that it is required to the end the light of Faith may have its effect a cooperation in our wills otherwise this ray how glorious so e're it be is rendered useless and as it vvere under a Cloud Therefore St. Paul ad Rom. 10. sayes Faith which justifies must come from the heart and in Luke 22. Christ reprehends the Disciples going to Emaus that notwithstanding he had filled them vvith the beams of his light yet their hearts were slow in admitting a belief Job likewise confirms this Chap. 24. saying they were obdurate and rejected the light presented to them Our Learned Graduate and Petitioner more happy rejected not the internal call of God by his secret inspirations but corresponded vvith them by a pious affection in his will and having a merciful invitation to a feast of grace he would not like those guests mentioned in the 22. of St. Matthew Let the consideration of a poor Farm or a little musty vvare gain more upon him than the hope of this treasure more pretious than the whole VVorld He vvould not preferr darkness before light nor choose to vvallow in dirt and mire rather than beautify his Soul with a gift which will one day render him immortal in glory He had already obtained a desire to do vvell and this desire he would improve by action and since God had daigned to give him the velle or will to serve him he begs he would open his Lips that he might redeem his miscarriage in setting forth the Enormity of sin the Characters of the divine goodness and the greatness of his Justice Lord thou wilt open my Lips St. Austin reflecting upon the goodness of God in that he not only bids us ask but even gives us more than we demand sayes That our slothfulness ought to blush in that God is more ready to give than we are to receive Abraham petitioned for a Son and received a promise that his Seed should be multiplyed like Stars of Heaven or Sands of the Sea and that Christ should issue forth from his Loyns Jacob's request was extended only to Bread and a Garment and he was honoured with Angels to be his Companions was partaker of many heavenly visions and abundance of riches powred as it were into his Lap. The Thief on the Cross sued but for a remembrance and Christ gave him a promise of Paradise So our Penitent seems to be very modest in his petition knowing well the wont of God's bounty that doth not succour us in one kind and leave us miserable in another but relieves compleatly Wherefore he sues only to have his Lips unsealed for the rest he referrs it to his incomparable munificence being fixt in this Principle that according to the measure of his donation he will exhort allure threaten nay put himself into any shape that may most effectually purchase Souls unto God Nor is it a bad presage of his future success that he is so confident to have his Lips laid open Lord sayes he thou wilt open my Lips as if he had the Key of grace at his command For I observe when God would dispose a Soul for the reception of his favour the first Seed he casts into her is that of hope this lesson he read to the Paralytick Matt. 9. Son be confident and hope well Cassianus sayes it is a sign we shall obtain what we demand when we find a strong faith and confidence in our selves whilst we offer our petition For Almighty God uses to inspire this vertue into us as an earnest or pledge of his future grant this made the Apostle St. Paul prescribe it as a means to compass our desires Heb. 2.16 Let us approach with confidence the Throne of grace As if we needed only a firm hope to be able to scale the throne of grace and bear thence what ever we desire Hope is defined a vertue residing in the will which raises it to the expectation of a sovereign good and consequently to all necessary means in order to that as grace remission of sin and the like For the understanding enlightned by Faith knowes that the beatitude of Man is in God that this beatitude is promised him as his final end whence the will sets itself a work after this sovereign good and being unable of it self to reach so high this vertue of hope is infused to strengthen the imbecility of our nature Now the motives of hope are First God's mercy which is no less prompt to free his Creatures from misery than the fire is to burn or the Sun to give light The next motive is his Providence which allots unto every Being what is necessary to lead them to their final end The third motive is his divine power against which no machination or force can be of any effect to ruine a Soul he means to save For all the power of Hell before him is but like anâ— atome before the Sun nay he can with more facility draw a Soul from an Abyss of sin and adorn her with an Angelick purity I say with more ease than we can utter a Syllable or make the twinkling of an Eye Besides he is generous and seeing his Enemy at his Feet imploring his mercy he loves to raise them by his pardon and cannot endure that any in vain should hope in him In sequel of this meditation our Petitioner assures himself that God will not reject him nay that he will give him more than even he dares to hope for That since he hath designed him to a supernatural end his providential care will enrich him with an interiour illustration of his Mind and a holy impulse in his will that he may comprehend those Truths which he hath hid from the wise and discovered to his little ones He knew the Messias would not shed his pretious blood to make us great Oratours Physitians Astrologers or the like because Man by the strength of his own capacity may reach and acquire them in some perfection but to enable us to supernatural principles And though by the contemplation of created things Man may make many deductions and inferences and so come to the knowledge of several perfections in God Yet knowledge thus acquired is very imperfect and therefore St. Thomas observes that the wisest Men have fallen into many sottish errours untill a supernatural Divinity came to rectify what Man's Wit could not penetrate and discern Our Penitent now feeling himself to swell like a Fountain to the brim with these irradiations and sacred transports longs to discharge himself and besprinkle the Arid Souls of languishing sinners Wherefore he begs his Lips may be laid open that like a torrent he may bear all down before him destroy all the Barricado's of impiety and teach the World in his Example that notwithstanding we forfeit by sin all supernatural aids yet repentance is of power to redeem them and restore us to a capacity of regaining our eternal Beatitude Wherefore he exhorts all Men to joyn issue with him and
In order to this he first moves to have a clean heart created in him this shews him a wise and bold beggar that will not be content with scrapps but askes a treasure which may enrich and enable him to give to his Benefactour For this addresse implyes a reformation of all the faculties of his Soul the Scripture expressing frequently by the name of Heart both the understanding Will and Memory So that all these once purifyed and adorned with innocence he will be able to produce Heroick acts of faith and hope and the daily influence of divine favours still rising in his imagination must needs enkindle flames of Charity within him St. Hierom compares sanctifying grace with the essence of the Soul for as the powers and natural faculties which are the instrument of action flow from the essence So from grace are distilled into the powers of the Soul all those vertues by vvhich they are moved and carryed on to what they act Grace then is like a new Being vvhich elevates Man above his natural condition and puts him into a capacity of possessing God who is his supernatural end and by consequence it ought like a noble Queen be attended with a train of infused habits of Vertues The Theological furnish us with wings to fly in a straight Line unto God the Cardinal set us in a just comportment of holiness towards our Neighbour and our selves Nay when Sanctifying Grace shall no more be clogged with the Mass of the Body and relicks of sin her last operation will be to produce unto us the clear vision of God accompanied with beatifick love for the essential part of grace is the same thing with Glory and only distinguished like to what is perfect from that which is less perfect or as a thing begun from what is finished and compleat This Sanctifying Grace then is the fountain our Penitent thirsts after for the purifying his Heart and if once washed in this stream he may justly call it a clean heart witness the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 6. I will shower down upon you a pure water and it will cleanse you from all your iniquities If this stain consist in a perverse action unretracted Sanctifying grace recalls this perverse action by an habitual conversion unto God and submission to his Holy Will If it speak an offence to God grace repairs this injury and makes that injurious Action no more voluntary If his ugliness spring from an enmity with God grace appeases all his anger and changes it into a love of complacence as a necessary effect not that to love us he hath any need but because a Soul enriched with Grace is just and righteous and whilest it is in such a condition God cannot but delight himself in an object so worthy and deserving If his deformity involves an obligation to eternal punishment grace clears all that score raising a Soul to that degree as she is worthy of Heaven Now 't is impossible that being in a state capable of enjoying him she can be lyable to such a debt wherefore there is nothing so hideous and abominable in a sinner which grace doth not destroy Thus you see what an expedient our Holy Penitent hath pitched upon to arrive by it to his designed purity and if he obtain his demand he knowes his work is done that is the operation of grace is so infallible as the effect is not to be hindred For it is not possible that a Soul at the same time can be innocent and guilty holy and impious have a Right to Heaven and lyable to eternal death So that being once drowned in this purifying Ocean he receives a pledge of all the felicity that either the nature of Angels or Men is capable off But it may be objected that our Petitioner may fall short of his expectation even though he obtain his demand For we see many holy habits introduced with grace to lye as dead within us no wayes disposing us sensibly to supernatural actions Nay on the contrary that persons so enriched are often disturbed and harassed with the insolencies of perverse inclinations Now the reason of this is that the effects of Grace are spiritual and without the Sphere of sense so that these supernatural vertues being of a quite different rank from the vitious propensions of our corrupt nature they do not by their presence necessarily destroy them This position our Penitent admits knowing that God obliges not himself to communicate unto every Soul all kind of supernatural vertues as a necessary dependance on Sanctifying grace but that he distributes to some more to others less in reference either to their want their disposition or the Series of his Holy Providence which deals the measure of his favours according to his will Having weighed all this he recollects his thoughts as to his own particular and remembers how before he defiled himself with sin God had witnessed a satisfaction in the choice of him making him the object of his most obliging liberalities next he considers that when God is pleased to sign his pardon and letters of grace unto a sinner he doth not only free him from eternal punishment for what is past but restores all the treasure he had hoarded up in the sunshine of his favour nay more conferres an addition of grace in that very penitential act by which he concurs with his merciful call So that he hath reason to hope if he purchase a clean heart that is if it be sprinkled with the dew of sanctifying grace his understanding now stupified in the mists of sin will receive its wonted irradiations his will born down with the weight of earthly affections will breath forth again amorous languishments after eternal delights his memory which now records the ugly species of sensual pleasures will be taken up in the holy entertainments of a spiritual life and in sequel of this he thinks it not presumption to believe he shall find himself in the same if not better condition than before his fall and in possession of all those precious titles the Divine Oracle had once pronounced of him This meditation puts him upon great resolves how to preserve and improve the purity he sues for that it may more strictly unite him to God who is his final end his hope and beatitude wherefore every moment he redoubles his petition Create in me O God a clean heart Another motive of this his Petition is in that the heart is the source of all evil 'T is from thence that Homicide Adultery Theft and other sins arise which gave occasion unto many great wits to assert that internal transgressions alone were punished by God and if at any time the scourge of his anger seems to fall heavy upon external acts it was meerly upon the score of bad example whose consequences are for the most part very pernicious to Mankind Besides as the heart is the fountain of all evil so is it no less of all good For the goodness and malice of every
and forcibly entered by Cyrus King of the Medes he resolved rather than become a scornful prisoner to dye on the places upon which design he cast himself into the midst of his Enemies preferring an honorable death before an opprobrious life His Son beholding his imminent danger though to that instant at the Age of twenty years he had been alwayes dumb cryed out spare my Father spare my Father it is the King Whereupon the Enemy seised his person and preserved his life some attribute this to a natural cause alledging the love this Prince had for his Father put all his vital spirits into combustion and by that violent motion broke the obstacle of his speech However methinks this passage may in some sense be applyed to our great Penitent who was morally dumb the Organs of his Soul structed by the malignity of sin insomuch as he could not utter one syllable which might have force to reach the Ears of his Creatour untill he came to have a prospect of his eternal ruine and no sooner these Terrours appeared before him but all the faculties of his Soul were stirred up removed all Obstacles and made him Petition for the opening his Lips the first motion to his happiness Lord thou wilt open my Lips For this imports not a local division of the Lips but an inflamation of the heart by vertue of which heat all the parts of his Body will be disposed to discharge those functions for which they were created St Paul to shew how little Man can do if left to himself sayes 1 Cor. 4. What do we possess which we have not received and if so why glory we in it as if our own Again he powerfully asserts it in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans It is not he who wills or runs but he on whom God will have mercy As if he would say as Esau in vain pursued his Chase thinking from thence to derive to himself his Fathers blessing So Man after sin loses but his time and endeavour if he think by the strength of his natural faculties to be able to observe the Commandements of God or perform what is requisite to the purchase of Heaven So that it must chiefly spring from the mercy of God's assisting grace Nay which is more we cannot so much as desire to serve God according to our obligations unless he first by his divine grace move our hearts and dispose our will unto it as the same St. Paul sayes God works in us both the will and the execution without God assisting we cannot have a desire neither to believe what is proposed as the object of Faith nor perform what we should in order to vertuous actions and therefore St. Austin sayes the prodigal Son had never resolved to return home to his Father if the mercy of God had not inspired him to it To manifest this truth we need go no further than to cast our thoughts upon the Grecian and Roman learning which produced the greatest wits in the World yet in all their inquisition after a sovereign good they were so lost as even to become ridiculous acting things concerning a Deity and Man's supream felicity as if they were destitute of reason St. Paul takes notice in particular how coming to Athens he found an Altar dedicated to an unknown God For they had been visited with a great pestilence and ignorant for what offence a chastisement so severe was inflicted at last fancied it was for want of homage to be rendered to some Deity not yet discovered than this what could be more absurd to shew in what darkness and errours Man doth grope when left to himself So that if at any time a person blushes at his vanities and past extravagancies and doth confess that what before he behold as light and life to be nothing else than obscurity and death this Conversion sayes St. Austin comes not from himself but from the powerful and hidden grace of God which dissipates the Clouds of Earthly opinions and enflames his heart with a desire of knowing the truth Now this change God works in Souls several wayes in some more gently in others more forcibly Solomon insinuates that he particularly gives his call by the outward preaching of his word this Esai confirms Chap. 40. God hath sent Doctors of his Faith into the World who should reduce their Brethren like the blind into the way that is unto Jesus Christ the Messias who is styled the way truth and life In this manner Surius recounts Barlaam was sent to Josaphat Son to a King in the Indies that by his conversion the whole Kingdom might embrace the Law of Christ St. Paul was sent to Athens who converted the great St. Dennis a famous Doctor of the Areopagites St. Philip to the Eunuch of the Ethiopian Queen who by expounding unto him a Prophecy of Christ in Esai immediately received Baptism at his hands In the History of Japonia it is related of a certain Indian who had lived well according to the light of nature how he was restless in his Mind believing his religion to be false he went to the Turks thinking to follow theirs but finding there no satisfaction then he applyed himself to the Jews but still remained in perplexity so that with much fervour he was wont to cry out O God let me know who thou art and that I may serve thee according to thy will otherwise do not charge me with blame for my errour At last it happened St. Francis Xavierus came into the Town where he was and no sooner did he hear him unfold the points and sacred mysteries of Christian Religion but he proclaimed that Man preaches the God I must serve and forth with was baptized By this expedient he likewise made a conquest of our Holy Penitent in which action Nathan the Prophet was instrumental who laying before him his obligations to God and his ingratitude occasioned that without delay he had recourse to the Sanctuary of this present petition or Miserere The second manner of his call is by the inward operation of his Spirit and this he communicates to all witness St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. God who drew light from darkness by a word from his mouth hath filled our hearts with the splendour of his knowledge For without this light of Faith Man knowes not God who made him he knowes not whither he tends he knowes not eternal felicity for which he was created nay he knowes not himself for without Faith we know not that we are born Imps of wrath and lyable to eternal death We know not the wounds of our nature our inability to good the necessity of being regenerated by grace Lastly without this interiour light we know not Christ our Mediatour by whose pretious blood we are Redeemed from eternal damnation and restored to a life of Grace and Glory But you will say if God imparts this light of faith to all how comes it so many remain in darkness and infidelity of this the reason is
torment them Jeremy weighs the wrongs Nebuchodonozer had done to Jerusalem by dishonouring Matrons deflowring Virgins killing little Children tormenting the aged burning houses their robberies and spoils and yet all these he passes over in silence though he took it much to heart and presses only the prophanation of the Temple having made of it a stable for his Horses When the Angel appeared to Joshuah with a drawn sword and commanded him to put off his Shooes as before he had done to Moses in the flaming bush enjoyning him the like many grave Doctors assert thâ—… this Angel was the Son of God wherein he would insinuate two things First the reverence they ought to bear to that place where in a manner so particular he was pleased to manifest himself Next that against those who should lose this respect he had Fire and Sword ready to vindicate his honour For the Majesty of a King or regal power upon Earth is respected throughout the whole jurisdiction of his Crown but yet much more where he hath his Throne and Chair of state So God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the Nations of the World ought in all places to have homages of submission and obedience paid unto him but especially in places dedicated to religious acts in Heaven at the right hand of his Father is the supream throne of his greatness in the Synagogue he had the propitiatory and in the Temple his Sacrarium and as to a Temple or Church wherein God is to be honoured Nilus sayes a Christian should bear no less respect to this his Holy Tabernacle than if he were in Heaven Because the glory of God is more apparent in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar and from thence a greater reverence may justly be required than from all the Temples that were in past ages dedicated to God's honour For in this dread Sacrifice God is adored honoured appeased loved and served by his Son Jesus Christ in all the Corners of the World where this mystery is celebrated all the adorations and homages of other Creatures contribute nothing to his Glory if compared to what he receives here by his Son because he is an object infinite and as a King receives more honour from the submission of a Prince than of an ordinary vulgar person in like manner the adorations rendered to God by Jesus Christ do glorify him more than those of all Men and Angels together by the Mouth of Malachy the Prophet God sayes my name is great among the Gentiles because in all places a pure oblation is offered up unto me which Theodoret explicates an unspotted Lamb taking away the sins of the World and which is Sacrificed unto him in this mystery The Master of the Family Matth. 20. having had his Servants ill treated by the labourers in his Vineyard sent his Son to reduce them to obedience saying they will respect him So God the Father would render his Son present in this mystery to induce all Christians to pay their duties to his greatness Who would not then Combat in the presence of their King We may reasonably expect to live with Angels and with them contemplate the divine essence since now we live with Jesus Christ himself who is the Food of our Souls he who gives himself to be eaten here will not deny us to see and behold him in eternity Now our Holy Penitent in his prophetick view beheld this Hill of Sion as a place marked out for the admirable structure of the Evangelical Temple whereof the Messias was to be the Corner stone and therefore he calls it holy wherein Sacraments conferring grace by their proper vertue were to be administred upon this score he preferrs the Gates of Sion before all the tabernacles of Jacob He forespeaks the building of this Sion and that God will there be seen in his glory as much as the Cloudy Scene in this World can represent him and as on mount Sinai the written Law a carnal and Earthly Law was given so on Mount Sion should be enacted a Law Evangelical holy spiritual and heavenly These fore-notions imprinted in our Petitioner a reverence to this model of perfection and stirrs him to implore his mercy in her behalf that since it is to be a Law of love all powerful to conduct Souls unto a great pitch of sanctity in this life and glory in the next he will hope his prayer may contribute somthing to draw from his liberality a confirmation of his gracious promises unto her in this confidence with much fervour and zeal he repeats Deal favourably O Lord in thy good will with Sion The Application We have a Lesson here of Charity which shews us inexcusable if we fail to endeavour the succour of our Neighbour For there is none so impotent but may lend the assistance of his prayers and how powerful that is to avert danger appears in that God seems willing to prevent the Prophet Jeremies mediation commanding he should not resist him that is he should not stand between him and the destruction of his people as if it were in the power of this Prophet by means of his prayer to hold God's Hand and force him to a merciful composition Besides we are much encouraged to relieve the distressed in this supplicating way by the form of prayer which Christ prescribes in that we should conjure him under the title of Father nay more our Father which speaks I have a right to ask not only as I am your Child but likewise to intercede for him who hath the same relation unto you and by that an alliance towards me which naturally exacts my help if then as a Maker you can destroy as a Father nature will prompt you to save In fine God playes not the stately like the great Princes of this World but gives audience upon the place whether in behalf of your self or Neighbour Nay he excludes not his greatest Enemies but doth treat with them of peace upon the least overture they make Ah! let us then daily present our supplications before his throne of grace in behalf of all persons capable of eternal Salvation Amen CHAP. XXXVIII Vt edificentur muri Jerusalem And let the Walls of Jerusalem be built BY the Walls of this Sion or Jerusalem for they are usually taken for the same thing is meant the Prelats and Pastours of this happy Congregation within whose circumference or direction we are all piously to walk and to whose care and protection all Mankind is committed Our Penitent beholds the Messias as the foundation and prop of this eternal structure for the Office of a Priest consists in the power of administring sacred things and to offer prayers gifts and Sacrifices unto God for the remission of sins and this in the name of the universal Church Now Iesus Christ was constituted by God over all Souls with a plenary authority to reconcile them to him and for this end he offered up a true and real Sacrifice
humane nature was rendered unworthy of God's grace so that if at any time he communicated his blessings it was by way of advance and upon credit in consideration of the merits of his incarnate Son Wherefore being once come he gave precepts of higher perfection so that doubtless nothing can be better more just and more suitable to Man than the Evangelical Law Nothing more agreeable to the good Government of the Universe and all Creatures nor which contains in its decrees more equity and holiness Insomuch as its perfection alone seems ground enough to pass a judgment that it cannot issue but from the deep Councels of a Divinity Lastly as to good manners or natural precepts this great Architect hath made of them a more clear and ample explication by which the will is rectifyed and carried on to the pursuit of greater things than were proposed in the Mosaick Law What just reason then had our Petitioner to make this edifice of Jerusalem's Wall the object of his most fervent prayer and that all his subjects should subscribe to the petition and offer up their Vowes for the dispatch of this great work in which their heavy Yoak so little beneficial to them would be taken off and in exchange they were to be ranked under the discipline and law of grace and love wherefore let us joyn issue and cry Let the Walls of Jerusalem be built up The next composition of this structure is foretold by the Prophet Esay I will lay in the foundation of Sion a stone that hath endured the touch a corner and precious stone founded in the foundation This is Peter and his successours that rock on whom Christ hath built his Church and which hath been tryed by all the assaults of Earth and Hell Nor hath this stone proved only of right temper in which no engin of malice could work a flaw but it is shaped into a corner stone by which the two walls of Jews and Gentiles are united together and make one Christian Church It is also precious in copiously distributing her Spiritual Treasures throughout the World as the clear explication of her Doctrine by universal consent the rights of Sacraments which delivered with a Harmony and unity in faith is the bond of peace the Life and Soul of Religion Lastly it is grounded in the foundation which shews it to be a secondary foundation The first St. Paul declares no Man can lay any other foundation that is primary and Basis of all than what is already laid to wit Jesus Christ But after him the next groundwork is St. Peter by whom alone and his successours we are to arrive at Christ and what can be to God more glorious than to make use of the feeble to confound the strong and by faith and humility to lead Men unto wisdom and glory This piece of Workmanship in the Fabrick of Jerusalem is like a Citadel which commands all and holds its awful title not by Law of Nations but divine right It governs men in order to their Souls and rather under the notion of being Christians than Men it looks not upon their temporal ease and security but hath an Eye to a life and felicity immortal It is fortifyed with divine Lawes and maintains a perpetual skirmish not only with a few visible adversaries but with an infinity of invisible Enemies After this Rock solidly disposed and fited the Bishops like Watch-towers and strong Bastions are erected whose office is to superintend over the Guards and Sentinels and to protect the weaker part of the Walls from the Enemies assaults this contrivance is set down by St. Athanasius where he sayes O Peter upon thy Foundation the Bishops as pillars of the Church are setled and confirmed Then Priests Deacons and other officers are assigned to render this structure in all points compleat some of these materials are for the beauty and ornament of the Church in her great solemnities others as Priests for the necessary discharge of our duty to God for religion teaching us to pay that honor and esteem we owe to God is the perfection and accomplishment of the World nor can we upon any score be dispensed with in the acknowledgment of these fealties Whence no Nation hath ever been found so ignorant or barbarous as not to own and in some manner or other to pay this Tribute either by way of adoration praise prayer sacrifice festival solemnity or by some external Ceremony Now that these actions might be duly acquitted there appears an absolute necessity that some selected person should be set apart and sanctifyed to this end But above all it was most requisite in the Evangelical Law where a Priest hath power to offer up a victime and Sacrifice by which in a moment he renders to God more glory and service than all the Angels and Men can do in the vast durance of Eternity Where he is daily to represent to the eternal Father Christ's holy passion and by that moving object render him propitious unto Souls where he is to disengage Men from the slavery of sin and jawes of Hell by the administration of holy Sacraments So that all the splendour and beauty of the Church consists in the Ministery of Priests that as the Sun diffuses his beams on all sides no less doth this sacred Character enrich those Souls with a perfume of Sanctity who make themselves worthy by a due cooperation with its vertue so that we ought to esteem it one of the greatest blessings of God to the World in that he hath given us Ecclesiastical persons to dispense his Heavenly treasures and spiritual graces to enlighten the World purify Souls from sin and lead them as it were by the Hand unto a sovereign good Ah! what ingratitude then to throw a contempt upon those without whom Mankind would be but a Fire-brand for Hell in all Eternity The last materials for this Fabrick are lay and secular persons of all sorts so that of these and Ecclesiasticks are composed two different and great Nations under the Jurisdiction of Christ the Office of the one is to give the other to receive the one communicates by oblation of Sacrifice and administration of Sacraments spiritual goods without which Men would be like a Body destitute of a Soul having little tendency or elevation unto God the others passively make up the Hierarchy as being framed instructed purifyed and by Ecclesiasticks united unto God Thus you see our holy Prophet was solicitous in a matter of no small concern for within the limits of this sanctuary are bounded all the hopes of Man's Salvation Christ was made sayes St. Paul cause of eternal Salvation unto all those who obey him Now his Commandements relate to Faith good manners and the Sacraments which are not rightly performed but within the bosom of his Church Let us then joyn our hands and hearts to this noble structure and cry that the walls of Jerusalem be built up The Application If our Holy Penitent was so zealous for