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
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„
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Understanding Weakness into his Memory and Malice into his Will Under this conduct he confounds Errour with Truth Vice with Vertue and having no other end but himself he commits as many sins as he intends to perform good works Vain-glory is the Primum mobile that sets him a going he seeks for reputation in all his actions and when he assists his Country stands for the Laws and fights for Liberty he obeys a Tyrant which inspires him with wicked intentions even then when he seems to counsel him to the best and most upright undertakings Thus Man becomes Wretched when he ceaseth to be Faithful the loss of Grace causeth the enfeebling of his Liberty and the removal of the holy Spirit involves him in a death so much the more dangerous by how much it is less sensible and more concealed The Natural death makes a strange havock in the body of Man as soon as he seizeth upon the face he banisheth Beauty horrour and fear always attend him nor does he ever enter upon a body but 't is accompanied with stench and putrifaction These sad effects render him ghastly nor can the most confident behold him without some sense of terrour and affrightment But the spiritual death causeth indeed no amazement because it leaves no visible characters of its malignity The holy Spirit quits the sinner with small noise his departure which causeth so much misfortune makes no buzzle at all and when he withdraws his Grace from a soul she is no whit affected with it because the loss is insensible A Monarch thinks he is deprived of nothing because he still exerciseth absolute command over his subjects nor sees that he is a slave to as many masters as there are sins that reign in his soul A Philosopher never conceits himself less happie because he is not more ignorant the Light that remains in him suffers him not to see his Blindness and he imagines he is still vertuous because he still retains his knowledge An immodest woman is never troubled at the loss of Grace because it no ways impairs her good complexion she hath much ado to believe that sin hath polluted her Soul because it hath stampt no deformity upon her Face and beholding her self in her glass as handsome after her fault as before she cannot perswade her self that she is less amiable in Gods eyes because she is not in her own In the mean time the loss of Grace is the loss of Life the absence of the holy Spirit is the death of the Soul and from the very instant he deserts us all Vertues bid us farewel Whiles he keeps his residence in our hearts those glorious habits that render men vertuous accompany them and as the presence of the Sun produceth Lilies and Roses in our Gardens the presence of the holy Spirit produceth Hope and Charity in our Souls 'T is true this Spirit is so good that after he hath left us he still hovers about us if he dwell not in our hearts he forbears not to move and stir them and if he Quicken us no longer by his Grace he incites us by his Power But to understand this Truth which is one of the most important in Religion we must know there is this difference between the Soul and the Spirit That moves no more when once it ceaseth to inanimate Spiritus ubi vult spirat quod fatendum est aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter inhabitans nordum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fidebes Aug. Epist ad Sixt. it gives no Impulse when it gives no Life and there must be some supernatural power to re-unite it to the body which it hath once bidden adieu to But the holy Spirit which is a Form not depending upon the Matter free in his operations and like the winde blowes where it listeth is not subject to these laws he quits the sinner when his Crime obliges him to do it he abandons the Temple he consecrated with his presence and together with habitual grace he takes away all vertues that served him for ornament or for defence But his goodness reserves the means still to sollicite this unfaithful soul by holy motions to touch this rebel by his inspirations and by his allurements to court this adultress who hath falsified the faith she promised in the Sacrament of Baptism or that of Repentance he knocks at the door of his heart to get admittance he sheds light into his understanding to dispel the darknesse he carries pleasure into his will to gaine its content and without doing it any violence triumphs over his obstinacy when he constrains him to taste more sweetnesse in vertue then in vice The love men have to liberty makes them wish that these motions of the Spirit were continuall that at every moment he should offer grace to the sinner that he could use it at pleasure and that in the state of sin enjoying the priviledges of the state of innocene his salvation might depend absolutely upon his own will Those that make this objection know not in my opinion neither the greatnesse of our crime nor the power of the Holy Spirit God deales with the sinner much after another fashion then he does with the Innocent Natura hominis primitus inculpata sine ullo vitio creata est natura vero ista hominis qua unusquisque ex Adam nascitur jam medico indiget quia sana non est Aug. de natur grac. c. 3. 't is easier to preserve a just man then to convert a guilty one there needs much more endeavour to subdue a will rooted consummated in evil then to entertame one grounded established in good Innocent man had no bad inclinations Grace found no resistance in his person and his liberty being not captivated by concupiscence there was no need that the Holy Ghost should gaine mastery thereby to purchase his deliverance It was sufficient gently to excite a man who needed but a little support to walk to raise him by his Inspirations who was cumbred with no disorders and to dart a small beame of light into his eyes who needed indeed to be cleared not to be cured But sinfull man must be dealt with after another manner the motion of the Spirit must be more vigorous because he undertakes an enemy Grace must have more allurements because it meets with more impediments must raise it selfe above the will because the will stoopes beneath self-love and God must be the Authour of mans salvation because man was the Authour of his fall If the Holy Spirit did not act more vigorously then in the state of Innocence sinners would remaine obstinate in their obliquity if Grace were but a flash their will would never be changed and if this victorious sweetnesse did not imprint force with pleasure they would live and die in their sins But at last say they Grace ought to be as common as it is vigorous it must bee offered to us every moment Pro
respect towards him he puts on rather the deportment of a Lover then of a Soveraign he gains his will without forcing it and though he knows the secret whereby to be obeyed 't is always with so much sweetness that he that suffers himself to be overcome hath reason to believe he gets the Victory Therefore doth the Scripture never speak of this Change but as of a work common to God with Man And when Saint Augustine observes the differences between Conversion and Creation he bears witness to this truth in these words Qui creavit te sine te non salvabit te sine te But not to enter into Disputes more Curious then Profitable Si conversio peccatoris non est majoris potentiae quà m creatio universi saltem est majoris miscricordiae Aug. let us be content to conclude with the same Saint Augustine that if the Conversion of a sinner require not more Power it supposeth at least more Mercy then Creation because if in This God obligeth the Miserable in That he obligeth the Criminal shewing Favour to those that could expect nothing but severity of Punishments Therefore is it that the Conversion of a sinner belongs to the Holy Spirit and a work that bears the Character of Goodness must needs have no other Principle but he to whom this Divine Perfection is attributed in the Scripture 'T is true that after he hath shewed mercy to sinners he performs a piece of most exemplary Justice and animating them against themselves he obliges them to take revenge and punishment upon themselves For one of the most admirable effects of the Spirit of Love is to produce hatred in the spirit of Penitents Quia ergo non potest esse confessio punitio peccati in homine à seipso cum quisque sibi irascitur sibi displicet sine dono Spiritûs sancti non est Aug. in Psal 50. and to satisfie the Majestie of God by the excess of their Austerities towards themselves They look upon themselves as guilty of Treason against the Divine Majestie they stay not till his Justice punish them they prevent his Sentence by their own Resolutions and invent more tortures to wrack themselves then the Executioners have been witty in to torment Martyrs with This is that Divine Spirit which hath driven the Anchorites into the desarts made the Antonines go down into caves and holes of the earth made the Stilites fix upon the top of Pillars which found out sackcloth and discipline to make as many Wretches as he had made Penitents All the Austerity that is in Christianity takes its birth from the love he inspires into the Faithful Their Rigour is proportionable to their Charity the more the holy Spirit possesseth them the more are they set against Themselves and we may affirm with reason that as much as they grow in his Love so much do they grow in the Hatred of their Sin This is it perhaps that our Saviour would have us understand when he told us that the holy Spirit should judge the world and should oblige sinners to punish themselves for the offences they have committed He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgement We cannot understand this Truth if we conceive not that the Father hath judged all men in his Son and having charged him with their iniquities hath charged him also with the punishments due for them From this moment they have no engagements to sue out with the Father and the Father satisfied with the Passion of his Son protests that he hath signed over to him all the right of judging the world The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son The Son by vertue of this resignation shall judge all men at the end of the world and being become their Judg and their Partie will pronounce the definitive sentence of their Eternity In expectation of this day of Doom the holy Spirit judgeth men that are converted and mixing meekness with severity in these determinations he obliges them to undergo a scrutiny upon earth to be delivered from the torments of hell Nor are we to think it strange that he that is so gentle is withall so rigorous since the Poets have bestowed these two qualities upon Love For these pleasant Tel-tales have feigned that he was the severest of all the Gods that he bathed himself in tears lived upon blood and more cruel then Tyrants took pleasure in the torments of his subjects But Christian Religion that conceals Truth under the shadow of our Mysteries teacheth us that the love of God is severe that he exacts chastisements from those he inanimates that he engageth his Lovers in penance and more strong then death which parts soul and body he divides between the soul and the spirit and exerciseth a Tyranny over whole entire man True it is the torments he inflicts are always mix'd with pleasures he makes Roses grow among Thorns and amidst such a throng of Penitents that bid him battel there is not one complains of his sufferings 'T is enough that persecuting themselves Haec tristitia quae poenitcutiam ad salutem stabilem operatur laeta est ac spe profectus sui vegetata cunctam affabilitatis retinet suavitatem Cassian l. 9. c. 11. they are perswaded they satisfie him whom they have offended the same consideration that afflicts them comforts them and when they meditate that God that loves them is infinite they meet with no pain that is not short nor any torment that is not joyous They are better accompanied in the Desarts then the Monarchs in their Palaces their humiliations are more glorious then the Triumphs of Conquerors their poverty is more happy then abundance of riches and their ascetick life more full of charms then the pleasures of the world Though the holy Spirit be thus favourable to Penitents yet fails he not to be very severe against sinners if he pardon the offences committed against the Father and the Son he never pardons those that are committed against his own Person and the holy Scriptures teach us Blasphemia in Spiritum sanctum non remittetur in hoc seculo nec in futuro Mat. 12. that of all the sins in the world none are irremissible but those which do despite to the Holy Ghost This passage leaves all our Expositors at a losse every one forgeth new Principles to resolve the difficulties thereof and there are few but strive to invent something upon a subject so often handled and so little cleared Some divide sins into three Orders according to the perfections which are commonly applyed to the three Divine Persons The first comprehends sins of infirmity which seem to clash against the Person of the Father Peccata alia sunt infirmitatis quae Patri cujus est potentia adversantur alia ignorantiae quae Filio cujus est sapientia alia malitiae quae Spiritui sancto cujus est bonitas D. Thom. in Paulum to whom power
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
that fortifies our weakness when we are set upon that dissipates our darkness when we are blinded and sweetens our discontents when we are troubled Hee weeps with us without interessing his felicity he shares in our infirmities without prejudicing his Almightinesse he is sadded with our miseries without disquieting his own contentedness he puts sighs into our hearts words into our mouthes reasons into our understandings to expresse our wretchedness and to pacifie our Judge Postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus The union he contracts with us is so strict that the Scripture attributes to him what it would have us do and by a strange liberty makes him partakers of our miseries as we are made partakers of his happiness The last torment of man a sinner is the doubt he hath of his salvation Death is troublesom because the hour thereof is uncertain neither hath he that pronounc'd sentence upon us express'd the time of its execution All moments are to be suspected by us every day may be our last and the accidents that cause our dissolution are so involved in futurity that they daily seize us before we are provided for them Nescit homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit sed omnia in futuruÌ„ servantur incerta Eccl. 9. But our salvation is much more concealed then our death Predestination is much more secret and more important then the end of our life and the alarms so just an apprehension strikes us with are much more lawfull and amazing There is no man that hath read in the Book of the living nor that knows whether his name be written there the whole world trembles at the thought of that irrevocable judgment the Character of Baptism the vocation into the Church the power of working Miracles the love of Enemies the forgetting of Injuries and what-ever is most glorious and most difficult in Religion are no certain proofs of our predestination Fear is alwayes mix'd with hope in our souls the Grace that quickens us may forsake us the example of the Reprobate strikes us with astonishment and after the Treason and Despair of Judas there is no Saint but trembles This is the greatest pain that afflicts Christians Vae miseris nobis qui de electione nostra nullam adhuc Dei vocem cognovimus jam in otio torpemus vae etiam laudabili vitae hominum si remota pictate judicemur Greg. the cruellest punishment that exerciseth their patience the rudest torment that proves their charity Thus would it be an insupportable vexation did not the holy Spirit sweeten it by the inward testimony he witnesseth to our Conscience But he moreover gives us assurances of our salvation he makes us obscurely read over the Book of Life he takes us into that privie-Chamber where the definitive sentence of our Eternity is pronounc'd Ipse Spiritus testimonium reddit spiritui nostro quòd sumus filii Dei Rom. 8. he applyes to us the merits of Jesus Christ and interposes himself the caution of his promises he blots out those mortall discontents which labour to cast us into despair he heightens our hope by a prelibation of glory and handles us with so much tenderness that we have much adoe to beleeve that we can be miserable in the other world having been so happy in this The Tenth DISCOURSE Of the CHRISTIAN's Ingratitude towards the Holy SPIRIT IF that Philosopher had reason to say Nibil in rerum natura tam sacrum quod sacrilegum non inveniat Sen. There was nothing so sacred in Nature that meets not with some sacrilegious person to prophane it Divines may with greater justice affirm There is nothing so holy in Religion that wicked and ungodly men do not dishonour and by their malice desecrate its holyest mysteries The divine Mercy is the source of all Graces were not God mercifull we should be eternally miserable did not he remit the injuries done against him the first offence would cast us into despair and having once lost his grace we could expect nothing but punishments in the mean time his Mercy makes sinners presumptuous in their crimes that which should convert them hardens them and that which promiseth them impunity carryes them for the most part to impenitency The death of Jesus Christ is the last testimony of his love his wounds are so many bleeding mouthes breathing forth this Truth and when we begin to doubt of it we need but consider the streams of blood that issued from his veins In the mean time Positus est in ruinam in resurrectionem mulâ—orum Luc. 7. his death is often the occasion of our fall we perswade our selves that he that could finde in his heart to die for us is too much concern'd in our salvation to destroy us upon this vain hope we abandon our selves to all wickednesse and turn our Antidote into a poyson The holy Sacrament is the highest invention the charity of the Son of God could finde out none but an infinite Wisdome could designe it nor could any but an absolute uncontrolled Power put it in execution both of them are drained in this Mystery and when the Son of God is incarnated upon our Altars to enter into our hearts there is no other favour to be wished for upon earth Neverthelesse experience teacheth us that this Grace is not onely unprofitable Sumunt boni sumunt mali sorte tamen inaequali vitae vel interitus D. Thom. but pernicious to sinners that it conveighes death instead of life mixeth a sacriledge with a sacrifice and makes the devill enter into their soules by admitting Jesus Christ unworthily But not to stand upon the proofe of so known a Truth we need but represent the Grace of the Holy Spirit and the ingratitude of wicked men to be fully perswaded thereof He is the fruitfull source of all the blessings we receive from heaven he is the dispenser of all the merits of the Sonne of God nor can we expect any thing of the one but by the mediation of the other In the mean time we prophane his Graces cast off his Inspirations his goodnesse serves onely to set an edge upon our malice the more favourable he is to us the more rebellious are we against him and the more arts he useth to convert us the more barres do we oppose to resist him we may judge of this by the names he beares and by the attempts he makes to gaine us he gives testimony of his love and affection towards us The Holy Spirit is the Principle of our supernaturall life Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas ad Creationem pertinet nisi quis renatus fuerit ad regenâ—rationem Faith instructs us that 't is he that frees us from the state of sin to levell us a passage to Grace if we are the effects of his power in the world we are the works of his mercy in the Church so high a favour would challenge as high an acknowledgment so that
provoke him The Third TREATISE Of the Christians Head The first DISCOURSE That the CHRISTIAN hath two Heads ADAM and JESUS CHRIST IF Bodies with two Heads passe for Monsters humane Nature may very well passe for a Prodigie in that it hath two Chiefes upon which it depends and that as Adam communicates his Sin to it by Generation making it guilty and miserable Jesus Christ communicates his Grace to it by Baptisme making it innocent and happy 'T is true Nature might have expected great advantages from this first Head had he kept his originall Righteousnesse for our Divines confesse that Adam being Chiefe of all men received Grace not onely for himselfe but for all his Posterity that as his sinne passeth into his children by Generation Grace had passed into them by the same conveyance and that then they had been borne innocent as now they are borne criminall Together with grace he had communicated to them all the Priviledges he had received from God in the Creation Their bodies had been freed from those troublesome maladies that exercise our patience and originall righteousnesse had knit the body so close to the soule that their peace had never been disturb'd by these intestine divisions that set them so much at distance Nourishment had repair'd the radicall moisture that the naturall heat had consum'd and the fruit of the Tree of Life retaining something of our Sacraments had imparted to them a new vigour that had secur'd them against old Age and Death Their soul had not been worse provided for then their body for with Grace they had received all vertues and according to Saint Augustine either they had had the use of reason for their service or they had learn'd with so much easinesse that Ignorance had never been their Torment In this happy condition the Will had been more free then now it is the passions were so subject to reason that they had never been up but by his order Concupiscence that tyrannizeth over the children of Adam Summa in carne sanitas in anima tota tranquilitas Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. had not enslav'd the soule to the body and though the inferiour part had felt it's naturall inclinations Grace had so well moderated them that they had never undertaken any thing either against justice or honesty Thence it comes to passe that these austere vertues that have nothing else to do but to combate the motions of the flesh had serv'd rather for his ornament then for his defence Thence it followes that Grace had not been the Mistresse of the Will because having no bad inclinations she might have guided her selfe provided she were but supported nor had there been any danger that she that was not yet a Captive to sinne should have the chiefe disposall of his salvation we are not certain that if Adam had preserved his innocence his children had been impeccable neither know we if the sinne of other men had injur'd their posterity and if having lost the advantages of originall righteousnesse in their own behalfe they had lost them also as concerning their successours This condition is so conceal'd that we have nothing but weak conjectures of it every one extolls or debaseth it according to his humour and having neither Scripture nor Tradition for their rule all the world may diminish or adde something to their happinesse 'T is certain neverthelesse Sicut in Paradiso nullus aestus aut frigus sic in ejus habitatione nulla ex cupiditate vel timore bonae voluntatis offensio Aug. lib. 14. de Civ c. 26. that all the torments that came into the world with sinne had never discompos'd his quiet The Seasons had not been irregular the Elements had not bid him battel the Earth had been fruitfull without tilling and thorns that are the fruits of sinne had not dishonoured the face thereof Deluges that drowned the world Drought that makes the fields barren Pestilence that depopulates Cities and mows down the Inhabitants having no other cause but sinne had made no devastations in an innocent State and men being upon good terms with God had found their happinesse under the protection of his Grace having lived some Ages upon the earth Proinde si non peccasset Adam non erat expoliandus corpore sed supervestiendus immortalitate Aug. they had been translated into heaven where Glory consuming what they had of perishable had made them perfectly immortall without passing them through the pangs of immortality The two parts that compose man had not been separated the Master-piece of the Creation had not been ruin'd and the soul reigning with Angels had not beheld her body devoured by worms in the Sepulchre See here a rude draught of the state of Innocence and a slight shadow of the glorious advantages children had derived from their father had he kept originall righteousnesse but the evils he procur'd them surpasse the priviledges in number and quality For his sinne is the source and fountain of all misfortunes we are not guilty but because we are his Members we sinn'd by his will because we lived in his person and the offence of one man is become the obliquity of whole Nature because it was included in him as the Tree in the Kernell or as a River in the Head Quia vero per liberum arbitrium Deum deseruit justum Dei judicium expertus est ut cum tota sua stirpe quae in illo adhuc posita tota cum illo peccaverat damnaretur Aug. This is it that Saint Augustine teacheth us in those no lesse handsom then solid expressions Adam felt the just judgement of God because abusing his free will he was unjustly separated from him and punishment was inflicted upon him with his whole race because being in him as in the stock they had wholly transgress'd with him The same also he delivers with as much or more eloquence in his Enchiridion for searching out the cause of so many evils that assault us he concludes that the sinne of our first father is the originall thereof and that we are therefore criminall and miserable because we are a part of him Thence it comes to passe saith he that being banished out of Paradise after his transgression he was condemned to death with all his Posterity who living in him as in their Principle were infected with his prevarication as the branches wither in their stock and die in their root Thence it comes to passe that all children that descend from him and from his wife the Complice of his offence and of his punishment are the heirs of his corruption This sinne passeth into them by the channell of concupiscence and makes them sensible of a torment which seems the image of their disobedience since one part of themselves is revolted against the other This revolt engaging their soule in vanity and their body in pain leads them insensibly with the rebellious Angels to that last Judgement which will never have an end Let us
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
agnosce â—e in ipso tentatum te in illo agnosce vincentem Aug. Jesus Christ saith he was tempted by the evil spirit in the desart or rather we were tempted in him for 't is from us that he took Flesh from him that we derive Salvation 't is from us that he receives his Death from him that we receive our Life 't is from us that he had these affronts cast upon him from him that we have Honours conferred upon us 'T is therefore for our sakes that he suffered Temptation and for his sake that we carry away the victory Or to say the same thing in other words If we were tempted in him 't is in him also that we overcame the devil our enemy He certainly could have difcarded him from his person and using him like a rebellious slave have punished his rash boldness by commanding him to hell but had he not been willing to be tempted he had not taught us to overcome by his example nor had the combat he fought in the wilderness procured us the honour of a Triumph Thus the quality of Head is injurious to Jesus Christ and honourable to Christians because in that exchange it obliged him to make with them he endured the shame of the Temptation and purchased for them the advantage of the Victory Finally to conclude this Discourse The Son of God was willing to bear the reproaches of the Cross and to merit for us the priviledges of Glory For being charged with our iniquities he suffered death the punishment of them permitted Shame to be added to Cruelty that spoiling him of Life Si moriamur saltem cum libertate moriamur Cicero in Verâ—em de Crucis supplicio agens they might withal rob him of his Honour and he might give up the ghost as an Offender and a Slave together In the mean time his Punishment purchased our Glory his Death merited our Immortality and in stead of taking vengeance of our crimes he procures us his own advantages It seems saith S. Augustine the Father mistook himself he treats his onely Son as a Delinquent and handles Men as Innocents he crowns him with Thorns these with Glory and confounding the Sinner with the Just confounds Chastisements with Rewards But if we consider that the Son of God took our place and we his that he is our Head and we his Members we shall finde that his Father had reason to punish him and to reward us because having made a change with us he is become Guilty we Innocent Let us therefore be thankful to Jesus Christ who disdained not a quality which investing him with our Nature chargeth him with our sins and our infirmities and uniting him to us as to his Members obliges him to be tempted to make us victorious Ille quippe Christianorum caput in omnibus tentari voluit quia tentamur sic morivoluit quiae morimur sic resurgere quiae resurrecturi sumus Aug. in Psal 9. Serm. 2. and to suffer the death of the Cross to obtain for us the glory of Immortality The Ninth DISCOURSE Of the duties of Christians as Members toward Jesus Christ as their Head THough the duties of the Head and of the Members are reciprocal and that composing one Body they are obliged to a mutual correspondence arising from Necessity as well as Love yet there is no man but will acknowledge that as the Members receive more assistance from the Head ten the Head from the Members so are they tied to greater expressions of dependence Nature which is an excellent mistress in this matter instructs us that the life of the Members depends upon the Head and their very preservation obliges them to three or four duties without which they can no ways subsist Their Interest requires that they be inseparably fastned to that from whence they receive their life lest their division with their death deprive them of all those advantages which spring from the union they have with their Head Thus we see that the Hand which is one of the most ingenious parts of the body and which may be called the Mother of all Arts and the faithfullest Minister of the Soul loseth its dexterity and comeliness as soon as separated from the Head that enlivens it The Feet though not so noble as the Hands are yet as necessary being the moveable Foundations of this living building are destitute of all strength when they have no commerce with the Head This indeed ceaseth not to act and move though provided neither of Hands nor Feet when Nature fails it hath recourse to Art and being the throne of the Soul ransacks all her treasures of Invention to execute that by it Self Omnis salus omnis vita à capite in caeterae membra derivatur Galen was wont to be put in execution by its Members But though the hands are so industriously subtil and the legs so vigorously strong they are absolutely useless because their separation deprives them of the influences of their head This Maxime so notorious in Nature is much more evident in Grace For the Son of God hath no need of his Members 't is Mercy and not Necessity obligeth him to make use of them He is not at all more powerful when united to them nor more feeble when separated from them Faith tells us he can do all things without them whereas they can doe nothing without him Therefore is he compared to the Vine and they to the Branch to acquaint them that all their vertue flows from his and being pluckt from his Body can as the Branch expect nothing but the fire Therefore the first obligation of Christians is to unite themselves to Jesus Christ to seek their life in this union and to believe that their death is the infallible consequence of their division This is it that Saint Augustine represents us in this Discourse which though long cannot be tedious because there is nothing in it that is not delightfull and necessary As the Body hath many members which though different in number make up but one body so Jesus Christ hath many members which in the diversity of their conditions constitute also but one body so that we are always with him as with our Head and drawing from him our strength as well as our life we can neither act nor live without him We with him make up a fruitful Vine that bears more Grapes then Leaves but divided from him we are like those Branches which being good for nothing are destin'd to the slames when stript off from the Vine Therefore doth the Son of God so earnestly affirm it in the Gospel that without him we can doe nothing that our interests as well as our love Domine si fine te nihil totum in te possumus Etenim quicquid ille operatur per nos videmur nos operari potest ille multum totum sine nobis nos nihil sine ipso Aug. in Psal 30. may engage us to be united to his
may any way annoy it yet from a higher principle 't is informed that its life depends upon the Head and that 't is oblig'd to expose its self in his defence Thence it comes to pass that the hands ward the blow which is aimd at the Head that they readily oppose themselves to the danger that threatens it and forgetting their proper interests sacrifice themselves for the preservation of this Chief Thence it is that soldiers jeopard their lives in the quarrel of their Soveraign slighting the hail of Musquets the brunt of Pikes and the Thunder of Canons to augment his Glory or widen his State They are never more valiant then when his Person is in danger the greatness of the hazard heightens their courage and opinion or nature perswades them that living more in him then in themselves their death is less considerable then his Many times it fals out that he for whom they sacrifice themselves is some old Dotard spent with labour and age and hath but a few moments to live In the mean time because they know he is the soul of the State and the Head of his subjects they are perswaded they preserve themselves in dying in his defence and imagine that as Fathers live again in their children the members receive a new beeing in their Head This Paradox finds belief amongst all complexions there is not the meanest soldier but ventures his life upon this Maxime and I rather conceive their courage quickned by this consideration then by the hope of profit and reputation because all men are neither ambitious nor covetous but all being members of the State are instructed by nature to die for the defence of their Head Forasmuch as Grace is much more powerfull then Nature Vivificati sunt Martyres ne amando vitam negarent vitaÌ„ negando vitam amitterent vitam ac fic qui pro vita veritatem deserere noluerunt moriendo pro veritate vixe unt Aug. Concil 20. in Psal 118. it hath so strongly imprinted this Maxime in the soul of the subjects of Jesus Christ that there are no torments can wear it our For the Grace that makes them Christians secretly disciplines them that they are parts of the Mysticall Body of the Son of God that their condition obliges them to expose themselves for his Glory that they ought to be his Victimes because they are his Members and that they are bound to imitate the Wisdome of the Serpent that hides his Head with his whole Body knowing very wel that 't is the Fountain of Life and provided he may secure that can receive no wound that 's mortall The Martyrs animated with this Faith defended Jesus Christ who lived in them they sufferd death saith Saint Augustine to secure themselves from death they parted with that life they had received from Adam to guard that they had received from the Son of God so that it happily fell out that those who would not relinquish Truth to save their lives recoverd that in Heaven which they lost upon Earth and liv'd above eternally being content for the profession of the Truth to die here below miserably They laughed at all the threats of Tyrants and whilst they were covered with obloquies loaded with irons and burnt with flames they drew strength from him for whose sake they suffered and lifting up their now-expiring voice said If God be for us who can be against us When they were told as Saint Augustine saith how all the world was banded against them they answerd couragiously why should we fear the world who die for the glory of hâ—m that made the world What hurt can this hatred doe us who are environed with the love of God And why should we trouble our selves if our enemies spoil us of our bodies seeing he that defends our souls will restore our bodies in glory where being united to our Head we shall triumph over griefs and executioners Though persecution doe not exercise the courage of the Martyrs and the peace the Church enjoys suffer not the Faithfull to expose their lives for the quarrel of Jesus Christ they cease not to be obliged to this duty in a thousand opportunities if occasion present not it self they must preserve a will to it if they cannot suffer death they must suffer shame and confusion for his glory and when the world shall overturn the maximes of the Gospel to set up the maximes of Libertinisme or Impiety then is it that Christians must call to mind that they are the Members of Jesus Christ that they must prefer his interests before their own honour and if they be so happy as to sacrifice their lives for the defence of their Head they must be so stout as to sacrifice their reputation who requires this duty of them as the surest testimony of their love The Tenth DISCOURSE That all is common among Christians as among Members of the same Body AS Mans Body is the perfectest Image of the Church the Members that compose it are also the liveliest representatives of Christians Both of them live in unity depend of the same Head and are inform'd with the same Spirit Both of them preserve their differences in their Unity and exhibit in their mutuall correspondence that agreeable variety that sets an estimate upon all the works of Nature Though these Mysticall and Naturall members conspire altogether for the publick good they cease not to have their different employments Each particular acts according to its capacity they never trespass one upon another and as there are none useless they have all their severall functions which they exercise without confusion and jealousie their faculties are answerable to their employments Nature gives every one what is necessary for them to act according to her orders and Grace never refuses the others what they stand in need of to operate according to its motions But the most wonderful resemblance I find between the members of these two Bodies is that their good and bad occurrences are common and that living in a perfect society no sad disaster happens to one but all the rest are affected with it One sole blow makes a thousand wounds at once and though there be but one part set upon all the rest testifie their compassion The foot seems to be in the body what the foundation is in the building 't is not the noblest part though one of the necessariest and it seems by the distance 't is aâ— from others it should have less communication with them In the mean time if it be prickt with a thorn the pain is dispersed through all the body Every member affords it some good office and the care they have to assist it testifieth what share they have in the misfortune The Tongue complains for it this faithfull Interpreter gives advice to all the rest to shew how much the evil concerns her she speaks of it as her own and to hear her talk one would think she had been hurt too The Eyes being more delicate and
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
is often a disguised misery and a reall torment Among so many adversities Heaven that watcheth over the welfare of Christians hath furnished them with Hope which never confounds those it assists for it awakens their courage with recompenses stirres them up by the examples of former Saints quickens them by the shortness of their life and making them balance what they suffer with what they expect gives them occasion to say with Saint Paul Non sunt condignae Passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam quae revelatur in nobis But inasmuch as Jesus Christ is the principal object of this Vertue hence ariseth the strongest comfort it can bestow upon us for representing us his Shame and his Glory his Death and his Resurrection it makes us patiently suffer the afflictions of this present life in consideration of the advantages of the future The Son of God saith Saint Augustine becomes the hope of the Faithful they behold in him labour and recompence labour in his Passion recompence in his Resurrection and in these two states rather different then contrary they behold two kinds of lives whereof the one being miserable and present must be indured with courage the other being happy and future must be expected with patience Jesus Christ hath manifested the former in his Crosse the second in his Glory to the end that having born the former in this world they may hope to possesse the second in the other world Though this Example be able to encourage the most fearful and comfort the most afflicted we must acknowledge neverthelesse that the assurance we have that God wil not forsake those that are his is a powerful Consolation which is indeed the reason Hope makes use of to encourage Christians nor was ever exprest more eloquently then in the words of the Psalmist who representing them the power of their Soveraign obligeth them to hope all things and fear nothing Ideo nihil dicit ut omnia dicat tu omnia credas Spera in Deo ipse faciet In a word it mentions all in naming nothing and giving no bounds to its promises suffers us to hope every thing from God it instructs us by silence leaves us to think what it expresseth not and lest some favours might be forgotten in the rehearfall chuseth rather to be altogether silent then to forget any If I may serve for his Interpreter me thinks his meaning is that from the Almighty power of God we may expect every thing That he will stop the Sun shake the Earth remove the Mountains from their stations open the abysses of the sea and do an hundred miracles for our sakes if we hope in his goodness or this Vertue will have us understand that God will heal us if we be sick that he will comfort us if we be afflicted enrich us if we be poor restore us to liberty if we be in prison and deliver us from the grave when we are dead Finally we may hope all that he can do our hope is as large as his power and without rashnesse we may expect as many favours as he can work miracles Seeing this Vertue is as lowly as generous it keeps us from complaining when successes answer not our desires and teacheth us that there are two wayes whereby God assists us when we are persecuted the One is glittering and full of pomp showrs astonishment into the soul of our Enemies tameth lions that would devour us quencheth flames that would burn us to ashes and disarms Executioners that are ready to sacrifice us The other is more reserv'd and less splendid for not delivering us from torments it gives us courage to bear them makes us victorious by enduring and working the miracle in our selves sweetens not the cup of our punishment but increaseth our constancy whereby we triumph over it The former of these wayes appeared in the three Children who were thrown into a fiery furnace by the command of a heathen Prince The fire spar'd their clothes respected their bodies and having consumed their chains that they might walk at liberty sought out their Executioners to execute vengeance upon them The second appeared in the person of the Maccabees who vanquish'd in suffering tired their Enemies and in an age that trembles at the frowns of a Master laughed at the fury of a Tyrant Might I pass my judgment upon these two Miracles I would prefer the later and had I liberty to chuse I would rather be in the condition of the Maccabees then in that of the companions of Daniel But leaving this Digression to pursue my Discourse Hope is not founded upon promises but upon assurances it hath earnests that dissipates all doubts and considering what hath passed easily beleeves what is yet to come For though God be the supreme Verity though his words be Oracles and reason it self perswades us that he promiseth nothing to his subjects he does not perform yet is he so good he gives them earnest of his promises and as if he were afraid to weary their hope in making them expect too much he sweetens their anxious pains by pledges of affection which make up a part of that summ he hath promised them he gives us favours whereby we are enabled to hope for what remains behinde the death he suffered for us is an assurance of that life he prepares for us neither can we doubt saith St Augustine that we shall not reign with him in heaven seeing he was willing to die for us upon the Crosse For what Goods may we not expect when his death is a pledge of his love and an assurance of the happinesse we look for Let us hope then for his Kingdom and when the greatnesse of his promises shall raise any doubts in our soul let us consider the greatness of our Surety and we shall securely wait the accomplishment of our desires Having considered the necessity of this Vertue 't is just that we consider its Nature and consulting the Divines and Fathers be acquainted with its Definition Philo the Jew calls it the Fore-runner of Joy a Harbingerpleasure preceding the Eternall one an antepast of Blessedness so that following the opinion of this Philosopher he that hopes may boast himself happy before-hand The Master of the Sentences comes neer this sense when defining this Vertue he calls it a certain assurance of a future Felicity the certitude that accompanies it sweetens the pain which the remoteness of the Good it waits for occasions and she thinks her self happy because the felicity she promiseth is certain St Augustine calls it by a more magnificent name and making it passe for a view of the supreme Good seems with Philo to confound it with Joy for he saith that Faith cures the eys of the soul and that Hope makes her see what she desires But because things never appear so clearly as when they are opposed with contraries I conceive I cannot better discover the nature of Christian Hope then by confronting it with that that
will be all in all things he will poure out that in abundance which now he deals forth in measure and all the Saints possessing all the Vertues shall possesse God in all his perfections But the chiefest advantage of this Divine Banquet is that the Mess which is served up will be instead of all things as long as we live upon the Earth the misery of our condition or the frailty of our goods suffers us not to find our contentment in one single object That which allays our hunger quencheth not our thirst that which enlightens us covers us not that which serves us for a garment serves us not for a house and that which satisfies our mind does not always content our body But when we shall be in Heaven the Divine Essence will fill all our desires and being infinite will alone abundantly supply the fulness of all perishable Earthly goods Your God saith Saint Augustine shall be your All you shall feed upon him to satisfie your hunger drink him to quench your thirst rest upon him for your support make him your garment to cover you you shall wholly possess and he as wholly possess you you shall find in him all that others doe because both you and they shall be but one and the same thing in him For the last effect of this viand whereof we have but an essay in the Eucharist is that it will perfectly transform us into it self because all Scripture teacheth us that when we see God we shall be like him Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit similes ei erimus Joan. and that Glory having consumed all that was mortal and perishable in our nature we shall be happily swallowed up in him without ceasing for all this to be our selves Thus God nourisheth us in nature with the fruits of the Earth which maintain a body taken out of the Earth in Grace by the bloud of Jesus Christ which preserves the life he merited for us upon the Crosse In Glory by Divinity it self which is both together our food and our felicity The Second DISCOURSE Of the Nourishment of Innocent Man and of that of Man a Christian I If the state of Innocence be unknown to us by reason of its dignity or its remotenesse we must confesse that Original Righteousnesse and the fruit of the Tree of Life which were the chief priviledges thereof are so hid from us Immortalitas ista praestabatur ei de ligno vitae non de constitutione naturae quo ligno separatus est eū peccasset ut posset mori Aug. that we have but weak conjectures to judge of their properties or of their effects Saint Augustine that hath written most rationally confounds them so often one with another that he seems to attribute to the Tree of Life that which appertains to Original Righteousness For though we know that this united the soul with the body subjected both to God and preserving the one from sin exempted the other from death yet he forbears not to impute that to the Tree of Life which we impute to Grace and to allot it so many advantages that it seems the whole happinesse of man depended absolutely upon this miraculous Tree But having well considered the words of this great Saint I find his doctrine so conformable to Scripture that there is no doubt but it was suggested to him by the same Spirit that made Moses speak in Genesis For as nourishment is ordained to preserve our life we need not think it strange that it holds some analogy with the principle that gives it us and that there should be some agreement between the matter whereof we are made and that wherewith we are nourished Therefore may we say that the Tree of Life preserved in Innocent man all that Original Righteousness had indued him with and that the fruit thereof which certainly was a figure of the holy Sacrament repaired the wasts of the natural heat maintained man in his vigour and secured him from death Wherein I find a great resemblance with truth because it wrought that in man an Innocent which the Body of the Son of God doth in man a Christian For there is none but confesseth that this admirable fruit united the soul with the body that it entertained that good intelligence which made up a notable part of his happiness and subjecting the body to the soul by a necessary consequence subjected the soul to God Divinity hath not yet fully examined whether this Vertue were natural to this Tree or whether being but a visible sign of an invsible grace the Divine power produced this effect in man when he took of that fruit with the dispositions of a firm faith and an humble obedience If we take the Scripture for our Guide and Saint Augustine for its Interpreter it will be easie to judge that this effect depended not upon the disposition of Man but upon the Vertue of the Tree because we see in Genesis that one of the reasons why our forefather was driven out of Paradise was that he might not eat of that wonderful fruit and so the miseries he had contracted by sin be prolonged together with his life Saint Augustine explicating this passage makes us plainly see that man having lost Original Righteousness had not lost Immortality if he had continued to feed upon the fruit of the Tree of Life Thus we are forced to confess that this Tree had a secret Vertue which depended not upon the sole disposition of man and that it was capable of producing a quality in his body which desending him for a time from death had encreased his misfortune with his years But not to engage in a question more curious then profitable 't is enough to know that as this fruit of the Tree of Life subjected the body to the soul and the soul to God the Eucharist produceth the same effects in the Christian and being received with the dispositions requisite to this Sacrament calms the passions weakens Concupiscence enthrones reason For though Baptisme leave Concupiscence to exercise the Christian and this Sacrament which opens him the Gate of the Church gives him not victory together with life yet all the Fathers confess that the Eucharist more powerful then Baptism furnisheth them with forces to set upon this domestick enemy that it sweetens his fury in combating him and that the presence of Jesus Christ delivers him from this evil more obstinate then the Devil and Sin For whether the purity of his flesh cures ours by a holy contagion or whether Concupiscence tremble at the apprehension of a body which is the work of the Holy Ghost or whether lastly this Sacrament that preserves our life gives us strength and delivers us from that languishing impotency which seems the very soul of Concupiscence we find by experience that the body of the Son of God procures us the victory and prepares us the triumph If it defend us it nourisheth us and if it pacifie our disorders it repairs the devastations
contrary to all the laws of Nature that the Accidents subsist without their Subject and that the Substance of the Bread and Wine being turned into that of his Body and Blood keep notwithstanding its Colour Taste and Form He is multiplied without being divided to satisfie the love of his Spouse and admitting his Humanity into the priviledges of the Divinity filleth his State with his presence We are in a doubt whether he does not work a Miracle for the Faithful which is not indulged the Blessed and we are yet ignorant whether this divine multiplication be an effect of his glory or of his power For though there are some Divines who believe that glorified bodies may be in divers places without a miracle and that the part they have in the Immensity of God multiplies their bodies without dividing them the Schools have always lookt upon this effect as a prodigie and have taught us that the order of Glory had its Miracles as well as that of Nature and Grace Finally it seems that the Son of God to make his power and his love admired Dicitur virgini supervenient in te Spiritus sanctus dicâ—tur etiem Sacerdoti superveniet in te Spiritus sarctus efficiet quod intelligentiam tuam excedet Joan. Damasc had a minde in this Mystery to repeat all the Miracles he had wrought during the course of his life For if he were born of Mary without interessing her Virginity if making her a Mother he left her a Virgin if the Fruit she bare deflowred not her Purity he is produced in our Sacrifices without violating their Accidents and changing their substance into his alters not the Species that cover them If he turn water into wine at a Marriage in Cana and manifest himself the Master of the Elements in changing their qualies he appears no less absolute in a Sacrament where he turns the Bread into his Body the Wine into his Blood and the Creature into his Creator If he multiply the loaves in the wilderness and operate this prodigie by the hands of his Apostles they being ignorant of the manner he daily multiplies his Body by the hands of the Priests who cannot comprehend a miracle whereof they are the witnesses and the Ministers If heretofore he cured the sick that came unto him here he cures the diseased that receive him and if he raised the dead by his touch or by his Word here he promiseth life to all those that feed upon him and engageth himself by a promise as sure as an Oracle that he will draw all those out of the grave that have served him here for a Temple Thus this adorable Sacrament deserves the name of Manna better then Manna it self and ought no less to fill our hearts with astonishment then with love But to continue our resemblances and to manifest the truth in the figure The Psalmist hath observed that Manna was not a bare Nutriment but a preservative and a remedy For while the Israelites made use of it in the Desarts they were never molested with any infirmities Though they so often changed their Quarters marched through a Wilderness where the want of water and the multitude of serpents might make them fear an infection nevertheless this food which participated of the Tree of Life and made them taste in the Desarts the delights of Paradise so well suited with their temper that though they daily beheld rebels in their Camp they never saw any sick In Tribubus eorum non erat infirmus There by a strange prodigy diseases were not the harbingers of death they gave up the ghost without any pangs some small weakness gave them notice of the houre of their departure the soul fairly took leave of the body and the Feaver which seems the forrager of death durst not set upon men whom Manna served for nourishment The Eucharist works the same miracle in our souls that this Heavenly food did in their bodies It is at the same time diet and an Antidote it gives life and preserves it it delivers us from evil and then protects us against it it maintains the constitution of the soul in a regulated evenness of temper and much happier then physick which cannot tame the disease without weakning nature it deals so critically with the sins that it never prejudiceth the sinner Many times when Faith seconds Piety this Celestial viand extends its effects as far as the body it maintains health as well as salvation and cures the diseased as well as the wicked In the Primitive Church it wrought wonderful cures and the great Saint Cyprian tels us that Physitians were useless in those days because Christians found their cure in the Eucharist and proved there was the same Jesus present whose Word was heretofore so fatal to infirmities and so favourable to the infirm If in this particular it supass Manna in another it equals it Manna non solum sanitatem sed animum Judais conserebat Josâ—ph because in restoring health it infused strength and inspired courage For there are some Writers that are of opinion that the valour of the Israelites was an effect of Manna that they owed those formidable victories they gained from their enemies to this meat that came down from Heaven Neither ought this to seem strange to the incredulous since experience teacheth us that wine which is the pure work of Nature produceth daily the same effects drowns fear in its vapours inspires men with the contempt of dangers gives a new vigour to soldiers and constitutes the best part of their courage Therefore I am easily perswaded to believe that Manna wrought the same wonder in the Israelites whilest nourishing their body it maintained their valour and making them sound and lusty made them withall magnanimous and valiant Indeed inasmuch as this food was more miraculous then natural and acted rather by the directions of Heaven then the properties of its own nature it lost this faculty assoon as the Israelites lost grace and as if it had changed quality when they changed disposition it produced fear in the same hearts where it had formerly produced courage and assurance All these wonders were but the shadows of what we adore in the Eucharist which is not only the food but the force of the Christian we come from the Altar as Lions terrifying the Infernal Spirits they cannot endure our sight the presence of Jesus Christ wherewith we are surrounded startles them into a disorder and remembring that we bear about us the same slesh and bloud which triumphed over them upon Mount Calvary they dare not set upon us They flie such men who lodge a god in their souls and beholding their Judge seated in our hearts as upon his Throne they are afraid lest he pronounce sentence against them re-doubling their pains and aggravating their torments It was this Heavenly Bread that animated the Martyrs to the combat this adorable Bread that gave them courage to daunt their executioners and the sword of
Gideon that won so many victories was but the Type of this For this mighty man entring the Camp of the Madianites and hearing one of their soldiers tell his fellow that in his sleep he saw a Cake fall from Heaven which routed their army he perswaded himself contrary to all appearance Sicut verbum Dei cibus est gladius ita corpus ejus Ber. that this Cake was his Sword and taking advantage from this dream set upon his enemies and defeated them Non est hoc aliud nisi gladius Gideonis But 't is very true that the Bread of Jesus Christ is the Sword of the Christians the same meat that nourisheth them defends them and the same remedy that cures their maladies subdues their enemies It s strength no way hinders its sweetness and like Manna there are charms in it that make it pleasing to every palate For the holy Scripture assures us that this Heavenly food was fitted to the appetite of the Israelites that never changing the fashion it altered the savour and following their inclinations complied with their tasts to satisfie their longing I know Saint Augustine is of opinion that this miracle was wrought onely in favour of the righteous and that the guilty were deprived of a Grace which in stead of heightning their devotion did only whet their stomack But the Scripture declares this miracle and the words thereof which are as true as Oracles inform us that Manna besides its natural taste had other rellishes according to the several appetites of those that gathered it If the Figure were thus advantageous for the body the Substance is much more beneficial for the soul For inasmuch as this Sacrament contains the source of Grace there is none but may from thence be communicated unto us though its principal effect be to maintain life it fails not to produce all Vertues and to satisfie the inclinations of all those that receive it It inspires Lovers with Charity weak persons with Courage Virgins with Purity Penitents with Sorrow and becoming all things to all upon Earth as well as in Heaven perfectly fulfils all the desires of the Faithful By its abundance it supplies all other Sacraments It gives us Jesus Christ in all his different relations and comprehending as well his Mysteries as their Graces makes us enjoy him living and dying humble and glorified acting and suffering For whether Eternity which in one indivisible moment includes all the differences of time recollect here all the Mysteries of Jesus Christ or whether this Sacrament comprehend all that it exhibits and being the Figure and Truth both together presents us the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God because it is the Sacrament thereof or finally whether Jesus Christ upon the Altars to comfort the Faithful who saw him not upon the Earth will by a miraculous way for their sakes accord the present with the past and let himself be enjoyed after his Death as he was seen before his Birth he gives himselfe wholly to them in this Mystery and fully communicates all that he is all that he hath done and all that he hath suffered for their salvation so that simple souls may consider him there as a child Hermites as solitary the Evangelists as a Divine Preacher the Martyrs as a Sacrifice the Prelates as a Pastor In hoc Sacramento judex advocatus sacerdos victima Leo Agnus Pastor Pascua Ber. and every one following his own piety may behold him in the condition which most affects him with pleasure or pain It was perhaps for this cause that the Moserabs in their Liturgy divided the Body of the Son of God into nine portions upon which they imposed the names of his chiefest Mysteries to teach us that he repeated them upon our Altars to content our piety and accomplishing the Figure of Manna exhibited himself in all these different estates thereby to accommodate himself to all our inclinations The Fourth DISCOURSE That this Nourishment gives the Christian whatever the Devil promised Innocent Man if he did eat of the Forbidden Fruit. THe Divine Providence is never more wonderful then when it employs the same means to save us the malice of the Devil had made use of to destroy us Thus let us magnifie his Oeconomy when we see our salvation somewhat resemble our fall and the same things that involved us in transgression deliver us out of it A Devil jealous of our happiness began our misery a Woman too easily listened to his words a man over-lightly complacent suffered himself to be cajoled by her and the beauty of the forbidden fruit charming his eyes seduced his mind and corrupted his will The Divine Wisdome imitating our fall in the work of our salvation made use of an Angel the Interpreter of his designs of a Virgin true to his Promises of a Man-God that satisfied his Justice and of a fruit not forbidden but commanded which really exhibits to the Christian all those advantages man was made to hope for in his Innocence For the Devil considering the just inclinations Nature and Grace had imprinted in the soul of man to seduce him promised him that if he would disobey God he should find his happiness in his rebellion and that the use of the fruit he was forbidden to meddle with should make him Immortal knowing Good and Evil and Christian Religion teacheth us that the Body of the Son of God received in the Sacrament with piety due to so great love produceth in us these effects and making us Men-Gods makes us Knowing and Immortal Let us examine these Promises and see what we ought to expect from the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes If the fear of death and the desire of life be not the most ancient passions of man we may affirm them the most natural and most violent He hath an apprehension of death before he knows what it is he desires Immortality before he believes it and whatever he does here below is only by defending himself from a dissolution to live for ever Every one seeks after the same end though by different mediums and he that would put the question to each particular would learn by their answers that they labour only to become Immortal Fathers mary not so much for the pleasure of the bed as for the desire they have to survive in their posterity and in spight of death gain a perpetuity to their Being as well as their Name Philosophers are not so much in love with Knowledge and Vanity as with Life whilst they spend whole nights in their books and leave the productions of their brain to posterity For they think to cozen death by this stratagem they believe their reputation will pierce the Generations to come and that living in the memory of men they shall in some sort enjoy Immortality Monarchs whose minde and body are equally barren leaving neither Children nor Vertues behinde them whereby they may be known to their Successors raise
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
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
according to our desires propounds Honours to us if ambitious Riches if covetous Pleasures if wanton He perswades us that our Revenges are just our Inclinations reasonable and our Recreations innocent and hiding Vice under the mantle of Vertue hinders us from reforming or defending our selves To secure us from so redoubted an enemy who sets upon us so many different ways we must oppose our Prudence against his Cunning our Patience against his Fury we must countermine his Stratagems penetrate his Intentions and discover the hook which lies under the sugar'd bait we must also bless the Justice of God who exerciseth us by the cruelty of this Executioner put our confidence in his goodness and remember that in this Conflict we can overcome onely by suffering Having obtained this victory we must arm our selves against the world which is the most dangerous enemy the Christian can have He set upon Jesus Christ in his birth and being true to his Tyrant knew not his lawful Soveraign even then when he came to be his deliverer In mundo erat mundus eum non cognovit He persecuted him during his life nor lost any occasion wherein he might doe him a mischief Mundus me odit He conspired his death with the Devils and expressing himself by the mouth of the Scribes and Pharises charged him with calumnies before the Tribunal of Pilate cast fear into the soul of that cowardly Judge and forced him to condemn a man whom he acknowledged innocent Therefore neither had Jesus Christ any commerce with the world he protested he had nothing to doe with it Ego non sum de mundo and that contrary his to maxims he could neither approve nor suffer it He would not so much as pray for it when he prayed for his executioners Non pro mundo rogo He boasted in the presence of his Apostles that he had subdued this rebel and defeated this enemy Confidite ego vici mundum Finally he promised his Disciples that he would destroy the world in the dreadful day of his vengeance so that professing to imitate the Son of God we are obliged to hate what he never loved and to defend our selves from a Traitor who employs lying grief and pleasure to gain us to his party He tries to deceive us that so he may corrupt us he sets up Maxims which under a pretence of maintaining society introduce Libertinisme amongst men he makes debauches passe for recreations revenge for greatnesse of courage Duplicem aciem mundus producit coutra milites Christi blanditur ut decipiat minatur ut frangat ad utrosque aditus occurrit C ristus non vincitur Christianus Aug. de sanc vinc impurity for a lawful affection If he cannot seduce us he goes about to terrifie us casts pannick fears into weak souls makes them apprehensive of grief or infamy perswades a young man that chastity is a blemish to his reputation a woman that modesty spoils the lustre of her beauty a Gentleman that the forgetting of injuries damps his courage and being a Tyrant makes use of fear to keep his Subjects in obedience But when he meets with generous souls who reject his Maxims and contemn his Threats he hath recourse to pleasures and employs charms to soften the obdurate This last battery is the most to be feared because the sweetest This is it that enervates the Sampsons masters the Davids and triumphs over the Solomons Engageth these great men in a lye by blinding them terrifies them by making them Cowards and breeding fear in their hearts with love causeth them to apprehend the losse of those things he makes them passionately affect He lays before their eyes whatever may allure them makes pleasure enter in at their senses and forgetting no artifice to render wickednesse agreeable widens his Empire and encreaseth the number of his Subjects If we be Christians indeed we must combat this enemy oppose the Maxims of the Gospel against his falshoods destroy error by truth protest that being the subjects of Jesus Christ we acknowledge no other Laws but those of his Church To evacuate those terrors wherewith he shakes our courage we must discern true honour from false fixe our glory in our duty and remember that the true Disciples of Jesus Christ ought always to prefer vertue before honour and conscience before reputation To defend us from the pleasures the world tempts us with we must look upon their end and represent the shame and grief that never forsakes them Finally we must beg Grace of Jesus Christ who hath overcome the world that assisted with his favour we may vanquish his enemies with all the errours wherewith he would seduce us the fear wherewith he would astonish us and the pleasures wherewith he would enchaunt us For it is not enough for the Christian to be a soldier if he be not also victorious his condition is more painful then that of soldiers For though these are the Victims of Glory and of Death that for a little pay they expose themselves to a thousand dangers they are not responsible for the successe of the battle and provided they lend their heart and hand to their General there is nothing more can be expected from their valour But the Christians are such soldiers as must be victorious 't is not enough that they fight they must win the field they must overcome here if they mean to-reign with Christ hereafter 'T is true he hath this advantage over all other Captains he inspires courage into his soldiers and gives them victory who engage in the combat so that 't is their fault if they be defeated and the glory of their Commander if they remain Conquerours Their birth obligeth them to this duty for the Scripture teacheth us Omne quod natum est ex Deo vincit mundū Joan. 16.5 that those that are born of God overcome the world that Grace which contains Glory in the seed is able to preserve them from sin and that leaving them to the spirit that inanimates them they remain impeccable in his hands S. Bernard is of this mind and will have their victory over temptation a certain proof of their adoption The vertues themselves they have received at their Baptism are helps which facilitate the defeat of their enemies For faith is not only their strength but their victory and renders them as well Conquerours as Soldiers Hope heightens their Courage and giving them the Almighty for their Second makes them gain as many Victories as they fight Battails Charity that finds nothing impossible which measures its power by its courage and more prevalent then death overturns whatever resists it inspires them with so much force that they vanquish all griefs and master all difficulties But if there be any vertue that renders them invincible we must confesse 't is their despoiling themselves of the goods of the Earth For Satan never catcheth us but by those things that engage us he seduceth only by those things that
looks upon the sin in it self considers only the interests of the state and provided that by punishing the wicked she may stop the current of Evil accounts her self sufficiently happy But Repentance illuminated by the Light of Faith mounts as high as God considers his Majesty offended and full of zeal and love endeavours to satisfie him by punishing the sinner Thence it comes to pass that 't is more severe then Justice and comparing the Excellency of the Creator with the meanness of the creature condemns him to sufferings which last as long as life When strength fails it hath recourse to tears and gives it self over to sighs to expiate the offences committed Morality hath observed that tears serve us in all our passions Joy hath its tears as well as Grief and when excessive hath a spice of groaning Love cannot avoid them when the heart is wounded it bleeds at the eyes and that Lover had reason to blame the Stoicks who allowed their Scholars to love but by no means to weep Mercy is never without Tears it daily lets fall some drops as witnesses of her compassion When she cannot relieve the distressed Lacrymis altaria sudant parca superstitio Stat. she bewails them and this remedy is so common that when the Pagans made a Goddess of this vertue the Victims they offered were Tears and Sighs But if there be any passion which profitably makes use of them we must confess it to be Sorrow this affection is better expressed by weeping then speaking her Tears are more eloquent then her Words and she gains more victories by her groans then by her reasons Thence it comes to pass that Repentance being nothing else but a Sorrow for sin it swims continually in tears interrupts its prayers with sobbings Purgatorium animae Baptismus Poenitentiū diluvium pecca torum Hiero. Chrys Greg. and mingles bloud with tears in all its sacrifices Therefore do the Fathers of the Church call it sometimes the Purgatory of the souls sometimes the Deluge of sins sometimes the Baptism of sinners and sometimes the Bath of Penitents For this reason all those that have gone about to appease the Justice of God have had recourse to their Tears David mingled them with his drink and that famous Penitent watered his Couch with them in the night season Mary Magdaleu obtain'd pardon for her sins by that innocent Stratagem she bedewed the feet of her Master with her tears wip'd them with the hair of her head and making that instrumental to her Repentance which had been to her Vanity deserved the glorious name of the Beloved of Christ But he himself whom we may style a publick Penitent bewail'd our sins to expiate them he mingled his sighs with his words upon the Cross and for the consummating of his sacrifice he was pleased that the Victim should be bathed in his bloud and in his tears In the mean time all sinners despise this condition of Repentance they bewail their miseries but never weep for their transgressions and knowing not well how to apply this remedy vainly sigh for the loss of their honour or their goods but are never seriously sad for the loss of Grace Saint Augustin blames himself in his Confessions that he lamented the death of Dido but wept not over the death of his soul that he bestowed some tears upon a woman that loved a man too much and denyed them to a sinner that was deficient in his affection to his God Though Tears make up one part of Repentance they may be sometimes wiped away these fountains dry up with time and there are few sinners who like Saint Peter can bedew their cheeks as often as they call to mind their offences But they ought always to abominate them and if there be some truce with their tears their hatred must have no intermission The vertues are not always active inasmuch as they have none but particular enemies they take their rest when they have either defeated or worsted them Continence lays aside her arms when she hath mortified the Body Humility takes some respite when the spirit is tam'd and Patience is satisfied when she hath calm'd the motions of anger But Repentance is a publick vertue whether she make war upon all kinds of sins revenge the outrages done against God set upon his enemies she is never at rest Her employment is continuall and as long as she sees any remainders of pride or impurity in the soul or body she spends all her power to stifle them The havock that sin bath made in our nature maintains her in this humour she cannot away with our irregularities at sight of them she presently meditates vengeance and as often as she considers our understanding darkned and our will depraved she resents a just indignation which awakens her against the sin Nothing so much incenseth a Prince against an enemy that hath wasted his state as when pursuing him with his Troops he sees the Fields desolate the Towns beaten to the ground the Villages burnt to ashes and which way soever he turns himself meets with the marks of the fury of a stranger Neither does any thing so much set an edge upon Repentance as when bidding sin battle she beholds the disorders it hath wrought in sinners and perceives neither parts in their body nor faculties in their soul which are not out of order Her just anger reacheth sometimes over the very men and finding they have taken this Tyrants part she animates them against themselves and making them serviceable to her indignation changeth their love into hatred and their pleasures into punishments Indeed every Penitent is his own Judge he enters into the interests of God and as if he were elevated above himself he conceives he hath some right to revenge the former and punish the later Anger according to the opinion of Saint Augustin is nothing else but a desire of vengeance and vengeance according to the sense of Tertullian is only the fruit or effect of anger But inasmuch as this passion is extreamly violent and that it is a hard matter to keep a just measure when we are Arbitrators in our own cause God was willing to reserve the disposal thereof to himself He it is that revengeth the Innocents and punisheth the Guilty and among so many things that belong to him there is none that he is so jealous of as this Mihi vindictam ego retribuam If he give some persons leave to make use of this right 't is after he hath made them his Images and of so many men that people the world there are none but Kings and Parents that have a power to correct their subjects or their children But as the Penitent holds the place of God here below and takes part in his Interests he shares also in his Justice and Power he pronounceth sentence against himself condemns himself as a Judge punisheth himself as an Executioner and being not able to endure himself dischargeth his fury upon all
himself with the pleasures of the body renounceth the priviledges of the minde betrays his duty and his dignity despoils himself of the inclinations of Angels and puts on those of Beasts and without changing his shape changeth condition and nature But inasmuch as most men are led more by interest then reason and those that are the slaves of pleasure are more sensible of grief then shame and dishonour it will not be amisse in this Discourse to let them see that the pleasures after which they so eagerly run are very tragical and contrary to their intention are turn'd into punishments The Divine Justice which leaves no crime unpunished hath been pleased that diseases should be natural penances and that the Stone and the Gout should be the recompence of our debauches Seeing sensuall pleasures are commonly criminal they are for the most part irregular having shaken off the yoak of reason they cast men into excesse and perswade them that 't is a kind of injustice and base servility to prescribe Laws to their desires abused by these false sophisms they pursue their inclinations without keeping any measure in their diversions they are drown'd in delights are lost in voluptuousnesse and draining their strength and their substance fall many times into diseases and poverty Thus by a just judgement of Heaven their disorders become their torments Ipsos voluptas habet non ipsi voluptatem cujus aut inopiâ torquentur aut copiâ strangulantur miseri si deseruntur ab illa miseriores si obruantur Sence and they finde sorrow where they expected felicity If to defend themselves from this misfortune they observe some rules in their pleasures they feel another punishment For these pleasures being short their soul is always languishing they have scarce done with one but they long for another and living always in expectation or inquiry can neither be secure from restlesnesse nor discontent Those who to remedy this evil endeavour to associate pleasures undertake an impossibility For whether nature intend to punish us because we are culpable or whether Grace be not willing to expose us to danger because we are weak Pleasures hold not so good intelligence as Paines These set upon us in a full body and joyn companies to render us wretched the Stone the Gout the Colick and the Palsie conspire together to exercise our patience whatever opposition these diseases may have they agree to ruine us and we many times behold distressed spectacles who have no part of their body free from torment But Pleasures are divided Self-love with all its subtilties cannot reconcile them the Birth of one is the Death of another and experience teacheth us that we have more strength to endure Griefs then to support pleasures when these slow in upon us with full tide they stifle us when they succeed they make us droop and languish and when they recompense their shortness by their excess they reduce us to complaints and groanings From all this Discourse we may conclude that bodily pleasure is an enemy to our happiness that it removes us from God engageth us in the Creature obligeth us to partake of their imperfections and is followed with misery and indigence Therefore following the rule of Contraries we shall not have much ado to perswade our selves that Felicity may be found in Grief and that the Christian is never more happie then when he is afflicted for Christs sake For the understanding of this Paradox we must remember that all earthly goods are onely mediums whereby to gain those of heaven that which leads us the safest way thither is the best neither is the Christian ever neerer his happiness then when he is in the way that soonest leads him thither Now there is no man so little skilled in our mysteries but knows that Grief is the surest and the speediest way to arrive at heaven Cohaeredes autē Christi si tamen compatimur ut simul conglorificemur Rom. 8. Si sustinemus conregnabimus 2 Tim. 2. 't is the path Christ hath marked out with his Blood that whereby he entered into his Greatness that which all the Martyrs have gone and the Scripture teacheth us in a hundred places that Glory is dispensed according to the measure of Sorrow that they that have suffered most upon earth shall be the happiest in heaven One of the most remarkable differences between Christian Grace and Original Righteousness is that this guided man to his happiness thorow a way strewed with roses and lilies the means were proportioned to the end and seemed as an Antepast or Earnest thereof He arrived to Glory by Honour to Pleasure by Delights to Plenty by Riches He had reigned over Beasts before he raigned with Angels he had passed from one Paradise to another and had been happie upon Earth before he had been so in Heaven But now Providence hath changed its conduct over men and whether it have a minde to chastis their Rebellion or to wean them from the World or to make them conformable to their Head it leads them by difficult ways thorow paths rugged with thorns and environed with precipices The means it indulgeth to bring them to their end are contrary to it and to make its proceeding admired they are guided to Life thorow the valley of Death to Liberty thorow Servitude to Light thorow Darkness to Pleasure thorow Pain All the Morality of a Christian propoundeth nothing but Crosses its Vertues are austere its Counsels difficult its Commands harsh and had it not found the means to sweeten all these anxities by Charity it would reduce the Faithful to despair For it obligeth them to hate Themselves and to love their Enemies orders them to forsake their Riches and their Parents Fides non habet meritum ubi humana ratio praebet experimentum Greg. to believe without knowledge obey without discerning love without interest pardon without resentment live without pleasure and die without regret All the Maximes of their Master confirm this Truth for he prefers the Poor before the Rich declares the Afflicted happie canonizeth them that suffer and promiseth his Kingdom to them that weep he practised what he taught his whole life was spent in labours or affronts he was born in a Stable died upon a Cross lost his Honour with his Life nor did his Father glorifie him till his Enemies had loaded him with reproaches and sorrows All his Apostles followed his steps they preached his doctrine with the hazard of their lives signed it with their blood sealed it with their death rendered up their souls among torments nor is there any torture the cruelty of men hath not invented to weary their Patience and trample upon their Courage All his faithful disciples seek for Grief in the Rest of the Church they finde Persecution in Penance are their own executioners and their whole life is an imitation of Martyrdom they provide for the Prison by Solitude dispose themselves for Banishment by removing from their Country prevent
this Cordiall And as servile souls are gained by Profit generous souls are wonne by Honour They would perswade us that of all externall goods it is the noblest and the most faithfull the Noblest because it relates to the minde and never descends so low as to the senses as Interest or Pleasure doe the most Faithfull because it never abandons vertue and accompanies men even to their Grave Delights quit us with life these pleasing Syrenes bear us company till death and at their departure leave us nothing but shame and repentance Riches are not more faithfull then Pleasures and as they descend not with our Bodies into the Grave neither doe they pass with our souls into the other world But Glory is inseparable from Vertue as the shadow from Light it is the onely Inheritance the dead may dispose of that which makes them survive in the world and preserves them from oblivion after their dissolution Finally Honour and Vertue are so closely combined together that they cannot be divided without occasioning their destruction They are Twins whose destiny is so like that the Death of the one leaves the other livelesse and the onely way to banish vertue out of the world is to exterminate Glory thence which serves her for a nourishment and a recompence But whatever the Ambitious would say there needs but a little reason to confesse that there is nothing in the world more jejunely brittle then Glory nor that men ever treated vertue more injuriously then when they assigned Honour for her Recompence For if Glory be a Good 't is a strange one and is oftner the fortunate mans portion then the deservings Honorary It reacheth not always to us and when dispenced with Justice it rests in the minde of those that know or publish our worth so that we should be happy without knowing it and receive honour without any contentment But certainly did we know it our satisfaction would not be the more For the Good that produceth Beatitude must be constant and immutable if it be subject to change 't is to loss and whatever good may fail is not productive of true felicity Now there is nothing in the world that depends more upon fortune then honour 't is the work of opinion 't is a rumour founded upon the Capriciousness of the people who look upon nothing but appearances and in their Judgements for the most part consult nothing but their interest or pleasure If Conquerors are unhappy because victories which are their master-peices depend upon fortune I account them not less miserable because Glory which is the reward of their courage depends upon the opinion of the vulgar and that in this point their Subjects and their Souldiers become their Judges and their Soveraigns If their Felicity be such that they can force men to render them that honour they deserve they ought to take heed least those that commend them deceive Qui laudant mendaces sunt qui laudantur vani Aug. and being Masters of their tongues they be not also of their hearts May they not be afraid also that the judgment of wise men is not the same with the vulgar that whilst they are adored by servile and mercenary souls they are blamed by free and generous ones who more considering the actions then the persons prize vertue in a slave and condemn vice in a Monarch But what satisfaction can they have in the midst of their Triumphs if the reproaches of their consciences give their commendations the lye Plures magnum saepe nomen salsis vulgi rumoribus attulerunt quo quid turpius excogitari potest nam qui falso praedicantur suis ipsi necesse est laudibus erubescant Boet. l. 4. de Conso will they not be extreamly wretched amidst the acclamations of the people if they blame what others appland and if they are conscious that in the managing of a state or in the Conquest of a Province they have laboured more for their own Glory then for the good of their Subjects Are they not more worthy of punishment then Honour if they have preferred reputation before their Duty and have ruin'd their neighbours onely to gain the name of Conquerors But admit for their satisfaction that their desires are lawfull their Conquests just the praises they receive true who can tell whether the opinions of men agree with those of Angels who is sure that Heaven approves what the Earth so highly values and whether God prepare not punishments for those victories men solemnize with Triumphs True glory depends upon him that reads the heart who sees the intentions in the ground of the will Therefore saith the Apostle That he indeed was praise-worthy that received commendations from the mouth of God Illuminabit abscondita tenebrarum manifestabit consilia cordium tunc laus erit unicuique à Deo 1 Cor. 4. and not from that of men Men are mistaken in their words as well as in their thoughts as they judge not but by the appearances they blame an obscure vertue and cry up a glittering vice David therefore would not have his glory depend upon the judgement of his subjects He committed his Reputation as well as his Crown into the hands of God and protested in his Psalms that as he owed his Victories to the protection of the Almighty from him also did he expect glory as the recompence Apud te laus mea The Philosophers were of the same minde because that defining glory they would not have it grounded upon the opinion of the Vulgar but upon the judgement of the wise Gloria vera bonorum consensus est Senec. and that he onely was honourable who by his worth had gained the approbation of honest men But who knows not that vertue is too generous to seek her felicity where she will not so much as look for her reward she looks upon honour as her slave rather then her master and when she acts she consults not so much her reputation as her conscience she is so noble that she looks after no other end but God and so just that she requires no other witnesse but he that must be her Judge This Maxim is not so severe but it hath been embraced by Philosophers For though the Romans committed this outrage against vertue as to subject it to Glory and these grand Politicians to animate their Citizens to generous and difficult actions had perswaded them that none entred into the Temple of Honour but through that of Vertue yet Seneca rightly acknowledged that there was injustice in this proceeding that it was to subject the Soveraign to his slave and that sometimes there were occasions offered where a man must betray his Honour to preserve his Vertue Piety had taught the chast Susanna this Maxim when seeing that she could not preserve her chastity without the losse of her reputation she sacrificed her honour to her duty and preferred the approbation of Angels to the opinion and esteem of men Glory then
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
Continence to our relief to defend us from pleasures that tickle us sometimes we demand help of Fortitude to combat griefs that assault us sometimes we throw our selves into the arms of Justice to deliver us from enemies that oppress us But in Heaven all these Vertues are idle onely Charity is active and yet rests in acting her action is to love what she sees her rest to possess what she loves and her felicity to know that she shall never lose what she enjoys If you cannot suffer saith S. Augustine that the Vertues to which we owe Heaven be banished thence imagine them there more for your ornament then defence never conceive that they fight but perswade your selves that they triumph and having vanquished all their enemies enjoy a Peace which shall endure for all Eternity The Ninth DISCOURSE That the Christians Soul and Body shall finde their Perfection in Beatitude MAn is such a hidden Creature that he cannot well be known without Faith He is mistaken as often as he intends to pass judgement upon himself and the errours that have appeared in his own definition have given us occasion to conclude that he was ignorant of his own essence when he consulted his Sense he believed he was nothing but a Body and if there were a spirit that informed him it was perishable and mortal when he consulted his Pride he conceited himself a pure Spirit which either for his penalty or for his trial was included in a Body as in a prison from which he should be delivered by death These two errours produced two grand disorders in the world The first engaged Man in the love of his Body and the oblivion of his Soul he made no account but of sensual Pleasures and knowing no life but the present never troubled himself about the future He was of opinion that Death was the end of his Being and that nothing remaining of him after his dissolution he need fear neither any Punishment nor expect any Recompence The second errour made him so mightily undervalue his Body that he repined at it as a Slave and handled it as a Rebel he had recourse many times to Death that being delivered from this enemy he might mix with pure Intelligences and raign with Gods or Devils Faith which corrects our errours obligeth us to believe that Man is neither an Angel nor a Beast that he is compounded of a Body and a Soul and if he have the First common with Beasts he hath the Second common with Angels The same Faith perswades him that Death deprives him of his body but for a time onely that at the General Resurrection it shall be re-united to the soul to partake of its good or bad fortune Therefore treating here of the felicity of Christians I am necessarily to speak of the two parts that compose them and of the different happiness the Divine Justice prepares for them respectively Inasmuch as the soul is the noblest she is also most happily provided for and her Beatitude infinitely surpasseth that of the body Tunc nec falli nec peccare homines possunt veritate illuminati in bono confirmati Aug. When she quits her prison and is purified of all her imperfections by the grace of Jesus Christ she enters into Glory and receives all the advantages which are due to her dignity and condition Ignorance which is a brand of sin is quite defaced by the brightness that enlightens her her weakness is fortified by a supply which being much more powerful then that of Grace raiseth her to a condition wherein she cannot desert the good nor embrace the evil and where as Saint Augustine saith she is in a happy impotency to wander from her duty and estrange her self from the Supream good Assurance succeeds in the place of fear rest in stead of conflicts triumphs after victories she is no longer constrained to resist the motions of the flesh because this rebell is become obedient and losing in the Resurrection whatever he drew from Adam at his Birth hath now none but just and holy inclinations The Spirit is no longer busied to maintain a war against sin because this Monster cannot enter Heaven he groans not now under the revolt of the passions and as all the vertues are peaceable they finde neither enemies to subdue nor rebels to tame Her knowledge is no longer accompanied with doubts and darkness she learnes without labour is not afraid to forget and drawing light and wisdom from the very Fountain knows all things in their Principles In this happy condition there remains nothing for the Christian to wish for his soul is penetrated by the Divine Essence his understanding clarified with the light of glory his will inflamed with the love of God and all his powers and faculties finding their particular perfection in one object he confesseth that the promises of God exceed his hopes Though his body have been polluted by his birth and corrupted by death it findes life in the Resurrection and Purity in Glory For assoon as the Trumpet of the Angel shall have declared the will of God every soul shal reassume her own body reuniting her self with it shall give it a part in her happiness The greatness of this wonder hath found no belief in the mindes of Philosophers though they were perswaded of the Immortality of the soul they would not consent to the Resurrection of the body and having seen it made a prey to wilde Beasts or fuel for the flames they judged there was no power in the world could restore it again The spirit of man hath favoured this errour and believing his eyes rather then his light could not finde in his heart to place that part of man in heaven which he saw committed to the grave he was afraid to weary the power of the Almighty if he should oblige him to so many miracles and not comprehending how a body reduc'd to powder or smoak could take its primitive form chose rather to leave it in the Earth then draw it thence with so much violence But had he thought of the Creation he had never doubted of the Resurrection and Reason her self had perswaded him that seeing God was able to finde the body in Non-Entity where it was not he might very well finde it in the waters or in the slames where there was yet some remainder thereof If Nothing were not rebellious to him Nature cerrainly will not be disobedient and if he could make that which was not he may as easily repair what now is not Nothing perisheth in respect of the Creator the dead are not less his subjects then those that never were born and if he could make Non-Entity hear him he may well make death obey him The miracle of Resurrection is perhaps attended with more pomp then that of the Creation but there is less difficulty in it and he that could vanquish the distance between Entity and Non-Entity will have no great matter to do to master the opposition
between Life and Death Finally our Creator never loses his right over his creatures they are at his disposal in what place soever they are Their changing of form makes them not change condition and because they pass thorow three or four Elements they depend not lesse upon his Omnipotence The body of man is always the work of God and he may after its corruption restore its beauty and re-unite it to the soul like a wise Artist having reduced a statue to powder may by his skil restore it to the primitive form All the difficulties our spirit can suggest in this miracle are easily master'd by him that can do all things and having well weighed the wonders of the Creation it will be no hard matter to comprehend those of the Resurrection Inasmch as the body receives life in this and is re-united with the soul it is happily delivered from all the miseries it had contracted in its birth or during its life If Nature were mistaken in forming it the Authour of Nature corrects the faults in raising it He gives it its just dimension its lawful proportion and retrenching whatever was superfluous makes it a compleat piece But because it is not enough to take away the defects to render it happy God gives it advantages in glory which it had not in innocence For although the body before it was infected with sin was not rebellious against the minde nor subject to grief and death it was nevertheless capable of corruption The Natural heat consumed the substance and the waste it made was to be repaired by nourishment Though he were obedient yet was he an Animal and though he felt no disorders yet was he liable to infirmities his weight would have hindered him from following his soul to Heaven he could not walk upon the water nor penetrate the Chrystal and had he not prevented hunger and thirst by eating and drinking he had never held out against griefe and death Finally though he enjoyed the priviledges of Original Righteousness he wanted those of Glory and though innocent was neither incorruptible nor illuminated But in the Resurrection he shall receive all these qualities and as the soul is now corporeal because wholly engaged in the body by a happy retaliation the body will be spiritual because perfectly submitted to the soul and as the soul saith Saint Augustine though corporeal ceaseth not to be a spirit the body though spiritual ceaseth not to be a body It will change condition though it change not nature and will have advantages which shall set it free from all the miseries it now endures It s subtilty will surpass that of the light will penetrate all solid bodies nothing shall be able to withstand its desires and being no longer the Prison but the Temple of his soul will find no obstacles that stop it nor chains that intangle it It s agility will be so great that it will outstrip the winds and lightning will fly without wings thorow the spacious regions of the air will walk upon the water and not sink and in a moment passing from one end of the world to another will be no longer the clog and torment of the soul It s impassibility will free it from all the injuries of the Seasons and Elements the naturall heat which now consumes him shall no more corrode the naturall Moisture The Contraries that compose him will agree and being no longer tormented with hunger and thirst will stand in need neither of meat nor drink He will be in a state of consistency wherein he will have his just proportion nor will he expect from time his youth or old age he will enjoy an eternall spring of years which will never wither he will see the dayes passe on and never feel any declension in himself his budding verdure will fear no winter the Lillies and the Roses of his countenance will keep their freshness and as original righteousness served for a Garment for innocent man glory will be insteed of a robe to the blessed His brightness will surpass that of the Sun the raies which dart from his eyes will dim those of this Glorious Luminary and he will cast such lights and flames that the least glorified Body will be able to illuminate the Universe His immortality will be the Crown of his Happiness That pittilesse monster which exerciseth his rigour upon all men pursues them into the Grave reduceth them to powder after the worms have devoured them This Cruell one I say will have no more power over the Blessed he will discharge his fury upon the damned in Hell he will make a league with life to torment them Eternally and that which endures here but for a moment will last for ever in that dismall habitation to lengthen their pains according to the obstinacy of their crimes But he will respect his Conquerors and beholding the Blessed as the Members of him that hath defeated him upon the Crosse will not dare to set upon them afresh nor so much as appear in their presence Then shall the happinesse of men be perfect when a glorified soul shall inanimate an immortall Body and mutually communicating all their advantages the soul shall be happy in the felicity of the Body and the Body happy in that of the Soul All their differences shall be composed in this General peace the Soul shall forget all the Revolts of the Body nor shall the Body any more complain of the severities of the Soul but both of them remembring onely the Good offices they have done each other they shall reign in Heaven in a Community of Glory as they lived upon Earth in a Community of Merits But to arrive to this Happy condition the Spirit must war against the Flesh and Repentance give the faithfull those Priviledges Glory instates the Blessed in For though there be nothing more opposite to Rest then a Conflict yet is it the Conflict that gains us the victory Ex bello pax pugna enim nos praeparat victoriae victoria nobis obtinet triumphum Chry. and the victory that procures us the peace Though there be nothing more contrary to Happiness theu Pain it is notwithstanding austerity that subjects the Body to the Soul and makes us see in our Banishment a perfect Image of Glory For if it be true that the Blessed feel no Rebellion in their person and if their Body be perfectly subjected to their minde we must acknowledg that the Christian cannot pretend to any part of this advantage but by the help of repentance It is this vertue that tames the Pride of the flesh this faithfull minister of the Divine Justice which makes Charity reign in spite of Concupiscence and all the peace we have in the earth we owe it to the zeal and austerity of crucifixion If the Blessed be disengaged from the world if their condition be separated from ours and if finding all things in the Divine Essence meat cloaths and lodging be useless to them it seems Repentance