sufferings of Jesus Christ the one hasteneth to a neighbour and the other abideth in God the one hath exercise the other joy the one conquereth the other possesseth the one knocketh at the door the other entereth in the one despiseth the world the other enjoyeth God Finally the spiritual man is a man covetous of eternity prodigal of life little careful of the present certain of the future A man who seems no longer to have any commerce with the world and who hath nothing so familiar as a life that is as it were buried in death and who flieth above sepulchers like an Angel who holdeth not of the earth but by the slender root of natural necessities and already toucheth heaven with a finger A man who is as yet in flesh though he hath made an eternal divorce with flesh who is under-foot to all the world by humility and above all the greatness thereof by contempt of it who binds himself to be at liberty who crucifieth himself to combat who mortifieth himself to be the more vigoroue who withereth to flourish again and daily dieth that he may never die The third SECTION Of the first monster which the spiritual man should resist to wit Ignorance and of the practice of virtues by which it is subdued THe greater part of men have dexterity in delving From whence our evils come the ground like moles (a) (a) (a) Oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae Virgil. Geor. and have no eyes to behold the Sun Yet all evils proceed from ignorance and the want of the knowledge of God (b) (b) (b) Primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei Silius l. 4. This is the first Monster which we must assault the first obstacle we must take away And for this effect observe a wholesom doctrine to wit that God is the Sun of all the Intelligences and that from this Sun five (c) (c) (c) Five rays of the soul Dignity of faith Aug. apud Gulielm Lugdunens rays of a lively and quickening light are diffused over the darkness of our understandings These five rays are faith understanding counsel wisdom and prudence The first and most excellent light is faith because the other rays do well enlighten the soul in those operations of which it is as it were the fountain but faith alone raiseth him above himself to his beginning which is God (d) (d) (d) Fides res est audax atque improba perveniens quo non pertingit intelligentia ipsa ascendit super Cheruban volat super Seraphim senas alas habens Faith is a virtue bold and urgent which attains to that the understanding cannot reach unto mounteth above Cherubins and flies above Seraphins though they have six wings A man without faith is as the Pilot of whom it is spoken in the Proverbs (e) (e) (e) Prov. 21. that fell asleep and lost his rudder What virginity is to the body the same is faith to the soul It is the first-born of virtues the beginning of spiritual life the life of the understanding as charity is the life of the will the pillar of the cloud (f) (f) (f) Et erat nubes tenebrosa illuminans noctem Exod. 14. 30. which hath two faces the one dark because it believeth the things which are not apparent the other lightsom for that it believeth with an infallible assurance The fourth SECTION Practice of Faith THat you may well practice the acts of faith What faith is Hebr. 12. 1. Sperandarum substantia rerum argumentum non apparentium you must know the nature object and motive thereof Faith saith S. Paul is the foundation of hope and the proof of things not apparent The foundation of hope in regard all whatsoever we hope in matter of Religion is grounded upon faith as the statue upon its basis the proof of things not apparent because it is an infallible argument of truths whereof we have not as yet evident notice S. Bernard Voluntariae quaedam certa praelibatio nec dum propalatae veritatis Bern. de consider It s object S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 1. How we should believe addeth that it is a first-tast certain and voluntary of truth yet not manifested The Gold-smith laboureth upon gold silver and precious stones as upon his proper object and the object which employeth faith are the mysteries revealed unto us by God and proposed by his Church Such mysteries ought to be believed for no other motive but for that God the eternal Truth hath revealed them The arguments which are drawn from the prophesies miracles numbers of Martyrs purity of the evangelical law from the correspondency thereof with reason from the admirable success and consent of all the mysteries from the conversion of the world from the means which the Church hath used to establish it self from her firm constancy amidst persecutions from the wisdom sanctity of the professours of our law and such like things which I have produced in the first obstacle of the second book are most powerful considerations to introduce us to faith and to make easie and familiar to us the acts thereof but they are not properly motives of faith In the same manner How faith works A fine comparison as the soul draweth knowledge from sense and yet notwithstanding is above sense so faith though she serve her self with these considerations which are able to command the most contumacious spirits yet is she admirably raised upon a more supereminent sphere and will abide no other touch but of the eternal Verity which darteth a forcible lightening-flash into the soul able to dazle enlighten and surprize the most prosperous liberty that may be imagined Thence the soul cometh to believe not by Wherin faith consisteth humane discourse by miracles by doctrine by sanctity but because God speaketh inwardly unto it and giveth it so powerful a touch that she judgeth infallible whatsoever is revealed and proposed unto her by the Church Behold to what point the good S. Elzear Count of Arian was arrived when he said he tasted matters of faith with such certainty and resolution of understanding that when Monsieur Miron held for a prodigie of knowledge in his time and all the most famous Doctours would have perswaded him the contrary of what he had embraced in the simplicity of his heart all their subtilties could not be able to give the least shock to his spirit This admitted the acts of faith are I. To submit proper judgement to God with all Touch-stone to know whether one have faith simplicity and humility of spirit who speaketh unto us by his Church by Scriptures by Traditions by Councels by Canons of the sovereign Pastours of the Church II. To believe firmly all the Articles of faith which are proposed to us as well those concerning the Divinity as the humanity of our Saviour those which concern the Sacraments and ceremonies as those which appertain to the order and
government of the Church III. Throughly to retain the summary of the Christian doctrine to inform your self of the explication of every Article not for curiosity but duty To read repeat meditate ruminate them very often To teach them to the ignorant in time of need But above all to give direction to your family that they may be instructed in those things which belong to the knowledge of their salvation It is an insupportable abuse to see so many who drag silk at their heels and have Linx's eyes in petty affairs to be many times stupid and bruitish in matter of Religion and in the knowledge of God IV. To abhor all innovation and liberty of speech which in any the least degree striketh at the ancient practices of the Church V. And therefore it is necessary as our Father Judicious notes of S. Ignatius concerning sincere faith S. Ignatius hath observed to praise and approve Confession which is made to a Priest and the frequent * * * Haec Authoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notanda non probanda Communion of the faithful interpreting the devotion of others in a good sense VI. To recommend the Sacrifice of the Mass to love practice perswade others to the laudable custom of being present thereat as much as may be To esteem Church-musick prayers Canonical hours Supplications Processions and such like VII To praise the Orders of Religion the vows of poverty chastity obedience works of supererrogation and evangelical perfection ever generally preferring virginity and continency in discourse before marriage VIII To esteem of Reliques to recommend the veneration and invocation of Saints to be much affected to the service of the most blessed Mother of God to approve of pilgrimages which are orderly performed Indulgences and Jubilies which the glorious King S. Lewis recommended to Philip his son in his last words IX To have a religious opinion of the abstinences and fasts instituted by the Church and of the manner of penances and mortifications which religious and other devout persons piously practice X. To maintain the commandments of the Church and ordinances of Superiours both by word and example and though their lives should not be conformed to their doctrine yet not to detract nor murmure at their actions in publick or private thereby to alter in the peoples belief the reverence and respect to their dignity but as much as shall be expedient privately to admonish them of their defective carriage in their charges XI Highly to esteem the doctrine of sacred Theologie which is taught in schools and to make account of the great Doctours whom the Divine providence hath raised in this latter Age valourously to oppose heresies XII Not to insist in ordinary discourses upon exaggerations comparing men who live in this Age with the Apostles Doctours and Saints of antiquity XIII To fix our selves upon the resolutions of the Church that what our own peculiar reason would judge to be white we to esteem it black when the decrees of the Church it self shall be so always preferring the judgement of the Church before our private opinion knowing that humane reason especially in matters of faith may easily be deceived but the Church guided by the promised Spirit of truth cannot erre XIV Not in considerately to be embroyled in the thorny controversies of predestination Highly to commend grace and faith but warily without prejudice of free-will and good works XV. Not so to speak of the love and mercy of God that one may seem thereby to exclude the thoughts and considerations of fear and divine justice Behold the ordinary rules to preserve your self in faith If you now desire to know how this virtue is purified and refined in mans heart and in what consisteth the excellency of its acts behold them here You must carefully take heed of having onely a dead faith without charity or good works which S. Augustine calleth the faith of the devil It is a night-glimmer obscure and melancholy but lively faith is a true beam of the Sun The acts of a strong and lively faith are I. To have great and noble thoughts of God as Heroick acts of faith Matth. 8. that brave Centurion of whom it is spoken in S. Matthew who supposed the malady health death life of his servant absolutely depended upon one sole word of our Saviour and thought himself unworthy he should enter into his house Cassius Longinus a Pagan Cassius Longinus libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so learned that he was called the Living Librarie one day reading Genesis could not sufficiently admire the sublime speculations which Moses had of the Divinity when he wrote of the worlds creation that God at the sound of one sole word made the great master-pieces of this universe to rise out of nothing as heaven earth water the Sun and Moon II. To believe with great simplicity removed from all manner of curiosity and nice inquisition God Si levaveris cultrum tuum super eo polluetur Exod. 20. would not the point of the knife should be lifted up on his Altar to cut it So likewise the point of humane spirit must not be raised on the Altar of faith nor the curtain drawn to enlightē the mysteries with the torch of reason S. Lewis was most perfect in this degree who would not stir a foot to behold a miracle in confirmation of his belief III. To believe with great fervour esteeming nothing impossible to your faith as did that simple shoemaker who under a King of the Tartars removed Paulus Veneus l. 1. c. 18. de reb orient a mountain in the sight of the whole world by the fervour and simplicity of his faith IV. Not to stagger nor be afflicted when you ask any thing of God in your prayers holding it undoubted that it will be granted if it be for the greater glory of the Sovereign Master and your more advantageable profit You must always hold your hands lifted up in some kind as Moses did even to the Exod. 17. setting of the Sun to vanquish our Amalekites V. To have a generous heart and full of confidence in adversity not to admit distrust during the storm but with firm footing to expect the consolation of heaven even when we shall be in the shades of death as said the Prophet VI. Little to prize temporal goods in comparison of eternal To be ready to dispoil ones self from all the pleasures and commodities of the world if there be any danger of faith as that brave Courtier Hebr. 11. Moses who forsook the contentments of Pharaohs Court to be afflicted with his own people VII To give alms liberally with a firm belief that the hand of the poor is the treasury of God VIII To employ even life it self as so many Martyrs have done and to seal your faith with your own bloud This is the most heroical act but yet it ought to be guided by discretion Now to make easie the acts of faith I.
favoured by those to whom he hath given full power over me submitted the slenderness of my wit to the power of their wills perswading myself a silly nothing may become a matter important in their hands You know how having a purpose to frame a Christian Institution in the HOLY COVRT for men of qualitie I began with their obligation to Pietie and consequently shewed the Obstacles must be vanquished to arrive thither Then I gave precepts of the principal virtues most concern them which were waited on with the Histories of Courts abbreviated into four Models In this that the good Court may triumph I represent a combat of two Courts the Holy and Counterfeit the Religious and Prophane wherein I unsold the victories of the chief Maxims of Christianitie divided into three Parts whereof the one treateth of the Diviuitie the other of the Government of this present life and the third of the State of the other world You may behold how divine the subject is and that the other Books were onely to prepare you to these great lights the rays whereof I diffused I must needs tell you that being surpassed by so many excellent men who have worthily handled a pen I have in this seriously sought to go beyond my self I have contracted large subjects into little Tracts which hath been no small labour there being not a Maxim whereof I could not have compiled an ample Volume But imagining conceptions are like hairs which more easily may be filletted up than dissheveled I have endeavoured to give you more substance in this Book than words and amplifications And seeing all the subjects are very serious I have sweetened them with excellent Examples to afford fit nourishment both to Eagles and Doves All which I now offer you in this is more than my promise thinking it better to give without promise than to promise and not give Your affection sets an edge upon my industrie and if labour waste the bodie for your avail and reserve works of the wit for posteritie it shall be as a Cedar which causing the death of the living seems to give life to the dead This Tome being replenished with important considerations cannot be for him who cursorily reads it with those delicious loyterings which sleightly furnish out the titles of Books and thence derive nothing but wind Give me Gentle Reader the contentment that God may be glorified in your manners by reading this as I here seek to honour him in his works MAXIMS OF THE HOLY COURT AGAINST THE PROPHANE COVERT First Part touching the DIVINITIE The first MAXIM Of Religion PROPHANE COURT HOLY COURT That matters of faith being invisible and uncertain we must tie our selves to the world which is visible and certain That matters of faith being most certain and very excellent we should fix the whole order of our life unto it 1. THere is nothing so reasonable in nature as to desire good nothing so eminent as to know much nothing so absolute as to have the power of all but there is not any thing so profitable as to proceed to true wisdom by a mysterious ignorance and to be in in created light by blindness The soul becometh another world by the means of knowledge or rather as God createth a world in essence that frameth another in Idaea But if truth and love do not co-operate therein man tormenteth himself in his knowledges and createth evils without end from which he cannot free himself no not by issuing out of life The Prophane Court say you leads you into a visible world but it is to behold miseries in it To a world certain but it is to teach you that happiness being therein un certain loss is undoubted All we have in The happines to be born a Christian the world is base caityf and difficult without knowledge of the true God It is but a laboursom turmoyl of affairs an amazement of transitory pleasures an illusion of deceitfull blessings which trouble us and starve us in stead of satisfying our desires or nourishing our hopes But the knowledge of God is the root Scire justitiam virtutem tuam radix est immortalitatis Sap. c. 15. 3. of immortalitie I then require of you O Reader that in the beginning of this discourse you adore the wisdom of God over you who hath selected you out of the Mass of so many Infidels to inrole you in the number of his children and hath drawn you from the confusions of so great darkness to call you into the light of Christianity Behold so many people covered under the veil of shadie night born in errour to live in bruitishness and die in despair of eternal salvation and you are enlightened by the rays of God illuminated by his wisdom guided by his direction covered with his protection nourished with his bloud animated with his life are made participant of his felicity If you be desirous in some measure to observe the Three tokens of the perfection of a thing S. Thomas 1. p. q. 6. excellency of your Faith and Religion consider the perfection of any thing is known by three principal notes Essence Operation and Repose All which you have visible in the wisdom of Heaven you profess His Essence is of an infallible verity his Operations miraculous and his Repose an unchangeable happiness For what assurance more solid than to have a God Solidity of our religion Incarnate for Authour who is come to cast the seeds of a golden Age and adopt a new world in the bloud of an eternal Testament Who can better teach us the secrets of God than God himself I cannot account Varro apud Vincen. tom 2. Illum quidem eruditorem elige quem magis mireris in suis nihil magnisicum docebit qui à se nihil didicerit him said Varro a skilfull Master who learns nothing of himself And he hath understood all in the bosom of his Eternal Father and from his own wisdom which is no other than his Essence He was promised from the beginning of the world preached through all Ages given as a pledge to the memory of all mankind so long before his coming was appointed his time birth life and death He came at his prefixed time all environed with prodigies and miracles all composed of virtues making greatness to proceed out of the lowliness of his humble and painfull life as lightening-flashes break through the obscurity of night 2. What foundations think you hath he laid of The foundations of faith your faith Men believe men upon a little piece of paper yea very often upon the breath of a silly word And Jesus would not be believed but by writing his Law with the rays of an infinite number of Prophesies which were verified in his Person with the bloud of more than ten millions of Martyrs who suffered for his doctrine with miracles so visible and irreprochable that they changed even executioners into Confessours and Tyrants into Martyrs To speak plainly he
prepare a precipice for the despair of other Let us not in this article make God so liberal that he gives us blessings wherewith we may take occasion to be evil and think his mercy will countenance our sluggishness He sleepeth too much at ease who thinks to carry his happiness behind him (b) (b) (b) Note the danger that followeth if the consideration of good works be taken away What care would you have a man take of his salvation who thinks it depends not at all upon his care and what despair will not strike down a feeble brain who shall imagine all his travels do nothing for his avail towards beatitude since the conclusion of his good or ill hap were estimated without any consideration of his merit A labourer would not trouble himself to till the ground which were infallibly condemned to barrenness or to a certain proportion of fruit and his industry to be idle And who would care to pollish his soul if his glorie were confined without any regard to his free will All labours would seem nought but wretched accessories and good works but frivolous amusements 2. But when we fix our thoughts upon this verity True doctrine of Praedestination which says Praedestination to be a Divine Providence by which certain persons are mercifully drawn out of the mass of corruption and picked out to be exalted to eternal beatitude by ways infallible and that it is chiefly done by the mercy of God who decreeth in his eternal counsel to prevent us with his grace and that according to the correspondence we therein ought to use he judgeth of our good or ill hap we call it a proposition conform to the doctrine of the Church advantagious to the glory of God and infinitely available for repose of conscience These are the three points upon which we must Three points of reasons of this doctrine insist in this discourse And first there is no cause to become jealous upon the words of Saint Paul and Saint Augustine who S. Paul and S. Augustine interpreted in the matter of praedestination seem sometime to attribute all to the meer will of God without admitting any consideration of our good works For we must weigh with our selves these two great men like two huge seas that through impetuous power of water swell so upon one brink that they seem for a time to leave the other drie But as the Ocean after he hath largely dilated himself upon one side returns within the limits God prescribed him so these men falling upon contumacious spirits who rebel against truth return into a peacefull equality to build the house of God The one sought to overthrow a Judaical opinion which maintained the eternal happiness of Praedestination was of necessity tied to the bloud of Abraham to Circumcision to works and ceremonies of the old Law without observation of which the Jews acknowledged no salvation Behold the cause why the excellent Apostle who saw in this a contempt of grace and a manifest foil given to Gentilism which he had taken into his protection strongly insisteth and argueth with a torrent of reasons to confound this arrogance of the Hebrews who boasted the reliques of a dying law and ran after it with chymaeraes From whence it comes to pass that all the reasons he produceth have no other aim but to exalt the mysteries of redemption and to shew that the origin and beginning of our salvation consisteth in the grace of Jesus Christ who calleth us to Christianity of his meer mercy without consideration of the observation of the Mosaical Law or other works which preceded this calling And it is in this sense he saith grace is life eternal Rom. 6. 23. Ephes 1. 4. 6. Aug. l. de praedest Sanctor c. 19. because it is by its means we obtain beatitude and in this sense that he assureth us God chose us before the worlds creation to be Saints to wit according to the same interpretation of Saint Augustine we were selected in the idaeaes of God from all eternity to participate in the grace of the Gospel we thereto contributing nothing on our part For the first grace being the beginning of all merit cannot be produced by merit Finally it is in the same sense he maintaineth God loved Jacob and hated Esau before they Rom. 3. 11. had done good or evil For it is to be understood he gave temporal favours and spiritual graces likewise to Jacob which he gave not to Esau although he had bestowed on him favour sufficient for his accommodation Otherwise if one would bring this passage to the point of Praedestination to glory who seeth not we must conclude that as Jacob was praedestinated to eternal beatitude without any consideration of good works so Esau had been reprobated without any regard of his demerits which is most false and condemned by the Church Let us then undoubtedly hold that all passages of S. Paul which he alledgeth in this point have no other scope but to exalt the free gift of redemption and fruits of the Cross of Jesus above all legal ceremonies 3. And as for Saint Augustine he labours mainly S. Augustine onely pretendeth to ruin the opinion of Pelogians to ruin from the top to the bottom the opinion of Pelagians and Semipelagians whereof the one said we were chosen to glory immediately by the good works we do by our own natural forces and the other to exercise some corrective upon this opinion which seemed too rigid have written The works of nature dispose us to grace and grace to glory Now our eminent Doctour undertaking to humble this proud nature which they sought to raise to the prejudice of grace and the bloud of our Saviour gives many assaults wherein he hath no other aim but to teach us this Praedestination which he calleth preparation to grace is not due to the merits of our free-will but that God by his mercifull bounty poureth it into our hearts to be the beginning of good works to which he affordeth life eternal crowning the favours himself inspired and in this regard he with S. Paul exalteth good works which are productions of that seed of grace which the Holy Ghost sowed in our hearts Doth not the Apostle say (a) (a) (a) Quos praescivit pradestinavis conformes fieri imagini filii sui Rom. 8. Aug. l. de praedest Sanctor c. 3. Antequam faceret nos praescivit nos in ipsa nos praescientis cum nondum fecisset elogit Aug. l. 13. God praedestinated those he foresaw would be conformable to the Image of his Son where four of the most famous Fathers of the Church S. Cyril S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom and Theodoret no otherwise understand this passage but that praedestination to glory followeth the prescience of good works And what would S. Augustine affirm when he said (b) (b) (b) Quae voluntas Dei injusts esse non potest venit enim de occultissanis meritis Apud Mag. l.
Deum pro cujus spiritu postules pro quâ oblationes annuas reddas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gifts for ransom of the soul answerable to what Tertullian writeth that it was the custom of the ancient Church to pray for the souls of the dead yea and to make annual offerings for them We must no longer say for evasion it is Plato it is Quintilian who speaketh but confess with Aristotle when we see an universal agreement in a proposition it is not one man speaks but the mouth of heaven which uttereth this verity When S. James telleth us God must be feared and proves it by example of the divels themselves he saith not we must fear God because Daemones credunt contremiscunt the divels do so but if any despise him he is therein worse than divels Likewise when the holy Fathers produce an example of Pagans it is not to instruct us by the Pagans but to shew that to waver in the belief of things they generally held by the sentence of nature is to be worse than a Pagan 3. I say for the second argument that so often as Second proof drawn from the light of faith Vnde haec quia ita facienda sunt disputare insolentissimae insania est a truth is proved to Catholicks by the universal consent of the Church and of all Ages if any one chance to make doubt of it it is an evident sign either that he hath a giddy spirit or is malicious in religion This proposition is grounded upon the axiom of S. Augustine who in his Epistle written to Januarius assureth us that when we find the tracks of a custom generally observed throughout the whole Church it is evident that it cometh from the Apostles or those to whom God hath given full Authority in the Church and that to go about to bely or question it is to pass from folly to insolency Now so it is the truth of purgatorie is established by the opinion practice sentence and decisions of all the Church in such sort that there is not any verity of our faith more fortified How is that Begin with our France Behold the Councel of Chalons upon Saone for prayers for the dead and the truth of purgatorie Go into Spain behold that of Braga into Germany behold that of Wormes into Italy behold the sixth Councel held at Rome under Pope Symmachus into Greece behold a number of Synods collected by Martius into Affrick behold the third of Carthage Lastly behold the three Oecumenical of Lateran Florence and Trent which say the same Doth not this suffice to establish a truth in the wit of a man who hath never so little understanding Our adversaries who still bark against this verity as dogs at the moons brightness when they have said Jesus made purgation of sins and that it was said to the good thief thou shalt to day be with me in Paradise or produced some other frivolous objections have shewed all their ability I leave you a little to ponder the goodly consequences Jesus purged sins there is then no purgatorie Should not we have cause to say in the same fashion Jesus prayed for remission of our sins then we no longer stand in need of prayer or pennance and in vain is that S. Luke saith that Jesus must suffer and Luc. 24. 47. that pennance was preached in his name As the prayers of our Saviour destroy not our prayers so his satisfaction overthroweth not ours He prayed that we might pray he satisfied to give strength and merit to our satisfaction which would be dead and unprofitable were they not quickened by his bloud To what purpose is it to say the good thief went directly to Paradise without feeling purgatorie As if we should say it was necessarie for all the world to pass that way Make your self a great Saint and you shall have nothing to do with it Purge all your sins by a love so fervent that the purifying flames may not find any thing to cleanse He who hath payed ows nothing and who hath satisfied in this world shall find unrestrained freedom in the other But think you in a life which contracteth so many stains a soul may be raised in an instant above the celestial orbs to the sight of God before it have passed by those purgations which the Divine justice ordaineth to every one according to his demerits Endeavour is used to deafen your ears with piety wranglings and unprofitable disputations to make you believe purgatory is an invention of interessed Priests it seems this doctrine came into the world but within these two dayes But read the Scripture and see the Fathers who interpret it you shall find proofs to fall upon you like a cloud for confirmation of this verity When S. Paul in the first to the Corinthians third Chapter said that the day of God to wit the day of judgement be it general or particular shall be manifested by fire which shall put every ones works upon trial and that he who upon the foundations of Jesus Basil in Isa c. 1. Non exterminium minatur sed purgationem innuit Ambros Hic ostendit paenas ignis passurum shall build with wood straw or hay to wit with vain and sleight works shall be saved as by fire he clearly declared the doctrine of purgatorie unless you be more illuminated than S. Basil and S. Ambrose who have judged it so for the first saith he threateneth the soul not with destruction but purgation and the other plainly expresseth he speaks of the pains of fire which God hath appointed to purify souls And it is a poor resistance to object he said as by fire and not by fire For it is a manner of expression in Scripture which nothing diminisheth the reality of things otherwise we should say when S. John wrote in the first Chapter of his Gospel that men saw Jesus as the onely Son of God that he were onely a figure of it not a truth And when S. Paul to the Philippians second Chapter witnesseth he was found as a man we might infer he were not man See you not how these silly curiosities of words directly invade the truth When S. Matthew in the twelfth Chapter makes mention of one sin which shall never be remitted either in this world or in the other S. Bernard in his three-score sixth homily upon the Canticles mainly insisteth upon this passage and takes it as an infallible proof of our doctrine When the Evangelist himself toucheth the discourse of the prisonner which shall be put into a place from whence be shall not come until he have paid the last penny Saint Cyprian Cyprian l. 4. ep 2. says plainly It is one thing to be a long time purged for sins by the torment of fire another by the purgation which is made by the passion of Jesus Christ When in the same Authour it is spoken of divers punishments of choller handled in the fift Chapter S. Augustine in
before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance and a moderate care of our bodies burial Let us order our goods by a good and charitable Testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children and kinred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the Divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Jesus fountain of all lives in whose bosom all things are living Jesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdom of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud and sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us and we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous and antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud and thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be always of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. John 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sick man Lazarus of Bethania of the Town of Mâ—ry and Martha her sister And Marie vvas she that anointed our Lord vvith ointment and vviped his feet vvith her hair vvhose brother Lazarus vvas sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he vvhom thou lovest is sick And Jesus hearing said to them This sickness is not to death but for the glorie of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Jesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he vvas sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Jewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Jews sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man vvalk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this vvorld but if he vvalk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Jesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I vvas not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore vvho is called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Jesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania vvas nigh to Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Jews vvere come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore vvhen she heard that Jesus vvas come vvent to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that vvhat things soever thou shalt ask of God God vvill give thee Jesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this vvorld Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sickness to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God than when she raiseth up the greatness of her courage the body being cast down with sickness A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolours 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange God as they do who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse than the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content onely to shew the wound to the faithfull friendship of the Physician without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence than committed to our passion 3. He defers his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not always a refusal but sometimes a double liberality The vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Jesus Christ It is here that we should always raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosom of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Jesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable and could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly