the glory of God as the Apostle advises if our Discourses and Familiar Entertainments savour of those things which are above and at least indirectly appertain to the kingdom of God these are Arguments we are truly risen with Christ being of their own nature such Proofs of a Spiritual Life of a Spiritual Resurrection from the Death of Sin as the Exercise of the Animal Functions and Rational Powers are a Demonstration of the Continuance or Reviviscence of the Natural 2 Cor. 11.23 We read That the Spirit of Darkness sometimes transfigures himself into an Angel of Light sometimes takes a Body of Air which the deluded Sense cannot distinguish from a Solid and Real one and sometimes as Artfully moves a Solid but Dead Body as if it were Alive Both Sacred and Profane History offer innumerable Proofs of these Slights of Satan I shall instance only in the Second which is most for my purpose 1 Sam. 28.15 Thus the Witch of Endor is said in the First of Kings to have rais'd Samuel whose own Words seem to prove it a real Resurrection Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer Why hast thou disquieted me to raise me up Yet St. Augustin assures us Samuel did not rise again in his own but only in a fictitious and imaginary or at most in an aereal Body And thro' these Slights and Delusions of Satan it happens that many seem to rise again with Christ who in effect rise only with Samuel If we regard their Promises and Protestations Sin shall never reign any more in their mortal Body their Eyes are open'd to see and bewail their past Transgressions they have recover'd their Speech to declare at the Feet of their Confessor those vicious Habits and secret Crimes which so long had been lock'd up in Silence and lay putrifying in their Breasts at the Voice of Christ they issue like so many Lazarus's from their Monuments and run to embrace their Life in the Holy Communion And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection is real and they are truly risen again with Christ But if you keep your Eye a little upon them you shall see them still playing about the Flames which had scorch'd them before you shall see them frequenting the same licentious Company which gave them their Death wantoning upon the same Brink of the Precipice whence they so lately fell like Ghosts still hovering about their Graves and Places of Burial in fine not advanc'd one step farther off the imminent Dangers and immediate Occasions of Sin And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection was only in the Air imaginary or Fictitious a Stratagem of the Devil to delude them and to amuse their Confessors while St. Paul's Declaration touching the State of the Widow is verify'd in every Soul She that liveth in pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 is dead while she liveth Haec praecipe says the Great Apostle teach command urge and inculeate this Doctrin For the Resurrection of a Soul cries St. Bernard is not so easie a thing as you imagine it is a great and wonderful Sacrament magnum prorsus mirabile Sacramentum animae suscitatio Great in reference to the Power of God and Wonderful as to the Disposition requisite in the Sinner To break the Treble Cord of a threefold Concupiscence to destroy all vicious Habits Root and Branch to lay violent Hands upon our own Hearts and tear from our Breasts what is as dear to us as Life and almost as deeply ingrafted as Nature to turn the Stream of our Affections to hate our own Souls which we so tenderly cherish and indulge to love and embrace a Penitential Life of which we have so great an abhorrence to which we carry such a strange aversion and antipathy Ah! Christian this is not the work of a few Hours Recollection this is not the Fruit of a few superficial Tears which dry and vanish as they fall this is not the Effect of a Sigh which passes with the Wind or of a hasty Resolution which is forgot almost as soon as made this is not the Violence that takes Heaven which do's not yield upon every faint or false Attack These indeed are Circumstances which ever attend a true Resurrection but they are not infallible Proofs They are common to a Real and a Fictitious one They may be indeed the first Dawnings of a New Life but are too often only a gaudy Spectre a meer outside and an amusing Apparition So true is that terrible Assertion of the Holy Bishop of Barcellona S. Pacian Ep. 3. ad Synphr Paucorum est labor qui vere resurgunt Few there are who truly rise again because few will take the pains to extricate themselves from the Snares of Sin and remove every Occasion as far as in them lies of relapsing into it after the Example of the Holy King Josias 2 Kings 23. who not only broke down the Idols banish'd the Artificers demolish'd the Altars but also cut down the Groves to efface even the Memory of Idolatry lest the Convenience of committing the same Crime might be an Invitation to commit it Yet this work of estranging our selves from the Dangers of Sin tho' attended with so many Difficulties is but a remote disposition to a Spiritual Resurrection a removens prohibens there are others and nearer requir'd not only to the Introducing but also to the Nourishment and Preservation of the New Life This is the Third Analogy the Holy Fathers observe between the Resurrection of Christ and that of a Christian viz. the Duration and Perpetuity of it intimated by the Apostle when he tells us Christ being rais'd from the dead dies no more Rom. 6.9 By which words not only a feigned but also a failing Repentance is struck out of the Book of Life And this Admonition is particularly address'd to you of the Houshold of Faith who after a sincere and unfeigned sorrow of Heart after a clear and undisguis'd Enumeration of all your Sins by Confession of Mouth after a serious Endeavour to apply to your selves the Satisfactions of Christ by the exercise of Good Works use violence upon your Hearts in exterminating ill Habits and avoiding those Occasions which formerly prevail'd upon you and in fine are truly risen again but alas are not risen again with Christ For after you have set your hand to the Plow you look back upon the Ease and Pleasure of the World after you have been feasted with the Bread of Angels your Hearts return into Egypt you remit of your primitive Fervour you slacken in your Devotions you inquire into a corrupted Moral and hunt after Cases to dispense with your Resolutions you hearken to the Language of the World till you are insensibly seis'd with the Infection it gains every day upon you preys upon the Life of the Spirit and at last wholly consumes it Thus the very Means of your Salvation corrupt into the Occasions of your farther Misery and your rising again serves
upon the Principal Mysteries of our Redemption and shews how they are apply'd to us and express'd in us as a spiritual Circumcision Col. 2.10.11.12 by putting off the Body of Sin signified by the Circumcision of Christ a dying and being buried with him in the Waters of Baptism imported by the shedding his precious Blood and laying his dead Body in the Monument that we are quickned and revived together with him and continues Let no man judge you in part of the Holy Day In parte diei festi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the vulgar Latin and the Greek have it where the common Translation reads in respect of the Holy Day I know the sense of the Letter according to the general Interpretation is Let no one condemn you for neglecting to observe the Jewish Festivals or Ceremonies But some Expositors understand it to be spoken in a larger and more spiritual sense and by way of Caveat that we should not flatter our selves as if we had perform'd the Obligations of this Day for the purpose by devoutly meditating upon the Resurrection of Christ which is only one Part of the present Solemnity without proceeding to the other to solemnize our own Rising again from the Death of Sin which is the Second Part the Fruit and End of the other But whether you allow of this Interpretation or no at least this is fidelis sermo a faithful Saying an unquestionable Truth If we be dead with him 2 Tim. 2.11 we shall also live with him Die therefore we must not only a natural Death which is the Punishment of Sin but also a spiritual one which is the Death of Sin We incurr'd the fatal Sentence of returning into Earth by seeking those things which are upon Earth we revive into a Spiritual Life by seeking those things which are in Heaven The one consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body the other in the Union of the Soul with Christ 2 Cor. 4.11 that the Life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal Flesh as the Apostle speaks that our Conversation even in this World may be so pure our Actions so spiritual and our Affections so fix'd upon things above as to express a lively Similitude of our Lord's Resurrection Wherefore the Holy Fathers observe a threefold Analogy or Resemblance between the Resurrection of Châ—â—st and that of a Christian The first arises from the Cause of his Resurrection which the Apostle tells us was the Operation of God or the Omnipotent Hand of the Divinity reuniting the Blessed Soul of Jesus to his dead Body and not permitting his Holy One to see Corruption Thus a Soul once dead to God can never by its own Strength for it has none by its own Endeavors or Performances which are inanimate or by the practice of Moral Vertues which are dead in themselves re-enter into the Life of Grace without the merciful Assistance miraculous Operation and the Change of the Hand of the most High whose sole Prerogative it is to command Light to shine out of Darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 as well to repair what has once ceas'd to be as to make what never was before This is a Fundamental Truth and as it were a First Principle of Christian Religion deliver'd by Jesus Christ declar'd and frequently urg'd by the Doctor of the Gentiles and repeated by the Holy Ghost in many Councils and at last in that of Trent where it is decreed Conc. Trid. Sess 6. Can. 1. de Justificat to the condemnation of Modern Pelagianism and to vindicate the Churches Doctrin from the Calumnies or Mistakes of those who still misrepresent it That whosoever asserts Man by his own Works perpetrated either by the Strength of Nature or by the Assistance of the Law may be justified without the Grace of God thro' Jesus Christ Anathema Let him be accursed By declaring the Insufficiency of Nature to a Good and Justifying Life she condemns those Men who think they may be sav'd by leading only a Moral Life according to the Dictamen of Reason without the Practice of Religion By excluding the Old Law she censures the Judaizing Christian wâ—â— places it in equal Ballance with the New or at least thinks this not sufficient without the Observance of the other And lastly By establishing the Necessity of Grace to perform every Good and Vertuous Action she warns us not to presume or relie upon our own Merits she directs us whither we are to lift up our Eyes whence we are to expect our Salvation and points him out who gives Birth to our good Desires Warmth to our Affections and Life to our Actions both the Velle Perficere Philip. 2.13 the Will to rise again and the Execution of it by seeking those things which are above This is the Second Analogy of our Resurrection with that of Christ the Proof and Experiment that we are risen from Death to Life For as we cannot distinguish an Animate from an Inanimate Body but by the Palpitation of the Heart Pulse of the Artery Heaving of the Lungs or the Exercise of some sensible Faculty so cannot we discern a Soul inform'd with the Life of Grace from another which is depriv'd of it but by such Operations as are proper to that Life as the Restraint of our Appetites a Command of our Passions a Modesty in our Behavior a Veracity in our Words a Sincerity in our Dealings a Relieving the Poor assisting the Distressed embracing and doing good to our Enemies These are the Authentick Proofs of a Real Resurrection and a lively Resemblance of Jesus Christ's Surrexit Dominus vere Our Lord is truly risen And how did he make it out he was truly risen Multis Argumentis says St. Luke By many Arguments many infallible Proofs And wherein did these consist but in appearing often to his Disciples shewing the Marks of his Death eating and drinking in their Presence Acts 1.3 and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God In like manner Matth. 5.16 if our light so shine before men that they see our good works we express the Resemblance of a Glorified Body Donum Claritatis 2 Cor. 4.10 If we carry about the Mortification of Jesus in our Bodies we copy out the Marks and Stigmata of his Passion If we stand firm and unshaken in the midst of Persecution we become a lively Representation of his Impassibility Donum Impassibilitatis Psal 118.32 If we run with delight the way of his Commandments when Charity has enlarged our Hearts and even the Lets and Impediments we meet with in the Service of God are so far from retarding the Course of our Vertue that on the contrary they inflame our Zeal and furnish new Matter to provoke and heighten our Courage we imitate the Third Quality of his Glorified Body Donum Agilitatis In fine If whether we eat or drink 1 Cor. 10.31 or whatsoever we do we do all to
only to plunge you deeper into Death by adding to the weight of your former Commissions a heavy Ingratitude a sacrilegious Abuse of Divine Grace a Contempt of Mercy a Rebellion against the Light an evacuating the Death of Christ and frustrating his Resurrection of its chiefest End that rising from Death with him you should die no more And herein consists the difference between the Resurrection of the Body and that of the Soul Both the one and the other are the Effects of a Supernatural and Divine Power But the one always supposes a Perpetuity and Settled state the other is subject to Decay and of its own nature do's not exclude Corruption and Mortality Thus the Sunamite's Child at the Prayer of Elizaeus the Dead Man at the touch of his Bones Lazarus and others at the Voice of Christ and they who at his Death came forth of their open'd Sepulchers were restor'd to Life but to a dying Life they liv'd to die again But the Spiritual Life communicated to a Soul by the Grace of Jesus Christ is invested as far as concerns the Operation of the Agent with Immortality and has impress'd upon it a Resemblance of his Resurrection a Jam non moritur She is commanded to cherish and perpetuate that Life which nothing can corrupt unless she lay murthering Hands upon her self and by consenting to Sin fall a Victim to it But can any one who believes in earnest the Advantage and Excellence of this Supernatural Life who has ever tasted the ineffable Comforts of a Spiritual Resurrection with and in Christ be so careless of the Advantage so insensible of the Excellence so forgetful of the Comforts as to lavish them away upon every slight occasion as to exchange them for every gaudy Trifle as to wound and destroy this Life at the persuasion of a Passion or for the gratifying a Concupiscence or for the indulging an Appetite If one did not find this practically true in speculation one would pronounce it impossible Impossible that the Reasonable Creature should persecute its own Happiness run counter to its own Desires and contrive its own Destruction contrary to the Dictamen of Reason to the Impressions of Faith and even to the Inclinations of Nature And whosoever considers with how many Tears Alms-deeds and Mortifications with what Assiduity in Prayer Modesty of Behaviour and Earnestness to hear the Word of God we have spent this Holy and Penitential Season in order to prepare our selves to rise again with Jesus Christ in this Day of his Triumph over Death will certainly conclude that we are truly dead Rom. 6.2 and our Life hidden with Christ in God that being thus dead to Sin quomodo adhuc vivemus in illo how is it possible we should harbor a Thought of living any longer in that wretched Condition Yet this time of Penance is no sooner elaps'd than we begin to provide Matter for a new Repentance We take the Reins off our Senses and Passions and turn them loose to rove and wanton as before as if Sensuality were the Object of the Churches Indulgence as if Luxury Excess mis-spending our Time superfluous Entertainments and other Practices which are at all times unlawful were not at the most Holy of Times more Criminal It seems the Tide of our Vices was only stemm'd for Forty days and now the Sluces are pull'd up to let them roll in their old Channels with more impetuosity than before We hear the Churches Invitations to rejoyce and to be merry her Exultemus's and Alleluia's we presently catch the Sound and like the Carnal Jew think it relates to Flesh and Blood we presently unbend the Mind and impart the happy News to every Passion and Concupiscence But who would have imagin'd that Relaxations of our Manners could be thought by Mankind the fittest Expressions and most unfeigned Testimonies of their Rejoycing at the Resurrection of Christ But since the World will have it so I am contented provided it be made appear that these are Arguments and Signs of our Rising again with Christ For our Lord reassum'd his Sacred Body that we might rise in Spirit with him and in Flesh after him Our Resurrection then is the principal End of His and by consequence those Actions which demonstrate us to be truly risen again with him are the only proper Means to express our Joy to celebrate his Triumph And I hope we are now agreed that these consist in seeking those things which are above in setting our affections on heavenly things in transcending all Human Considerations in leaving the World far below us and contemning its Vanities Honors and Riches as much as we abhor its Vices and Corruptions 1 Cor. 15.50 As for Flesh and Blood their Inclinations and Concupiscences which can never possess the Kingdom of God they become more than ever our mortal Enemies we have a new Obligation to persecute and detest them a fresh Provocation to distress and mortifie them because they hinder us from enjoying the Liberty of the Children of God they are a Clog upon the Heart a Damp upon the Spirits they check the Flight of the Soul and lure her down when she is upon the Wing to have her Conversation in Heaven Philip. 3.2 And since this is your Belief but your Practice so contrary has not the Apostle as much reason to expostulate with you as he had with the Galatians Sic stulti estis ut cum spiritu caeperitis Gal. 3.3 carne consummemini Are you become so foolish as to end in the Flesh after you have begun in the Spirit Tanta passi estis sine causa v. 4. Have you so long bridl'd your Appetites and deny'd your Senses even their lawful Satisfactions to let them break out at Easter like a Vapor from some Hollow of the Earth more unruly furious and destructive than they could have been had you not penn'd them in and confin'd them Have you suffer'd so many things in vain shed so many Tears without Fruit given so many Alms to no End In vain without Fruit and to no end indeed unless these happy Beginnings are crown'd with an answerable Perseverance unless you dy'd to Sin to rise again with Jesus Christ and are risen again to die no more Which God of his Infinite Mercy c. The End of the First Sermon A SERMON Preach'd before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER On Whitsunday 1686. Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Ghost AS the Children of Israel Most Sacred Majesty receiv'd the Law Fifty days after the Paschal Lamb was Sacrific'd in Memory and Thanksgiving for their Miraculous Deliverance from the Egyptian Slavery so the Church of Christ in the fulness of time and after that mysterious number of Days elaps'd from the Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb who takes away the Sins of the World is establish'd by the solemn publication of a New Covenant a Covenant of Grace But to express the Analogy and Relation between the one
and the other the Shadow and the Substance the Law and the Consummation of the Law to insinuate the same Spirit of God who dictated the First to be also the Author of the Second both are deliver'd upon the Mount both in Fire both with Sound and Majesty But as perfect Charity casts out Fear so the Law of Perfection is distinguish'd from the Imperfect by introducing Charity in the place of Fear a gentle lambent Fire in lieu of Thunder and Lightning by changing Mount Sina the Region of Terror for Jerusalem the Vision of Peace a frightful Desert for the Place of Prayer the Ministry of an Angel for the immediate Presence of the Holy Ghost The first was written in Tables of Stone the latter 2 Cor. 3.3 says the Apostle in the fleshly Tables of our Hearts the one was attended with all the Circumstances of Terror and repeated Menaces of Death and all little enough to make a stiff-neck'd People bend their Shoulders to a Heavy and Galling Yoke but the other as gentle in the Declaration as easie in the Execution is publish'd with the appearance of fiery Tongues Emblems of Softness and Eloquence Hieroglyphicks of Light and Charity to express its Efficacy not by Constraint but Insinuation not by Compulsion but Persuasion as Fire is the most bright most piercing and most active of the Elements and the Tongue the most tender in Substance the most easie in Operation yet the most powerful of all our Faculties In a word the first was deliver'd in Smoke and Clouds to signifie its Property Imperfection Obscurity Darkness or at the best a Cloud which was to break up and disperse umbra futurorum Colos 2.17 a Shadow which was to pass away the second under the Symbol of Wind pure open cleansing to shew the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as requisite to clear the Soul from the Corruption or Contagion of Sin as the Wind is to purifie the Air and the Air is to refresh the Body and therefore his Divine Presence is sometimes call'd a Blast of Wind as the Spouse in the Canticles Cant. 4.16 Veni Auster perfla hortum fluent aromata sometimes a Breath of Air tanquam Spiritus aurae lenis sometimes Spiraculum vitae the breathing of Life and generally a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only in reference to his Eternal Procession from the Father and the Son by way of Spiration or reciprocal breathing of Love but also in order to his Operations ad extra working himself into the Soul by insensible ways giving her Action and Motion as the material Air do's the Lungs and the animal Spirits every part of the Body Spiritus Sanctus vita spirituum sensificans vivificans says Richard of St. Victor Richard de S. Vict. l. 6. de Trin. Wherefore our Blessed Master who on this Day fulfill'd his Promise of sending the Holy Spirit compares it John 3.8 to the Elementary which bloweth where it lists whose sound we hear but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit By which last Words he applies the Comparison as if he had said You are to believe the Influence of this Spirit as necessary to beget and perpetuate the Life of the Soul as you experience the other is to the Life and Welfare of Nature and as he that hinders the Air from passing into his Lungs must immediately be stifled or soon burnt up with interior Heat so he that checks the entrance of the Holy Ghost whose Property is to allay the Heat of Concupiscence with the nobler and gentler warmth of a Spiritual Love to asswage the Passions to cool and moderate the Affections or he that ejects him out of his Heart after he is enter'd is said to contristate to grieve the Holy Ghost and frustrate the end of his Coming Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum This Consideration carry'd me upon these Words of the Apostle and pointed them out as a proper Theme equally fitted to the Sanctity and Solemnity of the Time to the Necessities and Capacity of every Hearer and as the most important Advice can be given Christians who have already receiv'd and are suppos'd to possess the delightful Presence of the Holy Ghost to cherish that gentle Flame to treat the Divine Guest as becomes the Children of Light not only not to expel him out of their Hearts by any criminal Action or Consent but not so much as to give him the least Offence by remitting of the Devotion they feel or pious Resolutions they make at this Holy Time Nolite contristare c. But to maintain the Interests of this Holy Spirit we must have his Assistance the Power of Persuasion being one of those Gifts of Tongues which descend from above and which is obtain'd by the same Disposition the Apostles were in perseverantes in oratione by continuing in Prayer and if you would learn the Method the Evangelist delivers it in two words Cum Maria the Blessed Virgin is the Pattern the Holy Ghost found her in the same posture at his second Coming as he did in the first when the Angel saluted her AVE MARIA Grieve not the Holy Ghost THE Essential Joy which God possesses within himself and which is Himself places him above the reach of Grief but not above our Attempts to afflict him His Immortal Godhead and Power may secure his Being but not our Obedience we are as ready to take up Arms against him as if we could dethrone him at our Pleasure His Majesty and Justice may strike a Sinner with Amazement and Terror but not always with that Fear which works a stable Repentance Thus his Love and Mercy and Glory which establish his Beatitude his Glory that no Evil can approach him his Love and Mercy that he would pass by the Injury if any such could be done him exempt him from a possibility of grieving and yet we grieve him that is we are as criminal and injurious to him as if he were susceptible of our ill usage For tho' every Sin be levell'd at the Whole Trinity the Undivided Godhead against which it is committed yet the Holy Ghost to whom the Work of our Conversion is appropriated is said to be the Principal Object of the Injury as implying a horrible Contempt of his Favors Spritui gratiae contumeliam facientes Heb. 10.23 Our Faith teaches us to consider the Holy Ghost in two different States in reference to Human Nature the one as hovering over us and desiring to enter into the Heart of Man which belongs to him upon so many Titles the other as striving to keep possession of it which to maintain he has been so liberal of his Graces and Inspirations of his Gifts and Promises and even of himself Spiritus qui datus est nobis In each of these Circumstances we may displease and contristate him First If we refuse him admittance when he demands it And secondly If we oblige him