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A54460
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A sermon preach'd before the King and Queen in Their Majesties chappel at Windsor, on Trinity-Sunday, May 30. 1686 by the Reverend Father John Persall ...
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Persall, John, 1633-1702.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing P1651; ESTC R11064
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11,103
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35
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A SERMON Preach'd before the King and Queen IN Their MAJESTIES Chappel at Windsor on Trinity-Sunday May 30. 1686. By the Reverend Father JOHN PERSALL Of the Society of JESUS Professor of Divinity Published by His Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. A SERMON Preach'd before THEIR MAJESTIES On Trinity-Sunday May 30. 1686. In Nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Matth. c. 28. v. 19. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. c. 28. v. 19. THE Inscrutable Mystery of the most Blessed Trinity propos'd to our Veneration in this Days Solemnity is so sublime that no Created Intellect can reach it the most high-flying Wits fall infinitely short of it so profound and deep that the most penetrating Judgments cannot fathom it so infinite in all its Excellencies and Perfections that neither Humane nor Angelical Capacity can comprehend it The great St. Augustin thought it once worth his labour to employ his noble Thoughts in discovery of these admirable Secrets that are couch'd in this Sacred Mystery he walks by the Sea-shore contemplating the Divine Processions and Relations a true Trinity of Persons in a perfect Unity of Substance the Father Son and Holy Ghost three really distinct Persons yet so that the Father is in the Son the Son is in the Father the Holy Ghost in the Father and the Son all three in each by a strict Identity of one Substance The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is neither Father nor Son and yet the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one and the same thing Lat. 4. c. 2. Idem omnino In the middle of these Thoughts St. Augustin's Eyes chanced to glance upon a Child just by the Sea-side very busie in lading out the Sea into a little Pit he had made there and asking him what he meant to do the Child answer'd To empty the Sea into this Pit But dost thou not see says the Saint that thy Pit is too little to hold all those Waters I can more easily do this replies the Child than you compass what you are about Thus Almighty God did teach this great Servant of his how little proportion all Humane Industry has 〈◊〉 order to the understanding this ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery far less than the Child's little Pit in order to contain an Ocean of Waters Yet for all this St. Augustin ceased not from contemplating this great Mystery of which he wrote Fifteen Learned Books besides divers Sermons but he changed his way of Speculating he studies no more to understand it and therefore to How can this be he ever answers Nescio I know not I am a Christian I believe it I adore I reverence respect and love it but to understand it comprehend it express it as it is I am not able He contemplated it as the prime Object of his Faith Adoration and Affection in like manner we in imitation of this great Doctor neither searching too curiously into that which Faith teaches to be inscrutable nor yet passing over in silence what the Church on this Day proposes to our Thoughts as a Mystery which is to be the Subject of our Eternal Happiness will consider it First as the Object of our Faith Secondly as the Object of our Love Thirdly as the Object of our Imitation In the First Point we 'll see what we are to believe and from the hardness of it learn a Principle which will ground us in true Faith and Religion In my Second we 'll learn where to settle our Affections In my Third how to make our Souls what they were created perfect Images of the Trinity by squaring our Actions according to this Divine Pattern Three Parts of one and the same Discourse so that the Second proceeds from the First Love from Faith the Third from the First and Second Imitation from Faith and Love Now that all may succeed to the greater Glory of this Great Trinity let us have recourse to the Intercession of the Immaculate Virgin-Mother Daughter to the Eternal Father Mother to the Eternal Son Spouse to the Holy Spirit perfect Temple of the whole Trinity saluting her with the Archangel Ave Maria. I Know not by what better means we may arrive to frame a true right and profitable Idea of this Mystery than by contemplating its Image the Soul of Man where you will find that as often as any thing excellent and amiable is objected to her she presently speaks it saying This is fine this is admirable this deserves to be belov'd indeed from whence connaturally proceeds a certain breathing an affection or desire of enjoying that so amiable Object In like manner Almighty God with an Infinite Clarity comprehending his own infinitely amiable Essence and in it all created truths that are possible speaks what he knows expressing himself as he is Infinite in all perfections then he breaths forth a certain Divine Love proceeding from his speaking and the word spoken this speaking or producing the Word constitutes the First Person God the Father the Word spoken is the Second Person God the Son the Third Person is the Love which both the First and Second jointly breath forth God the Holy Ghost or Spirit The second is the Son because as it is the property of a Father to propagate his Nature and give it a second Being in his Son so the Eternal Father speaking propagates his own Divine Nature giving it as it were a second Being in that Consubstantial Image whereas the Holy-Ghost being Love gives not any Being to its Object but only embraces what it finds Now because nothing can be in God or affect God but what is God each Person must needs be God Again because the very Notion of God excludes a Multiplicity as including all perfection imaginable and consequently leaving none to be possessed by an other only by participation the property of a Creature it follows that all three Persons are but one and the same God now how this can be three Persons one only God is above our reach here it is we are to obey the Apostle making Reason stoop to Faith But what says the Atheist or Heathen must I then become Irrational before I can be a Christian Must I renounce that very faculty which distinguishes me from a Bruit Must I admit things that evidently contradict the first Principles of Reason and thwart the very light of Nature Three Persons one God the Father and the Son the self same thing and yet two Persons really distinct Nay then adieu all Discourse adieu all Knowledge if we renounce the very grounds of Knowledge and Discourse This Objection lies under the very same inconveniences it objects against the Mysteries of our Faith 't is irrational it contradicts the first Principles of Reason and thwarts the very light of Nature whereas our Faith tho' supernatural tho' above
Reason yet it confirms true Reason for Almighty God only exacts of us to believe when we have reason to believe then we must make Reason stoop to Faith when we have reason so to do We are to understand then that there is in us a twofold Reason one direct coming from the Objects we discourse on the other reflex reflecting upon Reason and considering how far it can go this often forces us to submit our direct Reason even to Humane Authority So an ignorant Peasant looking upon the Stars in a clear Night according to direct Reason rising from his Senses judges them not an Inch Diameter and that ten or twenty of them joyn'd together would scarce equal a Full-Moon but he hears all Mathematicians and Learned Men agree that each Star far exceeds the Moon nay and the whole Globe of the Earth he submits his direct Reason to this Authority and by reflex Reason discourses thus I who am an ignorant Man may well be deceived therefore these learned Men all agreeing I must in prudence yield So he submits his direct Reason even to Humane Authority and is taught so to do by reflex Reason and the very Light of Nature This is more evident in the Mysteries of our Faith Direct Reason tells us a Trinity in a perfect Unity is impossible but reflex Reason corrects this Errour discoursing thus My Vnderstanding is but Finite and Limited Almighty God is Infinite and would not be God if he were not in himself more than my weak and feeble Capacity can conceive If then I have a moral certainty that my Great God has reveal'd himself to be Three and One if his Holy Church which put into my Hands the Scripture it self assuring me that it is the Word of God interprets these Words These three are one St. John 's first Epist c. 5. v. 7. and these other I and my Father are one St. John's Gospel c. 10. v. 30. If I say this Church interprets these Words in a real strict sense which otherwise might bear a more easie Interpretation in a metaphorical or figurate sense I must and will believe it tho' it cost me the last drop of my Blood what seeming Impossibilities soever Sense and direct Reason objects against it and this I am taught by reflex Reason and the Light of Nature it self this is a Duty I owe to my Great God to acknowledge that I ought to believe more than I can understand From this Discourse I hope it appears clear enough how rational the Mysteries of our Faith are and how irrational it is to discredit them upon this account that we cannot understand them This is a Principle which ought to be the Ground of our Belief viz. That God can reveal more than we can understand and that many things to our Weakness seem impossible which to our Great God are very feasible this the Light of Nature teaches us and it must carry us through all the profound hard Mysteries of our Faith To deny a thing upon this account that it contradicts Sense and direct Reason is irrational injurious to Almighty God and destructive to Christianity It is irrational for Reason teaches us that our Senses and direct Reason are often mistaken How often do's the Mathematician and Natural Philosopher at first think that a Demonstration which afterwards he finds either by his own Study or anothers Discovery to be a Paralogism 'T is injurious to God because it limits his Omnipotency to our Weakness 't is destructive to Christianity because it destroys the two chief Mysteries of Christianity the Trinity and Incarnation both which seemingly contradict direct Reason I do not believe Christ to be a Natural Door tho' I hear him say I am a Door John c. 10. v. 9. nor a Natural Vine tho' I hear him say I am the True Vine John c. 15. v. 1. but God forbid I should deny either upon this account that I cannot understand how it can possibly be done but I deny it because the Church teaches me that I must understand these words in a Metaphorical Sense There have been Heresies from the Apostles times downwards to to our Age and many have died obstinate in their Heresie but I verily believe that both their Heresie and Obstinacy proceeded from a want of this Principle That God can reveal more than we can understand Let us then pay this duty to our great God an humble acknowledgment of our Weakness and his Power that he can reveal more infinitely more than we are able to conceive And so much for my first Part of the Trinity as it is the Object of our Faith Let us now lanch forth into a Sea of Love and consider this great Mystery as the thrice happy Object of our Affections The Almighty Architect created Man according to his perfect Image with intent to make him happy for an Eternity in the perfect Enjoyment of his God and therefore has imprinted in his Soul so violent an Appetite and Desire of that blessed Fruition that let a thousand Worlds joyn their Stocks together let Men and Angels and all that is created conspire to regale him his capacious Heart will never be perfectly satiated never at rest and quiet but in the Divine Embraces of an Omnipotent Immense Eternal Trinity the Fountain of all Beauty and Amability O you young Gallants of the World who spend your Time Fortunes Life and all in the pursuit of a fading Beauty a Rose surrounded with so many pricking Thorns of Cares and Solicitude a Flower so soon withered with Time so often blasted with Sickness so easily cropped by Death stop this your unadvis'd Career and know that you are far out of your Way if you pretend to look for Happiness in the Enjoyment of Mortal Beauty 'T is true your Souls were created to love and enjoy a Beauty but a True and Infinite one for an Eternity not a false Representation thereof for a Moment 't is the blindness of your Understandings and pravity of your Wills the sad Effects of Original Sin that make you thus mistake the Object of your Happiness and apply your natural or innate Appetite to Creatures which in reality seeks only the Creator One in Substance and Three in Persons Let us then raise our Thoughts as high as Faith can carry them to the Contemplation of this all-beatifying Object which will be our eternal Bliss if we make not our selves so miserable as eternally to perish First then Each Person is Omnipotent Eternal Immense All-knowing Infinite in Wisdom Goodness and all Perfections from the Complex of which arises so great an Amability and Beauty that no Rational Creature can behold it and not presently fall in love with it so far that whilst the happy Soul enjoys this Vision no created Beauty tho' never so exact and charming can make any Impression in her but only as she sees it clearly represented in the Divine Idea's and supereminently contain'd in the Object she above all admires and loves Nay