and at the same time seeth him to be the brightnesse of his glory and the figure of his owne substance this must needs propitiate God infinitely to that body which representeth to him such an honour he hath received from the head thereof who being equall with him did thus admirably subject himselfe for the exaltation of his glory Doth not then the suffering Church rememorate to God continually the highest point of all his glory For the holocausting or incineration of infinite worlds in honour of the Majesty of God would not have been an oblation equivalent to the least drop of blood drawne from the person of Christ and therefore Christs designe in leaving his mysticall body in a suffering posture is one of the highest straines of his divine providence both in order to the honouring of his Father Ephes 4.13 and the purifying of his Church till The body and the head meet in the perfect man in the age of the fulnesse of Christ It then we review the state of the Church even since the Empire of the world undertooke her protection and repose we shall finde her still continuing an image of the life of Christ who we know had divers intermixtures in his course through this world sometimes he was in want and hunger in the desart sometimes declared in the glory of his miracles feeding multitudes and curing all diseases and again sometimes we find him withdrawing and hiding himselfe from the fury of the people and then at other times we behold him in authority and magistracy expelling the prophaners of the Temple and casting out the evill spirits out of the images of God and converting them into the temples of the Holy Ghost These vicissitudes we finde also in the state of his Church sometimes prospering spreading and feeding those multitudes which sodainly after have risen against her and forced many of her members to fly out of their reach into desarts and more dispeopled places in some times again she hath propagated miraculously and established her doctrine and her jurisdiction among many unbeleeving nations in a wonderfull felicity and in sequence of time hath beene banished and eliminated out of these dominions These alternative mutations are evident in the progresse of her dispersion through the world and we know she shall extend her selfe at last to the ends of the world and if not cover the face yet leave some of her markes upon the whole face of the earth Wee see her now as it were shipped away almost quite from Africa where she was so firmly planted many ages before America was so much as knowne to be in the world and now shee spreads there to a good growth while her plantation in Africa lies waste and desolate and the good seed which is falne in that ground seemeth to answer for the semination of those tares which the Enemy hath cast into these territories of Christianity And we may note that all the ancient heresies which so much infested the Church in former ages are now almost eradicated according to the fate of them Sap. 4.3 Spuria vitulamina non dabunt radices altas and the new ones which are now so flowerd and full blowne will shed and fall away like Tulips which commonly vary their colours every yeare somewhat till the roote it selfe in a few yeares leaveth bearing and these varieties of vexations will successively spring up to the Church out of the ruines of some errors new wil be erected and thus she shall be exercised to the end of the world till the man of sin Antichrist shall come to purge her by a generall conflagration as it were of the whole world in the flames of his blasphemy which shal be the last perfecting fire of tribulation shall reduce the Church to the finenesse of that gold which must pave the heavenly Jerusalem This is Christs method and designation of the manner of his Churches passage through this world up to him in whom since there can be neither impotency nor severity to this his body for the Apostle tells us Ephe. 5.29 He nourisheth and cherisheth it as a man doth his owne flesh we must resolve that this order is in reference to the presenting his Father with a continuall intuition of his suffering body whereby he is the most eminently honoured Ephe. 5.27 Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it may be holy and unspotted and to refine this body to the most perfect degree of purity which this locall separation from the head can admit of to reduce it at last to that glorious estate Non habentem maculam aut rugam aut aliquid hujusmodi sed ut sit sancta immaculata Wherefore I may properly say to you as members of this suffering body 1. Pet. 4.12 from S. Peters mouth Thinke it not strange in the fervour which is to you for tentation as though some new thing happened unto you for all that you are exposed to is in consequence of that order wherein Christ conducts his Church through this transitory world TO clucidate farther this position That God is propitiated by the sight of Christs suffering body we may make this animadversion upon the constitution of the Catholike Church That soone after the issue of bloud was stenched so as the bodies of the Martyrs did no longer afford that object of passions the Holy Ghost who had charge to preserve the Church in the most acceptable condition to God presently infused a spirit of voluntary mortifications and sufferings into the Church whereby many holy persons were divinely inspired to congregate bodies and societies of sufferers which should be united by a vow of perpetuall afflicting and exercising their bodies and making themselves lively images of Jesus Christ crucified by the rules of selfe-abnegation and exhibition of a life intirely sacrificed in the toleration of all sorts of austerities This spirit wrought upon both sexes and hath produced those admirable orders of mortified and crucified Christians which are so eminent in the Catholike Church so that the strongest powers of flesh and blood have been subdued by the weakest portions of it Virgins in the succeeding times have been as sanctified by their civill death and spirituall mortification as they were by the violent destruction of their lives consecration of their bodies in martyrdome to this ministery of the Churches sufferings which were wanting to the passions of Christ and so this order of selfe-sacrificing seemeth to have succeeded in the Church to the vacancie of the Martyrs whereby God hath this spectacle continued to him in the passions of the body of Christ in bodies and societies expresly set apart from the world for that intendment which are all the religious orders of the Catholike Church whose lives are nayled to the Crosse by many vowes of austerity penance and self-crucifixion and these make such a propitiating sacrifice of their lives to God as we may be assured he smels it as an odour of sweetnesse
Christo propter quod placeo mihi in infirmitatibus meis in persecutionibus because he found power was perfected in infirmity Whereby we are convinced that those who are called to Christianity are assigned to all sorts of crucifying All the iniquity of a Christian consisteth either in doing what Christ did not or in refusing to doe what he did and none can excuse themselves by an incapacity of imitating Christ in that wherein he hath been pleased to state Christian profession for every one may be poore and patient and mortified but every one is not qualified to attain to riches honour or learning This is the wisdome and love of God to have those things made the best contributions to our eternall felicity which may not onely be reached by every one but can even scarce be missed by any which are the afflictions and adversities of this life wherefore those who it may be would not have had the zeal to affect a similitude to Christ in these hard touches of Gods hand must not be so ungratefull as to repugne to this operation of God upon them or be ashamed and confused to see this figure of deformity in the worlds eye impresed upon them in poverty infamy destitutions of friends reproaches of enemies and all other assimilations to Christ but rather acknowledge a mercy of God who having called them to these tryals as Christians whereunto they have answered but ill in other times that now he vouchsafeth himselfe to place them in the society of the passions of Christ remembring what the great Doctor in this worlds miseries and the others felicities remonstrates to us 2 Cor. 1.7 That in the same measure you are partakers of the passions 1 Pet. 4.1 Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh be you also armed with the same cogitation you shall be of the consolations of Christ With good reason then I may urge this to you in S. Peters name Christo igitur passo in carne vos eadem cogitatione armemini Which must not be onely to suffer all patiently from your enemies but even to be disposed to suffer for your enemies if Gods glory should propose it to you O! shall not this lover of you and benefactor of his enemies be able to heap coales upon your hearts to inflame them with a desire of this imitation Put then I beseech you the sad heart of Jesus as a signet upon your hearts that he may find you according to his heart You need not be disheartned to finde your persons and estates become according to the hearts of your enemies since you know Tradidit eos in desideria cordis eorum 1. Rom. 24. God hath delivered them up into the desires of their own heart proveth often an unhappy prevalence and you looking upon all your deprivations and passivenesse under the notion of Christians have this lesson given you from that naked body on the Crosse whereof you are members who did but pittie those that were dividing his clothes and casting lots for his upper garment which was a figure of his Church and the action no ill figure of these times in the regard of casting lots and Christ when there was nothing left to extenuate their guiltinesse but ignorance pleaded that for them to his Father in Dimitte illis Luk. 23.34 Forgive them for they know not what they doe non enim sciunt quid faciunt and sought thus to cover their nakednesse who had so profanely exposed and violated his and sure Nesciunt quae faciunt is a proper plea for your charity to make now in defence of your afflictors it is writ upon the face of most of their actions and we may well use the Prophets Quis scit si convertatur Ionas 3.9 Who knoweth if God will convert and forgive ignoscat Deus Who knoweth whether Gods mercy doth not designe another work then that which they think they set their hands to and so they may be doing they know not what in the best sense we can understand it S. Gregor Moral lib. 6. Ca. 13.14 for as S. Gregorie saith pertinently to this purpose God who is just and mercifull in his disposure of humane actions accordeth some things as he is gracious and permitteth some as he is angry and the things he doth but permit he tolerateth them so as he turneth them to the use of his counsell and purposes Whereby it is effected in a wonderfull manner that what is acted without Gods will is not done against it for while ill deeds are converted to good uses even those things beare armes for his designe that militate and repugne against it and we may well say not by way of Prediction but of Prayer Who knoweth whether the Spirit of God may not be pleased to move upon the face of those waters which now cover our land and out of this abysse and Chaos extract light and clarity But as Saint Peter said to consolate and confirme the Christians in their persecutions you have a sure word of Prophesie to rest upon Jo. 16.33 in all your agitations the eternall Word it selfe prophesying that his members should have all sorts of pressures and crosses in this world To which you shall doe best to attend as unto a light shining in a dark place Act. 15.15 till the day dawne againe and looking upon the verification of this Prophesie To our Lord was his owne worke known from the beginning of the world Luk. 9. in all ages we may rest upon S. Pauls ground for the re-edifying of the tabernacle of David and repayring the breaches thereof and setting it up so as the residue of men may seek after the Lord. Notum à seculo est Domino opue suum Leaving therefore the knowledge of times and seasons to his providence as the prerogative thereof we must husband our properties of Christians which is to take up the crosse daily and to follow Christ This is the inheritance of a Christian the Passion of Christ the which he may improve to himselfe by the culture of Meditation and must take heed of venturing to plough up the ground of Gods Providence and sowing it with his owne Reason that it may beare him satisfaction of the causes of his sufferings or the Churches persecutions For this is a labour he is forbid to sweat in for which reason this sweat of his brain shall not afford him bread Our Father in this case onely gives a stone to him that asketh him this bread to feed his scruple or his curiosity whereas a Christian by an humble acquiescence simply to Gods inscrutable order and providence in all events may turne even stones into bread his afflictions into spirituall aliments and draw oyle out of the rocks he is cast upon while he studieth not to solve Gods riddles the intricacies of his Providence he shall have Sampsons riddle explained and applyed to him Judg. 4 4. for Out of the eater shall come forth meat and
little sortable to the temporal burthens of crosses and afflictions as they cannot be conceived to be the grievances we must first complain of Nothing but sin is to be found counter-marked with these notes upon it That then is the burthen you are first advised to bring in to be delivered of this weight which the world commonly laboureth and sweateth most to charge it selfe with and yet it is truly so strangely onerous as even God and Man Christ Jesus did sweat blood under the weight thereof although he carryed but the lighter halfe of it the paine onely not the pollution This is then the first oneration whereof you must intend the demission and deliverance For they who begin with calling to Christ for alleviation of temporall burthens or solicite him to transpose their loads upon their enemies setting these articles of ease and animosity before all the rest in their Petitions doe me thinks as if the Leper in the Gospel should have sued to Christ to have given him clothes to cover him onely For when we have the uncleannesse of any foule sinne upon us to intend any thing before the deliverie from that is but to beg a covering or palliation of our distresse And we know temporall commodities doe often hide and clothe the leprosie of sin but seldome contribute to the emundation and they who lift up their hands in the first place to draw down vengeance even from him to whom it belongeth doe me thinks as if the robbed and wounded Traveller in S. Luke should have desired the good Samaritan to have followed the theeves to apprehend them and deliver them to justice before he had thought of dressing his owne wound it is but such a preposterous application to pursue even Gods enemies while we have our own sins crying out and endangering our souls and crying for revenge against us under the same notion we prosecute our enemies We must all then retaine this principle that the first exoneration we must designe is to be this of the burthen of our sinnes and when we are delivered from them our crosses will prove rather our carriages then our burthens for as death is formidable in this face and aspect of the wages of sinne and that countenance may justly fright us but when we look upon it as a debt only we must pay nature before we can passe to eternall life in this view it seemeth rather officious then offensive to us in like manner when our afflictions and crosses are charged upon us as wages of our iniquities still growing in us as in the cases of Pharaoh and Antiochus then they have an intollerable heavinesse in them but when they are considered but as fees and duties we must pay in our passage through this miserable life unto a blisfull perpetuity and that all the Saints have paid them in their pilgrimage then they appear rather serviceable then formidable unto us So hereupon I may say that when our sinnes are heaped and accumulated on our crosses pressing and holding them upon us then the charge is unsufferably grievous but when our sufferings are imposed and charged upon our sinnes and that they presse our faults so hard upon our consciences as the pressure of our offences groweth intolerable and so forceth us to come creeping humbly under our loade to this promise of releefe which Christ exhibiteth to all such labourers and loaded soules then our affliction proveth an happy surcharge that hath sunke through our hearts that other sad portage of our sinnes which before peradventure did not disease us and then the heavinesse of our crosses which remaineth will comparatively with the other we are released of seeme very easie and portable as one that should rise from being bedrid with the Palsie or Sciatica after he were cured would find a little charge to carry his blankets upon his back There is such an analogy between the weight of sinne and of sufferance as between these two different heavinesses And sure the Paralitike who went back charged with his bed upon him found lesse heavinesse then when he was caryed upon his bed So when affliction that we finde hath partly contributed to our spirituall rising and recovering out of our bed-rid habits of sinne remaineth upon us we carry it so lightly as we handle it rather as a benefit then a burthen Then we find sensibly the verity of this assertion of Jugum meum suave est Mat. 11.30 My yoke is sweet and my burthen light Jere. 48.11 onus meum leve When we have found rest for our soules all other agitations are but as the Prophet saith powring us out from vessell into vessell to purge us of our dregs and faeces which we should settle in againe it may be if we were let stand And to evidence this principle that we must first begin our addresses to God with the Prodigals Pater peccavi before we sue for casting off our rags and being apparelled with conveniencies we may consider how God doth not account himselfe so much as spoken to by us even in all our clamours untill Jerem. Thren as the Prophet saith the cloud be removed that intercepted our prayer from passing For David affirmeth this experience saying Because I held my peace my bones are as it were waxen old while I cryed all the day So as you see all Davids clamours are but as dumnesse to the eares of God so long as his sinne sleepeth within his brest though his throat grow hoarse he doth but as it were strain to cry out under water while his iniquity like waters are gone over his head Hereby we see that all vociferation while our sinnes are quiet and tacent in our affections is no more audible then silence and on the contrary we may note that God accounted Moses to have made a loud exclamation when we finde he was silent his heart being not obstructed with sinne uttered a voice which penetrated the heavens while his tongue had no part in the conveyance of it Exod. 14. And Moses removed the whole red Sea more easily with this silence Psal 3. then David could draw back those few drops of iniquity he had drunk in all the ejaculations of his voyce did not pierce the cloud untill his sighes had broken through it and then after his heart had once strucke upon that key of confession of his fin in this note of I have made my sin known unto thee and mine iniquity I have not hid then every whisper of his to God is audible for we finde him professing this also Psal 55.10 In what day soever I shall invocate thee lo I have known that thou art my God In quacunque die invocavero te ecce cognovi quia Deus meus es So as here we see the divers effects of Prayer while our sins cry the louder for our silencing them no other vociferation is made but theirs which we do not utter when they have first lifted up their voice through the organ
pillar and strength of truth That as the Prince of the Apostles adviseth his Disciples in your conditions 1 Pet. 8.9 you may be all of one mind lovers of fraternity modest humble not rendring evill for evill nor curse for curse but contrariwise blessing that in that which they speak ill of you they may be confounded which calumniate your good conversation in CHRIST This practical part of your Religion is that which falls within every one of your capacities this is the good fight you are to fight wherein you are not disarmed by being manacled For me thinks I may say as Seneca did of Seaevola That he was happyer in suffering then he could have been in acting as it is a more admirable thing to overcome an enemy by suffering the losse of our hand then by that of striking with it So this your suffering estate may prove more successefull to you then that desperate design of some few acting many years agoe which no good English Catholikes doe justifie for by your patience and equanimity charity for your Countrey in all your losses and sufferances you may perhaps overcome that is sweeten and mitigate the fiercenesse of your enemies by the most admirable and most Christian way that can be projected And thus proving your selves innocent of those combustions wherewith you are charged you may become holy incendiaries of true zeale and charity in your Country by these virtues shining and flaming in your sufferances In the close of this proposition to you I must recall to your memorie that as by these evidences of your solid virtue you may adorne the doctrine of our Saviour God in all things so there is no accesse unto these holy dispositions but through the entry whereunto I have directed you of humble and sincere sorrow and contrition for your sins whereof I shall not now need to inlarge any advises since it is a subject well handled by every body though the precepts are seldome well observed even with the help of affliction to enforce them Therefore I must close up this point presenting you with part of the three childrens prayer upon the occasion of their tryall in Babylon which may be apposite in many circumstances to your conditions in regard of the terrours and comminations you are now exposed unto Dan. 3. Because O Lord we are diminished more then all nations and are abused in all the land this day for our sinnes and there is not at this time nor sacrifice nor oblation that we may find thy mercy but in a contrite mind and spirit of humility let us be received so let our sacrifice be made in thy sight this day that is may please thee CHAP. X. Instructions in the duties of fraternall dilection SUpposing you now purified by this Christian ablution of sincere penitence having had as the Apostle saith your hearts aspersed with this cleansing water I will lead you to the Altar of Christ to make your oblation of Charity to your brethren as well as to those who are but your half brothers being of a diverse mother as to those who have their uterine fraternity with you as children of the Catholike Church And because there are two principall articles of your present examination your behaviour concerning the domestikes of faith and your discharge of the duties of your faith relating to the aliens of Israel I conceive it very pertinent to my subject the endeavouring by the grace of God to present you some brief animadversions in these two Christian offices and your present conditions facilitate your compliance with the first as they bring impediments to the correspondency with the later of them for the association in sufferings conducteth to the straightning of the bands of Charity between persons thus combined but the pressures of afflictions doe naturally loosen and relax our minds in those tyes whereby Religion conjoyneth our Charity to our enemies so that this unfortified part of our nature requireth a strong guard of Grace to defend it against our spirituall enemy when he stormeth it by the injuries of our owne brothers and headeth his fiery darts with the asperity of our owne former friends When the great Maligner of our nature bringeth in such enemies for the imbraces of our charity we had need have our brests well stored with those flames which many waters cannot extinguish when streames even of our owne blood Cant. 8. are thus powred out in enmities upon them and it requires surely much of that love which is stronger then death to return love to that animosity against us which is so much stronger then nature in friends and brothers In this case it must needs be specially requisite that you who are thus assayled by these most powerfull temptations should be furnished with the armour of God Ephes 6. for no lesse then the shield of the Catholike Faith to which is coupled the helmet of salvation can be of proofe against these fiery darts whereof there are now vollyes flying against you As touching the first of these two dutyes I may say as Saint Paul saith to the Thessalonians in the like occasion concerning the charity of the fraternity We have no need to write to you 1 Thes 4.9 for your selves have learned of God to love one another The remisnesse of our vitiated nature in this precept is commonly quickned and invigorated by the same degrees that a common persecution is strained upon us wherefore I may trust even Vox populi in these times to preach fervour to you in this practice It will be then more requisite for me to insist upon what the Apostle proceedeth to recommend in the same place That you walk honestly towards them that are without I shall then onely stay to set up some few lights before the shrine of this sort of Charity referred to your friends and fellow citizens of the Saints Eph. 2.16 and domestikes of God and proceed to the saying of the office more amply of the other part of Charity the dilection of enemies But indeed both these duties are but divers branches which have a continuity and unity in the same shaft before they part and break themselves into these two severall armes of acting for friends and affecting of enemies and so we cannot touch the one without some report and relation to the other For these two exercises are but lower and higher boughes growing upon the same shaft of the charity of God powred forth in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given us Heaven is the orbe of mans joy and earth the element of his misery and love is both the conveyance of man to heaven and the consummation of his joy there and the holy Ghost contriveth the raising of this our conducting love very often out of our consortings in the miseries of this life for society in suffering here exalts mutuall love as communion in joyes there doth heighten reciprocall charity which is some accession to the blisse of heaven And in
received into the eternall Tabernacles as when you had more of the Mammon of iniquity to make a greater number of friends And thus while you are freed from all the temptations of riches you are possessed of their greatest advantages Old Tobyas saw this light in all his darknesse and poverty Toby 4.8 when hee counselled his sonne As thou shalt be able so be mercifull if thou have much give abundantly if thou have little study to impart also a little willingly for thou dost treasure up to thy selfe a good reward in the day of necessity And they who thinke seriously on that great day of necessity will thinke little of their momentany incommodities but in contemplation of providing their part in that day will easily offer with Saint Peter John 13. not only their feet but even their hands and their heads to the will of their master they will not onely disperse faithfully what they can spare conveniently but also deny their owne wants somewhat of their demands to supply greater necessities which call to them in the person of one much worthyer then themselves one from whom they have received themselves and from whom they expect himselfe for retribution O how blessed a thing is charity that hath no lesse then God for the subject it worketh upon in time and no lesse then the becoming like God for the salary in eternity CHAP. XI Of the dilection of enemies THis last tincture whereinto we have now infused the minde is very neere the colour of the more perfect dye of Charity ingrained in the love of enemies For this disposition exerciseth it selfe upon our friends in a respect wherein they have sometincture of enemies as thâ—irs when the acting of our charity requireth such a crossing and offending our selves as to strain our owne sufferings upon our selves Then our fellow sufferers who demand this selfe-distressing are in this regard adversaries to our nature that repugneth against incommodity whereby our friends in this case may be said to be proposed to our love with some colour of enemies upon them So that they who overcome their nature in this aversnesse to offend or incommodate themselves in preference of the ease of their fellowes are well advanced towards the loving of such direct enemies as doe violently impose sufferings and prejudices upon them For they are already half way being arrived at the loving them who are the occasion of some sufferings and inconveniences unto them and so the other moiety is the easilyer reached which is but the loving all that contribute to their injuries and offences And such who are thus rectified in the sense of the matter of sufferings are well prepared to advantage themselves by all the manners of them for having their senses exercised as the Apostle saith in the discernment of good and evill they will facilely accommodate themselves to the measure of evills whereby they are to be exercised being perswaded that the proportions of spirituall goods are raised to them by the same degrees that the difficulties of their performances are heightned against them so when they are to straine their charity up to the love of all enemies and maligners they doe not deliberate so much upon the pleadings and redargutions of their nature in this case but resolve upon the expresse precept of the author and Judge of nature who maketh this love of enemies a necessary concomitancy with all our good offices to friends to form that complete summe of Charity which we are to account to him wee owe our redemption paid in this species of Charity to enemies and if even when we were his enemies Christ reconciled us to God by his dying for us Rom. 5.10 we may well be reconciled to this kinde of love to which we owe our eternall life Considering then our obligation to this sort of love we may say our uncomplyance with the love of enemies falls under the same vice as our unworthinesse to friends for it must needs be an high ingratitude not to correspond with that quality whereunto we owe our redemption which is the love of enemies and it was not severity but even excessive charity to us that imposed this love upon us for it was ordained by Christ rather to assimilate us to himselfe then to sentence us to a penalty And to cleare this point to us he hath set this love under such a relation as may justly make it agreeable even to our nature our enemies being proposed to us as fellow-members of his body for it is under that notion he enjoyneth us the loving them not in the respect of their being enemies So that when our reason examineth this injunction we may finde that this excellent virtue hath not so much as an ill aspect to avert us from it For when we look upon Man as the image of God on the one side or as the copie of Christ on the other either of these sides of the medall are lovely objects in Christians who have this double signature of God upon them and so cannot be prospects of aversion on either of their sides for this colour of enemies is but as it were an over-lay of colly upon a statue which doth not alter the forme and this ill colouring is cast upon the figure of man by the hand of the enemy of his nature the which foule cover we are not required to love for as men offend and injure one another they are the devils engins in that respect not Gods images and therefore simply as enemies they are not presented to our love for so they are ills which God cannot recommend to us but the vitiating of our nature doth not efface the character of God in it and that is the object of our love in all men So what we are obliged to love hath the impression of good and amiable upon it if our passion doe not stay upon the superficiall deformity appearing in our enemies which exteriour supervesture is the devils artifice not the work of God therefore our minds looking upward to God pierce this veyle of private injuries and look through it either on the image of God or upon the figure of Jesus Christ in which they see the injuries they themselves have done him born with love and moreover they find this charity of suffering patiently the same provocations reflecting to them a new love from Christ And thus there remaines nothing unlovely in his view of enemies After all these considerations how deplorable is it that there are so many Christians of whom we may say in the point of this precept of loving enemies as the Apostle saith of the Jewes in respect of the Gospel unto this present day when this commandement is read 2 Cor. 3.14 a veile is put upon their hearts for a great part of Christians are as studious to find evasions out of the unpleasing sense of this precept as the Scribes and Doctors of the Law were unfaithfull in the explication of the commandement of loving our
neighbours as our selves and out of which this position of Christ is naturally deduceable And yet the depraved natures of the Scribes would extend the love designed by God to all his images no farther then the twelve Tribes nay within this circle they made a second circumscription of their loves within the tormes of mutuall friendship teaching that their loves were not obliged to goe further then to a correspondency to them that affected them and against others that provoke their passions they let them loose upon them in this prevaricating sense of Gods commandement Mat. 5.4 our Saviour we know found the people when he reproacheth them the being mis-led by this license apprehended of hating their enemies wherein he rectifieth them commanding them in expresse termes to love their enemies and to doe good to those that hate them Therefore Christians who have not this latitude of the term of Neighbour to shift senses in being positively restrained and coupled as it were in this bond of love with enemies by a formall command of their Law-giver Since the subject whereon they are to act this charity cannot be mistaken are very studious to mitigate to their vitious nature the displeasing part of this order by restraining this love in the proportions whereof they cannot dispute the adjudgment to the persons and therefore many are very inquisitive in the kind and the quantity of love assigned unto enemies so as now a dayes they who are as willing to justifie themselves as the Lawyer in the Gospell Luk. 10.30 and cannot aske the Church this question who are we to love since the case is so plainly ruled as the very Samaritans are not excluded now they put her this case how much are we to love our enemies and what exteriour testimonies are we obliged to render of our Charity The rule of forgiving enemies is so much exempted from dispute among Christians as they dare not claime of God any discharge of their sinnes but by the measures of their own compliances in this duty Our Lords Prayer hath set this condition upon all our petitions for mercy to aske our reconciliation to him only in the same degrees we are conformable to this order of our releasing the debts of our offenders You then who sue to God still in the Lords Prayer cannot be undisciplined in the precisenesse of this duty of forgiving enemies Those who make little use of this forme of prayer may have more excuse for their pretermitting this observance and so are likely to give you the more occasion to remember this duty wherein your faithfull discharge will provide you a better condition then any have that are so truly unhappy as to furnish you with the matter of this excellent practice wherein these times afford you the means of exercifing this fidelity in the suptemest degree which is in the forgiving of friends and kindred And in this case holy King David testifieth the difficulty and consequently meritoriousnesse of the act when he faith If myenemy had spoken ill of me I would verily have born it but when his guide and his familiar was the tempation he professeth that was the greatest stresse of weather his charity could be put to steere her course in and as this case was figurative in David so we know it was accomplished by Christ upon the provocation of the man typified in the Psalmes in these words Of him who had walked in the house of God with consent and how did Christ behave himselfe to this man He received him with a strange benignity treating him still with the termes of familiarity and love Mat. 26. Friend wherefore art thou come Amice ad quid venisti That even under that notion of a perfidious friend which is the most demeriting irritation of our nature he might exhibit to us a pattern of this perfection of forgiving injuries But alas too many are proner to follow David after the letter in this case then the Sonne of David after the Spirit and apter to take these words from Davids mouth Psal 4.16 Let death come upon them and let them get downe quick into hell then to draw their copie from Christs mouth of meeting with a kisse and receiving Judas with Friend Wherefore art thou come Whereupon it will not be alien from our subject to cleare David of those suspitions of animosity of which he may be indicted upon the letter of his expressions in this and divers other encounters with his enemies For in this case the blind and the lame doe often resort to this City of David to take sanctuary in his precedent for many intemperate asperities in these occasions Wherefore to vindicate David in these imputations we must understand all the literall imprecations we meet in his mouth in one of these three manners First that his maledictions in some places are by way of prediction of what shall happen to his enemies not in order of his prosecution against them Psal 9.18 as when he saith Let sinners be turned into hell here he denounceth as a Prophet that sinners shall have this judgement and doth not solicite this sentence against them upon his provocations In a second manner they may be conceived as wishes but so as the desire is not referred to the paine of the persons but to the justice of the punisher Psa 57.11 as when he saith The just shall rejoyce when he shall see revenge he shall wash his hands in the blood of a sinner this appetency of revenge is in order simply to the honour of Gods justice for God himselfe doth not delight in the destruction of the wicked but in the exercise of his justice Or in a third sense these wishes and optatives of evills may be assigned and directed to the removing and suppressing of the crimes only that the persons may be preserved and the faults abolished In one of these three senses all Davids vehement insectations of sinners are to be accepted and none of them afford any patronage of personall malevolence or animosity against enemies not under the pretence even of fighting under Gods Colours and wounding them in this quarrell For David being sincerely comprehended suggesteth to us no countenance of any private malignity Saint Augustine unto some who it seemeth sought to extenuate the foulnesse of those sinnes in themselves wherein they had truly Davids precedent answereth that they who are bold to sinne because David did doe that which David did not that is sin by precedent or seek to palliate his offence by example I may then well say that they doe much more perversly that wrest and bend David into a patronage of any rancour or virulency to his enemies for they must be guilty of traducing him as wel as of transgressing the precept when they upon misconstruction vouch his authority for this licence of maligning enemies I shall request then every one in all their desires or prayers respecting their enemies to follow this unquestionable precedent of David in
stock you have now in your hands of not onely forgiving but loving enemies For the ruines of your houses and the destroying of your woods afford you matter to make these coaies of charity which I hope you heap upon the heads of your enemies in continuall prayers for their resipiscency and in a preparative disposure of your minds to render good for evill to the extent of your abilities unto all their occasions These are the coales of fire the Apostle saith we should cast upon the heads of our enemies Rom. 13.1 not in order to the aggravation of their faults as some understand it but referred sincerely to the kindling of their charity to God and us And this vertue blazing among you is the most probable way to extinguish the flame of your persecution for this ardent Charity may by the mercy of God fire your neighbours houses and if the love of enemies take hold of them you will partake of the operation of this vertue And thus you may convince them of your undeserving the name of enemies by doing them the offices of friends in this cummunicating to them so excellent a vertue as charity to enemies and while you thus benefit your selves by your oppressions if you infect your adversaries with Charity you may introduce into the nation the good husbanding also of prosperity which oeconomy hath been little practised hitherto in all her secular advantages For alas how truly may it be applyed to our nation what God reproacheth by the Prophet Esay Isa 57 12 Because I am holding my peace and as it were not seeing and thou haft forgotten me Quia ego tacens quasi non videns mei oblita es Wherefore it will be an enterprise worthy your religion to endeavour by the fervour of your Charities to satisfie in some degree for the oblivions of your brethren and thus in honour of the Catholike doctrin of Satisfaction you may render it beneficiall even to the enemies thereof while your abundance of Charity in this present time supplieth their want your virtues defigning to appease God 2 Cor. 8. as much as you feare their violences may incense him against the nation So that if one part be liable to the exprobration of the Prophet in forgetting God by the abuse of prosperity the other may have this claime of the Psalmist to intercede for both At the voice of the upbraider Psal 43.17 18. and the reproacher at the face of the enemie and persecutor all these things have come upon us neither have we forgotten thee and our heart hath not revolted backward When we find our loves then starting or flying backward in the incounters of our enemies let us remember this military discipline and rule That there is lesse danger in fighting then in flying for very often wee overcome evill by contending with good against it and when we fly to evill to bring that into the field against our enemies though we master a Forreigne we raise a Domestique enemy which is the more desperate mischiefe for even the successe of revenge kindleth those passions in our hearts which demand 〈◊〉 lesse their slavery for their pay malice anger and intemperancy remaining instead of auxiliaries to our enmity owners of our hearts So that though it were in your power to overcome vice by vice it were both the nobler and the safer way to vanquish it by vertue and to imploy rather love which is sure to be faithful and to preserve an intrinsike peace then to trust hatred which is very uncertaine of any successe in offending others and alwayes sure of injuring our selves Christ Jesus who had revenge more in his power then his enemies had their provocations would not countenance it by taking the least grain of it in all his life He seemed neerer being angry with his friends that but proposed any resentment then with the strangers for their irritations The sonnes of thunder were reproached of being strangers to his spirit more then the Samaritans for being exercisers of his patience So as in this case Christ seemeth to have provided a cautionary instruction for us against any eager promptitude in revenge under the colour of his quarrell because the edge of our owne nature is so apt to be set upon the weapons we pretend to whet in his cause when we are in a sharp prosecution of our enemies The sword is commonly that of our own spirit and the sheath only the Word of God for we cover familiarly our private animosities with Gods assignations when indeed we rather take God for our second in our owne differences then combat sincerely for his designes This is a pravity so cleaving to our nature as we may note that Christs Disciples who had heard so many inculcations of this designe of Christ to suffer and submit himselfe to all sorts of offences and violations did never comprehend his meaning in this matter and never answered him any thing upon this discourse but as soone as he did but touch upon what sounded like a purpose of vindication and revenge Luke 22. as when he had signified to them the approach of his danger and given them but a little hint of arming themselves they presently answered as if they had been cleere sighted in this proposition Behold here are two swords The Crosse and scourges whereof he had so often acquainted them did not so much as awake their curiosities and having never spoken before of any offensive weapons or instruments he would imploy our nature was as quick in the acceptance at the first notice of this resolution of revenge as it had been heavy in conceiving the frequent intimations of yeelding unto the offences of enemies and persecutors but we see they understood Christs meaning as little in this point as in the other for Christ came not to follow the vitiated nature of man that dictateth with the Scribes Mat. 5. Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy but to make man partaker of the divine nature the which fâ—rnishes the just and unjust with the same sunne for light and the same clouds for refreshment nay he gave his owne Sonne universally for the whole world even for those he knew would be so unworthy of him as not to accept him Whereupon this Sonne of God this self-sacrificer for his enemies hath good right to impose exact duties upon us in reference to our enemies the which are more his enemies in the very act of being ours So as in this order to us he sheweth the way to this benignity since his command of these succours for them manifesteth his indulgence to them enjoyning his friends those that are conformable to the perfection of his Father these three good offices for his enemies and theirs which are all in order to the reclaiming them and reducing them to a redamancy of him Benedicite benefacite orate These three invitations he appointeth towards the resipiscence of enemies he will have them invited by our
heart by our mouth and by our hand by being beloved with the first blessed by the second and benefited by the last And in all these acts of charity Christ Jesus hath exhibited his life and his death as a mirrour of reflection to cast back these rayes of love upon our hearts as the Prince of the Apostles expresly intimateth to us urging our vocation to these duties in this respect 1 Pet. 2.21 because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you may follow his steps who when he was reviled did not revile when he suffered he threatned not So as those who think this a hard saying and goe back upon it are if they consider it aright guided by their enemies as much as they are led aside from the steps of Christ and are made in effect followers of their maligners rather then of their maker For when they are drawn by the example of those that leave Christ to follow their passions they seeme to credit even those whom they hate more then Christ whom they pretend to love These incongruities are found in the passion of hatred the deferring more to the example of those we professe to disaffect then even to the pattern of him we pretend to adore Those then who will not follow Christ in these paces of his love to enemies must know they follow the enemie of their nature and their owne accuser and he that insisteth upon the foot-steps of Christ avoideth such a leader as he ought to take this course if it were for nothing but to fly from such a guide and taketh such a guide as he ought to follow though he had no ill to avoid How much the more then is he obliged to this course when both these are coupled to follow the best and to fly the worst to incline to God and to decline Sathan So as by a just hatred to this unalterable enemy we may well reconcile our selves to all convertible adversaries For this reason Christ Jesus loved us not for any good that invited his Charity but for the goodnesse whereof our nature was susceptible which capacity in us was sufficient for Gods innate goodnesse to diffuse it selfe into the loving us and for this reason God seemeth to have enjoyned all those that we injure and offend to love us that our nature might not be withdrawn from evill by this most powerfull attractive of undeserved love which gives a most naturall cause of re-affecting even to the worst natures the being first beloved so undeservedly in proofe whereof it was said of S. Athanasius the great touch-stone of this sort of love that he was Percutientibus adamas dissidentibus magnes by being an adamant to his offenders he became a load-stone to his dissenters and thus remaining unmoved with injuries he removed heresies copying well his Master who cured greater wounds by bearing of lesser to which imitation you may addict all your charities to your enemies But abstracting from this effect who can account this precept rigorous when every modest soule may conclude there is more remitted to him then exacted of him by this generall injunction to all men to forgive and love one another since it were arrogance to beleeve himselfe lesse peccable then others and so likelyer to be sinned against then himselfe to sin against his brother Humility then will easily shew us we have rather a good bargain then an unequall burthen in this command of Love your enemies Mat. 7.44 doe good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute you that you may be children of your Fathern who is in heaven since you have this mark upon you of your legitimation the being under the correction of your Father I beseech you to endeavour the producing this other compleating note thereof the dilection of your brothers There is a memorable precedent of this sort of charity in S. Gregory Nazianzen being Bishop of Constantinople who allayed the heat of his Catholike flock in a high provocation and in a faire conveniency for revenge upon their enemies the Arrians who in the time of Valence an Arrian Emperour had bitterly prosecuted the Catholikes and upon his death and the succession of Theodosius a Catholike Prince the people designed to put the law of retaliation in force against their enemies to which intention their holy Bishop opposeth himselfe in these termes It is not this my deare flock that CHRIST requireth nor what the Gospel teacheth us let this be our revenge to solicit their salvations who very probably have furthered ours by their injuries therefore let us knowingly confer benefits on them who unawares by their malevolence have contributed to our benedictions But if your minds doe so estuate with anger as they cannot be turned to this benevolence doe at least the next best to this refer your revenge to Christ reserve it for the future Tribunall since the Lord saith Revenge is his and he will retribute And this exhortation did so prevaile upon the people as they resigned their animosities and did acquiesce unto his temper and I may expect your acceptance of this proposition for I hope you are as good Catholikes as they and I am sure you want halfe of their temptation which is a present commodity for revenge that is not the weakest part for the provocation Wherefore it may be easier for you to retaine the quality of Lambs when you have no capacity of playing the Lions And to dispose you towards the complyance with this condition of Lambes in your minds you may recogitate with what nature our Saviour chose to qualifie his Disciples who were to work upon perverse adversaries he sent them as he saith Mat. 10.16 as sheep among wolves Upon which words S. Chrysostome saith elegantly Let them be ashamed who like wolves prosecute their adversaries when they may behold troops of wolves overcome by a few sheepe And truly so long as we are sheep we easily get the better of our enemies but when we passe into the nature of wolves then we are overthrowne by them for then we have no longer the protection and succour of our Pastour who doth not feed and patronize wolves but sheepe I pray remember then that while you suffer like your Pastor you overcome by his victory and when your angers and hatreds will assault your enemies you quit Christ who is much stronger then your adverse party and undertake of your selves who are much the weaker side and thus you wave the priviledges of Catholikes to defend your selves by the infirmities of men If you will then secure to your selves an admirable reparation of all the violences and injuries of your enemies you must remit them all from your hearts and offer up to God not onely your continuall prayer but even all the merit of your religious sufferings to mediate their conversion and if you prevaile for any you draw out of the good you doe them incomparably more advantage then from any wish that could succeed
Non nobis Psa 113.9 Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo â—a gloriam and so you may glorifie God as well in your suffering charitably under your enemies as in executing Gods judgement upon his enemies when that shall be ordainded you as the active part of your militancy for him Having given you this key to all the Psalmists imprecations which may be said to be the harder ciphers the plainer they seeme in the letter and alphabet of ordinary curses and maledictions I will cast back upon the two queres which may perplex many well affected sufferers which are What degrees of interior love we are obliged to afford our enemies Secondly what actuall evidences we are bound to exhibit of this charity To give a solution to the first question we may consider our love to enemies in three respects the first is as they are simply enemies and we are not called to love them in this regard for this were rather repugnant then consonant to charity to love any thing in that respect wherein it is an evill which the enmity it selfe of our enemies alwayes may be reputed The second notion under which we may contemplate them is in the nature of men images of God or members of Christ and in this consideration we are bound in pain of the breach of charity to love all our enemies and to serve them with all the offices that appertain to this acception of them that is not to exclude our enemies out of those benevolences spirituall or temporall we afford to the generall of our neighbours The third maner may be to consider enemies in this respect of being moved with a particular affection to them to such a degree as in reference to the love we owe God we attaine to surmount and overcome the aversion of our nature and to be touched with a sensible kindnesse even to our adversaries This excellent degree of charity is rather of perfection then of expresse obligation thus much is onely of necessity required that we prepare our minds in case our enemies necessity should demand such an expression of our love to render them this testimony of it But the actuall conferring of this kind of love upon an enemy for Gods sake without the point of this necessity belongeth to perfection not precisely to the precept of Charity What wee are then absolutely bound unto in the behalfe of our enemies is to remit entirely all their offences and violations of us never to pursue any reprisall or retaliation upon them in reference to our offences and to comprise them in all our generall charities distributed to our brethren either in spirituall succours or materiall supplyes so as not to exclude any never so ill affected to us not so much as by our wishes out of any common benefit which we dispense to our brethren either in alms or in any other accommodations whatsoever These are the bands we are engaged in to our enemies by precept which relateth to the interiour disposition of our minds to wards them and so resolveth the first demand The second concerning what exteriour ministeries we are obliged to afford our enemies is partly determined in this discussion of the first But for more elucidation we may proceed to deliver it to your further explicated The particular benefits and kindnesses then with which we pleasure friends as all sorts of solaces and gratifications which are the commerces of friendship are not due to enemies but in cases where their necessities and exigences require such correspondencies as when our enemy hungreth or thirsteth then the feeding and refreshing him is obligatory and this rule holdeth in all other distresses of our enemies consisting with the charity wee owe our selves But beyond these cases of necessity to straine the course of charity to pleasure and accommodate our enemies is passing into the upper region of perfection which indeed is truly evangelicall The other in respect of this may be termed but legall performances remaining in the infirm and barren element of absolute obligation for the bare defiring not to be overcome by evill savoureth somewhat of the apprehending Christ but as ansterus home Luke 19.12 An austere man and proposing to bring in as much onely as will just serve for a discharge but the industry to overcome evill with good Loved much relisheth much of the fervent Magdalens Multùm dilexit and the forgivenesse of many of our injuries to God is assigned thereunto 1 Pet. 4.8 Charity covereth the multitude of sinnes For in this exercise of it we may justly say Charitas operit multitudinem pecatorum Having shewed you the measure of the Sanctuary which you are obliged to compleat I doe not meane to countenance the giving no corollary or surplus but rather to solicite you all to presse downe the measure and give it running over into the bosomes of your enemies for in the same measure the charity of God poured forth into your hearts by the holy Ghost shall be meated to you This spirituall Manna of charity differeth much from the materiall in these properties that if we doe not fill our Gomer what we have gathered of it is so far from becomming our just proportion as all we have provided corrupteth and putrifieth and all we lay in above the precepted measure multiplyeth and bettereth all our provision For if we render any lesse then our precise obligation in this duty all we present is of no acceptation and what we offer above our debt augmenteth and sanctifieth all the rest Whereupon I must beseech you to remember that the love of enemies is not performed after the manner of gathering Manna in the Law but after that of managing the talent in the Gospel For it doth not hold in this charity 2 Cor. 8.15 that he who hath much aboundeth not and he that hath little wanteth not but this other rule is verified herein that to every one that hath shall be given and he shall abound and from him that hath not that also which he hath shall be taken from him since any deficiency in the precepted part of this charity which I have delivered you invalidates all the rest of our performances The least graine of malice to any one enemy voideth all our acquittances in this obligation and every graine of love given above measure proveth an increase of our stock 1 Cor. 13.7 Heb 6.9 We confidently trust of you my best beloved better things and neerer to salvation although we speak thus as it is seed of new grace which is the root of that excellent charity which suffereth all beleeveth all hopeth all and sustaineth all Whereupon in order to that charity I owe you I will put on S. Pauls confidence of his Countrymen and say Confidimus de vobis dilectissimi meliora viciniora saluti tametsi ita loquimur I will beleeve that you doe play the good husbands in that
against them for if you bring an enemy to heaven he giveth you eternall satisfaction for all his joy shall be set upon your crowne as an enrichment of it and that improvement of your glory shall also be an addition to his joy These then are designes fit for the members of Christ Jesus and the temples of the holy Ghost to raise our enemies up to our owne joyes and to exalt our joyes by this elevation of our enemies This was the method of Christ Jesus our head Phil. 2.9 by humbling himselfe and preferring his enemies he heightned himselfe 1 Joh. 3. as the Apostle telleth us For the which thing God hath also exalted him and hath given him a name which is above all names And all these actions were designed by Jesus for the converting enemies into friends and they who pretend to be made like him when they see him must procure to looke like him now upon their enemies that having sanctified themselves as he is holy and being translated from death to life by this love of our brother 1 Thes 4.17 we may be thought worthy to sit together with him in heavenly places when his enemies are his foot-stoole when the destruction of enemies affordeth a joy perfecting our charity and untill then we must endeavour to accomplish our charity by procuring to our utmost power the lessening of the number of these enemies that remaining in charity in this life we may be admitted into that region of love where life everlasting is in eternall charity and where we shall never see an enemy enter nor a friend depart Wherefore I will hope in God that you endeavour by your charity to bring your present enemies into that eternall tabernacle and by this course though you should faile of drawing your brothers they cannot of carrying you unto more elevated mansions in your Fathers house CHAP. XII Motives of joy to all sorts of Religious Sufferers HAving giving you this Evangelicall safe convoy through your enâ—mies quarters Rom. 12.20 by shewing you how the danger of this passage consisteth in your acting not enduring hostility since Saint Pauls precept agreeth with Elishahs practice in this point of not striking but setting bread and water before enemies blinded with their passions now at the end of this narrow way I shall endeavour to shew you how the issue thereof openeth into the spacious place the Psalmist saith his feet were put into which is spirituall joy tranquility and enlargment of heart For upon faithfull compliances with these duties I have discoursed I may present respectively to each of your conditions this Evangelicall congratulation of Gaudete exultate Mat. 5.12 Be glad and rejoyce for your reward is great in heaven quia merces vestra copiosa est in coelis To those that contested the procession of Christs Doctrine from God he proposeth this cleare decision of the question the observing first the will of God whereby they should discern the verity of his asseveration If any Iohn 7.17 saith he will doe the will of him he shall understand of the Doctrine whether it be of God And I may in like manner boldly put this doctrine of the blessednesse of affliction upon the same triall affirming that whosoever shall doe the will of God Iam. 1.11 shall evidently perceive this to be a principle of Divine verity Blessed is the man that suffereth tentation Wherefore upon supposition of your conformities to the rules of Catholike doctrine which have been delivered you in the manner of your sufferings it is that I adjudge unto you this assignation of Christ Mat. 5.10 Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice for theirs is the kingdome of heaven of Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam quia ipsorum est regnum coelorum So that you may convert all the Ordinances that dipossesse you of your transitory tenures in your country into evidences to entitle you to this Kingdome and make your enemies your best Stewards of your estates and consequently you may be accounted the only blessed party in this conjuncture What an advantage is it for those who are in this pious paine of the Psalmist of What shall I return to our Lord for all he hath bestowed to have God vouchsafe as I may say to serve himselfe and take from them that which is made more worthy of him by his taking then it could have beene by their giving For even in the sacrifice to God of all their estates they might peradventure have been mistaken in the application of it to the most acceptable designe of God upon theÌ„ but they who part cheerefully with what God taketh from them are sure it is disposed in the way of his choice and this is to give to God according to his owne election which is much securer then our owne designation I am not ignorant of the preference given to active Charity in this point in strict comparisons yet this seemeth an advantage which privation for Gods sake hath above action that we are certain of our vocation to that sort of service which God declareth to us by his imposition of it and we cannot be so secure in any project of our own for his glory that the time the manner and other circumstances are rightly consorted to Gods present purpose whereas in suffering religiously what is actually inflicted by God there can be no mis-judgement in these circumstances This is then an advantage every one may be assured to make in accepting piously their losses and deprivements to conclude their goods are more infallibly imployed according to Gods present will then their own hands could have addressed them to Gods purposes and so their devotions may be solaced in this desire of retributing somewhat to God even after their hands cease to be ministeriall in that office For they give him by this faithfull resignation all he resumeth and present him with their acceptance of the manner of his pleasure which is more valuable then the matter of any oblations Blessed are they to whom it is given to know these misteries of the kingdom of God for Afflictions seem not onely Parables but even Paradoxes to such as have not the key of the Crosse of Christ wherewith to open them 1 Cor. 1.18 for the Word of the Crosse to them that perish will be foolishnesse but to them that are saved that is to us it is the power of God and to finde the power of God in all your crosses I must desire every form of sufferers among you to examine it by this Principle That Crosses are not to be judged of according to the Praedicament of Quantitie but of relation that is you must not amuse your selves with thinking how much your are afflicted but apply your minds to finde how much you make of your afflictions The first is to stay with the Murmurers in the Gospell pondering the heat and burthen of the day the other is to weigh with S. Paul