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
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
difference of times to give us four remarkable proofs of his Eternal Care The first he brings Man from nothing by Creation The second when that Man had forgot his Respects to his Creator he resolves to repair his loss by uniting Humane Nature to the Divine in the Incarnation of his Son The third he prepares for him in Heaven an Immortal Crown in order to enjoy for ever in Glory the sight of his Divine Essence And the fourth when that by his Actual Sin he shall come to loose all right to that Glory by the loss of present Justice in this Life he offers him the means of a Repentance by the Feelings he gives him of his Conversion All these aforesaid Actions are the worthy Imployments of his Divinity but the Conversion of a Sinner of all seems the chiefest as for the Creation it was as it were necessary or at least most convenient that God should give actual Existence to Man being that his possibility was in his Thoughts from all Eternity otherwise it might be said That Power was faulty being not reduc'd to Act To assign him a state of Glory where after his Pilgrimage he might find his Center and final Settlement that follows immediately the way of acting of the first Principle who at the same instant as he gives Being to a Creature gives him his Settlement and final rest As for the Hypostatical Union in the Incarnation perhaps the design was taken in the most Sacred Conclave of the Blessed Trinity before the Fall of Adam Besides it was reasonable that the Son should raise the Honour of the Father very much interessed in the loss of Man the Noblest Master-piece that ever came from his hands if he had remain'd without remedy after his Offence But as for the Conversion of a Sinner in particular and after the re-establishment of Humane Nature by the general remedy of Redemption common to all men to undertake as yet his conduct and the transporting of him from the state of his actual Sin to that of Grace 't is the effect of his Infinite Love I must confess but it is also an Imployment worthy of his Divinity reserv'd for Jesus alone Reason makes it out for we say that the resemblance makes things known the World is the Work of God and known for such because its Perfections bear the resemblance and Portract of its Maker Grace which has Converted the Sinner comes far nearer to the Likeness of God for what goodness could render the Soul good make her partaker of Gods Grace and the Object of his Sovereign Love What Power could give her a Right to Heaven or to any part of its Glory what cause could procure her Eternal Felicity without any limitation or bounds but an Infinite Goodness a first Cause Primique referret luminis effigiem sanctaque imitamina formae Greg Naz. carm 4. an Eternity by Essence St. Gregory thinking on the imployment that God had before the worlds creation what was his occupation and pastime says that all his study was to render his perfections communicable but his perfections are all represented to the life in the conversion of a Soul consequently the worthyest imployment that God had before the Worlds creation out of himself was to manage the conversion of Souls and think of means to bring to pass so noble an undertaking in the difference of time Quos praescivit predestinavit conformes fieri imaginis filij sui ut sit ipse primogenitus in multis fratribus Rom. 8. v. 19. I do ingeniously confess that the first and chief imployment of the Eternal Fathers is to produce his only Son and to love him But after that the most honourable imployment his goodness could ever make choise of is to produce outwardly Children by the most Noble Generations that can be imagined without any prejudice to the pre-eminency of his first Paternity to wit in unity of supposit and love the first born of his Children is Jesus The rest of men are younger Brothers Sicut Deus pater suam naturalem bonitatem voluit aliis communicare perticipando eis similitudinem suae bonitaris ut non solus sit bonus sed etiam actor bonorum ita filius Dei voluit conformitatem suae filiationis ut non solus sit ipse filius sed etiam primogenitus filiorum D. Tho. in hunc locum Pauli less shared withal for all Laws favour the first born but notwithstanding they have the same Father same Inheritance same Rights same Coat of Arms So that as the Generation of the Word is God's first imployment within himself the Adoptive Generation which is performed by the conversion of a Sinner shall hold the first rank without him For even as in the super-adorable labours of his Divine fecundity he powers forth his knowledge without measure until that he meets with his Holy Ghost who setting a stop to his emanations seems as it were by violence to retain the course of his action This love must force it self to render its fecundity without any limitation both of acknowledgement and love among creatures capable of its impression So before the conversion of a Soul he proposes himself for Object of our thoughts and his Holy Ghost for the scope of our love to honour us with the same Objects which his knowledge and love have in the blessed Trinity Debuit per omnia fratribus assimilari Heb c. 2. for all filiations must have a reference to the first filiation and the nearer their reference is the more excellent they will be Moreover it is a prerogative belonging only to him who is above all Genus and Species and has a right of Sovereignty over all Categories to destroy all Genus and Species as well as to redress them to their ends if once they swerve from it God alone has a right of absolute and Universal Sovereignty then he can as well reduce all Genus and Species of Beasts to nothing as he brought them out of nothing to give them a Being Venit filius hominis quaerete c. Luke 19. v. 10. Mat. 18. v. 11. Cum dicit quod perierat sub intelligendum est genus humanum omnia enim elementa suum ordinem servant sed homo eravit quia suum ordinem perdidit Remigius in catena ad c. 18. Matth. All humane nature in her Species was misled from the end for which God had created her It was then an imployment suitable and reserved to the sole power of a God to work the establishment of so great a disorder True it is that actual sin is only a personal offence but because that it is a raising up against God and that God is the Center and last end of all the Species in that respect we may say that all sinners are gone astray from their Species Hence I do conclude that when a sinner converts himself to God it is not enough to conceive a displeasure for having offended him his peculiar good
any want being you have the management of all my Treasures that also you have the Keys in your own custody I boarded you at my own Table where you have been serv'd with the Bread of Angels Upon what account then have you taken that resolution to serve another Master The obstinate Worldling continues still his purpose to have the World for his King whatever betides him Well says God you shall have it for your King being you are of that mind go on you will soon repent your bad choice You know not as yet the Master you desire to serve his Laws are most rigorous his Government Tyranical his Scepter a Rod of Iron I may soon let you see by a most sensible deduction what a sad thing it is to serve the World and how often you meet there with what you never look'd for The wishes of a Man in the World may be reduced to three heads either to content his ordinate appetite refusing nothing to his Senses or to have a great deal of Wealth to put himself in Vogue among the People or to have a good Issue of Children to suceeed him in his Inheritance and keep up his Name My opinion is that a Man's condition in the World is most unlucky in all those three respects But first I must tell you that your King the World has many Vice-Governours who will pretend to a Mastership over you so that by serving that unhappy King you bind your selves over to many Masters Covetousness will tell you that you are his Servant and that you have from him your Gold and Silver as a Reward for your good Service Letchery will alledge that you are his Servant because that he gave you a Feast of a moment for an Eternity of displeasure Hi velut irrâ—tionabilia pecora naturaliter in captionem in perniciem in his quae ignotant blasphemantes c. 2 Petr. 2. v. 12. Treachery gets into Judas and tells Jesus that he is none of his Servant for the Devil his Grand-master bought him to betray his Saviour and Lord for Thirty pence though he drinks with you he tells him he sells your Blood to me he is your Apostle but my Hireling Now as for the pleasure of the Body besides that it is to resent the Beast and the Epicurian Quid deliciarum foeditas mali non inducit sues ex hominibus facit imo vero etiam multo majores sus enim in luto volvitur stercore nutritur hic vero abominabilem magis mensam sibi construit iniquas commixtiones excogitans hic nullo cettè à daemonico discrimine separatur D. Chysost homil 58. in Matth. I will tell you that it could never as yet nor ever will afford it any true pleasure for they should be true and solid either by the cause that produces them or by the Subject that receives them or by the effects that follow them The cause that produces them is a vicious and corrupt nature which is cursed by the mouth of the Omniponent in Genesis What good could ever come from a bad Principle the Subject that receives them is Man who is it that ever was made happy by taking his pleasure I know that the foolish sort of this World have received from Satan a new kind of Religion wherein they have but two Articles the one is never to Think or trouble their mind for things to come The second Article is never to deny to their Appetites what pleasures the present time can afford But I remit such as are of that Belief to natural Theology which if received in their Hearts may dissolve all those Clouds of Ignorance if they do not set a stop to its light If they do I must then remit them over to experience which I may call a night Lanthorn The effects that follow do likewise shew the Malignity of the Cause for in exchange of one pleasure you have a thousand sorrows for a moment of Joy eternal Punishment their lamenting and the Tears that come from their Eyes are sufficient witness of the bitterness they do resent in their Hearts To find in the World a Child who gives any true content to his Parents Utile est mori sine filiis quam relinquere filios impios Eccl. 16. v. 4. is a rare thing on Earth he must be an Arabian Phoenix who can well be described yet never found out but once in an Age Their birth is waited on with Lamentation and Tears Pueritia tua adolescentiae tua inhonestamentum fuit adolescentiae senectutis dedecoramentum senectus Reipublicae flagitium Isidor lib. 2. Orig. c. 21. and with a deal of reason to the end the Fathers and Mothers should observe and set down in their memorials that the first day they became Parents they begin to spin a Thread which would lead them into a Labarinth of Afflictions It is better to depart this World without Children than to leave wicked ones behind says the Wise for you shall see some hardly come to the use of reason play such mad prancks Ossa ejus implebuntur vitiis adolâ—scentiae sua cum eo in pulvere dormient Job 20. v. 19. that they rather seem to be an Off-spring of Hell than the production of any Christian Race the Breasts that they have Sucked in my opinion were more full of Malice than of Milk being that their Souls are better stor'd with bad habits than their Bodies with any good substance which makes me believe that they will be rather the Blood-suckers of those that gave them the Breast and Birth than their Relievers and Staff of their old Age. Job confirms the same thing he says that an old Man will carry the Crimes of his Youth along with him to his Grave Equus iudomitus evadit durus filius remissus evadit praecipâ— Eccl. 30. A wild Horse you may be sure will be hard mouth'd and a wild youth will run head-long to his damnation if he be not strictly kept under and curb'd this is the feeling of the Holy Ghost and it must be very true A poor Father will run himself headlong into so many Inconveniencies Filii dum pueri sunt parentibus differunt capitis dolorem dum vero adoleverint cordis dolorem Proverbium Belgarum he will deprive himself of the influences of Heaven and Earth to have them fall on his Son thinking that he will be the Staff of his Old-age and the Pillar of his Family But it happens to the contrary for in lieu of a Staff of Old-age he has but a Reed full of wind and for a Son a Tyrant to torment him every day and every hour By sending him to the Academy he thought he should return home a true Nursery of Wisdom the Honour of Virtue and the unchangeable Defender of Justice but all his Hopes are chang'd into an Abiss of Sadness for he is become a Monster of Malice an abominable Scandal to all the World by day he is
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