good Now he is a sollicitous Shepherd running after the strayed Sheep to bring him back to the Flock Then he is a Father compassionate of the misery to which debauchery had brought his Son whom he reclaims by managing the spirit of the young Man with all the tenderness in the bowels of a Father A Traveller is wounded by Thieves on the Road to Jericho and he becomes a Physician to his Wounds A Samaritan Woman is desirous to see Jesus and he charitably sets himself to instruct her thereby to gain her and that thirst he would quench by drinking the Water he demanded from her is only the figure of a greater thirst and zeal which he had for her salvation He humbles himself to appear unto Magdalen even like a Gardener and to comfort her he converses familiarly with her in so mean an outside To be short he becomes a Traveller with the Disciples going to Emaus to free them from that doubt and trouble into which their distrust had thrown them The Gospel is full of a thousand other testimonies of his bounty towards us When we flie from him he follows us He calls us when we forget him He pressingly urges us when we will not hear him When we slight him he complains kindly of us And when we return to him after having offended him he seems so sensible that he takes more pleasure to make his own joy and that of his whole coelestial Court break out at the repentance of one sinner then at the fidelity and perseverance of a great number of Just because his glory appears more in pardoning then punishing St. John thunders forth nothing but threats and terrors to his Hearers because he speaks in the spirit of Elias Jesus Christ says nothing but what is sweet and mild because he speaks according to his own Maximes and in his own Spirit which is that of the law of Grace But never did the love of God towards Man appear more then at his Passion For that very night wherein Man conspired his death this God of goodness thought of nothing but to leave him marks of his mercy and tenderness And at the same time that one of his Disciples by the blackest of Treasons betrayed him to his Enemies to be put to death he gave his most sacred Body for food for their Souls He died at last loaded with reproach and ignominy after having been dragged from Tribunal to Tribunal forsaken by his own Disciples and abandoned by all the World He died a publick and infamous Death nailed to a Cross amidst the Blasphemies of those that put him to death But he died with a silence a sweetness a tranquility a patience a peace and quiet which astonisht his very Executioners They reproacht him when he was dying that he could save others but not himself Nor was this reproach without reason because he thought no longer of himself but only of men And amidst the horrors of so cruel a Death plunged in a sea of grief and bitterness he never open'd his dying eyes nor turn'd them towards heaven but to implore the mercy of his Father even for those that put him to death saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do He shed his Bloud he died for the salvation of the Executioners that crucified him What excess of love How incomprehensible to our capacity S. Chrisostom had reason to say That the greatest testimony Christ gave of his Divinity was the extending his love even to all those who killed him for nothing less then God could love at a rate so much above the reach of Man But though the Expressions of that love which the Son of God had for Man are very observable in divers places of the Old Testament under the Figures of the Patriarchs and Prophets yet are they nowhere more strong and tender then in the New Testament where Christ himself speaks of it as of one of the most essential Points of his Doctrine So as the whole Morality of the Gospel turns on this Principle That the true Spirit of Christianity is to have charity for on 's Neighbour Every thing conspires to settle there this important Maxime which is the fundamental Point of our Religion For though the Evangelists wrote nothing by agreement and that the Gospel seems to have been publisht rather upon occasion then by design yet since 't is the Doctrine of their Master they write we find therein so great a conformity of Sentiments on this Principle of Christian Charity that it sufficiently appears by their manner of declaring it there is nothing more essential to Christianity then the love of our Neighbour The whole law says St. Matthew is comprehended in this precept 'T is the most important of all says St. Mark Jesus Christ carries it to a higher pitch of perfection in St. Luke where he obliges the faithful represented by his Apostles To love their enemies to do good for evil and to pray for their calumniators Last of all St. John who knew most of his Masters secrets and penetrated deepest into his thoughts places the essential mark of a Christian in the love of our Neighbour By this all men shall know says our Saviour by the mouth of this Apostle that you are my disciples if you love one another This is the commandment of the law of Grace whereunto is reduced all the perfection of the New Testament And the Saviour of the World recommended nothing so earnestly to his Disciples in the last moments of his life as Concord and Union Because this Union was to be the foundation of the Religion he establisht The Evangelists do not only speak all according to this Principle but 't is apparent the same Spirit makes them speak They treat their friends and enemies both alike in their History A God murthered by men and an innocent man oppressed by calumny might have afforded their zeal some reason for exaggeration yet they allow themselves nothing which has any shew of emotion or violence They relate the treason of Judas the cruelty of the Executioners the injustice and violence of the Magistrates without any touch of bitterness against their persons They speak in a way apt to make one believe they had no concern in what they say A spirit so uninterested is without example and whereof the common sort of men are uncapable 'T is only Christianity that is to say a Discipline wholly coelestial which can inspire so much moderation We see the first fruits of this Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles which is the History of the establishment of Christianity For as the Historian relates the Christians did then live in such a Union as if they had all one and the same heart and one and the same soul The propriety of Goods which ordinarily causes dissentions amongst men was no obstacle to this Union for all their Goods were in common They brought and laid at the feet of the Apostles their Revenues Rents Bonds Contracts Jewels and all
who have divested themselves of all things to give all to the Poor 'T is read in St. Anselm that Elphegus Archbishop of Canterbury who liv'd in the beginning of the eleventh Age being taken Prisoner by the Enemy chose rather to die then consent his Flock should be overcharg'd for the ransom of his life I say nothing of St. Bernardin of Siena nor of St. Charles who so Christian-like exposed their lives to assist at their death those infected with the Plague I do not mention St. Francis Xaverius who left his Country House and Hopes to run to the utmost parts of the World after Salvages and Barbarians to instruct them in the knowledge of Jesus Christ And amidst the deplorable remisness of the Manners of this Age how many great Interests great Honors great Reputations great Hopes have we seen sacrificed in the generous exercise of Christian Charity How many Persons of Quality how many eminent Wits with sublime Talents how many tender and delicate Ladies have submitted themselves most willingly to the pains of a laborious and obscure life to succour their Neighbours We have seen in the old Age of Christianity and in the corruption of this Age Apostolical Men cross the Seas to go and instruct Infidels and bring them into the right way To conclude this Spirit of the Apostles which God has revived in some measure in these latter Times and this so fervent zeal for the salvation of Souls is so apparently the true Spirit of Christianity and the essential distinction between the Children of the Church and others which are not of it That though it be above an Age since some of our Neighbours who have unhappily left the Faith run into all parts of the World there to plant Traffick and Commerce which flourish amongst them yet there has not yet appear'd any one Pastor of their Communion that has had the virtue and courage to give his life to Baptize one Salvage and Convert one Infidel So true it is that the disinteressedness and purity of Christian Charity cannot be so much as counterfeited by Hereticks who impudently boast themselves to inherit the Faith of the Apostles when in reality they have not any mark of their Zeal or sign of their Spirit since they can behold without any concern the People with whom they Traffick continually in a profound ignorance of things necessary to their salvation For what means the indifferency of these false Pastors who without the least compassion see the Flock of Jesus Christ scattered and straying What means this so cold tranquility but what our Lord himself said That the true Pastor whereof himself was the Model is always ready to give his life for his Flock and that the mercenary Pastor concerns not himself for the Flock of Jesus Christ because he is an Hireling It s in Charity then alone consists the true Spirit of Christianity we seek after She is that precious Jewel of the Gospel which must be purchased at any rate to become the truly rich of the new Law Let us then renounce our Interests and Pleasures if they are obstacles to our possessing it But to animate our selves still more to acquire it let us look into its value by considering its nature and qualities It s that must be examined in the following Chapter CHAP. II. Of the nature and qualities of this Charity in which consists the Spirit of Christianity and the Idea of a Christian 'T IS natural for Man to love Man But 't is a great vertue to love him for his vertues sake for love that is founded on honesty wisdom good inclination fidelity or any other real merit is a vertue and 't is laudable to love these qualities which are themselves worthy of praise But after all thus to love is to love but like a Heathen for the Pagans love those that love them and such as have qualities worthy their love What is it then to love like a Christian 'T is to love without hearkening to Nature which wills that we love our like 'T is to love even without consulting our Reason which requires that we love what is worthy to be beloved Nature and Reason do not comprehend this Secret The Gospel must speak and 't is Jesus Christ himself must teach it To love like a Christian is to love that which has nothing amiable 'T is to have a kindness and tenderness for those that have all unkindness and rigour for us In fine to love like a Christian is to desire the good of those that wish us nothing but ill This Vertue was unknown to the Morals of Socrates and Moses to Philosophy and the old Law The Precept to love our Enemies is of the new Law And this so holy Maxim could not come but out of the School of God so much 't is raised above Man 'T is indeed Jesus Christ is the Author of it and himself in Person that instructs us But I say to you love your Enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that calumniate and persecute you These are the words of the Saviour of the World Behold our Belief our Gospel our Morality and the true Character of our Religion The other marks of a Christian as Devotion Penance Hope in God Humility and even Martyrdom it self may be equivocal marks 'T is only the love of our Enemies that is not 'T is hereby alone that a Christian can distinguish himself and to embrace the Faith is to embrace the obligation to love the Persecutor in loving the Persecution But how can a man love that which merits his hate when he has scacre power to love that which deserves to be beloved What violence must not he use to himself before he gains that Point He needs not use any for from the instant that he sincerely becomes a Christian he loves his Enemies as really as his Friends And the same Motive that makes a Christian love God the same also makes him love his Neighbour as a Child of God for he sees reflect on him a beam of the same light that makes himself know God Although his Brother be his Enemy from the time that he regards him as a Member of Jesus Christ sprinkled with his Bloud fed with his Flesh enliven'd with his Spirit destin'd to his Glory that he professes the same Law and Religion as he do's that they have both the same Hopes the same Pretensions the same Sacraments and when he considers Jesus Christ in his Neighbour as the motive of his Charity he loves him And Flesh Bloud Nature Reason Interest and Passion are too weak Considerations to disunite Hearts tied together by so holy an Union that is to say by all that is supernatural and divine in Christianity So the motive of the love of our Neighbour being the same with the motive of our love of God as St. Leo teacheth both the one and the other being grounded on the same principle and tending to the same end a Christian cannot be
failing in the one without failing in the other since the same ray of Faith which enlightens his spirit to know God ought to enflame his heart to love his Neighbour For with what sincerity can he boast he loves God whom he do's not see and not love his Neighbour whom he sees and who represents to him that same God he boasts that he loves as the Apostle says Behold what 's the nature of Christian Charity that in effect cannot love her Neighbour but with the same love wherewith she loves God which made St. John say That he who has charity is in God and God in him Let us then examine the qualities of this Charity The First quality of this Vertue is that 't is Universal and cannot suffer to be bounded in the extent of its love for it loves the little and the great the poor and the rich the wretched and the happy the peevish and the complaisant the stranger and the domestick him that merits to be beloved and him that deserves not Wherein 't is in some sort like God who shares his gifts to the worthy and unworthy and pours forth his light on the just and unjust In fine this Vertue embraces equally the whole World 'T is an universal spirit that knows none of those carnal and Heathenish distinctions of Engagement Interest Party Cabal of Paul and Cephas which divide at present so many petty spirits in the World For according to St. Augustin To love all men and to pretend to except but one with whom he is not entirely satisfied and not able to bear with for some particular reasons is not to love like a Christian A Christian has an universal love because the motive of it is general the change of Times Places and Circumstances can make no alteration in his love he loves in sickness and health in adversity and prosperity in affliction and joy in humiliation and greatness in dejection and advancement in poverty and plenty to be short he loves in life and in death because he is that sincere Friend of whom the Scripture speaks who loves at all times He fixes his heart on the Persons without regarding the Circumstances unless it be to love after a more disinteressed manner and when necessity more requires it Behold the first quality of Christian Charity The Second is Sincerity Let us love says St. John but let us testifie our love by effects and not by words The Character of humane Love consists only in Complements Civilities tender of Services protestations of Amity strain'd Complacencies false Friendships vain Words deceitful Promises and in all other Dissimulations which are commonly practised by those that lead a worldly life But Christian Charity never counterfeits she speaks nothing but what she thinks she thinks nothing but what she feels she feels nothing but what she would execute her words never belie her actions and her actions are always conformable to her Sentiments for she is essectially sincere and has no other way to explain her self but by her deeds The Third quality of this Vertue is Purity of spirit and a perfect disinteressedness for true Charity respects God alone and studies purely to please him so as she never acts upon those mean and worldly Considerations of Interest and Vanity which set men awork for Men do seldom good to one another but out of hopes of Interest 'T is on these Maxims they would have all the World know when they do their Friend any service they are only officious to gain repute and oblige only to publish it If they are silent 't is for some private reason that they see it fit to hold their tongue Christian Charity has a contrary way of proceeding to this worldly Charity she has no other design or pretension because her motive is pure All her study in doing good is how to conceal her doing it If she gives Alms she hides them in the Laps of the Poor as the Scripture says she draws a Veil over all her good Deeds that they may not be known and she would hide them even from her own self were it possible to entrust them only to her modesty and silence The pleasure she takes in doing good is to her a greater recompence then all the applauses of Men. As she do's nothing but for God so she would have no other witness of her actions He is the sole motive of the good works she do's and it suffices he knows them to be himself their recompence The other qualities of Charity St. Paul explicates in the admirable Elogy he made of this Vertue to the Corinthians Charity says this Apostle is patient is benign Charity envies not deals not perversly is not puffed up is not ambitious seeks not her own is not provoked to anger thinks not evil rejoyces not upon iniquity but rejoyces with the truth suffers all things believes all things hopes all things bears all things These qualities become yet more lustrous in the life of a Christian which is a continual practise and exercise of this Vertue 'T is good to make hereof some Idea only to shew what it is in respect to our Neighbours The lineaments of so admirable a picture which length of time has almost decay'd cannot be well traced over again without gathering thence some profit A Christian is altogether an interiour Man who has nothing of the corruptible Man in us but the outward shape but there appears so much of moderation and wisdom even in his exteriour and Gods Grace has so powerfully destroy'd his natural inclinations to sanctifie all his interiour that he is a pattern to other men because he is more reasonable and better govern'd then other men His chief character is the spirit of Equity And of all Vertues Justice is that which he most accustoms himself to because she always serves him to hold the ballance even betwixt himself and his Neighbour His business is not to raise his fortune but his perfection and to help others to make themselves perfect And his ordinary employment is to instruct help protect and serve his Brethren but he do's it with so much love so much zeal and so much disinteressedness that there is no man loves himself so well as a Christian loves his Neighbour His Neighbours interest is more dear to him then his own and he is less concern'd for his own honour then his Brethrens for he counts their advantages among his own he draws his satisfaction from their pleasures And by an unparalell'd complacency he transforms himself into their humour and assumes sometimes even their spirit He is that universal Man who as St. Paul is every thing to every one He is the comfort of the afflicted the support of the feeble the succour of the needy the refuge of the persecuted and the counsel of all those that want it In fine there is no weakness that he do's not compassionate and no misery at which his bowels are not moved He is so far from desiring what he has
Neighbour to carry our selves duly between one and the other is of greatest importance in a spiritual Life The concurrence of these two interests is often very prejudicial to the zeal of Charity when not back'd with science for oftentimes we inconsiderately forsake our Neighbour when we ought to leave God and we leave God when we ought to forsake our Neighbour See then how St. Augustine advises us to deport our selves The obligation says he to love God in the order of the Precept ought to precede the obligation to love our Neighbour but God will have us in the execution prefer our Neighbour before him In effect It is not reasonable says this great Saint that God who is the Master and ordains all things should put himself after our Neighbour in the order of Love This is the First Command he gave Man Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thou shalt love him withal thy heart But this same God though he be Master yet when our Neighbours good comes in question remits something of his own right as to its execution If any coldness has passed between us and our Brethren wherein our Union may be wounded and we are at the foot of his Altars to render God the Homage due unto him He then commands us to interrupt his Worship and suspend the most holy and august Ceremonies of Religion to defer till another time the Honors of the Sacrifice we were about to pay him and first go and reconcile our selves to our Neighbour Let them quit says he the Worship they are rendring to me and the Sacrifice they are offering up because the Union among Brethren is the most agreeable Sacrifice they can offer unto me He do's even consent that to help the Poor in their greatest miseries we should disfurnish his very Altars of their outward Ornaments which are only of use to move the gross Devotion of carnal People as St. Bernard says who condemns the vanity of those that enrich the Temples of God and abandon the Poor What folly says he is it to leave the Children of the Church naked and to adorn the Walls so magnificently with Tapestries and other more precious Ornaments 'T is true the Church may admit Ornaments in her abundance and prosperity But God commands her to relieve the Poor who are her Children when in necessity and publick miseries because her Treasures and Riches would only serve to shame her if the Poor were not succour'd therewith This Rule will appear of a very large extent to such as take pains to consider it and the practice of it will be found of much use when apply'd to the several occasions that may offer themselves But since God through his signal goodness will have us to love our Neighbour for the love of him 't is but just we should so govern this love that if exteriourly we give our charitable help to our Brethren at least the intention of our heart and simple design of our spirit be all for God That we love our Friend in God and our Enemy for the love of God which is the right practice of Charity as St. Gregory teaches it The Second Rule ought to be made use of to distinguish every ones personal interests from those of his Neighbour to decide what of right belongs to each The Rule I have settled may serve for that purpose For if God himself do's often yield his right where our Neighbour is concern'd I have the greater reason to yield up mine on the like occasions But because this Rule is not general but limited to certain Conjunctures we must seek for another more universal The Gospel commands me to treat my Neighbour as my self since he ought to be as dear to me as my self but it do's not command me to yield to him when our interests shock one another And in other respects there is a natural equity which teaches me to keep my own by instructing me to discharge my self of what belongs not to me There are likewise certain interests of Honor which I ought to defend against my Neighbour who would dishonor me because Honor is a Depositum God has intrusted to me which ought to be as dear to me as that of my life and because he would scandalize the World by dishonoring me But are there any occasions wherein I am oblig'd to abandon mine own interests and sacrifice them to my Neighbour to defend his Reputation by renouncing my own and to die to save his life 'T is evident that Goods purely temporal being of an inferior order to spiritual when the salvation of our Neighbour is concern'd which is a spiritual interest one is oblig'd to abandon his temporal because the salvation of ones Soul is preferable to all the Goods of the Earth which are perishable and corruptible Thus neither Honor nor Wealth ought to be valued when the salvation of a Soul is in question Now 't is certain that a Christian is oblig'd by the Maxims of that Religion he professes to relieve his Neighbour in an extream necessity of life which is a temporal good not only out of his own superfluities but even what is necessary for himself Christian perfection goes yet farther teaching a Christian that he ought not only to be severe to himself in tenderness and compassion to his Brother and deprive himself to accommodate him of what is commodious and necessary to himself but even to give his liberty his honor and life to preserve the life honor and liberty of his Neighbour In fine he ought to do that for him which the Saviour of the World did for us for how many have there been that have imitated Jesus Christ in the practice of so generous so pure and so disinteressed a Charity But these are the wonders of Christian Morality and greatest Miracles of our Holy Religion These Examples are rather to be admired then Rules to be indispensably followed and Duties of obligation to be practised The Third Rule is the order that ought to be observ'd in the different interests of our Neighbour that so the impulses of Charity may be followed without mistaking and that in two wants either of the same or a different nature we may know which to prefer In the order of temporal goods Charity always flies to assist the more urgent wants for amongst the afflicted she runs to him that suffers most and she leaves him again if his wants be but temporal to assist him that is in manifest danger of his salvation Such was heretofore the conduct of the Apostles who in the infancy of the Church abandon'd the care of temporal necessities to attend to spiritual in quitting the distribution of Alms to be vacant to preaching the Word of God because they esteemed the nourishment of the Soul more important then that of the Body So the care a Christian takes to teach and instruct a poor body is more meritorious before God then what is bestowed to deliver him from misery So the Alms given
disreguards His Devotions are as regular as can be and he would pass for a Saint if he were not so revengeful and so dextrous to satisfie his Resentments where he has any Contests None ever offends him without smarting for it for he never forgives So that by this his affected Moderation his Life is a continual Imposture There are a thousand other Disguises of Charity which may be reduced to this and which are so much the more odious in the sight of God as being done under the pretext of Piety Vice is always criminal but the most criminal of all is that which is done under the Coulor and Veil of Vertue for Men less suffer themselves to be corrupted by a bare-fac'd Vice then a masqued Vertue After all 't is in vain to disguise on 's self nothing can be hid from his sight that searches hearts and penetrates to the very bottom of them The Eleventh is a Spirit of Empire and Dominion They are willing to be in at all good Works provided they may Rule Direct and Manage They make one in all Designs and Enterprizes of Charity out of the sweetness they feel in Governing things with some Authority and the pleasure there is to exercise that petty Empire which expresses its self in the knowledge of their Neighbours wants and the distribution of assistance given them They meet punctually at Assemblies as so many favourable occasions of shewing themselves and give their wealth to new Foundations to Reign in them 'T is out of this same Spirit that they thrust themselves with such zeal into all manner of Affairs that they are so earnest to render themselves necessary in them that they love Negotiating to find out a Temperament in Accommodations and Arbitrations that they charitably concern themselves in every thing that they have a Wit fertile enough in Expedients to be of Councel for all the World and that they give so liberal advice upon the Conduct of all Mankind For this is the Character of the Devotion of these Times it will be Mistress and Govern all 'T is through this same Spirit that Men have no value but for the good Works they do themselves That they will not abet any good unless themselves do it and that there are some who cannot endure either Religion should be defended or Vertue protected but after their way their lights and their methods They condemn all else be it never so good They have not the least concern for it because they have no share in it They set up for Directors without any Vocation or Character for Direction now adays as it is ordered is very comfortable to those that Direct because they speak with Authority and find Submission every where In short this Spirit of Command is become so much the Spirit of this Age that it is crept in among Persons consecrated to the Altars who take on them in all the Functions of their Ministry a certain ayre of Independence whilst they hold the rest of the World in Subjection St. Paul who had in his hands all the Authority of Jesus Christ is an excellent Pattern for Christian Pastors for he never made use of all his great Power to destroy but only to edifie In effect this absolute Authority is a Conduct too dismal and fierce for Christianity serving only to make the Yoke of Obedience more burthensom unless tempered with Love and Charity True Pastors do themselves more honor in being the Fathers of Souls then their Lords and Masters and in loving to Rule their Flocks with sweetness and tenderness rather then with haughtiness and Commands You must says S. Bernard Command with humility to Command like a Christian And there 's nothing prepares the Hearts of Subjects to Submission like the Charity of those they obey The Twelfth Illusion is Scandal and Ill-Example 'T is through this Illusion Men live disorderly whilst they flatter themselves with fair appearances of a kind of natural Equity which they would have a horror to transgress They have at bottom a zeal for Justice and have none for modesty They are tender of a Stranger 's Interest and sacrifice the Innocence of a Domestick of whom they serve themselves in the secret practices of their Passion They are touch'd with the Misfortunes of one unknown whom they see oppressed and ruine the Conscience of a Friend whom they cause to engage in their Revenge You are not Violent you are not Unjust you hate Oppression Cruelty displeases you in brief you wrong no body And you employ your Wives in shameful Concerns and vicious Intrigues You are nice even to scruple in point of Detraction and have all the affectations of a Prostitute to seduce Youth that puts it self into your Hands How many Disorders have you caused by your Scandals you that have so much aversion for Injustice for your Example is a Poison that kills him who sees it But what is become of the Modesty of Christian Ladies in an Age where nothing is talk'd of but Reformation and Devotion Was there ever seen so great a licentiousness in Manners as now adays Women besides the indecency and immodesty of their Dress are even come to think it a greater ayre of Quality to dress themselves publickly and before all the World that is to say to expose themselves by a scandalous Mode to those adulterous Eyes whereof the Apostle speaks and to Present in the Golden Vessel like the Whore of Babylon the mortal Draught to those that see them Scandal is so dreadful a spring of Corruption and so pernicious a poison to Innocence that one cannot have Faith and read without Trembling the terrible Menaces of the Son of God to those scandalous Persons who poison the Souls of those with whom they converse Our Lord seems to have forbidden in the Gospel nothing so strictly as this Cut says he cut off pluck out even your very eyes if your eyes scandalize you I say nothing of those fond foolish Mothers who by their Indulgency and Vanity ruine the Innocency of their young Daughters in exposing them to Assemblies and dangerous Companies under pretence of shewing and teaching them the World I speak not of those envenom'd Tongues that tear in pieces the Honor of their Neighbour in most obliging and respectful Language and sow Dissention wherever they come I only say that a Christian cannot without trembling make reflection on those dreadful words of the Son of God Wo to him by whom scandal cometh The Thirteenth is the Spirit of Emulation and Partiality principally in matters of Religion and this is the most dangerous of all Illusions 'T is out of this Spirit that Men make use of the holy Name of Christian Charity to heighten their Aversions and render their Enmities irreconcileable By this they censure the Conduct of others to authorize their own They destroy settled Reputation to give themselves more Credit They frame to themselves a Chimera of Religion to seek a more specious pretext for their Headstrongness and
the Wealth which each one possessed This disengagement from all things united them more firmly together They had but one spirit because they had but one interest The first flames of this love broke out at the death of St. Stephen who had the glory to lay his life first down for Jesus Christ Stones flew about him from all parts The Plains eccho'd with the cries of those that encourag'd one another to kill this holy Levite His face was batter'd with blows his ribs broken his breast beaten through his breath e'en quite gone and yet he employed the little strength he had left in begging Gods pardon for those that had treated him so cruelly Lord says he as he was dying lay not this sin to their charge Thus to forget himself and employ his last words and sighs in solliciting God in behalf of a Crime committed upon himself was to tread the very steps of his Master and to be wholly possest with his spirit and to have no thoughts but these of tenderness in the very pangs of so cruel and bitter a death was to die generously like a Christian How pure and holy is the Spirit of Christianity which inspired so much mercy and of how great instruction to Christians the sacrifice of this first bloudshed for the love of Jesus We see in the progress of the same History the Apostles animated by this Spirit to run through the whole World to preach and teach the Gospel to all Nations And that neither the most scorching Sands of Aethiopia nor the Desarts of Africa nor the Frosts of Scythia nor the remotest parts of India nor Seas nor Tempests nor Rocks nor Treasons nor Calumnies nor contradiction of People nor opposition of Laws nor Magistrates nor Governors of Provinces nor all the Power of the World nor Chains nor Prisons nor Gibbets nor even the most cruel Deaths were able to withstand their zeal nor shake the constancy of their hearts Dangers encourage them difficulties animate them and their own weaknesses strengthen them Because the charity by which they are possest renders their own lives inconsiderable when the salvation of their Neighbour is in question The truth is they did miracles which struck people with admiration They commanded the Winds and Tempests Seasons obeyed them and even Nature her self in some sort became their Slave But after all the greatest of their Miracles was their Charity 'T was also this Charity which made them with pleasure sacrifice their honor and life to carry the light of the Gospel to the most remote Nations of the Earth and draw them out of the profound blindness wherein they were This holy Doctrine flew through the World whilst those that preacht it were themselves in Chains and Prisons And nothing perswaded so powerfully the embracing of the Gospel as the Charity of those that publisht it Things in themselves incredible were believed though declared by such as were persecuted by the whole World because they that told them did first practise themselves what they taught others Nor was it necessary they should Preach at all says St. Chrysostom because their life was a continual Sermon 'T is true that the Infidels were scandalized at their Persecutions their Fetters their Imprisonments and their Sufferings But the very Union in which they lived was so powerful that they who most reviled their Sufferings submitted to the Gospel St. Paul likewise inflamed with the same zeal could not behold the reprobation of the Jews a People heretofore so cherisht by God without offering up himself in quality of a Victim and wishing himself anathematized for his Brethren He who had so highly protested that neither Heaven nor Hell nor any thing created should be able to separate him from Jesus Christ now begs to be separated from him for the salvation of his People St. John that beloved Disciple of our Lord had nothing so deeply engraven in his heart as this love for his Neighbour This was the only practice of vertue he preacht to his Disciples as an abridgment of the whole Law of Grace as St. Jerome assures us Love one another says he my dear children 't is the only thing I have to tell you because 't is the only thing needful to be done He of all others speaks most clearly of this Doctrine because he had the advantage of others to sound the Sentiments of his Master by reason of the confidence Jesus Christ was pleased to honor him with above his other Apostles Throughout the whole course of Ecclesiastical History there are found such eminent tracts of this Spirit that it seems as if the Christians endeavoured only by Charity to distinguish themselves from Pagans In their lives there appeared such visible marks of that new fire which Christ came to bring into the World that Christians were known by their Union And this fire wherewith their hearts were full flam'd with such a light that it could not be darkned with Calumny nor extinguisht by Persecution It was likewise that voice of Love and Charity which in preaching of the Gospel was understood by the fiercest and most barbarous Nations and afterwards did chiefly contribute to the establishment of Faith The Heathens said speaking of the Faithful They are obliging charitable always doing good therefore they are Christians for their Belief their Morality and their Gospel is to love their Neighbour and do good to every one They believed this new Religion true because it commanded one Man to love another which is the most reasonable and just Command of all others They became Christians perceiving in how perfect an Union the Christians lived Their meekness goodness affability moderation and inclination to oblige every one more powerfully moved the Heathens to embrace the Doctrine which professed so well-doing a Vertue then all they did And the Faith advanced the faster by the good opinion people had conceived of his holiness who was author of so pure a Law according to the Prayer himself had made to his Father speaking of the Faithful to the end says he they may be united in us and that the world toucht with this Union may believe that it is you my Father who has sent me The Union wherein Christians ought to live is the chief Reason Christ uses to authorize his Mission and excite peoples Faith In effect this Union was so great in the first Ages that St. Clement a Disciple of the Apostles relates in one of his Epistles that he had known divers Christians in his time who themselves became Slaves to free their Brethren out of Slavery and that he had seen others who in a painful and laborious life fed with the labours of their Hands those that were in necessity St. Justin in the Apology he made for Religion before the Emperors to give those Princes a great Idea of Christianity mixes throughout his Discourse the holy Ordinances which Jesus Christ gave the Christians to be charitable and well-doing like their heavenly Father who pours forth his Graces on