the Eucharist the Consummation hereof we have engaged our word when we were admitted into the Church and receiving the character of our servitude we have given bond for our Faithfulness But in the Mystery of the Eucharist he deals with our souls as with his Spouse we become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he enters into our bosome and we into his his body and ours are animated with the same Spirit and partaking in all the qualities of our Beloved we have right to his most glorious priviledges But so noble an Alliance requires a great affection and much fidelity This Lover is jealous he will raign alone in the hearts that he possesseth as he cannot endure a Competitor in his State so neither can he a Rival in his Love he will have nothing loved but for his sake and because our adhesion to the Creature is not without imperfections he never beholds it without grief nor leaves it without punishment Whatever is prejudicial to Fidelity displeaseth he never breaks his word and therefore cannot endure we should fail of our duty He will keep what he hath once gotten and seeing his Power is equal to his Love he is as severe in his Revenge as he is liberal in his Favours When I consider the obligations we have to his Goodness I never wonder that his Justice corrects us but I am ashamed there should be any souls so negligently careless as to provoke him and that after so many favours any should be so wretched as to betray their duty and abandon Jesus Christ Nevertheless this crime is so common among Christians that those who will not break their word with an Enemy take no care to be true to the Son of God basely desert his party lodge the devil in the same Throne where they had seated their Soveraign and take an Adulterer into the bed from whence they have driven their lawful Husband If the remembrance of his favours cannot produce love in our souls the terrour of punishments must beget Fear For if he be our Beloved in the Eucharist he is also our Judge and having fruitlesly exhibited testimonies of his Goodness Qui enim manducat bibit indigne judicium fibi manducat hibit non dijudicans corpus Domini 1 Cor. 11. will sensibly inflict marks of his indignation The great Apostle of the Gentiles tells us that he that receiveth unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that the Devil being the Minister of the Divine Justice takes visible possession of the soul of that Delinquent that he erects an Altar in his heart and of his slave making his victime engageth him in despair having engaged him in Sacriledge Et post buccellū introivit in cum Satanas Joan. 13. Thus dealt he with Judas when he had communicated unworthily The Evangelist observes that he entred into his soul urged him to execute his abominable design for a light interest obliterated out of his mind the remembrance of all the favours he had received from his Master and tumbling him from one precipice to another from Covetousnesse tempted him to Treachery from Treason to Sacriledge Diabolus intravit in cor ut traderet eum Judas quomodo intravit in cor nisi immittendo iniquas persuasiones cogitatienibus iniquorum Aug. de Consen Evang from Sacriledge to Parricide and from Parricide to Desperation For when the wicked spirit that possessed him had counselled him to betray the Son of God he counselled him to hang himself and setting him against himself made him make use of his own hands to inflict a just and cruel death upon himself Finally there is no mystery wherein the Son of God manifests more love or more severity where he obligeth more dearly or punisheth more strictly or pardons more rarely and because the crimes committed here are the greatest it seems the vengeance inflicted upon them is most memorable The first of all sinners is a great Saint in Heaven The man that was our Father and our Parricide both together De illo quidem primo homine patre generis humani quod eum in inferno solverit Christus Ecclesia fere tot a consentit quod eam non inaniter credidisse credendum est Aug. Epist 99. ad Enod The Criminal who is accessory to all the transgressions of the world The Father that engageth all his posterity in his offences and his punishment The Rebel who makes an Insurrection of all his Descendants against their lawful Soveraign That unfortunate Chief who lives yet after his death sins still in his members and by a dreadful prodigy being happy in his person is miserable and guilty in his posterity That old man who is new born in every sinner and in one word That Adam who committed a fault whole nature bewails to this day found his pard on in his repentance and whiles he sees Hel pepled with his off-spring enjoys glory with the Angels in Heaven That great King whom God raised to the Throne against all humane probability That Stripling who without arms gave a Gyant battle That Shepheard whose Crook was turned into a Scepter who reckoned his victories by his combats and boasted that the Lord of Hosts had trained him up in the Discipline of War This Prince who forgetting all these favours joyned Murder to Adultery and made an Innocent dye to cloak the dishonour of a debauched woman This glorious Criminal who saw all the Vials of Heaven poured down upon his Head his Kingdome divided his subjects revolted and his own children in the head of an Army against him This famous Delinquent reigns in glory with the Son of God his tears have washed away his iniquities and his grief more powerful then his offence opened him the gate of Heaven That Apostle who having received so many testimonies of affection from his Master forsook him so shamefully in the Garden of Gethsemane denyed him so openly in the house of Caiaphas is as great in Heaven as he was upon Earth The Church to this day reverenceth his Injunctions the Popes boast themselves his Successours and all the faithful glory in being his children That young man full of zeal and and fury who intended to strangle Christianity in the very Cradle who was the boutefew of the first persecution against the Disciples of Jesus who stoned Saint Stephen by their hands whose cloaths he kept De caelo vocavi una voce percussi alia erexi elegi tertia implevi misi quarta liberavi coronavi Aug. hath found his salvation in his sin He was converted when he went about to plunge himself in the bloud of the first believers he received Grace when he was upon the very point of encreasing the number of Parricides in one moment he became a Preacher of the Gospel an Apostle of the Son of God and the Master of the Gentiles But the first that ever profaned the Body of Jesus Christ and committed a Sacriledge in approaching the Altar
period to his Controversies he is continually infested with a Domestick and intestine war Though Repentance subdue the Body by its Austerities and Prayer elevate the Soul by its Raptures both Soul and Body continually rebel against the Spirit of God Indicitur enim bellum non solum adversus suggestiones Diaboli sed etiam adversus teipsum sed ex qua parte tibi displices jungeris Deo idoneus eris ad vincendum te quia tecum est qui omnia superat quare autem permittitur ut diu contra te litiges donec absorbeantur omnes cupiditates ut intelligas in te poenam tuam In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum est rixa tua tecum sic vindicatur in rebellem contra Deum ut ipse sit sibi bellum qui pacem noluit habere cum Deo Aug. in Psal 75. The greatest Saints complain of these disorders and wish an End of their life to finde an End of their Conflicts The internal peace that always accompanies a good Conscience is not able to reconcile these two Enemies and experience teacheth us that peace and war wil sooner shake hands in a Kingdom then Concupiscence and Charity in a CHRISTIAN But certainly I never wonder at his Discord since he hath two Fathers two Births and two Principles He hath two Fathers because he came from Adam and from Jesus Christ and deriving from one the Life of Sin he derives from the other the Life of Grace Thus by a strange wonder he is at the same time Innocent and Guilty he hopes for heaven as his Inheritance and is affraid of hel as the place of his torment and pursuing the severall Interests he hath received from these two Parents he is toss'd continually between hope and fear He is * Primas homo Adam sic olim defunctus est ut tamen post illum secundus sit homo Christus cum tot hominum millia inter illum hunc orta sint ideo manifestum pertinere ad illum omnem qui ex illa successione propagatur nascitur sicut ad istum pertinet omnis qui gratiae largitate in illo renascitur unde fit ut totum genus humanum quodammodo sint homines duo primus secundus Ex sent Prosp 299. Adam and Jesus both together in his person he unites their names aswell as their qualities he resents their diverse inclinations and holding something of these two Fathers hee beares the Crime of the one and the Innocencie of the other They reigne successively in his person and the chief Imployment of his life is to make the first dye and the second live This Parricide is innocent all Christians are obliged to commit it neither doth Jesus Christ acknowledge them for his children who endeavour not to strangle this Father who made them liable to Death before he entitled them to Life They cannot dispense with themselves from this murder and whosoever spares Adam in his person gives evidence he hath no minde that Jesus Christ should reign there Adam himself allowes of this cruelty in heaven where he now triumphs amongst the Angels he desires to dye in his Children that he may see him live there who hath repair'd his breach and if there were any thing that could trouble his happinesse it would be this that he sees his sin still to reign in his posterity that he stifles Christ in their souls and makes him suffer death upon Earth by whose benefit he enjoys life in Heaven He complains that he cannot utterly perish in his off-spring that he reigns there to this day against his will and that for punishment of a sin whereof he made them stand convicted before they were born they continue to make him guilty after that he is dead But nothing afflicts him so much as to behold sin in some sort more powerfull then Grace that the One overspreads all mankinde the Other onely the * Contra carnis concupiscentiam ità confligunt Sancti non ei consentientes ad malum ut tamen ejus motibus quibus repugnantibus resistunt non careant in hac vita Aug. l. 1. Retra cap. 13. Faithfull that sin oftentimes destroyes all Grace but Grace can never wholly destroy all sin Lastly that Adam utterly exterminates Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ can never perfectly slay Adam These two Fathers are conveyed to their posterity by two different Productions the first is shamefull and guilty the second is glorious and innocent The first is inseparable from sin For though it be noble according to the Lawes of the world 't is alwaies ignominious according to the Laws of God and though it appeare innocent to the eies of men 't is alwaies Criminall in the sight of Angels The Saints acknowledge it with grief and though the Issue of lawfull Beds they cease not to confesse that they were * Nunquid David de adulterio natus erat de Jesse viro justo Conjuge ipsius quid est quod se dicit in iniquitate conceptum nisi quia trahitur iniquitas ex Adam Aug. in Ps 50. born in sin The second is ever joined with Grace it gives us God for our Father the Church for our Mother and Heaven for our Inheritance We cannot better expresse their differences then in the words of St. Augustine * Duae sunt nativitates una de terra alia de Coelo una de Carne alia de Spiritu una de mortalitate alia de aeternitate una de Masculo Foemina alia de Deo Ecclesia Aug. Tract 11. in Joan. Sicut eos vita spiritus regenerat sideles in Christo sic eos Corpus mortis in Adam generat Peccatores Illa enim carnalis generatio est haec spiritualis illa facit filios carnis haec spiritûs illa filios mortis haec Resurrectionis illa filios saeculi haec filios Dei illa filios irae haec filios misericordiae ac per hoc illa peccato originali obligatos illa omnis vinculo peccati liberatos August lib. 1. de Pecca men who tells us The one comes from the Earth and returns thither again the other comes from Heaven and ascends thither again the one draws it 's Originall from the Flesh the other from the Spirit the one tends to Death the other to Eternity the one proceeds from Man and Woman the other from God and the Church Or to deliver the same Truth in other terms we may adde with the same Saint That the Life of the Spirit regenerates the Faithfull in Jesus Christ and the Death of the Body begets sinners in Adam That of these two Births the One is Carnal the Other Spiritual The One produceth Angels the Other engenders Men The One designes them to Death the Other prepares them for the Resurrection The One renders them the children of the Devil the Other makes them the children of God The One exposeth them to his Wrath the Other to his Mercy Finally
hath so many Ages sealed them up in their Tombs and that now they do arise after they were buried in Infidelity then they shall be freed from all misfortunes that attend their mortal condition now they are delivered from all clouds of Ignorance that darken their spirituall existency then they shall rise to Immortality and Glory now they are regenerated to Grace and Salvation Though these effects of Baptism are sufficiently admirable by their own proper greatnesse Nonne mirandū et lavacro dilui mortem atquin eo magis credendum si quia mirandum est ideo non creditur atquin eo magis credendum est qualia enim decet esse opera divina nisi omnē admirationem Tert. de Bapt. Sine pompa sine apparatu sine sumptu in aquae demissus inter pauca verba tinctus inde exiliit innocentior Idem ibid. yet must we acknowledg that the easinesse that produceth them extreamly heightens their Excellency For to revive a childe there needs only a little water animated with the Word of God all these changes are wrought in his soul when the Priest speaks and sprinkles his body he is miraculously raised when the Ceremonies of the Church are ended and this way that prepares him to eternall life costs the Ministers of Jesus Christ nothing but the Pronunciation of these words I baptise thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Heathen who heretofore inform'd themselves of our Mysteries were scandaliz'd at a miracle so mean and simple in its Administration so glorious in its Promises and so powerfull in its Effects They could not comprehend saith Tertullian that washing the body with a little water the soul should be cleansed from its sins that without any * Miratur incredulitas non credit miratur enim simplicia quasi vana magnifica quasi impossbilia Ter. pomp or expense a few words mingled with the commonest of the Elements should assure us of the Conquest of heaven But this Great Doctor answers their doubts with such solid Reasons that he at once blazons the honor of our Religion and the Majesty of our God For he makes them see * Prob misera incredulitas quae denegas Deo proprietas suas simplicitatem et potestatē Ter. de Baptis he was pleased to shew his simplicity in the matter of our Sacraments and his State in their effects that not to know God was no more then to deny him these two perfections which seem to constitute his Nature and that it was to want respect to make simple things passe for vain and glorious things for impossible because it is easie for him who drew the world out of nothing to draw our salvation out of an Element quickned by his Word and by his Spirit Baptism then being so fruitfull of Miracles and this Sacrament being the Throne of the power of the Almighty we need not wonder that the Christian finds his birth there that in it he is renewed by Grace that he is raised again by the vertue of Jesus Christ and that there he commenceth a supernatural life whose Progresse is as strange as the Beginning is wonderfull The Third DISCOURSE That the chiefest Mysteries of Jesus Christ are applyed to the Christian in his Birth IT is not without reason that St. Paul informs Christians newly baptized * Quicunque in Christo baptizati estis Christum induistis Gal. 3. that they have put on Jesus Christ since in their second Nativity they are united to his Person replenished with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit For as a * Induistis id est conformes ei facti estis quod est vobis honor contra aestus protectio Glossa ordinar in hunc locum Garment is the ornament and shelter of a man it covers his shame and protects him from the injury of the weather so may we say of Jesus Christ he is the glory and guard of a Christian whom having delivered from the confusion that accompanies sin he defends against the assaults of temptation and bestows upon him vigour and beauty thereby to render him a compleat work But as all graces in Christianity are mixt with pain the Christian according to the doctrine of the same Apostle if he intend to be perfect must die with Christ death must bring him to the resurrection and to life Whosoever saith he are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death All that we are of Christians we have by being baptized in his death Sacri Baptismatis in cruce Christi grande mysterium commendavit Apostolus eo modo ut intelligamus nihil aliud esse in Christo baptismum nisi mortis Christi similitudinem ut quemadmodum in illo vera mors facta est sic in vobis vera remissio peccatorum quemadmodum in illo vera resurrectio ita in vobis vera justificatio Aug. in Beda we are buried with him in Baptism we drowned our sins in the waters of this Sacrament and in this laver happily lose whatever we received from Adam in our first birth This death is fruitful producing in us the life of grace this burial prepares us for the Resurrection neither doth Jesus Christ make us partake of his Cross but thereby to make us partake of his Glory The Tomb is a step to our Birth like the Phoenix we finde life in our ashes and by a wonderful prodigie the Sepulchre of the Sinner becomes the Cradle of the Believer For the Christian receives a Being in Baptism according as he expires there and contrary to all the Laws of Nature Death is the Midwife of Life All the Fathers speak the same dialect with S. Paul Baptismus Christi nobis est sepultura in quo peccatis morimur criminibus sepelimur veteris hominis conscientia in alterā nativitatem rediviva infantia reparamur Baptismus inquā Salvatoris vobis sepultura quia ibi perdidimus quod antè viximus ibi dennò accipimus ut vivamus magna igitur sepulturae hujus est gratia in qua nobis utilis mors infertur vtilior vita condonatur magna inquā sepulturae hujus gratia quae purificat peccatorē vivificat morientē Aug. Serm. 129. de Temp. never mentioning Baptism but as a Sacrament where the life and death of Jesus Christ are equally applied unto us that we may live to grace and die to sin The Baptism of Jesus Christ saith S. Augustine is a burial wherein we bequeath sin and losing the conscience of the old man we enter upon a second Infancy by a new Nativity In a word the Baptism of our Saviour is a Tomb wherein we are buried and a Cradle wherein we are born again 't is a pleasant dormitory where receiving a death beneficial we receive withal a life far more glorious and where leaving off to be Sinners we begin to be Innocents In this it is that I admire the Providence of the Son
of God who made use of sin to destroy sin as saith the Apostle of the Gentiles De peccato damnavit peccatum and changing his death into a sacrifice made it a satisfaction for all our iniquities For if Baptism make us die to sin it is upon no other ground but because it imprints in our souls the merit and image of the death of Christ and by an invisible but a true and real grace works in us a desire to part with all that is derived from Adam This makes the * Infelix ego homo quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus Rom. 7. Saints that they cannot endure the rebellions of concupiscence that they employ all their strength to smother these embryo's that being true to Grace they resist all the motions of its Enemy groaning when they are compelled to follow or suffer his disorders They know that Christ died to oblige them to die to sin that he was not nail'd to the Cross but to crucifie them to the world nor buried in the grave but that the earth might be their sepulchre All that is in the world Crucifixus est Christus ut vos crucifigamini mundo mortuus est ut vos moriamini peccato saeculo vivatis Deo sepultus est ut vos consepeliamini illi per baptismum Apostolo dicente Consepulti sumus c. ut sicut ille semel surgens à mortuis jam non moritur ita vos vetustate mortalitatis per Baptismum mortificati vitale indumentum induti non iterum per peccata in anima in morte retrahamiâ—i Aug. de Expos Orat. Dom. Symbol Serm. 3. displeaseth them diversions are their torments that which is a recreation to sinners afflicts them and knowing very well the minde of the Lord Jesus they endeavour to fulfil it even with the loss of their own lives Saint Augustine entertained the Catechumeni heretofore with these obligations and expounding to them the doctrine of the Gospel taught them that Baptism engaged them in death Jesus Christ said he was crucified that you might be so to the world he suffered death that you might die to sin he was buried that you might be together with him and having put off the old man Adam and being cloathed with the new man Jesus Christ you may die no more in your souls by sin All the other Fathers speak the same language teaching us that there is a death and a life hid in Baptism producing real effects in our souls Thence ariseth the inclination all Christians have to die and to live thence proceed those obstinate conflicts they entertain self-love with thence spring those violent desires to be separated from the world and the flesh that they may be no longer subject to their tyranny But because this Mystery very much concerns our salvation it deserves a more ample explication from us that we may disclose the truths and obligations that lie wrapt up in it The Son of God is willing that as his death is the Principle so it should be the Rule and Example of our salvation as he died to deliver us he would have us die to honour him and as he entered not into glory but by the door of the Cross neither must we pass to the resurrection but by the gate of the Grave He died saith the great Apostle that by his death he might ruine the Empire of sin He died that losing all the imperfections he drew from Adam he might rise again to life everlasting He died that satisfying his Father we might be no longer responsible to his Justice All these considerations oblige us to die in Baptism Pro omnibus mortuus est ut qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est debet ergo vita hominis in se deficere in Christo proficere ut dicat cum Apostolo Vivo ego jam non ego Aug. Serm. de Epiphan if we intend to be the images of Jesus Christ we must destroy sin by death that dying we may be born again and making a sacrifice of our death we may be changed into spotless Victims But as the Son of God was not content onely to die but was willing to joyn the ignominy of the grave to the bitterness of his death Sicut Christus sepultus fuit in terra sic baptizatus mergitur in aqua Nicol. de Lyra. because there was a second punishment of sin comprised in those words of our Arrest Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return he will have our death followed with a funeral and that the same Sacrament that makes us die bury us together with him Consepulti sumus cum Christo. Burial addes to the dead corpse two or three notable conditions The first is Coemeteria extra urbes utnullum esset viveniuÌ„ cum mort uis mmercium that he that is buried is separated from the company of the living that he remains in the regions of death and hath no more commerce with the present world So the Christian is buried with the Son of God because he is removed from amongst wicked men neither doth the state of death into which he is entered suffer him to converse with them Quid est mori peccatâ— consepeliri cum Christo nisi damnandis operibus omnino non vivere nihil concupiscere carnaliter nihil ambire sicut qui mortuus est carne nulli detrahit nullum aversatur Prosp de vita contemp c. 21 He hath now no ears to hear calumnies no eyes to gaze upon the beauties of the earth no desires nor pretensions after the honours of the world and his death being attended with a funeral he protests aloud that he hath renounced all hopes of the things of the world The second condition of this state is the duration that goes along with it For though death be eternal in respect of the Creature nor can any but an Almighty power re-unite the soul with the body when once separated yet there seems to remain some faint hope as long as the body is not committed to the grave we watch it to see if that which appears a death be but a swoon or trance and there have been those that have died and rose again the same day without a miracle But when the body is laid in the sepulchre drooping Nature is then past all hope This dismal abode hath no intercourse with life 't is an everlasting habitation whence there is no return but by a prodigie Sepulchra eoruÌ„ domus illoruÌ„ in aeternuÌ„ jam quia constructa sunt sepulchra domus sunt sepulchra quia ibi semper crunt ideo domus in aeternum Aug. in Psal 48. 't is the place where worms serving for ministers of the Divine Justice discharge their fury upon men till being reduced to powder there remains nothing of these famous criminals Thus the Christians when baptized are as it were interred to
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
a Virgin This Prerogative hath repaired the scandal of the Crosse and if some impious wretches have thought meanly of him when they knew he suffered upon a Gibbet they could not chuse but highly admire him when they learnt that he was born of a Virgin The Fathers of the Church are of opinion That if the Son honoured * Nobilitas fuit nascentis in Virginitate parientis et nobilitas parientis in Divinitate nascentis Aug. Serm. 30. de Temp. his Mother by his Divinity the Mother honoured her Son by her Virginity Finally they thought if God must have a Mother she must be a Virgin and if a Virgin must have a Son he must needs be a God Though this be so extraordinary a Priviledge that Christ never communicated it to any mortall the greatest Monarchs are born of a woman that purchaseth her condition of a Mother with the expense of that of a Virgin yet hath he been pleased to honour every Christian with the same favour For they are born of the Church who like Mary is pure and teeming together Their Mother is a Virgin and as Age impairs not her fecundity neither doth the number of her Progeny sully her purity She is delivered of them without sorrow as she conceives them without sin and because she engenders the members of Jesus Christ she hath the same priviledge with her that brought forth their Head The Church is a Virgin saith * Et Virgoest et parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit numquid non virgo sancta Maria et peperit et virgo permansit sic est Ecclesia et parit et virgo est Aug. Ser. 117. de Temp. St Augustine she imitates Mary that conceived Christ Mary is a Virgin though she were delivered of a childe the Church also bears children and continues still a Virgin And if you well weigh her priviledges you shall perceive that even she also brings forth Jesus Christ seeing those that are baptized are his members Thus the Birth of Christians is as glorious by their Mothers side as by their Fathers they have as Christ their elder Brother a God for their Principle a Virgin for their Mother and a Kingdom for their Inheritance To all these Graces we may adde a Third which is common to them with their Head for the Holy Scripture silently hints that the word of the Virgin contributed something to the production of her son she yeelded her consent before she surrendred her wombe she spake to express her intentions and her word had so much vertue that it gave life to Jesus Christ This word * Verbum quod erat in principio apud Deum fiat caro de carne mea secundum verbum fiat mihi verbum non prolatum quod transeat sed conceptum ut maneat Bern. super missus est Hom. 4. Fiat which began the Incarnation was in a manner as powerful in her mouth as that which began the Creation and if we judge of the Cause by the Effects we are more obliged to this then to that which produced the whole world since one Jesus Christ is more worth then the whole Masse of Men and Angels together This Word as efficacious as it was humble glads heaven and earth repairs the disorders of the Universe and giving a product to a Divine * Expectat Angelus responsum expectamus nos verbum miserationis quos premit sententia damnationis Ecce offertur tibi pretium salutis nostrae statim liberabuntur si consentis si ergo tu Deum facias audire vocem tuam ille te faciet videre salutem nostram Bern. ibid. Redeemer laid an obligation upon all creatures But if with our Mysteries we may raise our contemplations let us say that the Virgin imitated the Eternal Father and as He conceived his Son by speaking she conceived him so too she declares his divine Originall and becoming the Mother of him of whom he is the Father she begat him if not by her Thought at least by her Word Her sacred Mouth began the work of our salvation her Virgin-Womb finished it and assoon as the Holy Maid returned her answer and contributed her blood the Word was found Incarnate in her bowels I confess this Miracle would be without a Paralel had Jesus Christ no brethren but since he was willing to honour them with all the Priviledges of his Nativity he was pleased also that his Spouse should be fruitfull as his Mother was Indeed the Church produceth us by speaking the water that regenerates us receives the vertue from her words and did not the Ministers pronounce them when they baptise us this Sacrament would have no power to give us a Being 'T is the lips of the Mother that quickens us her voice that draws us out of the bosome of death neither would all the water of the sea be able to wash away the least sin were it not enlivened with her word Shee acts as her Beloved doth makes things by her speech inspires a secret vertue into the Elements ennobles them above their nature and by a miraculous impression gives them an insluence upon the soul Shee imitates Mary her speech is prolificall and as her production is spirituall she needs only speak to enliven her children What is water saith Saint Augustine without the Word of God in the mouth of the Church but the commonest of the Elements but when quickned with her voice it becomes fruitfull and by the union of these two Principles together the Sacrament is compleated sins are absolved the dead are raised Christians are regenerated and sinners converted Let us adde Miracles upon Miracles to unfold the excellencies of Man a Christian and pronounce this fourth wonder in the Birth of Christ that without losing the quality of the Son of God Idem est in forma Dei qui formam suscepit servi idem est incorporcus manens et corpus assumens idem est in sua virtute inviolabilis in nostra infirmitate passibilis idem est à paterno non divisus throno et ab impiis crucifixus in ligno D. Leo Ser. 10. de Nat. hee assumed that of the Son of Man For having two Natures united in one person he relates to his Father from all Eternity and to his Mother in the fulnes of time from the one he received Divinity from the other humanity The manger that cradled him in his Temporal Birth obscur'd not the Glory of his eternal Birth Greatness was alwaies mixt in his Person with meannesse and as God and Man are never separated since first they were united Nihil ibi ab invicem vacat tota est in majestate humilitas tota in humilitate majestas nec infert unitas confusionem nec dirimit proprietas unitatem aliud est passibile aliud inviolabile tamen ejusdem est contumelia cujus gloria Leo Ser. 3. de passi Dom. in this divine composure may still be discerned an admirable Medley of
when he raised him from the dead and the Cure was perfect when coming forth from the bosome of death he entred into that of Immortality and passd into that happy state where death losing the victory had now no more dominion over him As Jesus Christ hath communicated to us his innocence taking upon himself our sins so hath he made us partakers of his strength by taking part of our infirmities For though the Word was as well the Power as the Wisdome of his Father and by condition of his Eternall Generation he was as well his Arme as his Idea In vera natura hominis verus natus est Deus totus in suis totus in nostris nostra autem dicimus quae in nobis ab initio creator con â—dit quâ— reparanda suscepit Leo Epist ad Flaviam yet all Scripture teacheth us that in cloathing himself with our nature he took upon him our infirmities and was pleased to ascertain us of his infirmities to assure us of his love In all his actions he mixt weakness with power he never wrought a miracle wherein he gave not some proof that he was a man and in the master-piece of his miracles the raising of Lazarus from the dead he shed tears to testifie this truth He trembled in the Garden he gave fear and sadness leave to seize upon his heart and appear in his countenance he gave witness that death and sin had made an impression of sorrow upon his soul and he that was happier and stronger then the Angels appeard as weak and wretched as men This wonderfull proceeding was neither without design nor justice For seeing the Son of God was our Head he must of necessity be charged with our infirmities seeing that quality obliged him to make a change with us he must needs assume our weakness and indue us with his courage Thence it came to pass that the Martyrs braved their tortures with such magnanimity that Virgins contemnd death and ran to execution as to a recreation that Christian Philosophers more constant and more humble then Stoicks without any other succour then that of Grace laughd at Grief and preservd the tranquillity of mind amidst the sharpest gripes of an ingenious torment This is it that Saint Augustine so happily expresseth in his eloquent discourses As Jesus Christ took flesh without sin so was he made partaker of our infirmities without partaking our unrighteousness that assuming the one and delivering us from the other it might appear he was therefore made our Head that he might be our Redeemer Prosecuting the same meditation he addes that we are more beholding to the Weakness of Jesus Christ then to his Power Fortitudo Christi te creavit infirmitas Christi te recreavit fortit do Chri ti feeit ut quod non erat esset infirmitas Christi fecit ut quod erat non periret con idit nos fortitudine sua quaesivit nos in firmitate sua Aug. Tract 15 in Joan. For his Power Created us his Infirmity Redeemed us his Omnipotency Formed us his Weakness Reformed us his Power made that which was Not begin to be and his Weakness hath kept that which Was from perishing that being obliged for life and salvation to one and the same Jesus Christ we may publikely confess what we owe his Power and what we owe his weakness Forasmuch as this Grace is rare and precious it had its Types and Figures in the infancy of the world and Adam who was the form or mould of him that was to come according to the language of the Apostle discovered this mystery to us in his person for besides that his wife came forth of his side whilst he lay asleep as the Church did out of Christ's during his death she was made of his Bone and not of his Flesh and that vacuity was filled up with Flesh and not with Bone What was intended saith S. Augustine to be hinted to us in this Ceremony where the woman taken from the bone appeared the stronger and the man formed of the flesh appeared the weaker but that Jesus Christ took his infirmity from the Church and the Church took her strength from Jesus Christ Indeed his Weakness is our Power because we acknowledge our selves strong in that we are his Members and that separated from him we are so impotent that there is no enemy but may overcome us nor any temptation but may prevail against us This Mystery would be unconceiveable if a greater did not give it credit in our mindes For we know the Son of God would be tempted to deliver us from temptation and not content to vanquish thereby to gain us the victory he was pleased out of an excess of love to subject himself to the lowest proof an Innocent could receive Though all Pains are the tokens of Sin and the creature is not Miserable but since he became Griminal Religion teacheth us there are Afflictions that may consist with Innocence a man may be Wretched and not Guilty and suffer for the glory of his God and the safety of his Brethren without prejudicing his honour Death was not ignominious to Jesus Christ though 't was the first punishment of sin the motive made it honourable and undergoing it to satisfie his Fathers justice it was not so much a Punishment as a Sacrifice But Temptation is always infamous though it be a step to Victory yet is it a way that leads to Sin and we may say If he that is tempted be not Guilty neither is he perfectly Innocent because he that manageth the Temptation is perswaded that he can make him a Criminal So that of all the afflictions the Son of God laboured under there is none more shameful in my opinion then Temptation because the devil that set upon him promised himself success in perverting him and looking upon him as a Man hop'd to make him a Sinner Upon the Cross he attempted onely his Life in the Wilderness he attempted his Innocence upon the Cross he pretended onely to render him Miserable but in the Defart he tri'd to make him a Delinquent so that we may say he was more humbled in the Solitude of the Desart then in the Agony of the Cross and that Temptation carried more infamy and torment with it then Death did Now he endured not this affront but because he was our Head he stoopt not to this punishment but to deliver his Members nor did he give the devils leave to set upon him but to facilitate their defeat and open the way to our victory This is it that S. Augustine glosseth admirably well upon the Sixtieth Psalm Prorsus Christus tentabatur à diabolo in Christo enim tu tentab aris quia Christus de te fibi habebat carnem de se tibi salutem de te sibi mortem de se tibi vitaÌ„ de te sibi contumel as de se tibi honores ergo de te sibi tentationeÌ„ de se tibi victoriaÌ„
that murmures even whilst Grace triumphs over his Liberty he hath a sense of Passions that divide his Will and hinder Charity from taking a full possession of that superiour faculty he is convinced even to his damage that as a Needle between two Loadstones though drawn away by the strongest turns notwithstanding towards the weakest so he though mastered by Grace ceaseth not to be tempted by Concupiscence and by woful experience learns that as soon as Charity suspends her vertue and moderates that sweet violence wherewith she so pleasingly ravisheth the heart he is presently trail'd on by the weight of self-love that bends him towards the Creatures I know there are a sort of new Divines that seem to place Concupiscence in man an Innocent not exempting him from that intestine war whereof the Saints complain who are perswaded that original righteousness did not accord the two parts that compose man and that their division contributing to his glory ought also to contribute to his merit But besides that I suspect this Opinion as maintained by the Pelagians Haec quae ab impudentibus impudenter laudata pudenda Concupiscentia nulla esset nisi homo ante peccasset Aug. and S. Augustine hath laid it on the ground as the foundation of their Heresie those that defend it are at least obliged to confess that if Concupiscence were in man in the state of Innocence it was not there with those disorders the Apostle of the Gentiles groaned under but that original sin giving it a new vigour there is requisite a new grace to contest against it Otherwise he had done very unmanly to complain of a revolt which was nothing but an effect of Nature and which he might easily suppress by his Will animated with as much Grace as Jesus Christ refuses not even to his enemies And the Church guided by the holy Spirit would do amiss to intreat so often for her childrens deliverance from an insurrection which cannot be bad if it were born with man in his Innocence If they answer She requests not that the Faithful be delivered from it because bad but because dangerous by the same reason they must desire that they had neither eyes nor hands because both these parts are of sad consequence to sinners If they say they pray not for the full ruine of it but for its diminution they must confess that if what they would pare away be hurtful it ought not to be in Adam nor could now be cured by his grace For as S. Augustine says excellently well the grace of Adam was the grace of a man sound and free and the grace of Jesus Christ of a man a captive and diseased this produceth two effects in his person it restores his health before it give him strength it breaks his fetters before it makes him walk and suppresseth his disorders before it makes him act This Truth will be better conceived if we compare the Liberty of Adam with the Servitude of Man a sinner that by the difference of these two states we may judge more easily of the difference of their graces Adam was as Free as Innocent nothing resisted his Will in his person and the Passions having not as yet shook off the yoke of Reason troubled not his Rest he acted with tranquillity of minde he found his pleasure in his duty nor was he sensible of any internal rebellion impeaching his liberty Thence it came to pass that his grace was subject to his Will that he used it according to his desires and his occasions either to obey his Soveraign to command his Subjects or to resist his Enemies But the sinner fallen from this glorious condition is the slave of him that hath conquered him he serves as many Masters as he hath Passions and he findes to his cost that to punish his disobedience all his subjects rebel against him The grace of Adam would be useless in this condition being not fully free he could not make use of it and being the slave of sin in whose possession he is he would employ it rather to his own ruine then to his salvation Grace must set him free before he can work must break his chains before he can fight and restore him his liberty before he can form one good designe This is it that S. Augustine teacheth us in that Chapter where making the Antithesis of Man a Sinner and Man an Innocent he saith This had a grace great indeed but much different from ours For he lived in the advantages he had received from his Creator and of his goodness held that happie condition that exempted him from all our evils But the Faithful to whom this grace appertains that delivers Captives languish in misfortunes that make them seek after Liberty Adam in the midst of the innocent delights he tasted had no need of the death of Jesus Christ but the Christians cannot be washed from their hereditary or acquired sins but by the blood of the Lamb slain for their salvation Adam stood not in need of that assistance his children require when experiencing the revolt of the Flesh against the Spirit they complain of the Law of Sin that opposeth the Law of God and by the mediation of Jesus Christ beg strength to combat and ability to overcome an enemy whose assaults Adam was never sensible of For he was not divided in Paradise but enjoying a profound peace he saw not his body warring against his soul nor one part of himself unjustly lifting up the heel against the other Proinde etsi non interim laetiore nunc verunratē potentiore gratia indigent isti Aug. Let us say then with that great Doctor that the grace of Adam was happier then ours and ours more powerful then his he might if he would have overcome amidst his delights and we triumph among our sorrows his grace gave him a Power to act ours a Will his was subject to his Will ours is her mistress and by a happie occasion we are the conquerors of Devils because the slaves of Jesus Christ It seems our Redeemer would be revenged of us in avenging us of our enemy that he disposed all things so that our victory should depend upon our overthrow and our liberty should be grounded upon our servitude because Grace tames our Will to make it victorious over sin and subjects her to it self to give her command over the Passions and in this humble submission procures us those advantages we never had possessed in the Empire of Innocence For whatever arts we use to exalt the happie condition of Adam we must confess his grace was weak because it could not maintain the freedom of his Will and leaving him to himself suffered his enemy to foil him But the grace of Jesus Christ makes us victorious in the midst of our infirmities assures our salvation among the many stormings of Temptations and seizing upon our heart makes us triumph over the world When I consider the deplorable condition of a sinner me thinks
was given up to the fury of Satan To his Sacriledge he added a Parricide and expiating these two offences by a violent death taught us there was never any crime more severely punished upon Earth then what was committed against Jesus Christ in the Eucharist so that a man cannot dispose himself too carefully when he is to approach this holy communion and seeing the Son of God recollects all his Graces in this Sacrament thereby to oblige us we ought to come accompanied with all kind of Vertues worthily to receive him The Seventh DISCOURSE That the Christian owes God the Honour of a Sacrifice SAcrifice is the most ancient duty of the creature towards his Creator It is the soul of Religion precedes affection and before man can be obliged to love God he is bound to offer him a Sacrifice For love presupposeth some society between God and man which is not so much an effect of Nature as of Grace but Sacrifice supposeth nothing but dependance which is inseparable from the creature and engageth him assoon as ever he proceeded out of Nothing to acknowledge his Original by a solemn homage From hence may be inferred that Sacrifice is an honour can be rendred only to God and that 't is changed into Sacriledge when offered to a meer creature Neither is this hard to be conceived if we consider the divers motives we have to offer Sacrifices to God since sin hath corrupted nature The first is to reconcile us to him and to mitigate his anger by the merit of the victime The second is to be united to him knowing very well that as his Indignation is the soucre of all our evils his Grace is the fountain-Head of all our good whence it came to pass that in the Old Testament there were peace-offerings offered to him for the salvation of sinners which testified by their dying mouths that to be removed from God was to be miserable The third is to obtain eternal glory which makes us find our happiness in the union it procures us with God and destroying whatever we had of mortal or perishable happily transforms us into him Holocaustum dicitur sacrificium cum totū accenditur quandò totum ardet totum absumitur igne divino Aug. Therefore were Holocausts immolated wherein the oblation wholly consumed by the flame figured out this Truth and by a silent language taught us that man should never be happy till he was despoiled of all his corruption that he might be perfectly consummated in God Now all men confesse that God only can bestow Grace remit sins which brave his Majesty sanctifie souls in uniting them to himself and glorifie them by communicating to them his Essence Therefore by a necessary consequence they acknowledge that as from him only these favours are to be obtained we have no other way to intercede for them but by sacrifice The Law punished those with death that erected Altars to strange gods and offered those honours to vain idols which could not be safely given to true men Nature her self though never so blind sacrificeth to none but those she conceives at least to be Gods and sin being not able to quench all her lights she retains this belief in her errour that Divinity only deserves the honours of sacrifice Faith confirms this Truth and strongly perswades us that if the creature adores not his Creator he is miserable and if he encroach upon the honour due to him he becomes guilty Creatura rationalis si non colit Deum misera est quia privatur Deo si colit Deum non vult se coli pro Deo Aug. Sacrifice then is a divine worship whereby a reasonable creature honours his Creator and publiquely professeth that as he hath received being from him 't is from him likewise that he expects felicity But though there is nothing in God which being God himself deserves not this homage and all his perfections may justly require it we must confess nevertheless there are three that oblige us to this duty and which in the state of innocence as wel as sin demand this sacrifice The first is the Soveraignty he hath over his creature For he depends of him in Creation and Preservation He had no right to exist before he issued from Nothing in these profound abysses he could not so much as desire or ask any thing and being not yet in nature could have no pretensions of aspiring either to Grace or Glory Being now reduced from Non-Entity he depends still upon his Soveraign he could not be able to subsist one moment without assistance from him he cannot act but by his impulses and though he be free in his operations he that gave him being must give him motion his preservation is a consequence of his Creation the same power that produced him preserves him and unless he be strangely impudent he must confess he depends not less upon God in his Entity then in his Non-Entity There is no need that the Earth should open under his feet to swallow him up that thunder should fall upon his head to crush him to ashes nor that the waters should flow from their couch to drown him God needs only withdraw his hand and he perisheth let him but cease to preserve and he moulders into annihilation Dependency therefore and servitude constitute one part of his Essence he is a slave assoon as a creature and though God be Almighty we may say without offence he can produce neither man nor Angel able to support themselves without him and who in the progress as well as beginning of his life depends not absolutely upon his All-sufficiency This is it that obligeth both of them in their Creation to offer sacrifices to him 't was their first reflexion towards their Principle their first duty towards their Soveraign and their primitive inclination towards their last end If they do not acquit themselves 't is their fault if dazled with their own light and charmed with their own beauty they fail of this their lawfull homage they need seek no other cause of their crime nor of their fall I pretend not to expresse the nature of this sacrifice because it is unkown to us but I will say thus much thatthe Angels being pure spirits seek not oblations out of their own person they stoop before the Almighty at the presence of his greatness they offer him what they are bound to by Creation and refuse not to submit to him by the motion of their proper will as they did from all Eternity in their nature For men there is great likelihood being compounded of a body and a soul they would joyn external sacrifice to internal and to the end they might offer all they had received presenting him an Holocaust of their person they would employ their mouths to praise him and their hands to serve him having made use of their understandings to know him and their wils to love him we might believe also that acknowledging all the goods of the
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
making use of another Comparison he tels us That being like an old house that is ready to fall it was requisite we should be quite destroy'd that we might be re-built again Ita vitiis eramus immersi ut nulla ratione purgari possemus sed opus suit Regeneratione nam secundam nativitatem Regeneratio significat nos ut veterem domum quam evertere oportet Deus denuo condidit Theophyl ad Tit. c. 3. St. Augustin is of the same opinion when observing what havock sin hath made in our Nature he saith God deals with us as he doth with decay'd buildings which are good only to be thrown down that upon their ruines may be laid the foundation of a new structure wherein the wisdom of the Architect is to be admir'd who from a heap of rubbish hath been able to erect a stately Palace or a magnificent Temple But not to wander from the subject of our Discourse in such figurative expressions Qui gaudes Baptismi perceptione vive in novi hominis sanctitate tenens fidem quae per dilectionem operatur habe bonū quod nondum habes profit tibi bonum quod habes Prosp Sent. 325. let us hold to the simplicity of the Gospel affirming that Baptism is call'd the New-birth of a Christian because thereby he receives a New-Being and passing from the person of Adam into that of Jesus Christ he happily loseth those bad qualities he had contracted in his first conception He becomes a member of the Son of God he enters by Grace upon all the rights of his head he converseth with God as with his Father with whom not losing his respect he gains a familiarity till being insensibly disengaged from the Earth he aspires to Heaven as towards his lawful inheritance Indeed this Generation is but begun in Baptism it continues the whole course of a mans life nor is it finished till the generall Resurrection For though Sin be blotted out by Grace in a Christian Concupiscentia tanquam lex peccati manens in membris corporis mortis hujus cum parvulis nascitur in parvulis baptizatis à reatu solvitur ad agonem relinquitur ante agonem mortuos nulla damnatione prosequitur August neither can all that he hath received from Adam any longer shut the gate of Heaven against him yet there are a thousand disorders that hinder the compleat perfect establishment of Charity in his soul It lives as it were in an ungratefull and barren land where there can be no improvement without a kinde of violence Self-love opposeth all its designes and this Enemy who is often beaten but never vanquished gives it so many turns that were it not for the continual assistance it receives from God it could not preserve it self one moment But admit this dangerous Enemy persecute not the Christian with so cruel awar the bondage whereto Infancy hath reduc'd him suffers him not to make any great progress For the Grace that we receive in Baptism cannot make us operate as we have not yet the use of Reason neither have we that of Charity or of Faith we are faithfull without beleeving in God Charitable without loving him we possess a Treasure that we cannot dispose of and our happiness having some resemblance with our disaster we have no other merits but that of Jesus Christ as we have no other sins but those of Adam For this reason are we obliged to be very industrious as soon as we are out of our childhood and not to suffer all those advantages we receive from our New-Birth to lye useless and unprofitable we must have recourse to our Redeemer and conjure him by our prayers to finish the work he hath begun that perfecting us in Grace * Cum concupiscentia natus es ut eam vincas noli tibi hostes addere vince cum quo natus es ad stadium vitae hujus cum illo venisti congredere cum eo qui tecum procedit Aug. Ps 57. here we may one day be happily consummated in Glory hereafter But to return to the subject we have necessarily digress'd from Baptism bears not only the name of a New Birth but also that of a Resurrection Therefore the Great Apostle saith * An ignoratis quia quicunque baptizati sumus in Christs Jesu in morte ipsius baptizati sumus cum illo per Baptismum in mortem ut quomodo Christus surrexit à mortuis per gloriam Patris ità nos in novitate vitae ambulemus Roman 6. That the Christians are risen with Christ that his Death quickens their souls and that these two contraries agreeing in their person they are dead to Sin and alive to Grace This name more excellent then the rest does me thinks more fully discover the misery of Man and the happinesse of a Christian For if Baptism be a Resurrection if a Beleever be not only born again but raisd from the grave we must conclude that before this second Birth he was dead and if he had some symptoms of a natural and sensitive he had not any Principle of a supernatural and divine Life He was asmuch pre-engaged in Death as in Sin and according to the rules of Scripture he was truly dead because truly a sinner All the excuse he could alledg in his misery is that his Death was contracted by the fault of another and that as he transgressed not but by the will of his Father so neither was he obnoxious to death but by his hand In a word to comprehend this rightly He is the cause of our misfortune He committed the Crime that we contracted in our birth if he be guilty by design we are so by necessity and before we have the use of reason we are therefore sinners because we are his Children by the same means that he conveighs * Sicut omnium fuisii parens ità omnium peremptor quod infelicius omnium prius peremptor quà m parens Ber. death to us by the same doth he communicate sin he is our Parricide just as he is our Parent and which puzzles all Philosophie he commits as many murders as his posterity begets Children In this deplorable condition as Baptism finds us it not only gives us life but restores it nor is it meerly our Birth but our Resurrection This is it that St. Augustine with no lesse Eloquence then Learning delivers when he saith Resurrecturum humanum genus i◠saeculi consummatione post mortem nunc resurgit in Baptismo suscitandus est tunc populus Dei post soporem nunc suscitandus post infidelitatem liberandus est tunc à mortali conditione nunc liberatur ab ignorantiae caecitate renasciturus tunc ad aeternitatem nunc renascitur ad salutem August Serm. 163. de Tempore that the Church acknowledgeth two Resurrections in the world the first is in Baptism the second will be at the day of Judgment that the Christians shall then awake from their long sleep which
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
to make them fructifie by good works whoever neglects this care cannot preserve his grace any long time and he that resists not Temptation which remains after sin is in great danger to be speedily deprived of the Innocence of Baptism To all these internal evils which seize us may be added those external ones which surround us for if Regeneration reform not the disorders of our soul nor of our body it never asswageth the persecution of the Elements Though we be justified by Baptism we are not instated in our primitive advantages The Curse issued out against the Creatures is not taken away by Grace and as we experience revolts in our person we resent them also in our state The Earth hath not recovered her former fruitfulness it brings forth thorns to this day to punish us it nourisheth monsters that make war against us it rends asunder in gaping chasms to swallow us up and levels mountains to overwhelm us Every Element mindes us of our misery they make no difference between an Infidel and a Christian Though the Angels respect their character Creatures despise it or know it not The Sea drowns Our Vessels as well as those of the Turks To be reconciled with God makes us not friends with the Windes a man must be a Saint that commands the Waves And if together with our Charity we have not also the gift of Miracles we know not how to calm the Sea nor to appease Tempests The Fire spares not all Innocents it hath burnt Martyrs who had no less faith then the Three Children that walk'd untouch'd in the midst of the fiery furnace it sometimes blends it self with Thunder and being blinde strikes the Just as often as the Guilty The Church canonizeth some Saints which that element hath reduced to Powder and because she knows that the sentence of our death speaks of dust and ashes she wonders not if Thunder have the same operation upon some Saints which Time is designed to have upon All men Finally all the Elements teach us that we are Miserable though we be not Criminal Baptism that delivers us from Sin frees us not from Punishment God will have the World persecute us that we may hate it he hath ordained the place of our banishment to be troublesome lest it should make us forget our Country This is the Advantage we draw from our Evil the Comfort we retain in our Miseries and 't is enough to make us stoop with all humility to the Justice of God inasmuch as we know that our Punishment may as well be serviceable to our own Salvation as to his Glory The Second TREATISE Of the Spirit of a Christian The first DISCOURSE That every Body hath its Spirit and what that of the Churches is IN Nature every thing hath its own Spirit and if we believe Chymists there is no element though never so simple out of which the Essent though never so simple out of which the Essence may not be extracted They make daily Experiments hereof with the Fire and dividing what Nature had united they separate the Form from the Matter The World according to the relation of some Philosophers hath a Soul that inanimates it which is shed abroad thorow all its parts and which according to their divers dispositions produceth divers effects 'T is this Divine Spirit that gives it motion that waters it with fruitfulness whereby it hatcheth all those wonders whose causes men are ignorant of As Artificial things are the images of Natural neither do men make any thing whereof they take not the Copie from Nature as from a perfect Original there is not any Sect that hath not its particular humour and difference The Peripateticks take all their light from Argumentation and Experience Alii alia de anima disceptant prout aut Platonis honor aut Zenonis vigor aut Aristotolis tenor aut Empedoclis furor aut Epicuri stupor aut Heracliti maeror persuascrunt Tert. de Ani. Authority hath no credit in their School they desert their Master when he agrees not with Truth and laughing at the blinde obedience of the Pythagoreans they believe nothing but what they discover by Sense or by Discourse The Platonicks march upon the higher ground but less certain less solid Animus cernit animus audit reliquae surda caeca sunt impedimentum est corpus non socium ad cognoscendam veritatem Tert. de Plato for they withdraw from the Senses as from the enemies of truth they look upon them as upon faithless ministers or pleasing impostors which beholding nought but the shadows of things present us with nothing but Errors and falshoods Their Spirit savours more of Intelligence then of Science as if individuals were unworthy of their observation they consider nothing but generals and leaving men and beasts Iste Academicue quiae omnia esse contendit incerta indignus est qui habeat ulld in his rebus authoritatem August de Cice. they contemplate only Angels and Ideas The Academicks are parted between these two they allow something to Reason and Intelligence they are more noble then the Peripateticks but not so credulous as the Platonicks they make the senses servants to Reason but having a minde to see a part of what they believe they make a Sect whose principall difference is doubt and uncertainty The Stoicks are as capacious as they are proud Magna promittitis quae optari quidem nedum credi possint deinde sublato alte supercilio in eadem quae caeteri desceuditis mutatis rerum nominibus Seneca ordinary proceedings please them not nothing seems generous that is not extravagant all common Opinions stumble them they judge so ill of the people that they take all their votes for Errours Their Pride which is the very soul of their Sect formes Ideas of vertue which not one of them can reach unto and they propound a Sage so exactly perfect to their Disciples that they put them past all hope of imitating him at the very same time they stirre up a desire in them to become their Proselytes The Epicures search after nothing but pleasure because they conceive it inseparable from vertue Their Sect which is soft onely in expressions is austere really and in deed Mea quidem sententia est Epicurum sancta recta praecipere si propius accesseris tristia voluptas enim illa ad parvum exile revocatur quam nos virtuti legem dicimus eam ille dicit voluptati Jubet illam parere naturae parum est autem luxuriae quod naturae satis est Senec de vita beat cap. 13. they reduce the desires of men to things meerly necessary they part with superfluities joyfully and placing their felicity in their Conscience they count themselves happy in the midst of Torments These Philosophers speak not of pleasure but to make their Disciples in love with vertue and if there have been found some who have deserted vertues side to embrace that of pleasure it
belongs The second includes sins of ignorance which seem to injure the Person of the Son to whom Wisdom is attributed The third comprehends sins of malice which seem to maligne the Person of the Holy Ghost to whom Goodness belongs Following this division they suppose that the first and second sort of sins deserve some pardon because the weakness and ignorance wherwith they are accompanied may plead somewhat in their excuse but the last are altogether unworthy of pardon because malice is the very soul of them and that those that have committed them had strength and light enough not to fall into them But if this Maxime were true there were not any Christian that would hope for the pardon of his sins since being enlightned by Faith and assisted by Grace they need neither eys to see them nor hands to withstand them Nay all the world knows there is not any sinner in whose soul Malice Weakness and Ignorance are not blended together Concupiscence which blinds their Understanding enfeebles their Will and sin reigning in both of them inspires them with Malice Thus every sinner would grow desperate and having offended the holy Spirit could not expect the remission of his sins Others explain this passage of Hereticks who knowing the Truth do notwithstanding contradict it who persecute the Church because she is the Spouse of Jesus Christ and serving for Ministers to the Divel do their utmost to ruine the workmanship of the Son of God But we have seen Hereticks converted who have stood for the defence of the Truth having quitted that of a Lye and who have gained subjects to Jesus Christ after they had procured slaves for his Enemy Some others understand it with St Augustine of that sin that accompanies men till death and which always resisting Grace cannot be expiated but by the pains of hell Pro quibus jam non est hostia sed terribilis quaedam expectatio judicii This Explication doubtless is the most assured for that the sin wherein any one dies is certainly irremissible but I do not know whether this Interpretation be the truest For it seems the Son of God would plainly and simply insinuate unto us the difference between sinners that oppose the designes of the Father and the Son and those who resist the designes of the Holy Ghost Ad hoc Mediator est Christus ut eos qui recesserant à Patre per se reconciliet suo sanguine eorum peccata solveret Aug. in Psal 93. ser 2. for though the first be culpable and have done very ill to neglect the Father speaking to them by the mouth of the Prophets yet might they hope for some impunity in their crimes and promise themselves that the Son coming upon the earth would reconcile them to his Father Though the second were more to blame then the first and deserve a severer punishment for not hearing the Son who taught them by his examples instructed them by his discourse and ravished them with his miracles They might yet perswade themselves that the Holy Ghost descending down amongst them would convert them and that submitting to his Graces and yeelding obedience to his Councels would change their bad life into a better But the last who resist the Holy Ghost can have no more hope their sin considering the disposition of the Orders of God is irremissible of its own nature for they no longer expect a divine Person that may reconcile them with the others The mission of the Holy Ghost is the last and the Scripture holds forth nothing more to be expected but the coming of Jesus Christ to judge both the quick and the dead Thus their sin who resist the Holy Ghost Contra Spiritum sanctum quo peccata omnia dimittuntur verbum valde malum nimis impium dicit quem patientia Dei cum ad paenitentiam adducat ipse secundum duritiam cordis sui cor impaenitens thesaurizat sibi iram in die judicii Dei qui reddet unicuique juxta opera ejus Aug. de verbis Dom. Ser. 12. is not only inexcusable but irremissible if they submit not to his inspirations their salvation is desperate if they suffer not themselves to be swayed by his motions 't is in vain that they pretend to glory and if they make not good use of his graces 't is rashness to promise that the Father or the Son will descend upon the earth to work their conversion for the holy Spirit consummates the work of the Father and of the Son he is the oeconomy of our salvation he that always resists him cannot be converted and he that will not give ear to his counsels cannot avoyd the judgment of the Son of God Thus to conclude in a few words all that we have delivered in this discourse The Holy Ghost remits the sins of the world reconciles sinners to God animates them against themselves to give him satisfaction but acting after another manner with obstinate perverse transgressours he gives them up to their impiety and justly refuseth them that grace which they have insolently despised The Eighth DISCOURSE That the CHRISTIAN in his Infirmities is assisted by the strength of the Holy SPIRIT VVEakness is so natural to the Creature that he hath need of Grace in the state of innocence as well as in that of sin Nothing Natura humana etiamsi in illa integritate in qua condita est permaneret nullo modo seipsam Creatore suo non adjuvante permaneret Aug. Epist 109. ad Bonif. from whence he came forth engageth him in this necessity and all Divines confesse with St Augustine That Man in Paradise could not raise himself up to God nor defend himself against the Divel without the assistance of Grace But his task is much harder since he became a Delinquent the infirmity he hath contracted from sin is far greater then that he drew out of Nothing and he is much weaker because he is a sinner then because he is a Creature The one is common to him with Angels who though of never so noble an extraction stood nevertheless in need of Grace whereby to persevere in that good they were instated in the other is proper and particular and takes it 's originall from all those devastations sin hath made in nature For there remains nothing in man since his disobedience which is not wholly impair'd His Understanding hath scarce any light to discern truth from falshood his Memory hath no more that force to retain the severall Species of things committed to it's trust and his Will is so enfeebled that it scarce meets with any enemies that triumph not over his liberty ever since it became captive it droop'd languish'd the divell that possesseth it tyrannizeth over it and if grace come not in to the rescue it cannot hold out against his solicitations Sin is yet more absolute then Satan he hath onely a borrowed power he reignes not over the hearts but because he domineers over the senses
he is not master of the mind but because he is of the body nor hath he any command over the will of man but because 't is in his power to mutinie his passions But sinne reigns in all the faculties of man his darkness clouds the Understanding his malice depraves the Will his ingratitude weakens the Memory he enters where ever grace can and penetrating the very essence of the soule builds a Palace where the holy Spirit had erected a Temple When he is forced to quit the hold where he had intrench'd himselfe and yielding to grace is constrained to leave the sinner at liberty he sets on foot by his Ministers that violence he could not act by himselfe Concupiscence which is his daughter and his mother endeavours to execute his designes she takes pains in his directions and like a souldier that disputes the victory after the death of his Generall she does her utmost to enthrone him after his defeat For all the motions of this concupiscence favour sinne all the streams that issue from this fountain are unclean all the counsels that proceed from this Minister are suspected and all the assaults this Enemy makes against us are prejudiciall to our salvation she is not innocent in the greatest Saints * Concupiscentia causa est peccati vel defectione consentientis vel contagione nascentis Aug. lib. 6. Con. Jul. c. 19. she preserves her malignity in the very Empire of Grace she resists the Holy Spirit in the Temple he is adored in and as Divines confesse that as the Tree is inclosed in the kernell sinne is wrapt up in concupiscence This was the evill the Apostle of the Gentiles complains of writing to the Romans 't was that disorder he would but could not reforme 't was that rebellion he felt in his members and was not able to appease 't was that law of the flesh warring against that of God which he could not abrogate 't was finally that Monster that drew complaints from his mouth made him confesse his weaknesse and obliged him to wish for death that he might be delivered from his Tyranny For as Saint * Non quod volo ago sed quod nolo hoc ago quod odi concupiscere odi concupiscere tamen illud ago ex carne non ex mente non implet legem infirmitas mea sed legem laudat voluntas mea Aug. in Rom. Augustine observes very well 't was not in the power of the Apostle to cure that maladie which depended not upon his Will because it passed on in despite of him and his complaints which were marks of his piety were proofs also of his infirmity We must not say with the Pelagians that Saint Paul in his person represents that of a sinner whose bad Habit having weakened his liberty left him nothing but sighes and regrets for being thrown into a condition out of which 't was not in his power to come forth For though this interpretation be true and some Fathers who were very tender of the holinesse of the Apostle of the Gentiles have imagined that he could not be subject to these disorders Neverthelesse Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine who knew very well that Grace does not destroy Concupiscence were not troubled to acknowledge this in Saint Paul and to confesse That the Liberty of the greatest Saints is not so intire but it experienceth rebellions which it cannot master and that 't is onely in Eternity where Grace obtains a full triumphant victory over sin Si autem sicut melius sentit Ambrosius hoc etiam de seipso dicit Apostolus nec justorum est in hac vita tanta libertas propriae voluntatis quanta erit in illa vita ubi non dicitur Non quod volo ago Aug. lib. 6. cont Julian when the Saints shall no more say with Saint Paul I do that which I would not Indeed this complaint is an evident proof of the weakness that remains in man after he hath received the pardon of his sin Though he be in Grace he is not freed from pain though he be assisted by God he cannot chuse but tremble and though his Will be straight yet is it not so stedfast and constant as to overcome all that combates his good resolutions The experience he hath of his infirmity obligeth him to implore the succours of Heaven knowing very well that victory is never compleat upon earth he intreats an end of his life to obtain that of his conflict and being not ignorant that his vigour is abated by this Inmate which he can neither defeat nor divorce he implores an Aid that supplyes his impotency and renders him strong enough not to be worsted This is the Reason St Augustine made use of against the Pelagians For whereas they affirmed that Man had always a full freedom to correct himself nor that there was any state wherein Concupiscence held so great a command over the Will that he could not easily defend himself he confronted them with this passage of St Paul saying with that vigour of spirit that accompanies all his argumentations Confess that all those that have a mind to mend cannot do it since he that speaks in these terms 'T is not I that work gives a sufficient demonstration that his desire is strong but his power weak Say not that he can subdue sin by the meer abilities of his Will since he discovers his infirmity by his complaints and were he vigorous enough to bring all his forces into the field he would never utter those words Non quod volo ago Suffer him at least in whom you see the activity of free-will weakened to have recourse to the assistance of Grace and to seek for that out of himself which he cannot finde in himself But this misfortune is yet much greater in sinners newly converted then in the just who have a long time persevered in this vertue For if these last have not destroyed sin they have debilitated him and if they have not obtained a full victory they have gain'd some advantage over this Enemy if they have not quite obstructed his motions they have greatly check'd them and if they have not strength to be delivered they have courage enough to stand upon their guard and defend themselves But the others have encreased his power by their own cowardise they have added the tyranny of Habit to that of Concupiscence they are reduced to a wretched impotency to withstand since they have not crush'd him in his conception and their liberty is so small to defeat him that their slavery degenerates for the most part into down-right necessity Thence it came to passe that St Augustine being fallen into that deplorable condition complain'd that his bad Habit had fettered his Will that he groan'd under the weight of his irons that he could not break them though he had hammered them himself and having voluntarily thrown himself into the net he was necessarily held fast in it My Will saith he admirably in his
them But Saint Augustine informs us that he acts otherwise with sinners then with the godly and that he carries himselfe after another fashion with those he moves only Aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter habitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles Aug. Epist ad Sixtum then with those whom he inanimates He assists the former that they may be converted he helps the second that they may persevere in the former he inspires faith in the later charity to the one he opens the door of the Church to the other the gate of Heaven But finally 't is one and the same Spirit that aids all Christians in their different conversations 'T is he that triumphs over the Executioners in the Martyrs that combates Hereticks in the Doctours that subdues the flesh in the Continent that despiseth the pleasures of the world in the Anchorites that conquers sinne in the Penitents and that leads all the Elect from the Camp of the Church Militant into the bosome of the Church Triumphant The Ninth DISCOURSE That the HOLYSPIRIT is the CHRISTIANS Comforter SIn and Misery were borne into the world both upon a day assoon as ever man became criminall he became miserable Peccavit anima ideo misera est liberum arbitrium accepit quo usa est quemadmodum voluit lapsa est ejecta est de beatitudine implicata est misertis Aug. contra Fortu. Disp 2. punishment followed transgression so close upon the heeles that he lost his happinesse as soon as he had lost his innocence Ever since this fatall moment his life hath been but a continued Train of miseries insensibly leading him to the Chambers of death The Hydra of the Poets never was so fruitfully pregnant and Fiction with all it's inventions could never yet represent the story of our misfortunes Nor Age nor Sexe nor Condition give any person a dispensation Infants are wretched in the Cradle that innocent Age that hath no other sinne then that of Adam is sensible of pains as sharp as those that accompany old age Women who somtimes shake off obedience to their Husbands cannot escape the pangs of griefe and Kings who are so absolute in their State have no Guards that can stop sicknesse and sadnesse from entring into their Palaces These two enemies of man-kind creep every where their dominion knowes no bounds where ever there are men they finde subjects and create miserable Indeed Christians meet with a great deale of consolation in these distresses for besides that the hope of futurity sweetens their present evils that the example of Jesus Christ gives them encouragement that the constancy of Martyrs bear up their spirits they have received the Holy Spirit that comforts them in their troubles and supplies them with as many remedies as misfortune takes upon it shapes to assault them Let us reduce both of them to four heads and make it appear in their discourses that 't is not in vaine that man beares the name of miserable and the Holy Spirit that of a Comforter One of the fearfullest torments of man a sinner is that the two parts whereof he is made cannot agree In te ex teipso est flagellum tuum fit rixa tua tecum lucta est in illo corpore quamdiu vivimus pugnamus quamdiu pugnamus periclitamur Aug. The body and the soule are always upon bad terms their love is turned into hate and if there be any agreement between them 't is always to the disadvantage of the nobler part All is out of order in the master-piece of the Creation Earth is higher then Heaven the Beast domineers over the Angell the Spirit stoops to the Body and Passions are the Mistresses of Reason The Saints groan under this disorder they invoke death to be freed from this Tyranny and they intreat an end of their life that they may see an end of a Combate whose event is so doubtfull The Holy Spirit accommodates this difference by his grace for he takes part with the soule against the body he subjects the soule to God thereby to subject the body to the soule he sets things in the state they were in during the time of Innocence and so suppresseth the revolts of the flesh that if the Spirit be not absolute it is at least the strongest in the Saints 'T is the grace of our heavenly Comforter say the Fathers of the Church that sweetens our discontents that quencheth the impure flames that concupiscence kindles in our hearts that subdues those violent passions whose first motions are of so difficult coercion 'T is it that charmes those deceitfull hopes and desires that promise us felicity in the World and which finally following the Inclinations of this Spirit whereof it is the Image inables the Christian to be revenged of those rebells that disturb the quiet of his person The second punishment of guilty man is to see himselfe exiled from heaven and constrain'd to endure a banishment as long as life Indeed he undergoes here all the miseries of an exterminated person he is deprived of his goods and lives not but upon borrowing or almes he is driven out of Paradise fallen from all those honours that equal'd his condition to that of Angels and reduced to a deplorarable state Homo cum in honore esset non intellexit ideo comparatus est jumentis insipientibus Psal 48. rendring his fortune little different from that of beasts He never looks up to heaven but if there be any spark of piety remaining he bewailes his offence and is afflicted at his banishment Griefe puts these complaints in his mouth Wo is me because my habitation is prolonged He is afraid least the snares that are scattered in the place of his residence entangle him if he suffer any calamity he presently reflects upon the happinesse he hath lost and if he taste any pleasures he misstrusts lest they engage him in the world For Christians are threatned with this double evill and if they take not good heed they are in danger to love their exile and forget their Countrey they settle their fortune upon earth they build as if they never meant to remove they are strongly taken up with the present world and they lose all beliefe of the future and a man hath much adoe to perswade them that so delightfull an Abode is the place of their Banishment and the Theater of their Torment They must be made feele their miseries that they may have some desire towards another life and we think we have gained much upon their Spirit when they will be perswaded to look with an indifferent eye upon the place of their birth Therefore is it that Richardus de Sancto Victore divides men into three ranks the first is those that are fastened to their Countrey whom he calls Delicate Delicatus est cui patria dulcis fortis cui omne solum patria perfâ—ctus cui omnis terra exilium est
being his Creatures under a double Title and he our Principle in Nature and in Grace there is no body but believes we have all the reason in the world to set up his Kingdome in our hearts and carefully to preserve charity whereby he lives in our soules Neverthelesse the Great Apostle of the Gentiles complaines that the faithfull of his time made him dye that they put out the candle of their life and by an ingratitude as great as their blindnesse committed a double murder in one and the same crime He begs their favour towards the holy Spirit and having presented them with the Obligations they owe his infinite goodnesse he conjures them not to choak him in their soules Quench not the Spirit This passage is diversly explain'd Nolite Spiritum extinguere 1 Thes 5. but equally weak'nd by our Interpreters For some are of opinion that Saint Paul made use of this word to quench because the Holy Ghost coming down upon the Apostles in the likenesse of Fire might be put out as fire by our negligence And if the vestall Virgins were guilty of death Vesta nihil aliud quam ignis cui virgines solent servire quod sicut ex virgine ita nihil ex igne nascatur Aug. for suffering the prophane fire committed to their charge to go out the Christians were certainly much more criminall to suffer this holy Fire to dye that kindled all vertues in their hearts and purg'd out all defects and inward defilements Others think it a kind of figurative speech the Apostle makes use of to aggravate the hainousness of the sinne they commit who do all that they can to extinguish the Holy Spirit and endeavour to imitate the cruelty of the Jews will signe their malice by a detestable parricide It seems Saint Augustine was entred into this opinion accusing not the sinner for the death of the holy Spirit but because of the will he had to do it and endeavouring all that was in his power to stifle him that lives and reigns with the Father and the Son from all Eternity But I conceive without doing violence to the words of Saint Paul or at all prejudicing the holy Spirit we may say He suffers death by sin and loseth life when we lose charity For the same Apostle teacheth us Nescitis quia templum Dei estis Spiritus Dei habitat in vâ—bis 1 Cor. 3. that the holy Ghost dwels in us by Grace that he erects an Altar in our heart makes himself a Temple in our soul and lives in us by his vertues All his Epistles speak this language and as often as he treats of the residence of the holy Spirit in our hearts he speaks of it as of a Divine life whereof he is the first Principle so that he lives in us after the same manner as we live in him and these two lives are so closely combined together that one cannot be destroy'd without the other Thus the holy Spirit ceaseth to live in the sinner when the sinner ceaseth to live by the holy Spirit As they have one and the same life so they endure one and the same death and as the sinner loseth life because he loseth Grace that united him to Jesus Christ so the holy Spirit in some sort loseth that life that united him to the Christian by Charity and receives death from him that inflicts it upon himself by sin Therefore is it that the Apostle useth such high terms to make us comprehend the heinousnesse of our crime and describes the death of our soul under that of the holy Spirit to the end that if we are not afraid to commit a simple Murder we may at least be startled from committing a Parricide The second Quality of the holy Spirit is that having been our Principle he will also be our Director and give us motion after he hath indued us with life I will not inlarge this Truth because I have already spoken sufficiently of it and discovered those advantages the Christian may draw from thence It shall suffice to add that Christians are exalted as far above Philosophers as Philosophers are above Beasts For Beasts are led meerly by sense the pleasure that tickles them transports them and what-ever flatters their appetite either in taste or sight overpowers them if they are not with-held by fear or grief Sinners are in no better condition then the Brutes they consult only their sense when they act Homo comparatus est jumentis Considerate vos factos ad Dei imaginem Imago Dei intus est non est in corpore non est in auribus istis eculis sed est factus ubi est intellectus ubi mens ubi ratio investigandae veritatis Aug. in Psa 48. their soul is alwayes the slave of their body neither do they perceive when they engage themselves in the love of pleasure or glory how they do no more then Buls that foam and fight for the enjoyment of a Heifer or to be leaders of the Herd Philosophers are a degree higher then Sinners and taking Reason for their Guide they think they cannot err Rationalc animal est homo consummatur itaque ejus bonum si id adimplevit cui nascitur quid est autem quod ab illo ratio exigit rem facillimam secundum naturam suam vivere Senec. Epist 41. they fancie proud ostentous designes they frame noble Ideas of felicity they call in the Vertues to their aid to compasse it and assisted with Prudence Justice and Fortitude they count themselves as happy and as perfect as God himself Illi Philosophi seculi vitium vitio peccatumque peccato medicantur nos amore virtutum vitia superemus Hieron Epist ad Rust These blind Opinators see not that their Reason is a slave to their Concupiscence that Vain-glory is the foul of their Vertue that thinking to avoid Sensuaality they fall into Arrogance and flying the sins of Men are taken with those of Divels But Christians humbly soaring above Philosophers take the holy Spirit for their Guide they subject their reason to his Inspirations and knowing very well that they cannot be the children of God unlesse they be the organs of his Spirit they undertake nothing but by the motion of his Grace Though this favour make up one of their greatest advantages they fail not sometimes to neglect it and to resist the Conduct of their divine Director They relapse into the condition of Beasts when they obey their senses are restor'd to that of Philosophers Haec est iniquitas cujus non miseretur Deus cum homo defendit quod Deus odit pecâ—atum justitiam asserit ut omnipotenti resistat omnipotens illi Bern. de Conse when they are led by their judgment and become sinners when they resist Grace 'T is from this impiety that all others are derived there is no wickedness a soul is uncapble of when it rejects the impulses of the Spirit neither were the Jews cast
kingdom of Life but by Jesus Christ As all that are born of Adam are sinners all that are born again of Jesus Christ are justified and as all the sons and daughters of Adam are the children of the earth and death all the children of Jesus Christ are the children of heaven and of life This Maxime is so true that man makes no more progresse in perfection then according as he doth in allyance with Jesus Christ The more Faith he hath the lesse hath he of Errour and Falshood the more hope he conceives in the mercy of God the lesse confidence hath he in the favour of men the more he burns with the fire of Charity the lesse is he scorched with the flames of Concupiscence the more he is united to this innocent and glorious Head from whom all grace is derived the lesse is he fixt to that infamous and criminall Head from whom all sin takes it originall so that Christians as we have already proved ought to have no other care but to make Adam die and Jesus Christ live in their person if they intend to be innocent they must be Parricides if they will bestow life upon the Son of God they must inflict death upon their first Father if they meane to be quickned with the spirit of humility which raiseth men in debasing them they must renounce the spirit of vain-glory which lays men low in lifting them up and under a colour of making Gods of them makes them nothing but Devils or Beasts Finally mans unhappinesse flows from the shamefull alliance he contracted with Adam in his Birth Ex transgressione primi hominis universum genus humanum natum cum obligatione peccati victor Diabolus possidebat si enim sub captivitate non teneremur redemptore non indigeremus venit ad captivos non captus venit ad captivos redimendos nihil in se captivitatis ha bens sed carne mortali pretium nostrum portans Aug. de Verb. Apo. Ser. 22. and the Christians happinesse proceeds from the glorious alliance he contracted with Jesus Christ in Baptisme Thus the quality of a Chief in Adam is the source of all our Evils and the quality of a Chief in Jesus Christ is the Originall of all our Good and as Adam did not so much destroy us in being our Father as in being our Head neither doth Jesus Christ save us so much for being his Brethren or his Children as because we are his members because 't is in effect this quality that procures us all the rest neither is God our Father but because Jesus Christ is our Head The Second DISCOURSE Of the Excellencies of the Christians Head and the advantages they draw from thence THough all the alliances Jesus Christ hath contracted with men be as beneficiall to them as they are honourable yet must we confesse that the relation that unites him to them as their Head is the strictest and most advantageous 'T is much that he would be their King and giving them Laws had owned them for his Subjects 'T is more yet that he condescended to be their Brother and sharing his Eternall Inheritance with them made them Co-heirs together with Himself 't is more yet that he made them his Children and conceiving them in his wounds suffered death to give them life But 't is yet a more signall favour that he vouchsafed to make them his Members and joyning them to Himself in one body he is constituted the Head from whence they receive all those indearing influences which communicate to them the life of Grace and merit for them that of Glory Therefore also doth Saint Augustine when he examines the favours we have received from the Father preferre this before all others Nullum majus donum prastâ—re posset hominibus quam ut verbum suum per quod condidit omniâ— faccret illis caput illos ei tanquam membra coaptaret ut esset filius Dei silius hominis unus Deus cum patre unus homo cum hominibus Aug. in Psal 36. Ser. 3. and confesseth he never more sensibly obliged us then when he gave us his onely Son to be our Head God saith he could bestow no higher honour upon men then by uniting them with his Word by whom he created all things as the Members with their Head that he that was the Son of God might be the Sonne of Man and that by reason of his Divine Person subsisting in the Humane Nature he might be God with his Father and Man with his Brethren 'T is in effect from this glorious co-habitation that all our blessings are derived If the Father look upon us 't is because we are the Members of his onely Sonne If he hear our prayers 't is because Jesus Christ speaks by our mouth if he receive us into Glory 't is because he sees us cloathed with the merits of our Head if he admit us into his bosome 't is because the quality we bear renders us inseparable from his Word But if this alliance be beneficiall to Christians 't is honourable to Jesus Christ For though nothing can be added to his Grandeur who is equall to his Father and all the Priviledges he received from his Incarnation may passe for so many Humiliations Neverthelesse the dignity of being Head of the Church is so eminent that after that of the Son of God there is none so Venerable and August It gives Jesus Christ the same advantage over the Faithfull that the Head hath over the Members and to conceive what he is in the Church we must observe what this is in the Body The Head is the noblest seat of the Soul 't is that part of the Body where she acts her highest operations 't is there that she debates those subjects that are presented to her that she deliberates upon the accidents that happen 't is there that the memory preserves the species which may be called the treasures of wisdome and the riches of the Intellectuall faculty 't is there that the understanding conceives truths and the will pronounceth determinations In a word 't is there that the affairs concerning Peace and Warre Salvation or Damnation Time or Eternity are treated of Thus also is it in Iesus Christ that all those lights reside that govern the Church 't is in him that are shut up all the treasures of wisdome and from him that all Oracles proceed whereby the Faithfull are instructed The Head is the most eminent part of the Body Nature was willing that as it is the noblest so it should be placed nearest Heaven and the very situation should oblige all the other parts to shew it reverence It is the most exalted that it may more easily dispence its orders and that the spirits which convey sense and motion by the nerves may descend with more facility into all the parts of the body Iesus Christ also is in the highest place of his State he reignes in Heaven with his Father from thence he views all
he encouraged his Apostles to Martyrdom and providing Graces for all his Members inspired them with strength to vanquish pleasure and subdue grief For though the Son of God be the Head of men in all the conditions of life because he was so before his birth nevertheless he exerciseth this Office in a time when others cannot Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Excedit humanum conditionem ista promissio nec tam de ligno Crucis quà m de Throno editur potestatis Leo. He founded his Church in dying he acted like a Soveraigne when they deprived him of life he pardoned offenders when they handled him as a delinquent he disposed of the kingdom of heaven when they disputed his kingdom upon earth and making his power appear in his weakness his innocence in his execution and his grandeur in his affronts he takes pleasure to confound the pride of his enemies But me thinks there is no quality makes him shine forth with so much pomp upon the Cross as that of being the Head For besides that it was in this place that he offered up himself for his Elect and by bonds as strong as they are secret united them to his Person that neither sin nor death can ever separate them from him it was there that he made that wonderful Bargain with them where charging himself with their sins he invested them with his merits and taking upon him the quality of a sinner communicated to them that of innocents There it was that he espoused the Church and accomplishing that Figure which preceded in the person of Adam and Eve he was willing to die that his Spouse might live For the holy Scripture not without a Mystery observes that Eve was taken from the side of Adam whilst he was asleep that all the world might know that the Church must proceed from the side of Christ when he hung dead upon the Cross God could saith S. Augustine have formed the woman of her husband whilst he was awake had there not been some Mystery couched under that Ceremony for if we say God chose that time to rid man from all sense of pain it was too violent not to awaken him and if we say man felt it not because God wrought the work he could as easily have taken away the rib when he was awake as when he lay asleep But he had a minde to express that in Paradise which was to be acted upon mount Calvary and teach us that as Eve issued from the side of her sleeping husband the Church should issue from the side of dying Jesus If this Mystery heightens the love and power of Jesus Christ we must confess it augments withal the obligations Christians have to death and sufferings For Christ conceived us in the midst of his wounds we are the children of his sorrows and his Church cost him much more pain and trouble then Eve did the first Adam Sicut dormienti Adae costa detrabitur ut conjux efficiatur ita Christo morienti de latere sanguis effunditur ut Ecclesia construatur communicantes namque corpori sanguini efficimur Ecclesia Christi conjux Aug. His spouse never broke his sleep she rose from his side without any pang or violence he found himself happily married when he awoke and he judged her a piece of himself more from his inclination then his grief But Jesus lost his life to bestow it upon the Church his body must be opened and his heart pierced to form his Bride this Maid was to be sought for in the bowels of her Father and an incision made into the side of the Parent to be the Midwife to this Posthuma As this Quality was dear bought and like David he was fain to mingle his own blood with that of the Philistims to purchase his Church his minde is that the children of so dolorous a Marriage breathe nothing but sufferings and remembring that they are the babes of a God dying upon the Cross they should pass their whole life in sorrow and tribulations For what likelihood is there that being born in pain and anguish they should seek after delights and pleasure That they should be crowned with Roses when their Head was encircled with Thorns That they should be ambitious after the glory of the world since he that gave them being died amongst ignominy and reproaches or that they should seek revenge for their injuries when he from whom they descend begged as a favour the pardon of his enemies Let us imitate our Chief because he is our Example let us remember that all our happiness depends upon our union and conformity with him Let us often meditate that the Father loves none but his onely Son That none can have a part in his Inheritance that is not united to Jesus Christ That he onely can ascend up into heaven that came down from thence That as there is but one Guilty man so there is but one Innocent and as all the Reprobate are involved in the sin of Adam all the Predestinate are wrapt up in the grace of Jesus Christ The Third DISCOURSE Of the strict Vnion of the Head with the Members and of that of Jesus Christ with Christians ALl Polititians acknowledge that the Soveraign being the Head of the State is united with his Subjects and that their union is so neer that their interests are in common He that offends the Prince wrongs the State he that attempts any thing against his sacred Person wounds all those that live in his Kingdom and as Nature teacheth all members to expose themselves for the preservation of their head the Politicks teach all Subjects to venture themselves for the defence of their Soveraign But forasmuch as the obligations are mutual and reciprocal the same Politicks read a Lecture to Kings that they are bound to preserve their Subjects to spare their blood and to handle offenders as corrupted members which are never cut off from the body but with sorrow and necessity The Prince must be sensible of every part of his State that perisheth every blowe that lights upon it pierceth his heart and his love towards it must be such that he be ready to lay down his life for them when he shall judge their safety to depend upon his death This is the reason Seneca sometimes made use of to sweeten the cruel humour of Nero and to instil clemency into the heart of that bloody Parricide Thou said he art the head of the Common-wealth whence thou mayst ghess how necessary Clemency is to thee since in pardoning others thou art pitiful to thy self and favouring thy subjects art kinde to him that lives in them as in his members If we believe this Philosopher there was a time when Nero profited by this advice and this Truth had so powerful an impression upon his spirit that he was witty to finde out pretences to spare the blood of delinquents For to use Seneca's own words When there came an offender before him who
august solemnity then what appeared at the Death of Jesus Christ Men lament the death of their Soveraigns they expresse some sadnesse though for the most part 't is either counterfeit or interessed Those that expected their liberality are afflicted at their death those that feared their power or their displeasure rejoyce But were they so generally beloved that the regret was universall at least we must confesse that Nature would not weep over their Funerals she would be insensible of their death nor would she disorder her Course to witnesse her Lamentation This honour was reserved for Jesus Christ There was never any King but he registred by quick and dead None but this Innocent drew tears from the Stars and the Son of God is the only Soveraign whose obsequies all creatures solemnly attended 'T is true his Mysticall Body partakes of this honour with him Nature hath many times wrought miracles to publish the Innocence of Martyrs the fire hath lost his heat that it might not be instrumentall to their punishment wilde Beasts have waxed tame at their feet Omnes Martyres Deus Spiritualiter liberavit neminem Spritualiter deseruit visibiliter tamē quosdā deseruisse visus est quosdam eripuisse sed ideo quosdam eripuit neputes illum non potuisse eripere ubi non cripuit secretiorem intelligas voluntatem Aug. Tract 8. in Epist 10. and acknowledging in them a Grace more powerfull then that of Originall Righteousnesse they have many times forgot that fiercenesse the sin of man indued them with The Sea hath suffered violence to preserve them hath gently transported them upon his waves or suspending his waters as it were into Wals and Arches hath erected them Temples in his lowest Abysses But the Scripture whose every word is an Oracle teacheth us that the death of the Mysticall Body of Christ shall receive the same honours at the end of the world that his Naturall Body received in Mount Calvary For when the number of the Elect shall be perfect when Jesus Christ coming to judge the quick and the dead shall cut off the corrupted members from his Mysticall Body and remove those from his person that were united to it only by a vain Character and an unprofitable Faith the same prodigies that appeared at his death shall appear at this Judgement and according to the language of the Fathers Nature that bewailed Jesus Christ in his Naturall Body shall bewail him again in his Mysticall Body and all creatures shall put on mourning for the death of their Soveraign Finally these two Bodies shall have the same destiny after their Resurrection as they had the same during their Life for the one shall be glorified as the other and they shall both receive the recompence due to their labours The Son of God rose gloriously out of his Tomb after he had given assurance to his Apostles he was taken up into Heaven to reign there eternally with his Father The Angels made a part of his Triumph the Captives he delivered from the Lymbo's waited upon him those gates of Brasse and Steel that had been shut since the sin of Man opened at his word and his Body that was pierc'd with the nails rent with stripes torn with thorns was set at the right hand of his Father upon a Throne whose ornament was Justice and the foundation Mercy His Mysticall Body shall always receive the same glorious entertainment the Faithfull are admitted into the company of the Blessed the Saints shall reign in Heaven with the Angels they shall be mingled in their Hierarchies according to their merits and as heretofore of the Jew and Gentile was made one Church Militant of Men and Angels is daily made one Church Triumphant The bodies of the Faithfull shall accompany their souls in glory in the generall Resurrection those members that have suffered in the quarrell of Jesus Christ shall be freed from all miseries the Divine Providence shall rouze them out of their dormitories by the clattering sound of a miraculous trumpet it will find in spite of the flames those that have been burnt to ashes in spite of the waters those that have been swallowed up in the deep and working as many miracles as there shall be diversities of death to overcome shall treat the Faithfull as it hath already treated Jesus Christ so that we may say of both the Bodies of the Son of God those glorious words of the Apostle Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse Indeed 't is a Sacrament of Piety that the Word was pleased to be allied to our nature and to the Church to have a Naturall Body and a Mysticall Body Which was manifested in the flesh both of them were manifested in the flesh because it was requisite that the Word should be made Incarnate to Espouse his Church Justified in the Spirit Both of them were justified in the Spirit because they are purely his work and the Regeneration of Beleevers is an Image of the Birth of Jesus Christ Seen of Angels Both of them appeared to Angels in that the same Spirits that waited upon the Son of God assisted his Spouse and extend their care over all her children Preached to the Gentiles beleeved on in the world Both of them were preached to the Gentiles by the Apostles and the mystery of the Incarnation joyned to that of their Vocation hath made up the best part of the Gospel Both of them were beleeved on in the world nor hath any thing more perswaded us of our future greatenesse then the condescention of the Eternall world Received up into Glory Finally both of them were exalted into Glory there to reign everlastingly that the blessedness of Iesus Christ may have its accomplishment and he be as happy in his Members as in his Person The Sixt DISCOURSE That the Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ because she is his Body and of the Community of their Marriage ONe of the ancientest qualities of Iesus Christ is that of a Bridegroom Tanquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo Psal 18. the Prophets have honoured him with this title in the Old Testament David in the forty fifth Psalm hath made his Epithalamium and Saint Iohn who was the end of Types and Figures and the Silence of the Prophets gave out that he was the Friend of the Bridegroom But Adam is the first that descovered to us this mystery and by his marriage represented to us that of Iesus Christ with his Church For besides that his wife was taken out of his side whilst he lay asleep as the Church was out of the side of the Son of God when he was dead we know that the Laws of that marriage more respected the second Adam then the first He having neither Father nor Mother was not obliged to forsake them to cleave unto his wife But Iesus Christ at his Incarnation left his Father when he took upon him the form of a Servant and his Mother at his Passion when he suffered death for
Holy Ghost it would serve us for a strong means to obtain of God all other favours I perceive very well this answer rather scatters the difficulty then resolves it But who knows not that in all Sciences there are some Objections that cannot be answered and in that of Salvation which is the profoundest and most hidden there are a thousand which cannot be avoided but by the simplicity of faith 'T is enough to know in this that Prayer is a Grace more easily obtained then others and that if it be effectuall in respect of its effect 't is sufficient by reason of its facility But scarce are we delivered from one gulf but we are ready to fall into another and provide new Arms to defend us from a new assault which is so much the harder to sustain in that it takes all the force from the doctrine of Saint Augustine For this famous man that so discreetly manageth the justice of God with his mercy teacheth us in a hundred places of his writings that God never forsakes the sinner till the sinner forsakes him that he is not of the humour of those unfaithful friends who loving our fortune better then our person leave us when we have most need He must be provoked to punish us and out of an excesse of bounty as he is always the first to prevent us so is he the last to desert us All the Doctrine of Saint Augustine rowls upon this Maxime Si omnes peccatores Deus sperneret omnes utique sperneret quia sine peccato nemo est sed spernit discedentes à se quos Apostatas vocat Aug. de Nat. gra cap. 62. We must ruine his whole works to destroy it and convince him of falshood to convince him of change He never retracted this Principle and whenever he speaks of the desertion of a sinner healways lays the blame upon his own infidelity But if Grace be effectual if it absolutely dispose of mans wil if Jesus Christ necessarily apply it to vertue how can she abandon him being in his hands and he is rather the principle of her motions then her self For she acts by power derived from him obeys his orders and as long as Grace hath her in possession hath no other desire then to be perfectly united to him The most usuall Answer and perhaps the soundest is that God never forsakes the soul of sinners where he makes his residence till they drive him away by some mortal sin and though he deny them Actual Grace because he is the master of it and owes it no body hee never deprives them of Habitual Grace whereby he remains in their soul till they have broken his Laws or profaned his Sacraments The Disciples of Saint Augustine will be satisfied with this Answer but I conceive it contents not others who will reply with much reason that God takes away Habituall grace from sinners when he refuseth them actuall Grace because they cannot preserve one without the other and so 't is God always who contrary to the Maxime of Saint Augustine quits the sinner first For every one confesseth that as Habitual grace hath no other enemy that can destroy it but mortal sin neither hath she any other defence but Actual grace and assoon as men are deprived of the assistance of the one they are not only in danger but in a necessity of losing the other To stand so strong an Objection we must freely confess that there is some secret infidelity on the sinners part unknown to us that they make not all the use of the grace that is in their power that some way or other they resist its motions and expose themselves to dangers they might easily avoid or else we must ingenuously acknowledge that God abandons them not for having refused them Effectuall Grace because many times by some other lesse powerfull assistance but sufficient however he scatters the occasions that might engage them in sin weakens the force of temptations rebuketh the insolence of Satan and deals with them still as Friends though not as Elect. Finally we may boldly say that there is not a just man but wanders from God every day for he swerves as often as he acts by the instigation of Concupiscence this wretched weight bends him towards the creature and his weakness insensibly engages him in sin so that we need not wonder if God seeing so many things in him contrary to his Grace he deny him the assistance thereof and abandons a sinner that never loves him but when he is obliged to it by some forain external affection The Tenth DISCOURSE That the Christian findes more rest in placing his Salvation in Grace then in his Liberty THere is no man in the world who is not as sollicitous after his Salvation as after his Pleasure and would not secure his Felicity as well as his Fortune Sinners seek Good under the shadow of Evil and these poor mad-men believe they approach their happiness even then when they turn their backs upon it Our first father intended not to make himself miserable by his disobedience he hoped to finde Immortality in that Fruit that was his Death and he fancied repose and quietness in committing the sin that occasioned all his sad calamities His children are not wiser then he the same devil that deceived him abuseth them and his improvident off-spring finde every day their torment where they search for their contentment The Ambitious are remarkable witnesses of this important verity the Passion that animates them to these glorious enter prises where honour cannot be purchased without the hazard of their life is both the Tyrant that possesseth them and the Executioner that torments them They seek blinde as they are reputation in Arms and meet many times nothing but death They feel themselves Men by those very attempts they would pass for Gods Providence that thwarts their designes makes them acknowledge that the prowess of Conquerors holds as well of his Empire as the prudence of Politicians But not to imbark into the deduction of a Truth whereof all sinners can furnish me with testimonies 't is enough to affirm that there are Christians themselves involved in this Error who seek for rest where they find nothing but vexation and discontent For to assure their salvation they would have Predestination grounded upon their Merits that God considered their good works when he separated the Elect from the Reprobate and foresaw their Fidelity when he destined them to Glory They will have all Graces sufficient that their effects depend upon our Wills that we be the authors of our Fortune and that God presenting us aids at every moment 't is in our power to entertain or reject them They say Jesus Christ died indifferently for all men that his merits are offered to us that we can apply the vertue of them to our selves and that in the midst of Paganism without Gospel or Instruction we may feel their effects Finally they will have Paradise stand open
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 Obedience or his Rebellion and thus it is always true that Repentance is a favour reserved for man and if it leane not upon the unconstancy of his mind it is founded at least upon the length of his life which seems therefore prolonged that he may have time to repent But if Repentance be not natural to man 't is at least necessary for a sinner if it be not his difference 't is his remedy if it be not his propriety 't is his only refuge and as Tertullian saith 't is the Table after the Shipwrack Man in Paradise might save himself by his Innocence this acceptable convoy had brought him through a Garden of Roses he had found pleasure with vertue he had conquered without fighting and though he had had no enemies he had not failed to triumph But now there remains only Repentance which swims in bloud or in tears which is covered with earth or with ashes which blots out no transgressions but by lamentations satisfies not the Justice of God but by preventing his arrests nor gaines any battles but those that cost him fighs or wounds The sinner following the Counsels of this austere Vertue is always animated against himself his whole life is spent in sorrow and since he lost Grace he is obliged to bid adiew to all pleasure his very reconciliation with God dispenseth not with him from this severity To be a Christian Nullus hominiū transit ad Christum ut incipiat esse quod non erat nisi eū poeniteat fuisse quod erat Aug. intitles him to be a Penitent 't is enough that he hath sinned in Adam to live in sadness and being a member of Jesus Christ he is bound over to penance For though the union he contracts with this adorable Head in Baptism happily deliver him from all his sins that he recovers Innocence with Grace and be freed from all those pains which are prepared for offenders in Hel he becomes Penitent in becoming Innocent and the same Sacrament that ties him to Jesus Christ engageth him in griefs and sufferings The Son of God uniting the Divinity with the Humanity in his Person is pleased also to unite all things that seemed incompatible Having surpassed the difficulties that withstood the accomplishment of this mystery having accorded power with weakness Non-Entity with Beeing Life with Death he would make Innocence friends with Repentance and charge himself with the pains our sins deserved without interessing the holiness that made him impeccable he was the most just and most afflicted of all men he was equally divided between the blessed and the penitent his soul resented grief with joy and at the same time that he reigned with the Angels he suffered with Mortals According to his example the greatest Saints have laboured to joyne Repentance with Innocence His Mother the purest of Virgins the Holiest of Women bare the infirmities of our nature without contracting the obligations and to imitate her Son was content to be miserable though she were not criminal Saint John Baptist who was a sinner but for some months who received Grace in his mothers belly who after the Virgin was the first object of the miracles of Jesus who was born without sin nor brought into the world with him the ignominious quality of a sinner This great Saint I say was the example of Penitents he spent his whole life in the Desarts he had no other covering then that of Trees or Rocks Earth served him for a Bed Sackcloth for a Garment Water for Drink and Locusts for Food He added the labours of preaching to the austerity of penance he reproved sin with boldness his generous freedome procured him the hatred of the great ones and for a recompence of so many vertues he lost his head at the intreaty of an incestuous woman Thence it comes to pass that the Christian having the honour to be a member of Jesus Christ is obliged to Repentance the favour he hath received in the Church gives him no dispensation from this duty and if he have the use of Reason when admitted to Baptism his Contrition must precede that Sacrament and recover his lost Innocence by the assistance of this vertue His obligation continues with his life For as the Grace of Christianity does not enfranchise him fully from Concupiscence but he groans still under the weight of his irons sees his heart divided between Self-love and Charity that both these principles make him act successively and having obeyed Grace obeys Sin again he is bound to run to sorrow to deface his light offences with Tears and to spend his whole life in Repentance It is the opinion of S. Augustine who carries this truth on farther and imposeth a more severe law upon Christians for be will not have Innocence it self to exempt them from Grief he will have them sigh not because of their sin but because of their banishment he will have them bewail their exile as long as long as it lasts and condemning their coldness that can finde any pleasure in this sad abode saith that the Believer who hath not an aversion for this mortal and perishable life can have no love for the Eternal and Beatifical his regret ought to be an argument of his love and that it becomes him to bemoan his abode upon earth if he have a real desire of being speedily translated to heaven This great Master of Grace seeks no other motives of Repentance then the miseries of life he thinks it sufficient to sad our hearts that we live under the tyranny of sin that we feel the rebellions of the flesh and suffer the persecution of the Elements the justice of these continued pains teacheth us that we are guilty the Prayer that Christ taught us confirms us in this belief and seeing we cannot be his disciples except we daily say Dimitte nobis debita nostra we must confess we are not free from sin otherwise the Church would abuse the Faithful the Son of God himself had involved us in an errour and as S. Augustine saith asking pardon for a sin we never committed we should utter a blasphemy because we should lye in the midst of our most august mysteries We cannot doubt then that Repentance is necessary for a Christian nor can we deny that to the end it may be profitable it must be severe especially if the precedent sins have been notorious For as Repentance is a kinde of Justice it proportions the Punishment to the Offence it respects the quality of the delinquents considers the Majestie offended and casting its eyes upon the torments of the damned strives to make some resemblance of them in the revenge it takes upon Criminals Let us carefully examine all these Reasons see the just motives we have to punish our selves and not to slatter our lazie negligence in so important a concernment let us consider the qualities of this Vertue Repentance is a Judgement where contrary to the ordinary Laws the same Delinquent is Witness
Judge and Executioner In the quality of a Witness he is bound to examine his Conscience to Wrack his Memory to search the inmost thoughts of his Minde the secretest intentions of his Will and to convent himself before himself without Excuse or Flattery As a Judge he ought to consider the Number and the Quality of the crimes dextrously to examine the prisoner carefully to observe the cause of the fault and with Justice to pronounce sentence whereby the Criminal may suffer according to his desert and the party offended receive fatisfaction to his dignity And because soul and body are both concerned in the sin they must be joyntly condemned but the soul being the author of the iniquity and the body but the minister or complice he must begin the correction by an inward sadness mixed with Fear and Love and finish it by an external pain attended with Shame and Sorrow For there would be a kinde of Injustice to separate those in the Punishment that were Partners in the Fault and the Repentance would be imperfect did it not reach the body as well as the soul Having pronounced righteous judgement the Judge must take upon him the quality of the Executioner and execute what himself hath ordained being zealous for the Justice of God betraying Self-love so that he abandon it to Charity and full of anger and indignation revenge Jesus Christ upon his enemy All true Penitents have done thus the Contrition of their spirit hath produced the Maceration of their body and having conceived a mortal displeasure at their offences they have obliged their eyes to bewail them their hands to punish them and their mouthes to confess them They joyned Fastings to Prayer Watchings to Reading Discipline to Obedience that mortifying both soul and body they might obtain pardon for both these offenders Nothing can yeeld such assistance to so good a designe as the consideration of a second quality of Repentance For it takes the name from Pain 't is a Punishment as well as a Judgement 't is mingled with Grace and Rigour In peccatorem poenitentia pronuntians pro Dei indignatione fungitur temporali afflictatione aeterna supplicia non dicam frustratur sed expungit Tertul. and according to the conceit of Tertullian 't is an abridgement of eternal pains The sinner if a believer is not ignorant that his crimes which inflict death upon his soul merit hell he knows very well the decree is gone out the truth whereof he cannot question and that every transgressor that loseth Grace is worthy of the Torments the devil and his angels suffer When he is converted therefore and by the favour of Repentance hath his sins remitted he is obliged in spirit to descend into the centre of the earth to consider the pains the damned endure and then to equalize his sorrow he ought to imitate what he hath seen and to deal so severely with himself that he may satisfie that Justice which inflicts eternal punishments upon his enemies But nothing ought so much to animate him against himself as the consideration of his offence which being in its own nature infinite merits eternal punishments For though the sin be committed in a moment Momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum est quod cruciat Greg. Mag. and the pleasure that accompanies it be but an illusion yet doth it put the sinner in a condition out of which he cannot arise but by Grace which is not at his disposal He falls into this abyss by his own proper motion but he cannot get out of it by his own strength He may defend himself when he is tempted but being overcome he cannot rid himself of his enemy He enters into a slavery that insensibly engageth him into a necessity If Grace which he cannot challenge as his due prevent him not he lives and dies in a very deplorable condition and carries the same minde into hell which he cherished upon the earth Therefore doth the Divine Justice that reads mens hearts and looks rather upon the dispositions then actions of offenders inflict an eternal punishment upon a sin not fully finished and condemns a transgressor to endless torments who had always offended had he always lived But though he should not retain this unhappie disposition till his death 't is enough to merit an everlasting punishment that he hath committed a sin whose malice hath no bounds For Reason tells us there is no proportion between the Creature and the Creator the distance that separates them is infinite and therefore the sinner that forsakes the Creator to adhere is infinite Qui peccat mortaliter vult Deum esse impotentem aut injustum aut insipientem quia vellet Deum aut sua peccata nescire aut vindicare non posse aut vindicare nolle Bern. offers him an infinite injury which cannot justly be punished but by an eternaltorment Indeed he endeavours to destroy God by his offence he would rob him of his perfections and in the minde he is in to content himself he would have God void of light to see him without goodness to hate him without power to correct him Therefore is the Penitent at the sight of so many disorders and injustices obliged to make war upon himself to take Gods part against himself to punish a delinquent severely whose due it is to burn eternally and to continue a torment during his life which ought to continue for all generations The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the Renunciation and Self-denial of a Christian POlicie and Religion in the difference of their designes exact the same dispositions in their subjects Policie will have men prefer Publike interests before Private and to sacrifice their Fortune for the preservation of the State Religion also will have men consider nothing but the glory of Jesus Christ being always ready to immolate themselves in his quarrel Policie will not have men wedded to their goods lest Avarice should make them cowards Religion going a step further obligeth them to a voluntary poverty and will have them really or in affection divorced from their riches Finally Policie will have Subjects renounce their Will that they be more the States then their own Families and depend more upon their Soveraign then on Themselves Religion requires the same duty from her disciples Qui vult venire post me abneget semetipsum tollat crucem suam sequatur me Luc. 9. and will ahve them renounce their inclinations when they are admitted into the Church and Jesus Christ to be the Master of their actions and of their persons All the Maximes she gives us tend to this end all her counsels inspire us with this disposition and it seems the whole Gospel hath no other intention then to make us die to our selves that we may be guided by Jesus Christ And certainly we must confess If there be Rigour in the designe there is much Justice in it For besides that the Church no more then the State can subsist without submission and
the heat of self-love makes in our souls In which respect 't is certainly the truth of the Tree of Life and the accomplishment of that figure For though Innocent Man had other meats besides that and excepting the forbidden fruit all others that Paradise afforded were allowed him yet was he obliged to take of this from time to time as a medicine which the mercy of God had prepared for him to defend him against the Natural heat which insensibly wasted him Whence it is easie to infer that in the state of Innocence the body of man was composed of parts that could not agree That fire which makes man live devoured the radical moisture on which it feeds and though he daily took in nourishment which being much purer then ours might preserve life much longer yet had he need of an extraordinary diet which might repair the ruines the natural heat made in his body and Divines Providence which never abandons that sinner provided the Tree of Life for Innocent Man to defend him against the internal enemy who had insensibly brought him to death by means of old age and consumption Thus may we say that the body of the Son of God shields us against that forain heat Concupiscentia carnis in Baptismo dimittitur non ut non sit sed ut non obsit non imput tur Aug. lib. de Nup. Concup cap. 25. which setting upon the warmth of Charity threatens the Christian with death For though Concupiscence since Baptism be no longer sin and if sometimes they give it this name 't is because it is the principal effect yet is she not idle in our souls she makes strange progresses when her fury is not stopt she makes use of all occasions that are offered and holding under her command the passions and the senses she endeavours by their mediation to enslave the understanding and the will Though never so weak and langnishing in Christians she hath still vigour enough to engage them in sin if their reason assisted with grace continually oppose not her designs The little remainder there is makes them they cannot live secure and as long as they nourish the least degree of self-love there is no crime whereof they have not the seeds in them What the Son of God hath said of the grain of Mustard seed which is so small at first and so prodigious in the progress is not comparable to Concupiscence whose least sparks are able to kindle mighty conflagrations which only the Grace of Jesus Christ can extinguish Indeed his Body the noblest Organ of his Spirit moderates daily these heats in the Eucharist smothers the flames Concupiscence stirs up to consume us he gives beeing to that vertue that fight obscenity weakens that strange burning which glows against divine heat without which a Christian cannot live He produceth two contrary effects which manifests his power to be infinite For by kindling one fire he quencheth another and warming us with his own love happily delivers us from that of self 'T is a a wonderful Wine which contrary to the nature of ordinary wine bears Virgins and renders them pure thereby to render them pregnant in Vertues Finally 't is a Bread of Life that nourisheth soul and body carrying vigour into the one and light into the other to the end that preserving the whole man it may be his food in health and his remedy in sickness Having contrary to the Laws of Physick cured him contrary to the Laws of Nature it endeavours to make him young For Religion more powerful then the Fable hath found out a secret to renue the Christians youth in the Eucharist and to discover in Mysteries what it made us believe in Types and Figures Indeed all the Fathers are of opinion that the Tree of Life defended man from old age and preserved him from that languishing consumption which disposed him insensibly to his death if common fruits could preserve his life they were unable to maintain his vigour Though they had all the purity Innocent Nature could furnish her works with yet in repairing mans strength they had not restored that freshness which accompanies youth To secure himself from that mischief which had not respected his Innocence he was obliged to have recourse to the Tree of Life and from time to time to take an agreeable Physick which being no way distasteful restored him his primitive vigour and re-instated him in that flourishing age he was at first created in It is true that as Prudence was natural to him he never expected length of days to impair his beauty nor that old-age should print wrinkles upon his face he made such seasonable use of this remedy that the freshness of his complexion never faded The Roses and the Lilies were always mingled on his cheeks age and deformity never seized a body whose soul was exempt from sin and the fruit of the Tree of Life seconding his ordinary food maintained him in a vigorous constitution which was afraid neither of Sickness nor Weakness In this happie state Man had the advantages of the Aged and not their imperfections his Reason without the tedious trouble of Experience was furnished with all Lights requisite to conduct him he had no need to enfeeble his body to fortifie his minde but both the parts that composed him being equally innocent he had no occasion to wish that age might weaken the one to make it more obedient nor strengthen the other to render it more absolute Thus the fruit of the Tree of Life maintained Man in Youth and Innocence and these two inseparable qualities combating Old-age and Sin made him spend his life happily and holily Although Christians have not this advantage upon the earth and that their body being still the slave of Concupiscence cannot avoid the infirmities incident to old-age yet in their souls they fail not to enjoy the priviledges of Innocence they finde in the holy Sacrament what Adam found in the Tree of Life they receive a new vigour in the Eucharist their souls grow young as often as they approach to Jesus Christ when like Eagles they soar as high as this Sun lodg'd in a cloud they are astonished that in the infirmity of their flesh their spirit is renewed and that the outward man falling to decay by yeers and penance the inward man recruits by the heavenly meat he feeds upon This Miracle passeth sometimes from the soul to the body yet there have been some holy persons who taking no other sustenance but what is offered upon our Altars have lived many yeers Many times this Nutriment hath imprinted its qualities upon their bodies and darting forth certain rays of Grace upon their countenances communicated to them a part of that beauty which the blessed spirits shall possess Post primā caenam it a similes evascrunt Christodiscipuli ejus ut vix ab illo possent discerni Chrys S. John Chrysostome was of opinion that the Apostles participated of this priviledge in their
Earth the effects of his bounty they would bring presents and victimes of them that returning his Soveraignty what they had received from his mercy they would sprinkle his Altars with wine load them with fruits and deck them with flowers But there is a question whether to satisfie their piety they would exercise their cruelty upon Animals whether they would butcher those innocent victimes shed their bloud upon the Earth and in that happy state commit murders that they might offer sacrifices Some are of opinion that man living only upon fruits slaughtered no victimes that having not as yet deserved death he would not make them bear the punishment of his sin and being content to offer their Wool or their Milk he honoured God and did not deprive them of life Others conceive they slew these innocent Beasts not to pacifie the Justice of God who was not as yet offended but to adore his Soveraignty and publickly to profess that expecting no sin he might binde Man over to death and require it of him not as a Punishment but as a Sacrifice The Scripture seems to favour this opinion and the skins wherewith our first parents were cloathed after their transgression make us suspect they had sacrificed some Animals during the state of Innocence and that the Supremacie of the Almighty imitating his Justice was content that Man sacrificed them in stead of himself But not to engage in the search of a Truth which lies buried in darkness and oblivion 't is enough to know that Sacrifice is a publike acknowledgement of Gods Soveraign power and that this was the first motive that invited Man to offer him Oblations The second is taken from his Holiness Sanctum terribile nomen ejus Psal 110. which is one of the noblest and least known of all his perfections The Scripture never speaks of it but with respect and mixing admiration always with this attribute teacheth us that we are to magnifie it rather by our silence then by our words The Angels in their eternal Hallelujahs are taken up onely with this adorable perfection They forget as it were his Power that drew them out of Nothing his Providence that guided them while they walked in the way of Merit his Mercy that fortified them in their conflict his Justice that crowned them in the victory to think onely upon his Holiness Sanctus sanctus sanctus Dominus Deus exercituum Isa 6. which unites them to the Supreme Good and separates them from all things else Indeed it is the Seat of the Almighty and if it be true according to the opinion of the Fathers that his Essence was his Habitation we may say that his Holiness is his Throne and place of rest For all the other perfections more sollicitous after our advantage then his glory oblige him to apply himself to our necessities His Power marcheth forth to seek us in the Abysses of Non-entity his Mercy delivers us from our Miseries his Goodness pardons our Offences and if his Justice that punisheth us seem to espouse his interests it presently forgets them because having revenged them it studies to recompense our deservings But Holiness Sanctitas est ab omni inquinatione libera incontaminatissima perfectissima puritas Dionys Requievit ab operibus non in operibus suis in se enim Deus requiescit it studies to recompense our deservings But Holiness more zealous for the Glory of God then the Salvation of Man separates him from all things shuts him up in himself and surrounds him with such a brightness of Majestie that his Creatures dare not approach unto him He rests in this ever-to-be-worshipped Throne more holily then in those blessed spirits who borrowing their name from their properties or from their offices are called the living Thrones of the Divine Essence Sacrifices then are immolated upon Altars to adore this ineffable Perfection They perish by the knife or by the flame to testifie that God is not at all fastned to his Creatures that the noblest are unworthy to come into his presence and that approaching before him he must destroy them because there is nothing deserves to be offered up unto him 'T was in this humble and true sense of the Divine Majestie that the most innocent of all Sacrifices bowed his head and gave up the ghost In this apprehension that Jesus Christ adoring the dereliction of his Father acknowledged that as his Victim he was to be forsaken though as his Son he remained inseparable nor that it was just for God to go out of his rest to deliver him from his sorrows or to avenge him of his enemies Tu autem in sancto habitas laus Israel But because we cannot speak much of a Perfection whose Greatness amazeth us and the lustre whereof dazzles us we pass to the Fulness of God which is the Third Motive of our duty of Sacrifice Sadai appellatur Deus ab Hebraeis hoc est sibi sufficiens God is so Immense that by a glorious Impotency he can do nothing which is not useless in respect of Himself Whatever he produceth out of his Essence is unworthy of his employment Inasmuch as he findes his happiness in himself he stands not in need of our Magnificats and seeing his felicity supplies him with inexhaustible riches he hath no need of our Presents he possesseth all things in a transcendent eminency and they are much nobler in him then in themselves Omnis pulchritudo agri mecū est ubertas omnium in terra gignentium mecum est cum illo sunt omnia cognitione quaedam ineffabilis sapientia Dei in verbo constituta Aug. in Ps 49. The Flowers are immortal in God the Fields are always cloathed with a springing fertility the Trees never lose their fruit the Seasons are never irregular the Elements jar not in him there men live for ever and all Creatures subsist in their perfections without any mixture of deficiency Thence it comes to pass that we deliver up Victims to the knife and consume them in the fire to publish aloud that we pretend not to enrich him that possesseth all things and who would not be God did he stand in need of our Oblations Dixi Domino Deus meus es tu quoniam bonorum meorum non eges Therefore in the very state of Innocence they poured out the Liquors that were offered they burnt the Fruits that were presented and striving to annihilate them proclaimed openly that they were no way profitable to him But since sin hath robbed us of original righteousness we were obliged to joyn offended Justice to these three Perfections and to offer Sacrifice to him to pacifie his Fury For inasmuch as he is chiefly busied to revenge his neglected slighted Mercy that 't is this that laid the foundations of hell made deluges over-flow shakes the earth till it tremble we have endeavoured to appease this incensed attribute by our homages Knowing that Death is one of the highest vengeances he takes we
by the Resurrection nor will the Faithful be truly consummated till he shall be transformed into God by the splendours of Glory Therefore doth Saint Augustine in his Comment upon that passage of the Psalmist Introibo in domum tuam in Holocaustis deliver these excellent words which serve greatly to illustrate this truth The Holocaust is a Sacrifice wherein the Victime is wholly devoured by the fire and the Church in the expectation she hath one day to be admitted into Heaven useth the same language and perswades her self that the fire of glory will consume her to the end that nothing of her self remaining in her she may be wholly her Beloveds This desire will not be accomplisht till the general Resurrection when our mortal shall be cloathed with Immortality and life shall triumph over death the Divine fire will produce this effect and consuming all our perishable being will make of us an Holocaust For nothing mortall shall remain in our flesh nothing culpable in our soul both of them shall be consummated by life that passing into a new being we may become the Holocausts of the Lord. That which ought to befall all Christians at the day of the generall Resurrection did happen to Jesus Christ at the day of his glorious Resurrection Death was swallowed in Life Glory consumed infirmity and leaving the likeness of sin he entred into the Majesty of God his Father But because this sacrifice would be impetfect if the Communion did not succeed the Consummation The love power of Jesus Christ invented a means whereby without departing from God he might communicate himself to the Faithful and make them partakers of his body and bloud This is done upon our Altars where offering up himself daily he finisheth the sacrifice of the Cross and by a mystery worthy of his charity he communicates not only the merits of his death but the very victime that was immolated upon Mount Calvary It bears the name of sacrifice not only because it finisheth that of the Cross which precisely contains nothing but the killing of the sacrifice but for that it exhibits all the marks of a true sacrifice For besides that it is the verity of the sacrifice of Melchisedeh instituted by the High Priest who hath commanded his Ministers to doe it in remembrance of him We may say without any offence to piety that it hath more shew of a sacrifice then that of the Cross because it begins with Prayer succeeds the eating of the Paschal Lamb as the substance the shadow contains an innocent victime is instituted by words dedicated to sacrifices and examining it seriously we shall find the oblation of the victime because there it is offered by the hands of the Priest His mystical death because immolated not by the knife but by the Word of God its perfect consummation because in a glorious condition which rescues it from all humane miseries and its communion because taken into the bosome of God Sacrificium corporis sanguinis Christi successit omnibus sacrificiis veteris Testamenti quae immolabantur in umbra hujus futuri Aug. and the mouth of the Faithful But though all these conditions should fail it would be enough to say that as the death of Jesus Christ though but the killing of the victime ceaseth not to be a true sacrifice that of the Altar though but the communion of the victim ceaseth not to be also a true sacrifice though to speak properly both of them make but one perfect sacrifice according to the true sense of those words of Saint Paul Vna oblatione consummavit sanctificatos and that one and the same Jesus is continually the victime but in such different conditions that they give occasion to Divines to make them pass for two distinct sacrifices The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the difference between these two Sacrifices and what the Christian receives in the one and in the other THough it were very easie to demonstrate the wonderful resemblances which are found between the sacrifice of the Cross and of the Altar and without doing violence to Scripture we might make it appear that one is the image of the other that the same victime is immolated in Both that the Eternall Father is equally honoured in Both and that the Faithful receive thence like advantages yet because things are illustrated better by their differences then their similitudes and that which distinguisheth them from others is always more particularly theirs I have designed this Discourse to unfold the oppositions Nature and Grace hath placed in these two sacrifices Quod autem mortuus est peccato mortuus est semel quod autem vivit vivit Deo Ro. 6. which though one and the same thing in their ground and foundation are notwithstanding different in their circumstances whereof the first is that that of the Cross was never offered but once and this of the Altar is offered every day For the right understanding of this difference we must know that the sacrifice of the Cross is a sacrifice of Redemption Qui non habet necessitatē quotidie quemadmodū sacerdotes prius pro suis delictis hostias offerre deinde pro populi hoc enim fecit semel se offerendo Hebrae 7. where the victime is charged with the sins of the world satisfies for them by the infiniteness of his merits appeaseth the Justice of the Eternal Father and delivers men from the tyranny of the Devil Inasmuch as all those things are no otherwise performed then by the death of Christ which cannot be repeated without a miracle and the Glory whereinto he is entred suffers him not to die a second time Saint Paul tels us that he redeemed the world by that one only sacrifice The Priests of the Old Testament were bound to reiterate their sacrifices because the merit of the victime was limited and to speak properly were neither acceptable to God nor meritorious for men but because they were the Figures of Jesus Christ But inasmuch as the Sacrifice he offered to his Father upon the Cross is of infinite merit he need not repeat it and having sufficiently expiated all the sins of the world it had been useless to pacifie God who was no longer offended and to satisfie for those faults which were already pardoned Thence it comes to pass that the Sacraments which exhibit the death of the Son of God and are applicatory to us of their merit imprint a Character upon us and are never performed twice Baptism is administred but once not onely because it is the Christians birth which cannot be done over again but also because it is the Figure of the death of Christ which according to the language of S. Paul Sicut semel Christus moritur in Cruce ita semel Christianus moritur in Baptismo Aug. cannot be readministred without offence Therefore is it that the same Apostle condemning those that gave themselves over to sin in hope to make an atonement by a second Baptism said to the
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
it which is displeasing to God But in expectation of this happy houre they must begin their sacrifice here and by little and little destroying what is contrary to Grace make Holocausts of all their inordinate inclinations For we learn from Origen that though we are no longer under the Law of Moses we are not dispensed with for sacrificing but as the Law of Grace is the accomplishment of the other we ought to immolate all those passions that were represented to us by the Beasts they slaughtered at the foot of the Altar We satisfie this duty when we set upon our criminal affections and full of zeal and courage we endeavour to stifle them We immolate a Bull when we tame our pride and labour to kill this sin that gives life to all others we sacrifice a Goat when we quench the lustful flames of impurity and by a divine fire mortifie this infernal one which devours all vertues we slay a Ram when we subdue our anger disarm this seditious passion calm this raging sea and manacle this fury which troubles the tranquillity of our mind we offer Pigeons and Turtles when we banish those volatile inordinations which divert us from piety and engage our minds in the affairs of the world But if we have subjected our passions to the dominion of reason and by a happy barrenness the Earth of our Intellectual part breeds no monsters which we may offer up to God we must seek into our body and of our members make innocent sacrifices For the great Apostle of the Gentiles teacheth us that we are obliged to offer our bodies a lively sacrifice and to pacifie the anger of Heaven by a holy oblation acceptable to him Vt exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem as if he would say that we ought to die to sin that we may live to Grace and the members which have served heretofore to the tyranny of Concupiscence may now become serviceable to the lawful power of Charity or he would advertise us that if in the Old Testament only dead Victims were offered up to God in the New we must offer up living ones and that mortification working in the Christian what death did in the Beasts we must joyn the two sacrifices together and accord death with life to satisfie the Divine Justice Thus the whole exercise of a Christian is to make war upon their bodies and to gain victories over themselves they vanquish their enemies in facrificing their members and they may boast that in offering sacrifices to God they erect trophies to themselves In consideration of these Truths me thinks we may say with Origen that all the faithfull are Victims and that in the difference of their conditions they agree in this common quality If any thing distinguish them 't is the degree of their love and the perfection of their Sacrifice The Apostles saith He were the first Victims because they forsook all to follow their Master and having given him their heart by Charity their spirit by Faith their goods by Poverty they moreover consecrated their bodies by the Repentance of their life and by the cruelty of their death The Martyrs immediately succeed them because having a long time laboured by Grief at last they have perfected their sacrifice by Martyrdom The Virgins hold the Third place because they triumph over their bodies tame a hundred severall ways this domestick Enemy and not content to consecrate him by purity borrow the assistance of pennance to mortifie him by contrition The Continent and the Married follow these close and if in their sacrifice they destroy not the Victim they put it at least in a condition that it no more rebels against the Sacrificers and where it expects with patience for death Castitas viduitas de bonis carnis Deo adolentur Tertul. to finish that which Continence hath begun Tertullian was much of this opinion when he said That our bodies furnished us with Victims as well as vertues and that Fasting Silence and Chastity were fruits of this Tree which might be gathered to make an offering for Jesus Christ For though the Body be the least part of man 't is not the most unprofitable its imperfections are advantageous to us its rebellions serve us for Tryals and Grace which is ingenious turns the most part of its miseries into remedies The infirmities which trouble its health help our Sacrifice and the diseased person that suffers his afflictions patiently is a victim who though not innocent is notwithstanding well-pleasing to Jesus Christ Poverty which strips us of superfluities or of necessaries which reduceth us to the condition our Birth found us in and whither Death will bring us is a sacrifice which gains us as much merit as it procures us inconvenience Nay Death it self which seems the eldest daughter of sin who shews all the horrours of her father upon her countenance is not so much the destruction as the sacrifice of our Body she imitates the severity of fire and sword she she alone does what the knife and the pile of wood somtimes did and reduceth the victim to ashes having deprived it of life she serves for the Divine Justice and Mercy together Deficit homo ad Gloriam moritur a◠vitam perit ad salutē mors per Christum commendatio facta est Charitatis Chrysost she prepares the body for Immortality nor despoils it of corruption but to apparell it with Glory This is it that imprints so violent a desire of Death in the hearts of the faithful which makes them in the midst of their prosperity call her in to their assistance and wish that comming to end their life she may come to perfect their sacrifice For it seems she hath changed Nature since Jesus Christ consecrated her in his person she is like those waters that take the taste and colour of those Minerals through which they pass she hath lost all her gastliness and hath some secret beauties which beget love in the soul of all Saints She that led us to the gates of hell lifts us up to heaven she that was the mother of shame and sadness is now the mother of joy and glory she that filled us with despair buoys us up with hope she that established the Empire of sin destroys it in a word she that was the Chastisement of our Crime is now the Sacrifice of our Love For this end have all the greatest Saints made the Panegyrick of death they have rendered thanks to the Divine Justice that inflicts a punishment upon us which shortens our misery and advanceth our happiness which separates us from the world and unites us to Jesus Christ and under a false appearance of rigour delivers us from the dangers that threaten us the griefs that torment us and the sins that tyrannize over us This made that famous Penitent say He was just that expected death but he was holy that desired it Finally this drew that Elogie out of the mouth of S. Paul
for considering the advantages which he promised himself by death how that it would unite him to Jesus Christ he called it by a new name his Gains and his Riches it enters into his minde as the recompence of his travels an indempnity for his losses and the most assured purchase he could make in this world Mihi vivere Christus est mori lucrum Thus every Christian may easily become a Victim because death is a favourable occasion and being well managed may serve to expiate our sins to satisfie the Divine Justice and to imitate the charity of Jesus But the misfortune is that Love is wanting in this Sacrifice and holding a language far different from that of Isaac we are obliged to say We finde the Sacrifice but there is neither knife nor fire to consume it Indeed all men die but few Christians make good use of their death and there are none but the Elect who turning it into a Holocaust know so well how to use it that it opens them the gate of heaven The Third DISCOURSE That the Christian is a Souldier and a Conqueror THe God whom we adore takes his Glory as well from War as from Rest and if he be called in Scripture the God of peace he is as often called the Lord of hosts His Angels are the souldiers that wait upon him to the Battel who avenge him of his enemies Numquid est numerus militum ejus the Stars which keep watch as Sentinels about his Palace bear the name of the Militia in the language of the Prophets Militia coelorum and all those that serve him for Ministers in his Embassies serve him for Combatants in his Conquests Therefore did the Angels who gave notice to the Shepherds of the birth of Jesus Christ take their name from their principal employment and called themselves the heavenly Host Multitudo Militiae coelstis and when the Son of God was taken in the garden of Olives and blamed Saint Peter who would have hindered the work of our Salvation he told his disciples that it was easie for him to ask of his Father legions of Angels to defend him from his enemies Men are considered under this quality upon earth the holy Scripture calls them Souldiers and if we believe the testimony of Job their whole life is a continual warfare They have as many Enemies as Subjects Rebellion is spread over every corner of their State the parts whereof they are composed are revolted and which way soever they turn themselves they finde occasions of Fighting Christians are yet more obliged to War then Men the Sacrament that enables them withal engageth them into the combat Labora sicut bonus miles Christi 2 Tim. 2. Nemo coronabitur nifi vicerit neque vincet n si certaverit quis autem certet nisi inimicū habeat Ex Sent. Prosp The Earth is the Field where they try the Mastery and these terms of a List a Crown a Souldier which S. Paul so often useth in his Epistles are so many proofs of so known a Truth The Church it self is an Army the Christians whereof it is formed are the Souldiers and the Scripture describes her in arms in these words Terribilis ut Castrorum acies ordinata Wherein it seems we may behold the difference between a Camp and a City Both of them are Bodies which have their Head and Members their Laws and Policie their designes and employments But in Cities we observe a pleasing variety of conditions equally contributing to their advantage and beauty There we see Priests who chant forth the praises of God in his Temple who load his Altars with offerings and mixing their tears with the blood of the Victims endeavour to appease his just indignation There are Magistrates which end Controversies maintain Peace among the People and make Justice raign in Families There are Merchants which traffick with strangers who by their Commerce occasion Plenty and by their diligence supply all necessities But difference of condition seems to be banished from Armies as all fight so all are souldiers those that command and those that obey bear this quality and both of them place their glory in their valour Therefore the Church being an Army those it consists of must necessarily fight the most feeble must be courageous the women must be Amazones and all Christians forgetting the difference of their conditions must take upon them the quality of Souldiers Enemies will not be wanting to exercise their courage because the World the Flesh and the Devil hold intelligence to set upon them For the Christians war is at home whatever he hath received from Adam is an occasion of exercising him and for a punishment of his sin he is obliged to fight with himself The Flesh is never at agreement with the Spirit these two parties have always some difference to compose and though linkt together by natural chains and common interests cease not continually to make war upon one another They are two friends that usually fall out and two enemies that caress each other two friends that shake hands and two enemies that make mutual visits two friends that cannot endure one another and two enemies that can never be asunder This division is the first punishment of our sin and when we began to be upon ill terms with God we ceased to have any good correspondence with our selves But that which seems most troublesom is that one Combat furnisheth us with many enemies for as S. Augustine saith we daily fight in our heart in such a little room we finde whole armies and sometimes we grapple with Avarice sometimes with Pride sometimes with Impurity so that 't is very hard being set upon by so many enemies if we receive not some wound This Combat is obstinately disputed if there be some Truce there is no real Peace it lasts till death and if soul and body be not separated it is impossible to make them friends The Senses bring us false reports the Passions raise storms our Inclinations set up a party and to defend us from so many enemies we are obliged to borrow the assistance of Vertue Every Age hath its exercise Infancy is oppressed with Errour and Ignorance Youth is baited with Ambition and Wantonness Old-age is clogged with Anger and Peevishness so that there is no condition but hath need of Grace to defend it from those enemies that set upon it The Devil takes part with the Body to destroy us employs his wiles or his force to terrifie or seduce us he mingles himself with our Humours disorders our Passions troubles our Temper and as if he were the Soveraign of Man as well as the Prince of the World he deboists our Subjects to disquiet our Rest Sometimes he takes upon him the shape of a Lion and sometimes that of a Serpent that using subtilty and violence he may gain some advantage upon us He studies our inclinations to destroy us suits himself with our humours to surprise us and regulating his promises
the loss of their goods by Alms grow hardened against Stripes by Discipline grow acquainted with Hunger by Fasting and learn to die in Torments mortifying themselves by Austerities Nothing more heartens them then the example of their Head his Agonies sweeten their Sorrows they count themselves happie to suffer for his glory who suffered for their salvation and observing his whole life finde their strength in his death and their recompence in his resurrection The Fifth DISCOURSE That Happiness is rather found in Poverty then in Riches THe inclination we have for the Supreme Good is so strong that sin hath not as yet been able to deface it The Privation there of increaseth the desire and as Health is never more lovely then in the region of Sickness neither is Happiness ever more acceptable then in the confines of Misery Nevertheless we must not always take counsel of this nor follow the advice it always gives us for when we lie under an affliction we are easily perswaded 'tis ever more dolorous and the good it deprives us of exceedingly more considerable Thus we see those that are fallen into disgrace look upon Glory as the supreme felicity those that live in Poverty imagine Riches the true happiness Thence it comes to pass that Poverty being a very common misfortune the opinion that placeth happiness in Plenty is an ordinary errour All men would be rich this passion stealeth into all different conditions and those that speak most pompously of the contempt of earthly goods Est intolerabilis res poscere nummos contemnere pecuniam sub gloria paupertatis quarere Sen. are those that most greedily cover them It seems the evils that Want hath clogged them with provokes their desires and the fear of realpsing makes them of all men most penurious Rich men sooth themselves with this belief out of another consideration and because they see that Riches are the means to satisfie their desires that they open the gate of Honour with a golden-key corrupt the integrity of Judges and the chastity of women with silver they erect altars to a Goddess that prospers all their unjust designes Morality furnisheth us with Reasons to ruine this errour and Religion will afford us Maximes to perswade Christians that if there be any shadow of felicity upon earth it is rather found in Poverty then in Plenty One of the most splendid conditions of the Supreme Good is that it is the centre of our Love and the end of our Desires That which leaves us any thing to wish is not true and because it fully takes not up our heart it possesseth not all perfections This obligeth us to despise riches and to condemn those worldings that would establish their felicity in them For if they bear the name of Goods 't is an unjust title they usurp because for the most part they are means Nature hath furnished us with to procure what we stand in need of The use of Riches is for Commerce we give them in exchange for the commodities we would have and if sometimes we keep them 't is to make use of them in our necessities Thus Riches are extremely different from the Supreme Good which being once possessed is never forsaken and is so the last end of Man that it can never be a medium to arrive at any other more excellent All Philosophers confess that Felicity is a thing so intimately annexed to the Creature that it penetrates him thorewout and so closely united to him that it cannot be separated If it have not these two conditions Man will never be perfectly happie there will be some faculty of his soul which unsatisfied will remain languishing and when they shall all enjoy a contentment he will still be liable to fear lest haply he may be despoiled of the Good he possesseth Now Riches want one of these two conditions they surround us but no ways inform us they are in our coffers but enter not into out hearts we commit the keeping of them to our servants and we are constrained to aband on our felicity as often as we take a journey This misfortune causeth another For being not under safe custody they are exposed to pillage Injustice and violence may plunder us of them and though Gold be the sinews of War 't is in his power that hath the best Sword to take it from us Thus Riches create Fear expose their masters or their slaves to danger and whatever succour they promise procure us more ill then they bring good But should they be as good as their word and were it easie for us to keep them yet could they not give us a protection from the evil whereof they boast themselves the remedy Cum dicitur nihil illi deest attende si nihil cupit nihil deest si autem adhuc cupit accesserunt divitiae ut egestas cresceret Aug. For if there be any misery in the world which Riches can cure us of it must be Poverty It seems as soon as they enter into a house they banish Want and that 't is impossible to be rich and poor both together In the mean time experience teacheth us that Riches introduce Poverty that they inflame our desires sharpen our disease under a pretence of mitigating it and for our punishment beget indigence in our hearts at the same time that they occasion plenty in our house All prophane Philosophy hath acknowledged this Truth and the Stoicks have confessed it that the most biting poverty was that which we suffer in the midst of our Riches This just judgement hath two causes The first is the capacity of mans heart which none but an infinite Good can fill the second is the scantness of riches which increase our appetite in stead of allaying it and like a handful of water thrown upon a great fire serves onely to make it scorch more violently Thence may we conclude with the Philosopher that the richer a man is the more miserable is he that his riches impoverish him if Grace do not instruct him how to moderate his desires so that what he lookt upon as a remedy is a second evil more dangerous then that he would cure This conceit discovers another which makes it evident that in the condition whereto sin hath reduced man Riches are more pernicious then prositable Every one knows that the inordinateness of our Passions is one of the severest punishments of our transgression there is scarce one that is not rebellious against Reason and which attempts not the violation of his authority All our Desires are unjust all our Hopes interessed all our Affections criminal every Passion produceth a sin if not withheld by Grace and whoever gives himself up to his inclinations is sure to wander from his duty In the mean time Riches side with these rebels against their Soveraign they flatter all our desires serve as ministers to all our unjust designes and furnish us with means to make us more culpable under a colour of rendering
is no wonder if an absolute power dazles the eyes of mortals and if those who look onely upon the bravery imagine it at least an image of felicity But certainly the more advised make not this judgement and Politicians who are acquainted with all the miseries of this pompous Majesty Tibi soli peccavi malum coram te feci Psal 51. esteem it more worthy of pity then envy For besides that a great fortune is a great servitude that Princes who command are bound to obey that those who incroach upon the liberty of others lose their own that those that strike terrour in others are not free from it themselves and that Soveraigns who bear rule with violence have as many enemies as they have subjects Divinity teacheth us that the Earth is inconsistent with Felicity For this according to the Idea we are able to form of it is an absolute Good which cannot be transferred to another 't is Mans ultimate End and which comprehending all kinde of pleasures fills his wishes and bounds his motions Now Regal power hath not one of these qualities it stirs up the desires of Monarchs whose Heart is larger then their State it findes nothing that can satisfie it and as long as it hath neighbours or equals it cannot think it self absolute Alexander is a fair witness of this Truth Never did Prince more enlarge his Conquests never did Soveraign behold more Crowns at his feet nor ever did Monarch see more different Nations subject to his will Jam in unum Regnum multa Regna conjecit jam Graeci Persaeque eundem timent hic tamen ultra Oceanum solemque fertur ipsi Naturae vim parat Senec. Ep. 94. In the mean time he accounted himself miserable in his Greatness poor in his Abundance and confined in his Empire He is troubled that there are some people who have not yet felt the violence of his Arms it grieves him that there are any men who are not his subjects nor can he belive himself a Soveraign as long as there are any free-men in the world Finally his ambition perswaded him that to be Absolute he must command the whole World and as the Heaven can bear but one Sun no more can the Earth endure but one Monarch Though all ambitious ones are not of the humour of Alexander and can be content with a part of the Universe yet are they always forced to confess that Felicity cannot be found in it because that it may be true it must be Eternal Solid and Unshaken if any of these qualities be wanting it will ever be exposed to Danger and threatned with Fear Now there is no power in the world that is not Short Feeble and subject to Change Scripture tells us that the life of Kings hath its bounds as well as those of their Subjects Omnis Potentatus vita brevis If they raign as Gods they shall die like Men If their State be durable their Persons are mortal That sentence pronounced against all the children of Adam gives no exemption to Soveraigns nay it seems that as their power is greater their life is shorter then that of ordinary men Kings saith the Wise-man live to day and are dead to morrow they have no certain day Death makes no truce with them and when the moment Divine Justice hath assigned them comes it proceeds to execution without considering whether those it sets upon be Slaves or Soveraigns Their power is not less weak then it is short and if Kings be miserable because mortal they are to be pitied because exposed to so many dangers Weakness is natural to them and Puissance accidental they cannot defend themselves but with borrowed hands and mercenary Arms though their Souldiers be their Subjects yet may they be debauched and whatever Oath they engage them with to assure their Fidelity they have reason to tremble as often as they think that their State and Person depends upon the Courage and Constancy of another That Prophet who is not less famous for his Eloquence then for the Miseries he endured hath observed that Kings are never more put to it then at the eve of a Battel Terrebit eum tribulatio angustia vallabit eum sicut Regem qui praeparetur ad praelium Job 5 because they see their Fortune in the hands of their Souldiers and that the same day which must decide their Differences may give a period to their Life and Kingdom But me thinks this Fear never ought to abandon Soveraigns and that in Peace as well as War their Power depends upon the fidelity of their Subjects A Pestilence may mowe down their States and change the most populous Cities into desolate Wildernesses Famine may rage thorow a whole Kingdom and notwithstanding all the care Husbandmen take to till the ground two months of Drought or Rain may render all their labours unprofitable and the most flourishing Kingdom of the world wretchedly miserable But admit these Evils which are too common prove not so formidable and Kings may finde that among their neighbours which is not to be met with at home Who will deliver them from the just apprehension the instability of Humane things ought to strike into the hearts of all the Monarchs of the earth What Prince is there that can promise that the violence of Strangers or the rebellion of his Subjects will not snatch his Crown from his head Who is there that after so many Examples past and present is not obliged to believe that States perish as well as Soveraigns that the Forms of Government change with the seasons and humours of men that Monarchies may be turned into Common-wealths and Common-wealths into Monarchies The Empire of the Syrians was it not seized by the Medes The Medes were not they obedient to the Persians And the Persians have not they stoopt to the Romanes This vast Republick which had swallowed all the Monarchies of the world did it not produce all our Kingdoms France Spain and England are they not pieces of this great Wrack and whatever is famous in Europe or Asia is it not from its dissolution is it not enriched with its damage and raised by its downfal What State ought not to fear having seen the ruine of this Colossus and what Republike or Monarchy is there which can promise it self Eternity having seen the deplorable End of this City which commanded all Kings and disposed of all Kingdoms But I will grant this Fear unjust nor that men are to be afraid of a Calamity which threatens the Universe at least Kings must confess that their Power is a glorious Servitude and that they bear not the Sword and Scepter so much to be feared as to cause obedience to Jesus Christ Quem regnare delectat uni omnium regnatori Deo subditus haereat Aug. and to put his will in execution For being but his Vice-gerents their power reacheth onely to punish the Wicked and reward the Good They ought not to accept the Authority
the One engageth them in Original sin the Other by a more happy and powerful influence frees them from all Iniquity These two Births produce two Lives which are preserv'd in every Christian till he dyes their strength is more or less according to the Progress * Sient ignorantia minuitur veritate magis magisque lucente ita concupiscentia minuitur charitate magis magisque fervente Aug l. 6. contra Julia. Per cupiditatem regnat in homine Diabolus cor ejus tenet per charitatem regnat in illo Christus Aug. lib. de Agone Christ cap. 1. Quanto magis regnum cupiditatis destruitur tanto magis regnum charitatis augetur August lib. 3. de Doctrina Christ c. 10. Grace or Sin makes in the Soul They act by contrary principles and divide the Christian in his operations as well as in his person For as he is mystically compounded of Jesus Christ and Adam so is he spiritually framed of Concupisence and Charity whatever he undertakes is under the conduct of one of these Mistresses who have no other design but to have an absolute Command over his will He is a slave to both he complains that being wholly delivered up to Grace he is not wholly delivered from Sin that he suffers the Evil he hath no minde to act that he feels disorders he no ways approves of and that unhappily divided between his desires he cannot so fully obey Charity but he must still serve Concupiscence Indeed every Christian is obliged to combate himself he feels somthing within him that cannot but displease him he wonders to behold such different motions in the same person and not being able to comprehend how such contrary desires grow in the same heart he is amaz'd to finde inclinations which transport him to sin as much as to vertue When he reflects upon himself he observes that he is just and guilty that he partly obeys Jesus Christ and partly resists him that being a subject and a rebell at the same time he bears about him the seeds of Life and of Death For he is righteous as * Eris in parte emendata justus quamvis sis adhuc in emendanda pecoator ex qua parte tibi displices justus es ex qua parte tibi displicet quod justum est in ustus es August in Psal 1. Praeponite delectationem mentis delectationi carnis carnem quippe nostram delectant delectationes illicitae mentem nostram delectat invisibilis casta sancta dulcis justitia ut non ad eam timore cogamini si enim ad eam timore cogimini nondū delectat peccare non debes timore paenae sed amore justitiae Aug. serm 17. de verb. Apost St. Augustin saith with that part that is sanctified by Grace but guilty with that which is corrupted by Sin He pleaseth God because he endevours to keep his Commandments He displeaseth him because he cherisheth somthing in his Soul that opposeth his will These two Mistresses that govern the Christian have some correspondency in their oppositions both of them make use of the same subjects nor undertake any thing of importance but by the assistance of the Passions and faculties of the Soul But Concupiscence findes more submission then Charity because she asks nothing but what suits with their humour and flatters their hope Nevertheless Charity gains Obedience because she acts in the power of the Almighty and is assisted by Grace to reduce all these rebels to their duty Her Empire though strong is nevertheless pleasing and herein she imitates Concupiscence her opposite For this agreeable Enemy of a Christian reigns with so much sweetness that she is loved of those that persecute her all her perswasions are so many charms and knowing very wel that she commands over free Creatures she never propounds any thing that is not acceptable and delightfull Charity takes the same course all her inspirations are pleasant if she press us 't is with Charms if she be victorious 't is without doing us any violence if she gain our Consent 't is without compelling our liberty and if she encourage us against our selves 't is not till she hath perswaded us that we are faulty Finally these two Soveraigns wholly possess the Christian by their diverse motions and according as he is acted by them he is Innocent or Guilty When he follows the provocations of Concupiscence he can do nothing but offend * Libido non solum sibi totū corpus nec solum extrinsecus vendicat sed totum hominem commovet animi simul affectu cū carnis appetitu conjuncto atque permixto Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 15. whatever lustre his actions put on they are always bad when they proceed from this principle Though he give his goods to the poor his assistance to the miserable expose his life for the safety of his Country shed his blood for the interest of Religion or Justice if he act by the Counsel of Concupiscence he is criminall amidst the throng of so many splendid Actions and the principle he moves by being unable to propound any other end then vain-glory can secure him neither from sin nor punishment When on the contrary the Christian being led by Charity acted by the Spirit of God that quickens him and following the motions of Grace endevours to satisfie his Duty all his actions are Innocent and acceptable to God Did he always act according to this Principle his condition would be no longer peccant and did he obey its holy inspirations he should be sure not to offend It is in this sense that the Beloved disciple of our Saviour assures us * Omnis qui natus est ex Deo peccatum non facit quoniam semen ipsius in eo manet quoniam ex Deo natus est 1 Joan. cap. 3. That whatever is born of God sinneth not that is the Christian that always follows the motion of the Divine Spirit is never subdued by Concupiscence neither can he be overcome as long as he is actually guided by Charity This heavenly seed that preserves him can produce nothing but what is excellent and this Tree that is planted in his heart can bring forth none but good fruit But in as much as this actuall assistance is not due unto him and that heaven leaves him to himself to make him sensible of his weakness he fals many times into light transgressions and is forc'd to confess with the same Apostle That he that says he hath no sin deceives himself and the truth is not in him Thus the Christians life is a continual warfare he resents his double Extraction feels the effects of both his Parents and divided by his desires he learns by woful experience that when he acts not by Charity he is in danger to act by Concupiscence The second DISCOURSE To make Man a Christian he must be Renew'd Regenerate and rais'd from the Dead NOthing doth so fully manifest the greatness of a Disease Si