Neighbour proceeds further he finds out means either to burn or take away his Titles Contracts and Publick Instruments which might make out the Righteousness of his Possession and at the same time he forges others to debar him from his pretensions These are the proceedings of the Flesh against the Spirit the Soul had three fair Contracts to shew and drawn in a very good form in the first state of her Creation The one was of Original Justice the other of the Gift of Immortality and the third of the Infusion of Science The Contract of Original Justice has put her in Possession of the Sanctifying Grace according to the feelings of all the Fathers who by these words of Genesis Let us make man to our Image and Resemblance takes the Image for her constitution in her intelligible being and the resemblance for her interiour ornament through the infusion of Grace after which comes Charity The Queen of all Virues waited on by all moral perfections which as Ladies of Honour are always inseperable from her the Justice then comes first Leader and Chief among the Cardinals with the rest that follow immediately the Theological all which in the first instant did acknowledge God for their object and were so punctual to serve him on occasions that nothing could be imagined better ordered in that litle Common-wealth Man was admitted to the Privy Councel of the King of Glory so far as to know the most secret affairs of the Divinity as was the decree of the redemption of mankind in the fulness of time by sending one of the Divine Persons who uniting himself to humane Nature would discharge her of her Debts in rigour of Justice Moreover by Virtue of his Contract he had not only reasonable inclinations towards his Creator but as yet his Will did taste with so much sweetness of all manner of things which concern'd the Divine Worship that the sensitive appetite has not so much of sensible pleasure in the enjoyment of her delights The Contract of Immortality exempted Adam and all them who by Original propagation were to come from his Race from that rigorous tribute of Death whereby the Soul could have received a great advantage for by this means she would have shunn'd the experience of what grief and sorrow she met with in the seperation when that those two essential pieces of Man the Soul and Body so perfectly united comes to break off I must confess this Contract was not grounded on any right of nature because that man suffers within himself a continual War of four contrary qualities which at last must end his life to begin his Death and therefore he could not expect to be Immortal by Nature Mortalis erat Adam conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio conditoris D. Aug. in c. 7. Genes but even as the King who is above the common Laws of his Kingdom dispenses with whom he pleases So God says St. Augustin did order that Man Mortal by the condition and property of his animal Body should be Immortal by the benefice of his Prince Ne mors undequaque subreperet vel senectute confecti decursis temporum spatiis interirent Idem ibid. A Benefice nail'd to the Tree of Life by an adherent quality which acted this great wonder that eating the Fruit which hung from the Branches it did not only give nourishment to the Body to preserve Life but also was an expulsive Medicine of all gatherings of ill Humours to keep him always in the just proportion of a perfect health Infusione non per se sed per accidens The Contract of the Infusion of science did raise the Spirit of man from the very instant of his Creation to the perfect knowledge of all natural things God having granted him that Grace that whereas now we spend years and ages to attain to some little knowledge of Learning in one instant he would become an able Phylosopher For whatever thing he would apply himself to either Material Spiritual or Divine he would easily draw from thence all possible consequences by way of nature In material things he had a clear knowledge of their constitutive Principles of their genius difference properties and accidents he gave to each thing Names which were evident signs and marks of their substance that from one they would easily come to the knowledge of the other The motion of the Heavens Ordinary Extraordinary Influences Aspects Regards Positions Colours Zodiack Eccliptick Signs Constellations and the wonderful enclosure of all the Globes one into another without confusion all that was the entertainment of his Spirit In Spiritual things the very Angels met under the sphere of his Activity and made up a part of the object of his science for though he had no material Species of the Angel being that the matter cannot be the Image of the Spirit nevertheless by illations and Universal consequences by proportion of the Soul whose Functions are Intellectual he could conclude the existence of a being purely Spiritual without any mixture of matter In Divine things there was no Creature in the World wherein he did not consider either the trace or Image of God and carrying his understanding from visible to invisible things would conclude that of necessity there was one originary cause a primum mobile a Soveraign Agent Fomes peccati The Body after he had corrupted nature did falsifie burn and corrupt all those Titles Contracts and Priviledges Substituting in their place the Leven of concupiscence In the practice of Courts they would call that a demising which the Soul makes of all her rights to the Body not having courage enough to maintain them This is what St. Paul calls the Law of sin which causes the Soul that she dares not appear to hold her own rank in the quality of a Princess by the excellency of her extraction nor to have her self obeyed as Mistress and Regent of the Body Her cowardliness makes her to take with the vile and abject condition of a Servant and receive the Laws of the Flesh whereas she ought to command absolutely CHAP. XXXVII The third unjust Usurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit THe Meers and Bounds being taken away the Contracts confounded the bad Neighbour seizes on the Inheritance sells and alienates all that he can What a grief is it to a poor man to see before his eyes all his Chief and best Goods proscribed the hangings of his Halls the Beds and rich Furniture of his Rooms Quisque peccando animam suam diabolo vendit accepta tanquam pretio dulcedine temporalis voluptatis D. Aug. in expos propositionum ad Rom. Num 4. the brave Linnen conserved so long a time in the Coffers all seized on all exposed to sale If for to conserve the memory of his race he would fain buy one of the Pieces they make him pay a double rate for it The Body deals the same with the Soul he sets all her moveable Goods
occasion Lyon is Infected also away with those Chandlers the base smell of their rotten Tallow has brought the Disease amongst them We are like so many Dogs we run after the stone that God doth cast at us without considering what hand it comes from without turning our Face towards him who strikes at us to know what was his meaning to strike us We Lop our Trees and why to hinder that unprofitable Branches may not take away the substance We prune our Vines that they should have less Leaves and more Fruit less Buds and more Grapes You rub your course Irons and why It is to pollish them and take away the Rust God by means of Afflictions cleans our Souls to confirm us in his Grace he clips and cuts us to pieces that we may the sooner produce the Fruits of a true Repentance he sets us under the main Hammer of the Cross in this World to take away the Rust of old Sores and polish our Souls for an Eternity Satan will have us believe the contrary Omnia quae patiuntur mala iniquè se pati dicunt dantes illi iniquitatem per cujus voluntatem patiuntur aut quia non audent ei dare iniquitatem auferunt ei gubernationem D. Aug. to 8. in Psâ— 31. and as by the supposition of a false Belief he dull'd us so far as not to be able to conceive the effects of God's Providence He will soon oblige us to believe that whatever misfortune hapens to us has its off-spring from some fatal necessity And so in liew of considering our Afflictions to be the amorous inventions of God's Love who calls us to his Service we take them for sinister causes which reduce us to bear company with the most miserable Creatures that Nature can afford This is not only found to be true in the general Afflictions which God is pleased to lay over a whole Kingdom or Province to chastise them for their misdemeanours but as yet in particular and personal Afflictions to which every one of us all is subject Let us take for example Diseases St. Basil says That they are God's Prisons If there be a wild young Man in a Countrey a High-way Robber a Murderer a Whore-master or otherwise idly given whom the fear of the Justice of the Law is not able to reduce to any right understanding the Magistrate to bring this spend-thrift to his Duty issues out his Warrant to the King's Officers to bring in his Body He is taken brought to his Tryal and condemned to Prison there he begins to implore the clemency of his Judges he who a little before undervalu'd both God and Man A Sinner who had no regard of God's Laws Jam saeviat quantum voluerit pater est sed flagilavit nos afflixit contrivit nos verum est sed pater est fili si ploras sub patre plora Paulo infra trod under foot all remorse of Conscience made nothing of the inward reprehensions of his Angel-keeper God who notwithstanding will not have this poor wretch to perish sends his Serjeant with a Warrant to seize on his body a good sound sickness casts him down on his Bed puts Irons on his hands and feet to the end that at last in that condition he be forced to beg his life of his Creator implore his Clemency and expect that by his special Grace he leads him into the Road which all good Christians take to arrive in Heaven Si non vis repelli ab haereditate noli attendere quam poenam habeas in flâ—gello sed quem locum in testamento D. Aug. to 8. in Psal 103. We must not attribute the cause of our Afflictions to some fatal constellation which had preceded at our Birth or to the bad constitution of our Bodies or to the want of good Government in our Diet for though all those causes may contribute somewhat we must acknowledge that there is a Supream and Sovereign cause which has a far higher design than that of sickness and which ends not in that exteriour Infirmity of our Bodies but goes on to cure us of a far more dangerous Disease which is the Interiour Malady of our Souls A Wife has lost her Husband whom she loved as her heart a Husband lost his Wife whom he cherisheth as his one half both are weeping lamenting sighing Alas the Wife will say did the Heavens joyn us together with so sure a knot as that of Marriage to seperate us so soon at least if I had been the first to pay my Duty to Nature I would have had the comfort as not to out-live the object of my misfortune Alas the Husband will say what shall become of my poor Children after having lost a Mother who lov'd them so tenderly What shall become of my House and Family being that I have lost my Wife my Adviser my Helper my House-keeper and prudent Oeconomer who eas'd me of all my cares Could I but release her life with the effusion of my Blood I would soon empty all my Veins to bring her to life again I freely pardon those hot expressions of Nature for being we are all made of Flesh and Blood we must have a feeling for our Friends But to speak like a Christian God demands other guess thoughts of you in those Afflictions he pardons those tears that pass in a moment But he does expect a grief that shall have no other term than Eternity The Virgins of Jerusalem seeing our Saviour to towards the Mount Calvary covered with blood and all battered with blows wept bitterly He does not approve of their Grief but tells them freely that their tears had been better imploy'd for themselves I say the same to those Souls we ought rather to weep for the loss we have often had of our true Spouse Jesus Christ when that by our infidelities we lost his presence Tears on this only occasion are grateful to God and well received by his Apostles when they do produce in us a true Grief of our past idle life and a constant resolution of amendment for the future Another is intangled in Law has lost his Suit which takes away all that he has in the World to whom shall he make his addresses to tell him of his misfortune Now he lays the blame on the Judges and says that they were mis-inform'd and more inclined to favour his Adversaries that they gave Sentence for them who had no Justice on their side Maledictus autem qui spem suam ponit in homine confunderis quia fefellit te spes fefellit spes posita in mendacio si autem ponas spem in Deo non confunderis quia ille in quo spem posuisti falli non potest D. Aug. to 8. in Psal 36. another time he finds fault with himself and accusing himself of laziness says that he either lost his most material Papers or left them at home in his Closet He complains of his Friends that they were too backward
taken from the Tree of the Cross we are for a mild Physick he will have us to be often Blooded he spares no Iron nor Fire and as he is extraordinary well versed in his Art and knowing full well the cause of our Evil he applies thereunto the Remedies which he knows to be most efficacious for its healing It is better to receive the Receipts of a Doctor somewhat rigorous than to languish miserably under the hands of a flattering Mountebank That being so if hitherto we have been Sinners obstinate in our crimes let us molifie our hearts and force out of the Anvile of our Steely Breasts some little sparkle of good will for our Conversion If we have been as so many greedy Ravens croaking a Cowardly Cras Cras to morrow to morrow putting off with a foolish delay to another time the grand affair of our Salvation Let us say with the Prophet 't is This day and at this present moment that I begin to make Pennance If we have been weak and feeble falling incessantly to our old evil practice let us swallow down with a couragious Heart that wholesom Medicine composed of the Blood and Sweat of Jesus striving in the Garden of Olives against the feelings of Nature to the end that being once well Purged we may continue Strong and Hearty in the Service of God and never to assist at Sermons hereafter but with that resolution to make use of what we hear for the amendment of our Lives CHAP. XXI How Powerful good Example is for to touch a Sinner IT is not a question so easie to be resolv'd as People may imagine Ad invenit omnem viam disciplinae tradidit illam Jacob puero suo Israel dilecto suo post haec in terris visus est cum hominibus conversatus est Baruch 3. v. 37. to wit whether the Miracles of Christ were of more force to convert Sinners than was his sweet Conversation among men For in favour of his Miracles we may alledge this Maxime of Phylosophy That Active Powers are more Powerfully drawn by that which moves them most But it 's another Maxim of Phylosophy That what we have daily before our Eyes breeds no passion in our Hearts Ab assuetis non fit passio The proof is very plain in all the course of Nature What is more to be admir'd than to see the Heavens with all their great Train roll constantly and with such good Order over our Heads The Sun to take its course with so great Majesty from one Tropick to another and as it enters into its twelve Stations or Mansion Houses to produce so many rare and different effects The Moon which by the secundity of its continual Influences predominates with so much Empire over all Sublunary Generations the Earth which every year revives so many Plants and draws them out of the Tomb where Winter had buried them However all those things because we have them daily before our Eyes moves not in the least our Powers But if any thing happens extraordinary in the course of Nature If the Sun be at a stop Non ait Dominus tollite jugum meum super vos discite à me quoniam quatriduana de sepulchris cadavera exsuscito atque omnia demonia de corporibus hominum morbosque depello caetera hujusmodi sed tollite inquit jugum meum discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde illa enim sunt signa rerum spiritualium mitem autem esse humilem charitatis conservatio est D. Aug. to 4. lib. â—unico in Epist ad Galat. or go back so many Degrees as once it happen'd if the Moon be Eclipsed if any Prodigious Sign or Comet appear in the Air we are all presently in a maze we are astonish'd at the sight of those new and extraordinary things We might then conclude that Miracles which are extraordinary things which are the Wonderful Productions of a Supream Cause and which depend immediately of an Agent far beyond the limits of Nature should have far more force to move Souls to think of their Salvation than either Example or Conversation However we must conclude that the Conversation of Jesus was more available to Souls for their Conversion than were all his Miraculous Actions For the Conversion of a Sinner consists in the perfect imitation of Jesus by doing good Works Miracles bring not People to Imitation but only to Admiration To raise the Dead to restore their Sight to the Blind their Hearing to the Deaf their Speech to the Dumb Health to one Sick of the Palsie They are Actions which cannot be imitated by men because they do surpass the reach of their Activity But to suffer Affronts without the least reply do good to his Enemies carry his Cross with Resignation practice Virtue on occasions they are I must confess Heroick Actions Rogo vos imitatores mei estote sicut ego Christi 1 Cor. 4. v. 16. which may be imitated by Gods good Grace To work Miracles it was needless that the Eternal Word should become Man being that they are the effects of his Divinity But to do Works which may be imitated he took on himself our Resemblance Bona non solum coram Deo sed etiam coram hominibus 2 Cor. c. 8. v. 20. leaving us in the course of his Humble and Mortified Life a Gracious Modell and a most Lovely Patern for all our Actions The Scribes and Pharisees had not many Complaints to make against his Miracles Quare cum publicanis peccatoribus manducat Magister vester Matth. 9. v. 10. but as for his Conversation they murmur'd and could not suffer but with Jealousie to see him so familiar with Sinners and Publicans For it was the only means to disabuse that poor blind Nation and bring them to open their Eyes to see their own Follies And in effect those that a great number of his Miracles could not Mollify the Example of Jesus Crucified on Mount Calvary forc'd that Confession from their Mouths Verily this Man was the Son of God and knocking their breasts they return'd back full of Sorrow and Contrition to have known so late the Merits of so Holy and so Perfect a Man Whence came it that Pilot would fain declare him Innocent and withdraw himself from judging of his Cause but from the Sweetness of his Conversation from the rare example of his Modesty from his Patience more than Humane under that heavy load of Affronts which he received at the Hands of that Barbarous and Bloody Nation Hence he drew that necessary consequence that the Virtue of the most high did animate all his Actions and that such a gathering of so many rare Virtues could never be found in the Person of any Criminal This Truth cannot be better understood than by the Commissions which our Saviour gave to his Apostles and Disciples For as he did not establish them his Lieutenants on Earth but for to make an end
and think of what Order they are to keep as well in their Retreat as in their Victory this they call to sound a Retreat And these are the two chief Offices of our Conscience to sound a Charge when the Devil that roaring Lyon who wheels round about to devour us is near at hand when the occasion of Sin is imminent when our Sensuality thinks of a Seditious revolt it 's Then that we are not to stand with cross arms but to animate our selves to a Combat shake our Bodies and stretch our Veins and shew how we have learned from Jesus Christ in his Mystical Academy to do well on the like occasions It 's a Spectacle worthy of his Divine regard to see a brave Christian Dispute couragiously for his Salvation and Coelestial Inheritance to the danger of his very life To sound a Retreat is when our Conscience does advise us to re-enter into our selves when by over-much liberty we fall out of our Ranks for to follow the Streamer of the Flesh to make us return to God when we are gone far from him by our Offences as the Prodigal-Child to his Fathers House In fine to render our selves more capable of the Amorous and Wise conduct of Jesus by the care we shall have hereafter of our own Salvation that we have been unworthy to partake of his Graces under the unhappy Rebellion of our Senses CHAP. XXIV That a Soul will not Convert her self to God unless she knows that she has no true Friend in this World Amicus fidelis protectio fortis c. Eccl. 6 v. 5. ONe of the greatest disorders that has follow'd in Humane Nature the dismal Fall of our Fore-fathers is that our faculties have remain'd so blinded in the choice of their Objects that the Spirit in lieu of carrying it self directly to the knowledge of one Truth source and first beginning of all others has busied it self about I do not know what apparent Verities which have brought the understanding to as many Errours as it has produc'd Actions soon after this choice The Will which by the Natural weight of her inclinations should not engage her self but in the Love of a real and subsisting goodness which should be the originary cause of all goodness For having imbrac'd like a blind tope as she is that which appear'd good and handsom she has found her self unfortunately under the heavy yoak and Empire of as many unprofitable affections as the deceitful senses had brought her Species a disorder oppos'd by the general Maxim which will have in all sorts of things always one to be the first who may be the rule and leader of others who may be the antecedent cause of all effects even as the Lines come from the Centeral point to dilate themselves after into the Circular amplitude of the Circumference Plurimùm didistat ratio considerantis à necessitate indigentis seu voluptate cupientis cum ista quid per se ipsum in rerum gradibus pendat necessitas autem quid propter quid expectat cogitet ista quid verum luci mentis appareat voluptas vero quid jucundum corporis sensibus blandiatur exquirat D. Aug. to 5. l. 11. Civit. c. 16. in â—â—ne We have an Election and a choice to be made whereof depends all our Happiness it is of a true Friend Hercules in that field wherein he met with Virtue and Pleasure coming to offer him their service is very much perplex'd Pleasure would have him for her Friend and by her charming words by her countenance full of allurements conjur'd him to renounce that sad and toilsom exercise of straining and labouring so much his young Bones under the rigorous Law of War that her company was far more pleasant that the Fields of Mars and Bellona were cover'd over with Blood and with Dust whereas hers were spread over with Flowers and Roses Virtue with a Grave presence full of Majesty which carried Modesty in her Face exhorts him not to suffer himself to be seduc'd by that Dissembler that her Friendship was most inconstant that she had often deceiv'd others that it is her custom to come at great and couragious Hearts after that Nature had put the Spindle and Distaff into their Hands in lieu of a Bow and a Club she triumphs to render them Idolaters of her Beauty to Glory in their own Spoils As for my part I do confess those that follow me are oblig'd to all sorts of Heroick Actions they must give the proofs of their Courage by the difficulty of high Enterprises But they may assure themselves that I will serve them both in Time and in Eternity as well for to render their Renown Glorious among Men as their Memory Venerable to Posterity The World would fain Convert Man to it self God will have him also the one and the other with the most puissant motives they can think of presents themselves to invite him to the choice of their Friendship To which shall the Soul give the preference It is necessary says Plato Plato in lib. qui lysis seu de amicit this Genius of Nature that in the matter of choosing a good Friend we begin to proceed to the Election by way of Discussion and Investigation that is to say we must make a gathering and an Assembly of all things which seems to us to be worthy of our Friendship and after having seriously consider'd them setting aside all considerations of particular Interest To question our Spirit and to demand where is the Originary source of all Friendship For if the multitude proceeds from Unity it must be that all Friendship is found eminently inclos'd in some excellent Subject which must be the very Primum Mobile of all Amities untill that you meet with this stop not advance still for all that is underneath it has but the appearance of Friendship subject to deceit I was willing to give you this advice O Friend Lysis that you may not be deceiv'd in the choice which you pretend to make of a perfect Friend taking the shadow for the Body the Effect for the Cause the Ray for the Sun and the Stream for the Source The Soul will go far in the way of her Salvation if she comes to understand that all the World together is not able to furnish her with a perfect Friend and then will conclude that this perfect Friend must be look'd for out of the World That there is no true Friend in the World I cannot produce either Proof or Testimony of it more sensible than that of Job in Holy Scripture for the just complaints he makes upon the account of his faithless Friends are able to cleave asunder any heart if it be not harder than a Dyamond he must have no feelings of Nature who will have no compassion of poor Job when he gives an account of all his disgraces in this point Job 19. v. 13. seqq Fratre meos longè fecit à me noti mei quasi alieni
Juvenal Lucian Celsus and the rest are altogether astonish'd at their Silence not understanding that it is the true Religion which begins to make it self known to the World Fifthly It s general publication over all the World without any earthly assistance favour or support without Pleasure Profit or any Temporal satisfaction in Patience Humility and Affliction In fine the Infallible Assistance of Jesus to them of that Profession as well by the use of Holy Sacraments wherein he confers his Graces on us as by the care he has to give us his Angels to guard and protect us his Holy Ghost to comfort us and his Promise assuring us of Eternal Life Let the Heretick then as well as the bad Christian confess that it is not God but the bad use they make of their own free will and liberty that is the cause of their everlasting Misfortune and woe But alas what shall we say of those poor little Creatures which in their Mothers womb or soon after they breath'd the common air of Nature are depriv'd of Life before they become Peaceable possessors of the same passes from one Prison to another and not having along with them the safe conduct of Baptism are prohibited to come within the gates of Heaven Must so antient a Sin and so far from us as that of Adam is be the cause of our daily misfortunes Original sin what a subtile poison your Infection is being that it is impossible for any Creature except Jesus and Mary He by Nature she by a special Priviledge to avoid its fatal stain Were it not far better to deprive those poor Babes of Life for good and all by leaving them block'd up within that Chaos of nothing than to bring them to a state where they shall have cause to lament for ever their misfortune without any to comfort them or condole their bad luck St. Augustin Your Expressions are able to break any Heart to pieces when you say that very many Children receive not the Grace of God because they die without Baptism though they have no will contrary to the will and Holy Laws of God and though the Parents and Priests make as much hast as they can to Administer the Holy Sacrament unto them thing worthy of compassion they run in all haste to look for a Remedy to the Evil and the Patient expires before its application God permitting it so to fall out I confess ingeniously I would wish a more Happy condition to those poor little Creatures if Faith had suffer'd me to follow my feelings But it obliges me under pain of Damnation to submit my thoughts to Divine Revelation which gives me to understand that it was the Eternal Fathers Decree to send his only Son on Earth for the Reconciliation of Mankind then the Decree must of necessity be equally put in execution Prosper lib. 2. de vocat gent. c. 23. Non irreligiose arbitror dici quod isti paucorum dierum homines ad illam pertineant gratiae partem quae semper omnibus est impensa nationibus totaque illa principia nec dum rationalis infantiae sub arbitrio jacent voluntatis alienae nec ullo modo eis nisi per alios consuli potest Vide per totum so that none comprehended within the List and Obligation past in the Terrestrial Paradice can say that he has not been made partaker of sufficient means to Salvation St. Prosper was of the same feeling I do not believe says he that we do in any way transgress against either Religion or Conscience to say that those little Children Creatures of few days appertain to that part of Grace which is communicated to all Nations and which if their Parents turn to good use doubtless will take its effect for all those small Grafts and Exordiums of Creatures not yet Reasonable lies under the good will of another The reason is that as the Children are not guilty before God but by the fault of their first Parent and never contributed on their side to any actul malice that is in them but only by a flowing of an Hereditary propagation which sticks to all them that come to the World by the way of ordinary Generation so they have not the sufficient means to stop this Original disorder but what depends on the Will of another Now we must suppose that it is morally impossible but that the Parents have an actual desire to confer on their Children this necessary means to Salvation and this is what the Divines call the sufficient means of little Infants But if it happens by hazard or otherwise that the Child dies in the Mothers womb or soon after this can be no reason to dress up a complaint against God because that those sad Mischances arriving through Natural Causes make that God who in the general disposition of the Universe acts as first Principle suffers also all things to go according to the course of their Nature without conceiving any formal design notwithstanding against that Child or this in particular that he should be depriv'd of Sufficient means to Salvation Would you have that God to hinder an Eclipse of the Sun should disturb and destroy all the order of Nature Sicut per unius delictum in omnes homines The Apostle says that the Sin of one man had so infected all Humane Nature that from the Child in the Mothers Womb to him who after a long scope of years waits for his Coffin and Grave there is none but has been condemn'd to die when first he began to live Even so by the Justice of another man not by Terrestrial but even Caelestial Grace as a brave Sun of an Infinite Greatness powers down her Rays on all men with so much proportion that the Child as well as the Old Man must ingeniously confess that nothing is wanting to them of Gods side who will never violate the Laws of his General Providence to hinder the operation and effects of particular Causes Let none then hereafter if it happens that unfortunately he falls into the common road of Perdition accuse the Eternal Providence of either Injustice or Partiality being he never refuses any Body sufficient means to work the Conversion and Salvation of his Soul CHAP. XV. God no sooner sees a Soul desirous of her Salvation but he gives her his helping Hand OUr God in the Prophet Malachie speaks a most sweet word to the People of Israel that deserves well some return more than a Complement I have lov'd you says he to them Malach. c. 1. v. 2 Dilexi vos dicit dâ—minus dixâ—stis in quo dilexisti nos and what ought they to reply how or in what terms should they acknowledge their great Obligations to him Should they not say it is true my Lord we have had several proofs of your good will Heaven and Earth on occasion might appear as Irreproachable Witnesses of the Favours we receiv'd at your most Liberal Hands Oblite sunt benefactorum ejus
dependency over all Creatures which makes them always be in a readiness to obey his Orders beyond their Natural Principles and the Precincts of their Activity In that Case 't is enough that he raises up their power proportionably to the miraculous effect that he aims to produce For such miraculous effects tend not to the profit or contentment of the things elevated being altogether incapable of any such but only aims to make known the power of the Supream Agent who makes use of them So that for to Act they need no other created Principle But as for Man it is not the same with him Postquam convertisti me egi poenitentiam Jerem. cap. 31. v. 16. for God setting him on in the work of his Conversion will have him to concur really and as an effective Principle even as he did in his aversion from him when that he committed Sin which cannot be performed by him unless it be before-hand God bestows on him a Divine quality which leaves him in a free power to work the accomplishment of his Salvation which he is not able to perform by the bare and sole Principles of Nature Moreover had not Man received any other extraordinary quality Liberum arbitrium est causa sui motus quia homo per liberum arbitrium movet se ad agendum D. Tho. 1. p q. 83. art 1. ad 3. to raise up his will to supernatural Actions as all those are that tend directly to Salvation It might be said that he is a principle meerly passive in the practice of Virtues which is contrary to the common Belief Also God never supplies by himself the defect of any second Causes when it can be done by any other way The Example of the Blessed in Heaven will make this Divinity easie to be understood It is not enough for a Soul that has for her happy residence everlasting Glory that God discovers unto her the Mirrour of his Divine Essence and makes his Glorious Beams to shine all about her her Understanding must also march under the conduct of a Light of Glory to enjoy its Felicity that must be the resplendent Garment without which it durst not appear It must then follow that the Soul receives some Grace from Heaven Venit adoravit eum dicens Domine Adjuva me Matt. 5. v. 15. which God drops down from the Cabinet of his most tender Love and not to make her bear in her understanding the knowledge of all the Divine Beauties for that is the Duty and Office of the exciting Grace But to help her Will and in so doing to make her the necessary principle of her Conversion as all the Fathers of the Sacred Councel of Trent do teach The Holy Church owns the necessity of that Grace Trident. sess 6. Cent. and that all our endeavours for Salvation are too weak to draw us from the corruption of this World without the assistance from Heaven this is it that moved her to dress up that form of Prayer Actiones nostras quaesumus Domine aspirando praeveni adiuvando prosequere c. by which she desires the Divine bounty to prevent in such sort the beginning of our Actions by the sweetness of his aspirations that nevertheless he forsakes us not in the progress to the end that all we do or think may tend to his Glory as the Rays to their Sun the Lines to their Center The Apostle St. Paul who was not content to have cast the Seed of Faith into the Hearts of those that he had newly engendred unto Jesus if he had not prescribed them the means to preserve it comforts them with this good news that the Holy Ghost doth ease and help our Infirmities Rom. 8. v. 26. Similiter autem spiritus adiuvat infirmitatem nostram As if he had said I do not doubt in the least my dear Children in our Lord but that the Devil who is so well vers'd to deceive men will invent many ways to make you decline from the Rode which leads to Salvation and which you have learn'd but of late for there is nothing he aims more at then to snatch your Souls out of the Arms of Jesus the World always contrary in its Maxims to the Holy Laws of Heaven will breed in your Hearts if it can a horrour and a distast of that Crucifying and Crucified life which is observ'd and practiced in the Evangelical Law Nevertheless do not say or imagine that your Enemies are strong your Resolutions weak the Victory doubtful Let not all those apprehensions pull down your courage for I do â—assure you in my Masters Name that he will assist you by fortifying your weakness that he will solace your Infirmities by strentghening your Arms in your most bloody Skirmishes That he will cast dust in your Enemies eyes to give them the Rout and You the Victory that he will make you carry Lawrels on your Foreheads as so many brave Conquerours whilst They shall bear on their Faces nothing but shame and confusion The Prophet and King a Man truly according to the Heart of God not for having Governed his People with a deal of Authority not for having subdued strange Nations by the happy success of his Arms not for having gathered an abundance of wealth in the splendour of his Glory Psal 93. v. 16. Nisi Dominus adiuvisset me c. But for having so happily managed the Graces of God in the course of his Conversion Confesses ingeniously that were it not for the help and assistance he had from Heaven his Soul had very soon taken up her quarters in Hell Alas How many are there now alive Prope rueram in illam fossam quae paratur peccatoribus hoc est Paulo minus haberaverat in inferno anima mea quia jam nutabat probè consentiebat nisi Dominus adiuvisset me D. Aug. com 8. in Psal 93. v. 17. that may as well as David confess the same and say My God had you but given power to your Sarjeants in Hell to bring in such a Mans Body to their dark Dungeon at the same time as he became refractory to your Holy Laws and plunged himself in the dirty puddle of Concupiscence he had been already partaker of what punishments the Damned Souls suffer as he has been guilty of their Crimes if your charitable goodness taking compassion of his blindness had not helpt him to get out of his Dirt and Infection How many are now Tryumphing in Glory and appointed by God to bear company with his Holy Angels for an Eternty Who if they had not been prevented by that Grace would be Chain'd in Hell and as complicies to Satan would have been his unfortunate Slaves without any expectation of redemption Magdalen my dear Penitent this day you take the sweet sleep of the Spouse in the Arms of your beloved Jesus shining like a Morning Star without fear that any should evermore trouble your rest However you would have been condemned to
difficile est ut linguae saecularium men tem non inquinet quam tangit quia dum plerumque eis ad quaedam lonquenda condescendimus paulisper assueti hanc ipsam locutionem quae nobis indigna est etiam delectabiliter tenamus ut ex ea jam redire non libeat ad quam ex condescensione venimus inviti D. Greg. to 2. lib. 3. dialog cap. 15. and Capharnites happens to very many in our days which is That our Saviour speaking to them of Holy and Profitable things of the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament of the necessity of Crosses of the obligation of sufferance says that they are things hard to be digested they cannot give ear to them they are altogether displeasing to them and for to express their unwillingness to practice them they do withdraw themselves one after another from under so heavy a Yoak Is it not a strange and most deplorable thing that now-a-days it 's taken for the meerest folly in Nature to speak of God in any Meetings He is but an Alter-piece a devourer of Images a rouler of Beads a Melancholick and Hypocondriacal man who will offer to speak of Devotion in company they will presently begin to jeer him to smother his feelings of Devotion and Piety Gorrumpunt mores bonos colloquia prava 1 Cor. 15. v. 33. Is it possible that the World has blotted out of our hearts the Memorials of the Recognizances which we owe unto him whom the very senseless and dumb Beasts cannot forget We will make such large amplifications of a matter of nothing and we shall not have a word to say of the King of Glory of a God of Majesty inexhaustible source of perfection We will pass over whole days to entertain a company with Stories with Fables with Fictions without truth or ground and we shall be sorry for one quarter of an hour imployed to set forth the Praises and Glorious Prerogatives of our Redeemer A Commedian a Stage-player shall be heard as an Oracle and he who will declare the Word of God must be commanded to keep silence Do we not fear the Fatal Effects of that most Dreadful Sentence pronounced by our Saviour against them who shall be ashamed to confess him before Men Vitiorum exempla oppugnant animum immutant transformant miraculo erit inter incendia vel non sâ—mi vel ceâ—tè non incaâ—esâ—ere S Cyprian de spectaculis that he will not acknowledge them before his Father which is in Heaven They are the People to be shun'd as a Plague that infects all the World as so many Incarnate Devils whose conversation and company brings us nothing but misfortune and woe It is then most true that good conversation and company is an efficacious means that God makes use of to convert Souls That of the wicked is also another strong means whereof the Devil makes use to cross his designs of their Conversion And so we must conclude that he who is taken with this company goes on headlong to everlasting destruction whereas the former has found out the right Road to Heaven and the assured means to work his Salvation CHAP. XXIII That to think of Death has a great power on the Conversion of a Sinner THere is neither Rule nor Law so Universal Statutum est omnibus hominibus semel mori post hoc autem judicium Heb. v. 27. but admits of some exceptions or difficulties there have been many and are at this present to my great grief that will hardly believe the Existance of a God But all without either exception or difficulty concur in this Point that we must all die we tread under our feet the dead to day and we shall be dealt with the same to morrow Testamentum enim hujus mundi morte morietur Eccl. 14. v. 12. For my part I do adore all thoughts which may conduce to my Salvation as of the love of God above all things who without any desert of mine has given me so many Graces of the Beauty of Heaven glorious and everlasting residence of the Blessed of the noble extraction of the Soul appointed from all Eternity to enjoy the intuitive Vision of the first Essence But in this point I must confess the corruption of my nature the dullness of my understanding such thoughts are good for purer Souls than mine is they are motives able to ravish a St. Paul into the third Heavens to Print on a St. Francis the Effigies of Christ to set a St. Bernard beyond his Senses and make all those extatical Spirits to fall into a weakness I am an insensible Rock to all those truths a Dyamond which those Darts cannot penetrate I am colder than the very Ice at the approach of those Fires But when I come to think thar poor Brother Lyon Capucin must die that I am now standing on my Legs and that to morrow they will put my Head into a Capuce for to cast me into the Earth That they will sing a doleful de profundis at my Funeral to send me to another World and give me the last farewel I raise up my shoulders I re-enter into my self my Blood is already frozen within my Veins I have no more mind to laugh than I have to live And really as I shall make it appear by moral induction there is no Motive more powerful among the Exteriours to stir up all sorts of persons to the feelings of their Salvation than the thought of dying To Youth it is a curb to stop them when they are in their full carreer to Perdition To Kings Princes Emperours and Monarchs a Subject of humility that they should not puff themselves up with over-much Pride above the People To Soldiers and Warriours a cause of humiliation that the favour of Fortune and Arms should not make them insolent To the most Holy Souls an ordinary entertainment Mors rot a incertè fixa brevis haec est multiplex vita sursum movetur ac deorsum trahitur fugiens tenetur manus effugit saltat plerumque nec tamen fugere potest stationem suam motu trahit retrahit Greg. Nâ—zianz in distichis to keep them within the limits of humility and from presuming any thing rashly by the Justice of their actions As for the Youth that Antient practice of the Romans was a rare spectacle and a brave Lesson they gave the young men of the City when they made up a most magnificent Sepulchre to the young Princess Servilia the rarest beauty that ever appeared in the Roman Empire Over the Marble cover of her Tomb was in the very middle an Earthen Pot and at both the ends two Nymphs in Womens shape from the Head to the Navel and thence downwards light-footed Deers so Artificially joynted Greg. Nazianz. in Moncast which looking fixedly at the Pot with a jeering smile would give it a kick at the same time and break it to pieces That Earthen Pot represented the Body of Servilia a Vessel
heaviness distaste and sadness And on the other part to let us know when we shall be brought to that State whom to make our addresses to to find true consolation In all Arts as well Mechanick as Liberal say the Masters Hoc dixit quia multi clamant in tribulatione qui non exaudiuntur ad voluntatem sed ad salutem Ibid. there is a certain secret which they will hardly communicate There is in humane life also a secret to live contentedly which I would wish all the World had known Dear Reader here it is for you in three words Love only where you ought to Love and you shall never be heavy at the Heart you shall be always content you shall see sometimes one in the turning of a hand to be altogether changed in his humours of a jolly hearty companion become on a sudden mournful sad drowzy whatever he sees pains him where others find their recreation he gets wherewith to entertain his Melancholly he shuns all company to give more leasure and liberty to his dark thoughts to grieve him and trouble his Rest the more Has he a desire to get out of that dimness where Sadness sits in her Throne Will he know whence he had that grim Companion that litigious Domestick that trouble-feast who sets a disorder over all the Commonwealth of the Soul Let him not find fault with the bad constitution of his Body Let him not attribute any thing to the change of Seasons nor to the Influence of the Stars for none of them are the cause of his heaviness But let him examine his own affections let him never give over to search until he discovers the Object that retains them For doubtless they are in some place where true consolation cannot be lodged Omnis nostra tribulatio est ex nobis sed consolatio ex solo Deo ex nobis sunt conturbationes sed ex Deo finis earum Incognit in Psal 41. D. Aug. 4. Cons c. 12. as in some Creature or in some vain hope finding out this too to be true let him love where he ought to love Let him withdraw his affections thence and place them where Justice Reason and his own Interest will have them to be and I do assure him in God's Name with St. Augustine that he has found the secret to live content and happy in this World There is nothing so much to be admired in the process of times as to see how God to teach this secret to Men Summons them to the experience of a thousand Fatal accidents and permits them to place their desires according to the choice of their liberty how he permits afflictions heaviness to rise at the very instant Men thought to rest happy and repose themselves sweetly in the Lap of consolation and Peace Was there any thing more Glorious in appearance than Belissarius under Justinian the Emperour Belissarius the most Valiant Captain that ever bore Arms in the three Neighbouring Ages who reduced the Persians under the obedience of his Prince who supprest the insolency of the Goths over all Italy who went along to Africk to Subdue those Barbarous Nations whence he brought Prisoner the King Gilismer as the Crown of his Victories He returns to Court full of Glory gives an account of his Actions brings Scepters and Crowns to the Feet of Justinian hoping to find Peace Tranquility and a favourable Reception as a Reward of his Fidelity But God who will not have Man to lean upon the brittle Staff of Creatures to find his Consolation suffers that He who was obliged for his life to Belissarius enters into a Jealousy of the Honour of his Conquests forgets all the hazards wherein he exposed himself for his Service has both his eyes pluckt out of his Head strips him out of all his Means reduces him to a State of such extream misery that poor Belissarius is constrained to build himself a little Cabin of Dung and Straw on the High-road to ask the Alms of Passengers for the love of God Euseb lib. 2. Hist cap. 5. Belissarius had lodged his hopes very ill but Philo the Jew more wise than he found out the secret Deus non tibi declarat ipsam misericordiam quam tibi per diem mandavit nisi per noctem cum venorat ipsa tribulatio tunc adjutorio te non deserit ostendit tibi verum fuisse quod tibi per diem mandavit etenim scriptum est speciosa misericordia Domini in tempore tribulationis sicut nubes pluviae in tempore siccitatis D. Aug. tom 1. in Psal 41. for being accused by Appion before Cajus Caligula and being very hard put to for to justifie himself of what was laid to his charge failed not nevertheless to find in short his true Consolation He turns himself with a smiling countenance towards his Country-men courage my Companions here is the hour come wherein it is necessary that God should comfort us seeing all Humane assistance has failed us As if he would say that God by a solemn Decree of his Divine Providence has as it were obliged himself to Man that at the same time when he shall know by experience that a Creature cannot be the Object of his Consolations and that he will convert himself to him he will receive him in his Arms to comfort him in all his Afflictions and Heaviness of Heart It is then very true that he who has found out the secret of living contentedly has concluded out of the weakness of Creatures and by their inability to furnish any true contentment that God alone is He who can really comfort him a consequence which is very easie to be deduced if we will but suppose a Principle known of it self to be true by natural reason which is that all Men in general without exception of any whatever desires to be content and live happy This good luck is never found but in the pursuit or in the enjoyment of our last end after which there is no more to be desired But it is most evident by the ordinary unquietness of our mind which is never here at rest through the unruliness of our Souls always at the chase of new affections by reason of the disordered Appetite of all our faculties which are never satisfied with the Metaphorical food of their Objects That the Creature cannot be our last end seeing it cannot afford us so much good at once as that we may never desire any more God alone then remains for our last end for he only can give such contentment and so perfect that after it we cannot desire any more And therefore no Consolation can be true if it has not the full enjoyment of its last end But because there is a great difference betwixt the Desire and the Enjoyment of the thing desired and that this true Consolation which all Men look for is as the Golden-Fleece of Antiquity that could not be carried away without danger of life and that we
properly is no other thing in St. Augustine's opinion than a languishing tepidity to produce the actions of the Spirit That puts all the Members of the Flesh into a Lethargy when there is question to obey the commandments of the Soul this idleness becomes a Tyrant if permitted to command absolutely and our proper feelings will become Arms of iniquity Languor iste tyranus est si vis te tiâ—anni esse victorem Christum invoca imperatorem D. Aug. verb. Apost serm 12. if we have not recourse to the Store-house of the Cross and take thence the Shield of Mortification on which Jesus our true Captain having received their most violent attacks has disabled them thereby to teach us how to prevent their effects You would say that St. Cyprian intends to make of Man a Smiths Shop Caro autem sic utitur anima sicut faber maleo vel incude in qua format omnium turpitudinem idola D. Cypr. in Prolog tract de operibus carn Christi The Flesh is the Smith his Hammer is Concupiscence he makes of his Soul an Anvil The Flesh armed with her Concupiscence strikes with both Arms full stroaks on our Soul to forge therein the Idols of pleasure and expose them to a publick adoration And a little after falling from the Analogy of that comparison he casts himself on another where he compares the Flesh to Circe the Witch that mingles in her Pottage a mortal Poyson Mens ebria corpus contumeliis applicat junctis amplexibus ambo in mortiferas suavitates elapsi obdormiunt Idem ibid. For as soon as the Spirit does taste of that Potion of the Flesh there he lies drunk of a sottish Love which makes him give over to Concupisence a full right in all his pretentions and giving one another an unfortunate kiss they both fall into the fatal Bed of common perdition But all those actions proceeding from a bad Faith and grounded on a deceitful Cheat can give no gain of cause to the Body if the Soul be pleased to make use of the pieces which will easily justifie her Rights and Titles Nay without going any further let her use the Right she has of a substantial Information and she shall soon see the Body brought to his Duty By the right of a substantial Information Non est caro dictatrix peccati nec inventrix malitiae nec cogitatus format nec agenda disponit sed officina est spiritus qui in ea per eam quaecunque affectaverit peragit consummat D Cypr. supra the Soul has such an assendance over the Body that as the Body in the Being of Nature cannot boast to possess life but for so long a time as the Soul will stick to him So in the Moral Being of the practice of Good and Evil to make an action good or bad the Body will contibute nothing if the Soul does not co-oporate the Flesh does not dictate the SIN she does not invent the malice she does not dispose the thoughts she is only the Work-house of the Spirit where the Good and Evil begins and is consumated If the Soul cannot redeem her self from the Tyanny of the Body by the right of her Information Quis me liberabit c. Rom. 8. v. 25. let her have recourse to the means which St. Paul does prescribe in like occurrences who sighing under so cruel a Thraldom seems to cry for strength and assistance to God through Jesus Christ. When St. Augustine was on the point to break with all Worldly pleasures D. Aug. lib. 8. Concess c. 11. Ibi tot pueri puellae ibi juventus multa omnis aetas graves viduae virgines in omnibus ipsa continentia nequaquam sterilis sed faecunda mater filiorum gaudiorum de marito te Domine irridebat me irrisione exhortatoria quasi diceret tu non poteris quod isti est istae an vero isti etistae They all presented themselves unto him under the colours of a malicious compassion to mollifie with their Charms the force of his Courage To what purpose would they say do you engage your self in a life whereof the ordinary practice is to be among Chains Crosses Wheels and Gibbets But this great Saint considering on the other side the powerful Grace of Jesus as a Victorious Princess which carried in her right hand the List and Names of so many young Children of chaste Virgins of Noble Matrons snatcht from the World and the Flesh to serve God suffers himself to be easily perswaded that God who makes no exception of persons will not refuse him the efficacious assistance of the same Grace He fights then under that hope he invokes Jesus to his aid and notwithstanding the contradictions of the Flesh he appears Stout and Couragious against all occasions of Vice This Example will let those that are in Love with Liberty see that it is not incompatible with effectual Grace because this according to St. Augustine is a Victorious pleasure charming our Soul a Tryumphant Love predominant over our Will and a powerful perswasion captivating our understanding Forasmuch as God hath made Man free never taking that from him which once he hath bestowed upon him he could not have imployed a more gracious nor more effectual way to gain Him than pleasure All Creatures are taken with it and the Poet had reason to say there is nothing that is not sweetly Master'd by Pleasure The Ambitious seek not so much the reputation in Honours as the pleasure because they contemn them as soon as they cease to be agreeable The Covetous is not so much provoked with profit as pleasure in the desire of Wealth because he spends many times prodigally to procure other things that more delight him Nay the Lascivious Wanton is not so much in Love with Beauty as with pleasure because he placeth his affections sometimes upon Objects that have no appearance of Beauty and many times forsakes a handsom Woman to Court a deformed one Thus pleasure is a powerful Charm that masters all Hearts Plunders Liberties and makes Slaves that never complain of Bondage because they are voluntary Lovers that seek the secret of purchasing affection study nothing but Complacency being assured they shall produce Love in that Heart where they have begot pleasure Flatterers never insinuate into the minds of great Men but by rendring themselves acceptable nor do their false commendations steal in at the Ears but because pleasure takes up the place of Truth The very Devils though our Mortal Enemies seduce us not but because they please us and had they not found out the Art of mixing Pleasure with Sin all their Temptations would be fruitless But the Will of Man though never so free hath such an inclination toward pleasure that did she never so strongly barracado her self she could not possibly resist it She holds out against Truth because she is blind and sees not the Beauties 't is adorned with she
secures her self against violence because she is free and naturally opposeth whatever seems to incroach upon her liberty She does not acquiesce in reason because she is deaf nor hears any discourse but such as charms the Understanding by convincing it But Pleasure hath allurements which she can no ways withstand She trembles whenever it sets upon her she is afraid to lose her liberty in his presence and knowing the power it hath over her inclinations she calls in Sorrow to her succour to Guard her against this pleasing Enemy If it be true that Pleasure reigns absolutely over the Will we need not think it strange that Grace which is nothing but a Victorious suavity hath such advantage over her For besides that this Heavenly Influence surpasseth all the delights in the World that charm us having more allurements than Glory and Beauty that makes so many Lovers and Martyrs Tunc enim bonum concupisci incipit cum dulcescere incipit ergo benedictio dulcedinis est gratia Dei qua fit in nobis ut nos delectes cupiamus hoc est amemus quod praecipit nobis Aug. it insinuates much deeper into the Will than whatever ravisheth us Mortals Being in the hands of Jesus Christ whom nothing can resist it glides into the very Center of our Hearts making Impressions there that are never more strong than when they are most agreeable thence it cashiers all Pleasures that have unjustly Usurp'd upon us and knowing all the weakness of the place it sets upon we need not wonder if she makes her self Mistress Other Pleasures enter not into the Will but at the Gate of the Senses they have lost half their strength before they can make their approach and her inclination being unknown to them they many times cause aversion intending to procure Love But Grace wooes the Heart without the mediation of the Senses and more powerful than Pleasures that act not upon all the faculties of the Soul carries light into the Understanding Faithfulness into the Memory and Pleasures into the Will so that we need not wonder if the Sinner suffer himself to be overcome by a Divine quality that sheds delight into all the powers and faculties of the Soul That which Grace effects thus agreeable by Pleasure Amor imperium habet super omnes animae vires propter hoc quod ejus objectum est bonum Arivis D. Tho. it brings to pass more powerfully by Love For according to the Judgement of St. Augustine Grace is nothing else but Charity and when God means to convert a Sinner his sole design is to make him his Lover Love is the Master of all Hearts there is no impossibility this Passion undertakes not Miracles are his sports and all the Prodigies Antiquity hath produced are nothing but the effects of this Sovereign Scripture is never more Eloquent than when it intends to express the force thereof Nothing satisfies it in this design all words seem too weak to express its conceptions and finding no comparisons that answer the dignity of the Subject it descends to the Tombs where having considered the Trophies of Death is forced to confess that his power equals not that of Love It passeth to the very Center of the Earth observes the unrelenting sadness of Hell and comparing the pains of the Damned with the anxeity of Lovers leaves us in doubt whether Hell or Love be more pitiless But not to aggravate his power by such strange comparisons let it suffice to Judge of him by his Effects Though he be the Son of the Will yet is he the Master he disposeth so absolutely of his Mother that she hath no Motions but what her Son inspires her with She undertakes nothing but by his Orders 't is the Weight that sets her a going the Load-stone that attracts her the King that Governs her and she so absolutely depends upon his Power that nothing but an other Love can dis-engage her She is so fierce or so free that neither Violence nor Fear can tame her She laughs at Tortures preserves her Liberty in the midst of Fetters and many times Torments make her but more wilful Only Love mollifies her hardness his Charms gain upon her what sorrow cannot and Experience teacheth Us there is no surer command then that which is founded upon Love In the mean time Vanity which is almost the inseparable Companion of Greatness perswades Kings that 't is a debasement to seek the Love of their Subjects and seduced by this false Maxim They endeavour to make themselves feared not being able to make themselves Beloved But God who hath formed the Heart of Man and knows how they may be Vanquished without being forced owes all his Conquests to his Love He never appears more absolute then when he tames a Rebellious Will when of an Enemy he makes him a Lover and changing his Inclinations sweetly compels him to fall in Love with him Forin secus terret per legem intrinsecus delectat per amorem Aug. His Power sparkles in his Corrections He astonisheth Sinners when he loosens the Mountains from their Foundations when he makes the Earth shake under their Feet the Thunder rumble over their Heads and threatens the World with an Universal Deluge or a general Conflagration But all these Menaces convert not the Guilty The fear that terrifies them does not reduce them to their Duty their Heart remains Criminal when their Mouths and their Hands be Innocent and if God inspire not his Love into them he punishes indeed their Offence but changes not their Wills This Prodigious Metamorphosis is reserved for his Love 't is his Charity that must Triumph over Rebels Nor is there any thing but his Grace that by its Imperious Sweetness can oblige a Sinner to Love him I am not afraid to injure Mans Liberty in using Terms so Significant Because supposing Grace to be nothing but Love it can do no Violence to the Will For of all the things in the World there is none freer then Love A Man cannot complain that he is forc'd when nothing but Charms of affection are imployed to gain him And if there are some Lovers that have blamed the Rigour of their Mistresses there is none that have found fault with their Love If it be an Evil 't is a Voluntary one it hurts none but those that willingly Embrace it and of so many Punishments that torment Us there is none more Innocent because none more Free Crowns may be snatched from Soveraigns Confidence may be taken from Philosophers Orators may be convinc'd any man may lose his Life but what ever Stratagems are made use of what ever Violence men Practice a Lover cannot be forc'd nor his Love extorted from him Seeing then Grace is nothing but Charity and Charity nothing but a Holy Love We must not apprehend Violence nor imagine that the Assaults of this Divine Quality can at all injure our Liberty because it does not dis-engage us from Evil but by obliging
us to Love God If Grace cannot force our Will because it is a Victorious Love it ought less to constrain it Because according to the Language of St. Augustine 't is a pleasant perswasion For this great Man considering that he was to deal with Free-will on one side and the Power of Grace on the other that he was to maintain the Empire of God and the Liberty of Man He hath always exprest himself so happily that he never prejudic'd either And as indeed Grace never forces Man but perswades him it holds some thing of Eloquence or of Reason that Triumphs over Liberty without compelling it Rhetorik is an Art that teaches us to perswade Truth Orators are agreeable Soveraigns that bear Rule over the minds of their Auditors that calm their Passions change their Designs and gently force their Wills Therefore was it unhandsomely done of that Ancient to compare Pericles with Pisistratus Quid enim inter Pisistratum Periclem inter fuit nisi quod ille armatus hic sine armis Tyrannidem gessit Cicero because this Tyrant domineer'd but over Mens Bodies that Orator exercised a Dominion over their Souls The one made use of Violence the other imploy'd nothing but Sweetness The one procur'd the hatred of his Subjects the other the Love of his Auditors For no man could complain of Pericles because he used nothing but Eloquence to perswade his command was founded upon Reason his Chief force consisted in Truth he subjected no understandings but by clearing them nor changed any Mens Wills but in taking them by their Interests or their Inclinations In a word Eloquence may boast her self a Soveraign that Reigns without Arms Subdues People by her Word convinceth Philosophers by her Reasons and Subjects Monarchs by her Power She protects the Innocent comforts the Distressed condemns or absolves the Guilty and she Animates the Advocates or the Judges produceth different Miracles in their Souls Whether she inchant the Ears by the Harmonious Cadencies of her Periods whether she excite Love and hatred by her Gestures her principal design is to master the Liberty of Man She appears complacent that she may be perswasive nor doth she require the attention of her Auditors but that she may get their consent 'T is true never any man complains of her Violence because she is Sweet and he that has chang'd his mind at the hearing of an Orator never accused him of Tyranny 'T is certainly upon this ground that St. Augustine calls Grace a very Powerful perswasion because imitating Eloquence it clears our Spirits calms our Passions and gains our Consent it hath this advantage over Eloquence that it hath no need of our Ears to win our Hearts it transmits it self by its self into the inmost recesses of the Soul finds out Reason in her Throne without employing the Senses carries Light into the Understanding and kindles Love in the Will Thus she perswades what she will to the obstinate Subdues Rebels without Arms makes her Subjects will what she desires they should and when she displays all her Forces she works the Conversion of a Sinner in a moment This certainly was the power Jesus Christ made use of when he laid St. Paul flat at his feet when he Converted that Persecutor into an Apostle chang'd his Heart and his Tongue and made him that breath'd nothing but murther say Lord what wilt thou have me to do He lost not his Liberty for having lost his Fury He chang'd not his Nature for having chang'd his Judgement nor can we say that the perswasion that gain'd his consent was less free or more Violent for being too sudden Grace knows how to be obeyed without making us Slaves She can perswade without compelling and more Powerful then Eloquence is able to make us Love what we hated before That great Orator that guided the Roman Common-Wealth with his Tongue and made his Opinion so Dexterously pass into the Soul of his Auditors That Gallant Man I say hath wrought Miracles by his Eloquence which we have much ado to allow the Grace of Jesus Christ to effect He could boast that he alter'd the Resolution of Coesar defending the Cause of Ligarius that he shook the Papers out of the Hands and the hatred out of the Heart of that Conquerour that he made him re-call the Sentence he had already pronounced in his Soul that he overcame him by his Reasons that he Subdued all by his Arms and trampled upon the pride of a Tyrant that had Triumph'd over the Liberty of Rome In the mean time we have much ado to believe that Grace can work Miracles We weaken its Virtue to preserve our own Free-will We are not content that Jesus Christ should be as Powerful as an Orator and when we hear of these Victorious Graces and of these invinsible perswasions we imagine as if there were a design to oppress the Publick Liberty Let us ascribe that to Grace which we grant to Eloquence Let us confess that the Son of God knows how to imprint Truth in our Spirit and Love in our Heart to perswade us Infallibly Let us acknowledge that he is not to seek by what Stratagems to gain our Inclinations that his Grace more intimate then Concupiscence is able to become the Mistress of our Wills and whatever command she Exercises over us she never destroys our Liberty because she hath no other design then to redeem it out of Servitude Let us then conclude with the Example and Doctrine of St. Augustine that the Profession of a Christian and the Excellency of the Children of Grace is not to Prophesie future things nor to hurl the point of their Intelligence into the hidden Mysteries of Holy Scripture but to be Magnanimous and Couragious in the frequent Combats which Concupiscence give us for that is the only imployment which will make appear how strong the Love is which we bear to Jesus CHAP. XXXIX That the Grace of JESUS leaves that weighty obligation on all Christians to be both Souldiers and Conquerors THe God whom we adore takes his Glory as well from War as from Rest and if he be call'd in Scripture the God of Peace he is as often called the Lord of Hosts Multitudo militiae Caelestis His Angels are the Souldiers that wait upon him to the Battle who avenge him of his Enemies The Stars which keep watch as Centinels about his Palace bear the name of the Militia in the Language of the Prophets And all those that serve him for Ministers in his Embassies serve him for Combatants in his Conquest Labora sicut bonus miles Christ 2. Tim. 2. Therefore did the Angels who gave notice to the Shepherds of the Birth of Jesus Christ take their name from their principal imployment and called themselves the Heavenly Host And when the Son of God was taken in the Garden of Olives and blamed Saint Peter Nemo coronabitur nisi vicerit neque vicet nisi certaverit Quis autem