eternally What horrible ingratitude is it to give ones heart to a Creature to a foolish passion to a shamefull pleasure and not to love God after a gift so precious to refuse him our poor little heart after He hath given us his What monstrous malice is it to offend the holy Ghost who is the end and the non plus ultra the Center and the consummation of all the liberalities and donations of God to us 12. His scripture teaches us that we offend Him in dlvers manners either resisting or in contristating or affronting him or by extinguishing him in our hearts S. Steven sayd to the Iews you resist always the holy Ghost When we feel an impuls to rise out of the state of sin and to convert our selves seriously Asts. 7 51. to God 't is the holy Ghost that knoâ—ks at the door of our hearts It seems that He makes it his imployment so assiduous He is to solicite us by his inspirations if we consent not to his summons we resist him When we have consented to him and He is entred into our hearts we contristate and afflict him if we commit voluntarily and deliberatly a venial sin All naughty speech let it not proceed out of your mouth and contristate not the holy Ghost sais the Apostle We affront him consenting to Eph. 4. mortal sin by which we chase him shamefully out of our hearts and admit into them the euill spirit his corrival and mortal ennemy Such an one hath don contumely to the Spirit of grace says Heb. 10. 29. the same Apostle We extinguish him in our hearts when we commit the sins which are directly and diametrically opposit to him as when we presume of the mercy of God and to have pardon of our sins without doing penance for them when we are sorry for the vertues of others which are the works of the holy Ghost or when we indeavour to destroy them mocking those that pray much that frequent the Sacraments that remaine long in the church or when we oppose the known truth or contradict it t is to extinguish in our selves the holy Spirit 't is to do contrary to this advertisement of S. Paul The Spirit extinguish not â— Thess 5. 19. 13. Since then the holy Spirit enters not into our hearts without our free consent nor without dispositions convenient for such a Guest since we are so obdurat rhat we refuse him entrance and that we have not only indisposition and indignity but opposition and contrariety to his grace and that when we have received him we are so weake and miserable that we often afflict him or affront him Let us pray him humbly and fervently to remove all these impediments to vanquish our rebellion to introduce into us by his mercy the necessary dispositions to open himself the door to enter victoriously into our souls to make them worthy sanctuaries where He may dwell in this world by his grace and in the other by his Glory Amen DISCOURS XII OF THE NINTH ARTICLE I belieue the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints 1. THe Apostles by these Words make us to believe that CHRIST hath a true Church or Societie of faithfull people upon earth And they oblige us to submit to all that this Church proposes to be believed as a matter or an Article of Faith 2. This Submission is so necessary that unless we believe the Church we cannot reasonably belive any Point of Faith Nay we cannot so much as know what things are to be believed For we cannot be ascertained and assured but by the Church that they have been revealed Some will say that they are assured by the holy Scripture of what is revealed and learn in it what is to be believed 3. But how know they which is holy Scripture And how know they that the Gospells are the Word of God God never appeared to them to tell them this Book printed in such a place is my Word is my Scripture The Bible also says not I am holy Scripture And if also it should say so it should be in this suspected since it gives testimony of it self and another book might say I am the Word of God I am holy Scripture and we ought not to believe it They will say the Scripture is known by its own light to be divine or a light within them makes them see that 't is the Word of God 4. If this were so How could it com to pass that there should be hardly one book of Scripture that hath not been rejected The Marcionits rejected the five Books of Moses the Manicheans rejected the Prophets the Albigenses the Psalms and all the ancient Testament the Ebionites received but one of the four Gospells to wit the Gospell of S. Matthew the Cardonites admitted but one part of the Gospell of S. Luke Luther rejected the Book of Iob Ecclesiastes the Epistle to the Hebrews that of S. Iames and that of S. Iude the second of S. Peter the two last of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps all which books the Calvinists and our Protestants in England admit as holy Scripture How coms it that Protestants in England and in France do see divers books to be the Word of God which Protestants in Germany and other parts do not And How does the whole Catholick world admit divers bocks to be Canonical which Protestants reject as Apocryphal If there were any such light in the Books by which they discover themselves to be certainly divine or in men by which they see them to be the word of God all must necessarily see the same Books to be Canonical and all would acknowledg the Lib. cont Epist Fundamenti Cap. 5. same since the same Faith is necessary for all And S. Austin would not have sayd that He would not believe the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not move him to it for he would have seen them to be divine Must we not then necessarily believe the Church and learn of her which is holy Scripture And what is to be believed And since we have not the original of one only Canonical Book must we not believe the Church and trust her for a faithfull Copy 5 But suppose that God gave the Bible in English and that He sayd this Bible printed at London is his Scripture I say again that we must yet believe the Church and rely on her for the sense and meaning of it For S. Peter in the same Bible sais 1. Pet. 3. 16. in the Epistles of S. Paul there are things hard to be understood which the unlearned and the unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own perdition Note perdition Have not Disputes controversies and contests always risen concerning the sense and meaning of them and that in matters of the greatest importance Have not the best copies of the Bible been consulted and all passages confer'd the controversies stil remaining and increasing Doe we not see that divers and
this Vertue another Saint Charles the Cardinal Boromeus honoured so much the holy scripture that also studying it he read it always kneeling and uncover'd The seraphical Saint Francis commanded that papers which had the name of God written in them should not be Prophan'd but plac'd in decent and convenient places S. Lewis forbid painting and graving of the Cross upon the pavement for fear the people should tread upon it On Festivalls and Vigills in honor of the Saint celebrated or of the Mistery solemnized he gave dinner to two hundred Poore and serv'd them at the table He fasted all fridays of the yeare and in those of Advent and Lent he eate neither fish nor fruit becaus these two Times are consecrated to God 6. If these great Saints were now on earth what would they say what would they do seeing the comportment of men What thinke they now in heaven seeing the irreligion of those who will not allow them any honor though God does honor them and honor be a due salary of their Vertue who count it superstition Luke 15. 6. Luke 16. Apoc. 5. 8. and 8. 4. Matth. 18. 10 to implore their intercession though they have credit and favour in the sight of God do hear our prayers do know our necessities have experienced our miseries and have Charity and affection for us as the scriptures tell us What thinke they seeing the indevotion of others who rise in the morning and go to bed at night as beasts who sit down to table at noon as Epicurians and pass over the day as if there were no God who even fear to assist often at the Sacrifice to frequent the Sacraments to adore God and pray him as they ought lest men laugh at them and call them devotes or hypocrites though they are not ashamed to do ill in open street What do they think in fine seeing such irreverences of men towards holy things They employ the time of holy days in playing in visits and drunkenness if they discours for pleasure and recreation it seems not well seasoned if it clash not upon Priests or Religious Persons if they com to the Church it is not to appease God but to offend him to see and to be seen They prophane the holy scripture and use it in their jests meriments and Scurrilities 7. Si Ego Pater ubi est honor meus If I am the Father where is my honour He might have sayd if I am King If I am Iudg. If nature teaches the most barbarous to honour their father who is more worthy of honor than He from whom we have received not Body only but also Soul and All 8. If we honor the King and also the Courtiers for his sake should we not honor the King of kings so great powerfull and Soveraign that all the Kings of the world are his Uassalls and are but wormes in respect of Him 9. If we honor Iudges becaus they have some Power in this world ought we not to honor him who is infinitely powerfull and from whom all power is dereiv'd And give also an inferiour honour to the Saints whom God does so much honor that He makes them our Iudges You shal sit says our great Iudg upon S. Matth 19. 28. 1. Kings 2. 30. seats judging the twelue Tribes of Israel Let us remember then what God says to Samuel whosoever shal glorify me I will glorify him and they that contemne me shal be base If we neglect the service of God if we respect not his friends and althings that specially appertain to him sooner or later we shal be contemn'd coâ—â—r'd with shame dishonour and infamy But if we honour him as we ought we shal be replenished with glory either in this world by the good odour of our reputation or in the other by the crown of justice which God reserves for us in Heaven Amen DISCOURS XXX OF THE SECOND COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in Vaine For the Lord will not hold him innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in Vaine Exod. 20. THe royal Prophet representing to us the name of God as holy represents it at the same time as terrible and dreadfull Holy and terrible is his name Let us confess to thy great name becaus it is terrible and holy And he joy ns Majesty and power with Sanctity to imprint in our hearts reverence and to stricke terrour into us lest we should at any Psal 110 Psal 98. time dishonour him And God assures us in this Commendement that he will punish us for it that we may not pretend ignorance to be any caus of it The Lord will not hold him Innocent that shal take the name of the Lord his God in vaine In other sins the mercy of God pleads in favour of sinners demands pardon strives S. Iames. 2. 13. with justice and sometimes overcoms it and mercy exalteth it self above iudgment says S. Iames But in this sin the Verity of God joyns it self to justice and obliges God to punish the prophaner lest his word do fail Is it not then a misery which de serves to be deplor'd with teares of blood to see that there is nothing so licenciously and frequently prophan'd and abus'd by Christians as the name of God by pronouncing his holy name irreverently violating Vowes unworthily swearing falsly or prophanely Cursing or blaspheming detestably 2. But some will say Oathes are they essentially naught Is it not permitted to swear sometimes Yes 't is lawfull since the Scripture permits and approves it Saints have practised it and God himself vouchsafes to sweare The Prophet Hieremy permits us Hierem 4. 2. Psal 62. 12. Apoc. 10. 6. Gen. 14. 22. 3. kings 17. 1. Rom. 19. 2. Cor. 1. 23. Gal. 1. 20 Gen. 22. 16. Hier. 22. 24. Luke 1. 73. Psal 109 to sweare in the name of God provided it be with all necessary circumstances David praises those that sweare by the true God not by fals Deities as Pagans did Angells Patriarks Prophets and Apostles have sometimes sworn An Angel in the Apocalyps lifts up his hand to heaven and sweares by him that lives for ever and ever that after judgment there will be no more time In the book of Genesis the Patriarke Abraham says to the King of Sodom I lift up my hand to the most high Majesty of God who possesses heaven and Earth In the third book of kings the Prophet Elias sayd by the living God in whose sight I stand S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans God is my witness that without intermission I make a memory of you In the second to the Corinthians I call God to witness upon my soul that sparing you I came not any more to Corinth And in the Epistle to the Galatians Behold before God that I ly not God himself whose least word is more firm then heaven and earth having nothing greater then himself vouchsafes to sweare by himself and by
affairs or will leave suits not goods to his heires if my Father had left me a house and you would contest with me saying 't is a paper or painted house he means what Judg would hear you what impartial Arbiter would not condemn you would you not injure me and yet more my father if he had meant a paper house would he not have declared his intention IESUS our celestial Father makes his Testament He declares his last Will He says that He leaves me his precious Body and you say 't is not his true Body 't is a figure of his Body goe you are a mocker if it was not but his figure would He not have sayd so as well as you would He have sayd This is my Body instead of saying this is my figure He is upon his departure in his last supper He goes to death and afterward to the imperial heaven when a loving husband is vpon his deathbed or bids farwell to his dear spouse for a journey somewhat long is it not then that he opens his heart to her and discovers to her his secrets is it not then that he speaks to her without ambiguitie that he gives her testimonyes of his greatest affection and leaves her the more precious presents And JESUS being in the vigill of his death giving his farwell to the Church his Spouse and depriving her of his Visible presence shal He have spoken obscurely and equivocally to her shal He shal He have deceived her in a matter of so great importance and for all nuptial presents for the gage of his amity for the testimonie of his tender affections for a supplement of his absence shal He have left her only a morcell of bread The manner also in which He accomplishes this Mistery ought to be considered if this be but a morcel of bread Why promises He it so long before why speaks He of it with so much pomp Why prayses He the effects and necessitie of it so much Why prefers He it before the Manna the bread which I will give you is my flesh he that shal eate of this bread hath everlasting life If you eate not my flesh you shal not have life in in you This is not as the manna your fathers have eaten If that which He gives is but a mite of bread the manna was to be prefer'd before it It was the figure of the Body of IESUS CHRIST as well as Calvins bread and much more express for it was mouldedâ— by hands of Angells the bread of Calvinists by the hands of men that came from heaven and their bread from a bakers oven that had all sorts of tasts their bread hath but one After He had promised it so long time and so solemnly He gives it but washes first the feet of his Disciples He makes them a long and sublime sermon He recommends to them puritie and charitie He makes to his Father a very long prayer and if all this tended but to give them a piece of bread I make you judg 5. Let us consult moreover the practise and the Pietie of the primitive Christians and we shal see that their faith and the religious S. Ambr. lib. 3. de Spirit Sto. c. 12 S. Crysos hom 24. in 1. ad Cor. Et in orat de Philogonio Ceremonies which they practised in respect of the Eucharist were-very contrarie to the error of the Calvinists they adored the holy Sacrament upon the Altar with the worship of Latria which cannot be given but to God only we adore the flesh of CHRIST yet this day in the sacred Mysteries says S. Ambrose S. Augustine upon these words of the Psalme Adore his footstool sayd Christ hath given us his flesh to eate but nobody eates this flesh but after that he hath adored it S. Chrysostome Let us imitate at least the Mages who seeing Christ but in a manger adored Him with great fear and you see Him not in a manger but upon an altar 6. They feared extreamly to let fall upon the ground the least S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom 26. Origen hom 13. in Exod. particle of the Eucharist or one drop of the chalice as S. Austin and Origen do testify They required not only purity of body and sanctitie of soul to touch or receive this Sacrament but they demanded sanctiâ—ie to see it and to look upon it as appears in the first epistle S. Chrysostome wrote â—o Pope Innocent where he complains that soldiers sent by his enemies had entred in a tumultuous manner into the Church and he exagerats as a bold attempt that many of them who were not yet baptized had seen the holy Hosts They exposed not also to the Catechumens the secret of this Sacrament it was the secret of the Church which was not revealed but to her Children and it was a crime to speak of it in the presence of Catechumens or of Infidells this is seen in the epistle which the Synod of Allexandria wrote to the Catholick Bishops where the Council complains that the Arians were not asham'd to speak of the Mysteries in the presence of Catechumens and what is wors before infidells 7. Now I appeal to your consciences if the Christians of the primitive Church did believe that the Eucharist is but a morcel of bread which minds us of the body of IESUS would they have adored it with supream worship would they have thought it so great an incongruitie to let fall the least crum of it would they have required such puritie of body and soul to receive it to touch it or to hear or speak of it 8. All the Articles of our faith are equally true but there are none of them so express in scripture none taught so clearly by the holy Fathers less opposed in primitive times confirmed by so many miracles received so unversally in Europe in Asia and in Africa as this For amongst all Catholicks Hereticks Schismaticks amongst Grecians Latines Hebrews Abyssins or Ethiopians which have been and which are at present Calvin only with his Partie hath obstinately denyed it I leave you to thinke with whom you should chuse to rise and appear at the day of judgment either with S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostom and all the other holy Doctors of the east west south and north who florished in the time when the Church was in her greatest puritie and vigour or with Calvin who came fifteen hundred years after the institution of this Sacrament 9. Follow the counsell which the holy Ghost gives you by the Wiseman Ne transgrediaris terminos antiquos quos posuerunt Patres tui Passe not the bounds which your Ancesters have put hold the beliefe of those primitive Christians and the doctrine of these holy Fathers who were taught by the Apostles or by their Successours who read the holy Scripture day and night who meditated upon it seriously who were particularly assisted by the holy Ghost to understand it well who were desinteressed and free from passion for
46. 16. and should burn in Sacrifice all the beasts that feed on it in acknowledgment of Gods Benefits all that would not be enough He sayd true but he sayd not all for we may add if we should make a fire with all the fewell in the world and all men and Angells should be therein consum'd for the honor of God all that would not suffice to acknowledg worthily the favours He hath don us But when we offer to God the precious Body of his Son we render him that which doth counterpoise all Benefits He hath don not only to poor sinners upon Earth but moreover to Saints in Heaven 8. This Host of praise being presented to God in thanksgiving for favours obtaines other If you shal aske says our Saviour any Iohn 16 23. thing of my Father in my name He will give it you We cannot better ask of God any favour in the name of IESUS then having Him with us upon our Altars in our hands and within us The Clemency of God will have regard to the love He hath for Him to the sacred Oblation you present to him and harken to the petitions you make by him Have you much offended God deserv'd his justice and his anger Do you fear the effects of his vengeance Dare you not appear in his presence by reason of the enormity of your crimes Take into your company the Heire of heaven the beloved of the eternal Father assist at Mass devoutly offer to the Father the precious Body which is there Sacrificed the blood which there is poured forth the Passion which there is represented and you will appease his anger and He will harken to your requests For it was for this chiefly that Christ instituted this Sacrifice to be the sacred Victime which appeases the wrath of God as he declares in Saint Luke when you are in the state of sin if mass be sayd S. Luke 22. 20. for you or if you assist at it this obtaines of God actuall graces lights and good motions to enter into your selves to quit the sin and to convert your selves to God if you resist not the Summons of his graces when you are in the state of grace Part of the merits sufferances and satisfactions of IESUS CHRIST are applyed to you to acquit your debts and to deminish the pains due to your sins 9 But suppose you are not indebred to the Iustice of God the poor souls in Puâ—gatory are and you may help them much by making a mass to be sayd or by hearing one for them For 't is not in vaine says S. Chrysostome that the Apostles ordain'd that in the dreadfull Misteries we make a memory of the dead for they knew that by it arriv'd to them great benefit And S. Cyrill of Hierusalem S. Chry. tom 3 in Ep ad Philip. S. Cyrill Catech. Mystag 5 Paulo ante medium Aug. lib. 9. Confes C 35. we beseech God for the dead believing the obsecration of that holy and dreadfull sacrifice which is put upon the Altar to be a great kelp to the soules for which 't is offered Wherefore S. Augustine in his Confessions prayes God to inspite the Bishops and the Priests of his acquaintance to remember his Father and Mother at the Altar 10 Having then seen how acceptable and glorious this Sacrifice is to God how beneficial both to the living and the dead fail not to assist at as many masses as you may hear them as devoutly as you can Offer them in the first place to God to do homage to your Soveraign to render him your respects and humble submissions to pay him the tribute of honour and service which you owe him Secondly to thanke him for an infinity of most great and inestimable benefits you have received from him benefits in soul benefits in body benefits of nature grace spiritual and temporal Thirdly to appease Him and to ask pardon of Him for jnnumerable sins you have committed and to gaine his favour represent to Him the love which his Son had for Him the zeal which He had for his glory the service He hath don Him offer and lay before Him the Mysteries of his Incarnation Nativity Circumcision his life labors and Passion this is that which S. Paul calls obsecrations Fourthy beg light and guidance in your actions succour and assistance in temptations love and grace to keep his commandements and all that is necessary as well for the spiritual as the temporal and you should do all these dutyes not only for your family but also for others If you assist at mass so you will not receive only the many and great advantages of it in this life but moreover reap the fruits of the Mysteries which the Mass represents to you and which glory discovers to the Blessed in the other Amen DISCOURS XLVII OF THE THREE PARTS OF PENANCE 1. AMongst many expressions which the holy Ghost vses in the scripture to make us conceive the maligne and monstrous nature of sin one of the most natural is the comparison of an impostume An impostume is a corruption of flesh and blood in our bodys which makes a stinking smell sin is a corruption of reason and of vertue in our souls which cause a stink unsupportable to God and his Angells They are corrupted and made abominable says the Royal Prophet All Surgeons will tell you and daily experience Psal 13. 1. shews it that to cuâ—e an impostume three things are necessary First it must be cut with a lancet secondly the corruption must be forced out in the third place it must be bound up oyls and unguents being applyed to it Such like are the three parts of penance so often repeated and so ill practised Contrition is the cut of the lancet Confession is that which brings out the corruption Satisfaction is the application of the unguents and binders These are the 3. Acts necessary to cure the spiritual but horrible impostume of sin of which I shal treat in this Discours In which omitting the Questions of Scholasticks I propose only Verities drawn out of Scripture and Councills of the Church 2. First then it is certain that 't is absolutely necessary to repent after sin that without repentance there is no pardon no grace of God no hope of salvation whatsoever Confession or Satisfaction you do make whatever absolution is given you Whatsoever indulgence or Iubily is granted you If you want this repentance also without your fault though also you think you have it if you have it not in effect there is no Sacrament nor absolution profitable And certainly Absolution is not more efficacious and requires not less disposition than Baptisme But to receive profitably Baptisme if we be in mortal sin we must have sorrow for it for in the second and third chapter of the Acts S. Peter having made a powerfull predication and his Auditours being moved inquired of him what ought we to do to obtain pardon of our sins He answered do Penance and
their fault they have well deserv'd it since they might have saved themselves so easily 9. But th'o we have so much convenience to make use of this great Benefit and to help our selves by this Power Yet if we should be so ill advised as to lose the grace of God by consenting to a mortal sin we should hazard our salvation Wherefore the Royal Prophet advises us that if we have innocence to take great care to keep it to be solicitous not to offend God and for Psal 36. this effect to remember that He is just and that his justice obliges him to punish sinners and to favour and save the Just Beware to say when temptation solicits you I 'le tast the sweetnes of this pleasure I will satisfy my desire when I have taken my pleasure and contented my passion I will do penance I 'le go to confession and be absolu'd Will you do penance you might do it if it depended but on you if you could do it of your self But the Son of God says to you in the Gospell You can do nothing without me you cannot then do penance if God does Iohn 15. not make you do it you cannot have repentance if God does not give it to you This gift is an effect of his benevolence and You provoke his vengeance by your sin t is an effect of his goodness and you draw severity t is an effect of his mercy and you irritate his anger The ordinary effect of his anger is to abandon a sinfull soul to deliver her up to the tyrannie of her passions to let her fall from sin into sin from precipice into precipice The people Isa 64. 5. Deut. 32. 35. sayd to him in Isaiah You are angry and we are fallen into sin we are becom unclean And He himself in Deuteronomie The Vengeance that I will take of them is that I will permit that they do fall And yet more terribly by Ezechiel if the Iust shal be turn'd from his Iustice and shal do iniquity I will lay a stumblingblock before Ezec. 3. 20. him Snares shal be layed and occasions of sin Will be given you by the permission of God who will also substract from you his efficacious grace in punishment of your sins 10. S. Chrysostom S. Basil and other Fathers Speaking of the Chrys hom 3. in Ep. ad Heb. S. Basil de Humil. in med sin of S. Peter who denyed so weakly and deplorably his Master say that our Saviour left him in his own weakness and permitted him to fall in punishment of his rashness becaus he had presumed of himself and sayd though all the rest should abandon their Master he would die with him rather then deny him if God let S. Peter fall into a mortal sin in punishment of a venial have you not reason to fear that in punishment of a mortal sin which you commit He will let you fall into another and in punishment of the second into a third fourth fifth and into other sorts of crimes as Cain Pharao Saul and in fine into obduration 11. But you will say the grace of God is so powerful that there is no understanding so blind but He can enlighten it no heart so hard but He can soften it no will so rebellious but He can overcom it T is true But God hath not promised his Victorious grace to any sinner in particular He owes it to none and He refuses it to many 12. But hath not our Saviour sayd I will not reject him that coms to me Yes but He adds Nobody coms to me unless my Father draw him 13. But S. Austin Says Are not you drawn pray God to draw you and the Son of God makes us this promise Ask and you shal receive Yes you shal receive all that you ask as you ought and as God wills you to ask otherwise you will obtain nothing for S. Iames says to many of us you ask and Iames. 4. 3. you receive not becaus you ask amiss You ask not so much nor in the manner as a thing so precious deserves to be demanded says S. Augustine Salomon prayed God to give him Continence and he asked it not slackly or tepidly but with his whole heart as the Scripture tells us and yet he obtain'd it not he became about his old age most carnal and voluptuous becaus he asked it not with that confidence and perseverance which God required of him As when the holy Scripture Says He that shal invocate the name of our Lord shal be saved this is not to say all they that invocate him in what manner soever but they that invocate him with the faith piety and purity of conscience that God requires Do you not then see that by consenting to a mortal sin You hazard your salvation that you endanger your happy eternity You may be surprised in this state by a sudden and unprouided death which arrives daily by so many accidents If it should not Yet you will not get out of this mire if God draw you not out of it and He being not obliged 't is a doubtfull case whether or no He will All the assurance you have of it is a perhaps If you commit the sin perhaps God will draw you out of it exercising his mercy in respect of you perhaps he will leave you in it exercising his justice upon you the first is not more to be hop'd then the second is to be fear'd Nay experience makes us see that in this case more are the objects of his justice then of his mercy for we find more that fall into the second third or hundredth sin then they that truly rise after the first And if you have difficulty to resist a temptation now when you are powerfully assisted by God how will you when these great helps shal be drawn from you If you do not when you are free how will you when you are a slave of sin If you do not when you are well cover'd and armed with the grace of God and gifts of the holy Ghost how will you when you shal be naked and unarm'd If you do not when you are strong and in good health how will you do it when you shal be weak and wounded Are you then in the state of grace Say as holy Iob and do as he till I fail I will not depart from my innocency Iob. 27. 5. my justification which I have begun to hold I will not forsake Amen DISCOURS XIV OF THE ELEUENTH ARTICLE The Resurrection of the flesh IT was so necessary that this Article should be well established in our faith that after the Apostles had made the Faithfull to profess it in their Creed S. Paul yet proves it by many Arguments He solves also the objections that might be made against it and assures us so much of it that he says if our Bodys do not rise again neither is CHRIST Cor. 1. 15. Cor. 2. 5. 10. risen up again And in
say that God does not require of us all the good that He enables us to do and this is the ground of works of superero gation and doing more then is commanded Now if God do not require all but only thus much to do well then the doing better then well is a stock which God gives us to offer Him liberal services beyond the band of duty And what pride is it for man to acknowledg this sweet providence of his Creatour and to pâ—aise his mercifull indulgence in not exacting so much as He might and giving him a way and meanes to shew his voluntary and unexacted love to him We give surely by this more honor and glory to God then they who say that God requires of us all that He enables us to do yea and more commanding things impossible and then punishes us for not doing them Far be such a thought of God from a Christian heart God commands nothing but what is honourable profitable and also easy with his grace That which He demands to save us is that we do good workes conformable to our supernatural Being and to the high end to which we are designed that we do them in a competent and convenient Quantity and that we do not abuse or lose the Talents which He lends us but use these well in the practise of them as shal be seen God Matt. 3. 10. aiding in this Discours 6. Now the axe is put to the root of the tree every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit shal be cut down and cast into the Matt. 7. 19. Matt. 20. fire says S. Iohn Baptist And our Saviour himself in the Gospell confirms the Sermon of his Precursor and repeats his words Every tree that beares not good fruit shal be cut down and shal be cast into the fire It is not then enough for to be saved to have only the Psal 61. 13. Matt. 16. 27. Rom. 2. 6. 2. Cor 5. 10. Apoc. 2. 23. leaves of Saintlike words or only the flowers of holy and good desires or only the rinds and the exteriour of good fruit but we must have good and perfect fruit which are the workes of Vertues And in S. Matthew He calls the Elect not Speakers not designers not complementers but Workemen Voca operarios So in divers other places of holy Writ it is sayd God will render unto every one not according to his designes or fine discourses but according to his workes He that made you without you will not save you without you sayd S. Augustine And explicating these words of David I sought God with Aug. Ep. 21. ad Prob. c. 13. Psal 76. 2. my hands since God hath no body sayes he how can one seek him with the hands he answers that is to say with good workes And this is not that God is hard to bestow his gifts and to do good to his creatures but 't is that He would do it reasonably and decently according to the rules of his providence and infinite Wisdom He hath united his glory and our interests in procuring our Salvation He will exercise and make seen his adorable perfections his Power Wisdom and incomprehensible Goodnesse The glory of his power shin'd more when he overcame Egipt by an army of flies when he defeated Holofernes by the hand of a woman than when He made use of powerfull armies Erit memoriale nominis tui cum manus feminae dejecerit eum And this same power shines yet more gloriously when He ruines the empire of Satan beates down the reigne of sin and of the world conquers heaven and beares away the Crown of glory by feeble instruments He shews his Wisdome which demands that his goods and gifts be not undervalued that one give them not to the unworthy who contemne them 't is to have little esteem of them and dispise them if we will not labor to obtaine them He makes his goodness seen in that he vouchsafes to make use of his creatures in an employment so honourable and so glorious We hold it a great honor to be employed by a King in the regency and the government of a Kingdom how much more honor is it to be associated with a God in his more great and noble actions to conquer the kingdom of heaven to sanctify our soules and to enrich our selves with christian Vertues 7. The Scripture speaking of the glory of heaven sayes it is a salarie a harvest a crown for to teach us that if we will be saved we must necessarily labor sow fight Each one shal receave his reward according to his labor says S. Paul to the Corinthians 1. cor 3. 8. Gal. 6 7 2. Tem. 2. 5. and to the Galatians a man shal not reap but what he hath sown And to Timothy No man shal be crown'd but he that hath fought legitimatly A servant that should not have don any evill but should have held his armes closed all the day and year would he have the impudence to demand a salary a labourer that shouâ—d neither have sown nor planted would he hope to gather or reape any thing A Soldier that hath play'd whilst that others fought would he have the boldness to desire to be crown'd The Son of God who is our modell was not contented to desire our Salvation and to demand it of his Father He laboured for it and to succeed in it we must apply our selves to vertuous workes efficaciously and seriously and in the second place as good trees we must produce these good fruits plentifully 7. The Son of God saies in S. Iohn I am the Vine you the Iohn 15. 5. branches He that abides in me and I in him he brings forth much fruit He sayes not simply fruit but much fruit then He adds if any abide not in me he shal he cast forth as the branch and shal wither and shal be thrown into the fire He was so much concern'd for the fecundity of his branches that He suffered death to merit grace for them to produce an abundance of good fruit He delivered himself sayes S. Paul that He might redeem us from all iniquity and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable a pursuer of good workes Wherefore the Apostle ceased not to pray for the Collossians Ep. ad Tit. 2. 14. Colloss 1. 10. 2. Thess 2. 17. that they might walke whorthy of God in althings pleasing fructifying in all good workes And in like manner prays God to exhort comfort and confirme the Thessalonians in every good worke and word But he makes us see yet more the necessity of this fecundity or abundance of good workes in the second Epistle to S. Timothy for behold how he deciphers there an elect soule who aspires seriously to the happy life and who shal obtaine it she is sayes he a Vessel unto honor sanctifyd and profitable to our Lord ready and disposed to every good worke He sayes ready or prepared 2. Tim. 2 21. because every
the felicities He promised to the Iews and which seem to us so admirable are but shadows and figures of them 4. But some will say what will these great Promises avail us if we cannot perform the condition under which they are made to us and if we cannot keep the Commandements of God also with that grace He gives us Some indeed have sayd this But the Scriptures say quite the contrary This commandement which I command thee is not above thee says the eternal Father My yoke Deut 30. 11. Matth. 11. 30. 1. Iohn 5. 3. S. Luke 1. 6. is sweet and my burden light says IESUS-CHRIST His commandements are not heavy sayd his beloved Disciple And his Evangelist S. Luke does tell us that Zachary and Elizabeth were just and walked without reproof in all the Commandements and justifications of the Lord. And we also may do as they Els God would be unjust imposing impossible commands upon us cruel in punishing us for not keeping them and a mocker in promising us his heaven if we shal observe them 5. We ought also to keep these divine commandements not with a servil fear but with a filial love as S. Austin says so often not as slaves but as children for we have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear But we have received the spirit of adoption of children says S. Paul And this David did yet in the old Law repeating so often I have loved your Law I have affected your commandements they are the ioy of my heart I have loved them more than millions of gold more than the Topase and other precious stones more than all the riches of the world they are to me more sweet than hony I take more pleasure in keeping them than à Conquerour in burdening himself with spoiles And to see clearly that they are most reasonable most just and most amiable let us make a supposition that there are but two Townes in this world and that in one of them all the inhabitants keep exactly the commandements of God and that to the other God hath not given any commandements but permits every one without punishment to live as he list Is it not true that the former City would be a terrestrial Paradise a garden of delights a place of peace and tranquillity an image of the state of Innocency and a foretaste of Felicity There would be no envy no detraction no quarrel no enmitie no injustice no fear or diffidence there would be no need of bolts upon doores nor locks upon coffers nor of guards nor sentinells but upon the frontiers But the other City where no body should be oblig'd to keep the commandements of God would be a forrest peopled with robbers who would pillage one another a den of Lyons who would tear and eate each other a Sty of hoggs who would wallow in all sorts of ordures 6. Have we not then cause to thanke God for giving us commandements so holy so just so saving and so amiable ought we not to submit our selves with much respect to the orders of his soveraignity The Epithetes which the scripture gives them ought to perswade us to it It says that they are Testimonies because they testify to us and certify us of that which God requires of us That they are Iudgments becaus they will condemne us if that we transgress them That they are justifications becaus they justify us and render us just before God when we keep them That they are wayes and paths because we go to Heaven by the observance of them which God of his mercy grant us Amen DISCOURS XXVIII Of the first Commandement I Am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of egipt and out of the house of bondage Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven thing nor any similitude that is in heaven above or in earth below or of things that are in the waters under the earth Thou shalt not adore nor serve them I am the Lord thy God strong and iealous visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation and shewing mercy to thousands of those that love me and keep my commandements Exod. 20. Some also of the Ancient put only these words r◠Thou shalt not have strange Gods or as other Versions have other Gods before me in the first commandement And they begin the second from the following words Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven thing and lest that by so doing they increase the number of the commandements which are called ten Words in the scripture they comprise these last words Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife Thou shalt not desire his house or other goods in one commandement But we divide these last words into two commandements and the first words which others divide we unite in one becaus this hath been more generally receiv'd aprov'd for the better division by S. Austin and is also more conformable Aug. Quest 71. in Exod. concl 1. in Psal 32. Ep 119. ad Ian c 11 lib. 15. cont Faustuns and els where Deut 5 to reason for the exteriour octs of adultery and theft being forbidden by two precepts should not the interiour acts or desires be prohibited by two commandements since these are as different as the other Nor does it make against us that the interiour acts seem in Exodus to be indistinctly and promiscuously prohibited by one precept since in Deuteronomy which is a repetition revision and an explication of the Law they are distinctly and severally prohibited and that the 70. Interpreters put these Precepts in both places as distinct and divers Since then we find divers prohibitions and divers acts prhibited in the last words and that the correspondent exterior acts are forbidden by divers precepts we have more reason to divide the last words than the first which forbid in substance but one kind of Sin and make one compleat and perfect prohibition of Idolatry which will yet more appear by the explication of them though this controversy raised by Calvin seems not to be of great importance since it imports not much how these words are divided provided that ten commandements be admitted and all the words acknowledged and observed 2. Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven thing nor any similitude God forbids not to make a statue Image or a representation absolutely either for ornament memory instruction help of devotion or for any good use or purpose whatsoever For He commanded soon after Images similitudes and representations of divers things to be made Images of Angells to wit Cherubins Exod 25. the similitude of a serpent Numbers 21. Representations of oxen and Lyons and other graven things 3. of kings 6. and 7. And therefore Protestants themselves Scruple not to have and make such things No Presbiterian or Puritan is so precise but he will engrave carve print and paint them
and he will be responsible The holy Ghost tells us not with what punishments He will chastise him beeaus he sends divers sorts of them some He chastiles in one manner other in another according to the Rules of his Providence and good pleasure But why labour I in this behalf This word which the Son of God sayd ought to be S. Matt 5. more then enough to avert men from unnecessary Oathes You have heard that it was sayd to them of old Thou shalt not forsweare thy self But I say to you Sweare not at all He understands here vainly or in vaine for He explicates or extends this Precept Thou shalt not take the Name of God in vain 15. If Christians must abstain from oathes with greater reason yet from Blasphemy Which is a reproach or contumely thrown upon God himself or upon his Saints This Vice is so detestable that vertuous Persons in the Scripture had a horrour to pronounce it and in stead of sayng blaspheme God they were wont to say Bless God Lest perhaps my children have sinned and blest God sayd holy Iob. The Iewes had this Vice in so great-abomination Iob. 1. 5. that when they heard a blasphemy they rent and tore their garmetns to shew they would have no part in so enormous a Crime and that they detested it extreamly I would not counsell you to tear your cloathes as often as you hear blasphemy you would do it too often in these times I dare not counsell you that which S. Chrysostom counselled his Auditours when you hear a monster of Chrysost hom ad pop Antioc infin nature who dares to blaspheme give him a great blow upon his face you will sanctify your hand by this action this service which you do to God will be as sacred oyle and a holy unction that will consecrate your hand I dare not give you this counsell unless for those that are under your care as your children and your servants But when you hear others blaspheme you ought at least to rent your heart to be displeased at this impudence and to shew that it displeases you admonish charitably the insolent and if he will not hear you fly his company and adore the high Majesty of God making him by this action as it were amends for the injury He received that you may avert from you and from the Community the wrath and Vengeance of God that blasphemy brings upon you 16. Follow then if you be wise and put in practise the advertisement of the Son of God Let your speech be yes yes S. Matth. 5. no no when you will affirm any thing content your selves to say this is so or els it is not so and that which is over and above these is of Evill says JESUS-CHRIST if you add any oath it is an ill effect of an evill cause This evill comes sometimes from the incredulity of him to whome you speak But if he will not believe you let him go see or let him stay there ought his incredulity to make you disobedlent to God if you sweare not he will not believe you and if you sweare God will be offended with you which of the two is most to be feared It is of evill This evill coms often from your bad Conscience you sweare becaus your Conscience dictates to you that you deserve not to be credited upon your simple word and consequently you shew that you are subject to lying if you be subject to lying you are bad if you are bad you deserve not to be believed also when you sweare It is of evill This evill coms from a bad habit you have contracted you will never put it off if you watch not over your selves if you do not some penance as often as you sweare Give something to the Poor say a Pater noster bite your tongue pull a haire out of your head that the rigour of the penance may make the ill Custome to give place says S. Austin Can you cure a dangerous and inveterate infirmity without bleeding phisick or any remedy Thinke you to root out this bad custome without labour penance or any violence It is of evill this evill coms from your anger you excuse your selves there upon but it is to wash your selves with inke you are culpable both for being angry and for swearing or blaspheming in anger If you correct not your self God hath anger as well as you but very different from yours He hath anger most reasonable and just which will punish yours most justly It is of evill This evill comes from the evill Spirit who rages with hatred against God and against you and who is glad to vse your tongue to spite God and to make you criminal unhappy an enemie of God as he companion in his miseries and his paines Let us then detest the execrable language of sinners and let us say with Saints I will bless our Lord in all times I will bless him in the morning becaus He ought to have the first and the best of all things In the evening becaus He is the last end of all my workes During the day becaus by his order the day continues to enlighten me I will bless him in adversity becaus then He is with me In prosperity becaus it is a present that he makes me to oblige me to praise and love him I will bless him in all times that I may begin in this life what I shal do by his grace in heaven where I shal praise bless and glorify him for ever Amen DISCOURS XXXI OF THE THIRD COMMANDEMENT Remember that thou Sanctify the Sabbath day 1. IF this commandement does oblige us Christians as it oblig'd the Iewes we commit three great faults each of which does bring damnation This Commandement oblig'd the Iewes to rest on the same day that God Exod. 20. 9. Levit. 23 3. Exod. 35 3. Exod. 16 23. Levit. 23. did rest to wit on saturday and we rest on Sunday It forbid them all worke as to light a fire to dress meat to waâ—k in the fields except one mile or there about And we do on sunday these workes which were forbidden The day of rest began from the evening of its Vigil and we begin it but after midnight Who hath given us all these dispensations Who hath licenced us to break all these Lawes We find not in the new Testament one only word that gives us a playn and clear excuse We read indeed in the Apocalyps that S. Iohn was in spirit upon our Lords day there was then such a day as our Lords Apoc. 1. day But a Sabbatharian will say to us he does not tell you that the Sanctification given to saturday was taken from that day nor that there was given a command to all the world not to worke upon that day which he called our Lords day nor does it appear there or elswhere in the scripture that it was not the day of the Resurrection or Ascension or Christmas day
which S. Iohn called our Lords day We read again in the Acts that the first christians met upon the first day of the week which is our sunday to communicate But Acts. 20. 7. a Sabbatharian wil reply again what then The Text does not say they assembled always on that day or only on that day yea we read in the Acts that they communicated very frequently Acts. 2. or every day How do you then inferr from their communicating once upon that day that the Sabbath was abrogated and the Sunday was subrogated in its place Nay you find in the new Law that though the old Law was by CHRIST evacuated yet the ten Commandements were by Him confirm'd For in S. Matthew one came to our Saviour saying what good shal I do that I may have everlasting life Our Saviour Matth. 10. answered keep the commandements And when that man reply'd to know what commandements Our Lord explicated himself to mean those Commandements which that man knew very well S. Mark 10. S. Luke 18. Cor. 7. 19 as appears also in S. Mark and in S. Luke Secondly S Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians says Circumcision is nothing and prepuce is nothing but the observance of the Commandements of God this is the thing you must look too if you will have everlasting life Behold here that great Apostle tels you rhat even then when Circumcision was abolished and made nothing yet the observance of the Commandements and he excepts not one was necessary to salvation And our Saviour foretelling his Apostles the destruction of Hierusalem which was to be 40. yeares after his Resurrection when one would think the observance of the Sabbath would have been S. Matthew 24. 20. if ever it were to be abolished yet He bids them pray that their flight might not be upon the Sabbath or the 7. th day for to avoyd the prophanation of that day The seventh day then was to be observ'd long after the supposed practise of Communion upon the Sunday Acts. 20. 7. 1. Cor. 16 and long after S. Paul bids Christians to make their collections upon the first day of the week from whence you draw another argument though the Apostle does not so much as say that they did use to meet that day and seems to appoint that day only for a pious beginning of the week 2. Since then the Scriptures are not clear for us in this important point yea seem rather to be against us How do we know that the obligation of sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day was taken away And how do we know that a new obligation of sanctifying the Sunday was put upon us we know it by the same way we know the Bible is the Word of God that the Creed was made by the Apostles that infants are to be baptized that the prohibition of the new Law to eate suffocated Acts. 15. meats and blood is repeal'd and to be short as we know other things of great importance not written or not plainly 2. Thes. 2. 15. declar'd in Scripture And this is Apostolical Tradition which S. Paul bids us hold For the Church by the instruction of the Apostles tells us plainly that the Son of God hath freed us from all obligation to sanctify the Sabbath of the Iewes and hath instituted Sunday for us Christians For on this day the principal Workes attributed to the most holy Trinity and don in favour of us were begun or accomplished It was on Sunday that God began to create the World It was on Sunday that our Saviour came into the world that He was born of the B. Virgin and that he rose again from the dead It was on Sunday that the holy Ghost descended upon the Faithfull to sanctify the world 3. These incomparable Workes should be the object of our devotion on Sundays to conforme our selves to the intentions of our Saviour and of the Church For this Commandement is both affirmative and negative as negative it forbids servil workes as affirmative it commands us to sanctify the day that is to employ the day in holy Workes as in assisting devoutly at divine service in praying in contemplating particularly those great workes of God for to admire the excellencie of them and to thank bless and praise him for them in receiving the Sacraments in reading spiritual books in hearing the word of God in visiting the Poor Sick and Prisoners which is an act af Religion says S. Iames in instructing one another in the Mysteries of Faith in the Commandements of God in S. Iames 1. 27. the practise of vertue and Religion S. Chrysostome sayd that Sunday was called the day of bread becaus all Christians then receiv'd the bread of Angells in the Eucharist the day of light becaus we ought to receive tâ—erein light and guidance for all the week by sermons catechismes spiritual reading and meditation If then we employ great part of the day in dancing playing and recreating our selves we offend not indeed against the negative Commandement which forbids servil workes but we do not accomplish perfectly the affirmative precept which commands us to sanctify the day 4. They violate the negative Commandement who employ the holy days in traficking in buying or selling or other servil and mercenary employments and are subjects of the complaynt which God makes by Ezechiel The houses of Israel provoked me and my Ezeeh. 20. 13. Sabbaths they violated exceedingly 4. You wilâ— say If I sell not another will I shal lose my custome and shal want But if this be so S. Paul would not say Piety is profitable to all things that is both to the spiritual 1. Tim. 4. 8 Matt 6. 31. and the temporal Nor would our Saviour conclude Be not therefore solicitous for the Sustenance of your bodys seek first the kingdom of God and his Providence will furnish you the rest by the meanes of moderate labour If we ever ought to seek the kingdom of God we ought to do it at least on Sundays and becaus you seek it not you are not supplyed with the rest You neglect the spiritual for the temporal and you lose both temporal and spiritual you are poor in this world and in the other 5. They have violated my Sabbaths exceedingly God says Exceedingly against those who not only serve not God on sundays but offend him more outragiously than in any other day by debaucheries impieties and dissolutions It seems the sunday is made by some the sink of all the week who having not leasure to offend God on other days transferr this to the sunday It is not now our Lords day with them but the devills their solemnities are not the festivalls of Saints but of Bacchus Ceres and Venus Heretofore the devills left the bodyes of possessed persons and withdrew themselves into the desert as unable to endure the piety and devotion of the Faithfull But now they possess the hearts of Christians as those hoggs of the
cause by its effects the original by the copy such a Master such a man such Parents such children commonly speaking It is the gain of the Parents you will gain the affection and the praises of your children They will say after your death Thankes be to God who gave us Parents so exemplar vigilant and vertuous It is your gain you will gain Heaven for S. Paul says if a woman continue in faith and love in sanctification and sobriety and breed up her children in the same she shal obtain salvation 1. Tim. 2. 18. Amen DISCOVRS XXXIIII OF THE FIFTH COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not kill THis Commandement forbids us to kill without legitimate Authority either our own selves or any humane creature either positively by putting the cause of death or negatively by not removing it if in our power To which the Son of God hath added But I say to you Whosoever shal be angry shal be in danger of judgment Nevertheless since our Saviour Matth. 5. is the perfect modell and Idea of the elect and that we see in the scripture He hath been sometimes angry It seems that imitation of him in this point is an action not permitted Mark 3. 5. only but vertuous and meritorious To clear this point in which the difficulty of this commandement consists and to make this discours beneficial We will see first whether or no there was any anger in IESUS-CHRIST Secondly the difference of his and ours and thirdly the remedies of ours Lord rebuke me not in thy fury nor chastise me in thy anger says the Royal Prophet Our Saviour IESUS-CHRIST is He transported with fury Is He subject to any passion as to Psal 6. make his blood boil his eyes sparkle his mouth froth to set his face on fire and afterwards to make it pale to disorder his soul in her functions and to deprive her of her empire and command for these are the proper effects and symtoms of anger which made the Stoicks after many disputes upon this subject say a wise man is not subject to these passions It is certaine that in our Saviour as he is God there is no such Passion for his Divinity being most pure simple and invariable cannot be subject to these transports and alterations 3. Nevertheless the holy Ghost in the Scripture to condescend to our infirmity and to accommodate himself to our manner of speaking and understanding attributes to God many things which pertain not to him properly but only by Analogy and likeness to that which is seen in creatures so He attributes to him anger which is no other thing in him than his justice which is called anger becaus it hath the same effect as anger but not the weakness and imperfection of anger He that is angry revenges the injury receiv'd but with transport and commotion God by his justice punishes sin but with tranquillity without passion Thou judgest with Wisd 12. 18. tranquillity says the holy Ghost in the book of Wisdom 4. But if we consider JESUS-CHRIST as man I will say with Divines that the passions love hatred choler and joy sorrow desire and fear being appurtinances to humane nature certainly were in IESUS-CHRIST as man But without the imperfections wherewith original sin hath soiled them which hath made them in us strong and vigorous and to revolt continually The Passions of IESUS were not such He had absolute command over them they were perfections natural organs and instruments which He apply'd to holy uses Wherefore the Saints dared not call them simply Passions but Propassions to signify that in this holy Soul there were some dispositions which held the place of passions and therefore are called propassions as the Pronounes are so called becaus they hold the place of Nounes So the sacred Historians recount that IESUS entring into the Temple raised in himself anger ouverthrew the tables of the Marchands and chased them out as doggs May we imitate him in this Is it good to raise anger in our selves ought we not to confess it We need not absolutely speaking 't is neither vice nor imperfection but a good action and a vertue to raise anger provided it be seasoned with all necessary circumstances and like to that of IESUS But becaus we are commonly so frail and so imperfect that we know not how to use this knife without cutting our own selves all things well considered it is better to deprive our selves of it and not be angry 5. For the anger of JESUS was furnished with two conditions which commonly ours does want wherefore his was most vertuous and laudable ours vicious and reproachfull That of IESUS never prevented or surprized Him He had it not but when in what manner and so much as He would In in effect 't is sayd in the Gospell that He troubled himself and not that He was troubled S. Iohn 11. 13. S. Marke 14. 33. And again in the Vigill of his Passion He began to fear not before though He had a longtime the object present in his Spirit Anger did not prejudice the use of his reason it cast no darknes nor obscurity into his understanding it hindred him not to proceed most wisely and with entire circumspection in his actions His rod says Hieremiah is a watching rod which Hierom. 1. 11. hath open eyes to see where it strikes and how it strikes his anger is a zeal and not a passion most reasonable and most just Ours on the contrary is generally blind inconsiderate and rash It prevents the judgment and darkens reason and is the cause we know not what we do and that we do nothing that is good 6. All that you say or do in passion is never well sayd or well don and though you should speak golden sentences though you should do wonders they make no account of them they attribute them to your passion and not to you as they attribute to the liquor all that a man says or does in drink becaus they know a man drunk with liquor or with passion is uncapable to say or do any thing of worth So the Civil Laws I. Quocqd Si. de Reg Iur. 4. king 3. declare we ought not to regard what you say or do in the heat of passion if you persever not in it when your anger is allayed Eliseus finding himself moved by a just anger would not pronounce his Oracles and instruct the Kings but called a Musitian to appeas first the commotion by the gravity of his musick He knew well that a soul troubled with passion is uncapable Psal 106 27. S. Iames. 1. 20. of celestial lights And that anger of man works not the justice of God It belongs not but to IESUS and to his holy Mother to do a thing well in the heat of passion 7. Moreover there is a second difference of his and our anger His is never mixt with bitterness nor exercised with a desire of vengeance when He is angry and punishes us it is not out
the Wise-man says He that hides Prov. 28. 13. his sin cannot be corrected nor directed in the way of Salvation How can a Physician cure an infirmity hidden and unknown and how can the infirme be directed in the way of health when he hath not yet begun the way For the beginning of a good life is a confession of the evill says S. Austin It is likewise most criminal for 't is not only in its self a great crime but makes you to commit many other Sacriledges afterward in Confessions Sacriledges in communions and sins upon sins which will cast you into despair and into the mouth of hell But if you submit to the humiliation and shame which you have merited and confess entirely you rejoyce the the Angells and your Confessours with them you please the Son of God who desires nothing more than to pardon those who being penitent confess perfectly their sins 11. Let us com to Satisfaction which is the third part of penance and necessary to satisfy the justice of God and to compleat the cure of our souls For true penance is not that which the Calvinists do say perfect penance is not only that which many Catholicks do think Calvinists say that to do penance is to leave sinning and to amend ones life This is necessary but it suffices not many Catholicks thinke to do penance is to be sorrowfull for sins to confess them to a Priest receive absolution and to say a few prayers All this is necessary but 't is not enough To do entire and perfect Penance which appeases God averts his anger regains his favours and delivers us from the dreadfull effects of sin we must satisfy the justice of God by humble and fervent prayers by austerities and painfull works according to the multitude enormity and diversity of our offences For as often as the holy scripture speaks of penance it makes mention of works which afflict the flesh mortify sensuality and which are contrary to self love In Ioel Convert your selves to me in fasting and in weeping and in Ioel. 2. 12. Matt. 11. 2. Cor. 7. 11. S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom ult C. ult mourning In S. Matthew If in Tyre and Sydon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you they had don penance in haire-cloth and in ashes long ago And S. Paul says The sorrow which is according to God workes in us reveng by which we punish sin in our own selves Wherefore S. Austin tells us That 't is not enough to change the evill life into a better and to depart from past sins if we do not satisfy God by the regrets of penance by humble groanes by fasts and by Alms. 12. The primitive Christians were so firmly perswaded of this Verity that to avoyd the Vengeance of God and to satisfy his Iustice they willingly submitted to publick Penance in which they endured so many humiliations mortifications and confusions that it would seem incredible were it not attested by so great authority that we may not doubt of it 13. I know well that those rigorous observances are not now in use nevertheless they shew what was the sentiment of those great Saints who were the Disciples of the Apostles or the Disciples of their Disciples who had the spirit of God who read the Scriptures day and night who propagated the Church and watered it with their sweat and bood Those observances make known that 't is not so easy to appease God and to obtain full pardon as we imagin and that we we must employ ordinarily more than one hour one day or week to regaine his ancient favours and what we lost by sin 14. And to know that the present Church retaines the Spirit of the primitive read the Councill of Trent and you will see the Fathers Ss. 24 de Refor c. 8. order publick penance to be imposed for publick crimes if the Bishops dispence not with it And in the 14th ss chap. 8. they declare to Priests if through timerousness or too much condescendence and humane respects they give little penance for great crimes they make themselves partakers of the sins of others See if we are not in great danger and if we have not great reason to fear that we shal fall into the dreadfull hands of God What quarrells what drunkennesses what scandals are committed daily And what great penances are imposed for so many so great and enormous Crimes 15. But behold a doctrine of great Consolation which the Council of Trent does teach us 'T is that we may Satisfy the divine justice not only by the penances which the Confessor imposes Ss. 14. C. 9 not only by the prayers fasts alms austerities and mortifications which we assume voluntarily of our selves but moreover by all the humiliations and aflictions that befall us if we receive them as we ought When then God vouchsafes to send you Crosses and afflictions receive them not only with patience and resignation but with ioy and thankfullness kiss the hand that chastises you and adore the Justice that punishes you in this world to spare you in the other Say with the Prophet Micheas Iram Domini portabo quoniam peccavi ei I will suffer the anger of God Micheas C. 7. 9. I will endure willingly this affliction I will pardon them that afflict me for the love of God and for penance for my sins since I have been So rash as to offend Him 16. Let us conclude this Discourâ— with the words of the beloved Disciple Haec Scribo vobis ut non peccetis Be very carefull that you offend not God 't is the greatest evill that can befall you as often as you consent to a mortal sin you put your self in danger of damnation for you may die in this state without absolution You imagin that in this occasion you are secure of your salvation provided that you have time to say my God I aske you pardon you deceive your self for if you cannot have a Priest you must necessarily have perfect contrition and this is most hard and rare And if you have a Priest it helps you nothing without Attrition and you cannot have Attrition of your self 't is necessary that God do give it you by his powerfull grace and He owes you not this grace you have demerited it by your sin He hath not promised it to you and hath refused it to many But if by humane frailty you have sinned and averted your self from God beg instantly and humbly his grace through the merits of JESUS CHRIST to returne to Him by a true Conversion Returne by true sorrow for having offended a most adorable most amiable and most dreadfull Majesty Returne by an humble sincere and entire confession Returne by a satisfaction of Prayers Fasts and Alms you will be delivered from a most dangerous malady from a most infamous servitude from the sentence of eternal death You will recover sanctifying grace the gifts of the holy Ghost the merits of your
contrary Parties do confidently affirm that they have the true sense and understanding of the Scriptures and that consequently they make to themselves Faiths Religions and models of Government to the utter destruction of Vnity Peace and Charity it self Is it not then Necessary for the avoyding of Heresies and Divisions and for the preservation of Vnity and Peace to harken also in this part to the Church and to adhere to her sense of the holy Scripture Wherefore the Apostles oblige us to follow her and to rest in her judgements to dispute against whom S. Austin with great reason tells us is Ep. 1 insolent madness And lest we might doubt which among all the Societies of men in the Christian world is the dwelling place of Faith the spring of truth an the true Church of the living God the Apostles mark her out to us by three evident Notes which are proper to her and distinguish her from all other Churches they teach us that she is One Holy Catholick 6. First they teach us that She is One for they make us not to say I believe Churches but I believe the Church which is the kingdom of the Son of God his flock and mystical Body You never find in the Gospell that the Son of God hath many kingdoms many flocks many mystical Bodys But always one kingdom one sheepfold one mystical Body In S. Matt. 4. 23. Ch. 13. 41. Iohn 10. 16. Rom. 12. Ephes 4. v. 4 Matthew JESUS went about preaching the Gospell of the kingdom And again He says in the Same Gospell that He will send his Angells and they shal gather all scandalls out of his kingdom There shal be made one fold and one Pastor We being many are one Body in Christ One Lord one Faith One Baptisme 7. I demand now the Church of England is it the true Church if so the Protestant Church in Holland is not that in Germany is not that in France is not there is but one true Church and these are many they have nothing that unites them they depend not one of another they have not the same Superiour But among Catholicks many Bishopricks many Republicks Nations and Kingdoms are one Church becaus they are united in the same Spiritual Head or supream Pastor 8. You will say that which unites us is Faith we are one Body by the Vnity of Faith But besides that this Vnity which also excludes not Schismaticks is not enough to make one Church We need not but look into the books of Luther Calvin Zuinglius to know the war they make with one another We need not but to read the Works of their successours to see their disagreement in Points of the greatest importance There is nothing for example so important to Faith as to know which are the Canonical Books in which we ought to learn the Christian Verities and they agree not as we have seen in them And if they agree not about the prime Principle How can agreement be expected in the things which are drawn from thence Many differences might be named about most important matters their pursuit also of those differences demonstrats they do not judg them light which stretches to the condemning one another for Hereticks and Schismaticks and sometimes to breaking into open arms one against another 9. But Catholicks however divided by countrey language particular interest civil dissentions or war Yet agree exactly in all points of Faith If you go to France Spain Poland Italy or the Indies You will see that they teach the same Doctrine that they make every where the same Catechismes 10. And are not there some will say to me Thomists Scotists And other Parties who dispute continually Yes but this is not but in school difficulties in Philosophical Points in Questions grounded upon humane reason as concerning Articles of Faith All agree in them not one contradicts not one questions them 11. Secondly the Apostles teach us that the true Church is holy I believe the holy Church This is not to say that All that are therein are Saints For she is the field of the husbandman Matt. 3. 21. Matt. 13. 47. Ron. 9. 21 where the Cockle is mixt with good corn She is the net which takes and holds bad fish with the good She is the house where there are Vessells of ignominy with those of honour She is the Arke of the true Noah where there are clean and unclean animalls Gen. 7. 2 But the true Church is holy becaus she hath means to Sanctify her self and many obtain it by those means We ask it there and obtain it of God by Sacrifice It is given by Sacraments conserv'd by the observance of the commandements of God increased by the practise of good and vertuous works 12. But Reformers have forbidden all these ways they have abolished among them the only sacrifice of the Mass they have diminished the Sacraments of seven that CHRIST instituted they retain but two Baptisme and the Eucharist which also they have made almost unprofitable For they say that Baptisme is not necessary for their children and so deprive them often of this remedy to the exclusion of them out of the kingdom of Heaven according to the express words of the Son of God They have used yet wors the Eucharist instead of the real Presence Iohn 3. 5. of our Lord and Savior Source of all sanctity who sanctifys our souls and bodys in this Sacrament they have not in their supper but a morcel of bread an inefficatious and empty Sacrament which contains not what it signifiys 13. As concerning the Commandements besyds that they preach but those which Moses gave and not those which JESUS-CHRIST added to sanctify his Church they say that they are impossible also with the grace of God And what man will undertake to execute that which he judges to be impossible 14. As touching good Works they deny the worth and merit of them And who will undergo difficulty to practise good works when he believes that they have no worth or merit that faith only justifys and suffices to salvation if these principles do not usher in the neglect of all good works it is not becaus the Doctrins do not afford it but becaus they act by some other motives What Sanctity then may one expect where there is no Sacrifice to obtaine it of God No efficatious Sacraments where by to receive it No possibility to obey the Commandements of God to preserve it no good works to increase it So they say not S. Luther S Calvin S. Beza as they say S. Gregory S Bernard S. Bonaventure whom they confess to have been of the Roman Church and experience shews that there are none so holy so vertuous so perfect None so devout towards God charitable towards their neighbor so sober chast modest and humble as are innumerable Souls who live entirely according to the maxims and the instructions of the Catholick Church 15. Thirdly the Apostles teach us that the true Church
to drunkenness or to gluttony S. Paul says to us that our belly is our God if we are avaricious he declares to us that Philip. 3. 19. Colloss 3. 5. Ephes 5. gold and silver are our Idolls if we are unchast we adore an Idoll of flesh If it be our designe to greaten our selves and to make our fortune at what rate soever our idolls are the world and its vanities or our children If we cloath our selves excessively our Idolls are our bodys in a word all that weighs most in the ballance of our affections is our God says S. Austin Banish then all such inordinate affections honor and adore the true God only give your selves to him without reserve love him bless him fear him serve him with all your heart refer to him all that you do all that you say all that you are He only is your treasure your refreshment your life and your glory He alone is your honour prosperity and felicity in soul and body in time and in eternity upon earth and in Heaven where He will satiate and make you perfectly happy by the enjoyment of his eternal glory Amen DISCOURS XXIX OF THE FIRST COMMANDEMENT Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me c. AS by this commandement God excludes vnjust worship and adoration of fals Gods So by the same He demands just honor and homage which we owe to the only true God It is by the Vertue of Religion that we acquit our selves of this obligation For this vertue moves us to give to God the honour worship and adoration due to him by reason of the infinite Excellence of his nature and sovereignity over althings It teaches us to honor him by our Vnderstanding and our Will with our Body and ouâ— goods and moreover to honour althings that are specially referr'd to him And this is that which is exacted of us by this Commandement and which we shal shew in this Discours 1. The Vertue of Religion hath this Excellency amongst other moral Vertues that we may practise it in all occasions and in all times We have always the object of it great reason and Power to do it The object God is always near us we are in his presence He is always great and worthy of honor Great reason He obliges us incessantly we receive from him continually Being Preservation Motion we should think of him as often as we breath if we could and He did require it of us we have always Power to exercise this Vertue for there is no need of riches strength of body fine words It is practised by the motion of the heart by the affection of the soul by the acts of the understanding and the Will 2. By the understanding we must conceive a high and great esteem of his Greatness and Excellence of his Power Wisdom Goodness Iustice and other Perfections apprhend lively believe firmly profess humbly that He is infinitely Powerfull Wise Good that whatsoever He does He does it most wisely justly holily that all that we can think all that the Angells can conceive of his Greatness is nothing to that He is We must acknowledg before God that he is our Creator Beginning last End soveraign Good true Treasure only Beatitude that He is our legal Lord soveraign King that He can dispose of us more justly and absolutely then a King of his Vassal then a Master of his slave then a Potter of his earthen Vessel that if He should take our Children from us our goods honor life without having given Him any occasion of offence He would not do us injury would use his right would be in so doing most just amiable and adorable By our will we must resolve to do promptly all that we know conduces to the service of God and to the advancement of his glory and to avoyd all things which displeas Him To desire and beg frequently the things that are convenient to be asked of him that so we may honour and reverence Him by submitting our selves to him and by acknowledging that we have need of him and totally rely on him To adore him often professing subjection to his divine Will in acknowledgment of his excellency and infinite Majesty and our subjection and dependance on Him 3. And becaus we are composed of soulw and body and receive them and all other goods from him we owe him not only the interiour but also the exteriour acts of Religion such is Sacrifice by which we honour him as our God and Soveraign professing his supream Dominion and a dependency of all things on him we thanke him for Benefits satisfy his justice and implore succour of our necessities such is the use of Sacraments by which we tacitely protest that God is the Sanctifier and the Authour of grace which subjects to him more and more our Souls Such are genuflections prostrations to testify by these signes the high esteem we have of his Greatness and our submission to him Such in fine are thankes Vocal prayers prayses and other like tributes of honor and homage which we pay to him We ought more over to employ our labour and to use our goods for the service of him Yea to contemne our honor and sacrifice our lives in a just occasion 4. And since all that is in God is God and consequently amiable honourable and adorable we ought also to honor and adore all his divine Attributes and Perfections cheifly in occasions when it pleases him to practise them When he sends prosperities to vertuous people or to their children adore his fidelity who promised to favour the vertuous when He gives goods to ill men adore his Goodness who does good to his Enemies when He calls a just man out of this life who seem'd necessary in this world adore his Independence who hath not need of his creatures when He preserves in life the Vicious adore his Patience and Longanimitie When He sends afflictions adore his justice 5. In fine the Vertue of Religion obliges us to reverence God not only in himself and in his divine Perfections But also in his Friends and Servants in the Times and Places which are particularly consecrated to his service and in all that hath a special respect and relation to his Majesty It was by this disposition that Iosuah 5. Gen. 48. 16. Psal 138. Or. 139. Apoc. 1. 4. Iosuah honoured the Angel that appeared to him That Iacob prayed an Angel to bless his Children That David honoured very much the friends of God And that S. Iohn Evangelist implores the assistance of Angells to obtain grace and peace from God It was by the same Vertue that great S. Antony honoured Priests as Ministers of Christs Inheritance Officers of his Crown and Dispensers of his treasures and that meeting even the least of them he fell upon his knees and demanded his Benediction By this Vertue S. Charles the Great entred into Rome and visited a foote the Churches of it embrased and kissed with devotion the Pillars of them By