of Faith If we believ'd that the enjoyment of God that an Eternity of infinite happiness or misery which includes surpasses all other miserys depended on our diligence if we did really believe what we repeat so of ten that we can not serve God and the world at once that time is short and that Death approaches that each moment for ought we know may be our last if we did indeed believe that Salvation is our own work and that we onely can secure it that it is no matter what becomes of us here if we make sure of heaven that we loose all even temporal blessings by neglecting our Souls and that if we be truly careful of them we shall loose nothing not even worldly goods if we do seriously believe these things how can we be careful how can we be sollicitous for any thing but Salvation Of the false pretences of orldly men about Salvation T is very surprizing that men of Sence and wisdom who reason so well about every thing else should reason so very falsly when they are desired to think on and work out their Salvation they freely own that it is hard to secure it in the world they will make lively and pathetical deseriptions of the Corruptions of the Age they are very eloquent on the inevitable dangers to which men are expos'd in the world and they readily conclude that they who live in it stand in as much need of an Heroik virtue as the Religious in their Convents but when they are told that in order to Salvation it is necessary for them to overcome themselves to mortify their passions to follow the example of Christ and his Saints they pretend that these vertues do not belong to them that 't is not their business that their condition do's not oblige them to so great a Sacrifice and that none but Religious can live regulary and conformably to the maxims of Jesus-Christ Is it not natural to conclude from hence that either the work of Salvation is not a secular Christians business which is a most gross and damnable error or else that Secular Christians do indeed renounce their Salvation Of the Facility of Salvation Of the ill use of the means Salvation God could have put us under a necessity of seeking him continually as our ultimate End and of never departing from him but he must then have taken away our Liberty when we reflect on the vast number of Christians who loose their Souls we are ready to wish that he had subject'd us to that happy necessity of working out our Salvation that so we might not be tormented with the fear of Hell But could we desire him to secure our Salvation better than by putting into our own hands And because he has made me master of my destiny of my eternal happiness shall I therefore be unhappy Shal this render my Salvation doubtful shall this put me in greater danger I might have reason to be aftaid if it depended on another tho my best friend but it depends only on me by the help of grace which will never be wanting to me yet this is the chief cause of my ruine O my God! if I do not secure my Salvation now that thou hast made me master of it I must own that I deserve judgment without mercy nothing less than an Eteernal punishment Of the ill use of the means of Salvation Can we think of our unprofitableness under such powerful means of our slighting so many graces and rendring them useless to us without apprehending least God should say to us as the Apostle to the Ieâ—vs Vobis oporrebat primum loqui verbum Dei Act. 13.46 the word of God was first spoken to you You were born in the bosom of the Church you were transplanted into the fertile field of Religion into a ground cultivated by the Labours and water'd with the sweat and blood of him who is both God and man How many means and helps have we had to enable us to fulfill all the duty 's of our Station and to make us fruitfull in good works but since these means and assistances which were so proper to have made us bring forth an hundred fold have been useless to us have we not reason to fear least he should add But seeing you put that divine word from you Sed quoniam repellitis illud indignos vos judicatis aeternae vitae ecee conver timuâ— aâ—â— entes v. 46. judge your selves unworthy of everlasting Life be hold we turn to the Gentiles This sentence is already executed on Syria and on almost all the East where Christianity first began and a great part of the North particularly unhappy England those nations formerly such good Christians and who reckon among their Ancestors so many great Saints have in these latter times cut themselves off from the fold of Christ while the Indians and people of Iapan and many other barbarous nations are enter'd into the Church and have reviv'd the primitive fervour piety equalling the generosity of the most glorious Martyrs Of want of Faith Whence comes it that we make no difficulty of believing the mistery's of the Trinity of the Incarnation c. tho they are not only a bove our understandings but seem to shock our Reason Is it not because these mystery's do not contradict our passions but do we believe with the same facility the other truths of the Gospell the Doctrines of selfdenyal of contempt of the world of love of poverty and humiliation Yet my God! they are all grounded upon the same infaillible Authority thy holy word for ' t is as certain that we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if we do not deny our selves subdue our passions and love our Enemy's as it is that we shal never enter there if we are not baptis'd Yet we rely very much on our faith for every man pretends to be one of the faithful not considering that we have but a dead Faith and that we confound the knowledge of what we ought to believe with that true Christian Faith which is allway's fruitful in good works and without which there is no virtue Of the thoughts Hell We believe that there is an Hell of fire and dreadful torments and that one mortall sin is sufficient to condemn a soul to Eternal pains and yet are we much afraid of mortal Sin do we not fear Eternal flames and torment Our trembling at the thoughts of Hell shews we believe it If the thoughts of its pains be so terrible what will it be to feel them all how great will our despair and anguish be when we call to mind that we would not avoid that Hell at the thoughts of which we have so often trembled Of a miserable Eternity We talk very much of an unhappy Eternity but do we know what it is by often speaking of it we use our selves to the thoughts and so come to be very little affected with it A man
tobe Saints without following their Example what grounds have we to rely on the mercy of God when we make use of that mercy to hinder our Conversion Jesus-Christ has expressly condemn'd lukewarm souls yet do's not this tepidity reign among Christians Am I convinc'd that the number of the Elect is so small and shall I do nothing to be of that number Yes my God! were there to be but one soul saved since it depends on my will to be that soul I am resolv'd to be sav'd I acknowledge that I have done nothing for thy service which can make me hope but my confidence is founded on what thou art doing now for me Thy design in giving me this opportunity in exciting me to this resolution was not to increase my guilt I have no need of any other Argument to convince me that thou desirest my Salvation thanthis very fear which thou hast imprinted in my soul least I should not be of the number of thy chosen I have often rendred my best thoughts useless but my God I have reason to hope that this resolution which I now make to work out my salvation with all the earnestness in the world shall be effectual And because I have had too much experience that these pious designs are easyly forgotten I will begin this moment to turn to thee Dixi nune coepi haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi Ps 76.11 to devote my selfe entirely to thy service and I rely upon thy goodness for strength to persevere SECOND MEDITATION OF SIN FIRST POINT Of Mortal Sin SECOND POINT Of Venial Sin FIRST POINT COnsider that all the calamity's and misery's that are in the world or have been since the Creation proceed from mortal sin this is the cause of warrs plagues and Famines of the destruction of City's by fire and of men by sickness Eternal Damnation and Hell it selfe are the dismall effects of one Mortal sin How can we comprehend the heinousness of mortall sin seeing thô the Angels were the most perfect part of the Creation neither the nobleness of their nature nor all their perfections nor their fitness to glorify their maker to all Eternity nor their being particularly design'd for that end could exempt them from being plung'd into everlasting flames for one mortall sin of a moment express'd in a vain thought For one act of disobedience Adam was depriv'd of his original justice of all his natural and supernatural gifts by this one sin he lost the priviledge of immortality became subject himselfe and subjected his Posterity to those innumerable misery's under which wegroan so many thousand yeares are past and the Divine vengeance is not yet appeas'd nor will be till the end of Ages 't is the fire of this wrath that burns in Hell and will never be extinguish'd The consideration of the terrible punishment inflicted on mortal sin is a clear proof that it is the greatest of evils since God who is goodness its selfe and whose mercy is exalted above all his works is so very severe against one act of it How many persons eminent for virtue full of merits and arrived to a great degree of sanctity are now damn'd for one mortal sin If after three or fourscore years of penance after a long Life spent in the exercise of the most heroick virtues after having wrought miracles if we commit one mortall sin all our penance all our virtues will be counted for nothing we become Enemys to God and objects of his wrath vengeance By the severity of the punishment we may conceive some Idea of the crime but its enormity and the hatred which God bears to it are more visible in the pains he hath taken and what it hath cost him to destroy it Those inconcevable mistery's of the incarnation the nativity the Life the passion and the Death of the Eternal Son were wrought onely for the destruction of sin nothing less then all theblood of Christ could redeem one soul and after all this soul shall be damni'd for one mortal sin all the flames of Hell those Eternal flames could never cleanse the least sinful spot Can we believe this and live one moment in sin and notwithstanding this extreme danger continue to sin and to expose our selves every day to the occasions of committing it this is hardly to be imagin'd How shall we reconcile our Faith with our practise how shall we make our practise and our Reason agree we refuse no pains to oblige a friend we are wonderfully exact in every punctilio of good breeding but stupidly careless in the important duty 's of a Christian Life We own that most afflictions are the punishments of our sins we are all afraid of Hell yet we are not afraid of sin which is the cause of Hell how sensible are we of the smallest loss how uneasy how sad and often uncapable of comfort yet how insensible of the greatest of that irreparable loss which a million of worlds can never repair we sin but we are not sad neither do we stand in need of comfort Thô we had committed but one mortal sin in all our Lives it would be a just reason for continual humiliation it would be a just subject of fear and trembling to the last moment of our Lives We have sin'd we are in danger of renewing our sins we are uncertain of their pardon how can we be without fear Are we sure that we are in a state of Grace or do we hope so be cause of our reiterated confessions Alas who hath told us that our contrition was sincere that our sorrow was from a supernatural motive how can we be satisfy'd with our purposes and resolutions when we know by experience and by so many relapses how ineffectual they have often been Since God spared not the Angels that sin'd how ought we to tremble who have sin'd after the knowledge of their terrible punishment After having seen the son of God expire on a Cross to destroy sin can I imagine that God will hate sin less in me My God Sauiour who hast dyed for me which thou wouldst not do for the fallen Angels I humbly beseech thee by the merits of thy Death to give me that Grace which thou wouldst not offer them Give me an hearty sorrow for all my sins and incline my will to answer thy End in affording me this time for repentance which thou hast not given many others and to begin immediately SECOND POINT Consider that venial Sins seem small onely to those who have little faith and less Love they who love God truly look upon all sin with horror and are more afraid of it than of the grearest misery A venial sin is indeed a small sin but it is not a small evil as long as it is a sin it is agreater evil than a general desolation of the whole Universe and therefore the Saints of God have always judg'd yt all the creatures ought to think themselves happy if they could prevent one venial
did they do wisely did they do well to neglect nothing to do all they were able to avoid Hell Who would not give all he is worth to be freed from a dungeon who thinks any pains too great to prolong his Life But Oh! what do we do nay what do we not refuse to do to avoid Hell The divine Justice is terrible God punishes these that offend him with Eternal torments in Hell yet we offend him in the sight of this Hell certainly an Eternity of misery is not too severe a punishment for such malice if there were no hell already God should make one on purpose for such offenders The thoughts of Hell make us tremble we are unwilling to think of it least it thould affright us and yet we are not afraid to run headlong into it we are afraid to think of the Eternal duration of those bitter torments and yet we will not make one step out of the road that leads to them There is an Hell and yet we delight in pleasures and Sinh at h still charms for us we think the practise of virtue difficult and there are still careless and imperfect Religious and debauch'd Christians this seems as incomprehensible as Eternity it selfe You object that perfection is not necessary to avoid hell true it is not necessary but can you keep to farr from a Lake of Fire into which so many fail Can you take too much care and too many precautions to preserve your selfe from everlasting fire rage despair How cruel must the thoughts of a damn'd soul be who knows that he might have been eternally as happy as he is eternally miserable if he had pleas'd that he might have been a Saint with ease and is not because he was not pleas'd to be so that his Brethren are in heaven but he is in Hell he laugh'd at those who being afraid of the condition in which he is now liv'd otherwise than he did and now what would he not do to be what they are I call'd an holy exactness melancoly a Christian modesty reservedness I call'd stupidity scrupulousness Oh! that I had been so stupid so scrupulous and melancoly that exactness that reserve has made many Saints who are now in heaven absorpt in Joys but what is become now that I am in flames of all my mirth and good humour which I affected to shew by rallying every thing If I had imitated such and such of my acquaintance if I had made good use of the divine inspirations such a day if I had been faithful to such a grace if I had shun'd such an occasion of Sin if I had practis'd such a virtue if I had mortifyed my selfe if I had been truly willing I should be now in heaven instead of which I am damn'd to Eternity I am lost and lost for ever Oh terrible regret And that which aggravates my misery is the remembrance how often I have thought on the pains I now endure on that eternal regret I should one day feel if I were damned Yet after all this men damn themselves Great God! thy vengeance is just they deserve it all Is it possible that we can avoid thinking on Hell is it possible that we can think on it and not be converted Is it possible that we are converted and do not continue to think on it we must have it all wayes before our eyes after our conversion to prevent our falling the greatest Saints those pure fouls whose hearts were all inflam'd with the Love of God thought it absolutely necessary for them to meditate on Hell and the apprehensions of it made them tremble and can any who pretend to virtue can any Religious man imagine that it is unnecessary to think on Hell certainly such men dare not think on it they are conscious to themselves that they do not take pains enough to give them ground to hope that they shall not be condemn'd but have they less cause to fear because they have a greater account to give And how can they hope to be less severely punish'd because they are under greater obligations Christ had good reason to tell us that Hell is the onely evil we ought to fear for what is a man the worse for being hated and persecuted for being reduced to a mean and obscure Life and for being mortify'd if he escape being damn'd My God! if thou art resolved to punish me for my Sins chastise me in this Life but do not damn me I will satisfy thy justice here I will hope in thy mercy and will love thee what satisfaction will it be to thee to see me in Hell sur rounded with flames transported with rage and despair hating and cursing thee and eternally blaspheming thy name My God! hast thou given me time to think on the pains of Hell onely to augment my despair one day for being damn'd after having thought on these pains Remember I am sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and 't is through that blood that I beg and hope for mercy Thou hast paid too great a price for me to be indifferent whether I be lost or no. I will be sav'd suffer me not to be lost Hic ure hic seca modo in aeternum parcas if thou wilt punish me do it in time but let not my punishment be Eternal SECOND MEDITATION OF THE FRVITS of Pennance FIRST POINT Pennance is necessary for all sorts of men SECOND POINT What the Fruits of that Pennance ought to be FIRST POINT COnsider that mortification and pennance is the onely way to heaven Jesus-Christ shew'd us no other way and the Saints who from their infancy were confirmed in grace knew no other T is an error to imagine that pennance is necessary onely for great Sinners and no less an error to think that mortification is the virtue onely of the perfect if we be Sinners we must do pennance to endeavour to appease the wrath of God and to obtain mercy and pardon if we are so happy as not to have lost our innocence pennance is necessary for us to preserve that precious treasure we have sin'd we may sin again two powerful motives to do pennance Since we all confess that men sin more frequently in the world and that they are more expos'd to the danger of offending God than in a cloyster can we reasonably believe that pennance belongs onely to Monastery's and that none but Religious are oblig'd to mortification Do we consider that many of those Religious whom we think indifpensably oblig'd to do pennance never lost their innocence shall we who own our selves guilty of many Sins and who are in danger of committing more every moment shall we think to persuade our selves that mortification and pennance do not belong to us It we had nothing but our own passions to overcome could we reasonably hope to conquer them without the exercice of pennance and who can reasonably hope to be saved without subduing his passions It is an article of Faith