Gideon that won so many victories was but the Type of this For this mighty man entring the Camp of the Madianites and hearing one of their soldiers tell his fellow that in his sleep he saw a Cake fall from Heaven which routed their army he perswaded himself contrary to all appearance Sicut verbum Dei cibus est gladius ita corpus ejus Ber. that this Cake was his Sword and taking advantage from this dream set upon his enemies and defeated them Non est hoc aliud nisi gladius Gideonis But 't is very true that the Bread of Jesus Christ is the Sword of the Christians the same meat that nourisheth them defends them and the same remedy that cures their maladies subdues their enemies It s strength no way hinders its sweetness and like Manna there are charms in it that make it pleasing to every palate For the holy Scripture assures us that this Heavenly food was fitted to the appetite of the Israelites that never changing the fashion it altered the savour and following their inclinations complied with their tasts to satisfie their longing I know Saint Augustine is of opinion that this miracle was wrought onely in favour of the righteous and that the guilty were deprived of a Grace which in stead of heightning their devotion did only whet their stomack But the Scripture declares this miracle and the words thereof which are as true as Oracles inform us that Manna besides its natural taste had other rellishes according to the several appetites of those that gathered it If the Figure were thus advantageous for the body the Substance is much more beneficial for the soul For inasmuch as this Sacrament contains the source of Grace there is none but may from thence be communicated unto us though its principal effect be to maintain life it fails not to produce all Vertues and to satisfie the inclinations of all those that receive it It inspires Lovers with Charity weak persons with Courage Virgins with Purity Penitents with Sorrow and becoming all things to all upon Earth as well as in Heaven perfectly fulfils all the desires of the Faithful By its abundance it supplies all other Sacraments It gives us Jesus Christ in all his different relations and comprehending as well his Mysteries as their Graces makes us enjoy him living and dying humble and glorified acting and suffering For whether Eternity which in one indivisible moment includes all the differences of time recollect here all the Mysteries of Jesus Christ or whether this Sacrament comprehend all that it exhibits and being the Figure and Truth both together presents us the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God because it is the Sacrament thereof or finally whether Jesus Christ upon the Altars to comfort the Faithful who saw him not upon the Earth will by a miraculous way for their sakes accord the present with the past and let himself be enjoyed after his Death as he was seen before his Birth he gives himselfe wholly to them in this Mystery and fully communicates all that he is all that he hath done and all that he hath suffered for their salvation so that simple souls may consider him there as a child Hermites as solitary the Evangelists as a Divine Preacher the Martyrs as a Sacrifice the Prelates as a Pastor In hoc Sacramento judex advocatus sacerdos victima Leo Agnus Pastor Pascua Ber. and every one following his own piety may behold him in the condition which most affects him with pleasure or pain It was perhaps for this cause that the Moserabs in their Liturgy divided the Body of the Son of God into nine portions upon which they imposed the names of his chiefest Mysteries to teach us that he repeated them upon our Altars to content our piety and accomplishing the Figure of Manna exhibited himself in all these different estates thereby to accommodate himself to all our inclinations The Fourth DISCOURSE That this Nourishment gives the Christian whatever the Devil promised Innocent Man if he did eat of the Forbidden Fruit. THe Divine Providence is never more wonderful then when it employs the same means to save us the malice of the Devil had made use of to destroy us Thus let us magnifie his Oeconomy when we see our salvation somewhat resemble our fall and the same things that involved us in transgression deliver us out of it A Devil jealous of our happiness began our misery a Woman too easily listened to his words a man over-lightly complacent suffered himself to be cajoled by her and the beauty of the forbidden fruit charming his eyes seduced his mind and corrupted his will The Divine Wisdome imitating our fall in the work of our salvation made use of an Angel the Interpreter of his designs of a Virgin true to his Promises of a Man-God that satisfied his Justice and of a fruit not forbidden but commanded which really exhibits to the Christian all those advantages man was made to hope for in his Innocence For the Devil considering the just inclinations Nature and Grace had imprinted in the soul of man to seduce him promised him that if he would disobey God he should find his happiness in his rebellion and that the use of the fruit he was forbidden to meddle with should make him Immortal knowing Good and Evil and Christian Religion teacheth us that the Body of the Son of God received in the Sacrament with piety due to so great love produceth in us these effects and making us Men-Gods makes us Knowing and Immortal Let us examine these Promises and see what we ought to expect from the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes If the fear of death and the desire of life be not the most ancient passions of man we may affirm them the most natural and most violent He hath an apprehension of death before he knows what it is he desires Immortality before he believes it and whatever he does here below is only by defending himself from a dissolution to live for ever Every one seeks after the same end though by different mediums and he that would put the question to each particular would learn by their answers that they labour only to become Immortal Fathers mary not so much for the pleasure of the bed as for the desire they have to survive in their posterity and in spight of death gain a perpetuity to their Being as well as their Name Philosophers are not so much in love with Knowledge and Vanity as with Life whilst they spend whole nights in their books and leave the productions of their brain to posterity For they think to cozen death by this stratagem they believe their reputation will pierce the Generations to come and that living in the memory of men they shall in some sort enjoy Immortality Monarchs whose minde and body are equally barren leaving neither Children nor Vertues behinde them whereby they may be known to their Successors raise
instruct them that this death ought to be immortal that the divorce which they have made with the world can admit of no accommodation and that a departure accompanied with so solemn a funeral should in all reason extinguish the desire and hope of the life of Adam Finally the last condition of a burial is the oblivion of the world For notwithstanding men desire to live after death whereof those proud Mausolaeums they erect to their ashes is a witness as vain as it is confident Postquam per mille indignitates ad dignitates pervenerint misera subit eos cogitatio laborasse tantum in titulū sepulchri Senec. and that the care they take for their Obsequies gives testimony they would be thought to live still in the opinion of the world nevertheless experience teacheth us that Tombs are the chambers of Forgetfulness that they steal out of our remembrance those they cover and that contrary to the intention of the builders they many times together with their Body lay a stone upon their Name and Memory too The holy Scripture whose plainness of expression hath not wholly abandoned the figures of eloquence calls graves the receptacles of Oblivion Oblivioni datus sum tanquam mortuus à corde Psal 30. disciplining us by so elegant a metaphor that the sepulchre draws a black line over the glory of mortals and death having spoil'd them of their life takes pleasure still to plunder their reputation As the Christian is entomb'd so ought he also to be forgotten if he repent not of the grace he hath received Nunquid cognoscentur in tenebris mirabilia tua justitia tua in terra oblivionis Psa 87 he ought to be dead in the memory of men lest their calling him to minde prove fatal to his innocence and being remanded into the world whence death had given him a retirement he begin again to live in Adam and die to Jesus Christ Though this Doctrine appear harsh yet is it sweet and comfortable to those who know that the sepulture we finde in Baptism prepares us for the Resurrection Per Crucem datur credentibus virtus de infirmitate gloria de opprobrio vita de morte Leo. Serm. 8. de Passio Dom. For as Christ by his death entred into a new life the Cross contributed to his glory nor was heaven opened to him but thorow the passage of shame and grief so the Christian in death embraceth life and in the grave findes a new conception He is quickned with a new spirit in Baptism he tastes the joys of heaven there and the grace he receives in that holy Sacrament is not onely an Earnest but an Antepast and Prelibation of glory His life is answerable to his dignity having God for his Father his pretensions must needs be high and despising whatever the world can promise he aspires at no less then the felicity of Angels This is the consolation of the faithful in their troubles 't is the reason the great Apostle makes use of to sweeten his travels and as often as persecution flats our spirits he endeavours to raise them up again from the consideration of the recompenses that are prepared for us The truth is this life lies secret undiscovered the precedent death being much more visible and apparent Ye are dead saith the Apostle and your life is hid with Christ in God Our miseries are publike our advantages walk in the dark Men see what we suffer but doubt of what we hope for Mortui estis vita vestra abscondita cum Christo quomodo videutur arbores per hyemem quasi aridae quasi mortuae ergo quae spes Si mortui sumus intus est radix ibi radix nostra ibi vita nostra ibi charitas nostra Quando autem ver nostrum quando aestas nostra quando circumvestit dignitas foliorum ubertas frucluum Quando hoc erit Audi quod sequrtur Cùm Christus apparuerit vita vestra tunc vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria Aug. in Ps 36. and in the judgement of Infidels our Religion passeth for an Imposture because the good things it promiseth are invisible but the evils it threatens are sensible and present We are saith S. Augustine like those great trees which during the sharpness of the winter are naked of all their leaves their life is inclosed in their roots their vigour is retired into their sap and all the soul and vegetation they have is hid from the eyes of the beholders but their death is conspicuous every branch publisheth it and all the bavock winter hath made them feel are so many arguments to make us doubt of their life Thus it is with Christians they are dead and they are alive but their life is in a cloud their death manifest the persecutions they suffer the temptations they contest with the conflicts they undergo perswade Infidels that their life is but a languishing and doleful death but their vigour is over-shadowed their beauty is like that of the Spouse whose advantages are the fruits rather of her minde then of her body their glory is retreated with Christ in God And as the Spring must needs return to convince the ignorant that a tree that hath lost his leaves is not dead so must the general Resurrection happen to assure unbelievers that a Christian persecuted by the world is alive with Christ in God Let us die therefore with him if we mean to live with him and to end this Discourse with the words of S. Gregory cited by S. Augustine * Cum Christo ergo nascamur cum Christo crucifigamur consepcliamur ei in mortem ut cum ipso etiam resurgamus ad vitam Greg. citat ab Aug. Let us be born with the Son of God in Baptism die with him upon the Cross be buried with him in the Tomb that we may rise with him in Glory and that from this present receiving the Pledges of his promises we may in the same Sacrament finde a Birth joyned with Death and a Resurrection with a Funeral The fourth DISCOURSE That Grace is communicated to the Christian in his Regeneration as Sin is communicated to Man in his Generation THough Providence display its banner in all the occurrences of our life and there is no moment wherein we may not take notice of its dispensations yet me thinks it never appears with greater lustre Vt qui in ligno vincebat in ligno quoque vinceretur then when from our fall it raiseth our salvation or makes use of a remedy that hath some resemblance with our disease Thus we see it makes the malice of the Devil serviceable to the Glory of the Martyrs employes a Man for the Redemption of all Men that their fall and recovery may have the same Principle 'T is Adam that destroys us Debitum quide Adae tantum erat ut illud non deberet solvere nifi homo sed non posset nisi Deus ita opus
in that of Isaac it was obliged to separate the Priest from the Victime and to arm the hands of the Father to immolate his only Son In the mean time Jesus Christ unites them in his person and in this adorable Sacrifice which he offers to his Father whether on the Cross or on the Altar he is both the Priest that consecrateth and the Victime that is immolated Inasmuch as Jesus Christ saith Saint Augustine is our God and our Temple he is also our Sacrifice and our Priest He is the Priest that reconciles us he is the Sacrifice whereby we are reconciled and the same Doctor admiring the novelties of the sacrifice of the Cross expresseth his wonder by these words The Altar of the Sacrifice is new because the Immolation is new and admirable For he that is the Sacrifice is the Priest the Sacrifice according to the Flesh the Priest according to the Spirit and both according to his Humanity He that offereth and he that is offered is one and the same person and these qualities which have so little analogy are found united in the sacrifice of the Cross Inasmuch as the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ and this glorious title obligeth him to transcribe his original he ought to sacrifice himself as he did and to be both the Priest and the Oblation together Indeed if we descend into the Mysteries of our Religion and consider with the eye of Faith what we are not able to discover with the light of reason we shall find that we are immolated upon the Altar with the Son of God and that after his example we are both the sacrificers and the sacrifice For Jesus Christ is not offered all alone in our Temples he is immolated by the hands of the Priests and at the same time that he offers his natural body to his Father he offers also his mystical body so that offering himself to his Father by his Church and offering his Church together with himself he teacheth all the Faithful to joyn the quality of Priests with that of Victimes This is it that Saint Augustine informs us of in his Book De Civitate Dei Per hoc sacerdos est ipse offerens ipse oblatio cujus rei Sacramentum quotidianū esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificiū quae cum ipsius capitis corpus sit seipsam per ipsū discit offerre Aug. lib. 10. de Civit. ca. 6. where searching into our mysteries he finds that the Church offers her self with her Beloved upon our Altars and that in the same sacrifice she is both Priestess and Oblation His words are too elegant to be omitted neither must it be a less Doctor then he that must appear that Protector of so important a Verity 'T is particularly saith he in unity that the sacrifice of Christians consists where being many in number we make up but one body with Jesus Christ this is it that the Church daily does in this Sacrament which is so well known to the Faithfull wherein is demonstrated that in the Oblation she offers she her self is offered that after the example of her Beloved she may be in the same sacrifice Priestess and Victime From this passage may easily be inferred that the Faithful are offered with Christ upon the Altar that the Host that contains him is large enough to contain all his members and that his mysticall body being immolated with his natural body he obligeth all Christians to associate as he doth the quality of Victime with that of a Priest But if leaving the Altar we consider the Faithful in the course of their life we shall see there is none but ought to sacrifice himself and who either in his body or in his soul may not find Victimes to offer to God There is no more need of providing Buls or Goats with the Jews to lay upon our Altars The time of the Mosaical Law is past truths have succeeded figures and if we rightly understand the secret of our mysteries Noli extrinsecus thura comparare sed dic In me sunt Deus vota tua noli extrinsecus pecus quod mactes inquirere habes in te quod occidas Aug. in Psal 51. it becomes us to offer those things these Animals represent We have whereof to sacrifice within our selves there is not any passion in our soul nor part in our body whereof we may not make an innocent Victime Indeed Christian Religion converting the sinner into a sacrifice obligeth him to immolate to God all that he is He is deficient in the lawfullest of his duties if his whole life be not a sacrifice and being compounded of soul and body he ought to sacrifice both that he may have the honour to be a perfect Holocaust The vertues are auxiliaries which facilitate these means and it seems these glorious habits are given us for no other end then to teach us to sacrifice to God all the faculties of our soul Inasmuch as the will is the noblest and this Soveraign being once perfectly gained over to God gives him an absolute dominion over all the rest there are some vertues which have no other employment but to be made victimes Sorrow which discovers to man the excess of his crime labours to convert him it bruiseth his heart by the violence of a holy contrition and if it cannot draw bloud from this sacrifice it draws tears which are more acceptable to God then the bloud of beasts This made David say that the spirit broken and afflicted was a true sacrifice and that he who sometimes refuseth Goats and Lambs never despiseth a heart that Repentance and Humility offers up unto him Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus Obedience comes in to the succour of grief this beats down the pride of the will masters that imperious faculty and changing her triumph into a sacrifice obligeth her to die to her own inclinations that she may live to those of the Grace of Jesus Christ But love happily finisheth this design he burns the victime with his flames to render it an Holocaust and finding the means to put to death an immortall power teacheth us that a pure spirit may offer sacrifices to God For there is no lover but knows that love imitates death that he commits innocent murders and by stratagems which himself is only privy to makes sin die in us that Grace may live If the will become a Victim by means of Charity the understanding is offered up to God by the intervening of faith This vertue subjects it to her Empire perswades truths she explicates not she obligeth a man to suspend his judgement to renounce his reason and to give his senses the lye she engageth him to offer as many sacrifices as she propounds mysteries and by a power which would seem tyrannical were it not legitimate forbids him the use of reasoning in matters of religion The memory after the example of the understanding is immolated to God by remembrance and forgetfulness These two
is not the true happiness of Christians because they are obliged to renounce it and there is great reason to believe that Humility hath more Analogy with Beatitude because it accompanies the Blessed in the midst of their Grandeurs Indeed this vertue is the foundation of Christian Religion it is that which the Son of God came to teach us by his words and actions The way he held to come to us and that we must walk in to come to him Let us explain these Verities and make it appear that the true Glory of a Christian consists in Humility This vertue is so necessary and withall so difficult that God was fain to become Man to teach it us Philosophers who were informed with vain glory knew not the name of it and if it came amongst them it past rather for a fault then a perfection Aristotle confessed that Modesty was a species of Vertue but consisting in a mediocrity Magister noster per quem facta sunt omnia vocat genus humanum dicit discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde Forte putaebas dicturum discite quomodo caelos feci astra Aug. it suffered not man to debase himself below his inferiours or his equals The Son of God was united to flesh to read us this lesson and confirming by his words what he had taught us by his examples hath made it the principal subject of his entertainments He that knew all things hath propounded his humility only as imitable and he chose rather to make his Disciples humble then learned The Incarnate Wisdom opening his School upon Earth taught us not the secret to create worlds to dart thunderbolts to govern states but to mitigate our anger to abase our pride Inasmuch as he became like us in humbling himself we become like him laying our selves low and by a strange prodigy humility gives us accesse to him as Pride puts us at a distance from him Man was ruined in striving to grow great his vanity gave birth to his misery nor did he fall from his Greatnesse but because he would climbe above his defarts To draw him out of this abysse the Son of God threw himself into it and to place him higher then the Angels he descended lower then Man He was laden with their sins and languishings that by different degrees he might descend to the very Center of debasement His humility was the passage to his glory his Father exalted him because he vouchsafed to be humbled and his Crosse which was the last proof of his Patience became the Fountain of his Greatnesse According to his example we cannot aspire to honour but by humility we enter into grace by lowliness arrive at glory by humility and we finde that this vertue producing its contrary restores us those high immunities Vanitie had ravished from us If after death it lead us to glory whilst we live it gives us some earnests thereof nor are we ever more content then when most humble The Earth is not the mansion of pleasure because in it man is always exposed to danger he findes enemies in all places and which way soever he turns he is apprehensive of detriment Prosperity makes him insolent the sweetness that flatters corrupts him and this pleasing enemy hath no charms which may not engage him in sin Frangitur adversis qui prosperis corrumpitur Aug. Adversity renders him a coward its batteries slat his courage and this fierce enemy hath no afflictions which are not sufficient to cast him into despair The vertues offer him their assistance in his need Repentance who boasts her self the punisher of all offences and the protectresse of all vertues sets upon pleasures and by its severities masters their allurements Patience suffers the pains of life struggles with discontents and mingling tears with bloud triumphs over grief and death Humilitas est maxima disciplina Christiana ipsâ námque conservatur omnis virtus nam nihil citius eam violat quuā superbia Aug. But we must needs acknowledge that these vertues without humility would grow insolent of their good success and man would finde his defeat in his victory if this faithfull Confident did not minde him that his strength depends upon grace and that the Christian who is not humbled cannot subdue Satan who is a proud spirit To establish us in a vertue which causeth our felicity upon Earth we must remember that it is not true if it reside not in the will as well as in the understanding not perfect if it have not as much heat as light and little exceeds that of Devils if it pass not from knowledge to affection Therefore he that means to be humble must despise himself Having made some good progresse in the practise of this duty he must wish that others may despise him and being perfectly established in this disposition he must finde his joy in contempt ann his torment in honour The Seventh DISCOURSE That Felicity is found rather in obedience then in command IF there be any thing in the world the possession whereof can promise us felicity we must confess it is the power of commanding For Kings are Gods Vicegerents the Interpreters of his Intentions Ego ex omnibus mortalibus electus sum qui in terris Deorum vice fungerer Ego vitae necisque gentibus arbiter quid cuique mortalium fortuna datum velit meo ore pronuntiar Sen. de Clem. and the Disposers of Life and Death Fortune saith a Heathen expresseth her self by their mouth acts by their hands and sheds abroad happinesse or misery through a state by their conduct Their wils are laws their aspects more powerful then those of the stars and as they please to dispense sweetness or indignation they make Cities happy or miserable All their soldiers devote themselves to death for their service all Swords are drawn in their quartel Peace and War is in their hands nor are there any Subjects whose losse or safety depends not upon their orders They dispense at their pleasure liberty and servitude content and sorrow and all that hold of their Crown confesse they are the Authors of their good or bad fortune When they appear in publick it seems they are Suns which fill the Firmament when they speak all the world is attentive when they are angry they make their Kingdomes tremble and when they punish an offendor they astonish all Innocents The holy Scripture which cannot flatter Soveraigns and ranks them among slaves when compared with the Almighty makes them pass for Gods when compared with men it prescribes no bounds to their power allots them no Judge but their Creator and whatever exorbitance they have committed teacheth us they are to render an account to none but him from whom they hold their Crown If Priests have a power to reprove them God onely hath a right to punish them and when they abuse their Authority their subjects have only prayers and tears to reduce them to their duty Therefore it
advice and hee that at first was his Principle proceeds still to be his counsellour and director The Christian enjoyes this advantage with Jesus Christ whatsoever designe he conceives whatsoever resolution he takes whatsoever enterprize he brings to passe he is alwayes bound to call upon the holy Ghost He that hath given him his Being ought to give him motion he that hath begotten him in Baptisme ought to govern him in the Church and if he will not be wanting to his obligations nor renounce his priviledges the same Spirit that inanimates him while he lives must move and lead him in all his operations This is it that S. Paul so highly magnifies when he sayes Those onely deserve to be called the children of God who are acted by the Spirit of God Qui Spiritu Dei aguntur hi sunt filii Dei Whereupon * Ergo agimur non agimus respondeo imo agis ageris tunc bene agis si à bono agaris Spiritus enim Dei qui te agit adjutor est tibi agenti ipsum nomen adjutoris praescribit tibi quia tu ipse aliquod agis sed ne te extolleret humanus spiritus ad hoc opus se idoneum jactaret ideo subjecit quotquot Spiritu Dei aguntur hi snut filii Dei Aug. Ser. 13. de verb. Apost S. Augustine preventing two contrary objections which might be made against this truth saith That Christians are not onely lead by the Spirit but driven to the end they may know that He is rather the Principle of their actions then themselves and that in the way of salvation they are rather sufferers then doers But because this answer might sooth men up in idlenesse and give them an occasion to neglect good works expecting the enthusiasmes of the Spirit he adds They are moved that they might move they receive the impression of grace that they may act and that the Apostle expresly made use of this manner of speech at once to make them shake off idlenesse and presumption From this Priviledge is derived a third not so peculiar to Christ as not to be common to Christians For the holy Spirit is their Master he instructs them both in his school and they have the glory to be his disciples as well as his workmanship The Son of God hath two schools as he hath two births the first is Eternity where his Father is his Master and where he teacheth him his learning in communicating to him his Essence There by a strange Prodigie the Master is not more knowing then the Scholar nor the Scholar junior to his Master the science is learnt in a moment but that moment endures for ever and though it have no parts it includes neverthelesse all the differences of time this science though but one comprehends in it all sorts of truth the Master hides nothing from his Scholar he instructs him at the same instant he begets him the birth of this Son to speak properly is his instruction as he is born for ever so he learns for ever and he that conceived him in his bosome is eternally his Father and his Master This Son hath in time another school and a new Master he that produceth him teacheth him and the same Principle that forms his body fashions his understanding from the very first moment of his Conception He imitates the Father that teacheth him from all eternity he instils all things into him without succession or labour and conveying light into his soul Vir erat Jesus necdum etiam natus sed sapientia non aetate animi virtute non viribus corporis Bern. he hath no need of the mediation of the senses to render him learned This Pupill discourseth before he speaks he conceives truth before he beholds the light and his understanding is inform'd of all the secrets of his Father before he could pronounce the name of his Mother His knowledge grows not up with time because it had its just proportion and measure at the very moment of his Generation Experience hath not made it more evident nor age more assured and if he pronounced no Oracles in his Infancy 't is because he had a minde to conceal his Wisdom as he had concealed his Divinity Finally this Divine Master taught him a science which Politicians seek for and cannot finde for he discovers to him the secrets of the heart the motions of the will and all those thoughts and imaginations which though they never brake forth in words nor actions cease not to render men guilty So that should Jesus Christ neither be united to the Person of the Word nor illuminated with the light of Glory he would neverthelesse have an infused knowledge whereby he would be acquainted with whatever is most secret in Nature and in Grace in Time and in Eternity The holy Scripture also teacheth us that the holy Spirit that abides not alwayes in others rests upon Jesus Christ Requievit super eum Spiritus Domini Isa and he that distributes his Graces to others by measure communicates them to his Masterpeece without weight or limitation But this is no hinderance from his being the Master also of all other Christians from teaching them the science of salvation discovering to them the mysteries of Theologie the secrets of Nature and the maximes of the Politikes In effect 't is the holy Spirit that made the Apostles learned that spake with their mouthes that confounded Emperours and Philosophers with their answers and made them understand those Oracles which were nothing but Riddles to them whilest Jesus Christ conversed with them upon the earth 'T is lastly the selfe same Spirit which to this day teacheth the faithfull what they are to beleeve in Religion what they are to do or leave undone in the practice of their life and what they ought to hope or fear after death He cannot deceive them because he is the Spirit of Truth he cannot engage them in evill because he is the Spirit of Holinesse neither can he suffer them to wander in Errour or languish in infirmities because he is the Spirit of Counsell and of Strength Therefore is he the Master whom the faithfull consult with in their occasions 't is in his Schoole that they commence in vertue 't is under his Conduct that they grow up to perfection and by his advice that they defend themselves against errour and falshood Vbi Deus Magister quam cito discitur quod docetur Leo Serm. 1. de Pente Though this Science be so deep yet is it learnt in a moment his Disciples become Masters without paines Truth distils into their understandings without passing through their eyes or eares sleeping and waking they are equally capable of attention and this Doctor is so dextrously exact that bestowing the Spirit upon his scholars he repaires by Grace the defects of Nature But to conclude all these resemblances we affirm that the holy Spirit is the witnesse of Jesus Christ and of
respect towards him he puts on rather the deportment of a Lover then of a Soveraign he gains his will without forcing it and though he knows the secret whereby to be obeyed 't is always with so much sweetness that he that suffers himself to be overcome hath reason to believe he gets the Victory Therefore doth the Scripture never speak of this Change but as of a work common to God with Man And when Saint Augustine observes the differences between Conversion and Creation he bears witness to this truth in these words Qui creavit te sine te non salvabit te sine te But not to enter into Disputes more Curious then Profitable Si conversio peccatoris non est majoris potentiae quà m creatio universi saltem est majoris miscricordiae Aug. let us be content to conclude with the same Saint Augustine that if the Conversion of a sinner require not more Power it supposeth at least more Mercy then Creation because if in This God obligeth the Miserable in That he obligeth the Criminal shewing Favour to those that could expect nothing but severity of Punishments Therefore is it that the Conversion of a sinner belongs to the Holy Spirit and a work that bears the Character of Goodness must needs have no other Principle but he to whom this Divine Perfection is attributed in the Scripture 'T is true that after he hath shewed mercy to sinners he performs a piece of most exemplary Justice and animating them against themselves he obliges them to take revenge and punishment upon themselves For one of the most admirable effects of the Spirit of Love is to produce hatred in the spirit of Penitents Quia ergo non potest esse confessio punitio peccati in homine à seipso cum quisque sibi irascitur sibi displicet sine dono Spiritûs sancti non est Aug. in Psal 50. and to satisfie the Majestie of God by the excess of their Austerities towards themselves They look upon themselves as guilty of Treason against the Divine Majestie they stay not till his Justice punish them they prevent his Sentence by their own Resolutions and invent more tortures to wrack themselves then the Executioners have been witty in to torment Martyrs with This is that Divine Spirit which hath driven the Anchorites into the desarts made the Antonines go down into caves and holes of the earth made the Stilites fix upon the top of Pillars which found out sackcloth and discipline to make as many Wretches as he had made Penitents All the Austerity that is in Christianity takes its birth from the love he inspires into the Faithful Their Rigour is proportionable to their Charity the more the holy Spirit possesseth them the more are they set against Themselves and we may affirm with reason that as much as they grow in his Love so much do they grow in the Hatred of their Sin This is it perhaps that our Saviour would have us understand when he told us that the holy Spirit should judge the world and should oblige sinners to punish themselves for the offences they have committed He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgement We cannot understand this Truth if we conceive not that the Father hath judged all men in his Son and having charged him with their iniquities hath charged him also with the punishments due for them From this moment they have no engagements to sue out with the Father and the Father satisfied with the Passion of his Son protests that he hath signed over to him all the right of judging the world The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son The Son by vertue of this resignation shall judge all men at the end of the world and being become their Judg and their Partie will pronounce the definitive sentence of their Eternity In expectation of this day of Doom the holy Spirit judgeth men that are converted and mixing meekness with severity in these determinations he obliges them to undergo a scrutiny upon earth to be delivered from the torments of hell Nor are we to think it strange that he that is so gentle is withall so rigorous since the Poets have bestowed these two qualities upon Love For these pleasant Tel-tales have feigned that he was the severest of all the Gods that he bathed himself in tears lived upon blood and more cruel then Tyrants took pleasure in the torments of his subjects But Christian Religion that conceals Truth under the shadow of our Mysteries teacheth us that the love of God is severe that he exacts chastisements from those he inanimates that he engageth his Lovers in penance and more strong then death which parts soul and body he divides between the soul and the spirit and exerciseth a Tyranny over whole entire man True it is the torments he inflicts are always mix'd with pleasures he makes Roses grow among Thorns and amidst such a throng of Penitents that bid him battel there is not one complains of his sufferings 'T is enough that persecuting themselves Haec tristitia quae poenitcutiam ad salutem stabilem operatur laeta est ac spe profectus sui vegetata cunctam affabilitatis retinet suavitatem Cassian l. 9. c. 11. they are perswaded they satisfie him whom they have offended the same consideration that afflicts them comforts them and when they meditate that God that loves them is infinite they meet with no pain that is not short nor any torment that is not joyous They are better accompanied in the Desarts then the Monarchs in their Palaces their humiliations are more glorious then the Triumphs of Conquerors their poverty is more happy then abundance of riches and their ascetick life more full of charms then the pleasures of the world Though the holy Spirit be thus favourable to Penitents yet fails he not to be very severe against sinners if he pardon the offences committed against the Father and the Son he never pardons those that are committed against his own Person and the holy Scriptures teach us Blasphemia in Spiritum sanctum non remittetur in hoc seculo nec in futuro Mat. 12. that of all the sins in the world none are irremissible but those which do despite to the Holy Ghost This passage leaves all our Expositors at a losse every one forgeth new Principles to resolve the difficulties thereof and there are few but strive to invent something upon a subject so often handled and so little cleared Some divide sins into three Orders according to the perfections which are commonly applyed to the three Divine Persons The first comprehends sins of infirmity which seem to clash against the Person of the Father Peccata alia sunt infirmitatis quae Patri cujus est potentia adversantur alia ignorantiae quae Filio cujus est sapientia alia malitiae quae Spiritui sancto cujus est bonitas D. Thom. in Paulum to whom power
was yet in the flower of his age he pardoned his youth Alterius aetate prima motus sum alterius ultima alium dignitati donavi alium humilitati queties nullam inveneram misericordiae causam mihi peperci Sen. lib. 1. de Clem. c. 1. and that extravagancy which ever accompanies it when he was stricken in yeers he pardoned his gray hairs and left death the charge of the execution when he was of a good House he respected his birth and balancing the good services of his Ancestors with his crimes conceived he did justice to them in shewing mercy to him when he was of an obscure mean Family he contemned an offender whose example could not any way prejudice the Common-wealth But when there was a prisoner presented whose crimes seemed to obstruct his Clemency and command his Severity he used an innocent stratagem and remembring that he was the Head of that transgressing Member he pardoned him in consideration of that Alliance and spared himself in the person of that delinquent Though all this Discourse make it evident that there is no stricter relation then that between Kings and their Subjects yet must we confess 't is rather Imaginary then Veritable For besides that experience teacheth us that Kings who live in pleasure seldom think of the miseries of their People Reason instructs us that there is nothing but Nature or Grace that can unite men to one another All those Alliances that are founded onely upon Inclinations or Duty stamp no Character and if Religion second not the Politicks they can neither oblige Subjects to expose their lives for the safety of their Prince nor Princes for that of their Subjects Whatever Oracles Morality pronounceth upon this occasion whatever Colours Eloquence adorns the actions of Souldiers with who have spilt their blood for the honour of their Soveraigns they never lookt upon them as their Head and if they set upon their enemies in spight of the thunder of the Canon 't was not so much for the preservation of their Person as out of a hope of Glory or expectation of a Reward There is no true Alliance but that which is established upon the Flesh or upon the Spirit and among so many Chiefs that govern their States there is none but Jesus Christ that is really united with his Subjects He lives in them by Grace and as Faith and Charity are able to make him present in all his members it is sufficient to be Faithfull or Charitable to make up one part of his Mysticall Body Thence it comes to passe that he shares with his members in all the Good or Evill they receive that his Glory hinders him not from having a fellow-feeling of their miseries and though in Heaven yet ceaseth not to suffer with them upon Earth The distance of place disjoyns him not from his Mysticall Body he is with men though among the Angels and this Bridegroom that reigns with the Church Triumphant fights yet with the Militant These two Churches make up his Spouse he loves them both as one he gives himself to both of them not imitating the Saints who leaving their ashes to the Church Militant translate their souls to the Church Triumphant he imparts himself to both without being divided to either and to take away all shadow of jealousie resides as truly among the Faithfull Caput nostrum est in coelo nos in illo ibi sursum Ecce jam pignus habomus unde nos fide spe charitate cum capite noâ—â—ro sumus in coelo in aeternuÌ„ quia ipsum bonitate divinitate unitate nobiscum est in terra atque ad consummatione saeculi Aug. in Psal 26. Ser. 2. as among the Beatificall He respects onely the difference of their conditions in the favours he confers upon them For the Church Triumphant being in possession he discovers to them his beauties declares to them his secrets and gives them a portion of his felicity But the Church Militant being still in hope he hides his face to increase her love he speaks to her darkly in Aenigma's to exercise her faith he takes her into his sufferings to increase her merits nor does he shew himselfe to her but under the vailes and curtaines of our Sacraments to put an edge upon her desires But he is equally united with both of them by that charity which makes him their Bridegroom and their Head We see also in the Scripture that he is sensible of all the outrages that are done to his members and that from Heaven above where he reigns with the Angels he suffers with the Faithfull upon the earth When Saul persecuted the Infant Church endeavouring to stiffle it in the Cradle when rage in his heart threats in his mouth arms in his hands sent him to make inquisition after her tender ones from Jerusalem as far as Damascus the Son of God complains of this violence as if done against his own Person and the neer relation he hath contracted with them obliged him to professe that in offending them they wounded him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Jesus Christ had sufficiently honoured the Faithfull saith Saint Augustine had he been contented to call them his Friends or his Brethren and one so glorious a condition had shrowded them from the rage and fury of so cruell a persecutor but he had prejudiced his love and his veracity had he used other terms Being the Head of the Christians and happily affianced to them he must of necessity mingle their injuries with his and to aggravate the greatnesse of this outrage he informed him that was the Authour that no man could offend the Christians but he must wound him nor hurt men but he must injure the only Son of God Let us hear Saint Augustine upon this Subject and see how he handles this mystery of Unity Jesus Christ was in Heaven when hee converted Saint Paul and of a Persecutor made him an Apostle Whence comes it then that in reproaching him with his Crime he saith Saul why persecutest thou me This furious Assasinate had he climbd up to Heaven to declare Warre against Iesus Christ Meant he to imitate the pride of those ambitious Angels that set upon him in the midst of his Glory Saul persecuced the Christians and not Iesus Christ that reigned with his Father in Heaven But because he lived in the Faithfull he suffered with his members and established that Maxime which this Apostle was one day to preach If one member suffer all the members suffer with it he uses this language to Saul and speaks to him with an Emphasis Why doest thou persecute me The glory wherewith I am surrounded renders thy attempts fruitlesse and whatever hatred thou hast conceived against me thou canst not injure my Greatnesse Know neverthesse that I live still in my Faithfull ones that they are my members that I am their Head and that in persecuting them thou persecutest me in their person Ought not this my Brethren to astonish
he hath made her worthy of his Love from the very first moment he began to love her and more powerful then those Bridegrooms who can onely advantage those they love in riches or honours he hath adorned her with all the graces her dignity could require or her condition suffer For if she be not yet glorious in all her Members if she sigh in the Poor be a captive in the Prisoner 't is because the Land of dying mortals where she lives is not capable of all the priviledges of her Bridegroom yet may she boast that she possesseth in her Head what she wants in her Body tastes that in the Blessed which she cannot taste in the Faithful and if she be Militant upon Earth is Triumphant in Heaven But nothing so much advanceth the Graces she hath received from Jesus Christ as the offences she committed during her Infidelity For she broke her word in the first of her children she listened to the promises of the Serpent by the ear of our first mother she erected Altars to devils by the hands of Idolaters she uttered blasphemies by the mouth of Libertines she had committed as many Adulteries as she had adored False Deities and her crimes emboss'd one upon another had branded her with the ignominious titles of Perfidiousness Adultery and Impudence In the mean time her Beloved forgave her all these faults wip'd away all her spots in the Laver of Baptism and making her a Bath of his own Blood returned her at the same time Holiness Innocence and Beauty But as his Power is equal to his Love he undertook a thing that Nature never durst attempt For finding her saith S. Augustine in her prostitution he restored her her Purity of an Adultress he made her a Virgin and repeating that miracle which he never wrought for any but his Mother and his Spouse Nuptiae Spirituales in quibus nobis magna castitate vivendum est sunt Christi Ecclesiae quia Ecclesiae concessit Deus in Spiritu quod mater ejus habuit in corpore ut Mater Virgo sit Aug. he bestowed Virginity with Pregnancy that being pure she might not complain that she was barren and being fruitfull she might not bee reproached as impure Thus the Church is treated by Christ her Beloved as he treated Humane Nature he hath honoured her with all the priviledges he bestowed upon his own Body and letting us see an Image of the Hypostaticall Union in the Mysticall Union he contracted with his Spouse he hath shewed us the dignity of a Christian that being a member of Iesus Christ he may aspire to the Glory of his Head and promise himself that having suffered with him upon Earth he shall one day reign with him in the Heavens The Fifth DISCOURSE That Jesus Christ treats his Mysticall Body with as much Charity as his Naturall Body THere is no Christian so little acquainted with the Mysteries of our Religion but knows that the Son of God hath two Bodies the one Naturall the other Mysticall the former he had from his Mother who yeelding her consent to the Angel furnished blood whereof the Holy Chost formed the Body of her only Son The second he hath from the Church which springing from his wounds upon Mount Calvary gives him as many Members as she bears Beleevers in her chaste Bosome Nonne in figura Mariae typum videmus Sanctae Ecclefiae ad hanc utique â—â—scen lit Sanctus Spâ—ritus huic virtus altissimi obumbravit binc Christus potens vi tute egrâ—ditur Ecclesia viro immaculata concubitu foecunda partu conc pit non viro sed Spiritu Aug. ser 10. de Temp. and makes him Head of all that acknowledge her for their Mother and whom shee owns for her Children These two Bodies have so much affinity that 't is hard to judge which of them Jesus Christ loves best and their priviledges so like that 't is easily perceived they belong both to one God For besides that they are both formed by the Holy Ghost and the Mothers that conceived them cease not to be pure notwithstanding they are pregnant they enjoy the same favours and are equally precious to the Son of God His Naturall Body by time received its full growth though he were perfect at the moment of conception he was so little that nothing but Faith could comprehend him to be the Temple of the Eternall Word his Members were fashioned in the space of nine moneths the naturall heat enlarged and fortified them and the nourishment they received gave them that just proportion Children ought to have at their Birth It was no small proof of the Humility of Iesus Christ saith Saint Augustine that he was willing to condescend to the Laws of Nature and waving his absolute power expect with patience till his members were fashioned to be born in the fulnesse of time Statim lucem lacrymis auspicatus molestus uberibus diu infans vix puer tarde homo Tert. He handles his Mysticall Body after the same manner expects its perfection with gracious tendernesse waits for those members his Father pleases to adde in the continuance of years he sees his Spouse grow up with joy and from heaven above is ravished when the Church by Baptism or by Repentance bestows upon him new Subjects to the compleatment of this Mysticall Body Sometimes he sees the Sauls become part of that whole they have endeavoured to destroy Sometimes he receives Augustines and drawing them from Errour to Truth makes them his Disciples and his Members Sometimes he converts other sinners and associating them to his Person with himself compleats his Church 'T is true as this Body is much greater then the Naturall there is required much more time to give it its ultimate perfection The Naturall was accomplished in twenty five years it had all its bignesse when ' rwas nailed to the Crosse neither was any thing wanting to that Master-piece of the Holy Ghost but Glory which was deferred till the Resurrection because it had hindered the work of our Salvation But the Mysticall commenced with the world nor shall end but with that Fabrick Adam and Abel were the first parts the Patriarchs and Prophets the Apostles and the Faithfull continue it and the last predestinated shall accomplish it at the end of the world It s full measure shall not be till the generall Resurrection and there will something still bee wanting to its perfection till the number of the Elect be compleated The Naturall Body could not grow but all the members must grow with it For there is such a Harmony in mans body that nature travels at the same time to perfect the whole Compositum The nourishment turned into blood passeth through the veins to the remotest parts one and the same matter takes a thousand different forms and the same aliment changeth the qualities that it may equally supply the needs of all the members Jesus Christ was subject to these Laws whilest he lived
away his desires and his hopes to give Jesus Christ some testimonies of his love Therefore doth the Scripture inform us that there is no Vertue receives a greater recompence then Self-denial The Man that is knockt off from himself is united to the Son of God the creatures respect him the Sun obeys his word and 't is in this sense that the Scripture to make his Panegyrick is not content to say that he pronounceth Oracles but addes that he gains Battles and bears away victories by speaking All things stoop to his commands and more glorious then the first man who could not use the creatures but according to their inclinations he disorders them to make himself feared and testifies the power he hath in the state of his Master by the command he exerciseth over all the parts of the Universe Thus Self-denial which seems to abase men raiseth them up the Vertue that entertains them in the distrust of their weakness gives them admittance into the power of God and that which obligeth them to renounce their own will makes them find the accomplishment of all their desires The Sixth TREATISE Of the Nourishment and Sacrifice of the Christian The first DISCOURSE Of Three Nourishments answering the Three Lives of a Christian. SOme will wonder perhaps that in the same Treatise I joyn two such different things together and that speaking of Nourishment which preserves the life of a Christian I treat of a Sacrifice that engageth him in Death But the wonder will cease if we consider that these two things are united together in Religion and that the same Sacrament that feeds us obligeth us also to die For the Son of God upon our Altars is as well our Nourishment as our Victim inviting us to a Feast he bids us to a Sacrifice and his Love associating two Subjects which have so small a relation he makes use of one and the same body to destroy our sins and to preserve our souls He offers himself up to his Father as an innocent Sacrifice and gives himself to the Faithful as a delicious Viand His Power which equals his Love takes from this Sacrifice whatever might render it horrid and removes from this Banquet whatever might make it sensual In both of them he satisfies his Father and his Children and exalting us in the light of Faith makes us believe what we cannot conceive Following therefore his intentions I have joyned in the same Treatise what he hath joyned in the same Mystery and resolve to manifest the wonders of this Food and the Prodigies of this Sacrifice Reason that teacheth us that Nourishment is the staff of Life teacheth us also that every living thing hath need of Nourishment and that the Divine Providence whose care is extended over all the Creatures hath left none without aliment This feedeth the Fowls of the air and the Psalmist confesseth it provided for the necessities of their young when forsaken by the dams It maketh Grass to grow in the desarts for the Cattel and Rain which seems unprofitably to fall into the Sea serves for refreshing and meat for the Fishes Inasmuch as Men are Gods master-pieces he takes a particular care to nourish them whole Nature labours to furnish their Table her fruitfulness is onely to satisfie their hunger or content their appetite and every Creature she teems with seems a Victim to be immolated to preserve their life But as they have Three Lives that answer to the Three Orders of Nature of Grace and of Glory God hath given them Three sorts of Food which in the difference of their qualities cease not to have wonderful Correspondencies The Earth is the Nurse that furnisheth us our chiefest nourishment that Divine word Crescite multiplicamini which enricht her with fruitfulness in the very birth hath preserved this prolifical vertue in the succession of so many yeers and if the Justice of God make her not barren for our punishment she returns with usury the laborious pains of the Husbandman Corn which is our principal support is multiplied by its corruption 't is born by death and making us see an image of the Resurrection perswades us our bodies may rise out of the Grave after they have been resolved to dust because the Grain springs not up till it be putrified in the earth This production would pass for a Miracle were it not so common and to observe the wonders thereof would be sufficient to oblige all men to reverence the power and wisdom of the Creator For when the Corn is corrupted it puts forth a bud which cleaves the earth and covers it with a tuft of Grass which preserves its verdure in the midst of the sharpest Winters At the Spring it thrusts forth a stalk which riseth insensibly and from time to time is strengthned with joynts to resist the violence of the windes Upon the top is formed an Ear wherein Nature seems to employ all her industry Seritur solummodo granum sine folliculi teste sine fundamento spicae fine munimento aristae fine superbia culmi Exurgit autem copia faenâ—ratum compagine aedisicatam ordine structum cultu munitum usquequaque vestituÌ„ Tertul. every grain is inclosed in a husk that if one be corrupted the rest may not be infected and the evil prove not a contagion each husk is fenced with a prizly sharp to guard the inclosed fruit from the injury of the air and the rapine of birds The heat of the Summer compleats the whole work gives it Colour in giving it Maturity and gently opening the several cells which lock up the treasure of the Husbandman admonisheth him to prepare for the Harvest If this Wonder ravish us and if we are bound to reverence the Divine Providence which makes the earth fruitful to nourish us we are not less concerned to admire the prodigious alterations it causeth in Nature to increase provision For it makes use onely of Rain to enrich us and from this inexhausted source draws so many different Fruits that if their number please us their qualities astonish us Rain is nothing but a Vapour in the conception the Sun sports with it in the air thickens it into a cloud to take it out of our sight then destroying his own work dissolves it into showers to water the thirsty earth In the mean time this Rain is turned into all things it toucheth takes the nature and quality of those things it bathes and by a miraculous Metamorphosis is changed into Wine falling upon grapes into Oil upon olives It contracts the taste of all Fruits and the colour of all Flowers It grows yellow upon the Marigolds red upon Pinks white upon Lilies and though when it falls it have neither taste nor colour yet may it boast it gives both to all Fruits and all Flowers This prodigious change which is daily wrought upon the earth is but an overture of that which is made upon the Body of Man to maintain it For all the Nourishment he
the heat of self-love makes in our souls In which respect 't is certainly the truth of the Tree of Life and the accomplishment of that figure For though Innocent Man had other meats besides that and excepting the forbidden fruit all others that Paradise afforded were allowed him yet was he obliged to take of this from time to time as a medicine which the mercy of God had prepared for him to defend him against the Natural heat which insensibly wasted him Whence it is easie to infer that in the state of Innocence the body of man was composed of parts that could not agree That fire which makes man live devoured the radical moisture on which it feeds and though he daily took in nourishment which being much purer then ours might preserve life much longer yet had he need of an extraordinary diet which might repair the ruines the natural heat made in his body and Divines Providence which never abandons that sinner provided the Tree of Life for Innocent Man to defend him against the internal enemy who had insensibly brought him to death by means of old age and consumption Thus may we say that the body of the Son of God shields us against that forain heat Concupiscentia carnis in Baptismo dimittitur non ut non sit sed ut non obsit non imput tur Aug. lib. de Nup. Concup cap. 25. which setting upon the warmth of Charity threatens the Christian with death For though Concupiscence since Baptism be no longer sin and if sometimes they give it this name 't is because it is the principal effect yet is she not idle in our souls she makes strange progresses when her fury is not stopt she makes use of all occasions that are offered and holding under her command the passions and the senses she endeavours by their mediation to enslave the understanding and the will Though never so weak and langnishing in Christians she hath still vigour enough to engage them in sin if their reason assisted with grace continually oppose not her designs The little remainder there is makes them they cannot live secure and as long as they nourish the least degree of self-love there is no crime whereof they have not the seeds in them What the Son of God hath said of the grain of Mustard seed which is so small at first and so prodigious in the progress is not comparable to Concupiscence whose least sparks are able to kindle mighty conflagrations which only the Grace of Jesus Christ can extinguish Indeed his Body the noblest Organ of his Spirit moderates daily these heats in the Eucharist smothers the flames Concupiscence stirs up to consume us he gives beeing to that vertue that fight obscenity weakens that strange burning which glows against divine heat without which a Christian cannot live He produceth two contrary effects which manifests his power to be infinite For by kindling one fire he quencheth another and warming us with his own love happily delivers us from that of self 'T is a a wonderful Wine which contrary to the nature of ordinary wine bears Virgins and renders them pure thereby to render them pregnant in Vertues Finally 't is a Bread of Life that nourisheth soul and body carrying vigour into the one and light into the other to the end that preserving the whole man it may be his food in health and his remedy in sickness Having contrary to the Laws of Physick cured him contrary to the Laws of Nature it endeavours to make him young For Religion more powerful then the Fable hath found out a secret to renue the Christians youth in the Eucharist and to discover in Mysteries what it made us believe in Types and Figures Indeed all the Fathers are of opinion that the Tree of Life defended man from old age and preserved him from that languishing consumption which disposed him insensibly to his death if common fruits could preserve his life they were unable to maintain his vigour Though they had all the purity Innocent Nature could furnish her works with yet in repairing mans strength they had not restored that freshness which accompanies youth To secure himself from that mischief which had not respected his Innocence he was obliged to have recourse to the Tree of Life and from time to time to take an agreeable Physick which being no way distasteful restored him his primitive vigour and re-instated him in that flourishing age he was at first created in It is true that as Prudence was natural to him he never expected length of days to impair his beauty nor that old-age should print wrinkles upon his face he made such seasonable use of this remedy that the freshness of his complexion never faded The Roses and the Lilies were always mingled on his cheeks age and deformity never seized a body whose soul was exempt from sin and the fruit of the Tree of Life seconding his ordinary food maintained him in a vigorous constitution which was afraid neither of Sickness nor Weakness In this happie state Man had the advantages of the Aged and not their imperfections his Reason without the tedious trouble of Experience was furnished with all Lights requisite to conduct him he had no need to enfeeble his body to fortifie his minde but both the parts that composed him being equally innocent he had no occasion to wish that age might weaken the one to make it more obedient nor strengthen the other to render it more absolute Thus the fruit of the Tree of Life maintained Man in Youth and Innocence and these two inseparable qualities combating Old-age and Sin made him spend his life happily and holily Although Christians have not this advantage upon the earth and that their body being still the slave of Concupiscence cannot avoid the infirmities incident to old-age yet in their souls they fail not to enjoy the priviledges of Innocence they finde in the holy Sacrament what Adam found in the Tree of Life they receive a new vigour in the Eucharist their souls grow young as often as they approach to Jesus Christ when like Eagles they soar as high as this Sun lodg'd in a cloud they are astonished that in the infirmity of their flesh their spirit is renewed and that the outward man falling to decay by yeers and penance the inward man recruits by the heavenly meat he feeds upon This Miracle passeth sometimes from the soul to the body yet there have been some holy persons who taking no other sustenance but what is offered upon our Altars have lived many yeers Many times this Nutriment hath imprinted its qualities upon their bodies and darting forth certain rays of Grace upon their countenances communicated to them a part of that beauty which the blessed spirits shall possess Post primā caenam it a similes evascrunt Christodiscipuli ejus ut vix ab illo possent discerni Chrys S. John Chrysostome was of opinion that the Apostles participated of this priviledge in their
that his Body is the Holocaust of his Love our Understanding must be the Victim of our Faith 'T is in this occasion that we ought to relie upon the Power and Truth of him that worketh this Miracle and examining the difficulties that combat our Faith we are onely to consider that he that hath drawn All things out of Nothing is still able to extract his Body out of the substance of the Bread Haec Sacramenta necessario fidem exigunt rationem non admittunt Bern. and change one thing into another since he was able to produce what was not This is the Mystery must be approached unto in the simplicity of Faith where we must believe Jesus Christ whom we do not see that Darkness being the midwife of Light we may behold him in heaven whom we have believed upon earth The second disposition of the Christian is derived from the second quality of this heavenly meat All Religion informs us that Heaven bestows this Nutriment upon us by the mighty power of its Love every effect we observe therein is a Miracle never will the Prodigies of Manna equal those of the Eucharist Tota ratio facti potentia facientis Aug. nothing is done here according to the laws of Nature God dispenseth with all those rules in other occurrences he obligeth himself unto and we may say that in this adorable Mystery he consults onely his Power and his Goodness He changeth the Elements without altering their qualities he sustains Accidents without their Substances he multiplies his Body without dividing it he nourisheth the Faithful with his Flesh without wasting it he is present in a thousand places at the same instant Whilst Men possess him the Angels do not lose him he is wholly in heaven and wholly upon the earth and as if the Incarnation were but an Essay of the Eucharist this gives all the world the same Body the other indulged onely to Judea Such a cloud of Miracles exact our silence and astonishment we must admire what we cannot comprehend and making Ignorance serviceable to Piety say with the Prophet Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis magnus in operibus suis Indeed if we admire the wonders of Nature if that which surpasseth our apprehension ravish our understanding if the disorder of the Elements or the irregularity of the Seasons strike a kinde of awe into us Ought we not greatly to respect a Mystery whose every circumstance is a Miracle and every effect a Prodigie But inasmuch as this Food is an Earnest of Glory and this Feast whereto the Faithful are invited is a figure of that Eternal Banquet which the Blessed sit down at we must bring along with us Desire and Hope God gives us nothing upon the earth which he doth promise us aforehand to occasion our desires But because Promises are not bare words Judaei quippe habebant quandam umbram nos veritatem Judaei fuerunt servi nos filii Judaei per mare transierunt ad Eremum nos per Baptismum intravimus in Regnum Judaei Manna manducaverunt nos Christum Judaei pruinam nos Deum caeli Salvia he many times gives us a part of what he hath promised Though the Law were but a shadow of Truth the Sacraments thereof but vain and empty Figures yet did they contain something that the Israelites were to hope for by them Manna had qualities expressing those of the Body of Jesus Christ The Law though obscure was an exposition of the Gospel and rightly understood obliged us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves The Sea which favoured their retreat in parting asunder and coming together again swallowed up the Egyptians darted forth some glimmerings of light amidst these shades of darkness and by sensible effects exhibited what was to be acted upon our souls in the Sacrament of Baptism The Land of Promise had some resemblance with that of the Living its plenty was an image of the felicity of heaven where nothing is wanting to the blessed inhabitants Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the pledges we receive in the New Testament are far more certain and substantial They exhibit the best part of what they promise they do what they make shew of and joyning the Figure with the Substance we may say that without depriving us of the quality of the Faithful they procure us that of the Blessed Baptism which raiseth us to the dignity of the Sons of God gives us admittance into his Inheritance we are already new creatures and though not yet perfected by Glory are notwithstanding begun to be wrought upon by Grace We are the members of Jesus Christ though we remain the members of Adam if the Charity the holy Ghost hath shed abroad in our hearts quench not Concupiscence at least it abolisheth the sin and though our righteousness be imperfect it fails not to be true The Incarnation raiseth our hopes and having seen a God made Man in being born of a Virgin we have not much ado to believe that Men may become Gods in being born of the Church But not to enter upon a deduction which would lead too far from the Subject of my discourse we need onely consider the Eucharist to be perswaded of this Verity It is a pledge wherein God performs what he promiseth 'T is part of that sum he bids us hope for Sacramenta prima erant praenvnitiativa Christi ideo ablata quia completa alia sunt instituta virtute majora utilitate meliora actu feliciora numero pauciora Aug. an Antepast of the felicity we expect neither is there any Christian who is not fully assured to possess Jesus Christ in heaven because he so entirely enjoys him on earth He waits with patience for the effect of so many gracious promises whereof he hath received such certain earnest he comforts himself in his discontents from the consideration of his advantages neither can he doubt that he that is so often sacrificed for his salvation will not wholly communicate himself for his happiness This infallible Gage exacts from us as much Desire as Confidence It is not enough to be assured of the promise of God we must long to have it effected our enjoyment ought to produce our yearning after it All Christians must be like Daniel men of desires and renouncing the things of the world fix all their pretensions towards heaven This Mystery that unites them to Jesus Christ must raise them as high as God and when his presence is vanished with the species the desires that Grace inspires them with must give them another rellish of what the natural heat hath made them lose by digestion This disposition prepares us for another more noble and more holy For if we are to express our longings because the Body of the Son of God is a pledge of his Promises we ought to be indued with Love and Fidelity because this Sacrament is a Marriage of his soul with ours Baptism is the Beginning and
was given up to the fury of Satan To his Sacriledge he added a Parricide and expiating these two offences by a violent death taught us there was never any crime more severely punished upon Earth then what was committed against Jesus Christ in the Eucharist so that a man cannot dispose himself too carefully when he is to approach this holy communion and seeing the Son of God recollects all his Graces in this Sacrament thereby to oblige us we ought to come accompanied with all kind of Vertues worthily to receive him The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Christian owes God the Honour of a Sacrifice SAcrifice is the most ancient duty of the creature towards his Creator It is the soul of Religion precedes affection and before man can be obliged to love God he is bound to offer him a Sacrifice For love presupposeth some society between God and man which is not so much an effect of Nature as of Grace but Sacrifice supposeth nothing but dependance which is inseparable from the creature and engageth him assoon as ever he proceeded out of Nothing to acknowledge his Original by a solemn homage From hence may be inferred that Sacrifice is an honour can be rendred only to God and that 't is changed into Sacriledge when offered to a meer creature Neither is this hard to be conceived if we consider the divers motives we have to offer Sacrifices to God since sin hath corrupted nature The first is to reconcile us to him and to mitigate his anger by the merit of the victime The second is to be united to him knowing very well that as his Indignation is the soucre of all our evils his Grace is the fountain-Head of all our good whence it came to pass that in the Old Testament there were peace-offerings offered to him for the salvation of sinners which testified by their dying mouths that to be removed from God was to be miserable The third is to obtain eternal glory which makes us find our happiness in the union it procures us with God and destroying whatever we had of mortal or perishable happily transforms us into him Holocaustum dicitur sacrificium cum totū accenditur quandò totum ardet totum absumitur igne divino Aug. Therefore were Holocausts immolated wherein the oblation wholly consumed by the flame figured out this Truth and by a silent language taught us that man should never be happy till he was despoiled of all his corruption that he might be perfectly consummated in God Now all men confesse that God only can bestow Grace remit sins which brave his Majesty sanctifie souls in uniting them to himself and glorifie them by communicating to them his Essence Therefore by a necessary consequence they acknowledge that as from him only these favours are to be obtained we have no other way to intercede for them but by sacrifice The Law punished those with death that erected Altars to strange gods and offered those honours to vain idols which could not be safely given to true men Nature her self though never so blind sacrificeth to none but those she conceives at least to be Gods and sin being not able to quench all her lights she retains this belief in her errour that Divinity only deserves the honours of sacrifice Faith confirms this Truth and strongly perswades us that if the creature adores not his Creator he is miserable and if he encroach upon the honour due to him he becomes guilty Creatura rationalis si non colit Deum misera est quia privatur Deo si colit Deum non vult se coli pro Deo Aug. Sacrifice then is a divine worship whereby a reasonable creature honours his Creator and publiquely professeth that as he hath received being from him 't is from him likewise that he expects felicity But though there is nothing in God which being God himself deserves not this homage and all his perfections may justly require it we must confess nevertheless there are three that oblige us to this duty and which in the state of innocence as wel as sin demand this sacrifice The first is the Soveraignty he hath over his creature For he depends of him in Creation and Preservation He had no right to exist before he issued from Nothing in these profound abysses he could not so much as desire or ask any thing and being not yet in nature could have no pretensions of aspiring either to Grace or Glory Being now reduced from Non-Entity he depends still upon his Soveraign he could not be able to subsist one moment without assistance from him he cannot act but by his impulses and though he be free in his operations he that gave him being must give him motion his preservation is a consequence of his Creation the same power that produced him preserves him and unless he be strangely impudent he must confess he depends not less upon God in his Entity then in his Non-Entity There is no need that the Earth should open under his feet to swallow him up that thunder should fall upon his head to crush him to ashes nor that the waters should flow from their couch to drown him God needs only withdraw his hand and he perisheth let him but cease to preserve and he moulders into annihilation Dependency therefore and servitude constitute one part of his Essence he is a slave assoon as a creature and though God be Almighty we may say without offence he can produce neither man nor Angel able to support themselves without him and who in the progress as well as beginning of his life depends not absolutely upon his All-sufficiency This is it that obligeth both of them in their Creation to offer sacrifices to him 't was their first reflexion towards their Principle their first duty towards their Soveraign and their primitive inclination towards their last end If they do not acquit themselves 't is their fault if dazled with their own light and charmed with their own beauty they fail of this their lawfull homage they need seek no other cause of their crime nor of their fall I pretend not to expresse the nature of this sacrifice because it is unkown to us but I will say thus much thatthe Angels being pure spirits seek not oblations out of their own person they stoop before the Almighty at the presence of his greatness they offer him what they are bound to by Creation and refuse not to submit to him by the motion of their proper will as they did from all Eternity in their nature For men there is great likelihood being compounded of a body and a soul they would joyn external sacrifice to internal and to the end they might offer all they had received presenting him an Holocaust of their person they would employ their mouths to praise him and their hands to serve him having made use of their understandings to know him and their wils to love him we might believe also that acknowledging all the goods of the
from this misfortune it carries Eternity along with it and were it not engaged in a subject changeable and obnoxious to mutability it would be as Immortal as it is Holy Let us adde to this advantage that Grace cannot be taken from us against our will 't is a treasure we never lose but by our own default Perishable goods cannot be preserved with all our care cunning or violence may rob us of them and whatever prudence we use to keep them we are many times constrain'd to fear or feel the loss of them Calumny takes away our good name Injustice or misfortune spoils us of our riches a disease deprives us of health and death of life All these goods though precious cannot avoid the disasters that threaten them The Innocent lose their honour as well as the Guilty The rich are as much afraid of sickness as the poor nor are Kings more secure from death then their Subjects But Grace is a good which cannot be taken from us without our consent Potes aurum perdere nolens potes domum bonū autem quo bonus es nec invitus accipis nec invitus amittis Au. There is no violence can plunder us of it and men though in league with the Devils cannot make us lose it if we favour not their design by our weakness This is the difference Saint Augustine hath put between earthly goods and heavenly Those are many times lost in spite of the owners these are never lost but by the fault of those that neglect them so that the condition of the Faithful is very little inferiour to that of the Blessed because that if the one be certain their glory shal never have an end the others are sure their Grace shal never be lost unless they wil not preserve it out of malice or not consent to secure it out of cowardise Indeed inasmuch as they know that their wils are impotent and their inclinations bad they place all their confidence in the mercy of God they hope that he that converted them will make them persevere and having assisted them in the combate will crown them in the trumph The Fourth DISCOURSE That Happinesse consists not in Pleasure but in Grief OF all the Sects which have opposed Truth the most dangerous is that of the Epicures For though base and unjust in that it gave the Body preheminence over the Minde and Pleasure the right hand of Vertue Nevertheless it surprised men at first sight and seduced them by a name which bears some analogy with that of felicity For whatever Idea men fashion of this it is impossible to separate it from Pleasure and very casie to confound them together We cannot imagine such a thing as the supream Good but we must conceive it agreeable nor can we perswade our selves that there is felicity where there is not content This hath procured more Disciples to this shameful Sect then to all the rest and made it triumph over the reason of the Academicks and the supercilious vanity of the Stoicks Allsinners took part with this Philosophy Christian Religion which destroyed Idolatry hath not been able to ruine this and the Church bears those in her bosome who boast themselves Christians but are indeed Epicures The whole world courts pleasure by different addresses 'T is the Idol that hath most Altars and receives most Sacrifices The Ambitious are her slaves they adore Voluptuousness under the name of Glory and suffer themselves to be charm'd by the allurements that attend a great reputation The Covetous are her Votaries they offer Incense to this false Deity they seek for pleasure in the arms of profit nor do they so much doat upon riches because profitable as because agreeable Indeed the Supream Good is inseparable from pleasure and as you cannot see the Sun but must be enlightned no more can men behold the Supream Good without being charm'd Delectatio ex fruitione summi boni necessario sequitur Aug. If delectation be but a consequence of Happiness as some Philosophers affirm it is at least necessary and I account it no more impossible to see God and not love him then to love and see him without receiving contentment in him Therefore the errour of the Epicures consists not in placing Beatitude in Pleasure but in placing pleasure in the body because man being compounded of a body and a minde ought to be happy in both these parts Let us combate this Monster which against nature destroys not men but because he flatters them nor is dangerous but because he is over complacent There is no body but confesseth that Beatitude consists in a union with God by means of the understanding and the will we must renounce reason to oppose this truth and cease to be men to doubt of a Maxim authorised by all profane Philosophy God is the Ultimate End of his creatures and consequently their perfect Happiness The Understanding and the Will are the two noblest faculties of the soul the wings that make her soar aloft and the chains that fasten her to the object she loves so that she is never more happy then when united to the Supream Good by Knowledge and Love whatever hinders this union is contrary to it and whatever separates or removes her from God is the enemy of her felicity It is easie thence to infer that sensual pleasures cannot cause our felicity because they suffer not our souls to be united to God and imbark her so strongly in the flesh that she seems to have lost all the qualities of a spirit Impurity produceth store of miseries in the world nor can we invent too many invectives against a sin that defiles a man and of an Angel makes a Beast But the greatest of its enormities is that it inebriates our soul with its poison and makes us lose the remembrance of all Divine things Nothing pleaseth the slaves it tyrannizeth over but sensuality whatever affects not the senses seems not true they take the pleasures of the minde for meer illusions and as if the glory of Heaven were but a fable or an imposture they are less affected with the consideration of them then reasonable men with the reading of Romance This misfortune produceth another For as pleasure separates men from God it fastens them to the creatures their inferiours and debasing them below themselves Quisquis quod seitso est deterius sequitur fit ipse de erior Aug. communicates the bad qualities of the things they doat upon Love is a kind of medley it confounds those subjects it unites and by a wonderful Chymistry makes them pass one into another Thence it comes to pass that Kings become Slaves when they love their Subjects and renounce their power when abandon'd to dalliance They fall from their Greatness when they engage in an affection and as the noblest metals lose their purity when mixt with those of a baser allay Soveraigns quit their Majesty when allied with their Subjects Thus the man who gluts