nothing here but the bare use of things as all other Creatures nothing remains to him but the Immortal thoughts of Heaven to maintain himself in the advantage of his pretentions Let us then aim at Heaven our Native Soil if we be not willing to be placed among the number of Bruit Beasts and to the great undervaluing of the wise conduct of Jesus who by the thoughts of Immortality desires to wean our affections from the Earth and bring them to purchase an Immortal Glory CHAP. XXXI That the Angels are imployed to the Conversion of a Sinner I Do no more admire that Antiquity represented Love to be blind now that the super-adorable Sacrament of the Incarnation of Jesus has given us the full knowledge of that Riddle and taught us that we must not understand it of Humane Love but of Divine whereupon Theology gives us a notable distinction of those two Loves For Humane and Prophane Love which never labours but for its own Interest never does engage it self in the pursuit of any Object but what it supposes to be both good and worthy of Love and in so choosing it seems not to be blind But Divine Love by Loving renders what it Loves amiable can find therein no charms able to captivate tho' it Love but what proceeds from his own proper goodness It 's therein that it seems to be blind being that it loves a thing which is known before-hand to be nothing amiable Hypoâ—iposâ— A great Monarch moved to compassion at the disgrace of his Subject whom he sees reduced to that extremity as to Beg from door to door without the least overture of any ease to his misery Willing to release him out of that Thraldom becomes bound for him to his Creditors clears him of his Debts assigns him over a House of a thousand Crowns Rent commands his Officers to put him in possession of it and that none should dare to molest him in his Rights There is a great Love indeed This Subject forgets the good will and favour of his Prince he commits a crime of Leze Majestie in the first degree there he is condemned to die his Sentence is solemnly pronounced his Posterity must be blotted out of Mens memory a Piramide raised whereon in great Characters all Ages to come may see and read the horrour and grieviousness of his Offence Before the execution of that Sentence the Monarch comes and grants him his Pardon gives Orders that all the pieces of his Process be brought out of the Registers-Office of Parliament stands by and sees all burnt This is not all he commands upon pain of Death that a word should never be spoke of to his disgrace Of a meer Clown as he was he makes him a Gentleman gives him his Patents of Nobility and to confirm them he makes him a Knight of his own Order without doubt that is a particular Love This is not enough this Subject dies and leaves Children behind him who are like to be crossed by those that envied their Fathers great Fortune This Monarch apprehending such a disorder has an Inventory made of all his Goods puts the Money out to Use appoints a Prince of the Blood to be a Tutor to the Orphans and will have beyond all common Laws that he become accountable to him for the true Administration of his Charge Blind Love never to be paralel'd Jesus is our Monarch we are his Subjects Before the Creation what were we A no Being a meet negation a pure nothing Adam is no sooner come out of the Matrice of that Chaos but God puts him in Possession of Heaven and Earth expresly commanding all Nature to obey his Orders he commands his Angels to cast a Line and mark out the Platform of a Royal House of a magnificent Pallace of a Terrestrial Paradice All being set in good Order they bring him into that Inheritance he was not there full three hours when that by an Act of Fellony he becomes refractory to his Divine Majesty and by a manifest Rebellion he undervalues the Ordinances of his Sovereign through the unruly Appetite of a most vile concupiscence All Creatures would have been revenged of so great a disorder and the very insensible themselves drawing up his Process would have punished him in the very place but that the Dauphin of Heaven the Son and Heir of the Eternal Father undertakes to accommodate that matter makes himself to be put into his place takes from Humane Nature by Incarnation whereby to repair that disorder and make full satisfaction to the Parties offended in rigour of Justice through the Infinite Merit of his Proctorship The Criminal is restored to his Rights which he lost through his disobedience all the pieces of his Process are brought out of the Eternal Fathers Register-Office and nailed on the Cross never to be produced any more against the Transgressors does not this shew the greatness of God's Love for Men. Love goes on always increasing as the Morning-star and even as the fire never stops the course of its activity until that all combustible matters which entertains its action be taken away So the Divine love never gives over to spread its flames whilst it finds objects capable of its Impression And in case he finds none he creates some For man the second time becoming insolent and being surprised in Rebellion his Arms in his hands that is committing of actual sin was resolved to nail once more Jesus his Redeemer on the Cross as St. Paul tells me Action which ought to set a stop to the course of his love but that he puts a mask on his eyes and seems not to take notice of our insolencies he appoints his Priests to be Commissaries to examine and judge the Delinquents but with orders not to deal rigorously with them nor according to all the points of Law and that he will never fail to confirm the graces of Absolution which his Judges shall give so be that they do attest the repentance of the penitent Nay and which is more he is resolved to give them Letters of Nobility and make them Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost if they do but leave off their base trading with Creatures and exercise themselves in the noble actions of Heaven and Salvation And because that those extraordinary favours will be an object of contradiction and of revolt to Devils by reason of their ancient jealousie of our happiness God even to hinder their bad design has put us in the Safeguard and under the protection of good Angels making them our Overseers to manage his Graces in us and improve his Inspirations in our hearts whilst we shall remain in our minority The Articles of that Overseeing are distinctly set down in the Holy Scripture in the Book of Exodus Exod. 23. where among other advices which God gives to Moses and to all the popularity of Israelites for to pass happily through the Desarts never to be weary in their journey to get the victory
of his main Grief and Sorrow is a sufficient strong argument to make you believe that you shall never purchace Heaven nor attain to any considerable stock of Virtue but by the Touch-stone of Mortification and Pennance For if Heaven suffers Violence and that the Son of God had it upon that account how can we pretend to it at a cheaper rate Whatever way you look upon this Spiritual Generation it can never be accomplish'd without Grief For first if you look upon the Soul when she receives the first Seed of the word of God what trouble what pains she is in to conceive the Fruit of Life what resistance she finds in her self to a strong resolution of Amendment A little more of my Unlawful Pleasures says St. Augustin to morrow to morrow I will withdraw from the World and quit all my evil Inclinations but why not this day See the Battle re-mark the resistance we ought to stand always in fear of some bad issue in us of the word of God seeing we are so backward to receive it Nec statim finis industriae addidisse sed tunc alterius laboris exordâ—um est ut lactentem infantiam sedulis nutrimentis studiis usque ad plenam Christi perducat aetatem D. Hier. in c. 3. ad Galat. so unwilling to entertain it and so prone to blot it clear out of our hearts Moreover what pains is man at to bring this fruit to perfection when once conceiv'd he must have it always in his arms wrapt it up in Clouts give it the Tunick of a right intention and the double Vest of Charity until that it comes to the perfect Age of Jesus But if this Seed be cast on a malicious and stony Heart what violence must there be to bring that fruit of Life to Perfection and tear assunder the obdurate Skin and Sinews of that rusty body of our inveterate malice What streams of Blood must run from the Mothers Womb and what cruel Gripings must she suffer before she comes to be deliver'd no love for the World nor there must be no Friendship for Flesh and Blood These are the preparations absolutely requir'd by the Prophet-Royal to make this new born Child appear in his full lustre to the World Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me Psal 118. The number of my Sins says he has made up for my poor Soul a net of Ropes wherein all Inspirations from Heaven are intangled and Putrify'd Putruerunt corruptae sunt cicatrices meae à facie insipientiae meae Psal 37. v. 6. as if they had fallen into a most rotten Sink My continual folly and my re-iterating so often my Crimes has thoroughly corrupted my Sores but my Remedy is near at hand a True Repentance to have ever offended so Patient and Merciful a God and therefore by the assistance of his Holy Grace I will break loose the Cords of all my Abominations and Crimes Laboravi clamans raucae factae sunt fauces meae Psal 68. v. 4. and will cry and call so long to the Heavens for relief to my weak endeavours that my Voice shall become altogether Hoarse Was ever poor man so intangl'd in the Ropes of his Old Imperfections as St. Augustine was But was ever poor man so perplex'd or did ever any man labour so much to get loose as he did in his Confessions he would move a stony heart to compassion Here you may see him stretch'd on the ground and suffer as much as one troubled with a Wind-Collick there you may perceive him get up of a sudden as one troubled with a Convulsion-fit here the running streams of his bitter tears make a channel from his Eyes over all his Face there he lies in his sad dumps without any feeling he goes Ecce intus eras ego foris ibi te quaerebam in ista formosa quae fecisti defermis irruebam me cum eras iterum non eram vocasti clamasti rupisti suditatem meam fragrasta duxi Sâ—ritum anhelo tihi gustani esurio tetigisti me exarsi in pacem tuam D. Aug. tom 1. lib. 10. confes c. 27. per totam he comes he speaks like one Distracted he is so tormented with his evil he calls God to his assistance he arms himself with Impatience against himself his Spirit sets him on but his Flesh retains him he will and will not and by not willing what he wills he puts himself to a deal of pain he sees that he must of necessity Break loose with the Devil if he aims to serve God and enjoy his Glory But the old acquaintance of Ladies those alluring and deceiptful pleasures of the World heretofore his greatest Joy and only Recreation now look at him with a Smiling countenance and renew his wounds to make him miscarry Augustin your doleful expressions moves me to compassion but you must have Patience It 's a Sentence pronounced at the Bar and by the Conclave of the Blessed Trinity that your Delivery must be with Grief and Sorrow and that you must undergo a great deal of hardship if you do intend to bring forth another Jesus on the Model of the Word-Incarnate CHAP. VI. That this Sorrowful Delivery is the Accomplishment of the Word-Incarnate ACcomplishment is a term and a way of speaking much us'd by Phylosophers to express the last perfection of each Nature either in the constitution of her bare Being or in the further flourishing or ornament of her well-Being And as in the division of Beings there are found four sorts Metaphysical Physical Moral and Artificial so each has his accomplishment as well Essential as Accidental I do not here take the word Accidental in its rigorous signification for that which can be and not be without the corruption of its subject but only for all that does not enter into the precise constitution of the Essence Let us leave those terms to Phylosophers Let us come to the point and say that the Incarnation may be reduc'd to many states First if we do consider it in the Eternal and Infinite Conceptions of God not as yet determin'd by the difference of times then its Essential accomplishment shall be Gods Eternal determination of the same viz. That among many other means which he might make choice of for to work the Redemption of man he resolv'd the Incarnation of his dearly beloved Son with an obligation of Suffering which determination puts a stop to all other possible ways of Redemption to bring it to that of a Suffering and Crucified Love And in so doing I may reduce the Incarnation to a Metaphysical state But the Physical state is that Hypostatical Union ever to be Ador'd which has joyn'd together in the fulness of time those Extremities so far assunder the Divine and Humane Nature and which has given us the Divine Child Jesus and only delights of mankind for to put in Execution that work so much importing the Welfare and Happiness of all
Erravi sicut ovis quae periit c. Psal 118. and last end but moreover he must be sorry to have opposed himself to the common good of all humane nature The eloquent St. Lyon Ovis una homo intelligendus est in unius enim adae errore omne genus humanum aberravit D. Hilar. Can. 18. had no less than reason to invite all men to a serious consideration of their Nobility and to conceive a high esteem for their Soul the best and chiefest part of their Individium being that the care and management of her Salvation is the imployment of a Divinity I strayed like a Sheep that was lost but O Lord find out your Servant says the King of Prophet St. Hillarion understands this lost Sheep to be all mankind misled by Adam's errour O how happy man is to have God for his Buckler to defend him and for his Champion to raise and redress him when he falls from the right way which leads to Salvation The excellency of an action must be derived either from its end or from its beginning or from both together so the actions of Jesus are noble by reason of the Divine supposit who does appropriate them to himself Those of God are as yet more noble because that their end and beginning are but the self-same thing And amongst creatures that must be the most honourable that shall have for their end the enjoyment and possession of his first beginning which is God Such is humane nature for to speak properly the work of Grace and the Fathers action in the production of the Word have but one way through which the current of Divine emanations does pass to the Holy Ghost that is the Son It is by the same Son says St. Basil that Grace does pass whether she descends to the Soul or whether she returns to her Fountain Ego sum via veritas vita Joan 14. v. 6. I am says our Saviour the Way the Truth and the Life if then the beginning the way and the end gives the title of pre-eminency to the action what shall we say of the conversion of a Soul which has for beginning the Eternal Father who is the first Off-spring of all filiations missions and motions that tend to good For way and passage the Son of God and for co-operator the Holy Ghost who happily makes all the work of our justification return to the beginning and source from whence it flows Here must the Angelical nature strike her Flag to pay homage to Grace and acknowledge that if the Divinity Judges the conversion of Souls an imployment worthy of her amorous Occupations She is highly honoured to be called to the Guardianship of Men. The Pagan whose feeling and expression was that he had not received Life or Understanding but for to contemplate Heaven would find now-a-days subject enough to give a sound and just check to Christians if by the light of Faith he had come to understand the particular care that God takes to convert and Deifie a Soul and doubt not but that at the hour of death the long List of our transactions shall be set before our eyes as also so many inventions of Love drawn out of the Treasures of the Eternal Wisdom and all imployed to work our conversion but to no purpose our malice and our obdurate hearts being so sunk in unlawful pleasures have rendred all those endeavours and inventions Fruitless There is nothing more displeasing to a liberal Prince than to see those on whom he bestowed his favours to repay him with ungratefulness Let us then begin to conceive an esteem for God's great favours and liberality to us and concurring with our liberties to the design of his love let us follow him step by step until that he does accomplish in us that Master-piece which can have no other model but the Word Incarnate CHAP. IX The Confidence that a Soul ought to have in her God THat Child all the rest of his days may live without care and Glory that the Heavens attended his Birth with a favourable constellation when he met with a Father who loves him as the Apple of his Eye who studies nothing more than his advancement and spares no labour or care to make him great in the World The Marriners who undertake a long Voyage and oblige themselves to Sail on the main Seas may lie down and take their rest without any disturbance when they do meet with a Master Pilot so well vers'd in his Art that he foresees all Winds and foul Weather the beginning progress and falling of a Storm and is ignorant of nothing that belongs to the secret practice of Navigation The Soldier may boldly march forward to a breach and face his enemies without apprehension when he Fights under the Command and Conduct of a Wise and Valiant Captain who by long Experience has Learn'd to venture nothing rashly to find out Stratagems when Force fails and in all Rencounters to remain victorious Master both of the Field and of all his Enemies spoils whether he does retreat Honourably or stand stedfast to his Ground What the Affectionate Father is to his Children the Pilot well experienc'd to his Sea-men and the Valiant Captain to his Soldiers The same is the Creator of the Universe by way of Super-eminency to all his Creatures God is to us a good Father Patrem dicendo veniam peccatorum paenarum interitum justificationem sanctificationem liberationem filiorum adoptionem haereditatem Dei fraternitatem cum unigenito copulatam sancti Spiritus dona largissima uno sermone signavit Do. Chrys hom 20. in cap. 6. Matth. statim initio for where will you find a Father so desirous of the Temporal advancement of his Children as God has appear'd Passionate for the good of Man His Affection is soon known by his dividing and sharing to them as well the moveable Goods of Time as the immoveable and permanent Felicities of Eternity The Heavens are for us and all their Coelestial Globes so Artificially wrought one into another doe not continue their Motions but to entertain the course of Sublunary Generations The Elements do not subsist in the variety of their Effects but upon our account and for our Welfare if the Earth does ptoduce fine Flowers and Fruit it is to present them to us the most adorable Mystery of the Incarnation gives us an assurance of all the Goods of Eternity It is a Contract of Association by virtue of which we are made Gods Heirs and Coheirs to his only and dearly beloved Son And to the end that this Contract should have the more force he left us his real Body the most precious Guift he could afford as the Interest of a thousand Blessings which according to his Promise we are to receive in Heaven Quis est hic quia venti mare obediunt ei Matth. 8. v. 27. God is to us a most Experienc'd Pilot
of that which he began viz. the Conversion of Sinners he ought to give the means most proper and the necessary Instructions to attain to that end There they have it in St. Matthew Matth. c. v. 19. Luceat lux vestra coram hominibus ut videant opera vestra bona let your Light shine before Men not by making the fire of Heaven to come thundring down on the Criminal and guilty Heads of Sinners not by commanding the Earth to open its flanks to swallow into its Bowels all Obstinate and Rebellious Souls nor the Air to form and let fly its Thunder-bolts to frighten the World Ego lucem accendi ut vero peseveret ardens vestri sit studii non propter me vosque ipsos tantum verum etiam propter eos qui eadem luce potientur vobisque ducentibus viam veritatis invenient D. Chrysost to 2. hom 15. in c. 5. Matth. But by rendring your selves imitable by your good and Holy Conversation to the end that Sinners seeing your good Works may Glorifie your Father which is in Heaven St. John the Baptist wrought no Miracles at least that ever we heard of either by History or otherwise But his Conversation was so Powerful to move Souls that all Herod's Court were his Admirers the austerity he always observ'd in his Eating and Drinking the Courseness of his Garment his Zeal in Preaching and extolling the Glory of Pennance put so great a feeling into the Hearts of Sinners that he drew them after him as the Load-stone draws the Iron D. Basil Epist 175. St. Basil relates that such as went to the chase of Pidgeons in his time thought of a very good invention to draw them into their Pidgeon-houses they would take a tame and Domestick Pidgeon and put a grain or two of Musk under her wings and afterwards let her fly This little Creature soon after would fall into the company of wilde ones and draw them where-ever she went with the sweet Perfume she had hidden under her Wings Christi bonus odor sumus in omni loco 2 Cor. cap. 2. v. 16. Foelix praedicator qui sic praedicat evidenter ut sit odor Christi non foetor antichristi Gozra in c. 2. Corint Coelius Rhodig lib. 6. antique lection cap. 29. Jesus Christ is a Pidgeon who bears under the Wings of his Humanity the Musk of a Coelestial conversation the Girls of the Cantick followed him at the Scent of his Perfumes The Apostles as St. Paul says are Musked Pidgeons sent by Jesus Christ over all the World to Perfume all Nations and bring them by the sweet smell of their Angellical Conversation to the Pidgeon-house of his Church We may read in Coelius Rhodignus that at a certain Banquet where the seven wife Men of Greece met there was according to their custom a Question proposed Which was the House and Family that they might lawfully call most happy Solon answered it was that which was well stor'd with Riches lawfully gotten and well managed Cleobulus where the Master made himself more to be loved than feared Pettacus Propter nos conscientia nostra sufficit nobis fama propter proximum qui autem bonae conscientiae fidens famam negligit crudelis est Gozram in c. 8. 2. ad Corinth where all things abounded as well for decency as necessity Chilon where the Family was Governed after a Monarchick way and so of the rest But Bias in my thoughts hit best when he said that the most happy was where the Master and Servants were as well ordered and ruled in their exteriour conversation among Men Sanctificatus est enim vir infidelis per mulierem fidelem 1 Cor. 7. v. 13. as if they had been daily in the presence of the Gods St. Paul seems to be of the very same opinion when he councels a Woman who had taken an Infidel to her Husband not to forsake him Inter omnia quae regunt hominem in viae salutis praecipuum est sequi societatem sanctorum hoc ostendit psalmus verbo cum sancto sanctus eris Coeciliae facto quae virum suum ad fidem convertit Gozram in c. 7. 1 Cor. because she might convert him by her good Example by her sweet and most Friendly Conversation Magdalen ought to return many thanks to her Sister Martha for who do you think was it that made her resolve to go hear Jesus Preach in Jerusalem where she received the most lively feelings of her Conversion if we give credit to Tradition it was her good Sister Jesus may most lawfully claim the best and chiefest part in that holy and most happy Penitents Conversion But the good company of Martha and her rare Examples of Virtue did much contribute to it Our antient Fathers who knew by their long experience the great advantage of good and commendable company esteemed nothing so much as to meet with a virtuous Man to whose prudence they might impart their most secret thoughts I shall always harbour a good opinion of a Christian whilst he delights to be among good People We cannot remain any long time near Roses but we must partake of their smell Virtue is a Charm to allure all those that come near it One shall hear ten Sermons without any alteration of life who by seeing a good Christian in a Church with a dejected countenance a modest face and a posture altogether Religious shall be moved to compunction The Tongue may speak wonders but the Hands must work them A Prelate will make Statutes and Decrees far surpassing those of Lycurgus or Corondas But if his life be not conformable to his Laws all will soon vanish away We must then have an esteem for good company being God does appoint them as a means much conducing to our Salvation CHAP. XXII If any thing be contrary to the Conversion of a Sinner it must be bad and scandalous company THe Prophet-Royal had very good reason to begin his Psaltery Videte ne fortè licentia vestra offendiculum fiat infirmis c. 1 Cor. 8. v. 9. 12. by declaring him a blessed man who is never found in the Assembly of the wicked never known to go the same Road with Sinners and never seen to sit in the Chair of Pestilence It was a great happiness for Enoch to have quitted the World so soon Sap. c. 4. v. 10 Raptus est ne malitia mutaret intellectum ejus c. for God made haste to transport him from Iniquities to a place of assurance far from the society of the wicked where he might preserve the integrity of his life Principium beatudinis sapientiae sanctitatis est separari à commercio improborum non haec quidem perfecta beatitudo sed exordium gradus primus Engub in Psal 1. If it be commendable to resort to Wise and Virtuous Men because with them we may soon profit both in Wisdom and in Virtue It is very hard to preserve
our Innocency among them that glory in nothing more than in Vice It 's there that a man must have a great deal of force and courage where Virtue cannot uphold Her Prerogatives but by force of Arms. You shall find but very few Mercury's in the World Qui cum sapientibus graditur sapiens erit amicus stultorum similis efficietur Eccles 13. v. 20. to shew and set you in the way of Virtue when you happen to fall out of the Road For every one following the beaten ways which lead to perdition know not the secret and by-paths by which the Wise make their escape to arrive at the Port of their everlasting rest The Israelites mixing themselves with God's Enemies learned among them in a short time to make Idols prophane the Sanctuary undervalue Divine Worship They had been far more happy if as Job whom Origen calls the Pidgeon among the Kites the Lilly among the Thorns the Lamb among the Wolves they had got out of the company of Infidels without a spot as he departed blameless out of the Society and Congregation of the Hussites People may tell me that 't is hard to break off so with his Friends contrary to the rules of civility But I answer that it is a great piece of folly that a man should suffer himself to be consumed by the flames of a scorching Fire rather than remove himself a little further off Never was a wicked Man a good Friend It 's a great honour says St Isidore to have bad livers to be his Enemies Isid lib. 2. soliloque for it 's an evident sign that he whose licentious life we do abhor will have but very little authority or none at all to leave in us any Impression of his evil qualities Sicut multa bona habet communis vita Sanctorum sic plura mala affert societas malorum sicut ergo optandum est ut boni pacem habeant ad invicem sic optandum est ut mali sint ap invicem discordes Beda in locis communibus cap. 62. For it 's not enough to have the object present for to invite us to consent to action there must be moreover an inclination and a natural Instinct in the Agent and something in the object also able to draw the Agent to action which shews that a good Christian who has made it his aim and conduct of his life to shun above all things the company of the wicked will easily escape their contagion if by a serious discussion he comes to understand their malice If there were no other consideration for to invite us to fly from evil company but that of our own proper Interest it 's more than sufficient for being it is true that where two or three are assembled in God's name God is there present to powre down his Blessings on them Also by the rules of opposition I must conclude that where two or three are assembled but not in God's name there God is never present otherwise than well-stor'd with Maledictions which he thunders down on their heads If the Fire of Heaven descend on such an Assembly it 's not the Fire of the Holy Ghost No no they must be the Thunder-bolts of God's Indignation and Wrath. St. Ambrose speaking of St. Peter in his dangers of Shipwrack makes this subtile Observation that whilst he was alone in his Vessel he had all things to his hearts desire a brave Sun clear Sky calm Sea favourable Wind Judas comes no sooner in but the Sun darkens the Skies are cloudy the Sea swells up the Wind blows high a Storm comes on the Bark is in danger Shipwrack is near at hand You would say that the hand which gives a motion to that Element commands both Heaven Wind and Weather to cry vengeance and be angry with all the company upon Judas's account and only for his consideration So often the good are punished when they do happen among bad livers Et dixerunt ad invicem nonne cor nostrum ardens erat Luk. 74. ◠32 Would to God that all our conversations were as profitable to our Neighbours as that of Jesus was to the Pilgrims of Emaus who returning from Jerusalem had the happiness to meet him in the Road They draw near him they speak to him they hear his discourse with attention being come to their Lodging one says to another tell me in good earnest was not your heart all in a flame as mine was whilst he discoursed with us in the way Did you not feel in your self a lightness of heart As for my part the way appeared to me very short I thought I was not a quarter of an hour going all that long Journey But what do you think was the subject of Jesus's discourse Was it of Histories made for pleasure of Romances of Discourse without any ground of unprofitable words of common Affairs and of no Consequence No no he gives them a right understanding of Scripture of the Mistery of the Incarnation of other Misteries of Faith of the Resurrection and of the Wonders of Heaven The Prophet Isaiah complains of a great misfortune which happened to him Vae mihi quia tacui quia vir pollutus labiis ego sum in medio populi polluta labia habentis ego habito Isa c. 6. v. 5. viz. to have conversed with over-much familiarity among a People who had their lips polluted A Conversation which was so prejudicial to him that in accusing himself of it he cries wo be to me who for suffering my self to be carried on by the current of common and unprofitable discourse have already forgotten to speak of God extinguish'd the Spirit of fervour which did heretofore animate me to publish his Glory in all places wherever I went It is certain D. Chrost in c. 6. Isaiae D. Hieron ibid. says St. Cyril and St. Jerome that one of the greatest faults which Saints might have committed is to be over-much familiar with Worldlings For besides that overmuch familiarity breeds contempt we do easily contract the habits of them whose company is grateful to us One shall come out of his Cloister pure as an Angel Ebriosus convictores in amorem vini traxit impudicorum coetus fortem si liceat virum emollit Seneca lib. 3. de ira who at his return shall surpass the deformity of an Ethiopian The brave Meditations which were the grateful entertainments and Glorious Imployments of his Spirit in Prayer shall be confounded with so many Worldly shapes and evaporated into Millions of extravagant discourses His heart which you might see to vent out so many devout Aspirations and Holy Affections for his God lances out no more but the prophane Darts of a more prophane and unruly Love That Soul peaceable and far from all troubles naturally inclined to Virtue becomes tepid lazy and has no more for her constant entertainment but perpetual distractions I know that what is related in the Gospel of Scribes Pharisees Valdè
is the Herb Nepenthe so much cried up by Homer which mixt among our actions doth banish all sadness and gives us the fore-taste of Glory yea and leaves us the smell of so grateful a conversation among Men and so great an esteem of us with God Bias interrogatus quidnam in vita metu vacaret respondit bona conscientia that our Neighbour covets our company to ease him of his sadness and God the presence of our hearts for to take his delight therein The guilty Conscience contrariwise is a Tyrant who tears us a Serpent who devours us a Devil who torments us Caesar provoked the Gods and for not appeasing their Justice by the humbleness of his Vows Lucanus lib. 1. Pharsal Lucan represents him on the Stage of this World in so deplorable a state that he did imagine at all hours that the points of all the Lances broken in the Battle of Pharsalia were gathered and planted in his Breast Conscientia est quae homines punit cum se malè operatos fuisse recogitant eádem furiarum paenas apposuit Oresti quando adversus matrem insaniit Philostrat lib. 7. de vita Apollonij cap. 7. Orestes for the Murders committed on the persons of Pyrrhus Egistus and Clitemnestra ran over all parts like a man possest with the Devil and had no other answer to make his Friends but that his Conscience tormented him for his crimes so that Pilades brought him to the Temple of Diana the Taurick for to expiate his Offences Pausanias thought he went a cunning way to free himself of the worm of his Conscience but he was deceived for Cleonica whom he had lately kill'd in cold blood after he had deflower'd her appears unto him every night accompanied with a Meager countenance does publish his bloody act Surge ad supplicium valde est damnosa libido and summons him to appear before the Gods to receive the punishment they will ordain for so horrid a Murder Herod the most cruel of Men Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum Juvenale Satyr 13. an insatiable blood-sucker who fearing to have any Competitor in his Kingdom pursued his proper Children to death and put his dear Mariamne also to the Sword Quisquis malus est malè secum est torqueatur necesse est ipse enim est poena sua fugit ab inimico quo potuerit à se autem quo fugiet D. Aug. tom 8. in Psal 36. Judas the most perfidious of Mortals who withdraws himself both from the Union and Communion of the Apostles to contrive that damnable Treachery against Jesus his proper Master What do you think is the state of their Conscience after such execrable crimes That man weary of his life gnawed with Worms eaten with Lice banished from all Friends troublesom to all people insupportable to himself as he thinks to smother the remorse which gnaws his Conscience he cries vengeance more and more Sic tantum in sontes Nemesis divina redundans Majori in poenam foenore tarda venit and calls to his aid all the Furies of Hell to exterminate out of the number of the living that unfortunate Canibal The other had no sooner made overture of his bad design to the Jews but he presently falls into Despair by the appointment of his own Conscience which condemns him out of hand and as a Serjeant or a Sheriffs Bayliff forces out of his Pocket the Pence of his Sale ties him Pinions him and brings him to the Gallows there to end his days and Preach from the top of that Gibbet to all mankind that we may sometimes escape the censure and Judgement of Men but that we cannot delude our Conscience when she does condemn us as Guilty of having offended the Divine Majesty Saphonias cap. 1. v. 12. Sophonias speaking of the diligent search which the Chaldeans were to make for the Jewish Nation that none of them should escape from being their Slaves represents God taking of Lanthorns to make that earnest discussion and our Doctors transporting the meaning of those words to a Tropologick sence takes that Examen for the narrow search which is to be made at the day of Judgement where God by the means of the five Created Lanthorns which are the Law and Word of God the Angels and Devils the Sun the Moon and Stars the life of Jesus Christ and of his Saints But above all the remorse of Conscience shall make a solemn Inquisition of all mens lives and what must be done that day in view of all the World is practic'd at the hour of death in the particular Judgement We have read hereof in the life of the Fathers an authentick Example of one Stephen a Hermit who for the space of forty years had renowned his Penance with a Million of Heroick actions lying on his Bed sick as if he had been before his Judge to answer what was laid to his charge nothing was heard of the questions but only the answers of the Accused At one time he would say yea 't is true but for satisfaction of that sin I Fasted three whole years Another time he would cry with a loud voice No I am not guilty of that I had the temptation of it but God gave me the Grace not to consent to it A quarter of an hour after you would see him lift himself on a sudden up in his Bed as a man in a hot dispute with another you do urge me over-much let me breath a little give me but a short respit of time to think of what you do accuse me And being ready to yield up his Ghost on the one side he looks with an eye of compassion at his Brothers humbly beseeching them to pray for his Soul And on the other side he makes his Addresses to the Crucifix his last refuge conjuring his Redeemer through the Merits of his Blood not to Judge him according to the rigorous depositions of his Conscience It 's true then that God has placed in our hearts a secret Intelligence an inward Motion a private Commissary we must follow that Intelligence wherever it leads us we must esteem that Commissary and all his advices when he tells us of the Princes will Gloria nostra haec est testimonium conscientiae nostrae 1 Cor. cap. 1. v. 12. Senti de Augustino quicquid volueris sola me in oculis Dei conscientia non accuset D. Aug. contra Secundinum Manich. c. 10. You shall find many in this World who will complain of their Ignorance and make their Appology that they do not know the things necessary to Salvation that the Casuists are so contrary one to another that in lieu of clearing their doubts they do wrap them up into as many difficulties as they have contrary feelings some make the way to Heaven so large and spacious that the great and destructive Engine of Troy might easily go through Others make the door so narrow that hardly any can get in
heaviness distaste and sadness And on the other part to let us know when we shall be brought to that State whom to make our addresses to to find true consolation In all Arts as well Mechanick as Liberal say the Masters Hoc dixit quia multi clamant in tribulatione qui non exaudiuntur ad voluntatem sed ad salutem Ibid. there is a certain secret which they will hardly communicate There is in humane life also a secret to live contentedly which I would wish all the World had known Dear Reader here it is for you in three words Love only where you ought to Love and you shall never be heavy at the Heart you shall be always content you shall see sometimes one in the turning of a hand to be altogether changed in his humours of a jolly hearty companion become on a sudden mournful sad drowzy whatever he sees pains him where others find their recreation he gets wherewith to entertain his Melancholly he shuns all company to give more leasure and liberty to his dark thoughts to grieve him and trouble his Rest the more Has he a desire to get out of that dimness where Sadness sits in her Throne Will he know whence he had that grim Companion that litigious Domestick that trouble-feast who sets a disorder over all the Commonwealth of the Soul Let him not find fault with the bad constitution of his Body Let him not attribute any thing to the change of Seasons nor to the Influence of the Stars for none of them are the cause of his heaviness But let him examine his own affections let him never give over to search until he discovers the Object that retains them For doubtless they are in some place where true consolation cannot be lodged Omnis nostra tribulatio est ex nobis sed consolatio ex solo Deo ex nobis sunt conturbationes sed ex Deo finis earum Incognit in Psal 41. D. Aug. 4. Cons c. 12. as in some Creature or in some vain hope finding out this too to be true let him love where he ought to love Let him withdraw his affections thence and place them where Justice Reason and his own Interest will have them to be and I do assure him in God's Name with St. Augustine that he has found the secret to live content and happy in this World There is nothing so much to be admired in the process of times as to see how God to teach this secret to Men Summons them to the experience of a thousand Fatal accidents and permits them to place their desires according to the choice of their liberty how he permits afflictions heaviness to rise at the very instant Men thought to rest happy and repose themselves sweetly in the Lap of consolation and Peace Was there any thing more Glorious in appearance than Belissarius under Justinian the Emperour Belissarius the most Valiant Captain that ever bore Arms in the three Neighbouring Ages who reduced the Persians under the obedience of his Prince who supprest the insolency of the Goths over all Italy who went along to Africk to Subdue those Barbarous Nations whence he brought Prisoner the King Gilismer as the Crown of his Victories He returns to Court full of Glory gives an account of his Actions brings Scepters and Crowns to the Feet of Justinian hoping to find Peace Tranquility and a favourable Reception as a Reward of his Fidelity But God who will not have Man to lean upon the brittle Staff of Creatures to find his Consolation suffers that He who was obliged for his life to Belissarius enters into a Jealousy of the Honour of his Conquests forgets all the hazards wherein he exposed himself for his Service has both his eyes pluckt out of his Head strips him out of all his Means reduces him to a State of such extream misery that poor Belissarius is constrained to build himself a little Cabin of Dung and Straw on the High-road to ask the Alms of Passengers for the love of God Euseb lib. 2. Hist cap. 5. Belissarius had lodged his hopes very ill but Philo the Jew more wise than he found out the secret Deus non tibi declarat ipsam misericordiam quam tibi per diem mandavit nisi per noctem cum venorat ipsa tribulatio tunc adjutorio te non deserit ostendit tibi verum fuisse quod tibi per diem mandavit etenim scriptum est speciosa misericordia Domini in tempore tribulationis sicut nubes pluviae in tempore siccitatis D. Aug. tom 1. in Psal 41. for being accused by Appion before Cajus Caligula and being very hard put to for to justifie himself of what was laid to his charge failed not nevertheless to find in short his true Consolation He turns himself with a smiling countenance towards his Country-men courage my Companions here is the hour come wherein it is necessary that God should comfort us seeing all Humane assistance has failed us As if he would say that God by a solemn Decree of his Divine Providence has as it were obliged himself to Man that at the same time when he shall know by experience that a Creature cannot be the Object of his Consolations and that he will convert himself to him he will receive him in his Arms to comfort him in all his Afflictions and Heaviness of Heart It is then very true that he who has found out the secret of living contentedly has concluded out of the weakness of Creatures and by their inability to furnish any true contentment that God alone is He who can really comfort him a consequence which is very easie to be deduced if we will but suppose a Principle known of it self to be true by natural reason which is that all Men in general without exception of any whatever desires to be content and live happy This good luck is never found but in the pursuit or in the enjoyment of our last end after which there is no more to be desired But it is most evident by the ordinary unquietness of our mind which is never here at rest through the unruliness of our Souls always at the chase of new affections by reason of the disordered Appetite of all our faculties which are never satisfied with the Metaphorical food of their Objects That the Creature cannot be our last end seeing it cannot afford us so much good at once as that we may never desire any more God alone then remains for our last end for he only can give such contentment and so perfect that after it we cannot desire any more And therefore no Consolation can be true if it has not the full enjoyment of its last end But because there is a great difference betwixt the Desire and the Enjoyment of the thing desired and that this true Consolation which all Men look for is as the Golden-Fleece of Antiquity that could not be carried away without danger of life and that we
from Ariadne But he who once shall fall into Hell can never get out of it I know that Origen could never submit his Spirit to believe that a sin committed in an instant deserved an Eternity of pains imagining that the Mercy of God after a long Series of years would have compassion on those unfortunate wretches But by over-much raising his Mercy he brought his Justice very low and by stretching over-much the Arms of his Clemency he would fain cut short that of his just rigour He ought to consider Vide D. Aug. l. 21. Civit. â— 23. 24. seâ— that Justice and Mercy in God flowing from the same principle I mean his Divine nature have also for rule of all their actions the same Nature always equal and uniform Cum Christus in eodem ipso loco in una eademque sententia dixerit ibunt justi autemin vitam aeternam c. Paulo infra God does no injury to Man when he will have that in a moment of conversion he merits Heaven no more does he do him any wrong when he ordains that in a moment and for a moment of aversion he be Damn'd Par pari relata sunt hinc supplicium aeternum inde vita aeterna dicere autem in hoc uno eodemque sensu vita aeterna sine fine erit supplicium aetornum finem habebit multum absurdum est D. Aug. tom 5. l. 21. Civit. c. 23. in fine if he does die in that state For if any thing could be said to this that God does punish a Sinner with an Eternity of pains for having sinned in a moment there might be likewise somewhat said to this that for a moment of Penance for an act of Contrition produced in an instant he gives him an Eternity of glory none as yet was ever scandaliz'd by the second no more ought any complain of the first being that all things are equal in the one and in the other The Love of God above all things is that fundamental reason which causes the moment of Conversion to be rewarded with an Eternity of Glory and the hatred of God above all things inclosed in that moment of sin is the only cause of that Eternity of punishment If that moment had taken the evil consequences of its continuation only from the principle whence it departs it should be limitted and have some end But because it has for its Object an offended God whose Majesty is infinite it must be likewise Eternal and without end A Criminal Condemn'd to a hundred and one years of Bondage that is to say for all his life comforts himself nevertheless in two things the one that at last his Torments will end with his death the other that he shall not be always obliged to live in Slavery In Hell 't is an Eternity where they do not know what is a hundred years no more than a hundred thousand millions of years The length of time never produces the habit of enduring which renders Hell more insupportable For the same feelings which the Damn'd Souls will have the first day of their condemnation will continue in the same degree of rigour for an Eternity My God if I cannot suffer for the space of one Pater Noster the top of my Finger on a red Cole what shall I do if my Iniquities oblige me to live for an Eternity in those Flames CHAP. XLIII The third Consideration of Hell TO be for ever banish'd from Paradise and deprived of the Vision of God 't is a thought that goes beyond all that can be said of misfortune Never to see that Divine Face which does rejoyce the Angels that source of all Goodness from whence all the blessed derive the vivifying Spirit of their Beatitude That voluntary Looking-glass wherein all Creatures are to be seen eminently comprehended as in their originary principle can any thing be thought of more deplorable Super flumina Babilonis illic sedimus flevimus cum recordaremur tui Sion The Children of Israel sitting along the Banks of Babylon looking on one side at the Waters which by the swiftness of their course flowed by and ran away without ever stopping a lively Image of the passing Pleasures of this World On the other side beholding that Beautiful Sion whence they were carried by force to be led to Captivity would let flye a Million of languishing sighs from the bottom of their Hearts they are commanded to sound their Trumpets play on their Harps pinch their Lutes they answer that it is to treat them most inhumanely to require them to Sing at so extream a misfortune and that they could not exalt the Praises of the Lord in a strange Land They are I must confess miserable in this point of their Captivity But the day will come that they will return Tryumphing to Jerusalem when that by the sencerity of their humiliations they will appease the indignation of the Omniponentâ— The Damn'd Soul will have Eternal wishes to see her God and the Beauties of the Coelestial Jerusalem Wishes really which would not be so troublesome to her if God had deprived her of the lights of Faith For had she not so distinct a knowledge of the Good she looses Durandus in 3. distinct 25. 9. 9. Art 2. Alensis 3. part q. 64. memb 7. Catharinis Salmeron in c. 2. Jacob. Greg. de Vatentiaâ— 2. q 5. art 2. punct 2. she would have less feeling of her misery she is deprived of Hope and Charity And yet some Doctors worthy of Belief are of opinion that Faith remains to her intire which sets incessantly before her eyes the loss of her God and makes her clearly understand that by her own proper malice she has brought her to that irrevocable Exile and that she has Banish'd her self for ever from the intuitive Vision of God's Essence God lets her to see the degree of Glory which was pepar'd for her in his Eternal Idea's if making her profit of the Graces of Heaven she had amended her Life Servatur diviti cognitio pauperis quem despexit memoria fratrum quos reliquit ut divisa gloria despecti de poena inutiliter amajovum amplius torqueatur Hugo Card. in c. 16. Luc. and at the same time she knows that another Possesses the self same degree of Glory for having profitably mannaged the Grace which she did undervalue She knows the Honour which God renders to Holy Souls and how faithful he is in the Execution of his promises so far that he will not suffer the least glass of Water given for his Love to be unrewarded nor the least good thought without a special Title of Splendour and Glory And all those knowledges are new-found Punishments for a damned Soul which entertains a continual memory of the Goods which appertained to her through the sufficient Justice of the Incarnation but which she shall never enjoy through the infidelity of her Actions Alas among all those afflictions here is a new subject