labour and is master of that with complacency which another cannot reach to but with much sweat of anxiety Thus the courage of the Martyrs supplies our weakness the knowledge of Doctors our ignorance the purity of virgins is in stead of continence in Marriage and the solitude of Anchorites is a supplement to the employments of those that are conversant in the world Hence 't is evident that he that is in the Body of the Church partakes of all the merits of the Faithful that without admitting himself into Religious Orders he shares in their travels if he be associated to them by charity without wearing their habit he participates of their vertues and that in an ordinary Secular condition he preacheth with the Dominicans sacrificeth with the Priests is in the desart with the solitary and is chaste in the highest degree of continency with the virgins But in this prerogative the Christian must defend himself from two mischiefs which strongly threaten him the first is Pride receiving with humility what he possesseth not but by right of Charity lest his own sufficiency make him lose the benefit of the Churches community The second is Idleness not to neglect the practice of vertues under a pretence of enjoying them in others but going forward with the highest industry in the way of perfection to store the Church with his pious endeavours and to adde new merits to the treasures of this charitable mother The Fourth TREATISE Of the Grace of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That Predestination upon which Grace depends is a hidden Mystery INasmuch as men are the children of Adam they are as curious as they are proud and as the haughtiness of their Father hath made them lose the remembrance of their misery his curiosity hath made them forget their ignorance They aspire to reign although they be slaves they would be masters of knowledge although they are born ignorant and these two unjust desires have made so deep an impression in their souls that all the punishments inflicted upon sin have not been able to suppress them I could pardon this imperfection of man had it any bounds nor would I find fault with an ignorant person desiring to be learned could he content himself with the knowledge of what might be known without danger or sin But the difficulty sets an edge upon his appetite there are no truths he is more eagerly inquisitive of then those God hath pleased to leave in the dark He mounts up to the Heavens to know their motions and influences he seeks his destiny in the Conjunction of the Planets and studies a Book whose Characters have abused all Astrologers and means to finde that in Stars which God hath lock'd up in his own Bosome He descends into the Abysses of the Earth out of Curiosity as much as Avarice he thinks knowledge is retired to the Center of the world and that he must confer with the spirit of lies to be acquainted with truth His Insolence hath passed as far as Religion he would fain penetrate its mysteries nor does God bring any thing to pass in the world the Causes and motives wâ—ereof he endeavours not to discover 'T is a crime in the State to comment upon the intentions of the Ministers thereof Sicut inquirere in vitam Principis ita in arcana ejus nefas est Taci Annal. Their prudence draws a curtain over the wheels they work by and they believe that he that shall sound the secrets of the Prince is not less guilty then he that would know the end of his life In the mean time we commit this crime against the mysteries of Faith we would make Religion a Science and we daily search for evidence and certitude in the region of ignorance and obscurity The desire we have to fathome the depths of Predestination is a certain proof of this Insolence For though there be nothing in the world more bid more in the dark there is not any thing man hath more curiously examined and made the employment of his busie undertakings seeking his fall in the fountain of salvation I should account my self very happy could I cure him of this malady and if describing the mystery hidden in eternity could make him see 't is an impiety to pretend to know more then God hath been willing to reveal Predestination is as certain as it is secret it makes up one part of Providence and if God have any care of his creatures he must needs lead them to their end There are none but the Epicures who fearing to trouble his rest have denyed him the knowledge of humane affairs The best of Philosophers have believed our fortune is in his hands and that having given us our beeing he must also give us our felicity Christian Religion hath confirmed us in this Creed and Faith perswading us that God hath regulated all things from Eternity obligeth us to believe that he hath ordained necessary means to ascertain our salvation Sufficiat eis scire quod non sit in quitas apud Deum cum cuim nulla merita invenisset Apostolus quibus Jacob apud Deum praecederet fratrem dicit Numquid apud DeuÌ„ est iniquitas absit Aug. lib. 4. contra duas Episto Pelag. Shee teacheth us that he beheld all his works before they proceeded out of Nothing that he hath drawn forth what he pleased not all that he was able That he created Men and Angels elected some out of Mercy rejected others out of Justice and that in these two contrary judgements he hath carried himself with so much evenness that no person hath any cause to complain Reason together with Faith instructs us that God loves all his creatures that his being Absolute makes him not unjust and acting according to the knowledge of the Cause he punisheth none that have not deserved it If he be no more liberall in his recompenses then severe in his corrections he fails not to be very observant of Justice if we be not sure that he hath respect to our merits we know at least that he hath to his own favours and that when he crowns our good works he crowns his own benefits and endowments The Scripture that knows very well that men are in love with their salvation and jealous of their liberty represents them often that God is absolute in his State that he is not to give account of his actions that his judgments being equitable in themselves have no need of our approbation nor are therefore less just because not conformable to our weak reasonings This divine Register insinuates to us that God is the master of his creature that he disposeth thereof as he pleaseth and that if Nothing whence he had his Beeing give him right enough to destroy him sin which he is guilty of gives him title enough to punish him But delivering all these reasons in different passages we are not permitted to deduce thence infallible consequences nay we may easily perceive the whole drift is rather to
to make them fructifie by good works whoever neglects this care cannot preserve his grace any long time and he that resists not Temptation which remains after sin is in great danger to be speedily deprived of the Innocence of Baptism To all these internal evils which seize us may be added those external ones which surround us for if Regeneration reform not the disorders of our soul nor of our body it never asswageth the persecution of the Elements Though we be justified by Baptism we are not instated in our primitive advantages The Curse issued out against the Creatures is not taken away by Grace and as we experience revolts in our person we resent them also in our state The Earth hath not recovered her former fruitfulness it brings forth thorns to this day to punish us it nourisheth monsters that make war against us it rends asunder in gaping chasms to swallow us up and levels mountains to overwhelm us Every Element mindes us of our misery they make no difference between an Infidel and a Christian Though the Angels respect their character Creatures despise it or know it not The Sea drowns Our Vessels as well as those of the Turks To be reconciled with God makes us not friends with the Windes a man must be a Saint that commands the Waves And if together with our Charity we have not also the gift of Miracles we know not how to calm the Sea nor to appease Tempests The Fire spares not all Innocents it hath burnt Martyrs who had no less faith then the Three Children that walk'd untouch'd in the midst of the fiery furnace it sometimes blends it self with Thunder and being blinde strikes the Just as often as the Guilty The Church canonizeth some Saints which that element hath reduced to Powder and because she knows that the sentence of our death speaks of dust and ashes she wonders not if Thunder have the same operation upon some Saints which Time is designed to have upon All men Finally all the Elements teach us that we are Miserable though we be not Criminal Baptism that delivers us from Sin frees us not from Punishment God will have the World persecute us that we may hate it he hath ordained the place of our banishment to be troublesome lest it should make us forget our Country This is the Advantage we draw from our Evil the Comfort we retain in our Miseries and 't is enough to make us stoop with all humility to the Justice of God inasmuch as we know that our Punishment may as well be serviceable to our own Salvation as to his Glory The Second TREATISE Of the Spirit of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That every Body hath its Spirit and what that of the Churches is IN Nature every thing hath its own Spirit and if we believe Chymists there is no element though never so simple out of which the Essent though never so simple out of which the Essence may not be extracted They make daily Experiments hereof with the Fire and dividing what Nature had united they separate the Form from the Matter The World according to the relation of some Philosophers hath a Soul that inanimates it which is shed abroad thorow all its parts and which according to their divers dispositions produceth divers effects 'T is this Divine Spirit that gives it motion that waters it with fruitfulness whereby it hatcheth all those wonders whose causes men are ignorant of As Artificial things are the images of Natural neither do men make any thing whereof they take not the Copie from Nature as from a perfect Original there is not any Sect that hath not its particular humour and difference The Peripateticks take all their light from Argumentation and Experience Alii alia de anima disceptant prout aut Platonis honor aut Zenonis vigor aut Aristotolis tenor aut Empedoclis furor aut Epicuri stupor aut Heracliti maeror persuascrunt Tert. de Ani. Authority hath no credit in their School they desert their Master when he agrees not with Truth and laughing at the blinde obedience of the Pythagoreans they believe nothing but what they discover by Sense or by Discourse The Platonicks march upon the higher ground but less certain less solid Animus cernit animus audit reliquae surda caeca sunt impedimentum est corpus non socium ad cognoscendam veritatem Tert. de Plato for they withdraw from the Senses as from the enemies of truth they look upon them as upon faithless ministers or pleasing impostors which beholding nought but the shadows of things present us with nothing but Errors and falshoods Their Spirit savours more of Intelligence then of Science as if individuals were unworthy of their observation they consider nothing but generals and leaving men and beasts Iste Academicue quiae omnia esse contendit incerta indignus est qui habeat ulld in his rebus authoritatem August de Cice. they contemplate only Angels and Ideas The Academicks are parted between these two they allow something to Reason and Intelligence they are more noble then the Peripateticks but not so credulous as the Platonicks they make the senses servants to Reason but having a minde to see a part of what they believe they make a Sect whose principall difference is doubt and uncertainty The Stoicks are as capacious as they are proud Magna promittitis quae optari quidem nedum credi possint deinde sublato alte supercilio in eadem quae caeteri desceuditis mutatis rerum nominibus Seneca ordinary proceedings please them not nothing seems generous that is not extravagant all common Opinions stumble them they judge so ill of the people that they take all their votes for Errours Their Pride which is the very soul of their Sect formes Ideas of vertue which not one of them can reach unto and they propound a Sage so exactly perfect to their Disciples that they put them past all hope of imitating him at the very same time they stirre up a desire in them to become their Proselytes The Epicures search after nothing but pleasure because they conceive it inseparable from vertue Their Sect which is soft onely in expressions is austere really and in deed Mea quidem sententia est Epicurum sancta recta praecipere si propius accesseris tristia voluptas enim illa ad parvum exile revocatur quam nos virtuti legem dicimus eam ille dicit voluptati Jubet illam parere naturae parum est autem luxuriae quod naturae satis est Senec de vita beat cap. 13. they reduce the desires of men to things meerly necessary they part with superfluities joyfully and placing their felicity in their Conscience they count themselves happy in the midst of Torments These Philosophers speak not of pleasure but to make their Disciples in love with vertue and if there have been found some who have deserted vertues side to embrace that of pleasure it
Jesus Christ had a minde to humble him by lifting him up and that he might profit by his loss to make him finde his greatness in his abasement For 't is indeed to take man down to subject him to grace to deprive him of the disposal of his Will and to use him as a slave who is no longer master of his own person But 't is also to lift him up to endow him with a victorious grace which confirms his liberty makes him constant in good and in despight of all his weaknesses gives him so much vigour and strength that he meets no enemies he does not vanquish nor any temptations he does not overcome But admit all these reasons did not clearly conclude for the necessity of Grace I conceive Predestination would always be a most evident proof For seeing it is true that God is immutable in his Decrees that the designs he hath laid from all Eternity are not changed in Time Praedéstinare Deum nihil aliud quicquam est quam in illasua quae falli mutarique non potest praescientia sua opera futuradisponere Aug. de Perse nor can all the powers of earth hinder the execution of his will we must confess that Predestination being the first of his Decrees must of necessity be irrevocable He himself says it that he knows all his sheep that no man can take them out of his hands that they cannot be blotted out of the book of Life and that all the malice of the devils cannot destroy those he hath a minde to save If this Maxime be true we must infallibly conclude that the salvation of the Elect is not grounded upon their Liberty but upon Grace and that their perseverance in the ways of goodness depends not absolutely upon their Free-will but upon the assistance of Jesus Christ For if it be true that there is nothing more changeable then the Will of Man and that the state of Innocency set him upon a rock Must we not confess that Predestination would be very uncertain had it no surer foundation and that the salvation of the Elect would run a great hazard did it rely onely upon a sufficient grace depending meerly upon their Liberty Let us confess therefore with S. Augustine that since the Fall of man there is a grace whose effect is infallible that it changeth our Will to convert it gives us strength to combat inspires us with constancy to persevere and securing us from the malice of Satan happily conducts us out of this miserable Banishment to our desired Country The Fourth DISCOURSE Different Opinions of the Power of the Christians Grace THough Man have very many proofs of his Weakness yet hath he more of his Ignorance he knows not that which he sees and that which he touches his Senses are better sighted then his Understanding and they judge more surely of their objects then the Intellect does of his The Qualities of things cloud their Essences every Accident is a veil cast over the eyes of the Soul and he undergoes all the troubles in the world to finde the Sun of Truth amidst the Shadows that cover it But his Ignorance is never more evident then when he seeks for the last differences of things he changes upon all occasions the more he goes on the more he wanders and finding no tracks that may steer him in an unknown path he many times takes Falshood for Truth Thence it comes to pass that we are acquainted with nothing but the Accidents or Proprieties of things and that we fall into Errour as often as we intend to judge of their Essences There is nothing more known to Christians then Grace a man must be a Pelagian to doubt of its vertue all our prayers are testimonies of its necessity and when we intreat of God to enable us to perform what he commands us to do we ask Grace â—â—thout naming it In the mean time Inctinantur ecram corda ut boc velint eo scilicet inclinante qui in nobis mirabili modo ineffabili operatur ut velit Aug. de praed cap. 20. there is nothing more hid then its Essence These twelve Ages men have disputed its power nor is it yet resolved wherein corsists that vertue that makes it efficacious Every one confesseth there are two kindes of Graces in Christianity One Habitual that gives the Christian his supernatural being that lifts him up to the participation of the Divine Nature and making him an Image of Jesus Christ makes him Man and God together The other Actual which elevates him in his operations makes him act heavenwards and renders his works holy and acceptable before God But few know wherein consists the power of this Grace what that is which without forcing our Liberty makes it irresistible in its designes The disciples of S. Thomas believe Grace effectual because it is an impulse of God raising and determining the Will as often as he moves and applies it Primum agens in agendo omnia agentia alia praevenit perficit conservat co quod ipsum omnibus dat esse unde dabit perfectiones concomitantes sequentes ad ipsum esso D. Thom. They ground themselves upon the power of the First cause which ought to regulate his state and guide his subjects according to their inclinations and according to their desires Thence it comes to passe that he inlightens with the Sun burns with the Fire reasons with Man acts necessarily with necessary Causes and freely with free Causes Thence it comes to passe also that he is free in the world that nothing is done contrary to his directions and that applying the creatures in their operations sees all his designs infallibly succeed For these Divines believe not that any thing is to be permitted to Fortune in the Kingdome of Providence nor that the knowledge of God is to be submitted to the capricious fancies of his creatures Therefore doe they put into his hands the reins of his whole Empire they will have him give motion to all his subjects to apply them in their operations and without offering them any violence execute his will by their inclinations If he abandons necessary Causes they produce Monsters if free Causes they commit sins and when he guides both of them in order of Nature or of Grace they are regular in their motions and happy in their productions But being the Principle the Glory belongs to him and the effects they produce ought rather to be ascrib'd to his Influence then to their Vertue This Predetermination of the creature in a supernaturall order is called Effectuall Grace among the Disciples of Saint Thomas and they are so wedded to this opinion that they believe a man cannot dissent from it without renouncing the meaning of Saint Paul overturning the order of Nature robbing God of his Soveraignty and taking from him the infallible knowledge of all events that happen in his State They never think to weaken the liberty of man by establishing the
his bounty ought to live for his service Thence he concludes that we offer our members as oblations and employ all that we are for the glory of our Redeemer Slaves in the negotiations of the world could not dispose of their actions they acted by order of their Master they took pains for his Interest they got wealth for his profit and as if nature had lost her right in their persons they got children to increase his family Philosophers acknowledge that servitude fals only upon the body that it fetters only the feet and the hands leaving the slaves more free many times in their irons then the Soveraigns upon their Throne Bondage hath no dominion over their wil and with all her rigours cannot extort the least baseness from them if they be generous they dispute their liberty with fortune they preserve in deed what they have lost in appearance they many times command their oppressour and bearing the hearts of Kings in the bodies of slaves are more free and more happy then their Master But the Christian enters by Redemption into a Thraldome which passeth from his body into his soul fetters his heart with his hands triumphs over his liberty without constraining it confiscates all his goods to his Soveraign and despoiling him of all but Nothingness and Sin obligeth him to confess that he owes all the rest to the Liberaility of his Redeemer For the understanding of this Verity which makes one of the foundations of Christianity we must know that though God be the Soveraign of all men he treats not the innocent and the guilty alike He seems to respect the former to refuse them nothing that they desire preventing their wishes and in that happy state wherein Concupiscence had not disordered them he subjected their salvation to their liberty and made them in some sort the disposers or masters of their good fortune Grace is always at the door of their heart this Divine assistance never fails them and God would think he violated the Laws of his Justice had he not given these Innocents all that is necessary for their salvation But he deals far otherwise with Guilty men It seems Sin gives him more right over these wretches then Nothing does and being fallen from their priviledges by their own fault he owes them nothing but punishments He abandons them to their own conduct leaves them in blindness and weakness and as if they were meerly the objects of his anger he sometimes withdraws from them the assistance of his Grace Thus did the Eternal Father deal with men before the mystery of the Incarnation his Son found them in this deplorable condition when he undertook their deliverance they had no right neither to Grace nor Glory and sin that had deprived them of their innocence had confiscated all their apennages Thus we owe our Salvation to our Redemption we hold that of Mercy which heretofore we held of Justice we are saved rather as men enfranchised then free and acknowledging our salvation an effect rather of Grace then our own freedome we ought to renounce the one to give our selves over to the other This conceit carries me insensibly to another which seems only a consequent of this and the coherence they have will not give me leave to divide them Man in the state of Innocence was the master of his actions the uprightness wherein he was created was the cause that God left him to his liberty having no inordinate motions to regulate no wild passions to subdue no unfaithful senses to correct he had need only of a succour to sustain him His will was the principle of his merit and the good works he did proceeded rather from himself then from God Thus his good fortune was in a manner in his own hands he depended more upon Liberty then upon Grace and being the Director of this he might say without vanity that he was the principal Authour of his own salvation Divine Providence obliged him to take the guidance of himself to determine his own actions that he was the master of his fortune and making use of the advantages she had given him the acknowledgement of the victory was due only to his own courage and dexterity But now that he is faln from his Innocence hath lost half his Light and Liberty carries a Tyrant in his very Essentials which subjects him to his Laws he stands in need of a Grace that may deliver him and exercising a dominion over his will may save him by a more humble but surer way then that of Adam He is no longer the Master of his actions nor the Authour of his salvation he must take direction from Jesus Christ learn to deny himself distrust his own abilities and place his hope in that victorious Grace which subjects whose man captivating his understanding by Faith and his will by Love This Oeconomy of God towards the Christian is mixed with Justice and Mercy 't is Justice to take from him the disposall of his person because he used it so ill in the state of Innocence 'T is Justice to submit his Liberty to Grace because when he was the master thereof he neglected to make use of it 'T is Justice to treat him as a Pupil or a Slave not to trust him any more with the government of himself and to employ for his cure a remedy which reproacheth him with his blindness and infirmity 'T is Mercy also to knock off the fetters of a slave to indulge him the true liberty his sin had deprived him of to unite him to God from whom he was estranged to assure his salvation by a Grace which infallibly produceth its effect to sanctifie him in Jesus Christ whereof he is a Member and to give him an occasion to offer himself an Holocaust to God For it is true that self-denial is a parting with all things a sacrifice wherein man immolates his will by obedience a combat wherein he triumphs over himself where he is the vanquisher and the vanquished where he subdues his passions by reason and subjects his reason to grace After this advantage there is none but he may with Justice hope for because he that hath conquered himself may easily conquer all others 'T is a punishment which in hardship and durance disputes with that of Martyrs It is long because it lasts as long as life may take up the best part of an age nor spares the strength of the penitent but to make him suffer more It is rigorous because there is no cruelties a man given over to grace does not exercise upon his person and being witty to invent torments converts all things into corrections For as Saint Gregory the Great saith he suppresseth vanity by the sword of the Word of God he cuts off his head to ingraffe Jesus Christ upon his body he makes all die that he received from the old Adam to make all live that he hath drawn from the new and if he cut not off his arms and his legs he pares
looks upon the sin in it self considers only the interests of the state and provided that by punishing the wicked she may stop the current of Evil accounts her self sufficiently happy But Repentance illuminated by the Light of Faith mounts as high as God considers his Majesty offended and full of zeal and love endeavours to satisfie him by punishing the sinner Thence it comes to pass that 't is more severe then Justice and comparing the Excellency of the Creator with the meanness of the creature condemns him to sufferings which last as long as life When strength fails it hath recourse to tears and gives it self over to sighs to expiate the offences committed Morality hath observed that tears serve us in all our passions Joy hath its tears as well as Grief and when excessive hath a spice of groaning Love cannot avoid them when the heart is wounded it bleeds at the eyes and that Lover had reason to blame the Stoicks who allowed their Scholars to love but by no means to weep Mercy is never without Tears it daily lets fall some drops as witnesses of her compassion When she cannot relieve the distressed Lacrymis altaria sudant parca superstitio Stat. she bewails them and this remedy is so common that when the Pagans made a Goddess of this vertue the Victims they offered were Tears and Sighs But if there be any passion which profitably makes use of them we must confess it to be Sorrow this affection is better expressed by weeping then speaking her Tears are more eloquent then her Words and she gains more victories by her groans then by her reasons Thence it comes to pass that Repentance being nothing else but a Sorrow for sin it swims continually in tears interrupts its prayers with sobbings Purgatorium animae Baptismus Poenitentiū diluvium pecca torum Hiero. Chrys Greg. and mingles bloud with tears in all its sacrifices Therefore do the Fathers of the Church call it sometimes the Purgatory of the souls sometimes the Deluge of sins sometimes the Baptism of sinners and sometimes the Bath of Penitents For this reason all those that have gone about to appease the Justice of God have had recourse to their Tears David mingled them with his drink and that famous Penitent watered his Couch with them in the night season Mary Magdaleu obtain'd pardon for her sins by that innocent Stratagem she bedewed the feet of her Master with her tears wip'd them with the hair of her head and making that instrumental to her Repentance which had been to her Vanity deserved the glorious name of the Beloved of Christ But he himself whom we may style a publick Penitent bewail'd our sins to expiate them he mingled his sighs with his words upon the Cross and for the consummating of his sacrifice he was pleased that the Victim should be bathed in his bloud and in his tears In the mean time all sinners despise this condition of Repentance they bewail their miseries but never weep for their transgressions and knowing not well how to apply this remedy vainly sigh for the loss of their honour or their goods but are never seriously sad for the loss of Grace Saint Augustin blames himself in his Confessions that he lamented the death of Dido but wept not over the death of his soul that he bestowed some tears upon a woman that loved a man too much and denyed them to a sinner that was deficient in his affection to his God Though Tears make up one part of Repentance they may be sometimes wiped away these fountains dry up with time and there are few sinners who like Saint Peter can bedew their cheeks as often as they call to mind their offences But they ought always to abominate them and if there be some truce with their tears their hatred must have no intermission The vertues are not always active inasmuch as they have none but particular enemies they take their rest when they have either defeated or worsted them Continence lays aside her arms when she hath mortified the Body Humility takes some respite when the spirit is tam'd and Patience is satisfied when she hath calm'd the motions of anger But Repentance is a publick vertue whether she make war upon all kinds of sins revenge the outrages done against God set upon his enemies she is never at rest Her employment is continuall and as long as she sees any remainders of pride or impurity in the soul or body she spends all her power to stifle them The havock that sin bath made in our nature maintains her in this humour she cannot away with our irregularities at sight of them she presently meditates vengeance and as often as she considers our understanding darkned and our will depraved she resents a just indignation which awakens her against the sin Nothing so much incenseth a Prince against an enemy that hath wasted his state as when pursuing him with his Troops he sees the Fields desolate the Towns beaten to the ground the Villages burnt to ashes and which way soever he turns himself meets with the marks of the fury of a stranger Neither does any thing so much set an edge upon Repentance as when bidding sin battle she beholds the disorders it hath wrought in sinners and perceives neither parts in their body nor faculties in their soul which are not out of order Her just anger reacheth sometimes over the very men and finding they have taken this Tyrants part she animates them against themselves and making them serviceable to her indignation changeth their love into hatred and their pleasures into punishments Indeed every Penitent is his own Judge he enters into the interests of God and as if he were elevated above himself he conceives he hath some right to revenge the former and punish the later Anger according to the opinion of Saint Augustin is nothing else but a desire of vengeance and vengeance according to the sense of Tertullian is only the fruit or effect of anger But inasmuch as this passion is extreamly violent and that it is a hard matter to keep a just measure when we are Arbitrators in our own cause God was willing to reserve the disposal thereof to himself He it is that revengeth the Innocents and punisheth the Guilty and among so many things that belong to him there is none that he is so jealous of as this Mihi vindictam ego retribuam If he give some persons leave to make use of this right 't is after he hath made them his Images and of so many men that people the world there are none but Kings and Parents that have a power to correct their subjects or their children But as the Penitent holds the place of God here below and takes part in his Interests he shares also in his Justice and Power he pronounceth sentence against himself condemns himself as a Judge punisheth himself as an Executioner and being not able to endure himself dischargeth his fury upon all