferency which they look upon as a weakness of Liberty is lessened by the power of Love and the more strongly a man affects a thing the less indifferencie hath he to quit it But they believe you shall never perswade a Lover that the loss of his Indifferency is the loss of his Liberty that the more his Passion increaseth the more his worth diminisheth and for being more constant he is less acceptable to her he loveth There are some Divines of the opinion of these Philosophers who finding no Indifferency in Jesus Christ nor in the Blessed cannot imagine it inseparable from Liberty For Jesus Christ was free because he merited the reconciliation of men with his Father he was free because he satisfied for their sins and all the hope of their salvation is founded as well upon the Liberty as upon the Dignity of his actions Etiamsi esset liberuÌ„ arbitrium Christi determinatum ad unum numero sicut ad diligendum Deum quod non facere non potest tamen ex hoc non amittit libertatem aut rationem laudis sive meritiâ—nam respectu amoris est sempiterna libera electio D. Thom. In the mean time he had no Indifference in respect of Good and Evil the will of his Father determined his without constraining it he died necessarily and freely and seeing his sentence noted in the thought of his Father he submitted to it by an obedience which not being indifferent ceased not therefore to be perfectly free Finally they cannot be perswaded that the Saints have lost their Liberty in the enjoyment of Glory for having lost their Indifferency They cannot believe that the Blessed are slaves that their love is not free because necessary and that the firmness of their condition cancels the perfection of their Liberty They adde further that no man shall perswade them that Grace which is Glory begun deprives us of Liberty when it deprives us of Indifferency not that it reduceth us to the condition of Slaves because it brings us neer to that of the Blessed But as all agree not upon the same Principles Other Divines leaning upon Reason and Scripture will have Indifference inseparable from Liberty in this world that men may always will Good and Evil and that they are never so strongly determined to the one but they may quit it to embrace the other They judge that Grace does not so fix the Will upon Good that it takes away her Indifferency but that there remains some inclination or some capacity towards Evil so that even when she is determined by Grace she hath still in the centre of her Being a certain Indifferency making her capable to change her minde and to depart from the Supreme Good that possesseth her According to this Principle we must say that as Grace transporting us leaves us a power to resist so also determining us an Indifferency That as we may hold out so may we change if we will and consequently there is no moment wherein our Will is not always Indifferent By this 't is easie to judge that the Councel of Trent opposeth not this Opinion Siquis dixerit Liberum arbitrium à Deo motum non posse dissentire si velit seâ—velut inanime quoddam nihil omnino agere â—nathema sit Sess 6. Can. 4. when it pronounceth an Anathema against those that say that Free-will being moved by Grace cannot resist it when it will because whatever advantage we put upon Grace we acknowledge she never takes away the power of resisting of God confessing she leaves us Concupiscence which holds our Wil under her Tyranny For there are no Saints who at the very instant they yeeld obedience to Grace prove not internally a secret opposition to her motions who groan not to see themselves divided by self-love and who sigh not with Saint Paul in that they feel in the recesses of their soul an irregular inclination that combats that of Grace This domestick sedition makes them long for Glory which hath this advantage over Grace that destroying all the remainders of sin and confirming their will in Good it lifts them to a condition which suffers them no longer to contradict the pleasures of the Almighty But in expectation of this happie hour they confess with as much confusion of face as grief of heart that though they will not resist him that draws them they can nevertheless do it because Grace hath not so strongly rooted them in good but they may forsake it should the mercy of God give them over to their own infirmity 'T is then easie enough to comprehend that Grace though effectual takes not away from the greatest Saints the power to resist Jesus Christ But 't is very hard to conceive how their complaints are true and how they can with reason accuse themselves for having been unfaithful to him For the accusations of Saints ought to be sincere humility must not make them renounce Truth nor to avoid Pride engage in a Lye These are two extremes equally dangerous which all those that are led by the holy Spirit ought carefully to avoid In the mean time they accuse themselves daily before Men
Principle of Humility is sin which is a Non-Entity in the order of Grace and which abaseth the sinner to so low a condition that he is much more miserable then if he were annihilated For inasmuch as he recedes from God the supream Beeing adhering to the creature who is in a manner Nothing himself becomes a wretched Non-Entity and loseth all those advantages he was made partaker of by the union he had with his Creator Tamdiu est aliquid homo quādiu haeret illi à quo factus est homo Aug. in Psal 75. This is it that Saint Augustine expresseth in those excellent words Man is Something as long as he is united to God from whom he had his Beeing but he ceaseth to be assoon as he separates from him by sin and finding his Fall in his Crimes tumbles into a more deplorable Nothing then that of Nature For the former obeys the voice of God if it contribute nothing to his design neither doth it resist his hand and the world that issued out of its barren depths was an evident proof of its submission But the Non-Entity of sin resists the will of God forms parties in his State deboists his most loyal subjects and mastering their wils disputes the dominion with their Soveraign Therefore doth Saint Augustine in some place of his writings call sin an armed Nothing and the Scripture to shew us the horrour goes along with it Nihil rebelle in Deum armatū Amb. prefers the condition of men who never were before that of transgressors who are fallen into sin The third Principle of Humility is Death which seems the middle between Nothing and Sin It is an image of the former and a chastisement of the second it bears the name of both in Scripture and the Prophets illuminated from above call it sometimes a Nothing sometimes a Sin Saint Augustine gives us a handsome proof hereof in these words Death saith he is the punishment of sin he bears the name of his Father to teach us that though man sin not in dying he never should have died if he had not sinned and the same Doctor in another passage acquaints us that Death is a Nothing which having no Essence might indeed be ordained by the Justice of God but not produced by his Power Thence it comes to passe that 't is a shameful punishment attempting the honor of man and his life and makes him feel himself a Criminal because having set upon his reputation it proceeds to attaque his person For he destroys this Master-piece of Nature separates the two parts that compound him breaks the ligaments that unites them and being not able to be revenged upon the soul dischargeth his fury upon the body and afflicts the Mistress in punishing her servant But should not all these powerful considerations oblige man to humble himself the Christian could by no means refuse this homage when he considers that his salvation depends upon Grace that his Liberty without this Supernatural aid serves only to damn him and being fallen from that happy condition wherein he was the master of his fortune he is now the slave of Concupiscence if he be not enfranchised by the merits of Jesus Christ Indeed the Example of God debased greatly comforts him in his misery he is never troubled to humble himself when he considers the Word annihilated in the Incarnation he submits to the Counsels of that Divine Master he is not ashamed to learn humility in his School and having heard that Oracle from his mouth Discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde he looks upon this Vertue as his Glory and is forced to confess with Saint Augustine that if it be a Prodigy to behold a man proud 't is a Miracle to see a God humbled and by consequence of so great an Example that man must have lost his judgement that should be ashamed of Humility The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the Repentance of a Christian ALL the Vertues have their particular advantages the least splendid are the most useful and those that have not so many allurements have commonly most desert Repentance is of the number of these and it seems 't is not so much her beauty as her necessity that makes her considerable Her Countenance hath no comeliness her Mouth is always full of sighes her Eyes moist with tears her shoulders covered with sackcloth and her hands armed with discipline The Interest of God sets her against her self his Goodness offended his Glory obscured his Mercy neglected provokes her indignation against sinners and obliges them to invent torments to punish their offences But did not her zeal contribute to her excellency she is so necessary that in whatever condition man appears she is proper and peculiar to him It seems she is his difference in Grace and that this Vertue distinguisheth him from Angels and Beasts For these have only a blind instinct that guides them they have no liberty in their actions It is not reason but Nature that leads them and as they are incapable of Sin so are they of Repentance The Angels are unchangeable in good and evil Constancy hath made the Angels happy and Obstinacy hath rendred the Devils miserable These pure spirits cannot alter and whether they know good and evil intuitively or whether they act with the full extent of their power or whether they had but one moment to merit in all Divinity assures us that they cannot repent I intend not to examine whether Grace by its victorious sweetness be able to work a change in them and whether their will be so perversly obstinate in evil that it cannot be diverted But I say with our Masters there is something in their Nature and in their Sin which renders them unworthy and uncapable of Repentance so that this Vertue is a priviledge of a man one of his properties in Nature and one of his differences in Grace Being weak he never adheres so strongly to Vertue but he may desert her and by a happiness arising from his infirmity he is never so deeply engaged in vice but he may shake hands with it He is neither constant in good nor obstinate in evil and though he can neither leave the one nor embrace the other unless he be assisted by Grace he hath a natural disposition which rendring him unconstant makes him capable of this happy change that accompanies Repentance It seems the mercy of God which makes use of our sin to redeem us will make use of unconstancy to convert us and managing this weakness which is natural to us takes pleasure to save us by the same means that ruined us If those that are of opinion that the Grace that changeth men were able also to convert the Angels are not agreed as touching this Maxime they ought at least to confess that the Angel having had but one moment to merit in was not capable of this Grace in the order of God because his Salvation or his Fall had immediately followed
mistrust their merit They neither apprehended the greatness of the danger that was threatned nor the cruelty of the Tyrant that condemned them to death nor the fury of the Executioners that searched them out to massacre them their happiness was as unknown to them as their misery they were ignorant that they suffered for Jesus Christ that in their person they sought for Him and that receiving the stabs of the ponyard thrust at their heart they had this double honour to die for their Saviour and by yeelding up their own life to secure his Neverthelesse all the Fathers of the Church confess that their Martyrdome was true that the power of God supplyed their weakness that his grace prevented their will and that their sacrifice fayl'd not to be meritorious though it was not voluntary Amongst all those that have been their Advocates there is none hath pleaded their cause with more Eloquence then St Bernard his Reasons and his Words are equally powerfull and it seems that preserving the glory of their Martyrdom his designe was to preserve that of their Baptism Si quaeric corum apud Deum merita ut coronarentur quaere apud Herodem crimina ut occiderentur An forte minor Christi Pietas quà m Herodis impietas ut ille quidem potuit innoxios neci dare Christus non potuerit propter se occisos coronare Bern. de natal Inn. If you ask saith he what desert they had in the sight of God to merit a Crown ask what their crime was against Herod that deserved such a butchery shall the Piety of the Son of God be less powerful then the Impiety of Herod Shall the Tyrant be able to massacre Innocents and their Saviour not able to crown their sufferings Their Martyrdom exalteth the mercy of Jesus Christ and their example teacheth us that as good desires without works are sometimes recompensed in men works without desires may be recompensed in children If we doubt of their Martyrdom Ille pro Christo trucidatos Infantes dubitet inter Martyres coronari qui regeneratos in Christo non credit inter adoptionis silios numerari Idem ibid. as the same Father goes on we must doubt of the salvation of all those that are baptized and if we beleeve that Baptism sanctifies Infants though they cannot speak we must beleeve that Martyrdom consecrates these though they cannot expresse themselves After this example we need not think it strange that the Eternal Father acknowledgeth those for his Children whom the Son acknowledgeth for his Brethren nor doubt that imitating his Justice he saves by borrowed merits those he had condemned for accessory crimes But one of the most remarkable resemblances between our Recovery and our Fall is that both of them began by the Body For though this be lesse guilty then the soul neither did the corporal revolt sollicite our first Father to sin yet is it the pipe through which his offence passeth into the essence of his posterity Certum tenemus quia caro contracta de carne per legem concupiscentiae quam cito vivificatur originalis culpae vinculo premitur cjusque affectionibus anima quae carnem vivificat aggravatur sub hoc peccati vinculo demerguntur parvuli qui sine remedio baptismi moriuntur Habent enim originale peccatum non per animam sed per carnem utique contractum animaeque infusum carni namque ita unitur anima ut cum carne fit una persona Aug. lib. de Spir. Anim. c. 41. if they were not a part of his flesh they should inherit neither his sin nor his punishment and if concupiscence were fully extinguished by grace Generation would not be criminal Man is not faulty in his conception but because he is cloathed with Adam's flesh 't is by means of it that sin overspreads the soul for issuing from the hands of God 't is stain'd with no impurity but no sooner is it united to the body but it becomes guilty their marriage begets sin and having quickned that unhappy moity it enters into its imperfections and disorders it begins to affect terrestriall things it dwels upon perishable goods and is at a distance from eternall ones lest it should sad the Body it readily complyes with all its desires and as if it were become corporeal it longs for those objects that please and entertain the senses Though it be not carried yet by deliberation this way 't is by inclination and though it offend not willingly we may say it does naturally and that the privation of Grace joyned to its union with the body is the source of its transgression and misery In this point the Regeneration of the Christian holds so full a proportion with the Generation of the Man that the one is as well the proof as the Image of the other Quaeris in parvulis culpam invenis ex carne traductam Quaeris in eis gratiam invenis à Deo collatam Aug. de Spir. Anim. c. 41. For Grace though spiritual enters not into the soul but by the mediation of the body The Sacraments that dispense it communicate not their vertue to the Spirit till they have first imparted it to the flesh God is pleased to imitate his enemie and following his steps he cures the noblest part of man by the more ignoble Caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur caro ungitur ut anima consecretur caro corpore sanguine Christi vescitur ut anima saginetur Tert. de resurâ—ect carnis The spirit of the Christian Champions is not strengthened in Confirmation till the holy oyl is sprinkled on their fore-head Their soul to use Tertullian's expressions is not fatted with the Eucharist till it receives the body and bloud of Christ by their mouth nor is their spirit purified in Baptism but when their body is dipt in water The Remedy is symbolicall to the nature of the disease 't is affix'd to the prime delinquent and this maxime admits of no contradiction that the soul is uncapable of being healed assoon as it is separated from the flesh It seems the divine Justice will have Grace enter by the same passage into the soul that Sin did Nulla omnino anima salutem potest adipisci ni dum in carne est Id. Ib. and that the flesh should be the Christians ligament to Jesus Christ as well as the sinners to his first Progenitor Neither truly is it harder to conceive one then the other for as grace is insinuated into the soul by Baptisme of an offendor making an Innocent despoiling us of Adam and putting us on Jesus Christ ' Anima in corpore tanquam in vitiato vase corrumpitur ubi occulta justitia divinae legis includitur Aug. and finally passeth from our body into the Essence of that part that inanimates us so also may we easily comprehend that concupiscence is the conduit of sin that the miseries of the flesh make an Impression upon the spirit that this is
enjoy not this quality but after we are instated in the person of the Word nor can we have God for our Father but we must have Jesus Christ for our Head But when Grace hath made us his members Unicum Filium Deus habet quem de sua substantia genuit nos autem non de sua substantia genuit Creatura enim sumus quam non genuit sed fecit ideo ut fratres Christi secundùm modum faceret adoptavit Aug. lib. 3. contra Faust cap. 3. and being quickned by his Spirit we make up one body with him the Father loves us as his children looks upon us as a portion of Jesus Christ contracts an allyance with us that honours us and imitates that which he hath from all Eternity with his Son Thus we are his sons and his subjects he is our Lord and our Father and we bespeak him in the same language our Head doth we call him our Father and our God This Allyance is not only true because founded in Grace Vinculum igitur nostrae cum Deo Patre unionis Christum esse constat qui nos quidem sibi conjunxit ut homo Deo verò genitori suo sic unitus est ut naturaliter in eo sit Cyril Alex in Joan. but so proper that it relates only to the person of the Son agreeing not so much as to the holy Spirit For as he is not the Father of Jesus Christ so neither is he ours and as he hath other Alliances with him so hath he also with us The Father alone is our Father 't is to him that we addresse our selves when we use that name and knowing very well that we are inseparable from his Son we know very wel that the affection he bears us is an overflowing beam of that love he bears him of whom we have the honour to be members Though this mystery be wonderfull and 't is a hard matter to comprehend upon what motive Jesus Christ was willing to procure us this honour yet the condition wherein he found us redoubles the wonder For Adoption hath this advantage above Nature that 't is in its liberty to chuse the most accomplish'd Nature is blinde in her affections as well as in her productions she knows not for the most part what she does her works are many times defective and as if she had lost her light together with her innocence she brings forth Monsters as often as Men In the mean time she forbears not to love her imperfections she hath the heart of a Mother for all her productions and compels parents many times to embrace Monsters because they are their children In this particular Adoption is much happier then Nature it sees what it admits of chuseth upon knowledge of the cause loves that which is lovely and amiable nor does impart affections or goods but to persons that merit them Neverthelesse contrary to all these rules we finde that the Eternal Father adopts children born in sin and having nothing but the Apennage of Adam are rather the objects of his wrath then of his love He goes to seek them in the masse of perdition he separates them from the Guilty to render them innocent and applyes to them the merits of his Son to make them worthy of his inheritance For of all the Favours saith St * Promisit hominibus divinitatem mortalibus immortalitatem peccatoribus justificationem abject is glorificationem quicquid promisit indignis promisit ut non quasi operibus merces promitteretur sed gratia nomine suo gratia gratis daretur Aug. Psal 102. Augustine God the Father was pleased to honour us with he hath continually prevented our deservings he pardoned us in our delinquency heaped honour upon us in our misery To wretches condemned to death he hath promised immortality to the guilty innocence to base contemptible creatures glory to men divinity that we may receive all these favours as the gracious endearments of his mercy and not the recompences of our merits Thus our Adoption is founded upon his goodness he chose us but because it was his good pleasure he hath made us his Children because Christ hath made us his Brethren and in the apprehension of so great an advantage all we have to do is to humble our selves at the sight of our miseries and to give him thanks at the consideration of his mercies But to the end that this grace may appear more precious we must reckon up its Priviledges and allow the rest of this Discourse to its more noble Excellencies The Adoption of men is indeed an Allyance but we may without offence call it an imaginary one it hath no other foundation but the affection of him that adopts and the true or apparant merit of him that is adopted the conjunction is so impotent that it produceth nothing reall in their minds 't is as we have observed a meer denomination constituting no true relation between the two persons it unites and in this particular we must needs confess 't is much weaker then Nature For this tyes men with flesh and bloud her chains are so strong that 't is almost impossible to break them The Father looks upon his Son as a piece of himself the Mother beholds him as a portion of her own bowels nor can the Son die but both of them die in conceit with him Adoption hath nothing of this vigour in it it leans upon interests and as soon as he that is adopted hath no more any hope he hath no more love nor respect But the Christian Adoption is like that of Nature the links that compose it are of Diamond Missus est Filius non adoptione factus sed semper genitus Filius ut participata natura filiorum hominum ad participandam ettam suam naturam adoptaret etiam filios hominum Aug. lib. de Gra. Novi Test and the Grace that supports it is so firm that 't is able to subsift eternally It penetrates the very essence of the soul and cleanseth it from the spots of sin darts a light into the understanding heat into the Will plants the seeds of Glory in that intellectual substance gives it a true right and title to the kingdom of heaven and constitutes an Allyance between man and God so strict and combining that it imitates that that is between the Humanity and the Divinity by the mystery of the Incarnation From the very instant of Baptism the Christian is truly the Son of God the misery of his Nature the shame of his Birth and the Crime of his first Father hinders not Jesus Christ from being his Brother the Church from being his Mother nor eternal glory from being his portion But I wonder not at all that the Adoption of Christians is more substantial then that of men since it is celebrated with greater pomp and ceremony For when a man intends to adopt a child he needs only declare his will and make use of the Princes authority to make his
respect towards him he puts on rather the deportment of a Lover then of a Soveraign he gains his will without forcing it and though he knows the secret whereby to be obeyed 't is always with so much sweetness that he that suffers himself to be overcome hath reason to believe he gets the Victory Therefore doth the Scripture never speak of this Change but as of a work common to God with Man And when Saint Augustine observes the differences between Conversion and Creation he bears witness to this truth in these words Qui creavit te sine te non salvabit te sine te But not to enter into Disputes more Curious then Profitable Si conversio peccatoris non est majoris potentiae quà m creatio universi saltem est majoris miscricordiae Aug. let us be content to conclude with the same Saint Augustine that if the Conversion of a sinner require not more Power it supposeth at least more Mercy then Creation because if in This God obligeth the Miserable in That he obligeth the Criminal shewing Favour to those that could expect nothing but severity of Punishments Therefore is it that the Conversion of a sinner belongs to the Holy Spirit and a work that bears the Character of Goodness must needs have no other Principle but he to whom this Divine Perfection is attributed in the Scripture 'T is true that after he hath shewed mercy to sinners he performs a piece of most exemplary Justice and animating them against themselves he obliges them to take revenge and punishment upon themselves For one of the most admirable effects of the Spirit of Love is to produce hatred in the spirit of Penitents Quia ergo non potest esse confessio punitio peccati in homine à seipso cum quisque sibi irascitur sibi displicet sine dono Spiritûs sancti non est Aug. in Psal 50. and to satisfie the Majestie of God by the excess of their Austerities towards themselves They look upon themselves as guilty of Treason against the Divine Majestie they stay not till his Justice punish them they prevent his Sentence by their own Resolutions and invent more tortures to wrack themselves then the Executioners have been witty in to torment Martyrs with This is that Divine Spirit which hath driven the Anchorites into the desarts made the Antonines go down into caves and holes of the earth made the Stilites fix upon the top of Pillars which found out sackcloth and discipline to make as many Wretches as he had made Penitents All the Austerity that is in Christianity takes its birth from the love he inspires into the Faithful Their Rigour is proportionable to their Charity the more the holy Spirit possesseth them the more are they set against Themselves and we may affirm with reason that as much as they grow in his Love so much do they grow in the Hatred of their Sin This is it perhaps that our Saviour would have us understand when he told us that the holy Spirit should judge the world and should oblige sinners to punish themselves for the offences they have committed He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgement We cannot understand this Truth if we conceive not that the Father hath judged all men in his Son and having charged him with their iniquities hath charged him also with the punishments due for them From this moment they have no engagements to sue out with the Father and the Father satisfied with the Passion of his Son protests that he hath signed over to him all the right of judging the world The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son The Son by vertue of this resignation shall judge all men at the end of the world and being become their Judg and their Partie will pronounce the definitive sentence of their Eternity In expectation of this day of Doom the holy Spirit judgeth men that are converted and mixing meekness with severity in these determinations he obliges them to undergo a scrutiny upon earth to be delivered from the torments of hell Nor are we to think it strange that he that is so gentle is withall so rigorous since the Poets have bestowed these two qualities upon Love For these pleasant Tel-tales have feigned that he was the severest of all the Gods that he bathed himself in tears lived upon blood and more cruel then Tyrants took pleasure in the torments of his subjects But Christian Religion that conceals Truth under the shadow of our Mysteries teacheth us that the love of God is severe that he exacts chastisements from those he inanimates that he engageth his Lovers in penance and more strong then death which parts soul and body he divides between the soul and the spirit and exerciseth a Tyranny over whole entire man True it is the torments he inflicts are always mix'd with pleasures he makes Roses grow among Thorns and amidst such a throng of Penitents that bid him battel there is not one complains of his sufferings 'T is enough that persecuting themselves Haec tristitia quae poenitcutiam ad salutem stabilem operatur laeta est ac spe profectus sui vegetata cunctam affabilitatis retinet suavitatem Cassian l. 9. c. 11. they are perswaded they satisfie him whom they have offended the same consideration that afflicts them comforts them and when they meditate that God that loves them is infinite they meet with no pain that is not short nor any torment that is not joyous They are better accompanied in the Desarts then the Monarchs in their Palaces their humiliations are more glorious then the Triumphs of Conquerors their poverty is more happy then abundance of riches and their ascetick life more full of charms then the pleasures of the world Though the holy Spirit be thus favourable to Penitents yet fails he not to be very severe against sinners if he pardon the offences committed against the Father and the Son he never pardons those that are committed against his own Person and the holy Scriptures teach us Blasphemia in Spiritum sanctum non remittetur in hoc seculo nec in futuro Mat. 12. that of all the sins in the world none are irremissible but those which do despite to the Holy Ghost This passage leaves all our Expositors at a losse every one forgeth new Principles to resolve the difficulties thereof and there are few but strive to invent something upon a subject so often handled and so little cleared Some divide sins into three Orders according to the perfections which are commonly applyed to the three Divine Persons The first comprehends sins of infirmity which seem to clash against the Person of the Father Peccata alia sunt infirmitatis quae Patri cujus est potentia adversantur alia ignorantiae quae Filio cujus est sapientia alia malitiae quae Spiritui sancto cujus est bonitas D. Thom. in Paulum to whom power
was yet in the flower of his age he pardoned his youth Alterius aetate prima motus sum alterius ultima alium dignitati donavi alium humilitati queties nullam inveneram misericordiae causam mihi peperci Sen. lib. 1. de Clem. c. 1. and that extravagancy which ever accompanies it when he was stricken in yeers he pardoned his gray hairs and left death the charge of the execution when he was of a good House he respected his birth and balancing the good services of his Ancestors with his crimes conceived he did justice to them in shewing mercy to him when he was of an obscure mean Family he contemned an offender whose example could not any way prejudice the Common-wealth But when there was a prisoner presented whose crimes seemed to obstruct his Clemency and command his Severity he used an innocent stratagem and remembring that he was the Head of that transgressing Member he pardoned him in consideration of that Alliance and spared himself in the person of that delinquent Though all this Discourse make it evident that there is no stricter relation then that between Kings and their Subjects yet must we confess 't is rather Imaginary then Veritable For besides that experience teacheth us that Kings who live in pleasure seldom think of the miseries of their People Reason instructs us that there is nothing but Nature or Grace that can unite men to one another All those Alliances that are founded onely upon Inclinations or Duty stamp no Character and if Religion second not the Politicks they can neither oblige Subjects to expose their lives for the safety of their Prince nor Princes for that of their Subjects Whatever Oracles Morality pronounceth upon this occasion whatever Colours Eloquence adorns the actions of Souldiers with who have spilt their blood for the honour of their Soveraigns they never lookt upon them as their Head and if they set upon their enemies in spight of the thunder of the Canon 't was not so much for the preservation of their Person as out of a hope of Glory or expectation of a Reward There is no true Alliance but that which is established upon the Flesh or upon the Spirit and among so many Chiefs that govern their States there is none but Jesus Christ that is really united with his Subjects He lives in them by Grace and as Faith and Charity are able to make him present in all his members it is sufficient to be Faithfull or Charitable to make up one part of his Mysticall Body Thence it comes to passe that he shares with his members in all the Good or Evill they receive that his Glory hinders him not from having a fellow-feeling of their miseries and though in Heaven yet ceaseth not to suffer with them upon Earth The distance of place disjoyns him not from his Mysticall Body he is with men though among the Angels and this Bridegroom that reigns with the Church Triumphant fights yet with the Militant These two Churches make up his Spouse he loves them both as one he gives himself to both of them not imitating the Saints who leaving their ashes to the Church Militant translate their souls to the Church Triumphant he imparts himself to both without being divided to either and to take away all shadow of jealousie resides as truly among the Faithfull Caput nostrum est in coelo nos in illo ibi sursum Ecce jam pignus habomus unde nos fide spe charitate cum capite noâ—â—ro sumus in coelo in aeternuÌ„ quia ipsum bonitate divinitate unitate nobiscum est in terra atque ad consummatione saeculi Aug. in Psal 26. Ser. 2. as among the Beatificall He respects onely the difference of their conditions in the favours he confers upon them For the Church Triumphant being in possession he discovers to them his beauties declares to them his secrets and gives them a portion of his felicity But the Church Militant being still in hope he hides his face to increase her love he speaks to her darkly in Aenigma's to exercise her faith he takes her into his sufferings to increase her merits nor does he shew himselfe to her but under the vailes and curtaines of our Sacraments to put an edge upon her desires But he is equally united with both of them by that charity which makes him their Bridegroom and their Head We see also in the Scripture that he is sensible of all the outrages that are done to his members and that from Heaven above where he reigns with the Angels he suffers with the Faithfull upon the earth When Saul persecuted the Infant Church endeavouring to stiffle it in the Cradle when rage in his heart threats in his mouth arms in his hands sent him to make inquisition after her tender ones from Jerusalem as far as Damascus the Son of God complains of this violence as if done against his own Person and the neer relation he hath contracted with them obliged him to professe that in offending them they wounded him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Jesus Christ had sufficiently honoured the Faithfull saith Saint Augustine had he been contented to call them his Friends or his Brethren and one so glorious a condition had shrowded them from the rage and fury of so cruell a persecutor but he had prejudiced his love and his veracity had he used other terms Being the Head of the Christians and happily affianced to them he must of necessity mingle their injuries with his and to aggravate the greatnesse of this outrage he informed him that was the Authour that no man could offend the Christians but he must wound him nor hurt men but he must injure the only Son of God Let us hear Saint Augustine upon this Subject and see how he handles this mystery of Unity Jesus Christ was in Heaven when hee converted Saint Paul and of a Persecutor made him an Apostle Whence comes it then that in reproaching him with his Crime he saith Saul why persecutest thou me This furious Assasinate had he climbd up to Heaven to declare Warre against Iesus Christ Meant he to imitate the pride of those ambitious Angels that set upon him in the midst of his Glory Saul persecuced the Christians and not Iesus Christ that reigned with his Father in Heaven But because he lived in the Faithfull he suffered with his members and established that Maxime which this Apostle was one day to preach If one member suffer all the members suffer with it he uses this language to Saul and speaks to him with an Emphasis Why doest thou persecute me The glory wherewith I am surrounded renders thy attempts fruitlesse and whatever hatred thou hast conceived against me thou canst not injure my Greatnesse Know neverthesse that I live still in my Faithfull ones that they are my members that I am their Head and that in persecuting them thou persecutest me in their person Ought not this my Brethren to astonish
their affections upon the supream good and seeking their felicity in God say with David Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est 'T is in this point properly that holinesse consists he that wisheth any thing else is blind or wretched and he that wasts himself with other desires is not yet fully informed that the supream good is the end and rest of the Christian Therefore is it that Saint Augustine speaking to his Auditors uttered these notable words Let us be grieved to see men distracted with the diversity of their desires Let us see their different conditions which arise from the difference of their designs Let some take arms and seek for Glory in the mouth of Danger hazard their lives to get themselves a Name and place their happinesse in killing and slaying Let others more harmlesse but not lesse ambitious plead at the Barr gain reputation in defending Innocence and aspire to the Glory of Orators being not able to purchase that of Conquerors Let others more humble but not lesse interessed hold commerce and Traffique with Strangers passe the Seas to content their Avarice descend into the bowels of the Earth to dig out Treasures Let others more Innocent but not lesse miserable till the ground master barrenness by their laborious Improvement and at the years end reap a rich and plentifull harvest Let all these different Conditions divide the heap of perishable Goods between them but let Beleevers instructed in a better School protest that God is their portion and that now and for ever they will have no other Inheritance These last words insinuate to us the last circumstance of Holiness which is not true if it be not Constant and pertinent A little to clear this Truth we must know there is no Christian that is not united to God the Character he received in his Baptism is a mark of his dependance Faith which he retains with sin is a sacred tye fastning him to Jesus Christ and gives him the honour to be a member of his Body Charity is a perfect Bond compleating what the others have begun which knits him so close to his Head that their Good and Evill are indivisible But if the Christian intend to be Holy Perseverance must second Charity and this faithfull vertue link them so constantly to the son of God that nothing can separate them Many heard his words admired his miracles loved his person who because they fell off attained not to that excellent title of Saints 'T is this last Condition which Crownes Holinesse the ultimate Character distinguishing the Elect from the Reprobate Finally Absque perseverantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec palmā victor consequitur Bernard 't is this glorious mark that finisheth our salvation and begins our Beatitude It depends absolutely upon the good pleasure of God and as he refuseth it not without Justice neither does he indulge it but out of exceeding mercy It fixeth our will without constraining it renders it immoveable without taking away its liberty and gives it so much force that it equally triumphs over Griefs that astonish us and pleasures that corrupt us He that hath not this Grace cannot complain nor can he persevere He cannot complain because God denies it not but to his sin nor is his Reprobation founded upon any thing but his Infidelity He cannot persevere because this assistance depends not upon his Merit It being the immutable Decree of Gods good will and pleasure which makes men Saints and blessed It is by vertue of this Eternal ordinance that they resist temptations ouer-rule Tyrants and vanquish Devils 'T is by vertue of this internall Grace that they defie all Creatures and say with Saint Paul That nothing can separate them from Jesus Christ I am sure saith that Great Apostle that Death with his terrors Life with its charms Angels with their beauties Devils with their deformities Things present with their allurements Things future with their promises Heaven with its glory Hell with its torment can never separate me from the love of God And indeed how should they saith St Augustine because Death though never so hideous leads us to Him Life is found in his possession Angels and Devils are the Ministers of his Justice or of his mercy Things present are false Things to come uncertain Hell with God would be my Happinesse and Paradise without him my Torment Or if we will take this passage another way let us say again with Saint Augustine That nothing can separate us from Jesus Christ Not Death because there is none so dismall as to be deprived of his Love Not the Angels because being united to him we are stronger then all Spirits combined together Not the vexations of life because they are sweet when undergone for his Honour and serve only to give us a nearer conjunction to his person Not things to come because nothing can be bestowed nor promised which can countervail him Not Heaven because it is the recompence of those that serve him Not Hell because it is made for none but those that forsake him From all this Discourse it is easie to judge that the perfect Christian is a Saint that he ought to be wholly unbottomed from all things and so closely united to Jesus Christ that nothing can remove him But 't is easie to judge withall that we are at a great distance from Holiness because a small Interest a weak Temptation a shameful pleasure a light Injury separates us daily from him for whom we ought to sacrifice our Interests renounce our pleasures subdue our Temptations and forget our Injuries The Sixth DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Martyr THe condition of Christians would be very miserable did their vertue depend upon their Enemies and were they so streightened that they could not compass the Crown of Martyrdom but must be beholding to the Cruelty of Tyrants But the Peace of the Church hath her Martyrs as well as her Persecution Love is witty enough to exercise their Courage without employing the fury of Infidels Every Christian may without Impiety be his own Executioner and provided he live according to the Laws the son of God hath prescribed him will finde his punishment in his obedience All the vertues of Christianity will assist him in this designe Every Maxime of the Gospel will make a part in his Agony and having practised all that Jesus Christ commands or counsels he may boast though he be an unprofitable servant he ceaseth not to be a faithful Martyr For if it be true that the Cause and the Punishment makes the Martyrs we must confess that all they that live according to the Laws of Christianity may lawfully pretend to this glorious quality because they suffer much and for the height of their happiness they suffer for the Son of God This last condition is so necessary that in the judgement of S. Augustine 't is not so much the Punishment as the Cause that makes the Martyr The Gally-slaves that tug at the Oar
yet extinguished and the greatest Saints if they manage not their intentions well rob God of all the Love they indulge themselves Finally it is almost ever interessed Quicquid creatura sui amori concedit hoc amori Dei eripit Bern. we love not God so purely as not to seek our own pleasure with when his glory and we are more earnest with him for riches or honours then for graces we make it appear that Concupiscence bears a greater part in our prayers then Charity But the Blessed have not one of these imperfections in their Love It is not blind because they love him whom they see and the brightness of glory that enlightens them is a ray dispelling all darkness of their understanding It languisheth not as ours doth nor spends it self in its own longings because they possesse what they love and being intimately united to God are eternally inseparable from him It is not divided because self-love enters not into Heaven but is quenched by the flames of Charity or purified when the souls of the Blessed quit the Prison of their body Finally it is not interessed because the honour of God is the end of their desires and in felicity it self they seek not so much their own happiness as his glory From this Knowledge and this Love is derived the resemblance the Blessed have with God which is the accomplishment of their desires and the perfection of their Beatitude For though the Faithful be humble aspire not to the vain pomps of the world and being conscious of his misery knows very well that Nothingness is his Original and sin his work yet ceaseth he not to wish by the motions of Grace what he sometimes coveted by the impulses of pride He would have the same thing that Adam would like the Angel he pretends to be like God but he desires that with Justice which the two others did with Insolence The holy Scripture authoriseth his appetite and the promises of Jesus Christ make his hopes lawful He knows very well that the Happiness of a reasonable creature consists particularly in this point and that being the Image of God in Nature and in Grace he ought to resemble him in Glory The beloved disciple comforts us in the expectation of this happiness and speaks so confidently of it to all the Faithful that he seems rather to have received the Earnest then the Promise of his Master Scimus quoniam cùm apparuerit similes ei erimus Though this similitude constitute our principal happiness yet is it easier to hope for it then to describe it and being an expression of the felicity of God himself is as much unknown to us as his Nevertheless we may say it is an effusion of his Essence into the soul of the Blessed an emanation of his Divinity communicating all his perfections lifting them above themselves and transforming them into him without destroying them makes as many Gods as there are Saints in Glory The Fire which imprints all its qualities in the Iron it makes red-hot the Sun that communicates all his light to the Crystal he penetrates and the Persume which sheds its fragrant odour thorow all the rooms it embalms are but faint comparisons to express the intimate communication of the Divine Essence to the Blessed It is enough to believe in the simplicity of Faith that all our desires shall be fully compleated that our happiness shall surpass our hopes and raised to a higher condition then that the devil promised our father in Paradise we shall be Men and Gods both together Though we are not idle in so happie a condition S. Augustine teacheth us that the knowledge and love of God shall be our sole employment Tantum gandebunt Beati quantum amabunt tantum amabunt quantum cognoscent Deum Aug. lib. Medit. we shall finde all our contentment in this one exercise and as we shall possess All Goods in the Supreme Good so shall we taste all Felicity in this one diversion The good works we have been conversant in upon earth shall be banished from Glory and Mercy shall be useless in a state whither Misery cannot approach we shall have no need to visit the Sick where Immortality provides for the Health of the Blessed There will be no burying of the Dead in the land of the Living Hospitality will not be practised where there are no Pilgrims We shall not clothe the Naked because the light of Glory will be the garment of the Saints We shall not be troubled to reconcile Enemies because Peace shall raign there eternally We shall be no longer obliged to instruct the Simple because the Beatifical Vision will eliminate all Ignorance If the works of Mercy be useless all actions wherein Necessity engageth us will then be superfluous The miseries of life compel men to till the earth for their nourishment to build houses to defend them from the injury of the weather to make clothes to protect them from shame and cold But all these employments shall have an end in a Kingdom where he that governs is both the Nourishment the Cloathing and the Habitation of his Subjects His Goodness which penetrates them is their Aliment his Glory that invirons them is their Apparel and his Essence which includes them is their Lodging They need fear nothing in a condition where the possession of All Good necessarily produceth the exclusion of All Evil. We shall have no apprehension then saith S. Augustine that Hunger or Thirst shall persecute us because we shall lodge in the house of a Lord where there is plenty of all things where we may bathe our elves in the River of his Innocent Pleasures Nor Heat nor Cold shall once dare to annoy us because by a strange wonder the same Sun that shall shelter us with his shadow shall warm us with his heat Weariness shall not weaken us because God shall be our strength we shall not be forced to sleep because Labour shall never need repose nor shall the night ever draw a curtain over the day There shall be no Commerce because we shall possess All in God there shall be no Servitude because all the Subjects of this Kingdom shall be Soveraigns If you ask me saith S. Augustine what we shall do then in a place whence pain and travel are banished I will answer with the Prophet that the whole enployment of the Blessed is to think of God and to rejoyce in his glory Vacate videte quoniam ego sum Deus This meditation shall altogether take them up it shall produce all pleasures and constitute all their vertues Every Beatified person shall imitate Mary Magdalene and as with her they shall have but one Object they shall make use but of one Vertue Porro unum est necessarium The calamities of the Earth oblige us to employ successively all the Vertues sometimes we borrow aid from Prudence to dissipate the darkness wherewith we are blinded or to scatter the dangers that threaten us sometimes we call in
impute our fall to him When they foresaw our objections and our doubts they answered them only with admiration and paying us with that solution Saint Augustine so often returned the Pelagians that urged him close they have taught us this lesson that there is more to be adored then to be known in this ineffable mystery That in this occasion a man may boast his ignorance nor know which side to take without running the hazard of being accounted rash and unadvised Finally that the ways we take to discover the will and mind of God are in some sort injurious to his Majesty For we limit the knowledge of the Almighty and set down Instances wherein he sees some things and not others we make him reason according to our manner and we prescribe him principles whence we oblige him to draw consequences that please us we constrain him to save and destroy men according to the motions of severity or pity which sway us and not knowing that his justice is transcendently above all our Laws we go about to reduce him to the conditions of Judges or Soveraigns I honour the Fathers of the Church who to quel Heresies have advanced certain Maximes upon this subject of Predestination I reverence whatever the Church obliges me to believe of the Justice or Mercy of God I adore with the Scripture all the judgements of my Creator whether he founds his refusal of Grace or Glory upon my Non-Entity or upon my Sin I bless his justice if he chuse me upon sight of his own favours or my merits which are but the effects of his favours I will magnifie his mercy and not examining either his motives or questioning his power in the disposall of his creatures I will patiently submit to the Eternall determination of his Divine Providence Upon the consideration of these verities the Christian must live between hope and fear that seeing himself suspended between Heaven and Hel he may sigh out after his Redeemer and finding no firmer assurance then in submission to his grace may yeild full obedience to it earnestly longing that it may grow more vigorous that so it may exercise an absolute dominion over his will never fearing to lose his liberty by yeilding subjection thereto but instructed by the language of the Church beg of God that grace may become Mistress of his heart that it may vanquish his resistance and making strength succeed sweetness may triumph over a rebel that disputes the victory with him I know very well this subject causeth much bandying in the Schools that it divides the Masters of Divinity and troubles the peace and fair intelligence with which they ought to inquire after Truth But for me I find them agreed in the most materiall circumstances and that in the diversity of their opinions they can neither be suspected of Errour nor Rashness For seeing those who vary a little from the Doctrine of Saint Augustine confess that grace alwayes prevents the will that with its light it sheds forth heat and warmth into the soul of man chusing those ery moments in which it infallibly produceth its effects they are at a great distance from the errour of the Pelagians who ascribed all to Liberty and judged not Grace necessary to act absolutely but easily Semper est antë in nobis voluntas libera sed non est semper bona aut enim à justitia libera est quando servit peccato tunc est mala aut à peccato libera est quando servit justitiae tunc est bona Aug. de Grat. Lib. arb c. 15. and seeing those that boast themselves the disciples of Saint Augustine acknowledge that Grace takes not away the Liberty though it leave it not wholly in an indifferency me thinks they are very far from the dreams of the Manichees and the impiety of the Calvinists particularly that following their Master they acknowledge that Man is always free in good and evil onely with this difference that his Liberty is the onely cause of his Perdition and Grace the principal cause of his Salvation 'T is upon these two Principles as upon two immoveable Poles that I make this whole Treatise roll wherein I profess to take S. Augustine for my guide but protest withal that in seeking after Truth I have always endeavoured to preserve Charity and am so far from blaming those Opinions I do not hold that I am ready to relinquish mine own when the Church shall condemn them or when her Governours shall oblige me to change them Hitherto both Opinions have seemed Orthodox The Councel of Trent hath authorized them leaving them in the Church and hath suffered the Faithful to embrace that which they shall judge most conformable to Scripture and the holy Fathers The Canons of this Assembly are composed with so much prudence that condemning the Heresies that divided the unity of the Church it hath determined nothing concerning the Controversies of the Divines It hath so judiciously explained it self that each party alleadgeth it for themselves and by the carriage of the business hath made us see that tacitely it gave approbation to both these Opinions which for twelve Ages have busied the best Wits of the School For though something be added to that which seems least consonant to the doctrine of S. Augustine there is no change in the substance and 't is the same that so many Bishops and Doctors have taught heretofore in the Pulpit and in the Chair After the example of this great Councel I honour both the Opinions and expecting till the Church shall further explain her self upon these matters which produce so many gallant Pieces on one side and the other I will content my self in saying that in each party there is something to be done and something to be left undone For those who will not that Grace have so absolute a dominion over the Will ought to labour hard because believing their liberty not so maimed but that it may with a little aid practise Christian vertues they are obliged to produce notable effects and to carry heaven by violence and the assiduity of an uncessant endeavour But they must withal carefully avoid Pride which accompanies bold undertakings They must remember all their pains will be fruitless if they be not quickned with Grace they must be ever mindful of those words of Jesus Christ who confounding the vanity of men hath obliged his disciples to confess that after all their travels they are unprofitable servants They must consider that whatever share their liberty may pretend in the business of their salvation they can do nothing without his grace who said to all his disciples in the person of his Apostles Sine me nihil potest is facere The disciples of S. Augustine who acknowledge the weakness of Nature and the power of Grace are engaged to pray much to depend upon the mercy of God and to cry aloud with the Psalmist to their Divine Redeemer In manibus tua sortes meae but
lest the fear of their Infirmity should lull them asleep in the lap of Idleness they are bound to joyn Action to their Prayers good Works to their Sighs remembring that Charity is active and that she never hath recourse to Desires and Wishings but when she is destitute of occasions to suffer or do for the glory of him whom she so passionately affects The Second DISCOURSE Of the Necessity of Grace in the state of Innocence and of Sin A Man must be an enemy to his Salvation that is an enemy to the Grace of Jesus Christ because in whatever state the creature is considered he hath need of some supernatural assistance to attain to glory His weakness is so great and his end so high that he can neither master the first nor compass the second if he be not assisted with an extraordinary succour Original righteousness that furnished him with so many advantages gave no dispensation from this necessity and though he had neither Passions to combat nor disorders to regulate Grace was still necessary for him to overcome Temptations and to persevere in Innocence Had Humane nature continued saith S. Augustine in that happie condition God at first created it in it had been unable to preserve it self had it not been upheld by the power of its Creator The state of Grace is more delicate then that of Nature and if all Philosophers confess that the Creatures have need of the support of the Almighty that they return not to their Nothing all Divines acknowledg they have need of his help lest they fall into Sin Weakness which is inseparable from the Creature puts him in this necessity and notwithstanding those many priviledges his production was honoured with he cannot want that succour which supports and fortifies him Adam remained but a small time in his original righteousness his first conflict was followed with his overthrow and we know not whether his Creation and his Fall happened not on the same day but this we know that his Fall had been speedier had not Grace seconded his Liberty and that he had wandered from his End assoon as ever he had known it had he not been supplied with supernatural Means to tend thereunto And me thinks we may apply the words of the Scripture in the state of Innocence as well as of Sin and say with that excellent Doctor of Grace Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. For as there is no Creature can begin any good without Grace neither is there any that can perfect that good beginning without it The Necessity of Grace is so great Non talis facta est Natura ut sine Divino adjutorio posset manere Aug. that 't is common to all sorts of conditions Angels can no more be without it then Men the nobleness of their Creation dispenseth not with them and if it be true that the dignity of their nature being higher then that of Men makes them more indigent of the assistance of God I conceive their elevation in Grace renders them more necessitous of its support The Greatness of the Creatures serves onely to abase them their excellence is a glorious servitude the more they have received from God the more do they depend upon him and the grace that would preserve an Angel would not be sufficient to preserve a Seraphim Thus the dignity of the Creature is as well a proof of the Necessity of Grace as his weakness and till he be admitted into Glory where he findes his confirmation in Good he stands in need of Grace to preserve those advantages he hath received from his Creator If Innocence could not free us from this happie Necessity we may say 't is increased upon us by sin and that to give us a release we have need of some more vigorous and active Grace For 't is not enough now that it shew us the Good and enable us to attain unto it but it must withal inspire us with a Will unto it it must lead us by the hand support our weakness order our doings correct our imperfections break our chains and master concupiscence that takes possession of our Will It must assault this Tyrant to set us at liberty that dealing skilfully with us and valiantly against it we may be delivered from servitude without any violence to our nature For Free-will is so weakned by sin that it cannot so much as will the Good if Grace cure it not it must change its inclinations to elevate its desires and imprint upon him the love of vertue hereby to abhor vice Indeed saith S. Augustine how should a man live justly if he be not justified how should he live holily if he be not sanctfied and how should he live truely if he be not quickned with Grace which is the true life of the soul The Cure of man and his Disease depend not equally upon his Will there needs nothing but a small excess to contract a Fever hot and cold are able to debois our constitution Fruits eaten unseasonably or excessively may cause a Flux nor is there any man so well but may be sick when he will But the Cure depends upon Physick we must recover that by the help of another which we have lost by our own fault and experience teacheth us that the end of evil is not in our power as its birth is We may reason thus concerning Man a Sinner because sickness is as well the Image as the Punishment of his crime he may sin when he will he hath liberty enough to become a delinquent there needs no temptation to make him swerve from his duty and he is dextrous enough by his sole power to render himself miserable But having lost Grace he cannot recover it by his own proper Will notwithstanding all the abilities still remain with him there will never be enough to raise him from his Fall nor can he be justified by any other then by him that is the fountain of all the Justice in the world The Law that was given to Instruct him is not sufficient to Cure him though it be one step to arrive to vertue and the knowledge of sin be necessary for the avoiding thereof nevertheless the Law without Grace cannot convert the sinner its light serves onely to dazzle him its defence onely to irritate his desires and when this feeble succour is not seconded by Grace it makes a man but more guilty 'T is Charity that inspires a love towards the Law that surmounts its difficulties changeth its pains into pleasures and of slaves making children renders that easie and agreeable that seemed burdensome and impossible But when by the mediation of Grace a man passeth from the Law to the Gospel he ought not to think this guide useless nor that he can without its aid preserve what without its light he could not attain Grace is not less necessary to finish then to begin and the new state whereto the Christian it raised depends so absolutely upon its influences that he ceaseth
man as well as to man an innocent Others following the Maximes of Aristotle place Vertue in Mediocricy and lest they should give the lye to an Infidel endeavour to suit the Maximes of the Gospel with those of Philosophy Seeing that Liberality must be as far distant from Prodigality as from Covetousness and that Fortitude if it be true must neither partake of Cowardise nor of Rashness they have confined all other vertues within these limits not considering that the noblest and most common find their perfection in their excess For Humility and Charity have no bounds the one descends to sin and nothingness the other ascends as high as God who is infinite Therefore says Saint Bernard Modus amandi Doum sine modo Bernard Love hath no measure and considering the greatness of its object endeavours to love according or as much as it is lovely But the most dangerous of all these Masters are those that confound reason with vertue and conceive man sufficiently vertuous when he is rationall they give a thousand fair glosses to this lye and making reason the chiefest or only good of man they suppose they have secured him from all vices in deputing him this Idol for the conduct of his life They will have her a Soveraign whose power is lawfull all whose decrees are just and her designs laudable They ascribe to reason what we doe to grace and not fearing to render her government tyrannicall they will have her reign absolutely over the will without constraining it illuminate the understanding without dazling it use passions without stifling them and employ the body without offering it the least injury or violence But these blind Dotards will not see that reason being a slave cannot be a Queen and so far is she from guiding man that she her selfe hath need of a star to enlighten her and a prop to support her For since the fall of Adam this Soveraign is a Captive all her subjects sleight her Laws and whatever vain Authority she slatters her self with she meets with as many rebellions as she gives commands Reason without Grace hath hitherto brought up none but proud Scholars and not to examine what she can doe she hath yet served for no other use but to swel Philosophers with vain glory and to perswade them that Original sin was a fable and the corruption of nature an illusion Idolaters have not so much resisted the Gospel as Philosophers Superstition hath with more ease struck sail then vain Philosophy and the gods that reason fashioned and set up have stood longer then those of wood and of marble Whatever is rumored of the Letters and Conferences between Seneca and Saint Paul I have always believed the conversion of that Stoick harder then that of the Covetous and most impudent Lascivious The Pride that inanimated his spirit was so strong a bulwark against grace that he had never stoopt to the Maximes of Christianity if that Conqueress of hearts had not employed all her charms and all her forces to bring him under It had never troubled him to part with his goods Annaeo Senecae non quidem ex toto virtus verum ex aliqua parte defuit affuit enim scribenti cesuit viventi Aug. though avarice be reckoned one of his sins be had suffered the torments which served for proofs to the Primitive Christians and his vain-glory had armed him with courage enough to endure those affronts that accompanied the Preaching of the Gospel But the love he bore his reason had never given him leave to believe without some miraculous work of Grace that man was born a criminal that his nature was corrupted his liberty weakned and that to the practising of vertue there was requisite some external assistance which God might refuse him without the least shew of injustice This Philosopher had he kept his opinions had been the first Authour of Pelagianisme in the world and his pride making him the capital enemy of grace had obliged him to side with reason against her But not to combat a Heresie the Church hath triumphed over so many ages since nor to condemn Seneca whom she hath anathematized in the person of Pelagius It contents me to say that vertue to the end it may be solid must be the gift of God that she cannot be acquired without grace of whose aid being destitute she is rather the shadow of vertue then true and reall vertue indeed If that of the Heathen be not a sin if all the circumstances of it be not bad and if we may not blame a son that succours his Father a Subject that desends his Prince a Citizen that dies for his Countrey we have great cause to bewail the misfortune of those who having not the light of faith could not direct all their actions to their first principle nor refer them to their last end Let us affirm then with S. Augustine Virtus est bona qualitas mertis quae recte vivitur qua nemo male utitur quam Deus in nobis operatur Aug. lib. 1. de lib. arb the Master of Vertue as well as of Grace that Vertue is a quality of the soul wherewith we live well which we cannot use ill which God works in us either to guide us or defend us Let 's give a little light to this definiition and say he cals vertue a quality because though it be an expression of the Divinity 't is not a substance but an accident to teach man that vertue is not naturall to him but adventitious and that he receives her as a present from the bounteous hand of God she is good because she communicates goodness to us and by her motions leads us on to the supream Good she learns us to live well because she knocks us off from our selves lifts us up to God and makes our interests give place to the interests of his Glory But inasmuch as mans life is civil this same vertue teacheth us to live well with our neighbour and to conspire together to find satisfaction upon Earth and felicity in Heaven We cannot use it ill because all her acts are just and she would change her nature should she change her inclination Nemo virtute abutitur quamvis allquando virtus sit occasio alicujus mali Isidor Wherein I find vertue happier then the faculties of the soul which are daily abused in the practise of sin For the memory is not lesse faithfull when it represents us an injury then when it minds us of a good turn The will is not lesse free when it commits a sin then when it practiseth a vertue nor hath the understanding lesse vivacity when it conceives an Errour then when it conceives a Truth But Vertue is so pure that she cannot be corrupted her intentions are so right they cannot be perverted and her beauty so resplendant that it admits of no spots nor imperfections Finally t is God that works her in us because he is the source of all our good things
and since the havock sin hath made in men we have no right to Vertue but what his mercy bestows upon us The ignorance of the last condition of Vertue hath thrown all the Philosophers into pride and blindness For not knowing the miseries of Original sin but seduced by self-love they have established their strength in their freedome and their happiness in reason they have given stately names to Vertue which helping to deceive them have fill'd their perswasion that she was rather an effect of their own labor then of Grace Therefore is it that S. Augustine observes that all the Philosophers considering the difficulties that accompany Vertue the combats that must be fought to gether have Christen'd her with a name which seems to take its beeing from force and which by a just judgement of God hath entertained them in their vanity hiding from them their weakness But Christians who have learnt humility in the School of Truth who have profited by their misfortune and are become wise by the miscarriages of Philosophers have called Vertue a Grace or a gift of God and will have her name an instance of their misery and of the liberality of their Soveraign This is it that the same Doctor saith in other terms opposing the vanity of Philosophers to the humility of Christians The Philosophers saith he loved their own glory and despised t hat of God they confided in their own strength and were not thankfull to him that lifteth up the humble and casteth down the proud But Christians instructed in a better School avoid the glory of the world and seek after that of God The experience they have of their infirmity makes them distrust their own abilities and since they know they can neither undertake nor execute any thing without the assistance of their Creator they invoke him when they begin their actions return him thanks when they have finished them and if they want courage or fidelity accuse themselves confessing ingenuously that all good things come from God and all evil from the creature Indeed God will be glorified in our weakness he will have all that we do rather an effect of his Grace then of our Liberty Omnia Dec attribuunt radicem meriti virtutum cilicet praemiūnon videntes nec in se nec in alio nisi Gratiam Dei Greg. Mag. and he takes pleasure to command us such things as exceed our power that the glory may be his 'T is perhaps for this reason that he saith in his Word that the Kingdome of Heaven cannot be gained but by violence and that he hath propounded to us so high a Conquest that the greatness thereof may oblige us to seek for his assistance It is not a Prodigy saith a Father of the Church to be born upon the Earth and scale Heaven to win that by Vertue that cannot be obtained by Nature that the whole world may know that if in this Conflict man get the victory 't is God that gives him the Courage to overcome and the Grace to triumph Therefore the great Origen considering the designs of God and the weaknesse of men Vult Dominus Jesus res mirabiles facere vult enim de Locustis Gigames de his quae in terra sunt caelestes vincere nequitias Orig. said with as much Congruity as Truth that this great Master took pleasure to work miracles in our favour that having drawn us out of nothing and then out of sin he would raise us to glory that having formed our body of the slime of the Earth he destined it for Heaven and that the Devils by their malice intending to oppose this design he gave us arms to fight them that those Pygmies vanquishing these Gyants the honour of the victory might be ascribed to him where the parties being so unequal the advantage was found on the weaker side 'T is upon the discovery of all these verities that Christians call Vertue by the name of Grace and confess that if she came not from Heaven they were never able to surpass all difficulties suffer all sorrows and despise all the delights of the Earth The Second DISCOURSE Of the Division of the Vertues of a Christian AS Physitians make an Anatomy of Mans Body thereby to discover its qualities and exercise a cruelty upon the Dead that they may benefit the Living Philosophers divide the Vertues that they may know them they separate that which is indivisible and break the sacred bonds that unite these dear Sisters that so they may peruse their beauties Or to express this Truth by a more noble comparison as the School-men divide the Divine Essence to illustrate its perfections separating Justice from Mercy Majesty from Love Wisdom from Power though they are but one and the same thing we are obliged to disjoyn the Vertues though they be all concentred in Charity and according to the opinion of S. Augustine are nothing but Charities disguised For taking leave to repeat a Principle often explained in another Work Charity is the onely Christian Vertue changing names according as her object changeth conditions When That is hid she is called Faith and with her obscure lights endeavours to discover that Sun which the splendor of his Majesty renders invisible when this object is absent she is called Hope which raiseth her soul towards him that stands at a distance onely to increase our desires when 't is armed with Thunder she is called Fear imprinting endearments of respect towards a Majestie that can annihilate all those that offend him Those Vertues that we stile Cardinal and which seem not directly to aim at the Supreme Good are but so many true Loves fastning us to him by different chains Temperance saith S. Augustine is a chaste Love which can suffer no parting of hearts obliging us to consecrate our selves wholly to his service whom we pretend to affect Valour is a generous Love making a Pleasure of Pain and gives proof of his Constancy in the hottest battery of Persecutions Justice is a regulated Love teaching us to command by obeying and subjecting us to our lawful Soveraign gains us an absolute Dominion over all the Creatures Prudence is a clear-sighted Love which is never seduced chusing by its illumination those means which are able to bring us to God and rejecting all others that may estrange us from him So that the Vertues are nothing but Charity in a several dress or to speak more correctly they are onely the different functions of Love But not to wander from this Principle which I honour because S. Augustine after Saint Paul is the author of it I will not forbear to divide the Vertues without interessing their Unity and to consider their divers employments without wronging their fair correspondence The same S. Augustine is of opinion that there are Two Principal Vertues which include all the rest The one consists in Action the other in Contemplation The one teacheth us the way we must walk in to go to God and the