Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A54460
|
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 ...
|
Persall, John, 1633-1702.
|
1686
(1686)
|
Wing P1651; ESTC R11064
|
11,103
|
35
|
even in this Night of Mortality some Souls by the help of Divine Grace and Light of Faith arrive to so high a pitch of Divine Love that nothing here below neither Pleasure nor Torment can move them So S. Vincent in a Bed of Roses contemns the Allurements of Pleasures and S. Lawrence in a Bed of Flames upon a Gridiron the Cruelty of Tyranny How many have fled to the remotest Desarts How many have shut themselves up in Monasteries betwixt four Walls of a little Cell not to be diverted from the delicious Contemplation of their Great God Now all this Amability is common to all Three Persons with this difference that in the Father it is originally as in a Fountain receiv'd from no other Person in the Son it is receiv'd by communication from the Father in the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son Which very Communication is infinitely amiable had we Eyes to behold it The chief Property of the Father is to speak which he does not to the Ear but to the Heart and Eye of the Soul delivering his Great Word with so Divine a Grace that the most delicious Voice that ever was heard the most agreeable Garbo that ever a pure Creature spoke with is but a meer Stuttering and Stammering if compar'd to it But the chief Perfection of Speaking is taken from the Word spoken if that be clear expressive sincere and eloquent both it and he who speaks it become in a high degree amiable The Eternal Word represents its Object to your view infinitely clearer than that could represent it self tho' never so intimately present so expressive it is that being but One only Word it expresses all Truths all Creatures whether actual or but barely possible All the delicious Objects of our Senses whatever can be seen or heard all the Truths our Understanding is able to conceive all the Delights our Will can desire 't is most sincere and true expressing all just as 't is represented in the Divine Knowledge and as it is in it self 't is eloquent above expression exhibiting to our view all the Tropes and Figures all the Art and Skill of Speaking that is possible Now from the Eternal Father thus speaking and from the Eternal Word thus expressing must needs proceed an Infinitely Amiable Love What can be more amiable than Love it self Love I say a Divine and infinitely perfect Love of an infinitely beautiful God Quam bonus suavis est Domine Spiritus tuus How good how sweet is thy Divine Spirit How good diffusing it self by Grace and Charity in Pious Souls How sweet giving them even in this life anticipately a taste of those joys which will beatifie them for all Eternity in the next The perfection of Love is taken from the Lover the Beloved and the natural intenseness of the Love the nobler the Lover is also the more deserving the Beloved is the perfecter is the Love The Lover here are the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity the Beloved are the same three Persons meeting and embracing each other in the perfect Unity of one God The Father loves the Son the Son loves the Father the Father and the Son love the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost reciprocally loves the Father and the Son and moreover is the very Love whereby they Love each other all Infinite in all Perfections Dearly beloved Christians no Tongue or Pen can ever express the amability of the three Divine Persons it may perhaps by a Pious Soul in Prayer be felt and as it were tasted expressed in words it cannot be Do you desire to experience even in this life a feeling and taste of it Remember what the great Moses was bid to do when he approach'd the burning Bush Gen. c. 3. v. 3. Draw not nigh hither put off thy Shoes we must not approach to contemplate this great Mystery till we have cast off all the Dirt and Dust of terrene desires our Conversation must be no more on Earth but in Heaven Almighty God never regales sensual Souls with Spiritual Delights but such as neither find nor so much as seek after the vain Pastimes of this World This makes your Great Saints proclaim War against Flesh and Blood always annoying vexing and mortifying their Bodies because they experience that the more they withdraw themselves from Earth the more Almighty God permits them to tast of Heaven 't is a real truth though few will believe it that none lead a pleasanter life in this World than those who give themselves wholly to Almighty God for his Divine Majesty will never be overcome in Love The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity will love such a Soul come to it and regale it according to our Saviours Promise St. John c. 14. v. 23. If any Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him The Eternal Father will perfect that Image he created to his likeness the Son will illuminate it with the Rays of new Supernatural Lights the Holy Ghost will sweetly inflame it with Divine Love But remember the Condition we must keep his Commandments and in order to this let us look upon the Sacred Trinity as a Pattern to square our Actions by which is my third Point You will perhaps wonder how so profound and incomprehensible a Mystery can ever serve us as a Pattern for our poor and weak Actions Is it possible for a miserable Creature to imitate these ineffable Operations of the Divine Persons But remember that our Soul tho' now by Original Sin plung'd in Flesh and Blood is created to the perfect Image of her God God made Man to his own Image Gen. 1. v. 27. What wonder then if we endeavour to reform the Picture by comparing it with the Prototypon Besides do's not our Saviour himself assign the Perfection of his Eternal Father for a Pattern to frame ours by Be you perfect says he as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Matth. c. 5. v. 48. Come then let us once more cast an eye towards this great Mystery and see whether we cannot find something for our Imitation We learn'd to Believe in the First Part to Love in the Second let us learn to rectifie our exteriour Actions in the Third The first thing which occurs for our Imitation is the Unity of all Three Persons in One Substance We cannot Identifie our Natures really distinct but we may unite them by Charity and Love Hence Christ just before his Passion prays to his Eternal Father in S. John c. 17. v. 20 21. not only for his Apostles but for all that were to believe by their Word That they might be One as His Father in him and he in his Father are One We must remember we are all Members of the same Body under the same Head Christ and consequently each one is to be in one another so as to make his Interest our own we ought to condole as
much for the Adversity of another and rejoyce for his Prosperity as if it were our own we must redress the Necessity of another as much as if it were our own we must as earnestly concur to one anothers Preferment as to our own and rejoyce as much for it then Almighty God will look upon us as making one with his Servants and what our tepidity do's not deserve he 'll bountifully confer upon us for their sakes with whom Charity has united us But tho' you are endow'd with never so great Gifts and Vertues si charitatem non habuero if Charity be wanting if you make not One with all the Faithful Believers all is nothing Away then with all Piques all Misunderstandings all envious Practices let us all become one Soul by a perfect Love Our Great God Incarnate has so united himself to us that he takes as done to himself whatsoever is done to another and when he comes to judge will reward charitable Actions done to our Neighbour as done to himself and revenge all Injuries as offer'd to himself He will invite the Elect to an eternal Happiness not as having done charitable Actions to their Neighbours but to himself and condemn to eternal Torments the Reprobate as injurious to himself He will not say Come you Blessed because you gave an Alms to such a poor Man but because you gave it to me nor Go you Cursed because you refus'd to redress the Necessity of such a poor Body but of me If then Christ makes himself One with his Servants he who permits himself to be separated by Envy and Malice from his Fellow-servants doth in effect separate himself from Christ In the second place we must imitate each Person in their Proprieties The Father speaketh according to his Knowledge conforming his Speech to his Thoughts and expresses all in one only Word This must teach us Sincerity to speak what we think and no more than we know The Eternal Father is the Father of Truth the Devil his deadly Enemy the Father of Lies Chuse what Pattern you 'll follow Besides we must learn to avoid multiplicity and idleness of Speech The Eternal Father expresses all in one Word and that necessary let us use our selves to speak little for happy is he who exceeds not in Speech and many Words always involve an Offence of God From the Son let us learn to express things as they are in reality not as our inordinate Passions would have them The Eternal Word proceeds per Intellectum by the Understanding not per Voluntatem by the Will but our Words often proceed not from our Understanding from a certain knowledge of the thing but from our Will so if any Absurdity be done we presently lay it at their Doors we have a Pique against So in the Primitive Church the Heathens ascrib'd all Mischiefs and Mischances to the Christians as we read in Tertullian and others Those damn'd what you please did it From whence comes this Word from a knowledge of the Fact No but from the malice of our Will This is preposterous our Words must proceed as the Eternal Word do's from the Understanding from a perfect Knowledge of what we speak From the Holy Ghost we must learn what and how to Love The prime and final Object of our Love must be Almighty God other things we are to love only in relation to him he is the fountain of all good and therefore we must remember when we meet with any thing amiable that it is but a Rivulet flowing from that great Fountain and to be found in greater perfection there The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father speaking and the word expressing the Divine Being infinitely amiable Let all our Love proceed so not from a false delusion of our Senses making us fix on Creatures tho' very meanly amiable and that with an amability meerly participated and deriv'd from the Fountain of Amability As often as we feel our Hearts mov'd to a tenderness and kindness let us consider from what it proceeds is it from a word speaking the Creature amiable without meutioning the Creator O then it comes from a false from a lying Word 't is Illegitimate it must not inherit your Heart you must cast it out 't is a base servile affection ejice ancilam but the true Legitimate Possessor of your Heart must be a Divine Love proceeding from a word expressing the Divine Fountain of all Perfection But I must draw towards an end not to abuse your Patience we have then learnt in my First Part to believe what we cannot understand seeing that God would not be God could he not reveal of himself more than we can comprehend My Second Part has led us to the Fountain of all Amability and pointed unto us the true Center of our Hearts In my Third Part we have learn'd to imitate all three Persons in tending to a perfect Unity by Charity and each Person in their Proprieties the Father in being Sincere speaking what we know and in as few words as we can the Son in seeing that our Words proceed from Knowledge not from Affection from Reason not from Passion The Holy Ghost in loving God only as our End and all things else meerly in relation to him There only now remains that with the Tears of Penance Acts of perfect Contrition we wash away whatever deformed the Sacred Image of the Trinity in our Souls and beg Strength Light and Grace to keep it entire for the future O Omnipotent Father whose Power is without Limits give us strength to believe what we cannot understand to love what our Senses cannot reach to keep thy Image in our Souls entire against the World Flesh and Devil who endeavours to dis-figure it O Eternal Word Increated Wisdom Illuminate our Souls with thy Divine Rays that our Interiour and Exteriour Words may speak according to Faith and Reason prefere Eternity before Time Heaven before Earth the Creator before the Creature O Holy Spirit diffuse thy Grace and Charity in our Souls that we may all in a perfect Vnity be One as the Father Son and Holy Ghost are One that appearing in the last dreadful Day of Doom we may appear not separated but united with the Elect and be received into Eternal Happiness as carrying clearly Imprinted in our Souls the Characteristical note of a Christian grateful to Heaven terrible to Hell beneficial to Earth the Sign of the Holy Cross In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. And are to be Sold next door to his House in Black-fryers at Richard Cheese's REflections upon the Answer to the Papist Mis-represented c. Directed to the Answerer Quarto Kalendarium Catholicum for the Year 1686. Octavo Papists Protesting against Protestant-Popery In Answer to a Discourse Entituled A Papist not Mis-represented by Protestants Being a Vindication of the