THE CHRISTIAN DUTY COMPOSED BY B. BERNARD FRANCIS STUDENT IN DIVINITY ISA. 30. 21. THIS IS THE WAY WALK IN IT 1. COR. 14. 38. If any man know not he shal not be known IHS PRINTED AT AIRE BY CLAUDE FRANÇOIS TULLIET M.DC.LXXXIV with Licence of Superiors TO THE READER GOd desires so cordially and seeks so earnestly our salvation that He calls it his worke and his affaire by excellence His Son Io 4. 34. sayd to his Disciples I have meat you know not T is to do the will of my Father and to accomplish his worke And to his Mother in the Temple Knew you not that I must labour in the affaires of my Father And in the Vigil of his death Father I have accomplished the worke you have given me to do Becaus 't is the worke of workes the affaire of affaires and the ayme and end of other workes He employes in it not men only but also Angells All the Angelicall Spirits that are sent Heb. 1. 14. into this world are sent for the salvation of the Elect says S Paul What say I men and Angells He employes in it his divine Perfections For if He exerciseth his Power in working miracles Wisdom in inventions to convert us Patience in expecting us to penance Goodness to allure us Iustice to frighten us Mercy in pardoning us Providence in removing occasions of sin 't is for our salvation And to the end there be nothing in Him or of Him that is not employ'd in this great work He sends the adorable Persons that proceed from him He sends his beloved Son who applyes himself to it with so great tenderness and affection that from thence He takes his name with so much fervour and Zeal that he spends in it his sweat and blood He sends the holy Ghost who shews likewise His Zeal when our salvation is in danger we being in the state of sin what does He not to draw us out of it and to convert us He excites us wakens us threatens us importunes us knocks almost incessantly at the doores of our hearts and if we open them to Him He Enters into our soules dwells in them animates them governs and conducts them workes by them our good workes in our prayers He prayes cryes groanes in us and by us in temptations He aydes us in perplexities Enlightens us in afflictions comforts us May not the Eternal Father say Quid debui facere vineae meae non feci What should I have don for the salvation of men that I have left undon He hath desired it most earnestly He hath design'd to it his creatures Employ'd in it his Servants Favourits infinite Perfections and the divine Persons of his Son and of his holy Spirit How coms it to pass then that so few are saved even amongst Christians One reason is that very many are yet ignorant of the ways ordinain'd by God to go to heaven Another is that the greater part also of the Faithfull are negligent and careless in the use of the means prescribed to be saved they will not labour and strive to enter by the narrow gate and therefore our Saviour sayes they shal not Wherefore desiring the salvation of every one with all my heart I shew the First and put before their eyes the plain and open wayes to Heaven and to correct the negligence of the other I add the most pressing and urgent motives to walke and run in those wayes Peruse this worke good Reader with the same intention and desire that I present it to you Consider not who made it nor how 't is made but what is therein sayd to you If you shal becom more knowing in the Faith and Law of Christ and in ptactise more Dutifull to Him it will abundantly recompence the labour of YOUR WELL WISHING FRIEND AND SERVANT IN CHRIST F. B. APPROBATIONS JNfrascripti testamur nos librum perlegisse tui Titulus The Christian Duty Idiomate Anglicano a V. Adm. P. Bernardo a Sancto Francisco Ordinis FF Minorum Recoll Provinciae Angliae compositum in quo nil Fidei Orthodoxae vel bonis moribus contrarium deprehendimus verum è contra salutari plenum devotione solidaque refertum doctrina Quem idcirco Communi Bono vtiâ—issimum praeloque dignum Iudicavimus Hac 29 Octobris An. Domini 1683 In Conventu nostro FF Min Recoll Anglorum Duaci F Pacificus a Sto. Albino F. Bonaventura a Sta. Anna S. Theologiae Lector S. Theologiae Lector The Licence of the Superior Ego F. Gervasius a Sto. Francisco Provinciae Angliae FF Min. Recoll Minister Provincialis facultatem concedo ut hoc opus cui Titulus The Christian Duty a V. Adm. Patre Bernardo a Sto. Francisco compositum et eiusdem Provinciae Theologorum judicio approbatum typis mandetur Datum Ariae 9. Septembris An 1683. F. Gervasius â Sto. Francisco qui Supra Imprimatur liber cui Titulus The Christian Duty a Reverendo Patre Bernardo à Sancto Francisco conscriptus Actum in Vicariatu Audomarensi die decima septima Septembris Anno 1684. De Mandato B. DE LARRE Secret DISCOURS I. OF THE FIRST ARTICLE I believe in God AMongst the noble actions which the holy Penitent David practised to appease God and satisfy his justice This is one of the most notable Docebo iniquos vias tuas impij ad te convertentur I will teach sinners thy wayes my God and the impious shal be converted to Thee These words shew me how to do well this worthy fruit of Penance I must not flatter I must not tickle eares but I must teach Docebo And whom must I teach The poor as well as the rich the little and ignorant as well as the great and learned my self also as well as others for we are all sinners and I must teach sinners iniquos And what is it that I must teach Not the conceits of Plato not the discourses of Aristotle but thy wayes ô my God! Vias tuas the ways by which we must go to Thee And why must I teach not to receive popular praise Not to be esteemed learned but that sinners be converted to thee ô my God! impij ad te convertentur The wayes by which we go to God are Faith and the Mysteries which it teaches Hope Charity Grace good Works the Commandements and the Sacraments These wayes God aiding I will open plainly teach practically and urge earnestly that sinners may be converted into them and unto God And first I will consider the material object or the Mysteries of Faith which the Apostles propose in their Creed to us and begin with these words I believe in God 2. That there is a God nature teaches us the Pagans them selves confessed it and it is a thing so manifest that the scripture tells us that none but fools deny it 3. This word God in the singular number teaches us that there is but one And if he were not the only one he would not be God He would not be
also for venial for little lies detractions and derisions of their neighbor in things of smal importance for words or unprofitable actions good God! who would believe our judg would be so rigorous as to exact an account of his creatures for an unprofitable worde If Preachers should affirm it without the Word of God clear for it would not men cry-out against them as Impostors 9. They know they shal be damned not only for their own sins but again for those of others to which they contributed And they see now clearly that they contributed to an infinity of sins in others either before they were committed to witt by ill councel or bad example or when they were committed being the cause of them by putting the objects or the subjects or by giving assistance to commit them And after they were committed approving or not exteriourly disapproving them or not avoiding the hante of those that committed them for to give them a horrour of them 10. They know they shal not only be comdemn'd for sins of Commission but mpreover for sins of Omission they will expect to hear Go yee accursed into eternal fire for I was hungrie I was thirsty and you have not given me to eate and drink I was naked and you have not clothed me And if they are to be condemn'd for not giving corporal nourishment how much more for not giving spiritual the life of the soul being of more importance a thousand times then that of the Body if those that refuse material bread to poor strangers shal be so grieuously punished what will becom of them who give not the spiritual bread of instruction corection and good counsel to their children domesticks and strayed neigbours 11. In fine they know they shal not only be condemn'd for sins of omission and commission but shal moreover be answerable for good works which they have don with any imperfection which shal be found mixt with any impurity of intention with selflove secret vanity or any other vicious circumstance Cum accepero tempus Ego justitias judicabo when I shal hold my Psal 74 2. sopho 1. 12. great day I will judg also just works and by his Prophet Sophonias He says Scrutabor Hierusalem in lucernis I will search narrowly the devout soul and that no secret crany may escape me I will light a candle How then will He sound a reprobate soul signifyd by Babylon if He examin so rigorously a devout soul signifyd by Hierusalem 12. Sinfull souls I say know all this and much more they know also that their Iudg is not now a Lamb but is becom a Lion that the time of mercy is now past and the time of justice and reveng is com I leave now you to think in what horrible desolation they must be expecting nothing but as the Prophet Hieremy says the whirlewind of the Lords indignation Hierem. 23. 19. Matt. 25. 41. to com upon them And what whirlewind what tempest what thunderclap what Lyons roaring shal be this voice Go ye accursed into eternal fire prepar'd for the Devill and his Angells As many words so many thunderbolts and Anathemas 13. Depart hence reproved soul I banish thee for ever from my Paradise and from my Grace Get thee gon strayed sheep I will be no more thy Pastor be gon rebellious servant I will no more be thy good Master be gon unnatural child I will be no more thy Father be gon adulterous spouse I will be no more thy espouse get thee gon ungratfull creature thou shalt never have any part in my kingdom nor in my delights nor in my amity nor in my company nor in any thing that pertains to me Get thee gon thou accursed I excommunicate and anathematize thee for ever I strike thee with the sentence of eternal malediction thou shalt be accursed in thy understanding which shal never have a good thought cursed in thy will which shal always rage with spite and desperation accursed in thy eyes which shal never see any light in thy eares which shal never hear the harmonious musick of the Angells cursed in thy mouth which shal never have one only drop of water in thy feet and hands which shal be always bound in the chamber where thou shalt dwell which shal be but a furness in the company which You shal have which shal be but Devills cursed in every thing that can happen to thee Go accursed into fire where thou shalt not have for lodging but a prison for bed but coales for cloathes but flames for meat but serpents for drink but gall for musick but blasphemies and for rest but torments Get thee gon into fire which shal endure ever which shal inflame thee and not light thee burn thee and not consume thee as long as I shal be I will be thy enemy as long as this fire shal be fire it shal torture thee as long as eternity shal endure thou shalt remain in this pain Depart go into the fire prepared for the Devill and his Angells I prepared it not for thee t is against my inclination that I send thee thither But thou hast transgrest my Commandements neglected and profaned my Sacraments abused my graces and hast been ungratefull for an infinity of favours go ungratefull go accursed go unfortunate depart from my presence I will never have pity on thee My Dear Brothers and sisters behold a shadow but a very slender and imperfect one of the sentence which shal be pronounced against the Reprobate Thinke on it if you be wise think upon it in the presence of God to whom be honour praise glory benediction for ever and ever Amn. DISCOURS XI OF THE EIGHTH ARTICLE I believe in the holy Ghost IT is reported in the Acts of the Apostles that S. Paul Acts. 10. entring into the Town of Ephesus and finding there some Faithfull demanded of them if they had receiv'd the holy Ghost and they answered we know not so much as that there is a holy Ghost If we should put now the same Question to many Christians they might make the same answer or at least they might say we know not what is the holy Ghost To exclude and banish farr from Christians an ignorance so pernicious the Apostles employ this Article to instruct us concerning his adorable and amiable Person 2. They teach us that He is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son since they made us to say before I believe in God the Father I believe in Iesus Christ his Son and now I believe in the holy Ghost They teach us also that this Person is God with the Father and the Son since they make us say I belive in the holy Ghost They do not only make us to profess that there is a holy Spirit But to believe in Him to reverence Him as God and to love him as our sovereign Good 3. They call him holy Ghost or Spirit which is common to the Father and the Son For the Father is a
most holy Spirit and the Son likewise is a most holy Spirit But they appropriate this name to him because his Emanation or Procession is so farr above our thoughts and our expressions that there is no language in the world that can express his Person for want of a proper name And becaus we are accustomed to call those things spirits of whose origin and manner of production we are ignorant So we call the wind spectres Angells and our souls spirits and we are likewise very ignorant in the production and procession of the holy Ghost 4. Secondly the Apostles appropriate this name to him because He proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one only Source and not as made or created nor as begotten but produced by the Will by an ineffable way which Divines term Spiration a breathing and impulse of the Will towards the thing beloved 5. Thirdly this name is appropriated to him becaus He is the Spirit of our spirit the Soul of our soul the Life of our life For He is given to the Souls of the just to animate and govern them He is not given so to a Bishop or a Priest in his ordination if he be in the state of sin He is not in him to sanctify him but to operate and act by him Hence it is that a Bishop or a Priest that is in sin and hath not grace gives nevertheless the grace of God by the Sacraments becaus he is the instrument of the holy Ghost as a penne gives to paper characters which it hath not becaus it is the instrument of rhe Writer 6. The Church moreover appropriated to this glorious and holy Spirit the name of Love and Charity becaus He is produced by the Will the authour of Love or by the mutual love and dilection of the eternal Father and the Son 7. From this second name which the Church attributes to the holy Ghost proceeds the third which is that of Gift Donum Dei Altissimi the Gift of the most high For that which is dō by pure love is dō freely and liberally and donation is a free and liberal action The two first names appropriated to the holy Ghost referr him to the Father and the Son but this of Gift relates him to Creatures that are capable to receive him and to enioy him as are men and Angells only and this Gift is the first the most necessary and the most excellent of all gifts that God ever gave or can give to us 8. He is the first and cause of all the rest for there is a great difference 'twixt the love of God and the love of men When we love any one 't is becaus we find in him some goodness some beauty or other Perfection Gods love supposes not its object in any creature but He puts it in them God begins not to love us with a love of Benevolence becaus we are good but we are good becaus He loves us so when the eternal Father gives us his only Son in the Incarnation He gave us first his Love and He gave not to us his Son but by his holy Spirit and by his Love He was conceived of the holy Ghost So God loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son 9. This Gift is so necessary that without it all the other Benefits profit very little the work of creation is appropriated to the Father the Incarnation to the Son the Sanctification to the holy Ghost the two first Benefits are unprofitable to us without the third In the creation God gave us Being He made and design'd for our service all the creatures of this world But our Saviour says to us What profit hath a man if He should gaine the whole world and lose himself and he will lose himself infallibly Luke 9. 25. if the holy Ghost sanctifys him not The Incarnation and the Death of the Son of God would not much availe us without the comming of this holy Spirit the torments of JESUS would have made him die and not have made us live He might have satisfyd without restoring us to grace a king offended by his Vassal may receive from him satisfaction and not receive him into favour nor restore him to his former state and to the priviledges which he had lost When I see the Saviour in the Crib or on the Cross I know not whether it be to satisfy only or moreover to restore us to the rights we lost by sin when He rises up again from death I know not whether it be for recompence of his death or to give us life When He ascends to Heaven I know not whether it be to give a convenient place ro his Body or to prepare also a place for us But when He sends the holy Ghost to sanctify us He ascertains us that we reenter into grace and that He applys to us his merits He hath sealed us and given the pledg of the Spirit in our 2. Cor. 1. 22. 1. Ep. 4. 13. hearts says S. Paul And the beloved Disciple In this we know that we abide in him and He in us becaus He of his Spirit hath given to us 10 What admirable favour and what incomparable grace that God vouchsafs to give us his Spirit Love divine and admirable Heart If one should give to a Philosopher the spirit of Aristotle or of Plato to an Orator the spirit of Cicero or Demostenes to a Phisitian the spirit of Hypocrates or of Galen and to a Divine the spirit of S. Thomas or of S. Augustin would not this be a singular favour God gives you not the spirit of Aristotle Cicero Hypocrates but his own Spirit the Spirit of Verity Wisdom and Sanctity When one hath the heart of a person one hath all If you be in the state of grace you have the heart of God for properly speaking the holy Ghost is the heart of God ô Father of mercies and Father of the miserable how deigne you to give them your heart T is that chosen souls are your treasure and you put your heart upon your treasure Quid retribuam Domino 11. What acknowledgment what satisfaction and what return can we make Love is not pay'd but by love nothing corresponds to a heart but another heart and what heart can correspond to the heart of God What love can answer his Would you not desire to be all heart Would you not wish to have as many millions of hearts as there are drops of water and grains of sand in the sea would you not referr apply and consecrate them to the love of God And what would this be compared to the heart of God which He hath given us It would be less than a grain of dust compared to all in Heaven and in Earth But He desires not so much He demands but only one but He will have it all He commands you to give it him Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and if you refuse it him He will damn you
holy SACRAMENT Who is the Father of this coloured Ray 'T is the Sun But the Sun produced not the colour But it produced the Ray which is joyned with the colour and who is the mother of this coloured Ray 't is the glass but it made not the ray but it produced the radiant colour it cloathed the ray with this Robe of colour Who is the Father of IESUS MAN-GOD It is the eternal Father He begot not of his substance the Humanity of JESUS But He begot of his Substance the Person of his Son who is Man Who is the Mother of this MAN-GOD It is Mary she begot not the Divinity But she conceived the Man who is God the cloathed the Person of the Son of God with our humanity Which is the more ancient this coloured Ray or the glass The Ray as a Ray as the offspring of the Sun is a long time before the glass it is from the beginning of the world it is as ancient as the Sun But the Ray as coloured is younger than the Sun Who is the more ancient IESUS or Mary IESUS as God or as Son of God is long before Mary He is from eternity as the Father and the holy Ghost But JESUS as man is younger than his Mother This Ray being in the sun is so bright and resplendent that i◠dazells the eyes of them that look upon it but the same ray being descended here below and cloathed with a red colour is easily beheld so the son of God in the bosome of his Father is invisible ineffable inaccessible and incomprehensible But the same Son of God being cloathed with our humanity is made visible palpable and sensible to the end He might illuminate and instruct us that He might be the Director of souls and the Doctor of justice as He is called by the Prophets And He begins betimes to perform the charge He exercices the office from the beginning of his life 4. This insant newly born does preach his pulpit is the cradle his Auditory the univers his Doctrine is the contempt of the world He preaches not by word for He cannot speak but by example He preaches not to the eares But to the eyes He says that voluntary poverty is better than riches And the world on the contrary says that money is to be procured in the first place that a man must have it tho' he hazard his soul for it This divine infant says the humble simple innocent and mortifyd life is that which pleases God The World says a man must greaten himself appear glorious Machevalize subtily Circumvent and diceive craftily and live in delights and pleasures 5. Behold two Masters quite contrary two doctrines diametrically opposite It is necessary the one or the other be deceiv'd To say this infant is deceiv'd is horrible blasphemy He is the eternal Wisdom the increated Wisdom the Angel of the great Council It must then be confest that the Avaricious Ambitions Voluptuous and Machiavilians are grossly deceived 6. Let us then Conforme our selves to IESUS who is established by the eternal Father as our modell Let our life resemble his as an Image the Prototipe or original Let it be a copie an expression and a representation of his that we paticipating his vertues Spirit and graces in this life may be partakers of his glory in the other Amen DISCOURS VI. OF THE FOVRTH ARTICLE Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried THe Apostles who made in their Creed an abridgement of the principall Mysteries of our Faith having spoken of the Conception and of the Nativity of our Saviour pass his Life in silence and treat immediatly of His death to teach us the chiefe reason of his comming was to suffer and to redeem us by his Passion 2. He saw by the light of glory the abyss of sin and the Eternal damnation to which men were doom'd for the fault of their first Parents and for their own sins He had pity on them and prayed his Father to pardon them for the Love of Him What man on earth What Angel in Heaven knowing that the only Son of God a Son so amiable and so beloved demands pardon of his Father for men to whom He is like in nature What man or Angel say I knowing this would not have sayd surely surely the eternal Father will pardon mankind for the love of his Son who is a man and that also freely without any satisfaction No the Father does it not But He says Isaiah 53. 10. my Justice must have its cours my Son I will pardon men if you will answer for them and undergoe death for them The Son hath a great apprehension and horror of a death so cruell and ignominious we see it in the Prayer He made in the Garden which was an expression of that which He acted in the womb of his Mother after the instant of his Conception 3. Nevertheless He accepted not only with patience and resignation but also with pleasure and satisfaction the decrees of Gods Justice concerning him He offered himself most willingly and with an ineffable love not only to be nayled to the Cross but also to remaine and languish thereupon ' til the end of the world if it should so please his Father Ecce venio ut faciam voluntatem Heb. 10. 9. tuam He that should have seen this submission might with probability have sayd the eternal Father will content himself with his good will as He was satisfyd with the good will of Abraham and of Isaac at least the Justice of God will be contented that he suffer but one prick of a thorn or one stroke of a whip that He shed one drop of his Blood which is sufficient to sanctify the whole world No He wills that He suffer actually all the punishments humiliations and afflictions we sinners did deserve 4. A Sinner deserves to be depriv'd of the use of creatures since he abused them to be humbled and confounded becaus he would not be subject to the laws and will of God To be punished both in body and soul becaus he offended the infinitely high Majesty of the Creator And JESUS hath taken upon himself to satisfy for all these pains and punishments 5. He was depriv'd of the use of Creatures for what privation more rigorous than to be spoiled of his very cloathes to be as naked as a worme of the earth not to have so much as a poor shift to cover him not a drop of water to refresh his tongue in the agony of death One of his Apostles betrays him another denys him all forsake him and thô some holy Women followed him yet they were not permitted to assist him 6. He was humbled and confounded What greater humiliation than to be exposed to derision and rudeness of the rable and to insolence of soldiers Who treat him as the very scum of men who salute him in mocherie blindfold him buffet him pull off his beard who put a reed in his hand
having taught Christs Victorious Resurrection teach us in this Article his tryumphant Ascension By his Nativity He went forth into the field to fight by his Passion and death He fought the battle By his Resurrection He overcame his enemies and by his Ascension He tryumphs His tryumphant chariot was a thousand thousand of celestial spirits Psal 67. 18. and according to the translation of S. Hierom innumerable thousands He tryumphed not only over enemies of flesh and blood but also over devills sin and death The spoils He carried with him were not flocks of sheep and troops of other beasts but innumerable multitudes of souls which He redeem'd out of Prison and rescued out of the jawes of Hell Thou art ascended high thou hast taken Captivity says the Rayal Prophet to him Psal 67. 10. With all this glorious traine He ascended not carried in a chariot as Elias nor by Angells as Abacuc the Prophet and S. Philip nor did He ascend only by the force and agility He recived in his resurrection but moreover by the power and vertue He had as God 2. He Ascended into heaven There are three Heavens according to the scripture Airy Statry and Emperial and He mounted above all heavens as his Apostle says so passing the Air Sun and all â—phes 4. the heavens He mounted to the most high and sublime place of the world 3. He sits at the right hand of God the Father God is a spirit a pure and incorporeal Being who hath neither side nor hand noâ— part How does He sit then at his right hand And if He sits in a seat or Throne of what matter is it made is it of wood marble gold silver or Diamant I know well 't is answered the Apostles accommodate themselves to our low manner of understanding and of speaking and that by this session at the right hand of the Father they express the equality and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son When we see one speak to the king on knee we conclude he is a Vassall But if we see one sit upon a throne neer the king and at his right hand we say he is a Prince or Sovereign The Apostles say JESUS sits at the right hand of the Father this is to say He is Sovereign Omnipotent and infinite as the Father equal coessential and coeternal with the Father 4. Yes But JESUS as man is not consubstantial nor coeternal with the Father and yet He is at the right hand of the Father not only as God but also as man as S. Leo expresly teaches in his first sermon of the Ascension You will say the humane nature of JESUS is in the Throne of God and at the right hand of the Father becaus being as it were ingraffted and inserted in the Being of God in the subsistance of the Word and making but one Person with him 't is served and reverenced as God 5. You say true but this solues not the difficulty For this holy Humanity is united to the Word and subsisting in his Personality from the first instant of Christs Conception and nevertheless to speak properly it is not but since the day of his Ascension that the Humanity is elevated to the glory of the Father and seated at his right hand as the church says in the Canon of the Mass that day 6. For to clear then these difficulties we must remember that in the Mistery of the incarnation the Son of God communicating his subsistance to the holy Humanity should have made it at the same time participant of all the perfections and Attributes of which a created Nature may be capable For if in a perfect marriage the Woman espouses not only the Person of her husband but also his nobility prerogatives and Honours shal not the sacred Humanity which is married much more perfectly and inseparebly to the Word receive from him the Perfections that are communicable to It A Vegetative soul penetrating the stock of a little tree makes it live with a Vegetative life A sensitive soul informing the body of a Lamb makes it live with a sensitive life An intellectual soul animating the body of a man makes it live with a reasonable life and the divine Word actuating filling and possessing the holy Humanity shal He not make it live with a divine life Ought He not to communicate to it his proprieties and his Attributes since He is united to it more strictly perfectly and nobly than any soul is to her Body or form to its matter 7. Nevettheless the divine Word to procure our salvation and to accomplish the work of our Redempion suspended in his Incarnation the communication of divers of his perfections For if JESUS had been immortall how should he have dyed for us If He had been impassible how would He have suffered for us If He had been independent and sovereign how would have he given us an example of obedience subjecting himself to his holy Mother But in the day of his Ascension He made an entire effusion of himself and of all his excellencies and perfections that were communicable to Humanity 8 This is that which He asked of his Father in the Vigil of his death when He sayd Now glorify me o Father with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before all ages Vpon which S. Iohn 17. 5. Lib. 11. in Io. C. 17. Colloss 2. 9. S. Cyrill of Alexandria says The Saviour asks to be glorifyd not with an accidental glory but with a natural glory and a little after The glory which He always had as God He asks now as man This is moreover that which S. Paul teaches us when he says the plenitude or fullness of the Divinity inhabits corporally in him that is in his Humanity says the same S. Cyrill And this is that wich ought to rejoyce us in this Mistery This is that which renders this Mistery dear and precious to JESUS to the Virgin and to all the Church 'T is in the Ascension properly that JESUS Man God sits at the right hand of the Omnipotent 't is in the Ascension that He was receiv'd into the Throne of God and that He entred into the Glory of his Father 9. He sits that is to say He is no more subject to labours tributary to wearines lyable to humane miseries and infirmities 10. He is at the right hand of the Omnipotent that is He hath the superintendence and the administration of Heaven and earth of men and Angells of spiritualls and temporalls What honor what happiness for us to know and to be assured that a persone of the same nature with us hath the keyes of life and death of Heaven and hell that He governs all and does whatsoever He sees good 11. He is in the Throne of God that is He entred into the real actual and eternal enjoyance of his Empire 12. He is in Glory of the Father that is He is received into a full entire and perfect possession of all the
of spirit and affection of heart But we are composed of body and soul we receiv'd both from him and we ought to employ both in his service When we kneel reverently bow or prostrate humbly before God we testify his greatness and excellence our lowness indignity and vility that the burden of our sins oppress us and that we com to God to be eased and these humble postures excite our interior humility and devotion they dispose us to receive the dew of heaven more abundantly and the grant of our requests one reason why the man-God was heard of his Father was that He prayed with great humility of spirit with a profound reverence and prostration of body He was heard for his reverence says S. Paul 5. He pray'd in the second place with teares and a strong cry to shew the fervour of his spirit and to testify the aspirations of his heart we may note that very frequently if not as often as 't is sayd any one hath cryed-out in prayer to God the sacred text does add that he was hear'd and God promises it expressly He shal cry out to me and I will heare him What is it to cryout to God in prayer Is it to raise the Psal 90. Voice No for Moses moved not his lipps and God sayd to him you cry-out to me When you pray an ardent desire is a great cry in the eares of God sayd S. Bérnard 6. Why thinke you God deferrs a long time the grant of our requests also when we aske vertues and spiritual favours It is says S. Austin to increase and inflame our desire that we may learn to esteem much and to have a great desire of great S. Ang. tr 1. in Io and ser 5. de Verbis Domini things We are accustomed to say that a thing is little worth that is not worth the asking It is then worth the asking so much the more fervently how much it is more noble and more precious and what is more pretious then the love of God his grace and the Salvation of our soules when we pray coldly or tepidly we make no great account of the graces that we aske if we make no great account of them we render our selves unworthy of them 7. The reason why we pray negligently and that we have not a great desire to be heard is that we ponder not the extream need we have of Gods mercy we consider this affair as a thing indifferent or of little consequence We ought to believe firmly that if God hath not pity on us we shal be most miserable and unhapy creatures we know not that God hath pardoned the sins of our youth that we have had a supernatural and legitimate repentance of them and if we should know this we know not what will becom of us for we are more fragil than glass more weak then reeds and more unconstant then the winds what will then becōm of us if God hath not pity on us 7. He that knows not how to pray let him go to sea and see how they pray in a great strom and in danger of death and let him pray so always and He will be saved infallibly We are in a greater danger of damnation then they are of death they are not so endanger'd but by two or three winds we are by more then six by pride avarice envy luxury and other passions betwixt them and death there is but a planke betwixt me and hell there is but my will which is more fragil than that planke if that planke were left alone it would last a longtime but if my will were left to it self but a little while it would fall into horrible precipices and lose it self we are more uncapable to govern our selves and obtain salvation without a particular grace of God than a man who hath never-been at sea is to govern a ship in a tempest in the midst of rocks and sands Now I make your selves judges if we ought not to pray with all the force of our hearts 8. But let us not go to sea let us stay on land there is no need to go so far to learn to pray I find here a great number of excellent Teachers but I am a bad scholler and learn not my lesson well these are the poor that ask alms they givê us not thinking of it fine instructions if we reflect upon them If they know where early in the morning is a great concours of people they rise not flowly but hasten to the place Rise you so early to have opportunity to pray half an houre or an houre the Spirit is then more fresh less incombred with affaires and more vigorous to pray They range about the streets and Churches where they know are rich and charitable persons make you recours to the friends of God to the Saints who are rich in merits and powerfull with the Son of God The Poor discover their wounds they shew their ulcers and half rotten members and if they have none they counterfeit some to move men to compassion we have no need to counterfeit we have but too many in our souls we must acknowledg them in the presence of God and expose them to the Compassionat aspects of his mercy and say my God! you see I am but darkness weakness poverty and misery I have nothing of my self but ignorance and sin Though many of these Poor are Idiots and ignorant yet they find words reasons and arguments to move us to compassion to perswade us to mercy and to draw from us an Alms Madame have pity on me bestow one penny upon me you will not be the poorer and I will pray for you I am a poor orphan a stranger and far from my friends and country where I was ruined by fire shew your charity to me I ask it for the love of God for the Passion of our Saviour why find they so many words to beg an alms and we find them not to pray God It is becaus they have a great desire to receive an alms from men and we desire but little to receive one that is more necessary from God T is necessary that the feeling of our wants do suggest to us words and one half houre of prayer made with such a feeling wil be better then three houres of prayer without it 9. Salomon made a prayer accompanied with the two first conditions he asked of God continence with humility and fervour he asked it humbly for he acknowledged that he could not have it of himself and that it pertain'd to God only to give it Wisdom 8. 21. to him he asked it fervently for with all the force of his heart and yet he was not heard he obtain'd not chastity whence was this It was becaus his prayer failed of the third condition which is perseverance he prayed once or twice and this was not enough he should have continued it It is the counsell which the true Salomon our Saviour gives us who having preached the
the same Word also we may learn that scandal is not a word or action which gives occasion of dishonour infamy or confusion that to scandalize another is not to discover his Vice to publish and make it known to the world this is not to scandalize him properly speaking 't is to diffame and dishonour him Scandal is a word or an action that is not so right as it should be which gives occasion to our neihgbor to commit a sin So S. Thomas and after him all the school Dictum vel factum minus rectum praebens alicui occasionem ruinae To have a perfect knowledg of this Definition we must weigh all the words of it the defect whereof makes men to be deceived often and to remain in ignorance 2. Dictum scandal is sometimes a word for the body is poysoned by the mouth and the soul by the eares sayd Plato and S. Paul who cites but seldom profane Authours alledges to this purpose the saying of the greek Poet corrumpunt bonos 1. Cor. 15 33. Psal 118 more 's colloquia prava evill discourses corrupt good manners David seem'd to fear the contagion of them when he prayed Lord deliver my soul from vniust lipps and from the deceitfull tongue and we have greater reason to do the like you will find many who will not speak openly against the faith lest they should be accounted impious or Atheists But they will say one might object such a thing against our beliefe or Infidells propose to us this argument Deceitfull tongue They move not manifestly their neighbour to dissention but slyly and secretly I wonder say they how you endure that you are too patient he will tread upon you one sayd such a thing of you Deceitfull tongue They speake not words openly impure but cover'd equivocal and of a double meaning Deceitfull tongue such words are usually more hurtfull than the other these are sharp arrows which enter more deeply into the mark and the wit and subtility which is in these cover'd words makes them enter more easily into the imagination and to remain there longer These are the burning coales which desolate and ruine the purity charity and simplicity of Christian soules 3. Dictum vel factum Scandal is a word or worke and action which may be the cause of sin and workes or actions are more scandalous than words these move indeed but those draw 't is enough to draw another to what is naught if others do it if it be the mode if but one only considerable persone do it if it be the custome so inclin'd are men to what is naught they are like goates or Sheep if one pass a place the rest follow not regarding the danger of it What do I say follow Men do not only follow others in what is naught but they will with tooth and naile endeavour to justify the following of them They say we must accommodate our selves to the place in which we are and live according to the world since we are in the world To which I oppose this of the S. Paul Be ye not conform'd to this wordl and this of S. Iohn Love not the world nor the things which are in the world and this of the Rom. 12. 2. 1. Iohd 2. 15. S. Iohn 17. Rom. 1. 7. Thess 1. 4. And 7. S. Pet. 1. 3. And 9. Acts. 10 15. 1. Cor. 6. 2. Son of God speaking of his disciples to his Father they are in the world but they are not of the world Christians Disciples of Christ have been sanctifyd in Baptisme and in the other Sacraments they are oblig'd to be holy 't is their vocation and profession they are called to be Saints says S. Paul to the Romans and to the Thessaâ—onians God hath called us into Sanctification And S. Peter But you are an elect Generation a holy people To be holy and to be common are two opposite Termes what God hath Sanctifyd do not thou call common Christians shal judg the world says S. Paul in his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians they must nor then be Complices or Companions in the actions customs and proceedings of the world Reason it self forbids us to follow them We know that there is nothing so erroneous as the opinion of the world nothing so corrupted and perverted as the judgement of men there are but few that know in what true vertue does consist and amongst those that know it there are but few that live according to this knowledg because their Passions oversway their judgments and corrupt their actions and therefore a wise man ought to steere a quite contrary cours But ought we not to avoyd singularity yes that which you affect of your own head and by the spirit of Vanity but not that which you accept from the will of God and by the spirit of sanctity Are not the high and common wayes the more sure yes to go to a place on earth but not to go to heaven our Saviour tells us so in express termes Enter by the narrow gate becaus broad is the gate and large is the way that leads to perdition and many there bes that enter by it How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that lead Matt. 7. 13. to life and few there are that find it But if I leave the usuall way of men what will they say I shal pass for a scrupulous a melancholy person or a hypocrite and they will laugh at me And who will laugh at you Libertines Impious and Atheists but God Angells and vertuous Persons will esteem and praise you Will it not be much honor to you to be blam'd by those that are worthy of blame and to be esteem'd by those who merit to be esteem'd The conscience also of Libertines themselves will be forced to admire what their mouth condemnes for vertue sends forth such bright rayes that they strike a holy terrour into the soules of her greatest enemies and she receives praises from those who at the first sight of her did burden her with reproaches But suppose that you are really laught at and derided What vertuous Person hath not passed this tryal Tobias and Iob were they not mocked as Idiots and simple men S. Charles did he not pass amongst worldly souleâ— for a man too stiff and obstinate in his way S. Chrysostome for too austere Granado and Avila for scrupulous and what is most considerable the Saint of Saints IESVS-CHRIST hath he not passed for a foole or madman for a friend of good cheer for a hlasphemer and for a magitian We must then have the courage sayes great S. Francis Sales to make the world know by our manner of living that we are not of this world but the servants of God that the lights of the Gospell and not the maximes and the customs of the world are the rules of our life so we shal tye the tongues of the impudent and draw many to the same manner of living by the examples of our vertues Let