THE CHRISTIAN DUTY COMPOSED BY B. BERNARD FRANCIS STUDENT IN DIVINITY ISA. 30. 21. THIS IS THE WAY WALK IN IT 1. COR. 14. 38. If any man know not he shal not be known IHS PRINTED AT AIRE BY CLAUDE FRANÇOIS TULLIET M.DC.LXXXIV with Licence of Superiors TO THE READER GOd desires so cordially and seeks so earnestly our salvation that He calls it his worke and his affaire by excellence His Son Io 4. 34. sayd to his Disciples I have meat you know not T is to do the will of my Father and to accomplish his worke And to his Mother in the Temple Knew you not that I must labour in the affaires of my Father And in the Vigil of his death Father I have accomplished the worke you have given me to do Becaus 't is the worke of workes the affaire of affaires and the ayme and end of other workes He employes in it not men only but also Angells All the Angelicall Spirits that are sent Heb. 1. 14. into this world are sent for the salvation of the Elect says S Paul What say I men and Angells He employes in it his divine Perfections For if He exerciseth his Power in working miracles Wisdom in inventions to convert us Patience in expecting us to penance Goodness to allure us Iustice to frighten us Mercy in pardoning us Providence in removing occasions of sin 't is for our salvation And to the end there be nothing in Him or of Him that is not employ'd in this great work He sends the adorable Persons that proceed from him He sends his beloved Son who applyes himself to it with so great tenderness and affection that from thence He takes his name with so much fervour and Zeal that he spends in it his sweat and blood He sends the holy Ghost who shews likewise His Zeal when our salvation is in danger we being in the state of sin what does He not to draw us out of it and to convert us He excites us wakens us threatens us importunes us knocks almost incessantly at the doores of our hearts and if we open them to Him He Enters into our soules dwells in them animates them governs and conducts them workes by them our good workes in our prayers He prayes cryes groanes in us and by us in temptations He aydes us in perplexities Enlightens us in afflictions comforts us May not the Eternal Father say Quid debui facere vineae meae non feci What should I have don for the salvation of men that I have left undon He hath desired it most earnestly He hath design'd to it his creatures Employ'd in it his Servants Favourits infinite Perfections and the divine Persons of his Son and of his holy Spirit How coms it to pass then that so few are saved even amongst Christians One reason is that very many are yet ignorant of the ways ordinain'd by God to go to heaven Another is that the greater part also of the Faithfull are negligent and careless in the use of the means prescribed to be saved they will not labour and strive to enter by the narrow gate and therefore our Saviour sayes they shal not Wherefore desiring the salvation of every one with all my heart I shew the First and put before their eyes the plain and open wayes to Heaven and to correct the negligence of the other I add the most pressing and urgent motives to walke and run in those wayes Peruse this worke good Reader with the same intention and desire that I present it to you Consider not who made it nor how 't is made but what is therein sayd to you If you shal becom more knowing in the Faith and Law of Christ and in ptactise more Dutifull to Him it will abundantly recompence the labour of YOUR WELL WISHING FRIEND AND SERVANT IN CHRIST F. B. APPROBATIONS JNfrascripti testamur nos librum perlegisse tui Titulus The Christian Duty Idiomate Anglicano a V. Adm. P. Bernardo a Sancto Francisco Ordinis FF Minorum Recoll Provinciae Angliae compositum in quo nil Fidei Orthodoxae vel bonis moribus contrarium deprehendimus verum è contra salutari plenum devotione solidaque refertum doctrina Quem idcirco Communi Bono vtiâ—issimum praeloque dignum Iudicavimus Hac 29 Octobris An. Domini 1683 In Conventu nostro FF Min Recoll Anglorum Duaci F Pacificus a Sto. Albino F. Bonaventura a Sta. Anna S. Theologiae Lector S. Theologiae Lector The Licence of the Superior Ego F. Gervasius a Sto. Francisco Provinciae Angliae FF Min. Recoll Minister Provincialis facultatem concedo ut hoc opus cui Titulus The Christian Duty a V. Adm. Patre Bernardo a Sto. Francisco compositum et eiusdem Provinciae Theologorum judicio approbatum typis mandetur Datum Ariae 9. Septembris An 1683. F. Gervasius â Sto. Francisco qui Supra Imprimatur liber cui Titulus The Christian Duty a Reverendo Patre Bernardo à Sancto Francisco conscriptus Actum in Vicariatu Audomarensi die decima septima Septembris Anno 1684. De Mandato B. DE LARRE Secret DISCOURS I. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE I believe in God AMongst the noble actions which the holy Penitent David practised to appease God and satisfy his justice This is one of the most notable Docebo iniquos vias tuas impij ad te convertentur I will teach sinners thy wayes my God and the impious shal be converted to Thee These words shew me how to do well this worthy fruit of Penance I must not flatter I must not tickle eares but I must teach Docebo And whom must I teach The poor as well as the rich the little and ignorant as well as the great and learned my self also as well as others for we are all sinners and I must teach sinners iniquos And what is it that I must teach Not the conceits of Plato not the discourses of Aristotle but thy wayes ô my God! Vias tuas the ways by which we must go to Thee And why must I teach not to receive popular praise Not to be esteemed learned but that sinners be converted to thee ô my God! impij ad te convertentur The wayes by which we go to God are Faith and the Mysteries which it teaches Hope Charity Grace good Works the Commandements and the Sacraments These wayes God aiding I will open plainly teach practically and urge earnestly that sinners may be converted into them and unto God And first I will consider the material object or the Mysteries of Faith which the Apostles propose in their Creed to us and begin with these words I believe in God 2. That there is a God nature teaches us the Pagans them selves confessed it and it is a thing so manifest that the scripture tells us that none but fools deny it 3. This word God in the singular number teaches us that there is but one And if he were not the only one he would not be God He would not be
their fault they have well deserv'd it since they might have saved themselves so easily 9. But th'o we have so much convenience to make use of this great Benefit and to help our selves by this Power Yet if we should be so ill advised as to lose the grace of God by consenting to a mortal sin we should hazard our salvation Wherefore the Royal Prophet advises us that if we have innocence to take great care to keep it to be solicitous not to offend God and for Psal 36. this effect to remember that He is just and that his justice obliges him to punish sinners and to favour and save the Just Beware to say when temptation solicits you I 'le tast the sweetnes of this pleasure I will satisfy my desire when I have taken my pleasure and contented my passion I will do penance I 'le go to confession and be absolu'd Will you do penance you might do it if it depended but on you if you could do it of your self But the Son of God says to you in the Gospell You can do nothing without me you cannot then do penance if God does Iohn 15. not make you do it you cannot have repentance if God does not give it to you This gift is an effect of his benevolence and You provoke his vengeance by your sin t is an effect of his goodness and you draw severity t is an effect of his mercy and you irritate his anger The ordinary effect of his anger is to abandon a sinfull soul to deliver her up to the tyrannie of her passions to let her fall from sin into sin from precipice into precipice The people Isa 64. 5. Deut. 32. 35. sayd to him in Isaiah You are angry and we are fallen into sin we are becom unclean And He himself in Deuteronomie The Vengeance that I will take of them is that I will permit that they do fall And yet more terribly by Ezechiel if the Iust shal be turn'd from his Iustice and shal do iniquity I will lay a stumblingblock before Ezec. 3. 20. him Snares shal be layed and occasions of sin Will be given you by the permission of God who will also substract from you his efficacious grace in punishment of your sins 10. S. Chrysostom S. Basil and other Fathers Speaking of the Chrys hom 3. in Ep. ad Heb. S. Basil de Humil. in med sin of S. Peter who denyed so weakly and deplorably his Master say that our Saviour left him in his own weakness and permitted him to fall in punishment of his rashness becaus he had presumed of himself and sayd though all the rest should abandon their Master he would die with him rather then deny him if God let S. Peter fall into a mortal sin in punishment of a venial have you not reason to fear that in punishment of a mortal sin which you commit He will let you fall into another and in punishment of the second into a third fourth fifth and into other sorts of crimes as Cain Pharao Saul and in fine into obduration 11. But you will say the grace of God is so powerful that there is no understanding so blind but He can enlighten it no heart so hard but He can soften it no will so rebellious but He can overcom it T is true But God hath not promised his Victorious grace to any sinner in particular He owes it to none and He refuses it to many 12. But hath not our Saviour sayd I will not reject him that coms to me Yes but He adds Nobody coms to me unless my Father draw him 13. But S. Austin Says Are not you drawn pray God to draw you and the Son of God makes us this promise Ask and you shal receive Yes you shal receive all that you ask as you ought and as God wills you to ask otherwise you will obtain nothing for S. Iames says to many of us you ask and Iames. 4. 3. you receive not becaus you ask amiss You ask not so much nor in the manner as a thing so precious deserves to be demanded says S. Augustine Salomon prayed God to give him Continence and he asked it not slackly or tepidly but with his whole heart as the Scripture tells us and yet he obtain'd it not he became about his old age most carnal and voluptuous becaus he asked it not with that confidence and perseverance which God required of him As when the holy Scripture Says He that shal invocate the name of our Lord shal be saved this is not to say all they that invocate him in what manner soever but they that invocate him with the faith piety and purity of conscience that God requires Do you not then see that by consenting to a mortal sin You hazard your salvation that you endanger your happy eternity You may be surprised in this state by a sudden and unprouided death which arrives daily by so many accidents If it should not Yet you will not get out of this mire if God draw you not out of it and He being not obliged 't is a doubtfull case whether or no He will All the assurance you have of it is a perhaps If you commit the sin perhaps God will draw you out of it exercising his mercy in respect of you perhaps he will leave you in it exercising his justice upon you the first is not more to be hop'd then the second is to be fear'd Nay experience makes us see that in this case more are the objects of his justice then of his mercy for we find more that fall into the second third or hundredth sin then they that truly rise after the first And if you have difficulty to resist a temptation now when you are powerfully assisted by God how will you when these great helps shal be drawn from you If you do not when you are free how will you when you are a slave of sin If you do not when you are well cover'd and armed with the grace of God and gifts of the holy Ghost how will you when you shal be naked and unarm'd If you do not when you are strong and in good health how will you do it when you shal be weak and wounded Are you then in the state of grace Say as holy Iob and do as he till I fail I will not depart from my innocency Iob. 27. 5. my justification which I have begun to hold I will not forsake Amen DISCOURS XIV OF THE ELEUENTH ARTICLE The Resurrection of the flesh IT was so necessary that this Article should be well established in our faith that after the Apostles had made the Faithfull to profess it in their Creed S. Paul yet proves it by many Arguments He solves also the objections that might be made against it and assures us so much of it that he says if our Bodys do not rise again neither is CHRIST Cor. 1. 15. Cor. 2. 5. 10. risen up again And in
the flower of your age whilst you have the most fine strong and vigorous part of your age and which God will accept if you present it to him but will perhaps reject you if you offer to him but old age the remainder of your time Give then your selves now entirely to God break at once all those fetters which hinder you resolve at this present to divorce without delay all those evill habits and affections to creatures and you will see that being so unbound you will seem to be another man unloaden of a heavy burden freed from a cruel tyranny brought into a terrestial Paradise you will say as S. Austin when he was converted You have broken ô Lord my chaines and I will sacrifice to you a host of praise Amen DISCOURS XXIII OF TRVE PENANCE IF we have never so little of understanding and good nature we wâ—ll acknowledg the great obligations we have to God in that He having exercised his justice upon the apostate Angells and having left them in their misery without remedy He vouchsafed to have mercy on us and instituted a meanes to wit penance by which we may obtain pardon of our sins aâ—d regain his favour I will here consider only the necessity of it and the Conversions which it makes in us remitting the rest to the discours upon the Sacrement Misericordiae Domini quia non sumus consumpti sayd the Prophet Ieremiah It is a great mercy of our Lord that He darts Lament 3. 22. not forth the thunderbolts of his justice upon our criminal heads When we are in the state of sin He hath good reason to do it we deserve it more than justly It is a mercy incomparably greater that He vouchsafes to think of us to have thoughts of peace reconciliation and accommodation Ego cogito cogitationes pacis But t is a mercy above all thought and hope that He vouchsafes for this effect to send to us Ambassadors for Christ we are Legates says S. Paul Woe to us if we receive 2 Cor. 5. 20. them not with gratitude for so great a favour woe to us if we hear them not since 't is not the custome to send Ambassadors but for affairs of the greatest consequence What is that which God desires of us what is the affaire these Embassadors must nogotiate with us It is to induce us to penance This is that which Prophets Apostles and Doctors have always announced on the part of God Convert and do penance from all your iniquities Ezech. 18. 30. 2. Cor. 5. 20. Sayes the Prophet Ezechiel And the Apostle For Christ we beseech you to be reconciled to God O my God what is this What goodnes what mercy God vouchsafes to seek us to exhort us to pray us to be reconciled to him by Penance And He complains of the fals Prophets and complying Preachers that negociate not this afâ—aire Thy Prophets not mine have seen fals and foolish things to thee nor have they opened thy iniquities to provoke thee to penance 2. This word penance coms from the word pain and this word pain is derived from the latine word pone behind because pain does always follow sin If we offend God and imagin to escape unpunished we imagin a thing that never hath been and never will be a thing impossible This made holy Iob say I fear'd all my works knowing that thou didst not spare the Iob. 9. 28. offender For if the sinner himself does not punish sin during this life by penance he will fall into the hands of the Lord says Ecclesiasticus who will punish it terribly in the other world And we see in the scripture that the holy Ghost attributes to Ecclus. 2. 22. impenitence the punishments that God inflicts on men and to penance the pardon and the mercy that He does them the same Prophet Iob speaking of an obstinate Soul sayd Let his Iob. 24. 19. sin lead him even into hell let mercy forget him becaus God hath given him place to do penance and he abused it and on the contrary the sacred text does say that God pardoned the Ninivites becaus they did penance 3. Let us suppose you have a suit at law in which you have a tryall for your estate honor and also for your life your Soliciter tells you such a paper is wanting Your Advocate tells you if you will gain your Suit 't is necessary to have such a writing the wife of your Iudg who hath an affection fort you says to you I heard often my husband and other Iuâ—ges who Spoke of your business Say that you must have such a writing to gain your Suit the Iudg who is favourable to you likewise sayes I shal be forced to condemn you if you produce not such a paper will you not be voyd of Iudgment sense and reason if you use not all indeavours to produce this writing You have a process of the greatest importance in the Tribunal of the justice of God which must be judged in the hour of your death The question is not about lands or other temporal goods but of possessing the kingdom of heaven or being burnt eternally in hell The Preacher who is your Soliciter who solicits your salvation with all affection says to you that to gain your suit you must do penance S. Peter S. Paul S. Iohn Evangelist and the other Saints who are Acts. 2. 38. your Advocats declare to you that it is necessary for you S. Peter Do penance to have pardon of your sins S. Paul God announces unto all men that they do penance S. Iohn They shal be in the greatest affliction if they do not penance The Church which Acts. 17. 30. Apoc. 2. 22. is the Spouse of your Iudg tells you that to be saved you must follow the exhortation which S. Iohn Baptist made you saying Yield fruits worthy of penance The son of God who is your Iudg says to you twice in the same place to move you the more If you do not penance I will condemn You You shal perish all Will you not then be Ennemies to your own salvation Luke 13. 3. 5. and fools in the highest degree if you do not penance 4. Do penance then if you be Wise do it at present not expecting longer you have not perhaps ever don it well perhaps you will never do it so well as you may now if you let this present time and occasion slip perhaps there will be no more time for you The Son of God declares to you that He will call you when you thinke least of it S. Paul tells you that when you shal think that you enioy a profound peace and are sure to live then a sudden death shal surprize you the examples of so many that die suddenly or before they expected admonish you to lay hold on the present time say not then we have time enough that nothing presses to do penance It is quite contrary There is nothing that does not
the Sovereign of all his Empire would not be absolute nor his Dominion universal since that a Corrival or Competitor would have right to dispute with Him if not the superiority or the preeminence at least equality and independence 4. The Apostles say not only I believe God but I believe in God and these two expressions are very different for the first imports only an Act of Faith by which we believe that there is a God and what does come from Him as what He teaches us in the Scripture and what the Church proposes as revealed by Him But the other signifys not only an act of Faith but also of Hope and Love And we learn by this expression that it is not enough for a Christian to believe God but he must moreover hope in Him and love Him and so distinguish himself from the wicked and from the devill who can believe that there is a God and give credit to his word but becaus they confide not in him nor love him they believe not in God 5. But what is God This Question the disciples of learned Epictetus made to him who answered my Children if I could tell you what is God either He would not be God or I my self should be God He sayd true but he sayd not enough it is not only impossible to explicate what is God but whatsoever we can say of Him is infinitely below what we ought to say of Him Wherefore S. Austin says that we cannot say any thing that is worthy to be attributed to God becaus in this it is unworthy that it is possible to be sayd 6. Neverthelesse we ought to speak of Him for to make Him known and we must make Him known for to make Him to be loved and feared and we must make Him to be loved and feared for to avoyd sin which offends Him 7. The Scripture says that He is great and above all praise Magnus Dominus laudabilis nimis But we must not imagin that it Psal 47. 2. speaks of a material and corporeal greatnesse When we say that one King is greater then another this is not to say that he is of a greater and higher stature but that he is greater in Power and Dominions so when we say that God is great we mean not in material quantity length largness and other corporeal dimensions for He is a spirit and has no body nor parts But He is great in Nobility in Power in Wisdome in Goodness and other divine Petfections 8. He is great in Nobility He is so noble that all Kings and Emperours are but his servants and his slaves All crowns of the world depend on Him and he disposes of them at his pleasure He is so noble that the kings are his beggers they say to Him daily upon their knees give us this day our daily bread and if He should not giue it them they must necessarily want it He is so noble that Kings compared to Him are but wormes who can do less against Him then worms of the earth against you I am a worme sayd a great king in the light of his contemplation 9. He is great in Power Potens metuendus nimis The power which makes great ones of the world is commonly but to destroy they say Alexander the great Pompie the great becaus by their armies they have defeated millions of men ruined Towns and desolated Provinces And what power is this a scorpion a spider is able to destroy and kill à man a little contagious air may defeat a whole army and this power also of the great ones is so vain and weak that they cannot annihilate or reduce to nothing a little fly for always something of it remains But God is so powerfull that He can not only reduce all things to nothing but draw all things out of nothing even without any assistance without any labour and more easily then you look upon me for you may be wearied in looking on me or hindred from seeing me and God cannot be wearied nothing can hinder the execution of his will 10. He is great in Wisdom He is so wise that He makes all the actions of his creatures to contribute to his intentions also those that are done against His intention He lets the second causes acte as if He acted not He lets each cause move according to its genious and particular inclination the natural naturally the free freely and He makes all their actions to serve His designes as infallibly efféctually and happily as if He alone did do their actions purposely He makes likewise to contribute to the Execution of his Will and to the accomplishment of his intentions all that men do against his Will and all that opposes his intentions the impious do all they can to dishonour Him the infidells to ruine his Church the reprobate to afflict and destroy his Elect and He makes the attempts of the impious to conduce to his glory the infidelity of the infidells to the good of his Church the persecutions of the reprobare to the salvation of the elect What an ineffable wisdom 11. He is great and admirable in his Goodness He is an infinite sea and an Abiss of love mercy and liberality which without diminution flowes continually and abundantly In the order of nature what flowers what fruits what plants what animalls what voices what perfumes what colours what drugs what meats and drinks for our nourishment for our service remedy and divertissement 12. In the supernatural Order He shews us evidently his Goodness He accomplishes that which He sayd Mensuram bonam confertam Luke 6. 38. coagitatam supereffluentem dabunt in sinum vestrum He gives good stuffed shaken and overflowing measure into the bosoms of the saints One for example gave a morcel of bread to a poor man or a word of instruction for his salvation this action was so smal this word so soon past that one would not think them worthy to be remembred Nevertheless God forgets them not He will look upon them with complacence he will praise them and recompence them not for a hundred or a thousand years only but for ever so good He is and ardently amorous of good 13. To men in this life He gives graces with so much liberality Ephes 1. 8. and affluence that S. Paul says The riches of his grace have superabounded in us If then we are deprived of them or receive them slenderly it is not a defect of the source but our own fault becaus we make our selves unworthy of them not complying with them not esteeming them but neglecting contemning them Who would not admire the nobility of this Royal divine heart who vouchsafes to give all these goods not only to the elect who are thankful for them but also to his enemies who acknowledg him not who blaspheme him contemn him persecute him Nevertheless he suffers them he supports them he conserves them in health he gives them honours riches
if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his Soul And so if we will be good Christians we ought to love our Neighbors there is nothing that we ought not to lose pleasure riches honor and also if need be life it self for the Salvation of our neigbors And this the beloved Disciple and faithfull Interpreter of his Master teaches us in these clear words In this we know the Charity of God becaus He hath given his life for us and we ought also to give our life for our Brothers He does not say 1. Ep. 3. only that 't is expedient that it is a Salntary counsell but that we must give our lives for their salvation and to move us more He puts before our eyes the example of IESUS-CHRIST S Iohn 13. who made his love of us the rule of our love of others I give you a new commandement that you love one another as I have loved you And lest we should less note it He repeats it again in the Iohn 15. same Gospell This is my Precept that you love one another as I have loved you 7. Though this Vertue be so pleasing to God and so important to our Salvation nevertheless men fail in this the most and to say nothing of all those who live in hatred envie discord contention scandal which are the common pests of the world and the mortal ennemies of charity there are many who seem to have good intelligence who make mutuall visits complements offers of service Yet love but in word and tongue not in work and verity they will not open their purs nor use their power nor apply their pains and labor for the assistance of their neighbor in necessity 8. Others love their kindred and relations but with a natural inordinate and hurtfull love they procure them what is honourable or profitable upon earth though they put them into eminent danger of losing heaven they give them what pleases the senses and satisfys their foolish inclinations though to the prejudice of their souls and their salvation and if they see them desirous to renounce the world and to betake themselves to a vertuous cours of life they call upon them and to shew their love diswade them from it and recall them to the usuall and libertine cours of life so they seem to love but do truly hate to be good friends but are the worst of enemies and the maxim of our Savior is verefyd in them The enemies of a man are his domesticks Matt. 10 9. Others in fine extend their love beyond Relations but to those only from whom or by whose means they expect honor pleasure or profit This is an imperfect love a love of concupiscence and interest and not of charity which seeks not proper interest but loves God and in him or for him or for the love of him all others though they be our enemies becaus they are his images redem'd by the precious blood of IESUS capable to know serve and possess him and becaus it is his Will intimated to us by this general precept to love our neighbors and particularly commanded in S. Matthew I say to you love Mat. 5. 44. your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute and calumniate you that you may be children of your Father 10. But the first and most necessary effect of this good will and love which is exacted of us for our ennemies is to pardon them for this is the first mercy and charity that we can doe them and the most necessary alms we can bestow upon them What good can we do them if first we do not pardon them but keep in our hearts odium enmity bitterness and a desire to take reveng of them Wherefore the Son of God who endeavours by all means our Salvation does not only command this charity and mercy but moreover obliges us to it by other pressing motives He promises us his greatest mercy which is the pardon of our sins if we pardon others dimittite dimittemini and he assures us that his Father will treat us most rigorously if we do not Sic Pater meus celestis faciet vobis so my heavenly Father will cast you into the prison of hell if you forgive not others from your hearts And S. Iames tells us judgement Iames 2. 13. without mercy shal be donâ— to them who shal not have don mercy S. Austin praying for the soul of his deceased Mother sayd I know that she led a holy and innocent life but woe to a laudable life if you examin it without mercy Whatsoever life you lead woe to you woe to you if you have enmitie you shal be judged without mercy and woe to a laudable life if judged without mercy What laudable thing do you You pray woe if you have bitterness woe to you notwithstanding your prayer for that he Psal 11â— remembred not to do mercy let his prayer be turn'd into sin says the Psalmist Your prayer condemns you saying our Lords prayer you demand Vengeance against your self you say I pardon such a person but I will not speak to him I will not that he com into my house and after this you say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us God will hear you He will not speak to you favourably nor admit you into his house and if you be not admitted into heaven whether shal you go What laudable action do you you give alms woe to you if you have malice woe to you notwithstanding your alms S. Paul says if you should give all your goods to the poor if you 1. Cor. 13 have not charity you are nothing and by charity in this place he understands the love of neigbours What vertuous action do you you fast woe to you notwithstanding your fast if you have dissention In Isaiah the Iews Isay 58. 3 complain'd to God We have fasted and you have not regarded us God answers them with all your fasts you do your wills you press your poor debtours you have debates and contentions What laudable thing perform you Sacrifice woe to you if you have malice God says by Osee and twice in the Gospell I love and will rather mercy then your sacrifice And therefore many Osee 6. great Saints offering to God the most meritorious sacrifice that can be offer'd to him the sacrifice of their lives have interrupted it to obey this Commandement of mercy in the hour of their death when they had time little enough to elevate themselves to God to offer and to unite themselves to him they remembred their enemies pray'd for them and desired their good 11. These heroical vertues of the Saints were extracts and copies of those which we admire in IESUS-CHRIST the King of Martyrs and the Saint of Saints He being unjustly and most cruelly nailed to the Cross mock'd blasphem'd did not do as some do they think that they exercise great acts
body The spiritual is the union of grace with the soul And the civil is the union of a man with his neighbors and a good repute amongst them Now the detractor sometimes takes away the first life often the second and very frequently the third The first sometimes either by creating mortal enemies against the poor absent person or by representing him as dishonest and unfaithfull whereby he loses those employments without which he cannot nourish himself nor his The second often for soon or late the detracted person heares of the Detractor he conceives a hatred of him and resolves upon reveng ah he sometimes dyes in this disposition and with the Devills is damn'd for ever The third frequently for generally speaking detraction takes effect and deprives the detracted of the good opinion others have of him which is the cement of the commerce that is between them so the detractor takes away his civil life and obliges himself to restitutions and reparations both of the honor and good name and of all the expences dammages and interects caused by his detraction which will be very hardly made 8 To avoyd a vice so pernicious both to you and others follow the counsell of the holy Ghost Weigh your words in a just Eccl. 28. 29. ballance before you utter them Remembet that in the judgment of God they shall be all exactly weighed examined judged punished or recompenced we must render an account in judgment of a word which hurts not how much more of those which blacken our neighbor rob him of his honour and are the caus of so many enmities and dissentions Remember when you are in passion and quarelling with your neighbor That you utter not the Prov. 25. 8. things which your eyes have seen lest afterward you cannot amend it when you have dishonoured him says the sacred text And in effect a detractive word is soon let forth but not so soon recalled words have not handells to be pulled back again when they have eschaped but they have wings which makes them fly away irrevocably if you would repair the honor of your neighbor whither will you go to seek all those to whom you have spoken and all those who have spoken of it after you and if you find them how will you raze out of their minds the bad opinion of their neighbor which you have imprinted in them And yet 't is a thing absolutely necessary unless you go to the person whom you detracted and pray him to pardon you and to free you from the obligation of restoring But if he does not 't is a verity avowed by all Doctors that you stand oblig'd to repair his honor in defect whereof the Pope himself cannot absolve you Calumniate not nor detract then any person but have charity which as the Apostle says Covers a multitude of sins so you will enjoy quiet in your self and peace with others you will obtain the grace and favour of God in this world and glory in the other Amen DISCOURS XL. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL AS Creation is attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son So sanctifieation of souls is attributed to the holy Ghost becaus 't is an effect of particular love and goodness The more usuall way He takes for this work is the administration of Sacraments which are the instrumental causes of his graces chanells and conduits of his benedictions Before we speak of each one in particular 't is good to treat of them in general and to consider what is common to all the Sacraments of the Law of Grace Wherefore I will put before your eyes their causes the nature and effects of them 1. Tâ—e Efficient Caus who instituted the Sacraments is IESVS lib. 4. c. 4. de SacrameÌ„t Trid. ss 7. can 1. CHRIST Who is the Authour of the Sacraments but IESVS our Lord these Sacraments came from heaven says S. Ambrose And the holy Ghost by the mouth of his Spouse assembled in the Councel of Trent If any one shal say that all the Sacraments of the new Law were not instituted by CHRIST our Lord let him be anathema IESVS hath given his Apostles and his Church commission to institute Feasts Fasts and the Ceremonies of the Office but the institution of Sacraments He reserv'd to himself 't is He alone that bâ—queathed them to the faithfull as the magasins of his merits chanells of his graces and authentick proofs of his Divinity Yes of his Divinity 2. For in the institution and administration of Sacraments IESUS shews that he is God since He exercises and makes appear divine perfections His Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Iustice and Providence 3. His Power They say usually in Philosophy that no creature however noble and eminent it may be can serve the Creator as an instrument to draw out of nothing another creature that a Seraphin cannot create no not instrumentally a drop of water or one only grain of sand Let them change now their tone and praise the power of IESVS CHRIST who makes use of common creatures to produce so excellent of material to to produce Spiritual of dead and inanimate creatures to create a divine life who makes use elements which are in the lowest order of nature to produce that which is most high and more excellent than all that is in nature who makes use of a little water to produce grace which is a participation of the life of God himself 4. He shews in this his Wisdom disposing of all things sweetly leading his creatures to their last End by means convenient and fitted to their nature If you had not bodys if you were as Angells S. Chryhom 60. ad Pop. Antioch separated from all corporeall matter God would give you his gifts purely spiritually and invisibly but becaus your souls are cloathed with terrestrial and materiall bodys God gives you his graces in material elements and in sensible signes 5. He exercises his Goodness for by the malediction thundred against the first man and his posterity corporeal creatures are Wisdom 4. becom to us temptations stumblingblocks and snares But by the Benediction of IESUS they are the matter of Sacraments conduits of his graces organs of our sanctification and instruments of our salvation 6. And whereas He is both mercifull and just in shewing us mercy he exercises his justice for man being by sin unjustly elevated against God who is infinitely above him he is justly punished and humbled seeing himself oblig'd to receive his salvation by corporal creatures which are so much below him 7. His Providence in sine herein does shine He foresaw that men are naturally inclin'd to an exterior worship and He provided Sacraments and Sacrifice which consist in exterior actions lest they should employ themselves in superstitions He sees that Vnity is necessary amongst his faithfull and to make them uniform in the exercise of Piety and divine service to unite them togeather in thâ— same Religion and the same Church He institutes exteriour actions
would He have don to him if he had receiv'd and lost many and what will IESUS say to us what will he do to us if we shal have abused or not used and profited in vertue by the talents of the sacraments He hath given us what weeping what regrets what gnashing of teeth and what rage against our selves for having lost so good so easy and so frequent occasions to make good our salvation to advance in vertue to load our selves with merits and to enrich our selves for eternity But vertuous people will reioyce will admire their own happiness and will acknowledg their wisdom in receiving them often becaus they will see that these Sacraments were most rich talents and were gages and infallible promises of the inestimable incomprehensible and infinite glory which they shal possess for ever Amen DISCOVRS XLI Of the Necessitie and Nature of Baptisme WHen great S. Hierome says we are not Christians by birth he speaks of the carnal birth and not of the spiritual for in the Sacrament of Baptisme we are made Christians we are regenerated in the life of grace This Sacrament is a spiritual birth the first and the most necessary of all the Sacraments the door through which we enter into the Church To know evidently the necessity of it we must acknowledg three verities founded upon the principles of Christian Religion received by all Doctors and drawn from express passages of holy scripture 1. The first is that all Children which are conceiv'd by the ordinary way all except the Virgin are sported with original sin are enemies of God objects of his just wrath â—laves of the Devill Children of perdition and victimes of eternal death I say conceiv'd by the ordinary way to make you understand that the Son of God being not conceiv'd by this way but by the operation of the holy Ghost his Conception was not only exempt from all impurity but hath been the source and origin of all purity of our souls and bodys I have moreover added the Virgin excepted becaus according to the maxim of S Aâ—stin when we speak of sin we speak not of the Virgin she having been prevented with all the graces and advantaged with all the priviledges that an Omnipotent and loving Son could bountifully bestow on her whom He chose to be his Mother These two then excepted T is an Article of faith that all Children though their Parents be faithfull and in the state of grace are soiled with sin and are fruits of malediction and damnation They are soiled with sin For in Adam all have sinned says S. Paul and nothing that is soiled shal Rom. 5. 12. Apoc. 21. 27. Ephes. 2. 3. enter into heaven says S. Iohn They are the objects of Gods anger we were by nature the children of wrath says S. Paul and the anger of God is not a passion but a punishment the wrath of God upon this stilborne infant is never appeased For he that hath not faith the wrath of God remaines upon him says IESUS CHRIST in S Iohn but this infant hath neither actual nor habitual faith not actual for he is uncapable of it not habitual for he could 3. 36. not receive it but by the Sacrament and he is dead without it the wrath of God remaines upon him 2. After all this how do some flatter themselves in their sins and say that God made us not to cast us away that his mercy permits him not to be so rigorous as they say that he will spare us though we die in the state of sin made He these poor infants to cast them away and nevertheless He permits them to be lost the mercy of God is greater than you can possibly imagin and notwithstanding this great mercy this infinite mercy hinders him not to exercise such a severity upon these little creatures And if He be so severe to them for one only sin which they incurre by the misfortune of their condition what will He be to you for so great a number of sins which you commit not by ignorance constraint surprise but so freely and voluntarily 3. 'T is a second Verity that original sin was an evill so desperate and incurable that there was not any pure Creature possible that could remedy this evill that nothing less was necessary than the humiliation blood and death of a God for a medecine to t is mortal maladie 'T is easy to prove it by the malice of sin which offends an infinite Majesty but 't is not necessary since it is a common doctrine that 't is not but to extreme maladies that one applyes extreme remedies sin must be a very dangerous and extreme evill since a remedy so powerfull strange extraordinary and extreme was necessary for it Ha! you know not ô sinner what is a mortal sin for if you knew it you would rather die a thousand times than commit it you would rather eate your tongue than pronounce one only blasphemy or fals testimony you would rather burn your hand than reach it out to a dishonest or unjust action 4. This precious and inestimable treasure of the merits and passion of IESUS is a most powerfull remedy for original sin but nevertheless unprofitable and uneffectuall if it be not apply'd to us Suppose that you have here the best medecine in the world if the infirme person take in not it serves for nothing so though the precious blood of IESUS and the infinite merits of his passion be more than most sufficient to deliver us from sin if they be not appropriated and appli'd to us by the Sacrament they are uneffectuall and unprofitable So we see the Scripture attributes 1. Ep. 1. 7. Ephes. 5. 26. 1. Pet. 1. 19. Tit. 3. 5. Iohn 3. 3. 6. S. Austin ep 20. ad Hierom lib. 3. ep 9. ad Fidu Aug. lib. 3 de Orig. Animae 9. c. to the water of Baptisme the same effects it attributes to the blood of IESUS CHRIST becaus water aplyes the vertue of it The blood of IESVS CHRIST cleanses us says S. Iohn IESVS CHRIST cleanseth his Church by the Baptisme of wator says S. Paul S. Peter We are saved by the blood of the immaculate Lamb. S. Paul God hath saved us by the Baptisme of regeneration In S. Iohn IESUS repeats twice with great instance that none may pretend ignorance Amen Amen I say to thee if any one be not regenerated of water and the holy Ghost he shal not enter into the kingdom of heaven Hence the primitive Christians if an infant was in danger ran hastily to the Church and in great fear lest the infant should dye without the sacrament Hence S. Cyprian says without Baptisme infants are lost Hence S. Austin gives us this caveat say not teach not if you will be a Catholick that infants departing before Baptisme can com to remission of their original sins Now I make your selves Iudges whom we ought to belive either a Quaker or some other Reformer who say that t is not
depart out of this world they will remember your courtesie will returne you the like and receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS XLIX of Extreme Vnction AN Ancient being asked what is the touchstone of perfect amity He answered wisely that it is adversity a true friend does as the heart inclines always to the left side and places more affection where he sees more affliction IESUS then loves us with a sincere and cordial love since He instituted a Sacrament expressly to comfort us and to strengthen us in our last infirmity when honors dignities offices and riches fail us Though this Verity be assured us both by the greek and Latine Church as appears by the general Councel of Florence in the Instruction of the Armenians which was without contradiction admitted by the Grecians Nevertheless Dissenters endeavour to take from us this signal demonstration of Christs Providence and love and to deprive us of this powerfull help in time of our greatest need Wherefore in the first place I will shew yet farther that 't is a true and proper Sacrament in the second the effects of it and in the third the dispositions we ought to have to receive it 2. To evince the first I need no other proof then the clear words of S. Iames If any one be sick amongst you let him bring in the Priests of the Church and let them pray over him anoiling him Iames. 5. 4. with oyle in the name of our Lord. And the prayer of Faith shal save the sick and our Lord will alleviate him and if he be in sins they shal be remitted him Here we have all that Dissenters themselves require to the essence of a Sacrament to wit an exteriour signe or symbole a promise of Grace and divine institution The exteriour signe or Symbole is Vnction with oyle and the prayer of Faith the promise is Alleviation of the sick and remission of sins and the institution thereof is gathered from the constant and firme promise of the Apostle for he would not have promised so confidently and absolutely had not our Lord instituted and commanded it Innoc â—p ad Decentium c. 8. Hence S. Innocent says expressy and clearly that this Vnction is a Sacrament declared by S. Iames and therefore not given to them that are yet in penance since the other Sacraments are refused them This Testimony of antiquity shal suffice since the Epistle is certaine He an ancient learned holy man wonderfully commended by S. Austin S. Hierome and S. Chrysostome and never reprehended by any of the Ancient for teaching the Vnction of sick to be a Sacrament Wherefore the Magdeburgenses prove by this Testimony that Christians of the fift age had a custome to annoynt their Magdâ—bur Cent. 5. c. 6 S. Aug. in speculo et ser 215 Cyrysost lib. 3. de sacerd Origen hom Z. â—n Levit. sick But they did not hold it as a pious custome only but as a necessary duty for S. Austine S. Chysostome Origen and other Fathers expressly tell us that the words of S. Iames appertaine to us rhat Christians ought to do now and in all times what this Apostle writes concerning the infirme And you will avow they had grear reason if you consider with me the admirable and saving effects of this Sacrament which are naturally represented by the effects of olive oyle and exprest by the words of the Apostle 3. First he Says the Prayer of Faith shal save the sick This Sacrament saves his soul by giving grace and force to withstand the terrours and temptations of the ennemie in the hour of death For 't is then he plays his planks and applyes all his forces to tempr us more furiously as the holy Fathers tell us becaus he sees his time is short and that we are least able to resist when through the greatness of paines we can hardly lift up our minds to God Somtimes he sets upon us as a Lyon with violence Othertimes as a Dragon laying snares to entrap us he tempts us to infidelity suggesting apparent reasons against Faith to Presumption and to confidence in our selves or to despaire and diffidence in the mercy of God exagerating the rigour of his justice the grievousness and great number of our sins the little or no penance we have don he tempts us to impatience in the rigour or length of the disease to murmuration against God to fear and diffidence in his Providence T is then that Friends should ayde you powerfully by servent prayers T is then that Confessors should assist and especially the Poor for their souls are at least as dear and precious to JESUS as those of the Rich the rich have generally Domesticks or friends that can exhort them and that have leasure to help them to dye well the Poor have them not nor such provision of good thoughts instructions and spiritual arms as the Rich by the advantage of their education and their 1. Pet. 5. reading The infernal woolf who roves about seeking whom he may devour sleeps not in this occasion the Pastor then ought to be vigilant and present in a time of so great importance the gift of gifts the grace of graces the most precious and desirable is final perseverance with out this grace all the other benefits serve for nothing In effect what will it profit me to have been created redeemed and justifyed if I die not in the state of grace and this Sacrament disposes me to persever in it 4 In the second place the Apostle says that God will alleviate the sick persone or raise him up For this Sacrament restores health of body to those who otherwise should dye if it be necessary or profitable to the salvation of the soul as the holy Councel of Trent and before it that of Florence assembled from all parts of the world declare This makes many Catholicks subject to this reproach which the Scripture made to Asa king of Iuda Neither in his infirmity did he seek our Lord but rather trusted in the art of Phisicians There was not then in the Church a remedy instituted for the cure of infirmities as there is now nevertheless the Scripture complains that he made recours to Phisicians rather than to God how much more will He complain of them who recurr not to the Sacrament which JESUS hath left us a remedy so easy and so commodious but in the utmost extremity when they can do no more And when you expect the Agony to receive or make this Sacrament to be received you put your selves in danger to be prâ—vented by death which happens too often and the fault is irreparable moreover when you receive it so late having not the use of reason and knowing not what is don to you you receive it less fruitfully since you have not actual devotion which would dispose you to receive it more worthily answering to the prayers of the Priost ioyning yours with his exercising acts of Faith Hope Charity and of other vertues
eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and
detestable and unnatural to reign so long in the whole world You have so much zeal for the salvation of men how permit you that so many souls fall into perdition I confess to you that you are terribly magnifyd You will magnify you will manifest the necessity and the excellencie of the grace of JESUS your Son you will shew how Excellent and precious it is since it was to be expected desired demanded by so many prayers of the Patriarks groanes of the Prophets teares and sighs of vertuous people how necessary it is since the light of nature the exquisite precepts of Philosophers the rich discourses of Orators the sharp invectives of Prophets the terrible threats of your Scriptures the exemplar chastisements of sinners joyn'd with the interiour grace you gave to men drew so few from Sin You will make known how freely it is given since you gave it in a time in which men did demerit it by so many crimes in a time in which the world was prostituted to sins so black enormous and excessive that they provoked vengeance instead of inviting your mercy T is S. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians and after him S. Austin in divers places who Aug lib. 1. de Gratiae Christi Cap. 8. inculcate to us this verity that God lest so long the Gentills in their ignorance and the Iews in the weakness of their concupiscence for to oblige us to acknowledg confess and magnify the necessity of his grace 5. When we consider this I wonder we cry not out continually at least jn the bottom of our hearts Grace Grace with out it I know nothing I can do nothing I am nothing I marvell how we can be proud in any good work whatsoever that we cast not our selves into the center of our nothing and say with S. Paul By the grace of God I am what I am We are not sufficient to think any thing of our selves as of our selves If we will be aided by this grace without which we are in disgrace with God and miserable for ever we must do our duty before it coms when it coms and after it is come 6. Before it coms we must acknowledg and confess the need we have of it That which the Wiseman sayd of a particular Wisdom 8. 21. grace we must say of all knowing that I could not have the grace of continency if God did not give it to me I went to him and demanded it of Him with my whole heart and this very thing is Wisdom to know that t is a gift of God We must do the like We know or ought to know that we cannot practise any vertous action by which we advance towards heaven without the grace of God we must then ask it of him humbly fervently and with all our heart and this not once or twice but very often for since it is wholy necessary to the practise of Vertue and also to every good and meritorious work in particular ad singulos actus as the Councells Speake what shal we do and what will becom of us if we are not continually prevented by it 7. We cannot of our selves prevent and merit it But we can demerit it and render our selves unworthy of it by many great and enormous sins as the jews did Let us not do as Ezechiel 9. 9. they let us not hinder or retard the happy comming of his grace 8. And when it coms we must carefully not its genious and motions for fear of a mistake and of following the inclinations and the instincts of nature instead of the conduct and designes of grace for though they are wholy opposite they are in appearance very like and it imports very much not to be herein deceiv'd for they that are led by nature are children of the old man and they that are guided by grace are children of the new man JESUS CHRIST or as the Apostle says they are the Sons of God 9. Nature hates all captivity will not subjection nor humiliation loves to governe and command Grace loves subjection desires Thomas a Kempis de Imitatione Christi lib. 3. cap. 54. humiliation and will not govern or command if not obligd to it 10. Nature loves praise and glory to make it self seen and known to many to employ and dissipate it self in exteriour affaires Grace loves to be hidden and unknown to the world it seeks recollection and retyrement peace and communication with God 11. Nature flys all that gives difficulty or paine either to soul or body it seeks what is proper and particular loves its own ease and commodity and referrs all to it self and to its interest Grace requires that which is laborious which mortifys and is incommodious to the flesh which is serviceable and profitable to many which conduces to the glory of God When then you have thoughts and desires of the first sort beware such thoughts mistrust such inclinations what ever faire pretence appearance and hopes you may have to do good by following them for there is danger it is to be fear'd that they are not but the inclinations of Nature and the productions of self love But when you have thoughts and affections of the other sort suspect them not for they are ordinarily the instinctâ— and motions of Grace 12. When you have receiv'd it be very carefull not to be ungratefull Ingratitude says S. Bernard is a murtherer an opposer of S. Ber ser 3. de sept panib S. Ber. contrapessimum vitium Ingrat Grace an enemy to salvation I think nothing displeases God so much as ingratitude it shuts the door against grace which hath no entrance where this Vice is found There is nothing but ingratitude that hinders your advancement the Benefactor reputing the graces lost which he gave to the ungratefull shuts his hands and gives them to him no more Happy he who returns thanks for every benefit receiv'd from God who is the Source of all grace for when we are gratefull for favours receiv'â— we deserve to receive greater 13. When Grace hath produced in you or by you any good beware to say that Our high hand and not our Lord hath don these things Beware to attribute to your selves the glory of them say always as S. Paul by the grace of God I am what I am If I have not yielded to temptation t is by the mercy of God If I have receiv'd any grace from him t is by his mercy if I have consented to it and laboured with it t is by his mercy If I am exempted from many sins which are committed in the world 1. Cor. 4. 7. 't is by his mercy Who distinguishes you from others Have you any thing that you have not receiv'd and if you have receiv'd it why glorify you your self as if you had it of your self What difference is there between me and the most execrable Criminal in the world the mercy of God what difference and distinction between my soul
and the blackest soul in hell t is the mercy of God this great sinner this unfortunate person was drawn out of nothing and I also he was in the mass of corruption and I also he inclin'd naturally to it and I also he had flesh that rebell'd against the spirit sensuality that was contrary to reason and J also If I have not been so violently tempted as he If I have not been in the immediate occasions as he if I have been more strong and firm then he 't is by the grace and mercy of God Acknowledg says S. Austin the grace of God to which you are debtours for being freed from the crimes which you have not committed for no sin is committed by a man which another might not commit if forsaken by him who made man And after this shal we be proud shal we think to be something of our selves shal we disdain others 14. S. Paul had great reason to cry-out to us Tu fide stas Rom. 11. 20. S. Ber. Ser. 54. in cant noli altum sapere sed time though you have faith and other vertues nevertheless be not proud but fear Vpon which words S. Bernard says in verity I have learnt that there is nothing so effectual to keep and recover grace as Humility and Fear you are happy if you fill your heart with a triple fear if your fear when you have receiv'd grace and more when you have lost it and yet more when you have recover'd it fear then when grace comes fear when it retyres fear when it returns when it comes fear lest you comply not well with it when it retyres fear more becaus you have lost your safeguard and doubt not but that pride is the cause of it though you know it not for God sees that which is hid from you God who gives his grace to the humble takes it not from the humble when then a man is depriv'd of grace 't is a signe that he is proud And if it returne by the mercy of God 't is then you ought to fear much more lest you fall into a more lamentable relaps fear therefore God always and withall your heart mistrust your dispositions how ever holy and good they may seem if they make you proud God left so many souls in the way of perdition before the Incarnation to make you know the necessity of Grace and to establish you in Humility will He not permit you to be lost if you are not humble fear if you commit great sins that God will not give you efficacious grace to raise you out of them Fear if you attribute it to your selves that God will draw it from you work your salvation in fear and trembling for 't is God who produces in you the good will and the work and this is the reason why Saints always fear lest being proud of their good works they be depriv'd of the help of grace and left in weakness says S. Leo S. Leo. Ser. 8. de Epiph Have you yet Baptismal Innocency fear beware to lose it avoyd all occasions that may make you suffer so great a loss 't is a most precious and inestimable treasure but a tender one if it be opened it will soon rot Are you in an ill state fear you are in the power of satan the object of the anger of God at the brink of hell there needs not but an unhappy accident a sudden death to bury you in eternal fire Are you raised out of sin fear fear to fall back again your relaps would be more dangerous your ingratitude more great the remedy more hard In whatsoever State you be acknowledg the grace of God the great need you have of it and call often and instantly for it if you acknowledg the necessity of Grace if you ask it if you receive it and improve it unto the end assuredly you will be saved for this divine grace in the seed merit and last disposition to eternal Glory Amen DISCOURS XXI Of good Works in general SOme say that Catholicks think to be saved by their good works without being beholding to JESUS-CHRIST by their own merits not by his and consequently that they are the proudest and the most ungrateful to God of all people in the world 2. 'T is a strange thing that they can be so mistaken in our Doctrine since our Church constantly and clearly â—ver taught the contrary We belive that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our justification but we are justifyd freely by grace through the Redemption that is in JESUS-CHRIST 3. We teach that our following merits or good works signisy no more than actions don by the assistance of God's grace to which it hath pleased his Goodness to promise a reward a doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the holy scriptures that nothing is so frequently repeated in them as God's gracious promises to recompence with everlasting glory the faith and obedience of his servants 4. We believe that the merit and rewardableness of these actions 1. Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 2. 8. Rom. â— 3. Heb. 6. 10. Matth. 25. 21 2. Tim. 2. 21. Matt. 25. 21. Matt. 19. 12. arises not from the value of them as they are ours but from the grace and bounty of God So we boast not in our selves but all our glorying is in CHRIST We say with S. Paul that we are naughty and unfaithfull servants of our own selves but good and faithfull as our Saviour saies by the grace of God that we are unprofitable by our own works but profitable as S. Paul says by the works of grace and if we should be absolutely unprofitable we must expect the sequel there of utter darkness that is damnation 5. Besides good workes of obligation there are other of Supererogation and at these Dissenters startle much they hold it a proud and arrogant thing to think that a man may do more than he is commanded as Catholicks do teach Yet what more plain in Scriptures Our Savior sayes there are Eunucks who have made themselves Eunucks for the Kingdom of Heaven and this is more than a man is bound to for he may marry if he will and yet go to heaven He says again If thou wilt be perfect go and sell all Matt. 19. 21. thou hast and give it to the Poor and thou shalt have a treasure in heaven No man can reasonably suppose this to to be a command he then that obeys it as the Apostles did does more than he is commanded Concerning Virgins sayes the Apostle I 1. Cor. 7. 25. have no command but I give counsell plainly distinguishing betwixt counsell and command betwixt that which we must do and what we may do betwixt weâ—l and better He that marrieth doeâ— well but he that marrieth not does better and He that does 1. Cor. 7. 38. well does not sin does not break a commandement but he that does better does more than he is commanded Wherefore Catholicks
it to be good if your penance be not of this stamp it is steril as the figtree neer Bethania and is likewise cursed by our Savior 11. If you aske S. Paul what are the fruits that this good tree of penance ought to beare He answers writing to the Corinthians that it is a great care of our salvation a holy indignation against Sin a fear and apprehension of Gods jugements 2. Cor. 7. 11. a great desire to be pleasing to him an ardent zeal of his glory a spirit of vengeance to punish in our selves the offence of God If you demand of S. Chrisostome what are these fruits He answers that they are the practises of vertues wholy contrary to the crimes you have committed for example you have usurped Hom. 1. in Matt. circa sin anothers goods content not your self with the restitution of them but give liberally of your own You have wallowed in the mire of sensual pleasures deprive your self of the delights which are not forbidden You have offended your neighbour by word or worke render good for evill to them that disoblige you You have been given to excesses and to drunkenness addict your self to abstinence and fasting If you aske S. Pacian what are the fruits worthy of penance Epist 31. He answers that they are mortifications of of the flesh retrenchments of pleasures privations of temporal goods distributed to the Poor and the labours of life 12. This penance cannot be a worke of a man it must be an effect of Gods mercy wherefore beg it of him affectionately say often vouchsafe to bring us to true penance He disposes us and brings us to it sometimes by alms give as many as you can either corporal or spiritual Redeem your sins with alms sayd the Prophet Daniel He Dan. 4. 24. leads us to it by mortifications for as exteriour humiliation is the way to interiour humility says S. Bernard so austerities and exteriour penances are dispositions to interiour compunction He brings us to penance by the intercession of the Saints and by the examples of their vertues implore their aide devout ly have in your houses the history of their lives read it and make it to be read to your families excite your selves to penance by the consideration of their austerities if you have perfectly this second Baptisme it will restore you to the innocency of the first if you have this shield you will save your selves from the anger of God if you have this planck it will carry you to a good haven to the haven of eternal felicity Amen DISCOURS XXIV OF PRAYER 1. IESUS-CHRIST being the Idea Mirrour and the Model of the Elect He instructs them by his Example in all which they ought to do to obtain salvation He says to them Exemplum dedi vobis I have given you example And becaus Prayer is one of the most profitable important and necessary actions in a Christian life He would give most authentike and remarkable examples Tract 24 in Iohn sub med of it This is the reason as S. Austin notes why He pray ed often with a lowd voice if He had pryed only to obtain graces for his Church it would have been enough to have prayed interiourly in secret or with a low voice But being our Advocate He remembred that He was also our Doctor and the prayer which He made for us He pronunced before us that He might profit us not only by impetration of graces for us but also by giving us a model Whence it follows that to be heard in our prayers we ought not to aske any thing but what IESUS hath asked He never demanded nor will He ever demand for his the Glory of the world the riches of the earth or delights of the flesh we ought then to aske of God as his members and by his merits love fear grace conduct vertues and temporalls precisely necessary and we ought to ask them so as He asked them His Apostle teaches us that his prayer was always accompanied with Heb. 5. three circumstances wherewith ours ought also to be seasoned During the cours of his life He offered prayers and supplications to God with teares and great Cry and He was heard for his Reverence first then we ought to pray with Humility secondly with Fervour thirdly with Perseverance For his Reverence there is Humility with teares and great cry there is fervour During the cours of his life there is Perseverance 2. We ought to pray with humility and with interior and exterior Reverence The interior consists in a profound abasement and annihilation of our selves in the presence of God we ought to esteem much and apprehend lively the greatness of his Majesty the excellence of his Being and the infinity of his Perfections our lowness littleness and infirmity to acknowledg and avow that we are more then most unworthy not only to convers with him or to speak to hâ—m but also to appear in his presence we must go to Him as a poor begget to a rich man for an Alms as a sickman to a Phisitian to be cured as a criminal to a judg to implore favour and pardon and say with great S. Austin you are infinitely mercifull I am extreamly miserable you are the true Phisitian I am sick to death you are an Abyss of all good I poor and in want of all things We must go to him with a lively sense of the extream need we have of his assistance and of the severeign independency He hath of all without himself believing firmly that all the service we can do him all the homages and praises of the highest Seraphins add not one grain to his essential Beatitude and glory 3. From this interior disposition proceeds the exterior reverence by which we prostrate on the ground before God or we kneel and if we cannot we hold our selves in an humble modest and respectfull posture This exterior humility is so sutable with the honour we owe to God that it hath been always used by them who desired to appease Him to obtain his mercy and the grant of their requests The just Lot being prostrated â—en 19. 2. before an Angel who personated God his prayer was heard and this humble posture help'd him to obtain his Request Iosuah and the Ancient of Israel desiring to calme the Spirit of Iosuah 7. God prostrated a long time before the arke The valiant Iudith to obtain success in her generous enterprize prostrated in her oratory clothed her body with a hairshirt and cover'd her head with ashes And what is more considerable our Saviour himself when He prayed in the garden fell upon his face Whereupon S. Ceser Bishop of Arles complaining says Mercy prostrats himself and Misery does not Sanctity humbles himself and iniquity will not Innocence inclines and malice will not bow the Iudg lies upon the ground and the criminal rests himself indecently 4. 'T is true God is a Spirit and He demands chiefly of us humility
of spirit and affection of heart But we are composed of body and soul we receiv'd both from him and we ought to employ both in his service When we kneel reverently bow or prostrate humbly before God we testify his greatness and excellence our lowness indignity and vility that the burden of our sins oppress us and that we com to God to be eased and these humble postures excite our interior humility and devotion they dispose us to receive the dew of heaven more abundantly and the grant of our requests one reason why the man-God was heard of his Father was that He prayed with great humility of spirit with a profound reverence and prostration of body He was heard for his reverence says S. Paul 5. He pray'd in the second place with teares and a strong cry to shew the fervour of his spirit and to testify the aspirations of his heart we may note that very frequently if not as often as 't is sayd any one hath cryed-out in prayer to God the sacred text does add that he was hear'd and God promises it expressly He shal cry out to me and I will heare him What is it to cryout to God in prayer Is it to raise the Psal 90. Voice No for Moses moved not his lipps and God sayd to him you cry-out to me When you pray an ardent desire is a great cry in the eares of God sayd S. Bérnard 6. Why thinke you God deferrs a long time the grant of our requests also when we aske vertues and spiritual favours It is says S. Austin to increase and inflame our desire that we may learn to esteem much and to have a great desire of great S. Ang. tr 1. in Io and ser 5. de Verbis Domini things We are accustomed to say that a thing is little worth that is not worth the asking It is then worth the asking so much the more fervently how much it is more noble and more precious and what is more pretious then the love of God his grace and the Salvation of our soules when we pray coldly or tepidly we make no great account of the graces that we aske if we make no great account of them we render our selves unworthy of them 7. The reason why we pray negligently and that we have not a great desire to be heard is that we ponder not the extream need we have of Gods mercy we consider this affair as a thing indifferent or of little consequence We ought to believe firmly that if God hath not pity on us we shal be most miserable and unhapy creatures we know not that God hath pardoned the sins of our youth that we have had a supernatural and legitimate repentance of them and if we should know this we know not what will becom of us for we are more fragil than glass more weak then reeds and more unconstant then the winds what will then becōm of us if God hath not pity on us 7. He that knows not how to pray let him go to sea and see how they pray in a great strom and in danger of death and let him pray so always and He will be saved infallibly We are in a greater danger of damnation then they are of death they are not so endanger'd but by two or three winds we are by more then six by pride avarice envy luxury and other passions betwixt them and death there is but a planke betwixt me and hell there is but my will which is more fragil than that planke if that planke were left alone it would last a longtime but if my will were left to it self but a little while it would fall into horrible precipices and lose it self we are more uncapable to govern our selves and obtain salvation without a particular grace of God than a man who hath never-been at sea is to govern a ship in a tempest in the midst of rocks and sands Now I make your selves judges if we ought not to pray with all the force of our hearts 8. But let us not go to sea let us stay on land there is no need to go so far to learn to pray I find here a great number of excellent Teachers but I am a bad scholler and learn not my lesson well these are the poor that ask alms they givê us not thinking of it fine instructions if we reflect upon them If they know where early in the morning is a great concours of people they rise not flowly but hasten to the place Rise you so early to have opportunity to pray half an houre or an houre the Spirit is then more fresh less incombred with affaires and more vigorous to pray They range about the streets and Churches where they know are rich and charitable persons make you recours to the friends of God to the Saints who are rich in merits and powerfull with the Son of God The Poor discover their wounds they shew their ulcers and half rotten members and if they have none they counterfeit some to move men to compassion we have no need to counterfeit we have but too many in our souls we must acknowledg them in the presence of God and expose them to the Compassionat aspects of his mercy and say my God! you see I am but darkness weakness poverty and misery I have nothing of my self but ignorance and sin Though many of these Poor are Idiots and ignorant yet they find words reasons and arguments to move us to compassion to perswade us to mercy and to draw from us an Alms Madame have pity on me bestow one penny upon me you will not be the poorer and I will pray for you I am a poor orphan a stranger and far from my friends and country where I was ruined by fire shew your charity to me I ask it for the love of God for the Passion of our Saviour why find they so many words to beg an alms and we find them not to pray God It is becaus they have a great desire to receive an alms from men and we desire but little to receive one that is more necessary from God T is necessary that the feeling of our wants do suggest to us words and one half houre of prayer made with such a feeling wil be better then three houres of prayer without it 9. Salomon made a prayer accompanied with the two first conditions he asked of God continence with humility and fervour he asked it humbly for he acknowledged that he could not have it of himself and that it pertain'd to God only to give it Wisdom 8. 21. to him he asked it fervently for with all the force of his heart and yet he was not heard he obtain'd not chastity whence was this It was becaus his prayer failed of the third condition which is perseverance he prayed once or twice and this was not enough he should have continued it It is the counsell which the true Salomon our Saviour gives us who having preached the
this Vertue another Saint Charles the Cardinal Boromeus honoured so much the holy scripture that also studying it he read it always kneeling and uncover'd The seraphical Saint Francis commanded that papers which had the name of God written in them should not be Prophan'd but plac'd in decent and convenient places S. Lewis forbid painting and graving of the Cross upon the pavement for fear the people should tread upon it On Festivalls and Vigills in honor of the Saint celebrated or of the Mistery solemnized he gave dinner to two hundred Poore and serv'd them at the table He fasted all fridays of the yeare and in those of Advent and Lent he eate neither fish nor fruit becaus these two Times are consecrated to God 6. If these great Saints were now on earth what would they say what would they do seeing the comportment of men What thinke they now in heaven seeing the irreligion of those who will not allow them any honor though God does honor them and honor be a due salary of their Vertue who count it superstition Luke 15. 6. Luke 16. Apoc. 5. 8. and 8. 4. Matth. 18. 10 to implore their intercession though they have credit and favour in the sight of God do hear our prayers do know our necessities have experienced our miseries and have Charity and affection for us as the scriptures tell us What thinke they seeing the indevotion of others who rise in the morning and go to bed at night as beasts who sit down to table at noon as Epicurians and pass over the day as if there were no God who even fear to assist often at the Sacrifice to frequent the Sacraments to adore God and pray him as they ought lest men laugh at them and call them devotes or hypocrites though they are not ashamed to do ill in open street What do they think in fine seeing such irreverences of men towards holy things They employ the time of holy days in playing in visits and drunkenness if they discours for pleasure and recreation it seems not well seasoned if it clash not upon Priests or Religious Persons if they com to the Church it is not to appease God but to offend him to see and to be seen They prophane the holy scripture and use it in their jests meriments and Scurrilities 7. Si Ego Pater ubi est honor meus If I am the Father where is my honour He might have sayd if I am King If I am Iudg. If nature teaches the most barbarous to honour their father who is more worthy of honor than He from whom we have received not Body only but also Soul and All 8. If we honor the King and also the Courtiers for his sake should we not honor the King of kings so great powerfull and Soveraign that all the Kings of the world are his Uassalls and are but wormes in respect of Him 9. If we honor Iudges becaus they have some Power in this world ought we not to honor him who is infinitely powerfull and from whom all power is dereiv'd And give also an inferiour honour to the Saints whom God does so much honor that He makes them our Iudges You shal sit says our great Iudg upon S. Matth 19. 28. 1. Kings 2. 30. seats judging the twelue Tribes of Israel Let us remember then what God says to Samuel whosoever shal glorify me I will glorify him and they that contemne me shal be base If we neglect the service of God if we respect not his friends and althings that specially appertain to him sooner or later we shal be contemn'd coâ—â—r'd with shame dishonour and infamy But if we honour him as we ought we shal be replenished with glory either in this world by the good odour of our reputation or in the other by the crown of justice which God reserves for us in Heaven Amen DISCOURS XXX OF THE SECOND COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in Vaine For the Lord will not hold him innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in Vaine Exod. 20. THe royal Prophet representing to us the name of God as holy represents it at the same time as terrible and dreadfull Holy and terrible is his name Let us confess to thy great name becaus it is terrible and holy And he joy ns Majesty and power with Sanctity to imprint in our hearts reverence and to stricke terrour into us lest we should at any Psal 110 Psal 98. time dishonour him And God assures us in this Commendement that he will punish us for it that we may not pretend ignorance to be any caus of it The Lord will not hold him Innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in vaine In other sins the mercy of God pleads in favour of sinners demands pardon strives S. Iames. 2. 13. with justice and sometimes overcoms it and mercy exalteth it self above iudgment says S. Iames But in this sin the Verity of God joyns it self to justice and obliges God to punish the prophaner lest his word do fail Is it not then a misery which de serves to be deplor'd with teares of blood to see that there is nothing so licenciously and frequently prophan'd and abus'd by Christians as the name of God by pronouncing his holy name irreverently violating Vowes unworthily swearing falsly or prophanely Cursing or blaspheming detestably 2. But some will say Oathes are they essentially naught Is it not permitted to swear sometimes Yes 't is lawfull since the Scripture permits and approves it Saints have practised it and God himself vouchsafes to sweare The Prophet Hieremy permits us Hierem 4. 2. Psal 62. 12. Apoc. 10. 6. Gen. 14. 22. 3. kings 17. 1. Rom. 19. 2. Cor. 1. 23. Gal. 1. 20 Gen. 22. 16. Hier. 22. 24. Luke 1. 73. Psal 109 to sweare in the name of God provided it be with all necessary circumstances David praises those that sweare by the true God not by fals Deities as Pagans did Angells Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have sometimes sworn An Angel in the Apocalyps lifts up his hand to heaven and sweares by him that lives for ever and ever that after judgment there will be no more time In the book of Genesis the Patriarke Abraham says to the King of Sodom I lift up my hand to the most high Majesty of God who possesses heaven and Earth In the third book of kings the Prophet Elias sayd by the living God in whose sight I stand S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans God is my witness that without intermission I make a memory of you In the second to the Corinthians I call God to witness upon my soul that sparing you I came not any more to Corinth And in the Epistle to the Galatians Behold before God that I ly not God himself whose least word is more firm then heaven and earth having nothing greater then himself vouchsafes to sweare by himself and by
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
which the Sacrament excites And it would restore also health of body more effectually for when you are in or neere your agony and dispaired of by Phisicians if the Sacrament should repaire your force and strength this would be a miracle which God who disposes althings sweetly does not usually or without necessity But if you receive it sooner He would dispose second causes by the secrets of his providence to renew your health in case He should judg it necessary for your salvation 6. The third effect which the Apostle atributes to this Sacrament is the remission of sins And if he be in sins they shal be remitted him He says expressy If he be in sins becaus he supposes the Sicke hath already received Penance and that by absolution his sins have been remitted But if he hath not rightly accomplished Confession and Communion and knows it not or if by humane frailty he hath committed a mortal sin after his Confession and is ignorant of it such remainders with all venial sins would be remitted and a good part of the temporal punishment due to them relaxed by this Sacrament If then we are depriv'd of it by our fault or if we receive the Sacrament unfruitfully or if by our negligence a Soul depart out of this world without receiving the grace of it 't is a great fault and God does make this complaint of it The wound is not sured nor mollifyd with oyle 7. S. Bernard writes that S. Malachy was intreated to visit and Vitâ S. Malach. carry the holy oyles to a Gentlewoman dying near his monastery who so reioyced in the presence of the holy Prelate that she seem'd to be quite reviv'd she demanded the Sacrament but the Assisstant seeing her so changed desired the Prelate to forbeare The Saint condescended to their request and returned with the holy oyles No sooner he arrived at the Monastery but he heard the Cryes of divers who sayd that she was dead he runns and coms to her and finds her dead Behold him in the greatest sorrow in lamentations tears groans and complaints of himself for a fault whereof he was not guilty T is my fault Lord 't is my fault since she desired it I should not have defer'd it he protests to all the Assistants that he will weep in consolably that is Soul should never rest til he had restored to the dead the grace which she had lost he remains by the corps and instead of holy Oyle waters it all night with his precious tears This holy water frightens and puts death to flight for the next morning the dead opened her eyes as if she had been wakened out of sleep then sits up and making a low inclination to the Bishop says The prayer of faith hath saved the infirme By which you see how soliciâ—ous we should be to receive the effects and reap the fruits of this Sacrament 8. And to reap them with full hands and in abundance we must receive it with necessary dispositions and 't is certaine that Sacramental Confession must if possible precede it becaus this Sacrament is one of those which Divines call Sacramenta Vivorum that is which ought not to be received but by the faithfull who are already in the life of grace I say if possible for if one should be so depriv'd by a sudden accident that he cannot Confess we must neuertheless administer to him this Sacrament But there are three other dispositions which a devout soul should have in receiving it One in respect of God another in respect of himself and the third in respect of his neighbor 9. First you must offer to God a sacrifice of your life accepting death with resignation to his holy Will with great submission to the Orders of his Providence and to render honor and homage to his divine Perfections and say my God I submit with all my heart to the sentence of death you have pronounced against me from the beginning of the world I offer my life to you to do homage to your Souveraintie and Justice I acknowledg and protest that I have most justly deserv'd it not only by teason of original sin but as often as I have sinned in all my life 10. He that is in this disposition of a Victime and a Holocaust in the sight of God will have also the necessary spirit of humility He will renounce all pride ambition vain glory and ostentation he will abhorr the spirit of those vain souls who disire passionately to be praised in gazetts celebrated in histories that their hearts or bodys be emâ—auâ—med put into ledden coffins carried to the grave with pomp with famous and magnificent obsequies and funeral discourses who build for themselves or make to be built high and glorious tombes who fix their names and armes upon the walls of Churches and cause Epitaphes to be composed Aug. lib. 9. confess c. 13. in their praises S. Austin praises his Mother for that she had not the least thought of such a Vanity And the Scripture blames the ambition wherewith they buried the king Asa They buried him in his sepulcher which he digged for himself in the City of David and they layd him upon his bed full of Spices and odoriferous 2. Paral. 16. 14. oyntments and they burnt it upon him with exceeding ambition says the sacred Text. 12. In fine the holy oyle minds you of the Parable of the Virgins that they who had kept Virginity were not saved becaus they wanted the oyle of mercy with much more reason they cannot be saved who having committed impurities and other sins shal be presented to their Judg not having redeem'd their crimes by the workes of Charity You ought to do it all your life but if you have failed if you have not made the lamp to be carried before you make it at least to follow after you that you may not be wholy in darkness when you go into the other world JESUS having given us his sweat blood and life deserves well that you give him a good part of your goods also during your life when they are more necessary for you But since you have omitted it give him a little part of them at least in the houre of your death when your goods are useless to you 't is He who gave them to you who is the Proprietor of them and nevertheless desires for your good to receive of them in the persone of the Poor 13. I conclude with these words of S. Salvian You are avaricious But you are not enough I exhort you to be yet more you love Lib. 2. con Av. a ritiam in fine riches love them at your death as well as in your life you fear the poverty of this life fear also that of the other carry your riches with you into the other world they will be more necessary there than here to avoyd the paines of Purgatory in the way to redeem you in case you are cast in to that Prison and to make