perswade First offering to their consideration how much it comforts Man to believe there is a God for in doing this we contemplate a Being infinite and sovereign that presides and rules in the World so that the World possesses in him a sovereign good Is it not then better the VVorld should enjoy such a Being which derives from himself alone his essence and existence than to be deprived of it For in believing there is a God we consecrate our love unto him we pay him the homage of obedience than which nothing is more delightful For to serve an Object of so much excellency is the height of glory we raise our selves finally one day to enjoy this accomplished Being as the ultimate end to which we are designed and every glance of this hope creates in us a new contentment Now if we have not the belief of a God what followes We convert our selves to a Creature inferiour to us on this we rely to this we submit in this we hope who being filled with misery and want can contribute little or nothing to make us great or happy so we must needs languish without any hopes of a full satisfaction Besides suppose there were no such thing as a God we are yet in as good a condition as impious Atheists for then we shall tast no punishment after Death no more than they but if there be a God they have lost all in having not acknowledged the Worlds Sovereign nor performed any duty to him so that in all Events it is better to believe than disbelieve a Deity For besides the joyes our hopes afford us in this life of eternal felicity we run no hazzard of ruine as poor unfortunate impious Atheists do Next he layes before the impious that he who believes not a providence resembles an Orphan bereft of his Parents and hath none to take care of him is like a person at Sea in the midst of Tempests who fancies to be without a Pilot and exposed to the mercy of the Waves Whereas the contrary opinion settles us in peace and tranquility and in all the disasters of this life we have this consolation that his wise and indulgent Providence will make all our seeming misfortunes to end in happiness if with patience we expect but the Issue Again he would have the wicked represent unto themselves what a comfort it is to place God in our thoughts enriched with all kind of perfections that he is an unfathomed Abyss of excellency that he is most happy most wise most powerful most good and merciful So that our dependance on such a Sovereign cannot but add much to our contentment to think he hath abundance to supply all our indigency and goodness to confer it upon us if we prove faithful to his service When he had thus ravished them with a discourse of God's amiable perfections he tells them they were created of nothing and so distills into them a conception and belief of his Omnipotency and by that stirrs up their hope For if he drew them out of nothing with more facility can he restore life and raise them from their Ashes This belief gives us a knowledge of our extraction and shews it is noble in that we belong to God we are subjects to a Lord all powerful who can reward and punish according as we deserve Next he minds them that being composed of Soul and Body the one is immortal by which he is elevated above all other Creatures and resembles the glorious Angelical spirits Now had they not this assurance by faith what desolation and despair would seize them at the approach of Death when like Beasts they must come to lose all and perish for ever in corruption whereas the belief of a Resurrection renders Death unto us but like a sound sleep in the space of which we remove from one habitation to a better So that the belief of the Soul's immortality is accompanied with the greatest consolation that can be His next overture is that they are designed to eternal beatitude from which article proceeds a most ravishing harmony for it is the sole charm by which all the traverses and afflictions of this life are made supportable and the only ingredient which sweetens the bitterness of misfortunes here It is just like a person in distress and born to a great inheritance who still animates himself with the expectation of his Estate which will be the more welcome to him as his hardship hath been the greater no less do our pretensions to Paradise plant in us hope charity humility and constancy in all events Our Holy Penitent notwithstanding all this is not so arrogant as to perswade himself the force of his Arguments will infallibly prevail upon the impious For though the advantages of Faith prescribe an Antidote against any Poyson of misfortune either in this life or the next though it contain nothing that is not holy and pure nothing that is not worthy the Majesty of God yet he knowes that Man by the strength of nature cannot purchase a compleat beatitude that neither by the succour of any natural Agent can he arrive to his perfect happiness because it is above and exceeds any created vertue so that it is necessary God should there act immediately himself as in the raising a dead person to life or restoring sight to the blind whence St. Austin sayes None can give eternal life but the Author of Eternity And therefore our wise Penitent sayes not he will convert the impious but that they shall be converted which is to say the power of God's grace must strike the stroke Lastly he acquaints them that though they are to be illuminated inspired and introduced into their happiness by God himself yet the sole way to dispose themselves for this must be by their own good works and actions Not but that the Omnipotency of God might give them beatitude without exacting any thing at their hands but the order of his Providence would have it so that Man should exercise himself in virtue and labour for the purchase of his final perfection To which end God assists him with his grace and gives supernatural helps which proportion his good works to the greatness of beatitude unto which he may raise himself by degrees by many labours and pious exercises so to purify and the better to dispose himself for so sublime and transcending an end In conclusion our great Doctor bids them gather from this his discourse upon what foundation they stand that if they will have a Crown they must fight for it they must desert their wayes of impiety change their gluttony into a sober repast their softness and delicacies into austerity their vain joyes into Tears of Repentance their libidinous desires into languishments of love and affection towards God If then the most impious will submit to this doom and follow these rules his Holy Providence hath set down he will not blush to assert with confidence that even the most enormous sinner shall
all their VVorldly interests and engagements to follow him what transports do the sweet whispers of his Divine Spirit occasion unto his dear Servants what internal consolations what tranquility of mind St. Austin terms them certain previous relishes or Antipasts of Heaven which far transcend all the contentment and satisfactions of this world In a word that Seraphim of love St. Austin gives us the perfect Character of a spiritual joy by his own experience Saying O Lord sometimes thou dost lead me into unknown delights which were they compleated in me I know not what they would be but certain I am it would not be this life that is such a Dilatation of Spirits he found to attend those spiritual comforts that he saw were they accomplished a ruine of his mortal Being must needs ensue This is the joy and gladness our Holy Petitioner expects and that he was not deceived in his expectation scarce a Psalm of his that proclaims not the sweetness and superabundant satisfactions issuing from the love fear and service of God and therefore when he had petitioned for persecution adversity and the Crown of Martyrdom he might justly solace himself with the sequel and fruits of sufferings which are joy and gladness To my hearing thou wilt give joy and gladness The Application Ah who would not then protest against the vain joyes of this world to tast the sweetness of spiritual entertainments St. Gregory puts this difference 'twixt Corporal and Spiritual delights that the former whilest in expectation are coveted with much vehemency but when once enjoyed they presently become nauseous and distastful the other we pursue but coldly and with little heat of desire yet when once we have a relish of them we still languish after the encrease This made St. Francis that blessed despiser of the World to make a Covenant with his senses never to fasten with the least Contentment on any sensual object and truly he was so exact in the performance as he went up and down like the meer shadow of a Man that had nothing humane in him but his shape his better part ever dwelling in the Mansion of the Blessed These are joyes that will not be held by Repentance may we then still languish after them Amen CHAP. XVIII Et exultabunt Ossa humiliata And humbled Bones shall rejoyce THis encouragement which our Petitioner allowes himself corresponds with the second part of the former verse where he was willing to Sacrifice his life For he doth not only cheer himself in reflecting upon the reward which repentance will bring to his Soul but likewise upon the future condition of his Earthly mould which he beholds as matter of great consolation and therefore upon the same score he prosecutes the Subject of his hope saying that his humbled Bones shall rejoyce Amongst all the comforts Christian Religion affords there is none hath so much influence upon Man as the expectation of a future resurrection the motive of this consolation springs from the belief we have of God's Omnipotency For as we believe he hath created us of nothing so we must acknowledge his power to restore us and raise our ashes to a better and more happy condition Nay if we observe the course of Holy Scripture we shall find the expiration of Saints hath a particular expression given it For they are not said to dye but to fall into a sleep as if their Bodies after separation retained a certain vertue which had resemblance with their glorifyed Souls In the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 13. We read that a Carkass being thrown into the Sepulchre of Elizeus was by a touch of his Bones restored to life St. Hierom relates how Constantine the Great conveyed with much Solemnity the relicks of St Andrew and St. Luke unto Constantinople Areadius likewise the Emperour translated the relicks of Samuel the Prophet from Judaea into Thrasia where they were received with great veneration and joy of the people All which shews our Forefathers looked upon the remainder of Saints Bodies not as liveless fragments but as the Fountains of life and health as certain pieces God would make instrumental to miracles and to works above the power of nature Therefore the Bones of Holy Persons endued with such vertue may justly be qualifyed with joy and consequently it is not improper to say That humbled Bones shall rejoyce Again St. John Damascene hath a fine conception saying those who imitate the vertues of Saints may be more truly said their relicks or impressions than the lump and mass of Earth they leave behind He who hath the zeal and ardours of a St. Paul in the Conversion of Souls may be stiled his lively Image Who can claim the fortitude of a St. Stephen in accepting the stroke of Death for Justice sake will infallibly bear the stamp of that Protomartyr Who can perform the humble and spiritual life of a St. Francis will prove a better pattern of him than his own Body which at this day remains entire at Assisium as a Testimony of that Glory his Soul enjoyes in Heaven so that when we cast our selves into the mould of their vertues we become their animated statues and make them rejoyce in our imitation as the Angels do at a sinners Conversion it is not unlikely our Holy Prophet alluded to such living relicks vvhen he said humbled bones shall rejoyce Since good Men are here for the most part crushed in the Worlds esteem that values nothing but what is great in vanity Yet amidst these Clouds of oppression and scorns thrown at them they find within themselves a satisfaction in performing their duty to God for the fruit of the spirit sayes St. Paul is joy peace and a thousand other contentments which attend a state of innocence so that it is an ingenious Expression of our Penitent that humbled bones shall rejoyce I have many times wondered why Almighty God should give unto the Ashes of Saints what he had denyed them whilst they were alive and made not use of any limb or vital motion but for his sake that is many miracles have been wrought by touching the mouldred dust of Saints who living were never favoured with the power of any Miracle but as the lives of Saints are admirable so the proceedings of Almighty God with them seem very mysterious yet I have proposed some reasons of this to my sell First Almighty God will shew by this how dear his Servants are unto him and if he give so much vertue to their Ashes what may we expect he doth to their Immortal Souls Next it argues how grateful a thing humility is in the sight of God that those who have Crucifyed their flesh and daily Sacrificed their Bodies for his name should have the very Ashes of that Mortified Body cure Diseases restore sight to the blind and raise the dead to life Thirdly Almighty God will manifest the difference between a pampered Body and one mangled by acts of pennance the one by all manner of
Peter persist in his denial of Christ and cryed as naturally I know not the Man as if he had been nursed up in infidelity It was only the reflection upon his perfidious Crime and a clear view of it that brought him to himself and sprung in him such flouds of tears What cast St. Mary Magdalen into such rigours vvhich seem incomparable vvith humane Nature but a sense and knowledge of her transgressions What opened Heavens-Gate to the expiring Thief but this Nos quidem digna factis recipimus We truly receive a punishment which our crimes deserve In a word you shall find no remarkable change in the life of any person from Vice to Vertue which took not its first rice from a serious consideration of their former ingratitude and this is confirmed in the example of our Holy Petitioner vvho first cryes out he hath sinned and presently hears Nathan who proclaims a pardon after which assurance he sits not still nor returns to his Vomit but will for the future offer up as many holocausts as before he hath had unlawful delights he will convert the number of his sins into a greater number of vertues and whatsoever in him hath contributed to the contempt of God his Creatour shall be employed in his service by penitential acts that as now he sadly acknowledges his errours he may one day be transported in the praise of the Divine goodneâ—… divulge his satisfactions the first step to which ascent he will ever owe to this lesson Because I know my iniquity The Application St. Austin prescribing a remedy to siners gives them this short Recipe tu inde non avertas withdraw not thy sight from thy sins For if thou fix thy Eyes upon them God will turn his away but in case you throw them behind your back then he will take a full view of them and punish them severely in thee the Sun setting upon a dark Cloud makes it become bright and radiant so Almighty God laying open unto our holy penitent the foulness of his iniquity he cooperates with his merciful rayes surveys them and by a true sense of his ingratitude attracts the splendour of his pardon upon him Let us then in imitation of our Holy Penitent not become a stranger to our own misdeeds that so our great Judge may examine no other witnesses an humble confession will prove our best plea which we cannot exactly do unless we know them nor know them in all their colours of deformity without a high detestation of them so that if we make a careful inquisition after our guiltiness in this life we may hope to be warranted from a severe sentence in the next Learn therefore to alledge this powerful Topick here Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco because I know my iniquity Amen CHAP. VIII Et peccatum meum contra me est semper And my sin is alwayes before me AFter this declaration of our Petitioner how knowing he is in his own misfortunes next he layes open his condition hoping it may draw some beams of mercy and pitty upon him at least serve to warn others by his harms My sin sayes he is alwayes before me sometimes as an Accuser deposing with much vehemency every crime he hath committed and omitting no circumstance that may render it more odious sometimes as a Judge delivering exactly every statute he hath prevaricated either of Heaven Nature or Reason shewing the punishment ordained for his misdeeds And lastly pronouncing a Sentence against which he hath no plea nor evasion Whence St. Chrysostom sayes what pleasure alas can there be in sin when the necessary consequences of it are accusation reproach scandals and condemnations all other afflictions have a remedy this allowes no truce nor respit in other tribulations whilst our conscience is unstained we have a Sanctuary within us whether we may retreat and find God and in him all consolation but this once forfeited by sin what can we do If in the Country or City abroad or at home still this remorse attends us and having fled from all the World we find our Enemy and Executioner in our own selves which we alwayes dragg after us wheresoever we go What dreads and horrors besieged the Heart of Cain every shadow he beheld seemed to threaten Death and destruction to him so that his thoughts were alwayes lodged in a Sepulchre the memory of his crimes still rising up as witness against him with how just reason then did St. Austin cry Lord thou hast commanded and it is fulfilled that a vicious Soul proves to her self her own tormentour Plato sayes God hath given to the faculties of the Soul a certain Harmony which infinitely delights and recreates that spiritual substance now when by inordinate actions she dissolves this unity there must needs spring from this dissolution a great grief or anguish though the cause be not known as when any vital part is offended a smart pain is dispersed through the whole Body albeit we know not from whence it proceeds If then this great Philosopher gives affliction as a natural effect of sin what must he endure who hath the addition of a supernatural precept when he looks upon it infringed and made the Subject of his contempt when he weighs the loss he hath made of Grace the Abyss of misery wherein he is plunged certainly this must create within us a torment far beyond any impression of cruelty or malice from abroad This is the state of our Penitent let him go where he will he finds a Tribunal erected within him where his Case is scanned to the full and all his Exorbitances laid home to him whil'st he in the mean like poor Job not able to return one word for a thousand looks about at lest to fee some Councel but alas every one withdraws nay his own Conscience rises up against him Paschasius upon that place of St. Mathew where two possessed persons issuing forth from Monuments encountred our blessed Saviour wonders why the Devils should rather inhabit corrupted Vaults than pleasant Fields Gardens or stately Mansions and at last satisfies himself with this reason that it is a just return for those who would not relish Heavenly delights they should be fed with Carkasses nourished with Ordure and Putrefaction to the End their punishment may be suitable to their offence this stroke of Justice our Penitent acknowledges his senses take in nothing but the species of foul and cruel acts committed by him and every glance adds a new fuel to his consuming flames the Memory of them is so Ghastly that were it to be his sole penalty he should think the reiteration of his crimes purchased at too dear a rate My sin is alwayes before me We need seek no other Topicks to prove the terrour which remorse brings to a Conscience then our Penitent's own words in the 54. Psalm where he sayes Discedunt in Infernum viventes they descend alive into Hell He thought no allusion but to the state of the damned could
purity is Religion by which we are taught to pay the tribute of excellency and respect unto God as the Sovereign Author and Primogenial Source of all Beings other Creatures who cannot comprehend the infinite perfections essentially seated in God have a right that their wants be supplyed by our Piety so that we have a duty of acknowledgement not only for our selves but in behalf of every thing created to our Service by an act then of Religion we return our own Being and all other Beings likewise of the whole World into his Hands from whence they came to be disposed off as he pleases that as we hold it from him so we would not enjoy it but for him and this from two considerations the one of God's immense greatness and Majesty the other of our own smalness or rather nothing as to the one our Penitent defies any Being to compare with God he confesses the Earth Seas and Heavens lye at his beck that his Enemies he disperses as the Sun doth the Shades of Night and having thus exalted his unmeasured greatness he then religiously exposes himself before him acknowledges he is a worm and not a man and if a man the very outcast and opprobry of Mankind He presumes to question God what man is that he should daign him a glance of his careful Eye and declares his opinion that he is but a piece of vanity an empty out-side a heap of dust and therefore it is but just in him to honour the Majesty of God by a profusion of what he enjoyes and that his Being can never be put to a better use than by annihilating it self if possibly to witness by that submission the immense perfections of his Creatour His fortitude in attempting great things needs no dilucidation the Sun-beams are not more conspicuous what Nation hath not received the History of his deeds together with the tydings of Christianity where also is set forth his patience in adversity in many rebellions unnatural stratagems and implacable hatred of Saul against him For his Faith in Christ amongst all the Prophecies of a Messias his Psalms excell in delineating and issuing a lively Character of all the passages of his passion So that all these vertues could not spring but from a hope of enjoying one day that Sovereign good for whose acquisition he was ready to Seal all these actions with his blood and life I confess this tincture of Snow to arise from a bloody stream might seem a wrested interpretation were it not that a passage in the Apocalips doth clear it where it is said they whitened their stoles in the blood of the Lamb that is the effect of this ablution gives innocence wipes off like Baptisme all the spots of Guilt or Pain so that once dipped in this Lavatory he may justly promise to himself a lovely Grain far surpassing that of Snow Wonder not then if our Petitioner touched with a sense of his transgressions and frighted with the memory of that condition wherein he had been plunged should aim at the glorious Palms of martyrdom both to secure his pardon purchase a compleat abolition of his Faults and make himself a perpetual Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to his dear Creatour Lord thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow The Application Let us by the example of our Penitent thirst after these purifying streams one boisterous billow of Persecution carried home to the strugling Patient will have more vertue than all the waters of Jordan St. Gregory saith that the departing of the Body from the Soul is but a shadow but the departing of a Soul from God is a sad Truth And as a shadow is refreshing in Summer so is Death to the Righteous especially if voluntarily accepted and inflicted upon the account of a pious cause But since this Crown is out of our reach and depends upon anothers severity we must be thus severe to our selves as to put on an undaunted look against any difficulty which may obstruct our Salvation or advancement to pâ—…fection and resolve to suffer or overcome them either of which we may by the aid of Grace never wanting at a pinch Next we must rejoyce when harassed with adversities it is St Luke's declaration of the Apostles that they returned from Tribunal seats with joy having been made worthy to be there reviled and scorned for the name of Christ and truly Saints have seemed to measure their hopes of glory according to the proportion of their sufferings Lastly we are to expose our selves to hard and painful things for the spiritual good of our Neighbour if we strengthen our selves with these arms of fortitude we shall be fitted for that last and most glorious proof of valour at least secure an immense reward to our selves Amen CHAP. XVII Auditui meo dabis gaudium laetitiam Thou wilt give unto my hearing joy and gladness WHen the Church proclaims the sin of Adam happy in that it merited to have such and so great a Redeemer Methinks it hath some resemblance wâ—th this clause of our Petitioner where he promises to himself joy and gladness as if they were a necessary consequence to repentance In the precedent verse he minds his Creatour of the Rules he hath set down to purchase innocence to wit by temporal adversity here he opens the secret of God's working with a justifyed Soul which is to fill her with jubilies and consolation For when Almighty God enlightens our understanding to consider his greatness providence goodness and his other perfections and when he gives a touch to our Wills imprinting in them holy impulses of fear hope love and the like by which we are excited and enabled to frame and execute holy and pious resolutions he doth not this by a way of violence as a stone is taken up from its Center but by a way of sweetness he governs and changes our inclinations if we do not prove too stubborn So that the first step to our justification is not made without the concurrence of our Wills and questionless it is no small subject of joy to reflect that we our selves have been Actours in this great work of our justification which exceeds the Creation of Heaven Earth and all that is comprized in Nature for though we owe to God all that we have yet that his liberality may take its desired effect this he will have depend upon us to the end by working our Salvation it might prove an honour and satisfaction in that we our selves have contributed something to it by the consent of our free will by which we can claim the actions we do to be our own The next branch of joy and gladness in a justified Soul is the access of grace a supernatural form infused by God by which we are raised to a supernatural Being that is to say a new Being more prizable than an intellectula or reasonable than Angelical or Seraphical considered precisely in the order of Nature Because Grace gives a new
delicacies sought to preserve a beauty and make it proof against time Yet once grown old or cut off by Death it is cast into oblivion the other kept in Chains and threatned daily with ruine yet at the last proves matter of veneration even unto those who before perhaps contemned it You see then how to live in the Memory of Men what Art is to be used to raise a stately structure of our selves the materials of this must be acts of Charity towards our Neighbour and acts of severity towards our selves the Cement must be Patience Constancy Resignation to God's holy will and the like with these Saints have purchased glory to themselves before God and veneration amongst Men that even Kings have crouched with bended knees before their Ashes who whilst here poor Pilgrims upon Earth were looked upon as Idiots and made as it were the mockery of the World so that humbled bones at last shall Triumph and erect their Trophies where they had been made the spoils of Death St. Gregory Nazianzen affirms the Ashes of St. Cyprian were so powerful as no Disease wanted there its remedy and this Testimony he received from those very persons who had been the Subject of his miraculous Cures St. Ambrose relates of one Severus who being blind by touching only the Casket wherein were enchased the relicks of the Holy Martyrs St. Gervasius and Protasius he recovered his sight St. Austin recounts many miracles wrought by the relicks of St. Stephen and adds The benefits obtained at his shrine were so great and numerous as whole Volumes might be filled with the relation In fine there is not a Doctour of the Church whose writings speak not the wonders Heaven hath owned even in their time upon the score of supplications made in the presence and honour of Saints Bodies Nor did this religious Worship of relicks spring up originally with the Ghospel for St. Epiphanius brings evidence how the Sepulchers of Esay Ezekiel and Jeremy were had in great veneration among the Jews and this from the extraordinary succours God conserred on distressed People at the Tombs of those Holy Prophets We find likewise Exodus 13. that before Moses conducted the Israelites out of Egypt he ordained the Bones of Joseph to be taken up and born away with Ceremony into the Land of promise Now why all this But to verify our Holy Prophets assertion that humbled bones shall rejoyce that Death may cause a separation twixt Soul and Body and so seem to Triumph over this mortal clay of ours cannot be denyed Yet if our members have served in purity as St. Paul terms it and merited in life to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost such as these though exanimated may still retain a vertue by which they give life and joy to other Beings Whence justly our Petitioner fore-declares and humbled bones shall rejoyce Truly it is but rational to conceive there should be a Providence to preserve from common corruption those Bodies who had been instrumental to many acts of vertue and made a daily victime by pennance For since mortality is the effect of sin there ought at least be something that hath the resemblance of immortality to attend that Body which hath much contributed to the Souls happiness Besides we believe our Bodies shall one day be glorified and vested with immortal dotes it is fit then such who have here led a life as it were Angelical without any contamination of sensual pleasures should anticipate in some kind their future glorifyed condition and how can this better appear than by imprinting a Sovereign vertue in their extinguished Ashes since it is decreed a compleat glorification cannot unless particularly dispensed with be conferred till the universal Resurrection This admirable operation given to their Earthly and liveless substance as it is a Testimony of their Souls felicity so is it no less to us a pledge the most dear we could have by which we are assured of their watchful and compassionate care over us In fine how powerfully are we wrought into the imitation of their lives when at their shrines we behold both Death and Nature vanquished and the prodigious effects of humbled prostrate Limbs lowdly declare how precious the Death of Saints is in the sight of God Thus our Holy Petitioner hath laid open unto us First the Jubileys of mind which fill a Soul united unto God by love and repentance Next to compleat the Harmony he tells us our very bones shall not want their portion of joy that if they here be made bare disjoynted or broken Almighty God never fails to sweeten those rigours by internal whispers and consolations which carry them on to perseverance in their pressures and debasements and when Saints have once payed this debt to nature then he gives to the one part the immediate fruition of his Glory and to the other he often communicates such Soveraign vertues that they are as it were certain previous dispositions to immortality 'T is true the relick of a Saint appears but a lump of Earth liveless inanimate and so is not capable of joy yet God making it the instrument of miraculous effects is thereby glorifyed and what ever relates to his honour is matter of exultation Again St. Paul saith that every Creature groans that is feels throwes and longing desires after their Maker If then these resentments be allowed to every Being much more ought we grant it to the Sacred pledge of a Saints Body in which the Omnipotency and other Divine attributes of God do so gloriously shine and humbled bones shall rejoyce The Application Let us then so manage our senses in this life enslaving them to the Lawes of reason that after the short course of their servitude here we may arrive to that joy mentioned by our Holy Petitioner Amen CHAP. XIX Averte faciem tuam à peccatis meis Turn away thy Face from my sins WHen I cast my Eye upon this clause of the Petition I cannot but reflect on that passage of Esay where he sayes it is a bitter thing to have once abandoned God for after a sin is committed though it be secret unseen and none reprehend us for it yet we fear every shadow suspect every look and syllable nor can we ever think our selves secure and out of danger St. Austin sayes as iniquity is alwayes accompanied with a neglect of God and consequently is a kind of Pride by which we value our own satisfaction beyond his honour so sin by a just punishment throwes us down below our selves it first induces us to actions unworthy our reason and after that engagement what Tyranny like to this usurper For having shaken off the fear of God who alone ought to be the Object of that passion we sink into the fear of every thing capable to be the Term of Sense if a sound it is a loud promulgation of our Crime if a Shadow it is some Ambuscado to surprize us if the World be civil they are acts of
admires the greatness of his clemency and sweetness that designs to lodge in so despicable a place as his conscience the inestimable treasures of his wisdom hence enfired with a glowing flame of love he can think on nothing but him study no satisfaction that relates not to him and abhorrs all sensual pleasure whatsoever In sequel of this arises a delight and sweetness which surpasses all that is Earth Nay even the capacity of Man in this life as many Saints have witnessed the same crying out O Deus contine undas gratiae That such a torrent of delights overwhelmed them as if they were not moderated they must needs have opened a passage unto Death O! Who would not be overcome by such a conquering spirit confirm me with a principal spirit Another effect of this spirit is to settle the Soul in a great quiet and repose free from all joy grief or the like for every thing is at rest when in its proper place and center Now God is our Souls final end nor can she be more intimately united unto him in this life than by the power of this Celestial Philosophy wherefore the storms of passions very little molest a Soul enriched with this spirit all things pass in peace and tranquility and though it be true that we must still labour in a certain languishment and desire until we reach our Center yet this is so attempered by the goodness of God as it is no wayes Irksome A holy person expresses this very pathetically saying My Lord and God who art the support and strength of those who faithfully seek you at the entrance of your Paradise I behold you and beholding I cannot yet say what Object I have bofere me because I see nothing that is visible there is only one thing I dare owne to know that I am both ignorant of what I see nor shall I be ever able to know it For raising my Soul to the highest pitch I find you infinite and incomprehensible beyond the access of my imagination and whilest my thoughts would go on and make a further inquisition a mist of ignorance surrounds me But Oh my God what is this ignorance but a learned ignorance Nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis this obscure Night is a splendour overspread with delights the sum of my joy and consolation in this life is to consider that you are infinity it self incomprehensible and an inexhausted Treasure What felicity one day to possess in glory a good without end and which exceeds what the understanding can imagine the heart desire or tongue can express and that these Clouds which now involve us shall break forth into a Day of eternal Sun-shine By which you may see that holy persons in these admirable transactions though they are left in darkness and meet not with a compleat allay of all their desires yet it breeds no disquiet and all the rest is supplyed by a perfect submission to the will of God not desiring even Heaven it self but according to the measure of his degree Our Holy Penitent having received the fruit of one part of this meditation by his gracious deliverance from the servitude of sin he now covets to be sheltered under the secure Bastion of this principal spirit Confirm me c. Some expositours understand by this principal spirit the first person of the blessed Trinity unto whom power is peculiarly attributed Whence they inferr in this petition he pretends to a gift of Rule and Government that by his prudent orders circumstanced with Religion he might induce his Subjects to pay what they owe to God himself and to one another By which that chosen Nation committed to his guidance might flourish and he himself make some reparation for the sufferings thrown upon them in punishment of his transgressions Others conceive that by this clause he aims at the Spirit of Prophecy because in the subsequent verse he undertakes to play the Master and teach the wicked Principles of Heaven to which nothing would more conduce than a prophetick faculty Notwithstanding these Opinions I adhere to my first conception that the spirit of perfection is the scope of his desires because it includes the others for perfection is styled by Masters of spirituality a spirit of wisdom and by consequence proper for a Governour and as to Revelation it is most certain that contemplatives are illuminated and receive irradiations which naturally they could not attain to they are often so surcharged with supernatural lights and knowledge a prospect of the World's Scene being laid open to them as even ravished with admiration they seem to suffer with an excess of communications which made our Holy Penitent in some such like transport cry out Anima mea cognoscit nimis that the divine operations within his Soul exceed the limits of her capacity Wherefore we conclude that perfection is an abreviate of Gods Vniversal favours to Man and that our Holy Penitent in this his petition comprehends what soever he can ask confirm me with a principal spirit The Application We are taught in this clause to aspire unto perfection which consists in these degrees The first is to obtain grace and charity this perfection is requisite to all Christians and is so essential to a spiritual life that without it we cannot make one step towards Heaven The second perfection is of councel and consists in a certain disposition of the Soul to perform readily and without difficulty on her part not only what is commanded but also works of supererogation and this in a manner more pure and more spiritual than usually is done to this Christ our Lord exhorts us in the fifth of St. Matthew Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect The third perfection consists in eternal felicity where we shall be united to a sovereign good by a clear vision and fervent love This is called our final perfection because there is none greater The other two branches are but the means to arrive at this The subject then of our petition must be to attain to our Beatitude and this is truly to be confirmed with a principal spirit Amen CHAP. XXVII Docebo iniquos vias tuas I will teach the wicked thy wayes OUr Holy Penitent like a Souldier compleatly armed who expects but the Signal to fall on believes himself now fittted for great designs His first undertaking is to chaulk out the wicked the Paths of Salvation an enterprize worthy so great a Prince and so great a Penitent and which Christ our Lord an increated wisdom made the sole motive of his becoming Man This he declares in express terms asserting that he came not to call the just but sinners Upon this foundation I conceive he imposed upon us an obligation of loving our Neighbour as our selves By vertue of which command we are to expose our corporal life and fortune for the preservation of our Neighbours spiritual good if Christ sets so high a value on a drop of water or scrap of
and forcibly entered by Cyrus King of the Medes he resolved rather than become a scornful prisoner to dye on the places upon which design he cast himself into the midst of his Enemies preferring an honorable death before an opprobrious life His Son beholding his imminent danger though to that instant at the Age of twenty years he had been alwayes dumb cryed out spare my Father spare my Father it is the King Whereupon the Enemy seised his person and preserved his life some attribute this to a natural cause alledging the love this Prince had for his Father put all his vital spirits into combustion and by that violent motion broke the obstacle of his speech However methinks this passage may in some sense be applyed to our great Penitent who was morally dumb the Organs of his Soul structed by the malignity of sin insomuch as he could not utter one syllable which might have force to reach the Ears of his Creatour untill he came to have a prospect of his eternal ruine and no sooner these Terrours appeared before him but all the faculties of his Soul were stirred up removed all Obstacles and made him Petition for the opening his Lips the first motion to his happiness Lord thou wilt open my Lips For this imports not a local division of the Lips but an inflamation of the heart by vertue of which heat all the parts of his Body will be disposed to discharge those functions for which they were created St Paul to shew how little Man can do if left to himself sayes 1 Cor. 4. What do we possess which we have not received and if so why glory we in it as if our own Again he powerfully asserts it in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans It is not he who wills or runs but he on whom God will have mercy As if he would say as Esau in vain pursued his Chase thinking from thence to derive to himself his Fathers blessing So Man after sin loses but his time and endeavour if he think by the strength of his natural faculties to be able to observe the Commandements of God or perform what is requisite to the purchase of Heaven So that it must chiefly spring from the mercy of God's assisting grace Nay which is more we cannot so much as desire to serve God according to our obligations unless he first by his divine grace move our hearts and dispose our will unto it as the same St. Paul sayes God works in us both the will and the execution without God assisting we cannot have a desire neither to believe what is proposed as the object of Faith nor perform what we should in order to vertuous actions and therefore St. Austin sayes the prodigal Son had never resolved to return home to his Father if the mercy of God had not inspired him to it To manifest this truth we need go no further than to cast our thoughts upon the Grecian and Roman learning which produced the greatest wits in the World yet in all their inquisition after a sovereign good they were so lost as even to become ridiculous acting things concerning a Deity and Man's supream felicity as if they were destitute of reason St. Paul takes notice in particular how coming to Athens he found an Altar dedicated to an unknown God For they had been visited with a great pestilence and ignorant for what offence a chastisement so severe was inflicted at last fancied it was for want of homage to be rendered to some Deity not yet discovered than this what could be more absurd to shew in what darkness and errours Man doth grope when left to himself So that if at any time a person blushes at his vanities and past extravagancies and doth confess that what before he behold as light and life to be nothing else than obscurity and death this Conversion sayes St. Austin comes not from himself but from the powerful and hidden grace of God which dissipates the Clouds of Earthly opinions and enflames his heart with a desire of knowing the truth Now this change God works in Souls several wayes in some more gently in others more forcibly Solomon insinuates that he particularly gives his call by the outward preaching of his word this Esai confirms Chap. 40. God hath sent Doctors of his Faith into the World who should reduce their Brethren like the blind into the way that is unto Jesus Christ the Messias who is styled the way truth and life In this manner Surius recounts Barlaam was sent to Josaphat Son to a King in the Indies that by his conversion the whole Kingdom might embrace the Law of Christ St. Paul was sent to Athens who converted the great St. Dennis a famous Doctor of the Areopagites St. Philip to the Eunuch of the Ethiopian Queen who by expounding unto him a Prophecy of Christ in Esai immediately received Baptism at his hands In the History of Japonia it is related of a certain Indian who had lived well according to the light of nature how he was restless in his Mind believing his religion to be false he went to the Turks thinking to follow theirs but finding there no satisfaction then he applyed himself to the Jews but still remained in perplexity so that with much fervour he was wont to cry out O God let me know who thou art and that I may serve thee according to thy will otherwise do not charge me with blame for my errour At last it happened St. Francis Xavierus came into the Town where he was and no sooner did he hear him unfold the points and sacred mysteries of Christian Religion but he proclaimed that Man preaches the God I must serve and forth with was baptized By this expedient he likewise made a conquest of our Holy Penitent in which action Nathan the Prophet was instrumental who laying before him his obligations to God and his ingratitude occasioned that without delay he had recourse to the Sanctuary of this present petition or Miserere The second manner of his call is by the inward operation of his Spirit and this he communicates to all witness St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. God who drew light from darkness by a word from his mouth hath filled our hearts with the splendour of his knowledge For without this light of Faith Man knowes not God who made him he knowes not whither he tends he knowes not eternal felicity for which he was created nay he knowes not himself for without Faith we know not that we are born Imps of wrath and lyable to eternal death We know not the wounds of our nature our inability to good the necessity of being regenerated by grace Lastly without this interiour light we know not Christ our Mediatour by whose pretious blood we are Redeemed from eternal damnation and restored to a life of Grace and Glory But you will say if God imparts this light of faith to all how comes it so many remain in darkness and infidelity of this the reason is
of severity Wherefore where he saw reason sweetness and all the Wonders he had wrought could effect nothing with those obdurate and unbelieving spirits he was forced to a course adverse to his meekness and to the love he bare that chosen Nation designing the total subversion of their City and place of Sacrifice and their utter dispersion through the habitable World and this he foretold them all bathed in Tears to shew his resentment for what he needs must do there being no other expedient to draw them from that strange dotage on victimes and immolation of Beasts From these premises we may conclude that whilst the Law was in its vigour Sacrifices as to the universality of the people were the only rules set down for the reparation of their failings and till our Penitent had a particular Patent for his exemption none was ever more magnificent in his exhibitions in this kind Nay he made it the Theam of his exhortations to others that they should consecrate their Vowes and discharge by way of Sacrifice what they owe unto the Lord God But when God was pleased to reach unto him the fair draught of the mystery of the incarnation wherein he read the Lawes evacuation the darkness of its Figures to break forth into the splendour of a Crucifyed oblation from whence arises a perfume whose odour would lay open Heavens Gates that to this Law of terrour would succeed one of love and which like to its Priesthood was to be eternal his desires heightned by these prophetick notions were certainly inflamed to a great pitch of charity and strengthened with a vigorous and lively Faith pushed him on to vehement longings to become a Member of that Kingdom of Grace then to flourish in the Hearts of Men. In this manner prepared by internal acts of vertue of repentance for his misdeeds submission to his will patience under the weight of his Chastisements no wonder if the Eye of Heaven pleased to behold an Object so worthy of his special favour should take him out of the Common track of the Mosaick way and conduct him by the Beams of an Evangelical light So that supported with Grace by a firm hope in the merits of the Messias to come he might now void of any blame as to himself say thou art not delighted with Holocausts c. The Application This Clause seems but a confirmation of the precedent Verse wherein our Holy Penitent doth specify in the Example of a Holocaust how little valuable our actions are if they be not circumstanced with the approbation of Heaven For amongst all the Religious ordinations of the Jews there was none that expressed their entire submission and dependance upon God like to that of a Holocaust and yet our Holy Petitioner declares God is not delighted with it that is if performed in his person whom he had instructed in the oblations of a more perfect Sacrifice not so gross and carnal as that of Beasts but which hath a resemblance with what the Angels and blessed do incessantly offer up from their flaming Brests Let us then in imitation ascend from vertue to vertue and proportionably to the communication of his Graces aspire to a life more perfect remembring we are to improve our stock according to the Sum we have to negotiate God grant then we may give a just account Amen CHAP. XXXV Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus A Sacrifice to God is a troubled Spirit AFter our Penitents Declaration that God required not at his Hands the external right of Sacrifice he comes now to specify what homage he is to pay saying a Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit Now if you look upon the principles of spiritual Masters this oblation seems very opposite to what they design for the main intent of all their prescriptions drive at this as to make us insensible of any Earthly Objects which might turmoil the Spirit and to hinder a quiet repose in the Soul without which no fruit can be reaped in contemplation Nay indeed its necessary in order to the meritorious performance of any good work this appears in Aaron who reprehended by Moses that upon the loss of his Beloved Daughter he forbare to eat of the Sacrifices made this answer how can I please God by eating or any other Ceremony whilest I possess a sad and troubled Mind But you must know there is a two-fold sorrow one that springs from God the other from the World this gives life that Death St. Hierom calls a Soul crushed with austerity and fasting a Sacrifice so that by this oblation of a troubled spirit our Penitent means the combat of a vertuous Man in subduing his passions and this St. Gregory terms a continual martyrdom in which is daily offered up a living victime Holy pure and acceptable to God by which a Man may be resembled to one that flying his Enemy kills himself In Leviticus 12. A command is laid upon the Jews that they should celebrate with great solemnity the Feast of expiation and the manner how it was to be done is set down that they should afflict their Souls Now this seems very incongruous to the nature of a Feast but since our felicity consists in suffering here we must be merry to see ourselves piously sad green wood cast on the Fire both weeps and burns our breast may be sad in one part and cheerful in the other The Prophet Baruc sayes the Soul that bewails her Sins gives Glory unto God for as there is nothing more sad than sin so doubtless nothing more delightful as worthily to deplore it Wherefore this troubled spirit imports not a tortured conscience but a Lancet in the Hand of a dexterous Artist who making a passage for corruption the sooner cures the wound so likewise groans tears wringings of Hands outcryes and such like Testimonies of a disturbed Mind are the several compositions of a Sacrifice pleasing to God A Sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit St. Austin sayes Man comes into the World wrapt up in such a Cloud of Ignorance in order to truth and replenished with such a swarm of desires that were he left to his own inclination there is no evil he would not commit This is evident in the Comportment of Men before Cities were built and pollicy of Laws established which restrain the impetuosity of their passions for it is storied they killed and devoured one another falsifying all equity and justice So that to deserve the name of Man we ought to bridle and check the insolency of our sensual appetites but to become a Sacrifice pleasing to God under the Character of a troubled spirit not only the Body must be macerated and brought under but the spirit likewise must be enslaved and captivated to the Faith of Christ In the composition of this Sacrifice I find spiritual directors are divided some think the most powerful ingredient is to chastise the Body waste it with abstinence and hair-cloths and spend it with labour by which harsh
what was paid him by the way of Sacrifice and that by how much the victime excelled his glory went in the like proportion He presented his sacred humanity personally united to the Word by way of Justice on the Tree of the Cross as a just compensation of all indignities thrown upon him by the World and for this end he exposed his Body to all the highest severities of Justice Thus God accepting this oblation of Justice punished in his Son all the sins of Mankind Wherefore as a disobedience to God's Law a Pride in thwarting his greatness and a pleasure in our conversion to a Creature are found in sin all these were confronted in Christ's passion by a prodigious obedience an incomparable humility and a perpession of the most exquisite torments that could be inflicted so that there was not the least punctilio of equity wanting in this oblation of Justice Our Holy Penitent weighing this terrible account could not but tremble It is true God was contented with Abrahams good intention and stopped the Execution of Isaac but when his eternal Law to punish sin was in question which he will have inviolable he spares not his only Son and if on him the darts of his anger fall so heavy and this for anothers transgression what may not a miserable sinner justly expect for his own sins in his own person If this be done on the green branches what havock will be made of those that are withered if the Innocent have this measure what will become of the Guilty but however these dismal reflections may affright our penitent yet he is still boyd up with hope and confidence in this oblation of Justice Lastly this Sacrifice is a perfect Holocaust the excellency of which consists in the total destruction of the thing offered In confirmation of this St. Paul asserts that Christ annihilated himself in becoming obedient to the Death of the Cross Look on his passion and you will see him reduced to a moral nothing First at his last Supper he throws himself at the Feet of his Apostles he washes dryes and kisses even those of a perfidious Judas in the garden of Olivet he not onely prayes with bended knees but is prostrate on the ground bedewed with a bloody sweat the most prodigious effect of terrour that ever hapned in nature In the sequel of his passion he is branded with false accusations and ignominious reproaches derisions and scorns He receives the highest indignities from the vilest of persons as to be buffeted spit on crowned with Thorns fastned on the Cross between two Thieves as the ring leaders and this at their Paschal solemnity in the populous City of Jerusalem where he forfeited all that reputation which the wonders of his power and sublime communications of his wisdom had purchased to him so that many who had been his spectators and of his audience in whose opinion he had passed for a signal person a great Prophet a Man incomparable in vertue and sanctity nay who looked upon him as the promised Messias and Son of God gave him then the Character of an Hypocrit and condemned all his miracles as meer illusions and the effects of Art magick and his Sermons as dreams of phantastick babling Nay the Prophet Esay stiles him the last and outcast of Men disfigured mishapen and laden with infirmities insomuch that he was esteemed as one Leperstrook and the object of God's vengeance O what a Holocaust was this He that is Lord and Creatour of the World King of Heaven and Sovereign Judge over the living and the dead is destroyed in his honor and reputation his Eyes wax dimm and dark his Face pale and wan his Tongue furred and swoln his Lips black and blew and his whole Body mangled in such sort as they numbred all his Bones so that it was as it were but one wound and all these outrages are compleated in his Execution upon the Cross which kind of death was so abominable as Tostatus sayes it is an injury done to God himself that a Creature created after his Image should dye on the Cross Cicero sayes it is an act very hainous to bind a Citizen of Rome a Villany to scourge him and in a manner a Parricide to kill him but what then will it be to put him on a Cross Heretofore God made himself known by destroying Pharaoh and all his Host but now he will get himself a Name and Fame by playing the Holocaust and dying upon the Cross Thus you see how justly our Petitioner might assert this Sacrifice to be an oblation of Justice and a Holocaust or whole burnt offering which would be accepted off For certainly God was never more honoured than by Christ offered up on the Cross because the glory there given him outvyes all the injuries and affronts that had been or ever shall issue from the ugly Face of sin But the Fire of his love stopt not here his sacred humanity would further yet honour God by a Sacrifice which should not be confined to a short space of three hours to a little 〈…〉 Nation of the Jews nor to the narrow hill of Mount Calvary wherefore by a generous design he instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist where this same humanity without effusion of blood might honour God by a Sacrifice that would last to the worlds end and be every day reiterated not upon one single mountain but in millions of places throughout all kingdomes where there is any Priest to offer up this Sacrifice to God's honor and as a tribute to his infinite greatness Our great God beholding this admirable contrivance of his incarnate word and of a Soul most pure and holy allyed to his Son by a personal union and relishing this honor he should receive from this Sacrifice begun at a great distance to nose the sweet odour it would evaporate even up to Heaven this gave him a distast as it were of the Mosaical Sacrifices which revealing to our Holy Penitent made him cry thou art not delighted with Holocausts But this is more clearly expressed by the Prophet Malachy where God requires the Temple Gate to be shut the Fire of his Altar for the destruction of victimes no more to be kept in and confesses he is cloy'd with them upon the prevision of that excellent Sacrifice to be made to him in the Evangelical Law Again as a Sacrifice is directed not only to express God's supream Dominion over us but likewise to acknowledge our thanks for his divine favours now the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ accomplished in vertue would not be ungrateful For God had given himself unto it by a personal union in a manner the most obliging and most sublime that is any way consistent with a Creature in return of this he would consecrate himself unto him with all the circumstances of perfection by which a Creature can be made his And which cannot be more than by a Sacrifice wherein he himself is destroyed and as much as may be
to those who use it in excess next he hints the reliques and dreggs it leaves behind that if God's grace joyned with a great resolution happen to dislodge this petulent Guest yet still some footsteps or impressions remain apt to reenter and claim an interest Wherefore he could promise to himself no security unless an inundation of mercy fall upon him to purify and carry away all the remainder of bad inclinations grown into a habit and become as it were a second Nature in him Cleanse me from my sin and as it was not a slight stain he had contracted but all circumstances weighed the most indelible that springs from inordinate acts in carnal pleasures For Lawes Divine Natural and Humane seem to be violated in Adultery Divine in that two persons by marriage are made one flesh and both pass into the incommunicable Nature of individuality becoming the essential part of each other whence violation cannot happen to one without destroying the life of the other and breaking that bond which God hath knit together Natural Law is likewise by an adulterous act infringed because Marriage consists not in the sole possession of the Body but also nay principally in the affections of a reasonable Soul For the bonds of Marriage are not wrought by copulation but mutual consent and under a sacred Vow never to be retracted who then infringes these engagements must needs contract a note of infidelity and consequently strike at the main Hinge of humane Society to preserve which Nature chiefly tends in all her principles and essential motions Lastly a breach is made in humane Law by Adultery in that Marriage is not a private but domestick good which concerns not one but infinite Families strengthened by the Laws of the Church and publick Faith of Nations From hence Nature finds those who carefully cultivate her plants hence Commonwealths are enriched with Citizens the Church with Children By this we may see the malice of Adultery that drawes along with it the violation of so many Laws Christ enjoyns us a love of our Enemies and that the Sun should not set in our anger Yet in the treachery of Marriage-Bed permits a separation between Man and Wife how strictly soever united by indissoluble tyes as if such crimes surpassed the limits of pardon as if an evil so destructive that remedies could find no place and that this individual life once dissolved could no more be recalled than habit from privation Many Tyrants have subdued to therage of their cruelties the wealth liberty and lives of their Subjects who looking upon this power as given from Heaven over them patiently sustained all those depredations but if once they touched upon their wives and would involve them in the Mass of their impurities this rowsed up their fallen spirits cast them into rebellion nay pushed them to that extremity as never to desist untill they had deprived those of life who had ravished from them what was more dear than life untill they had reduced unto ashes the Authors of their infamy and taught them for the example of posterity this violence of all others will not be left unrevenged in this World There hath scarce been any Nation though Pagan or Infidel which hath not punished Adultery with Death or exquisite Torments Some by fire others by wild Horses some by the Halter others in pulling out their Eyes cutting off their Noses some by stones as in Moses Law Whence 't is clear that even the light of Nature taught there ought for the good of humane Society that a stop be made to this disorder Our Penitent having in his thoughts lay'd open all those Enormities of an Adulterous Act is surprised to see himself plunged in so many abominations to have heaped up to himself so much ignominy and infection as the reproach of them would last as long as time How sparingly do good Men treat of carnal subjects either in Writing or in the Pulpit lest the very articulate sound or Characters in this matter might offend chast Ears or cause worse effects in Hearts already tainted If then this poyson carry with it so much of malignity in the very name or lightest thought what corruption and noysomness must the sin it self produce Oh! how strong did this scent breathe in the Nostrils of our Penitent when once his understanding was awake and beheld with an Eye free from passion his Body dissolved into so many contaminations no wonder than if he so oft repeat in this Psalm the cleansing from his sin Every glimps of his past foul delights casts him into a blush beholding no other consequence of them than shame confusion and the threats of eternal destruction notwithstanding all this he sues for a Vesture of innocence and he does it to him who with a fiat or blast from his Mouth drew out of a dark Chaos that glorious Body of the Sun which so revives us To him who hath promised to let fall all the darts of his anger upon the true repentance of a sinner on this basis he fixes his Petition and doubts not but at last to find a happy issue to be drawn out of the mire of his sensualities and his leprous condition changed into the consistence of restored grace after this he sighs and groans nor is capable of any consolation untill that happy moment arrive which shall put a period to this longing demand Et à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin The Application We must consider that God is purity it self who hath nothing more in abomination than an impure Soul That Heaven inhabited by Angels is a place of honour where nothing defiled can have access Wherefore we ought to apprehend any stain of lubricity because most obstructive to our final Beatitude First in that it is according to St. Thomas peccatum maximae inhaerentiae a Sin that clings like Bird-lime to our Souls and of all others most hard to be clawed off it resembles a Phoenix who renews her self with the fire enkindled by the motion of her own Wings so a person inured to that vice even when he would give it over and bury it withall occasion of incentives doth often find the Coals to be blown afresh by the wings of thoughts so that whilst we live we ought never to be secure since 't is a combat of all others the most hazzardous and where the victory is most rare next it is a sin of impudency and when a Soul is devoid of shame what hopes can there be to reclaim her St. Hierom advises to a private admonition of our neighbour and gives this reason lest he break the curb of shame and dwell in his sin for ever By baptism we are made members of Jesus Christ and the chiefest homage we can pay to him as our Head is to preserve it unspotted from any smut of impurity A virginal integrity is so acceptable unto God that the Angels were they permitted would translate them Body and Soul into Heaven that
Death might not prey on a treasure that deserves to be immortal wherefore let us never cease to cry with our holy Penitent à peccato meo munda me cleanse me from my sin Amen CHAP. VII Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco Because I know my iniquity AFter all these supplications our Petitioner now comes to give a reason why so confidently he requires an Act of Grace At the first view it seems a strange one and to imply his greater guilt It is this because he knowes his iniquity Ignorance where the fact is palpable makes a great plea in offendours our criminal on the contrary acknowledges his trespass declares he knowes what he has done and from thence claims and pretends a rationality in his petition had he in lieu of this inserted a Repentance of his misdeeds a detestation of his past failings this might have carried some weight in order to a remission But we must reflect injuries done to God and Man are things very disparate and quite of another nature For I may consider many disobligations I have thrown upon my Neighbour and yet not retract in my will those ill Offices because I may have received the like from him and many humane Lawes have allowed this retaliation so that to retain a memory of the harms I have done to Man may signifie nothing of vertue or pious amendment But when I look upon any miscarriage in my Duty towards God this glance must needs reproach me of ingratitude there can be no pretence or shadow of excuse to justifie any failing towards the Divine Majesty Since we are overwhelmed on all sides with his favours and benedictions whence the Sequel of such a consideration inevitably will humble confound and cast us upon the storms of Repentance Our Petitioner therefore knowing his iniquity virtually declares by it he disowns what he hath done or rather owns it to be exorbitant and from this confession layes claim to his Justice which upon the conversion of a sinner engages to abolish and raise out of his memory all past iniquities Because I know my iniquity This knowledge evidences the return of Grace to his Soul In the 35. Psalm he describes his own condition in the state of sin My iniquities surrounded me and I could see nothing St. Austin exclaims against that day wherein he committed sin and questions whether he may call it day since he was involved in a profound obscurity and then he goes on saying he will rise and disperse the mists of his iniquities that he may see the fountain of all goodness Our Petitioner again in the 48. Psalm gives Man when enslaved by sin the title of Beast nay with something of aggravation assimilating him to a Foolish Beast He remembred how Adam after his fall was cloathed with Skins of Beasts which attire was but a Symbol of his Mind bestiatized and made Savage by transgressions St. Thomas speaking of those Clouds of darkness wherein poor sinners lye groveling sayes it proceeds from a propension bent upon evil aversed from God and deprived of grace The opposite beams then which fill our Souls with light and serenity must needs draw their source from a love of what is good an adhaesion to God and a sweet repossession of grace and in these splendours our Petitioner finds himself First they raise his Soul to an Object infinitely good and amiable and after vehement affections enkindled towards this Sovereign felicity his Eyes are unsealed and beholds the Ghastly shape of his sins which cast him into exclamations against his own unworthiness upon reiterated addresses for mercy and pardon and at last admitted into favour he learns by that inestimable gift under whose Dominion he now lives what it is to offend God how monstrous a thing sin is and therefore will not conceal his new acquired notions but proclaim Quoniam c. because I know my iniquity It was not an abstract knowledge of his iniquity he alledges for this may consist with the most innocent and spotless Soul and was found in Adam before his fall But 't is what he had learnt by dear experience he had tasted that Tree which imports knowledge of good and evil but alas far different from those pure Idaeas which reside in Souls that were never involved in the shades of sin for such survey with an intellect as it were Angelical the commands of God and in obedience to his Law make use of their knowledge but to avoid the prevarication But our Petitioner looks upon the deformity of sin in all its circumstances of the Abyss of ruine it drawes upon us and having with the Cananean cryed for mercy then he confesses his nakedness then he layes open his failings and blushes not at the knowledge of his iniquity because they are now washed in a Christal stream and their past horrours serve but to raise in him a detestation of them and to invite him at the same time to admire the Wisdom of God that thus by his penitential acts will manifest his Justice and lastly to praise his mercy that hath given him a perfect knowledge of his iniquity as a certain Land-mark to preserve him from future Shipwrack because I know my iniquity I remember the Prodigal Son when languishing in misery and perishing for hunger pitched only upon this remedy that he would tell his Father he had sined against Heaven and him In like manner our Petitioner layes aside the thought of any good he may have done offers to the view of his eternal Father all the wounds of his cauterized Soul and that he might engage himself to a compleat discovery confesses he is not ignorant but knowes all the Windings and extravagant progressions of his iniquity how they had led him from Adultery to Homicide thence to Pride Vanity and Sole reliance on his own greatness and power and when he had summed up all his ingratitudes he gives this account Domine opus tuum vivica illud Lord I know my Sin So likewise I know the temper of the delinquent how he is composed of frailties unable of himself to set his hand to any good vvork to any supernatural motion Wherefore he hopes this consideration may something take off and render his deviations less irregular Yet on the other side he will not flatter himself into a blameless condition he knows a support of Grace ever attended him amidst his predominant passions and smartest tryals by whose means he might have been victorious This brings him on his Knees and drawes from him an humble confession Because I know my iniquity It was this knowledge fixing him on the basis of humility which prepared him for those sublime and supernatural communications he afterwards received from his dear Creatour What are his Psalms but a Series of raptures and coelestial ravishments a Tabernacle of sacred mysteries vvith vvhich his understanding was fed that vve may see to vvhat pitch Man is capable of arising from this knowledge of our Sins How confidently did St.