tobe Saints without following their Example what grounds have we to rely on the mercy of God when we make use of that mercy to hinder our Conversion Jesus-Christ has expressly condemn'd lukewarm souls yet do's not this tepidity reign among Christians Am I convinc'd that the number of the Elect is so small and shall I do nothing to be of that number Yes my God! were there to be but one soul saved since it depends on my will to be that soul I am resolv'd to be sav'd I acknowledge that I have done nothing for thy service which can make me hope but my confidence is founded on what thou art doing now for me Thy design in giving me this opportunity in exciting me to this resolution was not to increase my guilt I have no need of any other Argument to convince me that thou desirest my Salvation thanthis very fear which thou hast imprinted in my soul least I should not be of the number of thy chosen I have often rendred my best thoughts useless but my God I have reason to hope that this resolution which I now make to work out my salvation with all the earnestness in the world shall be effectual And because I have had too much experience that these pious designs are easyly forgotten I will begin this moment to turn to thee Dixi nune coepi haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi Ps 76.11 to devote my selfe entirely to thy service and I rely upon thy goodness for strength to persevere SECOND MEDITATION OF SIN FIRST POINT Of Mortal Sin SECOND POINT Of Venial Sin FIRST POINT COnsider that all the calamity's and misery's that are in the world or have been since the Creation proceed from mortal sin this is the cause of warrs plagues and Famines of the destruction of City's by fire and of men by sickness Eternal Damnation and Hell it selfe are the dismall effects of one Mortal sin How can we comprehend the heinousness of mortall sin seeing thô the Angels were the most perfect part of the Creation neither the nobleness of their nature nor all their perfections nor their fitness to glorify their maker to all Eternity nor their being particularly design'd for that end could exempt them from being plung'd into everlasting flames for one mortall sin of a moment express'd in a vain thought For one act of disobedience Adam was depriv'd of his original justice of all his natural and supernatural gifts by this one sin he lost the priviledge of immortality became subject himselfe and subjected his Posterity to those innumerable misery's under which wegroan so many thousand yeares are past and the Divine vengeance is not yet appeas'd nor will be till the end of Ages 't is the fire of this wrath that burns in Hell and will never be extinguish'd The consideration of the terrible punishment inflicted on mortal sin is a clear proof that it is the greatest of evils since God who is goodness its selfe and whose mercy is exalted above all his works is so very severe against one act of it How many persons eminent for virtue full of merits and arrived to a great degree of sanctity are now damn'd for one mortal sin If after three or fourscore years of penance after a long Life spent in the exercise of the most heroick virtues after having wrought miracles if we commit one mortall sin all our penance all our virtues will be counted for nothing we become Enemys to God and objects of his wrath vengeance By the severity of the punishment we may conceive some Idea of the crime but its enormity and the hatred which God bears to it are more visible in the pains he hath taken and what it hath cost him to destroy it Those inconcevable mistery's of the incarnation the nativity the Life the passion and the Death of the Eternal Son were wrought onely for the destruction of sin nothing less then all theblood of Christ could redeem one soul and after all this soul shall be damni'd for one mortal sin all the flames of Hell those Eternal flames could never cleanse the least sinful spot Can we believe this and live one moment in sin and notwithstanding this extreme danger continue to sin and to expose our selves every day to the occasions of committing it this is hardly to be imagin'd How shall we reconcile our Faith with our practise how shall we make our practise and our Reason agree we refuse no pains to oblige a friend we are wonderfully exact in every punctilio of good breeding but stupidly careless in the important duty 's of a Christian Life We own that most afflictions are the punishments of our sins we are all afraid of Hell yet we are not afraid of sin which is the cause of Hell how sensible are we of the smallest loss how uneasy how sad and often uncapable of comfort yet how insensible of the greatest of that irreparable loss which a million of worlds can never repair we sin but we are not sad neither do we stand in need of comfort Thô we had committed but one mortal sin in all our Lives it would be a just reason for continual humiliation it would be a just subject of fear and trembling to the last moment of our Lives We have sin'd we are in danger of renewing our sins we are uncertain of their pardon how can we be without fear Are we sure that we are in a state of Grace or do we hope so be cause of our reiterated confessions Alas who hath told us that our contrition was sincere that our sorrow was from a supernatural motive how can we be satisfy'd with our purposes and resolutions when we know by experience and by so many relapses how ineffectual they have often been Since God spared not the Angels that sin'd how ought we to tremble who have sin'd after the knowledge of their terrible punishment After having seen the son of God expire on a Cross to destroy sin can I imagine that God will hate sin less in me My God Sauiour who hast dyed for me which thou wouldst not do for the fallen Angels I humbly beseech thee by the merits of thy Death to give me that Grace which thou wouldst not offer them Give me an hearty sorrow for all my sins and incline my will to answer thy End in affording me this time for repentance which thou hast not given many others and to begin immediately SECOND POINT Consider that venial Sins seem small onely to those who have little faith and less Love they who love God truly look upon all sin with horror and are more afraid of it than of the grearest misery A venial sin is indeed a small sin but it is not a small evil as long as it is a sin it is agreater evil than a general desolation of the whole Universe and therefore the Saints of God have always judg'd yt all the creatures ought to think themselves happy if they could prevent one venial
is the most precious season of our Lives wherein it concerns us most to improve every moment and which we are least capable of improving Both our body's and mends languish on a sick bed and what we do is out of custom We are not able to make long prayers nor affectionate meditations but we may and must make frequent acts of Resignation Love contrition and confidence in God And how shall we do it if we never practis'd them Te do them well we must have us'd out selves to produce them This consideration has induc'd me to set down some short prayers and fervent Ejaculation taken for the most part out of scripture or the Holy Fathers They are proper to assist us in dying well and may be very useful to a Christian during his sickness if he were acquainted with the practise of them before Lord he whom thou lovest is sick Ecce quem amas infirmatur Joan. 11.3 a Aegrotus sum ad medicum clamo miser sum ad misericordupropeâ—o 〈◊〉 mortuussunâ— ad vitam suspiro Tu es medicus tu es misericerdia tu es vita Jesu Nazarene miserere mei Aug. Soliloq cap. 2. I am sick O my God I come to thee my only Physitian I am miserable and there fore I fly to thee who art the source of Mercy I am dying and therefore I have recourse to thee who art Life its selfe Yes my Dear Saviour thou art my Physician thou art the fountain of mercy thou art the Life of my soul pity my infirmity's b Miserere me Domine quoniam infirmus sum sana me Domine quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea Psalm 6.3 Help O Lord my strength faileth me my soul is over whelmed with trouble and all my bones are broken with grief O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath Domine ne in furore tuo arguas me neque in ira tua corripias me Ps 27. Reminiscere miserationuÌ„ tuarum Domine Psal 24.6 neither chasten me in thine Anger be mindful O Lord of thy tender mercy's and pity me a Nunquid oblivisci potest infantem suum ut non misereatur Filio uteri sui si illa obliviscatur fuum Isai 49.15 I am quite cast down I suffer exceedingly but this is my comfort that thou my God wilt not forget me in the midst of my misery Can a mother forget her Child that she should not have compassion on the son of her Womb yes she may forget but I have thy promise that thou wilt not forget me b Tu nosti onus meum quale sit Domine da mihi illud patienter fâ—rre ut per viam crucis extollar ad te Aug. Med. ca. 37. Adauge laborem modò augeas patientiam Aug. Obsecro Domine fac misericordiaÌ„ tuÌ„ cum servo tuo dirige viam meaÌ„ ut cum salute revertar in domum Domini mei Thou knowest O my God what I suffer Oh! do thou give me patience that I may be able to go to thee by the way of the Cross c My sufferings are great but not great enough I deserve much severer chastisements give more crosses but at the same time give me more patience shew thy mercy O Lord unto thy servant direct my way that I may at length arrive at my Fathers House My God! if I had a thousand Lives I would devote them all to thee Oh! that the Life which thou hast given me were more pure and worthy thy acceptance but such as it is I give it thee without any repugnance since thou requirest it I would not keep it tho it were in my power Yes my God! I am ready and willing to be depriv'd of every thing I lov'd upon the Earth to lay down this Body which I have lov'd too well I accept willingly the hideous state to which I shall be soon reduc'd when I become meat for the worms and am turn'd into rottenness Oh! how happy should I be if this destruction of my Body could repair the injury I have offered to the Divine Majesty by prefering my body to him and its satisfaction to his service Not with standing all my pains I am ready to suffer greater if it be thy will O God My most acute torments are too slight and short seing they are the last proof I shall ever give thee of my Love and of my earnest desire to please thee Tho thou shouldst condemn me to all the pains of the next Life tho they should be never so violent and should endure to the end of the world yet I would submit to them Glorify thy selfe O Lord inpunishing me since I would not honour thee nor do thy will I believe O Lord all that thou hast revealed to thy Church and I firmly hope for those glorious things which thou discoverest to thy Elect in Heaven I acknowledge O my God! the enormity of my sins I have committed more then I am able to remember my soul is grieved that I have served so good a Master so ill But all my sins cannot lessen my confidence in thy Mercy 's which are infinitely greater then them all I trust that not with standing all my guilt thou wilt not suffer me to be for ever miserable for thou art infinitely good I am not a fraid of Hell tho I have deserv'd it becaust my saviour hath purcthas'd Heaven for me I hope in thy Mercy O Lord and all the Devils in Hell shall never make me relinquish that hope In spight of them I will sing eternal praises to thee will adore thy mercy and possess and love the for ever Magna mater suscipe Filium cum tota Ä™ternitate luctantem Just Lips O Divine Mother most holy Virgin receive your unworthy child who is now strugling and striving with Eternity and succour him in this hour of danger Maria mater gratiae Mater misericordiae Tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Da misericordiam misero ac poenitenti qui tamdiu popercisti peccatori Bernard Oh! Holy Mary Mother of Grace and mercy defend me from the assaults of the Enemy assist and help me now and in my last hour and receive my soul into thy Arms. Have mercy O Lord on this wretched sinner thou who hast so often for given renewed offences make him partaker thy mercy now he repents of them a Peccavi Domine peccavi iniquitates meas agnosco peccavi super arenam matis sed misericordiae tuae etiam non est numerus In orat Manass I have sinn'd O God! I confess my iuiquities they are more numerous then the sand on the sea-shore but thy Mercies are never to be numbred b Doleo Domine Deus meus doleo quod peccavi quia parum doleo maximè doleo Aug. I repent O Lord my God of all my sins My soul is torn with grief because I have displeas'd thee and that which grieves me yet more is that I do not grieve
sin by the sacrifice of their very beings Moses his distrust in striking the Rock twice cost him his Life Five and twenty thousand Israelites dyed in one day at Berhshemeth for looking too curiously into the Ark of God Davids vanity in numbring the people brought a terrible Plague upon them two and forty children were devoured by wild Bears for mocking the Prophet Elisha and Hezekiahis ostentation in shewing his treasures to the Ambassadours of Babylon could not be expiated by less than the loss of those treasures Thus God whose wisdom is infinite punishes venial sins in this Li-Life but in the next where his justice is not restrained by his mercy the punishments of venial sins yield in nothing as to their violence to the torments of Hell and this he inflicts even on those souls whom he loves tenderly and who love him above all things We shall find one Day that the Death of our beloved Child the loss of such an estate such a distemper the ruine of such a family and publick calamity's are perhaps now as formerly the punishments of venial Sins God indeed doth not alway's send visible chatisements but then he reserves the sinner for severer strokes For every venial sin we deliberately committ God withdraws some portion of his Grace and is the deprivation of Grace a small loss Veniall Sins do not indeed make God hate us but they make him love us less they make him stop the course of his bounty withold his Graces and suspend that particular Providence with which he watches over those he loves that tender care whereby he preserves them from danger whereby he either keeps them from Temptations or enables them to overcome them Venial Sins render a soul languishing and insensibly disgust it with Piety till they have brought it into a lukerwarm disposition the most dangerous state a soul can be in And God at length grows weary of our ingratitude and cannot suffer that we should believe that we auquit our selves sufficiently of the infinite obligations we have to him provided we abstain from offring him the most outragious affronts thô at the same time we indulge our selves in displeasing him everyhour Which of us would have the patience to keep a servant onely for his honesty who had no other good quality who did every thing with reluctancy and by halves who treated us with disrepect and who never took care to please us under pretense that it was in things of no consequence And can we expect that God should suffer a servant whom we would not endure It is true that venial Sins do not renderus Enemy's to God but it is as true that he who indulges himselfe deliberately in many venial Sins do's not love God Certainly the man that contents himselfe with barely not being Gods Enemy esteems his Love but little the best that can be said is that he is afraid to have God his Enemy but very indifferent in desiring him for his Friend The wilful disobliging a Friend upon all occasions is a strange method to make him love us And I cannot see how we shall be able to reconcile our profession of loving with our practise of wilfully displeasing him 'T is no excuse that we offend onely in little things their smallness renders us inexcusable because we might more easily avoid them If they be little things we cannot pretend that we were discourag'd by difficulties or that the violence of our passions hurry'd us away it proceds onely from an indifferency for God whom we serve out of fear and flatter our selves that we love him because we dread his justice No wonder then if God be as indifferent for us if he abhorr our baseness if he withdraw his favours from such unworthy wretches and refuse to communicate him selfe any more to us And indeed we can not expect those peculiar favours which he bestow's onely on fervent souls Thus we run our selves into danger of comitting greater faults for an habit of venial sins is the high Road to mortall ones and God is in amanner oblig'd to deprive us of those divine lights of those strengthning graces without which we can never resist violent Temptations Hence proceed the surprising falls of many who were at first so reserv'd they began by allowing themselves little Liberty's and so by degrees fell into such disorders as before this unfaithfulness they would have trembled to think of He who despises little things will most certainly fall by degrees For though venial sins can never be come mortall yet they dispose us for them if we once content our selves with not losing the Grace of God we are sure to loose it in a very little Time these terrible falls startle us but if we did wel consider the disposition in which venial Sins put the soul we should be Ies◠surpris'd Venial Sins are like the beginnings of a sickness the first indisposition seems nothing at all and we think it wil easily be cur'd yet by little little it undermines our health so that the least excess or unwholsome ayr throws us in to a malignant feavour and from thence in to the Grave Though sometimes men dye suddenly yet their Deaths are usually preceded by some light indisposition which seem'd of no consequence Thus Venial Sins thô never so deliberate and numerous do not kill the soul but they weaken it and impair its strength so that it languishes and do's its duty 's but by halves and with reluctancy every thing hurts it Sacraments Good works do it no good How can a soul in this condition remain long in a state of Grace being thus expos'd to so many impending dangers depriv'd of its support and strength every moment running its selfe farther in to danger This made an Eminent Saint say that we ought some times to be more careful to avoid small sins than great ones And 't is the apprehension of not stopping here 't is the fear of being depriv'd of strengthning grace in punishment of those little infidelity's there by being left a prey to temptation that makes the Saints so incapable of comfort after a veniai Sin After all is a Venial Sin nothing is it of no consequence what then shal we count something if it be nothing to offend God wethink it a matter of consequence not to disoblige a friend we think it a matter of consequence not to be rude to any man so much as by mistake and shall we think it a slight thing deliberately to displease God shall we think it nothing to lessen his kindness to us to stop the channel of his Graces to diminish the fervour of charity to render all the Sacraments of no use shall we think our selves affronted by a rash word shall we think that fault little which offends God which draws his indifference on us thô not his hatred which will make us loose those inestimable Treasures that are worth more than all the riches in the world shall we make nothing of