know that is a harsh word to those that live at ease and would willingly compound with God for some part when he advises the giving up of the whole And since it was a principal part of the Godly Reformation by suppressing all Religious Houses to abolish the very Memory of Voluntary Poverty no wonder if the Teachers in a Congregation grounded on Principles so opposite to the Counsels of Christ cannot produce One in their numerous Multitude who would ever serve God gratis and professedly follow this or any other Evangelical Counsel No God would not permit that so holy an Imitation of Jesus should make a part of their Sheeps-cloathing But sure those who discover not in this two-fold Poverty a Divine Vertue have forgot the Condition those Men of God liv'd in even under the Old Law of which the World was not worthy they forget in the New the Poverty Circuierunt in melotis in pellibus caprinis egentes angustiati c. Heb. 11. 37. of Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary from the poor Hovel he was laid in the Manger of to the borrowed Sepulcher he was laid in they forget that the Happy in the first Rank amongst Jesus's Disciples are the Poor of Spirit who by this Vertue have a just Claim to Heaven they forget the Apostles first left not only Unlawful Gains and the Publican's Counter but also both their Boat and their Net that is the enjoyment of present Possessions and the hopes or desires of future Purchases and then were imitiated by all the faithful Believers who laid at the Apostles feet without any reserve the sin of Ananias and Saphira after so holy a Profession the value of all they had These these our Apostle did imitate not without an infinity of Christian Motives He believed Christ teaching him that Riches and Wealth are Thorns and it would have been impossible to have over-run all the East as he did in a way strew'd with Thorns His Life was short only ten years being allotted him to preach the Gospel to above twenty Kingdoms or Nations he was then following the Apostle's Advice to redeem time because the days are Ephes 5. Etiam cum detrimento corporalium commodorum ad quaerenda capescenda bonaaeterna spatia temporis comparare Hom. 1 10. Ex. 50 Ipsi mundo omnes divitiae omnes dignitates universarum cupiditatum materiae refundantur sancto beatoque commercio ematur Christiana Libertas fiantque Filii Dei de paupertate divites c. Ep. ad Demet. Aâ—ctius terrena constringunt adepta quam concupita Illa velut extranea repudiantur ista velut membra possidentur Ep. 34. ad Pauliâ— evil that is saith St. Augustin to withdraw the least part of it from the anxious cares of acquiring increasing preserving Earthly Goods that all may be bestowed on the seeking and attaining Eternal Bliss He was to break the Chains of others and consequently first to secure to himself a full Liberty following that advice of St. Prosper Let the Children of God return to the World its Riches and Dignities the food of all our sensual desires and by a holy and blessed Trafique buy Christian Liberty rich in their Poverty and the contempt of transitory things which as St. Augustin observes 't is easier to slight when dispossess'd of them than not to love whil'st we enjoy them Those we easily reject as not belonging to us these we hugg as our own members and parts of us For these reasons Xaverius by the help of God's Grace most Poor in Effect Poorer in Spirit measur'd several times the whole Extent of the Indies content in his Sufferings happy in his Wants till in the Island of Sanciano he died as he had lived as poor as abandoned as an Apostle in an open Cottage on a poor Mat destitute of all Human Help or Comfort having nothing of the Earth to leave but his Body the readier to take possession of that Kingdom of Heaven to which he had so good a Title of Evangelical and Apostolical Poverty Beatus qui non fuerit scandalizatus in me Thrice happy is he to whom the Poverty the Abjection the Cross of Christ is not a Scandal that frights from his Service who dares seek in them the Gifts of God in what an unmeasurable proportion doth he receive them Witness Xaverius who might have wrote from almost each part of the Indies what he writ from the most miserable Coast of Piscaria where Nature seemed to have forgot to provide for the Necessities of the Inhabitants If there be true Joy possessed on Earth 't is that which they experience who labor here I hear one say sometime O Lord moderate your Favors here below or take me to your self 't is too severe a Punishment thus to love and to live thus far from you These Joys his Heart then swelled with when he single and alone had all the Sick of that Coast to Tend all the Afflicted to Comfort the Ignorant to Instruct the Sacraments to Administer to all so that he seldom could allow himself three Hours to rest These interior Joys ever attended him at the holy Altar and when he was at his Meditations often forced him to rip open the Cloaths that covered his Breast and by the application of cold Water to moderate those Divine Flames that consumed his Breast ever sighing out amorously Enough O Lord this is more than frail Nature can support Even when all the Powers of his Soul were oppressed with Sleep that habitual Flame raised such pious Dreams as forced from him devout Expressions of his tender Love for God when awake his Soul was so entirely possessed with that Love that Rays of Glory frequently environed his Face bright Glimmerings of that pure Flame within which drew so violently his Soul towards Heaven as to heave frequently his Body from the Earth especially at that admirable Sacrifice of Love the Holy Mass No wonder he should pass the whole Night when on Land at the Foot of Altars in Churches or in some Grove where he could give a larger scope to his warm Affections No wonder when at Sea he ever should be absorpt in Contemplation from Midnight to Sun-rising during which time the Seamen never seared a Storm That besides the two Hours of fixed Meditation which he stole from his daily Apostolical Labors even in these his Mind should be so lodged where his Love ever dwelt that his God never was entirely ecclipsed from his sight If then Virtue according to St. Augustin's Definition be nothing else but well ordered Love Definitio brevis vera virtutis est ordo amoris De Civit. l. 15. c 22. Ille dilectionis nobis ordo servandus est Deum principaliter diligamus propter ipsum in ipso ea quae diligenda sunt quantum ipse praecipit diligamus l. 3. 10. V. cont Apocal. 3. 18. how great was this Saint's Virtue that put so great a distance in his Love betwixt God and all
possessing and guiding our Hearts said therefore by Christ to be c Regnum Dei intra nos est within us d Regnum Dei vim patitur violenti rapiunt illud suffers violence and those only attain to it who use such force that who loves his Soul will lose it and who hates his Soul seemingly by a severe and hard usage will preserve it to Eternal Life and esteemed those happy with S. Augustin e Si male amantris tunc odisti si bene oderis tunc amasti felices qui custodiunt odiendo perdant amanda Aug. Tract 51. in Joan. who support by that holy hatred what by an indulging love they had destroyed he knew that such Mortifications serve to stop those violent Inclinations which bear away our Souls from all attention to our Spiritual and Eternal Concerns riveting them as it were in Temporal and Sensual ones that such Affections being by those exterior checks driven back into our Hearts increase mightily the strength of a Soul moving with united Forces towards God. Therefore in imitation of Gods holy Servants with a S. Paul f Perimat amittar usum ejus scilicet perversum quo inclinatur temporalibus ut aeterna non quaerat De Doct. Chr. l. 3. c. 16. he chastized his Body with frequent bloody Disciplines with St. Benedict he tore his Flesh with Brambles and Thorny Rods g Per cutis vulnera eduxit à corpore vulnus mentis quia voluptatem traxit in dolorem G. G. l. Dial. c. 2. by those wounds of his Body applying a Salve to those of his Mind and driving away dangerous Pleasures by Pains With holy Judith and vertuous Anna he covered himself with a rude Hair Shirt and passed his Life in long continued Watching and Praying with Gregory Nazianzen he lay on the bare Ground or Cables or when most at ease on a Matt. 'T was by the same Principle he acted when aplying his Mouth to the purulent Ulcers of the Sick he attended he sucked the filthy Matter out of them Led away by the same he refused passing near the Castle of Xavier to see his loving Mother before he begun his Mission to a new World. And our Blessed Lord confirmed by a continued Miracle how acceptable the Sufferings and Toils of Xaverius were for a large Crucifix to be yet seen in the said Castle the Side Arms and Feet remaining yet covered with a Crust of Blood did from those Wounds yield abundance of it whenever Xaverius was in imminent Dangers or extraordinary Toils in the Indies That Year the Saint died it issued every Friday to that which fell on the Second of December An. 1552. the Forty sixth of his the last Day of his Life on Earth and the first of his Happiness in Heaven But if Xaverius during the Course of his Missions to the end of that of his Life was ever attended by those singular Graces from Heaven which authorised so many different Nations to give him the Title of Apostle God by a singular Providence equally glorifying himself in this Saint after his Death hath added such an unquestionable Proof of his Mission that no false Prophet nor Impostor was ever followed beyond Life by any shadow of it Both Worlds know the frequent Miracles wrought the innumerable Blessings obtained through his Intercession from Heaven His Body left on Earth entire after it had been buried near three Months in quick Lime and after at Malaca above five more in dampish Earth bleeding afresh several Years after when hurt in the Foot ever yielding a sweet Perfume is a sufficient Instance how glorious in the sight of God his Soul is in Heaven If Elizaeus's his Bones were said in holy Writ to Prophetize after Death by reason of the Miracle wrought at their touching a dead Corps to which Life was restored may I not say that in Boubours To. 2. V. X. Xaverius's dead Body still dwells an Apostle so great Prodigies having ever waited on it A raging Plague ceased suddenly at Malaca when it was received there Rocks split and divided themselves to make way for the Ship it was conveyed in All the Sick who saw it when brought to Goa received their Health at that instant And ever since this Apostle hath favored with miraculous Graces obtained by his Intercession all Nations in the old and his new World which have brought even Mahometans Jews and Infidels to his Sepulchre to view that miraculous Body of a more miraculous Soul which must force all that shall stand to that most impartial Trial which our most Blessed Lord recommends to us By their Fruits you shall know them to own Ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos Xaverius an Apostle most highly favored by Almighty God with most unquestionable Miracles and equally prodigious Virtues You are then still great Saint you are to this Age to our Kingdom an Apostle the Miracles you wrought when on Earth and obtained since still Preach the truth of that Catholic Religion which you Planted in so many Kingdoms We are all forced to use those words to you which Nicodemus spoke to our Blessed Lord when he owned him as yet but a Prophet Scimus Rabbi scimus quia à Deo venisti Magister Joan. 3. We know God sent you to Preach and Teach for no one can do those Wonders which you work if God be not with him Obtain great Saint obtain for this Nation a due Acknowledgment of this Truth a pious Assent to it This Kingdom hath a particular Title to your Protection since the Alms which your holy Father St. Ignatius gathered here enabled him to win himself into your Acquaintance and Favor and so to work under God your total Conversion to a pious Life One Favor more then a Neighboring Kingdom that obtained the like through your Intercession minds me to crave through your Merits by the joynt Prayers of this pious Assembly Marguerit of Austria after twenty years Barrenness obtained from Heaven a Son who sits now on the Throne of France and she ever owned that you were the Saint by whose Intercession she sought chiefly that great Blessing for her and her Kingdom These three Kingdoms expect a like Happiness from our Most Gracious and Pious Queen Permit not great Saint that your devout Clients be disappointed in their Expectation of a Prince May we owe to your Intercession so great a Blessing a Prince who may equal in Learning the great Alfred in Piety St. Edward in Prowess the Third and First of that Name in Victories Henry the Fifth the Seventh in Wisdom that is in a word who may inherit soon his Royal Father's Virtues and late his Throne Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam FINIS
things else that they all vanished frequently from his Thoughts whilst God only ever reigned in his Heart If the Second Duty of Charity be to love all things else for Gods sake in view only of the Report which they have to him and in the Measure he requires as St. Prosper observes how perfect was the Love of Xaverius for God when for his sake he embraced so tenderly what Nature so much loaths so much abhors As Toils Want Disgraces Dangers Pains Death and even hated all what Sense is charmed with or what natural Inclinations most affect whenever it failed that they opposed the increase of his Charity This this is the surest Test the infallible Proof of a Divine and truly Apostolical Mission that richest of Gods Gifts that Flaming Gold so prized in the Revelations the Love of God. The Second unquestionable Mark by which if we may believe our Blessed Lord his true Disciples are to be discerned is their tender Love for their Neighbor a passionate Zeal for In hoc cognoscent omnes quod discipulimei istis si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem Joan. 13. his Salvation In this Virtue Xaverius perfectly Copied the great Apostle of the Gentiles His Voyages over most dangerous Seas and his Journeys ever afoot by Land in the pursuit of such Sinners as wandered from God led him so far in Ten Years time that he might with a far flower Motion have gone often round the Globe of the Earth Yet in the Transports of his Zeal he designed as his Letters witness not only to Preach the Gospel to the vast Empire of China and Tartary but after he had subdued those to the sweet Yoke of Christ to return thence by the North into Europe that he might retrieve those Lost recover those Separated Hereticks and gather them again within the Pales of that One Sheepfold of the Catholic Church where they should hear again with due Submission the Voice of their own only Shepherd Nothing could fright his Zeal not the three Shipwrecks he had suffered not the Danger he had run like another St. Paul for three Days and Nights exposed on a narrow Plank to the mercy of the most boistrous Waves and loudest Storms He often dream'd before he was designed for the Conversion of the new World that he carried an Indian on his Shoulders he groaned under that Burden 'T was not One but a Million of them he bore after in his Heart weeping often most bitterly when he reflected on the almost inevitable danger of Eternal Misery they unhappily were exposed unto He highly valued the Conversion of any one single Soul rightly apprehending its worth Redeemed with the most precious Blood of his Saviour and capable to love and possess God for all Eternity Hence he suddenly engaged himself in a long Sea-Voyage only to use that Opportunity of winning to a true Repentance One single loose Liver who was on Shipboard To retrieve three Souldiers from their wicked Life he consined himself for a whole Lent to their most uneasie Company Day and Night He sent word to the only two impenitent Sinners he had left at Ternate that whenever they should let him know that they had a thought of Repenting and altering their lewd Life he should instantly repair to them from the utmost Extremity of the East to favor their pious Disposition and direct them in so happy a Design He seemed comfortless when he observed that some Merchants led by Covetousness had discovered Countries to which his Zeal for the Instruction of the Ignorant and Conversion of Sinners had not yet brought him As long as he found Children to Catechise Europeans to Preach unto Indians to Instruct unmindful of himself he joyned Nights unto Days in those Apostolical Functions without allowing his wearied Body and decayed Spirits the least refreshment of Food or Rest Then and then only he conceived himself with the blessed Martyr Ignatius Nunc incipio esse discipulus Christi S. Ig. Epist ad Rom. to begin to be a Disciple of Christ a Member of the Society of JESVS All other Virtues ever wait on their Queen Charity They were in Xaverius in as large a measure His Humility was so unfeigned and great that he never blamed the Stubbornness Blindness or other ill Dispositions of those Souls in whose Conversions his Endeavors were frustrated or who opposed the progress of the Gospel but sincerely persuaded that his Sins put the whole obstruction to Gods Graces condemned himself to severe Penances for their Expiation Tho' the Character of Legat à Latere from his Holiness seemed to add such a Lustre to his Mission and on several occasions could favor his Apostolical Attempts yet his Humility never permitted him to publish it or to use the Power it conferred save once not long before his Death when he conceived that nothing else could open him an Entrance into the Empire of China which the Avarice and Envy of Alvares Governor of Malaca had shut up His Obedience was so ready so punctual so nicely exact that he consulted his Superior and Father St. Ignatius on every occasion even at that vast distance and never swerved from his precise Orders acknowledging that the least Letter of the Alphabet the least i which in Latin signifies Go dropt from Ignatius's Pen should move him to abandon without the least reluctancy his greatest Enterprises for the Glory of God tho' at the same instant the largest prospect of certain Hopes the fairest appearance of Success should Court his Stay yet that small Letter should lead him with Joy to any part even of the unhabitable World. His Chastity was so Entire that his Confessors judged him to have preserved that tender Virginity unsullied without the least Blemish So well guarded that when the Enemy not daring to assail him awake attempted by immodest Dreams to disturb the innocent Repose of his Soul the violent motion of his Body in rejecting from him those Phantômes of tempting Objects and the more eager reluctancy of his Soul made him bleed To omit the Particulars of his other Vertues I shall conclude with the Maxim and Practice which gave them their first birth favored their growth and preserved them in their full lustre This great Principle of a Christian Life he had learnt from St. Ignatius at his first Conversion it had from that moment been deeply engrave in his Memory and the sense of it in his Heart a Tantum proficies quantum tibi ipsi vim intuleris Your Self-denials your Mortifications the violence you use in curbing your own Inclinations are the measure of your advancement in Gods Service He knew that Sacrifices have ever been the chiefest part of Divine Worship and that no Victims are so acceptable as a mortified b Cor contritum humiliatum Deus non despicies Psal 18. a contrite and humble Heart He had learnt from our Blessed Lord how the Kingdom of God that especially of his particular Graces and Favors