what I intend to those that shall take so much pains as to peruse it I will lay down a plain and easie Scheme which shall present you with a short prospect of the whole Christian Man I begin the first Treatise with his Birth which as it is the fruitful source of all the Allyances he contracts with God I cannot speak of it soundly and to the purpose without discovering some of his Qualities and letting you see that assoon as he is regenerated he is the adopted child of the eternal Father because he is the Temple of the holy Ghost and the Brother of the Word Incarnate To this I add some other Priviledges concomitants of his Baptism all which declare the misery he hath avoided and the happiness he hath obtain'd From thence I passe to the second Treatise which represents the Spirit of the Christian and which comprehends all the obligations we have to follow his motions to act according to his orders and to obey his inspirations because none are truly the children of God but those that are quickned by his Spirit Quicunque enim Spiritu Dei aguntur ii sunt Filii Dei Rom. 8. And because the Christian is but a part of a mystical Body whereof there is a Head to guide it as wel as a Spirit to enliven it in the third Treatise I describe the neer relations and close connexions this glorious quality communicates to him with Iesus Christ the advantages he receives from thence and the just duties he is obliged to return to this adored Head The fourth Treatise discovers all the secrets of Grace which seem to be nothing else but a sacred chain uniting the Christian with the son of God and with the Holy Ghost and putting him at their disposal to be conducted safely in the way of Salvation The vertues that flow from Grace as streams do from their fountain are the subject of the fifth Treatise demonstrating a new Morality which the Philosophers were ignorant of and which severing man from himself fastens him happily to his Principle Forasmuch as he lives by Grace and vertues in the sixth Treatise I set before him a heavenly Nourishment that preserves his life and withall affords him some pledges of Immortality But because this food is also a Victime speaking of his Nourishment I speak of his Sacrifice and I lay down the just Reasons the Christian hath to offer up himself to God with Iesus Christ In the seventh Treatise I discourse of his glorious Qualities which I had not touched in the former wherein I make it appear that being the Image of the Son of God he is also a Priest and a Sacrifice a Souldier and a Conqueror a Slave and a Soveraign a Penitent and an Innocent Lastly to compleat the Christian who is but rudely drawn in Baptism who as long as he is upon earth is always imperfect I lead him to Glory where finding his Happiness in the knowledge and love of the supreme Good he is happily transformed into God There he patiently waits for the resurrection of his Body that the two parts whereof he is composed being reunited there may be nothing wanting to the perfection of his happiness and that both Soul and Body being freed from the bondage of sin he may reign for ever with the Angels in Heaven Thus you see in a few words the drift and scope of the whole Work where if I have repeated something that I formerly delivered in the Guilty Man it is because the Cure depends upon the Disease Subjects are illustrated by their contraries and it is impossible to conceive the Advantages of Grace without comprehending all the Miseries of Sin A TABLE OF THE TREATISES DISCOURSES The First TREATISE Of the Christian's Birth Disc 1. That the Christian hath a double Birth page 1 Disc 2. That Man must be renewed to make a Christian of him page 6 Disc 3. That the principal Mysteries of Iesus Christ are applyed to the Christian in his Birth page 10 Disc 4. That Grace is communicated to the Christian in his Birth as Sin is communicated to Man in his Generation page 15 Disc 5 Of the Resemblances that are found between the Generation of Iesus Christ and that of a Christian page 19 Disc 6 Of the Adoption of Christians and the advantage it hath above the Adoption of Men. page 24 Disc 7 Of the Allyances the Christian contracts in his Birth with the Divine Persons page 29 Disc 8 Of the Principal Effects Baptism produceth in the Christian page 34 Disc 9 Of the obligation of a Christian as the consequence of his Birth page 39 Disc 10 That the Regeneration of a Christian takes not from him all that he drew from his first Generation page 43 The Second TREATISE Of the Spirit of a Christian Disc 1. That every Body hath its Head and what that of the Church is 48 Disc 2 That the Holy Ghost is the Heart of the Church 53 Disc 3 That the Holy Ghost is in a sort the same to Christians that he is to the Father and to the Son in Eternity 57 Disc 4 That the Holy Ghost seems to be the same to Christians that he is to the Son of God 62 Disc 5 That the Presence of the Holy Ghost giveth life to the Christian and his Absence causeth Death 67 Disc 6 That the Holy Ghost teacheth Christians to pray 72 Disc 7 That the Holy Ghost remits the sins of the Christian 77 Disc 8 That the Christian in his infirmities is assisted by the strength of the Holy Ghost 83 Disc 9 That the Holy Ghost is the Christians Comforter 89 Disc 10 Of the Christians ingratitude toward the Holy Ghost 94 The third TREATISE Of the Christian 's Head Disc 1 That the Christian hath two Heads Adam and Iesus Christ 100 Disc 2 Of the Excellencies of the Christian's Head and the advantages they draw from thence 105 Disc 3 Of the strict Union of the Head with his Members and of that of Iesus Christ with Christians 110 Disc 4 That the Union of Christians with their Head is an Imitation of the Hypostatical Union 115 Disc 5 That Iesus Christ treateth his Mystical Body with as much charity as he doth his Natural Body 120 Disc 6 That the Church is the Spouse of Iesus Christ because she is the Body and of the community of their Marriage 125 Disc 7 That the Quality of the Members of Iesus Christ is more advantageous then that of the Bretbren of Iesus Christ 130 Disc 8 That Iesus Christ hath taken all his Infirmities from his Members and that his Members derive all their strength from him 134 Disc 9 Of the duties of Christians as Members towards Iesus Christ as their Head 139 Disc 10 That all things are common among Christians as between members of the same Body 144 The fourth TREATISE Of the Grace of a Christian Disc 1 That Predestination which is the source of Grace is a hidden Mystery 150 Disc 2 Of the
may any way annoy it yet from a higher principle 't is informed that its life depends upon the Head and that 't is oblig'd to expose its self in his defence Thence it comes to pass that the hands ward the blow which is aimd at the Head that they readily oppose themselves to the danger that threatens it and forgetting their proper interests sacrifice themselves for the preservation of this Chief Thence it is that soldiers jeopard their lives in the quarrel of their Soveraign slighting the hail of Musquets the brunt of Pikes and the Thunder of Canons to augment his Glory or widen his State They are never more valiant then when his Person is in danger the greatness of the hazard heightens their courage and opinion or nature perswades them that living more in him then in themselves their death is less considerable then his Many times it fals out that he for whom they sacrifice themselves is some old Dotard spent with labour and age and hath but a few moments to live In the mean time because they know he is the soul of the State and the Head of his subjects they are perswaded they preserve themselves in dying in his defence and imagine that as Fathers live again in their children the members receive a new beeing in their Head This Paradox finds belief amongst all complexions there is not the meanest soldier but ventures his life upon this Maxime and I rather conceive their courage quickned by this consideration then by the hope of profit and reputation because all men are neither ambitious nor covetous but all being members of the State are instructed by nature to die for the defence of their Head Forasmuch as Grace is much more powerfull then Nature Vivificati sunt Martyres ne amando vitam negarent vitaÌ„ negando vitam amitterent vitam ac fic qui pro vita veritatem deserere noluerunt moriendo pro veritate vixe unt Aug. Concil 20. in Psal 118. it hath so strongly imprinted this Maxime in the soul of the subjects of Jesus Christ that there are no torments can wear it our For the Grace that makes them Christians secretly disciplines them that they are parts of the Mysticall Body of the Son of God that their condition obliges them to expose themselves for his Glory that they ought to be his Victimes because they are his Members and that they are bound to imitate the Wisdome of the Serpent that hides his Head with his whole Body knowing very wel that 't is the Fountain of Life and provided he may secure that can receive no wound that 's mortall The Martyrs animated with this Faith defended Jesus Christ who lived in them they sufferd death saith Saint Augustine to secure themselves from death they parted with that life they had received from Adam to guard that they had received from the Son of God so that it happily fell out that those who would not relinquish Truth to save their lives recoverd that in Heaven which they lost upon Earth and liv'd above eternally being content for the profession of the Truth to die here below miserably They laughed at all the threats of Tyrants and whilst they were covered with obloquies loaded with irons and burnt with flames they drew strength from him for whose sake they suffered and lifting up their now-expiring voice said If God be for us who can be against us When they were told as Saint Augustine saith how all the world was banded against them they answerd couragiously why should we fear the world who die for the glory of hâ—m that made the world What hurt can this hatred doe us who are environed with the love of God And why should we trouble our selves if our enemies spoil us of our bodies seeing he that defends our souls will restore our bodies in glory where being united to our Head we shall triumph over griefs and executioners Though persecution doe not exercise the courage of the Martyrs and the peace the Church enjoys suffer not the Faithfull to expose their lives for the quarrel of Jesus Christ they cease not to be obliged to this duty in a thousand opportunities if occasion present not it self they must preserve a will to it if they cannot suffer death they must suffer shame and confusion for his glory and when the world shall overturn the maximes of the Gospel to set up the maximes of Libertinisme or Impiety then is it that Christians must call to mind that they are the Members of Jesus Christ that they must prefer his interests before their own honour and if they be so happy as to sacrifice their lives for the defence of their Head they must be so stout as to sacrifice their reputation who requires this duty of them as the surest testimony of their love The Tenth DISCOURSE That all is common among Christians as among Members of the same Body AS Mans Body is the perfectest Image of the Church the Members that compose it are also the liveliest representatives of Christians Both of them live in unity depend of the same Head and are inform'd with the same Spirit Both of them preserve their differences in their Unity and exhibit in their mutuall correspondence that agreeable variety that sets an estimate upon all the works of Nature Though these Mysticall and Naturall members conspire altogether for the publick good they cease not to have their different employments Each particular acts according to its capacity they never trespass one upon another and as there are none useless they have all their severall functions which they exercise without confusion and jealousie their faculties are answerable to their employments Nature gives every one what is necessary for them to act according to her orders and Grace never refuses the others what they stand in need of to operate according to its motions But the most wonderful resemblance I find between the members of these two Bodies is that their good and bad occurrences are common and that living in a perfect society no sad disaster happens to one but all the rest are affected with it One sole blow makes a thousand wounds at once and though there be but one part set upon all the rest testifie their compassion The foot seems to be in the body what the foundation is in the building 't is not the noblest part though one of the necessariest and it seems by the distance 't is aâ— from others it should have less communication with them In the mean time if it be prickt with a thorn the pain is dispersed through all the body Every member affords it some good office and the care they have to assist it testifieth what share they have in the misfortune The Tongue complains for it this faithfull Interpreter gives advice to all the rest to shew how much the evil concerns her she speaks of it as her own and to hear her talk one would think she had been hurt too The Eyes being more delicate and
Heart that inanimates the Body and that part that gives life to all the rest Thence it comes to pass that to express the operations of the holy Spirit in the Church we call him the Heart thereof and not wronging his greatness we make use of this Example to express his Charity by For 't is an undoubted truth That he inanimates the whole Church That he is conveyed into all her Members Quod est in corpore nostro anima id est Spiritus sanctus in corpore Christi quod est Ecclesia Aug. Serm. 186. de Temp. That he never forsakes her but in whatsoever condition she is she is always fully in his possession He is the Principle of her Operations as the Author of her Life She acts not but by His motions and whatever She undertakes 't is by his Counsels or his Inspirations He prosides in all Her Assemblies She determines nothing but by His advice and in Her General Councels She pronounceth no Oracles which She hath not received from Him As He speaks by Her Mouth She conceives by His Thoughts and she delivers nothing upon trust to her children which she hath not learn'd in the School of this Divine Master If he instruct her in her doubts he keeps her at unity maugre those rents and divisions that threaten to distract her entertaining that admirable harmony amongst the different parts whereof she is compacted One of the wonders in Mans body is that the same Heart which is the fountain of Life is also the bond of Peace it is the Ligature of all the Members and the Spirits it imparts unto them are so many invisible Chains which entertain their mutual Society As soon as it leaves off to inanimate them it ceaseth to unite them neither can it suspend its influences but all the parts of the State fall apieces Credentium erat Cor unum Anima una Act. 4. The Holy Ghost works the same thing in the Church He is the Soul and the Cement of this Great Body he concentres all the Faithful by his Love and doing that in Time which he does during Eternity he unites Christians as he unites the Divine Persons Si charitas de tot animabus fecit animam unam de tot cordibus fecit cor unum quanta est charit is inter Patrem Filium charitas autem Patris Filii Spiriâ—us sanctus est Aug. Tract 14. in Joan. For the Church raigns in the Unity of the Spirit she findes her rest and strength in that admirable incohabitation nor is she afraid that Heresies should dissect her as long as the holy Spirit preserves her unity 'T is this good intelligence that makes her terrible to her enemies This is it that maintains her for so many Ages against the violence of Tyrants the fury of Devils and the subtil stratagems of Hereticks Neither do I wonder at it since the force and power of States consists in their Union and Polititians study no one designe so much as to banish Division thereby to keep their people quiet and at rest For Experience teacheth them that growing Kingdoms have no surer Bulwarks against the Approaches of an Enemy then the Concord of their Subjects When they conspire together they are invincible and when they are divided Qâ— bus erat una sides erat una substantia quibus crat communis spiritus communis erat sumptus they are at the eve of their ruine and destruction But notwithstanding all the care Polititians take to keep Peace in their Common-wealth there are a thousand subjects of Division which they cannot hinder Mens Interests are more different then their Conditions the People are industrious to preserve their Liberty the Prince to enlarge his Prerogative and Private men cannot endure the ruine of their Families for the preservation of the Publike Though all these Disorders were not able to sowe Division in a State the diversity of Opinions would effect it For though every one mean well yet all ministers aim not at the same thing the worst Counsellors are many times most listned to and those that more respect the Fortune of the Prince then his Person are most dangerous But the Church is secured from all these dangers though she have many Ministers she hath but one Counsellor Gods Spirit is her Spirit she is never divided in her determinations her embracing of an Opinion makes it a Truth and having consulted him that governs her all her Decisions are Articles of Faith She never erres in Councels whatever she pronounceth there is infallible and her children are no less observant of her words then of those of the Evangelists She cannot be contradicted without much rashness those that desert her Judgement are involv'd in a Lye and if those who acquiesce in her bosome may haply be in the cloud of Ignorance they cannot be in the snare of Heresie The same Spirit that gives Authority to the Church stamps Obedience upon her children so that there can be no falling out in a Body where Charity stisles Schisms Light dispels Darkness and Power suppresseth Revolts and Insurrections But nothing so much magnifieth the Unity of the Church as to behold her not divided by the disparity of Conditions and that the same Spirit which unites all the Faithful employs them about divers Offices according to his designes and their own inclinations In this it is that the Church more resembles a Natural body and the Spirit the Heart that inanimates it For though the Heart be one yet is it different in its operations it acts diversly according to the diversity of the Members It expresseth it self by the Mouth guides it self with the Eyes defends it self with the Hands and making every part serviceable according to its power it preserves the Publike good without interessing the Private Thus one and the same Spirit causeth a thousand different effects in the Church it speaks by the mouth of Prophets enlightens their understandings informs them of secrets to come and violating the method of Time recals things past and makes futurities present He it was that wrote the History of the Son of God before he was born of his mother he it was that expressed his Truths in Figures his Light in Shadows and the most important actions of his life by those of the Patriarchs The same Spirit that spake by the mouth of the Prophets spake by that of the Apostles he was their Master after the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven he instructed them in those Mysteries they were yet ignorant of and making them capable in a moment taught them without the tedious expence of labour and delay what they were suddenly to preach to Infidels To facilate this design he gave them the gift of Tongues and working a Miracle incredible to reason he inspired them with words which the whole World understood that all Nations might obey them 'T was a prodigy that surpriz'd men Per linguas diversas dividi meruit
contrary to all the laws of Nature that the Accidents subsist without their Subject and that the Substance of the Bread and Wine being turned into that of his Body and Blood keep notwithstanding its Colour Taste and Form He is multiplied without being divided to satisfie the love of his Spouse and admitting his Humanity into the priviledges of the Divinity filleth his State with his presence We are in a doubt whether he does not work a Miracle for the Faithful which is not indulged the Blessed and we are yet ignorant whether this divine multiplication be an effect of his glory or of his power For though there are some Divines who believe that glorified bodies may be in divers places without a miracle and that the part they have in the Immensity of God multiplies their bodies without dividing them the Schools have always lookt upon this effect as a prodigie and have taught us that the order of Glory had its Miracles as well as that of Nature and Grace Finally it seems that the Son of God to make his power and his love admired Dicitur virgini supervenient in te Spiritus sanctus dicâ—tur etiem Sacerdoti superveniet in te Spiritus sarctus efficiet quod intelligentiam tuam excedet Joan. Damasc had a minde in this Mystery to repeat all the Miracles he had wrought during the course of his life For if he were born of Mary without interessing her Virginity if making her a Mother he left her a Virgin if the Fruit she bare deflowred not her Purity he is produced in our Sacrifices without violating their Accidents and changing their substance into his alters not the Species that cover them If he turn water into wine at a Marriage in Cana and manifest himself the Master of the Elements in changing their qualies he appears no less absolute in a Sacrament where he turns the Bread into his Body the Wine into his Blood and the Creature into his Creator If he multiply the loaves in the wilderness and operate this prodigie by the hands of his Apostles they being ignorant of the manner he daily multiplies his Body by the hands of the Priests who cannot comprehend a miracle whereof they are the witnesses and the Ministers If heretofore he cured the sick that came unto him here he cures the diseased that receive him and if he raised the dead by his touch or by his Word here he promiseth life to all those that feed upon him and engageth himself by a promise as sure as an Oracle that he will draw all those out of the grave that have served him here for a Temple Thus this adorable Sacrament deserves the name of Manna better then Manna it self and ought no less to fill our hearts with astonishment then with love But to continue our resemblances and to manifest the truth in the figure The Psalmist hath observed that Manna was not a bare Nutriment but a preservative and a remedy For while the Israelites made use of it in the Desarts they were never molested with any infirmities Though they so often changed their Quarters marched through a Wilderness where the want of water and the multitude of serpents might make them fear an infection nevertheless this food which participated of the Tree of Life and made them taste in the Desarts the delights of Paradise so well suited with their temper that though they daily beheld rebels in their Camp they never saw any sick In Tribubus eorum non erat infirmus There by a strange prodigy diseases were not the harbingers of death they gave up the ghost without any pangs some small weakness gave them notice of the houre of their departure the soul fairly took leave of the body and the Feaver which seems the forrager of death durst not set upon men whom Manna served for nourishment The Eucharist works the same miracle in our souls that this Heavenly food did in their bodies It is at the same time diet and an Antidote it gives life and preserves it it delivers us from evil and then protects us against it it maintains the constitution of the soul in a regulated evenness of temper and much happier then physick which cannot tame the disease without weakning nature it deals so critically with the sins that it never prejudiceth the sinner Many times when Faith seconds Piety this Celestial viand extends its effects as far as the body it maintains health as well as salvation and cures the diseased as well as the wicked In the Primitive Church it wrought wonderful cures and the great Saint Cyprian tels us that Physitians were useless in those days because Christians found their cure in the Eucharist and proved there was the same Jesus present whose Word was heretofore so fatal to infirmities and so favourable to the infirm If in this particular it supass Manna in another it equals it Manna non solum sanitatem sed animum Judais conserebat Josâ—ph because in restoring health it infused strength and inspired courage For there are some Writers that are of opinion that the valour of the Israelites was an effect of Manna that they owed those formidable victories they gained from their enemies to this meat that came down from Heaven Neither ought this to seem strange to the incredulous since experience teacheth us that wine which is the pure work of Nature produceth daily the same effects drowns fear in its vapours inspires men with the contempt of dangers gives a new vigour to soldiers and constitutes the best part of their courage Therefore I am easily perswaded to believe that Manna wrought the same wonder in the Israelites whilest nourishing their body it maintained their valour and making them sound and lusty made them withall magnanimous and valiant Indeed inasmuch as this food was more miraculous then natural and acted rather by the directions of Heaven then the properties of its own nature it lost this faculty assoon as the Israelites lost grace and as if it had changed quality when they changed disposition it produced fear in the same hearts where it had formerly produced courage and assurance All these wonders were but the shadows of what we adore in the Eucharist which is not only the food but the force of the Christian we come from the Altar as Lions terrifying the Infernal Spirits they cannot endure our sight the presence of Jesus Christ wherewith we are surrounded startles them into a disorder and remembring that we bear about us the same slesh and bloud which triumphed over them upon Mount Calvary they dare not set upon us They flie such men who lodge a god in their souls and beholding their Judge seated in our hearts as upon his Throne they are afraid lest he pronounce sentence against them re-doubling their pains and aggravating their torments It was this Heavenly Bread that animated the Martyrs to the combat this adorable Bread that gave them courage to daunt their executioners and the sword of
necessity of Grace in the state of Innocence and of Sin 156 Disc 3 That the Grace of a Christian ought to be more powerfull then that of Adam 160 Disc 4 Different opinions of the power of Christian Grace 166 Disc 5 Wherein precisely consists the power of Grace effectual 170 Disc 6 That the names that S. Augustine gives Christian Grace do sufficiently testifie that it is effectuall 175 Disc 7 That we may judge of the power of Grace over a Christian by the power of Concupiscence over a Sinner 180 Disc 8 That Grace effectuall doth not destroy Grace sufficient 186 Disc 9 Answers to some Objections against Grace effectual 193 A Prosecution of the same Discourse 197 Disc 10 That the Christian finds more rest in placing his salvation in Grace then in Liberty 202 The fifth TREATISE Of the Vertues of a Christian Disc 1. Wherein consisteth Christian Vertue 207 Disc 2 Of the Division of Christian Vertues 212 Disc 3 Of the Excellency and Necessity of Christian Faith 217 Disc 4 Of Christian Hope 222 Disc 5 A Description of Christian Charity 227 Disc 6 Of the Properties and Effects of Christian Charity 233 Disc 7 Of Christian Prudence Iustice Fortitude and Temperance 238 Disc 8 Of Christian Humility 243 Disc 9 Of Christian Repentance 248 Disc 10. Of Christian Self-denyall 253 The sixth TREATISE Of the Nourishment and Sacrifice of a Christian Disc 1 Of three Nourishments answering to the three Lives of a Christian 259 Disc 2 Of the Nourishment of Man in his Innocency and of that of a Christian 264 Disc 3 That the Body of Iesus Christ is the same to a Christian that Manna was to the Iewes 269 Disc 4 That this Nourishment bestows upon the Christian all that the Divel promised Man in his Innocence if hee would eat of the forbidden Fruit. 274 Disc 5 That this Nourishment unites the Christian with the Son of God 279 Disc 6 Of the Dispositions that the Christian ought to bring for the receiving of this Nourishment 283 Disc 7 That the Christian ows God the honour of the Sacrifice 288 Disc 8 That the Christian had need that the Son of God should offer up for him the Sacrifice of the Crosse and of the Altar 293 Disc 9 Of the Difference of these two Sacrifices and what the Christian receives from both of them 298 Disc 10 Of the obligation the Christian hath to sacrifice himself to God 303 The seventh TREATISE Of the Qualities of a Christian Disc 1 That the Christian is the Image of Iesus Christ 308 Disc 2 That the Christian is a Priest and a Victime 313 Disc 3 That the Christian is a Souldier and a Conqueror 317 Disc 4 That the Christian is a King and a Slave 322 Disc 5 That the Christian is a Saint 327 Disc 6 That the Christian is a Martyr 332 Disc 7 That the Christian is a Lover 338 Disc 8 That the Christian is an Excile and a Pilgrime 343 Disc 9 That the Christian is a Penitent 347 Disc 10 That the most glorious Quality of the Christian is that of a Christian 352 The eighth TREATISE Of the Blessedness of a Christian Disc 1. That every man desires to be happy and that he cannot be so but in God 357 Disc 2 That the Perfect Felicity of a Christian cannot be found in this world 361 Disc 3 That the Christian tasts some Felicity here below 365 Disc 4 That Happiness consists not in pleasure but in grief 368 Disc 5 That Happiness is rather found in Poverty then in Riches 372 Disc 6 That the Felicity of a Christian upon earth consists rather in Humility then in Glory 377 Disc 7 That Felicity is rather found in Obedience then in Command 381 Disc 8 What is the happinesse of a Christian in Heaven and wherein it consists 385 Disc 9 That the Soul and Body of the Christian shall finde their perfection in the Beatifical Vision 391 Disc 10 Of the Miracles that are found in the Christian's Beatitude 396 THE CHRISTIAN MAN OR The Reparation of NATURE BY GRACE The first TREATISE Of the Christian's Birth The first DISCOURSE That the Christian hath a double Birth IF MAN have pass'd for a Monster in the opinion of some Philosophers * Est inter Carnem Spiritum colluctatio discordantibus adversus se invicem quotidiana congressio ut non ea quae volumus ipsi faciamus dum spiritus coelestia divina quaerit caro terrena secularia concupiscit Aug. lib. 1. contra Julian because he is compos'd of two parts which cannot agree certainly the Christian may very well pass for a Prodigie in the judgement of the faithfull since the parts whereof he is made maintain a war as long as life For though the body of man contain within its Constitution all the Elements these four Enemies agree when they are mixt together The Fire is confounded with the Water without losing its driness and the Earth is united to the Air without losing its heaviness if they are at odds by reason of their Contrariety they embrace by reason of their sympathie and if somtimes they grow irregular there is always some external Cause that produceth the Disorder The Soul and Body are yet more opposite then the Elements it it is the strangest Marriage within the Confines of Nature Mirus amor corporis animi in tanta disparitate non potest esse sine fato Pla. and when God associated them together to make Man he had a minde to shew that he was absolute in the Universe In him we observe Sense with Understanding Passion with Reason Heaven with Earth Nevertheless God hath so well temper'd their qualities that these two so different parts cease not mutually to love one another The Soul stoops below the priviledg of her Birth to succour the Infirmities of the Body and the Body soares above the meaness of its Extraction to be serviceable to the more noble operations of the Soul If they are exercised at the provocation of some rebel-lust there is always found some common friend that takes up the difference Self-love is content to set them at one thereby to establish his Empire over sinners Haec cupiditas vana ac per hoc prava vincit in eis ac frenat alias cupiditates Aug. lib. 4. contra Julia. c. 3. and accompanies his Commands with so many charms that these two subjects wrong one another to obey him The spirit basely submits to the Body in the unclean conversations of the wanton and the body does homage to the soul in the pleasing caresses of the Ambitious these two parties joyn their forces to bid Grace battail and though Divine Justice hath divided them for their punishment they forget their quarrel and are reconcil'd to execute their vengeance But the Christian is of such a Composure that he can never taste any peace in his person Division seems to constitute one part of his Essence and till Glory shall put a
instruct them that this death ought to be immortal that the divorce which they have made with the world can admit of no accommodation and that a departure accompanied with so solemn a funeral should in all reason extinguish the desire and hope of the life of Adam Finally the last condition of a burial is the oblivion of the world For notwithstanding men desire to live after death whereof those proud Mausolaeums they erect to their ashes is a witness as vain as it is confident Postquam per mille indignitates ad dignitates pervenerint misera subit eos cogitatio laborasse tantum in titulū sepulchri Senec. and that the care they take for their Obsequies gives testimony they would be thought to live still in the opinion of the world nevertheless experience teacheth us that Tombs are the chambers of Forgetfulness that they steal out of our remembrance those they cover and that contrary to the intention of the builders they many times together with their Body lay a stone upon their Name and Memory too The holy Scripture whose plainness of expression hath not wholly abandoned the figures of eloquence calls graves the receptacles of Oblivion Oblivioni datus sum tanquam mortuus à corde Psal 30. disciplining us by so elegant a metaphor that the sepulchre draws a black line over the glory of mortals and death having spoil'd them of their life takes pleasure still to plunder their reputation As the Christian is entomb'd so ought he also to be forgotten if he repent not of the grace he hath received Nunquid cognoscentur in tenebris mirabilia tua justitia tua in terra oblivionis Psa 87 he ought to be dead in the memory of men lest their calling him to minde prove fatal to his innocence and being remanded into the world whence death had given him a retirement he begin again to live in Adam and die to Jesus Christ Though this Doctrine appear harsh yet is it sweet and comfortable to those who know that the sepulture we finde in Baptism prepares us for the Resurrection Per Crucem datur credentibus virtus de infirmitate gloria de opprobrio vita de morte Leo. Serm. 8. de Passio Dom. For as Christ by his death entred into a new life the Cross contributed to his glory nor was heaven opened to him but thorow the passage of shame and grief so the Christian in death embraceth life and in the grave findes a new conception He is quickned with a new spirit in Baptism he tastes the joys of heaven there and the grace he receives in that holy Sacrament is not onely an Earnest but an Antepast and Prelibation of glory His life is answerable to his dignity having God for his Father his pretensions must needs be high and despising whatever the world can promise he aspires at no less then the felicity of Angels This is the consolation of the faithful in their troubles 't is the reason the great Apostle makes use of to sweeten his travels and as often as persecution flats our spirits he endeavours to raise them up again from the consideration of the recompenses that are prepared for us The truth is this life lies secret undiscovered the precedent death being much more visible and apparent Ye are dead saith the Apostle and your life is hid with Christ in God Our miseries are publike our advantages walk in the dark Men see what we suffer but doubt of what we hope for Mortui estis vita vestra abscondita cum Christo quomodo videutur arbores per hyemem quasi aridae quasi mortuae ergo quae spes Si mortui sumus intus est radix ibi radix nostra ibi vita nostra ibi charitas nostra Quando autem ver nostrum quando aestas nostra quando circumvestit dignitas foliorum ubertas frucluum Quando hoc erit Audi quod sequrtur Cùm Christus apparuerit vita vestra tunc vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria Aug. in Ps 36. and in the judgement of Infidels our Religion passeth for an Imposture because the good things it promiseth are invisible but the evils it threatens are sensible and present We are saith S. Augustine like those great trees which during the sharpness of the winter are naked of all their leaves their life is inclosed in their roots their vigour is retired into their sap and all the soul and vegetation they have is hid from the eyes of the beholders but their death is conspicuous every branch publisheth it and all the bavock winter hath made them feel are so many arguments to make us doubt of their life Thus it is with Christians they are dead and they are alive but their life is in a cloud their death manifest the persecutions they suffer the temptations they contest with the conflicts they undergo perswade Infidels that their life is but a languishing and doleful death but their vigour is over-shadowed their beauty is like that of the Spouse whose advantages are the fruits rather of her minde then of her body their glory is retreated with Christ in God And as the Spring must needs return to convince the ignorant that a tree that hath lost his leaves is not dead so must the general Resurrection happen to assure unbelievers that a Christian persecuted by the world is alive with Christ in God Let us die therefore with him if we mean to live with him and to end this Discourse with the words of S. Gregory cited by S. Augustine * Cum Christo ergo nascamur cum Christo crucifigamur consepcliamur ei in mortem ut cum ipso etiam resurgamus ad vitam Greg. citat ab Aug. Let us be born with the Son of God in Baptism die with him upon the Cross be buried with him in the Tomb that we may rise with him in Glory and that from this present receiving the Pledges of his promises we may in the same Sacrament finde a Birth joyned with Death and a Resurrection with a Funeral The fourth DISCOURSE That Grace is communicated to the Christian in his Regeneration as Sin is communicated to Man in his Generation THough Providence display its banner in all the occurrences of our life and there is no moment wherein we may not take notice of its dispensations yet me thinks it never appears with greater lustre Vt qui in ligno vincebat in ligno quoque vinceretur then when from our fall it raiseth our salvation or makes use of a remedy that hath some resemblance with our disease Thus we see it makes the malice of the Devil serviceable to the Glory of the Martyrs employes a Man for the Redemption of all Men that their fall and recovery may have the same Principle 'T is Adam that destroys us Debitum quide Adae tantum erat ut illud non deberet solvere nifi homo sed non posset nisi Deus ita opus
Channel through which Providence conveighs its vertue upon the Creatures The Sun is the Throne where God sits in state and where he acts with more force 'T is by meanes of this glorious Starre that he produceth the rarest wonders of nature and from the very moment that he drew all things out of nothing he never appeares in the production of any visible Creatures but he makes use of his light or heat His Ecilpses are dreadful to the Universe he never suspends his influences but Nature suffers by it and his course is so necessary to the constitution of the World that a moment of rest would be able to destroy it Though this great body of Light have so absolute a superintendency over all Creatures yet doe I not believe that the Christians hold of his Empire though he enlighten them with his beams warm them with his heat and entertain their life with his motion yet am I of opinion there is a particular providence that governs them Dominus custodit te Dominus protectio tua per diem Sol non uret te nâ—que Luna per noctem Psal 120. that their occurrences are regulated by another sun neither is it in the power of Astrologers to discover the adventures of the faithfull In that they are the members of Jesus Christ their happiness is affix'd to his person their predestination is included in his and we must understand the secrets of the Apocalypse to divine their good or bad fortune The divel himself though never so subtil cannot penetrate this depth if he have some conjectures for the future they prove false in what concernes Christians the Grace that includes them blindes him and as the heavenly Light strikes his spirit with obscurity he is altogether unacquainted with the wayes by which providence happily conducts them to their end Therfore is it that Astrologers are never so much at a loss as when they pretend to judge of the fortune of Believers by the rules of Astrology they must dive into the minde of the eternal Father to understand his thoughts concerning the members of his Son and less then to be admitted into his Cabinet where the unchangeable designes of his predestination are contrived cannot inable them to foresee the smallest accidents of their life If the sanctity of their Condition cloud them from the curiosity of Astrologers it moreover protects them from the fury of Divels For though these wretched spirits are called by scripture the Princes of the World and the divine Justice suffers them to employ the Elements to content their fury yet have they no power over the faithfull All their rage turns to our profit they are serviceable even while they persecute Their notable attempts which testifie their power aswell as their hatred contribute greatly to our merit The Divine Providence that regulates all their motions makes use of them to our glory and wee learn by experience That nothing can hurt those that love GOD because they are beloved of him Thence ariseth that profound tranquillity which Christians enjoy For as they know nothing happens in the world but according to the order and disposall of their Soveraigne that the fury of their Enemies is subject to his Providence that the Divels execute his Will that the Elements serve his Justice or his Mercy they look upon all Accidents with a Holy indifferency they embrace Life and Death Honour and Dishonour Pleasure and Pain with one and the same disposition of spirit and knowing very well that they are the members of Jesus Christ they count it not strange that his Father makes them climbe up to honour by affronts and to felicity by persecution The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the Obligations of Christians in pursuance of their Birth INdependency is so natural to God that some Philosophers have doubted whether he could be ingaged by his promises But me thinks to preserve his Independency they would take away his Veracity and that they might make him an absolute Soveraign goe about to render him an unfaithfull one The perfections of God never clash one against another and those that seem to have some contrarietie in the creatures preserve a peacefull harmonie without loosing their differences in the Creator He is absolute in his power and faithfull in his promises he is subject to those Laws he himself prescribes and he respects his own Orders without infringing his Supremacy Seneca who had only naturall reason for his light judged that obedience did not at all injure the Soveraignty of God Ille ipse omnium conditor ac rector scripsit quidem fata sed sequitur semper paret semel jussit Senec. de prov c. 5. and that observing the ordinances he had set from all eternity hee obeyed alwaies and commanded but once David acknowledged fidelity in God as well as Independency and though he knew that all his graces were mercies he forbeares not to exact from him the effects of his promises and to conjure him upon the truth of his Word God is faithfull in all his words Wherefore I conceive I shall no waies wrong the Almighty if I say that he treates with the Christian in Baptisme That he imposes Laws upon himself which he never revokes and obliges himself to conditions which he inviolably keeps He receives the sinner into favour signes him the pardon of his sin invests him with the merits of his Son and promiseth all things necessary for his preservation in this new condition I cannot imagine that this Peace is but a Truce that there are any Christians to whom God does not sincerely and really remit originall sin Crâ—dentes in Christum per lavacrum regenerationis soluto reatu omnium peccatorum originalis quod generatio trahit liberantur à damnationc perpetua vivunt in fide spe charitate peregrinantes in hoc saeculo Aug. tract 124. in Joan. His goodness gives mee not leave to passe this judgement upon his justice and though I know that he performes an Act of Grace to a Delinquent in Baptisme I believe that considering him in the person of his Son he refuses him not those graces which so holy an alliance seem to require if he condemn them 't is not for the sin which is blotted out and if God be deficient to the Laws of this Treaty 't is because the Christian hath first broken the Covenant The gifts of God are without repentance he deserts none but those that forsake him and were we true to his grace he would never dispense with his promises The unchangeable Laws of Predestination clash not at all with this Maxime and at that instant when he resolved to leave the Reprobate in the masse of Perdition he saw their sins as well as those of Adam 'T is upon these that he rests when he refuses them Grace and had they made good use of that they received I cannot beleeve he would have abandoned them Si gratia dicitur gratis datur si operibus additur
merâ—es redditur Aug. Psal 103. Ser. 3 The doctrine of S. Augustine doth not destroy it self though he teach us that Grace is not due to the Creature he never told us that it was not due to Jesus Christ and where he said that it was justly refus'd Christians he alwaies presupposed that they had committed some Crimes which rendred them unworthy There is some secret in Grace which yet we understand not whereby it comes to passe that without destroying the vertue of its efficacy we may resist its operation its charms perhaps are not so strong that they are alwaies inevitable its powers rob us not of our liberty and though it be very often victorious yet it is sometimes worsted We have a miserable power remaining in us to resist its motions and did it infallibly without any intermission produce its effect the Saints would not complain of their Infidelity Whatever good we doe bears witness of the great Empire it hath over our wills since it changeth them without compelling them and a thousand times more powerfull then eloquence it makes the sinner act what he never had a mind to before it knowes how to conquer our rebellion and its charmes are so sweetly prevalent that they master the most obstinate and subject the most rebellious But the evill we doe is an argument that our liberty may resist it that at all times it acts not with the like force and if at its birth it work more vigorously in its progress it growes more languishing and remisse In this point consists all the difficulty this is the secret God hath not been willing to discover to us 't is the cause of our differences and I am of opinion this will never be understood till Jesus Christ raise up some new light in his Church I reverence Saint Augustine when he defends the party of grace when he sets it above mans freewill when he stiles it victorious and to expresse its efficacy affirmes that it infallibly produceth its effect I am ravished when I read that great Doctor how he makes man stoop to God the will to grace salvation to mercy But withall I respect the Councel of Trent teaching us that our liberty may resist grace that when it receives its impressions it may reject them and that in the very motion whereby 't is carried it may remain obstinate and unmoveable what ever is said to reconcile these two opinions doth not at all satisfie me and whatsoever answer is returnd I alwaies meet with difficulties great enough to perswade me that earth is not the mansion of light I honour S. Augustine and the Holy Sea I subscribe to the Anathema's the Church hath thundered out against Pelagians Calvinists and as I believe that Sin hath not destroyed the Liberty of Man neither do I believe that Free-will ruines the power of Grace But to return where I left I hold for certain that God is never wanting to the Covenant he made with the Christian in Baptism that he never forsakes him till he be forsaken by him and that there is always some secret infidelity on mans part that renders him unworthy of the assistance God would afford him his grace is many times offered to the Christian though it be not due to him and as he is constantly obliged to combat sin I conceive he hath continually some helps which he scarce ever fails of If God make us sensible of our weakness 't is that he may oblige us to have recourse to his goodness if he suffer us to fall 't is to punish us and the withdrawing of his grace supposeth always some notable infidelity When he pardons in Baptism 't is with as much Sincerity as Mercy he doth not quicken a sin that he hath made to die he goes not to Adam to seek for motives to destroy a man that begins to revive in Jesus Christ and I verily believe he never refuses grace to a Christian for an offence he hath so solemnly pardoned But we must certainly confess that we observe not our promises with the same faithfulness and that we are many times wanting to those oaths and protestations we have made in Baptism For the Christian publikely vows that he doth renounce the devil That he dies to himself to live to Jesus Christ That he will be crucified with him and as he takes his party he is resolved to fight his enemies Let us examine these promises in particular and see what they exact from us Baptism in those of age begins by Instruction in children by Exorcism it presupposeth that they are possest with Devils whom if they torment not as a Tyrant they command as a Soveraign If this Maxime be not true the Ceremonies of Baptism must pass for illusions and the Church to amaze us with vain fears increaseth the misery of our thraldom to augment the benefit of our deliverance when she sets us free from this shameful captivity she obligeth us to have no more commerce with the Evil spirit and knowing that the World is his State that it lives under his Laws follows his Maximes obeys his Directions she gives us in charge to hate it and to the end we may submit to her injunctions we promise by the mouth of our Godfathers to renounce the World as well as the Devil But because the grace that defaceth Sin destroys not Concupiscence but this monster still lives in our flesh stirs up disorders there makes parties and raiseth seditions we engage moreover to weaken his Empire to combat his designes to check his motions Thus the Christians in their Baptism are obliged to a War nay to Death they must die if they intend to live they must fight if they mean to overcome and knowing that the New man is a souldier they must consider Life as a Combat the Earth as the Pitched Field and the Devil the World and the Flesh as irreconcileable Enemies In the rere of these marcheth a terrible Troop of sins which Christians are bound to grapple with and subdue For the grace they have received in Baptism differs much from that which Adam received in the state of Innocence His was quiet and gave no alarms it subjected the Soul to God the Body to the Soul and the Senses to Reason its commands were executed without the least dispute it found no resistance in its subjects and as it commanded with Gentleness it was obeyed with chearfulness This of Christians is obliged to joyn Force with Sweetness and as the most part of its subjects are rebels they must be threatned to reduce them to their duty It commands always with the sword in the hand and knowing very well that when a people are up Justice can execute nothing if it be not assisted with force it must be feared that it may be obeyed Hence it is that it calls in severe vertues to its aid which make the Body afflict the Senses and swallow up the Passions But use what endeavour it will it findes by woful
experience that its subjects are so mutinous that they cannot be brought in subjection They are rather tired then overcome and at the very instant they seem to submit to Grace they listen to Concupiscence and taking new courage from this rebel-lust they set upon their Soveraign afresh Thus our whole life is a continual Warfare we begin at our Baptism and we end not till our Death This is it that S. Cyprian expresseth so handsomely in his Treatise of the Deluge where speaking to the Neophytes he says You are baptized you have the honour to bear the character of Jesus Christ you have been admitted to his Table and his Flesh hath served for nourishment Take notice how this new kinde of life engages you in a combat where you must grapple with the whole family of sins If you overcome Covetousness Lust will set upon you if you foil Lust Ambition steps in its place and joyning craft to violence endeavours to perswade us that all his designes are reasonable If you master this combatant Envie Anger Drunkenness accompanied with their partisans will presently draw into a body to destroy you Therefore doth S. Augustine compare the condition of newly-converted Christians to that of the Jews when they went out of Egypt They saith he were delivered by Moses these are delivered by Jesus Christ they passed thorow the red Sea these pass thorow Baptism they saw all their enemies dead upon the shore these see all their sins drowned in the waters But remember my brethren that the Jews having passed the Red-sea were not suddenly landed in Palestine the wilderness and desarts exercised their patience hunger and thirst oppressed them a long time fiery serpents persecuted them and a thousand strange nations opposing their passage made them stand to their arms to defend themselves Thus the Christians spend their life in conflicts and finde the world a horrid desart where a hundred several monsters serve as trials of their courage and exercises of their vertue They sigh after their dear Country they long to reign with Jesus Christ but disciplined by these precedent Types and Figures they are taught that to arrive to his Triumphs they must share in his Combats Therefore ought they not to think it strange though being brethren of Jesus Christ and children of their heavenly Father they yet enjoy not their inheritance and if while they are on the earth treated like slaves or enemies they still feel the revolt of the Creatures the persecution of Satan the War of those two parts whereof they are composed Let us profit by these Examples and remember that if Heaven be our Inheritance 't is also our Recompence if we be Children we are also Souldiers and if God be Good enough to prevent our Deserts he is Just enough to require our Good Works The Tenth DISCOURSE The Regeneration of a Christian takes not away all that he drew from his first Generation AS Grace and Nature proceed from one and the same Principle Erat Deus in Angelis in prâ—â— homine naturä condens largiens gratiam Aug. they have in their differences certain wonderful resemblances which cannot be considered without ravishment They act both together and though sin have divided them yet does not Grace forbear to make use of Nature in its highest operations Their designes are alike onely they seek after God by diverse ways but Grace hath this advantage over Nature that it never wanders They have one and the same End as they have one and the same Beginning and when they seem to contest their onely designe is to make Man happie Both of them are admirable in their Variety Nature puts as many differences in mens Mindes as in their Countenances and though all faces have the same parts yet she ranks them with so much artifice that there appears a diversity in their very likeness Grace is not inferiour to Nature in this advantage all its productions are different and though the Saints are quickned with the same Spirit the Church recording their Panegyrick instructs us that they are singular in their species But one of their greatest resemblances is that Nature is flowe in her operations she brings not her works to pass without much labour and time one grain of Corn costs her a whole yeer and she needs the several Seasons to bring it to a perfect maturity Flowers that are not so useful as Fruits stand her not in less time and to give them their Colour and their Smell Winter and Spring are requisite Grace is yet more slowe then Nature for whether it finde resistance in its designes or labour in more difficult undertakings it perfects not but in Eternity what it begins in Time There remains something still to be reformed in the Creature and whatever excellency of endeavour it bestows upon the greatest Saints it continually meets with some disorders to be regulated some sin to be corrected some inclinations to be vanquished Thence it comes to pass that in Baptism where it gives life to the Christian it acts with so much weakness that wiping away the stain of sin it leaves notwithstanding Concupiscence there still For though by the vertue of this Sacrament we become new creatures that Adam dies and Jesus Christ is born in us yet are we but rude draughts unpolished works expecting their perfection from time and travel We are saith one Apostle but the embryo of a new creature and we bear the denomination of Children by reason of our Weakness as well as of our Innocence The Principles of Christian life are in our souls we have the seeds of all vertues but if we husband them not with great care they are choak'd among the thorns of our evil inclinations For the understanding a truth that so much concerns our salvation we must know that the grace of Baptism defaceth the sin of Adam invests us with the Innocence of Jesus Christ and giving us admittance into his rights bestoweth heaven upon us for our inheritance of children of wrath which we were before Salus hominis in Baptismate sacta est quia dimissum est peccatum quod ex parentibus traxit vel quicquid etiam propric ante Baptismum peccavit we become children of mercy and contracting a true alliance with the holy Trinity we renounce all affinity with flesh and bloud In this happy condition we are no longer afraid of the just wrath of God the thunders he threatens sinners with are no longer terrible to us and living securely under the shadow of Jesus Christ we know that the sole sin of Adam can no longer prejudice our salvation we meditate with delight upon those words of S. Paul There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus We have the earnest of our salvation in our selves Grace is a pledge of glory and remaining under the Conduct of the holy Spirit we are sure that under so good a guide we cannot miscarry But whatever hope our spirit flatters us with
we cease not to have just apprehensions of our fall For though God never forsakes the sinner till the sinner first forsake him though he be faithfull in his promises nor is ever wanting to the Treaty he made with us in Baptisme Neverthelesse there remains in us a wretched faintnesse that so weakens us in temptation that without a continued assistance of Grace we cannot hope for victory Concupiscence always sides with sin it labours to revive what it first gave birth to and over-spreading all the faculties of the soul and members of the body it sollicites all of them to rise-against Grace its Fruitfulness is equal to its Malice it contains in it the seeds of all sins and when Temptation hatcheth them there 's not so much as one whereof man may not become guilty As long as he carries about him this enemy his salvation is in danger he groans under its tyranny and knowing that there wants but one meer act of the Will to be the midwife to sin he would willingly not be free that he might not become criminal For all Theologic confesseth that Concupiscence is not taken away by Baptism That it is left with the faithful to exercise them That it continually provokes them to evil That it contributes as often to their fall as to their glory and if it increase their merit it swells their danger Though it be not a sin in Christians it keeps them still in breath they are equally afraid of its smiles and of its frowns and whether it flatter or frighten they have still reason to fear lest it render then delinquents In a word Is it not a sad condition for a man always to carry his enemy in his bosome to be obliged to fight without any assurance of getting the better and to know that Grace with all its supplies may enfeeble him but never utterly defeat him If Man account himself miserable in Nature because he carries the principles of his death in himself and that the opposition of the elements which make him live must one day make him die Is not the Christian very unhappie in grace it self when he sees how he bears about the source of sin in his soul That Baptism sets him not free from slavery That Vertue engageth him to fight and at the same time that Hope promiseth him Victory Fear appales him with the apprehension of a Defeat This vexation is redoubled by a troublesome division which his second birth hath not composed For the Christian is unfortunately parted between Concupiscence and Grace he never sights with his full strength and when he hath a minde to obey Charity there is always some part of Himself that holds with his Enemy The Flesh always faceth the Spirit Man is the Theatre of this dreadful combat he cannot disarm those that trouble his rest though he sometimes prevail over them he fears lest rallying their forces they triumph over their conquerour 'T was this inseparable misfortune of the Christian that made S. Paul sigh 't was this potent enemy that made him long for death and supposing that 't were better die then sin he desired to lose his Life to preserve his Integrity But admit the Christian were delivered from Concupiscence that torments him and from Sedition that divides him he is still exercised by another trial which Baptism leaves him to grapple with For he is subject to Illusion Errour as well as Truth steals into his Understanding his giddy and unfaithful Senses side more with Wickedness then with Grace and these parties for the most part holding intelligence with the Devil threaten him with Blindness and Ignorance 'T is by this gate that the devil surpriseth the Will 't is by our eyes or by our ears that he seduceth us and having these rebels always at his devotion we need not wonder if he gain so many victories against us When he tempted our first father in Paradise he set upon a place where he had no intelligence the Senses did not all assist him against the Intellectual faculty nor Passions against Reason Mans forces were united and when his Will pronounced the definitive sentence he found as many ministers to execute it as he had Faculties But now he hath scarce any members which are not instrumental to his enemy his Grace though never so powerful stamps no faithfulness upon the Senses nor obedience upon the Passions he hath no submission but by violence and reigning in a state where Concupiscence lives still he meets with more rebels then subjects All his stability consists in Grace instructed by the defeat of Adam he has recourse to his divine Redeemer and knowing very well that his forces are weakned by sin he findes no better expedient to vanquish his enemy then to confess his impotency Haec una praesentis vitae perfectio est ut te infirmum imperfectum agnoscas Hieron ad Ctesi He remembers that Vertue is preserved in Infirmity that the Distrust of himself is the mother of Safety and that in a Religion where we live not by our own spirit neither do we overcome by our own strength But whatever artifice our Humility makes use of to defend it self yet must we confess that 't is an extreme affliction to know that the devil that tempts us can trouble our Imagination and make a part of our selves serviceable to his malice For in conclusion Concupiscence is a trusty minister which executes all his commands sets all the Passions in a commotion in behalf of him debaucheth all the Senses to serve him and carrying disorder into the inmost recesses of the Soul undertakes to make the Understanding and the Will stoop to his lure S. Augustine acknowledged this misery and confesseth that though the body were sanctified by Baptism it had not lost its corruption that in the language of Scripture it lay heavie upon the soul disposing it to sin Nay the soul it self though it have a greater share in grace then the body is nevertheless engaged in self-love Though in Baptism it received remission of all sins yet its bad inclinations are not obliterated in a moment nor do the first-fruits of Grace produce Vertues if they be not husbanded with much care and diligence the New man must increase daily if he intend to ruine the Old and dismantle the body of Sin if he will establish the Spirit of Grace For 't is an errour saith that great Saint for a man to perswade himself that from the very moment that a Christian is baptized all the infirmities of the old man are quite washed away his renovation indeed begins by the remission of sins but it cannot arrive to perfection but as he goes on in vertue and tastes those spiritual delights which serve as nourishment to the new life They therefore are much deceived who anchor their hope upon their Character who think to be a Christian is title enough to Salvation and never considering that they have onely the seeds of Christianity labour not
you goes on Saint Augustine seeing the same thing happens to us every day and an ordinary and familiar example evidenceth the same truth For when ye are in the throng of an Assembly and some body treads upon your foot your tongue presently complains and though no body toucht it cries out you have hurt me what means it by that expression Might it not be replyed you are in safety the place you have in the body secures you from danger and if any part be offended 't is the foot not you In the mean time Truth and Charity require this language for being in the same body with the foot their good and bad are common he that hurts one hurts the other the society that unites them and the compassion that grows from their society constraines it to utter theâ—e complaints as just as they are true Let us apply this comparison and say though Iesus Christ suffer not in his Person he suffers in that of the Faithfull that making up one body with them he is sensible of their pains and taking part in their wrongs is offended when any one offends them By the same consequence a Christian can doe no good to other Christians but the Son or God is beholding to him for it For the Felicity he enjoyeth exempts him from all want nothing can be added to his riches by desires and he is so great and so happy that there is nothing he can either hope or fear yet is he indigent in the faithfull and he may be assisted in the person of the miserable he protests that in that terrible day when he will examine the good and bad works of his Subjects he will recompence the good offices done to the poor as done to himself nor will make any difference between the good usage he received in his naturall body and that he shall have received in his mysticall body he will equally pronounce sentence upon these different actions and every where confounding the Head with the Members will punish with as much severity those that have persecuted him in the poor as those that nailed him to the Crosse That which yee did to one of the least of mine yee did unto me This truth ought to comfort the good and strike terrour into the wicked For if Iesus Christ live still in the distressed if the condition of a Head which he preserves in Glory make him languish in the poor we must needs conclude that those that oppresse them are as guilty as the Pharisees that oppressed Jesus Christ Though his Innocence was clouded under the likenesse of sinfull flesh and the lustre of his Majesty obscured by the humility of his person his enemies did despite to a God when they thought only to injure a Man they committed a Parricide when they imagined they acted only a murder and the Father punisheth them as guilty of Treason against the Divine Majesty because the miracles of his Sonne took away all pretence from their zeal and all excuse from their offence The same judgement threatens those that persecute the poor For though nothing of worth shine forth in them that can render them considerable though Iesus be hid under the misery of their condition and reason cannot discover a happy man under an unfortunate one nor a Son of God under a child of Adam he will not fail to punish them as severely as those that knew him not in Judea because his words which are to be respected as Oracles suffer us not to doubt of this verity which makes up one of the chiefest Articles of our Faith But if it be an argument of terrour to the wicked 't is a ground of comfort and consolation to the godly For they may still succour the Son of God in wretched and distressed people they may imitate the piety of Martha and Mary Magdalen they may enjoy the priviledges which make up the glory of those blessed women they may still be the entertainers of Iesus Christ and receiving him in the person of the poor and strangers Ne quis vestrum dicat 〈◊〉 beati qui Christum suscipere in propriam domii meruerunt noli dolere noli murmurare quia temporibus natus es quando jam dominum non vides in carne non tibi abstulit istam dignationem cum uni inquit ex minimis meis fecistis mibi fecistis Aug. Serm. 27. de Verb. Dom. participate in their merits who received him himself into their houses The Son of God will not have us make any difference between his naturall and his mysticall body his hands and his feet are not dearer to him then the poor and all that is done to these may expect the same reward as that which was done to them If we beleeve S. Chrysostome there is more advantage by serving Christ in his afflicted members then there was to wait upon him in his own Person because there is more trouble in it and as our senses meet with nothing that can flatter them in that exercise our love is more pure and more disinteressed There was as much pleasure as honour to perform acts of service to the Son of God whilest he lived upon earth the Majesty of his Countenance the graciousnesse of his Aspect the Charms of his Conversation the Power of his Words were recompence enough to them that received him into their houses they had a certain adhaesion to his person from whence they were to be separated by death That visible presence which charmed their eyes diminished their merit and the love they bare to that body that was the workmanship of the Holy Ghost had imperfections which were to be purified by elongation But the Faithfull who serve the Son of God in the poor are free from this danger they behold nothing in these sad objects that can please their sense they must consult their faith to find Iesus Christ there they must doe violence to themselves to pay their homage at those shrines and that Image having no allurements all their devotion betakes it self purely to seek after Iesus Christ in Heaven But not to determine this difference 't is sufficient to know for our comfort that Iesus Christ is in the Christians that the glories of the one and the miseries of the other separate them not that he suffers in us without any abatement of his Felicity that we reigne in him without any prejudice to our merit that he is upon the Earth though cloathed with the Glories of Immortality that we are in Heaven though shrowded in the rags of misery that in the difference of our conditions Quoties ergo videmus aliquem indigentem agnoscamus ChristuÌ„ in illo quia ipse indigens membrum Christi est Bern. de Pass Domi. cap. 32. there is a perfect communication of good and bad things between him and us that his Grace is ours our sins are his with this difference onely that his Grace cancels our sins and our sins despoile not him of his Innocence The
Nature Thus was he torn in pieces by lions in the person of S. Ignatius devoured by flames in that of S. Laurence stoned in that of S. Stephen beheaded in that of S. Paul and this great Apostle that knew the desires of Jesus Christ rejoyced to accomplish them by his sufferings and to be one of those Victims whereby he adored the Justice and the Soveraignty of his Father But not to urge this conceit any further 't is enough that we learn from it that Jesus and the Church are united in their sufferings upon earth and by a necessary consequence assures us they shall be so one day in their rest in heaven For though the Church sigh here belowe she knows her Beloved will keep his word that having had a part in his sorrows she shall have a share in his triumphs and having been two in one Flesh they shall be two in one and the same Felicity She hath the promises of Jesus Christ for caution of her hope and when she remembers the prayer her Beloved made to his Father in her behalf she expects the performance with constancy of assurance Father I will that where I am there also my servants be Whenever Jesus Christ speaks to his Father 't is with so much respect that he seems rather a Servant then a Son when he asks that his Church may reign with him in his glory 't is with so much freedom of speech that he seems equal to his Father and that his demand is rather a determination then a prayer Volo Pater so that the Church who hath passed thorow all the degrees of unity with her Beloved expects this last with confidence and makes no more doubt of the Eternity of her rest then of the Verity of the words of her Beloved She believes that the union he hath contracted with her puts her in possession of her hopes that she enjoys in him what she hopes for in her self that she is glorious in her Body because she is so in her Head and that during the evils she suffers Ubi portio mea regnat ibi me regnare puto ubi caput meum dominatur ibi me dominari sentio D. Max. Serm. 3. she may boast her self happie because nothing is wanting to the felicity of her Beloved She hath now in Christ what she hopes for in her self and according to the judgement of S. Maxime she believes to raign there already where the most illustrious part of her Body reigns and conceives her self exalted above the Angels in the person of him that considers her as his Spouse and looks upon them as his Subjects The Seventh DISCOURSE That the quality of the Members of Jesus Christ is no more advantageous to Christians then that of the Brethren of Jesus Christ IT is not without great reason Unigenitus Dei factus est hominis filius ut qui Creator mundi erat fieret Redemptor Aug. that the same God that created us by his Power hath redeemed us by his Mercy For these two favours being extreme we should have had much ado equally to have acknowledged them Having but one heart to love with we must of necessity have divided our affections and the benefit of Redemption surpassing that of Creation we had been constrained to prefer our Redeemer before our Creator But the Divine Providence saith S. Bernard hath delivered us from this perplexity for he that drew us out of Nothing hath drawn us out of Sin and he that Created us is the same that Redeemed us so that without any fear of Jealousie we may compare these two benefits and give one the pre-eminence without injuring him of whom we have received them Me thinks I may say the same concerning the subject I am in hand with and free from any apprehension confront the quality of Brethren with that of Members because we hold them both of Jesus Christ and that the same who was pleased to be our Brother disdained not to be our Head Nature hath found out no alliance neerer then that of Brothers and Members and though she be so ingenious she hath not been able to link men in a stronger bond of relation then in giving them one and the same Father or one and the same Head Brothers are Slips of the same Stock if they ascend one degree they will finde that before their conception they made one portion of their Father and that before their birth they were a part of the bowels of their mother Friendship which is so much esteemed of in the world is but a Copie of this Alliance Friends are Brethren that our Will bestows upon us and Brethren are Friends that Nature stores us with but as that which is voluntary never equals that which is natural 't is very hard for Friends to love so tenderly as Brothers do Nevertheless if the affinity of these begin by Unity it insensibly tends to Division Brothers children are but Cousins their Grandchildren are yet at a farther distance and it falls out in time that those that issued from one father become by continuance of Generations strangers and enemies I know very well that Christians have priviledges that raise them above the condition of Men and that Grace more powerful then Nature hath given them a Father and Mother from whom they are never divided For the Son of God unites us to his Person in begetting us of children he makes us members and as if the Alliance of Father were not strict enough he becomes our Head that subsisting in him our life may be inseparable from his The Church imitates the charity of her Beloved she is so tenderly affected towards her children that she brings them up in the same bosome where she conceived them There are none but Hereticks that go out from her and they as Vipers must tear her bowels and offer violence to her Love in making a breach in her Unity Though other Mothers bear their children Nine months with an affection that solaceth their travel yet do they long to be eased of that painful load and the Infant desires to quit that troublesome prison Both of them do their utmost for a separation and if the children seek their liberty the mothers are as earnest after their delivery But the Church is so good a Mother she is never rid of her burden they always make a part of her inwards as they always are a part of the body of their Father they are born in the same place they are formed and as their Regeneration divides them not from Jesus Christ their Generation divorces them not from the Church But who sees not that to entertain this Union the quality of Members comes in to the assistance of that of Children and that the Faithful are much more knit together for being Members of the same Head then for being Children of the same Father We make up one Body with him Time that divides Brothers cannot divide Christians and as nothing but death can disjoyn the members
agnosce â—e in ipso tentatum te in illo agnosce vincentem Aug. Jesus Christ saith he was tempted by the evil spirit in the desart or rather we were tempted in him for 't is from us that he took Flesh from him that we derive Salvation 't is from us that he receives his Death from him that we receive our Life 't is from us that he had these affronts cast upon him from him that we have Honours conferred upon us 'T is therefore for our sakes that he suffered Temptation and for his sake that we carry away the victory Or to say the same thing in other words If we were tempted in him 't is in him also that we overcame the devil our enemy He certainly could have difcarded him from his person and using him like a rebellious slave have punished his rash boldness by commanding him to hell but had he not been willing to be tempted he had not taught us to overcome by his example nor had the combat he fought in the wilderness procured us the honour of a Triumph Thus the quality of Head is injurious to Jesus Christ and honourable to Christians because in that exchange it obliged him to make with them he endured the shame of the Temptation and purchased for them the advantage of the Victory Finally to conclude this Discourse The Son of God was willing to bear the reproaches of the Cross and to merit for us the priviledges of Glory For being charged with our iniquities he suffered death the punishment of them permitted Shame to be added to Cruelty that spoiling him of Life Si moriamur saltem cum libertate moriamur Cicero in Verâ—em de Crucis supplicio agens they might withal rob him of his Honour and he might give up the ghost as an Offender and a Slave together In the mean time his Punishment purchased our Glory his Death merited our Immortality and in stead of taking vengeance of our crimes he procures us his own advantages It seems saith S. Augustine the Father mistook himself he treats his onely Son as a Delinquent and handles Men as Innocents he crowns him with Thorns these with Glory and confounding the Sinner with the Just confounds Chastisements with Rewards But if we consider that the Son of God took our place and we his that he is our Head and we his Members we shall finde that his Father had reason to punish him and to reward us because having made a change with us he is become Guilty we Innocent Let us therefore be thankful to Jesus Christ who disdained not a quality which investing him with our Nature chargeth him with our sins and our infirmities and uniting him to us as to his Members obliges him to be tempted to make us victorious Ille quippe Christianorum caput in omnibus tentari voluit quia tentamur sic morivoluit quiae morimur sic resurgere quiae resurrecturi sumus Aug. in Psal 9. Serm. 2. and to suffer the death of the Cross to obtain for us the glory of Immortality The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the duties of Christians as Members toward Jesus Christ as their Head THough the duties of the Head and of the Members are reciprocal and that composing one Body they are obliged to a mutual correspondence arising from Necessity as well as Love yet there is no man but will acknowledge that as the Members receive more assistance from the Head ten the Head from the Members so are they tied to greater expressions of dependence Nature which is an excellent mistress in this matter instructs us that the life of the Members depends upon the Head and their very preservation obliges them to three or four duties without which they can no ways subsist Their Interest requires that they be inseparably fastned to that from whence they receive their life lest their division with their death deprive them of all those advantages which spring from the union they have with their Head Thus we see that the Hand which is one of the most ingenious parts of the body and which may be called the Mother of all Arts and the faithfullest Minister of the Soul loseth its dexterity and comeliness as soon as separated from the Head that enlivens it The Feet though not so noble as the Hands are yet as necessary being the moveable Foundations of this living building are destitute of all strength when they have no commerce with the Head This indeed ceaseth not to act and move though provided neither of Hands nor Feet when Nature fails it hath recourse to Art and being the throne of the Soul ransacks all her treasures of Invention to execute that by it Self Omnis salus omnis vita à capite in caeterae membra derivatur Galen was wont to be put in execution by its Members But though the hands are so industriously subtil and the legs so vigorously strong they are absolutely useless because their separation deprives them of the influences of their head This Maxime so notorious in Nature is much more evident in Grace For the Son of God hath no need of his Members 't is Mercy and not Necessity obligeth him to make use of them He is not at all more powerful when united to them nor more feeble when separated from them Faith tells us he can do all things without them whereas they can doe nothing without him Therefore is he compared to the Vine and they to the Branch to acquaint them that all their vertue flows from his and being pluckt from his Body can as the Branch expect nothing but the fire Therefore the first obligation of Christians is to unite themselves to Jesus Christ to seek their life in this union and to believe that their death is the infallible consequence of their division This is it that Saint Augustine represents us in this Discourse which though long cannot be tedious because there is nothing in it that is not delightfull and necessary As the Body hath many members which though different in number make up but one body so Jesus Christ hath many members which in the diversity of their conditions constitute also but one body so that we are always with him as with our Head and drawing from him our strength as well as our life we can neither act nor live without him We with him make up a fruitful Vine that bears more Grapes then Leaves but divided from him we are like those Branches which being good for nothing are destin'd to the slames when stript off from the Vine Therefore doth the Son of God so earnestly affirm it in the Gospel that without him we can doe nothing that our interests as well as our love Domine si fine te nihil totum in te possumus Etenim quicquid ille operatur per nos videmur nos operari potest ille multum totum sine nobis nos nihil sine ipso Aug. in Psal 30. may engage us to be united to his
Person For if it be true Lord addes Saint Augustine that we can doe nothing without thee 't is in thee onely that we effect all that we bring to pass all our ability is from thee 't is thou that workest what we seem to work and being convinced by these Truths we are obliged to say that thou canst do all things without us but we can doe nothing without thee These words happily express all the obligations of the Faithfull and make them clearly discern that liberty can doe nothing without grace and that the members divided from their Head with all their naturall endowments and advantages are good for nothing but to be eternally burnt in Hel. From this first obligation is derived a second no whit lesse considerable For seeing the members draw life from their Head and their division causeth their ruine they are bound absolutely to depend upon him nor to have any other designes then his As they live by a borrowed life they ought to act by a forain vertue and to abandon themselves so fully to him that inanimates them as to have no other conduct but his Thence it comes to pass that self-deniall is the first vertue recommended to a Christian that renouncing himself he may obey Jesus Christ and conceiving himself in a strange body may act by his motions who is the Head thereof Philosophy hath laid down this position that man ought to purchase his liberty with the expence of his riches that 't is better be poor then be a slave and that 't was a gainfull bargain where parting with the goods of fortune we purchased the quietness of mind she hath also judged very well that the body is to be tam'd when it grows rebellious against reason that nourishment is to be retrencht as provender from an unruly wanton horse and his stomack taken down by the ascetick discipline of Fasts and Watchings But it never enterd into her Theorems that to be happy a man must renounce his understanding unlord his reason to become learned condemn his judgement to become wise Indeed Philosophy knew not that we are the members of a Body whereof the Eternall Word is the Head and that this condition that raiseth us as high as the light of Faith forbids us the pure use of Reason commanding us to soar above our own thoughts to search into his mind who will be the Principle of our Life For there is no body but sees that this obligation is as just as honourable that since Christians are rather Gods then men because of the union they have contracted with the Word Incarnate they ought to act rather by his motion then their own reason and remember that seeing he is the Head that quickens them he ought to be the Principle that guides them The whole drift of the Gospel labours to perswade us this Truth all its commands and counsels insinuate this obligation into us and when the Son of God gives order to us to renounce our own will to combate our inclinations to love our enemies and to hate our friends 't is only to teach us that being no longer at our own disposall we ought to have no other mind but what he inspires into us by his Grace A Third Obligation slows from this which is to be conformable to our Head to imitate his actions having followed his motions and to be made so like him that he may not be ashamed to own us for his members Nature exacts not this condition from the parts that compose mans body she will not have them resemble their Head because there would be insolence and impossibility in the very desire 'T is enough that they receive his influences that they obey his motions and that their whole imitation consist in their meer subjection But Morality and the Politicks will have the members that make up a Mysticall Body adde imitation to their other duties that they be regulated by their Head as by their model that they study his inclinations and be the perfect copies of this first Originall Thus we see that Kings are the inanimate examples of their subjects the living Laws of their States and the prime Masters of their people Every one makes it his glory to imitate them they are perswaded that whatever they doe is lawfull and that those that are the Images of God may very well be the Examplars of men Though this Maxime be true yet it is dangerous For as Greatness does not always inspire Goodness Quid est aliud vitia incendere quam authores illos Deos vel reges inscribere dare morbo exemplo Divinitatis aut Majestatis excusatam lieentiam Senec. nor are Sovereigns the most perfect and those that may doe what they will doe not always what they should it fals out many times that the greatest are the most vicious and the readiest way to corrupt a whole State is to set before it the Examples of the Governours Therefore hath Philosophy invented Ideas of Wisdome and despairing to finde among men models which may be securely transcribed hath made a Romance of Princes by the same artifice discovering their irregularity her own impotency But the Eternall Father giving us Jesus Christ for our Head hath withall propounded him for our Example he will have our life fully conformable to his that his actions be our documents that we be admitted into his School when we are united to his Body that we seek for perfection where we found life and that we be as well his Images as his Members This is it that Saint Bernard acquaints us with Our Head shall not reign in glory without his Members provided they be one with him by Faith and conformable to him in their Manners Both these conditions are necessary Union without Conformity is but meer hypocrisie and Conformity without Union is pure vanity He that is united to Christ and imitates him not cannot escape a fearfull separation one day by an Eternall Anathema and he that imitates him without believing will perceive in time that his imitation was but counterfeit and that he was so much more opposite to Jesus Christ the more he appeard only conformable to him We must therefore joyn these two duties together if we will have them usefull and having been united to our Head by Faith conform to him by good works that we be not reproached to have despised him whom we cannot find in our hearts to imitate But the chiefest obligation the quality of being Members of the Son of God exacts from us is to expose our life for his Glory as he expos'd his for our salvation Nature and Politicks teach us the justice of this duty and we need only consider how the members carry themselves toward the Head and subjects demean themselves towards their Soveraigns to understand what is our duty towards Jesus Christ Though every part of the body love its own preservation carefully avoiding whatever is contrary thereto and by a naturall providence abominates whatever
more sensible express more regret they are not content only to look upon the offended part but they shed tears to comfort it and many times cure it by that innocent remedy The Head which is seated in the most eminent place of the body stoops to succour this poor afflicted he forgets his condition to satisfie his love and giving a fair example to Soveraigns instructs them they ought to be sensible of all the miseries of the meanest of their subjects the Heart Nemo regi tam vilis sit ut illum perire non sentiat qualiscunque pars imperii sit Senec. which from the centre where it is lodged equally enlivens all the parts discovers its sense of pain by its regrets and mixing its sighs with the tears of the eyes and the complaints of the mouth gives a loud testimony it cannot be at quiet when the members it inanimates are afflicted The Hands that are the faithful ministers of the body discover their sorrow by their quickness of dispatch being more active then the rest they presently visit the distressed part they sound the malady apply remedies to it and evidence that if they be not so tender they are more serviceable then the Eyes or Tongue If all things were well regulated in the Church if the Faithful acted according to the motions of Grace and if Charity that combines them together were as lively in their Hearts as in those of the primitive Christians we should see in the mystical Body of Jesus Christ what we behold every day in the natural body of Man The affliction of one of these quickned Members would equally touch all the rest every one would do his office according to his power and imitating the good intelligence of parts composing the same body some would weep as the eyes others complain as the mouth and others assist as the hands This certainly was the consideration that wrought so much upon S. Paul's affections Docet utique Paulus saue veritatem patitur sua aliorum simul mala infirmitates tolerat solatur simul de communisalute de toto orbe sollicitus Ansel and obliged him to pronounce those words flowing from the greatness of his love Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not For as he came neerer Jesus Christ then other Christians did being closer united to this Head he sunk deeper into his minde and remembring the complaints he himself had drawn from his mouth when he persecuted the Church he endeavoured to repair that offence by compassion and in Mercy to imitate him whom he represented in Authority All Christians are bound to live in this disposition if they mean to satisfie their duty they must be afflicted with the miserable weep with those that weep and calling to minde that they are the Members of the same Body they must see no Innocents persecuted no Godly distressed but they must do their utmost to comfort them by condoling their misfortunes 'T is perhaps for this reason that the Church is called a Dove because sighs are as natural to her as to that Bird who having lost her mate spends her life in grief and solitude The Church is a widow and consequently solitary her Husband left her when he ascended up to heaven and though she be honoured with his presence being deprived of his sight she cannot secure her self from that anxiety her love works in her but she mourns as the Dove because being made up of as many Members as she hath Believers she is constrained to give her self over to Sorrow when she sees them in Calamity or in Danger Having considered the Afflictions of the Church let us consider the subject of her Joy and behold the community of Goods she hath set up among her children in that which Nature hath erected among members of the same body The union of these later is so great that though they have different offices yet cease they not to take pains one for the other The eyes see and hear not saith S. Augustine the ears hear and see not the hands act and hear not the feet walk and act not nevertheless their correspondence is so good that the eyes hear by the ears the ears see by the eyes the hands walk by the feet and the feet act by the hands so that if we ask the ears Can they judge of Colours they would answer Being in the unity of the body they are always with the eyes and if they see not themselves they are inseparable from those whose office it is to see for them Thus continues S. Augustine as the eyes say we hear by the ears and the ears We see by the eyes and both of them We act by the hands all is common among these parts their difference destroys not their unity and though their employments be divers they live in so perfect a society that the advantages of the one part make up the riches of all the rest If Christians be Members of Jesus Christ they enjoy the same priviledges all their goods are common and if envie divide them not from their Head they possess in Him whatever is wanting in Themselves The Alliance they have with his Body enriches them with another's good without any injustice and like the members of a man which act in one anothers behalf they foretel things to come by the mouth of the Prophets they are understood of all Nations by those that have the gift of Tongues they work miracles by the hands of the Apostles and they attribute to themselves without vanity whatever the Saints are able to do in the mystical Body of Jesus Christ For one of the secrets of the Natural body saith S. Augustine is that the relation of the members is so perfect that each particular labours not so much for it self as for others The eye is the onely part that can see but it sees not for it self alone it is the candle of the feet in their walking of the hands in working and of all the other members in their employments Indeed if it discover any danger threatning the foot it endeavours to protect it and gives notice that it may be avoided The hand acts onely but not for it self alone it defends the face if stricken at courageously opposeth any enemy that braves it and knowing that their interests are common valiantly suffers the evil to deliver the body from it All the members are silent there is none but the tongue that speaks but she is their interpreter and furnisheth them with words to express their like or dislike their sorrow or joy Thus must we confess in the mystical body of Jesus Christ the Faithful receive no benefit which is not reckoned as pertaining to the rest If they be prudent 't is to counsel the simple if they work miracles 't is to convert Infidels or to confirm weak Believers if they have the spirit of Prophecie 't is to instruct the ignorant if they have the gift of
Principle of Humility is sin which is a Non-Entity in the order of Grace and which abaseth the sinner to so low a condition that he is much more miserable then if he were annihilated For inasmuch as he recedes from God the supream Beeing adhering to the creature who is in a manner Nothing himself becomes a wretched Non-Entity and loseth all those advantages he was made partaker of by the union he had with his Creator Tamdiu est aliquid homo quādiu haeret illi à quo factus est homo Aug. in Psal 75. This is it that Saint Augustine expresseth in those excellent words Man is Something as long as he is united to God from whom he had his Beeing but he ceaseth to be assoon as he separates from him by sin and finding his Fall in his Crimes tumbles into a more deplorable Nothing then that of Nature For the former obeys the voice of God if it contribute nothing to his design neither doth it resist his hand and the world that issued out of its barren depths was an evident proof of its submission But the Non-Entity of sin resists the will of God forms parties in his State deboists his most loyal subjects and mastering their wils disputes the dominion with their Soveraign Therefore doth Saint Augustine in some place of his writings call sin an armed Nothing and the Scripture to shew us the horrour goes along with it Nihil rebelle in Deum armatū Amb. prefers the condition of men who never were before that of transgressors who are fallen into sin The third Principle of Humility is Death which seems the middle between Nothing and Sin It is an image of the former and a chastisement of the second it bears the name of both in Scripture and the Prophets illuminated from above call it sometimes a Nothing sometimes a Sin Saint Augustine gives us a handsome proof hereof in these words Death saith he is the punishment of sin he bears the name of his Father to teach us that though man sin not in dying he never should have died if he had not sinned and the same Doctor in another passage acquaints us that Death is a Nothing which having no Essence might indeed be ordained by the Justice of God but not produced by his Power Thence it comes to passe that 't is a shameful punishment attempting the honor of man and his life and makes him feel himself a Criminal because having set upon his reputation it proceeds to attaque his person For he destroys this Master-piece of Nature separates the two parts that compound him breaks the ligaments that unites them and being not able to be revenged upon the soul dischargeth his fury upon the body and afflicts the Mistress in punishing her servant But should not all these powerful considerations oblige man to humble himself the Christian could by no means refuse this homage when he considers that his salvation depends upon Grace that his Liberty without this Supernatural aid serves only to damn him and being fallen from that happy condition wherein he was the master of his fortune he is now the slave of Concupiscence if he be not enfranchised by the merits of Jesus Christ Indeed the Example of God debased greatly comforts him in his misery he is never troubled to humble himself when he considers the Word annihilated in the Incarnation he submits to the Counsels of that Divine Master he is not ashamed to learn humility in his School and having heard that Oracle from his mouth Discite à me quia mitis sum humilis corde he looks upon this Vertue as his Glory and is forced to confess with Saint Augustine that if it be a Prodigy to behold a man proud 't is a Miracle to see a God humbled and by consequence of so great an Example that man must have lost his judgement that should be ashamed of Humility The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the Repentance of a Christian ALL the Vertues have their particular advantages the least splendid are the most useful and those that have not so many allurements have commonly most desert Repentance is of the number of these and it seems 't is not so much her beauty as her necessity that makes her considerable Her Countenance hath no comeliness her Mouth is always full of sighes her Eyes moist with tears her shoulders covered with sackcloth and her hands armed with discipline The Interest of God sets her against her self his Goodness offended his Glory obscured his Mercy neglected provokes her indignation against sinners and obliges them to invent torments to punish their offences But did not her zeal contribute to her excellency she is so necessary that in whatever condition man appears she is proper and peculiar to him It seems she is his difference in Grace and that this Vertue distinguisheth him from Angels and Beasts For these have only a blind instinct that guides them they have no liberty in their actions It is not reason but Nature that leads them and as they are incapable of Sin so are they of Repentance The Angels are unchangeable in good and evil Constancy hath made the Angels happy and Obstinacy hath rendred the Devils miserable These pure spirits cannot alter and whether they know good and evil intuitively or whether they act with the full extent of their power or whether they had but one moment to merit in all Divinity assures us that they cannot repent I intend not to examine whether Grace by its victorious sweetness be able to work a change in them and whether their will be so perversly obstinate in evil that it cannot be diverted But I say with our Masters there is something in their Nature and in their Sin which renders them unworthy and uncapable of Repentance so that this Vertue is a priviledge of a man one of his properties in Nature and one of his differences in Grace Being weak he never adheres so strongly to Vertue but he may desert her and by a happiness arising from his infirmity he is never so deeply engaged in vice but he may shake hands with it He is neither constant in good nor obstinate in evil and though he can neither leave the one nor embrace the other unless he be assisted by Grace he hath a natural disposition which rendring him unconstant makes him capable of this happy change that accompanies Repentance It seems the mercy of God which makes use of our sin to redeem us will make use of unconstancy to convert us and managing this weakness which is natural to us takes pleasure to save us by the same means that ruined us If those that are of opinion that the Grace that changeth men were able also to convert the Angels are not agreed as touching this Maxime they ought at least to confess that the Angel having had but one moment to merit in was not capable of this Grace in the order of God because his Salvation or his Fall had immediately followed
his bounty ought to live for his service Thence he concludes that we offer our members as oblations and employ all that we are for the glory of our Redeemer Slaves in the negotiations of the world could not dispose of their actions they acted by order of their Master they took pains for his Interest they got wealth for his profit and as if nature had lost her right in their persons they got children to increase his family Philosophers acknowledge that servitude fals only upon the body that it fetters only the feet and the hands leaving the slaves more free many times in their irons then the Soveraigns upon their Throne Bondage hath no dominion over their wil and with all her rigours cannot extort the least baseness from them if they be generous they dispute their liberty with fortune they preserve in deed what they have lost in appearance they many times command their oppressour and bearing the hearts of Kings in the bodies of slaves are more free and more happy then their Master But the Christian enters by Redemption into a Thraldome which passeth from his body into his soul fetters his heart with his hands triumphs over his liberty without constraining it confiscates all his goods to his Soveraign and despoiling him of all but Nothingness and Sin obligeth him to confess that he owes all the rest to the Liberaility of his Redeemer For the understanding of this Verity which makes one of the foundations of Christianity we must know that though God be the Soveraign of all men he treats not the innocent and the guilty alike He seems to respect the former to refuse them nothing that they desire preventing their wishes and in that happy state wherein Concupiscence had not disordered them he subjected their salvation to their liberty and made them in some sort the disposers or masters of their good fortune Grace is always at the door of their heart this Divine assistance never fails them and God would think he violated the Laws of his Justice had he not given these Innocents all that is necessary for their salvation But he deals far otherwise with Guilty men It seems Sin gives him more right over these wretches then Nothing does and being fallen from their priviledges by their own fault he owes them nothing but punishments He abandons them to their own conduct leaves them in blindness and weakness and as if they were meerly the objects of his anger he sometimes withdraws from them the assistance of his Grace Thus did the Eternal Father deal with men before the mystery of the Incarnation his Son found them in this deplorable condition when he undertook their deliverance they had no right neither to Grace nor Glory and sin that had deprived them of their innocence had confiscated all their apennages Thus we owe our Salvation to our Redemption we hold that of Mercy which heretofore we held of Justice we are saved rather as men enfranchised then free and acknowledging our salvation an effect rather of Grace then our own freedome we ought to renounce the one to give our selves over to the other This conceit carries me insensibly to another which seems only a consequent of this and the coherence they have will not give me leave to divide them Man in the state of Innocence was the master of his actions the uprightness wherein he was created was the cause that God left him to his liberty having no inordinate motions to regulate no wild passions to subdue no unfaithful senses to correct he had need only of a succour to sustain him His will was the principle of his merit and the good works he did proceeded rather from himself then from God Thus his good fortune was in a manner in his own hands he depended more upon Liberty then upon Grace and being the Director of this he might say without vanity that he was the principal Authour of his own salvation Divine Providence obliged him to take the guidance of himself to determine his own actions that he was the master of his fortune and making use of the advantages she had given him the acknowledgement of the victory was due only to his own courage and dexterity But now that he is faln from his Innocence hath lost half his Light and Liberty carries a Tyrant in his very Essentials which subjects him to his Laws he stands in need of a Grace that may deliver him and exercising a dominion over his will may save him by a more humble but surer way then that of Adam He is no longer the Master of his actions nor the Authour of his salvation he must take direction from Jesus Christ learn to deny himself distrust his own abilities and place his hope in that victorious Grace which subjects whose man captivating his understanding by Faith and his will by Love This Oeconomy of God towards the Christian is mixed with Justice and Mercy 't is Justice to take from him the disposall of his person because he used it so ill in the state of Innocence 'T is Justice to submit his Liberty to Grace because when he was the master thereof he neglected to make use of it 'T is Justice to treat him as a Pupil or a Slave not to trust him any more with the government of himself and to employ for his cure a remedy which reproacheth him with his blindness and infirmity 'T is Mercy also to knock off the fetters of a slave to indulge him the true liberty his sin had deprived him of to unite him to God from whom he was estranged to assure his salvation by a Grace which infallibly produceth its effect to sanctifie him in Jesus Christ whereof he is a Member and to give him an occasion to offer himself an Holocaust to God For it is true that self-denial is a parting with all things a sacrifice wherein man immolates his will by obedience a combat wherein he triumphs over himself where he is the vanquisher and the vanquished where he subdues his passions by reason and subjects his reason to grace After this advantage there is none but he may with Justice hope for because he that hath conquered himself may easily conquer all others 'T is a punishment which in hardship and durance disputes with that of Martyrs It is long because it lasts as long as life may take up the best part of an age nor spares the strength of the penitent but to make him suffer more It is rigorous because there is no cruelties a man given over to grace does not exercise upon his person and being witty to invent torments converts all things into corrections For as Saint Gregory the Great saith he suppresseth vanity by the sword of the Word of God he cuts off his head to ingraffe Jesus Christ upon his body he makes all die that he received from the old Adam to make all live that he hath drawn from the new and if he cut not off his arms and his legs he pares
will be all in all things he will poure out that in abundance which now he deals forth in measure and all the Saints possessing all the Vertues shall possesse God in all his perfections But the chiefest advantage of this Divine Banquet is that the Mess which is served up will be instead of all things as long as we live upon the Earth the misery of our condition or the frailty of our goods suffers us not to find our contentment in one single object That which allays our hunger quencheth not our thirst that which enlightens us covers us not that which serves us for a garment serves us not for a house and that which satisfies our mind does not always content our body But when we shall be in Heaven the Divine Essence will fill all our desires and being infinite will alone abundantly supply the fulness of all perishable Earthly goods Your God saith Saint Augustine shall be your All you shall feed upon him to satisfie your hunger drink him to quench your thirst rest upon him for your support make him your garment to cover you you shall wholly possess and he as wholly possess you you shall find in him all that others doe because both you and they shall be but one and the same thing in him For the last effect of this viand whereof we have but an essay in the Eucharist is that it will perfectly transform us into it self because all Scripture teacheth us that when we see God we shall be like him Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit similes ei erimus Joan. and that Glory having consumed all that was mortal and perishable in our nature we shall be happily swallowed up in him without ceasing for all this to be our selves Thus God nourisheth us in nature with the fruits of the Earth which maintain a body taken out of the Earth in Grace by the bloud of Jesus Christ which preserves the life he merited for us upon the Crosse In Glory by Divinity it self which is both together our food and our felicity The Second DISCOURSE Of the Nourishment of Innocent Man and of that of Man a Christian I If the state of Innocence be unknown to us by reason of its dignity or its remotenesse we must confesse that Original Righteousnesse and the fruit of the Tree of Life which were the chief priviledges thereof are so hid from us Immortalitas ista praestabatur ei de ligno vitae non de constitutione naturae quo ligno separatus est eū peccasset ut posset mori Aug. that we have but weak conjectures to judge of their properties or of their effects Saint Augustine that hath written most rationally confounds them so often one with another that he seems to attribute to the Tree of Life that which appertains to Original Righteousness For though we know that this united the soul with the body subjected both to God and preserving the one from sin exempted the other from death yet he forbears not to impute that to the Tree of Life which we impute to Grace and to allot it so many advantages that it seems the whole happinesse of man depended absolutely upon this miraculous Tree But having well considered the words of this great Saint I find his doctrine so conformable to Scripture that there is no doubt but it was suggested to him by the same Spirit that made Moses speak in Genesis For as nourishment is ordained to preserve our life we need not think it strange that it holds some analogy with the principle that gives it us and that there should be some agreement between the matter whereof we are made and that wherewith we are nourished Therefore may we say that the Tree of Life preserved in Innocent man all that Original Righteousness had indued him with and that the fruit thereof which certainly was a figure of the holy Sacrament repaired the wasts of the natural heat maintained man in his vigour and secured him from death Wherein I find a great resemblance with truth because it wrought that in man an Innocent which the Body of the Son of God doth in man a Christian For there is none but confesseth that this admirable fruit united the soul with the body that it entertained that good intelligence which made up a notable part of his happiness and subjecting the body to the soul by a necessary consequence subjected the soul to God Divinity hath not yet fully examined whether this Vertue were natural to this Tree or whether being but a visible sign of an invsible grace the Divine power produced this effect in man when he took of that fruit with the dispositions of a firm faith and an humble obedience If we take the Scripture for our Guide and Saint Augustine for its Interpreter it will be easie to judge that this effect depended not upon the disposition of Man but upon the Vertue of the Tree because we see in Genesis that one of the reasons why our forefather was driven out of Paradise was that he might not eat of that wonderful fruit and so the miseries he had contracted by sin be prolonged together with his life Saint Augustine explicating this passage makes us plainly see that man having lost Original Righteousness had not lost Immortality if he had continued to feed upon the fruit of the Tree of Life Thus we are forced to confess that this Tree had a secret Vertue which depended not upon the sole disposition of man and that it was capable of producing a quality in his body which desending him for a time from death had encreased his misfortune with his years But not to engage in a question more curious then profitable 't is enough to know that as this fruit of the Tree of Life subjected the body to the soul and the soul to God the Eucharist produceth the same effects in the Christian and being received with the dispositions requisite to this Sacrament calms the passions weakens Concupiscence enthrones reason For though Baptisme leave Concupiscence to exercise the Christian and this Sacrament which opens him the Gate of the Church gives him not victory together with life yet all the Fathers confess that the Eucharist more powerful then Baptism furnisheth them with forces to set upon this domestick enemy that it sweetens his fury in combating him and that the presence of Jesus Christ delivers him from this evil more obstinate then the Devil and Sin For whether the purity of his flesh cures ours by a holy contagion or whether Concupiscence tremble at the apprehension of a body which is the work of the Holy Ghost or whether lastly this Sacrament that preserves our life gives us strength and delivers us from that languishing impotency which seems the very soul of Concupiscence we find by experience that the body of the Son of God procures us the victory and prepares us the triumph If it defend us it nourisheth us and if it pacifie our disorders it repairs the devastations
in that of Isaac it was obliged to separate the Priest from the Victime and to arm the hands of the Father to immolate his only Son In the mean time Jesus Christ unites them in his person and in this adorable Sacrifice which he offers to his Father whether on the Cross or on the Altar he is both the Priest that consecrateth and the Victime that is immolated Inasmuch as Jesus Christ saith Saint Augustine is our God and our Temple he is also our Sacrifice and our Priest He is the Priest that reconciles us he is the Sacrifice whereby we are reconciled and the same Doctor admiring the novelties of the sacrifice of the Cross expresseth his wonder by these words The Altar of the Sacrifice is new because the Immolation is new and admirable For he that is the Sacrifice is the Priest the Sacrifice according to the Flesh the Priest according to the Spirit and both according to his Humanity He that offereth and he that is offered is one and the same person and these qualities which have so little analogy are found united in the sacrifice of the Cross Inasmuch as the Christian is the Image of Jesus Christ and this glorious title obligeth him to transcribe his original he ought to sacrifice himself as he did and to be both the Priest and the Oblation together Indeed if we descend into the Mysteries of our Religion and consider with the eye of Faith what we are not able to discover with the light of reason we shall find that we are immolated upon the Altar with the Son of God and that after his example we are both the sacrificers and the sacrifice For Jesus Christ is not offered all alone in our Temples he is immolated by the hands of the Priests and at the same time that he offers his natural body to his Father he offers also his mystical body so that offering himself to his Father by his Church and offering his Church together with himself he teacheth all the Faithful to joyn the quality of Priests with that of Victimes This is it that Saint Augustine informs us of in his Book De Civitate Dei Per hoc sacerdos est ipse offerens ipse oblatio cujus rei Sacramentum quotidianū esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificiū quae cum ipsius capitis corpus sit seipsam per ipsū discit offerre Aug. lib. 10. de Civit. ca. 6. where searching into our mysteries he finds that the Church offers her self with her Beloved upon our Altars and that in the same sacrifice she is both Priestess and Oblation His words are too elegant to be omitted neither must it be a less Doctor then he that must appear that Protector of so important a Verity 'T is particularly saith he in unity that the sacrifice of Christians consists where being many in number we make up but one body with Jesus Christ this is it that the Church daily does in this Sacrament which is so well known to the Faithfull wherein is demonstrated that in the Oblation she offers she her self is offered that after the example of her Beloved she may be in the same sacrifice Priestess and Victime From this passage may easily be inferred that the Faithful are offered with Christ upon the Altar that the Host that contains him is large enough to contain all his members and that his mysticall body being immolated with his natural body he obligeth all Christians to associate as he doth the quality of Victime with that of a Priest But if leaving the Altar we consider the Faithful in the course of their life we shall see there is none but ought to sacrifice himself and who either in his body or in his soul may not find Victimes to offer to God There is no more need of providing Buls or Goats with the Jews to lay upon our Altars The time of the Mosaical Law is past truths have succeeded figures and if we rightly understand the secret of our mysteries Noli extrinsecus thura comparare sed dic In me sunt Deus vota tua noli extrinsecus pecus quod mactes inquirere habes in te quod occidas Aug. in Psal 51. it becomes us to offer those things these Animals represent We have whereof to sacrifice within our selves there is not any passion in our soul nor part in our body whereof we may not make an innocent Victime Indeed Christian Religion converting the sinner into a sacrifice obligeth him to immolate to God all that he is He is deficient in the lawfullest of his duties if his whole life be not a sacrifice and being compounded of soul and body he ought to sacrifice both that he may have the honour to be a perfect Holocaust The vertues are auxiliaries which facilitate these means and it seems these glorious habits are given us for no other end then to teach us to sacrifice to God all the faculties of our soul Inasmuch as the will is the noblest and this Soveraign being once perfectly gained over to God gives him an absolute dominion over all the rest there are some vertues which have no other employment but to be made victimes Sorrow which discovers to man the excess of his crime labours to convert him it bruiseth his heart by the violence of a holy contrition and if it cannot draw bloud from this sacrifice it draws tears which are more acceptable to God then the bloud of beasts This made David say that the spirit broken and afflicted was a true sacrifice and that he who sometimes refuseth Goats and Lambs never despiseth a heart that Repentance and Humility offers up unto him Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus Obedience comes in to the succour of grief this beats down the pride of the will masters that imperious faculty and changing her triumph into a sacrifice obligeth her to die to her own inclinations that she may live to those of the Grace of Jesus Christ But love happily finisheth this design he burns the victime with his flames to render it an Holocaust and finding the means to put to death an immortall power teacheth us that a pure spirit may offer sacrifices to God For there is no lover but knows that love imitates death that he commits innocent murders and by stratagems which himself is only privy to makes sin die in us that Grace may live If the will become a Victim by means of Charity the understanding is offered up to God by the intervening of faith This vertue subjects it to her Empire perswades truths she explicates not she obligeth a man to suspend his judgement to renounce his reason and to give his senses the lye she engageth him to offer as many sacrifices as she propounds mysteries and by a power which would seem tyrannical were it not legitimate forbids him the use of reasoning in matters of religion The memory after the example of the understanding is immolated to God by remembrance and forgetfulness These two
their torments God hindered the commerce that Nature had placed between these two parts whereof we are composell a contented mind inanimated a wretched body love divorced him from his prison and by a kind of prodigious extasie disingaged him from all the painful vexations of his slave In every Christian might be seen an Image of Jesus Christ and as he during his life accorded pleasure with pain in his person and his glorious soul enlivened his passible and mortal body this miracle was repeated in favour of the Martyrs who preserved their joy in the midst of their torments They made Invectives against Tyrants laught at the weaknesse of their Executioners and lifting up their soul to him that inspired them with strength breath'd forth his Panegyrick whiles the flames devoured their bodies or the wild Beasts tore them in pieces But the Christians are bound to make war against both bodies and souls to struggle against their inclinations and their senses to exercise their just indignation against these two Delinquents nor to divide those in the correction who were united in the crime These Martyrs had only grief to master and having tamed this unruly enemy were certain of a triumph But the Christians are engaged to combat pleasure and as this pleasing enemy knows the secret of gaining love it is very hard to stand out against his charms Grief is violent astonisheth those that it sets upon quels their courage by the pomp of torments and he that is assisted with strength cannot resist the fury of its onsets In the mean time experience teacheth us that it is oftner foiled then pleasure and that there are more Christians fit to be Martyrs then to be Continent The soul barracadoes it self against grief but lyes open to pleasure The will stands out against the evil that would force her but gently surrenders to the delectation that would corrupt her her forces are rallied close when she combats grief but lie scattered when opposed to sensuality Grief holds no intelligence in the place it sets upon to facilitate a surprisal but pleasure finds a thousand passions that favour her entrance follow her motions Donat Deus ut delectatio peccati justitiae delectatione vincatur Aug. and sight under her ensigns Thence it comes to pass that when God intends to gain a soul or the Devil to seduce one neither of them employ any other thing then pleasure and knowing very well that they have to doe with a free creature make use only of allurements to win his consent without forcing it God deals only with Grace in the conversion of sinners and 't is by this victorious suavity that he gains the Conquest where honour is the Trophy of the Conquerour and profit the reward of the vanquished The Devil also employs no instrument but Pleasure to corrupt them he studies their inclinations followes their humours flatters them to their destruction and being not ignorant what sway pleasure bears over the wil promiseth glory to the ambitious riches to the covetous or in a word proposeth to every sinner the accomplishment of all his desires Therefore we need not wonder if the Christian suffer more then the Martyr because he hath a more redoubted enemy to grapple with nor can hope for any recompence except he triumph over pleasure The great Saint Augustine hath pronounced sentence in their behalf and comparing believers with Martyrs hath said that not to diminish the honour these have purchased by their constancy he did verily believe that a Christian who mortified his body resisted his inclinations and defended himself from pleasure might lawfully pretend to the Crown of Martyrdom But if the sweetness that accompanies pleasure give Christians such an advantage above Martyrs we must confess that the glory which accompanied the Conflict of the later greatly lessened their sorrows Nature who hath no other conduct then that of Providence hath been pleased that whatever was difficult should withall be glorious Quae pulchra difficilia quae difficilia gloriosa Pla. that glory which is attended with so many charms may give us strength to master the difficulty she hath so well linkt these two things together that they are inseparable and wherever she hath planted pain she hath hedged it about with honour It is a hard matter to perswade men to change their minds to calm their passions and to reduce them to their duty Thus is it glorious to be eloquent to be acquainted with all the secrets Orators make use of to conquer without armes and to gain obedience without violence 'T is a business of much industry to rule States to govern people to prescribe laws which may keep them Loyall without interessing their Liberty 'T is also a high honour to know the mystery of the Politicks and to pass for a great Prince or a wise Statesman There is nothing that labours under more difficulties then to tame Nations subdue Rebels force Enemies to submit to the Conditions of Subjects or Allies Neither indeed is there any thing more illustrious then victorious proceedings and the glory which is but faintly and in part bestowed upon Orators and Politians descends unanimously and in a full gale upon the head of Conquerors We see nothing in the Church more Noble then Martyrdome 't is the highest form of Vertue the last expression of Charity and when a man hath shed his bloud and parted with his life for Jesus Christ there is not any instance can farther be expected from his love Justly therefore may we acknowledge nothing more august in Religion then Martyrs They are the Heroes of Christianity the Gallant men of this State the Noblest parts of this Mystical Body there is no greatnesse that gives not way to their dignity whatever we admire is below their merit and according to the opinion of one of the wisest Fathers of the Church Plus est esse Martyrem quam esse Apostolū Cyp. 't is more to be a Martyr then to be an Apostle Neither hath any thing been ever more honoured in the world Heaven hath wrought a hundred miracles to discover their innocence Wild Beasts have respected them the flames have spared their garments Tyrants have admired them and many times their Executioners have become their Disciples insomuch that these renowned Champions had great reason to be afraid of vain-glory at the same time that God delivered them from sorrow But Christians want this consolation in their Martyrdom they suffer more then they fight they are Martyrs because they endure pain to master pleasure they give proof of their courage because they resist temptation but their Martyrdome is secret it passeth in silence or in solitude they have no witnesse but their Judge If the Angels surround them they are invisible and if they undergo the hardships of Martyrs they have neither their comforts nor their indearments For as Saint Augustiue saith the soul of a Christian hath inward conflicts and domestick enemies she struggles with grief and expects her crown
gives purity to the Immodest and innocence to the Criminals This Love hath no bounds neither in relation to its extent nor excess 't is immense and infinite both together and when God loves us he loves us in all places and in all his perfections men are so miserable that they change manners when they change Countries and Climats the Elements make some impression upon their wills and being no longer what they were they cease to love what they doated on before should they be more constant they would be alwayes lyable to this misfortune that being unable to be but in one place they could not stretch their love every where they borrow tongues to express their passion Like earthly Kings who being not in a capacity to fill their whole State are obliged to have Leiutenants which represent them these also are forc'd to seeke out interpreters to declare their love and supply their impotency But Gods Love is immense place confines it not he loves whereever he is his charity is as extensive as his essence in Heaven he cherisheth the blessed and preserving his love in all the corners of his State is affectionate to Christians in the very heart of their enemies If it be immense 't is Infinite and when God loves a person 't is with the full extent of his perfections As men are made up of soul and body the faculties of that and the members of this have their several uses and employments The Understanding conceives thoughts the Memory preserves the species and onely the will formes acts of Love The holiest Lover hath this dissatisfaction that he knows he loves God but with one faculty of the soul he is afflicted and not without reason that self-love shares with charity and notwithstanding all his endeavour he never loves God as much as he can or ought to love him He is not more happy in his body then in his minde for every member hath its different functions his hands act according as there is occasion his eyes discern colours his ears judge of sounds his tongue formes words and his heart onely is capable of affection he reproacheth Nature and complaines that this Step dame having given to him two hands to act two eyes to see two ears to hear she hath given him but one heart to love in the extasies of his soul he wisheth with David that his whole body were heart and tongue to love and magnifie him with all his power who is so infinitely lovely Nevertheless after all his vain desires he is obliged to confess that there is nothing but the will in the soul and the heart in his body which is sensible of the endeerments of affection But inasmuch as God is a simple being suffering neither composition nor division he loves men where ever he is he hath not any perfection but contributes to the love he bears them His Justice which takes vengeance of his enemies his Majesty which makes him respected of his subjects his holiness which separates him from his works are happily confounded with charity and as he acts with all his power when he produceth some effects he loves with his whole being when he expresseth his affection to his friends Therefore the Christians who know very well that love is paid onely with love never limit this passion they endeavour to love God with all their power nor do they wish for death but because they are of opinion that delivering them from self-love they shall be perfect lovers in glory The Eight DISCOURSE That the Christian is an Exile and a Pilgrim THe advantages we have received from Jesus Christ deliver us not from the misfortunes we drew from Adam our being the children of God frees us not from being his slaves though associated to his Empire we are still obnoxious to the persecution of the creature and though the objects of his love feel notwithstanding the severity of his Justice Thence it comes to pass that being Pilgrims we are Exiles and these two qualities which clash in other men agree exceeding well in Christians For Pilgrims are honorable Piety invites them out of their Country they seek Heaven in the Temple they visit and honouring the relicks of Saints oblige the Angels to assist them in their journeys Peregrinum facit Pietas Exulem paena peregrini sumus qui cives peccatorum Exulcs vero quia peceatores Chryso But the banished are criminals Justice drives them from their home she it is that cuts them off from the body of the State like corrupt members least they should infect the the rest In the mean time Christians are Pilgrims and Exiles if they draw the former qualities from Grace they derive the latter fom sin To clear this conceit we must remember that of all the punishments in the world banishment is the most shameful and most cruell It hath served as a punishment for the greatest crimes and the most notorious offendors have groand under this pressure Our first father was driven out of Paradise after he was condemned to death That Parricide who steep'd his hands in his Brothers blood heard this sentence pronounced against him by the mouth of the Living God Eris vagus et profugus super terram he desired that his punishment might be commuted and judging death more gentle them banishment he begged for an end of his life that he might finde a period of his torment Therefore is it that Philo approving the opinion of Cain said that death was the end of our evils banishment the beginning and that if a man going out of the world were worthy of envy he that departed out of his Country deserv'd pitty Thence certainly it comes to pass that Christians are dealt with as exiles that the severity of their chastisement may make them accknowledge the hainousness of their sin Indeed those wretches are civilly dead they have no more commerce with the world the use of the Elements is interdicted them and if the judges give them leave to live 't is to make them die more cruelly Thus it is with man since his transgression he hath no more intercourse with the Angels he was driven out from Paradise and the Earth being cursed he must water it either with his sweat or with his tears if he intend to have it fruitful Banished persons possess nothing they lose their substance in losing their Country they can neither make will nor inherite and they learn to their cost that want is the inseparable companion of banishment there must be some edict of the Prince to mitigate the rigour of the sentence and without his express permission their very kindred dare not relive them in their misery If Christians be not so cruelly dealt with 't is from their obligation to the merits of of Jesus Christ For being banished they are fallen from all their rights losing the supreme good they have forfeited all together with him and what they possess'd heretofore escheating to their soveraign by their felony they can dispose
Continence to our relief to defend us from pleasures that tickle us sometimes we demand help of Fortitude to combat griefs that assault us sometimes we throw our selves into the arms of Justice to deliver us from enemies that oppress us But in Heaven all these Vertues are idle onely Charity is active and yet rests in acting her action is to love what she sees her rest to possess what she loves and her felicity to know that she shall never lose what she enjoys If you cannot suffer saith S. Augustine that the Vertues to which we owe Heaven be banished thence imagine them there more for your ornament then defence never conceive that they fight but perswade your selves that they triumph and having vanquished all their enemies enjoy a Peace which shall endure for all Eternity The Ninth DISCOURSE That the Christians Soul and Body shall finde their Perfection in Beatitude MAn is such a hidden Creature that he cannot well be known without Faith He is mistaken as often as he intends to pass judgement upon himself and the errours that have appeared in his own definition have given us occasion to conclude that he was ignorant of his own essence when he consulted his Sense he believed he was nothing but a Body and if there were a spirit that informed him it was perishable and mortal when he consulted his Pride he conceited himself a pure Spirit which either for his penalty or for his trial was included in a Body as in a prison from which he should be delivered by death These two errours produced two grand disorders in the world The first engaged Man in the love of his Body and the oblivion of his Soul he made no account but of sensual Pleasures and knowing no life but the present never troubled himself about the future He was of opinion that Death was the end of his Being and that nothing remaining of him after his dissolution he need fear neither any Punishment nor expect any Recompence The second errour made him so mightily undervalue his Body that he repined at it as a Slave and handled it as a Rebel he had recourse many times to Death that being delivered from this enemy he might mix with pure Intelligences and raign with Gods or Devils Faith which corrects our errours obligeth us to believe that Man is neither an Angel nor a Beast that he is compounded of a Body and a Soul and if he have the First common with Beasts he hath the Second common with Angels The same Faith perswades him that Death deprives him of his body but for a time onely that at the General Resurrection it shall be re-united to the soul to partake of its good or bad fortune Therefore treating here of the felicity of Christians I am necessarily to speak of the two parts that compose them and of the different happiness the Divine Justice prepares for them respectively Inasmuch as the soul is the noblest she is also most happily provided for and her Beatitude infinitely surpasseth that of the body Tunc nec falli nec peccare homines possunt veritate illuminati in bono confirmati Aug. When she quits her prison and is purified of all her imperfections by the grace of Jesus Christ she enters into Glory and receives all the advantages which are due to her dignity and condition Ignorance which is a brand of sin is quite defaced by the brightness that enlightens her her weakness is fortified by a supply which being much more powerful then that of Grace raiseth her to a condition wherein she cannot desert the good nor embrace the evil and where as Saint Augustine saith she is in a happy impotency to wander from her duty and estrange her self from the Supream good Assurance succeeds in the place of fear rest in stead of conflicts triumphs after victories she is no longer constrained to resist the motions of the flesh because this rebell is become obedient and losing in the Resurrection whatever he drew from Adam at his Birth hath now none but just and holy inclinations The Spirit is no longer busied to maintain a war against sin because this Monster cannot enter Heaven he groans not now under the revolt of the passions and as all the vertues are peaceable they finde neither enemies to subdue nor rebels to tame Her knowledge is no longer accompanied with doubts and darkness she learnes without labour is not afraid to forget and drawing light and wisdom from the very Fountain knows all things in their Principles In this happy condition there remains nothing for the Christian to wish for his soul is penetrated by the Divine Essence his understanding clarified with the light of glory his will inflamed with the love of God and all his powers and faculties finding their particular perfection in one object he confesseth that the promises of God exceed his hopes Though his body have been polluted by his birth and corrupted by death it findes life in the Resurrection and Purity in Glory For assoon as the Trumpet of the Angel shall have declared the will of God every soul shal reassume her own body reuniting her self with it shall give it a part in her happiness The greatness of this wonder hath found no belief in the mindes of Philosophers though they were perswaded of the Immortality of the soul they would not consent to the Resurrection of the body and having seen it made a prey to wilde Beasts or fuel for the flames they judged there was no power in the world could restore it again The spirit of man hath favoured this errour and believing his eyes rather then his light could not finde in his heart to place that part of man in heaven which he saw committed to the grave he was afraid to weary the power of the Almighty if he should oblige him to so many miracles and not comprehending how a body reduc'd to powder or smoak could take its primitive form chose rather to leave it in the Earth then draw it thence with so much violence But had he thought of the Creation he had never doubted of the Resurrection and Reason her self had perswaded him that seeing God was able to finde the body in Non-Entity where it was not he might very well finde it in the waters or in the slames where there was yet some remainder thereof If Nothing were not rebellious to him Nature cerrainly will not be disobedient and if he could make that which was not he may as easily repair what now is not Nothing perisheth in respect of the Creator the dead are not less his subjects then those that never were born and if he could make Non-Entity hear him he may well make death obey him The miracle of Resurrection is perhaps attended with more pomp then that of the Creation but there is less difficulty in it and he that could vanquish the distance between Entity and Non-Entity will have no great matter to do to master the opposition
puts us in the same Liberty and reducing us to things absolutely necessary rids us of superfluities This is it that confines the Anchorites to their pulse that gives them sackcloath for a garment a Den for a Lodging a Mat for their Bed This is it that enricheth them by making them poor makes them finde Liberty in servitude and equalling their condition with that of Angels frees them from the need we have of the Creatures If the Blessed have no communication but with God if they have quitted Earth to live in Paradise if the Love and Magnificats they bestow upon God be their whole employment and if in this one object they finde all their Happiness and their Diversion Pennance and Solitude procure the same priviledges to the faithfull Their heart is no longer in the Earth they mount up to heaven by their desires converse more with Angels then with Men and already enjoying the priviledges of the Resurrection lead a new life in their Banishment and a happy life in their wilderness Let us imitate their holy Examples fit our selves for Glory by Austerity and subjecting the Body to the soul and the soul to God set us to shake hands with the world that our Conversation may be with Jesus Christ The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the Miracles which are found in the Beatitude of a Christian AS Nature and Grace have their extraordinary proceedings so have they their Miracles Haec utique Deus potestatis suae proponit signa suis in solatium extraneis in testimonium Tertul. and in Both of them we behold changes which require the endevours of an absolute omnipotence When the Sun stands still in the midst of his course when the Earth cleaves from her foundations and opens her bowels to devour her Children when the sea passeth his bounds and makes inquisition after Delinquents beyond his Banks There is no body but looks upon these irregularities as Prodigies and who conceives not that the author of Nature disorders her to punish us Though Grace be so powerfull and its victorious sweetness so often triumphs over the libertie of sinners it many times produceth occurrences which pass for Miracles When it converted the Doctor of the world disarmed his heart and his hands and changing his will in a moment of a Persecutor made him an Apostle it seems so strange a proceeding may well be ranked in the number of prodigies when it touched that Comedian who laughed at the Ceremonies of our Religion enlightened his spirit upon the Theatre made use of the water he prophaned to make a Sacrament and by a wonderfull conduct made him finde his salvation in his very sin we shall not offend its power if we call this effect a Miracle If Nature and Grace have their Prodigies Glory which is their perfection may boast of those it hath and as its order is the highest so is it most miraculous Therefore did the Great S. Bernard confess That there were Three Unions that ravished him The first That of Virginity with Pregnancy in the person of Mary The second That of the Humanity with the Divinity in the person of the Word and the Third That of Glory with the spirit of Man in the person of the Blessed For he could not comprehend how it came to pass that the Creature was not dazled with the brightness of the Creator that a drop of water should not be lost in an Ocean and that an Atome should be preserved in the Abysses of a Divine Essence But certainly he that shall well consider the state of Glory will finde it a perpetuall Miracle and that the Circumstances that accompany it are so many Prodigies whereof the first is that God communicates himself entirely to every one of the Blessed The Goods of the earth are such scantlings that they cannot be divided without being diminished we ravish that from our neighbour which we possess our selves we cannot grow rich but must inaccommodate him and whatever care we take not to deal unjustly we finde by experience that our Plenty is an occasion of Misery and Indigence to others Monarchs cannot enlarge the borders of their State but must encroach upon those of their Neighbours they cannot widen their own Kingdom but must make a breach in that of their Allies and all worldly things are so small that being shared occasions the division and poverty of Families But inasmuch as the Good which the Blessed are in possession of is infinite it is communicated to all without being divided The Felicity of one is no hinderance to that of another and as Vertue though common is nevertheless chaste the Divine Essence though wholly shed abroad into a man ceaseth not to be entirely infused into an Angel It takes not from the Cherubims what it indulgeth the Seraphims and communicating it self indivisibly to all its Subjects occasions neither Jealousie nor Envie Great Goods have this advantage that they never suffer by division Magna vera bona non sic dividuntur ut exiguum in singulos cadat ad unumquemque totū perveniat Sen. Ep. 73. They make some rich without making others poor and as they are conferred in full weight and measure every one is content and none miserable Covetousness which hath divided Sea and Land hath not yet divided Time That which measures the life of Kings measures that of their Subjects every one possesseth it in common and though we make divers uses of it it runs along equally to all people Ambition which hath cantonized Honour hath not yet found out the Secret of parting the Light this daughter of the Sun never thinks she sullies her purity by rendering it common she equally shines upon all Nations and did not the Earth interpose between the effusion of her brightness she would banish Darkness from the face of the Universe The Divine Essence whereof the Light is but a shadow is shed abroad into the soul of the Blessed without being divided is not parted by being communicated All Angels and all Men fully possess it and if it make some difference in their happiness 't is without want or jealousie The Second miracle of Glory is that one and the same Good produceth all kinde of content and satisfies all sorts of desires Seeing the Creatures are but weak rays issuing from God as from their Sun there is none of them that possesseth all perfections Nullum est bonum praeter summum quo vere possimus esse boni aut beati Aug. They are bounded in their Qualities as well as in their Essences They cannot relieve us in all our necessities and had not sin made them rebel against us there was not one of them could remedy our evils Light enlightens us but cannot warm us without its heat Meat nourisheth but clothes us not Garments cover us but cannot feed us Gold enricheth but cannot defend us Iron defends but does not enrich us One Good produceth but one single commodity that which serves for one use does not for
another and the remedy which cures a Disease cannot give consolation to a Discontent But the Blessed have this advantage that they finde in God whatever is necessary for them having all Perfections he fully contents their desires and one sole Good infused into their souls satisfies all their wants He that enlightens them warms them he that feeds them clothes them he that lodges them protects them he that imparts his perfections in several portions to the Saints here belowe communicates them all together to the Blessed and to express my self in the words of Saint Paul and S. Augustine his disciple God is All to All in Glory nor can we form any wishes whereof we finde not the accomplishment in his possession The Third Miracle is that the desire is not restless in heaven Those that are well acquainted with our Passions confess there is none more cruel then Desire For though it seem to supply us in our need we may say that the Remedy is more troublesome then the Disease and that it were better to retrench the most part of worldly things then to be troubled with longing for them This Passion puts us not upon the search of Good but by means of Grief 't is a spur which wounds us to make us go a needle that goads us to make us run a transportation of the soul which renders us miserable to render us happie Thence it comes to pass that Divines agreeing with Philosophers profess that Desires are the chiefest torment of the Damned that these delinquents are therefore wretched because their desires are hopeless Est in eis desiderium nec poenam generat quia desiderium omne transit in gaudium dum praesto est quicquid optatur qui quid deside ratur abunâ—at Aug. aut Greg. Mag. and this viper which they conceive in their bowels gnaws and devours them eternally But by an unconceiveable wonder the Blessed desire and are not at all disquieted they enjoy what they long for see what they hope and as the Goodness of God occasions their wishes his Presence begets their felicity The Good they desire is not absent the Good they possess is not wearisome and mixing Desire with Fruition they are everlastingly happie They long saith S. Augustine and their longing causeth no doleance because as soon as formed 't is turned into joy and the presence of the God they covet banisheth pain and causeth content This Miracle produceth a Fourth which makes the Blessed finde a possession which never disgusts them Duo sunt tortores cruci atum alternantes dolor timor si bene es times si male es doles Aug. Men cannot avoid being upon Earth and as Grief and Fear are two Passions which succeed to give them no respite Fruition and Desire are two states which alternately torment them Desire is always attended with Restlesness every man that makes Vows and puts up Requests declares publikely his want and misery and though raised to never so high a pitch of Fortune tells all the world that he suffers because he desires Fruition which seems the period and acquiescence of Desires and which by a necessary consequence ought to banish Grief out of the soul begets a sapless cloying of the appetite and condemns him to a punishment whereof he hath no right to complain because himself seems to have courted it In the mean time this misfortune is so common that there is no body but experienceth it and the goods of the Earth are so mean and beggerly that we cannot have them but we must despise them Their absence troubles us and their presence cloys us we make some account of them at a distance but when we approach them and taste the fruition of them we discover their imperfections are ashamed or disrelish them so that in whatever condition Fortune place us we cannot chuse but be miserable But the happiness which the Blessed enjoy is so great that as their Desires occasion not their Impatience neither doth their felicity nauseate into a distaste They daily discover new beauties in this infinite object they finde more sweetnesses then were promised them and confess that their happiness exceeds their hopes The Faithful have less love because less light present things distract them their senses which are at agreement with what they see seduce them and because they can form no noble Ideas of the Supream Good the desires they have towards it are faint and languishing But inasmuch as the Blessed know all the advantages it is attended with their love encreaseth with their light their pleasure is augmented by fruition and far distant from conceiving any disrelish their desire continues in the height of possession and they wish without pain what they possesse with assurance But the last miracle of glory and which is no whit inferiour to the rest is that the difference of conditions causeth no jealousie The variety of the world is one of its rarest ornaments Tota Naturae pulchritudo aut certe praecipuae in sua varietate sita est nec abest à varietate utilitas Mars Fisc The slowers which checker a walk imbellish it The Stars which make a hundred severall Figures in the Firmament set a lustre upon its beauty neither doth any thing make a Countrey more pleasant then the diversity of the parts that compose it Our eyes are ravished to behold rivulets creeping along the Meadows Fields stretching themselves out of sight Valleys which sink as low as the Center of the Earth and Mountains which strike Heaven with their tops The Riches and Beauty of a State depends upon its diversity if all Subjects were of the same condition there would be neither diversion for strangers nor accommodation for the Naturals The Ornament and Advantage of the Body Politick appears in this agreeable mixture of Poor and Rich Artists and Husbandmen Soldiers and Merchants Magistrates and Priests But it falls out by an inevitable misfortune that this difference of conditions which begets its beauty breeeds jealousie among the subjects For as their goods are not common because their conditions are different one is jealous of what the other possesseth The Grandees are proud and despise their inferiours the mean men are envious and murmure at the Optimacy Cum erit Deus omnia in omnibus qui minus habebunt non abhorrebunt ubi enim nulla est invidentia concors est differentia Aug. Every condition carries its own torment along with it Greatness is tortured with Pride and Misery afflicted with Envy But in Heaven the difference of conditions produceth their beauty and gives no occasion of jealousie All the Saints hold different stations their merit is the measure of their glory their crowns are proportionable to their labours and there is more variety in the Blessed then among the Stars In the mean time Peace bears rule in the diversity of their conditions Charity which unites them renders their contentment common though the Justice that rewards them makes their condition different Every one is glad of anothers good fortune and without interessing any one they finde that the felicity of particulars contributes to that of the Publick But it were to injure their dignity Non Nobis sufficit quia Christianum nomen accepimus si opera Christi non fecerimus Illi prodest quod Christianus dicitur qui castitatem diligit ebrietatem fugit superbiam odit invidiam respuit Aug. should we strive to express it silence and astonishment are the onely commendations we can give them because the Holy Scripture teacheth us that the Happiness God prepareth for those that love him is unconceivable Let us content our selves to wish what we cannot comprehend and finishing this Work with the Beatitude of Christians let us strive to merit it by the precedent advantages Let us profit by the Birth we received in Baptism follow the motions of the Holy Spirit that inanimates us imitate the examples of that ever to be adored Chief that governs us obey his Grace that masters us make use of those Vertues that assist us Entertain our life by the nourishment and our piety by the Sacrifice of the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ Doe nothing that may dishonour our Qualities and endeavour to make our selves worthy of that Glory which is promised to all true Christians in the other world FINIS