not been redeem'd by IESUS-CHRIST sayd to them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy foul and with all thy forces what ought Christians to do after the Incarnation Redemption and Passion of our Saviour Ought they not to burn with love should they not if it were possible love JESUS above all their forces thoughts and activity of their hearts If I owe my self wholy to him for making me what shal I add now for repairing me and repairing me in such a manner 14. Let us love him then since He so loved us let 's not love him only in words and compliments let us not content our selves to say I honour much my Saviour I love him with all my heart But let us love him in worke and Verity in doing in giving and in suffering for him for so He loved us And since his goodness is so infinite and his love to us so excessive that He preferred us not only before Angells but also before himself it would be a horrible blindeness to preferr any other good before him it would be a strange folly to offend him to disoblige his goodness to lose his amity and his favour for honour pleasure profit or satisfaction of a Passion Do not so if you be wise Say rather with S. Austin all abundance all honour all felicity that is not you my God is but poverty vanity and misery say as S. Francis did my God You are my All Love him with all your heart since He his all your good love him with a sovereign love since He is sovereignly good love adore bless prayse glorify him now and ever Amen DISCOURS VII OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE He descended into Hell the third day He rose again from the dead IESUS appli'd himself so earnestly to our Salvation that whilst He was on earth He let not a moment pass without labouring for it And for this effect whilst his Body lay'd in grave He descended into Hell This world Hell signify's an inferiour and low place And therefore the holy Church makes use of it in divers occasions to signify divers inferiour places By this word she most often understands the place of everlasting damnation And so our Saviour called it in 1. Luke 36. S. Luk. where speaking of the unfortunate rich man says he was buried in hell Other times she uses this terme to signify Purgatory where they are who died in the grace of God but having not fully satisfyed the divine Iustice are further to be punished so in the Mass of the dead she prayes free ô Lord the souls of the faithfull departed from the paines of hell She makes use of it also to signify the place whither the souls of holy and just persons who were not subject to purgation or had duely satisfyd for their offences went before the death of the Saviour of the world expecting He should open them the gates of Heaven by his Passion 2. He descended not only by effect into these two last places making his power and goodness to appear by delivering the soules in them detained But in substance He descended into them his soul was really in those places and He honoured the soules that were in them and made them happy by his presence The third day he rose again from the dead He rose no sooner for to testify that He was truly dead and to fulfill the figure of Matt. 12. 40. him As Ionas was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale so shal be the Son of man in the bowells of the earth He would be three days subject to the law of death to teach us mystically that by his death and Passion He had satisfyd the three Persons of the B. Trinity for the sins committed in the three states of the world in the Law of nature in the Law of Moses and in the Law of grace And to shew us that his Passion was the cause of the delivery of the ancient Fathers out of hell of the Redemption of men on earth and of the reparation of the Angelical thrones in Heaven He rose again By which words the Apostles teach us that He S. Iohn 10. return'd to life by his own power He sayd also in the Gospell I have power to lay down my life and to take it up againe and in another place I will raise up my Body in three daies after death 3. I know well that S. Peter and S. Paul teach in many places that his Father raised Him up to life because this miracle S. Pater is an effâ—ct of the omnipotency of God which thô common Ast. c. 3. 26. and c. 5. 30. S. Paul in the 4. 8. and 10. to the Rom. Phil. 28. and 9. to all the 3. Persons of the B. Trinity yet is attributed commonly to the Father 'T is true then that He rose up by his own Power and 't is true also that the eternal Father raised him to the end He might shew his goodness both ro him and us 4. First to him that his Body might receive the Glory which He merited by his labors humiliations and sufferances For He humhled himself says the Apostle being obedient unto death for the which thing God hath exalted him Note exalted him for his Resurrection was not a simple return from death to life but an entrance into a glorious life That Body which He layd down passible and mortall He receives impassible and immortal that which was inglorious now is glorious which was infirm now is powerfull which was a natural Body now is becom a spiritual These are the excellent qualities which S. Paul attributes to every 1. cor 15. matt 13 43. glorifyd Body But that of Glory or clarity delights me most for the body of every saint shal shine by it as the sun fulgebunt justi sicut sol and nevertheless one shal differ from another in this Quality as much as he exceeded him here in good works or as S. Paul says as one starr differs in glory from another What glory then what admirable splendor what ravishing beauty was given to the adorable Body of JSUS in recompence of his merits And what satisfaction and felicity will it be to see it when our eyes shal be able to behold it as hereafter they shall be by their impassibility These four qualities belong to the Body of the Son of God as a body glorifyd But as a Body Deifyd as subsisting in the Divinity it hath yet a farr other Glory Jt hath a supereminent ineffable and incomprehensible Glory as we may see in the next Discours 5. Wherfore the Son of God thanks his Father for that He brought his soul out of hell and his Body out of the sepulcher and that He raised him up again Exaltabo te Domine quoniam suscepisti psal 29. me Eduxisti ab inferno animam meam And He esteems so much this favour that He exhorts us to thanke God to praise and glorify
Geraseens to precipitate them into the lake of a thousand brutal actions and after into the pool of fire and brimstone of everlasting death It is certible to hear Isaye 1. 14. Malac. 2. 3. with what execration God speaks of holy days so Prophaned my soul hateth your Solemnityes I will cast upon your faces the dung of them 6. Let us say then with the Psalmist Turn ô my Soul into thy rest becaus our Lord hath don good to thee Psal 114. 7. Turn ô my Soul convert your self entirely to God on the sunday at least It is instituted for this end and it is called the day of our Lord becaus if we have been turned to our selves and to our affaires the other dayes we must at least turn to God and to his service this day which He hath reserv'd to himself It seems an usurpation of anothers goods and a sort of sacriledg to rob him of this day and to employ it prophanly against his will Turn ô my Soul into thy rest It is a great crime to refuse Obedience to a commandement so sweet other Masters urge their servants and cry out to them worke work ha God says to his my children I will not that you weary out your selves give some respit to your selves from labours rest in me who am the Center of your hearts and the true rest of your soules He calls this day by his Prophet The delicate or delicious Sabbath His Isaiah 58. 13. delights are to be and to convers with us why should we not then make it our delights to be and convers with Him Turne into thy rest becaus our Lord hath don well to thee The Sunday was instituted that we might have opertunity to serve God and more leasure to thanke Him for our Creation Preservation Redemption Sanctification and Vocation to his Service for all graces and good workes which He gives us for preserving us from a thousand infirmities miseries deaths and from so many occasions of sin He hath delivered says the Prophet my soul from death my eyes from teares my feet from sliding if we are grateful for benefits receiv'd we shal give him occasion to give us new if we employ weâ—l the time design'd for the service of God He will bless the time granted us to make provision for our selves and families do then the workes of God on holy dayes and He will do yours on other days and moreover make you pass from the figure to the Verity from the shadow to the light from the symbole to the reality and from the temporal rest of this life to the eternal repose of glory Amen DISCOVRS XXXII OF THE FOURTH COMMANDEMENT Honour thy Father and thy Mother AS the Commandements written in the first Table tend immediately to the honour and glory of the Creatour recommending ro us Piety and devotion towards Him So these of the second Table tend immediately to the salvation and the utility of men and recommend to us charity and justice towards all our neighbours that each one doing his duty in his state and condition the families and communites of Christians may be well ordered and disposed The most important of these dutyes is that of children towards their Parents and therefore it is exacted by the first commandement of the second Table and to move them more to it recompence is herein promised to those that shal honour their Parents with the triple honour of Reverence Obedience and Assistance 2. First with the honor of Reverence for our Parents are the images of God whose authority is a Ray of his Paternity they are Sources and Causes of our life after Him Organs and Instruments which He uses to give and preserve our Being Hence it comes that we ought to honor them be they whatsoever though your Father be vicious and deboist he is stil your Father a cause of your life an instrument of God and an image of his Paternity And becaus the chief part of this honour consists in the interiour you must esteem your Parents in your heart acknowledg them your Superiours respect and reverence their Authority And becaus they know not your interiour you are oblig'd to testify by exterior signes the honor which you have for them to speak to them humbly of them to others honourably to give them respect and reverence and to do nothing that savours of neglect or contempt The Queen Bethsabee was not of the Royal blood but of mean extraction and nevertheless the wise Salomon her Son though a great and powerfull Monark and sitting in the Throne of Iustice rose out of it to meet and reverence her and placed her in a Throne at the right hand of his Majesty This wise King was the figure of our Saviour who being King of kings and God of infinite Majesty disdained not on earth to be subject to his holy Mother and who elevated and placed her in heaven at Psal 44. his right hand Astitit Regina a dextris tuis 3. To honour your Parents you must moreover consult them before you undertake any thinge of consequence when you would marry commence a suit undertake a far journey or engage your self in any other thing of importance aske their counsell and follow it this shews you esteem their prudence and God blesses this proceeding the young Tobias had a great blessing was assisted by an Angel deliver'd from all danger replenished with riches and prosperity in his journey becaus he undertook it by the advice and direction of his Father 4 The second honour of our Parents exacted by this Commandement is that of Obedience This honor S. Paul often recommends to us and in the Epistle to the Ephesians he proves it by this commandement to be their due Obey your Parents in our Ephes. 6. Lord For this is just Honour thy Father and thy Mother He adds In our Lord For if they command you any thing against the commandements of God or of his Church or if they would avert you from Religion and his service S. Bernard tells you that Epist 104. 't is Piety to neglect them for the love of IESUS-CHRIST for He that sayd Honor your Father and your Mother says to you also He that loves his father or his mother more than me is not worthy of me But when they command just and lawfull things you must obey them they are your Superiours and the Causes of your Being they then as Superiours ought to move you and as Causes of your Being to be also the Authours of your operations And if a servant be oblig'd to obey his Master for a little nourishment and a smal salary he receives how much more a child his Mother who nourished him with her own substance and his Father who laboured so much to bring him up and endeavours to provide for him 5. I find in the holy scripture that your obedience to be perfect ought to have three conditions at the least it ought to be blind cordial and
more secure to go by the way of Innocencie than by the way penance to everlasting life Amen DISCOURS XLII of the Oblgations we contract in Baptisme I Will poure out upon you clean water and you shal be cleansed from all your contaminations I will give you a new heart and a new spirit sayd God by Ezechiel Which words the holy Fathers and the Interpreters of Scripure understand unanimously of Baptismal water He had reason to make this promise with so great pomp and majestie of words for if we cosider attentively we shal see that after the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Redemption of manking He never more oblig'd humane nature than by the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism which purges us from all sin makes us adoptive children of God members of IESUS CHRIST coheires of Heaven and Temples of the holy Ghost What honor what dignity and what admirable prerogatives They that are members of IESUS CHRIST and the children of God ought they not to lead a life conformable to this dignity thy that receiv'd the Spirit of God in Baptisme should they not act and speak according to this divine Spirit T is is that to which all Christians are oblig'd by Baptism It obliges them to die a morall and vertuous death and to lead a new life conformable to rhe excellencie of this birth as shal be shewn in this Discours 1. Before I proceed to the proofs of these important Points I explicate my self By the sin of the first man and by our own crimes we deserve to die effectually the death of soul and body and to be bâ—ried in hell eternally But the Son of God out of his infinite mercy to the end we might live and merit the crowns of heaven changes by Baptisme that horrible and eternall death into a morall and vertuous one He will that we die to sin to the world and to our selves To sin that is to all sorts of vices To rhe world and its pomps that is you must not set your heart upon the pride riches and passtimes thereof you must reject superfluities and content your self with necessaries and not according to the rules of the world but according to christian frugalitie modestie and humilitie To our selves this is that we call dying to the old Adam that is you must die to ill humours irregular passions vicious inclinations to the love of your own selves which we contracted by our carnal birth and extraction from the first man for by his sin our nature hath been so corrupted that if we follow it we have no other object of our thoughts words actions and affections than our selves and our own interests To all the aforesayd things we are oblig'd to die and see here the proofs of it 2. For when S. Paul says in the 6th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans that we are dead and buried with IESVS CHRIST Rom. 6. by Baptisme It is to prove what he would perswade us in the whole Chapter that we are oblig'd to kill in our selves sin with all its appurtenances and for ever so he says since we are dead to sin how shal we live therein We know that by Baptisme our old Rom. 6 man hath been crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST that the body of sin and the mass of evill inclinations may be destroyed And to the Galatians they that pertain to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and Gal. 5. concupiscences Can we be good Christians and not appertain to IESUS Nevertheless the Apostle of JESUS says that we appertain not to him if we crucify not our flesh He says not they that appertain to him in the quality of Religious or Priests But all they that appertain to IESUS CHRIST Crucify their flesh And S. Chrisostome Baptisme is to us that which the Cross and Sepulcher was to IESUS 24. hom 10. in ep Rom. C. 6. it ought to have in us the same effects it ought to crucify us to make us die and to hide us from the world 3. It imports much to note what is the Grace of each Sacrament and what charg it puts upon us for each sacrament conferrs a special grace and to this grace some charg is annexed to which we oblige our selves T is a Talent given us with a strict obligation to employ it The grace of Confirmation is a spirit of Fortitude which obliges us to make profession of the Faith in Presence of Tyrants also with perill of our lives The grace of Confession is a spirit of Penance which obliges us to satisfactory workes to fasts alms prayers and other actions which S. Iohn Baptist terms Fruits worthy of penance the grace of Baptime is a spirit of the Cross and death which obliges us to die to sin to the world and to our selves if then we have any voluntary affection to the Pomps of the world to the delights of the flesh to the satisfaction of unruly passions if we are wedded to our own conduct to our proper judgment and not to that of our Superiours we are wanting to the grace of this Sacrament for we are baptized to be made Christians that is Disciples of Christ and He says to us expresly He that renounces Matth. 16. Luke 9. 23. not himself note himself his unbridled passions bad humours his own judgment and self love and carrys not his Cross daily cannot be my disciple 4. But this death is like to that of the Phenix which dies not but to acquire a new life 'T is as that of IESUS who was spoyled of a mortal and fading life to resume a glorious and immortal We die not to sin to the world and to our selves but to live to God and to his grace we are not crucifyd with IESUS CHRIST but to rise again to a new life we devest not our selves of the old man but to put on the new For we are buried by baptisme with IESUS to die to sin that as the Son of God is risen by the glory of his Father So also we may Rom. 6. Ephes. 4. 24. walk in newness of life says S. Paul to the Romans And to the Ephesians Put ye on the new man which according to God is created in justice and sanctity When the Apostle commends to us a new life he demands of us a great change and an admirable metamorphosis says S. Chrysostom Then he adds I have great S Chrysost hom 10. in ep ad Rom. 6. Gal. 5. 3. caus to groan and weep abundantly considering on the one side the great obligations we have contracted in Baptisme and seeing on the other our great negligence For as S. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians says every man that circumcises himself engages himself to observe all the law of Moyses So whosoever receives Baptisme obliges himself to keep the law of Christ Now since Christian Religion is a profession of penance mortification sanctity and perfection these things are not indifferent to them that
for a scepter and thorns upon his head for a crown as if He were a king of the Theater To be decry'd and condemn'd as a blasphemer as a seducer as ambitious as sedicious as an Imposter What confusion greater then to be dragd through the streets of Hierusalem with hues and cries as a fool and as an extravagant person from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to the Pretory To be less esteem'd then Barrabbas a seditious person and a murtherer to be esteem'd more wicked more unworthy to live and more worthy of the cross then he What indignity more intollerable than to receive foule and fiâ—thy matters in token of vility and baseness not upon his garments or hands only but upon his most venerable and adorable face this indignity was so ignominious in Israel that if a child receiv'd it from his father he was to bear the confusion Numb 12. 14. of it at least seven daies To be short What greater contempt than to die not the death of Nobles nor with honourable persons not in private and in prison not in the night by torch light but the death of slaves with infamous persons in a high and publick place at mid-day in the sight of more than two hundred thousand persons 7. What shal I say of the punishments receiv'd in his sacred Body He suffered more horrible harsh and bitter torments than were ever suffer'd by any creature upon earth The Prophet Isaiah calls him by excellence the man of Paines Abel was murthered c. 33. 3. Zachary was stoned Isaiah sawed Lazarus covered with ulcers and not one of them is called the man of Paines We have heard of men to whom their vertues or their vices their birth or their condition have given honourable or shamefull Names But we have not heard but of IESUS-CHRIST only to whom Paine hath given a name He is the Man of Pains because He did bear all our paines He is the man of Paines becaus He suffered in all his members and He is the man of Pains becaus He was pierced through with Pains exposed Sacrificed and given wholy over to sufferances and Pains 8. But the sufferances in his soul will make appear yet better the Greatness of his Paine He sayd in the Garden my soul is sorrowfull to death It would seperate my soul and Body if I shoul not hinder it for to endure yet more To whatsoever part He casts his sight He sees objects of the greatest sorrow His soul is nail'd to a most hard Cross before his Body is Crucifyd and the Cross of his Soul is much more harsh and insupportable then that of his Body The three nails of this interiour cross are the injuries don to his Father the Commpassion of his Mother and the damnation of his brothers Philosophy teaches us that a paine is more sharp and bitter when 't is received in a power more pure and immaterial IESUS was pierced with paine not only in the inferior part of his soul but also in the superior which is wholy spiritual in the part in which He was blessed and his Beatitude also contributed to the increas of paine says S. Laurence Justinian He de tryumphali Christi Agone saw by the light of glory God face to face He knew clearly the Greatness of his Majesty the outrage and the injury that sin does him he loved him with a most ardent and excessive love and therefore He could not be but excessively afflicted seeing the Ocean of sins committed against that most high adorable and amiable Majesty The wounds of his Body were made by hands of Torterers hands indeed most cruell and inhumane Yet their activity had stil limits But the wounds of his heart were inflicted by the hand of love by the love which He had for his Father a love ineffable and incomprehensible If a soule that loved God well could have as much contrition as she would desire ô how would she pierce herself with sorow How willingly would she bathe herself in her tears ô how would she calcinate her poor heart JESUS had as much of sorrow as He desired and He desired as much of it as He had love for his Father his sorrow was equal with his love If He had seen but one only mortal sin committed against him whom He so loved He would have grieved infinitely ô how then was He afflicted when He saw so many so different and so enormous 9. The love which he had for his Mother was another nail that pierced his heart and which fastned him to this interior Cross He sees her present at all the Misteries of his bitter Passion He sees all the wonds of his Body united in her heart and we may say that his compassion was another Passion 10. He looks below His soul is sorrowfull He sees the torments of hell wherein so many shal be plunged notwithstanding his sufferances for them He sees that their wounds are incurable that they abuse his Blood death and merits and that after so many remedies they damne themselves for trifles and what He indured for them would serve but as oyle and sulphur to inflame the divine Justice to punish their ingratitude more rigorously 11. S. Austin wholy astonished at the sight of CHRISTS sufferance cry's out ô Son of God whither hath your humility descended whither hath your charity been inflamed whither hath your piety extended it self The Wiseman sayd that you have don every thing in number weight and measure But in this work of your Love You have observ'd neither number nor weight nor measure You have exceeded all hopes and desires You have made an excess that could not be imagined The Angells were astonished considering this wonder a God whipt a God cover'd with spittle the King of kings crown'd with thorns a God crucifyed for slaves a God pierced with sorrows for worms of the earth of whom He had no need and knowing that they would be ungratfull for so great a Benefit What transport what excess and if He were not God I might say with Pagans what folly of Love Gentibus stultitia 12. After a love so cordial undeserv'd and so excessive shal we not love him If the least slave had don the same for us He would be Master of our hearts and seeing a God hath don it shal He not be Qui non diligit Dominum Iesum Anathema sit 1. cor 16. 22. says S. Paul since JESUS suffer'd for us if any one love him not let him be Anathema Curs'd excommunicated and abhorred of all creatures But if any one should not love him and moreover be so ungratfull as to offend him what punishment would You wish him holy Apostle He adds it not nor can one wish him a pain so great as he deserves there should be a new hell to revenge an ingratitude so monstrous and enormous 13. For as S. Bernard sayd if Moses speaking to the Iews who had but a gross and imperfect Law who had
having taught Christs Victorious Resurrection teach us in this Article his tryumphant Ascension By his Nativity He went forth into the field to fight by his Passion and death He fought the battle By his Resurrection He overcame his enemies and by his Ascension He tryumphs His tryumphant chariot was a thousand thousand of celestial spirits Psal 67. 18. and according to the translation of S. Hierom innumerable thousands He tryumphed not only over enemies of flesh and blood but also over devills sin and death The spoils He carried with him were not flocks of sheep and troops of other beasts but innumerable multitudes of souls which He redeem'd out of Prison and rescued out of the jawes of Hell Thou art ascended high thou hast taken Captivity says the Rayal Prophet to him Psal 67. 10. With all this glorious traine He ascended not carried in a chariot as Elias nor by Angells as Abacuc the Prophet and S. Philip nor did He ascend only by the force and agility He recived in his resurrection but moreover by the power and vertue He had as God 2. He Ascended into heaven There are three Heavens according to the scripture Airy Statry and Emperial and He mounted above all heavens as his Apostle says so passing the Air Sun and all â—phes 4. the heavens He mounted to the most high and sublime place of the world 3. He sits at the right hand of God the Father God is a spirit a pure and incorporeal Being who hath neither side nor hand noâ— part How does He sit then at his right hand And if He sits in a seat or Throne of what matter is it made is it of wood marble gold silver or Diamant I know well 't is answered the Apostles accommodate themselves to our low manner of understanding and of speaking and that by this session at the right hand of the Father they express the equality and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son When we see one speak to the king on knee we conclude he is a Vassall But if we see one sit upon a throne neer the king and at his right hand we say he is a Prince or Sovereign The Apostles say JESUS sits at the right hand of the Father this is to say He is Sovereign Omnipotent and infinite as the Father equal coessential and coeternal with the Father 4. Yes But JESUS as man is not consubstantial nor coeternal with the Father and yet He is at the right hand of the Father not only as God but also as man as S. Leo expresly teaches in his first sermon of the Ascension You will say the humane nature of JESUS is in the Throne of God and at the right hand of the Father becaus being as it were ingraffted and inserted in the Being of God in the subsistance of the Word and making but one Person with him 't is served and reverenced as God 5. You say true but this solues not the difficulty For this holy Humanity is united to the Word and subsisting in his Personality from the first instant of Christs Conception and nevertheless to speak properly it is not but since the day of his Ascension that the Humanity is elevated to the glory of the Father and seated at his right hand as the church says in the Canon of the Mass that day 6. For to clear then these difficulties we must remember that in the Mistery of the incarnation the Son of God communicating his subsistance to the holy Humanity should have made it at the same time participant of all the perfections and Attributes of which a created Nature may be capable For if in a perfect marriage the Woman espouses not only the Person of her husband but also his nobility prerogatives and Honours shal not the sacred Humanity which is married much more perfectly and inseparebly to the Word receive from him the Perfections that are communicable to It A Vegetative soul penetrating the stock of a little tree makes it live with a Vegetative life A sensitive soul informing the body of a Lamb makes it live with a sensitive life An intellectual soul animating the body of a man makes it live with a reasonable life and the divine Word actuating filling and possessing the holy Humanity shal He not make it live with a divine life Ought He not to communicate to it his proprieties and his Attributes since He is united to it more strictly perfectly and nobly than any soul is to her Body or form to its matter 7. Nevettheless the divine Word to procure our salvation and to accomplish the work of our Redempion suspended in his Incarnation the communication of divers of his perfections For if JESUS had been immortall how should he have dyed for us If He had been impassible how would He have suffered for us If He had been independent and sovereign how would have he given us an example of obedience subjecting himself to his holy Mother But in the day of his Ascension He made an entire effusion of himself and of all his excellencies and perfections that were communicable to Humanity 8 This is that which He asked of his Father in the Vigil of his death when He sayd Now glorify me o Father with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before all ages Vpon which S. Iohn 17. 5. Lib. 11. in Io. C. 17. Colloss 2. 9. S. Cyrill of Alexandria says The Saviour asks to be glorifyd not with an accidental glory but with a natural glory and a little after The glory which He always had as God He asks now as man This is moreover that which S. Paul teaches us when he says the plenitude or fullness of the Divinity inhabits corporally in him that is in his Humanity says the same S. Cyrill And this is that wich ought to rejoyce us in this Mistery This is that which renders this Mistery dear and precious to JESUS to the Virgin and to all the Church 'T is in the Ascension properly that JESUS Man God sits at the right hand of the Omnipotent 't is in the Ascension that He was receiv'd into the Throne of God and that He entred into the Glory of his Father 9. He sits that is to say He is no more subject to labours tributary to wearines lyable to humane miseries and infirmities 10. He is at the right hand of the Omnipotent that is He hath the superintendence and the administration of Heaven and earth of men and Angells of spiritualls and temporalls What honor what happiness for us to know and to be assured that a persone of the same nature with us hath the keyes of life and death of Heaven and hell that He governs all and does whatsoever He sees good 11. He is in the Throne of God that is He entred into the real actual and eternal enjoyance of his Empire 12. He is in Glory of the Father that is He is received into a full entire and perfect possession of all the
since all the right will be on God's side and all the wrong on ours IESUS will take his Fathers part and espouse his quarrell will do him justice for the injuries He received and judg us without favour or acceptance of persons â—phes 6. 9. 5. He will rejoyce exceedingly to satisfy his Father becaus his interests are dear and precious to him Impious and Idiots censure the Providence of God becaus they know not the reasons and the end of it they murmure that the just are humbled the poor afflicted the bad honoured and glutted with riches and delights they are astonished that the child of a devout woman dies without Baptisme and is reproov'd the child of a dishonest woman is predestinated and dies after Baptisme our Savior will justify his Father He will make clearly seen the Wisdom of his conduct the uprightness of his judgments the equity of his decrees and the admirable Economie of his Providence This rejoyces souls that love our Saviour this nourishes their hope and is the object of their devotion Let us elevate then our selves to God and say with the Psalmist make jubilation in the sight of the king our Lord becaus He coms to judg the earth Psal 97. 6. In the second place it is convenient there should be another Judgment besides that which is made in the hour of our death becaus in this the soul is judged only and the body ought to be judged also For The body contributs much to the merit and demerit of the soul it cooperats vsually to the good and to the evill which she practises it is the cause that a reprobate soul offends God by intemperance drunkennesse luxury idleness vain ornaments it is rhe cause that an elect soul pleases God in fasting whatching wearing hair cloath kneeling travelling keeping Virginity induring death for defense of Faith since then in the particular judgment these bodies receiv'd not the salary nor the paine which they merited in this life there ought to be another judgment which recompences or punishes them according to their deserts 7. In fine it is expedient that the elect may be praised honoured glorifyd and the reprobate dispraised reproched and confounded in the face of the whole world Our Lord will then give 1. Cor. 4. 5. to every one the praise which he deservs says the Apostle He will praise you for your Charity you for your patience you for your humility He will discover your secret penances your alms given to the poor your hidden hair shirt your nightly and early rising to prayers And consequently He will give also to the reprobate the blame and infamy which they deserve 8. To this effect he will enlighten the hidden things of darkness 1. Cor. 4. 5. and will manifest the counsells of the hearts as the Apostle says He will discover all thoughts words and actions of the reprobate in in the sight of that great assembly He will confound the hippocrisie of those that deceive the world reprove the craft and subtility of them who supplant the simple and thunder against the calumniators and diffamers of the innocent He will shew how unjustly the elect are contemn'd derided vilefied neglected and abused and how vainly and foolishly the reprobate are admired praised honored and preferr'd He will shew that He is good not only by praising approving and recompencing good but also by dispraysing condemning and persecuting the enemies of good 9. Cheer up then ô chosen Souls cheer up and rejoyce when we speak of judgment lift up your heads for behold your Redemption Luke 21. 28. is at hand What consolation what joy what gladness and what assurance for you when the whole world shal be moved at the terrible sound of the trumpet when the Iudg shal be in a throne of glory and of Majesty amidst thunders and lightnings when the rocks themselus shal tremble and people shal shake and shiver for fear when you shal see Hercules and Alexanders Cesars and Pompies Plato's and Aristotles the great Conquerors and Wise of the world dragg'd as Criminalls to the Tribunal of the Iudg reduced to an extream dispair not daring so much as to lift up their eyes expecting with horrour the sentence of their condemnation Then Then if you will believe me if you will indure a little here and keep exactly the commandements of God Then I say you will rejoyce heartily you who are esteem'd the lees and the scum of the world the objects of a thousand incommodities you will laugh with a celestial laughter you will be filled with a solid assurance you will acknowledg him whom you have so well serv'd and whilst others tremble you shal go to meet him in the Air obviam Thes. 4. â—6 Christo in aere you shal approach to him with confidence saying with joy which cannot be exprest behold my good Master that was crucifyd behold my Saviour whom I loved so ardently Look upon him now you worldly souls Is not this the Savior whom you so much despised heretofore you mocked us you called us hyppocrits scrupulous and superstitious people you held it simplicity to pardon injuries to indure affronts to deprive your selves of sensual pleasures to mortify your flesh and passions to contemn temporal goods through the hopes of eternal which you esteemd uncertain You see well now that we were not deceived you see it by experience O God! what extream favour to have serv'd well a king now so honour'd Sacred labors happy mortifications and persecutions which are now so divinely recompenced sweet austerities How great and admirable are the joyes you breed me Then Then ô Christion souls these bodys so often bowed and humbled before God shal be exalted and replenished with glory then you shal be justifyd from the faults of which at present you are so unjustly accused you shal be deliver'd from the persecutions they raise against you 9. But you on the contrary ô worldly soul you ought to tremble and shake when we speak of judgment You ought to consider that you must render an account to a Iudg infinitely powerfull to whose anger none can make resistance To a judg infinitely Wise and knowing who searches the bottom of the heart from whose knowledg you cannot hide your most secret thoughts to a Iudg infinitely good who is oblig'd by his nature to be mortal enemie to sin Hear then and put in practise his divine Words by which He vouchsafs to instruct you how to avoid the rigour of his justice behold how He concluds the sermon which He made of the last judgment Look well to your selves lest perhaps your hearts be aggravated Luke 21. with surfetting and drunkenness and cares of this life Watch therefore praying at all times that you may be accounted worthy to escape the things that are to com and to stand before the Son of man Amen DISCOURS X. OF THE SEUENTH ARTICLE From thence He will com to judg the quick and the dead 1. IT is
the second to the Corinthians We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of CHRIST that every one may receive the proper things of the body according as he hath don either good or evill For justice requires that we be recompenced and chastised in the same things which have contributed to good or evill But the greater part of sins are caused or Committed by the body 't is then reason that it rise again and feel the punishments due to them It concurrs likewise to vertuous actions 't is mortifyd by holy souls subjected to rigours of penance and to labours of a christian life it sufferrs prisons and punishments in Confessors torments and death in Martyrs 't is deprived of its pleasures in Virgins and in Widows and crucifyd in all true Christians it is then very just that it should participate in the satisfactions pleasures and recompences of Heaven The flesh says Tertullian is the Tertull. de Resur Carnis hinge of our salvation and if the soul be united to God 't is it that gives her capacity the flesh is washed to the end the soul be cleansed the flesh is annointed that the soul be consecrated the flesh is shadowed by imposition of hands that the soul be illuminated in Spirit the flesh is fed with the Body and Blood of JESUS-CHRIST to the end the soul be nourished by God they cannot then be seperated in recompences having been so joyn'd in actions And 't is vain to alleadg against this Verity the low condition of the flesh for the same Father says the flesh which God form'd to the resemblance of a man-God which He animated by his breath to the resemblance of his life which He fortifyd with his Sacraments of which He loves the purity approves the austerity and esteems the labours and the sufferances shal it not rise again It will never be that He leave in eternal death the works of his hands the care of his Spirit the tabernacle of his Breath the heir of his Liberalities the keeper of his Law the Victime of his Religion and the Sister of his CHRIST It will then be raised up again and in this God does as a Potter who seeing his Pot ill made breaks it to repair it better so God having form'd man of earth and finding him deprav'd by sin broke him by death to which he doom'd him but with design to repair and make him better in the day of the Resurrection 2. But if any one should aske me how that which is withered and rotten can becom living and flourishing again He needs not but to consider the Omnipotency of the Creator or with S. Paul the grain of corne which rots to rise again Foole 1. Cor. 15. Cgrysol Ser. 59. it first do die All things in this world according to S. Chrysologue are images of our Resurrection the Sun sets and rises the day is buried in darkness and returns months years seasons fruits seeds die in passing and rise again returning and to touch you with a sensible example as often as you sleep and wake you die in a certain manner and rise again Let us now reflect upon the words of this Article 3. The Apostles say not The Resurrection of the man though this he true But of the flesh for to teach us that when the man dies his soul dies not and therefore in the Resurection is nor raised-up again but reunited only to the body since nothing can be raised again to life unless it first be dead 4. They say not the Resurrecton of the body but of the flesh becaus the holy Ghost would afford us a means to Confute the errour of certain Hereticks who would sustain as in the first ages of the Church some did that we should rise not in a body of flesh but form'd of air 5. They use moreover these terms to convince orhers who in the time of the Apostles thought that the Resurrection of which the Scripture speaks signifys not that of the body but only that by which the Soul is raised out of the death of sin to the life of grace 6. In fine this word Resurrection makes us understand that we shal receive the same bodys which we had for since rising again signifys returning to life again It must be the same flesh which was dead that rises and returns to life 7. We All then shal have the same bodys which now we have but intire and perfect without want or superfluity without the imperfection of youth or the defect of old age None shal rise blind or purblind deaf or dumb lame or crooked too great or too little nor with any other defect or imperfection Becaus 't is God alone whose works are perfect that will raise us up He will not in this work make use of natural causes from which all defects proceed 8. Nevertheless the Resurrection of the Elect and that of the Reprobate will be very different The blessed Souls shal receive bodys like to Christs endowed with Light Subtility Agility and Impassibility that will shine as clear as Starrs that will penetrate and pass through althings as beams of the Sun through glass that will move as swiftly as lightning That will be impassible and immortal so that nothing in the world can hurt them They will enter into their bodys with great joy and gladness with many benedictions and congratulations ô my body such a soul will Say ô my dear companion and most faithfull friend receive now with ioy the fruit of thy labours mortifications and pains in the works of holiness thou hast been in miseries and in sufferances be thou now in felicity and in happiness and let us praise together the Authour of our good but the reprobate Souls will reenter into their bodies with great a version rage and many maledictions of those members which they go to animate for to render them sensible of ineffable and eternal torments Domine quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo Lord says the Royal Prophet who shal dwell in thy tabernacle or who shal rest in thy holy hill He answers Psal 14. Qui ingreditur sine macula operatur justitiam He declares that two things are absolutely necessary to avoid evill and to do good one without the other suffices not Quis habitabit who shal be that happy that fortunate person that shal com to the glorious Resurrection and shal dwell amongst the Blessed O what happy lot attends him happy a thousand times the womb that bore him and the breasts which He did suck happie the paines taken to bring him up ô how well was it employd happie earth that he tramples under feet one ought to strew with flowers the paths which he honours with his steps happie air that he breaths one ought to sweeten it with all the perfumes of Arabia happie the bread which he eates one ought to nourish him with all that is most precious in nature and what deserves
he not who is Wisdom 3. 5. worthy of God Invenit illos dignos se Blessed a thousand times his holy and vertuous life which disposes him to such a glory blessed his happy death which will be to him as a door to enter into an immortall life Blessed his understanding which shal see one day openly and face to face the divine Essence his Will that will love God and enjoy him for all Eternity Blessed a thousand times his head upon which the holy Trinity will put a Crown of Glory in the presence of the Vnivers Blessed and happie his hands which shal carry always palmes as the ensignes of his Victories Blessed his feet and his steps since he shal walk upon the celestial Glob in the company of Angells Blessed and happy a thousand times all the members of his body and the powers of his soul which shal be filled and satiated with all sorts of delights joys glory happiness and with eternall Beatitude What I say of this elect Soule I say to every one that shal do violence to himself to rise out of the state of sin to overcom his passions to keep the commandements and to live according to the maxims of the Gospell Violenti rapiunt illud the Matthew 11. 12. Violent beare heaven away they that do violence to themselves to their vices and their passions obtain Heaven God grant us the grace to whom be honour glory praise and benediction for ever Amen DISCOURS XV. OF THE TWELFTH ARTICLE Life Everlasting Amen IN this last Article is declar'd to us the End for which we were created for which we were made Christians and to which all Laws Sacraments Vertues and other things are directed we ought then to believe firmly and to ruminate often that after the Resurrection there shal be in the Vnivers two conditions the one most happy the other most miserable and that neither of them shal ever end that every one of us shal be either of the one or of the other of the right hand or of the left of the number of the good or of the bad of them that go to heaven or of those that go to hell And that 't is now the time to look to our affairs fitting our selves to be of the happy side for after this there shal be no more time for us This doubtless we shal do if we consider and ponder well What is Eternal Life and how great are the goods of it 2. S. John in the Apocalyps speaking of sinners says their Apoc. 28. 8. part shal be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death The second or everlasting death then is when the soul and the body are depriv'd of their Beatitude and confind to the fire of hell And on the contrary eternal life is when they are freed from those and all other evills and do enjoy the eternal Goods of heaven 3. These are so great that the Apostle who was rapt up into heaven would not describe the Greatness of them he speaks not of them but with astonishment neither eye hath seen says he nor eare hath heard nor hath the heart of man conceiv'd what God â—ath prepar'd for them that love him Nevertheless for to attain to some knowledg or rather to some slender conjecture of their greatness fourt hings shal be considered 4. First the liberality of God towards all men in this life cast the eyes of your consideration with S Austin upon the extent of the Vnivers see what stately buildings there are what chambers richly furnished what beauteous gardens what pleasant medows what odoriferous and coloured Flowers what sorts of savory fruits what delicious meats what delicate wines what sweet odours what melodious voices what sumptuous garments what dogs for chase what birds of prey for recreation It is God that gives all these things to men But to what men And who are they that more usually enioy them Atheists Infidells and others that forget him and incessantly offend him Now if He do so much good to his enemies what will he reserve for his friends If He be so liberal to give how much more to recompence if He be so charitable to those that offend him how much more to those who love him if He be so magnificent to those He owes but punishments how much more to those to whome He hath made so many promises Run through in your mind all that you have ever seen heard or imagin'd all that is great rich magnificent precious pleasant and desirable all that is nothing if compar'd with that which God hath prepar'd for you if you love him for all that may be seen recounted or desired and it is impossible to see decipher or desire the great goods which God hath promiss'd and prepar'd for those that love him 5. To have a second conjecture of them you need not but weigh and consider the iourneys and toyles of Apostles the torments of Martyrs the watchings and austerities of confessors the temptations combats and Victories of Virgins the alms and charities of Widdows the heroical vertues of other Saints and that after so many toyles so many sufferances penances mortifications good works services merits the Apostle says that Rom. 8. 18. the very sufferances and afflictions themselves of this life are little in comparison with the glory of heaven And again the tribulation which at present is momentary and light works above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us note above measure exceedingly 2. Ior. 4. 17. 6. Nevertheless a third consideration will make this weight of glory to surpass yet much more all value and esteem of it For Heaven is not only the Salary of the Saints but also the recompence of the merits of JESUS Consider what He is in his divine Person what He is with God his Father the ardent love He had for him the Zeal which He had for his Glory the great services He did him what He suffered for his honour what his pretious Blood is worth the Glory of Heaven is the Salary of all that given by a King most liberal in his gifts and most magnificent in his recompences 7. Hell also though very low may serve us for a footstool and a step to mount up to Heaven by contemplation and to make a guesse at the felicities of it What is hell 't is an abyss a Collection a Rendevow of the most excessive sorrows bitternesses and afflictions imaginable What is it to be damn'd 'T is to be eternally in a prison most deep most obscure and most incommodious to be eternally in captivity under a Tyrant most insolent most cruell and most barbarous not to have one mite of bread in an eternal and most ravenous hunger not a drop of water in a most burning thirst not a ray of light in the greatest darkness not a moment of rest in an unsuportable and eternal weariness to be eternally afflicted with all the miseries a humane body is
us after this not unprofitable digression return to the definition 5. Dictum vel factum a word or action In this word Action is couched Omission when you can do an action which would hinder the offence of God and you do it not IESVS being required to pay tribute declares himself not oblig'd and nevertheless he pay'd it lest He should scandalize the farmers So the Virgin circumcised her Son and submitted herself to the law of purification for fear of giving ill example So S. Paul says the Ancient Philosophers having known the true God by the light of nature and having not communicated this knowledg to the rest of men to draw them from Idolatry incurr'd the anger of God and were guilty of all sins the people committed for want of that knowledg We are then culpable when we ought to correct reprehend or punish the defects of others and do not we scandalise them for they say there is no ill in this my Parents Confessor Superior say nothing to me of it 6. Minus rectum This word teaches us that if an action be good and laudable commanded by God or his Church we ought not to omit it though our neighbor be scandalized by it if one is scandalized when you say the truth 't is better to permit scandal then to oppose Verity says S. Gregory T is a Pharisaical scandal a S. Greg. hom 7. in Ezec. passive scandal not an active a scandal taken not given 7. And if the action be good and laudable but not of obligation ought we to omit it if one will be scandalized by it S. Thomas answers learnedly with a distinction either our neighbour is scandalized maliciously and out of a spirit of contradiction 2. 2. q. 43. ar 7. or is scandalised through ignorance or infirmity if he be scandalised maliciously we ought not to omit our good worke for 't is his own fault and not ours He does as the Pharesees who were scandalized maliciously by the predications of IESUS But IESUS contemn'd their scandal and left not off his preaching If he be scandalized through ignorance or through weakness 't is better to do your good worke in private or to omit it for a time than to give an occasion to your neighbor to fall into any sin And with much more reason if the action be of it self indifferent neither good nor evill charity obliges us to omit it when it would be an occasion of sin or temptation to our neighbor If you offend your neighbor giving him occasion of sin through his weakness you offend our Lord and therefore If I know my brother is scandalized to see me eate flesh I will never eate it lest I scandalize my hrother says S. Paul 1. Cor. 8. 12. Rom. 14. 15. 20. And again do not with thy meat destroy him for whom CHRIST dyed Destroy not the worke of God for meat Though then an action be permitted if it be not commanded we must abstain from it if it be a snare or stumblingblock to infirme and weak soules 8. Prebens alicui giving occasion to our neighbor Some may imagin that 't is not to be scandalous if they do not a publick action which is manifest to many But our Saviour says if you move Matt. 18. to sin but one only you are scandalous You say they are simple and weak people that are tempted by such an action or such a word the wise and well grounded in vertue are not moved by it IESUS says you must not scandalize one of the lesser ones unum de pusillis and S. Paul tells us that in scan dalizing the weak ones we sin against IESUS-CHRIST And the Son of God adds Voe mundo a scandalis Woe to the world for scandalls He Speakes so becaus the world is full of them and becaus they destroy so many souls so dear and precious to him 9. It seems that soules are more dear to IESUS than his innocent blood He willed it should be prophan'd and trod under feet for the ransome of these beloved soules I leave you to think what punishment and what reproches we shal receive from him if by our bad exemple or by our negligence we let any one of these soules fall into sin and damnation Believe that in the houre of your death nothing will cause you more regret nor afflict you more than the sight of the soules which by your fault are lost You will acknowledg this truth and feel the weight of these dreadfull words Vae homini illi per quem scandalum venit woe to the persone by whom Matt. 18. 7. Scandal coms You will see all the graces God had given to soules through your fault lost all the merits they had gotten all that our Saviour did and suffered for their salvation and you will with sorrow and sighing say Ha! I have destroy'd soules for which JESUS CHRIST dyed how shal I restore to him the blood which He hath shed vae homini illi wo be to that person It were better for you one had tyed a milstone about your neck and thrown you into the Sea You will see the excellency and the value of the soules you have cast away and this will oppress you with griefe as if you had a milstone upon your heart You will see that those who learnt of you the vanities of the world will teach their children them these will derive them to their descendents unto the third or fourth generation all which will be imputed to you this sight will cast you even into despaire Will you avoyd this miserable condition Do not by bad examples indiscreet words or negligence destroy a soul for whom IESUS CHRIST dyed But if you have been so unhappy do judgment and justice punish your fault by true penance repair the loss as much as lies in you bring back the lost sheep to IESUS or if you cannot gain another in his stead by prayers instructions aâ—d good examples so you may be confident of pardon God hath promised it Amen DISCOVRS XXXVI OF THE SIXTH AND NINTH COMMANDEMENTS thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours Wife Amongst all the irregular motions of a man there is none more contrary to his nature nor more abominable to the Creatour than the unhappy vice of carnality It is contrary to mans nature becaus it is beastly terrestrial and unworthy of a man In anger envy pride ambition there is some kind of spirit But luxury clouds the understanding depresses the faculties of the soul renders her unable to elevate her self above the objects of sense and impaires all that is manly in us 2. This vice is abominable to God who repented to have made man and sent a deluge to drowne the earth who consuin'd by fire four of the most florishing cityes of the world and slautered 24 thousand of his people at one time and 60 thousand at another in punishment of this sin Though this vice be so contrary to a man and
and unmaske it In the second place I put before your eyes its bad effects and in the third place remedies Calumnie says S. Thomas is to accuse our neighbor falsly of a sin which he hath not committed And detraction is to declare a fin which he hath committed or a notable imperfection that is in him This is not so great a sin as calumny But it is a great one When a thing is manifest if it be known to the most of the Town or neighbourhood and cannot be concealed if you speak of it it is not a mortal sin But if the thing be secret or known to few if you reveal it to them that know nothing of it you do against charity and justice and therefore you are oblig'd to restitution The light of nature and this maxime of IESUS teaches you this truth Do not to another What you would not have don to your self If your daughter sister or kinswoman has committed a fault your neigbour seeing it would you he should reveal it or he to whom he hath reveal'd it should publish it and say for excuse I did not invent it such a person saw it I relate it as I heard it would you not be troubled and griev'd notwithstanding this excuse Why then do you to another what you would not have don to your self 4. There are other yet more malicious they make shew that what they say coms from compassion and nevertheless it coms out of passion Our Saviour sayd Take heed of them who com to you in the cloathing of sheep and are inwardly ravinous Matt. 7. 10. wolves we may say again who com to you with the voice of sheep who prayse the absent and afterward do as wolves with our doubt say they he is one of the finest men of his profession in the world But he forgot himself very much he is much to be pitied he would have don very well 't is a great misfortune I say it with a feeling It was no fault of mine he did not avoyd that I have often admonished him of it they give poyson sweetned with hony they have the voice of sheep but the teeth of wolves 4. And in effect they hurt and kill three persons with one bite First themselves for their detraction deprives them of the life of grace and kills them spiritually it being a mortal sin in a matter of importance according to the scriptures We call it detraction in a matter of importance when you discover any thing that diminishes notably the reputation of your neigbour though the thing be true if it be secret and unknown That this is a mortal sin is prov'd out of S. Paul who recounting 1. Cor. 15 the sins which hinder our entrance into heaven and the sinners that shal not possess the kingdom of God names Detractors And in another place making a list of sins to which Pagans were addicted and which Christians must avoyd he adds no Epithite to other sins he names them all simply but speaking of detractors says detractores Deo odibiles detractors are odious to Rom. 1. 30. God hatefull and abominable to him 't is then a mortal sin since it makes us odious to God and shuts against us the gates of heaven The reason of it is evident Theft in a matter of importance is it not a mortall sin who doubts of it detraction is theft more notable unjust and dammagable For a good reputation is Prov. 21. 1. more precious than great riches says the wiseman he then that robs a man of his good name does him a greater injury than he that takes away his money And in effect what man of honor would not rather choose that one should cut his purs or burn his house than deprive him of his honor Divines then conclude by â—â— good consequence that detraction is a greater sin than Robery becaus it takes away a thing more precious Some may here propose a question There is for example a man addicted to swearing blasphemy or detraction he does so sometimes inconsiderately lightly and without reflection does he sin mortally as often as that happens to him Divinity answers with a distinction either he takes paines to correct himself or not If he takes paines if he does some penance when he falls into it then 't is not a mortal sin becaus it is not wholy voluntary but if he be careless if he endeavours not to correct his bad custome and to stand upon his guard every time heswears falsly or detracts in a thing of importance though lightly and inconsiderately he sins mortally for though such words are not entirely voluntary when he pronounces them they are yet voluntary in their cause 6. If the Detractor kills himself think not others safe for the second wound he makes is in him that heares and if there be twenty in the company perhaps he kills them all Which S. Thomas proves 22. q. 75. ar 4 Rom. 1 32. Psal 49. 18. by this of S. Paul That not only they who do ill but also they who consent to it are worthy of death And that the Prophet reprehends sharply not only them that rob with the theef but those also that acompany him And in that S. Bernard doubts whether of the two merits more damnation the dretractor or he that heares him lib. 1. de consid c. 13. and that he concludes that both have the Devill in them one in his mouth and the other in his eares If your neighbors house were set on fire would you not be oblig'd at least by charity to help him and to quench it if you can He suffers a greater loss in his reputation your obligation is then greater to defend him from this hurt if then you are in company where one detracts you are oblig'd to reprehend and correct the detractor if you have authority over him and if he detracts by a ly to shew that what he says is fals if what he says is true to excuse the absent discreetly to change the discours to leave the company but if you cannot do these things to shew unwillingness to hear and a displeased countenance for when he sees rhat you are not pleased with his tattle he will be asham'd and will learn to hold his peace The north wind dissipates raine and a sad look the tongue that detracts But if you are glad of the detraction if you say a word that contributs to it if you shew by Prov 25. 23. signes that it pleases you if you are cause that he proceeds in the discours if you make a shew to know it to the end he detract more boldly and without scruple you are as criminal as he and your soul is kill'd Behold two deaths already caused by detraction 7 The third is of the poor absent person whome it kills by a triple murther We have three sorts of lives the natural life the spiritual and the civil The natural life is the union of the soul with the
would He have don to him if he had receiv'd and lost many and what will IESUS say to us what will he do to us if we shal have abused or not used and profited in vertue by the talents of the sacraments He hath given us what weeping what regrets what gnashing of teeth and what rage against our selves for having lost so good so easy and so frequent occasions to make good our salvation to advance in vertue to load our selves with merits and to enrich our selves for eternity But vertuous people will reioyce will admire their own happiness and will acknowledg their wisdom in receiving them often becaus they will see that these Sacraments were most rich talents and were gages and infallible promises of the inestimable incomprehensible and infinite glory which they shal possess for ever Amen DISCOVRS XLI Of the Necessitie and Nature of Baptisme WHen great S. Hierome says we are not Christians by birth he speaks of the carnal birth and not of the spiritual for in the Sacrament of Baptisme we are made Christians we are regenerated in the life of grace This Sacrament is a spiritual birth the first and the most necessary of all the Sacraments the door through which we enter into the Church To know evidently the necessity of it we must acknowledg three verities founded upon the principles of Christian Religion received by all Doctors and drawn from express passages of holy scripture 1. The first is that all Children which are conceiv'd by the ordinary way all except the Virgin are sported with original sin are enemies of God objects of his just wrath â—laves of the Devill Children of perdition and victimes of eternal death I say conceiv'd by the ordinary way to make you understand that the Son of God being not conceiv'd by this way but by the operation of the holy Ghost his Conception was not only exempt from all impurity but hath been the source and origin of all purity of our souls and bodys I have moreover added the Virgin excepted becaus according to the maxim of S Aâ—stin when we speak of sin we speak not of the Virgin she having been prevented with all the graces and advantaged with all the priviledges that an Omnipotent and loving Son could bountifully bestow on her whom He chose to be his Mother These two then excepted T is an Article of faith that all Children though their Parents be faithfull and in the state of grace are soiled with sin and are fruits of malediction and damnation They are soiled with sin For in Adam all have sinned says S. Paul and nothing that is soiled shal Rom. 5. 12. Apoc. 21. 27. Ephes. 2. 3. enter into heaven says S. Iohn They are the objects of Gods anger we were by nature the children of wrath says S. Paul and the anger of God is not a passion but a punishment the wrath of God upon this stilborne infant is never appeased For he that hath not faith the wrath of God remaines upon him says IESUS CHRIST in S Iohn but this infant hath neither actual nor habitual faith not actual for he is uncapable of it not habitual for he could 3. 36. not receive it but by the Sacrament and he is dead without it the wrath of God remaines upon him 2. After all this how do some flatter themselves in their sins and say that God made us not to cast us away that his mercy permits him not to be so rigorous as they say that he will spare us though we die in the state of sin made He these poor infants to cast them away and nevertheless He permits them to be lost the mercy of God is greater than you can possibly imagin and notwithstanding this great mercy this infinite mercy hinders him not to exercise such a severity upon these little creatures And if He be so severe to them for one only sin which they incurre by the misfortune of their condition what will He be to you for so great a number of sins which you commit not by ignorance constraint surprise but so freely and voluntarily 3. 'T is a second Verity that original sin was an evill so desperate and incurable that there was not any pure Creature possible that could remedy this evill that nothing less was necessary than the humiliation blood and death of a God for a medecine to t is mortal maladie 'T is easy to prove it by the malice of sin which offends an infinite Majesty but 't is not necessary since it is a common doctrine that 't is not but to extreme maladies that one applyes extreme remedies sin must be a very dangerous and extreme evill since a remedy so powerfull strange extraordinary and extreme was necessary for it Ha! you know not ô sinner what is a mortal sin for if you knew it you would rather die a thousand times than commit it you would rather eate your tongue than pronounce one only blasphemy or fals testimony you would rather burn your hand than reach it out to a dishonest or unjust action 4. This precious and inestimable treasure of the merits and passion of IESUS is a most powerfull remedy for original sin but nevertheless unprofitable and uneffectuall if it be not apply'd to us Suppose that you have here the best medecine in the world if the infirme person take in not it serves for nothing so though the precious blood of IESUS and the infinite merits of his passion be more than most sufficient to deliver us from sin if they be not appropriated and appli'd to us by the Sacrament they are uneffectuall and unprofitable So we see the Scripture attributes 1. Ep. 1. 7. Ephes. 5. 26. 1. Pet. 1. 19. Tit. 3. 5. Iohn 3. 3. 6. S. Austin ep 20. ad Hierom lib. 3. ep 9. ad Fidu Aug. lib. 3 de Orig. Animae 9. c. to the water of Baptisme the same effects it attributes to the blood of IESUS CHRIST becaus water aplyes the vertue of it The blood of IESVS CHRIST cleanses us says S. Iohn IESVS CHRIST cleanseth his Church by the Baptisme of wator says S. Paul S. Peter We are saved by the blood of the immaculate Lamb. S. Paul God hath saved us by the Baptisme of regeneration In S. Iohn IESUS repeats twice with great instance that none may pretend ignorance Amen Amen I say to thee if any one be not regenerated of water and the holy Ghost he shal not enter into the kingdom of heaven Hence the primitive Christians if an infant was in danger ran hastily to the Church and in great fear lest the infant should dye without the sacrament Hence S. Cyprian says without Baptisme infants are lost Hence S. Austin gives us this caveat say not teach not if you will be a Catholick that infants departing before Baptisme can com to remission of their original sins Now I make your selves Iudges whom we ought to belive either a Quaker or some other Reformer who say that t is not
arme and fortify us against his enemies 3. That there hath been always in the Church a particular Sacrament to make us soldiers of IESUS CHRIST appears in the Acts Acts. 8. 17. where S. Peter and S. Iohn gave the holy Ghost by imposing Episcopal hands upon the Samarians whom Philip the deacon had converted and baptized The same S. Paul did to the disciples of Acts. 19. 5. and 6. Tertull de Prescrip c. 40. S. Iohn at Ephesus It apears also in Terâ—ullian who says that Satan Ape of the Divinitie and ambitious of the honor we give to God in our Mysteries incited the Idolaters to counterfeit in their superstitious ceremonies the Sacraments of the Church He proves it by induction in the first Sâ—craments Satan says he Counterfeits our Baptisme he baptizes those that belive in him our Confirmation he markes in the forehead those who are his souldiers and our Eucharist he makes an oblation of bread Oâ—her Fathers say that this Sacrament is Pentecost for us that is to say the holy Ghost is given to us in it with abundance of his grace and for the same end for which He was sent to the Apostles in the day of Pentecost IESUS ascending into heaven commanded them not to preach the Gospell not to appear abroad till they had received him He knew their frailty He knew that without his aide they would be overcom Behold S. Peter he had been baptized he came from communion and becaus he was not strengthned with this vertue he trembles and shrinks at the voice of a poor maid but after Penâ—ecost he is so couragious that he speaks undauntedly in a full Consistory he says to the Iudges and high Priests We must rather obey God than men You see then that this Sacrament makes souldiers of IESUS CHRIST and gives us force to fight for him wherefore it imprints a Character and it belongs to a Bishop only to conferr it He administers it with the thumb with Unction of sacred Chrisme composed of oyle and balme he makes the signe of the Cross upon the forehead and gives a little stroke upon the cheek 4. It imprints a character in our soul for characters are imprinted in us by some Sacraments to mark and distinguish us from other men and to designe us paticularly to the service of God by Baptisme we are made his subjects by holy Order Officers and Ministers of his Church and by Confirmation we are made his Soldiers 5. I know well that by Baptisme we are also made spiritual soldiers and for this we use unction in it But this is only to fight in our own quarrell against the Devill and other particular Enemies As the Burgesses of a Town though they are not by profession soldiers faile not to have arms and to fight in need in defence of their persones or their countrey 6. But by Confirmation we are made soldiers to fight not in our particular quarrells but in those of IESUS-CHRIST soldiers by office and profession to the end we fight for him against Tyrants against the World and against the Enemies of his Religion 7. And hence it proceeds that every one may Baptize in necessity and that a Bishop only may Confirm for to make a subject of a king we need not but to cause a child to be born in his kingdom But to raise and enrole soldiers belongs not but to Captaines so to make us Vassalls of IESUS on needs not but to make us to be borne in the Church his kingdom which is don by Baptisme But to make us his soldiers by Confirmation one must be a Bishop or Prelate of the Church 8. In making us soldiers He gives us arms and force by the grace of this Sacrament And hence it is that the Bishop gives it with his thumb the strongest of all the fingers He gives it by unction to signify the interiour Vnction and force by which we are fitted to appear in the field Balm is thereto added becaus we must fight publickly for IESUS and if we do well we are a good odour to the son of God and to his Church Christi bonus odor sumus in omni loco 9. This unction is made in the form of a Cross becaus the Cross is the standard and the ensigne of the warfare in which we enrole our selves 10. This Cross is made in the forehead the seat of bashfulness to teach us that thenceforth we must not be asham'd of the Cross of IESUS that we ought to embrace with a holy boldness the reproaches confusions humiliations and the mortifications which occurre in the practise of Christian vertues and to make us know that we must be ready to receive and endure affronts and ignominies for the defence of Iesus He gives us a little blow 11 It was not in vain nor without much reason that IESUS instituted a particular Sacrament so great a Sacrament a Sacrament which imprints a character which a Bishop only can conferr which gives such plenitude of the holy Ghost to arme and fortify us not only against Tyrants but also against the Persecutors of christian piety and devotion For christian Religion which is almost freed from the persecution of pagans is at present tyranized by the babble raillery and derision of wordly souls Wherefore S. Bernard sayd the Church may truly say In pace amaritudo mea amarissima my affliction is most bitter in the time of Isay 38. 17. peace It was bitter in the death that Tyrants made the Martyrs to endure more hitter in the infidelity of Hereticks But 't is most bitter in the ill life of Christians who mock and laugh at the piety of devout Souls For this is much more hurtfull than that of Tyrants In the persecution of Tyrants Christians dared not to pray nor to exercise devotion in publick they sought caves grotes and private houses but they served God freely at least in these places the persecution of worldlings is the caus that many dare not serve God as they ought in particular houses for fear to be called devotes they dare not frequent the Sacraments or be assiduous at divine service becaus they call them hypocrites they dare not be conscientious and restrain'd from unhandsom words and insolent actions becaus they call them scrupulous a sin detestable and wholy unnatural to persecute christianity in chrichristianity it self to have sworn fidelity to IESUS in the Sacrament of Baptisme and laugh at those who are faithfull to him not to serve God themselves and to deride those that serve him a sin not of frailty nor of ignorance but of malice and contempt which drawes from them the grace of God indurates and disposes them to impenitence and reprobation The children of Hely who averted the people from devotion 1. Kings 3. 14. committed an abominable crime in the sight of God which could not be expiated by victimes says the holy Scripture 12. This temptation is so dangerous also to devout souls that they who stand invincible
against other assaults permit themselves to be overcom by this becaus good natures are facile complaisant and condescending they have so much fear and confusion to do or omit any thing that may displeas another or which they apprehend may lessen their own honor or reputation that one only thought What will they think what will they say will render al predications remonstrances and exhortations uneffectual Say for example to this Gentleman or Duellist you live upon the brink of hell you may say every morning when you rise perhaps in the evening I shall go to bed in hell there needs no more than that a friend do pray you to serve him as a Second to be kill'd in this action and behold you are most meserable for an eternity Can there be any thing more foolish than to expose your self to be kill'd or to kill another man who never disoblig'd you to serve the caprice of a giddy and unreasonable head refuse couragiously these requests and they will trouble you no more with them I would willingly he will answer you But what will they say Say to this Lady the extravagance of your cloathes does prejudice much your salvation it consumes the best part of your time it fills your soul with pride and vanity it wedds your heart to trifles it renders you unable to pay debts to give necessary assistance to the Poor you would do well to cloath your self more simply and modestly I would do it willingly she will assure you But what will they say 13. But what are they you fear so much Atheists impious or at best light loose and libertine Christians good and vertuous soules solid and understanding persons will esteem and honour you If a Criple should laugh at you becaus you go straight would you do well to be asham'd of it and to counterfeit your self a criple If you study to pleas the humours and the fancies of the world you will never have don you will make your selves ridiculous regard them not Let them talk 't is your part do do well and theirs to speak ill you can no more hinder them from talking than you can doggs from barking 14. Whatsoever you do you will be the But of evill tongues your intentions will be judged your actions censured If you be meanly cloathed they esteem you a hypocrice if well cloathed according to your condition proud If thrifty avaricious if liberal prodigal if you pardon injuries a coward if you defend your right revengfull if you fast a dissembler If you nourish your self a glutton if peaceable negligent If vigilant in your duty turbulent If quick at mass indevout if long scrupulous if you preach mildly you lull people a sleep if vigorously you are passionate if you reprehend vices you are too violent if you reprehend them not a flatterer S. Iohn did neither eate nor drink they sayd he was possest IESUS did eate and drink they sayd He was a friend of good cheer All these overflowings of tongues are best stopt by a generous contempt of them when they shal have satisfyd their folly or their malice they will be weary of talking and will honor you for when you are vertuous the people of the world mock you in appearance but in effect they honor you they laugh at you exteriourly but interiourly esteem you 15. But suppose that in effect they laugh at you and contemne you Why are you confirmd the charg that Confirmation imposes on you is to endure affronts reproches and confusions for the glory of IESUS CHRIST to defend his doctrine and his Vertues with the peril of your honor and of your life as He hath endured confusions ignominies calumnies and a most infamouâ— and shamefull death for you He that shal be asham'd of me and of my words I will be asham'd of him before my Father And Mat. 10. .3 on the contrary He says He that shal confess me he that â—hal not be asham'd to acknowledg my Doctrine to practise my vertues and to be my Disciple I will confess him in the presence of my Father and his Angells I will acknowledg him for my servant praise his vertuous actions and adorn his head with a crown of Glory Amen DISCOURS XLIV of the Real Presence of the Body of IESVS CHRIST in the Eucharist IESUS CHRIST being both God and man hath always two intentions in his enterprizes He regards the glory of God and the salvation of men wherefore He willed that the Eucharist should be a Sacrifice and a Sacrament a Victime and a food In the quality of a Sacrifice and a Host it is referr'd to the glory of God in the quality of a Sacrament and food it is referr'd to the salvation of men I shal treat of it as a Sacrifice in another place In this I speak of it as a Sacrament and demonstrat that it contains really truly and substantially the precious Body of JESUS CHRIST 1. And to convince an understanding thar teceives the holy Scripture I need not other proof than the clear testimony of the Son Iohn 6. Matt. 26. 26. Mark 14 22. Luke 22. 19. 1. cor 11 Gal. 1. 12 of God who sayd The Bread which I will give you is my flesh And giving it to his Disciples in the last Supper This is my Body Which words He sayd not only before his death as the Evangelists depose But also after his Resurrection and Ascension as S. Paul does testify I have learned of our Lord says He and not of men that being in the last supper He sayd to his Disciples take eate This is my Body 2. Notwithstanding the evidence of these words Calvin is so bold as to say that what our Saviour held in his hand and gave to his Apostles was not his Body but bread a figure or shadow of his Body I would know if our Saviour deâ—iring to declare to us that He gave his Body could speak otherwise than He did If all the men in the world should employ a thousand years in seeking terms to express themselves could they speak more clearly than saying This is my Body And the bread which I will give you is my flesh 3. But suppose that these words are obscure to whom ought we to referr our selves for the meaning of them Either to Calvin who came more than fifteen hundred years after CHRIST or to the judgment of the Faithfull who lived in the times of the four first general Councells during which Calvin himself avows that the Church was in her purity The Gospell says that we must credit two or three good Witnesses behold here six authentik ones three of the Greek and three of the Latine Church S. Cyrill of Hierusalem who had place in the second 4. Mistagog cat general Council held in the year 381. teaching his people by the Scripture and according to the sense of the whole Church of his age speaks thus Since then our Saviour himself declares and says of bread This is my Body who
affairs or will leave suits not goods to his heires if my Father had left me a house and you would contest with me saying 't is a paper or painted house he means what Judg would hear you what impartial Arbiter would not condemn you would you not injure me and yet more my father if he had meant a paper house would he not have declared his intention IESUS our celestial Father makes his Testament He declares his last Will He says that He leaves me his precious Body and you say 't is not his true Body 't is a figure of his Body goe you are a mocker if it was not but his figure would He not have sayd so as well as you would He have sayd This is my Body instead of saying this is my figure He is upon his departure in his last supper He goes to death and afterward to the imperial heaven when a loving husband is vpon his deathbed or bids farwell to his dear spouse for a journey somewhat long is it not then that he opens his heart to her and discovers to her his secrets is it not then that he speaks to her without ambiguitie that he gives her testimonyes of his greatest affection and leaves her the more precious presents And JESUS being in the vigill of his death giving his farwell to the Church his Spouse and depriving her of his Visible presence shal He have spoken obscurely and equivocally to her shal He shal He have deceived her in a matter of so great importance and for all nuptial presents for the gage of his amity for the testimonie of his tender affections for a supplement of his absence shal He have left her only a morcell of bread The manner also in which He accomplishes this Mistery ought to be considered if this be but a morcel of bread Why promises He it so long before why speaks He of it with so much pomp Why prayses He the effects and necessitie of it so much Why prefers He it before the Manna the bread which I will give you is my flesh he that shal eate of this bread hath everlasting life If you eate not my flesh you shal not have life in in you This is not as the manna your fathers have eaten If that which He gives is but a mite of bread the manna was to be prefer'd before it It was the figure of the Body of IESUS CHRIST as well as Calvins bread and much more express for it was mouldedâ— by hands of Angells the bread of Calvinists by the hands of men that came from heaven and their bread from a bakers oven that had all sorts of tasts their bread hath but one After He had promised it so long time and so solemnly He gives it but washes first the feet of his Disciples He makes them a long and sublime sermon He recommends to them puritie and charitie He makes to his Father a very long prayer and if all this tended but to give them a piece of bread I make you judg 5. Let us consult moreover the practise and the Pietie of the primitive Christians and we shal see that their faith and the religious S. Ambr. lib. 3. de Spirit Sto. c. 12 S. Crysos hom 24. in 1. ad Cor. Et in orat de Philogonio Ceremonies which they practised in respect of the Eucharist were-very contrarie to the error of the Calvinists they adored the holy Sacrament upon the Altar with the worship of Latria which cannot be given but to God only we adore the flesh of CHRIST yet this day in the sacred Mysteries says S. Ambrose S. Augustine upon these words of the Psalme Adore his footstool sayd Christ hath given us his flesh to eate but nobody eates this flesh but after that he hath adored it S. Chrysostome Let us imitate at least the Mages who seeing Christ but in a manger adored Him with great fear and you see Him not in a manger but upon an altar 6. They feared extreamly to let fall upon the ground the least S. Aug. lib. 50. hom hom 26. Origen hom 13. in Exod. particle of the Eucharist or one drop of the chalice as S. Austin and Origen do testify They required not only purity of body and sanctitie of soul to touch or receive this Sacrament but they demanded sanctiâ—ie to see it and to look upon it as appears in the first epistle S. Chrysostome wrote â—o Pope Innocent where he complains that soldiers sent by his enemies had entred in a tumultuous manner into the Church and he exagerats as a bold attempt that many of them who were not yet baptized had seen the holy Hosts They exposed not also to the Catechumens the secret of this Sacrament it was the secret of the Church which was not revealed but to her Children and it was a crime to speak of it in the presence of Catechumens or of Infidells this is seen in the epistle which the Synod of Allexandria wrote to the Catholick Bishops where the Council complains that the Arians were not asham'd to speak of the Mysteries in the presence of Catechumens and what is wors before infidells 7. Now I appeal to your consciences if the Christians of the primitive Church did believe that the Eucharist is but a morcel of bread which minds us of the body of IESUS would they have adored it with supream worship would they have thought it so great an incongruitie to let fall the least crum of it would they have required such puritie of body and soul to receive it to touch it or to hear or speak of it 8. All the Articles of our faith are equally true but there are none of them so express in scripture none taught so clearly by the holy Fathers less opposed in primitive times confirmed by so many miracles received so unversally in Europe in Asia and in Africa as this For amongst all Catholicks Hereticks Schismaticks amongst Grecians Latines Hebrews Abyssins or Ethiopians which have been and which are at present Calvin only with his Partie hath obstinately denyed it I leave you to thinke with whom you should chuse to rise and appear at the day of judgment either with S. Cyprian S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostom and all the other holy Doctors of the east west south and north who florished in the time when the Church was in her greatest puritie and vigour or with Calvin who came fifteen hundred years after the institution of this Sacrament 9. Follow the counsell which the holy Ghost gives you by the Wiseman Ne transgrediaris terminos antiquos quos posuerunt Patres tui Passe not the bounds which your Ancesters have put hold the beliefe of those primitive Christians and the doctrine of these holy Fathers who were taught by the Apostles or by their Successours who read the holy Scripture day and night who meditated upon it seriously who were particularly assisted by the holy Ghost to understand it well who were desinteressed and free from passion for
good will for us that He desires nothing more than to fill us with goods to embrace us and to unite himself to us for ever we must cast our selves into his armes as an infant into his mothers put into his hand with great confidence our affaires afflictions salvation and our family ô God! I trust in you you are infinitely good you give your self to me you will give surely that which is much less 7. The third conformitie of the Eucharist with milk is in the manner of their operation First this is proper to milk amongst other nourishments that it is the whole feast and the entire refection of the infant it Satisfys hunger and thirst and serves him for meat and drink And this is also proper to the Eucharist that in one only Species of it is contain'd the whole refection of the Soul you are as well communicated and spiritually fed in taking the Host alone as in receiving both Host and Chalice 8. Here Dissenters think that they have a great advantage of us declaming against our communion in one kind But I see not how they can except against it For whatsoever the protestant people do in receiving of this Sacrament Catholicks do or may do too and what more ought to be don the Catholick Church does it and the Protestants do it not must one feed upon Christ Crucified by Faith Catholicks do it must the Eucharist be taken in remembrance of Him and his Death and Passion they do it must the people drink wine out of a Cup Catholick people do the like and over and above this they communicate the very Body of their Redeemer animated with his Soul full of blood and hypostatically united to his Deity this ought to be don to the end we may have life in us and Dissenters do it not But since they desist not to cry out and say that we deprive our people of the necessary means which Christ hath left them for their Salvation I must make you see that the holy Scripture the Fathers and Antiquity do authorize our practise 9. What pretend you in communicating Is it not to have eternall life you will acquire right to it in receiving but the Host for IESUS CHRIST sayd in most clear words He that eates Iohn 6. 51. and 58. Aug. tr 27. in Ioan of this bread shal live for ever And before the murmuration of the Capharnaits He spoke not of drinking his Blood but of eating his Body only He spoke not then of drinking his Blood but to answer to the gross thought of the Capharnaits and to tell them that they were not to eate his flesh separated from his blood dead cut and mangled as S. Austin says they thought but to eate his living Body full of blood Nor did He command all men to drink of the chalice or cup when He sayd in S. Matthew Drink ye all of this For these words were not spoken to all men nor to all the Faithfull But to all the Apostles and to them all only which is manifest out of the text it self for what S. Matthew says was commanded to all S. Marke relates to have been answerably perform'd by all they drank all thereof the second all is restrain'd to all the Apostles to whom only He spoke these words as also the other before and after and who were then made Priests what reason then is there to extend the former words farther then the Apostles Christ himself gave most S. Luke 24. probably the Eucharist under one only species to the Disciples that went to Emaus for He vanished says S. Luke as soone as they knew Him in breaking of the bread which S. Hierome S. Austin 5. Hier. in Fp. Paulae ad Eusto S. Aug. lib. 3. de consen Evang. c. 25. Et Ep. 59. ad Paulinum S. Paulinus V. Bede and other Doctors do understand and also prove to have been the holy Eucharist And 't is evident in S. Ambrose in Eusebius in S. Cyprian and in Tertullian that the primitive Church which would do nothing against the express command of Christ did give it often to the faithfull did carry it in journeys did send it to the absent and to the sick in one only kind or species and therefore they also held it to be as milk a whole and entire refection 9. Milk is given to an infant to nourish and make him grow and the Eucharist was instituted to make the children of the Church to increase and thrive in Christian perfection and therefore t is institituted under the species of bread which nourishes fortifys and causes groweth S. Ambr. orat de fratre suo Satyro Euseb lib. 6. c. 36. S. Cyprian de lapsis Tertull. lib. 2. ad uxor 10. Milk hath this property that it communicates often to infants the humours and the complexion of the Nource when the Poets describe a cruel man they are not content to say a rock hath brought him forth but they add that Tygars have given him suck And the holy Canons counsell mothers to nourse their own Children as much as may be for fear that giving them to vicious persons they suck with milk the ill humours of the nources The Son of God is not content to bring us forth in Baptisme He himself gives the brest He nourishes us with his own flesh that He may communicate his own inclinations to us He after communion sayd to his Disciples That the world may know I love my Father rise let us go to suffer for his glory So after communion we must examin our selves what service can I render to God what can I do that may conduce to his honor what is that in me or mine that displeases him and which I may correct if we use so this precious milk it will make us grow in perfection it will make us like to Him who nourishes us with his own substance it will give us his complexion and resemblance and if we resemble Him on earth in the life of grace we shal resemble Him in heaven in the life of glory Amen DISCOURS XLVI Of the Eucharist as a Sacrifice SAcrifice is a worship so noble and so proper to the Almighty as none either in heaven or in earth may partake with him in it So due to him and so necessary for men that every Law and Religion hath been stil anexed with a correspondent Sacrifice and Christians have all the reasons to honour God by it the Iews and those of the Law of nature ever had We are an externe and visible Congregation as they were We have the passion of the Messias to be represented before our eyes now with us past as with them it was to come we have the same God with the same worship to be honoured for received benefits to be praised for our sins to be appeased for favours to be invocated 2. Wherefore God promised us a Sacrifice by his Prophet Malachias Malac. 1. 10. where rejecting the ancient Sacrifices and
speaking of the future time as present according to custome of the Prophets sayd From the rising of the sun even to the going down great is my Name amongst the gentills and in every place is Sacrificed and offered to my name a clean Oblation He speaks not of the improper Sacrifice of contrition and other good works which according to Calvin and others are unclean nor of the Sacrifice of the Cross which was ofâ—er'd but in one place and but once and therefore the prophecie is not verifyd but in the Eucharist which is a true and proper Sacrifice since there is efâ—usion or oblation of blood for remission of sins This is the Chalice in my blood which is shed for you A clèan Sacrifice the Body and Blood of JESUS Offered in all times and places by vertue of these words of CHRIST Do this in commemoration of me And in effect the Apostles did so as it appeares in the Acts whilst they were ministring to our Lord Says S. Luke the holy Ghost sayd seperate me Paul and Barnabas that is whilst they were sacrificing for so the greek does signify and so Erasmus does translate The same hath been practised by their Successors ever since as Controvertists clearly shew out of the holy Fathers I will give you the words of three or four who lived during the times of the four first General Councills that you may see the beliefe and practise of those golden ages S. Ambrose upon the 38th Psalme says Though CHRIST Sc Ambr. in Psal 38. is not seen to offer now yet He himself is offered upon earth Nay He himself is manifested to offer in us whose speech does sanctify the Sacrifice which is offered S. Austin Since wee see this Sacrifice foretold by Malachias Aug lib. 18. de civit Dei c. 35 offered to God in every place by the Priesthood of CHRIST according to the order of Melchisaâ—eck and the Jews Sacrifice to cease why do they yet expect another CHRIST S. Chrysostome the Oracle of the greek and eastern Church sayd Becaus this Sacrifice is offered in many places are there many Christs No for as He who is offered every where is one body and not many bodys so the Sacrifice is but one Chrysost hom 17. in ep ad Heb. Nice 1. can 18. In fine the first most general Nicene Councill complaining that in some particular Churches Deacons gave communion to Priests made this Convincing determination Neither Rule nor Custome hath delivered that they who offer not present the Body of CHRIST to them that offer By which words 't is evident the Fathers of this great Councill believed the Eucharist was not only a Sacrament containing really the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST But moreover a true and proper Sacrifice offered by Priests 3. Would it not now grieve a Christian heart to see poor Catholicks of England so miserably harrassed pillaged emprisoned hated hanged by their own Allies and countreymen as they have been now a hundred years for the profession of that great worke of Christianity which Christ and his Apostles taught them and that they should undergoe the same disgrace and ruine by such as call themselves Christians yea the only pure ones for that very self same act of Religion for which both the Apostles themselves and all primitive Christians were so cruelly persecuted by Jew and Pagan But the God of mercies look in his good time upon our Persecutors favourably becaus they do it ignorantly and in incredulity and becaus they are the far greater Sufferers being deprived of a Sacrifice so acceptable and glorious to God and so profitable and necessary to men 4. If we consider Him who offers what He offers and the manner in which he offers we shal see that 't is a Sacrifice exceedingly glorious and pleasing to God For in this oblation the principal Offerer and Sacrificer is JESUS CHRIST the object of his Fathers complacence and the subject of his most tender loves who is equall to him in Greatness to whom He Sacrifices You are a a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedeck Psal 109 Heb. 5. 6. Gen 14. 18. says the Royal Prophet and S. Paul speaking of our Saviour becaus He offers continually by Priests unbloody Sacrifice under the species and formes of bread and wine which were the offerings of Melchisedeck The Priest is but his instrument and Minister when he says This is my Body it is evident that the Priest Speaks not of his own body but of that of JESUS CHRIST and seeing he says not This is the body of JESUS CHRIST But this is my Body 't is clear by this that it is not properly he that speaks but t is JESUS that speaks by his mouth who of the things proposed makes his Body and Blood says S. Chriysostom Hom. de Tradit Iudae 5. That which he offers is not dead and corruptible flesh of Lambs or other things as the ancient Sacrifices which were not pleasing to God in themselves nor in their substance as too base to be the objects of his delights but only pleased Him as they were figures shadows and representations of the Victime of this Sacrifice which is the precious flesh of the man-God Deifyd flesh living and enlivening holy and Sanctifying flesh flesh united to the Divinity subsisting with the Divine nature in the Persone of the Word 6. The manner in which He offers it is admirable and gives to God the greatest Glory Jt is offered as a most perfect holocaust since in this Sacrifice God is perfectly honoured as the Soveraign Authour of all Being for the man-God losing in honor of his Father the Sacramental Being which He hath here shews that God produced Him hath right to destroy Him and suffers no loss in his destruction He honors the justice of his Father in that He avows He hath deserved death and annihilation for the sins of men for whom He made himself a Propitiatour He honors his mercy in that He transfer'd upon his innocent son the debts of criminal servants and in that He accepts the sacrifice of his precious Body and mystical effusion of his Blood instead of the true and real death that we deserve He honors Him as the last end for losing the Being which He hath here to honor Him He shews that he holds it for the greatest happiness and felicity if his Father thinks it fit to be annihilated for his service 7. This august Sacrifice being so glorious and pleasing to God cannot fail to be extreamly profitable and advantagious to men T is a magasin of Spiritual treasures which furnishes us where with to satisfy the great abligations we have to God 't is a most powerfull meanes to obtaine of him all favours necessary for our souls and bodys T is a Host of praise and an Eucharisticall Sacrifice T is an impetratory Host and propitiatory Oblation Isaiah sayd if one should make a fire with all the wood of mount Libanus Isay
and suffers those torments voluntarily she knows how disagreable she is to the Sanctity and Purity of God that she is a debtour to his justice and that she deserves those torments she desires the justice of God should have its cours and as she loves God more than her own self she is glad the injury don to his Majesty is revenged also at her own cost she will remaine in that prison untill her debt be entirely payd either by her own sufferances or by the satisfactions and suffrages of others 4. For we may ayde those poor afflicted soules they are in communion of spiritual goods with us they are members of the same mystical Body children of the same Church Citizens of the same City and there is such an union such a simpathy and communication betwixt members of the same Body children of the same family inhabitants of the same City that we cauterize a member that is well to cure that which is ill that the labour of a child of a family profits his brother who labours not that one citizen ss 25. in Decret de purg can pay debts and satisfy for another We can then help these souls especially in three manners First by Prayers as the Councel of Trent declares For a good and devout praier is not only meritorious to him that makes it but also impetratory and satisfactory for others Secondly by the Sacrifice of Mass for this is the most See Dis XLVI n. 9. Tobie 4. 18. profitable suffrage that can be offered to God for the help of the dead as not only the aforesayd Councel but also the Fathers of the primitive Church declare Thirdly by Alms. Venerable Toby sayd to his son Put your bread and wine upon the Tomb of the just becaus in that time the Poor assembled in Cemeterys or Churchyards and alms of bread and wine were given them for the souls departed He sais upon the Tomb of the just becaus alms gâ—ven for souls that are in hell avail them not but those that departed out of this world in the state of grace they profit much wherefore S. Austin reproved the avaricious who excused themselves from such alms by the great Aug. lib de decem cordis c. 12. number of their children when we sayd he reprehend you for your auarice you say that if you give not so much as you desire 't is becaus you have many children It is a fals pretence wherewith you maske your avarice For if one of your children dye are you more charitable than you were if you keep your goods for them you would send a part to him he hath now more need of it then ever But if you have not means to give alms for the poor souls succour them by other workes 5. All vertuous actions don in the state of grace and especially the painfull if Offered for the dead give them great refreshment But those confort them most of which they are the Cause either by their instructions or by their good examples For Divinity â—eaches us that if we are the cause of any good as often as 't is don after our death our accidentall glory in heaven is increased and if we are in purgatory our torments are diminished as on the contrary our paines there are augmented if any sin be committed by our bad example 6. Let us give eare then to the dolefull lamentations of those poor souls who implore our help Meseremini mei Miseremini mei Saltem vos amici mei Have pity on me have pity on me at least you who are my friends she says twice Have pity on me Have pity on me Lest you increas my paines Have pity on me to ease me in my sufferances Have pity Be touched with compassion of so great miseries For judgment without mercy shal be don to him who shal not S. Iames 2. 13. have don mercy But on what will you exercise mercy but on misery and what greater misery then that of a poor creature who owes very much and is pursued and pressed by a rigorous Iustice and hath not wherewith to pay What greater misery then that of a poor soul upon whom the revenging hand of the Omnipotent is layed then of a poor soul in torments so Excessive that if a dog should be so tormented it would move you to compassion Of me a soul created to the image of God redeemed by the precious blood of IESUS marked with his character embellished with his graces designed to his glory He will say in iudgment I have been thirsty and you have given me drink I have been Matt 25 35. in prison and you have visited me I have been naked and you have clothed me I have been a stranger and you have received me into your house You do all these good workes of charity if you deliver a poor Soul out of Purgatory you are the caus that she is satiated with a torrent of pleasute you redeem her out of a very obscure and painfull prison you cloth her with the stole of glory and you make her to be received and lodg'd in heaven At least you who are the caus or occasion that this soul is in pain have pity on her you have made her to offend God by your impure words by your bad examples or by your sollicitations having so great part in the debt will you not contribute to the satifaction At least you friends what is becom of the affection you testifyd to your friend where are the offers of service where are the protestations so often made that you would never abandon her forget you her becaus she is seperated from you and turne you your back to her when she hath the greatest need of Succour It appears now that you were a friend of fortune only and the afliction of your friend is the touchstone which shews the falness of your friendship At least you my friends your Ancestours have made themselves debtours to the justice God by the sins which they committed to leave you goods will you be so ungratefull and so cruell as to refuse them a little part of them you swimme in delights and they are in torments you rest in feathers and they lie in flames You complain not of a large refection you give to J know not whom and you refuse your afflicted mother a little dinner which you might send her by the poore In fine if you be so mercenary as to seek your interest in all your actions remember that these poot Souls are in the gtace of God must go to heaven and you must one day succeed in their present place and if you shal deliver them they will not be ungratefull Blessed are the mercifull for they shal obtaine mercy If you give an amls for a soul in Purgatory you do at once two workes of mercy corporal mercy to the poor in want and Spiritual to the soul in paines you make the poor man your friend and the poor soul your debtour when you
is in credit or through avarice to have a rich Party If two are assembled in my name says our Saviour I will be in the midst of them He is not in the midst of those becaus they were not assembled in his name This ought to be the intention of Christians says S. Augustine to give children to IESUS and to his Church to have a posterity that may praise love and serve God in your place after your death 12 Honor marriage in the election and choise you make you must pray God much for this that He give you a convenient Party with whome you may worke youâ— Salvation it belongs to God only to know the persone and to give the same to you House and riches are given of the Parents but of our Lord properly a Proverb 19. 14. prudent Wife says the holy Ghost by the mouth of the wise man to obtain this favour you must live holily and do many good works before your marriage a good woman is a good portion she shal be given to a man for good deeds 13. Honor marriage in the treaty of it let there be no circumvention Ecclus. 26. 3. deceit nor fraud you would not be well content to be deceiv'd in a treaty of smal concerne why should you deceive another in a matter of such importance as is marriage where there is no reliefe and which is for all the life This is the câ—us of aversions complaints reproaches and horrible divisions 14. Honor marriage in the solemnization or celebration of it You must confess communicate hear Mass with great attention and beg of God an abundance of graces in this Sacrament Invocate the Sainrs that have been married especially the B. Virgin implore the intercession of those Angells that have been employ'd in making marriages as S. Gabriel that of the Son of God S. Raphael that of Tobias and another that of Isaac Banish those impudent persons who say such words especially in the brid-chamber which would make impudence it self to blush You would do better and draw down the benediction of God upon you if you would follow the counsell which the Angell Raphael gave to Tobias and his Wife to pass the three first days in continence and not to employ them in delights but prayers And he admonished them also that the Devill hath power over those that give themselves to lust as hors and mule which have not understanding 15. Honor in fine marriage in its Effects which is a perfect society of heart goods fortune and of all If husband and wife are divided and one will hot and the other cold one sower the other sweet one will negotiate in this manner the other in another the burdens of marriage are most heavy and insupportable their house is a hell a Place of sin and paine of brawling bitterness and despaire But if they live in union and ayde each other serve God and to keep his Commandements they are agreeable to Him For there are three things that please Him much the concord of bretheren the love of neighbors and Ecclus. 25. 2. a husband and wife that agree together IESUS will be in the midst of them to assist them their temporal affaires will have better issue their children will learn vertue of them and consigne it to posterity their people will serve them more faithfully Neighbors will be edifyd Parents and Friends rejoyced they will bear more easily the burdens of marriage and comfort one another their house will be like a terrestrial Paradise it will be an image a foretaste and prelude of the celestial into which they will one day enter Amen DEO GRATIAS I humbly submit these writings and my self also to the correction of the Catholick Church of which I desire to live and dye a member and a most obedient Child TABLE OF THIS BOOK A Absolution Authority to absolve from sins proved 73. The wonderfull Circumstances of it 74. Adore in the Scripture signifies all sorts of honour 170. Adultery is a very Enormous Crime 217. Alms all Christians are obliged to give them 155. To whome 157. How to be given 159. Exhor to give them 160. Anger Its Effects and Symtoms 204. It was not in our Saviour as God 204. It was in him as man but without imperfection 205. His was vertuous ours is vicious 205. Remidies for ours 207. Exhor to Patience 209. Attrition must be supernaturall 280. It leaves us in state of sin if not followed by absolution 281. Avarice is a pernicious and common vice 221. who is avarici ous 222. B Baptisme obliges to à morall and vertuous death 249. Jn what consists this death 249. It obliges to a new life 251. Excuses of worldly Souls removed 252. What life the primitive Christians lead to satisfy obligations of Baptisme 253. Exhort to imitate them 253. Beatitude See Heaven Blasphemy a detestable Vice 184. C Children are obliged to honour their Parents with the honour of Reverence 192. with the honour of Obedience which must â—e blind cordial and perseverant 193. with the honour of assistance 195. Motives to acquit themselves of these dutyes 196. Christ the true Messias Discours 3. we must live according to his Doctrine 20. What is Christ 21. Why called IESUS CHRIST only Son our Lord. Disc 4. he is not acknowledged Lord by many Christians 25. The Miracles wrought in his conception and Nativity 27. These Misteries declared by a natural Comparison 29 His Doctrine preached in the Crib contrary to that of the world 31. His Sufferances for men Disc 6. Exhor to love him 37. He Rose up againe by his own Power and his Father also raised him 39. We ought to thank the Father for it 40. How He contributed to his Resurrection and how we must to ours 41. His Ascension described 44. How He sits at the right hand of the Father 44. His Ascension very advantagious to him to the Virgin and to us 46 To follow him to heaven we must imitate his actions 48 Church 'T is necessary to submit to all the true Church proposes as an Article of faith 65 We must rely on her for true scriptures and for the sense and meaning of them 65 66 The true Church is One 67 The Romane Church only is One 67 The true Church is holy 68 The Roman Church only is holy 69 The true Church is Vniversall or general 70 The Roman Church only is so 70 'T is necessary to salvation to be united to the Roman Church 71 Commandements of God must be studied learnt and pondered 162 they may be kept 164 We must keep them with filial love 165 They are most reasonable just and amiable 165 Why called Testimonies Iudgments justifications wayes and paths 166 Catholicks divide them best 166 Confession of all mortall Sins to a Priest is necessary 281 Confirmation makes Soldiers of IESUS-CHRIST 255 'T is a true Sacrament 255 Imprints a Character and gives Special grace to fight against Tyrants and wordly souls 257 These hurt more